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 acre." PLIN. 

 Hist. Nat., lib. x. cap. 38. 



SELBORNE, Atig. 7, 1778. 



DEAR SIR, A good ornithologist should be able to dis- 

 tinguish 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 bird 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 pronounce upon them with some certainty. 

 Put a bird in motion 



" Et vera incessu patuit ." 



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-hover, has a peculiar mode of hanging in the 

 air in one place, his wings all the while being briskly agi- 

 tated. 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 



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