WAYS OF NATURE 



that animals have some means of communication 

 with one another, especially the gregarious animals, 

 that is quite independent of what we mean by lan- 

 guage. It is like an interchange or blending of sub- 

 conscious states, and may be analogous to telepathy 

 among human beings. Observe what a unit a flock 

 of birds becomes when performing their evolutions 

 in the air. They are not many, but one, turning and 

 flashing in the sun with a unity and a precision that 

 it would be hard to imitate. One may see a flock 

 of shore-birds that behave as one body: now they 

 turn to the sun a sheet of silver; then, as their dark 

 backs are presented to the beholder, they almost dis- 

 appear against the shore or the clouds. It would 

 seem as if they shared in a communal mind or spirit, 

 and that what one felt they all felt at the same 

 instant. 



In Florida I many times saw large schools of mul- 

 lets fretting and breaking the surface of the water 

 with what seemed to be the tips of their tails. A 

 large area would be agitated and rippled by the backs 

 or tails of a host of fishes. Then suddenly, while I 

 looked, there would be one splash and every fish 

 would dive. It was a multitude, again, acting as one 

 body. Hundreds, thousands of tails slapped the 

 water at the same instant and were gone. 



When the passenger pigeons were numbered by 

 millions, the enormous clans used to migrate from 

 one part of the continent to another. I saw the last 



