BIRDS AND MAN 53 



wondered how long she would endure the tension. 

 She stood it for about fifty seconds, then burst 

 screaming away with such violence that her seven 

 or eight chicks were flung in all directions to a dis- 

 tance of two or three feet like little balls of fluff ; 

 and going twenty yards away she dropped to the 

 ground and began beating her wings, calling loudly. 



I then walked on, and in three or four minutes 

 was on the green ground in the thick of the swallows. 

 They were in hundreds, flying at various heights, 

 but mostly low, so that I looked down on them, and 

 they certainly formed a curious and beautiful spec- 

 tacle. So thick were they, and so straight and rapid 

 their flight, that they formed in appearance a current, 

 or rather many currents, flowing side by side in 

 opposite directions ; and when viewed with nearly 

 closed eyes the birds were like black lines on the 

 green surface. They were silent except for the 

 occasional weak note of the sand-martin ; and 

 through it all they were perfectly regardless of me, 

 whether I stood still or walked about among them ; 

 only when I happened to be directly in the way of 

 a bird coming towards me he would swerve aside 

 just far enough to avoid touching me. 



In the evening of that very day the behaviour 

 of a number of gold- crests, disturbed at my presence. 



