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ATCHER
OF
BRITISH BIRDS.
BY
THE REV. F. O. ple, Beas
MEMBER OF THE ASHMOLEAN SOCIETY,
VOd EL,
CONTAINING FORTY-SEVEN COLOURED ENGRAVINGS.
‘Gloria in excelsis Deo,’
LOND O N: GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS, 5, PATERNOSTER ROW.
THE SECOND VOLUME.
Pied Flycatcher Spotted Flycatcher Roller Kingfisher . Belted Kingfisher «; Bee-eater “ Hoopoe ~ Chough o| Raven Crow : - Hooded Crow - Rook . ~Jackdaw S Magpie ¢ Nutcracker
“2 Nuthatch »» Wryneck bal Creeper
Black Woodpecker
frrPa.4
CONTENTS
OF
1y¥ CONTENTS.
PAGE Green Woodpecker i : ; ; , : . Sas Great Spotted Woodpecker ; : : : : : 80 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker ; : : : , . 8A Hairy Woodpecker . : ; : , : 87
Three-toed Woodpecker : : : ‘ ‘ : 2 Great Spotted Cuckoo : ; : : ; ‘ : 93
Yellow-billed Cuckoo . : ; : ; . : is) tee Cuckoo : : : : , : : : : f 98 Nightjar Met nies aye : 2. ee ; , . 25 Swift . : : : : : : ; : : ; 121 Alpine Swift . ; : : . s : é : no doy Spine-tailed Swallow , ; : ; : : : 130 Swallow , : : ‘ , ; : . 182 Purple Martin . : ; ; : 148 Martin . : : : : : : : 4 : . 152 Sand Martin : : : : : : : : : 157 Pied Wagtail 3 : : : : : .- 160 White Wagtail . : j : ; ; ; 166 Grey Wagtail : : ; ; Pits BA Grey-headed Wagtail : : ‘ ; 174 Yellow Wagtail . : . : “ : + 77 Richard’s Pipit . : ; : 180 Meadow Pipit : : : é : : : : ay 182 Red-throated Pipit . ; ; : : : : : 186 Tree Pipit : ' : . : : : Re hs)
Rock Pipit . , : 193
HRISTORY OF BRITISH. BIRDS,
PIED FLYCATCHER.
COLDFINCH. EPICUREAN WARBLER.
Muscicapa luctuosa, TEMMINCK. SELBY. “s atricapilla, GMELIN. ms muscipeta, BECHSTEIN, Rubetra anglicana, BRISSON. Muscicapa. Musca—A fly. Capio—To catch or take.
Luctuosa---Mourning—mournful.
THrIs species is met with in abundance in the southern countries of Hurope—France, Germany, Greece, and Italy; and also occurs in Norway and Sweden in the summer.
With us it is very local; and, lke the majority of orni- thologists, I have never seen it alive.
In Yorkshire, the following localities are given as being or having been the resort of this bird:—The lofty oaks in Stainborough woods, but only within the Park enclosure; Danby, near Middleham, not far from the most beautiful scenery of Jerveaulx Abbey; Wharncliffe; Ovenden; Studley Royal; Copgrove; Bolton Abbey; and the woods of Harewood House—woods which indeed seem alive with birds, at least so I am persuaded will any one say, who comes by them at about three o’clock on a summer morning, as I have done after a night’s fishing in the Wharfe. I have often heard birds sing in concert before, but this was such a ‘Music Meeting’ as I had till then no conception of. At Dalton, also, the Pied Flycatcher used to breed for several successive years, but disappeared, probably destroyed by some collector;
vou. I, B
4 PIED FLYCATCHER.
and the same remarks apply to Luddenden Dene. It has very rarely been seen in the East-Riding, or near York. One was killed at Lowestoft, in Norfolk, several others near Lynn, and nineteen in various places near Norwich, where a few oceur every season, the beginning of May, 1849.
At Battisford, Suffolk, one male bird was shot in May, 1849, the ‘first on record’ there. In Kent, one near Deal, on the 17th. of September, 1850; two, birds of the year, near Yoxall Lodge, Staffordshire, August 20th., 1827; one near Melbourne, in Derbyshire; one in Cornwall, at Scilly, the middle of September, 1849. In Sussex, three—one at Halnaker, in 1837, another at Henfield, in May, 1845, and a third in the same year at Mousecombe, near Brighton, in a garden; others near Penrith, in Cumberland; some. in Dorsetshire; and several in Northumberland, in May, 1822, after a severe storm from the south-east; also two near Benton. Many on the beautiful banks of the Eamont and the Lowther, in West- morland, the Eden, and Ullswater; also near Wearmouth, in Durham; one near Uxbridge, in Buckinghamshire; also near London: a pair built near Peckham, in 1812; rarely in Devon- shire; one in the Isle of Wight; also in Lancashire, Derbyshire, and Worcestershire. In Scotland, one, a male, was shot near Bruckley Castle, Aberdeenshire, in May, 1849. In Iveland none have been observed. It will be perceived that a large proportion of the above specimens occurred in the month of May, 1849.
It seems to be concluded that it is only a summer visitant to us, and not a resident throughout the year. The males precede the females by a few days.
In many of its habits the Pied Flycatcher seems to resemble the Redstart; and it is a curious circumstance that Rennie discovered a hen Redstart dead in one of their nests; and upon another occasion, a Redstart’s nest having been taken, the hen bird took forcible possession of that of a Pied Fly- catcher, which was near it, hatched the eggs, and brought up the young. Both species contend sometimes for the same hole to build in. A curious anecdote is related in the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History,’ for March, 1845, by John Blackwall, Esq., of Hendre House, Denbighshire, of a pair of Pied Flycatchers which built close to the portico over the hall door, having been debarred entrance to the hole in which their nest was by a swarm of bees, the latter completed the wrong by stinging their young ones to death. This tragedy
PIED FLYCATCHER. u
occurred on the 18th. of June, 1843. On the parent birds returning in the April of the following year to the same place, they were again assailed by the bees; on which they entirely forsook the spot, and built in a hole in a neighbouring stone wall.
Their food consists of insects, which they capture in the air, and also, it is said, from the leaves of the trees they
frequent.
The note is described as pleasing, and is said to resemble that of the Redstart, and to be occasionally uttered on the wing. The bird has also a voice of alarm, resembling the word ‘chuck.’
Nidification takes place in May, and the young are hatched the beginning of June.
The nest, which is composed of moss, grass, straws, chips of bark, leaves, and hair, is built sometimes high up in trees, but often only a few feet from the ground, in a hole of a tree, or of a wall, bridge, as also, occasionally, on a branch or stump of a tree; if in a hole, and it be too large, the bird is said to narrow the entrance with mud. This species seems to have a predilection for the neighbourhood of water, probably on account of the greater number of insects to be there met with. The same situation appears to be resorted to in successive years.
The eggs, from four or five to seven or eight in number, -are small, oval, and bluish green, or sometimes nearly white; but they vary considerably in size and shape. Those observed in one nest by Mr. T. C. Heysham, of Carlisle, were disposed as follows:—‘One lay at the bottom, and the remainder werc all regularly placed perpendicularly round the side of the nest, with the smaller ends resting upon it, the effect of which was exceedingly beautiful.” The young are hatched in about a fortnight; both birds by turns sit on the eggs.
These birds are said, by Meyer, to moult twice in the year, which causes some difference in the colours of their plumage. Male; weight, a little over three drachms; length, about five inches; bill, black; iris, dark brown. Head on the sides, dark brown, spotted with white; crown, black; forehead, white, the connexion of two white spots; neck and nape, brownish or greyish black; chin, throat, and breast, white, tinged with yellowish brown at the sides. Back, black, blackish grey in winter.
The wings expand to the width of seven inches and 4
4. PIED FLYCATCHER.
half, or more, and reach to one third of the length of the tail. Greater wing coverts, brownish black, edged with white, in some tipped with white on one web; lesser wing coverts, dark grey. Primaries and secondaries as the neck, white at the base of the feathers. The first feather less than half the length of the second, which itself is equal to the fifth, the fourth longer than the second, the third the longest; tertiaries, white, in some at the base, in others on the outer webs, in many on the whole of three feathers, but only on part of the first; tips black. Tail, black, with the exception of the basal half of the outer web of the outer feather, but it is said to be totally black in age; in younger birds the whole of the inner web also, of the outer, and of the next feather is white, as is part of the outer web of the third. Tail coverts, greyish black; under tail coverts, white; legs, toes, and claws, black.
Female; forehead, dull white; in some, dependent on age, black like the head; crown, neck, and nape, dark brown; chin, throat, and breast, dull white, tinged on the upper part with dusky yellow. Back, blackish grey; greater wing coverts, dark brown, edged with dull white; lesser wing coverts, dark brown; primaries, brownish black; tertiaries, dark brown, edged with dull white. Tail, dull black; legs, toes, and claws, black.
The young are at first much mottled over with dull white spots on the back, and with brown on the breast; when a year old the bill is black, brown at the base, a dusky streak descends from it along the sides of the neck; iris, brown; forehead, with less white, and more dull; head, crown, neck, and nape, grey tinged with brown; chin and throat, white or yellowish white; breast the same, tinged with grey or brown on the sides; back, as the head. Greater wing coverts, greyish brown, tipped with yellowish white; lesser wing coverts, grey tinged with brown; primaries, brownish black; the fourth and next ones have a white spot at the base of the outer web; the two nearest the body margined with white; secondaries, brownish black; tertiaries, brownish black, three of them shghtly margined with white, and a white spot at the base. Tail, brownish black, the three outer feathers edged with white; tail coverts, dark grey; under tail coverts, white; legs, toes, and claws, dark slate-colour.
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SPOTTED FLYCATCHER.
BEAM BIRD. RAFTER. COB-WEB BIRD. BEE BIRD. CHERRY CHOPPER. POST BIRD. CHERRY SUCKER. CHANCHIDER.
Y GWYBEDOG, OF THE ANCIENT BRITISH. Muscicapa grisola, MontaGu. PENNANT.
Muscicapa. Musca—A fly. Capio—To catch or take. Grisola—...csocreees ?
Tuts bird is common throughout Europe, as far north as Norway and Sweden; as also in Africa, along the whole of the western coast, from the north to the south. It is well known in England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland; but least so in the extreme north. It frequents walled and other gardens, orchards, lawns, shrubberies, and pleasure grounds.
The Spotted Flycatcher is with us a summer visitant, but unusually late in its arrival, which varies in different localities and seasons, from the 7th. to the 20th. of May; and it departs similarly about the end of September, or even as late as the middle of October.
This familiar bird is very noticeable for a solitariness and depression of appearance, as well as for its habit of perching on the point of a branch, the top of a stake, a rail, or a projection of or hole in a wall, from whence it can ‘compre- hend all vagroms’ in the shape of winged insects that come within its ken. You seem to think that it is listless, but on a sudden it darts off, sometimes led a little way in chase in an irregular manner like a butterfly; a snap of the bill tells you that it has unerringly captured a fly, and it is back to its perch, which it generally, but not invariably returns to
6 SPOTTED FLYCATCHER.
after these short sorties. Though so quiet a little bird, it will sometimes daringly attack any wanderer who seems likely to molest its ‘sacred bower,’ signifying first its alarm by a
snapping of the bill. It is, like many other harmless birds, under the ban of the ionorant, and though its whole time is taken up in destroying insects which injure fruit, which it scarcely ever touches itself, it is accused of being a depre- dator, and too often suffers accordingly. It m ust, however, on the other hand, be admitted that some very trifling damage may be done by its destruction of bees, from which it has been given one of its trivial names. White, of Selborne, says that the female, while sitting, is fed by the male as late as nine o'clock at night.
The following curious circumstance has been recorded of some young Flycatchers, which had been taken from a nest, and placed in a large cage, with some other birds of different species, among which was a Robin. The young birds were fed regularly “by one of their parents—the female; while her mate, who accompanied her constantly in her flight, used to wait for her, outside the window, either upon the roof of the house, or on a neighbouring tree. Sometimes the little birds were on the top perch in the cage, and not always near enough to the wires of the cage to be within reach of the parent, when she appeared with food; but the Robin, who had been for some time an inhabitant of the cage, where he lived in perfect harmony with all its associates, and had from the first taken great interest in the little Flycatchers, now perceiving that the nestlings could not reach’ the offered food, but sat with their wings fluttering, and their mouths open, anxious to obtain it, flew to the wires, received the insects from the mother bird, and put them into the open mouths of the nestlings. This was repeated every succeeding day, as often as his services were req juired.
Its food consists almost exclusively of insects, which after eapturing in the manner already described, it generally holds for a short time in its bill before devouring. Occasionally a few cherries are consumed, but so seldom, that it is almost the most that can be said, that it makes ‘two bites’ of them. In feeding its young, two or three insects are frequently brought at a time.
The note is a weak chirp. There is something in it whick attracts the attention.
Nidification eommences immediately after the arrival of the
SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 7
birds; they almost seem to have paired before their migration, or if not, at all events they do so at once when here.
The nest, which is built at the beginning of June, is composed of various materials, such as small twigs, catkins, and moss, lined with feathers, hair, down, and cobwebs. ‘The same situation is resorted to year after year, and scarce any attempt is made at concealment. A pair, which built in the trellis-work close to the drawing-room window of a house I once resided in, not being disturbed, returned there three successive summers, and I hope that they or their descendants do so still. A favourite resort is such a place, or a tree trained against a wall, on account of the support afforded by it. ‘Trees are also built in, ledges of rocks, holes in walls, the exposed roots of trees over a bank, the side of a faggot stack, or a beam in an out-building, whence, perhaps, another of its provincial names—the ‘Beam Bird.’ One pair made their nest on the hinge of an out-house door in a village, which people were continually passing and re-passing; another couple placed theirs in a tree, immediately over an entrance- door, which, whenever it was opened, caused them to fly off; another pair on the angle of a lamp-post in Leeds; and another on the ornamental crown of one in London. Another pair placed theirs on the end of a garden rake; another in a cage hung up in a tree, the door having been left open; and another in a stove, which seemed to be made ‘too hot to hold them’ when the thermometer in the hothouse rose above 72°, for the bird used then to quit the eggs, and only returned to them again when it fell below that point, disliking, it would seem, the ‘patent incubator.’ Two broods are not uncommonly reared in the year; the first being hatched early in June; but the second may be only the consequence of the first one having been destroyed.
The eggs, four or five in number, are greyish or greenish white, spotted with pale orange-coloured bro wn; in some the broad end is blotted with grey red. After the young have quitted the nest they are very sedulously attended by the parents.
The garb of this bird is singularly plain, sober, and un- pretending. Male; length, about five inches and a half, or a little over; bill, dusky, broad, flatted, and wide at the base — —a ridge runs along the upper part; the under one is yel- lowish at the base; iris, dark brown; a few bristles surround the base of the biil. Head, brown; crown, spotted with darker’
8 SPOTTED FLYCATCHER.
neck on the sides, streaked with brown; nape, as the back; chin, dull white; throat, dull white, streaked with brown; breast, as the chin, tinged on the sides with yellowish brown; back, light brown. Greater and lesser wing coverts, as the back; primaries, darker brown, sometimes edged with buff brown; the first feather is very short, the second and fourth nearly equal, the third the longest; secondaries, as the pri- maries; tertiaries, the same, with a narrow margin of light brown. Tail, brown, paler at the tip, slightly forked; under tail coverts, dull white; legs, toes, and claws, dusky black.
The female resembles the male in plumage.
The young have the feathers at first tipped with a yel- lowish white spot, which gives them a general mottled appear- ance.
ROLLER.
GARRULOUS ROLLER.
Y RHOLYDD, OF THE ANCIENT BRITISH.
Coracias garrula, PENNANT. MONTAGU. Galgulus, Brisson. Garrulus argentoratensis, Ray.
Coracias—The Greek name of some bird of the Jackdaw kind. Garrula—Garrulous,
THE proverb says that ‘fine feathers do not make a fine bird,’ but what the naturalist says is more to our present purpose:—‘Look on this picture.’
The Roller, called also the German Parrot, is a native of the northern parts of Africa, from whence it migrates to Europe in the spring, returning in the autumn: it also occurs in various other parts of that continent. Numbers are taken at Malta, while tarrying there as their half-way house, being thought good eating. In Germany it is frequently found, and in Denmark occasionally, the south of Russia, Norway, Sweden, France, Spain, Italy, Sicily, and Greece; also in Asia Minor and Japan.
In Yorkshire a pair of Rollers were seen in July, 1847, in a plantation called ‘Forty-pence,’ belonging to John Thomas Wharton, Esq., of Skelton Castle, near Redcar: one of them, a female, was obtained. Another was shot in Fixby Park, near Huddersfield, in 1824; one at Hatfield, near Doncaster; another, about the same time, near Halifax; and a sixth near Scarborough, in 1832. One, a female, near the Land’s End, in Cornwall, on the 8th. of October, 1844; and two or three others in the same county. A male was shot on the 29th.
10 ROLLER
of May, 1849, near Nutley, on the borders of Ashdown Forest, in Sussex; one at Oakington, in Cambridgeshire, in October, 1835. One in Northumberland, near Newcastle; another near North Shields; a third in Bromley-hope, near Bywell, in May, 1818; and another, a female, was found dead at Howick, June 19th., 1828. Six in Suffolk and Norfolk; the latest in 1838.
In Ireland, one is related to have been seen at Carton, the seat of ‘Ireland’s only duke,’ the Duke of Leinster, in the middle of September, 1831; another to have been shot in the county of Sligo; and another somewhere in the south.
In Scotland a few individuals have been met with—one on the eastern side, one at Dunkeld, in Perthshire, and two in the Orkney Islands; one from the south of Shetland, sent to Sir William Jardine, Bart., as a curious kind of Duck! One at Strathbeg Loch, between Peterhead and Fraserburgh; and another, a female, was shot in the woods of Boyndie, near Banff, on the 25th. of September, 1848: a strong gale from the east had prevailed for some days previously.
The Rolle? may be tamed if taken young, but not other- wise: they become, however, only familiar with their masters; to others they are distant; and are in their wild state very restless birds, never long remaining stationary. They are very shy and wary, and quarrelsome among themselves, though they live amicably with other birds, except those of prey: they frequently fall to the ground together in their contests. Nevertheless, they breed in societies, a single pair being seldom seen alone at that season. These birds are said to have a habit of dropping through the air, like the Tumbler Pigeon, and particularly during the time that the hen is sitting the male bird thus amuses himself: perhaps at times bis partner also: hence probably the name.
The flight of the Roller is quick, with hurried fiappings of the wings, and resembles that of the Pigeon. They hop awkwardly, rather than walk, on the ground, and for the most part prefer keeping in trees, perching on the outermost and most exposed branches. They frequent the lower districts, avoiding those that are mountainous, or swampy.
Their food consists of the larger beetles, eockchaffers, grass- hoppers, and other insects and their larve. Flies they capture in the air, somewhat after the manner of the Flycatchers; but they also take their food on the ground, and may be seen, like Rooks, in the ploughed fieids. They also feed on
ROLLER. 14.
worms, snails, and berries; and when these cannot be had, on frogs, it is said, and even carrion. The indigestible part of their food is cast up in pellets, as with the Hawks and Owls. ‘They are said never to drink.
The Roller is a noisy and clamorous bird, like the Jay, and its voice is described as a mere squall, or chatter, re- sembling that of the Magpie. Meyer renders it by the words ‘wrah, wrah,’ ‘rakker-rakker,’ and ‘crea.’
The nest, composed of small fibres, straws, feathers, and hair, is built in the hollows of trees, but also where trees are searce, on the ground, or in holes of banks. In the former ease the birch is said to be preferred; whence its German name of the ‘Birch Jay.’ The same situation is resorted to again and again if the birds have not been disturbed.
The eggs, of a rotund form, are four or five to six or seven in number, and of a shining white, like those of the Bee-eater and Kingfisher. The male and female sit on them by turns, and they are hatched in about three weeks; during which time the latter is so devoted to her task, that she will frequently allow herself to be captured on the nest. The young are fed with insects and caterpillars, and the parents exhibit a strong attachment towards them.
Male; length, about one foot one inch; bill, yellowish brown at the base, black at the tip; iris, reddish brown; there is a small bare tubercle behind each eye; a few bristles surround the base of the bill. Forehead, whitish; head, neck, and nape, pale iridescent bluish green; chin, greyish white; throat, dark purple; breast, pale bluish green; back, pale reddish brown.
The wings expand to the width of two feet four inches, and extend to two thirds of the tail; beneath they are a splendid blue; greater and lesser wing coverts, intense greenish blue. The primaries have a bar of pale purple at the base, and are bluish black at the tips; the two first have their narrow webs black tinged with green, the four next pale blue to the middle, then gradually darker, ending in black; the other quills still darker; the first feather is rather longer than the fourth, the second rather longer than the third, and the longest in the wing; secondaries, greenish blue at the base, with a bar of pale purple; beneath, rich blue; tertiaries, yellowish brown; larger and lesser under wing coverts, greenish. The tail, of twelve feathers, has the outermost ones, which are elongated in the male bird, pale ultramarine blue, tipped
12 ROLLER.
with a spot of blackish blue; the two middle ones deep greyish green, tinged with blue at the base, the others deep bluish green for two thirds of their length, paler on the outer webs, the shafts black; underneath, it is rich blue for two thirds of its length; the end greyish blue, with a black spot on each side of the outer feathers, forming their tips; upper tail coverts, dark bluish purple, with a tinge of copper-colour; legs, brown, and feathered below the knee; toes, brown; claws, black.
The female resembles the male, but when young the breast is paler, and more inclining to green; the brown on the back is more grey, and the blue not so bright. The tips of the primaries more rusty black, edged with dull very pale green; the tail feathers of equal length.
