THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
A NATURAL HISTORY
OF THE
NESTS AND EGGS OF
BRITISH BIRDS
VOLUME THE SECOND
CHAFFINCH
A NATURAL HISTORY
OF THE
NESTS AND EGGS
OF
BRITISH BIRDS
BY THE
REV. F. O. MORRIS, B.A.
RECTOR OF NUNBURNHOLME, YORKSHIRE
FOURTH EDITION
REVISED AND CORRECTED BY
W. B. TEGETMEIER, F.Z.S.
MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION
WITH TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHT PLATES
CHIEFLY COLOURED BY HAND
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOLUME THE SECOND
LONDON
JOHN C. NIMMO
14 KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND
MDCCCXCVI
I
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & Co.
At the Ballantyne Press
\
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u.b.
Bu-f
CONTENTS AND PLATES
VOLUME THE SECOND
CHAFFINCH (Shilfa—Scobby — .Sfo//y — Shelly— Shell- Apple — Beech-
Finch— Twink — Spink — Pink — Tweet} ..... i
MOUNTAIN FINCH (Brambling — Bramble Finch) .... 3
TREE SPARROW (Mountain Sparrow) ...... 6
SPARROW (House Sparrow — Common Sparrow) .... 8
GREENFINCH (Green Grossbeak — Green Linnef) 10
SERIN FINCH ........... 12
HAWFINCH (Grossbeak — Common Grossbeak — Haw Grossbeak —
Black-Throated Grossbeak} ....... 13
GOLDFINCH (Goldie — Goldspink — Thistle-Finch — Red-Cap) . . 15
SISKIN (Aberdevine) . ........ 16
LINNET (Brown Linnet — Common Linnet — Grey Linnet — Rose Linnet
— Red-Breasted Linnet) ........ 18
REDPOLL (Lesser Redpole} ......... 20
MEALY REDPOLL ........ . . 22
TWITE (Mountain Linnet) ........ 23
BULLFINCH (Nope — Pope — Alp — Hoop — Common Bullfinch) . . 24
SCARLET BULLFINCH (Scarlet Grossbeak) ..... 26
PINE GROSSBEAK (Pine Bullfinch) . . . . . . .27
CROSSBILL (Common Crossbill — Shell-Apple} ..... 28
PARROT CROSSBILL ....... 29
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL ...... . . 30
ROSE-COLOURED PASTOR (Rose Ouzel — Rose-Coloured Ouzel — Rose-
Coloured Starling) ......... 31
STARLING (Stare — Common Starling) ...... 32
RED-WINGED STARLING (Red- Winged Blackbird — Red- Winged Maize-
Bird — Marsh Blackbird — Swamp Blackbird — Corn Thief) . 35
DIPPER {Common Dipper— European Dipper — Water Ouzel) . . 37
VOL. II. v b
vi CONTENTS AND PLATES
PAGE
MISSEL THRUSH (Misscltoe Thrush- Storm-Cock— Missel-Bird—
Shritt— Shrike-Cock— Holm Thrush} 39
FIELDFARE (Feldfare— Felt— Feltfare— Blue-Back— Blue-Felt) . .41
REDWING (Swinepipe— Wind Thrush) 43
THRUSH (Throstle— Song Thrush — Common Thrush— Mavis} . . 45
WHITE'S THRUSH ..... • -47
ROCK. THRUSH . .... .48
BLACKBIRD 49
RING OUZEL (Rock Ouzel— Ring Thrush) . • 52
GOLDEN ORIOLE S3
ALPINE WARBLER (Alpine Accentor — Collared Stare) ... 54
DUNNOCK (Hedge-Sparrow—Shuffle- Wing— Hedge- Warbler— Hedge-
Chanter} -55
REDBREAST (Robin— Robin Redbreast— Ruddock— Robinet) . . 57
BLUEBREAST (Blue-Throated Warbler— Blue-Throated Robin} . . 62
REDSTART (Red-Tail— Fire-Tail— Bran-Tail— Fiery Bran-Tail) . 63
BLACKSTART (Slack Redstart— Black Red-Tail) .... 66
STONECHAT (Stonechatter—Stonedink — Stone-Smith — Moor-Titling) . 67
WHINCHAT (Grasschat — Furzechat}. ... .69
BLACK-THROATED WHEATEAR (Black-Throated Chat} . • 71
ISABELLINE WHEATEAR (Isabelline Chat} ... • 72
DESERT WHEATEAR (Desert Chaf) ... 73
WHEATEAR (Fallow-Chat— White-Tail— Stone- C hacker— Chack-Bird
— Clod-Hopper) 74
GRASSHOPPER WARBLER ( Cricket Bird} . . . -75
SAVI'S WARBLER . 76
SEDGE WARBLER (Sedge Bird— Sedge Wren— Reed Fauvette} . -77
REED WARBLER (Night Warbler — Reed Wren) . . . 78
AQUATIC WARBLER .80
NIGHTINGALE .81
THRUSH NIGHTINGALE (Northern Nightingale) 83
GREAT REED WARBLER . 84
RUFOUS WARBLER 85
MARSH WARBLER 86
BARRED WARBLER 87
BLACKCAP (Blackcap Warbler — Mock Nightingale) .
CONTENTS AND PLATES vii
MM
ORPHEAN WARBLER oo
GARDEN WARBLER (Greater Petty chaps) 91
WHITETHROAT (Common Whitethroat— Muggy — Nettle- Creeper) . 92
LESSER WHITETHROAT p4
WOOD WARBLER ( Wood Wren— Green Wren— Larger Willow Wren
— Yellow Willow Wren) 96
WILLOW WARBLER (Yellow Warbler— Willow Wren—Huck-MucK). 97
MELODIOUS WILLOW WARBLER (Icterine Warbler— Melodious Willow
Wren) 99
CHIFF CHAFF (Lesser Petty chaps — Least Willow Wren) . . .100
DARTFORD WARBLER (Furze Wren) ioa
WREN (Common Wren — Kitty Wren—Jimfo) 103
GOLDCREST (Golden-Crested Kinglet— Golden-Crested Wren— Golden-
Crowned Wren) ......... 106
FIRECREST (Fire-Crested Kinglet— Fire- Crowned Kinglet — Fire-
Crest d Wren) . 109
YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER (Yellow-Browed Willow Wren — Dal-
matian Regulus*) no
WOOD PIGEON (Ring Dove — Cushat — Queesf) in
STOKE DOVE 113
ROCK DOVE (Rockier) 115
TURTLE DOVE 116
PASSENGER PIGEON 117
PHEASANT (Common Pheasant) . • 118
CAPERCAILLIE ( Wood Grouse) 119
BLACK GROUSE (Slack Game — Black Cock) 120
RED GROUSE (Gor-Cock — Moor-Cock — Moor-Fowl — Muir-Fowl) . 122
PTARMIGAN 124
SAND GROUSE 126
PARTRIDGE (Common Partridge) 127
RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE (French Partridge) 130
BARBARY PARTRIDGE 131
VIRGINIAN PARTRIDGE (Virginian Edlin) . . . 132
QUAIL (Common Quail) « *34
ANDALUSIAN QUAIL (Andalusian Hemipode — Andalusian Turnix —
Three-Toed Quait) *35
via
CONTENTS AND PLATES
TACK
GREAT BUSTARD 136
LITTLE BUSTARD (Lesser Bustard) 137
MACQUEEN'S BUSTARD . .138
PRATINCOLE (Collared Pratincole — Austrian Pratincole) , . -139
COURSER 140
GREAT PLOVER (Stone Curlew — Norfolk Plover — Thick-Knee). . 141
GOLDEN PLOVER ( Whistling Plover — Yellow Plover — Green Plover) 142
DOTTEREL (Dottrell — Dotterel Plover) 143
RINGED DOTTEREL (Ringed Plover — Sand Lark — Sand LavrocK) . 144
LITTLE RINGED DOTTEREL (Little Ring Dottrell — Little Ringed
Plover 145
KENTISH DOTTEREL (Kentish Plover) 146
GREY PLOVER (Grey Sandpiper) 147
PEEWIT (Lapwing) 148
TURNSTONE (Common Turnstone) 149
KILLDEER PLOVER 151
SOCIABLE PLOVER 152
SANDERLING (Curwillet — Towilly) 153
OYSTER-CATCHER (Pied Oyster-Catcher—Sea Pie— Olive) . .154
NESTS AND EGGS
OF
BRITISH BIRDS
CHAFFINCH
SHILFA— SCOBBY— SHELLY— SKELLY— SHELL- APPLE— BEECH-
FINCH— TWINK— SPINK— PINK— TWEET.
PLATE LXXX.
Fringilla Calebs LINNJEUS.
THE nest of the Chaffinch is truly a beautiful piece of
workmanship, compact and neat in the highest degree.
It is usually so well adapted to the colour of the place
where it is built, as to elude detection from any chance
passer-by — close scrutiny is required to discover it. It
is therefore variously made, according to the nature of the
materials at hand. Some are built of grasses, stalks of plants,
and small roots, compacted with the scales of bark and
wool, and lined with hair, with perhaps a few feathers, the
outside being entirely covered with tree moss and lichens,
taken from the tree itself in which it is placed ; the assi-
milation being thus rendered complete. Others are without
any wool, its place being supplied with thistle-down, and
VOL. II. A
2 CHAFFINCH
spider-webs. In fact the bird accommodates itself to circum-
stances, using such materials as are at hand. The upper
edge of the nest is generally very neatly woven with
slender fibres, and the width of the open part is often
not more than an inch and a half, but usually an inch
and three quarters ; the whole is firmly fixed between
the branches, to which some of its component parts are
attached.
" the Shilfa's nest, that seems to be
A portion of the sheltering tree."
In the neighbourhood of Belfast, where there are
"branches" of the cotton manufacture, these birds use that
material in the construction of their nests ; and in answer
to the objection that its conspicuous colour would betray
the presence of the nest, and not accord with the theory
that birds assimilate the outward appearance of their
structures to surrounding objects, it was replied, says Mr.
Thompson, that, on the contrary, the use of cotton in that
locality might rather be considered as rendering the nest
more difficult of detection, as the roadside hedges and
neighbouring trees are always dotted with tufts of it.
The eggs are four to six in number, of a short oval
form, and are usually of a pale bluish green colour. They
are streaked or somewhat spotted irregularly over their whole
surface with dark, dull, well-defined reddish brown spots.
Some have been found of a uniform dull blue, without
any spots.
Two broods are usually reared every season.
\ TAIN F I N C H
MOUNTAIN FINCH
BRAMBLING— BRAMBLE FINCH.
PLATE LXXXI.
Fringilla montifringilla .... LINN.SUS.
THE Brambling, which is a winter visitant throughout
the British Isles, has only once been known to breed
in a wild state in England. This occurrence was recorded
by Mr. Booth, who writes : " While fishing in the west of
Perthshire, in June 1866, I was forced to ascend a beech
tree to release the line, which had become entangled in
the branches, and while so engaged a female Brambling
was disturbed from her nest, containing three eggs, which
was placed close to the stem of the tree. Being anxious
to procure the newly fledged young as specimens, I left her
in peace ; and on again visiting the spot in about ten days
or a fortnight the nest was empty, and, judging by its
appearance, I should be of opinion that the young birds
had been dragged out by a cat."
The nest, which is usually placed in fir, birch, or other
trees, about twenty feet from the ground, is formed of
moss, and lined with wool and feathers or thistle-down.
Mr. R. Dashwood, of Beccles, Suffolk, had these birds lay
in two instances, in the year 1839, and in the latter the
3
4 MOUNTAIN FINCH
eggs were hatched. His aviary is a large one, enclosing
a considerable space of ground, and is surrounded with ivy,
and planted inside with shrubs. If birds are to be kept in
confinement at all, some such place is the only one in which
they should be confined. The nest having been completed
four days, the first egg was laid on the i6th of June in the
above-named year, and another was laid each day till the
2ist, when they were removed. The nest was composed
of moss, wool, and dry grass, and lined with hair; and
these materials were selected from a variety which the birds
had the option of making use of. The foundations, which
were large, were worked -in among the stalks of the ivy
leaves.
" In the latter part of July, in the same year," says
Mr. Dash wood, writing to Mr. Hewitson, "another pair of
Bramblings built, placing their nest on the ground, close
to a shrub or a tuft of grass. The outside of the nest was
made of moss, and it was lined with hair. From this
nest I removed four eggs on the ist of August ; on the
1 7th of June 1840 they laid again, having built in the
ivy. This nest I did not disturb, but, although the
eggs were hatched, they did not succeed in rearing the
young ones."
In the "Account of the Birds found in Norfolk," the
authors mention the following instance, or rather instances,
of these birds nesting in confinement, communicated to
them by a gentleman residing near Norwich. A pair of
Bramblings built a nest in an aviary in the last week in
the month of June 1842, and two eggs were laid, both
of which were removed and found to be good. In June
1843 the same birds again nested, and the female laid
two eggs, and these having been removed, they formed
MOUNTAIN FINCH 5
a second nest in a different spot, in which four eggs were
deposited.
The eggs are six or even seven in number, are rather
greener than those of the Chaffinch, and like them are
spotted with reddish brown.
TREE SPARROW
MOUNTAIN SPARROW.
PLATE LXXXII.
Passer montanus, LINNAEUS.
THE Tree Sparrow is irregularly distributed over Eng-
land, being most common in the central and eastern
counties.
Nidification commences in February, and incubation in
March, two or three broods being reared in the year.
The nest is formed of hay, and is lined with wool,
down, and feathers. It is loosely put together, and the
consequence of this untidiness, the larger straws being left
hanging carelessly outside, is that the situation of the nest
is betrayed. The same situation is often again occupied
from year to year.
Mr. James Dalton, of Worcester College, Oxford, in-
forms me that he has taken the nest of this bird from
a Sand Martin's hole, near Buckingham. They build in
many various situations, most frequently in a hole of a
tree — whence their English name — either that formed natu-
rally by decay, or that in which some other bird, such as
the Woodpecker, or one of the species, has previously
domiciled ; sometimes also in old nests that had been in-
habited by Magpies and Crows ; and in these cases, the
T K li I,
TREE SPARROW 7
nest, that is of the Tree Sparrow, is domed over, as is
done also by the House Sparrow, when it locates its
habitation in similar situations. Not unfrequently they build
in the thatch of barns and out-houses, but only in thoroughly
country places, the entrance being from the outside ; also
in the tiling of houses, and in stacks and wood faggots ;
likewise in old walls, not many feet above the ground.
Mr. Arthur Strickland, of Bridlington, has recorded that a
pair built their nest, a domed one, in a hedge in the
grounds of Walton Hall.
The eggs, which vary from four to six in number, are
of a dull bluish or greyish white colour, speckled all over
with light greyish brown of different shades. They resemble
those of the House Sparrow, but are more darkly marked.
SPARROW
HOUSE SPARROW— COMMON SPARROW.
PLATE LXXXIII.
Passer domesticus, . . . LINN.EUS.
Fringilla domestic^ . . . PENNANT. MONTAGU.
THE nest, which is large in size, and very loosely com-
pacted, is usually placed under the eaves of the tiles of
houses or other buildings, in the ivy on a wall, underneath
the nest of Rook or Magpie, or in any hole or cavity that
will supply it with a convenient receptacle for its brood.
It is compiled of hay, straw, wool, moss, or twigs, and a
profusion of feathers, which the birds are sometimes seen
conveying to their holes even in winter. It often measures
as much as six inches in diameter, and sometimes even
yet more, if the situation demands it. The materials just
mentioned, as also any other that may meet the require-
ments of the bird, are variously disposed and arranged
together according to circumstances. Dove - cotes and
pigeon-houses, old walls, sheds, and ruins, are frequently
built in, and the same situation is continued to be resorted
to, and this even when the young have been exposed to
misfortune from rain ; also, as previously mentioned under
the account of the Martin, forcible possession is sometimes
taken of the nest of the latter bird. It would appear that
8
SPARROW 9
trees are built in more from necessity than choice, namely,
by yearling birds, which commence nidification late, by
which time convenient places in walls have been preoccu-
pied, or by individuals which from some cause or other
had been obliged to give up the latter localities. Fewer
broods in the year are produced therefore in the case of
nests in trees, both from their being commenced later in
the season, and from their requiring naturally more time
in their construction ; they are accordingly better made and
larger. Mr. Meyer describes one which was handsomely
built of moss, grass, and lichens, and neatly lined with hair.
The entrance in these cases is by the side, and the interior
is profusely lined with feathers. Three broods are often
reared during the season.
The first set of eggs generally consists of four, five, or
six. They are dull light grey, or greyish white, much
spotted and streaked all over with ash-colour and dusky
brown, varying considerably in size, shape, and colour,
though preserving for the most part a general resemblance.
The lower egg on the plate, an exceptionally light
brown variety, was forwarded by Mr. G. Grantham, of
East Shalford, Guildford..
VOL. II.
GREENFINCH
GREEN GROSSBEAK— GREEN LINNET.
PLATE LXXX1V.
Liqurinus Moris, . . . LINNAEUS.
Loxia Moris, .... LATHAM.
Fringilla cMoris, . . . TEMMINCK. SEEBOHM.
THE Greenfinch begins generally to build in April, or
even earlier ; the work has been known to have been
completed by the 26th of March.
