What else... amongst competing accounts of the creatutes' manoeuvrability, in the aforementioned 'Leaf-Chronicle' article of 24 August, we do have, "skimmed above the ground".
This is Isabel Davis' summary of all shots she believes are known to have been fired:
(Start)
Withdrawing slightly into the house, they awaited they awaited the arrival of the creature. When it had moved to within 20 feet of the back door, both nen fired. The creature somersaulted backwards - "did a flip," as the men put it - scrambled hastily upright, and scurried away into the darkness at the side of the house.
Lucky and Billy Ray waited a few minutes, then went into the living room, where the women were.
Another creature appeared at the side window; the men fired at it through the screen. Again they apparently hit it, and again it "flipped" and disappeared.
(...)
The men decided to go outdoors and see whether they had actually hit the creature; as they started out the front door... those behind him in the hall saw a claw-like hand reach down and touch his hair.
...Sutton turned the .12 gauge shotgun up toward the creature on the overhang, fired, and knocked it over the roof.
"There's one up in the tree, too," Billy Ray said - it was on the limb of the maple tree to the right as you leave the house. Both Lucky and Taylor shot at that one, knocking him off the limb; he floated to the ground, they shot at him again, and he too scurried off into the weeds.
Almost at the same moment, around the north west corner of the house, right in front of Lucky, came another one - or the same one that had been knocked over the ridgepole.
(...)
Now, as the creature came round the corner of the house, Lucky brought the shotgun down to bear on it and fired at point-blank range. It sounded as if the shots had hit a metal bucket. The thing "flipped over," got up and ran off into the darkness, seemingly unhurt".
(End)
There are only five occasions when it seems a creature has been hit and the outcomes were:
- "did a flip," scrambled upright and scurried away
- "flipped" and disappeared
- was knocked over the roof
- floated to the ground, was shot again and scurried off into the weeds
- "flipped over," got up and ran off.
Solely based on this summary - primarily because it's the main one to go on - and *tentatively* surmising... *if* this is correct...
On only three occasions was a creature actually seen to depart after apparently surviving a direct hit and it either:
- scurried away
- scurried off
- ran off
What if this has, quite inadvertently, been a deceptive portrayal since the very beginning and doesn't actually mean 'scurried, or 'ran' on legs, as an animal would.
Suppose, for a moment, it was a creature which perhaps started off running and then quickly took flight, low above ground, as in a 'skimming' motion, same as a heron (which is apparently ecomonical and rarely requires raising its wings above parallel).
In her book, 'Alien Legacy Revisited', Geraldine Sutton Stith recalls how her late father, 'Lucky' Sutton explained to her in later years:
"He said they really didn't walk, just skimmed on top of ground, but moved their legs."
With the up/down motion of those large wings, possibly perceived to be long arms propelling the creature forward, whilst the trailing 'broomstick' legs puzzled, as they seemed to serve no assistance?
We might also have a later sighting of one creature reportedly shot on the roof.
From the 22 August 'Evansville Press' article:
"Mrs Sutton said that at one point Billy Taylor went out the front door and something grabbed him by the hair. Baker pulled him back in the house.
Mrs Sutton was at the back door when this happened. She said the figure seemed to fly or jump right over the house, land in the back yard and then vanish".
Although no mention of a shot being fired, she reportedly says it might have flown "over the house...".
Anyway, it's not remotely the perspective I personally started with, having been deceived by indications of creatures who could climb up trees, leap onto the rooftop, float down from them when shot and then skedaddle on all four limbs.
The question of how our creatures, should they be herons, were believed to be slowly walking towards the farmhouse, let alone with arms raised... shall have to come back to - maybe enough more mere musings for now...!