Feb. i6. 1888] 



NATURE 



369 



THE MECHANISM OF THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS. 



THE following is a translation o£ an. article in La 

 Nature (December /, 1887), on the mechanism of 

 the fligjit of birds, by Prof. E. H. J. Marey. Through 

 the courtesy of the editor of our French contemporary 



we are able to reproduce the figures illustrating M. 

 Marey's interesting paper. 



In a preceding article [see Nature, vol. xxvi. p. 84], 

 I showed that photography could represent the successive 

 positions of a bird's wing, at different moments in its 



Fig. I. — Sea-gull. Transverse flight. Ten images per secqnd. 



flight ; that there might be obtained at the same time the 

 positions of the bird in space at equal and known inter- 

 val? of time ; and I expressed the hope of solving by this 

 method the obscure problem of the mechanism of flight. 

 Since that time, the photographic method has been 



perfected, and the number of species of birds to which 

 my researches have extended has been multiplied. 



From the comparison of the several species which I 

 have had at my disposal, the results show that, except in 

 certain differences in details, they all execute movenients 



Fig. 2. — Small herun. I'ransverse flight. Ten images per second. 



of the same nature ; in all, the wings bend up at the moment 

 of ascension, spread out quickly when at the wished for 

 height, are then lowered, carried in front, and approached 

 to the body ; at the close of the descent, the ioints anew 

 bend up, and the ascent recommences. 



The illustrations i, 2, 3, 4, and 5 represent the flight of 

 the sea-gull, the heron, the pigeon, and the pelican. 



These illustrations reveal curious attitudes which the eye 

 has not time to seize, and with which we are not familiar- 

 ized in the, artistic interpretations of birds. According 



Fig. 3.— Pigeon. Transverse flight. Ten images per second. (Fac-simile of instantaneous photographs taken by the author.) 



to -a just remark of Mr. Muybridge,the European painters 

 almost always represent birds flying with their wings 

 elevated ; the Chinese and Japanese, on the contrary, 

 represent, them indiflerently with wings both raised and 

 lowered. That does not, however, mean that the artists 

 :,of the extreme East have faithfully reproduced the 



different attitudes ot birds : the comparison of their re- 

 .presentations with, those of instantaneous. photography 

 shows clearly that no more in China than here does the 

 eye perceive actions >vhich last only for a very brief 

 moment. , , 



Seen only under, one aspect, representations of a bird 



