h, ah ett ne a eter oroe tees a Sea vinta pase THE FIELD MUSEUM LIBRARY TNC 3.5711 00022 8214 NATURAL HISTORY = cee, Dabben Paie Frtien - - i POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. Plate XVI. M SOaN ai MP brgyh Past eye ft) = Ye aot Mo a ae Bad, bauerrichter & Co hth. L. Crolso p tilon auritum. 2. Polyplectron Napoleon s. 3. Thaumalea Amherstize. . A POPULAR mMclORY OF BIRDS, COMPRISING i A FAMILIAR ACCOUNT OF THEIR CLASSIFICATION AND HABITS, BY ADAM WHITE, ASSISTANT, ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, BRITISH MUSEUM. LONDON: LOVELL REEVE, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1855. (92 ie f £ £ } s 32 j i i & As SF] Pia x ae = yy i PRINTHD BY JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS. TO A, WHITE, Esq:; NEWINGTON, EDINBURGH, Chis Little Volume ON THE POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS a if Is GRATEFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY HIS NEPHEW. PREFACK. a ‘Tue system of classification followed in this little book is that of Mr. G. R. Gray, in his great and invaluable work, ‘The Genera of Birds.’ To have given, even in the brief- est manner, the distinguishing characters of the numerous families and sub-families into which the extensive class of Birds is divided, would have taken up nearly all the space of the Work. Accordingly, this part of the subject, as in the previous volume on Mammalia, is treated very suc- cinctly, while the space is occupied with interesting details on the habits of the various groups, compiled chiefly from the works of recent observers. In Ray’s ‘ Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the Creation,’ published about a century and a half ago, the author estimated the number Vas PREFACE. of Birds, known and described up to his time, as nearly five hundred; he supposed that about a third more might exist yet undiscovered. In the last edition of the ‘ Systema Nature’ Linneus gives the characters of nearly nine hun- dred and fifty species. At the present time between six and seven thousand species of Birds are known in collec- tions, and the number is every year gradually increasing, as the unvisited parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and the Eastern Isles are being searched. In Mr. G. R. Gray’s ‘Catalogue of the Genera and Sub- genera of Birds contained in the British Museum,’ pub- lished in 1855, there are upwards of 2400 Genera and Sub-genera recorded. Those who have not seen the noble and well-arranged gallery of which this Work is a slight conspectus, may form some idea of its richness by seeing how few of the genera are marked as being desiderata to the collection at the time of the publication of the Catalogue. London, November 1st, 1855. BISh OF PLATES. —+— Puate I. to face p. 20 1 Neophron Perenopterus. 2 Sarcoramphus Gryphus. 3 Aquila fucosa. 4, Head of Snowy Owl. Peewee... 86 1 Steatornis Caripensis. 2 Collocalia nidifica. 3 Macropterix mystacinus. Pome Phe i. eR 1 Todus viridis. 2 Calurus resplendens. 3 Kurylaimus Javanicus. i ee ee 66 1 Tanysiptera Dea. 2 Ptiloris Victorie. 3 Neomorpha Gouldu. Phare: Voor. fo. toface 9. 82 1 Oreotrochilus Chimbora- zensis. 2 Oxypogon Guerinii. 3 Trochilus mellivorus. BUS Vc ae 96 1 Tropidorhynchus cornicu- latus. 2 Menura Alberti. Pier WE es ee 112 1 Petroica multicolor. 2 Malurus leucopterus. 3 Pitta Iris. Peary OV IRR ie ee 126 1 Milvulus forficatus. 2 Procnias carunculata. 3 Rupicola Peruviana. V1ll PuaTE IX..... to face p. 142 1 Garrolus cristatus. 2 Cicinurus regius. 3 Paradisea apoda. LENT a GS ae ara ale 1 Philetairus socius. 2 Geospiza magnirostris. 3 Poephila mirabilis. Prats XI.. 172 1 Pl protimenie alone: ceus. 2 Chlamydera cerviniventris. Prave: ALL 2... 186 1 Rhamphastos dicolorus. 2 ulocomus. 3 Picus principalis. Pere, NT gs ei avciers 1 Strigops habroptilus. 2 Cacatua Leadbeateri. 3 Paleeornis torquatus. BGA RAV... . Ace ree Le 1 Didunculus strigirostris. 2 Ptilinopus strophium. 3 Columba cruenta. 156 202 LIST OF PLATES. Puate XV. .... to face p. 232 1 Tallegalla Lathami. 2 Megapodius tumulus. PLaTE XVI. .... Frontispiece. 1 Crossoptilon auritum. 2 Polyplectron Napoleonis. 3 Thaumalea Amherstize. Puate XVII. .. to face p. a6 - | Perdix mile 2 Crax Yarrellii. 3 Ortyx picta. Piate XVIII. 1 Anastomus coroman- _ delicus. 2 Hydrophasianus sinensis. 3 Notornis Mantellii. 272 PuLaTe XIX, 284 1 Cygnopsis Conpdeanie 2 Aix galericulata. 3 Mergus cucullatus. PLATE MNS Soe ee. 300 1 Khynchops nigra. 2 Plotus melanogaster. 3 Aptenodytes Forsteri. POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. ae cn INTRODUCTION. Birps are among the most attractive of creatures; few of them are absolutely repulsive. There is something peculiarly clean and pleasing about their feathers; and the generally oval shape of their body has for the most part an elegant outline, comprehended at a glance. They are in most cases equally at home in the air and on the ground, and many of them too can swim and dive, as well as fly and walk. Birds are produced, in every case, from eggs with a hard calcareous covering ; these eggs, pleasing in form and colour, are most generally laid in a nest, brought together and fa- /bricated by the parent birds, often with great ingenuity. “With few exceptions the eggs are sedulously hatched by the B 2 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. female, who is sometimes fed by her mate as she sits on the nest. The young bird has a horny point on the tip of the beak, which assists it in breaking the shell ; this falls off a few days after exclusion. The number of eggs, laid by the various families of birds, varies much; most of the water-birds lay but one egg at a time, while the gallinaceous tribes, which supply so much food to mankind, lay the greatest quantity,—some, like our domestic fowl, continuing to lay many eggs, provided they are taken away. In birds the respiratory system is particularly perfect. — Dr. Kaup* thus sums up their characteristics in this re- spect :— In this class there exists, without any exception, an open ear, which is fitted to receive melodious sounds, and to repeat them by a particular muscular apparatus on the lower larynx. In all birds moreover, some bones even take part in the respiration; m many birds we find oxygen to be conducted through air-sacks, even into the intestines, in order to bathe them in that element of bird life. No class consumes a greater quantity of oxygen than that of * “Contributions to Ornithology,’ for 1849. by Sir Wiliam Jardine, pp. 102, 103, INTRODUCTION. co birds; two sparrows, for instance, inhale more of it than a rabbit, which weighs many times more than they. Their lungs and blood are therefore of a lighter red colour, and their blood is some degrees warmer than that of the mam- malia. Their pulse beats on that account more forcibly, and is rather like that of a feverish mammal. ‘The greater number of them have a loud and, in proportion to their size, an enormous voice, which they make frequent use of in gladness and sorrow. As a whole, birds may be called rather small than large, rather light than heavy. The greater number of them are active, swift fliers, mounting high into their element, the air. In this class, we see the wings developed in length at the cost of the feet. The muscles of the breast are in most of them enormous; in like manner is the crest of the sternum, on which the muscles are attached. In this class we first observe the most artful construction of nests, and the most melodious sounds of voice. JBirds are, according to Oken, Hur-breast —and by my researches, Resporation— Animals.” All birds agree in having two feet, two wings, a bill, and a body covered with feathers. These characters equally apply to the class, from the diminutive humming-bird to the gigantic ostrich. In some of them, as in the apteryx, the 4, POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. wings are but slightly developed; and im others, as the pen- - guin, where they are more considerable, the wings cannot be used as organs of flight, but are of great use to the birds in the water, where they serve like oars to propel them. Many birds, besides using the wings to fly with, employ them in striking their prey; and some are armed on the shoulder with a spine or spur, which serves as an offensive weapon. The feathers are arranged in regular order in the skin, and are thrown off and again renewed once or twice a year. This moulting generally takes place m the autumn; most young birds, before this change, have the feathers of a dif- ferent colour, while many species, in their adult state, in the autumn and winter have a different-coloured plumage, to what they wear in spring and summer. The males of many birds acquire in the spring, at the breeding season, an addi- tional brilliancy to their plumage ; the poet Tennyson alludes to this in his ‘ Locksley Hall’ :— ‘Tn the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s breast ; Tu the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest ; In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish’d dove.” The feathers, when cut or otherwise injured, are never re- stored; im this respect they differ considerably from the corresponding covering of the mammalia. 7 a See INTRODUCTION. : 5 The strongest feathers are the quill-feathers of the wings and tail. These feathers, when expanded, form broad fans, by which the bird can raise itself in the air and fy. ‘The proportional length of these quills is an important circum- stance in the history of the bird, the power of its flight depending on their form, stiffness, and relative length. The bones of birds are very ight compared with those of mam- malia, and are thus well adapted for creatures fitted to move in an element where all unnecessary weight would be a great impediment. James Montgomery, in his ‘ Pelican Island,’ speaking of the large pelican, pleasingly alludes to this: “Their slender skeletons 5 aa So delicately framed, and half transparent, That I have marvell’d how a bird so noble, When in his full magnificent attire, With pinions wider than the king of vultures, And down elastic, thicker than the swan’s, Should leave so small a cage of ribs to mark Where vigorous life had dwelt a hundred years.” Female birds are, with very few exceptions, much more sombre than the males. Wilson, in his ‘American Orni- thology,’ has given an excellent reason for this: he says, “ It is worthy of remark, that the females of almost all our splendid feathered birds are drest in plain and often obscure 6 - POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. colours, as if Providence meant to favour their personal con- | cealment, and consequently that of their nest and young, from the depredations of birds of prey; while among the latter, such as eagles, owls, hawks, etc., which are under no such apprehension, the females are uniformly covered with richer-coloured plumage than the males*.” Among exotic birds the toucans are a notable exception - to this rule; among British birds may be specified the goldfinch, the female of which is scarcely less bright than the male. The first plumage of the males of gaily-coloured birds is generally of the same sober hue as the female; in the toucans the young birds are nearly as gay in colour as their parents. The males of many birds, especially of the order Passeres, are possessed of the power of song, which, in many cases, certainly serves to enliven the female when on the nest. This however does not seem to be its only use, as the males of many birds sing also at times of the year when their partners are not engaged in the task of incubation. On this subject we may quote the words of Mr. Water- ton t:—“ I sometimes peevishly ask myself, why should na- * Amer, Ornith. vol. ii, p. 233. + Essays on Natural History, p. 252. INTRODUCTION. | ¢ ture have made a provision in the male blackbird, in order that he may soothe his incubating female, and have denied that provision to my favourite the carrion crow? and then I answer my own question by whispering to myself, that the she-carrion may possibly experience wonderful delight in listening to the hoarse croaking of her partner. .. . In a word, I know nothing, absolutely nothing, about the song in birds. The raven will whistle you a tune so true and pleasing, that you feel quite enchanted with his perform- ance; while his congener, the carrion crow, notwithstanding all your pains to instruct him, will remain unmusical. . . . We listen with delight to the many species of male birds which make the groves resound with their melody; and we cannot imagine why the females so seldom venture an at- tempt at song; for we know that with us both ladies and gentlemen are full of fine sounds. Wherever a Braham is heard, there is sure to be a Billington not far off.” The activity of birds when they have young is most sur- prising. Dr. Macgillivray* records the observations made by a friend on a pair of blue titmice when rearing their young. The parent birds began their labour of love at half- past three o’clock in the morning, and did not leave off till * History of British Birds, indigenous and migratory, vol. ii. p. 438, rs) POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. after eight o’clock im the evening, after being almost in- cessantly engaged for nearly seventeen hours. Mr. Weir © counted their various returns to the nest, and found them to be 475. Up to four o’clock, as a breakfast, they were fed twelve times; between five and six, forty times, flying to and from a plantation more than one hundred and fifty yards from their nest; between nine and ten o'clock, they fed them forty-six times, and they continued at their work till the time specified, sometimes bringing im a single large caterpillar, and at other times two or three small ones. The number of destructive insects removed by birds when feeding their young must be astonishing, if they are in any degree as active as the two blue titmice so patiently observed by Mr. Weir on the fourth of July, 1837. Great as the number of returns to the nest seems to be, it certainly does not exceed that of the common window swallow. Birds are divided into various orders, families, and tribes, “the characters being chiefly derived from the beak and feet. Order ACCIPITRES. Brrps or Prey. By most naturalists the birds of this order are placed first in the classification. They are all carnivorous; and to enable them to obtain their prey, the beak and claws are strong and crooked; the upper mandible of the beak is much longer than the under, over which it is bent, being hooked at the end and sharp; the legs are, in the greater number of the species, of moderate length, but of great strength, the muscles which move the toes and claws being well developed; the toes are four, armed with long bent claws, those of the hind toe and the innermost being the strongest; the scales on the _ underside are rough, which gives the foot a more tenacious grasp. The females of the birds of prey are always larger than the males. The wings are long and powerful, and en- able some of the species to soar to an immense height. They are generally solitary birds, or live in pairs, and con- struct their nests in maccessible rocks or lofty trees; the young when hatched have their eyes closed, and require the close attention of their parents for a considerable period. The Accipitres are divided into two great groups, Diurnal 10 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. Birds of Prey and Nocturnal; the former, as the name implies, pursuing their prey by day, the latter for the most part by night. The Diurnal Birds of Prey have the eyes placed on the side of the head. The head and neck are well proportioned. There are three toes in front, the outer beimg generally connected to the middle toe by a short membrane. The birds of this group are divided into two great families, VuLturip#& and FaLconrp”®. 7 The family Vutturip#& contains birds for the most part inhabiting the warmer parts of the world, and furnished with a smallish head and a long neck, which in most of the species are free from feathers; the eye is even with the head, a character which gives the vultures a tame look, compared with the birds of the next family. The tarsi are covered with small scales; the beak is lengthened, and is more used in procuring the prey than their talons, which are compara- tively weak. The wings are very long, so that most of the species are powerful in flight, and can soar to great heights. The sight is peculiarly keen, and is supposed to be the chief sense employed in leading them to their prey, though it 1s also evident that their nostrils are good guides. Their food consists chiefly of carrion, the birds themselves not being V4 3 ‘ Go| h VULTURES. ty endued with that courage which prompts most of the accipi- trine birds to attack a living prey. The Lemmergeyer (Gypactus barbatus) belongs to this family, and seems to form a link connecting it with the Falconide. The head, unhke that of the more typical vul- tures, is covered with feathers, the beak is strong, straight, much hooked at the point, while the nostrils, much as in the owls, are covered with stiff hairs directed forwards; the specific name is derived from a beard of hairs under the beak. ‘This species inhabits the Alps and other lofty ranges of mountains in Hurope and Asia, and is said to pursue goats, chamois, and other animals to the extremity of a precipice, over which they fall and are killed, when they become its prey. “ Wherever the carcase is,” 1n tropical climates, “ the vul- tures are gathered together.” How descriptively is this al- luded to in Holy Writ! How vividly is it more than once sculptured and depicted on the slabs, brought by Layard from the mounds which once constituted Nineveh! true ‘vestiges of creation.’ On these slabs, birds, fishes,. qua- drupeds, and even reptiles, are figured with all but specific exactitude, and often represented, as in the case of the vul- ture, in the exercise of their instincts. On one slab there 12 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. is a very excellent figure of “‘ Pharaoh’s vulture” (Neophron percnopterus), & common species in Egypt, Syria, and As- syria, stooping over a fallen man, and engaged in pulling at his entrails; its attitude and whole manner show that the artist had closely observed nature. ‘True to the carcase- loving propensities of the race in the Hast, we find from the pages of Alexander Wilson, the American ornithologist, Charles, Waterton, the pleasant wanderer in Demerara, and Charles Darwin, the no less delightful recorder of his travel- ling observations, that the vultures of the New World have the same habit. Darwin records that, when lying in medita- tive repose on the Pampas, pretending to sleep, he has often seen the Cathartes, or black vulture of the country, hovering near him in flocks. Cowardly as these creatures are, they yet occasionally venture to attack dying animals too far gone to be able to resist them. The presence of vultures and other carrion-feeding birds and creatures in tropical climates, is a great boon of the Almighty, for by their almost immediate presence, and generally in very considerable numbers, they take away what, _ if left to putrefy, might often produce a plague; and even what they leave, being broken up and dispersed, soon dries up and becomes innocuous. In some countries, for instance ne ; THE GREAT CONDOR. is in parts of the West Indies, there have been laws enacted to prevent the wilful destruction of these useful birds, which act the part of scavengers, and, unlike those men, entail no tax on the inhabitants for the payment of weekly, monthly, or quarterly salaries. Waterton says, that in Paramaribo the laws protect the vulture (‘ Wanderings,’ p. 210), and that the Spaniards of Angustura never think of interfering with them. This naturalist, in 1808, saw the vultures in that city parading the streets like fowls, and one unaccustomed to the sight, might have taken them for turkeys. But for these scavengers, the refuse of the slaughter-houses in Angustura would have proved an intolerable nuisance, and might have been pestilential to the inhabitants. In a view of a South American city, given in Vaillant’s Voyage of the ‘ Bonite, the vultures in the streets, like officially installed scavengers, form to the spectator a striking feature, while to the passers- by their presence seems a matter of course. The Condor vultures are peculiar to South America, and derive their scientific name Sarcoramphus, from the fleshy wattles attached to the membrane at the base of the beak. One of these, the Great Condor (Sarcoramphus gryphus, Pl. I. fig. 1), has been seen soaring high above the loftiest peak of the Andes; the male of this has a ruff of white feathers — 14 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. round the neck, which contrasts well with the dark plumage — of the birds. Although a large bird, its size, courage, and powers are not by any means proportioned to its reputation which is derived from the exaggerated accounts of early tra- vellers. lts true history was first given by Humboldt, from personal observation. He ascertained its ordinary abode to be rocks, just below the limits of perpetual snow; from these it sweeps into the valleys and plains in search ‘of food. In this genus, and rendered conspicuous by the bright- coloured fleshy wattles at the base of his beak, as well as by his decidedly pleasantly-tinted plumage, is the Sarcoramphus Papa, or “ King of the Vultures,” a common enough species in South America, where his size, colour, and weight give him a decided pre-eminence over the black vultures, called Cathartes, or turkey buzzards. Although m size and in power of wing, and in “ personal” adornment, superior to most of the family, “king” though he be, this Papa Vul- ture must doff his royalty im the presence of the condor of the Andes. Waterton tells us, speaking of “his ma- jesty,” that there is no doubt that, when the scent of the carcase has drawn together flocks of the common vulture, they all retire when ‘ royalty” makes his appearance. KING OF THE VULTURES. 15 Whenever the vulture-monarch “has satisfied the cravings of his royal stomach with the choicest bits from the most stinking and corrupted parts, he generally retires to a neighbouring tree, and then the common vultures return in crowds to gobble down his leavings” (p. 146). So well observed a fact is this, that when one of the Indians of Demerara has learned a little English, and, on seeing the king, wishes to give you a proper notion of the bird, not knowing any person in Demerara higher than the official so named, he says, “Thereis the Governor of the carrion crows.” ‘Through all the Spanish Main the bird is called “Rey de Zamuros,” or king of the vultures. The turkey buzzard of America (Cathartes aura) is a small vulture, belonging to the genus Cathartes, which re- sembles the condors in the beak being long and provided with longitudinal oval. nostrils, and differs from it in the absence of wattles at the base of the beak. Mr. Wallace describes the black vultures as being some- times rather hard-pressed for want of food, and as obliged sometimes to betake themselves to palm-fruits. On the banks of the Rio Negro he was not a little amused to see these scavengers run after the pigs the moment they were up, to secure their droppings. The pigs would sometimes 16 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. turn round and take a run at the birds, who would quietly - hop or fly away for a short distance, but immediately re- turn to their avocations in following the pigs. Mr. Wallace describes them as entirely guided by sight, and not by smell, in seeking out their food, and gives some striking instances in proof*. The Fateonrpm, or Falcon family, form the second and by far the larger division of the diurnal birds of prey. The head and neck are closely covered with feathers, and the eye- brows in nearly all the species project over the eye, a cha- racter which strikingly alters the physiognomy of the family. Although they can live on carrion, yet most of the group prefer living prey, which they capture and kill. The fe- males are generally much larger than the males. Some of the birds belonging to the division Fulconime are capable of being trained to pursue game, and to return to their keeper when called: in these species the beak has a sharp tooth on each side near the hook, and the second quill of the wing is the longest. The birds with these characters, from their being used in falconry, have been named Noble, while all the other falconidous birds of prey, including eagles, have been named Ignoble. * «Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro,’ p. 182. WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE. L7 The Wedge-tailed Hagle (Aguila fucosa, Plate I. fig. 2) is perhaps one of the fiercest of the family. In the journals of Australian travellers this species is often alluded to. James Backhouse* gives an instance of a woman having been chased by one of these birds for some distance, and obliged to run to a house for shelter. He was told by the-wife of a settler, that she one day was struck with the action of a horse in an enclosure, galloping rapidly back- wards and forwards, chased by two eagles. The horse at length fell, when one of the birds pounced on its head; she then called for the assistance of some men, who drove away the ferocious birds. In Van Diemen’s Land this species not unfrequently carries off living lambs, and is, in conse- quence of its ravages, much dreaded by the colonists. There are two fine eagles common on the shores of the Mediterranean, the Aguila fulva and the Aquila imperialis, both well known to the ancients. Striking figures of these birds are occasionally given on Greek coins, and seem to be evident studies from the living bird. It was on one of these eagles that the poet Campbell wrote such fine lines at Orant :— * Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies, p. 153. + ‘The Dead Hagle,’ written at Oran. Poetical works of Thomas Campbell, p. 308. C POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. “ Fall’n as he is, this king of birds still seems Like royalty in ruins. Though his eyes Are shut, that look undazzled on the sun, He was the sultan of the sky, and earth Paid tribute to his eyrie. It was perch’d Higher than human conqueror ever built His banner’d fort. Where Atlas’ top looks o’er Zahara’s desert to the equator’s line ; , From thence the winged despot mark’d his prey,. Above th’ encampments of the Bedouins, ere Their watchfires were extinct, or camels knelt To take their loads, or horsemen scour’d the plain ; And there he dried his feathers in the dawn, Whilst yet the unwaken’d world was dark below. There’s such a charm in natural strength and power, That human fancy has for ever paid Poetic homage to the bird of Jove. Hence, ’neath his image, Rome array’d her turms And cohorts for the conquest of the world. And figuring his flight, the mind is fill’d With thoughts that mock the pride of wingless man. ; : i . He clove the adverse storm, And cuff’d it with his wigs. He stopp’d his flight As easily as the Arab reins his steed, And stood at pleasure “neath Heaven’s zenith, like A lamp suspended from its azure dome. Whilst underneath him the world’s mountains lay Like molehills, and her streams like lucid threads. Then downward, faster than a falling star, He near’d the earth, until his shape distinct Sa ‘< Seeee ee WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. 19 Was blackly shadow’d on the sunny ground ; And deeper terror hush’d the wilderness, To hear his nearer whoop. Then up again He soar’d and wheel’d. There was an air of scorn In all his movements, whether he threw round His crested head to look behind him; or Lay vertical and sportively display’d The inside whiteness of his wing declined, In gyres and undulations full of grace, An object beautifying Heaven itself.’ Tennyson, in one of his fragments called ‘The Hagle,’ has, in six short lines, painted a graphic picture of the “ king of birds.” “He clasps the crag with hooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring’d with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls ; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.” Alexander Wilson, in the ‘American Ornithology,’ has given an admirable description of the predatory habits of the White-headed Hagle (Haliaétus leucocephalus), a species which has been adopted in the United States as the repre- sentative of that country, although Benjamin Franklin and other illustrious citizens have expressed a wish, that some nobler denizen of the American continent had been selected 20 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. than “this bird of bad moral character, which does not get his living honestly. . . . Besides he is a rank coward; the little king-bird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly, and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cin- cinnati of America®.” We extract part of Wilson’s descrip- tion: the “ fish-hawk” alluded to, is the osprey (Pandion Ha- hiaétus): * Klevated on the high dead limb of some gigantic tree that commands a wide view of the neighbouring shore and. ocean, he seems calmly to contemplate the motions of the various feathered tribes that pursue their busy avocations below; the snow-white gulls slowly winnowing the air; the busy tringze coursing along the sands; trains of ducks streaming over the surface; silent and watchful cranes, in- tent and wading ; clamorous crows; and all the winged mul- titudes that subsist by the bounty of this vast liquid maga- zine of nature. High over all these hovers one, whose action instantly arrests his whole attention. By his wide curvature of wing, and sudden suspension in air, he knows him to be the fish-hawk, settling over some devoted victim of the deep. His eye kindles at the sight, and, balancing himself with half-opened wings on the branch, he watches the result. * Benjamin Franklin. Tee ee ee Bamerrichter XC®° lith. 1. Neophron Percnopterus. 4. Sarcoramphus Gryphus. 3. Aquila fucose. 