Every day in fine weather, in autumn chiefly, do 

 I see those spiders shooting out their webs and 

 mounting aloft : they will go off from your finger if 

 you will take them into your hand. Last summer 

 one alighted on my book as I was reading in the par- 

 lour ; and, running to the top of the page, and shoot- 

 ing out a web, took its departure from thence. But 

 what I most wondered at was, that it went off with 

 considerable velocity in a place where no air was 

 stirring ; and I am sure that I did not assist it with 

 my breath. So that these little crawlers seem to 

 have, while mounting, some locomotive power with- 

 out the use of wings, and so move in the air faster 

 than the air itself. 



Selborne, y^m^ 8, 1775. 



LETTER LXVI. 



To THE FIONOURABLE DaINES BaRRINGTON. 



There is a wonderful spirit of sociality in the 

 brute creation, independent of sexual attachment. 

 Of this the congregation of gregarious birds in the 

 winter is a remarkable instance. 



Many horses, though quiet with company, will 

 not stay one minute in a field by themselves : the 

 strongest fences cannot restrain them. My neigh- 

 bour's horse will not only not stay by himself abroad, 



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