The nest is pretty well compacted, and much more so
in some instances than in others. It is composed of small
roots, twigs, moss, and straws, and lined with finer materials
of the same kinds, mingled, as the case may be, with thistle-
down, feathers, and hair ; one was once built in the trellis-
work near the drawing-room of Nafferton Vicarage, a few
yards from that of the Spotted Flycatcher ; but though
undisturbed, it was not resorted to the following year, as was
that of its near neighbour. It is placed in various situations
— a low bush, or an evergreen, the ivy against a wall, or
between the branches of a tree. Many nests are often
found in proximity to each other in the same shrubbery;
more than one sometimes even in the same bush.
The eggs, from four to six, or even seven in number,
are of a pale greenish white, spotted with darker purple,
£'• *
GREENFINCH n
grey, or reddish brown, and rarely streaked with brown.
They do not differ much in size, shape, and colour; but
sometimes the whole surface is mottled over, and again,
there have been known no markings at all : the smaller end
is rather pointed.
Two broods are sometimes reared in the season. The
young, when fledged, fly off in a body from the nest, if
approached.
The figure of the nest is from a remarkably beautiful
specimen from an elm tree.
SERIN FINCH
PLATE LXXXIV*
Serinus hortulanus, . . . KOCH.
Fringilla serinus, . . . LINNAEUS. TEMMINCK.
THE Serin breeds in Central and Southern Europe, but
not, as far as is known, in the British Isles. The
nest is neatly and well built of fine roots and stalks of
grass, added to with spider-cots, moss, and lichens, lined with
feathers and hair, or perhaps a lock or two from its "wool-
stapler," the lamb, or sheep.
It is placed between the smaller branches of a shrub or
small tree.
The eggs, four to five in number, are of a pale dull
greenish white, with small indistinct reddish brown spots,
chiefly at the larger end.
SERIN FIN
HAWFINCH
GROSSBEAK-COMMON GROSSBEAK-HAW GROSSBEAK
BLACK-THROATED GROSSBEAK.
PLATE LXXXV.
Coccothraustes vulgaris, . . PALLAS. GOULD.
Loxia coccothraustes, . . . LINN^US. LATHAM.
FringUla coccothraustes, , . JENYNS. TEMMINCK.
'""pHE nest and egg of this bird represented were taken in
the parish of Beenham, Berks : the former is entirely com-
posed of lichens and fine roots. It is frequently placed in a
thorn bush, or holly tree, as also in oaks, the horse-chestnut,
apple, and fir trees of the different species, at a height varying
from eight or nine to thirty feet from the ground, often in a
very exposed situation. It is a flattish structure built of small
twigs, such as those of the oak and honeysuckle, intermixed
with fragments of lichens, in greater or less abundance. The
lining consists of fine roots, vegetable fibres, and a little hair,
with feathers, according to Montagu. It is usually but
loosely compacted.
The eggs are from four to six in number, of a pale olive
or bluish green, spotted with blackish brown, and irregularly
streaked with dark olive and dusky grey ; some are much
'3
i4 HAWFINCH
less marked than others, and some are of a uniform pale
green.
There do not appear to be any very striking varieties.
Seebohm says, " The eggs of the Hawfinch do not resemble
those of any other British Finch."
GOLDFINCH.
GOLDFINCH
GOLDIE— GOLDSPINK— THISTLE-FINCH— RED-CAP.
PLATE LXXXVL
Carduelis elegans, . . . . MACGILLIVRAY.
Fringilla carduelis, . . . LINN^US. LATHAM.
"*HE nest, which is a beautifully wrought structure, is
placed in orchard and other trees, especially those which
are evergreen, in bushes, and in some instances in hedges,
and at times as much as thirty feet from the ground: it is
composed externally of grass, moss, lichens, small twigs, and
roots or any other appropriate substances. Inside it is elabo-
rately interwoven with wool and hair, lined with the down of
willows and various plants, and sometimes a few or more
leaves or feathers. It is very neatly finished, and Bolton
says is completed in three days. It is often placed in
frequented situations, without much regard to passers-by.
The same place is resorted to in successive years. Two
broods are generally reared every season.
The eggs, four or five in number, are bluish or pale
greyish white, sometimes tinged with brown, and are slightly
spotted with greyish purple and brown, with occasionally a
dark streak or two.
The spots vary considerably in depth of colour, from
greyish purple to dark brown, or even black.
»5
SISKIN
ABERDEVINE.
PLATE LXXXVII.
Fringilla spinus, . ..'.'. LINNAEUS.
Carduelis spinus, . . . . ' . MACGILLIVRAY.
THE nest is placed in trees, at only a short or moderate
height from the ground, about from five to eight feet or
so, or near the top of a spruce fir, and is composed of stalks
of grass, small roots and fibres, moss and lichens, lined with
hair, rabbits' fur, thistle-down, wool, or a few feathers, but
these last not as a rule. It is sometimes a furze bush within
a few feet of the ground, or in trees, when firs or birches are
usually selected.
The eggs are usually five in number, pale greenish or
bluish white, spotted around the thicker end with dull lilac
and a few reddish brown dots.
There are generally two broods in the season. Incubation
lasts fourteen days ; the young are fledged and are able to
leave the nest at the end of the third week.
The Siskin has been known to build and breed in
confinement. Mr. Hewitson figures an egg which was laid,
together with three others, by a hen bird which had been
kept three years in a cage.
The Siskin nests most frequently in North Britain,
16
SISKIN 17
though instances have also occurred in the extreme south,
that is to say, in the neighbourhood of London.
Booth, a most careful observer, describes the nests as
constructed in the fir trees in Scotland rather differently
from other authors. He says : — " The nest has been stated
to resemble that of the Goldfinch; with the exception
perhaps of size, I have noticed little similarity. The outer
portion is fashioned with green moss held in position by
fibres of roots and strands of grass, finer materials of the
same description being used for the lining, in which I have
also seen a few catkins of either the birch or alder, together
with a quantity of the seeds. To the best of my recollec-
tion neither wool, hair, or thistle-down, nor the flowers of
the cotton-grass, were employed in any nest I examined. "
VOL. n.
LINNET
BROWN LINNET— COMMON LINNET— GREY LINNET— ROSE
LINNET— RED-BREASTED LINNET.
PLATE LXXXVIII.
Linota cannabina, .... YARRELL.
Linaria cannabina, .... MACGILLIVRAY.
Fringilla cannabina, .... LINNAEUS. LATHAM.
Fringilla linota, LATHAM.
THE nest, of rather large size, is commonly placed in
heath, grass, furze, or gorse, and is neatly constructed
inside, but the outside rather roughly, being formed of
small twigs, roots, straws, fibres, and stalks of grass, thistle-
down, or willow catkins, intermixed with moss and wool,
and lined with hair and sometimes a few feathers. It is
occasionally placed in a gorse, thorn, or other bush or
tree, and has been known at a height of ten or twelve
feet, but is usually about four, from the ground ; also in
hedges ; often in trees trained against the wall, particularly
the pear, as affording the most concealment.
The first eggs are usually laid in April. They are from
four to six in number, of a bluish white colour, spotted,
most at the larger end, with purple grey and reddish
brown.
LINN F. T .
LINNET 19
Two broods are often reared in the season.
They have occasionally been known to breed in confine-
ment, when in a good-sized aviary, and hybrids or Mules,
bred between a Cock- Linnet and a female Canary, are
common, and in great demand as song-birds.
REDPOLL
LESSER REDPOLE.
PLATE LXXXIX.
Fringilla rufescens, . . VIEILLOT.
Linota rufescens, .... NEWTON.
Linaria minor, .... MACGILLIVRAV.
Fringilla linaria, . . . LINNAEUS. LATHAM.
Spinus Hnaria, . • KOCK.
Linota linaria, .... BUONAPARTE.
Linaria fiavirostris, . . . EYTON.
Linaria rubra STEPHENS.
Linaria betularum, . . . BREHM.
TWO species of the Redpoll are usually described as
distinct by British authors, but with regard to their
names or their specific distinction, hardly any two writers
are agreed. One of the latest authorities, Mr. Howard
Saunders, speaks of the two as distinct ; Mr. Seebohm regards
them as mere varieties, and to them he adds the Greenland
Redpoll, which has only once occurred in England. The
two species generally recognised are the Lesser Redpoll and
the Mealy Redpoll. The Lesser Redpoll breeds commonly
in many parts of Great Britain, wherever there are woods
and thickets, and rarely in any other country.
The small nest is usually built in a low bush or tree,
such as an alder, hawthorn, hazel, osier, or willow, seven or
eight feet from the ground, or in heather, and is fabricated
R E I) P O L E .
REDPOLL 21
of moss, hair, wool, and stems of grass, lined with willow
catkins, or feathers. I have been informed by Mr. F.
Wise, of Arram, in Holderness, of one at a height of about
twenty feet, on the end of a bough of an oak, among a tuft
of small shoots where the end had been broken off. It is
rather carefully and neatly constructed. Several nests are
often built quite near together.
This species lays from four to six eggs : their colour is
pale bluish green, spotted with orange brown, principally
towards the larger end, and sometimes a few thin streaks
of a darker colour — brown or black.
The nest is figured from a specimen which was taken
on the 6th of June, in the year 1853, in the neighbourhood
of Driffield. It is made of the usual materials, as men-
tioned in the description. It contained three eggs, from one
of which the engraving was drawn.
The Redpoll is a late breeder, eggs seldom being taken
before the beginning of June.
MEALY REDPOLL
PLATE XC.— FIGURE I.
Linaria canescens, GOULD.
Linaria borealis, SELBY.
Linaria minor, ...... SELBY.
Fringilla linaria LINNAEUS.
THE Mealy Redpoll is an irregular winter visitant to
the east coast, breeding only in the birch woods of
the north, and straying to the south only in the winter. In
confinement it has bred with the last species, but has not
been known to nest in a wild state in England.
The egg is described by Meyer as being pale greenish
blue, sprinkled over with pale but distinct spots of a red-
dish brown colour, some of them inclining to lilac, chiefly
confined to a zone around the larger end.
M K A I. \ k K ii !• i)
1 \V I I 1,
TWITE
MOUNTAIN LINNET.
PLATE XC.— FIGURE II.
Fringilla fiavirostris, ..... LINNAEUS.
Linaria montana, ...... SELBY.
^HE nest of the Twite is generally built in heather or
•I on the ground in grass, growing corn, or by the side
of a furrow, sometimes in low bushes. It is formed of small
roots, twigs, and stalks of shrubs, heather, moss, and dry
grass, and is lined with a small quantity of hair or wool,
and a few feathers. A pair built and reared their young
in the aviary of Mr. Thomas Walker, of Rosebank, near
Tunbridge Wells.
The eggs, four, five, or occasionally six in number,
are of a pale greenish or bluish white, spotted with red-
dish brown, or light brown and purple-red towards the
larger end, with sometimes a few blackish dots, and are
scarcely to be distinguished from those of the common
Linnet.
BULLFINCH
NOPE— POPE— ALP— HOOP— COMMON BULLFINCH.
PLATE XCI.
Loxia pyrrhula, .... LINNAEUS.
Pyrrhula vulgaris, .... FLEMING. SELBY.
'HPO WARDS the end of April the birds pair, and nidifi-
A cation is commenced in the beginning of May, and
is finished by the end of that month, or the early part
of June.
The nest, small and shallow, is formed of small twigs,
commonly those of the birch, beech or hornbeam, and is
lined with fine roots, grass, wool, and hair, the whole being
rather carelessly built and not firmly compacted ; in some
instances moss is added. The middle part is more care-
fully finished and of the finest of the materials. It is
generally placed low, either in a tree, such as a fir, or in
the middle of a bush or other underwood, frequently a
hawthorn, at a height of four or five feet from the ground.
It is often built in an evergreen, a cover, plantation, or
shrubbery, even near a house, commonly in a wood, and
occasionally, though but seldom, in a garden. They will
breed in confinement, especially if they have ample room.
The eggs, four to six in number, are clear greenish
blue, speckled and streaked with purple grey, and dark
*•-»-
t"
BULLFINCH 25
Jj purple. They are hatched towards the end of May, after
Lan incubation of fifteen days. The male takes his turn
Jin sitting with the female. The latter sits very closely,
^though she is in general easily frightened away. The male
is less so, but it is said that if he be disturbed the nest
is almost always deserted, which is not the case when the
female is alarmed. Mr. W. Read, of Hayton, has recorded
that, when resident at Frickley Hall, near Doncaster, a
icn bird which built in a laurel near the house suffered
icrself to be touched while sitting on her young ones, and
/ould feed from the hand without the least fear. The
Dirds are supposed to pair for life ; the members of the
amily keep together until the spring. Two broods are
requently reared in the season.
VOL. n.
SCARLET BULLFINCH
SCARLET GROSSBEAK.
PLATE XCII.— FIGURE I.
Pyrrhula erythryna, PALLAS.
' I ^HIS species, which is a rare wanderer to the west,
1 breeds in Finland and Russia.
The nest is loosely built, but neatly lined inside with
the finer stems of plants, interwoven with a few hairs.
The eggs are from four to six in number ; their colour
a deep greenish blue, with a few dark reddish-brown or
nearly black spots and specks, with blots of pale purple red.
S C A R 1. 1 i I
I. I. V I N C I!
PINE G RO S S B I
O S S B I I, L .
PINE GROSSBEAK
PINE BULLFINCH.
PLATE XCIL— FIGURE II.
Loxia enutleator,
Pyrrhula enucleator, .
LINNAEUS.
SELBY. JENYNS.
THE Pine Grossbeak is a rare visitant, never nesting in
Great Britain.
The nest is made of small birch sticks, and is lined with
ine stiff grass or lichen. It is usually placed on the branch
a fir or birch tree, only a few feet above the ground.
The eggs are three to four in number, deep greenish
alue in colour, spotted with brownish purple.
CROSSBILL
COMMON CROSSBILL— SHELL-APPLE.
PLATE XCIL— FIGURE III.
Loxia curoirostra, . . . LINNJEUB. LATHAM.
'TPHE Common Crossbill is generally seen in flocks in
1 England from autumn to spring, but occasionally re-
mains to breed, though usually nesting in the pine forests
of the north of Europe.
Nidification commences very early, even in February
or March. According to Temminck second broods follow
the earliest. Several often build together.
The nest is placed in the angle of the junction of the
branches of a tree, naturally the fir, but the apple also has
been known, and is loosely compacted of small twigs,
grass, straws, stalks, and moss or lichens, according with
the colour of the tree it is placed on, lined with softer
materials, such as hair, moss, wool, or feathers. They have
been known only about five or ten feet from the ground,
and up to forty. The edges of the nest extend from three
to five inches beyond the middle part.
The eggs, four or rarely five in number, are white or
greyish white, spotted, chiefly at the thicker end, with red-
brown, reddish, bluish red, purple, or brown ; in some well-
defined, in others shaded off, and in others only lines.
tf
PA K II ,1 I. I,.
PARROT CROSSBILL
PLATE XCIII.
Loxia piiyopsittacus, . . . BEWICK. FLEMING.
THE Parrot Crossbill is now regarded by all recent
writers as merely a large stout-billed race of the last
species. These larger birds are seldom seen in the British
Islands.
The nest is placed chiefly in lofty forest trees, and is
composed of small twigs, lined with dry grass or leaves of
the fir tree.
The eggs are said to be four or five in number, ash-
coloured, or bluish white, and spotted with bluish red and
dusky at the larger end.
The Rev. H. B. Tristram has obligingly forwarded to
me the egg made use of for the plate. It was obtained by
himself at Hennsand, in Sweden.
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL
PLATE XCIV.
Loxia leucoptera, . . . GMELIN. BUONAPARTE.
Loxia falcirostra, . . . PENNANT. FLEMING.
THE White-winged Crossbill of North America has on
a few occasions occurred in Great Britain. It is
generally regarded by recent writers as identical with the
Two-barred Crossbill of the north of Europe (Loxia bifa-
sciata), small flocks of which have occasionally occurred in
the eastern counties.
Very little is known of the incubation of this bird, but
the nest has been described as composed of lichens, spruce
twigs, coarse hairs, and shreds of fane bark ; it is placed on
the branches of pine trees.
The eggs, five in number, are described as white,
marked with yellowish spots ; otherwise, as pale blue with
fine dots of black and lilac grey.
.. .
\V H I T I. • W I N (1 K li C R ii > S B I L L .
ROSE-COLOURED PASTOR
ROSE OUZEL— ROSE-COLOURED OUZEL— ROSE-COLOURED
STARLING.
PLATE XCV.
Pastor roseus, FLEMING. SELBY.
AN irregular visitant to this country, breeding in Wes-
tern Asia.
The nest is located in the holes of trees, and in
cavities in old walls or rocks, as also on the ground,
numbers of nests being built together. A few straws, sticks,
wool, leaves, grasses, roots, mosses, feathers, and such like
are the materials, if any, for often the eggs are laid on the
bare ground, or in a deep hollow or hole under rocks
and stones.
The eggs are five or six in number, are glossy bluish
white, with the like faint tinge of green blue or blue
green.
STARLING
STARE— COMMON STARLING.
PLATE XCVI.— FIGURE I.
Sturnus vulgaris, ...... LiNNVEUS.
