EASY-CHAIR MEMORIES 93 



tempts to start; he half-opens his wings, and 

 then thinks better of it. Thus have I watched 

 him 



" Letting I dare not wait upon I would, 

 Like the poor cat i' the adage" 



for more than half-an-hour at a time. His 

 courage is at length screwed up ; he seems to 

 think it must be done, but he cannot venture 

 to make a start from level ground. Like Peter 

 Wilkins's " Flying Woman," he always selects 

 a tree near a steep bank, off whose edge he 

 can launch himself with the least chance of 

 danger to his tail, and so, in the uncertain 

 hope of going up, but always with the accom- 

 panying fear that he may go down, away he 

 goes, and really as he flies upwards he has 

 nothing to be ashamed of, for his floating, 

 rather than flying (when he once gets off the 

 ground), with his tail partly spread out like a 

 sail, is most graceful. 



If he and his wife happen to be on a friendly 

 footing, he condescends to land himself beside 

 her on the same branch ; but if there has been 

 a tiff between them, as frequently happens, he 

 seeks another and a higher branch and roosts 

 by himself. I have never seen him come 



