UC-NRLF
B M 521
AND' HARMFUL
85 ILLUSTRATIONS
Birds Useful and Birds
Harmful
SHERRATT & HUGHES
Publishers to the Victoria University of Manchester
Manchester : 34 Cross Street
London: 33 Soho Square, W.
BIRDS USEFUL
and
BIRDS HARMFUL
BY
OTTO HERMAN
Director of the Royal Hungarian Ornithological Bureau, Budapest
AND
J. A. OWEN
Author oj the "Country Month by Month" etc.,
and Editor of all signed "A Son of the Marshes.'
Illustrated by T. Csorgey.
MANCHESTER
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1909
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface i
Chapter I. Useful or Harmful 7
Chapter II. The Structure of the Bird - 15
Chapter III. Workers on the Ground 25
Barn or White Owl, Tawny or Wood Owl, Long-
eared Owl, Short-eared Owl, Little Owl, the
Rook, Hooded Crow, Carrion Crow, Raven,
Jackdaw, Jay, Magpie, Quail, Black-headed Gull,
Starling, Rose Starling, Waxwing.
Chapter IV. In the Air and on the Trees 105
Swallow, House Martin, Sand Martin, Swift,
Nightjar or Fern Owl, Green Woodpecker,
Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted
Woodpecker, Tree-Creeper, Nuthatch, Crossbill.
Chapter V. The Farmer's Summer Friends - 139
Wryneck, Cuckoo, Hoopoe, Great Grey Shrike,
Lesser Grey Shrike, Red-backed Shrike, Lesser
Whitethroat, Blackcap, Nightingale, Redstart,
Tree-Pipit, Wagtails, Great Reed Warbler,
Willow Wren, Flycatchers, Wheatear, Stonechat,
Bearded Reedling or Titmouse, the Titmouse
Family.
viii CONTENTS
PAGE
Chapter VI. Workers all the year round 225
House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Hedge Sparrow,
Skylark, Kingfisher, Dipper, Song Thrush,
Blackbird, Oriole, Robin, Wren, Chaffinch,
Hawfinch, Bullfinch, Yellow Hammer, Turtle
Dove.
Chapter VII. Some Wildfowl - 283
Lapwing, Common Curlew, Redshank, Green
Sandpipers, Herons, Bitterns, Moorhen, Tern,
Bean Goose, Wild Duck or Mallard, Pintail
Duck, Shoveler, Great Crested Grebe.
Chapter VIII. Some of the Falconid^e - - > 333
Golden Eagle, Kite, Red-footed Falcon, Buzzard,
Sparrow Hawk, Goshawk, Hobby, Kestrel, Marsh
Harrier, Hen Harrier.
Chapter IX. The Rational Protection of Birds - 369
Preface.
THE systematic study of the economic value of birds in
their relation to agriculture has been carried out in
Hungary of late years more indefatigably than in most
other parts of Europe. The natural resources of the
country are indeed so largely dependent on agriculture
that this is only what might have been expected.
The Royal Hungarian Minister, M. Daranyi, who
has proved himself so thorough and so capable a
Director of his country's interests in the direction of
'Agriculture amongst other handbooks issued under
his orders for popular use commissioned the well-
known naturalist, M. Otto Herman, to prepare the
present work, which is intended to give to landowners,
farmers, fruit-growers and gardeners such a knowledge
of the action, beneficial and otherwise, of birds as would
prevent the mistakes which have ended in some districts
in our own country, in the wholesale destruction of some
very useful species.
2 PREFACE
The book is enriched by the drawings of a talented
artist, M. Titus Csorgey, who, I need not say, is himself
a skilled naturalist. These are so executed as to render
it easy to the most casual observer to identify the various
markings of the plumage as well as the mere form of
the bird.
The work makes no pretence at being scientific in the
ordinary sense of the word. It has been written with
the view of providing a ready handbook for the farmer,
the gardener, the student, and bird-lovers generally ;
and it embodies the result of exact data kept by
correspondents of M. Herman's department in all parts
of the country ; so that the observations on which its
statements are grounded are the results of personal
investigation and dissection.
In our country this study of the food of birds and the
part they play in the economy of nature has not received
the attention it demands. Yet it is one that affects the
entire community. It is true that in journals here and
there valuable papers on this subject have appeared, but
it is felt that among the innumerable books on bird life
which have been published of late years there has been
a lack which this little volume may supply.
A few words as to myself and my present association
with M. Herman. From my earliest childhood I have
had a passionate love for birds and flowers. I remember
looking with wondering delight on the velvety upturned
faces of the variously tinted panstes that bordered the
paths leading up to the door of a certain farmhouse
where we stayed much in the summer-time, when I was
just four years old, wonder because our mother told
us* that God's finger painted them and I used to think
that He did it whilst we slept. Our father gave us
PREFACE 3
prizes for the one who could collect the greatest number
of wild flowers and knew most about the trees. In the
town I collected bird pictures, nursed an occasional
wounded sparrow, kept my eyes open generally, and
read much of William and Mary Howitt. Then came
some years of school life the last two of these in
Germany, where the study of natural history has always
received more attention than has hitherto been the case
with us in England, and these were followed by a few
years at home on the moorlands of Staffordshire. Later
I had thirteen years of wandering in different parts of
the Pacific New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, California,
all of which strengthened my love of out-door life ; and
although my scientific knowledge was small, my
acquaintance with nature and my love of nature have
been ever growing.
As years advanced, and I was no longer able to go so
far afield, it has been a great pleasure to me to
collaborate with other naturalists more than one of
these who, with greater opportunities for the practical
observation of birds have combined scientific research.
I have been glad to act as henchwoman to such and
to be, as it were, the little bird that in its playful and
circling way follows the flight of the greater bird in
the heavens.
And as I edited with much gain to my own know-
ledge the records of observations of the working
naturalist styled "A Son of the Marshes," so I am
glad also to be able to present to our English readers
these chapters on the Man and the Bird, and their
relative significance in the great field of agriculture.
I visited M. and Madame Herman at their home in the
beautiful Hungarian valley of Lillafured, where his
4 PREFACE
summers are spent in the very heart of nature; and I
learned and saw much with him there. He had lived as
a boy among these mountains and valleys his father
having been the leading physician in the district.
There, he had scoured the woods over which the
Snake or Short-toed Eagle circled, climbed up to the
Peregrine Falcon's nest, and boated on the lovely little
lake, watching the movements of the Osprey. But
indeed his whole life has been devoted to the study of
nature, and the fauna of his Country, and his many
published writings have had a very large circulation
there, as well as in Germany.
M. Herman laments the constantly decreasing number
of birds in his native valley. In a spot where he once
counted many a Flycatcher's nest, only two pairs now
breed. The Nightingales, formerly plentiful, have
entirely forsaken this valley the Titmice are lessening
in numbers, and so on. Yet the masses show no
inclination to destroy useful, insect-eating birds
although modern forestry, and gardening, which does
not tolerate old trees, and the absence of sheltering
hedges over the great Hungarian plains, render many
birds especially the migratory species homeless.
Numbers of interesting species nest in and visit this
valley, however. In winter that beautifully coloured,
long-billed Rock-Creeper (Tichodroma muraria) with
wings rose-red above, dashed with white underneath, runs
up the rock sides, as does the Tree Creeper on the tree
trunks a blithe, busy creature. This species is found
in the same latitude, in rocky mountain ranges eastward,
as far as Northern China. The great slanting rocky
spurs, that gleam with rosy light, or pale blue, as the sun
runs its daily course, this rock climber delights in. The
PREFACE
Rock Thrush breeds in the same ridges ; the Long-tailed
Tit has its nest there ; near the ground in the
woods, are the breeding-places of the familiar Coal-Tit;
where fir-trees abound it is at home. The less welcome
Red-backed Shrike pursues his cruel little methods here,
lessening the numbers of more useful and more attractive
birds. Waterfalls abound, and among the brooks, from
stone to stone, trips the merry Dipper, showing his
pretty breast and red underparts building his large
house near the running water, in whose pools fine trout
are in plenty.
We have rested together in a little cove on the lake at
Hamar, which is overhung by luxuriant foliage; across
the water, over the dense woods, floats a solitary Eagle
that seeks his quarry in the shades below. Otto Herman
knew his breeding-place as a boy. Tradition says the
nest is at least a hundred years old, yet each year the
young are still fed there.
That Great Britain has still much to do in the direction
of Bird Protection is definitely shown in a leaflet just
issued (December, 1908) by the Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds, of whose Council I have the
honour to be a member. Of the 370 or 380 species
placed on the list of " British birds," scarcely 200 can
now be justly termed British. I may be allowed to give
you here some idea of the principal agents in this
destruction of birds as set forth by our Society :
* First, there are those who destroy for destruction's
sake ; the boy who ravages the hedgerows in spring and
delights in catapults, air-guns, and stones at all times;
the lout with a gun ; and the cockney sportsman. They
are responsible for a vast amount of cruelty, especially
6 PREFACE
to nesting birds and nestlings ; for the killing of various
home-birds and migrants, and for the senseless shooting
of sea-birds and occasionally of rare visitants.
" Secondly, the bird-catcher, responsible for the
decrease of all those birds sought for caging, such as
Goldfinch, Linnet, Siskin, Lark, etc. This class, like
the first-named, requires dealing with, chiefly because of
the intolerable amount of ill-treatment involved by the
methods employed in the catching, transit, and sale of
wild birds. The destruction of the useful Lapwing, and
of the Skylark for the table, is also a point in need of
attention ; and in the same category may be placed
the so-called sparrow-clubs, which encourage the in-
discriminate killing of many species of small birds.
" Thirdly, the gamekeeper, responsible for the
extinction, or extreme rarity of most of our large birds,
especially predatory species and uncommon visitors.
;t Fourthly, the private collector with a craze for rare
British-taken birds and eggs, or, in the case of the
humbler persecutor of beautiful species, for something
to put in a glass case.
" Fifthly, the trader and the feathered woman, jointly
responsible for the devastation wrought among the
loveliest birds of all lands."
We have included a few useful species here, which are
only visitants to our country, but which, with more
protection, might remain for part of the year with us
regularly.
CHAPTER I.
USEFUL OR HARMFUL ?
THE Hungarian Central Office for Ornithology was
instituted in 1804, in accordance with a scheme submitted
to the Ministry of Agriculture by Mr. Otto Herman,
then a member of the Hungarian Parliament.
The rapid progress of economical affairs in the
nineteenth century, particularly in its second half, had a
perceptible influence upon the position occupied by the
bird and insect fauna, a change which was felt in
agriculture, and led to the formation of a new branch
of science ornithologia oeconomica.
The Hungarian Central Office for Ornithology took
the new branch in hand, after its transfer from the
sphere of the Ministry of Public Instruction to that of
the Ministry of Agriculture, where M. de Daranyi
assigned an important place to practical experimental
methods as a complement to strict science.
In the meantime Baron Hans von Berlepsch of Seebach
developed his system for the protection and propagation
of the most useful birds, the main points of which were
the feeding and providing with nesting opportunities of
such birds. Thereby bird protection was diverted into a
rational direction, which met with hearty sympathy on
the part of M. de Daranyi; consequently the Hungarian
Central Office for Ornithology included this branch of
ornithology in the work it set itself to do.
The course followed by rational bird-protection in
Hungary is as follows. It starts with the idea that
8 USEFUL OR HARMFUL?
nature itself knows neither useful nor noxious birds, but
only necessary ones, which have developed according to
the laws of nature, and on the basis of their development
are performing in the world of nature the work which is
appropriate to their organism.
The manifold character of the work performed by
birds is in harmony with the variety of these organisms.
The question of the usefulness and noxiousness of
birds during the whole of the nineteenth century was
treated only approximately, upon the assertions of
authorities. When, later on, Congresses began to
embrace the cause of bird-protection, and the question of
the usefulness or noxiousness of each species assumed a
role of the first importance, it turned out that there was
no firm basis upon which to rely, in passing judgment.
Eminent ornithologists were often at variance with
regard to the usefulness or noxiousness of a particular
sepcies.
Where Nature is intact, the number of birds is
automatically regulated in accordance with the natural
development of their surroundings.
The conceptions of "useful" and "noxious" are
merely human ones; and man can, by cultivation or
the contrary, alter the normal conditions ; and may, con-
sequently, modify the character and habits of birds also.
Agriculture on a large scale, modern forestry, the drain-
ing of territory all these things alter the fundamental
conditions of animal life, and in consequence of bird-life
also; and if these modifications in respect of birds are
injurious to man, it is in the interests of man to adapt
them artificially for the benefit of birds ; and if by
cultivation man deprives useful birds of their natural
nesting facilities, he ought to provide them with
USEFUL OR HARMFUL? 9
artificial ones. This is the principle on which Baron
von Berlepsch founded his system, which was accepted
and applied in Hungary, together with the modifications
required by special circumstances, or such as were
introduced as the result of experience.
These principles apply chiefly to those species which
remain with us during summer -and winter alike, and
which are useful to agriculture. But the international
protection of birds is important as regards those useful
species that are migratory, and, as they migrate, pass
through countries where as is the case in Italy the
birds are caught en masse, and where bird-catching is
carried on as a trade.
The third international Ornithological Congress, held
in Paris in 1900, decided that the Governments of the
various European States should be called upon to have
the food of birds made the object of special investigations,
and to report the result, within a space of five years.
When the fourth International Congress met, however,
only Hungary and Belgium were able to report on the
subject.
The publications of the Hungarian Ornithological
Centre are founded upon the collection of data, divided
into two main groups: i. The Migration data, so-
called historical, up to 1891, and again from that to the
present day. 2. Foreign data, partly taken from litera-
ture, and Special data relating to one species, from the
whole area of its habitation the Cuckoo for instance.
The investigation of the economic role played by the
Rook (Corvus frugilegus L.), which English landowners
and farmers are beginning to feel is a matter of great
importance, was begun by the Central Bureau in 1893;
it is still going on. According to the results hitherto
10 USEFUL OR HARMFUL?
attained, this bird does more good by destroying insects,
and in particular the larvse of insects living underground,
than it does harm to the crops.
It is our endeavour in this little volume which we now
offer to English readers, to give a faithful presentment
of the good and the harm that the birds are known to
do, from the agriculturist's standpoint. But in this all
depends on the attitude which the gardener and the
farmer adopt towards the birds.
By throwing a single stone a lad can scare away a
whole flock of rooks ; and w 7 hen these birds alight on a
field where they do harm to grain, a man must not
grudge a little labour in keeping them off; considering
that the same bird that works harm at one season, will
be a valuable ally at another, as well as a source of
pleasure and interest.
The rook, the crow, and even the mischievous magpie,
follow the plough as it turns up the brown furrows,
with sharp eyes spying worms, larvae and cockchafer
grubs. Nothing escapes the attention of the bird. He
picks here and there, and fills his crop with the worst
enemies of the tiller of the fields the various forms of
insect life that lie dormant in the earth until the time
arrives for each one to come forth and fulfil its life's
mission much of which means injury to the fruit of
man's labour.
Starlings rise in flocks a perfect cloud of them to
disperse, and again to assemble before settling on the
pastures, where they will be busy all the day, for that
part of the year when man needs their services most.
Later, in the cherry trees and among our own vines
the' starlings would do mischief enough. The rifled
branches and stripped grape stems are a sorry sight for
USEFUL OR HARMFUL? n
the owner, who finds it hard to remember that God cares
even for the sparrows. He tries to drive the thieves
away, but they care little for the cries of the lads set to
scare them. Little do they heed the rattles, feathers,
rows of sticks with lines of thread all the various flimsy
inventions are useless; a gun will disperse them for the
moment, but the cloud of pilferers is soon back again,
and as busy as ever. At this juncture severe measures
are justified. Even the most ardent bird-lover will not
be foolish enough to protect every bird at all times and
seasons. Yet it is only for a short season of the year
that starlings are harmful, and for the greater part they
are useful, in garden, field and meadow, from early
morning until late evening, protecting growing blades
of grass and coming seed and roots for the farmer, with
unceasing labour. This is in the early spring; later
they betake themselves to the pasture lands, where, on
bright sunny mornings, they walk nimbly among the
browsing cattle seeking their food in the form of crane
fly and daddy-long-legs, in the shadow of the patient
creatures. The gadflies, too, buzz about the bodies of
the beasts, lay their eggs under the hide, boring into the
flesh, tormenting and maddening the helpless cattle.
The Hungarian herdsman is glad when he sees the
starlings settle on his wide pastures.
When the eggs have developed into maggots the
birds alight on the backs of the beasts, to rid them of
gadflies and batflies ; and the cattle and sheep suffer their
services gladly, knowing well that these good feathered
friends will effectually extract their torturers without
further irritation to the infested parts. A horse has
been known to die from the exhaustion caused by the
continuous action of parasitic creatures.
12 USEFUL OR HARMFUL?
Then, as regards the owl that bird of the night, who
shuns the light of the life-giving sun ; for w-hich reason
man distrusts and persecutes him. The other birds also
regard him with disfavour, and mob him when he
ventures forth from his holes by day, big birds and little
ones, in common dislike of the uncanny creature. They
know 7 full w^ell that this is the nocturnal disturber of
woods and fields, .and they resent his ways and his
manners.
When the twilight is over all and the birds of day have
betaken themselves to rest, then most of the owls go
forth to hunt for quarry. Noiselessly they flit over the
quiet meadows and fields; with those eyes which shun
the light they can detect through the dimness of evening
the nest where small birds are, and this they rifle. And
so in that respect they are harmful. The Short-eared
owl will take birds from the size of a lark to that of
a plover.
On the other hand, when mice have got the upper hand
in house and barn, devouring and spoiling man's
provision . then every species of owl is welcome, even
he the superstitious countryman calls the Death-bird.
And, again, when the weather favours that pest the
field-mouse, and the voles, and they swarm in meadows,
cornlands and everywhere, so that the land is full of
mouse-runs; from all sides comes that gentle singing
from tiny throats and the farmer is at his wits' end
to know how to be rid of the plague. Then in
Hungary the mouse buzzards circle by day over the
pastures and fields, making war on the gnawing little
beasts; and the whole night long the owls take up
the* same useful work. They fill their crops, each of
them, with from twenty to thirty mice, fly to their several
USEFUL OR HARMFUL? 13
trees to digest the meal, and you will find the pellets
formed by the birds of the indigestible portions bones
and fur in and about their nesting-holes. Harmful
moths and beetles they also kill.
And so the Owls barn, the tawny or wood-owl, the
long and the short-eared which in England are the only
common species, are undoubtedly the agriculturalists*
good friends, and indeed friends of the whole human
race; and many landowners now prohibit the use of the
cruel pole-trap in their destruction. Richard JefTeries
tells how 200 owls were taken in one pole-trap in a
plantation of young fir in his time. Dr. Altum, a great
mover in the cause of bird-protection, examined 210 of
the wood-owl's pellets and found in these the remains
of 6 rats, 42 mice, 2<j6 voles, 33 shrews, 48 moles,
1 8 birds and 48 beetles, besides a countless number of
cockchafers.
And what can you find to say in favour of the
Sparrow ? I fancy I hear many a reader ask, that
ubiquitous bird whose impudence is everywhere
proverbial. When sparrows in hosts settle down on
the corn waiting to be harvested, not only filling their
crops but uselessly beating the grain out of the ears, the
case is bad, and it is hard then to recall all the good the
same birds had done in devouring the seeds of harmful
weeds, such as wild mustard, etc. also to think of the
cockchafers in the grub as well as winged daddy-long-
legs, caterpillars, turnip-moth, grubs of cabbage-moth
and butterfly, and the moths of both currant and goose-
berry. In towns, too, the sparrow is invaluable as a
street scavenger. House-flies, those plagues indoors,
maggots of fleas, eggs of cockroaches, spiders, centi-
pedes, all, and many other " small deer " that infest
14 USEFUL OR HARMFUL?
stables, poultry-yards and other precincts of our home-
steads the sparrow diligently seeks for.
It is true that the common sparrows multiply too fast
and their numbers must be thinned down. This, many
a bird-loving landowner and farmer does in various
ways. The late Lord Lilford declared the most humane
way was to pull down all the nests within man's reach.
There would still be plenty left, in inaccessible places.
A humane farmer, the present writer knows in
Hampshire, a great wheat-grower, gives the lads round
threepence a score for all the sparrows' eggs they can
bring to him. Sparrow-clubs save the mark ! are
schools for cruelty. In one Lancashire parish which I
know the vicar encourages the Jackdaw, allowing it to
build even in his church steeple, because wherever that
bird is, sparrows become more scarce, their young
suiting that bird's palate well. Man has foolishly upset
the balance of nature by destroying the natural enemies
of the sparrow. Take two neighbouring estates we
know in Yorkshire; on the one sparrows, blackbirds,
bullfinches and other birds are remorselessly shot during
the fruit season ; on the other the use of the gun is
forbidden. In the garden and orchard of the latter there
is always a far greater allowance of fruit than in those
of the former.
Only where their natural enemies have become scarce
ought man to set his wits to work to compass the
destruction of a species.
CHAPTER II.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE BIRD.
LET us now consider the bird's bodily structure. Every
child knows that the bird's body is covered with feathers
or down, and that what, in the case of mammals are
fore-feet, in birds are wings with which they fly.
There are as many kinds of flight as there are kinds
of birds. It depends for the most part on the nature of
the bird, in a smaller degree on the structure of the wing.
The wing of the Swallow (Plate VIII. a) is pointed like
that of the Peregrine Falcon, and is adapted for rapid
flight. Both these birds secure their prey on the wing,
and could not, therefore, live otherwise.
The wing of the Partridge is, on the contrary,
rounded ; this bird does not cut through the air, but
can only raise itself in flight with rapid fluttering
of the wings, and with a sudden loud " whirr ' 1
which makes considerable noise if the covey is a large
one. The wing of the Partridge, therefore, is not at
all adapted for enabling the bird to catch its prey flying,
but only for moving from place to place, where it picks
up its food walking.
From this we learn that the various kinds of wings
correspond to various ways of flight and that each bird
works out its destiny in its own way. It is suggestive
of the organisation of an army, composed of cavalry,
infantry, artillery, and other divisions. These also have
different kinds of functions, which are necessary both
(a) SWALLOW'S WING ; (b) THAT OF THE PARTRIDGE,
THE STRUCTURE OF THE BIRD 17
individually and in combination, and the one cannot
supply the place of the other.
So much for the wings. Now we will examine Plate
IX., which shows heads and what is the most
important part of them bills. We will take the illus-
trations in their proper order.
1 . The bill of the Woodcock is shaped like a turner's
auger, the end greatly resembling the tip of a finger.
With this the bird gropes for its food, and draws it out
of the loose earth.
2. The bill of the Merganser has a hook at the point;
it is toothed at the side, and is so well adapted to its
purpose that no fish, however slippery, can escape.
3. The bill of the Hawfinch is conical, thick and
strong, capable of cracking the hardest cherry stones.
4. The pretty Water- Wagtail has an awl-shaped bill,
formed by Nature for the catching of gnats and other
insects.
5. The Grey Heron has a bill which cuts like a knife.
Woe to the most slippery tench if once caught within
it!
6. The Curlew penetrates into the mud w r ith its sickle
shaped, slightly curved bill, and brings out of its depths
the worms it feeds on.
7. The bill of the Long-tailed Tit is but a little point
compared with those mentioned above, but all the same
it is quite suitable for the bird, for only with such a
tool could it pick the tiny insects out of the smallest
cracks in the boughs.
8. The bill of the Goatsucker or Night-hawk is small,
but the opening of the mouth is comparatively gigantic :
it forms a yawning abyss, which, in the twilight and
darkness of night, engulfs unwary insects.
C
4
-*
10
8
11
13
THE STRUCTURE OF THE BIRD 19
9. The bill of the Woodpecker may be compared to
the adze which the Carpenter uses for chipping beams
of wood. It is only by means of hard blows that this
bird can get at the worms which it finds in decaying
wood.
10. The Duck's bill, on the other hand, is flat toothed
at the side, exactly formed for straining the food which
it gets out of the water.
1 1 . The bill of the Gull is so formed that it can easily
take up food from the surface of the water. Where
Gulls arrive in large flocks, they eagerly follow the
plough in the fields, and are then of great benefit.
12. The bill of the Crossbill is a valuable tool, with
which he is able to pick out the seeds from between the
scales of the fir cones.
13. The Ortolan splits hard seeds with the arch and
the notch in its beak, as it were with nut-crackers.
14. The bill of the Avocet is in shape the opposite
of the Curlew, that of the former curving upwards, of
the latter downwards.
Thus we see that as with the wing, so with the bill,
each bird is furnished with the kind that is most suitable
to its nature and habits.
The general law of adaptability to its purpose is also
strikingly exemplified in the formation of the foot. Let
us look at Plate X.
1. The foot of the Fieldlark has a spur-like nail on
the back toe which is nearly straight, so that the bird
can easily rest on the ground.
2. The Pheasant's foot is just like that of the Hen;
which enables it to walk and run.
3. The powerful, sharp claw of the Eagle strikes
deeply into the flesh of its prey and holds it fast.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE BIRD 21
4. The Sparrow Hawk strangles and crushes with its
warty toes the birds on which it preys.
5. The foot of the Owl, as well as its bill, proves that
it is a bird of prey.
6. The foot of the Swift is so constructed that it
can cling to walls; it cannot walk or stand.
7. The toes of the Moor- or Water-hen are provided
with skin-flaps, not altogether perfect for swimming,
but excellent for wading and diving.
8. The Crested Grebe excels in diving, pushing side-
ways with its feet.
9. The foot of the Bustard has three toes, and hard
soles, which enable it to run extremely well.
10. The four toes of the Cormorant are joined together
by a web ; it is a good diver, can swim under water,
and can also roost on trees.
n. The Wild Duck has only three toes webbed
together ; its foot is, therefore, specially suited for pro-
pelling the bird on the surface of the water.
12. The toes of the Avocet are only partially joined
together by webs ; its legs are suitable only for wading,
but can be used for swimming in case of need.
Tlie variety and suitability to their purpose of wings,
bills, and legs, show us that the feathered inhabitants
of a neighbourhood form a community. A society of
men would not be perfect if there were only men of one
calling. A variety of workers is needed in human
society, with a variety of tools, with which to perform
a variety of necessary work, just as various birds with a
varied construction of body perform their work in the
open field of Nature.
22
THE BIRD'S FEATHERS
A FEW words as to the feathers of the bird. The per-
fectly developed feather consists of a quill which grows
in the flesh, the stem becoming gradually thinner
towards the top and having lesser feathers on either side,
those on the one side of the
quill being narrower than
those on the other half. The
feathers overlap each other
exactly and densely espec-
ially those which protect
the main part of the body.
At the end of the quill of the
top feathers is a down which
takes the place of our under-
clothing, and which in the
case of waterfowl prevents
the water from penetrating
to the body of the bird.
There is also a pure down
which is composed of num-
erous stems; this is close
and thick and protects the binding together of the
general plumage. The down has its fine quill and a
stem bearing the close down which in water fowls keeps
the warmth of the body at an even temperature whether
in or out of the
water. It would be
an error to suppose
that the feathers
grow in the skin
without any order,
simply close to-
gether. They are
in point of fact
divided into areas
between which the
flesh is generally
THE BIRD'S FEATHERS 23
covered with down, and all is arranged in a system of
grouping which, the feathers being rightly placed over
one and another, does not in any way interfere with the
movements of the body, each movement being in perfect
conformity with this feather covering. The feathered
areas can be moved independently with the aid of the
muscles, and this renders the cleansing of the individual
feathers easy and the removing of the fatty substance,
which is a matter of great importance. If we watch we
see that the bird moves the feathers separately in this
cleansing process, drawing them through its beak, and
so removing any bits of fat and oily substances that may
have collected about the fat glands.
View of the back of the bird, showing the feather tracts
The spaces between the tracts are covered with down.
USEFUL.
THE BARN OWL.
CHIEF OF THE MOUSE-HUNTERS
CHAPTER III.
WORKERS ON THE GROUND.
THE BARN OWL : WHITE OR CHURCH OWL.
(Strix Flammea.)
THE Barn Owl builds no regular nest, but lays its
eggs in the walls of ruined castles, on the inner sills of
towers, or in the dust and sweepings that collect in the
corners of granaries. The clutch consists of five,
occasionally seven, longish \vhite eggs.
This bird likes always to be close to the abode of
man ; she likes to make her nest among the rafters
of some warm barn and in other farm buildings,
or in church tower or belfry ; in hollow trees, a cleft
in wall or cliff ; semi-obscure corners, those even in
broad daylight. There she sits, putting herself now
and again in grotesque positions, and when that facial
disk is stirred she appears to be, as the children
say, " pulling faces " at you. One of the most
industrious of hunters, she catches far more mice than
she can devour. It is true she takes the bat, who has
his own insect-destroying work to do; and when she has
the chance she will cause havoc in the nest of a small
bird. But this is only an occasional outbreak, and it
must not weigh against the general good record of this
most useful species. She takes living prey, and will
only touch carrion under extreme stress of hunger.
26 THE BARN OWL
The Barn or White Owl is generally distributed
throughout Great Britain. It suffered at one time most
undeservedly from the ignorant prejudices of many
gamekeepers, and of late years from the senseless fashion
of women wearing the wings and head in their headgear
a crowning folly only perpetrated through that
ignorant vanity which knows neither love nor pity.
Colonel Irby said that this Owl, which is most useful
to man, can be preserved and increased by fixing an
i8-gallon cask in a tree. The barrel should be placed
on its side and have a hole cut in the upper part of the
head for the Owls to enter ; care must, however, be taken
that Jackdaws do not take possession of the cask.
Our gamekeepers are beginning now to be convince^
of the usefulness of the Owl, especially in view of the
fact that so many young birds are taken by the Brown
Rat, a favourite quarry with the Owl not to speak of
the Voles and Mice the bird devours. The late Lord
Lilford told me that he had watched a nest of young
Owls being fed by their parents in an old cedar tree in
the rectory garden of a relative, and that on one occasion
the old birds came bringing food to these seventeen
times in half an hour by the clock, on that evening.
There was a rickyard not far from the nest which was
the Owls' favourite hunting-ground. Mice were not
plentiful there, but rats swarmed, and the pellets found
under the nest were here composed almost entirely of
the remains of the latter. In the South of France
and in Spain this Owl is accused of drinking oil from
lamps in the peasants' houses and in the churches and
chapels. The name given to it in the former country by
the peasant of the Midi is Beou I'oli bird that drinks
oil. Attracted by the light of the lamps, the poor Owl
THE BARN OWL 27
perhaps has entered, once in a way, and in its fright has
upset a lamp. Superstition grows on very meagre fare.
This ally of the agriculturalist has been ill-repaid for his
services.
Butler writes :
" An Owl that in a barn
Sees a mouse creeping in the corn,
Sits still and shuts his round blue eyes
As if he slept, until he spies
The little beast within his reach,
Then starts, and seizes on the wretch."
" Not a bird of the forest e'er mates with him,
All mock him outright by day,
But at night, when the woods grow still and dim,
The boldest will shrink away."
But why this is so who can tell? If the Barn Owl
shows himself by day, Rooks and Starlings, Blackbirds,
both species of Thrush, Chaffinches, Tits and Wrens
will mob him ; and he flies awkwardly from tree to tree,
with dazed eyes and apparently "mazed," as the country
folks says, altogether, till he can find a hole in a tree
where he can hide himself. He may well like hollows
in trees for, as the poet says, " the Owl, with all his
feathers, is a-cold." This is not hard to understand, for
the breast feathers are so light and fluffy that the wind
easily parts them, laying bare the shivering skin.
His frequent choice of an old dovecote as a home
was misunderstood. The ignorant countryman thought
it was in order to prey on the young pigeons that he
selected a corner there, whereas and Waterton was the
first to record the bird's reason, after watching the doings
of a pair of Barn Owls in his dovecote the Owls were
28 THE BARN OWL
there to prey on the pigeons' enemies, and Owls and
Pigeons lived amicably together in the same home.
Lord Cathcart, in a paper contributed to the Royal
Agricultural Society, said: " Our ancestors, wiser than
we, always made in their great barns ingress for Owls
an owl-hole, with often a stone perch." And the Rev.
P.O. Morris tells of a pair of this species which lived in
a barn near Norwich, and were so fearless that they
would stay there whilst the men were threshing ; they
waited on the flails as rooks do on the plough, and if a
mouse were dislodged by the removal of a sheaf they
would pounce upon it without minding the men's
presence. They hunt mice amongst the stacks, too, in
the farmyard, staying there all night often, if mice
abound. As P. Newman says, " The farmer pays the
price of a sack of grain for every Owl nailed to his barn
door, because that Owl would have destroyed mice every
night, and these mice, being relieved of their oppresive
enemy, would, in a very short time, consume a sack of
wheat, peas, or beans."
Owing to its very deep plumage, the Barn Owl
looks larger than it is. Its eye is dark-coloured, almost
black : its glance is directed forwards. The facial disk
is very prominent ; at rest, it is heart-shaped, and it is
edged with white and rust-colour. The bill is yellowish
in colour, and is slightly hooked. The legs are scantily
feathered, and the toes almost bare : the claw of the
middle toe is serrated along its inner edge. The body-
plumage is soft as silk, and yielding, and thickly pearled
with white and dark markings on the beautiful ash-grey
back. The flanks are pale with a reddish tinge, in places
very bright, and sprinkled with tiny pearl-like spots of
light and dark colour.
THE TAWNY OR WOOD-OWL.
(Syrnium aluco.)
The Wood Owl, known also as the Brown or Tawny
Owl, has the admirable trait of constancy, for it is said he
mates for life and the pair return year after year to the
same tree to nest. In the month of September you will
hear him hooting in the woods more than at any other
time of the year. He is not so constant in his choice of
locality, but like many other birds he and his kind will
disappear from a district without any apparent reason,
to return to it again after a time. No doubt they follow
their food supply ; the small creatures they feed on
mice, rats, shrews, and squirrels all disappear in the
same fashion to re-appear elsewhere ; the movements of
these being no doubt ruled by the same conditions of
suitable food, its scarcity or its plenty.
In spite of persecution the Tawny Owl is still fairly
common in our own country wherever there are woods
or crags suitable for its habitat. In the South of
Scotland it is common, as well as in England and Wales.
It is strange that it seems to be absent from Ireland.
Here, in Baling, where the present writer lives, its
whoo-hoo, or, as Shakespeare has it, tu-whit and to-ivho,
are heard regularly in one little spinney at the south-east
corner of our suburb; and last summer 1908 a pair
took up their abode in a garden, right in amongst the
shady roads not very far from the Broadway.
The Tawny Owl breeds early ; strong-flying young
ones may be seen in April. A hollow oak tree or an
elm is a favorite nesting site with it. The young are
USEFUL.
THE WOOD OR TAWNY OWL,
THE TAWNY OWL 31
very easy to rear and to tame. The late Lord Lilford,
who was perhaps our best authority on owls, stated that
he had examined many pellets of the Tawny Owl, and
although he more than once found the remains of young
rabbits he could not accuse the bird of any serious
poaching.
Living more in the woods the Brown Owl is less often
observed than is the White Owl; also its plumage is
darker, and this makes it often less visible, especially in
the shade of the trees. When flying, his legs are
stretched out behind, " as a balance to his heavy head,"
White of Selborne remarked. The young ones, funny
little balls of grey down, resemble, some one has said,
"a pair of Shetland worsted stockings rolled up, such
as might have belonged to Tarn o' Shanter."
And this reminds us of Burns, who, when he bids the
birds mourn for him, " Wha lies in clay, Wham we
deplore," sings :
" Ye howlets, frae your ivy bow'r,
In some old tree or eldritch tow'r,
What time the moon wi silent glow'r,
Sets up her horn.
Wail through the dreary midnight hour
Till waukrife morn."
But Shakespeare said of the Wood-Owl :
" Tu-whit ! tu-whoo, a merry note
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot ! '
It was in 210 pellets of this species that Dr. Altum
found the remains of 6 rats, 42 mice, 296 voles, 33 shrews,
48 moles, 1 8 birds, and 48 beetles, besides countless
numbers of cockchafers.
32 THE TAWNY OWL
Brown Owls make very amusing pets and they are
not hard to tame. They are less suspicious than
other owls and become very companionable. R. Bos-
worth Smith, whose recent death was so much lamented
by all bird-lovers, and who said: " Birds have been
to me the solace, the recreation and the passion of
a life-time," told of one young brown owl which he
brought up from the nest, which was very fond of music.
It would make its way, through an open window on the
ground floor, into the room in which a piano was being
played and would even press closely against the case of
the instrument. Dr. J. Cooper, Professor of Greek
Language and Literature at Rutger's College, New
Brunswick, also told the same author that one morning
in November of 1899 he found, on going to his lecture
room, that a brown owl had somehow made its way into
it, and had selected as a perch a huge framed photograph
of Athens. It was, he remarks, an unlocked for illustra-
tion to both teacher and taught, of the proverbial
expression " Owls to Athens." And there she was, just
over the Areopagus, the High Court of Athens, and she
sat perched there four whole hours, that "bird of
wisdom," whilst the Professor gave as many lectures to
successive classes of his pupils, quite undisturbed by the
noise they made, coming and going. Before she dis-
appeared, one of the lecturer's brother-Professors had
time to take a photograph of " the Bird of Pallas on her
chosen throne."
Description : In the adult male the upper parts are of
variable shades of ash-grey, mottled with brown ; there
are large white spots on the outer webs of the wing-
caverts ; the tail is barred with brown and tipped with
white; the under-parts are a huffish-white, mottled with
THE TAWNY OWL 33
pale and streaked with dark brown. The disk about the
face is greyish, having a dark brown border; the legs
are feathered to the claws. The length of the bird
is about 16 inches. The female is larger than the male
and its plumage is a more rufous brown ; but there are
two varieties in this species, a red and a grey, the colour
being independent of sex; the rufous form is more
common in Great Britain. After the first greyish down
of the nestlings they put on a more reddish brown than
the adult birds have.
D
USEFUL.
THE LONG-EARED OWL.
35
THE LONG-EARED OWL.
(Asia otus.)
In the wooded districts of Great Britain this handsome
Owl is always to be found; the numbers bred here are
augmented also by a considerable number which come
to us in autumn from the Continent. It is a larger bird
than the Short-eared species and it lives much in the
same way as the Brown Owl. These two are not so
fastidious in their way of feeding as the White Owl. It
lives on small birds, rodents, bats, fish, reptiles and large
insects. Some have accused it of taking birds up to the
size of a Plover, but the late Lord Lilford stated that
he had never heard any complaint of its destruction of
game in those districts where it was comparatively
common ; the castings of this species which he examined
were mainly composed of the remains of greenfinches,
sparrows and field mice. It is often seen flying about
by daylight and it has been known to pick up and carry
off wounded birds. It is said to be much disliked by
other birds possibly the last mentioned habit may be
at the bottom of this strong feeling on their part, also
its appropriation of other birds' nests. The note of the
hungry young birds of this species is a loud mewing.
The prophet Isaiah had not very pleasant associations
with Owls, it would seem. When speaking of desolated
places, he says, " Owls shall dwell there, and satyrs
shall dance there . . . the screech owl also shall rest
there . . . the great owl make her nest ..."
Alluding to the death of Julius Csesar or rather to
the omens that preceded it Shakespeare wrote :
36 THE LONG-EARED OWL
" And yesterday the bird of night did sit
Even at noonday, in the market-place,
Hooting and shrieking."
Of crook-backed Richard of Gloucester, too, he says :
" The Owl shrieked at thy birth, an evil sign,
The night-crow cried."
Different parts of the White Owl's body were sup-
posed to possess different magical powers, and they
have been used by many a rural imposter to breed awe
in the credulous.
Happily all this is changed now excepting amongst
a small ignorant minority. Of late years women who
affected the fashion of wearing owls heads and wings
on toques seemed likely to become the poor Owls' worst
enemy. Mr. Ward Fowler saw, not long ago, in a
public house, this advertisement: "Wanted at once by
a London firm, 1,000 owls."
The late R. Bosworth Smith wrote: "The num-
ber of owls has been terribly diminished. Let them
be encouraged and protected in every possible way. Let
the gamekeeper be rewarded, as I have rewarded him
myself, not for the owls he destroys, but for the owls he
preserves. . . . Let the owl be regarded and protected
in England as the stork is regarded and protected in
Holland!"
The Long-eared Owl is 15 inches in length. The
upper parts are a warm buff, mottled and pearled with
brown and grey and streaked with dark brown, bill
black, dark markings about the eyes, facial disk buff
with greyish black margin and outer rim. The long
erectile tufts are streaked with dark brown. The eyes
THE LONG-EARED OWL 37
are a rich yellow. Under parts warm buff and grey
with broad blackish streaks and small transverse bars.
Legs covered to the toes with fawn coloured feathers.
The eggs, four to six in number, are laid with us
in an old squirrel's drey or on the old nest of a
Ringdove, a Magpie, Rook, Crow, or Heron's nest;
in Hungary often in that of a Buzzard or a Kite, with
a few slight sticks and rabbits' fur added. They are
white, the surface smooth but not glossy. As a rule
this species does not hoot like the Tawny Owl, but is
rather silent.
USEFUL.
THE SHORT-EARED OWL.
39
THE SHORT-EARED OWL.
(Asio accipitrinus.)
In Hungary Short-eared Owls appear in numbers
with the Buzzards where field mice get the upper hand,
and work with these grander birds. A peculiarity of
the species is to crouch down to the earth like a hen when
in danger. So confiding in nature is it that it falls an
easy prey to the guns of those whom we call the " Sun-
day sportsmen," to the great loss of the agriculturist.
Large numbers of the Short-eared Owl arrive regularly
in Great Britain from the Continent, to remain with us
during the winter. This species is often termed the
Woodcock Owl here, partly on account of its twisting
flight it is supposed, and also because both birds make
their appearance about the same time some years in
larger, some years in lesser numbers. A few pairs still
breed in the eastern counties, but it nests more often in
the north, in widely scattered parts of our moorland
districts. In Scotland the species is common ; but in
Ireland it has not yet been recorded as breeding,
although it is very common there in winter. I remember
a relative telling me of a Short-eared Owl hovering much
over a terrier he had out walking with him, one evening
late, on Congleton Edge. Probably the bird had its
young on some tuft of heather near them and was
anxious as to the safety of these, and it would not have
hesitated to attack the terrier had it been alone.
Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, in Lyddeker's " R. Natural
History," says: "It is a curious circumstance that,
40 THE SHORT-EARED OWL
although the number of eggs laid by this bird (the Short-
eared Owl) is generally four, yet, when food is unusually
abundant, as during a lemming-migration, the number
in a clutch will rise to seven or eight, and during the
recent vole plague in Scotland larger numbers were
recorded, reaching as many as thirteen."
As many as ten and twelve eggs were often found on
some hill farms where these Owls remained feeding all
the winter and commenced nesting in March, the birds in
many cases nearing a second brood.
Mr. Colles, of Higher Broughton, Manchester,
speaking of the Short-eared Owl, said in a letter
to his friend (R. Bosworth Smith) : " You will
remember that a few years ago certain parts of the
country (Scotland) were infested with voles to such an
extent that the sheep would not eat grass over thousands
of acres of moorland. It was some two years after they
had been at their worst that my son and I were fishing
in St. Mary's Loch ; and one day, about noon, while I
was crouching down between the high banks of the
Meggett, to keep out of sight of the fish, a Short-eared
Owl skimmed over the top of the bank directly to the
place where I was; and I can assure you that no
exaggerated comic picture of an Owl I had ever seen
affected me as did this one. Its eyes looked to me as
large as saucers, and the bird seemed a perfect ogre.
A few days later we were fishing one of the tributaries
of the Tweed near its source, and had to walk a mile
or so, on almost flat moorland, where there was hardly a
bush, much less a tree, to be seen. Wherever there
was rise enough in the ground to form a little bank the
soil was perfectly honeycombed with what appeared
miniature colonnades or rather cloisters, and we caught
THE SHORT-EARED OWL 41
frequent glimpses of the voles within, as they flitted
along their galleries. When we were well into this dreary
place a couple of Short-eared Owls positively mobbed
us, and as we walked along, with our fishing-rods over
our shoulders they followed us till we reached a dry
gully, where they became even more demonstrative,
coming well within point of our rods. On both
occasions the hour was between eleven and twelve o'clock
and the sun was shining brilliantly."
The Short-eared Owl is fierce and bold in defence of
her young. She will attack larger animals than herself.
In the Hawaiian Islands she has always been much
admired because of her fine qualities, and was indeed
one of the old tutelary deities of the natives.
This Owl is from 14 to 15 inches in length. The
ear-feathers are short, the irides yellow, bill black, black
about the eyes, and the facial disk is browner than
in the last-named species; the plumage of the upper
parts is more blotched than streaked ; the ' buff tint is
more decided. The ear-tufts, though erectile, are short,
and not seen except when the bird is excited. Under-
parts streaked lengthwise with blackish-brown, but
have no transverse bars. The young are browner
and darker and more boldly marked, and tawny on the
under parts, iris paler than in the adult.
USEFUL.
THE LITTLE OWL.
43
x
THE LITTLE OWL.
(Athene noctua.)
The Little Owl makes its nest where it has its ordinary
dwelling-place; that is to say, in hollows, behind beams,
sometimes even under bridges. The clutch of eggs is
four to five, and they are almost perfectly round. The
young are covered with white down.
This is a friendly little species; it likes to get under
the house-roof, into barns and towers; retires also into
the hollow of a tree and clefts in old masonry. A capital
mouse-hunter, it feeds also largely on insects, and haunts
the lawns to get out the earthworms. In winter it catches
birds at roost, getting numbers of Thrushes, also mice
and other small mammals. When the chase is prolonged
till daylight the small birds mob the Little Owl,
surrounding him in numbers. They dare not meddle
with him because of his sharp claws, but they scold and
chatter at him as a shameless thief. Bird-catchers profit
by this, and they fasten him to a bough to act as a lure.
