WATCHING THE DAY DIE 235 



like other birds. But when seen at a distance, all 

 these peculiarities vanish and he appears at his 

 best : a great, graceful bird-yacht. 



Soon the crows began to wing homeward 

 toward the yellow timber. In loose, scattered 

 companies, but all forming one well-connected 

 army, they swung along the same course. They 

 were strangely silent; scarcely a sound came 

 from the black ranks, except that when they 

 passed close, the whif-if-if of their wings came 

 down plainly to the ear. Perhaps it was that 

 they were in tune with the peace-spirit of the even- 

 ing, but more probably their reticence was due to 

 their being stuffed with good living, each maw 

 so filled with wheat, choke-cherries, and grass- 

 hoppers or crickets that vocal performance was 

 quite impossible. Tens, scores, several hundred 

 winged by in a few minutes, all headed for a well- 

 frequented night-roost in the woods — the same 

 to be rather a fair-sized pandemonium at day- 

 break the following morning. 



Next a moving mist away on the horizon to 

 the southwestward claimed attention. Crows? 

 blackbirds? ducks? gulls? — what? The living 

 mist circled back and forth mysteriously a time 

 or two, and one by one the possibilities were 