X TIDIFICATION commences about the end of March
IN or the beginning or middle of April. They build in
church-steeples and in hollows and eaves of the walls of
houses, castles, spires, towers, or ruins, as also in those of
trees, as well as in cliffs and rocky and precipitous places ;
at times in dove-cotes and pigeon-houses, in caverns and
under rocks, and even have been known to occupy the
holes deserted by rats, more or less fashioned for them-
selves. Where any or all of these are wanting, the abut-
ment of a bridge, or any suitably high building, is utilised.
A rabbit-burrow is also sometimes resorted to, or the hole
in a tree scooped out by a Woodpecker. In Woburn Park,
Bedfordshire, I am informed by Mr. George B. Clark that
Starlings have built some dome-shaped nests in Scotch firs,
the entrance placed near the branch of the tree, the nests
being made of coarse grass, and lined with fine grass. He
also writes that he has known them occupy holes previ-
ously excavated by Sand Martins for themselves. Mr. J.
M'Intosh, describing a famous chestnut tree in the grounds
of Canford House, Dorsetshire, one of five planted by John
R K I > • \V 1 N >
T -\
STARLING 33
of Gaunt, and still flourishing so long since "time-honoured
Lancaster " himself has mouldered into dust, that at its base
was a colony of rabbits, in the trunk a nest of cats, and
immediately above the latter, one of Starlings. One has
been built for two or three years in succession, in the
garden of Nunburnholme Rectory, in the depth of a hole
in a large old acacia tree.
The nest is large, and fabricated of straw, roots, por-
tions of plants, and dry grass, or hay, with a rude lining
of feathers and hair. The birds will sometimes resort most
pertinaciously to the same building-place. In one instance
the eggs are said to have been found in the nest of
a Magpie. One pair having with much difficulty forced
their way into a ball used by being raised or let down to
act as a signal on a railway, there built their nest, and
though the ball was elevated and lowered to within a few
feet of the ground fourteen times a day, this did not inter-
fere with their proceedings, and in due time four eggs were
laid with every prospect of being duly hatched. This was
near Kilwinning, on the Ardrossan line, in 1853, and the
circumstance was recorded in the Dumfries Courier. The
hen sits very close, is fed by her mate, and has been
known to allow herself to be taken by the hand from the
nest.
The eggs, four to seven in number, are of a delicate
pale blue or blue green colour: some have a few black
dots. Mr. R. J. Davidson, of Muirhouse, informs me of
a nest of five white eggs, which he found in a hollow tree
at Dedham, in Essex, in 1862. Mr. G. Warren, of Wit-
nesham Vicarage, near Abingdon, found a nest with the
eggs all but pure white, and forwarded me two of them as
specimens.
VOL. n. E
34 STARLING
Incubation lasts about sixteen days; both birds feed the
young. Two or three broods may be raised in the year
in some places, but ordinarily one, or at the most two.
Mr. J. R. Fisher states that Mr. Gurney told him of a
Starling, the young of which having been taken from the
nest and placed in a cage which was hung upon a wall,
were discovered and fed by the old bird until they were
able to fly, at which time, and not before, she unfastened
the door of the cage and let them out.
RED-WINGED STARLING
RED - WINGED BLACKBIRD — RED - WINGED MAIZE - BIRD-
MARSH BLACKBIRD— SWAMP BLACKBIRD.
PLATE XCVL— FIGURE II.
Agelaau plumieats, .... NEWTON.
Sturnus pradatorius, . . . LUBBOCK. WILSON.
Icterus phanicurus, . . . BUONAPARTE.
THIS bird has been found about a dozen times in the
British Isles. It is common throughout the United
States. The English specimens have most probably escaped
from confinement.
About the middle of April the birds pair, and nidifica-
tion commences the last week in April, or the beginning
of May, or even later, according to the latitude in which
they happen to be.
The nest is placed variously in a bush or tree, a few
feet from the ground, or in a tussock of rushes or tuft of
grass, or even, and not unfrequently, on the ground. It is
composed of rushes and long tough grass, and lined with
finer portions of the latter ; the rushes are interlaced among
the surrounding twigs, if in a tree, or among the rushes,
if on the ground, in which latter case the whole structure
is less elaborate than in the former. Several nests are
often built in the immediate neighbourhood of each other.
36 RED-WINGED STARLING
The eggs, about five in number, are of a pale bluish-
white colour, encircled at the larger end with spots and
streaks of dark reddish brown, with a few others scattered
here and there, and some faint blots of purple grey and
lines and dashes of black.
n i P P E R
DIPPER
COMMON DIPPER— EUROPEAN DIPPER— WATER OUZEL.
PLATE XCVII.
Cinclus aquaticus, . . . FLEMING. SELBY.
X TIDIFICATION begins about the middle of April. The
1 1 nest, which is cleverly concealed and large, measuring
ten or twelve inches in diameter and seven or eight in depth,
being domed, is well compacted of moss and grass, and fully
lined with leaves. It is placed in some cavity in a rock, or
under the protection of some overhanging stone in the im-
mediate neighbourhood of the rippling stream or murmuring
waterfall, the birds' favourite haunt. Different specimens,
however, vary in size as well as shape, adapted doubtless to
the circumstances of the spot they are placed in, some being
a couple of inches less than the size just spoken of. The
aperture is in front, from three to four inches in width, and
about one and a half in height. Macgillivray mentions one,
described by Mr. Thomas Durham Weir, which was built in
an angle between two fragments of rocks under a small
cascade, and although the water fell upon part of the dome,
the compactness with which it was put together rendered it
waterproof.
Another was similarly placed in a hole of a wall close to
a waterfall, which passed over it, but the birds nevertheless
38 DIPPER
flew in and out with the greatest ease. Again, another placed
for several years in succession on the rafter of a salmon fish-
lock is recorded by Mr. Hewitson. Others have been known
to be built within the passage of a mill-race. In such cases
the mother bird will often dash two or three times through
the rushing waters, as if in the enjoyment of pastime, before
resuming her place on the eggs. The young soon quit the
nest, and are at home almost from the first in the water.
The birds are strongly attached to their accustomed
building-place, and the same spot has been known to be
occupied for thirty-one years.
The dipper rears two or three broods in the year. A
second clutch of eggs is often deposited in the same nest
with the young birds.
The eggs, from four to six in number, are white, and of
a regular oval form.
M 1 S S F, I. T H R '
CVI
MISSEL THRUSH
MISSELTOE THRUSH— STORM-COCK— MISSEL-BIRD— SHRITE—
SHRIKE-COCK—HOLM THRUSH.
PLATE XCVIII.
Turdus viscivorus, ..... LINNVEUS.
"^HE Missel Thrush nests very early, often commencing
A even in February, and nests with eggs have been found
early in March.
The nest, which is a loose structure, is a compilation of
twigs, small sticks, straws, grasses, leaves, lichens, wool, or
mosses, compacted inwardly with mud, intermingled with
still smaller roots, finer grasses, and moss, or indeed any soft
material, feathers in some cases, frequently with grass alone ;
sometimes the outside is partly covered with lichens and
mosses, the former taken from or resembling those on the
tree itself, to which they consequently give the fabric veri-
similitude. The width is about four inches and a half, the
depth two and three fourths, and the thickness of the sides
an inch and three quarters. Mr. Hewitson mentions a nest
of which the foundation was of mud, strongly cemented to
and nearly encirling the branches between which it was fixed.
This material appears to be occasionally used a little with
the lining. It is often placed in very exposed situations in
the hollow caused by the divergence of the branches from
39
4o MISSEL THRUSH
the trunk, at a height of ten or fifteen feet from the ground.
Shy, too, as the bird is at other times, in its nidification it is
not deterred from any appropriate situation by the near pro-
pinquity of a house, or by persons constantly passing and
repassing, it often building without any attempt at conceal-
ment. The same tree is often returned to year after year,
if the birds be undisturbed, and Mr. Frederick Bond, of
Kingsbury, has known the same nest used twice in the same
season. They will suffer other species to tbuild near them,
without any molestation, even during the time of incubation.
The eggs are four to five in number, of a greenish or
tawny white colour, spotted and blotted and more or less
suffused irregularly with brown, reddish brown, or purple red,
they vary in size as well as in colour and shape, some being
much larger than others. They are hatched in about sixteen
days.
Two and sometimes three broods are reared in the
season.
F I K I. I) F A R E .
FIELDFARE
FELDFARE— FELT— FELTFARE— BLUE-BACK— BLUE-FELT.
PLATE XCIX.
Turdus pilaris, .... LINNAEUS. LATHAM.
T^IELDFARES, which are only winter visitants to Britain,
breed in forest regions of Northern Europe in large
colonies, as many as two hundred nests and upwards having
been found within a small circuit of the forest. The same
situations appear to be resorted to from year to year, as
with the Rooks.
The nest, which is placed in pine or fir trees, at a
height of from four to forty feet from the ground, is made
of small sticks, grass, and weeds, cemented together with a
small quantity of clay, and lined with fine grass. It is for
the most part placed on the branches of the birch, alder,
pine, against the trunk of the tree, but sometimes at
considerable distance from it, towards the smaller end
>f the thicker branches. Single nests, however, sometimes
:cur.
The eggs are from four to five or six in number, of a
lie bluish green, of different shades, spotted, mottled, and
streaked with darker or lighter reddish brown. "They
ire sometimes so closely freckled over that the colour
if the freckles predominates ; and there is a variety in
VOL. II. 41 F
42 FIELDFARE
which the ground colour is most seen, the red-brown spots
being larger and much more sparingly sprinkled." They
vary considerably, as may be observed from the two types
represented.
Two broods are generally reared each season.
Unfinished nests have been found, and others with
newly-laid eggs in them, so late as the 3Oth of May.
"
R E OWING
REDWING
SWINEPIPE— WIND THRUSH.
PLATE C.
Turdus iliacus, LINN&US.
THE Redwing is another winter visitor, nesting only in
the pine forests of the Arctic Circle. The nest is
placed in the centre of a thorn or other bush, alder, birch,
maple, or other tree, or a cluster of stems, and is made of
moss, roots, and dry grass outwardly, cemented together
with clay, and lined inwardly with finer grass.
Mr. Wolley says that this bird "makes its nest near
the ground, in an open part of the wood, generally in the
outskirts, on a stump, a log, or the roots of a fallen tree ;
sometimes amongst a cluster of young stems of the birch,
usually quite exposed, so as almost to seem as if placed so
purposely — the walls often supported only by their founda-
tion. The first or coarse part of the nest is made for the
most part of dried bents, sometimes with fine twigs and
moss ; this is lined with a thin layer of mud, and then is
added a thick bed of fine grass of the previous year, com-
pactly woven together, which completes the structure.
Outside is often a good deal of the kind of lichen called
reindeer moss, and one nest particularly, which I have
preserved, is entirely covered with it; when it was fresh,
43
44 REDWING
and the fine ramifications of the lichens unbroken, it had
a most beautiful appearance."
The eggs are said to be found at the end of May, or
June, and to be towards six in number ; they are of a pale
bluish green, spotted or streaked with reddish brown.
Two broods are frequently reared during the season.
THRUSH.
THRUSH
THROSTLE— SONG THRUSH— COMMON THRUSH— MAVIS.
PLATE CI.
Turdus musicus, LINNJEUS.
Merula musica, SELBY.
THE Thrush usually commences to build in the latter end
of March, and the eggs are deposited earlier or later
in April, though sometimes not until May, according to the
season. Nests are known to have been begun even so
early as the middle of February, and young birds have been
found in March. Mrs. Harriet Murchison, of Bicester, Ox-
fordshire, has forwarded me a specimen of a nest with four
eggs, which was found at that place on the 6th of January
1853. A second brood is generally reared in the season. The
female is extremely attentive to her charge, and will sit on
the nest until quite closely approached, and will sometimes
suffer herself to be taken sooner than forsake it. If disturbed
or alarmed, she will testify her anxiety by flying round with
ruffled feathers and outspread tail, uttering a note of alarm,
and violently snapping the bill.
The nest is a very bulky structure, composed of moss, small
twigs, straws, leaves, roots, stems of plants, and grass, lined
with a thick layer of clay and decayed wood. It is placed in
«* hedge or thick bush of any kind at a small height from
46 THRUSH
the ground, and likewise at times on a rough bank among
moss, brambles, or shrubs, as also, where the country is
unwooded, on the level ground, at the most under the shelter
of some projecting stone or crag, in the crevice of a rock, or
in a tuft of heath.
Mr. John H. Blundell, of Luton, Bedfordshire, informs me
that he has found the nest of a Thrush in the side of a wheat
stack. The Rev. W. Waldo Cooper, of West Rasen, Lincoln-
shire, records in the Zoologist, page 1775, that he has found
one on the ground, three feet from the nearest bush ; and
Mr. John Barlow relates a similar instance.
The eggs, usually four or five in number, are of a beautiful
clear greenish blue colour, with distinct black or rusty brown
spots and dots, principally over the larger end. Unspotted
varieties are not very uncommon. The eggs vary consider-
ably in size, some being very small.
II I T K S T H R U S H
ik T H K I' S H
WHITE'S THRUSH
PLATE CI I.— FIGURE I.
Turdus varius . . ... PALLAS.
WHITE'S Thrush is a rare accidental visitor to Europe,
breeding in North-eastern Siberia, and wintering in
Japan.
The nest is composed, according to Swinhoe, of withered
rushes, grass, and moss, lined with mud and rootlets.
The eggs are greenish white, with minute reddish
spots.
47
ROCK THRUSH
PLATE CIL— FIGURE II.
Turdus saxatilis, .... LINNAEUS.
Petrotinda saxaiilis, .... VIGORS. GOULD.
THE Rock Thrush is a rare visitor, breeding in the
south of Europe. The nest is made of moss, roots,
and dried grass, without clay. It is placed in crevices of
rocks, walls, or ruins, occasionally in a tree-stump.
The eggs are described as being four to five in number,
and of a pale greenish-blue colour, sometimes slightly
speckled with light brown.
Two broods are often reared in the year.
BLACKBIK M
BLACKBIRD
PLATE CHI.
Turdus merufa LINNAEUS.
Merula vulgaris, . SELBY. GOULD.
THIS species pairs in February or March, but occasion-
ally much earlier. A nest with eggs has been found
in January.
The nest is placed in a variety of situations, and is
frequently found in a heap of sticks, even though placed in
an outhouse, or most commonly in a bush ; sometimes in a
tree against a wall, or in a tree or wall covered with ivy ;
an instance has been known of its being placed on the stump
of a tree, close to the ground, and Sir William Jardine
found one on the ground, at the foot of a tree ; another was
also seen in a similar situation, at the foot of a hazel bush,
in a wood, by the Rev. W. Waldo Cooper, of West Rasen,
Lincolnshire : in the same wood he saw another on the
stump of a hazel which had been cut down, and from which
several stems had grown ; it was not raised an inch from the
ground, but was quite surrounded by the new branches ; and
others on the ground have been recorded. It is often put
in a hedge, at a height of three or four feet ; and some-
times in a hole in a wall or rock. It is made of roots,
VOL. n. 49 G
5o BLACKBIRD
small twigs, and stalks of grass, with perhaps some lichens
or fern, and is covered on the inside with mud, and lined
with finer parts of the other materials and grass ; it is
sometimes most admirably hidden, so as almost to baffle
detection. It is at times placed on the top of a fence or
the summit of a wall. The same situation is occasionally
resorted to from year to year. The female sits for thirteen
days.
The eggs are commonly five in number, sometimes
four, and sometimes, though but rarely, six ; they are of a
dull light greenish blue, mottled and spotted with pale
reddish brown, the markings being closer at the larger end,
where they sometimes form an obscure ring. They vary
very much in size as well as in shape and colour. Mr.
Hewitson, in his " Coloured Illustrations of the Eggs of
British Birds," figures one elegantly covered over at the
larger end with minute reddish-brown specks, and likewise,
but less thickly, over the remainder — the green showing
through ; and a second curiously marbled with irregular
dashes and specks of reddish brown over the green colour.
Another variety is similar to the last, except that the ground
colour is lighter, and the spots smaller. Another, in his
possession, clear spotless light blue, with the whole of the
larger end suffused with reddish brown. Mr. J. B. Ellman,
of Battel, relates in the Zoologist, page 2180, that he had
an egg in which the spots were at the smaller end. Some
of the eggs are much larger than others, and they also
vary much in colour and markings, as well as in shape, some
being much more round, and others much more oval, than
others : in some instances, the smaller end is rounded and
obtuse. Two and sometimes three broods are reared in
the season.
BLACKBIRD 51
Booth in his " Rough Notes " relates an interesting
account of two Blackbirds constructing no less than five
nests in the season, in a thick bush of cypress. He says : —
" In a garden near Brighton I noticed, in 1880, two Black-
birds (they could scarcely be termed a pair) construct no
less than five nests during the season. In every instance
the nests were placed in a thick bush of Cupressus macro-
catpa. The first brood when about a week old, early
in March, were dragged out and killed by a cat. On
Saturday, May ist, the second brood died in the nest
through exposure to the cold east winds, and on the fol-
lowing Monday the third nest was commenced. On the
1 2th the old male was unfortunately caught in a cat-trap
(set for their especial preservation), and so badly nipped
that death must have been instantaneous. The female,
however, was not inconsolable, and within a day or two,
without the slightest intermission to her family arrange-
ments, a new mate was found. All went smoothly for the
future, and three broods were now successfully reared."
