ITISH BIRDS
THE BODLEY HEAD
NATURAL HISTORY
THE BODLEY HEAD
NATURAL HISTORY
Vol. I. Thrush, Blackbird, Ouzel, Redwing, Field-
fare, Wheatear, Robin, Nightingale, Win-
chat, Stonechat, Tits, Starling, Wren, etc.
Vol. II. Whitethroat, Crested Wren, Wood Wren,
Warblers, Accentor, Dipper, Nuthatch,
Tree-creeper, etc.
Vol. III. Stoat, Badger, Weasel and Otter; Seal and
Walrus ; Squirrel, Dormouse, Harvest
Mouse, Wood Mouse, etc.
Vol. IV. Mouse, Rat, Vole, Hare and Rabbit ; Park
Cattle, Fallow Deer, Roe Deer, etc.
Vol. V. Eagle, Osprey, Buzzard, Falcon and Kite ;
Pheasant, Partridge, Quail, Ptarmigan,
Grouse ; Cormorant, Gannet, etc.
Vol. VI. Bat; Hedgehog, Mole and Shrew; Wild
Cat, Fox, Marten, Polecat, etc.
%• Other volumes will be announced in due course.
THE BODLEY HEAD
NATURAL HISTORY
THE BODLEY HEAD
NATURAL HISTORY
BY E. D. CUMING
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
BY J. A. SHEPHERD
VOLUME I. BRITISH
BIRDS. PASSERES —
r
LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY
TORONTO: BELL AND COCKBURN. MCMXII1
PRINTED BY W. W. CURTIS, LTD.,
CHEYLESMORE PRESS,
COVENTRY
science.
m
SI
1115
1-2-
CONTENTS
Order — PASSERES
Family : Turdidce.
Sub-family : Turdince.
Page
Song Thrush (Turdus Mustcus)
17
Mistle Thrush (Turdus Viscivorus)
22
Blackbird (Turdus Merula) -
27
Ring Ouzel (Turdus Torquatus)
• 34
Redwing (Turdus lliacus)
38
Fieldfare (Turdus Pilaris)
• 39
White's Thrush (T. Varius)
40
Black Throated Thrush
(T. Atrigularis)
■ 40
Dusky Thrush (T. Dubius)
40
Rock Thrush (Monticola Saxatilis) 40
CONTENTS— continued.
Page
Wheatear (Saxicola (Enanthe) - - 42
Isabelline Wheatear (S. Isobellind) 47
Black-Throated (S.Stapazina) 47
Desert Wheatear (S. Deserti) - 47
Robin (Erithacus Rubecula) - - 48
Nightingale (Daulias Luscinia) - 54
Whinchat (Pratincole* Rubetra) - 60
Stonechat (Pratincole* Rubicola) - 65
Redstart (Ruticilla Phoenicurus) - 70
Black Redstart (Ruticilla Titys - 76
Bluethroat (Cyanecula Suecica) - 78
Family : Paridce.
Great Tit (Parus Major) - - - 79
Blue Tit (Parus Coerulus) - - 87
CONTENTS— continued.
Page
Coal or Cole Tit (Parus Ater) - - 92
Long-Tailed Tit (Acredula Caudata) 96
Crested Tit (Parus Cristatus) - - 100
Marsh Tit (Parus Palustris) - - 103
Family: Panuridce.
Bearded Tit (Panurus Biarmicus) - 106
Family: Troglodytidce.
Wren (Troglodytes Parvulus) - - 116
Family: Sturnidce.
Starling (Sturnus Vulgaris)
Rose-Coloured Pastor
110
(Pastor Roseus) 115
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
V/f R. SHEPHERD'S illustrations to this
volume do not aim so much at scientific
accuracy as at giving a general impression of
the character, habits, and appearance of the
animal depicted. It is believed that in this
respect they will be found certainly more
artistic and probably more suggestive than
elaborate plates or even photographs. All
the studies with the exception only of those
of one or two very rare birds are drawn from
life. The design of the book being decora-
tive as well as instructive it has been found
impossible in the reproductions to keep the
sizes of the animals proportionate to one
another, so that in this respect the studies
of each animal must be taken as relative
only to themselves.
ORDER
PASSERES
SONG THRUSH
(Turdus Musicus. Linn.)
^HIS, the most common and most popu-
lar of British song-birds, is found
throughout the United Kingdom. The
great majority of our song-thrushes remain
with us the year through, but some seek a
warmer climate in winter, returning with
the spring to nest. The Thrush is one of
the earliest breeders ; the nest is built of
dry grass, bents, moss and like materials,
with a smooth plaster lining — morsels of
rotten wood and dung. The usual site
is in a bush or hedge-row, three or four
feet from the ground ; but it is often
18 SONG THRUSH
placed on the ground under the shelter of
bushes. It would seem as though the ex-
ample of one ground builder made many,
for where one such nest occurs you may
expect to find others. Occasionally a
strange site is chosen; in July, 1906, at
Church in Lancashire, a nest was found
between the spring and wheel of a goods
wagon on a railway siding. The eggs,
from four to six in number are laid during
the first ten days of March; The normal
egg is blue, spotted with black or rusty
brown; sometimes the spots are few or,
more rarely, quite absent. The cock bears
some part in hatching the eggs, but he is a
SONG THRUSH 19
less devoted parent than the hen who will
remain on the nest until you might almost
place a hand upon her. Two, or even three
broods are reared during the season; and an
interesting feature of thrush domestic life
is that the young of the first family are re-
quired to help in rearing their successors.
The young Thrush, by the way, excels all
other young birds in the wonderful fresh-
ness of his colouring; the golden tints have
a purity which is unequalled in the plu-
mage of any other nestling. This peculiar
brilliancy fades as the bird grows older.
The Thrush sings on mild days in winter
and, save in bad weather, continues until
20 SONG THRUSH
the moulting season ; often to resume in
autumn. On fine mornings in early sum-
mer he sings before daylight. The song
is less remarkable for range of note than
for the variety the bird contrives to give
its music. Young Thrushes begin to find
their voices about October; there can be
no mistaking the song of the beginner for
that of the older bird.
The food of the Thrush varies with the
seasons; insects of many kinds, worms
and snails content him during the greater
part of the year: the snail-shell is held
firmly and broken upon some convenient
stone; fragments of snail-shell in quantity
SONG THRUSH 21
betray a favourite anvil. When fruit is
ripe the Thrush turns vegetarian, and the
gardener, contemplating the havoc wrought
on unprotected trees, is prone to forget
the bird's good services. In winter hips,
haws, and wild berries furnish a livelihood.
Coast-dwelling Thrushes resort to the
beaches and find food to their taste in
small shell -fish ; those of the outer
Hebrides, which are smaller and darker
than Thrushes of less rigorous climates,
live largely on shell-fish, to which it is
suggested may be due their darker colour.
In Scotland they call the bird the Mavis;
"Throstle" is preferred by writers of poetic
tendency.
MISTLE or MISSEL THRUSH
(Turdus Viscivorns. Linn.
'yHIS is a larger bird than the Song
Thrush: it is also to be distinguished
by the bolder spotting on the breast.
Resident with us throughout the year, it
has earned the name '"Storm-cock"' from
its habit of singing in weather that silences
all other birds. Like the Song Thrush,
this bird turns its attention to nursery
duties very early in the spring. The nest,
placed out on some bough above reach, is
£\ conspicuous; it lacks the neatness' of
"v*^^* careful workmanship; sometimes indeed,
^ V- it is so slovenly that odds and ends of
MISTLE THRUSH 23
material waving in the breeze compel
attention. Occasionally a foundation of
mud is laid and on this is built the nest
proper of bents, grass, small twigs and, it
may be, rags, the whole lined with dry
grass. Nests on the ground have been
recorded, but these are exceptional. The
eggs,rfour or five in number, are beautiful1;
greenish white or palest brown spotted,
blotched and flecked with red-brown and
lilac. Two broods are usually reared
during the season, in the south; but
the further north, the less frequent do
two annual broods become. The Mistle
Thrush is courageous in defence of its
24 MISTLE THRUSH
young or eggs, and should Magpie, Jay or
other egg-stealer approach, the parents do
not await the attack. I have watched a
pair who had their nest near a hollow tree
containing several Jackdaws' nests, dash
at the passing Jackdaw guileless of evil
intent, and drive it off with vigorous
buffetings.
This bird swallows the evacuations of
its young. Many birds carry the droppings
of the nestlings to a distance, to the end
that these may not show the whereabouts
of the nest, but it is a little curious that a
bird which takes no pains to conceal its
nest should thus get rid of the droppings
MISTLE THRUSH
25
that might betray. The food of the Mistle
Thrush is the same as that of the Song
Thrush — worms, grubs, insects and snails;
wild berries, and fruit when obtainable.
Sixty or seventy years ago this bird was
rare in Ireland; its adoption of that
country is no doubt due to the increase of
plantations. Great numbers of these birds
come to us from northern Europe in the
autumn.
Authorities differ concerning the de-
rivation of the name; some hold it an
abbreviation of " Mistletoe" Thrush, from
the attributed habit of eating mistletoe
berries. William Turner, whose De
26 MISTLE THRUSH
Historia Avium, published in 1544, was
the first attempt to treat ornithology in a
scientific spirit, says it is " called the
Viscivorous since it feeds on naught but
mistletoe and gum." Other authorities
maintain that, inasmuch as the bird does
not eat mistletoe berries at all. the name
can only be derived from the Anglo-Saxon
word Missel = big: as it is the largest of
the Thrush family, the latter derivation
seems preferable.
BLACKBIRD
(Turdus Merula Linn.)
"QF Merulae" says Turner, " there are
two sorts, one black and common
and the other white, of equal size."
White, and partly white examples of the
Blackbird often occur, but we have long
ceased to regard them as distinct species.
Like the Song Thrush the Blackbird is
widely distributed throughout our islands;
some of those that breed with us migrate
southward in winter, but their place is
more than filled by the number of visitors
seeking refuge from the rigours of winter
further north.
28 BLACKBIRD
The nesting site and outer structure of
the nest itself are the same as in the case
of the Song Thrush, but the Blackbird
prefers a neat lining of dry grass to
receive the eggs; these are greenish-blue,
spotted and streaked with varying shades
of brown : from four to six is the usual
clutch, but seven and even nine eggs have
been known. Sometimes the nest is
built on the ground. This would seem
to amount to a local habit in some cases,
as Mr. Boyes states that in the Beverley
district of Yorkshire such nests are at-
tributed to " Bank Blackies." Early
nesting is the Blackbird's rule; and two
BLACKBIRD 29
or three broods are reared in the season ;
the members of the first family help with
their younger brethren. The young male
does not assume the yellow bill until his
second year. The cock shares the work
of incubation, but to a less degree than
the Song Thrush ; he is a combative fowl
and two pairs of Blackbirds rarely build
near each other ; isolation makes for
peace, as two cocks may hardly meet
without fighting, particularly in the pair-
ing season. He is a shyer bird than the
Thrush but his loud " pink pink " betrays
him.
The song is occasionally heard in J anuary ,
30 BLACKBIRD
but February is the recognised month for
him to begin : in April and May he is at
his best : in July he ceases : he has been
heard to sing in September, but the event
is so unusual as to deserve a paragraph
in the Field. A spring shower goes to
the Blackbird's head and induces his
finest effort. His voice is easily dis-
tinguished from that of the Thrush by
its flutelike quality ; he sings early and
late, and, unless the appearance of a rival
turn his energies in a new direction,
maintains his song for a long time.
The diet of this bird is much the same
as *that of the Thrush, but he is less
BLACKBIRD 31
partial to snails and more partail to
fruit. Where Blackbirds are many, their
services as grub destroyers scarcely atone
for the havoc committed in kitchen garden
and orchard : strawberries, raspberries,
currants — all soft fruits — are one in their
acceptability to the Blackbird, and when
the apples and pears are ripening he is
ready for them. Nor do his misdeeds
stop there ; he has been known to stoop
to cannibalism, killing and eating young
birds ; but such doings, let us hope, are
peculiar to misguided individuals, and
not to be written an offence against the
whole species.
32 BLACKBIRD
The occurance of normally coloured
eggs has led to the supposition that
Blackbird and Song Thrush may some-
times inter-breed ; the hens of either
species are certainly capable of strange
vagary ; the Blackbird has been known
to lay in a Thrush's nest which contained
eggs of the owner and to take up her
position on a Thrush's nest and eggs with
intention to perform a mother's part ; and
the Thrush has been detected doing the
same thing. Whether such proceedings
are due to absence of mind, or honest but
foolish mistake, it is impossible to say.
Comes one who would have them neigh-
BLACKBIRD
33
hourly reproof of neglect ; but we will
pass by that theory.
The Blackbird's habit of throwing up
his long tail as he alights, as if to keep
his balance, enables him to be identified
at a distance or in the dusk.
RING OUZEL
(Tardus Torquatus Linn.)
'Y'HIS bird may be described as a
Blackbird with a white cravat ; a
somewhat seedy Blackbird, for his coat
is dull and brownish. The Ring Ouzel is a
summer visitor ; arriving in April he seeks
the moorlands and solitude of the hilly
districts, by whose streams he prefers to
nest : trie vast majority go south again in
September and October, but a few remain
with us the year round, specimens having
been found in every month of the winter
in England, while at least one December
occurrence so far north as Invernesshire
has been recorded.
RING OUZEL 35
Domestic affairs engage the Ring
Ouzels' attention soon after their arrival :
a favourite site for the nest is among
heather or ling ; it may be placed under
boulder, in some shallow crevice, or on a
rock ledge ; often near water. The nest
closely resembles that of the Blackbird,
and the eggs, usually four in number,
might be mistaken for Blackbird's save
for their bolder markings. In some cases
a second brood is hatched out in July.
When rearing their children the parents
throw aside their natural fear of man, and
if you approach the nest fly about you
scolding vigorously ; the " tac tac tac " of
36 RING OUZEL
the Ring Ouzel expresses anger and
alarm.
The song is loud but has neither the
flute-like quality nor the variety of the
Blackbird's ; the Ring Ouzel's habit is to
take up his position on some conspicuous
crag or point of rock and sing at intervals.
Indulgence itself cannot regard it as
great music, but it harmonises with the
bird's wild surroundings.
His food is that of other Thrushes,
with such variety as moor and mountain
berries afford. When he visits the fruit
garden, to do which he sometimes makes
up a large party, he is even less welcome
RING OUZEL 37
than the Blackbird : seeming conscious
that he is a marauder he devours with
haste and greed, eating much but wasting
and spoiling more : on these occasions he
displays singular boldness for so wary
a bird.
