230 



THE NATURAL HISTORY 



[LETT. 



over the tops of trees like a meteor; starlings as it were swim 

 along, while missel-thrushes use a wild and desultory flight ; 

 swallows sweep over the surface of the ground and water, and 

 distinguish themselves by rapid turns and quick evolutions ; 

 swifts dash round in circles ; and the bank-martin moves with 

 frequent vacillations like a butterfly. Most of the small birds 

 fly by jerks, rising and falling as they advance ; many of them 

 hop ; but wagtails and larks walk, moving their legs alternately. 

 Skylarks rise and fall perpendicularly as they sing ; woodlarks 

 hang poised in the. air; and titlarks rise and fall in large 

 curves, singing in their descent. The white-throat uses odd 

 jerks and gesticulations over the tops of hedges and bushes. 

 All the duck-kind waddle ; divers, and auks, walk as if fettered, 

 and stand erect on their tail : these are the compedes of Linnaeus. 

 Geese and cranes, and most wild-fowl, move in figured flights, 

 often changing their position. The secondary remiges of Tringa; 

 wild-ducks, and some others, are very long, and give their 

 wings, when in motion, a hooked appearance. Dab-chicks, moor- 

 hens, and coots, fly erect, with their legs hanging down, and 

 hardly make any despatch ; the reason is plain, their wings 

 are placed too forward out of the true centre of gravity for 

 rapid progression ; as the legs of auks and divers are situated 

 too backward. 



SELBORNE, Aug. 7, 1778. 



LETTEE LXXXV. 

 TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTOX. 



FROM the motion of birds, the transition is natural enough to 

 their notes and language, of which I shall say something. Not 

 that I would pretend to understand their language, like the 

 vizier of the Spectator, who, by the recital of a conversation 

 which passed between two owls, reclaimed a sultan, before 



