1885. | The Problem of the Soaring Bird. 1057 
tically ascend indefinitely, the board would also ascend in the 
same way were it to be changed in a similar manner. 
This is seen in the performances of what I have termed 
“ effigies.’ They were surfaces of veneer or cardboard fastened 
to a frame and balanced by a weighted pendant. They would 
simulate the actions of “soaring” perfectly. I have made num- 
bers of them. They would leave the hand and travel against the 
wind for as much as 500 yards, remaining up for fifteen minutes. 
They had no ability to automatically balance themselves in un- 
steady currents of air, but they were good illustrations of “ soar- 
ing.” 
The first thing to be definitely ascertained was whether the 
wings of the soaring birds were in fact as motionless as they 
seemed. To determine this point demanded close inspection, and 
although the creatures were not fearful of man in that remote 
country, they preferred a distance of thirty to forty feet away. 
The captive bird was useless for any critical test. ’Tis true that 
a bird ten feet in alar dimensions, resting horizontally above one’s 
head thirty feet away, with the ‘clear sky as a background, could 
be pretty well examined; still a closer position was not only 
desirable but imperative, and a resort was had to the arts of 
mimicry with entire success. Procuring a few square yards of 
thin muslin fabric sufficient to completely envelope my person, it 
was covered with paint of the green and brown shades so as to 
resemble the tree tops of localities in the vicinity of either the 
breeding places or the roosts of the soaring birds, and barring 
the unpleasant sensation one has when engaged in the arts of 
gross deception, I had everything pretty much my own way. Some 
trouble was experienced in striking the happy mean of scaring 
the great creatures enough to keep them from lighting on my 
face, and still not frighten them away, as they were totally oblivi- 
_Ous of my presence. Wing movements could now be studied in 
every conceivable position at leisure, endwise, sidewise, from 
above, from beneath, and at every sort of obliquity. The conclu- 
sions of observations made from the ground at thirty feet distance 
were confirmed from the tree-top stations at all distances, from 
twelve inches upwards. In the first Florida year, observations 
were made with good results about 150 times, during which all 
the varieties of soaring birds of 100 miles of coast line were 
viewed. The trees of the country are short and stunted, and 
