Woodcock 



LETTER XLII. 



I'D the same. 



" Omnibus animalibus reliquis certus et uniusmodi, et in suo cuique genere 

 incessus est : aves solas vario meatu feruntur, et in terra, et in acre." 



SELBORNE, Aug. 7/4 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 somewhat in most genera at least, that at first 

 sight discriminates them, and enables a judicious observer to pro- 

 nounce upon them with some certainty. Put a bird in motion 



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



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

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



