NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SELBORNE. 145 



LETTER XI. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Feb. Bth, 1772. 



DEAR SIR, When I ride about in the winter, and see such pro- 

 digious flocks of various kinds of birds, I cannot help admiring at 

 these congregations, and wishing that it was in my power to account 

 for those appearances almost peculiar to the season. The two 

 great motives which regulate the proceedings of the brute creation 

 are love and hunger ; the former incites animals to perpetuate their 

 kind ; the latter induces them to preserve individuals : whether 

 either of these should seem to be the ruling passion in the matter of 

 congregating is to be considered. As to love, that is out of the 

 question at a time of the year when that soft passion is not 

 indulged : besides, during the amorous season, such a jealousy 

 prevails between the male birds that they can hardly bear to be 

 together in the same hedge or field. Most of the singing and 

 elation of spirits of that time seem to me to be the effect of rivalry 

 and emulation : and it is to this spirit of jealousy that I chiefly 

 attribute the equal dispersion of birds in the spring over the face 

 of the country. 



Now as to the business of food : as these animals are actuated 

 by instinct to hunt for necessary food, they should not, one would 

 suppose, crowd together in pursuit of sustenance at a time when it 

 is most likely to fail ; yet such associations do take place in hard 

 weather 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 

 individual appear safer from the ravages of birds of prey and other 

 dangers. 



If I admire when I see how much congenerous birds iove to con- 

 gregate, 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 



