CHAPTER XX. 



THE FLIGHT OF WILD-FOWL. 



" And now, their route design' d, their leaders chose, 

 Theii' tribes adjusted, clean'd their vigorous wings, 

 And many a circle, many a short essay, 

 Wlieel'd round and round, in congregation fuU 

 The figur'd flight ascends, and riding high 

 The aerial billows, mixes with the clouds." 



Thomson. 



No less curious in point of interest and instruction to the fowler, are 

 the volitations of wild-fowl. He should make himself as familiarly 

 acquainted with these as with their langaia^e, that he may be able to 

 distinguish their species, though at a long* distance, soaring high in 

 the air ; each having a manner and method of flight peculiar to itself. 

 "Expandunt alas pendentesque raro intervallo quatiunt, alioe cre- 

 brius, sed et primas dumtaxat pinnas."* 



It is not within our province to discuss the " auguries of birds," 

 beyond a few remarks upon the flight of wild-fowl ; though modern 

 sailors down to the present day, regard those auguries with the same 

 respect as did the ancient mariners of Greece upwards of two thousand 

 years ago ; in reference to which, Aristophanes remarks — 



" Upotpel Tig ad rwv opviOwv iiavTEVOfi'svi^irtpi r5 ttXS, 

 Nuj^i /x?) TrXtT, ^sijuwv t^af vvvi ttXeI, KspSo<; STTtgai." 



Thouo'h some of the accounts which have reached us as to the 

 auguries of birds are undoubtedly fabulous, there are many very 

 truthful signs to be noted from their flight and habits ;t espe- 

 cially those of sea-fowl, some of which will be referred to in other 

 parts of these pages ; more particularly under the head, " Wild-fowl 

 Shooting under Sail." 



* Phny, lib. x., cap. xxxviii., s. 111. 



+ " The sea-gulls are considered as ominous. When they appear in the fields, a 

 storm from the south-east generally follows ; and when the storm begins to abate, 

 they fly back to the shore," — Sir John Binclai'r's Statistical Account of Scotland. 



