220 BIRD WATCHING 



idea has constantly been brought to my mind, 

 nor do I see how the whole of the facts are to be 

 explained except upon some such hypothesis. If we 

 suppose that the sudden flurryings away of a band 

 of small birds from the chaff-heap where they have 

 been quietly feeding, are caused by the apprehension 

 of danger, we may well credit the birds with having 

 sharper senses than our own, though that they are 

 often mistaken is shown by their almost immediate 

 return, and also by as many of them (sometimes) 

 remaining as fly away. But it is impossible to 

 imagine that every individual bird of a large number, 

 crowded together and busily feeding, can at the same 

 instant of time see the same object, or even hear the 

 same sound of alarm, unless very loud or conspicuous, 

 nor can it be supposed that the same thought, pro- 

 ducing the same action, can flash independently into 

 all their minds at once, by mere chance. But if we 

 suppose thought to be like a wind, sweeping amongst 

 them and producing, each time that it rises to a 

 certain degree of strength, its appropriate act, then 

 we can understand fifty, seventy, or a hundred birds 

 rising in this thought-wind, like leaves or straws 

 blown up in a sudden gust, and, in the same way 

 as when a blizzard or tornado bursts on a town, 

 some frail objects in a room through which it has 

 torn may be left standing, whilst everything else is 

 strewed about in ruin, so may the thought-wave (to 

 use the more familiar term) moving with inconceivable 



passage which I seem to remember so well, nor can anyone (including 

 the whole of the Psychical Research Society) help me to. My Greek 

 word, I am told, too, is wrong. But let it stand till someone can give 

 me the right one. 



