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i

SHORE LARK.

if a? history

’ . . *

*%F ®

OF

BRITISH BIRDS.

THE REV. F. 0. MORRIS, B.A.,

MEMBER OF THE ASHMOLEAN SOCIETY.

YOL. IIL

CONTAINING FORTY-THREE COLOURED ENGRAVINGS.

4 Gloria in excelsis Leo

LONDON;

GROOM BRIDGE AND SONS, 5, PATERNOSTER ROW.

CONTENTS

OF

THE THIBE VOLUME.

TAGE

Shore Lark . 1

Short-toed Lark ........ 5

Wood Lark . 7

Sky Lark . 11

Crested Lark ......... 18

Snow Bunting ......... 20

Lapland Bunting . 25

Bunting . 29

Black-headed Bunting ....... 33

Yellow-hammer . 37

Cirl Bunting . 43

Ortolan 48

Chaffinch .......... 52

Mountain Finch ........ 63

Tree Sparrow . 69

Sparrow . 74

Greenfinch ...... .... 93

Hawfinch ......... 98

Goldfinch . . . . . . . . . 103

Siskin . 107

Linnet . . . . .Ill

IV

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Pedpole .......... 116

Mealy Pedpole ........ 120

Twite . 123

Bullfinch . ......... 126

Pine Grosbeak . . . . 130

Crossbill . 133

Parrot Crossbill . 138

American White-winged Crossbill . . . . 140

Two-barred Crossbill . 143

Pose-coloured Pastor . 145

Starling . , 149

Ped-winged Starling ....... 155

Dipper . . . . . . . . . 160

Missel Thrush . 165

Fieldfare . . . . . . . . . .171

Pedwing . 178

Thrush . 182

White’s Thrush . . 190

Gold-vented Thrush . 192

Pock Thrush ......... 194

Blackbird . ......... 196

Ping Ouzel ......... 210

HISTORY OF BRITISH BIRDS.

SHORE LARK.

Alauda a/pestris,
“ cornuta ,

Jenyns. Gould. Eyton.
Richardson and Svvainson.

A lav da — A Lark.

Alpestris — .

This species is a native of the northern parts of Europe*
Asia, and America, being found in the most abundance in
the last-named continent. It is also said to occur at the
southern extremity of South America, on those stony shores
which have perpetuated the name of the enterprising Magellan;
and, if it he so, on others doubtless in all that part of the
world as well. According to Temminck, it is found commonly
in Saxony, Germany, and Holland, both in winter and summer*
and breeds in the latter.

The instances of the occurrence of the Shore Lark in this
country are but very few. One, a male in immature plumage,
was shot on the beach at Sherringham, in the county of
Norfolk, in March, 1830. A second has been recorded by
Thomas Eyton, Esq., as having been killed in Lincolnshire;
and Mr. Yarrell mentions two which were obtained on a Down
in Kent. ‘Two and two make four.’

In severe weather these birds move towards the warmer
climates of the south or the north, according as they have
been localized north or south of the equator. They move
thus in the beginning of September, flying in straggling
numbers, hardty to be called flocks, and at but a low eleva¬
tion above the water, having previously collected together in
small parties of forty or fifty, the members of different families.
In the beginning of June they again retrace their steps, or

VOL. III. B

2

SIT ORE LABK.

rather their flight, to their native land, the inhospitable climes
of the frozen north; few, however, wander to the very extremest
polar regions.

The Shore Lark is rather shy in its habits, but, when
engaged with its young, sits very close, either through a
temporary change of disposition, or from anxiety for its brood,
as if conscious of the protection which nature has afforded
to it in the assimilation of the colour of its plumage to that
of the scanty verdure alone to be found where it has its
dwelling. Should, however, danger seem to approach too
closely, the anxious mother flutters away from any chance
intruder, feigning lameness so cunningly, that none but one
accustomed to the sight could refrain from pursuit. Her
partner immediately joins her in mimic wretchedness, uttering
a soft and plaintive note. It would appear that these birds
may be kept in confinement.

Its food consists of the buds, blossoms, and seeds of the
stunted vegetation of the Arctic regions, and such insects as
may there be also found. Flies it expertly chases on the
wing; and at times it betakes itself to the sea-shore, to search
for minute shell -fish or Crustacea.

The male bird sings sweetly while on the wing, although
its song is comparatively short. It rises from the moss, or
the bare rock, in a short oblique flight of a few yards, begins
and ends its madrigal, performs a few irregular evolutions,
and returns to the ground. There also it sings, but less
frequently, and with less fullness. It has at times a ven-
triloquistic power, which makes its note seem like that of
another species. When the young are hatched, the music,
for the most part, ceases — the ‘cares of a family’ are felt by
the feathered as well as by the human species. ‘There is a
time for all things,’ says the wise man ; ‘a time to weep, and
a time to laugh.’

In the desolate and sterile tracts which extend in the
high latitudes from the sea-shore to regions, if possible, still
more savagely wild and barren, the whole face of the country
is described as one boundless succession of hoary granite rock,
covered with mosses and lichens, varying in size and hue —
some green, others as white as snow, and others of divers
colours of every tint, and growing in large tufts and patches.
Here the Shore Lark builds, and rears her young.

The nest, which is composed of fine grasses, circularly
disposed, and lined with feathers, exactly resembles in colour

SHORE LARK.

3

the moss in which it is embedded, and is placed on the
ground, in the desolate regions where moss is almost the only
vegetation.

The eggs are four or five in number, greyish white, spotted
with pale blue and brown spots. They are laid in the be¬
ginning of July.

The young, says Mr. Audubon, which are hatched about
the middle of July, and fully fledged by the 1st. of August,
leave the nest before they are able to fly, and follow their
parents over the moss, in which they drop and endeavour to
conceal themselves on the appearance of any danger. They
run nimbly, and are fed for about a week. If observed and
pursued, the same author further relates, that they utter a
soft ‘peep,’ open their wings to aid them in their escape, and
separating, make off with great celerity. On such occasions
it is difficult to secure more than one of them, unless several
persons be present, when each can overtake a bird. The
parents all this time are following the enemy overhead,
lamenting the danger to which their young are exposed.

Male; length, about seven inches; bill, bluish horn-colour,
almost black at the tip: a black streak passes from its base
to the eye, and spreads out behind it. Iris, dark brown,
over it is a yellow streak: some bristly feathers cover the
nostrils. Forehead, yellow, greenish ash-colour after the
autumnal moult; head on the sides, and between the bill and
eye, black; on the front of the crown there is a broad
transverse black band, which ends on each side with a few
long and pointed black feathers, which the bird elevates at
pleasure; the back of the head, black, which turns to dusky
brown in the winter, and is mixed with the yellow feathers
at the edges; crown, greyish brown. Neck on the back,
greyish brown tinged with red; nape, greyish brown, the
central part of the feathers being darker than the edges; chin,
throat, and sides of the neck, fine pale yellow, white in
summer. Breast above, the same, with a gorget of black
across the upper part of it, which fades to dusky brown in
the winter; below, it is dull white, and tinged with a reddish
brown on the sides; back, brown, the centre of each feather
being darker than the edges; in summer it becomes light
brownish red, and has a tinge of purple: after the autumnal
moult it is imbued with grey.

The wings, which extend to within three quarters of an
inch of the end of the tail, have the first three quill feathers

4

SHORE LARK.

very nearly equal in length, and the longest in the wing;
the second rather the longest, the first being a little longer
than the third, the fourth a quarter of an inch shorter than
the third; greater wing coverts, dark brown with light brown
margins, broadest and most distinct after the moult; lesser
wing coverts, dark brown tinged with red, and tipped with
white, most so after the moult; primaries, dusky brown, with
very narrow light-coloured edges, widest after the moult;
secondaries, brown; tertiaries, brown, some with light brown,
and some with whitish margins, widest after the moult. Tail,
black, except on part of the edge of the outer web of the
outside feather on each side, which is white; the two middle
feathers are dark brown, with light brown margins; upper
tail coverts, brown, the central part of the feathers darker
than the edges; under tail coverts, dull white. Legs, toes,
and claws, bluish black; the hind claw straight, and longer
than the toe.

The female is a little smaller than the male, being about
six inches and a half in length, and her colours duller; the
streak over the eye pale yellow. Head on the crown, neck
on the back, and nape, of the same colour as the back, the
black changing into brown and greyish. The breast has only
a narrow brownish black band, fringed with yellow on its
upper part; back, with more grey than in the male, with the
shafts of the feathers darker, and with hardly any of the
red tint.

The young males after then* first. autumnal moult resemble
the adult female.

SHORT-TOED LARK,

s

SHORT-TOED LARK.

Alauda brachydactyla, Gould.

Alauda — A Lark. Brachydac iyla. Brachus — Short,

Bactylos — A finger.

I shotj&d be glad if the proverb that ‘least said is soonest
mended’ applied to the case of a bird of whose Natural
History one knows but little; but small as the present amount
of my information about the Short-toed Lark is, I have no
present prospect of increasing it.

This species is common in the southern parts of Europe —
in Sicily, France, and Spain, and is also found in Germany.
It occurs in fact along all the shores of the Mediterranean,
both in Africa and in Asia.

One was caught in a net near Shrewsbury, in Shropshire,
on the 25th. of October, 1841.

The food of this bird consists of insects and seeds.

The nest is placed on the ground.

The eggs are four or five in number, and of a dull yellow
colour.

Male; length, five inches and three quarters; bill, light
brown. There is a yellowish white streak over the eye. Head
on the crown, neck on the back, and nape, yellowish brown,
with the centre of each feather darker than the rest; chin,
throat, and breast, white, the latter tinged on the middle
and the sides with yellowish brown; back, yellowish brown,
the centre of each feather being darker than the edges. The
second quill feather is the longest, the first and third a little
shorter; primaries and secondaries, dusky brown. The tertiaries
extend as far as the end of the closed wing. Tail, dusky

SHORT-TOED LARK.

c>

bi :>wn, the two outer feathers white on their outer edge.
Legs, toes, and claws, which are short, light hrown.

The female resembles the male, but her plumage is more
dull in colour.

The young, during the first autumn, have the outer edges
of each feather margined with buif'

WOOD LARK.

r

WOOD LARK.

Alauda arborea,

“ nemorosa ,
“ cristatella,

Pennant. Montagu. Bewidk.
Gmelin.

Latham.

Alauda — A Lark. Arborea — Of, or pertaining to trees.

The Wood Lark is found in Europe — in Germany, France,
Holland, Italy, Crete, Corfu, and other countries of the south
of this continent, where it is a resident throughout the year;
and also in Denmark, Russia, and Sweden, hut only as a
summer visitant. It occurs also in Asia Minor.

In this country it is met with in Yorkshire, pretty fre¬
quently in the neighbourhood of York, but farther north than
that city it becomes rare; Sussex, Hampshire, Dorsetshire,
Somersetshire, Devonshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Der¬
byshire, Lancashire, and, though but sparingly, in Cornwall,
and Northumberland. It is not a common bird; I have
never obtained but one, namely, at Langmoor, near Charmouth,
Dorsetshire, many years ago.

In Ireland, it is known in the counties of Antrim and
Down, and no doubt in others too; but there also it is
uncommon.

Mr. Thomas Edwards has informed me of his having found
this bird so far north as Banff; and Mr. Heysham has related
that it is occasionally taken near Dumfries.

In the Orkney Islands it appears to be unknown, for it
is not recorded in the ‘Natural History of Orkney,’ published
by Dr. Baikie and Mr. Heddle. Meyer says that in Shetland
it is hardly known.

Cultivated districts are the resort of the Wood Lark, as
its name implies; it prefers the rich parts of the country

8

WOOD tABK.

where hedge-row timber abounds, the great ornament of the
English landscape.

It remains with us throughout the year.

In hard weather a few collect together, but for the most
part only the members of the original family, six or seven
in all. They are easily tamed, and become exceedingly familiar,
even answering, when called to, with a few liquid notes.
They seem to roost at night both on the ground and in
trees.

The Wood Lark commences its flight from the ground, a
bush, or the top of a tree, with a short straight progress,
which it then begins to change for an upward spiral one,
gradually enlarging the area of each circle as it ascends. When
the summit, so to speak, is gained, it sometimes floats about
in a similar manner; and at others, after hovering about,
descends again as it rose, in circles; often with wings stretched
out, and seemingly motionless; and when it again reaches the
earth, it runs a few steps along the ground. Mr. Selby says
that it occasionally remains an hour on the wing, and Bech-
stein even several hours. On the ground they walk in rather
a slow manner.

Its food consists of insects, which it sometimes chases like
the Flycatcher, but mostly seeks upon the ground, where it
also meets with caterpillars vand worms. It also, at times,
when the snow shuts up the sources of its usual supplies,
eats small seeds, grain, and green herbage.

Its note is very rich, and rather of a plaintive cast, and is
prolonged, it is said, during the warm nights of summer. It
has been heard even in the months of January and December,
and is regularly commenced in March and April, if the
weather be fine. It is uttered both when the musician is
perched upon the branch of a tree, or when wheeling and
hovering in the air in the manner already described, as is
its wont : —

‘High in the air and poised upon its wings,

Unseen, the soft enamoured Wood Lark sings.*

Selby and Montagu say that it is sometimes heard, though
but rarely, from the ground.

Early in March these birds pair, and commence building
their nests about the middle of the month, if the season be
favourable.

The nest is placed upon the ground, beneath some low

"wood lake:.

9

bush or tuft of grass, or at the foot of a tr«e; occasionally
under the shelter of a fence or paling, or on a hank; one
has been known on the trunk of a fallen oak, on the topmost
bough of which, perhaps, in previous years when it still stood
in all its pride, the bird had warbled forth her strains, and
now Avhen levelled with the earth, she ‘could not bid the
spot adieu,’ but sang a daily requiem over the fallen remains.
The outside materials are small roots, grass, and sometimes
moss, and the lining smaller grasses, with occasionally a little
hair.

The eggs, which are laid at the end of March or beginning
of April, and also in July, there seeming to be two broods
in the year, are four or five in number, of a pale reddish
white, or yellowish brown ground colour, spotted and speckled
with dull reddish brown, or dark grey, or brownish grey,
with sometimes a few irregular dusky lines at the larger end.

Male; weight, about eight drachms; length, a little more
than six inches; bill, dark brown on the upper part, the
lower one and the base of the upper one, pale yellowish brown;
iris, dark brown: over it is a pale brown or yellowish white
streak. The feathers about the base of the bill are bristly
at the tips; a sort of crest is formed by the feathers on the
top of the head, which are of a light brown colour, streaked
with dark brown; neck on the back, yellowish brown, on the
sides, reddish; nape, brown, streaked with dark brownish black;
chin and throat, pale yellowish brown, with a reddish tinge;
breast, pale yellowish brown, with a few small streaked spots
of dark brown on the middle part; back, light reddish brown
on the upper part, brown on the lower, dashed with dark
brownish black near the tips of the feathers.

