NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE IQI 



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 wind- 

 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 regu- 

 larly 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 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, open- 

 ing 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 de- 

 scending 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 despatch ; 

 herons seem encumbered 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 par- 

 ticularly 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, for- 

 getting his former flight, fans the air like the wind-hover; 



