f^y -•Js m ?*':^ •*t. ■■^f" m^ m !■> •,;• -, ^ (\' ft- ■Ji''' ': -6 (^t-.j FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDVCATION FOR SCIENCE LIBRARY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY If J I , t * V Jf J J 10 y % ^ y J • % J riliS. I— 4 M|SS1:L TURISH. 5— 9 Song Thrush. 10- 17 Bl,ACKIIIRn. Tk.S. 18—19 RlN<- OfZRI.. 20 Whkatkar. 71 22 WlIlNCIIAT. 3} STOSECHAT. ''-Jv '»! :^ /•*«-> '* «, 1 # ^ Fir.s. 34 Rkdst^hi. 25— aS Kki>urcast. 29— 31 Nightingale. PL. II. ^ Ai T^SBI ■IS n- I^H ^m*^m ■ .^ ^^^^^^^^Ljtj^^^^^^^^^^^^H H* 7 > ^ 16 rv . : *; ^ J I V •*i^_ 1* , 46 ^:> 40 '• k-i- ^•.*tV ^ r'*' '■•1' 68 '• ♦' 60 ■ I,- 55 ^ > 64 y ^ y ) ee «•«&£« ^-«' Tigs 3J— 34 WniTRTiiROAT. Fh 35_37 IvKssi'.R WmTHTHROAT 38—41 BUACKIAB' 42—44 (rARDKN WaKIII.KR 45 I)ARTl-ORl) Warhlkr 46— 4S Golden-Crbstkd Wren J J :,^ ,. ', .1:1 1 _ 11 M-i' 5^—54 Wir.i.ow-W'ARHUKR. 55 Wood-Wariii.kr 56—57 RKKn-WARllI.KR 5S— 60 Marsh-Wariu.kr 61—62 SEI'GK-\VaRI1I.EB 63 r.RASSiiorrER Warhlhr Tl Figs 64 Savi's Warblbr 65—67 Urdgr-Sparrow 6S nKARIlKIt RKKPLINO 69 Ix)NZ Meadow-Pipit - 186 Missel Thrush - 158 Motacilla alba - 128 Motacilla Jiava - 173 Motacilla lugiibris 96 Motacilla niclatiope 137 Motacilla rail - 151 ^Monticola saxatilis 162 48 81 Nightingale Nuthatch 56 *Orphean Warbler 00 137 52 •4 88 72 84 122 115 147 183 129 106 106 32 65 126 122 145 154 II I 196 3 181 1 86 177 183 189 28 56 165 68 Panwus biarmkus Parus akr Parus ccerulais - Parus cristaltis - - - Parus major Parus paluslris - Phylloscopus rnfus Phylloscopus sibilatrix Phylloscopus supcrciliosus - Phylloscopus trochilus Pied Wagtail - Pralintola riihclra Pratincola rubicola Redbreast - - - - Red-Spotted Bluethroat - Redstart - - - - *Red-Throated Pipit - Redwing - - - - Reed-Warbler - Regulus crisiaiwi Regulus ignicapillus Richard's Pipit - Ring-Ouzel Rock- Pipit *Rock-Thrush - ♦Rufous Warbler Ruticilla phanicurus - Ruticilla iitys - *Ruby-Throated Warbler Savi's Warbler Saxicola u-nanthe *Saxicola deserti - * Saxicola isabellina *Saxicola slapazina Sedge-Warbler - *Siberian Ground Thrush Sitta cccsia CONTENTS. 141 Song Thrush - 151 Stonechat - 158 Sylvia atricapilla 162 Sylvia ciytcrca - 147 Sylvia curruca ■ 154 Sylvia hortoisis 96 Sylvia jiisoria - 102 *Sylvia orphca - 92 Sylvia widata - 99 Tawny Pipit 177 *Tichodro)iia muraria - 33 Tree-Creeper - 37 Tree-Pipit 52 Troglodytes parvulus - 48 *Turdus airigularis 40 Turdus i/iacus - 201 1 Turdus merula - II *Turdus migratorius - 107 Turdus musicus 84 Turdus pilaris - 88 * Turdus sibiricus 204 Turdus torquatus 25 Turdus varius - 207 Turdus viscivorus 28 105 40 44 128 nVall-Creeper - ♦Water Pipit Wheatear - Whinchat White's Thrush 126 Whitethroat 29 White Wagtail - 33 Willow Warbler 32 Wood Warbler 33 Wren- 116 28 Vellow- Browed Warbler 165 Yellow Wagtail / 37 69 62 65 72 77 68 81 201 176 /o 193 169 27 II 19 28 7 14 28 25 17 3 176 207 29 33 17 62 181 99 102 169 92 189 BIRDS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND ORDER PASSERES. THIS group of Birds has always been a favourite with me, as with most students of the feathered race. I have taken and preserved both nests and eggs of most of the British species, and have studied the habits of many of them in captivity, as well as in a wild state. The Order Passeres (following the classification adopted by Howard Saunders in his admirable "Illustrated Manual") includes seventeen families, the members of which are mostly suitable for aviary or cage-life ; of these the Turdida (Thrush- like birds), the Fringillida (Finches), and Alaudidce (Lark-like birds) find favour with the larger number of Aviculturists. The family Turdida, the first on our list, has been sub-divided into three sub-families : — I. — Turdince (Thrushes) in which the first plumage is spotted above and below. The males with long slender bills as compared with the females, in which they are distinctly broader and shorter. 2. — SylviincE (Warblers) in which the young closely resemble their parents excepting in their paler or duller colouring. The width of the bills differs little in the sexes, but tbat of the female is distinctly shorter. 3. — Accentorince (Accentors) including our so-called " Hedge-Sparrow," birds which, though spotted after the manner of true Thrushes when they leave the 2 Order Passekes. nest, exhibit affinity to the Titmice in their strong straight subconical bills, rounded wings with short bastard primary (the first feather in the wing), and strong scaled feet : the latter have the outer and middle toes united and the upper extremity of the tarsus is feathered. Bills of the sexes much alike, that of the female perhaps a trifle the longer. In their habits the Accentors seem to me more nearl}- to resemble the Tits than the Thrushes. Not oul}- do their quick jerky movements and acrobatic actions remind one of the former ; but, like the Tits, they are largelj' seed-eaters. The Thrushes of Great Britain are represented by eight genera: — Tardus (Thrushes so-called) ; Monticola (Rock-Thrushes) ; Saxico/a (Wheatears) ; Pratincola (Chats); Riiticilla (Redstarts); Cyanecuta (Blue-throats); Erithacus (Redbreasts); and Datilias (Nightingales). The more tj'pical Thrushes are the largest members of the Sub-famih' ; the}' are bold, handsome, strongly-built birds, with a vigorous direct flight, at times somewhat sinuous but generally in a straight line. On the earth the)' proceed, either by running for short stages, with the head depressed and neck somewhat extended (but, at the end of each stage, assuming an erect and attentive posture, sometimes with a simultaneous elevation of the tail) ; or, if in a hnny, thej' clear the ground by long hops. Some of these are admirable songsters, and consequently are greatly sought for as cage-birds. Excepting in very severe weather. Thrushes are very shy of entering traps ; they also show considerable cunning in upsetting some forms of net-traps, especiallj- that known to bird-catchers as the " Caravan " : indeed it is rare to find any but birds of the year caught by this ingenious contrivance. This fact is perhaps rather an advantage than otherwise to the trapper, for young birds not only become more rapidly reconciled to captivity, but naturally last longer, as song-birds, than those which have spent several years of their lives in freedom. All the typical Thrushes build open cup-shaped nests, the walls of which are strongly built, usually with a lining of mud, clay, or cow-dung, and in most cases with a thick outer lining concealing the mud : the eggs usually number from four to six and, more frequently than not, are of some shade of green marked with some shade of brown. A. G. BUTLER. 4- A' The Missel Thrush. Family— TURDID.^E. Subfamily— TURBINE. The Missel Thrush. Jidiliis visciz'onis, LiNN. THIS, the largest of our resident Thrushes, breeds throughout the suitable districts of temperate Europe, from Norway southward to Spain, and even to Northern Africa. Eastward, its range extends through Turkestan to the North-western Himalayas and Lake Baikal in Siberia ; it is resident in many of the milder regions, but the greater number winter in Southern Europe and Northern Africa, the Siberian birds migrating to Northern India, Persia, and iVfrica north of the Sahara. In Great Britain the Missel Thrush is generally distributed throughout England and Wales; in Ireland also, since 1800, it has become tolerably common ; in Scotland its range has gradually extended northwards throughout most of the Hebrides ; in the Orkneys it has appeared after easterly gales, but from Shetland it has not been recorded. The upper parts of the adult bird are greyish olive brown, slightly darker on the head, and slightly more golden on the lower back ; the variation of tint is, however, barely perceptible ; the under parts (excepting the chin and throat, which are white, and the cheeks which are huffish white) are buff, strongly pronounced in young birds, but growing paler year by year until, in old birds, it becomes huffish white ; the fore-chest and flanks are of a deeper buff, the cheeks and sides of neck indistinctly streaked with greyish brown and a few spear-shaped spots ; on the chin and throat the spots are more arrow-shaped, on the fore-chest black and spear-shaped, and on the remainder of the under parts fan-shaped ; the upper wing-coverts are broadly edged at the tips with dull white, the flights are slaty-grey, the primaries with white outer edges, the secondaries externally suffused with huffish, and nar- rowly tipped with white; under wing coverts and axillaries pure white; tail feathers smoky- grey, narrowly pale- edged towards the tips ; bill dark brown, paler towards the base, especially on the lower mandible ; legs pale brown ; A 4 The Missel Thrush. iris dark brown. The female is more thick-set than the male, and has a thicker shorter bill. The Missel Thrush may be met with in almost any locality where trees are to be found, in woods, coppices, plantations, parks, pleasure-grounds, shrubberies, large gardens and orchards ; in such places it makes its home and brings ujd its family. The nest is frequently built either in the fork of a branch or on the top of a strong horizontal bough, but perhaps the favourite site is in the central hollow, formed by the branching off of the lichen-covered boughs of some old apple tree. In the experience of the writer it is rare to find this nest either in a ver}^ lofty or lowly position, but on one occasion he saw it in a forked branch near the top of a tall elm tree in Hj-de Park ; whilst, on the other hand, the late Mr. E. T. Booth once observed it in a small stunted bush within three feet of the ground. Instances of this bird building in bushes are, however, extremely rare. Most nests will be found at an altitude of from ten to fifteen feet. The structure of the nest of the IMissel Thrush is very solid, not un- like that of the Blackbird. It is frequently placed upon a foundation of mud, sheep's wool and twigs. The outer walls are usuall}'^ formed of twigs, roots, straws, and grasses, sometimes interwoven with wool and coarse moss ; within this is a lining of mud or cla}', brought in pellets and mixed with grass or roots. The inner lining is composed of finer grass, roots, and sometimes a little moss. When lichens abound on the tree where the nest is situated a few pieces are occasionally used to ornament the exterior, but one can hardly suppose that a bird which places its nest almost invariably in a conspicuous position, would make this addition with a view to concealment, although, b}' rendering the outer walls of its domicile more like the branch on which it rests, this result is, in a measure obtained. The number of eggs laid by the Missel Thrush varies from three to five, but four is the usual number. The colouring is rather suggestive of those of the Chaffinch, the ground colour being either pale greenish blue, 3-ellowish green, or brownish flesh tinted, boldl}' speckled, spotted and often blotched with deep chocolate brown, and showing pearl grej' or lavender underlying spots ; in size they correspond verj' nearly with those of the Blackbird, but as regards their outline they more often give one the impression of being widest near the centre, than the eggs of that species. The pairing time of the Missel Thrush is early in February, and at this season, like most birds, they are excccdingl}' quarrelsome ; the first nest is occasionally commenced before the end of the same mouth, but oulj' in the The Missel Thrush. 5 South of England, where the bird is generally double-brooded ; in my own experience its nidification extends from March to May, April being the month when most nests are to be found. If disturbed when sitting, the Missel Thrush is very noisy, but any attempt to interfere with the young is the signal for a perfect uproar ; then too is the time to watch the perfect flight of this powerful bird as he sweeps round in wide circles, or, as the intruder stoops to examine the nest, flashes through the very branches close to his head ; uttering wild guttural curses and shrieking out horrid oaths : well has this bird earned its titles of " Screech Thrush " and "Holm screech." The song of the Missel Thrush is wild, powerful and not without melody, although somewhat monotonous ; it is uttered from early autumn until its nesting duties commence ; and, wet or fiue, from early dawn to dewy eve, its rich notes may be heard ; in the wildest and stormiest weather, it tries to raise its voice above the uproar of the elements ; on which account the well- known name of " Stormcock " has beeu bestowed upon it. In the East Riding of Yorkshire it is called " Charley Cock." The food consists of berries, small fruits, seeds, snails, slugs, worms, larvae and insects. It is especiall}- fond of the berries of the mountain ash, and after these it chooses those of the hawthorn or ivy ; the berries of the mistletoe, to which it owes its name of IMistletoe Thrush, or Missel Thrush, are rarely eaten by it ; during the autumn when grain is being sown, this bird eats it greedil}', a fact which should be borne in mind by those who keep cage birds, many of whom labour under the delusion that because a bird is called "insectivorous" it should have no farinaceous food. As a matter of fact, many " insectivors," when kept in the same aviary with seed-eating birds, swallow quantities of seed. Excepting when feeding, the Missel Thrush spends most of its time either in trees or shrubs, it is a somewhat shy bird, though bold in defence of its young, it having been known to drive predaceous birds from the vicinity of its nest by the impetuous and noisy attacks which it has made upon them. Moreover, it always seeks its food in the open fields, not skulking along under hedges and shrubs after the manner of the Song Thrush. In captivity it soon becomes tame and confiding, and if reared from the nest, it is quite as friendly and playful towards its owner as a Canar}-. In May, 1886, during a birds'-nesting expedition in Kent, I came across a nest of the Missel Thrush containing two young birds, in an old apple orchard. With the assistance of the owner, upon whose shoulders I climbed, I succeeded in pulling myself up into the lower branches, when it was easy to 6 The Missel Thrush. climb to that which bore the nest : the question now was, how to get the young birds into my basket without injury ; however as I leaned over the nest, the youngsters quickly settled the difficulty by leaping out and fluttering to the earth, screaming loudly the while. What with the old and young birds together, the noise was something to be remembered. I reared both these birds without the slightest trouble, upon snails (dropped into boiling water, taken from their shells, and cut into small pieces,) small worms, and a paste made of oat-flour, known as " fig-dust," and fine pea- meal ; as they grew older, however, they refused both worms and large snails, though they would readily swallow small living snails in their shells. They also ate both hawthorn berries and wheat greedily, subsequently ejecting the seeds of the former and the tough skin of the latter from the crop with considerable force, so that I have frequent!}- found the ejected pellets several feet from their cage. These two birds proved to be unmistakably a pair, the male having a distinctly narrower head, slimmer build, more alert carriage and more master- ful disposition ; indeed, after a time, he so tormented his companion, pulling out her feathers and scolding whenever she approached him, that when a friend took a fancy to her, I gladly gave her away. As the male bird gained strength, I gave him, as staple food, a mixture of oat-flour, pea-meal, and Spratt's food (crushed dog biscuit), moistened with sufficient water to form a crumb-paste ; on this diet he lived, with the addition of an occasional insect or earthworm, and throve amazingl}' for nearly' four years, never having a day's illness, aud always being ready for a frolic. If I put my finger into his cage he would put one foot on it aud thus holding it down would flap his wings and hammer it with his bill : when I wished to move him from one cage to another, he never attempted to get away until I had grasped him firmlj', then indeed he would kick a bit aud utter his harsh guttural call. At lengtli, in 1890, wlicu my friend was three years and nine mouths old, I was persuaded to send him to a sliow. 1)ut, unhappil}-, he who had never tasted a particle of flesh was fed entirely on a mixture of fiuel}- minced raw beef mixed with breadcrumbs ; the result may be imagined — he had in- cessant fits during tlie week of the show, was returned to me in a state of apoplex}' and died in a fit about an hour after he reached home. Never give raw flesh to any Init predaceous birds. Although liand-reared birds ma}- make amusing pets, unless taught by a wild bird, they never learn the wild song ; my Missel Thrush only sang tw.t> */^ Song Thrusi Plate 2 The Song Thrush. 7 two notes, one high, the other low, its song was far behind that of the Ox-eye Tit for melody. There is not the least trouble in keeping and taming wild Thrushes. They sulk at first, but a few lively worms quickly induce them to feed. Family— TURDID^. Subfamily— TURBINE. The Song Thrush. Turdus musicus, Linn. FOUND throughout the Palsarctic Region, but rare in the extreme East, generally migratory in Western Europe, though resident in some countries; generally distributed throughout the British Islands, though of rare occurrence in the Shetlands. In England this bird is a partial migrant, great numbers travelling southward late in the autumn but returning to their old haunts at the first sign of spring weather ; nevertheless, a considerable number remains with us during the winter. The adult bird above is deep olive-brown, the wing coverts tipped with bright deep buff, under parts mostly white, the cheeks somewhat yellowish, streaked with brown ; the breast and sides ochraceous buff, boldly marked with fan-shaped black spots ; spots on the white ventral surface of the body more elongated, spindle-shaped and less numerous ; bill dark brown, paler at the base of the lower mandible ; legs pale brown, iris brown. The female resembles the male, but has a slightly broader head and thicker bill. Nestlings differ from adults in having the upper parts mottled with buff. Wherever there is cover, 3'ou may expect to see the Song Thrush, he is B 8 The Song Thrush. fond of shrubberies, hedgerows, and all places which afford partial conceal- ment. Watch him in the garden, you will see him running down a path, stopping after every few feet to look cautiousl}' around ; now he spies a large bush or evergreen upon a bed to right or left and suddenly darting under it commences to dig vigorousl}' for worms ; presentl}- he appears again upon another path running as before and again disappearing in like manner, he rarely remains very long in the open, yet is less skulking than his cousin, the Blackbird. Sometimes the Song Thrush proceeds b}' a series of hops, but certainly not always. He frequently runs as above described, but never walks sedately after the manner of a Starling; even when seeking for worms in a meadow or on a grass-plot he hops, and so he does when crossing a flower bed ; but on a path, I have rarely known this Thrush to move in any other way but by running. The nest of the Song Thrush is usually built low down in the fork of a young tree, a shrub, especially an evergreen, the lower branches of old yew trees are also frequently selected as a building site. Occasionall}-, a nest may be seen among matted creepers, or even in the upper twigs of a rude wattle fence forming the walls of a country cart-shed. In hawthorn hedges, on i\'3^- covered walls, among stunted willows by streams, in crevices of rocks, or at the roots of a tuft of heather it may also be met with. The formation of the nest is somewhat different from that of the other British Thrushes. Externally, it is somewhat similar, being formed of slender twigs, roots, grasses, dead leaves, and moss ; but internally it has a lining of mud and rotten wood or cow dung, so neatly rounded and smoothed off, that it much resembles the interior of half a large cocoa-nut shell. This deep smooth cavity is pro- duced in the most simple manner, namely ; by the hen-bird squatting down and turning round and round in it whilst the lining is soft. The number of eggs laid by the Song Thrush varies from three to six, but five is the usual number ; where only three eggs are deposited, it is probable that the first nest has been taken and a second one built immediatel}-. In such cases I have known the new home to be built and lined in two days, the first egg being deposited whilst the mud lining was still moist ; but the Song Thrush rarel}' builds in less than three daj's. In the case of this and all species at the beginning of the Ijreeding season, a commencement of building operations is frequently made before the mother is nearl}' ready to lay. A nest is started and pulled to pieces, or deserted in an unfinished condition ; this playing at building has given careless observers, or such as The Song Thrush. 9 have not noted, year by year, the building of nests by the same species, an exaggerated idea of the time required for the construction of bird-homes.* The colouring of the eggs of Tiirdits iiiusicus is greenish blue, with distinct deep brown (almost black) spots ; usually scattered sparsely over the larger end, though sometimes over the whole surface, or only on the smaller end ; spotless examples occur also, but rarely, though I have taken entire clutches without marking; on the other hand some eggs are heavily blotched, and one which I have represented on Plate xxxvii of my " Handbook of British Oology," has these blotches so arranged as to form an irregular half-zone towards the larger end. The form of the eggs of this species usually varies between a short pear- shape and a true oval ; in size they differ a good deal, probably the largest eggs are deposited by the older birds. Incubation lasts from fourteen to fifteen days. When sitting, the heu Song Thrush is not easily scared from her nest ; possibl}' she may dread to uncover her very conspicuous eggs, and may hope that her protective colouring and absolute stillness will serve to conceal them ; so she sits close, her bill pointed upwards above one side of her castle, her tail cocked up over the other, until one may almost put one's hand upon her; then suddenly she is gone like a shadow, usually without noise, t and the bright spotted eggs are exposed to view. Without doubt the comparative difficult}^ of flushing the Song Thrush does tend to its preservation : even a Naturalist, unless he is a birds'-nester, often fails to notice the nest ; though, when one has acquired eyes to recognize birds' homes at a glance, it seems marvellous that so conspicuous an object, and one so common in well-wooded country, can fail to be observed. The Song Thrush is one of the earliest birds to sing and also go to nest ; in unusually mild seasons it will build as early as February, but March to August may be considered its breeding season. May and June being the months when nests of this bird are most abundant. The song of the Throstle or Mavis (as North countrymen call it) is ver}' loud ; so much so, that in a room or conservatory its notes are almost unbearable ; in the open, however, they are cheerful and inspiring, though somewhat monotonous, each phrase being repeated at least four times in succession, and occasionally (more especially when the musician has hit *Dixon nieutious the fact of the vSong Thrush, after being robbed of its first nest, buiUling in succession uo less than three perfect!}- constructed nests within five days. t Seebohm states that, when put off her nest " her harsh cries and active motions, with those of her mate, awaken the silent woods, and speak most plainly of the anxiety of the birds for their treasure." I have not found this to be the case, excepting where the young were almost ready to fly, and only when they have uttered a cry of alarm. lo The Song Thrush. upon something novel), as many as seven or eiglit times. To my mind the song is rather joyous and vigorous, than melodious : when heard at early dawn as one wakens, it pleases the first time, annoys the second, irritates the third, and finally becomes an intolerable nuisance: the Blackbird's melody, on the contrary, is always welcome. As one lies in bed trying to sleep, the whistle of the Song Thrush resolves itself into short sentences. I remember one particular bird which bothered me for weeks ; in all weathers he would sit on a tree, within sight of my bedroom window, shouting as follows : — Deal d wet, deal d wet, deal d wet, deal u 'wet ; I do, (pronounced dough as if he were trying to say know with a cold), / do, I do, I do; U'lidd do it? Ulidd do it 1 Who'd do it? Whdd do it? Pretty dick, pretty dick, pretty dick, pretty dick," and so on ad iiaiiscaiii. The food of the Song Thrush, when at libert}', consists of insects and their larvae or pupae, worms, snails, berries, and seeds ; in the spring and summer living food is preferred, but towards autumn and throughout the winter, berries and grain when procurable, are devoured, husks and hard kernels being ejected some five or ten minutes after the food has been swallowed ; thus it is that woody seeds like that of the hawthorn are carried far from the parent tree, to spring up and make the unthinking wonder whence they came. In captivity the Song Thrush sings quite as well as in its native haunts, indeed, a good bird often continues his soug from November to the end of July ; but if it is to reproduce the wild notes, it must be a wild-caught bird ; for a nestling, brouglit up b_v hand, either sings a few short monotonous sing- song phrases ; or, if it be a vigorous bird, brought up amongst other feathered companions, it shouts out the most deafening, though sometimes comical jumble of notes imaginable. My experience of hand-reared birds as compared with those caught wild is also unfavourable to the former in other respects, I have found them vicious and domineering in an aviarj', dirt}' and wasteful iu a cage; the}' are always more wild than a cage-moulted trapped bird. The latter, after its first moult, becomes gentle, confiding, and neither wasteful nor dirty ; it has even been trusted in an aviar}- with small Finches, and I have never .seen it molest tliem. As to the cruelty of caging up wild birds, it is more fanciful than real, a bird does not sing when it is unhappy, much may, however, be said as regards llie cruelly of rearing birds from tlie nest ; the parents' anger and annoj^auce is the least part of it, the bungling method of feeding the young, often upon the most unsuitable food, is its worst feature. UJ The Redwing. ii The best staple food for this, and all other insectivorous birds, is composed of stale household bread crumbled, mixed with half the quantity of preserved yolk of egg, preserved ants' cocoons, and " Century Food," the mixture being moistened by the addition of potatoes, boiled the day before, and passed through a masher when required for use ; on this mixture with the addition of a few insects, or worms, and a little fruit, I have kept Thrushes, and many other birds, in perfect health for j-ears ; grocers' currants, which are often recommended, should be avoided, they have a tendency to irritate the intestines and often produce diarrhoea ; thin slices of apple, over-ripe pears, sweet-water grapes, sweet oranges, or ripe strawberries and currants, when in season, are as good as anything. In an aviary Thrushes and mau}^ other so-called " soft-billed " birds will swallow seed whole, and it seems to agree wonderfully well with them, rendering their flesh firm and their plumage glossy ; but to feed a Thrush on bread and hempseed alone is the height of folly, and usually results in the early death of the captive. This, like most of the British Thrushes, has been bred in aviaries and even in cages of about the size of an ordinary rabbit hutch. Family— TURDID^. Subfamily— TURDIN^. The Redwing. Tiinlns iliacKS, lylNN. THIS, the smallest British Thrush, breeds from the Arctic circle through- out the Palaearctic region, and winters in Western and Southern Europe and Northern Africa ; it visits the Volga islands when on migration. West- ward it has straggled to the Canaries and Madeira. In Asia it has wintered in Persia, Turkestan and N W. India, and in Siberia as far as Lake Baikal. c 12 TlIK Rf.dwixg. Mr. Seebohm found it in the valley of the Petchora as far North as latitude 68", he observes: — "The Redwing frequents the birch region and the upper zone of the pine region, occurring in limited numbers South of the Arctic circle in many places where these trees are found, in South Norway and Sweden, and on the Russian shores of the Baltic. It is the most northerly in its range of any of the Thrushes, and occasionally wanders as far as Greenland." To the British Islands the Redwing is a regular winter visitant, arriving on our Eastern coasts either towards the end of October or earl}' in November; it is supposed to linger longest in the Hebrides, the last examples probabl}' leaving us during the month of April. The assertions which have, from time to time, been made, that this species has remained to breed in Great Britain, are not satisfactor}^ neither the birds or eggs having been secured as evidence of the fact. The Redwing, when in breeding plumage, is, next to the Blackbird, the most strikingly coloured of our Tlirushes ; its upper surface is olive brown ; a clear creamy white eye-brow stripe extends backwards to the nape ; wing- coverts with pale tips ; the under surface is buff, gradually fading off into almost pure white on the belly ; the breast and throat broadly streaked with dark brown ; the flanks and under wing-coverts chestnut red, spotted with deep brown. The sexes are very similar, the j-oung, however, differ in having their upper and under surfaces spotted. In general appearance the Redwing is like a small Song Thrush, but its whitish eye-stripe and red flanks give it a ver}' distinctive character ; when seen from the front it has a curious resemblance to a frog. Soon after their arrival in this country Redwings maj' sometimes be seen, even in our suburban gardens, feeding at twilight upon the berries of the hawthorn. I remember on one occasion, chancing to look out shortl}' before dusk at ni}' garden, I was puzzled to see the entire length of a thick hawthorn hedge which closed in the end of my plot of ground covered with moving shadows. I ran for a field glass and discovered that no less than thirty Redwings were fluttering up and down like huge moths in front of this hedge, eagerly snatching off and swallowing the berries. The following day I discovered that an unusually fine crop of haws had almost entirely- disappeared.