106 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



than the sea-gulls, for they were all purest white, 

 with no colour except on their yellow beaks. The 

 light wind ruffled their feathers too, a little, as they 

 turned this way and that, disturbed at my approach; 

 and just then, when I stood to gaze, the sun shone 

 full out after the passing of a light cloud, and flushed 

 the blue pool and floating birds, silvering the ripples 

 and causing the plumage to shine as if with a light 

 of its own. 



"I have never seen a more beautiful thing!" I 

 exclaimed to myself; and now at the end of the long 

 day it remains in my mind, vividly as when I looked 

 at it at that moment when the sunbeams fell on it, 

 and is so persistent that I have no choice but to write 

 it down. The beauty I saw was undoubtedly due 

 to the peculiar conditions — to the blue colour of the 

 water, the ruffling wind, the whiteness of the plumage, 

 and the sudden magic of the sunlight; but the effect 

 would not have been so entrancing if the floating 

 birds had not also been beautiful in themselves — in 

 shape and in their surpassing whiteness. 



Now I am quite sure the reader will smile and per- 

 haps emit the sound we usually write pish — a little 

 sibilant sound expressing contempt. For though he 

 will readily admit that the sun beautifies many things, 

 he draws the line at a duck — the common domestic 

 one. Like all of us, he has his prepossessions and can't 

 get away from them. Every impression, we are told 

 by Professor James, no sooner enters the consciousness 

 than it is drafted off in some determinate direction, 

 making connection with the other materials there, 



