Wings 323 
wings are put, we will look at certain birds whose flight 
can teach us something interesting. If a pheasant in 
captivity becomes suddenly alarmed, or its spacious aviary 
tempts it to rise from the ground, we hear a great whirr,— 
broad, round-curved wings buzz in a half-circle of haze 
around the bird and it is off like a shot to the farther 
Fig. 258.—Young Green Heron, reaching out with its wing toward a branch which 
it hooked with the sprouting feathers, and steadied itself for a new foothold. 
end of the runway. It may go right through the sash 
and pane of glass—such is the impetus gained in this mad 
rush. Fortunate it is for these birds, and for their cousins, 
the grouse and quail, that they can thus spring up and 
escape from foxes and other enemies to whom their scent 
so often betrays them. If the pheasant were at liberty, 
