SOLITARY AND GREGARIOUS. 51 



<the feathered tribe seem to have a general tendency 

 towards association, either in flocks, family parties, 

 or pairs ; but the individuals of this species pass a 

 large portion of their lives retired arid alone, two of 

 them being rarely, or, perhaps, never, found in com- 

 pany, except in the breeding season. They are sup- 

 posed to pair and raise their young in the deep 

 marshy tracts or reedy districts of the fen-counties, 

 which afford concealment from every prying eye, and 

 safety from all common injuries. Driven by the 

 frosts of winter from these watery tracts, their sum- 

 mer's covert, they separate, and seek for food in 

 more favoured situations, preferring a little, lonely 

 open spring, trickling from the side of a hill, tangled 

 with grass and foliage, or some shallow, rushy 

 streamlet in a retired valley. Having fixed on such 

 a place, they seldom abandon it long, or quit it for 

 another, and though roused from it, and fired at 

 repeatedly through the day, not any sense of danger 

 seems to alarm them ; and if we should seek for the 

 little judcock on an ensuing morning, we find it at 

 its spring again. The indifference with which it 

 endures this persecution is amazing. It will afford 

 amusement or vexation to the young sportsman 

 throughout the whole Christmas vacation ; and from 

 the srnallness of its body, will finally often escape 

 from all its diurnal dangers. 



" The causes that influence this snipe to lead so 

 solitary a life are particularly obscure, as well as those 

 which stimulate some others to congregate, as we 

 comprehend no individual benefit to arise from such 

 habits. Wild-fowl, the rook, and some other birds, 

 derive security, perhaps, from feeding in society, as 

 a sentinel appears to be placed by them, at such 

 times, to give notice of danger. But our congregat- 

 ing small birds take no such precaution ; security or 

 mutual protection does not seem to be obtained by 



F2 



