292 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



the trees on all sides in numbers, the sudden sharp 

 clatter of their wings sounding at a distance like 

 castanets. By-and-by they were all on the wing, 

 gathered in one immense flock, rushing about this 

 way and that in the vast wooded hollow beneath my 

 feet, looking at times almost white as they streamed 

 over the black yews and caught the level sunbeams 

 on their upper plumage. This flock could not have 

 numbered less than two to three thousand birds. 

 Finally they began to settle on the beeches ; and when 

 all had settled, and with my powerful binocular I 

 had brought them so close to me as to be able to see 

 distinctly all the delicate shading of their plumage 

 and the brighter colours of beak and eye, I had 

 before me as fascinating a tree-and-bird scene as it 

 is possible to imagine. The colour and grace of it 

 could not be described the multitude of birds, thick 

 as starlings in the purple branches, not yet recovered 

 from their alarm, but every one still moving its head 

 and flirting its tail, and evidently anxious to keep an 

 eye on the suspicious-looking (although gunless) in- 

 truder on their privacy. 



Of all man's inventions, this is to me the most 

 like a divine gift this double tube in my hand, which 

 enables me to follow the beautiful children of the air 

 in their flight; and when they are at home and safe 

 in woods, and on green waves, and on cliffs, to sit or 

 float as it were invisible and unsuspected among them. 



West of the wooded spots I have described in the 



