FLIGHT OF COMMON BIRDS 



with a series of short, fluttering beats of the 

 wing, and usually settles to earth after flying 

 fifty or one hundred yards. At times he will 

 dart away almost like a quail and curve 

 sharply to left or right. When he is on a 

 fence-post his tail will bob and bob as a 

 person approaches, and when he flies from 

 such a perch he invariably rises with short, 

 jerky wing beats. His flight is not usually 

 swift. It is a good test of knowledge as to 

 the flight of the common birds to name them 

 when looking through the car-window of a 

 train that is whirling through the country at 

 a good rate of speed. To one familiar with 

 these birds their various peculiarities are as 

 easy to read as print. Crow, dove, yellow- 

 hammer, shrike, meadow-lark, blackbirds, and 

 sometimes the fluttering, tremulous flight of 

 the upland plover will be seen, and it takes 

 the practised vision of the outdoor man or 

 woman to name them as they are seen. 



Over the woods and pastures and above 

 the fields as twilight approaches the night- 

 hawk flies. His flight is made up of darts, 

 swoopings, and sudden pauses. His raucous 

 cry is heard as his sharp-pointed wings sweep 

 41 



