too grave. I have observed a flock of blackbirds
occupying an entire treetop--the tops of several trees--and all in full
song. Suddenly--in a moment--at absolutely the same instant--all
spring into the air and fly away. How? They could not all see one
another--whole treetops intervened. At no point could a leader have been
visible to all. There must have been a signal of warning or command,
high and shrill above the din, but by me unheard. I have observed,
too, the same simultaneous flight when all were silent, among not only
blackbirds, but other birds--quail, for example, widely separated by
bushes--even on opposite sides of a hill.

"It is known to seamen that a school of whales basking or sporting on
the surface of the ocean, miles apart, with the convexity of the earth
between them, will sometimes dive at the same instant--all gone out of
sight in a moment. The signal has been sounded--too grave for the ear
of the sailor at the masthead and his comrades on the deck--who
nevertheless feel its vibrations in the ship as the stones of a
cathedral are stirred by the bass of the organ.

"As with sounds, so with colors. At each end of the solar spectrum the
chemist can detect the presence of what are known as 'actinic'
rays. They represent colors--integral colors in the composition of
light--which we are unable to discern. The human eye is an imperfect
instrument; its range is but a few octaves of the real 'chromatic scale'
I am not mad; there are colors that we can not see.

"And, God help me! the Damned Thing is of such a color!"

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