WHITE 



and the greenfinch, in particular, 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 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 but- 

 terfly. 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 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 whitethroat uses odd jerks and gesticula- 

 tions over the tops of hedges and bushes. All the duck kind 

 waddle ; divers and auks walk as if fettered, and stand erect 

 on their tails ; these are the compedes of Linnaeus. Geese and 

 cranes, and most wild fowls, move in figured flights, often 

 changing their position. The secondary remiges of Tringae, 

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

 wings, when in motion, a hooked appearance. Dabchicks, 

 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, 

 as the legs of auks and divers are situated too backward. 



NOTE 



1 The flight of the heron seems particularly slow, yet the beats of its 

 wings average one hundred and twenty in a minute, and it makes very rapid 

 progress. G. C. D. 



LETTER XLIII 



SELBORNE, Sept. qth, 1778. 



DEAR SIR, 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 who, by the recital of a conver- 



