268 In Touch with Nature. 



have caused it to be relinquished ; but it is aston- 

 ishing to find that there are few birds that cannot 

 be found at least " in loose companies," as it is 

 commonly worded. In September the bluebirds 

 occasionally fly in pretty compact flocks of fifty to 

 one hundred individuals, and a company of twenty 

 or thirty is a common occurrence. The common 

 kingbird is another well-known species that flocks 

 to some extent, and a third is the Baltimore oriole. 

 I have seen the females and young of the pre- 

 ceding summer in flocks of certainly one hundred 

 individuals, and when on the wing they kept so 

 well together as to merit being classed as a flock, 

 rather than a semi-independent gathering. It is 

 evident that such close association, as in the case 

 of red-wings, of bobolinks, of rusty grakles, and 

 other birds, could not occur if there was no power 

 of communication and no predetermination as to 

 movement. I have yet to see a large flock of 

 birds without guards perched in commanding out- 

 looks, and know from experience how difficult it 

 is to outwit these sentinels. ^ It has often been my 

 afternoon's amusement to try to plunge into the 

 midst of a thousand feeding blackbirds, and I 



