XL MASTER IMPERTINENCE. 159 



To different modes of life different forms of wing are 

 adapted. The albatross or the swallow-winged tern may 

 smile as they sail or skim over the penguin squatting bolt 

 upright on his stiff-feathered tail. Come, leave the rocks, 

 and fly with us if you would rank as a true bird, they 

 seem to say. Poor old penguin, he can do nothing of the 

 sort. He has not a genuine quill-feather wherewith to 

 bless himself. His fore-limb is not a wing but a flipper 

 covered with short feathers, which from a little distance 

 look like scales, but are genuine feathers for all that. But 

 though it is of no use as a wing it is admirable as a fin ; 

 and awkward as he seems on land he is an excellent diver, 

 finding no difficulty in capturing sufficient fish to prevent 

 that fine white waistcoat of his from hanging unduly 

 loose. Miss Penguin prefers him as a suitor to that 

 supercilious, lanky- winged albatross. Plenty of food, a 

 wife, and not too much to think about. What more could 

 penguin desire ? 



Let us then leave him in his enviable contentment and 

 turn again to nobler and more ambitious birds, whose 

 empire is the air. The hurtling flight of the merlin, 

 fastest of our noble falcons, is effected by wings which 

 combine a broad base, an elongated acute point, and 

 considerable convexity. How beautiful it is to watch a 

 kestrel hovering with head to wind, fanned tail, eager 

 neck and piercing eye, and quivering pinions high up 

 over the back ! If there is a good breeze, and especially 

 in the upward current produced by a cliff, he will hang 

 without visible motion of the wings. Very different is his 

 flight from that of the ignoble sparrow-hawk, with his 

 comparatively short rounded wing, as he slinks along the 

 hedgerows and pounces on his prey by stealth. You will 

 not see the finches and other small fry mobbing the 

 kestrel as they mob and chaff the sparrow-hawk. 



