Re: Steering

["Patrick Norton" <ptnorton@email.msn.com>]

My friend JimC, who knows much more about this than do I, said:

>For the most part, modern birds (like airplanes), don't generally use their
tails for "steering".<

I'd be interested in Jim's (and others) thoughts about Adrian Thomas'
findings (Bioscience, 4/97) that: "Bird tails confer stability and control
and provide a means of augmenting the lift of the wings to reduce the cost
of low-speed flight and increase turning performance".  Lots of other
interesting stuff in Thomas' article as well.

Pat