The wings expand to the width of one foot and half an
inch, and extend to within rather less than an inch of the
end of the tail; the first feather is very short, the second
not quite so long as the third or the fourth, which latter
is the longest in the wing; the fifth nearly as long as the
second: Yarrell gives the third as the longest. Greater wing
coverts, dark brown, tipped with pale brown; lesser wing
coverts, dark brown, some of them tipped with pale brown,
both making two rather conspicuous bands across the wings;
primaries and secondaries, dusky brown, edged and tipped with
light reddish brown; tertiaries, dark brown, edged with light
brown. The tail, which is short, of twelve feathers, square
at the tip, has the outer feather on each side pale brown,

10

WOOD T> A_T?.>K.

brownish white at the tip, with a dark brown patch on the
inner side; the two middle feathers are pale brown, broadly
edged with reddish brown, and the remaining eight brownish
black, with an angular spot of white at the tip; upper tail
coverts, brown ; under tail coverts, pale yellowish brown. Legs
and toes, light brown; claws, light yellowish brown, the hind
claw straight, and half as long again as the hind toe.

The female strongly resembles the male, but is rather smaller
in size; the dark markings are larger, and there is less of
the yellow shade on the breast.

The young have the front and sides of the neck marked
with angular dusky spots, part of the breast tinged with
yellowish red, and the back yellowish brown, the feathers
having a band of dusky-colour and light edges.

SKY LARK.

II

SKY LARK,

«

LAYROCK. FIELD LARK.

Alauda arvensis ,
“ vulgaris,

Pennant. Montagu.
Willughby. Ray.

Alauda — A Lark.

Arvensis — Of, or appertaining to fields.

This universal favourite is a native of the whole of the
continent of Europe, but appears to he unknown in Iceland,
Greenland, or the Ferroe Islands. The greater part of those
which are seen in Russia, Siberia, Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway, in the summer, leave for the more genial climate of
Greece and Itaty, before the wintry blasts begin to sweep
over the lands of the frozen north: it is also known in Asia
Minor, and other parts of the Asiatic continent, and in the
northern parts of Africa.

In this country it is very abundant from north to south.

The Lark is to be found in all situations, but particularly,
in the winter half of the year, in ploughed or stubble fields,
especially, in the latter case, when they are sown with clover
seeds.

In the ‘British Song Birds,’ a doubt is expressed as to
whether the Lark almost entirely quits the north for the south
in the winter; but I can only say that there are hundreds
to be seen in Yorkshire in almost every large field, even in
the severest weather; the same large flocks into which they
have begun to collect towards the end of autumn. Even in
the Orkney, and no doubt therefore in the Shetland Islands
too, they do not seem to quit for more southern regions, on
the approach of winter, unless it be in, or rather before, some

12

SKY YAT?TT.

unusually severe weather, when they move southwards m
numerous bodies. In some seasons they continue together
until a comparatively late period. As many as sixty have
been seen in a flock on the 24th. of March: this was the
case in the year 1838.

It would appear that many visit us at that season from
the continent, and in the south of England they are, at such
times, seen to move in a westerly direction. They also cross
from Scotland to Ireland.

Larks are thoroughly terrestrial in their habits; it is but
rarely that they alight on a tree, even a low bush, a wall,
or a hedge; though I have several times seen them do so.
They pass the day, except when soaring, and roost at night,
upon the ground. They are sprightly in all their motions,
and if anything like danger be observed or suspected, they
may be seen frequently stopping to look round, raising them¬
selves up, and elevating the feathers of the head as a crest;
or else crouching down, and hiding themselves as much as
they can, which the assimilation of their colour to that of
the places they frequent, renders easy: ordinarily, on the
ground, they move rather quickly about in a running manner,
now quicker, and now more slow: they often lie very close
till you almost walk up to them. They may be frequently
seen dusting themselves in the roads, and at other times they
seem to be fond of settling themselves in such places. This
very day, on which I have written the foregoing, the 3rd.
of March, I disturbed a pair, which rose up from the middle
of the road on which I was walking; and on coming back
an hour or two afterwards, I found that they had returned,
and they rose again from the same place: there was not a
particle of the ‘March dust,’ ‘a peck’ of which is said to be
‘worth a king’s ransom;’ but the traces of frost and snow
were still remaining.

These birds, like so many others, shew a great attachment
to their young. In ‘The Naturalist,’ old series, Mr. Edward
Blyth mentions that a mower having accidentally cut off with
a scythe the upper part of a nest, without injuring the sitting
bird, she did not fly away; and it was discovered about an
hour afterwards that she had, in the interval, constructed a
dome of dry grass over the nest. Instances are on record in
which they have removed their eggs as a precautionary means
of preservation; and Mr. Jesse records, in his ‘Gleanings in
Natural History,’ that a clergyman’s attention being drawn,

SKY LARK.

13

as he was walking, by the cry of a bird, he discovered a pair
of Larks rising ©ut of an adjoining stubble field and then
crossing over the road on which he was, one of them having
a young bird in its claws, which was dropped in the opposite
field, at a height of about thirty feet from the ground, and
killed by the fall. The affectionate parent was endeavouring
to convey its young one to a place of safety, but her strength
failed in the attempt. The long hind claws seem well adapted
for this feat.

The Lark seems to have, occasionally at least, kindly feelings
even towards the young of another species. One of these
birds, which had been taken from the nest when very young,
and brought up in a cage, was turned out when it was able
to fly, and some young (Goldfinches put into its place. The
Lark returned to her former abode, and was again put into
the cage with the (Goldfinches. They were weak and feeble,
and she not only brooded over them, hut fed them. Others
have been known to continue to feed their young when cap¬
tured with them, apparently unobservant of the change, and
Mr. Weir has written of one, a male bird, which, while in
confinement, acted the part of a faithful step-father, having
brought up a number of his own species, and likewise several
broods of Linnets, and, what was still more curious, one which
was only a few weeks old assisted him most assiduously in
giving food to a family of young birds.

In the wild state, if on the nest, the hen bird will either
crouch close, in the hope, very often realized, of escaping
detection, or, if disturbed, will fly off to a short distance, in
anxious distress, in a low cowering manner, or hover about a
little way overhead, uttering a note of alarm, which soon
brings up the male. Larks are very good eating, and countless
thousands are taken for the table, but still their numbers
never seem to decrease.

As to the flight of the Lark, it is indeed a ‘lofty’ one,
continued upwards, higher and higher as the spring advances
and the sun, towards whom he soars, gets higher in the
heavens; up, and up, into the very highest regions of the
air, so that the eye is literally oftentimes unable to follow
it; hut if you watch long enough, you will again perceive
the vocalist, and downwards in measured cadence, both of
song and descent, but rather more rapidly than he went up,
he will stoop; nearer and nearer he will come, until at last,
suspended for a moment over the spot which contains his

SSL? I,AKK

14

•treasures, for wnose delight perhaps he has been warbling all
the while his loudest and sweetest notes, end has kept them
all along in his sight, slanting at the end for a greater or
less distance, probably as danger ma}7 or may not appear to
he nigh, he drops with half-closed and unmoved wings — and
is at home.

‘A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,

Which, search where you will, you’ll ne’er meet with elsewhere.

This flight frequently occupies nearly ten minutes; sometimes,
it is said, as much as an hour, during which time both throat
and wings seem taxed to the utmost, hut yet apparently
without fatigue of either, even though the loftiest regions of
the ‘thin air’ have been ascended to and traversed.

In rising up, the Lark turns towards the wind, if any be
blowing; but this is only what might naturally he expected;
and in settling down, the tail is seen to he expanded. At
first rising, the flight is fluttering and irregular, then a few
reaches forward are made, upwards or in a slanting direction,
and then in curves, or parts of circles, the bird ascends, and
when at a high elevation wheels in circles, singing all the
while. In the winter season, when an upward soaring is
scarcely attempted, the flight is slightly undulated, performed
by a few flappings of the wings and then a further progress,
either in the way of a short hovering about or a wheeling
here and there, before the ground is again settled on, which
it is rather abruptly at the close.

Their food consists of grain, grasses, and seeds, and also
of insects, caterpillars, snails, and worms; and they may often
he seen running into little pools of water, probably in search
of any insects that may happen to be there. In quest of
these they have also been seen running along the top of a
hedge. The Lark uses a quantity of sand and gravel with
its food,

The note of the Sky Lark, so rich and clear, full and
varied, is universally appreciated, so that one may surely say
‘where is the man with soul so dead,’ who, when on some
cbar bright day in early spring, when all nature is full of
hone, and in the blue sky above scarce a cloud is to be seen
he for the first time that year hears the well-known carol,
can help turning his eyes upwards to detect the songster, and
follow the happy bird, to trace, till he can no longer follow
it, save faintly with his ear, in its aerial ascent, step by step,

SKY LARK.

16

as it were, in the ‘open firmament of Heaven,’ one of the
‘fowls that may fly’ there, by the permission given to them
from the Great Creator when they were first called into ex¬
istence? I think it is old Izaak Walton who says ‘0 God!
what happiness must Thou have prepared for Thy saints in
Heaven, when Thou hast provided bad men with such enjoy¬
ments upon earth!’ In descending, too, the same clear note
is still heard, and it is sometimes continued again after the
bird has alighted on the ground, and is occasionally uttered
by it when perched on a bush, and sometimes when hovering
over a field at but a little height. It has been heard long
after sunset, even when the night had become quite dark. If
you have a Lark in a cage, give him his liberty, and make
him happy.

And not only is the song of the Sky Lark thus beautiful,
but it is abundantly bestowed upon us. It is to be heard
throughout three quarters of the year, nay, one may almost
say, in some degree, throughout the year, for in the beginning
of January in the present year, I think I heard, as others
have before, an attempt at it. Mr. Macgillivray has heard
the full song in Fifeshire, an appropriate locality, on the 13th.
of February, and again on the 12th. of March, 1835. It is
also uttered on the ground, from the top of a clod, or even
in the concealment of the grass, as well as in the air, though
not so much so in the former case. It is commenced as early

as half-past one and two o’clock in the morning, and is

continued at intervals till after the sun has again gone down.
The female sings as well as the male. In the winter a faint
chirp is the ordinary note.

When ‘April showers’ begin to give promise of returning
spring, or even earlier, in the beginning of March, as I have
myself seen them, and in February, the Larks begin to
separate from their companions of the winter months, with
whom since the autumn they have associated in large straggling
flocks, and form their ‘re-unions,’ of a very different nature
to those of the fashionable world. In the one there is that,
of which in the other there is none; and this, as Aristotle

says, makes ‘not a little but the whole difference.’ Two

broods are frequently reared m the year, the first of which
is fledged by the middle or end of June, or even the middle
of May, the eggs being laid the end of April or beginning
of May; and the second in August, the eggs being laid in
June or July. In confinement, three and even four sets of

16

SKY T/ATtK.

eggs have been known to be laid. Mr. Jesse says that if
some of the eggs be removed, and only one or two be leR,
the bird will continue to lay for a long time, but that if
three be left she will sit.

The nest is placed in a hollow scraped in the ground, with
or without the fortuitous shelter of a clod of earth or tuft of
herbage. It is placed in various situations, and is made of
grasses, and a few chance leaves, the coarser outside, the finer
on the inner part. The male bird appears to bring the
materials to the spot, where the female is engaged in arranging
them. The young are hatched in about a fortnight: they
do not quit the nest until fully fledged, but return to it bo
roost at night for some time after they have left it.

The eggs, three, four, or five in number, vary much both
in form and colour; some are of a greyish white colour, with
a tinge of purple or green, and freckled and mottled nearly
all over with a darker shade of grey, greyish brown, or brown;
others are of a deep sombre colour, and in some the chief
part of the colour is concentrated at the larger end, either
wholly or only partially around it. They are usually placed
w;th their smaller ends towards the centre.

Male; length, seven inches and a quarter to seven and a
half; bill, dark brown above, and pale yellowish brown at the
base of the lower part; iris, dark brown: over it is a pale
yellowish brown streak. The feathers at the base of the bill
are tipped with bristles; a sort of crest is frequently raised
on the top of the head, the feathers there being rather long;
head on the sides, pale yellowish brown, on the crown, dark
brown, the edges of the feathers paler than the rest; neck on
the back, and nape, brown of three shades, the centre of the
feathers, along the shaft, being the darkest, and the margin
the lightest part; chin, pale yellowish brown; throat and
breast on the upper part, the same, with a tinge of rufous,
aid spotted with small streaks of dark brown; underneath,
the latter is pale yellowish white; back, as the nape.

The wings, which expand to nearly the width of one foot
three inches, extend to within an inch and a quarter of the
end of the tail; the first feather is extremely short, the second
shorter than the third, which is the longest in the wing, the
fourth almost the same length; greater and lesser wing coverts,
brown, with broad light brown edges; primaries, dusky brown,
the second with the outer web brownish white, the others
edged with the same; secondaries, dusky brown, tipped with

SKY LA.KK.

17

whitish, and edged more broadly with reddish brown; tertiaries,
brown, with broad light brown edges. The tail, somewhat
forked, dusky brown, the edges of each feather being light
brown; the two central ones are brown, broadly edged with
light reddish brown; the outer feather on each side is white
on the outer web, excepting at the base, with a longitudinal
oblique streak of white on the inner web; the next to it
dusky on the inner web, the outer web, or the greater portion
of it, white: all the feathers are rather broad. Upper tail
coverts, as the nape; under tail coverts, pale yellowish brown;
legs, yellowish brown, paler in some specimens, the joints
dusky; toes, dusky brown, the middle one rather long, the
hind one very long, and slightly curved; claws, dusky brown,
the hind one very long and straight, except the outer half,
which is slightly curved.

The female closely resembles the male in appearance and
plumage. Length, nearly seven inches: the wings expand to
the width of one foot one inch.

The young are of a light yellowish grey colour, the feathers
of the upper parts being dusky, tipped and margined with
the former. In their second plumage the dark markings are
darker than in the old birds, and the bill and feet paler; the
claws, especially of the hind toe, shorter.

Varieties occasionally occur; some are seen pure white, and
others cream-colour, and some, though these are rare cases,
mottled with white. William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast,
describes one which had the primaries, secondaries, and tail
snowy white; and another, a true albino, with red eyes. In
confinement they sometimes turn black, probably the result
of some peculiarity in the food; one such, however, recorded
by Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, has been shot in a wild state.
In confinement, too, the claws have been known to grow t®
the length of two inches.

voi.. in.

c

IS

CRESTED LARK.

Alauda cristata , Gould.

The Crested Lark is a European bird, an inhabitant of
Italy, Sicily, Crete, Switzerland, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Hun¬
gary, France, Germany, Poland, Holland, Belgium, Siberia,
and Russia, the latter in the summer, and other countries of
this continent; as also in Asia Minor, and in Egypt and
other northern parts of Africa.

In this country one was shot in the county of Sussex, and
another is said to have been killed near Taney, in Ireland;
but the description does not seem to me to correspond.

It is a migratory species, moving from south to north in
the spring, and backwards again in the autumn.

This bird is represented as approaching near to villages and
houses, and as being rather solitary than gregarious in its
habits.

Its food consists of insects of various sorts, worms, and
grain.

