CHAPTER VIII 



WINGS AND FEET IN THE AIR AND UNDER WATER 



" Mark how the feathered tenants of the flood, 

 With grace of motion that might scarcely seem 

 Inferior to angelical, prolong 

 Their curious pastime! " 



Wordsworth. 



'"T~*HE good priest at Esquimaux Point said 

 * that the devout could see the sign of the 

 cross in the birds as they fly in the heavens. 

 Our ideas of the flying birds may indeed be 

 a conventional one, for their flight is generally 

 so rapid that our impressions are often con- 

 fused and incorrect unless our attention has 

 been particularly called to some point. Thus 

 in the case of the feet, artists and taxidermists 

 alike generally represent soaring doves and 

 eagles with their feet drawn up in front, and 

 even excellent observers, who have not paid 

 especial attention to the subject, are apt to 

 agree in the accuracy of this stereotyped and 

 conventional attitude. Now a little careful 



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