itself, yet there is somewhat in most genera at least that at first sight discriminates them, and enables a judicious observer to pronounce upon them with some certainty. Put a bird in motion,

"Et vera incessu patuit.'

And it is truly declared by its gait.

Thus kites and buzzards sail round in circles,* with wings expanded and motionless; and it is from their gliding manner that the former are still called, in the north of England, gleads, from the Saxon verb glidan, to glide. The kestrel, or windhover, has a peculiar mode of hanging in the air in one place, his wings all the while being briskly agitated.† Hen-harriers fly low over heaths or fields of corn, and beat the ground regularly like a pointer or setting dog. Owls move in a buoyant manner, as if lighter than the air; they seem to want ballast. There is a peculiarity belonging to ravens that must draw the attention even of the most incurious they spend all their leisure time in striking and cuffing each other on the wing in a kind of playful skirmish; and when they move from one place to another, frequently turn on their backs with a loud croak, and seem to be falling on the ground. When this odd gesture betides them, they are scratching themselves with one foot, and thus lose the centre of gravity. Rooks sometimes dive and tumble in a frolicsome manner; crows and daws swagger in their walk; woodpeckers fly volatu undoso, opening and closing their wings at every stroke, and so

*

This sailing round in circles, with wings expanded, and apparently quite motionless, is very curious and difficult to understand. A friend tells me that he has frequently watched the flight of the carrion crow (Vultur Aura), both in Africa and the West Indies, where, as in all tropical countries, they abound, and are invaluable. This bird soars at very great heights-at one moment it seems stationary, and at another it sweeps round in large circles without the smallest visible motion of the wings, the wind blowing steadily from one point. How are these circles completed against the wind without perceptible muscular exertion ?-ED.

"The hawk proineth," says the new glossary to Chaucer; that is, pricketh or dresseth her feathers. From hence the word preen, a term in ornithology, when birds adjust and oil their feathers.-ED.

In some parts of Scotland, that is said and believed to be the forerunner of stormy weather.-W. J.

are always rising and falling in curves. All of this genus use their tails, which incline downwards, as a support while they run up trees. Parrots, like all other hooked-clawed birds, walk awkwardly, and make use of their bill as a third foot, climbing and descending with ridiculous caution. All the galline parade and walk gracefully, and run nimbly; but fly with difficulty, with an impetuous whirring, and in a straight line. Magpies and jays flutter with powerless wings, and make no dispatch; herons * seem encumbered with too much sail for their light bodies; but these vast hollow wings are necessary in carrying burdens, such as large fishes, and the like; pigeons, and particularly the sort called smiters, have a way of clashing their wings, the one against the other, over their backs, with a loud snap; another variety, called tumblers, turn themselves over in the air. Some birds have movements peculiar to the season of love; thus ring-doves, though strong and rapid at other times, yet, in the spring, hang about on the wing in a toying and playful manner; thus the cock-snipe, while breeding, forgetting his former flight, fans the air like a windhover; and the greenfinch, in particular, exhibits such languishing and faltering gestures as to appear like a wounded and dying bird; the king-fisher darts along like an arrow; fern-owls, or goat-suckers, glance in the dusk over the tops of trees like a meteor; starlings, as it were, swim along, while missel-thrushes use a wild and desultory flight; swallows sweep over the surface of the ground and water, and distinguish themselves by rapid turns and quick evolutions; swifts dash round in circles; and the bank-martin moves with frequent vacillations like a butterfly. Most of the small birds fly by jerks, rising and falling as they advance. Most small birds hop; but wagtails and larks walk, moving their legs alternately. Sky-larks rise and fall perpendicularly as they sing; woodlarks hang poised in the air; and tit-larks rise and fall in large curves, singing in their descent. The white-throat uses odd jerks and gesticulations over the tops of hedges and bushes. All the duck kind waddle; divers and auks walk as if fettered, and stand

*When herons sail over their nests, when disturbed from them, they use their long legs as rudders in making their gyrations. They sometimes only use one leg, at others both. In a straight flight the head rests between the shoulders and the legs are extended together.-ED.

erect on their tails; these are the compedes of Linnæus. Geese and cranes, and most wild fowls, move in figured flights, often changing their position. The secondary remiges of Tringe, wild ducks, and some others, are very long, and give their wings, when in motion, an hooked appearance. Dabchicks, moor-hens, and coots,* fly erect, with their legs hanging down, and hardly make any dispatch; the reason is plain, their wings are placed too forward out of the true centre of gravity; as the legs of auks and divers are situated too backward.

LETTER LXXXV.

TO THE SAME.

SELBORNE, Sept. 9, 1778.

DEAR SIR,-From the motion of birds, the transition is natural enough to their notes and language, of which I shall say something. Not that I would pretend to understand their language like a vizier, who, by the recital of a conversation which passed between two owls, reclaimed a sultan,† before delighting in conquest and devastation; but I would be thought only to mean, that many of the winged tribes have various sounds and voices adapted to express their various passions, wants, and feelings, such as anger, fear, love, hatred, hunger, and the like. All species are not equally eloquent; some are copious and fluent, as it were, in their utterance, while others are confined to a few important sounds; no bird, like the fish ‡ kind, is quite mute, though some are rather silent. The language of birds is

* Coots have a very powerful flight when once on the wing and fly with their legs stretched out behind, acting the part of a tail, in the manner of the heron. In Scotland and the north of England, they arrive in the marshes and lakes to breed, and retire at the commencement of winter to the more southern coasts.-W. J.

See Spectator, vol. vii. No. 512.

Fish are not always mute. I have not unfrequently heard tench utter sounds, and Mr. Thompson of Hull, says that some tench which he caught made a croaking like a frog for a full half hour, whilst in the basket on his shoulder.--ED.