142 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



and is the mightier — devours, absorbs it — and, sailing 

 grandly on, the vast accumulated multitude seems 

 now to make the very air, and be, itself, the sky. 



As a rule, this great concourse separates, again, 

 into two main, and various smaller bodies, and it is 

 now, and more especially amongst the latter, that 

 one may witness those beautiful and varied evolu- 

 tions which are, equally, a charm to the eye and a 

 puzzle to the mind. Each band, as it circles rapidly 

 round, permeated with a fire of excitement and glad 

 alacrity, assumes diverse shapes, becoming, with the 

 quickness of light, a balloon, an oil-flask, a long, 

 narrow, myriad-winged serpent, rapidly thridding 

 the air, a comet with tail streaked suddenly out, or 

 a huge scarf, flung about the sky in folds and 

 shimmers. A mass of flying birds must, indeed, 

 assume some shape, though it is only on these 

 occasions that one sees such shapes as these. More 

 evidential, not only of simultaneous, but, also, of 

 similar motion throughout a vast body, are those 

 striking colour changes that are often witnessed.^ 

 For instance, a great flock of flying birds will be, 

 collectively, of the usual dark-brown shade. In 

 one instant — as quickly as Sirius twinkles from 

 green to red, or red to gold — it has become a light 

 grey. Another instant, and it is, again, brown, and 

 this whilst the rapidly-moving host seems to occupy 

 the same space in the air, so lightning-quick have 

 been the two flashes of colour and motion — for 

 both may be visible — through the living medium ; 

 as though one had said, '' One, two," or blinked the 

 eyes twice. Yet in the sky all is a constant quantity ; 



^ Or might be, if any one cared to witness them. Nobody does. 



