OF SELBORNE. 191 
creation the same neat precaution is made use of, 
particularly among dogs and cats. But in birds 
there seems to be a particular provision, that the 
dung of nestlings is enveloped in a tough kind of 
jelly, and therefore is the easier conveyed off with- 
out soiling or daubing. Yet, as Nature is cleanly 
in all her ways, the young perform this office for 
themselves in a little time by thrusting their tails 
out at the aperture of their nest. As the young of 
small birds presently arrive at their 7)Acxéa, or full 
growth, they soon become impatient of confinement, 
and sit all day with their heads out at the orifice, 
where the dams, by clinging to the nest, supply 
them with food from morning to night. Fora time 
the young are fed on the wing by their parents ; 
but the feat is done by so quick and almost imper- 
ceptible a slight, that a person must have attended 
very exactly to their motions before he would be 
able to perceive it. As soon as the young are able 
to shift for themselves, the dams immediately turn 
their thoughts to the business of a second brood ; 
while the first flight, shaken off and rejected by 
their nurses, congregate in great flocks, and are 
the birds that are seen clustering and hovering, on 
sunny mornings and evenings, round towers and 
steeples, and on the roofs of churches and houses. 
These congregations usually begin to take place 
about the first week in August, and therefore we 
may conclude that by that time the first flight is 
pretty well over. The young of this species do not 
quit their abodes all together, but the more forward 
birds get abroad some days before the rest. These, 
approaching the eaves of buildings, and playing 
about before them, make people think that several 
