XVII. THE ANIMAL ' CHAPTER OF 

 ACCIDENTS ' 



THE midnight passages of great flocks of birds over 

 large cities which from time to time have attracted the 

 attention of naturalists usually leave no trace of the 

 visits of the fowl, which vanish as soon as the dawn 

 appears. Though the calls of the birds and the sound 

 of their wings may indicate that vast numbers and 

 various species, such as herons, gulls, plovers, crows, 

 terns, ducks, geese, and small birds, have hovered for 

 hours over cities, as has been noted both at Norwich 

 and Leicester on a ' migration night/ with the dawn of 

 day the spell is broken, and the flocks resume their 

 journey without leaving a single bird behind. The 

 Manchester papers record a curious mishap which befell 

 some large bird recently, probably while making one of 

 these midnight flights. The Manchester Town Hall is 

 surmounted by a spiked ball ; and on one of the spikes 

 of this finial, at a height of nearly three hundred feet, 



a bird, said by some to be an eagle, and identified by 



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