* Seebohm says that " The favourite haunt of the Redwing is a sheltered •The I)ircls were clearly distitif^iisliable with the glass as ReJwings, not Fieldfares, the latter arrived some weeks later and found hardly a lierry left. The Redwing. 13 valley down wliicli a little brooklet runs, with the trees scattered here and there and tall hedgerows of thorn and hazel. The}' are very partial to small parks thickly timbered and studded with clumps of white thorn trees, with here and there a cluster of hollies or a dense shrubbery, whither they repair at nightfall to roost." In wooded districts the Redwing usually builds in bushes or low-growing trees, but in more desolate regions a low fence, a hollow between stones, or a sloping bank serve as a nesting-site. The nest itself is a neat structure formed of plaited twigs, grass and reindeer-moss, plastered inside with mud or clay, and lined with fine grasses and root-fibre. The number of eggs varies from four to six, some writers giving the former, and some the latter, as the usual number. In colour they are pale green, either finely and closely streaked with reddish brown, like small specimens of some Blackbird's eggs, or zoned with brown blotches ; but, as with other Thrushes, eggs are some- times found of a uniform green colour. When the nest is approached, but especially when it contains young birds, the Redwing becomes much excited, flying angrily round the intruder aud snapping its bill after the manner of its kind. It frequently produces two broods in a season. The food of the Redwing consists preferably of insects, worms and snails, but when frost and snow deprive it of these it feeds on various berries, more particularly those of the service tree aud hawthorn; it is distinctly more insectivorous in its tastes than other Thrushes, nevertheless in confinement it thrives well upon the same soft food. One winter a bird-catcher brought me a bag, containing six Redwings and a Fieldfare which he had just caught. I would not, however, be persuaded to take the whole of them, but selecting two of the Redwings (which fortunately proved to be a pair) and the Fieldfare, I sent the man away. The Red- wings I turned loose in an unheated aviary with other British birds. At first the new-comers were somewhat wild, but they soon settled down in their new home. They never showed the slightest uneasiness at the season of migration, as I had been informed they would do, but early in the year assumed such rich colouring, that Naturalists who saw them in my aviary, expressed astonishment at the beaut}' of their plumage. Very early the male began to record his song, but usually in the morning only ; in the evening its call- note — a soft plaintive whistle, which reminded me of that of the American Blue-bird, was all that I heard at that time ; later, however, he began to slug out loud. 14 The Fieldfare. As an aviary bird, I found the Redwing ornamental, and most inoflfensive, but by no means lively ; it would sit in one place on the earth without moving for half an hour at a time, still as a breathing statue — a frog in behaviour and appearance ; but, throw a spider or a smooth-skinned caterpillar into the aviary, and, like that Batrachian, it was instantly alert. In spite of its beaut}' I should imagine that the Redwing, if kept in a cage, would be intolerable ; after two ^-ears I wearied of ni}' pair, and sold them for a small sum to a friend, who immediately entered them for a show and carried off a first prize with them. Poor Redwings ! I fear that their life after the}' left my home was not an enviable one. Although the breeding of the Redwing in Great Britain needs confir- mation, there seems to be no reason why it should not be possible, inasmuch as it has been proved that stragglers have remained with us throughout the summer. It has been known to nest in the Faroes. Family— TURDID.^. Subfaviily— TURD I N.^. The Fieldfar?:. Turdus pilaris, LiNN. RESPECTING the Geographical distribution of this species, one cannot do better tlian quote Scebolim. he says: — -"A regular winter visitant to the British Islands, the Fieldfare is commonlj' distributed over the cultivated districts, and as far on the uplands as the mountain farms extend. The arrival of Fieldfares in Scotland is usually noticed first in the eastern counties, as it is quite natural to expect it would be, for their path in autumn is soulli and .south-westwards. A few birds are said to be found on the Orkneys thnnighoul the year, but they do not breed there. On the Hebrides the Fieldfare tu q: < II. ■* Q 1- J < CD a. Uu The Fieldfare. 15 does not arrive till mid-winter, and is onl}'- found on the farms and pastures — in the little oases of cultivated land so sparingly scattered amongst the wide- stretching moorland wastes. In Ireland these birds also arrive late, and are found commonly distributed over those districts suitable to their habits and needs — the cultivated tracts. Fieldfares have been said to have bred in the British Islands ; but until definite proofs are forthcoming it is not safe to admit the truth of the statement, the birds being very liable to be confounded with Missel-Thrushes by careless observers. The Fieldfare has a somewhat more southerly breeding-range than the Redwing. It breeds in the Arctic circle, extending up to, and occasionally beyond, the limit of forest growth, and in north -temperate Europe as far South and West as the basin of the Baltic, and throughout Siberia as far East as the watershed of the Yenesay and the Lena. Its occurrence in Iceland is doubtful,* but it has been occasionally met with on the Faroes. It winters in Southern Europe, occurring very rarely in the Spanish peninsula, but crossing the Mediterranean to Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, and Nubia. In Asia it winters in Turkestan and Cashmere ; and one specimen at least has been obtained at Simla, in the North- West Himalayas." The Fieldfare in breeding plumage is slaty-grey on the upper parts with the exception of the mantle which is chestnut brown, and the wings and tail, which are dark brown ; the head is streaked with black ; the throat and breast are rich golden brown, spotted and streaked with blackish brown ; the flanks are similar, but more orange internally ; the centre of the belly is pure white and unspotted ; the bill yellowish ; feet black ; iris deep brown. The female greatly resembles the male, but the young on leaving the nest are spotted with buff on the back, though after the first moult they much resemble their parents. The Fieldfare's season of migration varies somewhat in accordance with the milder or colder temperature of its breeding-haunts ; in like manner its time of departure from our shores depends greatly upon the appearance of spring weather ; there is no defined appointed time for its migration. Cold and scarcity of food in its native home represent the voice of nature calling upon it to seek comfort in somewhat milder regions ; then again, the return of warmth and living food remind it that the season of love is at hand, and the inherited habit of centuries teaches this bird to seek for the fulfilment of its hopes in the land of its birth ; doubtless this is largely the cause of the so-called migratory instinct in all birds, the weaker and more sensitive to cold and hunger being the first to migrate ; therefore it is that the Redwing precedes the Fieldfare. It is easy to distinguish a Fieldfare from a Missel Thrush when it is on the •There seems, however, to be very little question that this species is an occasional Icelandic visitant. — A.G.B. D i6 The Fieldfare. ground, for, although it frequently associates with tlie latter 1)ird, its grey rump, thrown into strong relief by the dark wings and tail, looks almost white. This species, however, is far less frequently seen upon the earth than our native Thrushes. Its favourite resort is a berry-laden hawthorn, upon which it will eat its fill unless disturbed, when with a clatter of chacks and chicks it shoots off in a straight line towards another of nature's restaurants. Among the birches and pines of Nonvay the F'ieldfares breed in colonies, in the former the nests are said to be situated in a cleft between the trunk and a large branch, but further north these birds become less gregarious, and their nests are then situated in low^ bushes, heaps of firewood, on fences and similar places, after the fashion of our Blackbird ; whilst on the bare tundras of Siberia they select a hollow under the grassy edge of a cliflF or bank for a breeding-site, like the Ring-Ouzel. The nest is very like that of the Blackbird, externally it is constructed of coarse dry grass, sometimes interwoven with birch twigs and a little moss, plastered inside with mud, and thickly lined with fine grass. The number of eggs varies from three to seven, but usually from four to six ; according to Seebohm, they vary more than those of an}^ of our British Thrushes ; but I think most of those which I have seen could be matched among the almost endless variations of our Blackbirds' eggs ; their ground-colour is either paler or deeper green, blotched, mottled, and speckled with reddish brown, sometimes over the entire surface, but more frequently concentrated at the larger end. The markings of some examples (as with our Blackbird) are indistinct, evenly distributed, in others they are few and rich brown upon a deep blue ground (a variety which I have not seen in eggs of the Blackbird ; though they are sometimes as blue as those of the Song Thrush). The food of this species consists in summer of worms, insects, as well as their larvae and pupce and small wild fruits ; in winter, principallj' of berries, especially those of the hawthorn, also insects, snails and worms when procurable, and seeds of grain and grasses. The Fieldfare is a poor songster. He rarely sings excepting in the breeding season, and his performance consists of a wild warble, at times interrupted by chattering somewhat similar to that of the Starling. The example which I had for two years never sang at all, but occasionally uttered a harsh guttural sound like that of the Missel Thrush. As a cage bird the Fieldfare is most uninteresting, he sotm becomes lame, and if allowed to bathe, keeps his plumage in beautiful condition ; but, excepting for show purposes, is only an expense : like all Thrushes, he is a large eater, and ■S,-j > ,♦ I I H If) LlI H X White's Thrush. 17 therefore needs frequent attention. I parted Avitli mine when I sold my Redwings, and have never wished to keep another. I fed him on the same food as m}^ other insectivorous species, adding a few worms, snails, caterpillars, and berries when obtainable; he was always in perfect health, even when moulting, and never showed restlessness at the seasons of migration ; in fact, he was one of the steadiest and most apathetic birds I ever possessed. His name has been corrupted to "Felfer," "Felt," "Pigeon Felt," or "Blue Felt" by country folk. Family— TURD ID ^. Stibjamily— TURD J N^. White's Thrush. Turdiis varius, PallAS. This bird, also known as " White's Ground- Thrush " and placed in the genus Geocichla, is only an accidental straggler to our shores ; about a dozen examples having been obtained in the southern and midland counties of England and two in Ireland. Therefore, although, from the writer's standpoint, it has no more claim to be called British, than any foreigner stranded on the British coast has to be called an Englishman, its claim to the title is stronger than in the case of the " Black-Throated," the " Rock Thrush," and many other species usually included in the British list on the strength of single examples which have come to hand. White's Ground-Thrush is a native of South-central and South-eastern Siberia and of North China : at the approach of winter it migrates to South Japan, South China, the Philippines and even to Sumatra. The first example obtaiued in Great Britain was shot in Hampshire in January, 1828 ; and, being supposed to be new to 1 8 White's Thrush. science, was named Tiudus ivhitei by Eyton, in hononr of White, of Selbourne : thus the trivial name of White's Thrush was first applied to it. The upper surface of this species is ochraceous brown, with black tips to the feathers; the wing feathers are darker and tipped with buff ; the tail has fourtem feathers, the four central ones ochraceous brown, the others dark brown, all tipped with white ; the under surface is white, tinged with buff on the breast, and boldly spotted with black crescent-shaped markings : the bill is brown, the lower mandible paler; the feet yellowish brown, the iris dark brown. The sexes are supposed to be alike. In size, this species rather excels the Missel-Thrush. The uidification of White's Thrush was observed in 1872, at Ningpo, b}' the late Consul Swinhoe : the nest was roughly built, and situated on a fork of a horizontal piue-brauch ; its outside consisted of dead rushes, grasses, a few twigs, dead leaves and a little moss ; it was thickly plastered with mud, amongst which were fragments of some green weed ; the inside, like that of the Blackbird, was thickly lined with mud, covered with an inner lining of coarse rootlets and sedgy grass. Three eggs only were in the nest ; but the complete clutch would probably number four or five ; Mr. Seebohm, who secured the nest and two of the eggs for his collection, thus describes them : — " They resemble those of the Missel- Thrush ; but the ground-colour is slightl}^ paler, and the spots much finer, more numerous, and more evenly distributed." The flight of White's Thrush, unlike that of our common species, is said to be " very undulating, like that of the Green Woodpecker, and low, often settling on the ground, and only making choice of a tree when it happened to pass under one, into which it rose almost vertically." It is more strictl}' insectivorous than the true species of Tardus, living principally upon insects, their larvae and pupae, spiders, worms, and such mollusca as are found in moist situations. In China it is known to feed also on berries, especiall}' those of the banyan ; nevertheless most of its food is obtained on the ground amongst decaj-ed vegetation, in ditches, under bushes, or among the roots of trees. It is not known whether this species has any song ; its call-note is said to be "a soft plaintive see, audible at a long distance," and when on migration it some- times " utters a melodious whistling cry." As a cage-bird, White's Thrush would probably prove an utter failure ; whether it sings or not, it can hardly be an industrious performer, moreover it would probably pass much of its time on the floor of its cage or aviary. I .L .y •/ 1 1 .;» ^'^ MM \/ r^f ^>- r^' f Blackbird, i ^ Plate 6. The Blackbird. 19 Family ~ TURDID^. Subfamily - TURD I N^. The Blackbird. Turdus iiicnda, LiNN. THIS handsome Thrush is generally distributed over nearly every country of Europe and North Africa. In Norway at about 67° N. lat. it appears to reach its highest breeding range ; it also occurs in Asia Minor, Palestine, Persia, Turkestan, Afghanistan and Cashmere, being somewhat larger in the three last mentioned countries, and, on that account distinguished by Mr. Seebohm as a race to which he has given the name of Meriila jiiaxima. In Great Britain it is generall}' distributed and partially resident, but in the Shetland Islands it occurs only in the winter ; and, in the Hebrides its appearance is irregular, although on some of tliem it is recognized as a rare resident. In the southern counties in winter its numbers are largely increased by immigrants from the north. The adult male is entirely glossy black in plumage ; the bill in young birds golden ochreous, gradually becoming deep orange with age, feet brownish black, iris hazel, edges of eyelids golden yellow. The adult female, when young, is deep brown ; somewhat rufous on the throat and breast, which are streaked with smoky black ; the bill brown and considerably broader and shorter than in the male ; as the bird grows older, the gape becomes more or less edged with ochre yellow, the black throat-streaks become more pronounced and the chin sometimes becomes whitish. In the nestling birds most of the feathers have pale shaft-streaks, and those of the upper parts have dark tips ; whilst those of the under parts have dark bars ; in other respects they resemble young hen birds : young males are said to be slightly more dusky than females ; but if such a difference exists, I never could satisfy myself of the fact in the case of the young birds which, from time to time, I have hand-reared : the more active and pugnacious disposition and narrower crown would be far better guides in the selection of cock nestlings. Talking of pugnacity, it is pre-eminently a characteristic of the Blackbird, and especially at the pairing season : the Song-Thrush is combative enough, but the Blackbird will fight to the bitter end. I remember, on one occasion when in my garden, hearing a violent rustling and flapping of wings and supposing that E 20 The Blackbird. some unfortunate Thrush or Blackbird had been seized by a cat, I slipped up as quickly and quitely as possible to the scene of the disturbance ; there I saw two cock Blackbirds firmly clutching one another and tearing out feathers b}- the mouthful, violently flapping the while and so intent upon murder that, until I was almost within reach of them, they were not aware of my approach ; then just as I was meditating a double capture, they saw me, and simultaneous!}' letting go of one another, flew off in opposite directions with loud chattering cries. Fighting is not the only sin of which the Blackbird is guilt)' ; some individuals of the species have ovivoroits tendencies : at a house where I was once sta3-ing, a pair of Blackbirds had built a nest on a trained plum-tree ; as usual I had inter- ested myself in noting the time occupied in building and in the deposition of the eggs : on the third da}' the nest was completed and the hen settled down in it for the night. I rose early in those days, frequently taking a country ramble before breakfast ; that morning, before starting, I looked in the nest, and there was the first egg ; but, when I returned an hour later, the shell alone lay on the earth below the nest. Determined to discover the thief, if possible, I took a pair of opera-glasses upstairs that night, and, getting out of bed about 6 a.m., I waited and watched : presently I heard the cock Blackbird singing, and then he flew on to the end wall of the garden — "Chink, cliinka chuck, chuck chuck, cliack ; swee ; siuce.'' Out flew the hen and on to the nest went the old wretch, deliber- ately pecked and picked up the egg, and devoured the contents, dropping the shell as before. This trick was repeated again the following day, and then the hen deserted her nest. In all well-wooded districts the Blackbird is extremely abundant, and where wood and water are combined it is so common that, on one occasion, I came across nearly forty nests in the course of a single morning's ramble. In suburban gardens it is also common, but not nearly so much so as the Song-Thrush : tliis can be easily proved, not merely by the numbers seen, for with so skulking a bird many might be overlooked ; but, by the relative number of nests built in such places in spring, and the largely disproportionate number of Thrushes trapped in winter. The nest of the Blackbird is built in the most diverse situations, such as hedges, shrubs, trees, faggot-stacks, holes in walls or rocks, niches in sides of gravel or chalk-pits, or even in very low banks ; its favourite sites are perhaps in whattle fences overgrown with bramble or ivy, in evergreen shrubs, or on branches of fruit-trees trained against walls. It is a bulky cup-sliaped structure, usually placed upon a foundation of twigs, dead leaves, rags, paper, sometimes a draggled cjuill feather or two, and mud ; the form of the outside walls varies The Blackbird. 21 according to the position of the nest ; this is constrncted of stalks of grass and twigs intertwined and compacted with moss ; the inside of the cup plastered with mud in pellets, almost or entirely concealed b}' dead leaves, rootlets and fine grass ; occasionall}^ the mud plastering is entirely absent, but the onl}^ two nests having this peculiarity which I have seen, I met with on the same morning ; one of these I retained for my collection. The eggs are marvellously variable, both in size, shape, and colouring, ; they number from four to six, but usually five. The following are some of the more distinct varieties which I have taken: — i, Greenish blue, precisely like some eggs of the Song-Thrush in tint ; but when examined through a lens, showing very minute and indistinct reddish longitudinal dashes over the whole surface. 2, Greyish olive, showing (under a lens) extremely fine dust-like brownish speckling, a few black dots near the small end, this form somewhat reminds one of some eggs of the Jay. 3. Large and broad, pale chalky blue, with indistinct rusty spots and dots scattered sparsel}^ over the entire surface, the larger half sprinkled with little rugosities. 4. Much elongated, pale blue, mottled all over with pale rusty reddish. 5. Short and broad, greenish blue, mottled and blotched all over with reddish-brown. 6. Very broad ; pale chalky blue, speckled sparsely all over, and heavily blotched at both ends, with rust-reddish and greyish lavender. 7. Similar, from same nest, but only heavily blotched at the larger end. 8. Pale sandy brownish with very indistinct rust-reddish marbling all over : this is a small egg, evidently laid by a young bird. 9. Pale greenish blue sparsely but boldly spotted from the shoulder (or larger terminal third) and heavily spotted and clouded at the larger end with rusty brown leopard-like markings. 10. Pale greenish, so covered with indistinct reddish smears and speckles that the green is almost lost. II. Deep blue-green, boldly spotted with rusty brown, which collects into a large patch at the small end. 12. Flesh-whitish, densely speckled and marbled with rust red. 13. I also have a chalk}^ white egg, with faint indications (visible through a lens) of olivaceous mottling. This egg was given to me by a lady friend and was obtained by her from an ordinary nest, at Wateringbury, near Maidstone. Of the above (which I have selected for description from a picked series of forty-four in my egg-collection) Nos. i, 2, 3, 8, 12, and 13 are all rare varieties, not very characteristic of the species: possibly No. i, which is not unlike a very deep-coloured Starling's egg, may, as Howard Saunders suggests, be the result of a union between the Song-Thrush and Blackbird, the fact that these two species do sometimes interbreed in a wild state being thoroughly well established ; but if so, it would be laid by a hybrid hen, for it is not likely that union with another species would affect the eggs laid by a pure-bred bird. 22 The Blackbird. In the winter of 1894-5 a bird was caught in one of ni}' traps which I firmly believe was a hybrid Thrush-Blackbird : when first captured it was verj- dirt}', and I then supposed it to be an old hen Blackbird ; but, after a good wash, its true colouring came out clearly ; the whole upper parts being deep smoky brown, the cliin and throat white streaked with dull black ; the breast, in certain lights, showing traces of the true Song-Thrush spotting ; the ])ill deep orange with the basal half of the culmen black ; feet yellowish horn-brown. This bird, of which Mr. Frohawk made a careful sketch, became ver}' tame in a few weeks and I should certainly have kept it up to the present lime, had not a friend, who had given much attention to British cage-birds, visited me and asked me wh}- I was keeping a hen Blackbird. I pointed out the orange bill, the extent of white on the throat, the heavy black streaking and ill- defined breast spots, and he admitted that he had never seen a similar hen Blackbird. Unfortunately I wanted the cage, in which I had kept this supposed hybrid, for nn- Mocking-bird (which I found too tj-ranuical for an aviarj') therefore I gave the Thrush its libert}' : but, on the following da}', one of my neighbours was walking round my garden, when a bird in an adjoining plot began to sing a most marvellous song, whicl: my neighbour cliaracterized as neither like that of Blackbird or Song Thrush, but a combination of both. I have no doubt, as I told liim, that my recently liberated bird was the singer. The song of the Blackbird is quite unlike that of any other British Thrush, clear, mellow and melodious, it is one of the finest productions of our feathered choir : it however varies wonderfully in merit in different individuals, and no two Blackbirds sing precisely alike. The finest singers are rarely heard, their per- formance is continuous, flowing, ever changing, somewhat reminding one of the Blackcap's song ; most Blackbirds, however, sing set phrases, more or less plaintive but always vigorous in character. Frequently, in the middle of its song, a Blackbird stops abruptly and ridicules its own performances, singing over the last phrase in a minor key and following it up with derisive caricatures ending in meaningless squeaks : some- times it pauses abruptly and (perhaps for five or ten minutes) repeats, at intervals its dismal car-splitting call note — a shrill reedy /stii ; or it will break off" The Blackbird. 