The artists painted the subject side by side in the same studio, and both give the form of the trussed bird, its limp wings spread wide, the gravity of a Crucifixion.

Philip Jordan, foster child of the river and its last presiding Ariel, lifted the bird in his arms and unfurled its huge limp wings, letting their tips fall into the water.

Her black hair hung against her cheeks like limp wings but did not obscure her face; she looked shocked and stricken and tired.

One more frightened squawk and the thing was dead, limp wings settling on the surface and rapidly submerging.

He ascended like a black bat in the darkness, his cloak hanging loosely like the spread of limp wings.

It remained motionless when he extended one of the limp wings.

The Celtic Tiger has shown itself to be a lame duck that the rest of Europe has to lend a helping hand and take by its limp wings.