DEAR SIR, 



OF SELBORNE 155 



LETTER XXIV. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, Aug. 15, 1775. 



THERE is a wonderful spirit of sociality in the brute creation, 

 independent of sexual attachment : the congregating of gregarious 

 birds in the winter is a remarkable instance. 1 



Many horses, though quiet with company, will not stay one 

 minute in a field by themselves : the strongest fences cannot 

 restrain them. My neighbour's horse will not only not stay by 

 himself abroad, but he will not bear to be left alone in a strange 

 stable without discovering the utmost impatience, and endeavour- 

 ing to break the rack and manger with his fore feet. He has 

 been known to leap out at a stable-window, through which dung 

 was thrown, after company ; and yet in other respects is remark- 

 ably quiet. Oxen and cows will not fatten by themselves ; but 

 will neglect the finest pasture that is not recommended by society. 

 It would be needless to instance in sheep, which constantly flock 

 together. 



But this propensity seems not to be confined to animals of the 

 same species ; for we know a doe, still alive, that was brought up 

 from a little fawn with a dairy of cows ; with them it goes a-field, 

 and with them it returns to the yard. The dogs of the house take 

 no notice of this deer, being used to her ; but, if strange dogs 

 come by, a chase ensues; while the master smiles to see his 

 favourite securely leading her pursuers over hedge, or gate, or 

 stile, till she returns to the cows, who, with fierce lowings and 

 menacing horns, drive the assailants quite out of the pasture. 



Even great disparity of kind and size does not always prevent 

 social advances and mutual fellowship. For a very intelligent 

 and observant person has assured me that, in the former part of 

 his life, keeping but one horse, he happened also on a time to 

 have but one solitary hen. These two incongruous animals spent 

 much of their time together in a lonely orchard, where they saw 

 no creature but each other. By degrees an apparent regard began 

 to take place between these two sequestered individuals. The 

 fowl would approach the quadruped with notes of complacency, 



1 [See Letter XI. to Harrington. The present letter is printed in Harrington's 

 Miscellanies, p. 251.] 