Young; bill, brown, black towards the tip, yellow at the corners; iris, greyish brown; head, neck, nape, chin, throat, and breast, dull olive brownish grey, the tips of the feathers paler than the rest; back, rusty yellowish grey, the feathers edged with pale brown; the upper part is the darkest. Wings, below as in the adult, but more dull; greater wing coverts, dull bluish green; primaries, edged and tipped with dull white; the first has a streak of dull bluish green on the outer side; - the second a brown streak at the base, and the last the base dull bluish green; secondaries, dull bluish green at the base, blue black at the ends, tipped and edged with dull white; tail, olive greyish brown, with a reflection of bluish green on the outer side; underneath, as in the adult, but duller; under tail coverts, very pale bluish green; legs, pale yellow.
KINGFIS
13
KINGFISHER.
KINGSFISHER. COMMON KINGFISHER COMMON KINGSFISHER.
GLAS Y DORIAN, OF THE ANCIENT BRITISH.
Alcedo ispida, LINN US,
Ispida Senegalensis, Brisson.
Gracula Atthis, GMELIN. LATHAM Alcedo—-A Kingfisher. Ispida (or, properly, Hispida,)—
Rough, as with wet.
A coop figure of the Kingfisher was stated a few years since to be still a ‘desideratum.’ The accompanying plate, from a design by my friend, the Rev. R. P. Alington, supplies the want, and leaves nothing to be yet desired. I fearlessly assert it to be the best ever yet produced.
My ‘random recollections’ of the Kingfisher are associated with my school days—‘haleyon days’ indeed—when so gay a bird was an especial mark for our guns, a prize to figure in the drawing books in which the ‘exuviz’ of our excursions were arranged. The next of the ‘seven stages’ saw me on the banks of the stream in Berkshire, already alluded to when speaking of the Merlin, following up a more congenial pursuit than the ostensible one of ‘reading with a private tutor.’ Standing on a little wooden bridge, ‘in utrumque paratus,’ a flying or a sitting shot, the often admired Kingfisher glittered up the brook, and, alas! though the first that I had ever obtained a shot at, fell into the water, and was soon floated down to where I stood. A fortnight afterwards, at the very same spot, almost literally ‘stans pede in uno,’ the same thing happened again. A third, years afterwards, un- fortunately flew in front of a boat in which I was rowing my brother, whose gun came but too readily to my hand.
14 KINGFISHER.
This specimen I have now preserved. The question has been raised as to whether the Kinefisher is a difficult bird to shoot or not: the above is my experience on the subject.
The Kingfisher is a native of Europe, Asia, and Africa, It inhabits the temperate parts of Russia and Siberia; in Denmark it is rare. It is found in Germany, France, Hol- land, Italy, and Greece. In the other two continents 1t is likewise widely dispersed. In this country it is universally, though nowhere numerously diffused. ¢ is a splendid bird, its iridescent colowrs varying according to the light they are seen in, from bright torquoise blue to the deepest ereen in some parts of its plumage, and in others the darker colours of copper and gold. When dead, however, much of its beauty 1s gone; and one writer has imagined that even alive, it has, when perceiving that it is observed, the power of dimming the resplendency of its plumage, as if conscious how marked an object it otherwise was; and I fancy that some idea of the sort has before now occurred to myself.
In Yorkshire, this bird is as frequently to be met with as in other parts ‘of the country, but, speaking of the neigh- bourhood of Huddersfield, Mr. W. Eddison writes to Mr. Allis, “The destructive plan of snaring them or catching them with bird-lime will shortly place them in the list of rare birds;’ nd Mr. Richard Leyland, ‘to the same,’ says—‘In autumn, an assemblage of them in some of the narrow olens, or cloughs, as they are called about Halifax, takes place; probably the river swollen by the autumnal rains renders the acquisition of their food difficult, and consequently compels them to seek it in shallow water. A bird-stuffer, with whom’ I was well acquainted, procured in one season more than fifty specimens by placing a net across the bottom of a clough, and com- mencing to beat the bushes from above, which drove every bird into it.’ It is to be wished that he had confined himself to the more sportsman-like use of the arrows, for which ‘Clym of the Clough and William of Cloudeslie’ were so famous, when ‘merrie it was under the greenwood tree.’
In Northumberland, near Neweastle-on-Tyne, in December, 1849, and January, 1850, great numbers of the Kinefisher appeared, more coming into the hands of one game-dealer than he had had durmg the previous sixteen or eighteen years. In Scotland it is much less frequent than with us.
One was shot near St. Andrews, in 1834. In Sutherlandshire it is rare.
KINGFISHER. LN
Rivers, streams, and brooks are the natural resort of this king of fishers, but I have known it to frequent a very small pond in a field, about a mile from any running water; so that the former are not its exclusive haunts. It may be seen perched on some dry bough overhanging a stream, from whence it glides off on perceiving the approach of an enemy, or to procure its food, either by darting on it if passing within reach, or, if otherwise, to seek it elsewhere. Not unfrequently the sea shore is resorted to for the supply of its wants, and this especially in the winter, not so much, as I imagine, from its fluviatile resorts being frozen up, as pro- bably from the fish having retired at that season into deeper water, and the insects being in the chrysalis state.
In the ‘North Derbyshire Chronicle,’ of February, 1838, it is related—‘On Saturday last, a Kingfisher, handsomely feathered, was discovered with its claws frozen to the bough of a tree, on the canal side near this town. It was quite dead; and attached to each claw was a piece of ice.’
It appears to be somewhat, locally, migratory at different seasons of the year.
It would seem that the Kingfisher may be kept in con- finement if brought up. from the nest, and if a sufficient supply of its proper food can at all times be procured for it. It is a solitary bird, seen, almost invariably, either in pairs or singly. It is also described as being of a pugnacious disposition; so that as it takes two parties to make a quarrel, the peace is preserved by its habit of isolation. One of these birds has been known to alight on the fishing-rod of a ‘brother of the angle.’
The flight of this bird is rapid, and the wings being short, is sustained by their quickly-repeated beating. It is always in a straight and horizontal direction, and, for the most part, close above the surface of the water. The Rev. W. T. Bree, of Allesley, has noticed how tenaciously it keeps in its flight over water, as if it felt a greater security in so doing, or in case of necessity, »s he has suggested, to be able to submerge itself, like the Wild Duck, out of sight. One which was alarmed by his presence, and therefore could not have acted as it did in search of food, went out of its way to follow the windings of a series of brick-ponds.
The food consists of water insects, crustacea, mollusca, leeches, and especially minnows, bleak, young gudgeons, dace, and other small fish, which it darts upon, generally with
16 KINGFISHER.
sure precision, frequently after hovering like the Kestrel, and plunging like the Tern, and first kills either by the force of its bill, or by knocking it against a rail, a stone, or the ground. One has been known to plunge from a branch, at a height of six feet from the water. The bones are cast up in the form of pellets. The fish that it catches it swallows head foremost.
The note is a shrill pipe, resembling that of the Sandpiper, but louder.
The birds pair in May, and nidification commences imme- diately.
The nest is placed two or three feet within a hole in a bank, that, for the most part, of a water-rat, which the bird enlarges or alters as need be. It is said also sometimes to hollow one out for itself. It slants downwards, the principles of drainage being sufficiently understood by instinct: the same situation is perseveringly resorted to from year to year. Much discussion has taken place on the question, whether the Kingfisher forms an artificial nest or not, the eggs being often found ‘on the cold ground,’ and often on a layer of fish bones. My. theory has for some time been that no nest is formed, but, that the bird resorting to the same locality year after year, a conglomerate of bones is by degrees formed, on which the eggs being necessarily laid, a nominal nest is in such case found. Since forming this theory I see that it is borne out by other writers. One has been found in Corn- wall, in May, 1817, which was composed of dry grass, lined with hairs, and a few feathers; so at least says ‘C,’ in the ‘Magazine of Natural History,’ vol. 1, page 175. The nest has been found at a distance from water, in a holein a bank frequented by Sand Martins; and one is recorded in ‘Jesse’s Gleanings in Natural History,’ as having been placed in the bank of a dry gravel pit, near Hampton Court; another has been found ‘in a hole on the margin of the sea, a quarter of a mile distant from a rivulet.’ The young remain in the nest until fully fledged, and able to fly. For a short time they then, perched on some neighbouring branch, receive their food from their parents, who both purvey for them, and whose approach they greet with clamorous twittering; but soon learn to fish for themselves.
The eggs, six or seven in number, are transparent white, and rather rotund in form.
Male; weight, one ounce and a half; length, seven inches;
/
KINGFISHER. 17
bill, blackish brown, reddish at the base: from the lower corner of it proceeds a streak of bluish green, joining to that colour on the back, also a dusky streak to the eye; iris, reddish hazel; behind each eye is a patch of light orange brown, succeeded by a white one. Forehead, on the sides rufous, the commencement of the same colour behind the eye; crown, deep olive green, the feathers tipped with light green; the neck has a patch of green down the sides, in front of the patches behind the eye; nape, as the head; chin and throat, yellowish white; breast, orange brown, with a sprinkling of green by the shoulder of the wing; upper part of the back, green; down the back 1s a list of greenish blue, varying in different lights.
Greater and lesser wing coverts, deep greenish blue, mar- gined with a paler shade, forming spots; primaries, brownish black, edged with olive green; secondaries, the same; greater and lesser under wing coverts, pale chesnut. Tail, greenish blue, the shafts black or dusky; underneath, brownish black, edged with olive green; under tail coverts, light orange brown; legs, very short and pale red, with a tinge of yellowish brown; toes and claws, the same.
The female is less vivid in all her colours, and the white on the side of the neck is also more subdued: the Dill is not so long as in the male.
The young have the bill wholly black; iris, darker than in the old bird
VOL. II. C
18
BELTED KINGFISHER
GREAT BELTED KINGFISHER.
Alcedo Alcyon, Linn-=us. WILSON.
Alcedo—The Latin name of the Kingfisher. Alcyon, or Halcyon—The Greek name of the Kingfisher.
THE far-famed Halcyon of the ancients, whose name this species bears, but, doubtless erroneously, as being an American bird, must not be altogether left unnoticed in treating of the Kingfisher, particularly as many of the superstitions of so ‘long, long ago,’ have been continued, even down to our own enlightened age, and are in existence at present. By some, its head or feathers have been esteemed a charm for love, a protection against witchcraft, or a security for fair weather- by many it has been dreaded, by others venerated. It has been supposed to float on the waters in its nest, and during the period of its incubation, forty days, days therefore desig- nated by its own name as happy and beautiful ones, to be the cause of every wind being hushed, and every storm calmed; its stuffed skin hung up, has been recently, and probably is still thought to act a sort of magnetic part, by always pointing its beak towards the north, or, according to another version, towards the quarter from whence the wind might blow. It has again been imagined to have the power of averting thunder, revealing hidden treasures, bestowing beauty on the person that carried it, and when dead, to renew its own feathers at the season of moulting.
The accompanying figure is taken from a foreign specimen, which I have had in my collection for some years. For the description of the habits of the bird, I am indebted to Wilson.
BELTED KINGFISHER.
BELTED KINGFISHER. 19
This species is by some thought good eating, and is accordingly exposed for sale in the markets.
Two of these birds have been killed in an evidently wild condition, in Ireland, so that, acting on the principles ex- pressed in the introduction to this work, I unhesitatingly give the present species a place in the ‘British Birds.’ One was shot at Annesbrook, in the county of Meath, on the 20th. of October, 1845, by Frederick A. Smith, Esq.; and another on a stream connecting the Lake of Luggela with Lough Dan, by the gamekeeper of — Latouche, Esq., of Luggela, within the same month.
It migrates to the south in the winter, and returns to the north in the summer to breed.
The flight of this bird resembles that of its kinsman of the old world. It courses along the windings of the brook or river, sometimes suspending itself over its prey, and at other times settling on a branch to reconnoitre.
The note is loud, harsh, and sudden, and is described as resembling the sound produced by the twirling of a watchman’s rattle.
The nest, composed of a few feathers, and a little grass, is placed in a hole in the steep bank of a river, the excavation of the bird itself by means of its bill and claws, to the depth of one or two feet. The same situation is tenaciously re- visited from year to year.
The eggs are five in number, and the bird has been known to go on laying, some of them having been from time to time removed, to the number of eighteen. The female sits in April. There seems to be two broods; of which the first is hatched the end of May, or beginning of June.
Male; length, twelve inches and a half; bill, black horn- colour at the tip, and at the base of the lower part; iris, yellow; before it is a small white dot, and an elongated one beneath it; a crest of elongated feathers surmounts the head; the shafts black, as are those of the feathers of all the plumage except the white parts. The neck is surrounded by a collar of white; breast, white, variegated with the blue colour at the sides; on the upper part of the breast is a blue band, interspersed with some light brown feathers, and its edges are jagged, especially on the lower side, and most so in the middle; back, light bluish slate-colour. The wings expand to the width of one foot eight inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, slate blue, spotted with white; primaries,
20 BELTED KINGFISHER.
black, spotted with white; secondaries, the same on the inner webs. The tail feathers black, elegantly spotted with white on the inner webs, and slate blue on the outer; beneath 1 is light coloured; legs, very short, dull yellowish, bare for half an inch above the knee. The twe outer toes are united together for nearly their whole length; claws, strong and black.
The female is sprinkled all over with spots of white. Head, deeper coloured than the back; the white on the chin and throat is of an exquisitely fine glossy texture, lke satin; the band on the breast is nearly half reddish brown, and a little below it is a band of bright reddish bay, spreading on each side under the wings; the feathers on the breast are very strong and stiff.
RH
\E-EATER.
t
21
BEE-EATER.
YELLOW-THROATED BEE-EATER; COMMON BEE-EATER. GNAT-SNAPPER.
Merops apiaster, LiInnzus. PENNANT. ie chrysocephalus, LATHAM. “ Galileus, HASSELQUIST. Jlerops—A bird that eateth bees. Apiaster. Apis—A bee.
Tur splendid-plumaged Bee-eater holds some affinity, as will appear, to the Swallows—in its flight, manner of taking its food, nidification, the shortness of its legs, and the appear- ance of its eggs. In Italy it is esteemed good eating, and is sold in the markets accordingly. Perhaps the taste may have descended from Heliogabalus; for, if I remember right, even the gay exterior of birds was called into requisition to give zest to the ‘recherché’ character of his ‘gourmanderie,’ so to gallicize a word for the occasion.
In Asia Minor and the adjacent countries to the north, and in North “Africa, these birds are extremely abundant, and may often be seen flying about in thousands. In various parts of Europe they are also plentiful, in small flocks of twenty or thirty, the more so towards the East—in Turkey and Greece; in Spain also, from its proximity to Africa; Portugal, Italy, Crete, the Archipelago, Malta, Sardinia, and Sicily; as also, though in fewer. numbers, in France, Switzerland, and Germany; likewise in Madeira. Two were killed in Sweden, a male and female, in 1816.
In Yorkshire one, described in the paper as a ‘Beef-eater,’ was obtained near Sheffield, about the year 1849; in Surrey, one near Godalming; in Kent, one at Kingsgate, in the Isle of Thanet, in May, 1827; in Hampshire, one at Christchurch,
22 BEE-EATER.
in the autumn of 1889; in Dorsetshire one, at Chideock, preserved in the museum of the late Dr. Roberts, of Bridport, whose supposition, as expressed to me, was, that it had escaped out of some gentleman’s cage. In Cornwall, four specimens occurred in the parish of Madern, in 1807, and a flock of twelve at Helston, in 1828, of which eleven were shot. In Sussex, one was shot at Icklesham, and another near Chichester, on the 6th. of May, 1829.
The first recorded specimen in England was shot out of a flock of twenty, at Mattishall, in Norfolk, in June, 1794; and in October of the same year, some were again seen at the same spot, but fewer in number; probably the survivors of others that had been slain of the original flock. Another was killed at Beccles, in the spring of 1835; and three others are recorded in the fifteenth volume of the ‘Linnean Transactions.’
In Ireland, one was killed in the county of Wicklow, one on the sea shore near Wexford, in the winter of 1820, and two others have occurred in the interior. In Scotland, one was shot in the Mull of Galloway, in October, 1832.
The precipitous banks of rivers are most frequented by these birds, but not exclusively, as they also resort to vineyards, olive-yards, and sheltered valleys. é
Their flight resembles that of the Swallow, but is more direct, and less rapid. |
Bee-eaters are exclusively insectivorous, but they have a wide range of choice among beetles, grasshoppers, bees, wasps, flies, enats, ‘et id genus omne.’ They capture their food for the most part on the wing, and may be seen from ‘dewy morn till eve’ in pursuit of their winged prey, like Swallows in our own country.
‘Their note, says Meyer, ‘which they utter on the wing, is loud, and sounds like the syllables ‘grillgririririll,’ and also ‘sisicrewe, according to the testimony of an old and learned author.’ It reminds one of the ‘Torotorotorotorotorotorinx’ of Aristophanes in his Political History of ‘Birds,’ where the very ‘Epops’ himself is most scientifically placed in juxtapo- sition with this mellifluous species.
The nest is placed in holes in banks, which latter are thus, as is only to be expected in the case of a Bee-eater, com- pletely ‘honey-combed.’ The bird scoops out a hole by means of its bill and feet, to the depth of from one to two yards, sufficiently large to admit its body; and its legs being short, a wide orifice is not required: this passage is widened out at
BEE-EATER. Ret 3-
the end into a receptacle for the nest, which is said to be composed of moss.
The eggs, which are hatched in May, are glossy white, of a globular form, and five to six or seven in number.
Male; length, ten to eleven inches; bill, black, long, and curved, with a strong blunt ridge; from its corners a bluish black streak descends to a narrow black ring which encircles the neck; on its upper side it shades into the chesnut of the crown; iris, red, behind it is a small bare brown patch. Forehead, dull white, passing into pale verdigris green; crown and neck, deep orange-coloured brown, tinged with green; nape, the same, but paler; chin and throat, bright yellow; breast, greenish blue; back, above as the nape, below bright yellow, tinged with both chesnut and green.
The wings reach to within one fourth of the length of the tail, and expand to the width of one foot and a half; greater wing coverts, pale orange, here and there tinged with green; lesser wing coverts, bright green; primaries, narrow and pointed, blackish grey on the inner webs, fine greenish blue on the outer, in some shades greyish blue—tips and shafts, black; the first feather is very short, the second the longest in the wing; secondaries, brown, with black tips; tertiaries, as the primaries, on the webs; the shafts of all the quill feathers black; larger and lesser under wing coverts, fawn-colour. Tail, of twelve feathers, greenish blue, with a tinge of yellow; the two middle feathers darker, elongated nearly an inch beyond the rest, and pointed, ending in blackish green; beneath it is greyish brown, the shafts dull white; tail coverts, bluish green with a tinge of yellow; under tail coverts, as the breast, but paler; legs, very short, reddish brown, scaled finely behind, and strongly in front; toes, the same, scutellated above; the small hind toe is broad on the sole, and the three front ones connected together, as in the Kingfisher; claws, reddish black.
The plumage of the female is not so bright as that of the male, but less distinctly defined. The throat paler yellow, and the green parts tinged with red. The central tail feathers are shorter than in the male, by two lines.
In the young male the iris is light red; the black band round the throat is greenish. The middle tail feathers extend but little beyond the rest.
2k
HOOPOE.
COMMON HOOPOE
Upupa Epops, Pennant, Montacu. Upupa—A Hoopoe, (Latin.) Epops—A Hoopoe, (Greek.)
Tur elegant Hoopoe is a native of North Africa, from Egypt to Gibraltar, Asia Minor, and the south of Europe; 1t goes northwards in summer as far as Denmark, Sweden, Tartary, Russia, and Lapland. In Germany, France, Italy, Holland, and Spain, i4 occurs in small flocks; also, I believe, in Madeira.
In Yorkshire, one of these birds was shot at Buckton, in the Hast- Riding, in May, 1851; and several others in other parts previously -- one of them taken while alighting on a beat m Bridlington Bay. Another at Bedale wood, near Cowling Hall; two near Doncaster; and another seen a 1836, in Sir William Cooke’s wood; one at Armthorpe; one at Pontefract; one at Eecup, a young bird, by the Hon. Edwin Lascelles, October Sth., 1830; one at Low Moor, near Bradford; one at Skircoat Moor, near Halifax, September 8rd., 1849; one, a female, at Ecclesfield, near Bradford, April 9th., 1841; one at Coatham, near Redcar; and one near Scarborough.
The figure before us is coloured from a specimen in my own collection, which was siiot some years ago on the south- western border of Dorsetshire. Not a year passes in which cne or more of these birds do not arrive in this country, and the same remark applies to Treland. My. Thompson gives an accurate register of such in nine successive years, from 1883 to 1842, inclusive, with the exception of 1836, in which none were known to have been observed. In Scotland too, it sometimes occurs; in Sutherlandshire rarely: one was caught near Duff House, Banff, in Sevtember, 1832; also in the Orkney Islands.
Occasionally it has even been known to breed here, and doubtless would oftener do so, were it not incortivently pur-
: e Uy es,
ff
E 1 O OPO B
HOOPOR. 25
sued to the death at its first appearance. In Sussex, a pair built at Southwick, near Shoreham, and reared three young, and another pair close to the house at Park- End, near Chi- chester, in the same county. Montagu mentions that a pair in Hampshire forsook a nest which they had begun; and Dr. Latham had a young bird sent to him on the 10th. of May, 1786. In 1841, a pair built near Dorking, in Surrey, but the eggs were taken. A pair also frequented a garden near Tooting, in the same county, in the summer of 1888.
The Hoopoe is a migratory bird, at least to some extent, and one has been met with, seemingly unfatigued, half-way across the Atlantic. It appears, however, that some of them do not change their quarters, while others do; and it is also related that the latter do not associate with the former when they arrive among them: their ‘Travellers’ club’ being, like its London namesake, an exclusive one, save for such as have visited foreign parts. They migrate by night, and move singly or in pairs, ‘unless the young brood follows close in the rear of its parents.’ They move but slowly im their peregrinations, attracted probably by the presence of food.
