Air-Brakes
I have often been fascinated to see how birds make use of their wings and tails to brake and turn in the air. Many water-birds slow themselves before alighting by keeping their wings spread. Small birds that nest in walls or in holes in trees often maintain themselves in the air by bringing their tails forward and beating their wings while their bodies move from the horizontal to the vertical plane. It had never struck me that the pheasant was capable of anything in the way of aerobatics until I watched one fly from a clump of trees to an adjoining wood. The wind was behind the bird, and it travelled at great speed. All at once it decided to land, and turned into the wind, cocked its tail and dropped in a spiral that ended in a gorse-clump. The drop was at least, thirty feet, and the bird described more than three complete circles before reaching the ground.
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