238 NATURAL HISTORY 



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 in- 

 dividual appear safer from the ravages of birds of prey 

 and other dangers 1 . 



If I admire when I see how much congenerous birds 

 love to congregate, 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 2 . 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, 



1 Is not the flocking together of birds in seasons of scarcity occasioned 

 chiefly by hunger? For though it is true that a multitude of feeders will 

 speedily exhaust a limited spot, and that a hungry bird consequently 

 ought not, if aware of this indisputable fact, to resort to a place where 

 numbers of its race are already engaged in search of food: yet the bird, 

 urged on like its brethren by the cravings of appetite, has an object in 

 common with them ; it knows, by their actions, of what they are in pur- 

 suit; it perceives, among so many, some at least that are successful; it is 

 thus assured that food exists in the spot resorted to ; and it joins in the 

 search in the hope that where the wished-for morsel is, it may not be an 

 unsuccessful competitor in the scramble for it. 



The congregation of rooks, and the following in their train of daws and 

 starlings, noticed in the succeeding paragraph of the text, seem to be re- 

 ferred to a similar cause, and, indeed, to be altogether dependent on it. 

 E. T. B. 



2 Mr. White says it is strange, that rooks and starlings accompany 

 each other: but this is the case with other birds: the short-eared owl 

 often accompanies flights of woodcocks in this country. See Pennant's 

 Scotland, vol. i. p. 11. In Greece, the cuckoo migrates with the turtle- 

 flocks, thence they call him trigouokracti, or turtle leader. MITFORD. 



