WILD WINGS: A FAREWELL 307 



the threatening gesture. And each time this gesture 

 was made the crow hopped away a little space, only to 

 begin walking and hopping round the goose again until 

 he had satisfied his impudent curiosity, whereupon he 

 flew off towards his roosting-place. 



Then, after a few minutes, from a great way off in the 

 sky came the sounds of approaching geese, and the 

 wounded bird turned his breast towards the land and 

 stood with head held high to listen to and see his 

 fellows returning uninjured with crops full of corn, 

 boisterous in their happiness, to the roosting-place. 

 The sound grew louder, and presently the birds ap- 

 peared, not in a compact body, but in three single 

 lines or skeins of immense length, while between these 

 widely separated lines were many groups or gaggles of a 

 dozen to forty or fifty birds arranged in phalanx form. 



I had been witnessing this evening return of the geese 

 for a fortnight, but never, as now, united in one vast 

 flock, numbering at the least four thousand birds, the 

 skeins extending over the sky for a length of about a 

 third of a mile. Nor had the conditions ever been so 

 favourable ; the evenings had been clouded and it was 

 often growing dark when they appeared. On this 

 occasion the heavens were without a cloud or stain and 

 the sun still above the horizon. I could see it from 

 the flat marsh like a great crimson globe hanging just 

 above the low, black roofs of Wells, with the square 

 church tower in the middle. The whole vast aerial 

 army streamed by directly over me and over their 

 wounded fellow below, still standing statuesque and 



