NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
165 
even of the most incurious — they spend all their leisure time in striking 
and cuffing each other on the wing in a kind of playful skirmish ; and, 
when they move from one place to another, frequently turn on their 
backs with a loud croak, and seem to be falling to the ground. When 
this odd gesture betides them, they are scratching themselves with one 
foot, and thus lose the center of gravity. Rooks sometimes dive and 
tumble in a frolicksome manner; crows and daws swagger in their 
walk ; wood-peckers fly volatu undoso, opening and closing their wings 
at every stroke, and so are always rising or falling in curves. All of 
this genus use their tails, which incline downward, as a support while 
they run up trees. Parrots, like all other hooked-clawed birds, walk 
awkwardly, and make use of their bill as a third foot, climbing and 
descending with ridiculous caution. All the gallince parade and walk 
gracefully, and run nimbly ; but fly with difficulty, with an impetuous 
whirring, and in a straight line. Magpies and jays flutter with 
powerless wings, and make no dispatch ; herons seem incumbered with 
too much sail for their light bodies, but these vast hollow wings are 
necessary in carrying burdens, such as large fishes and the like ; pigeons, 
and particularly the sort called smiters, have a way of clashing their 
wings the one against the other over their backs with a loud snap ; 
another variety, called tumblers, turn themselves over in the air. 
Some birds have movements peculiar to the season of love : thus ring- 
doves, though strong and rapid at other times, yet in the spring hang 
about on the wing in a toying and playful manner ; thus the cock-snipe, 
while breeding, forgetting his former flight, fans the air like the wind- 
hover ; and the green-finch in particular, exhibits such languishing and 
faultering gestures as to appear like a wounded and dying bird ; the 
king-fisher darts along like an arrow ; fern-owls, or goat-suckers, glance 
in the dusk over the tops of trees like a meteor ; starlings as it were 
swim along, while missel-thrushes use a wild and desultory flight ; 
swallows sweep over the surface of the ground and water, and distinguish 
themselves by rapid 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. Most small birds hop ; but wagtails and larks walk, 
moving their legs alternately. Skylarks rise and fall perpendicu- 
larly 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 tails : these are the compedes of Linnaeus. Geese 
and cranes, and most wild fowls, move in figured flights, often changing 
their position. The secondary remiges of Tringae, wild-ducks, and 
some others, are very long, and give their wings, when in motion, an 
hooked appearance. Dabchicks, moor-hens, and coots, fly erect, with 
their legs hanging down, and hardly make any dispatch ; the reason is 
plain, their wings are placed too forward out of the true center of 
gravity ; as the legs of auks and divers are situated too backward. 