RING OUZEL
ROCK OUZEL— RING THRUSH.
PLATE CIV.
Turdus torquatus, . LiNNvEUS.
Merula torquata, .... SELBY. GOULD.
THE nest of the Ring Ouzel is usually built among the
heather or ling in a hollow on the ground. It is
hidden more or less by a tuft of heath, the root of a tree,
a large stone, or a projection of the rock on which it is
placed : those found in the more southerly counties were
placed at a height of about five or six feet from the ground
in such a situation as a small bush or stunted tree. It
measures about seven inches in diameter, about three and
a half in depth on the outside, and about two inches
inside. It is composed of dry grasses, heather, stems, or
stalks, thickly matted together, with here and there an
occasional leaf; on the inside it is lined with mud, within
which is another lining of fine grass. When the young are
hatched, the parent birds naturally fly at and about any
intruder.
The eggs are pale greenish blue, sparingly freckled
with pale purple and reddish-brown markings. They are
four or five in number. A second brood is frequently
hatched in July.
GOLD 1. N O R I O L I".
GOLDEN ORIOLE
PLATE CV.
Oriolus galbula, LINNAEUS
THE Oriole, though but a straggler, has occasionally
nested in the south of England, and would doubtless
do so habitually if not so constantly persecuted.
The nest is usually suspended from the small forked
bough of a tall tree, to which it is firmly attached. It is
made of stalks of grass, small roots, and wool, cleverly
interwoven together, and is lined with the finer portions of
the same materials.
The eggs are commonly four or five in number, of a
clear white colour, blotched with reddish purple.
ALPINE WARBLER
ALPINE ACCENTOR— COLLARED STARE.
PLATE CVI.
Accentor alpinus, .... GMELIN.
Accentor collaris, .... NEWTON.
Sturnus moritanicus, . . . GMELIN. LATHAM.
A RARE straggler to England, breeding in Central and
Southern Europe.
The nest is placed on the ground among stones, or in
some cavity or crevice of mountain rock, as also under the
shelter of the alpine rose or other low bush. It is made
of fine grass, roots and lichens, and is lined with moss,
wool, and hair.
The eggs, four or five in number, are of a beautiful light
greenish-blue colour; they are unspotted. There are said
to be two broods in the year.
A I, 1' I X F. \V
.'NOCK
DUNNOCK
HEDGE-SPARROW— SHUFFLE- WING— HEDGE-WARBLER—
HEDGE-CHANTER.
PLATE CVII.
Accentor modularis, LINNJEUS.
THE nest of the Hedge-Sparrow is generally placed in
hedges, low furze or other bushes, or shrubs, a few
feet from the ground, but also, in lack of these, in holes
of walls, stacks of wood, in the ivy against a wall, and
other similar places. The Rev. Charles Forge, of Driffield,
records in the Zoologist that he found one among the
small branches of an elm tree, standing apart from any
hedge. It was placed close to the bole or trunk of the
tree, at about ten feet from the ground. Exteriorly, it was
composed of wheat straw, intermingled with small recently
dead twigs of the elm, to which the dried leaves were still
attached. It had no other lining than the green moss com-
monly used by the Hedge-Sparrow in the construction of its
nest, and contained a single egg. A pair built and reared
their young in the aviary of Mr. Thomas Walker, of
Rosebank, Tunbridge Wells.
The nest is deep and well rounded, from four and a half
to five inches in diameter on the outside, and nearly two
inches deep. It is made of small twigs, roots, and grass,
55
56 DUNNOGK
lined with moss, and then with hair, grass, wool, or down,
or any appropriate substances at hand.
The eggs, which are often seen so early as the beginning
of April, are four or five, rarely six in number, and of a
very elegant greenish-blue colour. Mr. Archibald Hepburn,
records in the Zoologist his having seen an egg of this
species, which was thrown out of the nest by the parents,
and was of a bluish white colour, mottled and speckled with
light brown ; it was much rounder than the usual shape,
and was empty inside.
Two broods are reared in the year; preparations for one
being made about the middle of March, and for the latter,
at the beginning of May : three are sometimes hatched.
Meyer, in his " British Birds," mentions his having seen
a nest on the 2ist of January, and that he found one with a
newly -laid egg in it on the 22nd of July. The same situation
is frequently resorted to from year to year.
The Rev. H. A. Macpherson records, in his " Fauna
of Lakeland," that in 1888 he found a brood which did not
leave the nest until the 8th of September.
REDBREAST
ROBIN— ROBIN REDBREAST— RUDDOCK— ROBINET.
PLATE CVIII.
Erythacus rubecula, . . . NEWTON.
Sylvia rubecula, , , . NAUMANN.
Motacilla rubecula, . . . MONTAGU. BEWICK.
THE Robin, as the Redbreast is familiarly termed, nests
very early in the spring, and the eggs are usually laid
about the beginning of April ; but young birds have often
been found in the nest by the end of March. In backward
seasons they are usually later. Macgillivray, writing in
Scotland, mentions one seen on the Qth of May 1831, and
another on the 2nd of June 1837, which he believed to
be the first brood of that year. A Robin's nest, containing
several eggs, was taken near York the first week in
February 1844, there being snow on the ground at the
time ; another, which had five eggs, was found at Moreton-
in-the-Marsh in the second week of January 1848; another,
with the like number of eggs, in a garden at Wheldrake,
near York, the loth of the same month ; and one, also with
eggs, near Belfast on the aoth of February 1846. A nest
with two eggs, on which the hen bird was sitting, was
found near the end of November 1851, at Gribton, Dum-
friesshire, the seat of Mr. Francis Maxwell.
VOL. II. " H
58 REDBREAST
The nest of the Robin, which is built of fine stalks, moss,
dried leaves, and grass, and lined with hair and wool, with
sometimes a few feathers, is generally placed on a bank
under the shelter of a bush, or sometimes in a bush itself, at
a low height from the ground, and occasionally in a hole
in a wall covered with ivy, a crevice in a rock, among fern
and tangled roots — the entrance perhaps being through some
very narrow aperture, or an ivy-clad tree. It measures about
five inches and three quarters across, and two and a half
in internal diameter. It is concealed with great care and
success.
King William the Fourth had a part of the mizzen-mast
of the Victory, against which Lord Nelson was standing
when he was mortally wounded, placed in a building in the
grounds of Bushey Park when he resided there. A large
shot had passed through this part of the mast, and in the
hole it had left, a pair of Robins built their nest and reared
their young. The relic was afterwards removed to the
dining-room of the house, and is now in the armoury of
Windsor Castle.
A loft is frequently built in, and in one instance, the nest
having been obliged to be removed for an alteration in the
wall, the hen bird did not forsake it, though placed elsewhere.
Another nest was placed on a shelf in a pantry, among some
four-sided bottles, so that it was made of a square shape.
When disturbed by the entrance of any person, the bird
alighted on the floor till the visitor had gone, when it imme-
diately returned to its nest.
Mr. Jesse relates the following: — "A gentleman had
directed a waggon to be packed, intending to send it to
Worthing, where he himself was going. For some reason
his journey was delayed, and he therefore directed that the
REDBREAST 59
waggon should be placed in a shed in the yard, packed as it
was, till it should be convenient for him to send it off. While
it was in the shed, a pair of Robins built their nest among
some straw in it, and had hatched their young just before
it was sent off. One of the old birds, instead of being
frightened away by the motion of the waggon, only left
the nest from time to time for the purpose of flying to the
nearest hedge for food for its young, and thus alternately
affording warmth and nourishment to them, it arrived at
Worthing. The affection of this bird having been observed
by the waggoner, he took care in unloading not to disturb
the Robin's nest ; and the Robin and its young returned
in safety to Walton Heath, being the place from whence
they had set out ; the distance travelled not being less than
one hundred miles. Whether it was the male or female
Robin which kept with the waggon I have not been able
to ascertain ; but most probably the latter ; for what will
not a mother's love and a mother's tenderness induce her
to do ? "
The eggs, generally five or six in number, are usually of
a delicate pale reddish white, faintly freckled with rather
darker red, most so at the larger end, where a zone or belt
is sometimes formed. Some are entirely white, without a
trace of marking, whilst others are so clouded with spots as
to hide the ground colour, and some deeply blotched and
streaked with dark reddish brown.
I may here perhaps make the following quotation from
my " History of British Birds : "-
"Gentle reader, if indeed you be of gentle blood, and
will read the following touching lines of the poet Thomson,
descriptive of the return of a bereaved parent bird to her
robbed home, if ever you have plundered a Robin's nest
60 REDBREAST
or that of any other bird, let me hope that you will 'steal
no more : ' —
'To the ground the vain provision falls!
Her pinions ruffle, and, low drooping, scarce
Can bear the mourner to the poplar shade,
Where, all abandoned to despair, she sings
Her sorrows through the night, and on the bough
Sole sitting, still at every dying fall
Takes up again her lamentable strain
Of winding woe, till wide around the woods
Sigh to her song, and with her wail resound.'
" Here is no 'poetic license,' but if you think there is,
the following well-written ' plain prose ' of the amiable Mr.
Jesse will satisfy the possible doubt : — 'I had an oppor-
tunity,' he writes in his ' Gleanings in Natural History,'
' this summer of witnessing the distress of a Robin when,
on returning to her nest with food for her young, she
discovered that they had disappeared. Her low and
plaintive wailings were incessant. She appeared to seek
for them among the neighbouring bushes, now and then
changing her mournful cry into one which seemed like a
call to her brood to come to her. She kept the food in
her mouth for a short time, but when she found that her
cries were unanswerable, let it fall to the ground.'
" So also Virgil, though speaking of a different species,
in his Fourth Georgic — for Nature was the same eighteen
hundred years ago as she is now —
' Qualis populei maerens philomela sub umbra
Amissos queritur foetus, quos duros arator
Observans nido implumes detraxit : at ilia
Flet noctem, ramoque sedens, miserabile carmen
Integral, et maestis late loca qusestibus implet.'
REDBREAST 61
" Thus well rendered by Dryden —
' So, close in poplar shades, her children gone,
The mother nightingale laments alone,
Whose nest some prying churl had found, and thence
By stealth conveyed the unfeathered innocents :
But she supplies the night with mournful strains,
And melancholy music fills the plains.'"
BLUEBREAST
BLUE-THROATED WARBLER— BLUE-THROATED ROBIN.
PLATE CIX.
Cyanecula suecica .
Sylvia suecica
Phxnicura suecica .
LINNAEUS.
JENYNS.
YARRELL.
T
HE Blue-throated Robin is a rare accidental visitor,
that breeds in the Arctic regions of Europe and
Asia.
The nest is placed on the ground, among the larger
herbage, on the sides of banks, and among low brushwood.
It is well concealed, and is composed of roots, dried grass,
and a little moss, the blossoms of the reed, leaves, small
stalks, and is lined with finer moss, hair, and the beautiful
down of the cotton-grass.
There are two broods, and the first is sometimes on the
wing so early as the end of May. The male assists the
female in the work of incubation.
The eggs, five to six in number, are of a greenish-blue
colour.
REDSTART.
REDSTART
RED-TAIL-FIRE-TAIL— BRAN-TAIL-FIERY BRAN-TAIL.
PLATE CX.
Rutidlla phanicurus, . . . MACGILLIVRAY.
Sylvia phcenicurus, . . . LATHAM. PENNANT.
Phanicura nttidlla, . . . YARRELL.
THE nest of this summer migrant, which is more or less
well concealed, and rather loosely constructed, is built
of moss, dry grass, and leaves, and lined with hair and
feathers. It is frequently placed in a hole in an old wall,
under the eaves of a house, in a hollow or hole in a tree,
or even between the branches of one, as also against a
wall, if extraneous support is afforded. One has been
known to have been placed in a watering-pot, others in
flower-pots, and one in a hole in the ground. It is fre-
quently placed close to or in the wall of a house, and that
where persons are constantly passing, even within reach of
the hand. Another has been known also placed on the
ground under an inverted flower-pot ; the hen bird success-
fully reared her brood, the flower-pot, which was at first
unwittingly removed, having been replaced : the circumstance
is related by the Rev. J. C. Atkinson in the Zoologist.
Bishop Stanley mentions one he had known " built on the
narrow space between the gudgeons or narrow upright irons
64 REDSTART
on which a garden door was hung ; the bottom of the nest,
of course, resting on the iron hinge, which must have shaken
it every time the door was opened. Nevertheless, there she
sat, in spite of all the inconvenience and publicity, exposed
as she was to all who were constantly passing to and fro.
Another has been known in like manner to sit through the
din of three looms at work from five o'clock in the morning
until ten at night, within twelve feet of the nest. The same
situation, if the birds have been undisturbed, is frequently
resorted to from year to year. One pair have been known
to revisit the same garden for sixteen seasons in succession :
a pair resorted for four successive years to the ventilator
of a stable. The female is sedulously devoted to her eggs
or young, and will sometimes suffer herself to be touched
before flying off from the nest ; if, however, they be
molested she will forsake it : both birds indeed are most
assiduous in their attentions to their brood, one or other of
them being to be seen in constant motion, conveying food
to them, or retiring in search of it. In one instance, the
male bird having been killed while the hen was sitting,
another partner joined the widow, and became foster-father
to the orphaned family." It has been known to lay its
eggs in the nest of a Titmouse.
The following was in the Ipswich Journal of June
nth, 1853: — "In the gardens at Holbrook House, the
residence of Miss Reade, a little bird called the Redtail
has built a nest in an inverted flower-pot, six and a half
inches deep, and seven inches wide at the top. The hole
in the bottom, or rather the top as the pot stands, is one
and a half inches over, and through this the little bird
has carried the whole of the materials for its nest, which
is formed on the side of the pot. Six eggs were laid,
REDSTART 65
from which five young ones were hatched. The pot stands
by the side of a gravel walk, at a spot where the family
and gardener are continually passing."
The eggs, which are of a uniform light greenish-blue
colour, are generally from five to six or seven in number,
but as many as eight have been found. They are occasion-
ally speckled with red spots.
One brood only is generally reared in the year.
VOL. II.
BLACKSTART
BLACK REDSTART— BLACK RED-TAIL.
PLATE CXI.
Rutidlla tithys, .... SCOPOLI.
Sylvia tithys JENYNS.
Phtenicura tithys, .... YARRELL. GOULD.
THE nest of this bird, which has rarely been known to
breed in England, is rather large, is placed among the
clefts of stones or rocks, and also in the holes of walls and
ruins, the spires, towers, and higher parts of churches, and
the roofs of houses. It is formed of grasses, straw, moss,
wool, and the dry stalks and fibres of plants, and is lined
more or less with hair or feathers. " It is," says Mr. W.
R. Fisher, "formed of almost any material which is suitable
and can be readily obtained. I have found it composed of
grey worsted, taken from a loose ball which was lying in
a garret."
The eggs, from five to six or seven in number, are
usually of a very pure glossy white colour, sometimes with a
faint tinge of blue or brown.
Two broods are reared in the year, the first being
hatched by the beginning of May. The same situation is
frequently returned to year after year.
66
R T .
STOXECHA I .
STONECHAT
STONECHATTER— STONECLINK— STONE-SMITH-
MOOR-TITLING.
PLATE CXI I.
Pratincola rubicola, LINNJEUS.
Saxicola rubicola, ...... NEWTON.
THE Stonechats pair in March, and commence building
before the end of that month.
The nest, which is large and loosely put together, and
composed of moss, dry grass, and fibrous roots, or heath,
lined with hair and feathers, and sometimes with wool, is
placed among the grass or other herbage at the bottom of
a furze or other bush, or in the bush itself, as also in
heather, and even occasionally in some neighbouring hedge
adjoining the open ground which the bird frequents. It is
exceedingly difficult to find, on account of its situation in
the middle of a cluster of whin bushes — such not admitting
of the most easy access — the female also sitting very close,
and, when off the nest, being very watchful, hopping quickly
from bush to bush, and disappearing suddenly by retreat
into cover.
The eggs, generally four to five or six in number, are
of a pale greyish or greenish blue colour, the larger end
68 STONECHAT
minutely speckled with dull reddish brown. They are laid
the middle or latter end of April, sometimes in the earlier
part of that month, and have been known so late as the
1 2th of July.
Only one brood is usually reared in the season.
WHINCHAT
GRASSCHAT— FURZECHAT.
PLATE CXI 1 1.
Pratincola rubetra,
Saxicola rubetra, .
DRESSER.
NEWTON.
THE Whinchat is a summer migrant which breeds
generally over Great Britain.
The nest is placed in the lower part of a gorse bush, a
few inches above the ground, where the thorns and stalks
are dying off, so that the materials of the nest assimilate
in appearance to the situation in which it is placed, and it
is thus the rather screened from observation. Frequently
it is placed in the grass at the foot of a thick furze bush.
Where there are no gorse bushes, it is placed among rough
grass in a pasture field, or in a meadow. Mr. Henry
Stowe, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, took one near
Brackley in Northamptonshire, built so near the edge of a
pond that the nest was quite wet. It is loosely built of
stalks of grass and moss, and is lined with finer portions
of the former ; and occasionally some hair or leaves : it
measures six inches across, and two and a half internally.
It is very carefully concealed, and extremely difficult to
find, as the bird approaches it stealthily.
69
70 WHINCHAT
The eggs are of a glossy bluish-green colour, some
times with minute specks of dull reddish brown ; they are
four to six in number, very rarely seven.
