WILD WINGS: A FAREWELL 301 



they gradually faded from sight in the sky, the 

 starlings still keeping with them. 



What could have moved these thirty birds out of a 

 flock of a hundred to act in this way ? Perhaps they 

 were "just like little children" and had said to each 

 other, "Come, let's play at being geese and march 

 solemnly to the sound of screaming and cackling to 

 the distant farm-lands, where we'll stuff our crops 

 with clover and spilt wheat; and while some of us 

 are feeding others will keep watch, so that no crafty 

 gunner, hiding his approach behind an old grazing 

 plough-horse, shall get within shot of us." 



One becomes so imbued with the notion of unity 

 of mind in a flock of starlings — the idea that the whole 

 crowd must act with and follow the leader, if leader 

 there be — that one always wants to know why there 

 is any divergence at all, as when a flock divides and 

 goes off in different directions. Thus, from a flock 

 proceeding steadily in a certain direction some of the 

 birds, half the flock it may be, will suddenly drop 

 down to settle on a tree-top, leaving the others to 

 go on; or in passing over a field where sheep are 

 grazing a certain number of the birds will come down 

 to feed among them. In the first case, the sight of 

 the tree-top below has probably suggested the need 

 for rest to a single bird; the impulse is instantly 

 acted on and a certain number of the birds are carried 

 away by the example and follow, while in the others 

 the original motive or impulse which sent them off 

 to travel to some more distant place remains un- 

 affected and they keep steadily on their way. In like 



