xvii OUTDOOR AND INDOOR ORNITHOLOGY 397 



A good deal about flight may be learnt with a 

 field-jjlass. When Gulls arc playing in the air, or 

 when a Lark is rising, or when a Swallow is dashing 

 to and fro, you can often make out by the help of it 

 the movements of the head and tail. Sometimes, 

 though, the naked eye is better, as it takes time to 

 aim with the glass, and the bird may be gone before 

 you have a good view of him. A great many birds 

 may be known by their flight. The Duck with its 

 outstretched neck, rapid wing pulsation, and lumber- 

 ing velocity, the slow and heavy stroke of the Heron, 

 the light easy beat of the Gull's finely-pointed wings, 

 the hovering of the Hawk, the sudden dashes and 

 acrobatic turns of the Swift or the Swallow are 

 things easy to remember. A man who is much in 

 the open air, and brings an eye for what he sees, 

 notices many more varieties than these. 



Most boys go through a birds'-nesting stage, and 

 to some of them it brings a good deal of valuable 

 knowledge. At the same time they may get a liking 

 for birds that will introduce a spirit of humanity into 

 their birds'-nesting, and lead them to a study of the 

 lives and habits of creatures who have become their 

 friends but were formerly their victims. But with 

 many it is, no doubt, only a form of greed and 

 rapacity, not so bad as that of the miser, since they 

 will probably either outgrow it or transform it to 

 something better, but, for all that, similar in its 

 nature. Collecting anything, whether birds, eggs, or 

 postage stamps, or autographs, merely for the sake of 

 amassing, is a worse than barren employment. But 

 if a birds'-nestcr makes a point of observing the 