The young are hatched towards the end of May, one
brood only being generally produced in the season.
'. - T H l: 0 A T ]•. I ) \V II K A I 1C A R .
I S A li E L L I N E W H E A T F. A R .
n E S E R T W II i; A T E A R .
BLACK-THROATED WHEATEAR
BLACK-THROATED CHAT.
PLATE CXIII.*— FIGURE I.
Saxicola stapazina, VIEILLOT.
A SINGLE specimen of this species has been shot in
Lancashire. It breeds in South Europe and North
Africa.
The nest is a loose structure of stems of grass, &c., and
is placed in holes and crevices in old walls and buildings.
The eggs are of a pale greenish tint, speckled with
brown.
ISABELLINE WHEATEAR
ISABELLINE CHAT.
PLATE CXIII.*— FIGURE II.
Saxicola isabellina, RUPPELL.
ONE specimen of this species was found in Cumber-
land by the Rev. H. A. Macpherson in 1888. It is
an inhabitant of East Africa and India, extending into
China.
The nest, which is described by Heuglin as tolerably
bulky and lined with soft grasses, is usually placed in the
burrows of small animals.
The eggs resemble those of the Common Wheatear,
being pale blue in colour.
DESERT WHEATEAR
DESERT CHAT.
PLATE CXIII.*— FIGURE III.
Saxicola deserti, RUPPELL.
ONE specimen of this bird was shot in Scotland in 1880,
and another in Yorkshire in 1885. It breeds in
North-East Africa and the adjacent countries.
Its nest is placed in holes and crevices in rocks and
walls, as also in the burrows -of animals, and under bushes.
The eggs are of a greenish-blue colour, with liver-coloured
spots on the larger end.
VOL. II.
WHEATEAR
FALLOW-CHAT — WHITE-TAIL — STONE-CHACKER — CHACK-
BIRD— CLOD-HOPPER.
PLATE CXIV.— FIGURE I.
Saxiola oenanthc, LINNAEUS.
THIS regular visitant breeds on the open downs
throughout England.
Its nest, which is commenced the middle of May, is
sometimes well hid in the innermost recess of some crevice
among rocks, in an old wall, stone quarry, gravel-pit, or chalk-
pit, and frequently in a deserted rabbit-burrow, or the hollow
under some large clod, tuft, or stone. Mr. Hewitson has
known one in the bank of a river, in a hole deserted by a
Sand Martin. It is rudely constructed of loose fine dry
stalks of grass, and lined with rabbit's fur, hair, or feathers.
The eggs, usually from four to six in number, some-
times, though very rarely, seven, are of an elegant rather
elongated form, and of a uniform delicate pale blue colour,
deepest at the larger end usually, spotless, but sometimes
dotted with purple.
The young are abroad from the middle of May to June.
A second brood is usually produced in the season.
74
GRASSHOPPER WARBLER
CRICKET BIRD.
PLATE CXIV.— FIGURE II.
Locustella navia, BODDAERT.
Sylvia locustella, NAUMANN.
Curruca locustella, FLEMING.
Salicaria locustella, SELBY.
pHE nest, of a cup shape, is formed in a rather firm
1 manner of reeds or grass, with sometimes a little moss,
lined with finer portions of the same. It is difficult to find,
owing to the careful habits of the bird, and is placed on the
ground, and has been met with at the foot of a small bush
by the roadside ; it is completely hidden in the middle of
some large tuft of fen grass, through which there is no
apparent entrance but such as the bird threads for herself,
creeping along like a mouse to and into it.
The eggs are from five or six to seven in number, of a
pale-reddish white colour, freckled all over with specks of
darker red ; they seldom vary much.
Two broods are sometimes reared in the year.
75
SAVI'S WARBLER
PLATE CXV.
Locustella luscinioides, SAVI.
Sylvia luscinioides, GOULD.
Salicaria luscinioides, YARRELL.
THE nest of this rare summer visitant, which is placed
on the ground, is formed of the leaves of the reed,
wound round and interlaced, but without any other lining.
It is begun the middle or towards the end of May, by
which time, or early in June, the eggs are laid. Both
birds sit.
The eggs are of a whitish colour, minutely speckled
nearly all over with pale red and light grey, in some the
red, and in others the grey, predominating.
S E J
CX V I
SEDGE WARBLER
SEDGE BIRD— SEDGE WREN— REED FAUVETTE.
PLATE CXVI.
Acrocephalus phragmitis, . . . BECHSTEIN.
Sylvia phragmitis, .... TEMMINCK.
Salicaria phragmitis, .... YARRELL.
Calamoherpe phragmitis, . . . MACGILLIVRAY.
THE nest of the Sedge Warbler is sometimes placed at
about two, and never at a greater height than three
or four feet from the ground, on a stump of a willow or
alder tree, but generally among the tall grass or flags that
grow along the side of the river or pool. In the north of
England, the Rev. H. A. Macpherson says that it shows a
much greater predilection for nesting in hedgerows at a
distance from water than is common in the south. The
nest is made of moss, stalks of grass, and other smaller
plants, lined with finer parts of the same and hair : it is
rather large, and but loosely put together.
The eggs, generally five to six in number, are of a
pale yellowish-brown colour, marked with light brown and
dull grey. They are usually closely freckled all over, and
often streaked at the large end with dark hair-lines : they
vary considerably. Mr. Heysham mentions a nest which
contained three quite white. Sometimes they are uniform
dull yellow : they are laid early in May.
REED WARBLER
NIGHT WARBLER— REED WREN.
PLATE CXVII.
Acrocephalus strepervs, . . . VIEILLOT.
Sylvia arundinacea, . . . NAUMANN.
Motadlla arundinacea, . . . MONTAGU.
Salicaria arundinacea, . . . GOULD. YARRELL.
THIS bird is common in the south, though rare in the
north of England.
Its nest is a very artistic piece of work, and is generally
placed between three, four, or five stems of the common reed
that grow near to one another, at a height commonly of
about three feet above the water, but has been known as
much as nine or ten feet from the ground. To these the
self-taught architect fastens the nest, twining and interlacing
the materials of which it is composed round and round
the reeds at intervals, until the whole is firmly fixed — not so
firmly, however, but that the reeds may be easily slipped out
without injuring the structure. It is formed of dried grass,
moss, long stalks, lichens, and wool, and is lined with the
blossom of the reed. It generally consists of two parts, a
loose foundation of the first-named materials, and the actual
nest, which is composed almost exclusively of the last-
named. This upper part can sometimes be detached from
the lower, as if from a socket, the whole being narrow
78
R E E » \V A K l: I. K R .
REED WARBLER 79
and deep to secure the eggs when the reeds are so
swayed down, that the frail fabric, the bird all the while
sitting in it, is often brought close to the very water's
edge. The depth outside is from about three to five
inches, and the inside about three, by about three in width
at the top and two at the bottom. The nest, however, is
not invariably placed among reeds ; it is at times found in
a blackthorn, whitethorn, willow, or among the clustering
branches of an osier bed. Mr. Sweet met with one in
the low part of a poplar tree, and Mr. Bolton another in
a hazel bush. When destroyed by floods, these birds have
been known to build repeatedly. Mr. James Dalton, of
Worcester College, Oxford, has taken one from a box tree,
near the piece of water which is there so great an orna-
ment, and Mr. N. Rowe, of the same College, has found
one in a lilac tree.
The eggs, usually four, but sometimes five in number,
are of a dull greenish-white colour, spotted and freckled
with darker greyish-green and light brown. In some in-
stances the spots are almost black, in others inclining to a
brownish green ; occasionally the egg is marked with one
or two little black lines at the broad end. The arrange-
ment of the spots is endless — some varieties are equally
marked all over ; in some the spots are in a ring round the
broad end ; in others the base is covered ; some are but
slightly marked ; others are completely clouded over ; one rare
variety has been seen almost white, faintly mottled with pale
grey blots ; some quite white have been known. They are
frequently not laid until after the beginning of June.
The young are hatched in July, and quit the nest before
they can fly, making their way about the stalks of the reeds
with their parents.
AQUATIC WARBLER
PLATE CXVII.*
Acrocephalus aquatints, ..... GMEHN.
AN accidental visitor. Breeds in temperate Europe and
North Africa.
Its nest, which is found in sedges and water plants, is
similar to that of our Sedge Warbler, being made of moss,
grass, roots, and neatly lined with hair and leaves, and
is built on or near the ground.
The eggs, four to five in number, are pale yellowish
brown, clouded with darker brown.
\ I I i u A I;
NIGHTINGALE
NIGHTINGALE
PLATE CXVIII.
Daulias luscinia, . . . LINNAEUS.
Sylvia luscinia, ... . NAUMANN.
Philomela luscinia, . . . YARRELL. MACGILLIVRAY.
THE nest of the Nightingale, which is almost always
placed on the ground, in some natural hollow, amongst
the roots of a tree, on a bank, or at the foot of a
hedgerow, though sometimes two or three feet from the
surface, is very loosely put together, and is formed of
various materials, such as dried stalks of grasses, and leaves,
small fibrous roots, and bits of bark, lined with a few hairs
and the finer portions of the grass. It is about five inches
and a half in external diameter, by about three internally,
and about three and a half deep.
The eggs, of a regular oval form, are of a uniform
glossy dull olive-brown colour. They are sometimes tinged
with greyish blue, especially at the smaller end ; some are
greenish, others brownish green ; some are paler, mottled
with olive or reddish brown. They are four or five to six
in number. They are laid in May, one brood only being
reared in the year. The young, which are hatched in June,
often leave the nest before they are able to fly.
Mr. Meyer observes: "The attachment of this species
VOL. II. 8l
82 NIGHTINGALE
to its young, and its grief at their loss, have been noticed
by many writers, ancient and modern. Our friend, the
Rev. E. J. Moor, sends us, on this subject, a memo-
randum from his journal : ' One evening while I was at
college," he says, ' happening to drink tea with the late
Rev. J. Lambert, fellow of Trinity College, he told me
the following facts illustrative of Virgil's extreme accuracy
in describing natural objects. We had been speaking of
those well-known lovely lines in the fourth Georgic on
the Nightingale's lamentation for the loss of her young,
when Mr. Lambert told me that, riding once through one
of the toll-gates near Cambridge, he observed the keeper
of the gate and his wife, who were aged persons, ap-
parently much dejected. Upon inquiring into the cause
of their uneasiness, the man assured Mr. Lambert that he
and his wife had both been made very unhappy by a
Nightingale, which had built in their garden, and had the
day before been robbed of its young. This loss she had
been deploring in such a melancholy strain all the night,
as not only to deprive him and his wife of sleep, but also
to leave them in the morning full of sorrow ; from which
they had evidently not recovered when Mr. Lambert
saw them. ' "
THRUSH NIGHTINGALE
NORTHERN NIGHTINGALE.
PLATE CXIX.
Daulias philomela, .... DRESSER.
Sylvia turdoides, .... MEYER.
Philomela turdoides, .... BLYTH. GOULD.
THIS species is of very doubtful occurrence in Great
Britain, but is common in the north of Europe during
the period of migration.
The nest is built in small thickets, but most frequently
in low and damp situations.
The eggs are of a brownish olive-colour, stained with
deep brown.
»3
GREAT REED WARBLER
PLATE CXX.
Acrocephalus turdoides, MEYER.
Salicaria turdoides, YARRELL.
THE Great Reed Warbler is common on the Conti-
nent, but is very rarely seen in England, although its
large size and chattering song would be sure to attract
attention.
It is not known to have nested in this country. Its
nest, which is found in the reed-beds of temperate Europe,
is cup-shaped, some five inches deep, and formed of dry
grass and the blossoms and tops of reeds. The whole is
woven into and suspended from several upright reed stems.
The eggs, four to six in number, are pale greenish
blue, blotched and speckled with ash colour. The bird
only rears one brood during the season, and in September
migrates to Africa. This bird has unfortunately been de-
scribed under other names. In the early edition of Yarrell
it was known as the Thrush-like Warbler, and by some
others it has been named the Great Sedge Warbler, but it
is more correctly termed the Great Reed Warbler.
R V I- O U H \V A R li L i: K
MARSH W A R H I. K R
I! A R R K I) \V A R 1: I. i; R
RUFOUS WARBLER
PLATE CXX.*— FIGURE I.
jEdon galactotes, NEWTON.
Salicaria galactotes, YARRELL.
THE Rufous Warbler is a rare accidental visitant to
England, breeding in the south of Europe and north
of Africa.
The nest is placed in a bush, or on the ground. It is
built of the twigs of trees, and lined with feathers and
hair.
The eggs are of a pale grey-white colour, spotted and
streaked, speckled with shades of ashy brown ; they are
from three to five in number.
MARSH WARBLER
PLATE CXX.*— FIGURE II.
Acrocephalus palustris, .... BECHSTEIN.
A VERY rare visitant, breeding in temperate Europe and
Asia.
The nest is placed in swampy thickets, never over-
hanging the water, though often close to it ; but not on
ground itself. It is made of grass stalks, and lined with
hair.
The eggs, five to seven in number, are of a whitish
ground colour, blotted and spotted with olive brown and
violet grey. There are two types according to Seebohm,
some having the ground colour pale greenish blue.
86
BARRED WARBLER
PLATE CXX.*— FIGURE III.
Sylvia nisoria BECHSTEIN.
THIS bird has only occurred some three or four times
in England.
The nest is built in a bush, near the ground, or on a
branch of a tree, at no great elevation generally, but some-
times as high up as twenty-five feet.
The eggs, generally five in number, are buff-white
marbled with grey.
BLACKCAP
BLACKCAP WARBLER— MOCK NIGHTINGALE.
PLATE CXXI.
Sylvia atricapilla^ . . PENNANT. JENYNS. LINNAEUS.
Motacilla atricafilla, . . MONTAGU. BEWICK.
Curruca atricapilla, . . GOULD.
THE nest, built about the end of May or the beginning
of June, is commonly placed in a bramble or other
bush, sometimes in a honeysuckle, a raspberry, or currant
tree, about two or three feet or rather more from the
ground ; a privet-hedge being often selected. • It is made
of dry grass and small fibrous roots, with occasionally a
little moss and hair — the latter as a lining, and the outer
parts cemented together with spiders' webs and wool. It
is strong and tolerably compact, though slight. Anything
like meddling with it, or intruding upon it, is jealously
watched, and the smallest disturbance causes the nest to
be forsaken. Several in fact are frequently abandoned,
either from apprehension or caprice, before they have been
finished. Prof. Alfred Newton mentions in the Zoologist his
having found a nest on the nth of March 1845, which
contained an egg at that early date.
The eggs, usually four or five in number, sometimes
six, are of a light brown and grey, with a few spots and
BLACKCAP.
BLACKCAP 89
streaks of olive, dusky, and dark brown. They are subject
I
to considerable variation. Some are marbled with deeper
shades of reddish brown ; white ones have at times been
found. They vary a good deal in size and shape.
Both birds sit on the eggs, but the female naturally
the most. The male often sings while so engaged, and
thus not unfrequently betrays the position of the nest.
The female, when sitting, is occasionally fed by her partner.
The young leave the nest rather soon, roosting with their
parents on the adjoining boughs.
VOL. II.
ORPHEAN WARBLER
PLATE CXXII.
Sylvia orphea>
Sylvia grisea,
Curruca orphea, .
TEMMINCK.
VlEILLOT.
GOULD.
AN accidental visitor to this country. A specimen bird
was shot on the 6th of July 1848, in a small plan-
tation near Wetherby, in the West Riding of Yorkshire,
and preserved by Mr. Graham of York. It was a female,
and appeared to have been sitting the same summer : the
male bird was also observed with it for a considerable
time previously. An account of this interesting occurrence
was published in the Zoologist.
The Orphean Warbler builds sometimes in low bushes,
such as tamarisks, and in young cork trees, often in com-
pany with others of the same species. The nest is composed
of small twigs, leaves, and long grass, interwoven with
horse-hair, and lined with the down of cotton-grass.
The eggs are four or five in number, greyish white,
irregularly marked with brown spots of various shades,
chiefly at the larger end.
I> I, N \V A RULER.
GARDEN WARBLER
GREATER PETTYCHAPS.
PLATE CXXIII.
Sylvia hortensis, . . . LATHAM. BECHSTEIN.
Curruca hortensis, . . . SELBY.
"^HE nest of this well-known migrant is made of the
bents of straws and small roots, mixed sometimes
with a small quantity of moss, and lined with a little wool
or horse-hair, and fine fibres of plants. It is generally
placed between the branches of some low blackthorn, white-
thorn, or other bush not far from the ground, as also at
times on the ground among the taller wild plants. It is
rather loosely constructed. One is said to have been found
in an open field among some tares, and it has been found
among peas or gooseberry bushes in gardens. Mr. Jesse
mentions his having found one three times in succession
among some ivy growing against a wall. It is not very
carefully concealed.
The eggs are four or five in number, of a dull yellowish
grey, or pale brown, spotted and blotted with darker mark-
ings of the latter colour.
Both male and female are believed to take their turn on
the nest. Only one brood, as a rule, is commonly reared in
the season.
WHITETHROAT
COMMON WHITETHROAT— MUGGY— NETTLE-CREEPER.
PLATE CXXIV.
Sylvia cinerea, .... PENNANT. JENYNS.
Motadlla sylvia, .... MONTAGU. BEWICK.