23 into its nois}' go-to-roost rattle — " Chink, c/uuk, chink, chink, cliink ; chacka, chack- a-rack, cliack, chack, chack, cliack ; chuck, chuck, chuck." Passing tlirough shrubberies at twilight, this good-night greeting may be heard on all sides ; sometimes a little varied, but usually commencing with "chink" and terminating with " chuck " : at dawn it frequentl}' leaves out the harsh " chack." The flight of the Blackbird is usually very direct, it ma}' be seen passing over garden after garden with steady regular beat of wing, until perchance it nears some favourite tree, when its course is almost imperceptibly changed to an upward slant which lands it on its chosen branch ; when suddenly flushed from the nest, the flight is usually direct at first, but with a rapid swerving to right or left and a return to roost in some neighbouring cover. When it alights, the Blackbird throws its tail up almost at right angles to the body, stretches the neck and holds its legs wide apart ; this gives it a wonderfully alert and attentive aspect. In this respect it somewhat resembles Magpies, or Jays of the genus Cyaiiocorax, which always throw up the tail w^hen they alight, but assume the attitude of attention as this appendage drops back to its ordinary level. Although usually a very skulking bird, seeking its food mostly under hedge- rows, in ditches, or among shrubs and bushes ; when it has young to feed the Blackbird may often be seen among Starlings and Thrushes upon our lawns, busily engaged in the pursuit of worms. In fields of turnip or cabbage it may also be seen seeking for worms and caterpillars ; for the common garden snail and slugs the Blackbird seems to care less than does the Song-Thrush, but the prettily banded hedge-snails it delights in : like all insectivorous birds, its favourite morsels are spiders, insects and their grubs. Mr. Frohawk tells me that, in the late autumn, he has watched a Blackbird slowly hopping down a garden path and carefully turning over every fallen leaf in its search for insect food. Unfortunately for the Blackbird's peace of mind, it is not exclusively insectivorous ; it is also to some extent graminivorous and largely frugivorous, being especially fond of strawberries, in pursuit of which it often loses its life at the hands of the short- sighted fruit-grower ; it also devours a good many currants, gooseberries, cherries, and peas in their season, whilst the raspberry, blackberry and sloe are not despised. Late in autumn when the more pleasant fruits are becoming scarce, the Blackbird turns its attention to hips and haws, as well as the berries of the ivy and mistletoe. Upon the earth the Blackbird proceeds by a series of hops, then a pause at attention and on again : in its actions it strongly reminds one of the Robin ; but it does not appear, like our little Christmas favourite, to suffer from chronic epilepsy, fidgets, St. \'itus's dance, or whatever it is which makes the latter give F 24 The Blackbird. that absurd little duck every half miuute, when sitting on a branch : no, the Blackbird is far too sedate for such frivolity. The Blackbird is especially bold in defence of its j'oung ; even when the nest contains eggs alone, I have known this bird to sit so close, that it has been caught upon the nest and ruthlessly killed by its heartless captor. To some creatures having the outward form of man, a few cherries, hastily swallowed and forgotten, are of more importance than months of woodland music : unhappilj', many such mere animals are trusted with firearms, and do their utmost to destroy the farmer's and fruit grower's most useful and industrious assistants ; either not knowing or not caring to know, that the birds are only taking wages in kind for the fruit which they have worked hard to save from the ravages of insect enemies. As a cage-bird, the Blackbird is without a rival among our Thrushes ; clean, lively, pleasing both in form and in his simple colouring, readil}^ tamed, easilj' kept in health for years, it is no wonder that he is a general favourite : but, if he is to turn out a good songster, he must be caught, not reared from the nest. A hand-reared bird never sings the wild song, and hardly ever pleases with his per- formance ; indeed I have only known one bird (reported to be hand-reared, and fed upon sopped bread only) which really had an attractive song. Of the numbers which I reared when I first began to stud}^ aviculture, the best singer never got beyond six notes of a dismal psalm-tune. On the other hand, ever}' trapped cock BlackVjird, if properly fed, is sure to sing the true wild song sooner or later ; usually in the first spring after his capture. Hand-reared birds should be taught by trapped wild birds. Like many other birds when first caught, the Blackbird often refuses to feed at all the first day ; and, if in good condition when caged, he maj- continue to sulk for a day or two longer ; but even a sulky Blackbird cannot resist the attractions of a lively mealworm, spider, or even earthworm, and when he once begins to eat, he will continue ; so that there is never much difficultj- in inducing him to cmpt}' his pan of soft food. The latter, as already hinted previously, should be largely farinaceous, but with an admixture of yolk of egg and ants' cocoons ; slices of apple or pear, and berries, as well as insects and worms, should also be given from time to time ; but meat ;/t7vv excepting as a purgative, if }ou value the health of j-our bird : if given, it will assuredly produce diarrhoea, resulting sooner or later in cramp, or fits. I tried it with fatal results, for several years. In 1905 and 1906 I bred hj'brids between the female of this species and the male of the Himala^'an Grey-winged Ouzel (Tiodus (Mintla) houlboulj; the males sooty black, with a red-brown wing-patch, the feuiales variable, either almost wholl}- olivaceous brown or else nearly resembling the female of the Indian bird. a) The Ring-Ouzel. 25 Family— TURD I D^. Subfamily— TURBINE. The Ring-Ouzel. Turdus torquatus, L,INN. UPON the Continent of Europe this bird is a summer visitant to the more desolate portions of the pine districts ; it nevertheless breeds freel\- in the mountainous regions of the South. Eastward its range appears to be limited by the Ural Mountains. It winters in the lowlands and alpine districts of South Europe, in North Africa, Asia Minor, and Persia. In Great Britain it is rarely resident ; indeed during the winter it is usually the only British Thrush which is absent. Though in mild seasons it has been known to remain with us up to Christmas, as a rule the Ring- Ouzel leaves us in September or October, returning in April to breed. Although far more abundant as a breeding species in the wild moors and mountainous districts of the North, it is known to have bred in rocky parts of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Hampshire, Kent, Suffolk, Norfolk, Warwick, Leicester, Gloucestershire, Mon- mouthshire, Wales, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire : in the wilder portions of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Wales it breeds freely. The general colour of the male Ring- Ouzel is a dark sooty brown inclining to black, with the exception of a broad white crescentic gorget ; the wing feathers edged externall}' with grey ; under wing-coverts and axillaries mottled with grey and white : bill 5'ellowish, black at the tip ; feet brownish black ; iris dark brown. The female paler and browner than the male and with somewhat brownish gorget. Birds of the year have broad pale margins to the feathers of the under surface, the gorget in the male is brownish and in the female barely discernible. Nestlings have the feathers of the back and breast barred with black and pale brown, and the wing-coverts tipped with ochraceous buff. The nest of this species is not at all unlike that of the Blackbird, but it is somewhat looser in construction : externall}^ it is formed of dry bents and grass, frequently intertwined with twigs of heather or larch and compacted with dead leaves, moss and mud ; inside it is lined with clay or mud, concealed by a thick inner lining of fine grass. It is almost always built on the ground, most 26 The Ring-Ouzel. frequeutl}- amongst ling on the sharp edge of an embankment ; also under furze, or among heather upon steep declivities, very rarely in a low bush or tree. The eggs number from four to five, usually four, and are extremel}- similar to those of the Blackbird and F^ieldfare ; indeed, unless the collector takes them himself, I do not for a moment believe that he could be assured of their origin. I obtained eggs from two nests in Kent, in both cases flushing the bird from them ; she flew off with harsh cries — "c/iack-c/iack-c/iack''* after the manner of a Blackbird, but did not go far away ; probably had the nest contained 3-oung she would have flown round ni}' head with loud cries after the manner of the Missel Thru.sh ; but I have rarely found birds so devoted to their eggs as to their young, unless they have actually commenced incubation. I found my second nest amongst a clump of heather growing under a furze bush, on the edge of a wild plantation bounding part of a large park at Tunstall, near Sittingbourne, on May 17th, 1879: the nest unfortunately only contained one Q.gg. My first nest was found on the margin of an unreclaimed bit of heatherj' moorland in the Stock- bury Valle}' under a straggling tuft of ling overhanging the edge of a steep embankment at the side of a little frequented road, on Ma}- 24th, 1875 ; ^^^^ nest contained two eggs. In both cases I omitted to take the nest, and consequently this is a desideratum to my collection ; probabl}' the birds continued to utilize them. The habits of the Ring-Ouzel are very similar to those of the Blackbird ; its flight is ver}' similar and its trick of throwing up the tail as it alights, its method of .searching for food, characterized by a sh\-, alert, almost nervous manner, and its harsh cry uttered when the safety of its nest is threatened and at roosting time. Even its song bears some similarity to that of its ebonj- relative though harsher in character and in some respects more nearly approaching that of the Song Thrush ; its habit of interrupting and criticizing its own performance is also eminently characteristic of the Blackbird : its call-note is a thin piercing whistle, like that of our other Thrushes. The harsh gut rr/i, characteristic of the Missel and Song Thrushes, can hardly be the true call note, since they certaiul)^ call to one another in the still more unpleasant whistled note above mentioned. The food of the Ring-Ouzel consists of worms, slugs, snails, insects and their grubs, man}' kinds of berries, small fruits such as currants, gooseberries, blackberries, cherries, grapes and also plums. Seebohm says: — "A true bird of the wilderness, it prefers the deepest solitudes that our land afifords. Truly, indeed, the Ring-Ouzel's home is a wild •This somiil is iiMiall\ remlcred t)_v tlic word tiik: but lliere is a tliicknes.s a1>out tin- inilial Iftirr hctirr rrprestiiti-d Iiy > ^ / Redstart s ,",, 9 Pi Art I 1. The Redstart. 41 Kent : I was examining a tall roadside hawthorn edge for nests, when suddenly a small bird appeared, out of the field at the back, right in the centre of an open part of the hedge its tail quivering laterally, with a remarkable springy action quite new to me : at first I wondered what this lovely little creature could be ; and then, suddenly, its identity with the Redstart revealed itself, and the next minute it turned and flitted away. The flight is irregular, jerky and not specially rapid, excepting when the bird is either startled or in pursuit of pre}' ; in the latter case I know of no bird of its size which can equal it in activity, or in its power of doubling ; the same may also be said of the male bird, when in pursuit of another of its own sex. The food of the Redstart consists of insects and their larvse, spiders, centipedes and, towards autumn, of unripe corn and small fruits : most of its pre}' is captured in the air and no insect pursued by it has the least chance of escaping : it will stop in midflight and poise itself, fluttering in one spot whilst it seizes a sun-fly; or, with equal ease, it will follow the wild zigzag wanderings of the small white butterfly : in pursuit of spiders, it will rise up and down, like the Humming-bird moth, before old moss-grown walls, searching every crevice for the lurking victims ; an unwary centipede, projecting its head in a tentative manner from behind a fragment of loosened bark, or running hurriedly from the shelter of one boulder to another, is snatched up in a second and devoured ; if a small green caterpillar crosses a woodland path, the Redstart darts obliquely down as though hurled from a catapult, alights for one second with quivering expanded tail, and seizing its victim gives it a bang or two and swallows it. If, however, the caterpillar is a large one, the bird either remains on the earth until it has knocked it to a pulp, or carries it to a branch and there, holding it by the head, strikes it backwards and forwards across its perch : gnats and flies are caught and swallowed on the wing. It has been said that the action of the Redstart's tail is vertical, not lateral ; but certainly to my eye it is rather lateral than vertical, and I have watched it in an aviary for an hour at a time : the action bears no resemblance whatever to that of either the Whinchat or Stonechat, but consists of a sudden lateral springiness with a slight expansion of the feathers. I repeatedly called the attention of others to this abnormal tail-movement and everyone who saw it agreed with me that it was a vibrant wag. When the bird is at rest on a branch, every thought of the little creature seems to be emphasized by a jerk, or an expansion of the feathers. Nidification commences early in May, the site being just such as a Robin would select ; a hole in a tree or wall, but sometimes a hollow gate post, or a flower pot is chosen : it is usually not far from the ground. The nest itself is 42 The Redstart. externally carelessly constructed of dry grass, rootlets, moss and sometimes a little wool, the interior being carefully lined with hair and feathers : the number of eggs varies from five to eight, though rarel}'- exceeding six ; in colour the}' much resemble those of the Hedge Accentor, but are slightly paler and more glossy. Although the Redstart usually builds in holes and under cover, instances have been recorded of its forming its nest in an exposed situation ; thus in the "Zoologist" for 1888, pp. 352-3, the Rev. H. A. Macpherson says: — " In Juuc last, Air. Bell, of Liddell Bank, Dumfriesshire, an enthusiastic field naturalist, was kind enough to ask m}- friend Mr. Bail}- and myself to spend a couple of days in birds' -nesting with him on the Liddell. I was detained at home, but Mr. Baily went, and on his return reported the find of a Redstart's nest built into an old nest of a Song-Thrush. There was no doubt about the owner- ship of the nest, for the hen bird was seen sitting on the eggs, two of which were taken." " The Thrush's nest measures about four inches across, and that of the Red- start two inches and one fifth inside measurement : the former was placed in a thorn bush, and was therefore open to the sky, though well concealed b}' branches above. I have seen a good many Redstart's nests, but I can only recall one instance in my own experience in which a nest of R. phccnicurus has been open to the sky. The nest in question was placed in a thick bush, and was surrounded by thickets." The song of the Redstart is uttered either on the wing, or when perching ; it is both insignificant and monotonous, somewhat resembling that of the Robin, though much less varied ; its call-note is wheet-tit-tit and its note of alarm a melancholy wheet : when courting, like some other species, it records its song ; that is to say, it sings it in a whisper, omitting the louder notes. As an aviary bird, I have found the Redstart especiall}- pleasing ; it is quite hardy, provided that plenty of insects can be supplied daily, it rapidly becomes very tame and confiding, and is a most ornamental addition to one's feathered family. In September, 1893, Mr. Staines brought me a healthy example, which I turned out with the Stonechat and Whinchat into one of my unheated aviaries, disregarding utterly the reputed extreme delicacj' of this species. That winter the thermometer on several occasions registered ten or twelve degrees of frost, nevertheless the Redstart was not in the least disturbed by the cold, but seemed quite at home and happy. Every morning I put a " Demon beetle trap " into the aviary, and the Redstart was the first bird to rush in among the evil-smelling captives, seize one and fly oflf with it : no sooner was the first swallowed than he The Redstart. 43 was back again for another, and so on nntil he was sated; he was always actively flying abont, and when I put in the saucer of soft food he invariably skimmed over it snatching up a fragment of yolk of egg, whilst the saucer was still in my hand. If I offered mealworms or spiders in my fingers it was also the Redstart who snatched the first, flying up to the wires and either poising with rapidly fluttering wings, almost like a Humming-bird, or clutching the wire work with his claws for one second, to ensure a correct aim at the dainty. I found the Redstart rather fond of red and white currants in the early summer, and in the autumn thin slices of apple were pecked to pieces by it ; but white butterflies seemed to form its favourite morsels and the astounding manner in which it would swallow one after another (wings and all) was worth the attention of visitors to my collection. One thing I specially noted ; in common with every migratory species which I have kept, the Redstart failed to show any access of restlessness as the season of migration approached. Personally I do not believe, for a moment, that any bird, properly attended to in the matter of food, in an aviary, is even aware that there is a season of migration. Aviculturists go at night and glare at their birds, with the moon lighting up their eyes into balls of fire, and the frightened creatures bang about recklessly in their terror of the vague monster near their cages. The verdict is : — " See the efiect of the migratory instinct ! " There may possibly be an inherited desire in some birds to travel at the approach of cold weather, but the true explanation of the so-called "migratory instinct" in birds is, to most of them, merely another name for short commons ; and, to the more delicate species, the added discomfort of chilly nights. It must also be borne in mind that, at all seasons of the year, birds in aviaries are extremely restless on bright moonlight nights, the clear white light with the black shadows which accompany it, seem to startle birds ; and, if your bedroom window is above an aviary, you will hear your captives thumping the wirework at the end of each flight, at all hours of the night : moreover the resident birds are quite as much given to this somewhat risky exercise as the migratory species.* During the winter of 1894-5 the temperature of ni}- unheated aviaries was unusually low; on one night (when the cold outside was very intense, two degrees below zero, in fact) the thermometer registered twenty-one degrees of frost in the passage between these aviaries ; my Redstart, however, was as lively as before, * This statement of mine has been disputed, on the ground that many 3'oung birds migrate before the summer is over, and that this cannot be the reason for the return of the birds to their northern breeding haunts in the spring. I never pretended that it was the only reason in the case of all birds, though I think it probable that it was the initial cause of the migratory habit, which has become fixed by repetition through- out numerous generations and persists even when the original cause for it has ceased to exist. The damp of winter is far more dangerous to bird-life than frost, but want of food is fatal. 44 The Black Redstart. and I hoped to keep liiui for man}' j-ears in health : but one niglit, during his spring cliange of plumage, he crept into a log-nest and died : I am afraid that, in spite of abundant insect food, the cold of that winter was rather too much for him ; j-et he was bright and active to the last da\- of his life, showing no S3'mptoms of distressed breathing, or any other signs of impending dissolution. Family— TURDID^. Subfamily— TURDIN^. The Black Redstart. Rulicilla litys, ScoP. RESPECTING the geographical distribution of the Black Redstart, Seebohm writes : — " In the south it extends from Portugal through Algeria to Palestine. Northwards its range becomes more restricted, and apparently does not extend east of the valleys of the Dneister and the Vistula or north of Holstein. In autumn stragglers have been known to occur in West Russia, Scandinavia, the north of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the Faroes (on the authority of Captain Feilden), and even, it is said, as far as Iceland. North of the Alps it is for the most part a migratory bird, though a few are known to frequent situations where open water is to be found during the winter. South of the Alps it is found throughout the j'ear, its numbers being increased during winter, its range at that season extending as far south as Nubia." "As the Black Redstart very rarely occurs in Norfolk, and has not been recorded from the Lincolnshire coast, it seems probable that the birds which visit our islands come from Holland, where it is exceedingly common, and follow the coast, choosing the shortest passage across the Channel." This is an autumn and winter visitant to our southern coasts, being most commoul}' met with in Devon and Cornwall ; but whether it reall}- remains to Black Redstart $ & ? Plate 12. The Black Redstart. 45 breed with us has been questioned : eggs supposed to belong to this bird have, from time to time been obtained in various localities, but in no case have the birds themselves been satisfactorily identified in connection with these eggs : thus an egg, believed by several eminent Ornithologists to be that of the Black Redstart, was passed round at a Meeting of the Zoological Society in 1878, by the Rev. R. P. Barron, M.A. ; he having obtained it with two others in Hertford- shire in 1876. This egg was sent to me for illustration in my "Handbook of British Oology," together with the remains of the nest ; Mr. Barron writing respecting it as follows : — "The nest, I fear, is not very perfect, having been two 3'ears left in its place; it was found in the middle of May, 1876, right inside the hollow trunk of a living elm-tree, at a distance of about seven or eight feet from the ground, in a projecting ledge of the inside wood, and within a few feet of a small lake. There were originally three eggs, of a slightly pinkish tint before being blown ; they had been forsaken ; the nest seemed to be lined with hair and hay. You need not, of course, return the egg or nest." When I received this egg I was satisfied, from the distinctly unhesitating decision of well-known authorities, that it was a genuine Black Redstart's ; by daylight, it then showed a scarcely perceptible bluish green tinge, which has since entirely faded : looking at it now in conjunction with the remains of the nest, I see no reason wlij^ it should not be a white egg of the common Robin. With regard to Mr. Stirling's nests, he does not indeed note that in one instance the hen was engaged in incubation ; but, as he does not appear to have secured her, and all his nests were found in hedges or thorn fencing, the nidifi- cation of this species in Great Britain must still remain unproved, so far as his observations are concerned. I have eggs of the Yellow-Hammer which might easily be mistaken for those of the Black Redstart ; they are small for the species, being evidently deposited by a young bird, and are pure white. Unless the female was distinctly identified on the nest before she slipped away, it is possible that she may have belonged to quite another species : white eggs occur now and again with many birds, and it is probable that the same hen would la}' white eggs year after year. The Black Redstart in breeding plumage has the upper parts slate-greyish, the rump and upper tail-coverts chestnut ; wings brown, with the secondaries broadly bordered with white on their outer webs ; tail chestnut, with the two central feathers brown ; forehead, face, chin, throat, breast, axillaries and under wing coverts black; bell}' and flanks buff; bill black, feet blackish, iris brown. The female is much duller than the male, being smoky brown above and 46 The Black Redstart. slightly paler below, the white margins to the secondaries sordid, the chestnut of rump and tail suflfused with brownish. Nestlings are spotted above and below, but as soon as they acquire their adult plumage they resemble the female ; their full colouring not being attained until the second year. In its habits the Black Redstart is very like the Robin, but especially in its frequent characteristic stoop, accompanied by an upward jerk of the tail, and its alarm note tek, tek, tck. It appears to court the neighbourhood of mankind, frequenting farmyards, orchards and gardens ; and, as recorded by Howard Saunders, "Even in London one frequented the grounds of the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, from November 1885 until the snow-fall of January 6th, 1886." The nest of the Black Redstart is usuall}' placed, like that of the commoner species, in holes in walls or clefts of rocks, but at other times on rafters in sheds and outhouses, or niches and shelves in old castles or summer houses. No particular effort is made to conceal it. The structure itself is externally rough and loose, like that of the Robin ; being composed of twigs, bents, rootlets and moss ; the lining is neat and well rounded, of hair and sometimes feathers and cobwebs. The eggs number from four to seven, but usually five; they are as a rule pure glossy white, occasionall}' with a faint bluish tinge and more rarely still slightly brownish or minutely speckled at the larger end with brown. Now, although my egg, when exhibited, was at once pronounced that of the Black Redstart, it was unfortunately, found in a nest built in a hollow tree, and it is believed that this species seldom, if ever, builds in such a situation. On the other hand there is no reason why some of the considerable numbers of this species which visit Great Britain when on migration should not remain to breed with us. John Cordeaux, in the "Zoologist" for 1893, states that this species is a very frequent visitor at Flamborough Head; both in spring and autumn: in 1891, he says, they came in battalions, first some on April 6th and again a great rush on May loth and nth, scores of fine males being seen in hedges and gardens. Then again, in the volume of the same publication for 1894, G. W. Bradshaw records the fact that a male was shot at Ninfield near Bexhill, on April loth. It therefore seems far from improbable that the discovery of the nest b}' a lady in Dumfriesshire in 1889, an account of which was published in the "Zoologist" for 1890 by Mr. O. Hammond, was genuine; he says: — "A lady, a near neighbour of mine, who is fond of observing birds, tells me that about the 12th of June last j^ear, .she found a nest of the Black Redstart about half a mile from Maxwelton, iu Dumfriesshire. The nest was in a stone The Black Redstart. 47 'dyke' (wall), by the side of a road on a high hill, called ' Crossford.' The young were hatched. She tells me that she often went to watch the birds, both with a field glass and without one ; that they let her get very near, that she is certain of their identity, and that they were Black, and not Common, Redstarts." The food of this species consists of insects and their larvse, spiders, small Crustacea, and occasionally of small garden fruits : winged insects it captures in the air, after the manner of the commoner species, beetles, larvce and spiders it seeks for on the earth, especially on ground which has been newly turned up. In captivity the usual soft food, with the addition of cockroaches, spiders, mealworms, or wireworms, will suffice ; but most small insects will be acceptable. The song of this bird is simple, but the few notes are full and rich : it is therefore not surprising, seeing how handsomely it is coloured, that it should sometimes be kept in cage and aviary. Not infrequently exhibited at the bird-show of the " Ornis " Society in Berlin, and at the Crystal Palace Show. I can say nothing experimentally of this species : doubtless it would be easy to keep, and would make an engaging pet : but it ought to be turned loose in an aviary. Small insectivorous birds, when permanently kept in cages, rarely sing and usually die of apoplexy; at least that is my experience, excepting in the case of the Skylark, Woodlark, Nightingale, and sometimes the Robin : the last mentioned generally singing more or less, even when caged, but rarely living long in close captivity. So long as any part of your domain is infested with cockroaches, you need never question the practicability of keeping Redstarts alive, no matter whether your aviary be warmed or unheated ; if you can give them their daily beetle trap to forage in. Redstarts will live; but, if possible, extreme frosts should be avoided. IM 48 The Red-Spotted Bluethroat. Family- Tl RDID/E. Sub/avnly— TUKDIN^. The Red-Spotted Bluethroat. Cya7iccula sinclca, LiNX. ALSO knowu as the " Arctic Blue-throated Robin " ; it is an occasional straggler to Great Britain, but chiefl}' to the southern and eastern coasts in autumn and spring ; it has, however, been recorded from Scotland.