Its song is sweet and agreeable, and is continued till the
month of September.

The nest is placed on the ground, and is made of grasses.

The eggs are four or five in number, of a light grey colour,
spotted with light and dark brown.

Male; length, six inches and three quarters; bill, rather
strong and large, and decurved towards the point, brown
along the ridge and at the end, and paler on the sides and
at the base; iris, dark brown: a buff white streak passes from
it over the eye. Head on the crown, reddish brown, with a
few of the feathers elongated, forming a crest, and pointing
backwards; neck on the back, and nape, dark brown, in front
pale yellowish brown; chin, white; throat and breast, pale
vellow brown, streaked in front and on the sides with darker

CRESTED LARK.

CRESTED LARK.

19

brown; back, brown, the shaft and centre of each feather
dark brown. The second quill feather of the wing is the
longest; greater and lesser wing coverts, brown, the shaft and
centre of each feather darker, and the edges buff white;
tertiaries, edged with buff white. The tail has the two middle
feathers nearly uniform light brown, the outer one on each
side light brown, with a buff white margin on the outside,
the rest of the feathers dark brown; legs, toes, and claws,
pale brown.

The female is rather less in size than the male, and the
crest is less conspicuous.

This bird, or rather one should say a bird by this name,
as it seems doubtful whether our older writers knew it at all,
has been made by some of them into two species, by the
names of the Greater and the Lesser Crested Lark, the latter
being the female, or the young, of their supposed Crested
Lark.

I do not read of any varieties of this bird as assuming
the ‘drapeau blanc.’

20

SNOW BUNTING,

SNOW FLAKE. SNOW FLECK. SNOW FOWL. TAWNT BUNTING.
GREAT PIED MOUNTAIN FINCH. MOUNTAIN BUNTING.
LESSER MOUNTAIN FINCH. BRAMBLING. GREATER BRAMRLING.

Plectrophanes nivalis,
Emberiza nivalis,

“ glacialis ,

“ mustelina,

“ montana ,

Meyer. Selby.

Linnaeus. Gmelin. Latham.
Latham. Pennant.

Gmelin.

Gmelin. Latham. Pennant.

Plectrophanes. Plectron — A spur. Phaino — To shew. Nivalis — Snowy.

The plate is taken from a drawing by my friend, the Rev.
R. P. Alington, M.A., Rector of Swinhope, Lincolnshire.

This pretty-looking species is a native of the icy countries
of the Arctic regions, and the islands of the Polar seas. The
Rev. Dr. Scoresby, whose name is so well known as Captain
Scoresby, the hardy ‘voyageur’ to far severer climes than even
those where the ‘Canadian Boat Song’ is heard, met with
great numbers on the frozen lands of Spitzbergen.

It is found in all the northern parts of Europe and America,
and builds in the North Georgian Islands, Melville Island,
Southampton Island, Lapland, Iceland, Nova Zembla, Green¬
land, Siberia, Norway, Sweden, the Ferroe Isles, and no doubt
in various other northern countries; it occurs also in Germany,
France, Austria, and Holland, and even in some instances in
Italy.

It is a winter visitant to Shetland and the Orkney Islands,
where as many as fifty-seven have been killed at one shot;
Scotland, and the north of England and Ireland, advancing
in some few instances to the extreme south of our island; but
it must be there sadly out of its element, like some Scotch

SNOW BUNTING.

SNOW BUNTING.

21

ladies whom I heard the other day lamenting that they never
found it cold enough in England.

Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., relates in the ‘Zoologist,’ page
1209, that one was met with near Bolleston Hall, his seat,
near Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, in the month of Oc¬
tober, 1845. It was knocked down by a labourer with a
stone.

The numbers of these birds diminish from Yorkshire south¬
wards, in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire, and a few
have been met with occasionally even in Surrey, Sussex, and
Devonshire, and other southern counties. One was shot near
Liskeard, in Cornwall, as N. Hare, Esq. informs me, in March,
1851; one near Falmouth, by T. Harvey, Esq.; one by Mr.
Copeland, at Pendennis Castle, in October, 1843; three by
Mr. May, in subsequent years, between the Castle and Pen-
nance Point; and one by Mr. Bow, of Devonport, on Boborough
Down, October 11th., 1851; and I have one, presented to me
by Mr. John Dickson, of Nafferton, which was shot near
Seamer, in the East-Biding of Yorkshire, on the 25th. of
March, 1851.

Mountainous regions are their natural resort, which they
leave for lower and more sheltered grounds when severe
weather comes on.

The Snow Buntings move southwards about the end of
October, betaking themselves to the sea-shores of Scotland,
and also to many parts of England in severe weather, retiring
inland at intervals, or as it becomes milder, when they resort
to farm-yards and roads, where they meet with grain of
various kinds. In the year 1849, a few were seen at Waxham,
near Yarmouth, in Norfolk, by W. E. Cater, Esq., of Queen’s
College, Cambridge, as early as the 27th. of September. It
would seem, from the fact of Mr. Macgillivray’s having seen
both old and young birds together in the month of August,
1830, that some build on the Grampian Hills, renowned in
song as the dwelling of ‘Young Norval;’ but for the most
part they remove to their more favourite haunts about the
middle of April. The young appear to be only able to fly
by about the end of July; and it is asserted that they
venture farther southwards than the old birds.

These birds, which are believed to pair for life, seem, at
the time when they have young, to be fearless, it being but
little experience of man, as an enemy, that they have had
in their lonely climes. They are very good eaiing, as are

22

SNOW BUNTING.

the rest of the Buntings. They may be kept, and have even
been known to breed, in confinement.

Their flight is described as low, performed in an undulated
line, by means of repeated flappings, and short intervals of
cessation; when they have arrived at a fitting place, they
wheel suddenly round, and alight rather abruptly, when
the white of the wings and tail becomes very conspicuous.
They run with great celerity along the sand, moving each
foot alternately, and when engaged in this manner, doubtless
in search of food, or of small sand and gravel, may be easily
approached within a few yards. They usually perch on a
crag or rock, the top of a wall, a rail, or a stack, and some¬
times it is said, on trees: they roost on the ground.

Their food consists principally of the different sorts of grain,
and the seeds of grasses and other plants, as also of small
mollusca, the caterpillars and chrysalides of insects, and insects
themselves.

The note is low and soft, and it is uttered on the wing
when the male bird serenades his mate, rising a little way
into the air, and hovering about with expanded wings and
tail.

The nest, which is made of dry grass, lined with hair and
a few feathers, is generally fixed in the crevice of a rock, or
among stones on the ground. Captain Lyons, R.N., found
one placed in the bosom of a dead Esquimaux child, a situation
suggestive of affecting thoughts, but the history connected
with which must remain unknown until that day when both
land and sea shall give up their dead. Others have been
found under the shelter of the drift timber, which is, alas!
but too frequently to be met with on the shores of the frozen
seas. How many a tale also does it tell with its expressive
though silent voice,

‘Of those

For whom the place was kept,

At hoard and hearth so long.’

Fervently do 1 trust that the ‘brave old oak’ of the gallant
Sir John Franklin’s trusty ships, may yet be found to have
afforded no shelter for the nest of the Snow-flake, but that
in the words of the still-used form of the old bills of lading,
‘so may the good ship arrive at her desired port in safety/

The eggs, from four to six in number, are greenish or
bluish white, encircled at the thicker end with irregular brown
spots, and many blots of pale purple: they are rather round

STOW BTTNTITO.

28

and obtuse in form. Meyer mentions one in the possession
of Mr. Hancock, of Newcastle, marked all over with spots of
a reddish and purple hue.

Male; length, about six inches and a half, or rather more,
to six and three quarters and seven inches; bill, yellow,
brownish black at the tip — entirely yellow in summer; iris,
chesnut brown. Head on the back, pale yellowish brown, or
chesnut — white in summer; crown, bright chesnut brown mixed
with white, the tips of the feathers being reddish brown in
winter: sometimes it is white. Neck on the back, greyish
brown — white in summer; in front a gorget of bright chesnut
brown mixed with white ; nape, white in summer, tinged with
greyish or brownish red in winter; chin, white; throat, white,
tinged with chesnut in winter; breast, white, with more or
less yellowish brown on the sides — wholly white in summer.
The feathers of the back black in summer, at other times
deeply edged with greyish white, or pale yellowish, or reddish
brown.

The wings extend to the width of one foot one inch. The
first quill feather is the longest; greater and lesser wing
coverts, white; primaries, black, slightly edged with white —
wholly black in summer. In some the first, and in others
the second feather is the longest; secondaries, mostly white,
but in younger birds black edged with white, and in adult,
birds some are black in summer; tertiaries, white. The tail
has the two or three outer feathers white, with a dark streak
along the shaft on the outer web some way down from the
tip, and a small black spot near the tip; the rest blackish
brown, edged with brownish white — pure black in summer;
upper tail coverts, black, broadly margined with reddish
brown in winter, or mingled tawny and white. Legs, toes,
and claws, black, the hind one lengthened and nearly straight.

The female has the colours more dull with less white.
Length, six inches and a quarter; bill, as in the male; iris,
as in the male. The head on the sides and crown is very
light chesnut brown; neck on the back, yellowish grey, the
upper part with brownish grey instead of reddish margins;
on the sides dark yellowish grey, in front dull chesnut brown
in the form of a band, its edges on the sides streaked with
dusky. Throat, pale yellowish grey; breast, light grey or
greyish white, tinged on the sides with chesnut brown. The
black on the back is not so pure as in the male bird, and
the margins of the feathers are light yellowish brown.

24

SNOW BUNTING.

The wings extend to the width of one foot and a quarter
of an inch; lesser wing coverts, dusky, the first row tipped
with dull white. The primaries have the white band tinged
with dusky, and of much less extent, being only visible on
seven of the quills; the secondaries have a large proportion
of brownish black, and some white. Tail, brownish black,
the two only of the side feathers being white, and it very
dull; the next being only in general paler on the inner web;
under tail coverts, greyish white.

The young, in the autumn, have the bill dull brownish
yellow, darker at the point. Head on the sides, light chesnut
brown, mixed with grey; crown, dark chesnut brown; neck
on the back, light chesnut brown, mixed with grey, on the
sides reddish brown; chin and throat, greyish white, tinged
with reddish brown. The breast has a reddish brown band,
edged at its sides with brownish black across its fore part;
below it is greyish white. Back, mottled with brownish black
and reddish brown, the centre of each feather being of the
former colour; lesser wing coverts, brownish white, with a
central dusky streak; primaries, brownish black, edged with
greyish white, white at the base, which colour extends on
the inner web. Several of the secondaries are mostly white,
but all of them have dusky or light brown towards the end:
the three inner ones are without white, and mottled with
brownish black and reddish brown. Tail, brownish black,
edged with brownish grey; the three outer feathers almost
entirely white, there being only a streak from the tip, including
part of the outer web. Toes, brownish black.

This is a most variable species, especially in the male birds,
the black being more or less intense, the white more or less
extended, and the reddish brown both more or less extensive,
and varying also in depth of tint. The bill is sometimes
pure yellow, but in general tinged with brownish black or
light brown at the tip, both above and below. Mr. Mac-
gillivray mentions one which he shot in the year 1835, at
the ever- famous Preston Pans, in East Lothian, which was
all over of a cream-colour, the head and upper tail coverts
tinged with red, the eye light red, and the bill, feet, and
claws, pale yellow.

\V

LAPLAND BUNTING,

->5

LAPLAND BUNTING.

LAPLAND LARK BUNTING.
LAPLAND PINCH. LAPLAND LONG- SPUR.

Plectrophanes lapponica ,
Ember iza lapponica ,

“ calcarata ,

Fringitta lapponica,

“ calcarata ,

“ montana,

Selby.

Jenyns.

Temminck.

Linnaeus. Latham.
Pallas.

Bbisson.

jplect.rophanes.

Electron — A spur. Pharno — To shew.

Lapponica — . ?

This bird is a native both of Europe and Asia, being found
along the Uralian chain of mountains which separate the two
continents; and, in the former, in Siberia, Sweden, Lapland,
Spitzbergen, the Ferroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, and a few
so far south as Germany, France, Prussia, Poland, Silesia,
and Switzerland. It occurs also in the Arctic portions of
North America, and some stragglers are occasionally seen in
the more southern parts of that portion of the continent.

In this country one was purchased some years ago in the
London market; a second was taken on the Downs, near
Brighton, in the county of Sussex; and a third in the same
neighbourhood on the 30th. of September, 1844. A fourth
was captured in September, 1828, a few miles north of London;
a fifth was caught near Preston, in Lancashire, in the month
of October, in the year 1833, and a sixth was taken in a
trap by a bird-catcher, near Kendal, in Westmoreland, at the
end of June or beginning of July. It was either a female
or a young male, as were all the other recorded specimens,
excepting the second of those taken near Brighton.

The Lapland Bunting gives a natural preference to the
sterile tracts of the north, where the whole scene is wild and

46

LAPLAND BUNTING.

desolate, and none but the most scanty vegetation clothes
the mountainous and hilly prospect.

It moves southwards to avoid severe weather. It is said
to be capable of being easily kept in confinement.

Its flight, when roused, is described as being quick and
buoyant, but for the most part it is to be seen on the ground,
where it runs along, holding its body, as do its relatives the
Larks, in an inclined position, intent doubtless on the one
great object of its daily life, the procuring its necessary food.
If a bird of prey appears while it is on the wing, it alights
and crouches close to the ground.

The food of this bird consists of the seeds of various Arctic
and Alpine plants, especially, it is said, those of the willow
and the Alpine arbutus, and also of insects.

The note is described by Meyer as sounding like the syllables
‘itirr,’ and Twee;’ and it utters it more while on the wing
than when perched. In addition to these the male is reported
to have a pleasing song.

The nest is placed on some small hillock in low marshy
situations, among moss and stones, and is built of stems of
grass, neatly and compactly lined with hair or feathers.

The eggs, usually six or seven in number, are pale yellow,,
spotted with brown.

Male; length, six inches and a half, and six and three
quarters; bill, yellow, blackish at the tip; in the winter
brownish yellow; from its base a narrow streak of white
passes downwards, till it nearly joins that mentioned presently,
which proceeds from above the eye. Iris, dark brown, or,
according to Meyer, chesnut; a reddish or brownish white
streak runs backwards from it, and then descends along the
sides of the neck to the breast, where it joins the white of
that part; it is palest near the bill. In the second Brighton
specimen, as described by William Borrer, Esq., Jun., the
bill was bluish red, excepting the tip, which was black. Fore¬
head, crown, and back of the head, rich black, the feathers
broadly edged with brownish red or greyish white after the
autumnal moult; those at the base of the bill black; sides of
the head reddish, spotted with black. Neck in front, black,
deepest in summer; on the back light reddish brown, mixed
with greyish in winter; nape, bright chesnut brown. Chin,
throat, and breast above, black; the feathers strongly edged
with greyish white in the winter after the autumnal moult;
below dull white, streaked and spotted with blackish on the

LAPLAND BUNTING.

