Wing

“ Imagine what they must be like, as they dart hither and thither, reflecting the bright sunshine from their wings, or enveloped in the sombre shade of a forest. Most of them measure from two to ten inches in length from wing to wing, and many others flit about, equally remarkable for their beauty, though not so large. ”

“ The bird, let loose in eastern skies, [1]
When hastening fondly home,
Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies
Where idle warblers roam.
But high she shoots thro' air and light,
Above all low delay,
Where nothing earthly bounds her flight,
Nor shadow dims her way. ”

“ If you listen or look, there is not a wave of the wing—the wing never waves! A bird without a feather! a beast that flies! and so cold! as cold as a fish! It is the most supernatural-seeming of natural things. ”

“ They afford an opportunity only of admiring at a distance the extraordinary agility and the stateliness likewise of their motions, the richness of their plumage, and the great propriety there was of ascribing to them ‘an expanded, quivering wing.’ Nothing certainly can be more beautiful and entertaining than such a sight! the wings, by their repeated though unwearied vibrations, equally serving them for sails and oars; while their feet, no less assisting in conveying them out of sight, are no less insensible of fatigue. ”

“ There are the tranquil, effortless gliding herring gulls, snow-white beneath and pearl-gray above, displaying an affluence of wing-power restful to look upon—airplanes that put forth their powers so subtly and so silently as to elude both eye and ear. ”

“ Between two seas the sea-bird's wing makes halt,
Wind-weary; while with lifting head he waits
For breath to reinspire him from the gates
That open still toward sunrise on the vault
High-domed of morning, and in flight's default
With spreading sense of spirit anticipates
What new sea now may lure beyond the straits
His wings exulting that her winds exalt
And fill them full as sails to seaward spread,
Fulfilled with fair speed's promise. ”

“ They are all good fliers, and some, from the extreme expanse of their wings, have extraordinary powers of flight. They spend a great deal of time upon the wing, some soaring far out over the ocean, or mounting to a most sublime elevation, others beating over a limited space, till the appearance of a fish beneath them arrests their attention, when they plunge down upon it, and instantly rise again into the air. ”

“ A double oscillation, a depression, and an elevation of the wings transverse to the path of flight. 2. The change of the plane of the same during this double motion; the lower surface of the wing facing below and behind during its depression, so as to sustain the bird, the same surface of the wing facing below and in front during its elevation, so that the wing is raised with the least resistance by cutting the air with its edge while the bird flies. ”

“ Curves in the Wing of a Partridge in Flight.
The wings, when flexed and extended in flight, assume curved surfaces, which change at each instant and carve the air, as does the tail of the fish the water, into complex wave-lines; and such is the structure of the wing that these results are inevitable when it is put in motion. "The muscles, bones, ligaments, and feathers, are so adjusted with reference to each other that, if the wing is moved at all, it must move in the proper direction." The bird no more thinks of its motions in flying than we do of ours in walking ”

“ The wing is beautifully twisted upon itself, and when it is elevated and advanced, it rolls up from the side of the bird at varying degrees of obliquity, till it makes a right angle with the body, when it presents a narrow or cutting edge to the water. The wing when fully extended, as in ordinary flight, makes, on the contrary, an angle of something like 30° with the horizon. When the wing is depressed and carried backwards,58 the angles which its under surface make with the surface of the water are gradually increased. ”

“ The flexion of the wing is most obvious when the bird is exerting itself, and may be detected in birds which skim or glide when they are rising, or when they are vigorously flapping their wings to secure the impetus necessary to the gliding movement. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Wing, when advancing with the Body, describes a Looped and Waved Track.—Although the figure-of-8 represents with considerable fidelity the twisting of the wing upon its long axis during extension and flexion, and during the down and up strokes when the volant animal is playing its wings before an object, or still better, when it is artificially fixed, it is otherwise when it is free and progressing rapidly. ”

“ The answer lies in the angle of movement of every wing motion, which is at the control of the bird, and if this is examined it will be found that it supplies the correct answer to every type of wing which nature has made. ”

“ The Wing ascends when the Body descends, and vice versâ.—As the body of the insect, bat, and bird falls forwards in a curve when the wing ascends, and is elevated in a curve when the wing descends, it follows that the trunk of the animal is urged along a waved line, as represented at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 of fig. ”

“ The Wing at all times thoroughly under control.—The wing is moveable in all parts, and can be wielded intelligently even to its extremity; a circumstance which enables the insect, bat, and bird to rise upon the air and tread it as a master—to subjugate it in fact. The wing, no doubt, abstracts an upward and onward recoil from the air, but in doing this it exercises a selective and controlling power; it seizes one current, evades another, and creates a third; it feels and paws the air as a quadruped would feel and paw a treacherous yielding surface. ”

