QO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
tally, as dogs do when they fawn: the tail of a wagtail, when 
in motion, bobs up and down like that of a jaded horse. 
Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in 
breeding-time ; as soon as frosty mornings come they make a 
very piping plaintive noise. 
Many birds which become silent about midsummer reassume 
their notes again in September; as the thrush, blackbird, wood- 
lark, willow-wren, etc.; hence August is by much the most 
mute month, the spring, summer, and autumn through. Are 
birds induced to sing again because the temperament of autumn 
resembles that of spring? 
Linneus ranges plants geographically; palms inhabit the 
tropics, grasses the temperate zones, and mosses and lichens 
the polar circles; no doubt animals may be classed in the same 
manner with propriety. 
House-sparrows build under eaves in the spring; as the 
weather becomes hotter they get out for coolness, and nest 
in plum trees and apple trees. ‘These birds have been known 
sometimes to build in rooks’ nests, and sometimes in the forks 
of boughs under rooks’ nests. 
As my neighbor was housing a rick he observed that his 
dogs devoured all the little red mice that they could catch, but 
rejected the common mice; and that his cats ate the common 
mice, refusing the red. 
Redbreasts sing all through the spring, summer, and autumn. 
The reason that they are called autumn songsters is, because 
in the two first seasons their voices are drowned and lost in the 
general chorus; in the latter their song becomes distinguish- 
able. Many songsters of the autumn seem to be the young 
male redbreasts of that year: notwithstanding the prejudices 
in their favor, they do much mischief in gardens to the summer 
fruits.? 
1 They eat also the berries of the ivy, the honeysuckle, and spindle 
tree. — W. 
