120 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



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 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. 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 then their associates attend them on the 

 motive of interest, as greyhounds wait on the motions of their 

 finders ; and as lions are said to do on the yelpings of jackalls. 

 Lapwings and starlings sometimes associate. gfr 



all the year round ; often, as White notes, in company with birds of other species. 

 See a useful paper by H. E. Forrest in the Zoologist for March, 1900 ; also Letter 

 XXIV. to Harrington.] 



