222 TEXAS AND ARIZONA 



events, had put them in high spirits, and so Tom 

 was having it out with Dick, and Bob with Harry. 

 To look at them, it seemed as much fun as a pil- 

 low-fight, and as I have said, the greater part of 

 the flock were engaged in it. 



But the point I started to speak of was not 

 the game itself, but a certain acrobatic feat by 

 which it was accompanied. Again and again, in 

 the course of their doublings and duckings, I 

 saw the birds turn what looked to be a complete 

 sidewise somersault. It may have been an optical 

 illusion ; probably it was ; but if so, it was ab- 

 solute. Sure I am that more than once I saw a 

 bird flat on his back in the air (as flat on his 

 back as ever a swimmer was in water), and to all 

 appearance, as I say, he did not turn back, but 

 came up like a flash on the other side. Fact or 

 illusion, clean over or halfway over, it was a 

 clever trick, and I could not wonder that the 

 birds seemed to take pleasure in its repetition. 

 I imagined they were as proud of it as a young 

 gymnast ever was of his newly acquired back 

 handspring. And why not ? A man must be ex- 

 tremely well contented with himself, or possess a 

 feeble imagination, not to feel sometimes a twinge 

 of envy at sight of a bird's superiorities, 1 



1 The trick was seen to fuller advantage on subsequent occa- 

 sions, and I came to the settled conclusion that the birds turned 



