186 BIRDS AND MAN 



badly off, and I have had many happy days 

 with him there. Simply to watch the birds at 

 feed, when the tide goes out and they are busy 

 searching for the small marine creatures they 

 Uve on among the stranded seaweed, is a great 

 pleasure. At such times they are most active 

 and loquacious, uttering a variety of wild goose- 

 hke sounds, frequently rising to pursue one 

 another in circles, or to fly up and down the 

 coast in pairs, or strings of half-a-dozen birds, 

 with a wonderfully graceful flight. If, after 

 watching this sea-fowl by the sea, a person wUl 

 go to some park water to look on the same 

 bird, pinioned and tame, sitting or standing, or 

 swimming about in a quiet, Ustless way, he will 

 be amazed at the difference in its appearance. 

 The tame bird is no bigger than a domestic duck ; 

 the wild sheldrake, flying about in the strong 

 sunshine, looks almost as large as a goose. A 

 similar illusion is produced in the case of some 

 other large birds. Thus, the common buzzard, 

 when rising in circles high above us, at times 

 appears as big as an eagle, and it has been con- 

 jectured that this n^agnifying effect, which gives 

 something of sublimity to the soaring buzzard, is 



