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BY

ROBERT M U D [E.

VOLUME THE FIRST.

THI]

L O N ID 0 N;
HENRY G . BOHN, YORK ST KEET . ( ' ( )V K NT ( ;.\ I
M D (' C (' X LI.

NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

In preparing for the press this Edition of a work which
has been received by the Public with that approbation
which is the sweetest and the only satisfying reward of
mental labour, I have not found much to add. The zeal
with which natural science is now prosecuted has, however,
enabled me to give notices of a few rare birds, which had
not been previously mentioned in these kingdoms even
as stragglers; and I have, with all the care I could
bestow, revised the whole work, so as to correct those
errors, whether of the pen or of the press, which are
perhaps unavoidable in the First Edition of a work
wholly original. It would be too much for me to say
that, even with all the care which I have bestowed upon
it, (and only they who have written original works upon
subjects so multifarious and varied can know the amount,)
the book is anything like perfect; but if it shall continue,
as I am told it has hitherto done, to send its readers to
the haunts of the birds to observe and study them there,
I shall have accomplished a task which is to me far
more delightful than if I had won the greenest laurels
which are to be obtained in the field of literature and

science.

ROBERT MUDIE.

GROVE COTTAGE, CHELSEA,

Mai/, 1835.

VOL. I.

LIST OF PLATES.

VOL. I.

PAGE

The Golden Eagle . Frontispiece.
Dippers and Nest . . . Vignette.

The Roller 7

Ptarmigan 26

Quail ib.

Field-fare ib.

Hen Pheasant 41

Goatsucker ib.

Walking and Running Feet —

Ring-dove and Little Bustard 55
Rapacious Beaks —

Hawk, Eagle, and Owl . . 78

Peregrine Falcon 83

Eagle Owl ib.

Clutching Feet —

Golden Eagle and Osprey . 115

Jay 175

Goldfinch ib.

PAGE

Bulfinch 175

Feet of the Woodpecker and

Nuthatch 186

Woodpecker 189

King-fisher ib.

Creeper ib.

Bills of the Goatsucker and Swal-
low 216

Sand-Martin 221

Fly-Catcher ib.

Swift ib.

Ring-Thrush 252

Wagtail ib.

Stouechat ib.

Feet of the Lark and Wagtail . 272

Reed-Warbler 318

Red-Start ib.

Golden-crested Wren . . . ib.

LIST OF PLATES.

VOL. II.

PAGE

The Gannet . . . Frontispiece.
Little Grebes and Nest . Vignette.

Dotterel 101

Lapwing ib.

Jack Snipe ib.

Sand-piper ib.

Kentish Plover . . . . .110

Phalarope ib.

Turnstone 122

Pratincole ib.

Bittern 131

Curlew ib.

Crake . ...... ib.

PAGE

Grebe's Foot 247

Puffin 275

Teal 304

Shag- ib.

Cormorant's Foot 329

Cormorant 331

Skua-Gull ib.

Eider Duck 316

Fork-tailed Petrel ib.

Diver ib.

Kitty-wake 358

Tern ib.

Storm Petrel 391

PREFACE.

In submitting these volumes to the public, to whom I
have the feeling that I am bound to be grateful, I have
not the vanity to suppose that I have materially extended
what is usually termed the science of Ornithology. I
have formed no system, I have followed no systematist, I
have drawn up no nomenclature of shapes or of colours,
and I have not counted the feathers, or the scales or
reticulations on the tarsi, of a single bird. Therefore,
1 conclude, that my little book is without the province
of either the praise or the censure of the profound. I
should also suppose, that most of what I have written,
must appear so ragged and incomplete out of its con-
nection, that my book will escape the inglorious mar-
trydom of being hacked and hawked in pennyworths,
ere it has had even a chance for life.

My object is a much humbler one; but it is one
which to me is more delightful, and, in my opinion — an
opinion in which I am borne out by long experience —
by no means less generally useful. It is simply, to
entice my fellow Britons, of all ages, classes, and ranks,
who are not too learned for relishing the beauties of
nature as they stand displayed in nature itself, into the
fields, that they may know and feel the extent of delightful
knowledge, rational and even profound thinking, and
useful hints for every department of science and pursuit,
to sav nothing of well sinewed limbs, and hearts tuned

a '2

PREFACE.

for enjoyment, that are to be met with there, and met
with in abundance by all wrho will but take the trouble
of seeing with their own eyes and hearing with their own
ears. It has been my wish and my endeavour to pro-
duce a book upon which the reader could lay his hand
and say, " Herein I shall find a notice of every feathered
creature which I may meet within the four seas, or on
their margins, so expressed as to correspond with its
appearance and habits in free nature ; and by the help
of which I shall not only know each bird when I see it,
but, in some sort borrow its wings, and soar with it and
survey the glories and the wonders of that creation of
which it forms so lively and so enlivening a part."

My first purpose was to attempt the accomplishment
of this in a single pocket volume ; but, in spite of all my
efforts, it has extended to two; and even then, I have
been again and again constrained to shut the door upon
some of my favourites, before they had half told their
story. The bird, too, is only a disjointed fragment,
without the scene and the season or other cause which
brings it to that scene ; and when, in the contemplation
of nature, we once begin to trace the relation between
subject and subject, it is always difficult, and in some
instances impossible, to stop the analysis, till it has
carried us beyond the range of merely human reasoning,
to that sublime field where we can but admire, and dare
not restrain our adoration. The passages in which I
have ventured to indulge in that strain, will be found to
be few ; but as it is the ultimate feeling in the study of
nature, and the one which repays most fully and exqui-
sitely the labour of all the rest, I have ventured, in those
few passages, to extend the analysis as much farther than

PREFACE. Vll

is usually done in such books, as to carry the ordinary-
reader beyond that point at which the half-informed
stand in some jeopardy of falling into error, more se-
riously injurious to their happiness than any mistake that
could be made in the details of Ornithology or of any
other science.

In the narrowest view that can be taken of any natu-
ral subject, in such a way as to be popularly useful, there
are three general points, each branching out into many
sub-divisions. First, there is the particular knowledge of
the subject itself, in all those characters by which it is
distinguished as an individual ; secondly, there are the
relations in which it stands to the rest of nature, in place
and in time, in subject and in event; and thirdly, there
are the general relations of nature to the Creator by whom
it has been made, and to man by whom it should be
studied both for bodily use and for mental information and
pleasure. In pursuing the matter systematically, for the
purpose of extending the light of science over these, it
may, perhaps, be better to divide them, — just as the con-
structing of a nice machine, a watch for instance, suc-
ceeds best when divided among many hands. But it is
otherwise with the public, who want the machine or the
science for popular use. When a plain man wishes to
know how time passes, he does not go to one handicraft
for a spring, another for a chain, a third for a balance,
and so on for all the several parts of a watch, he goes to
the man who can furnish him with a watch in "going
order," and prefers one even of rude workmanship, to the
disjointed parts made by the first workmen in the king-
dom. The popular desire for a book, and especially for
a book upon Natural History, or any part of it, is nearly

Vlll PREFACE.

of the same description, though, as such books are neither
so familiar nor so simple in their use as watches, people
themselves cannot express so readily, or so clearly, what
it is that they desire.

It may seem to be a little vain in me to offer even a
tentatory example on the subject; but my chief reason
for it is, that 1 am myself an instance of the class of per-
sons to whom my volumes are addressed. I am not a
naturalist in any of the common meanings of the term ;
but I have, for more than forty years, been an admirer of
nature, [having found it health in sickness, and a sure
anchor to the mind when the current of life ran adverse
or turbulent. During the whole of that period I have
let slip no opportunity of noticing any one production or
phenomenon in nature that came in my way ; and during
the greater part of it, my opportunities have been both
numerous and varied. How they have been improved
must be judged of by others, from the execution of these
volumes, which are upon one of my favourite subjects,
where it is likely that a man would, at least, try to do his
best. Whatever else there may have been in my expe-
rience, there is certainly thus much, that 1 never proceeded
in it upon any body's system, either with a view to the
establishment or the overthrow of any hypothesis. I
looked at matters just as I found them ; and when I per-
ceived that I should have to follow any subject or prin-
ciple into anew field, I endeavoured to explore that field,
however slight the connection might appear to be between
it and the subject which had led me to it. All this was
done without confederacy, consultation, or the least re-
ference either to becoming scientific or to the writing of
a book ; for I knew not then, and I know not now, whether

PREFACE. IX

all who have had the same opportunities may not know-
much more of the matter in all its bearings than I do.

1 mention these circumstances for no ostentatious pur-
pose, and they are indeed nothing to boast of, but rather
the reverse. I mention them merely to ground upon
them a claim to originality, such originality as there can
be upon a subject, upon which so many have written, or
to speak more correctly, upon which the same wilting
has appeared in so many different forms. Though 1
have laboured to avoid them all, yet, I would rather
stand convicted of dulness, vanity, and error jointly,
than have it said that I had appropriated, in any way,
the labours of another man, how strongly soever I may
have felt their value and superiority. An orginal book,
be it ever so faulty in the plan, or feeble in the execution,
always adds something to the mass of knowledge. A com-
pilation always debases that which is already known ; and
therefore, both the principle and the practice, by whom-
soever they may be held, exercised, and encouraged, are
to me equally revolting, as a robbery upon the parties
from whom they are purloined, and a fraud upon the
public, always the more mischievous, and therefore the
more base and contemptible the more influential the
party under whose sanction it is perpetrated.

We are all debtors for knowledge to those who have
preceded us, and it is one of the advantages of that most
valuable of all possessions, that it descends to the world
generally, and not to kindred or heirs that can be named
in the will of the bequeather. But still, I am not aware
that, in the course of these volumes, I have appropriated
any man's words without acknowledgment ; and even
with it, 1 have not been lavish in quotation either from

X PREFACE.

others or from any thing that I myself may formerly have
published — which is as much a fraud upon the public as
the appropriation of that which they have already in the
works of another.

Still, I feel myself under numerous and weighty obli-
gations, some of which I am not at liberty to acknowledge.
But I cannot pass without notice those which I owe to
Mr. Yarrell, whose name is so well known, and whose
talents and labours are so justly esteemed, by all who pos-
sess the love and are conversant with the knowledge of
nature. That most acute and truly scientific zoologist is
not, however, answerable for any one point, debatable or
not debatable, which appears in this work ; but yet I must
say — and I say it with pride — that his museum and stores
of knowledge, his sound judgment and candid opinion,
which are far more valuable than any museum or collec-
tion, have been freely open and liberally afforded to me,
and that they have sustained me in several instances
where, through the imperfection of my own experience,
my confidence might otherwise have broken down.

So much for the general purpose of these volumes ;
and though the execution must speak for itself, a few
words of explanation may not be altogether unnecessary.
A complete system is quite incompatible with an account
of the birds of a single country of small dimensions ; and
to dwell much upon system, would have been out of
keeping with the purpose and character of the book.
There are some good points and some imperfections in
all the systems which have been promulgated; and
therefore I have sometimes followed one and sometimes
another ; but I have followed them no farther than I
could, by some general remarks under the orders, genera,

PREFACE. xi

and groups, save repetition, and thereby have more scope
for the characters and relations of the species. In one
order, the first in the second volume, or that of the birds
which feed mostly upon vegetable substances— at least at
certain seasons, I have used a name at which the fastidious
may cavil, namely, the word graminivora instead of
granivora ; but I have done so advisedly, in consequence
of the limited meaning of the latter term, and also of its
being sometimes applied to substances which are not ve-
getable ; and if the general name, Botany, which is ex-
pressive of all plants, be derived from a root that signifies
" to graze," surely a word of similar import and origin
may be applied to those birds whose food is chiefly vege-
table. But, even without this explanation, the name can-
not mislead, as there is nothing founded upon it.

In the details, whether of appearance, character, habit,
or haunt, I have aimed at giving truth and force rather
than elegance and grace, and so far as knowledge would
bear me out, I have endeavoured to apportion the length
of the articles to the importance of the subjects. But
that is a matter of opinion ; and as I have followed my
own, it may appear faulty to others.

In various places of both volumes, there will be found
hints, and sometimes short disquisitions, of more exten-
sive range than the mere history of birds ; and of these,
several will be found to be new : but they have been
studiously introduced in the least ostentatious manner
possible, that they might not alarm the ordinary reader
with the parade of science, which is always more formi-
dable than the reality.

As, in works of instruction generally, and especially
in popular works, one main object ought to be to please,

Xll PREFACE.

and if possible, to delight the reader, controversy, and es-
pecially any thing bordering upon acerbity, is sadly out
of place. Therefore, though I have not, in one or two
solitary instances, been able wholly to conceal what I
felt, I have endeavoured to express the feeling in the
shortest and gentlest terms possible. One cannot help a
little turning away of the countenance from cupidity, ar-
rogance, or even gratuitous error ; but still, one's bowels
yearn over that " frailty of the flesh," through which
such things occur. These matters, though in themselves,
neither profitable nor pleasant, yet afford a strong and
striking proof of the advantages of the study of nature,
inasmuch as all mankind agree, as far as they understand
the facts, and dispute only about their own supplemental
or substitutional assumptions.

The illustrations will speak for themselves, and may
be depended on for fidelity of expression and accuracy
of tint. I could have wished that they had been more
numerous, extending to all the species ; but that would
have vastly increased the cost of the book, and also thrown
the author into the shade. More figures, in an inferior
stvle, might possibly have tempted into larceny those
whose natural instinct needs no spurring; and who, since
a late unadvised outbreak of charity for the destitute, or
haply of that fatherly Sropyr) before which equity and
justice are of course but as cobwebs, stand in more peril
than heretofore.

I should mention that the Vignettes on the Title Pages
are novelties, being the first successful specimen of what
may be called polychromatic printing, or printing in
" many colours" from wooden blocks. By this method
every shade of colour, every breadth of tint, every deli-

PREFACE. Xlll

cacy of hatching, and every degree of evanescence in the
outline, can be obtained, and fifty thousand few similes
of a painting may be produced with perfect uniformity
and at a moderate expence. The advantages to books
of which a large number is to be sold, will be very great,
not only as removing the cost of tinting by hand, which
is the same for the last thousand as the first; but by
making the copies more alike and more durable, and
rising more above the reach of the ignobile pecus of imi-
tators. In these Vignettes, Mr. Baxter had no coloured
copy but the birds, which are from nature. I made him
work from mere scratches in outline, in order to test his
metal ; and I feel confident that the public will agree
with me in thinking it sterling. In carrying this very
beautiful branch of the typographic art successfully into
effect, Baxter has, I believe, completed what was the last
project of the great Bewick, but which that truly original
and admirable genius did not live to accomplish.

It now remains only to notice the synoptic list which
is prefixed to the first volume, and serves as an index to
both. The indications there given are only approxima-
tions ; but they are more numerous and varied than those
given in any similar enumeration.

Having said thus much in the way of explanation, apo-
logy, or whatever else it may be called, I must now leave
the work to its fate, in the anxious hope that some readers
may derive, not from its perusal, but from that study of
nature to which it may lead them, some portion of the
same pleasure which I have enjoyed in that prolonged
course of simple observation, of which it is one of the
results.

But having thus spoken of myself, or of my produc-
b

XIV PREFACE.

tion (which is of course nearly the same,) I may per-
haps be permitted to say a few words to others. These
[ say, not with the dictation of a pedagogue, but with the
anxious desire of a scholar, trusting that they will be re-
ceived as such. They are these : the nomenclature of
science, more especially of natural science, is an absolute
chaos, of good materials I grant, but in perfect confusion,
huddled together, not only without organization, but ab-
solutely without that polarity which belongs to the smal-
lest and simplest atom of mere matter. Over this chaos
I wish the spirit of the learned to brood, and to turn it to
a systematic world of light and of life : by fixing, at their
first national meeting, (if they can as soon make up their
minds,) an English nomenclature of science, which
shall be classical, by issuing from under the authority of
the combined talent of the nation. Such an act would
not surely be difficult for so many : and besides enabling
observers and inquirers, in all parts of the empire, to
understand each other, it would repress, if not utterly
destroy, that ''calling of names," which, on the part of
the lower orders in science, is as offensive as similar prac-
tices among lower orders of any other description.

The circumstances of the times render the fixing of
some nomenclature a duty equally imperious and pleas-
ing. Whether the establishment of Zoological Societies
be the cause or the effect, I leave to be settled by others,
but it is certain that there is a spirit awakened all over
the kingdom, to the love and the study of nature, of which
we have had no example in modern times. Till lately,
the Country Gentlemen of England knew nothing of
their estates save the rent which they yielded, and the
animals that were hunted as vermin or as game ; and the

PREFACE. XV

consequence was, that they did not want the people, ex-
cept as administrators to the furnishing of food, clothing,
and the trappings of state. The result has been that,
ever since the breaking up of the feudal system, by which
Baron and vassal were linked together in war, there has
been an estrangement of the different ranks of society
from each other, — a state of things which has every day
become more and more unwholesome ; and for which,
much as has been said and written on the subject, there
is no political cure. One can easily see that such must
have been the result. The different ranks had no rela-
tion to each other but that of bargain and sale ; and
consequently they rated each other at a money price, and
nothing more. But the feelings of the human heart
cannot be made chattels ; and they have consequently
lain dormant.

The study of nature will, however, bring the different
ranks together again, and unite them by a bond far more
secure than any thing feudal. The owner of an estate
will enjoy it all, not merely levy and spend the rent, but
claim kindred with, and derive pleasure from, the plants
and the animals. Without the love and the knowledge
of nature, he can be said to inhabit only the mansion-
house, and that but for a portion of the year ; but with
these he will inhabit the whole domain, however ample ;
and instead of his importance being rated by the thou-
sands that he can spend in the year, it will be rated by
the fields, the forests, the groves, and the waters, which
lie around him, as a lovely and an ever-open book ; and
he and his family will find their delight there, and they
will cleave to their country and their countrymen, with
heart and soul, and their countrymen will cleave to them,

XVI PREFACE.

and the whole nation will be linked together by that
" cord of nature," which God has made ; and sustained
by that, all the charities and all the gratitudes of the heart
will be excited, and peasant and peer, while they preserve
the ranks which civilization assigns them, will be brothers
in nature, and each will vie with the other in striving who
shall do the first good office.

This is not the doting dream of a lover of nature, but
a plain and philosophic truth. In the city, people of
different ranks stand scowling and apart ; but when they
go to hunt, to fish, or to any other sport or occupation in
the fields, they are fellows. Nature thus makes brother-
hood ; and if all mankind would study nature, all man-
kind would be brothers.

This is a truth which often forced itself upon me while
sickening with disgust in the turmoil of politics ; and, now
that I have " 'scaped the Stygian pool," I earnestly and
respectfully recommend it to the attention of my fellow
countrymen.

ROBERT MUDIE.

GROVE COTTAGE, CHELSEA,

Feb. 14, 1834.

ALPHABETICAL LIST

BRITISH BIRDS,

WITH A SYNOPTIC VIEW OF SOME OF THEIR LEADING
DISTINCTIONS

EXPLANATION.

NAMES.

The first column contains the common English names, and the second
column the generic and specific systematic ones. The former are arranged
alphabetically ; and the only explanation they require is, that when the
name contains an adjective or epithet, that is put first, but the epithet
" common" is omitted.

CHARACTERS.

The third column, headed c. expresses the character of the bird, and
requires attention to these particulars, —

r. means a resident bird, or one which is found in some part of the
country all the year round.

s v. means a summer visitant, w v. a winter visitant, o v. an occasional
visitant, and s. a straggler not belonging to a regular migration.

The italics prefixed qualify the characters ; c. means common, or that
the bird is generally distributed, I. means local, and r. means rare • but the
application of these cannot be very precise ; e. or w. prefixed to an occa-
sional visitant or straggler, means that it belongs to an eastern or a western
migration.

HABITS.

The fourth column, headed h. refers to the habits of the birds in feeding.
There,—

a. means aerial birds, which seek their prey on the wing ; ft. prefixed
means that they fly high, m. moderate height, and /. that they fly low.

b. means branch or bush birds, which find their food on trees or bushes ;
t. prefixed denotes that they seek it on the twigs and leaves, and b. on the
bark.

h. means that they seek their food on herbaceous plants.

g. means a ground bird ; r. is prefixed if a runner, and s. if they search
the earth either with the bill or by scraping with the feet.

w. means a water bird ; w. that it wades, a. that it feeds on fishes on the
wing, s. that it swims, and d. that it dives.

XV111 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF

HAUNTS.

The fifth and sixth columns, headed s. and w. mean the summer and
winter haunts ; and the following are the leading distinctions, though they
are necessarily vague, —

m. indicates a mountaineer, or bird which inhabits elevated places only.

h . means a hill bird, or inhabitant of the moors which have considerable
elevation.

c. means a bird of the commons, or open wastes less elevated.

f. means a field bird, or one which inhabits the cultivated grounds.
w. means a woodland bird, whether of brake, copse, grove, or forest.

g. means a garden bird, or one which inhabits near houses.

b. means a bank bird, or one which inhabits the margins of lakes, streams,
or pools, in reeds, or otherwise.

n. means a fen bird, but it is applied to marshy places generally.

s. means a shore bird, or one which is found on the beaches.

k. means a rock bird, or one which inhabits bold clifts, but no birds find
much of their food in such places. The swallow tribe are properly speaking
rock birds ; they do not inhabit chimneys and steeples, because these are
built by man.

p. means a pelagic bird, or one which is discursive over the sea.

The column s. refers to the breeding haunts of the birds ; and the quali-
fying italics have the following meaning : s, that the birds are social, or
breed many in the same place, d. that they are dispersed apart from each
other, and h. that they breed hidingly.

The column w. refers to the winter haunts ; and f. means that the birds
flock, p. that they remain in packs or coveys, and s. that they are solitary.

The numerals prefixed and affixed to either of these, point out the num-
bers of the months, counting from January as 1, between which the bird
may be looked for ; but they are vague, varying with both the place and
the season.

NESTING PLACES.

The seventh column, headed n. points out the nesting places ; t. means
in high trees, b. in brakes or bushes lower down, g. on the ground but con-
cealed, f. exposed on the open surface, h. in holes, whether of trees, walls,
rocks, or the earth, and l. on cliffs or ledges of rocks. The kind of surface
is, in some measure, determined by the haunt ; and no bird deposits its eggs
on a humid surface, as the evaporation would be proportional to the heat,
and the eggs could not be hatched.

The italics in this column denote the character of the nest ; o. that there
is no formal one, r. that it is rude, n. that it is neat, and e. that it is elaborate.

These characters might have been extended ; but too many columns
would be apt to breed confusion.

PAGES.

The last column marked p. indicates the page ; and when i. is prefixed, it
is in the first volume.

BRITISH BIRDS.

XIX

When an}- column against a particular species of bird is blank, it implies
that there is little reason to expect any character or habit of the species as
British answering to that column ; and when it is marked by the character ?
it is understood to be doubtful, and as such worthy of further investigation ;
the place to be sought is sometimes marked, but it is, of course, only guess-
work ; as, where there is not positive knowledge, there can be no certainty.

ENGLISH NAME.

SYSTEMATIC NAME.

Alpine Titling .
Alpine Vulture . .
American Bittern . .
Arctic Skua . . .
Arctic Tern
Ash-coloured Harrier
Ash-coloured Shrike .
Baillon'a Crake . .
Barn Owl . . . .
Bar-tailed Godwit
Bean Goose . . .
liearded Tit . . .
Bee-eater ....
Bernacle Goose . .
Bewick's Swan
Bimaculated Teal . .

Bittern

Blackbird ....
Black-cap Warbler .
Black Grous . .
Black Guillemot . .
Black-headed Gull .
Black Redstart . .
Black Scoter . . .
Black Stork . . .
Black-tailed Godwit .
1 Slack Tern ....
Black-throated Diver
Black-winged Stilt .

Blue-breasted Warbler
Brown-headed Gull
Blue Tit. . . .
Brake Warbler
Brent Goose .
Brown Long-beak
Buff-breasted Tringa
Bull-finch . . .
Bunting . . .

Burgomaster Gull

Bustard ....
Buzzard

Carrion Crow . .
Caspian Tern . .

Accentor Alpinus .
Vultur ■percnopterus
Botaurus lentiginosu

Leslris parasiticus
Sterna Arctica
Falco cineraceus .
Lanius excubitor .
Crex Baillonii
Stri.i flammea
Limosa rufa
Anas segetum .
Pants biarmicus .
Merops apiaster
Anser bernicla
Cygnus Beivickii .
Querquedula glocitans
Botaurus stellaris .
Tardus morula
Curruca atricapilla
Tetrao tetrii .
Uria grylle
Larus atricillus .
Sylvia Tethys .
Oidemia nigra
Ciconia nigra .
Limosa melanura .
Sterna nigra .
Colymbus arcticus
Himantopus Melanop-

tcrus .
Sylt in Suecica
Larus capistratus
Parus car rule us
Curruca garrula
Anser brenta .
Macrorhamphusgriseus
Tringa ruf'escens .
Pyrrhula vulgaris
Kmlierizu miliaria
lAirus Glaucus
Otis tarda . .
Falco buteo
Corvus corone .
Sterna Caspia . .

0 v
e s
w s
r r

Is
/r
e s
e o v
c R
W V

1 R
I R

e o v

w v
o v
w s

/ R
C R
CSV
/ R

r r
o v
o v
w v

e s
/ R

S V

0 v

C R

1 s v

I R

w s
w s

C R

C R

O V

/ R

a/

A /
? G

a I n
w w
s w

H

A /

s w
s w

S G

SG

d w

d w

w w
a w

d w

r c

A /

s.

W.

N.

R

p

]
L

H

7

F

b r

B

1

G

G

N

B

?

1

N

N

N

B

B

1
W

H

N

N

B

w h

G

B

4b8

B ]

h

H

G 0 1

R

P
P

L

N

N S

n h

N

N

. B

G

B

4w8

B r

N

N

G

W

W

B

F

h

G

I

F

G 0

w

F

t r

w

F

T

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF

ENGLISH NAME.

SYSTEMATIC NAME.

C.

H.

s.

W.

N.

p-

Chaffinch ....

Fringilla ccelebs .

C R

B

G

»/

B

40

Chimney Swallow

Hirundo rustica .

CSV

a m

4g9

H

£217

Chough

Pyrrhocorax graculus

I R

S G

H

H

H

i 178

Cinereous Petrel .

Puffinus cinereus •

s

381

Cirl Bunting . , .

Emberiza cirlus .

Ir

H

F

F

B

25

Cole Tit

Parus ater ....

C R

B I

W

G

H G

i354

Collared Pratincole .

Glareota torquata

e s

229

Fulica atra

C R

s w

N

N

G

231

Cormorant ....

Carbo cormoranus

C R

d w

R

P

L

331

Corn Crake ....

Crex pratensis .

CSV

S G

4f9

G

216

Grus cinerea .

e s

156

Cream-coloured Swift-

Cursorius Isabellinus

e s

93

Certhia familiaris

C R

B b

G

T

II

i203

Crested Grebe . . .

Podiceps cristatus

/R

d w

N

N

G

249

Crested purple Heron

Ardea purpurea .

e o v

w

B

?

145

Crested Tit . .

Parus cristatus

/ R

B

W

W

t e

i375

Cross-bill ....

Lo.via curvirostra .

0 V

B

W

W

i

70

Cuckoo

Cuculus canorus . .

CSV

B t

4w8

?

i 199

Numenius arquata .

C R

S G

H

s

G r

157

Curlew Tringa . .

Tringa subarquata

Z R

S G

N

s

i

181

Dartford Warbler

Sylvia provincialis

/ R

B

C

1

Bh

i306

Dipper

Cinclus aquuticus

/ R

r G

B

B

h e

i281

Charadrius morinellus

S V

S G

H

?

g h

101

Dusky Sand-piper

Totanusfuscus

I R

S G

' N

s

g h

168

Eared Grebe

Podiceps auritus . .

/ R

d w

N

N

G

252

Eider Duck

Somaieria mollissima

I R

s w

R

P

F

316

Feathery-footed Owl

Strig dasnpus

/ R

il46

Field -fare ....

Turdus pilaris . .

e w v

S G

9c/5

i255

Fishing Eagle . . .

Falco hali<zetus .

I R

S W

R

R

L

i 128

Fiery-crested Wren .

Regulus ignicapillus

I R

B

W

W

t e

i304

Foolish Guillemot

Uria troile ....

C R

dw

R

L

264

Fork-tailed Petrel

Thalassidroma Bul-

lockii ....

/ R

a w

R

P

L

388

Fulmar Petrel . . .

Procellaria glacialis .

/ R

a w

R

P

H

377

Gad wall ....

Chauliodus strepera .

W V

S

299

Gallinule ....

Gallinula chloropus .

C R

w w

B

B

G

227

Garden Warbler .

Curruca hortensis

I S V

B

4w9

B

i340

Gargany Teal . . .

Querquedula circia .

W V

S W

?

305

Glossy Ibis ....

Ibis falcinellus .

e s

156

Goat-sucker

Caprimulgus Europwus

Isv

A I d

5f8

G 0

i226

Golden-crested Wren

Regulus auricapillus

C R

B

w

W

t e

i302

Golden Eagle . . .

Falco chriisaetos .

I R

A h

M

JI

l r

ill6

Golden Eye

Clangula vulgaris

W V

320

Golden Oriole . . .

Oriolus galbula

e s

i 183

Goldfinch ....

Fringilla curduelis .

C R

H

F

F

B e

51

Goosander ....

Mergios merganser

W V

s w

P

323

Gos-hawk ....

Falco palumbarius

I R

A m

W

H

T

i 96

Grasshopper Warbler

Sylvia locustella .

Isv

B

4w8

B

i309

Great Auk ....

Alca impennis .

I R

d w

R

P

H

273

Great Black-backed

Gull

Larus marinus .

I R

a w

R

P

G

351

BRITISH BIRDS.

ENGLISH NAME.

SYSTEMATIC NAME.

C.

II.

s.

w.

N.

P.

Great-tufted Owl . .

Strix litiln

() V

i 138

( 1 reater Red-pole Finch

Fringilla cannabina .

C R

II

c

'./'

li

42

Great Tit ....

Pants major . . .

c n

li I

w

G

11

i350

Great Snipe . .

Scolopal major .

gov

195

Great Spotted Wood-

pecker ....

Pints major

In

B b

w

W

II h

i 196

Great White Heron .

Irdea alba ....

es?

147

Green-finch . .

Frangilla chloris .

C B

II

F

C

It

38

Green Sand-piper

Totanus ochropus .

In

S G

N

N

g r

164

Green-shank Sand-piper

Totanus glottis

In?

S G

)

S

?

167

Green Wood-pecker .

Picas viridis .

C R

B b

w

w

u h

i 189

Grey Lapwing .

Squatorala cinerea

/r?

S G

II?

s

G ?

121

Grey-leg Goose

A user palustris

W V ?

s w

282

Guernsey Partridge .

Perdrii mfa .

In

S G

F

F

G h

i 47

Grey Phalarope .

Phalaropus lobatus

r w \

S W

237

Grey Wagtail . . .

Motacilla boarula .

In

S G

B

B

11 h

i 276

Gull

Larus can us .

In

a w

N

P

G

356

Gull-billed Tern . .

Sterna Anglica . .

e s

a w

367

Harlequin Carrot .

Clangula histrionica .

0 V

s w

321

Haw-finch ....

Fringilla cocoth ra ustes

/ R

B

W

W

T

62

Hedge AVarbler . .

Curruca hippolais.

Isv?

B

3w9

)• 1! ?

B

i 335

Hen Harrier . . .

Falco cyaneus . .

C R

A /

c

c

b r

ilOl

Ardea cinerea .

C R

W W

B

B

t r

126

Herring Gull . . .

Larus argentatus .

C R

a \v

R

P

L

353

Hobby

Falco subbuteo

/ S V

A h

4f10

t r

i 87

Honey Buzzard .

Falco a pi varus

e o v

A /

w

i 107

Hooded Crow . .

Corvus comix .

In

S G

H

F

B

il60

Hooded Merganser .

Mergus cucullatus

s

324

Upupa epops .

e o v

i207

Horned Grebe . . .

Podiceps cornutus

In

d w

N

N

G

251

House Martin .

Hirundo urbica

CSV

A m

4g10

H

i219

House Sparrow

Pyrgita domestica

C R

S G

G

G

H

33

Iceland Gull . . .

Larus Islandicus .

0 V

352

Ivory Gull ....

Larus ebumeus .

O V

355

Jack-daw ....

Corvus monedula .

C R

S G

R

»/

H

i 169

Jack-snipe ....

Scolopax gallinula

In

S G

N ?

N

G

196

Jay

Garrulus glandarius

c n

S G

W

W

t h

i 175

Falco Islandicus .

1 o V

Ah

1

i 81

Kentish Plover .

Charadrius Cantianus

I R

S G

s

S

F 0

110

Falco tinnunculus

R

a h

F

F

i r

i 92

Somateria spectubilis .

In

s w

R

1'

G

318

King-fisher ....

Alcedo ispida .

I n

a/

B

It

H

i209

Kite

Falco mitvus .

C R

A /(

C

C

T

i 107

Kitty-wake

Larus rissa

/ H (( W

R

P

L

358

Knot Tringa

Tringa Canutus .

C R

$ G

N

s

?

179

Lapwing ....

1 anellus cristatus

C R

S G

II

s

G 0

118

Lark-heeled limiting

Emberiza calcarata .

33

Laughing Gull . .

Larus ridibundus . .

/ R

a w

N

F

G

359

Lesser Black-backed

Gull

1 ants fuscus .

/ R

u w

n

P

L

353

Lesser Spotted Wood-

pecker ....

Picus minor

In

it

w

w

a h

i 196

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF

ENGLISH NAME.

SYSTEMATIC NAME

c.

H.

s.

w.

N.

b n

p.

Lesser Redpole

Fringilla linaria . .

1 R

G

c

*■/

46

Lesser Tern

Sterna minuta . .

s V

a w

s

F

372

Little Bittern . . .

BotauriLS minutus

e o v

149

Little Bustard . .

Otis textrix

e s

T G

F

i 60

Little Crake

Crex pusilla . . .

1 s V

H

N

?

?

219

Little-crested Heron

Ardea garzetta . .

e s

147

Little Grebe . . .

Podiceps minor . .

Ir

d w

N

IS

r;

252

Little Gull ....

Laru minutus .

0 V

363

Little Owl . . . .

Stria passerina

W V ?

a n

G

i 145

Little White Heron .

Ardea russata .

e s

147

Long-tufted Owl . .

Stru otus ....

I R

a n

W

W

G

;ho

Long-tailed Hareld .

Haivlda glacialis . .

W V

s w

P

315

Long-tailed Tit . .

Parus caudatus

C R

B

B

B

b e

i359

Magpie

Pica melanoleuca .

C R

S G

G

G

T 11

i 172

Manks Shearwater .

Puffinus Anglorum .

/ R

s w

R

P

H

379

Marsh Harrier

Fatco rufus

C R

A /

N

N

g r

i 103

Marsh Tit ....

Parus palustris

C V.

B

B

F

E

i357

Meadow Pipit . . .

Anthus pratensis .

C R

S G

H

X

G

i289

Falco cesalon .

r r

A /(

II

F

G ?-

i 90

Minute Tringa

Tringa minuta

o V

S G

S

S

1

183

Missel Thrush . . .

Turdus viscivorus

/ R

B G

w

w

B?l

i242

Mountain Linnet .

Fringilla montium

I R

H

H

»/

b n

49

Mountain Finch .

Fringilla montifringillt

I / R

H

H

F/

Bti

60

Night Heron . . .

Nycticorax Gardeni .

S

152

Nightingale . . .

Curruca luscinia . .

I S V

B

5w8

G

i342

Noddy

Sterna stotida .

376

Northern Diver . .

Colymbus glacialis

W V

dw

p

260

Nut-cracker . . .

Nucifraga caryoca-

tactes ....

eov

w

il84

Nuthatch ....

Sitta Eurcpea .

/ R

Bb

G

G

H

i205

Oyster-catcher . .

Hcematopus ostralegus

C R

S G

N

S

F 0

89

Emberiza hortulana .

s

33

Parrot Crossbill . .

Loxia pytiopsittacus

72

Partridge ....

Perdrix cinerea .

C R

S G

F

F

G h

i 40

Peregrine Falcon . .

Falco peregrinus .

In

A h

H

F

R S

i 83

Pine Gross-beak . .

Pyrrhula enucleator .

0 V

B

66

Pied Fly-catcher . .

Muscicapa luctuosa .

Is V

B

5w8

b n

i237

Pied Wagtail . . .

Motacilla alba.

C R

S G

B

F

h n

i273

Pintail

Querquedula acuta .

I R

S W

N

P

G

303

Plover

Charadrius pluvialis .

C R

S G

H

S

G 0

95

Pomarine Skua

Lestris pomarinus .

W S

a w

345

Ptarmigan ....

Lagopus vulgaris .

/ R

S G

M

M/J

G 0

i 25

Puffin '

Fratercula arctica

C R

dw

R

P

H

275

Purple Tringa . . .

Tringa maritima .

/ R

S G

S

S

?

175

Purre, or Dunlin . .

Tringa variabilis .

C R

S G

S, B

s

G 0

173

Quail

Coturnix vulgaris

/sv

S G

5f9

G h

i 47

Rail

Rallus aquaticus .

C R

W

B

B

G

225

Corvuscorax

Ir

G

F S

H S

L S

i 165

Razor-bill ....

Alca tor da ....

C R

d W

R

P

L

271

Red -backed Shrike .

Lanius collurio . .

Is V

A /

5w9

b n

i235

Sylvia rubicola

C R.

B G

w

G

b h

i299

Red-breasted Goose .

Anser ruficollis . .

e s

S W

289

BRITISH BIRDS.

ENGLISH NAME.

SYSTEMATIC NAME.

c.

II.

s.

w.

p

N.

P.

RedbreastedMerganser

Mergus serratus .

1 R

(/ w

N

G

322

Red-crested Pochard

Fuligula rufina

0 V

(/ w

314

Red-headed Pochard

Fuligula ferina .

w V

d w

311

Lagopus Scoticus .

In

S G

II

1! p

0 o

i 31

Red-legged Falcon .

Falco rufipes ■

I S V

i 95

Red-necked Grebe .

Podiceps rubvicollis ■

w v ?

rf w

248

Red-necked Phalarope

Pkalaropus hyperboreus

In

s w

II

V

G

235

Red-throated Diver .

Colymbus septemptrio-

iiulis

In

rf w

263

Red-shank Sandpiper

Totanus calidris

c n

S G

N

s s

G r

163

Red Warbler . .

('united phxnicurus

1 s V

B

4w8

i 321

Red-wing; Thrash

Tardus iliacus

w V

S O

9c/5

H n

i258

Reed Bunting .

Emberiza schxnielus .

c It

H

B

F

B

21

Reed Warbler . . .

Curruca arundinacea

I S V

h '5 is 8

B

i318

Richard s's Pipit . .

Anthus ttichardi . .

Is

i 295

Richardson's Skua

Lestris Richard sonii .

c n

a w n

P

G

346

Ring-Dove ....

Columba palumbus

c n

S G

w

w

t r

i 64

Ring Plover . . .

Charadvius hiaticula

1 n

so

s

s

F 0

105

Ring Thrush . . .

Turdus torquatus .

s v

S 0

4 ii 9

B

i 252

Rock Dove ....

Columba livia .

I n

S G

*/

R

r r

i 68

Rock Grous . . .

Tetrao rupestris

e s

i 31

Corncias garrulus . .

e s

i 183

Rook

Corvus Jrugilegus

c n

s c;

»/

rf

T S

i 155

Roseate Tern . . .

Ster/ia Dougallii . .

/ R

a xv

s

1

G

373

Rose-coloured Pastor

Pastor roseus .

e o v

F

i 184

Mergulus melanoleucos

0 V

d xv

268

Rough-legged Buzzard

Falco lagopus .

e o v

i 106

Ruddv Sheldrake . .

Tadorna rutila

s

s w

297

Ruff'.

Machetes pugnax .

s v

s G

N

N

G

212

Sabine's Gull . .

Lurus Sabini .

0 v

364

Sabine's Snipe . . .

Scolopax Sabini

ov?

S G

?

?

1

195

Sanderling ....

Calidris armaria .

/ R

,S G

8

V 0

114

Sand-Martin . . .

Hirundo riparia .

CSV

A /

b8

II

i221

Sand-piper ....

Totanus hypoleucos .

c n

S G

B

S

F 0

169

Sandwich Tern

Sterna Boysii .

1 s V

a xv

R

G

371

Scaup Pochard

Fuligula marila .

w v

d xv

312

Scooping Avocet .

1 tern ii i rostra avoceita

In

W XV

N

N

o h

203

Scops-tufted Owl

Strii scops ....

o V

a n

i 143

Screech Owl . . .

Stria stridula . . .

c II

\ 1 n

G

G

ah

i 146

Sea Eagle ....

Falco albicilla .

/ n

a \v

R

Ii

l r

i 122

Sedge Warbler

Curruca phragmitis .

I S V

II

4 i,8

I! h

i 316

Shag

Carbo graculus

/ R

d w

I!

P

L

333

Sheldrake ....

Fadorna vulpanser

In

8 w

Ii

P

L

296

Shore Pipit . .

. littlitts aquaticus ■

1 n

SO

s

s

G

i291

Short-tufted Owl . .

Strh brackyotos .

In

a n

w

w

T

i 141

Spathulea clypeata

r r

s w

298

Fringilla spinus . .

o v ?

57

/ R

<l w

II

p

0

342

llmtiiu art cutis .

C R

.*> ( ;

1

rf

N

11

o

5

\Iergus albellus . .
Scolop&J ""alltua^o .

\V V
C R

s w

N

0 h

325

188

Snow Bunting . .

Emberiza nivalis .

\V V

26

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BRITISH BIRDS.

ENGLISH NAME. SYSTEMATIC NAME

Snowy Owl
Solan Gannet ,
Song Thrush
Sooty Petrel .
Sparrow Hawk
Spotted Crake .
Spotted Fly-catcher
Spotted Sand-piper
Squacco Heron
Starling .
Stock Hove
Stone Chat .
Storm Petrel ,
Surf Scoter .
Swift . . .
Teal ....
Tern ....
Temminck's Tring
Thick-knee . .
Titling . . .
Tree Pipit .
Tree Sparrow .
Tufted Pochard
Turnstone .
Turtle Dove
Velvet Scoter .
Wax-Wing
Western Eider
Widgeon
Wheat-ear Chat
Wimbrel Curlew
Whin Chat . .
Whistling Swan
White-bellied Swift
White-eyed Pochard
White-fronted Goose
White Spoonbill
White Stork .
White-throat War
Wild Duck . .
Willow Warbler
Wood -chat Shrike
Wood-lark . .
Woodcock .
Wood Sand-piper
Wrood Warbler
Wren ....
Wrryneck . .
Yellow Bunting
Yellow W as-tail

bier

Strix nyctea
Sulci Bassana .
Turdus musicus
Puffinus fuliginosus .
Falco nisus
Crex porzana .
Muscicapa grisola .
Totanus macularius .
Ardea ralloides . . .
Sturnus vulgaris .
Columba crnas
Saxicola ruhicola .
Thalassidroma pelagica
Oidemia perspisilla
Cypselus upus
Querquedula crecca .
Sterna hirundo
Tringa Temminckii .
CEdicnemus crepitans .
Accentor modutaris .
Anthus arboreus .
Pyrgita montana . .
Fuligula cristata .
Strepsilas collaris . .
Columba turtur .
Oidemiafusca .
Bombycivora garrula
Somateria dispar .
Mareca penelope .
Saxicola xnanthe .
Numenius phtfopus
Saxicola rubetra .
Cygnus ferns . . .
Cypselus Alpinus .
Fuligula Nyroca .
Anser erythropus . .
Platalea leucorodia .
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THE

FEATHERED TRIBES

BRITISH ISLANDS.

INTRODUCTION.

Birds are the most interesting division of nature's living
productions : the elegance of their forms, the delicacy of their
covering, the beauty of their colours, the element in which
they live, the variety of their motions, the labours which they
perform, the songs which they pour forth, and the indications
which they give of the vicissitudes of the seasons and the
changes of the weather, are subjects of observation, continu-
ally varying, but always delightful — so much so, as to have
commanded the attention of mankind, in all ages and under
every degree of civilization.

When the infant first begins to notice that creation which
is to be its support, and should be its study through life,
birds are the fondest subjects of its admiration ; and, long
before it can use its feet, it will stretch its little hands, and
strain to be out of the nurse's arms, in eagerness to catch the
sportive tenants of the sky ; and when the bird tunes its
melody, the child is hushed into a repose apparently as fasci-
nating as that which it derives when listening to the lullaby
of the fondest mother.

I INTRODUCTION.

When the wind of winter is up, — when the forest howls to
its fury, driving the twitterers from the sprays, and forcing
them to take shelter in clefts of the trees and crannies of
the earth, — when the sky is darkened by the congregated
flakes of snow, which throw their protecting mantle over the
earth, but compel the inhabitants of the cottage to remain
within, and merely eye the storm which rages without, — it is
then that the door is left a jar, and the little red-breast comes
hopping in for his crumbs, welcome, and well-beloved by the
very boys that make the plundering of nests a portion of their
summer's sport ; and the memory of his winter visit of fami-
liarity, his chirp of gratitude for his pittance, and the early
song with which he serenades his benefactors before taking
his seasonal departure for the coppice, remains ; and the boys
spare the robin's nest, in order that the winter visitant may
return again with confidence.

When the winter relents, — when the snowy mantle is dis-
solved, so that the early flowers display their colours, and the
icy fetters of the waters are broken, so that the early water-
flies begin to sport in the sun, — when man first feels the genial
breath of the young year, away from the smoke of the town,
or the shelter of the country habitation, — the song of the lark,
.soaring to the zenith, and thrilling the atmosphere, is more
gratifying to the sense, and inspires more uplifting of the spirit,
than all the skill of the orchestra.

Indeed, in all places wherein man can hold converse with
nature, or derive pleasure from the contemplation of it, the
bird, — the inhabitant of the life-giving atmosphere, — is that
which imparts the finishing touch to the enjoyment.

At the base of some wave-beaten cliff, which rises bold and
rugged into mid air, cutting off the landward view, it is plea-
sant to sit on some jutting point, or to recline in some little
niche which nature's own hand has scooped out, and look upon
the glorious expanse of water which girdles the globe. It is
one of those mackerel -breezy days on which the surface of the
water just dances and dimples, to show its obedience to the
air. Before one's feet, it sports in turn all the tints of the

INTRODUCTION. 3

rainbow ; but it softens off in the distance, and so blends its
beryl with the subdued sapphire of the horizon sky, that the
line of their separation is obliterated, and the observer feels
linked to the universe.

On such days, the fishes sport so near the surface that their
multitudes are ever and anon whitening the water, and im-
pressing you with a feeling of the vast productiveness of that
wide and wonderful element.

But if, in the midst of your contemplation, the gannet
should come prone down, like a fragment hurled from the
summit, dashing into the water till the ripple closes over him,
and again bounding upwards with the reward of his daring in
his bill, — then the cliff, the sky, the sea, and the fishes, would
all be forgotten, and your attention would be wholly and irre-
sistibly absorbed by the bird. Even the dismal sand, where
land and sea are equally void of interest, save the melancholy
interest produced by the bleaching fragments of ships, which
remain to mark the spots where they were stranded, and, it
may be, their crews enshrouded in the flood ; — even there, the
scream of a curlew, the whistle of a sand-piper, or the wail of
some sea-bird on the wing, will bring you back to animated
nature, and your imagination will soon people the dreary
waste with subjects of pleasure and admiration. Go where
you will, be the scene and season what they may, be the sky
serene or be it in storms, there is always a bird to be found,
and that bird never fails to be interesting, as well to the
unlearned as to the learned. Thus, the study of birds is not
only one of the best and most certain sources of rational
enjoyment, but it is one which leads more directly than any
other to the love, and consequently to the study and the
knowledge, of all nature, and of nature's Author.

Nor can the natural history of birds be regarded as merely
a subject of intellectual enjoyment, high as it ranks in this
respect ; for the elements of much practical science, and the
foundations of many of our most useful arts, may be traced
in the economy of birds. The doctrine of motion is one of
the most useful branches of knowledge, and nowhere can that

4 INTRODUCTION.

be studied so easily, or under so many varieties and modifica-
tions, as in the feathered tribes. The birds move through
the air in all directions, upwards, downwards, and horizontally :
they run upon the earth over all sorts of surfaces, on firm
ground, over quagmire, or on long grass ; and some of them,
aided by the action of their wings, walk the waters, and row
themselves by their feet, while the weight of the body is sus-
pended on the air. They swim, they dive, they run along on
the bottom in the shallows, or through the water in the deeps ;
and, in short, they perform every species and almost every
rate of motion that can be imagined, from a velocity which
surpasses the hurricane in the utmost of its fury, to gentle
gliding, barely preceptible by the eye. All these varied mo-
tions are performed by means of organs adapted so much more
nicely to their purposes than even our finest mechanical con-
trivances, that they may be said to differ from these in kind
more than in degree ; and, though we may take many useful
hints from them, they are far above our imitation. That the
same bird should be able, without any change of substance,
and by the action of its mechanical structure alone, to ascend
and descend at pleasure, either in air or in water, is in itself a
subject well worthy of the most profound investigation.

Nor are the uses of the birds, not merely in wild nature but
in conjunction with man as he cultivates the garden and the
field, less worthy of being observed and admired. We, in our
ignorance, often regard them as pests, and as such destroy
them in the most assidious manner, deeming every feathered
creature which we deprive of life as so much certainly added to
the produce of our horticulture and our farming ; but we little
know, while we are acting thus, that we are sacrificing the
guardians of our vegetable wealth, and giving protection and
scope to its destroyers. The whole of nature is so replenished
with the germs of small life, in a condition ready to be deve-
loped the instant that the state of heat and moisture, accords
with their developement, that a means for preventing their
extraordinary increase, more efficient both in itself and in its
application than any thing of human contrivance, is absolutely

INTRODUCTION. 01

requisite, in order to preserve that relative balance which is
essential for preserving the system of nature, and which no
part of that system is without.

Every bud, every crevice in bark, very many roots, all the
pools and slow streams, and all animal and vegetable matters
in a state of decay, are full of the rudiments of small animals
in some state or other, and those rudiments are awakened so
easily, and by causes so little open to common observation,
that, if there were not some counteracting power, our gardens
might, in the course of a single season, be left without a blos-
som, our forests without a leaf, and our fields without a blade
of grass, a spike of corn, or an esculent root. If this once
took place, vegetation would be gone, save the poisonous
fungi which might be nourished by the remains of the de-
stroyers.

We have partial experience of this almost every season.
When the wind of the early year is soft, and the showers are
genial, the leaves and the blossoms are perfect in their forms,
and rich in their colours ; they are also cool in their tempe-
rature, and their sap is astringent. If this state of things
continues, the year is one of abundance ; but if, in the midst
of the verdure, the east wind should dry the surface of the
leaves, and the unclouded sun, co-operating with the wind,
at the same time raise them to a certain temperature, the juice
which is in them would become saccharine, as it does in
ripening fruits ; and, as that is the proper food of the larvae,
or caterpillars, of insects, these would appear in myriads, as if
they came by magic, or rode on the wings of the destroying
wind. Those reverses are part of the system of nature's
economy, and inseparable from a climate so variable, and by
that means, so favourable to continual cultivation as ours ;
and they produce the most serious effects when they come
upon the vegetable tribes in the most active and vigorous
growth. Nor is there any season during which they would
not destroy the produce of the gardens and orchards, and
greatly diminish that of the fields, were it not for the birds.

Almost all birds feed upon insects, molluscous animals,
b 2

6

INTRODUCTION.

such as snails and slugs,) and worms, though many have re-
course to otber food, particularly at certain seasons ; and
many retire from Britain when their favourite food becomes
scarce. But even those birds which feed upon the smaller
seeds are of service ; and the flocks which throng to the corn-
fields and pastures during the winter, pick up the seeds of
various plants, which, if allowed to remain, would spring up
during the following season, and choke the more valuable
species.

The organs by which the various races of birds get at that
species of food which is best suited to their natures are
admirably suited to the functions which they perform. If the
bird is to procure the larvae from the earth, as the rooks do
in clearing the land of those of cockchaifers and other insect
pests, the bill is formed like a sort of mattock, for digging into
the soil; if the food be soft insects and their caterpillars, the
bill is soft and weak ; if seeds are part of the food, the bill is
of stronger form and firmer texture, in order that it may clear
the kernels of the seeds from their exterior husks, which are
either indigestible or afford very little nourishment ; if the
food is more strongly enclosed, as when it is the kernel of a
nut, or some insect or larva which burrows under the bark or
in the decaying wood of trees, then the bill is a chisel, an awl,
or a pair of pincers, or forceps, according to circumstances,
all of which are worthy of observation, not only as distin-
guishing characters of the birds, but as important facts in the
general economy of nature. Indeed, the various organs with
which birds are provided for arriving at the places where
their food is, for seizing it when they are there, and for
fitting it for being converted to the purpose of nourishment
after it is seized, are so varied and so curious, that it is
impossible to enumerate them in any other way than by
reference to the individual species.

INTRODUCTION.

PARTS OF A BIRD.

The Roller,

The popular study of birds being properly that of them
when living and in a state of nature or undomesticated by
man, the external parts only are those which chiefly interest
the ordinary observer. The common parts of a bird, with
their names, are so familiar to every body, that they require
no explanation ; but there are a few, upon the variations of
which the distinguishing of one bird from another so much
depends, that it may be necessary very briefly to glance at
them, referring to the systematic works for more minute
particulars.

8 INTRODUCTION.

The cut at the head of this section represents a bird which
is so rarely seen in this country, that it hardly deserves to be
considered as a British bird ; but, as it is one in which the
different feathers are very distinct, it answers better for an
index to the more remarkable parts than most birds with
which we are more familiar. Of course it is possible to re-
present only half the surface of a bird by any one figure, and
as the back is the most interesting part, and the one most
generally seen, it is given in preference.

1 . Is the ear covert, which consists of certain soft feathers
that cover the external organ of hearing. They vary con-
siderably in birds of different species, and on that account
they are of considerable use as means of distinction.

2. The scajmlars, or feathers which cover the shoulders
and shoulder bones, and the places where the humeri, or first
bones of the wings, answering to the bones of the human
arm above the elbow, are articulated. They unite without
much distinction with the common feathers of the back, ■, and
along with those of the wings and the sides. The scapular
feathers serve only as clothing to the parts which they cover,
but they form a thick and comparatively a downy covering,
which, while it admits of easy motion, preserves the important
joints which it covers from the variations of the weather.

3. The bastard wing. This consists of a greater or smaller
number of feathers, bearing some resemblance to the quills
of the true wing. They grow from a httle bone, which is
united to the third or wrist joint of the wing ; and they and
tbe bones by which they are supported, are generally strong,
in proportion to the power of flight in the bird. Indeed,
there is generally a development of all that part of the wing
which corresponds to the hand, proportional to the power of
flying. Thus, in the wing of the jer-falcon, which may be
considered as being the bird of finest and most graceful
flight, the thumb consists of two distinct bones, and even a
marking, as if the last were two united ; and the four fingers
may be traced, the first in a long bone, the second in a small
one, and the third and fourth in two ribs united by a very

INTRODUCTION. <J

thin plate of bone. The use of the bastard wing is not very
well known, because the action of the different parts of the
wing, during flight, is not easily observed, but it is probable
that it prevents the wing from turning upwards, and even
gives the point of it a downward motion, in the contrary
direction to that in which the whole wing is moved, and thus
propels it forwards.

4. The lesser wing- coverts. These are the first parts of the
plumage of the wings which, in all birds, take the form of
definite and firm feathers. There are generally several rows
of them ; and there are under-coverts, which answer to them,
and line the under or inner sides of the wings, but these are
more slender and downy in their consistence, and, generally
speaking, they have less colour.

o. The greater wing-coverts. These lie under the lesser
ones, and are still larger and stronger, stretching a consider-
able way over the quills or flying feathers, and being supports
to these for a greater part of their length than the lesser
coverts. They are also much stronger in proportion to the
coverts which answer to them on the under sides of the
wings.

6. The primaries, or principal quills. These form the ter-
mination of the wing, and are the strongest feathers on the
bird. They rise from the hand, or that portion of the wing
which is below the wrist joint, and which, though it some-
times contains three distinct bones in its length, is frequently
called the first (or third) bone of the wing. These feathers
are numbered in order ; the outer one, or that which is fore-
most in the expanded or lowest in the closed wing, is the first.
Considerable differences in the form of wings arise from the
various lengths of the feathers ; and these are accompanied
by corresponding variations in the style of flight. If the first
or second of these feathers be the longest in the wing (and
when the second is longest the first comes underneath and
supports it) the bird can turn in the air with greater case than
with any other form of wing. Birds which hawk flying, or
catch their prey while on the wing, whether they catch other

10 INTRODUCTION.

birds as the falcons, or insects as the swallows, have their
wings of this construction. The pigeons, which are also birds
of excellent wing, have the second feather longest ; but the
lapwing, which is remarkable for the variety of its motions in
the air, has the longest feather farther into the wing.

7. The secondaries, or second quills of the wings. They
arise from that part of the wing which is commonly called
the second bone, and which answers to the fore arm in man.
They arise from it toward the wrist joint, and admit of a
folding of the wing between them and the primaries when
the wing is closed. When the wing is open, they sometimes
appear a continuation of the same curve with the primaries,
and at other times they form a distinct curve of their own.

8. The tertiaries, or third quills of the wings. They arise
chiefly from the same bones as the secondaries, but nearer to
the elbow joint. In some birds, especially those which are
in the habit of running very swiftly with the wings partially
opened, the tertiaries are often so long and come so to a point,
that the bird appears as if it had four wings, or rather had a
double wing on each side. This form of wing answers some
important purposes in their economy, which can be more
satisfactorily noticed in the particular accounts of those birds
in which it is found.

From the manner in which the several coverts support each
other and the quills, the wing is a finer combination of light-
ness, strength, elasticity, and stiffness, than could be produced
by any other means. The different coverts support each other,
and admit of motion upon each other, not unlike that which
takes place in a coach spring, which is about the best of our
mechanical contrivances for rendering motion smooth and
free from jolts, at the same time that the compound spring
is much less liable to be broken than if it were formed of a
single piece, containing the same quantity of metal.

9. The rump feathers and upper tail coverts. The first of
these are a continuation of the covering of the back ; and the
second support the tail feathers on the upper side, and are
strong in proportion as these are adapted for action in flying.

INTRODUCTION. 11

In birds which use the tail as the means of support in fixing
themselves upon upright surfaces, as is the case in the wood-
peckers, the upper tail coverts are very strong and close, and
so thick in their array, as to give that organ the same stiffness
as a powerful wing. In those birds also which have to take
wing from tbe water, and yet have not the feet webbed and
placed far backwards, so as to support them when rising, the
tail coverts are peculiary strong, in order to support the tail
feathers, which are the principal fulcra from which the bird
gets into the air.

10. The vent feathers, and under tail coverts, wbich cover
the hinder part of the bird ; and, in those birds in which the
tail feathers are long and stiff and much used in the act of
flying, support the under side of these feathers, in the same
manner as the under coverts support the quills of the wings.
In those birds which have a habit of flirting up the tail, the
under coverts are longer and stronger than in those which
have no such habit.

The tail feathers require no reference. The vary much in
their numbers and length, and also in the form of their ter-
minations, and the motions which the bird can communicate
to them. In some birds the whole, or at least great part,
of those feathers appear to be merely ornamental, which of
course means nothing more than that their uses have not
been observed. In general, however, they act both as a
rudder in flying, and as a means of directing the motion
upwards or downwards. Analogy would indeed lead us to
suppose that their chief use is in the upward and downward
motion, because their greatest surface is generally horizontal.
That analogy is further confirmed by the fact, that many of
the low-flying birds have the breadth of the closed tail in the
vertical plane, though these also can, in general, spread it out
like a fan when they fly.

The other feathers arc to be considered rather as the cloth-
ing of the bird than as active instruments in its flight, or as
auxiliaries in its motions upon the land or the water. But
still they are not less worthy of notice, both in the distin-

12 INTRODUCTION.

guishing of one bird from another, and in tracing how well
all the parts of birds are adapted to their general habits and
their haunts. These ordinary feathers are imbricated, that is,
they are placed one over the edges of two, as sl?tes or plain
tiles are in a covering of a roof. By means of .his arrange-
ment, all the parts of the bird are equally feathered, and so
they are equally proof to the action of the atmosphere. The
lines in which the several rows of feathers are placed form
very curious curves, and their shafts diverge or converge so
naturally, and with so perfect agreement to the surfaces which
they cover, that no line of separation can be traced.

The feathers of birds, the coverings of the featherless parts,
and even the beaks and claws, are all, chemically speaking,
formed of nearly the same materials, and nearly the same with
the hair and cuticle of all animals, and even with the epider-
mis which covers living shells. This material is coagulated
albumen, or nearly the same substance as white of egg when
consolidated by heat, in which state it better resists the action
of water than almost any other flexible substance. This sub-
stance is, especially in the upper or more coloured and glossy
parts of the feathers, combined with oils and metallic sub-
stances in very minute portions ; but in the down and the
light-coloured feathers it is nearly pure.

The under part of the clothing feathers, and also a small
portion of almost all feathers near the tube or barrel, consists
of down, but the exposed surfaces even of the softest feathers
are smoothed, so as to throw off the water. This is the case
even in those water birds which pass the greater part of their
time with the under part of the body immersed in water. On
them, the down is abundant in proportion as the habits of the
birds expose them to cold, and the external surface is water-
proof from its glossy texture, and (possibly?) also from the oil
with which the bird anoints it by means of its bill : but, in all
birds, there is an external surface, adapted to prevent decom-
position ; and an inner downy matter, as a protection against
changes of temperature. The down is partly on the root-ends
of the feathers, and partly on the skin in the intervals between

INTRODUCTION. 13

them, but the material is in all cases substantially the same ;
the difference is in the form or in the colour, which generally
approaches nearer to white in the down than in the feathers.
When the bird remains all the year round in situations
where there are great differences in the heat of the seasons,
the down increases in quantity during winter ; and when
birds of a warmer climate are domesticated in a colder one,
they become more downy. The form which the down as-
sumes is often characteristic of the habits of the bird. In
the ostrich there is none ; in some birds it is a mere tuft at
the origin of the webs, in others it is a second feather ori-
ginating there ; and there are all the intermediate states in
different birds, and very considerable seasonal differences in
the same bird.

Different birds find their food in different states, both of
the atmosphere and the waters ; and very beautiful correspond-
ing differences in their plumage may be traced. The plumage
upon the raven, which braves the storm in the wilds, is very
different from that of the gallinaceous or poultry races
which a slight shower drives to their cover or their perch ; and
ducks and other water birds, which seek their food peaceably
on the banks or by swimming in the shallow waters, have
very different plumage from those which hawk about on the
wing in order to catch what the troubled sea brings to the
surface. If the habit of the bird be to steal softly on its
prey, then the feathers are fined off to exceedingly delicate
points, so that it can glide silently through the air.

MOULT AND MIGRATION.

The feathers of birds, while they remain perfect and firm
in their connection, are really parts of a living animal, and
as such they must be regarded as organs of feeling. They do
not probably in themselves feel pain, but they are in intimate
connection with parts which do. The epidermis in no animal
appears to feel pain, even in those parts of the animal which
are regarded as being more immediately the organs of sensa-

VOL. I. C

14 INTRODUCTION.

tion ; but they very speedily transmit impressions to the parts
that do feel. It is the same with hair, and with all the
appendages of the cuticle, such as nails, claws, hoofs, and
horns. The horse feels his footsteps in the dark, even when
his hoofs are shod with iron ; and he feels not only the touch
of a wall, a gate, or any other obstacle, but he feels the dif-
ference which such objects cause in the resistance of the air,
and that enables him to avoid touching them.

The horse feels his way by means of the hair ; and birds
must in like manner often feel their way by their feathers.
Such must be habitually the case with owls and other nocturnal
birds, which can fly darkling through thick woods and other
intricate places ; and though the owls have the eyes directed
forwards, and not laterally, as many other birds have, they
are by that means less capacitated for avoiding by sight,
even admitting that they can see with the smallest possible
portion of light, those obstacles which it would be the most
awkward to encounter — those of course which would injure,
entangle, or impede their wings. If one wing were to come
in contact with a tree, or even with a leaf, the bird would be
upset, as certainly as a man is when, in walking heedlessly,
he places one foot over a pit or ditch, while the other is on
the ground.

The necessity of feeling with the feathers, is not confined
to nocturnal birds, but is essentia! to the safety of all the
winged tribes ; the feathers must therefore always be in a
state of great perfection. Now, though the shafts of many
feathers, and the larger ribs of the webs or vanes of not a
few are of considerable substance and strength, all feathers
are subdivided till the ultimate ramifications are exceedingly
minute. Consecpiently they produce very large surfaces to
the air in proportion to the quantities of matter they contain.
Feathers are thus very much exposed to atmospheric action,
which dries them and renders them unfit for the functions
that are required of them. They are also apt to be broken
or torn, in the flights, the wars, and the labours of their
owners. They are therefore periodically shed and repro-

INTRODUCTION. 15

duced ; and the reproduction usually takes place in such a
way, as that the bird shall be in best feather at the very time
■when it has the greatest labour to perforin.

The resident native birds of countries where the heat of the
year is comparatively uniform, moult gradually ; and the
same may be said of those that have their haunts in regions
that are always cold, and where the food is comparatively
limited. Such birds are seldom so denuded of feathers as to
be unfit for pretty vigorous flight. Birds which migrate from
region to region, moult more periodically ; and in places where
the migration is extensive, it will perhaps be found, upon
further examination that the bird moults twice in the year :
though in most instances the spring moult is less general than
the autumnal one, being, in many birds, the males especially,
rather a change of colour than of all the feathers. Birds
which migrate polarly, or for the purpose of breeding, gene-
rally receive their nuptial colours, if not their plumage, after
they arrive ; but when they migrate equatorially, they change
their plumage before they begin' their journey.

The vernal change in the plumage of birds is owing to the
same cause as the change of their voices from the chirp or cry
to song ; and in a state of nature the two cease together.
This change bears some analogy to the blossoming of plants,
while the autumnal moult more resembles the fall of the leaf.

That the migration depends much upon the state of th
atmosphere is proved by the fact that the number is aug-
mented with an augmentation of that state which we suppose
makes them leave the country from which they came. Our
winter migrants are always most numerous when the season
is most severe in the countries from which they come : and
there are some rare species which reach our shores only in
very severe winters.

With our summer migrants the state of things is just the
reverse. Warm weather in the places whence they come sends
them to us sooner and in greater numbers ; and cold weather in
the autumn makes them sooner quit our shores. A very mild
year will, on the other hand, induce some stragglers to remain

16 INTRODUCTION.

the whole winter. The differences between the appearance
and habits of these and those of their brethren that have
performed the two migratory voyages in the interim, are
well worthy of attention.

The long flights which the migratory birds take, are of
course much affected by the winds ; and it is worthy of
notice, that at the season when our birds are migrating north-
ward, south winds are most prevalent, and north winds are
most prevalent about the time that they are coming south-
ward. But though these are the predominating winds, they
are not the only ones ; for the times of the migration of birds,
both the spring and the autumn, are times when the weather
is unsettled, and severe gales often blow from the cross
points. These winds cause the numbers and also the species
of migratory birds to vary in different seasons. An easterly
wind, at either season, will cause the birds to be more nume-
rous, and also bring stragglers of those which, though com-
mon on the continent, do not regularly visit Britain. A west
wind will, on tbe other hand, lessen the number, and keep
away the stragglers. We have not so many summer strag-
glers on the west side of the island as we have on the east,
when the wind is from the west during the time of migration,
because the Atlantic is wider than the mere lee way which any
land bird, guided by meridional impulses, is likely to make.
In the autumn the numbers that straggle from that side are
greater, because the absolute distance in latitude is less to-
ward the north ; but the stragglers then are principally rare
birds, and they seldom come farther than the western coast.
Upon examining the position of Britain on the map, it will be
apparent that the summer migrants must be more abundant
in the south-east of England than in any other part of the
country, while winter migrants will be the least abundant
there. Throughout the whole island, the summer birds may
be looked for in the greatest abundance near the lines of
shore, or of mountain ridge, that are inclined to the south ;
and the winter birds near those lines which are inclined to
the north. Thus, on the east coast of England there are more

INTRODUCTION. 17

summer birds in proportion from Dover to the Spurn, and
more winter birds in proportion from the Spurn to the
Tweed. In Scotland, Fife, Forfar, and Kincardine have more
summer birds in proportion than the counties along the
southern shores of the Moray frith, or even than the Lo-
thians ; but the counties on the Moray frith and Aberdeen-
shire have probably a greater proportion of winter birds. The
migration of birds, not only with regard to its general nature,
but as it is connected with the different states of the weather
in different seasons, is a subject well worthy even of popular
observation, not only as part of the natural history of birds,
but as capable of throwing much light upon that subject of
universal interest and speculation — the weather.

POPULAR DISTINCTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS.

Colour, size, and shape, are the most simple and obvious
appearances by which to know one bird from another. Colour
is, however, rather a variable character ; and though there
never can be any doubt that two birds, of which the colours
are of the same tints and marked in the same manner, belong
to the same species, and may be called by the same name, yet
the colour of all birds changes a little with differences of age,
and that of very many birds changes at different seasons.
The immature bird is very generally differently coloured from
the mature one, and one in the full vigour of life from
one which is beginning to decay. There is no positive law
for these differences, but the young bird is in general, though
not always, more mottled than the mature one ; and both in
the young and the decaying bird, the tints are less perfect and
the gloss is inferior. With very few exceptions, the male bird
has the finest plumage ; but the young male is not easily dis-
tinguished from the young female : and in the mature bird the
distinguishing colours, and also the peculiar and often supple-
mental feathers in which those colours appear, are most con-
spicuous about the pairing time. That is, indeed, the very best
time for studying birds, as they are then seen and heard to the

c 2

18

INTRODUCTION.

greatest advantage ; while the general activity and freshness
of the season have the charm of novelty, heightened by the re-
membered contrast of the gloomy winter, which is just over.
The popular descriptions of birds are perhaps, however, too
much dependant on colour, and too little on the size, shape,
and especially on the structure and habits of the birds.

Size is, in so far, a very good means of distinction ; but,
m many instances, it is more vague than even colour. Many
of the small birds which frequent the gardens and shrubberies,
and are in consequence the most convenient for general ob-
servation and study, are so nearly equal in size, that it is
not easy to say which is the largest, and which the least,
unless when the different ones are seen at the same time and
nearly at the same distance.

Shape, or form, is a good means of distinction, because
there is a resemblance in form among all the birds that have
tne same general habits, even though they differ ever so much
in colour and size ; and though there are variations in the
details (as no two species of birds have exactly the same
habits), yet the similarity in form runs through all the parts
of the bird. Birds have, however, so much power over their
attitudes, and the outlines of their form change so much with
the changes of these, aud are, taken as a whole, so different in
the living and the dead bird, that the characters are much
more easily understood than expressed. It would be very dif-
ficult to find names for all the curves that are found in the
outlines of birds, and still more to point out the differences.
It may be observed, however, that the bodies (the necks,
heads, and feet vary to suit other purposes) of fast-flying birds
are like fast-sailing vessels, compact and round forwards, and
diminished to the hinder extremity. This is so remarkable in
the hawk and swallow tribes, that one who has seen any one
species on the wing, can know at first sight any other of the
tribe, whatever may be the species. It is true that there is
the style of flying, or the attitude in repose, and also the
haunt of the bird, if in a state of nature, but still the form is
an essential element in judging.

INTRODUCTION. 19

The haunts and habits of birds arc certainly the best
means of distinction ; but the perfect or detailed knowledge
of them requires an acquaintance with the bird, which in-
cludes the whole of its natural history as a species, and there-
fore a few of the more remarkable haunts and habits are
taken as indices to the rest, — or general heads, under which
the others may be arranged as they are found out.

Of haunts, land and water are the most obvious distinc-
tions. Land birds, with few exceptions, can walk and fly, but
they cannot swim. Water birds can, in general, walk and
fly and swim, but in many instances they are bad walkers.
The bird is always best fitted for the performance of that kind
of motion which it most habitually performs ; and therefore
when we have seen in one bird the organization and the
haunt, we may, from similar organization in another bird,
infer that the haunt is similar ; and the same inference may
be made from the organization to the habit. These inferences
are, however, merely general.

Birds are also distinguished by the times of their appear-
ance. Those which remain in the same country all the year
round are resident birds ; those which come in the spring and
depart in the autumn are summer visitants; those which come
in the autumn and depart in the spring are ivinter visitants ;
those which do not come every season are occasional visitants ;
and those that are seen rarely, only one now and then, are
accidental visitants, or stragglers. The resident birds and
summer visitants may both be considered as natives ; because,
although visitants that are not hatched in the country may
come with those that are, there are always more of every
species hatched in the country than can be expected to live
and return to it. The winter visitants and stragglers are not
natives ; and the occasional summer visitants are only par-
tially so. It is common, however, to call every bird that is
found in Britain, without having been brought there by arti-
ficial means, a British bird, and to distinguish them as com-
mon or rare in their occurrence in respect both of place and
of time.

20 INTRODUCTION.

The finding of food for themselves and their young is the
grand object to which all the organizations and the habits of
birds tend, when we consider them merely in themselves, and
without any reference to the rest of nature ; and therefore
these objects must be kept in view in the study of the birds,
and also in the arrangement of them. But almost all birds
can subsist on different kinds of food, and some have a very
great range, so that it becomes necessary to consider the
place where the food is found as well as the food itself, before
the general character and habits of the bird can be deter-
mined. The bill, the feet, the wings, and (though in a less
degree) the tail, are the parts of the bird most essential to be
studied for that purpose ; but to these we must also add, the
strength and the spirit of the bird. The kestrel, for instance,
is a larger, and to common observation a stronger bird than
either the merlin or the sparrow-hawk, and it does not ap-
pear to be much inferior in beak and claws, yet the kestrel
follows humbler game than these do.

Having made these few general observations, we shall pro-
ceed to give short notices of the different British birds, and
the places where and the times when they are most likely to
be found, beginning with the land birds, as those with which
the majority of people are most familiar.

DISTRIBUTION AND NUMBERS OF BRITISH BIRDS.

The distribution and even the numbers of the feathered tribes
which inhabit the British islands, or resort to them periodi-
cally to breed in the summer, or to avoid more inclement
skies in the winter, arc points upon which no precise state-
ment can be made ; because we are ignorant of the habits of
many of the species that make their appearance occasionally,
and very recent experience shows that some which were
formerly considered as stragglers remain in the country the
whole year round, though they are generally concealed both
by their habits and by the nature of the places in which, espe-
cially in the breeding season, they take up their abodes. In
round numbers, however, there may be stated to be between
two hundred and ninety, and three hundred different species of
British birds, that is, of birds which by natural means have
at some time or other found their way into the country and
been taken alive or killed ; and this exclusive of the species
that have been imported, or the varieties into which those
species have been broken by those differences of treatment of
which unfortunately no particular note has been taken, but
which, if that had been judiciously done, would have very
much assisted in determining how far climate and food in-
fluence the characters of birds in the wild state.

The distribution of the feathered tribes is as indeterminate
as the numbers ; for though there no doubt are birds which
belong to certain localities and not to others, some regulated by
climate, others by situation, some apparently by drought, others
by humidity, some by the covert of woods or other tall vege-
tation, and some by open places and naked ground; yet the
lines of demarcation between the localities of those birds are
not drawn with anything like precision, so that one species

22 DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS.

is often found, at least seasonally, upon those grounds which
we would be apt to suppose belonged exclusively to another.

The common distinction of land birds and water birds is,
indeed, a very imperfect and unsatisfactory one. All birds
deposit their eggs on land, and therefore, if we consider only
the places of their nativity, they would all deserve the name
of land birds ; and if we attend to the places in which they
seek their food, these are so varied, and often so varying in
the individual, that they cannot be made the foundation of
any general arrangement, thus we are under the necessity of
considering the haunt along with the genus, or, in many
instances, along with the species.

The proper element of all birds is the air ; and as nearly all
birds, and certainly all British birds, can transport themselves
from place to place by means of that element, they are enabled
to shift their localities with changes of seasons, or of the cir-
cumstances of different places, so as to be always in that part
of the country which (is the best adapted to their habits.
Wherever there is food for a bird to be found, a bird comes to
consume that food ; and as most of them can make their
escape into the air, they can venture to seek their food more
in the light of day, and in the presence of man, than the wild
quadrupeds.

Birds are thus distributed from the verge of perpetual snow
on the mountain top, to almost the farthest range at sea ;
from the depth of the forest to the bleak and treeless hill ;
from the marsh to the arid waste ; and, in short, in all the
extremes of surface or of climate which the country presents.
Also, when places change with the seasons, from one cha-
racter of surface to another, the birds change their habita-
tions ; and if the season does not leave within the country any
place adapted for them, they take wing, and emigrate to
another ; and the extent to which they perform those changes
is so varied, that it cannot be reduced to any general law ;
therefore the natural history of birds becomes necessarily a
matter of detail, except in so far as it derives some little assist-
ance from the arrangement of them into orders and genera.

23

ORDER I.

GALLINIM

GALLINACEOUS BIRDS, OR POULTRY.

Birds of this order are the most useful to man as food, and
they have been longest and most completely domesticated,
though none of the domesticated species are originally British
birds. There are five of them ; the common fowl, originally
from Asia, but the particular locality undetermined, the small
variety improperly called the Bantam, is of more recent im-
portation, and from Japan ; the peacock, also from Asia ; the
guinea-hen from Africa ; the turkey, from America ; and the
pheasants, from Asia, — the common ones from the western
parts of that continent, and those of finer plumage from
China. It is only those which are in a state of complete
domestication that are called poultry, the common name of
the wild ones is game.

general characters of the gallinid.e.

The body bulky, the head small, and the legs so placed as
to balance the body, and leave the head free. Three toes
before, united by a membrane at their bases, and one behind
articulated on the tarsus, or foot-bone (often called the leg),
above the articulation of the front toes ; so that in walking,
which is the principal motion of the order, as they feed on
the ground, the front toes are chiefly used. Claws hollowed on
their under sides, and adapted for scraping in the soil. The
tarsi of some of the males armed with a horny spur, which

24 GALLINID^.

they use in their combats of gallantly. Legs and tarsi strong,
and of moderate length, and the former more muscular than
in birds which are more on the wing.

Bill rather short, but strong and convex, the upper man-
dible bent wholly or at the tip, and projecting over the under
one. Nostrils lateral, protected by a scale, and sometimes by
feathers, wings mostly short in proportion to the weight of
the body, and very concave on their under sides ; hence the
flight seems laborious and fluttering, and is performed with a
peculiar noise, arising from the rapid motion of the short and
hollow wings.

Tail consisting of from ten to eighteen feathers ; and in
the male birds often highly coloured, and with ornamental
feathers.

Food, very indiscriminate, — seeds, grains, berries, buds,
insects, and succulent vegetable substances and soft animal
ones of all kinds ; but varying of course with the haunts of
the different species.

Eggs, generally numerous, and much relished as food, as
is also the muscular fibre, which is sweeter and more whole-
some than that of any other order of birds. The young,
when they first appear, are covered with down, and they are
at once able to follow the parent birds, — some, as the common
field partridge, with a portion of the shell upon the body.

Their habits are, to seek their food generally, if not exclu-
sively, upon the ground ; to deposit their eggs there in very
rude nests, though some few nestle in trees or bushes ; to
feed in the morning, and again towards sunset : to scrape, and
roll and bathe their feathers in the dust, while basking in the
mid-clay sun ; and to squat upon the ground, or perch on
trees, during the night. Some of them pair for the season,
and the family keep together in a covey till next pairing time ;
others are polygamous, or have a number of females associat-
ing with one male ; the males, especially of the polygamous
kinds, fight courageously for and in defence of their females,
but, even in those which pair, the labours of incubation and of
defending the young devolve chiefly upon the female ; and she

grous. 25

often becomes so courageous in their defence, as to beat off
quadrupeds as well as birds of prey. The young are gathered
under her -wings for protection both from the inclemency of
the weather and from enemies.

Their haunts, in consequence of the wings being fitted for
short flights only, are better defined than those of many other
birds. They are, or at least were, the mountain top, the
mountain side, the mountain forest, the hill, the field, and tin?
margin of the waters ; but some of those which frequent the
latter places are of stronger wing than the others, bear some
resemblance to the running birds, and are migrants.

It does not appear that there are any migrant gallinidce
among British birds, though the quail has become so rare in
most localities, that it is usually considered as a migrant.
But tbey are said, on what may be reckoned good authority,
to be far from rare on the Surrey hills ; and individuals have
been found in that county, and also in Bedfordshire, in the
winter months, within these few years, and also a nest not five
miles from London bridge. Therefore, the native Gallinidse
of Britain are, Grous, Partridges, and Quails, and there are
no species entirely migrant.

GROUS.

There are two divisions of Grous, (Tetrao, Lin.) those
which have the tarsi and toes feathered, and those which
have the tarsi feathered, and the toes bare.

WITH THE TOES FEATHERED (Lagopus).

These are the mountaineers, and get the name of Lagopus,
or " feathery foot." Of them there are two species, ptarmi-
gan and red grous.

ptarmigan (Lagopus mutuo).

See Plate opposite, where the bird is represented in its
winter plumage, one sixth of the natural size, in lineal dimen-
sions. It may save trouble and prevent mistakes, to observe,

VOL. I. D

26 GALLINIDiE.

that the surface is as the square of the lineal dimensions ; thus,
the figure of the ptarmigan, being one sixth or two inches to
a foot, is one thirty-sixth of the natural surface of the bird ;
and if the bird is to be considered as a solid, the solidity will
be as the cube of the lineal dimensions, or the figure one two
hundred and sixteenth of the natural size. The proper under-
standing of the figure therefore is : the ptarmigan diminished
six times in line, thirty-six times in surface, and two hundred
and sixteen times in solidity or bulk.

"When, with weary steps, you have gained the summit of
one of our loftiest mountains, say of Ben-Nevis, which over-
looks the valley of Lochaber, the wide desolation of Rannoch
moor, and the glittering Atlantic, spotted with its isles and
islets ; or of Cairngorm, to look down on the one hand on the
dark pine forests of Strath-Spey, and on the other to look
onward to the summits of the neighbouring mountains, equally
sublime, and even more cliffy and desolate than that on which
you stand ; — when you have so ascended, (and if the day is
fine, wondered at so much of the earth being displayed at one
view,) remarking the silence and the apparent death which,
on a tranquil and sunny day especially, appear to reign there,
you begin at last to feel alone, severed entirely from the
world of society, of life, and of growth, and committed to the
solitude of the ancient hills and immeasurable sky. The snow
lies thick on the side of the summit, and even peers over the
top, defying the utmost efforts of solstitial heat. There is no
plant under your feet, save lichen on the rock, apparently as
hard and stony as that to which it adheres — it can hardly be
said to grow — and moss in some crevice, undistinguishable
from the dull and cold mud into which the storms of many
winters have abraded the granite. You are above the reach
of all sound from the inhabited parts of the country ; and as
one cannot think very long upon bare rocks and blue skies,
however sublime they may be in themselves, or however
novel the visit to them may be, there is a wish for some
living creature, to share even that unproductive scene along
with you.