Like the Blackbird, the Ring Ouzel
throws up his tail when alighting; both
on the wing and on the ground his
movements are very like those of his
better known cousin ; in some parts of
the country he is called the "Moor
Blackbird."
^HIS bird, rather smaller than the Song
Thrush, is a resident of Northern
Europe, whence it comes in large numbers
to pass the winter with us. Redwings
begin to arrive on our coasts in August,
but the great flocks usually appear in the
latter part of October, their movements
being regulated by the advent of winter.
During their stay they are to be seen in
flocks : their return to the north begins
about the end of March.
FIELDFARE
(Tardus Pilaris, Linn.)
JN size midway between Mistle Thrush
and Song Thrush, this bird is easily
distinguished by the absence of spots on
the lower part of the breast. It arrives in
great flocks from September to October ;
its stay is rather more prolonged than that
of the Redwing; if winter lingers it
remains till May, and has been seen as
late as June. It is popularly known as
the " Felt " or " Felfer."
Neither Redwing nor Fieldfare breed in
the British Islands.
FIELDFARE
White's Thrush (Turdus Varius.
Pallas), an Asiatic species, larger than
the Mistle Thrush, is an occasional
visitor, generally coming in winter. The
Black-Throated Thrush (T. Atrigu-
laris, Temminck) ; the Dusky Thrush
(T. Dubius), also Asiatic species have
been identified; the first on two occasions,
the latter once, in winter. The Rock
Thrush {Monticola Saxatilis, Linn.), a
central European species, has once been
identified as a spring visitor.
WHEATEAR
(Sdxicola (Enanthe, Litin.y
'Y'HIS is a summer visitor and one of the
earliest to arrive in spring. There is
reason to believe that a few of the birds
which nest with us remain throughout the
winter, finding in the southern counties
climate mild enough. The second week
in March is the recognised time to look
for the Wheatear's return; in 1906 an
example was seen in Richmond Park on
6th March ; but there is always the doubt
in these cases whether the bird is a
migrant or is one of the exceptions which
have wintered with us.
WHEATEAR 43
Open downs and waste lands are the
haunts of the Wheatear ; with his white
rump and nearly black wings he is a con-
spicuous bird as he takes his short flights
from stone to mound, from mound to wall,
uttering the while his sharp "chack
chack." Nesting begins about mid-April;
the nest is a loosely constructed piece of
work, made, we may hardly say " built,"
of dry grass and lined with feathers, hair
and rabbits' fur ; the last a very favourite
material.
The normal nesting site is some crevice
in stone wall or peat-stack, in the mouth
of a rabbit-burrow or under a large stone
44 WHEATEAR
or clod, but the Wheatear has a soul
above rule in the ordering of his domestic
affairs; and like his relative the Robin
often chooses some such retreat as an old
kettle, discarded boot, or castaway pot.
The segment of an exploded shell on an
artillery range has been turned to account
as a convenient nesting place.
The eggs are pale blue, sometimes, says
Mr. Howard Saunders, minutely dotted
with purple; the clutch numbers from five
to seven. The Wheatear is a sagacious
bird, and when danger threatens is careful
not to betray the whereabouts of the nest.
Two broods are reared in the season. The
WHEATEAR 45
bird is a purely insect feeder, and may
often be seen in the evening hawking
gnats and kindred small game on the
wing; the larvae of insects also form part
of the Wheatear's diet. The song is not
remarkable for volume but is distinctly
pleasing ; the bird often sings while on
the wing. His powers as a mimic are
respectable, and in this regard he does not
always confine himself to song; Mr. Butter-
field, of Wilsden, Bradford, once saw a
Wheatear trying to emulate both song and
singing method of the Lark ; the song was
a masterly achievement but the soaring
was more than the mimic could manage;
46 WHEATEAR
he rose clumsily to a height of seven or ten
yards and came down again. Lark-song
he could accomplish but the characteristic
flight was beyond him.
In former days the Wheatear was
caught in large numbers at harvest-time
by shepherds and sold as larks are sold
now, for the tables, says Gilbert White, of
"all the gentry that entertain with any
degree of elegance'' at Brighton, or
Brighthelmstone as the place was called
in White's time, and Tunbridge.
The end of September and the first
days of October see the southward flight
of the Wheatear.
WHEATEAR 47
Visits to this country of the Isabelline
Wheatear (Saxicolalsabellina; Riippell),
the Black-throated Wheatear (S.
Stapazina, Viellot), and the Desert
ROBIN
(Ertthacus Rubecula, Linn.)
JT seems hardly necessary to say the
Robin is a resident, inasmuch as it is
in the winter that he is most in evidence.
A few of those that breed in this country
go south in autumn, but the places of
these are more than filled by the great
numbers that come to us from the northern
parts of Europe ; for the Robin in summer
is found as far north as the Arctic circle.
Nesting begins in March ; the proper place
for the bird to select is some shallow hole
in a bank, but Robins are no slaves to
tradition, and the kind is notorious for the
ROBIN 49 f
originality and enterprise displayed in
choice of nursery. The nest consists of
moss and dead leaves, lined with hair and
perhaps a few soft feathers. The. eggs,
from five to seven in number — six is the
usual clutch — are white, blotched and
freckled with reddish-brown; occasionally
a pure white egg occurs. Two and
sometimes three families are reared in
the season. The Robin's practice of
driving away in autumn the children who
display inclination to remain in his neigh-
bourhood is quite in harmony with his
character. The breast of the young male
is spotted; after the moult he assumes
50 ROBIN
the red breast, the colour appearing from
the throat down, somewhat paler than in
the adult bird. Some authorities maintain
that the Robin pairs for life; but this
opinion is not shared by all. Attribution
to him of the grace of life-long constancy
is perhaps a bye-result of the place he
holds in legend and popular esteem.
Stripped by merciless truth of the lofty
moral qualities with which affection has
invested him, we find a bird of strong
individuality, bold, self-seeking and pug-
nacious with a pugnacity immeasurable.
Jealous he is also, as he may see who will
observe two Robins singing within earshot
ROBIN 51
of one another; each tries to sing the other
down ; then dissatisfied with rivalry in
song they twain cease music to engage in
the fight for which the Robin is ever
ready. Nevertheless, it is as a songster
that the bird appears at his best ; more
especially in autumn; the October song
of the Robin has a charm entirely its own;
it is, as a novelist has said, 4 ' the song of
sorrow and hope, inspiration surely of
Chopin's Funeral March." It breathes
the very spirit of evening in the waning
year.
The food of the Robin consists largely
of worms and insects, but, as he is at pains
52
ROBIN
to show in winter, his tastes are catholic ;
when frost and snow hold the world the
Robins leave the woods and lanes to take
up his quarters, it may be said, among
men; there is always marked increase in
the urban Robin population in severe
weather.
A list of the abnormal nesting places
chosen by Robins would occupy many
pages; any likely, or unlikely, situation
will serve ; an old kettle; an empty jam-
pot; the rags of a scarecrow; length of
drain-pipe; basket hanging in shed. The
nest has been built on the book-ledge of a
pew in church; behind the false pipes of
ROBIN
53
a church organ (the hen sitting through
the service), and on a library book-shelf,
access granted by open or broken window.
These abnormal sites frequently afford
evidence of the bird's seeming knowledge
that he enjoys peculiar privileges in the
sight of man.
Robert Lovell, who wrote a curious
work on Natural History in 1601, averred
that between Robin and Blackbird there
existed close friendship which found ex-
pression in roosting side by side. It is
strange that two of our most quarrelsome
birds should have been thus paired off as
sleeping companions.
NIGHTINGALE
(Daulias Luscinia, Linn.)
HE first half of April is the time when
the returning Nightingale may be ex-
pected. The cocks, as in the case of other
migrants, come first, and, given warm
weather, announce their arrival in song,
notably vigorous by day, as though to lose
no time giving thanks for a safe journey.
It is rare that the song is heard in wet or
cold, or when high winds are blowing.
Contrary to popular belief the bird sings
by day as well as by night; but the day
song after arrival is particularly well sus-
tained. After the arrival of the hens a
NIGHTINGALE 55
few days later, the song at high noon
becomes less frequent, the birds devoting
themselves to the serious affairs of life.
Sobriety distinguishes the dress of the
Nightingale; dull russet brown above,
brightening somewhat in the tail, and
greyish -white beneath, "quakerish" best
describes the great singer's attire; it gives
his figure the appearance of greater slen-
derness.
Nesting begins early in May. The site
most commonly chosen is on, or quite
close to, the ground in some dense hedge-
row or thicket ; the neighbourhood of
water or swampy soil weighs with the bird
56 NIGHTINGALE
in making choice of a home. The nest,
large in proportion to the size of the
builder, is made of dead leaves (oak pre-
ferred) and dry grass; the cup is lined
with finer grass, fibres, and often horse-
hair. The whole structure is loosely put
together and depends upon the support of
the surrounding undergrow th to keep it in
shape. The eggs, from four to six in
number, are olive-brown, the shade vary-
ing in some cases to a bluish-green. With
the appearance of his young family the
song of the Nightingale ceases. This
happens during the first fortnight of June;
the bird is seldom heard much after the
NIGHTINGALE 57
middle of the month, and the curious
rasping croak he utters now comes
strangely from such a throat. When the
young birds, which as fledglings much
resemble Robins of equal age, leave the
nest, they remain about the vicinity of
their home under the guardianship of the
mother; parent and children exchange a
distinctive note that may be written
"purr."
The distribution of the Nightingale in
England has extended during recent years.
Aforetime, ornithologists drew a " Nightin-
gale line" from York to Exmouth, which
line, roughly speaking, divided the area
58 NIGHTINGALE
patronised by the bird from the regions
it ignored. This line, like other frontiers,
scientific and otherwise, has required
rectification from time to time; for the
bird has discovered the amenities of
Devonshire as far as Torquay, and of
various parts of Wales — Glamorganshire
and favoured spots in Cardiganshire. It
has also been reported in Northumberland,
but that was in the exceptionally hot
spring of 1893, and may not be taken as
a precedent. The real spread of breeding
area has been westward. The appearance
and increase of the Nightingale in parts of
the country where it was formerly un-
NIGHTINGALE 59
known has been accompanied by a certain
decrease in some of those counties where
the bird used to be more plentiful.
Complaints of neglect have been received
from Norfolk, Rutland, Bedfordshire and
Bucks; all of them counties much patro-
nised by the bird. The southward
movement begins very early; in August
the birds of the year take flight, and a
few weeks later are followed by their
seniors who have remained to complete
the moult. Early in September all are
gone.
WHINCHAT
(Pratincola Rubetra, Linn.)
HIS daintv little bird arrives on our
southern coasts during the first half
of April, and within three weeks or a
month finds its way practically all over
England and Scotland, occurring somewhat
rarely, however, in Cornwall and the
extreme west. About five and half inches
long, the cock is easily recognised by the
sandy-brown back with darker leaf-shaped
markings ; most readily by the white streak
running from the base of the beak over
the eye to the neck; the under parts are
buff colour merging into fawn on the
WHINCHAT
61
breast, the chin is white, and a white
streak runs below the dark cheek to the
side of the neck. The hen is more soberly
clad, and the streak above the eye is buff
instead of white.
The nest is a careless structure of dry
grass and moss, lined with finer grass; it
is placed on or nearly on the ground in
long coarse herbage or, it may be, among
the shoots of some low bush. The eggs,
generally six, are greenish - blue often
dotted or freckled with rusty red. Two
broods are reared in the season. The
Whinchat has a weakness for building in
long grass by the side of path or road, and
62 WHINCHAT
the hen's habit of perching close by, to
utter for a few minutes her "u-tick, u-tick,
u-tick, tic, tic" before she flies straight to
the nest renders it easy to find. The song
is pleasing but not remarkable for variety
of note or volume; it is heard both when
the bird is on the wing and at rest.
Waste lands, commons and pastures are
the haunts of the Whinchat; its love of
the last has earned it the name" Grasschat"
in some parts of the country, but this
name is become less applicable now-a-days,
more especially in the northern counties
where the hay harvest interferes with the
bird's domestic arrangements. Mr. F.
WHINCHAT 63
Boyes, of Beverley, Yorkshire, a very
shrewd and careful observer of bird life,
attributes the Whinchat's desertion of the
grass-lands mainly to the mowing machine
which shaves the ground bare in June
before the young leave the nest or, it may
be, before the eggs are hatched out;
sufficient reason to induce a bird of
understanding to prefer the wastes where
it may rear its family undisturbed.
The food of the Whinchat consists of
flies and other insects, small beetles and
worms, more particularly the wire worm.
About the end of September or early in
October the bird takes flight southward
64 WHINCHAT
again. There is some doubt whether
individuals remain with us the winter
through; Mr. J. E. Harting, to whom
have been sent specimens believed to be
Whinchats obtained in the winter months
has always identified them as Stonechats,
a nearly allied resident species. In its
winter dress the Whinchat bears tolerably
close resemblance to the Stonechat, hence
the confusion of the two. Similarly young
Stonechats found in April have been mis-
taken for their migratory cousins who
breed quite a month later.
STONECHAT
(Pratincola Rubicola, Linn.)
HIS near relative of the last species is
resident in Britain, but there is in
autumn a well-marked movement from the
exposed grounds the bird affects in summer,
towards warmer and more sheltered locali-
ties, and our native Stonechat population
is reinforced by arrivals from the northern
regions of Europe. The cock is a con-
spicuous bird as he perches on furze-bush
or thorn ; his black head, bright chestnut
breast and white neck identify him at a
glance ; the general scheme of body
coloration is not unlike that of the
x
66 STONECHAT
Whinchat, but the white patch on the
Stonechat's wing is noticeable and the
bird himself is stouter, with a self-assured
air the Whinchat lacks. He is a restless
little being, always on the move, darting
and diving among the bushes where he
makes his home.
The Stonechat, as becomes a resident,
begins nesting much earlier than the last
mentioned species; the beginning of April
sees this bird at work building on the
ground among coarse herbage, often under
a furze bush against the stem, the materials
being the same as those employed by the
Whinchat, with the addition of a few
STONECHAT 67
feathers to the lining. The eggs, four or
five in number, are very like the other
chat's, but the ground colour is a shade
darker.
Unlike the hen Whinchat the hen
Stonechat is wary, and does not betray
her nest to any but the patient and discreet
watcher. You may, however, know there
is a nest in your near neighbourhood by
the behaviour of the parents who flit from
bush to bush in manifest alarm, the while
crying sharply, " chack chack." Two
broods are reared in the season.
The song of this bird is pleasing, but
when man approaches he displays less
68 STONECHAT
inclination to sing than to scold ; the
alarm note, syllabised "h-weet, jur, jur,"
is very distinctive. The song may be
heard from early spring until late in June.
