238 rilACTICAL ORNITHOLOGY. 



meantime you observe the flocks of Sparrows that harbour in 

 the hedges, now keeping up an incessant chatter, and presently 

 all mute. They have a merry time of it : the fields aiford 

 them an abundant store of wheat and oat seeds. See how 

 they drop one by one, now in groups, among the stubble. Let 

 us go near. 



There they rise, and fly back to the hedge. But is it not a 

 foolish thing to chase sparrows ? 



The folly of chasing sparrows depends upon the object you 

 have in view. If the divine wisdom and power have been exer- 

 cised in creating them, and the good providence of God display- 

 ed in caring for them, it cannot be foolish in us to study their 

 habits, provided we look upon them with relation to the au- 

 thor of their being. However, let us go on : they have flown, 

 and you see that they move about in flocks, that is, are gre- 

 garious at this season, as many species of small birds are 

 in winter, the Lark, for example. Linnets, and Buntings. 

 Before us are some birds in the hedge, Chafnnches, which, as 

 you observe, fly in a manner somew^hat different from that of 

 the Sparrows. Then, the Rooks, which you see high in the 

 air, moving steadily and sedately along, with regularly-timed 

 beats of their expanded wings, and now, as if seized with some 

 sudden panic, or impelled by some frolicsome propensity, dash- 

 ing down headlong, crossing each other, whirling and undulat- 

 ing : how diflerent is their flight from that of those Wood 

 Pigeons, which advance w^ith rapidity, moving their wings with 

 quick strokes, and making the air whistle as they glide along ; 

 while the two w4iite Gulls, with their outstretched, long, arched 

 wdngs, float buoyantly in the clear sky, bending gently to either 

 side, as they advance from the sea. 



There certainly is a striking difference. I never thought of 

 comparing the flights of birds. 



In time you will be able to distinguish by their modes of 

 flying, small birds so distant that you cannot perceive even the 

 general tints of their plumage. Birds might be classed by their 

 flight, and an arrangement having that faculty for its basis, 

 would, I believe, prove as useful as one founded on the form of 

 the feet, or of any other organ. But there goes a Wren. See 