These birds pass much of their time on the ground in search of food, which, however, they also take among the branches of trees, and seem to prefer low moist situations near woods. They are said to fight furiously among themselves, but, as most quarrelsome people are, to be at the same time very cowardly, crouching to the ground im a paroxysm of terror, with wings and tail extended, at sight of a Hawk, or even a Crow. “They are very shy also at the appearance of mankind. These birds are easily tamed when young, and follow their owner about. “Ihe greatest difficulty in preserving them during confinement, arises from their beaks becoming too dry at the tip, and splitting in consequence, whereby the birds are starved, from their inability to take their food.’
The flight of the Hoopoe is low and undulated, and the crest 1s kept erect or lowered at the pleasure of the bird, as it is excited or not. It is said to perch low. Its walk is described as something of a strut, and it keeps nodding its head, as if vain of its gay top- -knot.
Their food consists of beetles, other insects, and caterpillars; superfluous food they hide, and resort to again when hungry.
The note, from whence the name of the bird, resembles the word ‘hoop, hoop, hoop,’ ‘long drawn out,’ yet quickly, like the ‘gentle coomg of the Dove.’ It has also another
26 TOOPOE.
note, ‘tzyrr, tzyrr’—a gyrating hissing sound, when alarmed or angry. It seems to utter its call with much exertion.
The nest, built in May, is placed in the hollow of a tree, or a crevice of a wall, and is composed of dry stalks of grass, leaves, and feathers.
The eggs vary from four to seven in number, and are of a uniform pale bluish grey, faintly speckled with brown.
Incubation lasts sixteen days. After the young leave the nest they assemble in the immediate vicinity, and are long and sedulously attended to by their parents.
Male; weight, about three ounces; length, from eleven inches to one foot and half an inch; bill, black, pale reddish brown at the base; iris, brown. The crest, the charming ornament of this species, is composed of a double row of long feathers, the fronts turning towards the side; they are of a rich buff colour, the ends white, tipped with velvet black, except those on the forehead, which are shorter, and without the white patch. Head on the sides, neck behind, and nape, pale buff, with a tinge of grey; chin, throat, and breast, pale buff; back, reddish buff, with three semicircular bands, bent downwards —one white between two black; the lower part white.
The wings, when expanded, measure one foot seven or eight inches across; greater and lesser wing coverts, black, with a eross bar of light buff; primaries, black, with a bar of pale buff; the first feather is half the length of the second, the second a little longer than the eighth, and a little shorter than the seventh, the third and sixth equal, and but little shorter than the fourth and fifth, which are also equal, and the longest in the wing; secondaries and tertiaries, black, with four or five narrow bars of white, some of the latter also edged and tipped with pale buff, with an oblique stripe of the same on the inner web of the last tertial feather. The tail, of ten feathers, square at the tip, black, with a well- defined semilunar white bar, tending on the sides towards the end; upper tail coverts, white at the base, black at the ends; under tail coverts, white. Legs, brown, feathered im front above the knee, scaled below; toes, brown; claws, horn-colour or black, slightly curved.
The female is paler in colour. The crest is less than in the male. Tertiaries without the buff.
In the young, (which are at first covered with long grey down, and the bill very short and straight,) the breast is crossed with narrow dusky streaks.
Sp aa itn 2s
% Rides
27
CHOUGH.
RED-LEGGED CROW. CORNISH CHOUGH. CORNISH DAW. CORNWALL KAE. KILLIGREW. MARKET-JEW CROW. CHAUK DAW. HERMIT CROW. RED-LEGGED JACKDAW. CLIFF DAW. GESNER’S WOOD CROW.
Pyrrhocorax graculus, FLEMING. Corvus graczlus, PENNANT. MONTAGU, « docilis, GMELIN. Fregilus graculus, SELBY. JENYNS. Pyrrhocorax, Pyrrhos—Red. Corax—A. Crow.
Graculus—A Chough, Jackdaw, or Jay.
Attnoues generically distinct, yet, both in song and story, ‘the Chough and Crow’ seem fated to be associated together.
This bird is a native of the three continents of the old world. It is known to inhabit France, the mountains of Switzerland, Spain, the Island of Crete, Egypt, and the north of Africa, the mountains of Persia, the southern parts of Siberia, and the Himalayan mountains in India.
In Yorkshire, one of these birds was killed by the gamekeeper of Randall Gossip, Esq., of Hatfield, near Doncaster. Two others are spoken of; one as having been shot near Sheffield, and another mentioned by Mr. J. Heppenstall, to Mr. Allis; but it seems doubtful whether they are not referable to the same specimen.
In Cornwall, the Chough has formerly been plentiful, but seems to be getting rare; that county, in fact, would seem to have been its main stronghold, the name of ‘Cornish Chough’ appearing to have been used as a term of reproach, as, ‘for instance, to Tressilian, in ‘Kenilworth.’ The Dover cliffs, and those of Beachy Head and Eastbourne, in Sussex; the Tsle of Purbeck, in Dorsetshire; Devonshire, and the Isle of Wight,
28 CHOUGH.
it has also frequented a score of years ago, but a war of extermination has been carried on against it, and the conse- quence I need not relate. Whitehaven, in Cumberland, has been another of its resorts. In August, 1832, a Red-legged Crow was killed on the Wiltshire Downs, between Marlborough and Calne. It has also been seen on Mitcham Common, in Surrey. In 1826, one was shot at Lindridge, in Worces- tershire.
In Wales, it has occurred in the cliffs of Glamorganshire; and is common in those of Pembrokeshire, from Tenby to St. David’s Head; Flintshire, the Isle of Anglesea, and Denbigh- shire. In the latter place a pair bred for many years in the appropriate ruins of Crow Castle, in the inland and beautiful vale of Llangollen; but one of them being killed by accident, the other continued to haunt the same place for two or three years without finding another mate, which was certainly a ‘singular’ circumstance; also in the Isle of Man, and in Jersey.
In Ireland, according to Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, it 1s to be found in snitable localities all round the island; in some parts, particularly near Fairhead, in considerable abundance, the basaltic precipices of those parts being peculiarly suited to it: a pair were seen at Belfast, after a storm of wind from the south, on the 5th. of March, 1836.
In Scotland, it has been known on the rocky cliffs between St. Abb’s Head and Fast Castle; Coldingham; and near Berwick-on-T weed; in Sutherlandshire, at Durness, and other precipitous parts, but rarely; Portpatrick, Wigtonshire; Bal- lantrae Castle, Ayrshire; and the coast; as also in the Hebrides, sx: the Island of Barry, and in Galloway.
These birds, which are very easily tamed, and become extremely docile, exhibit all the restless activity, prying curiosity, and thievish propensities of their cousins—the Crows: they have in sooth a ‘monomania’ for pretty larceny, especially of elittering objects; and it is said that houses have been set on fire by lighted sticks which they have carried off. In their wild state they are very shy; but in the breeding season they have allowed themselves to be approached within half-a-dozen yards. In the autumn and winter they keep in families. The following particulars are related of one kept tame by Colonel Montagu:—It used to avoid walking on grass, preferring the gravel walk; (Mr. Thompson, however, quotes from Dr. J. D. Marshall’s ‘Memoir of the Island of Rathlin,’ that there they frequent the pasture fields even more than the shores,) was
CHOUGH. 99
fond of being caressed, but, though attached to them, was pugnacious even to its best friends if they affronted it: children he excessively disliked, was impudent to strangers, and roused by the sight of them to hostility even to his friends. One lady he was particularly friendly with, and would sit on the back of ker chair for hours. He showed a great desire to ascend, by climbing up a ladder or stairs; would knock at a window with his bill until he was let in, and would pull about any small articles that came in his way.
Bishop Stanley says, ‘on a lawn, where five were kept, one particular part of it was found to turn brown, and exhibit all the appearance of a field suffering under severe drought, covered, as it was, with dead and withering tufts of grass; which it was soon ascertained the Choughs were incessantly employed in tearing up the roots of, for the purpose of getting at the grubs. The way they set about it was thus:—They would walk quietly over the surface, every now and then turning their heads, with the ear towards the ground, listening atten- tively in the most significant manner. Sometimes they appeared to listen in vain, and then walked on, till at length, instead of moving from the spot, they fell to picking a hole, as fast as their heads could nod;’ they were often successful in their search, so that this acccunt, in two respects, both as to their food and their going on the grass, militates against that of Montagu.
The flight of this species is described as resembling that of the Rook, but is said to be quicker, and occasicnally to be performed in airy circles, with little motion of the wings. ‘They flap their wings, then sail on forty or fifty yards, and so on gradually, until they alight.’ They do not alight on trees, but perch on the rocks, and their gait is stately and graceful. The feathers of the wings are much expanded in flying, as in others of the Crow tribe, giving the wing a fringed - appearance.
The food of the Chough consists principally of grasshoppers, chaffers, and other insects, in search of which it sometimes follows the plough lke the Rooks; and crustacea, but it also eats grain and berries, and certainly carrion sometimes. Smaller insects are devoured whole; the larger it holds in its feet to peck at. ‘It seldom attempts to hide the remainder of a meal.’ These birds drink much.
The note is shrill, but is said to be lively and not disagreeable, which is, however, but negative praise. It somewhat resembles
30 CHOUGH.
that of the Jackdaw, but may be distinguished from it, and is rendered by Meyer by the words, ‘creea, creea,’ and ‘deea.’ It has also a chatter, like the Starling.
The nest is made of sticks, and is lined with wool and hair. It is placed in the most inaccessible clefts and cavities of cliffs, or in old church or other towers, generally in the neighbourhood of the sea, but not always, as will have appeared from the previous and other statements.
The eggs, four or five in number, are dull white spotted with grey and brown, most at the thicker end.
Male; length, between one foot four and one foot five inches; bill, red; yellow within—it is said to be very brittle: iris, red in the centre, surrounded by a circle of blue. The whole plumage is black, glossed with blue. The wings reach nearly to the end of the tail; the first feather is three inches shorter than the second, which is one inch shorter than the third, and the third a little less than the fourth, which is the longest in the wing. The tail is of a more metallic lustre than the rest of the plumage. Legs and toes, red; claws, glossy black, large, and much hooked.
The female weighs about fourteen ounces; length, between one foot two and one foot three inches; her bill is shorter than that of the male. The quill feathers are less black than in the male.
The young birds have but little of the purple gloss. Iris, yellowish brown; legs, orange.
RAVEN.
CORBIE. CORBIE-CROW. GREAT CORBIE-CROW.
Corvus coraz, PENNANT. MontTacu. Corvus—A Crow. (Latin.) Corar—A Crow. (Greek.)
THE geographical distribution of the Raven is soon described. He is a citizen of the world. His sable plumage reflects the burning sun of the equator, and his shadow falls upon the regions of perpetual snow; he alights on the jutting peak of the most lofty mountain, and haunts the centre of the vast untrodden plain; his hoarse cry startles the solitude of the dense primeval forest, and echoes among the rocks of the lonely island of the ocean: no ‘ultima Thule’ is a ‘terra incognita’ to him; Arctic and Antarctic are both alike the home of the Corbie-Crow. ‘In the best and most ancient of books,’ says Wilson, ‘we learn, that at the end of forty days, after the great flood had covered the earth, Noah, wishing to ascertain whether or no the waters had abated, sent forth a Raven, which did not return into the ark.’
The Raven is, in some degree, migratory; though not, as it would appear, instinctively so; but only when circumstances make a change of situation desirable.
However the naturalist may look with complacency on the exterior of the Raven, yet it must be admitted that, judging by the standard of our own morality, his internal character corresponds therewith in blackness. But in truth we must not so judge him. He fulfils, and no doubt perfectly fulfils, his allotted place in creation; and has, moreover, more than one redeeming feature, even in the view of an oblique cen- sorship. The union of the male and female Raven is for life; they are generally seen singly, or in pairs, but occasionally
a2 RAVEN.
in small flocks of about a score. They defend their young with great courage against the attacks of other birds, even those that are much their own superiors in size; though they tamely suffer them to be kidnapped by men or boys.
In this country Ravens are extremely shy and wary, their dark side only, if so one may say of them, being looked upon, and persecution being the order of the day; but where their good points are more appreciated, they are seen in considerable numbers, even near towns, and shew themselves pert and con- fident. When young they are easily tamed, and may be taught to utter a few words, and to perform a variety of tricks. ‘They are, however, always bold and mischievous, sagacious, and sharp-sighted, and display their natural cunning in con- stantly pilfering. Any bright objects, as silver, glass, etc., are particularly alluring; and these they secrete in some hole or crevice, thus establishing a regular depository for their thefts.’ A dozen silver spoons have been found in one of these, the discovery having been made by Ralph being detected in the act of flying off with a ‘silver spoon in his mouth.’ It is said that these birds were formerly trained to catch others. They will pursue even the Buzzard, the Goshawk, or the Eagle, to endeavour to obtain from him his own capture.
A ‘Book of Anecdotes’ might be compiled rélative to the Raven, and I deeply regret that I cannot do him the justice that I would in this respect. One kept at an inn, is related to have been in the habit of taking a seat on the top of some one of the coaches, the coachman of which was a friend of his, until he met some returning coach, driven by another friend, with whom he used to come back.
Mr. Thompson gives the following:—It was a common practice in a spacious yard at Belfast, to lay trains of corn for Sparrows, and to shoot them from a window, only so far open as to afford room for the muzzle of the gun; neither the instrument of destruction, nor the shooter bemg visible from the outside. A tame Raven, which was a nestling when brought to the yard, and probably had never seen a shot fired, afforded evidence that it understood the whole affair. When any one appeared carrying a gun across the yard towards the house from which the Sparrows were fired at, the Raven exhibited the utmost alarm, by hurrying off with all possible speed, but in a ludicrously awkward gait, to hide itself, screaming loudly all the while. Though alarmed for its own — safety, this bird always concealed itself near to and within
RAVEN. 33
view of the field of action; the shot was hardly fired, when it darted out from its retreat, and seizing one of the dead or wounded Sparrows, hurried back to its hiding-place. I have often witnessed the whole scene.’ And again, the fol- lowing communicated to him by Mr. R. Ball:—‘When a boy at school, a tame Raven was very attentive in watching our cribs or bird- -traps, and when a bird was taken, he endeavoured to catch it by turning up the crib, but in so doing the bird always escaped, as the Raven could not let go the crib in time to seize it. After several vain attempts of this kind, the Raven, seeing another bird caught, instead of going at once to the crib, went to another fie Raven, and induced it to accompany him, when the one lifted up the crib, and the other bore the poor captive off in triumph.’
Ravens often fly at a considerable height in the air, and perform various circling evolutions and frolicksome somersets: the sound produced by the action of their wings is heard at some distance. They hop on the ground in a sidelong sort of manner and make rapid advances; if in haste, making use of the help of the wings; and at other times walk sedately.
The present is a very voracious bird, and whatever the sense be by which the Vultures are attracted to their food, by the same, in equal perfection, is the Raven directed to its meal, with unerring precision. It too is as patient in hunger as they are, but when an abundance of food comes in its way, like Captain Dalgetty, it makes the most of the opportunity, and lays in a superabundant stock of ‘provant.’ It performs the same useful part that those birds do, in devouring much which might otherwise be prejudical.
Live stock as well, however, it stows away; weak sheep and lambs it cruelly destroys, as also poultry: hence its destruction by shepherds and others, and hence again its consequent shy- ness and resort to some place of refuge. The eggs of other birds it also eats, watching its opportunity when the birds are absent; it transfixes them with its bill, and thus easily conveys them away: those of Cormorants even, it has been seen flying off with. Leverets, rabbits, rats, reptiles, shell-fish, which, Wilson says, it drops from a considerable height in the. air on the rocks, in order to break: the shells; worms, insects, caterpillars, and sometimes, it is said, grain: carrion, whether fish, flesh, or fowl, it likewise devours. I have often seen these birds searching the sea shore for any such waifs and strays.
VOL, I, | D
34 RAVEN.
The note is, as is so well known, a harsh croak, or rather ‘craugh, which word it resembles, and is doubtless the origin of. It has also a different sound, uttered when manceuvering in the air; and others rendered by ‘clung,’ ‘clong,’ or ‘cung,’ and ‘whii-ur.’
Nidification commences early, even in the coldest climates; here sometimes so soon as January, and the eggs have been taken in the middle of February. Incubation lasts about twenty days: the male and female both sit, and the former feeds and attends upon the latter.
The nest, which is large, and composed of sticks, cemented together with mud, and lined with roots, wool, fur, and such materials, is placed in various situations—in the clefts of the branches of tall trees, church towers, caves, cliffs, and precipices. The mausoleum in the park of Castle Howard, the seat of Lord Carlisle, in Yorkshire, is still resorted to for the purpose.
The eggs are four or five, six or seven, in number, of a bluish green colour, blotted with stains of a darker shade, or brown. The young are generally fledged about the end of March, or beginning of April.
Male; weight, about two pounds seven ounces; length, about two feet two inches; bill, black; iris, grey, with an outer circle of brown; bristles extend over more than half the bill. The whole plumage is black, glossed on the upper part with blue. The wings extend to the width of four feet four inches; the first feather is short, the fourth the longest, the third and fifth nearly as long, and longer than the second. The tail consists of twelve feathers, rounded at the ends, and slightly bent upwards; legs and toes, black and plated. Claws, black and much curved.
Pied varieties occasionally have occurred, and one has been seen entirely white.
CROW.
39
CROW.
CARRION CROW. GOR CROW. GORE CROW. BLACK NEB. FLESH CROW.
Corvus corone, _ Pennant. Montagu. Corvus—A Crow. (Latin.) Corone—A Crow. (Greek.)
TuE Carrion Crow is a small edition of the Raven. The Italian proverb tells us that, ‘chi di gallina nasce convien che rozole, ‘as the old Cock crows, so crows the young;’ and thus do we find it to be with these two birds; the one, as it were, a derivative of the other; the major comprehending the minor. ?
The Carrion Crow occurs throughout Europe, in Germany, France, Spain, Greece, Prussia, Austria, Hungary, and Italy, in Denmark, Norway, and, but rarely, in Sweden, as also, according to Temminck, in Asia—im Japan. It is found throughout England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, but less frequently in the extreme north.
These birds keep in pairs the who'e year, and are believed to unite for life, and more than two are seldom seen in com- pany, unless it be when met over a carrion, or while the brood remain together. In their wild state they have been known occasionally to pair with the Hooded Crow: in one instance for two or three years in succession. It does not appear for certain what the progeny are like, but one nest was said to contain some young birds resembling one of the parents, and some the other. The male spiritedly defends the female when sitting, and both bravely repel any bird, though much larger than themselves, that may shew symptoms of having a design upon their young. They fearlessly assail
36 CROW.
the Raven, the Kite, the Buzzard, and even the Peregrine; but the last-named frequently makes them pay their life as the forfeit of their temerity: they roost in trees and on rocks. Mr. Weir, in a communication to Mr. Macgillivray, relates that having shot a male at the nest, the female soon found a new partner, ‘some disconsolate widower, or disappointed bachelor;? and when she was likewise shot, the step-father continued single-handed to feed his adopted young.
The Rev. W. Waldo Cooper has known a new partner ac- quired thrice in one winter by the survivor; I was going to say of the original pair, but this would be almost as difficult to decide as the case of the new-handled, and then new-bladed knife. Mr. Weir also found that a pair of old birds either did not discover, or did not heed the substitution of some young Rooks for their young, but continued to feed their supposititious children as they had done their own. The Crow is easily tamed, and exhibits precisely the same roguish propensities that the Raven does, and like him may be taught to imitate the human voice and a variety of sounds.
‘The Carrion Crow,’ says Mr. Weir, in a communication to Mr. Macgillivray, ‘is very easily tamed, and is strongly attached to the person who brings him up. I kept one for two years and a half. It flew round about the neighbourhood, and roosted every night on the trees of my shrubbery. At what- ever distance he was, as soon as he heard my voice, he immediately came to me. He was very fond of being caressed, but should any one, except myself, stroke him on the head or back, he was sure to make the blood spring from their fingers. He seemed to take a very great delight in pecking the heels of bare-footed youths. The more terrified they were, the more did his joy seem to increase. Kven the heels of my pointers, when he was in his merry mood, did not escape his art of ingeniously tormenting. His memory was_aston- ishing. One Monday morning, after being satiated with food, he picked up a mole, which was lying in the orchard, and hopped with it into the garden. I kept out of his sight, as he seldom concealed anything when he thought you observed him. He covered it so nicely with earth, that upon the most diligent search I could not discover where he had put it. As his wings had been cut to prevent him from flying over the wall into the garden, he made many a fruitless attempt during the week to get in at the door. On Saturday evening, however, it having been left open, I saw him hop to the very
CROW. oF
spot where the mole had been so long hid, and, to my surprise, he came out with it in the twinkling of an eye.’
Its flight is not lofty, and is generally sedate and direct, performed by regular flappings. Its walk too resembles that of the Raven.
The Crow feeds on all sorts of animal food, alive and dead, and its sense of perception, whatever it be, is as acute as that of the Raven. It is a most predaceous bird, and a fell and relentless destroyer of any creature it can master; young lambs, among which it often does much damage, leverets, young rabbits, pigeons, ducks, and the young of game and poultry, crustacea, fish, shell-fish, which it breaks open by lettmg fall from a height upon the rocks, as also at times fruit, vegetables, grain, berries, potatoes, tadpoles, frogs, snakes, insects, eggs of all birds, which it either transfixes with, or holds in its bill, and so removes; walnuts; in fact anything. One which carried off' a duckling from a pond, in its bill, was observed to kill it by walking forwards and backwards over it; another was seen to seize and kill a Sparrow engaged at the moment in inducing its young ones to fly: Montagu saw one chase and pounce at a Pigeon, like a Hawk,: and strike another dead from the roof of a barn. These birds will hide any redundant food for a future occasion; and Colonel Montagu saw a pair of them thus removing small fish left by the tide above high-water mark. He also saw one of them make repeated pounces at some animal, in a field where the
rass was long, which raised itself on its hind legs, and de-
fended itself stoutly; it proved to be a leveret: a small one has been seen to be carried off in the air by one of these birds. Mr. Hogg saw one dart out at, and chase, but unsuc- cessfully, a Grouse, which his approach had been the means of rescuing from the talons of a large Hawk.