There is in Hungary a superstition that no one dies
where this Little Owl appears and utters his cry of
Kooweek, kooweek ! which comes down from the gables
or the attic windows of the house.
The numbers of the Little Owl have been increasing in
England of late. Mr. Meade- Waldo informed me that
in the neighbourhood of Penshurst, near his own home,
in Kent, he had seen as many as sixteen Little Owls
perched on the telegraph wires on the line between two
44 THE LITTLE OWL
stations. This gentleman has always been known to be
a lover and a protector of this species-.
In Leadenhall Market there are often cages full of them
which have been brought over from Holland. They
make delightful house pets and good mousers indoors.
" I have one of my own," says A Son of the Marshes,
" and I set him down as a bird of priceless value, for he
has the power to make me laugh when I should be least
in the mood for it .... Jan Steen and Teniers intro-
duced him into their pictures. In that of ' The Jealous
Wife,' for instance, there is the Little Owl perched on
the window shutter contemplating an aged man holding
sweet converse with a young woman, presumably his
niece. The old woman, his wife, has also her head in
the opening, taking in the scene wrathfully. My own
bird is at liberty. This he uses to the best of his ability,
making the third member of our small household."
The Little Owl is about eight inches long, but seems
bigger than it is because of its large head and soft
plumage : its body is compressed in form. Bill and
iris are yellow, legs clad with hair-like feathers, toes
almost bare. The short tail is hardly visible beneath the
points of the wings. The back is greyish-brow^n, spotted
with white; the belly whitish, with long brown markings.
45
THE ROOK.
(Corvus frugilegus.)
The Rook lives in flocks and breeds in great colonies.
Its nest is smaller and looser than that of the Hooded
Crow. Five or six nests one above another, are often
found in one tree sometimes as many as eighteen. It
pairs somewhat late, in Hungary, but already in April
may be found three to five eggs of a pale green colour
spotted with grey and blue. These are smaller than
those of the Hooded Crow.
The Rook spends the greater part of its life in its
native home, often in huge crowds, numbering many
thousands, which divide up during the day to seek food
in different parts of the neighbourhood. During the
breeding time they are divided according to the breeding
places. This bird is the most zealous follower of the
ploughman, and by its great number destroys an enor-
mous quantity of noxious creatures the cockchafer
being its most coveted delicacy. It covers, with its
flocks, the freshly ploughed field, and if they are sown,
picks up the grains that are lying about. It bores into
the soft earth of the meadows and cornfields, for des-
tructive grubs, and pulls up the withered plants in order
to secure the caterpillar or wireworm which has
destroyed the roots. This has caused the Rook to be
suspected of plundering the fields, but the question has
not yet been settled, and the general inclination is in the
bird's favour. The fact is that even in Hungary, where
the Rook exists in millions, the people generally are
indifferent about it. Early sowing, while there is suffi-
CHIEFLY USEFUL,
THE ROOK. AN OLD AND A YOUNG BIRD.
THE ROOK 47
cient insect food for the birds, is the best protection
from its mischief, and this is good for the services it
performs.
A knowledge of the habits of the Rook is important,
because the bird is closely associated with husbandry,
and with its well organised work deeply affects the
interests of the husbandman. While the Hooded Crow
roams about the district with the Jackdaw, thousands of
Rooks cover the corn-fields; they settle also on fallow
ground, on the freshly ploughed field, on the sprouting
crops, and on the turnip-field. It is this appearance in
vast numbers which mainly distinguishes the Rook from
the Hooded Crow 7 , which otherwise its habits closely
resemble.
In regard to this bird also, different views are held.
Whilst the scientific agriculturist considers it useful, the
old-fashioned husbandman is convinced that it is harm-
ful. Here again, therefore, must a just verdict be given,
between two opposing parties- but this verdict must be
impartial. Various things are said of the Rook but it is
not true that it picks the seed out of the earth, so that the
spoiled seed has to be ploughed in again. It only takes
the seed which has been imperfectly covered by the
harrow, and the reploughing is only an empty com-
plaint, for no one ever heard tell of a particular village,
or farm, where reploughing had to be performed on
account of the Rooks. The farmer who keeps his eyes
open before he gives an opinion knows that the Rook
digs his beak into the ground because he hopes to find
worms there. Sometimes it is shot, in order to
be set up as a scarecrow, but they say nothing of what
may be found in its crop, should it be opened; this,
however, is just what is necessary in order to ascertain
48 THE ROOK
the truth although the other conditions of its life must
also be taken into account.
It is easy to observe the behaviour of Rooks, because
they always move and act in flocks. These flocks are
dissolved only in cold snowy winters, when the birds,
tired of the cold and lack of food, come into the villages.
When the early spring ploughing begins, part of them
follow the plough ; the flock spreads itself over the
freshly ploughed land and they snap up the grubs of the
destructive insects which escape from the newly-turned
clods. This then is useful work. They also settle on
the sown land and pick up the seeds which the harrow-
has left on the surface, but at the same time devour the
insects which the harrow has turned up. There is no
harm in this. In a short time the full spring has come
and the immature insects have developed into other
forms then the Rook begins to think of building its nest.
Its young are not fed on seeds, for at that time there are
none to be had, but exclusively on insects which again
is a great and useful work. Then the flock spreads over
the neighbourhood, leaving their sleeping-place in the
morning in a body, and betaking themselves to different
parts of the district; and it may be remembered that
separate flocks repeatedly visit the same spot, and work
there; as, for instance, one point in a great stretch of
cornland, where in the track of the birds lie many
uprooted plants, which the farmer generally looks upon
as due to the mischief of the Rooks. When insect life
has become stronger, they settle on the meadows,
where they eagerly hunt for crickets and grasshoppers ;
then they return to the ploughed fields and destroy the
insects that have been disturbed and this is useful work.
It is true that later on they visit any heaps of cut corn
THE ROOK 49
that may lie in their way, and in this way do harm,
but the greater number of the flock pick up the fallen
grains in the stubble field, and a few follow the carts
which carry the corn, and pick up any that is dropped.
There is no harm in this, as these ears would in any case
be lost to the farmer. At the time of the hay harvest
they settle on the ridges of cut grass and hunt for
crickets and grasshoppers, for these creatures have then
no cover, and easily fall a prey to the birds. The Rook
also attacks the young maize and fruit, but it has
not skill in this respect and cannot do much harm.
The harm done is outweighed a thousandfold by the
good which it does in the destruction of insects. The
black army of birds lights also upon the turnip crops
just at the time when these valuable plants are covered
with masses of the "turnip caterpillar." By the
destruction of this pest they do the farmer invaluable
service.
This sanitary work continues into the late autumn as
long as the caterpillars, the Rook's favourite food, remain.
The Rook may do serious damage during the autumn
sowing, especially if it is thin, and sown and harrowed
so late that the caterpillars have disappeared, not so much,
however, that the field must be ploughed up ; at the
worst there would remain only one or two unproductive
spots, and we know that corn grows in tufts, and if it is
not thinned by the Rooks it must be done by the
farmer, so that the corn is not choked by its own
abundance.
When the hard part of winter comes, the flocks of
Rooks seek towns and villages, where they spend the
nights on the roofs of houses in order to shelter them-
selves from the icy wind ; during the day they steal from
E
50 THE ROOK
the barns and granaries, or, if the opportunity offers,
they get at the bundles of straw which they pull about
to try and find a stray ear of corn.
This much is certain that the principal food of the
Rook consists of insects and grubs, which it gets not
only from the surface of the earth, but also from beneath
it, when the bird sees from the colour of the fading
plant that a grub is gnawing at its root. This is the
meaning of the uprooted plants ; and why one flock after
another so often visits the same cornfields. It is a sure
sign that the wireworm or some similar pest is busy
with its depredations. Here again the work of the Rook
is a blessing.
There are neighbourhoods where the farmer makes, a
great fuss about a grain or two of wheat or maize, as if
he must be ruined by the damage. I repeat that the bird
has earned its few grains by its other work ; indeed,
without its useful services these grains would probably
never have grown.
The lesson we learn then is as follows : The Rook lives
principally and preferably on insects, grubs and worms,
and so long as these are procurable, it does not look for
grain therefore, the spring sowing should be performed
as late as possible, when the insects have developed, and
the Rook can find its natural food ; in autumn the sowing
should be done as early as possible while there are still
some insects to be found. The further actions of this
bird are protective, for it attacks the gnawing maggots
that live in the ground. These facts can be verified by
dissection of the bird, when the stomach is often found
to be full of wire-worms.
None the less researches into the habits of the rook
THE ROOK 51
require to be more thoroughly worked out, and this must
not be lost sight of.
I asked a tenant farmer in our own Midlands his views
on the subject of Rooks and the following, with some
slight editing of my own, was what he sent me. I give it
in full as although there may be some repetition of the
foregoing statements, it has special interest as coming
from one of our English farmers.
A recent writer from the sportsman's point of view-
speaks of the Rook as " this black robber," and he says
that there is no practical difference of opinion as to the
question whether his benefits outweigh his depredations.
Now, as a farmer, I confidently affirm that he does much
more good than harm. He will sometimes uproot vege-
tables in getting at the worms round their roots. It is
true also that he often robs the nests of the pheasant and
the partridge ; but, as I could easily show, he does far
more good to the general community by furthering the
labours of agriculturists, on whom so much depends,
than harm to the sport of our leisured classes.
A more social bird even than the gregarious starling,
he flies in flocks, feeds in flocks, and builds in flocks.
His everyday life may appear to be an uneventful one
to the outside world, and most commonplace; yet it is
full of adventure and of joy tempered with sorrows.
Apparently a grave bird, he is brimful of humour and,
at times, as full of play as a titmouse. Like all other
links in the seemingly endless chain of nature, he is the
victim of circumstances : without much ado he could
count up his sincere friends, but his enemies are beyond
his conception of numbers.
From his winter homing quarters he comes with his
52 THE ROOK
company during February to inspect the colony of breed-
ing nests which he regards as his peculiar domain, going
back as night approaches to his sleeping-place until all
is ready for the family life to begin. Rookeries vary, of
course, greatly in size; one may be as a city or large
town, again there will be a village, and here and there a
small hamlet. There are in my own fields one of about
a hundred and thirty nests, one of sixty, one of eight,
and another of four nests. Of these latter I have some
views of my own. I believe them to be those of odd and
outlawed individuals who follow the other companies
hither, but are socially' considered as pariahs. My
nearest neighbours are those of the sixty-two-nest village,
and my last census-taking records about sixty-two
married couples and thirty-six or more odd or unmated
birds. These are all, of course, adult birds, their num-
bers reckoned before the young were hatched out.
The odd birds may some of them be outlaws, as I said
before, but the majority of them are not vagabonds by
any means. They only happen to belong to that
numerous enough class amongst humans those who
have been forced by some just cause or impediment into
a life of celibacy. As the rook does not mate until it is
nearly two years old, a number of the single birds are,
therefore, simply lusty young bachelors. The few
individuals whom I sum tip as ne'er-do-weels or unfortu-
nates I know personally three of these at the present
moment are to be recognised by the shabby, neglected,
and generally unkempt appearance of their plumage,
and some other of the many outward signs of a past
henpecked existence. I am ignorant of the life history
of these; perhaps if we knew all about them we should
look upon them as objects of pity rather than of reproach.
THE ROOK 53
Now and again I notice that a few old birds in our
colony appear to be dissatisfied with everybody and
everything; and imaginary grievances, political and
social, often lead to a segregation scheme. This is how
I have accounted for my hamlet of four nests. The
general run of our odd, or celibate, birds is, however,
good in character ; they help in the building of the nests
and even in feeding the sitting birds. For the wedded
pairs April is a most trying time : if the season be a dry
one, or frost sets in, food is scarce. Insects and worms
are deep in the earth ; the farmer is engaged in sowing
his spring corn, oats, and barley. The rooks prefer a
diet of insects, worms and grubs, but these are hard to
get at times; the spring beans are just peeping through,
and the sitting hen asks for food. The cock bird
ventures too long in the beanfield, and as he skims over
the hedge with a bean or two in his pouch a shot is
heard; the faithful mate of the sitting bird is brought
down to mother earth, and the farmer feels that he has
one enemy the less. Personally I would not shoot a
bird if you gave me a sovereign for it. The old bird
may, and does, grieve, but the news of her loss is soon
at the rookery, and her food is brought to her by a new
mate. Thus there is a place taken in the rookery by one
of our odd birds, and there is a bachelor less in the com-
munity. I have known many a bird die about this time
through over-zeal a slave to love and duty. If April
prove seasonable and mild with showers, worms are
plentiful, and the farmer's gun remains in its place over
the kitchen chimneypiece.
Often during the building season the rookery is dis-
turbed by discordant notes, accompanied by a great
fluttering of wings; there is a big row in the township;
54 THE ROOK
not a duel over a ''squaw" : the rook is a philosopher,
and the ritual of love-making and matrimony are of the
simplest. The bother will be over divergent interests
or a disputed claim, for there is a recognised right of
property not ground-rent to pay, but a specified limit
for nest-room has been accorded. The trouble occurs
mostly with young birds wishing to place their nests too
near to an old nest. A parish council is called, with
the result that the disputants' nests are soon scattered to
the winds, and the claimant and the defendant may both
have to begin a new foundation. Sometimes there is a
disturbance on a more limited scale : one between very
near neighbours or blood-relations a family jar, in fact.
One pair of birds do their very best to pull the sticks
from the nest of another pair : each of the contending
parties will do all they can to prevent the other from
building.
As to the nests, we all know how busily the rooks set
to work to repair these after a gale of wind has wrought
some havoc in their colonies ; but I do not think it is
equally well known that they are curiously weather-wise,
and they scent the coming storm and set to work to repair
and strengthen before the imminent gale has been
evident to the farmer. I have noticed that fact ; the
Rook's powers of sight and hearing are remarkable.
At the end of the breeding-season comes the farmers'
rook-shooting, which I, for one, never take part in : I
have too much regard for the labours of both the adult
and the young birds. About the roots of each of the
turnip-plants there may gather scores of wireworms,
which eat the turnips ; in the crops of young birds which
have been shot are found myriads of these wireworms,
or it may be that they are filled with grubs of various
THE ROOK 55
sorts, the larvae of cockchafers, etc. In fact, in my
opinion that of a tenant farmer who is forced to make
things pay all the Rook's acts of depredation ought to
be forgotten if we carefully consider the great services
he renders to the agriculturist. Beetles, tipula (Daddy
Longlegs grubs), warble grubs, oak-leaf roller cater-
pillars, and the caterpillars of- the diamond-backed moth
he devours. The game-preserver may grudge the birds
their plundering of his nests, but the farmer is in grati-
tude bound to spare them. A lot of young birds at the
rook-shooting time are still unable to take a flight of any
distance, but others are, happily for themselves, able to
fly well. I am persuaded that the old parent birds often
foreseeing a shooting raid get these out of the way,
and so they secure life for a number of their young who
might have been sacrificed. They betake themselves in
parties to their footings about the elms upon outlying
pastures. Daily they grow stronger on the wing, and
learn the ways and means of living.
Like all long-lived creatures, the Rook is temperate in
eating, and he is capable of going a long time without
food a faculty which stands him in good stead during
hard winters. In a long frost or a prolonged drought he
is a most determined robber, and when he is on what he
knows to be forbidden ground, he posts a sentinel to
give warning of the approaching farmer or watcher.
He is known to take the eggs of such favourite birds
as the thrush and the blackbird, whose nests are open,
and therefore soon discovered and plundered. But this
is no doubt where his proper food is scarce; and if
man had not been so eager in the destruction of some
of our birds of prey, who are the natural enemies of him
and his, Rooks would be less plentiful in some districts.
56 THE ROOK
Still, I for one have no desire to see their numbers
decrease, so certain am I of their value; and I believe
this bird will become even more valuable as time
goes on.
The Rook is somewhat smaller than the Hooded Crow ;
the beak more slender, rather straighter ; the base of it
in mature age bare, and covered with a kind of white
scurf. The entire bird is black with a steely-blue and
purple gloss. The feet black and thick, the claws
strong, the sole rough ; it walks better than the Hooded
Crow. The beak of the young bird is not bare, the
nostrils being covered with bristly feathers. The bare-
ness first appears when the bird begins to dig in the
ground for its food.
The open nest tempts the Rook.
57
THE HOODED-CROW.
(Corvus comix.)
The Hooded Crow walks well, with head erect, moving
its tail right and left as it goes. Its flight is easy, using
comparatively little movement of the wings. This Crow
usually makes its nest in the tops of high trees, prefer-
ably in one standing alone in a field; but sometimes on
rocks. It does not build in colonies but usually settles
alone, though occasionally two or three pairs will build
on the edge of a wood or in a small plantation. The
nest consists of twigs, roots, and grass ; the hollow of
the nest being safely lined; in the spring it contains
four to six eggs of a light green colour speckled with
grey and brown marks.
In mild seasons this bird has been known to pair, as
early as the end of February, but the usual time is
March. Then the construction and arrangements of the
nest begins. The female bird, only, sits on the eggs;
the male guards the nest and provides the food. When
near the nest, he is a courageous, even daring bird, able
to keep off such enemies as the Hawk or the Eagle. His
cry is " kdr, kdr."
The Hooded Crow is a clever intelligent bird. It
easily adapts itself to circumstances; the wave-lashed
rock, or the icy peak, are as acceptable to it as green
meadows, or the palms and sycamores of Egypt; the
woods, as welcome as the heart of the snug village, as
the tiny garden round a peasant's hut. It is omnivorous ;
so long as it can find food in forest or field, on the sea
shore or river bank, it avoids the proximity of man ; but
when winter comes, it settles near inhabited districts and
THE HOODED-CROW 59
highroads, in order to seize upon anything eatable, how-
ever bad its condition.
And now let us investigate its actions, which divide
men into two camps, one of which states that the
Hooded Crow is harmful, the other that it is service-
able. First, as to the harm. It is true that this bird
considers a young chicken a great delicacy, and so, takes
one when it has a chance. But this happens very rarely,
for the good mother-hen flies at the marauder, and raises
a cry that brings out the people of the house to see what
is the matter, and the Crow has to beat a retreat, without
having secured its prey or run the risk of having a
wing broken by a stone, a rolling-pin, or other missile.
Should it succeed in securing a chicken, then indeed it
has done harm, but this happens so rarely, that the
housekeeper does not make much account of it. It is also
true that it attacks the timid little hares in the fields, and
if the mother is absent, the young ones are quickly des-
troyed, and torn to pieces by two or three blows of the
strong beak. In this case it is the sportsman who is
most annoyed, for the farmer is no friend of the hare,
which does great harm in the winter by gnawing the
fruit trees. It is a known fact also that the Crow robs
the nests of birds which are built on the ground in the
fields, when it finds them. This also is harm, but the
little birds exhibit wonderful instinct in hiding their
nests, so that even the sharp-eyed Crow can rarely find
one, especially when we consider that its attention is
constantly being diverted from the search by a fat cricket
or grasshopper, or a mouse slipping hurriedly by.
Neither can it be denied that when the ears of maize are
young and soft the Crows opens the husk with its beak
and regales itself with the milky juice. This is indeed
60 THE HOODED-CROW
mischievous, but the harm is only local. A few farmers
track it down, others do not, for about this time the bird
begins to mend his ways. It cannot be denied either
that it pecks young fruit of all kinds, and later pulls it
off the trees, and if not driven away, considerable
damage is done, especially if the orchard lies within a
district where Crows abound. It is evident then that the
gamekeeper must be allowed a little license, for where
game is bred and preserved, especially in such places as
Pheasant runs, the Crow may do much damage among
the young birds; but why is the gamekeeper there, if
not to scare away the feathered thieves with his gun ?
Once having experienced such a fright the Crow does
not often return to the same place.
And now let us consider the bird's good deeds.
The ploughman would be indeed unwise were he to
scare away the Crow, that, following in the furrow of
the plough, picks out from the freshly turned clods, the
worms, grubs, and maggots, which are the farmer's
worst en-emies ; nor do the evicted tenants of overturned
mouse-nests escape the strong beak of the bird ; and
how busy it is when a plague of mice occurs, as it does
in some seasons ! Then occurs a wholesale massacre,
and if this visitation happens in winter, the snow bears
evident traces of the Crow's sanguinary work.
It is also useful among the sheep and cattle, settling
on their backs, and destroying the parasites that attack
them. The beasts leave it undisturbed knowing that it
is doing them good service. Neither must we forget
that in villages, near human habitations it does excellent
scavengering work. It knows the precise time at which
the remnants of food are usually thrown out from the
cottage on the rubbish heap, and waits on the roof, till
THE HOODED-CROW 61
the moment arrives when it can pounce on the promising
morsels, which it carries away; thus removing what
would otherwise soon have become putrid. In winter
when pigs are killed, the Crows wait, among the neigh-
bouring trees, for their share.
The only remaining question, then, is, in which part
of the year this bird is harmful, and in which service-
able, an'd how long does each of these periods last. The
destructive period is really of short duration, for the
chickens soon grow into hens, the leverets become hares,
the young birds leave the nests, the maize hardens, and
ripe fruit lasts but a little while. That is to say, the
destructive period lasts but a few weeks. And what
does the Hooded Crow do for the rest of the year ? It
destroys insect pests, cleanses and purifies, and by its
continuous activity, does a service to man, which no
other creature could do.
Wherever and whenever this bird does harm it must
be driven off, but not destroyed. The hens must be
kept from roving, and the orchard must be -watched.
If it will not be scared away then it must be shot. But
when busy in the furrow, the field, or the dunghill, let
it be left in peace, for it is doing a beneficent work.
Neither nature nor man can do without the Hooded Crow,
and for this reason it must be treated indulgently.
The head, wings, tail, feet and throat of this bird
are black, but not glossy ; the lower breast, under-parts,
and back ashen grey ; the grey colour of the back forms
a kind of mantle, hence the name Mantle or Hooded
Crow. The strong curved beak is black, the nostrils
covered by bristly feathers ; the eyes dark brown ; the
feet strong and armed with thick scales, the soles rough.
62 THE HOODED-CROW
To England and Wales the Hooded, often called the
Grey or Royston Crow, is a regular and in many districts
far too numerous a visitor, from October on during the
winter. A few birds have remained to breed, and some
cases of hybridism with the Carrion Crow occur in the
North. In Ireland it has become a perfect scourge. In
the Isle of Man it is said to nest each year. On the
Scottish Mainland again they are far too many of this
species. So greedy is he that Howard Saunders tells of
having seen him eagerly devouring the carcase of a
recently shot member of the same brood as himself. To
some extent hybrids with the Carrion Crow are said to
be fertile.
A Son of the Marshes says that the Cob the Great
Black-backed Gull, which is called the Carrion Gull, is
a noble and open minded bird compared with the Dun
Crow the Hooded Crow of the foreshores. "His general
conduct would lead you to think he was only looking
about for amusement, up and down and over the water,
just far enough to see if any prey, such as a dead fish
or fowl, is washing in. He does not mean the gulls to
share the spoil if he can help it. He flaps to the beach
and out again just to make sure that it is coming all
right, and gorbles to himself a little. This wave must
beach it, he thinks; but no, with the receding of the
wave the fish a large dead skate goes also. The next
long roller may have more force in it, so he hopes, with
half open wings and throat feathers puffed out, down to
the very edge of the watery beach. Perching next on a
large stone, with keen eye and outstretched neck, the
bird sees it gather, a mile out. On it comes, gathering
in force as it begins to crest up, until with a crash it
breaks, and Hoody's dead fish is flung high and dry
THE HOODED-CROW 63
almost at his feet. Hardly, however, has he had time
to give one or two vicious digs at the now tender skin
in order to get at his highly flavoured meat, when from
all points of the compass other crows come shooting
along like so many hawks to join in the banquet. We
could have knocked them over well," concludes our
Marshman, " but on no account would we have done so
for they were doing their appointed work, that of clearing
up the refuse brought in by the tide, honestly and well.
" Hoody " is one of the scavengers of the foreshores."
>
THE CARRION CROW (Corvus cor one.)
The principal colour is black, shining, with a steely
blue lustre on the neck and back. The beak strong,
distinctly curved, and black, as are also the feet ; the
eyes are dark brown. The Carrion Crow makes its nest
in woods and is for the most part solitary ; when with
others, each one nests alone on a separate tree. The
nest consists of twigs, roots, leaves, etc. The hollow
of the nest is softly lined, and in the spring, four to six
eggs may be found in it, of a pale green colour, speckled
with brown and grey.
The Carrion Crow is sly and cunning ; courageous,
but at the same time, cautious, and extraordinarily clever ;
it discriminates exactly between the farmer and the
hunter, and allows the former to come quite close to
him. Its sense of smell is very delicate ; it scents carrion
a mile away, under snow and earth. This bird is to the
West what the Hooded Crow is to the East from
Austria onward through the whole of Germany and in
Great Britain. It croaks hoarsely " Caw, caw, caw."
The Carrion Crow follows the plough, and devours
grubs and mice ; it eats the insects in large quantities,
and lies in wait, for the mice about their holes. On the
sea shore, it will seize a large muscle with its beak, fly
up to a considerable height in the air, then drop the
muscle on to a rock, so that the shell is broken to pieces,
and the contents emptied out. The Carrion Crow steals
and plunders the nests of the useful birds, spoils fruit
and crops; but the great naturalist Naumann advises
that these birds should not be too hastily destroyed, for
66 THE CARRION CROW
they do mischief only for a short time, while during the
rest of the year they make war on the numerous pests,
and are of great service to the husbandman.
Since so much bird protection has been inculcated,
these Crows are enjoying much more immunity from
harm than heretofore. The result is that in some of our
London suburbs the bold but handsome creature comes
to feed with the small birds at our very doors in cold
weather. I have often watched the ungainly yet cautious
manoeuvres of a Crow which has frequented my little
lawn at Ealing. The letting of his heavy body down
from over the ends of the outstretching bough of a great
elm, which has its trunk on the other side of my fence,,
so as to quietly drop on to the grass on the feeding side
of the fence is very comical. He evidently wishes to do
it as slyly and as quietly as possible. Caution and
cunning are inherited traits with the once persecuted
crow. I confess to a liking for him, but then I am not
interested in the preservation of game. He pairs for
life too, and is therefore a respectable character so far.
And he too is useful as a scavenger, and takes also
plenty of rats as well as insects and grubs. When the
pair are on the hunt together, one watches whilst the
other feeds. He greatly resembles his greater relative
the Raven, in shape and plumage, and gamekeepers hate
him even more than they do the latter bird, which
country folks generally regard as the more ill-omened of
the two.
Speaking of my own pet Crow, a new maid I had came
to iny bedside early the morning after her arrival, to
inform me that she could not possibly stay in my house
THE CARRION CROW
67
as a Crow had croaked about her bedroom window
"something dreadful."
In Thibet, we read, there is an evil city of Crows, and
Hiawatha is said to have known of a land of dead crow-
men. The .Crow, according to the old Vedas, fell from
Paradise, and in Norway there is "the Hill of Bad
Spirits," where the souls of the wicked fly about in the
guise of crows. Happy the present generation who are
taught more toleration for "all things both great and
small."
The Carrion Crow has always done good work as a
scavenger, for which he has had small thanks. The poets
have all combined in holding him up to execration.
" My roost is the creaking gibbet's beam
Where the murderer's bones swing bleaching;
Where the clattering chain rings back again
To the night-wind's desolate screeching."
It is good to believe that " sweetness and light " are
gradually getting the upper hand; and the gibbet with
its ghastly burden, and most of the cruel superstitions
concerning some of the most useful of God's feathered
creatures are alike a thing of the past.
THE RAVEN.
(Corviis cor ax.)
The Raven is fully one third larger than the crow.
Its plumage is black, with a blue or green lustre. Tail
wedge-shaped ; beak large and slightly curved ; the
breast feathers pointed. It builds its nest in woods,
on the tops of high trees ; selecting most cunningly such
trees as cannot be climbed. The clutch consists of four
to six light green eggs with dark speckles.
It flies well, and can hover in circles, and is a cunning,
shy bird, always ready for plunder but a splendid
creature. It is really sad that it should allow itself to be
led away to the paths of dishonesty by the sight of
shining objects. It attacks everything from earth-worms
to hares, plunders and steal nests, takes eggs and fledge-
lings, and also feeds on 'carrion. According to popular
superstition, it first pecks out the eyes of its prey. The
proverb says : One crow does not peck out the eyes of
another.
Another proverb allegorically expresses the fact that
the young brood are black : It may be freely translated
as follows :
" That ravens bear not doves 'tis known,
And grapes on thorn-trees ne'er have grown."
The Raven lives to a great age ; it becomes tame in
confinement, and can be easily taught. It even learns
to speak, and can pronounce words clearly. It is the
jester among the animals in the farm-yard. It some-
times happens that the black colouring matter is wanting
70 THE RAVEN
in the plumage of the raven, and the bird is then white.
This, however, occurs very rarely so that when people
wish to explain that a certain thing is quite exceptional,
they speak of it as a white raven.
The coat-of-arms of the renowned Hungarian King
Matthias Corvinus, bears a raven with a golden ring in
its beak. There were more Ravens in those old troub-
lous days, of long, wild trains of warriors and robbers,
when slaughtered men and fallen cattle remained un-
buried by the wayside, and when the gallows stood in
the open field, as a sign and a warning to men, than
there are now, in our days of milder methods.
The Raven is not altogether common with us.
Don Quixote says that King Arthur did not die but
was changed by witchcraft into a raven, and that some
day he will put on his own shape again and claim his old
rights. And so no Englishman he says has ever been
known to kill a raven, for fear he should kill King
Arthur. The Raven, it seems, has continued to build
every year since 1856 either at Badbury Rings Mount
Badon, where King Arthur defeated the West Saxons,
or else, so the late Mr. Bosworth Smith told us, " in the
adjoining park of Kingston Lacy, where they are safe
under the protection of Mr. Ralph Bankes."
The necromancers of old are said to detect sixty-five
intonations of the Raven's voice; he certainly croaks
and barks and chuckles, but it has some pleasanter,
more musical notes early in the year in the courting
season, and the great solemn looking bird becomes quite
playful and even graceful in his movements when his
mate and he are about to make their nest. He performs
evolutions in the air and turns somersaults most glee-
THE RAVEN 71
fully. The pair play together and tumble down as if
shot, and turn over on their backs. Then whilst his
mate is sitting he keeps careful watch over her and utters
savage croaks if any footstep approaches. He will fight
any large bird of prey that dares to approach his nesting
place. A faithful creature, he pairs for life and, says one
of his lovers "you will hear him utter a low gurgling
note of conjugal endearment which will sometimes lure
his mate from her charge ; and then after a little coze
and talk together, you will see him, unlike many hus-
bands, relieve her for the time of her responsibilities,
and take his own turn on the nest."
The Raven is in danger of extinction in our country
unless better protection can be procured for him. Sheep
farmers have a special grudge against him. Its num-
bers are kept down in the South of England by the
prices paid for the young birds. Still they continue to
breed all along the south coast and from North Devon to
Wales, wherever there is a suitable headland. The
so-called Raven-trees are much few 7 er than they used to
be. The Raven is rare in the eastern counties and in
the Midlands. In Scotland it is not uncommon wherever
it finds suitable cliffs to build in. In Ireland its numbers
are fast decreasing. Its fondness for weakly ewes, lambs
and game make him an object of hatred in many
districts.
USEFUL.
THE JACKDAW
73
THE JACKDAW.
(Corvus monedula.)
The Jackdaw is considerably smaller than the Crow.
The crown of its head is black, the nape and throat grey
at the sides ; the back and the tail also black ; the under-
part slatey-grey and black. The plumage and eyes of
the Jackdaw become whitish in old age. It builds its
nest in hollow trees, in the clefts of banks and of old
masonry, and in towns between the ornamental parts of
buildings. The eggs, which usually are five in number,
are of a light bluish-green speckled with dark grey and
olive brown.
The movements of this bird are quick and active, it is
light on the wing, busy in flight and call. Its cry
sounds like " Cdee, Caee." Heard from a height it
attracts attention to the approaching birds. Jackdaws
usually fly in small flocks; they mix with other Crows
and roam about the fields and meadows with them.
It is a confiding bird, that not only visits large
towns, but actually dwells in them. It is true that it
does not despise a brood of young birds, if fortunate
enough to secure one; but its principal food consists of
the numerous insects, maggots, worms, caterpillars, and
other creatures which the plough discovers with the
upturned clod in field and meadow. It is pleasant to
observe the bird following the ploughman at a distance
of five or six paces, watching with its sharp, bright eyes
for what the ploughshare may turn up and descrying,
instantly, even the very tiniest grub or maggot. The
slight harm which it may do among the young birds or
74 THE JACKDAW
the fruit, or occasionally in the young maize ears, is
outweighed a thousand times by the services performed
for men by this lively, busy bird, as a destroyer of insect
pests.
The Jackdaw becomes very tame if caught young ; it
accustoms itself to life indoors, and becomes attached
to members of the household and can be taught many
funny tricks and games. It is a great thief, taking
away and hiding any shiny object it can carry. It loves
a bath, and immediately paddles about in any little piece
of water it can find.
The Jackdaw is found throughout the greater part of
Europe; South of Germany it is somewhat rare. No-
where is it so numerous as in Russia.
Mr. Herman's mention of the Jackdaw's nesting place
being in towns among the ornamental parts of buildings
reminds me of an act of great apparent cruelty on that
bird's part which a friend witnessed and reported to me.
He was passing by Apsley House at Hyde Park corner
one Spring morning when he noticed a Jackdaw pounce
on a Pigeon which was about one of the ornamental parts
of that mansion. The Jackdaw literally tore the poor
bird to pieces. Whether the Pigeon was invading
ground the Jackdaw looked upon as its own domain he
could not say; but the sight was cruel enough. That
this species is intolerant in nature is shown by the fact
that 'he would hardly ever nest in the same neighbour-
hood as the Chough when this bird was more plentiful
than it is now. The Chough has ousted it or at any
rate taken its place in Kerry and Donegal, and other
wild parts of the Irish coast, though it is numerous in
THE JACKDAW 75
other districts. Large numbers of Jackdaws come to our
eastern coast in autumn.
I have referred more than once to the late Rev. R.
Bosworth Smith, but I feel that I must give one other
fact here which came to me through a friend of his own
who attended his funeral. It has not, I believe, been
recorded before. He had a special affection for the bird
now under notice. After a very serious operation in
London this gentleman and how truly gentle he was,
many a one knows declared that he wished "to be
back amongst his dear birds again " at Bingham's
Melcombe old Manor House. In his delightful book
" Bird Life and Bird Lore" he has told us of the falling
of the big tree in which eleven pairs of Jackdaws had
their ancestral home. It fell, crushing an unlucky cow :
that happened to be taking an afternoon nap beneath it.
After its fall, the whole colony of daws sat on the stump
and held a conference. Other Jackdaws who had lately
been shut out by w T irework from the Manor House chim-
neys, and more whom the churchwardens had banished
from the church belfry were also hard put to, at the same
time, to find proper lodgings. Their numbers did not,
however, diminish, in the grounds, and when their friend
came home to die in the midst of his feathered friends,
strangely enough a Jackdaw 7 circled round about the
church whilst the last service was held for him, followed
the cofrin to the grave, and hovered about this, and
near the friends who were there, until the last sad rites
were over. If space allowed one could tell other stories
of the strange sympathy between birds and their human
friends.
Many a sheep farmer can speak to the services Jackey
renders to his sheep in ridding them of their tormentors
76 THE JACKDAW
in the shape of ticks, not to speak of the friend he is to
the grazier in ridding his beasts of the flies that harass
and nearly madden them at times. This goes far beyond
making up for the eggs of small birds, pheasants and
partridges. It is on record that 400 maggots, each an
inch in length, have been taken from one wretched
beast, and of the Ox Bot-fly we read that the eggs having
been laid in the hair on the skin of cattle and the mag-
gots being hatched out, these eat their w 7 ay through the
skin, and,taking a lodging beneath it, they form large
tumours known as warbles. The grub can enlarge this
at will through a breathing hole left in the skin. After
staying in these horrible quarters for ten or eleven
months, feeding on the nastiness there, it creeps out,
drops to the ground, and buries itself to pass through the
pupa stage, whence it emerges a winged fly. Then
there is the Sheep Bot-fly w^hich is worse still, laying
its eggs in the nostrils of sheep. The maggots force
their way upwards as far as the bones of the forehead
where they abide for about nine months, causing vertigo
and staggers, and sometimes death. Finally they de-
scend by the nostrils and are got rid of by the poor
sheep's sneezing. They get so to ground and bury
themselves. From the pupa they pass to the winged
stage so as to lay eggs in summer.
Who that has seen our bird on the back of one of these
tormented creatures could ever complain of " that wicked
Jackdaw."
The gardener also may welcome it with justice. Ear-
wigs and spiders, with their white bags of eggs or young,
Jackey makes short work of, also snails. It is true he
takes ripe fruit, peas, etc., but we may not grudge one
of the very best of our bird lovers a tithe of the produce
THE JACKDAW 77
which his own good services have increased immeasur-
ably to our benefit. That ancient poet who wrote of the
cave where
" Birds obscene,
Of ominous note, resorted, choughs and daws."
was not so good an agriculturist as one might have
expected him to be.
Cowper appreciated the character of the Jackdaw to
the full. He says
" There is a bird who, by his coat
And by the hoarseness of his note,
Might be supposed a crow.
A great frequenter of the church,
Where, bishop-like, he finds a perch,
And dormitory too.
Thrice happy bird, I too have seen
Much of the vanities of men,
. And, sick of having seen 'em,
Would cheerfully these limbs resign
. For such a pair of wings as thine,
And such a head between 'em."
79
THE MAGPIE.
(Pica rustica.)
This is an extraordinarily clever, sly, and calculating
bird, which, although living mostly in the neighbour-
hood of man, never becomes confiding, though bold
enough to steal a young bird off the nest, and make
away w ; ith it. When a pig is killed, it lurks around for
hours with other birds of the crow species, near the spot
where the pig is singed and cut open ; and at an oppor-
tune moment darts down, siezes something, and is
instantly back on the roof or tiie hay rick.
In a hard winter it will come into the farmyard or
the village, and filch whenever and whatever it can.
It builds its nest, preferably, on a road where rows of
acacia trees border the cornfields ; a spot which offers a
wide field for its activity : doing mischief by decimating
the voung birds ; but on the other hand it destroys grubs
and beetles, and in this way is useful. It does, however,
considerable harm, and therefore its numbers should be
lessened in my opinion.
It is well known that the Magpie steals any shining
object it can find. Its call sounds like " Shakerack."
There is a saying in Hungary, where it is very numerous,
that when the Magpie cries on the roof there are visitors
coming.
Game-preservers have managed to destroy more Mag-
pies than Jays in Great Britain, but the Magpie is still
fairly numerous and the species is distributed widely
throughout our country. In Ireland it is even increasing
in numbers. The Magpie confers immense benefits by
8o THE MAGPIE
devouring slugs, snails, worms, rats and mice, and these
ought surely to weigh against its depredations in the
poultry yard, and where eggs and game are concerned.
A number of Magpies together have, under stress of
hunger, been known to attack weakly animals, and the
late Lord Lilford recorded an instance of fourteen or
fifteen of these birds fastening on to a sore-backed don-
key in very severe snowy weather, and after the death
of this animal, from natural causes, several of the birds
were shot as they fed on its body. But what will starv-
ing creatures not do if they can fill their empty stomachs ?
Their keen eyes also see when a fox is growing exhausted,
and they will hover and swoop over it in a most sugges-
tive manner.
In point of fact the Magpie robs poultry yards, taking
eggs, chicks and young ducks, during the months of
May and June especially; but these might be protected.
Some fruit too he will steal ; but let us consider that all
the year round he feeds on the very worst enemies to
agriculture, and that it feeds its young, generally six of
these in each nest, on insects chiefly and later on rats,
mice, etc. The short-tailed Vole or field mouse of which
from time to time our country has a perfect plague
" overwhelming the whole earth, in the marshes," said
one old chronicler, is especially sought for by the Magpie
and these Field Voles have three or four litters in the
year, litters of from four to eight young. One writer
states his belief that the destruction of Kestrels and Mag-
pies is the cause of the increase of Field Voles. The
Rev. J. G. Wood considered that it more than compen-
sated for the harm it did to game and poultry by its good
offices in ridding the gardens and cultivated grounds of
their varied foes, and Macgillivray gave the bird a good
THE MAGPIE 81
character on the whole. Our cattle are grateful for its
services ; like the Jackdaw it frees them often of the
vermin which annoy them so persistently. The large
White or cabbage butterflies, it devours largely, and
these feed on other crops beside cabbage, both the leaves
and seed-pods of turnips for instance, horse-radish too
and watercress. Enormous flights of these insects come
to us from abroad from time to time.
It is of course a noisy chattering creature, and, as a
child, I remember I had a perfect terror of a tame Magpie
that ran after me, pecking at my heels. Its " tricks and
manners " leave much to be desired, it must be owned,
yet it is an ornament to the country side, and to meet
more than one Magpie is considered to be a very lucky
omen, that is, I believe, up to six. In Scandinavia it is
the bird of good luck, par excellence, and its presence
is much desired about the homestead.
Montgomery wrote :
' Magpie, thou too hast learned by rote to speak
Words without meaning through thy uncouth beak.""
but the Magpie retorts :
* Words have I learned, and without meaning too,
Mark well, my masters taught me all they knew."
Head, neck, throat, mantle, rump, and thighs black ;
breast, underparts, shoulder and the inside of the wing
feathers pure white. This gives the bird a very pied
appearance. The tail is long, arrow-shaped, and like
the wings have a beautiful metallic lustre. Its nest,
G
82
THE MAGPIE
which is a work of art, is built in trees. Dry twigs and
thorns form the foundation, and on this lies the cup made
of earth or clay and lined with fine roots, leaves and
hair. Over this is a domed roof of thorns and twigs :
the opening of the nest is at the side. The clutch con-
sists of four to seven eggs of greenish grey speckled with
brown.
Out in the Cold.
83
THE JAY.
(Gdrrulus glanddrius.)
Wherever this bird is found woods and gardens ring
with the sound of its voice. Its usual cry sounds like
" Matyash " (Hungarian for the name Matthias) by
which name it is consequently often called in that
country. It is an active, restless visitor to the bushes
and gardens, when they are near a wood. It is not
dainty and its voracity is great. Nuts, filberts, acorns,
beechnuts, fruits, berries, but also insects from grubs up-
wards, grasshoppers, beetles, everything finds its way
into its crop. Such things as nuts and filberts, which
have a hardshell, it collects in crevices and holes. All
this is not so bad, but another of its habits is evil it is a
nest plunderer. Eggs, naked fledglings, half-fledged
young, sitting on the edge of the nest awaiting the
mother's return all become its prey. In order to reach
them it squeezes through the thick growth of the white-
thorn. In fact it is a shameful bird that deserves no
consideration.
If caught young and kept in a cage or running about
the house, he is often found to be an amusing fellow,
even if not quite tame, and proves himself a perfect
master in imitating the notes of other birds. In the first
place he learns the noises of the domestic fowls and
animals. He chirps like the little chickens, crows and
cackles; then he howls like the dog, cries like the cat,
squeaks like the unoiled hinges of a door, or a cart-
wheel. He answers the Cock, like a cock, the goose,
like a goose. His usual cry is a screeching " Retch "
or " Key "--or when in fear " Kay " or " Kray."
DOUBTFUL.
THE JAY,
THE JAY 85
It is fairly numerous with us, and is on account of its
brilliant plumage, an ornament of the woods.
In Great Britain the Jay finds little consideration, save
from the makers of artificial flies, after he has been shot
or trapped. The lovely blue wing-feathers are used by
these men. Gamekeepers also show him scant mercy.
Still he manages to hold his own in the woodlands and
is fairly common in England and Wales. In Ireland
its numbers are fast decreasing. On the east coasts large
flocks sometimes arrive from the Continent to stay for a
time; but the Jay is of course resident with us as a
species.
The Jay is perhaps now receiving a little more tolera-
tion than formerly. It devours worms and insects, cer-
tainly, and to a considerable extent. A Son of the
Marshes puts it in a light which is worthy of considera-
tion. To quote from " Nature's Raiders " " The
Jays have scant mercy shown them as a rule. On some
estates extreme measures are carried out against them
but this is not always the case. Taking their numbers
into consideration, they cannot be half so hurtful as they
are represented to be from the gamekeepers' point of
view, or they would be thinned off more. Jays are
excellent covert guards in the daytime in the same way
in which the peewits, at night, guard the fields which
they frequent. Both birds give tongue as it is termed.
To the small allotment holders who have their cultivated
patches in sheltered hollows close to the woods, this bird
must be considered as a feathered benefactor, for he will,
if allowed to do so, keep within due bounds the small
raiders that play havoc with their garden produce.
Recently I saw at least a dozen watching for and cap-
86
THE JAY
luring also some of the wood mice that had ventured
out on the sunny slopes of the allotment grounds. As
the crops were vegetable ones the less attention these
have paid to them by the mice, when in a young state,
the better."
The voice of the Jay is against him, however. It does
not evoke sympathy. Montgomery wrote :
" Thou hast a crested poll and 'scutcheoned wing
Fit for the herald of an eagle king,
But such a voice ! I would that thou could'st sing."
And the Jay retorts :
" My bill has rougher work, to scream with fright,
And then, when screaming will not do, to fight."
