86 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



I have discovered an anecdote with respect to the fieldfare 

 (turdus pilaris), which I think is par- 

 ticular enough: this bird, though it 

 sits on trees in the day-time, and pro- 

 cures the greatest part of its food 

 from white-thorn hedges ; yea, more- 

 over, builds on very high trees ; as may 

 be seen by the fauna suecica; yet always 

 appears with us to roost on the ground. ' Fieldfare. 



They are seen to come in flocks just before it is dark, and to 

 settle and nestle among the heath on our forest. And besides, 

 the larkers, in dragging their nets by night, frequently catch 

 them in the wheat-stubbles; while the bat-fowlers, who take 

 many red-wings in the hedges, never entangle any of this species. 

 Why these birds, in the matter of roosting, should differ from all 

 their congeners, and from themselves also with respect to their 

 proceedings by day, is a fact for which I am by no means able to 

 account.f 



I have somewhat to inform you of concerning the moose-deer ; 

 but in general foreign animals fall seldom in my way ; my little 

 intelligence is confined to the narrow sphere of my own ob- 

 servations at home. 



LETTER XXVIII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ. 



Selborne, March, 1770. 

 ON Michaelmas-day 1768, 1 managed to get a sight of the female 



and theu lining its bed with a few weeds, showing a marked preference to hearts'-ease (viola tricolor) 

 if there be any in its way ; it also covers itself during the day with these plants, that it should not 

 be perceived in its habitation. This animal is quite omnivorous in its diet, and in its wild state 

 feeds on insects, worms, various roots, and animal matter in every state, having been known to 

 attack and destroy snakes, and even leverets. It preys also on frogs and toads, and will devour 

 fruit, and eggs, to obtain which latter it has been seen to drive a hen off her nest. It is an 

 equally general feeder when domesticated, and may be kept on the various refuse from the table, 

 besides which it will destroy the cockroaches and crickets which infest a house, and the cater- 

 pillars and worms in a garden, where it is accordingly rather serviceable than otherwise. The 

 urchin is a more docile creature than is generally imagined, and there is an instance recorded, 

 upon good authority, of one which had learned to perform the duty of a turnspit dog, in every 

 respect as well as that animal. In the wild state it becomes torpid in winter; and it produces a 

 variable number of young, from two to six or seven, most probably according to its age. Their 

 spines are at first few in number and all inclining backwards, soft, but become hard and sharp in 

 about twenty four hours. ED. 



t Connected with this habit of the fieldfare, which every field naturalist must have observed, 

 a singular mode of capturing them is sometimes practised, which is occasionally very successful. 

 A number of persons repair to their haunts on a dark night, some with lanterns, and others with 

 sticks, to drive them from the furze and other bushes, and bells which they keep incessantly 

 ringing, which so bewilders and confuses the birds that they fly towards the lights, and suffer 

 themselves to be easily taken with the hand ED. 