■

PTARMIGAN. 2/

A few mottled pebbles, or at least what appear to be such,
each about twice the size of your hand, lie at some distance,
where the decomposed rock, and the rudiments of what may
be called the most elevated mountain vegetation, just begin
to ruffle the surface. By and by, a cloud shadows the sun,
the air blows chill as November, and a few drops fall, freezing
or melting in their descent, you cannot well tell which. The
mottled pebbles begin to move : you throw a stone at them,
to show that you can move pebbles as well as the mountain.
The stone hits beyond them ; they run toward your feet, as if
claiming your protection : they are birds, — ptarmigan, — the
uppermost tenants of the island, whom not even winds which
could uproot forests, and frosts which could all but conceal
mercury, can drive from these their mountain haunts. It
has often been observed, that of all the human inhabitants of
the earth, the mountaineer, be his mountain ever so barren,
is the last to quit ; and the same holds true of the mountain
bird.

The ptarmigan, though not only constantly resident in the
country but constantly resident in very nearly the same lo-
cality, is perhaps less seen than almost any of our permanent
birds. It is not nearly so often seen in the dead state as the
red grous, because it is much less abundant, and its flesh is
less juicy and of inferior flavour. It is, however, a very in-
teresting bird, both from the peculiarity of its haunts, and
from what may be called the simplicity of its habits. Ene-
mies, in its native regions, the ptarmigan has comparatively
few. It is above the range of the fox, the mountain cat, and
the martin ; and generally speaking, above that of the raven
and the eagle. It is true that the raven does prowl on bleak
elevations ; but even in summer, he seldom goes to the
highest mountain-tops ; and though he frequently may make
a meal of those ptarmigan which art- beaten to the earth by
mountain storms, and rolled down the slopes by mountain
floods, he does not commit so much positive havock among
ptarmigan or their nests, as he does among the red grous,
which inhabit lower down. The eagle, too, though her eyrie

28 GALLINID^E.

is in lofty and lonely situations, seldom has it in the cliffs of
the very highest mountains; and though she maybe occa-
sionally observed soaring far above the loftiest summits, the
most favourite and frequent scenes of her hunting, are the
valleys farther down, in which animal life is more abundant ;
so that the grand enemy of the ptarmigan, is the inclement
situation it inhabits.

And it is in every respect well adapted for that situation.
It is more compact in its form, and stands more firmly on its
le^s than any of the other gallinidee, and its general attitude
presents less resistance to the wind. Its haunts being in a
great measure free from vegetable cover, it does not require
that elevated position of the body, in looking around it, which
is found in those species that inhabit more fertile places. Its
feet and toes, down to the very claws, are so completely and
closely feathered, that they are proof to almost any degree of
cold ; and thus, as water does not stagnate on mountain tops,
the ptarmigan is always in a condition for using its feet.

The full grown ptarmigan is about fifteen inches in length,
and nearly two feet in the stretch of the wings. Its weight
is about a pound and a quarter. The bill is black and strong
(black bills and claws are always firmer than those of any
other colour,) and well adapted for crushing the hard berries,
heath-tops, mosses, lichens, and even, as some say, pebbles or
gravel, on which it feeds. We may observe, in passing, that
it is a general habit with the gallinidae to swallow gravel, more
especially when they are fed on dry and hard vegetable matter ;
but the proportion found in the stomach of the ptarmigan,
perhaps, exceeds that found in the stomach of any other bird.

The head of the ptarmigan appears stupid or simple, indeed
there is little character or expression in the heads of any of
the order. From the gape of the bill to the eyes a black
streak extends, which not only remains when the general
plumage changes to white, but at that season stretches along
the upper part of the ear coverts. That band is wanting in
the female. A naked scarlet spot over the eye, in the form of
a crescent, is another character of the male bird.

PTARMIGAN. 29

The summer plumage is very beautifully mottled with
brown, grey, and white ; the quills on the wings, of which
there are twenty-four, have black shafts, and pure white webs,
which give a curious streaky appearance to the extended wing.
Of the tail feathers, which are sixteen in number, seven on
each side, and the shafts of the two centre ones are black, the
webs of the latter two are mottled with brown and white.

As autumn advances, the plumage begins gradually to
change, the black and brown giving way first, and then the
grey, till by the time that the winter is confirmed, the whole
bird, with the exception of the eye streak in the male, the
outer tail feathers, and the shafts of the middle ones and the
quills, become snow white, Those changes do not take place
in consequence of a moult, or separation of the coloured fea-
thers to be replaced by white ones, but by an actual change
of colour in the feathers themselves. No doubt new feathers
grow towards the autumn, and some of the old ones are
thrown off; but there is no general moult in the feathers at
that season, and probably not at any season, the moult being
gradual, just as the shedding of leaves is upon some evergreen
trees. In winter, they congregate in family parties or packs,
live peaceably together, and shelter themselves in holes in the
earth or in the snow, through which last they contrive to
scrape down till they can subsist on the scanty vegetation
which it covers. At the commencement of summer, (for in
their haunts spring is a season of snows,) that is, usually
about the month of June, they disperse in pairs (they are
monogamous), a little further down the mountain than their
winter haunts, and there scrape a circular nest, in which the
eggs, varying from six to twelve, or fifteen, the average bcimz;
about ten, are deposited. The young are covered with down,
which bears some resemblance to the general tint of the
summer plumage, but is less mottled, and lighter in tin-
tints. The eggs also partake of an admixture of the same
colours.

That the autumnal change of colour in the ptarmigan, and
probably also the summer change, is a change in the same

d 2

30

GALLINID/E.

feathers, and not the effect of a moult, is proved by many cir-
cumstances. In the first place, the birds have more powerful
flight during the time that the change is taking place, than at
any other period of the year. In the second place, two moults
at least would be necessary ; for, with the exception of the
ear-coverts, the prevailing tint of the whole bird is grey in
autumn, and brown in summer. Thirdly, the decay first of
the brown, and then of the grey, is gradual over the whole
bird. Fourthly, the change to white is complete, in propor-
tion as the place and the season are cold.

The plumage of the ptarmigan is thus a sort of natural
thermometer ; and as the plumage becomes a bad conductor
of heat in proportion as it whitens, and the evaporating power
of the air diminishes with the cold, it is probable that the
birds may feel as warm while burrowing in the snow, as while
basking in the sun.

The ptarmigan being the bird which, both from its haunts
and its habits, is the most exposed to changes of temperature,
and the seasonal variations in its plumage being greater than
those in any other, we can in it see the causes of those more
partial variations, which, to a greater or less extent, take place
in all birds which remain the whole year in exposed situa-
tions in variable climates. The sun has less influence on the
winter plumage : there is less evaporation and waste from
that plumage ; and the bird fattens with less food than it re-
quires in summer.

It is no doubt in order to find more abundant food, and more
especially to find insects for the newly hatched young, that
the ptarmigan descends, and, contrary to the general habit of
birds, chooses during the breeding season a region having the
temperature a little higher. But their descent subjects them
to greater dangers than they meet with in their more elevated
regions ; and therefore the old birds, not only fight despe-
rately for their young while they remain on the slopes, but
lead them to the mountain tops as soon as they can follow.
While the female is sitting, and indeed as long as they remain
in the lower places, the male is constantly on the watch, and,

RED GROUS. 31

on the appearance of danger, gives his alarm call, which is
harsh, and has some resemblance to that of the missel thrush.
They do not give the alarm on the passage of a human being,
or that of a large quadruped; so that a person may search the
last short heath upon the mountains long enough without
finding any ptarmigan, even though there may be numbers
quite close to the path. But when they are in the exposed
situations, they are just as little anxious to hide themselves ;
and therefore, the sportsman who meets with a pack, may
shoot them one by one, without those that remain after each
discharge making any attempt to get out of the range of
the shot. Instances are mentioned of ptarmigans having bred
in confinement ; but they are certainly not, by their habits,
adapted for the purposes of domestication ; and the birds are
best studied in those lofty regions, of which they are a very
peculiar and very characteristic ornament.

Though the summits of the Grampians (the eastern part
of the great central ridge especially) be the principal places
of the British Islands where ptarmigan are met with, there
are a few, and but a very few, on the highest mouutains of
the north of England and of Wales ; but they are hardly
numerous enough in any place to render the shooting of
them a regular field sport. It has been mentioned, that for
table they are inferior to the red grous, but that applies
to birds which have wintered in the mountains, aud borne the
severe cold, and subsisted on the scanty food of that season.
The young, if taken in the autumn of the same year, are very
delicious.

A single specimen of another ptarmigan (tetrao rupestris of
authors), which was killed in Perthshire, is now in the collec-
tion of Lord Stanley.

RED GROUS, OR MOOR-FOWL (Lar/OpilS ScotlCUS.)

The red grous is a little larger than the ptarmigan, though
the difference, except in the length of the wings, is incon-

32 GALLINID^:.

siderable. Many of the habits are also the same in both birds ;
but the grous is always found farther down the hill than the
ptarmigan. The bill also is shorter, and less pointed; and
there is a white circle round the eyes, and a white spot at the
base of the lower mandible. The scarlet spot above the eye
is fringed along its upper side. The general colours of the
feathers are red, different shades of brown and black ; and the
quills of the wings and external feathers of the tail, which
both in number and arrangement, bear a considerable resem-
blance to those of the ptarmigan, are black. The attitude of
the body is also more erect ; and the male is larger and more
gay in plumage, as compared with the female. The cry of
the male bird is very different, being lively, and often repeated,
while that of the ptarmigan is a sort of croak.

To the lovers of wild scenery and daring excursions, the
haunts of the red grous are not nearly so interesting as those
of the mountain bird : they are the slopes and flats, where
the heath is of considerable length, which renders walking over
them very fatiguing. There is no danger, however, of being
lured into bogs and quagmires in the pursuit of grous, as the
birds always keep the firm ground. Their feet are not adapted
for soft places ; and as their security from birds of prey is in
the heather, and not on the wing, they do not rise, except at
the sight of men or quadrupeds, and not always then. As
they are much more generally distributed in Britain, and more
abundant than their upland neighbours, they encounter more
visitors, and are more on their guard; and even when the
pack are basking during their noontide repose in the sunny
days of autumn, a keen and experienced eye, or the assistance
of a pocket telescope, may observe the heads of one or more
of the males elevated just so much above the cover as to be
able to see in all directions. The visitor is soon espied, a
short call note is uttered, the heads disappear, and the whole
pack lie close till the stranger passes. So difficult is it to
raise them, especially when the season has been rather un-
favourable, and they are not in good feather, that one who

RED GROUS. 33

has little knowledge of the moors may wander for days, in the
places where they are most abundant, and not see a single
bird.

On the other hand, when the season is very early and
favourable, and the birds are strong on the wing, they rise
too readily, so that the sportsman cannot get within range of
them, though he sees them in considerable numbers. When
the young have acquired their full strength of feather, which
is commonly in November, but sooner or later in the month
according to the season, the families, or broods, which then
kept apart, mingle with each other, and flock in packs of two
or three families. They are then strong, and range to greater
distances, sometimes approaching the stubble-fields of the up-
land farms; but they are shy in proportion. But even then
they never remain long on the wing, but make their journeys
by short stages. Their flight is low and peculiar, and ap-
parently performed with considerable effort. It is well ex-
pressed in the lines of Burns : —

" The moorcock springs, on whirring wings,
Among the blooming heather."

"When the winter is very severe, they descend in consider-
able flocks, and many of them remain, and breed rather lower
down the next season ; but in these cases they rather avoid
the plantations ; and when they begin to pair, or rather to
fight for the females, for they are polygamous, which is as
early in the season as the snow will admit, the call of the male
bird, which is heard at a very early hour, and afterwards all
the night long, till the young are hatched, is always heard
from the open moor, and from the centres of those detached
tracks of heathy waste, which they continue to haunt in the
lowlands.

Their natural enemies, the birds of prey, —for, like the ptar-
migan, they have not much to dread from epiadrupeds, the
few of which that remain are in the brakes and copses, — have
been much thinned; the seasons have been rendered milder
in their haunts by the progress of cultivation in the neigh-

34 GALLINID-*:.

bouring parts ; the practice of burning tbe heather in close-
time, which, though forbidden, could not be altogether pre-
vented, has been given up ; and the throwing of much of the
country into sheep-walks, has given them more repose in the
central highlands, than when the lower glens abounded more
with cottages, and the upper with sheilings. But still, their
boundaries have been circumscribed, and the pasturage of
sheep tends both to destroy their favourite heatber, and to
disturb them in close-time ; so that with more preservation
than formerly, it is probable that the numbers are consider-
ably diminished. The heather is the only good cover that
they have, both from the weather and from enemies ; it de-
fends the nests and sitting-birds from the rain and the snow,
showers of which are not uncommon in the early part of the
season ; and its colour conceals them from their foes, the most
common, and therefore the most destructive of which is the
hooded crow, which is very common in the Scotch high-
lands. Ravens are by no means common, and even the car-
rion crow is not very abundant. It is possible that the
general introduction of sheep may have increased the number
of ravens.

The Welsh mountains, and the heights and moors in the
south of England, though bleak enough, are not well adapted
for grous, from the absence both of cover and food. The
hill bogs of Ireland are better ; but still they are too retentive
of moisture ; and the dry central mountains of Scotland are
therefore the proper places.

It is probable that the superior juiciness, and even flavour
of the red grous, is owing to their having a greater propor-
tion of insect food than the ptarmigan, and their not feeding
in so humid places as the black game ; for insectivorous birds
are always sweeter than those that live on vegetable sub-
stances, and both insects and vegetables are better flavoured
in dry places than in moist. The difference of flavour thus
arising is felt in differences of season, and appears in fishes as
well as in birds. Grous, partridges, and all the gallinaceous
birds, are finer flavoured in dry seasons than in rainy ones,

RED GROUS. 35

though they fly earlier, arc stronger on the wing, and there-
fore more difficult to be procured. They also continue longer
sweet when the weather is dry.

TOES BARE, OR NEARLY SO, BUT THE TARSI FEATHERED.

(Tetrao.)

Of these there used to be formerly two species — black
grous, black cock, or heath cock, and wood grous, cock of
the woods, or capercailzie; the third name being merely a cor-
ruption of the Gaelic for the second. The last is now extinct
in the British islands, and has been so for the last seventy
years, though still abundant on some parts of continental
Europe.

These birds inhabit still further down than the red grous,
the feathery or downy foot being always characteristic of a
mountaineer, or inhabitant of cold climates, and exposed to
the violence of the atmosphere. The Bantam fowls might be
considered as an exception, if they were not natives of a
country which sets all the distinctions both of animals and of
plants, that are attempted to be founded on differences of
latitude, at complete defiance. They are from Japan, and
many of the natural productions of Japan are tropical in their
appearance, and yet can bear the winter in cold latitudes
better than even the native productions of those latitudes ; we
must not, therefore, object to the rule, because one of the
Japanese gallinidae is an exception.

Both of these species have the feet adapted for perching ;
and though the toes are not feathered, they are margined or
fringed on the sides, so that they enable the birds to walk
more easily in soft and miry places, and also to retain their
perch better on trees than the mountain birds.

Their general habits also more nearly resemble those of
common domestic poultry. The males are polygamous, each
of them procuring, often by desperate combats, in the early
part of the season, a number of females, to whom they are
not so attentive, in the time of incubation, as the formerly

36 GALLINID^E.

noticed species. The male is also larger as compared with
the female, and has the plumage finer in proportion, and the
external feathers of the tail more developed ; and though, as
we descend the mountains, the birds become more shy of the
visits of man, they come more to his cultivated grounds and
his habitation. The only British species now is

black grous. (Tetrao tetrix.)

Black grous is a much larger bird than the former species,
though far inferior in size to the wood grous. It is nearly
two feet long, and three feet in the expanse of the wings ;
and the weight when the bird is in good condition, is from
three to four pounds : these are the proportions of the male
bird, the female being considerably smaller. As the tail is
more produced, the length is greater in proportion than in
the red grous ; but the forms of the birds have (the tails ex-
cepted) a considerable resemblance to each other, and the
weights bear the same proportion to the extent of the wings.

The bill is black, and so are the upper parts of the body
generally ; but they are finely varied with blue, purple, and
deep bronze-green reflections. The blue is brightest on the
nape of the neck, terminates at the scapulars, which are black
with purple, and appears again on the rump, passing into
purple, black, and a shade of green on the upper-tail coverts
and tail feathers. The lower part is pitch black without re-
flections, with the exception of the under-tail coverts, which
are pure white. A spot on the wrist-joint of the wing, the
tip of the bastard wing, the roots of the primary quills, with
the exception of the first four, and the tips of the secondaries,
are also white — the last marking the closed wing with an
oblique line of white, and the others with two white spots.
The toes and feathers on the tarsi, with the exception of a
portion at the upper joint, which is white, are dusky; which
is probably also the colour of the ear coverts and the necks of
the primaries. There are two quills more in the wings than
in the red grous, and sixteen feathers in the tail, the outer

BLACK GROUS. 37

ones much produced and recurved, so that the tail appears
forked. The naked spot over the eye, is bright scarlet, granu-
lated on its surface, and deeply fringed along the upper edge.

The female is about two-thirds of the weight of the male,
and the dimensions are nearly in the same proportion, only
the length is less, the tail not being so much produced. The
colour is brown, of various shades, darkest on the back, and
everywhere very beautifully mottled with black. The tail s
a little forked, but it is short, and the external feathers are
not recurved. The scarlet patch over the eye is in the female
a mere line.

These birds inhabit the lowest slopes of the hills, lonely
heaths, and the banks of marshes ; but they come upon the
stubble fields in winter, wdien these are near their haunts.
They also frequent sequestered woods and coppices, perching
on trees during the night ; and in the cold weather living
upon the buds of such trees as have them of considerable
size, such as the pines and wild alders. In autumn they feed
much upon wild berries, and the seeds of wood and marsh
plants, though they cannot swim, and do not fly or wade for
the latter.

During the latter part of autumn and the winter the males
live together in flocks, and in a state of the most perfect har-
mony ; but when the warmth of spring begins to be felt, and
theiv plumage, which had become rather dull during the
winter, begins to shine in all the beauty of its glosses, they
separate from each other, fight stoutly for their females, and
when each has obtained his number, scatter themselves over
the waste. These operations begin at different times, accord-
ing as the place and the season are more or less early ; but it
is with us seldom earlier than March, or later than April.

They are then on the alert by early dawn, crowing, making
a harsh and grating sound, like the whetting of iron with a
rough stone ; and as the day dawns, showing off the beauties
of their plumage in a great variety of attitudes and gestures.

This pugnacity of the males, in the cnrly part of the breed-

VOL. I. E

38 gallinidjE.

ing season, is common to all polygamous animals, whether
quadrupeds or birds ; and even among those that are not hos-
tile to each other, there is a tacit separation. The tendency
is a very essential one ; because, when they are occupied with
their young, they have less time for seeking their food, and
have the young either to feed in the nest, or lead to the pas-
tures. Hence each can the more easily provide for itself,
when the whole are distributed over the surface, in proportion
to its productiveness. The nest is always formed with care,
very nicely proportioned to the time that the young are to
use it as a habitation. It is a mere hatching place with gal-
linaceous birds, and therefore it is rude, and placed where the
female can easily find food during the time of incubation.
When the young have all come out of the shell, the female
leads them to new pastures, and returns no more to the nest ;
but gathers them under her wings in the first shelter that
presents itself, when the day becomes too dark for their feed-
ing. The number of eggs is less than that of either of the
former species, the average being about eight, though some-
times more, and often fewer, especially in a second brood,
after the first has been destroyed by any casualty. The fe-
male nestles on the ground, and never attempts to perch, till
the young be so far grown that they are able to perch along
with her ; and while they are immature, the male never quits
the neighbourhood, but acts as a sentinel, watchful for the
safety of all his families, but occasionally perching for that
purpose. If the male is killed in the early part of the season,
the females join the packs of those whose cry they can best
hear ; but if the nest of the female is destroyed, she only
shifts her ground, continuing in the pack of the same male.
The differences of sex appear in the young birds when they
are about half grown ; and by that time the males are gene-
rally beginning to flock together, until they are again sepa-
rated by the impulses of another year.

The black grous being a bird of lower situations than the
red, it is found in more places of the British islands, being

BLACK GROUS. 39

found wherever there are wilds of sufficient extent, with heath
or coppice, or tufts of grass and rushes, to afford cover ; but
it is not any where met with in such numbers as the red
grous are on the Scottish moors.

WITH THE TARSI NAKED.

There are two genera of the British gallinidse with the tarsi
naked of feathers, partridges {perdrix), and quails (coturnix),
the former resident birds, and the latter summer visitants,
though a few sometimes remain in certain warm situations,
near the shores of the Channel.

In the general form and attitudes of their bodies, and also
in the ground-colour of the greater part of their plumage, the
partridges and quails bear some resemblance to each other ;
and they also so far correspond in their haunts and habits, as
to form a division of gallinaceous birds different from those
that have been mentioned ; but still they are so different, that
the one can never be mistaken for the other. If we except
the pheasant, which, though abundant in many places, is an
imported bird, and which is the gallinaceous bird of woods,
coppices, and thick brakes, replacing in the lowlands the cock
of the woods which has become extinct in the highlands, the
partridges and quails inhabit next to the black grous. This
grous inhabits down to the verge of cultivation, and the par-
tridge takes up its abode within that verge, seeks its food
where man cultivates, and inhabits so near his dwelling, that
it borders closely upon the domesticated poultry, and some-
times mixes with them in their excursions. The quail seeks
its food in similar places, but it comes not quite so near the
habitations of man, is less generally distributed over the coun-
try, and remains only for a season.

The general characters are : the bill short, strong, naked at
the base, the upper mandible curved, and the point extending
downwards over the under one, well adapted for pecking in
the ground. The opening of the nostrils naked of feathers ;
but, as is the case in all birds that run among herbage, lateral,

40 GALLINIDiE.

and defended by a scale. The body compact, but fusiform, or
curved above, below, and laterally, tapering to both extremi-
ties, borne horizontally in running, and thus presenting the
least resistance to the air, and gliding in the easiest manner
through the herbage. Feet with three toes before, united by
membrane as far as the first joint ; the hind toe articulated
farther up the tarsus than in grous ; and the whole foot bet-
ter adapted for running upon soft ground. The tarsus with
tubercles in the partridge, and smooth in the quail. Tail
very short in both, somewhat square in the partridge, but
rounded in the quail, and containing four feathers fewer.
Wings different : those of the partridge concave and rounded,
with the fourth quill the longest ; more extended and pointed,
with tbe first feather longest, in the quail ; the one fitted for
short flights only, the other adapted for considerable distances.
The extent of the wings is double the length of the body in
the quail, and only one and a half times in the partridge.

partridge. (Perdrix.)

There are two British species of partridges, the common,
or ash-coloured (cinerea), and the Guernsey, or reddegged
{rufa) ; but the latter is not abundant in the isles in the
Channel, and it is rare on the mainland, yet it is said to be
increasing in Sussex and Suffolk.

COMMON PARTRIDGE.

The common partridge is so well known, that description is
hardly necessary. Bill and naked parts, with the exception
of the spot behind the eye, which is red, bluish grey. Throat,
cheeks, and over the eyes, reddish orange. Neck and breast
silver grey, with fine zigzag black lines. The same colour
continued to the flanks ; but the markings larger and brown.
A large reddish brown horse-shoe spot on the belly. The
scapulars and coverts have the shafts bright yellowish brown,
and the webs darker and mottled, but lighter at the edges,

y^Jfa/r r Jr,/.,,','/

COMMON PARTRIDGE. 41

which gives their feathers a very distinct and neat appear-
ance. The quills are greyish black, leaved with brown. The
back, rump, and middle feathers of the tail, are mottled with
black lines and spots, the outer feathers are the same brown
as the others, but without mottling. There are twenty-three
quills in the wings, the fifth the longest ; and sixteen feathers
in the tail, of nearly equal length. The female bird is smaller,
has the orange brown on the throat pale, the feathers on the
head edged with white, the belly spot less defined, and the
back more minutely mottled.

As might be expected in a bird, which, although not domes-
ticated, yet follows cultivation, and appears to depend upon
it, the partridge is more affected by local circumstances, than
those birds that avoid the neighbourhood of man. Where
cultivation is more successful, and the fields more productive,
partridges are most abundant, largest, and of the finest
plumage ; and the difference between those which are found
in the rich agricultural counties, and in the moors, is so
great, that the latter has sometimes been considered as a
distinct species, or at least a variety, under the name of the
moor partridge.

This is partly to be accounted for by the large broods
which partridges rear ; they are the most prolific of the wild
gallinidse, the eggs being often as many as twenty, and never
fewer than twelve. The nest is merely a hole scratched in
the dry mould, generally under the shelter of some bush or
tuft of grass ; and during the incubation, which lasts three
weeks, the female sits remarkably close, and not only does
not rise when her nest is approached, but is not easily driven
from it. During this period, and more especially towards the
close of it, the bird offers a bold resistance to winged foes,
and will drive off crows, magpies, and other plunderers of
nests. On the other hand, if quietly approached, and gently
handled, the bird and her eggs may be removed, and she will
continue to sit and hatch her brood in confinement, but de-
part with them to the fields as soon after as possible. This
is exactly the reverse of the domestic hen : she will often

je 2

42 gallinid^e.

retire to the coppice to perform her incubation, but she leads
her brood back to the farm-yard with an air of triumph, as
soon as they are able to follow her. They are monogamous.
The male partridge takes no part in the labour of incuba-
tion ; but, as is the case with all bircis that pair, he is attentive
to his mate, and joins with her in defending the brood ; he
also practises many arts to entice visitors away from the nest.
The young can leave the nest the instant that they break the
shell, and generally do it the same day. At that time their
legs are as strong in proportion to the weight of the body,
as in the mature bird, but the wings are barely developed.
There are few more interesting sights than a family of par-
tridges. The young feed on small insects, larvae, and insects'
eggs ; and the old ones lead them to the places where these
are deposited, and scrape away the mould. An ant-hill in
friable soil is a fat pasture, and myriads of the eggs and larvre
are eaten by the young partridges. In the northern parts of
the country, the large ant-hills which are in the scattered plan-
tations, more especially those of pines, attract the partridges
farther from the cultivated fields, than tbey are found in
places farther to the south ; and though those that are bred
there, are small or "hill partridges," they are superior in
flavour to the more bulky ones obtained on the rich lands. It
seems to be a law of nature, to which there are few excep-
tions, that the smaller any production runs, it is, if equally
perfect, always the most delicate. Hill mutton, hill grain,
and hill vegetables, are so many proofs, and hill partridges
are another.

Whether they are tending their young, or relieved of that,
and only mindful of their individual safety, the partridges
feed only in the morning and the evening. All the gallina-
ceous birds feed by sight only. If they have the sense of
smelling it is weak, and does not appear to assist much in
guiding them to their food ; and their bills are so hard, and
their feathers so close, that they can hardly be guided to the
place or the substance by any thing that we can call touch.
Hence they feed only in the daylight — in the morning and the

COMMON PARTRIDGE. 43

evening ; and they bask during the heat of the day, or roll
themselves in the dust to free their plumage from the nirmides
with which they are infested. When the brood is very young
they feed to a later period of the day, in order to seize the
eggs and larva) of the ants ; but when the young have begun
to eat grains and seeds, the morning's feeding is sooner over.
The night worms and other small animals, which are the food
of some of the grallidse, have mostly retired into the earth
before the partridges leave their "jugg,"or sleeping place,
in the centre of the field ; but there is a succession which
comes with the sun, and retires when that becomes strong,
returning again when the evening begins to cool, and the
shadow begins to lengthen ; and to keep down the redun-
dancy of these is the business of the partridges and their
congeners.

All birds that feed upon the ground, live almost exclusively
upon insects, (it is to be understood that the word insect is
used in a popular sense for all animals which are not birds,
quadrupeds, reptiles or fishes, and we shall use it in that
sense, in order to avoid a number of technical names which
we are not called on now to explain,) when they are young,
and at all periods of their lives prefer insects to any other
food. Hence, if we had a good account of the diurnal and
seasonal appearances of those insects, we should be in pos-
session of a key to very many of the habits of birds, which
would, in very many instances, lead us to invite that which
we banish, and cherish that which, in our ignorance, we are
zealous to destroy.

Among these, the partridge would, without doubt, be
found to hold a very conspicuous place. The partridge fol-
lows the march of cultivation ; it multiplies exceedingly ; and
no persecution can drive it into the wilderness. The covey
will rise, and wheel about, and alight, again and again ; but
thin them as you may by the gun, the remainder will continue
in the same turnip field, or on the same clover-matted stubble,
as pertinaciously as ever a mountain tribe of human beings
clung to then- fastnesses in a war of extirpation. Naturally

44 GALLINID.E.

speaking, the partridge is therefore part and parcel of our
agriculture ; and though the farmer may see it only as an
evil, in the portion of grain that it destroys, yet it must have
good in it, and that good must counterbalance the evil — must
be a positive surplus for the advantage of man. The weevils,
the cynips and the tipulce, come along with cultivated grain
and cultivated vegetables and roots, in countless myriads, to
consume those surplus seeds and grains which, if man did not
take them for his use, would choke all else and each other.
But as man takes the produce of the vegetables, the partridge
and the other birds which frequent the cultivated fields, come
and consume that which, but for them, would deprive man of
his produce, and do it in a way which he could not prevent,
or very materially check. It is true that, when the insects
have disappeared for the season, and those seeds which the
birds have been so instrumental in preserving are matured,
tbe birds take their share ; but, in justice, why should they
not ? — they are the preservers of the whole.

It is the same with the whole winged creation. The spar-
row does not follow man wherever he lives, and twitter around
the cottage for mere mischief ; neither do the birds of summer
come from a far country, and carol from the groves, or hunt
in the garden, as the enemies of man. Even in wild nature,
man has no enemy ; and that which invariably accompanies
improvement, is, we may rely upon it, necessary to improve-
ment. If we could reckon up how many caterpillars two
sparrows pick from the trees and buds in the course of rear-
ing one brood, we should deem the sparrow on the house-top
as much our servant, and as worthy of his little reward as
the domestic under the roof.

No doubt we should be impartial, for even the caterpillar
has its use, within certain limits ; and it is only within cer-
tain limits that any creature or thing is useful. Our art
in so far renders the labour of the bird less necessary than
the supply which its powers of increase can afford ; and
therefore, if the surplus is useful to us, we may freely
take and use it, When the birds of the season have

COMMON PARTRIDGE. 45

come to maturity, they are far more than the winter could
support. Many would, in consequence, die of starvation ;
therefore while they are in season, go by all means to the
field, iuhale the bracing air of autumn, to fortify yourself
against the cold of winter, and fire away. That is your
direct use in the partridge ; and though not half so important
as the indirect one which you do not see, still it is a delicious
use ; so take it, and enjoy it freely. But be a wise sportsman,
and do not exterminate : the farmer who eats the seed corn
gets no more crops. Be an honest sportsman, and " bide
your time." From the time that the coveys pack, and you
can with difficulty get within shot of them, to that when the
next brood are on the wing, the birds are doing you nothing
but good, and you can do them nothing but harm. Man
may not observe you, and you may evade the punishment of
those laws which, whether wisely or not, he has enacted ; but
do not on that account both injure and degrade yourself.
Take your use with knowledge, but be not an ignorant or a
wanton plunderer of that store, over which for the greatest
good of all, the eye of Omniscience keeps watch.

Children, unless they have been schooled in the vice of
mere hoarding, always break or pull to pieces those toys of
which they know not the use ; but they are just as happy,
nay, far happier, in preserving those of which the use is
known : and we may all derive an important lesson from
that. We are among the works of nature, what children
are in the toy-shop, only the things of which we know not
the use are more numerous in proportion. While ignorant,
we most destroy ; and we can destroy nothing that is natural
without injury to ourselves ; so that to use we must first
know, but to know is to enjoy. That which, if it remained,
would injure the rest is our legitimate portion ; and such is the
productiveness of nature, that it is in all cases not only suf-
ficient, but the maximum of what we can permanently obtain.

In the case of those birds which are desirable as food,
whether they reside with us always, as the partridge does, or
tarry only for a season, nature points out when our portion

46 GALLINID^E.

can be most safely and advantageously taken, with as much
certainty as it points out when the crop of the field may be
reaped, or the produce of the orchard gathered. The culm
and the twig bend to bring the ear and the apple within our
reach ; and the birds flock that we may use the net, and take
short and whirling flights, in order that we may use the gun.
They do so when they are in the very best season for our use,
and when the removal of the superabundance will tend most
to the preservation of that which is left. Tbey do not so at
other seasons ; and therefore to attack them then is much the
same in principle and in profit as it would be to pull the greeu
ears in the field, or the half-grown fruit in the garden.

Partridges begin to pair in February, about which time
there are often fierce combats between the males, obviously
for the purpose of dispersing the pairs which bave been con-
gregated during the winter. The eggs are not, in general,
dropped till toward the end of May ; and the young break
the shell about Midsummer. The time of dropping the eggs
is thus rather longer than that spent in incubation ; but
the times and the operations are both accelerated by heat and
drought, and both retarded by cold. The hill partridges in
the north are at least three weeks later than those of the rich
agricultural parts of the south.

Partridges are easily tamed, but do not breed in confine-
ment, though instances have been mentioned of females in
that state producing eggs. Addled eggs are, however, pro-
duced by many birds under circumstances where there is or
can be no progeny. In some places it is customary to collect
the eggs of partridges, hatch them under domestic hens, and
then turn the broods into preserves for the purpose of stock-
ing them. That method may in so far answer, and it is the
only one by which birds can be readily accumulated in places
where they are not native ; but in the case of partridges, it
is probable that the increase in the one place is not so great
as the decrease in the other. A stock may be good up to
a certain point, but an overstock must always be kept up at a
loss.

THE QUAIL. 47

GUERNSEY PARTRIDGE.

The Guernsey partridge is stouter, heavier, and longer in
the wing than the common partridge : it has also two quills
more on each wing, which mark it as a distinct species. Its
colour is more red than that of the common sort, and its
gait holder. It has heen introduced into many preserves,
from which pairs have escaped or heen driven ; so that it is
becoming gradually more abundant in the open fields of the
southern counties. It differs from the common grey partridge
in some of its habits, as well as in its appearance ; as for
instance, it sometimes perches on trees.

quail. (Cotarnix)

A figure of the common quail ( Coturnix vulgaris) will be
found in the plate facing page 26. It is there represented at
one third of the hneal dimensions, or half as much diminished
in line as the ptarmigan.

Though quails are now both local and rare as British birds,
yet it is probable that they are more numerous in some of
the southern counties than appears to common observation.
Their extreme closeness during the day, appears to be the
principal cause of this. They are best known to the night
poachers, who are well acquainted with their cries, and dex-
terous in catching them ; but, during the day, the birds are
as silent as they are still. Those which do migrate to Britain,
which are very few as compared with the continental migrants,
usually come about the end of April. Their long flights are
understood to be performed during the night ; for though like
the other gallinidoe, they feed in the morning and evening, they,
contrary to the practice of most of these, sleep at mid-day ;
indeed, during the greater part of the day. They squat at
these times, and do not " flush," or take wing, till a dog be
quite among them. The males are polygamous, and fight des-
perately in the early part of the season, so much so, that in

48 GALLINID.E,

some countries they are trained in the same manner as game
cocks. The call-note of the male is a twice-repeated whistle,
and makes rather a pleasant variety among the many songs of
the active season. The response of the female is made use of
as a decoy-note in catching the males alive, though they will
come to the male call, as if it were a challenge to the fight.
Their nests, and the number of their eggs, are nearly the
same as those of partridges. Quails are very abundant on the
continent of Europe, and in most parts of Asia. In the
former, their summer migrations extend as far as Lapland ;
but in the latter, they do not reach the extreme north of
Siberia. They linger during the winter in more localities
than almost any other migratory birds ; but such is their pro-
ductiveness, that they return even to the north of Africa in
vast flocks, though very many of them are captured in the
places where they halt by the way. When at rest from mi-
grating, and not busied with the care of their broods, quails
get very fat, especially on pastures that afford them a plenti-
ful supply of oily seeds ; and when in good condition, they
are highly esteemed as food. Their straggling appearance,
however, and their short stay, render them less interesting to
ordinary observers of British birds, than those genera which
regularly summer and winter in the country, and are gene-
rally distributed over it.

DOMESTICATION AND CHANGE OF PLUMAGE.

If we leave out of the question the wood grous, which, as
a British bird, is extinct, and the quail, which is both rare
and local, we have, in our native gallinidse, a regular suc-
cession of inhabitants, from the highest mountain top, to the
close vicinity of tbe most warm and sheltered dwelling, all
mingling a little with each other on the confines, but stdl
each preserving its locality, while the character of that
locality remains unchanged, more decidedly perhaps than any
other birds. All birds straggle a little at times ; but still it
is rare to find ptarmigan any where but on the mountain,

VARIETIES OF PLUMAGE. 49

grous any where but on the moor, black grous but in tlie
wild dell, or partridges but on or near the cultivated field.
Thus we know where to find any of these birds at all seasons ;
and, according as we ourselves are situated, we can study
their habits with much certainty.

We find the ptarmigan on the height, changing by nature
with the seasons, and braving the very excess of the winter.
In the grous we have a bird, in the dry cover of the heath,
which affords it shade and protection in the summer, and
shelter in the winter, while the short but firm stems support
the covering of its snow house, which, in many instances,
remains unmelted for half the year ; the tops of the same
heath, and the mosses and lichens which are growing under
it, despite the snow, serving the birds for food during the
time of their confinement. The heath thus serves to equalize
the temperature of the seasons to the grous, in the same way
that the transition from house to tent, and from tent to house,
equalizes them for the rude inhabitants of high latitudes ; and
thus, the change in the colour of the plumage not being neces-
sary, that does not take place.

The black cock has the shelter of the bush when the naked
wind blows, and the thicket when the rain falls, or the snow
drives ; and as the places which it inhabits are more produc-
tive than those of the others, it can range more easily for its
food. The habitation of the partridge requires still less shel-
ter, as the winds are not so strong, or the snows so heavy.
The seeds on the fields also supply it with a greater abund-
ance of winter food ; and, when hard pushed, it comes to the
stack-yard for a meal.

It may seem singular that, while the natives of Asia, Africa,
and America are domesticated with us in so great numbers, and
so many varieties, our own native gallinida;, should be all still
in the wild state, or domesticated, orrather tamed, only in partial
instances of the individual, but not in any way in the race. But
the difference between our climate and the native climates of
these foreign birds, is really the cause why they have little or
no tendency to go into the wilds ! while the influences of

VOL. I. F

50 GALLINID^E.

season and climate, very little different from those to which
their natures when wild are adapted, are constantly acting
upon, and tending to lead back to the state of nature, those
individuals of our native genera which are occasionally bred
in confinement, or taken and partially tamed.

In these birds we can trace a sort of resemblance to the
general colour of the places which they inhabit, though we know
not well the cause of the colour in either case. The ptarmigan
is mossy rock in summer, hoar frost in autumn, and snow in
winter. Grous are brown heather, black game are peat-bank
and shingle, and partridges are clods and withered stalks, all
the year round. We do not mean to say that these corre-
spondences of colour with situation are intended to hide the
birds from their enemies, because, at Nature's table, the gos-
hawk is as free and as well provided for as the grous, and the
harrier as the partridge. Still, the correspondence of colour
shows a correspondence of cause, whether we shall ever be
able to find out that cause or not ; and when, by domestica-
tion and change of circumstances, we break the connexion, the
colour falls into varieties, so that we have various colours in
the same brood. The regions which ptarmigan inhabit vary
the least in locality, and those of the partridge vary the most.
We find the same in the colour of the birds. The ptarmigan
has always some stage of its own changing colour ; the par-
tridge varies much, being found with the upper part brown
without mottling, and also with nearly the whole body white.
But the individual ptarmigan is subjected to far greater changes
of temperature than the partridge, and therefore the one has
seasonal varieties of colour, and the other few or none.

In many of the gallinidse, the plumage of the male is much
finer than that of the female ; but the gaudy livery appears
brightest on that plumage which the male is to wear in pairing
time ; and the more sober plumage of the female, which is of
considerable service to her while she sits, remains only so long
as she retains the capacity of being a mother. Common pullets,
when they become barren, acquire part of the plumage, and
also the crowing note of the male bird ; and in the plate

CHANGE OF PLUMAGE. J 1

opposite there is a figure, copied from nature, of what is very
inaccurately termed a " mule" pheasant. A mule is a hybrid
between two distinct species of the same genus, incapable of
continuing the mixed race, but readily breeding back to the
pure blood ; whereas the bird figured, and many more of the
same description, are females, in which the peculiar functions
have prematurely ceased ; and cases are mentioned in which
some of these have chauged so far as to have one spur on the
tarsus.

It was once supposed that these changes of plumage were
the consequences of old age, and that they would take place
in all females of the species in which they occasionally appear,
if these were allowed to be old enough ; but it has been satis-
factorily ascertained that age has nothing to do with them,
any further than as it may be one of the causes of sterility.
When that is in any way produced, the change of the plumage
is always a consequence ; and the change is more complete,
in proportion as the sterility is more absolute.

The popular adage of the unprofitableness of " crowing
hens," might have at once led to the same conclusion which
has been arrived at by actual observation, as the adage would
not have gained currency, if the fact that the crowers did not
lay eggs, had not been one of common occurrence. But the
voice which the sterile female acquires is an unnatural voice,
wanting the vigour of that of the male, and having no mean-
ing as to time. The male calls the colony to their labours in
the morning, and also proclaims triumph when an enemy or a
rival has been driven away.

The sterile female, on the other hand, has no discrimination
of time or of purpose in her crowing, which is attempted
without any assignable cause. The following passage (Philo-
sophical Transactions, 1827) by Mr. Yarrell, the sagacity of
whose remarks is as valuable as the accuracy of his observa-
tions, is worthy of being quoted:—" It is probable that they
(the barren females) do not live many years after the com-
mencement of the change, since so few are found to arrive at
any great degree of splendour. Of the many I have had

52 GALLINID.E.

opportunities of examining, none possessed either the full-
sized broad scarlet patch round the eye, the fine blue zone at
the end of the red feathers of the breast, or much of the
bright straw-coloured mark on the scapulars and wing-coverts,
one specimen alone excepted ; nor have I seen a female phea-
sant with spurs ; and a bird belonging to Mr. Leadbeater?
(the one represented in the plate,) which is by many degrees
the finest I have ever seen, is also without any." — The subject
is one of much interest, and merits farther investigation.

53

ORDER II.

CURSORES.

RUNNING BIRDS.

All the gallinidae run, some of them very swiftly, and
many other birds are fleet-footed ; so that " running" is by
no means a very distinctive epithet. Running is, however,
the principal motion of this order ; and there are some very
important species, such as the ostrich and the emu, that
cannot fly. Two species only can be at all considered as
British birds ; these are the bustards, the one resident, but
exceedingly confined in locality, and few in number ; the
other, one of our rarest straggling visitants.

great bustard. (Otis tarda.)

One is at a loss whether most to deplore the total extinc-
tion of the wood grous from the forests of Scotland, or the
impending, and as it seems, approaching disappearance of the
great bustard from the plains of England. It was once not
uncommon in various parts of the country ; and as it is a bird
of powerful wing, and can fly to considerable distances, not-
withstanding its great weight; it occasionally visited the
northern parts of the kingdom. One was shot on the low-
lands of Moray in 1803.

Ten years previous, I saw two birds in the parish of Car-
myllie, in Forfarshire, (a place famous, by the way, for mi-
gratory birds, in their passage to Strathmore and the Gram-
pians,) which I have no doubt in my own mind were bustard.- ,

f 2

54 CTJRSORES.

although from the little knowledge I then had of the names
even of these local birds, which were absolutely teazing me
to study their habits every day, and the length of time that
elapsed before I saw even a tolerable representation or de-
scription of a bustard, I cannot venture to record my belief as
an authentic instance. The place consisted of a wide extent
of very bleak and bare surface, half moor, half marsh, but so
constituted both ways, that neither could claim it wholly. It
was surrounded by " outfields" of barley, which was choked in
the shoot-blade, or oats, which seldom got white till helped by
the frost ; but at one place a dell, with a succession of pools,
formed a sort of drainage, and there the sward was a little
more kindly. I was on the one side of these pools, and near
the other was the termination of the cropped land, fringing
the summit in a way, but not coming over it. The wind had
been keen and hollow from the east for some days (an east
wind in such a place often makes May cut up April and
March) : but it had veered round, rain had fallen, and all was
beginning to be green. It might be the end of May, or the
beginning of June, and an hour or two after sunrise. I saw
two brown birds of great size, by the edge of the cover, and
very distinctly made out against the sky. They might have
been about a quarter of a mile distant, so that I could not see
the markings or minute parts ; but they certainly were larger
in size than any of the common birds, more especially than any
that appear in the summer. The pools formed a perfect barrier,
and I am not sure whether then I should have approached to
take a nearer view, even if there had been no impediment in
the way. After a little while they stalked off out of sight, by
descending the other side among the corn, and I did not see
them either alight or take wing, so as to observe the wings
suspended half closed for a time, which is one of the charac-
ters of the bustard when alighting, or rising undisturbed ;
neither did I again see them, or any birds like them.

The bustard is really a splendid bird. The male, when
full grown, is four feet in length, and nine in the extent of
the wings ; and the weight is from twenty-five to thirty

GREAT BUSTARD. 30

pounds. The bill is greyish ; but tbe legs, which are not
feathered quite down to the tarsi, are black ; and the three
toes are all turned forward, but with an elastic pad as a heel.
In form, the foot does not differ much from that of the little
bustard, which is represented in the following figure : —

Walking and Running Feet.

Ring-Dove

Little Bustard.

The hinder toe is Wanting, as in all the running birds, in
consequence of which the rest of the foot acts as a complete
and free spring, and projects them forward without any pause
or interruption, so that they acquire a momentum, and by that
means run fast with comparatively little exertion.

The plumage is strongly marked. The head is of an ashen-
grey, with the exception of a black streak along the middle.
The feathers on the chin are long and wiry, and at the base
of the lower mandible form a tuft on each side, which hangs
eight or nine inches down the neck. These feathers in some
attitudes conceal and in others disclose naked spots of a
violet colour on the sides of the neck. The lower part of the
neck passes into a fine reddish orange, which is also the pre-
vailing ground colour on the upper part of the bird, but
lighter on the scapulars, and inclining to grey on the lesser
wing coverts ; and there is a tuft of down at the articulation
of the neck inclining to grey. The greater coverts, and part

56 CURSORED.

of the secondaries are bluish, and the primary quills brownish
black with white shafts. The tail feathers are white toward
their bases, and generally also at the tips ; but the other
parts are brown with black lines, which form a regular band
across all the feathers. The tail feathers can be spread out
like a fan. All the upper part of the body is finely barred
and spotted with black, the lines in general crescent-shaped,
and sometimes with a narrow line of the same colour running
parallel to their convex side, or side next the point of the
feathers. On the fore part of the neck, and having its open-
ing under the tongue, there is a membranous bag or pouch,
capable of containing about half a gallon, and covered exter-
nally with a bluish-black naked skin, of nearly the same
colour as the legs. The use of that pouch in the economy of
the bird is not very well known.

The tarsi of the male bustard are about six inches in length,
and the other part of the legs are nearly one foot, so that,
when the bird stands up for observation or on the watch, its
total height is about four feet. Its walking gait is erect and
stately, and its running pace, in which it lowers the head and
partially rows with the wings, is exceedingly swift. The
female is not above half the size of the male, wants the wiry
mustaches and pouch, has the grey on the head and upper
part of the neck darker, the upper part more uniformly
mottled, and the mottling continued to the tail, which is
less produced than in the other sex, and without the regular
black bar.

Like most of the gallinaceous birds, the bustard makes no
nest, but drops her eggs on the bare ground. These are only
two in number, produced rather early in the season, and
requiring four weeks' incubation. The young are of a pale
yellowish brown, mottled with darker and black, and follow
their parent as soon as they break the shell. The female sits
close during her incubation, and cannot be raised without
difficulty; the young ones also squat close down upon the ground
on the appearance of danger.

Independently altogether of its size, and the quality of its

GREAT BUSTARD. ;>/

flesh, which is highly prized, the bustard is a very interesting
bird. But unfortunately it is one of which the recorded his-
tory is exceedingly fabulous, and it is now so rare, that it is
not easy to correct the errors and supply the defects.

The bustard does not come very accurately into any of the
orders, into which systematists arrange the winged tribes. It
cannot, with any regard to natural character, be classed with
the grallidaj, because the bustard never wades, but keeps the
open and dry plains, and seldom drinks. As little can it be
classed with the cursores, or running birds, though we have
placed it there, for want of a more appropriate niche. Its
most powerful motion is not running, but flight, for which,
heavy as it is, its large wings well adapt it. That it can
walk well and run swiftly is true, but it combines these with
the power of flight in a degree much superior to any other
very large bird. The bustard combines so many characters,
that it stands alone, — in structure as well as in locality, dif-
ferent from any other genus. The circumscription of its
haunts, as a British bird, and the decrease of its numbers in
those haunts, are, on that account, doubly to be regretted.
Though not, like the African ostrich, a bird of the desert, it
is naturally a bird of bleak and desolate places; and there-
fore a natural decay in its numbers may have been occasioned
by the different system of agriculture which has been intro-
duced. That has been especially the case in those sandy and
dry tracts of Norfolk, where the remnant is still to be found.
Drill husbandry in general, and turnip culture in particular,
which bring so many people into the fields for hoeing and
other summer labour, disturb the female bustards in their
incubation. The eggs, too, are tempting to the rustics ; and
even if these are spared, the female, once raised during the
day, is shy of sitting again. Such is probably the natural
progress toward extermination.

But there have been other causes. The bustard, especially
the male bustard, was always a temptation to the sportsman,
who slew away for glory or for lucre (bustards of course
always sold dear), without considering how slowly these birds

58 CURSORES.

breed, compared with any of the common game birds. Lat-
terly, those who are called " amateur naturalists," have acce-
lerated the extermination. One does not know whether
cupidity for the pot, or cupidity for the cabinet, be the vice
most destructive of the beauties of nature; but it is certain
that those caterers for the museum, who go about shooting
every rare bird they see, do no small mischief to our orni-
thology. A stuffed skin is something without doubt, but it
is dearly purchased at the expence of a living race; and now
that the bustards are become too rare for being objects of
regular pursuit by sportsmen, it will not redound much to the
credit of our prudence in matters of natural history, to have
the skins of a few native bustards perishing by the worm in
our museums, while we must go to other lands to study the
characters and habits of the living bird.

In other places of the country the more general pasturage
of sheep has no doubt had its effect in destroying the bus-
tards; but in all cases the extermination has been hastened
by the desire of possessing the bird. It may be too, how-
ever, that cultivation has produced some climatal change
which is unfavourable to birds that affect dry and lonely
wastes. In that case there is no remedy : we might with
justice forego the rarity at the table, and the marvel in the
museum, for the sake of seeing so majestic a bird stalking
about at its ease and in safety; but our desire of that ought
not to interfere with the rational progress of those arts on
which the people depend for bread. If the result is to be
turnips in place of charlock, or oats and rye in place of
thistles, by all means let the bustard go, — only keep him as
long as possible.

The food of the bustard is, like that of the gallinidse, very
miscellaneous. Insects and earthworms are the favourite food,
and the food of the young; and the birds are early astir,
in order to capture the night worms before the light and
heat of the day drive these into the earth; they also eat
reptiles, mice, small birds, and garbage, swallowing the small
animals alive. In addition to these, which may be considered

GREAT BUSTARD. 59

as dainties in the places which the bustard chiefly frequents,
it eats vegetables; and, except at particular seasons, trefoils
and other succulent leaves, and the tops of green corn and
the grasses are its principal dependence. In the autumn it
lives a good deal upon seeds, and in the winter upon roots.
Its stomach is membranous, and of great capacity.

The pouch (which is wanting in the female, and opens under
the tongue in the male) has been conjectured to answer many
purposes, such as the reservoir of drink for the bird that wears it,
or for the female and the young; or, again, as a sort of water
engine which the bird discharges against its foes. The fact of
the bird not drinking, which has been tolerably well ascertained,
and the pouch being found in the male only, are against the
first of these conjectures, and the second is probably no better
founded than the old fable of the excellent sport that was
procured by coursing the young bustards with greyhounds, —
instead of which, until they can fly, which is late in the
season, the young birds squat so close that it is not difficult
to take them with the hand. When plumed they take wing
more easily than many lighter birds.

In Norfolk, where only the birds are now found in England,
they frequent the large corn fields in summer, and the turnip
grounds in winter. If the winter is severe, they sometimes
migrate nearer the coast, at which times they appear in little
flocks ; but they are usually persecuted in their journey and
in their temporary abode. They are polygamous ; but not-
withstanding, it is said that there is a deficiency of male birds.
They are much more abundant in some parts of France than
in England, and in the dry wastes of the south of Russia,
toward the Black Sea, they are still more plentiful; but they
are always found on the dry wastes, and never in the marshes,
or even where the surface is soft. The fact is, the structure
of their feet adapts them only to firm land, and as they
cannot perch, and are not well formed for making their way
among bushes, they are never found but in the open country.
The epithet tarda, or slow, which was applied to the great
bustard in the time of the Romans, and now forms its specific

(30 CURSORES.

name, is not used with reference to the common motions of
the bird, but to the pertinacity with which the young and
the female bird, when hatching, retain their place on the
ground.

THE LITTLE BUSTARD. (Otis tetfCLX?)

The little bustard is a very rare straggler in Britain, and
when one does make its appearance, it is generally in the
autumn and winter. Above it is beautifully mottled with brown
and black, with a tinge of pale rose colour on the breast,
the under part is white with black spots. The full grown
male has a black collar in the summer, which is wanting in
the female and the young male, and it is supposed to dis-
appear at the end of summer and to be resumed again in the
pairing season. The bird is about one-third of the length of the
great bustard, with the wings rather shorter in proportion ;
but it is a thicker bird, and instead of being one twenty-
seventh of the great one, which one third of the length would
give in similar birds, it is about one twentieth ; the weight
is about a pound and a half. The haunts and habits resemble
those of the former. When a straggler does make its appear-
ance in Britain, it is always near the coast ; but it is one of
those birds, in quest of which it would be vain to set out.

As the bustards feed readily, and are very miscellaneous
in their feeding, they can be made to live in a state of domes-
tication, at least for some time ; but it does not appear that
they have ever bred in confinement, so that their domestica-
tion as races is more to be desired than expected.

61

ORDER III.

COLUMETE.

COLUMBINE BIRDS — PIGEONS OR DOVES.

These are birds which have, in all ages, claimed much of
the attention of mankind ; and the poets have chosen them
as the type of all that is gentle, amiable, and affectionate.
The mournful sound of their voices, the attachment of the
pair to each other and to their young, the form, gloss, and
colour of the birds, and the evolutions which they perform on
the wing, all give them an interest to the lover of nature ;
while the rapid rate at which they breed, and the flavour of
their flesh, have made them of consideration in an economical
point of view. They are, however, very voracious feeders,
and while the ripe grain and pulse are on the ground probably
destroy more than they are worth ; but at other seasons they
are not without their uses.

The domesticated ones, of which there are many varieties,
though all agreeing in their general character, are usually
called pigeons, and the wild ones doves. It is with the
latter only that we are in the mean time concerned.

The characters of the order are, the bill of moderate
length, covered at the base with a membrane in which the
nostrils are pierced, and the upper inaudible curved at the
point ; the tail containing twelve feathers, and the feet
having three toes before and one behind, free their whole
length, and all articulated to the extremity of the tarsus, so
that they are equally adapted for walking on the ground, for
perching, or for supporting the bird on tufts of vegetation, of

VOL I. G

62 COLUMB.E.

which it eats the seeds. Doves are much more elegant in
their forms than the gallinidse ; and in all the British species
the prevailing colours are mixed tints, very softly blended,
in which blue, green, and red predominate, excepting in the
quill- covers and tail feathers, and these are more or less
black. They are strictly monogamous, and pair for the
season even in their wild state ; but it is of course not true
that in any of the species the survivor mourns in singleness
in case of casualty to its mate, for when the season comes
round the widowed bird pairs the same as ever ; and the note,
though plaintive to our ears, is a love song, and not a song
of lamentation in the bird. Birds never sing in sorrow.
They scream when in fear or in pain, and those that are in
the habit of watching have a peculiar warning cry ; but there
is this much of charm in the songs of birds, independently of
their music, that they are always songs of pleasure.

The doves are much more exclusively vegetable in their feed-
ing than the gallinidae, or indeed than almost any other order
of birds. Seeds, and other vegetable substances that are fari-
naceous or succulent, are their favourite food. They join in the
labours of the field ; and while the rooks follow the plough,
picking up the larvae of cockchafers, and other insects, the
pigeons are just as busy in eating the couch grass and other
creeping roots.

They do not even feed their young with insects, as many
birds do, while they themselves live more (at least at some
seasons) on vegetables ; and nature has provided them with
the means of adapting that food to the tender stomachs and
weak digestion of their fledglings.

All birds that feed much on vegetable matter have an
expansible portion of the gullet which can be enlarged into
a sack capable of holding a considerable quantity of food,
which passes gradually into the gizzard or true stomach,
after the bird has ceased to take in a supply by the bill.
That dilatable portion is called the craw or " crop," and bears
some resemblance to the paunch or first stomach in ruminat-
ing quadrupeds. It is probable that the food of all birds,

COLUMBINE BIRDS. 63

when requiring such a preparation, is moistened and mace-
rated there before it passes into the stomach. But in the
columbae, there is a peculiar change in the organ for the
feeding of the young, — a change which has some resemblance
to the production of milk in the mammalia, only it takes place
in both the parent birds. At that time the inner coat becomes
covered with small glands, which secrete a peculiar fluid which
acquires a consistency resembling that of soft curd. When
the young first break the shell, they are fed upon that sub-
stance, wholly or nearly in a pure state ; but as they grow
it gradually mingles with more and more of the food of the
parent bird, which it reduces to a sort of pulp ; and when
the young are able to feed themselves, the secretion disap-
pears, and the glands that produced it are inactive until they
again are required for the feeding of another progeny.

The food which the pigeons thus prepare for their young,
whether it be the curdy secretion of their own bodies, or food
which they have picked up and prepared, is not given to the
young by the bill, in the way in which the majority of birds
feed their young. The old one puts its bill half-opened,
fairly into that of the young one, and the food is brought up
and delivered to it by a peculiar action of the gullet.

That habit, approaching more nearly to maternal tenderness
than perhaps any other in birds, — the fact that they are only
two young in a brood, and that these are generally a male
and female ; the attachment of the pair which, notwithstand-
ing the disposition which pigeons have to flock (and in some
countries they flock in countless millions), we have reason to
believe they preserve through life : and their apparent fondness
for each other, to which there is no parallel instance in the
whole animal creation ; — these circumstances, taken in com-
bination with the beauty of the birds, and the gracefulness of
their motion on the wing, justify that interest which they
never fail to command ; and so to command as that, unless it
be for the purposes of the fancier of tame pigeons, there is no
need of describing the birds, for every body learns to know a
pigeon, almost as soon as to know any thing.

64

COLL'MB.E.

But though the pigeons live more on vegetable food than
most of the feathered tribes, they do not live exclusively on
it. They eat various kinds of snails, generally shell and all ;
and they do so not only when seeds have become scarce in
the winter, and they are reduced to beech-mast and other cap-
suled seeds, which they are unable to break with their bills,
but also at the time when they have young. Nor, though
they cannot be so well observed then, is there any doubt that
the wood species, at the time of the hatching of their spring
broods especially, when vegetable food adapted to them is
not so abundant, pick up numbers of insects in the woods.
The rock species, again, inhabit in vast numbers places
where there is little vegetable food. They may be seen
alighting in multitudes, and walking about the beaches at
low water, ever and anon picking at something ; and though
all the species are fond of salt, the probability is that animal
food is the chief object sought on the beach. No bird that
feeds exclusively on land vegetables takes up its abode on the
rocks on the sea- shore, as thereby it would be cutting off half
its pasture.

There are four species of doves found in a wild state in the
British islands, though in different localities, and with differ-
ences of habit. Two of these, the ring-dove, and the stock-
dove are resident inhabitants of the woods ; one, the rock-
dove, is a tenant of the rocks ; and the remaining one is a
summer visitant of the woods in certain places only.

ring-dove. {Columha palumbus.)

The ring-dove, if not the most abundant in numbers, is the
most generally distributed over the country ; and it is every
where a favourite, even with those farmers in the neighbour-
hood of woods, upon whose crops, their peas especially, it
commits considerable ravages. It has in consequence many
local or provincial names — the Wood-pigeon, the Quest, the
Cushat, the Cusha-doo, and many others, all of which are
favourite words in their localities.

RING-DOVE. 65

The ring-dove is, indeed, one of the most ornamental birds
m the British woods. It is considerably the largest (British)
bird of the order ; and it is the most elegant in its form, if
we except the turtle, which is much smaller, and a very local
as well as a migratory bird. The ring-dove is about eighteen
inches long, and thirty in the extent of the wings. It weighs
about a pound and a quarter. The other species should, from
their length, (about thirteen inches and a half,) weigh not
more than ten ounces, if of the same proportions ; but they
weigh eleven, or more. They are more bunchy and less
graceful at the shoulders than the ring-dove. The whole
outline of the bird is fine, combining symmetry and vigour
in an eminent degree.

The colours are also beautiful, and remarkably constant in
the individuals. The bill is orange, the membranous portion
at the base covered with a white mealy powder, similar to
that found under the wings of most pigeons. The head,
cheeks, and neck, are of a very peculiar changing grey, which
inclines more to black or blue, according to the light in which
it is seen ; and there are obscure darker bars on the back part.
The pale yellow irides of the eyes contrast beautifully with the
general colour of the head and neck. Two spots of white,
one on each side of the neck, near its insertion, almost meet
behind, forming a collar or ring which occasions the name.
The breast and belly are a purplish red with prismatic reflec-
tions, varying from green to deep purple. The lower part of
the back, the rump, and tail coverts, are the same colour as
the head, barred with darker, and passing into a purplish
tinge on the coverts. The upper part of the back and the
wing coverts are deeper grey, but of the same mixed and
varying character. Tbe quills are twenty-four in number :
the first ten black, edged with white. The tail feathers are
blackish, and edged with blueish grey, but they have very
faint purple or bronze reflections. The tarsi and toes are pale
red, and the claws black. In general, however, the colours
pass so gently into each other, and reflect so many hues with
so slight shades of dilference, that few birds are more diflicult

G 2

6G

COLUMByE.

to describe by colours ; and these can be seen to perfection
only upon the living bird when it turns itself about in the
sunshine.

The notes of the ring-dove, — for there are four of them,
two produced by modulation and two by difference of time, —
are soft and plaintive, but not melancholy, far superior to the
monotonous croak (it is nothing better) of the domesticated
pigeon. It of course varies with the season, but February is
the month in which its song begins ; and it gives the prefer-
ence to pine plantations, especially when they are not too
tall. As it repeats its notes in the early part of the season,
and is itself unseen while it does so, there is much interest
about it; and the young ornithologists often listen much and
wander far in the coppice, and come home, after all, without
seeing the cushat.

The nest is very rude, consisting of a few twigs laid care-
lessly together, and generally at a place where some of the
branches are nearly horizontal ; for as the bird has feet
adapted for walking as well as for perching, it can perch
only across the twig, and awkwardly if that twig incline
much. Hence, when there is a choice, the ring-dove always
both builds and perches for the night in trees of which the
branches set off at large angles. The upright poplar, the
mountain-ash, and the willow, unless when the latter is pol-
larded, are no favourites with it. During the breeding season,
which, as there are generally two, and often three broods in
the course of the year, lasts the greater part of the summer,
the ring-dove never perches high, or builds in tall forests
where the trees have long branchless boughs ; but in autumn
and the early part of winter, when the birds collect from the
places over which they were dispersed during the summer,
and have nothing to do but find their own food, which they at
that time find in abundance, and are high in flesh and flavour,
they perch for the night in lofty trees.

A figure of the ring-dove's foot is given on page 55, along
with that of the little bustard, to show the difference between
a foot adapted only for walking on dry and hard ground, and

THE STOCK-DOVE. G"

one adapted for walking on softer ground, and also for perch-
ing crosswise on a horizontal twig.

The ring-dove is a bird of very fine wing. As the second
feather is the longest, it hovers neatly, and it sometimes dis-
plays curious gambols of ascent and descent. It dashes its
wings upward with so much force, that they strike against
each other with an audible noise ; and the bird drops down so
far, as if it were to fall to the ground ; but a downward stroke,
given with ecpial force, sends it up again. It displays these
motions most frequently in the pairing season ; but they are
also useful to it in its short excursions for food among the
trees ; and when these are scattered, it may be seen leaping
over them like a horse over hedges on a steeple chase, only it
takes its leaps from the air as a fulcrum, as well as in it. But
volumes might be written on the ring-dove, and still there
would remain abundant materials for a fresh volume. The
bird will not live in a domestic state, unless by force ; but in
183-1, a pair built a nest in the Zoological Gardens, and two
eggs were produced.

the stock-dove. {Columba (Enas.)

That is a smaller species than the ring-dove, and in Eng-
land it is rare, excepting in the midland counties. The south-
ern parts of Europe are its principal haunts ; but it is a roaming
bird, and migrates in large flocks. It is a percher, and always
nestles in holes of trees, or in tall bushes, which might have
convinced authors that it could not well be the parent stock of
those numerous varieties which live in pigeon-holes, and never
perch or build in trees, though the pigeon-houses are in the
middle of woods. If the domestic pigeon had been derived
from the stock-dove (or the " bush-dove," as it is sometimes
called with more propriety), we should certainly have found it
resting upon, or moaning its note from the trees of the garden
rather than the roof of the house The only note of the stock-
dove is a hollow grunt: The same pair build for years in the
same place. This bird has no white on the rump, no bars on

68

COLUMB.E.

the wings ; it is thicker at the shoulders and on the breast
than the domestic pigeon. The legs and feet are not so strong,
the former are not so much feathered, and the claws are not
so well armed on their under-sides with pads and tubercles.

the rock-dove. {Columba livia.)

That is the true " stock-dove" from which the domestic
ones are descended, whether those that were first kept in
pigeon-houses in this country were natives of the country or
imported. These birds do not of course build pigeon-houses,
but they choose high cliffs, the acclivity of which may pro-
tect them from enemies ; they nestle in the holes of those
cliffs ; they sit on the points and little ledges of the rocks,
and never perch on trees. If a pigeon-house is built in a dis-
trict where pigeon-houses are numerous, or near the native
locality of rock-doves, it is soon stocked without exertion on
the part of the owner ; and if it be whitewashed, it is stocked
the sooner. Hence the proverb " Whiten the pigeon-house,
aud the pigeons will come," which is applied metaphorically,
in order to show that, by neatness and regularity, friends will
be most certainly procured. In the case of the pigeons, it is
the utility and not the beauty of the whitened house that is
the attraction. The females never hatch fewer than three
broods in the year, and sometimes as many as twelve. The
shells of so many eggs require a great deal of carbonate of
lime ; the lime on the whitened pigeon-house attracts the fe-
males, and as the rock-doves are constantly paired, the males
of course accompany them. So decided is that attraction to
them, that a whitened pigeon-house will entice the stock from
those that are neglected, thus making the proverb a literal
fact.

It is probably a similar instinct which leads the pigeons to
cliffs on the sea-shore, in preference to inland ones. The
shells on the beach furnish them with an abundant supply of
lime. No doubt, the comparative uniformity of temperature
during the year in the sea cliffs, is a farther inducement ; and

THE ROCK-DOVE. 69

brings the habit of the bird of the rocks still nearer to that of
the house bird. Indeed, the habits of common field pigeons
are so little changed, and the change is so exclusively an act
of their own, that they cannot be said to be in a state of do-
mestication. They are rock pigeons still, only they are lodged
better, and more conveniently for their food.

Whether on the rock or in the pigeon-house, they are grega-
rious all the year round ; and, whatever may be the distance
to which they may range during the day, they uniformly re-
turn at night. The certainty with which they return, not-
withstanding the height at which they often fly, their pas-
sages at sea, where there are no marks to guide them, and
the turning which they must make in cross winds, is one of
those instincts, which we must admire but cannot understand.
That they do in so far depend on sight, would appear from
the fact that they are often bewildered in fogs ; but still sight,
in so far as we can judge of it, is not sufficient to explain the
whole. We get to a place by experimental knowledge of the
intermediate space, or by information which answers the same
purpose ; but pigeons, and indeed many animals, have, at
least to the extent of their usual journeyings, an instinctive
knowledge of the place of their abode, without any reference
to the space that lies between. There are authenticated in-
stances of dogs and of donkeys returning on foot for hundreds
of mUes, though the former had been removed in a close car-
riage, and the other had been on board a vessel which was
wrecked. I knew an instance of a bullock that was driven
west and south at least forty miles to a fair, sold there, and
taken to his new pasture, fifteen miles from the old one, and
with a wide and deep estuary of a river between. His new
companions, as is very often the case with cattle for a time,
shunned him, or rather combined to expel him. The pasture
was on the shore of the estuary : he stood there some time
nosing the wind ; then dashed into the tide, although the
ripple was high, swam gallantly through, and trotted off to
his former pasture and companions, lowing as he went.
Sight could do nothing in that case, because there were high

70 COLUMB.E.

grounds on the opposite side of the estuary, which limited the
view to not more than one mile out of fifteen. When these
things happen with quadrupeds, we may cease to wonder at,
though we must on that account admire the more, the feats
that are performed by carrier pigeons ; and which are often at
least sixty miles an hour. What messengers the swift-winged
migratory birds would be, if we knew how to press them into
our service. A discovery made in central Africa, might be
printed in London, and sent by post on the very next evening.

The white rump, and the two dark bars on the closed wings,
which are never wholly obliterated, even when the general
colour is almost white, are strong indications of the de-
scendant of the rock pigeon. The stronger foot, too, and
especially the more spreading toes, so that the outer and inner
act nearly against each other, and crosswise to the other two,
cannot be mistaken. Farther, the perchers, the ring, and
stock- doves, may be confined as individuals but cannot be
tamed as races ; the rock-dove needs no taming.

Domestic pigeons are a tame study ; but there is something
more stirring in the observation of the rock-dove in nature's
pigeon-house, especially among the cliffs and caves of the
Hebrides. On some glittering day, when the meridian sun
lulls birds and breezes into repose, you row swiftly but si-
lently into the portal of some giant cave, the entablature of
which reaches the mid heaven : and, while you are contem-
plating silent nature, the rowers, by a concerted motion of
which you were kept ignorant, lift their oars, and simulta-
neously dash them against the sides of the boat. The echo is
loud, but the sound of the wings which it wakens into action,
is louder. It is as if the hollowed and craggy isle were falling
to pieces about you, and the wide Atlantic were heaving and
vibrating to its most distant shore. But we dare not begin
the description, — from the length, and the pain of leaving off.
Those who can, should go there, if it were but to see how far
nature exceeds and beggars all description.

THE TURTLE-DOVE. 71

THE TURTLE-DOVE. (CoIu?)lb(Z tlirtur.)

The turtle is the smallest British species ; and in Britain
it is a summer migrant, and as such, visits only the south-
eastern parts of the island, more especially Kent, the thick
coppices of which afford it that depth of shade, and the rich
fields that abundance of food which it requires. On the con-
tinent it ranges into much larger latitudes, although not to
the extreme north or even within the Arctic circle.

When the winds of autumn blow from the north-east or
east, which is always the case when the rains fall heavy on
the countries south of the Baltic, the migrating birds, which
range farther north on the continent than with us, are frequently
drifted to our eastern shores, not in straggling individuals,
but in flocks, in the case of birds which are gregarious in
their migrations. These form a sort of involuntary autumnal
migrants ; and as both the time and the exertion spent in
contending with the cross wind, are probably as great as
would have carried them to their journey's end with favourable
weather, they alight on our shores in a state of great fa-
tigue. They must, in consequence, remain for some time to
recruit themselves ; and if they reach the coast far to the
southward, and the season become very mild, some of them
may linger for the winter and even survive it. Before we
conclude, from the appearance of a specimen, or even of a
flock in the autumn, that a bird is a permanent resident in any
part of the country, we must consider the range and the time
of its migration on the continent, and the kind of weather
that preceded its appearance. Our constant sojourners are
best seen in the winter, because then they collect from the
woods and wilds, and come in flocks near our habitations.

The turtles do not come before the latter end of April, or,
if the season be cold, the beginning of May. But though it
is general among birds, that the male is the first to feel the
genial influence of the season, yet turtles are, in this country

/ & COLUMB.E.

at least, first seen in pairs. The turtles betake themselves to
the thick groves, build the nest, which, like that of all the
order, is slight and rude, hatch the two young, nurse them
till they are nearly fledged, and are more frequently heard than
seen, till the pods on the leguminous plants begin to swell.
When that takes place, they come in little flocks to claim the
reward of that sweet, though plaintive and even mournful
melody, with which they have soothed the labours of their
mates during the season of leaves and blooms. In August
they collect in larger flocks, on the open places near the
coasts of the channel, and soon after they disappear, except
they happen to be brought by the wind in the manner that
has been stated.

The turtle is a light and slender bird compared with the
other species. It is only about two inches shorter, and two
inches narrower in the wings, than the rock dove ; and yet it
is only about half the weight, being from five to six ounces,
while the rock dove is from ten to twelve.

The colours vary a good deal with age, but in general
the prevailing colours are brown, grey, reddish orange, and
black, with the belly and tips of the outer tail feathers white;
and in the male, some white on the forehead, and white
margins to a patch of black feathers on each side of the
neck; the breast, in the male, is tinted with purplish red;
and the same colour blends very softly with the other colours
of the neck, as they pass from the soft grey of the cheeks to
the black and orange of the scapulars. The dusky black
fading off through brown to bright orange, at the margins,
renders the feathers on the upper part of the turtle much
more distinct than those of any of the other doves. The
patch of dull red under, behind, and partially round the orange
iris is another distinction. The young birds are browner
than the old ones, and want the ornamental patch on each
side of the neck.

The bird is as mild in its manners as any of the others, and
as assiduous in the care of its young. The constancy, and

THE TURTI.E-DOVE. 73

the mourning for its mate, for which the poets have given it
credit, are qualities for which there is of course only the poet's
license. Though retired, timid, and shy, to perhaps a greater
degree than any of the other doves, the turtle when caught is
far more easily tamed than either the ring-dove or the stock-
dove.

The note of the turtle is a very soft and mournful coo, often
delivered when the hird is on the ground, and when it is in a
close thicket it may be very closely approached.

The species now enumerated comprise all the native pigeons
of the British islands, whether resident or migrant. With
the exception of the turtle, they are all resident in nearly the
same localities throughout the year, but the habits of some of
the foreign species are very different, though not so much so
in Europe as in other parts of the world. The grand places
for them are between the Oriental Archipelago and New
Holland, and between the northern and central parts of Ame-
rica. The multitudes that migrate in those localities are abso-
lutely countless ; and the species which frequent the former
are numerous, and some of them equal in the colours of their
plumage to the very finest of the parrots. The American
ones, as they migrate en masse, and are continental at both
ends of their journey, are more numerous in the flock than
those of the east and south. Their migration is different
from the general migration of birds, as they move polarly in
the autumn, when the wild berries are ripe. They find ample
supplies in that Ultima-Thule sort of country which lies to the
northward of the great American lakes, and also in Canada ;
but as the polar sea is approached, there is less food for them,
and they are not so numerous. They are thus not sufficiently
far to the north for being in the line of the north-west winds,
and consequently they do not come so often to the British
shores as their abundance would lead us to conclude. But
notwithstanding the great difference of longitude, it appears
that the principal species, the passenger pigeon (Columba mi-
gratorius), does sometimes stray across the Atlantic, for one
Mas shot in Fifeshire on the last day of 1825, and it evidently

VOL. I. H

74 columbjE.

retained its social instinct, as it found its way to a part of the
island where pigeon -houses abound, and was shot while perch-
ing on the wall of one.

The particular history of the several varieties of fancy
pigeons which are known to the curious in these birds, does
not come within the scope of these pages, as those varieties
are not met with in a wild state. They are, however, pro-
bably all bred out of the same stock as the common pigeons,
as they are all " house" pigeons and notperchers. The prin-
cipal ones are the Barbary, the Biset, the Carrier, the Crested,
the Helmet, the Horseman, the Jacobine, the Laced, the Nor-
way, the Rough-footed, the Shakers, broad-tailed and narrow-
tailed, the Smiter, the Spot, the Tumbler, the Turbit, and the
Turner, besides the countless number of mixed breeds.

75

ORDER IV.

ACCIPITRES.

RAPACIOUS BIRDS, AND BIRDS OF PREY.

We are now to notice birds of very different habits from
those of the preceding orders. They, though some of them
are courageous in their combats with each other, and most of
them are bold in defence of their young, are peaceable toward
the rest of the warm-blooded creation, whether living bird or
quadruped. Instances have occurred of some of them killing
mice, and even small birds, and the greater part of them will
eat any animal garbage, or offal ; but they are killed in many
more instances than they kill ; and the flesh of all of them is
not only eaten, but highly prized for its wholesomeness and
flavour.

The birds of prey are, on the other hand, of no use to man
as food, and they live by rapine and plunder, for the perpe-
tration of which they are very powerfully armed by nature.
They never use their weapons for mere purposes of gallantry
and mastery, as is the case with many of the males among
the gallinaceous birds. They attack that they may kill; and
kill for no other purpose than that of eating the slain. In a
natural point of view, we cannot call them cruel ; for it is no
more cruel in an eagle to eat hares, than it is in a hare to eat
green leaves ; and no more cruel in a hawk to eat pigeons,
than it is in a pigeon to eat pease. All the creatures which
nature produces, obey equally the laws which nature has im-
planted in them ; and for the purposes of nature, the fiercest
bird of prey is as important as the gentlest warbler that sings
in the grove. All work beautifully together and support one

/D ACCIPITRES.

another, so as to produce and continue that glorious system
which we see around us. The plant collects the first elements
of organic life from the earth, the air, and the waters ; and
tempers them to the palates of the phytivorous animals, from
the smallest creature that curls or discolours a leaf, to the tall
giraffe and the stately elephant. Other races consume those.
Some birds take the eggs of the insects, some the caterpillars,
some the full grown insects ; then follow the races which
plunder the nests of birds, and feed upon their unfledged
young ; and lastly, come the birds of prey, feeding not merely
on the other birds, but on the smaller quadrupeds and the
inhabitants of the sea.

It may happen that the birds of prey interfere with our
plans, though it is probable, that in their case as well as in
that of many other birds, we know the evil but not the good ;
and consequently, in our eagerness to destroy the evil, we
destroy the good along with it, and in the end lose much
more than our labour. We set a price on the brush of a fox,
or the talons of an eagle, but it is open to every man's obser-
vation, that those places in which foxes are not hunted or
eagles shot, are not more impoverished than those in which
both are destroyed with the utmost vigilance. Nature never
sends any animal to inhabit a district unless there be food
and the other circumstances which suit that animal in that
district ; and when the food ceases or the circumstances are
changed, the animal disappears, as fast probably as is neces-
sary to the best interests and perfection even of our artificial
system. The kite would doubtless be a plunderer in the poul-
try-yard, the osprey in the fish-pond, or the eagle in the rab-
bit-warren ; and the owner might claim their lives. If we
actually use any portion of the earth, then that portion is
ours, and we may do with the wild creatures as we deem best.
But we should not play the tyrant with that which is not ours.
If we can show that it will be useful for us to destroy the
kite in the wild moor which we neglect, and the eagle in the
mountain ravine, which we can neither stock nor cultivate,
then we may plead our privilege as lords of the nether

GENERAL CHARACTERS. 77

world and slaughter them ; but if we cannot, we are inter-
fering with, and most probably marring, that which we do
not understand, — acting much in the same manner as the
owner of an estate, who should cut down the forests, when
he could neither use nor sell the timber, nor yet cultivate any
other crop on the land which it occupied.

The birds of prey are not merely a part of the system of
nature, but one of the most interesting parts of it ; and there
are no birds, the haunts or the habits of which are more
calculated to impart information and afford pleasure. In
strength, in swiftness, in bold daring, in patient endurance,
in attachment to each other and to their young, and in the
utmost perfection of observing power and muscular strength,
there are no birds equal to the birds of prey. Drive the eagle
from the mountain, and half its sublimity would be gone ;
chase the owl from the ivied ruin or the hollow tree, and
half its fascinations, even to the unobservant rustics, would be
destroyed.

GENERAL CHARACTERS AND DIVISIONS OF THE BIRDS OF
PREY.

The characters in which all rapacious birds agree, and by
which, if any one is well known, all others may be deter-
mined, are peculiar and striking. The bill is short, strong,
rather compressed at the sides, often bending for its whole
length, and hooked at the extremity of the upper mandible.
The limbs very strong and muscular, with the toes, three
before and one behind, free, or only partially united by elastic
membrane, their extremities armed with sharp crooked claws,
generally retractile, and of firmer consistency than any horny
productions, except the claws of those carnivorous beasts which
catch or kill their prey with the paws. The bills are usually
called beaks, and the claws talons. Sight keen and piercing,
in some adapted to bear the strongest light of the sun, and
in others to see in the twilight, or to our observation nearly
in the dark. They are capable of enduring hunger longer

H 2

ACCIPITRES.

than any other of the feathered tribes, and they rarely drink.
They are strictly monogamous, the pair associating for life,
and probably better deserving that praise for constancy which
poetic fancy has awarded to the turtle. They never congre-
gate in flocks ; arid the more powerful ones drive their pro-
geny to a distance, obviously from an instinct having a
purpose similar to that which make the males of the wild
gallinse fight and separate at the commencement of the breed-
ing time. The female is larger than the male, sometimes
much larger, and very different in colour. The young birds
also are generally different in plumage, and some of them
retain the difference so long that they have been described as
distinct species.

As in the case with beasts of prey, and generally with all
animals whose nature it is to kill and destroy, the most
powerful are found in the wildest places ; but while the
powerful beast lurks in the shade of the forest or the jungle,
the powerful bird braves the elements, and is found in the
cold latitudes, or if warm latitudes, in those wild places which
are cold and bleak from elevation.

The following are sketches of the beaks of three of the
order, in their gradation from those that strip their prey en-
tirely of its feathers, to those that swallow it entire, and return
the indigestible parts in balls called " castings."

RAPACIOUS BEAKS.

Hawk.

Owl.

Eagle.

FALCONS. 79

•The most obvious natural division is into pikers by day
(diurnat), and preyers by night (nocturrus). The former are
falcons, known by different names, according to their struc-
ture, habits, and haunts ; the latter are owls. The plumage
of the diurnal birds is firm, strong in the individual feathers,
and fitted for contending with the elements in bold and daring
flight ; that of the nocturnal ones is " fined off" at the extre-
mities, into very delicate and almost invisible margins, so that
they steal through the air without any noise. The former are
free and elastic, and make the air rustle to the torrent of their
course, and ring to the dash of their wings ; the latter glide
along as if they were muffled, and come upon even quick-
eared prey before it is aware.

