A GIFT OF GOD 15 



that they are at their absolute ease and comfort when 

 they are facing and sliding into a wind that makes 

 our ears and cheeks sting, a wind that far below 

 where it is not so strong is whirling the sea-suds off 

 the water and over the sand till they tremble into 

 nothing. There are wild nights when the gulls will 

 not sleep on the strand and come inland up the 

 estuaries, but hard, unceasing winds in the daytime are 

 rarely too much for a sea-bird's comfort. The rising 

 gale might be his couch, he glides into it, lies on it so 

 softly and quietly. 



Turning from the wing tip to the body of a bird ; 

 we ought not to regard this as the flier's burden a 

 fact simple and sure, yet slowly borne in on us. We 

 are led to argue from our own state what a weary 

 weight our bodies would be for a pair of feather wings 

 to drag through space ! Even through an element far 

 more supporting than air, the body of the strongest 

 swimmer, after a little splashing, must sink like lead, 

 the limbs giving out from the deadweight, the effort 

 to uphold it at the surface of the water and drive it 

 along. So we are inclined to see the heavier birds' 

 bodies in the same light, that is, burdens which can 

 only be upheld and driven through space by matchless 

 skill and power in the wings. It is true enough the 

 wing is a matchless instrument. Compared with it, 

 other limbs of motion and ways of motion by live 

 things are of little beauty even the dart of the 

 fleetest fish in the stream. But in flight the wing 



