Birds in Flight

The experienced ornithologist apart, there are hosts of people who are interested, at least, in our native birds: who would fain call them all by name; yet who can distinguish n...

Our native birds of prey, the owls and hawks, have been so harassed by game-keepers that many species are now exterminated, while others are but rarely seen. Some, however, in f...

The movements of the wing in flight--Marey's experiments--Stopping and turning movements--Alighting--"Taking off"--Hovering--The use of the tail in flight--The carriage of the n...

The wing-play of black-game and grouse--The "musical ride" of the snipe--The "roding" of the woodcock--The musical flights of redshank and curlew--The "tumbling" of the lapwing-...

The evasiveness of flight--The size of the wing in relation to that of the body--Noisy flight--"Muffled" flight--The swoop of the sparrow-hawk--The "flighting" of ducks--The aut...

What a wing is--The quill feathers and their function--The skeleton of the wing--The muscles of the wing--The great air-chambers of the body--The Bat's wing--The wing of flying...

At first sight it may seem a little strange to introduce nestlings into a book devoted to birds in flight. But there are aspects of the wing of nestling birds which must, indeed...

The poet who penned the above lines thought more of rhymes than of reasons--as Poets so often do. What were their "nobler traits"? He omits to mention them. None of them were ev...

Sooner or later all bird-lovers find themselves pondering over the problem of the origin of birds: how they evolved their peculiar covering of feathers: what was the fashion of...