8 BIRD WATCHING 



something or other on the ground, imagining a fresh 

 object for each run. Often had I wondered, first at 

 the eyesight of the bird, which seemed to pierce the 

 mystery of a worm or beetle at fifty or sixty yards 

 distance, and then at its apparent want of interest 

 each time it got to the place where it seemed to have 

 located it. Really it had but just lost sight of^what 

 it was pursuing, but aerial game had not occurred 

 to me, and the tell-tale spring into the air, which 

 would have explained all, had been absent on these 

 occasions. I have called such leaps " last efforts," 

 but I am not quite sure if they are always the last. 

 More than once I have thought I have seen a stone- 

 curlew rise into the air from running after an insect, 

 and continue the pursuit on the wing. This is a 

 point which I would not press, yet birds often act 

 out of their usual habits and assume those proper 

 to other species. I remember once towards the close 

 of a fine afternoon, when the air was peopled by a 

 number of minute insects, and the stone - curlews 

 had been more than usually active in their chasings, 

 a large flock of starlings came down upon the warrens 

 and began to behave much as they were doing, 

 running excitedly about in the same manner and 

 evidently with the same object. But what interested 

 me especially was that they frequently rose into the 

 air, pursuing and, as I feel sure, often catching the 

 game there, turning and twisting about like fly- 

 catchers, though with less graceful movements. Often, 

 too, whilst flying — fairly high — from one part of the 

 warrens to another, they would deflect their course 

 in order to catch an insect or two en passant. I 

 observed this latter action first, and doubted the 