27

sides, which become brownish in the autumn. Back, bright
chesnut brown and grey on the upper part, with blackish
spots, on the remainder the feathers are dark brown, with
reddish brown edges, and each feather is dusky along the
shaft.

Greater and lesser wing coverts, blackish brown, with a
broad margin of reddish, some of the latter tipped with white;
primaries, blackish brown, edged with reddish white, with
narrow light-coloured margins on the outer webs; the first is
the longest; secondaries, blackish brown, edged with rust-colour
or whitish; tertiaries, blackish brown, with a broad margin
of reddish. The tail, which is forked, is blackish brown, with
reddish or greyish edges to the feathers, the two outer with
a white wedge-shaped spot at the end of the inner web, and
having the whole of the outer one of that colour; upper tail
coverts, dark brown, the edges of the feathers reddish brown.
Legs and toes, brownish black, or black, probably according
to the season; claws, black, the hind claw nearly straight,
and longer than the toe.

After the autumnal moult, when in the ‘transition state/
the male resembles the female.

The female has the yellowish or reddish white stripe behind
the eye duller than in the male, and it unites with a white
line which proceeds from the corner of the bill. Head on
the crown, and neck on the back, a mixture of reddish and
black, the feathers edged with pale reddish brown and grey;
on the lower part of the front and on the sides it is
brownish grey, tinged with red in summer, and longitudinally
streaked with blackish. Nape, chesnut brown, the feathers
fringed with white; chin, greyish white; throat, white, or
greyish white in summer; the white not so pure as in the
male; bordered on the sides by a broad band. Breast,
blackish above, the feathers edged with pale brown and grey;
below it is whitish, with numerous grey and black spots, and
longitudinal spots on the sides. There is a tinge of grey
and a little red at the lower part.

Back, reddish grey, with black spots, as the head, on the
upper part, and on the lower, whitish, tinged with grey, and
a little red in summer. Tail, blackish brown, the outer edge
and part of the inner web at the end of the side feathers,
brownish white, of which there is a small oblique mark at
the end of the second feather; under tail coverts, whitish,
tinged with grey and a little red.

28

IfAPTA-NT) TSTTNTTrN'Ck

The young bird after the first moult has the bill yellowish
brown; head, crown, neck on the back, and nape, dark brown,
the feathers with light brown edges, giving it a streaked
appearance; chin and throat, whitish with small longitudinal
spots; breast, pale reddish or brownish white, spotted with
darker brown on the lower part and sides; back, dark brown,
the feathers with light brown edges; primaries, secondaries,
and tertiaries, bordered with deep red. The tail has a
reddish spot on the outer feather, and a longitudinal one on
the next; legs, toes, and claws, light brown.

The young female has the bill yellowish brown; from its
lower corner extends a streak of dark brown spots; over the
eye is a broad streak of pale brown ; head on the sides,
brown, partly mixed with black, as the crown; neck on the
back, and nape, pale brown, tinged with yellowish grey, the
shafts of the feathers blackish brown; in front the neck is
dull white, with dusky streaks down the shafts of the feathers.
Throat, yellowish white; breast, dull white, with dusky streaks
down the shafts of the feathers. Greater wing coverts, blackish
brown, deeply margined with chesnut brown, the tips white;
primaries, dusky, with paler edges; secondaries, blackish brown,
deeply margined with chesnut brown, the tips white; legs,
toes, and claws, brown.

1

bunting.

29

BUNTING.

COMMON BUNTING. COEN BUNTING. BUNTING BASE.

Emberiza miliaria , Pennant. Montagu. Bewick.

Emberiza — . ? Miliaria — A bird that feeds on millet.

Tjie bird before us is a native of Europe and Asia; in the
former, in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iiussia, and southwards
in Germany, Greece, and the Mediterranean, and in the latter
in Asia Minor.

The Bunting is a common bird in most, though not in
all, parts of the kingdom, frequenting the cultivated districts,
and these almost exclusively, in Yorkshire, Shropshire, Sussex,
Cornwall, Norfolk, Suffolk, Lancashire, Northumberland, Cum¬
berland, Durham, and other counties; in Wales also, and in
various parts of Scotland — Dumfriesshire, Edinburghshire, and
Sutherlandshire, as also in the Orkneys, where it breeds;
in the Hebrides and Shetland Islands. It is not, however,
invariably to be found in plenty in situations in which it
might be looked for in abundance, as in other similar ones,
but is somewhat capricious in the choice of its localities.

It is believed to be in some degree migratory, and that our
flocks are reinforced at the commencement of winter by others
from the Continent; partial movements, at all events, take
place in the winter.

Though seen only in pairs in the spring and summer, these
birds associate in the autumn and winter months with others,
both those of their own, though not numerously, and those
of other species; a community of object producing a ‘com¬
munism’ of habit — an ornithological ‘socialism,’ which may be
defended on the most abstract and practical principles of

30

OTNTrtfG.

right. ‘Corn-laws’ and ‘Protection’ have no place in their
‘statute hook;’ ‘free trade in corn’ is the motto of the Bunting
Lark ; he has only regard to ‘home consumption,’ and ignores
all ‘duties,’ save those which hunger dictates.

In that very pleasing volume, the ‘Journal of a Naturalist,’
Mr. Knapp says, ‘It could hardly be supposed that this bird,
not larger than a Lark, is capable of doing serious injury;
yet I this morning witnessed a rick of barley, standing in a
detached field, entirely stripped of its thatching, which this
Bunting effected by seizing the end of the straw, and
deliberately drawing it out, to search for any grain the ear
might contain; the base of the rick being entirely surrounded
by the straw, one end resting on the ground, the other against
the mow, as it slid clown from the summit, and regularly
placed, as if by the hand; and so completely was the thatching
pulled off*, that the immediate removal of the corn became
necessary. The Sparrow and other birds burrow into the
stack, and pilfer the corn, but the deliberate unroofing the
edifice appears to be the habit of this Bunting alone.’

They are rather, though by no means very shy birds, but
frequently in the breeding-season and in the autumn sit close.
They may sometimes be seen dusting themselves in the roads,
like the Larks and Sparrows, and other birds. They also
wash themselves; and may be kept in confinement.

The flight of the Bunting is heavy and strong, rather
undulated, performed by alternate beatings and cessations,
and in some degree laboured, as if the wings were hardly
equal, without exertion, to support the weight of the body.
If suddenly disturbed, they fly off in a straight direction,
with drooping legs, a constant flutter of the wings, and an
audible ‘whirr,’ reminding one somewhat of the Partridge.
At night they roost in bushes or hedges, and also on the
ground, in stubble-fields. They move along the ground by
hopping.

The food of the Corn Bunting consists of corn and such
seeds as it meets with; beetles, such as coekchaffers, in their
season, and other insects. It is consequently a good bird to
eat, and, from its ponderous and bulky size, b}r no means
despicable for the table; such at least I have found it at
the ‘Grammar School of King Edward the Sixth,’ at which
it was to be supposed that I received my education.

The note of the Bunting, which is uttered both when the
bird is perched and on the wing, is harsh and unmusical,

BTTimtfG.

31

ordinarily only a ‘chuck’ or ‘chit,’ which, quickly run together
and then protracted, form the staple of its song: it is heard
at a considerable distance.

Nidification commences towards the end of April.

The nest, which is begun and finished in the course of
this month, is usually placed on the ground, or only slightly
raised above it by coarse herbage, and frequently on a bank,
sometimes in a bush, or under a hedge, among the grass, is
composed of small roots and dry straws and grasses, lined
with smaller grasses, and small fibrous roots, moss, and hair,
rather neatly, but not finely compacted. It is somewhat
large and thick, but shallow inside.

The eggs, generally four, or rarely five or six, in number,
and of an obtuse oval shape, are of a whitish colour, with a
slight tinge of grey or red, sometimes pale purple reel, streaked
and spotted in a very irregular manner with dark purple
brown and pale greyish purple. They differ a good deal in
size, shape, and colour. In some the ground-colour is nearly
white.

Male; weight, nearly two ounces; length, rather more than
seven inches and a quarter, or seven and a half; Mr. Mac-
gillivray has met with one over eight inches long; bill, short
and thick, the upper one dark brown, excepting on the edges
towards the base, which, as also the under one,, is pale yellow
brown. Its shape, as in the rest of the family, is very peculiar
— the upper part is smaller than the lower, and fits closely
into it when shut. Iris, dark brown; over it is a faint line
of pale yellowish grey; head, crown, and neck on the back,
pale yellowish brown, inclining to olive-colour, streaked with
darker brown on the centre of each feather; in front, the
latter has each feather tipped with a triangular spot of
brownish black, the spots being larger and darker along a
line on each side; nape, as the back of the neck. Chin,
throat, and breast, dull whitish or yellowish brown — the latter
colour in winter, the former in summer — marked on the sides
with streaked spots of dark brown, which are more lengthened
lower down; the shafts of the feathers being dusky; a gorget
of small brown spots passes from the base of the bill, and
so spreads over the breast. Back, pale yellowish brown,
streaked with darker brown on the centre of each feather
along the shaft; in autumn it assumes an olive tint.

The wings expand to the width of one foot one inch. In
Mr. Macgillivray’s specimen, spoken of above, the wings ex-

BUNTING.

82

tended to the width of one foot one inch and a half. Greater
wing coverts, dark brown, broadly margined with pale brown;,
lesser wing coverts, the same, the first row tipped with light
yellowish brown; primaries and secondaries, dark brown, the
edges of the feathers lighter coloured; the first quill feather is
a little shorter than the second, the second a little shorter
than the third, which is the longest in the wing; the fourth
a little shorter than the first; tertiaries, dark brown, broadly
margined with pale brown. Tail, dark brown, the edges of
the feathers lighter coloured — it is slightly forked, and rather
long; upper tail coverts, pale brown, streaked with darker
brown on the centre of each feather; under tail coverts, pale
yellowish brown, dusky on the shafts. Legs, pale yellow
brown, with a tinge of red; toes, dull yellow; claws, deep
brown.

The female is not distinguishable in markings or colour
from the male. Length, seven inches and a quarter. The
wings expand to the width of one foot and three quarters of
an inch.

The young, when fully fledged, are nearly of the same

colour as their parents; the upper parts lighter, the lower
pale grey, with dark oblong spots; after the first moult the

colours deepen, but the young are still to be distinguished

from the old by the dark markings being more lengthened.

Varieties are not very unfrequent in which white more or
less occurs. One has been met with almost entirely white.
One is mentioned by my brother, Beverley B. Morris, Esq.,
M.D., in ‘The Naturalist,’ new series, vol. i, page 46, as

having been met with at Pickering, on the 10th. of March,
1850, which was of a very pale straw-colour, with a few
brown spots.

Mr. George Johnson, of Melton Boss, Lincolnshire, has one
of these birds, he informs me, nearly white.

v'-'

BLACK-HEADED BUNTING

<3

3S

BL ACTC-HE ABED BUNTING.

REEl) BUNTING-. WATER SPARROW. CHINK. BLACK BONNET.
PASSERINE BUNTING. MOUNTAIN SPARROW.

Pennant. Montagu.
Latham.

Gould.

Gmklin. Latham.
Kay.

Emberiza — . ? Schcenidus— Some water bird, probably from

Scoinos — A rush.

iZinberiza schceniclus ,

“ passerina ,

“ schamiculus,

“ arundinacea ,

Passer arundinaceus ,

On the continent of Europe this species is plentiful from
Holland to Italy; and is found in summer in Russia, Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway, arriving in April, and leaving again in
September.

The Reed Bunting is common enough with us in the
neighbourhood of water, whether that of the river, the stream,
the lake, the marsh, or the pond; and is also at times met
with in other and very dissimilar situations throughout England.
Near Falmouth it is scarce; one was shot at Svvanpool, on
the 16th. of January, 1850. It occurs in Wales, Scotland,
and Ireland, as also in the Hebrides. In the Orkneys it has
been occasionally met with; and in the summer of 1845 a
pair were observed with a nest in a plantation at Muddisdale,
near Kirkwall.

In the winter these birds move, at least the majority, but
not all of them, from the more northern parts in a southerly
direction, quitting in September or October, and returning in
March or April. They are sprightly, active, and elegant in
their appearance, though they have no gay plumage to strike
the eve of a casual observer. They are watchful and rather

\OL. HI. I)

34

BLACK-HEADED BTJ1STIHG.

shy, but do not remove far when alarmed, quickly settling
down again.

The present is another of the species of J)irds which display
a strong instinctive solicitude for their young. In the
‘Magazine of Natural History,’ vol. viii, page 505, Mr. Salmon,
of Thetford, writes, ‘Walking last spring among some rushes
growing near a river, my attention was arrested by observing
a Black-headed Bunting shuffling through the rushes, and
trailing along the ground, as if one of her legs or wings were
broken. I followed her to see the result; and she having led
me to some considerable distance, took wing; no doubt much
rejoiced on return to find her stratagems had been successful
in preserving her young brood; although not in preventing
the discovery of her nest, containing five young ones, which
I found was placed, as usual, on the side of a hassock, or
clump of grass, and almost screened from view by overhanging
dead grass.’ They may be kept in captivity: I have seen
one in a large aviary with a number of other birds of various
species, but it was by far the most wild of any of them.

In the winter months they gather in small flocks or assem¬
blages, which disperse again to their various ‘country quarters’
towards the end of March.

Their flight is tolerably even and rather rapid, performed
in a rather undulated line, the wings being opened and shut
from time to time. Meyer points out how, when roused from
their nests by any one walking through their haunts, they
spring up and cling to the slender stems of the osiers or
reeds, flitting anxiously from one to another; and that they
sit in a v6ry upright position, swinging upon the weak sprays,
which their light weight causes to bend under them, and
continually expanding and closing the feathers of their tails
by a very quick side motion; the white of which they also
display, when abruptly alighting, as is their wont.

Their food consists of insects, and the seeds of reeds and
<5ther aquatic plants.

The note is rendered by Meyer by the word ‘sherrip’ pro¬
nounced quickly; a mere chirp of two notes, the first repeated
three or four times, the last single and more sharp. It is
heard at tolerably frequent intervals; the bird in the mean
time perched on some small twig, and remaining in a listless
sort of attitude.

The nest is commonly placed on the ground, among coarse
grass, weeds, sedge, or rushes, on a bank near the edge of

BLACE>1TEAT)ET) BTHN’TOTG-.

85

the water which the bird frequents, and occasionally in the
lower part of some low hush or stump, a few inches above
the ground; sometimes it is said to have been met with in
a furze or gorse bush, at a considerable distance from water;
and Mr. Hewitson relates that he has, though rarely, found
it at an elevation of two feet or more above the water, and
supported on a mass of fallen reeds. It is composed of grasses
and fragments of rushes, lined with the down of the reed, a
little moss, or finer grass, or hair.

The eggs are four or five in number, of a pale purple
brown, greenish, or brownish, or purple white colour, streaked
and strongly spotted in a pleasing manner with a darker shade
of the same; sometimes the end is delicately marked with a
texture of fine lines. They are laid about the first week in
May, and occasionally a second brood is produced in July.
They are oblong, and taper at each end.

