40 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



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 in- 

 congruous 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 fre- 

 quently 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. 1 Perhaps, then, their associ- 

 ates 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. 



1 The nerves here referred to are a pair which run down on either side of 

 the beak. They are known as the orbito-nasal nerves. The orbito-nasal is a 

 branch of the V or trigeminal nerve. It is really not more developed in the Rook 

 than in the majority of other birds. [W. P. P.] 