The Jay is smaller than the Jackdaw. Its plumage is
reddish grey, the bridle wide and black ; crown nearly
white with dark longitudinal flecks; rump and undertail-
cover white ; on the wings a white spot ; tail black, with
pale blue cross bars. Its great beauty is due to the
upper wing feathers which are striped with white, black
and a beautiful blue. It has bright shining eyes of light
blue. The nest is built in trees, sometimes high, some-
times low, and five to nine eggs are laid, which on a
pale, usually greenish, ground are thickly speckled with
dark but delicate spots.
The Jay as raider.
87
THE BLACK-HEADED GULL.
(Larus ridibundus.)
This Gull is a migrant in Hungary. Many, however,
pass the winter with us, leaving the frozen inland waters
for the open streams of the rivers, where they pass their
time until spring returns. It has quite adapted itself to
life on land, and there is no bird which more assiduously
follows the plough in those districts where it has its
nesting place on the inland waters, or more zealously
clears the cornfields, meadows, and rush-beds of all
kinds of noxious worms and grubs, than this gull. It
also feeds its young on these insects, and many of the
landowners, have to thank the Blackheaded Gull that
they are free from the annoyance of these pests. It
frequents the ponds and lakes, however, in autumn, and
makes havoc among the little fishes. Its screeching
call can be heard at a great distance, " Krea, Kred," or
" Krackackark."
It is an exceedingly useful bird, and ought to be
protected.
This species is generally distributed on our shores
all through the year in Great Britain, but in spring it
betakes itself to marshy places near the coast and to
inland lakes and meres. Near Poole in Dorset is a
colony of these Gulls, they ought rather to be called
Brown than Black-headed; on the coast of Essex, several
in Norfolk, small ones in Yorkshire one large one near
Brigg in Lincolnshire; and those of Aqualate Mere in
Staffordshire and Norbury have existed for some centu-
ries. In many other districts to the North they are even
THE BLACK-HEADED GULL 89
more plentiful right up as far as the Shetlands. In
Ireland it is the commonest species of its family.
To the farmer the services of this Gull are invaluable.
Like the Rook it follows the plough, devouring vast
quantities of worms and grubs. It can capture moths
and cockchafers on the wing, and will eat indeed almost
anything, acting also like others of its congeners as a
scavenger of the foreshores. Farming in districts near
the coast benefits greatly from the services of these birds.
They are partial to snails also, and as no Gull feeds on
plants, seeds or fruits, a Gull in a garden, wing-clipped,
is often kept as a useful pet.
This Gull is sixteen inches in length, that is almost as
big as a crow. The beak is not strong, the point is curved
downwards; the head a beautiful dark-brown. This
colour extends to the throat. There is a white ring
round the eyes. Neck and mantle a beautiful ashen-
grey, throat, breast and underparts white, with pinkish
tinge; outer primaries dark with w : hite stripes. The
upper parts of the wings are light grey; beak and legs
carmine, also the irides and their borders ; the toes are
joined together by a web. The head becomes white in
winter, the beak and feet lose their brilliant red colour
and become flesh colour, and then brownish. It nests
with others in settlements consisting sometimes of 3000
to 4000 nests. The nest is placed on broken reeds, turf
clods, tufts of rushes ; the bird, without much skill,
makes a little heap, scratches a hollow in it, smoothes
the inside, prepares a litter of dry rush and sedge leaves,
and the nest is finished. The nests are placed close
together. The clutch consists of two or three eggs, very
rarely four, usually of a yellowish clay colour, marked,
or regularly speckled with a dark shade.
USEFUL.
THE QUAIL.
, 91
THE QUAIL.
(Coturnix communis.)
The Quail is about the size of a large clenched fist, and
is almost as round as a skittle ball. Its entire plumage
is clay-coloured speckled with a darker shade, and marked
with light lines, like the head of oats. The whole
marking of it, especially of its back, is designed to avert
man's attention from this crouching bird. The throat
of the cock is black, the beak and legs like those of the
barn-door fowl. The bright eye light nut-brown. The
nest is placed on the ground, and is simply a scratched-
out hole, which is rather littered than lined with blades
of grass. In this the female bird lays her eggs of olive
yellow, beautifully speckled with brown, sometimes to
the number of sixteen, but usually ten. The chicks run
after their mother as soon as they are hatched and dried
which is a very pretty sight. They can make them-
selves invisible by crouching on the ground, so that the
colour of their down assimilates with that of the earth.
The habits of this bird are those of the domestic fowl.
From early morning till evening twilight, the Quail is
on its feet, searching the ground for grains of seed or
little beetles. It scratches like a hen, and when it finds
a sunny, dusty or sandy place, it bathes in the sand,
flinging the dust all about. The Quail is a useful bird
for it picks up only the seed which lies on the ground,
and feeds it young with the same. It therefore deserves
shelter and care. Its voice and habits are pleasant and
agreeable to man. Its familiar and homelike cry, sounds
from out of the cornfields, and the little hen answers.
The mating call of both is, " Bue bee wee."
92 THE QUAIL
" Ah ! what sweet accents fall softly around,
Praise the Lord ! Praise the Lord ! (Fiirchte Gott !)
Murmurs the quaint little quail from the ground." *
The bird's cry of " Bit by bit," and his mate's reply,
' Wet my weet, Wet my weet," as we render it, is not
often heard now in our own country. This is attributed
by some to the fact that most of the Quail's favourite
feeding-grounds have been " improved " away. Fine
pasture-lands are now w'here the ground was once coarse
and covered with tussock, bent, thistles, burdock, hawk-
weed, and such plants as flourish in uncared-for lands,
and in such surroundings the Quail delighted to remain.
Now, only very few winter with us ; the majority leave
in October for the South.
The Quail is an accomplished ventriloquist, and the
late Lord Lilford, in his " Notes on the Birds of North-
amptonshire," says that he often heard a caged Quail
calling when within a few feet of him, which yet gave the
impression of being many yards distant. On the
western side of Corfu he found numbers of these birds
in the currant-vines on very steep hill-sides, and vast
numbers are bred in the cultivated plains around and
below Seville, where their numbers are thinned in the
pairing season by a clever method of calling the birds
into a net by imitating the call-note of the female. On
the island of Capri, in the Bay of Naples, it is on record
that as many as 160,000 have been netted in a single
season.
Many of us have eaten them in the South of France
during the grape season. The birds can be caught by
the hand when they have, as the French say, intoxicated
* See Beethoven's song "The Call of the Quail." One of Antoinette
Sterling's favourites.
THE QUAIL 93
themselves by feeding on the ripe grapes. During the
winter and the early spring they feed on the seeds of
the plantain, dock, vetch, and chickweed. Slugs also
and insects help to form the bird's diet. The Italian's
notion that it is unwholesome to eat Quails at a given
season arises, no doubt, from the fact that it is pleasanter
eating and the flesh is plumper at certain times of the
year than at others, owing largely to the varying nature
of the bird's food.
The Quail is a favourite pet in Spain ; the birds are
kept much in cages there, and are valued because of
their song ; and that the Quails have been taken on the
Continent in vast numbers when netting them, at the
time of the vernal migration, is not to be denied.
" We remember," says Lord Lilford, " seeing a steamer
at Bressina, in the month of May, 1874, one of whose
officers assured us that he had six thousand pairs of
Quails alive on board, all destined for the London
market. The unhappy birds are carried in low flat
cages on boxes, wired only in front, and it is surprising
what a very small percentage of them die on the voyage,
unless ' a sea " happens to break over them. They
thrive well on millet, and soon become fat; but, in our
opinion, this traffic should be prohibited, as the unfor-
tunate birds are caught on their way to their breeding
quarters, and some of them at all events would afford
sport at a legitimate season when naturally fit for the
table." " Chaud comme caille," says the French
proverb, because Quails are exceedingly amorous and
pugnacious at the time of pairing. They thrive well in
confinement, and are easily " fatted up " for the table.
USEFUL.
THE STARLING.
95
THE STARLING.
(Sturnus vulgaris.)
The Starling is a very lively, jovial bird, very active,
hunting about, and chattering over what it snaps up. It
is also very sociable. These birds often collect in such
numbers, in places, where a wood is bounded by pastures
or reed-beds that when the flock rises together, it throws
a shadow like a dark cloud. It specially seeks out flocks
cattle, horses, sheep or pigs, and stalks about in
their shadow, under the very noses of the wallowing
swine, in order to drag out of the earth the desired
worms, in company with the Blue headed Wagtail. It
also perches on the bodies of the beasts, and operates on
them where there are maggots or worms. The animal
knows the bird is doing him a good turn, and remains
perfectly still.
It is true that this bird also attacks cherries, black-
berries, raspberries and grapes; and, if present in num-
bers, it does, indeed, considerable harm. Then it must
be frightened off with rattles, blank-shot, and whatever
else is of use. Still, the year through, it does a thousand
times more good than harm and therefore deserves to be
protected and cherished.
It becomes very tame and trusting in captivity and
can be easily taught. It can learn to sing tunes and
speak words and becomes attached to its owner.
Mrs. Edward Phillips of Croydon rescued forty star-
lings once from the pockets of a working man who said
96 THE STARLING
he was selling them to serve as pigeon dummies, in shoot-
ing matches amongst his friends. Needless to say she
paid for and set them at liberty. I was struck wtih the
scarcity of Starlings in the centre of France, and country
folks there told me they were getting scarce. Perhaps they
were not much protected, for I saw in Anjou a family of
the young birds in the hands of a boy who told me he
was carrying them home to train for sale as singing and
talking pets. They are not good to eat and yet they
will feed on them in that part birds these that, if
spared, eat up tons of those grubs and larvae which ruin
the crops in the field. Sometimes even they have been
shut up and fed on vegetable diet to make them taste
better. This has only made the bird thinner, proof
positive that the enemies of " green stuff " and not itself
form their natural diet. Feeding as they do at all sea-
sons on our pasture lands the services they render are
incalculable.
In November, or somewhat earlier, they arrive on our
east coasts in great numbers ; whilst others migrate west-
ward, deserting some localities entirely for a time. Great
numbers also visit the South of Ireland then. They
settle on the salt marshes for a while sometimes ; but
often they pass on further inland in perfect silence, with
a swift direct flight, and a way altogether unlike their
usual chattering fussy ways. They begin to pair in
January in some of our districts. Naturalists call them
Ambulatores, or walking birds ; they are quaint creatures
in all their ways and habits. Of late years they have
been accused of pecking into apples more than is desir-
able. As the season advanced, and fruit was not so
varfed and plentiful, I used to find that when all the
leaves were off my pear trees in a former home they
THE STARLING 97
ate the few pears that were left hanging high up until
nothing but stalk was left, but they touched neither
apples nor pears whilst the leaves were on the trees.
The best way of keeping Starlings away from high
cherry trees, that I have seen, is fixing a long narrow flag
to a strong top branch. Large flocks of them resort to
cowfolds, where the stock are all night, and before these
are let out the birds are there seeking for larvae and
worms in the dried dung, perching now and anon on the
backs of the cattle, chattering low all the time. They
rid trees of caterpillars, and the turnip fields, where they
have been known to clear these of ''fly"; also to visit
field peas that were infected with aphides and do good
work there; and they devour great numbers of Daddy-
longlegs. Waterton, that past-master in the art of
observing and chronicling the doings of birds, wrote :
" There is not a bird in all Great Britain more harmless
than the Starling : still, it has to suffer persecution, and
is often doomed to see its numbers thinned by the hand
of wantonness or error. The author of * Journal of a
Naturalist ' observed a pair of Starlings having young
ones for several days, and he wrote, * It appears prob-
able that this pair, in conjunction, do not travel less
than 50 miles a day, visiting and feeding their young
about 140 times, which, consisting of five in number,
and admitting only one to be fed each time, every bird
must receive in this period twenty portions of food."
In 1891 twelve farmers, replying to Miss Ormerod's
question as to which kinds of birds were specially useful
in destroying caterpillars, all replied in favour of the
Starling. Now what, after all, matters a little fruit taken
from private gardens in view of all this good work done.
And as to the professional fruit grower, it will pay him
H
98 THE STARLING
to employ a boy or two during a short season of the year,
to keep birds off his trees.
Sir Herbert Maxwell, who writes on the whole in
favour of Starlings, and remarks truly that all naturalists
are agreed that the good they do outweighs the evil,
says that " from many a dovecote the legitimate occu-
pants have been expelled by the intrusion of these irre-
pressible creatures." And Waterton wrote, " The far-
mer complains that it sucks his pigeons' eggs, and when
the gunner and his assembly wish, the keeper is ordered
to close the holes of entrance to the dovecot overnight,
and the next morning three or four dozen of Starlings
are captured to be shot .... Alas ! these poor Star-
lings had merely resorted to it for shelter and protectipn,
and were in no way responsible for the fragments of
egg-shells which were strewed on the floor .... The
rat and the weasel were the real destroyers," etc.
The Starling is as big as a thrush ; it has bluish irides-
cent plumage, the feathers tipped with white. Beak
relatively small, brow flat ; eyes near the base of the
beak, which gives it a cunning expression. The feathers
are small and tapering at the point; beak yellowish.
The hen is paler, the young ones still more so. The
legs are strong, with sharp claws. It selects for its nest
holes in oak trees in the woods near which is pasture
land or water stocked with reeds and rushes. In warmer
regions it breeds twice in the summer. The first clutch
consists of five to seven eggs, the second of four or five
of a pale light blue colour.
99
THE ROSE STARLING.
(Pastor roseus.)
In Hungary this bird is only a summer guest, and
single pairs may be met with in various parts of the
country. Its appearance in large numbers always coin-
cides with the time of the grasshopper plague; a fact
which was first observed in 1814. The distinguished
Hungarian ornithologist, Petenyi, described his observa-
tions in 1837. He states that, so long as the grasshop-
pers are not fully developed, the bird feeds on all sorts
of insects ; but as soon as the grasshopper is sufficiently
matured, this insect forms its sole food, and is pursued
with great eagerness. Thus, in the year 1907 great
numbers of Rose Starlings appeared on the well-known
Puerta of Hortshagy where just at that time the grass-
hopper plague was raging. There we may enjoy the
spectacle which Petenyi described as follows : " To the
eye of the beholder a flock of these birds in flight has the
appearance of a roseate cloud, always moving, back-
wards, forwards, sideways, in ever changing forms of
beauty or, alighting, they give an exquisite impression
of whole bunches of wandering roses moving on the
green turf."
Although the Rose Starling also loves fruit-berries
and causes such damage to them by its great numbers,
that in some parts it is called the "devil's bird"
the fact remains that its chief food is the grasshopper.
In Tartary, its native land, it destroys the locusts which
in former times visited Hungary. A Turkish proverb
says that the Rose Starling kills ninety-nine grasshoppers
before it eats one. When a flight of these birds de-
scends upon a grasshopper infested district, it consumes
ioo THE ROSE STARLING
an enormous number of these insects, and that, in places
where human defences can do nothing; in this consists
the value of its actions.
Among the grasshoppers found in Hungary at the
present time are the Stauronatus maroccanus and in
smaller numbers the Colopterus italicus, the latter of
which belongs naturally to the Hungarian fauna.
The note of the Rose Starling is a harsh and con-
tinuous babble. This bird is protected in the Caucasus
and elsewhere because locusts are the favourite food of
both the old and the young birds. In the East it is said
to be, however, very injurious to grain during the colder
season; also I believe, in Africa. This beautiful bird
has occurred of late years in most parts of Great Britain,
but only, alas, to be shot and " stuffed." As a rule it
visits us in summer and autumn, single birds, perhaps
separated somehow from flocks of their own species.
In such a case they generally join our own Starlings.
This beautiful species is the same size as its congener,
the Common Starling, and it resembles the latter in
form although so much smarter in appearance. Rump,
back, shoulders, breast and underparts are a bright rosy
pink, head, neck and throat are a glossy black, wings
and tail 'are a metallic greenish-black. The bill is a
yellowish-pink, black at the base; legs yellowish-brown.
The long crest of the adult male is composed of fine
violet-black feathers. The female is not so brightly
tinted and has a smaller crest. The nest of the Rose
Starling is built in its own native home in south-eastern
Europe in some crevice in a ruin in quarries, cliffs, or
.among stones in a ravine or a railway cutting. The
clutch consists of five to six eggs of a pale bluish-white
colour, or pale bluish-green.
101
THE WAX WING.
(Ampelis garrulus.)
THIS beautiful little bird has its nesting place in the far
north. It often visits Mid-Europe in winter in great
numbers, principally frequenting juniper plantations,
where it is easily snared. Its flesh being a great
delicacy, it is much sought for. Moving along the
headlands it passes also into the valleys, and even visits
the gardens and parks of great towns, especially where
mistletoe is found on the old trees. When in need it
eats seeds ; it also feeds on the berries of whitethorn,
mountain ash, hawthorn, and other bushes. It has a
good appetite and digests its food very quickly, but is
somewhat inactive in its movements. It lives in colonies
sometimes smaller sometimes larger. Its breeding
range extends across Behring Straits to Alaska and the
Rocky Mountains.
The Waxwing visits Great Britain at irregular
intervals, often in large numbers, during the winter.
Being an inhabitant of the Arctic regions, its visits are
more frequently paid to the Northern and Eastern sides
of the country, but it has been seen often in the Southern
counties. In Norfolk, on the spring migration, it is
sometimes seen up to the first week in May. It is a
silent, gentle-mannered bird and its only note is a low
cir-ir-ir-ir-re . It is essentially a wandering species and
is very erratic as to its nesting places, belonging to the
class the poet refers to in those lines
* The birds of passage transmigrating come,
Unnumbered colonies of foreign wing,
At Nature's summons."
USEFUL.
THE WAX WING.
An erratic winter visitant.
THE WAXWING 103
The Waxwing has a very silky plumage. On its
head is a crest, inclining backwards, which can, how-
ever, be erected at pleasure. Throat smooth black;
back cinnamon-brown, underparts a lighter shade of the
same colour. Tail black with a golden-yellow border at
the end. Wings black with white bars. The outer half
of the secondary wing feathers yellow, with white border
at the end. The shafts of these feathers are tipped with
red horny appendages like sealing-wax, which also
appear on the tail feathers of the adult male.
USEFUL.
THE SWALLOW.
105
CHAPTER IV.
IN THE AIR AND ON THE TREES.
THE SWALLOW.
(Hirun d o rus tic a.)
THE nest of the Swallow is in the shape of half a saucer,
quite open, and formed of clay, into which straw and
grass are cleverly kneaded. It is built in old huts, in
chimneys, also under the eaves of houses, often so low,
that it can easily be reached by an outstretched arm.
This bird is truly a household companion with us
in Hungary. The first clutch of the year consists of
five to six eggs, the second which comes at Midsummer,
of three or four ; they are white, speckled with reddish-
brown and grey.
It is a pleasure for man, to observe the daily life
of the Swallow. In spring it returns to its old nest,
tidies it up, and then its domestic felicity begins. In
the early morning light, it may be seen sitting on the
roof, on the window-sill, or on a post, cleaning and
arranging its plumage; then it wakes the household,
io6 THE SWALLOW
with its twittering morning song. Next husband and
wife begin their flight. Swift as an arrow, off they go,
seizing flying insects and caressing each other on the
way. The Chimney Swallow, when on the wing, utters
a hasty " Beeweest, beeweest," especially if it is
alarmed. Its cry is a tender " Weet" or " Weeda
iveet."
Soon comes the brooding time; then, the young ones
slip out of the eggs, and the work of feeding and
educating begins. The parents take it in turns to
perform these duties, which they do with the greatest
industry, and even when the young ones are as big as
themselves, and fully fledged, they still place them in a
row on some bough, and bring them food. It is
beautiful to see with what fidelity this is done. It is a
sight to move heart and mind with tenderness, and this
is the pet bird of our people, who care for it, and gladly
give it shelter and protection ; not however, that of the
Southerners, who catch and cook Swallows by hundreds
of thousands.
We hear from all parts of the country of the scarcity
of Swallows, and various theories have been offered as
to the reason of this. In France their numbers have
been for years systematically reduced by the snaring
and destruction of them, in various ways, for table use.
An instance of this I can personally vouch for. A
doctor in Nismes, the brother of a friend of my own,
who is keen on bird protection, being in the market one
day, was pressed by a poulterer to buy Larks. When
he refused, the man, thinking the price was too high
for him, took him aside and showed him two hampers
apparently full of these birds, which are allowed to be
THE SWALLOW 107
sold there, whereas the massacre of Swallows is illeg, i.
On the top was a layer of Larks, underneath were
Swallows only. ' These I can do cheaper," he said.
The Midland farmer I alluded to before, Mr. E.
Hancock, who writes to me at times, and who has
commented on the few Swallows about, sends me a story
of a pair nesting in his bedroom. They built over a
picture frame, brought out their young successfully,
and the youngsters having gone out into the wide world,
the two parent birds remained in the home. One roosted
regularly on a clock in the bedroom, the other upon the
picture frame. It is possible that this pair, or one of
them, was hatched out on the picture at Great Dealings
House, Suffolk, of which I have written elsewhere.
Who can tell ? A few days ago they began cleaning,
relining and repairing the nest, making all ready for
the coming of their second brood.
Lady Farren had little silver rings put on the young
of the second brood hatched over the portrait in the
bedroom at Great Dealings. A bird, with the ring still
on came to breed in that same place two years later.
The poor Swallows often suffer terribly from storms
and unseasonable weather coming after they have left
their warm winter quarters. Mr. Poole, of Haling, told
me that being at his angling quarters on the river
Kennet, Ham Dridge, near Newbury, on April 25, 1908,
at 8.15 a.m., he saw Martins and Swallows hawking
flies, most probably the grannow, as there had been
some previous hatches of this fly noticed. The season
earlier had been a warm one and these birds had arrived
early.
It was snowing hard at the time, and had been doing
so for some few hours, and three or four inches of snow
io8 THE SWALLOW
lay on the ground. All that day it snowed continuously,
ceasing only at about 7 p.m., with a fall nearly two feet
deep. The frost was occasionally severe during the
day. On the morrow, April 26, it was intensely bright,
and even hot in the sun, the snow disappearing very
quickly; but, said Mr. Poole, "I saw not a sign of either
Swallow r or Martin and indeed Ihey were scarce on the
Kennet for the rest of the season. I also noted a great
scarcity upon the riven Itchen, in Hampshire."
A lady also tells me that near Lynn in Norfolk, during
the great cold, the hungry Swallows came down on her
garden lawn and picked up the scattered crumbs of
bread.
Probably numbers perished of cold and hunger. As
Swallows live entirely on insects, the diminution in
their numbers is a serious matter.
It is sometimes necessary, in order to preserve the
proper order of things, to describe what every one
knows. The most striking characteristics of the
Swallow, which distinguish it from its congeners are
as follows : Brow and throat a beautiful chestnut brown ;
breast, back, wings, and tail a fine black with a bluish
metallic lustre. With regard to the tail however, only
the two middle feathers are pure black, on the others
small whitish specks are discernible. The outer tail-
feathers form a long pronged fork. The underparts are
sometimes white, sometimes brownish. The beak is
very small, the gape wide. The open jaw forms a kind
of little pocket. The legs are small with sharp claws
suitable for grasping.
log
THE HOUSE MARTIN.
(Chelidon urbica.)
WHILE the Chimney Swallow builds inside houses,
under some circumstances even in the fire-place thus
becoming a beloved member of the family, the House
Martin constructs its strong and comparatively large
nest on the outside of the building. In mountainous
districts it is found also in an overhanging position
on the steep rocks, where it is sheltered from the rain.
In many villages, where windows and doors of the upper
floor are kept shut, so that the Chimney Swallow cannot
come in, the latter is not found, and the House Martin
then takes its place.
This Swallow also lives entirely upon flying insects.
It spends most of its time on the wing otherwise it could
not live. It has, consequently, small, weak legs, which
are only useful for clinging. It is as useful as its
relative but has less confidence in man ; it is less
familiar. Neither does it please our ears with such a
pretty twittering, and its enclosed, remote nest, affords
us no insight to its family life. It arrives later in the
spring than the Swallow, and assembles in the autumn
in flocks, on towers, trees, roofs of houses and churches.
One fine day we find they are all up and away for the
distant South.
This bird deserves every care and protection.
I had been watching with interest the building of some
nests of the House Martin one season, and enjoying
the sight of the pretty creatures as they circled about a
house I was staying in for a time, and the way they
USEFUL.
- .
THE HOUSE MARTIN.
THE HOUSE MARTIN in
dived in under the eaves. But those bold marauders the
House Sparrows, whom over-feeding and indulgence
have corrupted and made indolent, forcibly took posses-
sion of these homes which were ready for immediate
habitation. My neighbour literally fought the intruders,
brandishing a clothes-prop from her open bedroom
window for several mornings and evenings. The
Martins forsook the nests at last in dudgeon, worn out
with anxiety as to their homes which are now empty,
for my friend declares no Sparrows shall have them.
This is one of the worst indictments against the Sparrow,
as we all prefer the graceful and useful House Martins
about our homes; and through this evil habit of the
former their numbers are greatly lessening.
There has been a general complaint of late years that
the numbers of the Swallow family are decreasing. This
is an international question. If the Southern European
States net and kill Swallows and other small useful birds
which are passing through on their migratory flight, the
more Northern States naturally suffer loss. That is why
many of us regret greatly that England has not as yet
seen her way towards joining that International conven-
tion for the protection of wild birds which had its
first beginning in Germany in a little band of foresters
and to which nearly all the European States excepting
England now subscribe.
The whole study of the migration of birds is full of
interest and, indeed, of mystery, much as we have
learned of their life history during the last fifty years.
As a humble student of bird-life, glad to learn all I can
from other students, I have found that those who know
most about this wonderful migration are the most modest
in making definite assertions in the matter. So little,
112
THE HOUSE MARTIN
they will tell one, is as yet absolutely established fact,
"the way of the bird in the air" is still shrouded in
mystery.
The House Martin is smaller than the Chimney
Swallow and is easily distinguished from it. At the
first glance we are struck by the two colours of its
plumage, black and white. Throat, breast, underparts,
and also the rump are white ; beak, neck, mantle,
wings, and tail, black. The little legs are covered in
front with white down, like little trousers. The throat
is less white than that of the Swallow. Its nest is
half-globular, built of clay, and has only a very narrow
opening. It builds under eaves, or cornices, in
sheltered places on houses and churches, in whole
colonies, sometimes in groups, also one over another
like a bunch of grapes. It lays five, sometimes seven
white eggs.
The Swallow's Flight.
H3
THE SAND MARTIN.
(Cotile riparia.)
THE Sand Martin flies quickly, but not with the arrow-
like speed of the Chimney Swallow. It dwells on the
waterside, where it nests in colonies of hundreds, even
thousands. The nest is composed almost exclusively
of earth, and is placed in the steep high bank or in the
walls of a landslip, and it is remarkable as to its
architecture. The little bird excavates a long horizontal
tunnel in the side of the bank, at the end of which is an
oven-like cave, in which it builds its nest of vegetable
fibre, roots, feathers and hair. The neighbours build
so close together that the bank in many places appears
to be completely honeycombed. These nests are built
at least 12 inches from the surface of the bank. This
bird visits the neighbouring streams and ponds in
flocks, circling and darting here and there as is
necessary in the pursuit of the winged water-insects.
On its return in the spring it seeks and enlarges its old
nest hole. It is widely distributed and occurs in great
numbers.
The Sand Martin arrives in Great Britain often as
early as the last week in March ; it is also one of the first
species to leave us. The Sparrows often oust whole little
colonies of these birds from their dwellings, but when
the colony is a large one they get the better of the
hectoring intruders. As soon as the young are able to
leave the nest they go to spots where there is water, as
they find their food all day long in localities where there
is an abundance of insects gnats especially. Most
useful they are in marshy localities, where the atmos-
I
USEFUL,
THE SAND MARTIN,
THE SAND MARTIN 115
phere would be intolerable for human beings but for the
work of these little creatures. A little dry grass and a
quantity of feathers supplies material for the nest which,
being in a little chamber up a tunnel, out of the disin-
fecting wind, gets flea-infested and very unpleasant.
Railway cuttings are much frequented both by Martins
and Wagtails because the passing of a train stirs up
insect life in it.
The gnat is frightfully prolific; it would soon poison
our water as well as render it hard for men to breathe.
A mother gnat is said to lay from 200 to 300 eggs at
one time, and in two weeks the young from these are
able to lay eggs themselves. Gnats must themselves be
needed in the economy of nature, but if not kept in
check they would render our life absolutely unbearable ;
they form the food for fishes, how r ever, as well as for
birds.
A porter at a railway station close to a cutting told
Mr. C. Simeon, who wrote on angling and natural
history, that they did not allow boys about, robbing the
eggs in the colonies nesting there. "They" the birds
"are such good friends to us that we won't let anyone
meddle with them." He explained further that the flies
about the station would be unbearable but for the Martins
that were always hawking about it. Before the Martins
arrived a few warm spring days often brought out a
troublesome number of flies. "Now," he concluded,
"we may see a fly now and then, but that is all."
The Sand Martin is smaller than the others of the
Swallow family and has dull simple coloured plumage.
Back greyish brown, throat and underparts white, the
short forked tail is of a uniform ashen-grey. Feet small
but strong. It lays five small, pure white eggs.
USEFUL.
THE SWIFT.
THE SWIFT.
(Cypselus dpus.)
THE Swift comes to Hungary early in May and leaves
again the first days of August. In England it comes
and leaves about the end of these months, that is as soon
as the young are ready to fly. The materials for the
nest are obtained on the wing, therefore often with
difficulty, as the wind brings it. These are glued
together by the viscous secretions of the bird. Some-
times, however, it robs Martins, House-Sparrows and
Starlings of their homes. The wild note of see-see has
gained for the Swifts the name of " Screechers," and
"Devilings" in Great Britain. They always hunt in
companies and one might say that they compass the
wide world in their rapid and powerful flight. The feet
which are so helpless on the ground are well adapted to
clinging on to the rocks and heights where they breed.
The work Swifts do in clearing the air of insects must
be enormous, these forming all their food.
This is one of the most interesting of our British
birds, and one that is still an unknown quantity, in some
respects, to the most learned of our ornithologists. " It
soars on higher wing " even than the Skylark. A larger
bird, it rises until it is lost to the keenest sight, remain-
ing in the air longer, also, than perhaps any other bird.
Whether it is capable of rising from the ground, when
once there, is, curiously enough, still a matter of dispute
among certain naturalists. " Can Swifts take wing from
the ground? " was a question raised not long ago in
"Nature Notes," the organ of the Selborne Society.
Ii8 THE SWIFT
Over two centuries ago Dr. Plot wrote of the Swift,
". . . it having so very long wings, and so short legs
and small feet, that it cannot easily rise from the ground
unless it be very plain and free from grass ; wherefore
it either always flies or sits on the tops of churches,
towers, or else hangs on other ancient buildings by its
sharp claws, from which it falls and so takes its flight."
It would appear from old records to be very much
commoner now in our country than it was ; and several
recent accounts attest to its trick of exploring the old
nesting-hole of a Starling. Mr. Yates, of Staffordshire,
and Mr. Carr-Ellison, of Alnwick, both give interesting
facts in corroboration of this proclivity. In an Eccleshall
street Mr. Yates saw a Swift enter a hole where it had
been in the habit of nesting, but it quickly emerged with
a Starling fast to its tail. So weighted, the unlucky
Swift soon came to the ground and to grief, but it was
rescued and was started on its flight again. The
Alnwick naturalist, again, saw a Starling pecking at a
grounded Swift, and drove the former away. The
Starling then flew on to an apple espalier close by, and
watched the Swift, which tried to fly along the slightly
sloping walk, but it could not get its wings clear of the
ground. Its friend lifted and threw it up in the air.
Three times this gentleman has witnessed the same scene
at long intervals. The reason of it is that he had had a
hole made near his study window for nesting purposes.
Starlings always build in this in April or early in May,
and after they have left Swifts build in the same hole.
Sometimes they attempt this too soon ; one comes to
explore the hole, and gets caught by a returning Starling
who at once pulls it to the ground below, where it is
pecked whenever it tries to move. The Swift never
THE SWIFT 119
alights on the ground of its own free will ; about eighty
of these birds, which were picked up dead on a peninsula
where I once sojourned, had dropped, exhausted by
violent storms encountered on the migratory flight, and
there for want of food and help they had perished.
It is a delight to watch the evolutions of a Swift on a
clear evening; with a grand, falcon-like stooping, the
cock-bird begins to drive its mate back to her nest; at
least, such is supposed to be its intention. The males
first rise high in the air, and then make the swoop, and
there is much evading by the females, and renewed
pursuit, after which the males come back alone to enjoy
themselves whilst their mates sit quietly on their nests.
The Swift, which used to be classed with Swallows, is
now placed in the same order as the Fern Owl or Goat-
sucker, being, it is decided by scientific authorities, more
allied to the latter in its structural affinity than to the
Swallow. Its general colour is a bronzed blackish-
brown; the throat is a greyish-white; the bill, claws and
toes are black. The young birds have more white about
the throat than the adults. The tail is forked, the wings
are long and narrow, formed like a sickle. The eggs
are generally only two in number, oval in shape and
dead white, whereas the Swallows and the Martins lay
four to six eggs each. Also the Swift has only one
brood in the season, instead of two.
121
THE NIGHTJAR.
(Caprimulgus Europczus.)
THE Nightjar is the bird of twilight and late evening.
When the sun has set and twilight is spreading over the
land the bird leaves its day hiding place, on the bough
of an old tree, where it has clung the whole time,
undistinguishable from the bough on account of the
colour of its plumage. It rises on the wing, and with
its peculiar, irresolute flight, makes for the plain, or the
bare places, and clearings in the woods.
Like the Swallow it catches its prey on the wing the
flying insects of the dusk, among them the largest night
moths. Its cry is a pleasant faint "Hait, hait."
There is a wide-spread, foolish superstition that the
Nightjar sucks the milk of cows and goats ; it is, indeed,
known to many people under the name of "Goat
Sucker." This has arisen from the fact that it is often
seen flying about, here and there, in the pasture fields.
It darts down, then flies up again and seems to glance
stealthily around. This behaviour, and its great mouth,
have given it a bad name. Every herdsman, and indeed
every one else who uses his eyes, knows that the drop-
pings of cows simply swarm with insects towards
evening, The Nightjar knows this also, and it is for
that reason that the innocent bird frequents such places.
It is very useful and deserves help and protection, and
the more so because it is somewhat rare in Hungary.
In the middle of May the Fern Owl or Nightjar arrives
in Great Britain, and utters his jarring or churring
122 THE NIGHTJAR
spinning-wheel song over the sloping ground of many
a common, where the golden gorse blossoms give out
their delicious, apricot-like scent, hanging over rifts in
the sandstone; and the ground below is studded with
patches of ling, below which again luxuriant green
ferns, having their roots in the cool moist bottoms, raise
their tall fronds. It is warm on the bare patches of
stony, sandy soil, on which the sun has been shining all
the afternoon, and moths with other winged insects are
here in numbers. The Fern Owls know that, and they
are churring and squeaking over the slopes and tumbling
and darting about after their winged prey, flying quite
near to you as you rest on a bit of their hunting ground.
On a bare spot on the sunny slope, where a few gorse
needles and bits of dead bracken lie, two oblong creamy
white eggs will be laid later, marbled and veined in such
tones as match their surroundings of stones, dead leaves
and bits of brown fern-stalk, so closely that it is by a
rare chance that the eye distinguishes them. And when
the little creatures are hatched out, they will look, at
first, just like a bit of lichen covered stone and a dead
leaf. The mother will, it is said, pick her eggs up and
place them elsewhere if an intruder has approached them
too closely. When the young birds begin to flutter
with their wings, the parent bird shifts them up by easy
stages, through the low growth of heather and ferns,
hustling them on, and bearing them up, until they reach
the lowest branches of some dipping oak bough, where
they sit in a line with the branch they rest on, invisible
to the ordinary observer ; and there they are fed with
scarcely a pause in the flight of the industrious parent.
In Devonshire they feed much on " fern-web " namely,
small chafers.
THE NIGHTJAR 123
It is a curious thing that the unjust appellation of
" goat sucker," given from time immemorial to this bird,
has its equivalent in almost every country of Europe. It
is like the case of the barn-owl, which is called "oil
drinker" in the south of France. Night-feeding birds
have always been the objects of ignorant persecution.
The Nightjar is called tette chevre in France and Geiss-
melker in Germany. Crapaud-volant is another of its
names, after the toad, which is also said to suck goat's
milk.
The Nightjar is about 10 inches in length. It is a
peculiar bird. The plumage is fine and soft ; in this, as
well as in its colour, reminding us of the Owl, with this
difference, that the yellow in the colouring of the Owl is
not so pronounced and the ashen-grey and washed-out
looking brown is therefore more decided. The two
middle tail feathers are a beautiful grev with dark dots
and intermittent cross-stripes. The head is large, the eyes
dark-brown and large, and they have power to see clearly
in the twilight. The beak is small, the gape, on the
other hand, relatively enormous, forming a yawning
abyss when open ; the edge of the upper mandible beset
with moveable bristles. Legs short and weak. It does
not build a nest. It lays two eggs on the bare ground
and there hatches them. The eggs are nearly white
with dark marble-like veining.
USEFUL.
THE GREEN WOODPECKER,
125
THE GREEN WOODPECKER.
(Gecinus viridis.)
THIS Woodpecker is indefatigible in its work of
hacking trees and dragging out worms ; it flies in a curve
from tree to tree, always beginning its climb from the
bottom ; finds out the weak places in the tree, in which
it pecks holes so that it can reach the insects in them
with its long tongue, and so furnish itself with a meal.
It is equally busy on the ground, with the ant-heaps,
which it bores into. Then when the ants collect together
it flings out its long sticky tongue; the ants are caught
on it, as on a lime twig, and so they find their way in
to the stomach of the bird. The Woodpecker carries
on this business also in winter, when he breaks through
the hard frozen side of the ant-hill, and surprises and
decimates the inhabitants while in their winter sleep.
It is a noisy bird whose " klu-klu-klu-klu " echoes
through the wood, breaking in on many a lonely hour
for the woodman; a real blessing in the orchard, and
a skilful surgeon for invalid trees ; on that account it
deserves protection and care.
In this country it is fairly common.
This is the largest and best known of our English
Woodpeckers, and it occurs in most of our wooded
districts south of Derbyshire and Yorkshire. In the
northern counties it only breeds occasionally. In Scot-
land it is little known and from Ireland it is also practi-
cally absent. In England, too, it is very local in its occur-
rences. The song which roused my imagination most
in childhood's days was that one with the refrain about
126 THE GREEN WOODPECKER
11 The woodpecker tapping the hollow beech tree." And
the fact that as I listened to it I could only gaze out of
the old-fashioned bow windows of a town house, which
looked out over a sloping expanse of smoky chimneys,
made the idea of the Woodpecker tapping mysteriously
suggestive and attractive. Since then I have heard it
in many a country the green species and its relatives,
and the song takes me always back to the old home and
the mother's side by the piano.
Windy March found me one morning in a pleasant
wooded district in Suffolk. Above the tossing of the
branches of the great elms, as the gale rushed over,
sounded the notes of the Mistle-Thrush, fitly named the
storm-cock, singing out his defiance to the weather, as
he swayed on the topmost bough of an old cedar across
the lawn. He is one of the earliest heralds of spring,
and is never daunted by the weather, though it revert
to wintry wildness. On the same lawn, well kept though
it be, if we look out early enough, we may see a pair of
Green Woodpeckers. Last evening, when for a time all
was hushed and still, the well-known yiking laugh of the
Yaffil, as Chaucer called him, came over from the avenue,
whence, too, had sounded his busy drumming. Then
he and his mate were busy getting the grubs that had
bored deep down in the timber, but now come up near
the bark of the trees in order to get the warmth necessary
for their development. In the early morning hours,
when the watchful gardener has not yet appeared, the
pair tear holes in his well-tended lawns with their feet,
and hack at the turf with strong bills to get at the grubs
below. They feed indeed largely on ground grubs
throughout the year, as well as on ants in summer, and
timber-haunting grubs and beetles.
THE LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER 127
The Lesser Spotted species, althougn not so widely
distributed, is even more common in the south of Eng-
land, and near London. One was shot lately in Scot-
land, as "a very rare bird." It is probably chiefly
owing to the cutting down of old forests that they are not
found in Scotland. Now and again they may even be
seen in Kensington Gardens.
We have no picture of the Lesser Spotted Wood-
pecker (Dendrocopus minor). It is perhaps oftener
present with us than is supposed, being smaller than its
relatives. Also it frequents taller trees. I have seen
numbers of these bright busy creatures in Hungary, in
the poplars, along the river Waag, in the foothills of the
Carpathians. Its colouring is much the same as the
Greater Spotted species, only the markings are different
and it is only just over five inches in length, whereas its
near congener is just over nine inches. The male bird
makes the same loud vibrating noise in the trees as the
latter.
The Green Woodpecker is 12 inches in length.
The mantle is bright olive-green. The crown of the
male bird, as far down as the nape, is fiery red, also the
moustaches. The lores and cheeks black, is less crimson
on the head of the female, and the moustaches are black.
The outer feathers of the wing are nearly black with
white flecks. It has two front and two back toes; the
claws, strong, curved and adapted for clinging. The
tail feathers strong and suitable for pressing. Beak
leaden-grey, strong, with an edge like an adze ; worm
shaped tongue which can be greatly extended. Having
selected a suitable tree, it makes its nest hole at a medium
height, with a narrow entrance and lays in it six
sometimes, but rarely eight dazzling snow white eggs.
USEFUL.
THE GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER.
129
THE GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER.
(Dendrocopus major.)
This also is a busy hammering bird, which flies
energetically about the woods and gardens, climbing up
the trees from the bottom, closely examining the bark
and wood for grubs and bark-beetles, and extracting
them with its long pointed tongue. When opportunity
offers, it also attacks oily seeds, such as those of the
sunflower and berries; but this must not be counted as
harmful. By its whole nature, and its peculiar work it
belongs decidedly to the most useful of birds. There is
a widely spread belief and suspicion among the country
people that this Woodpecker spoils the healthy trees,
but its beak cannot avail beyond a certain degree of
hardness; it can only pierce holes where the wood is
softened by rot, and therefore hajbours timber grubs.
The fine wood-dust under the trees where the Wood-
pecker has been at work calls the attention of the good
gardener to the bad state of the tree, and he can then
take steps to arrest the mischief if not too late. The
Spotted Woodpecker can conceal itself very quickly.
When it sees a human being it clambers up the opposite
side of the tree trunk. In autumn it roams about with
swarms of other tree-cleansing birds. In spring it makes
a loud drumming noise among the dry branches.
It is fairly common in Hungary, but is less so in
Great Britain, although pretty well distributed in the
wooded portions of England. In Scotland generally it
is rare, but southwards from the Shetlands, down to the
east coast, it occurs at times on migratory flight.
J
130 THE GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER
THIS is a black, white, and fiery-red speckled bird, length
over nine inches. The black lores extend like a bridle to
the neck. Back and rump black. In the male the back
part of the riead is red, in the female black ; in both the
lower part a burning red. The sides of the underparts
dingy white ; on the shoulder a white spot ; on the flight
feathers white, cross flecks. Tail strong, the middle
feathers pointed and stiff, suitable for climbing. Beak
relatively short, but strong at the base, pointed like a
chisel. It bores its nesting hole in trees about half way
up, the entrance being round and only just large enough
for the bird to go in and out. It lays four eggs,
occasionally six, of a dazzling snow white, with delicate
shells.
THE TREE CREEPER.
(Certhia familiaris.)
The winsome little Tree-Creeper is distributed all over
Great Britain, but you need a sharp eye to detect it in
its quiet colouring on the trunk of a tree with which its
quiet colours are in perfect harmony. Within the
crevices of the bark it finds it diet of destructive
creatures' eggs which are glued to the bark and little
spiders which hide there. During the winter it associates
with the Titmice and Fire-crested Wrens. Upwards and
downwards and round about the old tree trunk it moves.
It might be taken for a mouse or some such creature;
it moves about so deftly and so close to the bole of its
tree, a useful unobtrusive little bird. In the United
States they consider this species so useful that they fix a
box for it, to entice it to nest in gardens.
The Tree-Creeper climbs as nimbly as the best Wood-
pecker. It cannot extend its tongue as that bird does,
but can use it very cleverly. With its fine little bill it can
pierce into the smallest crevices and extract from them
the tiniest grubs. It is of great use in wood and garden.
Its usual note is a low " seet " or " sect, seet, seet. 1 '
The simple song of the male bird is recognisable by the
syllabes teet, teet, teet, titi-ivoi-teet.
It is not uncommon in Hungary.
THE Tree Creeper is smaller even than the Wren, but is
longer than that bird; it is a tiny creature with a
stiff tail which is very useful in climbing. There are
three front toes and one back toe on the little legs; the
USEFUL
TREE CREEPER AND NUTHATCH
THE NUTHATCH 133
bill is delicate and slightly curved ; the upperside of the
body is the same grey of the tree trunks, spotted with
white. It lays five sometimes as many as nine milk-
white eggs, delicately speckled with rust-red and blood-
red spots. The nest is made in crevices, small holes,
sometimes between the loosened bark and the tree, and
is composed of fine soft material.
THE NUTHATCH.
(Sitta ccesia.)
Wherever in wood or garden the Nuthatch dwells its
voice is heard. It calls sometimes a flute-like " tuui,
tiliii tilili ' sometimes a quick " kwee, kwee, kwee "
and it is always very busy. It is the only bird
we have that can climb head downwards and that
as quickly as it is safe. The beak is strong and
pointed. It picks out of crevices and from under
the bark of trees everything that is there in the way of
grubs and beetles and insect eggs. In the autumn it
gets at oily seeds, conceals nuts and filberts in suitable
crevices and knocks them till they crack. It does the
same with the gall-nuts in order to get at the maggots
or chrysalis of the gall-wasp. It is an absolutely useful
bird and one not uncommon with us in Hungary.
