"Read this passage from ""Ways of Nature."
One fall they gathered in this way and took refuge for the night in a large chimney-stack in a city near me, for more than a month and a half. Several times I went to town to witness the spectacle, and a spectacle it was: ten thousand of them, I should think, filling the air above a whole square like a whirling swarm of huge black bees, but saluting the ear with a multitudinous chippering, instead of a humming, People gathered upon the sidewalks to see them. It was a rare circus performance, free to all. After a great many feints and playful approaches, the whirling ring of birds would suddenly grow denser above the chimney; then a stream of them, as if drawn down by some power of suction, would pour into the opening.

Reread these words and phrases from the passage:
a. spectacle
b. saluting the ear
c. rare circus performance
d. feints and playful approaches

How do these words and phrases affect the meaning and tone of the passage?