Through the high wood echoing shrill: Basks at the fire his hairy strength ; Sometime walking, not unseen, And cropful out of doors he slings

In Nopsca's theory, flight evolved as a means of running more quickly over the ground: Birds originated from bipedal, long-tailed cursorial reptiles which during running oared along in the air by flapping their free anterior extremities.

What is a simple master-mariner at best alongsides a parson with a persuasive voice?.

I […] turned the handle softly, pushed – also softly – and, carrying on into the interior, found myself confronted by a girl in housemaid's costume who put a hand to her throat like somebody in a play and leaped several inches in the direction of the ceiling. “Coo!” she said, having returned to terra firma and taken aboard a spot of breath. “You gave me a start, sir!”