OF SELBORNE. 159 
At flrfl: when the young are hatched, and are in a naked and 
helplefs condition, the parent birds, with tender affiduity, carry out 
what comes away from their young. Was it not for this affec- 
tionate cleanhnefs the neftlings would foon be burnt up, and de- 
ftroyed in fo deep and hollow a neft, by their own cauftic excrement. 
In the quadruped creation the fame neat precaution is made ufe 
of; particularly among dogs and cats, where the dams lick away 
what proceeds from their young. But in birds there feems to be 
a particular provifion, that the dung of neftlings is enveloped in a 
tough kind of jelly, and therefore is the ealier conveyed off without 
foiling or daubing. Yet, as nature is cleanly in all her ways, the 
young perform this office for themfelves in a httle time by thruft- 
ing their tails out at the aperture of their neft. As the young of 
fmall birds prefently arrive at their Yi>^iyJcc, or full growth, they foon 
become impatient of confinement, and fit all day with their heads 
out at the orifice, where the dams, by clinging to the neft, fupply 
them with food from morning to night. For a time the young are 
fed on the wing by their parents ; but the feat is done by fo quick 
and almoft imperceptible a flight, that a perfon muft have attended 
very exaftly to their motions before he would be able to perceive 
it. As foon as the young are able to fhift for themfelves, the 
dams immediately turn their thoughts to the bufinefs of a fecond 
brood : while the firfl flight, fhaken off and rejeded by their 
nurfes, congregate in great flocks, and are the birds that are feen 
cluflering and hovering on funny mornings and evenings round 
towers and fteeples, and on the roofs of churches and houfes. 
Thefe congregatings ufually begin to take place about the firfl week 
in Augujl; and therefore we may conclude that by that time the firfl 
flight is pretty well over. The young of this fpecies do not quit their 
abodes all together; but the more forward birds get abroad fome days 
:, before 
