Rare British 
Birds. 
(75) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
unknown. A second reason was the 
increase of gardens and planting 
throughout the country, which had 
afforded shelter, while they could not 
forget the good done by the Wild Birds 
Piotection Act, and the Society under 
whose auspices they were met. 
In conclusion, Canon Vaughan said 
he liked to think of their birds as their 
sacred possession, and which they were 
called upon to hand down to those who 
succeeded them. The Society for the 
Protection of Birds was carrying out 
that principle in two ways. One was 
through its representatives to keep a 
watchful eye on the nests of the rarer 
species, and secondly, by promoting the 
study of natural history, the importance 
of which could hardly be over¬ 
exaggerated. (Applause.) 
At the conclusion of the lecture Mr. 
W. Barrow Simonds proposed a very 
hearty vote of thanks, remarking that 
he could remember the day when at 
the parish meetings they paid 2d. a 
dozen for all the Sparrows brought in, 
and in the winter many labourers earned 
several shillings. 
Flight of Sea-Fowl. 
The flight of birds is adapted to their 
manner of seeking food or protection. 
As most sea-fowl have to remain a long 
time on the wing, they manage to keep 
up with the least possible muscular 
exertion. The observations of the author 
of “ Three Years of a Wanderer’s Life 
will be of interest to those who study 
birds but do not have a chance to 
watch them from the deck of a ship in 
mid-ocean. 
All the great ocean sea-birds, from 
the little Petrel to the giant wandering 
Albatross, are soaring birds, never, or 
but rarely, flapping their wings in flight, 
but always sailing, air-borne, with their 
wings rigidly outstretched, varying the 
direction of their movement by present¬ 
ing a changed feather surface to the 
wind at a changed angle. This keeps 
them more or less heading toward the 
wind all the time they are in the air; 
that is, they never head directly from 
the wind except by rare accident, as 
haste to alight or when struck by a 
shot. 
When it does happen that for a 
moment the bird is tail to the wind, it 
presents a most ridiculous figure; its 
feathers are blown forward and re¬ 
versed, down go its web feet, and it 
paddles the^air to right itself. 
Should there be very little wind, it 
will fall head foremost into the water; 
but in a strong breeze it can always 
bring the wind a little on one side in 
a moment or two, and sail away again 
with its feathers turned the right way. 
These peculiarities of flight belong 
only to the great Petrel group, to which 
all the many hundreds of varieties met 
with off the Cape of Good Hope belong. 
None of these birds takes its prey on 
the wing, as has falsely been represented 
over and over again. They must 
alight on the water before they can 
feed. 
In rising from the water a Petrel must 
launch into the air off the top of a sea; 
or in very light weather, when there is 
no swell to take off from, it must 
paddle along the surface at increasing 
speed with wings outspread until it 
creates resistance enough in the air to 
raise itself. I have seen an old grey, 
wandering Albatross with twelve feet 
spread of wing, in a clock-calm, rush 
a quarter of a mile over the water, and 
have at last to subside exhausted, un¬ 
able to rise. 
The same bird in a hurricane would 
merely expand his wings as he crested 
a wave, and rise calmly and majestically 
straight for the zenith, then at about 
100 feet pause and float as still and 
stationary as if hung by a wire for 
minutes, eyeing the man at the wheel 
first with one eye and then with the 
other, and turning its head in a critical 
old-fashioned way. He will then preen 
himself thoughtfully as he soars, scratch 
his ear with his foot, head on to the full 
fury of the blast, in another moment to 
sweep away and be out of sight in nine 
or ten seconds. 
