Dropping Off the Perch

This idiom for dying generally refers to a natural or unassisted death. I first heard it from an elderly British woman who was describing the death of a friend. In The Collected Works of Thomas De Quincey, there is an anecdote by one of his biographers about De Quincey's use of this dysphemism. While attempting to give condolences to a German woman in her native language, De Quincey inadvertently used a German dictionary which only provided slang translations for the verb "to die", including " to drop off the perch into Davy's locker."