Woodcock 



LETTER XLII. 



To the same. 



Omnibus animalibus reliquis certus et uniusmodi, et in suo cuique 

 genere incessus est : aves solse vario meatu feruntur, et in 

 terra, et in aere." 



SELBORNE, Aug. Tth, 1778. 



EAR SIR, A good ornithologist should be 

 able to distinguish birds by their air as well as 

 by their colours and shape ; on the ground as 

 well as on the wing ; and in the bush as well 

 as in the hand. For, though it must not 

 be said that every species of birds has a 

 manner peculiar to itself, yet there is some- 

 what in most genera at least, that at first sight discriminates 

 them, and enables a judicious observer to pronounce upon 

 them with some certainty. Put a bird in motion 

 " . . . . Et vera incessu patuit . . . ." l 



1 The original edition reads verd, with a needless circumflex clearly due 

 to a printer's blunder. In this and many other cases I have not thought 