* Seebohm gives the following account of its distribution : — " The Arctic Blue-throat breeds within the Arctic circle, or in the birch- regions at high elevations of more southerly climes, both in Europe and Asia; in the latter continent it breeds as far south as the Hiraala3'as, and occasionall}- crosses Behring's Straits into Alaska. The European birds pass through Central and Southern Europe and Palestine on migration, and winter in North Africa as far south as Abyssinia ; whilst the Asiatic birds, with the exception of those individuals breeding at high elevations in the south, pass through Turkestan, Mongolia, and North China, and winter in Baluchistan, India and Ceylon, Burma, the Andaman Islands, and South China." The male Bluethroat in breeding plumage has the upper surface brown ; the tail-coverts chestnut, the two central tail feathers dark brown, the remainder with the basal half chestnut and the outer half dark brown ; a white or pale buff superciliaiy stripe from the base of the upper mandible to some distance behind the eye ; the cheeks, chin, throat and gorget glossj- cobalt blue, centred with chestnut, bordered with black, and then on the chest again bounded b}' a belt of chestnut ; remainder of under parts huffish white ; the wing coverts and axillaries yellower ; bill black, feet brown, iris brown. The female is much duller, showing none of tlie blue or chestnut colouring of the uialc until old, when she sometimes more nearly resembles him in hues ; the band across her chest is dark l)rown. In the autumn much of the bright ci)louring is lost, the new feathers being broadly fringed with grc)-, but in the spring this bordering disappears. * About sixteen or seventeen iustaiices of its occiirreiire lia The Nightingale. 57 more northern counties until later, it leaves us again in August and September ; it has not been known to occur in Ireland, its occurrence in Scotland is doubtful and in East Devon, Shropshire and South Yorkshire it is rare ; its distribution is somewhat local, but in the woods of some of the southern counties it is very abundant. The colouring of this species above is russet-brown, the tail-coverts and tail being chestnut reddi.sh. Below it is pale buff, greyish on the breast and flanks and brownish on the axillaries ; under tail-coverts buff, deeper than on the centre of throat and abdomen. Bill brown above, pale horn-colour below; feet brown ; iris hazel. The female has a broader crown and bill than the male, but resembles it in colouring. Nestlings are darker and have most of the feathers above spotted with golden-brown ; below they are barred with gre3ash-brown. The Nightingale is a bird of the woods, its favourite haunts are copses, plantations, shrubberies and all timbered land where trees rise amongst dense and tangled undergrowth : but open forest is not suited to its somewhat timid and skulking nature. As one wanders on the outskirts of some of the almost impenetrable Kentish woods, it is no unusual thing to see this russet coloured songster dart out from the covert, and after an irregular flight of a few yards disappear again amid the thick foliage. In its actions the Nightingale resembles the Robin, but it has none of the impudent confidence of that bird ; and, though very pugnacious, it is no match for the Redbreasted bird ; of which, indeed, I proved that it stands greatly in awe : — On one occasion I turned a Nightingale loose in an aviary in which a Robin was flying about and, no sooner did they catch sight of one another, than Bob flew straight for Philomel, who crouched on the ground in such abject terror, that I quickly snatched him up to save his life. (It was a male Philomel !) In a state of nature, when scared, the Nightingale always seeks concealment in some tangled cover of bramble, hawthorn, scrambling honeysuckle or shady evergreen, uttering the while its harsh croak of alarm, and clicking together its mandibles after the fashion of other insectivorous birds. On the rare occasions when one catches a glimpse of it, in some small clearing in wood or shrubbery, seeking for small worms, beetles, or spiders, its behaviour is precisely that of the Robin, the manner in which it jumps and jerks at the worm, and having gulped it down, stands for a moment with head erect and tail slightly raised ; then bobs, flicks his wings and throws up its tail, is in every respect a perfect facsimile of the Redbreast's actions. Like luost of the Thrush-tribe the Nightingale turns over dead leaves most industriously in the search for concealed insects. 58 Thk Nightingale. Such is ni}- experience of this bird as seen in the Kentish woods; but Henr}' Stevenson, speaking of it in Norfolk says: — "Though frequenting the thick cover of our groves and shrubberies, the Nightingale is by no means a shy bird, at least on its first arrival, but sings fearlessly throughout the day in the most exposed situations. In ni}- own garden, bordered on two sides by public roads, I have known one sing at intervals throughout the day, on the 3'et leafless branches of an almond tree, perfectlv indifferent to the voices and footsteps of the passers bv ; and on the ist Mav, 1864, a most exquisite songster stationed himself on a small tree, in Mount Plea.sant lane, close to the footpath, where groups of vSunday walkers, both morning and afternoon, stopped to listen to its 'sweet descants,' and probabl}- for the first time in their lives saw, as well as heard, a Nightingale." This last sentence chimes in exactly with ni}^ belief. It is not often easy to discover the author of sweet Philomel's discourses ; one needs to look long and carefully ; and perchance, at length, one finds that the singer which one has been seeking for in the undergrowth, is perched among the smaller branches of some lofty elm ; not that it alwa^'s seeks so high a seat ; for, many a time, on a hot spring morning I have seen it in full song in a plantation of birch trees grown for hop-poles, and among the briars and rank vegetation at their roots I have often sought and sometimes found its nest. The song of the Nightingale surpasses in melody and charm that of an}^ other bird ; it commences tisually with a long-drawn plaintive phivce, pinvee, phivce, phwee, repeated from four to six times in succession, and followed bj' a rapid water-bubble cliooka, diooka^ cliooka, chooka, chooka, c/iookir, and then perhaps a series of clear notes commencing toocy, too, too, too, tooti, more and more rapidl}- uttered and increasing in power ; sometimes the song commences with this tooey, 3'et more often with the complaining note ; but, without the bird singing at one's side, it is impossible to remember, much less to do justice to, this brilliant musician ; once heard, it can never be mistaken for an3-thing else ; the Blackcap sometimes strives to cop3- the melod3', and does it fairl3f well ; but he sings too loud, without the softness of sweet Philomel. On one occasion when out with Mr. Frohawk at twilight, on the skirt of a Kentish wood, we heard a Song-Thrush and a Blackbird tr3'ing to outdo a Nightingale: it was all in vain, all three birds were perfect masters of their art ; the Thrush, b3' introducing part of the .song of the Nightingale, much improved his own natural performance ; but the Blackbird .scorned to cop3', he swung out his full flowing phrases in grand st3-le, and when he knew himself beaten, in a royal rage he charged the tree in which the little russet songster sat, and drove it from its retreat ; but the Nightingale, nothing daunted, perched The Nightingale. 59 on a branch of another tree some fifty feet away, and then the concert re- commenced : never before or since have I heard any of these three species sing so superbly. The nest of the Nightingale is usually placed in a hole in the ground, less frequently in the forking base of a pollard partly overhung by rank grass and fern-fronds, rarely in bramble or hawthorn, a foot or more above the earth, but in such unusual positions I have only twice found it, its usual site is in a depression at the foot of a tree, pollard, or bramble-bush well concealed by ferns, grasses or other short undergrowth. On several occasions, however, I have found it fully exposed to the sky, among the drifted oak- leaves in a small clearing close to some blind keeper's path : when thus situated, it appears to the casual pedestrian to be merely a round hole among the dead leaves ; but, to the experienced birds'-nester, it is fully revealed at a glance. Curiousl}^ enough the rustics who, in a desultory fashion, have plundered and destroyed nests from their babyhood upwards, invariably over- look all nests which are uierely protected by their environment in this fashion, and express the greatest wonder that a townsman should instantly recognize as a nest that which they would have passed as a hole in the ground, or a bunch of leaves. The structure itself is loosel}^ put together, the cup very deep ; the outer walls composed of coarse dry flattened bents, rushes, or even fine flags, lined with finer bents, root-fibre, and sometimes a little horsehair ; the whole of the outer wall is covered and concealed by dead oak-leaves. The eggs, which number from four to six, are brownish olive ; rarel}^ with a red-brown zone round the broader extremity. Still more rarely, they are bluish green, mottled with reddish brown, and somewhat resemble eggs of the Bluethroat : but eggs of this type I have never found, and those with the red-brown zone only twice ; the colouring is doubtless protective, for the typical eggs look at first glance much like oval pebbles at the bottom of a small hole in the earth. The call-note is said to be ivate, wate, cur-cur; but this always appeared to me to be a note of caution or anger ; the call to the female is either a piercing thin key-whistle like that of the Blackbird and Robin, to which she replies in the same manner, or a soothing tooey to which she does not reply, at least I never heard her ; but perhaps the fact that a human being was in dangerous proximity to her nest, may have made her cautious : the alarm note is a low guttural sort of croak. The hatching of a brood is signalized by a different note which has been rendered clmrr, cliurr. The song of the Nightingale commences soon after his arrival on our coasts and continues until the young are hatched, P 6o The Nightingale. which is usually in June, after tliis it is only heard in the evening after the arduous duty of providing for its family is completed for the da}-. As the 3'oung birds hear but little of the song which is their greatest gift, during the rearing season, it has been suggested that they may leani it while still in the egg ; but this idea seems to me far fetched, and most improbable ; at best the unborn chick could barely be capable of appreciating sound for a day or two before hatching : but, what seems to me to clinch the matter, is the fact that, if taken from the nest when eight daA's old and hand-reared. Nightingales in confinement do not sing a note ; or such is m}- experience. I think it far more likel}- that the song is partly learnt when the father is at evensi ng and most other voices are hushed, for then the Nightingale's melody sounds most impressive ; probably the finishing lessons are given in Africa, during our winter months. It has been said that Nightingales do not bear confinement well, 3'et I have seen individuals which have lived for years in quite small cages ; I remember one which hung against the wall of a house exactly opposite our hotel bedroom window at Baden-Baden, about the year 1867 ; we were told that it had been caged for several 3'ears, and it sang grandly when we heard it. Man}' ^-ears later I saw one at an inn, at Selling in Kent, which had been caged for about eight 5-ears and still sang well. Everj' year many are exhibited at bird-shows, the same specimens being shown in successive years. I have also known an instance of this species breeding and rearing j-oung in an aviary. The spring-caught Nightingales are those which are sold for songsters, those obtained on their autumn migration are said rarel}' to live. In June, 1887, I secured a nest of five birds nine days old, and (following the usual most misleading instructions) I fed them, amongst other things, on finel_v chopped raw meat ; consequently they all suffered from violent purging, which carried off the two strongest. Guessing that the meat was the cause of this disaster, I at once changed their diet, and successfull}' brought up the three others upon a mixture of four parts pounded dog-biscuit, four parts oat flour, two parts pea-meal, two parts yolk of egg, and one part ants' cocoons, the whole well mingled with water into a moist paste. When about six weeks old, they began to quarrel about trifles, and pull out one another's feathers ; therefore earl}* in August, I placed them in three separate sections of a large aviar3'-cage with sliding wire divisions, and here the3' soon recovered their plumage. They were ver3- tame, but, like most birds, objected to being handled ; although this was frcquentl3- necessar}', as the3' used to get their feet clogged with dirt, which the3- never attempted to remove for themselves I now changed The Nightingale. 6i their diet again ; that upon which I had reared them proving too fattening, now that they were full-grown ; I knocked off three parts of the oat-flour and one of the pea-meal, substituting finel}- crumbled dry bread. Curiously enough these Nightingales would persist in sitting in the direct rays of the sun, the result of which was that two of them got heat-apoplexy and lost all interest in everything, appearing as if stuffed, neither moving nor eating. I gave them both a warm bath after which one of them recovered, but the other died miserably about the end of August. It was said to have warbled a little before its attack, but I doubt it myself. My two remaining Nightingales became wonderfull}' confiding, and would come and pick caterpillars or mealworms out of the palm of my hand, but neither ever sang a note; one died from a recurrence of sunstroke in August, 1888, and the other (a fine male bird) went off in a decline at the end of the same year. As pets, hand-reared Nightingales are neither so pretty, nor so charming, as Robins ; their outline is pleasing, and their full intelligent eyes give them an alert appearance not belied bj^ their sprightly movements ; but one wants some- thing more than a russet brown bird which only croaks or tooeys ; a Nightingale which sings is a jo}- for ever, but a silent Nightingale is a fraud. A caught Nightingale which I had some years later, sang a little in the evening, but never attained to the full song ; it seemed healthy, but did not live many months. There are very few birds which sing their natural song when hand-reared, and the Nightingale is not one of them : whether the Robin is, I do not know ; I tried to rear a nest of these once, but foolishly gave them some chopped raw meat, which killed the entire half dozen in one day. The best mixture for successfully rearing all soft-food birds is as follows : — Four parts ants' cocoons, three parts yolk of Qgg, one part dr}^ bread-crumbs ; the whole mixed ver}' moist at first, but given drier as the birds get older: the young of Butcher-birds, Crows, &c., should have raw meat also, because flesh is to them a natural article of food. This species concludes the Thrush-like birds. (TurdinceJ. 62 The Whitethroat. Family— TURDID.F.. Subfatnily—SYL VIINAl. The Whitethroat. Sylvia cinerca, BechsT. BREEDS abuudantly in Scandinavia and Western Rnssia as far north as lat. 65°, and in the Ural Mountains up to lat. 60°, southwards throughout Europe to the Mediterranean. It winters in the Canaries and Northern Africa, passing through N.E. Africa on migration and extending its wanderings down the west coast to Damaraland. Eastwards it occurs in Asia Minor, where it is abundant in the nesting-season, in Palestine, where it is partly resident, in Persia, Turkestan and South-west Siberia. In Great Britain it is very common and generall}- distributed, being most rare in the extreme north of Scotland, and unrecorded from the Outer Hebrides. The adult male in breeding plumage has the head, neck and upper tail- coverts smok}' grey, the remainder of the upper parts greyish brown, deepest on wings and tail, the wing-coverts and innermost secondaries broadly margined witli rufous ; the outer tail-feathers paler than the remainder, broadly bordered and tipped with white. Under surface white, shaded on the breast with vinous-buff and on the flanks with buff; under wing-coverts and axillaries smok}- gre}' ; bill dark brown, the lower mandible paler, feet pale brown, iris hazel. The female differs in the absence of the grey head and upper tail-coverts, and vinous breast. After its autumn moult the male resembles tiie female. Young birds are more rufous brown. The Whitethroat reaches us about the second week in April, though in mild seasons I have met with it earlier ; it takes its departure early in September. It is essentially a bird of the thicket, hedgerow, shrubbery or garden : in open spots overrun with blackberry, honeysuckle, stunted hawthorn, long rank grass and nettles 3'ou are almost certain to hear its cheerful little song or its harsh alarm note. Though rarelj' met with in dense woods, it abounds in those narrow strips of wood known in Kent by the names of sliaivs and s/iavea ; 3'et in lanes, and little frequented country roads where the liedges arc untrimmed, and fringed at the bottoms with nettles and goose-grass, the Whitethroat is most in evidence ; here, among the nettle heads, the flimsy nest is often su.spended ; not that the • ^-' ¥' WhITETHROAT J i%,9 Plate 16. The Whitkthroat. 63 nest is always flimsy, for I liave taken examples almost as stoutly built as that of a Sedge Warbler ; nor is the nest always situated in so apparentl}^ perilous a position as a bunch of nettles, for I have often taken it from the top of a clipped hawthorn hedge partly overgrown with ivy ; but it is most frecpientl}" found low down in bramble or dense but loose vegetation and more often than not near the foot of a thick hawthorn hedge. The nest is usually Hghtl}- constructed of dried stalks of plants and grasses with here and there knots of spider's silk or sheep's wool ; the lining is composed of fine bents and horsehair : it is generall}' very deep. Of ten nests in ni}' collection, obtained during two consecutive years, two are interesting; one on account of its unusual size, the diameter of the interior of the cavit}^ measuring nearly three inches, and thickh' lined with black hair ; the other has the walls rather thickly edged with sheep's wool intertwined with the grasses. The eggs, which usualh- number from four to five, rarely six, vary a good deal in ground-tint and in marking; the best known tj'pe is greenish, indistinctly mottled with greyish olive, the larger end zoned with spots and specks of slate- grc}' and brown ; another not uncommon variet}^ resembles the egg of the Garden Warbler excepting for a belt of scattered slate-grey spots towards the larger end, a third variety is stone-grey with slightly darker mottling and looks almost like a diminutive egg of the Pied Wagtail ; a fourth, somewhat larger, is similarly coloured, but spotted and splashed as if with ink ; then there is a dark mottled greyish form, almost like a small egg of the Titlark ; a pale ruddy variety with greyish mottling, reminding one of the Spotted Flycatcher's egg, and a greenish white egg with scattered brown mottling speckled with blackish, and vaguely resembling some eggs of Passer; rarely its eggs are almost like enlarged editions of those of the Lesser Whitethroat, but with the surface between the blackish markings splashed and speckled with olive brown. The above are a few of the forms taken by myself, and it would not be difficult to add to the list, indeed an assiduous collector never seems to come to the end of variation in this egg, either in size, form, ground-tint, or pattern : I have one almost like that of the Dartford Warbler, but nearly spherical ; others which, had I not taken them my- self, I should have declared to be large eggs of the Sedge Warbler laid by an old bird, yet I took them from a most typical flimsy Whitethroat's nest, built in nettles : they are almost large enough for eggs of the Garden Warbler. Mau}^ even of the best collections give a very poor idea of the modifications to which this bird's eggs are liable, and the published descriptions seem, so far as I have been able to judge, to have been copied from one ornithological work into another, most authors speaking of specimens being pale buff, or huffish white, spotted with Q 64 The Whitethroat. yello^vish brown and with violet-gre}- shell-markings : it would be rash to assert that such eggs never existed, but I must confess that I never saw an3'thing approaching this variety among the hundreds which I have examined. This species is very largely insectivorous and its 3'oung are reared solely upon this diet, caterpillars, spiders, and crane-flies being its favourite articles of food ; in the early fruit season it also robs the raspberr\' canes and currant- bushes, and is not averse to elder- and blackberries ; earl}^ in August it is said also to eat the unripe milky corn. The "Nettle Creeper," or "Jolly Whitethroat" as the rustics call this bird, has a short but clear and melodious song, and may frequently be heard in the countr}- lanes singing from the top of a hedge or one of the lower branches of a tree; sometimes you may see him from simple exuberance of joy soaring upwards after the manner of a Pipit and presently flinging himself downwards to the hedgerow ; if you approach to watch him more closely he slips over to the other side of the hedge, rising and falling just ahead of you until convinced of j-our pursuit, when he wheels round and returns perhaps to the point from which he started ; near to which, perchance, his nest may be concealed. The call-note is a clear pinvcet-plnvcct-plnveet, but the alarm-note is a harsh hissing sound. The Whitethroat is well-known as a cage-bird and is not especially delicate, if supplied with plenty of insect food ; but, if this cannot be provided, he is un- able to stand an English winter in an unheated aviar}-, and without question an aviary, not a cage, is the onl}- confinement to which any Warbler ought to be subjected : doubtless, like all these birds, the Whitethroat does in time become reconciled to the close imprisonment of a cage; but no aviculturist, unless a great worshipper of bird-shows, would take much pleasure in watching its cramped movements in such an enclosure. The Whitethroat will sing freely in an aviary, but whether it ever does so in a cage I cannot sa}-; a male captured on its arrival in this countr\-, probable- would do so, in time ; but a hand-reared bird would be unlikely to give this satisfaction to its owner. It is therefore almost certain that caged Whitethroats are rarelj' kept excepting for the show-bench ; they would hardl}' be selected for their brilliant plumage, and their song would certainly be heard to the greatest advantage, to say the least of it, in an aviary. To keep so restless and sprightl}' a bird as the Whitethroat in close confinement, merely for the sake of the slight profit which it may bring to its owner in the way of prizes, is not only a cruelt}-, but a meanness, of which no real bird-lover, who took the trouble to reflect upon it, could well be guilty. m' ^ ^PKW^ Lesser Whitethroat Plate 17. The Lesser Whitethroat. 65 Family— Tl 'RDID.^. Sub/aviilySYL VIIN^. The Lesser Whitethroat. Sylvia curruca, LiNN. THE European race of this species ranges northwards almost to the limit of forest-growth ; southwards it breeds throughout nearly the whole of temperate Europe, to Southern Europe it is chiefly a summer visitor, but Howard Saunders states that " a few pass the winter to the east of Malaga." Its usual winter quarters are Northern and Central Africa, Arabia, Palestine, where it is also said to breed, and Persia. In Great Britain its distribution is decidedly local, being especially so on the east and west coasts and in Scotland, whilst in Ireland it is not known to occur. The adult male has the crown smoky grey, the nape, back and upper tail- coverts brownish slate- grey, the wings greyish brown with paler margins to the innermost secondaries, the tail-feathers dark brown excepting the outer ones, which are greyer and have white outer webs ; lores and ear-coverts dark brown. Under surface white, slightly tinged with yellowish brown on the breast and flanks; bill dark slate-grey inclining to black, the under mandible with pale base; feet slate-grey ; iris pale brown. The female is slightly smaller and duller- coloured than the male. Young birds are browner, with better defined pale margins to the wing-feathers ; bill and feet paler ; iris hazel. The Lesser Whitethroat reaches us late in April or early in May and usually leaves us again late in September, but stragglers remain nearly a month later, and Mr. Swa3-sland even obtained an example at Brighton in November. This species is more skulking in its habits than its larger relative, it frequents the margins of dense woods, copses, plantations, shrubberies, rural uncultivated hedges, especially those which border little frequented lanes and thickly planted gardens. When disturbed it either slips away into the dense scrub or flies up into the branches of some lofty tree where it hops restlessly from twig to twig uttering an excitable defiant note fsce, tsee, tsce, repeated rapidly nine or ten times : if disturbed from its nest, however, its note is more like />/■, 66 The Lesser Whitethroat. kek, kek : the song is a rapid repetition of one whistled note ; it has been called a trill, but is too staccato to answer that description ; a few lower notes are sometimes added, but even these have a monotonous character. The nest is constructed at any time between April and June, but I have found more in May than in eitlier of the other months ; it varies considerabl}' in its height from the ground, being sometimes placed among the upper twigs of a tall hawthorn hedge, sometimes in brambles onl}' a foot or two above the earth ; it is also occasionally found in furze-bushes; but I took most of ni}- nests either from hedges on the outskirts of woods, or in couutr}' lanes, tlic lieight from the ground being about four feet. Mr. Frohawk tells me that the Lesser White- throat, when building in shrubberies, very frequently selects the snow-berrj^ as a site for its nest : he also reminds me of the frequency with which those found by us at various times contained imperfect clutches ; a full clutch being the exception, and two to three eggs the rule. Although the bird itself is very sli}', I have not observed that it makes any special effort to conceal its nest, and many a time when I have found it to contain only one ^%%, and have left it in the hope of subsequently securing it with a full clutch, I have found it torn out by some village clown. To take one ^^% from the nest of the Lesser Whitethroat is sufficient to ensure its desertion: even if a similarly coloured small marble is substituted, the only result is that the bird ejects the marble and then lets the empt}- nest alone: I never knew her to lay a second egg after the first had been abstracted. Like the Wren, this little bird will run no risks ; if you interfere with her domestic arrangements, she will, for the time, give up housekeeping. The structure of the nest is much firmer, and, to ni}' mind, neater than that of the Common Whitethroat ; a pretty little cup formed of stout bents and root- lets firmly interlaced with the twigs among which it is fixed and interwoven here and there with a little fine wool and spiders' cocoons ; it is lined with fine bents, root fibre and a little horsehair. The eggs vary in number from four to five : when less than four are iucubated, the nest is probably a second one and hurriedly constructed, the first having been tampered with. In colouring, the eggs var}- much less than those of its larger relative ; indeed the difiPerence in ground-colour, is slight, varj-ing from white to cream-colour, the markings diffused olive-brown, with underlying silver-grej^ or pale slate spots and overlj'ing dots and lines of blackish -brown : some specimens have the spots large and boldly defined, especially towards tlie rounded extremity wlicrc tliej- frequent!