There are about seventeen diurnal species enumerated as
British, and eight nocturnal ones. Of the falcons, four or
five are understood to be occasional visitants, and the others
to reside permanently in some part of the British islands ;
but some are rare and confined to particular districts, while
others are common. Six of the owls are inhabitants of the
moorland ; and two, which are arctic birds, and the most
powerful of the whole, are found only in the extreme north,
or in other parts of the country as mere stragglers.

falcons. (Falco.)

The old division of noble and ignoble hawks, which was so
well understood when falconry was a general field sport, is
still of considerable use in distinguishing the species and also
the habits of birds of prey. The noble hawks are long-
winged, and have the second quill the longest, but it is sup-
ported to nearly its tip by the first, so that the point of the
wing is peculiarly strong. These may be considered as the
perfection of mechanism in birds, more powerful in the air
than any others ; and the daring of the larger ones is equal
to the means with which they are provided for putting that
daring into execution. The ignoble hawks have the wings

80 ACCIPITRES.

differently formed. They are, in general, shorter, and the
third or fourth feather is the longest. As British birds they
are more numerous and varied than the former ; and com-
prehend, among others, the eagles, which, though less gallant
on the wing, are, all things considered, the most powerful
of birds.

The popular distinctions are, however, better for simple
description, and certainly not worse for scientific purposes.
According to it the divisions are, Falcons, Hawks, Eagles,
Kites, Harriers, and Buzzards, all easily distinguishable
from each other by their forms, their modes of flight, and
many of their habits.

Falcons.

The beak of the Falcon is short, very thick, and strong, the
upper mandible bent from the base, and with a prominent
tooth toward the top, which fits into a notch in the under
mandible. The tarsi are short, and they and the toes are very
strong. The talons are much hooked and exceedingly sharp,
and flat or grooved on the under sides.

Their command of the air is truly wonderful. A few
strokes of their powerful wings will send them up till they
are hardly visible ; or bring them from the top of their flight
to within a short distance of the ground. At times they will
ride motionless, as if they were anchored in the sky ; and
anon, with hardly any perceptible motion of the wings, they
will shoot, with the rapidity of a meteor and the certainty of
an arrow, — aye more certainly, and at a farther range than
ever shaft that human archer set on the string. The col-
lision of their pounce is terribly effective: It is seldom the
mere difference of velocity ; for their habit is to rise above
their quarry, and press their weight into the service of their
wings by an oblique descent ; but still that is no mean force
which can break a wing, strike off a head, or burst a bird
asunder, when it is not merely suspended in the air only, but
in rapid motion away from the striker. If the falcon misses,

THE JER-FALCON. 81

we need not wonder that the quarry escapes before it can
again rally ; and if the falcon comes upon the bayonet charge
of the quarry, as is sometimes the case when it stoops at the
heron, we need not wonder that it is transfixed. The ballistic
pendulum used in experimental gunnery, though suspended
on hinges, gives way to the cannon shot ; what then shall we
say of the stroke of the falcon, which breaks bones flying
awray in the air, and defended by feathers ! The keen point of
the claw, — of that terrible claw on the hinder toe, which con-
centrates the whole momentum of the bird, and always strikes
perpendicularly and penetrates, — is the main instrument of
the effect.

THE JER-FALCON, OR ICELAND FALCON (Falco IcelcmdicKs) .

If, in command of the air, the falcons take the lead of all
the feathered tribes, the jer-falcon unquestionably takes the
lead of all the falcons. It is bred in the crags of the polar
rocks, it is tempered to the fitful and furious blasts which rage
occasionally in countries near the ice, and its native pastures
are but thinly stocked ; but a partridge on a warm and shel-
tered farm, or a pheasant in a judiciously situated preserve, is
not better adapted for finding its food, than the jer-falcon is
in the wastes of Iceland.

It has not been positively ascertained that the jer-falcon
breeds in any part of the British islands, neither can the
fact of its so breeding be denied, because, in all places, its
nest is situated so high among the crags of the rocks, that
it is difficult to be seen, and still more difficult to be readied.
But if it does not breed there, it pays occasional visits to the
northern and wrestern isles, more especially to those places
of them that abound with rock-doves ; and few sights can be
finer than that of the jer-falcon driving through a flock of
these. When the falcon comes within sight of her prey, she
bounds upwards, every stroke of the wings producing a per-
pendicular leap, as if she were climbing those giant stairs
into which nature moulds the basaltic rocks ; and when she

82 ACCIPITRES.

has " got the sky" of her prey to a sufficient height for gain-
ing the necessary impetus, her wings shiver for a moment as
she works herself into perfect command and poise, and to the
full extent of her energy. Then, prone she dashes, with so
much velocity, that the impression of her path remains on
the eye, in the same manner as that of the shooting meteor
or the flashing lightning, and you fancy that there is a torrent
of falcon rushing for fathoms through the air. The stroke
is as unerring as the motion is fleet. If it take effect in the
body, the bird is trussed and the hunt is over ; but if a wing
only is broken, the maimed bird is allowed to flutter to the
earth, and another is marked out for the collision of death.
It sometimes happens that the mountain crow comes in for
the wounded game ; but in order to do so it must proceed
stealthily along the ground, for woe betide it if it rises on the
wing, and meets the glance of the falcon. The raven himself
never scoops out another eye, if he rises to tempt that one ;
and it is by no means improbable that, in the early season, in
those cold northern countries, when the lambs are young and
the flocks weak, and the crows and ravens prowl about blind-
ing and torturing, the jer-falcon may be of considerable service
to the shepherd.

Though the distance from Iceland to those parts of Scot-
land and the isles where the jer-falcon is seen be about five
hundred miles, that is merely a morning journey for the bird,
from which it can easily return the same evening. Its flight
on long journeys is not so well ascertained, and probably not
so swift, as that of the peregrine ; but still it is certainly
more than one hundred miles an hour ; so that the bird can
easily leave Iceland in the morning, dine and take its siesta in
Sutherland or Ross, and return to Iceland before night.

Like the golden eagle, the jer-falcon is found only in the
wilds, and therefore its habits in a state of nature are much
less known than those of many of the tribe. In those parts of
Scotland where it is most likely to be seen, it is difficult to say
whether you would have Ionizer to wait for a fair day or a
jer-falcon.

THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 83

The jer-falcon is a large, strong, and rather weighty hird,
very close and thick in its plumage, and altogether perhaps
the most compact of the hirds of prey. Its length is about
twenty inches, the stretch of its wings nearly four feet, and
its weight at least two pounds. The colour is very much
like that of the lichens on its native rocks — white, dull grey,
and dusky. The neck, breast, belly, and long feathers on the
legs are white, with dusky lines on the neck and breast, and
similar lines, interspersed with arrow point spots, on the other
parts below. The back and wings are dusky, the feathers
margined with greyish white and having large spots of the
same colour. The tail, which consists of twelve round-
pointed feathers, and is rather long, is darker grey, with black
shafts to the feathers, and about twelve regular dusky bars.
The feet, cere, and naked space round the eyes are bluish yellow,
in the mature bird, and inclining to blue in the young. The
bill, which has the tooth less prominent than most of the
falcons, and a sort of double, is bluish ; but the tip is black
and so are the claws, and the shafts of the more strong and
decided feathers. The young are more dusky than the old,
and have the naked parts so much more blue, that they have
sometimes been considered different species. The eggs are
two or four in number. Birds that pair uniformly, generally
lay their eggs in even numbers, though there are, of course,
casual exceptions.

The jer-falcon can live in any climate ; and from its strength,
its daring, and the certainty of its stroke, it is more prized
in falconry than any other, but it is very difficult to train ; and
therefore, in the days of falconry, it brought a very high price.

It is possible that the jer-falcon which abounds in Norway,
and the Iceland one, are different species : the latter paler in
colour, and more powerful.

the peregrine falcon. {Falco peregrinus.)

On the opposite plate, there is a figure of the peregrine
falcon (female), one-sixth of the lineal dimensions.

84 ACCIPITRES.

It is much less than the jer-falcon, but more gracefully
formed ; and though less terrible and more docile than that, it
is withal a very bold and powerful bird. The full-grown female
is sometimes seventeen inches long, and more than three feet
and a half in the extent of the wings. The male is two or
three inches shorter, and narrower in proportion.

The head, nape, a patch under the eye, and the whole
upper part of the bird, are dusk, inclining to grey in some
part, and to brown in others ; tbe bends of the wings, and
edges of some of the feathers, relieved by greyish white.
The rump and tail coverts rather paler and bluer than the
rest of the upper part. The tail feathers with rather obscure
dusky lines, the one at the point the broadest. The throat,
sides of the neck, and all the under parts white, passing into
cream colour on the breast and into light grey on the long
feathers of the legs, marked with bars and arrow-head spots
of dusky. The quills are dusky ; and the first one having
very little outer web towards its tip, gives the point of the
wing great firmness. The male wants the cream colour on
the breast, and the upper plumage is more inclining to brown.
Naked skin yellow, and hides dark brown ; bill bluish, the
tip, and the claws, which are very sharp, black. Bill strong,
and tooth in it very prominent.

Among rapacious birds, the peregrine falcon more eminently
deserves the name of the ' * poulterer ; " because, though it
flies at other game, it seems to be placed as the natural regu-
lator of the numbers of these. It inhabits the wilds next in
latitude and loneliness of situation to the jer-falcon, and sel-
dom nestles in the low countries, and never in the marshy ones.
But it is not so fortified against the cold as the jer-falcon,
and therefore its nest is usually found on the sunny side of
the mountains. Insulated rocks near the margin of the rich
country, and even near the sea, are much more favourite
retreats with the peregrine than the fastness of the moun-
tains. Accordingly, we do not meet with it beating the
summit ridges of the Grampians, but it is very frequently
met with on those secondary slopes where grous are most

THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 85

abundant ; and it will sometimes take a dash over the farm,
and levy its contribution upon the rabbit warren, or even the
poultry yard.

The peregrine falcon is one of those birds that appear to be
less numerous than they really are. It nestles in wild places ;
and as the powerful birds of prey are as remarkable for their
repose when not preying, as for their boldness and activity
when they are, it spends much of its time in quiet, and spends
the more, the more abundant that prey is in its neighbourhood.
Hence it lives the most in retirement in those places which
are the best adapted for it ; and, as the smaller hawks and
kites are not very fond of it as a neighbour, it keeps its pre-
serve in a great measure to itself.

Its onward flight, from the length of which it gets its
name, is exceedingly rapid. Montagu says, as much as 150
miles in the hour ; and probably that is not an over estimate ;
for there is no high-flying bird, of anything approaching to
its size, that gets so soon beyond the range of the eye, as the
peregrine falcon. Its pointed wings, too, enable it to turn
and double with much ease ; so that escape from it by any bird
on the wing is exceedingly difficult. The peregrine falcon
strikes with the beak as well as the talons, though not so
generally as the smaller hawks ; and it also strikes birds as
well as small quadrupeds upon the ground ; but its common
habit is to strike them on the wing, and it often gives chase
at very long distances. Its proper game, the gallinidse, from
the heaviness of their flight, and the difficulty they bave in
turning, are soon dispatched, and the chase seldom lasts a
minute: but with pigeons and ducks, and other birds that
have much command of themselves in the air, it is generally
of longer duration, and has been known to extend, including
doublings, to nine or ten miles, performed, including the
turns, at the rate of about a mile in a minute, and at double
that velocity, or more, upon the stretches. The heron is the
hardest game for the falcon, because of the height at which
the heron flies, the consequent difficulty of the falcon getting
above him, and the small power which it has over any bird

VOL. I. I

86 accipith.es.

that is not lower than itself. The heron strains hard to keep
the sky of its enemy, because, while it can do so, it is per-
fectly safe ; and when it is mastered in that, it has still the
resource of charging by doubling back the neck, and project-
ing its sharp-pointed bill upwards behind the wing. That
serves a double purpose, preserving the head and neck from
the stroke of the falcon, and also presenting a point upon
which, if the falcon should come, she would be transfixed,
and the heron escape in safety. In these cases, the falcon
strikes at the wing ; and if the stroke takes effect, and the
bird descends, the falcon follows, and strikes again at the
head or neck, and soon brings the heron lifeless to the
ground. The rush of the peregrine is perhaps not so tem-
pestuous as that of the jer-falcon, which has altogether more
of the habits of the eagle ; but its style of flight, especially
when on the chase, is much finer. There are many instances
recorded of the amazing power of flight in falcons ; one of the
most remarkable is that of one belonging to Henry IV. of
France, which was found in Malta, 1350 miles from Fontain-
bleau, within twenty-four hours after quitting the latter
place.

The peregrine, as possessing the greatest courage, power,
and tractability jointly, is the falcon par excellence of the fal-
coners. The falcon always means the female, and the male
is called the tercel. When one year old, and before the
plumage acquires the grey that characterizes the mature bird,
the female is called a red falcon, and the male a red tercel.
When fully plumed and trained, (and she has not her full
superiority over the male till in her mature plumage,) the
female is the gentil, or cjentil falcon, — so called, partly from
her docility, and partly because she never turns " down the
wind," or stoops to ignoble game, as some of the other
hawks, and even the tercel peregrine, are apt to do. The
name gentil, which is the opposite of " low" or " vulgar,"
was, however, applied to all good hawks, even to some of the
short-winged ones, such as the gos-hawk.

Most of the hawks, especially those in which there is much

THE HOBBY. 87

difference between the colours of the young and the full-
grown bird, are liable to considerable variations in the general
tint and marking of the mature plumage.

The peregrine is exceedingly bold and daring, and so little
afraid of men and dogs, that it will sometimes join the
hunters in the lower moors, and, if no shots are fired, strike
and carry off a portion of the game. It was, in all proba-
bility, that habit which first led to the training of it ; and
those who are fond of field sports must, in these cases, regret
that the falcon is not, as in the olden time, their servant, and
not their rival. As to the mere slaughtering of birds, the
gun (with a tolerable shot) probably kills more in one day,
than the falcon would in a week ; but the falcon kills the
birds when they are stronger on the wing, and in better con-
dition ; and the sport, from the beautiful action of the falcon,
is much finer. One regrets, therefore, that it has become
unfashionable in the real sports of the field. To let birds fly
from the hand, in order that they may be pounced by the
falcon, is probably cruel, and certainly vulgar, just as it is to
turn out a tame buck to the hounds, or let the birds from the
trap, at that most ignoble of all killing sports, a pigeon-
match ; but when the birds fly strong and the falcon is sure
and true, in wild nature it is indeed glorious sport ; though
sport which those who are grinding the flesh of a lamb that
fell by the butcher's knife feelingly designate as cruel.

the lanner (Falco Lanarius.)

Bears some resemblance to the peregrine, but it is smaller.
It is said to be abundant on the southern slopes of the Carpa-
thian mountains ; but its appearance in Britain, even as a
straggler, is rather doubtful.

the hobby. (Falco subbuteo.)

The hobby is a bold and beautiful little bird, — the pere-
grine falcon in miniature, in form and habits, only more

bb ACCIPITRES.

deeply tinted and rich in its plumage. In wing, it is pro-
portionally even more powerful than the peregrine, the wings
being a little longer in proportion, and when closed extend-
ing beyond the tail. Its length is about a foot, its breadth
two feet three, and its weight less than half a pound.

The naked parts of the hobby are yellow, the bill a blacker
blue than that of the peregrine, and the irides reddish orange,
which gives the eyes a more fiery expression — an expression
more resembling the eyes of the jer-falcon, than the brown
irides of the falcon. The upper part of the bird is greyish
black, the feathers relieved by a higher shade at the margins,
and having a sort of bronzy gloss. The chin and throat are
white, and the white is broken on the sides of the neck. The
belly is dull orange, and that and the breast are, in the male
bird, marked with pretty large dark spots, often crescent or
arrow-head shaped, as is common in the markings on the
under sides in all the hawks. The thighs and under tail
coverts are buff-orange ; the tail feathers are greyish black,
with bronze spots on their inner webs ; and the quills are
dusky black. As is the case in the peregrine, the middle toe
is very long and strong, and acts immediately against the
hinder one.

The hobby is a summer bird of passage, and it is the only
British bird of prey that is so. It arrives in April, and soon
after begins to build its nest, which it does in lofty trees ;
but it sometimes avails itself of the deserted nest of some
resident bird that builds earlier, such as the crow or the mag-
pie. The eggs are from two to four, which appears to be the
average minimum and maximum of the whole tribe. The
young, which have more reddish orange or bronze in the
back than the old birds, are fully feathered by the begin-
ning of September, and in October the whole depart to warmer
climes.

The hobby is a local bird with us, being confined to Eng-
land, and seldom reaching northward of the central heights
of that part of the island. It is the contrast of the peregrine
falcon in its favourite haunts, and is as strictly a bird of the

THE HODDY.

89

cultivated land, as that is of the open wilds. It nestles in the
wood, indeed, and often in the depth of the forest if not very
extensive ; hut it haunts in the fields, and though one would
he apt to suppose that, as it comes with the summer hirds of
passage, it would feed on them, yet its favourite game is
the lark, which it assails even at its greatest height in the
sky. That height is indeed often so considerahle, and the
one hird so intent on capturing, and the other on escaping,
that their manoeuvres can he better seen than most chaces by
birds of prey. The hobby has to keep the lark both up and
down ; for if there is good cover on the ground, the lark can
drop like a stone, and be safe ; and if the lark can keep above
the hobby, it is pretty safe also. On walking across a tufted
field, or by the side of a common, one may sometimes observe
a lark falling as if shot, only there is no turning, and no flutter
of the feathers; and when it does so fall, although at a very
little distance, (and one would be inclined to think that it falls
near a person or an animal grazing, in order that these may
scare the pursuer), it cannot easily be seen ; and if it is, it
has squatted so close, and is in a state of such violent palpi-
tation, that it may be taken with the hand. If a lark is found
acting thus, there is very generally a hobby to be seen, dart-
ing off in that indignant manner which birds of prey show
when they lose their game. At pairing time, the larks drop
in a similar manner ; but that is earlier than the arrival of the
hobby: and when they alight they maybe seen running along,
or heard " churring" an end of their exhilarating stave.

When the hobby so far gets command of the lark as to keep
it to his height, and that is generally the case, the chace is
often rather a protracted one. The lark is not, in proportion,
so well winged as the hobby ; for the lark has wings only
for one tenth the weight of that bird, and its weight is about
a fifth ; but still the lark is a bird of no mean flight. On a
stretch, it would soon be overtaken ; but it wheels and doubles,
and often throws the pursuer out to a considerable distance.
But the hobby has an excellent eye, and not only makes up
rapidly, but actually turns the wheelings of the lark to account,

i 2

90 ACCIPITRES.

by crossing to meet it on the return ; and as fear and exertion
together wear out the lark, the hobby dashes in by a desperate
effort, and the lark is no more.

The hobby also flies at snipes, young partridges, and many
other birds. It is bold, can continue a long time on the wing ;
and, though light, it acquires no small force from the rapidity
of its motions. The hobby was one of the noble hawks, and
for small game, a very favourite one.

THE MERLIN. (Falco CPSdlon.)

The merlin is another of the small falcons, but, like the
hobby, very bold and rapid on the wing : and it is more re-
markable for the difference in colour between tbe two sexes,
than any of those already noticed. The prevailing colour of
the male on the upper parts is greyish blue, with black mark-
ings, and the shafts of the feathers black. On the under side
it is white on the breast, passing into salmon colour toward
the sides of the neck, and on the belly and long feathers of
the legs marked with lines, arrow-head spots, and lines of
dusky. The lines are most conspicuous on the under sides of
the quills, the spots on the flanks and belly, and the sides of
the neck. Tips of the tail feathers white ; about an inch
within that, dusky black ; the rest of the feathers bluish grey,
with dusky bars on the inner webs. The bars vary consider-
ably in number, and, indeed, the colour of the whole plumage
is subject to considerable variations. That might be expected
from the difference that there is between the colour of the
young and the mature bird ; for when that is the case, the
male plumage sometimes stops at one of the intermediate
stages, and has often led to an unnecessary multiplication of
the species.

The female merlin is quite a lady's hawk, and would remain
so, if the dames of England were again to temper their beauty
in the autumnal winds, and so secure the full life-rent of it,
undisturbed. It is a little and a light bird, and for spirit there
is no comparison. The naked parts are lemon yellow, irides

THE MERLIN. 91

hazel, and the bill, which is beautifully shaped, dark blue,
head mottled brown, with a white patch round the eye, di-
vided by a longitudinal dusky line, which makes the upper
part of the white appear like an eyebrow. The white on the
neck nearly forms a collar, lined in front, and dropped on the
sides with brown. The under parts, white, brown, and grev,
with dusky spots, the markings continued under the wings.
The upper part, grey brown, and dusky, finely mottled. The
tail, which is peculiarly handsome, contains one dusky feather
in the middle, those at the sides brown, with white tips, and
very regular bars of very pale reddish brown. When the
wings are half raised, and the tail partially spread, the merlin
falcon is perhaps the handsomest of all hawks. The whole
length is nearly the same as that of the hobby, but the spread
of the wings is two inches less ; the tail is, however, more
than an inch longer, so that, weight for weight, the merlin is
the better winged bird of the two. The weight is not six
ounces, that of the hobby is about seven.

The merlin is a resident bird, and described as being rather
rare, though probably it is more abundant than is generallv
supposed ; its habits and its small size tend to make it less
generally seen than many other birds, which, though thev
come more into sight, are really less abundant. In the breed-
ing season the merlin frequents the bleak moor, and con-
structs its nest in stony places, and sometimes, though rarelv,
in a bush. Its eggs are more numerous than those of the
larger falcons, being sometimes as many as six. The birds
are not, however, numerous in proportion to the eggs ; and
hence it is supposed that, in the absence of the female bird,
they are sometimes destroyed by crows, and probably by
weasels. The stony moors in the south of Scotland and
north of England, with some parts of the Welsh mountains,
where small birds are more plentiful than in more elevated
and remote places, appear to be the favourite haunts of the
merlin. But the time when the merlin is on the moors is
the time when they are little frequented except by the shep-
herds, and they, though generally shrewd observers of the

92 ACCIPITRES.

weather, do not pay much attention to natural history. By
the time that autumnal sporting commences, the little birds
have mostly nocked, and come down either to winter in
warmer and more abundant pastures, or preparatory to their
departure from the country. The merlins accompany them
as far as the southern parts of England, and probably, in
many instances across the channel ; but they preserve their
retired habits. As both prey and preyer fly rapidly at that
season, the merlin is not very often seen, and as it gives
chase in long flight, and does not beat like the short-winged
birds of prey, it vanishes almost as soon as it is got sight of.

the kestrel. (Falco tinnunculus )

The kestrel, though much less bold and noble in its hunting
than the merlin, is a very beautiful bird ; and it is one of the
most common of all our birds of prey. It is also little, if at
all, destructive of game, unless when they are in a very young
state, so that its manners do not so much expose it to perse-
cution, except that general persecution which it receives on
account of being a hawk.

The kestrel is of the same weight as the hobby, and has
the same extent of wing, but it is two inches longer, and
altogether a more slender bird, and weaker in the beak and
the talons. The female, which is the finer and larger bird, is
reddish brown on the whole of the upper part, with arrow-
head, dusky spots on the head, back and wing coverts, and
dusky bars on the tail, the last one broad, and the tips of the
feathers margined with cream colour. The quills, which are
twenty-two in number, are dusky, relieved by white margins.
The under part is reddish cream-colour with indistinct dusky
lines. The male, after the first year, during which it very
much resembles the female, has the head and tad grey, the
back brighter red and with fewer spots, and the under part
redder, and the spots more distinct. It also has the feathers
on the chin more produced, and a black stripe proceeding

THE KESTREL. 93

from the gape, which gives the light grey ahove the eye the
appearance of an eye-brow.

The eye of the kestrel is peculiarly brilliant ; the irides are
rich brown, which contrasts well with the dark stripe and
the pale feathers at the base of the bill and over the eye.
The bill is very short, and the notch nearly obliterated, and
there are two rows of small teeth pointing downwards upon
the palate, not unlike those with which the tongues of the
beasts of prey are beset. The whole structure of the bird
indicates that it is less adapted for pursuing winged game,
pulling feathers, and tearing flesh, than the other long-
winged hawks, and its habits correspond with these differ-
ences of structure.

Popular names are often much more expressive of the habits
of animals than those which have been adopted for scientific
purposes, and that is peculiarly the case with the kestrel.
Two of its popular synonymes are, the "stannel" and the
" wind-hover ;" and these, which by the way have nearly
the same meaning, are remarkably descriptive of the action
of the bird in the air. " Stannel," or " stand-gall," as it is
sometimes pronounced, is "stand-gale," and "wind-hover"
is " hoverer in the wind," both of which express that won-
derful power of poising or anchoring itself over a particular
spot, despite the wind, which the kestrel possesses in greater
perfection than any other hawk.

The kestrel is, altogether, an intermediate sort of bird ;
and though it flies moderately high, and of course generally
in the day-light, it has some of the habits of the owls. It is,
therefore, more worthy of the attention of those who wish
thoroughly to understand the characters of birds than some
of the more powerful and daring hawks. In onward flight
it has not the dash and rapidity of these ; but its power of
hovering over the same spot, in defiance of the wind, is much
greater; and, when that is necessary, it comes down in beau-
tiful style. While it is hovering, the motions of the wings,
when they do move, are exceedingly rapid, and the head is
bent downwards and turned to one side, so that the eye com-

94 ACCIPITRES.

niands a considerable circle of ground, over the centre of
which it is hovering. We have no reason to suppose that
the range of its vision is equal to that of the eagle, because
it does not fly nearly so high, or command nearly so wide an
extent of horizon ; but it is so acute that not a mouse can
stir within its range, without the kestrel being down upon
it, and pouncing it with the most unerring certainty. Mice
and unfledged birds, but especially the former, are the chief
prey at which it stoops. It swallows them entire, and thus
"casts" more than those hawks which pull feathers and tear
flesh.

The kestrel continues its hunting to a later hour than
those hawks which feed principally upon birds, and in the
bright twilights, especially those that break up after showers,
when the light is given back again by the clear drops upon
the leaves, and the larger beetles are numerous on the wing,
the kestrel may often be observed not hovering to stoop to
the earth, but hawking on the wing. Selby, whose self-
observed facts are always worthy of confidence, was among
the first to mention its exploits in thinning the numbers of
that arch enemy of the lawn and the meadow, the cock-
chafer ; but it preys equally upon all the larger twilight
beetles and on some of the moths, which it clutches with the
foot, and conveys to the bill without pausing in its flight.
The smallness and distance of its general prey, require a
wonderful power and certainty of eye in the kestrel, and as
it preys chiefly upon those animals only which man considers
as nuisances, and is anxious to destroy, it is less deserving of
persecution than any of the other hawks, even from those
who are most inconsiderately prone to persecute the whole
race. The brightness of its colours, too, and more especially
the gracefulness of its motions, render the kestrel a very inte-
resting bird, and the one which of all birds of prey it is per-
haps the most pleasant, and certainly the easiest to study.
One would be almost tempted to believe that the birds of
prey have an instinctive knowledge when, in the pursuit of
their prey, they trench on the province of man. The eagle

HAWKS. 95

and the jcr-falcon never come near human habitations, the
peregrine comes rarely, and even the hobby and the merlin
are comparatively solitary birds : but the kestrel will come
near the dwelling, and if violence be not offered to it, it will
hawk about over the lawn or the garden, and assist in the
keeping of these. Nature is, indeed, altogether so beautifully
arranged, that each creature comes only where it is wanted
in order to contribute the most to the harmony and perfection
of the whole.

The little grey kestrel, or red-legged falcon (F. ntjijjes),
which is a bird of eastern countries, and very discursive in its
habits, has, of late years, been occasionally shot in Norfolk.
The male has the back deep ashen grey, and the belly and
thighs red : the female has the back grey with black spots,
and all the under part reddish.

The hawks are shorter winged than the falcons, and have
the longest feather farther into the wing — the fourth being
the longest and the first very short, and the wings when
closed, seldom reaching beyond the middle of the tail. They
are not therefore capable of such prolonged flight or graceful
turning in the air as the falcons ; but their direct flight is
very rapid, though fluttering : they are bold and courageous ;
and they strike their prey upon the wing. Though not so
far-sighted as the falcons, they see more perfectly within
their reach, and their habit requires it, as they see their prey
against the ground (which often resembles the prey in colour),
while the falcons see theirs more against the sky. Their
claws are much hooked and very sharp, and the middle toe is
very long, as compared with the inner and outer ones ; but
the tarsi are, at least in some species, long and slender, and
the whole body is less indicative of power than that of the
falcons. They nestle more in trees, and frequent wooded
places more than the falcons ; but some also build in rocks.
The notch in the hawk is not so conspicuous ; but the beak is
more used as a prehensile instrument.

96 ACCIPITRES.

the gos-hawk. (Falco palumbarius.)

The gos-hawk is an exceedingly bold and powerful bird,
and in the days of falconry it was much used for flying at
" low game," that is, game which remains on the ground, or
does not rise very high above it, such as hares, rabbits, wild
ducks, and the wild gallinidse.

The gos-hawk is a longer bird than even the jer-falcon, but
the superior length is in the tail feathers rather than in the
body ; and it is shorter in the wings and altogether less com-
pact and powerful, while it is not nearly so elegant as the
peregrine ; but still it is a very fine bird, and justly entitled
to be considered as the model of the short-winged or low-
flighted hawks. In the full grown female the general colour
of the whole upper parts, the ear coverts, and a streak con-
tinued thence to the shoulder, is blackish brown, the back
mottled, the edges of the ear coverts relieved, and the quills
and tail feathers margined with light tints of reddish brown.
Between the nostril and the eye is grey, and the rest of the
under part white, with numerous arrow-head spots and lines
of brown, which are very delicate on the long feathers of the
legs, and obscure or wanting on the vent and under tail coverts.
The tail and tail feathers are obtuse pointed, and tipped with
white. The colours though not showy are well contrasted.
The naked parts are yellow, the irides grey, and the eye very
quick and penetrating. The male has the top of the head and
the neck much lighter, and a reddish tinge over the greater
part of the body. The spots on the under part are also fewer,
much paler, and generally of an oval shape. The male is not
above two-thirds of the length of the female, is not nearly so
well shouldered or winged, and altogether a very inferior bird.
The gos-hawk is not so prolific as the smaller falcons and
hawks, the eggs seldom if ever exceeding four. The young
are much more of a red or rusty colour, especially on the
under parts, than the mature birds. They pass through
several tints of plumage, and as is the case with most birds

THE SPARROW-HAWK. 97

which do that, the permanent colour which they at last take
is not uniform. Sometimes they are (the males especially)
nearly white, and at other times the same sex is tawny with
few markings.

The favourite dwellings of the gos-hawk are the extensive
wooded dells of the mountains or the wild cliffs on the sea
shore, where it can nestle undisturhed and yet he within
reach of places abounding with the large hirds and small
quadrupeds on which it feeds. But it is one of those birds
that flit before the progress of cultivation, and hence it never
builds and is rarely seen in the Lowlands of Scotland, and
more rarely in England. In inland places it builds in the
forests, and is generally found near these, because large birds
are much more abundant there than on the open wastes. The
remains of the natural pine forests, on the east part of the
Grampians between the Dee and the Spey, in Strathglass, and
in some of the glens that open into the line of the Caledonian
canal, are the favourite inland haunts of the gos-hawk. It is
probable, also, that the extensive artificial plantations in
Athol, Moray, and other places, may have brought it back,
though not in great numbers. Where the gos-hawk abounds,
it is very destructive to mountain game, especially in close
time ; when it kills the old birds, and the broods perish. The
gos-hawk is docile, and not difficult to train. It was on this
account called a " gentil" falcon, at least in some of its
plumages. Though its action is not so grand as that of the
falcon, there is a great deal of stir and energy about it, and
it is nowise inferior as a " pot -fowler," if the ground for it
be judiciously chosen. The gos-hawk is found in the wild
parts of most countries, with the exception of low marshy
ones.

THE SPARROW-HAWK. (FdlcO 7lisilS.)

Though this hawk is bold and daring enough to come
near the house for the purpose of killing sparrows, yet spar-
rows are not its only or even its favourite game. It is a

VOL. I. K

98 ACCIPITRES.

very general and successful destroyer ; and, in the female
especially, by no means destitute of power.

The difference in size between the sexes is not quite so great
as in the gos-hawk, — the male being only one-fifth less than
the female, the length of which is about fifteen inches. The
female is, however, a far more compact and powerful bird,
and her additional weight is much more than in proportion to
the length.

There is some resemblance to the gos-hawk in the general
shape and air of the body, as well as in the general colour
and markings of the plumage, and in the male being redder
on the under part than the female. The upper part of the
full-grown female is blackish grey, barred with darker, and
mixed with brown on the back and shoulders ; the ear-coverts
and sides of the neck brownish, with a mottled white band
passing from the forehead over the orbit of each eye (which
is very prominent,) and nearly meeting on the neck. The
under part is white, tinged with brownish on the belly,
and marked with transverse brownish bars. The iricles are
bright yellow, and the naked parts pale, the tarsi being very
long and comparatively slender. Tbe male is nearly similar
on the upper pai't, but wants the white on the head and
neck. They build in thick bushes and low trees, some-
times forming a rude structure of twigs for themselves, and
sometimes making use of the nest of some bird that breeds
earlier. The crow tribe, and those other birds that agree
with them in the habit of plundering nests, are among the
earliest breeders, and have their young about the time that
the generality of birds are laying their eggs. Birds that
prey upon other birds breed later, and when they nestle in
the same places as they hunt, as is in so far the case with
the sparrow-hawk, they often occupy the deserted nests of
the egg- stealers.

Sparrow-hawks, from their general distribution, their dar-
ing, and the voracity of their young, kill a vast number of
birds, probably more than any other birds of prey ; and

HARRIERS. 99

these not merely little birds, but birtls of large size and
powerful wing, such as the lapwiug, the snipe, and the
pigeon. While the gos-hawk keeps to the large and lonely
wood, the sparrow-hawk is the plunderer of the coppice, the
hedge-row, and the corn-field ; and it is more incessantly
on the wing than any other bird of prey, and perhaps strikes
more forcibly in proportion to its size and weight.

Both species of hawks are very indiscriminate in their
slaughtering, and do not, it is said, spare even the weaker
ones of their own species ; for that reason, it is difficult to
reai- males and females in the same cage, as the latter are
very apt to kill and eat the former.

The hawks resemble the falcons in many of their cha-
racters, and also in generally pouncing upon their prey on the
wing ; but they differ in their lower flight, their shorter and
rounder wings, their bill not curving so sharply at the base,
and being without the prominent tooth of the falcons. They
differ little in activity, or if they do, the hawks are probably
on the whole more active than the falcons.

There are two other divisions of rapacious birds, which
agree with each other in their very low flight, and in
striking their prey upon the ground, but differ essentially
in many parts of their characters. These are Harriers and
Buzzards.

HARRIERS.

The harriers are birds of considerable size, power, and
extent of wing, very indefatigable in their hunting, and
highly destructive of the feathered tribes, and also of rabbits.
They have not the grandeur of the falcons, neither have they
quite the vigour of the hawks ; and they are not so powerfully
armed as either of these. Their beaks and feet are more
feeble, and their claws smaller ; they fly very low, and strike
their prey on the ground, that prey consisting more of young
birds and of females when they are sitting, than that of the

100 ACCIPITRES.

hawks, as the prey of the hawks consists of less powerfully
winged birds than that of the falcons.

It is from this habit that they get the name of " harriers,"
which is synonymous with that of plunderers. They are also
sometimes called " harpies ;" and as they often beat the
bushes so low that their feet touch, it is possible that they
may have given rise to some of the fabulous accounts of
griffins, one of the characters of which was supposed to be a
combination of the functions of walking and flying. The
harriers do not combine these ; but they fly so near the
ground, and have their feet so ready for assisting in the
capture of any prey they may spy, that they often appear as
if the feet were concerned in assisting their motion.

It was mentioned that the kestrel, which often pounces upon
its prey on the ground, has more power in turning the head
so as to take in a horizon all round it than those birds
which strike in the air ; and as the harriers fly lower than the
kestrel, and consequently take in a smaller horizon, they are
still better furnished with the means of narrowly scrutinizing
that horizon.

The majority of the diurnal birds of prey have the eyes
placed so far backwards laterally that they cannot see the
same object with both eyes, nnless it is at a very considerable
distance ; and cannot see right before them without turning
the head. As their prey is also rather under them than
otherwise, their eyes are, in consequence of the projection of
the upper part of the orbit, better adapted for looking down
than looking up. But in the harriers the eyes are placed so
near each other, that both can be directed forwards ; and they
are provided with a concha, or circle of feathers radiating from
the orbit, less produced and perfect than the same is in the
owls, but something similar in structure and use. These
appendages are most conspicuous in the hen harrier, which
is the one that beats most about the furze, and other close
and tangled bushes in which so many birds nestle and con-
ceal themselves. The harriers have the wings and tail more

THE HEN HARRIER. 101

produced than the hawks, the wings more pointed, and the
tail rounded. There are at least three of them ; hut some
of them are at times called buzzards, though they are far
more active in their habits than these birds.

THE HEN HARRIER. (FdlcO Cl/dUeUS.)

The sexes in this species differ so much, hoth in size and
in plumage, that they have often been described as different
birds, and some astonishment has been expressed that the
female and nest of the grey one, (which is the male,) could
never be found. Even in the same sex, the colours are not a
little perplexing ; for in all birds where there are remarkable
differences of plumage in the sexes, and a passage from the
plumage of the one to that of the other with the progress to
maturity, as there generally is, there are not only always
individuals in some of the intermediate stages of the plumage,
but there are individuals in which the change never com-
pletely takes place, and others in which the plumage of the
other sex is partly assumed. Colours vary also with dif-
ferences of age, situation, and season ; so that difference of
colour is never a sufficient foundation for difference of species.
Similarity of situation and habits are much more to be de-
pended upon. There is, at least in some parts of the country,
a further perplexity about these birds, arising from the fact
that the ash-coloured harriers, though smaller birds, different
in the general tints of their plumage, and local as compared
with the hen harriers, have yet similar differences of appear-
ance in the sexes.

The full-grown female hen harrier is about twenty inches
long, and three feet and a half in the extent of the win"-s.
The naked parts are yellow, and the irides dark brown. Brown
and dusky white are the prevailing colours of the whole bird.
The head is mottled brown on the upper part, and the concha
round the eye is brown, immediately surrounding that organ,
but terminates on a white eyebrow which reaches to the cere
of the beak, and it is white below, but terminates in a brown

K 2

102 ACCIPITRES.

border. That appendage gives enforcement and expression to
the eye, perfectly distinct from any other of the tribe. The
feathers below are brown, with pale margins, and pass into
white at the tail coverts ; the upper part is brown, lightest
on the scapulars and lesser coverts, and the margins of the
feathers are lighter. The tail is brown, with dusky bars, and
the quills of the wings very deep brown, inclining to black.

In the male, the breast, head, and all the upper part, are
of a fine grey, lighter on those parts of the concha which are
white in the female, and also where the brown is lighter in
the upper part of that sex. The remainder of the under part
is white, with very faint markings ; indeed all the markings
on the male bird are obscure and faint ; but, notwithstanding
this, and the difference of size and expression of the eyes, (the
irides are yellow in the male, and brown in the female,) the
shape and air of the birds correspond exactly.

Though the hen harriers fly low, their flight is very swift,
and at the same time smooth and graceful ; and they admit
of a nearer approach, and can be better seen, than most of
the birds of prey. They are not very numerous in any one
locality, neither are they very prolific ; but they are pretty
generally distributed over the country, on the edges of the
moors, where they may be seen beating the bushes with much
assiduity. They pounce indiscriminately upon birds, reptiles,
and small quadrupeds. They are very destructive in pre-
serves, when these contain bushes in which it can nestle.
They even pay visits to the poultry -yard, and pounce upon
and carry off the chickens. The nest is on the ground,
generally at the base of a furze bush, and it is rude, formed
of a few sticks ; the eggs are without markings, often four in
number, but seldom six.

the ash-coloured harrier. (Falco cineraceus.)

The ash-coloured harrier has been observed only on the
edges of the dry bleak moors in the southern counties of
England. It is of the same length as the hen harrier, but

THE MARSH HARRIER. 103

has each wing about two inches longer, and is only about
three-fourths of the weight. It is thus a bird capable of very
powerful flight, and may be a summer migrant. The male is
ash-coloured, with a tinge of brown on the upper part, and
white below, with an orange-brown streak on the middle of
each feather. Primary quills dull black, secondaries ash
colour, with obscure dusky bars ; tail ash colour, with the
exception of the two middle feathers, which are brown. The
female is deep chocolate colour above, with pale rusty mar-
gins to the feathers, and a white spot on the neck ; below, it
is darker than the mail, but the rump and tail coverts are
white. Eggs not exceeding four, of a pure white, and de-
posited in rude nests under bushes. The young are similar
in plumage to the female ; but the sexes differ iu size. Like
the hen harrier, it is subject to varieties of colour. It is
said to prey more on small birds, and to be less destructive
of game. Whatever its colour may be, it is easily distin-
guished from the other harriers by the closed wings extend-
ing beyond the point, of the tail, while about a third of the
tail projects beyond the wings in the hen harrier, and about a
fourth in

THE MARSH HARRIER. (Falc'O mfus.)

This is the largest and most powerful of the harriers. The
female is sometimes about two feet in length, and nearly four
and a half in the extent of the wings, weighing, when of that
size, at least a pound and a half. The upper plumage is rich
brown, with rust-coloured margins ; the head, neck, and under
part yellowish white, with rusty markings more or less obscure.
It is subject to considerable variations of colour, the head and
under parts being sometimes nearly pure white. The male is
smaller than the female, lighter in the colours, and when old
it often turns grey, which does not appears to be the case in
the female. Nest generally on the ground, and the eggs
pure white. These birds are not uncommon near extensive
marshes ; but the pairs live apart from each other, except

104

ACCIPITRES.

sometimes during severe storms, when they resort to the
sandy wastes along the sea shore. They fly very low over
the marshes, and, from the great length of their wings, they
appear larger than they really are. They prey on water birds,
on the grallidee, on water rats and mice, on frogs, and even
on fish when they can pounce upon them in the shallows.
They will sometimes take a turn round houses, if situated near
their haunts, and carry off chickens or tame ducks. They
also eat carrion, especially the bodies of sheep that perish in
the marshes. They are often found beating over rabbit war-
rens, when these are near marshes or the shores of the sea ;
and they choose the morniugs, and the evenings after rain,
when the rabbits come out, at which time they kill great
numbers of both old and young. Their flight is rapid, how-
ever, and as the marsh is more easily beat than the brake,
they are not so often seen, or seen so long at a time as the
hen harriers. The mornings at and a little before sunrise,
when the grallidse leave their nests to feed on worms before
these get into the earth from the sun, are the best times for
observing the habits of the marsh harriers. They are pro-
vincially known by many names, such as duck-hawks, moor-
buzzards, harpies, and others. They seldom beat over dry
places, and are never found at very great elevations.

BUZZARDS.

The buzzards have some resemblance to the harriers, but
they are easily distinguished, both by their appearance and
their habits. They want the concha of feathers round the
eyes ; they have no tooth in the upper mandible ; their claws
are short, and less hooked than those of any of the other
sections ; they have the feathers on the legs very long, and
the tarsi much shorter than the harriers ; and their whole
frame seems loose and feeble ; though they are bold and
powerful birds. There are three buzzards mentioned as
British birds ; — the common buzzard, which is abundant in
wooded districts ; the rough legged buzzard, which is a native

THE COMMON BUZZARD. 1 05

of colder climates, and comes rarely to Britain as a straggler
in the winter; and the honey buzzard, which also is by no
means common, and though it breeds in some places, is, in all
probability, only a summer visitant ; indeed, as it seems to
feed much, if not exclusively, upon winged insects, provisions
for it in the winter are but scarce.

THE COMMON IHZZARD. (FalcO bllteo.)

The common buzzard is a large bird, more than twenty
inches in length, and four feet in the stretch of the wings ;
but the wings are neither so well formed nor so fit for rapid
flight as those of the marsh harrier. The bird weighs about
two pounds ; but it looks clumsy.

It builds in trees, the eggs being large, and seldom if
ever exceeding four in number. As the places that it fre-
quents abound in game, the buzzard finds its food with less
labour than any other of the diurnal birds of prey. It con-
tinues perched on some hollow tree, and waits till the prey
comes within its reach, and then it leaps down to secure and
despatch it. It is, in fact, the only diurnal rapacious bird that
preys in the thick of the forests and on the ground in these ;
and though when we compare it with those hawks which
drive through the air or beat the bushes or the waste, it
seems an indolent creature, yet vigilance is its habit, and
the only one that is well adapted to the places which it
frequents. To beat a forest of tall trees by flying over it,
would answer very little purpose, and to beat through the
branches would be impossible for a day bird that depended on
the light of the sun. The habit of the buzzard, therefore,
though different from that of any of the other diurnal birds
of prey, is just as finely adapted to the places which it fre-
quents as that of any of the others ; and the peregrine for all
its speed, and the harrier for all its diligence, would find but
a small supply in those places where the buzzard fares abun-
dantly. The prey which it takes, too, is so situated that man

106 ACCIPITRES.

could not easily take it ; and therefore there would be a blank
in nature, a want of something to preserve the balance be-
tween animals and their food, if the woodland were despoiled
of its buzzards. But when the wood is cut down, and the
animals over which the buzzard is set as a sort of regulator
are dispersed or betake themselves to more open localities,
they meet with new regulators and the buzzard disappears.

Buzzards vary a good deal in colour, but the prevailing
tints are, rich brown edged with yellowish brown on the
upper part, white on the throat, and yellowish white on the
belly, the former marked with streaks and the latter with
arrow-point spots of brown, the quills and tail feathers barred
with blackish brown.

Besides the general rest and quiet of the buzzard, there is
another circumstance recorded of it, which points out the
general effect that plenty of food acquirable without much
labour has on the habits of birds. The young buzzards are
said to remain in company with the old ones for a consider-
able time after they have left the nest and are able to shift for
themselves ; whereas most of the other birds of prey soon
desert their young, and many drive them away. In conse-
quence of this social habit, the buzzard can be tamed, and, in
France, it is said to have been trained to bring up chickens.

THE ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD. (Fdlco IdCJOpUS.)

The rough-legged buzzard is a much smaller bird than the
common one, lighter in the colours, and with the tarsi fea-
thered down to the toes. It inhabits the pine forests of the
north of Europe, and preys chiefly upon small quadrupeds and
reptiles. It rarely visits Britain, and then only the eastern
parts of the country, to which it appears to be driven by
the winds, in the course of its continental migrations. It
has not been noticed in Scotland, the coast of that part of
the island being so far west, as to be out of the line of its
passage.

KITES. 107

THE HONEY BUZZARD (Fdlco aj)lCOri(s)

Seems also to be a mere straggling visitant ; comes only in
the summer, and is found (when found at all) in the southern
parts of the island. Its native habitat appears to be chiefly in
the eastern parts of the continent, where there arc thick and
extensive forests, interspersed with pools and streams of
water, and abounding with the larger insects. It is more
handsome than the common buzzard, with the wings rather
longer in proportion, and its habits are a little more active.
It preys upon smaller game, — bees, wasps, beetles, dragon-
flies, frogs, lizards, and occasionally small birds. Its motion
when hawking for its food, especially for diagon-tlies near
the pools and streams, is very light and gliding ; and it slides
through the branches of trees with more apparent ease than
could be expected in a bird of so large size. It migrates on
the continent, and, in all probability, passes the Mediterra-
nean towards winter. Its nest has been seen in some of the
forests of the south of England.

The buzzards are all woodland birds, and although they
are adapted for and inhabit different latitudes, there is so
much similarity and family likeness among them, that one
who has seen the common buzzard, can be at no loss in
Knowing the others, if by rare accident they should come in
his way.

KITES.

There is but one species of kite met with in the British
islands, the common kite, or [/lead, (Falco milvus,) but it is by
no means uncommon ; and its form, the style of its flight,
and the depredations which it commits, all tend to bring it
into notice.

The lineal dimensions of the kite are very considerable ; the
wings of the female extend five feet and a half, and the length

10S ACCIPITRES.

is nearly two feet and a half, but a considerable portion of
that is occupied by the tail, the outside feathers being more
than a foot long ; the tail is also very broad and much forked.
The weight is about two pounds and three quarters, which is
less for the extent of the bird than that of any other of the
predatory tribes. The male is considerably less than the
female.

The feathers on the head are dull white, with dusky streaks,
which give it a grizzled appearance, and that is heightened by
the feathers of the neck being pointed. The feathers above
are brown, passing into reddish orange and buff toward the
edges ; the under parts are reddish orange, with dusk-brown
stripes on the belly and thighs. Upper side of the tail reddish
orange, with white tips ; under side reddish white, with
obscure brown bars. The female has the general tint of the
plumage more inclining to orange, and in some specimens it is
even greyish ; so that in some parts of the country, the male
is called the "redglead," and the female the "grey glead."

The kite builds in trees, the nest being concealed in a fork.
It is a more carefully constructed fabric than that of most
other predatory birds, being closely formed of sticks and the
interior lined with wool or other soft materials. The nest is
not very often seen, even in those places where the bird is
most common. The eggs are of considerable size, and seldom
exceed two or three. The young remain a long time in the
nest.

It is doubtful whether the kites are as constant in their
pairing as many of the other birds of prey. In the early part
of the season, males are not unfrequently seen in desperate
combat, though combat of no very dignified kind, but rather
a sort of scrambling and scratching ; and as it is not the habit
of the kite to attack any living creature nearly as large as
itself, or indeed any creature that can show fight, it is not to
be supposed that hunger is the cause of these combats ; but
that, however ungallant they may be in the style in which
they are conducted, gallantry is the principle from which they
proceed.

KITES. 10!)

The kite has from the extent of its wings and its tail, very
great command of the atmosphere and possession of itself in
that element. It does not heat along in straight lines, but
wheels in curves, which it is constantly opening and closing,
and always in a smooth and graceful manner, without any
jerks ; and if it were possihle to trace a day's path of a kite,
it would he a very tine specimen of looped curves. The kite
can hover for a long time over the same spot, with very little
exertion of the wings and though there is a fresh breeze ;
and there are times, (probably when it has lost sight of some
prize on the ground, or discovered that the prize over which
it was hovering was no prize at all,) at which it will "give
itself to the wind," and drift to leeward in very beautiful
style, and apparently with complete self-possession. Crows
often do the same, especially upon the elevated moors, where
prey is but scanty, and they have been long contending with
the wind. Kites will also sometimes turn down the wind to
escape the more powerful falcons, which though they do not
attack the kite, often frighten it, and make it lose its prey ;
and as going down the wind is not a habit of the falcons, the
kite gets away from them by the manoeuvre. That manoeuvre,
though held in great contempt by the falcon, is by no means
an ungraceful or uninteresting one ; the bird rides lightly on
the wind, but retains its self-command, so that it can take a
new direction whenever it pleases. The axis of its body is
placed at an angle to the wind, which is smaller in proportion
as that is stronger ; and the windward wing is elevated, so
that the wind takes the under side at au angle, and tends to
raise the bird obliquely upward, while its weight presses
downward and counteracts. When looked at, the bird always
has in these cases the appearance of descending as it drifts.
But that is an optical deception; for all things tbat are higher
than the eye, appear to descend as they recede, even though
they are rising ; and the kite may often be observed to have
gained height, while thus appearing to float downwards. If
on those occasions an alarm is given, the bird hauls closer to
the wind, and makes oil*.

VOL I. L

HO ACCIPITRES.

A kite overtaken by a whirlwind, though not an every-day
sight, is by no means an uninteresting one. The kite feels the
first action of the revolving air as if it were a breeze, trims to
it, and is borne upward in a spiral which gradually expands as
it becomes elevated, till at last the bird escapes to straight
flight, and takes its departure as if not quite certain what may
be the matter.

Though kites nestle in woods, they beat about in open
places, and generally places where there is not much herbage
on the ground. They are seldom seen over corn-fields, or
places which are very thickly tangled with bushes, though they
often hover on the margins of the brakes, to pounce upon mice,
and also upon young birds when these first venture from the
nest. The cold swards by the sides of the upland streams,
and the upland farms, where the pastures are thin and bare,
and any thing stirring on the ground can be easily discerned
from the height at which the kite flies, are the places at which
it is most frequently to be met with. In those situations, it
is very destructive to the young of domestic poultry ; and so
intent is it upon that species of depredation, that it will very
frequently carry off a chicken in spite of the good woman of
the cottage and her broom, and plenty of clamour to boot.
But though the kite, after it has come in contact with its
prey, is not easily driven off, and instances have occurred in
which it has been knocked on the head, yet it will not face a
brood hen, or even as is said a partridge, when excited in
defence of her young. It is an adventurous and greedy thief ;
but as for courage, it must take its place among the "passive
stout," that display their prowess more by suffering than by
doing.

A country in what may be called a half-cultivated state,
where the fields alternate with naked and cold wastes, and
the portions out of crop are covered with scanty natural
grasses, or in that state of slovenly and unprofitable fallow,
which rivals the intended pastures in verdure — where rag-
weed and mountain daisies form tufts, equally forbidding to
the nose and the palate of the cattle, though these have been

KITES. 1 1 1

so anatomised by storms ami starvation that every bone in
them may be counted, and the crow and the less frequent
raven come hopping about as if they already scented carrion, —
these are the places for the kite. If there are woods in the
vicinity, kites will nestle there ; and if there are not, they
will come from a considerable distance to the pasture. Kites
used to be exceedingly numerous in those inland parts of
Angus, Kincardine, and Aberdeen, where the land is cold and
bare, and the cottages were arranged along the sides of the
moors, the owners paying so many pullets as pax't of their
rent. The pullets, with their broods, roamed freely over the
cultivated patch of laud, where the crop never entirely con-
cealed the clods ; and the kite was so common a visitor, that
some of the children were generally posted on the watch to
" sheu the glead," sometimes armed with a watchman's rattle
to assist them in their vocation; and when by any chance the
marauder was caught, he was forthwith nailed upon the most
conspicuous part of the hut, in terrorem of all forky-tailed
hawks that might in future have the lawless audacity to dimi-
nish the sacred and rigidly demanded tale of " the laird's kain
hens;" and many times has the dame " o' gentil bluid" prayed
inward maledictions upon the kite, as she sat tugging and
planting tooth-ache in both jaws, over the matron pullet of
twenty broods, which, in consecmence of the alleged havoc of
the plunderer, had been slipped into the laird's kain basket to
make out the tale. But those days have gone by ; the lands
are better cropped; the uplands are under cattle and sheep; the
laird resides at a distance, and wants not hens, but money; the
" latcher-steds" of the cottages are but so many marks, a little
greener, on the moor: there are no chickens now, and scarcely
a mouse; so exit milvvs — the kite is comparatively a rare bird.
And yet, one who has been familiar with such a place in its
better days, (our young feelings bring liner weather on their
wings than summer suns and south-west zephyrs,) feels that
there is a blank produced by the absence of the kite and the
cottages; the more so that the country people are no more
redolent of pullets for their own use, than whenuthe kite anil

112 ACCIPITRES.

the laird were equally eager for chickens. The sight of a kite,
quite at its ease, or at its labour if you will, on a fine clear
day, and when there is not a spot in the blue dome of heaven
but itself, is really a very fine one. It appears as if it had
charmed the atmosphere to move it as it lists, and without any
effort. The wings and tail are expanded, and yet they appear
hardly to move, as the bird ascends and descends, and wheels
and turns, now in wide and sweeping circles, and anon drop-
ping lower down it turns fairly round on the point of the wing
as a pivot. After it has long beat over one portion of pasture
without success, and there is a hill, a wood, or any place not
adapted to its habits, to be passed over before it reaches the
nest, the beauty and the easy smoothness with which it gets
up are unrivalled. It climbs eagle height, and without eagle
effort, and from the very top of heaven surveys the land ;
then shoots away to some distant place, that may appear
better adapted for its purpose.

The kite feeds not only upon young birds, and small qua-
drupeds and reptiles, but upon carrion and garbage of all sorts,
in order to obtain which it will dare much when hungry.
From the ease with which the kite can keep the wing for a
great length of time, it obviously could perform long flights ;
and though we have not accounts of the excursions of kites in
this country, a straggler sometimes makes its appearance, and
indicates a journey across the Atlantic, as one at least — that
which is nearly white, with black wings and tail — comes from
America, and probably migrates there from Carolina to Brazil.
The resident kite is subject to some variations of colour, though
less so than those species in wbich the sexes in their mature
plumage differ more from each other.

Eagles have in every age been the most celebrated of rapa-
cious birds ; and in so far as power, strength, daring, and
grandeur of situation are concerned, they deserve their cele-
brity. They are in all respects the birds of the greatest eleva-

EAGLES.

113

tion. They frequent more lonely and secluded places than
any of the others ; they nestle in more elevated, wild, and
inaccessible rocks ; they rise much higher, and range much
farther ; and their stoop, when they come down on their prey
from a great elevation, is perhaps the grandest display in the
whole action of animated nature. They are much larger than
any of the others ; and though all birds are formed of nearly
the same materials, these seem consolidated in a peculiar
manner in every part of the eagles. Their bones are more
solid and specifically heavy ; and though, like the bones of all
birds, they are hollow for the free admission of air, yet they
are fortified by cross pieces extending from side to side of the
tubes, so as to offer complete resistance to every strain of the
naturally violent motions of the birds, and also to any casual-
ties to which in the course of their daring lives they may be
exposed. Their muscles are as firm as pieces of cable, and
their tendons almost as rigid as dried catgut. Their very
feathers have a firmness and strength in them that alone
would tell the daring and enduring character of the birds.
Those winds which cleave the oak, and rend up the mountain-
pine by the roots, do not ruffle the plumage of the mountain
eagle, or drive her from her perch on the ledge of the rock.
Firmly rooted in the powerful clutch of her feet, and defended
by the plated mail of her stiff though elastic feathers, she
defies the topmost bent of the elements, and, from the " mu-
nition of the rocks," looks down unconcerned upon the tempest
which is sweeping the world below her with terror and devas-
tation. The range of her eye is truly wonderful. Floating
hundreds of feet above the summits of our highest mountains,
— and she always soars aloft even there, — her horizon com-
mands a hundred dells and valleys ; and she spies a grous or
a mountain hare from a distance at which the human eye
could hardly discern an elephant. But as she dwells in power
she also dwells in peace. There is no tumult or clamour in
the eyrie of the eagle ; she merely seeks food for herself and
her young, and when that has been obtained she is at rest ;
and all under her dominion are safe, for even the boldest and

l 2

114 ACCIPITRES.

swiftest-winged hawks keep at a distance from the retreat of
the eagle, and when her shadow passes over the valley, not a
wing moves but her own.

There are three British species of eagles, all differing in
their haunts and habits, but all agreeing in their general cha-
racters of these powerful birds. They are pretty widely scat-
tered, but they are nowhere numerous ; and it is probable,
nay it is certain, that independently of the price which is set
on their heads, by those very considerate persons who would
rather have ten' sickly sheep punched and tortured to death by
the crow than one lamb killed on the instant and borne off by
the eagle, the numbers are everywhere on the decline.

One, the most powerful and the model of the race, dwells
only in the wilds, and never visits the inhabited country,
except it borders on those. It is very rare ; and they who
would enjoy the luxury of seeing it dashing away in pure
nature (and it is a luxury) must pay the price in a very
fatiguing, but at the same time a health-inspiring journey.
That is the mountaineer ; and like all mountaineers, it quits
not its abode, but remains in the same haunt for life, — and a
long life it is, — and it resists all invasion, even by its own
species.

Another which is rather smaller, not so powerful, and more
generally distributed and more frequently seen, is either for
the land or water, hunting or fishing as the one or the other
promises to be most successful ; not inhabiting so wild places,
nor quite so chary in its food as the former, but in the absence
of the mountain eagle, withal a powerful and even a splendid
bird.

The third more affects the waters, the banks of large rivers
and lakes, and the shores of the sea, especially when they are
wild and rocky, and distant from human habitations. It is
considerably smaller than either of the others, but it is at the
same time a bird of great power, and one of which the habits
and action are well worth studying.

The tomia, or cutting edges of the beaks of eagles, form
a sort of waving line, so that they can hold firmly ; but they

EAGLES.

115

have not the prominent tooth which distinguishes the falcons
and renders their heak so very efficient an instrument. The
feet and claws are, on the other hand, more powerful in the
eagles, and arc, generally speaking, the only instruments
they use in the capture and killing of their prey, the beak
not heing brought into action until the prey has ceased to
throb under the terrible clutch of the talons. The following
figures represent a foot of the mountain eagle and one of the
fishing eagle.

CLUTCHING FEET.

Golden Eagle,

Osprey.

The first of these is adapted for striking prey to the
ground, and for griping it there till it be dead. The second
for grasping fish in the water, and lifting them out of that
element as the bird rises. For the latter purpose, the outer
toe, which in the repose of the bird is turned forwards, ad-
mits of a reverse motion, so that two toes can act against
two, and thus take a better lifting hold of the prey. The
feet are also differently feathered, according to the difference
of habit in the birds. In the mountain eagle, the feet ot
which are, from its habit, not much exposed to wet, but have
often to endure a temperature far below 0 of the common

116

ACCIPITRES.

thermometer, have the tarsi feathered down to the toes, by
which means the powerful machinery by which these are
moved is not stiffened by the frosts. The fishing eagle,
which is not exposed to so intense cold, but must have the
under part of the body frequently immersed in water, has the
tarsi bare of feathers for the greater part of their length ;
and the one which preys indiscriminately on land and in the
water, has them bare to an intermediate height.

the golden eagle. (Falco chrysaetos.)

On the frontispiece there is a figure of the female golden
eagle, in the attitude which it assumes when apparently exult-
ing over the prey which it has captured, and in the act of
clutching to death. The figure is about one eighth of the
lineal dimensions of nature ; and it will give some idea of the
attitude, though it is not possible to give the expression on
so small a scale, or indeed on any scale. The spirit of an
excited eagle can be felt only by those who are familiar with
the birds (such familiarity as man can have with eagles) in
their native haunts ; and even then it must be imagined, for
it cannot be accurately seen, or satisfactorily described. It is
very difficult indeed to obtain even a tolerable portrait of one
of these birds ; for in order to get the eagle in perfection
into an aviary, we would require to bring the mountain crag
and the mountain glen along with her. The bird lives, no
doubt, for it is a bird not easily killed, but its plumage is dull
and its spirit more so. The rich browns with their peculiar
metallic lustre, and the pointed feathers on the neck, shaded
off till they arrive at the rich orange at the points, and stand
up when the bird is excited, as if they were so many scales
margined with gold, are not to be obtained, unless where the
bird has the free and unrestrained range of all its powers, —
can climb the pure air till it touch on the region of perpetual
frost, and there dash along over a wide extent of country.
Their feathers are tinted and tempered in the fury of the
blast ; and they acquire not their full depth and lustre till

THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 1 17

they have borne that for four successive winters ; and BO it
would be vain to hope that we could cither obtain or preserve
them in confinement.

The length of the full-grown female is upwards of three
feet, and the extent of the wings between seven and eight
feet. Specimens have been mentioned that measured as
much as eleven feet, though the accounts of these may be
a little exaggerated. It is very probable, however, that the
ultimate size to which the birds attain depends, in a con-
siderable degree, on the supply of food they receive when
young, and it may be partially also on the climate. Hence,
when the golden eagle had haunts more southerly, and in
richer pastures than any which it now frequents in this
country, it may have grown to a larger size.

The popular natural history of the eagles is more obscure
than that of many less noticed and less interesting birds. All
very large birds of prey that are seen flying at great eleva-
tions are regarded not only as eagles but as the golden
eagle itself; and, on the other hand, those who place the
chief distinction in colour, have multiplied the golden eagle
into different species.

The bird with which the golden eagle has sometimes been
confounded is the white-tailed, or sea eagle, which is of much
more frequent occurrence ; and though the brown is not nearly
so rich, or the points of the neck-feathers so well made out,
and the bird seems altogether of a laxer and looser make
when they are seen together, yet the general colours arc bo
much alike, especially when the golden eagle is young and has
white in the tail, that, to casual observation, the one may pass
for the other. But upon comparison, the looser form of the
head, the pale beak, the naked tarsi, and a comparative want
of firmness and decision in all the feathers, and of compact-
ness in the body, show at once that the bird, however large it
may be, is not the golden eagle. On the other hand, while
the golden eagle is in the young plumage and the feathers of
the tail are partly white, forming what has been called the
" ring-tail," the bill, the down on the tarsi, and the deep brown

118

ACCIPITRES.

bar on the end of the tail, together with the whole air of the
bird, point out at once that it is the golden eagle. Give it but
its form and expression, and no matter though the colour were
white, black, or even green, the golden eagle would never be
mistaken for any other bird, any more than a friend, of whose
person, air, and gait we had a complete knowledge, would
be lost to our recollection, or changed to another person by
merely putting on a dress of a different colour.

The golden eagle is now rare in England, if indeed it be
found there at all ; and even in the Highlands of Scotland it is
by no means common, and its eyrie at least is confined to the
most wild and inaccessible places of the mountains, and only
in those places that are cliffy and precipitous. I have seen
eagles beating about in the higher glens of the rivers that rise
on the south-east side of the Grampians. I know that one
pair, at least, nestle somewhere in the high cliff called Wal-
lace's Crag, on the north side of Lochlee, and another some-
where in Craig Muskeldie, on the south side of the same.
I have observed the four all in the sky at one time ; and I
for sometime wrote with a quill which dropt from one of
their wings in the autumn of 1819. An intelligent farmer
who had resided all his days on the spot, assured me that
the Wallace Crag eagles had been known in the days of
his grandfather, (the people there are rather famed for lon-
gevity, though the sun does not shine on the lake for several
weeks at mid-winter), but those on the south side were not
such old settlers, and they were conjectured to be descendants
of the former, although driven off by their parents according
to the general habits of the birds. I have seen them in
Strathspey and Badenoch, in Stratherrick, and in the moor
between Kiltarlity and Strathglass ; and I once saw one over
Culloden moor, not far from the scene of the battle, though
some of the land in the intermediate neighbourhood was
under crop. Indeed, when the weather is very clear, and
the eagles fly high, they continue their course in perfect in-
difference to anything that may be happening on the ground ;
and I have been told, though I do not vouch for the fact,

THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 11!)

that they sometimes stoop down and carry oif hens and even
cats from the very doors of the cottages. I found, however,
that eagles had been a sort of " lions " with wandering tour-
ists, and that any number of stories of their achievements
might be had cheap. I never saw the golden eagle near the
west coast, or in the islands, (though that is no proof of its
not being there,) but I have seen the sea eagle and the
osprey.

From what I have noticed of their habits, I am inclined to
believe that eagles in general choose those rocks, where with
an elevation and wildness which gives them the seclusion
that they seem to like in their retreats, they have the com-
mand of a double pasture ; a hill one, which they beat with
a lower ilight when the weather is dusky, and a lower and
richer one, which they beat at a great elevation when the
weather is clear ; —at all events I have seen them on the
upper moors flying low on dusky days ; and again sailing
majestically over the lower and richer valleys when the day
was fine.

The eyrie of those magnificent birds, which is a dwelling
as well as a cradle for their broods, is placed on some ledge
of the rock, and rarely on a tree, unless when the tangled
roots spring from the cliff, and otter a broad space which can
be covered with sticks. The place is generally slippery with
the refuse of their prey ; and when the young are there, it
is usually well-stored with provisions, which consist indiscri-
minately of quadrupeds and birds. The eggs are seldom
more than two, though some say that there are occasionally
three, and that in such broods there are two females, one of
which becomes an " odd eagle " and lives solitary, growing to
a very large size, being very ferocious, and dropping addled
eggs occasionally on the mountain tops ; but the tale wants
verification.

The eagle generally strikes her prey upon the ground, and
the stoop is almost instantly fatal to any animal on which
she pounces. The mere fall of a body of twelve or even
eighteen pounds in weight, from an elevation of 1500 or

120 ACCIPITRES.

2000 feet would be powerful ; but the eagle shoots down
with a great initial velocity, and as she delivers the whole
of her momentum with the claw, she not only dashes the
animal to the earth, but plunges the claw into its body up
to the toe, dislocating the spine or breaking the skull of the
feebler quadrupeds, such as bares ; and the death of grous
and black game, which form a very large portion of the prey,
is instantaneous. The view upon which the eagle proceeds
must be a steady one, for on the ground she seldom misses
her pounce, though she often does when she attempts to hawk
on the wing, as her broad wings and forward rush are both
unfavourable to turning so as to follow the motions of the
bird. If the prey is small, she has the power of slackening
her speed as she descends, so as to temper the ultimate effect
to the necessity there is for it, otherwise, strong as she is,
she might be injured by the collision with the ground.
An unrestrained stoop from her greatest height woidd be
sufficient to dash even an eagle to pieces. If the pounce is
not fatal, the clutch instantly follows, in the giving of which
the whole weight of the bird — in the utmost excitement,
with the head elevated, the neck stiff, the feathers of the
head and neck erected, and the wings shivering so as to keep
the pressure on the instruments of death — is upon the claws.
With small animals, even when they show signs of life
after the pounce, the clutch is given with one foot only and
the bird is less excited ; but in no case is the prey touched
with the beak, or even looked at until all motion in it has
ceased. When the eye has guided the descent, and the talons
have taken effect, the office of the eye is at an end, and
the work of death is committed to instruments admirably
fitted for carrying it into effect. In general the prey is borne
off, but in some cases it is devoured on the spot, that taking
place of course at those times when the bird has only herself
to provide for.

In winter when her pastures are covered with feet or even
with fathoms of snow, the eagle is often for weeks together
without food. This may be one of the causes (for all pheno-

TriE GOLDEN EAGLE. 121

mena, whether of birds or of anything else, have causes)
why she drives the young not only from the eyrie hut from
her haunt generally hefore the intensity of winter sets in ;
and it is said that she drives them lower down the country,
where the chances of food are more numerous.

Thus the instinct which we are apt to regard as an unkind
one, is the very hest adapted for the preservation of all ; and
the eagle is, in her way, just as tender a mother as any other
animal. As it is necessary for her hrood to grow fast and
get strong hefore the inclement season sets in, she is most
indefatigable and most successful in supplying them with
food, and equally daring in the defence of them against any
intruders, that may have the temerity to invade an eagle's
nest ; and when they are so far matured that they can kill
prey for themselves, she drives them down wdiere prey is
more easily obtained, while she herself remains to brave the
winter at the very throne of its dominion. Herein we
may see a beautiful instance of that balance and reaction
which can be traced through all the works and operations of
nature. Populating and cultivating narrow the bounds and
diminish the number of eagles ; but as there is a constant
tendency in the eagles to spread and extend their territory
and their numbers, that tendency instantly acts upon the
withdrawal of the restraint ; so that when the eagle becomes
necessary in order to maintain the balance of races, and the
perfection of the whole of nature, she returns by as unerring
a law of nature as that which guides her to her prey.

Her strength of endurance also enables her to keep her
footing and preserve her existence, under circumstances to
which the powers and the life of almost any other animal
would be obliged to yield. The same elastic ligament, which,
of its own nature, and without effort from the bird, com-
presses her toes in clutching, enables her to cling to the pin-
nacle of the rock, and to cling the nunc firmly the ruder the
blast. The claws are not used in those cases, as that would
injure their points and unlit them for their proper functions ;
but the pads and tubercles hold on upon places where the

vol. I. M

122 ACCIPITRES.

foot of all else would give way ; and the eagle sits with
closed wings and close plumage, as if part of the rock
itself, while the wind roars and the snow drives, tearing the
bushes from their roots, sending them rolling over the pre-
cipices, and literally scourging the wilderness with ruin.
The strength of the hill ox, the fleetness of the mountain
deer, and the resources of the mountain traveller, are often
unavailing ; and when the storm breaks, the signal of the
raven and the crow points out the place of their bones ; but
the bones of the eagle are not thus given by nature to be tug-
ged at by ignoble birds. Queen of the tempest, she rides
as secure amid its fury, as when, on a cloudless and breezeless
day, she floats down the valley with easy and almost motion-
less wing.

Her endurance of hunger is as remarkable as her power in
the storm. In confinement she is said to have lived five
weeks without food ; and yet as she was then taken with dead
bait, to which she does not resort except in extremity, she
must have been hungry when taken ; so that, in her native
freedom, and with the cold dry wind around her, which
diminishes the waste of the animal system, she may possibly
be able to fast for a longer period ; — and the one mentioned
was killed and did not die of hunger. But I must leave her
to her haunts, apologising to the reader that I am obliged
to confine my notice to a few desultory pages, which is as
much out of nature as cooping up the living bird in a cage.
In nature, the eagle requires a mountain, and if ever it be my
good fortune to aiford her a volume of description, she shall
spread her wings.

THE SEA EAGLE. (Fdlco albicilla.)

This is the " erne " or " bog eagle" of the Scotch, in whose
country, especially the parts of it in which there are wide
morasses, it is still not rare. Like the former it is fond of
wild retired and mountainous places ; but it is far more dis-
cursive, and often ranges into England, and breeds in some

TUE SIC A EAGLE. 123

of the wilder places of that country, where it is probably the
only eagle that is now to be met with in a state of nature. It
is most abundant on the rocky islands and rugged coast
towards the north ; and though it is sometimes seen con-
siderably in advance over the cultivated grounds, it does not
nestle there, neither does it get so far up the mountains as the
golden eagle. It is, however, the species which is most
generally seen. Hence it is probable that it is "the eagle"
of ordinary conversation in both ends of the island, and in all
parts of the country, save those which only the others fre-
quent ; and that consequently many of the anecdotes that are
told of the golden eagle really belong to the present species.

It nestles in rocks and also in trees, or on the ground in
thick bushes, and the number of its brood is nearly the same
as that of the other. The eyrie, however, is less a dwelling
for life than that of the golden eagle, because the bird is
more a wanderer, and in all probability nestles in different
places during successive years : that will, however, depend a
good deal on the nature of the locality ; if there is a sufficient
supply of food, from field, marsh, and flood, upon all of which
it levies contributions, the cause of migration is diminished,
and the migration itself becomes the less necessary. It is upon
the same account less necessary for the sea-eagle to drive its
young away from any particular haunt, inasmuch as the old
ones may change theirs. No doubt some of these birds con-
tinue for years— many years, in the same places ; but that
does not establish a general habit in the race, for there have
been instances of individual animals that belong to the most
roving kinds attaching themselves both to persons and to
places.

The roaming disposition of these birds, more especially
before they arrive at their maturity of plumage, tended much
to establish the old opinion, that the old aud the young were
different species. The general colour of the young is umber
brown, with the margins of the feathers lighter, especially on
the scapulas and lesser wing coverts, — the margins of the
former be'ng of a reddish straw colour, as is also the chin and

124 ACCIPITRES.

upper part of the throat ; and a number of spots on the under
part of the bird, among which there are patches of white.
The tail, at that age, is dark brown, as dark at the points of
the feathers as the deepest brown of the golden eagle, but
mottled with lighter brown on the other parts. The bill in
that stage is bluish, though not so deep in the colour as the
bill of the golden eagle. It is also larger in proportion to
the size of the bird, but softer and weaker, less uniformly
curved from the base, and more completely without a tooth
and notch.

As this bird advances towards its permanent or mature
plumage, the changes which it undergoes are, in some re-
spects, the reverse of those of the golden eagle. The feathers
on the head and upper part of the neck become lighter, the
bill changes from bluish to straw colour, the yellow of the
cere and the brown of the hides acquire a tinge of red, the
brown on the principal parts become more uniform, and the
tail coverts and tail become white. There is, in fact, so much
metamorphosis in the colour of the bird, that, until the change
of the plumage had been actually watched, or the similarity of
habits more closely observed than it is very easy to do in the
case of eagles in a wild state, one cannot blame those who,
being without the proofs, concluded that they were different.
The young is often described as the ossifrage or "bone
breaker," or the sea eagle, and the mature bird as the cene-
reous eagle, or white tailed eagle.

In the breeding season both old and young (for it is pro-
bable that all birds which take three or four years before they
arrive at their mature plumage breed before then,) are found
in wild situations, chiefly on rocky places near the sea or the
larger inland waters. Whenever the shores are broken, bold,
and rocky, and at the same time thinly inhabited, these eagles
may be found as breeders, and often as general residents.
They are seldom seen on the low shores of the agricultural
parts of Scotland, though it is said that, in the south, they
have been observed near St. Abb's Head. On the east coast
they are not met with again, till the wild shore and equally

THE SEA EAGLE. 125

wild adjoining district between Stonehaven and Aberdeen, is
arrived at. Thence to the Ord of Caithness they are few ;
but they are common there, and also around the whole of the
rocky and indented coast on the north and west, and in both
the northern and the western isles.

In the western part of Ross, about Lochbroom and Loch
Maree, they are very abundant, the country being as well
adapted to their habits, as the bold cliffs of the eastern Gram
pians are to the habits of the golden eagle.

The aspect of the country there is as wild as can well be
imagined. Dreary black morasses on the heights, which pre-
sent little save peat earth and pools of water ; precipitous
rocks, rifted into all manner of shapes, and often rising into
sublime precipices and peaks ; a shore, embayed and torn by
the sea, till it seems an absolute fringe ; arms of the sea full
of jutting head-lands ; lakes studded with the most picturesque
islets ; a sky, which is either dripping or pouring almost
all the days of the year, so that the people are absolutely
aquatic, and are said to catch cold whenever they come so far
eastward as to get dry ; a temperature as variable as the
weather, but one which is never long severely cold ; and a soil
which is continually turned and ploughed by rains and floods,
but which is never for any length of time deeply buried
beneath thick snow. The consequence is, an exuberance of
vegetable action, which those who have not personally seen it,
would not expect in so northern and remote a place. The
green on the little swards is lovely ; the verdure of the
copses luxuriant ; and some of the old trees, especially about
Loch Maree, would do honour to the finest park in the richest
county of England.

The law is, in fact, there demonstrated, that "where the
waters are busy, neither vegetables nor animals can remain
idle." Life is in constant bustle, — the podded plants, the
mountain berries, the tops of the ever-growing mosses and
heaths, furnish food for innumerable birds ; andthesoil, always
moist, and never very cold or very warm, is the nursery of

m 2

126

ACCIPITRES.

slugs and worms. It has been observed, that where there is
the greatest production of these animals on the land, there is
a similar abundance of the corresponding ones in the sea. The
rains and floods wash the land ones by myriads into the lakes
and streams ; the rivers roll them onward to the sea ; and the
tide casts them on the banks, or drops them in the eddies,
mingled with other myriads of its own production.

The consequences are, that the waters teem with fish, and
the land abounds with all manner of living creatures, to which
so moist a climate is at all congenial. Salmon, trout, her-
rings, cod, all the more valuable of the finny tenants of the
lake the river and the sea, abound, to a degree of wealth
which, if it were fully appreciated and won, would be very
great ; and if the people, who are every season leaving some
part of that country and going to Canada, because they can-
not dry oats in the rain, or ripen barley in the mist, would go
to their wild shores, catch fish, plant potatoes, and breed ducks
and pigs, they would have more than a Canadian reward, with
nothing of Canadian peril or Canadian labour.

" Where the carcasses are, there will the eagles be gathered
together ;" — wherever there is grass, there will be browzing ;
wherever there is prey, there will be predatory animals ; and
among those of the district alluded to, the sea eagle is one of
the most conspicuous. She strikes on the ground, she hawks,
she fishes, and in short labours, and labours most indus-
triously, by all the arts that an eagle can ply, to keep those
classes of the population of which her natural instincts give
her the charge, within the limits of their supply of food, with
more than Malthusian assiduity. Seated on some rock that
overlooks the waters, she views the salmon attempting to get
over the shallow, or the salt water fish showing its back near
the shore, and down she rushes, pressing the fish to the
ground till her long claws are buried in it up to the toes,
and then she rises and sails off in triumph, to eat her dinner
or to feed her brood. If grous, sea-bird, or any large bird
comes within the range of her telescopic eye, she speeds with

THE SEA EAGLE. 127

equal alacrity, and though she is not hy any means so expert
on the wing as the falcons or hawks, she fails not in obtaining
abundant prey.

Here we may remark, that the talons of the sea eagle,
which are proportionality larger in size, are better adapted for
lifting, though less so for laceration, than those of the golden
eagle. Those of the golden eagle, and indeed of all that kill
exclusively on dry land in day-light, are grooved on the under
sides with two sharp cutting ridges so that as they clutch they
tear and lacerate ; but in the sea eagle the ridges are not so
sharp, and thus not quite so killing, though as clutching.

In the lambing season, which under that dripping sky is
a hard one for the flocks, she beats over the sheep pastures,
destructive both of lambs and of weakly and disabled sheep,
and also of fawns in those parts of the country where there
are wild deer. The extent of these excursions is not known,
but certainly, although the straight-forward, or journey flight
of eagles is not probably nearly so swift as that of the jer-
falcon or the peregrine, from the Scotch Highlands to the
border of England and back again would not probably be too
much for a day.

As the sea eagle in her miscellaneous feeding, the form of
her beak, and the looseness of her body, as compared with
the golden eagle, has a slight leaning toward the characters
of the vulture, it is probable that she may also have a trace of
that wonderful power of scent which guides the vulture to its
prey. The season, and consequent diminution of food in her
northern haunt, may be partly the cause ; but it has been ob-
served, that the sea eagle comes farther to the south and
more inland, in those inclement seasons, when, from cold and
deficiency of food, the deer in parks and forests, the hares in
preserves, and the rabbits in warrens are weakly. On those
occasions she avoids the cultivated and warm lands, and
resorts chiefly to those places which have most the character
of her native haunts.

The climate of Ireland is much more in accordance with
the habits of the sea eagle than of the golden ; and therefore

128 ACCIPITRES.

it is probable that the eagles in Kerry, and other wild and
rocky counties, of which so many stories are told, with pretty
copious embellishments, are sea eagles, as those that are met
with in the Hebrides generally, if not exclusively, are. The
deeds of eagles, if there were a Macpherson to collect,
arrange, dovetail, and build them up, with as much enthu-
siasm and labour and as copious supplies of stucco, would
make as interestingly romantic a book as the poems of the
son of Fingal ; but, as is the case with these, we never should
be able to find out the real historical character to whom the
exploits belonged.

the fishing eagle (Falco haliceetus).

This is the species which is properly the sea or rather the
water eagle of Britain, as the other preys more on land than
in water, and when in water only in the shallows ; but the
name has been appropriated to the other, and the change of it
is not worth attempting.

The fishing eagle partakes of the characters both of the
eagles and the falcons. It agrees with, or at least approaches
the eagles, in size and in the habit of stooping on its prey ;
and with the hawks in the form of the beak and the struc-
ture of the wings. But it has so many peculiar charac-
ters that, in a strictly scientific point of view, it belongs to
neither.

The length is about two feet, and the extent of the wings
five feet and a half, so that it is larger winged in proportion
to its length than even the peregrine falcon ; and if the weight
of the birds be estimated as the cubes of the lengths, the
structures pretty nearly correspond — the weight of the fishing
eagle being often as much as five pounds.

