The rapid evolutions of these flocks wheeling and shifting suddenly as if with one mind and one impulse; the flashing changes of color they present, as their backs their breasts, or the under part of their wings are turned to the spectator, are singularly pleasing.

When they alight, if on the ground, they cover whole acres at a time; if upon trees, the branches often break beneath their weight.

If suddenly startled while feeding in the midst of a forest, the noise they make in getting on the wing is like the roar of a cataract or the sound of distant thunder.
A flight of this kind, like an Egyptian flight of locusts, devours everything that serves for its food as it passes along.

So great were the numbers in the vicinity of the camp that Mr.Bradbury, in the course of a morning's excursion, shot nearly three hundred with a fowling-piece.

He gives a curious, though apparently a faithful, account of the kind of discipline observed in these immense flocks, so that each may have a chance of picking up food.