52 BIRDS AND MAN 



swiftly carried all over the surrounding country. 

 So great was the number of birds that the entire 

 population of swallows, house- and sand-martins, 

 and swifts, must have been gathered at that spot 

 from the villages, farms, and sand-banks for several 

 miles around. At the side of the pond I was ap- 

 proaching there is a green strip about a hundred 

 and twenty or a hundred and thirty yards in length 

 and forty or fifty yards wide, and over this ground 

 from end to end the birds were smoothly and swiftly 

 gliding backwards and forwards. The whole place 

 seemed alive with them. Hurrying to the spot I 

 met with a little adventure which it may not be 

 inapt to relate. Walking on through some scattered 

 furze-bushes, gazing intently ahead at the swallows, 

 I almost knocked my foot against a hen pheasant 

 covering her young chicks on the bare ground beside 

 a dwarf bush. Catching sight of her just in time I 

 started back ; then, with my feet about a yard 

 from the bird, I stood and regarded her for some 

 time. Not the slightest movement did she make ; 

 she was like a bird carved out of some beautifully 

 variegated and highly-polished stone, but her bright 

 round eyes had a wonderfully alert and wild ex- 

 pression. With all her stillness the poor bird must 

 have been in an agony of terror and suspense, and I 



