84 WILD BIRDS 



the glen. It was still spiring on motionless wing. 

 But it was not alone. A small bird was keeping 

 the eagle company. I saw this little thing exert 

 all its speed and wing power to get above the 

 eagle ; but, whereas the eagle moved as if caught in 

 a calm, its companion moved as if tossed in a gale. 

 Its wing was all motion where the eagle's wing was 

 motionless. 



Once the small bird did get above the eagle and 

 rushed down as if to strike. Then I saw this 

 ridiculous thing : the eagle flinched ! 



But the small bird was gone soon after this. 

 Perhaps the height grew too giddy ; it drifted off, 

 and was lost to view. That small bird was a 

 peregrine. 



How does the eagle wind its way into the skies 

 without motion of the wing ? I have seen the feat 

 done by lesser birds. The rooks, in those mystic 

 aerial parties they often hold on an autumn morning, 

 spire up with little or no wing movements. The 

 herring gulls spire higher than rooks. 



But the eagle spire is grander. I could see no 

 movement in the eagle's wings when it was above 

 the hill-top ; and only once, whilst it swung round 

 athwart the great pine brow across the glen, did 

 I see a strong wing stroke by one of the birds. No, 

 the eagles do not strike their way up by small or 

 large movements of the wing. I think they plane 

 their way up by constantly changing the angle at 

 which the wings are presented to the sky. I know 

 these angles are ever altering I saw this in the 



