*The Natural History of Se I borne 323 



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- 

 over, 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 

 regularly 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 frolicksome manner ; 

 crows and daws swagger in their walk ; woodpeckers 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 downward, as a support while 

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

 walk awkwardly, and make use of their bill as a third foot, 

 climbing and descending with ridiculous caution. All the 

 gallina. 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 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 particularly the sort called smiters, have a 

 way of clashing their wings the one against the other over 



it necessary slavishly to reproduce the particular vagaries of Mr. Benjamin 

 White's compositors. Either Gilbert White did not correct his own proofs, 

 or, if he corrected them, allowed many foolish errors of the printer to pass 

 unnoticed. ED. 



