April 



imitating her. After this, they may resume their 

 wild flight, perch calmly together on a tree, or 

 descend to feed as calmly on the ground. From 

 this it would appear that the performance is in 

 the nature of a "pairing flight." Hundreds of 

 pairs are on the wing together, crossing each other 

 at all angles, some flying at a great height, some 

 lower. 



In the mean while the sun is sinking. New 

 flocks continue to come in, and the wild wheezing 

 chorus becomes more and more strident. A few 

 horses which grazed in the field before the starlings 

 arrived have drawn off into a far corner to avoid the 

 hubbub ; hares that browsed quietly, dotted about 

 the field, limped away with an injured air, as if bored 

 by the noisy revels. 



From time to time the old principle of association 

 reasserts itself, and a great body of birds rises at 

 once in flight, wheeling and whirling in compact 

 order over the field, until as suddenly the column 

 dissolves, and the birds are shed broadcast like 

 leaves scattered without rule or method. These 

 ordered flights are repeated at intervals, until the 

 whole body of the birds has been transferred from 

 the ground to the firs of the adjoining plantation. 

 Heard from within the thick, dark wood after 

 sundown, the din is indescribable. The clarion 

 voices of innumerable throstles, the rattling even- 

 song of chaffinches, and the resounding " Pink ! " of 

 blackbirds that seem to be exorcising spirits of ill 



133 



