NOVEMBER'S BIRDS OF THE HEAVENS 271 



change their direction and fly to the right or left 

 toward certain gaps or passes. Through these a 

 raptorial stream pours in such numbers during 

 the period of migration that a person with a fore- 

 knowledge of their path in former years may lie 

 in wait and watch scores upon scores of these 

 birds pass close overhead within a few hours, 

 while a short distance to the right or left one may 

 watch all day without seeing a single raptor. The 

 whims of migrating birds are beyond our ken. 



Sometimes, out in the broad fields, one's eyes 

 will be drawn accidentally upward, and a great 

 flight of hawks will be seen — a compact flock of 

 interceding forms, perhaps two or three hun- 

 dred in all, the whole number gradually passing 

 from view in a southerly direction, now and then 

 sending down a shrill cry. It is a beautiful sight, 

 not very often to be seen near a city— unless 

 watched for. 



To a dweller in a city or its suburbs I heartily 

 commend at this season the forming of this habit, 

 —to look upward as often as possible on your 

 walks. An instant suffices to sweep the whole 

 heavens with your eye, and if the distant circling 

 forms, moving in so stately a manner, yet so 

 swiftly, and in their every movement personifying 

 the essence of wild and glorious freedom,— if this 

 sight does not send a thrill through the onlooker, 

 then he may at once pull his hat lower over his 

 eyes and concern himself only with his immediate 



