46 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



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. 



The flycatcher of the Zoology (the stoparola of Ray), 1 

 builds every year in the vines that grow on the walls 

 of my house. A pair of these little birds had one year in- 

 advertently placed their nest on a naked bough, perhaps 

 in a shady time, not being aware of the inconvenience that 

 followed. But an hot sunny season coming on before the 

 brood was half-fledged, the reflection of the wall became 

 insupportable, and must inevitably have destroyed the 

 tender young, had not affection suggested an expedient, 

 and prompted the parent-birds to hover over the nest all 

 the hotter hours, while with wings expanded, and mouths 

 gaping for breath, they screened off the heat from their 

 suffering offspring. 



A farther instance I once saw of notable sagacity in a 

 willow-wren, which had built in a bank in my fields. This 

 bird a friend and myself had observed as she sat in her 

 nest ; but were particularly careful not to disturb her, 

 though we saw she eyed us with some degree of jealousy. 

 Some days after as we passed that way we were desirous of 

 remarking how this brood went on ; but no nest could be 

 found, till I happened to take up a large bundle of long 

 green moss, as it were, carelessly thrown over the nest in 

 order to dodge the eye of any impertinent intruder. 



A still more remarkable mixture of sagacity and instinct 

 occurred to me one day as my people were pulling off the 

 lining of an hotbed, in order to add some fresh dung. 

 From out of the side of this bed leaped an animal with 



1 Muscicapa grisola. See vol. i. p. 174. [R. B. S.] 



