2 Motions of Hawks. 



Presently a small swift shadow passes across it 

 is that of a hawk flying low over the hill. He skirts 

 it for some distance, and then shoots out into the 

 air, comes back half-way, and hangs over the fallow 

 below, where there is a small rick. His wings vi- 

 brate, striking the air downwards, and only slightly 

 backwards, the tail depressed counteracting the in- 

 clination to glide forwards for a while. In a few 

 moments he slips, as it were, from his balance, but 

 brings himself up again in a few yards, turning a 

 curve so as to still hover above the rick. If he 

 espies a tempting morsel he drops like a stone, and 

 alights on a spot almost exactly below him a 

 power which few birds seem to possess. Most of 

 them approach the ground gradually, the plane of 

 their flight sloping slowly to the earth, and the angle 

 decreasing every moment till it becomes parallel, 

 when they have only to drop their legs, shut their 

 wings, and, as it were, stand upright in the air to 

 find themselves safe on the sward. By that time 

 their original impetus has diminished, and they feel 

 no shock from the cessation of motion. The hawk, 

 on the contrary, seems to descend nearly in a per- 

 pendicular line. 



The lark does the same, and often from a still 

 greater height, descending so swiftly that by compar- 

 ison with other birds it looks as if she must be dashed 

 to pieces ; but when within a few yards of the ground, 

 the wings are outstretched, and she glides along some 

 distance before alighting. This latter motion makes 

 it difficult to tell where a lark actually does alight. 

 So, too, with snipe : they appear to drop in a corner 

 of the brook, and you feel positive that a certain 



