200 RIVERBY 



about catching red squirrels "if only the trees were 

 out of reach ! " 



When any of the winged creatures are engaged in 

 a life and death race in that way, or in any other 

 race, the tactics of the squirrel do not work; the 

 pursuer never overshoots nor shoots by his mark. 

 The flight of the two is timed as if they were parts 

 of one whole. A hawk will pursue a sparrow or a 

 robin through a zigzag course and not lose a stroke 

 or half a stroke of the wing by reason of any dart- 

 ing to the right or left. The clew is held with fatal 

 precision. No matter how quickly nor how often 

 the sparrow or the finch changes its course, its enemy 

 changes, simultaneously, as if every move was known 

 to it from the first. 



The same thing may be noticed among the birds 

 in their love chasings; the pursuer seems to know 

 perfectly the mind of the pursued. This concert of 

 action among birds is very curious. When they are 

 on the alert a flock of sparrows, or pigeons, or cedar- 

 birds, or snow buntings, or blackbirds, will all take 

 flight as if there was but one bird, instead of a hun- 

 dred. The same impulse seizes every individual 

 bird at the same instant, as if they were sprung by 

 electricity. 



Or when a flock of birds is in flight, it is still one 

 body, one will; it will rise, or circle, or swoop with 

 a unity that is truly astonishing. 



A flock of snow buntings will perform their aerial 

 evolutions with a precision that the best-trained sol- 

 diery cannot equal. Have the birds an extra sense 