This bird is often called the osprey, the fishing hawk, the
fishing buzzard ; and, from the white on the head and nape,
the bald buzzard. Its flight sometimes resembles that of the
buzzard, but that is almost the only character that they have
in common ; and the osprey can, when necessary, fly very

THE FISHING EAGLE. l'2'J

differently. No bird of prey is better furnished than the
fishing eagle. Its eye is remarkably keen, though it wants
the suborbital bones. Its beak is of the most powerful form
with a partial tooth, very mueh hooked at the point, and of
that dark colour which belong to all very powerful beaks.
The tarsi are also very short and strong, free from feathers,
but covered with scales ; the under parts remarkably tubercu-
lated, and the claws, more especially that on the outer toe,
very large and strong ; but all completely rounded on the
under sides, and adapted for clutching, not for tearing.

The general colours are : the naked parts, the cere, tarsi,
and toes, greyish blue ; the hides yellow ; the prevailing co-
lour on the upper parts, with the exception of the back of the
head and nape, blackish brown ; and that on the under parts
with the exception of the breast, which is marked with light
brown, white, passing into dull grey toward the vent and
tail. There is a streak of deep brown down each side of the
neck, and the chin and front of the neck are marked by
longitudinal spots of the same colour. The quills darker
brown than the coverts ; and the margins of the feathers in
the latter are sometimes relieved by a lighter brown, which,
however, wants the warm tint of the other eagles. The three
middle feathers of the tad are wholly brown, and the others
have white bars on their inner webs, the outer webs of the
exterior ones, and also of the first feathers of the wings being
very narrow and stiff. The feathers upon all the under parts,
including the under coverts of the wings are remarkably
smooth and closely set, resembling those on the under sides
of water fowl, indeed the very shape of that part of the body
has some resemblance to that of a swimming bird. The
feathers ou the legs, which just clothe the upper joints of the
tarsi, are pure white, and resemble fine straight hairs as much
as ordinary feathers. Tbe feathers on the upper parts are
more those of a laud bird ; but they are not so decidedly so
as the feathers of the other eagles.

The young birds are more varied in their plumage than the
old ones. The brown on the back becomes uniform, or nearly

130 accipitr.es.

so, in the mature plumage ; and the brown and grey disappear
from the under parts, leaving these pure white.

The feathering of the under part, the edges of the wings,
and the tail, are all admirably adapted to the habits of the
bird. Usually an inhabitant of the air, and of the air in
places that are rather warm (for it is more abundant in the
south of England and Ireland than in the central parts, and
scarce in the north,) and finding its food by sudden plunges
into the water, at all natural temperatures above that of freez-
ing, the under part of the osprey is exposed to more sudden
changes of temperature, and also of element, than that of
most other birds, whether of the water or the land. The
sea birds that plunge from the air into the water, generally
plunge head foremost, and seize their prey with their bill, so
that they meet the cold, and also the resistance of the water,
on both sides equally : but the osprey plunges down on the
under part only, and seizes with the talons, the head being
generally above water all the time. No doubt the wings,
and also the tail, in part soften the dash, and the under sides
of them are well formed for resisting the water, but still
both the resistance and the change of temperature come upon
the under side of the body, the shape, and the texture of
the feathers-, defending it against the shock ; and the downy
compactness and white colour resisting the cold, as the bird
is again in the air before the effect of the water can be trans-
mitted through so close a covering of a substance which is so
slow a conductor.

That texture and colour of the feathers are more necessary
in the osprey than they are in a sea-bird, even if we were to
suppose their habits the same ; for the fresh water of the
lakes and rivers, in which chiefly the bird fishes, is subject
to much more seasonable variation than the salt water of the
ocean. The scales upon the tarsi are reticulated, like those
on birds which actually wade into the water in search of their
food.

Nor is the arming and general structure of the bird less
admirably adapted to its modes of life. Fishes are less sen-

THE FISHING EAGLE. 131

sible of pain in any part, save the head, than land animals ;
and from the transverse separations of the flakes or fasciculi
of their muscles, they can exert their powers of swimming,
even though a considerable part of the flesh is cut through,
if the spine be not injured. Hence it is much more difficult
to kill a fish in the water than a bird in the air, or a quad-
ruped on the surface of the earth ; and thus, the talons of
the sea eagle and the osprey (those of the latter especially)
are fitted for lifting rather than killing their finny prey. The
weight taken off by the buoyancy of the bird also diminishes
the effect of its stroke, and to compensate for that, the outer
claw can be reversed, so that they act two against two, which
is the most effective position in clutching.

But if that toe had been permanently turned backward, it
would not have answered so well upon other occasions. The
osprey has to sit upon craggy points, from which it can com-
mand the fishing ground ; and as the fish come most to the
surface when the rocks are rather slippery, their prey being
then most abundant and best seen, it is necessary that its foot
should be firm ; and, from the structure of its toes, it is
equally well adapted for perching and for clutching.

The difference between the osprey and those birds of the
same order, which live chiefly upon warm-blooded animals,
affords a very remarkable instance of that wisdom of design
which pervades all nature. Over its finny prey this bird is
all-powerful ; but its powers are for self-preservation, not for
destruction. There is not, indeed, any destruction in nature ;
or rather, all nature's destructions are preservations. Man
has broken the law ; but the benediction of the Creator is
still upon all the rest — they are " very good." There is no
wanton war but by man. The osprey is feeble in confine-
ment where she cannot use her " stoop :" one at the Zoolo-
gical Society's garden, was lately attacked and killed by an
American red-tailed buzzard, which among land birds of prey
is far from one of the most powerful.

When the osprey is merely passing from one place to
another, its flight has sometimes the heavy motion of the buz-

132 ACCIPITKES.

zard, and at other times, when it flies higher, a very peculiar
slanting or gliding motion, in which the wings take few
strokes, compared with the progress made. But it is over
the fishing ground, especially when of considerable extent,
that the motions of this bird are seen to the greatest advan-
tage. Its manoeuvres in the air are alternate wheelings and
hoverings, the former to find where there is prey, and the
latter to watch till that prey comes within reach. Whilst it
hovers, it keeps the wings constantly in that rapid motion,
which all birds of prey give them when preparing to stoop
upon prey which is not on the wing ; so that, when over the
proper spot, it is always ready. The wheelings are performed
with apparently little effort, the hovering motion enabling it
to shoot away, in a manner something similar to that in which
a stone is shot from a sling.

The short time that the fishes remain at the surface when
they leap requires this activity. If the fish is a small one,
and leaps instantly, the bird comes down with much swiftness,
but checks itself near the surface, and either twitches out the
fish with little more splash than the fish itself makes, or if
it is too late, it abandons, wheels round and round for a turn
or two, as if to wait till any alarm that it had occasioned is
over, and then it hovers anew, probably over the very
same spot. When it stoops in this manner for small fishes,
it is never from any very great height ; but if it come from
a greater height, which it does only for better game, the
exertion is more grand. The large fishes come less frequently
to the surface to feed than the small ones ; but when they do
come they feed more determinedly, though more warily ; and
therefore they are longer near the surface. When the osprey
has discovered one of these, which may be judged of from
her perfect stillness in place, and the increased vibratory
motion of her wings, she dashes down more perpendicularly,
and not less rapidly than the jer-falcon or the golden eagle.
The rushing of her descent may be heard at a considerable
distance, and the dash in the water is as if the lightning
had smitten a cliff, and the fragment fallen from it in the

THE FISHING EAGLE. 133

lake. If, indeed, you have not observed her till the dash
catches your ear, you are at a loss to know what is in the
water, for the splash and spray hide the bird till the clutch
of the talons is secure. But no sooner is that accomplished
than she rises from the water, dashing the drops from her
ample wings, and soaring majestically with her prey to the
rock. If she misses in these her desperate efforts, she flies
off (sulkily, as one would say,) either to a different part of
the lake, or from it altogether. The lifting of herself, loaded
as she is, and obliged to use her wings, not only near the
water, but actually on it, is a vast effort, and could not be at
all accomplished, if the under sides of the wings especially had
not the water-proof properties of the aquatic birds. When
the talons once clutch, they do not quit their hold easily ; so
that if the wings were easily wetted, the bird would certainly
be drowned, as is sometimes the case with the sea-eagle,
whens he strikes large fishes in deep water. The sea-eagle
is not, however, weight for weight, so powerfully winged,
and her wings have the water-proof property in a very infe-
rior degree.

Though fishes are the chief prey of the fishing eagle, it
also stoops at and often catches water fowl. But these
though clutched with certainty, are not so easily borne off as
the fishes. The mere fact of being lifted out of the water
soon puts an end to the struggles of the fish, so that it is
carried off as so much mere weight, into the solid of which
the talons are struck. On the other hand, there is nothing
to hurt the bird but the clutch of the talons ; this is weakened
by the thick plumage, and may be inflicted so as not to
do serious injury, and when that is the case, the bird may
struggle and disentangle itself. Instances are mentioned of
birds so disentangling themselves, and being retaken in
their fall by the osprey, or borne off by other rapacious
birds.

As a lake or river to fish in is the chief attraction for the
osprey, the nest is chosen where it may be the most con-
venient for that. If the fishing is in a mountain lake, or a

VOL. I. N

134 ACCIPITRES.

river that has worn a channel deep into the strata, the nest is
placed in the rocks, but always as near the water as may suit
the purpose of concealment. If the fishing place is a lake in
the moors, or a river that runs slowly between fenny flats,
then the nest is concealed in the reeds ; and if the water pass
through, or be situated among trees, the nest is constructed
in one of these. In all situations it is a rude fabric of sticks,
and rather a sort of platform than a hollow nest. The eggs,
which are yellowish white with brown spots, are understood
never to exceed four.

It has been already hinted that the osprey is more fre-
quently observed in the southern than the northern parts of
the country. It is also subject to winter migration, more
especially in those places where the waters are liable to be
frozen over, at which times it of course cannot fish. On
these occasions, it sometimes betakes itself to the sea ; but it
more frequently passes into warmer latitudes, as the cold
keeps down even the sea fish to a greater depth than that at
winch they swim in warm weather. Of course it is more a
migrant on the continent of Europe than with us, as the
summer is warmer, and the winter colder, it ranges over a
much greater range of latitude, especially in the central and
eastern parts.

NOCTURNAL BIRDS OF PREY OWLS. (Strix.)

Some of the predatory birds of which short notices have
been already given, seek their prey in different degrees of
light. The common buzzard, for instance, watches in the
twilight shade of thick trees, and feeds, in part, on those
animals which are the chief prey of the owls : the kestrel,
which is usually classed with the falcons, hawks for beetles
and large moths after sunset ; and the osprey, and the sea-
eagle (when it fishes) are constrained either to fish in the
twilight, or, at some seasons, to fare but scantily ; and though
they, moi-e especially the latter, can endure hunger for a long
time, they at all times prefer food to fasting, if food can be

OWLS. 13o

obtained. The eye of the buzzard is protected from side
lights by the concha of feathers round the eye, in order that
these may not interfere with and confine the fainter light
which comes from those shady places in which the prey is
found, just in the same manner that the projecting upper part
of the orbit in the sky hunting-birds protects their vision from
the direct rays of the sun, and enables them to see better
below them. The eyebrow in man answers a similar purpose ;
and, indeed, there is no animal which hunts in the clear light
of the sun, in which the eye is not more or less defended
by some such contrivance. The sea-eagle, again, can bring
over the eye a peculiar membrane, which acts as a sort of
curtain, in excluding the level light of the twilight sky, and
allowing the full power of the organ to the dimmer light from
below ; and that instrument of twilight vision was regarded
by Aristotle as a means of blindness. He is not to be blamed,
or even wondered at, because the principles of optics were
little known in his time ; but those moderns who have re-
peated the assertion, are not so excusable.

The nocturnal birds of prey have the eye with a more ample
and complete concha, and also the iris much more sus-
ceptible of motion than the day-birds — so much so, indeed,
that a strong light appears to shut the pupil altogether, and
the bird becomes bewildered, and cannot see its way. The
sensibility will abate, however, under circumstances which
render such an abatement necessary to the comfort of the
bird. There have been instances of tamed owls (and owls are
easily tamed, and docile when they are tamed) which, when
kept in places where the air was confined, chose the window
in preference to any darker part of the room, as a perching-
place, though even in that state, they did not like the direct
beams of the sun.

That delicate sensibility of the iris is necessary, in order
that the eye may adjust itself to the variable degrees of light
which they meet with in their nocturnal excursions. But
still, there is not, either from analogy or from fact, the slight-
est reason to believe that any owl can see in black midnight,

136 ACCIPITRES.

although even the blackest of that is far short of absolute
darkness. The small quadrupeds, upon which chiefly the owls
prey, have equally bright and sensitive eyes as their preyers,
as it is while they are out of their holes and feeding that the
owls capture them ; but the action of their eyes is not so well
seen as that of the eyes of the owls, partly because the eyes
of the owls are so much larger, and partly because of the
powerful motion of the nictitating membrane which the owl
is always bringing to lubricate its eyes, when the light proves
too strong for them.

Owls are remarkable for the softness of their feathers, and
the great proportion which these form of the apparent bulk of
their bodies. An owl, in its plumage, looks a thick, stout,
and even clumsy bird ; but strip off the feathers, and it is
really nothing. The great owl, (strix bubo,~) the size of which
has been compared to that of the eagle, is not one-fourth of
the weight.

The very name of the owl is a name of lamentation, ex-
pressive of the sound of its note, which is one of the most
melancholy love-songs in the whole chorus of nature. Super-
stition has accordingly laid hold of the bird, as one of the
instruments by means of which to bind the ignorant in the
fetters of fear ; and the circumstances attendant upon the
owl, although they admit of being turned to better and even
very delightful purposes, have certainly an aptitude to be so
perverted.

Deep shady groves, hollow trees, crumbling ruins clad with
ivy, steeples and churches with their associations of graves
and ghosts, — all that seems dim to human reason, all that
stands monumental of the works of nature, or of man and his
works, — is linked to the owl by the closest and the most
general associations. The owls, in such places, — often heard,
but seldom seen : when heard, heard in the gloom and still-
ness of the night ; and when seen, appearing with something
of judge-like solemnity, — made them very readily convertible
into a sort of " doom-birds."

The times of their appearance gave farther colour to the

owls. 137

superstition. Gloomy days, when the congregated clouds
hung low in the sky, but were kept up by the strong resist-
ance of the warm earth and the breezeless stillness of the
summer air ; murky days, when the sun " was sick to dooms-
day with eclipse ; " all occasions when the heavens looked
black upon the earth, but produced stillness rather than
storm, borrowed the attributes of twilight, and so brought
out the owl, — brought it out by perfectly natural, and, accord-
ing to the laws of its being, necessary causes, but causes which
were not understood ; and the event being striking and
mysterious, was remembered, all concomitant mishap was
remembered along with it ; so that the owl, which came out
simply to see if there was " a mouse stirring," got the blame
of the whole.

But, notwithstanding, owls are interesting birds, and the
sounds which they utter, though deep and monotonous, have
music for a well-tuned ear. The part which they act in crea-
tion is, moreover, an important part ; and from the numbers
of vermin which they destroy, there are few birds more
worthy of protection in an agricultural country than the owls.
The Athenians made them sacred to their patron goddess, for
defending the labours of the loom ; and if we cherished them
about our farm-houses, they would do yeomen service in
defence of the labours of the plough.

Nor is the superstitious dread of them wholly without its
use, or would the abolition of it be unmixed gain. Mankind
are all the better for some checks upon them at those times
when they are not watched by their fellows ; and the actual
presence of the owl may have sometimes restrained the mid-
night plunderer from his purpose, as effectually as the mere
thought of rural wisdom enwigged with office. If so, and
there is little doubt of it, the owl was a cheap police-man,
keeping back one set of marauders, and exacting, as his fee,
the destruction of another.

Of the many species of owls which are more or less fre-
quently seen or heard in Britain, our notice must be very
brief, — far more so than we could have wished, —and we shall

N 2

138 ACCIPITRES.

take them as one genus, without regarding the more nume-
rous and, it may be, more accurate divisions. We may remark
in passing, that there are four that have produced feathers on
the sides of the head, and are thence called " horned " owls ;
and four without these feathers, which are called "smooth-
headed." The "horns" are not horns, however, in any
other sense of the word, than their being, like all feathers,
composed of nearly the same substance as horn, and their
growing on parts of the head, something analogous to those
on which the horns of ruminating animals are produced. As
little are they " ears," as they are sometimes called, probably
from their fancied resemblance to the ears of cats, they are
"tufts," and such we shall call them. The ears of owls,
which are as delicately sensitive as their eyes, are under these,
and covered by the feathers of the concha.

THE GREAT-TUFTED OWL, OR EAGLE-OWL. (Strix bubo.)

A representation of this bird is given on the plate at page
83, immediately under the peregrine falcon, and on the same
scale with that, namely one-sixth of the lineal dimensions, or
one thirty-sixth of the surface.

It is a very powerful bird, and, from its preying on the
voung of deer and sheep, and upon grous and other large
birds, it merits the epithet of eagle. It is doubtful if it ever
bred, even in the remotest parts of the British islands, though
it sometimes, but very rarely pays a visit to the Orkneys, and
also to the north coast of Scotland. On the continent it is
distributed over a wider range of latitude, in a general
or partial state of residence ; and it also migrates, especially
in the central and eastern parts. As, from the vast mass of
light feathers with which it is invested, it must make more
lee-way than most other migratory birds, the east winds some-
times bring it to the shores of England, especially those to
the north of Flamborough Head, and the south of the Thames,
which are the most remarkable for the occasional appearance
of continental migratory birds. It builds, in rocks or in lofty

THE EAGLE-OWL. I'M)

trees, a Best often three feet in diameter, but rarely containing
more than two eggs. It prefers rocks, however, both for
nestling and for perching ; and, sallying forth from these in
the grey dawn, or the twilight, or on dark days, — in the
northern regions all the night long, — it commits terrible havoc,
especially among the grous, and more particularly when it has
young, which, as is the case with all the owls, remain long
in the nest, and require a vast quantity of food. Its flying
note is peculiarly deep and doleful, and the hissing sound
which it utters when alarmed or irritated is just as harsh and
grating. The sound which many nocturnal birds of prey
make when they fly, may possibly answer the same purpose
as the roaring of the lion and other carnivorous beasts, namely,
that of alarming the prey, and making it thereby reveal its
hiding place to the keen ear of the preyer.

When it beats for prey, it flies very low, and often, by its
large size and singular appearance, attracts the attention of
kites, crows, and other birds, which follow after it with
apparent astonishment. Hence it is sometimes made use of
to draw down the kite in her high flight, so that a falcon
may get above her and dispatch her. It is also sometimes
used in a cage, or otherwise confined, but visible, to attract
and enable the keepers to destroy those birds which plunder
the nests, and eat the young in pheasant preserves. Its
migration flight is high, and not much inferior to that of the
eagle, several of the characters of which it combines with
those of the more common owls.

It is highly probable that many of those dismal sounds
which have been reported as at times issuing from rocks or
caves, or moaning along the solitary wastes, and which terror
has imputed to supernatural agents, have been nothing more
than the flight-cries of eagle-owls, which came and departed
(or died) unseen, but which were not silent or unoccupied
during the time of their sojourn. About thirty years ago,
there was an unwonted and very dismal sound heard occa-
sionally on a wide and wild moor on the east of Scotland, to
the total suspension of all walking by night— the more so,

140 ACCIPITRES.

that the place bore the impress of ancient camps and battles,
and contained the bones of some modern suicides, which then
and there were not allowed church-yard burial, though the
ground is not consecrated, and there is no burial service.
But, if we could keep these birds when they do come, dismal
as their sounds are, they would make a most interesting addi-
tion to our ornithology. In Norway, where they abound,
they are guardian angels from the countless thousands of
lemmings which they destroy, in the desolating marches of
those destructive creatures.

THE LONG-TUFTED OWL. (Strix otuS.)

That is unquestionably the finest of our resident owls ; and
though not so plentiful as some of the others, it is pretty
generally distributed over our islands, wherever the trees are
thick enough to afford it that depth of shade in which it
delights. It wants shade and shelter all the year round ; and
therefore it prefers the evergreen forest to the deciduous one,
and the dark and thickly- clustering spruce to the more open
branches and light foliage of the pine ; but it is a bird of the
champaign country rather than of the wild ; and hence it is
not met with at very great elevations.

It is a bird of considerable size, the female measuring about
fifteen inches in length, and forty in extent of the wings ; and
weighing about ten ounces. The male is smaller. The weight
is in tolerably fair proportion to the dimensions, as compared
with more formidable birds of prey, but it is small as com-
pared with the bulk ; and hence the bird steals as silently
through the air as if it were altogether a bundle of soft
feathers.

The plumage is rich in its ground colours, and finely and
elaborately marked. The ground colour of the upper part is
orange, and that of the under part buff. The upper is marked
with black streaks, and finely and minutely sprinkled with
white, grey, and black, lighter at the margins of the feathers,
<so as to give them distinctness and relief, but exquisitely

THE LONG-TUFTED OWL. 141

marbled toward the shafts. The markings on the under
parts are lines and arrow-head spots. The quills are orange
brown, barred with blackish brown ; and the tail feathers
greyish orange, barred and spotted with black. The feathers
on the tarsi and toes, which are without markings, are nearly
the same colour as the tail. The irides are bright reddish
orange, and give the eyes a very fiery expression, surrounded
as they are by radiated concha, marked with white, grey, and
black, the black contrasting with white at the inner angle,
and giving an appearance of depth and enforcement to
the eye. The ear-tufts, or horns, which the bird can move
at pleasure, are about an inch in length, the feathers well
defined, varying in number, but generally six or eight, some-
times ten, and black toward the shafts, with the margins
grey and white.

The long-horned owl generally takes possession of the
deserted nest of some other bird, such as one of the crow
tribe, which nestle earlier, and thus have their broods out of
the nest by the time that the owl lays. The eggs are seldom
if ever, more than six ; white, and rather round in shape.
The young are covered with very close white down ; and as
they have much plumage to acquire, they remain four weeks
in the nest, the parents feeding them largely, and with much
assiduity all the time. They even feed them longer ; for the
young birds "branch" for some time before they take wing
and hunt for themselves ; so that when they have disappeared
from the nest, they may for a time be detected in the twilight,
moaning for their food from some neighbouring tree. They
very early show fight, by hissing and snapping with their
beaks ; and the old ones, if wounded, do the same, throwing
themselves on their backs, and fighting determinedly with
their claws.

The old ones are usually still during the day, or if necessity
force them to hunt, it is in the depth of the shade ; but they
are active in the twilight, being voracious feeders, and though
they prefer mice, they also prey on small birds, which they
are said to clutch on their perches. The prey is taken with

142 ACCIPITRES.

the talons, but the beak is used in breaking the bones, the
only preparation which owls of any species are understood to
give their food previous to swallowing it : that may be one
of the reasons why mice are preferred to birds, the feathers
being more untraceable than the far, both in swallowing, and
in casting in pellets or quids.

THE SHORT-TUFTED OWL. (StriX bracliyotllS.)

This bird is of smaller dimensions, but stronger and heavier
than the former, inhabits more exposed places, and in the
course of the year undergoes greater fatigue. It breeds in
the north, with us chiefly in the Orkneys, in so far as has been
hitherto discovered, but it ranges southward over the greater
part of the main land. During their migrations these owls are
partially gregarious, roosting in small flocks, though they
hawk singly over the fields ; but in the breeding season they
disperse themselves in pairs. Mice are their principal food ;
but they also swallow small birds ; and when the weather is
dusky, and they hawk during the day, they pursue, if they do
not capture, larger birds, such as grous, partridges, and even
pigeons. The feathers on their heads generally (as well as
the eye-tufts) are much shorter than those of most other
owls, so that the beak and shape of the head are better seen.
Hence they are sometimes called "hawk-owls." The tufts
are moveable as well as those in the former species. When
in a state of repose they are barely visible ; and in the dead
bird they are laid flat, and do not appear. Their prevailing
colours are orange and dull yellow, with brown marking.
The irides are yellow, the bill bluish, and the claws black ;
the latter much hooked and very sharp. It is a bold and
resolute bird, aud defends itself with spirit equal to, or
greater than that of the former. The short-eared owl does
not frequents the woods, but keeps the open fields. In its
breeding places it nestles in heath, or tufts of grass, the eggs
being understood to be rarely more than two ; and when it

THE GREAT WHITE OWL. 143

ranges over the main land, its hiding places are similar.
When disturbed it flies only to a short distance, where it
eyes its disturber with a peculiar mixture of wonder and
wisdom.

THE SCOPS-TUFTED OWL. ( StriX SCO])S.)

This is the smallest of the British tufted owls, measuring
only about half as long as the last mentioned species. Its tufts
form a sort of coronet across the head, marked by nearly a
straight line on the under part, and most produced at the
sides on the top. The colours are finely marked, and the
form is more light and slender than that of most of the owls.
Its tarsi and toes are bare, which shows it to belong properly
to warmer climes. It is indeed of so rare occurrence in
England, as a straggler, that though it is interesting to
collectors, it can hardly be considered a British bird ; and it
certainly is one which common observer's have not much
chance of seeing.

the great white, or snowy owl. (Strix nyctea.)

This species is by much the largest of the smooth-headed
or tuftless owls, being two feet in length, and nearly four feet
and a half in the extent of the wings. Its mature plumage is
altogether snow white : but the young birds and females are
marked with brown or dusky spots and bars. The tarsi and toes
are very closely covered with long feathers, which partially
conceal the claws ; the claws are strong, sharp, and much
hooked, and they and the bill are black, the latter with a tinge
of blue. The concha around the eyes are very close and well
formed ; and the upper parts, which meet at a well defined
angle over the beak, are directed outwards, and form a very
close shade to the eyes.

The whole plumage is more compact and smooth than that
of any other British species, and particularly more so than
those which inhabit woods, and have the shelter of them in

144 ACCIPITRES.

the inclement weather. Their covering is generally so con-
structed as that they may glide through the sprays, yielding
to these as they pass, and thus pursue a noiseless course in
places where many of even the small birds would occasion a
rustling. The snowy owl, on the other hand, is tempered to
the storm, and perhaps better defended against the cold than
any other bird. The only parts of it that are exposed are
the tip of the beak, the points of the claws, and the eyes.
Eyes do not feel cold, in consequence of the texture of the
external parts, and the inferior conducting power of the sub-
stance of which they are composed; and the same may be said
of the beak and claws. Every part of the owl that could feel
cold, or have its power of motion benumbed, is completely
muffled up in plumage, the colour, the texture, and the
abundance of which all contribute to enable it to live, and
not to live merely, but to seek its food safely and successfully
in the utmost violence of those snow-storms with which
winter sets in on the Arctic lands.

It is chiefly found in those dismal countries, and performs not
an unimportant part in nature's operations there. The long
summer days, the rapidity with which vegetation proceeds
under the continual action of a never- setting sun, and the
vast production of insects and mountain berries which are the
result, enable different species of grous to rear their broods
more abundantly and more certainly than they do in climates
farther to the south. Those products of the Arctic season
which supply food to the broods of these birds would be lost
if the birds were not so abundant ; and it is a law in nature
that nothing shall be lost. But the grous could not all, or
nearly all, be supported during the long winter ; and if they
were not taken by the owl, the jer-falcon, and other predatory
birds, they again would be lost. So, when the wind beats,
and the snow drives, so that they would sweep the birds to
destruction, out comes the snowy owl, clad in his armour of
impenetrable fur, and riding on the wing of the tempest,
keeps holiday amid the wildest turmoil of nature. Mountain
hares and other small quadrupeds would meet with the same

THE GREAT WHITE OWL. 145

fate from the weather ; and therefore they also become the
prey of the owl. The number of those birds is, of course,
tempered to the necessity that there is for them ; and there-
fore the quantity of birds of which they make prey tend rather
to preserve than to exterminate the species.

Time of the day is a matter of indifference to the snowy
owl during the storms or the fogs. When the sun is hot, it
takes shelter under some ledge of those wild rocks, in the
fastnesses of which it nestles, and annually rears its brood of
a single pair. But when the snow drives it is dim twilight all
day long, and not very different during the fogs. At these
times the snowy owl flies low, after the manner of the eagle
owl, and the prey which it captures is so abundant, that it
not only waxes fat during the storms, but retains its fatness
when drifted by the winds to the distance of a thousand miles.
It is found in the Orkney and Shetland isles, especially the
latter, though not very abundantly, and generally in such
obscure places that the nest is not often seen. Its principal
food is birds upon the moors of those islands, and rabbits on
the sandy banks by the margin of the sea. Countries in
which snow dims the eyes or fogs cloud the vision of those
animals on which it preys, appear to be the most congenial
to this interesting bird. Accordingly it very rarely comes to
the mainland of Britain ; and when it does it is always during
violent snow storms from the north, which also bring the
northern birds not generally visitants of our shores. When it
comes, it perches on the top of a wreath, r on some stick
or other point jutting out of the snow, and as it is net very
unlike a lump of snow itself, it causes but little alarm in the
birds, and so captures them with ease. It feeds indiscrimi-
nately on game which it kills, and on carrion ; and as those
storms which bring the snowy owl into places where it is not
usually found, in general prove fatal to numbers of birds and
small quadrupeds, one of the functions which it performs is
that of scavenger.

VOL. I.

146 ACCIPITRES.

the little owl. (Strix passerina.)

A figure of this owl is given on the plate at page 83, imme-
diately under that of the great-eared owl, and on twice as
large a scale in the lineal dimensions, that is on a scale of one-
third of the natural size in line.

The little owl is only about seven inches long and fourteen
in the stretch of the wings. It is rarely seen in England, and
if it breeds in the country its nest has not hitherto been met
with. When seen, it is generally in the autumn, so that it
may be blown across in the course of its autumnal migration,
but it is worthy of remark, that it is not confined to the mere
verge of the eastern sea, as European birds generally are
when they drift, but has been noticed also on the west and
south-west. The little owl resorts to the vicinity of human
dwellings, and nestles, and generally hides itself for the day
in holes of old walls. It is an industrious and successful
mouser, and though its wings are not very long, it is more
quick in the use of them than some of the larger species. Its
flight is not confined to the twilight, for though that be the
time at which it is most successful in mousing, it hawks
especially on dark and cloudy days, during which it may be
seen in pursuit of swallows, opposing a direct flight to their
wheeling one, and endeavouring to meet them as they come
round.

THE FEATHERY FOOTED LITTLE OWL. (StHx dasypUS.)

Occurs in the south of England. It is rather larger than the
former ; brown with white spots, paler, and the spots larger
on the under part ; tarsi feathered ; found in the woods.

SCREECH OWL, TAWNY OWL, OR BROWN OWL.

(Strix stridula.)

That is one of the most sage-looking of the owls, which it
owes partly to the much produced feathers round the face,
partly to the bluish black irides, which make the eyes seem

THE SCREECH OWL. 147

very large, and partly to the subdued tone of colour in its
plumage. It is a large, and rather a powerful bird. The
female sometimes measures one foot three, by two feet eight,
and weighs nearly a pound; the male is much smaller and
lighter. The prevailing colours are tawny brown above, and
tawny orange below, but minutely, and when closely inspected,
beautifully mottled with brown, and spotted with white. The
feathers round the eyes, which form a complete mask to the
chin, and meet over the beak (which is straw colour) at a
very acute angle, are white, finely radiated with brown and
grey, and having narrow irregular wings of brown on their
margins. The tarsi are short and strong, and they and the
toes and claws are brownish orange. The tint of the male
bird inclines more to yellow, that of the female more to red.

The tawny owl is a bird of retirement, frequenting the
depths of forests or groves, and nestling in the hollows of old
trees. It will sometimes take up its abode in a single close
tree near the house, in the ivy which covers old walls, or
sometimes in a barn or in an out-house; but these latter places
are not quite natural to it, and it is attracted to them chiefly
by the abundance of game which their vicinity affords.

In the barn it is a most excellent mouser, but it is just as
destructive in the pigeon-house, where, if it can find access, it
commits great devastation. It is also very destructive to the
young of rabbits, hares, and partridges. It seizes its prey
with great boldness, skinning the mice before it eats them,
and tearing the larger game in pieces.

It is more strictly a night owl than many of the others, the
light concha and the prominent eyes probably admitting too
much side light into the eyes, or obliging it to close the pupil,
by which means its vision is confused, so that it can with dif-
ficulty see its way; and when overpowered in the sunshine, it
may be struck down with a stick. There is no doubt that the
feathers around the eyes of owls, which are in general capable
of partial erection, serve to collect and concentrate the light
on which they fly as well as to exclude the side lights ; and
the eyes of this one, not being so deeply enfonced as those of

14S ACCIPITRES.

most of the others, are not able to bear the solar light when
collected by their own reflectors, and by the very convex ex-
ternal surface of the aqueous humour. People with prominent
eyes are least able to bear strong light.

The tawny owl, though not very numerous in any part of
the country, is very generally diffused in all wooded places,
which are in the neighbourhood of an adequate supply of
food. It is most partial to rank soils, overrun with vegetation
and containing decaying trees, tangled ivies, and .unpruned
bushes ; because there it can find a resting place hidden to its
heart's content, and also a more abundant supply of food, than
in places which are either more open or better kept in order.
" The screech owl shall lodge there," is no bad expression
for the desolation and neglect of a place once carefully at-
tended to ; as, before it takes up its abode, the place must
not only be in ruins, but vegetation must have made so much
progress as to half veil the ruins from the day ; and afford
cover to those murine quadrupeds on which the screech owl
preys.

Accordingly, it is the screech owl which, above all others,
superstition has converted into a bird of horror and of evil
omen. Its hooting, which is accompanied by a remarkable
inflation of the throat, is deep and dismal, though solemn and
impressive; and when the attributes of place and time are
taken into the account, the effect which it produces upon the
untutored mind is hardly to be wondered at.

barn owl, or white owl. (Strix flammea.)

This is the most common, the most familiar, the most useful,
and in its plumage perhaps the most beautiful of all the Bri-
tish owls. Instead of spurning the society of man, it courts
the neighbourhood of his dwelling ; and while it is more des-
tructive of mice, in all their species, barn, field, and bank, than
any of the other owls, it stands not accused of destroying any
sort of game, even in the young state, though it sometimes
does pursue small birds. It does not skin its mice, but breaks

THE BARN OWL. 149

the bones, and returns these and other indigestible parts in
pellets or castings, the quantity of which in a hollow tree or
other cavity, which has for some time been the abode of owls,
is very considerable.

The barn owl, though it has not the destructive habits of
the tawny owl, and though the fact of its hooting like that
and the snowy owl rests on the single testimony of Sir Wm.
Jardine, yet merits the encouragement and protection of man-
kind ; and in fact wants nothing but not to be persecuted, in
order to make it both familiar and useful. The amiable,
eloquent, and enterprising Mr. Waterton, of Walton Hall, has
taken a colony of owls under his protection ; and his paper
on the subject in No. 23, of Loudon's Magazine of Natural
History, is equally curious in its facts, and delightful in its
spirit and naivete. About 1814, despite the alarms of the old
housekeeper, he founded a colony of owls, over the ancient
gateway ; for, whatever might be the fears of others, it is not
to be supposed that he who, {vide his most romantic wander-
ings) in the wilds of Guiana, and to the admiration of men of
all colours, rode triumphantly ashore on the back of a cayman,
bridling the formidable reptile with its fore paws, would be
timid of owls at his own threshold in England.

The owls have multiplied in a truly patriarchal manner,
nestling not only in the original ivy, but in the neighbouring
trees; and so familiar, without being either tamed or trained,
that all their habits can be studied with the utmost ease ; and
those habits are evidently much more their natural ones than
when they hide themselves on the approach of man. They
admit of being visited in their nests and perching places,
upon which latter they repose in an erect posture. They
utter their stridulous cry, morning, evening, and all night
long, whatever be the state of the moon ; but up to the pub-
lication of his paper (January 1832) Mr. Waterton's owls
had not hooted, though like others they hiss and snap with
their beaks when violence is offered to them. The snoring
noise is the complaint of the young for food ; and the hearing
of it in winter led Mr. W. to the discovery that owls have

o 2

150 ACCIPITRES.

very late broods. It used to be repeated from one to another
that owls snored in their sleep, but the structure of the
breatkin0, apparatus in birds is against this hypothesis, and
corroborative of Mr. Waterton's observation.

These owls, as is the case with domestic birds, do not
breed only at one particular season, but all the season over,
as late as December, and many of them, no doubt, have two
broods.

The number of mice that a colony of owls could thus
destroy would be immense. A mouse every twelve or fifteen
minutes, Mr. Waterton says, is the allowance brought to the
young ; and the (pair ?) in the old gateway cast up a bushel
of pellets in sixteen months, each pellet containing the skele-
tons of from four to seven mice. Thus, if owls were esta-
blished at every farm, the caterwauling of cats, which is more
unmusical than any other sound of animal, would be less
necessary, the houses would be cleared of mice, and probably
— eaten up by black beetles.

It may be further noticed on the score of the hooting, that
the utterance of such a sound would be rather against the
barn-owl in its mousing. The hooting, except in so far as
it may be a love note, must be calculated to stir the game,
and therefore applicable only to birds on the perch or lying
close, which when they stir, stir into notice, and not to mice,
which when alarmed stir out of both notice and danger.
The familiarity of these owls is proved by one picking up a
rat in sight of Mr. Waterton, not long after he had fired a
shot ; and he records some fresh instances of their fishing.

The barn-owl is about the same dimensions and weight as
the tawny owl, only a little longer in the wings, as birds that
fly in the free air are generally longer winged than those
which inhabit forests. Its general colour on the upper part
is yellowish brown, and on the under part white. The upper
part is streaked, spotted, and sprinkled with white, grey, and
dusky ; and the concha are dusky round the eye, but passing
into white at the margins. The sexes are equal in size ; but
the male has more grey above, and more buff on the under

THE ALPINE VULTURE. 15 L

part. They are well defined ; and as the dark line at their
junction extends almost to the beak, the two when seen in
front have something the aspect of a pair of large spectacles,
while the single one looks a little like the cup of a convolvulus
with a dark eye at the bottom.

Owls are supposed to be of use about dams and mill-ponds,
by capturing the rats and shrews which bore into the banks.
They are of use in churches, and other places which are only
occasionally frequented ; for though "church mice" are pro-
verbially lean, they are on that account the more apt to
attack and destroy whatever may either by accident or design
be left in their way.

VULTURES.

Vultures being birds which prey almost exclusively upon
animals in a state of putrefaction, or upon those which
have the weakness of disease and the " scent of death" upon
them, are not birds adapted either to the course of nature, or
to the state of the arts in Britain. They are found in wild
places, where undomesticated animals perish by the casualties
of the weather ; on the margins of great rivers, where animals
are drowned, and left by the subsiding floods ; and generally
in tropical, or at least warm countries, where the taint of their
food can be borne far by the air. But as there is one which
comes occasionally, though rarely, as a straggler, a mere
notice of that one may be given.

the alpine vulture. (Vultur percnopterus.)

This vulture measures about two feet and a half in length,
and, in the largest specimens, between seven and eight in the
stretch of the wings. The full grown male is nearly white ;
the female brownish, with the wing feathers very dark brown,
margined with grey. The beak is long and narrow, the face
naked, and the whole bird of an uncouth and ragged appear-
ance.

152 ACCIPITRES.

They come farthest when the weather is very hot and dry>
because then the scent is not only the strongest but the wild
animals get sickly or perish through the failure of the pas-
tures. They very rarely visit England, though a pair was
seen near Bridgewater in 1826. They are light in proportion
to their wings, and thus they are long flighted birds. They
appear to be perfectly inoffensive to living animals, and are,
no doubt, of great use in helping to keep pure the air on the
margin of the great desert which extends from the west of
Africa far into the east of Asia. That is their proper locality ;
and though to us they are rather repulsive, they are, in their
own proper place, very serviceable birds.

Such are short notices of the whole, or nearly the whole,
of the British birds of prey, the best defined as an order,
and on many accounts the most interesting of all birds. Resi-
dent or visitant, they are adapted to all situations, all
seasons, and all hours of the day. Those that feed upon
animals which are valuable to man, court the desert and the
depth of the wood, shun the dwelling of man, and flee at his
approach. Others, such as the barn-owl, which destroy only
those animals that are noxious to man, court his society,
probably multiply as improvement and cultivation spread,
are easily tamed, and if once tamed, show no disposition to
wander when left at libery to do so, but will even return to
the house after being driven away. They in fact need no
taming ; for Mr. Waterton simply placed a stone upon which
they could sit, planted an ivy in which they could find
shelter, and forbade the molesting of the birds, and the
destruction of their eggs, and they remained and multiplied,
became familiar without being troublesome, and were diligent
servants without expence.

153

ORDER V.

OMNIVORA OR OMNIVOROUS BIRDS.

THE CROW TRIBE, AND BIRDS OF SIMILAR HABITS.

Omnivorous is a vague, and not a very applicable expres-
sion ; for there is not, of course, any bird or other animal that
can eat " every thing," neither is there any species of bird
that has not some favourite description of food, of which
when it can be had the bird is fonder than of any thing else.
Most birds, too, are somewhat miscellaneous in their feeding ;
and there are probably none which cannot, when compelled
by hunger, subsist upon food which they reject when they
have abundance of that which they like better.

But after the orders that have been already noticed, it is
not very easy to select names descriptive of those particulars
in which tribes of birds resemble each other, — too slightly,
and with too many variations for allowing them to be in-
cluded in the same genus, and yet having so much similarity
that the description of one serves partly for that of the others.
This is the practical use of forming birds into orders ; and if
the name can be made expressive of some very general and
obvious property, such as that of killing prey in the rapacious
birds, it is so much the better ; but when that cannot be done,
a more vague term must be used, and rendered as definite as
possible by definition.

It is in this sense that the term omnivorous must be taken.
These birds are more miscellaneous in their feeding than any
of the others. They eat most animal substances, carrion,
insects, seeds, and other farinaceous and pulpy vegetable

154 OMNIVORA.

substances, and some of them prey upon living animals,
though generally weak ones, or when they are in an enfeebled
state ; and most, if not all of them, plunder the nests of
other birds, eating indiscriminately the eggs or the callow
young.

CHARACTERS OF THE OMNIVORA.

Plumage close, firm, and glossy : the feathers being of
hard and compact texture on all the exposed parts, with the
exception of the head, which has sometimes loose feathers or
a sort of crest. Colours strong and pure, uniform or with
bold contrasts. Prevailing colour of those which are most
decidedly British, black, with green, blue, purple, or bronze
reflections of metallic lustre. Other colours, grey, white,
blue, and green, rarely brown, and never red or yellow in
any species resident in Britain, or regularly appearing as a
visitant ; though many foreign ones are very gay.

Bill of mean length, coulter-shaped, strong, ridged, pointed
at the tip, and fitted for punching or digging, convex on the
upper side, and often with a margin. The feet, formed for
walking or for perching, having three toes before and one be-
hind ; they walk firmly, and many of them also hop with the
assistance of the wings. The wings are of average length,
firm in the feathers, and pointed at the tips.

Nestle in the tops of trees, in thick brakes and bushes, in
the clefts of rocks, and in old buildings, or buildings that are
elevated above ordinary reach, or in the hollows of old trees.
They are all monogamous, but many of them live in large
societies, even during the breeding time ; and the more soli-
tary ones also hold occasional assemblies. They range to con-
siderable distances for their food, which they seek only during
the day. They are rather noisy, but their noise is harsh and
unmusical. Many of them frequent cultivated places, and
are highly useful to man. Their flesh is hard, black, and
bitter, though the young of some are eaten, being skinned
before they are dressed.

THE ROOK. 155

The omnivora, partly no doubt from the ease with which,
in consequence of their miscellaneous and ready appetite,
they can be fed, are all easily tamed ; and in that state they
are capable of very considerable attachment, both to places
and to persons. They can also be taught to articulate words ;
and it is a curious fact in ornithology, that the birds which
are the most easily taught to do that, are also the most re-
markable for the roughness and harshness of their voices, and
the absence of any thing that can be considered as natural
song.

There are two divisions of them, the Crows, properly so
called, whose characters are well defined ; and the other
genera, to which no common name can with propriety be
given, as they vary so much both in their appearance and
their habits.

crows. (Corvus.)

Colour generally uniform ; prevailing hue dark, generally
black, of different shades and with numerous reflections. Bill
very strong, upper mandible slightly bent at the tip. Tail
of moderate length and rounded. Very numerous, found in
all situations from the mountain top to the sea shore ; but
some prefer cultivated places, and others the wilds. The
former are, generally speaking, the more social in their
habits ; the latter partake more of the characters of preda-
tory birds.

the rook. (Corvus frugilegus^)

Every body knows the rook; the dark, the noisy, and
sometimes the nest-plundering, or in the early fields, the
contribution-levying rook ; but still, notwithstanding, the
cheerful, the orderly, the industrious, the discreet, the bene-
ficent rook. There, in the aged and stately trees, he builds
his wicker castle, chants his rude and monotonous cry the
while, dwells among his brethren and his kindred, and looks

156 OMNIVORA.

down on the lord of the manor with as much self-possession as
if it were he who suffered the wingless rustic to toil with
heavy steps through the sticks that fall from the nest of his
superior.

Nor does he loiter away his time in the manorial bower.
He looks after the estate, and gives a very broad and at the
same time pointed hint to others, if they would take it.

When the frost is severe, and the snow lies thick, off he
flies to the sea beach or the river side, and inter alia, inspects
the embankments, weirs and dams, to notice if the teredo
has bored into the posts, or any other injury has been done
bv small enemies, that can be productive of damage when the
thaw and the flood come. Or he comes nearer the house, and
examines the compost, in order to see that when you apply it
to enrich the fields, you do not at the same time scatter in-
sects which will eat up your young plants, and deprive you of
your crop.

When the thaw comes, he hurries to the meadow, and ex-
amines the debris which has been cast there by the swollen
stream ; and if he finds in it the germ of any noxious thing
he pulls it out, so that the blessing of the hill may come
upon the valley, pure, wholesome, and without offensive addi-
tion. Next he goes to the autumn-sown wheat, and, by a
curious instinct, knowing those plants that are sickly, he
delves down, and extracts the larva of the cockchaffer, or
whatever earth caterpillar it may be which is only waiting for
a few gleams of a warmer sun, in order to render your labour
abortive, and compel you to plough and sow that field anew.
Again, he is over the pasture, and every stool of grass and
plant of clover undergoes a like patient and well-directed
scrutiny ; and, by the time that " the day is done," he returns
to his perch, cawing to inform you that the labour is accom-
plished, and the labourer paid, in less time than you would
take in considering how to do either the one or the other.

The great additional labour of the rooks is the preparing
of their nests, and the rearing of those families which are to
continue the society, and watch over the state of the fields,

THE ROOK. 15/

after age or casualty shall have given their own feathers to
the winds and their flesh to the raven ; and their early rising,
their constant labour, and the order and police which they
maintain, are all very curious. Their time of commencement
is the first of March , a little earlier or a little later, accord-
ing to the season ; and, as the building of the nest and the
instinct by means of which that nest is to be stocked come to
maturity together ; so, if the lapwing storm, which, raging
on the shores, and in the low country, helps to drive these
beautiful birds to the moors, be long and protracted, the nest-
building is suspended till it blows over, and the rook contents
himself in the interim with watching the safety of those sticks
that are already placed.

But if the season goes cheerily on, and there is no inter-
ruption, the cawing and the bustle begin at the greyest dawn ;
and that man is most industrious that can get to his work
before the rook. " Ask the beasts, and they shall tell ; the
birds, and they shall instruct." It is good, at that season,
to be near a rookery. There is no lullaby in their cawing ;
you cannot sleep ; and they will not allow you to be dozing
and " losing thought" in bed. Rise you must, or suffer for it.
But they do not annoy you at nights, " Early to bed and early
to rise" is the rooks' maxim, and if you follow them as far as
that, the rest will follow of necessary consequence.

But their admonition does not stop there. The farmer's
busy time is their busy time ; they feel that he is as necessary
to their present profit as they are to his future ; or they act as
if they so felt, which in effect comes to the same thing. If
he will not bring out his teams, turn the soil, and expose the
worms and the grubs ; they caw over his fields, and make the
same sort of lamentation that a hungry man does when he
knows that there is meat in the house, but the careless servant
has lost the key of the larder.

But if the teams are all a-field betimes, slicing the sward
or the stubble, and turning up the fresh and fragrant earth
to be mellowed by the action of the sun, there is not a com-
plaining note among all the fieldward rooks. Gallantly they

VOL. I. P

158 OMNIVORA.

strut and incessantly they pick up the larvae and the worms,
so that the returning plough cannot bury and so preserve in
the soil a single destructive thing. And you would think
that the memory of gratitude was strong in them, and that
they know upon whose territory they depended, when their
own was locked up by the snow and the frost. At that time,
he resorted to the shores of the sea, and fed on the pastures
of the gull ; and now that it is his time of superabundance,
the gull comes for a share, and the rook, instead of offering
nny resistance, mixes with the stranger on the most friendly
terms. Even the pigeon comes from the cote or the wood,
and the very poultry and ducks come from the farm-yard, and
mingle in peace with the wild tribes, — such charms has the
timely labouring of the ground.

The plentiful supply of food which, in the course of a few
hours, the rooks obtain at this season, enables the one-half of
them to be always, and the greater part of them to he some-
times, at work in the rookeries. It has been said, though
after a good deal of observation I cannot verify it, that the
strong sometimes help the weak in the construction of their
nests ; but it is certain that those which have been detected
in filching sticks from the nests of others, are punished, not
merely by the parties they have plundered, but by others.
The attachment of the pair during the nestling time is the
strongest of their attachments : but there is a feeling towards
the society, and even the place, for if jDart of the trees are
cut down, the rooks will accommodate each other upon the
remaining ones, often so thickly as to contain two nests in
the same fork, without any signs of hostility between either the
old birds or the broods. In close time the male does not take
turn in sitting, and when the action of the eggs has begun,
the female is never long absent from the nest ; but the male
certainly does bring food to her, and appears as willing to
bestow as she is grateful to receive. After the young are of
such an age as they can be left, both parents assist in
feeding them ; and as the working of the land goes on during
the time, or if not, the lame come near the surface of the

THE ROOK. 159

pastures, an abundance of food for the numerous broods (the
average is five) is obtained without much difficulty. The
feeding continues after the birds leave the nest, and "branch ;"
and when there are several broods on the same tree, each
parent appears to know its young, and each of the young its
parent, with as much certainty as the ewes and lambs of a
flock know each other, though the ewes are browsing and the
lambs sporting indiscriminately over the pasture. The pairing
attachment weakens, if it does not altogether cease, as soon
as the young birds are able to shift for themselves ; but the
social instinct, which is the bond of union of the rookery,
continues not only for life, but through as many generations
as the trees continue ; and if these are cut down en masse,
the birds remove en masse to a new locality, generally as near
the old one as they can.

The treatment of orphan broods, and the disposal of
widowed rooks, are curious points in the domestic history
of a rookery ; but they are points upon which, from the
similarity of one rook to another, it is very difficult to get
accurate information. There is little doubt, however, that
when any casualty happens to the parents after the brood are
of such an age as that they can complain, the others do relieve
their wants. Indeed, it is very possible that all species of
birds contribute at times to the support of orphan broods of
their own species, otherwise, from the casualties to which the
parent birds are subject, we should meet with many more
instances of young that had died in the nest. As for the
widowed ones, there is no doubt that they pair again the
next year, so that there is never more than one odd bird in a
rookery ; and it has been asserted that one of the ways in
which new rookeries are formed, is the pairing of the odd
birds from existing ones. During the pairing season, one may
often observe a rook flying about in a hurried manner, and
cawing in a sharper and more anxious key, without carrying
sticks, or taking any share in the business of nidification ;
but whether they be odd ones it is not easy to say. Cou-
riers sometimes pass and repass between the different rook-

160

OMNIVORA.

eries, upon terms that are evidently amicable, but the mes-
sages "which they carry are known only to the rooks them-
selves. There is no doubt, however, that all birds which live
in societies have some signals by which they recognise each
other ; for when the rooks of different rookeries feed together
during the day, but go home at night, each party takes its
proper course, though occasionally one or tw^o will follow the
wrong leader for a time before they discover their mistake.
Rooks have a history which is neither brief nor void of inte-
rest ; and they are so numerous, and found in so many places,
that any one may study it.

It need hardly be added, that the rook is of a fine glossy
black, of almost the only tint of that colour which is lively ;
that the sides of the head and neck are glossed with very
rich blue, of which there are traces, but deeper and less per-
ceptible, on the coverts. The beak is straight in the gape,
with near equally similar outlines to both mandibles. The skin
at the base which is light grey, is covered with black feathers
extending over the nostrils, in the young bird, but these are
wanting in the old. The common opinion is, that it wears
them off in digging, which is not very likely, as much more
laborious spade-work does not injure the fur of moles, or the
feathers of some other birds. There is a power of reproduc-
tion in the bill, and if necessary there would be one also in
the feathers which the young bird has at its base. The re-
placing of the feathers by scales, rather indicates a natural
habit in the bird. The natural dimensions of a full-grown
rook are, about nineteen inches long, and thirty-eight in the
wings ; and the weight is about nineteen ounces.

THE HOODED OR ROYSTON CROW. (Coi'VUS CO?')lix.)

This bird is larger than the rook, being an inch longer, an
inch broader, and about three ounces heavier. Its head,
wings, and tail are black, but less bright than that of the
rook, though there are some blue and green reflections to-
ward the sides of the neck ; the rest of the body is of a dull

THE HOODED CROW. 161

smoke-grey. It is a stronger bird, but less handsome and
less interesting in its manners. Its principal food consists of
eggs, young birds, and carriou ; and it may be described as a
prowling and gross feeding bird, plundering all tbat it can
find, killing all that its cowardly nature will allow it to
master, and feeding greedily upon any garbage that comes in
its way. Other birds seem to know and dislike it, for even
the small ones fly about it, and beat it with their wings.

In England, the hooded crow is only a winter migrant,
appearing in the month of October, and taking its departure
about the first of April. During that time it is also most
abundant in the richest districts of the Scotch lowlands, in
which it seldom breeds ; but as the latitude, and also the
cold from elevation, increase, the birds are found more nu-
merous, and in the high districts, and the Orkney and Shet-
land Isles, the hooded crow, or simply " hoody," as it is
called, is the crow, and the rook and carrion crow are but
little known.

When in the south, the hooded crows usually appear in
small flocks, and come not only to the corn-fields but to the
neighbourhood of villages and even of towns, gather any
garbage that they can find, and play the scavenger in the
kennels and at the lay-stalls. On the sea-shore they are not
uncommon, where they pick up dead fish and birds, or any
sort of animal substance, no matter how decayed or putrid,
that may have been left grounded by the tide. They are also
said to be adroit in opening muscles and cockles, and in
twitching limpets off the rocks, or even in boring or hewing
through the shells of such as they cannot detach. It is also
said that the large limpets sometimes close upon their bills,
till they are retained and drowned, which may be true, as the
limpets hold on with the cloak, and not the shell; and there
are limpets so large, that the adhesion is equal to a force of
from twenty to thirty pounds.

They also prowl about the preserves, warrens, and pas-
tures, and if they find any animal in a disabled or weakly
state, they punch out its eyes; and if they are not able to kill

p 2

102 OMNIVORA.

it on the spot, leave it to perish, and return to the carrion at
their leisure. In the north, they carry on similar depreda-
tions during the whole summer. The number of eggs and
young birds of grous, and other species, which they destroy,
is very great ; and in some places of the Highlands and the
northern isles, and especially in the Faroe Islands, they rob
the ground of the seed corn and seed potatoes.

During their breeding time they disperse, because the up-
lands, where they have their nests, could not support a large
colony of birds so voracious ; but they do not pass imme-
diately to the breeding places. They get back as they may,
according to their powers of flight, and meet at some rendez-
vous ; in all probability, near the place wlier: they were
hatched. There they assemble, and remain for some time in
solemn deliberation (as some say) upon the conduct of the
campaign, and make a solemn inquest into the southern
" foray," with grave judges, brawling counsel, anxious clients,
and all the paraphernalia of a court of justice, with the
exception of witnesses, and of these even Landt maketh no
mention. Some also are left for execution — no, left executed ;
for the dead bodies are left on the place of meeting, as food
for any creatures which may be fouler feeders than them-
selves.

But all this execution of the law for one campaign, and
enacting of it for another, is, in truth, nothing more than the
simple and natural operation of pairing, in the course of
which, though they are strictly monogamous and constant,
there is some rivalry, duelling, and bloodshed at the outset.
The grave judges are, in reality, desponding lovers, rejected
swains, and unwooed damsels, whose heads are weighed down,
not with wisdom, but with woe ; the wranglers are rivals,
settling their affairs of gallantry ; the anxious lookers on are
the females, who are to fall to the lot of the conquerors ;
and the dead bodies are the remains of those who have, not
ignobly, bled for all-conquering love.

Wehn all is settled, the pairs wend their several ways over
the wild, nestling in the rocks or trees as the one or the other

THE CARRION-CROW. 163

may be most convenient, building the external part of their
nest with sticks, after the manner of the rooks, but, contrary
to the custom of these, lining it with wool or hair, which they
do not hesitate to pull from the back of a sheep or other
animal; and if he be weak, lame, or laired (stuck in the
mire), they punch out his eyes into the bargain, and take note
of his carcass, as a substantial addition to the larder.

When one first meets them in scores upon a Highland moor,
on a foggy day, having been previously familiar with the
rooks of a less savage land, one imagines that the crows have
been snowed on till they have become hoarse, their croak is
so "inward" and laborious; but they have also a sharper
sort of crowing note— a kind of note that seems to belong, in
some degree, to most birds that fight for possession of their
females. The eggs are about five, which is indeed the usual
number with all the crow tribe. As the season becomes cold,
they migrate, or come down to the low country to pass the
winter ; and if that is more than usually severe, the grey upon
them changes almost to white. When the snow falls heavy,
they resort to the margin of the sea, and the very doors of
the cottages ; but occasionally take an excursion to see if
any creature has perished, or is perishing, in the snow ; and
if so, and the body is considerable, they soon come in a
flock.

the carrion-crow. (Corvus corone.)

The carrion-crow, though smaller in size, (about eighteen
inches by thirty-six, and eighteen ounces in weight,) and dif-
ferent in colour, being wholly black, except some greenish
reflections on a few of the feathers, has so nearly the habits
of the hooded crow, that doubts have arisen whether they
ought not to be considered as varieties of the same species,
produced by climate, the hooded one being whitened by the
cold. That the hooded crow becomes whiter by exposure to
intense cold, is one argument, and the production of a mixed
breed between them, is another, and would be decisive, if

164 OMNIVORA.

that breed were fertile in itself, and without any return to-
wards the pure blood of either ; but this has not been ascer-
tained, and thus the mixed breed may be merely a mule, the
same as that produced between the goldfinch and canary.

Independently of that question, which, being one of science
and system, we are not called upon to discuss, there are,
besides the mere size and colour, sufficient differences of
appearance and habit to form a popular distinction. The car-
rion-crow has much more the air of the raven than the hooded
crow ; it is heavier in proportion to its length ; it is firmer
and bolder ; it frequents different situations ; and even when
they are together for a time, the one race go one way, and
the other another.

They nestle in high trees, but they prefer the neighbour-
hood of rich countries, and hence they are not found in the
Highlands and northern isles. They prowl about even to the
doors of the houses, and into the poixltry yards, and are vo-
racious devourers of eggs, young poultry, young rabbits, and
young game, even more so than the regular birds of prey.
They punch out the eyes of weak animals, hawk at birds on
the wing, open shelled-mollusca on the sea-shore ; and there
are modern instances in corroboration of the story of the
ancient philosopher who was killed by a crow mistaking his
head for a stone, and dropping an oyster on it in order to
break the shell. One of these was seen by the celebrated
Watt. A crow caught up a crab, rose with it to a con-
siderable height, dropped it, not on the head of a modern
philosopher — or he might not have come more safely off than
the ancient one — but on a stone, and descended to her
feast.

Though not a very long winged bird, the carrion crow
rises to a considerable height, higher than that at which the
hooded crow is seen ; and in defence of her brood she beats
off the smaller hawks, the kite, and the raven. The brood
remain with the parent birds till next breeding time ; and
though these crows collect in small flocks during the winter,
they seem to do so rather from an accidental meeting in quest

THE RAVEN. 1G5

of food than from any principle or instinct of a social nature.
During the breeding season, each pair keep within their
own territory, which is of considerable extent, though at
other times they associate during the night. When the
spring begins to be felt, they separate : the hooded crows
migrate, and the rooks collect together. These are, at least,
distinctions of habit.

the raven. (Corvus corax.)

The raven, though in appearance and also in many of its
habits very similar to the carrion crow, is much more a bird
of prey. As is the case with the birds of prey, the female
is larger than the male ; whereas in all the other species of
crows the male is larger than the female.

The raven is a powerful bird. It is rather more than two
feet long, four feet in the extent of the wings, and more than
two pounds in weight. Its colour is black, glossed with blue
on the upper part ; and it is one of those birds which inhabit
almost all latitudes, and have their plumage unchanged by
varieties of seasons or of climate. Under the line, and near
the poles, in the northern hemisphere, and in the southern,
under burning sun, and amid chilling cold, it is still the same
dark, forbidding, and hoarsely-croaking raven.

The disposition of the raven is very similar to that of the
carrion crow, only as it is much more powerful it carries
matters with a higher hand. But as nature tempers and
regulates her productions to each other with a degree and
even a kind of perfection which man cannot imitate, the
raven is much more a bird of the wilderness than any other of
the crow tribe. It inhabits wild hilly districts, generally those
that are between the low lands and the higher mountains ;
and though it can well endure the weather, it gives the
preference to a southern aspect. Its nest is concealed in a
thick tree, or in a cleft of a rock, but it gives preference to
the latter. The nest is something after the fashion of that of
the carrion crow, but larger ; the eggs are five ; but as the

166 OMNIVORA.

young are exceedingly voracious and restless for their food,
that number is seldom reared, as some generally fall out of
the nests. In some places, where a long range of precipice
stands on the southern brow of a hill, in a district covered
in many places with brakes, and abounding with birds and
wild game, the ravens dwell in peace ; but people occasionally
gather up the young which they find croaking in the bushes
under the precipice. When taken they strike with their bills,
but the only taming that they require is being fed ; and they
make excellent warders, as few dogs, unless they have been
trained, will go in upon a raven. The stroke is very power-
ful, and given not by the mere motion of the neck, but with
the neck stiff, and the whole weight of the body thrown by
a simultaneous movement of the legs and wings ; and the
bird comes on as if the whole of it were a sharp, feathered,
and self directed dart.

The hop of the raven suits his purpose well when he beats
the long grass and bushes for eggs, young birds, and leverets,
He flings himself into the air with wonderful ease ; and when
he has cleared the bush he lets himself down with equal
softness, so that the feet slide to the ground but do not touch
it. The raven thus comes more stealthily upon his prey than
almost any other predatory bird ; and though he does not
repeat his hoarse and dismal croak till he discovers something
stir the vegetation, in the act of hiding itself more closely,
he comes upon it hopping, and before it is aware.

He moves from place to place on the wing, — and a bold
and strong wing it is, less easily hurt by the storm than most
others ; but he does not beat so much while flying. He gains
some high point, and there he sits surveying the whole
horizon which it commands, till something promising appears.
Then, away he wings, low and stealthy, and lets himself
down softly before he arrives at it. Thence he hops, in a
spiral or zig-zag, always appearing as if he were to pass in
an oblique direction, but nearing his object at every hop.

One often wonders where he can come from ; for you may
walk the wild for hours without stirring a wing, more espe-

THE RAVEN. 167

cially a black one ; but if you lie down, especially if you lie
on your back, the raven will be close upon you in a moment,
examining if you are ready for him. He appears to know
instinctively that the position of the lifeless or helpless body
is on the back, with the eyes exposed to the punch of his
bill, and therefore he comes more readily and resolutely upon
the body in that position than in any other.

It may be that the position which the dead body assumes,
generally on the back, (on the side in quadrupeds) and always
with the eyes open and exposed, is partly assumed to accom-
modate the raven ; for it is a law of nature to reclaim to
other use the materials of every thing after it has ceased to
be useful itself ; and, in those countries where there are no
vultures the raven is the consumer general of those carcases
which would poison the air of the wild.

To lie down on your back, and lie still for some time, on an
exposed part of the hill, is the best way to see and watch the
motions of the raven, or to shoot him, if you are so armed
and inclined. He is shy of man and of all large animals in
motion ; because though glad to find others carrion, or to
make carrion of them if he can do it with impunity, he takes
good care that none shall make carrion of him. If you are
even sitting in any posture that indicates life he will not
alight near you, though he may reconnoitre you on the wing.
But if you He on your back, he will come you know not
whence, and, hovering round you on slow wing, examine
you from all points. If you do not stir, he will drop down
at a little distance, and begin to hop in an ecbellon fashion,
bringing his shoulders forward alternately after a few hops
on each line of the zig zag. Sometimes he will utter his
" criicq, criicq," and pause to see if that makes you stir, and
if it does not he will accelerate his advance. If you allow
him to come sufficiently near, his first salutation would be to
dash himself at your eye ; but if you have a gun you can
make sure of him long before that ; only " beware the beak,"
if he is merely winged or otherwise slightly wounded. Not-
withstanding, if you take him home, feed him well, and heal

1(38 OMNIVORA.

his wound, he -will not only forgive you, but become a faithful
servant.

When the raven has young, his excursions are not carried
on to such a distance over the wastes ; and in very severe
weather he comes farther down, prowling under the hedges,
and even near the houses, and if he finds any animal in a
weakly state, he helps it on its way. Rabbits find no quar-
ter; and even the spiked armour of the hedge-hog is not
proof against the thrust of the raven's bill, which is in some
respects more formidable than the beaks of the rapacious
birds, inasmuch as it stabs to death, and then cuts up the
slain like a pair of great shears.

When there is " death on the hill," which there generally
is at the time of the spring and the midsummer rains, of
birds that are weak from long flights, or want of food during
the first of these, and of nestlings unable to fly during the
second, it is high feast with the raven ; and while all else are
driven to shelter, you may find him daring the storm, and
beating about for its victims.

The extending of cultivation, and the greater attention
that is now paid to the condition of the stock, both cattle and
sheep, during the winter, have diminished the food, and
consequently thinned the number of the ravens. In the
olden time, when the cattle went first to the hill, there were
many of them so weak that they were unable to rise without
assistance, so that part of the early morning's occupation for
the people was to go round and lift the weakly cattle. The
sheep did not absolutely need lifting on the level ground, but
if they happened by any chance to get into even a shallow
rut on their backs, they were unable to recover themselves ;
and both sheep and cattle stuck fast in places which stock in
better condition could pass with ease. These were days of
plenty with the raven, whose morning's work was to go
round and punch out eyes ; and then, though the animals
were found, only the skin was useful to man ; and so the
raven, who generally sat at no great distance during the
operation, soon came and claimed the carcase. In the im-

THE JACK-DAW. ]Q(J

mediate destruction of that, the raven was of service ; because
no browsing animal will feed near the carrion of its own
species ; and that he was able to begin the work, proved
either that the pastures were on the whole overstocked, or
that they were injudiciously managed. Indeed, the havoc
committed by a predatory animal will always, if duly studied,
be found to involve an admonition, which, properly acted on,
will cure the evil produced by that animal, and produce a
considerable reward for the labour it may require in addi-
tional and positive good. In those hilly districts where
ravens are still to be found, animals are subject to more
casualties than they are in the plains, or on the level moors .:
so that the ravens still have their use there, and the wanton
destruction of them is, at all events, a matter deserving con-
sideration.

the jack-daw. {Corvus monedula.)

The jack-daw is the only other British bird that strictly
belongs to the crow tribe. It is a frequenter of the haunt's
of man, active, noisy, and familiar, almost to impudence ; but
it is a lively bird ; and though at times it may take a little
grain, that is far more than compensated by the number of
insects and worms that it destroys in the course of the year.

The jack-daw is the smallest of the tribe, beir.g only about
half the weight of the rook ; but the wings are larger in pro-
portion. It is about fourteen inches long, twenty-nine broad,
and weighs between nine and ten ounces. The bill, feet, top
of the head, and wing coverts and secondary quills are black.
The back of the head and nape smoke grey, and the irides
the same but much lighter. The remaining parts black, with
a greyish tinge on the upper side, and a bluish on the under.
The black is variously glossed with blue and violet reflections.
These are the ordinary colours ; but like all birds that inhabit
cultivated lands, and are of course affected by the differences
to which cultivation gives rise, jack-daws vary considerably
in colour, partly from age, partly not ; sometimes the grey is

VOL I. Q

170 OMNIVORA,

nearly white, at other times the bird is black all over ; and
there are many slighter and intermediate variations

Holes and chinks are the immediate places in which jack-
daws nestle ; but these must be elevated above the level
ground, and the higher they are the bird likes them the
better. It is probable that the original instinct is the pro-
tection of its eggs and young from the weasels. Rocks, the
edges of neglected quarries, the projecting parapets of bridges,
towers, steeples, rums, the earth where it forms a very steep
and crumbling bank, are all resorted to by the jack- daws ;
and one would imagine that the birds are fonder of the so-
ciety of man than of having the locality to themselves. But
the fact is, that these birds court the vicinity of human dwel-
lings for the same reason as the house-swallows, because
insects are most abundant there. Fifty towers may be built
iu an insectless wilderness, and never a jack-daw would come
to nestle in them.

In the winter months, the jack-dawrs and rooks flock toge-
ther, and collect their food on the same fields, and of the same
kind, without any hostility ; but in the spring, when the rooks
return to the rookery or the trees, the jack-daws collect
about the rocks and towers. Their habits are, indeed, very
similar to those of the rooks, with the exception of the places
in which they nestle, and the materials of the nest ; both are
generally of sticks, but the jack-daw uses a lining of softer
matters. The difference of their notes easily distinguishes
the two species, even when they are so blended and distant
that the sight cannot. The Scotch names, " craa" and
'• A«e," are perhaps as expressive of their sounds as names can
well be.

In some places, one would think that there is more in their
winter associating than merely accidental meeting on the same
pastures. In the latter part of the season, when the rooks
from one of the most extensive rookeries in Britain, made
daily excursions of about six miles, to the warm grounds by
the sea-side, and in their flight passed over a deep ravine in
the rocky sides, or rather side, (for they inhabited the sunny

THE JACK-DAW. 1~1

one,) on which there were many jack-daws, I have observed
that when the cawing of the rooks on their morning flight
was heard at the ravine, the jack-daws, which had previously
been still and quiet, instantly raised their shriller notes, and
flew out to join the rooks, both parties clamouring loudly as
if welcoming each other; and that, on the return, the time of
which was no bad augury of the weather of the succeeding day,
the daws accompanied the rooks a little past the ravine ; then
both cawed their farewell, and departed. What is more sin-
gular, I have seen, too frequently for its being merely acci-
dental, a daw return for a short time to the rooks, a rook to
the daws, or one from each race meet between, and be noisy
together for a space after the bands had separated. With
the reason I do not interfere, not being in the secrets of
either party ; but the fact is as certain as it is curious. In
order that any one who pleases may investigate the matter, I
may mention that the rooks were from the woods of Pan-
mure, the daws from the den of Pitairley, and the feeding
ground was the low part of the parishes of Monifeith and
Barry, all in the county of Angus.

From the ease with which jack-daws can be observed, there
are many stories of them, and also of the perils to which boys
expose themselves in plundering their nests. One of the
most extraordinary of the latter, is that of Murray, the Dun-
dee barber. The battlement of the old tower there is about
150 feet above the pavement at the base. Murray (when a
boy) went through one of the holes in the parapet, hung by
one hand to a Scotch bonnet which another boy held from
within, and with his other hand drew the eggs and young
birds from the nests, and put them in the bonnet. While
thus employed, he kept warning his companion — " If you
let go the bonnet, I'll give you none of the spoil." The
jack daw is easily tamed, and long remembers those who have
paid attention to it ; indeed it is almost tame in its natural
state ; but it is noisy and impudent, and not very honest.

1/2 OMNIVORA.

OMNIVOROUS BIRDS NOT CROWS.

There are two divisions of these, one with the tail long
and terminating in the form of a wedge, the other with it
squared over. There is but one species of the former, the
magpie, a resident. There are three species of the second
that reside in Britain, and a good many that visit occasion-
ally. All these birds are remarkable for the beauty of their
plumage, and the ease with which they can be tamed, and
taught to articulate. On these there is still no red or yellow,
or even brown, in the plumage, though there is russet in the
spots of the starling, and in the general plumage on the body
of the jay, and red in the bill and claws of the chough.

the magpie. (Pica Melanoleuca.')

Magpies are familiar birds, so well known to every body,
that much description of them is not necessary. They associate
in pairs, and are more prolific than the crows, the number of
their eggs being sometimes eight. They do not choose the very
highest trees for their nests, but they always, when there is
a choice, select thick and bushy ones ; and it has been re-
marked, that the tree which contains a magpie's nest, is sel-
dom uprooted by the winds, even in the violence of the winter :
and when the birds are in a more sheltered habitation. By
parity of reasoning, that house on the top of which the mag-
pie perches, is in no danger of falling ; but woe be to the
beast on whose back it perches, for the magpie perches on
dead beasts, and consequently, when it perches on living ones,
it wishes, prophesies, and even dooms them dead ! The mag-
pie is thus a bird which excites very mingled and opposite
sensations : it is a bird of hope and confidence, and of fear
and despair; but the feeling towards it leans upon the whole,
to the suspicious ; and one set of the ignorant spare the mag-
pies and their nests for the same reason that another class
never mention the name of the devil, except in under tone,

THE MAGPIE. 1/3

and with much respect, lest they should come hy some heavy
or bodily harm ! And the magpie filches away money and
other little matters, and when they are again found, they have
much of the peril of witches' money ! Nay more ; the mag-
pies actually take counsel together, conspire, and club their
wits, for weal or for woe as it may turn out. If there is an
even number, and all are cheerily met, then happy times to
the matrons, high hopes to the maids, and health and long
life to all the family — or the parish, if the place of meeting is
in or near the churchyard ! but woe be to that house before
which there is an assemblage, with an odd magpie sitting
sulkily apart ; and tenfold woe, if that sight crosses a lover
on his path, or a party on their way to the altar ! A black
pig crossing the door of a fisherman's hut, or even a dead
hare detected in his boat when at sea, is not more perilous —
not half so much so ; for neither lord of the monor, parson
of the parish, nor (where these are effective) "bell, book, and
candle," can cast out the evil spirit of the odd magpie !

These circumstances are not mentioned with a view to pro-
pagate superstition, and far less with a view to ridicule it ; for
ridicule is the hammer with which, as a nail in a sure place, it
is driven home and rivetted. These superstitions are weeds ;
but in every field of nature, weeds are the sure sign of fer-
tility, and the certain guarantee that culture shall produce a
crop valuable in proportion as the weeds are rank. The mag-
pie is a very active and a very clever bird, having instincts
which are very readily affected by changes of circumstances too
minute for ordinary human observation ; and therefore there
is no question that, properly studied, the magpie would be a
capital index to many of the phenomena of nature — a philo-
sophical instrument, more delicate and more varied in its uses
than any that man can construct ; and if people knew but
how to consult their magpies, (and it is a result within the
legitimate province of observation,) they would find these
better guides to the weather,— the heat, the moisture, and the
motions of the air, and the effects of these upon the earth, —
than any apparatus formed of dead matter. There is nothing

Q2

1/4

OMNIVORA.

so susceptible as life, and the magpie is probably one of the
most susceptible of its winged forms.

It chooses the thick tree because that can best support
and conceal its large nest, just as the eagle and the raven
choose the cleft and ledge of the rock.

Most birds, by the way, nestle above their food ; and
though the magpie does not build so high as the rook, it
builds higher than any of those birds whose nests it generally
plunders. The magpie is one of the most villainous plun-
derers of nests, not hesitating to invade those of domestic
poultry, especially when it has young. It seizes the eggs in
the same way as the rest of the tribe, that is by thrusting the
bill into them and carrying them off. Boys sometimes play
it a trick, by filling the shell of an egg with bird-lime, and
leaving it as a bait for Mag. Mag thrusts the bill into it,
and it goes up to the very bottom of the gape and further, so
that Mag cannot see, but flies, bumping against the twigs,
till she is fortunate enough to hit against one which breaks
the shell, and then there is no small labour in clearing the
bird-lime from the feathers at the base.

A thick-branched tree is also a firmly-rooted one ; and so
the tree is stable not because the magpie chooses it, but be-
cause stability is a concomitant of that property in the upper
part of the tree which suits the magpie. The nest is large,
much larger than is necessary for the eggs, because it is
walled and roofed, and the magpie must have room for its
long tail while it sits, and facility of reaching all the young
to give them their food ; and hence the whole extent of it is
much greater than that which is lined with grass or other soft
matters. The nest is tolerably well concealed, and it is
strongly built, and the eggs at such a distance from the door
by which the bird enters, that they are safe from all spoilers
except man.

Where these are but few, and no casualty occurs, the pair
build for years in the same tree ; but when they are nume-
rous, there must be marriage parties in the spring, as well of
the youug ones, as of those that have been left single by

■

THE MAGPIE. 175

casualty. The meetings are for these purposes : the odd one
is of course unpaired ; and the rustic may very likely have
brought the terror of it upon himself by killing its mate.

As to the houses, it will, I suspect, be found that magpies
sit most frequently upon those that smell the most of " mag-
pie's food." With beasts it is much the same. The magpie
has many of the habits of the raven and the crow, and the
whole race come most about sickly beasts, allured, no doubt,
by the peculiar scent, though that scent may not be percepti-
ble to man. It is certain that when, from bad food and
improper treatment, murrain or any other general disease falls
upon cattle, crows and magpies are as certainly attracted
toward them, as vultures are to a field of the slain, and no
doubt by a similar cause. In this matter, again, people
might profit by observing and studying the magpie ; and it
is an interesting bird to study — neat in its form, beautiful in
its colours, elegant in its attitudes, and smart and lively, but
at the same time, shrewd and cautious in its manners. Even
the chatter of the magpie, though a note of alarm to the little
birds when they have nests, is a social note : in a wild coun-
try, you may generally look for a cottage if you hear a mag-
pie. The female magpie is rather smaller than the male, but
the markings are similar. There are many pleasing stories of
magpies, but we still want a good history of the bird, in
combination with the circumstances about it, from the actual
observation of one who is well skilled in the plain common
sense philosophy of these circumstances in their connection.
It is the same with all familiar birds : we know them and we
know them not.

the jay. (Garrulws glandarius.)

The jay, though not so handsome in its form, so familiar,
or perhaps so interesting in its manners as the magpie, is one
of the most beautiful of our resident birds. It is distributed
over most parts of the country where there are groves and
coppices, and especially where there are bits of thick and close

176 OMNIVORA.

plantation ; but it does not occur in very great numbers in
any one locality.

A figure, one-sixth of the lineal dimensions, is given at the
bottom of the plate opposite, from which a general notion of
the form and colour of the bird may be obtained. The feathers
on the head are, however, generally looser than it is easy to
represent them in so small a figure : the white roots appear
between the blue and black in the coverts ; the bluish tinge
is sometimes wanting in the forehead ; and the upper part of
the bird varies from brownish-purple to purplish-brown.
When it is in a state of excitement, both the tail and the fea-
thers on the crest are erected ; and the pale grey iris of the
eye, contrasting with the deep mustaches, gives it a ferocious,
or at least an unsettled aspect.

The jay, though a showy bird, is much more frequently
heard than seen, and it is not one of which it is easy to get a
sight upon compulsion, as the more you follow it, it plunges
the deeper into the thick of the coppice. The best place for
observing it well, is where there are peas or cherries near its
haunts, as it feeds greedily upon these, and may then be
watched for a longer time than its wary habits will admit of
under most circumstances.

Jays do not flock, neither have they meetings similar to
those of the magpies and some of those crows that breed
apart from each other ; nor, though it has been observed
in some instances, has it been fully established that the
young remain with the old birds after they are fully fledged,
and capable of finding their own food. That is rather against
the general analogy of their natures, for they are much more
predatory than the magpies, although considerably smaller.
They are equally, if not more destructive of the eggs of small
birds ; they catch mice, and they occasionally pounce upon
birds, and kill and devour them.

One of their most remarkable qualities is the volubility of
their sounds, and the readiness with which, when tamed, they
can be made to articulate. Its alarm note, which it utters
upon the appearance of any thing that is dangerous, or even

THE JAY. 177

strange in its haunts, is peculiarly harsh ; but it has a love
note in the early part of the season, which is not only soft,
but so low and apparently cautious, that it seems whispering
to its mate, as if to hide their affections and their labours
from the other tenants of the grove. Even there it is very
imitative, and though it does not attempt the songs of the
warblers, it is very adroit at bleating, screaming, neighing,
and in short, imitating all the harsher sounds. What purpose
these may answer, whether to scare or invite, or mislead
other birds, is not known. The soft note is, in the warmer
parts of the country, often heard again toward the latter parts
of the season, because there the jays have often two broods
in the year ; and it seems to be in such places only that the
family keep together during winter.

The first incubation is toward the end of May, the nest
being begun about the first of that month. It is better built
than that of the rook, but less carefully lined than the crow's,
or generally than the magpie's, and it has no walls and roof
like the latter. The platform is of sticks, and the immediate
receptacle for the eggs, which is shallow, is of grass and
roots. The eggs are about the same in number as those of
the magpie ; the incubation lasts about two weeks, and the
young acquire their plumage in July.

The jay is, for its size, remarkable for the rapacity of its
appetite, and the wideness of its swallow, and eats acorns,
nuts, and chesnuts entire ; but there are other substances of
which it makes more of a bonne bouche. It is very partial to
the flowers of the cruciferse, which it pulls slowly and care-
fully, petal by petal. It is a restless and inquisitive bird, and
sometimes gets itself torn, or jammed between branches, in
its ramblings. When nests, and fruits on and under the
trees fail it, it hunts among the fallen leaves, and often plun -
ders the hoards of small quadrupeds ; but as it does not come
far from the woods, even in the coldest weather, it must be
subject to many casualties, which accounts for the limited
numbers compared with the fecundity of the birds.

1/8 OMNIVORA.

Words in "which the letter r occurs, are soonest learned, not
only by the jay, but by most birds that can be taught to
articulate. That is easily accounted for by the unyielding
nature of the mandible, which forces the air to come out be-
tween the upper part of the tongue aud the palate, on which
that trills. A man cannot easily pronounce the r in any but
Northumberland fashion, if he grins the while : and those
who use the tongue simpering and softly, merely touch, but
do not pronounce it.

the chough. (Pyrrhocoj'ax graculus.)

The chough is as much a bird of the breeze as the jay is of
the shade and shelter of the woods ; and their different plum-
ages are well adapted to the differences of their modes of life.
The loose and comparatively downy plumage of the jay en-
ables it to glide between trees, and softens its collision with
branches, while the firm plumage of the chough enables it to
bear the storm when beating against the rocks, in which it
takes up its abode.

The chough is about seventeen inches long, thirty-four in
the stretch of the wings, and thirteen ounces in weight : the
female is smaller. The colour is all over black, but with finely-
glossed reflections of blue and violet ; the eye lively, with a
light brown iris ; and the bill and feet red — the former long,
bent a little from the base, and very tapering ; the latter with
strong black claws, sharp and considerably curved. It is a
handsome and lively bird, very active on the wing, and utters
a shrill and wailing cry. It can be tamed, but it is restless
and mischievous.

