286 BIRD WATCHING 



of the regular, orderly flight, the voice varies, there 

 is a rush of wings, and out of this trouble, as it were, 

 the backward swoop is born. Then the wavering 

 stream — or rather a certain wavering eddy in it — 

 flies on, and again the voice becomes the musical 

 ' har-char, har-char ' (a better rendering than ' how- 

 chow '), which characterises the flight out. 



" It is as though a sudden surge of thought said 

 ' Back ! ' and swept some back, but a deeper, 

 stronger surge said ' On ! ' and on the greater 

 number streamed. 



" Again, the stream of flight will sometimes be 

 interrupted by a sort of sweeping or drifting together 

 of a number of the birds, making an eddy in it, as 

 it were — an interruption and perturbation in the 

 current, difficult to describe, and over before one can 

 fix the proper words to it ; but indicating some sort 

 of emotion in the birds, a rush of feeling of some 

 kind, something tiresome to note, but which ought 

 to be noted. Once, too, I have seen a single rook 

 flying straight back against the general current of 

 the stream, meeting and passing all the rest on his 

 way to the trees, seeming the very emblem of a 

 fixed intent. 



" These curious, pausing, and hesitating movements, 

 in which an idea that seems at first vague becomes, 

 all at once, definite, seem to me to have their origin 

 in what may be termed collective thinking — for this 

 gives a better idea of the appearance of the thing 

 than does the term thought-transference, though that 

 may more correctly indicate the process. The birds 

 do not appear to be influenced by the actions — the 

 external signs of thought — of ea«.h other, but numbers 



