70 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Water-Rail and Spotted Crake, but the small birds 

 seemed to appear suddenly from nowhere as if they had 

 dropped down rapidly from a height. On the evening of 

 September 6th I went over to the Navy House courtyard 

 to see whether there were any Nightingales in the trees 

 there. A careful examination of the two largest trees 

 whose middle boughs swept the balcony revealed only 

 one Nightingale, although there were plenty of other 

 birds there. Toward sunset I suddenly became aware 

 that there were more Nightingales, quite a number in 

 fact, and I shot two Sprossers and one common Nightin- 

 gale for specimens. Although the trees had been closely 

 watched the whole time, these arrivals had escaped 

 notice, which could scarcely have been the case had 

 the birds approached from anywhere near the horizontal, 

 hence the conclusion that they had dropped in almost 

 vertically. 



Such a conclusion may seem rather far-fetched, but it 

 is nevertheless an undoubted fact that birds can and do 

 sometimes make downward swoops of very great rapidity. 

 This may be seen on a winter's evening in London by 

 watching the Starlings coming in to roost in the big 

 poplar trees in St. James's Park. One's attention is first 

 drawn to the sudden appearance in the tree-tops of the 

 first party of Starlings, which proceed to settle down in 

 their night quarters with the noisy chatter characteristic 

 of the species. Stop near the trees, and you cannot fail 

 to be aware both by eye and ear that the numbers of 

 birds are increasing every few minutes, and yet no more 

 have actually been seen coming in. Now move two or 

 three hundred yards away from the trees, and careful 

 watching will reveal a party of Starlings, high in the air, 

 coming from the northward. They look as if they are 

 going to take no interest in our poplar trees, as they 

 seem to continue their flight until they are right over 

 them. Suddenly there is a check, and down, almost 

 vertically, they come hurtling through the air, growing 

 from a speck to a Starling with such marvellous rapidity 