The food of the Stonechat is very much
the same as that of the Whinchat, with
the addition of small moths and butterflies,
which are often caught on the wing; this
bird also eats seeds on occasion.
Although both Stonechat and Whinchat
affect the same kind of ground, wastes and
commons, the two species are seldom
found together in any number. It may be
added that the Stonechat has none of
its relative's affection for pasture lands;
STONECHAT 69
it is essentially an inhabitant of the
wastes.
The resemblance of the two in their
winter plumage has already been noticed.
REDSTART
(Rutictla Phoenicurus, Linn.)
^HIS summer visitor usually arrives
about the middle of April, though in
particularly mild seasons it may come
earlier. Mr Howard Saunders, in 1893,
saw a cock Redstart on the 31st of March,
this being one of the earliest dates, if not
the earliest date, recorded. The Redstart
cannot be mistaken for any other bird;
his bright chestnut tail and rump betray
him at the first glance, as he flits from
spray to spray always near the ground.
Approach him more closely if you can, for
REDSTART 71
he is shy, and you see his white forehead,
jet black cheeks and throat, in striking
contrast to the slate grey back and chestnut
breast. The hen Redstart lacks the brilliant
body colours of her mate; greyish brown
above and lighter on the underside, she
would be inconspicuous but for her chest-
nut tail, and that is of hue less brilliant
than the cock's. The length of the bird
is about 5i inches.
The Redstart breeds in most parts of
Britain, but is uncommon in some of the
extreme western counties. Formerly it
was known in Ireland only as a rare
visitor, but during the last twenty or thirty
72 REDSTART
years it has been more frequently observed
and breeds regularly in some parts.
Nesting begins early in May; a hole in
some hollow tree within a few feet of the
ground is the orthodox site, but a hole in
masonry will serve the Redstart, and it is
by no means infrequent to find a pair in
possession of the box which has been put
up for the accomodation of Tits. The
nest is loosely constructed of moss, fibres
and dry grass lined with hair and feathers.
The eggs, usually six, but sometimes seven
in number, are blue, paler and a shade
smaller than those of the Hedge-Sparrow.
Eggs freckled, especially about the larger
REDSTART 73
end with reddish-brown are tolerably
common, and, what is rather curious the
clutch may consist entirely of such freckled
eggs or some may be pure blue while the
rest are freckled.
While the hen is sitting the cock is
much in evidence about the premises,
raising his voice in modest Redstart song,
or flitting to and fro in chase of the insects
on which he lives. His alarm note, an
almost piteous "wheet," is very familiar.
The food of the old birds consists for the
most part of flies, gnats, spiders and the
like; presumably this diet is too indigest-
able for the infant Redstart, as when the
74 REDSTART
family arrives the outer world is apprised
of the circumstance by the parents' activity
in carrying caterpillars. The young Red-
starts in their spotted dress are very like
young Robins; but the family badge, the
chestnut tail, proclaims them.
The southward movement takes place
in September. Occasionally a bird sus-
pected to belong to this species has been
shot in winter and submitted to authority
in triumph for a proof that the Redstart
may remain with us the year round.
Such specimens have, however, always
proved to be Black Redstarts, which
REDSTART 75
European haunts in winter. Adult males
of the two species are easily distinguished,
but the difference between hens and birds
of the year is much less marked. .
"Firetail" is the appropriate popular
name for the bird in many parts of the
country.
BLACK REDSTART
(Ruticilla Titys, Scopoli.)
HIS species comes to us regularly,
though not in large numbers, every
autumn, beginning to arrive about the
second week of October and remaining
until March or April. There is no proof
that the bird has ever nested with us, but
it is possible that a breeding pair may
have escaped observation.
Somewhat larger than the common
Redstart, it is a slender, graceful little
bird of restless habit and, by comparison
with the other species, bold. The cock
varies a good deal in colour, possibly with
BLACK REDSTART
age; his prevailing hue may be almost
sooty black, or it may be ashen grey;
there is a conspicuous white patch on the
wing. The Black Redstart is most fre-
quently seen on our eastern and southern
coasts but it has been observed in York-
shire, Wales, and also in Ireland. We
are not concerned with the domestic
affairs of birds that do not breed in this
country, therefore the Black Redstart may
be dismissed with the statement that it
nests in some sheltered hole, or on the
roof beam of shed or balcony, and that the
eggs are glossy white; rarely the eggs are
freckled with reddish dots as in the case
of our own species.
BLUETHROAT
(Cyanecula Suecica, Linn.)
'Y'HERE are two, or possibly three
varities of Bluethroat; the only one
known to visit England is the Redspotted
Bluethroat; and as this bird is only known
as an occasional passenger, halting to rest
on our shores before resuming its south-
ward flight in autumn, it demands but
passing mention. The fact that the Blue-
throats taken in this country are usually
immature seems to indicate that lack of
strength to make, in one flight, the long
journey from the Arctic to southern climes
is the sole reason for its appearance here
at all.
GREAT TIT
(Par us Major, Linn.)
^HIS, the largest of the family of
titmice, is to be found all over the
British Islands save in the extreme north
of Scotland and in the Western Isles ;
where, however, it sometimes appears as
a visitor. The Great Tit is easily to dis-
tinguish ; the white cheek and blue-black
head betray him; the general colour-effect
is bluish grey above and dull sulphur
yellow below ; the black of the head ex-
tending round the neck and continuing
in a stripe down the breast to the vent.
Nesting begins in April, — sometimes
80 GREAT TIT
about the end of March ; and few birds
display greater catholicity of taste in
choice of site. It would incorrect to say
that the bird only uses the normal
situation — a hole in some hollow tree or
in a wall — if he cannot find a site that
shall advertise his originality ; but it is
not far wrong to assert that the normal
habit of the Great Tit is to build in
abnormal situations. He has been known
to nest in the upper part of a hive full of
working bees ; in letter-boxes ; under a
flower-pot on a shelf — for eight successive
years ; inside a pump ; in a drain ven-
tilator ; under the old nest of a blackbird ;
GREAT TIT 81
in the body of an occupied magpie's
nest ; and, in sheer impudent recklessness,
in the base of the nest in which a sparrow-
hawk was rearing her brood. Choice of
the beehive may, perhaps, be explained
by the fact that these birds are fond of
bees, and haunt hives to pick up the dead
insects thrown out by the community;
so fond of bees is this Tit that he does
considerable damage to the hive by his
endeavours to enlarge the entrance. Very
occasionally Great Tits will dispossess the
rightful owner of a nest they think will
serve their purpose ; a hen tit was once
found hatching her own eggs in the nest
82 GREAT TIT
of a Hedge-sparrow who had laid two
eggs before she was turned out.
The nest consists of soft moss, lined
with hair, fur, wool and feathers ; the size
of the structure depends on the space to
be filled; that taken from the beehive
above-mentioned was a solid bed of moss
measuring 14 inches square and 8 inches
in depth.
The eggs, varying in number from six
to a round dozen, are white spotted and
blotched with pale red. Two broods are
reared in the season. This bird like
other members of the family is said to
cover up her eggs as she lays them, with
GREAT TIT 83
the soft fluffy feather lining of the nest ;
but that lining is so loose and plentiful it
may well be that the eggs are "smothered,"
sinking into their bed by their own
weight.
The spring note, which has been heard
as early as January, is likened to the
music produced by sharpening a saw
with a file : the bird utters a great variety
of notes ; the call note is best written
"zee."
The Great Tit may almost be called
omnivorous. He eats insects in quantity,
and works no small mischief in the
orchard ; it has been said — by a sufferer —
84 GREAT TIT
that he will try every apple on the tree,
pecking a beakful out of each near the
stalk ; this single peck in itself would do
comparatively little harm, but the Tit
never pauses to reflect that rain will
enter that small hole and rot the apple
ere ever it has time to ripen. Pears are
maltreated in the same fashion. Peas
furnish another source of misunderstanding
between Great Tits and gardening man-
kind, for the bird loves young peas and
his methods are wasteful. The blackest
side of his character, however, comes out
in his carnivorous tastes ; he has been
known to attack and kill small birds,
GREAT TIT 85
splitting their skulls with his beak to
reach the brain. His appetite for a meat
diet is shown by the avidity with which
he battens on the suet or bone hung out
for his delectation in winter. Like the
rest of the family he loves the seed of the
sunflower.
The muscularity of this bird is well
shown in the way he penetrates the shell
of the hazel-nut ; placing the nut in some
convenient fork or cranny, he converts
his whole person, five and three-quarter
inches, into a pick axe, drives a hole, and
works at it until he can dig out the kernel;
of course, he can only perform the feat
86 GREAT TIT
while the nut is new ; an old one would be
too hard for the strongest Great Tit to
crack. This bird is very commonly called
the "Oxeye."
BLUE TIT
(Parus Ccerulus.)
'jpHIS is the commonest of our Titmice ;
and, if colour go for aught, the most
beautiful. Smaller than the Great Tit —
he measures only about four inches and
one third — he gives the general impression
of green and blue as he flits with short, jerky
flight from tree to tree ; his white cheek,
barred across the eye with a blue-black
line, and blue-black collar distinguish
him from his relatives. The Blue Tit /^"^V
breeds in April. Like the Great Tit he v ,4u
ought to nest in some prosaic hole in
tree or wall ; but like the Great Tit he is
/
i
88 BLUE TIT
notorious for the strange places of his
abiding, One of the oddest ever selected
was the throat of a life-size bronze crane,
fashioned with open beak upraised. The
nesting box appeals to him and the cocoa-
nut shell ; all he asks of the box is that it
be weather-beaten and dirty. The nest
consists of moss, or moss and wool, lined
with feathers and hair. The eggs are
white, finely spotted with pale red ; the
usual clutch is six or seven, but some
individuals are prolific, and as many as
eighteen have been found. The hen
displays great courage while sitting ; she
hisses in brave endeavour to alarm, nay,
BLUE TIT
89
pecks with pecks that would intimidate,
the finger of intrusion ; whence the bird's
popular nickname " Billy-biter/' The
note is a harsh and montonous "chee
chee," heard at frequent intervals.
Though the Blue Tit shares with his
larger cousin that regrettable taste for
green peas, and devotes more attention to
apples and pears than their owners can
approve, it may be doubted whether on
the whole, he does not render services
that atone. His staple diet consists of
the scale insects which harbour in the
bark of trees to their large detriment, he
preys on the grubs of wood-boring beetles
90 BLUE TIT
and other injurious insects, and rears the
family on the larvae of such unwelcome
vermin as the gooseberry and winter
moths, aphides and their kind. It is to
be feared that in autumn when he suc-
cumbs to the temptation of ripening pear
and apple his good deeds are often
overlooked ; man was ever prone to view
austerely bird sins, and prefers the syringe
and insecticide of the agricultural chemist
to the uses of the Blue Tit. The bird is
somewhat capricious in his winter move-
ments. For years the well chosen meat
bone or lump of suet shall bring you Tit
visitors in number; and when you have
BLUE TIT 91
learned to regard acceptance of your
hospitality as assured, no Blue Tit shall
appear the winter through.
As the Great Tit is remarkable for the
strength enshrined in his tiny body, so
the Blue Tit is remarkable for his agility ;
he is one of the leading acrobats of the
bird world ; he is as much at home
underneath the bough as upon it, and he
dines upside down as readily as in the
position Nature would seem to have
designed for feeding purposes.
COAL or COLE TIT
(Parus Ater, Linn,)
<^AVE in the north of Scotland, where
it may be called the representative
member of the family, this Tit is less
common than either the Great or Blue
Tits. It is a very little bird, about four
and three-quarter inches long; the head,
sides of neck, throat, and upper parts of the
breast are glossy blue-black ; and the con-
spicuous white cheeks and spot on the back
of the neck, lend momentary resemblance
to the head of the Great Tit. The back
is grey, tinted with olive, merging into
brownish fawn on the rump ; the breast
COAL OR COLE TIT 93
white, warming into fawn on the belly
and flanks. Slight differences between
the colouring of the Coal Tit found in
Ireland and that in Great Britain recently
led to discussion concerning the propriety
of promoting the Irish bird to the dignity
of a species ; but the weight of opinion
was in favour of regarding it as identical
with the British bird. Local conditions
of food and climate often produce these
slight differences in tinge which lure the
ardent among the ornithological brother-
hood to creation of new, unnecessary
species.
The Coal Tit breeds in March or
94 COAL OR COLE TIT
April ; the time depending much on
latitude. The materials used are, as in
the case of the last two, moss, wool and
feathers, with such additions as the re-
sources of the neighbourhood may offer ;
as deer's hair and rabbit's fur. The site
varies ; it may be a hole in tree or wall,
in a bank, on the level ground, or inside
the burrow of a rabbit or the hole of a
mouse or mole. The eggs, from seven
to eleven in number, are white, dotted
with pale red.
This member of the family is addicted
to hunting on the ground. The food
consists of insects, seeds and nuts, while
COAL OR COLE TIT 95
green caterpillars are in request for the
nursery. Opportunity serving, the Coal
Tit shows partiality for hemp seed, and
like his familiar relatives, appreciates
cocoa-nut. The note is shrill and some-
what loud for a bird so small.
LONG-TAILED TIT
(Acredula Caudata, Linn.)
^HIS also is a tolerably common species
wherever copse, woodland, or thorn -
brake offers breeding resort. If there be
water at hand the bird seems to show
preference for a nesting site in its vicinity.
The distinction conferred by the long tail
renders any detailed description of this
Tit unnecessary. Five and a half inches
long, he is a study in black, white, and
brown, with a pinkish tinge on the lower
back, belly, and flanks.
Nesting begins late in March, or early
in April ; a favourite situation is some
LONG-TAILED TIT 97
thick bush, thorn, holly, or furze at from
three to perhaps eight feet from the
ground ; but the nest may be hidden in a
mass of brambles or stick-heap. It is a
beautiful piece of workmanship, moss,
wool, spiders' webs closely felted together
into an oval which is often flattened ; and
adorned as to the exterior with grey
lichens for its better concealment. A
mass of soft feathers forms the lining.
The recognised style of architecture pro-
vides for a comparatively small hole in
the side near the top ; but I have found
nests with the entrance occupying prac-
tically the whole diameter and practically
98 LONG-TAILED TIT
on the summit ; an arrangement in fact
which justifies exactly the name " feather
poke" bestowed upon the architect. An
old nest is sometimes repaired for re-
n/\ occupation.
