If I admire when I see how much congenerous birds love to
congregate, I am the more struck when I see incongruous ones in
such strict amity. If we do not much wonder to see a flock of rooks
usually attended by a train of dews, yet it is strange that the former
should so frequently have a flight of starlings for their satellites. Is
it because rooks have a more discerning scent than their attendants,
and can lead them to spots more productive of food? Anatomists
say that rooks, by reason, of two large nerves which run down
between the eyes into the upper mandible, have a more delicate
feeling in their beaks than other round-billed birds, and can grope
for their meat when out of sight. Perhaps then their associates
attend them on the motive of interest, as greyhounds wait on the
motions of their finders; and as lions are said to do on the yelpings
of jackals. Lapwings and starlings sometimes associate.
Letter XII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
March 9, 1772.
Dear Sir,
As a gentleman and myself were walking on the fourth of last
November round the sea-banks at Newhaven, near the mouth of the
Lewes river, in pursuit of natural knowledge, we were surprised to
see three house-swallows gliding very swiftly by us.
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