OF SELBORNE. ^69 



destroyed in so deep and hollow a nest, by 

 their own caustic excrement. In the quad- 

 ruped creation the same neat precaution is 

 made use of; particularly among dogs and 

 cats, where the dams lick away what pro- 

 ceeds from their young. But in birds there 

 seems to be a particular provision, that the 

 dung of nestlings is enveloped in a tough 

 kind of jelly, and therefore is the easier 

 conveyed off without soiling or daubing. 

 Yet, as Nature is cleanly in all her ways, 

 the young perform this office for themselves 

 in a little time by thrusting their tails out 

 at the aperture of their nest. As the young 

 of small birds presently arrive at their tiXixw, 

 or full growth, they soon become impatient 

 of confinement, and sit all day with their 

 heads out at the orifice, where the dams 

 by clinging to the nest, supply them with 

 food from morning to night. For a time 

 the young are fed on the wing by their 

 parents ; but the feat is done by so quick 

 and almost imperceptible a slight, that a 

 person must have attended very exactly to 

 their motions before he would be able to 



