A LABRADOR SPRING 



gold piece appeared in 1907 with the design by 

 St. Gaudens of an eagle in flight, its legs behind, 

 objections were at once made. A writer in the 

 Boston Transcript said: " Whoever saw an 

 eagle in flight with its legs trailing behind it 

 like a heron? " thus voicing the popular and 

 conventional idea that the legs are carried in 

 front. Although I have seen many wild hawks 

 flying with their feet behind, sometimes trailing 

 them with a distinct gap between the tail and 

 the legs, for all the world like the St. Gaudens' 

 design, my most satisfactory views have been 

 those of ospreys at Bristol, Rhode Island, 

 where the birds are semi-domesticated, for 

 they build their nests on tall poles, erected for 

 their convenience in barn yards, and allow 

 inspection at close range. Here there can be 

 no question but that they carry the feet behind 

 in flight. 



Owls also dispose of their legs in the same 

 manner as I have observed in a great horned 

 owl confined in a flying cage, and in a wild 

 barred owl seen flying about its nest. 



The same habits exist among the pheasants, 

 grouse and partridges. I have not been able 

 to see the feet in the rapid flight of the ruffed 



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