OF SELBORNE 81 



enables the creature to roll itself up into a ball was not 

 then arrived at its full tone and firmness. Hedge-hogs 

 make a deep and warm hybernaculum with leaves and 

 moss, in which they conceal themselves for the -winter : 

 but I never could find that they stored in any winter 

 provision, as some quadrupeds certainly do. 



I have discovered an anecdote with respect to the field- 

 fare (tardus pilaris), which I think is particular enough : 

 this bird, though it sits on trees in the day-time, and 

 procures thfe greatest part of its food from white-thorn 

 hedges ; yea, moreover, builds on very high trees ; as may 

 be seen by the fauna suecica ; yet always appears with us 

 to roost on the ground. They are seen to come in flocks 

 just before it is dark, and to settle and nestle among 

 the heath on our forest. And besides, the larkers, in 

 dragging their nets by night, frequently catch them in the 

 wheat-stubbles ; while the bat-fowlers, who take many red 

 wings in the hedges, never entangle any of this species. 

 Why these birds, in the matter of roosting, should differ 

 from all their congeners, and from themselves also with 

 respect to their proceedings by day, is a fact for which I 

 am by no means able to account. 



I have somewhat to inform you of concerning the 

 moose-deer ; but n general foreign animals fall seldom 

 in my way ; my little intelligence is confined to the narrow 

 sphere of my own observations at home. 



LETTER XXVIII 



Selborne, March, 1770. 



On Michaelmas-day 1768 I managed to get a sight of 

 the female moose belonging to the Duke of Richmond, 



