OF SELBORNE. 221 



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 center of gravity. 

 Rooks sometimes dive and tumble in a frolicksome manner ; 

 croivs and daws swagger in their walk ; wood-peckers 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 downwnrd, as a support while 

 they run up trees. Parrots, like all other hooked-clawed 

 birds, walk aukwardly, and make use of their bill as a third 

 foot, climbing and ascending with ridiculous caution. All the 

 gallince parade and walk gracefully, 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 dispatch ; herons seem incumbered 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 green-finch in particular exhibits such 

 languishing and faultering gestures as to appear like a 

 wounded and dying bird ; the king-fisher darts along like an 

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

 guish themselves by rapid turns and quick evolutions ; sioifts 

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

 quent vacillations like a butterfly. Most of the small birds 

 fly by jerks, rising and falling as they advance. Most small 

 birds hop ; but wagtails and larks walk, moving their legs 



