e 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 ringdoves, 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 faltering 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
perpendicularly 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, a hooked appearance. Dabchicks, moorhens, and
coots, fly erect, with their legs hanging down, and hardly make any
despatch. 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 XLIII.

SELBORNE, _Sept._ 9_th_, 1778.

Dear Sir,--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 the vizier; who, by
recital