262 FLIGHT OF BIRDS. 



LETTER LXXXIV. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Aug. 7, 1778. 



" Omnibus animalibus reliquis certus et uniusmodi, et in suo 

 cuique genere incessus est ; aves solse vario meatu feruntur, et 

 in terra, et in aere." PLIN. Hist. Nat. lib. x. cap. 38. 



All other animals have a certain, definite, and peculiar gait ; 

 birds alone move in a varied manner both on the ground and in 

 the air. 



DEAR SIR, 



A GOOD ornithologist should be able to distin- 

 guish 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, 



" 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 