This bird is common in most districts in the centre
and south-east of England where there is old timber.
In the westward it is less common. In some old parks
in Yorkshire it appears again, but is rare elsewhere in
the northern counties. In Scotland it is not very often
134 THE NUTHATCH
seen and in Ireland it is so far unknown. Beech-mast it
is fond of in our own woods, but it feeds on insects on
the ground as well as in the trees. This species, like the
last-mentioned, is very mouse-like in its movements and
many ornithologists assert that it sleeps with the head
and back downwards.
The Nuthatch is as big as a Sparrow, but more solid ;
above bluish-grey; underneath white or rust-red; over
the eye a black stripe. The tail is not adapted for
climbing. Legs short and strong, claws strong and
sickle-shaped, three toes turn to the front, one to the
back. The clutch consits of six or eight white eggs,
speckled with rust-red. The nest is formed of a wide
hole, which so walled in by the bird with earth and
clay that there is only just room for it to go in and out.
135
THE CROSSBILL.
(Loxia curvirostra.)
The Crossbill is a stationary bird as to habitat, but it
does ramble about. Staying at home, or wandering,
depends upon the supply of sap or seeds of the fir
tree, which forms its sole food; although it visits also
beeches, maples, and alders, sometimes even falls back
on thistle-seeds, and does not even despise caterpillars.
Its beak is an excellent tool for removing husks and
crushing seed. It wastes a great many seeds, for it lets
fall all those which it cannot shell with one bite. It
reminds us of the Parrot, not only by the form of its
beak, but also by the clever way in which the beak is
used in addition to the legs in climbing from bough to
bough, just as the Parrot does. It is besides a cheerful,
indeed, a restless bird. It sings whole songs, and the
old bird fancier Bechstein has put words to one of these,
beginning :
Zeri-zeri doeng-doeng-doeng hist-hist.
Its call is sok, sok.
The firwoods of our Hungarian mountains contain
plenty of these birds.
These interesting birds, the Crossbills, nest in many
parts north of the Solway, and southwards may be seen
in September in flocks or parties, wandering about in
suitable districts in search of food. In the young birds,
the bill, or rather the mandibles, are not crossed, and
the beautiful crimson colour in the male is not seen the
first year. A greenish-orange replaces this in the
USEFUL.
THE CROSSBILL.
THE CROSSBILL 137
females. I saw a very fine Crossbill lately that had
been obtained in the valley between Newburyand Theale,
where these birds are to be found most years among the
fir-clumps on the higher lying commons. It is said to
breed in many of the Southern Counties, but there is no
reliable evidence of its doing so in the Midlands. In
Scotland it nests in districts where are old pine forests,
building a cup-shaped structure of dry grass, moss, and
wool, which is placed on twigs, and these on the branch
of a fir, close to the stem. From fir-cones their food is
extracted, but in the autumn, berries and apple pips are
taken, an old name" for the Crossbill being Shell-apple.
Many years ago great damage w T as done to some apple
orchards by the boring of fruit to extract the pips.
Although usually a winter visitant, the late Lord
Lilford reported having seen large numbers of these
birds during the month of June in a district of North
Devon. The forest-folk of Thuringia are fond of them
as caged pets, considering that they bring luck to the
house, and also cure the diseases of the family if the
mandibles cross left to right, those of the females, if
from right to left, those of the males. I would not now
keep any bird in a cage, but I once kept many ; and the
most amusing of all these was a Crossbill, who had a
large wired-ofT compartment to himself, between one
containing a number of avadavats, and another inhabited
by Redpoles, Siskins and other birds. He loved to tear
open the shells of almonds to get at the nuts. When
the little avadavats had gone to sleep, nestling together
for warmth, the old Crossbill would sidle up, looking
very wicked, and quickly lift the end of their perch.
Down fell the small things, master Crossbill watching
them with unmistakable delight. At last he made so
138 THE CROSSBILL
much commotion amongst the lesser birds that we made
a present of him to Mr. Denham Jordan, who wrote an
amusing memoir of him which was headed " Crossbill
Turk."
The Crossbill is 6'5 inches in length. The back and
underparts of the old male bird are red, the rump fiery
red ; wings and tail dark olive-brown ; the back of the
female is grey, rump greenish-yellow. The upper beak
is curved downwards, the under one upwards, inclined to
one side, with sharp points. The tips of the beaks cross,
sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left. This
crossing of the two halves of the beak is the exclusive
characteristic of this bird. It lays three to five greyish-
white eggs spotted with shades of reddish-brown. The
nest is found in fir trees, and sometimes in the birch*
It is made of fine materials, is built very high up, and is
well concealed. It nests in February. The nest there-
fore is very stout and well-lined, and the mother-bird
sits continuously in order to preserve the warmth.
139
CHAPTER V,
SUMMER WORKERS.
THE WRYNECK.
(lynx torquilla.)
The Wryneck is a migrant, which makes itself heard as
soon as it appears with its Kyen-kyen-kyen or pay, pay,
pay, which is as peculiar as it is pleasing. It cannot be
denied, that after the long silence of winter the sound is
a very agreeable one. The Wryneck does not tap and
climb like the Woodpecker, but it uses its tongue in the
same way. Ants cling to its sticky tongue. It drags
out and destroys the insects from the crevices in the bark
of the trees. On this account it is useful.
It is not shy and can be observed quite close by. It
owes its name to its peculiar position when it stretches
out its neck and twists it round, raising its crest and
spreading out its tail. It likes trees with dense foliage,
and orchards.
In England we call this bird the Cuckoo's mate or
leader, because it always precedes the coming of that
bird by a few days. This name has its equivalent in
several European languages. It is more common in the
south-east than in the west, and is rare in Wales. Some
northern counties it never visits, yet from time to time
it strays up as far as the Orkneys and the Shetlands.
Towards the end of September it leaves us for the south.
In autumn it is said to eat the berries of the elder, other-
wise its food consists entirely of insects, ants and their
USEFUL,
THE WRYNECK.
THE WRYNECK 141
pupae especially. It is very courageous in defence of its
young and will hiss like a snake if an enemy or intruder
approaches its nest.
Country children in our Home Counties listen eagerly
for the call of the Cuckoo's mate, whom Eliza Cook calls
" the merry pee bird." They know then that Spring is
with us, and out-door pleasures are on the way. It is
only the size of a lark, and it is difficult to observe the
bird well either on its nest or during its short undulating
flight.
The Wryneck is seven inches in length. It has
fine, loose plumage, which recalls that of the Owl or the
Night-jar. The throat is clay-colour with fine dark
wavy cross lines ; tail a beautiful grey with delicate
black speckles, and six broad pointed stripes across it;
the under side is covered with brownish-white and black
spots, and delicately speckled : from the nape, down the
back, about the shoulders, are large black spots. The
flight-feathers have rust-red cross stripes; it has two toes
towards the front and two towards the back; the legs
are short. It makes its nest in any cavity it can find,
and in it lays, on soft chaff, its seven to twelve white
eggs. The Wryneck, like the Woodpecker, has a long
wormlike tongue which can be extended.
USEFUL,
\
THE CUCKOO.
143
THE CUCKOO.
(Cuculus canorus.)
The Cuckoo is a most useful bird, as regards his
food, which consists for the most part of very mischievous
insects and caterpillars of all kinds ; it is the more so as
this bird is insatiable.
An individual Cuckoo probably always lays its eggs
in the same neighbourhood, and always in the nest of
the same kind of bird, and usually the same kind in
which it was itself brought up. The young Cuckoo
soon obtains the upper hand in the nest, on account of
its rapid growth, and throws out its weaker foster-
brothers and sisters. It always calls Its own name
though it sounds more like " ha-hu" ; sometimes it
utters sounds which are like laughter. There is a
popular superstition that the Cuckoo foretells to those
who ask it, how many years they will live and to
young maidens, how many years they must wait for a
husband.
Like the Swallow it brings the announcement of
spring, and our Hungarian children have a song :
Cuckoo ! Cuckoo ! sounds from the wood
Now let us dance and sing;
For Spring is coming; Spring is here; "
The Cuckoo detracts from its usefulness, however, by
its other actions. It greatly damages tne nests of the
small useful birds, in which it places its eggs, and con-
sequently its young ones. The female Cuckoo selects
a district, finds out all the nests of Wren, Robin, White-
144 THE CUCKOO
throat, Wagtail, or some other, and thereupon begins to
place her egg in this. When she finds that she cannot
get into a nest of a bird which builds in a hole, she
lays her egg on the ground, then takes it up in her bill
and drops it into the nest.
In spring and summer the Cuckoo's note sounds all
through Great Britain. Its ways will always have a fas-
cination both for the old and the young. Many will be
surprised to hear that scientists have now verified the
placing of its eggs in the nests of as- many as 145 species;
in different countries, that is, including the nests of the
Isabelline and other Chats in Africa and China, and the
Red-headed Bunting on the steppes of Turkestan. In
Lapland the Grey-headed Wagtail and the Red-spotted
Bluethroat are the foster-parents; in Andalusia the
Great-spotted Cuckoo lays oftenest in the nest of the
Spanish Magpie.* The old poet, Quarles, must have
seen the bird with an egg in its beak when he wrote
' The idle Cuckoo having made a feast of Sparrow's
eggs, Lays down her own i' the nest."
A German authority, Dr. Rey, made a collection -of
over seven hundred Cuckoo's eggs; and he states that
the proportion of those which resemble in colouring
those of the foster-parents is only about thirty per cent.
Yet out of sixty-seven which he took from a Redstart's
nest fifty-seven were blue. Another collector again
states that only one blue Cuckoo's egg had passed
through his hands. Lately a man told me of having
found two Cuckoo's eggs in one small nest, an unusual
* Mr. Wells Bladen, of Stone, wrote an interesting brochure on
this subject.
THE CUCKOO 145
The Cuckoo is a very slender, long-tailed bird, 12
inches in length. In the male bird the mantle is ashen-
grey, the tail has cross stripes, theunder-partsare whitish
with cross-running wavy lines. The female and young
ones, with their reddish-brown dark cross bands, remind
us of the Hawk. From this arises the popular supersti-
tion that the Cuckoo changes into a hawk in late autumn.
The legs are yellow; eyes fiery red edged with yellow,
beak dark, reddish at the corners. It never builds a
nest. In its system of transplanting it shows itself an
arrant knave, for it places its eggs in the nests of other
birds, whose eggs, as a rule are totally different in size,
colour and form. The eggs of one Cuckoo so placed
may reach the number of 20 to 22, but as a rule are
about ii to 12.
With regard to the Cuckoo's usual habit of leaving
us in the autumn, a belated young bird may now and
again spend the winter here. One frequented my sister's
tennis ground till the end of November, when the cat
caught and killed it; and a gentleman of my acquaint-
ance, Mr. Robinson of Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire, saw
one on his farm early in February of 1908.
K
USEFUL,
THE HOOPOE.
147
THE HOOPOE.
(Upupa epops.)
THE Hoopoe is from base of bill 10 inches long. It is a
fair bird with beautiful variegated plumage. Head, upper
back, and breast pale rust-red ; mantle, shining black, with
white ornamentation ; tail also black, with a crescent-
shaped white band curving inwards towards the rump.
The head is adorned with a bunch of feathers which the
bird can erect or depress at pleasure. The feathers of
this are light coloured, with black tips, but the tips of
the longest feathers are black and white. Beak, long
and slightly curved, thin, and adapted for picking. It
lays four to seven eggs, greenish olive, or clay colour,
but always of uniform colour, which it places on the
mould in the holes of trees. The Hoopoe is the only
bird that fouls its nest, and brings up its young in dirt
and filth. On this account both mother and young have
an evil odour, as some of the bird's names indicate.
This national Hungarian bird is a migrant, and dwells
chiefly on the borders of woods in the low bushes, and
in the neighbourhood of pastures, where it is never
weary of examining the droppings of the cows, from
which it obtains beetles and maggots. It also catches
gnats on the wing, and the leaping grasshoppers. It is
a noisy bird, and its cry " Hup up" from which its
name is derived is heard sounding vigorously from
the branches. It is one of our most useful, and most
brilliantly coloured birds, and should be protected.
For over two hundred years the Hoopoe has been
recorded as a visitor to Great Britain, a more or less fre-
148 THE HOOPOE
quent one. Some years ago the late Mr. Howard Saunders
told us that the head-keeper at Ashburnham Park, in
Sussex, destroyed seven in one week, and that many a
one has been slain in Kent, at the point where they
alight after crossing the Channel. A few have, in spite
of persecution contrived to breed in our country in
southern counties chiefly. Sometimes numbers come to
England in the autumn, and it is generally an annual
visitor in small numbers to Ireland. As it is a useful
bird all should try to procure protection for it.
149
THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE.
(Lanius excubitor.)
In spite of its comparatively small size this is a bold
bird, and a true " Watchman " ; he keeps a sharp look-
out from the top branches of a dead tree, or a post, and
will not suffer any other bird, even if ten times his size,
to perch anywhere in his vicinity. Buzzards, Ravens,
Crows, Magpies, he pounces on, something in the
manner of a Falcon, and tries to push them off. He
generally succeeds in routing the intruder, for he is in-
defatigable in attack. His food includes any living
creature that he can slaughter.
He picks up a fat grasshopper, hovers over and darts
on a mouse, just as a hawk does. These acts are bene-
ficial ; but they are not to be compared with the amount
of harm he does, as a cut-throat and robber among the
useful small birds. He disturbs the nests of the little
singing birds which build on the ground, ransacks
bushes and treetops, and slays mercilessly. His methods
are those of the highwayman. He will sit on a stake on
the top of a hayrick and watch, keeping perfectly still,
only his eyes sweeping around. When his victim comes
within range of his vision on earth, or tree, he instantly
falls upon it. His close relation to the birds of prey,
is indicated by his cry " Tett, tett." His call is a
strong, rough sound, like, " Sheck, sheck," or a
fainter " Truii." This bird remains in Hungary
through the winter, but is not very common. Where
he does take up his abode, he does great harm by
slaughtering the useful birds.
HARMFUL.
THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE,
THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE 151
This Shrike is one of the regular visitors from the
Continent, coming to Great Britain in autumn and
winter. In England it has even been seen during the
summer, but it has not bred with us. Lizards, mice,
shrews, frogs, and insects, especially beetles and grass-
hoppers, it feeds on, as well as small birds.
The Great Grey Shrike is 9*5 inches in length.
The back is light ashen-grey ; underparts dingey white,
brow whitish; from the base of the bill a broad black
band passes over the eye to near the ear. Bill, legs,
wings and tail black : the wings, however, have a white
patch, and also the feathers on both sides of the tail
show a white border. On the underparts of the female
bird, faint stripes of a darker shade are discernible. The
bill is indented at the point and has a hook. The bird
builds its nest in trees and lays five or six eggs, occa-
sionally seven, greenish-white speckled with grey.
A Watchful Mother.
USEFUL.
THE LESSER GREY SHRIKE.
153
THE LESSER GREY SHRIKE.
(Lanius minor.)
The habits of this Shrike are, on the whole, those of
the larger species, with this difference, that the Lesser
Shrike, does not rob nests, but destroys insects, and
therefore does good. It also, is a " Watchman." It
sits on a high point and flings its glances round about.
Suddenly it darts down, looks about, finds its prey, and
flies back to its former perch. When it is keeping
watch over a place where the ground is covered with
thick growth, it hovers at about half the height of a
man, sometimes until it can see something that will
serve as prey. If it finds nothing, it will cease to hover,
and flies back to its post. Near the highroad it will flit
onward from tree to tree, generally slightly in advance
of a vehicle, till at last, at some point or other, it turns
away over the fields and with a peculiar undulating
flight returns to the spot where it started.
The Lesser Shrike is a migrant, and departs for
warmer places at the beginning of autumn, returning to
its nesting place in this country in the spring. Its cry
sounds like " Keejay." It is by nature quarrelsome,
but it embellishes and enlivens the neighbourheed. In
the warmer parts of Europe, it is the most common of
all the Shrikes.
This species only wanders occasionally to England,
a mere straggler, on migratory flight. If it be seen it
must be protected, as a useful species, from "the man
154 THE LESSER GREY SHRIKE
the gun" who shoots to sell or to enrich his own
private collection.
The Lesser Shrike is smaller than the Great Shrike,
but it is quite as beautiful and has the same deportment.
Besides its smaller size, it is distinguished from its
congener, by its black brow, the colour of which merges
into that of the broad black stripe. The breast is a.
beautiful white, flushed with rose-colour. The white
patch on the black wings is quite small. Otherwise the
colouring is the same as that of the Great Shrike. Its
nest is built in poplar trees bordering the highroad
sometimes in other trees. It employs sweet-scented
plants in building the nest. It lays five or six pale
green eggs, which have a speckled ring round the
thicker end.
155
THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE.
(Lanius collurio.)
This Shrike specially likes bushes at the side of a road,
or the edge of a wood, and more particularly affects the
whitethorn, or sloe bushes; but it sometimes ventures
into gardens. It kills more than it can eat, so it impales
the superfluous provender on thorns, so as to be ready
when the bird feels hungry again, or when the weather
is not favourable for hunting. So crickets, grass-
hoppers, cock-chafers, and, alas ! also young birds, are
sometimes found sticking on thorns. As this bird keeps
to its own district, it robs the nests of the small birds in
a scandalous way, including that of the White-throat.
Care, therefore, should be taken to keep this ogre at
a respectful distance from the gardens ; he does less
harm in the open fields, as he there employs his energies
on the mice.
It is a migrant, and departs at the beginning of
autumn, returning not earlier than near the end of April.
Wherever it is, its "Geek, geek, geek," is frequently
heard. Sometimes also " Treng, treng," reminding us
of the Sparrow. It imitates the song of other birds in a
remarkable way, even that of the Nightingale, often in
this w T ay misleading both man and birds.
The Red-backed Shrike comes to Great Britain in
May. It is the commonest of our own three species;
but is becoming rarer each year in Lancashire and
Yorkshire, being more often met with in the wooded
parts of the Southern counties and in Wales. A hand-
some fellow, with his grey head, mantle of chestnut-
PARTLY USEFUL.
THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE.
THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE 157
brown, and underparts a pale rosy buff colour, he has
not the look of the cruel bird he really is; his song is
fairly sweet, and I have heard of one which was so good
a mimic that it could even bark like a dog. This
particular one had been brought up in an aviary, I
believe. All this species are, however, very imitative
in their notes. In some parts of Germany, they are
looked on as a great scourge of small birds, yet one or
two of our English naturalists have tried to do justice to
the pretty fellow. They have seen only beetles, wasps
and other not-to-be-regretted small deer impaled on the
thorns of his larder. In point of fact, small birds,
especially our pleasant little Tits, disappear under his
notice ; Whitethroats also occasionally, as well as bigger
fledglings.
The German naturalist Linz writes that he made some
experiments in regard to Shrikes. In one garden he
destroyed every Butcher-bird's nest that he could find,
and shot the birds; and there he had plenty of fruit,
because the small birds stayed and destroyed the grubs
and insects. In another, a larger garden, he allowed
just one Shrike to breed. Wasps and other creatures
destroyed all the fruit near the part where this Shrike's
nest was. In a third garden Lenz allowed Shrikes to
nest freely, with the result that all the insect-eating birds
forsook the place, or else were destroyed by the Butcher-
birds, and there was no fruit. Writing of the Red-
backed Shrike, one of our leading authorities in bird
matters notes that in its larder he has seen the bodies of
large moths, dragon-flies, mice, and sometimes a small
bird from which the head has been wrenched, and many
a cockchafer ; and Canon Tristam considers that the food
of the various species of Shrikes is almost entirely
158 THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE
cockchafers, where they are to be had. The Rev. T.
Wood again ranks them with the Owls for usefulness.
A French naturalist also says they have every right to
be placed on the list of useful insectivorous birds. It
would seem to depend much on the nature of the
district whether this bird is to be welcomed or otherwise.
The Red-backed Shrike is 7 inches long. Its whole
shape and colouring still more its habits are those of
a true Shrike. Crown and neck a beautiful grey;
mantle reddish-brown ; the folded wings show no white
patch. Underparts pale rose colour, throat white;
across the eyes and towards the ears, is the broad black
band. The middle feathers of the tail reddish-brown,
the outside feathers white near the root. The breast of
the female bird is pale, crossed by brown wavy lines.
The upper mandible is serrated and has a slight hook.
The nest is usually placed in bushes ; it contains five
to seven eggs nearly white, with a ring of small darker
speckles, sometimes at the larger and sometimes at the
.smaller end.
159
THE LESSER WHITETHROAT.
(Sylvia curruca.)
This simple, modest, agreeable bird is valued and loved
by us, because it comes in such a friendly way near our
houses and ourselves. It nests in orchards, and more
especially in gardens where there are bushes, and
charms us in the early spring with its sweet trilling song,
" Lee-lee-lee-lee-lee." The little song is quite simple,
being just the repetition from six to eight times of the
syllable " Leeleelee." Its call-note is "tack-tack-tack."
It keeps the feathers of its head erected whilst singing.
Its food consists of all kinds of harmful insects for which
it hunts without rest, and is therefore no less useful than
the Titmouse. It feeds also on various berries, but
without doing any harm. The hen shows great self-
sacrifice in rearing her brood, amongst which is often
found a stranger the Cuckoo.
Its nest should be protected from the house Cat.
Whoever protects it secures its services for himself.
The Whitethroat is migratory, and so exposed to many
dangers.
Mr. Herman gives us only the Lesser Whitethroat.
With us what we call the Whitethroat proper is much
USEFUL.
THE LESSER WHITETHROAT.
THE LESSER WHITETHROAT 161
more common (Sylvia cinerea). Both species arrive in
Great Britain at the same time, that is about the second
week in April, to stay until the beginning of September.
With us they nest in brambles and low hedgerows, and
because of the fondness of nettle beds, schoolboys know
it mostly as the " Nettle-creeper." The male is a
courageous little bird ; he will often follow one along
the side of his favourite hedgerow, flitting from branch
to branch with the feathers on head and throat bluffed
out and agitating his tail. We hear his song by night
as well as by day.
The Lesser Whitethroat is 5*25 inches long. The crown
is ashen-grey ; cheeks darker, mantle grey-brown ; back
and breast white, merging into yellowish-red at the sides.
The side feathers of the tail are wedge-shaped, the feathers
near it having small indistinct spots. Beak small, awl-
shaped ; legs strong and bluish. The nest is generally
found in whitethorn hedges and sloe-bushes, at about
two and a half feet from the ground; in gardens the
nest is placed higher. It is composed of fine grass and
root fibre, interwoven and compacted with spider's web,
and lined with pig's bristles and horse-hair. The bird
lays five or six beautifully formed eggs, which are white
or bluish with delicate speckles, which are thicker at the
larger end of the egg, round which they form a ring.
USEFUL.
'ff
THE BLACKCAP.
i6 3
THE BLACKCAP.
(Sylvia atricapilla.)
The Blackcap prefers the underwood, particularly where
higher trees stand solitary ; it also nests in gardens, even
in the public gardens of large towns, where it feeds on
all kinds of insects, and so it serves wood and garden
equally well. It leads a happy family life, and during
its courting days the little wooer is full of joyous song.
The song is simple, and does not approach that of the
Nightingale in our opinion, although others say it does ;
it certainly cannot express so many phases of feeling,
but it is as lovely and joyous as that of a merry child.
It is heard first from one side, of the bush, and then
from the other, and it carries delight into the heart of
the listener. Hoffman represents the song of the
Blackcap by the syllables " Rutia, ruetidi-rutia, tuedili,
tuedia." Its mating call is "Take, take, take," the
warning cry " Rarr." Towards autumn this bird eats
all kinds of berries from the bushes elderberries, black-
berries, and others ; in the garden it picks currants,
without, however, doing any serious mischief, or being
able to do so, for its principal food is composed of
insects.
The bird-catchers ensnare it on account of its charming
song. They cover its cage with greenery, so that it may
imagine itself in the underwood, and thus the poor
thing lives and learns the songs of other captive birds.
The Blackcap loves our old English hedgerows, about
which it can find all its necessary insect food and also
good cover. It is not a very commonlv distributed bird
164 THE BLACKCAP
with us; like the Nightingale, it is local in its habitat.
The young fuss about after their parents for food
supplies, after they have left the nest, more than most
young birds do. Often the Blackcap builds in a privet
hedge, or some bush near to garden or orchard, for
the sake of the fruit of which it certainly avails itself a
little. Do not grudge it, the song will make up for a
slight loss of fruit, which is the more plentiful for the
little bird's making away with insect pests that infest
the same precincts.
The Blackcap's mantle is olive-grey, underparts
nearly white ; the colouring of the head forms a black
cap, which extends over the eyes : hence its distin-
guished name. The cap is brown on the female bird
and its young. Tail and wings dark-brown ; beat
thin, awl-shaped : legs strong : very bright dark-brown
eyes. The nest is always found in thick bushes, near
the ground > and it is furnished with grass and rootlets,
and also the webs of insects, sometimes hair, but very
little feather. It contains five or six eggs, which vary
in colour, being sometimes brownish, sometimes nearly
white or olive-grey, speckled or otherwise marked with a
reddish tint.
165
THE NIGHTINGALE.
(Daulias luscinia.)
The Nightingale leads a quiet domestic life among the
thickets. It has much occupation on the ground, whence
it derives its livelihood, its food consisting entirely of
grubs and insects. In the pairing season, and at the
time when the hen is sitting, the male bird perches on
a twig near the nest and sings his song now mournful,
now stirring, now tender ; the finest song produced from
any bird's throat ! Enthusiastic bird-fanciers have put
words to the Nightingale's song and turned it into verse.
It begins thus :
Fid, fid, fid! kr-kr-zi-zi, doredo, reredezit.
We have a native congener, the Meadow Nightingale,
which is larger than the bird described above, and has a
darker and fuller breast. The Hungarian Nightingale
of the bird dealers begins its song thus :
PhilippPhilippPhilipp,
Tarak Tarak Tarak,
Diderot DiderotDiderot.
Bird-catchers have been very destructive to this noble,
useful bird on the Continent.
The Nightingale comes to Great Britain in the middle
of April. In August the young birds take their departure,
but the old birds stay until September in order to finish
moulting before taking flight. It has been supposed
that the migration is made singly, not in flocks like
that of other small birds ; but a naturalist has recorded
having once seen great numbers of Nightingales resting
USEFUL.
THE NIGHTINGALE,
THE NIGHTINGALE 167
under the bathing machines along the whole length of
the shore at Brighton.
This fine singer is very local in its appearance. In
the West of England it is rarer than elsewhere, and
beyond Devonshire it is said to be quite unknown. In
the Midlands it is scarce, and in the Northern counties
it is entirely absent excepting in Yorkshire, where it is
getting more common. They seem to be capricious in
their comings and goings from given localities ; no doubt
their presence depends on the season's scarcity or
abundance of the food they prefer. The nestlings live
on spiders, ants and small green caterpillars in June, and
they afterwards frequent fields planted with peas and
beans. The adult birds feed on worms, insects and wild
fruits, especially the berries of the elder.
The Nightingale is as plain in plumage as it is
marvellous in song. The mantle is russet-brown,
shading off into reddish-chestnut near the tail, which
is rust-colour, underparts whitish. It is scarcely as large
as a Sparrow, and is much more delicately formed. Beak
thin and pointed, legs slender. The shining, dark-brown
eye has a brilliant glow. Its nest is placed among the
bushes of a thicket, always near the ground. The outer
covering is of dry leaves, then come blades of grass and
fine rootlets, sometimes having hair interwoven with
them. It does not stand out from the surrounding
objects, and requires a sharp eye to discover it. The
clutch consists of five or six olive-green eggs, with
darker reddish-brown veining and speckles.
USEFUL.
THE REDSTART.
THE REDSTART.
(Ruticilla phoenicurus.)
This pretty and very useful bird quickly attracts notice
in our gardens by its lively disposition. When it flies
the tail spreads out, and then, when the bird settles again
on any post or ledge the tail moves in a quick, tremulous
way that is most amusing.
It usually perceives the creeping and flying beetles on
the grass borders from a higher point above them ; the
former it picks up, the latter it swallows on the wing,
twisting and turning about as circumstances require. It
lives on all kinds of grubs and insects, and hence its
great use in wood and garden. In autumn it takes the
berries from the bushes, but without doing any mischief.
Its mating call sounds like " F id-fid- fid-tik-tik-tik," and
also " Weet, weet, tak-tak, and ends with a smacking
sound. In some places in Hungary the bee-keepers are
great enemies of this charming little bird, believing that
it steals their honey. This is not true, however, for it
only catches the drones, which have no sting, takes the
rejected, spoiled larvae, and the destructive wax-mite.
From its usefulness it is worthy of all protection, and it
a joy for heart and mind.
To us also in Great Britain where this species is
generally distributed it is a joy, and in orchards its
presence is most welcome. The red about the tail shows
brightly as the bird darts from branch to branch.
I have watched it myself where a nesting box has been
put up for its use in an apple tree, until the little pair
became quite used to my presence and to watch their
pretty, affectionate ways was delightful. In speaking of
170 THE REDSTART
nesting boxes, one must give a warning in connection
with those smaller birds who like to nest in holes in
walls and trees. I have seen them with lids at the top
for the proprietor to open, which, through stress of
weather and weak rusty hinges, soon came to grief. I
regret to say this happened in the case of the pair I knew
best. The lid was defective, and one night or morning
early soon after the nestlings were hatched out, a Shrike
or a Crow routed them out, to my great sorrow.
The Redstart is an elegant gay-coloured bird of slender
shape, in other respects like the Robin. Throat, lores,
brow and bill-base are a fine black. The upper part of
the brow is pure white, passing into the bluish-grey of
the crown. Back of the head and mantle also of the
same beautiful bluish-grey ; breast, rump, and tail a
brilliant chestnut-red, but the middle feathers of the tail
grey. Beak and legs delicate, but strong. The female
bird and the young are less brightly coloured. The nest
is found in cracks, holes, convenient Corners, such as are
under the roof of summer houses. It is rather carelessly
put together, but well-formed, and is lined with hair and
feathers. The bird lays five or six eggs, of a fine rare
blue-green colour.
THE BLACK REDSTART.
(Ruticilla titys.)
THE Black Redstart which was formerly rare with us, is
now a well-known visitor to many parts of our coasts in
the autumn and winter, especially to Cornwall and
Devon. It does not as yet breed with us, however.
It visits Ireland also, particularly on the east and south
coasts. It is called the House Redstart, and its con-
gener the Garden Redstart on the Continent; the one
under notice frequents the roofs of buildings, and it
places its nest in chalets, holes in walls, sheds, etc. It
is a useful little bird.
%
The pretty Siskin.
USEFUL.
THE BLACK REDSTART.
173
THE TREE PIPIT.
(Anthus trividlis.)
Frequenting the woods, the Tree Pipit seeks only the
clearings, especially the wild parts, where these and
copsewood alternate, and the ground is mossy. At the
time of migratory flight it likes to rest on vegetable fields
and cornfields. It will rest willingly on trees, but prefers
the ground. Very small seeds it will eat, but all kinds
of grubs and caterpillars and insects it prefers. The
Tree Pipit has a pleasant note, "Zed, zed, zed" the
mating call is more like " Seele, seele, seele." It is
absolutely useful in its mode of living.
It nests in Hungary more numerously than any other
of the Pipits, for it has relatives which only visit our
neighbourhood. At the time of migration, they arrive,
rest themselves, and go off again.
In addition to the Pipit here described there is the
Water Pipit, which breeds here. It seeks the mountain
districts in summer, but takes refuge in the valley in
winter ; Richard's Pipit, rather larger than these others,
and with longer legs and a very long hind claw. The
Meadow Pipit only passes through our land, like the
Tawny Pipit ; both of the latter nest in the far North,
and they go far South in the winter.
The Tree Pipit comes to the South of Great Britain
early in April, and it is spread pretty considerably
throughout the country, excepting in Cornwall and
Wales. As yet it is not, I believe, in Ireland. The
song of this bird is rather like that of a Canary. It
begins on the highest branch of a tree generally, after
USEFUL.
TREE PIPIT.
THE TREE PIPIT 175
which the bird hovers a little, then descends, singing
still, to the perch he started from.
The Meadow Pipit is the best known member of his
family with us. Ground-lark, Titlark, Ling-bird, Moss-
cheeper are some of its local names. It seems able to
make itself at home anywhere in summer, but in winter
it seeks the fields in sheltered places, near the coast by
preference. Its food consists of insects, worms, mol-
luscs and small snails, with seeds in winter. The little
bird works its creeping way up the grass or heather,
taking now and again quick little runs. The flight is
wavering and jerky. The Titlark has a very strong
smell about it, dogs " point " it frequently.
In size the Tree Pipit most resembles the Wagtail, buj;
it has a shorter tail. Its general colour is more like the
Lark, but it is less speckled. The mantle is olive-green,
the breast yellowish. The points of the folded tail are
formed by the three first flight feathers; the fourth is
much shorter. The nail of the back toe is long like a
spur, but not so long as the toe. The beak is delicate
and slightly awl-shaped. It is a nice modest little bird ;
its flight dips and rises again continually. It builds its
nest cleverly with soft materials in the shape of a saucer,
and places it on the ground on a clod of earth, under the
shelter of a heap of stones, or on a grass ridge. Five
eggs are laid which are very varied, a dull blue, some-
times brownish, sometimes white, with dark spots.
USEFUL.
WHITE WAGTAIL.
177
THE WHITE WAGTAIL.
(Motacilla alba.)
WAGTAILS are all migrants and arrive in Hungary in
great numbers.
This is a lively, elegant little bird, that walks and runs
well, is very active, and always wagging its tail as it goes.
It hops daintily from stone to stone in the shallow water,
picking up insects busily, and snapping at the flies and
gnats; and over the tall grasses and banks of the water, it
dashes into the air, turning and twisting in the pursuit of
insects. When there is pasture land near the water, it
shows itself to be a good friend to the cattle, by destroy-
ing the flies and gnats and the tiny midges of the
dragonfly kind, which would otherwise torment them.
Its congeners in Hungary are the Yellow Wagtail,
whose underpart is bright yellow, and mantle olive-
green, which wags its tail less, and confines itself to
cattle pastures; the Mountain Wagtail, the upper part
of which is ashen-grey, and the under side brimstone
yellow. Its call is a clear " Zeeivit-suyit-beuees, or
zeueess," sometimes it sounds like " Kwee-kwee,
kweereeree-kiveeree , ' '
The Wagtail is 7*5 inches in length, and has
a long tail. It is a very charming bird. Its
plumage is of three colours black, white, and ashen-
grey. Crown, neck, and throat black; brow, cheeks,
and underparts white; mantle grey; tail and wings
black, the feathers of the latter being edged with white ;
the two outer feathers on both sides of the tail are mostly
white. Rump dark-grey, underneath the tail white; bill
178 THE BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL
awl-shaped, and black, as are also the slender legs. It
builds its nest on the edge of the water in all sorts of
places : in holes, between stones, in cracks in the earth,
among roots or in wood-stacks. It lays sometimes as
many as eight, but usually five white eggs, finely
speckled with dark colour, the speckling thicker at the
larger end, in a ring round the egg.
THE BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL.
(Motacilla flava.)
THIS very handsome little bird, which is smaller than
the White Wagtail, and does not wag its tail so much,
inhabits the low Hungarian plain, and the pastureland
generally of the open country, especially moist moor-
lands, and the banks of marshes, where it keeps close
to the grazing animals, which are mostly swine and
buffaloes. When swine trample down the bank of the
ponds the bird approaches, and picks up the water
insects and larvae which have been exposed in the
disturbed ground, or if the buffaloes trample the earth on
the edge of the marsh the Wagtail is sure to be close on
their heels to secure its share of food. It builds its nest
in the grasses of the meadow or at the roots of the
bushes in the hedge. It usually lays five eggs, which
have light flecks on a dingy white ground.
A bird I always looked for eagerly in the days of my
youth, on our Staffordshire moorlands was the Yellow
THE BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL 179
Wagtail with its lovely tints. It would come tripping
blithely along a certain road on its way from one rough
fallow field to another, a most dainty, and I fancied then,
even foreign-looking little creature. It has a prettier
song than its relatives, the Grey and the Pied Wagtails,
and is altogether a daintier looking bird. Nor is it so
common, being very local in its distribution. Leaving
us in September, little parties of the Yellow Wagtails
are formed then, and some districts only make their
acquaintance with these birds when on their migratory
flight. Lately I heard of a company of about seventy
Wagtails resting for the night in Kew Gardens grounds,
where they had not been noted before. They frequent
the meadows beside the Brent by Perivale, Baling,
where small, thin-shelled molluscs by the stream, and
insects stirred into activity by the heavy feet of the
grazing cattle, furnish them with food. I watched one
day a pretty sight, i nir Lie Wagtail in close attend-
ance on an old sheep. The way it darted nimbly about
this animal's face, picking off the tiny flies as the creature
fed was wonderful. Sometimes you may chance to see
one picking the torturing little insects out of an old
horse's ears as it lies resting on the sward.
The yellow species is called Motacilla raii, but the
Abbe Vincelot, who wrote half a century ago, on the
birds of Maine-et-Loire, treating special!^ of their names
as descriptive of their manners, call it Motacilla boarula,
and he said he thought the latter designation came from
Boaria, an old name for Bavaria, used after the Boi'ens,
driven by the Marcomans from Bohemia, settled there.
This name Boi'ens seems to have been given to the tribes
who reared and tended cattle. There were Boi'ens of Gaul,
of Italy, and of Germany. In Poitou an ox is still called
i8o THE PIED WAGTAIL
boe and the grazier boier. By the ancient Romans the
beef market was called the forum boarium. And so
the name of boarule given to the Yellow Wagtail may be
supposed to indicate this habit of following up the cattle
in quest of his insect food. Bergeronette, the common
French name of this charming and useful species, is
equally descriptive of the bird as an ally of the shepherd.
The Pied Wagtail, Motacilla lugubris, is our common
and well distributed species. The Grey Wagtail, M.
Melanope, a beautiful bird with its longer tail and yellow
tints, frequents our hilly districts and mountain streams ;
but, the Blue-headed species is only an irregular visitor
to our Islands, on migration. The food and habits of
this family are alike, and they are all most useful to the
grazier and farmers generally.
A Morning Bath
THE GREAT REED WARBLER.
(Acrocephalus turdoides.)
This Reed Warbler lives exclusively in reed beds,
and, as it is fairly common, inhabits a large number of
such places, so that in the pairing season the whole
neighbourhood resounds with its love song, which even
overpowers the croaking of the frogs. There are usually
large numbers of the birds near together, and all join
with one voice in the concert. It goes on from morning
till night. Indeed during the most eager time of its
wooing it goes on all night.
The song is sometimes expressed thus :
Karrey-karrey-karrey
Ker-ker-ker
Hedder-hedder
Duee-duee-duee, etc.
Where the reeds are thickest it shoots between them, as a
weaver's shuttle shoots between the threads. What is
still more clever is the way in which it climbs about the
straight tall stalks of the reeds. It clasps the reed with
its toes and claws, and immediately it seems to be up on the
top, then in a moment it slides down again and vanishes
among the reeds. And of what use is all this ? This
bird is of use in its own way, in places inaccessible to
others. It destroys innumerable grubs and insects,
which frequent water and boggy land, and does its best
to make such places habitable. The food of this Reed
Warbler consists principally of insects and their larvse,
although in the autumn, like most creatures, instinct
teaches it to eat some fruit for health's sake, in the
shape of berries, particularly those of the elder.
The nest of this Reed Warbler is one of the marvels
USEFUL.
THE GREAT REED WARBLER
NEST OF THE REED WARBLER
183
of bird architecture. It is a real work of art, because, in
its perfect suitability for its purpose, it shows an amount
of calculation that few men would think a bird capable
of.
Whoever is acquainted with the nature of marshland,
and the reed beds that border it, knows that on the
smooth surface of the water, the breeze, the wind, the
storm have free course, and can at times bluster and
184 NEST OF THE REED WARBLER
rage. Everyone also knows that the lightest breezes
moves the leaves of the reeds, bends their stems and sets
the whole wilderness of them in motion, like the water
itself. The wisdom of Nature has placed this bird of
the reed beds here, and so formed it that it could live
nowhere else. Therefore it must build its nest in this
unstable-looking spot and can do so in perfect safety ;
so that it can lay its eggs, hatch them,, tend the young
birds which are at first blind, feed them and bring them
up until they are fledged and like their parents.
It is no small undertaking to build among the bending
stems a nest which will afford security in calm weather
and also in storm ! If the bird fastened it to one stem,
and the wind were to come, the fastenings would soon be
torn away, and all destroyed.
What then does the bird do? It chooses three or four
stems at about equal distances standing near to each
other. On these it darns and knits its nest in the shape
of a high, eastern, fur hat reversed : attaching it also with
tough grass to the reed in such a manner that it can give
way on the stalk when it waves in the wind, so that the
stalk cannot tear the nest. The cup of the nest is deep,
narrowing a little at the upper edge to prevent anything
falling out when moved by the wind. In this nest the
Reed Warbler lays five or six eggs of pale green with
darker speckles, which are hatched in fourteen days. It
is a perfect work of art.
The Great Reed Warbler is 8 inches in length, that is,
an inch less than a Thrush ; and its form is not unlike that
of the Thrush. The upper side is brown, shading into
rust colour ; over the eye is a lighter stripe, and round
the- ears the plumage is also a lighter colour. The
underparts are whitish, tinged on the sides with yellowish
REED WARBLER 185
clay colour. Beak like that of the Thrush, rather strong,
slightly curved, pointed. Legs strong, suited for
clinging. The nest is treated of separately.
We have a smaller relative of this bird in England,
although it is not known in Scotland, and is only said
to have been taken once in Ireland. Our Reed Warbler
(Acrocephalus streperus) arrives regularly in the latter
end of April, to stay until September. It is common in
those places that suit its way of living, in the Midlands
and the Southern and Eastern counties. In form
it resembles its larger relative. This species does not
confine itself to reeds or to watery quarters; it has
even been known to build in a garden at Hampstead.
The slender branches of willows or alder beside a run-
ning stream suit it well. Still it prefers reeds, and its
nest also is supported by being woven about and through
three or four, or even two reeds. The building is begun
whilst the reeds are short, but by the time the young are
hatched the nest is three feet above the water. That
wandering creature the Cuckoo will even drop her egg
into this hanging nest; indeed she is fond of it. The
song of this species is at its loudest and pleasant during
the long summer twilight. It is a useful little bird.
The Reed Bunting.
USEFUL.
THE WILLOW WREN.
187
THE WILLOW WREN.
(Phylloscopus trochilus.)
THIS bird is called the Willow Wren because it loves the
willow trees, the leaves of which, both in form and
colour, are adapted to hide and protect it.
Its nest is well hidden, being often placed near the
ground, under overhanging grasses and bushes, and
built of materials found immediately around the chosen
site; it can only be discovered by the eyes of ail
experienced bird-nester. It is covered over. The clutch
consists of five or six little white eggs, speckled with
reddish-brown.
It is a lively, active bird, that likes to frequent the tops
of trees in thick woods, where it hops briskly from twig
to twig, and is never still. But neither its colour nor its
movements betray its presence and nature as does its
voice, w 7 hich is really extraordinarily strong and far-
reaching, considering how tiny is the singer, and still
more tiny its vocal organ. Its song is heard in spring,
and sounds like Zilp-Zalp, Zilp-Zalp, and so on. Its
busy call-note is Whit, whit! It feeds on the insects
which it finds on the trees. In autumn, when starving,
it eats elder-berries and such things, but does no harm
whatever. As a loud harbinger of spring, and a bringer
of glad-tidings we welcome and protect it.
About the first week in April the Willow Wren comes
to us in England, where it is the commonest of the
three small greenish-yellow Warblers that come to us
the Chiff-chaff and the Wood Wren are its congeners.
Owing to the shape of its domed nest it has been given
THE WILLOW WREN 188
the name of Oven-bird; indeed all three are known by
that name, and the Willow Wren also by that of Hay-
bird, because of the dry materials it uses for its nest.
This species is very useful to the gardener, as its food
consists almost entirely of insects, flies and aphides.
The Willow Wren is a little longer than the Chiff-chaff
and an inch longer than the Wren. The upper parts,
except the crown, is greenish-brown, passing into a
yellow tinge ; the underparts white, breast and throat
pale yellow ; the cheeks golden-brown, the inside of the
wings yellowy legs brownish ; the under side of the toes
yellow. All is subdued, nothing glaring on this
delicately coloured bird ; indeed, all is delicate, including
the bill, which is pointed and adapted for investigating
the tiniest cracks and bud axels.
I&J
THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER.
(Muscicapa grisola.)
THE habits of the Spotted Flycatcher are quite
different from those of its feathered companions in
garden and forest, such as the Tits ; for while -the latter
are always moving, darting here, hunting there, the
Flycatcher sits quietly on the extreme end of a bough,
on some point, or on a post, and watches for flying
insects exclusively; flies, beetles; or near the bee-house
it lies in wait for drones, but it never snaps at a stinging
bee or wasp. It is quiet, only occasionally moving first
one wing and then the other, as if to ascertain that they
are in working order; then, as soon as it sees a flying
insect, it darts forward, sure of aim as the Swallow, seizes
its prey, and flies back in a fine curve to its post of
observation.
The Flycatcher then, belongs to the useful birds,,
especially in gardens, where it destroys the harmful
insects which fly among the trees. If it should happen
to make away with the gall-insect, among others in the
woods, that will not outweigh its good deeds. In gar-
dens, at all events, it ought to be cherished and pro-
tected. Place a nest-box, such as it loves, with a wide
opening, and let it nest there. There is not much to be
said for its song; its call note is " Tschee, tschee."
