I 5 o NA TURA L HIS TOR Y OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER XIV. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, March -2.6th, 1773. 



DEAR SIR, The more I reflect on the a-ropyrj of animals, the 

 more I am astonished at its effects. Nor is the violence of 

 this affection more wonderful than the shortness of its duration. 

 Thus every hen is in her turn the virago of the yard, in proportion 

 to the helplessness of her brood ; and will fly in the face of 

 a dog or a sow in defence of those chickens, which in a few 

 weeks she will drive before her with relentless cruelty. 



This affection sublimes the passions, quickens the invention, 

 and sharpens the sagacity of the brute creation. Thus an hen, 

 just become a mother, is no longer that placid bird she used 

 to be, but with feathers standing on end, wings hovering, and 

 clocking note, she runs about like one possessed. Dams will 

 throw themselves in the way of the greatest danger in order 

 to avert it from their progeny. Thus a partridge will tumble 

 along before a sportsman in order to draw away the dogs from 

 her helpless covey. In the time of nidification the most feeble 

 birds will assault the most rapacious. All the hirundines of a 

 village are up in arms at the sight of an hawk, whom they 

 will persecute till he leaves that district. A very exact observer 

 has often remarked that a pair of ravens nesting in the rock 

 of Gibraltar would suffer no vulture or eagle to rest near their 

 station, but would drive them from the hill with an amazing 

 fury ; even the blue thrush at the season of breeding would 

 dart out from the clefts of the rocks to chase away the kestril, 

 or the sparrow-hawk. If you stand near the nest of a bird 

 that has young, she will not be induced to betray them by an 

 inadvertent fondness, but will wait about at a distance with 

 meat in her mouth for an hour together. 



Should I farther corroborate what I have advanced above by 

 some anecdotes which I probably may have mentioned before 

 in conversation, yet you will, I trust, pardon the repetition for 

 the sake of the illustration. 