Male; length, six inches and a quarter; bill, dusky brown
above, paler beneath; a white streak passes from its corner
backwards, meeting the white collar presently mentioned; iris,
dark brown; when excited, the bird raises up the feathers on
the head. Head on the crown and sides velvet black, bounded
by a collar of white, which descends to the breast; the black
feathers assume reddish brown tips after the autumnal moult, ,
until the following spring, and the collar becomes greyish
white. Neck on the back and nape, black, excepting the white
collar, and broadly edged with rusty brown after the autumnal
moult, all the colours being then obscured together; chin and
throat, black, ending in a point tending downwards; after the
autumnal moult the feathers are tipped with greyish brown
until the following spring; breast, dull bluish grey white,
darkest on the sides, where it is also streaked with brown.
The feathers of the back are blackish, bordered with rufous
brown, interspersed with grey, which latter colour prevails^
lower down, the shafts of the feathers being blackish.

The wings expand to the width of nine inches and three
quarters; greater and lesser wing coverts, dusky black, each
feather being broadly margined with rufous; primaries, dusky
black, margined with rufous; the first four quill feathers are
nearly equal in length, but the second is rather the longest,
the fifth, according to Yarrell, shorter than the first, but
Macgillivray says that they are equal; secondaries, dusky
black; tertiaries, dusky black on the inner web, reddish on
the outer, and margined with white. The tail is rather long

black-head ed bunting.

SB

and slightly forked; the two outer feathers on each side are
white, with an oblique dusky brown patch at the base and
tip, the shafts black; the middle pair are dark brown, slightly
margined with rufous, the others blackish brown; upper tail
coverts, bluish grey streaked with blackish, the shafts being
of that colour; under tail coverts, white. Legs, toes, and
claws, dusky brown.

The female is rather less in size than the male. Length,
five inches and a half; from the base of the bill extends a
brown streak, joining a patch of that colour under the neck,
and spreading over the breast in dusky spots. Iris, dusky
brown; over it is a* pale yellowish or reddish grey streak,
which meets that on- the back of the neck. Head and crown,
dusky reddish or yellowish brown, varied with darker brown
on the centre of the feathers; there is a band of pale yellowish
or reddish grey round the back of the neck, which in front
is of the same colour, with two irregular bands of blackish
brown. On each side of the chin descends a streak of dark
brown; throat and breast, dull white, more clouded with
greyish brown than in the male, and streaked with dark
reddish brown; back, dusky, bordered with rusty brown.
Greater and lesser wing coverts, broadly edged with rufous;
tertiaries, broadly edged with rufous; upper tail coverts, pale
greyish brown tinged with red. Legs, toes, and claws, pale
brown.

The young birds resemble the female, but with duller tints,
and the sides of the head of a brownish grey colour. The
black on the head is assumed by the young males in the
following spring after their first autumn, and the white ring
is not so conspicuous as in older birds; the bill is a bluish
red colour, and the legs the same; the eye as in the adult
bird.

A pied variety of this species, a male, was met with in
the year 1850, at Longhirst, in Northumberland. It was
beautifully mottled with black, brown, and white, but white
was the predominant colour.

YELLOW-HAMMER,

37

f ELLOW-H A MMER,

YELLOW BUHTING. YELLOW YOWLEY.

YELLOW YELDRING. YELLOW YGLDRI^G. YELLOW YITE.
YELDROCK. YOLICRIJSTG. YOIT. SKITE. GOLDIE.

Pennant. Montagu.
Brisson.

timber iza citrinellay
“ jlava ,

Citrinella. Citrus— A citron or lemon tree?

Emberiza — .

?

The Yellow-hammer is found throughout the European
continent, from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, to the shores
of the Mediterranean. It is, however, most plentiful in the
midland parts — decreasing in numbers towards the north and
south extremities.

This is one of the most common birds that we have in
this country, and is more particularly observable in the summer
time, when there is not a hedge alongside of which you can
walk, without seeing one after another flitting out before you,
and then in again, ‘here and there and everywhere.’ The nest
is, or is to he, somewhere near, and hence the greater apparent
frequency of the Yellow-hammer at this season. In the winter
they are more collected together in flocks. They frequent,
for the most part, the cultivated districts, those that are
destitute of wood being uncongenial to them, but 'they are
found on such wastes as are covered with gorse or broom.

In Orkney this species is by no means plentiful, and is
chiefly observed in winter: the same remark applies to Shet¬
land. During the summer of 1846, a pair built their nest in
the garden at Daisy Bank, near Kirkwall; and another pair
bred the same season at Pabdale.

Yellow-hammers are gregarious birds, consorting in the

38

YELLOW- HAMMER.

winter months with flocks of other species, as well as of their
own. They roost generally on the ground, and you may see
them in the dusk of the evening, when they are retiring to
rest, flitting about in numbers on the sides of banks, disturbed
by your approach. In very cold weather they are said to
seek for the night the shelter of bushes, ivy, and shrubs, as
a protection against the ‘cauld blast,’ which the houseless and
homeless wanderer instinctively shrinks from encountering on
the wide heath, the solitary moor, or the lonely road; when
it is a

‘Winter’s evening,

And fast falls down the snow.*

The male bird is carefully attentive to the female when
engaged during the period of incubation with her maternal
duties, brings her food, and takes his turn in sitting upon
the eggs. They have a habit, when perched, of flirting the
tail up and down, when it is also slightly expanded. Both
shew much affection for their young, and in many cases, if
not in all, the parent birds keep in company throughout the
winter, frequently with their family also. Even when large
flocks are collected together in hard weather, it is very pro¬
bable that the members of the different families are still united
to each other in some degree, and so contiuue until in the
following season they disperse to become the several heads of
families themselves. Like others of their tribe, these birds
occasionally dust themselves in the roads, and at such times,
and indeed frequently at others, may be approached quite
closely. They are reckoned good eating, and great quantities
are taken on the continent for the purpose. Meyer possessed
one which continued for several weeks to feed a young Cuckoo,
which had been placed in the same cage in which it was kept;
and it did this, not with that food which it took by choice
itself, but with that which was most congenial to the voracious
appetite of its adopted child.

Their flight is strong, quick, and undulated, and they alight
suddenly and unexpectedly, displaying the feathers of the tail
at the time. They move along the ground, when feeding,
by a series of very short leaps, in a horizontal position, with
the breast nearly touching the ground. When perched, the
tail is much deflected, hanging down as if the bird were
listless, and this attitude is often continued for some time.

Their food consists of grain and other seeds, and occasion-

YELLOW-HAMMER.

89

ally, but rarely, of insects and worms. They consume a
considerable quantity of corn in the farm-yard, clinging on to
the outside of the stack, and frequently pulling out the long
straws, winnowing the ears, and devouring the grain either
on the spot, or at some little distance to which they have
flown with it.

The note, which may heard so early as February, is
usually two or more chirps, followed by a harsher one in a
higher key, ‘chit, chit, chirr/ and these at rather lengthened
intervals. The bird generally utters it when perched on. the
outer or topmost spray or bough of a hedge or a tree. When
a large flock is disturbed in winter from a farm-yard, and
alight in a body on some neighbouring trees, a great clamour
is sometimes raised, and the twittering continued for a con¬
siderable time, as if all the individuals were holding a ‘con¬
versazione’ together, and each wished to have his say on the
subject, which, however interesting to them it may be, is a
puzzle to the ornithologist even to guess the purport of; all
on a sudden a few, first one and then another, glide down
again from the trees, followed presently by the whole party;
the conversation is over, the forage recommenced, the associ¬
ation in the mind which recalled some long since ‘by gone
hour’ is dispelled, and conjecture as to the meaning of the
languagejust heard is left to its previous uncertainty. Meyer
relates of a tame Yellow-hammer which he had, that it dis¬
played considerable powers of ventriloquism.

Towards the beginning of April, the associations of winter
are broken up, and those of summer are made.

The nest, which is rather bulky, is usually placed either
on or very near to the ground, on a bank, or sheltered by
some bush, among the twigs, or in a clump of grass, or tuft
of other herbage. The late William Thompson, Esq., of
Belfast knew one in the middle of a field; he also relates
that in the garden of a friend of his near Belfast, a pair of
these birds built their nest at the edge of a gravel-walk, and
brought out four young, three of which being destroyed, the
nest was removed with the fourth one for greater safety to
a bank a few feet distant, and the old birds still kept to itr
and completed the education of their last nestling. The nest
is formed of moss, small roots, small sticks, and hair, tolerably
well compacted together; the finer parts of the materials beinsr
of course inside. Mr. Black wall mentions in the first volume
of the ‘Zoological Journal,’ his having known an instance in

40

YELLOW-HAMMER.

which, in the month of June, the female laid her eggs upon
the bare ground, sat upon and hatched them; and Mr. Salmon,
of Tlietford, mentions in the second volume of ‘The Naturalist,’
old series, page 274, his having on one occasion, on the 29th.
of May, 1834, found the nest at the height of seven feet
from the ground, in a broom tree. Mr. Hewitson too, found
one at a height of six feet from the ground in a spruce fir.

The eggs, from three to four or five, and occasionally six
in number, are of a pale purple white colour, streaked and
speckled with dark reddish brown; the streaks frequently
ending in spots of the same colour. Some have been known
of a red colour, with reddish brown streaks and lines, others
quite white, others entirely of a stone-colour, and others again
of a stone-colour, marbled in the usual way. In a nest in
which was one egg of the ordinary size, there were two others
of the Lilliputian dimensions of those of the Gf olden-crested
Wren. The young are seldom able to fly before the second
week in June, being about a fortnight after they have been
hatched; they keep together at night for a short time before
they finally separate. Two broods are occasionally reared in
the year.

The male is very variable in the tints of his plumage, the
yellow being in some much more extended than in others;
this is the case with older birds, in whom also it is of a
paler hue: in some the red on the breast and lower part of
the back is more or less deep than in others. Weight,
about seven drachms; length, seven inches, or a trifle over;
bill, bluish horn-colour, the upper one with a tinge of brown;
iris, dark brown; about the base of the bill the feathers are
terminated with short bristles. Head on the crown and
sides, bright yellow, with a few streaks of dusky black and
olive . brown, frequently forming a line on each side from the
forehead over the eye to the back of the head; neck on
the back and nape, the same; chin, throat, and breast, bright
yellow, the latter clouded and more or less streaked on the
sides with reddish brown and olive-colour; back, on the upper
part, bright reddish brown with a tinge of yellow, yellowish
orange, or yellowish green, each feather being dark brown in
the centre; on the lower part it is orange brown, the feathers
margined with greyish white or yellowish, according to the
season.

The wings extend to the width of eleven inches; underneath
they are grey; greater and lesser wing coverts, dusky black,

YELLOW- TT A MMER.

41

broadly margined with rich chesnut brown and olive; pri¬
maries, dusky black, with a narrow outside edge of yellow;
the first four nearly equal in length, but the first, or according
to Macgillivray, the third, rather the longest, the fourth a
little shorter than the third, and the fifth a quarter of an
inch shorter than the fourth; secondaries and tertiaries, dusky-
black, broadly margined with rich chesnut brown and olive;
greater and lesser under wing coverts, yellow. The tail is
slightly forked, having the two middle feathers shorter than
the rest, and dusky black, edged with reddish brown and
tinged with yellow; the next three feathers on each side are
dusky black edged with olive, and the two outer ones on
each side have a broad patch of white in a slanting direction
on the inner web, the rest of the feather pale brown, and
the outer margin yellowish white; underneath, the tail is
grey; upper tail coverts, reddish brown, the feathers, edged
with yellow. Legs, toes, and claws, light yellowish brown,
with a tinge of red.

The female is in general much duller in colour; length,
not quite seven inches; the head has much less yellow than
in the male, that colour being nearly confined to the fore
part of it; the neck in front assumes a tinge of dull green;
the breast has the yellow much more obscured, and is merely
streaked on the sides and front with yellowish red; back, on
the lower part, lighter than in the male. The wings expand
to the width of ten inches and three quarters; primaries,
secondaries, and tertiaries, paler than in the male. The white
spots on the side feathers of the tail are smaller in size than
in the male bird, and the whole of the tail is of a lighter
tint.

The young, when first fledged, are dull yellowish brown,
streaked with black above, yellowish grey beneath, the breast
and sides streaked with brown. The head does not assume
the yellow until after the first autumnal moult, and is patched
with dusky black, each feather having a streak of that
colour — the older the bird the more is the yellow diffused,
and less interrupted with the dusky streaks, as also deeper
in tint; the sides of the head are yellowish grey. Neck on
the sides, yellowish grey, on the lower part in front dull
yellowish brown streaked with dusky; throat, yellow; breast,
dull yellowish streaked with dusky. The streaks on the back
are much broader than in the adult, and the red on its
lower part is less pure, most of the feathers being streaked

42

YELLOW-HAMMER.

on the centre. The quill feathers of the wings have the
yellow margins less bright; the white spots on the side feathers
of the tail are smaller even than in the female; under tail
coverts, dusky in the centre.

Varieties occasionally occur — one has been seen in which
the head, neck, and throat were pure white, with a few spots
of brown on the top of the head. Montagu mentions one
he had, in which the white of the head, neck, and lower
part of the back, as also the whole of the breast, were pale
yellow, and some of the quill feathers, and of those on the
shoulders, white. Mr. Macgillivray records another, shot in
the county of Linlithgow, of a greyish white colour, the
margins of the feathers pale brownish red, the bill and feet
pale.

CIRL BUNTING.

43

GIRL BUNTING.

FRENCH YELLOW-HAMMER. BLACK-THROATED
YELLOW-HAMMER.

Emberiza cirlus , Pennant. Montagu. Bewick.

“ elcathorax , Bechstein.

Emberiza — . ? Cirlus — -

Thts neat bird is abundant in the southern parts of the
European continent, and occurs also in Asia Minor; in the
former in Germany, Switzerland, Thuringia, and along the
shores of the Mediterranean, also in Crete and Corfu, and in
France, but in the latter only, it is said, when ‘en route.’

In Yorkshire, Mr. Allis has recorded one taken near York,
and Dr. Neville Wood another obtained in the year 1837, at
Campsall, near Doncaster; a third was shot by T. Strangwayes,
Esp., at the Leases, near Bedale, in the North-Riding, on the
j 5th. of February, 1851; and a fourth by Richard Strangwayes,
Esq., also in the month of February, near St. Agatha’s Abbey,
Richmond, Yorkshire; the same gentleman saw two others,
both males, on the 29th. of December, 1850, on Askew Moor,
near Bedale. In Berkshire, I myself procured one in the
grounds of East Garston vicarage, near Lam bourne: this was
in the summer of the year 1826, or 1827 ; there were a pair,
and my attention was first directed to them by the peculiarity
of their note uttered from the top of an elm tree, which
struck me as something different from anything I had heard
before, there being a peculiar sharpness in it: I also procured
their nest and two eggs. In Dorsetshire, some years after¬
wards, I shot another out of a flock of Yellow-hammers, in
a field bordered by the sea-shore, near the village of Char-

44

CIEL BUNTING.

mouth. In Hampshire, it has been met with in plenty, in
the Isle of Wight, also near Alton and the neighbouring
parish of Selborne, with which the name of White will ever
he associated; Thomas Bell, Esq. has known them to breed
there in the year 1847. In Surrey, near Godaiming, though
rarely; Wiltshire and Devonshire, where it was first discovered,
in considerable plenty, by Colonel Montagu, in the neigh¬
bourhood of Kingsbridge, in the winter of the year 1800. In
the adjoining county of Cornwall, W. P. Cocks, Esq. records
in ‘The Naturalist,’ vol. i, page 112, that it is not uncommon
in the neighbourhood of Falmouth; it occurs also near St.
Germains, Penzance, and Penryn. It is taken occasionally in
the neighbourhood of London ; in Sussex, near Bye, where
J. B. Ellman, Esq. shot one in April, 1849; and near Chichester,
where Mr. Gould observed it in abundance.

