GREAT BIRD GATHERINGS 41 



wind and stringed instruments, producing an orchestral 

 cfTcct, as of an orchestra in tlic clouds. 



What is the secret <>f the dclij^ht which possesses mc 

 at such a spectacle, which seems at the moment to sur- 

 pass all other delights, giving me a joy that will last 

 for days? It is not merely that the pleasure in the 

 single bird is intensified, or doubled or increased a hun- 

 dred-fold. It is not the same old feeling in a greater 

 degree; there is a new element in it which makes it dif- 

 ferent in character. The sight dwells wdth pleasure on 

 a pleasant landscape; but if we then ascend a hill and 

 look upon the scene from that higher standpoint a quite 

 different feeling is experienced ; the wider horizon is a 

 revelation of vastness, of a greatness which is practically 

 new, since the mind had previously become attuned to 

 earth as viewed from the lower level. Now we get 

 the element of sublimity. So, in the case of the large 

 bird seen in flocks and vast numbers — seen and heard; 

 it is a sudden revelation of wild life in its nobler aspect 

 — of its glorious freedom and power and majesty. 



We get this emotion in various degrees at the 

 various breeding stations of our larger birds, notably 

 on the Yorkshire and Northumberland coasts, the Bass 

 Rock, the Orkneys and Shetlands, and "utmost Kilda's 

 lonely isle." Those who have experienced it value it 

 above all the delights this spectacular world can afford 

 them, and their keenest desire is for its repetition. It 

 is to taste this feeling that thousands of persons, some 

 with the pretext of bird-study or photography, annuallv 

 visit these teeming stations within the kingdom, whilst 



