Such a wild, joyous, frolicsome spirit with such
grace and fleetness one does not look for in human beings,
But
only in birds or in some small bird-like volatile mammal - a
squirrel or a marmoset of the tropical forest, or the
chinchilla of the desolate mountain slopes, the swiftest,
wildest, loveliest, most airy and most vocal of small
beasties. Occasionally to watch their wonderful motions more
closely and have speech with them, I followed when they raced
over the sands or flew about over the slippery rocks, and felt
like a cochin-china fowl, or muscovy duck, or dodo, trying to
keep pace with a humming-bird. Their voices were well suited
to their small brilliant forms; not loud, though high-pitched
and singularly musical and penetrative, like the high clear
notes of a skylark at a distance. They also reminded me of
certain notes, which have a human quality, in some of our
songsters - the swallow, redstart, pied wagtail, whinchat, and
two or three others. Such pure and beautiful sounds are
sometimes heard in human voices, chiefly in children, when
they are talking and laughing in joyous excitement. But for
any sort of conversation they were too volatile; before I
could get a dozen words from them they would be off again,
flying and flitting along the margin, like sandpipers, and
beating the clear-voiced sandpiper at his own aerial graceful
game.
By and by I was favoured with a fine exhibition of the spirit
animating these two little things.
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