Curruca sylvia, . . . FLEMING.
Curruca cinerea, . . . GOULD.
THE nest of this common visitor is loosely compacted.
It is placed near the ground, or not more than two
or three feet above it, in a low hedge, or sometimes in
a bramble, furze, sloe, wild rose, or other bush, as also
frequently among nettles or other tall weeds or herbaceous
plants on the ground, or beside a bank; Mr. Jesse mentions
one which built in a vine close to a window. It is com-
posed chiefly of dried stalks of grasses, though other plants
are occasionally used, and lined with a good deal of hair of
various kinds, with which it is often, though not always,
thickly woven on the inside, giving it accordingly more or
less consistency. The same situation is frequently resorted
to year after year. A trifling disturbance will cause the
owner to desert before the eggs are laid, but the reverse
js the case afterwards. Not much care is taken in its con-
cealment. The young quit the nest early, even before
they are fully able to fly, if alarmed for their safety. Two
broods are reared in the season ; in the south of Scotland,
WHITETHROAT
93
however, the first nest is seldom completed before the end
of May. The bird occasionally builds close to a public
road, or in the immediate vicinity also of a dwelling-
house.
The eggs, four, five, or six in number, are of a greenish-
white ground colour, with spots and speckles of grey and
brownish grey. Some are more of a stone- coloured ground.
LESSER WHITETHROAT
PLATE CXXV.
Sylvia sylviella, . . . PENNANT. MONTAGU.
Sylvia curruca, . . . TEMMINCK.
Motacilla curruca, . . . LINN./EUS.
Motacilla sylviella, . . . BEWICK.
Curruca sylviella, . . . FLEMING.
Curruca garrula, . . . GOULD. MACGILLIVRAY.
THE nest of this regular migrant, which is begun
about three weeks after the arrival of the birds, is
of a slight construction, and is made of dry grass and a
little wool or moss, lined, but rarely, with small fibres,
roots, and hairs ; it is rather loosely interwoven, and is
bound together with spiders' webs and such like materials.
It is sometimes placed among the herbage on a bank, as
well as in the lower part of a hedge, or in some low
shrub — a nut tree, gooseberry bush, blackthorn, broom,
woodbine, and among briers and brambles, generally at a
height, in the latter, of about four or five feet from the
ground, but sometimes as high as even ten.
The eggs, five to six, exceedingly pretty, are of a
white or creamy white colour, spotted, most numerously
at the larger end, and sometimes in the way of a zone,
with small dots and patches of brown, olive brown, and
light grey.
Incubation lasts from twelve to fourteen days, com-
94
LESSER WHITETHROAT 95
mencing about the 2oth of May. Two, and sometimes even
possibly three, broods are reared in the season.
The young birds in their nestling plumage nearly re-
semble the old ones, but the colour of the head and the
back is more uniform.
WOOD WARBLER
WOOD WREN — GREEN WREN — LARGER WILLOW WREN-
YELLOW WILLOW WREN.
PLATE CXXVI.
Phylloscopus sibilatrix, .... BECHSTEIN.
Sylvia sylvicola, . . . YARRELL.
Sylvia sibilatrix, . . SELBY.
THE nest of this species, which is domed or half domed,
and of an oval shape, is almost always placed on the
ground, among herbage in woods, the entrance being
through a small hole in the side. It is made of grasses,
leaves, and moss, cleverly but not -thickly interwoven, lined
with horse-hair, but not with feathers. It is well concealed,
and is usually to be found on the side of some sloping
wooded banks. Mr. Sweet says that he has often found the
nest on the stump of a tree.
The eggs, six, or more commonly seven in number, are
of a white ground colour, thickly spotted and speckled all
over with dark purplish brown and violet grey, forming a
mass at the larger end. Some are much less deeply marked
than others.
Like the eggs of all the family, says Booth, they lose
their beauty soon after incubation commences. Those seen
in the cabinet of the collector bear but a faint resemblance
to the appearance they presented when fresh laid.
96
\V ( WAI
\\ I L L O W W A R 1. L E R .
WILLOW WARBLER
YELLOW WARBLER— WILLOW WREN— HUCK-MUCK.
PLATE CXXVII.
Phylloscopus trochilus, . . NEWTON.
Sylvia trochilus, . ' . . PENNANT. SELBY. JENYNS.
Motacilla trochilus, . . . MONTAGU. LINNAEUS.
THE nest of this common summer visitor is very large
for the size of the bird, of an oval but rather flat
shape, though it varies in form, according to the situation in
which it is placed, being domed or semi-domed, and is built
of moss, leaves, or fern and dry grass, a hollow being left
in the side for the ingress of the bird. It is lined with a
profusion of feathers, and with hair, the former being the
innermost, and is pretty firmly compacted. It is placed on
the ground, generally in woods, or among the long grass,
brushwood, or weeds on the bank of some wooded hedge
by the outside of a wood, or the edge of a pathway or open
place in such. One has been met with in the ivy on a
wall, and another in a field, several yards from the fence.
Mr. James Croome informs me of one placed two yards
from a fence, in long grass, which having been destroyed, a
second was built, and a third, the second having been
also accidentally destroyed. The nest is rather carefully
concealed.
The eggs, of a rotund form, but varying much in size
VOL. II. »7 N
98 WILLOW WARBLER
and marks, are from six to eight in number, and are white,
with numerous small specks of pale rusty red ; some are
less thoroughly spotted, and some most marked at the
larger end, while others are only sparingly dotted ; they are
a little polished : pure white ones have been met with. The
female bird sits very close upon them, and the male feeds
her in the nest, taking her place in the course of the day,
while she searches for food.
The young are hatched the end of May or beginning
of June, and are fledged about the middle or end of
that month, or the beginning of July. A second brood is
generally reared during the season, and is abroad by the
beginning of August.
\V I I, I, O \V \V A R F, L E R
MELODIOUS WILLOW WARBLER
ICTERINE WARBLER— MELODIOUS WILLOW WREN.
PLATE CXXVII1.
Hypolais icterina,
Sylvia hippolais, .
VlEILLOT.
TEMMINCK.
THIS bird has only occurred thrice in Great Britain.
Mr. Gould says that this species builds on trees,
as well as at times in shrubs in gardens. The nest is
formed of dry grass, wool, thistle-down, and lichens, lined
with hair.
The eggs are four to five in number, of a reddish-white
or dull rose-pink colour, blotted and speckled with spots
and dots of darker red or purplish brown.
99
CHIFF CHAFF
LESSER PETTYCHAPS— LEAST WILLOW WREN.
PLATE CXXIX.
Phylloscopus rufus, BECHSTEIN.
Sylvia rufa, TEMMINCK.
Motacilla hippolais, LINNAEUS.
Sylvia hippolais, YARRELL.
TH E nest of this extremely common migrant is arched over,
skilfully constructed of various indiscriminate materials,
according to the situation it is placed in, fern, moss, leaves,
grasses, bark, the shells of chrysalides, wool, and the down
of flowers, with abundance of feathers and a few hairs for
lining for the whole of the interior ; it is arched over more
than half-way ; if the roofing be removed, even three or
four times, the bird will often renew it. It is placed on
the ground, generally, but not always, in the immediate
neighbourhood of trees, or on a hedge bank, or near a brook,
or on the moss-clad stump of a tree, beneath the shelter of
the trailing boughs of some bramble, furze, or other bush, or
clod of earth. Mr. Henry Doubleday has found one at a
height of two feet from the ground, in some fern ; and Mr.
Hewitson mentions another, which was built in some ivy
against a garden wall, at a like elevation. Occasionally the
nest is placed in a row of peas, or a bed of ground-growing
wild plants. I have seen one on the top of a wall in
CHIFF CHAFF
101
Londesborough Park, at a height of six feet from the
ground ; and on being disturbed, the bird built a little
farther on in some ivy against the side of the wall, about
four feet up.
The eggs, usually six in number, are more than ordi-
narily rounded at the larger end : they do not vary much,
and are of a white ground colour, with very small dots and
spots of pale red or purple brown, chiefly at the thicker
end, which they sometimes surround in the way of a zone
or belt. Mr. Neville Wood saw a nest which contained
five eggs of the usual colour, and the sixth pure white.
The shell is but little polished. The eggs are laid towards
the middle or end of May, and the young birds are fledged
about the middle of June : they quit the nest early.
Incubation lasts thirteen days, and the male ocasionally
relieves the female at her post. Two broods are sometimes
reared in the season.
DARTFORD WARBLER
FURZE WREN.
PLATE CXXX.
Sylvia provincialis, .... SEEBOHM.
Sylvia undata, BODDAERT.
Motadlla provinrialis, .... GMELIN.
Melizophilus provincialis, . . . MACGILLIVRAY.
THE nest of this bird, which is now known to be a
resident in the furze districts of the south of England,
is slight in its make, is placed in a furze bush, to the stems
of which it is attached, at a height of about two feet from
the ground. It is built of dry stalks and gorse grass,
mixed with bits of the gorse ; the materials, though in
reality firmly compacted, are apparently but loosely put
together, and have a slight interweaving of wool.
Two broods appear to be reared in the year, the second
nest being more flimsy than the first. Montagu found the
nest and eggs after the middle of July, the earlier brood
being hatched early in May.
The eggs, four to five in number, are of a whitish-grey
ground colour, slightly tinged with green, speckled all over
with olive-brown and ash-colour; near the larger end the
markings are more run together, and form a sort of zone.
DART FORD WARBLER.
WREN
«
COMMON WREN— KITTY WREN— JIMPO.
PLATE CXXXI.
Troglodytes parvulus, KOCH.
Sylvia troglodytes, LINNAEUS.
Troglodytes vulgaris, ..... TEMMINCK.
Troglodytes curopteus, CUVIER.
THE nest, very large in size in proportion to the bird,
and ordinarily of a spherical shape, domed over, but
flattened on the side next the substance against which it is
placed, varies much both in form and substance, according to
the nature of the locality which furnishes the materials and
a locus standi for it. It is commenced early in the spring,
even so soon as the end of the month of March, the birds
pairing in February. The nests are made of fern and
moss, grass, small roots, twigs, and hay, closely resembling
in most cases the materials amongst which they are placed ;
some are lined with hair or feathers, and others not. The
nest is firmly put together, especially about the orifice,
which is strengthened with small twigs or moss, and nearly
closed by the feathers inside. It is in thickness about one
inch to two inches, and about three inches wide within by
about four in depth, and outside about five wide by six
deep. At times they are found on the ground, and also in
103
104 WREN
banks, as well as against trees, even so high up as twenty
feet, also under the eaves of the thatch of a building, in
holes in walls, the sides of stacks, among piles of wood or
faggots, or the bare roots of trees, and under the projection
at the top of the bank of a river ; one has been known
to be placed in an old bonnet fixed up among some peas to
frighten the birds. Mr. Hewitson mentions one built against
a clover stack.
Other situations for nests are the tops of honeysuckle
and raspberry bushes, in the latter case the nest being
made of the leaves of the tree ; in fir trees, trelliswork,
granaries, the branches of wall-fruit trees, and lofts, use
being made occasionally of the holes previously tenanted by
Sparrows and Starlings. One has been known to be built
inside that of a Swallow, and another in the old nest of a
Thrush : one, again, in the newly-finished nest of a Martin,
another on a branch of a yew tree among the foliage, and
another in one of the hatches in the river at Winchester.
Mr. Jesse relates a curious anecodote of a Wren's nest, the
owner of which being disturbed by some children watching
it, blocked up the original entrance, and opened out a new
one on the other side. In the garden of Nunburnholme
Rectory one was built, in 1854, in the middle of a low
quickset hedge, near the top, close to the walk. It was
composed nearly entirely of dry leaves.
The male feeds the female while sitting. Two broods are
produced in the season. The least disturbance will cause the
nest to be forsaken and a new one built ; even then, if the
eggs or the young be once handled, this species will some-
times desert them. This, or some interruption of the ordinary
course of laying, may be the cause of tenantless nests of the
Wren being so frequently found ; it is, however, said that a
WREN 105
forsaken nest will sometimes be again returned to. Thus
several nests of the same year are often found near together,
the work of one and the same pair of birds ; and other nests,
in the making of which both birds assist, are not very un-
frequently put together in the autumn, and in these the birds
shelter themselves in the winter, possibly as being of the
newest, and therefore the best, construction, and made too
late in the year for a further brood : these nests seldom, if
ever, contain any feathers. The young are said to return to
lodge in the nest for some time after being fledged.
The eggs are usually from six to eight in number, but
generally not more than eight, though as many as a dozen,
or even fourteen, have been found, of a white colour, sprinkled
all over with small spots of dark red, which are most nume-
rous at the obtuse end ; some are quite white : the shell is
very thin and polished.
VOL. n. o
GOLDCREST
GOLDEN-CRESTED KINGLET— GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN
GOLDEN-CROWNED WREN.
PLATE CXXXII.
Regulus eristatus, . . .
Regulus auricapillus, . . •. SELBY. JENYNS.
Regulus vulgaris, . . . GOULD.
Motacilla regulus, . . . MONTAGU.
Sylvia regulus, .... PENNANT. MONTAGU.
THESE birds begin to pair even by the end of February^
and Mr. Selby has known the young birds fully fledged
so early as the third week in April, the nest being built
in March. They build a second time.
The nest is placed underneath and generally near the
end of the branch of a fir, or occasionally on an oak,
cypress, holly, yew, cedar, or other tree, as also not
very unfrequently in a laurustinus or other bush, and,
though very rarely, in a hedge. It is attached by the
moss and lichens of which it is composed being inter-
woven with the smaller shoots. It is built with willow
down, moss, cocoons, spiders' webs, wool, lichens, grasses,
and a few hairs. It measures about three inches and a
half in diameter inside, and is deep and of a spherical shape,
the orifice being almost always in the upper part. It
10 6
GUI. 1) C k 1 S !
GOLDCREST 107
closely assimilates in colour to the branch to which it is
fixed. In a fir it is mostly composed of moss, and, in a
thorn tree, of lichens. It is sometimes placed near the
top of the tree, and in other instances only two or three
feet from the ground. These birds have been known to
steal the materials from the nests of Chaffinches to make
their own ; one was noticed to do so most slily, watching
its opportunity, but on the Chaffinch detecting and chasing
it, it did not repeat the theft. The nest is frequently lined
with feathers, and is altogether a singularly elegant piece
of architecture ; the feathers are so placed as to project
inward. Two nests have been found on one branch. Mr.
Hewitson says : "It is sometimes placed upon the upper surface
of the branch ; and I have also seen it, but rarely, placed
against the trunk of the tree upon the base of a diverging
branch, and at an elevation of from twelve to twenty feet
above the ground." He also mentions, in the Zoologist,
his having once met with the nest in a low juniper bush,
very little more than a foot from the ground. Mr. James
Croome writes of one he found in the stump of a thorn
bush about four feet from the ground, and another in a
bush a few feet from the hedge at a height of about six
feet. Deserted nests of this species are frequently to be
met with, but the reason is not known.
The eggs are four, five, six, or seven, to eight, or even
ten or eleven in number ; they are of a very pale reddish
or brownish white, the larger end being darker coloured ;
some have been known pure white, sparingly spotted with
reddish brown here and there. They are smaller than those
of any other British bird, and are sometimes almost of a
globular shape. The young are fed by both the parents.
Two broods are reared in the year, and the second is less
io8 GOLDCREST
numerous than the first. Eggs, fresh laid, have been met
with in May and June, while young birds have been
known fully fledged by the third week in April. The
same nest has also been known to have been used twice
in the same season, two broods being hatched and reared.
FIRECREST
FIRE-CRESTED KINGLET— FIRE-CROWNED KINGLET—
FIRE-CRESTED WREN.
PLATE CXXXIIL— FIGURES I. AND II.
Regitlus ignicapillus, . . JENYNS. MACGILLIVRAV.
Sylvia ignicapilla, . . TEMMINCK.
THE nest of this accidental visitor is similar to that of
the Goldcrest, being built of moss, wool, and a few
grasses, filled with spiders' webs, studded with lichens,
and lined with fur and feathers. It is suspended from
the branch of a fir or other tree.
The eggs are from seven to ten in number, similar to
those of the Goldcrest, but much redder in the ground colour
and dots, as shown in the second figure on the plate.
109
YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER
YELLOW-BROWED WILLOW WREN— DALMATIAN REGULUS.
PLATE CXXXIII.— FIGURE III.
Phylloscopus superciliosus, . . . . GMELIH.
Regulus modestus, GOULD.
THE nest of this accidental visitor is of slighter construc-
tion than that of the Goldcrest, made of grass and moss,
sparingly lined with finer grass, reindeer's hair, or feathers,
and a few spiders' egg-bags on the outside. It is placed on
the ground; by preference near the edge of a wood, or at the
root of some small bush or tree.
The eggs are six in number, pure white, mottled over
with reddish brown, especially about the larger end ; some
much marked, and others only minutely spotted.
\V i , 1 i 1 1 !• I ( .
S T O (.' K li<
WOOD PIGEON.
RING DOVE— CUSHAT— QUEEST.
PLATE CXXXIV.— FIGURE I.
Columba palumbus, LINNAEUS.