The Long-tailed Tit lays from seven to
ten eggs, but as many as sixteen have
been found under circumstances which
pointed to their being the property of
the same hen. For there is some doubt
concerning the matrimonial system in
Long-tailed Tit circles ; two hens and a
cock have been seen working on the same
nest ; and three birds have been seen
occupying the same nest ; it is therefore
LONG-TAILED TIT 99
an open question whether the bird is
always strictly monogamous. When the
young birds leave the nest they remain in
company until some time after they can
fly : you may see the whole family un-
dulating in Indian file from bush to bush
with their curious dipping flight, or
perching, a compact row, upon some
twig. Two broods are reared in the
season.
The food consists of scale and other
insects, and their larvae. The note re-
sembles that of the Blue Tit, but is more
sibilant.
CRESTED TIT
(Par us Cri status. Linn.)
rpHIS is the rarest of the Tit family in
Britain. It is a Scottish bird and
extremely local at that, breeding in the
old pine woods of Strathspey and, it is
believed, nowhere else. A shade smaller
than the Blue Tit, the black and grey
crest distinguishes him from others, but
at a little distance, the general blue-grey
effect of his plumage lends him curious
likeness to the Blue Tit. The cock erects
his crest when he sings, to do which he
ascends to a tree-top.
The Crested Tit nests during the latter
CRESTED TIT 101
part of April ; any rotten stump or de-
cayed tree will serve his purpose ; if the
hole is not quite suitable he enlarges it
The site may be eight or ten feet from
the ground, but an attractive hole a foot
above earth or one twenty feet up may
harbour the nest. He is a bird of sociable
disposition and two nests may be found
in the same branch. The materials are
moss, wool, deer's hair, and fur, closely
felted together. The eggs, from five to
eight in number, are white, boldly spotted
or belted with pale red. Two broods are
sometimes reared in the season. I have
watched this bird in the old forests of
102 CRESTED TIT
Normandy where he is fairly common ;
he is much addicted to hunting among
the dead pine-needles on the ground for
the insects and seeds which form, with
larvae and berries, his staple diet. He
has a curious habit of twitching his tail
sideways, a motion which makes it easy
to identify him in a bad light. In winter
he frequently consorts with other Tits and
Golden- Crested Wrens.
MARSH TIT
(Parus Palustrts, Linn.)
^HIS also is a very local species. It
occurs in various parts of England
and Wales, and in Scotland south of the
Forth ; but is nowhere common. A little
larger than the Blue Tit, this bird is to be
known by the glossy black head; back
olive brown, the wings and tail ash-brown,
and the under parts dull white. He is
not very happily named ; he has liking
for a home in the alder or pollard willow
to be found on swampy soil, but is in
nowise wedded to marsh-land, affecting
also orchard, garden, and wood. The
104 MARSH TIT
nest, built from mid-April to May, is
hidden in a hole in some tree, often en
larged by the bird who discreetly removes
the chips that might betray; it has always
the narrowest of entrances. The materials
are moss, wool, fur, and hair felted
together : willow-down is often used as
lining. The eggs, from five to eight in
number, are white, dotted with dull red.
The note may be written "sis, sis, sis,
seee"; but when alarmed the bird utters
a rapid and metallic "tay, tay, tay, tay."
The food consists largely of scale insects
(Coccidce) obtained from the bark of
trees. The Marsh Tit is a muscular
MARSH TIT 105
little bird and is in the habit of prising off
flakes of pine bark in search of quarry.
Beech-mast is much to his taste, and he
will hold a beech-nut in his claw, after
the manner of the parrot, to peck out the
contents. Berries of various kinds appeal
to him, and hemp-seed is an attraction
which will secure his punctual attendance
at winter meals in the garden.
HEN is a Tit not a Tit? When it is
a Bearded Tit. Science investi-
gating his little inside, finds in his digestive
organs and other internal arrangements
evidence which prove him no Tit, but the
representative of a distant family in no
way related to the ancient family of
Titmice. They are of the Paridce; he is
the one British member of the Panuridce,
and stands apart. Unfortunately, he
stands apart in more senses than one;
aforetime he was fairly common in the
meres and fen-lands of the eastern counties,
BEARDED TIT 107
but drainage has spoiled his old haunts,
from the Bearded Tit's point of view, and
now he is not known to breed elsewhere
than in the Broads district of Norfolk.
As a visitor, he occurs rarely in some
other parts of England; thirty years ago
he haunted the reed-beds of the Hamp-
shire Avon.
The Bearded Tit nests in April; the
site is among sedges on fallen reeds, or
other water plants, and is built of the dry
leaves of the common reed, whose flowers
are used for the lining. The eggs, from five
to seven in number are cream white, with
tiny reddish-brown scratches. It some-
108 BEARDED TIT
times happens that two hens will occupy
the same nest and share the task of
incubation. Two broods are reared in the
season, the second appearing as late as
August.
He is a lovely bird, tawny brown from
his head to the end of his long tail, above;
dove-grey warming into pink, below. The
feature that gives him his name is the long
triangular black patch which from between
eye and beak tapers to a point well down
on the side of the neck. The cock is
easily distinguished by the black cheek
patches and, when seen upside down
engaged in gymnastics among the reeds
BEARDED TIT 109
by the jet black under tail-coverts ; these
adornments are lacking in the hen. The
length is about six and three-quarter
inches.
The note is quite unlike that of any
Tit, being a clear, musical "ping ping."
The bird in winter lives on the seed of
the reeds in which it makes its home ;
at that season assembling in companies
of forty or fifty. "In summer," says Mr.
Howard Saunders, "the crops of in-
dividuals have been found packed with
such small shell-bearing molluscs as
Succinea amphibia." His local name is
"Reed Pheasant."
STARLING
(Sturnus Vulgaris, Linn.)
^HIS bird just stops short of migration
in winter. Great numbers of our
home-bred Starlings move westward in
autumn, seeking the milder climate of the
south and west of Ireland; and our own
stock is reinforced by hosts of birds from
the north.
He is one of our commonest birds and
perhaps the most useful. One authority
has said of him that he spends his whole
life in good works; that is the voice of
the agriculturist; for the Starling con-
sumes vast quantities of harmful grubs,
STARLING
noticeably those of the cockchafer and
daddylonglegs, and such pests as the
wireworm. Other birds would speak less
cordially of him; for he is an inveterate
egg- stealer, and has a depraved appetite
for young nestlings. I hesitate to write a
word in dispraise of a character, by con-
sent accepted as exemplary; but the
Starling has been detected eating fruit.
When first I saw him pecking at apples I
gave him credit for anxiety to relieve them
of grub or maggot; but closest examina-
tion of the fallen fruit failed to reveal sign
that it had harboured such. Let us not
insist overmuch on misdeed ; he is, with
112 STARLING
his faults, the best bird-friend of the
farmer.
The Starling breeds early. The nest,
an untidy shapeless mass of straw and
grass, lined, it may be, with some wool or
feathers, or both, is frequently placed in
some hollow tree ; but the site is a mere
matter of convenience; the chimney is a
favourite retreat; the cup of water-pipe,
a hole in the roof, crevice under eaves, or
beam in barn or outhouse — all have merits
in the eyes of the Starling. Where trees
and buildings are few he will nest in a
turf-stack or on the ground itself. The
hen lays from four to seven pale blue eggs,
STARLING
113
and she will rear two, three, or even more
broods in the season.
After the moult Starlings congregate in
great flocks, and remain in company
throughout the winter, roosting together
in the same wood or shrubbery every
night. At this time they are much
addicted to executing, at a considerable
height in the air, evolutions which advertise
the extraordinary singleness of mind that
animates birds in a flock.
The song of the Starling is pleasing,
but he is so determined a mimic it is
really a little difficult to say what his
natural song is; moreover, his utterances
114 STARLING
often suggest less intention to imitate
another bird than resolve to strike out an
entirely new line of his own. No British
bird is more easily reared by hand and
few are more easily tamed.
ROSE-COLOURED PASTOR
(Pastor Roseus Linn.)
'yHIS beautiful bird, arrayed in black,
white and rose-pink, with long crest,
is an accidental visitor from Eastern
Europe. Its occasional appearances
having, as a rule, occurred in summer.
WREN
(Troglodytes Parvulus, K. L. Koch).
HIS bird is resident and immigrant.
There is no reason to suppose that
any of our British-born Wrens go abroad
in winter, but the autumn brings large
flights of their kin to this country from
northern latitudes. The Wren is every-
where common, and everywhere restless:
he seems never to be still; his life is one
of perpetual motion, hopping, flitting,
gliding, and creeping mouse-like in the
hedge-row. He is essentially a bird of
the hedge-row; he shuns the open and
WREN 117
has his being in the hedge, always within
a foot or two of the ground.
Nesting begins at the end of March or
early in April. Wrens have no cast-iron
prejudices in the matter of site; they will
build in bush, stump, ivy or hedge; in hole
in bank, wall, stack, or thatch — almost
any situation, provided it be tolerably safe
from observation, will satisfy the Wren.
The nest, large for the size of the bird, is
made of moss or dry grass and leaves, and
the interior maybe furnished with feathers;
but fine grass is often used for the lining.
As to shape, we cannot improve upon
Turner's description: — "The nest has the
118 WREN
form of an upright egg, while in the
middle of one side there is a little postern
as it were, by which the bird goes in and
out." The Wren has a peculiar habit of
leaving one nest half finished and building
a new one, which may or may not be near
the abandoned structure. This practice
has never been explained ; it may be the
outcome of the particular wariness attri
buted to the bird; tradition maintaining
that Wrens will forsake their nests, un-
finished or complete, if they believe
themselves observed. Such unfinished
structures are called "cock-nests," and
picturesque rural legend has it that they
WREN
119
are built by the cock bird for his own
private lodging, removed, we may assume,
from family cares. This legend has a
basis of truth in it; inasmuch as such
nests are occupied on cold winter nights
by small parties of Wrens seeking warmth
and shelter; but since nests which have
been used as nurseries are used in the
same way we may not assign definite
purpose to the "cock-nest." This un-
completed nest is sometimes taken in
hand and finished for occupation by a
family in a subsequent year.
The hen usually lays from six to eight
eggs; but as many as sixteen young have
120 WREN
been found. The eggs are white dotted
with red. Two broods are reared in the
season.
The food of the Wren consists for the
most part of insects, for which the bird
may be seen hunting in its mouse-like
fashion among dead leaves; in winter,
seeds, crumbs and other matters are gladly
accepted.
The Wren's voice is loud and powerful
out of proportion to his size; he sings
practically all the year round, save during
the moult. The alarm note is a sharp
" click."
TREE CREEPERS
THE BODLEY HEAD
NATURAL HISTORY
BY E. D. CUMING
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
BY J. A. SHEPHERD
VOLUME II. BRITISH
BIRDS. PASSERES
LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY
TORONTO: BELL AND COCKBURN. MCMXIV
Printed 5v
W-W- CURTIS BS
CBcyles more R-ess
Coventry
CONTENTS
Order — PASSERES
Family : Turdidce
Sub-Family : Sylviincz
Page
Whitethroat (Sylvia cinerea) - - 17
Lesser Whitethroat (S. curruca) - 22
Orphean Warbler (S. orphea) - 25
Blackcap (S. atricapilla) - - 21
Garden Warbler (S. hortensis) - 32
Barred Warbler (S. Nisoria) - 36
Subalpine Warbler (S. subalpina) 37
Dartford Warbler (S. undata) - 38
Golden Crested Wren
(Regulus cristatus) - - 43
CONTENTS— continued.
Page
Fire Crested Wren
(/?. ignicapillus) - - 49
Yellow-Browed Warbler
(Phylloscopus superciliosus) 52
Pallas's Willow Warbler
(P. proregulus) - - 53
Greenish Willow Warbler
(P. viridanus) - - - 53
Chiffchaff (P. rufus) 54
Willow Wren (P. trochilus) - - 58
Wood Wren (P. sibilatrix) - - 64
Rufous Warbler
(Aedon galactodes) - - 68
Radde's Bush Warbler
(Luscintola schwarzi) - 69
Icterine Warbler
{Hypolais icterina) - - 69
CONTENTS— continued.
Page
Melodious Warbler
(H. polyglotta) - - 69
Reed Warbler
(Acrocephalus streperus) - 71
Great Reed Warbler
(A. turdoides) - - 77
Marsh Warbler (A. palustris) - 78
Sedge Warbler (A. phragrnitis) - 83
Aquatic Warbler (A. aquaticus) 89
Savi's Warbler
(Locustella luscinioides) - 89
Grasshopper Warbler (L. ncevia) - 91
Sub-family : Accentorince
Hedge Accentor {Accentor tnodularis) 97
Alpine Accentor (A. collaris) - 103
CONTENTS— continued.
Family : Cinclidce
Page
Dipper (Cinclus Aquaticus) - 104
Family : Sittidce
Nuthatch (Sitta cczsia) - - - 110
Family Certhiidce
Tree-creeper (Certhia familiar is) - 117
Wall-creeper
(Tichodroma muraria) - 122
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
VJR. SHEPHERD'S illustrations to this
volume do not aim so much at scientific
accuracy as at giving a general impression of
the character, habits, and appearance of the
animal depicted. It is believed that in this
respect they will be found certainly more
artistic and probably more suggestive than
elaborate plates or even photographs. All
the studies with the exception only of those
of one or two very rare birds are drawn from
life. The design of the book being decora-
tive as well as instructive it has been found
impossible in the reproductions to keep the
sizes of the animals proportionate to one
another, so that in this respect the studies
of each animal must be taken as relative
only to themselves.
ORDER
PASSERES
WHITETHROAT
(Sylvia cinerea; Bechstein.)
^HE "Nettlecreeper," to give him his
popular name, usually arrives from
the south about the second week in April,
and loses no time in spreading all over the
Kingdom, even to the Outer Hebrides; he
is, however, only a rare visitor to the
Shetlands.
The Whitethroat is easily identified by
the peculiarity from which his name is
derived: he is about 5 J inches long: the
head and neck of the adult male are smoke
grey; the mantle, back and wings rusty
brown; tail-feathers the same, save the
outer pair which are dull white, and the
18 WHITETHROAT
next pair which have broad white tips ; the
chin and throat pure white fading into buff
on the breast; abdomen brownish white;
legs pale brown. The hen's plumage is
somewhat duller.
Breeding begins in May : at this
juncture the bird utters a note comparable
to the sound of a fishing reel and totally
different from his song. The nest, which
is commonly placed low down in some
tangle of bramble and nettles, thorn thicket,
or overgrown hedgerow, suggests that the
sprightly, restless builder learned the first
principles of nest-making and no more.
