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 

 intercircling 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, 

 r — ^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 puU his hat lower over his 

 eyes and concern himself only ydth his immediate 



