OF SELBORNE. 
253 
be explained as the most stupendous phenomenon in 
nature. 
" Say, what impels, amidst surrounding snow 
Congeal'd, the crocus' flamy bud to glow ? - 
Say, what retards, amidst the summer's blaze, 
Th' autumnal bulb, till pale, doclining 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. 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
" Omnibus animalibus reliquis certus et uniusmodi et in suo cuique 
genere incessus est : aves solas vario meatu feruntur et in terra et in 
acre." — Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. x. cap. 38. 
Selborne, Aug. 7, 1778. 
GOOD ornithologist should be able to dis- 
tinguish 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. Put 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 kestril, 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 the ground regularly like a pointer or setting- 
