April 



For, of all the birds that roam the air, there is 

 urely none more grandly free of it than the lapwing, 

 fhp + birds, it is true, whose flight is so sus- 

 a* i as seem perfunctory, and the names of 

 wift and swallow and martin call up sunny scenes 

 vherein these summer visitors weave their mazy web 

 )f flight from dawn to dusk with a regularity which 

 vould become monotonous, were it not that just 

 :his feature serves to set them in relief against the 

 ;taic ;r habits of other birds. But the flight of the 

 apwlng is the pure joy of life on the wing. It is 

 .he gull of the dry land. Just as the sea bird exults 

 n the rush of the wind over the crested wave, so 

 :he lapwing delights in the wind-swept moor. 

 Although so differently formed, both gull and lap- 

 wing have the same slow beat of the wing when 

 jent on some definite errand ; both have the same 

 habit of standing for prolonged periods almost 

 motionless ; and if they differ in the elegance of 

 their movements on the land, it is that the statelier 

 :arriage of the lapwing at such times is matched by 

 the gull only when it rides the wave. But, after 

 such periods of quiescence, the lapwing rises as if 

 seized by a sudden fury of flight. At a height of 

 forty or fifty feet, it suddenly snaps the line of its 

 ascent, and, with a violent doubling movement, 

 which has the appearance of a somersault, precipi- 

 tates itself to earth, upon which it must inevitably 

 dash its life out, were it not that almost at the touch- 

 ing point it spreads its broad wings, and sails 



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