30 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



greys and browns, and the buff colouring on neck and 

 breast and pink beak and legs. The sight is peculiarly 

 fine when as frequently happens, great numbers of birds 

 of other species gather at the same spot as if a parlia- 

 ment of the feathered nations were being held. Rooks 

 and crows, both black and hooded, and daws are often 

 there in hundreds ; lapwings too in hundreds, and black- 

 headed gulls and starlings and wintering larks, with 

 other small birds. The geese repose, the others are 

 mostly moving about in search of worms and grubs. 

 The lapwings are quietest, inclined to repose too; but 

 at intervals they all rise up and wheel about for a 

 minute or so, then drop to earth again. 



As I stand motionless leaning on a gate watching 

 them, having them, as seen through the glasses, no more 

 than twenty yards away, I note that for all their quietude 

 in the warm sleepy sunshine they are wild geese still, 

 that there are always two or three to half a dozen who 

 keep their heads up and their eyes wide open for the 

 general good, also that the entire company is subject 

 at intervals to little contagious gusts and thrills of 

 alarm. It may be some loud unusual noise — a horse on 

 the road suddenly breaking into a thunderous gallop, 

 or the "hoot-hoot" of a motor-car; then the enraged 

 scream of a gull or carrion-crow at strife with his neigh- 

 bour; the sleepers wake and put up their heads, but in 

 a few moments they are reposing again. Then a great 

 heron that has been standing motionless like a grey 

 column for an hour starts up and passes swaying and 

 flapping over them, creating a fresh alarm, which sub- 



