228 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
DD BiweReR yi ae. 
TO THE SAME. 
“* Omnibus animalibus reliquis certus et uniusmodi, et in suo cuique genere incessus est + 
aves sole vario meatu feruntur, et in terra, et in dere.’’ 
SELBORNE, Ang. 7th, 1778. 
DEAR SIR,—A good ornithologist should be able to distinguish 
birds by their air as well as by their colours and shape; on the 
ground as well as on the wing ; and in the bush as well as in the 
hand. For, though it must not be said that every species of birds 
has a manner peculiar to 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 
“e 23 
— Et vera incessu patuit 
Thus kites and buzzards sail round in circles with wings ex- 
panded 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 windover, 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 movein 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 
oud croak, and seem to be falling to 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 frolicksome manner ; crows and daws swagger in 
their walk ; woodpeckers fly volatu undoso; opening and closing 
their wings at every stroke, and so are always rising or falling in 
curves. All of this genus use their tails, which incline downward, 
