SEPTEMBER. 143 



that can escape the vindictive tweak of his tiny bill. 

 Very indignant are the sparrows when the little imp 

 pursues them to their very water-pipes, and tweaks 

 them as they alight ; but they seem to know that it 

 is no use to pursue such a fliberty-gibbet among the 

 bushes, because you never see them attempting to 

 retaliate. Yet the sparrow can fly too, for, when it 

 chooses to harass a pigeon, you may see the larger 

 bird whirling round the house at what looks like its 

 best speed, with the sparrow never more than a foot 

 or two behind the end of its tail. Yet a pigeon will, 

 in turn, outfly a hawk. The fact is that we are apt 

 to mistake style for power of flight, and to think that 

 because the swallow wheels gracefully in the air, or 

 the falcon swoops like a thunderbolt upon its quarry, 

 they must possess immense speed, whereas in the 

 matter of covering distance at any rate a short 

 distance birds with stout bodies and moderate-sized 

 wings may be swifter than either. The little auk has 

 wings which, in comparison with its body, seem 

 scarcely more than flippers, yet it skims over the sea 

 like a bullet. 



THE WINDS AND THE BIRDS. 



September n. Shifting winds, during the first 

 ten days of September, delayed bird migration ; 

 though flocks of rooks, cawing high across the sky, 

 seemed to take advantage of each wind from the 

 north to travel south, and at the same time the fly- 

 catchers seized the opportunity to depart from their 

 breeding-haunts. The flycatcher, however, travels, 

 like the cuckoo, by easy stages, and continues to 



