The Birds and Poets 163 



Some fly in close formation, like the ducks and 

 geese, and others move southward in loose flocks, 

 like the hawks. 



One September morning as I was starting out for 

 a walk in the woods, I observed a red-tailed hawk 

 flying low over the village very much in the man- 

 ner described by Lowell : 



"Silently overhead the hen-hawk sails, 

 With watchful measuring eye, and for his quarry 



waits." 



I had not expected a "flight" of hawks, and at 

 first noticed this one alone soaring low, evidently 

 in search of food. Presently, however, I saw two 

 or three more high in the heavens to the north and 

 after these had floated southward until they were 

 nearly over head, others were seen soaring into 

 view, circling about apparently in leisurely 

 fashion, and yet moving with a good deal of speed 

 in a general southerly direction. For at least an 

 hour I watched them as they continued to come 

 out of the sky to the north, three or four at a time, 

 until I had counted over a hundred, all soaring and 

 circling about in a graceful manner, and yet with 

 the ultimate southward movement, until one by 

 one they disappeared in the sky beyond. 



Had the poet Wordsworth seen this flight of 

 hawks, the description which he gives in the fol- 

 lowing lines could not have been more graceful or 

 appropriate: 