The Crow is often garrulous like the Magpie, and its note is a croak like that of the Raven, but hoarser. Nidification begins the end of February, or beginning of March, both birds helping to make the nest.
The nest is built in rocks or in trees, generally high up, and is made of sticks, firmly cemented with clay, and lined with roots, and again with straw, wool, moss, fur, hair, or anything else that is soft: the latter the Crows pull for the purpose from the backs of animals. A pair built on the ground in one of the Fern islands, and their nest was made of pieces of turf laid one upon another, and lined with wool,
38 CROW.
all brought from the mainiand four or five miles distant. The Rev. W. Waldo Cooper has known a nest repaired the second year.
The eggs, four to six in number, are pale bluish green, spotted and speckled with grey and brown: some are pale blue undertinted with grey.
Male; weight, about nineteen ounces; length, one foot eight to ten inches; bill, black, covered at the base by bristly feathers turned downwards; iris, dark brown. The whole plumage is black, glossed with blue and green, but the edges of the feathers on the back are without the burnish; the back reflecting shades of metallic green. The wings expand to the width of three feet five inches; the first feather is half the length of the fourth, the second one inch shorter than the fourth, the third and fourth nearly equal, the latter the longest in the wing, the fifth scarcely shorter than the third, the sixth the same as the third. The tail, nearly square at the end, and shorter in proportion than the Raven’s; legs, tees, and claws, black.
The female resembles the male; length, one foot six te eight inches; the wings, in width three feet two to three feet four inches.
The young in the first year have less of the metallic lustre on the back.
39
HOODED CROW.
ROYSTON CROW. GREY CROW. GREY-BACKED CROW. SCARE-CROW. WOODY. DUN CROW. BUNTING CROW
Corvus corniz, LinN-Zvus. GMELIN. “cinerea, Brisson. Ray. Corvus—A Crow. Cornix—A Crow.
Tuts species has obtained the specific name given by the Romans to some bird of the Crow kind, deemed of unlucky omen—the ‘sinistra cornix.’
It is found in Europe—in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Feroe Islands, I{celand, Germany, Greece, Italy, Holland, Russia, and Siberia; in Asia Minor, the Crimea, and Japan. It occurs throughout England, Ireland, and Scotland.
In this country these birds are migratory, frequenting the south only in the winter, arriving in October, and returning in April. In the north of Scotland, and the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland Islands, they are stationary, but in the south they partake of the habits of the ‘southrons.’ Mr. Selby is of opinion that those which appear in the south have come over from Norway and Sweden, as they generally arrive with the first flight of Woodcocks, taking advantage of a north- east wind. His reason of the supposition is, that there is no apparent diminution in the number of those in the north at the time; but such a calculation cannot be accurately made, and unless there were any apparent simultaneous increase of the numbers in the north, the argument would hardly be conclusive, for it is not to be supposed that foreign birds of the same kind as those which frequent the north of the kingdom, would migrate westwards from the same, or a still farther parallel of latitude, only to the south of it.
40 HOODED CROW.
The habits of this bird resemble those of the preceding one, except that it more confines itself to the sea-shore, and the adjacent line of country, about a dozen miles inland, following also the course of tidal rivers and estuaries, on whose banks it finds its food. They are to be seen in larger or smaller companies of every possible variety of number. On the east coast of Jura, one of the western islands of Scotland, as many as five hundred were seen together after a storm. In the East-Riding of Yorkshire, I generally see them in small flocks of half a dozen or a dozen. A pair are said to have built near Kings Lynn, in Norfolk, in 1816, but this is the only instance that seems to have occurred so far south. Near Scarborough, in Yorkshire, a few pairs have bred. In one instance indeed, on a large tree at Hackness, a pair they were not, for one was a Carrion Crow, and the other a Hooded Crow. The former was shot by the gamekeeper, and the next year the female returned with a black partner. He and his progeny, some of which resembled their male parent, and others the female, were shot; she, by cunning, managed to keep out of harm’s way, and the third year returned again with a fresh mate. This time, however, she was herself shot, and is now preserved in the Scarborough Museum. Some have supposed, from repeated instances of this kind, that this species and the Crow are identical.
The sea-shore, with its ebbing and flowing tide, furnishes the main support of this species, and it also plunders the nests of sea-fowl, and is said occasionally to destroy young lambs. No animal substance comes amiss to it, and it is only stern necessity that makes it at all put up with a vegetable diet. It resorts to the same mode as the Carrion Crow of breaking shell-fish open.
Its note resembles that of the Carrion Crow, but is rather more shrill. It has two tones; the one grave, the other more acute.
The Hooded Crows do not build in companies, like the Rooks, but separately, hke the Carrion Crows.
The nest is placed in trees, or in the clefts and chasms of rocks and hill sides, and is composed of sticks, roots, stalks, and heather, and is lined with wool and _ hair.
The eggs, from four to six in number, are light green, mottled all over with greenish brown.
Male; weight, about twenty-two ounces; length, one foot eight inches; bill, bright black—the basal half covered with
HOODED CROW. 41
stiff feathers; iris, brown. Head on the sides, neck in front, zhin, and throat, bright bluish black, farthest down in the centre; breast, nape, and back, grey, the shafts of the feathers dark, but much more decisively so in some specimens than in others. Wings; the first feather is three inches shorter than the second, which is one inch shorter than the third, the third a little shorter than the fourth, which is the longest in the wing; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, bright black. Tail, bright black, rounded at the end; legs and toes, bright black, and plated; claws, bright black.
The female is less than the male, and the grey of her plumage is tinged with brown.
Young birds resemble the old. Selby says, ‘sometimes this bird varies in colouring, and is found entirely white or black.’
42
ROOK.
YDFRAN OF THE ANCIENT BRITISH.
Corvus frugilegus, LINN2US. GMELIN. Cornix frugilega, BRISSON. “« nigra frugilega, Ray. WILLUGHBY. Corvus—A Crow. Frugilegus. Fruges—Fruits. Lego—To collect or gather.
Tue Rook is a native of most of the temperate regions of Europe and Asia, and is found in Japan, according to M. Temminck. Latham says that it does not occur in the Channel Islands, though it does in France; also in Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Silesia, and other countries of the former continent. It is, perhaps, more abundant in England than in any other part of the world, but decreases in numbers towards the extreme north, and is not found in the Orkney or Shetland Isles.
There are two opinions as to the bare space at the base of the bill in these birds; some contending that it is natural, and others that it is caused by the thrusting of the bill into the ground in search of food. I cannot myself but lean to the former theory of the fact, and for it I give the following reasons conclusively set forth by the Rev. W. Waldo Cooper, of West-Rasen, Lincolnshire, in ‘The Naturalist,’ No. 3, pages 53-54:—‘First, though the Rook is a great delver, yet he does not at all seasons dig equally; and at some seasons so little, as to allow the feathers to grow, at least partially, were abrasion the ‘sole’ cause of their absence. Secondly, the mode of his digging is not such as to cause much abrasion. Thirdly, I have never seen or heard of a specimen, not kept in confinement, in which this process was taking place; that is, the feathers ‘damaged only’ by digging. Fourthly, the
oe “i Se = Ss — enna WEN agrees = TT SS oe Gre oS aN ae Bis: E a ee ; J i SL ¥ Tne —— > — EZ hy ie \—— 3 ais 7 a Y VW \\ (“A
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ee
ROOK. 43
operation of abrasion must be painful, and it must be con- tinued; so that the poor bird must be put to torture every time he digs deep after a worm or a grub; and this I cannot but consider as inconsistent with the universal tender-kindness of that Almighty Being, who has ordered him to seek go large a portion of his food below the surface of the earth. Fifthly, the Carrion Crow and the Jackdaw, which are also great diggers, never exhibit, as far as I know, any signs of abrasion. Sixthly, the exact correspondence of the line of denudation in all the specimens I have examined, points rather to natural, than to artificial causes.’
Rooks are strictly gregarious in all their habits, and are thus identified with the ‘corvus’ of the Romans: they build together in trees, and consort ‘together in search of food throughout the year. The same colonies, however, admit of no influx of strangers; none but natives born are made free of their society—their freedom is that of birth. They breed on the same trees, and occupy the same nests from year to year; if, however, the trees give symptoms of decay, they are quitted for sounder ones, and it has even been observed that they have forsaken some, the bark of which had been peeled off preparatory to their being felled. Strange stories are told, one in my neighbourhood, of their following the fortunes of owners who have left their dwelling-places, and of their having through some mysterious instinct, abandoned their rookeries near a mansion when the house was about to be pulled down, or even to be left untenanted.
The food of the Rook consists of the larve of cockchaffers, and those of other beetles, moths, and insects, wire-worms, snails, slugs, and worms, as also potatoes and other fruits, and grains; ‘fruges consumere nati,’ as their specific name imports. In the autumn they pluck and frequently bury acorns in the earth, and probably walnuts and fir cones, which they likewise earry off, provident, it is thought, of a season of want.
The ‘caw’ of the Rook needs no description.
Early in March, the nests of the previous year are begun to be repaired, and some new ones are necessarily built by the young of that date. The male diligently feeds the female, and occasionally takes her place on the eggs. The young are fledged by the end of May, or the beginning of June; and second broods are sometimes produced as late as November; but possibly they should be considered rather as early than late ones.
44, ROOK.
Rooks build their nests for the most part in the vicinity of old mansions or other buildings; chiefly, as I imagine, on account of ancient and full-grown trees being the accompani- ments of these; but they by no means make exclusive choice of such situations; I have seen their nests in perfectly isolated places, and they have been known, in several instances, to build on trees of low growth; as for example on young oaks, only ten or twelve feet high, in the grounds of the Duke of Buccleuch, at Dalkeith Palace, although large trees were all around them. They have occasionally been known to domicile even in the midst of cities, and that not only on trees, but in other and the most unlikely places. Three pairs built on some low poplars, in a central part of the town of Manchester, and returned to them the following year: another pair on the crown which surmounts the vane of St. Olave’s church, London; and another between the wings of the dragon on Bow church, and there they remained, clearly ‘within the sound of Bow bells,’ till the spire required to be repaired; others in the gardens of noblemen in Curzon Street, and others in those of Gray’s Inn, as I am informed by W. F. Wratislaw Bird, Esq., who says of them, ‘We have a colony of Rooks in Gray’s Inn gardens, which are so tame, that they come regu- larly to the trees in front of my chambers, and those of other inhabitants who encourage them, to be fed. In winter some- times they are so eager for food, that they scramble for it on the ground the moment it is thrown down, lke poultry. It is a curious and pleasing sight to see twenty or thirty birds, usually so wild and wary, struggling and tumbling over one another under your window, for pieces of bread, which they sometimes catch before it reaches the ground: they soon make away with half a loaf. A magnificent plane tree, said to have been planted by Addison, and named after him, is a favourite nesting-place for them. In summer, we have not above eight or nine couples, but in winter the number is doubled: they do not, however, appear to increase; the surplus population emigrate probably to Kensington Gardens; they may be seen there, and in the Parks, almost as familiar as Sparrows. The well-known nest in the tree in Cheapside, has been inhabited many times since 1836, when Mr. Yarrell says 1t was deserted; and two years ago, there were two nests, each tenanted by its pair of owners, who might be seen feeding their young in cawing pride, by all the busy passers in that most crowded of thoroughfares.’
ROOK. 45
The nest is composed of large sticks, cemented with clay, mixed with tufts of grass, and is lined with roots.
The, eggs, four or five in number, are of a pale green ground colour, blotted over with darker and lighter patches of yellowish and greenish brown: they vary much.
Male; length, one foot seven or eight inches; iris, dark brown. The whole plumage is black, glossed with purple, particularly on the upper parts. The wings and tail under- neath have a tinge of grey. The first feather of the wing is three inches shorter than the second, the second one inch shorter than the fourth, which is the longest in the wing, the third is as much shorter than the fourth, as it is longer than the fifth. Legs, toes, and claws, bright black.
The female is about one foot five or six inches in length: her plumage has less brilliancy than that of the male. Young birds resemble the female, but have at first feathers at the base of the bill.
White, cream-coloured, and pied varieties of the Rook occa- sionally occur; one which was at first ‘of a light ash-colour, most beautifully mottled all over with black, and the quill and tail feathers elegantly barred,’. became of the usual hue after moulting. Malformations of the bill in this species have also been noticed; one is figured by Yarrell, in which the lower part is much elongated, projecting upwards; in another the peints of both were slightly crossed; and in another, they were greatly elongated, and much curved.
4.6
JACKDAW. DAW. KAE. Corvus monedula, Linnzvus. GMELIN Corvus—A Crow. Monedula—A Jackdaw, (perhaps from
moneo—To warn; as a bird of augury.)
Tre Jackdaw is found in Enrope, Asia, and the north of Africa; occurring in Germany, Denmark, France, Russia, Italy, the islands of the Mediterranean, Holland, Belgium, Siberia, Iceland, Asia Minor, and Asiatic Russia and Japan. .
It mhabits England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; but ‘doctors disagree’ about its being found in the Orkneys, Hebrides, and Shetland Islands, and I am unable to give a true verdict on the question.
The Jackdaw is a gay, pert, bold, sprightly, and active bird. It is very easily tamed, and soon learns to imitate the sounds of the human voice, and exhibit other amusing results of its education. It naturally becomes attached to the person who feeds it; but the thievery of its race attaches too strongly to it to prevent it from pilfering his goods, whether glittering objects, or cherries and other fruits. Meyer says “We knew a Jackdaw that used to enter a bed-room window, and strip a pincushion of pins, scattering them about the table, to the no small perplexity of the owner, until the perpetrator was discovered.’ One of these birds, which we once kept in a walled garden, used invariably, in the most cunning manner, to go down the walk on one side, so as always to keep the ‘weather-gauge’ of any suspected pursue? on the other.
Jackdaws frequent whatever places may be convenient to
JACKDAW. 4:7
them, whether close to, or remote from the dwellings of man: the male and female are believed to pair for life. They are sociable birds, and friendly among themselves, dwelling together in considerable numbers, and associating also with the Rooks, with whom they intermingle.
The flight of this species is more quick than that of the Rooks, and performed with more repeated flappings of the wings: they are seldom observed to sail.
The Jackdaw feeds on insects, shell-fish, dead fish and animals, eggs, grain, and seeds. It may often be seen ento- mologizing on the backs of sheep, which also supply its staple of wool for the formation of its nest.
The well-known ‘caw’ of the Jackdaw is expressed by this word. It is more shrill than that of the larger species of the genus.
Jackdaws build in cliffs, church and other towers, rabbit burrows, the roofs of buildings, the holes of ruins, hollow trees, the sides of chalk-pits, and even in chimneys, despite of the smoke, as if conscious that it could not blacken their plumage: they inhabited the ruins of Stonehenge, in Pennant’s time, and may do so yet. The nest is built of sticks, and is lined with wool, hair, grass, and other soft substances. Very large quantities of sticks are collected for the purpose, so as even to block up chimneys, and the spiral stairs of church towers; the immense masses heaped together in the western towers of York Minster, formed a most unfortunate kind of firewood for that tremendous conflagration. They used to build in the tower of my own church, but when it was restored, wire net-work was placed in the belfry windows, so as effectually to stop them there; one persevering pair, however, would not be even thus foiled, but actually brought a mass of sticks through one of the loop-holes in the tower, and though their being naturally conveyed crosswise in their bills created an almost insuperable difficulty, quantities falling down outside, yet it was marvellous to see the numbers which ‘by hook or by crook’ they got in. The spiral nature of the staircase increased their difficulty, so much larger a quantity of materials being required to make a foundation. One instance is related by Alexander Hepburn, Esq., in the ‘Zoologist,’ of the Jackdaw having built on the branches of trees.
The eggs, from four to six in number, are pale bluish white, spotted with grey and brown. The young are hatched the ena of May.
48 JACKDAW.
Male; weight, about nine ounces; length, about one foot two inches; bill, black, covered at the base with depressed feathers; iris, greyish white; crown, black; neck on the back, and nape, fine hoary grey; the whole of the rest of the plumage is black. The first wing feather is two inches and a half shorter than the second, which is three quarters of an inch shorter than the third, the third and fourth nearly equal in length, and the longest in the wing. Legs, toes, and claws, bright black.
The female is less than the male; the grey on the neck is less conspicuous, being not so light as in the male, and less in extent. Young birds have but little of the grey at first; it increases with their age, unlike the ‘Prisoner of Chillon,’ whose hair was ‘grey, but not with years.’
MAGPIB.
49
MAGPIE.
COMMON MAGPIE. PIANET. MADGE.
Pica caudata, FLEMING. SELBY. GOULD. Corvus Pica, PENNANT. Monracu. Pica—A Pie—A Magpie. Cuudata—Tailed, (a factitious word.)
Ir I remember aright, in the great French Revolution, the zeal of the people for ‘liberté’ was so great, that they opened the doors of all the cages, and let the birds fly out. I should have enjoyed the sight; though some of the captives perhaps preferred remaining where they were, and did not value the unwonted freedom which they had never known the possession of, even as the poor prisoner who returned to the dungeon, with whose walls he had become familiar. To him the world was become the prison, the spider a more agreeable companion than his fellow-man: certainly he had found the one more friendly than the other. Nothing is to me more miserable than to see a bird in a cage, and, with reference to the species before us, who can tell what a Magpie is, either in character or in beauty, from only seeing him thus contined? He is, when himself, a brilliant—a splendid bird; gay alike in nature and in plumage.
The Magpie is met with in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, being found in Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Lapland, Norway, and Greece, Asia Minor, Russia, and Si beria; India, China, and Japan, and the United States.
It is common in all wooded parts of the three kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland, but is unknown, except as a straggler, in the Orkneys, the Hebrides, or the Shetland Islands. Shy and wary, it keeps at a secure distance from
VOL. IL B
50 MAGPIE.
the gunner, and so, though a marked bird, for the most part contrives to save itself; but many a one garnishes the gable- end of the gamekeeper’s house.
It is a crafty, noisy, artful bird, and its chatter set up at the sight of almost any creature, proclaims and calls forth at once a mutual hostility. Magpies continue in pairs throughout the year, but several are often seen together, probably the family party in general, but sometimes as many as a score. If taken young they are very easily tamed, and learn to imitate many words, and to perform various tricks. Thieving is as natural to them as to the rest of their tribe, and any thing shining, in particular, they cannot resist the instinct to purloin.
The flight is made with quick vibrations, as if with some effort: on the ground this bird advances either by hopping or walking.
The Magpie’s appetite is omnivorous; young lambs, and even weakly sheep, leverets, young rabbits, game, fish, carrion, insects, fruits, and grain, all meet its requirements.
Its note is a harsh chatter.
Nidification begins early in the spring.
The nest, which is resorted to from year to year, is placed in the top of a tall tree or hedge, or sometimes in a lower one, if otherwise suitably protectant. It is rather of an oblong shape, built of strong sticks and thorns, cemented together with mud, and lined with roots and grass; an aperture to admit the bird is left on one side, and from this loop-hole any approaching danger is descried, in order to a timely retreat; the top is covered over. I am informed by W. F. W. Bird, Esq. that the Magpie builds in Kensington Gardens.
The eggs are six or seven, rarely eight in number, pale bluish white, spotted all over with grey and greenish brown, more or less dark.
Male; weight, between eight and nine ounces; length, one foot and a half; bill, black; iris, dark brown; head, crown, neck, and nape, jet black; chin and throat, black, the shafts of some of the feathers being greyish white; breast above, black, below, pure white; back, black. ‘The wings short, and rather rounded: the white feathers from the shoulder form a distinct white patch along them. The first feather is only two inches and a half long, the fifth the longest, the fourth and sixth nearly as long; greater wing coverts, fine blue; lesser wing coverts, black; primaries, black, with an elongated
MAGPIE. 5L
patch of white on the inner web of each of the first ten feathers; secondaries and tertiaries, fine blue.’ The tail is graduated, the outer feathers being only five inches long, and the middle ones nearly eleven inches; their colours are brightly iridescent, blue and purple shades near the end, and green from thence to the base; the inner webs of all except the centre pair are purple black; beneath it is dull black; tail coverts, black; legs, toes, and claws, black.
The female is less in size than the male, being about one foot four inches in length, and the colours not so bright; the tail also is shorter.
Occasional varieties are met with, and malformations of the bill, both crosswise at the tip, and in the way of elongation, have occurred in the Magpie.
AY Try r 1
NUTCRACKER. Nucifrayga vearyceutactes, SELBY. JENYNS. Caryocutactes nucifraga, FLEMING. Corvus curyocatactes, PENNANT. MONTAGU.
Nucifraga. Nuzx, (plural nuces,)—A nut. Frango—To_ break. Caryocatactes, Kurion—A nut. Katasse, (the same as kutagnum: and atugnuo,)—To break in pieces.
Tue Nuteracker is dispersed throughout Europe, Asia, and America. The mountain forests of Switzerland are its strong- hold: it is found also in Austria, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Siberia, and Kamtschatka; the north of Asia, and North America.
In this country it is of rare occurrence. On October 5th., 1758, one was killed near Mostyn, in Flintshire; another was ede killed in Kent. One was seen near Bridgewater, in the autumn of 1805; in August, 1808, one was ‘shot m North Devon; another was seen on a tree on the banks of Hooe Lake; another was shot in the same county, in 1829, near Washford Pyne Moor, and another in December of the same year, in the adjoining county of Cornwall. A specimen was seen in Netherwitton wood, Northumberland, in the autumn of i819, by Captam (now Rear- Adn niral) Robert Mitford, R.N. In Surrey, one was seen in Pepper Harrow Park, the seat of Lord Middleton; in Norfolk, one was shot at Rollesby, near Yarmouth, on the 80th. of October, 1843. In Sussex, one at Littlington, near Alfriston, on the 26th. of September, 1833.
