Ixxvi 
INTRODUCTIOXt 
subsistence, depending on intimidation more than agility, and terror than 
courage, or hover over it with motionless wings, and in equal balance, at 
other times flapping them with great agitation ; or, like the Henharrier, 
which steals along the hedges to pounce upon its game, with the cunning 
of the Glutton, rather than the boldness of the Lion. IMost birds of the 
Hawk kind dart perpendicularly toward their quarry, until they arrive 
within a few feet of it, then, in an instant, they change their position, and 
fall horizontally upon it, so as to fix their talons in the defenceless animal. 
Ravens, Rooks, and Crows, nearly close their wings in flight, and often 
ascend into the air and turn themselves in a thousand playful attitudes, and 
quickly descend, striking each other with their wings, their feet, and their 
bills. Jays and Magpies fly straight, but sluggishly, as they move' their 
wings tardily, and flap them so much round their bodies. Woodpeckers 
pass from tree to tree, in a track many degrees out of an horizontal line, 
and in curves, closing their wings in the manner of the Jay, and proceed, 
not by constantly-reiterated impulses, but by exertions at intervals, like the 
action of the mariner, who presses forward his boat by the intervening 
strokes of the oar. The flight of Wildgeese and Ducks is swift, hori- 
zontal, and regular ; the former appear to be under great discipline in 
their acute-angled progressions, like an inverted V ; the leader retiring when 
fatigued, and his place is instantly supplied by the foremost or hindermost 
of one of the lines ; at other times, they range themselves in close-com- 
pacted columns, and wheel and turn with the simultaneous precision of 
well-disciplined soldiers. The Gull flies with an uneven, unsteady motion, 
often elevating one wing and depressing the other ; now" sailing alohg with 
outstretched pinions, and in the next moment, by a single slight exertion, 
pressing forward in a similar manner as the Hawk kinds ; whilst the Cor- 
vorant and the Shag, this minute almost raze the bosom of the ocean, 
in the next, ascend high in the air, and, by a quick celerity of move- 
ment, proceed in a nearly straight line, like the Guillemot, the Razorbill, 
and the Puflin. The flight of the Gannet is not, in its general mov-ements,. 
dissimilar from that of the Gull tribes; but wdien it descends upon its prey. 
