GREAT BIRD GATHERINGS 41 



before they become visible, a distant faint clangour 

 which grows and changes as it comes and is a beautiful 

 noise of many shrill and deep sounds, as of wind and 

 stringed instruments, producing an orchestral effect, 

 as of an orchestra in the clouds. 



What is the secret of the delight which possesses 

 me at such a spectacle, which seems at the moment to 

 surpass all other delights, giving me a joy that will 

 last for days ? It is not merely that the pleasure 

 in the single bird is intensified, or doubled or increased 

 a hundred-fold. It is not the same old feeling in a 

 greater degree ; there is a new element in it which 

 makes it different in character. The sight dwells 

 with pleasure on a pleasant landscape; but if we then 

 ascend a hill and look upon the scene from that higher 

 standpoint a quite different feeling is experienced ; 

 the wider horizon is a revelation of vastness, of a great- 

 ness which is practically new, since the mind had 

 previously become attuned to earth as viewed from 

 the lower level. Now we get the element of sublimity. 

 So, in the case of the large bird seen in flocks and 

 vast numbers — seen and heard ; it is a sudden revelation 

 of wild life in its nobler aspect — of its glorious freedom 

 and power and majesty. 



We get this emotion in various degrees at the 

 various breeding stations of our larger birds, notably 

 on the Yorkshire and Northumberland coasts, the 

 Bass Rock, the Orkneys and Shetlands, and " utmost 

 Kilda's lonely isle." Those who have experienced 

 it value it above all the delights this spectacular world 



