of Animals to secure Warmth. 507 



themselves between one another, as the sparrows had done ; 

 but whether they intended to roost there, or were merely set- 

 tling the order of precedence before retiring into some hole in 

 the tree, I did not ascertain, for, in my eagerness to observe, 

 I approached so near as to alarm them, and they all flew 

 off to a distant field. 



That the contest for places among the little bottle-tits was 

 only previous to retreating into some more snug corner for the 

 night, appears to me probable, from the known habits of their 

 congeners, and also from what I daily observe among sparrows. 

 Every evening before going into their roosting holes, the latter 

 assemble on some adjacent tree or house-top, squabbling and 

 shifting places for a considerable time, and then dropping off, 

 one by one, according as they seem to have agreed upon the 

 etiquette of precedence. Hardy as they certainly are, spar- 

 rows manifest great dislike to exposure during the night, and, 

 accordingly, they may be observed taking advantage of every 

 variety of shelter. They are most commonly seen, indeed, 

 creeping under the eaves of houses, or the cornices of pillars, 

 but they are equally fond of a hole in a hay-stack, of getting 

 under the lee-side of a rook's nest on a lofty tree, or of pop- 

 ping into a sand-hole burrowed out for its nest by the bank 

 swallow (Hirundo riparia, RAY). 



But while I am disposed to give sparrows all due credit for 

 their tact in discovering the warmest and best sheltered roost- 

 ing places, I am convinced that White of Selborne attributes 

 to them more intelligence than can be verified by facts. 

 * House-sparrows,' he says, ' build under eaves in the spring ; 

 as the weather becomes hotter, they get out for coolness, and 

 nest in plum trees and apple trees*.' Dr. Darwin, on the 

 other hand, imagined that the sparrows betake themselves to 

 trees when they cannot find convenient holes, and, therefore, 

 mentions as a singular circumstance, that ' in the trees before 

 Mr. Levet's house in Lichfield, there are annually nests built 

 by sparrows ; a bird/ he adds, ' which usually builds under 

 the tiles of houses or the thatch of barasf ;' while M. Bonnet, 

 taking a directly opposite view, says, ' II 1'etablit pour, Vordi- 



* Letter 60. f Zoonomia, i. xvi, 13, 2. 



