3IO ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



and every time the crow came within a couple of feet 

 of him the goose bent down and shot out his snake-Uke 

 head and neck at him. If my binocular had been able 

 to catch the sound as well as the sight, it would have 

 conveyed to me, too, the angry snake-like hiss which 

 accompanied the threatening gesture. And each time 

 this gesture was made the crow hopped away a little 

 space, only to begin walking and hopping round the 

 goose again until he had satisfied his impudent curiosity, 

 whereupon he flew off towards his roosting-place. 



Then, after a few minutes, from a great way off in 

 the sky came the sounds of approaching geese, and the 

 wounded bird turned his breast towards the land and 

 stood with head held high to listen to and see his 

 fellows returning uninjured with crops full of corn, 

 boisterous in their happiness, to the roosting-place. 

 The sound grew louder, and presently the birds ap- 

 peared, not in a compact body, but in three single lines 

 or skeins of immense length, while between these widely 

 separated lines were many groups or gaggles of a dozen 

 to forty or fifty birds arranged in phalanx form. 



I had been witnessing this evening return of the geese 

 for a fortnight, but never, as now, united in one vast 

 flock, numbering at the least four thousand birds, the 

 skeins extending over the sky for a length of about a 

 third of a mile. Nor had the conditions ever been so 

 favourable; the evenings had been clouded and it was 

 often growing dark when they appeared. On this oc- 

 casion the heavens were without a cloud or stain and 

 the sun still above the horizon. I could see it from 