4. Head. of Snowy owl. THE HAWK EAGLE. real Down, rapid as an arrow from heaven, descends the distant object of his attention, the roar of its wings reaching the ear as it disappears in the deep, making the surges foam around! At this moment, the eager looks of the eagle are all ardour ; and, levelling his neck for flight, he sees the fish-hawk once more emerge, struggling with his prey, and mounting in the air with screams of exultation. ‘These are the signal for our hero, who, launching into the air, instantly gives chase, and soon gains on the fish-hawk; each exerts his ut- most to mount above the other, displaying in these rencontres the most elegant and sublime aerial evolutions. The unen- cumbered eagle rapidly advances, and is just on the point of reaching his opponent, when, with a sudden scream, pro- bably of despair and honest execration, the latter drops his fish; the eagle, poising himself for a moment, as if to take a more certain aim, descends like a whirlwind, snatches it in his grasp ere it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten booty silently away to the woods*.” With an account of an Asiatic eagle of large size, the - Msaétus grandis of Hodgson, or large Hawk Eagle, a spe- * American Ornithology, vol. i. pp. 23, 24, (edition in ‘ Constable’s Mis- cellany’). pies, POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. cies with immense talons, as in the rest of its subgenus, we leave the subfamily of Eagles. This bird, according to Mr. Jerdon*, is found in India, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, chiefly frequenting the wooded and jungly districts near mountain-ranges. It is much on the wing, sailing like most eagles at a great height, and seems to frequent certain spots, which it visits always about the same hour, its prey, doubtless, being most active at these times. This eagle seems to prefer hares, jun- gle-fowl, spur-fowl (Lrancolinus), and partridges, and even preys on peacocks. It has been known to strike down that large wading bird, the “douk” (Zuntalus leucocephalus). The Indian falconers:bear the bird a grudge, as most of them can tell of its having carried off a favourite hawk. Mr. Jerdon speaks of the depredations carried on by a pair of these eagles among pigeon-houses on the Neilgherries, which shows that they can work in concert, and are possessed of a large share of shrewdness. Whenever the pigeons took flight, one of the eagles pounces down from a vast height, directing its swoop rather under the flock than directly at them; its mate, like any fox, watches the confusion into which the * Tilustrations of Indian Ornithology, by T. C. Jerdon, Esq. .. Madras Me- dical Establishment. Madras, 1847. THE SHAHEEN. 23 pigeons are thrown, and flies rapidly at one of them; the other eagle makes another stoop, which is generally fatal. The nest of the Cuncuma leucogaster, an Australian. spe- cies, somewhat related to our Sea-eagle, 1s often of enormous dimensions. Captain Flinders found two built upon the ground, from which they rose above two feet; each. nest was formed of branches of trees and other materials, enough to have filled a small cart. Mr. Gould* accounts for the ac- cumulation of this large mass of materials, from the bird being in the habit of resorting to the same eyrie for many years im succession, and each year additional supplies of branches are used in reconstructing the nest. The sport of falconry was a special pastime of “lord and lady gay” in ancient time, though at present all attempts to make it fashionable seem to be unsuccessful. In various parts of India hawking is still a much-loved pastime. The favourite falcon of the Hast, Mr. Jerdon tells us, is the Shaheen (Falco peregrinator), a dark species whose Indian name means Royal Falcon. Many of these birds are annu- ally caught and taken for sale to Hydrabad and other places where falconry is still ; ursued. It is trained for a “ standing gait,” that is to say, it is made to hover high in the air over * Jntroduction to Birds of Australia, p. 18. 24, POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. the falconer and party, and from this height, when the game is started, it makes its swoop on the quarry with half-closed wing. In its wild state, it destroys partridges, quails, and paroquets*. Dr. Layard, in his second work on Assyria _ (ce. 21), has given a highly interesting account of hawking, as pursued in the Kast. The Persians and Kurds are the great trainers of the Chark and Shaheen falcons. One species of the diurnal birds of prey has been turned to account by man, to get rid of noxious reptiles. This is the Secretary-bird of South Africa (Gypogeranus serpenta- rius), a long-legged bird, with feathers on its head, directed backwards, somewhat as pens behind clerks’ ears used to look, in days when quills were employed. This bird is said not to molest poultry. Among the Kuropean F'atconip# there is one genus pre- eminently qualified, by its long wings and tail, for rapid flight, sudden turning, or calm soaring. ‘This genus (d//- vus) contains the Kite (Milvus regalis), called in Scotland and the north of England the Glead, which was its Saxon name, derived from the verb “ glidan,”’ to glide, in allusion to the sailing motion of the bird. The species of two other genera (Hanus, Nauclerus) * Jerdon, Illustrations of Indian Ornithology, pl. xu. _SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK. 25 allied to our kite, (but differing from it in having very short tarsi, half-plumed,) are pre-eminently long-winged. America produces a fine species (Nauclerus furcatus), which is white and has black wings and tail. Wilson has described its habits, but we prefer extracting a note from the journal of Lieut. Abert, of the United States Topographical Engineers, and who accompanied Lieut. Emory, in 1846, on a warlike excursion from Fort Leavenworth to San Diego. “ High above us, the swallow-tailed hawk (Nauclerus furca- tus) was sweeping round in graceful circles, its white head glancing in the sunlight. I asked the Indian lad to shoot it for me with his rifle; but he gazed upwards at the bird, and seemed so struck with the beauty of its movements, that he uttered not a word, but shook his head, to signify that the bird was too fair for him to kill it. I should think it impossible for smaller birds ever to escape this hawk, which unites the form and swiftness of the swallow with the bold- ness and strength of wing of the falcon*.” Mr. Hodgson, long our Resident in Nepal, and so well known for his knowledge of natural history and the fine collection and drawings which he made, has published much on the birds and quadrupeds of India. In the ‘ Ma- * Ex. Doe. no. 41, 30th Congress, p. 392. Washington, 1848. 26 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. dras Journal’ (vol. vi. p. 77) he informs us that the “ Black- - wing” (Llanus melanopterus), called Chanwa in Hindostan, is not migratory there. The birds of the genus breed on trees, and rear from three to four young. . The chanwa generally searches for its food m the morning and evening, feeding on small birds, insects, and mice. This bird does not usually seize its prey on the wing, but skims like a har- rier-hawk, occasionally poising itself on the wing, as if to get a distinct view; and when it has seen its quarry, the bird “stoops perpendicularly with the speed of lightning :” speed is very necessary in the case of mice, which “ nimble game” constitute its chief food. Mr. Hodgson has frequently seen the chanwa whip off insects from stalks of standing grain, so that the Indian species resembles. the North American species just referred to, in its ‘swift’-like manner of life. The long wings, long tail, comparatively feeble feet, and other characters, present strong analogical resemblances. There are some of the Yalcomde which are said to live chiefly on vegetable matter. The Ibycter in Guiana, accord- ing to Richard Schomburgk, feeds exclusively on the yellow berries of a Malpighia ; in Brazil however the species feeds also, according to Spix, on grasshoppers. The Honey-buzzards (Pernis) are, as the name implies, OWLS. QF very fond of honey and wax. Dr. Kaup tells me, he has twice seen our British species (the P. apworus) in Germany, with its crop filled with little black berries and leaves. The Indian species (Pernis cristata) has been taken by Mr. Jerdon* with a large quantity of pure honey im its sto- mach; and its crop, when examined, is found to contain ants and wax. Mr. Jerdon mentions that he found in a specimen he dissected, a soft green mass, which looked like vegetable matter, but which was most likely the half-digested remains of green caterpillars. The Nocturnal birds of prey form one large family, the Owls (Srriegip#), distinguished by their large head (Plate I. fig. 3), apparently mcreased in size by the long fea- thers which clothe it; their eyes also are very large, and di- rected forwards; the circle of fringed feathers which surround them, added to the size of the eyes, give the birds a pecu- larly sagacious look, which has passed into a proverb. The large eyes collect at night every vestige of hght, but, during the day, the pupils distend so much, that the excess of light. dazzles and quite blinds them. The skull contains large ca- vities, communicating with the ears, which are supposed to assist their powers of hearing, every sense requiring its full- * Madras Journal, vol. x. p. 73. 28 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. est development, to aid their nocturnal researches after food.- The neck is short and covered with long feathers, the head appearing at times as if it was inserted on the body without that medium; the feathers are particularly soft and pliant, and furnished with a delicate down, so that when flying the owls scarcely make any noise, and can thus pounce unex- pectedly on their prey. The American ornithologist, at; the end of his description of the Hawk Owl (a bold and active species, which preys by day, and even follows the fowler that it may carry off the game when shot), says, “ It is worthy of remark, that in all owls that fly by might, the exterior edges and sides of the wing-quills are slightly recurved, and end in fine hairs or points; by means of which the bird is en- abled to pass through the air with the greatest silence,—a. provision necessary for enabling it the better to surprise its prey. In the hawk-owl now before us, which flies by day, and to whom this contrivance would be of no consequence, it is accordingly omitted, or at least is scarcely observable. So judicious, so wise and perfectly applicable, are all the dispo- sitions of the Creator*.” The legs are generally covered with feathers; the outer toe can be directed backward or forward at the will of the bird, a structure which often gives * Wilson, American Ornithology, vol. 1. p. 92. THE RED OWL. | 29 it a stronger grasp of the prey. This generally consists of small birds, which the owls surprise when roosting, or of the smaller mammalia, such as mice and bats; in general they swallow their prey entire, and, when the digestive process is ‘complete, disgorge the feathers, hairs, and bones in the form of a ball. Their stomach is very muscular, but, unlike the diurnal birds of prey, which have a craw or expansion of the gullet, the gullet of the owls is of uniform diameter through- out. Most of the species are active at twilight and during the night, but a few, especially those with the head nearly smooth, are known to fly about woods by day, and even to pursue their prey at that time. Wilson, speaking of the Red Owl (S. Aszo), and his description suits many of the fa- mily, says*: “Throughout the day it was all stillness and gravity; its eyelids half shut, its neck contracted, and its head shrunk seemingly into its body; but scarcely was the sun set, and twilight began to approach, when its eyes be- came full and sparkling, like two living globes of fire; it crouched on its perch, reconnoitred every object around with looks of eager fierceness; alighted and fed; stood on the meat with clenched talons, while it tore it in morsels with its bill; flew round the room with the silence of thought, and perching, moaned out its melancholy notes with many * Amer. Ornithology, vol. i. p. 100. 30 POPULAR ORNITHOLOGY. lively gesticulations, not at all accordant with the pitiful tone of its ditty, which reminded one of the shivering moan- ings of a half-frozen puppy.” The poet Wordsworth, in one of his ‘ Hvening Volun- taries*,’ thus apostrophizes the owl, and alludes to its habits and history :— “Grave creature !—Whether, while the moon shines bright On thy wings open’d wide for smoothest flight, Thou art discover’d in a roofless tower, Rising from what may once have been a lady’s bower, Or spied where thou sitt’st moping in thy mew At the dim centre of a churchyard yew; Or from a rifted crag or ivy tod Deep in a forest, thy secure abode, Thou giv’st, for pastime’s sake, by shriek or shout, A puzzling notice of thy whereabout ;— May the night never come, nor day be seen, When I shall scorn thy voice or mock thy mien! In classic ages men perceived a soul Of sapience in thy aspect, headless Owl! Thee Athens reverenced in the studious grove ; And, near the golden sceptre grasp’d by Jove, His eagle’s favourite perch, while round him sate The Gods revolving the degrees of Fate, Thou, too, wert present at Minerva’s side ;— Hark to that second larum! far and wide The elements have heard, and rock and cave replied.” One of the finest of the Owl family is the Surmia nyctea, * Poetical Works, vol. v. p. 270, ed. 1841. - THE SNOWY OWL. Si or Snowy Owl, a species conspicuous from its size, power, and the light colour of its plumage. This species is occa- sionally met with in the Shetland Islands, occurring not un- frequently in Unst, one of the most northerly of them. In the northern parts of North America it is of frequent occurrence, and is there famed for its daring disposition when hungry. Mr. Rae has seen one of these birds fix its claws in a lap-dog when only a few yards distant from its master, nor would it let go its gripe till a gun was fired. That intrepid Arctic ex- plorer mentions in his Narrative* an excellent method of shooting these birds, and one that he has often successfully practised; it “is to roll up a bit of fur or cloth about the shape and size of a mouse, and drag it after you with a line twenty yards long. The owl will soon perceive the decoy, although half a mile distant; and after moving his head back- wards and forwards asif to make sure of his object, he takes wing, and making a short sweep im the rear of his intended prey, pounces upon and seizes it in his claws, affording the sportsman a fine opportunity of knocking him down.” He- goes on to tell us, that he has known as many as fifty of these birds to be killed in the early part of winter by one Indian. * Narrative of an Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Sea in 1846 and 1847, p. 26. oe POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. These people take advantage of the snowy owl’s propensity to alight on elevated spots, and set up pieces of wood in the _ plains or marshes, with a trap fastened to the top. Dr. Edmondston was the first naturalist who found this bird in the Shetland Islands; he observes that whatever may be its diurnal habits in North America, it does not prey by day in Shetland. It is there viewed as a bird of ill-omen, and as it is by no means shy, 1t owes its protection in great measure to the superstitious fear with which it is regarded. In Europe it makes its nest among steep rocks or on old fir- trees, while in the northern parts of America, according to Sir John Richardson, it nestles on the ground. Order PASSERES. The Iysessortan Brrps. The birds of the order PassrreEs are exceedingly varied in the form of their beaks. As Cuvier well remarks, the character of the order seems at first sight to be purely nega- tive, containing as it does birds which are neither swimmers, waders, climbers, gallinaceous, nor rapacious. _ In some of the families, such as the Butcher-birds, the beaks are nearly as much hooked as in the hawks, but the talons and cere of these birds are wanting. Many of the Passerine birds are insectivorous, others are omnivorous, while many live only on seeds and vegetable substances when adult, though the parents are careful to find for them in their young state such dainty morsels as grubs and in- sects in all their stages. Following the arrangement men- tioned in the preface, we proceed to give an account of the habits of a few species belonging to some of the families. The first division of this extensive order is distinguished from the others by the wide opening of the mouth, and by the short, broad, depressed beak, which is slightly hooked. This division, named /issirostres, contains the Goatsuckers, D 34 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. Swallows, and Swifts, birds specially organized for taking insects on the wing. It is a very hard matter to do away with any prejudice, especially when a name is in the way to prevent its removal. A whole race of birds has incurred the odium of milking cows and goats; and, so long-lived is the opinion, that it is at least as old as the time of the Latins, who named one of these birds “ Caprimulgus,” from which is derived our no less stigmatic name ‘ Goatsucker.” Some kind-meaning naturalists have tried to call the birds night-jars, or night- swallows, but still Capromulgide is the name of the family, and “ goatsuckers”’ will be the name of any member of the group, where the English live. At might or towards dusk these birds are noticed occasionally to jump up at the udders of cows; they do this, not to illustrate their name, but to catch the flies or other insects which nestle there. These birds are scattered over the world, and many of them are familiar from their remarkable cries. The colour- ing of the goatsuckers is very sombre, but pleasing, con- sisting of an endless mixture of greys and browns running into each other. The tail and wings sometimes have white feathers, which help to decorate the rest of the plumage; the tail is occasionally very long. In one of Mr. Gould’s THE GOATSUCKERS. 35 works are given figures of some curious species with appen- dages to the wing and tail, which would almost look to be impediments to the bird. The large eyes, enormous gape, and, at first sight, the seemingly unformed head and weak legs, serve to distinguish these birds from any other. Their nocturnal habits are marked by their plumage, which is of that obscure complexion seldom found in day-flying birds. The “ Wanderer in Demerara” has described, in his usually attractive method, the cries of one or two of the species which there meet the ears of the traveller lying in his ham- mock. One species in particular, about the size of the English wood-owl, laments im a cry of such deep distress, that “he would say it was the departing voice of a midnight-murdered victim, or the last wailing of Niobe for her poor children before she was turned into stone. Suppose yourself in hope- less sorrow, begin with a high, loud note, and pronounce ‘ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!’ each note lower and lower, till the last is scarcely heard, pausing a moment or two betwixt every note, and you will have some idea of the moaning of the largest goatsucker in Demerara. “Four other species of the goatsucker articulate some words so distinctly, that they have received their names from the sentences they utter, and absolutely bewilder the stranger 36 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. on his arrival in these parts. The most common one sits down close by your door, and flies, and alights three or four yards before you as you walk along the road, crying, ‘ Who- are-you ?. who-who-who-are-you ?’ Another bids you ‘ Work- - away, work-work-work-away.’ A third cries mournfully, ‘Willy-come-go, willy-willy-willy-come-go; and high up the country, a fourth tells you to ‘ Whip-poor- Will, whip- whip-whip-poor-Will*.’” The Ulama or Demon bird of Ceylon seems to be a bird of this group. Dr. DavyT refers to his hearing the loud and hideous screams of this species, which conveyed the idea of extreme distress. Its notes are deemed in the island to be ominous and a prelude to death or misfortune. The goatsuckers are reckoned ominous birds in other parts of the world. Waterton{ says that in Demerara no Negro will destroy them, and it is impossible to persuade an Indian to let fly his arrow at one of the tribe. The African thinks that Jumbo, the demon, or evil spirit of his country, has them ready at his beck ; and the Indian of Demerara believes that the goatsuckers equally obey the orders of Yabahou, their evil spirit. “They are the receptacles for departed souls, * Waterton: Wanderings, second journey, p. 141. + Ceylon, p. 424. +t Wanderings, p. 142. shter & C9 Ith. JULEP IC B THE GOATSUCKERS. 37 who come back again to earth, unable to rest for crimes done in their days of nature ;” or they are sent expressly to haunt hard-hearted masters, and punish them for cruelty to their slaves. Should the large species cry near the door of the white man, evil must be at hand ; and should the Indian’s hut be visited by the sound, misfortune is deemed not far of. In Australia there are four species of a genus of this family, called Podargus. The beak is much stouter than in the other goatsuckers ; there are no membranes between the toes, and the middle claw wants the curious pectinated appendage. Mr. Gould has figured and described, in his great work on the birds of Australia, these four species; and from his account of one of them, the P. humeralis, the follow. ing passages are derived. ‘This bird, like its congeners, 1: ~ strictly nocturnal, sleeping during the day, in an upright position across the dead branch of a tree. So closely does it resemble in colour the object on which it is seated, _ that it requires a practised eye to distinguish the grey and brown mottled bird, from the brown and grey bark on which it rests. ‘So lethargic,” says Mr. Gould, “are its slum- bers that it is almost impossible to arouse it, and I have frequently shot one without disturbing its mate sitting close by; it may also be knocked off with sticks or stones, and 38 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. sometimes it is even taken with the hand. When aroused, ~ it flies lazily off with heavy flapping wings to a neighbour- ing tree, and again resumes iis slumbers, till the approach of evening, when it becomes as animated and active as it had been previously dull and stupid.” It does not seem, like many of the night-jars, adapted for-extensive and easy flight, the wing being short and concave. Mr. Gould believes that a great part of its food consists of insects, which it finds resting on the boles of trees at night; he has taken one, the stomach of which was filled with Phasmide and Cicada, in- sects which, he says, never move at night. It has great power in shifting the position of the outer toe backwards, a cir- cumstance which must give it considerable facility in creep- ing among trees. The male assists the female in the pro- cess of incubation; the nest 1s flat and slightly constructed of sticks placed in the fork of a horizontal branch of a gum- tree (Hucalyptus), apple-tree (Angophora), or swamp-oak (Casuarina). | A species of this genus was for some time in the Zoo- logical Gardens, where its sleepy quietness, big depressed head, and large gape, with a dull sweep-like colouring, con- trasted strangely with the restless activity, lively plumage, and noisy manners of the parrots around it. THE GOATSUCKERS. 39 Mr. Jerdon* says that the Hindustani name for the goat- suckers is Chippuk, Dub-chooree, and Andhe-chooree, each of them alluding to the habit of the species suddenly squat- ing close to the ground, as they do, when, on being disturbed in the day-time, they have flown from a short distance. In Teloogoo the goatsuckers are called Kuppa-pitta, or frog- bird, from their flat head, large eyes and mouth; and a name somewhat similar in meaning is sometimes applied to them in France (crapaud volant), though in this latter case the name “ flying frog” is acquired rather by the dissonant notes which have given to the bird the name of “ night-jar,” and to which Wordsworthy alludes in ‘The Waggoner.’ ‘* The dor-hawk, solitary bird, Round the dim crags on heavy pinions wheeling, With untired voice sings an unvaried tune ; Those burring notes are all that can be heard In silence deeper far than that of deepest noon.” One of the most remarkable of the goatsuckers is the Guacharo (Steatornis caripensis, P|. II. fig. 1), first described by Humboldt and Bonpland, from specimens which they took — in a cave, at the foot of one of the peaks of the Cumana mountains called Guacharo. It is said that this bird lives * Illustrations of Indian Ornithology, pl. 24. + Poetical works, vol. i. p. 277. 40 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. chiefly on fruit, and about midsummer gets very fat. The Indians, as detailed in Humboldt’s ‘ Personal Nar- rative,’ at this time annually destroy thousands of the young birds, and having opened them, extract the fat, which they melt in clay vessels. This fat 1s semifluid and trans- parent, and keeps sweet for more than a year. The monks of the convent of Caripe use this fat in cookery; while the Indians regard the fruits, found in the crops of the young, as an excellent remedy against intermittent fevers. Our British Goatsucker (Caprimulgus Huropeus) is very regular in commencing his song at sunset. The Rev. Mr. Willmott says: ‘‘ He never loses a minute; so that in a vil- lage, where, in still weather, the Portsmouth evening gun is often heard, the boom and the note intermingle. If a signal were given, the two sounds could not be more even*.” The Fissirostral birds, alluded to, are more or less exclu- sively night feeders. We now come to a section, the mem- bers of which are all actively engaged in seeking their insect food during the day. All birds are equally well adapted by their organization, for the part they-have to occupy in the system of nature, but in some this organization 1s more apparent to us. As an illus- * Journal of Summer-time in the Country, p, 194. THE SWIFT. 41. tration we may take the Swift, a typical example of this sec- tion, and quote the excellent observations of the late Pro- fessor Macgillivray* on this bird :— “Tf we suppose that the swift is destined to feed exclu- sively on insects as they flutter in the air, we can be at no loss to trace the reason of its peculiar form. Its body is light, but moderately stout, and its pectoral muscles are large, otherwise it could not move its wings with the neces- sary strength and rapidity. The wings are extremely elon- gated and narrow, because great rapidity of flight is required in the pursuit of animals which themselves fly with speed, and because sudden turns require to be executed in seizing them. A short, broad, coneave wing, as that of a partridge, on being rapidly moved produces considerable rapidity, but is not fitted for either buoyant gliding or quick evolution. For the latter the surface of the wing must be extended in length and narrowed, and instead of presenting a concavity, must be straight in the horizontal direction. Accordingly in the swift the wing has its humeral articulation peculiarly free, insomuch that holding one alive in your hand you at first imagine that its wings have been broken. At the same time their muscular apparatus is remarkably strong. Then * History of British Birds, vol, 1. p. 619: 4,2 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. the secondary quills are very short, and the primaries gradu- ally and rapidly elongated, and furnished with very strong but highly elastic shafts. The tail, although not so long, is similarly constructed, bemg deeply forked, and so in a man- ner divided into two pointed and elongated lamine, similar in some degree to the wings, and aiding their action in exe- cuting turns. In seizing its prey, while gliding or fluttermg in the air, the bird would be incommoded by any length of neck ; that part therefore is extremely abbreviated, so that the head seems as if stuck upon the shoulders, as is the case for a similar reason in the Cetacea and fishes. A long pointed bill would be of use only to a bird that has objects to pick from the ground or any other surface, or from among soil or foliage. In the present case, the bird, carried with rapidity to its tiny prey, merely requires to open its mouth, which is extremely enlarged, and supplied with an abundant viscid secretion, which immediately entangles the fly that has been — caught, and prevents its escape should the mouth be opened the next instant. ” and no less fitly might the answer be, “ Hach and all three ;—a bird in shape am I, A bee collecting sweets from bloom to bloom, A butterfly in brilliancy of plume*.” The whole structure of these birds is adapted for flight : their feet are very small, their tail is large, their wings are very long and narrow, while the sternum is very large, and has no notch on its posterior margin; in most of these re- spects resembling the swifts, birds which ier nearly ap- proach in power of wing. At one time it was supposed that these slender-beaked feathered gems fed exclusively on the honey of flowers. Although they are fond of the nectar of flowers, and in captivity delight in sugar, yet a great portion of their food would seem to consist of insects, which take refuge in the long tubes and other recesses of flowers. On opening the stomachs of humming-birds, insects are met with, and sometimes there are considerable numbers of them. Mr. Gosse has seen the long-tailed Humming-bird of Jamaica (Zrochilus polytmus) catch insects on theawing. He says: “I was fully convinced * James Montgomery, Poetical Works, iv. 135. Plate IV. = Be is é. ‘e" Bamerrichter &C° kth” 1 Tanvsivtera. Dea. 2. Ptiloris Victoriw. 3.Neomorpha Gould. ’ cf . Sete . HUMMING-BIRDS. 67 that the object of their incessant sallies on the wing was the capture of minute insects; so minute that they were generally undistinguishable to the human eye. Yet. the action of the bird showed that something was pursued and taken; and though, from the extreme rapidity of their motions, I could not often see the capture, yet several times I did detect the snap of the beak, and once or twice wit- nessed the taking of some little fly, just large enough to be discerned in the air. Moreover, the flights were sometimes very short: a leap out upon the wing to the distance of a foot or two, and then a return to the perch, just as the true fly-catchers do; which indeed the humming-birds are, to all intents and purposes, and most accomplished ones. I judge that, on a low estimate, each captured on the wing at least three insects per minute, and that, with few inter- vals, incessantly, from dawn to dusk. Abroad I do not think quite so many would be taken in the air, the more normal way being, I presume, the securing of the minute creatures that inhabit the tubes of flowers; yet we perpe- tually see them hawking, even at liberty. My captives would occasionally fly to the walls, and pick from the spi- ders’ webs with which they were draped*.” * Birds of Jamaica, pp. 122, 123. 68 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. Waterton in his ‘ Wanderings’ alludes to two or three of the Demerara species. In July and August, they are par- ticularly fond of fluttering about the red blossom of a richly flowering tree, called there “Lois immortel”?; around this and the “red sage,’ and the flowers of the “ wallaba-tree,” conspicuous ornaments of the woods, these species may be constantly seen, fluttering like so many bees. Our enthu- siastic traveller thus describes a scene on entering the forests of the rising land, as you get into the interior :—* The blue and green, the smallest brown, no bigger than the humble- bee, with two long feathers in the tail, and the little forked- tail purple-throated humming-birds glitter before you, in ever-changing attitudes. One species alone never shows his beauty to the sun; and were it not for his lovely shining colours, you might almost be tempted to class him with the goatsuckers, on account of his habits. He is the largest of all the humming-birds, and is all red and chang- ing gold-green, except the head, which is black. He has two long feathers in the tail, which cross each other, and these have gained him the name of Karabimiti, or Ara humming-bird, from the Indians. You never find him on the sea-coast, or where the river is salt, or in the heart of the forest, unless fresh water be there. He keeps close by oe ree , BS: * wie HUMMING-BIRDS. 