SOLITARY AND GREGARIOUS. 61 



vantage of every variety of shelter. They are most 

 commonly seen, indeed, creeping; under the eaves of 

 houses or the cornices of pillars; but they are equally 

 fond of a hole in a hay-stack, of getting- under the 

 lee side of a rook's nest on a lofty tree, or of popping 

 into a sand hole burrowed out for its nest by the bank 

 swallow (Hirundo riparia, RAY). They are ex- 

 ceedingly partial, on this account, to the shelter of 

 ivy on a wall, or of a thick tuft of clematis ; but 

 when they can find such a shelter, they do not, so 

 far as we have observed, huddle together side by 

 side, each individual merely selecting the warmest 

 coping of leaves he can discover*. 



It is not a little remarkable that the thrush and 

 blackbird, though so careful to provide shelter and 

 warmth for their eggs and young, show no wisdom in 

 procuring the same comforts for themselves during 

 winter, as they usually roost along with redwings arid 

 chaffinches in the open hedges, where they are often 

 frozen to death in severe weather^, or captured by 

 bat fowlers. The starling (Sturnus vulgaris) ex- 

 hibits more care for itself, by roosting in the holes of 

 trees, in the towers of churches, or under the tiles of 

 an old house, like the sparrows, and frequently 

 among the thick tops of reeds in marshes. Yet will 

 they sometimes suffer from frost even there. One 

 winter's day in 1822, after a very keen frost in the 

 night, when we were searching for lichens on the 

 trees in Copenhagen-fields, we found a cock starling 

 in a hole frozen to death. It was in very fine 

 condition, and more perfect in plumage than we 

 ever saw this species : but it did not appear, upon 

 the closest examination, to have received any shot or 

 other injury, to cause its death besides the effects of 

 the frost. 



It may be remarked, that like the sparrows and 

 * J. R. f White's Selborne, letter 105. 



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