俯冲猎鹰

她两天来都在想着那只游隼。它收拢翅膀的样子，从栖息到消失的瞬间。她想要了解它的形态，不仅仅是在脑海中，而是在身体里。所以在第三天早晨，游客还没开始涌入时，Polly去寻找那只鸟。

She thought about the peregrine for two days. The way it had folded its wings. The instant from perch to gone. She wanted to know the shape of it, not in her head but in her body. So on the third morning, before the visitor lots had started to fill, Polly went looking for the bird.

她在酋长岩附近找到了一个游隼，栖息在大约四百米高的岩架上。那是一只雄性，比她和Tomas一起看到的雌性要小，背部是板岩灰色，胸部有白色条纹。它正在吃东西。她没有仔细看那是什么。

She found a peregrine near El Capitan, on a ledge perhaps four hundred metres up. It was a male, smaller than the female she had seen with Tomas, slate-grey on the back, barred white on the chest. It was eating something. She did not look closely at the something.

她栖息在离它大约五十米远的红杉树枝上，等待着。

She perched on a manzanita branch about fifty metres away and waited.

游隼吃完了它的食物，在岩石上擦了擦喙，然后看向她。它歪了歪头，然后从岩架上走了下来。

The peregrine finished its meal, wiped its beak on the rock, and looked at her. It tilted its head. Then it stepped off the ledge.

它没有拍打翅膀，而是将翅膀紧贴身体，像叶子被拉进茎里一样，直直地坠下。Polly看着它加速。那只鸟在大约两秒钟内就超过了悬崖的一半。然后它展开翅膀，转弯，爬升，消失在岩石的一个突起后面。

It did not flap. It folded its wings against its body, like a leaf pulled into a stem, and dropped. Polly watched it accelerate. The bird went past the half-mark of the cliff face in maybe two seconds. Then it pulled its wings out, banked, climbed away, and was gone behind a buttress of rock.

游隼在俯冲时可以达到每小时380公里的速度。这是地球上任何动物中最快的运动。为了在这样快的速度下俯冲而不被空气击昏，游隼有第三层眼睑，可以闭合以挡住风，还有鼻孔中的小锥体，像喷气发动机前的锥体一样，减缓进入肺部的空气流量。它们天生就是为了俯冲。

A peregrine falcon in a dive can reach 380 kilometres an hour. That is the fastest movement of any animal on Earth. To dive at that speed and not be knocked unconscious by the air, peregrines have a third eyelid that closes over the eye to keep the wind out, and small cones in their nostrils that act like the cone in front of a jet engine, slowing the air entering their lungs. They are built for the drop.

Polly并不是为了俯冲而生的。她是为了短暂的爆发和精准的着陆而生的。她知道这一点。但好奇心比理智更强烈。

Polly was not built for the drop. She was built for short bursts and accurate landings. She knew this. But the curiosity was bigger than the knowing.

她飞上悬崖，来到游隼使用的岩架上。她站在上面。下面是几乎垂直的深渊，让人眩晕。山谷的地面离她很远。空气在她身边升起，带着凉意。

She flew up the cliff to the ledge the peregrine had used. She stood on it. The drop opened below her, almost vertical, dizzying. The valley floor was a long way down. Air rose past her in cool waves.

她将蓝绿色的翅膀紧贴绿色的身体。她向前倾斜。她坠落了。

She folded her blue-teal wings against her green body. She tilted forward. She fell.

这不是游隼的俯冲。这是只急于求成的鹦鹉。她摇晃着。风钻进了一只翅膀，试图把她翻倒。她纠正了方向，失去了线路，又重新调整。二十米后，她展开翅膀，以一个松散而尴尬的弧线拉出了俯冲。

It was not a peregrine dive. It was a parrot in too much hurry. She wobbled. The wind got under one wing and tried to tip her. She corrected, lost the line, corrected again. Twenty metres in, she opened her wings and pulled out of it in a loose, embarrassed arc.

她降落在岩架下方一百米处的一根松树枝上。她喘了一分钟的气。然后她又试了一次，这次从更低的地方开始。接着她又试了第三次，位置更低。

She landed on a pine branch a hundred metres below the ledge. She breathed for a minute. Then she did it again, smaller this time, from a lower perch. Then she did it a third time, lower still.

到太阳升到头顶时，她已经做了八次短暂的俯冲和一次像样的尝试。没有一次是游隼的俯冲。但每一次都比上一次稍微好一点。

By the time the sun was overhead, she had made eight short dives and one decent one. None of them were a peregrine dive. All of them were a little better than the last.

从悬崖更高的地方，她似乎听到了游隼的叫声。她告诉自己，那大概不是在嘲笑她。那大概只是风声。

From somewhere higher on the cliff, she thought she heard the peregrine call. She told herself it was probably not laughing at her. It was probably just the wind.