69 the side of woody fresh-water rivers, and dark and lonely creeks. He leaves his retreat before sunrise, to feed on the msects over the water; he returns to it as soon as the sun’s rays cause a glare of light, is sedentary all day long, and comes out again for a short time after sunset. He builds his nest on a twig over the water in the unfrequented creeks ; it looks like tanned cow-leather ” (pp. 114, 115). He tells us (p. 289) that the rim of this nest is doubled inwards, and that at first he believed that it had taken this shape from the bird pressing against it with her body when she was laying her eggs. He afterwards found out that a provident instinct — has taught the little creature to give the nest this shape, and that in this way the eggs, which would be apt to be tilted out by the swaying of the branches, are prevented from rolling out. The number of species of humming-birds is very great ; on Plate V. are three species (fig. 1. Oreotrochilus Chimbora- zensis; fig. 2. Oxypogon Guerinu ; fig. 3. Trochilus mel- Hivorus). Since Messrs. Bourcier and Gould have recently commenced handsome monographs of them, species “un- known to science” are brought to our museums, especially from the more elevated parts of South America; for of the slopes of the Andes it may be more truly said than of any other part of that vast continent, that, 70 FOPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. “Flalf bird, half fly, the fairy king of flowers Reigns there, and revels through the fragrant hours, Gem, full of life and joy*.” Sir Woodbine Parish, the great authority on the pro- vinces of the Rio de la Plata, and long the British Resi- dent, notices in his book, that in the gardens around Bue- nos Ayres humming-birds abound. They frequent the sweet flowers and orange-trees growing there. He says: “We had a vast number of them always m ours. One with a brilhant violet-coloured breast was the most common. Many were the attempts we made to rear the young birds, but in vain ; [ believe, because we did not know their proper food. All we could do was to keep them in their own nests in cages for some weeks hung up in the trees in which they were taken, where the parent bird would continue to visit and to feed them, till they were supposed to be old enough to provide for themselves; then, nature’s duty done, she in- variably abandoned them, and they as surely diedy.” Sir Woodbine Parish gives an instance of the possibility of taming a humming-bird, additional to one related by Azara. He tells us that the lady of General Balcarce, one * Rogers’s Voyage of Columbus, p. 255. + ‘Buenos Ayres and the Provinces of the Rio de la Plata,’ p. 109. HONEY-EATERS. yas of the Plata ministers, with whom he was well acquaint- ed, had a humming-bird so completely trained to obey her, that she carried it about in her bosom when she visited her friends; she would then let it fly about the room, and even into the garden. Sir Woodbine has seen this bird flymg im his own garden, and disporting itself from flower to flower “ till recalled by the well-known voice of its mis- tress, to be returned to its resting-place and carried home again®’ It would be not over fanciful to hope, that we may yet live to see some of these “‘ winged gems,” fluttering about the gorgeous flowers which bloom and flourish so freely in the conservatories of our gentry, and in those paradisiacal botanical gardens at Kew and elsewhere, now so open to the public and so appreciated by them. Australia is the home of a very extensive family of pretty birds called Honey-eaters (MeLipHAcipm). They are found on the numerous flowering shrubs and trees, to which they resort for supplies of food. Although the sweet juices which are found in flowers form a part of their sustenance, yet in- sects seem to be the chief object of their search. They are all birds of great animation and of infinite restlessness, and many of them are famed in Australia for the melody of their song. The bill is sharp and pointed, and the nostrils, which 72 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. are of considerable size, are covered by a cartilaginous scale. The tongue in most of the species ends in a pencil of hairs, the better to enable them to get at their food. One species of this family, with long yellow waittles, like ear-drops, on the head behind the eye (Anthochera inauris), is very abundant in Van Diemen’s Land, and hundreds are — annually shot and sent to Hobart Town market for the table. Mr. Gould says that it is highly prized as an article of food, and so much nutriment must it derive from the honey and pollen of the Hucalypts, its chief food, that in winter it be- comes enveloped in fat; as much as a teacupful of oil may be obtained from two of these birds, and as the oil gives a better light, it is sometimes used in place of candles. The long tongue, with its brush-like tip, is well suited to aid it in procuring its food, which it gets in great profusion from the various species of Hucalypti, the newly-opened flowers of which “appear with every rising sun throughout the year.” It must be a very animated sight to see thirty or forty of these birds on one tree, hanging and clinging to the branches in every possible variety of position, and dis- playing their long graduated tails, the feathers of which are tipped with white. The presence of another species of this genus, the Brush Wattle-bird (Authochera mellivora), is a THE FRIAR-BIRD. | 73 sure indication to the colonist of barren ground; the bird being attached to Proteaceous shrubs of the genus Banksia, which only grow in the most sterile and unprofitable soils. These Banksias are in blossom during the greater part of the year, and as each flower expands, it 1s diligently examined by this honey-eater, which pushes its long feathery tongue - into every part of the flower, from which it procures honey, pollen, and insects. The note of the male 1s particularly harsh and disagreeable, and somewhat resembles Goo-gwar-ruck, the not very euphonious name by which the natives of New South Wales know the species. To this family belongs the singular bald-headed Friar-bird of New South Wales (7ropi- dorhynchus corniculatus, Plate VI. fig. 1), which selects the topmost dead branch of a lofty tree, and from its conspicuous site, attracts attention by its loud call, resembling various words by which it is familiarly known, such as “ Poor sol- dier,” “ Pimlico,” “ Four o’ clock.” It has also, from its bare head and neck, received the names of “‘ Monk,” “ Lea- therhead,” and “ Friar-bird.” Its food consists of the pollen of gum-trees, insects, and also wild figs and berries. During the breeding season this species is particularly bold, and at- tacks hawks, crows, and other birds much larger than itself, when they venture near its nest, and it does not desist till it 74 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. has succeeded in driving them away. Another gay species, | robed in yellow and black, the Warty-faced Honey-eater (Zanthomyza phrygia), is also very pugnacious, limiting its attacks principally to smaller species of the same family which venture to come near its haunts. Mr. Gould speaks of two pairs which had possessed themselves of a high tree, left standing in Adelaide, when he was there, and which beat off every bird that offered to come near. Another bird of this family, the Wyzantha garrula, abun- dant in Van Diemen’s Land, where it is called the “ Miner,” proves a great pest to the sportsmen from the warnings it gives to the objects for which he is searching, to get out of the way. Mr. Gould says that ‘‘ no sooner does the hunter come within the precincts of its abode, than the whole troop as- semble round him and perform the most grotesque actions, spreading out their wings and tail, hanging from the branches in every possible variety of position, and some- times suspended by one leg, keeping up all the time one incessant babbling note. Were this only momentary or for a short time, their droll attitude and singular note would be rather amusing than otherwise, but when they follow you through the entire forest, leaping and flying from branch to branch, and almost buffeting the dogs, they become very THE AUSTRALIAN BELL-BIRD. 75 troublesome and annoying, awakening as they do the suspi- cions of other animals of which you are in pursuit.” The note of another species of Myzantha (the M. melanophrys) has acquired for it the name of the Bell-bird; companies of from ten to forty and even more “ giving utterance to a peculiar garrulous note, which has been justly compared to the sound of distant sheep-bells, and which, when poured forth by a hundred throats from various parts of the forest, has a most singular effect.” The Meliphaga Australasiana is a species found abundantly among the almost impenetrable forests which cover great portions of Van Diemen’s Land. Mr. Gould refers to the pleasure experienced by the traveller in listening to the loud shrill hquid notes poured forth by numbers of this species, and which break the extreme silence of the solitudes. It would appear to derive its chief supply of food from the thick beds of Epacris impressa, a shrub with red and white heath-like flowers, in the blossoms of which 1t finds abun- dance of food; so intently is it sometimes engaged in its search after this, that the ornithologist of Australia has been able to get so near it as to observe its actions without disturb- ing it. The bird then clings to the stems in every possible attitude, inserting its long brush-like tongue into every flower 76 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. with great rapidity. It does not confine itself to the nectar and pollen of flowers, but feeds on insects, particularly of the orders Diptera and Hymenoptera. The nest is placed on a low shrub, within a foot or two of the ground. It is round and open, and is constructed of the inner rind of the stringy- bark gum-tree, while the inside is lined with fine grasses. Mr. Gould describes a species of Meliphaga from the Swan River, which captures insects precisely after the manner of the fly-catchers: it is named Meliphaga mystacalis. To the family Cerrutpa: belong the Oven-birds (furna- vius) of South America, which derive their name from the sin- » gular nest which they construct. Mr. Darwin* describes the habits of two species found in La Plata: the first of these is called by the Spaniards Casara, or the house-maker ; it is the Furnarius rufus of naturalists; the nest of this bird is placed in the most exposed situations, the architect selecting the top of a post, a bare rock, or one of the prickly plants called Cactus for a foundation. The walls are strong and thick, and composed of mud held together by bits of straw ; in shape it resembles an oven or flattened bee-hive. The opening is large and arched, while there is a passage or ante- chamber to the true nest formed by a partition nearly reach- — * Journal, p. 112. THE OVEN-BIRD. 17 ing to the roof. The second species described by Mr. Darwin is smaller than the other, which however it resembles in the reddish plumage, the shrill reiterated cry, and a peculiar manner of running by starts: by the Spaniards it is called Casarita, or the little house-maker. It constructs its nest at the bottom of a narrow cylindrical hole of considerable length; this hole is usually formed in a low bank of firm sandy soil, close to a road or stream. ‘The casarita, accord- ing to Mr. Darwin, sometimes selects other situations. “ At Bahia Blanca, the walls are built of hardened mud, and I noticed,” says this traveller, ‘that one, which enclosed a courtyard where I lodged, was penetrated by round holes in a score of places. On asking the owner the cause of this, he bitterly complained of the little casarita, several of which I afterwards observed at work. It is rather curious that, although they were constantly flitting over the low wall, they must be quite incapable of gaining an idea of thickness, even alter the shortest circuitous route, for otherwise they. would not have made so many vain attempts. I do not doubt that each bird, as often as it came to daylight on the opposite side, was greatly surprised at the marvellous fact.’ The Purple-winged Creeper (Zichodroma phenicoptera) is 18 POFULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. found, according to Mr. Vigne*, throughout the whole of — the alpine Panjab, where it strikes the eye of the observing traveller, as it displays the delicate scarlet patch upon its grey wings, when flitting over the perpendicular banks, with the movements of a butterfly rather than those of a bird. This species 1s occasionally also to be seen creeping on the walls of St. Peter’s at Rome, but its true home appears to be the mountains of Spain and Italy, among the crevices and clefts of rocks, where it finds its food, which consists chiefly of imsects and spiders. In this family, but belonging to a distinct division of it, named by Mr. G. Gray Orthonycine, is placed the curious Australian Orthonyx spinicaudus, the beak of which somewhat resembles that of the thrushes, while the legs are slender, and have long straight claws, with which, by the observation of M. Verreaux, the bird scratches among the fallen leaves for its food, throwing back the earth much in the manner of the Gallinacea. The tail-feathers ter- minate in sharp points, the use of which in the economy of the bird is not very apparent, as it does not climb trees, being strictly terrestrial. Its chief food consists of sects and their grubs. The nest is a large domed one, formed of * Travels in Kashmir, vol. 11. p. 21. CHILIAN BIRDS. 719 mosses, the entrance being by a hole at the side close to the bottom. The genus Pteroptochos is peculiar to South America. Mr. Darwin describes the habits of two species which are common in Chili. One (P. megapodius) 1s called there ‘el Turco’: at first sight this bird has some resemblance to our fieldfare, its legs however are much longer, the tail is short and carried erect, and the beak is stronger ; it lives on the ground and seeks shelter among the thickets. Darwin says. it is an awkward-looking bird. In its stomach he found beetles, vegetable fibres, and pebbles. The second species (P. albicollis) is named in Chili ‘Tapacolo,’ from carrying its tail inclined backwards towards its head. It is a cunning bird. Mr. Darwin says: “ When frightened by any person it will remain motionless at the bottom of a bush, and will then, after a little while, try with much address to crawl away on the opposite side. It is also an active bird, and continually making a noise; these noises are various and strangely odd; some are like the cooing of doves, others like the bubbling of water, and many defy all similes. The country-people say it changes its cry five times in the year*.” Mr. Darwin, in his ‘ Journal,’ also refers to the “ Cheucau ” | * Journal, p. 330. 80 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. (P. rubecula), another species which he met with in gloomy and retired spots, among the damp forests of the island of Chiloe. He says that this little red-breasted bird is held in superstitious fear by the natives on account of its strange and varied cries. Of these there are three distinct kinds: one called “ chiduco” is an omen of good, while another named “huitreu” is regarded as very unfavourable; he says that the natives are in some things absolutely governed by them*. On the island of Chiloe is found a bird closely allied to the above, named by the English “the barking bird,” from its notes having a striking resemblance to the yelping of a small dog; the natives call it “Guid-guid.” It 1s the Hylactes Tarniu of Captain King. Among the song-birds smallness of size is all but uni- versal. In that land of contrarieties however, called Aus- tralia, there is an exception to this rule, m the case of one of its best-known birds, and one which Mr. Gould has well selected as an emblem for his truly magnificent work ‘ The Birds of Australia.” At one time, and even occasionally now, this bird, which is at least as large as the common pheasant, was placed among the Gallinaceous birds, and * Journal, p. 352. LYRE-BIRD. 81 it is still called “pheasant.” This place and name have been acquired, not only from its size and general figure, but from the noble long tail of the male, two of the feathers of which are much larger than the others, and are bent so as to as- sume, when the tail is expanded, somewhat of the form of an ancient lyre: hence the name of Lyre-bird (Menura superba), by which this fine bird is usually known. Notwithstanding its size, and the curious form of the tail, this large bird, says Gould, ‘‘in almost every other point presents a striking re- semblance to its minute congeners: like them, it possesses the bristles at the base of the bill; the same unusual mass of loose, flowing, hair-like feathers on the back and rump; the same extraordinary power of running; the lke feebleness of flight;” and the young, unlike those of the Gaddinacea, are said to be helpless and blind when hatched, like those of the other perching birds. This bird is perhaps the largest of song-birds; it has an inward and varied song, the lower notes of which can only be heard when the observer is close to the bird. Mr. Gould describes its animated strain as “being frequently discon- tinued abruptly, and again commenced with a low, inward, snapping noise, ending with an imitation of the loud and full note of the Satin-bird, and always accompanied with a G 82 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. tremulous motion of the tail.” This naturalist particularizes a habit of the lyre-bird approaching one almost peculiar to the Gallinacea; it forms small round hillocks, which it regularly visits during the day. On these the male is con- stantly trampling, while, at the same time, he erects and spreads out his noble tail, and utters various cries, a mix- ture of his natural notes and the sounds made by other birds, with the occasional mimicry of the howling of the dingo or Australian dog. : The Menura is a difficult bird for the European sportsman to shoot, its mode of eluding pursuit being unlike that of any other bird. It seldom attempts to escape by flying, but runs off with great speed, carrying the tail horizontally. The aborigines, with their noiseless and gliding steps, steal on it as it feeds, without being perceived, and seldom allow one to escape. The bird is of a wandering disposition, and fre- quents gullies, which it traverses with ease, however steep and rugged, its long legs and strong muscular thighs re- sisting all obstacles; such is the strength of the muscles of these thighs, that Mr. Gould has been told the bird can leap ten feet perpendicularly from the ground. Among the brushwood and on the slopes of the ground it frequents, it finds abundance of centipedes and beetles, on which it chiefly Plate cy Bamerrichter &C° lith. 4. Oreotrochilus Chimborazensis. 2. Oxyp oSon Guermn. 3. Trochlus melhvorus. THE ALBERT LYRE-BIRD. 83 feeds. Its gizzard is strong and muscular, and can reduce with ease the hard coverings of beetles and even the shells of snails, which are frequently found in their stomachs. The female is similarly coloured to the male, but wants the - fine lyre-shaped tail. The brown plumage, the rufous chin, the long handsome tail of the male, with its sixteen feathers, —fourteen of which are very light and loose-webbed, and the ~ two middle ones wide and graceful, the tips black, and the edge of the inner vane brown and barred with darker brown, —combined with the longish feathered head, give this bird an attractive appearance, which is not readily described. A second species of this fine genus was described by the ornithologist of Australia at a meeting of the Zoological Society on the 5th of February, 1850. Mr. Gould named the species Wenura Alberti, the Albert Lyre-bird (Plate VI. fig. 2), after his Royal Highness Prince Albert; and from the supplemental part of his great work ‘the Birds of Aus- tralia,’ we derive our notice of this bird. Mr. Strange, Drs. Bennett and Stephenson at once ob- served it to be different from the long-known Lyre-bird. Its plumage is rufous, and the ly re-shaped tail-feathers want the brown bars, which mark these light and elegant plumes in the other species. These feathers are shorter too than the 84 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. other feathers of the tail, while in the J/. superba they are the longest. There are other differences which need not be here dwelt on. It was first, perhaps, observed to be new, when seen on the Richmond River by Dr. Stephenson in 1849. The sawyers and others employed there regarded it as a distinct species, and told him it was not so timid as the old Menura, and that it frequented mountain-ranges not very densely covered with brush. It passes most of its time on the earth, feeding there, and scratching holes in the sandy ground with its large feet. Hach bird has three or four of these holes, or “ corroboring places ;” they are two and a half feet in dia- meter, sixteen to twenty inches deep, and three or four hun- dred yards apart. In these holes it seems to feed, and may be seen by the lucky observer strutting round and round the place, while his ear will be pleased with “its powerful musical voice,” imitating any bird it may chance to hear, such as the giant kingfisher (Dacelo). Like the mocking bird, it need not imitate, for it has an “exceedingly beau- tiful and varied” whistle of its own. Like most great musicians, it has an ear even for discord, and practisés—as birds certainly do,—the mavis, for example,—as we well recollect years ago. Dr. Stephenson found insects only in the stomachs of those he dissected. DENTLROSTRES. 85 Mr. Strange tried to find it on its nest, but never suc- ceeded. He found a nest, placed in the spur of a large fig- tree: this the natives assured him was the nest of the Colwin, their name for this Menura. The nest was large and domed*. Mr. Strange has seen the Albert lyre-tail jump not less than ten feet from the ground, to some convenient branch, so that the powerful femoral muscles which move the large feet are useful in more ways than one, for these leaps are habitual to the bird; Mr. Strange observing that it continued to ascend in successive jumps, till it had reached a height sufficient to fly from it into the gully below. The third great group into which the Passerine birds are divided is named Dernrtrostres, from the upper mandible being notched on each side toward the point. Mr. Blyth, one of the best authorities on birds, remarkst that “no trace of this notch is ever visible in the bone, from which the tooth’ of certain Acczpitres 1s a true process. This group of birds contains the Warblers, Thrushes, Fly- catchers, Berry-eaters, and Shrikes, to the habits of some of the species of which families we now direct the reader’s attention. * The nest figured (Plate VI. fig. 2) is in the British Museum. t+ Cuvier’s ‘Animal Kingdom ;’ edition published by Orr. S6 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. Though British birds are as seldom as possible referred to*, yet it would be almost unpardonable to pass by, without some notice, the sweet songster who “On bloomy spray Warbles at eve, when all the woods are still.” As the nightingale spends only four months of the year in the British Islands, and over the larger portion of them is quite a stranger except by repute, it may be as well to allude to it. The nightingale (Sy/vza Luscinia), ‘Tn russet brown bedight,” has long been the theme of all our poets: pages, or rather volumes, might be filled with extracts of its praises. Like most fine songsters, it is a plainly-plumaged bird, not much bigger than a robin, and clothed with brown feathers, lighter on the under parts. It is fond of caterpillars and insects, and feeds chiefly on them, finding great store of such food in our southern English woods, some of which are filled with its liquid notes. Coleridge’s favourite bird at Highgate was the nightingale. In Caen Wood and the gardens on the slope about Mr. Gilman’s house he loved to hear them ; he refers particularly to “that giddy volumimous whirl of * See another volume of this series, ‘Popular British Ornithology,’ by P. H. Gosse, for the natural history of the British birds. THE NIGHTINGALE. 87 notes which you never hear but when the birds feel the temperature of the air voluptuous*.” Its history has been given by Mr. Gosse in a former volume of this series, so we are contented to give the following beautiful extract from ‘A Journal of Summer-time in the Country,’ by the Rev. Robert Aris Willmott, in whose county of Berks, by all accounts, before and after the days of Miss Mitfordt, this exquisite songster particularly abounds ; and **On the bough, Sole-sitting, still, at every dying fall, Takes up again her lamentable strain Of winding love,.till wide around the woods Sigh to her song, and with her wail resound.’’—Zhomson. “ He left us,” says Mr. Willmott, “in August, and has been away between eight and nine months. What he must have seen and heard in his long vacation! While the snow froze on my window, and his neighbour the robin sat piping on that sparkling bough, where was he? Probably enjoying a run among the Greek Isles. I have read of a naturalist who understood the bird-language: why did he not give les- sons? I should like to ask this nightingale a few questions * Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of S. T. C. ii. 212. + See the charming pictures of English life and scenery.in the pages of ‘Our Village.’ 88 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. about his travels; such as, Whether he compared the dark — sea, streaked with deepest purple, with our lake? marble pillars of ruined temples on green hill-sides, with gables and porches of old Berkshire farms? or dim islands—Cos and Ithaca—glimmering through a cloud-curtain of silver, with our country towns, just visible in the early dawn? Perhaps he preferred a town in Kgypt, long a favourite winter-home of his kindred. What food for those ‘bright, bright eyes,’ in the land of sphinxes and mummies! What a stare at the Pyramids, and longing lingering look at Rosetta! Our Loddon—the tranquil and clear-flowing—is a pretty river ; but think of the Nile, sprinkled with spreading sails, and bordered by gardens! “ Pleasant falls the shade from vast boughs of sycamore and fig-trees! I can see him plunging into the twilight groves of date, citron, lime, and banana, and covering him- self over in gloom and fragrance. There truly he might sit ‘darkling” What bowers of roses! But no; our wood challenges the world for roses; and here Hafiz might have contented his own Bulbul. Surely that ‘bright, bright eye’ drank in with wonder the living figures of the land- scape; and strangest of them all, the Arab in his long blue dress, at the door of the mosque of Abu-mandur. How THE NIGHTINGALE. 89 different from our parish-clerk shutting the church-windows in theevening! One is curious to know what a nightingale, on his first tour, would think of his own feathered brethren and the quadruped race,—of that rare fellow the pelican, with his six-men-power appetite; and the buffalo, his black nose snorting the Nile into foam as he crosses from side to side. But the sweet musician who sits on his branch re- joicing, quite heedless of me or my speculations, may have taken a different road. If he had visited the Archipelago and Egypt in former years, did he turn his wings to Syria? Again I sigh for the bird-language. ‘Touching stories that tongue might tell of the field which the Lord hath blessed with the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine; of the woody tops of Carmel; the sunny vineyard, and grassy upland; the damask rose; the stately palm of the Jordan; the silver sands of Gennesaret, and the sweet flowers ‘That o’er her western slope breathe airs of balm ;’ the hum of bees in clefts of the rocks; the solemn olive- garden; the lonely wayside! For, think of the reach of that large dark eye! A French naturalist has calculated the sight of birds to be nine times more powerful than that of man. Belzoni himself would have been nearly blind by 90 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. the side of this little brown explorer. But, oh! unmindful - nightingale! a broader, brighter eye was bent over thee— the eye that never slumbers nor sleeps—as thou screenedst thyself in the orange branches. If even young ravens that call on Our Father are fed from His hands, and the sparrow, sitting alone on the house-top, does not fall to the ground unobserved or uncared for, surely thou art ever seen and watched in the rose-gardens of the Kast, and the green cop- pices of English woods—dear pilgrim of music and beauty, I think thou art God’s missionary, publishing abroad His wonders and love among the trees, most eloquent when the world is stillest*.” In Australia, the place of our familiar robin is more than supplied by an allied genus called Petroica, of which there are several species, the males of which are generally black above, the wing prettily varied with white, the crown in some capped with scarlet (P. Goodenovii), while in most there is a white patch just above the bill; the under side is white or greyish-white, the breast having a gorget of ver- milion, scarlet, or pink-coloured feathers, varying in the spe- cies. The females are somewhat similarly plumed with their partners, brown however taking the place of the fine deep -* Journal of Summer-time in the Country, pp. 29-32. - THE RED-BREASTED WARBLER. 