226 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



Say, what retards, amidst the summer's blaze, 

 Th' autumnal bulb, till pale, declining days ? 

 The God of Seasons ; whose pervading power 

 Controls the sun, or sheds the fleecy shower : 

 He bids each flower His quickening word obey, 

 Or to each lingering bloom enjoins delay." 



LETTER XLII. 



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

 gen ere incessus est : aves solse vario meatu feruntur, et in terra, 

 et in aere." 



Selborne, Aug. 7th, 1778. 



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 

 pronounce upon them with some certainty. But 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 agitated. 

 Hen-harriers fly low over heaths or fields of corn, and beat 



