so about that town in the autumn, that he killed sixteen himself in one afternoon: he added farther, that some had appeared since in every autumn; but he could not find that any had been observed before the season in which he shot. so many. 1 myself have found these birds in little parties in the autumn, cantoned all along the Sussex downs, wherever there were shrubs and bushes, from Chichester to Lewes; particularly in the autumn of 1770.

LETTER LII.

TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

SELBORNE, March 26, 1773 DEAR SIR,-The more I reflect on the σropy, or natural affection of animals, the more I am astonished at its effects. Nor is the violence of its 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 clucking 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 helpless covey. In the time of nidification, the most feeble birds will assault the

*There are two well authenticated instances on record of bustards attacking men on horseback at night, when their haunts have been invaded, and probably in defence of their young. One instance is mentioned on his own knowledge by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in his History of Wilts, and the other, I think, by Mr. Gilpin.-ED.

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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 kestrel 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 mentioned before in conversation, yet you will, I trust, pardon the repetition for the sake of the illustration.

The fly-catcher 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 inadvertently 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 wall became insupportable, and must inevitably have destroyed the tender young, had not affection 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.

* Many birds, when their nest has been discovered with their young in it, will utter plaintive and distressed cries. I have known blackbirds fly at the face of a person who has taken a young one out of their nest, and have seen a cat assailed by them, and obliged to retreat from the neighbourhood of their nest.-ED.

+ Muscicapa grisola, Linn.-W. J.

This is a charming instance of parental affection, but perhaps not so much so as the following. During a wet day, a house swallow's nest became saturated, and fell to the ground. It contained five unfledged young ones. A lady, who saw the accident, collected the brood, placed the lining of the nest in a small basket, put the young ones in it, and deposited the basket inside the window of her dressing-room. She soon had the pleasure of seeing the old birds come and feed their offspring. One of them was so weak, that it did not eceive the same quantity of food as the others, and, consequently, when they

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 hot-bed, 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 proved to be a large

were able to leave the nest, this helpless one remained, only half fledged, and suffering from cold, when it had the whole nest to itself. There was at the time a bitter north-east wind, which penetrated through the openings in the basket-work, and which, of course, added to the misery of the poor bird. All at once the old ones were seen to come with clay in their mouths, and in a short time they built up a wall against the basket, which effectually screened the young one from the cold wind. It was reared, and took its flight.

I cannot resist giving another strong instance of parental affection in the feathered tribe :

A gentleman in my neighbourhood had directed one of his waggons to be packed with sundry hampers and boxes, intending to send it to Worthing, where he was going. For some time his journey was delayed, and he therefore directed that the waggon should be placed in a shed in his yard, packed as it was, till it should be convenient for him to send it off. While it was in the shed, a pair of robins built their nest among some straw in the waggon, and had hatched their young just before it was sent away. One of the old birds, (the female, most probably, for what will not a female do?) instead of being frightened away by the motion of the waggon, only left its nest from time to time, for the purpose of flying to the nearest hedge for food for its young; and thus, alternately affording food and warmth to them, it arrived at Worthing. The affection of this bird having attracted the notice of the waggoner, he took care, in unloading, not to disturb the robin's nest; and my readers will, I am sure, be glad to hear that the robin and its young ones returned in safety to Walton Heath, being the place from whence they had set out. The distance the waggon went, in going and returning, could not have been less than one hundred miles.-ED. (Gleanings).

* I have known a fly-catcher, whose nest I had discovered in a pear tree against my garden wall, conceal it by drawing some of the leaves of the tre over it.-ED.

white-bellied field-mouse, with three or four young car ging to her teats by their mouths and feet. It was amazing that the desultory and rapid motions of this dam should not oblige her litter to quit their hold, especially when it appeared that they were so young as to be both naked and blind:*

To these instances of tender attachment, many more of which might be daily discovered by those that are studious of nature, may be opposed that rage of affection, that monstrous perversion of the oropyn, which induces some females of the brute creation to devour their young, because their owners have handled them too freely, or removed them from place to place!+ Swine, and sometimes the more gentle race of dogs and cats, are guilty of this horrid and preposterous murder. When I hear now and then of an abandoned mother that destroys her offspring, I am not so much amazed; since reason perverted, and the bad passions let loose, are capable of any enormity; but why the parental feelings of brutes, that usually flow in one most uniform tenor, should sometimes be so extravagantly diverted, 1 leave to abler philosophers than myself to determine.

* I have seen the same thing with our common bat. I once slept, during a very stormy night, in a house of considerable age, and not in the best state of repair. One of the windows in my bed-room had been built up, but so loosely, that bats and swifts had free access between the wall and a large board that was placed on the inside, to add to the warmth of the room. On the night above mentioned, this board was blown down inwards, and the room immediately filled with bats and swifts. Many of the former had one or two young adhering to their breasts, while flying round the room, and, even when knocked down, were not freed from their burdens. Above sixty were caught in this small space, and at least as many must have escaped. They appear to be on terms of perfect amity with the swifts.-W. J.

The pleasure which animals derive in having their milk drawn off by their young, causes much of the tender attachment they have for them. Thus, a fox which had lost its litter, stole a young puppy to suckle it; and many similar instances might be brought forward. When animals, as is sometimes but not often the case, have no milk after parturition, they frequently devour their young-ED.

LETTER LIII.

TO THE SAME.

SELBORNE, July 8, 1773. DEAR SIR, Some young men went down lately to a pond on the verge of Wolmer Forest to hunt flappers, or young wild ducks, many of which they caught, and, among the rest, some very minute yet well-fledged wild fowls alive, which, upon examination, I found to be teals. I did not know till then that teals ever bred in the south of England, and was much pleased with the discovery: this I look upon as a great stroke in natural history.

We have had, ever since I can remember, a pair of white owls that constantly breed under the eaves of this church. As I have paid good attention to the manner of life of these birds during their season of breeding, which lasts the summer through, the following remarks may not perhaps be unacceptable. About an hour before sunset (for then the mice begin to run) they sally forth in quest of prey, and hunt all round the hedges of meadows and small inclosures for them, which seem to be their only food. In this irregular country we can stand on an eminence, and see them beat the fields over like a setting-dog, and often drop down in the grass or corn. I have minuted these birds with my watch for an hour together, and have found that they return to their nest, the one or the other of them, about once in five minutes ;* reflecting, at the same time, on the adroitness that every animal is possessed of, as far as regards the well-being of itself and offspring. But a piece of address which they show when they return loaded, should not, I think be passed over

* Colonel Montagu has observed (see Ornithological Dict., p. 35), that the wren returns once in two minutes, or, upon an average, thirty-six times in an hour; and this continued full sixteen hours in a day, which, if equally divided between eight young ones, each would receive seventy-two feeds in the day. To this may be added, that the swallow never fails to return to its nest at the expiration of every second or third minute.-REV. J. MITFORD.