OF SELBORXE. 141 



these congregations, and wishing that it was in my power to 

 account for those appearances almost peculiar to the season. 

 The two great motives which regulate the proceedings of the 

 brute creation are love and hunger ; the former incites animals 

 to perpetuate 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 consi- 

 dered. 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 emula- 

 tion : 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 actu- 

 ated 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 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 