}' form an irregular zone; sometimes the end of tlic egg enclosed hy this zone is suffused witli dirt}- buff; at other times the spots, though similar]}- disposed are small and The Lesser Whitethroat. 67 scattered ; and, lastly, in some clutches the spots are rather small and sprinkled over the entire surface. Although I have found few birds so easily put off the nest before the completion of the clutch, no sooner has the hen commenced incubation than she becomes a very close sitter, only leaving her eggs at the last moment, when satisfied that her death-like inaction has failed to protect them from the intruder; even then she does not move far away, but fidgets about in the scrub, scolding; in this pastime she is freqiiently accompanied by the male bird which is usually within earshot, and promptly appears on the scene to investigate the cause of his consort's ill temper. . The food of the Lesser Whitethroat consists of small insects and their larvae, spiders, soft berries and small fruits, more particularly currants and cherries. Its flight is undulating. Mr. Blyth (Field Naturalist, Vol. I. p. 306) says of the " babillard or Lesser Whitethroat " : — " He seems — to be always in such high spirits as not to know how to contain himself, taking frequently a long circuitous flight from tree to tree, and back again a dozen times, seemingly for no other purpose than mere exercise ; but he never mounts singing into the air like the Whitethroat." Gatke speaking of it in Heligoland, says that " Only solitary examples of this pretty little songster are met with on this island ; it is the earliest arrival among its nearer relatives during the spring migration, almost always making its appearance as early as the first days of April, even if the weather is still raw, and completes its migration by the middle of May. In the autumn, when it occurs still more sparingly, it may be seen from the latter half of September till towards the end of October, and at times also somewhat later." As a cage-bird the Lesser Whitethroat is not especially interesting ; never- theless, if its song is not particular!}- attractive, I agree with Herr Mathias Rausch that it has the merit of zeal (Vide ' Gefiederte Welt,' 1891, p. 342) " inasmuch as, even in confinement, it sings the whole day long." However, I have not personally had the pleasure of keeping a fully adult male of this little warbler. In June, 1887, I came across a nest of Lesser Whitethroats, evidently only about three daj's old ; and, so anxious was I to discover what they would be like in captivity, that I took the nest and attempted the difficult task of rearing them. With such young birds it was not only necessary to cover them up care- fully with warm flannel every evening, after giving them their last meal ; but I had to turn out of bed at sunrise to give them their first breakfast ; no pleasant task at midsummer ! I persevered, however, feeding them regularly on moistened R 68 ■ The Orphrax Warbler. 'Abrahams' Food' every hour, until they were old enough to require nourishment less frequently. Unhappily (as is often the case, even with the greatest care) they got very dirty : a flattened and pointed stick is a poor substitute for the parents' bill. In consequence of the matting of their feathers, the two weakest died, probably from chill ; the two remaining birds were reared ; but, though unnaturally fat, from lack of proper exercise, they were incessantly clamouring for food; yet they seemed healthy enougb. About the third week of July, in the act of stretching forward to snatch some food which I offered, they fell dead from apoplexy : the moral of which is — do not overfeed youngsters because they cry. Family— TURD I D.^. Subfamily— SYL I TIN^. The Orphean Warbler. Sylvia Orphea, Temm. THE existence of this species in Great Britain rests upon the authority of a female said by a bird-stuffer, Graham, of York, to have been shot near Wethcrby, and upon a young bird caught in Middlesex, kept in captivity for nearly six months and then identified by the late Mr. E. Blyth. Nests and eggs supposed to belong to this species have also been taken. In spite of these facts, it seems to me that there is, at present, not suflficient evidence to justify the admission of the Orphean Warbler into the British list. As Mr. Seebohm remarks : — " Under the most favourable circumstances, even supposing no error to have crept into the history or identification of any of these occurrences, the Orphean Warbler can only be looked upon as a very rare and accidental straggler to our islands." -.<' l^ , ^ ^.. ■e- j>-^ :4 1^ f Plate 19, The Garden Warbler. 73 shores of the Mediterranean, but it does not appear to winter in Europe ; it is not known to breed in Sicily or Greece, but Canon Tristram states that it does so in Palestine ; eastwards its range extends to lat. 59° in the Ural Mountains : its migration extends through Asia Minor and Egypt to the Sahara, Damaraland, the Transvaal and to the east of Cape Colony. Generally but very locally distributed over the greater part of England, but not recorded as breeding beyond Pembrokeshire and Breconshire in Wales, or in the western part of Cornwall ; probabl}^ pretty generally distributed in Scotland, although this has been questioned ; it has nevertheless been seen in most of the midland and southern counties from Banffshire downwards. In Ireland the Garden Warbler is both local and rare, but it has been recorded from Antrim, Fermanagh, Dublin, Wicklow, Tipperar}^ and Cork. Gatke states that the Garden Warbler though quite common at Heligoland during both spring and autumn migrations, is less numerously represented than the Whitethroat. The Garden Warbler in breeding plumage is olive-brown above, the wings and tail slightly darker, the flight feathers with narrow pale margins ; a slightly paler streak over the eyes ; under parts dull bufifish white, purer on the bell}', browner on the breast, flanks and centre of under tail-coverts. Bill deep brown, base of lower mandible paler, feet leaden grey, iris hazel, eyelid white. The female is very like the male but is slightly paler and probably has a somewhat broader head, but of this I am not certain. After the autumn moult the adult birds become more olive above and more buff-coloured below. Young birds resemble their parents in winter plumage, but their secondaries have well-marked pale margins. The breeding season extends from the end of May to about the end of July. I have found this species breeding in considerable numbers in North Kent, occupying the same localities as the Blackcap, which was also fairly abundant ; I am therefore not prepared to endorse Seebohm's statement that "where the Garden Warbler is abundant the Blackcap seems always to be rare, and vice versa.'' In one sense, indeed, they do not breed together ; the Garden Warbler begins to build about a fortnight or three weeks later than the Blackcap, and by the time her first c^g is deposited the earlier bird is hatching out or rearing her family. Although often heard in the woods, this species is less frequently seen there than either the Nightingale or Blackcap ; it is a shy skulking little bird frequenting the densest cover, the outskirts of woods where the undergrowth is thick and tangled, also the so-called " shaws and shaves " of Kent, almost impenetrable copses and plantations, well-timbered gardens, nurseries, and shrubberies ; the 74 The Garden Warbler. fact that the Garden Warbler can be better recognized iu the general!}- wider open spaces of the last mentioned haunts, having doubtless earned it the name of hortensis. The nest of this bird is usually situated in tangled blackberr}-, or low bushes, in copses or shrubberies ; but in kitchen gardens it may sometimes be seen in gooseberry bushes, or among well-covered pea-sticks: amongst the undergrowth in small woods and thickets it is by no means a rare object at the end of May or early in June ; though, of course, less common than that of the Whitethroat : I have never found it at any great altitude, usually about two or three feet above the ground. The structure of the nest is externally somewhat looser and more slovenly than that of the Blackcap, but the cup is beautifully formed within; the outer walls are formed of dry bents, or goose-grass and other fibrous plants ; sometimes mixed with a little moss and wool and lined with fine roots and horse- hair. The eggs vary in number from four to five and are tolerably constant in their colouring ; they are generally creamy, but sometimes pale greenish white, blotched and spotted with pale greyish olive or rufous brownish, with sometimes a few underlying spots of pearl grey, and a few blackish brown surface spots or hair-lines ; some examples are very faintly marked, with all the markings sinuous but arrauged longitudinally and covering the whole surface, others have somewhat bolder nebulous patches of spots chiefly confined to the larger end, in others most of the markings run together into a vague smoky cap at the larger end, leaving the remainder of the ^gg almost white ; but the general effect of a crowd of Garden Warbler's eggs impresses one with the conviction that they are extremely uniform in tone : some clutches contain small eggs, others large, according to the age of the parents; their average size is about the same as those of the Blackcap; but the latter bird sometimes lays a much shorter and rounder e.gg than I have ever found in a Garden Warbler's nest. The Garden Warbler sits somewhat closer than the Blackcap, only slipping off her eggs at the last moment and then diving down over the edge of the nest, so close to your hand that her wing will sometimes brush your fingers ; there is therefore no difficulty, apart from the different character of the nest, in making certain of the identity of any eggs which you take yourself, and there is only one variety of the Blackcap's eggs which could by any chance be mistaken for the product of Sylvia hortensis. The song of the Garden Warbler is exceedingly pleasing, less rich and full than that of the Blackcap ; somewhat more plaintive, though rapidly enunciated ; in tone reminding one a little of an extra good Canary, yet without the shrieking notes which frequently mar the song of that bird. Excepting when rearing its The Garden Warbler. 75 young, this species sings frequently tlirougliout the day, but whether it sings again after the rearing of its single brood (I do not believe in the double- broodedness of this bird) I cannot say; probably not: all I can positively state is that I have never heard it even as late as July, a month in which, occasionally, a late nest may be taken. The food of 5". /iorti'?isis in the spring and summer consists very largely of spiders, insects and their larvae, the caterpillars of the two smaller cabbage butterflies (Ganoris rapce and G. 7iapi) being favourite articles of diet and largely used for feeding the nestlings.* In the summer, however, currants and straw- berries are not despised by the Garden Warbler, while in the autumn fruits and berries seem to become its favourite food. The alarm note of the Garden Warbler is a kind of check, check, sometimes followed by a guttural sound. Speaking of the Garden Warbler, Stevenson observes : — " I have rarely detected the song of this warbler in summer in close vicinity to the city, but in autumn, towards the end of August or beginning of September, a pair or two, with their little families (and the same may be said of the Blackcap and Whitethroat) invariably appear amongst the shrubs in my garden, betraying their presence by the same anxious cries so aptly described by Mr. Blyth, as ' resembling the sound produced by tapping two small pebbles together.' This is evidently intended as a note of warning to the young brood, alwa3'S carefully concealed amongst the thick foliage, their whereabouts being indicated only by a rapid movement of the leaves, as they search the branches for berries and insects." The call of the Garden Warbler to its mate is certain to be a soft sound ; but I have not specially noted it ; and, in all works on British Birds which I have studied the cry of alarm or warning is incorrectly stated to be the call-note: the same error is made with regard to many other species, not only of European but of foreign birds ; the harsh scolding chatter of the Pekin Nightingale having been stated to be its call note, probably because both sexes scold in unison : whereas the actual call of that species consists, in the hen — of a single whistled note repeated five times, and in the cock — of a short measured song consisting of seven or nine notes. The Garden Warbler in confinement is certainly more sensitive to cold than the Blackcap : a friend of mine who is very fond of fishing, sometimes takes a fine net with him which he fixes up across the trout stream ; by this means he * These larvae are eaten with avidity by all insectivorous birds ; whereas the caterpillars of the large cabbage butterfly (G. Biatsico'J seem to be offensive to nearly all. Why this should be the case, when one sees that all three caterpillars eat the same leaves, and produce ver}' similar butterflies (which are eaten indiscriminately) is a poser. 76 The Garden Warbler. has, from time to time, secured many interesting birds for stuffing (a proceeding with which I have no sympathy, for to my mind a live bird in the bush is far preferable to fifty dead birds in the hand). However, in September, 1888, he brought me two living birds, one of which was a male Garden Warbler. I turned these birds into a large cool aviary, among Waxbills, Manuikins and British Finches. The Garden Warbler seemed perfectly content, ate the usual soft food, as well as a few mealworms, caterpillars and spiders ; the frost did not appear to affect it unpleasantly, and, in the early spring, it sang heartily ever)' day : in May its song became less frequent, it grew somewhat listless in its movements, yet continued to eat as freely as ever. One morning, in July, 1889, I found it dead, and dissection showed that its lungs were seriously affected. I should therefore recommend Aviculturists to keep this Warbler in a mild temperature during the winter months, and give it as much insect food as possible : it ought, moreover, to be kept in an aviary, so that it may be able to take plenty of healthful exercise.* As an aviary bird, the Garden Warbler is well worth keeping; it is active and at the same time capable of being tamed, although somewhat more shy than the Blackcap; its song, though inferior to that of the latter species, is infinitely superior to that of any of the British Finches, yet that is not saying much for it, inasmuch as even the Robin's plaintive little melody is purer in tone and more grateful to the ear than that of any of our Finches. • Mr. Staines, of I'ciiKf. gave me a second male in July, 1896. which wa.s in perfect liealth at the time of penning this article. ■9' / ♦ ^ The Barred Warbler. 77 Family— TURD I D^. Subfamily— SYL VIIN^. The Barred Warbler. Sylvia nisoria, BechST. RESPECTING the distribution of this rare species, Seebohm writes : — " Besides South Sweden, it breeds in Germany east of the Rhine, Trans3-lvania, South Russia, Persia, and Turkestan, as far east as Kashgar. It passes through South-eastern France, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Asia Minor, and North-east Africa, as it is said to pass through Nubia in spring and autumn, but has not been recorded from the Transvaal. Its alleged occurrence in China is probably an instance of mistaken identification." The same author, writing in 1883, observes that "The only claim of the Barred Warbler to be considered a British bird rests upon a single example, shot more than fort}' 3'ears ago near Cambridge — but apparently not brought under the notice of Ornithologists until March, 1879, when Prof. Newton exhibited it at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, a record of which may be found in the Proceedings for that year, page 219." The record referred to by Mr. Seebohm runs as follows : — " This specimen was formerly the property of Mr. Germany, for many years the highly-respected porter of Queen's College, who in the course of a long life formed a considerable collection of birds, nearly all obtained by himself in and near Cambridge, and also stuffed by himself. At his death, more than twenty years ago, it passed, with many others of his specimens, into the possession of an old friend of his, Mr. Elijah Tarrant, of whom Mr. John Robinson, an undergraduate of Trinity Hall, bought it about a twelvemonth since. Up to this time no one seems to have known what the bird was, though some ingenious person had hazarded the suggestion that it was a variety of the Nightingale. Soon after it was seen by Mr. Frederick Bond, F.Z.S., who at once recognized it as Sylvia -nisoria, and was good enough to advise its being shown to me." Prof. Newton then proceeds to point out good and sufficient reasons for believing that this specimen actually was obtained in England. Apparently it was shot either in spring or early summer : it was skulking in dense foliage and was only shot with the greatest difficulty and then at so short a range that a 78 The Barred Warbler. good many of its feathers were knocked out. *The taxidermist who stuffed it inserted a glass eye with a pale yellow iris, a clear proof that he must have seen the bird very soon after it was shot ; otherwise it is not probable that he would have selected a colour which is rare in the family. Had the occurrence of this single example been the sole argument in favour of regarding the Barred Warbler as British, I should have treated the species as a mere chance visitor to our islands, and practically ignored it ; but singularly enough, on the very 3'ear after the publication of Mr. Seebohm's observation, three specimens were brought to the notice of Zoologists : the first of these, a young bird, was shot on August i6th, 1884, near Broadford, in the Isle of Skye, by Mr. G. D. Lees ; the second, an immature female, on the 28th of the same month, by the Rev. H. H. Slater, who observed it skulking in an elder-hedge by a potato-garden in some sand hills on the Yorkshire coast, he stated that the bird was very shy and difficult to see ; the third, another immature female, was shot by Mr. F. D. Power, of Brixton, on the 4th of September, from scrub at the base of Blakeney sandhills, Norfolk. The occurrence of three young examples in one year, almost seems to justify the conclusion that this Warbler, when on migration, may frequentl}' visit us ; but, owing to its disinclination to show itself in the open, may have evaded observation. In the last edition of Stevenson's "Birds of Norfolk," edited by Thos. South- well, a member of the British Ornithologists' Union, the latter gentleman speaks of an example of the Barred Warbler as having been shot at Blakene}^ after easterly winds on the loth September, 1888, and he says that this bird on dissection proved to be a male. The contents of the stomach consisted largel}- of earwigs. This would appear to be distinctly a fifth occurrence of the Barred Warbler upon tlie Britisli coasts : .scrub in the vicinity of saudhills seems to be the most likely haunt in which to seek the species, whilst August and September are the months most favourable for the search ; but it seems a thousand pities that these rare birds should not be captured alive, and their habits in captivity studied in detail. All that can i)c learnt from the stuffed skin of a Barred Warbler has either long been known, or can be equally well studied from skins already in our cabinets ; but reall}' to know something of the nature and peculiarities of a bird, it must be studied, not only flj'ing freely in its native home, but in a good-sized aviary. Lord Lilford has set an example which might, with advantage to Ornith- ological science, be well followed b}' man}' other naturalists, and especially those with means and leisure. When on migration the Barred Warbler reaches Heligoland in Ma}- and June, • This specimeu is still iu the possession of Mr. Robinson, who resides at Elterwater, Westmoreland. The Barred Warbler. 79 but Gatke speaks of it as b}- far the rarest of those belonging to German}' which are met with on that island; he saj-s: — "The bird is never seen before the middle of May, and then only on warm, calm days, and in solitary instances ; nor can it be by any means reckoned as a regular annual summer visitant." The adult male in breeding plumage is smoky-grey above, the head, rump, upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers greyer ; the wings browner ; the wing-coverts, innermost secondaries, the feathers on the rump, the upper tail-coverts and the outer tail-feathers are margined and tipped with white, and have a blackish subter- minal bar ; this is also sometimes the case with the forehead, lower back, and scapulars ; the two central tail-feathers are indistinctly barred ; under surface gre3'ish white, barred with gr&y, the breast, flanks, thighs, and under tail-coverts browner, the flanks somewhat heavily barred ; axillaries and under wing-coverts mottled with gre)' and white, bill dark brown, the lower mandible paler at the base, feet greyish brown, iris pale yellow. The female is very like the male, but slightly browner and with fewer transverse bars. In the autumn the colouring becomes browner and the bars on the feathers more pronounced. Young birds are browner than adults and are hardl}' barred at all excepting on the under tail-coverts. Although not unlike the Whitethroat in its habits and even in its song, the Barred Warbler is far more shy and skulking, rarely leaving the dense cover of briar and brushwood; though not frequently met with in forests, it haunts planta- tions, copses, and tangled masses of thorn and blackberry, and from such retreats its song may be heard : this, though harsh in some of its notes, is said to be almost equal to that of the Garden Warbler and to include tones rich as those of the Blackcap, The call-note is described as resembling the syllable c/ie^; and the alarm note r-r-r-r-r, a harsh, warning cry. The food of the Barred Warbler does not materially differ from that of most other species of Sylvia; it consists largely of insects, with the addition of fruit and berries as soon as these are ripe ; it sometimes captures winged insects in the air after the manner of its congeners. The nest is usually placed in a thorn-bush in thick cover, and as a rule very low down; but one instance is recorded of its being built among the topmost twigs of a birch-tree at a height of twenty-five feet above the ground. It is a firmly built and somewhat bulky structure, roughly formed externallj' of bents and roots intermingled with plant stalks and compacted with spiders' cocoons or vegetable down ; the inside is neatly formed, deep and beautifully rounded, the lining consisting of fine rootlets, horsehairs, and sometimes cobwebs. U 8o The Barred Warbler. The eggs vary from four to six iu number, but five is the usual clutch: they are dull huffish white marbled with grey, and are uot unlike those of the Grey Wagtail, excepting that they are larger ; sometimes, however, they are marbled with brown with underlying grey spots; the colouring being massed especially on the larger end. Speaking of the song of this species, Herr Mathias Rausch, in the "Gefiederte Welt," for July 30th, 1891, observes that "it is just as beautiful and rich in charming melodies as that of the Garden Warbler, for the most part flute-like and full-toned, frequently indeed intermixed with somewhat rough guttural sounds, yet withal distinctly powerful and also more or less intermingled with snatches from the song of other birds. Also the song of this bird has a swing peculiar to it, which characterizes the species as an original songster." " Moreover if reared by hand or trapped when 3-oung, Barred Warblers, taught by good cage-birds, certainly often become admirable imitators of the song of other birds; but, in the case of old wild-caught examples, this faculty is much less perceptible, and for this reason it is hardly fair to reckon them plagiarists." Lord Lilford (Coloured figures of Birds of the British Islands) evidently has not so high an opinion of the Barred Warbler's vocal attainments; he saj's: — "I have three of this species caged at this time of writing ; in attitude, song, and general demeanour they very much resemble our Lesser Whitethroat, but are the least restless of any Warblers that I have ever kept iu captivity." An adult which lived for some months in the possession of Rev. H. A. Macpherson was a very shy but active bird. Dresser, in his "Birds of Europe," says: — "It is never seen sitting still, but appears always moving about. If disturbed, or it sees anything strange, it raises the feathers of its head, jerks its tail, and utters a harsh note. It creeps about amongst the bushes, hopping about from twig to twig without using its wings. It is quarrelsome, and drives intruders from the vicinity of its nest." " It sings from early in the morning, except during the heat of the day, until late in the evening, and frequently sings when at some height iu the air or fluttering from tree to tree." D'.KTFORD Warp,! FT- PuATf The Dartforu Warbler. 