Many learned essays on the subject were written, and many foolish solutions were advanced, among them that of harnessing a flock of birds to the balloon, with reins for guiding them.
He presented a curious spectacle when he took to flight with his gaudily painted flockof birds and the British promptly nicknamed his squadron "Richthofen's circus.
As he bore swiftly down upon them, a flock of enemy machines, over forty in number, suddenly made their appearance and swooped down from an enormous height above the clouds.
Rapidly the other big birds follow suit, and at a signal they are off, the flight commander heading the group, and the others following in close formation, like a huge flock of wild geese.
To Mrs. Lancing's imaginative eye this mist took the form of a flock of fleecy white birds just hovering before winging flight.
They drove on in silence for a few moments, and the mist gathered increasingly about them; the flock of birds had melted away, and the white velvety film floated about them like smoke.
They fairly bristled with ribbons and lace; but indeed all the girls were so gayly dressed that the Gordons looked like little gray sparrows in a flock of birds of Paradise.
A flock wandering in the waste desert, sheep set upon on all sides by the wolves.
A flock dispersed, undisciplined, without a bond--we are the flockof the Lord God!
Not an ordinary flock are we, but a flock of iron.
Their unsympathetic surroundings and the persecutions to which they were exposed but increased his compassion for the straying flock of his people.
At Thy command the desert, parched and dry, Breaks into laughing rills, and water clear Wells from the smitten rock Thy flock to cheer And quench their thirst beneath that brazen sky.
Thus Moses 'scaped the mad decree Of evil Pharaoh and set free The flock of God, prefiguring so Christ spared from fate's malignant blow.
Midst the flock from fear set free, Slinks the drear wolf sullenly, Checked his maw and tamed his mien.
Lambs of the flock too early slain, Ye first fruits of Christ's bitter pain!
I lost no time in riding to Westminster, where I found a flock of excited people in Parliament Street and in the Palace Yard.
But if they were of stone, I vow the flock could find their own straw to sit on.
And there they fell in with a whole flock of mollymocks, who were feeding on a dead whale.
As they entered the house Jane's children, a flock of five girls and two boys, fluttered up to be introduced, and among them Gabriella discovered the composed baby of Jane's tragic flight.
As it swept onward it drove a flock of shadows, like black birds, up the open street into the clear space under the old-fashioned gas lamp at the corner.
He is brusque, but kindly, and he has the same comradeship with officers and men--and even the negroes who flock to our army.
And how was he to guess, as he looked out in astonishment upon the frightened flock of white boats swimming southward, that his mother and his sweetheart were there?
When we make a halt for any time, the general officers and their staffs flock to headquarters to listen to his stories.
We've got a heap of Yankees in the town, and they all flock together and pray together.
Monsieur le maire, it may be that it is of this very flock of wolves that Jesus has constituted me the shepherd.
Even his conduct towards Napoleon had been accepted and tacitly pardoned, as it were, by the people, the good and weakly flock who adored their emperor, but loved their bishop.
He retraced his steps in anger, and threatened them with his stick: the children dispersed like a flock of birds.
The only sound was the tiny, feeble cries of a flock of birds of passage, which was traversing the heavens at an immense height.
The ministers were under-shepherds appointed to feed the flock of God, for which service they had to give account to the great Shepherd.
As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
They are also faithful attendants at the shepherd's hut; and if a dead lamb remains in the fold when the flock goes to pasture they regale on it in company with the Chimango.
I watched them, and found that after a time the flock broke up into small parties of three or four, and not into couples, and I could not detect them building.
The Ducks pay no attention to horses and cattle browsing near them; and the trained animal, with the gunner concealing his gun and person behind it, feeds quietly along, and gradually approaches the flock until within range.
When a flockis on the water the birds are perpetually quarrelling.
This flockleft when the weather turned cold; but at another estancia a flock appeared later in the season and remained all winter.
They invariably sit close together with their bills toward the wind, and the observer will watch the flock in vain to see one bird out of this beautiful order.
The flock is meanwhile continually changing its form or disposition, as if at the signal of a leader.
It is a fine and welcome sight to see a white cloud of birds settle on the afflicted district; and at such times their mode of proceeding is so regular that the flock well deserves the appellation of an army.