It is a fairly deep cup of fine threads of
hay lined with bents and horse-hair, but
WHITETHROAT 19
the structure is of the slenderest; you
can see through it as through a loosely
woven basket. Occasionally a Whitethroat
of unusual forethought, or, let us suppose,
one which remembers the sufferings of his
youth in a draughty nest of orthodox
pattern, appropriates the nest of thrush or
blackbird as soon as the brood has flown :
this is relined; or, it were better to say, the
orthodox nest is built inside it. Young
Whitethroats reared in such a dwelling are
fortunate; the practice might with advan-
tage be more widely adopted. The eggs,
from four to six in number, are pale
greenish white, blotched and spotted with
violet, grey and pale brown : the egg has
20
WHITETHROAT
a peculiar translucency ; it is as though
the shell were a cloudy soap bubble.
One brood is reared in the season. If the
hen be disturbed she glides off the nest and
vanishes stealthily in the herbage, while
the cock expresses resentment at the
intrusion after his own fashion, following
the offender along the hedge or from bush
to bush, with head feathers bristling, out-
spread tail quivering, and sometimes, says
Mr. Howard Saunders, "shooting almost
perpendicularly up in the air." The song
is sweet but monotonous; often uttered
with great vigour for brief snatches and,
in May and June, to be heard at any hour
of the twenty-four in mild weather: the
WHITETHROAT 21
bird often sings on the wing as he flits
from perch to perch. The food consists
of insects, which are often caught flying,
and their larvae : later in the summer,
berries and fruit are eaten and soft green
corn; individuals have been known to eat
the growing peas.
The Whitethroat starts for the south
early in September.
In some parts of the country the bird is
called the "Hay-chat" after the most
conspicuous materials used in the nest.
LESSER WHITETHROAT
(Sylvia curruca ; Linn.)
HIS species arrives about the same
time as its larger cousin ; it is less
common and less generally distributed,
being rare and local north of York-
shire, and also in Cornwall. North
of the Forth it is a very uncommon
visitor and in Ireland it is practically
unknown.
r'p In person the Lesser Whitethroat is
^-.{ much like the other, but the head is
^ a much darker grey and the back and
tail are greyish brown : and while the
two outer tail feathers are white the
next pair lack the broad white tips that
LESSER WHITETHROAT
23
distinguish those of the Whitethroat.
Also the legs are short and stout, and are
slate-colour. The bird is only about a
quarter of an inch shorter from beak-tip
to tail-end than the last species, and it is
not easy to distinguish between them
except in the hand. The nest and nest-
ing site are much the same as those of
the Whitethroat ; but a place in a hazel
hedge is often preferred, whence the
Lancashire name " Hazel Linnet." The
five or six eggs are creamy white with
spots and blotches of grey and brown
superimposed, principally at the larger
end; they are a little smaller than the
eggs of the Whitethroat. The hen is
24 LESSER WHITETHROAT
braver than the larger bird and will sit
very closely when disturbed.
Mr. Charles Dixon says he has fre-
quently noticed that the Lesser White-
throat will desert the beginnings of nest
after nest for no obvious reason, as is the
habit of the Wren.
By comparison with the larger White-
throat he is shy and retiring; he might be
overlooked but for his song, a succession
of high notes of the same pitch. As
Mr. Warde Fowler says; "the smaller
bird, less seen and less showy, makes his
presence felt in almost every lane and
meadow by the brilliancy of his song."
He sings, as he lives, in seclusion, and,
LESSER WHITETHROAT
25
unlike the last, continues singing till late
in the summer. The food is the same
as the Whitethroat's, but this bird may
be seen searching the leaves for insect
prey in a fashion of his own ; he, too, will
take insects on the wing.
The Lesser Whitethroat remains later
in England than the last species : he does
not start for the south until the end of
September, and exceptional cases of his
remaining till November are on record.
Orphean Warbler (Sylvia orfihea;
Temminck.) Very rarely a member of
this south European species finds its way
to this country. That it has bred in
26 LESSER WHITETHROAT
England was proved in 1866 by the
capture of a nestling unable to fly:
the last of the half dozen authenticated
occurrences, was that of a hen bird killed
near St. Leonards on 7th August, 1903.
BLACKCAP
(Sylvia atricapilla; Linn.)
JN this migrant we have a songster only
second to the nightingale. Arriving in
mid April, sometimes about the first week
of the month, the Blackcap takes up his
quarters in England, Wales and the south
of Scotland; he breeds as far north as the
firths of Forth and Clyde, but beyond that
limit is seldom known to nest; in Ireland,
his occurrence anywhere as a breeding
species is a matter for remark, but the
bird has never been known to nest further
north than the co. Dublin. In England
he is tolerably widely distributed, but is
somewhat local.
28 BLACKCAP
The Blackcap is easily recognised among
warblers by the jet black head from which
he takes his name; the neck is ashen grey,
the back, wings and tail ash-brown ; chin
greyish white ; throat, breast and flanks
ash-grey ; legs and feet lead coloured. In
the hen the black cap is replaced by one
of bright reddish brown. Nesting begins
at the end of April or during the first week
of May; the sight is in thicket, hedge,
gorse or holly. Mr. Howard Saunders has
remarked a preference for privet hedges ;
^ but the tree, bush, or hedge must be in, or
=, close to, a wood or shrubbery. The nest,
a small, neat structure of dry grass lined
with horsehair, is usually within three feet
BLACKCAP 29
of the ground, but it may be found as
much as ten feet up. The eggs, four or
five in number, are extremely variable in
colouration; the commonest are pale
yellowish brown, blotched and spotted
with darker brown ; sometimes the clutch
consists of eggs whose ground colour is
cream with markings of lilac and grey : the
most beautiful are the cream suffused with
pink blotched with warm reddish brown
and lilac in different shades superimposed.
The red tinge in this variety lends them a
distinction of their own.
Two broods are reared in the season.
The cock takes a share in the hatching,
usually doing his turn of duty during the
30 BLACKCAP
day Mr Chas Dixon says he has seen
the bird in the act of singing as he sat on
the nest. The young cocks assume the
black cap after the first moult.
The bird sings by night as well as by
day, whereby the song is sometimes mis-
taken for that of the nightingale; an error
not to be repeated after the latter has been
heard. More often and more excusably
the song of the Blackcap is mistaken for
that of the Garden Warbler. From the
last it may be distinguished, as Mr. Warde
Fowler points out, by the fact that the
Blackcap's song " is one lengthened
phrase," whereas the Garden Warbler will
go on almost continuously for many
BLACKCAP 31
minutes: also it may be added the Black-
cap's notes are more mellow. The food
consists of insects, which are often caught
on the wing, of wild berries and fruit in their
seasons. Mr. O. V. Aplin noted the con-
sumption of holly berries for several days by
a bird which he first observed on 5th April.
Soft fruit, more especially raspberries, are
favourites of the Blackcap; also redcurrants.
The general movement southward takes
place in September, the time varying in
accord with the nature of the season.
The bird has been known to winter with
us : he has been seen as late in the year as
the end of November, and as early as the
5th March after a severe winter.
GARDEN WARBLER
(Sylvia hortensis ; Bechstein.)
T^HIS bird arrives about the end of
April or beginning of May. It is
generally, but locally, distributed through-
out England and Wales, save in the ex-
treme west; has been known to nest as
far north as Perthshire, and occurs as
a breeding species in the south-western
parts of Ireland. With regard to the fact
that it is locally common and locally rare,
it is to be observed that between this bird
and the Blackcap appears to be antagonism.
Garden Warblers are often numerous in
districts where the Blackcap is scarce, and
scarce where the Blackcap is common.
GARDEN WARBLER 33
The bird is about 5f inches in length.
The upper parts from head to tail are
olive-brown ; the quills of the wing some-
what darker ; the eye is set in a streak of
buffish white ; the underside is "huffish
white darkening upwards to the flanks.
The hen is a little lighter than the cock.
Nesting begins in early May and the
eggs are laid from the middle of the
month onward. The nest is made of dry
grass or hay rather loosely put together
round what may be called the inner nest ;
on the latter the bird bestows much better
workmanship ; the cup, of finer grass,
sometimes mingled with a few horsehairs,
is closely woven and beautifully rounded.
34 GARDEN WARBLER
The site is a foot or two from the ground
in bramble bushes, thick shrubs, low
thorns, or sometimes in a large and un-
cared-for gooseberry bush ; but always
well concealed. The eggs, four or five in
number, vary a good deal ; they may be
white or greenish white in ground colour,
marbled and blotched with various shades
of brown often superimposed; the brown
of the markings may be olive, dark, or
or buff, but never, Mr. Howard Saunders
points out, suffused with the red that
sometimes lends the Blackcap's egg its
great beauty. The markings very com-
monly wear the appearance of having
been burned in with a blunt, thick wire,
GARDEN WARBLER 35
gradually spreading and fading from a
spot of intense colour. Only one brood
is reared in the season ; the young birds
are rather more greenish olive as to the
upper parts than their parents.
The Garden Warbler resembles the
Lesser Whitethroat in his retiring habits ;
by preference he keeps out of sight and is
far more often heard than seen, for when
singing he takes up his station where the
leaves hide him. Less than any of the
Warblers does he court public notice ;
his soft, melodious song conveys the im-
pression that he is exercising a modest
talent for the gratification of his mate
and none other. His food is very much
36 GARDEN WARBLER
the same as that of the Blackcap, but
liberal use of the caterpillar of the white
cabbage butterfly for the nestlings has
been remarked. At the end of September
Garden Warblers leave for the south; it is
worth noticing that this species is found in
Cape Colony during our winter months ;
but it would not be safe to conclude that
these are the individual birds which sum-
mer in England.
Barred Warbler (Sylvia nisoria;
Bechstein). The summer home of this
bird is south eastern Europe, Persia and
Turkestan. During the last thirty years,
or thereabout, some fifteen specimens have
GARDEN WARBLER 37
been identified in the British Islands. The
fact that all were taken between August
and November suggests the probability
that they were birds which had gone
astray while returning to winter quarters.
Subalpine Warbler ( Sylvia subalpina;
Bonelli). The claim of this little bird to
inclusion in the British list rests on a
single specimen shot on St. Kilda in June,
1894. This is a south European warbler
whose nearest breeding quarters are the
south eastern parts of France and Savoy.
A strong southerly gale was held to
explain its presence in a a spot so remote
as St. Kilda.
DARTFORD WARBLER
( Sylvia undata ; Boddaert.)
^HIS warbler, which owes its name to
the fact that it was first identified from
a specimen shot near Dartford, in 1773,
was for long regarded as rare ; but with
the increase of competent observers its
/\ comparative plenty has been established.
u It is most often found in the southern
counties where it is resident throughout
the year, but is apparently extending its
breeding range northward and west-
ward. Norfolk is the most northerly
county in which the bird has been
known with certainty to nest, but like
its relatives it is of retiring habit and
DARTFORD WARBLER 39
may be easily overlooked in the breeding
season.
The adult male is about five inches
long ; his upper parts are dark slate-
grey ; the short and rounded wings are
dark brown ; the tail, which is long and
somewhat sparse, has the two outermost
feathers margined on the outer edge with
white and tipped with white. The length
of the tail feathers increases to the middle
pair. From chin to breast the colour is
rufous chestnut during the breeding
season ; in autumn spots and streaks of
white appear ; the belly is dull white.
Nesting begins in April and continues
until well on in July. The nest, which is
40 DARTFORD WARBLER
built in furze or in heather, deep down
near the ground, is described by Mr. R.
B. Wilson as something like that of the
Whitethroat, but smaller ; one found in a
furze bush consisted of sprays of young
and tender furze, moss, bents and spiders'
webs ; its principal resemblance to the
Whitethroat's nest lies in the method of
construction ; it is so loosely put together
that the light can be seen through. A
little wool is sometimes used for the lining.
Seemingly the bird distrusts the strength
of the nest for the second brood which is
reared in June or July ; since for this a
new one is built, rather more flimsy than
the former. The first clutch is laid early
DARTFORD WARBLER 41
in May ; the eggs are four or five in num-
ber, greenish white, with olive or brown
markings. The food is much the same as
that of the other Warblers, but moths
appear to figure more largely in the bill of
daily fare.
The Dartford Warbler may be seen
flitting from bush to bush on the com-
mons, with quick, undulating flight ; the
method of alighting is characteristic ; it
has been described as looking "as if the
action were the result of an afterthought,"
and this affords the easiest method of
identifying the bird. The note is syllabised
as "pit-it-chou" ; when alarmed or angry
a scolding "cha-cha." When winter
42 DARTFORD WARBLER
approaches the Dartford Warbler leaves
the commons, and resorts to the sea coast
where it affects fields, gardens and
orchards. At this season the birds loses
much of its shyness and frequently falls a
prey to the cottage cat. In hard winters
GOLDEN CRESTED WREN
(Regulus cristatus ; K. L. Kock.)
'yHIS, the smallest of European birds, is
a resident, and its numbers in winter
are augumented by swarms, often of extra-
ordinary magnitude, from Scandinavia and
the north. The bird breeds everywhere
in the Kingdom save in the Outer Hebrides,
Orkneys and Shetlands ; and no doubt
would do so in those islands did they offer
the necessary conveniences in the shape of
fir woods.
There is no mistaking the Golden
Crested Wren ; about inches long with
yellowish olive-green neck and back, we
need look no further than his brilliant
44 GOLDEN CRESTED WREN
head ; the greyish white forehead is sur-
mounted by a dark brown frontal streak
which deepens into a black line below
each side of the adornment from which he
derives his name — the crest, brilliant yellow
in front and rich orange further back ; these
colours being set in high relief by the black
lines. The hen's crest is lemon colour
with narrower black streaks on either side.
The Gold Crest is an early breeder ;
nest-building begins in the second half of
March, and the nest is often ready by the
end of the month. It is one of the most
beautiful nests built by any British bird,
and large for the size of the owner; neatly
, constructed of soft moss, felted with
GOLDEN CRESTED WREN
45
spiders' webs, wool and lichens, it is lined
with soft feathers; deep and almost spheri-
cal, it is usually hung under the end of
fir, yew, or cedar branch. Exceptionally
it is placed on the bough ; cases of nesting
in ivy against a wall and even in a low
bush are recorded. The eggs, from five
to eight— occasionally more — in number,
are white, faintly dotted, or freckled with
reddish brown. One brood is reared in
the season.
The food consists of insects, seeking
which the bird spends much time hunting
the bark of trees, more especially firs ; an
active restless little fowl, he draws atten-
tion to his doings as he flits from one to
46
GOLDEN CRESTED WREN
another uttering his insect-like " si-si-si."
His voice is weak, but he uses it incessantly
on fine days. He is sociable, and frequently
hunts in company with tits as well as his
own species, particularly in winter.
