OF SELBORNE 151 



ness, but will wait about at a distance with meat in her 

 mouth for an hour together. 



Should I farther corroborate what I have advancedi 

 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 every year in the vines that grow on the walls of my 

 house. A pair of these little birds had one year inadver- 

 tently placed their nest on a naked bough, perhaps in a 

 shady time, not being aware of the inconvenience that 

 followed. But an hot sunny season coming on before: 

 the brood was half fledged, the reflection of the wait 

 became insupportable, and must inevitably have destroyed 

 the tender young, had not affection suggested an expedi- 

 ent, and prompted the parent-birds to hover over the 

 nest all the hotter hours, while with wings expanded, and 

 mouths gaping for breath, they screened off the heat from, 

 their suffering offspring. 



A farther instance I once saw of notable sagacity in a. 

 willow-wren, which had built in a bank in my fields. 

 This bird a friend and myself had observed as she sat in 

 her nest ; but were particularly careful not to disturb her, 

 though we saw she eyed us with some degree of jealousy. 

 Some days after as we passed that way we were desirous of 

 remarking how this brood went on ; but no nest could be 

 found, till I happened to lake up a large bundle of long 

 green moss, as it were, carelessly thrown over the nest, in. 

 order to dodge the eye of any impertinent intruder. 



A still more remarkable mixture of sagacity and instinct 

 occurred to me one day as my people were pulling off the 

 lining of an hotbed, in order to add some fresh dung. 

 From out of the side of this bed leaped an animal with, 

 great agility that made a most grotesque figure ; nor was. 

 it without great difficulty that it could be taken ; when it 



