NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 145 
Li © gi it Ot aa a 
TO THE SAME, 
SELBORNE, Fed, 8th, 1772. 
DEAR SIR,— When I ride about in the winter, and see such pro- 
digious flocks of various kinds of birds, I cannot help admiring at 
these congregations, and wishing that it was in my power to account 
for those appearances almost peculiar to the season. The two 
great motives which regulate the proceedings of the brute creation 
are love and hunger ; the former incites animals to perpetuate their 
kind ; the latter induces 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 of that time seem to me to be the effect of rivalry 
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 would 
suppose, crowd together in pursuit of sustenance 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 approximation 
may dispel some degree of cold; and a crowd may make each 
individual appear safer from the ravages of birds of prey and other 
dangers. 
If I admire when I see how much congenerous birds iove to con- 
gregate, 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 
Is 
