OF SELBORNE. 133 



hybernaculum with leaves and moss, in which they 

 conceal themselves for the winter: but I never could 

 find that they stored in any winter provision, as some 

 quadrupeds certainly do. 



I have discovered an anecdote with respect to the 

 fieldfare (Turdus pilaris), which I think is particular 

 enough : this bird, though it sits on trees in the day- 

 time, and procures the greatest part of its food from 

 whitethorn hedges; yea, moreover, builds.on very high 

 trees, as may be seen by the Fauna Suecica ; yet always 

 appears with us to roost on the grouud. 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 redwings 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. 



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 observations at home. 



young ones of this nest, notwithstanding that they were immediately 

 removed with their dam and placed in one of the ordinary cages in which 

 the smaller mammals are kept, notwithstanding also the occasional dis- 

 turbance of the family for the inspection of curious visitors, were taken 

 care of by the mother, and three of them were living three months after 

 their capture. 



The helpless condition of the young in this instance is quite in accord- 

 ance with that law of nature, by which the young of many animals, 

 including all the mammals, are thrown for nourishment and protection 

 on their parents. It is in accordance with this law that the hedgehog 

 should, in the earlier period of its existence, be destitute of the means of 

 defence with which nature has provided the adult animal, that of so 

 contracting its body into a ball as to secure from injury all the parts 

 which have only the ordinary covering of other quadrupeds, and of thus 

 presenting to the attacks of its enemies nothing but an uncertain mass 

 bristling with horrid spines. E. T. B. 



