262 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 

 At lensrth detect them hi2:li overhead, advaneino: north- 



o o o 



east in loose array, with a broad extended front, com- 

 peting with each other, winging their way to some 

 northern meadow which they remember. The note of 

 some is like the squeaking of many signs, while others 

 accompany them with a steady dry tchuck. tchucJc. 



Aug. 18, 1858. I also see large flocks of blackbirds, 

 blackish birds with chattering notes. It is a fine sight 

 when you can look down on them just as they are set- 

 tling on the ground with outspread wings, — a hovering 

 flock. 



March 13, 1859. I see a small flock of blackbirds 

 flying over, some rising, others falling, yet all advancing 

 together, one flock but many birds, some silent, others 

 tchucking, — incessant alternation. This harmonious 

 movement as in a dance, this agreeing to differ, makes 

 the charm of the spectacle to me. One bird looks frac- 

 tional, naked, like a single thread or ravelling from the 

 web to which it belongs. Alternation! Alternation! 

 Heaven and hell! Here again in the flight of a bird, its 

 ricochet motion, is that undulation observed in so many 

 marerials. as in the mackerel sky. 



March 28, 1859. As we were paddling over the Great 

 Meadows, I saw at a distance, high in the air above the 

 middle of the meadow, a very compact flock of black- 

 birds advancing: as^ainst the sun. Though there were 

 more than a hundred, they did not appear to occupy 

 more than six feet in breadth, but the whole flock was 

 dashincr first to the rio-ht and then to the left. When 

 advancing straight toward me and the sun, they made 

 but little impression on the eye, — so many fine dark 



