THROUGH THE YEAR 125 



look up, and do not know that an immense crowd 

 of birds is above them ! People constantly stop 

 and look at the ducks on the lake near by ; they talk 

 to each other about these fowl, and clearly are 

 interested. They do not suspect the presence of 

 thousands of starlings. Perhaps if they are conscious 

 of the concert above, they attribute it to sparrows ; 

 or they mistake it for the sound of wind among the 

 large plane tree leaves. Indeed, if you told one 

 of the passers-by to look up and see the starlings, 

 he would imagine you were fooling him ; for in 

 truth, once the starlings have all come in from 

 the west and the north and are settled on the trees, 

 they are quite hard to see. They settle on the tops of 

 the trees, rarely coming down to the lower branches, 

 and are so mixed up among the large leaves, which are 

 now dark green very dark green by five o'clock on 

 a September afternoon that it is not easy to pick 

 them out. I looked up into several trees alive with 

 starlings, and could only distinguish a few birds, 

 though the light had scarcely begun to fail. 



The roost song is like the sound of some machine 

 driven by steam. It may even resemble the loud 

 hiss of a steam engine. This concert is all chorus. 

 No individual performer can make him or herself 

 heard for I doubt not the sound is common to 

 both starling sexes. 



As we listen to the chorus and watch the parties 

 flocking in, and the erratic, jerky flight of many 

 as they reach their goal, it occurs to us, are there 

 not phases, emotions, in the lives of these wild crea- 



