Darkness frees the ear to imagine more than daylight’s eye confirms

Evidence

To arrive too early in the marsh is an adventure in pure listening; the ear roams at will among the noises of the night, without let or hindrance from hand or eye. When you hear a mallard being audibly enthusiastic about his soup, you are free to picture a score guzzling among the duckweeds. When one widgeon squeals, you may postulate a squadron without fear of visual contradiction. And when a flock of bluebills, pitching pondward, tears the dark silk of heaven in one long rending nose-dive, you catch your breath at the sound, but there is nothing to see except stars. This same performance, in daytime, would have to be looked at, shot at, missed, and then hurriedly fitted with an alibi. Nor could daylight add anything to your mind’s eye picture of quivering wings, ripping the firmament neatly into halves. — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 220

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Obscured sounds and sights lodge deeper in memory than obvious ones — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 193; Pre-dawn is the pleasantest and least useful time of day — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 216; What the ear perceives can diverge from sound’s physical components. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1568

Broader Connections

• What the ear perceives can diverge from sound’s physical components. #corroborates (0.80) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1568