Abstract
WITH respect to Mr. Hubert Airy's interesting note (vol. xxvii. p. 294), I beg to say that I have very often seen the kestrel hovering over the perfectly level meadows of Middlesex with obvious ease, where no undulation of the ground could possibly affect the currents of air. Of the twelve instances Mr. Airy enumerates, I see only six refer to hawks (species undetermined), so this fact must be taken into consideration; the conduct of rooks and crows under such circumstances seems to me to come under quite a different category from that of hawks, and in some instances gulls, thus “prospecting” for their prey. Mr. Airy does not ignore this aspect of the question, but I think that by confusing objective with subjective “hovering” he complicates his theory.
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WHARTON, H. Hovering of Birds. Nature 27, 312 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/027312c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027312c0
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