It is in autumn that the Gold Crest
attracts most notice. The migrating
hosts sometimes appear on our shores in
early August, but the usual time of arrival
is from September to October. A memor-
able year was 1882; the "migration wave"
began on the 6th August and continued
for 92 days reaching from the Channel to
the Faroes. In 1892, after it had been
blowing half a gale from the east from the
early morning of 14th Oct. to the morning
GOLDEN CRESTED WREN
47
of the 16th, Mr. John Cordeaux thus
described the autumn influx: — "During
this time the immigration was immense;
greatest in number were the golden-crested
wrens. First I heard their notes on
opening my window on the morning of the
14th and soon saw some in the garden
below; they swarmed in every hedgerow;
but on Saturday the 15th the number had
enormously increased. Gold crests every-
where, in hedges and gardens, dead thorns
and hedge-trimming, rubbish heaps, beds
of nettles, and dead umbelliferse, the reeds
in ditches, sides of haystacks, and the
thorn fences of sheds and yards. The
sallow thorns were densely crowded, many
48 GOLDEN CRESTED WREN
found shelter in the long sea-grass, and
others again crouched on the bare rain-
swept sands between the sea and the dunes.
Many might have been taken with a
butterfly net."
Inasmuch as exhausted birds sometimes
settle in swarms on the rigging of vessels
in the North Sea, it is certain that many
are lost on the journey over. It is pro-
bable that the case of the short-eared owl
which was seen to land on the Yorkshire
coast carrying a Gold Crest on his back
was not isolated. The return journey is
made in April.
FIRE CRESTED WREN
(Regulus ignicapillus : C. L. Brehm J.
HIS near relative of the last species is
an irregular but by no mean infrequent
visitor. Its true home — if the breeding area
of a migrant be its true home — is south and
central Europe, Algeria and Asia Minor; in
the Taurus range of the last named country
it is commoner than the Gold Crest.
This bird is a very little larger than
cristatus but otherwise is so like that
until you have him in your hand it is
impossible to distinguish between the two.
At close quarters the differences are easily
recognised ; looking at the Fire Crest in
profile, the black bands on mantle and
D
50 FIRE CRESTED WREN
head proclaim him : one black streak runs
from the corner of the beak to the neck ;
another runs from the corner of the beak
through the eye; and above the cheek is
y <f a wider black band which forms the frame,
as it were, of the rich orange crest. The
hen is smaller than the cock, and her
crest is lemon yellow with narrower black
streaks on either side.
Instances of this bird's nesting in Britain
are few. The last I can trace was recorded
in 1906 by the Rev. D. D. Mackinnon,
who saw, near Portree in Skye, the hen
sitting on her nest in a small fir tree about
five feet from the ground.
It was subsequently stated that three
FIRE CRESTED WREN
51
other pairs were nesting in the same
neighbourhood. Mr. Mackinnon saw the
bird sitting on the 19th May.
The nest is very like that of the Gold
Crest ; the eggs, seven to ten in number,
have a much more reddish tinge in the
ground colour and redder freckling. Mr.
Howard Saunders, who observed both Fire
Crest and Gold Crest in the Pyrenees,
noticed that the former was much more
erratic and restless in its movements than
the latter ; "darting away suddenly after
a very short stay upon the gorse bush or
tree where it was feeding, and being often
seen alone or in parties of two or three at
most ; whereas the Gold Crests, five or
4
9
1'
52 FIRE CRESTED WREN
six together, would work steadily round
the same bush, and, if I remained quiet,
would stop there for many minutes."
Yellow-browed Warbler (Phyllos-
copus superciliosns ; /. F. Gmelin).
About a dozen examples of this bird have
been taken in Great Britain and Ireland
since it was first identified in 1838. It is
believed to breed in the pine forests of X.E.
Siberia. Its rare occurence so far afield
as our own country invite the conjecture
that individual birds may on occasion lose
their mysterious sense of orientation when
migrating. The specimens taken in the
British Islands were all recorded in the
FIRE CRESTED WREN 53
autumn, when Yellow-browed Warblers
would be moving south.
Pallas's Willow Warbler (Phyllos-
copus proregulus ; Pallas.) A single speci-
men of this, also an east Siberian, species
has been taken in England — a hen shot
in October, 1896, on the Norfolk coast.
Greenish Wi llo w- Warble r ( Phyllos-
copus viridanus ; Blyth.) The claims of
this species to mention rest again upon
the discovery of one hen-bird taken in
Lincolnshire in September, 1896, after an
easterly gale. Its summer home is on and
beyond the Urals.
CHIFFCHAFF
(Phylloscopus rufus ; Bechstein.)
^HIS little bird is the earliest of our
spring arrivals, appearing, in favourable
seasons, during the first days of March.
A Chiffchaff was seen at Penzance on gth
February in 1906, but as a few of the
species remain with us the winter through,
particularly in sheltered corners of Devon
and Cornwall, this individual, no doubt
was one of those which had never been
away. The bird is most frequent in the
South and Midland Counties; it is scarce
in the north and is only known as a
straggler in the Outer Hebrides and
Orkneys; it is very common in all wooded
CHIFFCHAFF
55
districts of Ireland. The notable thing
about this bird (the next species also) is
the slender graceful figure ; in spring the
upper parts are olive-green, brightening to
yellowish on the rump ; the wing coverts,
quills and tail feathers are dull brown
edged with olive-green ; and the under
parts are dull white, tinged with greenish
buff. There is a pale yellow streak above
the eye which fades into white behind the
ear coverts. The plumage becomes
markedly yellower after the moult.
The Chiffchaff begins to build in April ;
the rather loosely constructed nest is
placed close to the ground in some clump
of rough herbage, ferns, or kindred site ;
56 CHIFFCHAFF
but in exceptional cases it has been found
at a much higher elevation. The nest,
built of dry grass, leaves and moss, is oval
with a rather wide entrance in the upper
quarter ; there is always a profuse lining
of soft feathers. The eggs, usually six,
are white with purplish brown or reddish
spots which sometimes overlie blotches of
warm grey. Two broods are reared in
the season. The Chifrchaff lives entirely
on insects and their larvae. The speech
of the bird — for we may not call it a song
— consists of two loud sharp notes, not
badly expressed by his name, sometimes
varied, Mr. A. H. Palmer has remarked,
by a kind of chirp like that of the grass-
hopper but less shrill. Gilbert White
CHIFFCHAFF
observes that the two notes are " so loud
in hollow woods as to occasion an echo."
The note is seldom heard after the end of
May, but is uttered again in the autumn.
It is unusual to hear the note in October,
but in 1893 it was remarked in Kent on
the 3rd of that month, and in Co. Carlow
on the 1st. The Chiffchaff does not court
observation ; his voice may be heard from
the seclusion of tall trees; groves of elms
and larches, Mr. Howard Saunders says,
being peculiarly attractive to him.
The southward movement begins in
September. As already said, a few cour-
ageous individual remain the winter
through; but courage is akin to indiscre-
tion in so delicate a bird.
WILLOW WREN
(Phylloscopus trochilus ; Linn.)
QTHERWISE Willow Warbler; a
name to which he has more claim
than many so-called warblers, but of that
anon. He arrives about a month later
than the Chiffchaff, usually appearing in
the southern counties during the first
week of April. He is more common and
more generally distributed than the last
species, and, by reason of his fearlessness,
much better known. Sit still and the
Willow Wren may come within arm's
length ; I have had one enter the balcony
and perch on my foot ; but that was in
Norway where all birds are more confiding
WILLOW WREN 59
than in this country, possibly because a
prolonged winter increases dependence
upon man. The Willow Wren is common
on the mainland of Scotland, but only
occurs as an occasional visitor in the
western and northern groups of islands ;
the fact that these strays most often appear
in the autumn suggests that they may be
migrants from Scandinavia which have
been blown out of their southward course.
The bird is very common in Ireland.
In size he rather exceeds the Chiffchaff,
being about 4f inches long ; but otherwise
the resemblance between the two is so
close that one may be mistaken for the
other ; both are slender graceful little birds
60 WILLOW WREN
and the colour scheme is much the same ;
the margins of the tail and wing feathers
are more yellowish than in the Chiffchaff,
and the underparts are yellowish white.
After the moult the general impression is
of yellowT ; particularly in the bird of the
year, whose dress recalls that of a canary.
Domestic affairs are begun in the latter
part of April ; the nest itself is like that
of the Chiffchaff but is placed on the
ground, not clear of it ; and it is very
hard to find without the owner's guidance.
Exceptions occur — they always do. In
1901, Mr. F. Boyes, of Beverley, recorded
the nest of a Willow Wren built in the
ivy covering a post in his garden nearly
WILLOW WREN 61
five feet above the ground. The eggs
from six to eight in number, are white,
spotted and freckled with very pale red.
Two broods are often reared in the
season ; the first is hatched out about the
middle of May, the second a month later.
The food consists of insects varied by
occasional incursions upon currants and
other fruit ; and in the summer of 1907,
the Rev. H. C. Russell, of Wollaton in
Notts., commenting upon the unusual
number of Willow Wrens in his part of the
county, stated that they ate his young peas.
Mr. Warde Fowler achieves the difficult
feat of describing well the song, which as
he truly remarks, is unique amongst those ^
62 WILLOW WREN
of British birds : — " Beginning with a high
and tolerably full note, he drops it both
in force and pitch in a cadence short and
sweet, as though he were getting exhausted
with the effort ; for that it is a real effort to
him and all his slim and tender relations,
no one who watches as well as listens can
have a reasonable doubt. This cadence
is often perfect, by which I mean that it
descends gradually, not, of course, on the
notes of our musical scale, by which no
birds in their natural state would deign to
be fettered, but through fractions of one or
perhaps two of our tones, and without
returning upwards at the end ; but still
more often, and especially, as I fancy, after
WILLOW WREN 63
they have been here a few weeks, they take
to finishing with a note nearly as high in
pitch as that with which they began."
The song is occasionally heard in August.
It is to be observed that the Willow Wren
is much less addicted to the retirement of
lofty trees than the Chiffchaff ; at all times
he is more at home in comparatively low
trees and ornamental shrubs.
The bird leaves for the south during the
earlier part of September, but late stayers
have been seen as far north as Yorkshire
in the first days of October. This is not
surprising since, as in the case of the
last species, a few sometimes remain in
the warmer corners of the country for the
whole winter.
WOOD WREN
(Phylloscopus sibilatrix ; Bechstein.)
HIS, the largest and least common ot
the three greenish yellow Warblers
which come to us regularly, arrives in the
southern counties during the second and
third weeks of April ; being essentially a
bird of the woodlands it is local in its
distribution, and is familiar only in dis-
tricts well wooded, more particularly with
beech and oak. It is not common in
Scotland, but is said to be extending its
range ; it has been identified in North
Ulster. It is fairly common in the co.
Wicklow, but not elsewhere in Ireland.
The bird, less slender of form than the
WOOD WREN 65
last two species, is over five inches long ;
the upper parts are yellowish green ; the
wings greyish brown, the feathers edged
with a tinge of yellow ; the tail greyish
brown ; breast and throat sulphur yellow ;
belly and under tail coverts white. The
easiest way to distinguish the Wood Wren
from either of the last two species is by
the greater length of the wings which,
when folded, come within half an inch of
the end of the tail.
In May the Wood Wren sets about
building ; the site chosen is generally a
wooded bank with a sprinkling of under-
growth; and if last year's leaves cover the
ground it is a further recommendation ;
66
WOOD WREN
often a slight natural depression is selected,
we need not doubt with an eye to the better
concealment so secured ; and here the bird
builds a nest of dry grass, in shape the
same as those of the Chiffchaff and Willow
Wren, but lacking the lining of feathers.
The hen sits very closely; I have had one
fly out in my face while crawling on all
fours up a bank with no thought of Wood
Wrens. Many birds sit as closely, but
none with which I am acquainted shew
the same indifference to observation under
these circumstances ; put the bird off her
nest and wait a few yards away; within ten
minutes or so she will come back and re-
enter it, ignoring your presence ; it is as
WOOD WREN
67
though she said to herself, " If he meant
to steal the eggs he would have done it
before, and there's no sense in letting
them get cold.,, The eggs, from five to
seven in number, resemble those of the
Chiffchaff, but are proportionately larger
and the spotting is more intense and more
liberal. The Wood Wren does not appear
to raise a second brood. Insects, some-
times caught on the wing, and, in the
season, berries, constitute the food.
This bird may be recognised by his
manner when uttering speech ; his wings
and tail vibrate, recalling Mr. Warde
Fowler's remark that it is an effort.
Mr. Howard Saunders' rendering of the
68 WOOD WREN
utterance, "chit, chit, chit, chit, chitr,
tr-tr-tr-tr-tre," cannot be bettered.
In some seasons the Wood Wren is
plentiful in districts where he is normally
rare; thus in the spring of 1902, the num-
ber in the Erne Valley and Ivy Bridge
districts of Devon was the subject of
remark. In the following year the num-
ber in Shropshire was noticed to be
increasing.
The southward movement takes place
in September.
The Rufous Warbler (A'edon galac-
todes ; Temminck) whose habitat is
northern Africa and the south of Spain
WOOD WREN 69
and Portugal, has three times been taken
in England.
Radde's Bush Warbler (Lusciniola
schwarzi ; Radde), an east Siberian species
becomes British in virtue of a single
capture made in 1898.
The Icterine Warbler {Hypolais
icterina; Vielliot), common in central
and northern Europe, even in Belgium,
has been identified some eight or ten
times.
The Melodious Warbler {Hypolais
polyglotta; Vielliot), whose range, roughly
70 WOOD WREN
speaking, is northern Africa, the south of
Spain and Italy, has been identified with
certainty once, and there is reason to
believe that a pair bred two or three years
in succession in Sussex.
REED WARBLER
(Acrocephalus streperus ; Vielliot.)
'Y'HIS bird arrives during the second
half of April, and during the summer
is tolerably widely distributed in suitable
localities throughout the south and mid-
land counties as far west as Devonshire
and as far north as Yorkshire: it does not
visit Scotland, and its occurrence in
Ireland is doubtful. Suitable localities,
from the Reed Warbler point of view, are
those where exist beds of reeds high and
thick enough to afford seclusion for
nesting; but not every member of the
species holds a reed bed indispensable:
nests may be found among the growers of
72 REED WARBLER
willow and alder by the riverside, and
cases of building in lilac bushes in gardens
are on record.
The bird is about 5 J inches long; the
upper parts are rufous brown with a tinge
of chestnut which brightens on the rump;
there is a faint buff streak over the eye;
the underparts are dull white, tinged with
buff which darkens on the sides, thighs
and under tail coverts: the young bird is
tawny underneath.
Building begins in May; when reeds
are the site, the nest is slung or secured to
two, three or four stems about which the
dry grass of which the outer structure
consists is woven; moss, wool, feathers
REED WARBLER 73
and horsehair are worked into the nest
and used as lining; as the reeds grow they
lift the nest further above the water.
