The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1894-07-24
LlGHTNlNGLIkE r D
Flights. Darts and Drops In
Their Accuracy and Swiftness.

rights, Darts and Drops Wonderful In
Their Accuracy and swiftness.
l have often wondered at the ease
with which a great big hen hawk drops
from on high, like a falling shot, hit
ting SO accurately its quarry on the
ground, for at the moment Of beginning
Its descent 1t closes its wings almost
tight against its sides and goes as true
as a plumb line. Before it reaches the
ground its speed becomes SO rapid that
you hear the air fairly shrek through
It's feathers, and the heavy thud of the
blow at the last is Of deadly suggestion.
l have seen a full grown hare snatched
up into b air limp and dead after
such a performance and borne away
dangling in a grip of fate.
An expert trapeze man does many
wonderful things, but his EXTREMIST
cleverness cannot equal that of a hawk
which l saw dart under a flying king
fisher, turn back downward and catch
the bird III the breast.
hawks, however, are not more expert
than kingfishers themselves. The belted
halcyOn makes an unerring missile of
himself when he sees a minnOw shining
in a pool Of the brook, and from 80
feet distance goes, like a blue flash, to
the "silvery point. Chuck! Up leap a
thousand shining drops and fall around
like rain, while that animated and
winged fish spear comes forth from its
plunge with the minnow safely held.
Well may HalcyOn giggle a raucous,
gathering strain Of JOY. He has lone
what no man Of US can learn to do.
The drowsy looking little pewee fly
catcher of our woods does almost impOs-
sible feats Of agility in taking on the
wing some species of dancing insects. |
have seen one of these birds turn three
or four complete sOmersaults in the air
before finally he caught his gnat, which,
like Galatea in the idyl, skipped hither
and yOn and up and down after the
manner Of a harl Of dry thistle down.
A kinsman of the peWee, the tyrant fly
catcher, shows how a light and plucky
litter in the fields Of air can Guido his
most savage foe, by dint of superior
cleverness, at lofty tumbling. Many a
time have | seen him bObbing up and
down above a worried and disheveled
hawk so high in the air that he looked
llhC q 1lCl1 Gk-p11IS viz ~ 1bSSN
thing, mounting and hurrying through
the hyacinth spaces of a summer sky.
Our black capped titmOuse is inimita-
BILE as a trapeze performer when he gets
good hold of a twig's end. He can swing
head downward, sidewise, curved till
beak and tail touch, swing by one foot,
and the wind may blow as hard as it
can, he never loses his grip. No wonder
Emerson loved him for his pluck and
nerve. Some years ago it created a stir
in old London when an athlete climbed
to a temples arch and hung head down
ward from a beam, but what is a feat
like shat when compared with what you
may see any June morning when a tit
mouse hangs by one claw to the topmOst
leaf Of some tall forest tree and the
wind blowing bOisterously?
Have You never seen two cock blue
jays fighting in midair? There is a jOust
of brilliance. They whirl over and over
so fast that they look like a blur Of
amethyst smoke, shot with CLEANS of
white fire, and how their wings clash
and their bills clack!
The mocking bird, greatest Of all the
wildwood singers, has his own way of
showing off his athletic nimbleness and
grace. He sOmersaults backward in the
| midst Of a staCcatO strain and never
loses anOte. Let some tenor try it in the
opera one Of these fine evenings. -Mau-
rice Thompson i'll Independent.