noon
He looked up , and was astonished to see numbers of great birds flying north , where no birds had appeared before . They were miles high , and invisible to ordinary sight , but he could see them so distinctly , their shape and colours , that all the birds he knew were easily recognized . There were swans , shining white , with black heads and necks , flying in wedge-shaped flocks , and rose-coloured spoonbills , and flamingoes with scarlet wings tipped with black , and ibises , and ducks of different colours , and many other birds , both water and land , appeared , flock after flock , all flying as fast as their wings could bear them towards the north . He continued watching them until it was past noon , and then he saw fewer and fewer , only very big birds , appearing ; and then these were seen less and less until there were none . Then he turned his eyes on the plain and tried to find the herd of wild cattle , but they were no longer visible ; it was as he had seen it in the morning with the pale blue haze over all the distant earth . He was told that the power to see all distant things with a vision equal to his mother 's was now exhausted , and when he grieved at the loss she comforted him with the promise that it would be renewed at some other time . -LSB- Illustration : -RSB- Now one day when they were out together Martin was greatly surprised and disturbed at a change in his mother .