. Nature in downland. ercise of his own powers offlight than the peewit. Flying is to him like riding,cycling, rowing or sailing, and skating (I wish I couldadd ballooning or rushing about in a flying-machine)to ourselves. It is his sport; and during the springand summer season, when peewits live in pairs orsmall parties, he spends a great part of his time inthose quite useless, but doubtless exhilarating, displayswhich we are never tired of watching. Rising to aconsiderable height in the air, he lets himself go, withthe determination apparently of breaking the peewitrecord; that is to say, of
. Nature in downland. ercise of his own powers offlight than the peewit. Flying is to him like riding,cycling, rowing or sailing, and skating (I wish I couldadd ballooning or rushing about in a flying-machine)to ourselves. It is his sport; and during the springand summer season, when peewits live in pairs orsmall parties, he spends a great part of his time inthose quite useless, but doubtless exhilarating, displayswhich we are never tired of watching. Rising to aconsiderable height in the air, he lets himself go, withthe determination apparently of breaking the peewitrecord; that is to say, of rushing downwards in theapproved suicidally insane manner, with suddendoublings this way and that, and other violent eccen-tric motions designed to make him lose his head; andfinally to come at fullest speed within an inch, or asmuch less than an inch as he can, of dashing himselfinto a pulp on the ground below. Blake, in his tiger song, exclaims— And what shoulder, and what art,Could twist the siuews of thy heart!. > THE MARITIME DISTRICT 245 The peewit, too, compared with man, must have aremarkable heart, and brain, and nerves, to do suchthings purely for the fun of it. Here, sitting on ahill side, I watched a male bird, amusing himself inthe air while his mate was on the nest, rise up andrepeat the action of pretending to go mad and hurlhimself down to destruction over fifty times withoutresting. Then he alighted, and I began to imaginewhat his sensations must be: his brain, I thought,must seem to him to have got away somehow fromhis body and to be rushing madly this way and thatthrough the air. Meantime the bird was standingplacidly regarding his mate; then he nodded his headonce or twice to her, and in a twinkling was off, highup, and at his capers once more. In autumn and winter, when a large number ofpeewits are congregated, their wing-exercises are mostlyof another kind. Each bird is then, like the starling,or linnet, or dunlin, in its flock, one of a company;and
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