150 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER XIV 



Selborne, March 26, 1773. 

 Dear Sir, 



The more I reflect on the arop'yri of animals, the more 

 I am astonished at its effects. Nor is the violence 

 of this affection more wonderful than the shortness of 

 its 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 help- 

 less 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 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 fond- 



