OF SELBORNE. 
175 
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 men- 
tioned 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 Eay) 
builds every year in the vines that grow on the walls of my 
house. A pair of these little birds had one year inad- 
vertently placed their nest on a naked bough, perhaps in a 
shady time, not being aware of the inconvenience that 
followed. But a hot sunny season coming on before the 
brood was half fledged, the reflection of the wall became 
insupportable, and must inevitably have destroyed the 
tender young, had not afi'ection suggested an expedient, 
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 take 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 a hotbed, in order to add some fresh dung. F^^om 
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 
