WILD BIRDS THROUGH THE YEAR 201 



gull glides with wings full stretched or with wings 

 half flexed. Say the glide carries the bird twenty 

 unresisting yards ; it carries him smoothly, and 

 without the least action of the wing or change of its 

 tilt or plane. 



After that some energy is needed, or, it seems, 

 progress would be stopped and the flier flung out of 

 the course he wished to pursue ; but this energy, 

 so far as I can see, never takes the form of a full or a 

 half or a quarter stroke of the wing. There is nothing 

 like a stroke. What the gull does is to change the 

 tilt of the wings. He alters the plane, and, entering 

 on a new one, is carried forward with a fresh series 

 of smooth effective glides. 



Amid these glides and this plane-changing there 

 are some little movements, hard to describe, which 

 suggest the balancer. It is clear to me that very often 

 the wind is on the point of getting the better of the 

 flier and sweeping him far out of his course. Yet, 

 practically, the wind never does get the better. He 

 rights himself with consummate ease. It is auto- 

 matic ease or is it not something surer even than 

 this? 



As I watch this feat, the strength and grace and 

 ease and sureness of which are above all words of 

 praise, it seems to me a black-headed gull can no 

 more fail to keep his course than water can fail to 

 find and keep its level. 



Must it not be this the wind has fashioned the 

 seagull's wing ? Planned, drawn, cut, tapered it to 

 the precise form that is needed to defeat the wind ? 