Mr. H. S. Davenport has drawn attention
to a curious habit of this bird, namely the
removal of the material of an old nest, or
a storm-damaged nest of the year, bit
by bit, to build the new one: a practice
which has economy of labour to re-
commend it. The nest is deep; a wise
precaution against the accident which
might befall when reeds are swept by high
winds. The eggs, four or five in number,
vary a good deal in colouration; commonest
are those of greenish-white, blotched and
freckled with dark olive, ash-colour and
74
REED WARBLER
black, most thickly at the larger end.
The eggs are laid about the last week of
May.
This bird is frequently victimised by the
Cuckoo; the Rev. James Hale in July,
1893, found among reeds in the Isisa nest
which told its own curious story. The nest
was three storied ; and it was obvious what
had happened : the owner had laid one egg
when a Cuckoo put hers beside it ; the
Reed Warblers, objecting, set to work and
built a new lining over the two eggs ; the
hen had laid two eggs on the new lining
when the Cuckoo arrived again and put
in an egg; once more the Reed Warbler
sacrificed her own in order to baffle the
REED WARBLER 75
stranger, and added more material over
the three eggs: when the nest was found
there were four eggs of the rightful owner
in it but no Cuckoo's among them. The
Cuckoo had evidently given up the idea
of saddling that particular Reed Warbler
with her egg. Two Cuckoo's eggs have
sometimes been found in a Reed Warbler's
nest.
The food consists of insects and their
larvae, small dragonflies being much in
request, worms and small slugs; and in their
season fruit and berries. This bird, the
Sedge and Grasshopper Warblers are of
stay-at-home habit, never wandering any
distance from the spot where they have
76 REED WARBLER
made their summer quarters. Find one
of the three once and the bird is found for
the season ; you may return day after day
assured of seeing him again within a radius
of a few yards.
The song — it is a pleasure to deal with a
Warbler that really warbles — is loud, well
sustained and distinguished by consider-
able variety of note. The bird sings at
any hour of the daylight during the
summer months, unless it be rough and
stormy; he is heard at his best on a quiet
evening after sunset; heard but not seen,
for he hides among the reeds to sing.
The southward movement takes place
in September.
REED WARBLER
77
The Great or Clamorous Reed
Warbler (A. turdoides; Meyer), common
from the Low Countries eastward across
central Europe, has been taken about half-
a-dozen times in England; as this bird
nests regularly near Calais, it is rather
strange that it should be so infrequent a
visitor to England. In June, 1892, was
found near Winchester a nest whose
unusual size gave rise to the conjecture
that it was not that of the common Reed
Warbler, but of a member of this species.
MARSH WARBLER
(Acrocephalus palustris ; Bechstein.)
H^HIS bird appears to be most common in
the countries of central Europe; but the
breeding range extends as far north as
Denmark and as far west as Normandy.
To England the Marsh Warbler is a
somewhat rare visitor ; but so nearly
resembles the Reed Warbler that it may
be mistaken for that bird. The species
was first observed in Somersetshire, and
has since been reported as breeding in
half-a-dozen or more different counties,
from Cheshire to Kent. As regards ap-
pearance it is distinguished by the dis-
tinctly greenish olive brown on the upper
MARSH WARBLER 79
parts which are always less rufous than
the upper parts of the Reed Warbler ;
also by the fact that the white of the
underparts is tinged with sulphur buff
instead of rufous buff.
Nesting takes place during June. Mr.
Warde Fowler, who watched the bird
regularly near Oxford for 14 years, until
1905, after which season they did not
return to their old haunts, says what the
Marsh Warbler " really loves best, and
rarely finds in England except in some
parts of Cambridgeshire and Somerset, is
a large space of flat alluvial ground, with
convenient bits of cover, such as thick
bunches of tall plants, scattered here
80
MARSH WARBLER
and there." He adds that they show
preference for neglected withy beds. Mr.
Collingwood Ingram, who was the first
to observe the bird as a breeding species
in Kent (1905), gives an account of a nest,
found in a dense spinney of 2\ acres or
thereabout, composed chiefly of ash, elder
and hawthorn, with a few large willows
on the outskirts. While pushing through
a clump of unusually tall nettles, at least
five or six feet high, he found a slight
cup-shaped nest, slung on two stems of a
sapling ash, and as a third support a dry
nettle-stalk was included; it was between
two and three feet from the ground,
was built of
grass
bents and hay
MARSH WARBLER 81
somewhat loosely, but securely, twisted
round the saplings ; the lining consisted
of horsehair and cocoanut fibre, the latter
obtained from the ties of cocoanut strings
used in an adjacent hop garden. The
nest contained five greenish white eggs,
boldly blotched with lilac and olive
brown. The young ones when hatched
out on 26th June were very dark skinned
and appeared to have no down feathers.
Another observer describes a nest, found
in a reed bed of a Cheshire mere, as like
that of the Reed Warbler, but shallower
and less neat. The eggs may be dis-
/
F
82 MARSH WARBLER
and the fewer markings which, moreover,
are principally at the larger end.
The song of the Marsh Warbler, to
raise which he takes up his position in a
tall tree, is particularly beautiful ; so dis-
tinctive that Mr. Collingwood Ingram
deems it unlikely that the bird is more
common than is supposed ; he cannot
think it could be mistaken for the song
of any other bird. The food is similar
to that of the Reed Warbler. The times
of arrival and departure are not known
with any exactness, but from the fact
that nests with eggs are found during the
latter part of June it is reasonable to
think that the bird is a somewhat late
comer.
SEDGE WARBLER
(Acrocephalus phragtnitis ; Bechstein.)
^RRIVING in the second half of April,
this bird is thenceforth common
and generally distributed throughout our
Islands ; it becomes rather local in the
extreme north, and is of rare occurrence
in Skye.
The adult male is about five inches
long: there is a conspicuous streak of
yellowish white above the eye, and the
crown of the head is streaked with dark
brown on pale brown; the feathers of the
neck, back and wing coverts are russet
brown, darker in the centre, giving a
mottled or variegated appearance; the
84 SEDGE WARBLER
rump and tail coverts are tawny brown,
and the tail dark brown with paler edges ;
the chin and throat are white, the breast
and under parts buff. Breeding begins in
May, and the commencement of business
is marked by much quarreling, arising
perhaps over choice of nesting sites.
In suitable localities Sedge Warblers
are very numerous ; their preference seems
to be for low-lying damp places with beds
of reed, rush and osier, in the neighbour-
hood of water ; but the bird is often found
remote from stream or pond nesting in
thick hedges or in shrubs. Mr. Howard
SEDGE WARBLER
mentions the case of a nest ten feet up
in a Leicestershire bullfinch. Asa rule it
is placed quite low down near the ground
in coarse herbage, or among the lower
branches of some shrub ; exceptionally
on the ground. The foundation of the
nest is moss over which is a loosely built
structure of dry grass, moss and bents,
with a sketchy lining of horsehair and
seed-tufts of plants, with it may be a few
feathers. It is to be observed that the
nest is never slung to supports as is that
of the Reed Warbler. The colour of the
eggs, five or six in number, may be com-
pared with certain among clay marbles,
faintly mottled brown and greyish brown ;
86 SEDGE WARBLER
and occasionally traced at the larger end
with a very dark brown line or lines.
The bird's food consists for the most
part of aquatic insects, their larvae,
small slugs and worms ; later in the year
the birds eat berries. The loud, merry
chatter — there is nothing of music in the
Sedge Warbler's voice — may be heard
both day and night ; it is unmistakeable,
being kept up for as much as ten minutes
at a time without pause ; when several
individuals are rattling away within hear-
ing of each other there seems to be
rivalry. Like the Reed Warbler this bird
remains out of sight while singing. At
other times he is by no means shy, rather
SEDGE WARBLER 87
the reverse ; he is far more restless, for-
ward and noisy than the Reed Warbler ;
and if it be difficult to discriminate
between the two by plumage it is easy to
do so by conduct and general behaviour.
The Sedge Warbler is much addicted to
imitating other birds, and will interpolate
imitations in the current of his own
chatter. Mr. Warde Fowler gives a
charming instance of this trait : " I was
looking at a pair or two of Sedge
Warblers on a bush and wondering if
they were going to build a nest there,
when a Blackbird emerged from the
thicket behind me, and set up that absurd
cackle we all know so well. Instantly,
88 SEDGE WARBLER
out of the bush I was looking at, came
an echo of this cackle, uttered by a small
voice in such ludicrous tones of mockery
as to fairly upset my gravity. It seemed
to say 1 You awkward idiot of a bird, I
can make that noise as well as you ; only
listen ! 1 "
The voice of the Sedge Warbler becomes
less frequently heard as June draws on ;
presumably the cares of family occupy
the time formerly devoted to vocal exer-
cise. During the latter part of September
the birds take their departure for the
south ; but individuals remain till late in
October and occasionally stay the winter
with us.
SEDGE WARBLER 89
Aquatic Warbler (A. aquaticus ; J.
F. Gmelin). This south central European
bird has occasionally been identified in
England ; the last occurence I can trace
was the seventh ; a specimen shot at Cley
Harbour, in Norfolk, in September, 1904.
It may be a less rare visitor than is
supposed; its extremely shy and retiring
nature and close resemblance to the
Sedge Warbler favour its escape from
notice.
Savi's Warbler (Locustella lusctni-
oides ; Savi). This bird seems to have
once been a regular, though never abund-
ant visitor to the great fens of the eastern
90 SEDGE WARBLER
counties. Drainage of those areas dis-
qualified the country as a summer resi-
dence in the eyes of Savi's Warbler, and
the last English specimen was identified
at Surlingham, Norfolk, in June, 1856.
GRASSHOPPER WARBLER
( Locustella ncevia ; Boddaert.)
HIS bird, which arrives during the
second half of April, has local names
derived from his voice ; in some - parts
they call him the " Reeler," in others the
" Reel-bird," on the Broads the " Razor-
grinder." The species is widely distributed
all over England and Wales and Ireland,
but is somewhat local ; like his relatives
he has preferences in the matter of
country ; he grows scarcer as we go north
in Scotland.
Cock and hen are alike in plumage ;
about 4i inches long, the upper parts of
the bird are olive brown each feather
92 GRASSHOPPER WARBLER
having a darker streak down the middle ;
the under parts are pale brown with darker
spots on neck and breast. He is very like
the Sedge Warbler ; but apart from his
very different conception of the manners
becoming in a small bird, the Grasshopper
Warbler has no light streak over the eye.
The type of country he prefers is some
tract of lowland in the intermediate stage
between swampy fen and well-drained
marsh, furnished with abundance of fern,
bramble and undergrowth ; in such a
region he seeks out a deep ditch overrun
with rank weeds and smothered with
brambles ; and if a tall and straggly hedge
overshadow, so much the better. Here
GRASSHOPPER WARBLER 93
he lives and lurks ; the careful watcher,
taking ordinary precautions, may study
him at close quarters, for despite his
retiring habit he is by no means timid.
Choose a spot where the jungle is not too
dense, and watch; a little brown some-
thing comes threading its way smoothly
among the stems ; now pausing ; now
gliding "in and out and round about ";
it stops at a thin grower, rears upright
and is travelling easily, steadily up to-
wards the foliage ; the neck lengthens to
peer about the stem, and illusion fades ;
but the Grasshopper Warbler remains in
mind as a veritable mouse in feathers.
Breeding begins in May, and the eggs
94 GRASSHOPPER WARBLER
are laid during the latter half of the month ;
the nest, a compact structure of moss and
dry grass lined with threads of finer grass
is nearly as deep as the Reed Warbler's;
it is hidden in a thick tuft of coarse
herbage, or in the undergrowth in the
bottom of a neglected hedge. The eggs,
from five to seven in number, are white
suffused with pink, closely and minutely
freckled with reddish brown : sometimes
the freckling at the larger end is so close
as to conceal the ground colour. Eggs
may be found at any time from May
onward to the end of July, or even later;
whence it would seem that two broods are
sometimes reared. The food consists of
/
GRASSHOPPER WARBLER 95
insects, among them, dragonflies taken on
the wing, and their larvae.
Concerning the voice of this "Warbler"
— it is a pity some less inapplicable name
was not chosen for the genus ; the speech
of the bird has been variously compared
to (a) grinding a razor; (b) pulling out a
spring steel tape, now stopping suddenly
for^a moment, now pulling out quicker and
quicker, then suddenly stopping ; (c) a
delicate electric bell, heard at some
distance while the door of your room is
slowly opened and again closed; (d) the
music of a fishing reel rapidly unwound.
You may also produce an excellent imita-
tion by drawing the teeth of a comb across
96 GRASSHOPPER WARBLER
a knife blade. I think (d) is the best, but
the human ear receives impressions as
different as the human eye. The "reel"
may be heard during the heat of the day
when all other birds are silent ; but is
most vigorous in the evening : the bird
often perches on the highest twig of a
bush to utter his metallic trill: he does it
with his beak raised to the skies and puts
his little soul into it, for all the world like
a nightingale; his demeanour says:
" search the whole hedge and you shall
not find such another songster." Which
in one sense is true ; you cannot possibly
mistake him for any other.
The Grasshopper Warbler leaves for the
south in September.
HEDGE ACCENTOR
(Accentor tnodularis ; Linn.)
use the name set above is to invite
the charge of pedantry: "Some
well-meaning writers," says a very high
authority, " name it the Hedge Accentor,
to shew that it is no relative of the
obnoxious House-Sparrow." I respectfully
submit that good intention in this case is
pardonable. We do not accuse of wanton
self-advertisement the Thomas J. Smith
who writes to the Times to say that he is
not the Thomas Smith who stands charged
with burglary at the Assizes. Popular
query to the contrary there is much in a
name; and too distinct a line cannot be
98 HEDGE ACCENTOR
drawn between this virtuous fowl and the
feathered blend of impudence and villainy
for whose heads the farmer cheerfully pays
a shilling a dozen, even in these days of —
but Mr. Lane will warn me that this is no
place for politics. Why should we call
the bird a Sparrow when he is not a
Sparrow ? True, both Accentor and
Sparrow belong to the same great Order,
the Passeres; so, for that matter, do
Song Thrush and Nightingale, but we
don't call them sparrows. The Hedge
Accentor is a member of the, in Britain,
small and select sub-family Accentorince
which belongs to the Family Turdidce ;
whereas the abandoned bird with whom
HEDGE ACCENTOR 99
popular nomenclature would confuse him
belongs to the sub-family Fringillince
of the Family FringillidcB. The Accentor
is perfectly justified in saying he is
no relation at all. Call him, as does
Chaucer, " Haysogge " ; call him Dun-
nock, Dykie, Smoky, Shuffle-wing, or
as in Surrey — nobody I ever met knows
why — " Isaac " ; but not, I pray you, by a
name that connotes villainy ; lest it make
for his undoing.
