Fly

“ The day after my arrival, Miss Meta and I were returning home, after we had driven several miles over the country in a sleigh. Our nearest conception of the ecstasy of those who shall hereafter have wings, with which they can fly over earth and sea, on a bright morning, racing with the larks, or some ambitious hawk, or, on some most fortunate hour, even with the eagle, is attained when we glide thus over the snow. ”

“ Tell me, my dear child, when you have seen birds taking their flight into the air, and going boldly to their object, without a thought of all the barriers, ditches, rivers, and mountains, which hinder man at every step in his travels, did it never strike you to wish for their wings, and imagine how you would fly off if you had them? ”

“ Confronted with these new and strange shapes in the sky, some making stately journeys of hundreds of miles, others whirring hither and thither with the speed of the whirlwind, wonder quickly gives way to the all-absorbing question: How do they fly? ”

“ The leaves fall from the trees at my command, and my breath blows them away. The birds rise from the water and fly to a distant land. The animals hide themselves from the glance of my eye, and the very ground where I walk becomes as hard as flint. ”

“ THE BOASTFUL FLY. A FLY that had lodged on a crumbling wall, seeing other flies swarming around it, began to boast about their numbers, saying:
“Look at us! Multitudes in this little space! We are everywhere—in the garden among the flowers, in the field amid the clover, in the woods darting in and out of the sunbeams that fall between the branches.”
Here a humming-bird lighted in a trumpet-vine that grew over the wall. ”

“ Here I am poked into a mean, narrow river, where I can neither get down into the ground, or up into the air, and yet I can see well enough what fine times others have; there are the little birds that fly about over my head, and sing all day, because they have wings. ”

“ They appear absolutely in clouds, and move with astonishing velocity, their wings making a whistling sound as they fly. The rapid evolutions of these flocks, wheeling and shifting suddenly as if with one mind and one impulse ”

“ It can fly as high as a bird. I will run and it will fly high. See it! See it now! See how high in the sky it is! How bright it looks in the sky! Will it fly to the sun? Oh, no, no! It can not fly so high. The sun is too high. No bird can fly to the sun. ”

“ No one has ever seen it fly! Why should it fly? Can you suppose that a thing can do a thing which no one has ever seen it do?” And the bird—the bird—with its leg chained close to the log, preened its wing. ”

“ THE COMMON FLY.—So many birds have been cited in support of the various flying theories that the house fly, as an example has been disregarded. We are prone to overlook the small insect, but it is, nevertheless, a sample which is just as potent to show the efficiency of wing surface as the condor or the vulture.
The fly has greater mobility than any other flying creature. By the combined action of its legs and wings it can spring eighteen inches in the tenth of a second; and when in flight can change its course instantaneously. ”

“ Those who go secretly, go evilly; and foul birds love to fly at night. ”

“ Hurt a fly! He would not for the world: he’s pitiful To flies even. ‘Sing,’ says he, ‘and teaze me still, If that’s your way, poor insect.’ That's your way! ”

“ They then fly very high above the trees, far apart, like a disbanded army, propelling themselves by reiterated flaps of the wings, at the end of each successive curve which they describe in their flight. ”

“ For my own part, I have seen the flying fish fly—deliberately fly, and flutter, and rise again, and change the direction of their flight in mid-air, exactly after the fashion of a big dragonfly. If the other people who have watched them haven't succeeded in seeing them fly, that is their own fault, or at least their own misfortune ”

“ Accordingly, wings have been given them to enable them to fly through the air, and thus elude the force which, by nature, they are unable to resist. Notwithstanding the natural tendency of all bodies towards the centre of the earth, birds, when raised in the atmosphere, glide through it with the greatest ease, rapidity, and vigour. ”

“ Does man fly? No. Does the bird fly? Yes. Then if man would fly let him imitate the bird. Nature has made the bird, and Nature never goes wrong. Had the bird been furnished with a great air bag I might have suggested a balloon. ”

“ THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS.—Volumes have been written concerning observations on the flight of birds. The marvel has been why do soaring birds maintain themselves in space without flapping their wings. In fact, it is a much more remarkable thing to contemplate why birds which depend on flapping wings can fly. ”

“ We all notice the first swallow almost as soon as the first cuckoo; for though the one bird’s note catches the ear, the flight of the other arrests the eye as certainly. And what a flight it is! Has it ever been computed how many hundred miles it flies every day? For hours they are on the wing, flying at the rate of a mile a minute, and always with exquisite grace. ”

“ In Perlidæ, whose wings lie one over the other, the wings should be put in the position they occupy in the natural fly, instead of across each other, and the fly will appear when finished like the illustration of the imitation Yellow-Sally. ”

“ The bird can fly. Fly, little bird, fly. I like to see you fly. Can you fly, little girl? Can you fly like me? I like to fly. I am a bird.
The dog and the cat can play. The boy can hop and jump. The little girl can not fly like the bird. ”

“ There is a curious belief attached to this fly, namely that all other night flies fall in love with it—a fatal step on their part, since in proof of their devotion they must fetch it fire, in doing which they singe their wings. ”

“ STRAY birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away.
And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter and fall there with a sigh. ”

“ So the air in which we are to fly is in a state of constant motion, which may be likened to the rush and swirl of water in the rapids of a mountain torrent. 28 The tremendous difference is that the perils of the water are in plain sight of the navigator, and may be guarded against, while those of the air are wholly invisible, and must be met as they occur, without a moment’s warning. ”

“ Birds don’t fly when the wind is in certain points, but lie out in great “ricks,” as they are called, blackening the waters, drifting in the wind, or with wings covering their heads—poor defenceless things! ”

