The text describes how nature has equipped birds with long necks and legs for balance during flight. It explains how birds spread their wings for balance and adjust them depending on their movement. Birds can manage their center of gravity, and an anecdote is shared about birds in Kandia using stones to stay grounded during strong winds.
Various States of Action.
Since nature has not been deficient in designing them so skillfully, it has crafted birds in such a way that they can adapt their bodies, legs, and tails, allowing them to perform their functions unhindered. In this way, nature has given birds long necks and long legs; as can be seen in storks, which, to remain balanced while flying, have been taught by nature to extend their necks forward and their feet backward, aligning their bodies with the center of gravity and guiding them, making their flight easier to execute. Birds have another way of maintaining their balance: when they want to lift the front of their bodies, they spread their wings to support the front, but when directing their flight downward, they pull their wings backward. This way, they can easily adjust the center of gravity in their bodies while flying. In the same way, birds have learned to pull their wings away from the parts that are most important for balance, maintaining themselves in a balanced state. Thus goes the remarkable discourse of the mentioned writer. It is revealed that even knowledge of counterbalance is so common to all animals that birds in Kandia, when endangered by strong winds, were found to take small stones in their beaks.
Translation Notes:
The term "Konst" is understood here as "skill" or "artistry." "Kandia" may refer to a historical or mythical place.