9] black, and the red breast being of a soberer shade. Some of the species however are without red breasts. One of the most common is the Red-breasted Warbler of Lewin (Pe- troica multicolor, Plate VII. fig. 1), a species which often re- minds the colonists of the familiar and pretty robin of their native land. Mr. Gould, in his ‘ Birds of Australia,’ says :— “ When far removed from our native land, recollections and associations are strong incentives for attachment to any ob- ject that may remind us of our home; hence this beautiful robin, which enters the gardens and even the windows of the settlers, 1s necessarily a great favourite ; its attractiveness moreover is much enhanced by its more gay attire, the strong contrasts of scarlet, jet black, and white rendering it one of the most beautiful to behold of any of the birds of Australia.” The favourite places of resort of this species _ are low bushes and woods skirting open plains, where it can get its food in abundance. Insects of all kinds, from soft plant-lice to hard-skinned beetles, flying, crawling, and at rest, are its food. Its song and call-note are feeble com- pared with our robin, but somewhat resemble those of that clear-toned bird, with which in autumn we are so familiar. Mr. Gould describes the nest as being a compact structure of dried grasses, narrow strips of bark, mosses, and lichens, 2 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. united into a comfortable receptacle for its eggs and young, with cobwebs and vegetable fibres, while the inside is lined with feathers and wool or hair: it is placed generally in the hollow part of a tree, a few feet above the ground. There are usually two or three broods in the course of a year. Another species, the Petroica phanicea, which is very abundant in Van Diemen’s Land, is so familiar, that Gould mentions his taking a nest of it from a shelving bank in the streets of Hobart Town; and in the gardens and fields of the neighbourhood it readily takes up its abode, being quite fearless of the vicinity of man. Famed as many birds are for skill and contrivance in the “architecture” of their nests, no genus has obtained so much celebrity as the “Tailor-bird”’ of India. . This bird 1s a species of Dr. Horsfield’s genus Orthotomus*, and is not uncommon in various parts of India, especially frequenting gardens and cultivated ground. Mr. Jerdon describes it in the ‘Madras Journal’ (vol. xi. p. 2), as living im pairs or in small flocks, and as being always engaged in hopping about the branches of trees and shrubs, peas and other vegetables, with a loud reiterated note, picking up ants and small * Orthotomus Bennettic, Sykes; by Lieutenant Hutton it is described as Sylvia ruficapilla ; and it may be the Sy/via longicauda, Vieillot. THE TAILOR-BIRD. 93 2 grubs, which are crawling on the leaves and bark. When it is feeding or hopping about, it has the habit of often jerking its tail, somewhat like our wagtail, and it occasion- ally raises the feathers on the lower part of the throat, displaying a small black stripe which exists on each side. Lieutenant Hutton* was among the first to give an accurate description of the tailor-bird, properly so called, and of its nest; for other birds somewhat resembling it in habits, have been described as “the real Simon Pure,” though not nearly so able in their sewing powers as this little Orthotomus. Lieutenant Hutton describes a nest which he found in the garden of Captain (now Brigadier-General) Hearsey, F.L.S.: he says it “was neatly formed of raw cotton and bits of cot- ton threads, woven strongly together, thickly lined with horse-hair, and supported between two leaves on a twig of the Amaltas-tree (Cassia fistula). 'These two leaves were first placed longitudinally upon each other, and stitched in that position, from the points to rather more than half-way up the sides, with a strong thread; this was spun from the raw cotton by the bird, leaving the entrance to the nest, at the upper end, between the stalks of the leaves, at the point where they join the branch of the tree. Both of these * Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. ii. pp. 502, 505; pl. xviit. 94, POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. leaves were of course green and living. Subsequently how-— ever they were blown down by a high wind, and being now withered, the nest appears enclosed between dead leaves.” Lieutenant Hutton describes a second nest which he found in the same garden: it contained an egg and two young birds nearly fledged. This nest was at the end of the branch of the Bhela (Semecarpus sp.), and placed about two feet from the ground, and formed of raw cotton, cotton thread with a little flax, and lined with horse-hair alone. The leaves were stitched together partly with thread pre- pared by the bird, and partly with spun thread, and so care- fully was it concealed, that it was difficult to find it. The species of Prinia, a genus first described by Dr. Horsfield, and containing small birds natives of India and the East Indian Archipelago, build nests with an ingenuity somewhat resembling that of the tailor-bird. A species of Sylvia, common in Southern Europe (the 8. eysticola, Temm.), connects the sedges and other plants growing on the banks of ditches with real stitches also. This small bird forms, seemingly with her beak, small holes in the edges of the leaves of reeds and sedges, and through these holes she passes one or more threads, composed apparently of spider’s web. These threads are not long enough to pass THE SUPERB WARBLER. 95° more than two or three times from one leaf to another ; they are knotted by the careful little architect, whose nest is thus safely hung over the water. The Superb Warbler of Australia (Malurus cyaneus) be- longs to a genus of several species, the males of which are conspicuous for the loveliness of their plumage. This plu- mage, consisting of blue and black most harmoniously min- gled, is of a peculiar softness and delicacy. According to Mr. Gould, the historian of the Mauri and all the Austra- lian birds, this fine colouring is most usually found only for a few of the spring months; and he says that as spring ad- vances, when they separate into pairs, ‘‘a more astonishing change can scarcely be imagined ;” the plain and unassum- ing garb of the male during the winter months, at which time it is very similar to the female, “being thrown off for a few months and another assumed, which, for resplendent beauty, is hardly surpassed by any of the feathered race, certainly by none but the humming-birds and the cotingas of America: nor is the change confined to the plumage only, but extends also to its habits; in fact, its whole character and nature appear to have received a new impulse ; the little creature now displaying great vivacity, proudly showing off its gorgeous attire to the utmost advantage, and pouring 96 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. out its animated song unceasingly,” cheering his partner du- ~ ring the cares of incubation, and assisting her in procuring food for their young brood. | In winter, when a plain bird, this Malurus becomes tame, and frequents the gardens and outgrounds of the settlers, and, robin-like, seems to court his attentions ; but in spring, the male, when in court dress, becomes apparently shy of his gorgeous clothing, as if afraid that the fine plumage should lure the gun of the colonist. Its wings are short and rounded, so that they are not adapted for continued flight: it passes over the ground with great facility, by a succession of bounding hops ; at such a time the tail is car- ried perpendicularly or thrown forward over the back. The nest is a domed one, with a small hole at the side, and is generally formed of grass and lined with feathers and hair. The female sometimes becomes the foster-mother of the bronze cuckoo, which imitates, in this respect, the aban- doned habits of its more historically famed Huropean kins- woman. The chief food of this Madurus consists of in- sects collected on the ground: its notes resemble those of our wren. There are several other beautiful species of this genus found in different parts of Australia. Among these may be Plate VL. wo Boe z i i i H £ # - ira iti Bamwerrichter &C° lith fi. Tropidorhynchus corniculatus. 2.Mennura Alberti. IORA TIPHIA. 97 mentioned the white-winged Malwrus (M. leucopterus, Plate VII. fig. 2), the male of which is nearly entirely of a blue colour, the wings, excepting on the quills, being of a snow- white. Other species have red in greater or smaller patches on the back (JZ. melanocephalus, Lamberti, Brownw). The ~ Emu Wren (Stipiturus malachurus) is allied to these birds, and is curiously furnished with a singular, loose, webbed tail, which scarcely seems to belong to it; the feathers also of this tail have some resemblance to the curious double fea- thers of the gigantic Emu,—and hence the name of the little bird. One of the most common birds in every garden in India is the Jora tiphia, a species closely allied to the Javanese one. It is a most restless and active bird, in its habits somewhat resembling our titmice. Mr. Jerdon notices it* as “diligently and carefully searching the smaller branches and twigs of trees, climbing actively among them, peering under the leaves, and occasionally hanging, like a titmouse, from a slender twig, all the while keeping up a loud warbling strain, or a low querulous sort of note, very different from each other.” He tells us that the name in Hindustan is Show-bheega, and that the bird has acquired this name from ** Madras Journal, vol. x. p. 248. H 98 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. its cry before rain resembling those words repeated. The Jora feeds on insects, spiders, and grubs. Dr. [Horsfield describes the Jora scapularis of Java as a bird of social habits, which resorts to the vicinity of human dwellings ; indeed so much so, that “it appears to have re- tired from the forests, and established itself in the trees and hedges which surround the villages and plantations.” There it may be seen, flying from branch to branch; it is most active in the middle of the day, when the heat of the sun is greatest, and the inhabitants uniformly retire to rest. » Its enlivening song may then be heard, during the silence of noon, as it sports between the branches. Its food consists of small insects, which it finds often on and in the bark of trees*. There is no accounting for taste in either men or birds; although the great mass of the soft-billed birds build their nests in trees, there are others that abjure such situations. One of these, the Solitary Rock Warbler of New South Wales (Origma rubricata), suspends its nest to the ceilings of caverns, and the under surface of overhanging rocks. Mr. Gould observed this bird frequently in Australia, and found that this was its invariable habit. This nest is of an oblong globular form, and is formed of moss and such hke * Dr. Horsfield. Zoological Researches in Java. THE SOLITARY ROCK WARBLER. 99 substances; it is suspended by a narrow neck. ‘The bird is social in its habits, as the naturalist we have quoted found sometimes three or four of these nests, suspended to the roof of the same small, dark cavern. ‘The bird, which is brown above and rusty-coloured below, frequents the neighbourhood of watercourses and rocky gullies, in which, like our dipper and wagtail, it finds its insect food ; it never visits the forests, and Mr. Gould never saw it even perch on the branch of a tree. It is charming in a book of travels to meet with a lover of Natural History; and when we read about the natives of our antipodes, with their curious manners and strikingly- different appearance from ourselves, it is pleasing to find that “ they too have song-birds.” Most of the birds referred to in the two following paragraphs belong to this group. The Rev. William Yate, of the Church Missionary Society, resided seven years in New Zealand, and the results of his observations appeared in 1835. He evidently carried with him from England a great love of birds :—*“ Nothing can possibly exceed the exquisiteness of a morning concert, as performed in the ample woods of these islands. One of the greatest treats which I enjoy, is to be wakened in my tent by the loud and lovely voices of the only musicians I have met with since I left the lark and the nightingale behind me 100 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. in much-loved England. Their song is too sweet to be of long continuance. At the first dawn of day it commences, — and gradually heightens as the light increases; but no sooner does the sun appear, gilding the hills with his bright beams, than the performers, one after another, retire, and all the lovely sounds die away into profound silence; or, if the silence be broken, it is only by the shrill note of some unmusical bird, who dared not to appear till his more me- lodious companions had retired into the woods, either to pre- pare for or to take care of their young, and to repose after the exertions of the morning*.” The song of birds seems to be much influenced by the season of love; and yet, as Mr. Hepburn remarks, it does not entirely depend on that season, as many birds sing in the autumn and winter, as well as in the spring and summer. His remarks on the time our native song-birds commence their morning lays are as follows :—“ In the beginning of July, at about half-past one o’clock, up springs the skylark to greet the coming morn; at two the swailow ‘twitters from his straw-built shed ;’ soon the mellow-toned blackbird and ~ thrilling thrush call up the grove; the robin redbreast takes up the burden of the song, and the wren, as he bustles from * Rev. W. Yates Account of New Zealand, p. 52. SONG OF BIRDS. TITMICE. 101 his ivy roost, joins the strain; now the blackcap is heard loud and clear. Let the enraptured ear dwell for three or four minutes on the charming and ever-varied song of the garden warbler, rising’ and falling in the softest and sweetest swells and cadences. Advancing along the woodland path, we listen to the melody of the green woodwren ; the curious song of the yellow woodwren, high up in the beechen tree ; the notes of the whitethroat, in some individuals musical, in others harsh; and of many other songsters, which mingle with the call of the cuckoo, and the murmur of the cushat.” We may just allude to the Titmice (Parine), a beautiful subfamily of warblers, the species of which are met with in the temperate regions of the earth, or on mountains in the warmer parts at considerable elevations. Who has not ad- mired our Ox-eye (Parus major) or the little Blue Tit (Parus ‘ceruleus) on the slim branches of a tree, “ perfect mounte- banks, as it seems to matter little to them whether their heads or their heels are uppermost; dancing at one moment in antics round the branches of a tree, and at the next hanging suspended from its most slender twigs*”? The family Turprp# contains the Thrushes, Ant-Thrushes, and Orioles, an extensive and widely distributed group of * Hewitson’s ‘ British Eggs,’ vol. 1. p. 111. 102 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. birds. We have several species of this family in the British _ Islands, such as the freckled-breasted Mavis, or Song-Thrush (Turdus musicus), one of the sweetest of our songsters, whose nest and eggs are often the prey of the prowling schoolboy in the month of April; the Blackbird (Zurdus merula), which often exposes its nest, as if in exuberance of familia- rity,—a nest curious for the mud with which it is plastered ; the Ring-Ouzel (Zurdus torquatus), so partial to the more northerly parts of our island ; the large Missel Thrush, which pours its “peculiarly wild, full note from the top of some high tree,” and becoming tame in spring, builds its nest in fruit-trees, sure of protection. These species build solitarily, and habitually reside here; and we only allude to them as in- troductory to the mention of the Redwing and Fieldfare, two other species, which leave these islands for Norway and Sweden, or other northern countries, to rear their young. Mr. Hewitson*, who visited the boundless forest scenery, * His admirable work, had we been writing on British birds, would have supplied us with much valuable information; it is stored with lively notices of the habits of birds, and contains certainly the best figures of eggs ever published. ‘ British Oology : Coloured Illustrations of the Eggs of British Birds, accompanied with descriptions of the Higgs, Nests, ete.,’ by William C. Hewitson. 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1846. See the new edition, “ Eggs of British Birds.” . THE FIELDFARE. 103 and some of the thousand islands, of Norway, chiefly to get eggs and information on the habits of migratory British birds, speaks of the redwing (Turdus tliacus) as being so- litary and shy; while its “loud, wild, and most delicious song seldom failed to cheer” him and his companions, Messrs. Hancock and Johnson. In some parts of Norway the redwing is called the “nightingale,” and well it deserves its name; for he says that ‘its clear, sweet song would oc- casionally delight us during the hours of night, if the two or three delightful hours of twilight, which succeed the long day of a Norwegian summer, can be called night. The birds, like the other inhabitants of the country, seem loath to lose in sleep a portion of this short-lived season*.”’ About the end of April, in the year 1833, he noticed that the fieldfare (Zurdus pilaris) left the neighbourhood of New- castle; and bythe 14:th of Mayour friend was among the woods of Norway, where he found the fieldfare had already com- menced the cares of “the production of other colonies, to visit us in future years.” He soon found a colony of field- fares, and we give, in his own words, the result of his visit to it: “ We very soon forgot our toils in the delight which we experienced at the discovery of several of their nests, and * Hewitson’s ‘ British Eggs,’ vol. i. p. 61. 104 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. were surprised to find them so contrary to the habits of the rest of the genus with which we are acquainted, breeding in society. ‘Their nests were at various heights above the ground, from four to thirty or forty feet or upwards, and mixed with old ones of the preceding summer; they were for the most part placed against the trunk of the spruce fir- tree ; some were however at a considerable distance from it, towards the smaller end of the thicker branches. They re- semble most nearly those of the ring-ouzel; the outside is composed of sticks and coarse grass and weeds gathered wet, matted together with a small quantity of clay, and lined with a thick bed of fine dry grass*.”’ Mr. Hewitson adds that two hundred nests or upwards may be found within a small circuit of the forest. Dr. Horsfield, m his zoological researches in Java, met with a fine song-bird on Mount Prahu, at an elevation of 7000 feet above the sea. He says:—It utters, almost without interruption, a varied song. Its common note is a quickly-reiterated babbling, resembling that of the Curruca garrula and other birds of this family; it has also a pro- tracted plaintive note; but it sometimes rises to higher and melodious warblings, which, in the general silence of these * Hewitson’s ‘ British Eggs,’ vol. i. p. 58. THE MOUNTAINEER WARBLER. 105 elevated regions, afford an inexpressible sensation of delight to the mind of the solitary traveiler.” Like the Solitaire of Jamaica, this bird, the Mountaineer Warbler (Brachypteryx montana, Horsfield), is a plain-plu- maged bird, delighting in mountain-ranges covered with luxuriant vegetation and gloomy thickets, where the Doctor occasionally observed it, in its short sallies amongst the openings of the forest. It has the general structure of the redstart and wheatear, but differs from them particularly in having a very short, blunt wing, and in its tarsi being more slender. This shortness of wing prevents it taking long flights; it is chiefly met with on the lowest branches of trees, or on the earth, and finds in the dense forests which it fre- quents, an abundant supply of the larve of insects and worms, which constitute its chief food*. The nests of at least two species of an Australian genus, belonging to this group, are remarkable for their site. Mr. Gould has described them in his great work. He says:—“ All those who have rambled in the Australian forests must have observed, that in their more dense and humid parts, an atmosphere peculiarly adapted for the rapid and abundant growth of mosses of various kinds is generated, and that * Zoological Researches in Java, No. 7. 106 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. these mosses not only grow on the trunks of decayed trees, but are often accumulated in large masses at the extremities of the drooping branches. These masses often become of sufficient size to admit of a pretty, brown, yellow-throated bird, with a black patch of feathers from the base of the bill to behind the eye, named Sericornis citreo-gularis, con- structing a nest in the centre of them with so much art, that it is impossible to distinguish it from any of the other pendulous masses in the vicinity. ‘These branches are fre- quently a yard in length, and in some instances hang so near the ground as to strike the head of the explorer during his rambles; in others they are placed high up upon the trees, but only in such parts of the forest where there is an open space, entirely shaded by overhanging foliage. As will be readily conceived, in whatever situations they are met with, ‘they at all times form a remarkable and conspicuous feature in the landscape. Although the nest is constantly disturbed by the wind, and liable to be shaken when the tree is dis- turbed, so secure does the inmate consider itself from danger or intrusion of any kind, that I have frequently captured the female while sitting on her eggs.”’ It would seem that another species of the genus (Sericornis maguirostris) has a similar nest, to which it resorts for several successive seasons, THE FAIRY ROLLER. 107 and probably for a series of years. ‘This species seems to be shy; it keeps among the branches of high trees, and lives on insects, which it captures plentifully m such situations. One of the most beautifully though simply plumaged birds of the Hast is the Jrena pueda, or Fairy Roller, of India, the male of which is of the deepest black, with the crown of the head, upper side of the neck, back, wing, and tail-coverts of the most resplendent smalt-blue colour. It has short tarsi and weak claws; its bill is strong, and the nostrils are covered with vidriss@ and velvety feathers. Ac- cording to Dr. Horsfield, who first described the genus*, it is rare in Java, concealing itself on solitary hills, far from the haunts of man, and feeding on the fruits and wild seeds which it finds in the mountain woods and forests. Sir Stam- ford Raffles met with it in Sumatra. Mr. Jerdont finds it to be common in the lofty forest jungles of Malabar, where it is met with in small parties of four or five, frequenting the summits of the loftest trees, as if, ike our purple emperor butterfly, the “fairy blue-bird” was chary of showing its charms. Its presence however is soon detected by the loud, mellow, agreeable warble which it frequently repeats. * Zoological Researches in Java, No. 1. + Madras Journal, vol. x. p. 262. 108 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. In Australia there are some prettily-variegated thrushes © named Cinclosoma. Unlike our thrush tribe, these birds are not famed for their melody, though the beauty of their markings renders them very attractive objects among the stony hills and rocky gullies which they frequent. The flesh of one species, the spotted ground-thrush (C. punctatum), is much prized. Mr. Gould tells us that in Hobart Town the bird is sold in the market under the name of ‘ Ground Dove,” an appellation given to it from its habit of running and feeding on the ground like pigeons. The nest of this species is a careless structure, formed of leaves and the in- ner bark of trees; it 1s placed on the ground, under the bield of a stone or tuft of grass. Closely allied to the thrushes in many respects, are a curious-looking set of birds called Pztta, named by the French “ Bréves.” They are seemingly devoid of all tail; this appendage however is present, although much curtailed. The birds are long-legged, and live much on the ground, running with great facility. Like the thrushes, the sexes very closely resemble each other; but it is curious to find that the young, like those of the kingfishers, are plumed and coloured exactly like the adult from the time they leave the nest. Mr. Gould has noticed this peculiarity in his THE RAINBOW PITTA. 109 ‘Birds of Australia,’ under the head of Pitta strepitans, the differences between the young and adult being very in- considerable in marking. Most of the species of Potta are beautifully feathered, the colours generally in bright contrasts. One exceeds its neighbour even in this respect, the Rainbow Pitta (Pitta Iris, Plate VII. fig. 3), found on the north coast of Australia. The head, neck, and under parts are black; a band of brown extends from over the eye to the back of the head, and relieves the black; while the golden-green of the back and wings is increased in brilliancy, not only by the black of the other parts, but by a fine full- bodied emerald-green edging on the shoulder, separated from the green of the rest of the wing by a blue like that of the Japis lazuli. The under tail-coverts, and part of the body behind the legs, are of a fine bright scarlet. This bird, searching, as Mr. Gould tells us it does, for its insect food among the thick cane-beds near the coast, must form a most attractive object even from a distance, and light up to the traveller a spot, which without it might look barren. S. Miiller and Schlegel* describe the Pitta cyanura, a common bird in the islands of the Hastern Archipelago, as * Monograph of Pztéta in book on the Dutch Possessions in the Eastern Sea, 110 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. running very quick, and keeping to the somberest places. The adult males, when they meet, fight like quails, and other pugnacious birds, living on the ground. ‘The nest of this Potta is formed among bushes, near the ground, and is frequently concealed from view by orchids and other parasitic plants. When seeking its food on the ground, it may be seen, like a fowl, scratching up the dried leaves with its feet. | Its food consists of earthworms, white ants, and other in- sects, with their larvee. The Malacocirci, of which the Turdus griseus of hails is the type, have large tails, broad, soft, and sombre plumage, and are found in the Hast exclusively. Mr. Jerdon says: —‘T have often amused myself in imagining that they are not inapt representatives of the Hindoos; certainly, as far as their frequent congregating together and their incessant noisy chattermg and gabbling, they agree; and were I dis- posed to carry on the similitude further, it would not, I think, be a difficult task. The typical species, the Keyr, or White-headed Babbler (Malacocircus griseus), is abundant in the Carnatic, where they are often seen seeking insects or grain from heaps of dung, whence their English name, ‘Dirt-bird,’ and French appellation, “ Fouille-merd.” They capture insects, but are not powerful on the wing. Pa a THE MOCKING-BIRD. a4 The nest is composed of small twigs and roots carelessly put together, and not high above the ground; the eggs are blue. The Oxylophus edolius, or Black-and-white-crested Cuckoo, deposits its greenish-blue egg in the nest of this bird by pre- ference*.”” Pre-eminent among song-birds is the ‘ Mocking-bird” of the United States and the West Indian Islands. He is a plain bird, so much so as perhaps to be one of the last in an aviary to arrest attention, were it not for his imita- tive powers, which soon attract notice to their utterer. The American Ornithologist has described his powers with his far-famed pen. He tells us: ‘‘ He many times deceives the sportsman, and sends him in search of birds that perhaps — are not within miles of him, but whose notes he exactly imi- tates; even birds themselves are frequently imposed on by this admirable mimic, and are decoyed by the fancied calls of their mates, or dive with precipitation into the depths of thickets at the scream of what they suppose to be the spar- row-hawkt.” We have only once heard the mocking-bird. The speci- * Jerdon, Illustrations of Indian Ornithology, pl. xix. + American Ornithology, by Alexander Wilson (Prof. Jameson’s edition), vol. ui. p. 93. 140 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. men was in a house in Bloomsbury, where the cries of the - street mingled curiously with the songs of larks, the chirping of sparrows, and the notes of different caged birds, from magpies to “ Virginia nightingales.” To any unusual sound that reached his ear he seemed to listen, as if to take it in, and soon gave utterance to a close imitation of part of it, generally ending however with very different notes. The sounds in London streets are so various, that they must defy any mocking-bird. Wilson describes the mocking-bird ina domesticated state in places less populous than London :— “He whistles for the dog; Czesar starts up, wags his tail, and runs to meet his master. He squeaks out like a hurt chicken, and the hen hurries about with hanging wings, and bristled feathers, clucking to protect its injured brood. The barking of the dog, the mewing of the cat, the creaking of a passing wheelbarrow, follow with great truth and rapidity. He repeats the tune taught him by his master, though of considerable length, fully and faithfully. He runs over the quiverings of the canary, and the clear whistlings of the Virginia nightingale, or red-bird, with such superior execu- tion and efiect, that the mortified songsters feel their own inferiority, and become altogether silent, while he seems to triumph in their defeat by redoubling his exertions.” o> See eter aries Bauerrichter &C® lith. |. Petroica, multicolor. 2. Malurus lencopterus. Oe Pika. ieiae THE MOCKING-BIRD. iis His musical powers are not limited to those of imitation, for the mocking-bird, Wilson tells us, has “a voice full, strong, and musical, and capable of almost every modu- lation, from the clear mellow tones of the wood-thrush to the savage scream of the bald-eagle. In measure and accent he faithfully follows his originals. In force and sweetness of expression he greatly improves upon them. In his native groves, mounted on the top of a tall bush or half- grown tree, in the dawn of dewy morning, while the woods are already vocal with a multitude of warblers, his admirable song rises pre-eminent over every competitor. ‘The ear can listen to Zés music alone, to which that of al! the others seems a mere accompaniment. Neither is this strain alto- gether imitative. His own native notes, which are easily distinguishable by such as are well acquainted with those of our various song-birds, are bold and full, and varied seem- ingly beyond all limits. They consist of short expressions of two, three, or at the most five or six syllables, generally interspersed with imitations, and all of them uttered with | great emphasis and rapidity, and continued with undimi- nished ardour for half an hour or an hour atatime. His expanded wings and tail glistening with white, and the buoyant gaiety of his action, arresting the eye, as his song I 114 - POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. most irresistibly does the ear, he sweeps round with enthu- silastic ecstasy—he mounts and descends as his song swells or dies away. . . . While thus exerting himself, a bystander destitute of sight would suppose that the whole feathered tribes had assembled together on a trial of skill, each striving to produce its utmost effect, so perfect are his imitations*.”” Our excellent friend, Mr. Gosse, was no less struck with the song of this “master musician” in Jamaica. He tells ust that the bird in that island is “ abundant in almost all situations, from mountain-peak to sea-shore, but- especially common in the orchards and about the homesteads of the lowlands.” Its voice is heard through the whole year, even when other birds are silent ; “and that not by ones or twos, but by dozens and scores, each straining his melodious throat to outsing his rivals, and pouring forth his full expressive strains in all the rich variety for which this inimitable song- ster is so famous. .. . If all the birds of Jamaica were voiceless, except the mocking-bird, the woods, and groves, and gardens would still be everywhere vocal with his profuse and rapturous song. “In those brilliant nights, when the full-orbed moon * American Ornithology, vol. ii. p. 92. + A Naturalist’s Sojourn in Jamaica, by Philip Henry Gosse, p. 171. BULBULS. 