xvi OUTDOOR AND INDOOR ORNITHOLOGY 397 
A good deal about flight may be learnt with a 
field-glass. When Gulls are playing in the air, or 
when a Lark is rising, or when a Swallow is dashing 
to and fro, you can often make out by the help of it 
the movements of the head and tail. Sometimes, 
though, the naked eye is better, as it takes time to 
aim with the glass, and the bird may be gone before 
you have a good view of him. A great many birds 
may be known by their flight. The Duck with its 
outstretched neck, rapid wing ‘pulsation, and lumber- 
ing velocity, the slow and heavy stroke of the Heron, 
the light easy beat of the Gull’s finely-pointed wings, 
the hovering of the Hawk, the sudden dashes and 
acrobatic turns of the Swift or the Swallow are 
things easy to remember. A man who is much in 
the open air, and brings an eye for what he sees, 
notices many more varieties than these. 
Most boys go through a birds’-nesting stage, and 
to some of them it brings a good deal of valuable 
knowledge. At the same time they may get a liking 
for birds that will introduce a spirit of humanity into 
their birds’-nesting, and lead them to a study of the 
lives and habits of creatures who have become their 
friends but were formerly their victims. But with 
many it is, no doubt, only a form of greed and 
rapacity, not so bad as that of the miser, since they 
will probably either outgrow it or transform it to 
something better, but, for all that, similar in its 
nature. Collecting anything, whether birds, eggs, or 
postage stamps, or autographs, merely for the sake of 
amassing, is a worse than barren employment. But 
if a birds’-nester makes a point of observing the 