'"I AHE nest of the Wood Pigeon is wide and shallow, placed
1 in almost any kind of tree, and frequently in thick ivy
on cliffs or old walls ; it is little more than a rude platform of
a few crossed sticks and twigs, the largest as the foundation,
so thinly laid together that the eggs or young may often be
seen from below. It is often built in woods and plantations,
but not unfrequently also in single trees, even those that are
close to houses, roads, and lanes — the oak and the beech,
the fir, or any other suitable one — or even in ivy against a
wall, rock, or tree, or in a thick bush or shrub in a garden,
or an isolated thorn, even in the thick part, so that in flying
out in a hurry, if alarmed, many of the loosely - attached
feathers are pulled out. One pair built in a spruce fir not
ten yards from a garden gate, where they were constantly
liable to disturbance by the ringing of the bell, and the
passing in and out of the members of the family. Another
pair dwelt two years in succession close to a window by a
frequented walk, and this though a cat destroyed the young.
Many are now built in the trees in the parks and squares
of London.
ii2 WOOD PIGEON
The eggs are always two in number, pure white, and
of a rounded oval form ; two and sometimes three broods are
produced in the season, but the third may possibly be only
the consequence of a previous one having been destroyed ;
the eggs are hatched in eighteen days. The young are fed
from the bills of the parent birds with soft curdy food when
in the nest. The male and female both take their turns in
hatching the eggs and in feeding the young, the former
sitting from six to eight hours — from nine or ten in the
morning to about three or four in the afternoon.
The first brood are abroad by the beginning of May;
the second in the end of July. Macgillivray has known the
young unfledged in October, and a pair with down tips to
the feathers on the 26th of that month. Mr. Hewitson, too,
has recorded young as late as the middle of September.
STOCK DOVE
PLATE CXXXIV.— FIGURE II.
Columba anas, LINNAEUS.
TH E Stock Dove is rather an early breeder, usually laying
in April.
The nest, which is flat and shallow — a mere layer of
twigs slightly put together — is often placed on the ground in
an old deserted rabbit burrow, on the bare sand or earth, a
few sticks being occasionally used ; and in such places under
furze and other bushes, where the surface is hollowed ; also,
ordinarily, in any suitable holes in trees, or clefts, and in
pollard tops and matted ivy. The same hole is resorted to
again. A second and sometimes a third brood is reared in
the year. Booth in his Rough Notes says : " While in quest
of the young of a Tawny Owl in a large wood adjoining
Balcombe Forest, we alighted on a brood of juvenile Stock
Doves in a squirrel's drey on the limbs of an antiquated oak
standing in a dense thicket." Incubation lasts eighteen days,
and in about a month the young are able to fly. The
parents are very careful of the eggs, and will even sit on
them till they are taken off with the hand.
The eggs, like those of the Doves and Pigeons in general,
VOL. n. "3 p
n4 STOCK DOVE
are two in number ; sometimes more are found, but then two
birds have laid in the same nest : they are pure creamy
white, smaller than those of the Queest, and somewhat
pointed at the smaller end and of an oval shape. They
have been known to be laid as late as the 2nd of October.
ROCK DOVE
ROCKIER.
PLATE CXXXV.— FIGURE L
. Scur. JEXTBS. Gocux
THE Rock Dove builds in companies in rock)* cliffs on
the coast, many often in the same cavern. The nest
is composed of sticks and dry stalks, with blades of grass
and other plants, laid together without much care. The
bed is fresh made without much trouble for a new brood as
soon as the former has been sent at large. The first eggs
are laid about or towards the middle of AprQ, and the latest
the latter end of August ; the young are seen about the
end of September.
The eggs are white, and two in number ; while the hen
is sitting, the cock bird remains at night close to the nest.
The young birds are fledged in about three weeks, and are
fed from the crops of their parents for some days after they
are able to fly.
TU RTLE DOVE
PLATE CXXXV.— FIGURE II.
Columba furfur, . » ; . LINN/EUS. LATHAM.
Turtur auritus, . .'. . . SEEBOHM.
Turtur cormunius, •. . . SAUNDERS.
THE Turtle, unlike our other Doves, is a summer visitant
common only in the southern counties of England.
Its nest, built in woods and hedges, is frail and carelessly
constructed of a few twigs and sticks, and is placed in trees
or thick bushes at no great height from the ground — some
ten or twenty feet — but well hidden among the foliage.
It is, however, itself so slight, that the eggs may be seen
through it.
The eggs are two in number, and glossy white, of a
narrow, oval, and rather pointed form. They are laid late
in May or early in June, and are hatched in eighteen
days. The female sits on the young, if the weather be cold,
both night and day. Two broods are sometimes produced
in the year.
116
CX XXVI
PASSENGER PIGEON
PLATE CXXXVI.
Columba migratoria, . . . FLEMING. YARRELL.
Ectopistes migratoria, . . . SELBY.
A VERY rare straggler from North America, of which
five or six examples only have been shot in the British
Islands.
The nest, which is placed in trees, and is only a layer of
a few sticks, is put together in a single day. The young
are hatched in eighteen days ; both male and female assisting
in making the nest, in the work of incubation, and in
feeding the young.
The eggs, two in number, and not one as frequently
stated, are pure white.
PHEASANT
COMMON PHEASANT.
PLATE CXXXVII.
Phasianus colchicus
LINN.EUS.
THE nest, a very slight fabrication of a few leaves, is
made upon the ground, sometimes in the open fields,
but more commonly in woods and plantations, among under-
wood, under fallen or felled boughs and branches of trees,
in long grass, and in hedgerows : a few feathers sometimes
become detached from the bird, and are found among
the eggs.
The eggs are begun to be laid in April and May ; in-
cubation lasts twenty-four days. The eggs usually are from
ten to fourteen in number, smooth, and of a light olive-
brown colour, minutely dotted all over. Some are greyish
white tinged with green. The hen sits on the chicks for
some time after they are hatched, and they keep with
her till they begin to moult to the full plumage. When
half grown they roost with her in the trees. It would
appear that two hens will sometimes lay in one and the
same nest, and also that that of the Partridge will occasion-
ally be made use of, even if it already contain eggs, the
Pheasant expelling their proper owner, and hatching them
with her own, and bringing up the young.
I' H I; A S A X T .
C A P i •; R
CAPERCAILLIE
WOOD GROUSE.
PLATE CXXXVIII.
Tetrao urogallus, LINN^US.
Urogallus major, BRISSON.
THE Capercaillie, which, after becoming extinct, has been
reintroduced into this country, usually nests in May, and
the young are hatched early in June.
The nest, composed of grasses and leaves, is made upon
the ground, in long grass or heath, under the shelter of a
tree, or bramble, or other bush. One has been known at a
good height from the ground, in a pine tree, in an old nest
of a Falcon.
The eggs are from half-a-dozen to a dozen in number, of
a pale reddish-yellow brown, spotted all over with two
shades of orange brown. Incubation is said to last about
a month, the hen alone sitting, the male keeping in the
neighbourhood. If danger approaches, she runs off a little
way, but returns again as soon as she can with safety. The
young leave the nest soon after they are hatched, and keep
with the mother bird till towards the approach of winter.
The account of the reintroduction of this bird has been
admirably given by Mr. J. A. Harvie- Brown in his work
"The Capercaillie in Scotland."
BLACK GROUSE
BLACK GAME— BLACK COCK.
PLATE CXXXIX.
Tetrao tetrix,
THE nest of the Black Grouse is usually placed not
far from water, or in a marshy spot, among heath,
or in newly made plantations, and sometimes in hedge-
rows, generally under the shelter of some low bush, or
among high grass in some hollow, and is composed inarti-
ficially, but rather neatly, of grass and a few twigs laid
together.
In the "Game Birds and Wildfowl" of Mr. Beverley
R. Morris,* the author says, speaking of the time after the
hen birds have commenced sitting : " They are deserted by
the cock birds, who again assemble in small parties, and
seek the secluded and quiet thickets, among which they
chiefly remain till they have completed their moult. They
are, during this seclusion, particularly timid and shy. The
female has thus the whole charge of hatching and bringing
up the young birds. . . . The packs of male birds are
sometimes very numerous, often amounting to from fifty to
seventy birds. The females also in autumn are occasionally
* "British Game Birds and Wildfowl," by Beverley R. Morris, M.D. Fourth
Edition. London, J. C. Nimmo.
I! L A C K GROUSE.
CXXXIX
BLACK GROUSE 121
found in packs, but in much smaller numbers, generally
under twenty."
The eggs are from five or six to ten in number, of a
pale yellowish red or yellowish white colour, irregularly
spotted and dotted with reddish brown. They are laid in
May. Soon after the young birds are hatched they are
taken to the higher parts of the moorland, and will gener-
ally be found amongst rank and coarse herbage on boggy
ground, the food of the young birds chiefly consisting of
the seeds of the rushes.
VOL. II.
RED GROUSE
GOR-COCK— MOOR-COCK— MOOR-FOWL— MUIR-FOWL.
PLATE CXL.
Lagopus scottcus, LATHAM.
Tetrao scoticus^ SEEBOHM.
THE Red Grouse pairs early in the spring, eggs being
often found in sheltered ground as early as March.
A nest with fifteen eggs was found on the 25th of March,
1835, on Shap Fell, Westmoreland. The female usually
begins to lay in March or April ; she sits very close, and
may be even taken off her eggs.
The nest, which is made in a depression in the ground
usually under the shelter of a tuft of heather, is very scanty ;
it is made of twigs of heather and grass, with occasionally
a few of the bird's own feathers.
The eggs are usually eight to ten or even more in
number, of different shades of ground colour — reddish white,
brownish yellow, yellowish grey, or yellowish white, thickly
clouded, blotted, and dotted with rich red or brown : they
are of a regular oval form.
While the young are hatching, the hen utters an occa-
sional chuckle. The Heath Poults leave the nest shortly
RED GROUSE 123
after they are hatched, and are soon able to fly; they keep
together till the end of autumn, unless dispersed by shooters :
they are attended by both the parents. At the beginning
of the season they lie close, but gradually become more wild
as they are disturbed.
PTARMIGAN
PLATE CXLI.
Lagopus vulgaris, .... FLEMING.
Lagopus mutus, SELBY. GOULD.
Tetrao lagopus, LINNAEUS.
THE Ptarmigan pairs early in the spring, and the eggs
are begun to be laid in May, and are hatched by the
beginning of July. The hen alone brings up the brood.
The nest, if any be formed, for sometimes the bare earth
is laid upon, is composed of a small portion of heather or
grass, placed in some slight hollow under a rock, stone, or
plant, and is very difficult to be detected, "for," says Sir
William Jardine, "the female, on perceiving a person approach,
generally leaves it, and is only discovered by her motion
over the rocks, or her low clucking cry." The male on the
first sign of danger has flown off, and she thus follows him,
the young dispersing in all directions, hiding themselves and
laying still under any stones, tufts, or bushes. Meyer says :
"It is reported that the male Ptarmigan behaves very
remarkably during the time when the female sits on her
eggs, and that under these circumstances he will sit immov-
able in one spot for hours together, even on the approach
of danger ; and when stationed thus near the nest he has
been known to remain there, looking around on the landscape
quite unmoved. As soon as the young are hatched, both
PTARMIGAN 125
parents become alert and busy, and towards autumn more
careful, and finally very shy in the winter. If the weather
is fine and sunny in winter, they are all again slow to move."
But the male, it would appear, leaves the rearing of the
young to the hen bird, rejoining them all again later in
the season, and then several families pack together.
The eggs, from eight to ten in number, of a regular oval
form, are of a white, yellowish white, greenish white, or
reddish colour, blotted and spotted with rich chocolate
brown, and the ground colour varies greatly from dirty white
to rich brownish buff.
SAND GROUSE
PLATE CXLI.*
Syrrhaptes faradoxus PALLAS.
AT the last migration of this singular species in 1888,
it nested repeatedly in Great Britain, and in some cases
the young were hatched and were afterwards figured.
It does not construct a nest at all, but deposits its eggs
on the sand, sometimes without even making a hole.
The eggs are of a regular elliptical shape, with a dirty
yellowish-grey ground, marked with reddish and brownish
spots and streaks.
1 16
SAND i. I; IP r s K.
.*%•' '*•••'•• •"'• '.
. ;>*..',•-•- V
•^f^./'V- -x '.:|
K?» f> ';'' *••."»
p A R T R 1 D I
REJJ-LEGUKU PARTRIDGE
PARTRIDGE
COMMON PARTRIDGE.
PLATE CXLII.— FIGURE I.
Perdix cincrea, LATHAM.
Tetrao ferdix, LiNN^us.
THE Partridge begins to pair very early, even so soon
as the beginning of February. At pairing time there
are often fierce combats between the male birds.
The nest is only a few straws placed in a mere hollow
scratched in the earth, under the shelter perhaps of some
tuft, generally in open grass and other fields, among peas,
corn, weeds, or herbage, at the foot of a tree or bush or by
a post, but at times in a small plantation, among shrubs,
under a hedgerow, even by the roadside, and on the moors
in the vicinity of cultivated land ; sometimes in holes of
decayed trees, as much as three or four feet from the
ground, and even in the thatch on the top of hay-stacks ;
I have been told of a nest placed in this situation, the
brood hatched, and safely reared. Another I have heard
of under the post of a hand-gate which was turned when-
ever passengers went backwards and forwards through it.
A brace of Partridges have been known, their own nest
having been destroyed, to take up with the nest and eggs
ia8 PARTRIDGE
of a pair of Pheasants, the hen of which had been killed,
on the estate of of Colonel Burgoyne, in Essex. The hen
bird alone sits, the male keeping watch, and when the
young are hatched he joins the covey, and protects and
feeds them with the dam.
The eggs, which are of a pale olive-brown colour
without markings, are laid towards the end of May or
the beginning of June ; pale blue or whitish varieties are
not unfrequent : they are usually ten or twelve in number,
but sometimes as many as fifteen, eighteen, or even twenty.
Twenty-two eggs are recorded to have been found in one
nest, and thirty-one in another, two hen birds having
occupied the same one ; and in the former instance the
cock bird gathered half of the united family under his
wings, the pair sitting side by side. In two other instances
thirty-three eggs are recorded as having been found in one
nest, but there is little doubt that they were contributed
by more than one bird. In one of these twenty-three young
were hatched and went off, and four of the other eggs
had live birds in them. The young leave the nest almost
as soon as they are hatched. Incubation lasts about twenty-
one days, beginning usually in June, about the 2Oth, as
has been stated, but no doubt generally earlier, especially
in the south, though often later — in 1874, in February,
in Scotland. A Partridge's nest was found at Thistlewood,
Cumberland, containing seventeen Partridge's eggs and six
common Hen's eggs. The Partridge and the Hen were
sitting together upon the nest.
"It is a curious fact," says Mr. Jesse, "that when
young Partridges are hatched and have left the nest, the
two portions of each shell will be found placed the one
within the other. I believe that this is invariably the
PARTRIDGE 129
case. This is doubtless done by the chicks themselves
in their last successful effort to escape from prison." Only
one brood is reared in the year, unless indeed the first
nest be destroyed, but in these cases the eggs are fewer,
and the young are said to be less strong.
VOL. II.
RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE
FRENCH PARTRIDGE.
PLATE CXLII.— FIGURE II.
Caccabis rufa LINNVEUS.
Perdix rufa, ...... MONTAGU.
THE nest of the Red-legged Partridge is made of grass
and a few feathers of the bird itself, and is placed on
the ground among corn, grass, clover, or growing crops.
Mr. Jesse says that a clergyman in the county of
Norfolk found the nest in the thatch of a hay-rick, and
informed him that such is no unfrequent occurrence. Other
similar instances are mentioned.
The eggs are usually from ten to fifteen in number : as
many as eighteen have been sometimes found. They are
of a reddish yellow-white colour, spotted and speckled with
reddish brown. The young leave the nest soon after being
hatched. The male takes no part in the incubation of the
eggs, and leaves the care of the brood to their mother till
they are half grown, when he returns to them, and con-
tinues with them till the following spring.
130
BARBARY PARTRIDGE
PLATE CXLIII.— FIGURE II.
Caccabis petrosa, ...... DRESSER.
Perdix petrosa, . . . . . . LATHAM.
~*HESE birds, which are very rare stragglers to England,
build in barren places and among desert mountains,
among low bushes on the ground.
The eggs are as many as fifteen, of a dull yellowish
colour, thickly dotted with greenish-olive spots.
VIRGINIAN PARTRIDGE
VIRGINIAN COLIN.
PLATE CXLIIL— FIGURE I.
Ortyx virginianus, . . . SAUNDERS. HARTING.
Perdix virginiana, . . . LATHAM. JENYNS.
THIS bird, which has been repeatedly introduced in large
numbers from North America, has never become estab-
lished in this country.
The nest, placed under or in some thick tuft of grass
that shelters and conceals it, is described as well covered
with a hood, an opening being left at one side for entrance,
and is composed of leaves and fine dry grass, both birds
assisting in its fabrication.
The eggs, from ten or twelve to fifteen or even twenty-
four in number, this latter quantity the joint produce in all
probability of two birds laying in the same nest, are pure
white, without any spots, and broad at one end, but pointed
at the other.
