OCR Text |
Show How Birds Soar in the summer of 17; I was visiting on the Warm Springs reservation In easttn Oregon.'.' aye a writer 'The residences of the Government Govern-ment employerp were In a deep valley between tablelands through which the water COUHOI bnii cut deep canyons. I climbed up on one of th.so tables, tho edge of which was In most pliices perpendicular foi ten, twenty and more feet, and as I stood there In a strong breeze blowing against the face of the slope, a amall lawk came gilding along eight or ten feel above the edge, and following tho course of the edge, and he kept on until ho was a little more than a rod away from me. He seemed tu be making no effort except a little balancing balanc-ing and turning In order to steer himself. The explanation aeemed to mo very simple. Juat tie re at the edg.. there was a strong, sharply ascending current which enabled him to ue wind and gravity against -uch other. "In the autumn of that year I went to Koo-ClMW Koo-ClMW China and there I found tho eltv frequented fre-quented by a yecles of large bird which we call a kite. If seems to be half hawk, half bu-izurd In Its build and habits. Its Might Is heavy ami awkward its "inn being too big I for Its pectoral mUSClea; and their dps are not pointed like a hawk's, but broad and square aeroas. Uut It Is a master of the art of suar-h suar-h g There are In Foochow- two hills which He I MltiarC actOM the path of the afternihn eea I breeze. Here towar dlhe close of r breezy uu-! uu-! I iimn afternoon o dozen or a score of three kites will resort and have a genuine coasting tame tfmt hillsides are quite steep, and of course there results a strong, sharp upward current at the top. The kites come to the top. and, starling from the eddy in the lee of tho : i ::lld out Into the uprushlng current, Winga balancing up and Ouwn and head and (nil turning and twisting, till they are In the lu-art of (he upward current; and '.hen they turn broadside to It and are borne upward and backward seven ty-Ave or iao feer. Then they descend aaln Jnto the eddy and again steer ihefnei Ivee out Into the uprushlng current. ThrwghoUt It all there is very little flapping uf the wings." |