OF SELBORNE 213 



many parts it is as steep as the roof of any house, and therefore 

 secure from the annoyances of water ; and it is moreover clothed 

 with beechen shrubs, which, being stunted and bitten by sheep, 

 make the thickest covert imaginable ; and are so entangled as to 

 be impervious to the smallest spaniel : besides, it is the nature of 

 underwood beech never to cast it's leaf all the winter ; so that, 

 with the leaves on the ground and those on the twigs, no shelter 

 can be more complete. I watched them on to the thirteenth and 

 fourteenth of October, and found their evening retreat was exact 

 and uniform ; but after this they made no regular appearance. 

 Now and then a straggler was seen ; and, on the twenty-second 

 of October, I observed two in the morning over the village, and 

 with them my remarks for the season ended. 



From all these circumstances put together, it is more than 

 probable that this lingering flight, at so late a season of the year, 

 never departed from the island. Had they indulged me that 

 autumn with a November visit, as I much desired, I presume that, 

 with proper assistants, I should have settled the matter past 

 all doubt ; but though the third of November was a sweet day, 

 and in appearance exactly suited to my wishes, yet not a martin 

 was to be seen ; and so I was forced, reluctantly, to give up the 

 pursuit. 



I have only to add that were the bushes, which cover some 

 acres, and are not my own property, to be grubbed and carefully 

 examined, probably those late broods, and perhaps the whole 

 aggregate body of the house-martins of this district, might be 

 found there, in different secret dormitories ; and that, so far 

 from withdrawing into warmer climes, it would appear that 

 they never depart three hundred yards from the village. 



LETTER LVI. 



TO THE SAME. 



They who write on natural history cannot too frequently advert 

 to instinct, that wonderful limited faculty, which, in some instances, 

 raises the brute creation as it were above reason, and in others 

 leaves them so far below it. Philosophers have defined instinct 

 to be that secret influence by which every species is impelled 

 naturally to pursue, at all times, the same way or track, without 

 any teaching or example ; whereas reason, without instruction, 



