e use we put our legs
to,--those which climb the heavens to attain a wide lookout, either for
the pleasure of soaring, or to gain a vantage-point from which to scan a
wide territory in search of food or prey, and those which feed as they
fly. Most of our common birds are examples of the first class. Our hawks
and buzzards are examples of the second class. Swallows, nighthawks, and
some sea-birds are examples of the third class. A few of our birds use
their wings to gain an elevation from which to deliver their songs--as
the larks, and some of the finches; but the robins and the sparrows and
the warblers and the woodpeckers are always going somewhere. The hawks
and the buzzards are, comparatively speaking, birds of leisure.

Every bird and beast is a master in the use of its own tools and
weapons. We who look on from the outside marvel at their skill. Here is
the carpenter bumble-bee hovering and darting about the verge-board of
my porch-roof as I write this. It darts swiftly this way and that, and
now and then pauses in midair, surrounded by a blur of whirring wings,
as often does the hummingbird. How it does it, I do not know. I cannot
count or distinguish the separate stroke of its wings. At the same time,
the chimney swifts sweep by me like black arrows, on wings apparently as
stiff as if made of tin or sheet-iron, now beating the air, now sailing.
In some way they suggest winged gimlets. How thin and scimitar-like
their wings are! They are certainly masters of their own craft.

In general, birds in flight bring the wings as far below the body as
they do above it. Note the crow flapping his way through the air. He is
a heavy flyer, but can face a pretty strong wind. His wings probably
move through an arc of about ninety degrees. The phoebe flies with a
peculiar snappy, jerky flight; its relative the kingbird, with a mincing
and hovering flight; it tiptoes through the air. The woodpeckers gallop,
alternately closing and spreading their wings. The ordinary flight of
the goldfinch is a very marked undulatory flight; a section of it, the
rise and the fall, would probably measure fifty feet. The bird goes half
that distance or more with wings closed. This is the flight the male
indulges in within hearing distance of his brooding mate. During the
love season he occasionally gives way to an ecstatic flight. This is a
level flight, performed on round, open wings, which beat the air
vertically. This flight of ecstasy during t