115 shines from the depth of the clear sky with such intensity that the eye cannot gaze upon the dazzling brightness of her face, shedding down on plain and sea a flood of soft light sufficient to enable one to read an ordinary book with ease in the open air, how sweet, how rich, how thrilling, are the bursts of melody that rise from the trees around— the serenades of wakeful mockmg-birds! Nothing to be compared to it have I ever heard in England; the night song of a single bird, however fine may be its execution, is no more to be put in competition with such a chorus, than the performance of a single musician with that of a band. Nights so lovely are seen only in the tropics, and the music is worthy of the might.” In the Carnatic, a large district of India, the common Bulbul (Hematornis cafer) is commonly kept caged, as a fighting bird. Mr. Jerdon says it fights with great spirit; the antagonistic birds seizing each other by the red under tail-coverts and endeavouring to pull them out. The bird feeds chiefly on fruit, and is often destructive to peas and ~ other garden productions. Another species of this mu- sical genus, the Jungle Bulbul (Hematornis jocosus), seems to deserve more than the former the honoured name of Bulbul, associated with ideas of Persian nightingales and 116 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. the sweetest music. It is a lively active bird, and Mr. Jer- don mentions it as being abundant on the summit of the Neilgherries, where its warbling, chirruping notes must prove pleasing to many an invalid. Mr. Vigne* says that the Bulbul of Kashmir (/zos deuco- genys) is but a sorry substitute for the European nightin- gale: ‘ His note resembles that of the English blackbird, but is by no means so full and musical. He is about seven inches and a half in length; bill, head, and legs black; general colour of plumage olive greenish-brown, with a white spot behind the eye, and white tips to the tail-feathers ; on the head is a black pointed crest, beautifully curved forward like the plume of a helmet; his manners are those of a tomtit, quarrelsome and noisy, but amusing and very bold, as they will sometimes come into a room where a person is sitting. He differs from the bulbul of the plains in having a yellow patch under the tail, whereas that of the latter is red; and in the hills between Kashmir the spot is of a transition colour, between red and yellow.” The family of the Fly-catchers, MuscicaPipa, is an ex- tensive one, with horizontally-depressed beak, furnished with bristles at its base. The Tyrant Fly-catchers (Zyrannine) * Travels in Kashmir, etc., by G. T. Vigne, Esq., volt i. p. 20. te baits a eal THE TYRANT FLY-CATCHER. ti? are peculiar to America, and are furnished with a long, straight, strong bill; the ridge of the upper mandible flat, and the point hooked. Many of the species have yellow or red feathers on the crown of the head, which are often invisible when the birds are resting. The American Ornithologist has described, in his usual spirited manner, the habits of the common North American species. This bird, which is ge- nerally known in the United States as the King-bird, during the time of breeding attacks every intruder who ventures to go near its nest and young. “ In the months of May, June, and part of July,” says Wilson, “his life is one continued scene of broils and battles, in which however he generally comes off the conqueror. Hawks and crows, the bald eagle — and the great black eagle, all equally dread a rencontre with this dauntless little champion ; who, as soon as he per- — ceives one of these last approaching, launches into the air to meet him, mounts to a considerable height above him, and darts down on his back, sometimes fixing there, to the great - annoyance of his sovereign, who, if no convenient retreat or resting-place be near, endeavours by various evolutions to rid himself of his merciless adversary.” In this way he con- tinues his attack, sometimes for more than a mile, till he is released by another fly-catcher equally eager to follow up 118 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. the persecution. Wilson says that this turbulent spirit vanishes whenever the young are able to shift for themselves, and that the tyrant then becomes a mild and peaceable, and very useful bird. The chief food of this species consists of insects, of which they destroy hundreds daily, and Wilson says that they are also extremely fond of blackberries. Mr. Darwin was struck at Maldonado with the Saurophagus — sulphureus, which is very common there; it is called by the Spaniards ‘ Bien-te-veo” (I see you well), from its cry re- sembling these words. He frequently observed it hunting a-field, when it hovers over one spot, like a hawk, and then proceeds to another. He adds that it frequently haunts the neighbourhood of water, and remains stationary, like a king- fisher, till some small fish comes near the margin, which it catches. In the evening this bird takes its stand on a bush, and continually repeats the shrill and rather agreeable cry alluded to. At Maldonado it is sometimes kept in a cage, or in the courtyards with its wings cut; and soon getting tame, amuses its captors with its cunning odd manners, which somewhat resemble those of our magpie*. : The Milvulus forficatus (Plate VIII. fig. 1) has a forked tail, terminated by two long feathers ; the Spaniards in South * Journal, p. 62. 4 Cee se oe THE BELL-BIRD. 119 America call it ‘ Scissor-tail.” Mr. Darwin* describes it as being very common near Buenos 248 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. islands near Chartum, on the White Nile, but was unable to shoot them; but he afterwards was offered specimens at Chartum*, so that we are sure of its locality. This bird has an enormously large spoon-shaped bill, somewhat like that of the boat-bill, and ending in a strong hook; the nostrils are much extended longitudinally; there is a fold of skin beneath the under mandible, which probably, as in the peli- can, 1s capable of being extended into a pouch; the toes are without webs. The only known species (B. rev) is of an ashy-grey colour, paler on the belly and thigh. The Cariama (Dicholophus cristatus) is a large bird, some- what allied to the trumpeters: the beak is longer and some- what hooked, giving the head somewhat of the look of a bird of prey; the legs are long, and have three shortish toes, and a hind toe, which is short and elevated: its chief food consists of lizards and insects. Mr. Gardnert fre- quently met with this bird when passing through bushy grassy tracts in some parts of Brazil, and was struck with its loud cries, which it continues from early dawn till night ; the sound produced he compares to the yelping of a dog. The bird generally goes in pairs, and keeps much to the * Jardine’s ‘Contributions to Ornithology ’ for 1852. + Travels in Brazil, p. 423. THE DEMOISELLE CRANE. 249 long grass, amongst which it finds its food. It seldom flies, but runs with great swiftness; the female lays two eggs, and forms her nest in low trees: the flesh is not much es- teemed, according to Gardner; but other travellers give a favourable account of it, and even say that the bird is do- mesticated on this account. Some of the Cranes fly in great flocks. Mr. Elliott of Wolfelee* says of the elegant Demoiselle Crane (Anthro- poides virgo), so much admired in our Zoological Gardens, for its lady-like aspect and delicate graceful step, that in India it flies “in vast flocks of from fifty to a hundred, and even five hundred, with great regularity of arrangement, in a long line, a few of the leading ones disposing themselves in another line at an angle, varying from a right to an acute one with it.” They fly in this way when they are in pro- gress, even during the day, when disturbed on the banks of the rivers, which they decorate and render lively by their presence; these birds may be seen circling overhead at a great height, but still in a regular order of line. Unlike the herons, the cranes would seem to be fonder of vegetable food than animal. Mr. Jerdon mentions that when a hawk pounces on it, its mates generally come to its assistance ; * Notes quoted by Jerdon, ‘ Madras Journal,’ vol. xii. 250 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. and that the hawk, to avoid being wounded by the stroke of the sharp, much-hooked imner claw of this crane, strikes it on the back and wings. The bird never seems to attack with its beak, as herons and bitterns do. The regularity of the return of the Stork to the shores of the Mediterranean in summer is proverbial. The Scrip- — tures say, “The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times” (Jer, vil. 7). A recent able scientific traveller* thus writes of the stork :—“‘ March 28. . . . We saw several storks today for the first time. The regularity with which these birds return to their summer quarters is a very curious fact; as each successive year witnesses their return almost on the same day. At Smyrua they generally appear on the 9th of March; and, when I was there on the following year during that month, I saw them on the 10th for the first time. They are much protected by the Turks; and, independently of the superstitious motive that a house on which they build is insured against fire, they are of great use to the peasant and the farmer, by following the plough, and devouring the grubs as they are turned up.”” Storks also add much to the * Wilham J. Hamilton, Esq., ‘Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus, and Armenia,’ vol. i. p. 70. THE STORK. 85% interest of many a scene in the Kast. Thus the same travel- ler*, writing of the konak of the Agha of Tacmac, says:— “ Hundreds of storks, in undisturbed possession, had built their nests upon its ruined top; and, with their noisy clat- termg and constant fluttering, added considerably to the interest of the scene before us.” At one time the stork seems to have been far from an uncommon bird in this country: Mr. Blyth seems to think that it might again be common, were it not that every pair is shot soon after making their appearance, which prevents the founding of acolony. Mr. Waterton too, in his ‘ Hissays on Natural History,’ expresses the same opinion. How pleasing it would be to see the picture given by Thomson in his ‘Autumn,’ realized in many parts of this country, where these handsome and useful birds could still find abundance of their favourite food ! “Where the Rhine loses its majestic force In Belgian plains, won from the raging deep By diligence amazing, and the strong Unconquerable hand of liberty, The Stork-assembly meets ; for many a day Consulting deep and various, ere they take Their arduous voyage through the liquid sky. * Vol. i. p. 134. pape POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. And now, their route design’d, their leaders chose, Their tribes adjusted, clean’d their vigorous wings, And many a circle, many a short essay, Wheel’d round and round, in congregation full, The figured flight ascends, and, riding high The aérial billows, mixes with the clouds.” ‘ Autumn,’ lines 849-861. One of the Javanese Herons, described by Dr. Horsfield*, is very handsome, and well deserves the specific epithet (Ardea speciosa) by which he has distinguished it. Its white wings, tail, thighs, throat, and crest contrast well with the deep- black long plumes of its back, and the rusty-red colour of the body; the long beak is pale at the base and black at the tip. In Java it is a common species, but is more par- ticularly met with there in the rice plantations, durmg the rainy season, when they are mundated, and furnish, with their fish, frogs, and insects, a good field for food. It builds its nest on shrubs and trees; the young are occasion- ally taken, and may be not unfrequently seen in a domes- ticated state in the villages situated near rivers and lakes. The eggs of this heron are collected and sold in the markets, and its flesh is sometimes eaten by the natives. The Countess of Blessington, in some lines on the portrait * Zoological Researches, Java, No. 7. THE INDIAN SHELL-EATER, 253 of a beautiful lady, has compared her to the Egret, in the following pretty lines :— “They call that bird an Egret, whose light plume Fans the spring-zephyvr’s delicate perfume ; Whose snow-white bosom, in fine lace-work set, Is circled with a feathering coronet ;— A queen-like bird! the slenderest, purest thing That drops on earth, or frolics on the wing, Or wanders where the limpid waters rise, Or haunts the woods with birds of paradise*.”’ Among the Ibis group is a singular genus, called Ana- stomus, from an open space being left on the cutting margin of the beak, even when the mandibles are closed at the end. From the studies of Messrs. Jerdon and Elliott in India, it would seem that no such open space exists in the young birds, and that it is caused in the adult birds by their con- stantly feeding on the animal of a fresh-water mussel (Uuzo) ; seizing the shell with their beak, and crushing it to get at the contents, wears, 11 would appear, in course of time, the edges of the mandibles. One species is very common in India, the Anastomus Coromandelicus, or Indian Shell-eater (Plate XVIII. fig. 1). * Lines on the Portrait of the Marchioness of Aylesbury. Heath’s ‘ Book of Beauty,’ 1840, p. 13. 254 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. The next family, the Sxepes, named from its typical genus Scolopaz (ScoLoPpactD#), is distinguished by the great length and slenderness of the bill. Some authors have given the family the name of Longirostres, from this peculiarity. The bill, unlike that of the herons, is feeble and flexible, at least in most of the genera. Its tip is covered with a soft, very sensitive skin, of great use to the birds, whose usual mode of getting their food is to push the beak into soft earth or mud, for the worms, grubs, and insects which are generally found there; the hind toe is joined to the tarsus, above the level of the fore toes, and, being short, does not reach the ground ; in some of them the hind toe 1s wanting. In this family are placed the Godwits (Zimosa), which have a straight bill, and the outer toes webbed at the base; their legs are considerably elongated, and the various species fre- quent salt-marshes and the shores of the sea, where they find, among the annelides and smaller crustacea, abundant supphes of food. In the breeding season their plumage, on the under parts, acquires a rufous tint. The various godwits are gregarious in their habits, and even social. Wilson mentions that the American species, though a shy and cautious bird, is much attached to its kind: if one of the flock be wounded, the rest are immediately arrested THE SANDPIPER. 955 in their flight, and make so many circuits around their maimed comrade, that the sportsman has an opportunity of making great havoc among them. ‘The various species of Totanus have a round, pointed, solid beak, the groove of which only extends half its length: during the breeding season they show great anxiety and affection for their eggs and young; the eggs of the 7. semzpalmatus, in every In- stance which came under the observation of Wilson, were placed, during incubation, in an almost upright position, with the large end uppermost; and this appears to be the position of the eggs of many other kinds of birds which breed in marshes. The Avosets are characterized by their beak being curved upwards, a circumstance from which is derived their name, Recurvirostra: their feet are also webbed nearly to the end of the toes. In this family too come the various species of Sandpiper (Zringa), in which the tip of the beak is depressed, and the nasal furrow is very long ; the toes have no webs at the base, and the legs are but of moderate length. Closely allied to them is the genus containing the Ruff, which has acquired its name, generic and specific (Machetes pugnax), from the combating propensities of the males in spring. At this time the head is covered with red or yellow papille, and 256 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. the neck has a collar, or ruff, of elongated feathers, from which they derive their English name. Most of the birds of this family are highly esteemed as food. The Snipes and Woodcocks have a straight beak, which — is slightly curved at the tip, which, being soft, after death contracts and becomes dimpled, like the end of a thimble. Mr. Yarrell has well described the structure of it in his ‘British Birds.’ He says:—“If the upper mandible be macerated in water for a few days, the skin, or cuticle, may be readily peeled off; and the bones, thus laid bare, pre- sent a similar appearance. ‘The external surface presents numerous elongated, hexagonal cells, which afford, at the same time, protection and space for the expansion of minute portions of nerves, supplied to them by two branches of the fifth pair ; and the end of the bill becomes, in consequence of this provision, a delicate organ of touch, to assist these birds when boring for their food in soft ground; this en- larged extremity of the beak possessing such a degree of sensibility as to enable these birds to detect their prey the | instant it comes in contact with it, although placed beyond the reach of sight.”” The head in the snipes and wood- cocks is compressed ; and this, joined to the backward posi- tion of their large eyes, gives these birds a very stupid air. THE SNIPE, O57 It is chiefly at night that they feed; the colour of their plumage, consisting of various shades of brown and ochrey yellow, assists much in concealing them from view ih the retired swampy places which most of the species frequent. The snipe in Iceland has not, in all instances, the shy- ness for which the species of this country is so peculiar. Sir George Mackenzie saw it, in 1810, “associating, as it were, with the eider ducks; and sitting on its eggs within a hundred yards of the house at Vidée*.”’ The late Professor Macgillivray has thus, no less truly than pictorially, described the habits of several of the British species of this family :—‘‘ Who that has often visited the shores of the ocean, wandered along the extended sand- beaches, on the margin of which the waves terminate their career in foam and uproar, or visited the muddy estuaries, alternately filled and emptied by the periodical floods, has not stood to gaze upon the flocks of tiny birds that were busily picking up their food from the moist ground, or wheeling, as if in sport, their devious flight, now skimming the surface of the water, now rising high above the breakers, and then shooting far off to sea, to visit a distant part of the * Travels in Iceland, by Sir George Stewart Mackenzie, Bart. (New edition, p. 80.) S 258 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. coast? How often, in visiting a sedgy pool surrounded with marshes, have we been saluted, but in no friendly wise, by the shrill clamour of the long-billed and sharp-winged birds, which had placed their nests on tufts too remote to be reached! Again, on the long range of heathery hills, that we had traversed for many a weary mile, we have come, very unexpectedly to us, and with no welcome from its oc- cupant, upon the nest of the lonely curlew; which fluttered from among our feet in silence and terror, until, reaching a ‘ safe distance, she began to entice us away from her treasure, by displaying a broken wing and shattered leg,—taught, in fact, by instinct, to act a palpable untruth. Many pleasant sights have we seen on these solitary rambles :—here the four spotted eggs of the dunlin, so like in colour to the sur- rounding ground, that you wonder how the eye has dis- tinguished them; here the timid young of the same bird, squatted among the short heath; there a flock of godwits thrusting their bills into the mud; and again, the gliding and low flight of the beautiful white-breasted tatler, as, skimming by the margin of the quiet lake, it emits its shrill and reiterated cries*.” This graphic passage is equally appli- cable to birds of the same family, inhabiting the most dis- * Histor’ * British Birds, vol.iv. p. 161. THE PAINTED SNIPE. 259 tant parts of the world; and as they resemble each other in - manners, so do they nearly agree in form and colour. The genus Rhynchea is closely allied to that genus which contains the snipe and woodcock; it chiefly differs from Scolopax in the mandibles being nearly equal and a little arched at the end, with the nasal grooves extending to the tip of the upper one. Like the snipes, the species of Rhyn- chea have no webs to the toes of their feet; their plumage is more gaudy than that of the snipes and woodcocks, the quill-feathers of the wings and tail being particularly deco- rated with pretty ocellated spots. The Painted Snipe (AAynchaa pieta, Gray) is, according to Jerdon*, a permanent resident in India; frequenting, like its allies in temperate regions, the most marshy spots, where its variegated brown and dusky yellow colours must help much to conceal it from view. On the grassy edges of tanks, marshes, and paddy-fields it may always be found; and there, with its long beak, so delicately supplied with nerves, it finds in the moist ground worms and grubs. Mr. Jerdon fancies that the greater number of this species breeds in the northern part of India, as it appears in considerable numbers at the commencement of the cold season. * Madras Journal, vol. xii. p. 206. 260 > POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. There is a closely allied species found in South Africa, © while another has been described which is a native of Brazil; so that this genus, though containing very few spe- cies, is rather widely distributed. © On the banks of the Guiana rivers there is a bird named by the English Sun-bird, and by the Spaniards “ 'Tirana.”’ It approaches the heron tribe in outward appearance; but, ac- cording to Waterton (‘ Wanderings,’ p. 285), does not live on fish. Its food consists of flies and other insects, which it seizes just as the heron does a fish or frog, by approach- ing close to them and then darting its beak at them so quickly that the prey has no time to escape. The plumage of the bird (Lurypyga Helias) is a most beautiful mixture of various colours,—grey, yellow, green, black, white, and chestnut, bemg combined in proportions exceedingly pleas- ing to the eye; the tail is very large and broad, while the neck is long and slender, and the legs are rather short. Its generic name is derived from the great size of the tail, a character not very common among the birds to which it is allied. There is a smali but interesting family of tropical birds belonging to this order, named by Mr. Gray PaALAMEDEIDA, from its typical genus Palamedea. The chief characteristics THE HORNED SCREAMER. 261 of the birds composing it are,—the great length of the toes and the comparative shortness of the beak, which is more or less compressed at the sides, and curved downwards at the ' tip; the shoulder of the wing is armed with one or two stout spurs, which are of a horny texture, and are sharp- pointed. Their chief peculiarity, however, is the great length of the toes, as well as the elongation of the claws, which, from their expanse, enable the birds to walk with great readiness and rapidity over the leaves of the aquatic plants which float on the tropical rivers or marshes. The typical genus, Palamedea, contains but one species, the Horned Screamer (P. cornuta), so named from a long, slender, pointed horn on its forehead, and from the wild, screaming noise which it occasionally utters. The compara- tive anatomist can soon account for the cause of this, for on examining its trachea, he finds that it has an abrupt bony box, or enlargement, about the middle*; but the natura- list has not yet determined the use of the horn. On each wing there are two strong spurs, with which it is said to defend itself and its young from the attacks of the snakes, which abound in the watery places frequented by it. This bird feeds chiefly on the leaves and seeds of aquatic plants. * Blyth, edition of Cuvier’s ‘ Animal Kingdom,’ p. 248. 262 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. Of the tropical Gratua few are more prettily plumaged — than the species of Parra, called in India “ Tank-runners,” from being common birds in the vicinity of tanks, and from their running over the large leaves of the water-lilies and other plants which grow in such places. ‘The toes in the birds of this genus are of great length, and so are the claws ; the sole of their feet has therefore, like the great snow-shoe of the Esquimaux, a most extensive surface, over which the weight of the bird is diffused and easily supported. Mr. Jerdon mentions two species as bemg very common in India; the Parra Indica and the Hydrophasianus Sinensis, or Golden-necked Tank-runner (Plate XVIII. fig. 2). These birds feed on seeds and vegetable matter, and are also fond of the shelled mollusca and water-bugs which abound in their favourite places of resort. The Parra gallinacea, Temm., was found by. Mr. Gilbert at Port Essington; and, in his notes furnished to Mr. Gould*, he records that its powers of diving and remaining under water are equal to those of any bird he ever met with. He found this curious species in four or five small families in different parts of a lake; they were usually occupied in feeding from the aquatic floating plants, over which the * Birds of Australia. RALLIDZA. 2638 great length of their toes and claws enabled them to run with great facility. They were very shy, and did not fly well; when flying their long legs are thrown out horizon- tally to their full length. He found that the bird fed on aquatic insects and vegetable matter. The last family of the Grallatorial birds contains our often-heard Corncrake, and that shy bird called the Water- hen (Gallinula chloropus) ; it derives however its name, Rat- — Lip&, from a genus of birds with a longer beak than either of these, the genus Aad/us. All the birds of the family are distinguished by the body being compressed and flattened on the sides, a shape derived from the narrowness of the sternum ; they are able, in consequence, to make their way with ease through the reeds and high grasses which they frequent ; and most of them can also dive and swim with great ease, although their toes are not webbed. The beak is generally short and compressed, and frequently extends up on the forehead in the form of a bony shield; the tail is short, and almost concealed by the tail-coverts. The most showy species of the family belong to the genus Porphyrio, which derives its name from the brilliant plu- mage of the birds composing it: their colours are generally fine shades of violet, blue, and azure; the beak is high in 264 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. proportion to its length, and the shield on the forehead is — of large size. Professor Owen described a curious genus, from the cranium and other bones of a fossil bird, found by Mr. Mantell in New Zealand; he named it Notornis Mantelh (Plate X VIII. fig. 3), and; from its osteological characters, at once referred it to this family; and, from the form of its sternum, concluded that it must have been without the powers of flight. The natives had a tradition of a kind of water-rail, which once abounded in their islands, and which they called Moho or Takahé; but, according to their state- ments, the birds had been long ago exterminated. The Rev. Richard Taylor, of Waimate, who has long resided in New Zealand, and studied its natural history, alludes to it thus :—“‘ Moho, Rail: colour, black; said to be a wingless bird as large as a fowl, with red beak and legs; it is nearly exterminated by the cats: its cry was Keo! heo !” In 1849 Mr. Mantell obtained a recent specimen of this bird, which was captured by some sealers near Dusky Bay. These men perceived on the snow, with which the ground happened to be covered at the time, the footprints of a large bird; they followed the trail till they obtained a sight of the bird, which was pursued by their dogs, and captured after THE NOTORNIS. 965 a long chase. The Notornis ran with great speed, and when taken screamed loudly, and made considerable resist- ance. The sealers took the specimen and kept it alive for three or four days, when they killed it and found the flesh to be delicious. Mr. Mantell secured the skin: the beak and legs were of a bright red. Dr. Mantell, in his commu- nication to the Zoological Society (November, 1850), says that his son informed him that, according to the tradition, this rail formerly abounded in New Zealand, and formed a principal food of the natives. It was contemporaneous with the Moa. Dr. Mantell well observes that the dis- . covery of a living specimen of this bird is “ of the highest interest alike to the ornithologist and the paleontologist ; for it was previously only known by its fossil remains, and would probably, like the Dodo of the Mauritius, have soon become wholly traditional.” ‘This unique specimen is now in the British Museum. ‘The neck and body are of a dark purple colour, the back and wings being shot with green and gold; the tail is scanty and white beneath. To the Rail family belongs the Aramus scolopaceus, called in Jamaica ‘‘ Clucking hen, from its voice resembling that of a wandering hen.” This bird seems to feed chiefly on snails and slugs, and occasionally also on snakes and 266 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. lizards. Mr. Gosse* informs us that, at the approach of night, the dramus utters piercing cries previous to roost- ing; it is a solitary and shy bird, and difficult to approach. About the end of the year it gets very plump, and its flesh is described as being of close and compact texture, peculiarly tender and very fine in flavour—“a compound of hare, partridge, and pigeon.” Its general plumage is rather | pretty, being of a brown colour; the feathers are marked through the centre with a pointed streak of pure white. The beak is slender, and somewhat swollen near the end, the mandibles not closing accurately. The bird was ar- ranged by Cuvier between the cranes and herons; but modern naturalists, from its structure and habits, have shown that is with the rails it is more appropriately to be classed. Mr. Gosse describes some which he saw standing on the summit of some large bushes, densely covered by tangled creepers, which afforded a support for their broad feet. ‘They stood boldly erect, as if watching, their dark figures relieved against the sky, in an attitude exactly like that of an Ibis, though they flirted the tail in the manner of arail. At brief intervals they uttered a short sharp sound, and sometimes a loud harsh scream. On being alarmed, * Birds of Jamaica, p. 361. THE “ CLUCKING HEN.” - | 267 they flew heavily and slowly, with the long legs hanging down, and the neck stretched forward, having a very awk- ward appearance in the air*.”’ From this description the bird seems to have been, not altogether without some reason, referred to another family ; and it is evidently one of those genera which connect, as it were, two allied families. * Birds of Jamaica, p. 358. 