182 



FLIGHT OF BIRDS. 



makes it the chiff-chaff ; but that cannot be, if it makes, as it is said to 

 do, its nest under beams of old buildings. Certainly it is not the Fig- 

 Eater of the continent. 



FINCH (Fringilla, Illiger.) — A genus of birds. 



FISHING EAGLE. 1 



FISH HAWK. J — * Names for the Osprey.* 



FISSIROSTRES (Cuvier.) — *A group of perchers, (Insessores, 

 Vigors,) having cleft or notched bills.* 



FLIGHT OF BIRDS.— *The flight of birds differs exceedingly: 

 some fly by jerks, closing their wings every three or four strokes, which 

 gives them an undulated motion, very conspicuous in the woodpeckers 

 and wagtails, and in most small birds ; others fly smooth and even ; and 

 some appear to buoy themselves in the air without perceptible motion 

 of the wings, such as the kite and kestril hawk. Most birds fly with 

 their legs contracted and neck extended ; but there are some whose 

 length and weight of neck makes it necessary to contract it in flight, in 

 order to bring the centre of gravity on the wings ; to aid which the 

 legs are also extended behind, as in the heron and bittern ; others fly 

 with extended neck, but are obliged to throw out their legs behind, as 

 in the duck, goose, and other water-fowl. 



The rapidity with which a falcon flies in pursuit of its quarry is 

 inconceivably great. " The flight of a strong falcon," says Doctor Shaw, 

 " is wonderfully swift. It is recorded, that a falcon belonging to a 

 Duke of Cleve, flew out of Westphalia into Prussia in one day ; and 

 in the county of Norfolk, a hawk has made a flight at a woodcock near 

 thirty miles in an hour." 



But what are these compared to the actual velocity and continuance 

 of the flight of a falcon, that is recorded to have belonged to Henry 

 IV., King of France, which escaped from Fontainbleau, and in twenty- 

 four hours after was found in Malta, a space computed to be not less 

 than 1350 miles? a velocity equal to fifty-seven miles an hour, sup- 

 posing the hawk to have been on wing the whole time. But as 

 such birds never fly by night, and allowing the day to be at the longest, 

 or to be eighteen hours light, this would make seventy-five miles an 

 hour. It is probable, however, that he neither had so many hours of 

 light in the twenty-four to perform the journey, nor that he was 

 retaken the moment of his arrival, so that we may fairly conclude much 

 less time was occupied in performing that distant flight. 



Those who have attended to the flight of birds, know that a sparrow 

 will fly at the rate of more than thirty miles in an hour. It is indeed 

 extremely difficult to ascertain the actual distance a falcon may fly in 



