198 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
finch in particular, exhibits such languishing and faltering 
gestures as to appear like a wounded and dying bird; the 
kingfisher 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 wag- 
tails 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-throats use odd jerks 
and gestulations 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. Geese and cranes, and most wild 
fowls, move in figured flights, often changing their position. 
The secondary vemzges of Zringe, wild-ducks, and some others, 
are very long, and give their wings, when in motion, a 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 centre of gravity; as the legs of auks and divers are 
situated too backward. 
LETTER XXXVIII. 
SELBORNE, Sept. oth, 1778. 
From the motion of birds, the transition is natural enough 
to their notes and language, of which I shall say something. 
Not that I would pretend to understand their language like 