A. E. Knox, Esq. says that it affects the neighbourhood
of the coast, seldom venturing many miles into the interior;
that it is common during the summer months near Chichester,
Bognor, Worthing, and Brighton, but is not met with on
the northern side of the Downs of West Sussex. William
Knapp, Esq., of Harts Cottage, Alveston, near Bristol, records
in the ‘Zoologist,’ page 3174, that it is a constant resident
in that part of Gloucestershire throughout the year, breeding
there in the summer; also near Bridgewater, Glastonbury,
Bath, and Bristol. In the adjoining county of Somerset he
also relates that he has long known it to be abundant in
the winter. In Norfolk it appears to be very rare; J. H.
Gurney, Esq., of Easton, has known one killed in that county
in the beginning of November, 1849. In Scotland one was
procured near Edinburgh.

There is no mention of the occurrence of this bird so far
north as the Orkneys, in the Natural History of those islands,
before referred to, published by W. B. Baikie, Esq., M.D., and
Mr. Heddle.

The following is a certain author’s theory of the distribu¬
tion of this species: — ‘The whole plumage is indeed more soft
and loose, and less fitted for contending with the win ds than
that of the other Buntings, and much more so than that of
the species which breeds in the distant north.’ ‘As these
birds fly much in company with the Yellow Buntings in
winter, they might be looked for in warmer places a little
farther to the north than they have hitherto been found;
though as they are in a great measure corn-land birds m their

CTT?T, T?r^Trm

15

habits, the sheep-walks on the southern heights may impede
their progress to the countries farther to the north, and they
cannot be expected on the mountains.’

These birds may be easily kept, if brought up from the
nest. They seem to be rather more shy than the Yellow
Buntings, and are fond of perching on the summits of trees:
as recorded of the other species, they also feign lameness, to
entice strangers from a too near approach to their nest. They
seem to have a partiality for elm trees, in preference to any
others; but if the present mania for cutting down hedge-row
timber continues, under the plea of ‘agricultural improvement,’
we bid fair to have neither elm trees, nor any other trees
left for a bird to perch on; and what^will become of the
most beautiful feature of the English landscape?

They feed principally on berries, seeds, and grain, and also
on caterpillars, beetles, and other insects.

The note is generally delivered from the top of a tall tree,
and the female is more deficient in vocal powers than the
male, though neither of them excel in this respect. They
continue in full song, such as it is, until the middle or end
of August, or until the period of the autumnal moult, which
takes place about that time. Their monotonous ^ay is reiterated
at brief intervals, and is uttered, at least a portion of it,
while on the wing, as well as when perched,
i The Cirl Buntings pair in April, and nidification*ommences
about the beginning of May.

The nest is placed in furze or low bushes, and is usually
made of dry stalks of grass and a little moss, lined with hair
and small roots; some are wholly without moss or hair, and
are composed entirely of the other materials, the small roots
constituting the lining. R. A. Julian, Esq., Jun., has known
one containing four eggs, which he met with in July, 1850,
in a steep bank: it may have been a second one of the
year.

The eggs are four or five in number, of a dull bluish white,
distinctly streaked and speckled with dark brown: they vary
much in colour and markings. The young are hatched in
about a fortnight.

Male; weight, about seven drachms; length, six inches and
ndt quite a half; bill, bluish lead-colour above, paler beneath;
iris, dark brown: over it is a patch or streak of bright yellow,
coming round and forming a gorget beneath the black on
the throat, and a dark streak of blackish green passes, as it

46

CIRL BUNTING.

were through it, from the lower bill. The head has a yellow
spot on its side; crown, dark olive, streaked with black on
the centres of the feathers; the black feathers of the head 1
have lighter-coloured margins in the winter, making the head
yellowish grey, with the centres of the feathers black; neck
on the back, sides, and front on the lower part, yellowish
grey, inclining to olive green; nape, olive green; chin and
throat, black with a tinge of green, below which is a crescent¬
shaped patch of bright yellow, the ends of which turn upwards
towards the sides of the head: in the winter the black of
the throat has lighter-coloured margins. Breast, on the upper
part, dull olive, met below by a chesnut brown band, which
is widest on the sides, which are further tinged with the
same, and streaked with dusky black: the lower part of the
breast is dull yellow. Back, fine chesnut brown, the edge
of the feathers tinged with olive, at some seasons with greyish
white, and dusky in the centre and on the shafts.

The wings extend to within an inch and a half of the end
of the tail; underneath they are yellowish; greater wing coverts,
dusky, black in the centre, broadly margined with chesnut
brown; lesser wing coverts, olive green; primaries and second¬
aries, dusky bla'ck, with very narrow yellowish or yellowish
green edges; the second and third quill feathers are equal in
length, and^the longest in the wing; the first and fourth are
also equal in length, but a little shorter than the second and
third; the fifth an eighth of an inch shorter than the fourth;
Macgillivray describes the three first as being nearly equal in
length. Tertiaries, dusky black in the centre, broadly margined
with chesnut brown. Tail, dusky black; the two outer feathers
on each side have a patch of white on the inner webs, ex¬
tending half-way from the tip, the external edge of the outer
one entirely white; the centre pair are rather shorter than
the others, and tinged with reddish or chesnut brown; the
rest black, with very narrow light-coloured edges; upper tail,
coverts, yellowish olive, streaked with dusky grey; under tail
coverts, pale yellow. Legs and toes, light brown tinged with
pale red; claws, dusky.

In the female, over the eye is a dull yellow streak, passing
down the side of the bead; the head is without the black
colour and the bright yellow: it is dull green, with marks of
a darker shade. The crown is streaked with black; chin,
yellowish brown, streaked with darker brown, as is the throat,
both being without the bright yellow; breast, dull yellow,

CIRL BUNTING-.

47

streaked with dusky black: the back is streaked with black.
Its general colour is not so bright as in the male bird.

The young before the first moult have the breast pale
yellow, streaked with dusky: as the bird advances in age, an
olive tint appears, increasing gradually in depth of colour.
Back, light brown, speckled with black.

ORTOLAN.

ORTOLAN BUNTING.

Linnaeus. Latham.
Selby. Jknyns. Gould.
Montagu. Bewick.
Latham.

chloroccphala,

tunstalli.

Ember iza — ,

Hortulana — Of, or pertaining to gardens,
Hortns — A garden.

This is an abundant species in many parts of the European
continent, and is found also in plenty on the northern shores
of Africa, as well as in Asia Minor, Central Asia, and the
East Indies. In Europe, it occurs plentifully in France,
Spain, and the other southern countries that border on the
Mediterranean, occasionally in Holland, and also in Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway, where it even produces its young; and
in Lapland.

A specimen of this bird was taken off the Yorkshire coast,
in the month of May, 1822, by the master of a merchant
vessel; Bewick says that about the same time a pair were seen
in the garden at Cherry-burn, on the banks of the Tyne.
Another possessed by Marmaduke Tunstal, Esq., had been
taken some time previously, in St. Mary-la-bonne Fields,.
London, by a bird-catcher; a third was killed near Manchester,
in November, 1827; and a fourth was caught near London,
in company with Yellow Buntings, by another member of the
above-named fraternity. ‘La mala compagnia e quella che
mena uomini alia furca;’ ‘Bad company leads to the gallows,’
says the Italian proverb, and the Ortolan Bunting is not the
first that has experienced the truth of it. In the ‘Account
of the Birds found in Norfolk,’ by John Henry Gurney and

ORTOLAN,

OSTOTA'V.

49

William Richard Fisher, Esqrs., one is mentioned as having
"been seen by them, which was said to have been killed near
Norwich. One is also recorded by Edward Hearle Rodd, Esq.,
of Trebartha Hall, in the ‘Zoologist,’ page 3277, as having
been obtained at Trescoe, one of the Scilly Islands, on or
about the 8th. of October, 1851. One was shot on the 27th.
of April in the present year, 1852, close to the town of
Worthing, in Sussex, about a couple of hundred yards from
the sea. For this information I am indebted to W. F. W. Bird,
Esq., who had it from Mr. Cooper, of Radnor-Street, London.

Meyer says of these birds that they prefer the borders of
woods, hedges, and fields, especially if near water; that they
also visit gardens, and frequent the banks of rivulets clothed
with low willows and other bushes, and districts intersected
with ditches and marshy tracts; and that from their wooded
retreats they visit the neighbouring fields of stubble, turnips,
and millet, but are seldom seen in open meadows. He adds
that they are said to shew themselves but little, in which
respect they differ from the others of their kind that are
found in this country, which are all of them remarkable for
perching in exposed situations, where they are easily visible.

Great numbers of Ortolans are captured in nets, and pre¬
served for the table, being esteemed a great delicacy by the
foreign ‘gourmands.’ They are kept most easily in captivity,
and being supplied abundantly with food, pass almost their
whole time in feeding, so that they unwittingly hasten on
their destruction by the same means as, although in a different
way from, some notorious glutton, of whom it was said that
he committed suicide with his teeth: it would be well if such
a habit were confined to the birds, and were shared in common
with them by none who rank higher in the scale of nature.
Even in the time of the Romans, that is to say, in their
later times, when their luxuriousness and effeminacy necessi¬
tated the destruction of the empire, they too thus committed
political suicide: the Ortolan was valued on the same account
that has rendered it an object of quest ever since.

It is a migratory species, Africa being its winter, and
Europe its summer residence. Bechstein remarks that its
migration is so exact and regular, that when one has been
seen in a particular spot, especially in the spring, it is sure
to be found there the following year at the same time. This
is, however, equally the case with many other migratory birds,
as well as with the one at present before us. The rule is,

VOL. III. e

ORTOLAN.

50

I think, one way, although there may be exceptions to it.

The food of this bird consists of grain and seeds, as also
of insects and their larvse, on which latter the young are
principally fed, as is the case with other birds of allied kinds.

The monotonous note of this species is almost incessantly
repeated by the male bird during the pairing season. As a
cage bird, Bechstein describes its song as full and clear.

The Ortolan Bunting begins to build early in May.

The nest is placed in corn-fields, and adapted to some
hollow in the ground, or the latter possibly to it; Selby adds
thickets and low hedges as places of its nidifi cation also. It
is formed of dry grass and small roots, thickly lined with
the finer portions of the latter; in some the inside is finished
with a few hairs.

The eggs are four or five, sometimes, though rarely, six in
number: they vary much in markings.

Male; length, six inches and a quarter; bill, reddish brown:
from its lower corner descends a short streak of yellow, between
which and the yellow of the chin is a narrow band of greenish
grey. Iris, brown; head on the crown and sides, greenish
grey, the shafts of the feathers dark coloured; neck on the
back, the same; nape, the same; chin, throat, and breast on
the upper part, yellowish green, the remainder of the latter
is reddish buff, the feathers tipped with greyish white; back
on the upper part, rich reddish brown, or yellowish brown,
with a tinge of green on the edges of the feathers, but almost
black in the middle; on the lower part it is reddish, or yel¬
lowish brown.

The wings have the first three feathers nearly equal in
length and the longest in the wing, the fourth nearly a quarter
of an inch shorter than the third; greater and lesser wing
coverts, dusky black, with broad rufous brown margins, which
at some seasons are yellowish white; primaries, dusky black,
narrowly edged with rufous brown, at some seasons with yel¬
lowish white; secondaries, dusky black, also edged with rufous
brown; tertiaries, dusky black, with broad rufous brown
margins. Tail, dusky black, the centre feathers tinted with
reddish, and their margins paler; the two outer feathers on
each side with a patch of white on the inner web; upper tail
coverts, reddish or yellowish brown; under tail coverts, pale
reddish buff. Legs and toes, pale brown, with a tinge of
red: the hind claw is not much curved.

The female is generally of a duller hue, and is also rather

OUT 0 LAN.

51

smaller in size; the colour of the head is more mixed with
grey, and streaked with dark brown. The breast on the
upper part is spotted with dark brown, and the buff on the
lower part is less bright in colour.

Young birds of the year resemble the female.

M. Temminck and M. Viellot speak of different varieties of
this bird. The latter enumerates six different ones: one of
them has the head and neck green. Some, he says, are oc¬
casionally met with entirely white, and others partially so;
others, again, of a uniform blackish brown, but this the
result of their being fed on hemp seed when kept in con¬
finement.

52

CHAFFINCH.

SHILFA. SCOBBY. SHELLY. SHELLY.
SHELL-APPLE. BEECH-EINCH. TWINE. SPINK. PINK*

FringUla Calebs, Pennant. Montagu. Bewick.

Fringilla, also Friqilla — A Chaffinch. Calebs — A Bachelor.

This bird is generally distributed over the European con¬
tinent, being migratory in those countries which are colder,
and stationary in those which are warmer. It is found from
the Levant to the Azores, and from Denmark, Norway, and
Sweden to the ‘Banks of the Blue Moselle,’ and all the other
regions of the ‘sunny south.’ It occurs also on the northern
shores of Africa.

In this country it is one of our most common species, and
the male one of the handsomest birds that we have, as will
appear from the description.

In the Orkney Islands it is very common in winter and
spring, • and most likely breeds there, as several remain
throughout the summer. Large flocks occasionally appear in
October, especially after easterly gales.

The Chaffinch is with us in some degree migratory, and
is remarkable for the separation, in some parts of the country,
of the males and females, during the winter months, and
their collection at that season into separate flocks. Mr. Selby,
speaking of this singular habit says, that in the county of
Northumberland, and in Scotland, their separation takes place
about the month of November; and that from that period
till the return of spring, few females are to be seen, and those
few always in distinct societies. The males remain, and are
met with, during the winter, in immense flocks, feeding with

CHAFFINCH.

CHAFFINCH.

53

other granivorous birds in the stubble lands as long as the
weather continues mild and the ground free from snow;
resorting, upon the approach of winter, to farm-yards and
other places of refuge and supply. He adds that it has been
noticed by several authors that the arrival of the males, in
a number of our summer visitants, precedes that of the females
by many days; a fact from which we might infer that in
such species a similar separation exists between the males and
the females before their migration. When at school, at
Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire, I noticed this fact, I mean
as regards the Chaffinch, myself. There the hen birds used
to be met with in large flocks in the winter months, and
also, I am nearly certain, the male birds likewise in flocks
by themselves. I am inclined to think that this is most the
case in severe winters.

