io 4 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



When redstarts shake their tails they move them horizontally, as 

 dogs do when they fawn : the tail of a wagtail, when in motion, 

 bobs up and down like that of a jaded horse. 



Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in 

 breeding-time ; as soon as frosty mornings come they make a 

 very piping plaintive noise. 



Many birds which become silent about Midsummer reassume 

 their notes again in September ; as the thrush, blackbird, woodlark, 

 willow-wren, &c. ; hence August is by much the most mute month, 

 the spring, summer, and autumn through. Are birds induced to 

 sing again because the temperament of autumn resembles that of 

 spring ? 



HEADS OF EELS. 



Linnaeus ranges plants geographically ; palms inhabit the 

 tropics, grasses the temperate zones, and mosses and lichens 

 the polar circles ; no doubt animals may be classed in the same 

 manner with propriety. 



House-sparrows build under eaves in the spring ; as the weather 

 becomes hotter they get out for coolness, and nest in plum-trees 

 and apple-trees. These birds have been known sometimes to 

 build in rooks' nests, and sometimes in the forks of boughs 

 under rooks' nests. 



As my neighbour was housing a rick he observed that his dogs 

 devoured all the little red mice that they could catch, but rejected 

 the common mice ; and that his cats ate the common mice, refusing 

 the red. 



Red-breasts sing all through the spring, summer, and autumn. 

 The reason that they are called autumn songsters is, because in 