The Spotted Flycatcher is one of our latest British
spring migrants, its usual time for coming is about the
first week in May. Although it feeds almost exclusively
on insects, it has been known to eat the berries of the
mountain ash ; I have noticed indeed that these disappear
USEFUL.
THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER.
THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER 191
before the birds more quickly than other wild berries.
It is local with us in its breeding habits. It is one of the
few species which still breed in some of our London
parks and the larger gardens in town. The nest may be
found among old creepers, but in the country it is. often
built on the beam of an outbuilding, and so it has been
called the Beam-bird. It is a charming little creature to
note as it sweeps round in quest of insect life. I was
once watching a nest in a creeper on the porch of an
old farmhouse. The young birds, tightly packed within,
gasped greedily for the food brought by their parents.
One had a fly too big for its swallow ; it was stuck in its
throat, and the fledgling graciously allowed me to push
it down with a pin.
It is a charming sight to see the parent bird catch its
prey when on the wing, and carrying it promptly to the
nest within the creeper. " Not only tiny insects and
moths go there, but also the bodies, denuded of their
wings, of many a white cabbage butterfly, which w-ould
otherwise have deposited her small white eggs on the
leaves of the cauliflowers in the kitchen garden close at
hand. These eggs would become green grubs, which
w<ould injure the plants and make them unfit for food.
The quick eyes of the bird and his clever flight put an
end to the mischief so far as many a cauliflower is
concerned. Flies, beetles, and aphides in hosts are
devoured the last especially during August, when they
come in myriads from hop fields, or fruit trees damsons;
and the Flycatchers will clear the gooseberry bushes of
the hurtful sawfly. Macgillivray has recorded that he
noted a parent bird bring food to the nest five hundred
and thirty-seven times during one day ! Flycatchers
come back to the same nesting place year after year.
192 THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER
They may take a little fruit from you in the shape of
red currants, but this is open to doubt. Like other
creatures, a change of diet is, perhaps, valuable to them ;
but their labours during the early summer surely entitle
them to a share of the fruit. "*
The Spotted Flycatcher is a little grey bird, smaller than
the sparrow. The upper side of its body is mouse-colour,
the underside whitish : on the breast and about the eyes
are dark specks. The beak is black, flattened out wider
at the base ; the upper half of it furnished with stiff
bristles on each side of the base to prevent its prey
escaping. Legs black and weak ; eyes dark and bright.
The nest is usually built in trees, stumps of boughs,
near the trunk, also in holes, but never very deep ones.
It is beautifully woven, of fine moss, lichens, fine rootlets
and grass, and is lined with wool, feathers and horse-
hair. It contains five eggs of light grey-green, with
dark marble-like veining and specks of rust-colour; the
speckling is sometimes thicker in a ring round the larger
end.
* " Birds in their Seasons."
193
THE PIED FLYCATCHER.
(Muscicapa atricapilla.)
THE male Pied Flycatcher is so strikingly marked a
bird that he is almost dazzling to the eye. Yet he is
only in black and white, but his markings are very
decided. The female is more quietly feathered, the
frontlet, wing-patches and under parts are a buffish-
white, whilst her upper parts are olive-green. The bill
is just like that of its congener already described. The
nest is made in a hole in some tree, of. dry grass, moss
and rootlets with a lining of hair.
This species prefers warmer districts, where it remains
chiefly in leafy woods. The bird is a charming little
object as it disports itself amongst the young green of
oak and beech woods. When on the lookout for its prey
it prefers to perch on some old withered tree branch.
And so gentle and small it looks one would not dream
of its injuring a fly. Yet, for the great benefit of the
woods, it is keen in pursuit of flies, gnats and other
" small deer." It will agitate its little wings in front
of the larger hollows in old trees, so as to create a slight
wind which will rouse and bring out lurking insects to
become the prey of this disturber of their peace. In the
high beech woods this Flycatcher pounces on the little
insects that play in the rays of sunlight that filter through
the openings between the branches. A beautiful bird
this and well deserving protection.
In Great Britain this species is far less numerous than
its congener. It is, however, a regular visitor to some
of our counties. Its song is like that of the Redstart.
N
USEFUL.
THE PIED FLYCATCHER.
195
THE WHEATEAR.
(Saxicola oendnthe.)
THIS is a lively and vigilant bird. It selects a district,
to which it afterwards remains faithful. It likes fallow
ground, stony hollows, marsh-land, sandy depressions
where there are undulations, also meadows where there
are grass-grown mole-hills or grass plots. From one
of these small eminences it surveys the surrounding
land, and on seeing prey instantly makes for it, and
having caught it flies on to another stone or hillock. It
also perches on low posts, but only takes to a tree in
case of need. As it prefers to be in the open, it is often
visible, for when it begins to fly it spreads out its tail
and the white feathers at once attract attention. It is a
very useful bird, for it lives entirely upon grubs and
insects. In autumn it destroys the caterpillars of the
white cabbage butterfly. The modest little song is not
heard only from the hillocks and stones on which it
perches, but also high up in the air when wooing his
bride with sweet sounds. It is fairly common in
Hungary.
About the middle of March the Wheatear, with its
graceful motions, begins to arrive in numbers on our
own Southern and Eastern coasts. It flits over downs
and fallow lands, some pairs remaining to make nests in
old rabbit holes, and in sandy warrens near the coast,
others passing on after a brief rest, seeking higher lati-
tudes the rocky moorlands of the Peak, the fallows of
USEFUL,
THE WHEATEAR,
THE WHEATEAR 197
agricultural districts in the Midlands, the mountains of
Scotland. The old hole of a Sand-martin in a railway
cutting, a crevice in a stone wall, the lee side of a
boulder stone, or merely the shelter of a clod of earth
in a fallow field serves his purpose. As regards a
nesting site, the Wheatear is exceedingly adaptable,
suiting himself to the locality. And so the popular
names given to this bird seem often misleading to a
student of its life-history. In the Southern counties as
the " Fallow Chat " it is best known, in Lancashire
and Derbyshire it is " Walltack," " Stonecheek,"
" Stone-smack," or "Smutch " : and this in Stafford-
shire is " Stone Smasher." But tack and cheek and
smutch all come from the bird's sharp note " Chack,
chack!" uttered as it flits from stone to stone on high
land or along the wind-swept downs and warrens.
Steinschmatzer is the German name for the Wheatear ;
so the Lancashire name of Stonesmatch is decidedly
Saxon. Schmatzen is to kiss heartily to give a good
smack in fact. The French name for this bird, Traquet,
was given because of the continual movement of the
wings and tail, which is compared to the traquet, or
clapper of mills, which is kept in motion by the wind or
by the water.
All works on natural history describe the beautiful
Wheatear as always wary and shy to a degree, and
chiefly, as we have already said, to be found on warrens
and poor lands near the coast, but as being especially
plentiful about our South Downs. In other districts,
too, it frequents the open ground and rough hillocky
pastures. But who would look for the Wheatear
amongst the old slag-heaps, in the very heart of the
ig8 THE WHEATEAR
North Staffordshire Potteries ? where, too, the bird
seems to lay aside its shy and wary little manoeuvres.
Mr. Wells Bladen, the well-known Staffordshire
ornithologist, reports on the Wheatear, which arrived
earlier than usual, telling us that he saw T one on a slag-
heap at Etruria on March 3rd. In April again he
witnessed the curious sight of five Wheatears, mobbing
a Kestrel on their slag-heap and driving off the intruder
quickly. In June there were at least a dozen of these
birds frequenting the heap, and one pair had nested
within twenty feet of a very busy railway siding. The
nest, with its lovely pale blue eggs, was in a hole in a
bank of fused clinkers, two feet from the ground. The
eggs were hatched safely, but the young birds were
unfortunately killed by some mischievous person before*
they were old enough to leave the nest. It was a pity
the bird made its nest so near the ground, for, as a rule
the great heaps which railway passengers between Stoke
and Crewe have seen and wondered at, by night as well
as by day, are little interfered with, or trespassed on.
The dreary slag-heaps in the neighbourhood of blast-
furnaces would appear to be spots equally unattractive
to man and beast, and especially so to that brightly
marked migrant the Wheatear, as it is known on the
sunny, wind-swept downs and sandhills near the sea.
In August again, one was seen on a railway waggon.
Wheatears leave us by the beginning of October, but
now and again a few stray birds are said to winter here
in mild districts.
The Wheatear has the crown, back of the head and
back a beautiful ashen-grey ; throat a faint buffish-white.
There is a black stripe from the bill to the eye, which
broadens out towards the ear. Underparts nearly white,
THE WHEATEAR 199
breast yellowish. The side feathers of the wings are white
towards the base at the end black ; the middle feathers
entirely black. Bill awl-shaped, and, like the legs,
black. The female bird and the young are less varied
in colour. The Wheatear hides its nest away in heaps
of stones, and crevices of the earth, and is most discreet
as a rule in ensuring its safety. It lays five eggs,
occasionally seven, which are usually of a uniform pale-
blue colour, sometimes faintly dotted.
USEFUL.
THE STONECHAT.
201
THE STONECHAT.
(Pratincola rubicola.)
THIS lively little bird that is the male bird has the
following characteristics : head, throat, nape, and back
black. A conspicuous white patch on the wing-coverts.
Under wing-coverts and axillaries black and white. Bill
small and awl-shaped, legs and feet black.
It hides its nest so well, that it is difficult to find. It
is usually built on the ground in a slight dip, so that
the heads of the fledglings are level with the surface of
the ground, and thus it merges into its surroundings.
Five bluish grey eggs, speckled with brown, are usually
found in the nest.
The Stonechat is a very pleasant bird, that seems,
wherever it may be, to live by itself. It always sits
on the topmost part of a bush, and thence looks
attentively on to the ground, yet is quite conscious
of all the insects and chafers flying about, for it is an
alert captor. Sometimes it looks as if it were turning a
summersault in the air, which is always a sign that it
has disturbed a beetle in its flight and snapped him up.
This little Black-throat is more a bird of the foothills,
where it loves the rocky dips where a few bushes render
these not quite bare. It will suddenly appear on the
top of a bush, the point of a moth-mullein or a nettle
always on a high perch gives one look round, swallows
an insect, and disappears as if by magic. Soon after
it will appear in another spot, and go through the same
performance. Meanwhile it wags its little tail, spread-
202 THE STONECHAT
ing it out. Late in the autumn, before its migration,
it comes nearer to human dwellings, and carries on its
pursuit of insects, among the hedges. It even ventures
into the kitchen garden, where the cabbage stumps, and
vegetable stalks are a favourable position, from which
it can easily secure its prey. Its song is clear, pleasing,
but not loud. Its call is "Weet, weet, iveet tek, tek,
tek."
The birds arrive in Hungary singly.
In Great Britain the Stonechat is a resident in most
parts, although such as have bred in the colder districts
migrate to more sheltered places in winter. At that
season we have a number of arrivals from such parts
qf the Continent as are too cold for these birds to remai'n
in. Grubs, worms, insects, and beetles are its chief diet,
to which it adds a few small seeds. A very destructive
insect which they take is known as the Bean Weevil.
It is about a quarter of an inch in length ; and it finds
lodging among the whins, which the Chat family
frequent. This beetle also haunts the rhubarb flowers
in our gardens and visits the peas, selecting, it is said,
always the finest of these in which to lay her eggs.
Daddy-longlegs, cattle-flies, wire-worms, small snails,
and slugs are also eaten by the Chats especially the
Whinchat, Pratincola rubetra, which comes to the
South in middle of April, reaching the North early in
May. It has a long white streak over the eye, which
is a distinguishing feature of this species, also its under-
parts are buff, turning to bright fawn colour on the
breast and throat. The crown and upper parts are
mottled equally with sandy-buff and dark brown. Its
bill is less delicate than that of the Stonechat.
203
THE BEARDED TIT OR REEDLING.
(Panurus bidrmicuL*.)
THE Bearded Tit is the ornament of the Reed-lands. Its
feathers being unusually fine and light, the brilliant black
moustache gives it all the more charming and attractive
an appearance. It usually slips round in the high reeds
about which it clambers very cleverly. The nest is
placed between the stalks of the reeds, and is composed
chiefly of their leaves, the colour of which harmonises
with that of the bird's long tail, so that the latter, which
stands out of the nest, cannot be distinguished from its
surroundings. The clutch consists of five to seven eggs,
which have light brown specks and stripes on a white
ground.
With the disappearance of the reeds, the number of
the birds diminishes.
That is why we have not in England so many of this
lovely species as we used to have. Our fens and meres
in Lincoln, Huntingdon, and Cambridge Shires, as well
as in Kent, Sussex, and Essex, also in Suffolk having
been drained, the birds that lived in these have natur-
ally left them. We are glad, however, to know that
Bearded Tits are increasing again in the Norfolk
Broads, owing to protection from the greed of private
collectors. The great naturalist, Buffon, declared that
the male bird has the charming habit of covering his
mate with his wings to protect her alike from unkind
winds and the burning heat of the sun, as she sits on her
nest. Trinkin, the peasants of Anjon call it because of
the metallic tone of its cry. In the Norfolk Broads it
has been known as the Reed Pheasant. Scientists have
204 THE BEARDED TITMOUSE
found that this species differs in its digestive organs and
other points from the Titmouse family, and that it is,
as the late Professor Newton remarks, a perfectly
distinct form, representing the family Panuridae, instead
of forming one species of the Paridae.
It feeds on the seeds of the reeds in winter and in
summer on small molluscs.
This bird, which is a beautiful and delightful bird in
every respect, is the size of a Yellow-Hammer. Its
feathers are of a silky fineness. The head is bluish-
grey ; from the corner of the mouth on each side, hangs
a pointed, silky black moustache, which can be raised
erect on occasion. The nape and back are cinnamon
brown, which is lighter over the root of the tail ; the
tail is deep black underneath, and is wedge-shaped with
feathers of graduated length. The wings are striped
with huffish-white, black and rufous ; the quills are
brown with white outer borders. The throat and chest
are snow white, the under parts white with a flush
of rose colour at the sides. The pupil of the eye is
golden yellow.*
* In " Home-Life of Marsh Birds," Miss Emma Turner gives a most
interesting account of these lovely little birds, illustrated from her own
photographs.
205
THE GREAT TITMOUSE.
(Parus major.)
IN respect to usefulness and activity, this bird takes the
foremost place among the Tits : restless, noisy, and
always cheerful from morning to night. It clings to the
end of the twigs, head downwards, to look for insects
underneath the buds; it even climbs up w 7 alls if they are
rough and uneven. It slips into holes and crevices
which seem impossible of entry. It pursues insects
everywhere, and swallows them wholesale, as though it
could never be satisfied. It has no fear of men, but
comes confidently under the roof and perches on the gate,
or looks in at the window from the window^ sill. It is
courageous, even bold, and boundlessly inquisitive, a
trait which often places its life and liberty in peril. For
the sake of a little fat it will allow itself to be snared in
a gourd or other trap. But it is just these qualities that
make it so popular.
Its voice sounds like " tzit " or " sitzida, sitzida."
This beautiful, kindly bird deserves every protection.
Our sympathies are quite with this bright active
creature, although some of our English naturalists accuse
it of using its strong beak in order to split the skull of
small weakly birds so as to feast on their brains. It has
even been known to treat a Bat in this manner. We
recognise it readily in the early spring by its note which
is like the noise caused by the sharpening of a saw with
a file.
Two years ago I saw the largest company of Tits
Great Tits, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Marsh Tits and Crested
USEFUL.
THE GREAT TITMOUSE.
THE GREAT TITMOUSE 207
Tits together with a great number of tiny and beautiful
gold-crested Wrens, that I have ever seen, or indeed can
ever hope to see again. It was in a pine forest about
twenty miles north of Gotha, the property of Hans
Freiherr von Berlepsch, Germany's most ardent bird
protector. He was with us at the time and he said
even he had never seen the like before, nor had his chief
gamekeeper, who is himself an ornithologist. It was
the more wonderful because we had walked for nearly
three hours through the woods that morning and had
seen, with this great exception, little wild life beyond an
occasional black Squirrel and, through an avenue of
pines from afar, a grand Buck feeding in a clearing. It
was in the late autumn.
Nearly three thousand nesting-boxes have been fixed
in the trees there, and it was about one of these, a deep
one, that a number of Tits had appropriated as a warm
and secure sleeping place for the autumn and winter,
that the birds three hundred of them at least the game-
keeper declared had gathered; now pouncing down on
it, a dozen of them at a time, now settling in noisy
zi-zi-zi-ing parties on the high branches of pine round
this centre. Perhaps, like Rooks that quarrel over a
desirable nesting site, they were all eager to secure
specially desirable sleeping quarters. Tits and Wrens
do, of course, always go about the woods in parties,
when family cares are over, but on such a 'scale as this
rarely ; and so many dainty Golden-Crested Wrens
together might not be seen again in a life-time. All
the species of the Tit family, excepting the Bearded and
the Long-tailed Tit were there.
The amount of good these birds do among forest
trees is incalculable, not to mention their greatly mis-
208 THE GREAT TITMOUSE
understood labours in ridding the blossoms of our fruit
trees of their infesting insect pests. Tits are, in fact,
most energetic and active insect destroyers.
The Great Tit. is a lively bird about the size of a Spar-
row. The crown, neck, and throat black; cheeks white.
A black stripe runs from the throat over the breast and
under parts. The mantle is bright green ; rump, tail,
and wings plum colour, with oblique whitish stripes on
the wings. The under side of the body is a beautiful
bright yellow on either side of the black stripe. The
short, strong beak is shaped like a grain of wheat and
brown in colour; the strong legs are bluish. It builds
its nest delicately, and usually in such hollow places as
have a narrow opening, sometimes even in empty bee-
hives. Tt lays six to nine sometimes, though rarely, as
many as fifteen eggs, which are finely formed, of a pure
white, with speckles of a beautiful rust colour.
209
THE BLUE TITMOUSE.
(Parus coeruleus.)
CROWN bright blue, forehead and cheeks white. A dark
stripe is drawn from above the eyes towards the nape.
The white cheeks are edged at the back and underneath,
with black. The under part and rump are sulphur-
yellow, or rather lemon colour. Tail and wings blue,
like the bloom on a ripe plum. There is an oblique
white stripe on the wings. The beak is like a little
grain of wheat. Legs bluish. The nest is placed in
holes of trees with small opening and is composed of
soft stuff and is very lightly built. The clutch consists
of seven to ten eggs, which are like those of the Great-tit,
only much smaller. As many as eighteen eggs have
been recorded as being found in one nest.
It is one of the prettiest and most useful birds, and
in its actions resembles the other Tits. The number
of insects destroyed by these rises into millions, and it
has been observed that one pair, in the course of
seventeen hours brought food to their young 475 times.
Its cry is clear and piercing: " Tgi, tgi, tgi' or
"Ze, 2e, zirr," or "Ze, ze, he-he-he-he-he."
It is a real treasure, and not rare in Hungary.
The Blue-tit is one of our best known and best liked
British birds. In the autumn great numbers arrive on
our east coasts. The Blue-tit, especially, devours a
powerful tiny beetle with the ominous name of Scolytus
destructor, which works its way from the chrysalis stage
at the end of a tunnel bored bv the mother beetle in the
tree, until it conies out, after biting a round hole in the
USEFUL.
BLUE TITMOUSE. GOLD-CRESTED WREN,
THE BLUE TITMOUSE 211
bark, as a perfect beetle. By this small creature's labours
the bark is separated to such an extent from the tree that
it cannot live long. A plague of other small wood-boring
beetles of like habits destroyed 1,500,000 trees in the
Harz Forest one season, when the priests even prayed
in their churches for relief from this awful pest. And
yet there are still numbers of country gardeners who
look upon the Blue-tit, especially, as one of their worst
enemies.
A house with large grounds in our populous London
suburb is a large boys' school a private one. One day I
saw a pretty sight, one that did credit to the character of
the boys there. Between the playground and the cricket
field is an iron fence, having a wide gate. For some
time this has not been properly closed, and just within
the hole in the tubular iron post, into which the fastening
bolt ought to run, a pair of Blue-Tits have their nest.
As I approached it, a number of gaping mouths were
thrust up for food. As the nestlings are fed with aphides
and gooseberry moths and the old birds have a large
family to feed, and they prey also on grubs and maggots,
it is well for the vegetable garden close by.
About sixty boys pass noisily to and fro through this
gateway during play-hours, but the wise parents think
they know better than to feed them in the sight of these.
All is done during school time and early in the morning.
A friend tells me that he knows of a Blue-Tit's nest in
an exactly similar position. When the bird was sitting
he kicked the bottom of the iron post, and put his finger
in the hole. Up flew the bold little creature, hissing
like a snake, and bit vigorously at it, fully justifying
her rural nickname of Billy-biter.
212 THE BLUE TITMOUSE
I am glad to think that some of my schoolboy neigh-
bours will read this, and will know that their forbearance
towards these little birds is appreciated: a forbearance
towards the defenceless which is always a distinguishing
characteristic of the true gentleman.
The Blue-Tit is of great service to all flower and fruit
growers, and it comes much to our suburban, and even
London gardens. And yet gardeners at one time
persecuted the little labourer, one of the prettiest and
most winsome of our common birds.
Sitting in the garden of a house I formerly lived in, I
noted there, in my apple trees laden with fruit, that the
Tits the Great, the Marsh, the Coal, and the Blue-Tit
that had not been much in evidence since April,
when they were busy amongst the blossom buds, have
come back, and they were busy now again amid the
branches. Having read lately that they destroy the
fruit, notably apples, in the autumn, I have watched
them closely. It is as I expected : a number of the
apples have been attacked by insects, and it is on these
that the birds are busy, on fruit which if they did remain
on the trees they are now falling in numbers would
be quite worthless. The Tits enlarge the holes so as to
get at the true destroyers, and they are doing more good
than harm. As the Rev. F. O. Morris said, long ago,
;( the destruction of the Blue-tit by the farmer or
gardener is an act of economical suicide."
Tits will also sometimes have recourse to the orchard
in times of drought, in order to quench their thirst by
bites at the fruit. But we should be churlish indeed if
we grudged our little unpaid labourers a small tithe of
our harvest, which is the larger for their spring services.
213
;
THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN.
(Regulus cristatus.)
THIS is the very smallest of our British birds, and
indeed of all European species. It is found generally
throughout Great Britain, and it has increased in the
north greatly of late years owing to the greater
cultivation of larch and fir-trees. The numbers of these
Wrens are augmented often in autumn by great flocks
that come to our eastern coast from the Continent. A
migration wave of this sort, Mr. Howard Saunders told
of, which lasted 92 days, and reached from the Channel
to the Faroe Islands. Another migration in 1883 lasted
82 days, and one, the following year, 87 days. On such
occasions bushes in gardens on the coast are covered
with birds as with a swarm of bees; crowds flutter round
the lighthouse lanterns, and often come to grief there,
and weary little travellers climb about the rigging of
fishing-smacks in the North Sea.
The Golden-Crested Wren is even smaller than the
Common Wren, but its feathers are more flossy. It
has on its crown a tongue-shaped patch of warm saffron
yellow edged with black. The whole of the rest of its
coat is of a plain greenish gray, which is lighter on the
under parts of his body. The colour of the wings is
also sober, the feathers having a lighter edge ; the little
beak is thin and pointed, the legs nearly black. The
cunningly built nest is placed in the fir-trees where it
can w 7 ith difficulty be discovered. The eggs, which
number six, occasionally eleven of the size of peas are
214 THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN
reddish speckled with a darker shade of the same colour.
This useful little bird, always active, hopping un-
weariedly about seeking food, lives exclusively on
insects and grubs. Its dwelling is among pines and
fir-trees; it often associates with the Tits, its call is
"Sit, sit, sit."
It is not rare, and is worth its weight in gold.
215
f
THE CRESTED TITMOUSE.
(Parus cristdtus.)
IN order to learn habits of the Crested Tit it is necessary
to climb high into the region of the firwoods. Here the
Crested Tit is the good genius of the neighbourhood,
for with untiring zeal it hops about among the thick
branches of the fir labyrinth and destroys the most mis-
chievous insects. Its call is "zidrrrr" or "zick giiirr."
It is not rare in the pine forests of Hungary.
The Crested Tit breeds in a few of the oldest forests in
Scotland where firs and oaks remain. In Perthshire it
is seen, but to England it is a stranger, a few cases only,
being on record. In Ireland also it is practically un-
known.
The Crested Titmouse is much smaller than the Great
Tit or Oxeye. It is easily recognised by its pointed
head, which resembles that of the Crested Lark. The
feathers of this are black, edged with white ; the cheeks
white ; throat and round the ears black ; so that the head
has the appearance of being framed. Wings and tail
greyish-brown, the feathers with whitish edges. Under-
neath it is a dingy white, rust colour at the sides. Its
nest is carefully built, in holes and in trees. It lays
from five to eight, sometimes ten, white eggs speckled
with light rust colour. Two broods are generally
brought out in the season.
These birds are seen in Germany, and elsewhere on
the Continent, frequently in company with Golden-
crested Wrens, other Tits and also Tree-creepers.
USEFUL.
CRESTED TITMOUSE. COAL-TITMOUSE
217
THE COAL-TIT.
(Parus ater.)
THIS lively, pretty, amiable bird, also lives in the
thickest parts of the fir woods, where it carries on its
work of destroying the injurious insects, the number of
which is enormous. It used to be thought that the Coal-
Tit did harm to the young buds ; but this has never been
authenticated, and even if it does break one off here and
there, the mischief is small indeed, in comparison with
the service it performs from one year's end to the other.
Its call is shrill and clear " si-wih, ziwih, siwih," or
"silt, sitt" or a long-drawn "seeb, seeb."
This bird occurs in considerable numbers in Hungary.
The Coal-Titmouse is one of our common birds in the
United Kingdom and it is said to increase yearly,
although it is not yet so common as the Great and the
Blue Tits. It is a very useful little bird as it feeds its
young largely on green caterpillars ; but it eats nuts as
well as seeds the seeds of the Scotch fir it is specially
fond of.
The Marsh -Titmouse Parus palustris is another
resident species in Great Britain, but it is, with the
exception of the Crested Titmouse, the least common of
our Tits. I have seen it much about our Middlesex
gardens, a superficial observer can note the difference
between this bird and the Coal-Tit easily because the
Marsh-Tit has not the white patch on the back of the
head which the Coal-Tit has. It is often seen in orchards
where it does good service, but is fond of the neighbour-
2i8 THE COAL-TITMOUSE
hood of rivers and delights itself among the alder trees
and pollarded willows of swampy ground.
The Coal Tit is the same size as the Crested Tit. Cheeks
white at the back of the head a w 7 hite patch, the rest of
the head black, so that this colour forms a broad bridle,
which recalls that of the great tit. Underneath it is of a
dingy white, the mantle a bluish ash-colour with a tinge
of green. Wings and tail dark grey, the former having
two oblique whitish stripes. The nest is built on the
ground, in holes in fir trees under decaying bark, some-
times in holes in the ground and is formed for the most
part of green moss, the interior being warmly lined with
hair. The clutch consists of six sometimes even ten-
eggs of a brilliant white finely speckled with rust-colour.
2ip
THE LONG-TAILED TIT.
(Acredula cauddta.)
THIS is a true Tit, and never rests, but is hunting here
and there, slipping in and out, in constant movement,
from morning till night, now and then indulging in such
gymnastic exercises on the frailest twigs, as would by
comparison made the limb-dislocating mountebank look
a clumsy lout. Nothing can be more charming than
the society of which the Long-tailed Tit is the grand
master. It comprehends the Great-Tit, the Blue-Tit, and
the Coal-Tit, one or two tree runners, Spotted Wood-
peckers and a Nuthatch. The whole form a brigade of
workers, who rove through the woods and gardens, each
one working according to the measure of its strength.
They search a tree, from the bark to the point of the thin
topmost twig, where the Long-Tailed one is quite at
home, so light a featherweight is his body the twig
bends, but does not break, and the tail acts as its balanc-
ing pole. This society gathers at the same hour at the
same place, in the late autumn, in order to seek fresh
places. The note of the Long-Tailed Tit sounds like
'' J e > J e > J e >" and " gey, gey, gey, gey." It lives on
injurious insects, and wherever it builds its nest in wood
or garden it is a priceless treasure.
It is not rare in Hungary, and deserves to be protected.
There are various forms of the Long-tailed Titmouse
in Europe; our own form is fairly common in localities
which suit its mode of living. It is resident and common
in Ireland, but very local in its occurrence in Scotland*
These Tits often rear two broods in a season, and
afterwards the whole family may be seen flitting about
USEFUL,
LONG-TAILED TIT.
THE LONG-TAILED TIT
221
together, in single file from hedgerow to hedgerow.
There is a dipping motion in their flight which is pretty
to watch. All these feed on insects and their larvae.
The Long-tailed Tit is the size of the Wren ; a round-
headed little bird with a tiny beak, and a very long tail.
The head is white, and suggests that of a grey-headed
old grandfather. The fore-part of the back is black with
white patches on the shoulders, the tail black, the three
outer feathers being for the most part white, and
graduated in length, the two middle feathers being
shorter. The under part is rose colour; the tiny beak
black.
ue
A bright winter friend.
222
NEST OF LONG-TAILED TIT
THE NEST OF THE LONG-TAILED TIT.
IT is not only in our latitudes that the nest of the Long-
tailed Tit is considered a masterpiece, but even far away
south where nature works such marvels, where the little
humming birds, scarcely bigger than the joint of a child's
LONG-TAILED TITS AND FAMILY.
finger, shine in the sunlight like diamonds and rubies,
and build nests no bigger than half a small hen's egg,
-even there, this nest is looked upon one of the finest
specimens of bird architecture. It is the most charming,
most beautiful, and warmest bird abode. Most often it
is round, the twigs supporting it like the fingers of the
NEST OF LONG-TAILED TIT 223
hand, and often it stands free like a little beehive. It is
beautifully roofed in with a domed top, and has at the
side an opening large enough for a big bumble bee. It
is constructed of the finest moss, and the softest fluff
from the meadows and poplars ; it is soft, and yet so
strongly put together that no human workman can
imitate it.
In this soft, warm nest the tiny bird lays its nine,
sometimes eleven, eggs. These are white with rose-
coloured spots at the thicker end. The male and female
birds sit alternately on the eggs for fourteen days; and
then the hard work begins twelve babes to nourish, and
with the finest food !
The industry of the Swallow is truly great, but that
of the Long-tailed Tit is still greater. The Swallow
seizes its booty while on the wing, and has only to open
its beak ; but the Tit has to go from branch to branch,
working sometimes head downwards, sometimes swing-
ing, in order to secure the tiny morsels.
Truly he who does not delight in the sight of this tiny
family united by love, who is not moved when the twelve
baby birds are seen sitting close pressed together on a
slender bough, and the little parents come and go, with
their continuous cry, bringing food and giving it in
turn to the young ones he whom such a sight does not
fill with pleasure, must have a stone in his breast instead
of a heart.
MUST BE KEPT IN CHECK,
THF TREE SPARROW,
THE HOUSE SPARROW.
225
CHAPTER VI.
WORKERS ALL THE YEAR ROUND.
THE HOUSE SPARROW.
(Passer domesticus.)
THIS is among birds what the street-boy is in the towns-
merry, audacious, obtrusive and quarrelsome, always
moving and picking up what it can. A human
habitation without Sparrows is inconceivable. In the
street it rummages in the tracks of the horses; in the
markets, it sees when the stall-keeper is dozing, and
helps itself out of her basket to anything that takes its
fancy.
When the wheat ears are soft it betakes itself to the
fields and fills its stomach and also feeds its young with
their milky juice ; when the corn is ripe he attacks it and
knocks more grains out of the ears than it can possibly
eat. It does the same with cherries, mulberries, and all
kinds of seeds. It also breaks off young buds and the
points of young shoots.
It drags the Titmice out of their nest-holes and
establishes itself there. It presence is easy to recognise
by the straws sticking out of the hole. The only method
of preventing this is to make the entrance-hole narrower
and to hang the nest-hole lower down.
It is true that when there is a great abundance of
cockchafers it consumes a great quantity of these
creatures ; but as soon as it finds something it likes
P
226 THE HOUSE SPARROW
better, and is easily obtained, he leaves the destructive
chafers to others. The most useful service it does is in
severe snowy winters, when, in company with a large
number of other Sparrows, it scours the fields and picks
up the seeds of noxious weeds ; besides this it feeds its
young with insects. It should not be suffered to increase
too much, for it does on the whole considerable mischief.
The humane way of lessening its numbers, as we have
before pointed out, is to pull down the nest wherever we
can.
A word for our English Sparrows. E. Newman,
F.Z.S., says: " A Sparrow-hawk left to himself, even
by scaring the Sparrow from ripe grain, will save the
wages of at least ten boys." And the head gardener,
of a large garden which was protected with a network of
black cotton only, said: " Nobody knows what good
a Sparrow does in a garden. In fields it eats charlock,
chickweed, plaintain, buttercup, knot-grass," etc. When
the hay lies in swathes in the fields it haunts them in
quest of what are called * 'hay chaff ers" ; craneflies, ear-
wigs, blight, etc., are part of its prey. "They have been
known," writes Curtis of Sparrows in " Farm Insects,"
" to gorge themselves with the larvae of the May-bug till
they were unable to fly." A French writer says:
' Under one Sparrow's nest the rejected wing-cases of
cockchafers were picked up; they numbered over 1,400.
Thus one pair had destroyed more than 700 insects to
feed one brood." Much of the harm attributed to
Sparrows is the work of a small Weevil, which is
very destructive to many kitchen-garden plants. Mr.
Joseph Nunn of Royston, a farmer, writing of the
Sparrow during 1897, savs tnat Sparrows do not eat
THE HOUSE SPARROW 227
more corn from the stacks than other Finches or the
Buntings, and that a farmer must learn how to protect
his property the same as any other tradesman.
As to its colour, we may say that its crown is grey
with chestnut stripes, throat black that is, the male
bird. The throat of the female is whitish, and there
are whitish lines on the head and over the eyes.
Beak strong, wedge-shaped, pointed. The whole bird
suggests strength. It lays five or six eggs, which are
white, thickly speckled with dark marks. The nest is
composed of straw, wood, tow, hair and feathers care-
lessly put together, still it is soft and warm. This bird
breeds twice a year, sometimes three times.
228
THE TREE SPARROW.
(Passer Montanus.)
THE habits of this Sparrow vary from those of the
house species in that it dwells among fields and foot-hills
where wood and thicket alternate. It also frequents
gardens, and behaves very audaciously. In hollow
places in old trees it is sure to be met with. It is a bold
builder, and will place its nest with us in Hungary under
the Eagle's eyrie, or the Stork's nest. It may generally
be said to be a hole-nester, and a much greater insect
eater than its congener the House Sparrow.
Its manner of nesting makes it all the more dangerous
to the artificial nest-holes, and we cannot guard them
against this species, either by decreasing the size of the
entrance or by placing the nest-holes lower ; it drags
the Tits out and takes possession of the hole; the only
thing that can be done is to drive it away with small
shot; otherwise we should harbour Tree Sparrows
instead of Tits, and, although they are not as numerous
as the House Sparrow the supply of them is more than
enough.
The Tree Sparrow is also rarer with us in Great
Britain than its ubiquitous relative. It is quite local as
to habitat. Until quite recently it was unknown in
Ireland. Large numbers arrive, however, in autumn
along the east coast, and its settlements in Scotland are
chiefly on the eastern side, up as far as Sutherland. Its
nest with us will be found at times at some distance from
human dwellings; in the soft rotten wood of trees often,
but it builds also about farm-buildings, beneath roof-
THE TREE SPARROW 229
tilings and in cliffs by the sea. The eggs are more
glossy than the House Sparrow's; two and even three
broods will be reared in a season. The young are fed
on caterpillars and other insects, soft vegetable matter,
etc., but in winter both young and old frequent farm-
yards, and visit the ricks ; also they seek grain among
horse-droppings in the streets. The illustration shows
the difference in the markings of the two species of
Sparrow.
This bird is smaller than the House Sparrow, and
more slender. The colouring is, on the whole, the same
in the male and female birds. From crown to tail it is
chestnut brown, passing into ash-grey, with dark
markings round the ears and on the throat. Both in
colour and demeanour it is a true Sparrow. It lays
five or six, occasionally seven, light-coloured speckled
eggs.
USEFUL,
THE HEDGE SPARROW.
231
THE HEDGE SPARROW.
(Accentor modularis.)
THIS is no vulgar little city arab, picking about in
untidy stables, in the refuse on the streets, and among
the droppings of horses. Does not its Latin name
rather proclaim it one of the aristocrats of bird life. Its
dress may be dull-coloured, but its form and its motions
are not inelegant, despite its familiar name of " Shuffle-
wings " and "Smokie," in deference to its characteristic
motion and its colouring. Head and nape are a bluish-
.grey, streaked with brown, back and wings are a
reddish-brown, streaked blackish ; the lower wing-
coverts are tipped with clayish colour, in bar-fashion,
underparts a dull white; the sides are marked with dark
streaks on a pale reddish-brown ground ; the bill brown,
the base being of a lighter shade ; the legs and feet are
yellow brown. Length 5.5 inches. The slate-grey on
the head and throat is not seen on the young birds,
which are browner and more spotted than the adults.
This is a friendly bird and very easily tamed, so that it
will often bring its mate to the kitchen door for food in
winter, and its song* is more melodious than many of
our singers. The nest is built of moss, bits of stick,
roots, and dry grass, in all kinds of hedges, or roadside
thickets. The eggs, four to six, greenish-blue without
spots and rough in texture. Many bird-lovers refuse to
call this bird by the plebian name of Sparrow, with them
it is always the Hedge Accentor.
The food of this bird mainly consists of caterpillars,
eggs of insects, w 7 ood-lice, earwigs, chrysalids, small
seeds of weeds, house-refuse, etc.
USEFUL.
THE SKYLARK.
233
THE SKYLARK.
(Alauda arvensis.)
IT can raise a tuft on its head at will. A long,
slightly hooked claw is on the back toe. The nest is
placed on the ground, more rarely among corn or
meadow grass, but rather on fallow ground or clover
field, among low thick growth; it assimilates so closely
with its surroundings that it is difficult to discover. It
usually contains five eggs, which, being of a dingy,
grey-green speckled with a darker colour, also somewhat
resemble the colour of the earth.
This Lark occurs most numerously in the northern
regions, and as regards its habits is one of the best
known and most popular of birds. It arrives in
Hungary early in the spring, settles down, and does not
allow any other bird to approach it, pecking them away
if possible. Its little territory often occupies only a
hundred paces. The different territories are contiguous,
and disputes between the neighbours are perpetually
going on. The combatants may constantly be seen,
darting here and there with lightning speed, flying near
the ground, in pursuit of one another. During the
pairing and brooding-time the male bird sings un-
weariedly, flinging his song into the air. He rises
towards the sky, with vibrating wings, higher and
higher, dropping his ever-changing trilling notes,
often rising to such a height that he disappears from
sight and the song dies away. Then suddenly he re-
appears, becomes silent, and drops like a stone to earth.
In his poem " In Winter," Johann Arany says of the
Lark :
234 THE SKYLARK
" Like the poor poet.
Who in the sun's bright rays spreads out his wing
And bears towards heaven his song : he turns and
falls,
And he is silent."
The Lark lives partly on seeds, but its chief food is
gathered from the insect world. It is almost universally
considered by epicures a great delicacy, and is snared
by thousands. Fortunately it exists in great numbers,
but its snaring is to be deprecated.
In England larks have been very largely eaten, but
happily the practice is now most strongly opposed by
thoughtful people. If the consumption of Larks in our
country went on as it was doing a few years ago the
species would soon be extinct. Yet this singer whom
poets have delighted to honour and one possibly
because of its alert ways and its sentinel-like attitude
which Julius Caesar chose as an emblem for one of his
famous legions, devours wdreworms, grubs and various
larvae when these lie hidden in the short winter pastures,
and just at the stage when the latter are most greedy of
nourishment, so that the grass would suffer incredibly
but for the bird's work. A recent authority stated that
it was to be deplored that not a tenth part of the Skylarks
that formerly frequented the Midland pastures were there
now. Unfortunately this bird is a favourite among
those who are given to the caging of singing birds.
This bird is bigger and more slender than the Sparrow,,
and the colouring generally of the upper parts is a warm
yellowish-brown. It is distinguished from its congener,
the Woodlark, by its tail feathers. The two outermost
feathers are white, growing darker only about the shaft.
The outer web of the second feather is white. The tail
feathers have dark-brown centres and tawny edges.
235
THE KINGFISHER.
(Alcedo ispida.)
THE Kingfisher is the arch-enemy of the fish, and it is
hardly credible that this relatively small bird, should gulp
down, as it does, fish as long as your finger, in order to>
fill his stomach. It digests very quickly, and spits out
the bones, scales, and fins. It watches, from a bough,
for the little fish. Where a bush bending over the water
undisturbed by the eddy forms a calm mirror, there
does this resplendent fish-poacher settle itself on an
overhanging bough, to watch motionless and with in-
credible tenacity the water and the living things
beneath it. If a trout or other small fish, feeling quite
safe, comes to the surface, the Kingfisher drops on it
like a piece of lead ; it grasps its prey with its sharp
beak, and, shaking the water from its plumage, flies
back to its perch, gulps down its delicate morsel, and
sets itself again to watch. Its colour protects the bird
when diving. The underparts are much the same colour
as a fallen leaf, and this arouses no suspicion in the
fish the back, on the other hand, shines like the blue
shimmer of the running stream, and that often protects
the bird from the circling Sparrow-hawk. If it comes to
a flat shore on the side of a small stream, which offers no
overhanging perching place, it settles on a stake or a
clod of earth, and now and then hovers over the water,
and flutters like a hawk. It is an inconstant bird. It
appears, and disappears from a district, and then,
perhaps after some years, presents itself again. Its
flight is rapid, and it raises its cry, as it goes, " teet."
It does harm, but is scarce in Hungary.
HARMFUL.
THE KIN 7 GFISHKR.
THE KINGFISHER 237
In Great Britain it was also becoming scarce, but of
late years Bird Protection and the ever increasing
number of bird-lovers has been in favour of this
beautiful ornament of streams and meadows. It is,
however, often shot because its feathers are of value for
dressing artificial flies. Personally I could not call a
bird hurtful because it seeks the food which its Creator
intended it to eat, which is no more the property of man
when it is taken in its natural conditions than it is that
of the bird, and I confess I would rather see the brilliant
blue of the Kingfisher flash up a meadow stream than
the angler's figure there with his rod.
The Kingfisher is seven and a half inches long, a short
thick set bird, with short tail and straight pointed beak,
which sticks out like a lath nail. The colouring of its
plumage, which, in its flight, sparkles like precious
gems, makes it one of the marvels of nature. Crown,
neck, mantle, and rump are of an exquisite brilliant
blue; a cinnamon brown stripe passes over the eye,
growing lighter as it extends over the side of the neck.
Eyes brown, throat white, underparts a brilliant rust-
red, legs red, rather short, the toes slightly joined at
the root. It nests on the banks of rivers and streams,
boring in the bank, on a level just above the surface of
the water a tunnel a yard long, which it enlarges at the
end into a cauldron-shaped cavity. It does not build a
nest here, but lays its round white eggs on rejected fish-
bones. The eggs number six or seven.
USEFUL.
THE DIPPER.
239
THE DIPPER.
(Cinclus aquaticus.)
THE Dipper's habits are most interesting. The bird fre-
quents the most picturesque streams, perching on the dry
boulders, with the water gurgling and splashing about
him. From this he dives and walks under the water,
turns over the small pebbles and returns to his stone.
This led to his being suspected of being an enemy to
the fisherman. It has, however, be proved by the
inspection of the contents of the stomachs of several
Dippers that only insect remains and small shell-fish
were eaten. The fact that he will attach himself to
brooks which contain no fish at all, proves that he does
not feed on these. The bird's plumage is simply water-
tight, and therefore admirably adapted to a bird which
can swim as well as dive.
The song of the Dipper is strong and cheery; and the
lively ways of this Water-ouzel, as it often called, lend
a charm to our mountain streams. With us in Hungary
a thorough investigation of the life-habits of this bird,
which spread over a considerable period, and involved
much correspondence, has resulted in the complete
vindication of this bird's character.
Mr. Herman's verdict on the Dipper and the King-
fisher, are the more valuable because he is the great
authority, in his own country, in all that relates to
240 THE DIPPER
pisciculture. The Dipper remains with us all the year
round, especially in the Peak District in Derbyshire,
and the hill-streams of North Staffordshire. It is,
however, found in the British Islands, wherever there
are rapid rivers or stony brooks and streams. All the
Highland burns and rivers have a few pairs. In
Ireland, too, it is resident in the mountainous districts,
but it forsakes these often, at the approach of winter, for
the mouths of tidal rivers and the salt flats of the sea-
shore. In the valley of the Dove it remains about the
stream all through the winter. The birds are clever in
contriving to make so heavy a nest cling to the wall of
rock or stone, where it is placed. It cocks up its short
tail very much as a Wren does, and dips its head in a
way, which has gained for it the quaint local name of
" Betty Dowker." As it feeds much on the larvae of
the May-fly and bank-fly, and others which are
destructive to the salmon spawning beds, it must be of
good service to the fisher. The young birds are able to
swim as soon as they leave the nest, and to chase the
water insects, using both legs and wings in pursuit.
The wings serve as oars. The song of the bird is begun
in autumn, and it will often be heard all through the
winter, but always in early spring, and fully fledged
young have been found by the twenty-first of March.
