i Foie | General Notes. 339 
flock, but, while it was impossible to make an accurate estimate of the 
number, my impression is that Mr. Chapman’s figure was far too low. 
The birds first began to assemble late in December, reached the largest 
number in January and early February, and from that time began to 
decrease until about the first of March, when all but a limited number 
disappeared. 
I walked out to ‘ Aldie’ to see this curious sight several times. On 
January 17, when the flock was as large as it was at any time, I stationed 
myself at the top of a gentle elevation in the Dublin Pike, about 500 yards 
from the evergreen roosting place,— a good point for observation. A few 
minutes after 5 o’clock in the afternoon the birds began to congregate 
from all directions, most of them coming from the north and west. In 
small flocks of from 50 to probably 500 they flew past me in rapid succes- 
sion — flying low until they came to a tree in the open upon which they 
would alight. I could see the birds alighting upon other trees a quarter 
of a mile away, in flocks of varying sizes, while Chapman’s woods, a large 
tract of timber, possibly thirty acres in extent, was black with the birds. 
The notes of many Purple Grackle were heard mingled with those of the 
Starlings. By 5.20 o’clock the birds grouped themselves in larger flocks 
and settled on trees nearer their roosting ground. Then, a few minutes 
later, as the twilight began to deepen, the birds arose, not by any con- 
certed movement, but always in one flock from a tree, and gradually 
centred in one great flock directly over ‘ Aldie ’ — the flock soon becoming 
compact and deep and stretching out over an area of several acres. The 
writhing, twisting mass performed many curious evolutions and gyrations. 
At first the bird mass resembled very much a vast rolling black cloud, 
driven before a thunder-gust, the edges curling and overlapping and then 
broadening out. The individual birds on the outer edges of the flock could 
be distinguished, but it was the mass effect that was impressive. The 
whir of the countless wings was like the sound of distant wind or the roar 
of a waterfall. It was such an unusual sound that the horse driven by a 
farmer, who halted his team to talk with me, became frightened and so 
nervous that he was obliged to drive away. Gradually the cloud-like 
formation changed to funnel-shape, resembling nothing so much as a 
cyclone cloud and the change was made with a sound resembling that 
produced by a cyclone’s sweep. Then the cloud-like mass changed again 
and lined up in plane formation, with a straight front like an army in battle 
array for a final charge. This line moved directly towards me overhead. 
Strangely enough, a line of Purple Grackles was in the forefront of the 
army, their larger size and darker color making them conspicuous. In fact 
the Grackles seemed to endeavor to keep on the outer edge of the mass as 
much as possible, and they were noticeable because they had difficulty in 
falling in with the rolling and more graceful flight-gyrations of their more 
numerous companions, the Starlings. 
Frequently the whole vast flock made sharp turns, and as they did so 
it was with a sound that was audible for a long distance, somewhat like 