The flock suddenly precipitates itself downwards with a violence wonderful to see, each bird rushing this way and that as if striving to outvie its fellows in every wild fantastic motion of which they are capable.
California Woodpecker I obtained two specimens of this species from a flock in Nigger Canyon.
Hark ye, friend of mine, answered the other; with the fleece of these your fine Rouen cloth is to be made; your Leominster superfine wool is mine arse to it; mere flock in comparison.
Over the large, roomy fireplace is a painting on the wood panel, representing a rural scene, in which a shepherdess and her lover are engaged in other occupations than the care of the flock of sheep visible in the distance.
Tis perhaps a flock of wild-geese, Or perchance the blue-duck flying; Then upon thy wings arising, Fly away to highest heaven.
If a flock of birds comes into the plain, thou shalt have a duck with half of another.
It was then that Larinè shook and tossed himself with joy, so that the sewings of the flock bed burst under him and the mead of the camp was speckled with its feathers.
The first flockwas all red, the second flock was white as swans, the third flock as black as ravens.
And the little flock came forth upon the plain, and the companies of henchmen met in fray.
And I will safeguard the whole plain of Murthemne, and no one will carry off flock nor herd without that I know it.
But, see yonder a little flock coming forth on the plain from the western camp and station now.
Should a flockof birds graze upon the plain of Murthemne, thou shalt have a wild goose with half the other.
The same remarks may well apply to the white-winged crossbill (Loxia leucoptera), which was very abundant the first winter, but during the last winter a very small flock only was observed and these were apparently vagrants.
Footnote 2: When the Indians perceive a flockof these brant they make a loud clamor, which frightens the birds so much that they lose their senses, fall to the ground and are thus killed.
The hunter calmly drives the herd through the water as the shepherd does his flock on land.
And if it meets in the middle of its way a flock of sheep 1247.
The fox when it sees a flock of herons or magpies or birds of that kind, suddenly flings himself on the ground with his mouth open to look as he were dead; and these birds want to peck at his tongue, and he bites off their heads.
Far over his head a flock of wild fowl in arrow formation flew southward, and for the moment they expressed to him, as he lay in the snare, the very quintessence of freedom.
He saw a flock of wild ducks swimming strong and true against the current, and when they were gone a swarm of wild geese came with many honks out of the air and swam in the same direction.
My temples stand devoid of worshippers, who flock to pay her court; and all this not in Crete alone, but from the farthest shores of Hellas men cross the sea in white-winged ships to gaze upon her face.
From the length and breadth of Hellas men would flock to woo her, and surely from all the host one would be found to do this deed, and why should he not be that one?
I have heard the hunters say, that they never attack any one, unless there is a great flock together and the man is alone and unarmed.
They fight as skirmishers, or they march to the front as a flock of sheep of which three-fourths seek cover enroute, if the fire is heavy.
At these words, the two battalions leaped forward like a flock of sheep, dropping packs everywhere.
And then, once the enemy was in the body of the phalanx, morale disappeared and it became a mass without order, a flock of panic-stricken sheep falling over each other.
If the troops are young, they become a disordered flock before any demonstration.
The resulting formation is as confused as a flock of sheep.
Fear very quickly made the disengaged ranks take to their horses, wheel about like a flock of sheep in a stampede, and abandon their comrades and themselves to the mercy of the conquerors.
The close column is absurd; it turns you in advance into a flock of sheep, where officers and men are jumbled together without mutual support.
It is unwise to take the running step prematurely, because you become a flock of sheep and leave so many men behind that you will not reach your objective.
But it is true that if the terrain is slightly accidented, if the guide does not march with mathematical precision, the battalion in close column becomes in the twinkling of an eye a flock of sheep.
Properly so, for it degenerates rapidly into a flockof lost sheep.
The Masons gathered up their flock and drove home immediately afterward, Mr. Jettson going with them, and the others were to follow the next day.
Miss Jaqueline had in a measure taken the head of the house, with Maum Chloe and Mammy Phil, who had brought up the younger part of the flock and comforted the elders in times of difficulty and trouble.
This morning I told her we would go down to the creek and see the great flock of ducks Julius has been raising.
