4 o ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



congregations in my La Plata book, and of the 

 migration of fishes in the Pacific described by- 

 Herman Melville. 



To return to the subject which was uppermost in 

 my mind when I sat down to write this chapter, or 

 this digression. It was the peculiar delight produced 

 in us by the sight and sound of birds, especially those 

 of large size, in flocks and multitudes. The bird itself 

 is a thing of beauty, supreme in this respect among 

 living forms, therefore, as we have seen, the symbol 

 in art of all that is highest in the spiritual world. 

 Nevertheless we find that the pleasure of seeing a 

 single bird is as nothing compared to that of seeing 

 a numerous company of birds. Take this case of the 

 wild grey goose — a large, handsome bird, a joy to 

 look at whether flying or standing motionless and 

 statuesque with head raised, on the wide level flats 

 and marshes. But the pleasure is infinitely greater 

 when I see a flock of a thousand or of two or three 

 thousand as I do here where I am writing this on the 

 east coast. They come over me, seen first very far 

 off as a black line, wavering, breaking, and re-forming, 

 increasing like a coming cloud and changing its form, 

 till it resolves itself into the host of great broad-winged 

 birds, now black against the pale immense sky, now 

 flashing white in the sun. I hear them too, even 

 before they become visible, a distant faint clangour 

 which grows and changes as it comes and is a beau- 

 tiful noise of many shrill and deep sounds, as of wind 

 and stringed instruments, producing an orchestral 

 effect, as of an orchestra in the clouds. 



