LETTER XI 



TO THE SAME 



SELBORNB, Feb. 8M, 1772. 



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

 such prodigious 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 be- 

 tween 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 



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