O^- SELBORNE. 



53 



patch ; the reason is plain, their wings are 

 placed too forward out of the true centre 

 of gravity ; as the legs of auks and divers 

 are situated too backward 



LETTER XLIIL 



TO THE SAME. 



DEAR SIR; Selboene, Sept. 9, 1778. 



From the motion of birds, the transition 

 is natural enough to their notes and lan- 

 guage, of which I shall say something. 

 Not that I would pretend to understand 

 their language like the vizier ; who, by the 

 recital of a conversation which passed be- 

 tween two owls, reclaimed a sultan,* before 

 delighting in conquest and devastation; 

 but I would be thought only to mean that 

 many of the winged tribes have various 

 sounds and voices adapted to express their 

 various passions, wants, and feelings ; such 



* See Spectator, Vol. vii. No. 512. 



