2O2 The Natural History of Selborne 



gating 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 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 con- 

 gregate, 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 upper mandible, have a more delicate 

 feeling in their beaks than other round-billed birds, and can grope 

 for their meat when out of sight. Perhaps, then, their associates 

 attend them on the motive of interest, as greyhounds wait on the 

 motions of their finders ; and as lions are said to do on the yelpings 

 of jackals. Lapwings and starlings sometimes associate. 



