198 WILD BIRDS 



which represents the ends of the primary and 

 secondary feathers on the hind margin of the wing, 

 is described horizontally in the air, much as some 

 insects' wings which move more or less horizontally 

 would describe it whilst hovering in space. I do 

 not think that Pettigrew or Marey ever placed an 

 eight there in the hovering bird or insect. Their 

 eight the eight they discovered by a delicate test 

 with a little revolving smoked cylinder was cut, 

 not horizontally, but vertically. The tip of the wing 

 cut it, not the hind and very elastic margin of the 

 wing. 



Have we then two eights, a vertically and a 

 horizontally cut one, in the bird or some insects 

 spinning stationary in space ? Mr. Malan's artificial 

 bird seemed to me a fair imitation of the natural 

 bird. The bone that runs along the anterior or front 

 margin of the natural wing is represented in this 

 artificial bird by a light piece of cane, and a frame- 

 work of cane stiffens the whole upper part of the 

 wing. The calico below this answers fairly well, I 

 should say, to the fine and pliable hind margin of the 

 natural bird's wing. Of course, the imitation bird 

 or kite wants the body and weight and all the 

 wonderful machinery of muscle which are in the 

 natural bird. Released from the line, it would be 

 utterly powerless against the wind, and would have 

 no balance. It would go where the wind carried it, 

 and would suggest nothing to us about the mysteries 

 of air and of the mastery of the air. It is only 

 suggestive through captivity. Yet it yields to the 