The Rev. Gilbert White, in his ‘Natural History of Sel-
borne,’ Hampshire, remarked the same thing, the large flocks
to be met with in hard weather being almost, but not quite,
exclusively composed of females. Linnaeus, in his ‘Fauna of
Sweden,’ records his observation of the like circumstance there,
and says that the female Chaffinches migrate from that
country in the winter, but that the males do not. Hence
the assignment by him to this species of its specific Latin
name, equivalent to our Bachelor.

With the advance of spring, however, our bird becomes
‘Caelebs in search of a wife;’ nor does he seek in vain, for in
every lane in the country that is lined with trees, a ‘happy
pair’ are to be seen; the absurdities of Malthus and Miss
Martineau — to whom I wish no worse than that she may
remain to the end of her days in ‘Single Blessedness’ —
weighing not a feather in the scale with them against the
Divine Edict which Nature publishes to them, ‘Encrease and
multiply.’ With regard, however, to the observations of
Linnaeus, Professor Nillson, of Sweden, says that although but
few Chaffinches remain in that* country during winter, they
are not males only. But, doubtless, the fact as stated by
the former great author, must still remain, at all events to
some degree, the same as when he recorded it, and this would
partially account for the enlarged numbers of females to be
seen with us in winter in the flocks already spoken of.

In autumn these birds become gregarious, frequenting
hedge-rows and stubble fields, where they unite with com¬
panions of various other species, whose similar pursuits lead

54

CHAFFINCH.

them to the like localities. Still later on in the year thej
assemble in stack-yards, and are to be met with in ever}
direction, searching for food, in orchards, gardens, and fields
by hedge-row sides, along open roads, in copses and woods
and near houses. Towards the end of March the flock}
break up, and in April preparations for an addition of familj
are made. Mr. Knapp, the author of the ‘Journal of s
Naturalist,’ says that in Gloucestershire no separation of the
kind above spoken of takes place in the winter.

The Chaffinch is considered to act the useful part of a
sentinel for other birds, by uttering a note of alarm, and sc
giving them timely notice of approaching danger. No bird
is also more ready to join with others in mobbing any un¬
welcome intruder, whether in the shape of cat or weasel, owl
or cuckoo; nor is any more neat in personal characteristics.
Even in the depth of winter, when the pools are covered with
ice, he may be seen washing in some place that affords a
lavatory to him, and then he flies off to some neighbouring
branch, where he preens and dries his feathers. It is a sprightly
species, and confident in behaviour, allowing often the very
near advance of observers or passers by, without exhibiting
much alarm. The male bird, when not at rest, usually raises
the feathers of the head to a trifling extent in the way of a
crest.

Their flight, which on occasion is protracted, is rather rapid
and somewhat undulated, being performed by quickly-repeated
flappings, with short intervals of cessation. Their movement
from the ground to a tree, when disturbed by your too near
approach, is singularly quick — an upward dart, executed with
scarce any apparent effort. They alight also in an abrupt
manner, and when on the ground proceed by a succession of
very short leaps. They roost at night in thick hedge-rows,
as also among evergreens in plantations and shrubberies.

The food of the Chaffinch consists of grain, seeds, and the
tender leaves of young plants, as also of insects; and these
latter it may sometimes, especially in the early months of
the spring, be seen hawking after for a little way, somewhat
after the manner of the Flycatcher. I copy the following
pleasing and complete account of this part of the Natural
Historjr of our present subject, from a paper in the ‘Zoologist,’
pages 297-298, by Archibald Hepburn, Esq.; only first ob¬
serving that these birds also swallow small round smooth grains
of gravel, to aid the process of digestion: — ‘The ploughing

CHAFFINCH.

55

of our stubble-fields is generally finished about the end of
December. Those which have been sown out with grass seeds
may still afford a slight supply of food, but it is then that
the great body of Chaffinches seek shelter near the homestead,
gleaning their food in the cattle-yards, at the barn-door, on
the sides and round about the stacks. Here, as in the fields,
they are distinguished for their watchfulness, and well do the
little birds know the import of their warning note. The Dipper
ma}r be heard by the mountain stream the livelong year, and
the bold Missel Thrush may stir the woodlands in sunny hours,
even in mid- win ter; here the Robin and the Wren are silent
during the dead season, and the Chaffinch is the leader of
the vernal chorus.

When the oats are sown in March, many small flocks betake
themselves to the fields, feeding on the uncovered grains, and
such small seeds as may be turned up in the course of tillage.
Even our sheltered woods on the banks of Whittingham- Water
are seldom altogether deserted; for the autumn leaves, when
swept aside by the blast, seem to disclose a multitude of small
seeds congenial to their taste. As the season advances, these
flocks gradually disperse, and none remain about the farm¬
yards but such as breed in the garden and neighbouring
hedge-rows; and they may daily be seen foraging for a supply
of their winter fare, even in midsummer, but desist entirely
from pilfering from the sides of the stacks; even the new-
fledged young partake of such food. During the summer
months, insects and their larvae constitute their chief support,
perhaps I might almost say, in many cases, their only support,
for they are often found in the loneliest places in woods
and plantations.

The first annoyance they give to the farmer is by destroying
his early crops of radishes, turnips, and onions, in the garden,
besides making sad havoc with his polyanthuses and auriculas;
but a few barn-door fowls’ feathers inserted into a piece of
cork, and allowed to dangle in the wind over the beds, are
sure to drive away our merry little songster, who does our
apple, pear, and apricot trees good service, when infested by
leaf-roiling caterpillars, besides other insect foes of which we
take no note. He is also a very useful auxiliary to the farmer,
as well as to the gardener, by destroying a multitude of small
seeds, amongst which I may enumerate those of chickweed,
groundsel, bulbous and hairy crowfoot. He is one of the

56

CHAFFINCH.

most determined of all the plunderers of our turnip-seed; and
I see that those who practice this branch of husbandry sustain
considerable loss, notwithstanding that a watch is daily set.

When our grain crops ripen in August and September, the
Chaffinches which haunted the recesses of woods and plantations
flock to the borders, and unless the farmer is attentive to such
matters, as from their small size they cannot be perceived
at a distance, their depredations are often carried on with
impunity. The trees around our dwellings are also the ren¬
dezvous of parties of plunderers, who sometimes join the
Sparrows, but oftener keep together, and feed amongst the
standing corn, at a greater distance from the hedge-row than
the latter even venture. After the wheat is cut and placed
in shocks, and whilst yet in a soft state, I have observed the
Chaffinch deprive each grain of its outside coat previously to
swallowing it. Although they always prefer feeding in the
neighbourhood of trees or bushes, yet as the season advances,
they are compelled to haunt more exposed situations. Of the
cereal grasses, wheat and oats are their favourites, barley — the
only other species cultivated in these parts — being held in
less esteem.

There is something very cheerful in the common note of
the Chaffinch, and, as harbinging the return of spring, it is
always hailed with welcome by the observer of the sights and
sounds of the country. It is heard so soon as the beginning
of February, or even the end of January, ordinarily resembling
the monosyllables ‘twink, twink,’ and afterwards ‘tweet, tweet,
tweet, tweet.’

This is the more usual number of repetitions, but the
chirp is sometimes half as long again, and sometimes only half
as long. An addition is made to it at its re-commencement
for the season, somewhat resembling the syllables ‘churr-ee.’
Its song has but little variety, and is short, but mellow, and
not altogether devoid of melody. At first it is only heard
about the middle of the day, but as the season advances it
is more prolonged, though never so late, as never is it
either commenced so early, as that of many other birds.
Discontinued during the busy part of the summer, it is
resumed, though at first imperfectly, the end of July or
beginning of August. The young males then essay the song
their fathers have sung before them, but it requires some
practice before they attain to their specific amount of excellence.

CHAFFTWR.

57

Two "broods are hatched in the year. The first is usually
abroad by the beginning or middle of May; the second by
the end of July.

The nest of the Chaffinch is built on fruit or other trees in
orchards and gardens, in the fields and hedges, and in the
latter themselves also, occasionally, against a wall. The late
Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, has recorded one which was placed
in a whin bush; and another, which came under the observation
of Mr. J. R. G-arrett, which was built against the stem of a
pine tree, and rested on one of the branches, to which it was
bound with a piece of fine whip-cord: this was taken once
round the branch and its ends were firmly interwoven in the
materials of the nest. It is commonly placed from six to
twelve feet from the ground — sometimes higher; it is rarely
completed before the end of April. While it is being fabricated,
the birds shew great disquietude at the approach of any one,
by continued notes of alarm, and actions depictive of uneasiness.
The nest of one pair has been known to have been built in a
bean rick. The male bird assists in the work of incubation.
The hen bird when sitting is strongly tenacious of her place,
and is not easily frightened from it, sometimes allowing herself
to be captured sooner than forsake her charge; in one instance
she has been found frozen to death at her post.

The nest is truly a beautiful piece of workmanship, compact
and neat in the highest degree. It is usually so well adapted
to the colour of the place where it is built, as to elude
detection from any chance passer by — close scrutiny is required
to discover it. It is therefore variously made, according to
the nature of the elements of construction at hand. Some
are built of grasses, stalks of plants, and small roots, compacted
with the scales of bark and wool, and lined with hair, with
perhaps a few feathers; the outside being entirely covered with
tree moss and lichens, taken from the tree itself in which it
is placed; the assimilation being thus rendered complete.
Others are without any wool, its place being supplied by
thistle-down and spider-cots. In fact the bird accommodates
itself to circumstances, or rather circumstances to its require¬
ments, using such materials as are at hand. The upper edge
of the nest is generally very neatly woven with slender straws,
and the width of the open part is often not more than an
inch and a half, but usually an inch and three quarters; the
whole is firmly fixed between the branches to which some of
its component parts are attached for the purpose.

58

CHAFFINCH.

In the neighbourhood of Belfast, where there are ‘branches*
of the cotton manufacture, these birds use that material in
the construction of their nests; and in answer to the objection
that its conspicuous colour would betray the presence of the
nest, and not accord with the theory that birds assimilate
the outward appearance of their structures to surrounding
objects, it was replied, says Mr. Thompson, that, on the con¬
trary, the use of cotton in that locality might rather be
considered as rendering the nest more difficult of detection,
as the road-side hedges and neighbouring trees were always
dotted with tufts of it.

A correspondent in the ‘Field Naturalist’s Magazine’ gives
an account of a pair of Chaffinches which built in a shrub,
so close to the window of his sitting-room, that he was enabled
to be a close observer of their ‘modus operandi,’ and its results.
The foundation of the nest was laid on the 12th. of April;
the female alone worked at the structure, and after unwearied
diligence, completed her task in three weeks. Think of this,
bird-nesters, and leave the artist the product of her toil; take
gently out, if you will, an egg or two for your collection,
but leave her some to gladden her maternal heart! The first
egg, he continues, was laid on the 2nd. of May; four others
were subsequently added, and the whole five were hatched on
the 15th. of that month. During the whole of the time of
incubation, neither the curiosity of the observer nor constant
observation from the opened window disturbed the parent
bird from her care, but she sat most patiently and courage¬
ously. The male bird often visited his partner, but it was
not discovered whether he ever brought her food. Bewick
says that the male bird is sedulously attentive to the female
during the time of incubation.

Archibald Hepburn, Esq., writes as follows in the ‘Zoologist,’
pages 572-3, dating from Whittingham, March 16th., 1844:

■ — ‘About the end of April the first nest is built, and is usually
composed of the following materials — moss, lichens, grass, and
pieces of thread; and lined with feathers, wool, and hair; and
out of these simple materials a most beautiful fabric is con¬
structed. It is placed in a variety of trees and bushes — the
hawthorn hedge is a great favourite; and two wall pear trees
in our garden are almost annually tenanted. One of the oldest
circumstanees that I can recollect about birds is, that a pair
of Chaffinches annually built their nest in an old pear tree
till it was cut down about five years ago; and also that the

chaffinch:.

59

nest was annually placed upon a branch overhanging a walk,
so low that the whole was often struck by the heads of
passengers.

When built in wall fruit trees, the followed method is pur¬
sued: — A quantity of materials is deposited between the branch
and the wall, the end of which is laid upon a branch, and
this serves for a foundation. Sometimes it is placed amongst
the spurs, and at other times it is simply shaded by a few
leaves, and when finished, the lining only intervenes between
the sitting bird and the wall: a few days are occupied in
building the nest, then four or five eggs are deposited, one
each day. The female, like most birds, sits eleven or twelve
days, and in as many more the young are fledged. When
engaged in constructing their nest, especially when it is in
a wood, both birds, by their cries and gestures, seek to entice
an intruder from the neighbourhood, by flitting about his
path, and after he has removed to a distance, they again return
to the place. This same species of guile is practised by the
male while his mate is sitting, The young follow their parents
for some days, and are very garrulous for food. It is during
the period when occupied in supplying the wants of his family,
that the active habits of the bird are displayed to the greatest
advantage, and all his bodily energies are called into play/

With reference to the structure of the nidification of our
present subject, Mr. Hewitson well observes upon its extreme
elegance and beauty. He says, ‘Few can have passed through
life so unobservant as not to have seen, and in seeing to have
admired the nest of the Chaffinch. Ho one whose heart is
touched by the beauties of nature, can have examined this
exquisite structure without uttering some exclamation of wonder
and delight, and of comparing it, like the poet, with all that
is most admirable in art and of man’s invention.

Amongst the tiny architects of the feathered race, there
are few that can compete with the Chaffinch. Its nest is
not only perfect in its inward arrangements, but is tastefully
ornamented on the outside as well, with materials such as
nature can alone employ. In its outward decoration some
individuals employ much more taste than others, but all seem
to think it indispensable to deck the green walls of their
dwellings with gems of white; and when, in the neighbourhood
of a town, the beautiful white lichens which are used for that
purpose are obscured and blackened by the smoke of our
chimneys, they have recourse to something else.’

CO

CHAFFINCH.

He adds that a nest of the Chaffinch, which was built in
an old willow tree, in a garden where no white lichens could
he found, was ornamented with fragments of white paper.
‘The Chaffinch builds its nest in many different situations,
preferring old moss-grown apple or crab trees, and whitethorn
bushes. There is, however, scarcely a low tree, upon the
branches of which the nest may not be sometimes found,
occasionally upon the flat bough of a spruce fir, in hollies,
and often in hedges. I have found one on the top of a dead
stake fence. The nest is composed chiefly of moss, so worked
and matted together with wool that it is no easy matter to
pull it into pieces as small as those of which it was first
formed; inside of this is a very thick lining of dry grass,
wool, feathers, thistle-down, and hair, in succession.”

Mr. Knapp, the author of the ‘Journal of a Naturalist/
says, ‘I have observed these birds, in very hot seasons, to
wet their eggs, by discharging moisture from their bills upon
them, or at least perform an operation that appeared to be
so.’

The old birds continue together throughout the summer,
and as the broods become able to associate with their parents,
they may be found in small parties, which again further unite*
together as winter advances.