In Scotland tiree have occurred. In Ireland, Mr. Thompson relates that one was said to have been met with at Silver- mines, in the county of Tipperary, but that there was no authentication of the aecount.
Mountainons countries, covered with fir woods, are the natural resort of this species.
NUTCRACKER. 53
These birds, thongh not migratory, strictly speaking, move about from one part of the country to another. They occa- sionally go in large flocks, but generally in small ones of six or eight, probably the parents and their young, descending at times from the woods of the mountains, to those of the plains; their food being furnished by the various cone-bearing trees. They are shy and wary birds, like the Crow tribe, and it is also said that they climb the trunks of trees like the Wood- peckers, and that the end of their tails are worn, from resting on them, as those birds do when ascending trees. They fre- quent the depths of the forest, remote from observation; but when they have young they may be approached very closely. These birds are easily tamed, but they have the unfriendly habit of devouring any companions of their captivity. As in the case of the Woodpeckers, it mast be a strong cage that will confine them; but if well supphed with nuts, they solace themselves therewith.
The flight of the Nutcracker ‘resembles that of the Jackdaw, but being wavering and unsteady, he avoids crossing any extended space. In the course of its migration, should any open country intervene, this bird avails itself of every bush in its way for the purpose of resting.’
Its food, whence its name, consists of nuts; which, like the Nuthatch, at fixes in a crevice of a tree, and pecks at till the shell is broken, the seeds of pine trees, beech-mast, acorns, berries, and insects of various sorts, bees, wasps, and beetles. It sometimes attacks and devours birds, as also their eggs; and one has been known to eat a squirrel.
The note, oddly enough, resembles the word ‘crack’ ‘crack,’ as also ‘curr.’ The latter he loudly utters in the spring of the year, perched on the top of a tree.
The nest is placed in holes of trees, which they scoop out like the Woodpeckers, till their purpose is gained.
The eggs are five or six in number, of a yellowish grey colour, spotted with lighter and darker shades of brown.
Male; length, one foot and nearly two inches; the bill is black, except the tip of the upper part, which, projecting beyond the lower one, though both get worn down by the ‘tough morsels’ it has to operate on to an equal length, is horn-colour; the space between the bill and the eye is dull white; iris, brown; bristles, white with brown streaks, cover the nostrils. A sort of semi-crest, like the Jay’s, surmounts the head, which is brown and unspotted; forehead, crown,
54 NUFCRACKER.
neck, and nape, dark brown; chin, throat, breast, and back, brown, each feather terminated with an elongated triangular spot of dull white; on the throat these spots are small, on the sides of the head larger, and largest on the upper part of the breast, but I think that all the white markings are variable with age.
The wings have the first quill feather one inch and a half shorter than the second, the second three quarters of an inch shorter than the third, the third the same length as the eighth, the fourth, fifth, and sixth, nearly of equal length, one quarter of an inch longer than the third, and the longest in the wing; greater wing coverts, blackish brown, the ends of the feathers rather lighter in colour than the other parts; sometimes white; lesser wing coverts, brown tipped with white. The primaries and secondaries have a small triangular spot towards the tip, from the sixth to the twelfth feather; greater and lesser under wing coverts, dusky. The tail, which is composed of twelve feathers, is blackish brown, with slight blue reflections, as have the other darkest parts of the plumage, the two contre: ones entirely so, excepting in some specimens, at the tips; the next on each side has a narrow white tip, the next a more extended one, the next still more, and so on, the outside ones having a space of three quarters of an inch, or more, of white; beneath it is greyish brown, ending in dull white; upper tail coverts, black, or blackish brown; under tail coverts, greyish brown, sometimes quite white; legs, black and scaled, as the Crows; ‘toes, the same on the upper surface; claws, ens.
In the female the brown colour of the plumage has a tinge of red. In some instances these virus have occurred entirely white; and one spotted with black and white.
There is an interesting paper in the ‘Zoologist, by W. R. Fisher, Esq., of Ya armouth, p-p. 1073-1074, “respecting two supposed species of the Nutcracker as having occurred in Britain. The most evident mark of difference is in the form of the bill, that of the one being thick and obtuse, and of the other more slender and poimted, and the upper part, as stated, somewhat longer than the lower one. That very eminent naturalist, M. De Selys Longchamps, has expressed his belief, in a paper read before the Institute of Belgium, that the two species are distinct, and I cannot myself but incline to this opinion, In the absence, however, of either figure or separate description of the two, I am obliged, for
NUTCRACKER. 55
the present, to leave the matter undecided. Mr. Fisher adds, (but his own opinion, I should add, is against the supposed difference of the species,) ‘the other distinctions between the thick and thin-billed Nutcrackers are the greater strength of the feet and claws of the former, a circumstance noticed by Brehm, who described them as two species, under the names of the long and short-billed Nutcrackers, and the different form of the white mark at the end of the tail, which in ‘Nucifraga caryocatactes’ is much straighter than in ‘Nucifraga brachyrrhynchus.’ This, with the other distinctions which I have mentioned, obtain more or less in all the specimens I have had an opportunity of examining.’
Garrulus g'andarius, FLEMING. StLBY. Corvus oh PENNANT. MonraGu. Garrulus—C attering, as birds. Glandarius—Of or belonging to acorns,
THE plate, if I may be pardoned a brief record of a pleasing reminiscence, is coloured from a specimen in my collection, the first stuffed bird I ever possessed, which was brought to me by my father from York, just after I had gone to school.
The Jay is found in all the temperate parts of Europe, in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Crete, and the lonian Islands, in Asia Minor, and in Africa, in Barbary and Kgypt. The Greeks eat it as food.
In this country it is sufficiently common, and would doubtless be much more so were it not so unrelentingly pursued as a ‘vermin.’ It occurs in more or less plenty throughout the southern half of Ireland, and also throughout Scotland, but in very much fewer numbers towards the extreme north. In Shetland it is only known as a rare straggler.
This bird is exclusively addicted to woods and their imme- diately neighbouring trees for its habitat.
Jays, if not actually birds of passage, yet are decidedly of a roving disposition. ‘When they are obliged, during migra- tion, to cross a wide open country, they fly quicker, for fear of being attacked by birds of prey; and their fear may be perceived by their frequently turning back to their starting point, before they finally undertake the journey, and then it is performed in haste, one flying behind another in a singular manner. During their migration the Jays alight on the first tree they meet with, and from thence utter their harsh note of joy, on having thus far travelled in safety. They never sit long on one branch, but shift and change continually; and when on the ground they hop about very awkwardly.’
“AVE
9 OO wa
JAY. 57
Jays continue together long after the young have left the nest; indeed frequently until the following spring; sometimes small flocks of from twenty to forty collect together. They are easily tamed if brought up from the nest, and become very familiar, imitating all sorts of sounds in a facile manner. They are most restless birds, ever changing their position, raising and lowering their crests, and ever and anon uttering some outlandish note.
The flight of the Jay is very observable, as heavy and irregular, effected with some degree of apparent difficulty, and in a scurrying sort of manner, as if conscious that it was a proscribed bird, and doomed to destruction for either real or supposed faults.
As imported by its specific name, the acorn is the most choice ‘morceau’ of the Jay, and for them he even searches under the snow; but he also feeds on more delicate fruits, such as peas and cherries, as well as on beech-mast, nuts, and berries, corn, worms, cockchaffers and other insects, larve, frogs and other reptiles, and mice, and is deterred by no scruples or qualms from making away with young birds, even partridges, and eggs. These birds are said, in the autumn, to hide some food for winter use, under leaves in some secure place, and in holes of trees.
Their true note is singularly harsh, and almost startling, . resembling the syllables ‘wrak, wrak,’ but they have a decided talent for mimicry, and both in their wild and their tame state have been heard exhibiting their acquired and varied accomplishments, in imitating the bleating of a lamb, the mewing of a cat, the neighing of a horse, the shriek of the buzzard, the song of the greenfinch, the human voice, the note of the kite, the warblings of birds, the crowing of a cock, the bark of a dog, and the calling of fowls to their food; and Bewick says, ‘we have heard one imitate the sound of a saw so exactly, that though it was on a Sunday, we could hardly be persuaded that there was not a carpenter at work in the house.’
The nest is placed in a tall bush or hedge, generally at a not greater elevation than about twenty or thirty feet from the ground, and sometimes less. It is of an open shape, formed of twigs and sticks, and well lined with small roots, grasses, and horse-hair. Some are much more cleverly con- structed than others.
The eggs, five or six in number, are greenish or yellowish
58 es oe
white, freckled all over with two shades of light brown. They vary occasionally both in size and in degree of polish.
Male; weight, about seven ounces; length, nearly one foot two inches; bill, black; from its base a black streak extends backwards about one inch; iris, light blue. Forehead and crown, greyish and bluish white, some of the feathers longer than the rest, streaked down the middle with black, and the ends of those at the back of the head tinged with reddish purple; these form a sort of crest, which the bird raises or depresses at will; nape, cinnamon-colour; chin, greyish white; breast, light reddish buff colour; back, cinnamon-colour.
The wings, which extend to within two inches and a half of the end of the tail, have the first feather about two inches and a half long, the second about four inches and a half, and one inch shorter than the third; the fourth, fifth, and sixth nearly equal, and the longest in the wing; the under side is grey. Greater wing coverts, barred with black, white, and brilliant blue alternately, across the outer webs, the inner being nearly black; lesser wing coverts, chesnut. Primaries, dusky black on the inner webs, the outside edges dull white; secondaries, black, with an elongated patch of white on the basal half of the outer web of some of the feathers; some of the tertiaries, black, indistinctly barred across with blue, and black at the base of the outer web, the last ones of a rich chesnut colour, especially on the webs. Tail, dull black, indistinctly barred at the base, the outer feather on each side lighter than the rest and approaching to brown, underneath it is grey; upper tail coverts, white; under tail coverts, dull white; legs, toes, and claws, rather light reddish brown.
The female resembles the male.
59
WAXWING.
BOHEMIAN WAXWING. BOHEMIAN CHATTERER. SILKTAI. EUROPEAN CHATTERER. WAXEN CHATTERER.
Bombycivora garrula, TEMMINCK, Bombycilla 3 FLEMING, as Bohemica, BRISSON. Ampelis garrulus, Linnzvus. GMELIN. Bombyx—aA silk-worm, Voro—To devour. Garrula—Garrulous.
THe endless variety of nature, though doubtless in the whole connected by almost imperceptible links, yet to the student of only a part, is, as it were interrupted here and there by sudden breaks, origins of fresh series, from whence again the chain goes on. The bird before us, with its ‘hues like these,’ is an instance and example of this.
This most singularly elegant bird, the silky texture of whose plumage resembles that of the Jays, is distributed throughout the more northern division of Europe, the ele- vated regions of Asia, where, according to some, it breeds, and North America. It is found in the Arctic regions, Russia, Sweden, Poland, Bohemia, Silesia, Germany, Switzer- land, and France. It is said to be very delicious food, and is accordingly caught for the table in those countries in which it is plentiful, being imbued with a delicate bitter taste; doubtless, like the Grouse, from the nature of the food on which it subsists.
Until lately the Waxwing, so called from the red wax-like tips to some of the feathers of its wings, was considered a rare bird in this country. ‘In the winter of 1810,’ says Selby, ‘large flocks were dispersed through various parts of the kingdom, and from that period it does not seem to have visited our island till the month of February, 1822, when
60 | WAXWING.
a few came under my inspection; and several were observed during the severe storm in the winter of 1823. In the winter of 1827, Waxwings again visited our island.’ So they also did in large numbers in most parts of the country, though chiefly in the eastern counties or those bordering on them, in the months of January and February, in the year 1850, the weather being very severe for some time; and not a few have been met with since. I have hardly a doubt but that some have visited us every year.
In Yorkshire, some have occurred in most winters, especially in hard frosts, but most in the year just named. One was eaught alive in a bush near Bridlington Quay. I am in- formed by Mr. Robert Dunn, of Helister, near Weesdale, in the Shetland Islands, that one was taken at Northmaven, in the north part of Shetland, on the Ist. of April, 1851; and about the same time another at Lerwick; and a third seen at a place called Aithsting, near Helister. In Ireland, divers specimens have at various times occurred. In Scotland they are also said to appear annually.
It is migratory in its habits, leaving in the latter part of November, the polar countries for the more genial climes of more southern districts, from which latter it returns to the former in March or April, according to the season.
Birds of this species seem to associate in flocks, sometimes of two or three hundred individuals. They are easily tamed, and are gentle and quiet.
Their flight strongly resembles that of the Starling. ‘They roost among the thickest branches of trees and bushes; and in windy weather seek shelter very near the ground, or hide in the crevices of rocks in rocky countries.’
The Waxwing feeds on berries, such as those of the common thorn, the mountain ash, the juniper, the arbutus, and the whortle-berry.
The note is a shrill whistle.
These birds are believed to breed within the limits of the Arctie circle—in holes among rocks, or in deep forests.
Male; length, about eight inches and a half; bill, black, inclining to yellowish white or horn-colour at the base: the upper part is much notched about one fourth from the tip, and the under one has a corresponding groove on its edge, as in the Shrikes. Iris, purplish red; a black streak runs to and beyond it: bristly black feathers cover the nostrils. <A pendent crest of silky feathers, nearly an inch and a half in
WAXWING. 61
length, surmounts the crown of the head. It is raised or lowered at the pleasure of the bird: on the forehead the feathers lay smooth, but are disunited backwards. Head, reddish grey; forehead, black, bordered with rust-colour shaded off; neck and nape, reddish grey; chin and throat, velvet black; breast, reddish grey above, mellowed below into a much fainter tint; back, reddish grey. Greater wing coverts, black tipped with white; lesser wing coverts, brownish ash-colour; primaries, black, all but the first two or three marked upon the shaft near the tip with a line of bright yellow, and in some speci- mens the feathers are tipped with the same on the outer webs, which are there white; secondaries, grey; three or four or more of them tipped with white and a coral-like or wax- like appendage, or prolongation of the shaft; they vary in number: in one described by Montagu, there were five on one side, and six on the other; tertiaries, purple grey, tipped with white, some of them with the coral adjunct; greater and lesser under coverts, greyish white, greyish ash-colour towards the tips. Tail, ash-colour at the base, black in the central portion, and bright yellow at the tip; in old birds it is also furnished with the wax-like appendages: upper tail coverts, ash-colour; under tail coverts, reddish brown, with a tint of orange; legs and toes, strong and black, the former scaled in front, and the latter on their upper part; claws, black.
The female resembles the male, but the colours are paler. In the young birds the iris is chesnut brown, the crest is shorter, the yellow on the quill feathers and the tail less bright, and the coral appendages on the wings smaller, as well as fewer in number, than in the mature bird, and entirely wanting on the tail. The moult takes place in August or September.
62
NUTHATCH. NUTJOBBER. WOODCRACKER. Sitta Europea, Pennant, Monraav. Sitta—............ ? Europea— European,
THE vernacular name of this bird, as descriptive of its habit of hacking and hewing at the nuts, which furnish it with food, is derived from some primitive word, the original likewise of the word hatchet, as is its second name of Nutjobber, from another root of the like import.
The temperate regions are the home of the Nuthatch: it occurs in the central and more northern parts of Europe and Asia—in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, and France.
In this country it is but sparingly distributed, though it by no means ranks with very rare birds. In Yorkshire, it breeds in Castle Howard Park, the stately avenues of beech trees there being exactly to its taste. It is also met with at Seacroft, near Leeds; about Harewood Bridge and Park; in the neighbourhood of Sheffield, Doncaster, and Barnsley; in Stainborough woods, and those of Wentworth Castle, the splendid seat of Thomas Frederick Vernon Wentworth, Esq. I have seen it in Dorsetshire, in the parish of Glanville’s Wootton. It is pretty common, as W. F. W. Bird, Esq. informs me, in Kensington Gardens, near London.
In Ireland and Scotland it appears to be unknown.
In the winter, the Nuthatch leaves the woods for less dreary situations, and is then not unfrequently found in orchards and gardens, but it resides with us throughout the year.
More than two or three of these birds are not often seen together, except indeed while the parents and the young are kept togetner by the family tie. They are easily tamed, and
NUTHATCH. 63
display their natural propensities upon whatever wood-work may be used to confine them. Even in their wild state they are far from shy, and may be approached pretty closely in the ‘sweet spring time,’ when the male bird is engaged in singing ditties ‘to his mistress’s eyebrow.’
The Nuthatch does not often alight on the ground, though it does so occasionally in search of food. It does not use its tail as a rest in climbing trees, as the Woodpeckers do, but its claws are sufficiently ‘prehensile and adhesive to enable it to traverse the trunks of trees in every direction, not only upwards like those birds, but downwards also. Its not requiring the help of its tail for the ‘facilis descensus,’ is doubtless the reason of its organization being such as to enable it to do without its aid at all. It supports itself mainly on the hind part of the leg, and what may be called the heel. Its posture on the tree is straight, and close to the bark, and it does not aid its progress by an occasional hop, as is the case with the Woodpeckers, but steps along quickly and smoothly. It flies rather rapidly, with an undu- lating motion, if to any ee but otherwise, in a straight line, “with flapping wing
Nuts are its favourite food. Tt also feeds on berries, acorns, beech-mast, seeds, barley, oats, and other grain, heetles oe other ea and caterpillars, and, according to Bewick, will pick bones; and lays up in different little granaries, a supply of food against a day of want.
The note sounds like the syllables ‘quit, quit,’ and it is uttered repeatedly while the ‘ups and downs’ of the bird are being quietly and stealthily performed upon the tree on which it seeks its sustenance.
The nest is placed in some hole ina tree. If the entrance is too large they narrow it with clay, until it is of the right width. It is lmed with dry leaves, the scales of fir-cones, moss, bits of bark and wood, and sometimes a little grass.
The eggs, from five to seven, or eight or nine in number, of an oval form, are greyish white, spotted, and sometimes much blotted with reddish brown.
Male; weight, about six drachms; Jength, about five inches and three quarters; bill, dark lcad-colour, dusky at the tip, dingy white at the base of the lower part; it is very hard and pointed: a black streak runs from it through the eye to the shoulder; iris, bright chesnut; over it is a white band; head, crown, " neck on “the back, and nape, light slate-colou=;
64 NUTHATCH.
chin, white; throat and breast, buff-colour; the latter chesnut on the sides, and towards the neck, with a tinge of orange; back, light slate-colour. Tail, except the two middle feathers, which are light slate-colour, black at the base, grey at the end, with a patch of white between these two colours on the three outside feathers, lessening inwards; legs, toes, and claws, light brown, the former scaled.
WRYNECK.
CUCKOO'S MATE. CUCKOO’S MAID. CUCKOO'S MESSENGER. RINDING-BIRD. SNAKE-BIRD. TONGUE-BIRD. EMMET-HUNTER.
GWAS Y GOG, OF THE ANCIENT BRITISH. Yunx torquilla, Linna&us. LATHAM.
Yunr—The Greek name of some bird, applied to the Wryneck. Torquilla—A factitious word, from Torgueo—Lo turn, twist, or wrest.
Tus singularly elegant, though plain-coloured bird, a seeming link between the Woodpeckers and Cuckoos, is found in the three divisions of the so-called old world. In Europe, it fre- quents Lapland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Greece, Italy, and, though but seldom, Holland. It is said also to be met with in Kamtschatka. In Asia, it is found among the Himalaya Mountains; and also, according to Tem- minek, in Japan.
In this country it is found in all the more southern counties, but mostly on the eastern side of the island, and, but rarely, as far north as Northumberland. A few have been met with in Scotland, namely, two in Berwickshire, one in Fifeshire, and one or two in other parts. In Ireland it has not yet been noticed. In Yorkshire I have once seen it, between Armthorpe and Doncaster, and it has been observed there occasionally by others, as well as near Sheffield, Barnsley, Halifax, Hebden-Bridge, and York. I have also seen it not very unfrequently in Worcestershire.
This bird is a regular periodical visitant to us, and usually arrives, though in uncertain, and, I fear, from whatever cause, in gradually diminishing numbers, the first or second week in
VOL. IL 8
66 “ “WRYNECK.
April, a few days before the Cuckoo, whence one of its pro- vincial names. It takes its departure the end of August or beginning of September. On the Continent it is an inhabitant of the colder parts, during the summer months.
The Wryneck is not a shy bird, and, if disturbed, flies only to a short distance. It has a curious habit, whence its name, of turning its head and neck about in an odd manner, first extending the former forwards, then moving it slowly awry from side to side, and even twisting it quite round, when the black line on the back of the neck adds to its peculiar appearance, accompanying this singular proceeding with a fanning of the tail, and a bowing and scraping of the whole body, uttermg the while a croaking sound. These postures, however, are only performed by the old birds, who also, at times, express their feelings by a puffing out and distention, in apparent excitement, of the feathers of the head and throat, and this they also do if approached in the nest, making at the same time a hissing noise, the origin, probably, of their provincial name of Snake-bird, unless indeed it be derived from the writhing motion of the head and neck. The young are easily tamed.
More than a pair of Wrynecks are not, except by accident, seen together. They are unsocial birds, solitary except during the breeding season. Orchards, gardens, coppices, plantations, and, occasionally, trees in the open fields, are their resorts. For the most part they may be seen on an ant-hill, a bank, or the lower branches of a middle-sized tree, giving a preference to a leafless or a dead one, a low bush, or a hedge-row.
The Wryneck does not, in general, fly far at a time, but only from one bush or tree to another, and its flight is rather awkward than otherwise. It roosts in some hole of a tree. On the ground it moves by hopping, and, though it supports itself against the trunk of a tree, like the Woodpeckers, yet does not move forwards in that position.
