140 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



rising and falling as they advance. Most small birds hop ; 

 but wagtails and larks walk, moving their legs alternately. 

 Skylarks rise and fall perpendicularly as they sing ; wood- 

 larks hang poised in the air ; and titlarks rise and fall in 

 large curves, singing in their descent. The white-throat 

 uses odd jerks and gesticulations over the tops of hedges 

 and bushes. All the diick-kind waddle ; divers and auks 

 walk as if fettered, and stand erect on their tails : these are 

 the compedes of Linnceus. Geese and cranes, and most wild 

 fowls, move in figured flights, often changing their position. 

 The secondary remiges of Tringcz, wild-ducks, and some 

 others, are very long, and give their wings, when in motion, 

 an hooked appearance. 1 Dabchicks, moor-hens, and coots, fly 

 erect, with their legs hanging down, and hardly make any 

 dispatch ; the reason is plain, their wings are placed too 

 forward out of the true center of gravity ; as the legs of 

 auks and divers are situated too backward. 



1 To be correct, the author should have written ' inner secondaries,' as it is 

 only these which are elongated. The inner secondaries are often called ' tertials ' 

 or ' tertiaries,' and are found in a similar elongated form in certain Passeres, 

 such as Larks, Pipits, and Wagtails. [R. B. S.] 



