CHAPTER II 



The locomotion of birds — Hopping and walking — ^Reaaons for 

 adoptioti of these gaits — Why Waterfowl waddle-^Swimming 

 and diving— Perching and climbing — Different methods of 

 performing these actions — Specialized birds which have taken 

 to different habits, as Ground-Parrots and Land-Geese — 

 Flight and its varieties — Characteristic methods according to 

 group and size — Sailing and soaring flight — Speed. 



So old an author as Pliny gives some remarks on the 

 locomotion of birds, many of them quite accurate, 

 as when he points out that Crows walk and Spar- 

 rows and Blackbirds hop. Such differences in 

 action are well known to most people, but it is just 

 as well to have them summarized. 



The usual gait of birds is a walk, that is to say, 

 when they are considered by groups ; it is true the 

 majority of small birds one sees are hoppers, but 

 that is because the common small birds of most 

 parts of the world are passerines, and in this group 

 hopping is the usual gait, walking being customary 

 only in some of the larger species, such as Crows, 

 and in groups which, like Crows, habitually seek 

 food or even live on the ground, such as Wagtails, 



»3 