Its food consists principally of ants, and their eggs and larve. ‘These it obtains by means of its long projectile tongue, to the glutinous substance on which they adhere, having first, if necessary, shaken with its bill their house about their ears, and so dislodged and collected them together; otherwise, if the earth be hollow, the hard-tipped tongue, which is two inches and a quarter in length, is thrust into the interstices, and the tenants extracted: not a little earth is also swallowed with them. It also feeds on other insects, and Bechstein
WRYNECK. 67
says, will eat elderberries. Montagu kept one for a short time, and he observed that the tongue is darted forward and retracted with unerring aim, and at the same time with such velocity, ‘that an ant’s egg, which is of a light colour, and more conspicuous than the tongue, has somewhat the appear- ance of moving towards the mouth by attraction, as a needle flies to a magnet.’ The young are fed with caterpillars, ants, and their eggs.
The note is peculiar, and somewhat resembles that of the Kestrel, Hobby, and other smaller species of Hawk. It is rendered by the words ‘good, good, good,’ ‘cue, cue, cue, cue,’ or ‘qui, qui,’ and an abrupt ‘shick,’ the former before the young brood are hatched, and the latter afterwards, but only ‘sotto voce.’
The nest is placed in a hole of a tree, the mouldered wood of which seems to supply its chief, or only lining, or rather, layer. The apple tree is frequently chosen. It is made of small roots, and the old nest of a Woodpecker or some other bird would appear to be sometimes adapted, and in some slight degree fashioned with its bill to its own use by the Wryneck. It domiciles at various heights from the ground, and various depths from the surface of the tree, often close to a road side, in view of every passer by.
The eggs, from six or seven to nine or ten in number, are pure white. Mr. Salmon relates, that having removed the nest of a pair of these birds, in quest of their eggs, and having replaced it, on finding that it did not contain any, they still resorted to it, and he obtained successively from it, though the nest was necessarily again taken out, the several numbers of five, six, four, and seven eggs. The poor bird thus, according to this inveterate and unrelenting bird-nester, ‘suffered her nest to be disturbed five times, and the eggs, (amounting altogether to twenty-two,) to be taken away at four different periods within the month before she finally abandoned the spot she had selected.’ The young are hatched in about fourteen days, and the female bird is so much attached to them, that she may easily be taken, not only while sitting on the eggs, but even after the young are hatched and fledged. The same spot is resorted to year after
ear.
; Male; weight, about ten drachms; length, about seven inches, or seven and a half; bill, yellowish brown; iris, chesnut brown; head, hoary grey, with a tinge of yellow or
68 WRYNECK.
white, most elegantly mottled, speckled, striated, and barred with brown, the bars of an arrow-shape, and most on the crown; neck, in front, pale yellow brown, with narrow trans- verse black lines; nape, the same—a streak of black mixed with brown runs down from it to the lower part of the back; chin and throat, yellowish white and brown, with transverse black bars; breast, white, with numerous arrow- shaped black spots, on its sides it has a patch of brown; back, as the head.
The wings have the first and third feathers nearly equal in length, longer than the fourth, and a little shorter than the second, which is the longest; greater and lesser wing coverts, as the head; primaries, barred alternately with pale yellow, brown, and black; secondaries, brown, speckled with yellow brown, and a few white spots; tertiaries, the same, with a line of black. ‘Tail, long, and much rounded at the end; the colour is grey, mottled with brown, and with four irregular black bars, underneath it is pale greyish brown, barred and speckled with black; upper tail coverts, grey, speckled with brown; under tail coverts, dull white, tinged with pale yellow brown; legs, toes, two before and two behind, and claws, brown.
The female resembles the male, but the colours of her plumage are not so bright, and the band on the back not so long as in the male.
The young are also lighter in colour.
7
69
CREEPER.
TREE CREEPER. COMMON CREEPER. FAMILIAR CREEPER. TREE CLIMBER.
Certhia familiarrs, PENNANT. MONTAGU. Certhia—...scceseors ? Familiaris—Familiar, common.
Tuts modest and retiring little bird is, so to speak, neither common nor uncommon. Even where it is to be seen, it often is not seen, for, not only is its dress of a sober and unpretending character, bearing resemblance, likewise, as is the case with many of nature’s animate works, to the less highly-organized substances on which it plays its part, but, it also, more shy apparently than fearful, shuns observation, and, on coming within the range of your glance, withdraws at once from sight. By watching for its return, you will often catch a glimpse of it, but, frequently, hid by the tree, it flies off to some neighbouring one, on which you next see it. It is. more frequently detected by its note than by its appearance.
It is found plentifully throughout Europe; as far north as Russia, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden; and southwards in Germany and Italy. It is also found in North America, and occurs in all parts of our Islands.
. Wooded districts, and the larger kinds of trees, providing 16 with food, are its resort.
The Creeper, though in other countries it moves from exposed to more sheltered localities, for the purpose of rearing its young, arriving thereat in March, and departing in September or October, remains with us throughout the
ear.
These little birds are mostly seen singly, or in pairs, and sometimes in company with the Titmice, almost always en- gaged in creeping up the trunks of trees, or flitting from
70 CREEPER.
one tree to another, and seldom on the ground. In winter, ‘when the hoar-frost is chill,’ they come to farm-yards and other out-buildings, in search of any food which such less- exposed situations may have caused to be left in their way. They are of most diligently active and industrious habits, being rarely indeed to be seen, from any cause, in an attitude of rest. Their progress is only upwards on the trees, aided by the rest afforded by their deflected tails, or underneath or on the horizontal branches, and performed with great celerity by a series of impulses, the outline of their general contour, contributed by their arched bill, back, and tail, assuming almost the form of a segment of a circle.
Their flight is undulated, and generally short—a journey from tree to tree, alighting at the base, and nimbly winning their way to the top, when the like course is again and again repeated.
The food of this species consists, for the most part, of small beetles and other insects, spiders and caterpillars, which, with its long and slender curved beak, it extracts from fissures in the bark of trees, as well as at times from those of old fences and other wooden buildings; and it also eats seeds.
The note of the Creeper resembles the word ‘tree tree,’ quickly and shrilly repeated. It attracts your attention, being evidently produced by a very tiny throat.
Nidification commences in March, and a second brood is very frequently reared the same year, but not, it seems to be thought, in the same nest.
The nest is composed of grass, straws, fibres of noo and twigs, bits of bark, spiders’ webs, and the cocoons of chrysa- lides, lined with the latter and feathers. It is placed either in a hole or some crevice of the bark of a tree, the willow, as most affording such as it requires, being preferred, or even between two stems, and has been found in the interstice afforded by two palings: a hole previously tenanted by a Titmouse or other small bird is sometimes resorted to. I¢ is shaped more widely, or more narrowly, according to the width afforded by its plot of building ground. The Rev. Gilbert White, in his ‘Natural ay of Selborne,’ says, ‘a pair of Creepers have built at one end of the parsonage house at Greatham, behind some loose plaster. It is very amusing to see them run creeping up the walls with the agility ‘of, a mouse. They take great delight in climbing up
CREEPER. vial
steep surfaces, aud support themselves in their progress with their tails, which are long and stiff, and inclined downwards.’
The eggs, eight or nine at the former brood, laid in April, and four or five at the second, are white, with a few red spots all over, or only at the thicker end. They are hatched in thirteen days, and both birds sit on them by turns. The young are fed with small caterpillars. ‘If the young,’ says Meyer, ‘are disturbed, they crawl out of the nest up the tree, but if they should fall to the ground, they run quickly amongst the grass and hide themselves, and are almost certain to make their escape.’
Male; weight, about two drachms; length, from five inches to five inches and a quarter; bill, long, slender, and curved downwards; it is compressed towards the tip, and ridged on the upper part, which is larger than the lower one; the latter is dull yellowish white, except at the tip, which, as is the whole of the upper one, is dusky: the space between it and the eye is brown ash-colour. Iris, brown; a white streak runs over it, and ends in a spot of the same at the side of the nape: from the eye backwards extends a dusky streak. Head on the sides, brown ash-colour, spotted with white; crown, dusky brown, with markings of dull white, and darker and lighter yellow; neck and nape, the same, the spots larger; chin and throat, white. Breast, silvery soiled white, yellowish on the sides and the lower part; back, as the neck.
Wings; the first feather is very short, the second nearly half an inch shorter than the third; the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth nearly equal in length, the fourth rather the longest; greater wing coverts, dusky, white on the tips of the outer webs, the edges of the white yellowish; lesser wing coverts, dusky tipped with white; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, dusky tipped with white, more extended over the ends of the three last feathers; from the fourth to the fifteenth feather, a yellowish white band across the middle of each, which is straight when the wings are extended, but is in heraldic phrase ‘wavy’ or, rather, ‘crenellée’, when they are closed. Tail, reddish or brownish ash-colour, yellowish towards the outer edge, the shafts pale brown yellow; upper tail coverts, as the back, tinged with tawny rust-colour; under tail coverts, reddish yellow, tipped with white. Legs, toes, and claws, pale yellow brown, the last named with a tinge of pale red; they are very long and curved.
The female nearly resembles the male.
wy bo
BLACK WOODPECKER.
GREAT BLACK WOODPECKER.
Picus martius, PENNANT. Monracu.
Picus—A bird that makes holes in trees, supposed to be the Woodpecker. MMJartius—martial—warlike ; also, belonging to the month of March,
THE Black Woodpecker is found in Europe in the mountain forests of Switzerland, as also in Russia, Siberia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Italy, and France. It has been met with in Persia; and also, by my friend Hugh Edwin Strickland, Esq., in Asia Minor. It is a native likewise of some parts of North and South America.
The following specimens of this bird have been met with in this country:—Two were shot in Yorkshire, and unfortu- nately not preserved; two were seen by Thomas Meynell, Jun., Esq., in the grounds of his father’s seat, the Friarage, at Yarm; and one was shot the first week in March, 1846, near Ripley, the seat of Sir William A. Ingilby, Bart.; one shot by Lord Stanley in Lancashire; one on the trunk of a tree, in Battersea fields, near London, in 1805; one in the col- lection of Mr. Donovan; one in Lincolnshire; two in a wood near Scole, in Norfolk; a pair seen several times in a wood near Christchurch, in Hampshire; one shot in a nursery garden near Blandford, in Dorsetshire; and another at Whit- church, in the same county; both recorded by Dr. Pulteney. Others, according to Dr. Latham, in Devonshire and some of the southern counties; and one in Scotland, as recorded by Sir Robert Sibbald.
In addition to all these, J. Me’ Intosh, Esq., of Charminster, Dorsetshire, records in “The Naturalist,’ No. 1, page 20, that
BLACK WOODPECKER. 73
he has known these birds to occur more than once at Charborough Park, in that county, the seat of J. S. W. S. Hi. Drax, Esq.; and also to have built several times, one pair he believes, three successive years, at Claremont, Surrey.
In Ireland, the Black Woodpecker has not yet been seen.
The gloomy recesses of the sunless pine woods are the proper places of this sable species. In the ‘Black Forest’ he is at home, and does not consider himself as an ‘Exile of the Landes.’
These birds are of a morose and unsociable disposition. Two are the most that associate together; a third is, imme- diately on its appearance, banished from their neighbourhood. ‘The Black Woodpecker is a strong, active, and lively bird. Its restless nature drives it from spot to spot; and when aware of being observed toc nearly, it endeavours to effect its escape, unnoticed by its pursuers, at an incredible rate, but may generally be detected by the noise it makes, first in one place then in another, in Jess time than seems possible. When hurried, it runs up a tree, taking reiterated leaps for- ward, with such force that its claws may plainly be heard hooking into the rough bark of the tree, and its tail beating against it alternately to balance itself. Under these cireum- stances the bird holds its head back and raises its breast from the tree, which gives it, in that attitude, a noble appearance.’
Its flight is heavy, and not extended—a series of falls and risings, performed with some degree of apparent difficulty, the wings being exerted to a more than ordinarily forward extension. In general it is only continued from the top of one tree to the bottom of another, up which the bird runs with nimble alertness, evidently perfectly at home. It is said to roost at night in the hole of a tree, perhaps, at times, that in which it builds, and to enlarge it for itself if necessary.
It preys on beetles and other insects and their larve; ants and their eggs; which are captured by means of the glutinous substance exuded from its elongate tongue, darted out when- ever they are likely to be obtained. In default of this food, it is said, by Temminck, to eat nuts, seeds, and berries,
The note, at least that of the male bird, is rendered by the syllables ‘cree, cree,’ and ‘kirr, kirr;’ and it has other flexions of varied import, not without meaning, doubtless, to the birds themselves. While thus engaged, the crimson
74, BLACK WOODPECKER.
feathers of the head are erected, and have a beautiful appear- ance fanning in the sun. The beating and vibration of the dead branches, caused by the ‘sturdy stroke’ of the potent bill of the Black Woodpecker, is said to be heard at the distance of half a mile.
These birds commence building in the beginning of April, and the nest is placed in the hole of a tree, most frequently the fir, at a height, generally, of about fifty or sixty feet from the ground, or occasionally, in a hollow of a wall.
The entrance to it is narrow, being only of sufficient diameter to admit a man’s hand; but beyond this, it wi- dens in a downward direction, to the width of about nine inches. The chips and splinters made by the bird in excava- ting its nursery, frequently betray the locality to the curious, some of them being of considerable size, even several inches long; so great is the power of the bill, acting almost like a bill-hook.
The eggs, from three, it is said, to five or six in number, are white, smooth, and shining. The male is reported to take his turn on the nest, and this labour of both lasts for seventeen or eighteen days. The young are fed with ants’ eggs, and are so carefully guarded by their parents, that they will hardly quit the nest if it be approached.
Male; weight, twenty to twenty-three ounces; length, one foot four inches, to as much as one foot seven or eight, ac- cording to different accounts; bill, black at the tip, the base almost white, the remainder bluish horn-colour, ending in yellowish: the upper part is longer than the lower. Iris, pale yellow; a small tuft of bristly feathers extends forwards from the base of the bill; crown, deep rich red, the feathers black at the base. The whole of the rest of the plumage is black, the under part more dull than the upper.
The wings, which extend to half the length of the tail, have the first feather narrow, pointed, and only two inches in length; the second about five inches long, also narrow and pointed, and of equal length with the ninth; the third shorter than the fourth, fifth, or sixth, which are of about equal length, and the longest in the wing, the fifth the most so; the tips of the wings are rusty black. The two middle feathers of the tail are the longest, the outside ones the shortest, the former being seven inches, and the latter only two and a half long, all much narrowed at the tips, hollowed beneath, and the webs at the tips resembling bristles;
BLACK WOODPECKER. 75
legs,. slate-colour, partly feathered; two of the toes are turned backwards, the inner one being only half as long as the outer one; claws, black, much curved, strong, and sharp. The female has the crimson colour only at the back of the head. The young males have the iris grey, and the crown of the head only spotted with red.
76
GREEN WOODPECKER.
ECLE. LARGE GREEN WOODPECKER. POPINJAY. WOODSPITE. RAIN-BIRD. RAIN-FOWL. WHITTLE. HIGH HOE. HEW-HOLE. PICK-A-TREE. AWL-BIRD. YAPPINGALL. YAFFLE. YAFFER. NICK-A-PECKER.
Picus viridis, LINN.ZUS. Brachylopus viridis, SWAINSON.
Picus—A bird that makes holes in trees, supposed to be the Woodpecker. Viridis—Green.
THouGH to man it is a difficulty to make even a copy without some variation from the original, yet, to strike out a fresh design, is by no means so easy as it might therefore be thought. Let the thoughtful artist then devoutly wonder at the unspeakable beauty of the varieties which the hand of Almighty power and wisdom has pourtrayed in the ‘fowls of the air, as in all the other ‘wonderful works’ of nature, ‘which God created and made.’
This handsome species is a native of Europe, being found in more or less plenty, according to the suitableness of the locality, in Russia, Siberia, Spain, Greece, Italy, Scandinavia, France, and Holland; also in Africa; and in Egypt, according to Meyer.
It is common throughout England, and, according to Selby, in Scotland, that is to say, in all the wooded districts. In Ireland its occurrence has not yet been authenticated.
These birds roost early, and repose in their holes at night. The young run on the trees before they are able to fly, and if then captured are easily tamed.
Like the rest of its tribe, this species only ascends, for the most part obliquely, on the trees; any descent is performed
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GREEN WOODPECKER. Py
by a retrograde motion. It alights near the base, and, tapping at intervals to alarm any hidden insects, quickly makes its way to the higher part of the bole, from which it flies downwards to another tree, or to another part of the same one, to commence again ‘de novo.’ Occasionally it may be seen in strong hedges. In severe weather it ap- proaches villages and farms, searching for its food in the walls of old buildings and barns, as well as in the neighbouring trees.
The flight of this bird is generally short, from tree to tree, heavy and laboured, the wings being rapidly fluttered, and producing a rustling noise; it gains a long reach by the impetus it has acquired, and then drops, the effort requiring to be renewed. On the ground it walks horizontally, the tail dragging after it.
The ‘laugh’ of the Green Woodpecker, for so is its harsh note of ‘glu, glu, glu, gluck’ designated, is supposed to prognosticate rain; hence one of its trivial names. It is almost startling if suddenly and unexpectedly heard.
Its hard and wedge-shaped bill enables it, without difficulty, to procure its food by boring into the decayed wood of trees, even through any sound exterior part, and with its long and extensile tongue, it extracts the insects and their eggs, spiders and caterpillars, on which it lives, from the crannies in the bark in which they lie concealed, and ants and their eggs from their hills; in searching for which it is frequently seen on the ground; and, Bewick says, uses not only its bill, but its feet: failing such a supply, it will eat nuts. The tongue is a most wonderful organ, as in the rest of the Woodpeckers. ‘It has the appearance of a silver ribbon, or rather, from its transparency, a stream of molten glass; and the rapidity with which it is protruded and withdrawn is so great, that the eye is dazzled in following its motions: it is flexible in the highest degree.’
Preparations for building are commenced even so early as February, and the old nest is frequently resorted to and re- paired. The nest, if decayed wood-dust may be called such, is placed at a height of fifteen or twenty feet from the ground, in a sound hole in a tree; and it is said that the birds carry away the chips and fragments of wood to a distance, as if afraid that they might lead to a discovery of their retreat. If necessary, it perforates a hole, or else suits one to itself, with its trenchant bill, the strokes of the active worker being
78 GREEN WOODPECKER.
so incessantly repeated, that the head can hardly be perceived to move; and the sound of the ‘Woodpecker tapping the hollow beech tree,’ may be distinctly heard, it is said, at a distance of half a mile.
The eggs, four or five, to six or eight in number, are bluish white in colour. In the ‘Zoologist,’ page 2229, Alfred Newton, Esq. mentions his having met with five eggs of this bird in a nest at Elvedon, near Thetford, Norfolk, which were blotted and spotted with reddish brown and tawny yellow; and at page 2301, he speaks of having been informed of two other similar instances, one or both of them, in the same neigh- bourhood.
The young are hatched in June. The parents are sedulously devoted to them, and, when fully fledged, they all quit together in company.
Male; length, one foot one inch and a half; bill, black, or bluish black, the base of the lower part being nearly white; from its corner a black streak runs downwards, the middle part being brilliant red, the feathers grey at the base; iris, greyish white, with a faint tinge of yellow; it is surrounded by a black space, part in fact of the streak; black bristles surround the base of the bill. Forehead, jet black; head, on the sides, greenish white; crown, brilliant red, running down- wards to a point brighter than the rest; neck, on the sides, greyish green, on the back and the nape, greenish yellow; chin, as the breast; throat, brownish white; breast, yellowish grey, with a tinge of green; back, above greenish yellow, below yellow.
The wings reach nearly to half the length of the tail; the first feather is very short, the fourth and fifth the longest in the wing; greater and lesser wing coverts, yellowish green; primaries, greyish black, spotted with faint yellowish white square spots along the outer web, and the inner half of the inner one, with round ones, the tips not spotted; secondaries and tertiaries, green on the outer web, and greyish black spotted with dull white on the inner one, most dull towards the primaries; greater and lesser under wing coverts, dusky and greyish white, in bars, and rows of spots, the whole tinged with greenish yellow. The tail, of twelve feathers, is barred with dull greyish white, or greenish white, and dull greyish black; it is long, stiff, and poimted, the two middle feathers being the longest, the others graduated; they are grooved underneath; beneath it is dusky, with bars of greyish
GREEN WOODPECKER. 79
white; upper tail coverts, yellow; under tail coverts, with dusky greenish transverse markings; legs and toes, blackish grey, with a tinge of green, and strong, with large scales in front, and small ones behind; the toes are roughened beneath, as in all the rest of the genus; two toes are in front and two behind; claws, black and much hooked.
Female; length, about one foot; there is no red on the black moustache, and less on the crown than in the male. The whole plumage is also more dull in colour.
The young have the scarlet of the moustache, which is itself faint, as is the black round the eye and that on the head, mixed with yellow, greyish white, and greyish black; the neck, chin, and throat are dull greyish white, with a tinge of dull yellowish green, streaked with greyish black; the breast the same, but barred transversely; on the back and wings the green feathers are interspersed with grey, and tipped with yellow, and have a yellowish white mark along the shafts.
Temminck says that varieties of a yellowish white colour occasionally occur.
80
\
GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER.
WHITWALL. WITWALL. WOODWALL. WOODNACKER. WOODPIE. FRENCH PIE. PIED WOODPECKER. GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. GREAT BLACK AND WHITE WOODPECKER. FRENCH WOODPECKER.
Picus major, PENNANT. MONTAGU. “varius major, Ray.
Picus—A bird that makes holes in trees, supposed to be the Woodpecker. Major—Greater.
Tuts species is found over the whole of the European con- tinent, from Russia to Italy, Sweden to France, Denmark and Norway to Germany, and other countries. In Asia Minor it has been noticed by EH. H. Strickland, Esq.; and, Meyer says, is found in America also.