263 Order ANSERES. Wes-roorep Birps. THE order ANSERES, so called from the Geese, which are highly characteristic members of it, contains all the web- footed birds: from the structure of their feet they are often called Patmrerprs. ‘The birds of this order are specially formed for swimming, while many of them are very expert divers, and most of the species are endowed with great power of wing. On land their gait is somewhat awkward, from the backward position of their legs, and their enclosed toes. With some isolated exceptions, their legs are short and compressed, and their toes are united together by a connecting membrane. The body in these birds is more or less depressed and boat-shaped, and the neck in many of the species is longer than the legs; so that some of them can with ease search for food below the surface of the water, while the body continues to swim. ‘The sternum is very long, the better to protect their viscera, while their bodies are covered by a thick and close plumage, which is highly polished, especially on the under parts ; and close to the skin there is a quantity of down, which protects them materially SWIMMING BIRDS. 969 from the water, as well as supplies some of them with a soft material for their nests. In addition to the natural polish of the plumage, the feathers are lubricated with an oily se- cretion, so that water does not penetrate them. The late Professor Macgillivray divided the swimming _ birds into four smaller orders, which he named and charac- terized from their different modes of taking their food. The Geese and Ducks he called Criératores, or Sifters, from the food being sifted through the lamellated edges of the beak ; his order Urinatores, or Divers, contained those birds which obtain the greater part of their food by diving, such as the Grebes, Divers, Auks, and Guillemots; his order Mersatores, or Plungers, contains the long-winged species which can keep up a sustained flight, like the Gannets, Gulls, and Terns; while the Jagers, or Skuas, the pirates of the aquatic order, are placed by him in a section which, from their habits, he calls Spolzatores, We cannot refrain from quoting a passage from Mr. Hewitson’s work, to the accuracy of which we were our- selves witnesses in 1851, when visiting the lofty cliffs of Noss. Some of the birds mentioned had disappeared, but from the myriads of sea-birds still on the rocks, there seemed as if there was no vacancy for other birds. 270 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. “To any one who can derive pleasure from observing the habits of birds, and seeing them in their own wild native haunts, one of their larger breeding-places must afford a pleasure which few things can give. I shall never forget the sensations of delight with which I have myself visited some of those in Shetland; the wild magnificence of the - rocks, beautifully tinted here and there with many-coloured lichens, was alone sufficient to excite feelings of the most intense enjoyment, and far more so when peopled with tens of thousands of these interesting beings, covering their dark and barren sides, from the sea upwards to a thousand feet above its deep blue waves, each species occupying its own particular position; the kittiwakes first filling the ledges of the rock at a few feet from the surface of the water; the cuillemots, the razor-bilis, and the puffins next above them; and, high over all, the greater and lesser black-backed and herring gulls. The multitudes passing around you in their busy flight, in strong contrast to each other,—from the slow, majestic, eagle-like soar of the greater black-backed gull, to the rapid, short-winged, bustling flight of the puffin —the various mingled cries of the different species—the loud bark of the greater black-backed gull—the distinctly repeated cry, which has given its name to the kittiwake— ~ SEA-BIRDS. atk and occasionally, as something unusual seemed to pervade the dense rows of guillemots, a loud, hoarse murmur, like the cheering of some distant multitude, together with the. constant motion of the freshening sea, and the loud beating of the surge against the rocks—all contributed to render this one of the finest scenes of nature*.”’ **'Who can recount what transmigrations there Are annual made? What nations come and go? And how the living clouds on clouds arise ? Infinite wings! till all the plume-dark air And rude resounding shore are one wild cry.” Thomson, ° Autumn,’ lines 867-872. To this may be added the groups of stiff, black cormorants, perched on outstanding rocks, their footing made secure by barnacles. These black birds keep a sharp look-out, and every now and then fly off. The black tystie, with its white wing-covers (Uria grylle), may be seen floating about and occasionally diving. ‘The visitor to Shetland cannot but be struck with the vast hosts of sea-birds everywhere engaged in seeking for their food. | In the Arctic regions, such as the shores of Baffin’s Bay, Spitzbergen, and Nova Zembla, similar, if not richer, scenes * “Coloured Illustrations of the Eggs of British Birds,’ ete. By W. H. Hewitson. Vol. i. pp. 400, 401. 2H POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. may be witnessed. The Lombs’ Bay, in Nova Zembla, de- rived its name from the number of these aquatic birds found there by its discoverer. In the Antarctic seas similar scenes may be witnessed, though the birds which form them belong to different spe- cies, and, in the case of the penguins, to different genera. The voyage of Captain Sir James Clark Ross contains many allusions to the lively effects produced, in otherwise dreary places, by the presence of sea-birds. The petrels, tropic birds, and albatrosses often lighten up the sea over which they skim, fly, or soar. The lakes in the northern parts of the world are often covered in summer with the water-birds which migrate to them. Mr. Simpson, the North American explorer, tells us that the Canadian voyageurs call a very large lake which he visited “ Lac aux Plumes,” from the multitude of wildfowl which moult there every summer; and every traveller and naturalist, in these remote regions, is struck with the im- mense abundance of the web-footed birds, which there, almost undisturbed by man or other animals, rear their young, and find, during the short but warm summer, abun- * ‘Narrative of Discoveries on the North Coast of America, in 1836-39,’ by Thomas Simpson, Hsq., p. 42. BO a Sd < Skee late XVII. PCL ton, z IC ne we male Bauerrichter & CO tith. ip) LAnastomus coromandelhcus. 2. ydrophasianus smensis. 3.Notorms Manteoilit. gE FEO eS WATERFOWL. PALS dance of food. When the autumn frosts and the shortening days give tokens of coming winter, they stream to the south in great flocks, and pass the winter in a more genial climate. The American poet Bryant, like Robert Burns, seems to have been struck with the flight and manners of the water- fowl, and the curious powers of wing which enable them to fly to such distances; and has thus beautifully addressed «A Waterfowl ”:—_ | * Whither, *midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far through their rosy depths dost thou pursue Thy solitary way ? *“Vainly the fowler’s eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, As, darkly painted on.the crimson sky, Thy figure floats along. ** Seek’st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, Or where the rocking billows rise and sink On the chafed ocean side ? ‘There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,— The desert and illimitable air,— Lone wandering, but not lost. * All day thy wings have fann’d, At that far height, the cold thin atmosphere, W974 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, Though the dark night is near. ** And soon that toil shall end ; Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend, Soon, o’er thy shelter’d nest. “Thow’rt gone! the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart, Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, And shalt not soon depart. “* He who, from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone, Will lead my steps aright.”— William Cullen Bryant. On the islands and rocky coasts within the tropics, fre- quented much by sea-fowl, there are found great accumula- tions of their dung, somewhat altered and mixed with other matters : it forms a substance well known to the agricultu- rist as guano, and as forming his richest manure. A few years ago whole fleets of ships went to Ichaboe and other parts of the African coast, to procure supplies of this valu- able article. Mr. Darwin* says that on the west coast of the intertropical parts of South America the beds are often several yards thick. When analysed it is found to be com- * Journal, p. 9. LAMELLIROSTRES, 975 posed of the urates, phosphates, and oxalates of lime, ammo- nia, and potash, mixed with some fatty and earthy matter. Dead birds are often met with init. In the arctic regions, where birds equally abound, the accumulations from their droppings are not met with; Dr. Sutherland* accounts for the disappearance of the guano-beds from the dung being “washed away by rains or melting snow, or it may be owing to vegetation, by which it becomes dissipated into the atmosphere, or converted into a thin coating of brown mould on the rock, in which grasses and other plants take root and flourish luxuriantly, affording shelter to myriads of flies and their enemies, the spiders, even on and beyond the 74th degree of north latitude.” The family Anatip#& contains the whole of the Ducks, ° Geese, and Swans, birds distinguished by their thick broad bill, which is high at the base, and is covered by a soft sensitive skin, the tip alone being covered with a horny nail-lke appendage. The edges of the beak are cut into a number of thin lamine, or small teeth; and from these plates the family is often called Lameliirostres. The tongue is large and fleshy, with a toothed border. ‘This beak, by the laminated structure of the edge, is admirably suited for * Journal of Voyage to Baffin’s Bay, etc. vol. i. p. 168. 276 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. birds whose habit, as Derham* calls it, is “to quaffer and ~ hunt in water and mud” for the numerous small and soft sub- stances which constitute the food of most of them. During this process, in many cases mud and other extraneous sub- stances are collected, which, by the lamine, are separated from the edible matter, and strained off by the side. The wings are of moderate length: the trachea in the male is generally dilated, near the point of its division, into a bony chamber of various form, and some of the species have this tube prolonged and bent back in winding folds within the swollen keel of the sternum. The form of the bony chamber, and the extent and bending of the tube, vary in the different species, and must have a considerable connection with the intonation of the voice. The gizzard is large and muscular. Most of the species nestle on the ground, and lay numerous spotless eggs: the young as soon as hatched follow their parent, and are able to swim. It is only in the first group (Phenicopterine), containing the Flamingoes, that the legs are of great length; in the greater number they are rather short, and from their back- ward position and their webs, the birds when walking have an awkward waddling gait. In the second group (Plectro- * Physico-Theology, p. 193. | THE FLAMINGO. ay tering), which contains the Spur-winged Goose of West- ern Africa, the legs are much longer than in the other geese, ducks, and swans; and the shoulder of the wing 1s armed with two strong spines, from which the bird derives its name (Plectropterus). The Mergansers (Merginz) also belong to this family, and contain species which have a longer and more cylindrical beak than the others, and the sides of the beak are armed on each side with small pointed teeth, directed backwards, instead of lamelle ; in fact, these saw-like teeth are a mere modification of the plates which are so characteristic of the family. The birds of this very extensive family are widely distributed, and many of them, especially such as live chiefly on insects and vegetable sub- stances, furnish us with excellent food ; while several of them are of great use to mankind from the down and feathers with which they supply him. 3 Flamingoes (Phenicopterus) have very long legs, with the three front toes webbed; the neck is of very great length and terminates in a small head, which has a large and sin- gularly-bent bill; the tongue is thick and fleshy; dishes of them used in Roman times to be served up at the feasts of gourmands; the edges of the bill are furnished with fine lamine, as in the ducks, and serve the same purpose in 278 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. separating their food from the water and mud in which they find it. Mr. Darwin found that flamingoes through South America were much attached to salt lakes; he saw many of them in the salinas near the mouth of the Rio Negro, wading about in search of their food, which consists probably of the worms which burrow in the mud*. He adds, that the workmen sometimes find their bodies preserved in the salt. Mr. Hillt describes the flamingoes as being very common in Cuba, in marshes, and lagoons, and salina-ponds, where they move about in flocks, or may be seen feeding in ranks of two and three hundred together, while one of their number, standing erect, keeps a look-out to warn his comrades of the approach of danger. ‘Their lengthened lines and red plumage have led the colonial Spaniards to call them Huglish Soldiers,—a name not inappropriate to birds that marshal themselves under a leader, and regulate their movements by signals, when the remotest danger threatens; and obey the bugle- blast of their sentinel, when he summons the cohorts to the wing and to betake themselves to other feeding-grounds.” Mr. Hill describes the flamingoes as constantly trampling with their feet when they feed, while they ply their long lithe * Journal, p. 77. + In Gosse’s ‘ Birds of Jamaica,’ p. 391. ar THE FLAMINGO. 279 necks, scooping their food with their heads reversed and bent towards their feet. ‘The bill being crooked and flat- tened for accommodation to this reversed mode of feeding, when the head is thrust down into the mud-shoals and the sand-drifts the upper mandible alone touches the ground.” Mr. Hill refers to the minute and interesting description of the tongue given by Professor Owen. He says:—‘The spines with which the upper surface is armed, are arranged in an irregular and alternate series, and act with the notches on the edge of the upper mandible, on which they press when the bird feeds with the head reversed. In this re- versed position, the weight and size of the tongue become a very efficient instrument for entrapping the: food*.” Dampier describes the nest as being formed of earth, in marshy places; and says that the birds, when hatching their eggs, place themselves astride on the nest, their long legs not allowing them to sit in the usual mannert. - Mr. Gardner, in his ‘Travels in Brazil’ (p. 552), says that the muddy shores at Alcantara are frequented by great flocks of the Phenicopterus Chilensis. These birds roost among the mangroves, and are sought after by the inhabi- tants, who esteem their flesh excellent food. Dampier says:— * Gosse’s ‘ Birds of Jamaica,’ p, 3938. + New Voyage, p. 71. 280 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. “The flesh of both young and old is lean and black, yet very good meat, tasting neither fishy nor any way unsavoury. Their tongues are large, having a large knob of fat at the root, which is an excellent bit*.” The Swans are at once known by their long necks and graceful form in the water; though, when on land, their shuffling walk and the constrained position of the neck and wings give them a very awkward appearance when walking. The usual colour of swans, and there are several species, is white: that white is their colour has passed into a proverb. In Chili, however, there is a species with a black neck (Cygnus nigricollis), which has been for some time a much- admired denizen of the Zoological Gardens. In Australia, that country of contraries, a river and a settlement take their name from swans, of a uniform black colour, excepting on the beak, which is bright red with a white band, forming a pretty contrast. Our early voyagers were not a little sur- prised at finding commonly in Australia what the Roman poet, in speaking of Huropean lands, alludes to as “rara - avis in terris.” Every child now, thanks to zoological gardens, is familiar with the Black Swan of Australia (Cygnus atratus). Its * New Voyage round the World, p. 71. , THE SWAN. 98] - sooty cygnets, attended by the negro parents, may be gene- rally seen during the summer months on ponds in our gar- dens and public places of resort; and though the first short sentence of Horace Walpole is not exactly suitable to one of this species, the others are :—‘‘ The colouring of the swan is pure; his attitudes are graceful; he never displeases you when sailing on his proper element. His feet are ugly; his walk not natural. . . . Still the impression a swan leaves is that of grace.” The swans in Iceland, during the breeding season, retire in pairs to the small lakes, where they conceal themselves among reeds; and, according to Sir George Mackenzie, many are thus protected from the attacks of the people, who receive the value of a few shillings for their’skins from the Danish merchants. Captain Lyon* describes the nest of a swan which he saw in Winter Island, in the Arctic regions, in the spring of 1822. This nest was a large oval mound of peat, made up of small pieces not exceeding a walnut in bigness; and as the country around was at the time almost entirely covered with snow, the materials must have been fetched from a considerable distance, and must have occasioned great labour * Private Journal, p. 205. 282 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. on the part of the constructors. The nest was of enormous dimensions, being five feet ten inches by four feet ten inches, and its height was two feet. The eggs weighed eight ounces each. Among the geese somewhat allied to those found wild in this country, we may mention the Snow Goose (Chen hy- perborea),—a species particularly abundant during summer in the Arctic parts of North America, and found, but more sparingly, in Lapland and Russia. It gets its English name from the general colour of the plumage being snow-white in its adult state, with black quill-feathers. Wilson* re- marks that it visits the Delaware River on its return from the north early in November, and that they feed on the roots of the reeds, tearing them up from the marshes like hogs. The singular structure of its bill enables it to graze on coarser and stronger plants than our geese. Wilson de- scribes the edges of it as having each twenty-three indenta- tions on each side; the inside of the upper mandible has also seven lateral rows of strong projecting teeth; and the tongue, which is horny at the extremity, is armed on each _ side with thirteen long, sharp, bony teeth, placed like those of a saw, with their points directed backwards. The Blue- * American Ornithology, vol. iii. p. 171. THE CANADA GOOSE. 283 winged Goose has been regarded as the young of the snow- goose in one of its stages towards maturity; but Mr. Rae, the Arctic-explorer*, who resided many years on the shores of Hudson’s Bay, believes it to be a distinct species. He remarks that the young do not separate from the old, as has been asserted ; and that “families may be seen feeding by themselves all over the marshes, the old bird keeping a sharp look-out, and giving timely warning to her brood of any approaching danger.” He adds that the Indian, “ who has thoroughly studied the habits of the bird, takes ad- vantage of her affection for her young, and of their attach- ment to their parent, to make both his prey. Well knowing that the young are easily decoyed by imitating their call, and by mock geese set up in the marsh, and that the old bird, although more shy, will follow them, he waits patiently — until she comes within rangé; if he shoots her he is pretty sure to kill the greater part of the others, as they con- tinue to fly over and around the place for some time after.” Sir John Richardson describes the flesh of this species as being far superior to that of the Canada Goose (Plate XIX. fig. 1); and in the Arctic parts of North America, these two species are killed in thousands and barrelled up for use. * Narrative of Expedition to Shores of Arctic Sea in 1846 and 1847, p. 69. 284 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. This and the Canada Goose are two of the species whose arrival in the fur countries marks the return of spring ; they are then very lean, and in their course northwards. have definite resting-places, so that in a short time they become very fat; their movements southwards indicate the approach of winter. Longfellow, in his ‘ Evangeline,’ alludes to them : ** Birds of passage sail’d through the leaden air from the ice-bound, Desolate northern bays, to the shores of the tropical islands.” Wilson* has well described the flight of the Canada geese as being “‘ heavy and laborious, generally in a straight line, or in two lines approximating to a point, thus > ; in both cases the van is led by an old gander, who every now and then pipes his well-known dons, as if to ask how they come on, and the honk of “ all’s well” is generally returned by some of the party. Their course is in a straight line, with the exception of the undulations of their fight; when bewildered in foggy weather, they appear sometimes to be in great distress, flying about in-an irregular manner, and for a considerable time over the same quarter, making a great clamour.” ‘This species is easily domesticated; and, from its fine black neck and white cheeks, forms a conspi- * American Ornithology, vol. iii. p. 178. Plate KIX. LAE necig 9 Hd, ALM SGN none Banerrichter & C® hth. i Gygnopsis canadensis, 2. At galericulata. 3.Mergus cucullatus, THE CANADA GOOSE. ; 285 cuous member of the poultry yard. Mr. Waterton, in the second series of his ‘ Hssays on Natural History*,’ gives a laughable account of the breeding of a Bernacle gander with a Canada goose at Walton Hall. He says :—*“ Nothing could exceed the assiduity with which the little Bernacle stood guard, often on one leg, over his bulky partner, day _ after day, as she was performing her tedious task. If any- body approached the place his cackling was incessant; he would run at him with the fury of a turkey-cock ; he would jump up at his knees, and not desist in his aggressions until the intruder had retired. There was something so remark- ably disproportionate betwixt this goose and gander, that I gave to this the name of Mopsus, and to that the name of Nisa; and I would sometimes ask the splendid Canadian Nisa, as she sat on her eggs, how she could possibly have lost her heart to so diminutive a little fellow as Bernacle Mopsus, when she had so many of her own comely species present from which to choose a happy and efficient partner.” The goslings partook of the plumage of both species, and were intermediate in size. One of the largest and most curious of the marine ducks is a species met with among the Falkland Islands, and in a P14. 256 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. other parts of the ocean about Cape Horn. In the voyages of Byron, Cook, and other navigators, it is often mentioned under the singular appellation of “The Race-horse,”’—a name given to it from its swiftness in moving over the surface of the water. Captain King, who described its habits in the ‘Zoological Journal*,’ says that it would be no exaggera- tion to state its speed at from twelve to fifteen miles an hour. Modern sailors call this bird now “The Steamer,” the alternate and paddling motion of its wings somewhat resembling these inventions of modern ship-building. Its wings are very short, too short indeed to allow it to fly, and only serving to “propel it a/ong rather than through the water.” Its broad webbed feet aid it also much in its motion, which is described by Mr. Darwin? as being “ some- thing like that by which the common house-duck escapes 3 when pursued by a dog.” Captain King describes them as being used like the paddles of a steam-vessel; and Mr. Darwin also says, “I am nearly sure that the ‘steamer’ moves its wings alternately, instead of both together, as in other birds.” From the shortness of its wings and the small stiff feathers with which they are covered, and from the power which, King says, the bird has of staying a con- * Viol, av. p. 100. + Journal of Researches, p. 257. F Te ER St * y Sa aan “THE STEAMER,” 287 siderable time under the water, it has some distant resem- blance to the penguins, inhabitants of the same rough ocean. Mr. Darwin says that it “feeds entirely on shell- fish from the kelp and tidal rocks; hence the beak and head, for the purpose of breaking them, are surprisingly heavy and strong. So strong is the head, that I have been scarcely able to fracture it with my geological hammer; and all our sportsmen soon discovered how tenacious these birds were of life. When pluming themselves in the even- ing in a flock, they make the same odd mixture of sounds which bull-frogs do within the tropics*.” It is a bird of large size, sometimes weighing twenty-two pounds. Cap- tain King described it under the name of Ocdemia Pata- chonica ; Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard placed it in a genus (Micropterus) which they formed for its reception. It is the Micropterus cinereus of Mr. G. Gray, who places it in his subfamily Mudiguline, close to the Scoters (Ozdemia), with which it agrees in many particulars, especially in the lobated hind-toe and the backward position of its legs,— peculiarities of all the ducks which seek their food on the sea. No one unacquainted with the Arctic regions and the ex- * Journal, p. 258. 988 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. uberance of animal life at certain seasons in those remote and secure seas, and the rocky coasts and swampy plains near them, can form any idea of the multitude of aquatic birds at times to be found there. Captain F. W. Beechey*, in 1818, found the King Hider Duck (Somateria spectabilis) so numerous on an islet close to Spitzbergen, that it was scarcely possible to walk without stepping on their nests. His party could have obtained several sacks of the down, had they been disposed to rob the nests. That able officer and accurate observer remarked a provision which the God of Nature has made against some of the casualties to which the young are exposed, in their embryo state, by the parents being kept away from their nests, in so cold a climate. He remarked that the parents, when immediate danger forced them to fly, hastily drew the down of the nest over the eggs and glued it with a yellow fluid, which they deposited as they arose. In this way not only was the cold air kept from the eggs, but the arctic foxes, always ready to take advantage of the parent ducks’ absence, will not touch the eggs tainted by this, to them, very offensive secretion. Captain Beechey observed that if very suddenly surprised * Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole, in H.M.SS. Dorothea and Trent, in 1818, pp. 101-103. (London, 1843.) THE EIDER DUCK. 289 the eider ducks flew off only a little way, and returned to effect this covering, after which they flew off apparently with- out much solicitude. The males, as well as females, pluck this down from their breasts, and the former prove assidu- ous attendants on the females when sitting, and are occa- sionally seen to sit on the eggs to keep them warm during the absence of the mother to procure food. The down is so tenacious that it adheres with great readiness to any rough substance, and in this way the nests are effectually prevented from being blown away or overturned by winds. The males leave at the close of the summer; and, when the winter commences, the females and young, some of which are still quite weak on the wing, may be met with, according to Captain Beechey, in immense flocks, a hundred miles or more from land. He believes that they winter in Norway, and occasionally a stray bird comes into our lati- tude, much to the joy of the collector of British birds, when he secures it for his collection. Many are the enemies of the eider ducks in the Arctic regions, although one of these enemies has a certain amount of consideration not shown by the others. The Esquimaux who inhabit the coast of Batlin’s Bay remove the eggs be- fore the birds begin to sit on them, until they have collected U 290 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. enough, when the females lay more, which they are allowed to hatch*. They find however, as Dr. Sutherland informs us, greater enemies in the arctic bear, arctic fox, and bur- gomaster gull. The bear swims from island to island, and — plunders their nests without mercy, but as he soon leaves” the island, the birds, if not too late im the season, resume their nurseries; the arctic fox is frequently carried on drifting ice to one of these duck-visited islands, from which he cannot escape till late m the season; the burgomaster very often pounces down on the eggs when they are left uncovered, and devours them. From the nests of two or three eider ducks (Somateria mollissima) Mr. Selby says he has frequently procured as — much down as would fill a moderate-sized pillow; and yet this quantity, when compressed, is not above two handfuls, and does not weigh more than an ounce! In the northern countries this down is a valuable article of commerce; and the female, when her nest is robbed of it, continues to pluck a fresh supply from her breast as long as any remains on it. On a small island in Baffin’s Bay, visited in July, 1850, by some of Captain Penny’s party, the ground was found to * Dr. Sutherland: ‘ Journal of a Voyage in Baffin’s Bay and Barrow’s Straits, in 1850, 1851,’ p. 137. CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 99] be literally covered with the eggs of the eider ducks. Dr. Sutherland, in his ‘Journal’ (vol. i. p. 167), says that it was impossible to walk among the nests without trampling upon the eggs, and each nest contained-from four to seven or eight eges. A boat was loaded in the course of two hours, and, on its return to the ship, the eggs were counted. Although he calculates that only a twentieth or thirtieth part was brought away, the number of eggs brought off was about five thousand: they were not however all sound. To the Duck tribe, and one too of the rarest quality and reputation, belongs the celebrated Canvas-back Duck of North America (Wyroca Valisneria). This bird, of so much repute among gourmands, breeds, luckily for itself, in the fur countries, far from man; and when it comes south, meets with but ‘‘a warm” and rough reception. It derives its name from the aquatic plant (the curious Vadisneria) on which by choice it feeds. Mr. Peabody* informs us, in his ‘Birds of Massachusetts,’ that it is on the white roots of this narrow long-leaved plant that it feeds. The birds “feed about the shoals where it grows, diving and tearing it up, not discouraged in consequence of the losses which they suffer from the dishonest arts of the widgeon.” This author informs us that the ducks, when they come south, * Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. iii. p. 249. 