CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 



V. Courtship Flights ... ... ... 53 



The -wing-play of blackgame and grouse — ^The " musical 

 ride " of the snipe — ^The " roding " ol the woodcock — 

 The musical flights of redshank and curlew — ^The " tumb- 

 ling " of the lapwing — The raven's somersaults — The 

 courting flight of the wood -pigeon — The manakin's 

 " castanets " — Wings as lures — ^The strange pose of the 

 sun-bittern — ^The '"wooing " of the chaffinch and the 

 grasshopper-warbler — Darwin and wing-displays — The 

 wonderful wings of the argus pheasant. 



VI. How TO TELL Birds on the Wing ... 71 



The small perching-birds and the difficulty of distinguish- 

 ing them — The wagtails— The finches — ^The buntings — 

 The redstart, wheatear, and stonechat — ^The thrushes — ^The 

 warblers — ^The tit-mice — ^The nuthatch and tree-creeper 

 — The spotted flycatcher — The red-backed shrike — 

 Swallows, martins, and swifts — The nightjar — Owls — 

 Woodpeckers. 



VII. How to tell Birds on the Wing {continued) ... 97 



Falcons — Golden eagle — Harriers and sparrow-hawk — ^The 

 heron — The cormorant, shag, and gannet — ^The petrels — 

 Guillemots, razor-bills, and puffins — The ducks — The 

 great - crested grebe and dabchick — ^The pigeons — The 

 plover tribe " — ^The guUs and terns — ^The game-birds. 



VIII. The Wings of Nestling Birds ... ... 117 



The wing of the unhatched bird — Of the coots and water- 

 hen — ^The hoatzin's wings — ^The wing Of Archaeopteryx 

 — ^Moulting — ^The nestUng game-birds and ducks — ^Teaching 

 the young to fly. 



IX. Flightless Birds ... ... ... 127 



The steamer duck — ^The owl parrot — The ffightless grebe 

 of Titicaca — The dodo and solitaire — ^The ostrich tribe — 

 The penguin's wings. 



VI 



