"Books - David Eddings - Polgara the Sorceress" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

hilltop. 'Polgara found some seeds up there, and my mate and I have
babies to feed. Why don't you talk with her while we tend to
business?'
'All right,' the lark agreed. 'My mate doth still sit upon our eggs,
warming them with her substance, so I have ample time to guide
our sister here.'

'There's a seed!' the female sparrow chirped excitedly. And she
swooped down off my shoulder to seize it. Her mate soon saw
another, and the two of them flew off.
'Sparrows are, methinks, somewhat overly excitable,' the lark
noted. 'Whither wouldst thou go, sister?'
'I'll leave that up to you,' I replied. 'I'd sort of like to get to know


more birds, though.'
And that began my education in ornithology. I met all manner of
birds that morning. The helpful lark took me around and introduced
me. His rather lyrical assessments of the varied species were
surprisingly acute. As I've already mentioned, he told me that sparrows
are excitable and talky. He characterized robins as oddly aggressive,
and then added that they tended to say the same things over and
over. Jays scream a lot. Swallows show off. Crows are thieves.
Vultures stink. Hummingbirds aren't really very intelligent. If he's
forced to think about it, the average hummingbird gets so confused
that he forgets exactly how to hover in mid-air. Owls aren't really
as wise as they're reputed to be, and my guide referred to them
rather deprecatingly as 'flying mouse-traps'. Seagulls have a grossly
exaggerated notion of their own place in the overall scheme of
things. Your average seagull spends a lot of his time pretending to
be an eagle. I normally wouldn't have seen any seagulls in the
Vale, but the blustery wind had driven them inland. The assorted
waterfowl spent almost as much time swimming as they did flying,
and they were very clannish. I didn't really care that much for ducks
and geese. They're pretty, I suppose, but their voices set my teeth
on edge.
The aristocrats of birds are the raptors. The various hawks,
depending on their size, have a complicated hierarchy, and standing
at the very pinnacle of birddom is the eagle.
I communed with the various birds for the rest of the day, and
by evening they had grown so accustomed to me that some of them,
like my cheeky little sparrow and his mate, actually perched on me.
As evening settled over the Vale I promised to return the next day,
and my lyric lark accompanied me back to uncle Beldin's tower.
'What have you been doing, Pol?' beldaran asked curiously after
I'd mounted the stairs and rejoined her. As was usual when we
were talking to each other privately, Beldaran spoke to me in 'twin'.
'I met some birds,' I replied.
"'Met"? How do you meet a bird?'
'You talk to them, Beldaran.'