292 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. are lean, but set diligently about procuring food and soon get fat. In this state, poor things! they unknowingly be- come attractive morsels, and are eagerly sought after. They are very watchful at night, even keeping sentinels to watch. Mr. Peabody hints that the canvas-backed ducks could be easily domesticated, as they eat grain very willingly: as it is, the red-headed pochard (Nyroca feria), a bird found with us, and which in America eats the Valisneria, “has the honour” of being substituted for it, and is often sold in the market for a similar price. It is doubtless as good too, so that gourmands who must have canvas-backed duck, and. cannot get it, may occasionally procure in our market its representative. We have figured the male Mandarin Duck of China (Plate XIX. fig. 2), one of the most hand- some of the family. The birds constituting the next family are even more at | home in water than the Auatide. They are all of them able divers, and can remain for a considerable time beneath the surface; from the typical genus being Colymbus, the family has derived its name of Cotympipa, or the Divers. The divers have a smooth, compressed, pointed bill, with linear nostrils; the head is small compared with that of the ducks; and the wings are generally rather short and not well adapted for flight, but are used like fins to enable ALCIDA. 293 them to swim under the water. The body is clothed with a particularly compact plumage; the legs are placed very far behind,—a position which aids the birds much in swim- ming, but renders them particularly bad walkers. These legs are flattened so as to present a sharpish edge before and behind, which gives them the action of an oar. The family is a limited one in species, but they are widely distributed. The Loons, or Divers (Colymbus), are longer winged than the others, and have the feet webbed as in the ducks; their. tail is short, and when standing they rest upon it and the feet. The species are exclusively marine, and destroy great quantities of fish ; they lay two or three large spotted eggs. In the Grebes (Podiceps) the toes are separated nearly to the base and they are margined with a wide membrane; they have no vestige of a tail; unlike the loons, they fre- quent fresh-water lakes, and form their nests among the reeds, raising them on a superstructure above water-mark ; they lay several eggs. The birds of the tribe Heliornine have the feet lobed as in the grebes, but the tail is con- siderably developed, and the claws are sharper. The family Auctpa: is distinguished from the last family by the birds composing it being destitute of a hind toe; in some of the genera the beak is much compressed, in 294 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS, others it is straight and pointed; their legs are short, and the feet very small. When the birds are under water, these organs are not used in progression, but are stretched out behind them; the wings alone aid them in their progress under the water. The members of this family lay but one egg, which 1s of large size; they are all oceanic birds, and some of the species are found further north and further south than any other birds. Many birds of this family are quite unable to fly, their short wings being only used as fins. The feathers of many of them are much sought after, and their eggs are objects of considerable value, being of an ex- cellent flavour. | To the group Alcine belong the curious-billed Puffin, aptly called Coulter-kneb from its sharp share-like beak (Fratercula arctica), and the Razor-bill and other auks with longer beaks, shaped like the blade of a knife. In the group Phateriding the bill is less elevated: this group derives its name from its typical genus Phaleris, which contains the crested auk, a species from the north-west coast of America. There are some species of birds belonging to this group, and classed in a peculiar genus named Pygoscelis, which are found in the Antarctic seas. In their habits these birds do not seem to differ much from the puffins and auks. We THE PENGUINS. | 295 now come to the true Penguins (Spheniscina), which have received the name from the Cape Penguin (Spheniscus demersus). The Penguins are most comical-looking birds, having _ plumeless appendages in place of wings, covered with small scale-like feathers; their legs are thick, and placed so far back that, when the birds rest on their toes, the bodies are nearly upright. They have a small hind toe directed in- wards, and their three front toes are connected by an entire membrane. Unlike the aquatic birds of the northern re- gions, which can fly from the water direct to the rocky ridges, often parallel with the surface of the sea, where their eggs or young are placed, the penguins of the southern seas require to select rocks or ledges of rocks sloping towards the sea, up which they have to trail. Mr. M‘Cormick, surgeon of H.M.S. Erebus, describes the penguins of Possession Island as being in such count- less multitudes, that it was with difficulty his party suc- ceeded in making their way through them. The penguins were at the time (January, 1841) busily engaged rearing their young, and their clamour baffled description: the young birds were covered with down. Sir James Clarke Ross thus describes Possession Island :—‘‘ We saw not the 296 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. smallest appearance of vegetation, but inconceivable myriads | of penguins completely and densely covered the whole sur- face of the island, along the ledges of the precipices, and even to the summits of the hills, attacking us vigorously as we waded through their ranks, and pecking at us with their sharp beaks disputing possession; which, together with their loud coarse notes, and the insupportable stench from the deep bed of guano, which had been forming for ages, and which may at some period be valuable to the agricul- turists of our Australasian colonies, made us glad to get away again*.”’ The fearlessness of the penguins is a feature of their character, partly from natural stupidity and partly from the remote seas they inhabit being seldom visited. Sir James Clarke Ross speaks of them as following the ships and “ an- swering the call of the sailors, who imitated their cry; and although they could not scramble over the ice so fast as our ships sailed past it, they made up for it when they got into: the water, and we soon had quite a flock of them in our wake, playing about our vessel like so many porpoisest.”’ The Great Penguin (Aptenodytes Forsteri, G. R. Gray), * A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Oceans, 1839-43, vol. i. p. 189. tL. @. pi dae. THE GREAT PENGUIN. 297 Plate XX. fig. 3, was first discovered during one of Captain Cook’s voyages. Captain Sir James Clarke Ross thus alludes to it in the ‘Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.SS. Erebus and Terror’* (January 11, 1842) :—“ During the last few days we saw many of the great penguins, and several of them were caught and brought on board alive; indeed it was a very difficult matter to kill them, and a most cruel operation, until we resorted to hydrocyanic acid, of which a table- spoonful effectually accomplished the purpose in less than a minute. These enormous birds varied in weight from sixty to seventy-five pounds. The largest was killed by the Terror’s people, and weighed seventy-eight pounds. They are remarkably stupid, and allow you to approach them so near as to strike them on the head with a bludgeon; and sometimes, if knocked off the ice into the water, they will almost immediately leap upon it again as if to attack you, but without the smallest means either of offence or de- fence. . . . Its principal food consists of various species of cancri and other crustaceous animals; and in its stomach we frequently found from two to ten pounds’ weight of pebbles, consisting of granite, quartz, and trappean rocks.” Mr. M‘Cormick says that, as he had no opportunity of * Vol. ii. pp. 158, 159. 298 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. landing on “ Louis Philippe Land,” for specimens of the rocks, he found the stomachs of the penguins contribute much information; he speaks of the birds as being his “best geological collectors,’ from their crops being fre- quently filled with pebbles. Sir James Ross refers to the great amusement afforded to the sailors by the capture of the great penguin; “for, when alarmed and endeavouring to escape, it makes its way over deep snow faster than they could follow it: by lying down on its belly and impelling itself by its powerful feet, it slides along upon the surface of the snow at a great pace, steadying itself by extending its fin-like wings, which alter- nately touch the ground on the side opposite to the pro- pelling leg.” , Mr. Gould found the Little Penguin (Hudyptes minor), abundant in Bass’s Straits and on the south coast of Aus- tralia, where the depth of the water was not too great to prevent its diving to the bottom. He remarks that, from the great weight of the body and the density of the plumage, this bird swims very deep in the water,—the head, neck, and upper part of the back only being above the water. In the sea its powers of progression struck Mr. Gould with astonishment, as it bounded through the deep like a por- ad ~ 5 THE PENGUIN. 299 poise, using its short fin-hke wings, as well as its feet, to assist it in its progress. He found that this species, during the severest gale, could descend to the bottom; where, among beds of corallines and forests of seaweed, it paddled about in search of crustacea and small fish, eating at the same time the fuci which grew there. The paths and avenues leading to the holes, or depressions, in which they deposit their eggs are very singular, intersecting each other, and the birds carefully remove every stick and stone which may be in the way. The young, as in all the pen- guins, are like little muff-bags of down, the soft plumage being singularly in contrast with the stiff scale-like feathers of the adult. | Mr. Darwin, in his ‘ Journal,’ gives some very interest- ing notes on the habits of a penguin common among the Falkland Islands, and which seems to be the Red-footed Penguin (Hudyptes demersus). ‘One day, having placed myself between a penguin and the water, I was much amused at watching its habits. It was a brave bird; and, till reaching the sea, it regularly fought and drove me backwards. Nothing less than heavy blows would have stopped him; every inch gained he firmly kept, standing close before me, erect and determined. When thus opposed, 300 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. he continually rolled his head from side to side, in a very — odd manner, as if the power of distinct vision only lay in the anterior and basal part of each eye. ‘This bird is com- _ monly called the Jackass Penguin, from its habit, while on shore, of throwing its head backwards, and making a loud strange noise, very like the braying of that animal; but, while at sea and undisturbed, its note is very deep and solemn, and is often heard in the night-time. In diving, its little plumeless wings are used as fins; but on the land, as front legs. When crawling (it may be said, on four legs) through the tussocks, or on the side of a grassy cliff, it moved so very quickly that it might readily have been mis- taken for a quadruped. When at sea and fishing, it comes to the surface for the purpose of breathing, with such a spring, and dives again so instantaneously, that I defy any one at first sight to be sure that it-is not a fish leapmg for sport.” In the last group of the Auk family (Urine) the bill is covered with feathers as far as the nostrils, and is notched in most of the species at the tip; the hind toe is wanting. The name of the group is derived from the typical genus Uria, which contains the Guillemots. Mr. Hewitson* de- * Eggs of British Birds, vol. ii. p. 400. Bauerrichter & C° hth. He Rhynchops migra. 2. Plotus melanogaster. 3. Aptenodytes Forsteri. . ~ ¢ 2 a Se 3 { * * \ “ ; enna i a ; t xy by ‘ ~ On > 3 ‘ i > =~ 5 ae , ; = / S THE GUILLEMOT. 301 scribes the egg of the common Guillemot (Uria Troiie), and says it has often been a matter of surprise to him that its eggs are not swept altogether into the sea by the severe gales of wind; as it is, many of their eggs are precipitated into the sea when the parent birds fly too hastily away. He adds, were the eggs of the guillemot, which are very narrow at one end, “shaped like those of the majority of birds, nothing could save them: their form, which is peculiar to themselves amongst the eggs of the sea-fowl, is their only protection ; it gives them greater steadiness when at rest, and where they have room to roll, the larger end moving round the smaller in a circle, keeps them in their original position: when placed upon the centre of a table and set in motion they will not wander far.” We may remark that the egg of the guillemot is very large compared with the size of the bird; and it is to be noted of northern animals generally frequenting the sea, that the young are very big, and soon attain the size of their parents. _- Mr. Rae, in his ‘Narrative of an Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Sea in 1846 and 1847, mentions in a note”, the great attachment which the foolish guillemot manifests to its young. He tells us that in the Orkney * P24. 302 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. Islands, where they breed in great numbers, he has chased - the young ones, when they become so fatigued as to be easily caught. ‘ When one of them is taken into the boat the parent bird approaches within a few feet, dives under and around the boat im all directions, and whenever it comes up to the surface utters a peculiarly melancholy note, at the same time turning its head in a listening attitude, as if expecting to hear an answer from the prisoner. The anxiety of the mother has always the desired effect ; and it is pleasing to observe the joy with which she swims away with her recovered young one, nestling it under her wing, and never permitting it to stray a foot from her.” The whaler and the Arctic voyager are often amused by the lively gambols of a small bird (a member of this group), quite at home in the northern seas. It is called the Rotche, Rotge, or Little Auk (Arctica alle). Sir Edward Parry, in north latitude 822°, when trying to reach the North Pole by the ice to the north of Spitzbergen, on the 24th July, 1827, records, ‘The only notice of animal life occur- ing in our journals, in the course of this day’s travelling, consists in our having heard a rotge*.” In the same seas, in August, he met with large flocks of these birds feeding * Narrative, etc., p. 101. THE ROTGE. 303 on the Argonauta arctica, which swarmed in myriads*. Dr. Sutherland, when with Captam Penny m 1850, search- ing for Sir John Franklin, often alludes to this pretty little arctic bird, which he and his party sometimes found in myriads in Baffin’s Bay. In the beginning of August, 1850, when in Melville Bay, he says that “immense flocks of rotges were continually seen, flying north or south according to the direction of the wind. They generally fly against the wind, where they are sure to find open water. Their flight is invariably high over a tract of ice presenting no lanes or pools of water to receive them. In consequence of the closeness of the ice around the ships, our sport among them was not very extensive. Captain Stewart, on one oc- casion, travelled a few miles to a large angular opening, where they were very abundant, and succeeded in shooting a great number: he brought down twenty to thirty at every shot. The rotge is excellent eating, and is highly prized by every taste. I have heard the eider duck, and the long- tailed duck, and even the loon, denounced by persons whose tastes were really fastidious, but I never heard a word against the little auk. Its flesh, and that of sea-fowl gene- rally in the Arctic regions, improves very much by keeping * Narrative, etc., p. 119. x 304 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. for a few weeks after being shot; indeed it is not uncom- — mon to use them after they have been three months hanging to the booms around the ship’s quarter*.”’ This interest- ing little bird is about the size of a pigeon, and is indeed often called by the sailors “Greenland Dove;” and it has been named also melaleucos, from its colour, being black above and white below. ‘The bill is rather short, and is without notch at the end; at the base, as im the guillemots, it is closely muffled up with feathers. On August 17, 1850, Dr. Sutherland remarks, in his ‘ Journal’ (vol. i. p. 262), that the rotches at that season had the head and upper part of the gullet, or floor of the mouth, apparently much en- larged, and quite out of proportion to so small a bird. He says that, “as the breeding season advances, the skin and thin muscular layer beneath and on both sides of the tongue are distended into something in the form of a pouch, which will be found crammed full of their ordinary food (Gam- marus arcticus and other allied crustacea), which they bear off to their young. I have chased them with a boat, fright- ened, and shot them, without succeeding in making them disgorge the precious contents of these wonderfully capa- * Journal of a Voyage in Baffin’s Bay and Barrow’s Straits, in 1850,1851, | vol. i. p. 220. | PROCELLARIDA, 305 cious pouches.” The Doctor thinks that this enlargement may somewhat resemble the pouch of the pelican. The birds of the next two families have very long wings, and are capable in consequence of protracted flight. Many of them are found on the ocean at great distances from the land. To this section Cuvier has applied the name of Loneivennes, from the long wings, which are so charac- teristic of the group. The family Procrtiarip# contains the Petrels and Al- - batrosses,—birds which have longish beaks, hooked at the tip, and the extremity looking as if a piece had been articu- lated to it; the nostrils are tubular, sometimes united and opening by a common orifice, or separated, and opening by two distinct holes; the hind toe is either reduced to a claw, or, as in the albatross, is absent. The species are much more numerous than was at one time supposed, and they are dispersed widely. Mr. Macgillivray indeed believes that some of the species make the circuit of the globe, as he has met with at least five of the family which are common to the South Indian and the South Pacific Oceans*. He says that he has almost invariably found in the stomachs of the many albatrosses, petrels, and shearwaters which he has * Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, vol. ii. p. 96. ae 306 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. examined, the undigested horny mandibles of cuttlefish, so that these creatures form apparently their principal food ; and as the petrel family are to a certain extent nocturnal, he infers that the small cuttlefish on which they feed ap- proach the surface only at night. | What voyager on the pathless sea has not noticed the little companionable “ Mother Carey’s Chicken,” often ominous of storms to the sailor, and so well alluded to by Charles Waterton, in his second voyage towards his pleasant wanderings in South America (p. 85)? “It must have been hatched in Atolus’s cave, amongst a clutch of squalls and tempests; for, whenever they get out upon the ocean, it always contrives to be of the party.” Procellaria used to be its name, a word sounding of storms. Modern natu- ralists have restricted this appellation to larger birds, and have given it and its congeners the much more happy name of Sea-skimmer, for so may be translated “ Thalassi- droma.” The English name of Stormy Petrel, in its second part, reminds us of the Apostle who afterwards served his Lord so faithfully, and who once woudd walk on the waves of Gennesaret to meet him. Petrel, or little Peter, is a name derived from this well-known event. Sailors observe this little bird, or allied species, to come to the lee of their PROCELLARIA. 307 ships on the approach of storms or during their occurrence. Its long wings, light body, and long legs, ending in webbed feet, are all admirably suited to help it in its rapid motion ; and many a scrap and many a minute production of the sea it picks up during its frequently repeated stoops. Its eye is as active as its other motions; and there is a pic- turesqueness about these, well described by Wilson, and admirably rendered by Gould and Audubon, in their great books on the birds of Australia and America. The species of the genus Proced/aria are numerous, and abound in the Southern Seas. Mr. Arthur Adams* says that they differ much m their modes of flight. He describes the Giant Petrel (Procellaria gigantea) as flying in a wild and sweeping manner, poising himself, and often remaining motionless in the air. The Cape Pigeon (P. Capensis), the back of which is variegated with white and black, has nei- ther a powerful nor rapid flight; while a species, entirely of a sooty black, has a rapid, steady flight, like the wide sweep of some gigantic swift. A species called the “ Whale- bird” by seamen, and two others (the P. ¢urtur and P. Forsterz) describe vast circles in the air, and dart suddenly on their prey. The nostrils, both in Procellaria and Tha- * Voyage of Samarang, vol. ii. p. 231. 308 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. lassidroma, are united into a tube on the top of the upper mandible. In the Shearwaters (Puffinus) the beak is lengthened, and the tip of the under mandible is curved downwards ; the nostrils are tubular, but open by two distinct holes. The species are fond of congregating, and are often seen together in immense numbers. One of these, the P. cine- reus, is found in Kurope and on the coasts of South America. . Mr. Darwin, in his ‘Journal’ (p. 354), refers to it thus :— “T do not think I ever saw so many birds of any other sort together, as I once saw of these behind the island of Chiloe. Hundreds of thousands flew in an irregular line for several hours in one direction. When part of the flock settled on the water the surface was blackened, and a noise proceeded from them, as of human beings talking m the distance.” On examining into the cause of this congregation, Mr. Darwin found that the water was coloured in parts by clouds of small crustacea. He shot one, and found in its stomach a small fish and seven good-sized prawn-like crabs. In some parts of Scotland the young of the Manx Shearwater (P. anglorum), another species, are killed, salted, and eaten with potatoes or cabbage*. * Fleming’s ‘British Animals,’ p. 137. ‘THE MUTTON-BIRD.” 309 An Australian species (Puffinus brevicaudus), called fami- liarly the “Mutton-bird,” is celebrated for its abundance,— no bird, excepting perhaps the migratory pigeon, being met with in such large flocks. Captain Flinders saw a stream of them pass for a full hour and a half: this flock was from fifty to eighty yards in depth, and at least three hundred yards in breadth. On the lowest computation he regarded the number as not being less than a hundred millions ;“and, as each burrow is occupied by a single pair, he calculated that the burrows of that one flock would cover something more than eighteen and a half geographic square miles of ground. Mr. Gould and subsequent observers have con- firmed Flinders’s observations. Backhouse, when on Green Island, in Bags’s Straits, says that at dusk “the air seemed alive with myriads of these birds returning to roost, so that in looking up we were reminded of a shower of large flakes of snowy.” These birds, when fresh, are pretty good eating; at all events they form a good substitute for salt meat. Considerable numbers of the young are salted and dried, when, Backhouse tells us, they taste much like red-herrings. In Bass’s Straits it is chiefly for their feathers that the mutton-birds are destroyed. As many as two tons and a * Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies, p. 29. 310 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. half of feathers have been procured there in one season; so that 112,000 birds must have been killed to produce that quantity, twenty birds yielding only one pound of feathers. Captain Stokes* found that the sealers on an island in Bass’s Straits lived chiefly on these birds, and cured them both for use and for sale; he describes the island as being in many parts perfectly honeycombed with their burrows. Many of the oceanic birds resemble the Delphinide in their curiosity. Dr. Andrew Smith describes a new species of that broad-billed genus near the petrels, named by Llliger Pachyptita, which he names P. Banksw. It is eminently a sea-frequenting species, seldom visiting the coast near the Cape of Good Hope, except during very stormy weather. “Tt is constantly,” says he, ‘to be seen from vessels sailing along the eastern coast, particularly during the winter sea- son; and it has often been a source of amusement to me to watch how perseveringly an individual of this species would accompany a ship, even during blowing weather, without appearing to have any object in view, or to suffer any fatigue ~ or inconveniencet.” All voyagers record the gratification they derive from noticing the flight and manners of birds * Discoveries in Australia, vol. i. p. 264. + Illustrations of Zoology of South Africa, pl. lv. (Aves). ALBATROSSES. all at sea. And why are not birds likely to be adapted for our amusement as well as for our food? The Albatrosses (Diomedea) are among the largest of aquatic birds. Some of the species have been known to keep company with ships for two or three days, ** And every day, for food or play, Come to the mariner’s hollo.” They are said to attack men who have happened to fall overboard, Mr. M‘Cormick, in his ‘Zoological Notice of the Auckland Islands*,’ describes the albatross as breeding in considerable numbers on the tops of the cliffs. He found that their nests were formed upon a small mound of earth, and consisted of a great quantity of withered earth and leaves matted together. The nests were about six feet in circumference at the base, and about eighteen inches in height. They are formed by the joint labour of the male and female. The albatross lays only one egg, of a pure white, varying in weight from fifteen to twenty-one ounces. Out of about a hundred nests which he examined, in one instance only were two eggs found. Cuvier, in his ‘ Régne Animal,’ has said that the albatross lays several eggs. * Sir J.C. Ross, ‘ Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions,’ vol. i. p. 149. oe POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. The Gulls (Larrpa) form a widely-distributed family of © birds, residing constantly on the sea or in its immediate vicinity, and hardly ever leaving it, except in very stormy weather, when they come to land to look for food. They are distinguished by a rather long beak, which is compressed and pointed, the upper mandible being arcuated towards the tip, while the lower has a projecting angle on its inferior edge; the nostrils are placed near the middle, and are long, narrow, and pierced quite through; they have a good-sized tail, which, with their powerful wings, enables them often to “beat against the wind;” their legs are longish and well set on their bodies, and, the webs being comparatively short, they are good walkers, swimming, flying, and walking with | equal ease; and, according to Sir John Richardson, one species at least can perch. That intrepid traveller and able naturalist, on his last Arctic Searching Expedition, observed on the Bear Lake River, the pretty little Bonapartean Gull (Xema Bonapartii). He says that “this species arrives very early in the season, before the ground is denuded of snow, and seeks its food in the first pools of water which form on the borders of Great Bear Lake, and wherein it finds multitudes of minute crustacean animals and larvee of insects. It flies in flocks, and builds its nests in a colony THE SHORT-BILLED GULL. 313 resembling a rookery, seven or eight on a tree,—the nests being framed of sticks laid flatly. Its voice and mode of flymg are like those of a tern; and, like that bird, it rushes fiercely at the head of any one who intrudes on its haunts, screaming loudly. It has moreover the strange practice, considering the form of its feet, of perching on posts and | trees; and it may be often seen standing gracefully on a summit of a small spruce fir*.” Young gulls are generally mottled with greyish-brown, and in Shetland are called Scores: this plumage they retain for a year. The larger species, such as the Great Black- backed Gull, will not allow the smaller kinds to tenant the same rocks or to fish near them, as we have seen in the Shetland Islands. On and over the large mass of rock which seems to have fallen away from Noss Island, this large fine bird may be seen resting or flying, “monarch of all he surveys.” Sir John Richardson speaks of the predaceous habits and voracity of the Short-billed Gull (Larus brachyrhynchus), as he observed them during his late search for Sir John Franklin. “If a goose was wounded by our sportsmen, * Arctic Searching Expedition, etc., by Sir John Richardson, C.B., F.R.S., etc., vol. i. pp. 200, 201. 314 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. these powerful gulls directly assailed it, and soon totally — devoured it, with the exception of the larger bones. In the spring of 1849, when Mr. Bell and I were encamped at the head of Bear Lake River, waiting for the disruption of the ice, the gulls robbed us of many geese, leaving nothing but well-picked skeletons. Mr. Bell, who was the chief sports- man on this occasion, and spent the day in traversing the half-thawed marshes in quest of game, hung the birds, as he shot them, to the branch of a tree, or deposited them on a rock; but, on collecting the produce of his chase in the evening, he found that the gulls had left him little besides the bones to carry. If by chance a goose, when shot, fell into the river, a gull speedily took his stand on the carcase, and proceeded to tear out the entrails, and devour the flesh, as he floated with it down the current. THven the raven kept aloof when a gull had taken possession of a bird*.” The Ivory Gull (Larus eburneus) is so called from the pure white of its plumage; so white, that when resting on ice, it can only be distinguished by its black legs and bill. It is one of the most characteristic inhabitants of the ~ Arctic regions. Alfred Wallace, in his excellent voyage and travels of * Arctic Searching Expedition, vol. i. pp. 201, 202. | THE SCISSOR-BEAKS. 315 a Naturalist*, first sailed up the mighty Amazon in August, 1849. He says that perhaps the most characteristic birds of this ocean-like river are the gulls and terns, which abound there. He gives the following description :—“ All night long their cries are heard over the sandbanks, where they deposit their eggs; and during the day they constantly at- tracted our attention by their habit of sitting im a row on a floating log—sometimes a dozen or twenty side by side— and going for miles down the stream as grave and motion- less as if they were on some very important business. ‘These birds deposit their eggs in little hollows in the sand, and the Indians say that, during the heat of the day, they carry water in their beaks to moisten them and prevent their being roasted by the glowing rays of the sun.” To com- plete this scene, he adds that there are other aquatic birds im abundance; such as divers and darters, and that “porpoises are constantly blowing in every direction, and alligators are often seen slowly swimming across the river.” The Scissor-beaks, or Skimmers (Fhynchops), are allied to the terns, having, like them, short legs, long wings, and a forked tail. The distinguishing character is in the beak, * Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro, p. 188. 