This is a thick-set but charming bird a little over six
inches in length. Head and nape are umber-brown, tail
and wing-feathers dark brown; chin, throat, and upper
breast white, passing off into chestnut-brown, dark-grey
and black on the belly ; bill brownish-black, legs and
feet brown ; upper parts mottled with dark grey and
brown. The beak is awl-shaped, and the sharp toes on
the strong feet are long and well divided. The nest is
THE DIPPER 241
generally placed close to a running stream, preferably
near to, and even behind some little waterfall. It is a
large oval ball of leaves, grass, and moss, lined with
dry grass and dead leaves. The entrance is low down in
the side. From four to six eggs are laid, which are
glossy white at first, but become dull as the bird sits.
Two broods are reared in a season.
243
THE THRUSH.
(Turdus musicus.)
THIS bird is the same size as a Blackbird. The upper
side is olive-brown ; throat and under parts whitish ;
breast rusty-yellow with dark heart-shaped spots and
flecks. A light eye-brow stripe runs over the eye. The
under side of the wing is rusty-yellow ; beak and legs
brownish-yellow. Its nest is very remarkable. It
builds by preference in trees with dense foliage, at a
medium height, and employs stalks, grass, and small
twigs well woven together, the crevices being rilled
with moss. There is nothing remarkable in this, for
% there are many better woven nests ; but the cup of the
nest is a work of art. It is wide, and deep, having inside
a strong layer finely cemented and smoothed, about the
thickness of the back of a table knife. This is composed
of pulverised atoms of decayed wood, which the Thrush
mixes with its sticky saliva, and kneads into a paste,
with its beak. It lays five or six eggs of a vitriol-green
colour, with very fine spots.
The Thrush is a fine strong bird, and moves firmly
and skilfully among the branches. When on the
ground it holds its head and beak well up; always alert.
When it sees its prey it springs on it at once with
lowered head, seizes it and tears it to pieces with its beak.
On mossy grounds it is very skilful in turning over tufts
of moss, in order to reach the insects which crawl about
underneath. It also catches grasshoppers, and in the
late summer and autumn attacks the wild berries.
It has many enemies. The Jay is the worst plunderer
244 THE THRUSH
of its nest ; but it has recently been ascertained that the
Squirrel also sucks the eggs.
Its song is beautiful, flooding the woods far and near,
with its rich fluty tones. It sings from the highest
branches of trees, sitting quietly meanwhile, as if itself
steeped in the dreamy rapture of its own performance.
The Song Thrush in Scotland is called the Mavis.
This is strange as it is the Redwing which is known in
France under the name of Mauvis. The song of the
Blackbird is often confused with that of the Thrush;
yet that of the latter is a very distinctive one, because
in the middle of a strain of song there is the repetition
of its three chief notes. You will seem to hear it saying
" Pretty dear, pretty dear," or " Wait a bit, wait a bit."
We must own that the Thrush is a very active thief,
although it does feed much on insects, worms, and
snails. It is absolutely necessary to protect one's fruit
against this depredator.
Shakespeare speaks of the " throstle with his note-
so true," and Clare wrote
" And thrushes too 'gan clear their throats,
And get by heart some two 'r three notes
Of their intended summer song."
But Browning still more finely enters into the spirit of
this bird's song :
" That's the wise thrush ; he sings each song twice over,.
Lest you should think he never can recapture
The first, fine, careless rapture ! "
245
THE BLACKBIRD.
(Turdus merula.)
THIS is a lively, cheery bird, an ornament to the thickets
and clearings of the woods. Just before the evening
twilight, in company with others of the Thrush family,
it seeks the clearings and openings of the woods, and
delights the eye of the beholder, by its hopping here and
there, its darting and hunting busily dragging worms
out of the ground and attacking all the mischievous
Chafer family. Then it flies on to the summit of a bush
or an over-spreading bough, and its powerful, pure flute-
like song resounds through the wood, and makes the
listener forget all else. In autumn it eats the berries,
sometimes fruit ; but being very timid it is easily driven
off. It is a useful bird and a pleasure to eye and ear.
This is the bird which is so often taken from the nest
.and reared. The male bird fetches a good price in
Hungary, for it learns to whistle tunes even from
street-organs. Because it learns so easily, it sometimes
happens, that in the middle of a beautiful tune which it
has been taught, some most excruciating sound is heard,
reminiscent of an ungreased cart-wheel. In Germany
the Blackbird has become a town-bird; and people
spread dried ant-eggs, chopped meat, and maggots, and
make a nest for it near their vine-covered windows. It
:stays there also during the winter.
And what about the East? Why are children ever
brought up in such a way that they seize a stone directly
<they see a Blackbird ?
THE BLACKBIRD 247
In February our English Blackbird will be thinking
of mating. We are all familiar with the usual nesting-
site which is chosen evergreen, thick bushes, and
hedgerows but it has been known to build successfully
and to lay its eggs, in the heart of what is known as the
thousand-headed cabbage. The young of the early
broods sometimes help the parents to feed the young of
the second brood of the season.
The Blackbird is commoner in the South than the
Thrush, and is as a rule more popular with the country
people than the latter bird. Gardeners look upon it as
a terrible thief, but the good it does in feeding on moths,
beetles, other insects and larvae, caterpillars, cockchafer
grubs, quite counterbalances the harm it does in taking
fruit. A well-known Zoologist says, " Short-sighted
agriculturists kill the Blackbirds that, at the rate of sixty
an hour, destroy their worst foes, or working as they do
from early dawn to dusk six hundred in the course of a
single day, which, given ten Blackbirds, raises the total
of vermin put out of the way to six thousand per diem,
against which a few dozens of strawberries should count
as the dust in the balance. But the horticulturist sees
the Blackbirds pick a raspberry now and again, and he
does not see the same bird kill a dozen or two of grubs
or snails for each morsel of fruit he may help himself
to." Another, a Fruit-grower, says that during one
hard winter when some of his fruit trees were killed,
and in some places the Thrush tribe were all but
annihilated, snails were a scourge in the following
summer, and gooseberry bushes were stripped by cater-
pillars innumerable. This is the testimony of the late
Joseph Witherspoon, a well-known fruit grower. He
goes on to say, " When gardens are surrounded by
248 MISTLE THRUSH AND FIELDFARE
woods, it is only by a liberal use of nets that any reason-
able portion of fruit can be saved, as swarms of Black-
birds and Thrushes will eat every fruit as it ripens. I
provide nesting-places, and thus have my birds so near
my caterpillars, and so far from house morsels that they
eat the pest greedily ; but fruit crops being thereby
secured, we must next draw on our ingenuity to prevent
the birds taking more than their fair tithe."
In winter Blackbirds feed principally on snails, the
shells of which they break by raising them in the bill
and dashing them against a hard stone, just as Thrushes
do. But for these birds, we should be quite unable to
save our gardens from the wholesale ravages of those
enemies to plant life.
The Blackbird, of course, belongs to the Thrush
family, and its relatives the Fieldfare, the Redwing,
and the Mistle Thrush all have the same habits of
feeding. They all devour snails, slugs, worms, and
insects, and in the autumn take wild berries. The Field-
fares are only with us in winter, and they seek their food
over the fields and pasture lands in mild weather, and
eat the berries when frost comes, and snow covers the
ground. The Redwing is a delicate bird, and often
comes to grief in our country during a hard winter.
The Mistle Thrush is with us all the year, and its food
consists, not of mistletoe as used to be supposed, but of
the berries of the yew, holly, mountain ash, hawthorn,
etc., worms, snails, and insects, and, it must be con-
fessed, of a little fruit occasional!^.
The male bird is pure black, the eyes bordered with a
fine golden yellow. The beak is also of this colour.
Legs blackish. The female is dark-brown, chin whitish,
THE BLACKBIRDS SONG
249
breast a shabby brown with dark spots, beak and legs
brown. The male does not attain his brilliant blackness
until his third year. It builds its nest in bushes and
thick foliage, where it is well hidden. It is composed
chiefly of moss, fine twigs, and tufts of ^hair ; and is
strong and durable. The clutch consists of four to six
-eggs of pale green, speckled with pale rust-red and violet.
An evening lyric.
USEFUL.
THE GOLDEN ORIOLE.
251
THE ORIOLE.
(Oriolus galbula.)
THIS bird is noisy in the spring and the early summer,,
its voice, which is full and deep like the note of the reed-
pipe, fills the edge of the woods and the great gardens.
" Next to the call of the Cuckoo, the flute-like note of
the Oriole most enlivens the early summer woods and
so contributes to the perfect harmony of a sunny spring-
tide-day; 'deelee-adid-leen,' or 'ditleo, deega, ditleeo' it-
sounds, always clear and joyonus out of the bushy tree-
tops." In Hungary, it endeavours to lure away boys
from too close proximity to the nest, by the cry, "kell-cy
did, fiu?" which means " Boys do you want some
nuts?"
Except at the fruit season, the Oriole is a very useful
bird, and there is no kind of caterpillar that it will not
pick up. In seasons when there are a great many cock-
chafers, it carries on a perfect war of extermination on
these unhappy creatures. It is unfortunately true, how-
ever, that when the summer fruit is ripe it departs for
warmer regions before autumn it troubles itself little
about chafers, but turns its attention to cherries, apricots,
morellas, and early pears. Still the good it does in
destroying insects, is much greater than the harm it
does otherwise, and therefore we will be indulgent to it..
Besides, its lovely colour is a delight to the eye.
This Oriole comes annually to Cornwall and the Scilly
Isles, but can only be called a visitor to our country,
although nests have been found occasionally in some
counties, especially in Kent. It is not unfrequently
252 THE GOLDEN ORIOLE
noticed in the Southern and Eastern counties of
England.
Unfortunately collectors cannot resist adding this
beautifully plumaged bird to their lists. I have watched
it myself in Southern Germany and Hungary. It is not
at all shy, and one of the most beautiful things in bird-
life I have ever seen was a number of Orioles flitting
from tree to tree in an orchard situated amongst vine-
yards on the hilly banks of the Danube in Baranya.
The black on the wing-coverts and tail-feathers is in
striking contrast with the golden-yellow of the greater
part of the plumage. The male has a very flute-like call,
hence its French name of Loriot. The female is a
devoted mother. Where these birds have been protected
on private estates in our country they have reared broods
successfully ; it would surely add to the beauty of our
rural landscapes, if they were encouraged and protected.
The Oriole is rather larger than the Thrush. The male
is a beautiful golden-yellow ; wings and tail black except
the end of the tail which is yellow. A black stripe
passes across the eyes from the base of the beak ; the
beak is a reddish flesh colour, the eye blood-red. In the
female and the young, all the parts which in the male
are golden-yellow are greenish, the underparts a
greyish- white with darker stripes. The nest is quite a
work of art. It is always placed in the base of a fork
of a branch, and is fastened to the bough with fine root
fibre and bast; it is lined with any fine soft material,
even cob-webs are sometimes found in it. The clutch
usually consists of five eggs, which are white with a few
very prominent dark specks. It also nests in gardens.
253
THE ROBIN.
(Erithacus rubecula.)
THE Robin is one of the cleverest courtiers. It alights
on the ground, alternately appears and vanishes for a
few moments, then suddenly stands still, makes a low
bow, droops its wings, raises its tail, then looks up at
one with shining eyes, full of confidence, as if to say :
" I trust you." It hunts beetles with great energy, and
does not even recoil before the slug, still less before a
small earthworm, which the lordly hedge-sparrow would
not touch for all the world.
Sometimes it flies on to a high branch, keeping quite
still, except that now and then it makes a bow and raises
its tail ; then all at once it flies to the ground, pounces
on the awaited booty, returns to its bough and devours
its prey. Its song is beautiful, exquisite, rivalling, but
not excelling, that of the Lark. The bird sits quietly
and sings, and is in no hurry to cease. Its cry is a light
piercing " see."
It is a bird which may be said to become tame almost
immediately when caught. It likes to move at liberty
about a room. Poor people with us like to keep it, for it
catches the flies in the room, the spiders in the corners
or even on the bed; or any other moving thing. This
bonny bird deserves every protection.
The ways of the "cheery little Ruddock," as Shakes-
peare calls him, are so well known that it is not necessary
USEFUL,
THE ROBIN.
THE ROBIN 255
to add much more to Mr. Herman's graphic description.
Perhaps it is not known to all our readers, however, that
a great number of Robins migrate to our country every
autumn from the Continent, whilst some of our home-
bred birds leave our shores. As a rule the red on the
breast of the former is brighter than with those bred
here. There are, however, as we know, individual
birds which will attach themselves to a home where they
have been treated kindly, for a number of successive
winters, entering the open window and feeding with the
children.
The Robin has three different styles of song, one the
gay, joyous outpouring which delights us on sunny
days, then the autumnal dirge, which proclaims the
approach of cold stormy days, and is often uttered just
before it leaves us for warmer quarters; and again, the
long drawn-out cries, notes of distress, when some
prowling cat or other enemy approaches its nest.
Robins, as we all know, devour great quantities of
worms and insects. It is a most valuable species to the
gardener and fruit grower, for, except under the stress
of thirst, it lives only on animal food.
The Robin needs little description. The whole
of the upper side, including the back of the head and
crown, is olive brown, the under-parts dingy white;
throat, breast, and brow a beautiful rose-red with us, in
some districts more chestnut-red, whence the bird is
called the Redbreast. There are plainly discernable
oblique stripes of a lighter shade on the wings. Eyes
dark brown and large; legs dark and strong; beak
finely pointed ; plumage fine, soft, and loose. The nest
is always placed low down, in the thickest bushes, in
256 THE ROBIN
hollow trees, holes, and crevices. It is well and
delicately built; the outer covering consists of dry
leaves, the inner of thickly woven moss, rootlets, hair,
and feathers. It is difficult to find. The eggs usually
number five, occasionally seven ; they are of a yellowish
olive-brown speckled with rust colour, the speckling
being closer in a ring round the thicker end. Two or
even three broods are produced in the year.
* The Robin and the Wren
Are God Almighty's cock and hen.
Him that harries their nest,
Never shall his soul have rest."
Grahame sang
4 Dearer the redbreast's note,
That mourns the fading year in Scotia's vales,
Than Philomel's where spring is ever new;
More dear the redbreast's sober suit,
So like the withered leaflet, than the glare
Of gaudy wings that make the Iris dim."
257
THE WREN.
(Troglodytes pdrvulus.)
THE Wren is certainly the most lively of little birds.
With its confiding nature, especially in winter, it
approaches close to men, and with lightning speed
dashes into the openings and gaps in the wood stack.
It is visible only for a moment at a time, and, with its
little upright tail, its nodding and see-sawing, its
appearing and disappearing, its popping in and out, it
disposes even the most morose persons to cheerfulness.
It slips through the prickliest bunch of blackthorn like
the nimblest mouse, and has scarcely vanished on one
side, before it appears on the other, shoots about like an
arrow and is quickly lost in the neighbouring hedge.
It does not fly far. If it finds itself in difficulties in the
open, it slips into a mouse-hole. It feeds on the tiniest,
and most hidden insects. It finds the smallest spiders,
caterpillars, chrysalises, and grubs, which it wants, with
skill and inexhaustible energy. It is found both in
summer and winter with us.
This little bird has also its song, which is louder than
might be expected, suggesting somewhat that of the
Canary. A listener to whom it is not known, is
astonished if he happens to discover the tiny vocalist.
It sings always in an open place. Its cry is " Zrr's
Zezerr."
A Lancashire naturalist writes of " the irrepressible
vitality of the Wrens which prompts them to fling a
song in the face of winter whenever they get a chance."
A chiding, chattering song it is; flung out also in
advance of the intruding footsteps that disturb the
R
USEFUL.
THE WREN.
THE WREN 259
privacy of the hedge-row at the foot of which the bold,
pert little creatures are seeking their food. In old nests
in the thatch and holes in the walls, they find warmth
and shelter during the winter, a little batch of them
together. They are supposed to build special nests,
'' cocks' nests," they are called. A Staffordshire
acquaintance tells how, being curious as to the number
sleeping in one of these which he had previously noted
in a grotto in his grounds, he and gardener surprised
them one night by the light of a lanthorn, and no fewer
than six Wrens fluttered out of the nest.
Another friend who was fishing near Brambridge, in
Hampshire, tells me that he knows one such nest under
the thatch of an under-keeper's cottage, and he has seen
five or six enter this in the early twilight of a winter even-
ing. On two different occasions, when a dogcart sent
to the keeper's cottage at which he puts up, was waiting
for him to drive to his day's fishing, a Wren settled on
the back of the standing horse, near the cottage door,
and remained there for a few minutes, as though enjoy-
ing the warmth coming through the creature's coat.
In Ireland every Wren that can be seen is hunted
down and killed on St. Stephen's Day; and a Surrey
man tells me that up to twenty-five years ago he has
witnessed the same persecution in the home counties.
Tradition says that it is due in Ireland to the fact of a
party of Wrens hopping over a drum's head, and
thereby disturbing a sentinel, when a party of Irish were
on the point of surprising their enemies.
Shakespeare writes of " the Wren with little quill,"
in Bottom's song of birds; and again, in " Cymbeline,"
Imogen says, " if there be yet left in Heaven as small
a drop of pity as a Wren's eye." The comparisons
260 THE WREN
drawn by old-fashioned country folk are often very
quaint. I remember an old lady who, if she were asked
to take more of some dish at table, often said, " Just a
bit the size of a bee's knee," to the great edification of
us youngsters. The song of the Wren is always the
same : a few separate notes, a trill, a rattle and a trill,
while its call-note has been likened to the clicking of a
watch while it is being wound up. There is no more
winsome picture of bird-life than this tiny creature
dotting about, with little tail erect and fan-like, in quest
of its insect food among the dry bramble leaves, so
vivacious in its movements that no camera could ever
do it justice.
The Wren is almost the smallest of European birds.
There is not much to be said about the colouring of it's
feathers, which are the brown of the tree trunks, with
beautiful thick oblique stripes of a darker shade. The
colour is lighter over the eyes, on throat and breast.
The tail feathers are especially fine, and thickly striped.
The beak is slightly depressed, fine and sharp as a
needle; the brown legs relatively strong. The nest is
placed under the cover of felled boughs, between roots,
in secluded corners of abandoned huts, which it can slip
into. The nest is comparatively large, with a spacious
entrance, and consists of a foundation of leaves and fine
twigs, within which is a layer of moss, and again within
that a mass of smooth, finely broken feathers. The
clutch is six, sometimes, but rarely, eight small white
?ggs, with fine blood-red speckles.
2.
1. Wren's Egg. 2. Great Bustard'
Comparative sizes.
DOUBTFUL.
THE HAWFINCH
26 3
THE HAWFINCH.
(Coccothraustes vulgaris.)
THIS is not a true migrant, for it is only in severe winters
that it seeks a warmer climate. In autumn it comes
from the hills, down into the plain, to the neighbour-
hood of human habitations, where it leads a restless life.
It is timid, and easily startled ; while flying it utters its
shrill cry " sen, sen, sen." The striking bulk of its
beak indicates the strength it has to use in obtaining its
food ; and it is so, for the kernels of the hardest cherry
stones are its favourite dainty.
It flies in small flocks, and when these light on a cherry
tree, they are quite quiet, not a sound is heard, except
the cracking of the hard shells by the strong bills, which
are specially formed for the work. The cherry stone lies
in the low-er mandible, the upper one being ribbed and
so perfectly adapted for cracking the stone. This bird
breaks with ease a fruit stone, which a full-grown man
can only crush with the heavy pressure of his boot heel.
Towards spring, when there are no more fruit stones to
be found, it attacks and destroys the young leaf buds.
This bird is not very commonly found in Hungary.
The number of Hawfinches has been steadily increas-
ing in England of late years. This is probably due to
Bird Protection, which is so much more enforced than
it used to be. The young are fed chiefly on caterpillars,
but unfortunately they soon take to eating peas, which
brings them into bad repute with gardeners, and
numbers of young birds are shot and buried in gardens
264 THE HAWFINCH
where peas are grown. It is pleasant, on the other
hand, to watch them amongst the wild plums and sloes
and crab-trees in one of of our old hedgerows, but is not
an easy matter as they are so suspicious. In districts
where many peas are grown for the market, these birds
are a perfect plague. In Germany this bird is called
Kernbeisser (kernel biter) because of the ease with which
it cracks cherry stones with its powerful bill. With us
it eats the seeds of the horn-beam and other trees,
beechmast, haws, etc.
Only one brood is raised in a season, but if the first
nest is meddled with, another one is made.
In " Within an Hour of London Town" the writer
interviews a gardener on the subject of Hawfinches.
We give it here as it stands.
" What do I want with the gun? Hawfinches; they
hawfinches in my peas ! " he grunts.
As he leaves the tool-house I quietly follow, and place
myself with him behind a low faggot-stack which stands
in a line with the peas.
"Jest hear 'em! ain't it cruel!" he whispers. " I
hope the whole roost of 'em may git in a lump so that
I ken blow 'em to rags an' tatters. If you didn't know
what it was you'd think some old cow was grindin' up
them peas. Ain't they scrunchin' of 'em ! All right
now, I ken see you, you grindin' varmints ! Now for
it! " Bang!
Three birds fall young ones in their first plumage,
which has a strong likeness to that of a greenfinch.
After picking the birds up, we examine the pea-rows.
There is no doubt as to the mischief the birds have done.
The old fellow's own expression, "grinding up," is the
THE HAWFINCH _ 265
best to convey any idea of the destruction that has taken
place. Where the birds have been, nothing remains but
the stringy portion of the pods of his precious " Marrer
fats."
There is enormous power in the bill of the Hawfinch,
when the size of the bird is considered. The pea-pod is
simply run through the bill, and the contents are
squeezed out in a state of green pulp and swallowed.
" Varmints I call 'em, an' nothin' else," is the remark
my old friend makes, as he goes towards the tool-house
and takes from a shelf a hen Hawfinch and two young
ones, the former probably the mother of some of the
birds that are about, if not, indeed, of the whole brood,
her plumage showing that she has been sitting.
" People wants me to git 'em full-feathered old birds
for stuffin', but bless ye, ye might as well try to ketch
weasels asleep. A cock Hawfinch is about one o' the
most artful customers as I knows on. The only time to
get a clip at 'em is in winter, under the plum and
damson trees. They gits there after the stones, any
amount o' stones lays jest under the ground, an' they
picks 'em out an' cracks them easy. I gits plenty o'
young ones when peas are about the old ones lets 'em
come, but they take precious good care they don't come
off the tops o' the trees themselves afore they knows
there ain't nobody about. Some says they're scarce
birds. I knows they ain't leastways not when my peas
are ready to gather."
The Hawfinch is seven inches in length and has a
thick head, short tail, and very strong bill. Crown
and cheeks cinnamon brown, neck greyish, mantle
chestnut. There is a black patch on the throat, the
base of the bill, and the eye, and a white patch on the
266 THE HAWFINCH
wing. The tail is white in the middle and darker at
the sides, the underparts are greyish with a tinge of
violet. The middle wing feathers are serrated in wavy
curves, and look as if dipt with scissors, the bill is
exceptionally strong, very thick at the base, and sharp
at the point. It lays four to six eggs of a pale green
colour slightly speckled. The nest is well-built and is
placed in fruit trees, and in open spaces in the woods,
at a height of from six feet upwards.
The moral of the story of the gardener and the
Hawfinch is that the gardener must protect his peas.
267
THE CHAFFINCH.
(Fringilla ccelebs.)
THE Chaffinch is a useful bird, and is also an
ornament to the woods and gardens, not only by its
lovely plumage, its friendliness, and its movements, but
especially by its clear voice which rings like a silver bell.
Its call-note is " fink-fink," and it has a short, cheery
little song. Through the whole laying and brooding
season it is busy with the destructive grubs and insects,
especially the little caterpillars and tiny beetles which
destroy the buds on the trees. When the seeds are ripe
it lives entirely on them, but almost exclusively on those
which it is able to pick up from the ground.' It is true
that when a considerable number of these birds visit a
vegetable garden they do a great deal of harm, but this
is outweighed by the good they do.
In very severe winters, it comes either in flocks or
small parties with other starving companions Yellow-
Hammers, Siskins, Crested Larks, and Sparrows into
the villages, and even towns, and picks over the heaps
of street refuse and gutter sweepings.
It is still common with us in Hungary.
This Chaffinch is one of our common British species
in winter, although in some seasons their numbers are
unaccountably smaller than in others. It was called
ccelebs, or bachelor, because of a partial separation of
the sexes which takes place during the winter. Large
flocks arrive from the Continent at that season on our
East coast, whilst others come from the North of our
islands to spread themselves inland. Unfortunately the
USEFUL.
v
,/.
THE CHAFFINCH.
THE CHAFFINCH 269
Chaffinch is the favourite bird in the shops of the Seven
Dials in London, and before the Bird Protection Acts
came into force, many a country lane has been cleared
of Chaffinches to the great disgust of many of the
residents in the neighbourhood.
In Germany this is called the Buchfink Beechfinch
because of its fondness for beech woods. In the
Thurigen Forest they have come to our table like
Sparrows for crumbs. It frequents our suburban
gardens.
The Chaffinch is a delightful bird in garden and wood.
The full-grown male has a broad white stripe and a
smaller yellow stripe on the wings ; the two outer feathers
of the tail are large, with white wedge-shaped spots, which
give the bird in flight a very variegated appearance.
Crown and neck are bluish-grey ; brow black ; cheeks
and under parts brownish-red; wings and tail black,
except the white spots. The female and young are more
plainly coloured; otherwise, like the male. Its nest is
built among the high tree-tops, sometimes quite in the
open, and is made of tufts of hair, moss, root-fibres,
wool, and hair, very skilfully constructed. It lays five
or six eggs with dark dots and fine markings, but
occasionally of a uniform colour.
Chaffinches at the stream.
MAINLY USEFUL.
THE BULLFINCH
271
THE BULLFINCH.
(Pyrrhula europoea.)
THE Bullfinch lives in summer in the mountains, and
descends in late autumn to the plains, where it meets its
far bigger relatives who come to us for the winter from
the Far North, and joins company with them in wood
and grove and garden, even in the immediate neighbour-
hood of dwellings. When the sunshine glistens on
frost and snow, and these splendidly coloured birds settle
on a dry bough, the scene presents a lovely winter
landscape the impression of which is heightened by its
melancholy subdued cry, " deeu," or " beut, beut." In
captivity it learns to sing tunes. It is easily caught, for
it is incautious.
In winter it visits plants, choosing the young wild
vines, buds, seeds of all kinds, berries including those
of the alder, and the wayfaring tree; it does not attack
weeds. In very severe winters, when starving, it will
also do mischief among the buds of the fruit-trees.
It is frequently seen in winter.
The Bullfinch has been causing much dissension in
and near an East Anglian district where I have lately
been staying. A net had been placed over the goose-
berry bushes to protect the blossom, and much indigna-
tion w 7 as caused early one morning by the sight of three
lusty Bullfinches within the meshes, and a quantity of
promising blossom on the ground. " There would be
no gooseberries whatever, this season ; it was positively
unbearable; sentiment was utterly misplaced." The
three birds were caught by the hand within the net, two
272 THE BULLFINCH
were put in a cage in the stable, and one was exposed
in a small cage on the top of the garden wall to attract
others to the like fate. The gardeners were inexorable.
Madame was irritated by the sight of the rifled twigs.
" And all last Sunday was spent, by the wife and me,"
said the gardener, "shying stones at the rascals among
the trees in our own garden." The next day a market-
gardener shot no less than six Bullfinches on his
grounds.
As' a rule, my friends on this estate, are extremely
good to birds, and they attract them by placing breeding
boxes, and supplying food in winter ; but these sturdy
rascals find no quarter. I pleaded hard for them, but,
I fear, without result. The gooseberry blossoms was
certainly nearly all destroyed, but it was in a quest for
the destructive larvae of the winter moths, which make
their appearance in the early spring and eat the not yet
expanded buds. A fruit grower has stated that he
allowed the Bullfinches to eat as much as they pleased;
the crop of fruit has usually been as good as if the birds
had not done any disbudding, and when, by a rare
chance, the trees had borne no fruit at all, he knew it
was because the trees required clearing, and the next
year the crop would be all the finer. In some cases the
tree appears to be entirely disbudded, and still fruit has
appeared.
It is only for a short period that the Bullfinches visit
the fruit trees. During the rest of the year they eat the
seeds of harmful weeds dock, thistle, groundsel, plan-
tain ; and one authority states that a single Bullfinch
has been known to devour 238 seeds of the common
spear-thistle in twenty minutes ! A writer in the
Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society say that he
THE GOLDFINCH 273
has seen " a small party of these birds eagerly devouring
the seeds of the large sow-thistle." A little fruit more
or less in a season, in one's own domain, is a small
matter in comparison with the vast amount of noxious
weeds destroyed on our fields.
The Bullfinch is an ornament in a garden. Crown,
wings, and tail are shining black, and the same colour
surrounds the bill ; mantle a beautiful ashen-grey, rump
and under tail cover snow white, breast and under-parts
a fine red. In the female the under-part is ashen-grey.
Bill short but very thick, at the end curved and hooked.
The clutch is composed of five green eggs with purple
and grey speckles. It nests in the fir woods of the
mountains, at a height of about six yards; the nest is
made of thin twigs and is lined with hair.
The Goldfinch (Carduelis elegans) is so well known in
Great Britain that it requires little description. Un-
happily for the " Proud Tailor," as he is called in the
Midlands, he has always been a favourite cage-bird, and
on the South Downs Goldfinches have been captured in
thousands at the times of migration, to be miserably
caged in dozens for the bird dealers.
They are birds which found their food on the waste
lands where large thistles used to grow, and with the
improvement of these waste lands the thistles have gone,
and the Goldfinches with them. Increased Bird Protec-
tion is, however, causing more .Goldfinches to breed
amongst us, which is a good thing for agriculture, this
bird's food consisting, as it does, of the seeds of the
thistle, knap-weed, groundsel, dock, and other plants.
The Goldfinch is considered to be one of the most useful
274 THE GREENFINCH
of all our birds, feeding, as it does, on the seeds of
noxious plants of which there is a succession all the year
round. It ought to be encouraged in orchards, where
it feeds its young on small caterpillars, and destroys
great numbers of other insects for them.
Its relative, the Greenfinch (Ligurinus chloris), a
common and well-known species everywhere, is not
quite so valuable a bird to the agriculturist as the above
species. It is w ; ell known that it steals much swede and
turnip seed, still it devours quantities of the seeds of
such weeds as dandelion, corn marigold, charlock, wild
vetch, etc., and the parents capture immense quantities
of moths, flies, caterpillars, and other pests for their
young.
A Feast of Thistle Seed.
275
THE YELLOW HAMMER.
(Emberiza citrinella.)
THIS is a pretty, cheerful, friendly bird, that lives in
gardens, thickets, or the outer part of the woods. Its
chief distinguishing characteristic is that it loves to
associate with otHer kinds of birds, especially the Field-
fares, with which it is most intimate. During the
brooding time and before the seeds are ripe it lives
chiefly on grubs and insects, being particularly fond of
the smooth caterpillars, which the other birds do not
much relish. It also likes seeds, and rather the floury
than the oily ones. In winter it flies about the fields
with other birds, and destroys the seed of the runners,
and the weeds that shoot up through the snow and is
thus doubly of use to the farmer.
In a severe winter it comes with other feathered visitors
into the inhabited districts. At the weekly market it
appears with Finches, Crested Larks, and Sparrows,
and picks up the oats and other grain which are lying
about, showing little timidity in doing so. It has a
dipping flight. It enlivens the country-side in spring
and summer with its song.
It is very numerous with us in Hungary.
This bird is resident and common in most parts of
Great Britain. From morning till evening it sings
the same song all through the spring and summer;
it has been transcribed as " Little bit of bread and no
che-eese." The form and hardness of its bill, proclaims
the bird to be a grain eater, and of course it will pick
up a great deal of corn, where it is to be found, yet both
USEFUL.
YELLOW HAMMER OR BUNTING,
THE YELLOW HAMMER 277
old and young birds live upon insects largely, as well
as the seeds of baneful weeds, and it has been estimated
with us that the good it does far outweighs any harm
which the farmer suffers through it.
The Yellow Bunting, well known under its universal
name of Yellow Hammer, says "A Son of the Marshes,"
" is a very handsome bird and a very common one. The
plumage is splashed with rich yellows, warm red-browns
and darker streaks; this is his nesting suit. In winter
the colouring is not quite so gay. Where farms or
farm-buildings show, you will be sure to find Yellow
Hammers round about them. Stand just inside the
stable, after the horses have left it in the morning for
their work in the fields, and look at the birds gathered
round the open door, all busily picking up the grains of
oats that have fallen from the nose-bags. A fine mid-
April morning suits the bird to perfection, for he droops
his wings, spreads his tail out, and glides here and there
pecking up as he goes, in the most dainty manner.
Then, for a time, he visits the trees.
The lowering of the wings, until they almost touch
the ground, and the spreading out of the tail, is a
peculiar trait seen more or less in the whole of the
Bunting family.
Trees and fields are necessary to the well-being of the
Yellow-Hammer, which may be considered one of the
farmer's friends; for at certain seasons he, as well as
others of his family, live in the fields, only leaving them
to rest, or roost in the trees that surround them.
Innocent as the creature is in all its ways and means of
living, superstitition has linked its name with evil. I
have been assured, in the most solemn manner, that the
278 THE CIRL BUNTING
badger, the toad, and the Yellow Hammer are all in
league with the Prince of Darkness."
The Cirl Bunting, often called the -French Yellow
Hammer, which is distinguished from the commoner bird
by the dark throat gorget, is more numerous at times
than it is supposed to be. In fact it is becoming fairly
common as a resident species.
The Yellow Hammer is the size of a Sparrow but longer
and more elegant. Throat, underparts, and crown of
the full-grown male, golden-yellow ; mantle rust-red
merging into green. The bill is peculiar, the lower half
is compressed, and the upper half is so formed that it is
adapted for shelling seeds. Its well built nest is placed
low down among the bushes. It lays five eggs which
have dark markings on a light ground.
279
THE TURTLE DOVE.
(Turtur communis.)
THE Turtle Dove has a pretty, dainty walk, an
uncommonly rapid flight, and is altogether a beautiful
pleasant cleanly bird. The pairs are devoted to each
other.. Their cooing, " turr, turr," is pleasing, gentle,
and rich. It is a harmonious sound which makes a
soothing impression on the mind. It is no wonder that,
from its whole nature, the Turtle Dove has been chosen
as the symbol of faithful love. Popular sentiment is
shown in the widespread belief, that if his mate is taken
from him, the male bird dies of grief or that in sorrow
for his loss he never again sits on a green bough. The
Turtle Dove loves the border of a wood, or the trees, and
rows of poplars that skirt a corn-field. It likes to be
near clear water to which the birds come in flocks to
drink. Its food consists almost entirely of seeds, chiefly
those of weeds. That is why this bird is so useful to
the farmer. It does, indeed, sometimes take toll of the
grains, in the corn-field, when they have not been
properly covered by the harrow. Then, indeed, the
Doves so fill their crops, that bare places do not fail to
appear on the ground. But this bad behaviour lasts
only for a short time ; besides it is not very bad, for they
eat chiefly the superfluous grains. It is quite different
with regard to the seeds of weeds, which they destroy the
whole summer through in great quantities. A student
of bird-lore once opened the crop of a Dove in mid-
summer, and found in it 1942 seeds, of which all but
one were the seeds of the poisonous willow-leaved wolfs-
milk the one exception being also the seed of a noxious
USEFUL.
THE TURTLE DOVE.
THE WOOD-PIGEON 281
weed. There can be no doubt that this bird does more
good than harm and \ve will, therefore, encourage and
protect it.
It is still common in Hungary.
It is common in some parts of England, but is very
local in its visitations and is only a summer visitor. A
" Son of the Marshes," says, " It is common enough
in some parts of Surrey. I have seen from ten to thirty
of them rise from the standing oats, or from the long
grass in the hayfield, at one flight. One of my friends
shot a couple as they were rising from the oats, and
opened their crops. Not a single grain of oat did he
find in them. They were full of a little vetch that grew
abundantly at the roots of the oats, or, to express it in
true rustic agricultural phrase, ' at the stam o' the
whuts.' I was with the man at the time; after that
examination of the birds' crops he declared he would
never shoot another pigeon."
Another member of this family, the beautiful Ring
Dove or Wood Pigeon (Cohimba palumbus), called
Queest in Ireland, and Cushat in the North, because
of its soft notes, is a bird that we could ill-spare from
our woods and coppices. It is, however, an undeniable
fact that the members of this voracious species have
increased of late years in a manner which is alarming
to the hard-working farmer. Many writers have taken
up the cudgels in defence of these birds on account
mainly of the amount of noxious weeds, wild mustard
seed, and leaves they devour, but, as that great natur-
alist, the late Lord Lilford, wrote, in sending me a
little box of the contents of the crops of three birds
extracted by himself: " In a highly-farmed country
282 THE WOOD-PIGEON
these weeds hardly exist; and," he added, " in my
opinion his good deeds are in no way comparable to
the damage done. I have frequently, when shooting
Wood Pigeons in the winter months, seen their crops
burst on coming down dead from a height, from
distension with hearts, acorns, barley, and turnip-tops."
The contents of the three birds' crops sent to me were
129 peas, 85 beans, and some broken vegetable matter.
The amount of good or of harm done by this species
varies, as in the case of other birds, according to the
weather and the scarcity or plenty of their natural food
about the woods and the lands skirting these. Con-
sidering the numbers that breed in our midst the farmers
might w r ell thin these, and send a better supply of birds
to the market.
The Turtle Dove is smaller than the Pigeon, slenderer,
and it has a more stately form. Crown and brow are a
beautiful grey, cheeks and ear parts flushed with rust
colour. On each side of the neck it has an ornament of
black and white dots arranged in rows. The mantle is
ashen-grey with dark specks which have a reddish border.
The rump is ashen-grey with a shade of rust colour.
Throat and breast reddish, melting into violet; the
under-parts are white. The wings are black, shaded
with slate colour; tail slate colour; four, at least, of
the tail feathers have white tips. Beak black, the irides
fiery red; legs blood-red. The young birds are of
soberer colour. The nest is placed in thickets and is
well hidden. It is composed of little branches and
twigs, very lightly put together indeed so loose and
open is it, that the eggs and the sitting hen can be seen
through it. It lays two white eggs.
283
CHAPTER VII.
SOME WILDFOWL.
THE LAPWING.
(Vanellus vulgdris.)
THE reedlands and meadow-lands, moist fields, marsh
and lake districts, would be desolate and lifeless without
the beautiful Lapwings. They wheel and flap, and
twist, and wheel again, on the large open uplands, so
that their varied plumage almost dazzles the eye, and
when several pairs frequent the same field they embellish
air and sky. When the nesting time arrives the whole
neighbourhood resounds with the call which the bird
utters while in flight. The call-note sounds like
" Keevit," from which, of course, its name is taken.
The pairing note sounds like "Ka kerkhoit, kewit, kewit,
kewit, kewit." It can run well and quickly on the
ground. If a dog or a crow approaches the nest it flies
at it with a loud, despairing cry, "Chrait," and strikes
at the enemy with its beak ; if a man shows himself it
practices all kinds of cunning tricks. It flies along near
the ground, repeatedly stopping, and so lures him away
from the nest. The eggs of the Lapwing are much
sought after. Its usual food consists of worms, the
various kinds of snails, chafers, grasshoppers. In
autumn it covers the fields and meadows in great flocks
like a cloud, and destroys the pests of agriculture. It
departs in winter. It is recommended for protection
both on account of its beauty and its usefulness.
USEFUL.
THE LAPWING.
THE LAPWING 285
Sir Herbert Maxwell, writing last autumn, 1908, in
the Pall Mall Gazette, after referring to another species,
says: "There is another bird equally industrious in
ridding the farm of insect pests and with no fruit or
grain eating propensities whatever, which we allow each
year to be slain in increasing numbers. Already in
poulterers' shops, not of the first class, may be seen
strings of Lapwings exposed for sale, and this will
continue till far on in next spring. May I make my
annual protest against this mischievous traffic? Great
Britain has held aloof from the Convention of Continental
States formed for the protection of birds useful to
agriculture. Her Government decided upon this
attitude on the ground that Parliament had already
effected by legislation most of the objects which the
Convention has in view. But the continued slaughter
of Lapwings is altogether at variance with nay, is in
direct opposition to the main provisions of the Con-
vention. It is true that powers have been conferred
upon County Councils enabling them to prohibit the
killing, capture or exposure for sale, of Lapwdngs or
any other kind of bird at any or every season ; but so
long as these powers are not exercised this senseless
slaughter will go on. For, unhappily, there is a ready
market for the carcases of these useful birds. People
whose palates are so gross as to be gratified by the flesh
of carnivorous birds eat Lapwings greedily enough.
Why not compel them to be content with their eggs?
seeing that every Lapwing destroyed means the preserva-
tion of hundreds of noxious insects, such as leather
grubs, wiremorms, click-beetles, caterpillars, and such
like."
In England drainage and the improvement of waste
286 THE LAPWING
lands have caused its numbers to diminish, still it holds
its own on most of our high-lying moorlands. In
Scotland it is plentiful, and is even on the increase in
many of the northern districts. Unfortunately, its eggs
are in great demand. In Ireland this is not the case ; the
eggs are not sought after as they are in England, but
the birds are netted in numbers for eating.
The Lapwing is twelve inches in length. It can be
immediately recognised by the long pointed crest which
begins on the crown, extending backwards and being
slightly curved upwards at the end, resembling a good
deal a waxed military moustache. This is black, as are
also the brow, throat and breast; the under parts are
quite white, the rump a brilliant rust-colour ; the base
of the tail white; the end of the tail is adorned with
a broad black border. Mantle shining, iridescent black.
Legs red, eyes brown and bright ; beak shaped like a
thick awl. Such is the appearance of the males; the
female bird and its young are much plainer in colour,
and have a smaller crest. The nest is placed in the
reed-beds and in shallow parts of the marshes; it is
simply a scratched out hollow bedded with dry chaff.
The clutch usually consists of four pear-shaped eggs,
which have olive-brown spots and flecks on an olive-
green ground. The young leave the nest as soon as
they are hatched, sometimes even carrying part of the
shell on their feathers.
287
THE COMMON CURLEW.
(Numenius a\rquata.)
THIS bird takes up its residence with us in Hungary as
a vistor only on its way during the long migratory
journey, which extends from the northernmost parts of
our hemisphere to the Nile.
Its habits are most varied, for it stays sometimes on
the flat sea shore, sometimes on the border of the desert,
sometimes on a rocky river-bank ; with us it settles on
pasture land, fallow fields, marshy flats, and lowlands.
It destroys everywhere immense numbers of grass-
hoppers and beetles. Crickets are the food it likes best,
but it also eats snails, and sometimes even frogs. It is,
therefore, of great service to the farmer, more especially
as it frequents and cleanses the fields in large numbers.
It does not require much protection for it is an extremely
shy bird, and he must be a clever marksman who can
bring it down with a shot. But the sportsmen of the
lowlands are even more cunning than the Curlew. At
certain places they lure the birds with a decoy a bird
dried in the oven which is placed on the lake edge and
a pair of Curlews are almost certain to fall victims to the
ruse.
Its call-note is audible at a considerable distance,
floating pleasantly, something like a modulated human
whistle: " Klowitf" or " Taue taue," and " Tlouid
tlouidf Shepherds believe that when this cry is heard
it foretells wind.
The Common Curlew is to be found in Great Britain,
wherever there are sand and mud-flats, and rocks covered
USEFUL.
THE COMMON CURLEW.
THE CURLEW 289
with sea-weed left high and dry at ebb-tide. It is with
us during the entire year, for when the old birds go
inland in spring, the young birds take their place and
remain for the summer. /As long as the young birds
remain on the moors and pastures, their food consists
of berries, insects, spiders, worms, and snails, and they
then become excellent for the table; but after feeding
near the sea, they become unpalatable.
Its plumage, mottled, speckled, and cut up with
broken tones of brown grey white and light red, makes
it look like a Plover when squatted, unless its long
scythe-shaped bill can be detected, a most difficult
matter when in that position. It is wary in the extreme;
morning, noon, and night on the alert. That it is
brought to bay at times is certainly no fault of its own,
but is mainly due to its surroundings.
The Curlew is a most interesting bird, see it when you
may, on some upland with the sheep, in the grass
meadows, or on the shore, when huge dark storm-clouds
roll in from open water, a gale blowing, and the white
parts of its plumage showing like large snowflakes as
the bird and its companions are driven shrieking and
wailing in all directions, or in the calm, still days of
early autumn.
' From a fishing smack," says " A Son of the
Marshes," I have watched it probing for lug-worms,
running nimbly or walking sedately on the mingled
sand and ooze.
Curlews allow themselves to be blown, or drifted only,
when waiting over some favourite feeding-ground, before
the tide has sufficiently left for them to feed. I have
repeatedly watched mobs of them, waiting for the tide,
when a heavy gale has been blowing. The birds know
2po THE CURLEW
that their food is just below them so they merely flap to
and fro and put up with the inconvenience of being
blown about. At any other time they would shoot clean
through in the teeth of the gale. Only those who have
seen a frightened Curlew go up or down a creek lined
with shore-shooters, shrieking as it flies, can form any
idea of the bird's swiftness. I have known a bird of
this kind "fly the gauntlet" for three miles, and there
has been bang ! bang ! bang ! from every shooter that it
passed, good shots too. It escaped the lot without being
touched. Swift flyers at all times, their ordinary speed
is as nothing compared with what it is when they are
frightened."
The Curlew is 24 inches in length. It has a long
scythe-shaped bill, a long neck, and long, waders' 1'egs.
The plumage is marked with hemp-seed speckling, the
specks somewhat elongated, here and there arrow-shaped.
