OF SELBORNE 123 



LETTER XIV. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, March 26, 1773. 

 Dear Sir, 



The more I reflect on the a-ropyi] of animals, the more I am 

 astonished at it's effects. Nor is the violence of this affection 

 more wonderful than the shortness of it's duration. Thus every 

 hen is in her turn the virago of the yard, in proportion to the 

 helplessness of her brood ; and will fly in the face of a dog or 

 a sow in defence of those chickens, which in a few weeks she 

 will drive before her with relentless cruelty. 



This affection sublimes the passions, quickens the invention, 

 and sharpens the sagacity of the brute creation. Thus an hen, 

 just become a mother, is no longer that placid bird she used to 

 be, but with feathers standing on end, wings hovering, and 

 clocking note, she runs about like one possessed. Dams will 

 throw themselves in the way of the greatest danger in order to 

 avert it from their progeny. Thus a partridge will tumble along 

 before a sportsman in order to draw away the dogs from her 

 helpless covey. In the time of nidification the most feeble 

 birds will assault the most rapacious. All the hirundines of a 

 village are up in arms at the sight of an hawk, whom they will 

 persecute till he leaves that district. A very exact observer 1 

 has often remarked that a pair of ravens nesting in the rock of 

 Gibraltar would suffer no vulture or eagle to rest near their 

 station, but would drive them from the hill with an amazing 

 fury : even the blue thrush at the season of breeding would 

 dart out from the clefts of the rocks to chase away the kestril, 

 or the sparrow-hawk. If you stand near the nest of a bird that 

 has young, she will not be induced to betray them by an 

 inadvertent fondness, but will wait about at a distance with 

 meat in her mouth for an hour together. 



Should I farther corroborate what I have advanced above by 

 some anecdotes which I probably may have mentioned before in 

 conversation, yet you will, I trust, pardon the repetition for the 

 sake of the illustration. 



The flycatcher of the Zoology (the stoparola of Ray) builds 



1 [His brother John, chaplain at Gibraltar.] 