“ But of course they can fly much better than a plane."
Bill shook his head. "That's where you are wrong. No bird can loop, or fly upside down. Reverse control flying and acrobatics--stunting generally is impossible for them.--But look below! ”

“ But the usual meaning of the bird as a symbol [103] looks to a different analogy—to that which appears in such familiar expressions as “the wings of the wind,” “the flying clouds.” Like the wind, the bird sweeps through the aerial spaces, sings in the forests, and rustles on its course; like the cloud, it floats in mid-air and casts its shadow on the earth; like the lightning, it darts from heaven to earth to strike its unsuspecting prey. ”

“ Thou little bird, thou dweller by the sea,
Why takest thou its melancholy voice,
And with that boding cry
Why o'er the waves dost fly?
O, rather, bird, with me
Through the fair land rejoice! ”

“ He obtained young birds from neighbouring villages, and fed them in his garden with meat and fish while he watched their efforts to learn to fly, and studied that marvellous piece of mechanism—the wing Nature had given them. ”

“ Of the Wings of Flyes.
After what manner and how swiftly the wings of Insects move. A description of the Pendulums under the wings, and their motion; the shape and structure of the parts of the wing.
Obser. 39. Of the Head of a Fly.
1. All the face of a Drone-fly is nothing almost but eyes. 2. Those are of two magnitudes. 3. They are Hemispheres, and very reflective and smooth. 4. Some directed towards every quarter. 5. How the fly cleanses them. 6. Their number. 7. Their order: divers particulars observ’d in the dissecting a head. That these are very probably the eyes of the Creature ”

“ It is necessary, therefore, at this stage to direct the attention of the reader somewhat fully to the subject of flight, as witnessed in the insect, bird and bat, a knowledge of natural flight preceding, and being in some sense indispensable to, a knowledge of artificial flight. The bodies of flying creatures are, as a rule, very strong, comparatively light and of an elongated form,—the bodies of birds being specially adapted for cleaving the air. ”

“ Once outside, they run upwards, if the locality admits of it, for a few metres, and then only do they take wing. In a room they fly towards the light, and if a wind is blowing they follow its direction. ”

“ Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly, When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid sky; Not half so swiftly the fierce eagle moves, When through the clouds he drives the trembling doves; ”

“ Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring The Winter Garment of Repentance fling: The Bird of Time has but a little way To fly—and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing. ”

“ "Oh no, no," said the Fly, "to ask me is in vain;
For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again." ”

“ On wings you can flutter—and glide—and float and soar—now like a humming-bird among the flowers—now like a swan, half rowing, half sailing, and half flying adown a river—now like an eagle afloat in the blue ocean of heaven, or shooting sunwards, invisible in excess of light—and bidding farewell to earth and its humble shadows. ”

“ All at once, these—that is to say, all the rooks on the ground—rise and fly to the trees, the birds who have been sitting in them join them in the air, they all fly about together over the trees, and then go off in two or more bodies, and in different directions. ”

“ How beautiful is the adventure which has led our dipper or water-ouzel—a bird allied to the wrens—to try walking and flying under water! How admirable is the volplaning of numerous parachutists—"flying fish," "flying frog," "flying dragon," "flying phalanger," "flying squirrel," and more besides, which take great leaps through the air. ”

“ The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead—
There were no birds to fly. ”

“ Then, at the given word, the birds are again released, and they fly at one another with renewed energy. They lose their wind more speedily this time, and thereafter they pursue the tactics already described until time is again called. ”

“ Sometimes a bird will come flying alone, somewhat low over the ground, in a hurrying manner, very fast, and making a sound with the wings, as they beat the air, which is almost like the puffing of an engine—indeed, one may easily, sometimes, imagine a train in the distance. ”

“ Flying in a line, each bird, when it comes over the shoal, closes its wings and dashes perpendicularly into the waves, whence it emerges after a few seconds, and, shaking the water from its feathers, mounts in a wide curve, and orderly takes its place in the rear of the string, to repeat its headlong plunge so soon as it again finds itself above its prey. ”

“ In old times they told fables of birds which had no feet, and lived always on the wing. There are no such birds. All birds have feet, all rest from flying. But the motion of flying is so beautiful and easy, that it is no wonder that birds of strong flight are much upon the wing. ”

“ Nature has made her flying machine in the bird, which is nearly a thousand times as heavy as the air its bulk displaces, and only those who have tried to rival it know how inimitable her work is, for ‘the way of a bird in the air’ remains as wonderful to us as it was to Solomon, and the sight of the bird has constantly held this wonder before men’s eyes, and in some men’s minds, and kept the [12] flame of hope from utter extinction, in spite of long disappointment. ”

“ But every one knows that these grallatorial animals are excellent birds of flight. Of all travelling birds they undertake the longest and most remote journeys. They are, in addition, the eagle excepted, the birds which elevate themselves the highest, and the flight of which is the longest maintained.”12
The way in which the natural wing rises and falls on the air, and reciprocates with the body of the flying creature, has a very obvious bearing upon artificial flight. ”

“ That the wing, when the flying animal is progressing at a high speed in a horizontal direction, describes a looped and then a waved track, from the fact that the figure of 8 is gradually opened out or unravelled as the animal advances. ”

“ This however is my teaching: he who wishes one day to fly, must first learn standing and walking and running and climbing and dancing:- one does not fly into flying! ”

“ Now the cliffs were like wings uplifted, and the morning was coming dimly through them. She felt the wings of all the world upraised against the morning in a flashing, multitudinous flight. The world itself was flying. Sunlight poured on the large round world till she fancied it a heavy bee humming on its iridescent atmosphere across a vast air of sunshine. ”