“ In both cases the wing describes a waved track, as shown at e g, g i, which clearly proves that the wing strikes downwards and forwards during the down stroke, and upwards and forwards during the up stroke. The wing, in fact, is always advancing; its under surface attacking the air like a boy’s kite. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In all the wings which I have examined, whether in the insect, bat, or bird, the wing is recovered, flexed, or drawn towards the body by the action of elastic ligaments, these structures, by their mere contraction, causing the wing, when fully extended and presenting its maximum of surface, to resume its position of rest and plane of least resistance. ”

“ THE WING STRUCTURE.—The wing structure of every flying creature that man has examined, has one universal point of similarity, and that is the manner of its connection with the body. It is a sort of universal joint, which permits the wing to swing up and down, perform a gyratory movement while doing so, and folds to the rear when at rest. ”

“ The angles made by the tip and outer portions of the wing with the horizon are less than those made by the body or central part of the wing, and those made by the body or central part less than those made by the root and inner portions. ”

“ Wing′y, having wings: soaring on wings.—Winged bull, a common form in Assyrian sculpture, symbolic of domination.—Make, Take, wing, to depart; On, Upon, the wing, flying, in motion: departing; On the wings of the wind, with the highest speed; Under one's wing, under one's protection. ”

“ Till, mounted on the wing, their glossy plumes
Expanded shine with azure, green, and gold;
How blessings brighten as they take their flight! ”

“ The wings of the bird, if flying, are only visible as a thin grey film, bounded above and below by fine black threads, in form of a St Andrew’s cross,—the effect on the observer’s retina of the instantaneous reversal of the motion of the wing at each beat—the strokes being so rapid as to leave no more distinct image. ”

“ The wing is supplied with vertical springs, which assist in slowing and reversing it towards the end of the down and up strokes, and these, in conjunction with the elastic properties of the wing itself, contribute powerfully to its continued play. ”

“ Then you have a good opportunity of observing the peculiar motion of their wings, which seem to strike simply downwards and not also backwards, as with other birds; it is a quick jerking movement, the wing giving the impression of pausing the tenth of a second at the finish of the stroke before it is lifted again. ”

“ In birds which glide or skim, it has appeared to me that the wing is recovered much more quickly, and the down stroke delivered more slowly, than in ordinary flight—in fact, that the rapidity with which the wing acts in an upward and downward direction is, in some instances, reversed; and this is what we should naturally expect when we recollect that in gliding, the wings require to be, for the most part, in the expanded condition. ”

“ Whatever the position of the bird on the wing may be, whether swooping toward you or flying away, whether the wing be upraised, or down curving, you must aim first at getting the angles of body and wings. ”

“ A wing constructed on this principle gives a continuous elevating and propelling power. It develops figure-of-8 curves during its action in longitudinal, transverse, and oblique directions. It literally floats upon the air. It has no dead points—is vibrated with amazingly little power, and has apparently no slip. It can fly in an upward, downward, or horizontal direction by merely altering its angle of inclination to the horizon. It is applied to the air by an irregular motion—the movement being most sudden and vigorous always at the beginning of the down stroke.—Original. ”

“ The Wing during its Vibration produces a Cross Pulsation.—The oscillation of the wing on two separate axes—the one running parallel with the body of the bird, the other at right angles to it (fig. 80, a b, c d) —is well worthy of attention, as showing that the wing attacks the air, on which it operates in every direction, and at almost the same moment, viz. from within outwards, and from above downwards, during the down stroke ”

“ They nearly all, however, use some slightly gliding force at the same time; a single stroke of the wing, with forward intent, seeming enough to enable them to glide on for half a minute or more without stirring a plume. ”

“ They have fingers, and some birds' wings have claws; only you cannot see them, because they are all wrapped up in the skin and covered over with the feathers. Some day—not to-day, because you have had a long lesson already—I will show you a bird's wing with only its bones. ”

“ But in humming-birds and swifts, the lower part of the wing is the longer.
In some birds, the wing, when spread out, is much longer than all the body. The wing folds up, something like a crab’s claw, or as you would shut a knife. In birds that are walkers, and not flyers, the first wing-bone is short. The penguin, which never flies, has a little short wing, which looks like a hand, without any arm. ”

“ This will be at once understood when I state, that a long wing will produce a higher note than a shorter one driven at the same speed and having the same superficial area, from the fact that the tip and body of the long wing will move through a greater space in a given time than the tip and body of the shorter wing. ”

“ The increase and decrease in the angles made by the wing as it hastens to and fro are due partly to the resistance offered by the air, and partly to the mechanism and mode of application of the wing to the air. ”

“ In starting, the wing, except at the very beginning of the stroke, pushes against air which is already in motion in the same direction as the wing itself; but in swift flight the whole stroke is against dead air, for the air beneath the wing is continually renewed by the motion of the bird. ”

“ That part of the wing near the body, which is thick, rigid, and contains the bones, is the easel and framework; it is the shaft through which the driving force flows, and in floating it forms a part of the plane or surface, but it does not influence the air. ”

“ 'A bird's wing, comrades,' he said, 'is an organ of propulsion and not of manipulation. It should therefore be regarded as a leg. ”