Tail white, slightly tinged with brown ; every feather has
brown bars. Eye brown. It does not usually nest with
us, but is more a spring and autumn visitor ; yet it
sometimes happens that a pair of these birds build and
rear their young. In its northern home it builds on
the ground, on the moorlands. It lays four pear-shaped
eggs, as large as those of the farmyard duck, of an olive
green colour, with dark speckling.
THE COMMON REDSHANK.
(Totanus cdlidris.)
THE Redshank enlivens whatever place in the reed-
land or marsh it happens to nest in by its voice and its
varied plumage. It is a beautiful sight when it spreads
out its wings, rises into the air and stretches out its long
legs. Its resounding whistle is pleasant to the ear. It
runs well, w r ades in water, and in case of need can swim.
When the young ones are hatched, anyone approaching
the nest should be moved by the wailing cry which it
utters in anxiety for its young, though it has a thousand
ways of luring people away from the nest and of mis-
leading them, when it takes the trouble to do so. With
a plaintive cry it settles on the ground, makes all. kinds
of bows and curtseys, utters its flute-like note, then
begins to run, as if to say, " Follow me, man !" When
it has come out of the immediate neighbourhood of the
nest it settles on a branch or a stake, or even attempts
to perch on a telegraph wire. Then its voice becomes
more plaintive even than that of the Lapwing. Even a
shot does not scare it away. It moves away, disappears,
but in a very short time it is back in the same place
to continue its bitter lamentations ; its note sounds like
" Dlue, dlue, dlue, dlue-dee-dee-deedle-dee."
Like all the waders of the marshlands, the Redshank
is very voracious, and has an excellent stomach. It
devours beetles, grasshoppers and snails with great
USEFUL.
THE REDSHANK.
THE REDSHANK 293
avidity. All for the good of plants, and of men who
derive benefits out of the sedge and reed beds.
This bird is a migrant.
The Redshank is still to be found breeding in most
of the marshy districts in England and here and there
in Wales ; it appears inland from the middle of March,
and early in autumn it begins to resort to the coast,
being joined there by numbers of migrants from the
Continent. When the winter is mild, birds are to be
found throughout the year, more especially in the south
and west. It is abundant as far as the Shetlands in
Scotland; in Ireland it is fairly plentiful during the
summer, and on the bays of the west it is numerous at
other times of the year, wherever there is a sufficient
supply of zostera marina left behind by the tide for it to
feed amongst.
" Redshank, pool-snipe, teuke or toak, sandcock, red-
leg, redlegged-horseman, all these names are given to
him, as well as another, which exactly expresses the
main characteristic of the bird the yelper ; and he
certainly does yelp. When the tide is up all is level
on the flats, even the blite is covered until the tide goes
down. To all appearance the blite is left dry; but this
is not the case, for thousands of small pools are left at
the roots of the blite shrubs. These cannot be seen,
because the thick grey-green leaves cover them. Most
of the fowl feed in the numerous gullies that run through
this salt vegetation. Some of the smaller kinds feed in
the pools under it. If any web-footed fowl are about
they are sure to pitch in one or other of the gripes and
gullies."
The Common Redshank is eleven inches in length.
294 THE REDSHANK
Its plumage also has the hemp-seed speckling, but is
more thickly speckled and barred. Beak long; legs
long, of a bright orange-red. It is perceptibly webbed
between the toes. Tail white, with dark bars. The dark
wings are adorned with a white patch, the sides with
pointed spots like drops. Its nest is found in wet marsh,
or moorland, between the weeds and creeping stems, in
little dips, and consists simply of straw 7 litter. It lays
four pear-shaped eggs, which are arranged in the nest,
with the points towards one another. The ground
colour is clay-yellow, and they are speckled with greyish
and dark-brown spots and flecks.
295
THE GREEN SANDPIPER.
(Totanus ochropus.)
THE flight of the Green Sandpiper is very rapid; the
note is a shrill tui-tui-tui. The food of the bird consists
of insects chiefly, with small red worms and fresh water
snails. It is not good to eat, having a disagreeable
musty odour.
The Green Sandpiper is not uncommon in many parts
of England and Wales, on the spring as well as on the
autumnal migration. On the east side of Scotland it is
fairly frequent, but in the north it is very rare. To
Ireland it pays unfrequent visits, even in autumn. "The
Green Sandpiper is a restless bird, for ever moving on,"
says "A Son of the Marshes." "Something impels
him to constant haste. . . . The first time I met him,
unexpectedly, was on a breezy upland common, with
just enough wind blowing to carry the white clouds
along without blowing them to pieces, a few sheep were
wandering about, their bells tinkling. On one side of
the common are a number of old blackthorns, with wisps
of wool sticking on their rough stems, then comes the
long high-road, and close to the road is a small pond,
gravel-edged, where the cattle that graze on the common
come to drink. A shrill whistle, and in front of us is
a beautiful bird. He runs a short distance, his feet just
in the water, picks at something, whistles, and is off,
over some old beech-trees. I have examined him dead,
and have seen him and his mate exquisitely set up by
a naturalist and bird-stuffer, but you must see him alive
to form any idea of the dashing vitality of the bird
itself."
USEFUL CHIEFLY.
THE GREEN SANDPIPER.
THE GREEN SANDPIPER 297
The eggs of the Sandpiper are rarely found with us,
being laid in deserted nests of Crows, Woodpigeons,
Blackbirds, Jays or Thrushes, or even old squirrel dreys ;
although its haunts are about the peaty swamps, hill
streams and ponds. Its nesting habits differ from the
others of its congeners. Its cousin, the Common Sand-
piper (Tolanus hypoleucus), is also a lively creature,
that goes by the name of Fidler Willy-wicket, Dicky-
dy-dee, and Water-junket. Fish is sure to be in the
stream about which trips the Fiddler. Its note on
rising to take flight is "Wheel! wheel!" and its alarm
cry a shary "Gift! gift!" At Madely, in Staffordshire,
a pair of these Sandpipers hatched out their young in
a vicarage garden a few summers ago, the fact being
recorded by the vicar, the Rev. T. W. Daltry.
In June you may come on a hen Sandpiper, w-ith her
young, beside some moorland stream. The little ones
are precocious in their ways, and run about nimbly as
soon as hatched out. The young of the Green Sand-
piper are not so easy to observe.
The Green Sandpiper is a little over nine inches in
length. Upper parts olive brown tinged with metallic
green, speckled and mottled, the lower parts white, so
that when flying it looks like a black and white bird ;
the middle tail feathers having broad black bars, towards
the end, the two outside feathers almost white. Feet
greenish. The bird lays its eggs in old Squirrels' dreys,
or the nests of Mistle- and Song-Thrushes, Blackbirds,
Jays, and Woodpigeons; sometimes even on the ground,
or on mossy stumps, and spines heaped upon fir
branches, as high up as thirty-five feet but always near
to pools. The eggs are light greenish-grey, with small
purplish brown spots, generally four in number.
299
THE NIGHT HERON.
(Nycticorax griseus.)
THE Night Heron nests with large numbers of its con-
geners in inaccessible spots in the marshes where marshy
tracts and broom bush are close together. In such
places will be found on each tree as many nests as there
is room for. The nest itself is carelessly built of a few
branches laid one on another, with a final layer of dry
rush and sedge leaves. It contains four or five pale
green-blue eggs.
It is not so secluded in its habits as the Bittern, and
is not so fond of the broad open ponds and reed beds,
but prefers the marshes, especially where there are slimy
puddles, alternating with broken rushes, bushes, and
trees. In such places it breeds, in great colonies, and
watches for its prey, which it obtains from ooze mud
fish and other small fishes, water-rats, lizards, and all
kinds of large insects. When flying, it draws in its-
legs and head, and so scarcely looks like a Heron, but
when it settles on a tree, as it often does, draws in its
neck and hunches itself up, it greatly resembles a Raven,
whence it is sometimes called* the " Nightraven." Also
from its voice, which is like the croak of the Raven, and
sounds like " Koa," " Koari," or " Koay." Wherever
the Night Heron settles it does much harm among the
fish. It is not numerous in Germany; in Hungary it is
still fairly common, but with the draining of the marshes
the number of these birds is likely to decrease.
The Night Heron has been increasing in numbers in-
the British Islands during the last hundred years, so*
300 THE HERON
that it may now be ranked as an annual visitor to this
country.
It is about 23 inches in length; wing 12 inches.
The crown and nape are black with a green metallic
lustre. Brow white, about the base of the beak. Two
or three, occasionally four, snow-white feathers, point-
ing backwards, adorn its crown. The eye is large
with a carmine-red iris ; the long, pointed beak is black ;
the back is black with a greenish lustre ; neck, wings and
tail are ashen-grey. Underparts white, legs reddish-
yellow. The female bird is more uniform in colour.
The young are speckled, while still in the nest.
The Common Heron (Ardeacinerea) is well distributed
throughout Great Britain. There are, as before, when
this bird was used in the old Falconry days, very many
'Colonies, although these are not so crowded with nests
as they used to be. The long-legged grey fisher is one
of the most interesting sights beside our streams and
meres. "Judy o' the Bog" is the name given to the
Heron by the peasants in the south of Ireland. Young-
Herons were much in favour as table birds in the olden
times. They are still eaten in some districts, but they
.are only good at certain seasons, if then ; the flesh has
mostly a very oily, fishy taste. The good this bird does
in devouring water-rats, field-mice, worms and insects
is counterbalanced by its depredations amongst the fish
where the latter are a consideration.
Let me give here again a presentment of our Common
Heron in the Marshlands of Kent. "An empty stomach
has caused the Heron to leave his sanctuary in the
Scotch firs that close in one end of the now frozen mere,
and to come floating down to the river side. He has
left bitter weather behind him, at any rate, for out in
THE HERON 301
the west it is a cold steel-grey above, with a glow like
that of the northern lights resting on the crests of the
distant hills. For once he places caution on one side;
one ring round directly over our head, and then he
drops and folds his wings by the edge of a bit of water
that is not frozen because it runs sharply over some
shallows. The grey and white fisher has come here for
his supper, knowing well that when waters are ice-
bound, the fish will work up to any open piece of water,
or even to a small hole broken through the ice, for air.
They must have air ; even eels, which are supposed to be
able to live anyhow or anywhere.
To prevent him rising I take a wide range out in the
water meadows, frozen down nearly two feet in depth ;
but I might just as well have been saved the trouble for
a lot of rooks that have been trying to stock out a last
scanty meal before roosting, from some manure heaps
that have been placed there to dress the meadow for the
hay crop come for him as one bird, and the lonely
fisher is up and away again to his sanctuary in the fir
trees." *
* ''A Son of the Marslie*/'
HARMFUL.
THE BITTERN.
303
THE BITTERN.
(Botaurus stellaris.)
THE Bittern is a strange-looking bird which as it moves
stealthily among the reed-beds, has given rise to many
superstitions and weird beliefs. Yet it is nothing but a
greedy, insatiable cousin of the Heron, living on small
fishes, but not despising young birds, w<ater-rats, water-
beetles, frogs, and even horse-leeches as food. Its eyes
at once announce that it is a night bird. On a still night
its booming can be heard more than a mile and a half
away ; and from this the bird has received some of its
local names, such as "Bumble" and "Mire-drum."
The. sounds which it utters are deep, hollow roars, as
though they came from some large animal ; many people
will not believe that these sounds proceed from a slender
bird. They sound like " Cu-prumb-cu-prumm-cu-um."
Sometimes, though not often, a "boo" is added to the
"prumb." Learned scientific books have been written
on the nature of these sounds. The truth is that they
occur when the bird draws air into its feed-pipe until it
is full and then expels it forcibly. In this way it
produces its mating-call, the love-song of the male bird.
It is not given to every bird to sing like the nightingale.
This deep-toned cry is rarely heard now in our British
marshlands, where the bird now comes only to be shot
and sent to the shop of the bird preserver. It has, of
course, been getting scarcer every year. In Selby's
304 THE BITTERN
time it was very scarce in some seasons, yet he records
the fact that in the winter of 1830 to 1831 ten bitterns
were exposed for sale on one morning in Bath, and sixty
were taken the same season in Yorkshire. " Butter-
bumps " was the popular name for the noisy bird,
which, as some said, bellowed like a bull. The late
Lord Lilford wrote that he knew a lady who said that
when she was first married, about the year 1845, and
went to live in East Norfolk, she was constantly kept
awake by the Bittern's booming in the neighbouring
marshes. Tennyson's farmer called it the bogle.
Some of us were not sorry to hear that one of these
rare visitors had been able to have its revenge on one of
its persecutors lately. Being wounded only, it turned
on the dog of " the man with the gun," who could riot
resist shooting a stranger, and used its strong bill and
claws to good purpose. Its haunts are reed-beds, and
the nest is composed of dried flags and reeds. Its
flesh is said to taste and look like that of the leveret,
with a slight flavour of wild-fowl, and to be more bitter
eating than that of the young Heron. In the North
Kent marshes Bitterns were called " Yaller French
Herns," and the fen dwellers could get half a guinea
for each bird. In France, of a coarse and stupid man,
they often say, " C'est un vrai butor (Bittern);" Moliere
says, " Peste soit du gras butor;" and Georges Sand
wrote, " If your provincial bourgeois heard that, they
would take our daughters for ' des butordes,'* such as
their own are." Voltaire speaks again of "lesbutorderies
de cet univers." In Saxony again the peasants say of
a noisy brawler, "He booms like a Bittern."
'That a pair of Bitterns which had been observed
for some little time on an estate near Hertford should
* Noisy, coarse creatures.
THE BITTERN 305
have been shot lately, 1908, and that just before breeding
season, is a fact to be deplored. I saw a beautiful
specimen in Berkshire that had also fallen to. the gun of
a collector. With the advance of civilisation and the
drainage of the fens we cannot, of course, expect to have
Bitterns nesting in our country again ; but our children
will Ave trust, be educated, in these days of Nature-Study,
to welcome rare visitors, whilst respecting their right to
live. Molluscs, frogs, lizards, small snakes and insects
form their diet, and these we can all spare; and we
should protect a vanishing species. A nest was taken in
England in 1868, but we have not had a later one
recorded. A friend of the late Lord Lilford, writing
to him, said: " My brother and myself, about the year
1825, shot seven Bitterns in a field." This was at
Holme Fen, near the New River. " The Son of the
Marshes " says : " The Bittern is the bird of desolation,
and it is in desolate places you will find him if he is
about at all. All his habits are secretive ones. As a
rule he comes out w r ith the marsh owls. His plumage
mimics the marsh-tangle perfectly, and the Bittern draws
himself up by the side of that tangle, his dangerous bill
pointing upwards in a line with the great rush stems, so
that you might be within a yard of him and yet not see
him. Frequently it has been the case that shooters have
had these birds clutter up close to their feet."
The Bittern is 28 to 30 inches in length, but its loose
feathers, long neck and thin legs make it look much
bigger. The arrangement and colouring of the plumage
are not unlike those of the Owl; it is yellowish with
brown speckles. Bill yellowish-green, but the back of
it brown. The legs are also yellowish-green, and have
U
306 THE BITTERN
long toes. Eyes yellow, as in many owls. The bird
can draw in its neck and cover it with feathers in such a
way that only its long legs betray its species as being
that of the Heron. The nest stands always alone in
thick reed-beds near standing water. The eggs are
usually three to five in number, and are pale bluish-
green in colour.
307
THE WATERHEN OR MOORHEN.
(Gallinula chloropus.)
THE Waterhen likes ponds surrounded by thick bushy
growth and builds its nest on the edge. It clambers
nimbly about the reeds, and also swims very well
although not web-footed ; it dives, and is able to remain
some time under the water. It does this when pursued,
only occasionally sticking its bill out of the water to
breathe. It takes long strides when walking, and can
run fast, can stand on the broad round leaves of water
plants, on the water grasses, and floating rubbish, its
long toes preventing it breaking through and sinking
in. It is a very pleasant bird, and if left alone becomes
very confident, and it is then an ornament to its sur--
roundings. Its food consists of insects and water-wort;
it also rips off the points of sprouting rushes, and the
fleshy sedges. In fact it is an innocent and indeed a
useful bird.
The little tail is always turned upward, both in
running and swimming, and with each movement it nods
its pretty head. It is a truly charming sight when the
Waterhen first takes her eight or ten black, silky,
roguish-eyed nestlings to the water each one being
about the size of a walnut, they bob about like so many
black corks.
This bird is worthy of every protection.
The Moor or Waterhen is well distributed throughout
the British Islands and it is, as a rule, settled in its
habitat although in severe winters many migrate from
the northern to the southern parts of the country.
When the sooty chicks are out, the Moorhen parents
THE WATERMEN OR MOORHEN
THE WATERHEN 309
have a very anxious time of it, for the Heron is on the
look-out for them, and he does a lot of wading in the
reeds and the swamps all the time the young Moorhens
are about. They would be far more numerous were
they not hunted for, so persistently, by furred, finned,
and feathered prowlers.
The Pike is one of their worst enemies, and the
youngsters are kept often in about three inches of water
to escape his murderous bite.
"The Moorhen can both swim and dive, and he flies
well when fairly on the wing; but as his real flights take
place, as a rule, at night, very little is known about them.
I once saw a flight at daybreak that very much aston-
ished me. The bird shifts considerably about at ni^nt
at times. When alarmed it is occasionally very clever
in concealing itself, and it will sham death to perfection,
even when caught alive by a good dog, without a
feather being injured."
The Waterhen is rather larger than the Partridge ; ft
has longer legs, of a green colour, and much longer toes.
It has a small growth on the wings like a spur. On the
brow is a bare crescent-shaped red patch, the pupil of
the eye is carmine ; neck and the whole of the mantle
dark, greenish-olive brown ; the other parts of the body
slate colour, the inside of the lower tail-cover being of
a darker shade, with a broad yellowish white border.
The feathers on the edge of the wings are tipped with
white, forming a beautiful white line, to the front of the
wings. The bill is green, red at the base. The nest is
nearly always placed in dry sedge-bushes on the edge of
the water; the dry grass serves for litter. The clutch
consists of ten eggs, which have a pale yellowish red
ground speckled with violet and reddish-brown.
THE COMMON TERN.
(Sterna fluviatili^.)
THIS birds nests in companies, in grassy places near a
river bank, where a nest, without any foundation, is
made, being a flat hollow in the ground. In this it lays
two or three eggs of a clay- or brownish-yellow colour,
speckled with violet-grey and brown. The Tern is a
real ornament to our large rivers and lakes, with its
guileless nature and its fine swinging flight. If it were
to disappear we should lose one of the joys and beauties
of life. All day long it flies over the water, with only
short intervals of rest which it takes on a gravel heap
or a hurdle, with neck drawn in and pointed upwards,
only turning its head now and then to look at the water.
It constantly flies at the same height, and as soon as its
prey comes to the surface of the water it spreads its tail
stiffly downwards, and hovers, beating with its wings,
and gazing fixedly on the spot where the victim showed
itself. Then, suddenly, it drops like a stone, with a
loud splash, into the water. It has then secured its
booty, usually a small fish. Its usual voice sounds like
" Krie y " ; sometimes, when in trouble, it utters a light
" Kck " or " Krek." It is not common enough in
Hungary to do much mischief.
In Great Britain we find the Common Tern along the
shores of the Channel and up the West coast as far as
the Isle of Skye, and again from the Moray Firth down
to Kent. In Ireland it is plentiful in the South.
" Three species at least of the beautiful terns, well within
my own time, bred freely in this country; but their
colonies on the flats and the foreshores have been harried
312 THE TERN
for eggs and birds so persistently, season after season,
that they have ceased to exist as breeding places. A few
hatch out in lonely shingle runs here and there on the
coast lines; others have changed their breeding grounds
for good. The ring-dotterels have suffered in the same
way, but, from their different nesting habits nothing
like so much as the terns have done. When dogs are
trained for egg hunting, and the capture of young birds
alive, without hurting them, is it to be wondered at if the
poor birds shift elsewhere ? The size of a place has
nothing to do with its nesting capacities ; if the condi-
tions are favourable, there the birds will come in their
seasons to settle down. If they are not interfered with
they will come again, until at last you may count on
their arrival almost to a day. One place I frequently
visit, where the birds, water-fowl and waders have been
protected for forty years, not by keepers or lookers, but
by the people that pass that way, because the owner of
a fine sheet of water desired that they might not be
frightened. This is as it should be, yet for all that they
are wild birds pure and simple, free to come and go
just as they please, according as their inclinations move
them."*
The Common Tern is 14*25 inches in length but its-
long wings and tail make it appear larger. The legs are
red, the feet webbed. Beak red with a sharp point;
crown and nape quite black; mantle a fine bluish grey.
Throat and breast beautifully white ; wing feathers dark-
ish. Tail forked like that of the House Swallow. The
longest, outer side feathers, which form the fork, are
dark grey, the other tail feathers, and the rump white*
The eye reddish-brown.
*"A Son of the Marshes."
313
THE BEAN GOOSE.
(Anser segetum.)
THE Bean Goose visits us only in winter, for it breeds in-
the most northern portion of our hemisphere, whence it
is driven to our milder regions by the extreme cold of
winter. Here it waits for spring, then it hurries back to
its breeding place on the coasts of the Northern Ocean.
It lavs seven to ten white eggs in its simply-formed nest
in the inhospitable desolate land of its birth. When
obliged to leave the nest it carefully covers up the eggs
is order to preserve their warmth.
These birds move southwards in great flocks towards,
autumn. Some of them come to us, and in many places
cover the fields in swarms, and in the case of their
settling constantly in the same places, they may do
considerable harm by nibbling, tearing up and trampling
over everywhere generally.
When the winter is very severe here, and the seeds are
covered with a thick layer of snow, Geese go still further
south, some of them even crossing the Mediterranean ;
but they return directly the weather becomes milder.
From this comes the shepherd's prophecy : " When the
geese go south we may expect great cold ; when they
go north warmer weather is coming." The birds
assemble in great flocks, usually at the beginning of
March, if wind and weather are favourable and return
to their home, where, separating into strings, they scatter
themselves over the Polar regions.
This is the "Wild-goose " as known to shore shooters.
It does not breed in our islands at all, but comes to us ia
THE BEAN GOOSE.
THE BEAN GOOSE 315
the autumn, and is to be seen in numbers on some of our
coasts all through the winter. In cold weather it is
fairly common on the mainland of Scotland. From
autumn to spring it is found in all parts of Ireland, and
is the commonest of the inland feeding Geese.
"Very awkward mistakes, and sad ones too some of
them, have been made sometimes when these birds have
been feeding on the saltings and marshes close to the
tide, for at certain seasons the Geese will feed at night
and then is the time to go after them. On one occasion
a fowler shot his horse by mistake, and at another time
a man shot his own son. Such incidents were once
only too common. Fowl, feeding at night, bunch
themselves up, taking strange shapes, and when
alarmed they run before flighting, but they are not
very wary, nor have they the keen sight of other
wild fowl."
" Gabble-retchet " is the term applied to the cry of the
Geese on flight. An old proverb says : "Its aye fine
when the Goose honks (or cries) high." This in the
Eastern States of America has been corrupted into :
It's aye fine when the goose hangs high," and is often
taken as meaning when there's plenty in the larder.
This Goose is 34 inches in length. The beak is black,
the knob of it being orange-coloured, as is also a broad
oblique stripe on the nostrils. The points of the wings
when folded extend over the tail. The prevailing colour
is brownish-grey ; the edges of the feathers and the
breast lighter. The flight feathers are dark brown, so
are the eyes, legs reddish-brown.
HARMFUL.
THE WILD DUCK OR MALLARD.
317
THE WILD DUCK OR MALLARD.
(Anas boscas.)
THE nest of the Mallard is placed in the sedges of the
marsh, in cornfields, and strangely enough on willow
stumps and in large holes in trees. It is carelessly put
together, but is lined with soft downy feathers. It lays
ten or twelve strong yellowish-white eggs.
The way in which a mother Duck, who has nested in
a tree hole rather high up, brings her young family to
the water is remarkable. As soon as they are dry
after hatching, she carries them one by one in her bill
down to the water's edge. Each duckling as it is set
down remains motionless as a stone on the ground, until
the mother has brought the last baby to join the others,
then the whole family begins to cackle and pipe, the
young ones follow their mother into the water, swimming
at once, and their duck life begins its ordinary course.
Their usual diet consists of water plants, duckweed,
sundew, the green parts of the water-nut and the seeds
of water grasses. They let the water flow, filtering
through their beaks as beseems a well brought up duck,
and in this way allow many little water creatures, fish
spawn and such like, to enter their crops. But they
can also do mischief. At harvest time the duck visits
the cut corn lying on the ground and the sheaves, picks
out the corn and treads down the ears. Therefore and
-also because it is so good for the table it is worthy of
a well-aimed shot.
It is still very common in Hungary.
" Mallards manifest bird chivalry and courtesy to
perfection the drakes industriously finding mussels for
3i8 THE WILD DUCK
their sober-coloured mates, not because these are not
able to find for themselves but because the males con-
sider it their place to do so. Stretching out their necks
and ruffling all their feathers they softly call when they
have a lucky find; up rushes the duck, nips fast hold of
the gaper and swings it from side to side as a terrier
shakes a rat : after wrenching it from the shell she
washes it in the water of the runnel and swallows it.
It is a matter of serious regret to many a sportsman
and one entailing loss to the longshore shooter that the
numbers of our common Wild Ducks or Mallards are
each year becoming less. But for those bred in the
Arctic regions- those the North Kent marshman calls
" foreign flighters," we should be in a bad way as to
the Wild Duck.
The latter arrive in great numbers from the Continent
during the colder months. Drainage of the fens, and
improvements in agriculture have, of course, lessened
the numbers of those that breed with us; but flapper-
shooting on the flats and the want of protection are
decimating them largely on the Essex and North Kent
marsh-lands. All good authorities on the subject agree
that there ought to be a close time for our Wild Duck
up to the ist of September, whereas in Essex protection
extends only to August i6th, and in Kent only till the
i3th of that month. In shooting the Flappers, or young
birds, many an old Drake gets killed; having lost his
quills he is incapable of flight. He does not put on his
full new dress until the middle of October. Flappers
are easily killed as they reach full growth before their
wings are fledged ; so that it is not really fair sport,
which should give a free field. As old Peter Hawker,
the father of Wild Duck Shooting said, flapper-shooting
THE WILD DUCK 319-
is often more like hunting water-rats than shooting
birds. They haunt deep and retired parts of a brook,
or stream, in families. Flappers are only called Wild
Ducks when they take wing.
In the Fens formerly, until put a stop to by Act of
Parliament, not only were Flappers shot as they are
now, but an annual driving of the young birds before
they could fly took place. A vast tract was beaten, and
the birds were forced into a net placed where the sport
was to terminate. A hundred and fifty dozens have
been taken at once in this fashion. If our handsome
British Wild Duck is to be preserved to us, further steps
must now be taken to enforce and extend the close time-
for our home-bred birds of this species.
Both duck and drake are the size of the domestic duck,
which is a near relation of its wild congener. It is the
loudest cackler of the ponds. The drake has splendid
plumage. The whole of the head has a fine green
metallic lustre, this being separated from the rest of the
colouring by a white band round the neck. A small
bunch of feathers, curled upwards, stands on the rump,
which is smooth black, as is also the under tail cover.
It has a beautiful, lustrous violet patch bordered on each
side with white, on its wings. Neck and breast are-
chestnut-brown ; the mantle finely and beautifully
spotted. The underparts light grey, each feather
having fine dark stripes. Bill greenish; legs orange.
The female bird is yellowish-brown speckled with dark
brown.
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321
THE PINTAILED DUCK.
(Dafila acuta.)
THE nest of the Pintail is placed among the sedges,
rushes, and reeds of open ponds. The clutch consists
of eight to ten greenish eggs, which are smaller and
somewhat thicker than those of the common Wild Duck.
It is a shy bird, difficult to surprise, which arrives here
in large flocks, on its way elsewhere, only a few settling
on large inaccessible ponds, or on the hidden pools
hemmed in by huge reed beds, on the Flatten See in
Hungary, especially in shallow places where the white
water-lilies and other water plants almost cover the
surface with their leaves. In such places it pecks about
the ground in the same way as the farmyard duck. Its
food is tender duck-weed, and the young juicy shoots
and points of water plants. But its most eager search
is for water beetles, and the larvae of dragon-flies and
other such insects. As the marshes are drained and
brought into cultivation the number of these beautiful
birds decreases. It is still, however, not uncommon in
Hungary.
This is a slender and finely shaped duck which is
locally called the "Sea Pheasant." It comes regularly
to our British Islands in October, staying in some
districts longer than in others. In the North it seldom
tarries long. Its favourite resorts are about our
Southern shores and estuaries. When it is feeding the
tail is raised high above the water, its head being below
the surface. A hybrid between the Mallard and the
322 THE PINTAILED DUCK
Pintail, a half-bred drake, is a very handsome bird.
Pintails have also been known to pair with Wigeons.
The Pintailed Duck is smaller and more slender, but
longer than the Common Wild Duck. The middle tail-
feathers are long-shaped like a spit or awl, and from
these the bird derives its name. The neck is long and
thin like that of the Heron. The drake has fine summer
plumage. The wings have a shining metallic green
beauty-spot bordered with red in front and white behind.
Head a dusky-brown, cheeks copper colour. Throat
white on either side, and black in the middle from the
back of the head downwards. The whole of the under-
parts white, also the mantle, which is adorned with fine,
close, dark wavy lines. The long pointed shoulder
feathers are black with a white border. Tail nearly
black, the middle pointed feathers quite black, and also
the under tail cover. Legs bluish-grey; beak bluish,
eyes brown. The female bird is like the female wild
duck in colour but has the long tail feathers.
323
THE SHOVELER.
(Spatula clypeata.)
THE Shoveler has a stately, direct, and rapid flight. It
can be recognised by its great beak even when flying
high. It is less timid than the other ducks, and does
not go about in flocks, but if it does join flocks of other
ducks, it flies somewhat apart from them. As its beak
indicates, its food consists less of plants than of small
living creatures of the pond and lake, fish, insects, shell-
fish, and other things which it finds in the water while
it paddles around and lets the water run through the
filtering edge of its beak. But the worst of it is this :
The fish spawn in the shallow 7 , tepid water near the
bank, and there the young fishes are hatched. When
the Shoveler comes to a spawning bed, in its voracity it
destroys the young fish in thousands, before they are
fully hatched. Thus it is a great pest to fishermen, and
it is therefore fortunate that this bird belongs to the
rarer species.
" Compared with the size of the Shoveler's paddles, its
webs are small. Splashes and reed-beds are what it
delights in. Many days have I passed where these birds
could be seen. All sorts of flying and creeping things
lived there ; in fact the amount of insect life to be found
in the haunts of the Shoveler would have to be seen,
nay more than that, it would have to be felt, before it
could be thoroughly believed in. Some sorts of insects
have a very short play-time. Coming forth in clouds
as perfect flying creatures, they fulfil the purpose they
were created for, and then they drop down in the reeds,
HARMFUL.
'
THE SHOVELER.
THE SHOVELER 325
or in the water either dead or dying. So thickly at
times do these short-lived insects cover the water that,
in places, the masses look like large patches of grey film.
This is the time for the Shoveler. He and his mate,
will, so to speak, lay their heads and necks on the water,
the lower mandible being just under water ; and they
will paddle along feeding as they go. These insects
are part of their food in the season. Then too, they can
probe and spatter on the edge of the reeds, where they
find plenty of food, for the soft mud at their roots is full
of the seeds of water plants growing below. As to the
undeveloped forms of insect life, the light vegetable mud
is full of these. So this handsome bird goes on his way
very happily if not disturbed."
Shovelers are plump ducks, and when their food is
right are excellent for the table.
The Shoveler visits Great Britain during cold weather,
and a fair number of the birds stav and breed with us.
The Shoveler is smaller than the Wild Duck and is
more thick-set in build. Its chief characteristic is its
powerful spoon-shaped, or rather shovel-shaped bill,
which broadens out in front, and is furnished with a
thickly toothed, comb-like arrangement on the inner edge
which is specially adapted for filtering the water. The
drake has beautiful plumage. The beauty spot on the
wings is of a lustrous green, and has a white upper
border, the wing itself is light blue. The sides of the
head are bluish-green, with a fine lustre, the crop white.
The forepart of the mantle is greenish-black, each feather
having a white border ; rump bluish black as is also the
under tail cover. Shoulder feathers pointed, black and
* "A Son of the Marshes."
326 THE SHOVELER
white, legs orange, bill dark. The female bird
resembles the female wild duck in colour, but the broad
shovel-shaped bill, immediately marks the difference
between the two birds. The nest is placed in the boggy
parts of the marshes and is formed simply of litter. The
clutch consists of seven to fourteen rusty yellow eggs.
327
THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE.
(Podicipes cristatus.)
THE nest of the Great Crested Grebe is built of various
decaying plants, and floats on the water. It is not
found in the thick reed-beds; but on their borders,
where the reeds are already beginning to shoot.
There it so fixed to a single stalk that it remains
in one place, and cannot be washed away. It
usually contains four longish white eggs, which, how-
ever, become brown and dirty during the long sitting
and rotten surroundings. The young birds are grey
with dark stripes. In times of danger the mother
gathers them closely under her wings and then dives
until the peril is past.
This Grebe is a remarkable diver ; it dives with such
lightning speed, that a shot aimed at it only strikes the
surface of the water. It is a terror in the fishpond.
When the fish feel secure, several of these birds join
together and make a raid on them. They dive, and
while under water drive the fish towards the shallow
shore, and having thus placed them in a difficulty, the
birds seize their prey from among the bewildered
victims.
The Grebe endeavours to avoid danger to itself by
diving, as long as it can and it is able to remain under
water for a long time and swim a considerable distance.
If the rushes for which it is making, are still at some
distance, it raises its head out of water for a moment,
breathes once, and dives again. It is only in direst
HARMFUL.
THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE.
THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE 329
need that it takes to flight, and beats the water for some
time before it begins to rise. Having once risen it flies
rapidly and steadily.
Its powerful, piercing voice has various sounds. The
call- note sounds like "Kekekeke" ; during the brooding
time its cry "Kroar" or " Kruor" is heard at a long
distance.
The Great Crested Grebe is resident in Great Britain
on many sheets of water where reeds grow in plenty,
such as the Broads of Norfolk, the meres of Cheshire
and Lancashire, lakes in Wales, and very occasionally
only in Scotland. In the County of Stafford the
Great-crested Grebe and Little Grebe, or Dabchick, are
protected all the year round; and the meres in the West
of Staffordshire, together with those of Shropshire, form
one of the chief breeding areas of the former species of
Great Britain and Ireland. On Trentham Lake, Dr.
McAldowie has observed the Great-crested Grebe in
mid-winter. They have also bred there of late years.
On the rivers Dove and Trent, however, it has only
been seen during the periods of migration. That it
nests on the Lake Aqualate and on that in Trentham
Park proves what the protection of landowners will do.
The Great Crested Grebe is the size of a Wild Duck
but more slender. The general appearance of the bird,
with its long outstretched thin neck is that of a long-
necked bottle. It has on its black crown a double crest,
forked and inclining backwards something in the
manner of ears ; on its neck, beginning at the back of
the head and reaching to the throat, it has a red collar
of split feathers with dark borders closely set together,
330 THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE
which surrounds the sides of the head and the throat.
The legs are constructed for propelling by a sideways
stroke ; instead of a true web, it has divided, cross-
ribbed broad flaps on the toes, the pads of which are
flat and broad. Beak sharp and pointed as a dagger;
tail consists of a few little ragged feathers. The spot
on the wings is white. The female has a smaller collar,
and is more uniform in colour.
331
AN ELEGY.
Our children will perhaps know less than we do of
the delightful poems of Robert Burns, composed as so
many of them w : ere whilst he followed the plough, with
ever a keen eye for bird and blossom wherever his w'ork
might lead him. I cannot resist quoting here that
wonderful elegy of his :
" Mourn, ye wee songsters of the wood;
Ye Grouse that crap the heather bud ;
Ye Curlews, calling thro' a clud ;
Ye whistling Plover,
And mourn, ye whirring Paitrick broo',
He's gane for ever !
Mourn, sooty Coots and speckled Teals;
Ye fisher Herons, watching eels ;
Ye Duck and Drake, wi' airy wheels,
Circling the lake.
Ye Bitterns, till the quagmire reels,
Rair for his sake !
Mourn, clam'ring Crakes at close of day
'Mang fields o' flow'ring clover gay,
And when ye wing your annual way
Frae our cauld shore,
Tell the far warlds, wha lies in clay
Wham we deplore.
Ye Howlets frae your ivy bow^'r
In some old tree or eldritch tow'r,
What time the moon wi' silent glow'r,
Sets up her horn :
Wail through the dreary midnight hour
Till w r aukrife morn !"
HARMFUL.
THE GOLDEN EAGLE.
333
CHAPTER VIII.
SOME OF THE FALCONID^
THE GOLDEN EAGLE.
(Aquila chrysdetus.)
Ix Scotland the living prey of the Golden Eagle, called
there the Black Eagle, consists largely of mountain
hares, but it takes lambs, grouse and other birds, some-
times even fawns and the young of the red-deer. In
Hungary he sweeps down towards autumn from the
higher regions to the vast plains, where he works havoc
among the smaller wild animals, especially the hares.
Only when driven by extreme hunger will he feed on
carrion. On sunny days he soars circling above, with
shrill squeal, until quite lost to sight, looking as it were
into the very face of the sun.
The breeding places of the Eagle are confined in Great
Britain to the Highlands of Scotland and the islands of
the Western side, and they are now protected by the
owners of deer forests from the grouse preservers and
sheep farmers who greatly thinned their numbers in
former years. In Ireland very few pairs now remain;
they were nearly all destroyed there by poison. They
rarely visit England. So far from attacking any one
who visits the eyrie or tries to take an egg or young,
those who know them best say that they can be photo-
graphed without the least difficulty, in fact the old birds
will soar high above, seemingly ignoring the presence
of the intruders. A visitor to one eyrie, in which was a
334 THE GOLDEN EAGLE
baby Eaglet, found there four grouse, part of a hare,
and a monk stoat ! the latter, as the gamekeeper said,
being an unheard of thing. Sometimes an enraged
Hoodie Crow has been seen in full chase of a Golden
Eagle which had been too near the nest and young of
the former.
Mr. Seton Gordon says that when this Eagle is
pursued by a small bird, the Mistle Thrush for instance,
it never turns on its pursuer, although it could kill it
with the greatest ease ; but as he adds " in nature it seems
to be the invariable rule that the pursued flies from the
pursuer no matter what the relative sizes may be."
The Golden Eagle is now slightly on the increase in
Scotland. It is a most interesting bird, the type of
nobility and of valour. The naturalist with whom I
collaborated over the signature, "A Son of the Marshes,"
has told of two live Golden Eagles which were chained
to stands just inside the courtyard of the old coaching
inn at Sittingbourne, in Kent, when he was a boy,
objects of wondering delight to himself and of much
daily curiosity to the passengers on the coaches. They
snatched up more than one cat that came too close to
their stands after the meat that was given to them.
Many poets have sung of the Golden Eagle :
" On sounding pinion borne, he soars, and shrouds,
His proud aspiring head among the clouds."
" Soaring
With upward pinions through the flood of day,
And, giving full bosom to the blaze, gain on the sun."
' Trying his young against its rays,
To prove if they're of generous breed,
or base.'
THE GOLDEN EAGLE 335
Somerville, in "Field Sports," gives some fine lines,
descriptive of this bird, untamed though we call it> as
one of sport :
" In earlier times, monarchs of Eastern race
In their full blaze of pride a story tells
Trained up th' imperial eagle, sacred bird.
Hooded, with jingling bells, she, perched on high,
Not, as when erst on golden wings she led
The Roman legions o'er the conquered globe,
Mankind her quarry, but a docile slave,
Tamed to the lure and careful to attend
Her master's voice."
This noble bird measures from 32 to 36 inches and the
female is larger than the male. In reality he is about
the size ot a goose but his mighty wings and the breadth
of tail make him 6eem far larger. The general colour
is dark brown, tawny about the head and nape, hence
his name golden. The tail has a greyish bar below, is
mottled with dark grey in the adults, but the basal half
is white in the young. The legs are feathered in front
to the toes, thighs dark brown, toes yellow, claws
hooked and sharp. The beak is curved from the cere.
The brown eye is keen and strong as befits a bird who
sights his quarry from afar. The nest, or eyrie, which
is placed on a crag in a mountainous district, but often
in a tree, is a large platform of sticks lined with softer
materials. The Eagle never uses dead branches but
always breaks them fresh off the tree. There are two
and sometimes three dull greyish-white eggs streaked
and blotched with every shade of reddish-brown and lilac.
One of the eggs is generally addled. The young are
covered with white down. During incubation the Eagle
keeps near to his eyrie.
337
THE RED KITE.
(Milvus ictinus.)
THE flight of this bird is very beautiful ; it mounts in
circles to a great height, but swoops down quite near to
the ground when pursuing its prey. Its food consists
of mice, lizards, adders, and* unfledged birds; but most
of all it likes poultry, hens, ducks, geese. In this way
it is very hurtful. Fortunately, it is a cowardly bird,
and a good clucking hen can soon put it to flight.
In the spring when the flocks of geese with their
young ones are grazing in the tender grass, the Red
Kite will suddenly appear and cause great consternation
among young and old. The poor bare-footed guardians
of the geese, strive to drive the intruder away with
shouts, or by waving rags, and throwing stones; and
though they generally succeed, the bird occasionally
gains the day. This bird is nowhere very common, and
is in any case only a summer visitor. Its cry is a shrill
whew, heh-heh-heh.
This Kite was formerly known in Great Britain
by its old Anglo-Saxon name of Gled or Glead, which
comes from its gliding flight, and is styled Red Kite
in order to distinguish it from its relatives. That
it was once common enough in the South of England,
a proverb, still used in the New Forest shows, " Yallow
as a Kite's claw " the folk say there in describing
one who has a jaundiced appearance. So common
was it in the streets of London up to 200 years ago,
acting the part of a scavenger in those days, that
visitors from the Continent wrote of it. Some are now
w
338 THE RED KITE
living who knew it as fairly common in the wooded
parts of Great Britain Ireland excepted but the last
nest in Lincolnshire, where it once was abundant, was
known in 1870. In Wales, where a few still breed, the
landowners are trying to protect what they consider an
interesting species. The use of its tail feathers for
salmon-flies brings about the bird's destruction in Scot-
land, and the gamekeeper is its pronounced enemy. In
Ireland it has been seldom observed. Considering the
adders, rats, and enormous numbers of mice the Kite
devours, the term hurtful, as applied to it, ought perhaps
to be modified.
A naturalist, writing in 1839, tells how he once took
away a young Kite from a nest containing two; it
became very tame and would sit on his hand, never
attempting to hurt him with its sharp talons. Some-
times he let it stray away and it always came home,
though it might be out for a day or two ; until it intruded
on an old crone in her cottage. She quickly killed it as
an ill-favoured fowl. I have seen a tame Kite swoop
down during a circling flight and take a mouse from the
hand of the late Lord Lilford as he sat, as was his wont,
in his wheeled chair among his favourite birds.
Macaulay, alluding to the Kite's love for carrion
writes :
* The kites know well the long stern swell
That bids the Romans close."
Wordsworth was familiar with it in his walks :
" Near the midway cliff the silvered kite
In many a whistling circle wheels her flight."
Robert Burns was not a friend of the bird, Quarles'
" brood-devouring kite," for he likened the ''father of
THE RED KITE 339
" Here is Satan's picture,
Pouncing poor Redcastle
Like a blizzard gled,
Sprawlin' like a taed."
But Hurdis was more kind and just :
" Mark but the soaring kite and she will read
Brave rules for diet; teach thee how to feede ;
She flies aloft; she spreads her ayrie plumes
Above the earth ; above the nauseous fumes
Of dang'rous earth ; she makes herself a stranger
T' inferior things, and checks at every danger."
We may perhaps be allowed, by the chariest of
agriculturists, to say that a species may be most undesir-
able in certain districts, but a welcome and even useful
bird in others; and this is specially true of birds who
devour carrion.
The Kite is about 24 inches in length. The back is
rusty-red, the feathers there having dark shaft lines and
edges. The tail is strongly forked. The female is less
brightly coloured than the male and the young still less
so. The thighs are clad with feathers, the legs bare,
claws moderately strong and sharp. The bill is sickle-
shaped and has a yellow cere at its base. The irides
are yellowish-white. The Kite is a keen-sighted bird of
prey, and builds its nest for the most part on the highest .
trees in the woods. It lays two or three eggs, more
rarely four, with dirty blotches, smears, and spots on a
greenish-white ground.
USEFUL.
THE RED-FOOTED FALCON
MALE AND FEMALE.
341
THE RED-FOOTED FALCON OR ORANGE-LEGGED HOBBY.
(Falco vespertinus.)
UNLIKE all the rest of his congeners this beautiful Falcon
lives exclusively on insects. It is considered by the
Mohammedan races as a sacred bird, on account of the
way in which it destroys grasshoppers. Its flight is
easy and bold, and the way in which he circles and
floats in the air is beautiful. The young ones are also
fed on insects, and as soon as they are fledged the little
flock betake themselves to the meadows or the seashore
and there begin with zeal their work of insect hunting.
They settle on the meadows, on the freshly mown rows,
and destroy the grasshoppers, and when there is a plague
of these insects the Falcons are untiring in their work of
extermination. It is one of the most gentle of birds,
and the young ones when caught become tame in the
course of a day. It can easily be seen from the expres-
sion of the eyes that there is no savagery at all in its
nature. How different from the glance of the Sparrow-
Hawk ! It is a remarkable characteristic of this bird
that not only does it differ from others of its species in its
food, but also in regard to its nest. As a rule, it does
not build a nest, but occupies one, generally at the cost
of a battle, belonging to one of a colony of rooks. The
fight for the nest is a fine spectacle, for in it the bird
exhibits to the full its fine art of flight. In Hungary it
is a regular migrant, and arrives in fairly large numbers.