In this country it is of local distribution, dependent entirely on the nature of the locality, and nowhere to be called common. Wooded districts are, of course, its resort; and it is most frequent in the midland counties, in parks, forests, and woods, and is occasionally to be seen in gardens. It becomes much less numerous farther north.
In Yorkshire it occurs not very unfrequently near Hud- dersfield, as Peter Inchbald, Esq. informs me; and it has been known to breed there. Near Sheffield, also, it is not rare; and has been met with near Hebden-Bridge, Barnsley, and Plumpton, all in the West-Riding; Castle Howard, in the North-Riding; and one at Boynton, in the Kast-Riding. In Northumberland it is scarce, and in Cumberland. W. F. Wratislaw Bird, Esq. has written me word, that one of these birds, which, probably, as he remarks, had strayed from Ken-
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GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 81
sington Gardens, where they are not unfrequent, was observed, a few years since, early in the morning, climbing up the wall of a house near’ Cavendish Square, London. Was it making its way to the ‘Woods and Forests?’
In Scotland it sparingly occurs in Roxburghshire and Dum- friesshire, and even farther north; and in the neighbourhood of the Spey and the Dee. In the Orkney Islands, one was shot near Scapa; another by Mr. Strang, on the 10th. of September, 1830; a young one was caught at Stronsay; and another shot in the garden of Mr. Traill, of Woodwick, at Kirkwall. For these particulars I am indebted to the very complete ‘Historia Naturalis Orcadensis,’ published by W. B. Baikie, Esq., M.D., and Mr. Robert Heddle, and very oblig- ingly forwarded to me by those gentlemen, for the use of this work.
In Ireland, eleven specimens have been placed on record by William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, as having occurred in various parts of the island.
Mr. Selby considers that these birds are probably migratory, as he has met with them in Northumberland in the months of October and November, generally after storms from the north-east. They, at all events, wander about more in the autumn than in any other part of the year.
This species naturally displays the capabilities of climbing, which distinguish its race. With the most easy adroitness it runs in all upward directions over the branches and trunks of trees, seeming at the same time to prefer having the latter between you and it, should you approach. Sometimes they will run up to the top of the tree, and then fly off. They seldom alight on the ground, and their movements then are neither quick nor graceful. The old birds shew great attach- ment to their young. Montagu mentions one instance in which ‘notwithstanding that a chisel and mallet were used to enlarge the hole, the female did not attempt to fly out till the hand was introduced, when she quitted the tree at another opening.’ The Greater Spotted Woodpecker is a courageous, active, strong, and lively bird; but unsociable with strangers, and defensive of its own food.
The flight of this Woodpecker is straight and strong, but short and curved; the wings being quickly moved from, and brought close back again to the body.
Their food consists of insects and caterpillars, seeds, fruits, and nuts. Mr. Gould observes that they ‘sometimes alight
VOL. II, G
82 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER.
upon rails, old posts, and decayed pollards, where, among the moss and vegetable matter, they find a plentiful harvest of spiders, ants, and other insects; nor are they free from the charge of plundering the fruit trees of the garden, and, in fact, commit great havoc among cherries, plums, and wall fruit in general.’ They alarm the insects from their recesses by the noise made with their bills upon the trees, which is audible at the distance of half a mile. Meyer says that they do not eat ants; but he adds the eggs of insects, nuts, the seeds of fir-cones, and other seeds to the above bill of fare; and he also remarks, though I own I cannot think it a circumstance of very common occurrence, ‘the jealousy of this bird leads it into danger, as it is sure to take notice if any one taps against a tree; and approaches sometimes near enough to be caught with the hand.
In the spring, these birds produce a like jarring noise to that made by the Green Woodpecker; and their note is ex- pressed by Meyer by the syllables ‘gich,’ and ‘kirr,’ uttered only once at a time, at long intervals; perched, when wooing, at the top of a tree.
About the end of March, or beginning of April, the nidi- fication of these birds commences.
No nest is formed; the eggs are laid on the dust that lodges at the bottom of the hole, at a depth of six or seven inches, but sometimes as much as two feet from the orifice. A pine tree seems to be preferred, but the oak and others are also made available; a pre-existing hole being adapted to their wants, or if there be none such, a new one is scooped out of the most unsound part of the tree. There is frequently a second hole, which facilitates the escape of the bird in case of danger.
The eggs are four or five in number, white and glossy, and are hatched after an incubation of fifteen or sixteen days.
Male; weight, about two ounces and three quarters; length, about nine inches and a half; bill, dark shinmg horn-colour; from its base proceeds a streak of black towards the nape, from the middle of which another passes down each side of the neck, meeting upon the upper part of the breast, where it forms a half-moon-shaped patch. Iris, purple red. The eye is surrounded by a dull white ring; a few bristly feathers project about the base of the bill; forehead, buff or rusty yellowish white, black behind it; head on the back, bright scarlet; crown, dark bluish black; on the back part of the
GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 83
side of the neck is a white patch; nape, black; chin, throat, and breast, dingy or buff white; back, black.
The wings expand to the width of one foot, and have the first feather very short; the second shorter than the seventh, but longer than the eighth; the third, fourth, and fifth the same length as the seventh, the sixth the longest. The outer greater wing coverts black, the imner white; lesser wing coverts, black; primaries, black, with from two to five white patches on the outer web of each feather, and rounder ones on the inner; secondaries, black; tertiaries, black. The tail has the two middle feathers black, pointed, and longer than the rest; the two next black, tipped with white; the next black and white, the white barred with black; the middle feathers are three inches and three quarters in length, while the outer ones are only an inch and a quarter; upper tail coverts, black; under tail coverts, red; legs and toes, blackish grey, the former feathered part of the way down in front; claws, much hooked and black.
The female is without the red on the head. These birds moult as late as the beginning of November.
Young; at first the whole head is scarlet, till the first moult, when the females lose that colour entirely, and the males retain it only on the back of the head. ‘The young of the year are a little less in size than the old birds; and all the colours are less bright. Forehead, white; head, on the back, black, and in front, behind the forehead, scarlet; crown, red, sometimes with a few black feathers interspersed.
I am much indebted to W. F. W. Bird, Esq., for a careful ‘resume’ of the various authorities ‘pro and con,’ on the subject of a supposed occurrence of another species of Wood- pecker, the Middle Spotted; from which, on the whole, it seems to be incontestably established that it is only the young of the one before us; though, as Hunt remarks in his ‘British Ornithology,’ ‘it is certainly a curious circumstance that the beautiful scarlet on the head of the young is next to the white forehead, whilst in the old bird the scarlet is at the back of the head, and the black next to the white forehead; and also that in the case of a nest of three young birds and an old one, sent to him from the Rev. Mr. Whitear, one of the young ones weighed more than its parent; but ‘maternal solicitude’ may have been the cause both of the one and the other effect.
84
LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER.
LEAST SPOTTED WOODPECKER. LITTLE BLACK AND WHITE WOODPECKER. BARRED WOODPECKER. LITTLE FRENCH WOODPECKER. HICKWALL. PUMP-BORER. CRANK-BIRD.
Picus minor, LINNZUS. PENNANT. “© varius minor, Brisson. oP “ tertius, Ray.
Picus—A bird that makes holes in trees, supposed to be the Woodpecker. Minor—Less—lesser.
THis species is found in Europe—in France, Italy, Scandi- navia, Siberia, and Holland; in which latter it is rare.
In Yorkshire one of these birds was shot by Peter Inchbald, Esq., of Storthes Hall, near Huddersfield, in the winter of 1848; and this gentleman writes me word that a nest of the same species, containing five eggs, was found in that neigh- bourhood on the 31st. of May, 1851. In Worcestershire I have known it to occur, as has also W. F. W. Bird, Esq. In Norfolk it breeds, but is rare: one was shot at Blickling, in April, 1847. In Suffolk, one was shot at Haughleigh, near Stowmarket, in 1847. In Sussex a pair bred at Peasmarsh, in the beginning of June, 1849, in a plum tree, only a few yards from a house: a male was shot in 1844, at Arundel; another at Albourne, in December, in 1848; and one was captured at Parham House, having flown in through an open window; a few near Chichester, and others on the eastern side of the county. In Derbyshire, one near Newton, in the parish of Melbourne, December 11th., 1844. It has also occurred in Lancashire, Shropshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, not very unfrequently; Gloucestershire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Cornwall, Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, and Mid- dlesex, not very uncommonly near London—in Kensington Gardens; at Southgate, and in Greenwich Park. In North-
LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 85
umberland one was killed near Newcastle, in the month of January, 1829. In Orkney one was shot by Mr. Low, near Stromness, in the winter of 1774; and another was observed at Sanday, on the 14th. of October, 1823.
Like the rest of its race, nay, like the rest of another race, the great object of this bird is to get to the ‘top of the tree. Its motive, however—more than can be always said in the other case—is only a laudable one—to procure its necessary food: it sometimes perches on the topmost branch. It more peculiarly affects the apple, plum, beech, and elm; but not by any means exclusively.
The Little Woodpecker is of a morose disposition, and prefers its own company: excepting while the young birds continue to require their parents’ fostermg care, more than two are not seen together, and even this number only in the breeding season. It is not at all a shy bird. Wooded districts are its natural and necessary resort.
Its flight is undulated like that of its congeners, the wings being drawn close to the body, and then quickly flapped while extended.
Its food consists of small insects and their larve, spiders and ants, which are generally procured from the branches of trees in the fields and orchards, and, abroad, in the vineyards; but occasionally on the ground. The mode of their capture is the same as in the case of the other species of the genus.
It makes the same sort of jarrmg noise that the other Woodpeckers do, but of course in a ‘minor’ key. Its note, which is rather shrill and often repeated, but not frequently uttered while on the wing, resembles the syllables ‘keek, keek, keek, keek; and one of the sounds it makes is likened by the country people to that made by an augur in boring; hence one of its vernacular names.
The nest, so to call it, is placed at the bottom of a hole in a tree, in some cases found ready made to its hand, and in others adapted by itself to its requirements. Sometimes more than one hole is either wholly or in part thus fashioned, though only one can be finally occupied.
The eggs, generally five in number, are white: they are hatched in fourteen days.
Male; weight, not quite five drachms; length, five inches and a half to six inches; bill, lead-coloured, black at the tip, rather weaker than in the other species, sharply ridged on the upper surface: from the corner of the bill a moustache pro-
86 LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER.
ceeds, first black and white, then black, ending in a triangular black spot, the lower part of which shades off into dusky shaft streaks; iris, red; the feathers around it are brownish yellow: over it, and extending down the sides of the neck, is a white streak; greyish brown bristles surround the parts near the bill. Forehead, brownish yellow or greyish white; head and crown, bright red, palest towards the front and darker towards the nape; the sides are margined with black, which, meeting behind, forms an irregular patch, pointing downwards, and running into the black of the neck, (which has a patch of white on the side,) nape, and back; the sides of the head are white; chin, throat, and breast, dull white, with a tinge of brown on the sides, the feathers brownish black in the centre; back, white, barred across with black, and black downwards.
The wings expand to the width of one foot; underneath they are greyish black, with white bars; greater wing coverts, black, spotted with white; lesser wing coverts, black; prima- ries, dull black; the first quill is very short, the third, fourth, and fifth nearly equal, the fourth the longest in the wing, the second and seventh the same length, nearly as short as the first; the outer webs have angular spots of white, and the inner webs rounded ones, almost forming white bars; secondaries, dull black, very broad, and abruptly rounded; tertiaries, dull black; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white, with a few oval-shaped greyish black spots. The four middle feathers of the tail are black, the two next have white marks at the tip, the fourth is white, black at the base and tip; the fifth white, with five black bars; the outer black, with a white spot near the tip; underneath it is dull black and yellowish white; upper tail coverts, black; under tail coverts, spotted with dusky. Legs, lead-coloured, small, and not robust; they are feathered two thirds of their length down in front, and the remaining part is scaled; toes, lead- colour, yellowish beneath; claws, lead-coloured, black at the tips, short, weak, and dull.
The female wants the red on the head, which is yellowish white, and there is more white on the side of the head; the black of her plumage is more dull than in the male, and the white less pure.
In the young bird, the red on the head, which is assumed in the autumn, is at first interspersed with white; the iris chesnut; the breast light chocolate-colour, with dusky streaks.
87
HAIRY WOODPECKER.
Picus villosus, Linn2us. GMELIN.
Picus—A bird that makes holes in trees, supposed to be the Woodpecker. Villosus—Hairy,
I am here also indebted to W. F. W. Bird, Esq., for a eareful collection of the different accounts of this species as a British bird. Dr. Latham’s is as follows:—‘This has been met with in England, but I have only heard of two or three instances of the circumstance; one, in particular, communicated by the late Mr. Bolton, of Stannary, near Halifax, Yorkshire, of a pair being shot among the old trees in the park of Sir George Armitage, Baronet, at Kirklees Hall, where they no doubt had been bred, but the wood being cut down the suc- ceeding winter, the rest forsook the ground, and could not be traced further. The above pair were presented to the late Duchess Dowager of Portland, in whose collection I saw them many years since. These birds answered to the general des- cription in every particular, except in not having the red bar across the back of the head so complete, their being only a patch of that colour on each side of the head.’ So also says Wilson.
In the ‘British Cyclopedia,’ vol. iii, page 447, it is observed, ‘This is understood to be a discursive bird, at least to a considerable extent, for a specimen or two are reported to have made their appearance in England; and either it, or a species very similar, has been found in the eastern parts of Siberia. That an American Woodpecker should find its way to Siberia is by no means unlikely; coming to England, however, is a different matter.’ The writer of the above does not seem to have calculated that though the difficulty may
88 HAIRY WOODPECKER.
have been great, for a Woodpecker to cross the Atlantic, yet that having got, on his own shewing, to Siberia, this ‘over- land route’ removes the said difficulty at once; and Whitby being on our north-east coast, is In favour of the supposition that this course may have been followed by the specimen presently to be spoken of, as well as by the other two previously met with in the same county.
This Woodpecker is common in North America, where it frequents orchards.
One of these birds, a female, was shot near Whitby, in Yorkshire, in the beginning of the year 1849, as recorded in the ‘Zoologist,’ pages 2496-2497, by Mr. Edmund Thomas Higgins, of York. Another was received from Worcestershire, about the year 1846, by W. F. W. Bird, Esq., which there seems no reason to doubt was killed in that county.
The motto of the midshipman on the mast, ‘I aspire,’ is in practice adopted by our present subject, as by all the rest of its genus; and doubtless it does often ‘swarve the maimast tree,’ the very same ‘tall pine’ while growing yet in its native forest, which is afterwards to be ‘toss’d on the stormy sea’ in some goodly man-of-war or portly merchantman: upwards the bird toils in quest of the means to support him in life. The Hairy Woodpecker is by no means shy; frequently ap- proaching the farm-house and the outskirts of the town, and pursuing its search for food in the trees, while people are constantly passing immediately below.
Its flight is described as ‘consisting of alternate risings and sinkings.’
The food of this species consists of insects and their larve; and these it extracts from fissures in the bark, and holes in branches of trees.
The note ‘is strong, shrill, and tremulous; they have also a single note or ‘chuck,’ which they often repeat in an eager manner as they hop about and dig into the crevices of the tree.’
Nidification begins in May, when a branch already hollow is pitched upon, or a fresh opening is made. ‘In the former ease,’ says Wilson, ‘I have known his nest more than five feet distant from the mouth of the hole; and, in the latter, he digs first horizontally, if im the body of the tree, six or eight inches, and then downwards, obtusely, for twice that distance; carrying up the chips with his bill, and scraping them out with his feet. They also not unfrequently choose
HAIRY WOODPECKER. 89
the orchard for breeding in, and even an old stake of the fence, which they excavate for this purpose.’
The eggs are white, five, or thereabouts, in number, and are laid in June.
Male; length, eight or nine inches; bill, bluish horn-colour, straight, grooved, and wedged at the end; from its base a white band passes under the eye, almost forming by a junction a ring round the back of the neck; beneath it is a black band; over the eye is a broad white band, and a black line runs through it, widening as it descends; tufts of bristles, or hair-like feathers, of a dull yellowish white colour, surround the base of the bill. Head on the crown, black, behind scarlet, sometimes with black intermixed; neck and nape, black; chin, throat, and breast, white; back, above and below, black, white on the middle; down its middle the feathers are loose, webbed, and of a hairy appearance.
The wings expand to the width of one foot three inches; ereater and lesser wing coverts, black, each feather with two or three rounded white spots on the outer and inner webs; primaries and secondaries, black, slightly tinged with brown, with eight, (five on the former and three on the latter,) well-defined, rather elongated spots of white on the outer web, and rounded patches of white on the inner web, forming eight distinct bands; the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth feathers tipped on the outer web with white; shafts, black; the first feather is very short, the second two inches longer than the first, and one inch shorter than the third; third, fourth, fifth, and sixth feathers nearly of equal length, but the fourth and the fifth rather the longest in the wing. The tail, of ten feathers, has the four middle feathers black, stiff, and pointed, the next on each side black on the inner half, white on the outer, most of the latter on the outer web, two outer feathers on each side white, tipped with a brownish burnt colour; upper tail coverts, black or greyish black; under tail coverts, white. Legs, toes, and claws, blackish blue, the latter are very strong.
The female is black on the back of the head, and the white of the chin, throat, and breast is tinged with brown.
90
THREE-TOED WOODPECKER.
NORTHERN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER.
Picus tridactylus, LINN US. Apterus ‘“ SWALNSON, Picoides “ LACEPEDE,
Picus—A bird that makes holes in trees, supposed to be the Woodpecker. Tridactylus—Three-fingered.
THIS species, as conveyed by its specific name, is without the hind toe. It is a native of the ‘far west,’ being very common in the northern parts of North America, from whence, by Kamtschatka, it spreads into the north-eastern parts of Hurope—Siberia, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Lapland, especially in Dalecarlia, and is also found in the mountain gorges of Switzerland and the Tyrol, where it breeds, and occasionally in Germany and France. Temminck, however, considers that the American and European species are distinct.
The pine forests which fringe the lower sides and ravines of mountainous districts are the especial resort of this bird.
I insert this species on the authority of Donovan, vi, plate 148: Mr. G. R. Gray, in his ‘List of the British Birds in the British Museum,’ who gives the ‘North of Scotland’ as the place of its occurrence; ‘Stephens’ General Zoology;’ Edwards, and others; and the ‘Zoology List of Birds.’
These birds do not migrate, but in the severity of winter some make their way southwards, in America to the United States, and probably the like is the case in Europe.
No sooner has the Woodpecker toiled up to the summit that it has been seeking to reach, than it finds the prospect a barren one, and the most that it has gained has been a
XK w A\.
%
XN YO ZN “\ \ \\ AN a wy) \ PR
THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 91
temporary supply of necessary food; again it must begin, again, and again, and yet again. ‘Telle est la vie. How often! But I must not moralise; nor think that I am writing a sermon. I can, however, do better—recommend my readers to study the ‘wisdom of Solomon,’ and to profit by it.
Wilson says that this species is easily decoyed by imitating its voice.
Its food consists of insects and their eggs, caterpillars, and sometimes seeds and berries.
A hole im a pine tree is the favourite receptacle for the egos of the Three-toed Woodpecker; and these, four or five in number, are of a brilliant whiteness.
Male; length, between nine and ten inches; the bill, which is remarkably broad and flattened along the basal part, is bluish grey above, whitish beneath at the base; the tip is obtuse—a white mark between it and the eye; iris, bluish black; from it a white line runs to the nape, where it spreads out; another proceeds in lke manner under the eye, dilating sooner, and under it is a black one, which runs into the blaek of the back; thick and long blackish bristles, white at the base, and somewhat mixed with reddish white, are about the base of the bill. Forehead, glossy black, with purple and greenish reflections, as have all the black parts of the plumage, and thickly spotted with white; head on the sides, black, and the rest black, except the crown, which is pale yellow, faintly tinged with orange, with white specks shining through, and spotted around as the forehead, which perhaps disappear with age; neck behind, and nape, black, as described above; chin and throat, white; breast, white, thickly waved and barred on the sides with black; in very old birds the white prevails; back, black; the feathers on the middle part are downy, and barred with white.
The wings, which expand to the width of one foot four inches, reach to two thirds the length of the tail; greater wing coverts, dull black, in some specimens a little spotted with white; lesser wing coverts, glossy black; primaries, dull black, tipped with white, (so at least says Swainson, but Wilson says that none of the quill feathers are tipped with white,) and spotted with white square spots on their margins, larger on the inner webs and as they approach the base; the first is the longest, and hardly longer than the seventh; the four following ones are subequal and longest; secondaries, dull black, some of them tipped with white; the inner web only is spotted, the spots
92 THREE-TOED WOODPECKER.
taking the appearance of bands; tertiaries, dull black; larger and lesser under wing coverts, white, barred with black. The tail, of twelve feathers, has the four middle feathers brownish black, and acute; the next on each side also acute, black at the base, yellowish white at the end, obliquely and irregularly tipped with black; the two next are yellowish white at the tip, banded with black on the inner web at the base, the outer one of the two being somewhat rounded, and having the white purer; the outermost one short and rounded, and banded throughout with black and pure white; upper tail coverts, in some specimens spotted a little with white; under tail coverts, white, except at the base, where they partake of the black waves of the breast. Legs, lead-coloured, feathered in front for nearly half their length, the feathers white, slightly barred with black; toes, lead-coloured; claws, lead-coloured, much curved, and acute.
The female is less than the male; head, on the sides and back, glossy greenish black; she wants the yellow on the crown, the top of the head being thickly spotted with white, or, as described by Gould, white, interspersed with five black bars. In other respects the female exactly resembles the male.
