of Animals to secure Warmth. 509 



March or July, when the parent bird is panting in the common 

 heat of the atmosphere, has the same provisions made to 

 afford warmth to the brood*.' 



So true is this of the thrush and the' blackbird (Merula 

 vulgaris, RAY), that in the early spring they seem not even to 

 take the usual precautions for concealment, as I have often 

 seen these nests in leafless bushes : a thrush's I particularly 

 recollect observing near Blarney- Castle, in Ireland, about 

 the end of March, when the winds were almost as biting and 

 cold as in January, placed in the naked fork of a young oak. 

 In accordance with their usual instinct, the mother-bird was 

 so afraid of exposing her eggs to the cold wind, that she 

 suffered me almost to touch her before she would stir from her 

 place. This family of birds, however, though so careful to 

 provide shelter and warmth for their eggs and young, shew no 

 wisdom in procuring the same comforts for themselves during 

 winter, as they usually roost along with red-wings and chaf- 

 finches in the open hedges, where they are often frozen to 

 death in severe weather f, or are captured by bat-fowlers. 

 The starling (Sturnus vulyaris, LINN.) exhibits more care for 

 itself, by roosting in the holes of trees, in the towers of 

 churches, or under the tiles of an old house, like the sparrow, 

 and frequently among the thick tops of reeds, in marshes. 

 Yet will they sometimes suffer from frost even there ; and one 

 winter's day in 1822, after a very keen frost in the night, when 

 I was searching for lichens on the trees in Copenhagen-fields, 

 I found a cock starling lying in a hole, frozen to death. It 

 was in very fine condition, and more perfect in plumage than 

 1 ever saw this species ; but it did not appear, upon the closest 

 examination, to have received any shot or other injury to 

 cause its death besides the effects of the frost. 



It may be remarked, that, like the sparrows and other birds 

 which roost in holes, the starlings huddle closely together, con- 

 tending for places, a circumstance, indeed, recorded by Pliny. 

 ( As touching sterlings,' says he, ' it is the property of the 

 whole kind of them to flie by troups, and in their flight to 

 gather round into a ring or ball, whiles every one of them hath 



* Journal of a Naturalist, p. 167. Third edition. 

 f White's Selburne, letter 150. 



