AFFECTIONS OF BIRDS. 163 



and other such desolate districts, birds are so little 

 acquainted with the human form, that they settle 

 on men's shoulders, and have no more dread of a 

 sailor than they would have of a goat that was 

 grazing. A young man at Lewes, in Sussex, assured 

 me, that, about seven years ago, ringousels abounded 

 so about that town in the autumn, that he killed 

 sixteen himself in one afternoon : he added farther, 

 that some had appeared since in every autumn ; 

 but he could not find that any had been observed 

 before the season in which he shot so many. I 

 myself have found these birds in little parties in 

 the autumn, cantoned all alongf the Sussex downs, 

 wherever there were shrubs and bushes, from Chi- 

 chester to Lewes ; particularly in the autumn of 

 1770. 



LETTER LII. 



TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, March 26, 1773. 



DEAR SIR, 



THE more I reflect on the oropy?), or natural 

 affection of animals, the more I am astonished at its 

 effects. Nor is the violence of its affection more 

 wonderful than the shortness of its duration. Thus 

 every hen is in her turn the virago of the yard, in 

 proportion to the helplessness of her brood; and 

 will fly in the face of a dog or a sow in defence of 

 those chickens, which, in a few weeks, she will drive 

 before her with relentless cruelty. 



This affection sublimes the passions, quickens the 

 invention, and sharpens the sagacity of the brute 

 M 2 



