170 NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER XL 



TO THE HONOUKABLE DAINES BARRINGTOlN. 



SELBORNE, Feb. 8, 1772. 



EN I ride about in the winter, and see such 

 prodigious flocks of various kinds of birds, I 

 cannot help admiring at these congregations, 

 and wishing that it was in my power to 

 account for those appearances almost pecu- 

 liar 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 seems 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 sus- 

 tenance 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 pro- 

 ceeding, 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 ; 



