AFFECTIONS OF BIRDS. 165 



half fledged, the reflection of the wall became in- 

 supportable, and must inevitably have destroyed the 

 tender young, had not affection suggested an expe- 

 dient, and prompted the parent birds to hover over 

 the nest all the hotter hours, while, with wings ex- 

 panded, and mouths gaping for breath, they screened 

 off the heat from their suffering offspring. 



A farther instance I once saw of notable sagacity 

 in a willow- wren, which had built in a bank in my 

 fields. This bird a friend and myself had observed 

 as she sat in her nest, but were particularly careful 

 not to disturb her, though we saw she eyed us with 

 some degree of jealousy. Some days after, as we 

 passed that way, we were desirous of remarking how 

 this brood went on ; but no nest could be found, till 

 I happened to take up a large bundle of long green 

 moss, as it were carelessly thrown over the nest, in 

 order to dodge the eye of any impertinent intruder. 



A still more remarkable mixture of sagacity and 

 instinct occurred to me one day, as my people were 

 pulling off the lining of a hot-bed, in order to add 

 some fresh dung. From out of the side of this bed 

 leaped an animal with great agility, that made a most 

 grotesque figure ; nor was it without great difficulty 

 that it could be taken, when it proved to be a large 

 white-bellied field-mouse, with three or four young 

 clinging to her teats by their mouths and feet. It 

 was amazing that the desultory and rapid motions of 

 this dam should not oblige her litter to quit their 

 hold, especially when it appeared that they were so 

 young as to be both naked and blind* ! 



* I have seen the same thing with our common bat. I once 

 slept, during a very stormy night, in a house of considerable 

 age, and not in the best state of repair. One of the windows 

 in my bed-room had been built up, but so loosely, that bats and 

 swifts had free access between the wall and a large board that 

 was placed on the inside, to add to the warmth of the room. 