On the continent choughs migrate, but in Britain they re-
main in the same haunts all the year round. Their haunts
are mostly confined to the southern and western coasts, on
rocky shores, and where the surface of the adjoining land is
irregular. They also nestle in ruined buildings, but not near
the habitations of man, unless protected by a great elevation

THE CHOUGH. 1/9

of cliff ; their nests are in the most inaccessible places, and
the eggs are four or five in number. They eat grain, and
sometimes visit the fields for that purpose ; but their prin-
cipal food is found among the rocks, and in the wilds, and it
consists of meats or of seeds and berries, as may happen . It
is probable that they also pick some substance from the rocks,
because in bad weather they stay more closely there than ap-
pears to be consistent with the wariness of their feeding at
other times. They come abroad only in fine weather, and fly
high on their journey, but seek their food on foot, the form of
their bills being well fitted for picking insects out of very
small crevices. It is not true, that their flying far and feed-
ing late, in itself portends the breaking of the weather ; but
it proves that they have scoured all the nearer pastures, till
they have ceased to be very productive, which is saying, in
other words, that there has been a long track of dry weather,
the end of which must be change, more violent, and gene-
rally nearer in proportion as the drought has lasted long ; and
as pastures do not recover their insects any more than their
vegetation while the drought continues, the choughs must
extend their journeys more and more, till the rain comes ;
and thus they are necessarily further from home, and later on
the wing, just before the weather breaks, but without any
particular foreknowledge of the weather.

A change which is yet to happen in the atmosphere, can no
more affect the present habits of a bird, than a gun which is
yet to be loaded and fired, can at present shoot a partridge ; but
the present state of the weather, and the past state also, as
being the antecedent of the present, do affect the habits of
birds, and to these observation can always apply, and must,
when rightly applied, be useful.

Those birds which, like choughs or rooks, live in societies,
and go in bands to their pastures, must, in the nature of
things, consume the produce where they feed ; and whether
their food be animal or vegetable, they must be driven to
greater distances when drought (which, generally speaking,
lessens the production of both) is of long continuance. As

180 OMNIVORA.

their journeys become longer, and their food less easy to be
found, (for the abundance of food in the vicinity, though not
the only element, always is an element in their choice of situa-
tion,) they must be later in getting home, until the change
of weather comes. But that change, especially after long
drought, often affects the earth, and the smaller living crea-
tures, before rain begins to fall, or even before the sky is
clouded ; and thus those incipient changes which are not pal-
pable to our observation, not only may, but often do, bring
out the earth insects and earth worms ; so that the birds
which feed on them fare abundantly, and return earlier than
before the change began. It is not meant to be said that that
is always the case, but it is so frequent, that any one who
chooses may observe it. And it is a wise and beautiful pro-
vision of nature. All Nature s provisions are wise and beau-
tiful : the tempest which is to break in the night may confine
the birds for days to their shelters without food ; they want
that, in order to recover from the fatigue of finding their food
in the extreme of the drought ; and the very resistance which
the dry earth offers, finds them a hearty meal at the close of
their severe labours, so that they can comfortably rest in their
shelters and on their perches till the storm is over, and they
can again come forth to enjoy plenty in their own neighbour-
hoods. Thus, when studied aright, the time and manner of
the flight of birds, instead of being an idle augury serviceable
only to the purposes of superstition, is fraught with practical
information of the most useful kind ; and is more to be relied
on as indicating natural changes, than the feelings or the con-
jectures of man, in an artificial state.

the starling. (Sturrms vulgaris.)

The starling is the smallest of all our resident birds allied
to the crow tribe, and it is one of the least rapacious, confin-
ing itself to insects and seeds, (chiefly the former,) like the
chough, and never killing other birds, or probably robbing any
nest. It has been accused of breaking the eggs of pigeons.

THE STARLING. 181

when it takes shelter in the pigeon-house from very severe
weather ; but as that would be a violation of the laws of hos-
pitality, as of the customs of the starling, the friends of the
bird very properly repel it as a calumny.

The starling is between eight and nine inches long, about
sixteen broad, and it weighs from three to four ounces. The
ground colour is black, with rich reflections, varying from
golden green to deep purple ; the whole beautifully dropped
with triangular spots like little " stai's," white on the under
part, and passing into cream-colour on the back. The quills
and tail-feathers are greyish black, with reddish brown mar-
gins. The young of the first year are uniformly coloured of
nearly the same brown as the margins of the quills in the
mature bird, only lighter, and inclining a little to yellow on
the breast ; but after the first moult, they are more speckled
than the old birds. The bill is lemon yellow, bluish at the
base, and the legs are sometimes brown, and sometimes in-
clining to yellow ; the bill of the male becomes yellow the
first spring, that of the female, after two years. The spots,
being on the extremities of the feathers, are sometimes to a
considerable extent obliterated : hence old birds, as well as
young ones, are sometimes mistaken for different species.

Like its congeners, the starling is not difficult to tame,
or to teach to articulate ; and Sterne chose the captive star-
ling in a cage, with its " I can't get out," in order to depict
pathetically the bitterness of slavery. The thought was not a
bad one, for at certain seasons of the year, the starlings are
among the most social of birds, and they also make great use
of their liberty in ranging from place to place. They are
found abundantly in all the lower parts of Britain, and in the
most northerly of the islands ; they mingle freely with most
flocking birds, and do not hesitate to alight in numbers among
domestic animals in the meadows and other pastures. They
are partial to humid places, and do not much frequent the
elevated and arid moors ; and in the cold season they migrate
in vast numbers to the low and warm countries, and to the
shores of the sea. They are, at all seasons, very lively birds,

VOL. I. R

182 OMNIVORA.

whistling, chattering, and gliding about on the wing, which
they generally do in curves, and with a smooth motion. On
the ground they walk neatly, and with considerable velocity,
but do not hop. Walking and hopping seem to depend a good
deal on the kind of food which birds seek on the ground. If
the food is large, and so visible at a greater distance, the
birds hop, as in the case of ravens and magpies, and of
thrushes, which feed on snails and slugs ; but if the food is
insects and their larvEe, and worms, as in the case of the rook
and the starling, then the walk is smooth. When the weather
is fine, starlings often hawk about on the wing in pursuit of
insects, for hours together ; but generally in the evenings.

Many birds fight at the pairing time, but the starlings are
all play and good-humour ; and after they have settled the
preliminaries, they resort to the hollows of trees, holes in rocks,
ruins, and walls, and there construct their nests, which are
artlessly formed of dried grass. The eggs are never more
than five ; but it is possible, nay, probable, from the vast num-
bers of the birds, that they may, in favourable circumstances,
have two broods in the year. All our resident birds that renew
their song in the autumn have probably broods at that time,
although in districts where the winter comes soon and sud-
denly, many of the later broods must perish. If the starlings
can fly, they are exempt from many of the casualties to which
birds that winter doggedly in their su'mmer haunts are sub-
ject ; they whisk away to places where there is plenty of food,
while the lingering tribes perish of want.

When they are in the low districts, and in large collections,
a flock of starlings preparing to lodge themselves in the tufts
for the night, put one something in mind of a dog, preparing
to lie down in a place to which he is not accustomed. They
wheel round and round, first in the circumference of a circle,
out that circle narrows, and the whole mass is revolving round
a centre within itself, before it drops and disappears for the
night.

Starlings not only associate with other birds, but imitate
their cries — chattering with jack-daws, whistling with plovers,

THE WAX-WING. 183

and screaming with sea-fowl. Their double voice causes them
to be more frequently deprived of their liberty, their articu-
lation being plain, and their whistle easily modulated into
music.

OCCASIONAL VISITANTS OF ANALOGOUS GENERA.

There are at least five of these, of which specimens have been
seen in some part or other of Britain, and they may be more
frequent than has been ascertained ; but still they are so little
open to common observation, that we need do little more than
mention the bare names.

the roller. (Coracias garrulus.)

About the size of a jay, beautifully marked with black,
blue, green, and chesnut. Nestles in woods. Habits re-
semble those of the magpie and rook jointly. Common in
the eastern and southern part of the continent ; very rare in
Britain, and only seen in individual specimens. (See the cut
at page 7.)

the wax-wing. (Bombycivora Garrula.)

A very beautiful bird, rather shorter than the starling, but
of very graceful form and delicate plumage. Beak short and
black, as are the eyes, a portion round them, the chin, (ex-
cept a white line under the gape,) and the principal parts of
the wing and tail feathers. Upper part and crest (which is
long, silky, and handsome) of an indescribable colour, which
is grey, brown, and purple, and yet neither of them ; under
part passing into a soft grey on the upper part, with reddish
orange below. Coverts of the primaries tipped with white ;
tail feathers and primaries with yellow. Secondaries tipped
with white, ending (in the mature male chiefly) in bright ver-
milion spines. Comes in small flocks toward the close of
winter, but only occasionally ; and while here, feeds on wild
berries. Its nestling places and habits are little known.

184

OMNIVORA.

the golden oriole. (Oriolus galbidct.)

Rather larger than the wax-wing, and less elegant in form,
but a beautiful bird. Male golden yellow, with the wings
and tail black ; the margins white in the wings, and the tips,
with the exception of the middle feathers, yellow in the tail .
Female olive green above, grey below, with traces of yellow
in both. A summer migrant on the continent, but merely a
rare straggler in Britain. The Orioles, with the analogous
genus of American bird, Icterus, (of which the colour also is
yellow in the males, and greenish yellow in the females and
young birds,) exert more labour and show more neatness in
the structure of their nests, than perhaps any other of the
feathered tribes.

rose-coloured pastor, or rose ouzel. {Pastor roseus.)

This is another very rare straggler, about the size of the
starling, but more compact. The head, (which has a large
crest,) neck, wings, and tail of the male are black, and
the rest of a pale rose colour, inclining to salmon colour, or
nearly peach blossom, with the least possible " feeling" of
orange in it. The black of the head, crest, and neck is in-
tense and velvety, with exquisite, though rather obscure re-
flections of green and violet. The female has a shorter crest,
and the body more inclining to grey or brown. The young
are brown all over, mixed with grey, especially on the throat ;
they want the crest, and are somewhat like young starlings,
but more round and compact. The legs are dull brown,
whereas those of the old birds are dull red. In Britain they
are very rare stragglers, seen chiefly toward autumn ; they
are, indeed, only summer migrants in the south of Europe.
In the countries which they do visit in summer, they and the
orioles are of vast service in destroying the larvae of insects.

BIRDS CLASSED FROM THE STRUCTURE OF THEIR TOES. 185

the nut-cracker. (Nurifraga caryocatates.)

Is also an exceedingly rare straggler in Britain, though
abundant in many parts of the continent, even the cold ones.
It is about the size of a magpie, of a rusty brown colour, palest
on the sides of the head and neck ; and is, especially on the
scapulars, spotted with white, the spots larger and longer
than those on the starling. It lives on wild berries, and ker-
nels, and pips, the latter of which it digs out of their shells
and cores with its powerful cultrated bill. It also lives upon
insects, and digs them out of the holes of trees, upon which
it can support itself in a manner similar to that of the wood-
peckers. It has, indeed, something of the air, as well as the
manners, of those birds ; but it wants their peculiarly dis-
tinguishing characters.

These four species are all so handsome, so peculiar in their
habits, and so different from our common British birds, that
one regrets that they cannot be — at least have not been —
enlisted among the dwellers in our woodlands. Our climate
would preclude some of them, but not the nut-cracker or the
roller, which are as common in the forests of Germany, as the
jay is in our groves and coppices.

BIRDS CLASSED FROM THE STRUCTURE OF THEIR TOES.

The old order, Passeres, " little birds," or birds of " the
sparrow kind," contained so very many genera of different
characters, that it was vague, and conveyed so little informa-
tion, that it was nearly useless. The term Scansores, or
" climbers," applied to certain descriptions of birds, of which
there are but few British genera, and not very many species,
was not much more definite, because those are not the only
birds that climb —they only climb in a particular way, or by
means of a peculiar structure of feet ; and therefore the use of
the word " climbing," as applied to them, was making a term,
which is quite general and clear in itself, stand for one of its

186 OMNIVOKA.

own peculiar meanings, in the same way as if the word " mo-
tion" were applied to express some particular kind of motion
that required a particular epithet, such as "flying" or " swim-
ming."

The more judicious ornithologists have therefore founded
the name on the organ itself, and not on the function of that
organ ; and as the organ is a substance, and the function
only an act, the method is far more clear and satisfactory.

Of the birds already noticed, there are many that can perch
on a stick, branch, or twig, or even on a blunt point ; and
they can walk, by stepping from stick to stick, or from point
to point, without assistance from their wings. They can also
walk along a round pole, if it be a thick one ; but they cannot
move lengthways on a slender one, in any other way than by
shuffling sidelong, or hold their balance on it, unless they
perch across. As little can they walk up or down a stick when
nearly perpendicular, and especially not on the under side of
one leaning over.

But there is food, and abundant food, for birds, that can be
had only by perching and walking in the manner to which
the birds noticed are not fitted. There are insects in the
crevices of the boles and branches of trees adequate to the
supply of many birds ; and insects, too, which would do serious
mischief to the trees, if there were not birds to thin their
numbers. These birds require a peculiar structure of feet ;
and though they have other peculiarities for enabling them
to filch the insects out of their lurking places, yet the feet,
which enable them to get to those places, and remain at them
till they catch the insects, are their proper distinguishing
characters.

We have to do only with the mere external appearances of
these feet ; but they are wonderful pieces of mechanism, and
show with how apparently little difference from that which
answers one purpose, a very different purpose may be ef-
fected.

There are two distinct forms of these feet, the one called
zygodactyly, or "yoke-toed," and the other anisodactylic,OY

187

" unequal-toed ;" and on these are founded two orders of
birds which agree in several of their habits, but differ in so
many others, as to warrant the distinction. The following
cut will illustrate both : —

Wood-pecker. Nuthatch.

The first or wood-pecker's foot, is sygodactylic, or "yoked,"
two of the toes being turned back, and two forward, and the
two front ones are joined together at their bases. As that
foot has two bearings in the front and two behind, it enables
the bird to perch or to walk lengthwise on a branch ; and,
with the feet alternately holding on, and the tail bearing as a
prop, to walk up the trunk of a tree, or even to move sidewise
round it, though slowly. The legs are placed behind the
centre of gravity, so that the weight of the bird both assists
in compressing the claws into the fissures of the bark, and
presses the tail against the tree under them ; and while the
centre of gravity remains higher than the feet, the bird is
stable, without that exertion of the body which would prevent
the use of the beak and of the wings, if these should be neces-
sary. But if the head were turned downwards, or the body
even much out of the upward position, the principle of stability
would be changed into a means of falling. Hence, thougli
these birds can run upwards, they come down only backwards,
and that rather slowly and awkwardly; and they can get
round only in an ascending spiral : hence they beat and hunt
the trees from the roots upwards. There are some very
curious modifications of these feet, but as they belong not to
British birds, they do not come within our province.

188 OMNIVORA.

The second foot (that of the nuthatch) is anisodactylic, or
cl unequally yoked," and is by far the more curious foot of the
two, though at a cursory glance it seems not to differ much
from a common foot with three toes before and one behind.
It has, in fact, the power of two feet, and of two feet com-
bined ; so that the bird keeps its hold better with one foot,
than other birds can do with two, and with the two, better
than other birds could do if they had even four. The middle
and exterior toes are united together at their bases, and admit
of a position half reversed, or midway between the other two;
the hinder toe is long and strong, and all the toes have strong
claws. Thus the foot can adapt itself to any kind of surface,
and the bird possessing it can run upon the trunk or branch
of a tree in any direction — upward, downward, across, or
obliquely.

The habits of the birds correspond. The British yoke-toed
ones generally remain at places where there are insects, punch
holes in the trees with their bills, and draw out the insects
with their tongues, which can be far protruded, and are armed
for the purpose. The British birds of the other order run over
the bark with wonderful celerity, and pick out the smaller
insects with their bills. The habits of both are exceedingly
interesting:.

*s&53

ORDER VI.

ZYGODACTYLES.

YOKE-TOED.

The foreign, especially the tropical, birds of that order are
exceedingly numerous, and comprise the most curious and
showy of the feathered tribes — the toucans, the parrots, the
parroquets, the maccaws, and many others, which swarm in
the forests, and hang on the trees like gorgeous flowers in
colour. The British ones are but few — the wood-peckers, the
wryneck, and the cuckoo : the last has a peculiarity in the
structure of its feet, as well as in its mode of life. Three
species of wood-peckers are resident in Britain, and some
others come occasionally as stragglers. There is but one
British wry-neck and one cuckoo, which are both regular
summer visitants, but not equally distributed over the country.
The wood-peckers are, the green, the greater spotted, and the
lesser spotted.

THE GREEN "WOOD-PECKER. (PlCUS Vtridis.)

The lowest figure on the plate opposite, which is one-sixth
of the lineal dimensions, will give an idea of the form and
colours of the bird, and also of its attitude when in a state of
repose. It will be seen that the upper tail coverts are very
thick, and that the tail feathers are pointed at the ends ; they
are also very firm and stiff both in the shafts and the webs ;
and one of them, or at least two, can support the weight of
the bird without bending.

The wood-pecker is especially a bird of the ancient forests.

190 ZYGODACTYLES.

You do not find it in the hedge or the coppice, where so many
of the little birds, especially the summer migrants, build their
nests, and spend their middays, when the reflections of the
sun come bright on all sides of the foliage, in picking the soft
caterpillars from the leaves, or capturing the insects that resort
thither for the purpose of depositing fresh myriads; and when
they have thus secured the shelter and beauty of their habita-
tion, farewell the evening, and again hail the morning, with
their joyous songs : the aged tree is all to the wood-pecker,
and the wood-pecker is much to the aged tree.

Whenever any thing that once had life dies exposed to an
atmosphere which is not in the extreme of heat to torrefy or
in the extreme of cold to burn, creatures come, true to the
grand purpose, to win back the materials for new uses. The
mosses and lichens insinuate their roots into the decaying
bark, and the larvae of countless beetles and flies mine into
the lagging cumberer, where it lingers in life, and loses the
acerbity of high health, or they drill through and through the
dead and decaying wood. Of these, as well as of all things
that nature produces, there is a surplus to meet extraordinary
contingencies when they occur ; and if there were not some-
thing to keep down that surplus on ordinary occasions, the old
tree would speedily be destroyed, the races that prey on them
would perish, and the place would be one step nearer to
desolation.

But nature has appointed the wood-peckers conservators of
the wood of old trees, furnished them admirably for their
office, and so formed their habits, that an old tree is an Eden
to them, fraught with safety, and redolent of plenty and fat-
ness. So exquisitely are they fitted for the'r office, that the
several wood-peckers vary in tint with the general colours of
the trees which they select. If it is an alternation of green
moss, yellow lichen, and ruby-tinted cups, with here and there
a spot of black, then the green wood-pecker comes in charge ;
but if it is the black and white lichens of the alpine forest or
the harsh-juiced tree, then we may look for the spotted race
upon the bark.

THE GREEN WOOD-PECKER, 191

The tree is all to the wood-pecker ; it is a castle, a pasture,
a larder, a nursery, an alarm-drum, and a lute. When the
renovation of the spring begins to be felt through all nature,
and the fluids both of animals and of vegetables receive new
action and new energy from that light and heat which the
sun of the young year dispenses, the wood-pecker in the large
hole of the tree, and the egg or the larvae in the little one,
partake of the renovation, and the wood-pecker creeps out,
and tries till he comes to a place which is hollow, and upon
that he beats the drum in loud and rolling taps, but yet with-
out in the least perforating the tree. The instrument and the
sound are rude, but the bird contrives to make the latter
merry, and in some degree musical. The sound swells and
sinks, and hurries and lingers alternately, so that at a dis-
tance it resembles the sound of rustic glee heard through the
woodland : and if the wood-pecker's mate catches the sound,
she answers to it, and the bargain is concluded, and the la-
bour of the season begun ; if not, the male glides on to an-
other tree, uttering his short cry, plu-i, plu-i, upon which he
again resumes his serenade ; and if there happens to be an
odd bird in the wood, this call of love may occasionally be
heard, till the ardour of the summer sun has evaporated that
energy which his coming in the spring inspired.

The sound is a rude one, and one which we would suppose
but little suited for awakening the tender passion. But many
of the love-calls of birds are harsh ; and yet the croak of the
raven, and the caw of the rook, answer the purpose of nature
as well as the murmur of the dove, or the song of the night-
ingale. The subject is one of very nice investigation, and
dangerous for theorizing ; but really it seems that there are
in the love sounds of birds (and of all animals) some implica-
tions of promised assistance, or implied capacity for the rear-
ing and defending of the young. The crowing of the male
gallinoe, which is their love-note, is also the song of victory,
by which they make proclamation from the top of the dung-
hill, or a hillock in the field, that they have vanquished a
rival, and so secured the pastures for their own females and

192 ZYGODACTYLES.

their broods. Man} other instances will occur to the reader
in which the love- note is also the expression of exultation at
abundance ; and the drumming of the wood-pecker on the
hollow tree is an expression of the very same operation, by
which a nest (if need be) is to be formed, and food is to be
found. Indeed we may rest assured, that though the songs
of the birds are delightful to us, that is not their use in na-
ture, but that they are understood by the parties for and to
whom they are poured forth, and that they are heard by these
with understanding, or an inspiration of confidence ; and fur-
ther, that they have some very direct and palpable relation to
the economy of the bird, which by careful observation we
could find out.

If the tree affords no natural hole fit for the purpose of
nidification, the wood-peckers set about excavating one with
their bills. They do that by turns, and they do it with won-
derful expedition, their bills, while they are at work, going so
fast that the strokes cannot be counted either by the eye or
the ear. They know the tree by the sound ; and though
they will cut through a few layers of perfect wood, they never
mine into a tree, unless it has begun to decay in the interior.
Such a choice would be inconsistent for two reasons ; first,
the great labour of making the nest, and secondly, the
comparatively smaller quantity of food they would find on
a healthy tree. Nature guides them to those trees where
their labour is light, and they have plenty to eat.

They do not work with their bills as if these were pincers
to tear, or chisels to detach pieces ; they proceed in the same
manner as a mason does when he perforates a block of granite
with a pointed pick ; they thump away with so much rapidity
and force, that the timber is ground to powder ; and they
work in a circle no larger than will admit themselves. They
generally burrow so deep that no spoiler can reach their eggs
in their absence ; and farther security is afforded by the
opening being in some hidden part of the tree. The sound,
which bears some resemblance to that made by the grinding
of a thick piece of steel on a rather smooth stone, may be

THE GREEN WOOD-PECKER. 193

heard at a considerable distance ; but though one proceed
on the sound, it is not easy to see the birds. This arises partly
from the uncertainty of the direction of sounds in forests
(which, by the way, prevents animals from being betrayed by
their own notes, either into danger or out of their prey,) and
partly from the ease with which the wood-pecker can glide
spirally round and gradually ascend, always keeping on the
side of the tree opposite to the observer.

There are seldom any materials carried in for the nest. If
it is wholly made, it is made of the form and size wanted,
and rendered soft by a part of the powder of the tree ; and
if there is a chink downward, that is filled up ; but if there is
one upward, which admits the rain, the nest is excavated in
a lateral direction till the drip is escaped, or if that be impos-
sible, the place is abandoned for another. The eggs are four
or five, and the young come out, and ascend the trunk and
branches, and feed there a considerable time before they
can fly.

The wood-pecker digs its way to the insects which are in
the tree with its beak, but it uses the tongue in extracting
them. This organ is extensile, barbed with reflected bristles,
and also supplied with a glutinous fluid at the tip, so that,
whenever it can reach the prey, it draws out the larger as
with a hook, and catches the smaller as with bird lime. The
surface insects it captures with the tongue only : and the
number of those that it does catch, and the rapidity with
which they are taken, are both truly wonderful. The number
of ants that inhabit forests, especially pine forests in dry
places, are very great ; and these supply abundant food to the
wood-peckers, not only when the ants are hunting for their
prey on the trees, but when they are on the ground, especially
on those beaten paths which they form in the neighbourhood
of large ant-hills.

The wood-pecker does not subsist wholly upon insects.
When the wood is ripening in the fall of the year, there is a
pause in nature generally; and during that pause, most of the
tree-eating insects are in the egg state or gone. At that

VOL. I. S

194 ZYGODACTYLES.

time the wood-peckers follow the same law as all our locally-
resident birds that feed chiefly upon insects during the
summer, and betakes itself to vegetables — to nuts, and other
farinaceous and oily endowed kernels, which the structure of
its bill enables it to get easily out of the toughest husks or
the hardest shells.

In the miscellaneous plantations of the low country, the
wood-pecker is fond of particular trees — the poplars, for in-
stance, are favourites, because they are easily bored on ac-
count of their softness, and especially because they are overrun
with insects. It is also fond of oaks, because of the natural
holes that are in them, and the number of lepidopterous
larvae that are found about them. It is also fond of trees
that are apt to contain numerous aphides, not for those crea-
tures themselves, but for the ants which swarm thickly about
them. Wood-peckers afford striking proofs of the effect which
the quality of the soil has upon birds, They are much more
plentiful on the clay to the north of London, where the trees
grow rapidly and have soft wood, than in Surrey, where the
soil is lighter and the wood more close grained and firmer.

The green wood-pecker has been called the " rain-bird," as
have several other birds that are very active or that utter
their cries before rain ; and as, in the summer, all birds
either eat insects or other animals that do, the term might
be extended to all the tribes. Tame poultry and geese so far
retain their natural instincts, as to feel that state of the
weather which brings out their natural food, and also to
express their feelings by louder, and apparently less causeless
cries than they utter at other times. Now, if birds which
feed on earth insects, feel that impulse, much more must
birds that feed on tree insects. The trees are wholly in that
air which rests merely on the surface of the earth ; and when
the drought begins to soften, and the larvae can come nearer
to the cambium of the wood, or otherwise feed without too
great a pinching of their tender bodies by the drying wind,
we might, as a matter of course, expect redoubled activity on
the part of all the grove and forest birds.

THE GREEN WOOD-PECKER. 195

When in May, the wind blows long, cold, hollow, and
dry, from the east, and the evaporation produces cold till the
remaining moisture is congealed into hoar frost during the
night and dissipated during the day, leaving the infant leaves
black, and the more advanced ones sapless and shrivelled —
when the sap stagnates in the vessels of the trees, and curdles
and becomes sugary, as if a premature autumn had set in, to
produce the fall (no, not the fall, but the adhesion) of the
blossoms instead of the fruit, and the congregation cater-
pillars, with which the birds do not much meddle, bring
out their millions, spin their habitations of silk, and strip
every leaf from orchard, coppice, and hedge, the birds be-
come mute in the mournful groves. Many a weary wing is
fluttered in vain ; many a mother sits hungry over those eggs,
the young of which, if they shall be produced at all, must
perish from want ; and many a nest is abandoned in despair,
and the builders drop down among the arid clods, to seek the
preservation of their own lives in that description of food
to which they are fain to betake themselves in the rigours of
winter. ''The famine is" indeed "sore in the land ;" and
Sahara hangs suspended over the erewhile green pasture and
gay grove.

But on some day, before there is a cloud in which the
bow of Hope can limn its hues, the white flag of truce and
mercy is hung out in the higher heaven, streaming in easy
flexures from the south-west, in testimony of victory over
the desolating east. And as the day declines, the little clouds
flit joyously on varied winds, as if they were fetching the
pitchers of heaven from the four corners of the sky, to refresh
the weary earth, and renew the waning creatures. The sealed
spring trickles out ; the echo softens and mellows its tone ;
and the whole earth is tuned as an instrument by a skilful
hand. Then, as the evening closes, the insects and the
worms come out ; the birds feed; new life returns; the tuned
instrument is soon in use; the groves are in song the livelong
night : and that song ceases not even when the thunder peals
and the rain pours, until the delivered tribes have expressed

196 ZYGODACTYLES.

their gratitude. — Such is another instance of the augury of
birds, and a very general one.

The female of the green wood-pecker has the head much
paler, the mustaches black, and the general colour of the
body inclining to brown and grey where that of the male is
red and yellow. The young are also greyish, spotted on the
breast, and have only a few red feathers on the head.

THE GREAT SPOTTED WOOD-PECKER. (PicUS major.)

The word " major" is not very happily applied to this
species ; for although it is the largest of the spotted ones, it
is so far from being the largest of British wood-peckers, that
it is not half the size of the green one. The spotted wood-
pecker is about nine inches long, twelve in the extent of the
wings, and three ounces in weight. The green one is four
inches longer, nine more in the wings, and weighs seven
ounces. The spotted is therefore the least adapted for long
flights, and accordingly, it is not so generally distributed,,
being found only in the woods, and chiefly in the wild and
'onely ones of the north, where the decaying pine is its favou-
rite tree. But, with allowance for difference of situation, the
habits of all the wood-peckers are the same, so that one de-
scription answers for the whole. The forehead, cheeks, ear
coverts, scapulars, a patch on each, the neck, part of the coverts
of the wings, the throat, breast, and belly, of the great spot-
ted wood-pecker, are white ; and there are white spots on the
quills and tail feathers, except the two middle ones. The hind
head is deep, the vent greyish red, and all the rest black, with
the exception of the tarsi and toes which are blackish grey.
The female wants the red on the head. The young have the
crown of the head and the hind head black ; and as these
colours are reversed in the mature bird, the old and young
have sometimes been called different species.

THE LESSER SPOTTED "WOOD-PECKER. (PicUS minor.)

This is a very little bird, only six inches long and twelve

THE WRYNECK. 19/

broad, and less than one ounce in weight. It inhabits the
opposite parts of the country to the last species, being found
only in the west and south of England. Its prevailing colour
on the upper part is black, with dull red on the hind head
and partially on the crown, white markings on the head,
similar to those of the former species, white spots on the
wings and back, and the outside feathers at the tail white,
with black spots. Its form and habits at once show that it
is a wood-pecker, and its diminutive size distinguishes it from
the larger spotted one. Its habits are the same as those of
the other wood-peckers.

Another species, the large black wood-pecker, with a
scarlet head, about one half larger than the green, is met with
in Britain, but it is as rare as the spotted ones.

THE WRYNECK. (TwiX torquilld.)

The wryneck is a very beautiful summer migrant, which
comes regularly a little before the cuckoo, and distributes
itself, though not abundantly, through all the south-east of
England ; but it rarely if ever passes the central heights,
unless in single specimens as a straggler.

In its general shape, the wryneck has some resemblance to
the wood-pecker ; and it also a little resembles the smallest
British one in the markings, though not in the tints of its
colours. It is also just a little larger than that bird, though
not quite so long in the wings. The ground colour above is
yellowish brown, beautifully variegated with spots of brown
and arrow-head hues of black, and a very distinct mural hue
of brown from the nape of the neck down the back. The
under parts are greyish white, with arrow-head dark spots,
that form bars. The quills are brown, bound with black ;
and the tail feathers, which are long, but have not the stiff-
ness of those of the wood-pecker, are mottled brown, also
bound with black. The bill is more pointed, and not so strong
as that of the wood-pecker.

The wryneck builds in the holes of trees, after the same
s 2

198 ZYGODACTYLES.

manner as the wood-peckers ; but it does not, like them,
excavate a hole, though it enlarges, or otherwise adapts to
its purpose, a ready found one. It seeks for one fit for its
purposes, and then, almost without any preparation, deposits
its eggs, which are nine or ten in number ; so that, if it has
not so much labour to undergo in building as the wood-pecker,
it has a larger family to bring up. Neither its bill nor its
tail, indeed, fit it for performing the same labour as the wood-
peckers ; the former not baving strength for picking, and the
latter not being stiff enough for propping up tbe bird, during
a long labour. But the more flexible tail suits better as an
auxiliary in moving about on the bark.

But the adaptation of the structure of the wryneck to its
habits, is not inferior to that of the wood-pecker, or indeed of
any other bird. Those warm, lowland, and, compared with
the north and west of the country, dry regions to which it
comes, abound with the minuter insects, especially with
aphides, and the smaller tribes of ants. These last are con-
tinually careering about on the boles and branches of the trees;
and it is to them especially that the attention of the wryneck
is directed, so much so as to have merited and obtained the
provincial name of the " emmet hunter." These ants the
wryneck catches with the tongue, an organ which it can pro-
trude at least an inch, and retract again with the rapidity of
lightning, so that when the ants are coursing about they are
picked up, one by one, without the capture producing any
alarm, or even being noticed by the rest. They are captured,
not only on the stems of trees, but on the ground, and they
are even picked from their dens and hills— especially at those
times when they are busy in bringing out the larvpe to the
sun and air. Disturbing their dwelling readily brings out
the ants at any time if the weather is dry, and the wryneck
uses both its bill and the horny point of its tongue for that
purpose ; and when the little warriors mount the breach to
reconnoitre and try if they can repel the enemy, the wryneck
picks them up, soldier after soldier, till none are left. When
it is engaged over au abundant supply of its favourite food,

THE WRYNECK. 199

whether on the trunk of a tree or on the ground, the body
is motionless, but the head is continually moving from side to
side, and the dark mesial line on the back, twining like a
serpent, the joints of the neck have so much motion that the
posture of the head can be recovered. At those times the
motions of the tongue are so quick, that they can hardly be
observed. Indeed, the bird is altogether so shy and retiring
in its habits, that it is difficult to be got sight of, unless one
come softly upon it, at those times when it is basking on or
near the ant-hills, while the ants are taking their siesta,
which most of them do, though at different times, according
to the variety.

The ants which the wryneck finds in those localities which
it frequents, are exceedingly numerous when the weather is
favourable ; but they are rather uncertain, from their extreme
sensibility, and the great degree in which the maturing of their
eggs depends on the state of the atmosphere. Hence, though
the wryneck continues with us only during those months that
the ants are above the surface, and in a state of activity, it
is often put to great straits ; and that may account for the
limited number of the birds as compared with the eggs in
each nest. They remain too short a time in this country,
however, for producing second broods ; and they are probably
as liable to suffer from contingencies in their winter retreats
beyond seas, as they are with us during the summer. It is
not ascertained that the wryneck ever has recourse to veget-
able food, or indeed to any sort of insects save ants ; and
when the variable nature of our climate is considered, we can
easily see that the fate of a bird which is, in a great measure,
if not entirely, dependent on our summer production, and
that production very much under the influence of the weather,
must be often reduced to extremities.

Wrynecks are very abundant in many parts of Surrey.
They are sociable in the early part of the season, and as-
semble at the call note, " peup peup," by imitating which,
with a sort of mouth whistle, the London bird-catchers obtain
numbers of them, they climb in the same style as wood-

200 ZYGODACTYLES.

peckers, but not so often, though they often leap sportively
after each other up the boles of the trees. When a wounded
one is taken in the hand, it raises the feathers of the crown,
flattens those of the neck, writhes that part slowly like a
snake and occasionally hisses. These birds, if captured, show
signs of pugnacity or perhaps of fear ; but their motions are
slow and twining. They can be partially tamed, but do not
live long in confinement. They usually appear in the southern
counties in the first week of April and retire in October.
They are very noisy in the early part of the season, but
become silent toward the latter.

the cuckoo. (Cucalns canorus.)

Why the people of Scotland should have chosen their name
for the cuckoo (gowk) as a synonyme for a fool, it is not easy
to say, for there is more cunning about the cuckoo than
about most birds, though its history, notwithstanding all that
has been seen and imagined, and printed and spoken, about
it, is still as obscure as it is singular.

Every body has heard the note of the cuckoo, or the imi-
tation of it by a Dutch clock, though domesticated in the
most birdless part of the city ; and in the summer, it is
difficult to be in any part of the country without hearing the
cuckoo, and even seeing the bird as it flies hurriedly, and to
all appearance heavily, from one tree to another, with gene-
rally a few of the smaller birds in its train. The cuckoo is
about the size of the kestrel, only more bulky in the feathers,
and about a fourth less in weight. The feathers of the belly
and thighs are very loose and pendant, and the tail is large.
The general colour is bluish grey, and the wings and tail
black, with some white bars on the exterior feathers. The
lower part is greyish white, with transverse black bars, and
the vent cream colour, with lighter bars of dusky. The
feet and toes are feeble ; and though the latter are yoked, the
outer toe is reversible, so that there are occasionally three to
the front and one behind. They are fit only for perching,

THE CUCKOO. 20 I

not for climbing, and not very well for walking. The bill re-
sembles that of the birds which live upon insects, but do not
catch them on the wing. The bird has something the air of a
hawk, but none of the powers, and it does not seem to have
much of the disposition. Its food is insects, and their larvae,
especially the larvae of caterpillars of the lepidoptera ; and, as
many of these are highly injurious to frees, it is probable that
the cuckoo is of great service, as it is with us at the very
seasons when, if not thinned, these caterpillars would commit
their depredations. It beats for its food in the trees, and it
is probable that its peculiar feet, its long wings and great tail,
and its soft plumage, enable it to hunt among the leaves,
especially on the under sides of them, in places which the
smaller insect-hunting birds cannot reach.

Analogy leads to the conclusion, that the cuckoo is a most-
ravenous feeder. We have the example of the owls as com-
pared with the other rapacious birds, to show that it re-
quires more nourishment to supply feathers than flesh ; and
it requires more labour from the foster birds in whose nests
these are found to feed one young cuckoo, than other birds of
the same species require to raise a brood of five or six of
their own species.

Considering the general distribution and the numbers of
cuckoos, the eggs and young have been very seldom seen,
probably not one to a million of the birds. When found,
it has always been in the nests of other birds, at least in
all those of the recorded instances that are received as
properly authenticated ; and little birds, pipets and others,
have been observed most industriously feeding cuckoos after
these had acquired their young or hair-brown plumage, and
could fly. But before the habit can be considered as general,
there must be numbers of young observed, bearing some nearer
proportion to the abundance of the old birds, than have yet
been found, although the cases that are recorded appear to
be too many to be considered accidental ; and the accident,
too, is of a kind that rarely happens in the case of any other
wild birds — that is, birds in a state of nature. The disproval of

202 ZYGODACTYLES.

the old theory, that the bones of the under part of the female
cuckoo were such that it could not hatch, throws at least a
doubt on the universality of the habit, which would demand
some additional proof on the other side, more than three or
four isolated cases in the season ; and that is, perhaps, nearly
the usual number of young cuckoos that are seen in the nest.

Still, we may safely conclude that the absolvment of the
cuckoo from nest building and rearing young, which are the
severest labours of other birds, is meant to answer, and does
answer, some very important purpose in the economy of na-
ture ; and that purpose can be accomplished only by employ-
ing in some other way that portion of time in the cuckoo,
which, in other birds, is devoted to nidification and nursing.
That is the grand point to be ascertained : it can be ascer-
tained only by observation of the most careful nature ; and
till it is ascertained, the history of the cuckoo, unquestionably
the most curious bird that visits the island, must remain im-
perfect and mysterious ; as such, we shall not enter farther
upon it. Conjectures, in any quantity, may be had in the
books.

ORDER VII.

ANISODACTYLES.

UNEaUAL-TOED.

The birds belonging to this order (of which the general
character or peculiarity has been already noticed) are all
small, and the British species are still fewer than those of the
last; but some of the foreign, and especially the tropical ones,
among which are included the brilliant aud truly wonderful
family of the humming birds, are equally remarkable for their
beauty and their habits. There is little song among them,
their voices being in general harsh, and in some instances
absolutely grating, but loud in proportion to the size of the
birds. There are three, or perhaps four, British species, all of
different genera ; one generally distributed and resident, one
locally resident, and one a rare summer visitant.

the common creeper. (Certhia familiai-is.)

The creeper is a most interesting little creature. With the
exception of the golden-crested wren, it is the smallest of the
British birds, weighing not more than a quarter of an ounce,
being about five inches in length, and seven and a half in the
stretch of wings.

A figure is given of it on the plate at page 189, along with
the green wood-pecker and the kingfisher ; the creeper one-
third of the lineal dimensions, the kingfisher on the same
scale, and the wood-pecker on half the scale, or one-sixth in
line. The figure will show the colours and markings better
than any description, as they are minute and delicate ; it also

204 ANISODACTYLES.

shows the junction of the two outer toes at their base, and the
length and strength of the claw on the hinder toe. It will
also he seen, on comparing it vvith the wood-pecker, that the
feet are placed rather forward, so that the centre of gravity is
nearly in the centre of the base which they form. That may
always be ascertained from the attitude of a bird : if the axis
is nearly level, the bird is balanced on its centre, and can walk
or run well ; but if the head is inclined upwards, the bird is
never a good walker, unless the elevation of the head is pro-
duced by the motion of the neck, and the body remains nearly
horizontal. Thus any one can discover that the kingfisher is
by no means so good a walker as the creeper. The tad fea-
thers of the creeper, which are twelve in number, are stiff
and pointed, and adapted for acting as a prop, like those in
the wood-pecker's.

Thus formed, and so light, the creeper runs over the boles
and branches of trees in all directions, and with incredible
celerity. It is most abundant in the forests, even in the
depth of them, and far to the north ; and it runs not only
upwards, downwards, and across the perpendicular trunks,
but with its back undermost, on the lower sides of the
branches. Its object is to pick out of the smaller crevices of
the bark those insects and their eggs which, though not
observed by the larger birds, would, were they suffered to
remain, do incredible damage to the trees. The bird is so
small, that the most slender twig will bear it ; so that it
clears the terminal buds on the young branches when they
are only partially formed,

It is so active and so generally distributed, that trees of all
descriptions, and in all places, fall under its care. Woods,
copses, hedge-rows, shrubberies, orchards, gardens, — all places
are visited by the little active creeper ; and many a perfect
flower, sound fruit, and vigorous shoot do we see, which, but
for that httle thing, would have been ugly and unpleasant in
itself, and spread canker over the plant on which it grew. It
has no song, but merely a monotonous note, much resembling
that of the golden-crested wren ; but it amply repays the ob-

THE NUTHATCH. 205

server by the quickness and variety of its motions. It seems
to feel that it is quite safe in its own resources ; for, while
you sit or stand under an apple tree, it will take a run over
the whole, and clear it for you, and never be disturbed, though
it should be only at the distance of a few feet. As it picks
up those eggs of insects which are glued to the bark, or the
buds, or inserted just below the surface, it removes an incre-
dible number of destructive creatures before they can have
done any mischief ; and as it looks after all trees, old and
young, it is probably of more service to woody vegetation
than any other bird.

The only contribution which it levies on the trees in return,
is to make its nest in some hole, and pick up decayed bark for
the external fabric ; and when it cannot obtain that, it uses
dried grass, finishing the interior, in all instances, with fea-
thers. The eggs vary, but nine is about the average number ;.
they are white, speckled with reddish brown. Altogether the
creeper is a lively little bird, and has a pretty little nest, the
plundering of which is absolutely treason against the majesty
of nature in the wild woods.

It is understood that there is, at least in the southern
counties of England, another species of creeper ; and indeed
we want not a little research before the positive number of
our woodland birds is decided.

the nuthatch. (Sitta Eiiropea.)

The nuthatch, like the wryneck, is confined to the southern
parts of England, but it is a resident bird ; and as like the
creeper, it visits trees in the garden, and even close to the
house, it is as interesting to see, as it is easy to be seen.

It is about three times as heavy as the creeper, but only an
inch longer, and the wings and especially the tail, are shorter
in proportion. It is a stronger looking bird than the creeper;
has a good deal of the shape, and also the beak of the wood-
peckers ; but the tail feathers are short and flexible.

The colours are, the upper mandible and whole upper side

XOL. I. t

206 ANISODACTYLES.

of the bird blackish grey, the base of the lower mandible and
the throat white, breast and belly pale buff orange, sides and
thighs brown orange, and vent and under tail coverts reddish
brown ; quills blackish grey ; two middle tail feathers grey ;
and others black with a white spot and ash-grey tips. A
black streak from the eye across the ear-covert to the neck.
The feet strong, and the hind toe and claw very much pro-
duced.

During winter, the nuthatch, like the green wood-pecker,
feeds at least partly upon vegetables. Nuts, it fixes in chinks
and hews the shell to pieces by its bill ; and it seems to know
at what places the shell is most easily broken, for it will turn
the nut round after it has tried and failed. In ordinary cases
the stroke is given after the manner of that of the wood-
pecker, by moving only the neck ; but as the nuthatch does
not require the wood- pecker's stiff position of the body and
tail in order to keep its perch, it can, in the case of a very
stubborn shell, swing on the feet, and give the blow all the
advantage of the weight of its body. It sometimes plunders
the hoards of mice and other small grain-eating quadrupeds ;
and the evidence, though not absolutely conclusive, is rather
in favour of its hoarding.

It nestles in trees, and feeds on them ; but it does not, like
the wood-pecker, drum the tree when serenading its mate.
Its love song is a sort of whistle, rather loud considering the
size of the bird.

The nest is made in a natural hole of a tree, the deserted
nest of a wood-pecker, or in a hole excavated by the birds
themselves ; in which case they make the entrance so small,
that it will not admit any larger bird. If they choose a ready-
made place, they build up a wall of clay till the entrance is
reduced to the requisite size ; and should that be injured
during the incubation, they instantly repair it. The interior
of the nest is formed of dead leaves, those that are the most
readily obtained, and the least decayed. The eggs are not
more than seven, and the incubation takes place in May, the
female being a very resolute sitter, hissing like a serpent, and

THE HOOPOE. 207

striking furiously both with her bill and wings, at any one
who offers to intrude. Even if her defence is disregarded,
she will not desert her charge, but rather allow herself to be
taken captive in their defence.

the hoopoe. (Upupa epops.)

The hoopoe is a singularly formed, but very beautiful bird,
not uncommon in France, and plentiful in the warmer parts
of Europe, as a summer migrant from Africa, where many of
the summer visitants of Europe spend their winter, or rather
their " other summer," for many of them pass beyond the
equator. The hoopoe only comes straggling to Britain, driven,
probably, by the east winds ; but it comes occasionally to all
parts of the country, even to the Orkney Islands, and some-
times continues and breeds, but disappears at the end of
summer. One was shot in Cornwall, in December, 1834.

The length and slenderness of its bill indicate that it does
not find its food in the same places as the creeper and the
nuthatch. It picks up tadpoles, beetles, and other prey in
moist and marshy places ; but it builds in the holes of trees
or of rocks. They are said to perch low, on the twigs of osiers
and other shrubs that grow in marshy places ; but in this
country they are seldom seen on the perch. They have three
calls, poon, slowly drawn out, and thrice repeated when they
perch ; boo, repeated the same number of times, is the love
note of the male ; and they have a sharp, half-hissing, half-
grating cry when they are alarmed or irritated. Five is about
the greatest number of eggs, though there are seldom so many
in their northern broods ; but they are said to breed again
once, and even twice, in the south. The young are very
voracious ; and as the substances on which they are fed are
very liable to putrefaction, the nests are most offensive to the
smell. That very circumstance shows, however, the value of
the birds in keeping the air pure, especially in the hot coun-
tries, where they are so abundant.

The length of the hoopoe is more than a foot, the extent of

208 ANISODACTYLES.

the wings more than a foot and a half, and the weight about
three ounces. The most remarkable external characteristic of
the bird is its crest, consisting of two rows of orange feathers
tipped with black, extending backwards along the head, and
capable of being elevated or depressed. The head, neck, and
breast are brownish red, the upper part of the back, greyish
brown, and the hinder part barred with black and white ; the
under parts of the birds are white, with longitudinal streaks
of brown. The wings and tail are black, the former with fine
regular white bars on each, and the latter with a chevron of
white, the angle directed to the body of the bird.

The hoopoe walks well, and has the strut of some of the
domestic gallinse, and when dismayed, it erects its crest, and
spreads its tail like a fan in the manner of the turkey-cock.
Its flight through the air is by leaps, or undulatory, and, to
appearance performed with considerable labour ; but from the
long migrations which it makes, it must be capable of long
continuance.

ORDER VIII.

ALCYONES.

HALCYONS, OR KINGFISHER BIRDS.

There are only two British birds of that order, the one a
resident, but by no means a common one, the other only a
straggling visitant, though of late years more frequent, or
more observed than formerly. They are birds of close and
finely- coloured plumage, of powerful wing, and generally very
graceful flight ; but they are very ill adapted for walking, and
thus prey on the wing. One of the peculiarities of their
structure is the union of all the three front toes at the base,
which makes one of the least powerful feet among all the
varieties possessed by birds. The resident one is

THE COMMON KINGFISHER. (Alcedo ispida.)

The figure, one third the lineal dimensions, on the plate at
page 1 89, will give an idea of the form, colours, and attitude
of this singularly shaped and exquisitely tinted little bird,
when reposing with closed wings. It is an inhabitant of
holes or burrows on the banks of streams, lives by fishing,
and spends much of its time in the air near the waters, or
perched on the bushes along the banks. Its food is not con-
fined to fish, for it also catches dragon-flies and other water
insects ; and whatever prey it catches, it swallows entire,
casting up the indigestible parts in pellets, after the manner
of the owls.

Its ordinary motion is so rapid, and its colours so bright,
that when it passes, it is like a gleam of a broken rainbow

t2

210 ALCYONES.

darting along near the surface of the waters. There are few
sights in quiet nature more novel and pleasing, or that one
wishes more to have repeated, than the first glance one gets
of a kingfisher, darting along some reach of a clear but placid
stream, which glides between soft banks, fringed with reeds
and bushes. If one is not tolerably well acquainted with it
from description, both iu its hues and its habits, one is at a
loss whether to think it a meteor or a bird. It passes so fast,
and the rapid motion of the gay wings gives them so much
the appearance of vapour, that it is rather a puzzle ; and
it is said, and may be true, that its rich hues when it hovers,
which it often does after the manner of the hawks, attracts
the small fishes to the surface, in the same manner as the
lighted torch in "burning the water," attracts the large
ones ; and while they are, as it were, fascinated, it darts
down like an arrow, and makes a certain capture, — though the
colours can be seen from below only when the bird twitches
round. When seen as it perches on some slender twig over-
hanging the water, it has the appearance of the gay flower of
some rare and curious water plant ; and the bird, as if con-
scious of the power of instant escape which is in his wings —
which appears to be felt by most birds so furnished — will
allow you to approach tolerably near ; and if you are quiet,
and do not offer violence or make a noise, (for it is silence
that the kingfisher loves, more than seclusion,) you may see
its mode of doing business on the surface of the brook.

Its flight is rather low, and straight forward, but its eye
must be remarkably keen, because it will, in the most rapid
flight, halt, hover for a time, and then dart down, seize a
little fish, a leech, or even a worm or slug by the bank, and
instantly land with it. As it thus not only fishes wholly by
the sight, but from the comparative smallness of its prey, re-
quires to see very clearly, it is only at particular spots, and in
particular states of the weather, that its operations can be
successfully carried on. The water must be clear, and the
surface smooth ; and that is the reason why it is not found
upon turbulent or brawling streams, or when wind curls, rain

THE COMMON KINGFISHER. 211

dimples, or mud darkens the -waters. The days when eva-
poration has ceased, and a storm is impending, are those on
which the atmosphere is most transparent, and the surface of
the water most glassy. They are, consequently, the days
■which, above all others, are fitted for the successfnl opera-
tions of the kingfisher ; and so are the clear blinks that break
out, still warm and shiny, when the weather is unsettled, and
the process of evaporation is suspended. These are genuine
" halcyon days ;" days on which the kingfisher is out and
active : but the bird has, of course, no more to do with the
producing of them, or of the storm which generally follows,
than a Lapland witch has to do with the producing of that
fair wind which she sells to the credulous mariner ; and if
the delivery of which did not often follow the sale, her trade
would soon be at an end. Her experience leads her, from
present appearances, to infer what is to come next, and
therein the certainty of her success depends on the sound-
ness and length of her experience. The kingfisher, on the
other hand, comes on the water, because that and the atmos-
phere are in a certain state at the time, and the Creator of
the bird has made that state the stimulus of the bird's in-
stinct. The same state is that which precedes rain ; but as
the gay bird is more easily seen than all the circumstances of
the weather that bring him out, the bird, which is merely one
of the signs of the present state of the weather, is put for
that state itself, and made the antecedent, or cause of the
future. But where kingfishers are, the prognostic drawn
from them is, from the very nature of their habits, a good
one; and therefore we need hardly wonder at the superstition,
or at the extension of it to other matters, against which
much ridicule has sometimes been directed. But it cannot be
too often repeated, that that ridicule is actually more injurious
than the superstition itself. A natural superstition is merely
a false application of a striking natural fact ; and the business
of true wisdom is to find out that fact, and apply it properly.
The kingfisher is, in all senses of the word, a very " beauti-
ful" subject.

212 ALCYONES.

The kingfisher not only nestles, but generally reposes, in
some hole in the bank ; and as its feet, and even its bill,
(which is a fishing spear,) does not adapt it very well for
being an excavator, it generally selects one that is ready
made ; but whether, as has sometimes been said, it ejects the
water rats, is not ascertained by any recorded witnessing of
the actual ejectment, though the objection of the water rat
eating the eggs and young, which is also conjectural, has no-
thing in it. A crow would eat the eggs or young of the
eagle ; but if Aquila should catch him in the fact, his doom
would be as black as his feathers.

As it is only on particular days, and at particular hours,
that the kingfisher can fish to advantage, he feeds abundantly
at those times, and his gullet and stomach are ample in propor-
tion. If the prey is very small and soft, he bolts it on the wing ;
but if it is larger, he goes ashore ; and if it is large and lively,
he beats it against a stone, and after swallowing it returns to
his fishing : nor is it till after he has been gorged to the very
throat, or the fishing tide is at an end, that he retires to his
hole. There he digests and dozes, and often remains for
days before he again sallies forth ; and when all the soluble
matter is separated, he ejects the bones in those castings
which are found in his den, and which, as they contain no-
thing but that which is capable of resisting the gastric juice
of the bird, do not decompose in the air, so as to occasion the
least unpleasant smell. As the attachment of the kingfisher
to its hole is a permanent one, and not limited to the breed-
ing time, the plundering of the nest does not drive it away,
any more than the annual shooting of the young on the
branches drives the rooks from a rookery.

As the habitation of the kingfisher always opens toward
the stream, and generally under some projection, and where
there is not a path between it and the water, even in low
states of that, as it flies low and near the surface, and can
glide in without being observed, and further, as it spends
much of its time in that habitation, its nest is rarely seen, in
proportion to the number that actually exists. People find it

THE BEE-EATER. 213

fishing in lonely places, and thence they are apt to conclude
that it dwells in places still more lonely, whereas it most
likely has its hole not far from their own dwelling. Where
a clear stream crosses the line of a hedge, and the gap, with
high banks on each side, is secured by paling, is a good place
to search for the nests of kingfishers, if the birds are observed
upon any neighbouring part of the stream.

The nest whether made for or by the bird, slopes upwards,
as indeed all the nests which are made in banks by land
animals do, otherwise, if they should ever by accident be filled
with water, they would not easily get dry again ; as the crea-
tures that inhabit them, and especially birds, though they can
move solid substances, are by no means qualified for baleing
out liquids : hence the offensive condition of those nests in
which the droppings of the young are liquid. The eggs are
from six to eight, and the young continue a considerable time
in the nest, (they would indeed be helpless out of it till they
are capable of flying), and as they have their plumage to get,
they are very clamorous for food, and consume a great quan •
tity. The old ones feed them from the gullet ; in all proba-
bility, from the stomach, and, most likely, in the early state,
with food that has been partly digested in the stomachs of the
parent birds ; and, indeed, so long as the young are fed
from the gullet of the old birds, their food must not only be
partially changed, but also, to a certain degree, mixed with
the gastric juice of these, which may assist the digestion of
the young ; and that will account for the difficulty of rearing
them artificially.

the bee-eater. (JSIerops apiaster.)

This is another beautiful bank -inhabiting bird, though it
preys on bees and other winged insects, and not on fish. The
forehead is yellowish white, passing into pale bluish green on
the top of the head ; back of the head and neck rich brown,
passing through orange into dull yellow on the rump and tail
coverts. The greater wing coverts of the same orange as the

214 ALCYONES.

corresponding tints of the back ; but the lesser coverts bright
grass green. Quills bright blue, with a slight trace of green ;
feathers of the tail pale olive green ; the two middle feathers
about an inch longer than the rest and pointed. Bill long,
and slightly tapering and black, with a black line from the
gape across the eye and ear coverts, to a narrow collar of black
round the neck. The throat above the collar very bright
yellow, and the rest of the under part greenish blue. Irides
red, which, with the contrast of the black, brown, and yellow,
gives the eye a very brilliant appearance. The bird is, in fact,
quite tropical in the texture of its plumage, and the richness
of its colours. It is a common summer migrant in the eastern
part of the continent ; but, as the birds fly easily, as well as
gracefully, a few of them occasionally straggle to Britain.
They are about the size of thrushes, that is, ten inches long
and seventeen broad. As is the case with most finely coloured
birds their cry is harsh. They excavate holes for their own
nest, and line them with moss. Excepting perhaps the
kingfisher and the roller, they have finer plumage than any
British birds ; and in texture theirs is superior to the others,
and the reflections on the blues and greens are perfectly
unique.

ORDER IX.

CHELIDONES.

THE SWALLOW TRIBE.

These are a particular class of the insect-eating birds,
which agree in so many characters, that they form a con-
venient group. They prey upon insects only ; they capture
these chiefly while on the wing, and their whole structure
and manners are in accordance with that mode of feeding.
Thus they are all summer visitants in Britain, because there
are not so many iusects to be caught in the winter as could
support even the thousandth part of them. Again, their
wings are very strong and long, and their tails produced in
forky points, so that they can remain the whole day on the
wing, and wheel round with very little diminution of their
velocity. Their plumage also is exceedingly firm, so that the
wind neither takes hold of, nor is apt to ruflie it. Their form
is that which has been found to make the fastest sailing
vessel, — full forwards, and lengthened and tapering back-
wards. They have small and weak feet, as they use those
little, and they would be a weight to carry in flying ; but the
feet and the stiff points of the tail, and even the edges of
the wings, are so formed, that they can cling to an upright
surface, or even to an overhanging one, if there be roughness
to hold their little claws. Their sight is exceedingly acute, so
that they probably discern small flies at a greater distance
than man can discern them. Their bills are flat, very wide
at the base, and with the upper mandible hooked, and some-
times the lower recurved a little, so that the sides do not shut

216 CHELIDONES.

so tightly as to crush any soft substance that may be between
them ; and that with the wideness of their gape and gullet,
enables them to carry a cargo to their nests when they have
young. These characters apply chiefly to those that feed by
day : the twilight ones, of which there is only one British
species, have their plumage much softer, and vibrissa, or hairs,
dependent over the sides of the bill, with muscles attached to
them, and capable of communicating impressions as well as
receiving them ; these may help the owners to feel their way,
and also to entangle the insects, as the birds cannot, from the
extent to which the bill opens, and the position of the eyes,
have much use of them in finding their way.

In some of the systems, these birds are classed as fissiros-
tres, that is, " open bills," as the bill does not shut at the
sides ; but that is only one part of their structure, and one
that is not an immediate or general key to their habits. The
following figures will give some idea of the bills of the noc-
turnal and the diurnal Chelidonian birds, both of which differ
from that of the bee eater and other birds that pursue the
larger insects upon the wing.

Goat-sucker. Swallow.

These birds fly for their food in the air, something in the
same manner as the whales swim for theirs in the water ; and
as the goat-sucker feeds on the night-moths and gnats, which
it probably does not see, the hairs, or vibrissa?, at the sides of
the bill probably answer a purpose similar to that of the baleen
in the common whale ; and it is not a little singular to find

THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 217

so near a coincidence of organ in animals whose element and
size are so very different.

The swallow, the martin, the swifts, and the goat-sucker,
are the only British Chelidonian birds : they all come to the
cultivated districts, and while they remain, no doubt perform
the most important services to man, in the vast numbers
of insects which they destroy, not when in the caterpillar
state, and when the capture of one may be considered as only
the destruction of one, but when they have passed all the
dangers of the preliminary stages of their being, and are
ready to deposit their eggs, and thus lay a foundation for
future myriads.

the chimney swallow. (Ifirundo rustica.)

The forehead and the throat of the swallow are deep red-
dish brown ; the belly and vent reddish white ; a large white
spot on the inner web of each of the tail feathers, except the
two middle ones ; and all the rest black, with blue reflections.
Some individuals are grey, or even white. The length is
seven inches, the breadth about twelve, and the weight an
ounce. One remarkable character of the swallow is the great
length of the external feathers of the tail, and the deep fork
which they give to that appendage. The young of the same
year have not the long tail feathers.

Swallows perform their principal moult in warmer countries
about the month of February ; appear in fine plumage in the
south of England about the first of April ; and proceed north-
ward, colouring as they fly, along all the places that are
adapted to their habits, till about the end of the month they
appear in the extreme north of the country.

The places which they select for their nests are, chimneys,
barns, outhouses, steeples, ruins, rocks, and the sides of pits
and quarries. The nest is constructed of mud, and lined with
feathers, but open at the top : indeed, the length of the tail
feathers is such, that the construction of a domed nest would
be very laborious for the swallow. The eggs do not exceed

VOL. I. V

218 CHELIDONES.

five, but, except in the extreme north, where they arrive late
and depart early, there are two broods in the year, one fledged
in June, and the other in August. They are, generally, all
gone by the end of September ; but some of the late broods
are not capable of the long journey, and so linger in the
country, and are found dead, or in a benumbed state, in holes
of walls, or under hedges, partly, no doubt, from the incle-
mency of the weather, and partly from want of food.

Swallows are delightful little creatures, not only as they
come from a far country, the harbingers of the blooming sea-
son ; but on account of their industry, the celerity of their
motions, and the perfect confidence in which they carry on all
their operations.

The most lovely scenes would lose much of their summer
interest, if it were not for the presence and lively motions of
the swallow. The banks of rivers and the margins of small
lakes, are at all times delightful places for quiet contempla-
tion, and for agreeable walks, when the sultry day draws
near to a close, or on those stilly and transparent days which
immediately precede rain. But there is an excess of repose
about them which would soon become monotonous and heavy,
except for the evolutions of the swallows, now shooting into
mid air, now skimming the surface of the water, and sipping
or laving its plumage, as it speeds along, alternately with
darting wing, and with dart-like glide. Then, when we think
of the myriads of gnats and flies which the teeming waters are
constantly giving to the air, to sport (and sting) for their
few hours, deposit their eggs and die, making the shores and
shallows which are inaccessible even by the minnow rank with
their innumerable carcases, we feel how much the swallow
contributes to keep sweet and clean those waters over which it
glides, quaffing or bathing the while. The air, too, is so still,
that we hear the repeated strokes of its bill as it captures
those insects which, to our sight, are viewless.

Though many swallows often build in the same locality if
there is abundance of food in the vicinity, the finding of their
food and that of their broods, every morsel of which is very

THE HOTTSE-MARTIN. 219

small and purchased by a laborious flight, leaves them little
time for associating with each other, as do many of those birds
which find their food in larger portions and with less labour ;
and as the young must be fed by the parents for a longer time
than is necessary in the case of birds that are not called upon
to make so great exertions, the labours of the swallows are
thereby farther protracted. When, however, the last brood are
on the wing, and each has nothing to do but procure its own
food, they do assemble together, sometimes in very numerous
flocks, over meadows on the banks of streams ; and they also
roost upon the tops of houses and churches, preparatory to their
final departure. As the swallows spend their active powers
chiefly over the waters, while they are in the northern and tem-
perate regions, the old story was, that they spent their winters
at the bottom of the same ; but that is, of course, not true :
indeed it is impossible, utterly inconsistent with the spring
moult of the birds, and even with their existence. If a swallow
remained but for a few seconds under water, it could not be
brought out alive. The air is their element — and that too more
exclusively than it is the element of any other birds ; at least,
of any that are common in this country. One of the swallow
tribe is rarely seen resting on a solid perch, unless by its nest,
till the labour of the season is over, and the time of its depar-
ture come.

the house-martin. (Hirundo urbica.)

The house-martin is one of those creatures which associate
with man, claim the shelter of his dwelling, and for that pur-
pose hunt him out in all quarters of the world, and in every
latitude, if the places which he chooses will at all afford a sup-
ply of food for the martin and its young.

There is not so much romance, or, if you will, sublimity,
about the martin, as there is about the swallow. The wings
are shorter in proportion to its weight, and it wants those
singularly-produced feathers in the forky tail, which enable the
swallow to wheel round about upon its centre of gravity, and

220 CHELIDONES.

to turn here, there, and every where, without almost any per-
ceptible effort. But the martin is a prettier bird, more
contrasted and more lively in its colours ; and its coming to
nestle in the windows (often the very identical bird for a series
of years), renders it still more a favourite. Black and white
are the colours of the house-martin ; the whole of the upper
part, except the rump, black, and all the under part white.
The tail, which is forked and very stiff at the tip, and the quills
and coverts, are brownish black, and the rest of the black part
has a trace of blue. The line of separation between the white
and black, on the sides of the neck, is finely broken, and the
richest blue reflections are close by it. The tarsi and toes are
covered with white down. The female has the breast inclining
to grey.

The martins arrive in Britain a few days before the chimney
swallows ; and, like them, they appear first in the warmest
parts of the country, but they soon distribute themselves over
the whole of the low grounds, and probably each returns to the
place of its nativity, to nestle in the neighbourhood, and hunt
in the society of its parents, or to repair the nest in which they
were hatched, and continue the race, after the parents have
yielded to casualties or to time. But interesting as are the
manners of these birds, though as free as that air over which
they have so much command, they are yet so truly domestic,
that any one can observe them. The nest is more carefully
built than that of the swallow ; and if the place where it is
fixed has not a projecting cover, the nest is made with a dome,
and the only opening is in the side. The nest is made large
enough to hold both birds, and may be considered in the light
both of a house and a nest. The eggs of the house-martin are
never more than four or five ; and the birds feed their young
with the same assiduity and for the same length of time as the
swallows ; and light-coloured ones, and even albinos, occasion-
ally occur as in that species. The flight of the martin, though
not so rapid as that of the swallow, is still swift, and at the
same time easy and graceful.

The house-martin remains a little later in the country than

r y^ ;/ ■// r 'ft

- - J**-^

^ ' '<

THE SAND-MARTIN. 221

the swallow; but it retires about the time when the house-
flies leave the wing, and crowd in numbers inside the houses.
It seems that the house-fly is one of the chief attractions for
the bird ; and that the instincts of the two are so tempered to
each other, that the bird retires while the flies are still suffi-
ciently numerous for producing an abundant supply during
the following summer. There are, indeed, enough and to
spare in that and in all the other races of flies ; for by the time
that the summer birds begin to take their departure, the
autumnal spiders come into full activity, and capture flies
(especially males) by millions.

the sand-martin. (Hlrundo riparki.)

A figure of this interesting little bird is given on the ad-
joining cut, on a scale of one third of the natural lineal
dimensions. It is smaller than any of the other British swal-
lows, rather shorter in the wings, and not so dark in the colour.
It is also different in its flight, proceeding more by jerks, and
in that approaching the habit of some of the other tribes of
little birds ; but still, it has all the leading characters of the
swallows. It comes, indeed, a little earlier, and remains at
least as late, but it is less the associate of man than any of the
rest: not that it shuns his neighbourhood, and goes into the
wilds ; for though there are colonies of sand-martins in
lonely places, they are probably more numerous in the cul-
tivated districts. The vicinity of the waters is its hunting-
ground, and gnats and other insects, that sport over the
lakes and streams, or then banks, are its chief game ; but its
distribution is regulated also by the choice which it makes of
a nesting-place. Steep banks, or bluffs of sand, which are
easily dug into, and yet not subject to crumble by the action
of the summer rains, are its favourite places ; and in the
abrupt faces of these it forms its burrows, using its bill as a
pick-axe, and shovelling out the rubbish with its feet, and
often working so deep, that it is not easy to reach the nest
without digging. In these burrows its young are very safe,

u 2

222 CHELIDOXES.

as the aperture is too small for allowing any predatory bird
to enter, and the steep is generally such that none of the small
quadrupeds that eat eggs can climb it.

These birds are not found in the rocky districts or on the
clays, neither are they partial to gravelly banks that are either
very hard or very loose. The fresh-water accumulations of
sand are their favourite places, especially where a knoll of
these materials has been cut through by a road or the action of
a rivulet. There are two reasons for that — the ease of work-
ing the bank, and the certainty with which it stands, and the
abundance of insect food which, from the warmth of the
climate, is found in such places. If the place is otherwise
favourable, they do not much heed the immediate vicinity of
a village, but will make their holes close to the houses, and
beat about with little less familiarity than those species which
form their habitations in the chimneys or the windows. The
places in which the nests are excavated, generally secure them
from inundation ; and as all birds that burrow in the ground
work with a little slope upwards, the rain does not reach the
nests.

A colony of sand-martins, especially when they are in con-
siderable numbers, and forming a new establishment, present
a very busy scene, and dig away with much assiduity, relieving
each other by turns, the one working while the other feeds ;
and as they are at work early and continue later they are
not long in having the burrow ready for the withered grass,
feathers, or other materials of which the nest is carelessly
made. The eggs, which are often as deep as three feet from
the face of the bank, are generally one more than those of
the house-martin -y but there are seldom two broods in the
year. The young are fed for a considerable time by the
parents ; and after they have attained as much maturity as to
be able to catch insects for themselves, they can be readily
distinguished from the old ones, by the rusty colour of the
margins of their feathers, an appearance which partially cha-
racterizes the female. The deep burrow of the sand-martin
is no more adapted for a winter residence than the mud struc-

THE SWIFT. 223

ture of the other species; for by the time that the insects
become scarce in the air, partly by the diminution of their
numbers, and partly because they are less on the wing, the
sand-martin retires to southern countries.

the common swiFT. (Cypselus vulgaris.)

The swift, of which a figure is given on the plate at page
221, one third of the lineal dimensions, is perhaps the most
powerfully winged, in proportion to its weight, of all British
birds, not even excepting the white-bellied swift, or even the
storm petrel, which extends its excursions so far from the land
as to traverse the surface of the whole Atlantic. But the petrel
does not feed on the wing, and in nestling time it of course
resorts to the shores; whereas the swift has to hunt in the air,
and that too at a considerable elevation, for subsistence both for
itself and its brood.

The whole structure of the swift is indeed more adapted
to an aerial existence than that of any other bird. Its foot,
as may be seen in the figure, bears some resemblance to a
little hand, and is not at all fit for walking or for throwing
the bird upward with a jerk, as in the case with long-winged
birds which occasionally reside on the ground. Place the
swift on level ground, and it would be utterly helpless; but
let it be in the air, and it is all-powerful. The little foot, too,
can lay hold of a small pointed rock, or jutting stone, with so
much firmness, that the bird can abide on a jutting part of a
tower, when it would be unpleasant for a man to stand on the
battlement.

The swift is the garreteer of nature; not that it inhabits
the highest grounds (for the very altitude of its place pre-
supposes productiveness in its locality), but where it is found
it spends its time and finds its food above every other creature.
Its place of habitation corresponds: for the highest crevices
in steeples, towers, and jutting rocks, that rise to a consider-
able altitude amid fertile places, are the habitations of the
swift; and its instinct leads it to adapt the structure of its nest

224 CHELIDONES.

to the elements. The straws and other matters of which it is
composed, are said to be soldered to the rock and to each other,
with a viscid substance, elaborated by glands for the express
purpose, though perhaps the same glutinous matter may more
assist the bird in the capture of its prey. Those swallows
which construct their nests in great part of humid mud (they,
too, may secrete less or more of a similar gluten), never build
so high or in such exposed situations as the swift; and some
of the foreign swallows, which form nests against the tops of
caverns, and on the under sides of overhanging precipices, to
which it would be difficult to convey ordinary mortar, construct
them so generally of glutinous substance, that they are sold as
a substantive ingredient of soups ; but that the nest is wholly a
secretion of the birds, is only said, wot proved. The swift is
not so prolific as those swallows which inhabit farther down:
its eggs seldom exceed two.

The swifts have not only more labour to perform in order to
procure an equal quantity of food, while they are with us, than
any other of the tribe; but they also perform a wider and a
more hurried excursion in latitude. The same species, and in
all probability the same individuals, range from the northern
parts of Europe to the Cape of Good Hope, and back again, in
the course of about nine months. They seldom appear in any
part of Britain before the middle of May, and not in the northern
parts till June. The young are hatched, and on the wing, about
the beginning of July; after that time the whole begin to flock,
and they disappear about the middle of August, a little sooner
or later according to the state of the weather. Their motions
do not depend entirely on the state of the temperature, but on
that and the facility of finding food jointly; and warm showers,
with gleams of sunshine between, will protract their stay,
whereas very dry weather, though intensely hot, rather accele-
rates their departure.

During the short time that they remain with us, the swifts
are very interesting birds ; and duly studied, they would
no doubt be equally instructive. Migratory birds are all, of
course, from the very same instinct that prompts their migra-

THE SWIFT. 225

tions, much more sensitive to atmospheric changes than resi-
dent birds, which are tempered by nature to endure those
changes, or to change with them, and on that account they are
better indices to those changes. But swifts are the most
migratory of birds ; their pastures fluctuate more with the
state of the weather than those of birds that fly and feed lower
down, and therefore more delicate but not less certain indica-
tions of changes might be drawn from them.

It appears from their mode of flying, that in very dry and
settled weather, there are fewer insects at a great height in the
atmosphere than when the air is troubled, even when the signs
of that trouble have not shown themselves in the deposition of
vapour, on in the weight of the air as shown by the barometric
column. It may be (and it most likely is) that the evaporative
power of the atmosphere is the first property of it that yields :
and that their weak wings, which could not bear the drying in-
fluence of the rarefied upper air when dry, can endure it much
better when its ardour relents.

In dry weather, the swifts hawk only towards morning and
evening, flying lower down than when the air is different, and
occasionally skimming the surface of the pools, and sipping and
laving themselves as they dash along. At these times, too,
they are sportless and silent, and if the drought is of long
continuance, they seem fatigued ; but when the upper air
relents they fly high, appear all day on the wing, accumulate
in unwonted numbers, gliding, dashing, wheeling, playing
numerous antics, screeching to each other, and apparently
acquiring more energy the longer they are on the wing.
These sportive dashings in the upper air become more numer-
ous and energetic as the time of their departure approaches, as
then their care of their broods has ceased, and they have only
their own food to find each for itself. The solstitial showers
generally give them a farewell feast ; and at that time they
may be seen on the wing for sixteen hours in the day without
once alighting to rest. Their sight has, by experiment, been
found to be so very acute, that from a distance of 400 feet
they can discern an object not more than half an inch in

226 CHELIDONES.

diameter, and how much less than that is not known. The
same motive of exertion which they often perform in this coun-
try without any apparent rest, would suffice to carry them
across the widest sea or desert that is in then- way, or even
from England to Africa, in the course of one flight. Swifts are
often seen driving at the smaller birds of prey, as if in derision
of their less rapid flight ; but they are not quite so furious
against them as the swallows, within whose province those
birds more frequently come.

THE WHITE-BELLIED SWIFT. [CypseluS AlpiriUS.)

This bird has been found as a rare straggler, near Margate
in Kent. It is considerably larger than the common species,
being between nine and ten inches in length, and it is different
in the colour — brownish, with the belly white.

the goat-sucker. [Cctprimulgus Etiropceus.)

Few birds have more names than the goat-sucker, and yet
there is not a very good one among the number. The Moth-
eateb, (JPhalancevara Europea) has been suggested. Goat-
sucker does not apply, as, from the impossibility of closing the
bill at the sides, the bird cannot suck any thing ; but some of
the other names (night-jar, for instance) are even worse.

On the opposite plate there is a figure of the bird, about
one thud of the lineal dimensions, from which some notion of
the form and also of the colours, which from the minuteness
of the markings are not easily described in words, may be
obtained. It may be noticed, however, that the sexes are
distinguished by the male having oval white spots on the
inner webs of the first three quills and of the outer tail
feathers.

The length is rather more than ten inches, the stretch of the
wings about twenty-one, and the weight nearly three ounces,
so that it is not so powerfully winged as the swift, or indeed
as any of the swallows, in proportion to its weight, and it is

THE GOAT-SUCKER. 227

less so for its apparent size, as the feathers are much more
loose and bulky in proportion.

It is of course improper to call a bird beaked and footed
like the goat-sucker an owl, because neither the beak nor the
claws are capable of catching either birds or mice ; but still,
in its habits, and even in the general tints and markings of its
plumage, it bears something of the same relation to the swal-
lows, that the owls bear to the diurnal birds of prey. Its
plumage is loose and mottled, while theirs is stiff and firm, and
more uniform in the colours. As is the case with the owls too,
its eyes are very large and prominent, though, as the bird
catches its prey on the wing, the eyes have not the concha
of produced feathers that distinguish the owls.

There is a remarkable peculiarity in the foot of the goat-
sucker : the hinder toe is capable of being reversed, so as
to be turned forward along with the other three ; and that
appears to accommodate one particular habit of the bird. The
goat-sucker perches lengthways, but generally with its head
inwards to the tree, instead of outwards, like the cuckoo; yet
it has to glide from its perch in nearly the same manner;
only, as it must, from the slope of that perch being the other
way, spring more from the toes than the cuckoo, and would
find the hinder toe rather an obstacle, that is brought forward
in aid of the others, just as one of the two hind toes of the
cuckoo are. Like the wood-owl, to which (though their prey
is very different) the goat-sucker bears some resemblance, it
makes a noise when flying in quest of its prey. That noise is
a compound of hissing and booming, much louder, but still
similar to the sound made by the larger beetles when on the
wing in the twilight. This sound has been said to be the love
note of the beetles, which are thus attracted from a distance
by the sound of the birds — their love notes and maternal and
filial cries being those by which all animals are most easily
allured.

The goat- sucker is a summer migrant, and does not arrive
till the middle of May, the time at which the cockchafer flies
in the evening ; and though it is not plentiful any where, it

228 CHELIDONES.

contrives to capture vast numbers of those destructive insects.
It frequents the woods, and also the banks on the margins of
the pastures, where the beetles often settle, previous to deposit-
ing then eggs in the ground ; and under the trees, it is just as
active in the destruction of moths. It departs in the end of
August, or the beginning of September, and rears, during the
interim, its brood, which are seldom, if ever, more than two.
The eggs are deposited upon the ground, under the shelter of
a tuft, and without any nest, and the young have sometimes
been mistaken for those of the cuckoo, to which they have a
faint, though but a very faint, resemblance.

When hawking for beetles, which of course it does at
beetles' height, that is, within a few feet of the ground, the
goat-sucker flies with its bill widely extended, and makes its
peculiar noise, but stirs the air but little with its wings.
When moth-hunting, its habits are a little different. It glides
round and round some tree, below which the moths are often
taking wing, on their courtship or predatory flights, and as it
catches a glimpse of a moth, it darts in and captures it, the
glutinous matter with which the gape is lined assisting in the
process.

The goat-sucker occupies alone a peculiar station in Orni-
thology,— that of hawking on the wing for insects in the dim
twilight ; and as those which it chiefly catches are destructive
ones, the larvae mostly being in the ground, and destroying
the roots of plants, or in trees, and consuming their buds and
leaves, and sometimes the cambium and even the wood, it
must, on the whole, be classed among those birds which are
eminently useful to man ; and one which comes from a far
country to perform its yearly service, and which performs that
without doing any thing in the least injurious — for the goat-
sucker consumes nothing but insects. Indeed, the whole of
the Chelidonian birds do good only, without the least admixture
of evil.

ORDER X.
INSECTIVORA.

INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS.

This is not a very accurate name for an order, because the
birds, which we have to class under it, are some of them less
insectivorous than those of the order immediately preceding,
and some of them feed as much upon mollusca and worms as
upon insects, if not more; but still, it enables us to bring-
together birds which have so many characters in common, that
a few general sentences enable us to avoid repetition.

These birds mostly inhabit woods, bushes, or reeds on
marshy grounds ; they do not associate in parties, but each
pair have their solitary nest, and many rear two broods in the
course of the year. They all feed chiefly upon insects, and
other small animals, during the summer, and prefer them for
feeding their young; but those which are resident in Britain
all the year round have recourse to berries, seeds, and other
vegetable substances, during the season at which animal food
is not to be found. Many of them are summer visitants with
us, and resort to warmer climates during winter; but a few
also breed farther to the north, and are winter visitants
with us.

Of 37 species that may be considered as belonging to this
order, only 12 are permanently resident, 20 are summer visit-
ants, two come in the winter, and three make their appearance
only occasionally. The 37 are made up of the following
divisions (but there are probably more).

3 Shrikes : two very occasional stragglers, and one a local
summer visitant.

2 Fly-catchers : both summer visitants.
1 Dipper : a local resident.
vol. I. x

230 INSECTIVORA.

6 Thrushes : three resident, two winter visitants, one
summer.

12 Warblers : one resident, eleven summer visitants.

2 Wrens : resident.

3 Chats : two summer migrants, one resident.

2 Accentors : one resident.

3 Wagtails : two summer migrants, one resident.
3 Pipits : one summer migrant, two residents.

Though, among such a number of birds, there must be
oreat diversities both of character and habits, yet there are
sufficient resemblances among all these tribes to warrant the
referring of them all to a distinct, though not a very strongly
marked, order. There is a softness and indistinctness of the
individual feathers in the plumage of their bodies ; their bills
are slender and compressed, with some tendency to a hook at
the tip of the upper mandible, and also a notch ; their feet
are generally more adapted for perching than for walking on
the ground, as they have the middle and outer toe united
-at their bases ; their notes are generally soft, and in most
cases melodious ; and they nestle in the shade, in trees, in
bushes, under stones, or under herbage, and never associate
in flocks during the breeding season, though many of the
summer migrants do before they take their departure, and
the winter ones generally come in flocks. Some of the resident
ones change their localities, and partially change their food
and some of their habits, during the winter months ; but they
never congregate in such numerous flocks as those birds which
subsist merely on vegetable food. The greater number of
them breed more than once in the course of the year.

Though these are not the only birds that feed upon insects
and their larvae, they are the principal ones that pick them
from vegetables when they are in active growth ; and there-
fore they are among the principal conservators of those woods
and groves which are rendered lively by their presence, and
cheerful with the melody of their songs. Two species, as
has been noticed, visit us only in the winter, and ten reside
permanently in the country ; but still, so great a proportion,
both in species and in absolute numbers, come in the spring

INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 231

and depart in the autumn, that the whole may be considered
as being pre-eminently our summer birds, and as forming no
unimportant feature of that season of beauty and activity.