8i Family— TURDID^. Siibfamily—SYL J7IN^. The Dartford Warbler. Sylvia ufulata, BODD. ALTHOUGH this Warbler has been known to breed in Kent, I have never been able to be certain of having seen it, though I have sometimes suspected that nests which I have discovered built in furze-bushes, might have been the work of this species : whoever the architect was, she slipped away so quietly into the dense, prickl}^ cover on my approach, that I could not even get a glimpse of her, and only knew of her whereabouts by the movement in the furze. Howard Saiinders gives the following as the geographical distribution of this species: — "Although as a rule a non-migratory species, the Dartford Warbler has been observed in Heligoland ; but it is unknown in Northern Germany, Holland, or Belgium. Rather rare in the Channel Islands, it is found throughout France in suitable localities, especially from the foot of the Western Pyrenees to Provence. In man}' parts of Portugal and Spain it is common, and I have watched it singing among the orange-gardens of Murcia ; while it nests in the sierras of the almost tropical south coast at elevations of from 4,000 to 3,000 feet. In Morocco and Algeria it is also resident, and it has been recorded from Lower Egypt, and Palestine ; but in Europe its eastern range is not known to extend beyond Italy and Sicil}', the bird seldom reaching Malta." With regard to its distribution in Great Britain, this author says : — " It is now known to breed in nearly all the southern counties, from Cornwall to Kent, especiall}' in Hampshire (including the Isle of Wight), Surrey and Sussex ; sparingly in the valley of the Thames; perhaps in some of the Midland Counties; and, on the sole authority of Mr. C. Dixon, in the Rivelin valley, in the extreme south of Yorkshire. It has been observed in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk ; while in Suffolk a few probably breed." Respecting its occurrence in Heligoland, Gatke says that only two instances are recorded, " it having on one occasion been obtained by Reyners, and on the other observed by myself, on May 31st, 1851, hopping about in the thorn-hedge of a neighbouring garden at only a few paces distant. Unfortunately there being 82 The Dartford Warbler. other gardens behind the hedge in question in which people were occupied at the time, I was unable to shoot the bird." The adult male above is dark smoky brown, deeper and more slate-coloured on the head, wings dark brown, the coverts, inner secondaries, and primaries with pale brown outer margins ; tail dark grey, the two outside feathers with white outer margins and tips; under surface chestnut reddish, shading into white at the centre of lower breast and abdomen ; under tail-coverts gre3-ish ; bill deep horn brown, base of lower mandible yellowish ; feet pale brown, iris and eyelid saffron yellow. The female is smaller than the male and the underparts are paler. After the autumn moult the chin, throat, breast and flanks are spotted and streaked with white ; birds of the year are paler above and whiter below than the female. The Dartford Warbler is an extremely restless, but at the same time a skulking bird; Seebohm's description of its habits can, I think, hardlj' be improved on ; he saj'S : — " In summer the Dartford Warbler lives almost entirely in the furze-bushes ; hence its local name of Furze- Wren. In winter, thoiigh it luay often be seen in its summer haunts, the necessity of procuring food prompts it to visit the turnip-fields, or to range along the coast. Its long tail and short rounded wings do not seem adapted to extensive flights ; but it has nevertheless been twice seen on Heligoland. It is seldom seen on the wing. At Biarritz I found them frequenting the reeds on the banks of a small lake. The first sight I had of one was that of a little dark bird with a fan-like tail suddenly appearing amongst the reeds on the opposite side. Occasionally, as we walked on the bank of the lake, we heard a loud, clear, melodious pitch'' -oo repeated once or twice amongst the reeds. The note was so musical that for a moment one might imagine that a Nightingale was beginning to strike up a tune. Now and then we saw the bird appear for a moment above the reeds, as if thrown up bj^ a battledore ; but it dropped down again and disappeared as suddenly. I have very rarel}' seen so skulking a bird ; once only it flew up from the reeds, and perched in a willow near a large patch of furze-bushes. Like most other Warblers this bird is very active, scarcely resting for a moment, excepting when warbling its hurried little song from the top of a furze-branch. In many of its habits it reminds one of Cetti's Warbler. It flits up a furze-bush, dodging in and out amongst the side branches in search of insects, perches for a moment on the top- most spray ; but before you have had time to get j'our binocular on to it, it has caught sight of your movement and drops down into the furze-bush as if shot." The nest in Great Britain has always been found concealed amongst dense furze, but on the Continent and more especially in the south it is said to be placed in broom or heather ; the dead lower branches of the furze are selected as The Dartford Warbler, 83 a building site. In character the nest is small, deep and flimsy ; it is formed principally of thin bents, interwoven with stems of goosegrass and moss, a little green furze, and wool. The eggs vary from four to five and are greenish or bufiish white, mottled with olive and spotted with reddish brown ; the marking is more densely distributed over the surface than in eggs of the Greater Whitethroat, to which in other respects they bear a slight resemblance; they, however, tend to be longer, and to my mind would be more aptly likened to very diminutive eggs of the Rock Pipit, or to some eggs of the Tree Sparrow. I do not think anyone well acquainted with British Birds' eggs would ever confound those of the Dartford Warbler and Whitethroat. The breeding-season of this species is from April to July, and two broods are reared in the j'ear ; the second nest is said to be usually less compact than the earlier one ; this is constructed in June, when there is less necessity for a warm receptacle for the eggs. The food of the Dartford Warbler consists principall}' of insects, and Mr. Booth, in the "Zoologist," for 1887, states that it " generall}^ feeds its young on the body of a large yellow moth," which he says the parent birds hunted for among the lower part of the stems of the foliage. I have little doubt the moth intended is one of the common Yellow-underwings fTriphocna iatilhina, orbona, or pronuba) which I have frequentl}^ disturbed from furze-bushes in the day-time. In the autumn wild berries are also eaten. As this species is a fairly meritorious songster there is no doubt that it would be an interesting aviary pet; its scolding note is a somewhat harsh cha-cha, but its call-note is probably soft and pleasing like that of other Warblers. Its actions are sprightly, the tail being expanded as it alights; its flight is rapid and undulating, but not powerful. There is not the least doubt that this species could be fed in confinement upon the mixture which I have recommended for other insectivorous birds, supplemented by mealworms, caterpillars, moths, flies, cockroaches, earwigs, and spiders ; these last, which are rarely mentioned in works on British Ornithology, form a considerable portion of the diet of all insectivorous birds ; they are not only easy to capture, easy of digestion (even seeming to have a beneficial effect upon birds when out of health) but they are relished much more than any form of insect or its larvae, not excluding mealworms : centipedes also are eaten with avidity, but not millipedes, and many birds refuse to touch woodlice or only kill and leave them. The Dartford Warblers which Montagu kept in confinement were taken from X 84 The Golden-Crested Wren. the nest and reared by hand. These birds " began to sing with the appearance of their first mature feathers, and continued in song all the month of October." Family— TURD ID. E. Sub/amily—S YL VIIN^. The Golden-Crested Wren. Rcgiiliis cristatui, K. L. Kocil. PERHAPS to the case of few species are the observations of Herr Gatke more applicable than to that of the Gold-crest when he says, speaking of the countless myriads of birds which pass over Heligoland on migration, and furthermore of this very species : — " The east-to-west migration of the Golden-crested Wren in October, 1882, extended in one continuous column, not only across the east coast of England and Scotland, but even up to the Faroe Islands. When one thinks of numbers of individuals such as these, which cannot be grasped b}- human intelligence, it seems absurd to talk of a conceivable diminution in the number of birds being effected through the agency of man. In one particular respect man no doubt does exert a noticeable influence on the numbers of bird-life, not, however, by means of net and gun, but rather by the increasing cultivation of the soil, which roots out everj- bush and shrub, great or small, as a useless obstacle, and thus robs the bird of even the last natural protection of its nest. Having thus driven the poor creatures into distant and less densely populated districts, we complain that we no longer hear their merry- song, unconscious of the fact tliat wc arc ourselves responsible for the cause." This is a point which I have always insisted upon : no Act for the protection of wild birds, which does not forbid the wholesale grubbing of woods, and so-called " waste land," will ever prevent the diminution of bird-life in our Islands. The Gold-crest is generally distributed over Europe in Scandinavia northward to the Arctic Circle, aiul in Russia from Arcliaugel and the Ural Mouutuins ; in Golden-Crested Wren s Plate 22. The Golden-Crested Wren. 85 tlie east, soutliwards to tlie Himalayas and China, and in the west down to the Mediterranean. Dixon (Jottings about Birds, p. 70) observes : — " It is said that the Gold- crest, R. cihtatus (Koch) visits Algeria in winter, but I cannot find any conclusive evidence of the fact. It is said regularly to pass Malta on migration in spring and autumn." In Great Britain it is generally distributed wherever coniferous trees occur, and breeds with lis. Although the Gold-crest is the smallest British bird, its migratory powers are inferior to none, and its capacity for resisting cold so great, that it remains with us even in our severest winters : it is a common error to suppose that size necessarily accompanies vigour, inasmuch as many of the tiniest birds are undoubtedly far more hardy than larger species : as an instance, I would call attention to the little Indian Avadavat, which I have proved to be indifferent to 21 degrees of frost; whereas many of the larger parrots, at anyrate if recently imported, as some of my Waxbills had been, would have succumbed to a considerably higher temperature. The male Gold-crest is olive-green above, more or less suffused with yellowish; the crown of the head bright j-ellow in front shading into orange behind and bounded by a blackish streak, below which is a greyish-white superciliary streak; the wing and tail-feathers are greyish browu, the median and greater wiug-coverts edged with white, the primary-coverts being blackish ; secondaries tipped with white ; under parts pale grejdsh-brown or greenish-buff, whiter on the abdomen ; bill blackish-brown, feet brown, iris hazel. The female is less brightly coloured than the male, the crown brown-yellow with narrower blackish streak. In the young the crown is slightly darker than the back, but shows no trace of yellow or black. In many illustrations this bird is represented with a well-defined crest ; but, so far as I have seen, the feathers of the crown seem to be erected very slightly, if at all ; though, when the little creature looks downwards, the feathers at the back of the crown project slightly above those of the nape. Possibly under great excitement the feathers of the crown would be partially raised as they are in many birds ; but whether, even then, they would stick up like the quills of the "prickly porcupine," as artists delight in representing them as doing, is, I think questionable. Mr. Frohawk, who has had considerable experience of the Gold-crest, tells me that in the autumn this species may frequently be met with singly, or in pairs (I have often seen it thus in my own garden) ; but in the winter it is generally 86 The Golden-Crestkd Wren. seen in flocks, and often in companj' of Long-tailed Tits. In the latter season it hannts pine-forests, as well as hedges ; but in the breeding season plantations of spruce and larch are its favourite resorts. The male sings continuously in the vicinity of its nest, and if disturbed the old birds creep about incessantly near to their home with quivering wings. Furthermore, Mr. Frohawk sa3'S that he has never known a Gold-crest to erect a crest ; the feathers of the liead are, however, somewhat expanded laterally so as to expose the golden stripe in its full beaut}-, this stripe being very narrow when the bird is in repose. ]\Ir. Staines, of Penge, who has on several occasions attempted to keep the Gold-crest as a cage-bird, confirms Mr. Frohawk's opinion in all particulars: he has never seen the bird erect, though he has seen it expand its crest. Lord Lilford (Birds of Northamptonshire) says: — "The call-note of the Gold- crest is peculiar and constantly repeated whilst the birds are on their excursions. In very cold weather I have found a family of perhaps a dozen of these little birds clustered together for warmth beneath the snow-laden bough of an old yew- tree, to the under surface of which the uppermost birds were clinging b}- their feet, whilst, as far as I could see, the others clung to them and to one another, so as to form a closely packed feathery ball. I happened to notice this bj' chance, and, in the gloom of the overhanging boughs, thought it was au old uest, but on touching it with the end of a walking-stick, the supposed nest dissolved itself into a number of these minute creatures, who did not appear much alarmed, but dis- persed themselves on the adjoining boughs, and, no doubt, soon resumed their previoiis formation, which I was sorry to have disturbed. Although the nests of the Gold-crest are generally placed under the branches of a 3'ew or a fir tree, we have twice found them in a thin fence at about five feet from the ground ; the materials are soft moss and lichens, wool, a little grass, and a mass of small feathers bj' way of lining.* The eggs are of a yellowish-white, very closely spotted or clouded with pale rust-colour, and varj- in number from six or seven to ten or more ; I once found twelve in a nest." A nest in ni}' collection, taken from the under-surface of a j-ew-branch and interlaced in tlie terminal feathery leaves, is formed almost entirely of moss, compacted witli spiders' silk and one or two small feathers ; the lining appears to • Mr. A. T. Mitchell has drawn attention to the fact that, in some parts of Ireland, the Gold-crest "builds commonly against the sides of ivv-covercd trees. The nest is not suspended under a branch of fir, as I have found it in l-;nj;land, and the nests here are bailly and loosely jnil together." Mr. J. Trumbull states that of seventeen ncsls of the Gold-crest found in Co. Dublin, only four were placed beneath the surface of a branch. Mr. H. S. Davenport has found half a dozen nests of the Gold-crest "placed against the sides of ivy-clad trees." The Rev. H. j\. Mac]dicrson Ii;is also pointed out that the Gold-crest occasionally builds its nest in the middle of a furze-bush (Cf. Zool. 1895, pp. 3S5, 431, 44S). The Golden-Crested Wren. 87 consist wholly of small soft feathers. Some eggs which I have seen, were creamy white ; others, densely and minutely dusted all over with rusty-reddish ; others again, with a deeper rust-red zone, or terminal nebula, at the larger extremit}'. The song of the Gold-crest is short, low, but pleasing ; though its call-notes are thin and almost as shrill as the notes of a bat. Dixon in describing the song calls it eulogistically " a few notes of matchless melody." This tin}' bird haunts woods, shrubberies, plantations of fir, larch and other conifers, yew-trees in churchj'ards and cemeteries, copses, orchards and gardens. In its habits it greath^ resembles the Tits, dropping from spray to twig, turning, twisting, closel}' examining ever}' inch of its swaying perch for insect prey, and incessantly uttering its high piercing whistle; then, gliding rapidly from the end of some feathery spray, it passes on to another tree and recommences its acrobatic performances. Like the Tits also, this little bird is wonderfully confiding : one autumn whilst standing on a balcony leading by steps into the garden of the house which I then inhabited, I heard the shrill note of this species just above my head, and looking upwards saw a pair of Gold-crests clambering about over a jasmine which I had trained to cover a wire arch above the doorway ; they appeared to be quite indifferent to my presence not a foot below them. Stevenson, in his " Birds of Norfolk," after speaking of the well ascertained fact that thousands of these tiny birds in the autumn come to swell the numbers of our residents, observes: — "Perhaps the most striking instance, however, of the migration of the Gold-crest, in large numbers, to our eastern coast, was witnessed by Captain Longe, of Great Yarmouth, on the morning of the and of November, 1862. In a letter to myself at the time, he says 'As I was walking to Hemsby, about 7-30 when it was just daylight, about half a mile out of Yarmouth, on the Caister road, my attention was attracted to a small bush overhanging the marsh dyke, which borders the pathway, by the continuous twittering of a small bird. On looking closely, I found the bush, small as it was, literally covered with Golden-crested Wrens. There was hardly an inch of twig that had not a bird on it, and even from my rough attempt at calculation at the time, I feel sure there were at least between two and three hundred. Most of them were either females or young birds, having a lemon-coloured crest ; they were perfectly tame, and although I sat down on the other side of the ditch, within six feet, and watched them for some time, they did not attempt to fly away ; but one or more would occasionally rise off its perch, hover like a butterfly, and settle again in some other position. I went the next morning to look for them, but they were all gone. The wind had been easterly, with much fog.'" The food of the Gold-crest consists principally of insects, small spiders, &.c.; Y 88 Thk Fire-Crested Wren. but it eats a few seeds and small berries: in captivit}' insectivorous food and bread- crumbs moistened, also boiled potato, cooked the previous day, and finely chopped up with yolk of egg, would form a good staple diet ; small mealworms, ants' larvae, small caterpillars, flies, and spiders being given when procurable. Although sometimes kept in quite small cages, this bird, to be properly studied, should be turned loose in a moderately large aviary, planted with firs and 3'ews; or at an}' rate with a few pot specimens of these trees standing about; but whetlier it be kept in cage or aviary, a snugly lined box should be hung up in one corner to which it may retire for warmth at night ; for, although the Gold-crest is undoubtedly a hardy bird like the Tits, captivity at best deprives it of much of the free exercise which it takes throughout the day when at liberty ; this, in conjunction with somewhat unnatural diet, less pure air, and the lack of companionship of an}' of its own species, doubtless tend to weaken and undermine the constitution of this feathered mite. In my opinion a bird which is never seen singly, but at the very least in pairs, should not be caged by itself; solitary confinement may not be objectionable to a parrot; but to a species which, when not breeding, is seen in family parties, small companies, or even in countless myriads, solitary confinement must be in the highest degree irksome: an aviary about eight feet square, devoted to a score or so of these fairy-like little birds, would be " a thing of beauty and a joy for ever." Family— TURDID^. Subfamily— S YL VI I N^. The Fire-Crested Wren. Regulus ignicapi/liis, C. L- BrKHM. NOT infrequent straggler to the British Isles, the Fire-crest may fully claim its title to a place in these pages. Of its geographical distribution Howard Saunders writes : — " The Fire-crested Wren has a much less A / Fire-Crested Wren i Plate 23. The Fire-Crested Wren. 89 extended range northward tlian its congener, and althongh it appears to have straggled to the Faroes, it is unknown in Scandinavia ; barely reaches Denmark ; and does not occur to the north-east of the Baltic Provinces of Germany. To some parts of the Rhine district it is rather partial in summer ; and, although local in its distribution, it breeds in France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Central and Southern Germany, Greece, Turkey, and Southern Russia. In the Taurus Range of Asia Minor, it is more abundant than the Gold-crest. In the mountain forests of Algeria, and in some parts of Southern Europe, the Fire-crest is resident throughout the year ; its numbers being augmented in the winter by migrants from the north." Herr Gatke says :— " This species is a little smaller, and b}' reason of its black eye-streak, still somewhat more prettily marked bird than the preceding. It visits Heligoland almost as regularly as the latter, but invariablj^ in very small numbers. In the spring it arrives somewhat sooner, and in the autumn somewhat later than R. flavicapilltis — and thus may be said in a sense to open and close the migration of the crested Wrens." In England specimens of the Fire-crest have been obtained since 1832, when a cat slaughtered the first recognized specimen ; the following counties have at various times witnessed its destruction : — Cumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Lanca- shire, N. Wales, Norfolk, Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Devonshire, Oxon, Cornwall, and the Scilly Islands. One specimen is said to have occurred in Scotland in 1848, and one was supposed to have been seen at Tralee, in Ireland; but both of these occurrences are considered to be open to doubt. In general appearance the Fire-crest greatly resembles the Gold-crest, but dififers in its yellowish frontal band, whiter superciliary streak, frequently more orange crown, a second black streak passing from the gape through the eye, and a third moustachial streak ; the sides of neck and the shoulders washed with sulphur yellow; feathers of wings and tail brown, with yellowish-green edges; the greater and median wing-coverts tipped with white and the primary coverts dark brown ; under parts dull huffish white ; bill blackish brown, feet dark brown, iris hazel. The female is duller in colouring than the male and has a paler crest ; young birds have the crown of the same colour as the rest of the iipper surface, only acquiring the yellow colouring after the first moult. The habits, haunts and even the nest and eggs of this species are extremely like those of its near relative the Gold-crest; the nest is similarly suspended and is usually formed of moss felted with spiders' cocoons and thickly lined with feathers. If the branch in which it is placed chances to be covered with lichens. 90 The Fire-Crested Wren. the Fire-crest utilizes these also in the outer walls; in all probability this is done simply because the material is at hand; not, as has been suggested, with an}- idea of imitating the surroundings of the nest, with a view to its concealment. That the use of that which is most easily obtainable, because nearest, does often greatly add to the difficul}' of discovering a nest b}- the inexperienced collector, nobodj' will deny; but to credit the little architect with deliberate design in the use of such material is, in my opinion, utter nonsense: indeed I have seen the nest of a Chaffinch in a hedge rendered most conspicuous by a covering of lichen from the trunk of a tree a 3'ard or two behind it, and a Wren's nest built of coarse dead grass and standing out prominently^ from the moss}' trunk of a tree : both of these nests are in ni}- collection. Speaking of the habits of the Fire-crest, Seebohm sa3'S : — " Their presence is at once betra3-ed by their soft notes, a monotonous zit-zit, which is continually uttered as the}' are busily employed feeding on insects under the leaves of the overhanging trees, and becomes a rapid z-z-z-zit as they chase each other from tree to tree, or fly off in alarm at your movements. If you remain perfectly still they will sometimes come and feed close to you, occasionally two or three of them within a few feet of your head. It is very curious then to watch their movements. They twist in and out among the slender twigs, sometimes with head down and sometimes with feet up ; but by far the most curious part of the performance is when they come to the end of the twig and examine the under surface of the leaves at its extremity. They have nothing to stand upon ; so they flutter more like bees than birds from leaf to leaf, their little wings beating so fast that they look transparent, their bodies all the time being nearly perpendicular. Of course it is only on large-leafed oaks, and the shrubs that form the underwood in the garden, that you can examine them closely. In the pine-forest, when all the branches for twenty feet are broken off for fuel, you require a glass to see them well." (British Birds, vol. i, p. 459). Seebohm quotes the following from Dixon's Algerian notes on this species: — " The trees are full of life. Here in close company with the rare Algerian Coal Tit, the Fire-crest is very common. It is seen in the tall cedar trees, and is restless and busy amongst the branches fifty feet above, exploring all the twigs in search of its favourite food. The Fire-crest is also almost as common in the evergreen-oak forests, searching the lower branches all amongst the lichens and tree-moss for insects ; and every now and then its brilliant crest glistens conspic- uously in the sunlight. Its note sounds shriller to me than a Gold-crest's ; but I think it was quite as familiar and trustful as that other little favourite bird of mine. In its motions it puts you in mind of the Willow Wrens ; and when, as I The Fire-Crested Wren. 91 liave sometimes seen it, hanging with one leg from a drooping bough, picking out the insects from a bud, it looks precisely like a Tit. Although we were in these forests in May, the birds did not seem to have begun to breed." Other writers, however, state that the note of the Fire-crest is " not so shrill " as that of the commoner species. The eggs, although averaging about the same number as those of the Gold- crest, are, I believe invariably, redder than even the most rusty eggs of that species, the markings usually covering their entire surface. Speaking of the nesting of this species, Howard Saunders remarks : — " In Germany the branches of a fir-tree are almost invariably selected ; the nest being seldom found in pines or larches ; and the same trees are frequented year after year. In the above country nesting does not begin before May; but in the south of Spain the young are able to fly by the middle of that month. Insects and spiders constitute its food." He continues thus: — "In the Pyrenees, with excellent opportunities for observing the habits of both species, I noticed that the Fire-crest was much more restless and erratic in its movements, dartiug away suddenly after a very short stay upon the gorse-bush or tree where it was feeding, and being often alone or in parties of two or three at most ; whereas the Gold-crests, five or six together, would work steadily round the same bush, and, if I remained quiet, would stop there for many minutes." Hewitson, in the third edition of his "Eggs of British Birds," states that the " Rev. E. H. Brown has watched this species during the summer, near his residence at Bio' Norton, in Norfolk, and has no doubt it breeds there." The probability is that he was merely misled by brightly coloured examples of the Gold-crest, not being aware of the true distinctive characters of the two species : at any rate his supposition has not been confirmed. In an aviary the Fire-crest might be associated with the Gold-crest and would require precisely the same treatment ; but it is not probable that many Aviculturists will have an opportunity of obtaining it in this country. Dr. Russ says that until recently it was supposed to be impossible to keep the European species of Regulus for any length of time, but recently they have been found in the care of a considerable number of aviarists ; he, however, considers their habituation to confinement difiicult. In disposition they are particularly gentle, sociable and peaceable. 92 The Yellow-Browkd Warbler. Family— TURDID^. Subfamily— SYL J 'IIN^. The Yellow-Browed Warbler. Phylloscopus supaxiliosus, GmEL. MR. Howard Saunders only mentions three examples of this prett}' little species as having been obtained in Great Britain: but, in the "Zoologist" for December, 1894, Mr. J. E. Harting says: — "On October 8th, Mr. Swailes, an observant nurseryman, at Beverley, hearing the note of a small warbler which was unfamiliar to him, shot the bird, and sent it for identification to Mr. F. Boyes, who pronounced it to be Phylloscopus siipfrciliosus, and on com- municating this information, Mr. Swailes found and shot two others in the same locality. Mr. Boj'es having reported this interesting occurrence in ' The Field ' of October 27th, Mr. J. H. Gurney, in the succeeding issue (Nov. 3rd) announced that on Oct. ist one of these little birds was shot on the coast of Norfolk by a labouring man, who fired at it merely for the purpose of unloading his gun! As ten instances of the occurrence of this species in the British Islands have now been made known, its claim to be regarded as a British bird, which for a quarter of a centur}- remained doubtful, may now be said to be established."* To Aviculturists Mr. Swailes is well-known as a successful breeder of British birds in out-door aviaries. Touching the distribution of Phylloscopus supciriliosus, Seebohm writes: — "The breeding-range of the Yellow-browed Warbler is supposed to be confined to tlie pine-forests of North-eastern Siberia, from the valley of the Yenesay eastwards to the Pacific, and from the mountains of Lake Baikal northwards to the Arctic circle. It passes through Mongolia and North China on migration and winters in South China, Assam, Burma, and North-east India. Like some other Siberian birds which winter in vSouth-east Asia, a few examples appear more or less regularly to take the wrong turning at Yeniseisk, and, instead of accompanying the main bod}' of the migratory species, which follow the course of the Angora through Lake Baikal into the vallej' of the Auioor, join the smaller stream of migration, which flows westwards into Persia and Europe." In the spring the adult bird above is olive-green, the rump and upper tuil- • Ouc of tlie speciiueus reconleil lij Mr. Swailes has, since, Ijeen prest-nleil l>y liiiii to the Natural History Musciiiii. ^.'^ / !lf :i;5- / >-v. ■v. i' Yellow-Browed Warbler The Yellow-Browed Warbler. 