LXXXIV.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



229 



kestrel, or wiud-hover, 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 in 

 a buoyant mariner, 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 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 frolicsome 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, as a support while they run up trees. 

 Parrots, like all other hooked-clawed birds, walk awkwardly, and 

 make use of their bill as a third foot, climbing and descending 

 with ridiculous caution. All the gallince parade and walk grace- 

 fully, and run nimbly ; but fly with difficulty, with an impetuous 

 whirring, and in a straight line. Magpies and jays flutter with 

 powerless wings, and make no despatch ; herons seem encum- 

 bered with too much sail for their light bodies ; but these vast 

 hollow wings are necessary in carrying burdens, such as large 

 fishes, and the like ; pigeons, and particularly the sort called 

 smiters, have a way of clashing their wings, the one against 

 the other, over their backs with a loud snap ; another variety 

 called tumblers, turn themselves over in the air. Some birds 

 have movements peculiar to the season of love : thus ring- 

 doves, though strong and rapid at other times, yet, in the 

 spring, hang about on the wing in a toying and playful manner ; 

 thus the cock-snipe, while breeding, forgetting his former flight, 

 fans the air like the wind-hover ; and the greenfinch in par- 

 ticular exhibits such languishing and faltering gestures, as to 

 appear like a wounded and dying bird ; the kingfisher darts along 

 like an arrow; fern-owls, or goat-suckers, glance in the dusk 



