230 
THE NATURAL HISTORY 
[LETT. 
over the tops of trees like a meteor ; starlings as it were swim 
along, while missel-thriislies "use a wild and desultory flight ; 
swallows sweep over the surface of the ground and water, and 
distinguish themselves by raj^id turns and quick evolutions ; 
swifts dash round in circles ; and the bank-martin moves with 
frequent vacillations like a butterfly. Most of the small birds 
fly by jerks, rising and falling as they advance ; many of them 
hop ; but wagtails and larks walk, moving their legs alternately. 
Skylarks rise and fall perpendicularly as they sing ; woodlarks 
hang poised in the air; and titlarks rise and fall in large 
curves, singing in their descent. The white-throat uses odd 
jerks and gesticulations over the tops of hedges and bushes. 
All the duck-kind waddle ; divers, and auks, walk as if fettered, 
and stand erect on their tail : these are the comioedes of Linnseus. 
Gee'^o. and cranes, and most wild-fowl, move in flgured flights, 
often changing their position. The secondary remiges of Tringm, 
wild-ducks, and some others, are very long, and give their 
wings, when in motion, a hooked appearance. Dab-chicks, moor- 
hens, and coots, fly erect, with their legs hanging down, and 
hardly make any despatch; the reason is plain, their wings 
are placed too forward out of the true centre of gravity for 
rapid progression ; as tiie legs of auks and divers are situated 
too backward. 
Selborne, Aug. 7, 1778. 
LETTEE LXXXV. 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
Ekom the motion of birds, the transition is natural enough to 
their notes and language, of which I shall say something, l^ot 
that I would pretend to understand their language, like the 
vizier of the Spectator, who, by the recital of a conversation 
which passed between two owls, reclaimed a sultan, before 
