The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-10-31
POWER OF FLIGHT IN BIRDS.
The Graceful Swallow, the Swift Moving
Huminins Bird and Others.

lllE(i anu OLhGrSs
How wonderful and beautiful is
tho power of fight, and yet from
tho smallest insect that is tossed
about by the gentle summer breeze
to tho great golden eagle that is
capable of carrying a young lamb to
Ills oyTie all arc luaatels OF the art.
A large portion of the living ami
NAL world has wings and can use
thom. When watching swallows
Infinite power upon the wing, one
feels like rephrasing the Cry of Rich
ard LII, My kingdom for a horse"
Only kingdom for pair of wings"
Perhaps among our most common
birds the swallows are the most
graceful and skillful of flight. Be-
tore rain along our country roads
the barn and white bellied swallows
are always to be seen cutting the air
In graceful curves, now Swimming
the roads, now rising abruptly to
sail over the stone wall and float out
across some neighboring meadow.
They love the sea also and wing
their way over it's surface with mar
velous skill.
The chimney swift surpasses in
the power of endurance even the
swallows. Uncanny birds they are,
far more like bats. Their flight is
not as graceful as the swallows, but
IN a way more cratic. They rest
only in the chimneys OF hollow trees,
even gathering the twigs for the
construction of their nests while on
the wing. Their food also is taken
when on fight-in fact the Chin
ney swift's life is spent in the heav-
ems. Perpetual motion must be
their motto, for but a few moments
out of each "a hours are spent at
rest in the chimney's sooty depths.
The opposite of the swallows and
the swift's flight, one might say, is
that of the kingbird. Jerky, spas
modic, ungraceful as it is in the ex-
IRENE, and yet powerful, for the
kingbird among crows certainly de-
serves his name. AS all true tyran-
nida, he is an expert fly catcher and
is very dexterous and often absurd
in pursuit. tumbling over himself
in his hurry to catch some dainty
insect.
When robin crosses the sky SO
one can really see his flight, he is
one of the few birds that look as if
they really were going somewhere.
Direct, even and steady are the char
acteristics of the flight when really
on the wing with some distant point
in view.
The erratic and wonderfully rapid
flight of the humming birds is mar
; velous, and the human eye can only
vaguely follow their winding course.
Such strength of wing for so tiny d
body seems almost incredible. Their
migration southwark from New
England extends to South America
The phebe's flight is very like
that of the kingbirds, and his tum-
blings when in pursuit of insects
are almost identical, but his long
flights do not denote such power,
nor, I think, such rapidity.
The wonderful feats of the carrier
pigeons have become famous, and
the distance that they cover in q
given time is hardly to be believed.
Each down beat of their wings looks
as if they were flying in denser at
mosphere than air, SO much power
is shown.
The bats crazy movements in the
evening twilight are absurd, full of
plunges, turnings, twistings, rapid
tiappings and tumbles, and yet they
seem to know where they are going,
and most certainly do.
The movements of a hawk or eagle
in the upper air are graceful and
magnificent What must the sensa-
I ton be of sailing about so easily in
the heavens? Rising and falling,
sailing and gliding, diving down
with frightful speed, and yet the
whole body is in perfect command.
Boston Transcript.
Each to His Trade.