NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 121 



LETTER XI 



SELBORNE, Feb. 8M, 1772. 



DEAR SIR, When I ride about in the winter, and see 

 such prodigious flocks of various kinds of birds, I cannot help 

 admiring at 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 pro- 

 ceedings 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 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 to- 

 gether 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 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 



