UONGREO.VT1>'G OF BIRDS. 147 



to the season. The two great motives which regulate the 

 proceedings of the brute creation are love and hunger ; tho 

 former incites animals to perpetuate their kind, the latter 

 jiduces them to preserve individuals. Whether either of 

 these should seem to be the ruling passion in the matter of 

 congregating, is to be considered. As to love, that is out 

 of the question at a time of the year when that soft passion 

 is not indulged ; besides, during the amorous season, such a 

 jealousy prevails between the male birds, that they can hardly 

 bear to be together in the same hedge or field. Most of the 

 singing and elation of spirits at that time seem to me to be 

 the effect of rivahy and emulation ; and it is to this spirit of 

 jealousy that I chiefly attribute the equal dispersion of birds 

 in the spring over the face of the country. 



Now as to the business of food. As these animals are 

 actuated by instinct to hunt for necessary food, they should 

 not, one woidd suppose, crowd together in pursuit of sus- 

 tenance, at a time when it is most likely to fail ; yet such 

 associations do take place in hard weather chiefly, and thicken 

 as the severity increases. As some kind of self-interest and 

 self-defence is, no doubt, the motive for the proceeding, may 

 it not arise from the helplessness of their state in such 

 rigorous seasons ; as men crowd together, when under great 

 calamities, though they know not why ? Perhaps approxi- 

 mation may dispel some degree of cold : and a crowd mpy 

 make each individual appear safer from the ravages of bii'ds 

 of prey, and other dangers. 



If 1 admire when I see how much congenerous birds love 

 to congregate, I am the more struck when I see incongruous 

 ones in such strict amity. If we do not much wonder to see 

 a flock of rooks usually attended by a train of daws, yet it is 

 strange that the former should so frequently have a flight of 

 starlings for their satellites.* Is it because rooks have a 

 more discerning scent than their attendants, and can lead 

 them to spots more productive of food r* Anatomists say 

 that rooks, by reason of two large nerves which run down 



* Mr. White says it is strange that rooks anJ starlings accompany each 

 other, but this is the case witli other birds. The short-eared owl often 

 accompanies flights of woodcocks in this country. In Greece, the cucko<i 

 migrates wi'.h the turtle-flocks ; thence they are called trigonokracti, oi 

 taiii ? -leader. — Rev. J. Mitford. 



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