The hen bird performs the task of incubation, and the
whole family keep together till the following spring. The
young leave the nest at once on being hatched, and are
conducted forth by the female in search of food, and from
time to time are sheltered under her wings, collected together
by a twittering cry. Should danger appear to threaten, she
VIRGINIAN PARTRIDGE 133
displays extreme anxiety, boldly attacking an intruder, or
using every artifice and stratagem to draw him away, feigning
lameness, " throwing herself in the path, fluttering along, and
beating the ground with her wings, as if sorely wounded,
uttering at the same time certain peculiar notes of alarm
well understood by the young, which dive separately among
the grass, and secrete themselves till the danger is over;
and the parent having decoyed the pursuer to a safe distance,
returns, by a circuitous route, to collect and lead them off."
She shows the greatest assiduity and the most sedulous and
unremitting attention to their further care. Wilson mentions
a curious anecdote of some young ones which had been
hatched under a hen, and which, "when abandoned by her,
associated with the cows, which they regularly followed to
the fields, returned with them when they came home in the
evening, stood by them while they were milked, and again
accompanied them to the pasture. These remained during
the winter, lodging in the stable, but as soon as spring came
they disappeared."
QUAIL
COMMON QUAIL.
PLATE CXLIV.
Coturnix eommunis, .... BONNATERRE.
Perdix coturnix LATHAM. JENYNS.
Tetrao coturnix, LINNAEUS.
THIS migrant is thinly distributed in England in the
summer.
For a nest the female scrapes out a small hollow in
the ground, into which she collects a few bits of dry grass,
straw, clover, and such like. It is generally placed in the
open amongst growing crops or herbage. She alone sits,
and very closely, on the eggs, but the male assists her
in the care of the young.
The eggs are yellowish white, orange-coloured white,
or greenish, blotted or speckled with brown. They vary
much in number, from six to twelve, or even, it is said,
twenty, though generally ten ; a bevy of ten birds has
been known to be reared. Incubation lasts about three
weeks. Two broods are sometimes reared in the season
The eggs are not laid till June, or even July. The young
follow the dam as soon as they are hatched.
'34
. 1 L .
CXLIV
A X D A I. T S I A X Q V A I I.
ANDALUSIAN QUAIL
ANDALUSIAN HEMIPODE— ANDALUSIAN TURNIX—
THREE-TOED QUAIL.
PLATE CXLV.
Turnix oylvatica, . . . , . . DESFONTAINES.
Hemipodius tachydromus, . . . YARRELL.
Turnix tachydroma, .... MEYER.
THREE examples of this bird only have been obtained
in England.
The birds nest in North Africa and the south of Europe,
on the ground, under dense shelter, and, from the skulking
habits of the birds, the nest is difficult to find.
The eggs, four in number, are described as of a dirty
white colour, blotched with purplish grey and brown.
-35
GREAT BUSTARD
PLATE CXLVI.
Otis tarda, .... PENNANT. MONTAGU.
THIS species, formerly common in England, has been
gradually exterminated as far as this country is con-
cerned.
The eggs are laid in a hollow scraped on the bare
earth. "It is said that the Great Bustard will forsake
her nest, if only once driven from it by apprehension of
danger ; but when the eggs are laid, and still more when
the young are produced, it is only repeated meddling with
them that will induce the parents to forsake them."
The eggs, two to three in number, are of an olive
greenish-brown colour, blotted with pale ferruginous and
ash-coloured spots.
G R F. A T P. U S T \ R D .
LITTLE r, U S T A R D .
MACQUEEX'S BUSTARD.
LITTLE BUSTARD
LESSER BUSTARD.
PLATE CXLVIL— FIGURE I.
Otis tetrax, LINN^US.
THIS species is only a rare winter straggler, not nesting
in this country.
The nest, a mere hollow in the ground, is made with a
few dry grasses, and placed under the shelter of any suffi-
ciently high herbage that will conceal the bird.
The eggs are from three to five in number, olive brown
in colour, sometimes varied with patches of a darker shade
of brown.
VOL. II. '37
MACQUEEN'S BUSTARD
PLATE CXLVI I.— FIGURE II.
Otis tnacqueenti, ...... GRAY.
MACQUEEN'S Bustard is accidental in Europe, being
an Indian species. It has only once occurred in
England.
The egg is of a dull olive-brown colour, with some
irregular blots over it.
1' R A T I N C O I. 1C
i K S !•; K .
PRATINCOLE
COLLARED PRATINCOLE— AUSTRIAN PRATINCOLE.
PLATE CXLVIII— FIGURES I. AND II.
Gla reola pratincola, DRESSER.
Hirundo pratincola, LINNAEUS.
THIS very rare visitor to Great Britain breeds chiefly
in North Africa, Asia Minor, and the south of Europe —
wintering in South Africa.
According to Mr. Seebohm, who is familiar with its habits,
"The birds of this species do not make any nest, but lay
their eggs upon the bare ground, seldom, if ever, taking the
trouble to scratch a hollow or to collect what dry grass or
seaweed may be at hand. They seem studiously to avoid
coarse grass or rank herbage, and prefer to lay their eggs
on the dried mud, sheltered only by the straggling plants of
Salsola, which grow all over the lowest and wettest parts of
the islands. The number of eggs was usually two, occasionally
three, and only in one instance four ; probably the latter
clutch was the production of two females."
The eggs are very oval in form, exceedingly fragile, the
ground colour being buff or grey, spotted with streaks and
blotches of black or purplish brown.
COURSER
PLATE CXLVIII.— FIGURE III.
Cursorius gallicus, GMELIN.
Cursorius europaus, ..... LATHAM.
THE eggs of Coursers, which are laid in the barest parts
of North Africa, Asia Minor, Persia, and India, are two
or three in number : they are very handsomely mottled over
with reddish brown, on a lighter ground colour.
140
C, R K A '!' 1' L O V E R .
GREAT PLOVER
/
STONE CURLEW— NORFOLK PLOVER— THICK-KNEE.
PLATE CXLIX.
(Edicnemus crepitans, . . . NAUMANN. SEEBOHM.
(Edicnemus scolopax, , . . DRESSER.
Charadrius crepitans, . , , MONTAGU. BEWICK.
Charadrius adicnemus, . . . LINNAEUS. GMELIN.
THE Stone Curlew breeds locally in England, on the
chalk downs and open heaths. The eggs are laid on
the bare earth, among weather-worn stones. The male
appears to sit as well as the female. The young are led
about by the female almost as soon as hatched : at first the
old birds take great care of them.
The eggs are pale clay brown, blotted, spotted, and
streaked with darker brown, assimilating closely in appear-
ance to the grey flints that surround them, thus being very
difficult to detect. They are generally two in number, but
Mr. Allan Hume has frequently taken three in India.
Only one brood is reared in the year, but if the first
eggs are removed, the birds will nest again even as late as
September.
GOLDEN PLOVER
WHISTLING PLOVER— YELLOW PLOVER— GREEN PLOVER
PLATE CL.
Charadrius pluvialis, LINN.EUS.
Charadrius auratus, ..... NAUMANN.
THE Golden Plover commences its nest in Great Britain
about the middle of May.
The nest is a very simple structure, being merely a few
stems of grass and fibres laid together in some small hollow
of the ground, only just large enough to contain them ;
what there is, is made the end of April or beginning of May.
The eggs, four in number, are large in proportion to the
size of the birds. They are usually of a yellowish stone-colour,
blotted and spotted with brownish black. They are placed
quatrefoil — with the small ends pointed together inwards.
The young quit the nest as soon as hatched, and follow
their parents till able to fly and support themselves, which
is in the course of a month or five weeks.
Mr. Booth describes the Golden Plovers as breeding in
considerable numbers on the Grouse moors of many of the
northern counties of the Highlands ; he states, " I have come
across their haunts repeatedly in Perthshire, Ross-shire,
Sutherland, and Caithness, as well as in the Western
Islands."
GOLDEN PLOVER.
**«^^ ^**
] > < i T T K K K L -
DOTTEREL
DOTTRELL— DOTTEREL PLOVER.
PLATE CLI.
Eudromias morinellus, DRESSER.
Charadrius morinellus, YARRELL.
' I ''HIS summer migrant breeds in Scotland and the north
1 of England.
Any small hollow in the ground serves for a nest, and
it is generally near some stone or rock ; a few lichens, moss,
or short grass make its "mossy bed." The male assists
the female in the work of incubation, which lasts apparently
for eighteen or twenty days. The hen bird sits very
close, and if disturbed only runs a few yards off.
The eggs never exceed three in number. They are
laid from the end of May and the beginning of June to
the end of June and even the beginning of July.
Their ground colour varies from greyish buff to yellowish
olive, blotted and spotted with brownish black.
M3
RINGED DOTTEREL
RINGED PLOVER— SAND LARK— SAND LAVEROCK.
PLATE CLII.
j£gialitis hiaticula, DRESSER.
Charadrius hiaticula, NAUMANN.
THE nest of this common species is but a slight
natural hollow amongst small gravel, or on sand, fre-
quently under the shelter of some tall grass ; it is generally
placed on a bank by the beach, just above high-water
mark, but occasionally in sandy places farther inland, as
much, Sir William Jardine says, as ten, or from that to
fifteen or twenty miles ; in some instances on the banks
that line the coast, or even over them in an adjoining field.
The Ringed Plover is common on warrens in Norfolk and
Suffolk, and also in the Fens of Bottisham and Swaffham, in
Cambridgeshire.
The eggs are four in number, pear-shaped, and of a
greenish grey, pale buff, or cream colour, spotted and
streaked with bluish grey and black, or blackish brown.
The male and female both sit on them and appear much
attached to each other, as well as very careful of their
eggs and young.
The birds lay generally by the middle of April, pro-
ducing two broods in the season, recently hatched young
being often found in the first week in August.
RINGED DOTTEREL.
,•;:>.
••*•
V" •>>;>
1 T T L E RINGED D O T T 1C R E L .
K E N T 1 S H DOTTEREL.
LITTLE RINGED DOTTEREL
LITTLE RING DOTTRELE— LITTLE RINGED PLOVER.
PLATE CLIII.— FIGURE I.
Charadrius minor, ...... MEYER.
curonica, ...... GMELIN.
THIS bird is one of the rarest of our occasional
visitants.
The eggs, four in number, are of a pale stone colour,
with numerous small spots of bluish ash, reddish brown, and
dark brown. They are laid in a hollow in the sand, without
any lining. The young are hatched in sixteen or seventeen
days, and at once begin to run about, hiding themselves
instinctively with much cleverness if endangered.
VOL. II. '«
KENTISH DOTTEREL
KENTISH PLOVER.
PLATE CLIII.— FIGURE II.
Charadrius cantianus, . . . LATHAM. JARDINE
Charadrius albifrons, . . . MEYER.
Charadrius Kttoralis, . . . BECHSTEIN.
litis cantiana, . . . DRESSER.
THE nest of this species is placed on the shingle or
sand, any slight depression serving as a receptacle for
the eggs ; a few blades of grass or withered weeds may
perchance afford a scanty lining.
The eggs are three or four in number — Mr. Gould,
erroneously, says five ; they are of a yellowish colour,
finely and much marked all over, but chiefly at and about
the centre and base, with dark blackish brown.
146
G R i
L O V L R
GREY PLOVER
GREY SANDPIPER.
PLATE CLIV.
Squatarola cinerea, . . . FLEMING. SELBY. GOULD
Vanellus melanogastcr, . . TEMMINCK.
Tringa squatarola, . . . PENNANT. MONTAGU.
Charadrius helveticus, . . SEEBOHM.
THE eggs, four in number, resemble those of the Golden
Plover, but are browner.
The Grey Plover is a tolerably common visitant to our
coast. On its two seasons of passage it breeds in the tundras
of Siberia, its nest being a slight hollow on the moorland.
PEEWIT
LAPWING.
PLATE CLV.— FIGURE II.
Vanellus eristatus, .... FLEMING. SELBY.
Charadrius vanellus, . . . NAUMANN.
THE nest of this common resident is a small and slight
depression in the soil, with the addition sometimes of
a few bits of grass, heath, or rushes ; the footprint of a cow
or horse being frequently utilised.
The eggs, which are usually four in number, are very
delicate eating, and sold in immense numbers for the
purpose. They are so disposed in their narrow bed as to
take up the least amount of room, the pointed ends laid
inwards, towards the centre of the nest. They vary to an
extraordinary degree, though those in each nest are generally
very much alike : some are blotted nearly all over with
deep shades of brown. In general they are of a deep dull
green colour, blotted and irregularly marked with brownish
black. They are wide at one end and taper to the other,
as is the case with birds of this class. They are hatched
in fifteen or sixteen days.
One brood only is generally reared in the year, but if
the first clutch of eggs be removed others will be laid.
'I I N X s T O N K .
r i. i'. \\' i T .
TURNSTONE
COMMON TURNSTONE.
PLATE CLV.-FIGURE I.
Strepsilas interpret, .... FLEMING. SELBY.
Tringa interpres, .... LINN^US.
Tringa morinella, .... LINNAEUS.
Charadrius interpres, . . . SEEBOHM.
THESE birds lay their eggs in the north of Europe
and Greenland, on sandy and rocky coasts, where a
stunted vegetation obtains. They appear to have no tie
to any previously tenanted situation, but choose a new
residence, if it suit them, year after year. The nest is
sometimes placed under the shelter of a stone, rock, plant,
or other break in the surface, and at other times on the
mere rock, sand, or shingle. It is but some trifling hollow,
natural or scraped out for the purpose, lined, perhaps, with
a few dry blades of grass, or leaves.
The eggs, four in number, vary much in colour and
markings, some being of a green olive ground, and others
of a brown olive colour ; some much and others only a
little spotted, principally about the obtuse end, with dark
grey, olive brown, and black, or reddish-brown of two
shades. They are cleverly concealed.
Mr. Hewitson says that all the eggs of this species that
i5o TURNSTONE
he met with, in his visit to the coast of Norway, were
suffused with a beautiful purplish tint seen in those of few
other species.
One brood only is reared in the season, both birds
taking part in the incubation.
K i i, i. i) K r. R i'
S 0 ( I A I! I. I. 1' I. O V K R .
SANOERLINi
KILLDEER PLOVER
PLATE CLV.*— FIGURE I.
^Egialitis vocifera, LINNAEUS.
A SINGLE example of this American species has been
recorded as having been killed in England, and a
second in the Scilly Islands.
The nest is, as with many others of such birds, a mere
hollow in the ground, lined only, so far as it is lined at all,
with a few bits of dry grass, among which are found small
pieces of shells, but these, I should imagine, introduced
accidentally, and not intentionally ; sometimes it is made on
a heap of seaweed.
The eggs, generally four in number, are of a yellowish
stone-colour, or pale buff spotted and variously marked with
blackish brown.
SOCIABLE PLOVER
PLATE CLV.*— FIGURE II.
Vanellus gregarius PALLAS.
A SINGLE example of this Eastern species has been
recorded as having been obtained in Great Britain.
Little is known respecting its nidification ; eggs have only
been obtained from the Moravian colonists at Sarepta, on the
Volga.
The egg is of a clear yellowish brown colour, more or
less mottled over with dark reddish brown, chiefly at the
larger end.
IJ2
SANDERLING
CURWILLET— TO WILLY.
PLATE CLV.*— FIGURE III
Arenaria calidris, GOULD
Arenaris vulgaris STEPHENS.
Calidris arenaria LINNAEUS.
Charadrius calidris, PENNANT.
Charadrius rubidus, GMELIN.
THE nest is said to be placed in marshy places, and
formed in a rude manner of grass. Col. W. H. Fielden,
of the Polar Expedition, found one on a gravel ridge, at a
height of several hundred feet above the sea, in a hollow
in a low willow bush, lined with a few leaves and catkins.
One brood only is reared in the year.
The eggs are described as being four in number, buffish
olive, according to Seebohm, and thickly spotted with olive
brown. Those figured by Mr. Fielden are of a bright
yellowish brown, speckled over with spots of a darker
shade.
This bird, which is common in winter only in Great
Britain, breeds in the Arctic regions.
VOL. n. '»
OYSTER- CATCHER
PIED OYSTER-CATCHER—SEA PIE— OLIVE.
PLATE CLVI.
H&matopus ostralegus, . . . PENNANT. MONTAGU.
THE nest is placed among gravel or stones, or among
grass near the sea bank, in situations above high-water
mark, where these materials of building are at hand, and
the bird seems to be especially partial to a mixture of
broken shells, which it carefully collects together and
places in a slight hollow in the ground, using considerable
care in their disposition. Several nests appear to be made
sometimes, before one gives perfect satisfaction ; many nests
are also placed in contiguity to each other, intermixed too,
it may be, with those of other aquatic birds. Some have
been met with on the top of isolated rocks, at a height of
from ten to fifteen feet from the ground. In lieu of shells,
small pieces of stone or gravel are selected. Incubation
lasts about three weeks. " In many parts of the Highlands, "
says Mr. Booth, "they rear their young in a potato or oat
field, the female sitting plainly in view until the crops get
up sufficiently to afford concealment. While travelling by
the Highland railway from Dunkeld towards Aberfeldy or
Blair-Athol, I often watched several birds sitting on their
eggs in the fields near the line."
154
Ilk
OYSTER-CATCHER 155
The eggs are three and occasionally four in number,
of a yellowish stone-colour, spotted with grey, dark brown,
and brownish black. They have been found in April, May,
June, and July, so that although one brood only seems to
be usually reared in the year, if the eggs are taken it would
appear that others may be laid. The eggs are disposed
with their small ends inwards.
END OF VOL. n.
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