156 CONGREGATING OF BIRDS. 



gregating, 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 de- 

 gree of cold : and a crowd may make each indivi- 

 dual 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 



