Vil FLIGHT 239 
and thirty yards’ distance the wind came in wild gusts, 
as often upward as downward. Twelve yards to 
windward of a bank only rising eight feet above the 
level the vane was not quite steady, but on the whole 
horizontal. At a distance of six yards -there were 
occasional upward swings; at four yards’ distance 
there was a decided upward tendency, and this though 
the bank itself presented only a very gentle incline. 
These facts go far to explain the soaring of birds over 
hill-tops or cliffs. 
Rising with the help of the Wind. 
One way to catch Condors is “to place a carcass 
on a level piece of ground within an enclosure of sticks 
with an opening, and, when the condors are gorged, to 
gallop up on horseback to the entrance and thus enclose 
them ; for when the bird has not space to run, it cannot 
give its body sufficient momentum to rise from the 
ground.”! A Cormorant, wishing to lift himself from 
the water, faces the wind, and flaps along the surface 
for some distance and at considerable speed, before he 
is able to mount upward. The Red-throated Diver is 
said to be so powerless to begin his flight without a head 
wind to help him that if you sail down upon him wth 
the wind he must either fly towards you or remain upon 
the water, the third alternative of diving often not 
occurring to his mind. I have never seen a Lark rise 
facing any way but head to the wind. In fact, all birds 
seem to derive great assistance from this. 
1 Darwin’s Journal of Researches, chap. ix. p. 133 (Minerva 
Library). 