Needless to say this bird is a resident
and widely distributed; but Hedge
Accentors come to this country in myriads
for the winter and leave again in spring
for the north. Nesting begins as early as
100 HEDGE ACCENTOR
March and the nest, made of roots, and
moss with hair and wool lining may be
found in any and every hedgerow a few
feet from the ground, also in clumps of
bush and bramble, and stick heaps. On
occasion it is built in the ivy covering a
wall, but this is rather unusual. A curious
proceeding was reported in 1901 of a pair
that nested in the ivy on a wall; when
three eggs had been laid, the birds deemed
a change desirable ; they set to work and
built a new nest two yards away against
the same wall, using the materials of the
old nest for the new one.
Few eggs are more beautiful or more
familiar than the blue eggs of the Hedge
HEDGE ACCENTOR 101
Accentor ; they number from four to six,
five being the ordinary clutch : two or
even three broods are reared between
March and July. The bird is of solitary
habit; you rarely see two of the species
together : his realm is the hedge and his
manner of gliding along among the twigs
rather recalls the manner of the Warblers ;
also he does not wander far from home.
The food, and this is the point to be borne
in mind by those who would by misnaming
confuse him with the House Sparrow,
consists of insects, as spiders and small
beetles, and of worms; in less degree, of
seeds : he may do a little mischief among
the seeds occasionally, but on the whole he
102 HEDGE ACCENTOR
is far more useful than harmful. In
winter he eats crumbs in company with
other birds.
His song, short but oft repeated, may
be heard from February onwards; as a
rule he is silent in cold weather, but has
been heard to raise his modest voice at
midday when the thermometer shewed
ten degrees of frost. The bird is one of
the favourite victims of the Cuckoo.
Like the Thrush and Blackbird the
Hedge Accentor is sometimes guilty of
eccentricity in the breeding season. At
Leven, Fifeshire, in June, 1895, a hen bird
was found sitting on young Thrushes in
the absence of their mother. Evidently
HEDGE ACCENTOR 103
convinced of the mother's incompetence,
she was found on the nest beside the
hen Thrush on another occasion. The
maternal instinct induces strange vagaries
among birds as well as animals.
Alpine Accentor {Accentor collaris ;
Scopoli). This dweller among the moun-
tain ranges of southern Europe has several
times been identified in England as a stray
summer visitor ; it is much larger than the
last species — seven inches long against the
Hedge Accentor's five and a half — and is
conspicuous by its chin and throat, which
are white speckled with black. It has
never been known to breed in this country.
V?
HIS bird, often called the Water Ouzel,
is resident all over the Kingdom in
suitable localities; a suitable locality being
the banks or margin of a rapid brook ; the
Dipper has no affection for waters sluggish
and deep, and thus is known in flat
country only as a rare visitor; for example
the last of his half-dozen appearances in
Kent, where the rivers are slowT, occurred
in December, 1908. He is far more com-
mon on the brooks and burns of Wales
and Scotland than on English streams.
There is no mistaking the Dipper, as
he — or she, for the cock and hen are
DIPPER 105
alike — skims along a foot or two above
the surface of the water ; dark brown as
to head, wings and tail, slate grey as to
back ; the pure white of the breast,
darkening into ruddy brown on the lower
part, and that into black on the flanks
and belly. The length is about seven
inches.
Breeding begins early in March — fully
fledged nestlings have been found in the
third week of the month, but that is
exceptional. The nest, large for the size
of the builder, is a beautiful ball of moss,
lined with dead leaves ; sometimes leaves
are worked in with the moss, and grass
also is used on occasion. I have called
106 DIPPER
the nest a ball, but the shape depends a
good deal on the crevice it is required to
fit ; I have found nests that were better
described as bun-shaped. A hole in the
woodwork or masonry of a bridge, a
sheltered crevice in rock or bank, often
under an apron of falling water, are
favourite sites ; but the bird has been
known to build in the boughs of a small
tree. Wherever placed it is close to a
stream. The eggs, pure white, vary some-
what in shape ; you may find them as
pointed as the plover's, nearly oval, or
any form between ; they number from
four to six. Two broods are reared in the
season, and sometimes a third. The
DIPPER 107
young Dipper is greyish brown above and
white below ; he can swim as soon as he
leaves the nest, and soon learns to dive
like his parents. Strictly speaking the
Dipper does not "dive," a verb that
indicates effort ; he possesses the faculty
of sinking quietly as though by discharge
from his lungs of air that kept him afloat.
Under water he uses both wing and legs
to swim, and with luck you may see him
walking along the bottom of the stream,
in search, no doubt of the small molluscs,
which together with aquatic beetles and
other insects, form his staple diet.
The Dipper has the good will of the
angler for that he preys upon creatures
108 DIPPER
destructive to trout and salmon ova ; but
there is some reason to believe that the
bird has liking for these things himself. It
has been remarked that when the little
brook trout ascend the burns to spawn in
late autumn, the Dipper seeks change of
air in the same direction ; of course he
may have an eye on the insect foes of
trout eggs ; but there be those who
attribute this autumn excursion to taste for
trout ova themselves. Save at this season
the Dipper never strays far from the
section of the river he has made his own ;
he has his favourite perches on the stones
and rocks, and there he stands ducking
and bowing in a "A fashion that suggests
DIPPER 109
continually baulked intention to take
wing. The sound " chit-it " is often
uttered by the bird as he flies. The song,
so-called, low and not unmusical, gives
the impression that the Dipper is singing
to himself ; it may be heard in winter as
well as during spring and summer.
In the Highlands and parts of Ireland,
the Dipper is called, and believed by the
country people to be, the hen Kingfisher ;
the idea probably takes birth from the
flight which resembles that of the King-
fisher. Other names for him are " Water
Crow" and " Water Colly," the latter
peculiar to the south-western counties.
NUTHATCH
(Sitta ccesia; Wolf.)
HIS interesting little bird is very local
in England and Wales ; has been
reported occasionally in Scotland, and is
unknown in Ireland. It is fairly common
in the midland and south eastern districts
where old timber abounds, for ancient
trees are indispensable to the "Nut-
jobber," as the country folk call him.
The Nuthatch is about 5f inches long
and of sturdy build ; the upper parts are
slate-blue, the very short tail somewhat
lighter and barred with white and grey,
save the middle feathers which are slate-
grey throughout ; the chin and cheeks are
NUTHATCH 111
white, the throat and belly warm buff ; a
strong black streak runs from the corner
of the straight, sharp bill, through the
eye and well down the neck ; the feet are
large. The hen is of duller hue than the
cock.
Breeding begins in April ; the usual site
for the nest is some old hollow bough to
which a convenient hole gives access ; and
if the door be wider than the Nuthatch
approves he is at pains to build it up
with mud and small stones. The amount
of work he puts into this masonry is
extraordinary considering his size. The
late Mr. F. Bond presented to the
Natural History Museum a nest in whose
112
NUTHATCH
construction no less than n lbs. of clay
had been used. That nest, by the way,
was found in an unusual situation, to wit,
the side of a hay-stack. Another curious
case was the adaptation of an old nest of
a Magpie in the fork of an oak ; the dome
was mud-plastered within to make the
nest accord with Nuthatch requirements.
The nest in the hollow limb of a tree is
made some little distance from the entry ;
it is a mere bed of dry leaves or scales
of fir. The eggs, from five to seven in
number, are white, variable in shape,
spotted and blotched with brownish red
and, it may be, flecks of lilac and grey,
principally at the larger end.
NUTHATCH 113
The Nuthatch is not much addicted to
flight; he spends most of his time running
about the tree-trunks, on which he is as
much at home as a Woodpecker, seeking
the insects on which he lives during the
better part of the year. He is also to
be seen industriously searching on the
ground. In autumn he fares largely on
hazel nuts, beechmast and acorns with
other hard seeds. He owes his name to
the method with which he deals with the
first ; he fixes his nut in a crevice, takes
up his position over it, converts his whole
person into a pickaxe, and hammers with
his beak until he breaks the shell. He
has a Magpie-like habit of hiding his
114 NUTHATCH
booty. Mr. O. V. Aplin has more than
once watched the bird hiding a nut in an
old thatch ; and Mrs. Gore Brown has seen
Nuthatches burying nuts in the flower-
beds and pressing little clods of earth
on top, exactly as a Magpie hides his
treasures.
The Nuthatch is most engaging at the
courting season ; when he shows off to
the hen he spreads his tail and wings and
fluffs out his breast feathers while he
performs his antics ; at this time too he
varies his ordinary note, " Tui-tui-tui,"
with curious bubblings and a frequent
loud shrill whistle. Old Turner says " he
has pugnacious habits but a cheerful
NUTHATCH 115
disposition ; " as regards the latter, all who
know him will agree ; but I do not think
pugnacity has been noticed as a con-
spicuous failing. Perhaps it was so when
the bird was commoner than he is now —
in the days when so much of England
was forest, and more generally suitable
for Nuthatches; in the days when "men
attributed witchcraft to it, since it is
cunning in knowledge of affairs."
In May, 1901, Mr. R. W. Calvert found
the nest of a Nuthatch in a crab tree with
six eggs ; these had been adopted by a
Great Tit who had added nine eggs of
her own. To adjust matters, was found
in the same locality, Wychwood Forest,
116 NUTHATCH
a Great Tit's nest occupied by a Nuthatch
who sat on four eggs of the original owner
and four of her own. The temptation to
belief that there had been a friendly or
forcible exchange is strong.
TREE CREEPER
( Certhia familiaris ; Linn.)
HIS bird is more common than is
generally supposed ; his talent for
keeping out of sight, his inconspicuous
colouring and the closeness with which he
hugs the tree-trunk with his small person,
all render him liable to be overlooked.
He is to be found all over the United
Kingdom, save in the Outer Hebrides >
the one condition of his presence is
timber.
In length about 4f inches, the upper
parts have a mottled appearance, each
dark brown feather having the centre dull
white. There is a light streak over the
118 TREE CREEPER
eye ; the tail is deeply forked and the
feathers are stiff to the tips, to meet the
bird's requirements, for he uses his tail
in climbing ; the wings are barred and
margined with white ; the under side is
white, which merges into buff on the
flanks ; the feet are rather large and the
claws long and curved ; the bill is slightly
curved.
Breeding begins about mid-April ; a
very usual site is in the cleft made by
partial detachment of bark from the
trunk of a tree a few feet above the
ground, or in some natural crevice in
the bole ; sometimes the bird chooses
a cranny in the woodwork of a disused
TREE CREEPER 119
outhouse, behind broken plaster; or under
the eaves of house or outbuilding: more
rarely in the body of the nest of some
larger bird, the Rook for instance. The
nest consists of dry grass, fine straw, bents,
roots, twigs and moss, or some of these
materials; with a lining of wool, feathers
and shreds of soft inner bark. The eggs,
from six to nine in number, are white,
blotched, spotted and zoned with reddish
brown and dull purple, principally at the
larger end. Two broods are often reared.
It has been remarked that though the hen
is very shy while sitting on her eggs,
flitting unobtrusively from nest while a
man is still far off, she gains courage when
120 TREE CREEPER
the young are hatched out : both she and
the cock bird remain at hand when their
children seem to need protection.
Like the Nuthatch, the Tree Creeper
lives and has his being on the tree-trunk,
running up and down and round it with a
jerky but rapid movement, and keeping
always the tree between himself and the
observer. Your abiding impression of
the Tree Creeper is one of vanishing round
the corner. Watch him from a distance
with glasses and you gain the impression
of tireless activity ; the food consisting of
the small insects found in bark the bird
has to work hard for a living. In winter
the Tree Creeper associates with other
TREE CREEPER 121
insect hunters, the Tits and Gold Crests,
and may be seen pursuing his business in
their company; but he seems always to
work lower down on the trunk. The
voice is shrill but is not often heard
otherwise than in the warning note, a
weak " cheep cheep."
Turner calls the Tree Creeper " a very
little bird of bold habits ; " he was a good
observer, so we must conclude that the
bird has changed in character since the
middle of the 16th century ; then, as now,
however, this was a busy little bird;" it
never rests, but is for ever climbing up
the trunks of trees after the manner of
the Woodpeckers."
122 TREE CREEPER
Wall Creeper (Tichodroma muraria ;
Linn). The honour of British nationality
has been purchased with their lives by
three Wall Creepers since 1792. The true
home of the bird is south and central
Europe, where it is found in the mountain
regions climbing the rock faces, much as
the Tree Creeper climbs trees. This is
not a bird of which it may be conjectured
that occurrences are overlooked. Though
he is only six inches long it would be
difficult to overlook the Wall Creeper in his
slate-grey dress set off by beautiful crimson
wings. There was a specimen in the
Regent's Park Gardens ten years ago, and
this, the late Mr. Tegetmeier believed,
f was the only one ever seen in captivity.
THE BODLEY HEAD
NATURAL HISTORY
Vol. I. — Thrush, Blackbird, Ouzel, Redwing,
Fieldfare, Wheatear, Robin, Nightingale, Whinchat,
Stonechat, Tits, Starling, Wren, etc.
SOME PRESS OPINIONS
Guardian. — ''Bidsf air to inaugurate a new era — Mr. Cuming's
text is good, but Mr. Shepherd's vivid sketches are brillian t.
He catches his subjects in all their natural poses."
Tatler.—"Ii the Bodley Head Natural History Books which
follow are half as fascinating as the first of the series then
they will be very welcome. In it Mr. E. D. Cuming gives
a short but very concise account, and the illustrations in
colour by Mr. J. A. Shepherd are absolutely perfect of their
kind. He is about the only artist I know who can give
character and expression to any animal which he draws.
His birds are the quaintest, most fascinating little creatures
imaginable."
Outlook. — " If the succeeding volumes of this series maintain
this high level the success of the series is assured. The
descriptions . . . are very clear, and the illustrations . . .
will prove far more useful for purposes of identification than
more elaborate drawings. A very charming little book."
Feathered Life. — "The first volume of what promises to be a
really delightful series, the design of which is decorative as
well as instructive. If. as the publisher points out, Mr.
Shepherd has not aimed at scientific accuracy, he has done
infinitely better. Nearly all the studies — and they are on
every page — are drawn from life with charming effect and
the numerous admirers af this artist's work will be glad to
know of 'The Bodley Head Natural History.' "
Literary World. — " It is a delightful book — to be followed, we
are glad to say, by others."
John Lane, The Bodley Head, London
DATE DUE
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