202 WILD BIRDS 



I think the marvellous wing of the black-headed 

 gull was never moulded and cut in a still air. It 

 was carved out in no calm. The storm was the 

 craftsman of it. The wing of this bird was born in 

 opposition. 



With the gale striking them hard from the south 

 and south-west, the black-headed gulls drift and 

 glide, chiefly sideways, to and fro high above the 

 breakers ; their heads point into the wind as the 

 kestrel's head points when the kestrel is hovering. 

 But there is this great difference between the two 

 feats : the kestrel's wings or wing tips pulsate, 

 work right into the wind, whereas the black-headed 

 gull's wings do not pulsate at all ; they are kept 

 rigid for a quarter of a mile's motion sometimes, till 

 the tilt of them and the plane of flight are changed, 

 and the bird enters on a new long glide or drift. 



But presently the flier through the driving rain 

 and sand storm for the wet sand is often whipt up 

 by the gale and whirled about the strand and cliff- 

 edge will see some bit of food on the breakers far 

 below. He will drop in an instant and waver over 

 the lashed foam ; and there is an end of his drifting 

 or gliding. Instead of riding and resting on the gale 

 above, he is fighting with lesser winds below, just 

 over the face of the waters. His wings are doing 

 their utmost, full, strong, up-and-down strokes as 

 he screws and unscrews them on the air. 



He has fallen from the glorious poetry of flight 

 to its plain prose. 



There are gales, we know, in which land birds, 