316 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. which is strongly compressed on the sides, and is “as flat and elastic as an ivory paper-cutter ;”’ the upper mandible is much shorter than the lower. Mr. Darwin, in his re- searches, has recorded the habits of the Rhynchops nigra (Plate XX. fig. 1). He found it at Maldonado, flying in small flocks close to the surface of a piece of water, which swarmed with small fry. Over this they flew backwards and forwards, keeping their bills wide open, and the lower mandible half immersed in water. “Thus skimming the surface, they ploughed it in their course; im their flight they frequently twist about with extreme rapidity, and so dexterously manage, that, with their projecting lower man- dible, they plough up small fish, which are secured by the upper half of their scissor-like bills.” Mr. Darwin has seen them repeatedly do this, and observed that, when they left the surface of the water, their flight was wild, irregular, and rapid, and their cries were loud and harsh. It is chiefly at night that they feed, when many of the lower animals come to the surface. Mr. Lesson, in the ‘ Narrative _ of the Voyage of the Coquille,’ says he has seen the scissor- _ beak opening the shells of Mactre buried in sandbanks on the coast of Chili; but Mr. Darwin doubts this being a ge- neral habit of the bird, from its weak bill, produced lower THE TERNS. 317 mandible, short legs and long wings. In the United States the Skimmer is a bird of passage, coming in May and leav- ing in September. ‘The nest, according to Wilson, is a mere hollow formed in the sand, in which the female deposits three oval eggs. The American ornithologist kept a speci- men for several days which he had wounded in the wing; it soon became tame and even familiar, but refused every kind of food offered to it. He says that it never eats but on the wing; the great expanse of these organs enables the bird to sail with sufficient celerity while dipping in the water for its food. The Terns (Sternene) are often called Sea-swallows, from their long pointed wings, forked tail, and short legs. They have a straight, pointed, compressed beak, with the nostrils near the base. Although their feet are webbed, they hardly ever seem to swim, but pick their food dexterously from the surface of the water. _The eggs of some of the terns are of considerable com- mercial importance. Mr. Hill informs us* that in 1846, _ four vessels were fitted out from Jamaica, and sailed to the Pedro Kays to collect the eggs of the sea-birds, chiefly terns, which build there. The Noddy (Megalopterus stolidus), Lge- * Gosse’s ‘ Birds of Jamaica,’ p. 434. 318 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. bird (Hydrochelidon fuliginosum), and Sandwich Tern con- tribute the greater number of the eggs collected. The noddies build their nests on a stunted tree, at a small elevation from the ground ; and as their nests are resorted to for a number of years, and are annually repaired and added to, they grow into huge piles. The egg-bird and the Sandwich tern lay their eggs in cavities of the rock, or in shallow holes scraped on the bare sand. Sir George Mackenzie speaks of the egg of the tern as a very delicate article of food, and says that, during his travels in Iceland, these eggs frequently formed a principal relish i his homely repasts. The rest of the webfooted birds have the thumb united to the other toes by the same membrane; and like the two preceding families, all the species are furnished with long wings and fly well. In this division come the Pelicans, Cormorants, Gannets, Darters, and Tropic Birds. The Pelicans (PELIcANID#) are for the most part a family of largish birds, distinguished by their white or black co- lours and their large and long bill. At the base of the bill there is in most of them a naked space; the nostrils are small and scarcely visible; the skin of the throat 1s more or less extensible, and in the true pelicans it forms an enormous bag; the tongue is very small; their hind-toe is united to THE PELICAN. 319 the others by a membrane, which thus includes the four toes, and makes of the foot a perfect oar. The Darters (Pilotus) are distinguished by having a very long neck and a small head. Travellers meet with pelicans in most parts of the world; and those who, like Mr. Fortune, visit China, sometimes see cormorants trained to catch fish, these birds being not only voracious to a proverb, but exceedingly intelligent and docile. The birds of this family are sociable, and are generally to be met with in flocks. In Flinders’s ‘ Voyage to Terra Australis’ he mentions having seen the pelicans rearing their young together in great numbers, on the islets of a hidden lagoon of Kangaroo Island; and he remarks that, from the number of skeletons and bones scattered about, “it would seem that for ages these had been selected for the closing scene of their existence. . . . Nor,” adds he, “can anything be more consonant to their feelings, if peli- cans have any, than quietly to resign their breath, sur- rounded by their progeny, and in the same spot where they first drew it.” On this passage the poet Montgomery has founded nine highly descriptive and suggestive cantos, under the name of the ‘Pelican Island.’ 320 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. “‘Nature’s prime favourites were the pelicans ; High-fed, long-lived, and sociable and free, They ranged in wedded pairs, or martial bands, For play or slaughter. Oft have I beheld A little army take the wat’ry field ; With outstretch’d pinions form a spacious ring, Then pressing to the centre, through the waves, Enclose thick shoals within their narrowing toils, Till multitudes entangled fell a prey : Or, when the flying fish in sudden clouds, Burst from the sea, and flutter’d through the air These giant fowlers snapt them like mosquitos By swallows hunted through the summer sky*.” Sir John Richardson found the Rough-billed Pelican (Pelicanus trachyrhynchus) as far north as Great Slave Lake, on his late Arctic search. He describes it as being very voracious, destroying still larger quantities of fish than the Fishing Eagle, which abounds in the same district. “These birds,” says Sir John, referrmg to the pelicans, “ generally choose a rapid for the scene of their exploits; and, commen- cing at the upper end, suffer themselves to float down with the current, fishing as they go with great success, particu- larly in the eddies. When satiated, and with full pouches, they stand on a rock or boulder which rises out of the water, and air themselves, keeping their half-bent wings * Poetical Works of James Montgomery, vol. iv. pp. 1-114. THE PELICAN. Oe k raised from their sides, after the manner of vultures and other gross feeders. Their pouches are frequently so crammed with fish that they cannot rise into the air until they have relieved themselves from the load; and, on the unexpected approach of a canoe, they stoop down, and, drawing their bill between their legs, turn out the fish. They seem to be unable to accomplish this feat when swimming, so that then they are easily overtaken, and may be caught alive, or killed with the blow of a paddle. If they are near the beach when danger threatens, they will land to get rid of the fish more quickly. They fly heavily, and generally low, in small flocks of from eight to twenty individuals, marshalled, not in the cuneiform order of wild geese, but in a line abreast, or slightly ex échelon ; and their snow-white plumage, with black-tipped wings, combined with their great size, gives them an imposing appearance. . . . Their eggs are deposited on rocky islets among rapids, where they cannot be easily approached by man or beasts of prey.” Mr. Gosse thus describes the habits of the Pelicanus fuscus when searching for its food :—“ It is a pleasant sight to see a flock of pelicans fishing. A dozen or more are flying on heavy, flagging wing over the sea, the long neck doubled on the back, so that the beak seems to protrude Y B22 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. from the breast. Suddenly, a little ruffling of the water arrests their attention; and, with wings half-closed, down each plunges with a resounding plash, and in an instant emerges to the surface with a fish. The beak is held aloft, a snap or two is made, the huge pouch is seen for a mo- ment distended, then collapses as before; and heavily the bird rises to wing, and again beats over the surf with his fellows. It is worthy of observation that the pelican invari- ably performs a summerset under the surface; for descend- ing, as he always does, diagonally, not perpendicularly, the head emerges looking in the opposite direction to that in which it was looking before. When the morning appetite is sated, they sit calmly on the heaving surface, looking much like a miniature fleet.” Towards evening the peli- cans, flying in continuous strings, retire to trees near the sea. The Negroes of Jamaica sometimes eat the flesh of this species, notwithstanding its fishy odour. To remove this flavour m some measure, they bury the bird for some hours in the sand, and then subject it to more than one boiling before they eat it. : 2 | The Cormorants (Phalacrocoraz) have a long beak and hooked upper mandible; the pouch is very small. There are several species, all of which are of a dark colour, and THE CORMORANT. | 320 most of them very voracious. The Chinese employ a species to assist them in fishing, which they train and find very tractable. Mr. Adams, during the voyage of the ‘Samarang,’ was struck with the habits of the Cape species (P. Africanus). This bird is very sociable, and unites with its kindred in forming large fishing parties. “They wind their way,” says Mr. Adams, “in single file, starting from the rocks along the shore, then swimming in the tranquil waters of the bays, invariably led on by some experienced and sagacious old admiral, they commence their fishing. When their pilot spies a shoal of fish, he suddenly makes a vault out of the water, arching his neck, bending his body, and drawing up his legs, when, diving headlong down, he 1s followed imme- diately by all his anxious adherents, who perform their summersets in precisely the same manner. ‘The flotilla re- mains submerged some little time, when it rises once more to the surface, and the feathered fishers again renew their diving and plunging piscatory evolutions.” He describes the cormorants as forming quite a peculiar feature in the coast scenery of the Cape. When seated on the rocks up- right and motionless, ‘‘they remind you of some magisterial assembly in their sable robes, met together in grave and earnest conclave.” 324 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. Mr. Waterton has devoted one of his lively essays to the haunts and habits of the cormorant. He justly describes him as the feathered terror of the finny tribe; “his skill mm diving is most admirable, and his success beyond belief. You may know him at a distance among a thousand water- fowl, by his upright neck, by his body being apparently half immersed in the water, and by his being perpetually in motion when not on land. . . . First raising his bedy nearly perpendicular, down he plunges into the deep; and, after staying there a considerable time, he is sure to bring up a fish, which he invariably swallows head foremost. Sometimes half an hour elapses before he can manage to accommodate a large eel quietly in his stomach. You see him straining violently, with repeated efforts to gulp it; and, when you fancy that the slippery mouthful is successfully disposed of, all of a sudden the eel retrogrades upwards from its dismal sepulchre, struggling violently to escape. The cormorant swallows it again; and up again it comes, and shows its tail a foot or more out of its destroyer’s mouth. At length, worn out with ineffectual writhings and slidings, the eel is gulped down into the cormorant’s stomach for the last time, there to meet its dreaded and inevitable fate*.” * Waterton, ‘ Essays on Natural History,’ p. 161. THE FRIGATE BIRD. 325 To the same family belongs a bird, often met with by sailors at a great distance from land, when between the tropics. It differs from the cormorant in having a forked tail, and much shorter legs, the membranes between the toes of which are deeply notched ; its wings are exceedingly long and narrow, and both the mandibles of the bill are curved at the end. ‘This is the Frigate, or Man-of-War Bird (Tachypetes aquila); the former of these names derived from its fast flight and great length of wing, the latter from its habit of sometimes attacking other birds and forcing them to disgorge their prey. The natives of the South Sea Islands, when they were first discovered, set a great value on the shining black feathers of these birds, and, as they were birds of passage, watched their arrival at the rainy season. In the Mis- sionary Voyage of the ship ‘ Duff’ an account is given of the mode employed in getting the birds. “A float of light. wood is launched into the water, baited with a small fish, as soon as they observe the bird approaching, whilst they stand ready with a long pole of sixteen or eighteen feet within reach of the float. The moment the bird pounces on the fish to seize it, they strike at him with the pole, and seldom fail in bringing him down*.” Should they miss * Mission, Voy. p. 382. 326 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. their aim, there is no inducing the man-of-war bird again to approach the bait. The male bird is most esteemed. So fond used the natives to be of the feathers as ornaments, that they have been known to exchange a large hog for a specimen. Here is old Dampier’s account of this now well-known bird. “The Man-of-War (as it is called by the English of the West Indies) 1s about the bigness of a Kite, and in shape like it, but black; and the neck is red. It lives on fish, yet never lights on the water, but soars aloft like a Kite: and when it sees its prey, 1t flies down headforemost to the water’s edge, very swiftly takes its prey out of the sea with his bill, and immediately mounts again as swiftly, and never touching the water with his bill. His wings are very long; his feet are like other land-fowl; and he builds on trees, where he finds any, but where they are wanting, on the ground*.”’ The Gannets (Sua) belong also to this family. Some of the species have been named “ Boobies,” from the ease with which they allow themselves to be deprived of their fishy prey by other birds. Mr. Blytht describes the air-cavities in these birds as being extraordinarily developed: the air * Dampier, ‘ New Voyage round the World.’ + Cuvier’s ‘ Animal Kingdom,’ p. 260. THE DARTERS. Oot permeates all their bones, with the exception of the pha- langes of the toes, and even passes under the skin of the breast, which is only attached to the muscles of the body by some scattered connecting pillars. This structure is also met with in the tropic birds, and must give them great ad- ditional buoyancy. The Darters (Plotws) have a very long neck and small head, from which they have acquired one of their names, that of “Snake-birds.” They are exceedingly shy, and, when approached, plunge into the water, leaving as little agitation on its surface as that occasioned by an eel. It is a widely distributed genus,—species being found in North and South America, in India, in Australia, and one (P. Le- vaillantit) seems to occur In various parts of Africa. Colonel Sykes says that the Indian species, Plotus mela- nogaster, the Black-bellied Darter (Plate XX. fig. 2), can swim with the whole of its body under water ; its long neck, ending in a small head, alone being visible, and strongly resembling a snake. Mr. Gould, who found a new species in Australia (P. Nove-fHollandia), says that it dives with the greatest ease to the bottom of the deepest pools, and that it generally swims with a considerable portion of its body above the surface of the water ; but immediately on 328 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. being disturbed sinks it below the water, so that the head and neck only are seen. After feeding, this species usually perches on a snag of some tree which has fallen into the water ; where it sits for hours motionless, digesting, in peace and quietness, the fish and frogs on which it has been regaling. The Tropic birds (Péaethon) are distinguished by their two middle. tail-feathers being very long and straw-like. They are birds of great power of wing, and very seldom quit the warmer parts of the equatorial seas; so that their presence indicates to the sailor his approach to the Tropics ; hence their common name. ‘Their scientific name, as Wa- terton quaintly remarks, has been aptly applied by Lin- neeus :—‘‘ He has called it Phaeton, no doubt whatever, because it is chiefly to be found in that region where old Apollo’s son cut so conspicuous a figure on his father’s coach-box. All the world has heard of Phaeton, and of the manner in which he unfortunately broke down in his first and last attempt at four-m-hand*.” In the Ethnographical Room of the British Museum are some very curious and gaudy mourning and military dresses of the South Sea Islanders, amply decorated with feathers. These objects were brought to this country by Captain * Waterton’s ‘ Essays,’ p. 286. THE TROPIC BIRD. 329 James Cook and his comrades. Among the feathers are many from the tropic birds. In the Missionary Voyage of the ship ‘ Duff? in 1796-1798, an interesting account is given of the manner in which the natives collected these feathers. The tropic birds build their nests, like terns and other sea- birds, in holes of the cliffs, and as the natives hold their long feathers “in request for their paries and mourning dresses, they procure them in the following dangerous manner. From the top of the high cliffs, beaten by the waves beneath, a man is lowered down by a rope, seated across a stick; he searches all the holes from bottom to top, swinging from point to point by a staff he holds in his hand, and by the stones which project or the shrubs which grow there. When he finds a bird on her nest, he plucks out her tail-feathers and lets her fly.” In this way, lke the natives of St. Kilda, Foula, and other remote Scottish islands, the natives of the South Sea Islands used to pursue these birds, and when they could find no more, or were tired, they made a signal and were drawn up. ‘To a stranger it seemed very perilous employment for a human being to be dangling by a rope thirty or forty fathoms long, and perhaps one or two hundred feet above the sea. The missionaries record how- ever that but few accidents occurred, though the sport was often continued for several successive hours. 330 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. Mr. Tristram has given* some very interesting notes on > the habits of a species of Tropic bird common in Bermuda (Phaethon flavirostris, Brandt). He tells us that of all the feathered denizens of “the vexed Bermouths” this is the only bird which gives a character to the landscape. It may be seen from early spring to late autumn, incessantly sailing near the shores, uttermg its shrill oft-repeated note. The tropic bird is an early riser, and fishes at an early hour. Mr. Tristram has often watched it at sunrise “ noisily skimming the surface of the calm sea and gently dipping . . . as they catch up any small fish within their reach, while their pink-white plumage glistens with a soft rosy hue in the sunbeams. I never but once saw a Tropic bird swim; when it did so, the tail was expanded like a fan, perfectly erect, with the long feathers in the centre stiffened as it quarrelled with a comrade over their prey.” After midday Mr. Tris- tram observed this Tropic bird fly to a much greater height ; indeed it flew so high as often to be scarcely visible. It~ breeds on the coast of Bermuda, where the cliffs are pre- cipitous, depositing its egg on the bare rock. | * Contributions to Ornithology for 1852, by Sir W. Jardine, p. 37. INDEX. (The names of the Orders are in small capitals, those of the Families and Tribes in Italics.) meeiritees Tol... apm oS Aipyornis maximus Alauda ferruginea....... WalbALYOSS ©... 5... . Alcedindd@ ... ie ee ee Amadina castanotus ..... Batman of... Amherst Pheasant ...... BODE | Love-bird-s... .. 3s. 28h ee Loxia . 0.20.0) 1d |. loyre-bird. .3. 81 217 275 | Macaws...o2:4ecsscebeots 125 | Machetes pugnaxi-4. 7 255 125° | Magpie... 23355 131 240 | Malacocercus griseus .... 410 312 | Malurus cyaneus 2 2 95 190 — leucopterus ........97 313 °| Manakins ....).i:2045; eee oes 314 | Mandarin Duck .....,-. 1, 292 52 | Man-of-War Bird....... 825 73 | ‘“Manu-mea” of Samoa.. 201 Wranx Shearwater ....... Marabou feathers ....... Mavis, the Song Thrush .. Megalopterus stolidus ... Megapodius Duperreyi ... MIS ree Meeteserig Fie oe oe. . Meliphaga Australasiana . miystacina <7. 2... WENGE Menura Albert: »..... .. SMUG Wlcreansers. 2... BEN Os WerOMdE 4 Merops apiaster ........ erythrocephalus.... —— Philippinensis..... viridis .. Mersatores .. Microglossus aterrimus .. Micropterus cinereus .... Migration of Nightingale . ' Migratory Pigeon....... Milvulus forficatus ...... Milvus regalis INDEX. Page 50S + Mina Grakle obi eee: Brae WRC N:P PATEL Hei 2 102 | Mirafra Horsfieldti ...... 317 Baboba se teow ayo | Winesel Erte fee ee 207 «|. Mockine-bird 2.0! 0... eee t MONON S ova ee... asc Qos! Morr ea eee 76 | Monk, an Australian bird . 71 | Mother Carey’s Chicken. . So. | weothiots: 3 FAS ae 81 | Mound of Great-foot .... 277 | Mountain Witch, a pigeon 277 | Mountaineer Warbler.... ao} Wouse-bird Poe os SEs BG t' Morscicamde oo ee TS w6.; Musophgea c.f nes. oi ia Musophasides ¢. 2.04. 57 | Mutton-bird of Australia . 269 | Myna of India......... Del | Mayzantha garrula........ 287 melanophrys ...... 88 195 | “Native Companion” of 118 Australia . 24; Nauclerus furcatus...... 34.0 Nectarinia chalybea .... Neomorpha Gouldii ... . Nest of Social Grosbeak . Nest of Tailor-bird .... . Nestor productus ...... New Zealand, Song-birds of Nightingale .. Nightjar ... Nisaétus grandis. . Noble Falcons ... Nocturnal Birds of Pick Noddy . eecvecian': Ay ‘Nietuinfules Notornis Mantellii ..... Memes... Seyi ——- Meleagris ... Nutmeg Pigeons 21. 255.% Nyroca Valisneria ... -—— ferina.. Giescnens . ia). ss Oidemia Patachonica .... Chimbora- TENICIS I Nate Ore. 4 Oreotrochilus Origma solitaria Orthonyx spinicaudus ... INDEX. Page Page 62 | Orthotomus Bennettii.... 92 61 | Ortygis pugnax 2. 2g) 2.221 147 | Ortyx signifer, ... <@ukieeee? 93 | Ostrich. . 2.1). seen 228 178 | Otid@. .o>ssseles OE eee 199 | Ourax Pauxi\. couse sees 86° >-Ougel . .\.) eee 102 89 |. Oven-birds.4¢. ioe oom 76 2} | Owl, Lines.on . > gue eee 30 16 | Owl-faced Parrothtae: 178 27 | Owls 3255 Gee agt 317 | Ox-eye . ees 103 © @sslonhas edaliinas ege of 111 264 | Oxypogon Guerinii...... 69 — 212 | Oyster-catcher ....2. 528 240 216 | 198 | Pachyptila Banksn ...... 310 291 | Painted Snipe.......... 269 292 | Palamedea cornuta...... 261 Palamedeide .....« ane %G@ee 237 | Palmipedes ago ee 268 287. | Palm Swiit .....2. eeekeee Pandion Haliaétus ...... 20 69 | Paradisea apoda........ 1386 98 | Paradiseda .... 22a 78 | Paring. ..7 7233 101 INDEX | Page Pamridee of India ...... 219 | Pernis apivorus ........ PeOMWe Sew isO4) 200 erishitac a we Parra Indica .... 262 | Petrel, Giant ... ; PaMAGEA. 6 5 430s 262 | Petroica Goodenovii..... Parrot in the Island of rou liieptor li ties ae": | SSS ee ee eae ee phesniceasss. onc: ih es 4d 170 | Phaethon flavirostris .... Parus czeruleus 101 | Phalacrocorax Africanus. . Meee eee dl) Phoelers:.. keine. Passenger Pigeon....... 195 | Bharsoh’s Vulture: 3ic27. PONG ca wo | Phesianide. o.oo... Pastor tristis ..... 144 | Pheasants ..... Peete. God 2 oe ores. 206 | Pheasant Cuckgo ... ....: Bavo .... 215 | ‘* Pheasant ”’ of Australia . Peieock. ......24..>.210-214 | Pheasant, Common..... ©. Pea Dove . 2«.. 200 | Phileterus socius .. Pee-wit ..... 240 | Phoenicopterine........ Pelican, Rough-billed.... 320 Pelicanson Kangaroo Island 319 Pelicanide . 318 Pelicanus trachyrhynchus. 320 PUSCWS... ..% 321 Penelope ... 207 Penguins. .... 295 Perdix cruenta ......0.. 220 Peristera Jamaicensis.... 200 Pheenicopterus Chilensis . . PAE Si a, a Pichs principalis.......... EME ONS oe... Pera Ow 8 ee alsa cs Oe Piping Crow . Pipra Pitta cyanura .. —— Iris Oe Oe OO LO 8 ee 0. ep 8 Mee Os) Se ay Ole ae ie AR a he 342 Pitta strepitans ... Plantain-eater Platalea flavipes .... Feeia Platycerci of Kediralia, Neu Plectropterus .. is Plectrophanes nivalis . . Plotus melanogaster ... Levaillanti . Novee- Hollandize Plovers . Plungers . Pochard, Ree headed, Podargus humeralis . Bodiceps:. .. eT Poephila Gouldiz .. mirabilis . Pogonias ... Polyplectron Nanolnon Pope’s Lines on Pheasant Porphyrio ... Poultry Prinia, and nests... Pmentes 4)... Prionops . af Procellaria capensis G ie Ke cei INDEX Page 109 | Procellaria gigantea ..... 158 Turtar’...7 eee 244 | Procellaride .... 244 | Procnias carunculata .... 175 | Psittacide-< 2. ees 277 | Psittaculus passerinus ... 154 | Psophia crepitans ...... 327. | Ptarmigan 2:44 327 |. Pterocles bicinctus-. 7. 328 gutturalig’ > U2 ee 238 tachypetes cen =: 269 variegatus . 292 | Pteroglossus . om 37 | Pteroptochos albiaol ia 293 megapodius....... Beal rubecula . . (G73 151 | Ptilinopus strophium .... 192 | Ptilogonys armillatus .... 212 | Ptilonorhynchus holoseri- 214 ceus 4. 4 263 | Ptiloris ange Se, Ny 204 Victoria? 27. ae 94 | Poff-birds..... 67 |: Patina a 126 | Puffinus Anglorum . . 307 _brevicaudus Puffinus cinereus ....... Purple-winged Creeper .. en ee eee... ts... 2h7- Quail-fighting in East ... MM Ls ei et Quiscalus crassirostris . ** Race-horse’’ Duck .... Panbow Pitta .%...5... re Ri eee rage Ramphasiide .......... Ramphastos dicolorus ... ——- ulocomus ... Rasorial Birds . Ratel and Honey Guide . . PeanOrewill 2. A... et meaone of young ....... Pewervirostia. .........- Red-breasted Warbler ... Red-footed Penguin..... Red-throated Humming- eee ee - ed Macaw ........... 220 221 51 145 Page tec OWE gio eee 29 Redwing in Norway ..... 103 Reet Heron... oe 2s 244 Reeves’s Pheasant ...... 213 Respiratory System ..... 2 ee... ei Cee 227 Rhinoceros Hornbill... .. 161 Mbyncheed, preta 259 hiynehops nigra . 622% 316 Waite-bird? Heres See, 58 Pane Ouzer. 2 ee Pomerat odo oot eee “Robin” of Amstralia . 2." ‘90 * Robin Redbreast ”’ of Ja- Tealea ef ates hae 48 “Rock Dove” of Falkland les a ee eee 242 Rolletse ii coe oe Oe ae eek sees as er ES Porene oor FO eae. 302 Royal Partridge 219 Wie re ak ee A ished 255 Rupicola Brasiliana ..... 122 Souderopse ). 2. Sed Pss 222 Saud-martin 4.2... wore as 344 Sand-piper . Sandwich Tern . : Sarcoramphus gryphus... papa Batin-DiNd 44 eee Mae Saurophagus sulphureus. . Savannah Blackbird ..... SCANSORES (281 Se Sermssor-beak. fees Scissor-tail of South Ame- PAGEL i) inch ue a POD ODACIAE. 0 sin id wins a “ Scories’”’ of Shetland... SCOLEVS, war ie a Ls Screamer, Horned ...... Sea Swallows... 21688. 2 Scerctary Bitd ..c.e5s aue Sericornis, an Australian bird, and its curious nest Bina ic no suck cue ese PMCUT Water oi... GR ee Sheath-bill mmell-eater 6 2660 4 wale ‘S00 6) 1G 1 a Rs A Oa Singing Lark of Australia UME os. INDEX. | Page Page 255 | Snake Bird... 7a 327 318 | Snipes . SVP s./ 13 | Snow Bunting... . 322 154 14 | Snowaflake 5, ae 155 140 | Snow: Goose.....2 1-72 289 118 | Snow Partridge 12)... : 218 196 |Snhowy Owls... ee 31 166 | Sociable Grosbeak ......, 147 315 | Solan Goose.) 1... . fee ooo Solitaire of Jamaica ..... 121 119 | Solitary Rock-warbler.... 98 254 | Somateria spectabilis .... 288 313 mollissima, »...qAige 290 287 | Song of Birds ....5 ee 6, 100. 261 | Song-birds, largest of ... 81 ol7 | Soug-thrush ..... #2 ee 24 | Spheniscus demersus .... 295 Spoliatores.. . agus ss. ee 106 | Spoonbill... .....-....3aam 23 | Spotted-sided Finch ..... 153 308 | Spur-fowl ic 3) eae 22 242 | Spur-winged Goose ..... 277 263 | Starliggs cc 139 125 | “Steamer,’® Duck so called 286 156 | Steatornis caripensis .... 39 315 | Sterne... ... 21 317 INDEX. Page Page Stipiturus malachurus ... 97 | Tachornis pheenicobia ... 45 Me le es 950 | Tachypetes aquila ...... 325 Stormy Petrel...... 306 | Tailor-bird of India ..... 92 Strepera . 127 | Takahé, a New Zealand bird 264. Bees... ee. 27 | Tallegalla Latham . . 210 Strigops saiecpiiiad Er dere 178 | “Tambayut” of Indias... .* 192 eee tS 29 | Tank-romner ... 262 PEeUrTHiONES....... 227 7 Tapysiptera Dea. 53 Sturnide . . 139 | —— Sylvia ........... 3 Sugar-birds...... 62 | Tapacolo, a Chilian Hire i Sula . ey SUGleR! ck Sak ee 258 mepew 260 | Tenuirostral Birds 58 Sunbirds.... G2 Ui) Pemns eek ot, vidio oe 317 mows Bird... 5. 137 | Tetraogallus Himalayensis 218 mepero Warbler 26.5... (85 Caspiis 0 (cae purnia nyctea...... a0 | Perraonidd... 217 Swallows....... Se ese 43 | Textor ory throchynelras 1a Swallow-tailed Hawk .... 25 | Thalassidroma ......... 306 Me ee 280 | Thaumalea Amherstie ... 213 Swan’s nest in Winter -—— picta . 213 ee es ie. ' OO1 |. Phhick-knees....., 237 Swift .. Mh see ee ee cs 102 Sylvia cysticola and nest . 94 | Tichodroma phcenicoptera 177 Museiiia... 2. 86 | Tinamde .. ‘a 223 eee ek 58 | Tinamotis Pentlandi : . 225 | ele anes. Se ee 2A 346 INDEX Page Tinamou. . 224 | Turdus iliacus ......... Tinamus rufescens ...... 224 merula ...... Tinkling Grakle .. . 145 | Turdus musicus ........ Tirana of Spaniards ..... 260 pilaris;.... veces itinice .. 101 torquatus . aodies.. . 48 | Turkey . = aie Todus viridis .... 48 | Turkey Busan Tody, Green .... 48 | Turtle Dove . Totanus semipalmatus ... 255 | Turtur leucopterus .... Toucanet .. 167 | Lyrannime 20. Agee LUCE CTA In cst ae 166 | Tyrant Figsdelitiges ete PPDUTACO cilia dhe 158 | Tystie of Shetland .... DGCHUNAR connie 0% - 64 Trochilus mellivorus .. 69 | Ulama of Ceylon ....... ~—— Polytmus ........ 66 | Umbrella-bird. . Trogon Narina 50 | Uria Trove. 7) eee Trogonde .. BO.) Orme -2 A PGGONS 5.3000". ..c: ee 50 | Urinatores ... = Mivepic-bitd: 0045 2. wales 328 Tropidorhynchus cornicula- Victoria Rifle-bird ...... PS a le ook cats ese 134. Vulture. ocee Troupial, Yellow...... 146 | Vulturnide.... Trumpet-bird . 135 PeOpCler a. oe ol 246 | Wading Birds’ 2. 72 Turco, a Chilian bird .. 79 | Waracaba of Demerara... Dd ee Ua eee 101 | Warty-faced Honey-eater . Page 1038 102 102 103 102 216 15 195 200 116 116 271 36 134 a0l 300 269 os INDEX. Page Waterfowl, Lines on, by Whitethroat’s song ..... Pree by oe oO 273 | Whitewing of Jamaica Meanerten 2 fo 263 | White-winged Malurus . eare-Wid 2... 0.0.5... ie | Woedcote oo. >. Waxwing ..... 119 | Woodpeckers ......... Web-footed Birds ...... 20S i Wrmneck’s west. 0. Wedge-tailed Hagle ..... 17 ipee-brd............ 807 | Xema Bonapartu ...°.. .. Whip-poor-Will ........ 36 Whiskey-Jack....... ee bes | Pune -terquilla 2 2 White Ants, food of | birds ........ 126, 128 | Zanclostomus viridirostris. White-belly of Jamaica .. 200 | Zanthomyza Phrygia . - White-headed Hagle..... 19 | Zenaida amabilis ..... THE END. PRINTED BY JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS. ie ry ‘} ‘uth gases Rta ts : i fe Pa \ . . 3 H : A i t , 4 5 x \ “ ’ 3 Ke dh Ss dD DR mh DO 2 a a a) a ae my NPE IG i IA aie Ochs a i ee ce ee i