A GIFT OF GOD 25 



know it. The partridge seems to travel dead straight, 

 with no sign of that rise and drop which we notice 

 in the flight of weaker birds, finches or woodpeckers, 

 and the wings appear to whir simply up and down. 

 The general impression is one of a straight move- 

 ment forward, horizontally, of the body, and a 

 straight vertical beat of the wings. The machinery 

 its surface at least is there, acting in the open, 

 yet it might be hidden absolutely from view for all 

 we can see of its action by waved lines or curves, 

 its figure-of-eight, or succession of loops, such as a 

 figure skater cuts on the ice, swinging himself 

 forward on the outside edge, and by each loop 

 gathering the force to drive himself forward and 

 cut the loop afresh. 



As with the strong-flying bird, so with the strong- 

 flying insect. The hawk-moth must describe the 

 waved track or loop running into loop, as the par- 

 tridge does. There must be the concave and convex, 

 the hollow and hill ; yet all we see is the body plung- 

 ing forward horizontally, and the wings whirring in 

 a way that does not for a moment suggest that they 

 are making a waved track through space. Only 

 in large, easy - moving birds with a great wing 

 area, elongated to a point a gull, for instance do we 

 get by the naked eye any idea of the virtue of curves 

 in flight ; for here, though nothing can be really seen 

 of the loop action, at least we can see distinctly in 

 the outline and surface of the wing itself, the wave- 



