ORDER IN DISORDER 151 



sound of which somewhat resembles that of a squall 

 of wind — still more, perhaps, the crackling of sticks 

 in a huge blaze of flame — first one great horde, and 

 then another, tears apart, each half wheeling round, 

 in an opposite direction, with enormous velocity, 

 and such a general seeming of storm, stir, and 

 excitement, as is quite indescribable. This may- 

 happen over and over again, and, each time, it 

 strikes one as more remarkable. It is as though 

 a tearing hurricane had struck the advancing host 

 of birds, rent them asunder, and whirled them to 

 right and left, with the most irresistible fury. No 

 act of volition seems adequate to account for the 

 thing. It is like the shock of elements, or, rather, 

 it is a vital hurricane. Seeing it produces a strange 

 sense of contrast, which has a strange effect upon 

 one. It is order in disorder, the utmost perfection 

 of the one in the very height of the other — a 

 governed chaos. Every element of confusion is 

 there, but there is no confusion. Having divided 

 and whirled about in this gusty, fierce fashion, the 

 birds, for a moment or so, seem to hang and crowd 

 in the air, and then — the exact process of it is 

 hardly to be gathered — they reunite, and continue 

 to throng onwards. Sometimes, again, a certain 

 number, flashing out of the crowd, will wheel, 

 sharply, round in one direction, and descend, in a 

 cloud, on the bushes they have just left. In a second 

 or two they v/hirl up, and come streaming out again. 

 In these sudden and sharply localised movements we 

 have, perhaps, fresh evidence of that division into 

 smaller bodies, which may, possibly, underlie all great 

 assemblies either of starlings or other birds. 



