n8 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



near their spring-heads, where they never freeze ; and, by wading, 

 pick out the aurelias of the genus of Phryganeiz, etc. 



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 grass-plot on any mild winter's night. Red- 



THE GOLDCREST. 



breasts and wrens in the winter haunt outhouses, stables, and 

 barns, where they find spiders and flies that have laid themselves 

 up during the cold season. But the grand support of the soft- 

 billed birds in winter is that infinite profusion of aurelia of the 

 Lepidoptera ordo, which is fastened to the twigs of trees and their 

 trunks ; to the pales and walls of gardens and buildings ; and is 

 found in every cranny and cleft of rock or rubbish, and even in 

 the ground itself. 