The Red-footed Falcon is only a rare wanderer to the
British Islands on its migratory flight, and chiefly to
England. One was recorded as shot in Scotland in
342 THE RED-FOOTED FALCON
1866 another, which is in the Dublin Museum, was
taken in County Wicklow in 1832. It is a pity that
this useful species, living as it chiefly does on insects and
field mice, should only appear in our country to be shot.
On the steppes of Orenburg in Russia it has decreased
during the last fifty years, owing apparently to the
immigration of great numbers of the Lesser Kestrel,
which used to be rare there. The flight of the Red-
footed Falcon is not nearly so dashing as that of the
Kestrel ; you can note a difference in the expression of
the eye and the shape of forehead of the two birds.
The clutch of eggs numbers five to six. They are
of a yellowish-white ground-colour, with spots and
marblings, some darker, some lighter. The nest
structure is scanty, and is seldom built by the bird itself;
it appropriates the old nest of a Crow, Magpie or Rook.
The male of this species is for the most part slate-grey
in colour, the thighs and under side of the tail are bright
chestnut-red. The iris and the feet are red. The
colouring of the female is more diversified. The mantle
is bluish-grey, with blackish stripes, like those on the
tail ; the sides of the belly are light rusty-brown, throat
and nape white. The forehead is whitish; top of the
head rust-coloured, legs and feet reddish. The claws
are nearly white.
343
THE COMMON BUZZARD.
(Buteo vulgar is.)
THIS bird is equally at home in the plains and in the
highlands. It goes South in the winter, except in mild
seasons. Like the Kite it soars to a great height with
a fine sweeping movement, crying ' keo-keo." It
descends and with an easy stroke hovers near the
ground, from which it seizes frogs, lizards, and even
poisonous snakes ; but besides marmots, moles, rats, and
leverets, its chief diet is mice, of which it requires 20 to
30 for one good meal. It usually perches on a hayrick,
a post, or a dry tree to watch for its prey, sitting motion-
less save for a movement of its head from side to side,
until a mouse emerges from its hole. Then it raises its
wings, darts downwards, and secures the booty. In
years when a superabundance of mice appear, the
Buzzards also are numerous, and fare plenteously. At
such times, hundreds of tufts of mouse-hair are found
beneath the trees where the Buzzards spend the night.
It would be a good thing if the farmer were to set up
perching posts in the places which are infested by mice,
so that the Buzzards might settle on them to watch the
ground. Posts about the height of a man, and the
thickness of an arm, with a cross piece at the top, would
perfectly serve the purpose.
The Buzzard, then, is useful; but it cannot be denied
that it sometimes does harm when it gets into a pheasant
run, or places where partridges and hares are preserved.
The bird is still common in Hungary.
USEFUL.
Ci.fl
THE COMMON BUZZARD.
THE BUZZARD 345
The Buzzard may still be seen circling high in the air
in some of our own wilder wooded districts, uttering its
mewing cry, especially in Wales, but it is fast
decreasing. A correspondent from South Devon wrote
me that it was not infrequently shot there. As Mr.
Howard Saunders wrote, " It used to breed in Norfolk
and other counties abounding with Partridges and
ground game, without being considered incompatible
with their w r ell-being ; but now that Pheasant worship
ha's increased, the doom of that great devourer of field
mice, moles, and other pests of the farmer which has
never been proved to be destructive to Partridges and
Pheasants is sealed. Still it might yet increase if fairly
encouraged, and it is an interesting sight, either soaring
over head or resting in its characteristic sluggish way
on the branch of a tree. In the New Forest this used
to be a common enough sight, but the bark strippers
being at work just at the time of incubation, and
knowing that they can easily obtain five shillings for a
good well-marked specimen the Buzzard has little
chance now.
I find in my note book, " My glass shows a great
brown and grey bird resting on a stumpy willow what
they call here a Mouse-Buzzard that species so useful
to the grazier, which we drive away by persecution.
Presently it rises high to soar in fine circles over its
hunting ground. The farmers encourage it because of
its wonderful stowage capacity for voles, rats, and other
small deer, the game-preservers persecute it, because
when pressed by hunger it takes old hen pheasants and
even larger creatures. On our friend's estate here it is
encouraged; the stomach of a dead Buzzard has been
found to contain thirty mice. Also it is a deadly foe to
346 THE BUZZARD
the viper, although a bite from the latter has been death
to the Buzzard occasionally. A Buzzard was once
found dead on its nest with a viper lying under his body.
The bird had carried it there to devour. This is a gentle
looking creature, yet when hard pressed by hunger-
madly ravenous, it has been known to attack an ox.
Humans are apt to become desperate under similar
circumstances.
Said Butler in " Hudibras " :
" He'd prove a buzzard is no fowl,
And that a lord may be an owl."
There is a good deal of variation observable in the
colouring of the Buzzard, inclining sometimes to whitish,
sometimes to brown or even to blackish. With its thick-
set body, this bird of prey exceeds the Raven in size.
Its constant distinguishing marks are these : The cere
at the base of the bill, and the legs, which are bare of
feathers, are yellow ; the nostrils are oval ; the iris grey
or brown. The shafts of the primaries and secondaries
are white. The tail is crossed by seventeen dark bands,
and appears fore-shortened. The bill is curved and
hooked. The nest is built in the loftiest beeches and
oaks. Three to four eggs form the clutch. They are
rarely white, more often clouded w T ith dirty-yellow on a
lighter ground.
347
THE SPARROW-HAWK.
(Accipiter nisus.)
THOUGH the Sparrow-hawk, taken altogether, is a small
bird, yet he is. a great thief, as may be gathered from
his piercing eye. He is the terror of all birds of the
Starling size, which he seizes while on the wing. Like a
true robber, he watches for his booty in a secret kind of
way ; having selected one from among a company of
flying birds, he flies below, among the furrows in the
cornfield, along the hedges, and the border of the woods,
and on to a haystack. When he has seen his destined
prey he flutters sideways, rises into the air in circles,
and when the little birds fly up he sinks somewhat lower ;
when at the proper height he claps his wings close to his
body, and drops like a piece of lead on to the chosen,
fluttering victim, seizes it by the neck in its flight, and
strangles it with his sharp claws. He then flies slowly
with it to a bush or a grassy-mound and devours it.
It winters in Hungary ; it is not rare, but at the same
time not very common. Its cry sounds like " Kirk,
kirk, kirk," or a rapid " ki, ki, ki," or a long drawn-out
" kak, kdk."
This bird was the sporting Hawk of our forefathers,
and the people of the interior of Asia, and the Kurds,
employ it for hunting at the present day. Wherever it
goes it carries devastation in its train, especially among
the domestic fowls. Its cry is loud and protracted.
"livid!" it repeats quickly on seizing its prey. When
THE SPARROW-HAWK 349
pairing the note is Gdck, gack, gdck," and then more
rapidly " Gia, giack, giack."
The Sparrow-hawk is well known all over Great
Britain and also in Ireland, in all those districts which
are well timbered. Its food consists for the most part
of small birds, from the Thrush to the Wren. These
are snapped up as the bird glides stealthily along the
hedgerows or on the outskirts of some wood. In our
own country it has been trained to take Partridges,
Quails, etc. In India and Japan also it is used by the
native falconers. It is a bold daring raider of our woods
and fields. This bird has a history which reaches back
into the far past. It received its latin name, Accipiter
nisus, because of a myth relating to King Nisus of
Megara, who, it is said, had one hair of red-gold colour,
on the preservation of which depended the conservation
of his kingdom. Scylla, the daughter of Nisus, being
in love with Minos, King of Crete, son of Jupiter and
Europa, treacherously cut the golden hair of her father
Nisus, and therefore he and his country were easily
vanquished. The gods, angry with the unnatural
daughter, changed her into a Lark, and Nisus into a
Sparrow-hawk, under which form the unhappy father
pursues his daughter unceasingly, in order to satisfy a
thirst for vengeance. The ancients had all sorts of
mysterious ideas, in connection with the Sparrow-hawk;
they believed, for one thing, that he was the primo-
genitor of the Cuckoo. There is always something
interesting in such old myths, in spite of their apparent
absurdity.
Somerville, in " Field Sports," takes only the
falconer's view of the Sparrow-hawk, when he says :
350 THE SPARROW-HAWK
" Enough for me
To boast the gentle spar-hawk on my fist,
Or fly the partridge o'er the bristly field,
Retrieve the covey with my busy train,
Or with my soaring hobby, dare the lark."
The male Sparrow-hawk is about 12 inches long, the
female often 15 inches. It has a long tail; its legs are
slender, long and bare of feathers. The claws are sharp
as needles. The toes are strong and the middle one is
very long and slender. The bill is abruptly curved
from the base, with a greenish-yellow cere. The
plumage is bluish-grey above; while beneath, on the
belly, it is crossed with wavy lines on a light ground.
The tail has five dark ribbon-like bands across it. The
Sparrow-hawk nests by preference in spruce plantations
at a height of from 12 to 15 feet; it also makes use of
deserted crows' nests. The clutch consists of four or
five, occasionally six, and still more rarely seven eggs,
chalky-white or greenish in colour, with drab-coloured
spots .
Too often a victim.
THE GOSHAWK.
(Astur palumbdrius.)
THE Goshawk is bold in attack, and powerful in thrust.
It is comparatively easy to tame, or at all events shows
a certain tractability. Its aspect in cunning and cruel,
and its claws must be carefully avoided. It is the terror
of the poultry-yard and the dove-cote. When pursuing
its prey nothing can divert its attention. It will even
penetrate into the interior of a house. It will steal any
warm-blooded animal that it can overcome, even an old
hare. It seizes little Siskins, Goldfinches, Weasels,
squirrels, and even mice. It lives in a constant state of
warfare with the Crows. The latter birds fall upon it in
flocks, pull and touzle it, when they catch it, but the
Hawk usually carries the day. With a mighty thrust
he seizes his prey from among the black mass, and gets
away from his pursuers. It likes best districts where
wood and field alternate, but it also settles in the neigh-
bourhood of villages where it causes great damage
among the poultry.
Next to the Lanner falco lanariusthe Goshawk was
the favourite among sportsmen in the olden days as
indeed it still is among the nomadic tribes of Asia.
The Goshawk Goosehawk comes to Great Britain
as an occasional visitor only, in autumn, winter, and
now and again in the spring. There used to be some
eyries in old fir-woods in the valley of the Spey a century
ago, but in Scotland the Peregrine Falcon is called the
Goshawk^ In some old Scottish works on Falconry it
is stated that the best Goshawks came from Ireland.
CHIEFLY HURTFUL.
THE GOSHAWK.
THE GOSHAWK 353
I know a place in Southern Germany, a sandy, raised
piece of ground, in the middle of a wood, near the point
of a peninsula, where only high fir-trees are ; and there
the bold Goshawk has his bulky nest which he uses year
after year. On a clearing close to the Goshawk's nest
there lie innumerable remains of Starlings and young
hares. The Starlings fear him greatly; when he comes
gliding low in pursuit of his quarry over the marshy
ground beyond his wood, they keep close to the Crows,
which are numerous on this peninsula. They feed with
these birds whenever the Goshawk is in their neighbour-
hood, knowing that the Crows will attack him sturdily.
During the skirmish with the Crows, the knowing
Starlings make away from the scene.
The Goshawk punishes that bad but beautiful bird,,
the Jay, who does more harm here than the Sparrow-
Hawk and all the three species of Butcher-birds put
together. The Sparrow-Hawk attacks the Jay also; but
he only gets the better of him after a long struggle,
whereas the Goshawk punishes quickly.
As I stood under the high fir-tree from which a pair
of Goshawks took flight on my approach, one of the
sudden thunderstorms common to the neighbourhood
at this time of year broke overhead, and I had to shelter
long, so that I had time to marvel at the great quantity
of creatures these birds had taken to their family larder--
hares, starlings, pigeons, ducks, and poultry of all sizes.
The farmer here dreads it more than he does any other
bird of prey, and we have no cause to regret its ceasing
to build in our midst. A male and a female bird were:
caught in a trap in the forest of Rowland, Lancashire^
about the year 1835; now only an occasional bird is ta
be seen.
354 THE GOSHAWK
A French writer says that the Goshawk is still used
in Persia in hunting the gazelle, and that it is trained
to feed on that creature's beautiful eyes by placing its
food in the empty eye-sockets of a stuffed gazelle, so
that when used in the hunt the Goshawk stops its victim
by attacking and tearing out its eyes a horribly cruel
form of sport.
Keats writes :
" O Sorrow ! why dost burrow
The lustrous passion from a falcon-eye?"
and Young :
" Pride, like hooded hawks in darkness soars
From blindness bold, and towering to the skies."
" Mark the gay squadron through the copse descending
The greyhound with his silken leash contending
Wreathed the lithe neck ; and on the falconer's hand
With restless perch and pinions broad depending,
Each hooded goshawk kept her eager stand."
Burns says :
" Swift as a gos drives on a wheeling hare."
In the young bird the underpart is clay colour with
narrow cross stripes and large longitudinal flecks. The
iris golden-yellow; feet sulphur yellow. Claws strong
and sharp. The adult has a narrow white line about the
ear coverts and the eye ; upper parts ash-brown ; four
broad dark b'ars on the tail ; underparts white, thickly
barred with ash-brown; cere, iris, and legs yellow.
Length of the male 20 inches; of the female 23 inches.
The large nest of the Goshawk is composed of hard
twigs. The eggs, usually four, are pale bluish-grey,
but later they become dirty greenish-yellow, and some-
times have a few rusty or olive markings.
355
THE HOBBY.
(Falco subbuteo.)
Called in Germany the Tree Falcon.
OF all the Hungarian falcons the Hobby has the swiftest
flight; he even pursues the Swallow with success. All
the small birds scream with terror when this bird appears.
The Swallow dart in an agony of fear under their eaves ;
the Larks and other small birds press themselves down
on the earth ; the Quails and Partridges do the same.
If a little bird happens to be in flight it tries with all its
strength to soar higher and higher, so that the Falcon
may remain beneath it, otherwise it is a lost bird. If the
Falcon gets above, it shoots like an arrow, with closed
wings, down on to the bird. The Hobby does not
despise a grasshopper as food, in the twilight a moth
does not come amiss ; indeed it has lately been observed
that it sometimes snaps at bees. But it does not eat
carrion.
In the olden days the Hobby has also been used to
hunt small birds.
At the present day it is a great friend to the railway,
where it circles about the trains and drives away the
small birds. It is by no means rare in Hungary.
In England the Hobby arrives about the latter part
of May, and it may at intervals be found breeding in
most of the Southern counties, notably in Hampshire.
Once it nested in Essex pretty regularly, also to a certain
extent in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and
Norfolk, rarely in Yorkshire, sometimes in the Midlands,
but in the West and in Wales it is scarce. It has never
been known to nest in Scotland, and very few Hobbies
have been seen in Ireland.
HARMFUL.
THE HOBBY.
THE HOBBY 357
It will follow the sportsman and seize a Quail in front
of him, according to the late Howard Saunders, but
Lord Lilford demurred to this, and said a Hobby will
wait on over ranging dogs, on the chance of a young or
moulting Skylark, but never attack game birds, as it
could not hold them. It is a terror to Larks as well as
Swallows, but it does some good in reducing the numbers
of cockchafers and dragonflies, which are favourite
articles of its diet, with other small insects.
In our country it never makes a nest for itself, but it
takes possession of one that has been built by a Crow,
Magpie or other bird, in a tree. The female has a
curious habit of brooding on an empty nest or upon eggs
of the Kestrel before she lays her own. In autumn it
leaves the woodlands to take to the open country.
Cowley wrote :
" Like larks when they the tyrant hobby spy,
Some wonderstrook, stand fix'd, some fly."
And Dryden :
" Larks lie dar'd to shun the hobbies' flight."
The Hobby is as big as a small pigeon, but has a
slenderer body. The tip of the wing reaches to the end
of the tail or even beyond it. Legs and cere are yellow.
The eyes are dark brown, with a keen expression. The
serrated bill is yellowish at its base, but black at the
tip, which is strongly curved. The back is slate-coloured,
while breast and belly are marked with black longi-
tudinal stripes on a light ground. The Hobby builds
its nest in the tops of high trees in small woods. The
eggs number three or four, and are marked with thick
rusty-brown spots and streaks on a ground-colour of pale
buff.
USEFUL.
THE KESTREL.
359
THE KESTREL.
(Falco tinnunculus . )
THE Kestrel also has a beautiful flight ; but it is not able
to catch small birds when on the wing. It is a master
in the art of remaining in one spot in the air, with a
very slight apparent motion of the wings. It stops
suddenly in its flight at about the height of an ordinary
church tower, bends its spread tail stiffly downwards and
beats rapidly with its wings. It often poises itself in
this way over meadows, cornfields and moorlands, and
marks with its brown, sharp eyes any mouse or marmot
that slips out of its hole. Sometimes it finds a brood
of young birds, and these it does not spare. Crickets,
grasshoppers and lizards also fall a prey to this hunter,
but mice form its chief diet, and for this reason the bird
is useful. When it has caught sight of its prey from a
height in the air it suddenly closes its wings and drops,
but when quite near the ground it spreads them again,
and thus picks up its victim. It eats the smaller insects
out of its claws while flying ; but larger prey it carries to
a quiet spot. Its twittering cry is often heard; it sounds
like " Klee, klee, klee." It leaves Hungary in severe
winters. The Kestrel is the most numerous of the birds
of prey in that country, where it is quite at home, even
in the rush and noise of towns.
The Kestrel is commonly known as the Wind-hover,
on account of its habit of hanging motionless in the
air against the wind. It has a very graceful flight.
This Falcon is quite the commonest of the British birds
of prey, and we should have still more of these useful
36o THE KESTREL
Falcons in our country \vere it not for the prejudice and
ignorant ideas of so many of our gamekeepers and
farmers. In Scotland the former are becoming much
more aware of the harmlessness and the usefulness of
the Kestrel. Considering the fact that the creatures
forming its principal food are mice, it is strange that our
agriculturalists have not valued its services sooner. The
gracefulness of its flight makes it an interesting point in
a landscape. It is as well known to country children in
our Southern counties as is the Cuckoo. If their nest is
robbed before the full number of eggs is laid the pair
will remove such eggs as are left to the next suitable
empty nest they can find and proceed with their family
duties there. The Kestrel is a pleasanter bird to keep
as a pet than others of his family ; it is easily tamed, and
afterwards can be kept at liberty, as it will come to call
or whistle if it is fed regularly at the same time and
place. The late Lord Lilford, w-ho'knew more practically
about Falcons than most ornithologists said : " I cannot
altogether acquit the Kestrel of an occasional bit of
poaching; a small Partridge or Pheasant astray in the
grass is no doubt too tempting a morsel to be resisted,
but any petty larceny of this sort may well be condoned
on account of the great number of field-mice and voles
destroyed by these birds." In Spain its food consists
chiefly of beetles.
A great many of our Kestrels leave us at the approach
of winter when the food they like best is too hard to find.
The Kestrel is about the same size as the Hobby,
but is a slenderer bird, and its tail is longer. The tail
is. of a beautiful grey colour and extends far beyond the
tips of the wings. Near its extremity it is adorned with
THE MERLIN 361
a broad, dark, transverse bar; the tip itself, however,
is white. The back is reddish with dark, triangular
markings ; the flanks light-coloured with black longi-
tudinal marks. The bill is curved from the base, and
is short and strongly hooked. Cere and feet are yellow.
The tail of the female has several narrow transverse bars,
with tip as in the male. For nesting places the Kestrel
chooses by preference ruins, towers, and lofty crags, very
seldom selecting a site in a tree. It lays four or five
eggs, rarely more than six. They are thickly spotted
and splashed with brownish-red on a light ground.
The Merlin or Stone-hawk (Falco cesalon) is the
smallest bird of our British Falcons. It breeds regularly
on our moorlands, not in such numbers in the South
as beyond Derbyshire. In many parts of Wales too it
nests. It is fairly common too in the mountainous parts
of Ireland. In the autumn the dashing little fellow 7
comes down to the coast and bays where he can prey on
Dunlins, Snipe and other waders. He has high courage
and will kill birds you would not think him capable of
mastering. The Merlin will kill the Skylark if pinched
by hunger, but both he and the Hobby prefer birds of
the Finch family.
HARMFUL.
THE MARSH-HARRIER
363
THE MARSH-HARRIER.
(Circus oeruginosus.)
(Formerly known as the Moor-Buzzard.)
THE Marsh-Harrier is one of the shyest and most
cunning of our birds of prey. It immediately attracts
attention by its size and its constant activity ; but it
requires a good sportsman to get a shot at it. It is most
easily got at when feasting among the high grass at the
edge of the reedy marsh ; it then forgets to be prudent
and sometimes takes flight only too late. Early and late
it hovers over the borders of the marshes and reed-beds,
sweeping, circling without rest, now and then making
a swift descent into the rushes and the sedges and
securing its prey. There is no small creature of the
marsh, the bog, the heath, or the moor that this bird
will not take; it works special destruction among the
singing birds which nest among the reeds and sedges.
It does not wait for the young birds to be hatched, but
is very clever in breaking open the eggs and devouring
the contents, always bringing them on to dry land for
the purpose.
The birds of the reed-land know this raider well, and
as soon as the first flap of his wing is heard the terrified
Lapwings, Gulls, Terns, and others, arise with loud
cries and attack him tooth and nail. When brooding
it lives almost exclusively by egg stealing; later on the
moor hens afford provender for this insatiable thief. It
leaves Hungary for the winter, but returns in early
spring. Its cry varies. In spring it is " kei, kei," in
autumn it is like that of the Jay. The female utters a
loud " pitz! pits."
This bird is common in the Hungarian marshes.
364 THE MARSH-HARRIER
The drainage of our Eastern fens and the reclaiming
of marshland in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Shropshire,
Dorset, Somerset, and some other counties once
frequented by this bird has caused it to become scarce
where former! v it used to breed freely. Sometimes a
pair having wandered over from Holland will try to rear
a brood in our Norfolk Broads district, but the
sportsman sic and the collector will not allow them
to succeed. In Ireland the bird was formerly common
enough about Lough Erne, along the Shannon valley,
in Co. Cork, and other districts, but during the last fifty
years the gamekeepers have nearly exterminated it by
poison. It is known to be a great destroyer of the eggs
and young of Waterfowl, but during most of the year
it feeds on small mammals, frogs, and reptiles as well
as birds.
This is the Duck-Hawk of the marshmen. When the
sun is glinting through the mist he may be seen gliding
hither and thither, low down over the grey-green flats.
At noon he is high up in the clear blue sky. The tender
young ducks called " flappers " are his favourite diet.
Jean Ingelow, in " The Four Bridges," says:
" The bold Marsh-Harrier wets her tawny breast
We scared her oft in childhood from her prey."
The Marsh-Harrier is smaller and noticeably slimmer
in build than the Buzzard. The tail is long, the legs are
long, thin, and bare of feathers, and the claws sharp.
The head has something about it that suggests an Owl,
for the facial disk is conspicuous and the eyes glance
forwards as well as to the side. The bird's plumage is
brown, very dark in places : but the head is light-
coloured, being whitish in males and yellowish in
females. Inhabiting reed-beds, the bird builds its nest
ampng reed-stems or bulrushes. The eggs, five or less
frequently six in number, are greenish-white in colour.
365
THE HEN-HARRIER.
(Circus cyaneus.)
THE nest of the Hen-Harrier is built of roots and plant
stems, is soft within and is often placed on the ground ;
if in heather, or dried up marsh, it is often a foot high.
From four to six bluish-white eggs, sometimes yellowish-
brown or rufous markings, are laid.
This bird of prey has a light, sweeping flight. It
leaves Hungary in winter. It hunts alone and takes its
food exclusively from the ground. This consists of
small mammals, especially mice, the bird is also particu-
larly fond of robbing the nests of such birds as build on
the ground; it sucks the eggs and devours the small
downy creatures within them. It also takes the little
hares in short, it is one of the most destructive birds
in the fields which it frequents and hunts over untiringly.
On the other hand, there comes a time when the number
of field mice has increased beyond measure. Then the
Hen-Harrier joins the other birds of prey and destroys
enormous numbers of those enemies of the farmer. For
this reason the species should not be altogether
exterminated.
Of late years the numbers of the Hen-Harrier have
been greatly thinned by game-preservers, and it only
nests now on a few of our largest and wildest moorlands
and wastes. Even in Scotland it is fast decreasing so
far as nesting goes, whereas it was once plentiful there.
Still there are a fairly large number of young birds in
the autumn, and then, too, the adult birds come down
from the higher-lying districts to the lowlands. It used
HARMFUL.
THE HEN-HARRIER.
THE HEN-HARRIER 367
to breed in the Fen-lands of East Anglia until the
reclaiming of marsh lands drove it away. As to this
I may be allowed to quote again here from an old ballad
written before the fens were drained, it gives the feeling
of the fen-dwellers of that day.
4< Come brethren of the water, and let us all assemble,
To treat upon this matter which makes us quake and
tremble ;
For we shall rue it, if it be true that fens be undertaken,
And where we feed on fen and reed, they'll feed both
beef and bacon.
The feathered fowl have wings, to fly to other nations,
But we have no such things to help our transportation ;
We must give place oh, grievous case to horned
beast and cattle,
Except that we can all agree to drive them out to
battle."
"As a gamekeeper once said to me," says 'A Son
of the Marshes,' "The sooner them big 'uns is
gone or done for the better; there's nothin' but a
chow-row from morning to night. Our head 'un says
they must be knocked over, and the guv'nor he's
got the same tale. They can't git at 'em no more than
we. It ain't so much what they ketches, tho' they tries
hard at it, as what they frightens off the fields ; it spiles
the shootin'. Them 'ere damned great things hovers
an' swishes after the birds till at last the coveys makes
for the hedgerows an' you has to git 'em out as if you
Avas beatin' for cocks. We ain't had none o' them 'ere
blue an' ring-tailed hawks- harriers 'bout here lately.
368 THE HEN-HARRIER
They're reg'lar wussers ; they kills 'em dead at one clip,
an' takes 'em out in the middle o' them big fields to eat
'em. They ain't goin' to let you get near 'em, not they,
an' they wun't fly over a place where you kin hide.
I've tried to git at 'em, but it all cum to nothin'. Them
'ere blue hawks an' ring-tails would circumvent the
devil."
The adult male has the upper parts a slatey-grey tone
of colour, the rump white, throat and breast bluish-grey
under parts white. The female is brown above, the
neck rufous-brown streaked with white there is a
distinct facial ruff, giving the head an owl-like appear-
ance, suggesting that this species might be the link
between Owls and Hawks tail brown, having five darker
bars, hence the old name of Ring-tail given to the female
of this bird; under parts buff-brown with darker stripes.
Length 21 inches. The young resemble the female.
369
CHAPTER IX.
RATIONAL BIRD PROTECTION.
ONLY a savage, or an ignorant man, can harm or wish to
get rid of a bird before he has convinced himself that it
is harmful. I have said already that in the abstract
there are no useful and harmful birds, as such. The bird
exists as a product of Nature, to fulfil, like everything
else, the tasks allotted to it by Nature and in Nature,
which no other creature can perform.
It is man who makes the bird useful or hurtful to
himself, when he tears up the turf, and sows such seed as
brings rich crops which serve the bird for food ; or when
he plants an orchard or vineyard, where there was none
before. Therefore, for the good of the birds and also
of man we must carefully reflect what it is our duty to
do and how we can best do it.
The Tits, Hedge Sparrows, Flycatchers and others
whose industry know no rest, do invaluable service to a
sensible man ; for while the most observant and diligent
gardener can only destroy those caterpillars' nests which
meet his eye wholesale, these useful birds, hopping
about, darting and leaping, hanging and pecking,
devour all the mischievous pests, even when they are
quite out of reach of man, and certainly out of his sight.
These services can even be estimated to a certain
extent.
The tiny Wren consumes in one year more than three
million insects in different forms, either as eggs,
Y
370
INSECT-EATERS
chrysalis or perfect insects, which, if they were allowed
to propagate would result in countless numbers.
The Blue Tit, not much larger, destroys six and a half
million insects in one year. If it bring up a family
of 12 to 1 6 young ones, it means that one family of Tits
puts about twenty-four million destructive insects out
of the power of doing harm. Whoever, therefore, either
from cruelty or ignorance, catches or kills these useful
little birds does a great injury to the common weal.
THE RAIDING HAWK.
The insect world has great power everywhere, and
where birds and other insect-eating creatures are
destroyed through ignorance there follows the destruction
resulting from the ascendancy of these pests which
appear, not in tens of thousands, but in millions.
Twenty-one years ago any person who had ventured on
such an assertion would have been laughed at, but
BIRD PROTECTION 371
it is now a well-known fact that some of the most
renowned vineyards have been entirely ruined by the
Phylloxera, an insect which can scarcely be seen by the
naked eye.
In former times, w 7 hen a great deal of uncultivated
land covered the plain, in its natural state, the air rang
with the song of birds. Woods, meadows, thickets and
pools were thronged with the feathered songsters. In
the course of time, however, things have greatly changed ;
in many districts the woods are thinned or grubbed up,
the plough has torn up the meadows ; every little scrap of
thicket has been hewn down ; whole forests are being
cut down by degrees to supply the paper mills; and so
the birds are losing their nesting places, and death and
destruction lurk in waiting for them on their migrations.
Devastating storms which overtake the immigrant flocks
often destroy the feathered wanderers in great numbers.
This, however, is the course of Nature, against which
we are impotent.
After all the birds' worst enemy is man, with his
ignorance, or, still worse, his cupidity/ He has
plundered the nest and destroyed the brood ; he grudges
every grain of corn which the bird has richly deserved
by its work throughout the year.
Steamers and railroads make it possible for birds,
which are caught by millions, to be sent alive into the
great cities as delicacies of the table. So, from year to
year, they are becoming rarer.
So much the more are we bound, for the good of
heart and soul, as well as for the blessing of the land
and its workers to protect the useful birds as much as
we conscientiously can so that they may increase in
numbers.
372
A BIRD-LOVER
Once, while on a journey to the
Northern Ocean, I travelled the whole
length of Denmark. Moor, bog and
sandhills cover great stretches of land.
Coarse heath grows over the sandhills.
Poverty-stricken huts are scattered here
and there in these districts, the tenants
of which live by turf cutting. There is
neither wood nor coal, so that the dried
bog furnishes the sole fuel. A small
spotted cow is usually seen tethered
with a long rope near the cottage. This
animal provides milk for the household.
In front of the dwelling, at a distance
of about fifteen paces, a pole, from 13
to 20 feet in height, is set up, at the
top of which is fastened a nest-box for
birds, and this is usually inhabited by
Starlings.
It was a pleasant sight, towards evening, that of the
weary turf-cutter, sitting on the little bench before his
cottage, smoking his pipe, bending down to talk to his
child, and then, with heartfelt pleasure, setting himself
to watch the pair of Starlings chattering on the nest-box,
and enjoying life generally. In many districts nest-
boxes are fixed on fruit trees in gardens and in every
other suitable place, and in these dwell all the best and
most industrious workers Tits, Flycatchers, Redstarts
and others.
There is a proverb which may be translated as follows :
" Take nest and eggs from brooding bird no fruit is
found, no song is heard." Also in the Bible we read :
NESTING BOXES 373
' If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way,
in any tree or on the ground, whether they be young
ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young or
upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the
young."
We must guard the nests from evilly disposed men
and from roving predatory animals as much as lies in
our power. But the real problem is this : The land-
owner uproots bushes, fells old trees, prevents the nest
building of our most useful birds and cannot give back
to them what they have lost. He prevents the
possibility of their collecting again and increasing, and
consequently from performing their useful duties, which
are continually increasing. Where, however, bushes
and trees have been rooted up, new ones may be planted,
and the birds encouraged to return, although we cannot
replace them at once for hundreds of years may pass
before the trees grow tall enough, and we cannot wait
so long. Then we try to do by artificial means what
we cannot do by nature ; and we must be careful to study
nature in our operations or we shall not succeed.
The Woodpecker, which lives in hollow trees, shows
us how to build an artificial nest.
Table V., Fig. i, gives a section of the nesting-hole
of a Woodpecker built by himself.
Fig. 2 is a perfectly designed nest for Titmice.
Fig. 3 shows the same nesting-box complete, provided
with entrance hole and cover.
Fig. 4 shows an open nest-box for Flycatchers and a
black Redstart.
The most important is that shown in 2 and 3 as it is
specially arranged to suit Titmice.
NESTING BOXES
375
Nest-boxes, and especially their holes, should, of
course, be of different sizes, according to the birds that
are to inhabit them. The opening is always round, and
is of varying size according to the species. Many
directions as to these are given in a paper by Baron von
Berlepsch, " On the Protection of Birds Generally,"
published by the German Association for the Protection
of the Bird World, and also by publications of the Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds in Hanover Square,
London,
Nesting Boxes on Poles.
The following are some approximate measurements
for nest-boxes :
For Titmice :
height, n^ inches;
depth from back to front, 4^ inches ;
diameter of round opening, i inches.
For birds of the size of a Starling :
height, 18^ inches ;
depth back to front, 9 inches ;
diameter of opening, i J inches.
376 NESTING BOXES
For Green Woodpeckers :
height, 19! inches;
depth back to front, 9 inches;
diameter of opening, 2 inches.
The measurements for the Wild Pigeon are the same
as these last, except for the opening, which should be
about 4^ inches wide.
Flycatchers and Wagtails require a box as shown in
Fig. 4. This is 9 inches high, and has an opening
about 4 inches square.
The edge of the entrance to a nesting-box should be
rounded off, as in the hole of a tree, to make it more
natural to the bird's feet.
The nesting-boxes should be fixed in orchards,
gardens, and houses on the edge of a forest, on the
trunks of trees and branches, also on poles, and fastened
by means of strong flexible wire, or, still better, by
screw-nails. They should be placed perpendicularly,
slightly inclined or crooked, but never inclined back-
wards as the rain gets in and the Titmouse has sense
enough to avoid such a nesting-box. They should be
fixed a little lower than the average height of a man, and
so arranged that the morning sun strikes the entrance
hole if possible. The box is an exact copy of the nest-
hole of the small spotted Woodpecker, and experience
teaches us that the unoccupied nest-holes are frequently
used by the Titmouse. In spring the Titmice not only
fight among themselves for the possession of these nest-
holes, but also with the hosts of House Sparrows which
strive to rob them of the holes. These Sparrows come in
crowds and make a great noise in the place. Being of a
powerful build, and provided with sharp beaks, the birds
NESTING BOXES
377
finally oust the Titmice. To contravene the House
Sparrow we must hang the nest-box somewhat low,
about one yard from the ground. The careful and
suspicious bird dares not trust himself in it. The Tree
Sparrow, which does not come too near the haunts of
man, but hovers on the fringe of the villages or street
gardens, bushes and heaths, is a trusting bird, and not
very heavy. It likes nest-holes immensely, and attacks
those which are placed low,' driving the Titmouse out.
SPARROWS HAVE OUSTED THE TITMOUSE.
The Hedge Sparrow, again, lives on insects, but he is
not clean, and is no friend of the garden; therefore,
when we find him fighting with the Titmouse for
possession of the nest-holes, we help to oust the Hedge
Sparrow in the interests of the garden and the wood.
The following birds must be protected at nesting-time :
The Great Titmouse, the Blue Titmouse, the Coal
A PLEASANT MEAL ON THE SEEDS OF THE SUNFLOWER
THORNS BELOW TO KEEP THE CAT AWAY.
RATIONAL BIRD PROTECTION 379-
Titmouse, the Marsh Titmouse, and Crested Titmouse,
because all these birds are likely nesting-box dwellers.
The method organised by Baron von Berlepsch, and
used in Hungary by Minister Daranyi, with slight
alterations, is intended to bring the vanishing singing
birds back again. By the use of different sized nest-
boxes it is possible to collect different kinds of birds,
I know by experience that by arranging the bushes in
close, twisted branches we can get the useful and singing
Whitethroats to build their nests.
The importance of a rational study of this question of
the protection of birds, with particular regard to their
economic significance in given districts, has been
demonstrated in Southern Victoria in a remarkable
manner, where great mistakes have been made by settlers
who seem to have been desirous of encouraging our own
British birds about their homesteads. To take steps
which resulted in the nesting of a colony of Fieldfares in
a district where they had so far been unknown to breed,
as Baron von Berlepsch did, was most advantageous,
since the Fieldfares drove the murderous Shrike from
the field. Again, by fixing up artificial nesting-boxes,,
made according to this great naturalist's pattern on
stakes placed in certain districts of North Germany,
ninety per cent, of these became inhabited by Titmice,,
until that time strangers to the region, where, however*
their services were most desirable.
On the other hand, Greenfinches, which were introduced
into Southern Victoria by Australian settlers twenty-five
years ago, took possession of the pine trees, which were
the only trees that afforded enough shade and cover, and
were the nearest approach there to their usual nesting-
A FEEDING-PLACE FOR WET WEATHER.
As a rule only feed the birds when weather reasons
prevent them procuring their own food.
RATIONAL BIRD PROTECTION 381
places ; and they drove away from the district the useful
little native Tits, which feed among these trees and have
their own appointed work on them. A correspondent
of 'a Geelong paper writes again of the charming sight
of a number of English Blackbirds hopping about on
a lawn beneath the spraying water-hose, and busily
feeding on the \vorms. Yet this same bird is becoming
a great nuisance to the fruit growers there. This is also
the case in New Zealand, where large prices are now
being offered for dead Blackbirds and their eggs. The
Starling, again, which is so useful in our own pasture
lands, has been known to clear out a vineyard in
Southern Victoria in a single night. Thrushes are
looked upon there as suspects, but opinions are divided
as to this bird.
We have already written about the Quails, imported
into the canefields of Hawaii, to be in their turn
exterminated by the mongoose, who had been brought
there to eat up the devastating rats.
To sum up the whole matter, interference with the
balance of Nature must only be undertaken with know-
ledge and discretion ; and those who undertake it must
study, and profit by the recorded experiences of our
accredited guides in this direction.
382
IN CONCLUSION.
THE scope and limits of the present work does not allow
of the inclusion of some of the chapters contained in the
latest Hungarian edition, such as those treating of the
skeleton, the viscera, etc., nor can this be taken as
adequately representing the work of the Royal
Hungarian Central Bureau of Ornithology of which
Mr. Herman is the Director. That work is arranged
on a regular scientific basis, and it includes that
important investigation with regard to the food
of birds, which is carried on by a fully qualified
entomologist. The Bureau has its collection, which
contains dried ingluvies, i.e., contents of the stomachs
of nearly 9,000 different species of birds; skeletons, skins,
eggs, nests and insects.
The Bureau has its meteorologist, its biologist, 267
corresponding professional ornithologists, and as many
as 326 foresters contributing the results of their observa-
tions and experiences, besides a large number of foreign
correspondents. There is a huge collection of data for
the members of the regular staff to work from. These
.are written on separate slips, on each of which is the
name of the collector, his point of observation, the
character of the district in which this is carried on, the
scientific name of the species, and the date of observa-
tion. The migration of birds is also made the subject
of systematic observation.
An important publication, "Aquila," serve well in
keeping together these different workers in connection
with the Central Bureau, and the whole expenditure of
IN CONCLUSION 383
this office, including the publication of the journal is
now included in the Budget of the State.
In order to prevent the abuses which might arise from
a general invitation to send in specimens of the different
species of birds for examination, the Hungarian Minister
of Agriculture has issued various decrees which are
enforced by law, the non-observance of which is punish-
able by fines. The taking alive or killing of protected
.species is allowed only for scientific purposes, and with
permission obtained from the authorities, and any person
found employed in this work must be able, on demand,
to produce an order in writing from some Hungarian
scientific institute, some expert, or known person who
can prove that he is engaged in Natural History
research. This license is drawn up according to a form
legally provided. Another safeguard, provided by M.
Daranyi against the abuse of such permission, is that
the authorities may only allow a license to the same
individual for the capture of not more than 10 animals,
or the taking of not more than 10 birds, nests, or eggs;
and this maximum is only to be permitted in cases where
there is no danger of the extinction of the species.
It may be added that, by a decree of the Minister of
Agriculture, protection is afforded to Bats of all kinds,
and at all times ; to Moles, except in flower and kitchen
gardens and nurseries, where it is permitted to destroy
them ; to all kinds of Shrew-mice, except the Water
Shrew, which is injurious to fishing interests; and to
Hedgehogs.
Further, in view of the great amount of deforestation
which is taking place in Hungary, as in other countries,
and the consequent destruction of the natural nesting
384
IN CONCLUSION
places of birds, the Government provides artificial
nesting-holes, and ensures the clipping of shrubs in a
suitable manner for the encouragement of desirable bird-
residents. These nesting-boxes are placed at a certain
distance round the foresters' houses and become the
starting points for further extension. In these places
the birds are regularly fed when the winter is a severe
one.
A Winter Food Shelter.
Index.
Bearded Reedling 203-204
Bills of Birds, 15-19
Bittern, 302-205
Blackbird, 245-249
Blackcap, 162-164
Blue-Tit, 209
Bullfinch. 270-273
Bunting :
Girl, 278
Yellow, 277
Reed, 185
Buzzard. Common, 343-346
Chaffinch, 267-269
Coal-Tit, 216
Crossbill, 135-138
Crow, Carrion, 64-67
Crow, Hooded, 17, 57
Cuckoo. 142-145
Curlew, Common, 17, 287-290
Dabchick, 329
Dipper, 238-241
Doves :
,, Ring, 281-282
, Turtle. 279-282
Ducks :
Wild or Mallard, 316-319
,, Pintailed, 320-322
,, Shoveler, 323-326
Duck-Hawk. See Harrier, Marsh
Eagle, Golden, 332-335
Falcon, Peregrine, 351
,, Redfoofced, 340-342
Feathers, 22-23
Feeding of Birds, 378-380
Feet of Birds, 19
Fieldfares, 248
Flycatcher, Spotted, 189-192
,, Pied, 193-194
Goatsucker. See Nightjar
Goose, Bean, 313-315
Goldfinch, 273, 351
Goshawk, 351, 352
Grebe, Great-crested, 327-330
Greenfinch, 274
Gull, Blackheaded, 87-89
Harriers :
Hen, 365-368
Marsh. 362-364
386
INDEX
Hawfinch, 17, 262-266
Herons :
Common, 17, 300-301
Night, 298-301
Hobby, 355, 358
Hoopoe, 146-148
Jackdaw, 72-77
Jay, 83-86
Kestrel, 358-361
Kingfisher, 235-237
Kite, 336-339
Lapwing, 283-286
Lark, 232
Magpie, 78-82
Mallard. See Duck, Wild
Martin :
,, House, 109-102
,, Sand, 113-116
Mavis. See Thrush
Mauvis. See RedAving
Merganser, 17
Merlin, 361
Moorhen, 307-309
Nesting-boxes, 373-379
Nettlecreeper See Whitethroat
Nightingale, 165-167
Nightjar, 120-123
Nuthatch, 133-134
Oriole, 250-252
Owls :
,, Barn, 24-28
Brown or Tawny, 29-33
,, Little, 42-44
,, Longeared, 34-37
,, t Short-eared, 38-41
Oxeye. See Titmouse, Great
Partridge, 17
Peewit. See Lapwing
Pigeon, Wood, 281-282
Pipit, Tree, 173-175
Plover. Green. See Lapwing
Protection of Birds. 369-379
Quail, 90-93
Raven, 68-71
Redbreast. 253
Redshank, 291-294
Redstarts :
,, Common, 168-170
Black, 171-172
Redwing, 248
Reed Warbler, Great, 181-185
Ringdove. See Pigeon, Wood
Robin, 253-256
Rook, 45-56
Sandpiper, Green, 295-297
Screecher. See Swift
Shoveler, 323-326
Shrikes :
,, Great Grey, 149-151
,, Lesser Grey, 152-154
,, Red-backed, 155-158
Shuffle-wings. See Sparrow, Herlf'e
Siskin, 171, 351
Skylark, 232-234
Snake-bird. See Wryneck
Sparrow-Hawk. 347-350
Sparrows :
., Hedge, 230-231
,, House, 224-227
,, Tree, 228-229
Starling, 94-98
Rose 99-100
INDEX
387
Stonechat, 200-202
Stormcock. See Thrush, Mistle
Swallow, 104-108
Swift, 116-119
Tern, 310-312
Thrush, 242-244
,, Mistle, 248
Titmouse :
,, Bearded, 203-204
,, Blue, 209-212
Coal, 216-218
Crested, 215-216
,, Great, 205-208
Long-tailed, 17, 219-223
,, Marsh, 217
Tree-Creeper, 131-133
Wagtails, 17
Blue-headed, 178
,, Pied, 180
White, 176-178
,, Yellow, 179
Water-hen, 307-309
Waxwing, 101-103
Wheatear, 194-199
Whitethroat, Lesser, 159-161
Willow Wren, 186-188
Wings of Birds, 19-21
Windhover. See Kestrel
Woodcock, 17
Woodpeckers, Green, 124-127
,, Greater Spotted, 128-130
,. Lesser Spotted, 127
Wren, 257-261
,, Gold-crested, 213-214
Writing Lark. See Bunting, Yellow
Wryneck, 139-141
Yaffil. See Woodpecker, Green
Yellow- Hammer. 275-278
Zizi. See Bunting. Girl
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" Contains more of the information we are likely to*
want under such circumstances than any other periodical
or book." Land and Water.
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edge . ' ' Scotsman .
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