of Selborne 89 



island of Ely. The threads sometimes discovered in eels 

 are perhaps their young : the generation of eels is very 

 dark and mysterious. 



Hen-harriers breed on the ground, and seem never to 

 settle on trees. 



When red-starts shake their tails they move them 

 horizontally, as dogs do when they fawn : the tail of a 

 wagtail, when in motion, bobs up and down like that of 

 a jaded horse. 



Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings 

 in breeding-time ; as soon as frosty mornings come they 

 make a very piping plaintive noise. 



Many birds which become silent about Midsummer 

 reassume their notes again in September ; as the thrush, 

 ^ blackbird, woodlark, willow-wren, etc. ; hence August is 

 by much the most mute month, the spring, summer, and 

 autumn through. Are birds induced to sing again 

 because the temperament of autumn resembles that of 

 spring ? 



Linnceus ranges plants geographically; palms inhabit 

 the tropics, grasses the temperate zones, and mosses and 

 lichens the polar circles ; no doubt animals may be classed 

 in the same manner with propriety. 



House-sparrows build under eaves in the spring ; as 

 the weather becomes hotter they get out for coolness, 

 and nest in plum-trees and apple-trees. These birds 

 have been known sometimes to build in rooks' nests, 

 and sometimes in the forks of boughs under rooks' 

 nests. 



As my neighbour was housing a rick he observed that 

 his dogs devoured all the little red mice that they could 

 catch, but rejected the common mice : and that his cats 

 ate the common mice, refusing the red. 



Red-breasts sing all through the spring, summer, and 

 autumn. The reason that they are called autumn 

 songsters is, because in the two first seasons their voices 

 are drowned and lost in the general chorus ; in the 

 latter their song becomes distinguishable. Many 

 songsters of the autumn seem to be the young cock 

 red-breasts of that year : notwithstanding the prejudices 



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