16 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



does not do all. It has a partner in the body a 

 junior partner. 



The frame of a bird in the air is a flying machine ; 

 and of this machine, though the wing is the main- 

 spring, the body is yet a large and active part. Once 

 we recognise this, we shall not slip into the old in- 

 justice of regarding the body as a mere weight to be 

 carried through the air. There are many birds, small 

 and large, whose flight can assure the watcher that 

 the last light in which he should see the body is the 

 light of a mere burden. To take a small and a large 

 bird with different styles of flight ; the chaffinch and 

 the partridge alike tell us that the body is a most 

 active agent in the work of flying. Some writers on 

 flight have spoken of the body in its drop raising the 

 wings, and the wings in their drop or downward 

 stroke raising the body, as if we could easily see this 

 in a flying bird. But I doubt it. We know it must 

 be so, but perhaps only in some of the largest and 

 most easy-going fliers is this excellent exchange 

 between body and wings made clear to the eye. I 

 have not noticed it in the flight of any English bird, 

 and am sure that no one would notice it with the 

 naked eye in the flight of pigeon or partridge or 

 smaller bird. 



This work, then, of the body raising the wings as 

 it drops is not clear to the eye : rather it is of the 

 known but hidden mechanism of motion. What is 

 clear to the eye is the great aid which the body brings 



