"All morning, far over to his left where the light of the swamp ended and farmlands began, a clumsy shape had been lifting itself out of an invisible paddock and making slow circuits of the air, climbing, dipping, rolling a little, then disappearing below the trees." (page 1)
             Jim Saddler is peacefully watching birds in the swampland and thinking how far the birds had been, how much of the world they had seen. While Jims eye was on a swamphen (page 3), he noticed a disturbance in the sky, a bi-plane, an intruder which made Jim feel uneasy.
             The bi-plane is owned by Ashley Crowther "a young man, not all that much older than himself" (page 3). Ashley had been away at Cambridge in England and had returned back to southern Queensland to manage his father's farm.
             The first noticeable difference between Ashley and Jim mentioned in the text is their different backgrounds. For example, Ashley had had a Cambridge education and had inherited his father's farmland. Jim had lived his whole life on the land in the area and described the tree line to be like a symbol of his boundary.
             Also, Ashley is presented as having a very active social life. Jim noticed there were "regular weekend guests at the homestead", these included "young fellows, and also ladies, who arrived in automobiles". They were there to "ride, to eat big meals in the lamp lit house and to dance to gramophone music on the verandah". (page 4)
             Jims father had a strong dislike for the English, because of their "fancy accents and their newfangled ideas. And their machines!" (page 6) Despite this, Jim accepted the offer made by Ashley to work for him on the land, studying and recording birds and also giving tours for his guests. Although Jim recognised the difference between them, he thought he would "take the risk" (page 7) because he believed that there was "something in the silence that existed betw...