CHAPTER VIII 
WINGS AND FEET IN THE AIR AND UNDER WATER 
“* Mark how the feathered tenants of the flood, 
With grace of motion that might scarcely seem 
Inferior to angelical, prolong 
Their curious pastime! ” 
— Wordsworth. 
HE good priest at Esquimaux Point said 
that the devout could see the sign of the 
cross in the birds as they fly in the heavens. 
Our ideas of the flying birds may indeed be 
a conventional one, for their flight is generally 
so rapid that our impressions are often con- 
fused and incorrect unless our attention has 
been particularly called to some point. Thus 
in the case of the feet, artists and taxidermists 
alike generally represent soaring doves and 
eagles with their feet drawn up in front, and 
even excellent observers, who have not paid 
especial attention to the subject, are apt to 
agree in the accuracy of this stereotyped and 
conventional attitude. Now a little careful 
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