228 History of Nature. [BooK X. 



Partridges, Woodcocks (Perdices, Rusticulae); others, again, 

 throw out their Feet before them, as Storks and Cranes 

 (Ciconiae, Grues); some spread their Wings broad, and hang 

 on them, shaking them but now and then ; others more 

 rapidly ; but the utmost Feathers only. Some Birds stretch 

 out their whole Wings, and others in their Flight keep them 

 in, for the most part close. Some of them give one or two 

 Claps with their Wings, and are borne away with the Air; 

 or they press the Air as if enclosed within their Wings, 

 and shoot themselves up aloft, straight forward, or fall flat 

 down. Ye would think some were hurled with Violence, 

 and others to fall down plump from on high, or to leap. 

 Ducks, and such only as are of that kind, lift themselves 

 up aloft presently from the Ground, and instantly mount 

 into the Sky, even out of the very Water : which is the 

 Cause, that if they fall into those Pits in which we take wild 

 Beasts, they alone will make their Escape. The Vulture, 

 and for the most part all heavy Birds, cannot take flight, 

 unless they fetch a Run, or else rise from some high Heap. 

 And such are directed in the Air by their Tails. Some look 

 about, others bend their Necks ; some feed on the Prey 

 which they have snatched away in their Talons. Most Birds 

 utter their Voice as they fly ; yet some, on the contrary, in 

 their Flight are always silent. Some fly half upright ; others 

 tending downward : some fly obliquely ; to the Sides, to the 

 Bills : and some are bent backward, so that if many Sorts 

 could be seen together, they would appear to pass along as 

 if they were of a very different Nature. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

 OftheApu*. 1 



THE Birds which they call Apodes (because they are 

 without the use of the Feet), and others, Cypseli, are very 

 strong on the Wing. They are a kind of Swallows. They 



J Cypselus apus, Cuv. The Swift. Strong on the wing: plurimum 

 volant; probably referring to a supposition repeated in most books on 

 natural history, that the Swift spends more time on the wing than other 



