202 A LIFE OF FEAR 



or swoop, with a unity that is truly astonish- 

 ing. 



A flock of snow-buntings will perform their 

 aerial evolutions with a precision that the best- 

 trained soldiery cannot equal. Have the birds 

 an extra sense which we have not? A brood 

 of young partridges in the woods will start up 

 like an explosion, every brown particle and frag- 

 ment hurled into the air at the same instant. 

 Without word or signal, how is it done? 