In the young the bands on the side of the head are obscure and narrower; the feathers of the crown are tipped with white, constituting thick dots on that part, to which they give a silvery appearance; the yellow of the crown is gradually assumed by the young male, being at first of a pale lemon-colour, through which white dots are for some time seen; these are very conspicuous in the female at first, without any yellow, but she loses them entirely when adult; the neck on the back is more or less varied with white. The breast is more thickly waved with black; the back is banded with white, which gives to that part a waved appearance. The tail has six feathers almost wholly black, and the outer ones have only two or three whitish spots on the outer web.
93
GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOO Cuculus glandarius, LATHAM. GOULD. Cuculus—A term of reproach. Glandarius—Of or beionging to acorns.
THE northern and western coasts of Africa are the native regions of this species, and it also occasionally dwells in the southern parts of Europe bordering on the Mediterranean— Spain, France, and Italy; it has been met with also in Germany.
One specimen has occurred in Ireland, apparently fatigued, as if after a long flight: whence it had flown, is indeed, as Aristophanes says, ‘hard to say.’ It was observed, pursued by Hawks, on the Island of Omagh, and having taken refuge in a hole in a stone wall, was captured by two persons who were walking there. It was fed and kept alive for four days. The month of March, in the year 1842, is said to have been the time of its occurrence. It was subsequently obtained by Mr. Ball, for the museum of Trinity College, Dublin, where it is now preserved.
Male; length, one foot three inches and a half; bill, bluish black; iris, yellow; a crest of considerable length proceeds from the top and back of the head; head on the front and sides, dark ash-colour; throat and breast, light reddish white; back, greyish black. Greater and lesser wing coverts, greyish black; primaries, the fourth is the longest in the wing; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white; the tail has the middle feathers eight inches long, the outer one but four inches and three quarters; the two centre feathers are brown, the outer ones darker, but all tipped with white; upper tail coverts, greyish black; under tail coverts, white; legs, toes, and claws, bluish black,
94 GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOO.
In the young the head and crest are darker-coloured; the throat and upper part of the breast light reddish brown; the back more inclining to reddish brown, with slight reflections of green; primaries, rufous, tinged with greenish brown towards the points, which are pure white.
YHLLOW-BILLED CUCZOO.,
YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO
AMERICAN YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. VIRGINIAN CUCKOO. CAROLINA CUCKOO. COW-BIRD. RAIN-CROW.
Cuculus Americanus, LINN 2&US., Coccyzus Americanus, Linna&us. JENYNS. Cuculus cinerosus, TEMMINCK. “ Carolinensis, WIson. Erythrophrys Americanus, SWAINSON. Cuculus—A term of reproach, Americanus—American.
Tur American Cuckoo, as its name imports, is a native of that continent, that is to say of the northern division of it, where it is a common bird.
In this country four examples have occurred. One was shot in Cornwall; another in Wales, in the autumn of 1832, on the estate of Lord Cawdor. One near Youghall, in the county of Cork, in the autumn of 1825; and another at Old Connaught, near Bray, in the county of Wicklow, also in the autumn of 1832.
The American Cuckoo frequents the retired glades and deep hollows of lonely woods, the borders of solitary swamps, and also orchards.
The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is a migratory bird, arriving from the more southern parts in the more northern about the 22nd. of April, from whence it returns in the autumn.
It is a shy and solitary species. The female is remarkably attentive to her nest, and when roused feigns lameness, after the manner of several other birds, fluttering and trailing her wings to endeavour to decoy any stranger from the spot. The male keeps watch within view, and gives an alarm by his note of the approach of any danger.
96 YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO.
Its food consists of insects and caterpillars, as also berries, and it occasionally destroys the eggs of other birds. With the former-named the young are also fed, and both birds unite in the task of providing for them.
The note, resembling the syllables ‘kowe, kowe, kowe, kowe,’ is uttered first slowly, and then faster until it ends so rapidly that the notes seem to run into one another, and it is also repeated backwards with a relative change of time. It appears to have some imitative powers of voice; and hence Wilson imagines its name of Cow-bird to be derived; but it occurs to me as possible that its note, just described, may have been the origin of it. The name of Rain-bird has also, he says, been applied to it from its being observed to be most clamorous immediately before rain.
The nest is commenced about the end of the first week in May.
This species of Cuckoo does build a nest for itself, though of rude construction, and nearly flat. It is placed on the branch of a tree, and is made of small sticks and twigs, intermixed with weeds and blossoms. Meyer says that it is made of roots and wool.
The eggs, three, four, or five, generally four in number, are of a uniform greenish blue colour, and of a duly propor- tionate size. As if, however, every kind of Cuckoo must have something peculiar about it, the one before us does not begin to hatch its eggs when all have been laid, but commences at once with the first, the necessary consequence of which is that each successive egg is hatched later than its predecessor; and thus the family of Cuckoos exhibit various stages of advancement while yet in the nest. The ‘rationale’ of this is assuredly not as yet ‘dreampt of in our philosophy.’
Male; length, one foot to one foot one inch; bill, rather long, and a little curved, black at the tip above and below; the remainder of the lower part is yellow, and of the upper black, edged with yellow at the base; iris, hazel, but Meyer says yellow, feathered close to the eyelid, which is yellow. Head, crown, neck, which on the sides is white, behind, and nape, cinereous brown, with a tinge of olive; chin, throat, and breast, greyish white; back, as the head and nape. The wings expand to the width of one foot four inches; the first quill feather is more than an inch shorter than the second, the second shorter than the third or fourth, but equal to the fifth; the third longer than the fourth, and the longest. in
YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 97
the wing; greater and lesser wing coverts, bright rufous; primaries, bright rufous. The tail, of ten feathers, has the two middle feathers cinereous brown, with a slight tinge of olive; the others black, with a broad white space at the end of each of the three outermost; the fourth just tipped with white; the two outer feathers are scarcely half the length of the middle ones; the others gradually shorten to them. The legs, of a light blue colour, black, according to Meyer, are covered on the upper part with large feathers; the toes, two placed behind and two before, are also light blue.
The female closely resembles the male. The four middle tail feathers are cinereous brown, tinged with olive, with a greenish reflection; and the white on the breast is more dull than in the male bird.
Vor Ii iH
CUCKOO.
COMMON CUCKOO. GOWKE.
COG, OF THE ANCIENT BRITISH.
Cuculus canorus, Linnzus. Monrtacu. “« hepaticus, LATHAM. “ canorus rufus, GMELIN. LATHAM. Cuculus—A term of reproach, Canorus—Musical.
‘A HORSE, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!’ cried Richard at Bosworth field; and much would the author of the ‘History of British Birds, give for more discursive opportunities when he has arrived at so wide a field as the mysterious Cuckoo opens out.
Pleasant is every thought associated with the ‘Cuckoo’s time o’ coming:’ two opinions there will not be about this.
The Common Cuckoo is found throughout the whole of the European continent—in the north, in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Lapland, and Siberia; and in the south, in Greece and its Archipelago, and Italy. In Asia, it is found in Japan, Java, Kamtschatka, Asia Minor, India, and many other parts. In Africa also, in Egypt, and, according to Temminck, in the ‘south of that continent.
In our own country it occurs in every county of England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland; and in the Orkney Islands the Cuckoo is frequently heard. A few breed every season in retired parts of Hoy and Waas: two were killed in Sanday, by Mr. Strang, in September, 1827.
A Cuckoo in the plumage of the first year was killed at Letton, in Norfolk, on the 5th. of May, as recorded by John
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Henry Gurney, and William Richard Fisher, Esqrs., in their account of the Birds found in that county.
The general appearance of the Cuckoo is ‘strikingly like that of the female Sparrow-Hawk. It frequents localities of the i the dreary fen, the wild heath of the open treeless moor, as well as those in which brushwood abounds, and the well-wooded hedge-rows of the best cultivated districts.
It need hardly be mentioned that the Cuckoo is a migratory bird: ‘in April come he will,’ and that about the middle of the month—generally on the 17th.; it has been heard on the 15th.; once on the 18th., as mentioned by Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, but frequently not until one or other of the days between these dates and the 30th. One was both heard and seen at Malvern, in Worcestershire, a neighbourhood which has been noticed as more than ordinarily abounding in these birds, on the 12th. of January, 1851, as recorded by F. R. Gibbes, Esq., of Northallerton, in ‘The Naturalist,’ page 43; and on the 14th. of April, also in the present year, two were seen by J. O. Harper, Esq., of Norwich, as recorded in “The Naturalist,’ page 162. One of them was heard at the same time, and ae other was shot, and proved to have been carrying its egg in its bill. The males arrive a day or two’ before the females; and the old birds leave the country in the autumn before the young ones. The general time for the former to depart is in the end of July or beginning of August; but it would appear as if, though they commence ‘their outward-bound movement from north “to south, about this time, that they do not finally quit the land until rather later.
An adult Cuckoo was shot near Thirsk, Yorkshire, by Mr. Johnstone, son of the Rev. Charles Johnstone, Canon of York, on the 14th. of August, in the present year, 1851; and another old one near Leeds, on the 24th. of July, also in this year, by Mr. Bond, of that place. Another has been seen on the 3lst. of July. The young birds do not leave before September; and have been known in Cornwall until October, and likewise in Oxfordshire, by the Revs. Andrew and Henry Matthews, who also record in their ‘Catalogue of the Birds of Oxford- shire and its Neighbourhood,’ that ‘on the 23rd. and 24th. of September, 1848, a Cuckoo was heard singing in the early part of the morning:’ another was heard near Belfast, on the 7th. of July, 1888; and another by Mr. W. H. White, on the 28th. of July, as recorded in the ‘Magazine of Natural History,’
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vol. iv, page 184: this bird was seen for some days afterwards. Again, in ‘Graves’ British Ornithology, the author records that he saw two Cuckoos, on the 26th. and 27th. of August, and heard the former one uttering its well-known note. He too says, that he has known them in October also. On the 14th. of October, 1848, one is mentioned by Martin Curtler, Ksq., of Bevere House, near Worcester, as having been shot close to that city; but it must probably have been a young bird. Two young ones were shot in a garden near Tralee, in the county of Kerry, on the 5th. of October.
Occasionally at the time of their departure, considerable numbers of Cuckoos have been seen collected together—sixteen were seen flying in company from the north-east end of the Grampian hills, in Scotland, towards the German Ocean, distant about half a mile. Bishop Stanley relates that a gentleman living on the Cheshire side of the Mersey, opposite to Liverpool, was awoke one morn ning early in the s spring —the time of their arrival, by a chattering noise, with an occasional ‘cuckoo,’ in a low plantation near his house, which he found to proceed from a pretty large flock of these birds, which at sunrise, or soon after, took flight: three or four, or more, are not unfre- quently seen together. In the county of Down, in Ireland, from the 18th. to the 22nd. of July, not less than forty were once observed feeding on the caterpillars that infest gooseberry trees.
In several instances the Cuckoo has been kept, great care being used, through the winter, until the following spring; one for nearly two years, and it was then only killed by accident; and Buffon says, “Though cunning and solitary, the Cuckoo may be given some sort of education: several persons of my acquaintance have reared and tamed them. One of these tame Cuckoos knew his master, came at his call, followed him to the chase, perched on his gun, and if it found a cherry tree in its way, it would fly to it, and not return until it had eaten plentifully; sometimes it would not return to its master for a whole day, but followed him ata distance, flying from tree to tree. In the house it might range at will, and passed the night on the roost.’
Not only is the Cuckoo when come to maturity, a bird of marvel, but even from the very first, the chapter of its strange proceedings commences.—The instinctive propensity of the young one to turn out of the nest, by forcible ejectment, any other occupants, its lawful tenants by right of primo-
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geniture who may have been preserved from previous expulsion, is well known. “Iwo Cuckoos and a Hedge-Sparrow,’ says Dr. Jenner, in his account of this strange bird, published in the ‘Transactions of the Royal Society,’ for the year 1788, ‘were hatched in the same nest, this morning, (June 27th., 1787:) one Hedge-Sparrow’s egg remained unhatched. In a few hours after a contest began between the Cuckoos for the possession of the nest, which continued undetermined till the next afternoon; when one of them, which was somewhat su- perior in size, turned out the other, together with the young Hedge-Sparrow and the unhatched egg. This contest was very remarkable—the combatants alternately appeared to have the advantage, as each carried the other several times nearly to the top of the nest, and then sank down again, oppressed by the weight of its burden; till at length, after various efforts, the strongest prevailed, and was afterwards brought up by the Hedge-Sparrows.’
In some instances, as for example where the nest is built on the ground, and especially if in a hollow, it may be im- possible for the young Cuckoo to turn out his companion or companions, and in one such case four young Wagtails were found lying dead beneath the usurper of their abode. Other birds who have young in the vicinity, display great apparent repugnance to the young Cuckoo. On the other hand there is an instance of an exactly opposite character, related in the ‘Magazine of Natural History,’ vol. vi, page 83, by Mr. Ensor. In the neighbourhood of Ardress, the son of a tenant found a Cuckoo in the nest of a Titlark. ‘He brought it home, and fed it. In a few days, two Wrens, which had a nest with eight eggs, in the eaves, and just above the window fronting the cage in which the Cuckoo was placed, made their way through a broken pane, and continued to feed it for some time. The cage was small, and the boy preferring a Thrush to the Cuckoo, took it away, to give greater room to the Thrush. On this the Wrens repaired to their own nest, and brought out the eggs that had been laid.’
Bishop Stanley relates the two following somewhat similar incidents: —‘A young Cuckoo was taken from the nest of a Hedge-Sparrow, and in a few days afterwards, a young Thrush, scarcely fledged, was put into the same cage. ‘The latter could feed itself, but the Cuckoo, its companion, was obliged to be fed with a quill; in a short time, however, the Thrush took upon itself the task of feeding its fellow-prisoner, and
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continued so to do with the utmost care, bestowing every possible attention, and manifesting the greatest anxiety to satisfy its continual craving for food.
The following is a still more extraordinary instance, cor- roborating the above, and for the truth of which we can vouch in every particular:—‘A young Thrush, Just able to feed itself, had been placed in a cage; a short time afterwards, a young Cuckoo, which could not feed itself, was introduced into the same cage, a large wicker one, and for some time it was with much difficulty fed; at length, however, it was observed that the young Thrush was employed in feeding it, the Cuckoo opening its mouth and sitting on the upper perch, and making the Thrush hop down to fetch food up. One day, when ‘it was thus expecting its food in this way, the Thrush seeing a worm put into the cage could not resist the temptation of eating it, upon which the Cuckoo immediately descended from its perch, and attacking the Thrush, literally tore one of its eyes quite out, and then hopped back: the poor Thrush felt itself obliged to take up some food in the lacerated state it was in. The eye healed in course of time, and the Thrush continued its occupation as before, till the Cuckoo was full grown.’
Mr. Jesse too, in his ‘Gleanings in Natural History,’ relates the following circumstance as having occurred at Arbury, in Warwickshire, the seat of Francis Newdigate, Esq., the account having been written down at the time by a lady who witnessed it:—‘In the early part of the summer of 1828, a Cuckoo, having previously turned out the eggs from a Water-Wagtail’s nest, which was built in a small hole in a garden wall at Arbury, deposited her own egg in their place. When the egg was hatched, the young intruder was fed by the Water- Wagtails, till he became too bulky for his confined and narrow quarters, and in a fidgetty fit he fell to the ground. In this predicament he was found by the gardener, who picked him up, and put him into a wire cage, which was placed on the top of the wall, not far from the place of his birth. Here it was expected that the Wagtails would have followed there supposititious offspring with food, to support it in its imprisonment; a mode of proceeding which would have had nothing very uncommon to recommend it to notice. But the odd part of the story is, that the bird which hatched the Cuckoo never came near it; but her place was supplied by a Hedge-Sparrow, who performed her part
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diligently and punctually, by bringing food at very short intervals from morning till evening, till its uncouth foster- child grew large, and became full- feathered, when it was suffered to escape, and was seen no more. It may possibly be sug- gested that a mistake has been made with regard to the sort of bird which hatched the Cuckoo, and the same bird which fed it, namely, the Hedge-Sparrow, hatched the egg. If this had been the case, there would have been nothing extraordinary in the circumstance; but the Wagtail was too often seen on her nest, both before the egg was hatched, and afterwards, feeding the young bird, to leave room for any scepticism on that point; and the Sparrow was seen feeding it in the cage afterwards by many members of the family daily.’
‘ ‘The Naturalist,’ old series, No. 16, page 7, Mr. W. H. Benshed relates an instance of two Wagtails feeding a young Cuckoo, which had been taken from their nest; and on its being placed in a hive, where they could visit it, ‘delight and joy really appeared in all their actions. They rushed to and fro in the air, flying about the hive, and hovering near it. At the same time, on seeing the Cuckoo, Swallows gave their note of alarm, and their young flew off; a Wren approached, and shewed some signs of curiosity; and a Robin, who seemed disposed for hostilities, was attacked and driven off by the Wagtails.
Again, ‘It is wonderful,’ says Dr. Jenner, ‘to see the extraordinary exertions of the young Cuckoo, when it is two or three days old, if a bird be put into the nest with it that is too weighty for it to lift out. In this state it seems ever restless and uneasy. But this disposition for turning out its companions begins to decline from the time it is two or three, till it is about twelve days old, when, as far as I have hitherto seen, it ceases. Indeed, the disposition for throwing out the egg appears to cease a few days sooner; for I have frequently seen the young Cuckoo, after it had been hatched nine or ten days, remove a nestling that had been placed in the nest with it, when it suffered an egg, put there at the same time, to remain unmolested. The singularity of its shape is well adapted to these purposes; for, different from other newly-hatched birds, its back, from the shoulders downwards, is very broad, with a considerable depression in the middle. This depression seems formed by nature for the design of giving a more secure lodgment to
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an egg, or a young bird, when the young Cuckoo is employed in removing either of them from the nest. When it is about twelve days old, this cavity is quite filled up; and then the back assumes the shape of nestling birds in general.’
The young Cuckoo is for the most part hatched before the egos of its foster-parent, if any have been left to be incubated; and in the latter case it loses no time in asserting its usurped rights, but generally on the very day it is hatched, its might takes the place of right, and one by one the true-born birds are thrown out, to be killed by the fall, or by apy other mishap that may befall them. If it should happen that one or more of the little birds should be, by some means or other, preserved in the nest, their parent feeds them and the interloper with the like attention; making it to appear that she cannot discriminate between them. ‘Tros Tyriusve’ share equally her maternal care; and this even after leaving the nest, both on the ground and in trees. A Robin has been known so devoted in its attention that it came to feed out of a person’s hand to obtain sufficient food for its adopted child. One instance is mentioned in the ‘Zoologist, page 1637, by Mr. J. W. Slater, of Manchester, as having been witnessed by Mr. Beech, of Droylsden, in which the young birds of a Meadow Pipit having been found on the ground outside the nest in which was a young Cuckoo, and having been replaced to see what would happen, the parent birds, on their return, Smmediately threw out their own offspring, to make room for the parasite.’ They do the same with their own eggs if replaced.
As before hinted, the adult Cuckoo occasionally herself destroys, by throwing out, one or more of the eggs of the bird into whose nest she surreptitiously introduces her own. But how does she introduce them? Here again is another singularity! It is perfectly certam that in some instances she conveys them in her bill into the other birds’ nests—it has been already mentioned that one was shot with her egg actually in her bill—Spurzheim says he has seen one carrying it in her feet. Mr. Williamson, the curator of the Scarbor- ough Museum, found the egg of one in a nest which was placed so close under a hedge, that the Cuckoo could not possibly have got into it! and T. Wolley, Esq. records another similar instance, communicated to him by Mr. Bartlett, of Little Russell Street, London, in which he found one in the nest of a Robin, which was placed in so small a hole that
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the same mode must have been resorted to. So again, Dr. Jenner has related an instance in which the egg was placed in the nest of a Wagtail, built under the eaves of a cottage. The like proceeding must have been adopted in all cases where the Wren’s nest, which is a covered one, has been made use of; and in fact, excepting in such as that of the Lark, which is built on the open ground, most of the nests in which the Cuckoo lays, are built in such thick and tangled parts of hedges, that it is next to impossible for so large a bird as the Cuckoo to approach them bodily. R. A. Julan, Esq., Junior, records in “The Naturalist,’ page 162, that F. Barlow, Esq., of Cambridge, found a Cuckoo’s egg in a Redstart’s nest, in a hole im an old willow tree, which he had great difficulty in getting out, the aperture being only about an inch wide. The Cuckoo has been seen removing the egg of a small bird from a nest, in which she had just placed her own changeling, by the same mode by which in cases where she could not otherwise, if not in all, she introduces her own, namely, in her bill. Cuckoos do not pair, but are polygamous, the reason of which has been suggested to be that parental care is not required for the young. They are bold and fierce birds, and ruffle up their feathers in displeasure at an early age. ”'The flight of the Cuckoo is steady and straight forward. At times he may be seen perched upon a rail, branch, or eminence, swinging himself round with outspread tail, and uttering his note the while in an odd and observable manner. The food of the Cuckoo, generally procured in bushes or trees, but sometimes on the ground, consists of insects, spiders, and caterpillars; and White of Selborne says seeds, but they may have been accidentally swallowed with the insects. There seems some slight reason for supposing that the Cuckoo will eat the eggs of other birds, possibly those which she takes out to make room for her own; and one instance is mentioned by Bishop Stanley, in his ‘Familiar History of British Birds,’ in which the flock of Cuckoos, observed in the county of Down, devoured, or at least pulled in pieces the greater part of a late brood of young Blackbirds in the nest. The Cuckoo’s food being insects, it is guided, one should say by instinct, but that its instinct is, as will appear, by no means unerring in this respect, to lay its egg generally in the nest of an insectivorous bird, for the most part in that of a Robin, or a Dunnock. It does not, however, invariably do so, the egg
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having been found, as hereafter mentioned, in the nest of a Greentinch, a Linnet, and a Chaffinch. It is, however, on the other