Choice Specimens of American Literature, and Literary Reader: Being Selections from the Chief American WritersMartin, Benj. N. (Benjamin Nicholas)
General
Choice Specimens of American Literature, and Literary Reader: Being Selections from the Chief American Writers
Martin, Benj. N. (Benjamin Nicholas)
American literature
I cannot describe to you the extreme beauty of their aerial evolutions,
when a hawk chanced to press upon the rear of a flock. At once, like a
torrent, and with a noise like thunder, they rushed into a compact mass,
pressing upon each other towards the centre. In these almost solid
masses, they darted forward in undulating and angular lines, descended
and swept close over the earth with inconceivable velocity, mounted
perpendicularly so as to resemble a vast column, and when high, were
seen wheeling and twisting within their continued lines, which then
resembled the coils of a gigantic serpent.
It is extremely interesting to see flock after flock performing exactly
the same evolutions which had been traced as it were, in the air, by a
preceding flock. Thus should a hawk have charged on a group at a certain
spot, the angles, curves, and undulations that have been described by
the birds, in their efforts to escape from the dreaded talons of the
plunderer, are undeviatingly followed by the next group that comes up.
Should the by-stander happen to witness one of these affrays, and,
struck with the rapidity and elegance of the motions exhibited, feel
desirous of seeing them repeated, his wishes will be gratified, if he
only remain in the place until the next group comes up.
As soon as the pigeons discover a sufficiency of food to entice them to
alight, they fly around in circles, reviewing the country below. During
their evolutions, on such occasions, the dense mass which they form,
exhibits a beautiful appearance, as it changes its direction, now
displaying a glistening sheet of azure, when the backs of the birds come
simultaneously into view, and anon, suddenly presenting a mass of rich
purple. They then pass lower, over the woods, and for a moment are lost
among the foliage, but again emerge, and are seen gliding aloft. They
now alight, but the next moment, as if suddenly alarmed, they take to
wing, producing by the flapping of their wings a noise like the roar of
distant thunder, and sweep through the forests to see if danger is near.
Hunger, however, soon brings them to the ground. When alighted, they
are seen industriously throwing up the withered leaves in quest of the
falling mast. The rear ranks are continually rising, passing over the
main body, and alighting in front, in such rapid succession, that the
whole flock seems still on wing. The quantity of ground thus swept is
astonishing, and so completely has it been cleared, that the gleaner who
might follow in their rear, would find his labor completely lost.
* * * * *
=_259._= EMIGRANTS REMOVING WESTWARD.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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