CHAPTER III 
The Sizes and Shapes of Wings and 
their relation to Flight 
“... the fowls of heaven have wings, 
And blasts of heaven will aid their flight : 
Chains tie us down by land and sea. 
WoRDSWORTH. 
The evasiveness of flight—The size of the wing in relation to that of the body— 
Noisy flight—‘‘ Muffled ” flight—The swoop of the sparrow-hawk—The “‘flight- 
ing ” of ducks—The autumn gatherings of starlings and swallows—“‘ Soaring ”’ 
‘flights of storks and vultures—The wonderful ‘‘sailing ’’ feats of the albatross— 
The ‘‘ soaring ’’ of the skylark—The “‘ plunging ’”’ flight of the gannet, tern, and 
kingfisher. 
HO needs to be told that birds fly? So common- 
place has this fact become that the many and varied 
forms of wings, and the peculiarities of flight which are 
associated with these differences, are rarely perceived. Even 
sculptors and artists show a hopeless unfamiliarity with the 
shapes of wings, and their meanings, at any rate, as a general 
rule. Look at their attempts to display birds in flight, or 
in the fanciful use of wings which convention has ascribed to 
angels. For the most part these superbly beautiful append- 
ages are atrociously rendered. 
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