They resort to different localities: some to the open wild
or the brake-clad common, and others to the margin of the
lake or the bank of the stream ; but the majority frequent
only the ruder parts of the country, dwell chiefly in the
groves, and pour forth their notes while perched on the sprays.
Some disperse themselves over the whole island: but there
are others which confine themselves to the warmer localities;
and, indeed, they may be generally said to be birds of the
rich parts of the country, and, as such, to increase with the
increase of cultivation and planting. In summer, one meets
them at every step ; and though the species varies with the
place, and the occupation with the time of the day and the
state of the weather, yet the place is sadly barren, or the time
intensely dry, if we do not meet with or hear these interesting
and active creatures. In spring, their appearance, on the
whole, keeps pace with the season ; for the weather generally
changes first in those places that are southward ; and the birds
are driven by the state of things in the places which they
desert, and not drawn by that of the places to which they
come. When, however, the spring comes suddenly in a
northward place, and before the decay of food and the action
of heat southward has sent the usual accompaniment of birds
to watch the opening buds, the young year feels dull and
desolate. It has been remarked, too, that in those years
vegetation suffers more than usual from the ravages of in-
sects; though that, no doubt, in part, arises from the checks
which it subsequently receives when the young leaves are so
far expanded, that they derive little shelter from the hyber-
naculum, which protects the germ in the winter, and the bird
in the early stage before the leaves are so much unrolled as
to have much action in the air. But the very same non-
conducting property of the albuminous scales of the hyber-
naculum, which preserves the germ from the winter's cold,
prevents the hatching of the insects' eggs, millions of which
are gathered by the birds when they first visit the sprays, in

232 INSECTIVOEA.

the opening- bud; and if the birds are not there, these hatch
apace, and the caterpillars gnaw into the cones of the buds,
and spoil the vegetation of the year, as much in the shoots of
the forest trees as in the blossoms of the fruit. It is then
that the little strangers are peculiarly useful; and, as the males
generally come first, and commence their songs after a very
short rest, considering the length of their journey, they are as
charming as they are useful. A few graminivorous birds do
then mingle with them, and eat the small seeds that are sown
in borders; but still, the damage done in that way is nothing
compared with the general good; and it may be said, that he
who kills one of the insectivorous birds in the spring, pays a
bushel of apples as a fine to Nature in the autumn.

The spring birds, the spring breezes, and the spring leaves,
all come together as parts of the same system ; and it is not
for us to separate them in their usefulness. But should we
not also include the insects ? for they too are the children of
Nature. Where man does not cultivate, the insects, which
keep down the excess of vegetation, are as much part of the
system of nature, as the birds which keep down insects, or the
magpies, jays, and hawks, which destroy eggs and kill birds;
but cultivation alters the case, because the surplus which man
takes must be something more than that which satisfies the
balancing of uncultivated nature, and because the birds assist
in the preservation of that, they are fellow-labourers with man,
and deserve his gratitude and protection.

When the summer visitants depart, there is a sort of pause,
which may be considered as the great annual breeding time
of the insect tribes, though many of them perish in successive
generations during the season. There is a minor breeding
time during the excess of the solstitial heat, when the birds
are silent and repairing their plumage, before they congregate
for their farewell feast. But the autumn is the grand time;
and as the insects soon die after the eggs are safely committed
to Nature's keeping, the earth would be rank with the bodies
of dead flies, were it not for the labours of the autumnal
spiders ; just as it would be unsightly with rotting vegetables,
but for the funsri of the same season.

SHRIKES. 233

After the pause, those insectivorous tribes which remain
with us all the year, come home from the wilds. The little
wren sits on the Christmas log as it lies seasoning at the door;
and the robin hops about at the threshold, turns up his eye as
if he actually expressed, "I know you;" and hopping on the
bush, the last ripe leaf of which falls at the slight vibration,
he carols to us the parting song of the year, and continues it
till the dark days are over, and many wings are extended in
the south wafting hitherward, when the labours of the robin
call him again to the wild. So delightfully do these birds
mark the year — always changing ; and, taken with the other
circumstances, every change an improvement.

shrikes. (Lanius.)

Though these birds have the general characters of the order,
they feed much upon insects, their feathers are soft, their
voices have some music, though little melody, and their feet
are formed like the rest of the order ; but their bills are larger
and stronger, have the tip of the upper mandible decidedly
hooked, and that of the lower one fitting a deep notch in the
upper ; the general opening of the bill slightly curved, the
margins of the mandibles strong, and shutting very close,
and the whole bill so much compressed laterally, as to have
great strength in proportion to its quantity of matter. The
sharp points of the mandibles and the notch enable the bill
to pinch much more strongly than that of any of the other
insectivorous birds ; and they use the bill for killing smaller
birds, which is so much " their vocation," that they have got
the name of " butcher birds," as they slaughter many, and
hang the carcases, or parts of them, on the hedges, as if ex-
posing them to other birds. This is, in fact, then object ; for
as there are many little birds that will peck at dead birds or
beetles, which they do not attack when alive, the shrikes lite-
rally track the hedges and watch, on an elevated twig, or fly
along a little higher than the bushes, and if they observe a
little bird below them, they drop down, bear it to the ground,
and, seizing the neck between the close-shutting margins of

x2

234 INSECT1V0RA.

their beak, strangle it in a moment. When they hunt on the
wing, they capture by surprise rather than speed, and the cry
which they utter seems to distract the attention of those birds on
which they prey. The smaller graminivorous birds are their
chief feathered prey; but they also feed on mice. The mar-
gins of woods are favourite places of resort for shrikes ; and
they are so courageous, that they drive off crows and magpies,
and some of the smaller hawks. The small birds crowd angrily
about them, and attempt to beat them with their wings.
They are short-winged birds, and bounce or leap along in the
air ; but they drop down very rapidly. The descent and ascent
are much facilitated by the motion of the tail, which is
rapid in the vertical direction, strong in its coverts, and ca-
pable of being spread out like a fan. The air and attitude are
expressive of boldness and activity. These birds have been
called " pies," from supposed resemblance to the magpie and
the jay, but their characters are quite different : they do not
croak or chatter ; they cannot be taught to articulate ; they
do not eat carrion ; and it is not ascertained that they plunder
the nests of other birds. There are only three species known
as British: and one.

THE GREAT ASH-COLOURED SHRIKE, (LciniUS eXCubltor,)

is merely a straggler, and a straggler not at any usual time of
migration, the few specimens that have been found in the
country having been in winter ; and certainly not as regular
winter migrants, the rare ones of which come late, and after
very severe weather. The bird cannot, indeed, be regarded
as much of a migrant in latitude in any country, for it rather
follows the habit of the resident insectivora — the woodlands in
summer, and the lower plains in winter. The British speci-
mens are, in all probability, blown by east winds from Ger-
many, where they are abundant. The weather which precedes
the appearance of these birds that straggle " out of time,"
wants to be more carefully noticed than it has been.

The great shrike is ash grey above, white below, lias a black
stripe across the eye; the middle of the tail, the bill, the feet.

RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 23-5

and the stiff hair-like feathers, all black. It is ten inches long,
fourteen broad, and weighs between two and three ounces. Its
habits on the continent are more migratory. Indeed, those of
most insectivorous birds are so ; as they can range to the polar
ocean in summer, but are driven out of great part of Russia in
the winter.

RED-BACKED SHRIKE. {Lanius COllUTlO.)

The red-backed shrike is a summer migrant, arriving in May
and departing in September, and differing from the rest of our
local summer visitants, in being more numerous towards the
centre, or even the western side of the country, than on the
south-east. The larger beetles appear to be the principal food
of these birds, though they are also said to eat mice, and to
kill little birds, much after the fashion of the great shrike.
There is, however, a want of precision in the description of
their habits, as they seem to have been mixed up with those of
the other, and they are given by British ornithologists more at
second-hand than from observation.

They are lively birds, and so far resemble the birds of prey,
that the female is larger and darker-coloured than the male ;
but they live, upon the whole, in harmony with other birds,
and do not appear to excite so much ill-natured attention
as even the cuckoo. The male weighs an ounce ; Dr. Fleming
says two : but he has either copied the wrong book, or it is a
misprint. The female weighs about an ounce and a quarter.
The male is rather more than six inches long, and about ten
and a half broad ; the dimensions of the female are seven and
twelve inches. The prevailing colours of both birds are red-
dish brown on the upper part, and dull greyish white on the
under ; but the white in the male is tinged with pale rose
colour, and that in the female marked by dusky lines.

When these birds sit watching on a twig, they appear pre-
pared for an instant start upon whatever prey may come in
their way. The tail is spread, the wings partially expanded,
the bill open, and the eye in a state of active excitement. It

236 INSECTIVOEA.

is said that, upon some occasions, these birds will, by imitating
the cries of other species, sometimes allure young birds to their
destruction : but this is probably only said, not seen.

The nests are carefully hidden in close hedges or bushes,
generally where the soil is rather humid, and near the margins
of woods. The nest is formed of moss and fibrous roots, in-
termixed with wool, and finished with a lining of hairs. The
eggs are five or six, of a colour something resembling the under
part of the male bird, and marked with brown spots. The
young, in their first plumage, resemble the female ; but the
upper part is not nearly so red. When the birds are in full
plumage, the red, though a brown red, is very rich ; and when
the bird jerks along the air, it has the appearance of flashes of
dull fire ; on which account it has been called the " flasher,"
and that has been corrupted to " flusher."

The locality of the red-backed shrike is the most remarkable
part of its natural history. It is short-winged, and of course
£jets through the air with more labour than many of those sum-
mer birds that are found only in the south-eastern part of the
country ; but it leaves the gravelly and clayey districts, and
takes up its abode in a central zone, beginning at the channel,
and terminating at the light soils in the valley of the Dee. The
climate of that zone is warm, and the soil peculiarly adapted to
the habits of the larger beetles, which seem the natural and
peculiar food of these birds. The habits of the red-backed
shrike, and also the characters of those districts which it pre-
fers, deserve to be studied.

wood-chat shrike. {Lanius rutilus.)

As a British bird, this species is rare, though common enough
on the continent, where it is a migrant, resorting, as is the case
with many of the common birds of central Europe, to the delta
and valley of the Nile in the winter. With us it is a rare sum-
mer visitant, and may be said to be only an occasional one ; but
the nest having been found more than once in Norfolk entitles
it to a place among British birds.

THE PIED ELY-CATCHER. 237

The length of this shrike is about seven inches, and the
extent of the wings eighteen. The bill is dusky with a tinge
of blue, very strong and notched towards the tip. The irides
are hazel, the legs dusky, the claws black, short, and very
crooked. The forehead a stripe down each side of the neck
to the shoulders, the lesser coverts and part of the quills
black or dusky. The base of the primaries and tips of the
secondary quills white. The back of the head rufous, the sca-
pulars white, the back dark ash colour. The tail, which is
rather long, strong, and a little rounded, is dusky, the rump
somewhat paler and mixed with white. The throat, fore part
of the neck and breast, dull white, passing into dull ochre,
yellow on the belly and vent.

It is a bold bird, partaking much of the characters of the
other shrikes ; but with us it is rare, and only seen occa-
sionally in the woods. It does not follow the same zone as
the others.

THE FLY-CATCHER. (Muscicaptl.)

There is some little perplexity in the natural history of
the fly-catchers. They are smaller than the shrikes, and their
bills are less formidable, as their prey is softer, not having the
same horny covering as the beetles. They are also larger in
the wings, because their prey flies more swiftly, and plays
more tricks in the air, than the beetles are capable of doing
on their " drowsy flight." Still, the fly-catchers hold a sort
of intermediate place between the swallow-tribe, which catch
their insect food by strength of wing in the free air, and those
summer birds which pick it from the leaves, buds, and bark of
vegetables, in the larva state.

THE PIED ELY-CATCHER. (MuSClCCipa luctUOSCL.)

The history of this species is also a little confused. No
good cause has been shown, either by fact or analogy, to
establish the assertion, that the birds reside in any part of

238 INSECTIVORA.

England during the winter : and as they resemble the shrikes
more in character than the spotted fly-catcher does, which is a
summer migrant, the presumption is, that they are summer
migrants also. They follow nearly the same zone in longi-
tude as the shrikes ; but they are found farther to the north,
chiefly beyond the heights on the confines of Stafford and
Derby, where the principal locality of the shrikes terminates.
They are found thence along the hills between York and
Lancashire, and so into the hilly parts of Westmoreland and
Cumberland ; but there is no account of then- breeding or even
being found in Scotland ; and they are very rare on those
champaign parts of England over which they must pass in
order to arrive at the interior and hilly districts. But that,
though an important fact in their history, and in the history of
migration generally, is no argument against their arrival in
the spring and their departure in the autumn. The same
instincts which adapt birds to certain districts, guide them to
those districts, without any reference to the country which lies
between. Like the occasional shrike, these are upland birds,
and they find their way to the uplands, just as the softer-billed
summer migrants find their way to the lower and richer places,
where the larvaa of lepiclopterous insects are more abundant.

A figure of the pied fly-catcher, one third of the lineal
dimensions, is given on the plate at page 221, on the same
scale with the sand-martin and the swift, and the three toge-
ther showing the gradation of fly-catching birds, from the
swift, which dashes after them with great celerity, and at the
highest elevation to which little birds extend then- hawking,
to the fly-catcher, which watches for them on the hedge or
the branch of a tree, and pounces on them as they pass. The
colours of the male plumage are subject to some variation
with age and with the seasons : when old, the tail feathers
are black : but when young, they have some white on them.
In winter, the upper parts incline more to grey, and in summer
they incline more to black. The birds breed in holes of trees,
or in thick and close bushes, forming their nests of dry vege-
table matters, and lining it with hair or feathers. The eggs

THE SPOTTED FLY-CATCHER. 239

Seldom exceed five ; they are pale greenish blue. The incuba-
tion begins about the end of May, the birds being supposed to
arrive about the middle of that month. As they do not pre-
viously flock, the time of their departure is not very accu-
rately known.

The pied fly-catchers are very pretty and lively little birds ;
and as they are constantly hopping in and out of the bushes
at those bright and sultry hours when the flies are on the
wing, they give an interest to times at which the greater
number of the summer birds are still as well as silent. In
the mornings, before the flies begin to come out, the male
birds are generally perched and singing, and the females are
on their nests. The songs of the males have not much variety
or compass, but they are soft, and not destitute of sweetness.
Their fly-catching is, however, the most interesting of their
habits; they hold themselves so constantly prepared, their eye
is so keen, and their motions so quick. Their wings, though
well fitted for the leaping flight which they perform in catch-
ing their food, are not so well adapted for long journeys,
especially if they have to contend with gales of wind, which of
course blow them to leeward in the pauses during which the
strokes of their wings are exhausted. This may be one of the
reasons why the east winds of May carry them out of what
may be considered as the line of their migration. When the
weather blows hard, they are so exhausted, that they are
obliged to alight, and rest for some time near the coasts,
although they do not stop to nestle there. But many migrant
birds have resting places, within many miles of which not one
nest is to be found.

THE SPOTTED FLY-CATCHER. [MuSClCapa gr'lSOla.)

This is a larger bird than the other, softer in appearance,
less active in its manners, and having the bill less convex on
the upper part, and less hooked and notched at the tip. The
upper part is brown, redder on the shoulders, and with a pale
streak over the eye; the top of the head mottled with darker;

INSECTIVORA.

the quills and tall feathers very dark. The under part brown-
ish white, with dusky patches and shafts to the feathers on the
breast. It arrives late in the season, not till near the end of
May, and it departs towards the end of September, but sooner
or later, according as the season is less or more favourable to
the continuance of insects upon the wing.

It remains in the low districts, being most abundant in the
south of England, diminishing both northerly and inland, and
being rare in Scotland, if indeed it at all reaches that country.
It is a familiar bird, pursuing its labours close to the dwelling
of man, and even building in the shelter of outhouses. But it
is a very quiet little bird, as silent in its manners as it is
sober in its plumage ; and therefore it spends its laborious
summer in clearing the gardens and copses of flies unnoticed
and unsought for. Its nest is formed of moss and small
fibres, lined with hair, wool, or feathers; and the eggs, which
are bluish white spotted with red, are seldom more than five.
The nest is usually so placed as to be sheltered from the
weather, but it is not so studious of concealment as the other
species. It does not perch so much on those trees that are
covered with foliage as on stumps and posts, which are not
above the ordinary flight of the flies, and which command
the horizon all round. It will often occupy one of these for
hours, though people are at work around it; and its habit is to
dash at the insects, capture them, and return to its perch, all
in pei-fect silence.

The time when the early cherries and berries begin to
ripen is one at which flies throng to the gardens; and as it is
also the time at which the broods usually take wing, and feed
with great activity, the birds are very numerous and active
among the trees. They are then actually preserving the fruit
from myriads of insect destroyers; but they have been (as
is not unfrequently the case with birds) accused of perpetra-
ting the very mischief which it is the business of their lives
to prevent, and because some one called it the " cherry sucker;"
and the consequence is, that the bird is often driven off, in
order that the choicest of the fruit may be spoiled by the

THRUSHES. 241

wasps and flies. This bird has little or no note, save a chirp.
It comes, performs its appointed labour, and goes, peaceably ;
but it is one of the birds that accompany cultivation, and
become more numerous as that extends.

thrushes. (Tardus.)

The thrushes are the largest of all the British insectivorous
birds : those which remain permanently with us are among the
most mellow-toned of our wild songsters ; and the whole are
very interesting in their manners, and, when in proper condi-
tion, they are wholesome and palatable food. Though the
thrushes have a melodious song, of which the omnivorous birds
are wholly destitute, their alarm note partakes a little of the
scream of these, and, like them, they can be taught to articulate,
though not quite so readily, or with so much perfection. They
have the bill of mean length, a little curved, bent at the tip,
and with a notch in the upper mandible ; and their whole
plumage is close and compact, so that they dart through
and under the bushes and low branches with great celerity.
They have also considerable command of themselves, both on
the perch and the ground, in the last of which situations they
find a considerable portion of their food. They are not so ex-
clusively insectivorous as some others of the order, but they are
chiefly so during the summer ; and in the winter, when the
state of the weather excludes them from their animal supplies,
they have recourse chiefly to wild berries. Snails, slugs, and
worms, form a principal part of their food, and in the capture
of these they do very valuable service to the gardens, orchards,
and shrubberies, and even to many of the field crops. The
three resident British ones are all inhabitants of the groves and
thickets of the low grounds, or just on the borders of the wilds,
and they generally remain in the neighbourhood of their nesting
places all the year round.

242 INSECT1V0RA.

THE MISSEL-THRUSH. [TurduS viscit'OTUS.)

There is a sort of double naming' in this bird ; it is called
the missel-thrush because it " missels" (soils) its toes with the
viscid slimy juice of the mistletoe berries, of which it is very
fond in the winter ; and the mistletoe gets its name because it
" soils'' the toes of the bird. The missel-thrush is the largest
of the British species, being nearly a foot long, about eighteen
inches in the stretch of the wings, and five ounces in weight.
It is not a very gay bird in its plumage, neither is it remark-
able for the briskness of its expression ; but still it is a beauti-
ful bird, light in its form and soft in the tints of its plumage.
Its ground colour above is grey with a trace of buff, and that
below whitish with a lighter trace of the same. Quills and
greater coverts greyish brown, relieved at the margins with
pale ash colour and white, and occasionally a trace of buff.
Tail deep ash grey, the tips of the outer tail feathers and
their inner webs white. The throat, cheeks, and chin, marked
with three-cornered spots of brown, and the rest of the under
part with larger patches of the same. The bill black except
the base of the lower mandible, which is pale yellow ; the sides
of the head brown, but the eye surrounded by a white circle.
The female is more rusty on the under side ; and the young
have the top of the head and upper part of the neck greyish
white, and the wings and tail more inclining to brown. The
colours vary considerably, and some specimens are nearly
white.

The missel-thrush, being found chiefly in those wooded and
sheltered places where the winter is neither the longest
nor the most severe, and meeting with berries at the times
when the snow keeps it from the ground, is much better
fed at that season than many of the other birds. In ordinary
seasons, indeed, it is never very long without animal food,
because it is very persevering and very adroit in finding
snails and slugs in their winter retreats ; so that it is among
the first birds to feel the turn of the year, and though its

THE MISSEL-THEUSH. 243

note is not so mellifluous and varied as that of the song-thrush,
it is still both powerful and musical ; and as it is the first
that is heard in the woodland after the howling of the wind
among the leafless branches, and heard even during the fitful
pauses of that, when the February or even the January sun
flings a momentary ray of hope upon the doubtful year, it is
perhaps hailed with more fondness than the song of the night-
ingale itself, which is never heard till the season has so far
budded and bloomed, as to be full of life and hope without the
nightingale.

Perched upon some leafless tree, and haply near a branch of
that mistletoe, which has been a bone of contention between
the bird and the rustics, the one for his Christmas dinner, and
the other for his Christmas sport, the missel-thrush shakes the
surrounding air with his melody; and while we listen to the
strain, we feel that the promise of nature's bounty for another
year is announced, at the very time when we have been sharing
most plentifully the fruits of the year which has gone by. For
some time the song of the bird alternates with those varying
winds which at that season shake the earth, and sometimes
uproot the trees, though they also mollify the clods. When
the black cloud comes over, and the sleet pelts, or the snow
drives, the bird glides down to his shelter; but as soon as it is
over, he is again on his perch and at his song, nor does he
cease till other choristers have come to bear their part in that
morning song with which the children of nature welcome in
the year.

The breeding time of course varies a little, both with the
situation and the season ; but the average periods may be
reckoned about the middle of March for the building of the
nest, and April for the hatching of the eggs. The male con-
tinues his song till then, after which it is heard no more
during the summer.

The nest is usually made in the fork of a tree, the more
moss-grown the better ; because that harmonizes with and
helps to conceal the nest itself, which is formed of lichens,
mosses, and twigs externally, partially combined with, and

244 IMSECT1V0RA.

rendered more close and substantial by, an intermixture of
earth. The interior is lined with softer materials — fine dry
grass, hair, or wool, according as the one or the other is more
easily procured. The eggs rarely, if ever, exceed five ; they
are flesh colour, mottled with rusty brown ; and the birds do
not seek the seclusion of the deep and lonely woods, but
will build in the orchard, or the garden, though very near to
the house, if they find there the tree best suited to their
purpose.

The male of the missel-thrush is not a mere idle songster.
He takes turn with his mate in the labour of incubation ; he
feeds her, and assists in feeding the young ; and he is equally
vigilant and bold in the defence of his family. The call note
which he utters in case of danger, and which is answered by
the female as if she were expressing her confidence of safety
while he is on the watch, is harsh and grating, and has the
tone of a note of defiance. And, with the missel-thrush, the
defiance is no idle boast ; for the sneaking magpie, the light-
winged kestrel, and even the sparrow-hawk, are at those times
compelled to keep their distance, as the thrush is too vigilant
to be surprised, and under the sprays where those birds must
contend with him upon equal terms, he keeps them all at
bay. Nor is he the guardian of his own family only, he is in
some measure the warder of the whole grove; and when the
harsh but shrilly sound of his bugle note of alarm is heard, all
the warblers take heed of the danger, and the chorus is mute
till he again mounts the highest branch, and raises the song of
deliverance.

If the nest, despite his watchfulness, is robbed, the male
continues his song, till preparations are made for a new
brood, and if he loses his mate, he continues in song all the
summer ; and therefore his note, which is any thing but a note
of sorrow, partakes somewhat of that character of a lament in
solitude, which has poetically, but not really, been considered
as characteristic of the song of the nightingale and the moan
of the turtle.

The purpose which the song of birds answers in the eco-

THE MISSEL-THRUSH. 245

nomy of nature, is one of those mysteries which, like the dif-
ferences of tint in their plumage, human ingenuity has not yet
been able to explain. It is not, however, a mere pairing cry,
because it is continued till the birds break the shell, and in
some instances, till they are able to fly. We may be sure,
however, that it has its use; and, as we can observe that the
females of all birds which have that cry, whether it be what
we call song or not, are excited when it is uttered by the
male, it may be that it produces in the female that heat which
is necessary for hatching the eggs. In ourselves, there are
many sounds which make the heart beat, the blood dance,
and the whole body glow, we know not why; and thus we
have at least no ground for denying, without proof, that the
other animals may be affected in a similar manner. Perhaps
the more philosophical way of considering it is to suppose
that it produces general excitement, and a power of more
energetic performance in all the labour which the birds can
undertake.

The connection between the song and the plumage, and the
silence and the moult, is also a curious matter, and shows
that the whole bird is subject to some general law, which,
though it lies deep beyond the power of our divination,
governs even the minutest circumstance, — the production of a
new spot or gloss on a feather, the reddening of a comb or a
wattle, or the inspiration of courage into birds naturally
timid. The birds, in fact, blossom in the spring as well as
the plants, and when the purpose of nature is accomplished,
the bloom of the one is shed as well as that of the other.
But if the purpose of nature in continuing the race is not
accomplished7 the bloom lingers. If the east wind shrivel the
anthers of the peach blossoms, the petals do not come down
perfect in that powdery shower which is the sign of a
plentiful crop, they cleave to the tree, and languish slowly
there. " Wo be to the wind of the bleak north-east," says
the cultivator, " it sheds no blooms ;" and so also may the
lover of birds lament, if the songs of his favourites are con-
tinued through the summer. If the bird continues its song, it

t 2

246

INSECTIVORA.

at the same time continues its plumage; and the moult, when
it does take place, partly because it is at a later and colder
season, and partly from that part of physiology which has
not yet become a science, the new plumage has less of the
peculiarity of the male, and more resembles that of the female
and the young, than if the bird had been mute and had
moulted, in due course.

That song of sorrow (though to the bird it is rather a
song of hope delayed) has not the spirit of the natural song.
It is true that, by midsummer, nature is muffled, by drooping
leaves, and fallen blooms, and downy anthers ; and it waxes
fat and rank, so that though it may murmur it will not " ring
clear" (like a moistened flute) as it does in the season of
vernal song, when all is fresh and full of sap ; but we also can
perceive a falling off in the note itself; and we have a cor-
roboration in caged birds, which never give their song with
the full glee and power of that of the woodlands. Even in
the most admired song that is warbled from the prison-house
of wire, an ear tuned and habituated to the free strains of
nature, can recognise a blending of the cry of irritation and
distress. Nor can it be otherwise. The bird is the child of
Nature as much as man is, and it loves liberty as well — better,
for it will not voluntarily exchange that to be a pampered
slave in a palace. It puts one in mind of that exquisitely
mournful delineation of the children of Israel, in painful servi-
tude and restraint, even on the palmy shores of the wide-
rolling Euphrates ; and one cannot contemplate the imprisoned
bird, without thinking on the mossy tree, the little nest, and
the chirping brood, and feeling the force of the unanswerable
interrogatory — "Ah! how can we sing the song of our God
in the place of our captivity?-'

If matters fare prosperously, the missel-thrush has moulted,
and is partially in song, in the early part of autumn ; and by
the time that the second brood is fledged, the animal supply for
the year is nearly over, and the family flock together in quest
of berries, at which time they do not hesitate to lay the gar-
dens under contribution. Thence till they sing again, is the

THE SOXG-THRUSH. 247

time when they are best in flesh and in flavour ; and when
the fruit of the service tree and the mountain ash may be
repaid by a delicious meal, without any injury to the economy
of Nature, and with some saving of the crop on the late
vines.

That is the only season during which even a small flock of
these birds assemble in peace ; for, during the busy time, the
males are as pugnacious towards each other, on the score both
of partners and pastures, as they are resolute in defending
their families from predatory birds.

East winds, whether they waft the cold humidity of the fen
or come withering with drought, are equally unfavourable to
the food, and consequently to the presence, of the missel-
thrush. It is accordingly less plentiful on the east coast than
on the south and west, and in that zone which has been men-
tioned as particularly favourable to birds that feed on the
larger insects. But improved cultivation has brought it to
many places in which it was formerly unknown ; and a con-
tinuation of the same will extend it. The larger snails,
nemoralis, hortensis, and aspersa, and a variety of others,
are always concomitants of the missel-thrush, and those
snails are somewhat dainty, and will not eat the austere
produce of the marsh. The missel-thrush is thus a sort of
tell-tale, showing how cultivation goes ; and the way to build
him in is the same as that by which the ague is built out —
building drains below ground, and not walls above it.

the song-thrtjsh. [Turdus niusicus.)

This bird is much more generally distributed over the
country than the former ; and though there is some resem-
blance between them, more especially in the markings on the
under part, the colours of the song-thrush are not nearly so
delicate. The whole of the upper part is brown, with a trace
of grey, the under part cream colour, darkest on the breast,
and mottled with triangular dusky spots. The length is
about nine inches, the stretch of the wings thirteen and a

248 INSECTIVOEA.

half, and the weight about three ounces. It is, however,
subject to considerable variations in colour — to more, perhaps,
than the missel-thrush — and it is also subject to considerable
variations in size : those which inhabit the high grounds are
smaller than the tenants of the richer pastures.

The thrush is so familiar a bird every where, that there are
few to whom any description of it is necessary. It does not
like marshes, or countries that are very open and bare ; but in
all places where hedges, thickets, and young plantations, or
even orchards and gardens with trees, are to be found, there
are sure to be thrushes. They feed on slugs, worms, and
snails, of the last of which they destroy vast numbers, but they
are not so exclusively confined to the districts in which the
larger species of snails abound as the missel-thrushes. They
are found in many upland parts where shelled mollusca are
few and confined to the smaller species : and in those, snails
and earthworms are their chief food in the early summer ;
and as the season advances, they have recourse to wild ber-
ries— the whortleberry in preference to any of the others. The
soils where that thrives best are generally well suited for
plantations or natural copses ; and copses there are sure to
be inhabited by thrushes. In winter the birds come down to
the warmer lands, and beat about under the hedges and in
the gardens.

In the richer districts, their labours in destroying snails
are equally incessant and successful. Before these have
opened the winter curtain which they spread over the mouth
of the shell, so as to completely exclude the air during the
time that they are dormant, the thrushes and then associates
the blackbirds find them out in then hiding-places, and by
this means do great service to the winter and early spring
crops, especially in those places where culinary vegetables
are much cultivated. In these places the snails nestle by
hundreds, under the hedges, and by the foundations of the
walls. In the former, which is their favourite winter abode,
the hedge preserves them in 'a great measure from the rain,
and the dry leaves from the cold ; but so industriously do the

THE SONG-THKUSH. 249

thrushes and blackbirds search them out, that the hedge side
is marked by a line of broken shells, as the birds fetch the
snails out, and batter the shells to pieces with their bills. In
the dead of winter this is carried on, in open weather, during
the whole day ; but if January is open, and warm, and sunny,
they may be seen suspending their labours about mid-day,
perching on the hedges, or hedge-row trees, and warbling
their clear, melodious, and variable song ; yet a change of
weather — a fall of snow especially — makes them mute again
for a space : and they have recourse to their vegetable food,
which does not appear to stimulate them so much, as those
that are in situations where they must depend chiefly on that,
do not come into song till the season is farther advanced, and
the slugs and worms have begun to make their appearance.

When the situation and the season are both favourable, the
birds are in full song early in February ; and as there are
generally two, and not unfrequently three broods of young in
the year, the song continues till the beginning of October : and
though the same bird does not sing during the whole time, yet
there are always thrushes in song from the middle of January
to that of October, if the weather is favourable. Indeed, one
or two very fine days are sufficient to excite the thrush into
song at any time of the winter.

During the hatching of the young, the male is as attentive
and industrious as the missel-thrush : and as the birds are
more numerous, they have to bustle more for food. They are
then up betimes. Their favourite prey finds its food during
the night, and retires before the heat of the morning is too
severe for the slimy secretion, which it uses not only as glue,
but also as a cable, and sometimes as a highway. The distance
to which it can contrive to crawl is not small, considering that
it has only one foot, and is burdened with its house ; but the
coming drought invariably sends it home, and the thrush is in
the way to intercept it. When collecting food for the young,
the birds carry it not in the bill, but in the stomach. The
membranous upper part of the stomach is, in all those birds
which are not furnished with a pouch, a very convenient pan-

250 INSECTIVOBA.

nier for carrying food to their young ; and though there are
not many in which a milky secretion, like that mentioned in
the pigeons, is produced, yet, in all, the food may be so far
acted on by the gastric fluid of the parent, as to be more easily
digested by the young birds.

The song-thrush builds in the middle of a hedge, tree, or
bush, but it builds lower than the missel-thrush ; and as the
nest of the missel externally resembles a lichen-crusted stump,
so the nest of the song-thrush resembles a mossy tuft. Inter-
nally it is strengthened with mud, said to be water-tight, and
therefore destructive of the eggs in rainy seasons. Rainy
seasons are destructive to the nests of many birds ; but they
must be less so to that of the thrush than to many others : the
thrush does not build in situations where the nest has much
chance of being inundated by floods ; and it may be said that
the nests of all birds are about equally secure from falling rain,
while the process of incubation is going on. If the nest is not
so chosen as that the eggs are sheltered from the weather by
other means, it will generally be found that the mother herself
affords them sufficient protection by her plumage and her mode
of setting. A water-proof nest is no more a necessary means
of drowning than a water-proof boat : it is the preventing of
water from getting in, not from getting out, which is the grand
means of security ; and if the eggs of a bird were for any
length of time continually wet with falling rain, they would be
cooled more, and therefore rendered less likely to be fertile,
than if they were as long immersed in water. The birds Avhose
nests suffer the most from rain, are those that build on the flat
uplands, where the rain falls in torrents, and stagnates among
the herbage ; and if there be any season more perilous to the
thrushes than another, it is that which is excessively dry, at
that time when they feed most exclusively upon animals, which
are, for the most part, below the ground when the weather is
in that state.

The song of the thrush is unquestionably the finest of any
of our permanent woodland songs, and superior in power and
clearness, though not in variety, to that of any of the warblers.

THE BLACKBIRD. 251

But the very abundance of it, perhaps, makes it less prized
than it should be. The nightingale heard in the depth of
groves and during the soft and balmy stillness of the summer's
night, may have more of the lusciousness of romance about
it, but there is a bold, natural, and free feeling of rustic
vigour, enjoyment, and endurance, about the thrush, which
gives it a more home and hearty interest in all parts of the
country, than can be commanded by any mere bird of passage,
whatever may be its charms while it stays. The thrush is,
especially, one of the birds of plenty : its blithe and varied
song is never heard amid desolation ; and if you hear a thrush
you have not very far to go ere you come to a human dwelling.
When its animal food, which it at all times prefers to that
which is vegetable, fails, the thrush may commit more devas-
tations among the fruits than many other birds ; but when the
snail shells by the hedge-side are counted, and it is gravely
considered how completely these and their broods would have
eaten all the early vegetables as they got above ground, and
the strawberries and peaches as soon as they began to ripen,
it is at least an undetermined question, whether the good done
by the thrush may not far more than counterbalance the evil.
The creatures on which the thrush feeds are destructive ; they
have no song ; and they are at least not more pleasant to look
at than thrushes.

the blackbird. (Turdus merula.)

The blackbird is as long as the missel-thrush; but more
slender in its form, and weighs an ounce less. Its form and
also its plumage are remarkable for compactness; and it is
very quick-sighted and lively in its motions. The male is
entirely black except the bill and circle round the eyes, which
are orange yellow, and the feet, which are brown. The female
has the bill and circle round the eyes, and the upper part of
the body, blackish brown ; and the lower part light brown,
passing into white on the chin, and mottled with dusky.
The young birds are like the females, and do not acquire the

252 INSECTIVOEA.

yellow bill, which is the sign of maturity, till after the second
moult.

The haunts and habits of the blackbird are nearly the same
as those of the thrush, only it is more familiar, and, in propor-
tion to its numbers, less seen. The disposition of the bird is
shy and solitary, more so than the thrushes, as the blackbirds
separate as soon as the young are able to provide for them-
selves, and never again assemble except in the breeding time.
It has been said that they do not all associate even then, but
that there are many solitary blackbirds which pass the whole
year in a state of sulky celibacy. There is no reason for car-
rying the matter quite so far as that ; the blackbird is as atten-
tive to its nest and young as any other of the tribe ; and its
evasive habit, or simply the facility with Avhich it slips through
hedges and in below bushes, not probably so much from the
wish of hiding itself as in mere search for its food, is the
foundation of the whole. The blackbird nestles quite close to
the house, on ivied walls, in old trees, and thick bushes, and
at a moderate height from the ground. The nest is made of
moss and sticks, plastered inside with mud, and lined with
soft and dry matters. The brood is from three to six, but
rarely the latter number ; and the eggs are of a greenish blue,
with very obscure dusky markings. But, as is the case with
most birds that frequent cultivated districts, the colour both
of the birds and eggs is subject to variety.

The blackbird sings early ; and though there is not nearly
so much spirit and variety in his song as in that of the thrush,
it is soft and clear, and has a sort of flute-like tone, which
makes a pleasant variety among the number of more sharp and
trilling voices. There are usually two and frequently three
broods of blackbirds in the year ; and thus the song continues
through a great part of the season, though it is not heard so
continually, so long at a time, or from so lofty a perch, as that
of the thrush. Notwithstanding its solitary and hiding habits,
the blackbird is more easily tamed and more patient of re-
straint than the thrush.

c fymm/}.

c '*,/■ A,,,i- '

Mm r&f4

THE RJNG-THRUSH. 253

the ring-thrush. (Turdus torquatus.)

The ring-thursh is a very beautiful bird, half an inch shorter
than the blackbird, but having about the same extent of wings
and nearly the same weight. It is much more firm and com-
pact in the fore part, and altogether better formed for long
flight, or for contending with the weather, though not nearly so
well for gliding through bushes.

The figure on the opposite plate, which is one third of the
lineal dimensions, will give an idea of the form, general
colours, and expression, of this bird. It may not, however, be
amiss to remark, that the grey on the edges of the feathers
above, and also on the greater wing coverts, varies considera-
bly in different individuals, and also at different ages and
seasons. The pure white gorget is always a character of the
mature males. The young males have it reddish ; the old
females clouded with brown and grey, and in the young
females it is barely visible.

The ring-thrush is a summer migrant, arriving in Britain in
the spring, rearing its broods in the wilds, and disappearing in
the autumn for warmer climates, in which it spends the win-
ter ; and, as is the case with many seasonal birds, its migra-
tions on the continent are much more extended than with us,
though it is not very rare, in its season, in some parts of the
Scotch highlands, and has an original Gaelic name.

Like the resident thrushes, it avoids the fenny parts of the
country ; and it does the same on the continent, as it is rare in
Holland and the flat parts of the Netherlands, and along the
low sandy shores on the east of the German sea. Hence it
comes to us across the channel, and rarely or ever across the
eastern sea. Whether these birds migrate over low districts,
or prefer hilly ones, such as Normandy, is a point worth
attending to in studying the habits of our migratory birds;
because, if they prefer the former countries, we may expect
stragglers on the east coast ; but if the latter, we can in
general receive them only by the south. The Alps, too, divide

vol. i. z

254 INSECTIVOKA.

the birds in their migrations, by driving them nearer both to
the western and the eastern seas.

Though the ring-thrush is better formed for flight than the
resident thrushes, it does not appear to proceed by very long
flights, for considerable numbers alight on the shores near the
channel in the spring, and remain there for some time to rest
and recruit, though they always resort to more inland, or at all
events more alpine or upland places, to breed. As they are
shy, and betake themselves to the heathy and rocky places,
which are not much visited in the early part of the season, the
times of their arrival in the different localities in which they
breed, have not been so far ascertained as to establish the fact,
that all of them make the tour of the country from the channel
northward. It is probable, however, that they do. The south-
eastern part of England — the paradise of the warblers — is not
well adapted to their habits ; and they range westward into
Cornwall, Wales, and Ireland, and northward to the hills on
the border, to the south of Scotland, and at least to the
southern slopes of the Grampians.

Cold moors, stony places, but still where a good deal of rain
falls, and there are springs and pools if not lakes, are the nest-
ing grounds of the ring-thrushes. Their food has not been so
well ascertained as that of the more lowland species ; so that
we are less able to say what takes them to their peculiar locali-
ties ; but whatever that food may be, they nestle far apart; and
unless by quartering the ground on purpose, it is not common
to see above one pair in crossing the place where they reside.
It must, however, be borne in mind, that their habits are very
shy and retiring.

When alarmed, by your coming suddenly upon them at the
turning of a rock (it is not very easy to get near them on the
open moor), they utter the same alarm note as the blackbird ;
not quite so loud however, though that may be from the
want of trees which magnify sounds. [The snapping asunder
of a stick, which you would not hear at the distance of
twenty yards on the open heathy hill, will make a report
like a pistol in a wood, especially one of pines, which is the

THE FIEED-FARE.

255

most sonorous of all forests.] The song, which it does not
appear is uttered while the bird is on the coast, is given,
though not very copiously, in the wilds. But though a short
song (a miniature of that of the missel-thrush), it is a sweet
song in those wild places where there are screams and whistles,
but not many songs. It is given as the bird sits on some
point of the low rock or an elevated stone.

The nest varies a little with the place. A tuft or bush,
especially if against a bank, gets the preference, but a tuft of
grass or heath, or a projecting part of a mossy stone, will do
where better is not to be had. The nest is formed of moss
and lichen, plastered with mud, and lined with soft dry grass.
The eggs are four, rarely six, about the size of those of the
blackbird, but rather greener in the tint, and the spots more
decidedly marked.

When the business of nidification is over, the birds again
retire to the south ; and, as they have a farther flight than
those which they require to take on their journey into the
interior, they rest longer. They are more noticed on their
southward march, as they collect by the way. They come into
the low country about the end of September, and generally
linger there for three weeks or a month. Hence they are
called Michaelmas blackbirds. They are beautiful birds, and
have something very peculiar in their habits; but we want
information respecting them, especially their favourite food.
I am inclined to think that mountain beetles form a consider-
able part of it, but I cannot say positively. If one will stand
to look at you on the dark heath, where little else comes defi-
nitely out but the bright white crescent on the breast, the
sight is very pretty.

the field-fake. (Turdus pilaris.)

The field-fare — of which a figure is given on the plate at
page 26, along with the ptarmigan and the quail, on the same
lineal scale as the latter, and half as much as the former,
that is, one third of the size — is in many respects the very

256 INSEC1IV0RA.

antipodes of the last-mentioned species. Like that it is a
migrant, and upon the continent has a considerable range in
latitude, but with us it is a winter migrant, arriving late in
the autumn, and remaining till the season is considerably
advanced.

Field-fares are said to breed chiefly in the woods within
and near the arctic circle ; and as insects are very abundant
there in the summer, which does not fairly set in till June,
and wild berries are equally plentiful in what may be termed
the arctic autumn, which is merely a few weeks during which
the winter pauses, ere it collect its storms and whelm the
whole country in that snowy covering which is to remain till
summer, there is food for them there.

These circumstances of the native regions (for the native
place of migratory birds is, of course, that in which they are
hatched) give them some peculiarities which are not observable
in birds that come from, or gradually pass through, countries
in which the changes of season are less abrupt.

In consequence of the abundance of food during the short
but very active season, when the whole or nearly the whole
twenty-four hours are daylight, the field-fares are very nume-
rous, and build near to each other; and as the proportion,
making allowance for the casualties of the breeding time, is
nearly tripling the numbers, they swarm very thick by the end
of the season. They begin to move in September or October,
according as the cold weather sets in ; and, as that is earlier
if the summer has been wet, they sometimes, though very
rarely, reach the north-eastern part of Scotland by the first
of October, but they are, in general, later : and according to
the state of the weather, they come occasionally all the winter.
They seem, indeed, to take short stages on the continent,
and move southward as the storm drives them, often in incre-
dible numbers, and subjected to the greatest hardships ; and
if those dreadful storms are from the north-east, they are
drifted to our shores, often in an exhausted and famishing
condition when they land, and subjected to still greater peril
if it continues.

THE FIEXD-FAEE.

257

In the winter of 1798 (I forget the day, but shall never for-
get the weather), there was one of the most dreadful snow
storms that ever visited the British isles. It was the harbinger
of those years of oppressive severity with which the close of
the eighteenth century was marked. I cannot say that I was
out on the fearful Friday, when the north-east was flinging
mountains of snow on the forests, but I was so placed that I
could hear the crash of the rending trees, and also the thunder
of the ocean against a rocky shore, which was dreadful ; and
I had occasion to pass along the coast line from the Tay to
Aberdeen, as soon as the road was at all practicable, on the
tops of the dry stone or mud fences, or leg-deep in snow, or
any way. That road commands not a little of the coast, and
the quantity of wreck cast high on the beaches, or appearing
ragged out of the sands, was most melancholy.

Now, in the early part of that week, the field-fares were
coming in absolute clouds ; and I remember an old country-
man disliking the omen, and saying, " There will be news of
this, though many that are in health now will never tell the
tale." And the news did come, and if I mistook not (for it
was not a day for calm observation), it must have caught the
birds on their voyage ; for snow and birds were drifting to-
gether. My observation, remembered through the chequered
lights of so many years and chancings (it never was worth
much) , may go for nothing ; but it stands recorded that,
during that storm, which was as far-extended as it was fierce,
the field-fares were driven diagonally over the island ; that
vast numbers of them were found dead in Dorset and Devon ;
and that the Atlantic threw back the dead bodies of many
more along the western coast.

The places of the island where these birds come in the
greatest numbers, are those that have a north-east aspect.
My personal observation does not reach Caithness, or south of
the Spurn ; but in the intermediate parts, the southern shore
of the Moray Forth, East Lothian, Berwick, Northumberland,
and the line of coast on to Flamborough Head, are the places
where they appear in the greatest numbers ; and they come
first to those places which are farthest to the north.

z2

258 ISSECTIYOKA.

During the day they spread over a considerable extent of
surface, though rather in an expanded flock than in detached
individuals ; but they collect together towards night, roost in
the fields in open weather, and in the plantations of timber
when there is snow. They continue in the country till May
and even till the beginning of June, in some instances ; and
though they usually continue in flocks, they sometimes pair
before their departure ; but it has not been ascertained that
they nestle or rear their broods in any part of the British
islands.

THE RED-WING THRUSH. [TurduS lUclCUS.)

The red-wing is the smallest of the British thrushes, mea-
suring eight inches in length, about fifteen in the wings, and
weighing about two ounces and a half. The red-wing has a
considerable resemblance to the song-thrush, only, besides
being smaller and less heavy, it seems a thicker bird, from
being more closely feathered. The markings on the head, and
the red on the flanks and under the wing, however, easily
distinguish it from the thrush. The bill is longer in propor-
tion, more pointed, darker at the tip, and yellower at the base
of the lower mandible ; a dusky streak extends from the gape-
to the eye ; a white one extends from the bill over the eye to
the hinder part of the head ; and there is a corresponding one
on the side of the throat. Double rows of dusky spots from
each side of the lower mandible form a sort of gorget under
the chin, the space inclosed by which and the ground colour
of the breast are the same dull white ; but the breast is much
marked with dusky spots, larger but less distinct than those
on the thrush. The belly and neck are white with dusky
markings, and the flanks and under the wings are brownish
red. The upper part is brown, with more of a greenish tinge
than the thrush. The female has the under part more dusky
and the red less bright.

The whole habits of the red-wing are very similar to those
of the thrush ; like that it builds chiefly in low bushes ; and
in the breeding countries, which are principally those around

THE BED-WING THRUSH- 259

the Baltic, it sings sweetly in the breeding season, though
with us it has only a sort of plaintive piping note. The birds
come to our shores in September, sooner or later, according
to the state of the weather in the places whence they come, and
of the wind which aids them in their passage across the sea.

Red-wings appear in flocks, are lovers of peace, and
mingle freely with the field-fares ; the two, indeed, seem
alike at the mercy of storms during the winter, though the
red-wings usually come first, and occupy the ground. While
the weather continues open, they remain on the pastures and
fields, in those places where they land, and roost for the night
in the hedges, or on the ground, according to circumstances ;
but when they are " frozen out," they betake themselves to the
hedges and copses, in search of wild berries, and continue till
these also are exhausted ; and if they are then overtaken by a
storm, many of them perish, as, like the field-fares, they seem
to have but little command of themselves in a gale. If the
season is variable, they work their way southward, but suffer
very much from hunger and fatigue ; and many of them are
smothered in the snow, if overtaken by heavy falls in their
attempts to pass the central heights.

Red-wings, as well as field-fares, are often found lingering
in those parts of Britain which have the greatest resemblance
to the countries where they nestle, as late as the middle of
May, or even the first of June, detained, no doubt, chiefly by
the east winds, which blow dry and cold at that season ; but
the same instinct — the same obedience to the state of the
weather which retains them with us, prevents them from
breeding, or even singing in this country. Bullock mentions
their breeding in the island of Harris ; but that is out of the
line of their ordinary migration ; and though it may be true
in the instance which he gives, it is certainly not true as a
general feature of the ornithology of that island. The song
of the red-wing is not known there, any more than it is on
the coast of Northumberland or East York ; but where any
singing bird breeds regularly, its song is sure to be known,
not to naturalists merely, but also to the country people.

260 INSECT1VOKA.

Such are a few remarks on the thrushes — a well-defined and
a very interesting family of birds, whether they remain per-
manently with us, come only in the summer, or take their
fate along Avith our field birds during the dreary and tem-
pestuous season.

chats. (Saxicola.)

Though the chats have the general characters of birds of
the insectivorous order, yet their particular characters, and
also their habits and haunts, are so well marked and distinct,
that they form a very convenient and well-defined group.
Their bills are straight, with a slight keel on the upper part,
which runs into the line of the forehead, and the upper man-
dible is margined, and slightly bent at the tip. The bill is
wide at the base, partaking there a little of the character of
that of those birds which hawk for insects on the wing. The
tarsi are long, and the feet well adapted for running ; but the
toes are not so much extended as in those birds which walk
upon very soft ground, or the hinder claws so much as in birds
which tread upon soft and thick herbage. The wings are of
moderate length and light, the coverts not lying so far over
the quills as in many other birds, so that they are not very
well fitted for lofty and prolonged flights.

Their habits agree with the peculiarities of their structure ;
they dwell in the wilds, nestle under stones and bushes, fly
low, seek their food upon the ground, run with much celerity
in quest of it, and, from the pliable structure of their wings,
they can drop immediately from the wing under the cover of
a stone or a bush. Most of the males have some song in the
breeding season, soft and musical, but not of much power.
Their ordinary note is peculiar, something like the sound
made by striking or rubbing one pebble against another.
They are dispersed and solitary in the breeding time, and the
families do not keep together after the young are able to shift
for themselves ; but the migratory species collect in numbers
before they take their departure in the autumn. As their

THE STONE-CHAT. 261

mode of life requires them to be constantly arising and alight-
ing, in order to catch the insects and worms on which they
feed, they have very great command of the tail, and keep it
flirting upwards and downwards, even when they are perched
on a stone, a clod, or the top of a low bush, and uttering their
peculiar cry. They do not frequent the bare and open parts of
the wilds, but rather places where there are heaps of stones,
furze bushes, or any other substances which are calculated to
retain those fatter and richer parts of the soil which are drifted
by the winds, and are more favourable for insects and worms
than the exposed parts. They do not feed wholly on the
ground, but occasionally dash after insects on the wing, some-
thing after the manner of the fly-catchers, to which they bear
some resemblance in their shape. They are, however, rarely
found in marshy or very humid places. The chats have some
of the characters of the thrushes, more especially of the ring-
thrush, only they inhabit places that are more open and
exposed, and they are far more easily seen, as they perch on
the top of the heap of stones or other shelter that covers their
nests.

THE STONE-CHAT. (SaxiCOla rublCOla.)

This is the only resident British species ; it is a bird of the
dry, but not the most barren moors, being found only where
there are thick brakes of furze, or other close bushes which do
not rise high above the surface, but are close, and afford con-
cealment to the nests, and also to the birds themselves, who
reside there, and find a warm and sheltered habitation, and
in all probability food, when the ground is covered and the
sheltering bush nearly buried with snow.

A furze bush on a wide moor, over which the winds sweep
with unbroken fury, is a sort of menagerie in the desert; it
catches and retains all the lighter mould which the wind
drives, together with seeds of plants and larvse of insects ; and
though furze does not grow where water stagnates, breeds
mosses, and converts into peat even the matters which the

262

INSECTIVORA.

wind drives, yet there is always some moisture under its close
shade, so that there are worms there, and all sorts of crawling
and creeping things of the wild ; and, as is also the case with
the snails and slugs under hedges in the cultivated lands, they
do not require to make their winter habitations deep below the
surface under the furze. Thus, though the stone-chat is a
smaller bird, and feeds upon smaller prey, it feeds much in the
same manner as the thrush and the blackbird, and does not,
unless the winter is very severe, need to shift into other
grounds. This bird is, indeed, most truly and characteristi-
cally the " whin" chat, as it summers and winters among
whins, though the name is appropriated to a migratory species,
which does not so exclusively inhabit bushes even in the sum-
mer. The young are, indeed, said to " go on their travels"
the first year, and not to acquire that fondness for the place of
their residence which characterizes the species, till they have
had a nest and a family of their own ; but as they are not seen
on the low grounds, except in very prolonged severe weather,
and as they live apart at all times, the autumnal dispersion of
the young may be nothing more than a local distribution over
the waste, in quest of unappropriated bushes ; and as there is
little to call them out till the season of song, it is probable
that the individuals living apart under their bushes are more
numerous than, from the few that are seen, one would be
led to suppose. Their safety is in the bush, as well as
their food, and they fly in, instead of out, when they are
alarmed.

From the figure at page 221, which represents the male in
summer plumage, one third of the lineal dimensions, it will be
seen that the stone-chat is a very beautiful bird, compact in its
form, and rich though not gaudy in its plumage. In winter,
the orange brown on the under part is less bright, and
the feathers on the head and neck are partially mottled with
brownish yellow : these appear to be decaying feathers, which
drop off, and are replaced by pure black ones. The spring
moult of our hill birds is seldom any thing more than that
portion of their old coat, which remains for additional

THE STONE-CHAT. 263

warmth in the winter, and which answers the purpose better
from being dry and nearly dead. Dead hairs and feathers are
much worse conductors of heat than live ones : the case of
house birds does not apply here. The female has the whole of
the upper part brown, and the under part pale brown, with no
white on the rump ; and that on the wings and sides of the
neck much smaller and less distinct than in the male.

In early spring, these are very delightful birds. The furze
brakes are mostly upon the southern slopes, and above the
light fogs and exhalations of the spring; so that they are
among the first places on which the sun of the young year
shines out. The green and gold of the furze itself are ex-
ceedingly gay and cheering, and the scent of it breathes a
vernal exhilaration which never tires. The black, white, and
brown, of the little bird contrast beautifully with the colours
of the furze, as he sits on the topmost and luxurious branch,
which is too elevated for being clipped and rounded by the
browsing of sheep, or the nibbling of hares and rabbits ; and
he is ever and anon flinging himself a few feet into the air,
hovering over the bushes, flitting now here, now there, like a
butterfly over a bed of flowers, or a dragon-fly over the mar-
gin of a brook, and chaunting his little song, sweet and
persuasive, but low, and tuned to the short distance at which
it may be heard by his mate under the shade of the evergreen
bower.

That soft but sweet song is almost the first that is heard on
the bushy margins of the extensive heaths. The robin and
the wren are, indeed, before it; but when they depart from
the cottages, they are in the wild woods ; the thrush is in the
grove, and the sky-lark is hovering over the fields below; so
that the stone-chat alone supports the vernal song in those
places which it is peculiarly healthy and pleasant to visit at
the opening of the vernal season. It sings, too, till you are
almost close upon it, and then drops so perpendicularly, that
you imagine you have no more to do than stoop, lift the side
branch, and pick it up ; but it glides through the bushes like
magic, and before you have examined the half of one bush, it

264 INSECTIVORA.

rises from another part, hovering and singing again, and foils
all attempts at capture, or at a near view of it, otherwise than
on the wing.

The nest is under a bush, secured from the rain, and hidden
from sight ; and though if you start a female from a bush,
after the male has begun to sit on the tops, and " chert" his
peculiar note, you may be sure that there is a nest, you can-
not discern, from the escape of the bird, which part of the
bush it is in, or whether it is at all in the one from which she
rose. The nest is of moss and dried grass, lined with hair or
feathers, or very frequently with wool. The eggs are never
more than six ; they are greenish blue, with small spots of
reddish brown at the thick ends.

If there are young plantations near, especially of pine or
spruce, under the shade of which the ground is not unlike
what it is under furze bushes, the stone-chat resorts there in
the cold months, and even in autumn if that is dry ; but it
does not build there, or at least very rarely, and only when
the plants are young, and the lateral branches near the
ground.

the whin-chat. (Saxicola rubetra.)

The whin-chat is smaller than the stone-chat; it is five
inches long, and weighs about four drachms ; the other is five
and a half, and weighs five, and the whole appearance of the
whin-chat is feeble. It is a migrant, arriving in the south of
England about the middle of April, and migrating northward
rather slowly, so as not to reach its northern limit till the
middle of May; and even then it does not reach the northern
parts of Scotland, although it ranges much farther than the
stone-chat. Its habits, and also its song, have a considerable
resemblance to those of the former species, only it sings more
frequently on the perch, and comes nearer to the cultivated
fields, nestling in thick tufts of grass as well as under bushes;
but it is as shy as the others, and, if possible, more careful
in the concealment of its nest. That is approached by a laby-

THE WHIN-CHAT. 265

rinth, to which the rising of the bird affords no clue ; and one
may seek long for it in vain, while it may not be a yard distant
all the time. The nests of all the chats are so placed under
cover, that they cannot be looked down upon ; but those of the
stone-chat are often placed in situations apparently less calcu-
lated for concealing a nest, than that from which the bird rises,
and which is generally an outwork to the nest, and approached
by a zig-zag path under cover. In that outwork the bird often
turns, so as to fly back again over the nest, or off at an angle,
which renders the discovery of it still more difficult. The
eggs are bluish green, without any spots, and they do not
exceed six.

The range of the whin-chat extends at least as far as the
furzy and broom-clad slopes, which are particularly abundant
on the secondary hills to the south of the Grampians ; but it
does not appear generally, or in any great number, to cross
those mountains. It may, however, be found in the eastern
parts of the county of Ross, especially along the northern
shore of the Cromarty Firth, where the climate is peculiarly
genial for the latitude, the lower grounds rich, insects very
abundant, and the country accessible across Aberdeen and
Moray, without any long flights over the sea or high moun-
tains. The whole of that line from the sea to the central
mountains, is well worthy of the attention of ornithologists.

It is probable that the whin-chat retires, in the latter part
of the season, from all its more northerly breeding places ;
but that a few pass the winter in Kent and Sussex, even in
places where they rarely breed in the summer, — as a passage
from the central parts of Scotland to the south of England, is
as great a change, both in climate and latitude, as one from
the central parts of England to the other side of the channel ;
and though birds of powerful wing and long and rapid flight
can migrate from hemisphere to hemisphere, it is reasonable
to suppose that birds of comparatively weak wings, like the
chats, have their migrations shorter; and that those which
go far to the north in summer, do not go so far south in
winter.

vol. i. 2 a

266 INSECTIVORA.

The whin-chat is not so compact or thickly feathered on the
neck and shoulders as the stone-chat, but is intermediate
between that and the warblers. The colours are not so boldly
contrasted : in the male, the head and ear coverts are dusky
brown ; a line over the eye, the chin, a line down each side of
the neck, the bars of the quills and tail feathers, and the crest,
white ; the rest of the upper part blackish brown ; the throat
and breast very pale orange brown, fading through dull yel-
lowish white on the belly to the white on the vent. In the
female the white is less and dull, and the young birds have the
brown less or more mixed with white and grey.

As these birds do not affect high grounds or long flights,
they come to Britain more to the south-east than bolder flying
birds ; and hence they are not common in the south-west of
England. They belong to the same migration, in direction, as
the warblers, only their habits and kind of food lead them
farther inland.

the wheat-ear chat, (Saxicola oenantlie,)

Is another summer migrant, but it comes at least a month
earlier, and in much greater numbers, than the other species ;
it is by far the most abundant of the tribe, ranging over every
latitude in the British Islands, and resorting even to the in-
hospitable shores of more northern lands : it is also dis-
tributed farther up the wilds, and lower down on the culti-
vated grounds, than any of the other species. Their perch is
on clods, and especially on stones, beneath which they form
their nests, and probably expel the toads from their dwellings ;
at least I have seen a toad in a hole under a stone, and after-
wards a wheat-ear's nest under the same. They do not, of
course, always nestle under stones; they resort to those places
where there is most food for them, and nestle under whatever
suits their purpose best. They love a dripping sky and misty
atmosphere, because these are favourable to the growth and
also to the appearance of those earth-worms which form their
principal food ; and these circumstances have, of course, more

THE WHEAT-EAR CHAT. 267

influence in the determining of their localities, than the places
under which to shelter, or the materials whereof to construct
their nest. Indeed, the materials of a bird's nest are not a
character upon which to found a dispute ; because they are
minor parts of the bird's accommodation ; and, in nature,
minors must always yield. If there is a loose heap of stones,
natural or artificial, a dry stone wall, a rugged stony bank,
or a single stone on the common, below which a hidden
shelter for the nest either exists naturally, or can be formed
with little trouble, the wheat-ear will prefer that ; and as
they are not in the habitual sight of man, it has no objections
to the crumbling masses that have fallen from a ruined tower
or abbey, or even to the shelter of a tombstone which has
been partially filled beneath with weeds and rubbish. It is
worms that entice the wheat-ear, and wherever the place of
worms is, more especially if deserted by man, there the wheat-
ear is sure to come, heedless of whatever tale of ghost or
goblin may keep the rustic in fear of its haunt, and occa-
sionally make the pretender to a more daring philosophy a
little sceptical of his own scepticism.

As the wheat-ear always nestles where it can feed both
itself and its young with the least exertion of its wings, of
course its nesting places are different in those districts where
stones are not to be found. In these, the slovenly agriculture
of " fallowing," makes the best substitute for stones ; and as
the rugged furrows of that rude husbandry lie encouraging
weeds, they seem so like ruins that they are selected as
nesting places by the wheat-ear ; and as they are left alone
in their desolation, unoccupied by crop and useless as pas-
ture, till the broods are hatched (which is not later than
June), and as the birds then begin to resort to the downs and
open commons, the " fallow-chat," " wheat-ear," and " clod-
hopper," are not unappropriate names. But the bird, though
bordering on it, is not quite a bird of cultivation ; and therefore
the names are rather uncomplimentary in an agricultural point
of view. Wheat-ears breeding in the cultivated lands, are not
so expressive of desolation as bitterns in a city ; but one

268 IXSECTIVOKA.

would rather hear warblers in the copses, and shoot pheasants
and partridges.

In the north, the wheat-ear is generally found on heaps of
stones, by ruins, or on the dry stone walls of burial grounds ;
and though it is a very handsome bird, and in the early season
sings sweetly, its haunts have gotten it a bad name. Its
common alarm note is not unlike the sound made in breaking
stones with a hammer ; and as it utters that note from the
top of the heap which haply covers the bones of one who
perished by the storm — or his own hand, or the mound
beneath which there lie the slain of a battle field, magnified
through the mist of years, or the rude wall that fences in
many generations, it is no very unnatural stretch of the
pondering fancy which dwells in such places to associate the
wheat-ear with all the superstitions that, unphilosophically
but not irreverently, belong to the place of graves. It comes
onward, too, to meet the traveller, and now running, now
flying, seems to pilot him to a place beside the " cairn," as
if his own bones were soon to be gathered there ; and in that,
its note of solemn warning, it is more than usually energetic ;
it is seen in the fog, too, and from the contrast of its colours
it is particularly conspicuous even in that. In a highland
glen, during a highland mist (which wets but warms you), you
hear the claclieran before you see it ; you meet the clacheran
before you see the cairn .• so you are at perfect liberty to
believe that it is busy breaking the stones that are to cover
you — if you choose ; and really there is no accounting for what
people will believe in such places — or in any place.

Now, the said clacheran has merely selected that spot, as
you would select some sunny and south-turned nook, sheltered
northward by trees continuing upward to the hill, and
bordered southward by a sparkling river rolling onward to
the sea — a spot where no plant would fail, no blossom be
barren, and no blight or blast could invade ; but where
plenty would attend on every labour, and the beauty of the
scene would bloom full and fair, mingling confidence with
hope, that the colony which you had founded would con-

THE WHEAT-EAR CHAT. 269

tinue generations unnumbered to enjoy the bounty and bless
the bestower. If the land were all before you where to choose,
and you were as much the unsophisticated child of nature as
the bird, the probability is that you would act thus, and that is
just what he does. Beneath that heap of stones there is a
little nest, formed of moss and grass, and carefully lined with
hair, feathers, or wool, with five or six eggs of a delicate bluish
white, and there is a mate of whom and her promised brood
the bird is as fond, and for them he has as much forsaken the
society of other birds, as the most exemplary of the human
race could possibly do. He watches early and late, and
endeavours to divert any one that passes from the retreat
of his charge. He renders it unnecessary for the dam to
leave the eggs when they might be injured by the cold and
damp, for he feeds her morning and evening while the air
is cold ; but in order that she may not suffer by the con-
finement, he takes her place a short time during the warmth
of the day, while she exercises her feet and wings for
a little, and picks a snail fresh from the all-supplying
earth.

Yet, for these assiduities to his brood, the wheat-ear has
been made, in the northern parts of Britain, and in places far-
ther to the north, the victim of superstition. Old and young
continue to kill and persecute the birds, and to destroy their
eggs, considering the service as one of more than ordinary
merit. Nor, though the warfare on them there be a little more
rational, do they fare better in the southern parts of the coun-
try. When they collect in numbers on the southern downs,
which they do about the middle of July, they are caught
in horse-hair nooses in vast numbers, which are set between
two turfs turned against each other. At that time they are
very fat and of exquisite flavour ; as indeed all the chats are in
the latter part of the summer. It appears that the broods when
matured so as to be able to shift for themselves, have the same
disposition to resort to new ground which was noticed in the
other species ; for those taken on the downs are chiefly young
ones.

2 a2

270

INSECTIVOEA,

The wheat-ear thus appears to be a bird of most hapless lot.
It is persecuted to death by superstition in the one end of the
island, and killed and eaten by the cravings of luxury in the
other ; and yet the wheat-ear does nothing but good, for its
habits do not lead it in the slightest degree to destroy any one
thing that is useful to man. On the contrary, the numbers
which are scattered over the country destroy an incredible
number of animals that are really hurtful. But the birds them-
selves appear to be indestructible ; from the situations in which
they build, and the industry with which the callow young are
fed by the parent birds, together with the general watchfulness
of the whole, fewer casualties befall the wheat-ear than most of
the other birds, and a dead one is rarely seen, neither are they
much destroyed by birds of prey. From the situations which
they choose, they are exempted from famine in dry seasons ;
and those humid rains that are destructive to so many
other species of birds, are seasons of extraordinary plenty to
them.

The wheat-ear is the largest of the British chats. It is six
inches and a half, and the weight about six drachms, but rather
heavier when fat, and the female is a little heavier than the
male. The bill, legs, claws, and gape, are black, and so are
the quills, the middle tail feather, the tips of the side ones,
and a streak from the bill under the eye to the ear covert ; but
the black on the wing has a slight bluish tinge. The rest of
the upper part is bluish grey, with the exception of the rump,
which is white : all the under part is white, with the excep-
tion of the breast, which is buff orange. The colours of the
wheat-ear are very pure ; and the bird has a remarkably cleaii
appearance.

As is the case with many or most of the migrants that
come to Britain to breed, the males come before the females ;
and as the instinct of the season leads each pair to separate,
they come singly, though many are often seen near the south-
east after they land. The song of the male wheat-ear is very
sweet, but it is low and heard at a very short distance. They
have been occasionally seen late in the season, so that it is

THE WAGTAIL. 271

possible some of them may winter in the southern parts ; but if
they do, they hide themselves in the copses or other sheltered
places, and are seldom if ever seen, at least by those who
would be disposed to notice and record their appearance. The
distance to which their northern migration extends, and the
weakness of their wings (though they are better winged than
any of the other chats), would lead to the conclusion that they
do winter in some parts of the country.

wagtails. (Motacilla.)

The wagtails get their name from the remarkable, rapid7
and almost incessant motion of their tails. There are many
other birds that flirt the tail upwards and downwards, but
perhaps none that do it so habitually as the wagtails; and the
elevation is accompanied by a jerking spread, which relaxes
when it is depressed, so that it appears to have two simulta-
neous motions.

These birds, which all either leave the country in the winter
or migrate to different places within it, are natives, and while
they sojourn with us, inhabitants of peculiar localities. They
frequent the margins of waters, especially clear streams and
pools in retired places, and form their nests under projecting
stones or in holes near the banks. They feed chiefly upon
aquatic insects and upon worms.

The principal characters are, — the head small and pointed :
the body slender, but firm at the shoulders, and tapering
backwards ; the tail very long, and well fortified by coverts,
both upper and under, and the wings rather short, but also
well supported by coverts, and pointed, the second quill being
the longest. The bill is slender, awl-shaped, has a ridge or
keel on the upper part, and margins to the edges of both
mandibles at the middle. The tarsi long and strong, and also
the hinder toe, the claw upon which is considerably produced.
The whole air is expressive of energy and varied motion,
whether in the air or on the ground.

They run with great rapidity, and do not hop or require

272 1NSECTIV0RA.

the aid of their wings in running; they can run upon the
surface of very soft ground without sinking, and over slippery
pebbles by the brooks without any unsteadiness ; and when
it is necessary for them to change from running to flying,
they can take wing from either of those surfaces with great
ease. The following cut will show the difference in structure
between a foot adapted for running upon or rising from grass,
and one adapted for such places as those on which the wag-
tails run.

Lark. Wagtail.

These characters are remarkably well suited to the haunts
of the wagtails, and the modes in which they acquire their food.
They live beside the waters, upon the soft muddy banks,
or the pebbly strands, where they run and capture such land
or aquatic insects as present themselves ; or they quarter the
surface by short but rapid flights, and snatch those that play
on the surface of the water or hover near it in the air.

The legs of the wagtails are placed behind the centre of
gravity of their bodies, as is the case in all birds which run
rapidly, in consequence of which they would have difficulty,
or at least labour, in recovering themselves by mere muscular
exertion when they bring their bills to the ground, as they
must often do in picking up their food. The tarsi, as has
been noticed, are long in proportion to the size of the birds ;
but the neck and bill, instead of being so long as to enable
the latter to reach the ground while the axis of the body i§
horizontal, so that the shoulders must dip much when the bill
is brought to a level with the feet. A bird so formed would
be very apt to tumble forwards, if it had not some means of
working a counterpoise; and that counterpoise is the tail.

THE PIED WAGTAIL.

273

When that is expanded and struck forward against the air, it
acts in nearly the same manner as a wing, and pulls the body
of the bird backwards, so that the head is raised with com-
paratively little effort. All birds that have the same length of
tarsi in proportion to that of the neck and bill, have a similar
action of the tail ; but as that structure, and also the habit of
picking up food on a level with the feet, is more remarkable in
the wagtails than in any other British birds, the motion of the
tail is more powerful in them ; and the tail is also longer in
proportion. But the habit may be seen in very many birds,
both in enabling them to raise the head and to retain it in an
erect posture. The magpie is a familiar instance, and so is the
peacock — which would tumble backwards if he were to raise
the body in the same manner when the tail is down as he does
when it is erected and spread.

pied wagtail. {Motacilla alba.)

A figure of the male bird in its summer plumage is given on
the plate at page 261, on a scale of one third the lineal dimen-
sions. The female has the throat and breast white, and the
plumage on the back more inclining to grey, which are also the
colours of the males in the winter, at which time the sexes are
not easily distinguished.

The pied wagtail is a very generally dispersed bird ; and
there are few pools and streams in any part of the British
Islands near which it may not be seen in the summer, though
it prefers those that are near trees, fertile grounds, or any other
accompaniments that bring numbers of insects upon the water.
Hence it is not so much found by the cold, dingy, and peat-
encircled pools on the naked heights ; and lower down, a
favourite brook for the wagtail is always a successful one for
the young trout-fisher.

In summer, the wagtails hawk over the surface of the
water, and catch winged insects, not by straightforward
speed, like the swallow tribe, but by short and jerking flights,

274 IKSECT1V0EA.

after the manner of the fly-catchers. When the water subsides
during the droughts of summer, they may be seen scouring the
margins and picking up the larvse that are still alive in the
mud and sludge which remain wet. At other times, they may
be seen wading in the shallows, and picking up the larvae
and aquatic insects that are between the pebbles, their motions
while doing so being so rapid, that only the flitting of the tail
is noticed. They also follow the plough, and pick up larvae
and worms that are exposed on the turned furrows ; and they
come about barns, and examine horse-ponds, and generally all
places where water stagnates or the earth is turned up. In-
habiting, as they may be said to do, the border between
the land and the water, they conduct themselves as borderers
generally do — they levy their contributions upon the one or
the other, as may be most conducive to their own interests ;
but they do it with this difference, that all their inroads
and forages are useful to man, as the number of insects
which they capture, if allowed to remain and breed, would
make the waters rank and the land unsightly.

As the wagtails subsist wholly upon insects, they are unable
to pass the winter months in the northern and elevated parts
of the country, because the ground is frozen up ; but even
there they may be found among the discharges of those
copious and deeply-seated springs, which maintain nearly a
uniform temperature all the year, and thus keep their rivers
open, even when the rest of the ground is skirted with snow
and ice. In such situations, the wagtails may be seen even in
the month of January, hopping under the banks of snow
that have been undermined by the discharge of the spring.
The change in the under part of the male bird to white, is an
adaptation of the bird to cold, in consequence of which there is
no doubt that they could bear the climate, and only change
their residence in order to find food. Many of them retire to
the sea-coasts, where they may be observed running along the
beaches, after the tide has ebbed, and picking up the
small marine animals that are left on the sand. They linger
long also about those fields where turnips are fed off by

THE PIED WAGTAIL. 275

folded sheep ; and may be seen there in considerable numbers
after they have all left their summer haunts by the upland
brooks.

In the southern counties of England, they remain nearly
stationary all the year round; and though, in many other
places, they leave their summer quarters, the probability is,
that they only disperse to more suitable places, and do not,
in any great numbers at least, leave the country. It is true
that, in the north, they are not seen inland from the time that
the cold weather sets in till the storm breaks ; but as that
takes place a month sooner in some seasons than in others,
without any alteration of weather in the south ; yet as the
birds visit the northern brooks as soon as they are open, and
are on the fields as soon as the ploughs can be got in, they
cannot come from a very great distance, unless we suppose
that some messenger sends them word that the northern coun-
try is fit for their reception. It must never be lost sight of,
that birds — all animals — are affected only by present circum-
stances, by circumstances present both in time and in place ;
and though Iceland were heated like a furnace by the action of
its volcanoes, that would not occasion the migration of one bird
from the south. Besides, the pied wagtail undergoes a consi-
derable change of plumage preparatory to the winter ; and
birds require that, in order to temper them to the climate, and
having done so, they never migrate farther than is necessary
in order to find food.

The wagtail sings early, and sweetly, though its song is
neither very long nor very loud. It sings from a low perch,
— the point of a rock by the water's edge, the parapet of a
bridge, on an old stump of a tree, a mill, or even the top of an
outhouse or cottage. It is a very familiar bird, and, at the
same time, very lively and very pretty, so that it is a general
favourite. A meadow of short soft herbage by the brook, or a
well-mown lawn near the bank of a river, is a very favourite
morning or evening pasture for the wagtail, and it will run
about there with great alacrity and glee, ever and anon

276 INSECTIVORA.

dipping its head, and again recovering its balance, by the pe-
culiar motion of the tail, as if it took pleasure in a place neatly
kept. But the fact is, that the short grass, more especially if
it is newly mown, enables the bird to see its insect prey
readily and capture it with ease.

The situation of the nest is varied according to the haunt.
It may be in a bank of stones by the brook, a shelf of the
bank, a hole in the wall, or a thick old tree. The external
structure is composed of vegetable fibres filled with wool, and
the internal lining hair ; but these, of course, vary with the
materials that are to be had. The eggs are four or five, very
small, greyish white, with minute light brown speckles. They
are not unlike the eggs of the cuckoo ; and that strange, ano-
malous bird is said often to inflict upon the wagtails the labour
of feeding her ungainly and voracious offspring.

THE GREY WAGTAIL. {MotaciUd boaruhx.)

This is not so common as the last species, and it is more
migratory in its disposition, though there is reason to believe
that its migrations, like those of the other, are chiefly per-
formed within the island.

The grey wagtail is about the same size as the pied, that is,
seven and a-half inches long, and about a foot in the stretch
of the wings, and six drachms in weight ; but it is lighter and
more elegant in shape, more fitted for getting through the air,
and the tarsi are not quite so strong, or the toes quite so much
produced. The colours, though distinct, are soft and delicate.

The male, in the summer or breeding plumage, has the
upper part a fine delicate grey, except the rump and tail
coverts, which are bright sulphur yellow. The white lines,
proceeding from the gape, one over the eye, and the other
on the side of the neck, joined by a white line across the eye,
impress the side of the head with a mark resembling the
letter !>. The throat, between the white lines, is black, cir-
cular towards the breast ; and from that the whole under part

THE GREY WAGTAIL. 277

is yellow, very intense on the breast, and becoming paler
backwards. The wings are greyish black, and the coverts
tipped and margined with white, which forms a white spot,
and two longitudinal white streaks on the closed wing. The
tail (which is very long) has the outer feather, the inner web
of the second, and a streak on the inner web of the third,
white, and all the rest black. The bill and gape are black ;
the feet dusky brown, with the exception of the joint of the
tarsus, which is yellowish.

In the breeding season, the colours of the female are nearly
the same, only a good deal paler and less distinct, the yellow
being whiter, and the grey having a shade of black, while in
the male it inclines more to blue. In winter, the male, in a
great measure, loses its distinguishing colours. The black on
the throat gives place to pale greyish white, and the whole
under part becomes very pale ; the female also loses the black
on the chin, which is, indeed, never so pure and conspicuous
as that on the male.

Those changes of colour indicate an adaptation to the tem-
perature of the season, so that the migration of these birds
may, like that of the pied wagtails, be regarded chiefly as a
migration for food : indeed, the want of food in the polar
climates may be considered as the grand operating cause in all
equatorial migrations.

The grey wagtail leaves the southern parts of the country
(in which it is called the winter wagtail) about February or
the early part of March, the cause which changes the plumage
appearing to operate simultaneously in prompting the migra-
tion, as the sexes resemble each other as long as they remain
in the south. Many of them halt by the upland streams in
the central and northern parts of England ; but others pass
into Scotland, where they penetrate to a considerable distance
north, although, as they keep to more retired situations, they
are not so often seen in proportion to their numbers as the
pied wagtails. They are also more confined to the clear
streams in the open wastes, where they feed upon water-flies,
insects, and larva?. They nestle chiefly in rocky banks,

vol. i. 2 b

278 INSECTIVOKA.

seldom in any vegetable cover. Nest like the former, eggs
not exceeding six, larger than those of the former, yellowish
white, and mottled with brighter blotches. The first brood
is usually fledged by about the first of June, and the second
(when they have two) about the middle of July; but in the
most northerly places, they seldom have more than one brood,
which is fledged about the end of June. In the north they
are, of course, summer wagtails ; and they take their departure
earlier than the pied, though some of them linger by the rims
of the deep-seated springs, and may continue there during the
winter, in more northerly places than they have yet been found
in at that season.

It does not appear that they ever summer or nestle in the
south; and it is worthy of remark, that these indigenous
water-insect consuming birds, retire northwards in summer,
and leave the waters of the south and south-east to the
aquatic warblers. Those resident insectivora are suited to
the open air, and the warblers to the shade ; and accordingly,
they alternate with each other in the seasons. The warblers
retire to climates in which they find shade in the winter ; and
the resident birds betake themselves to the north in the sum-
mer, where the deep shade and the rank vegetation by the
sides of the pools and streams do not interfere with their
pedestrian habits.

THE YELLOW WAGTAIL. {Motdcilla flam.)

The name of this bird, though accurate enough as to the
under part being more entirely yellow than that of most birds,
is an inapplicable one, and apt to produce confusion ; for it
really has less yellow upon it than the summer plumage of the
species called grey, the rump not being yellow, but a dull
yellowish green ; and the habits of the bird are less those of
the pied wagtail, which we naturally (being most familiar with
it) take as the type of the genus. If it is to be called a wagtail
(for magging the tail, the one of the characters, is not the
distinguishing one, as it applies to many birds — and to dogs

THE YELLOW WAGTAIL. 279

when they are pleased), it ought to be the green wagtail, as
the green upon it bears some resemblance in locality to the
grey on the other. The spring or summer wagtail, is also a
bad name for all Britain, as there are places where all the
three are spring or summer birds.

The following is the summer plumage of the male : — Top
of the head and ear coverts pale yellowish olive green ;
shoulders, back, and rump, the same but darker ; and the
green advancing in a point at each side of the lower part of
the throat, as if fragments of a collar. The whole under part
pale gamboge yellow, still paler towards the vent. Wings and
tail dusky ; less white in the tail than the other wagtails ; and
very little in the wings, and the little that there is dull and
obscure. The female has the yellow below so pale as to be
almost white, and a blackish tinge in the green on the back.
As the birds are regular summer migrants, they have no
winter plumage as British birds ; and, as might be inferred
from the fact of their seasonal migration, then- plumage is not
so much subject to change as that of the others.

The air of these birds, and their haunts and habits, differ so
much from those of the wagtails, that they have been with
propriety separated as a genus, though the generic name
" Budytes'''' (associator with cattle) is not a very happy one,
or the characters well made out. Our business, however,
is merely with the popular appearances and characters of
birds.

In that point of view, the yellow wagtail wants the active
expression of the others. The neck is longer, and the tail
an inch shorter, being less necessary for balancing the bird.
The hind toes are also longer, and the claws on these more
produced and straighter, approaching more to the character
of a foot for walking upon elastic surfaces, such as grass.
The bird accordingly frequents the cultivated lands, the pas-
tures, and ploughed fields, indiscriminately, more than the
margins of the waters. Its proper character with us is that
of a summer visitant of the open fields, and it prefers inland
places to those on the coast. Its nesting corresponds ; for

280 INSECTIVORA.

the nest is built on the ground, and not under stones or in
the shelves of banks. The nest is formed of dry vegetable
fibres, and lined with hair ; and the eggs, which are not more
than six in number, have the prevailing colour of those which
are laid in ground nests. They are light brown, with darker
brown spots. The nest is, however, generally placed under
some cover, as in a tuft of grass, or at the root of a tree. The
young birds resemble the female.

These birds, which are by no means uncommon, make their
appearance in March ; and, as they are then most abundant in
those elevated parts of the country which are better adapted
for the growth of oats than of wheat, they have been called
" oat seed" birds. They ply their labours, both assisting in
the nest, and the male crying shrilly but not singing ; and by
the end of July the broods are fully fledged. In August they
accumulate in flocks on the stubble lands, and especially on
the richer pastures, and about the pens and folds ; and by Sep-
tember they leave the kingdom generally, though it is probable
that a few may pass the winter on the warm downs near the
channel.

These birds occupy a particular zone (the edge of the culti-
vated country, but within it), a zone not exactly occupied by
any other migratory species; and, therefore, they want to be
more carefully studied, not as wagtails (which they really are
not), but as migratory birds connected with that particular
zone, and depending chiefly upon the insects, the larva?, and
the worms, which are peculiar to that. There is no satisfac-
tory knowledge of birds (or of any animals), unless it compre-
hend the places which they chiefly inhabit (that is, the places
in which they are produced) , and the peculiar matters which in
those places constitute the greater part of their food. Food
for themselves and their young is the grand necessary with
birds, to which temperature and nest-building are very sub-
servient ; and many of the errors of which ornithology is full,
both as a science and a popular employment, recreation, and
source of pleasure, have arisen from the elevation of minor
circumstances over the major ones.

