FIELD-DAYS IN CALIFORNIA 



good proportion of them show the light under 

 parts, while of those that have been streaming 

 all day past the lighthouse, perhaps a mile from 

 here, not one in a thousand showed otherwise 

 than dark. Was that host quite distinct from this ? 

 And, if so, where has it gone ? But perhaps it is 

 here, after all, for now I discover myriads of black- 

 bodied birds in the air in a fairly close flock. And 

 now a fishing-boat, one of a hundred or two in 

 the offing, ploughs through the bedded flock, and 

 they rise in a cloud." But even now, in these 

 startling conditions, they never rise high, the 

 pencil is scrupulous to add. 



It is practically certain, as I now consider, that 

 there were two or more species in the bay, the 

 dark-bodied, so called, and the black- vented (these 

 two pretty surely), and probably the pink-footed. 



But think of the numbers ! For six hours, and, 

 for anything I can say, for an indefinitely longer 

 period, they passed Lighthouse Point at a proba- 

 ble average rate of three hundred to the minute ; 

 three hundred and sixty minutes at three hun- 

 dred to the minute, more than one hundred thou- 

 sand birds ! And who could guess how many 

 thousands of another kind were at the same mo- 

 ment resting in the bay .'' 



As against this enormous estimate, however, 

 it is to be said that the flock, as some have imag- 

 1^ 



