WINGS AND FEET 
I have often observed this with the naked eye, 
although I hesitate to record this observation 
for fear that someone who has been reading 
Munsterberg will say that I merely visualized 
what the photograph made me expect to see. 
It is an observation, however, that any one 
can make whose eyesight is ordinarily good. A 
bird comes sailing down from a roof, and, as it 
approaches the ground, the bastard wing 
becomes distinctly prominent, the whole wings 
are then flapped rapidly, during which it is 
impossible to observe them distinctly, and the 
bird drops to its feet. The natural explanation 
of this action of the bastard wing is that it is 
used to check the progress of the bird, to back 
water so to speak, but the bastard wing is so 
small that its power in this direction must be 
extremely slight. One might suggest, therefore, 
that the present bastard wing is but a vestige 
of its former self, and dates back to a time 
when its use was of value, or, to go back still 
farther in the family tree, one might suppose, 
perhaps fancifully, that the bird thus puts out 
its thumb as did its reptilian ancestors to 
grasp the perch to which it is speeding. 
The Labrador coast is a good place to study 
189 
