видна птица по полету

• ВИДНА ПТИЦА ПО ПОЛЕТУ; ВИДНО <ВИДАТЬ> ПТИЦУ <СОКОЛА> ПО ПОЛЕТУ usu. disapprov

[saying]

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⇒ you can tell by a persons behavior, actions, looks, and/ or deeds what kind of person he is:

- - we know (can tell) a bird by its flight;

- the bird is known by his note (his song);

- you can tell a leopard by its spots.

     ♦ [author's usage] "Вы, я знаю, привыкли к роскоши, к удовольствиям, но и великие мира сего не гнушаются провести короткое время под кровом хижины". - "Помилуйте, - возопил Аркадий, - какой же я великий мира сего? И к роскоши я не привык". - "Позвольте, позвольте, - возразил с любезной ужимкой Василий Иванович. - Я хоть теперь и сдан в архив, а тоже потерся в свете - узнаю птицу по полету" (Тургенев 2). "You, I know, are accustomed to luxury and enjoyment, but even the great ones of this world would not disdain to spend a short time under a cottage roof " "Good heavens," protested Arkady, "as though I were one of the great ones of this world' And I'm not accustomed to luxury either." "Pardon me, pardon me," Vassily Ivanych retorted with a polite sImper "Though I'm a back number now, I have knocked about the place in my time-I know a bird by its flight" (2c).