OF SELBORNE. 133 
the only reason why they shun the rigour of our 
winters; for the robust wryneck (so much resem. 
bling the hardy race of woodpeckers) migrates, 
while the feeble little golden-crowned wren, that 
shadow of a bird, braves our severest frosts with- 
out availing himself of houses or villages, to which 
most of our winter birds crowd in distressful sea- 
sons, while this keeps aloof in fields and woods; 
but perhaps this may be the reason why they often 
perish, and why they are almost as rare as any bird 
we know. 
I have no reason to doubt but that the soft-billed 
birds which winter with us subsist chiefly on insects 
in their aurelia state. All the species of wagtails 
in severe weather haunt shallow streams, near their 
spring-heads, where they never freeze; and, by 
wading, pick up the aurelias of the genus of Phry- 
ganee,* &c. 
Hedge-sparrows frequent sinks and gutters in 
hard weather, where they pick up crumbs and 
other sweepings ; and in mild weather they procure 
worms, which are stirring every month in the year, 
as any one may see that will only be at the trouble 
of taking a candle to a grassplat on any mild winter’s 
night. Redbreasts and wrens in the winter haunt 
outhouses, stables, and barns, where they find 
spiders and flies that have laid themselves up du- 
ring the cold season. But the grand support of the 
soft-billed birds in winter is that infinite profusion 
of aurelize of the Zepidoptera ordo, which is fastened 
‘to the twigs of trees and their trunks; to the pales 
and walls of gardens and buildings ; and is found 
* See Derham’s Physico-Theology, p. 235. 
M 
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