WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK 219 



forward, as well as others, in fact, the whole range 

 of the phenomena — how are we to account for their 

 simultaneousness, and the other special features 

 belonging to them? 



It would seem as though either one and the same 

 idea were flashed suddenly into the minds of a 

 number of birds in close proximity to each other at 

 one and the same instant of time, or that this same 

 idea, having originated or attained a certain degree 

 of vehemence, at some one point or points — repre- 

 senting some individual bird or birds — spread from 

 thence, as from one or more centres, with incon- 

 ceivable rapidity, so as to embrace either the whole 

 group or a portion of it, according to the strength 

 of the original outleap. In other words, I suppose 

 (or, at least, I suggest it) that birds when gathered 

 together in large numbers think and act, not indi- 

 vidually, but collectively ; or, rather, that they do 

 both the one and the other, for that individual birds 

 are capable of withstanding the collective influence 

 of the flock of which they form a part, I have ample 

 evidence. The old Athenians — though slave-holders, 

 wherein they may be compared to the Americans 

 at one period — were a very democratic people, and 

 lived a more public life than any other civilised 

 community either before or after them, of which we 

 have any record. They were also of a very emo- 

 tional temperament, and it is curious to find amongst 

 them the idea (at any rate) of the (t'lM — a sudden 

 wave or current of thought which swept through 

 an assembly, causing it to think and act as one 

 man.* When watching numbers of birds together, this 



* In the wilderness of Grote's twelve volumes I cannot, now, find the 



