A BIRD FLIES THUS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 189, 12 August 1933, Page 10 (Supplement)

A BIRD FLIES THUS.

A bird's wing consists of one long, slender finger, to which are joined the quills and feathers. The feathers are soft, silky-feeling filaments, which you can blow asunder with your breathy aid which yet when closed clasp on to' one another with little hooks which the eye cannot see. When the bird's wing is open there is a hollow underneath, as in half a saucer turned unside down. When the bird flaps its wing suddenly down 'this fills with air, and because the wing is strong and the bird is light this lifts the bird into the air. When it. lifts its wing up it does not beat against the air, because the wing is round, and, offering no resistance, the wind falls softly off again. So much for a bird rising in the air. Now, -how does it travel forward? How does it actually fly? Because the long, slender finger is quite stiff and unyielding, and the far ends of the feathers soft and flexible. The wind has to rush out. It does so through this soft, feathery end, and this pushes the quills nearer to the finger, where they bunch up and act as a propeller.