THE DIPPER. 281

the blue breast, [Motacilla Suecica of Linnceus,)

Has recently been caught in the vicinity of Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, and therefore it must be admitted into the list of strag-
glers. Its characters are as follow : — the crown of the head
and rest of the upper parts are brown, the latter tinged with
greyish, and paler on the margins of the scapulars and wing
coverts ; feathers at the base of the bill and streak over the
eye yellowish white. The chin, throat, and upper part of the
breast, rich azure, with a silky white spot in the centre ; the
blue bordered beneath with a narrow gorget of black, which is
succeeded by another of reddish brown. Under parts, dirty
white inclining to grey. The two middle tail feathers brown,
the remainder having their basal half of a bright ferruginous or
brownish orange colour. In the female, the upper parts are
paler, the chin pale azure blue, mixed with black, streak 'on
each side of the neck, and upper part of the breast, black
intermixed with azure blue, and surrounding a large spot of
white. The young are, in their first plumage, mottled. This
bird has been classed with warblers, but it does not appear to
have much song.

THE DIPPER. (CtncluS.)

There is only one British species of dipper ; but it has so
many peculiar characters, that it cannot be properly included
in any other genus, as there is no other British bird that much
resembles it in shape, in colour, or in habits. The bill is
slender, with a slight bend upwards, the mandibles bent
inward at the edges, and the upper one margined and very
slightly hooked at the tip. The head is small, and the fore-
head remarkably low ; the body short and compact, the wings
very short and rounded, the tail also short, but very stout and
strongly fortified by coverts. The whole is what one would
call a " dumpy" bird, but there is an expression of great
•energy and activity about it. Its plumage also is remarkably

2 b2

282 INSECTIVORA.

thick and close, resembling that of the water birds. Like
these, it is amply supplied with oil for its feathers ; and,
though a considerable time in the water, the plumage on the
living bird does not become wet. The head, back, and sides
of the neck, are deep brown ; the rest of the upper part is black,
with some variations of brownish grey. The tail feathers and
quills are quite black. The throat, chin, and breast, are white,
passing into reddish brown about the middle of the belly, and
becoming gradually deeper and blacker towards the end of the
tail. The bill is dark brown, the hides brownish yellow, and
the feet yellowish grey. The sexes are like each other in their
markings, only the brown on the head of the female is darker,
and the white on the breast less pure. The young birds have
that part of the head and neck grey which is brown in the old
birds ; and they have the under part white almost to the vent,
but marked with grey and yellow on the portion which after-
wards becomes brown. They are, of course, seen with the
plumage of the changeable parts in all its intermediate stages :
and, as it. may change differently in different birds (as is the
case in all birds that change much of their plumage either
with age or with the seasons), there may be very different
markings even in the same brood in the autumn ; but pro-
bably there are distinct species, or, at least, varieties.

When the bird is standing in its usual position of quietude,
the length from the point of the bill to that of the tail is not
more than five inches and a half, of which the bill and tail
take two inches and a half, measured on the horizontal
line, so that the body of the bird, in that position, is shorter
than that of any other species of equal weight. The weight is
two ounces and a half. The curve along the under side is.
however, nearly nine inches.

The dipper inhabits more romantic places than those that
are the almost exclusive haunts of any other British bird ;
and its manners, taken altogether, are among the most sin-
gular. It is not confined to any particular latitude, being
found near the Channel, in Wales, in the mountainous parts

THE DTPPEK. 283

of the centre of the island, and also in the north. Cold and
heat seem indifferent to it, so that it can be near water which
is not frozen. The ravines on the slopes of the mountains,
where the perennial streams have worn themselves deep and
rugged channels through the strata, with here an opposing
rock, there a dimpling pool, and in another place a brawling
rapid, with loose stones, overturned trees, ne plus ultra preci-
pices, and all the et ceteras which annoy while they astonish
a guideless stranger in such places, are the favourite haunts
of the dipper. The bird flits before him from stone to stone
chirping, and with a wing so apparently helpless, that he
imagines it unfledged, utterly incapable of gaining the sky,
of which a mere stripe appears over head, and thus " a some-
thing," which he can easily catch and carry home as a
triumph of his victory over the wild. As he gives chase,
with all the confidence of one who drives deer into a tinchal,
or ducks into a decoy, the dipper flits on from stone to stone,
flirting its tail, and ever and anon jerking round, as if half
astonished, half inviting. So onward they fare, till they come
to a bolder and tougher stratum which has obstructed the
stream, but at the same time given it fall and force to scoop out
a pool below, which, though it boils where the cascade plunges
(or rather where it rises again), is placid compared with the
brawlings that have been passed. The water merely laves a
beach of clean pebbles ; the rocks on the other side are " sky
high," without footing even for a bird ; and the breast, over
which the water dashes, seems too high for a thing so hopping
and badly winged. The bird halts on the beach ; and the
sportsman rushes forward hat in hand to the capture ; but the
wet stones are treacherous, endlong he falls, dips himself,
and, rising, sees the hat which was to capture the bird whirling
round and round in the eddies. The bird, too, has vanished —
it is "a sprite" to wile him into peril. But it soon "bobs"
to the surface, at the lower end of the pool on the other side,
with its feathers dry without any shaking off of the water,
and, leaping first on one stone and then another, it descends
the ravine with the same nonchalance that it ascended. To

284 INSECTIVORA.

recover the hat is a much more arduous matter than to lose
the bird ; but that, too, may be accomplished with one of the
long suckers of hazel which grow from the tangled and gnarled
stool on the bank, though if the hold be not taken warily, and
kept carefully, there may be a second dipping — and yet no
dipper to boast of.

The dipper is, in fact, a very curious bird, and it is more
gratifying to watch the manoeuvres of one, than to be in pos-
session of the bodies or skins of fifty. Its food is water flies,
water larvfe, water insects, worms, and dragon flies, water
beetles, and, in short, a variety of animals and animal mat-
ters found in the waters. The fry of the trout and salmon,
while still in their cradle pools, numerous as motes in the
sun, and each not an inch long, form a supply for it, and its
young while these are in the nest. Nor is it at all chary of
the nests of the fishes,— of those nests under the sand and
gravel, each containing thousands, to form and fill which the
fish ascend as far as they can by the help of the autumnal
floods, and the nests (or rather " plantations") of young sprout
up in the spring, like young onions in a garden. While the
water is unfrozen the sun acts upon these, and they pass
through their stages ; so that while the thrushes, with which
the dipper has sometimes been associated in systems, are
frozen out on land, the dipper feasts in plenty under the
water.

The dipper catches part of its food standing on land, and
some even on the wing, as well as floating on the surface
of the water ; but it also catches a considerable part under
the water, and the water is its retreat from terrestrial danger.
It cannot skim the water so well as if its feet were webbed.
Wings, though they help a web-footed bird in running along
the water, as may be seen in the case of a duck or goose, are
of less use for progressive motion along the surface, if there
are not webbed feet to act as fulcra. But the dipper walks
into the water, or lights on it from the wing, and in either way
gets under the surface, and rises, descends, moves laterally, or
appears to walk (actually does walk) along the bottom ; in

THE DIPPER. 285

short, has almost the same command of itself in that singular
element for feathers, as other birds have in the air.

A question has been raised (I do not say among* " those out
o' their wits," because there are " impossible cases" in that
problem), how the dipper can contrive to keep "beneath a
fluid so infinitely more dense than itself." That is a strange
use of the word " infinitely," unless infinitely small be meant.
An owl to an owl's bulk of air, is a stone to a pound, as com-
pared with the dipper's bulk of water to the dipper ; and if
birds rise and descend in the air at pleasure, by the motions
of their wings, it is only i-eversing those motions to enable
them to descend or keep themselves down in water. The
compression of three feet of water is nearly two pounds and a
half on the inch of the feathers, and that, when they are
unruffled, as they ai*e in the dipper, will bring them to very
nearly the specific gravity of water. The difference of specific
gravity between the bird and the water is indeed so trifling,
that very little effort suffices to move it in any direction, up-
wards, downwards, or laterally. Birds do not fly upon the
principle of specific levity, as with equal wings the heavy bird
flies best ; they fly because they strike the air more forcibly
in the opposite direction to that in which they wish to go,
and, under water, the dipper does just the same : if it wishes
to go down, it strikes upward the wings and tail ; if to come
up, it does just the reverse. The only difference is, that the
wings are held "recovered," as running birds use them, and that
gravitation has even less to do in the matter than in flying-.
Any one who has ever seen a dipper under water, or has the
slightest knowledge of the mere elements of mechanics, can
understand the whole matter in an instant. The dipper is,
indeed, often adduced as an instance of the beautiful simplicity
of animal mechanics. The curious habits of the bird will per-
haps be an excuse for this digression, which, after all, is more
apparent than real.

From its not being solely dependent upon atmospherical
temperature for its food, the dipper is, considering the upland
character of its haunts, really an early bird. It sings in

286 INSECTIVORA..

January, and its note, which is very sweet and peculiarly
varied, may be heard before the frost has relented on the
banks between which the stream of its habitation runs.

The nest is also begun early in the season, and considerable
labour and ingenuity are bestowed upon it. It is large for the
size of the bird, formed of such materials as the ravine or
other banks of the stream furnish, covered over with a sort of
dome, and having an opening in the side. It is usually placed
but a little above the highest level of the water, and the water
is generally high from the spring rains and floods about the
time that it is building. The angle between two fragments of
stone, or between an old root and the bank, is no uncommon
place for it. Externally it is generally of moss, which the
humidity of the place keeps partially green, so that it looks
like one of the natural mossy tufts ; internally it is lined with
more dry matters — leaves or fibres, as the situation may best
afford. The first brood is fledged in May; but as the birds
have a perennial pasture, they have two or three in the course
of the season. The eggs are not more than five, and of a
beautiful white. [There are, no doubt, exceptions ; but the
eggs of many birds partake of the colour which the breast of
the male has in the breeding season.] The young dippers
grow fast, are great feeders, and are incessantly chirping in
the nest, in the absence of the parent birds. It does not ap-
pear that the dipper inhabits situations so high as that the
running waters are liable to be frozen over in ordinary sea-
sons, though it comes farther down in the winter, — not to the
wide and slow rivers, however, for these are apt to be close,
while the brawling ones are clear. A pair of dippers with
their nest are given in the vignette to this volume.

THE TITLING. [Accentor.)

There is one species of this genus a resident British bird,
and a very common and familiar one — the "hedge-sparrow,"
" hedge-warbler," or dunnock (accentor modularis). It is
neither a sparrow nor a warbler, and it is certainly not the

THE TITLING. 287

only " dun-coloured" bird in the country ; so that titling
is the least exceptionable name, and it also partly expresses
the common cry of the bird, which is teet, sounded short.

The word " tit" means " little," and is used as part of the
names of some other birds, as tit-xmce, tit-larks ; but it is
applicable pre-eminently to the bird under consideration, not
on account of its diminutive size, for, leaving the tail out of
the estimate, it is as large and heavy, and, from its thicker
plumage, it appears a larger bird than the wagtail ; but be-
cause of a very frequent habit, or rather, perhaps, misfortune.
The nest of the titling is one of those which the cuckoo
chooses for depositing its exposed egg. It shares that burden
with some other birds, especially with the meadow-pipit,
which has, on that account, been also called the " tit," or
" tit-lark." Both birds follow the cuckoo : it may be some-
times from hostility, and sometimes in the character of foster*
mothers ; at all events, they do it voluntarily, and often
blithely. It is the small following the great ; and " the cuckoo
and the titling," or, better still, from the double meaning of
the first name, " the yowk and titling" of the Scotch, has be-
come not an uncharacteristic and, in some instances, a very
biting expression for the little of mankind dancing a sense-
less and thankless attendance on the great.

In form, the titling has some resemblance to the red-
breast, only it is larger, more lumpy, and not nearly so
energetic in its expression, or so lively in its motions. Its
habits are also a good deal similar to those of the red-breast ;
it comes about the farm-yards and cottages, and into the gar-
dens and shrubberies, in the inclement season, not in flocks,
but hopping about singly, and picking up any food, whether
animal or vegetable, it may find. In these gloomy times, it
utters its peevish cry with an apparent feeling of suffering and
desolation. If the weather is at all favourable, these birds
begin to sing about the middle of January, and by the middle
of February they pair, and retire to a greater distance, though
not so completely into the depth of the woods as the red-
breasts. Both birds labour at the nest, which is composed

288 1NSECTIV0RA.

externally of moss and vegetable fibres, and lined internally
with hair. (Birds that line their nests with long hairs, do
not build in the depth of large forests.) The nest is at no great
elevation, but it is in general hidden among sticks, or in a
thick bush or close hedge. The external part is rather loose,
like a natural tuft of green moss : but the interior is more
elaborately worked, the hairs being interwoven with each
other ; and the friction of the bird and eggs during the pro-
cess of incubation, produces a sort of felting, which very little
action will produce in hairs interlaced with each other. It
has, very naturally, no doubt, occurred to some who have
mentioned this bird, that the internal part of the nest is put
together with paste — (as some books are, and, of course, that
the materials are obtained with scissors,) — which is a process
to which magpies will resort, though, instead of paste, they are
apt to daub with more vulgar mortar, as the manner of some
is — among ourselves. The nest, laborious as the construction
of it is, is generally finished by the end of March, and the
depositing of the eggs requires only four or five days ; so that
the first brood in the south of England would be too early
for the cuckoo ; but probably there is a second brood there,
and in the same nest. Farther to the north, the cuckoo is
said to prefer the nests of birds that build later.

The colours of the titling are sober ; the upper part is
brown, relieved with ash colour on the head and neck, and
with rust colour, or reddish brown ; the second coverts of the
wings tipped with white ; quills and tail feathers blackish
brown, margined with red brown ; sides of the neck, throat,
and breast, bluish grey ; the rest of the under part greyish
white. Female with the head more grey, and spotted with
brown ; the colours on the other parts less bright. The song
is continued for a considerable time in the winter quarters of
the birds, as they do not formally begin the construction of
their nests, during which they have little time for singing, till
the weather is somewhat settled. They do not return to the
neighbourhood of houses so soon as the red-breasts, so that
their song is not so frequently heard in the autumn.

pipits. 289

Another species, the Alpine accentor, grey above, with
brown spots, has occurred in England ; but it is comparatively

pipits. (Anthus.)

If the natural locality of the birds could be strictly adhered
to, the titling would lead to the red-breast and the wren,
which are our only sylvan warblers that remain the whole
year, and the pipits would follow them, as partaking partly
of the characters of the insectivorous birds, and partly of those
of the lark ; but there is an interesting race of strangers that
come in, partaking of the characters of our resident warblers ;
and as these, though strangers when they come to us in the
spring, are really native birds, inasmuch as they are hatched in
the country, we must alter the arrangement of those birds which
are suited to all our seasons, in order to deal as shortly as
possible with these most interesting prodigals, which leave us
in the autumn, to return to the feast in our renovated fields
and groves in the summer. We shall therefore very briefly
notice the pipits.

Their general characters are more decidedly insectivorous.
The bill a little conical at the base, but awl-shaped at the
point, with a keel and slight notch on the upper mandible,
and much more slender and produced than that of the grami-
nivorous birds. The wings are blunt; the feet well adapted
for running, but not having the hind toes and the claws
(which are curved) so much produced as the larks, they are
not so well fitted for running over long herbage. They nestle
on the ground, but sometimes use hair for the lining of their
nests, which is seldom, if ever, done by the larks, with which
they have been confounded. The plumage of the old birds
changes after the breeding season, so as to resemble that of the
young, but the change is not very striking. There are three
of them ; two resident, and one migrant.

vol. i. 2 c

290 INSECTIVOKA.

the meadow-pipit. {Anthus pratensis.)

This bird, which is a resident, might, with as much pro-
priety, be called the moor-pipit, or the marsh-pipit, for it is
found abundantly in places so upland and naked, that hardly
any other bird will resort to them. In summer, it frequents
the naked places of the moors, where it nestles in the tufts
of grass, and picks up worms and insects for itself and its
young ; in winter it comes down, but still prefers marshy
places. Its colour is very sober, and its appearance is as poor
as its pasture, while its short and complaining note tends to
deepen the impression.

The length of the meadow-pipit is rather less than six
inches. The prevailing colours are dark olive brown, with a
slight greenish tinge on the upper part, and dull brownish
white on the under, with a pale reddish tinge on the breast of
the male. The markings above are dull greyish white round
the eyes and on the ear coverts, and lighter margins to the
feathers on the back, and scapulars ; those on the under part
have indistinct blotches of greenish brown, two of which form
obscure lines from the gape down to the sides of the neck.
Wings very dark brown with dull white margins to the lesser
coverts, tail the same, with a white margin on each exterior
feather, and a few white spots at the end.

Contrary to the usual habit of birds, the meadow-pipit is
more gay in its winter than in its summer plumage. The sides
of the feathers above become olive green after the moult, and
the under part acquires a yellowish hue.

The moult takes place in the higher and more retired situa-
tions in which the birds nestle, and the new plumage, and
plumage of the young, which are very like each other, as also
are the sexes at that time, and during the early part of the
winter, and the birds come to the lower pastures,"5 turnip
fields, and sometimes but more rarely to the stubble land,
in small flocks, in September and October. At these times,
they generally roost on the ground, not so close together as

THE MEADOW-PIPIT. 291

some of the other species that have that habit ; and as they are
different in colour from the more solitary birds that are seen in
the spring, and also fly differently, they are a little perplexing
to those who do not attend to their annual changes.

In the autumn they have only their common flight, which is
performed by jerks, in the course of which the birds rise and
fall, and continue uttering their feeble and complaining "peek."
In the course of the winter they gradually acquire more of
that brown which may be regarded as the field colour of
British birds, and the shades of which vary from dry sand
through all the earth-tints to humid peat ; and Avith the colour
(which however is duller than in the true larks) they acquire
something of the speckling of the larks ; and though they do
not soar with the majesty or sing with the power of the lark,
they do mount up in a manner different from that which they
display at other seasons, and they have not an unpleasant
though a feeble song. Their motion in ascending is a curious
combination of leaping and fluttering, the wings being perpe-
tually in motion to prevent that descent after the stroke which
is so conspicuous in their common flight. The labour of as-
cending, though they do not go very high, appears to be enough
for them without the effort of voice ; and therefore they do not
sing till they have got to the top of their height, or rather are
on the descent, which is performed in an easy sliding manner,
and sometimes perpendicular.

That ascent and song are commenced early, as early as
those of the lark ;°but they cannot be mistaken for each
other ; and besides, the pipit sometimes lights on a hedge,
the sky-lark never ; the larks remain over the rich fields,
the pipits retire to the wilds, and continue their song there.
The nest is on the ground in a tuft, the eggs are never more
than six, sometimes light and sometimes dark brown with
reddish brown specks. The bird runs swiftly, catches insects
and worms readily, and is very industrious in the feeding of
its own young ; and also in feeding the young cuckoo, which,
it is said, is often committed to its care. There is one point
in the curiously anomalous history of the cuckoo, which has

292 IXSECT1Y0KA.

not been so well authenticated as the rest (and these may be
the exceptions, not the rule, as they are not evidence of one to
ten thousand of the cases) ; and that is, whether the male falls
into the same dupery as the female, and aids in rearing the
cuckoo. The domestic cock scorns to assist in rearing a
brood of ducklings even when they have been hatched by his
favourite hen ; and it Mould be curious to ascertain whether
the males of those birds that hatch and feed the cuckoo, are
equally zealous for the honour of their species. But the point
can be settled by observation only — experiment takes animals
out of nature ; and so there is an end to all legitimate conclu-
sion. The meadow-pipit is the titling in many places.

the shore-pipit. (Anthus aquaticus.)

The shore-pipit is considerably larger than the meadow
species. It is seven inches long, nearly a foot in the stretch
of the wings, and weighs about seven drachms, and the upper
part is without the greenish tinge, and the under has a brace
of dull ochre yellow. The breast also is browner, the vent
whiter, and the bill is yellow at the base. The hind claw is
also more curved and shorter in proportion.

This bird, as its name imports, inhabits the sea shores,
especially where there are beaches of sand or mud, from
which the tide recedes to some distance, and where there are
low rocks, or benty downs, where it can nestle. In those
situations it is very plentiful, though always solitary. It
finds the principal part of its food at and within the high-
water mark ; but never in the water, except in those shallow
pools which it can easily wade. It has thus a perennial
pasture like the clipper in the brawling rivers ; and so does
not quit it for any other haunt, during any time of the year.
Its manners, its song in spring, and its chirp at all times,
bear a very close resemblance to those of the last species. It
runs with great ease along the sand, picking up its food ; and
when alarmed, it hops onward with a bouncing flight. In
the early part of the season, when most of the shore birds

THE TREE-PIPIT. 293

have gone inland to nestle, and the sea birds also have gone
to their favourite rocks and islands, the pipit is almost the
only winged creature that is met with upon long stretches of
beach ; and in passing along during a May mist, when the sea
is hissing unseen on the one hand, and the land obscured on
the other, the cry of the pipit adds not a little to the melan-
choly of the scene ; but on the other hand, it is pleasant to see
so small a bird " bobbing" about and braving the storm in the
winter. As the haunt of the shore-pipit changes less in tem-
perature with the seasons than that of most birds, the seasonal
changes of its plumage are not so considerable. The nest is
formed of bents, or other plants growing near the sea, and
lined with finer fibres, or with hair, if its haunts are such that
that substance is within its reach. The eggs are not more
than five, yellowish grey with reddish brown spots, especially
at the thick ends ; but there are, from the constant supply of
food, and the uniformity of the temperature, two broods or
more in the course of the year. The shore-pipit does not fre-
quent the wild and precipitous parts of the coast, neither is it
ever observed at any considerable distance from the sea.

the tree-pipit. (Anthus arboreus.)

The tree-pipit is so like the meadow one, both in the tints
of its colours, and in the marking and distribution, that if
they are seen alternately it is not easy to tell the one from
the other. But if seen together, they are at once distinguish-
able. The tree-pipit is larger than the other, and heavier ;
but it is more compactly feathered, and more slender at the
shoulders (the last of these is, by the way, no bad distin-
guishing mark between the resident and migratory birds — the
last always appearing the more slender and elegant), flatter
in the head, more produced in the bill, and gayer in the tint
on the under part. The claw on the hinder toe is also much
shorter, and more crooked, so that the foot is fully as well
adapted for perching as for walking, and much better than for
walking on grassy surfaces.

2c 2

294 I^SECTITOKA.

The tree-pipit is a summer migrant, arriving in May, and
taking its departure in September. Its locality is intermediate
between those of the other pipits, more inland than the
shores, and less upland than the wilds. It frequents the rich
country ; but more on the margin of the woodland than that
of the open wild. It has in consequence some resemblance
in its habits to the sylvan warblers upon whose domain it
borders, and with which it makes its appearance and takes its
departure.

Its single cry, though " peeking," is more musical and less
melancholy than that of the other pipits, and its song is also
sweeter, and being warbled from a greater elevation, and in
places that are more frequented, it is more generally heard.
It ascends with the single cry, and sings either perched on
the top of a tree, or whilst it is descending. It generally if
not always nestles upon the ground, constructs its nest of
vegetable fibres, and lines it Avith finer fibres and hair. But
it never builds far from trees ; and when the male is in song
he generally makes use of a tree as an intermediate station
both in rising into the air, and in descending to the ground.
By successive leaps, he gains the top of the tree, and after
having rested there for a little, he leaps higher into the air
in a similar manner, and chirping as he leaps. When he
has gained the top of his ascent (which is not very lofty), he
begins his song, and while uttering it, he slides down the air
with expanded wing, and tail erected and spread, till he again
reaches the tree, where he pauses a little, and then descends
to the ground in the same manner. Many of the weak-
winged birds that feed chiefly upon the ground have the
same habit of getting to a height, and resting a little there
before they take their flight from place to place ; but there is
perhaps none in which it is so marked as in the tree-pipit.
That habit does not extend to birds that find their food in
trees, but only to those which have the feet better adapted
for walking than for perching. That is the case with the tree-
pipit. It can walk or run very easily, and at the same time-
pick up its food ; but when it perches, it can do little else than

weens. 295

balance itself; and those birds which feed in trees have gene-
rally just as little command of themselves on the ground.

The part of a tree on which a bird perches is not a bad
means of ascertaining whether it be a surface bird or a tree
bird. Surface birds, even when they flock, so as to cover the
whole top of the tree, always perch on the top or the topmost
part, while tree birds hop into the tree and leap about from
one twig to another. The sparrow and the red-breast are
familiar, though not the most striking, illustrations. The
sparrow merely rests in the leafless tree in winter, the red-
breast hops about in it as if quite at home. That habit is well
worth attending to, especially in the winter, when both tree
and surface birds come near the houses, and perch on the leaf-
less trees.

Richard's pipit, {A. Richardi,)

Has been found in England. It has the tarsi and the hind
claw long, and the bill strong. Upper part brown with pale
edges ; under part, white.

The birds popularly called wrens, have so few appearances
in common that they can hardly be described as a tribe, and
therefore they cannot be classed according to their structure.
But, leaving out a few migrants which are sometimes called
wrens, and including the red-breast, to which the name
" wren" is never given, a popular tribe, founded on habits,
though not in appearance, might be instituted and described.
It is not our intention to interfere with names or with classes,
but merely to place in juxta-position such birds as have their
habits so much alike, that the description of the one may in
part serve for the other, and thus save repetition.

The birds which we would include in this popular section,
are the red-breast, the common wren, the golden-crested
wren, and the fiery '-crested wren, more recently added to the

296 INSECTIVOKA.

British Fauna. We do not call them wrens, or hare the
slightest wish that any body should call them so, but there is a
family likeness among them, as well as a similarity in some of
their leading habits ; and, which is not a little remarkable,
these are more striking between the common wren and the
red-breast, than between the common wren and those other
birds that are called wrens. So much so, indeed, that popular
opinion, which in such cases is always founded upon observa-
tion— habitual and without bias — has " time out of mind"
associated Robin Red-breast and Kitty Wren, as husband and
wife.

They are both resident even in the very coldest parts of the
country ; they both breed in retirement, for though the wren
sometimes builds under the eaves of thatched houses, it never
does so if there are plantations near, thick with under-
wood and soft with moss ; and both come close to the dwelling
of man in the winter, though the red-breast, which is by far
the most familiar at that season, retires to the greatest distance
in the summer. Thus the red-breast so far partakes of the
character of the warblers (with which it is often associated),
that is, more of a woodland and a migratory bird, only it does
not emigrate from the country, or appear much to change its
latitude, with the seasons.

As both of this species sing very sweetly though not loud,
and very early when there are few other notes, and some-
times when the frozen earth rings back again even to their
small voices, they are among the most delightful of our little
birds, especially in those parts of the country to which the
summer warblers come sparingly, or not at all. The golden-
crested wren, Avhich is more a " bark bird" than the others,
does not with us so often leave its native forests, or seek the
shelter and subsistence that are found near the dwellings of
men ; but as it is without that habit as a resource, it migrates
to greater distances, and far more completely during very
violent storms.

Violent storms, indeed, often carry to great distances and
in vast numbers birds, which in ordinary seasons can hardly

THE COMMON WEEN. 297

be said to migrate, and that is perhaps more the case with
the dwellers in the northern forests. In those cases they are
literally driven southward or obliquely, as the wind may set ;
and not only that, but as the wind often changes from the
northern to the southern half of the horizon in the course
of a winter storm, especially one on the eastern coast
of Britain, and when it comes near to the middle lati-
tude, by the cold air from Holland and the northern part of
Belgium, " taking the Norwain blast in its wane," the birds
are often caught, exhausted in the eddy, and whelmed in the
sea, or cast, fatigued and perishing, on the coast between
St. Abb's Head and the Spurn. That happens, however j
only when the snow-drift gives note of its coming, in the
intensity of cold ; for if it break at once, the birds remain in
their arctic dwellings, and perish by thousands there. The
golden-crested wren is one of those which suffer much in that
way.

the common wren. {Troglodytes vulgaris.)

The wren is not literally a " dweller in caves," as troglo-
dytes imports, but it is a hideling, both in its nidification and
in its habits. In winter it comes near the house, and even
when snow lies thick upon the ground it may be seen hop-
ping about under the plants, in the garden or the shrubbery.
If there is a pile of wood which has lain for some time, and
is not snowed over, it may be seen on the top when the sun
comes out, or the day is otherwise at the brightest, but it
hops under cover the instant that it is approached. The
farm-yard is also a favourite place with it in severe weather,
and there it will seek its food very confidently among the
domestic poultry and domestic animals. If there are mud
walls, very thick hedges, or any other deep cover near the
house, it makes that its habitation all the year round, and
seeks shelter, in very severe weather, in the same nest in
which it has reared its brood. If the weather is more than
ordinarily severe, numbers will get into the same shelter, and

298

IXSECT1V0KA.

they are often found chilled to death by the cold or suffo-
cated by the snow. At those times, and indeed soon after
the young are reared, there does not appear to be any society
among wrens. Not that they evince the slightest hostility
to each other, but they are quite passive till the heat of the
weather puts them in mind of the labours of the season : and
very little heat suffices ; for even when the frost is still seen,
if the mid-day sun gleam out warmly, the wren will chant his
song; and even when the sky is suddenly overcast, he will
continue his notes till the snow drive him into some hiding-
place.

Considering the diminutive size of the wren, its song is
loud, and it is clear and very sweetly modulated ; so that,
upon first hearing it, one has some scepticism of its being
the song of so tiny a musician. It is more clear and heard
farther than the song of the red-breast, though that too is a
peculiarly agreeable one, as the young birds come to the
vicinity of houses, and renew it as early as they are in full
plumage, which is about \ the middle or towards the end of
September. The song of the wren is not so continuous, but
in peculiarly favourable situations and weathers it may be
heard as early as Christmas, or earlier. It is, however, liable
to be again interrupted, more especially in those middle lati-
tudes of Britain, where, in the inland places, heavy falls of
snow often occur after the new year, and remain till the end
of March. There is reason to believe that, owing to culture,
drainage, and planting, those falls will not hereafter be so
frequent as they have been ; but there are remembered in-
stances in which the wren sang in the early part of January,
and not again till the middle of April ; though, in ordinary
seasons, the birds pair in February, and begin their nests in
March.

The nest is constructed with much care and neatness, but
varied in its materials, and also a little in its form, with the
place. Moss, lichen, or withered grass, is the external ma-
terial, intermixed with wool, if the place afford it. The lining
is hair or feathers, according as the one or the other is most

THE COMMON WREN. 299

easily procured. The nest generally has a dome-covering,
formed by the birds ; but if there is a natural one, they avail
themselves of it, and under the lower branches of " back-
going Scotch firs," which are generally rough and hoary with
lichen, the nest may be found, constructed of moss, with a
lichen roof. The entrance is always at the side, and the
approach such that the bird does not immediately enter the
nest or leave it. So much has been written on the subject of
wrens' nests, that one would be almost tempted to believe that
the witches had been consulted as architects ; but when
there are fifty conjectures to one fact, any body may make
descriptions.

The eggs, where the birds are undisturbed, are seldom
fewer than six or more than eight ; they are of a pure white
colour, mottled with small reddish specks. The young return
to lodge in the nest for some time after they are fledged ; and
it is said, that while the female is performing the incubation,
the male makes a few clumsily-constructed nests for the
accommodation of the brood after they disperse too widely for
returning to that in which they are hatched. That would be
curious, if true ; but it wants confirmation : and birds are sub-
ject to so many casualties in the breeding time, and they are so
liable to abandon half-constructed nests, that finding a young
wren in such a nest would be no evidence. Wrens nestle in
holes and hiding-places at almost all seasons.

The wren is a very small bird, about four inches and a
quarter long, six and a quarter in the extent of the wings, and
rather less than three drachms in weight. The prevailing
colour is reddish brown, darker above and lighter on the under
part. The quills and tail feathers are dusky brown, the former
spotted on their outer webs and the latter barred with reddish
brown. The bill is nearly the same colour as the dark part of
the quills ; and the feet, and also a streak over the eye, are
pale brown. The bill is rather long, very slender, and a little
curved. It has an insect-catching bill ; and the bird catches
the smaller ones with great quickness, either when they pass
or by darting at them.

300 INSECTIVORA.

In form, the wren has some resemblance to the dipper ; it is
short and dumpy, and wears the tail, which though short is
very strong for the size of the bird, in an erect posture. That
structure of tail enables it to balance itself, with the centre of
gravity before the points of support ; and thus it can drop
down, which is its most important motion, with considerable
celerity.

THE RED-BREAST. [Sylvia ruUcola.)

The red-breast, though it associates more familiarly with
men than almost any other free bird, is really a native of the
woods. It is unnecessary to describe the red-breast, as every
body knows it. It is about an inch and a half larger, and two
inches and a half more extensive in the wings, than the wren ;
but though rather a thick-looking bird, it is not so weighty in
proportion to its length, as that proportion (the cubic of
the lengths) would give three quarters of an ounce, while the
bird weighs little more than half an ounce. The bill is short,
nearly straight, thick and broad at the base, and strong for the
size of the bird. Forehead, sides of the neck and breast, red-
dish or orange, with grey at the lateral margins ; the upper
part alone intermediate between green and brown, and with
a tinge of yellow ; belly and vent, dull white ; wings and
tail, dark greenish grey, with a reddish brown hue on the
middle coverts of the wings. The breast of the female is dull
yellowish brown ; and the young birds are dull brownish
green, spotted with reddish brown, and want the orange red
on the breast.

Though it has sometimes been so stated, it does not appear
that the red-breast is any where a migrant ; and there is no
reason to believe that it is an emigrant in any part of Britain,
though in countries where the districts suited to its winter and
summer habits run in larger tracts, as they do on many parts
of the continent, it may range much farther in the course of
the year than it does with us. Most birds that are migratory
are also social, at least when they are preparing for their

THE RED-BREAST. 301

southward flight; but the red-breast, though very familiar
with man, is shy with all little birds, even those of its own
species, and also disposed to be pugnacious. It does not
appear that they battle for their mates ; they are too wary and
solitary even for that ; but when they have retired to the
breeding places, and begun their nests, they " keep their
ground" with much resolution.

The nest is on the ground, at the roots of trees, and in
other concealed places, formed of the same materials as the
nest of the wren, but not so elaborately put together, and
without a dome to the nest. If, however, there is not a natu-
ral concealment of foliage, the birds contrive to form an artifi-
cial one of dry leaves, under which they may reach the nest
without the precise spot being known ; and when the dam
leaves her eggs, she sometimes covers them in the same man-
ner, so that the strewing of leaves mentioned in the old
ballad of "the babes in the wood," is true to the habits of the
red-breast. Red-breasts, like wrens, often nestle near houses ;
but, from the caution with which they approach and leave the
nest, it is rarely seen in proportion to the numbers of the birds.
The eggs are yellowish grey, mottled with chestnut colour,
and rarely exceed seven.

The red-breast is not only a very interesting bird, but it is
also an exceedingly useful one about gardens, orchards, and
shrubberies, and plantations near houses generally. The
young birds come first, because they are soonest in condition,
their plumage not being changed by a moult, but ripening into
its tints, as is the case with many young birds which assume
a new livery in the course of their first winter. Thus they
arrive in time to capture myriads of insects, when these are
alighting to deposit their eggs on the embryo buds ; and
they continue that labour as long as there is a fly to be found ;
and when the flies are gone, they attack the eggs. It is
highly probable that the common house-fly is the first object
that attracts them so near to houses, though they come for
crumbs, or any thing eatable that they can pick up, when the
severe weather sets in.

VOL. I. 2 1)

302 INSECTIVORA.

They also render considerable service in the capture of
worms. Young earthworms are very plentiful in the earlier
months of the autumn ; and when the weather is humid, they
come out in vast numbers, and are carefully watched by the
red-breasts. They approach the worms, or indeed any prey
that is on the ground, by very light and rapid hops ; and
when they have got within their distance, they pounce on it
with great certainty. The worm is seized by the head and
beaten against a stone or the hard ground, till all the earthy-
matter in the canal is discharged, before it is eaten.

By the time that the red-breasts come into the shrubberies
and gardens in the autumn, the flies have become rather dull
and heavy in their flight ; and thus the birds can pounce upon
them with not much more difficulty than they find with the
worms, whose sense is so acute, that they would escape even
at the concussion produced by a red-breast, if it were to
alight close beside them from the wing. But in summer, the
capture of flies is a little more arduous; and when the bird
observes one upon a leaf, it hovers round and round, something
in the same way that a butterfly does round a flower, till it
has got near enough for making its pounce. At that time,
also, worms form a considerable part of the prey ; and as the
young birds are rather numerous and grow fast, the labour of
the old ones is incessant. Though shy to his neighbours, the
male is very attentive to his mate, never goes to any great
distance, and continues to encourage her with his song during
the whole period of incubation.

THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. (ReguluS auricCtpilluS .)

A figure of the golden-crested wren, the male in full plu-
mage, is given on the opposite plate, on a scale of one third
of the natural dimensions. The female has the colours of the
crest paler, and a greenish tinge over the whole body. It is
rather shorter than the common wren, though a little longer
in proportion in the wings, and only about half the weight,
being less than a drachm and a half. It is the smallest of

THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WEEN. 303 .

British birds, but it is one of the most active, and one which
endures the winter better than very many larger birds. It is a
forest bird, nestling in trees, residing on them, and not pay-
ing an annual visit to the neighbourhood of houses, like the
common wren. Its bill is very slender, straight, and awl-
shaped ; and it is presumed that, at all seasons, it feeds upon
insects. Indeed, there is little vegetable food fitted for so
small a bird in the places which it chiefly inhabits.

It is found in all wooded parts of the country, rather
plentifully in most places, and very much so in the larger
pine forests, which are its favourite haunts, though it is not
confined to them. But it is so small, generally so far from the
ground, and always so quick in its motions, that it is not
easily seen, and never long at a time. It is continually hunt-
ing both on the rough bark of the boles and main branches
and on the twigs ; but it appears to prefer the latter. The
command which these little birds have of themselves in the
trees, is really astonishing. They whisk about more like
meteors than like beings of solid matter. They are now on
this side, now on that ; now above the twig, now hanging
inverted under it — the body never at rest, and the head having
generally an additional motion.

The male sings early, though the time of the year of course
varies with the season. In warm situations it sings in Febru-
ary, and the young are sometimes fledged in April. The nest
is not very easily discovered, as it is always in a thick branch
if in a pine forest, and if in other trees it is in a closely-tufted
place, or between ivy and the bole, where that exists. The
birds enter to the nest under the branch ; but they enter the
nest itself at the upper side, as it is never (at least in the pine
forests) covered by a dome, but is in the shape of a cup, very
deep, and neatly constructed ; green moss forms the external
part, and is sometimes interwoven with wool, when that is
within the range of the birds. The interior is very small
feathers, but in considerable numbers, so that the eggs can
hardly be seen. The eggs are numerous, sometimes as many
as ten or eleven, but not much larger than peas. Whether it

304 INSECT1V0BA.

be owing to the number of the brood, the uncertainty of find-
ing a regular supply of food during the early season at which
these little birds begin to breed, or to some other cause which
has not been ascertained, has not been made out ; but it is
true, that more nests and eggs of the golden-crested wren are
left to perish, apparently from the death of the mother, than
of almost any other species of British birds. On that account,
as well as from the number of the birds that die in severe
winters, more especially in the deciduous forests, which do
not afford the same shelter as pines, the increase is by no
means in proportion to the number of eggs. Golden-crested
wrens are also liable to be driven, en masse, from their habi-
tats, by severe winters ; and there are recorded instances of
vast flocks, evidently continental ones, being stranded on our
eastern shores, as well as the native ones being driven from
their northerly haunts with us for an entire season ; or rather
as being swept from those haunts, not to return, but to be
replaced by a fresh colony from the north ; as the birds, in
those cases, re-appear in the autumn — a time at which there is
no northerly migration in our hemisphere.

The birds are, however, so minute, and generally so hidden
among the branches, and shift about so much, that they are
not easily seen even in places where they are abundant. They
are, however, so beautiful and so lively in their action, that
they are well worth looking for. That is best done with a small
pocket telescope, an instrument which no accurate observer
uf the forms and actions of the smaller birds should be with-
out. By its means, the birds may be seen without the least
alarm or disturbance, and all the tints and markings may be
as well made out as if the bird were in the hand, at the same
time that it is showing all its attitudes with that perfect
freedom which alone can bring out its true character. That
applies to all birds, but more especially to those that inhabit
trees, and pass the greater part of their time in hopping from
twig to twig, and seldom come down to the ground, or take
long flights in the air.

THE FIERY-CRESTED WEEN.

305

the fiery-crested wren. {Regulus ignicajpillus.)

This species which, though by no means uncommon on the
continent of Europe, is a very recent addition to the known
birds of the British islands, is resident as well as the other ;
and though it has hitherto been observed only in some parts of
England, as in Cambridgeshire and Sussex, it is in all pro-
bability pretty generally diffused, and may have, in many
instances, been confounded with the former.

The discovery of it as a British bird is in itself rather a
curious matter, as the honour of it belongs to a cat, in the
possession of a gentleman at SwafFham. Puss and her
master are both fond of birds, though for different reasons,
no doubt ; but puss studies her master's interest as well as
her own, and affords another proof that the feline race are,
by a little attention, fit for other purposes than mere mousing.
The old prejudice that " cats are attached to places only,"
which, though a vulgar prejudice, is not of popular origin,
meets with contradiction every day. One would not formally
lay it down as a maxim, though in truth it has very much the
force of one, that " the more carnivorous any animal is, it is
the more gentle and docile if you only keep its hunger satis-
fied." Even among men, beef-eaters are proverbially good-
tempered, if they get their beef; and parched lentils and
potatoes certainly raise the malignant and murderous pas-
sions more than beef-steaks or black-puddings, in spite of
the poetical allegation, that " he who feeds on blood must be
cruel."

Well, the cat in question is a very notable bird-catcher.
At first, no doubt, for the supply of her own appetite ; but her
master and she now so well understand each other, that when
she catches a bird she brings it to him. If it suits his purpose,
she is fondled or fed ; and, if not, the bird is returned to her,
and she does with it as she likes. In that way she brought
the fiery-crested wren to her master, a young bird, and just at
the season when the young, if hatched in the country, would

2d2

.306

INSECTIVOKA.

have begun to fly. That afforded a hint, which was followed
up ; the old birds were observed near in the neighbourhood,
and very soon after they were observed near Brighton ; and
altogether there is no room for doubting that they are native
and resident birds.

Hitherto they have not been seen in the northern parts of
the island ; and their history, as a species, is rather too short
for furnishing any satisfactory data as to how they and the
golden-crested species may divide the land. The probability
is, that the fiery-crested is less an upland bird than the other ;
but that is only a probability.

No question that the two species have been often con-
founded, as their size, habits, and general appearance, are very
much alike. But upon a closer examination, the specific
differences appear. The crest, which is golden orange in the
one, is bright fire red in the other. The golden-crest has one
black streak along the margin of the crest ; the fiery-crest has
three, alternating with two white ones. The yellow on the
shoulders of the golden-crest has a greenish tinge ; that on the
fiery-crest is pure, or inclining to orange. The bill of the
fiery-crest is rather stronger and broader at the base, and the
size of the birds is a shade larger. The manners and habits of
the two are so nearly the same, that in discriminating them it
is necessary to pay particular attention to the tints of the
crests, and especially to the stripes above the eye. The two
last-mentioned species are the " pets" among our resident
forest birds ; and it will be a pleasing office to " settle the
boundaries" between them, and find out the portion of the
country which the newly-discovered ones can claim as their
rightful heritage ; and if the observations necessary for that
purpose are properly carried on, fresh discoveries may be
confidently expected, as the birds in question are so minute,
that where they are found no others are likely to be passed
over.

THE DARTFORI) WARBLER, 307

the dartford warbler. {Sylvia Provincialis.)

The Dartford warbler might perhaps more accurately be
called, " the brake warbler ;" as it is not quite correct to
name after one place in England, and that not the place where
it is most frequently seen, a bird which is more abundant in
Spain, Provence, and Italy, than in England. Though gene-
rally classed with the warblers, and resembling them in some
of its characters, it differs in others ; and the points of differ-
ence are certainly more numerous and at least not less striking
than those of agreement.

This bird has been observed only in the southern counties
of England — those that lie southward of the Thames and the
Bristol channel ; but as it has been observed at points widely
distant from each other, and as its immediate haunts and its
habits both tend to concealment, it is probable that the actual
numbers are very great in proportion to those that have been
seen. The birds have been seen only on dry places, in the
neighbourhood of bushes, more especially close furze bushes,
under which they nestle, and through which they glide, with
apparently as much facility, and not much farther from the
ground than mice. Nor are they very unlike mice in colour.
The whole upper part of the body is dark reddish brown, with
dull grey on the cheeks, and a trace of the same on the sides of
the neck ; the throat and breast are brownish red, passing into
deeper on the under part, but with a line of white on the
middle of the belly ; the quills and tail feathers are dusky, re-
lieved with rusty brown on the margins of the webs, except the
tips of the exterior and second feathers of the tail, and part of
the outer webs of the former, which are white ; the bill is pale
yellow at the base, and black at the tip ; the irides and naked
spaces round the eyes reddish yellow ; and the feet dull
yellow. The colour of the female is a little duller ; and the
young have the throat and breast streaked with white, which
gradually wears off as they advance to maturity.

The length is about five inches and a half, or an inch more

308 INSECTITOEA.

than that of the common wren ; but the tail, which is straight
and wedge-shaped, takes up fully half the length, so that the
body is not longer than that of the wren, and it is more
slender ; the extent of the wings is also less, and the whole
bird lighter, being only two drachms and a half. There is
a faint trace of resemblance to the wren in the shape of the
body, but none in the head, neck, and tail. The head is
rounder ; both that and the neck are more darkly feathered,
the bill is less produced and less pointed, and the expression
is not so lively as that of the wren. The form of the head
and tail, as well as the expression of the bird, are however
less like those of the true warblers.

The nest is not placed immediately on the ground, but in
the very thickest part of the bush, which, in furze bushes, is
higher or lower according to age and other circumstances.
The materials of the nest are chiefly vegetable : the withered
spines of the furze, and other small vegetable bodies, some-
times united with a little wool, and lined with the withered
culms of the small hard grasses which grow on the dry
wastes ; but it is rather loose and rude. Indeed, the care
with which it is concealed and sheltered, renders the structure
of the nest a matter of minor importance. The eggs are four
in number, of a greenish colour, marked with olive brown
spots. The nests have been observed only late in the season
(July), but it is possible that these may have been second
broods.

The male often hovers about the bushes, uttering his
chirping song, which is rather feeble and hurried for being
called a genuine warble. The height at which that is done is
inconsiderable ; and from the thickness of the head and neck,
the long tail, and the short and rounded wings, the bird
bears then some resemblance to a large dragon-fly. The
glass must be used in observing it ; for if one venture near,
he instantly drops into the bush, where it is vain to search for
him ; and the alarm note which he then utters, is not very
unlike the cry of some of the field mice. The well-feathered
body, the short wings, and the long tail, of these birds,

THE GRASSKOrPER WAKBLEE, 3C9

enable them to thread their way among the close bushes with
great celerity, whether the sinuosities be vertical or lateral.
Grasshoppers, flies, and the smaller moths, are understood to
be their chief summer food, to which, perhaps, the seeds of
the furze, after they have been softened by lying for some
time on the ground, may be added in the winter, as the birds
do not appear to quit their haunts ; at least, they have been
seen on the furze-clad places as late as Christmas ; and,
though they vanish during very heavy falls of snow, it is pro-
bably only by retiring into the thick bushes, where the seeds
alluded to may supply them with food. At all events, their
structure is not well adapted for long migrations ; and they
do not resort to the neighbourhood of houses during severe
weather.

The Dartford warbler is one of those birds of which the
habits require to be more carefully studied ; and when that
has been done, and an arrangement of birds founded on their
structure, haunts, and habits, comes to be formed, it will pro-
bably be found advisable to drop the name, both parts of
which are calculated to mislead. The white-throat warbler
nestles in a manner somewhat similar; and has some ana-
logous habits, but the form and character of the two birds
are quite different : the shape of the body in the white-throat
is well suited for long flights ; that of the Dartford warbler
is the reverse. Barnes Common is not the worst place in the
vicinity of London to search for these local birds.

THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. (Sylvia locUStelld.)

Though this bird is called a warbler, and has latterly been
classed with the aquatic warblers, it is not, if names and clas-
sifications are to have any meaning, either the one or the
other. It does not warble, or, so far as observation has gone,
utter any sound save a hissing chirp, something similar to
that of the grasshopper or the mole cricket, whence it has
got the name of the former of these insects. Neither is it an
aquatic bird, though it may sometimes be heard in thick

310 INSECTIVORA.

bushes near water. Hedges and brakes are its favourite re-
sorts ; and its nest is usually hidden in the very closest bushes
upon dry places. Its tail is wedge-shaped in the same man-
ner as that of the aquatic warblers ; but the wedged tail is not
an aquatic character, but one which adapts the bird to glide
easily through thick foliage. The dipper, which is much more
aquatic than any of the warblers, as it feeds in the water, has
the tail square ; and the aquatic warblers have their's wedge-
shaped, to adapt them, not to the water, but to the thick
aquatic vegetation in which they chiefly reside. The wood-
peckers, the creeper, and indeed all birds whose habit it is to
thread their way among close twigs or thick foliage, have the
tail wedge-shaped or rounded ; and that gives them the same
facility over birds with forked or square tails, in turning
laterally, that a vessel with a round stern has over one that is
square.

When birds are classed upon any particular character, the
name should apply to the use of that character, otherwise
it either has no meaning or a false one. In some of the books,
the bird under consideration stands classed as a lark, and that
name, which was no doubt given to it from the slight simi-
larity in the mottled plumage on the back, induced some of
the older authors to add also the produced hinder claw of the
lark ; but that claw of the grasshopper bird is short and
crooked, well adapted for perching upon twigs, but not for
walking on the ground. A long straight claw would be as
inconvenient in close bushes as a forked tail ; and no bird
whose habit it is to thread the sprays has either the one or
the other. Even in the larks and pipits, the round or partially
wedged termination of the tail, at once distinguishes the wood
lark, or the tree pipit. The end of the tail and also the tips
of the wings are always good indices to the general haunt.
If the tail is wedge-shaped, the bird is woodland bred, or
rather a bird of the close sprays and bushes, and, in that case,
the wings are rounded ; if the tail is square, the haunt is in
more open places ; and if much forked, it is in the free air,
and the wings are pointed.

THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 311

The grasshopper bird (" the hrakelwpper" would not be an
inappropriate name for it) differs from the aquatic warblers,
and indeed from all the true warblers, in plumage and ex-
pression as well as in haunt and habits. The true warblers,
whether aquatic or sylvan, have the colour on the back entire,
even when there are strong markings on the other parts ; but
the upper part of the grasshopper bird is mottled brown, and
the whole dress has a tinge of that hue which characterizes
the field birds. When all together, however, it is not like any
of them ; but stands alone, in appearance, in voice, and in
habits. There can be no harm in calling it Sylvia, because
that name may include birds of the brake as well as the tall
forest ; but Curruca, which some have used, is not very appro-
priate. Names that have no precise meaning may be used in
any way ; but error is always the consequence of an unskilful
use of significant ones.

The grasshopper bird is about five inches and a half in
length, and rather more than seven inches in the stretch of
the wings. The bill is a little more produced, and passes
more immediately into the line of the forehead than in the
sylvan warblers, but less so than in the aquatic. The bill is
dusky above and dull white at the base of the lower mandible.
The irides are hazel, the legs pale brown, and the claws,
which are strong, sharp, and hooked, of the colour of dark
horn. The upper part has the centres of the feathers dusky,
and the margins brown with the least trace of green, which
brings out each feather distinctly. The tail and primary quills
are the same, a shade darker ; and the middle of the wing
rather lighter, with a faint trace of yellow. The sides of the
neck and the breast are pale yellowish brown, which brings
out the forepart of the closed wing. The colour passes into
greenish white on the belly, and there are a few lines and
spots of pale brown on the vent feathers and under tail
coverts. A dull whitish streak extends from the gape to the
eye ; and there is a gorget of the same colour on the chin
and point of the neck, which is better defined by being mar-
gined with pale brown spots. In the female, the colours

312 INSECTIYOKA.

are duller, and the gorget on the breast is not so well denned.
The fore part is very thickly, and the whole bird very closely,
feathered, presenting no point that can be broken, and no
place that can be easily ruffled, on a forward motion ; so that
the bird slides unhurt through places where birds of different
form and plumage would be torn to pieces. The closest
hedge or brake presents no barrier to it ; so that it slips into
the hedge one knows not where ; and threading along without
stirring a twig, it will apparently in an instant slip out again at
the distance of several yards. It does not often leave its
cover; and one may watch and even beat the brake, hearing it,
but without being able to see either it or its nest, for the nest
is as well hidden, as the bird is expert at hiding. In position,
the nest is very similar to that of the Dartford warbler (or
rather the " furze warbler," as that leads one to its haunts,
and it is not met with in Dartford) ; but as it inhabits wilder
places, the materials are not quite the same. In the hedges
and bramble brakes, the materials are the withered stems of
trailing plants ; and in furze bushes, where those plants are
not so abundant, they are more mossy. The eggs are four
or five, of a bluish white, with very obscure rust-coloured
mottlings.

The males arrive on the south coast of England about the
middle of April, and gradually proceed to distribute them-
selves over the lowland and warmer parts of the country,
though they are always most numerous in the counties on the
south. That is the best time for seeing them, as they then
perch on the tops of the brakes and hedges, and utter their
cricket cry, which is their only song of love. When the
females arrive, and the nest-building begins, there is no more
perching on the top ; but the cry continues till about the
beginning of August ; and as the moult is probably completed
in that month, the buds may take their leave of us about the
beginning of September.

That the whole of our summer visitants moult in the very
hottest month of the year, is a point which, duly worked out,
would throw much light on many of the habits of birds, and

WARBLERS. 313

more especially upon the relation between the economy of nests
and the progress of plumijication. I would offer a few hints,
but one of our ablest practical physiologists, whose demonstra-
tions, I am proud to say, have in many instances verified con-
jectures at which I had previously arrived by virtual analysis,
has taken up and demonstrated the same view, but has not yet
published it ; so that I can only recommend the reader to
notice the connexion between temperature and the growth of
feathers, and also the influence which light has upon eggs.
There is a corroborative circumstance in the human body : the
hair and nails grow faster when the body is heated, as in fever,
than when it is cool.

The obscurity to the sight, and the very peculiar note of
the grasshopper bird, give it very considerable interest ; and
the resemblance which the note has to the sounds emitted by
the grasshopper and the mole cricket, often lead to the belief
that the bird is in situations which it never visits, and vice
versa.

All the jarring and hissing notes of birds, which probably
partake of the nature both of love-calls and of hunting cries,
have something peculiar in them ; they are in so far allied to
ventriloquism, that one cannot tell very readily from what
precise direction they come. That is one of the reasons why
the grasshopper bird is so seldom seen ; it appears to cry in
one part of the brake, while it is really in another ; and the
same thing happens with the crake in the corn-field, the
nuthatch on the tree, and several other birds. The direction
of the sounding body, whether a bird or any thing else, or,
indeed, even the fact that there is a sounding body, is not an
immediate perception of the organ of hearing, but an act of
mind founded on experience ; and that easily explains what is
called ventriloquism (an absurd name, by the way), either in
man or in birds. Men acquire it by pitching the tone and
quantity of the voice to those of an echo returned from the
distance of the object from which they wish the sound to
appear to come : they do that by measuring the distance with
the eye, just as a speaker does when addressing some particular

vol. i. 2 E

314 IKSECTIVORA.

person in a crowd ; in which case the tone and quantity of the
voice alter, and that person hears better than even those
between him and the speaker. But the distance can also be
measured mentally, as sailors who have come to the buoys in
a fog, can " halloo a harbour" to the pilot. The voice of the
birds is instinctive ; but it is also made up partly of echo-
notes, in all cases where it is ventriloque, or varies in apparent
place, while the bird remains in the same ; and it is a curious
property of those echo-notes, that they cannot be well re-
turned in a real echo.

warblers. (Curruca.)

Though all the little birds are interesting, as associated with
nature, with innocence, and with beauty, there is a peculiar
interest about the warblers. The birds which remain con-
stantly with us, and come round our dwellings in the inclement
season, give that season sprightliness by their appearance, and
hail with their songs any warm day that breaks out. But the
constancy of their appearance takes off some of the interest
which, if they were as novel as they are beautiful, they would
more certainly command ; and as their songs, breaking out as
thev do in the intervals of the storms, are no certain signs
that the life of the year has begun, we do not listen to them
with the same attention and satisfaction as to the migrant
warblers.

The song, or the other demonstration of spring, given by
the resident bird, tells us merely of the state of the season
in our own country, of which we have other means of judging ;
but the summer or rather the spring migrant brings us tidings
from afar — intimates that the plains of Africa are burned
up with drought, or that the season of growth is advancing
in the south of Europe, and will speedily reach us. They
are visitants from afar, but they are not strangers ; they are
our own native birds, that retired during winter, leaving the
groves, the fields, and the river banks, to other races,
driven from our own wilds, or from more inclement regions

WARBLERS. 315

further to the north, so that in the season of penury there
might be plenty for those whose structure and powers did not
adapt them for flights so far to the southward ; and now,
when the time of plenty is again coming round, and vegeta-
tion is approaching that state in which there is danger to
it from those creatures on which birds feed, they return to
resume those labours which are alike useful, and those songs
"which are alike cheering, to themselves and to us.

They come also to be our near associates, when those that
we had with us in the winter are beginning to seek their way
to the woods and the wilds. All the warblers love shade and
shelter ; but with few exceptions, they seek these among the
cultivated lands, or close on their margins. Some are in the
grove, others in the coppice ; some by the sedgy stream, or
the reedy pool, and others in the brake ; but they are not
found on the wide waste, or in the upland forest ; and gene-
rally speaking, man always partakes in the benefit of their
labours, and may hear the melody of their notes. The spaces
over which they extend vary, and so do the characters of
those places which they most frequent ; but it is a general
rule, that where the air is most pure, and the soil most fer-
tile, and in the highest state of cultivation, there the warblers
are found, in the greatest variety of species, and the greatest
number of individuals. Even their voices partake of the
characters of their localities. The nightingale sings more
sweetly over the gravel in Surrey, than over the clay in Mid -
dlesex.

There are considerable differences of appearance in the war-
blers, answering to the haunts in which they are found; but
there seems a general likeness through all the genera. They
are delicate in their outlines, without any of the full or abrupt
curves that are found in many other genera. Their plumage
is delicate, and, though there be some exceptions, their co-
lours are subdued, and without any very strong markings or
contrasts. The feathers on the shoulders and the wing coverts
are short, so that the wings are light. Their whole expres-
sion is soft, but not dull ; and their manners, though gentle,

316 IXSECTIVORA.

are rather sprightly. They have not, indeed, any organs
which can he regarded as offensive weapons : their bills are
tender, suited only for the capture of insects and their larvse,
or for bruising berries or other small pulpy fruits. They are
not all song birds, but they comprise the finest of our song-
sters, and their notes run more on the minor keys than those
of any other birds.

Their general characters are : the bill of moderate length,
straight, slightly awl-shaped, a little compressed at the base,
and the upper mandible with a small bend and margin at the
tip. Feet with three toes before and one behind ; the outer one
articulated on the middle one, so as to be capable of perching
upon very slender supports. The first quill of the wing is
very short, and in some species merely rudimental ; the second
and third are nearly of the same length, which gives the wing
a blunt appearance. The tail is of moderate length, but strong
in proportion to the size of the birds ; in some wedge-shaped,
in others nearly even, and in others again slightly wedge-
shaped ; but, in all cases, without any sharp points when
spread. There are two divisions of warblers, aquatic and
sylvan, which are easily distinguished by their appearances, as
well as by their haunts.

AQUATIC WABBEEBS.

Of these there are two; the sedge warbler and the reed
warbler : they are little birds, and summer birds only.

Their general appearances are, — the forehead low ; the
body long and slender ; the tail strong and wedge-shaped ;
and the prevailing colours brown above, and yellowish white
on the under part, without strong contrasts in any part of
their plumage. While they reside in Britain, they frequent
the reedy or sedgy banks of stagnant pools and slow-running
rivers, or the bushes and brakes in the vicinity of such places.
They do not range far from their nestling places, neither
does it appear that they flock previous to their departure in
the autumn.

THE SEDGE WARBLER. 317

the sedge warbler. (Curruca phragmitis.)

The sedge warbler, called also the sedge bird and the sedge
wren ; but it has no other resemblance to the wrens, properly
so called, than being about the same weight as the common
wren. It is about five inches and a half long, rather more than
seven in the extent of the wings ; the head slender, the bill
pointed, and the tail wedge or lancet-shaped : the whole well
fitted for gliding between the tall aquatic plants, among which
it chiefly resides and finds its food.

The colours are sober ; brown on the upper part, with a
slight tinge of olive ; the quills and tail darker, and the edges
of the feathers relieved with rusty. The side of the head is
peculiarly marked, and is an easy means of distinguishing the
sedge warbler from the other small birds which haunt similar
places : a white streak proceeds from the line of the upper
mandible over the eye, and a pale brownish one from the eye
a short way down towards the side of the neck, so that the
two have a faint resemblance to the letter Y, with the bottom
above the gape, and the fork at the eye. The parts imme-
diately adjoining are deep brown ; the chin and throat are
dull white, which passes into dull brownish yellow on the
breast, and becomes paler again towards the belly and vent ;
but, with the exception of the streak over the eye, the colours
are all softened into each other. The bill is dusky at the tip
and on the upper part, and whitish at the base on the under ;
feet dusky brown, and the claw on the hinder toe rather short,
but hooked.

The sedge warbler arrives in England about the middle of
April, and silently, but in considerable numbers, takes posses-
sion of the sedgy and reedy banks of streams and pools, of
osier holts, and of shrubs and bushes on the edges of marshes
and moist places. It does not inhabit the very high grounds,
but it appears throughout the whole range of England, and
partially, though perhaps only as a straggler, in the southern
parts of Scotland.

2 e2

318 INSECTIVOKA.

It is not a loud songster, but it is a very constant one ; and
though it sings best in the morning and towards night, it may
be heard at most times of the day, and not unfrequently during
the night. Its song is hurried, but varied, not so much in the
single stave, as in its having several of them, which would lead
one to imagine that there are different birds : they have been
compared to the notes of various other birds, but the resem-
blance is not close. It sings in the throat, and gives a sort of
guttural twist to all that it utters. It sings from within the
reeds or the bush, from the top of it, or when it is leaping
from one bush to another.

The mode of building depends something upon the locality :
if among reeds, it is united to two or three of these ; if in a
holt, where the young osiers do not afford convenient forks, it
is on the side of some stool that stands above the flooding of
the place ; if in a bush, it is placed in the centre ; and if the
only cover for the bird be rushes, the nest is placed in the
centre of a tuft. The materials are vegetable fibres and moss,
with occasionally a few hairs, if the locality can supply them,
which is not often, so that the chief lining is fine fibres of dry
grass or i-oots. The eggs are five or six in number, of a light
dull brown, mottled with darker spots of the same.

So far as has been observed, its food consists chiefly of those
winged insects which frequent humid and watery places, which
it captures by leaping from its perch ; but it probably also
picks up larvse from the leaves, although its feet are not so
well adapted for giving it command of itself upon very flexible
ones, as those of the next species.

the reed waeblek. (Curruca arzmdinacea.)

A figure of one third of the lineal dimensions is given on
the plate opposite, by which the bird can be readily distin-
guished from the sedge warbler. The upper part is brighter
and more uniform brown, and the under part more inclined to
yellow. The streak on the cheek is obscure, and extends only
to the eye.

THE REED "WARBLER. 319

This bird, which has sometimes been called the reed-wren,
comes rather later than the other, and is more confined to the
southern parts of England. It is also more exclusively an
inhabitant of reedy places, at least in the breeding time ; for
it is a more active bird than the other, and sometimes ap-
proaches houses before its final departure.

The nest, which is always fastened to reeds, flexible up-
right twigs, or upright stems of some kind, is constructed of
vegetable matters, well united together, and very deep, so that
it can bear to be rocked upon its bending supports without
ejecting the bird or the eggs. The eggs are four or five in
number, but they are easily distinguished by their colour from
those of the sedge warbler, even though the nests should be
found in similar situations. The egg of the sedge warbler is
smaller than that of the reed warbler, and generally a pale
and nearly uniform brown, or with very obscure mottling ; that
of the reed warbler is very pale greenish white, closely mottled
with darker green and brown.

The note of the reed warbler, though decidedly a warble,
consisting of a melody of several hurried notes, is a very sub-
dued warble, and heard only at short distances.

That the bird is not adapted for so many situations as the
sedge bird, might be inferred from the different form of the
tail ; it is more produced, and not wedge-shaped ; so that
while it answers better as a balance on the bending reeds, or
other flexible aquatic plants, it would not be so convenient
among the unyielding sprays of a hedge or brake. The bird
rarely, if ever, perches on the top of the reeds, even on its
first arrival, and when the song of invitation to a mate is
given, its place is on a leaf, or on a leaning stem, though,
upon emergency, it can cling to an upright one, the stiff* fea-
thers of the tail acting as a sort of prop. It is not easily
raised, and remains a very short time on the wing ; but it is
by no means timid on its perch, upon which, if very flexible,
it sits with its wings not quite closed, but recovered, so as to
have a little hold on the air, and thereby either prevent its
fall, or be ready, when a gust comes, to bear it to a more

320

INSECTIVORA.

secure footing. Its food is found wholly over the stagnant
waters.

By no means the worst place, in the neighbourhood of Lon-
don, for observing the habits of this local and very interesting
bird, is between Shepherd's Bush and Hammersmith. The
soil there is a retentive ague-provoking clay, which has not
been improved in any thing — save perhaps the herbage during
drought, by the oozings of the Grand Junction canal on the
height to the north. The ground there has been much dug
for brick earth ; water stagnates in the excavations, and soon
becomes thick with reeds : those reeds are useful to the brick-
makers in covering the " hacks" and " clamps" of bricks, as a
protection from rain, and also from wind, which would make
the clamp burn unequally : and thus the reeds are cherished
as a crop. The warbler does not come till the reeds are con-
siderably advanced, and it departs before they are cut ; so that
it dwells in peace, and especially in the mornings about the
end of May and the beginning of June it may be observed
with the greatest ease.

SYLVAN WARBLERS.

These excel the tenants of the marsh in their size and the
power and melody of their songs, as much as the forest and
the grove, from which the majority of them sing, rise above
the brakes and beds of reeds. They are not equal to many
other birds in the brightness of their colours or the liveliness
of their motions ; but there is a softness in their plumage and
a gentleness in their expression, which at once distinguish
them from the resident birds, Avhich they resemble the most in
shape and colour.

With the deductions that have been made in the birds that
have been described, there are about nine species of warblers.
They are all summer visitants, nestling with us, and being
consequently native birds. They are also frequenters of the
-warm and rich lands, more numerous on the southern part of
the island, and the greater part rare, or only occasionally

THE RED WARBLER.

321

straggling into Scotland, and rarely found in the more moun-
tainous parts. The only one which has a name in the original
language of the Scotch Highlands, is the red-start. Some
prefer the close forest ; others the copse ; others, again, the
hedges ; and others still, the wild bush : though of those that
sing and seek their food in thick trees, there are some that
nestle on the ground, but always in shady places, or other-
wise under cover.

Their general characters are — the bill more slender, and
the forehead more rounded than in the aquatic warblers ; the
throat full and inflated while singing ; the tarsi and toes
slender, and the latter with the claws considerably crooked,
and much better adapted for perching than for walking. The
wings longer, and not so much rounded as in the aquatic
species ; the tail in general longer than in the aquatic ones,
but not so much fortified by coverts, and rounded square, or
slightly forked (rather lobed), according to the haunt of the
species.

the red warbler. (Curruca phoenicurus.)

As might be inferred from its boldly-contrasted plumage,
which, though the cause has not been satisfactorily investi-
gated, is always in the inverse ratio of the power of song, the
red warbler (called, from one of its habits, red start) is not
the finest songster of the warblers, but it is one of the earliest
visitants, and one of those which, though not the most abun-
dant perhaps in any locality, is most generally distributed.
It is found in the richer parts of the country, and in woods ;
but it is not confined to those parts, and the wood is not its
peculiar abode.

A figure of the male in summer plumage, one third of the
lineal dimensions, is given on page 318, from which it will be
very easy to recognise the male bird. The remarkable expand-
ing and closing of the tail, which is rapidly and also very
frequently done, is another character which, taken in conjunc-
tion with the colour, cannot be mistaken.

322 'iNSECTIVOKA.

The female is also easily known, though very different in
plumage from the male. The upper parts are brown, the head
and sides of the neck a greyish tinge, and the back yellowish.
The rump and tail reddish orange, except the two middle
feathers, which are brown ; but neither colour is so bright as
in the male bird. The throat, where the black is in the male,
is a pale reddish white, which passes into pale reddish orange
on the breast and flanks. The light streak over the eye is
dull in the female, and does not reach farther back than the
eye. The young males have the breast mottled with the
colours of both male and female ; but it is probable that the
colour changes without a moult, although in the same feather :
upon mature birds, the change to a darker colour is less fre-
quent than that to a lighter one.

The red warbler is altogether about the same length as the
red-breast, a bird to which it bears a slight resemblance in its
general air; but it is longer in the body, considerably more
slender, and better adapted for long flight. In form, as well
as in colour, it is one of the handsomest of our summer birds,
and it is at the same time one of the most interesting in its
manners. It is lighter than the red-breast, weighing less
than half an ounce. Its tarsi are shorter in proportion than
those of the red-breast, which mark it more as a bird of stony
places, as these in general have the tarsi short. The time of
its coming varies ; sometimes it appears in March, and some-
times not till the middle of April.

Its habits are peculiar ; and though very lively in its ap-
pearance and motions, it is the bird of ruins in the warmer
districts, as much as the wheat-ear is the bird of sepulchral
cairns in the wilds. Deserted houses, mouldering walls, and
the hollow remains of trees, are its favourite nesting places ;
the nest being formed of dry moss or grass, lined wholly or
with a mixture of hair or feathers. The eggs are numerous,
sometimes as many as eight. They are of a very light, but
clear greenish blue.

The bird is both familiar and shy : familiar as to general
hunting place, for it visits gardens and courts, and even the

THE RED WARBLER. 323

close vicinity of towns, and the squares and less frequented
streets. But it is continually hopping about, so that it is
not easily got sight of; and that has led to the supposition
that it is not so generally diffused as it really is. The " blink"
of reddish orange displayed by the flirt of the tail, even
when there is not time to notice the peculiar motion of that
organ, is, however, sufficient to distinguish it from every other
bird.

Its song is sweet though plaintive, and has some resem-
blance to that of the nightingale, only very inferior in com-
pass and power, and audible only at a short distance. The
song is uttered from the perch, on a ruin, a tall post, the trunk
of a blasted tree, or some other situation from which it can
see around it; and one who has heard the plaintive strain of
the red start from the top of a ruined abbey or crumbling fort-
alice, would be inclined to call it the bird of decay, rather than
the " wall-nightingale," as Buffon did. It is not a nightin-
gale at all even in time, for it usually begins its song about
the time when that of the nightingale ceases. Early morn is
its favourite time, but not till the dawn has made considerable
advances. When the males arrive, they sing from elevated
perches ; but after the operations of nesting are begun, he
sings lower, and always within a short distance of the nest.
Among other birds, his song is not always easily detected, for
he is partially an imitator of other birds. The flirting of the
tail is accompanied by a very short and plaintive chirp. From
the habit which both birds have of hopping about, the nest is
not easily discovered, even though it be known to be near;
and when it is discovered, considerable liberties may be taken
with it, without making the birds desert it.

As is the case with most of the other warblers, the red
warbler lands on the eastern portion of the south coast of
England. The flight of these migrants is rather from the
south-east than on the meridian — by the valley of the Seine
rather than from Brittany ; and they do not land much farther
to the west than Dorset, and, indeed, chiefly in Kent, Sussex,
and Wilts, and partially on the east coast as far as about

324 INSECTIVORA.

Yarmouth. The high grounds in the midland counties divide
them, and the eastern divisions are in a great measure stopped
by the heights in Yorkshire or on the borders of Scotland.
The western divisions, which are fewer in number, pass by the
valleys of the Severn and Dee ; and as the climate is more
humid and productive of insects in Westmoreland and Cum-
berland than on the corresponding parts of the eastern coast,
they straggle farther in that way; and though interrupted by
the hills in Dumfries and Galloway, some of them gain the
valley of the Clyde, and probably pass that way into Lothian,
and even farther to the north. Of course these observations
do not apply equally to all the warblers ; but they do apply to
the redstart, which follows the line of the stony places on the
margin of the rich lands ; and, unless there are decaying trees,
it avoids the level and dry plains.

Its food consists of insects and larvse, especially the larvae
of coleopterous insects, and the other tenants of crumbling
stone and rotting wood. When these are thinned by capture,
maturity, or drought, the birds (which have generally then
reared their broods) come to the garden and gather soft
berries and other small summer fruits. Insects are, however,
the principal food of these birds; and their bills are not well
adapted for bruising the harder seeds, although, being, like
those of the red-breasts, more enlarged at the base than those
of most of the other warblers, they are probably more capable
than those living upon vegetable diet.

Besides its singular vibrating motion, which appears as if
outwards and inwards, upwards and downwards, all at the
same time, the tail is a curious organ, and aids in very peculiar
leaps or short flights. When completely shut, it is rounded
at the extremity, so that the bird can thread intricate places,
as the brake birds do. When opened a little, it is slightly
forked, or rather terminates in two circular lobes, so that the
bird can wheel in the air ; and the sort of rotatory motion
that it has, and the oblique positions in which it can be
exerted, enable the bird to change into an echellon motion, the
result of which is forward, sideways, and upward or downward,

THE WHITE-THROAT WARBLER. 325

all at the same time. The straight-forward flight is rather
rapid, and all the motions of the bird are graceful.

THE BLUSH REDSTART, (C Titht/S,)

Has occurred as a British straggler. It is much more rare
even on the continent, than the common redstart. Its colours
are ash and grey above, cheeks, throat, and breast black, flanks
dark ash, middle of the belly white, vent and under coverts of
the tail bright red.

the white-throat warbler. (Curruca cinerea.)

The white-throat is the best known, the most numerous,
and the most generally distributed, of all the warblers ; and
though its stave is somewhat brief, it is so unsparing in the
repetition, that it gives abundant quantity of no despicable
song. The dwelling of the white-throat is comparatively
humble : a hedge, a solitary bush, or, failing that, a tuft of
nettles, or of any other rank herbaceous plants. Still, it is a
bird of the rich districts, and not found in the wild and elevated
moors, though it migrates farther to the north than any of the
other warblers.

The plumage is as sober as its dwelling is humble. The
bill, which is not so enlarged at the base as that of the red-
start, is dusky above and at the point, and light on the under
part. The feet are pale brown, and the irides yellowish
brown. The upper part is a mixture of brown, yellow, and
grey, the grey more conspicuous on the sides of the head and
neck. The lesser wing coverts are pale brown, the larger and
the quills and tail feathers dusky brown, the coverts margined
with rich colours, and the outer curb of the first quill and the
outer tail feathers, and also the tip of the latter, white. The
chin and throat white, passing into very pale rose colour on
the breast, and into white again on the belly, vent, and under
tail coverts. The female wants the rosy tinge on the breast, has
all the colours less perfect, and the upper part more inclining

vol. i. 2 r

326 INSECTIVOKA.

to brown. Their young are browner above than the old birds,
have a pale streak from the gape to the eye, and the outer web
of the first quill reddish brown, instead of white. The feathers
on the head are a little produced, and capable of a slight
elevation when the bud sings, so that the forehead and
crown of the head appear higher than in any of the other
warblers.

The white-throat is not so elegantly formed as the red-
start, and it is about half an inch shorter and narrower in
the wings, in nearly the same proportion ; but it is more com-
pact, looks stronger, and weighs about the same. Its attitude
is different on the perch. The axis of the body is more hori-
zontal, and the neck elevated with a shorter bend, which, with
the produced feathers on the top of the head, gives it a brisker
aspect.

In the nesting season, the white-throat keeps much in the
retirement of its hedges and bushes, not leaving the cultivated
grounds, but choosing those parts of them where the cover is
thickest or most retired. When disturbed, the birds flit about
in the hedge, uttering a grating and querulous sort of chirp ;
but when they are undisturbed, the male continues his song
even in the heat of the day, when most of the other birds
are mute. That song is sometimes given from the perch, but
more frequently on the wing, not during an onward flight,
but rising to a small elevation, and again gliding slowly
down. When it sings, the feathers on the head are erected,
and the anterior part of the throat distended so as to show the
white very conspicuously. It sings '; with all its might,"
and when there are other birds singing near, it appears to
sing against them, though only when they are tolerable
singers. The lark or the hedge-accentor excite it ; but not
the bunting.

The nest is loosely formed of the withered stems of those
annual plants which trail under hedges and bushes, lined with
finer fibres, or, if the place furnish them, with hairs. The eggs
are four or five in number, of a greyish white colour, mottled
with deeper grey and dull brown.

THE BRAKE-WARBXER. 327

At that season of the year when caterpillars are so apt to
disfigure the hedges and hedge-rows, and spoil the orchards
and gardens, the white-throats are very serviceable birds.
Caterpillars are their principal food, and the feeding they
collect for their young while in the nest; and as the birds
are so numerous and widely distributed, the numbers which
they destroy are very great. But the supply of caterpillars
does not last beyond the nesting time ; and the foliage of
the hedges, bushes, low trees, and other vegetables, which
the birds are so instrumental in preserving, become com-
paratively barren pastures some time before the birds take
their departure. They then throng to the gardens ; and
though they continue useful in the destruction of the later
swarms, as well as in that of the insects which are depositing
their eggs in the garden plants, they levy contributions on
all the early small fruits. In market gardens especially,
where these are interspersed with hedge-rows and patches
of tangled brake, they do a good deal of mischief; but still,
if the service which they have previously rendered be fairly
thrown into the other scale, it is probable that the balance of
good is on their side.

THE BRAKE-WARBLER, OR LESSER WHITE-THROAT.

(Curruca garrula.)

The lesser white-throat is a smaller bird than the other ;
it comes later in the season; is more local in its distribution,
and probably not so numerous, though, from its diminutive
size and its retiring habits, it is also less frequently seen in
proportion to its numbers. It is about an inch shorter than
the white-throat, and proportionably smaller in all its dimen-
sions ; but it is only about one fourth less in weight, so that
it is stouter, and not so well adapted for flight. The weights
of similar birds should, of course, be as the cubes of their
lengths, which, comparing this bird with the white-throat,
would give a weight of only about two drachms and a quarter,
whereas it weighs rather more than three. The power of

328 INSECTIVORA.

flight in birds is not, however, always directly as their lineal
dimensions and inversely as their weight, though, in birds of
similar habits, it approximates to that ratio ; for the power of
flight depends on structure, spirit, and many other elements,
which are not easily brought within the scope of calculation.
The lesser white-throat is, however, a more hideling bird than
the white-throat, and more sparing in the use of its wings,
both in migration over the country, and in common flight
where it does inhabit. There is no well-authenticated instance
of its being seen in Scotland, or even to the north of the
midland heights in England : but still it may be in both
places.

The distribution of its colours is nearly the same as that in
the white-throat, only the whole of the under part is purer
white, the head and upper part are more ash coloured, and
the coverts are relieved with ash colour instead of rusty brown.
The bill is wholly dusky, the irides greyish yellow, and the
feet dark smoke grey. The exterior feathers of the tail
are white on their outer sides, and light coloured on the
inner.

The bird inhabits the hedges and bushes much more closely
than the white-throat, and does not sing on the wing.
Indeed it can hardly be said to sing at all, as its note con-
sists of two Avhistling chatters, the second delivered a little
more quickly than the first : but while it flits about in the
hedge, bush, or brake, seldom exposing itself to view, and then
only for a moment, it is not sparing of its voice ; and on that
account, it has got the appellation of "garrula" or " chatterer.''
It is a summer bird of passage, inhabiting the same places
which the warblers inhabit, and having some of the manners
of the white-throat ; but, if the name is to be applied as a sig-
nificant one, it cannot with very strict propriety be called a
warbler.

Its nest is not very unlike that of the white-throat. It is
concealed in a hedge or thick bush, rarely in a tuft of annual
herbage, formed of vegetable fibres, loosely but not clumsily
put together, and lined with finer fibres, generally mixed

THE WOOD WARBLER. 329

with wool or hair. The eggs, which are smaller than those
of the white-throat, are not exceeding five, of a bluish colour,
and mottled with ash colour and pale brown. The materials
of nests and the colours of eggs are not, however, very
certain characters of birds. It is the food that brings birds
to particular localities, and they must build their nests of
materials which those localities furnish. The depth of tint
and the markings of eggs also vary considerably, not only in
the same species of birds, but in the same nest; and it would
seem that, in general, those that are last deposited, and
especially those of a second brood, are paler than the first
ones.

the wood warbler. (Curruca sibilatrix.)

This bird has sometimes been called the wood wren, but
with very little propriety, as it has not the expression or the
habits of the golden-crested or fiery-crested wrens, which
nestle as well as hunt in the woods, and inhabit them all the
year round.

The wood warbler is one of the more beautiful of our
summer visitants. The general tint of the upper plumage is
a soft and very peculiar shade of green, produced by the
blending of sulphur yellow on the points, and ash grey on
the basis of the feathers. A streak of the same colour passes
across the eye ; and the ear coverts are slightly tinged with
it. Over the eye there is a bright and well-defined streak of
gamboge yellow, and the same colour appears partially on
the chin and sides of the neck, and the under parts of the
shoulders : but it soon passes into pure silvery white, which,
unbroken by spot or stain, is the colour of the whole under
part of the bird, except the thighs, which are pale yellow,
as far as the tail feathers. This beautiful whiteness of the
under part preserves the bird, in some places, the local name
of " linty white." The wings and tail are dusky brown, the
coverts margined with greenish, and the quills and tail
feathers, except the two outer ones of the latter, are mar~

2f2

330 INSECT1VORA.

gined with sulphur yellow. The upper mandible is dark yel-
lowish brown, and the under one the same colour but paler.
The hides are hazel, the feet greenish brown, and the claws
the same colour, only a shade paler. The colours of the
female bird differ little from those of the male ; and even
the young before they leave the nest are so distinctly
marked as to be easily distinguished from the young of any
other.

The shape of the wood warbler is particularly handsome,
light without being feeble ; and the wings and tail indicate
very considerable command of the ah. The wings are long,
reaching when closed to nearly two thirds the length of the
tail ; and the tail is slightly forked or rather lobed. The
length is rather more than five inches, the weight not quite
three drachms.

The wood warbler has sometimes been confounded, in the
description of authors, with the lesser petty-chaps or hedge
warbler, and the field warbler or willow warbler, from both
of which it is however easily distinguishable in plumage, in
expression, and in manners.

The lesser petty-chaps is about a quarter of an inch shorter,
the upper part yellowish brown, and the under dull greyish
white, with some pale orange brown speckles on the sides of
the neck, and an obscure pale patch round the eye instead of
the bright streak over it. The tail and wings, especially the
latter, are also shorter in proportion, and they want the
greenish and yellow margins, the feathers being relieved with
yellowish brown instead.

The lesser petty-chaps is about a quarter or three eighths of
an inch shorter than the wood warbler, has a brisker, or, as
one would sayT a perter expression, and is not so elegant in
shape. It also perches with the axis of the body more in the
horizontal line, is thicker backwards, has the tail more forti-
fied by coverts, and shows altogether more the air of an
" up-and-down"' bird, and less one of forward flight. The
position of the axis of the body when perching, or otherwise
in a state of repose, and the way in which the body of a bird

THE WOOD WARBLER. 331

tapers towards the tail, are always good characters, not only in
distinguishing one bird from another, but as indicating the
habits of birds.

