BIRDS AND THEIR VOYAGES 87 



night so thick that, if a gun had been discharged on 

 chance in many places, birds not aimed at might 

 have been killed in numbers ; for I doubt whether the 

 distribution over this bit of country was general and 

 even, the travellers preferring to settle and spend the 

 night in great concourses at certain sheltered spots. I 

 first noticed this marvellous bird stream at about half- 

 past nine. It was flowing due west across St. Ives 

 Bay and the strip of coast just south of the bay. 

 Two hours later it was still flowing, though in lessen- 

 ing strength, and I think that, save for a few 

 stragglers, it was over by about midday. But how 

 long had it been flowing when I first noticed it ? A 

 man at Lelant told me he saw the birds coming across 

 the water and land at dawn. The stream was a full 

 mile broad, and, looking constantly across the water, I 

 do not think I once saw the sky clear of birds for a 

 full half minute. There came parties, more or less 

 compact, with hundreds of birds ; other parties seemed 

 to have thousands ; and the gaps between the larger 

 flocks were filled by little bands of half-a-dozen, a 

 dozen, a score, by birds flying in couples, by birds 

 flying singly. All travelled across the wind, which 

 was blowing hard on the coast. 



At times the air seemed full of birds. First I saw 

 starlings. Their straight line style of flight and the 

 neat, triangular appearance of their wings in action 

 always make starlings conspicuous in a great caravan 

 of birds. But I soon found that this was not parti- 



