212 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



curves.* All of this genus use their tails, which incline down- 

 ward, as a support while they run up trees. 

 Parrots, like all other hooked-clawed birds, 

 walk awkwardly, and make use of their bill 

 as a third foot, climbing and descending 

 with ridiculous caution. All the gallinae 

 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 despatch ; herons seem encumbered 

 with too much sail for their light bodies; spotted Pie woodpecker. 

 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 their backs with a loud snap ; another va- 

 riety called tumblers turn themselves over in the air. Some birds 

 have movements peculiar to the season of love : thus ring-doves, 

 though strong and rapid at other times, yet in the spring hang 

 about on the wing in a toying and playful manner ; thus the 

 cock-snipe, while breeding, forgetting his former flight, fans the 

 air like the wind-hover ; and the green-finch in particular exhibits 

 such languishing .and faultering gestures as to appear like a 

 wounded and dying bird ; the king-fisher 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 fre- 

 quent vacillations like a butterfly. 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. f Skylarks rise and fall perpendicularly as they sing ; 



* Notwithstanding this general character of flight, which is also applicable to the little tree- 

 creeper, there is sufficient individual diversity between the style of flying of our different species 

 of woodpecker ; the smallest is considerably the most swift, having proportionably longer wings 

 than the others, while the angle at which it ordinarily extends the wing reminds one, as it 

 passes overhead, forcibly of the chimney-swallow. ED. 



f There i considereble difference between the ambulatory progression of the tree-pipit (or tit- 



