110 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



At this distance of years it is not in my power to recollect at what 

 periods woodcocks used to be sluggish or alert when I was a sportsman : 

 but, upon my mentioning this circumstance to a friend, he thinks he 

 has observed them to be remarkably listless against snowy foul weather ; 

 if this should be the case, then the inaptitude for flying arises only 

 from an eagerness for food ; as sheep are observed to be very intent on 

 grazing against stormy wet evenings. I am, &c. &c.- 



LETTEE XL 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Feb. Bth, 1772. 



DEAR SIR, When I ride about in the winter, and see such prodigious 

 flocks of various kinds of birds, I cannot help admiring at these con- 

 gregations, and wishing that it was in my power to account for those 

 appearances almost peculiar to the season. The two great motives 

 which regulate the proceedings of the brute creation are love and 

 hunger ; the former incites animals to perpetuate their kind ; the latter 

 induces them to preserve individuals : whether either of these should 

 seem to be the ruling passion in the matter of congregating is to be 

 considered. As to love, that is out of the question at a time of the year 

 when that soft passion is not indulged : besides, during the amorous 

 season, such a jealousy prevails between the male birds that they can 

 hardly bear to be together in the same hedge or field. Most of the singing 

 and elation of spirits of that time seem to me to be the effect of rivalry and 

 emulation : and it is to this spirit of jealousy that I chiefly attribute the 

 equal dispersion of birds in the spring over the face of the country. 



Now as to the business of food : as these animals are actuated by 

 instinct to hunt for necessary food, they should not, one would suppose, 

 crowd together in pursuit of sustenance at a time when it is most likely 

 to fail ; yet such associations do take place in hard weather chiefly, and 

 thicken as the severity increases. As some kind of self-interest and 

 self-defence is no doubt the motive for the proceeding, may it not arise 

 from the helplessness of their 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 congre- 

 gate, I am the more struck when I see incongruous 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 

 frequently 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 1 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 



