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 building-s. Certainly it is not the Fig- 
Eater of the continent. 
FINCH {Fringilla^ Illiger.) — A genus of birds. 
FISHING EAGLE. 
FISH HAWK. 
} 
* 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 
