NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 157 



two great motives which regulate the proceedings of the brute 

 creation are love and hunger ; the former incites animals to per- 

 petuate 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 approxi- 

 mation 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 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 ? Anatomists say that rooks, by reason of two large nerves 

 which run down between the eyes into the upper mandible, have 

 a more delicate feeling in their beaks than other round-billed 

 birds, and can grope for their meat when out of sight. Perhaps, 

 then, their associates attend them on the motive of interest, as 



