304 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



other, "Come, let's play at being geese and march 

 solemnly to the sound of screaming and cackling to the 

 distant farm lands where we'll stuff our crops with 

 clover and spilt wheat ; and while some of us are feed- 

 ing others will keep watch, so that no crafty gunner, 

 hiding his approach behind an old grazing plough- 

 horse, shall get within shot of us." 



One becomes so imbued with the notion of unity 

 of mind in a flock of starlings — the idea that the whole 

 crowd must act with and follow the leader, if leader 

 there be — that one always wants to know why there 

 is any divergence at all, as when a flock divides and 

 goes off in different directions. Thus, from a flock 

 proceeding steadily in a certain direction some of the 

 birds, half the flock it may be, will suddenly drop down 

 to settle on a tree-top, leaving the others to go on ; or 

 in passing over a field where sheep are grazing a certain 

 number of the birds will come down to feed among 

 them. In the first case, the sight of the tree-top 

 below has probably suggested the need for rest to a 

 single bird ; the impulse is instantly acted on and a 

 certain number of the birds are carried away by the 

 example and follow, while in the others the original 

 motive or impulse which sent them off to travel to 

 some more distant place remains unaffected and they 

 keep steadily on their way. In like manner, in the 

 other case, the scene below tells sharply on some one 

 bird in the flock ; hunger is created by suggestion ; the 

 sight of feeding sheep scattered about in the moist 

 green earth is associated in his starling mind with the 



