THE FEATHERS MAKE THE BIRD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 25 August 1891, Page 4

THE FEATHERS MAKE THE BIRD.

The biggest of all really powerful flying birds are, I believe, the wandering albatross and the South American condor; for the roc I reject outright as worthy only of the most restricted Arabian and noctural ornithology. Seen on the wing, or even with the wings expanded merely, both these great existing birds have a most majestic and colossal . . appearance. But feathers in such cases are , very deceptive; they make fine birds out of very small bodies. For example, our well-known little English swift, which looks so imposing in flight as jt passes over-head with pinions poised, is ' baidly as big when plucked as a man's top thumb joint, and weighs only half an ■ ounce. .:•■.: ..';■' So, too, the albatross, though its expanse of wing is said to exceed that of any other known bird, amounting sbmetfmes'to nearly ' ten feet from tip to tip. does not average in ' weight more than fifteen pounds, which isv ; just exactly the poulterer's statement for; my last family Christmas turkey. As for the condor, while he spans from wing to wing some eight feet, his length from beak to tail is only three and a half, and I doubt if he would pluck into anything corresponding to his magnificent outer show —though I am bound to admit that I have never personally tried the unpleasant experiment.— The Gomhill Magazine. ~~