OO LL hl 
F es 
Siege EE SII En i AUU ieee We as eae EN 
1885.] The Froblem of the Soaring Bird. 1055 
Muskrats have their pleasures as do other animals, but as their 
favorite time for sport is after night, we have but little opportunity 
to become acquainted with them socially. On a warm quiet 
afternoon they appear to enjoy a sunning in some secluded spot. 
Their gambols in the water, of a quiet evening, remind me much 
of the playing of kittens. They may be seen at times, of a 
moonlight night, chasing each other over some sand bar near 
their watery home. On the whole a study of their enjoyments is 
very unsatisfactory, and much of our knowledge of the life his- 
tory of these animals will be but slowly acquired. 
THE PROBLEM OF THE SOARING BIRD. 
BY I. LANCASTER. 
t is now more than two years since I first made known the 
results of investigations on the methods of flight of the great 
soaring birds, carried on at intervals since 1850. The whooping 
cranes of the Northwest, performing their migrations on motion- 
less wings, had at that early date fixed my attention, and my 
times of leisure down to 1876 were devoted to ransacking the 
Scientific and literary world and to observing the birds in the act 
whenever it was possible to do so, that I might get an explana- 
tion of the phenomenon of more substantial character than mere 
guess-work. Plenty of assumed solutions were found scattered 
about. Such theologians as I consulted were confident that 
the question had reached its lowest terms when it was said that 
“ God had created the birds to fly.” Common-sense folks rejected 
the idea of fixed wings and held to a slow flapping that could 
not be seen, while the scientists were confident of upward slant- 
ing currents of air and various atmospheric disturbances which 
produced the result. Accounts of travelers as to the facts were 
hopelessly confused, with a single exception, that of Charles 
Darwin in his Naturalist’s Voyage around the World. His solu- 
tion of the matter, that of the surging head, was given provis- 
ionally, 
I was not prepared to deny aay of the solutions given and not 
More ready to admit them, being conscious of very much igno- 
rance of the entire matter. Meanwhile my interest in the sub- 
ject, constantly increasing, had, in 1876, overshadowed all others, 
and being disengaged from business, I devoted the ensuing five 
