WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK 219 



forward, as well as others, in fact, the whole range 

 of the phenomena — how are we to account for their 

 simultaneousness, and the other special features 

 belonging to them ? 



It would seem as though either one and the same 

 idea were flashed suddenly into the minds of a 

 number of birds in close proximity to each other at 

 one and the same instant of time, or that this same 

 idea, having originated or attained a certain degree 

 of vehemence, at some one point or points — repre- 

 senting some individual bird or birds — spread from 

 thence, as from one or more centres, with incon- 

 ceivable rapidity, so as to embrace either the whole 

 group or a portion of it, according to the strength 

 of the original outleap. In other words, I suppose 

 (or, at least, I suggest it) that birds when gathered 

 together in large numbers think and act, not indi- 

 vidually, but collectively ; or, rather, that they do 

 both the one and the other, for that individual birds 

 are capable of withstanding the collective influence 

 of the flock of which they form a part, I have ample 

 evidence. The old Athenians — though slave-holders, 

 wherein they may be compared to the Americans 

 at one period — were a very democratic people, and 

 lived a more public life than any other civilised 

 community either before or after them, of which we 

 have any record. They were also of a very emo- 

 tional temperament, and it is curious to find amongst 

 them the idea (at any rate) of the fj^VM — a sudden 

 wave or current of thought which swept through 

 an assembly, causing it to think and act as one 

 man.* When watching numbers of birds together, this 



* In the wilderness of Grote's twelve volumes I cannot, now, find the 



