gruous ones in such strict amity. If
we do not much wonder to see a flock of rooks usually attended by a train
of daws, 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.

_March 9th_, 1772.

Dear Sir,--As a gentleman and myself were walking on the 4th 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. That morning was rather
chilly, with the wind at north-west; but the tenor of the weather for
some time before had been delicate, and the noons remarkably warm. From
this incident, and from repeated accounts which I meet with, I am more
and more induced to believe that many of the swallow kind do not depart
from this island, but lay themselves up in holes and caverns, and do,
insect-like and bat-like, come forth at mild times, and then retire again
to their _latebroe_. Nor make I the least doubt but that, if I lived at
Newhaven, Seaford, Brighthelmstone, or any of those towns near the chalk
cliffs of the Sussex coast, by proper observations, I should see swallows
stirring at periods of the winter, when the noons were soft and inviting,
and the sun warm and invigorating. And I am the more of this opinion
from what I have remarked during some of our late springs, that though
some swallows did make their appearance about the usual time, viz., the
13th or 14th April, yet meeting with a harsh reception, and blustering
cold north-east winds, they immediately withdrew, absconding for several
days, till the weather gave them better encouragement.

LETTER XIII.

_April 12th_, 1772.

Dear Sir,--While I was in Sussex last