As to love, that is out of the
question at a time of the year when that soft passion is not
indulged; besides, during the amorous season, such a jealousy
prevails between the male birds that they can hardly bear to be
together in the same hedge or field. Most of the singing and elation
of spirits of that time seem to me to be the effect of rivalry and
emulation: and it is to this spirit of jealousy that I chiefly attribute
the equal dispersion of birds in the spring over the face of the
country.
Now as to the business of food: as these animals are actuated by
instinct to hunt for necessary food, they should not, one would
suppose, crowd together in pursuit of sustenance at a time when it
is most likely to fail: yet such associations do take place in hard
weather chiefly, and thicken as the severity increases. As some
kind of self-interest and self-defence is no doubt the motive for the
proceeding, may it not arise from the helplessness of their state in
such rigorous seasons; as men crowd together, when under great
calamities, though they know not why? Perhaps approximation
may dispel some degree of cold; and a crowd may make each
individual appear safer from the ravages of birds of prey and other
dangers.
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