BLACKBIRDS 263 



points merely, seen against the sky, — but as often as 

 they wheeled to the right or left, displaying their wings 

 flatwise and the whole length of their bodies, they were 

 a very conspicuous black mass. This fluctuation in the 

 amount of dark surface was a very pleasing phenome- 

 non. It reminded me of those blinds whose sashes [sic] 

 are made to move all together by a stick, now admitting 

 nearly all the light and now entirely excluding it ; so 

 the flock of blackbirds opened and shut. But at length 

 they suddenly spread out and dispersed, some flying 

 off this way, and others that, as, when a wave strikes 

 against a cliff, it is dashed upward and lost in fine 

 spray. So they lost their compactness and impetus and 

 broke up suddenly in mid-air. 



April 25, 1860. I hear the greatest concerts of black- 

 birds — red-wings and crow blackbirds — nowadays, es- 

 pecially of the former (also the 22d and 29th). The 

 maples and willows along the river, and the button- 

 bushes, are all alive with them. They look like a black 

 fruit on the trees, distributed over the top at pretty 

 equal distances. It is worth while to see how slyly they 

 hide at the base of the thick and shaggy button-bushes 

 at this stage of the water. They will suddenly cease 

 their strains and flit away and secrete themselves low 

 amid these bushes till you are past ; or you scare up an 

 unexpectedly large flock from such a place, where you 

 had seen none. 



I pass a large quire in full blast on the oaks, etc., on 

 the island in the meadow northwest of Peter's. Sud- 

 denly they are hushed, and I hear the loud rippling 

 rush made by their wings as they dash away, and, look- 



