Towering of Birds

Abstract

WHEN shooting in Fifeshire last October I fired at a partridge at a distance of about forty yards; the bird flew on for a short distance, and then began to rise, not in the manner in which a towering bird generally ascends, but soaring as if it did so voluntarily. After rising to the height of 100 or 150 yards very much after the fashion in which some hawks soar, its flight was suddenly deflected downwards obliquely for a considerable distance, when it swerved, and came towards the ground in a different direction, alighting as though it were in possession of its natural powers, some hundreds of yards from the place whence it rose. On going to the spot where it had settled, it was found to be alive and crouching in the long grass. The keeper ran in and placed his hand on it, when the bird struggled and tried to get away; he killed it seeing that it was wounded. On examining the bird immediately after I found that it had been struck by two pellets of No. 6 shot, one of which had penetrated the pectoral muscles, but had not injured the cavity; the lungs and other viscera were uninjured. The other pellet had entered behind and below the left eyeball, and, passing forward, had emerged on the other side, passing above the upper mandible. The brain was uninjured, but the lower part of the left eyeball was cut and distended with blood. There was no other injury. No doubt the shock had confused the bird, and caused its strange flight, which, though upward, was very different in its character from that of ordinary towering where the lungs are perforated, and unconsciousness is the result of the circulation of non-aërated blood.