Summary

Nat doesn’t understand what the seagulls are waiting for, but he senses that they might attack soon. To prepare his house, he boards up all the windows and chimneys so the birds can’t break through. Over the radio, reports of bird attacks flood the station. The birds are described as “vast black clouds” that block out the sun. Although he’s reporting a shocking story of local danger, Nat notices that the announcer’s voice remains calm and suave. For some reason, this deeply annoys him: “Nat had the impression that [the announcer] treated the whole business as he would an elaborate joke. There would be others like him, hundreds of them, who did not know what it was to struggle in darkness with a flock of birds” (Page 6). Mrs. Hocken suggests that the army should come and shoot the birds from the sky...