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. 



WHO needs to be told that birds fly ? So common- 

 place has this fact become that the many and varied 

 forms of wings, and the pecnHarities of flight which are 

 associated with these differences, are rarely perceived. Even 

 sculptors and artists show a hopeless uhfamiliarity 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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