93 coverts yellower ; wing-coverts, flights aud tail- feathers brown, edged with olive- green, the median and greater wing-coverts broadly tipped with greenish-yellow, forming two distinct bands, the secondaries and several of the primaries tipped with yellowish-white; a greenish-yellow superciliary stripe which becomes whitish behind the ear- coverts ; under-surface white, tinged with greenish-yellow, the axillaries, under wing-coverts, and thighs yellowish ; bill dark brown, feet brown, iris hazel. After the autumn nioiilt the colouring is brighter and yellower. Young birds are greener and have a less defined eye-stripe than adults. The home of this little bird is made in the pine-forests of N.E. Siberia, where Mr. Seebohm found it very common, he describes its call-note as a plain- tive ivtrs/, whereas Gatke says: "This call has the sound of a somewhat long- drawn, softl}' intoned 'hjiiph,' and somewhat approaches in character the call-note of Anthtis pratcmisy* However, it was reserved for Mr. Seebohm to be the first discoverer of the nest of this interesting species on the 26th June, 1877: — "As we were walking along a little bird started up near us, and began most per- sistently to utter the well-known cry of the Yellow-browed Warbler. As it kept flying around us from tree to tree, we naturally came to the conclusion that it had a nest near. We searched for some time unsuccessfully, and then retired to a short distance, aud sat down upon a tree-trunk to watch. The bird was very uneasy, but continually came back to a birch tree, from which it frequently made short flights towards the ground, as if it were anxious to return to its nest but dare not whilst we were in sight. This went on for about half an hour, when we came to the conclusion that the nest must be at the foot of the birch tree, and commenced a second search. In less than five minutes I found the nest, with six eggs. It was built in a slight tuft of grass, moss and bilberries, semi- domed, exactly like the nest of our Willow Warblers. It was composed of dry grass and moss, and lined with reindeer-hair. The eggs are pure white in ground colour, spotted very thickly at the large end, in the form of an irregular zone, with reddish brown, and more sparingly on the remainder of the surface ; some of the spots are underlying and paler, but not grey, and on one or two of the eggs they are confluent. They measure ■6-iuch in length and ■45-inch in breadth. The markings are well defined, like those on the eggs of the Chifichaff; but the colour is decidedly more like that of the Willow Warblers." Gatke says: — "The conditions which favour the passage of this bird to Heligoland are an east wind, particularly a light south-east, and warm sunny weather. After its arrival it frequents principally the few tree-like willow shrubs * I should judge that Gatke's reudering of bird-uotes was more likely to be accurate than Seebohin's, and hccffe (or more probably hweeph) is likely to be a call-note, whereas weest is certainly not. — A.G.B. 94 Thk Yellow- Browed Warbler. in the gardens between the houses of the upper plateau (Oberland). It appears to have a special preference for Salix sinitliiania, for which reason I always cultivate this species in my garden. It is hardly ever seen on 5. caprea or on elders, but likes high thorns and the greater maples (Acer pseudo-platanus). In its manner of hopping through the branches of these tree-like bushes and garden-shrubs it exactly resembles the Chiffchaff and Willow Wren. In doing so, it does not, however, make use of its wings for propelling itself, as the two last-named species do incessantly, even when they do not require their wings for the purpose of fluttering from one branch to another ; nor does this bird hop about in the unsteady, and to all appearance, aimless manner of the latter birds, but progresses calmly and gradually from the lower branches to the top of the tree or bush." Mr. F. W. Frohawk writes: — "On the ist or 2nd of October, 1895, at 10 a.m., on one of those beautiful summer-like days we had during the last week of September and first week of October, during our stay at West Bucklaud, S. Devon, my wife (who is well acquainted with most of our native birds) told me she had just seen, in the hedge surrounding the garden at the back of the cottage, some little birds which were singing and were new to her, and was sure they were something rare. I at once went to the spot and immediately heard the song of a bird which was unlike anything I knew, and directly afterwards saw a small Warbler hopping from one twig to another in the hedge and taking short flights of a few feet from one part of the hedge to another, generally alighting about half way up, and then hopping to the top, and singing its little song repeatedly. A short distance (onl}- a few yards) away another was singing, and behaving in the same way, and two others with precisel}- the same actions, but not singing, were with them. All four were of the same species: they appeared to be as nearlj^ as possible, intermediate between a Gold-crest and Willow Warbler, so far as I could make out the colouring: this was rather difficult to do, on account of viewing the birds against the sky, as the hedge was on rather a high bank and thej' kept on the outer side of the hedge. They were olive-greyish-green, or rather olive- greenish-grey, with under parts lighter and a distinct pale stripe running from the beak over the eye and be3'ond it; the wings (basal half) appeared covered by the side and flank feathers. The}' reminded me of the Gold-crest, but were not so small or so fluff}', they appeared rather more trim in shape, but more plump in proportion than the Willow Warbler. The song was well in keeping with the little birds and I found no difficulty in noting it, as I repeated it time after time with the birds (which appeared very tame) and by many repetitions I was satisfied I hit it off" accurately: this enabled my wife to set it to music, which will convey the cliaractcr of the bird's simple, but merry and pleasing little song. The Yellow-Browed Warbler. 95 Scherzando. emp. SOPBANO. Apparently these little strangers were on migration, as I saw nothing more of them, although I searched the locality daily afterwards. I have little doubt that these birds were Yellow-browed Warblers fPhylloscopus supcrciliosus) ; if not, what were they? I do not know if the song of this rare little bird has been described, or if any Ornithologist is acquainted with it; if so the species might be identified with certainty. As well as I remember these birds agreed in size and character with a drawing the late John Hancock showed me, made by him from a specimen of the Yellow-browed Warbler which he shot many years ago and which was the first British specimen : his drawing represented the bird clinging to the flower-head or seeds of a plant, picking the insects from it, and he said it looked so like a Gold-crest that he mistook it for that species ; but, upon shooting it, found he had gained a prize. I regret that I had no means with me at the time of securing a specimen out of the four I met with, so as to remove all doubt of the species : I should have had no difficulty in obtaining one or more, had I had my catapult at the time ; this I find the best thing for collecting such birds as Gold-crests, as it damages them so little, and these little birds were so tame that I could easily have got one or two of them." Since writing the above, Mr. Frohawk obtained skins of the Yellow-browed Warbler for illustration on our plate of that species, and at once recognized them as the species which he and his wife had seen; thinking, however, that it would be as well to make assurance doubly sure, he showed her the drawing for the plate as well as the skins, without making any remark; and, directl}- she saw them she said — " Why those are the same as the little birds which we saw hopping about in the hedge iu Devonshire." It is therefore clear that Mr. Frohawk was not mistaken in his original opinion, and that these four specimens may be con- fidently added to the list of Yellow-browed Warblers met with in Great Britain. Some years later, in the autumn, I watched one of these birds for a consider- able time going over a large rose-tree in search of insects, in ni}^ Beckenham garden: it was quite near the back of the house, and with a pair of opera glasses I was able to identify it with certainty. A2 96 The Chiffchaff. Family— TURDID^E. Sub/aviily— SYLl IIN^. The Chiffchaff. Phylloscopiis ru/iis, Bechst. A PARTIALLY resident bird in mild winters in the warmer parts of Cornwall, but by far the greater number migrates annually from our shores in October : this species is, how'cver, the first to return in the spring, its monotonous double note being often heard by the middle of Alarch. The northward range of the Chiffchaff in Europe extends almost to the Arctic circle and eastward to the valley of the Volga, southward to the shores of the Mediterranean ; it is a regular winter visitor to Northern and North-eastern Africa as far as Abyssinia, as well as to Arabia, Persia, Asia Minor, Palestine and Greece : it is resident in the Canary Islands. In Great Britain this species is probably more abundant in the south and south-west of England, but it is fairly common in suitable localities throughout England and Wales ; in Scotland and Ireland it is less frequentl}' met with and much more local. The adult Chiffchaff in spring plumage is olive-green above, the rump being slightl}' yellower ; the wing and tail-feathers are brown, externally edged with green ; the flights narrowl}' tipped with white ; a pale yellow superciliary streak which becomes white behind the ear-coverts ; the lores and feathers behind the eye olive; under surface of body white, slightly greyish on the breast and flanks, and faintly washed throughout with greenish-yellow ; the axillaries, under wing- coverts, and thighs yellow ; bill dark brown, feet blackish-brown, iris hazel. After the autumn moult the entire plumage becomes suffused with buffish-yellow. Young birds are somewhat greener than adults and have the superciliary streak less defined. The song of the Chiffchaff, if such it can be called, must be familiar to everj-one who has been in the country, or certainly to all inhabitants of our southern counties. In the spring it is well-nigh impossible to ramble anywhere near to a wood without hearing its incessant chilj-chij]', JtilJ-clnff, ckiff-chij}' (never /■\ \t V .^ J i/ f Chiff Chaff i Plate 25. The Chiffchaff. 97 chiff-chaff, as its uarae would lead one to expect) : yet, common as it is, the nest of this bird is not by any means so easy to discover as one would suppose.* But for its very inferior song, slightly smaller size, duller colouring, weaker and more undulating flight, the Chiffchaff might readily be mistaken for the Willow- Wren; it is, however, far more a bird of the woods than the latter species, often making its home in small clearings far away from the outskirts. Sometimes however, the nest is built in small shaws or plantations where the undergrowth is dense, and one nest in my collection was taken by my friend, Mr. O. Janson, from a cavity in a steep bank just outside one of the Kentish shaws; he was searching for nests just ahead of me at the time and showed it to me in situ.\ A very beautiful nest, which I illustrated as a frontispiece to my "Handbook of British Oology," I found in course of construction on the top of a short mossy stump almost buried in a large patch of dead coarse grass in a small clearing, at the side of a woodland path some 500 yards from its entrance: The nest itself was situated about twenty feet from the path (towards which its back was turned) and was so interwoven with the surrounding dead grass that unless I had seen the birds carrying materials to it, I should certainly never have noticed anything to make me suspect its existence ; I marked the spot by treading a flint into the edge of the path, and a week later again visited the spot, when finding that it contained four eggs, I took it at once rather than risk the chance of its discovery by someone else. Lord Lilford's experience of the Chiffchafif's nest in Northamptonshire differs somewhat from my Kentish experience of it ; he says that it " is hardly to be distinguished from that of the Willow- Wren, but is, I think, more often placed at some height from the ground than is the case with that bird." Judging from the nests which I have robbed, as well as those which I have preserved, I should say that the majority of those of the Chiffchaff were slightly higher in proportion to their width and more contracted round the opening than those of the Willow- Wren ; the outside also is perhaps more generally decked with dead leaves in nests of the former than of the latter species ; but to be sure of one's facts, one ought to be able to compare a large number of nests from different counties. The nest of the Chiffchaff is cave-like, or semi-domed, with a tolerably wide * The nonsense that has been written about this bird saying chijj, cheff, chaff is onh- an evidence of the fact that the English are even now an imaginative people (I believe this has been denied) ; take away the chaff and I will admit that the second syllable is sometimes uttered, though I believe it is only a slip on the part of the bird, thus :— - Chiff-chiff, chiffchiff, chiff-cheff, chiff-chiff." t I have been criticized for not stating that the nest of the Chiffchaff, although often placed near to or on the ground is never placed in it, like that of the Willow Warbler; but the nest here described was placed in a hole in the ground, though not in UikI ground. 98 The Chiffchaff. opening; the thickest portion of the structure is at the top, probably with a view to protection against rain ; the walls are formed of coarse dead grass-stems inter- twined with dead blades of grass, plant-fibre, rootlets, dead as well as skeleton- leaves and spiders' cocoons ; the inside is lined with fine rootlets, horsehair and a number of feathers carefully smoothed down. The number of eggs varies from five to seven, the former being the usual number; in colour they are pure white, though when not blown the yolk gives them a pink tinge ; * they are more or less dotted or spotted, as a rule, with deep chocolate or pitchy markings ; but sometimes these spots are mixed with other larger ones of a sienna red colour, with here and there a pale lavender shell spot. Sometimes the spots are chiefl}- confined to the larger end, sometimes they form an unequal, oblique, and some- what vague belt across the surface, often they are evenly scattered over the entire ^SS ' ^^^t in spite of all these little modifications there is never the slightest difficulty in recognizing, at a glance, the egg of the Chiffchaff, it is as character- istic as that of the Lesser Whitethroat. The food of this species consists of many kinds of small insects, their larvae, and of spiders : it also feeds on elder-berries and currants as soon as these are ripe : it seeks its insect food chiefly in the trees, but does not scorn to snatch a small beetle or spider from the ground, or to chase a gnat or fl}- in the air. Its flight is very undulating and not specially rapid. The alarm-note is said to be a zv/a'/ somewhat resembling that of the Willow- Wren ; but is not this its call-note t and the other note tr-r-r (to which no title has been applied) its alarm or scolding note ? In his " Birds of Norfolk," Mr. Stevenson states, on the authority of Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, that a low bush, frequently of furze, appears to be a favourite localit}' for the nest of this species and that as many as four have been found in such places within a few yards. I never knew the nest to occupj' such a site in Kent, but birds appear to vary their habits greatly to suit their surroundings. I have not tried the Chiffchaff as an aviary bird ; but, unless it be intended to breed it, when the furze-bush arrangement might be tried, I should hardl}' think this species would pay for its keep : a few Willow- Warblers would be far more pleasing in every wa}'. On the other hand, there is no doubt that when once accustomed to the usual soft food, the Chiffchaff" would prove hard}' enough and its graceful actions would be pleasing, but I doubt if any human being could • EgRS wliii'h have been jiarlly incubated lose Ihcir purity of colouring, becouiinj; .somewhat creamj' ; but this is not a peculiarity of the Chiffchaff alone ; therefore to describe the egg as cream-coloureil is not strictly correct. t The little White eyes C/.ostetofis spp.J, which always reminds me of the Willow-Wren on a small scale, have a cleir call-note —it///.tf/. ,a^ .4f*'"'mif^ The Willow- Warulhr. 99 long retain his senses, if compelled daily, for months together, to listen to the everlasting cliiff-chiff, chiff-chiff, cltiff-cliiff of this little bird. Now and again as one passes through a wood it is a pleasing change, as the triangle is in a concert; but imagine a concert going on for months consisting of no other instrument than a triangle ; believe me, even that would be more pleasant than an ever- lasting Chiffchaff's song. Family— TURD I D^. Subfamily— SYL I 'IIN^. The Willow-Warbler. Phylloscopus Irochilits, LiNN. GENERALLY distributed during the summer and breeding throughout Western and Central Europe, southwards as far as the Straits of Gibraltar, eastward in Transylvania. It visits South Russia, Turkey, Greece, Asia Minor, Persia, and Palestine in winter and on migration ; but it passes the winter chiefly in Africa from the Nile south-westwards as far as the Cape, and south-eastwards to the Transvaal and Natal. A few, however, winter in the south of France and Spain, and a few pass the summer in N.W. Africa. In Great Britain the Willow- Warbler is pretty generally distributed and abundant, though in Cornwall, Wales and Ireland only locally common ; to the Orkneys, Shetlands and Faroes it is apparently a mere straggler. This species is a much brighter and prettier bird than the Chififchaff: in spring it is olive-green above with the rump yellower ; the wing-coverts are olive-brownish, with greener margins, the flights brown with narrow whitish tips; and yellowish outer webs ; tail-feathers brown, with whitish inner and yellowish outer edges ; a superciliary yellowish streak from the bill over the eye and ear- coverts ; under parts yellowish, the chin, centre of throat, abdomen and under tail-coverts white; the breast and flanks olivaceous yellow or olivaceous buff; the axillaries, under wing-coverts and thighs yellow ; flights and tail below ashy- B2 loo Thk Willow-Warbler. grey; bill brown, darkest on the culmen, palest below; feet greyish horn -brown, iris hazel. The female nearly resembles the male. After the autumn moult the colouring, especially in birds of the 3'ear, is so much more yellow, that a neigh- bour sent round to me in 1894, to inform me that one of my Canaries had got loose and was flying about my garden. I was much tickled when I caught sight of it, flitting about a privet hedge at the back of my covered aviar}', catching flies. The popular notion is that ever}' yellow bird is a Canar)-. The Willow- Wren (so-called) reaches the south of Bngland about the end of March, or the first week of April, leaving this countr}' again about the middle of September. Soon after its arrival and for about a month prior to its departure it may be daily seen in most suburban gardens : I generally see it regularly for a week in April and during the latter part of Jul)' and beginning of August ; but rarely, if ever, during the remainder of the year unless I go farther afield, to furze-clad commons, copses, woods, plantations, or the more secluded parts of large gardens. I know of no bird more graceful and active than the Willow-Wren; acrobatic and confiding as a Coal-tit, 3-et with a more eas}- lighter flight and greater control over itself when on the wing ; restless exceedingh-, but most beautiful in all its agile movements, whether it be seen clinging to the upright bars of an iron garden archway, to the feather}' spray of some conifer, or flitting with rapid undulating flight in pursuit of some small winged insect : even when, on rare occasions, it drops to the earth in pursuit of some coveted morsel, its Robin-like hop is in keeping with its neat trim figure. The song of the Willow- Warbler is somewhat shrill, but decidedly pleasing; it vaguely reminds one of that of the Chaffinch, but the .scale is irregular, being more staccato; though far less melodious it also bears a slight resemblance to the song of the common Amaduvade Waxbill ; but differs, as a descending zigzag does from a descending spiral, the notes sounding as if flung right and left. The nest is frequently placed amongst grass on the ground, or in branches close to the ground, and almost hidden by grass and nettles; sometimes, however, it is found some feet above the ground, one which I took on the i6th June, 1881, was built over two feet above the earth in a wild rose-bush in a large garden at Tuustall, in Kent; also in the "Zoologist," for 1878, Mr. E. P. P. Butterfield states that in 1876 he observed a nest built between two rocks at a distance of three feet, and another in 1878 in a clump of whins two feet from the ground; but probably the greatest recorded altitude is that mentioned by Mr. Alston, when the nest was built in a hole in a wall nearly seven feet fn)m the ground. Tlic nest in form is usually cave-shaped or semi-domed, the thickest portion The Willow- Warbler. ioi being at tlie top as in the nest of the Chiffchaff; but in 1883, I obtained a very- abnormal cup-shaped nest which was built under a gooseberry bush in an orchard; the usual arched covering was rendered unnecessary from the fact that a large clod of hard earth completely overhung the cup : in all probability this clod had been accidentl}' flung over the nest when it was in course of construction and the little architect instead of being scared away by the seeming misfortune, had utilized it as a time-saver: this nest with its four beautifull}^ spotted eggs is still in my collection. The nesting materials consist of dry grass, either coarse or fine, mixed with fern, dead leaves or moss, and spiders' cocoons ; externally somewhat untidy in appearance though firmly compacted: the lining consists of wool, hair, and plenty of soft feathers, and has a neat and comfortable appearance. The eggs vary in number from four to eight ; but five to six are more ixsuall}' found : the}' are pure white, rarely unspotted, sometimes finely speckled and distinctly zoned round the larger extremity with rust-red, sometimes promi- nently spotted irregularly with the same colour. Apart from their usiiall}' superior size, the totally dissimilar colour of the spots would preclude the possibility of these eggs being confounded with those of the Chiffchaff. Towards the end of July, 1887, a young example of the Willow- Warbler was brought to me by two lads of my acquaintance, it had flown into their parents' house, probably in pursuit of flies. At first it was very wild, so I turned it into a cage, about eighteen inches cubic measure, with a hand-reared Sedge- Warbler. The following morning, as I was offering a fly to the latter bird, the Willow- Warbler sprang over his back and snatched it from my fingers ; it had become perfectly tame in thirt3'-six hours. I mentioned this fact to Dr. Glinther who assured me that, such being the case, he was certain (from his own experience) the bird would die in a day or two : he could not explain why it was so, but it was an invariable rule that, if Warblers became suddenl}' tame soon after capture, they never lived long. The following morning my Willow- Wren was sitting ruffled up with its head under its wing : but, after swallowing two caterpillars and two house-flies, it appeared to recover its spirits and became as lively as at first. In the afternoon my son offered it a fl}-, putting his hand into the cage and holding the insect between his finger and thumb : the little bird flew down upon his hand and took it, then hopped round pecking at his fingers. Half an hour later it was found lying dead on the draw- tray of the cage. In July, 1889, I trapped two Willow- Wrens in my garden and turned them loose in an aviary sixteen feet long ; there they seemed happy enough catching flies and spiders ; but they did not seem to understand the soft food, although I02 The Wood-Warbler. they must have seen other birds eating it : consequeutl}- the}' soou sickened and died : since then I have not attempted to catch any others. There is no doubt that, in order to get these little birds to eat the soft food, the best plan would be to cage them up at first, giving them two food pans, one half filled with small mealworms and filled up with the food, so that it would be impossible for them to eat the living food without tasting the other ; the second pan with soft food only, which they would be certain to peck over in search for more insect larvae. The onl}^ alternative, and a risk}' and trying one at best, would be to rear your Warblers from the nest ; but theu, in all probability, they would never sing. Faviily— TURDID/E. Suhfamily—SYL J V/AVE. The Wood-Warbler. Pliylloscopus si/'i/atrix, BrciisT. AS regards the geograpliical distribution of this species on the Continent, I cannot do better than quote Howard Saunders : — " The Wood- Wren has not yet been proved to visit Norway, but it is found in Sweden as far North as Upsala; while it is very common in the Baltic Provinces, rarer in South Finland, and a straggler to Archangel. Eastward it can be traced to Kazan, the lower valley of the Volga, the Caucasus, and the western shore of the Caspian. In Palestine, Asia Minor and Greece, it occurs on migration ; but it breeds in Turkey, Transylvania, and Europe generally, although rarely in the extreme south ; while in Portugal the bird seems to be almost unknown. It appears probable that a few remain during the summer in the mountain forests of the Atlas ; the winter migrations extending to the Gold Coast on the west side of Africa, and to Abyssinia on the east." In P'^ngland it is generally distributed, breeding in many suitable localities ; it is very local in Scotland, but in Ireland it is aljsolutely rare. i^ ■=^. ri^ - .'* X "i^t--. /.. i TSSt-'^^''"^ Wood Warbler, j The Wood- Warbler. 