Re: The origin of flight: from the water up

[NJPharris@aol.com]

In a message dated Mon, 25 Mar 2002  5:44:55 AM Eastern Standard Time, "David 
Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at> writes:

> > If flapping only destabilizes a glider, then why do
> > birds flap, glide for a distance, then flap again?
> > Wouldn't that cause problems for them? And yet many
> > birds of prey do this. [...] Call it the "undulatory
> > origin of powered flight" if you will.
> 
> And in
> the non-flapping phases songbirds at least don't glide, they simply tuck in
> their wings and fall.

Try watching a starling sometime.

--Nick P.