14 By Leafy Ways. 



then, a bird here and there whistles loud a few bars of 

 borrowed song. By degrees the sounds subside ; the 

 restless multitude gradually quietens down, and at last 

 is silent for the night. 



In the Fen country starlings roost among the reeds, 

 and the damage they do to the sedges is of serious 

 consequence to the farmer. Such flocks must be 

 seen, or at least heard, before their size can be 

 appreciated. 



A party of yachtsmen, mooring their craft late at 

 night among the Norfolk Broads, heard strange noises 

 on the shore, presumably of birds. A gun was fired, 

 and at once there rose out of the reeds a sound like 

 the rush of a train at full speed a roar as of a mighty 

 wave, coming in before an Atlantic gale. It grew 

 louder yet and stronger still, until it almost reached 

 the pitch of thunder. Another barrel, and another, 

 and another still, and each time there rose in answer 

 the same mighty sound; the whirr of innumerable 

 wings, the rush of winged legions rising from the 

 reeds, with the cries of startled wild fowl trumpet-like 

 through the deeper tone. An awsome thing to listen 

 to in the darkness : a weird and terrible sound. 



Next day a flock of starlings was seen that might 

 well have played the chief part in such a chorus a 

 flock that stretched right across the sky overhead, as 

 far as the eye could reach on either side, until its 

 shadowy outline faded in the distance. 