103 The Wood- Warbler is the largest British species of its genus, and has the longest wings. The adult bird, which varies very slightly in colouring throughout the year, has the upper surface yellowish-green, the rump and upper tail-coverts being most yellow in tint ; the wing-coverts olive-green with the margins of the feathers paler ; the flights greyish-brown, externally edged with green and tipped with whitish, the innermost secondaries with broader pale margins ; tail greyish- brown, the outer webs greenish, and the inner webs pale greyish on the edges. From the bill over the eye and beyond it is a broad sulphur-yellow superciliary stripe. The under surface is pure white ; the chin, throat and breast suffused with sulphur-yellow; the axillaries, under wing-coverts and thighs are also yellow. Bill dark brown, the lower mandible paler at the base; feet brown; iris hazel. The young bird is slightly more yellow than adults; but the sexes are much alike. The Wood- Wren is rarel}' with us until towards the end of April, and in September it commences its winter migration ; in its habits it is not unlike its congeners, but is more exclusively a bird of the forests and the larger woods, than of copses and plantations. Lord Lilford, in his " Birds of Northamptonshire," says : — " So far as m^^ experience goes of the Wood- Wren, or Wood- Warbler (as this bird is, I think, more generally called) it is foud of woods of high trees, especially of beech, beneath which there is little or no undergrowth with the exception of occasional tufts of coarse grass in the scattered spots not actually overshadowed by the spreading branches of the trees. In these and similar localities we occasionally hear, about the beginning of May, a very peculiar note, which is described by White, of Selborne, as a ' sibilous grasshopper-like noise : ' sibilous it certainly is, but I can perceive no resemblance in it to the cry of the grasshopper. A good description will be found in the fourth editiou of Yarrell ; but even this fails to convey exactly the sound produced, though I certainly am unable to improve upon it, aud can only say that to my ear it has a certain resemblance to the sound of the wings of wild ducks when flying overhead, though, as stated by Yarrell, it begins slowly, and is more musical than any sound produced by mere muscular action can well be. This song is accompanied by a quivering of the wings, which are drooped during the performance." Mr. Blyth described the song as " Twit, twit, twit, tit, tit, tit, ti-ti-ti-i-i-i, begin- ning slow, but gradually becoming quicker and quicker, until it dies away in a kind of thrill ; " and Seebohm says :- — " It might be expressed on paper thus — chit, chit, chit, chit, chitr, tr-tr-lr-tr-tr-trc. The final trill somewhat resembles the note of the Grasshopper Warbler or the lesser Redpole, or the prolonged ' shivering ' part oi the song of the Common Wren ; and during its utterance the wings and C2 I04 Thh Wood- Warbler. tail, if not the whole body of the bird, vibrate with the exertion." Unfortunatel}^ when I have heard the bird, I have been too eagerly engaged in search of its nest to make notes respecting its song, or I would give my own rendering ; memory is a treacherous staff to lean upon, but so far as it serves me in this particular instance, I should be inclined to accept Seebohm's rather than Blyth's version, as not onl)' appealing to my conviction of its greater accuracy as a reminiscence, but as sounding less like a particularly irritating street song. I have, several times, found the nest of this species in coarse grass-tussocks, or amongst the dead leaves of a small branch, torn off by the wind and half hidden by grass and nettle ; always, however, in openings in beech or oak-woods, and not far from the outskirts. Unfortunately I never secured any eggs of the Wood- Warbler ; the nests which I found having either been only just completed, or perchance plundered of their contents ; not, however, by country lads, or they would have been torn out and destroyed. The nest, like that of its congeners, is semi-domed, and constructed of dead grass mixed with leaves and occasionally a little moss; it is lined with horsehair, but never with feathers. The eggs number from five to seven and are pure white, more or less densely speckled, spotted or blotched with purplish-brown and intermixed with numerous shell-spots ; the markings are either scattered broad- cast, partly confluent so as to form irregular patches, or are partly collected iuto a zone towards the larger end. The food of the Wood- Wren consists principally of insects, their larvae, and spiders ; but there is no doubt that it also eats elder-berries when procurable. The call-note has been described as dce-ur, dtc-ur, but more probably the sound is tee-ur, though the call of the Starling certainly sounds like Joey dee-ur, liee-ur : it is not easy to distinguish the d from the / sound in a whistled note. Touching another sound uttered by this bird, Howard Saunders wTites: — "Sloping wooded banks are favourite situations for the nest, which often is not merely on the ground, but is actuall}- set in some natural hollow, well concealed by herbage. The hen at times sits very close : when fairl}^ beaten out, she will feed in an unconcerned manner, uttering a low />/-<> for a quarter of an hour or more ; after which she works round to a branch above her nest, drops down abruptl}' and enters it in an instant," Gatke says that the Wood- Warbler "visits Heligoland only in ver}- isolated instances, such few individuals as are met with being seen for the most part in warm May days. During its autumn migration — from the middle of Jul}' to the middle of August — the bird is much rarer." As an aviary bird the Wood- Wren would doubtless be interesting, though The Rufous Warbler. 105 neither specially remarkable for bright colouring or vocal merit; I should however expect to find it just as difficult to accustom to a change of diet as the Willow- Warbler. I am of opinion that the few examples of phyiloscopus which, from time to time, appear at our bird-shows are invariably hand-reared, although Swaysland speaks of them as being easily tamed ; and of the present species he observes (Cassell's Cage-Birds) " If allowed to fly about the room, its first thought is the selection of a perch ; when it has satisfied itself on this point, it will show great expertness in catching the flies from off the walls and ceiling, always returning to its favourite perch to eat them." Possibly my own want of success in keeping the Willow- Warbler may have been due to the fact that my birds were captured in July; for it has been asserted that, for some unexplained reason, Warblers become more readily accustomed to captivity if caught on their arrival in this country than just before or at the season of their departure. Not having captured any Warblers in the spring months, I am quite unable to decide the point. The two following birds should not, I think, be admitted as British ; each of them having only appeared as an accidental straggler on three occasions: — Family— TURDW.-E. Sii/>/auii/y-S} Z VIIAL^. The Rufous Warbler. A'cdon galactodes, Temji. A SOUTH European species, of which the first example was shot near Brighton by Mr. Swaysland, on September i6th, 1854; the second was an imperfect specimen obtained in Devonshire, on September 25th, 1859 ; the third was also obtained in Devonshire, on October 12th, 1876. io6 The Icterink Warbler. Family— TURDID.E. Suh/amily—Sl 'L 1 1IX/R. The Icterine Warbler. Hypolais iderina, ViElLL. A NORTHERN and Central European species, of which the first example was killed near Dover, on June 15th, 1848 ; the second in co. Dublin, on June 8th, 1856; the third in Norfolk, on September nth, 1884. Two other examples have now been killed in Norfolk, the last at Cley on the 7th September, 1896. Others have been obtained subsequently, and I have seen an ^^% received in a consignment of eggs from Norfolk which was suspiciously like that of this species. The general colouring of the Icterine Warbler is olive-green ; an indistinct yellowish eyebrow stripe ; flights brown, edged and tipped with greenish-white ; coverts and innermost secondaries more broadly edged with brownish-white ; tail- feathers brown, with indications of transverse bars and narrow pale edges ; under parts greenish-3'ellow ; under wing-coverts and thighs flecked with brown ; bill dark brown, paler on lower mandible ; eyes hazel ; feet bluish-grey ; sexes much alike, but the bills should be compared. The uest is usually built in the fork of a small tree eight to ten feet above the ground, and is formed of dry grass intermixed with moss, wool, spiders' webs, vegetable down, bark, and lichen, and lined with rootlets, bents, and horsehair ; four to five, or rarely six, eggs are laid, of pinky-brownish colour, uniformly spotted aud occasionally streaked with purplish-brown, sometimes ver}- deep in colour ; shell-markings ill-defined. The song of this species is somewhat harsh, though strong and varied : to compare it with that of the Nightingale, as has been done, is generally regarded as a libel on the performance of that most excellent songster. It is in the highest degree improbable that either of these species will fall into the hands of au}' of the readers of this present work : should thej' have the good fortune to meet with them I hope tlial, in the interests both of humanity and science they will not shoot them; but, if possible, capture and study them living. It is a melancholy fact that almost every rare bird which accidentally wanders to our shores is doomed to be shot, for the mere satisfaction of labelling '.'- ».^.^ % The Reed-Warbler. 107 it as British; the same individual, if shot in the land of its birth, would probably be valued at a shilling or less. We now come to the Reed- Warblers, whose suspended nests are often taken and preserved as ornaments by mere admirers of the beautiful ; without one thought of the little architects, or the faintest desire to know anything respecting them. Family— TURDW.-E. Subfamily— S YL VI I N.^. The Reed-Warbler. Acrocephalus streperus, ViElLL. SEEBOHM states that, on the Continent, the Reed- Warbler "is found in suitable localities in summer throughout Europe, south of latitude 58°, and in Asia Minor, Palestine, South-west Siberia, Turkestan, Persia, Baluchistan, and probably in Afghanistan. It is said to be a resident in Greece and the surrounding islands ; but it passes through North Africa on migration, and winters in Central Africa." In Great Britain this species is local, being very common in the southern counties, with the exception of Cornwall and the Scilly Islands ; it is also common in suitable localities in Wales, Cheshire, and Yorkshire; but local in Lancashire and rare in Cumberland. In Scotland it is said to have occurred, and one example has been recorded from Ireland ; but these statements require confirmation. The Reed- Warbler above is olive-brown suffused with chestnut, more especially on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; the innermost secondaries with pale margins ; an ill- defined pale-buff superciliary stripe ; under surface cream}'- white, the breast, flanks, and under tail-coverts rufous-buff; bill dark horn-brown above, paler below, feet slaty-brown, iris brown. The female nearly resembles the male ; both sexes D2 io8 The Reed-Warbler. are slightl}^ more rufescent after the autumn moult. The j-oung are very tawny on the under surface. This species reaches Great Britain towards the end of April, and leaves again in September. Although, as its name implies, the Reed-Warbler mostly frequents reed-grown dykes, ponds, or the edges of broads and rivers where reed and sedge abound ; I have seen it also fairly abundant in marshy copses in Kent, and in gooseberry gardens iu Norfolk ; but always in the vicinity of water : on the other hand Mr. R. H. Mitford speaks of its nesting in lilac-trees in his garden at Hampstead. I have three nests built in forks of hazel, the first of which is of the normal type, and was given to me by the Hon. Walter de Rothschild, who obtained it at Tring; the two others were sent to me by Mr. Salter, from Salisbur}-, and decidedly approach the nest of the Marsh- Warbler in character, as also do the eggs iu one of them ; in both the latter instances, the hazels were growing close to water. The nest of this bird is most frequently suspended in reeds ; sometimes the attachment is firm, sometimes loose ; the latter arrangement is adopted and the nest fastened above a leaf when the level of the water shows great variation during the day ; thus, when the water rises it raises the nest, which is built with an unusually thick base above the projecting leaves: this I have proved to be the case on more than one occasion, and hence Swaysland's belief that the nests in the Brighton dykes were constructed with this object has some justification, although iu the particular specimens which Mr. Seebohm examined most had a leaf projecting close to the nest, both immediately above and below it on one or other of the reeds, which would make any movement of the kind impo.ssible. From two to four reeds are employed for the suspension of the nest, the most frequent number being three. I .shall not easily forget my first experience in taking tlie nest of the Reed- Warbler : I had heard that tlie species was numerously represented among the reeds which grow in abundance at Tong Mill, iu the village of Tong, near Sittingbourne. The mill and the adjoining plantation were at that time the property of a Mr. Arthur Bennett, a large-hearted man who took an interest in Natural Histor}-, .so that I had no difficulty in obtaining permission to search for birds' nests wherever I pleased. When I approached the stream I could hear the Reed- Warblers in every direction, but could only catch a glimpse of them from time to time as they emerged for a moment from the densely clustered leaves. Tlic reeds grew most thickl}' near to llic liou.sc ; but at this point the stream was ver\' wide, and the birds appeared to \)c chiefly in mid-stream ; so that I was at a loss to know huw The Rerd-Warbler. 109 I should reach their nests which I knew must be built at the time, although none were visible from the bank. Mr. Bennett now came to the rescue with a long ladder, which he dropped across the reed-bed, the foot remaining upon the bank, and the top floating upon the water, and partly supported by the broken-down plants. Upon this, grasping bundles of reeds on either side, I was able to walk out for some distance, looking right and left for nests as I went; and, at the first essay I caught sight of a nest about six feet away to the left. Walking out on the rungs of a ladder, and depending for one's balance upon flexible stems, whilst with ever}' step the water rises an inch or two higher over one's boots, is not the most enviable pastime ; although the slight discomfort is more than atoued for, by the sight of the first nest of a species not hitherto met with: the difficult}' of this mode of progression is, however, by no means so great as one would imagine ; but, when the nest is discovered, and it is necessary to turn roxmd and retrace one's steps, the task is by no means so easy. Having noted the exact spot where my nest was situated, a second throw of the ladder soon brought me within reach of it; to my delight the clutch included a Cuckoo's egg, but unhappily so much incubated that I made but a poor job of preparing that nest for my collection ; however, I still have it. I obtained several other nests with fresh eggs in the course of the morning ; but I have never since adopted the same method for securing nests of the Reed- Warbler. In Kent the birds are extremely common in the dykes, but the nests most difficult to find ; indeed it is no uncommon thing to work carefully along half a mile of dyke, hearing the weak and monotonoiis song the whole time and turning aside the reeds with a long stick continuously, yet not finding a single nest ; shortly afterwards, on reaching a reedy duck pond, with an old wooden box for a boat, and a pole to scull it withal, one finds the nests easily enough. In the reeds bordering the Norfolk broads there is no difficulty in obtaining nests, if one rows close along the outer edge of the reed-belt ; also in the narrow dykes running into some of the broads they may be found. The nest is a strongly constructed, deep cup, formed of dry grasses and bents, or the flowering tops of the reeds, with sometimes a little moss and plenty of cobweb ; the cup being lined internally with fine grassy fibre or horsehair. The nests obtained by Mr. Salter were unusually large and compact, formed of carefully selected stout grasses interwoven with some woolly substance (appar- ently vegetable), and externally swathed tightly with stronger grasses : the first sent to me contained four eggs, somewhat larger and more boldly marked than most eggs of this species. I wrote to Mr. Salter asking him to tr}^ and discover 1 lo The Rekd-Warbler. something further respecting it. On the 27th June, he wrote to me from Down- ton, as follows : — ■" I will forward, per parcel post, to you, another nest like the one you have. I found it last Saturday with three young birds and one egg. I went again to-da}^ and found the young ones just ready to fly. I managed to shoot one of the old ones with a catapult, but could not manage to get the other, although I waited about three hours. The nest was overhanging the water, about fifty yards from where I got the other." The egg and birds forwarded with this second nest were quite normal, and I regretted that specimens had been destroyed in order to prove the fact: however, the birds have not died in vain. The number of eggs in a clutch varies from five to six ; they are dull greenish-white, mottled, or streakily spotted with olive, and with slightly greyer shell-markings ; the spots frequeutl}^ collect in a dark zone round the larger end, and are rendered richer by the addition of one or two black dots ; but, excepting in the paucity or density of the markings, the eggs of this species varj' very little ; they alwa3's have a dull, blurred appearance. The music of the Reed- Warbler is very poor and weak, with ver}^ little variation ; it sounds more like the clamouring of nestlings for food, than the love-song of an adult bird ; it has the same querulous peevishness in its tones at times, but especially when one is approaching the nest. Some bird-lovers speak of it as "pleasing," but so are all the cries of our wild birds, however deficient they may be in nlelod)^ This bird nevertheless is b}- no means destitute of the powers of mimicry. The late Charles A. Witchell, in his fascinating book "The evolution of bird- song," pp. 221-2, observes: — "A Reed-Warbler heard by me at Brimscombe, near Stroud, imitated many times the cries of the Starling, including the common cr}' of alarm (the ca/i emplo}-ed as an alarm to the young) and the song of the Starling. A pair of the latter species had a nest within ten j^ards of the singer ; hence I was able to compare the imitations (which were excellent) with their originals. The Swallow, Wagtail, and House-Sparrow were also abundantly imitated. The Swallow's song was capitally rendered seven times successfully. Mr. H. C. Playe informs me that he has heard numbers of these birds near O.xford, and that the}' are good mimics." The food of the Reed- Warbler consists chiefly of the numerous insects and their larvre which abound upon the reeds and sedges, of spiders, small worms, slugs, and, when the}'^ are ripe, of small fruits and berries. In captivity it would probably eat the usual soft food ; Init I sliould hardly think it would make a special!}' interesting aviary pet. .^&^ mil ->- The Marsh-Warbler. i i i Family— TURDID^. Subfamily— SYL I VLY.E. The Marsh -Warbler. Acrocephalus paluslris, BechST. IN the summer this species occurs over nearly the whole of Europe south of the Baltic ; aud eastwards through Russia and Siberia to Turkestan and Persia ; according to Seebohm its occurrence in Asia Minor and Palestine is doubtful. It winters in Africa from the Nile probably to Natal. In Great Britain the Marsh- Warbler is apparently very local ; the nest has been recorded as taken near Bath, in Gloucestershire, in Cambridgeshire and Oxon. I am satisfied that a nest which I found, with only one ^^"g, built in the reeds near the margin of one of the Ormesby broads was a nest of this species, although Ornithologists seem to be agreed that the Marsh-Warbler never frequents reeds, but only swampy ground. The fact that this bird is a regular breeding species near Taunton, in Somersetshire, was discovered through the acumen of Mr. Howard Saunders ; the facts being as follows : — An Ornithologist, a Dr. Woodforde, had a collection of birds, and Mr. Howard Saunders, who was visiting Mr. Cecil Smith, was taken by him to see this collection : amongst the specimens shown to him were a bird with nest and one ^SS' which no one pi^eviously had been able to recognize, and which Mr. Saunders identified as the Marsh- Warbler. No sooner was this fact made known than Mr. IMurray Matthew, then Vicar of Bishop's Lydeard, asked Mr. John Marshall, of Taunton, if he could get old Coates, the birdcatcher (the discoverer of Dr. Wood- forde's bird, nest, and ^g%, twenty years previously) to look about for a nest and specimens of this species. Coates being then in Mr. Marshall's employ, went with him in search of the nest ; in this they were perfectly successful, so that Mr. Marshall was able to distribute both nests and eggs among his friends : two of these nests came into the possession of Mr. Seebohm ; who, curiously enough seems to credit Mr. Cecil Smith with the discovery of the breeding of the species in Taunton, not even mentioning Mr. Marshall's name : the illustrations of eggs of this species in the present work are reproductions of careful coloured drawings of some of Mr. Marshall's specimens. E2 112 The Marsh- Warbler. The Marsh -Warbler is barel}' to be distinguished from the Reed- Warbler; but differs in its less rnfous, more greenish-olivaceous colouring above ; the feathers of the wing with more defined pale borders, the under surface more yellowish in tint, the feet brownish flesh-coloured; iris hazel. As Seebohm observes: — "Some English Ornithologists, who have never made the personal acquaintance of both species, have almost refused to admit their distinctness. No doubt they are very closely allied ; but in their song, habits, eggs, and geographical distribution, they differ as much as a Blackbird differs from a Thrush." Although it has been assumed, rather than proved, that the nest of this species is never built in reeds ; it is admitted that it is suspended in the same manner amongst nettles, figwort, the greater willow-herb, meadow-sweet, or low bushes, usual!}' close to the water : probably the Marsh-Warbler does prefer to build in such situations, but either it is not botanist enough to know that it is erring when it builds in a reed-bed, or the nest and egg which I found, but foolishly trusted a youth to send me when the clutch was completed, was a very- aberrant one and a superb copy of a Marsh- Warbler's production. Naumann (quoted by Seebohm) says: — "the nest is never placed over water — not even over marshy ground. It is always built over firm ground, though this is generally somewhat moist, as it cannot help being on the bank of a stream, a situation often chosen. But you can always reach the nest drj-shod.* In the lowlands I always found it near the large country houses, especially in the gardens on the banks of the moats, which sometimes were filled with reeds, and frequentl}' contained very little vegetation. The nest was sometimes close to the water, but often many steps away from it, in low bushes overgrown with reeds, or in a small bush overgrown with reeds, nettles and other plants. It is also said to be found in the rape fields, generally in the ditches, seldom deep in the rape itself. The Reed- Warbler often breeds near the Marsh-Warbler, sometimes in the same ditch ; but the latter bird always builds in the herbage on the bank near the water, whilst the former as constantly breeds in the reeds over the water. To this rule there seems to be no exception. t The nest is generall}' from one to threi' feet from the ground, ver^' seldom nearer, and, I am told on the best authority, never on the ground itself." " It is no use to look for the nest in the middle of dense thickets, but only on their edges, especially in isolated little bushes close to the borders of ditches and moats." The nest of the Marsh-Warbler has been compared with that of the Grass- • The same statement has hceii made respecting the Sedge-Warbler, many nests of wliich I was only able to obtain from a boat. — A.G.B. t This is certainly not correct, for I have myself taken the nest of the Reed-Warbler built on moist ground near the water. — .-^.G.b. The Marsh-Warbler. 113 hopper- Warbler which it is said greatly to resemble ; it is formed of dr}^ rounded grass-stalks, sometimes intermixed with dead grass-leaves, vegetable- fibre and cobweb, and lined with finer grass, black horsehair and sometimes a little moss. The eggs vary in number from five to seven ; in colouring they are pale blue- greenish, or greenish-white, spotted, blotched and streaked with olive-brown, often with darker central spots and with violet-grey shell-spots. The song of this species is said to be far superior to that of the Reed- Warbler ; Gatke hints at its resemblance to that of the Icterine- Warbler, but Seebohm says that it recalls that of the Swallow, the Lark, the Tree- Warbler, the Nightingale, and the Bluethroat : " not so loud as that of the Nightingale, but almost as rich and decidedly more varied."* If this is a correct description, the Marsh-Warbler should be greatl}' sought after as a pet. Mr. Warde Fowler, in his "Summer Studies of Birds and Books," pp. 78-79, thus describes the discovery of the Marsh- Warbler's nest in Switzerland: — "At the end of the long street which leads towards the Lake of Brienz, we passed out into a spongy-looking and reed}^ tract, lying between the river Aar and some cultivated ground — ^just in the same position as the haunt of the Marsh- Warbler at Meiringen. Here I proposed that we should follow a footpath which ran along the river-side, and seemed likely to lead us to some bits of scrub and wild ground which we could see about a quarter of a mile ahead. This scrub turned out to consist of some kind of low-growing willow, with ditches and hollows overgrown with long grass and meadow-sweet. My friend plunged into it, while I went on a little further. Almost directly he called me back, and by the waving of his umbrella I saw that he had made some discover}-. It was indeed a discover}', it was the nest of a Marsh-Warbler. There was the nest, and there too was the bird, which continued to creep about the neighbourhood of the nest for some minutes after we had disturbed her. There were four eggs in the nest, the beauty of which will always dwell in my memor}'. They were of the same type as the Reed- Warblers, but instead of being densely covered with greenish spots, their ground colour was greenish-white, with many largish dull purple blotches, gathered chiefly at the thicker end. The nest too was specially distinct from that of our familiar Oxford bird ; it was of a slighter make, and not so deep, but the stalks of the meadow-sweet had been drawn into its structure, much as the reeds or the shoots of privet or lilac are used in the nest of the Reed- Warbler. It is worth noting that the few nests of this species which have been so far found in England, have been usually suspended in meadow-sweet ; and also that they have • Mr. W. W. Fowler speaks of its imitating the Tree-Pipit, Lark, Swallow, Sedge-Warbler, Nightingale, Chaffinch, Nuthatch, Great-Tit, White-Wagtail, &c., and he says that it sings best from six till ten in the morning. A charming paper ou the JIarsh-Warbler's nesting habits appeared in the Zoologist, 1896, pp. 286-288. 114 '^'^'■' ^Jarsh-Warulkr. never, so far as I know, been fonnd immediately over water, bnt at a little distance from it, and not very far from cnltivated ground. We took one egg only, and after some further search returned to the village, and went on our way to Meiringen, where we were to sleep that night." I do not doubt that the usual habit of the Marsh- Warbler is to build its nest above moist ground and not over water ; but to anyone who has nested year after year for any considerable period, the fact that there is no rule without exceptions is found to be especially true in relation to nesting sites. It is most unusual for a Spotted Flycatcher to build in a hole in a wall, and for a Wren to form its domed nest in a box, yet I have obtained the former and m\- friend Frohawk the latter. That the Marsh- Warbler, therefore, should occasionally follow the habit of its very close relation the Reed- Warbler, is no more than might be expected. The food of the Marsh- Warbler consists largeh' of insects and spiders, but it also eats elder-berries and small fruits in their season. The JNIarsh-Warbler is said to reach its breeding-grounds about the middle of May, and to leave them late in August. Herr Gatke, speaking of it in Heligoland, sa3's : — " This species * * * was in former 3-ears met with far more frequently in Heligoland than is the case now. As regards numbers, too, it was far better represented than the preceding species (the Reed- Warbler) — a relation which obtains even at the present da}- in regard to the few individuals still visiting the island." " Further, before the period under consideration, the spring and summer months were almost invariably fine and warm, with a prevalence of south-easterl}' winds, so that in April and May of almost every year the island used to teem with Sylvia; and other small birds ; indeed there were many days on which one might have been able to secure more than a hundred Bluethroats (Sylvia siucicaj, and some twenty or more examples of 5. hypolais and S. palustris. Since then, on the other hand, our spring and summer is almost alwaj-s cold, with raw and drj' winds from the north, and the number of these Sylvia, and of other both smaller and larger species which put in an appearance at these seasons, has dwindled to the slenderest proportions, so that now the two last named species are seen perhaps not more than twice or three times in the course of a spring migration." Although I have not heard of this species having been exhibited as a cage- bird in England, it is recorded among the species sent to the sixth exhibition of the " Ornis " Society in Berliu. Mathias Rausch, in the " Gefiederte Welt" for 1 89 1, in an exhaustive article on the European Song-birds, states that this bird is very prolific in imitations of the songs of other species, frequently even more versatile thau the Icterine Warbler, though in strength of voice, in purity and The Great Reed- Warbler. 115 flute-like character of tone, it stands a good distance behind it. Probably Herr Rausch bases his remarks chiefl}' on wild specimens ; but it is quite possible that he may also have heard them in captivity. Family-^ Tl U^DID.-E. S,