FLIGHT OF BIEDS. 243 



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.f 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. Books some- 

 times dive and tumble in a frolicsome manner ; J 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. 



f " 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. 



R'2 