The field or willow warbler is also easily distinguished from
the wood warbler. It is larger in about the same proportion
as the petty-chaps is less, and the tint of the back is interme-
diate, yellower than the petty-chaps, and not so green as the
wood warbler. The belly only of the field or willow warbler
is white. The under tail coverts, the breast, sides of the
neck, chin, and throat, a dull streak over the eye, the lesser
wing coverts, and the edges of the greater coverts, quills, and
tail feathers, being pale whitish yellow. The wings reach only
half the length of the tail ; the tail i3 thicker, and the whole
expression of the bird is softer, but not so elegant. Neither
of the birds, however, has the slightest resemblance to the
wrens in form or in general habits, although they have both
got the name.

The difference in note between the wood warbler and the
two birds with which it has been confounded, is as perceptible
as the distinction in appearance. The note of the wood
warbler is the single syllable twee ; but it not only varies that
so as to make almost an octave of it ; but runs the last repeti-
tion of the stave into a peculiar hissing and whistling trill,
from which it has got the specific name of sib'datrix (the
hisser or siffler) ; and in the delivery of that the bird is agi-
tated in a very peculiar manner. The lesser petty-chaps has
also only a single note ; but it repeats that twice with dif-
ferent intonations, so that it has got the name of " chip-
chop," or " chiff-chaff." Indeed, it is accused of falling into
the habit of the people of the district which it frequents, in
substituting one for another of those letters that belong to the
same organic expression withy,- being " chiv-chov," " chiff-
chaff," " chib-chab," or " chip-chop," according to the
locality.

That is not unlikely, as birds have great flexibility of voice,
and great powers of imitation ; and, as there is unques-
tionably an unexplained something in the air and climate of

332 INSECTIVOKA.

different districts which influences the pronunciation of the
people, it is natural to suppose, that it should also affect, not
the songs of birds only, but the voices of all animals. The
voice of a dry chink or a dry leafless tree is harsh and sharp
to the wind, compared with the same when they are humid ;
and it is open to observation, that the voices of the inhabitants
of dry places are not so soft as those of moist. Compare
Westmoreland and Cumberland with Durham and Northum-
berland ; and compare the whole western side of Scotland with
the eastern ; nay, compare Essex with the maritime part of
Somerset, and they are both champaign counties, though
Essex is by much the drier of the two. The provincial
tones of birds are well worthy of study, not only as they are
curious in themselves, and might help bird fanciers to procure
birds of the finest voice, and also to improve that by artificial
means ; but as throwing light upon the very curious subject of
the varieties of local pronunciation. The inquiry would in-
volve, not the mere difference of tone, but the difference of
cadence and inflection ; the interchange of sounds both of
consonants and vowels, and the predominance of jarring and
hissing.

The note of the willow warbler is also easily distinguished
from that of the wood warbler — it is sweet and varied, not
unlike that of the red-breast, but not nearly so powerful.
It is a murmuring note, while that of the wood warbler sounds
querulous.

The males of the wood warbler arrive in the south of Eng-
land towards the end of April, and diffusing themselves very
generally over the country, they reach the north in May.

They resort to the woodlands, the margins chiefly, and not
the depth of the forest, as they do not generally nestle in
trees. When they have chosen their locality, they perch on
the tops or points of the high branches, and begin their song,
labouring to " win their dames"' by dint of glee, and often
tivee-'mg and trilling against each other, as if they would
shiver themselves to pieces.

The nest is usually made in the close foliage of a bush or

THE WOOD WARBLER. 333

tuft, on or near the ground, or, failing such cover, in the
lower parts of the lateral branch of a pollard, or on the
branch of any other tree that affords a bush near the ground.
The nest is formed of dried leaves and grass, and well lined
with fibres and hair. In structure it bears considerable re-
semblance to the nest of the lesser petty-chaps, only that lines
with feathers, and its eggs, though of nearly the same general
colour, are not so much spotted, and have not the spots at
the larger end so much run into a zone as those of the wood
warbler. The ground colour is white, the markings reddish
purple. The young are easily distinguished by their resem-
blance in tint to the old birds.

The song of the wood warbler continues during the nesting
time, and ceases only with the moult, at which time it is par-
tially continued by the earlier broods of the young birds.
During the nesting time it is often delivered during flight,
while the bird is rising from its perch and returning again ;
but it is easily distinguished from that of other birds which
have a similar habit in singing.

But though this warbler does not nestle in trees it is
always in their vicinity, they form its pasture, and it gives the
preference to such as are lofty. But it is a leaf bird, and not a
branch bird (in which again it is altogether different from the
wrens) ; and its food consists of the caterpillars which curl,
roll, and otherwise injure, the leaves of deciduous trees, and the
flies and moths by which these are deposited in the egg state
and into which they are changed. Its short flights from and to
the tree are no doubt made for the purpose of discovering the
retreats of those caterpillars ; and its habit of thus beating
round the foliage of the tree agrees with its structure as being
a flying and not a leaping bird, as all birds are which hunt
among the stems and branches.

Though this bird is not, perhaps, quite so abundant, or resi-
dent so far to the north as the lesser petty-chaps, and does not
come so early in the spring, or tarry so late in the autumn, it
is in all probability far more plentiful than is generally sup-
posed ; but it is apt to be overlooked, as there is nothing very

334

INSECTIVOB.A.

striking about it, as it does not come so close to houses as
many other birds, and as it is hidden even from those that
walk under the thick trees in the foliage of which it is hunting.
It is one of the most active preservers of the foliage of trees ;
and as such it claims the protection of all the lovers of those
highly useful and ornamental productions of the soil.

THE WILLOW WARBLER. {CuTVUCa tTOcMluS.)

The description of this bird has been partially anticipated
in the course of that of the former. It comes a little earlier
than the wood wren, and is either more abundant, or, from
the nature of its haunts, better or more generally seen. It
nestles on the ground, under dry banks, or at the roots of
close bushes. The nest is constructed with a dome covering
and lateral entrance. The materials used in the external
parts are dry vegetable fibres, and rarely, if ever, moss. The
fibres of course vary with what the locality supplies ; but the
culms of the wild grasses of the former year, together with the
slender wiry leaves which have faded in the winter, are the
predominating ones, so that the nest is externally like a little
clot of hay, and hence the vernacular name of " hay-bird."
The inner lining is downy feathers. The eggs do not exceed
seven : they are white with rusty brown spots, thinly dispersed
except at the larger end.

The willow warbler feeds lower than the wood warbler,
though the character of its game is nearly the same. Hedges,
copses, bushes, willow beds, and other collections of deciduous
shrubs, are its haunts ; and among those it captures larvae,
moths, and flies. It does not fly to a distance for discovery so
often as the former species ; but it is very active in leaping
upward and downward, for which its shorter wings and its
more strongly fortified tail better adapt it. Its habits, indeed,
resemble those of the wrens and creepers a little more than the
former species, as it is found running among the branches, and
partially on the stems.

When the males of these birds first arrive, which in the

THE HEDGE WARBLER, OR LESSER PETTY-CHAPS. 335

south of England is very early in April, they perch on the
tops of hedges, bushes, and willows, and raise their song, to
which there is a very peculiar prelude. First, there is a sort
of broken chirp, then a retiring tinkle, and after that the
song, consisting of three distinct notes, but modulated into
many more.

Like most of the early visitants, those birds come in small
flocks ; but they separate soon after their arrival, form their
pairs, and commence their building, which is rather a labo-
rious operation. If the weather prove kindly, they go on
well; but if frost set in, as it often does (on the east coast
in the first or second week of April), they suffer considerably
by the cold, and probably also of hunger: several are found
dead if such weather continue, and the song of the remainder
ceases for a time.

All the warblers, when their song has ceased, have a peculiarly
soft chirp, as they fly about, either on the wing or from spray
to spray; and though they resemble each other much more in
that than in their proper songs, yet an attentive ear may dis-
tinguish them even by that. Those that have varied song
generally shut their single chirp by a sort of consonantal turn,
while the single-noted ones do not, unless their first note has
that sort of ending. Thus the willow warbler's single note is
tweet, the wood warbler's is twee; and there is a shake in
that of the finer warblers.

THE HEDGE WARBLER, OR LESSER PETTY-CHAPS.

(Curruca hippolias.J

The description of this bird also has been partially antici-
pated in that of the wood wren.

Though the smallest of our warblers, being generally about
four inches and a half in length, and about two and a half
drachms in weight, this is the most hardy, coming as early as
March, remaining as late as October ; and, if the autumn is
mild, remaining as a straggler in the warmer parts of the
country all the winter. In situation and structure its nest

336 INSECTIVORA.

very much resembles that of the willow warbler ; but the eggs
are not, perhaps, quite so numerous, and the markings are
purple red, which easily distinguishes them from the rust-
coloured markings on those of the others.

It is very abundant in all parts of the kingdom, being
found farther to the north, and also in more bleak and ex-
posed situations, than any of the other warblers, nor does it
appear to suffer like the former species from the spring frosts.
From the length of time that it not only remains in the
country but continues in song, it probably has two broods in
favourable situations ; and that may account for the consider-
able differences in size and weight that are found in different
specimens, and also for the fact of some remaining over the
winter.

In the early part of the winter it feeds upon insects, and is
peculiarly serviceable to those bushes and low trees, which
are subject to have their leaves and young shoots destroyed
by aphides : but before it finally leaves the country, the insect
supply is greatly diminished ; and as it has been known to eat
small seeds in confinement, it probably also does so naturally,
in the latter part of the season.

The difference in habit of the two broods of those migrant
and native insectivorous birds that breed twice in the year, is
worthy of investigation. The supply of seeds and berries,
which is the kind of vegetable food to which insectivorous
birds first resort in the autumn, is most abundant at that
season, while winged insects are fewer, and there are no
larvae, except the birds can dig them out of wood, or of the
ground, or seek for them in humid places, which would not
agree with the structure or the other habits of the sylvan
warblers. The second broods must, therefore, be brought up
differently from the first, at least they must feed differently
when they begin to feed themselves. Now, as difference of
food has as much influence upon the character of animals as
difference of soil has upon those of vegetables, it would be of
much importance, as well in the individual history of birds as
in the physiology of animals generally, to see what influence

THE HEDGE WARBLER, OR LESSER PETTY-CHAPS. 337

that difference in the early feeding has upon the future habits
of the bird. The probability from the analogy of domesticated
poultry is, that that treatment when young tempers them more
to the climate ; and that, as the country becomes more and
more improved by drainage and culture, those birds which now
retire during the winter, may remain the whole year. Conse-
quently the appearance of those birds more northerly or upland
than they had wont to come, is a testimony of what cultivation
has already done towards the increased productiveness and
salubrity of the place, in which they sport and sing for the
first time.

Birds, and those insects upon which birds feed, are as true
to climate and fertility as the vegetable tribes are. The
summer butterfly or moth, and the summer bird, are alike
children of the sun ; and, if they come into any place in
which they were not previously to be found, we may rest
assured that some change favourable both to the subsistence
and the health of man has been effected there; that some
diminution has taken place in that evaporation from bog and
marsh which chills, stunts, and sours the vegetation, and
nourishes carex and rushes, with their accompanying mosses,
and all the elements of peat-bog, — and that the earth is in
a condition to feel and to profit by the whole influence of the
season, nursing a more sweet and kindly vegetation upon which
the caterpillar can feed ; and where these again can supply
food for the warblers and their broods.

That all these birds are now spreading northward and
upland, there can be little doubt, independently of the greater
attention which (on the part of some) has been paid to the
feathered tribes. That alone would not explain the difference,
for though there are now more professed students of birds,
the country people, from more constant labour and other
changes of habit, study them less than in former times ; and
so, if they had existed, they would have got names as well
as the other birds. The white-throat has been " Charlie
Muftie," and the hedge warbler the " white wren" in the
midland parts of Scotland, from time anterior to record, and
vol. I. 2 G

338 INSECTIVORA.

there is no doubt that, if the garden warbler had fre-
quented that country in the olden time, its more enchanting
notes would have won it a name, especially in a land not
unknown to song. There is little question that this delicious
songster has now penetrated to the warm glens in the
southern verge of the Grampians ; and so the folks of Scotland
may make sure that they have only to cultivate away till they
deserve the nightingale, and they shall have him — and more
and better.

THE BLACK-CAP WARBLER. {CwrUCCL dtricapillct .)

The black-cap warbler is one of our most delightful song-
sters ; and it is more abundant, more generally distributed,
more hardy, and less exclusively insectivorous, than some of
those which are very inferior in song. The male black-cap is
barely six inches in length, and about eight and three quarters
in the stretch of the wings, and it weighs barely half an
ounce ; the female is fully six in length, and nine in breadth,
and weighs a little more than half an ounce ; but as the birds
range over a variety of soils, and are both reared and subse-
quently fed on pastures of varied productiveness, they are
subject to considerable variations, both in weight and dimen-
sions. I believe it will in general be found that the bird of
the poorer pasture is lighter and longer in the wings. It is a
general law, that where an extra production of appendage to
the cuticle is required in the same species of animal, there is
more than a corresponding diminution in the quantity of flesh,
yielded by an equal and equally nutritious species of food. It
has been already noticed that heat has a tendency to produce
those appendages ; and thus the exertion of flying tends, in
some measure, to produce or enlarge the instruments of
flight.

The black-cap warbler is a bird of sober attire : the male has
the head, from the forehead to the occiput, dull black; the rest
of the upper part grey, with a tinge of dull blackish green; the
throat and breast grey, and the rest of the under part pale

THE BLACK-CAP WABBLES. 339

ash grey. The hill is bluish brown, the irides dark hazel, and
the naked parts leaden grey. The quills and tail feathers are
inclining to dusky, relieved with dull greenish on the margins.
The female has the head reddish brown, and the general tint
of the plumage darker, and more inclining to green than the
male. The young of both sexes, when first fledged, resemble
the female.

The nest is near the ground, in hedges, bushes, brakes, or
tufts, formed loosely of dry vegetable fibres, and lined with the
same, and often with a few long hairs. The eggs are four or
five in number, pale reddish brown, rather obscurely marked
with a deeper shade of the same colour and with grey ; but
their colour, as well as the material of the nest, is subject to
variation. The young black-caps are said to leave the nest
sooner than most other birds of the order, and they and the old
ones roost for some time afterwards on the same perch.

Hedges, copses, bushes, and trees, but not the depth of
forests, are the favourite haunts of the black-cap. It seldom
comes till towards the end of April, and is soon dispersed over
the country, fluctuating to a considerable distance northward.
As is common with the tribe, the males come first, and feed
for some time on any berries that have been spared by the
winter birds ; at that time, it sometimes also nips off" the
hybernaculi of buds upon trees in gardens and other places,
though probably only those in which the eggs of insects are
lodged. While confined to vegetable diet, it does not sing
with its full power.

Its song is generally given from a high perch, or an elevated
branch, or the top twig, if the tree be not very lofty. While
it sings, the axis of the body is very oblique, by the elevation
of the head, and the throat is much inflated. While the bird
is trilling, in which it excels every songster of the grove in
rapidity and clearness, and in the swells and cadences which it
gives to the same trill, the throat has a very strong convulsive
motion, and the whole bird appears to be worked into a
high state of excitement. It has, indeed, the wildest and
most witching notes of all our warblers ; it has not, certainly,

340 INSECTIVOBA.

the volume and variety of the nightingale, neither has it the
ineffably sweet chant of the garden warbler ; but its notes
take one by surprise, and the changes, and especially the trills,
are finer than those of any other bird. The song, when the
bird is at rest, appears to be, by turns, like those of several
birds ; but it transposes them into a lower or rather a minor
key, and finishes off with variations of its own ; and, as is
the case with the works of some of the more impassioned
musical composers, the very genius (so to speak) of the bird
interferes with the melody, and a sort of indescribable wild-
ness is the character of the whole.

When the supply of insects, in the destruction of which,
while they last, the black-cap is very assiduous, fails, it levies
its contributions pretty copiously upon currants, raspberries,
and other soft fruits ; but, as is the case with most of the
tribe, the harm which it does is, in all probability, very small
in proportion to the good, as one day of the ravages of cater-
pillars, at the time when the black-cap is most active in their
destruction, would prevent the coming to maturity of ten
times the quantity of fruit that the bird ever consumes.

As the black-cap does not extend its winter migrations far
to the southward, and as it is capable of subsisting upon that
vegetable food to which our residents have recourse in the
winter, it is probable that the whole never leave the country,
but that some linger during the winter in those wild and
lonely places of the south, where wild berries are abundant in
the brakes and hedges ; but as the lingerers of the migrant
species are of course less lively, and less liable to be excited
into song by a fine day in the winter, than those resident
birds which are better clothed and fitted for the climate, it
may remain unheeded. It has been seen in Surrey in Decem-
ber, and shot in Kent in January. On the continent of
Europe it is rare on the south of the mountainous ridge that
may be traced from Cape Finisterre to the mountains of Al-
bania ; but it is found in the Atlantic isles ; that, however, is
no proof of its migrating thither from any part of Europe.
The climate of these beautiful islands is mild, and the seasons

THE GARDEN "WARBLER. 341

are so very uniform, that the laws both of vegetable and
animal life are very different from what they can be expected
to be in the range of a large continent, which is parched at one
extremity, and frozen at the other.

THE GARDEN WARBLER, {CuTTUCa hortensis.)

The garden warbler, or greater petty-chaps, of which a
figure of the male in the summer plumage, and one third of
the lineal dimensions, is given on the plate at page 318, if,
perhaps, a sweeter songster than the black-cap, though not so
wild.

The plumage of the female is not unlike that of the male,
only less bright, and with less of the greyish tinge which
appears to be the nuptial livery of the male. The young have
more of a yellowish brown tinge on the upper parts, the fore
part below pale amber colour, and the belly and vent white ;
the feet also want the bluish tinge which is perceptible in the
mature birds.

The garden warbler is larger than the black-cap, and longer
in proportion in the wings : the length is more than six
inches, the breadth more than ten, and the weight about five
eighths of an ounce. It is also a more extensive migrant,
ranging as far as the north of Africa. In Britain, it arrives
about the same time with the black-cap, or perhaps a little
later ; and as it frequents richer and warmer places, it is not
so generally distributed. As is the case with all the sylvan
warblers, it is more common in the south and south-east of
England, than in any other part of Britain, and it is certainly
not plentiful so far to the north as the black-cap ; but from its
power of flight, it is probable that it ranges much farther
in that direction than has been stated by authors. I have
heard reports of it near Balgonie, on the Leven, in Fife, and
in the romantic dell between the castle of Airlie and Ruthven,
in Strathmore ; and, as these are both warm places, and
abound in brakes and brush-wood, it is not unlikely to be
true, though I cannot certify the fact on my own observation.
2g2

342 INSECTITOKA.

In Lothian it has been both heard and seen upon each of the
rivers Esk, which are confluent in Dalkeith park ; on the
Northern one, between Lasswade and Roslin, and on the
Southern at Newbattle and Dalhousie ; nor is there much
doubt that, if looked for, it would be found in many of the
warmer wooded districts of the lowlands. When summer
migrants once cross the border, — indeed when they get regu-
larly into Durham and Northumberland, — there is much to
entice and little to impede them till they reach the Gram-
pians. It is true that the plantations are more of fir and less
of deciduous trees, but the number of the latter is on the
increase.

The hideling manners of the bird may prevent it from being
known, even where its song is heard. It is a hedge, copse,
and thicket bird, and does not, like the black-cap, sing from a
high perch, but from the close cover; and as that cover is in
foliage all the time that it remains, it is not very often seen,
even by those who search for it. Its notes are perhaps the
softest of any that have equal volume and compass ; they want
that clear silvery tone which pierces the ear so much in the
song of the nightingale ; but they are exquisite flute notes ;
and the whistling part of the stave, which is almost as full and
mellow as that of the blackbird, has an unbroken swell, which
is at once characteristic and peculiar.

Its nest is formed in the same manner, and nearly of the
same materials, as that of the black-cap ; but it builds more
exclusively on the ground, though it always chooses a cover of
close herbage. The eggs are about the same in number as
those of the black-cap, but they are easily distinguished by
their colour : they are pale yellowish brown, with dull brown
blotches, rather crowded at the larger end, and obscure over
the rest of the surface.

The birds inhabit even closer to houses than the black-caps,
though they do it more stealthily. The nests are sometimes
found in gardens ; and in these cases the birds beat for food
in the hedges, and the male sings from them. Like the
others, they can subsist upon succulent vegetable food, and

THE NIGHTINGALE WARBLER. 343

they plunder the berries when insects cease to be plenty.
They retire from Britain in September ; and it does not appear
that any of them remain during winter, or if they do, they
pass their time in solitude and silence, unseen and unheard ;
indeed they are not much seen at any time, unless come upon
by accident, or that the observer remains close while they are
singing.

THE NIGHTINGALE WARBLER. (ClirrUCd luSCinid.)

The nightingale is the most celebrated of all the warblers,
but it is the one of which it is necessary to say the least ; first,
because its habits are so concealed, and so much has been
written on the subject of its song, that there remains little to
be added ; secondly, because there is no mistaking the nightin-
gale, as no other bird sings at the time when its song has the
greatest effect ; and, thirdly, because, though the bird often
sings when there is light enough to see it, it is just as much
concealed as during the night.

The nightingale is the largest of all the warblers, being
about seven inches in length, between ten and eleven in the
extent of the wings, and three quarters of an ounce in weight.
In shape and expression it resembles the garden warbler, only
it seems a little softer and heavier, and its plumage is inferior
in tint.

The colours of the nightingale are : the bill wood brown,
with the basal end of the lower mandible pale yellowish
brown, and the tarsi (which are long) and the toes of the same
colour ; upper parts deep yellowish brown, inclining to red-
dish brown ; the quills and greater coverts dusky brown, with
reddish brown margins ; and the tail deep reddish brown,
and very slightly forked ; sides of the neck, ear coverts,
breast, and flanks, pale ash grey, passing into greyish white
on the throat and middle of the belly; an obscure dusky
streak passing from the gape down the side of the neck, and
passing imperceptibly into the grey on the breast. The colours
of the female nearly the same as those of the male. The nest

344 INSECTIVOEA.

is a simple structure, formed on the ground below brakes,
underwood, or hedges, composed of withered leaves and fibres,
and lined with withered grass. The eggs are from four to six,
of a plain olive brown, often varying a little in the intensity of
the tint, but without markings.

The male nightingales arrive in Britain about the beginning
of May, and, as is the case with some of the other warblers,
they may be seen in the open places near woods for a few
days ; and it is then that the bird-catchers are most successful
in making prize of them.

About two weeks after their arrival they betake themselves
to the woods, and are soon in full song, continuing the greater
part of the night with little intermission, and evidently singing
against each other. They do not sing from the very depth of
close forests, but from the tall and thick trees that are near
open places, abounding in underwood or other cover upon the
ground. After the incubation begins, the song is less inces-
sant, and as the broods come to maturity, it gradually ceases.
In severe drought, it does not begin till dark, and it ceases at
an eaily hour in the morning ; but when the air is moist, it
begins earlier, and is continued longer. A very dry season,
after the nesting has been some time in progress, will cause it
to cease altogether ; but if a shower comes, it will break out
anew ; and it will do so the more readily and the more power-
fully, if the shower has fallen during the day, with just a blink
of clear before sunset.

From their retiring disposition, the habits of nightingales,
in a state of nature, must always be, to be a very considerable
extent, conjectural, because instead of being able to follow
them in the details of their history, it is not easy to see the
same one twice. I watched them very carefully for more
than five years, in a place where they are very abundant,
and at the end of that time, I was — about as wise as at the
beginning.

It appears that the principal food of nightingales is the
caterpillars of night-moths, and probably also of some of the
night-beetles. It is the habit of these larvse to feed only, or

THE NIGHTINGALE WARBLER. 345

chiefly, during the night, and to retire during the day. In
damp weather, when vegetation is succulent, they of course
come out in the greatest numbers ; a much shorter interval
suffices for the nightingale satisfying himself, or procuring a
meal for his mate or his brood, and then he has time to sing ;
but in different states of the atmosphere, the task is more
laborious, and then the song ceases. It is true that, even at
those times, a solitary one, here and there, may be heard
singing with all his might ; but the probability is, that that is
some one who has been unsuccessful in his wooing, or widowed
of his mate. Even in the latter case, however, the song is
any thing but a lament. The poets have, indeed, said so, and
given it to the female, as the most pathetic way of putting it ;
but poets are not the best of philosophers, and the song is one
of invitation, which will slacken whenever it has answered its
purpose. We sing in many moods ; but birds sing only when
they are merry. It is probable that the loss of the brood may
also bring the male a second time into song ; but the subject
is one upon which it is exceedingly difficult to get accurate
information. What we know of nightingales, farther than
that which we " hear from themselves," is collected chiefly
from the observation of them in a state of confinement, and
that can throw but little light upon their habits as denizens of
the wild woods.

It is just as difficult to get a fair estimate of the song of
the nightingale, compared with the songs of other warblers, as
it is to get a satisfactory account of the manners of the birds.

Under every circumstance, the song is a delightful one;
and, with the exception of the time at which it is heard, it is
perhaps the most spirit-stirring and gleesome in nature, much
more so than that of the skylark, though the lark has the
odds of the bright sun and the clear sky, against the gloom of
the woodland shade and the night. To hear it in the morning,
especially for the first time, and to be awakened by it upon
one of those balmy mornings in May, when every leaf is
freshness, and every breath young perfume, is indescribable —
worth more than a whole musical festival ; but yet it owes

346 INSECT1V0RA.

much to the time, and the absence of other sounds. Every
one knows how sweet the music of the " waits" is when it
breaks one's sleep in a long December night, though if day
were dawned, and the musicians were seen, it might prove to
be sorry or even intolerable scraping. The song of the night-
ingale, heard as above mentioned (the most favourable way of
hearing it), borrows something from the same cause, although
it certainly has less need to borrow.

The nightingale is local, confined to the chalky, gravelly,
and partially to the clayey soils, and shunning the rocky
country and also the marshes. The cause of this restriction
is rather obscure, and in all probability it is complex. The
places which it frequents are certainly those that abound most
in lepidopterous insects, whether moths or butterflies, and
within them it affects most the places where those insects
appear in the greatest abundance and variety. But we are not
warranted in concluding that food is the only circumstance
that regulates its distribution ; for within the places that it
does frequent, there are favourite spots, and they are always
those spots at which the air is most balmy, and the whole ve-
getation the most moist and kindly. To the margins of waters
it has no objection, but rather the reverse ; but it does not so
much affect marshy grounds as those where the soil is re-
tentive, the evaporation rank, and the vegetation austere.
Indeed, the clearness of its song is said to vary much with the
character of its locality.

tits. (Parus.)

Though the tits (or tit-mice) are often classed with gramini-
vorous birds, and have hard bills, harder, indeed, than many of
the species which deserve to be so classed, as feeding more
upon the seeds of vegetables than upon animal substances,
yet they are not more entitled to the appellation of grami-
nivorous than some of the warblers, if, indeed, they be as
much. They are, in fact, omnivorous, and might, without
impropriety, be placed among the birds to which that name

THE TITS. 347

is given, only they are small birds, and insects in some stage
of their existence form their chief food.

It may seem a very secondary matter, in so far as popular
and practical knowledge is concerned, in what part of the
system any genus of birds may happen to be placed ; but in
the case of the tit it is not unimportant. A bird that
eats seeds is a marked bird with the cultivator. Whenever
it makes its appearance on the ground in gardens, it is in
quest of the newly sown small seeds ; and if it happens to
twitter about among the sprays in the spring, then it is nip-
ping off the buds and destroying the beauty of the summer
and the wealth of the autumn. The tits do come to those
places at those times : and though they come to preserve
rather than to destroy, they come with the brand of seed and
bud-eating birds affixed to them, and, as such, they are de-
stroyed. Justice to the birds, and also to those who unwisely
persecute them, thus demands that they should be called by
the name of that food to which they are most partial, or in
search of which they are not only more assiduous and success-
ful, but employed more in the proper season, than many of the
birds which stand on the muster-roll as insectivorous, and
especially more than any of the warblers. These retire, leav-
ing the insects to deposit their eggs in the buds ; and before
they return, these eggs have been hatched, and the mischief
both to shoot and blossom has been done. The tits, on the
other hand, watch the buds, more especially the fruit buds,
from the time of their formation in the autumn, till they begin
to expand in the spring; and the number of the eggs and
larvae of the tortrices and other insects which they pick up,
would, if left, be quite sufficient to ruin the crops and disfigure
the trees.

The larvae of those lurking moths not only do mischief
themselves, but are also the cause of mischief being done by
others. The injury which they do to the young buds, in the
very cores of which they batten, gradually brings on that
languid action in the tree, in consequence of which the in-
fluence of the sun, which, in healthy plants, would bring out

348 INSECTIVOKA.

a rich and luxuriant foliage, induces a saccharine condition of
the sap, which fosters the congregating caterpillars, so that
they appear upon the tree in swarms, secure, during the day,
in their silken tents, but eating voraciously at night, till not a
particle of green is left ; so that if the tree does not perish, it
remains actionless for the year.

Nor is the mischief confined to the leaves ; for, without
their action, the sap does not change into a healthy cambium,
fit for producing the new layers of wood and of bark, which
when a tree ceases to produce, its decay is begun. The whole
active surface of the tree thus becomes saccharine, and is
infested with swarms of insects of different kinds, down to the
very roots ; and in the course of the summer, the bole and
branches become full of ulcerated and cankering sores ; half
the top dies, branch after branch, and the miserable remnant
of the erewhile fruitful and ornamental tree becomes equally
unproductive and unsightly.

When a tree is thus attacked, its recovery is always doubt-
ful, and generally hopeless. Wood and bark that have stood
more than one winter, are much less fit for vegetable action,
even though they have received no direct injury, than when
thev have stood only one. But in a tree which has been in-
jured as above described, the continuity of even the stiffened
vessels is broken, and the new production, even if the tree
lives, is wasted in unsightly gnarls and knobs, which give
farther shelter and protection to insects, and also form lodg-
ments for water, which stagnates and rots the wood. Head-
ing down and grafting is generally only loss of time and
labour ; and the diseased remains inoculate other trees.

Such would be the natural course with most trees, and
with all the finer fruit trees, especially if the buds were not
cleared by birds ; and among these birds, the garden-frequent-
ing tits stand as eminent as rooks do among those larger
birds which clear the fields from insects. Indeed, different as
they are in size and in many of their characters, the tits and
the crows resemble each other not a little in the form of their
bills, as well as in their miscellaneous and indiscriminate feed-

THE TITS. 349

ing, and also in the firmness of their plumage, the strongly
contrasted tints of their plumage, and their disposition to kill
and eat young and Aveakly birds.

The bills of the tits much more nearly resemble miniatures
of the bill of the magpie than they do that of either of the
insectivorous or the seed-eating little birds. They are small,
short, rather compressed, very firm and strong, and pointed
at the tip. The birds have very free, and, in proportion to
their size, powerful action of the neck, and they strike with the
point of the bill as with a pick-axe or chisel, and do not peck
or strike as the insectivorous birds do, or grind hard substances
between the oblique tomia, like the birds which feed on grain.

By this action of the beak, they can dig very successfully
into the crevices of bark, or the folds and hybernacula of
buds, and extract thence the larvae, of which they are such in-
cessant and general destroyers. When they eat seeds which
have hard testa or coats, they do not crush them, but tear
them in pieces by repeated strokes of the bill, as is done by
the nuthatch; and they also kill young and weak birds by
striking them on the head till they have broken the skull, the
contents of which they immediately devour. Some of their
habits, and also the command which those species that fre-
quent trees have of themselves upon the bark, would lead to
their classification with the creepers and nuthatch, only their
feet are different, and they have other habits that do not be-
long to those birds. They also capture prey by the snap of
the bill, and some of them are very successful fly-catchers
and bee-eaters.

Their flying feathers are very firm and stiff; the wings
rather rounded, the third or fourth quill being the longest,
and the first in some of the species merely rudimental. The
tails are in general strong and stiff; so that those species
which hunt on the bark of trees, can use them as supports ;
and they are more or less produced, and square or forked, ac-
cording to the habit of the species.

In fact, the tits have habits of so mixed a character, that
they do not accord well with any of the orders into which the

vol. i. 2 H

350 INSECTIVORA.

feathered tribes have been arranged ; though, as insects form
their prevailing food, they may perhaps, in the present state of
the science, be with more propriety classed with the insec-
tivora than with any other order. Their very name has been
objected to by some. Not the syllable " tit," which is so
general in its meaning that it might be applied equally to any
s^enus of " neat little" birds ; but the syllable " mouse,"
which is as descriptive of their habits as the name of a quad-
ruped can be of the habits of birds. One regrets the intro-
duction into natural history of that small verbal criticism,
which has no sense or meaning even in an etymological sense ;
because, when the public find that the professors of any
science are merely triflers, it is difficult to prevent them from
concluding that the science itself is a trifle, and avoiding it
accordingly.

There are eight species of tits enumerated as British birds ;
and they are probably all resident, though some of them are
much more common and generally distributed over the country
than others ; but there is one species about the habits of
which, as a British bird, very little is known.

the great tit. (Parus major.)

The great tit, " ox eye," or " torn tit," (the latter name is
also given to others of the genus,) is a woodland bird, very
general in all parts of Britain where trees abound, but rare
on the open champaigns, and unknown in the open wastes.
It is bright and well marked in its plumage, handsome in its
form, and brisk and lively in its manners ; and altogether one
of the most easily distinguished, most beautiful, and most
energetic, of our forest birds.

When full grown, its length is about five inches and a half,
the extent of its wings about eight and a quarter, and its
weight about an ounce and a quarter. Its air has a consider-
able resemblance to that of the magpie ; but its motions are
much quicker. The bill is stouter and more produced than
that of any of the other species ; both mandibles are curved
in their outline, and the upper one is very strong at the tip.

THE GREAT TIT. 351

The bill and claws are black; the latter strong in proportion
to the size of the bird, and the hind claw is long and strong,
and much crooked. The irides are black, and the feet and
toes blackish grey. The colours are black, olive green, bluish
grey, sulphur yellow, and white, rich in their tints, glossed
with reflections in the male bird, and disposed in the following
manner: the head and throat, as far as the middle of the neck,
glossy black with some purple reflections, and the black conti-
nued in a mesial line down the under part, as far as the lower
part of the belly. A bright white patch on each cheek,
pointed at the gape, passing under the eye, and rounded at
the other extremity, but with the black forming a sort of collar
beyond them on the sides of the neck. A patch of pure white
on the nape. The back and shoulders olive green, passing
into bluish grey on the rump and the tail and wing coverts.
The greater coverts with white tips, which form a bar across
the wing. Quills deep greenish grey, the primaries edged
with greenish white, and the secondaries with greenish grey.
Tail dark greenish grey, with the exterior webs of the outer
feathers white. Under part, with the exception of the black
mesial line, sulphur yellow; and the under tail coverts white.
The colours of the female are similar, only less brilliant in
their tints.

The great tit has a chattering rather than a singing voice ;
but it has considerable flexibility of utterance. As it hunts in
the trees, its chatter though not loud is harsh and grating,
resembling that which is produced by the filing of iron ; but
in the pairing time it has a note not very dissimilar to that of
the chaffinch ; and the alternation of the note with the chatter,
makes a sort of rude song, but that song continues only for a
short time.

The birds pair in February, and soon after retire to a little
greater distance from houses than that at which they are
found in the cold weather ; but they may still be found in
gardens and copses, though they keep more in the close
foliage than many other birds.

As, during summer, trees are the abode and pasture of the
great tits, they prefer holes in trees as nesting places, when

352 INSECTIVORA.

these are to be found in their locality; and if the tree be in
a state of decay, so that it can be chiselled by the stroke of
their bills, they trim, and probably sometimes wholly exca-
vate, nesting places for themselves. If the trees do not afford
a proper place, they will nestle in the holes of walls, and
trim the mortar, if there, to suit their purpose ; and in young
plantations which afford neither, they sometimes form their
nests in the thick herbage which surrounds the root of a young
fir ; but in these they nestle less frequently than in the others.
The quantity of materials in the nest varies with the situation.
In a deep hole of a tree, which is warm and sheltered, there
is sometimes little else than chips of wood which the birds
have detached; but in more exposed situations, the nest is
formed of moss, and lined with hair and feathers. The eggs
are numerous, often as many as ten or twelve, and seldom
fewer than eight : they are white, mottled with rust colour,
especially towards the thicker ends, and bear much resem-
blance to those of the nuthatch, only they are more nume-
rous, and the ground colour has a slight yellowish tinge.
There are often two broods in the year, so that the birds have
a laborious summer. The young come out of the egg in a
much less advanced state than many other birds. They are
blind, and remain so for a few days ; but as they eat heartily,
and both parents are equally industrious in feeding them,
they grow fast, and in the course of two or three weeks they
are able to fly. The brood are of a social disposition, and
continue hopping about in the trees adjoining the nest till the
moult, which takes place in about six weeks. When spring
comes, the family society breaks up by the pairing of the
young : the pairs are very attached and attentive to each
other. It is supposed that the attachment is for life ; and
that if they are not disturbed, they use the same nest for
many successive broods. Both birds assist in the building of
the nest, and also in the incubation. The two hatches, and
the number and voracity of the young in eaeh, keep the
birds fully employed during summer, so that they have less
time for sport than many of their fellow-tenants of the trees.
As, during that period, they are wholly insectivorous, the

THE GREAT TIT. 353

number of insects and larvae of which they clear the trees
is very considerable; and during the time that the young
birds are in rapid growth, the activity and industry of the
old ones are worthy of admiration. They are in continual
motion, now running along the branches, again leaping from
twig to twig so swiftly that their motions can hardly be dis-
covered, and ever and anon darting out a little to catch any
winged insect that may happen to come within the range of
their very acute vision. In extracting their smaller prey from
the chinks of the bark, the great tits, in all probability, use
the tongue as a prehensile instrument, for the point of it
terminates in four filaments, by which a very small object
could be embraced. It is also probably used in picking aphides
from the leaves and tender shoots.

Trees growing near rank places are preferred to those that
stand upon a clear surface, as they abound more in insects;
and the great tits may often be seen watching an opening
through which there is a current, or even attacking the bees
as they leave or return to a hive ; but the little thieves are so
clever that, even on the latter occasions, one can hardly bear
to drive them off.

When the house-flies become languid in the autumn, the
tits capture them in vast numbers ; and when insects fail, they
make prize of the autumnal spiders. In the dead season,
when insect life is chiefly in the egg, though they hunt for
the eggs with great diligence, yet they do not find in them a
sufficient supply of food. At that time they pick up nuts,
acorns, and the capsular fruits of other trees, hold them in
their claws, and hammer away with the bill, till the hardest
shell or toughest capsule is opened. They also eat the seeds
of the grasses, especially those that are of an oily nature, and
of such size that they can hold them in the foot, and pick
them open, for they do not grind or bruise with the edges of
the bill. They feed greedily upon carrion ; and when they
come upon other birds in a benumbed or exhausted state,
they dispatch and eat them, first breaking and then emptying
the skull.

When the snow lies heavy on the ground they approach
2 h 2

354 INSECTIVOKA.

liouses, and hunt about for any offal that may come in their
way. They are very partial to thatched roofs, as numbers of
the insects which remain dormant in the winter hide them-
selves there. The birds cling to the eaves with their back
undermost, and draw out the straws very dexterously and ex-
peditiously one after another, scrutinizing the whole length
as it passes ; and dropping them as soon as they are cleared,
or it is discovered that they present nothing eatable. So
successful are they in that operation, that they soon bring out
a heap of thatch ; and, though that is, of course, no part of
their purpose, assist in forming a nestling-place for the spar-
rows. They also sometimes draw straws from corn-stacks;
but they do that much more rarely than some of the birds
which feed more exclusively upon vegetable matters. While
engaged in these labours they continue repeating their grating
cry; but as soon as the weather begins to relent, they resort
to the trees, preparatory to the labours of the summer, which,
in their case, is no idle time.

THE COLE-TIT. (PciriCS dter.)

The cole-tit is a woodland bird, as well as the former
species ; but it inhabits colder places, where the trees are of
more stunted growth, and is also more abundant in copses
and young plantations on the margins of the wilds. It is
found in all the wooded parts of Scotland, even to a consider-
able height in the mountain glens ; and is indeed much more
abundant in that part of the island than in England. In
both countries, perhaps, it has been confounded with another
species, that which is, not with the strictest propriety per-
haps, called the marsh tit. But though the two are often
found as neighbours, their appearance, their habits, and their
haunts, are all perfectly distinct. The cole-tit has the black
on the head extending to the lower part of the neck, but pied
with three bright and very conspicuous patches of white ; an
oblong one from the gape to the lower part of the neck, on
each side, pointed forward at the upper extremity and back-

THE COLE-TIT. 355

ward at the lower, and in some positions of the head ex-
tending to the white on the shoulder, and one on the nape
wholly within the black at the lower edge. The black on the
head of the marsh-tit does not come below the eye, but forms
a remarkably-well denned cap extending from the bill to the
nape ; and the black on the throat is much narrower, so that
it is visible only in certain positions. In the cole-tit the head
is rather flattened on the crown, while that of the marsh
species is a full and remarkably graceful curve. The other
colours are equally different, but there are sufficient to distin-
guish the species both in the males and the females, as the
sexes differ little from each other in their plumage.

The cole-tit sings, and the marsh one is comparatively
silent, or at least only chatters. The song of the cole-tit is
not indeed one of many notes, or of mellifluous inflexions ; it is
little else than the same note repeated four or five times, but
with so much variety of pitch and tune as to form a sort of
cadence, which would make a good variety any where, as it
is shrill and clear, and which is particularly welcome and
cheering in those mountain woods which the summer war-
blers but rarely visit. The bird sings in the noon-tide heat,
when most birds, and especially those on the open wastes,
with which the haunts of this species are usually interspersed,
are silent. While the cole-tit is singing away in the planta-
tion of half-grown pines, often heard, but seldom seen, the
marsh species may be seen flitting about among the long and
fragrant broom which often grows thick in the neighbourhood ;
but as the one is heard while the other is seen, that causes
them to be sometimes confounded.

As the cole-tit is found, though in very different degrees
of abundance, in most wooded parts of the country, and (to
my observation) least plentifully in the richer and more humid
districts, it is not easy to say what description of woodland is
its favourite locality. I should feel inclined to say, in fir
plantations, upon places that are rather elevated and dry, and
while the trees are so young as to be closely branched nearly
to the ground, or on the outskirts of the natural forests,
where the trees are more apart than in the centre, and never

356 INSECTIVORA.

so completely lose their lateral branches, and where young
ones have space and air to spring up.

In a fir plantation, which is neither so low as to partake of
the mushroom growth of pines (especially pinus sylvestris)
upon too rich soils, or too inland and upland, there is a suc-
cession of birds. Linnets and other brake birds come to them
as long as they are mere bushes ; but the note of the cuckoo
is not heard in them. After a while, the cole-tit becomes one
of their most plentiful inhabitants ; and by that time the
cuckoo perches and sings on the margin. A few years longer
and the ring-dove moans in the tops of the trees, which have
then begun to open towards the surface of the ground, and the
cover for the brake birds, and nesting places for all birds that
breed hideling and near the earth, are gone. The cuckoo is
then heard less frequently, unless there are coppices of deci-
duous trees, or young pines come up in succession, in the
vicinity. If the trees form a belt between rich grounds, the
magpie, though he loves the " home" trees better, will some-
times come a little after the wood-pigeon ; and if the planta-
tion is deep and secluded, the jay will, perhaps, come a little
earlier. To all these succeeds the rook, which nestles in the
mature trees, with the long boles clear of branches, and he
quits them not till they are cut down or perish in the lapse
of time.

The cole-tit is usually described as nestling in the holes of
trees and of walls ; but in the above-mentioned places, which,
as they are those in which the birds are most abundant, must
be considered as the most natural to them, there are no such
holes in which they can nestle. Walls there are none ; and
pines do not fall into holes in which birds of any kind could
nestle. When they do decay it is always first in the albur-
num, and they are generally barked and bleached before
then. In these situations it nestles something in the same
manner as mice nestle ; but. not in their holes, because young
pine plantations upon erewhile moors being but bare pastures
for murine quadrupeds of any sort, there are not many mice
in them. The nest is in the close shrubby vegetation near
the ground, formed externally of moss and wool, and lined

THE COLE-TIT. 357

with hair. Where there is no cover of underwood, it, of
course, must build in other places ; and, as it always hides its
nest, the holes of walls and of trees are, no doubt, the best and
readiest places that it can find. The eggs in a hatch vary from
four to ten, they are of a purer white than those of the great
tit, but mottled in the same manner.

The buds come less frequently near houses than the former
species, and when they do they are not so shy, though they
are to the full as quick and lively in their motions. Their
food is not quite so well known ; but their bills are so well
adapted for digging into the fissures of bark (and these appear
very early on pines towards the roots), and their air and
expression so much resemble those of the fly-catchers, that
insects and larva; must form their chief food in the summer,
and probably they dig out the larvse that burrow in the bark in
winter.

The cole-tit is a very small bird, the length being not
quite four inches and a half, and the weight little more than
half an ounce. The wings stretch seven inches. The bill,
head, and neck, with the exception of the patches of white on
the cheeks and neck, are deep glossy black. The upper part
of the breast, and the shoulders in a line bordering the black,
are white, passing into yellowish white in the lower part,
and deepening in the yellow tint, and tinged with grey towards
the rump. Back and scapulars (from the white margin)
greenish grey, wing coverts bluish grey, with pale ash-
coloured tips to the feathers forming two bars on the wing.
The colour of the back passing gradually into a yellowish grey
on the rump. Quills and tail feathers ash grey, the former
with the margins paler : feet and toes bluish grey. The tail is
a little forked, and stouter in proportion than that of any other
of the genus.

the marsh-tit. (Parus palustris.)

The marsh-tit is one of those birds which, from seeking
their food under cover of brakes, copses, and other under-
wood, and being seldom on the wing, except while flitting

358 INSECTIVOEA.

from bush to bush, and otherwise hideling in their habits, are
sometimes described as being much less abundant than they
really are.

It is about the same length in the body as the cole-tit, but
the tail is at least half an inch longer, the body is thicker, and
the weight one half more, or about three drachms, the other
being about two. The wings, too, are an inch longer, being at
least eight inches in extent.

The plumage is more downy and free from gloss than that of
the former species ; and the black on the head is not so deep,
though, from being entire and having no lustre, it shows better.
The bill is dusky, the head, as far as the nape and eyes, and
the centre of the chin, black. The rest of the upper part
smoke grey, with a slight yellowish tinge ; the under part
cream colour, with traces of pale brownish buff. The wings
and tail feathers bluish grey, with the margins a shade lighter.
The feet and toes bluish grey. The colours, and also the
lustreless surface, which makes them appear the same in all
lights, are sober and soft, with the exception of the well-defined
black cap on the head, but they harmonize very pleasantly :
and as the shape of the bird, especially that of the head and
neck, is very handsome, there are really few more classically
beautiful birds in the brake.

Its haunts appear to be different in different parts of the
country, those in which it finds tall brakes or low copses ;
but it can hardly be considered as a marsh bird. It is found
in broom brakes and in copses of deciduous trees, and rarely
in furze or other prickly evergreens. A hollow stump near
the ground is preferred for the nest, and as that is abundant
in willow grounds, and also in the stools of oak copses that
are cut for bark, it is found among them ; but finding a tree
fit for its accommodation, it nestles in the thick of the bushes ;
and in the broom its nest is found near the roots. The nest
is formed of moss and vegetable down, the latter, of course,
varying with the haunt. The eggs are about the same in
number as those of the cole-tit, but a little larger, and the
spots more numerous and rather closer together at the thick
ends.

THE LONG-TAILED TIT. 359

In summer these birds consume a great number of flies,
bees, wasps, moths, and all winged insects generally ; and
when the animal supply fails, as the birds do not resort so
much to the holes, high branches, and buds of trees, as most
others of the genus, they feed more on seeds, especially those
of the composite flowers ; but they also resort to the farm-
yards in winter, and do not refuse carrion or any other animal
garbage, if it comes in their way.

THE LONG-TAILED TIT. (PciTUS CaitdatUS.)

This species (which, from the peculiar form of its nest, is
called the " bottle-tit," or " bottle-tom," though these names
are local, and have little truth of application) is the smallest,
but, at the same time, one of the most active and beautiful of
the genus.

The whole length of the bird is about five inches and a half,
of which the tail occupies three ; so that the body is really
shorter than that of any other British bird ; but it is thick
and firm in proportion to the length, and the weight is nearly
equal to that of the cole-tit. The bill is very short, and as
the feathers on the head are rather produced, it appears
shorter than it really is ; and the lively attitude and peculiar
markings of the plumage give it a fiercer aspect than any of
the others. The bill and feet are dusky, inclining to black ;
and the irides dark hazel, with a ring of reddish orange
margining the orbit of the eye. From the bill to the nape
there extends a prominent band of white feathers, which are
pointed, and stand half erected, hiding anteriorly the nostrils
and basal part of the bill, and more or less tinged with rose
colour towards the nape, and less or more marked with grey
or dusky at the tips. Below these there is an arch of black
feathers, pointing upwards, which extend from a little before
the eye to the nape, where they meet, and the black con-
tinues on the anterior part of the shoulders, and along the
middle of the back, in a line gradually diminishing in breadth.
Around the eye a radiated patch of white, narrow between
the e^re and the gape, but extending, with pointed feathers,

360 IXSECT1VOEA.

backwards on the cheek, downwards on the side of the neck,
and forwards to the throat, till it blends with the white upon
that and the breast. The feathers on the throat are rather
produced and pointed, and some of them marked with grey or
dusky on the points. The sides of the back and the scapulars
are pale rose red, with some of the feathers margined with
white, and others with black or dusky on the central parts.
The quills are black, and the secondaries black or dusky,
margined with white. The white on the throat and upper
part of the breast passes into pale ash grey, which is more
or less blended with pale rose colour, especially on the flanks,
but partially along the whole of the under part, as far as the
under tail coverts. The tail, which is as remarkable for its
straightness as for its length, has the four middle feathers en-
tirely black, and longer than the rest, and the others margined
with white on their outer webs, and white at the tips, excepting
the two next the black ones, which are white at the tips only.

The sexes very much resemble each other in their plumage,
but the colours in different individuals are subject to con-
siderable variation. In some, the dark arch over the eye is
wanting, and in others the greater part of the cheeks is
dusky, with only a few white feathers radiating from the eye.
But the form and size of the birds are so peculiar, that they
are at once known from every other species, whatever may be
their colour.

They are tree birds, or more strictly bush birds, and keep
so closely to their cover, that they appear much less numerous
than they really are. That is not owing to any deficiency in
wing ; for though the wings are short in proportion to the tail,
they are not so in proportion to the weight of the bird.

The flight is vigorous for such small birds, and the length of
tail gives them a very peculiar appearance.

Long-tailed tits are among the most active and even la-
borious of birds ; and diminutive as they are in size, they are
so well knit in their little bodies, that it appears as if no de-
gree of fatigue could wear them out. Their food appears to be
the very smallest species of insects in the hedges and copses;
and though the number of these be great, the individuals are

THE LONG-TAILED TIT. 361

so minute, that it requires many of them to form a meal even
for a long-tailed tit. The birds are accordingly incessantly
in motion among the twigs the live-long day, and never use
their wings in sportive flight, but in leaping from spray to.
spray, or posting from bush to bush. Saw-flies and their
larvse, and eggs, aphides, ants, small spiders, and generally all
the minute creatures with which the twigs and branches
swarm in summer, constitute their food at that season of the
year; and as the first races of these make their appearance,
even with a mid-clay gleam, in the very early part of the sea-
son, and continue race after race, till the very latest period of
the autumn, there is plenty for the birds for at least nine
months of the year, only that plenty is not procurable with-
out incessant activity. When the insects in the laiwa or the
winged state and the little spiders fail, there still remains a
plentiful supply of eggs ; and the absence of the leaves makes
the niches in which these are concealed, whether that be a
silken nest or a gummy case, much more easily seen than
during the season of even that decaying verdure in which the
eggs are deposited. Thus, the concealment of the leaves
while the germs of broods for the future year are committed
to the trees, is of advantage both to the preyers and the prey.
While the foliage remains, the birds cannot easily find the
eggs; and thus they are obliged to hunt for the grown insects,
many of which they capture merely in time to save them from
perishing in the course of nature, which they in general do
very soon after the eggs are deposited. The insects are so
much more numerous than the birds, that notwithstanding the
captures which these make, the eggs that are deposited would
produce probably a hundred times more than the stock of the
former year; and minute as the individuals are, and few as
are all the races that are found in the haunts of the long--
tailed tit, as compared with those in the whole country, yet,
if the whole deposit of one year were to come to maturity, the
injury which they would do to vegetation would be very great,
and their numbers would bring about their own extermina-
tion ; but when the leaves and herbage, under cover of which
vol. i. 2 I

362 INSECTIVORA.

the eggs are deposited, are in the course of nature cleared
away, as many of these are disclosed to the acute vision of
the bird as serves for a winter supply ; and in procuring that,
the birds display the same energy, and the same curious atti-
tudes, as the crested wrens, with which they are not unfre-
quently found in company.

It is probable, however, that though the bird is a little
larger than the golden-crested wren, (it is very nearly the
same as the fiery-crested,) it feeds upon smaller prey. From
the centre of the eyes to the tip of the bill, is only four-tenths
of an inch, while that in the golden-crested wren is one one-
half more, or six-tenths. Hence it is probable that, in its
vision, the long-tailed tit is the most microscopic of birds.
Now it accords with analogy, and with observation, as far as
that can be carried, that the shortest focal length of the eye,
that at which minute objects can be distinctly seen, is never
much longer (if longer at all) than the distance from the
eye to the tip of the bill ; and nearer than that would be
useless.

Hence we have a very easy means of judging of the rela-
tive power of vision in those birds which feed upon very small
substances, and which, being hard-billed, as the tits are, or
not having the bill covered with a sentient membrane, or the
nasal groove continued to the point of it, as is the case in that
most singular of all birds, the apteryx, or wingless bird, of
New Zealand, must feed wholly, or chiefly, by sight.

In the average of human eyes, of good formation, and in a
healthy state, the common focal distance for small objects,
such as for reading very small print, is about seven inches
and a half; and the microscopic distance, such as that at
which a very delicate engraving is examined, (and that re-
quires a little time for the adjustment of the eye), is about
one-third less, or five inches. The bird must often strike its
prey without any time for adjustment, and therefore the dis-
tance from the eye to the bill may be taken as the ordinary
short focal length ; but call it microscopic, and the magnify-
ing power in line being inversely as the focal length, the

THE LONG-TAILED TIT.

363

lineal dimensions of an object seen by the long-tailed tit, will
be, to that of the same seen by the human eye, as five inches
to four- tenths of an inch, or as twelve and a half to one.
The surface will of course be as the square, or as 156^ to 1;
and the body, or solid of an object, as the cube, or 1953-g to
I. Thus an aphis, or any other small insect that can come
wholly within the field of vision, will appear very nearly as
large to the long-tailed tit as two thousand of the same would
do to the human eye.

As the subject is one of considerable interest, and not
generally noticed by authors, it may not be amiss to state the
relative magnifying powers, as compared with the human eye,
of the eyes of some of the other birds that subsist chiefly by
picking their prey from the bark and the buds of trees.

RELATIVE MAGNIFYING POWERS OF THE HUMAN EYE AND
THE EYES OF BIRDS.

Green Wood-pecker .

Creeper, andLargeTit
Crested Wrens ....
Cole Tit

Long-tailed Tit ....

FOCAL
LF.NGTH.

LIKE.

SURFACE

BULK.

Inches.

5-

2-25

1-

•85

•7

•6

•5

•45

•4

Times.
1-

2-2

5-

5-8

7-1

8-3

10-

11-1

12-5

Times.
1-

4-84

25-

28-64

50-11

68-89

100-

123-21

156-25

Times.
1.

10-648

125-

166-112

355-781

571-787

1000-

1367-631

1953-125

This table will be easily understood. The first column of
numbers is the focal lengths of the eyes in inches and deci-

364 IUSECTITOKA.

nials, and it is found by actual measurement. The second
column is the number of times, and decimals of a time, that
the eye of each of the birds, whose names are prefixed, mag-
nifies in line, as compared with the standard of the human
eye, at five inches' distance ; and the numbers are found by
dividing five inches by the focal length of the eye as stated
in the first column. The third column is the magnifying
powers in surface, and the numbers in it are found by multi-
plying those in the second column by themselves. The num-
bers in the last column are the magnifying powers in bulk,
and they are found by multiplying together the corresponding
numbers in the second and third columns. In consequence of
the greater magnifying power, an insect a quarter of an inch
long will appear as large to the eye of the long-tailed tit, as
the common mouse does to the eye of man, when held as near
as it can be seen.

The microscopic power of the eyes of those little birds
which seek for minute prey on the bark of trees, is, therefore,
as wonderful as the telescopic range of the eyes of eagles and
other birds which soar aloft, and scan a horizon of miles ; and
not the least wonderful part of the whole matter is, the ease
with which the eye changes from telescope to microscope.
The eye of the eagle, which can discern the motion of a small
quadruped at the distance of more than a mile, can shorten
its focus, so as to be keen and perfect at the distance of a
few inches : and the tit, to whose near vision the eggs of flies
must appear as large as musket bullets do to us, feels no diffi-
culty at seeing a bush at the distance of more than a hundred
yards. We may admire, but we cannot imitate, that wonder-
ful mechanical skill which can, in an organ not altogether
larger than a pepper-corn, produce so many focal lengths in
the same crystalline lens, instantly adapt the retina, or sen-
tient tissue, to all of them, manage the admission of the pro-
per light by the iris, and remove the colours and correct the
aberrations by the other humours — all, as it were, in an in-
stant, without effort, and (to use the common, though un-
philosophical terms) without will or even consciousness on the

THE LONG-TAILED TIT. 365

part of the owner. But curious as the subject is, and wide
and wonderful as is the field of investigation to which (if pro-
perly followed out) it would lead, we must leave it, with our
warmest recommendation, to the attention of even the common
reader, (to the scientific it needs no recommendation,) and
return to the individual bird in which the microscopic power
is so very great.

But though the vision of these little birds is thus remark-
ably nice and microscopic, capable of discerning clearly objects
which to our eyes are not at all visible, yet it is not to be
supposed that they depend wholly upon the eye in all then-
motions. Eyes have, no doubt, a wonderful flexibility in their
focal length, so that the same eye is to a very considerable
extent both a microscope and a telescope. But still then-
flexibility, or power of adaptation, in that way, has a limit;
and as the focal length of the long-tailed tit's eye is not a
twelfth part of that of the human eye, we may suppose that it
cannot see so well at the distance of half a mile as man does
at the distance of twelve miles.

Indeed the estimate should be taken somewhat differently ;
the mean range of near distance in the human eye is pro-
bably about half the length of the arm — say about fifteen
inches, as that is the medium point to which the eye guides
the hand ; and thus the acting focal length of the human eye
is between thirty and forty times that of the long-tailed tit's
eye, so that one furlong is as telescopic to it as five miles are
to man; and that man would be sharp-sighted who could
distinguish a loaf of bread from a grey stone at the distance of
five miles.

But the tits find out carrion at long distances, probably at
the distance of several miles, and therefore we must suppose
that they are, on their long flights, guided by some other
means than sight. What these means are, whether scent or
some other species of perception, to which, as a sense, we can
give no name, we do not know, and it is neither useful nor
wise to speculate. In matters of reasoning and inference we
are free from the trammels of the body, but, in matters of

2i2

366 IXSECTIVOIiA.

mere animal sensation, we can know nothing beyond the
power of our own organs of sense, or of the artificial means by
which we can contrive to improve these. Science has yet
found out no contrivance by which the sense of smelling can
be improved. Indeed, as the sense of smell is in a great
measure " a feeding" sense, the probability is that our acute-
ness in the use of it diminishes as the comforts of society
improve. At all events, we are far less acute than man in
the savage state ; and we say proverbially, " A hungry man
smells meat afar." No doubt the saying is allegorical ; but
when we find an allegory made a proverb, we may in general
depend upon the literal foundation being a well-known fact.
The subject is an exceedingly curious one ; because it in-
volves not only the flights of birds from place to place within
the same country, but also the means by which they are
guided upon their longer migrations. So far as the bird is
driven from the place which it leaves, Ave can and do under-
stand ; but how it is directed to the place to which it comes
is beyond our philosophy, because the data by means of which
alone we could work it out, are beyond the cognizance of our
senses. Where knowledge is attainable, it is our own fault
and misfortune if we remain ignorant ; but there are subjects
which appear to be under the taboo of nature, and to waste
our time and labour on these is among the worst species of
idleness. But let us return to the bird.

It is not in the procuring of its own food alone that the
long-tailed tit has to labour diligently ; its brood is very
numerous, and they are as assiduously fed, and far more
comfortably, nay, elegantly lodged, than those of any other
birds.

The- nest of this species has always attracted notice as the
model of neatness and warmth among nests, and we have
very accurate descriptions of it handed down from times at
which the habits, and even the forms of birds, were but im-
perfectly known.

The nest is a structure formed by the patient and incessant
labour of both birds for at least a month, even in those places

THE LONG-TAILED TIT. 367

where materials are most abundant, and requiring five or six
weeks where these are more scanty. It is placed in the fork
of a small mossy tree, or among the thick twigs of a shrub,
often of a hawthorn, and sometimes of an evergreen ; but
it is seldom more than three or four feet from the ground,
and generally, if not always, more or less within the cover of
the sprays. In form, it is an elongated spheroid, or rather
that of an egg placed on the larger end ; and in appearance
and texture it is very like a short decayed stump which has
become coated over with lichens, and it is as firm in texture
as it is neat and regular in form. The main fabric is closely
made of moss, taken in very small pieces, and matted together
with animal fibre, rarely with wool, as the bird does not range
so far from the bushes as to be much of a wool-gatherer, but
principally with what may be called tree or bark silk ; that
is not the thread of spiders, either those that are spun for
snares, or as gossamer, to waft the spinners through the air,
for the last of these hardly stand a shower, and the first dis-
appear during the winter ; but the silken cocoons, indiscrimi-
nately, perhaps, of the crysalides of insects and the eggs of
spiders, both of which are much less perishable, and conse-
quently much more abundant in the early part of the season,
when the birds build.

These materials are firmly interwoven. But, though the term
is sometimes applied, they are not felted, as they are not of
a feltable nature, even though the birds could perform that
operation ; and as it is an operation which no bird can perform,
the name ought never to be used in describing the texture of
nests. The two materials form a stronger fabric than could
be made of any of them singly. The moss gives bulk and
stiffness, and the silky filaments cohesion ; and as the birds
are microscopic in their vision, have perfect command over
their short bills, and apply these materials by very small por-
tions at a time, the fabric is beautifully put together, and
when there are twigs in the way, the nest is so closely worked
upon these, that it cannot be removed entire unless they are
taken along with it. Externally it is coated with lichens and

368 INSECT1V0HA.

liverworts, applied in small pieces, but so close as to hide all
the substantive materials, and so firmly worked in, that not a
bit falls off. The inside is cai'efully lined with feathers, the
tubes or quills of which are worked into the fabric, so that
nothing can be felt internally but the down and sides, of which
there are several falls, as there are in the clothing feathers of a
bird. The whole nest, dome and all, is lined in this manner ;
so that the nest, when finished, is equally secure against rain
and change of temperature.

The entrance is by an aperture in the side, towards the top
of the structure ; and there are, in some instances, two such
apertures, the one nearly opposite the other, the feathers
around which are so worked into the fabric as, when not pushed
aside by the birds, to form a sort of curtain. The interior
is usually of sufficient size to contain both birds during the
night ; and they, in the case of two apertures, sit with the
head of the male out at the one, and the tail of the female out
at the other, so that both apertures are partially closed, and
the male is ready to start out, as soon as there is light
enough for hunting. But, notwithstanding these precautions,
the long tails of the birds are often so much bent, torn, and
otherwise injured, during the incubation, that they do not
regain their peculiar flight, which is something resembling
that of a short dart armed with a long feather, till after the
moult.

The nest is altogether one of the most extraordinary of
animal structures. It is built wholly of gathered materials,
without any secretion by the birds either as a cement or other-
wise. That any bird uses a secretion of its own body in the
construction of its nest, cannot indeed be regarded as an
absolutely demonstrated truth, and in the case of the long-
tailed tit, rational hypothesis does not go so far even as to
lead to the belief that any of the materials adhere to each
other by being glutinous, because in that case they would be
as likely to adhere to the dry surface of the bill, or at least to
the produced feathers at its base, as to any thing else. Thus
the nest in question must be regarded as being wholly a me-

THE LONG-TAILED TIT. 369

chanical structure, owing' its compactness to the manner in
which the materials are put together ; and, in the mere union
of its parts, perhaps it is the finest mechanical structure, in-
dependently of living structures, that is any where to be met
with. The best of human workmen would find more difficulty
in imitating the execution of a long-tailed tit's nest, than in
imitating any work of human art.

Nor is that at all to be wondered at, when we consider the
implements with which it is made. The power which the
bird has of perching on one foot, if necessary, so as to have
perfect command of its whole body ; the nice, yet powerful
forceps formed by the firm, short, and pointed bill ; the in-
numerable motions that may be given to them by their own
peculiar muscles, and the motions of the neck, and of the
whole body, if necessary ; and the high magnifying power of
the eye, which guides the whole ; are altogether vastly supe-
rior to any set of tools with which man can be furnished. A
power of four, or one inch and a quarter focal length, is
inconvenient even in very small works, and a power of six
has so small a field, that it can hardly be used ; but the
bird has a power of more than twelve in its natural sight — so
that, with that power, it commands any extent of field, fully
better than we can do, with the naked eye, at the distance
which answers to a power of eight. When we reflect upon
these adaptations, we may cease to wonder that the work itself
excels our art.

In the early part of the season, the male of these birds has
a weak, but not an unpleasant song; but when the season
has advanced so far that the labours of it are in vigorous pro-
gress, there is little leisure for singing. While the nest is
building, the birds have barely time to feed ; and when the
eggs are laid, the one sits while the other feeds, the male
going out first in the morning, and the female last at night.
The eggs vary in number, from eight or ten to twelve or
fifteen, of a clear white gi^ound, more or less marked (but
always sparingly) with small red specks towards the thick
ends ; but they appear of a pink colour when held up against

370 INSECTIYORA.

the light : they are not much larger than peas. Unless the
eggs are removed and the feathers carefully examined, the total
number is not easily discovered, as they are always in part
buried in the soft lining of the nest.

When the young are fledged, they continue for the re-
mainder of the season together, and with the parent birds ;
and in the cold weather they roost for the night all huddled
together on the same twig, and, indeed, seldom quit the bushes
even at that season. The latter circumstance has led some
to conclude that they are migratory, which, however, does
not appear to be generally the case, though they may, under
certain circumstances, shift their ground. They are birds of
rich and rather humid situations, where the seasons are mild,
and small insects abound in summer and their eggs in winter,
and where the foliage is close during the former season, and
the leafless sprays thick during the latter. Their peculiar
form, their diminutive size, their lively action, their laborious
lives, their beautiful nests, the number of their broods, and
their strong and lasting family attachments, render them
among the most interesting of our little birds.

THE BLUE TIT. (PcirilS CCETuleiCS.)

The blue tit, of which a figure is given on the plate
opposite, on a scale of one third of the lineal dimensions, is
a very beautiful and lively little bird ; and few of the British
s|)ecies are either so generally distributed or so numerous in
their localities. In some places of the country it is called the
tom-tit, and in others the " ox-eye ;" but as both of these
names are, in other places, given to the great tit, it is better,
for general purposes, to avoid them altogether, and retain only
that trivial name which is expressive of the prevailing colour
of the upper part of the bird, and thus can lead to no mistake
in any district.

The colours, though different in their tints from those of
the great tit, bear some resemblance to them in their dis-
position. The forehead, sides of the head, and cheek, are

THE BLUE TIT. 371

white, divided by a black line across the eye ; the crown of
the head is blue ; the nape, and collar round the neck, bright
azure ; the back a mixed tint of azure, grey, and green, the
azure generally predominating, but all confluent without
mottling; the wings and tail are pale blue, the greater coverts
of the former with white tips ; the throat and mesial line on
the under part, deep blackish blue ; the breast pale yellow,
passing into darker and greyish yellow on the sides ; the bill
and feet blackish grey. The colours of the male are subject
to some variations, in all probability climatal ones, as in hot
countries the blue on the back, which has always a tinge of
greenish grey, becomes olive green, and even inclines to
dusky, or black, and the yellow on the under part becomes
paler. The female is a little paler in the tints than the male,
has less blue on the head, and is rather smaller in size. The
young birds have the light parts more inclining to yellow, and
the dark more of a greyish and greenish cast, than the birds
in mature plumage.

If the length of tail in the last species be included, it is
longer than the present; but as the tail is not half the length,
the body of the bird is longer ; and it is also more stoutly
formed, and one half heavier, being rather more than three
eighths of an ounce. The length from the eye to the point of
the bill has been already stated as being the shortest of any
British bird, excepting the long-tailed tit. It is considerably
shorter, in proportion to the size and weight of the bird, than
that of the great tit ; and hence the blue one is the most expert
in the capture of very small game ; and its stroke and bite are
sharper in proportion.

The blue tit is a tree or bush bird, like most of the other
species; but it is an inhabitant of the cultivated lands and
their margins, rather than of the wilds. It nestles, and indeed
generally lodges for the night, in holes of trees or of walls,
and it is said to vary them with the season, choosing warmer
ones in winter and colder ones in summer, though that wants
confirmation; but the trees may be considered as its native
pastures, in which, during the greater part of the year, it hunts

372 I>TSECTIVOKA.

for insects and larvse. It is, perhaps, more incessant than
any other bird in hunting the buds and branches of trees,
especially of fruit trees near houses, for its insect prey. But
it is not confined to these. It will eat any animal matter
either in a recent or putrid state ; and it appears to scent
animal remains at a considerable distance, as it hovers about
slaughter-houses, dog-kennels, and other places where there
are animal scraps or carrion. It also haunts the neighbour-
hood of houses, and picks bones, eats bits of fat or any refuse
that it can find ; and when opportunity favours, it kills other
birds by punching them on the head, and picks their bones as
clean as if they were cleaned by the thousands of an ant-hill.
Dead birds are, of course, lawful prize, for which it searches
under trees and hedges after severe weather. It is, in short,
a very omnivorous bird, and plays the scavenger with equal
diligence and grace. It is also very bold and familiar, and
will alight among the poultry in the farm-yard or the dogs in
the kennel ; nor does it much heed the presence of people
under the trees upon which it is hunting.

The last trait of its character makes it easily studied ; and
the best trees for watching it in are standard apple trees which
are partially injured by insects. Dull days, threatening rain,
in the summer months, and the mornings in the autumn and
spring, are the best times for observing it. In summer it
lurks more within the trees than at other times, though not so
much upon the bole and larger branches as the nuthatch and
creeper. In autumn and spring, as well as in winter, (though
at that season it sometimes finds the ground a better pasture
than the trees,) it is more among the buds, and though it
may sometimes drive off clean buds in the bustle and activity
of its search, it probably does not pick off any with its bill,
except such as contain the eggs or the larvae of insects.

Granting that it does sometimes take off buds which would
produce shoots or fruit notwithstanding the insects that are
in them, or even buds in which there are no insects, it must
not be supposed that the effect is always mischievous. Whe-
ther the beauty of trees can or cannot be improved by pruning

THE BiUE TIT. 373

is a matter of taste ; but it is matter of fact, that judicious
pruning does improve the value both of timber trees and
fruit trees, by producing long straight boles in the former,
and more abundant or larger fruit on the latter. There no
doubt remains a question as to the quality of the timber and
the flavour of the fruit, but there is none as to the market-
able appearance. If the pruning is delayed till the shoots
that are regarded as injurious be grown, all that part of the
action of the tree which went to their formation is lost ; and
in the case of forest trees, the wound made by the removal of
a large branch injures the timber, and in fruit trees it hastens
the decay of the tree. Insects do not generally deposit their
eggs on the most forward and principal buds ; and thus the
ones which they do attack are those which can be best spared
— spared with advantage, if the destruction were to be con-
fined to them ; and it is no exaggeration to say that, in many
instances, the valuable part of the tree grows twice as much
in the course of the year, in consequence of the pruning which
the inferior parts have received from those birds which nip
off the tainted buds for the sake of the insects they contain.
Among these birds, especially in gardens and orchards, the
blue tit holds a conspicuous place ; and therefore it ought
to be hailed as a welcome, and cherished as a most useful,
servant.

It also has recourse to vegetable food, to the oily seeds at
all times when the supply of insects fails, and to grain, espe-
cially oats, when the ground is covered with snow, and food is
not to be had either in copse or field. On such occasions it
draws the oat ricks, and perching on a bush with one foot,
holds the grain with the other, till it has divided the husk by
repeated strokes of its bill. It will also attack a pea or nut,
but does that on the ground. The activity and resources of
the bird, during the inclement season, are not less interesting
than its action in the trees at other times.

The blue tits feel the influence of the season early, and
although the male can hardly be said to have a song, he
testifies his feeling by two chirping notes, that are lively,

vol. i. 2 k

374

I>'SECTlVORA.

though not musical, and he is much more bustling than at
other times. The nest is formed in holes of trees or walls,
and sometimes among the thickly matted herbage at the root
of a bush. The body of it is composed of moss, and the
lining of hair or feathers. A hole, when it can be had, is
preferred to any other situation, and it is often trimmed by
excavation. The eggs are from six to eight or ten, of a white
ground with rust-coloured specks at the thick end. In the
latter stage of the incubation the female is a very resolute
sitter ; and, as she has no back door for retreat, she defends
the entrance to the nest with great boldness and determina-
tion, erecting her feathers, hissing and biting very sharply,
and no doubt offering successful resistance to predatory birds,
secured as she is from attack every where save in front. It
is not personal safety that induces her to be thus bold ; for if
taken forcibly from the nest, she will fly straight back to it,
and offer the same resistance as before. It is only in the later
stage, however, when exposure to the air would be most in-
jurious, that she is so resolute. At other times, if an egg is
broken, or the nest is otherwise altered or deranged in her
absence, she will abandon it and commence anew ; but if no
accident happen, the pair (generally at least) rear only one
brood in the season, with which they resort to the gardens
(if these have not been their nesting places) rather early, and
commit depredations by digging into the wormed fruit. The
birds are of rather pugnacious dispositions, and very forward
in the attack of any strange bird, however large, that may
appear in their haunts.

The above enumerated species comprise all the birds of the
genus parus, which are generally or popularly known as
British ; but there are two others, one of which is certainly a
resident, and analogy is in favour of the residence of the
other. Residence is, indeed, so much the habit of the genus,
that we could hardly look for even a straggler. The omni-
vorous disposition of the birds enables them to live at all
seasons in the same latitudes, with only a slight change of
their ground with the seasons ; and, as the species which

THE CRESTED TIT. 375

remains doubtful as a British bird belongs to the zone of the
pine forests, and is found both on the continent of Europe and
in America, it is at least worth seeking for as a British bird.
The two species in question are, " the crested tit," a woodland
bird, and " the bearded tit," a marsh bird.

the crested tit. (Par us crestatus.)

The title of this beautiful little bird to a place in the British
Faunae, rests upon rather slender direct evidence, — that of a
single specimen received by Dr. Latham from the forest of
Glenmore in the eastern Grampians.

These birds inhabit, abundantly and permanently, the pine
forests and the adjoining or interspersed jungles of juniper or
other shrubby evergreens, in Scandinavia, the countries on the
south of the Baltic, the Carpathian mountains, and the hilly
districts of France ; and they are also found in the pine forests
on both sides of the St. Lawrence in North America. But in
all their localities they are hideling birds, never seen out of the
forests, and but seldom there in proportion to what, from the
eggs, (which are as many as ten,) may be presumed to be the
total number of the birds.

The proper places to look for these birds are the natural
pine forests, the juniper brakes, and the fir plantations in
Scotland southward of the Moray Firth, on the borders of the
great glen of the lakes, and in Strathglass between the river
and Mam Suil ; the last of which deserves more minute obser-
vation than it has hitherto met with, from its proximity to both
seas, and the mildness of its climate as compared with the
elevation of its surface — there being a rich sward upon Mam
Suil at a greater height than that at which all vegetation but
lichens ceases on Ben Nevis, which is nearer the Atlantic, and
farther to the south, though the small lake in the north-east
gorge of Mam Suil remains frozen to the bottom even in the
warmest summers, and the mountain is very copiously deluged
with rain.

376 INSECTIVOE.A.

I have been much ill those forests, and in them at different
seasons, and never saw or even heard of the crested tit. That,
however, is no proof of its not being there, because the golden
crested wren, which inhabits the same places, and is presumed
to be abundant, is rarely seen. To search an extensive pine
forest for a little bird is no very promising matter. If the
trees are young and close down to the ground, as they gene-
rally are when they are in that state, it is impossible to dis-
cover any bird except one which rises, because the rustling of
the branches is unavoidable, and sufficient to keep all the
feathered tribes beyond view of the tardy and laborious ob-
server ; and if the trees are aged, the branches are so far from
the ground that little birds are nearly out of view. The time
at which they would be best seen, would be when they resort
to the juniper bushes for winter feeding : but then both
ground and bushes are either covered with snow, or the former
is so sludgy as not to be easily walked on. Besides, there are
more than three hundred square miles of forests to examine,
and consequently one cannot very safely conclude that any little
bird whose habits are in perfect accordance with the climate
and locality may not be there. In matters of natural history,
observation tells us what there is, so far as it goes ; but we
have no guide whatever to what is not.

The length of this species is rather more than four inches
and a half, the breadth about eight inches and a half, and the
weight between two and three drachms ; the bill is nearly
black, the feet lead-coloured, and the hides hazel. The upper
part of the body is olive brown, passing gradually into yel-
lowish white on the under part. The wings and tail are dusky,
the chin black, the cheeks hoary, or white mottled with dusky.
A black line passes above the eye, round the ear covert, and
returns under the eye ; and there is another black line margin-
ing the produced feathers on the cheek. The feathers on the
hind head form a crest, which is partly hoary, but black on
the top, and bends forward something in the shape of the
Phrygian bonnet. The bird is said to nestle in hollow trees
(though these are not common in pine forests) : the eggs are
white with reddish spots.

THE BEARDED TIT. 377

THE BEARDED TIT — Or rather BEARDED ROAD-BIRD. (PoTUS

biarmicus.)

This species differs from the rest of the genus, in its appear-
ance and its locality, so much as to make it doubtful if it
should in reality be classed with them. It is a marsh bird,
and inhabits more deeply and more silently in the reeds than
either the reed-warbler or the reed-bunting. It inhabits the
marshy zone of country which extends from the great salt-
lakes of Asia a considerable way up the valley of the Danube,
and again in Holland ; in all of which places it is a resident
bird, feeding upon insects and mollusca among the reeds in
summer, and upon the seeds of the aquatic plants in winter.
It has the same command of itself upon a waving perch as
the other tits and the buntings ; but it is seldom seen, unless
when the reeds are cut down, arid then the family, which
consists of six or eight besides the parent birds, flit onward
before the reed-cutters, not taking high flights, but generally
lurking huddled together when the cold weather sets in. It is
but recently that these birds have been ascertained to be resi-
dent natives, and they have been met with only in the fenny
parts of the south-east of England ; nor is it likely that they
are to be found in Scotland, unless, perhaps, in the reeds
which skirt some parts of the Carse of Gowrie.

This species is between six and seven inches long, of which
the tail occupies fully half, the two middle feathers being
longer than the others, and lancet-shaped at the points. The
body is more slender in proportion than that of the other tits ;
the first quill of the wings is nearly rudimental, and the bill is
orange yellow, more pointed and conical than that of the other
tits, very slightly bent, and altogether more of a graminivorous
character.

Its plumage is beautiful : head, nape, and breast, bright
bluish grey, paler and with a tinge of lilac on the chin and
throat ; hind part of the neck and back bright orange brown,
paler on the scapulars ; belly, sides, and thighs, like the back,

vol. i. 2 L

378 INSECT1Y0RA.

only a shade lighter. Quills dusky ; the inner wehs of the
primaries white ; the secondaries margined, and the ter-
tiaries tipped with the same colour as the back. Tail the
same colour as the back, with white tips to three exterior fea-
thers on each side : vent feathers black. In the male bird, a
tuft of soft black feathers originates between the bill and eye,
and is pendant by the side of the neck, terminating in a point ;
the female has merely a dusky spot, in the place of the tuft
of produced feathers, and has the head mottled with orange
brown and dusky. The nest is formed of the leaves of reeds
and aquatic grasses, and lined with the tops of the same ; it
is carefully hidden in the reeds, or, if the ground is not solid
enough there, in a tuft upon the margin. It has not been
ascertained that the bird has any song, but its single note is
more shrill and ringing than that of most of the genus : it is
one of the subjects which equally demand and deserve farther
observation.

There are still remaining many miles of the marshy parts
of the country at home, of which wonderfully little is known,
because they are not inviting under any circumstances, and
very often they are not accessible. In summer they are not
firm enough for the foot, and one has some reluctance at
taking the chance of drowning, or even of sticking fast in the
foul water or fenny mire of a " deep bed of whispering reeds ;"
which are not ungraceful as they play in the wind, but they
grow in places of which we are suspicious. In winter again,
even in the floods, there is no passage for a boat ; and as the
frost in England is seldom so severe as to consolidate the sur-
face of those places, they are less inviting then than even in
summer.

The fact that, till within these few years, the bearded tit
was not admitted into the list of resident British birds, or
even into that of regular migrants, while it has been found
that it is not only resident, but far from rare in those parts
of the country which are favourable to its habits, points out
pretty strongly the necessity of scrutinizing those places which
have been neglected, and also of not coming to any hasty

THE BEARDED TIT. 379

conclusion, that a bird which is rarely seen, is only a strag-
gler and need not be sought for. If, indeed, the habits of
the bird in any other country be well known, so that from its
haunts, its food, or any other circumstance, it can be clearly
inferred that no part of Britain is well adapted for it, and that
the adaptation is worse at the seasons at which it has not
been found, than in those in which it has ; or if the bird is a
migrant, and belongs to a migration which is distant in longi-
tude, and ranges over a great extent in latitude, then we may
safely conclude that it is only a straggler. But if those cir-
cumstances do not apply; if the bird inhabits nearly the same
climate as that of Britain, does not change far in latitude
seasonally, is a bird of rare occurrence, concealed habits, and
obscure history, in other places, though we ought not to decide
without proof that it is a British bird, we are as little entitled
to decide the other way without proof. In such cases, it is
always of use to examine ; and if the young be found early in
the autumn, and before the supply of food shall have failed,
or the cold weather set in, in places farther to the north, that
is an additional inducement to examination. The labourers in
the field of British ornithology are now many, and the harvest
which has been reaped since fresh ardour and improved
science were brought to the task, shows that the field is not
yet exhausted.

END OF VOL. I.

ioxdoh:
g. norman, printer, maiden lane.

i