The eggs are four or five in number, of a short oval form,
and of a dull bluish green colour, clouded with dull red, often
blended together into one tint. They are slightly streaked
and somewhat spotted irregularly over their whole surface
with dark dull well-defined red spots. Some have been found
of a uniform dull blue, without any spots.

Male; length, about six inches, or from that to six and a
half, or more; bill, dear bluish, tipped with black, with a
tinge of purple red on the lower surface of the under man¬
dible — the feathers over the base of the under bill are black;
the base becomes whitish after the autumnal moult; iris, hazel.
Forehead, black, sides of the head dull pink, with a tinge of
rufous; crown, neck on the sides, and nape, fine bluish lead-
colour; chin, throat, and breast, on its upper part, dull pink,
with a tinge of rufous; the latter on its lower part fades off
into dull white, with a very faint tinge of reddish. Back,
chesnut brown, the feathers become margined with yellowish
grey in the winter, olive colour on the lower part.

The wings expand to the width of eleven inches and a
half; greater wing coverts, black at the base, broadly tipped

CHAFFINCH.

Gl

witn yellowish white, forming a conspicuous bar; some of the
lesser wing coverts are fine bluish lead-colour, others white,
and others tipped with white, forming another conspicuous
bar. The three first primaries are brownish black, edged with
yellowish or buff' white on the outer web; the remainder are
white at the base, forming a distinct spot, with part of their
inner webs white, and the inner half of the outer webs mar¬
gined with pale yellow. The first quill feather is about an
eighth of an inch shorter than the second, third, and fourth,
which are nearly equal, and the longest in the wing, the
third rather the longest of the three; the fifth is rather shorter
than the first. Secondaries, as some of the primaries, namely,
white at the base, with part of their inner webs white, and
the inner half of the outer webs margined with pale yellow;
tertiaries, the same, but more broadly margined with the pale
yellow; larger and lesser under wing coverts, greyish white.
The tail has the two middle feathers lead-colour, tinged with
olive, blackish along the shafts, and the other next ones black,
the outside one on each side being obliquely marked with
white on the inner web, and the whole, or part of the outer
web is of that colour; the next feather is also tipped with a
triangular-shaped patch of white on the inner web; the tail
is very slightly forked; upper tail coverts, lead-colour, tinged
with olive; under tail coverts, dull white, as the lower part
of the breast. Legs, toes, and claws, dusky reddish or brown.

After the autumnal moult, the colours of the feathers are
much obscured, losing their brightness, and the edges wear
away, but by the beginning of April, or even so early as
January, the black of the forehead becomes nearly pure, the
greyish blue of the head nearly unmixed, and the breast
brighter in tint.

Female; length, from about five inches and three quarters
to six inches, or six and a quarter; bill, brownish dull pale
red colour; iris, as in the male. Head on the crown, greyish
olive, paler on the central part; on the sides it is olive; chin,
throat, and breast, brownish white, or dull fawn-colour, with
a very faint tinge of red. Back, dull light greyish brown on
the upper part, and on the lower part pale dull yellowish
green. The wings, which extend to the width of ten inches,
have the white bars and spots as in the male, but less con¬
spicuous. The primaries and secondaries have yellow edges
also as in the male, and the black is changed for deep brown;
under tail coverts, nearly white.

62

CHAFFINCH.

The young male resembles the female until after the au¬
tumnal moult, when he begins gradully to assume his future
distinctive colours; until then the tints are paler, and the
green on the lower part of the back is wanting.

In some specimens of the Chaffinch the throat and breast
are of a lighter or deeper red, the quill feathers of the wing
more or less black, and the white bands on the wings more
or less tinged with yellow.

A curious variety of this species is recorded in the ‘Zoolo¬
gist, page 1955, by J. H. Gurney and William Richard Fisher,
Esqrs., as having been killed on the 30th. of August, in the
year 1847. The following is their account and description of
it: — The bird is a young male, the ground colour of its
plumage is white, but pervaded throughout with a delicate
canary yellow colour. This tint is strongest on the back,
especially on the lower part, on the edges of the quill feathers
of the wings and of the tail feathers. The eyes are of the
natural colour. It was shot at Brooke, in the county of
Norfolk, by H. K. Thompson, Esq. Mr. G. B. Clarke also
records another in ‘The Naturalist,’ vol. i, page 142, which
was nearly white, there being but a few coloured feathers in
it. It was shot at Froxfield, near Woburn, Bedfordshire.

The late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, gives an account
of another, in his valuable ‘Natural History of Ireland,’ of
which he says that it was of the full adult size of the Chaf¬
finch in every measurement, and singularly and beautifully
marked, the prevailing colour of its plumage being pure white,
but the head tinted with yellow, and the centre of the back
rich yellow, like that of the Canary; the wing coverts and
upper tail coverts being also delicately tinged with that colour.
It had a few of the ordinary blackish grey and brown feathers
of the Chaffinch, as follows: — one or two on the head, some
on the back, and some, very few, on the wings and tail, but
altogether inconspicuous. The primaries and the tail feathers,
as well as their shafts, were pure white, and the whole plumage
partook as much of, or more than, I should be inclined to
say from his description, that of the Canary, as of that of
the Chaffinch. He also relates that Mr. J. V, Stewart met
with a white one; and, further, that in May, 1844, a pair
were found, just after leaving the nest, in the garden of John
Eegge, Esq., of Glynn Park, near Carrickfergus, which were
united together after the manner of the ‘Siamese Twins.'

f

MOUNTAIN PINCH.

G3

MOUNTAIN FINCH.

BR AMBLIN Gr. BRAMBLE FINCH. LULEAN FINCH.

Friii gilla monti fringilla ,
“ lulensis ,

Pennant. Montagu.
Gmelin.

Fringilla , also Frigilla— A Chaffinch. Montifringilla Mons — A mountain.
Fringilla — A Chaffinch, or bird of the Finch kind.

Thts handsome species is a native of some of the northern
parts of the European continent, being to be met with in
Norway, Sweden, Lapland, and Denmark; and on the other
hand, even so far south as Italy, and doubtless occasionally
in others of the neighbouring countries, ‘where the blue waters
roll’ of the tideless Mediterranean; from the ‘Pillars of Her¬
cules,’ to the ‘Holy Land’ of Palestine,’ for it is stated to
occur also in Asia, in Asia Minor, and even in Japan; the
latter according to M. Temminck. In Thuringia vast flocks
are said to assemble in the beech forests.

In this country it is found of course most numerously in
the north, but also not very unfrequently even in the extreme
south — in Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall. Edward
Hearle Bodd, Esq., of Trebartha Hall, sent Mr. Yarrell word
of a pair which were killed near the Land’s End, in the
winter of the year 1886. Mr. George B. Clarke, of Woburn,
Bedfordshire, informs me that in some winters great num¬
bers are seen in the Park of Woburn Abbey, the seat of His
Grace the Duke of Bedford, which they frequent to feed on
the beech-mast there. Two or three were seen near Pool
Cottage, Dewchurch, Herefordshire, . in 1845: immense flocks
were met with near Farnham, Surrey, in the winter of
1842. In Sussex, A. E. Knox, Esq. says that they are
plentiful during protracted snow and frost, and that some
are captured every winter on the Downs in nets. In

XIOUNTAIN FINCH.

61i

Gloucestershire a few have been met with near Cheltenham;
and some in Warwickshire near Leamington. At Lilford,
Northamptonshire, the Hon. Thomas Littleton Powys has
once met with it, and the Pev. P. P. Alington saw several
some years since, near Swinhope, Lincolnshire.

In Scotland, and also in various parts of Ireland, it is
met with, and in some winters has been seen in very large
flocks in different counties. The character of the season
seems to be the cause that regulates its movements, at least
in any numbers. In severe ones, very many have accordingly
been discovered in places where few, if any, had ever been
seen before. A day or two before the very great snow-storm
that occurred in the beginning of January, 1827, one of
these birds alighted on the “Chieftain” steam-packet, on the
passage between Liverpool and Belfast.

In the Orkney Islands, the only instance of its being noted
appears to be one which occurred at Lopness, in Sanday,
May 19th., 1839.

Its habitat is in the wild and mountainous districts, from
whence its specific name, both scientific and vernacular.

The Mountain Pinch is a migratory species, being with
us as a winter visitor only. The dates of its appearance are
irregular, varying probably according to the state of the
weather in the countries from which they have migrated.
Bewick mentions their having been seen on the hills in the
county of Cumberland, so early as the middle of August;
but it is at least possible that these might have been birds
which had been bred in that county the same summer, for
it would appear that some may do so, coupling the fact
just stated with the circumstance mentioned in 'London's
Magazine of Natural Plistory,’ for the year 1835, that on
the 6th. of May in that year, one was shot in a fir plantation
about four miles east of York. Meyer also records two or
three instances in which he believed that he saw the species
in summer. The usual time however of its arrival in Scotland
is the end of the month of October, or beginning of November;
the former being the date in the northern parts, the latter
in the more southern. In mild winters few, if any, advance
into England; while in severe weather they are driven forwards
in great numbers. They depart again in March.

These birds go in flocks in winter, and Pennant mentions
that he received eighteen from Kent, which had been all
killed at one shot. Sometimes they are observed mixed with

MOUNTAIN FINCH.

65

other species of graminivorous birds, and at other times they
have been seen in large numbers by themselves. They are
said to be good to eat, but to have a bitter taste. When
alarmed, they betake themselves to trees, as do the other
birds of the family to which they belong. They seem to be
very easily reconciled to confinement, but the late William
Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, relates that a pair which were
kept in a large cage in a greenhouse with some other birds,
made such a noise throughout moonlight nights as to disturb
the family, and consequently they had to be removed to
another place. Bewick says, quoting Buffon, that in France
they appear sometimes in immense numbers, and that in
one year they were so numerous that more than six hundred
dozen were killed each night during the greater part of the
winter. It is not said, however, whether this was in one
locality, or the total produce of the whole country, which
latter again it would be next to impossible even to arrive at
a proximate guess at, as no previous preparation would have
been made for taking a ‘census’ of these unexpected strangers.
I should rather therefore imagine that they have to be set
down as the results of the ‘long bow,’ rather than of the
gun or the net.

Their flight is rapid and undulated. They roost in trees,
seeming to give a preference to plantations of fir and larch.

The food of this species consists of grain, the seeds of the
grasses and other plants, and beech-mast. It forages in the
fields, in company with birds of other species, until driven by
stress of weather and the absence of supply to the neigh¬
bourhood of the homestead, where it picks up anything it
can meet with on the ground, but it does not seem to
pilfer from the stacks.

Its note is ordinarily a single monotonous chirp, resembling
the syllable ‘tweet,’ but in the spring of the year it has a
pleasing warble — a succession of low notes, ended by a more
hoarse and protracted one. Meyer likens it to the words
‘chip -u- way.’

The nest is placed in lofty fir and other trees, is formed
of moss, and lined with wool and feathers. B. Dashwood,
Esq., of Beccles, Suffolk, had these birds lay, in two instances,
in the year 1839; and in the latter the eggs were hatched.
His aviary is a large one, enclosing a considerable space of
ground, and is surrounded with ivy, and planted inside with
shrubs. If birds are to be kept in confinement at all, some

66

MOUNTAIN FINCH.

such place is the only one in which they should be confined.
The nest having been completed four days, the first egg was
laid on the 16th. of June in the just-named year, and another
was laid each day until the 21st., when they were removed.
The nest was composed of moss, wool, and dry grass, and
lined with hair; and these materials were selected from a
variety which the birds had the option of making use of.
The foundations, which were large, were worked in among
the stalks of the ivy leaves.

‘In the latter part of July, in the same year,’ says Mr.
Dashwood, writing to Mr. Hewitson, ‘another pair of
Bramblings built, placing their nest on the ground, close to
a shrub or a tuft of grass. The outside of the nest was made
of moss, and it was lined with hair. From this nest I
removed four eggs on the 1st. of August. On the 17th. of
June, 1840, they laid again, having built in the ivy. This
nest I did not disturb, and although the eggs were hatched,
they did not succeed in rearing the young ones.’

In the ‘Account of the Birds found in Norfolk,’ presently
to be again referred to regarding our present subject, the
authors mention the following instance, or rather instances,
of these birds nesting in confinement, communicated to them
by a gentleman residing near Norwich. A pair of Bramblings
built a nest in an aviary in the last week of the month of
June, 1842, and two eggs were laid, both of which were
removed, and found to be good. In June, 1848, the same
birds again nested, and the female laid two eggs, and these
having been removed, they formed a second nest in a different
spot, in which four eggs were deposited. The last nest,
together with the eggs, was accidentally destroyed, and it
was not ascertained whether the eggs laid during the year
were good or not.

The eggs are four or five in number, white, spotted with
yellowish brown.

Male; length, six inches and a quarter, to six and three
quarters; the upper bill is dusky, the point bluish black;
the under bill, dusky yellowish white, with the point bluish
black: in the spring and summer it is extremely dark lead-
coloured. Iris brown. Head on the crown and sides, neck
on the back, and nape, in the winter, rich mottled grey and
black, each feather being black at the base, and grey at the
tip: in the spring these brown tips disappear, leaving the
white of these parts of a fine velvet black, which the bird

MOTHSTTAItf TTOCF.

67

retains until the next autumnal moult. Chin, throat, and
breast on its upper part, rich orange fawn-colour; the latter
is white, or yellowish white on its lower part, and on the
sides it is varied with blackish spots and light brown. Back
on the upper part, as the head and nape, but the grey
edges of the feathers exchanged for rust-colour; on the lower
part white.

The wings extend to the width of about ten inches and
a half; greater wing coverts, jet black, tipped with orange
fawn-colour; lesser wing coverts, rich orange fawn-colour, the
feathers tipped with white; primaries, black, some of them
with narrow light-coloured outside edges, forming an oblique
bar when the wing is closed, and with a white spot at the
base; the first three wing feathers are nearly equal in length
and the longest in the wing, the third being rather longer
than the others, and the fourth feather is about an eighth
shorter than the third; secondaries, edged with orange fawn-
colour or reddish orange; tertiaries, black, broadly edged
with orange fawn-colour, or reddish orange. The larger
under wing coverts have a small tuft of elongated feathers,
and the lesser under wing coverts are bright yellow. Tail,
black, the feathers edged with buff white, the outer feather
on each side with a patch of dull white on the inner web;
the middle pair of feathers are shorter by about, but not
quite, half an inch than the rest, making the tail forked;
upper tail coverts black, the feathers having grey borders;
under tail coverts, white, or yellowish white; legs, toes, and
claws, rather light brown.

The female is said by some to be considerably, and by
others only slightly, less in size than the male. Length,
about six inches; in the winter plumage there is over the
eye a streak of brownish black; it has less of the black
colour on the crown of the head, which is therefore more
brown coloured, the centres of the feathers being brownish
black; and on the sides it is dull brownish grey, with two
dark lines dividing the sides of the neck from the nape.
Neck on the back and sides, and nape, dull brownish grey,
with two longitudinal black bands behind; throat and breast,
dull reddish buff orange, the sides paler and unspotted;
back, on the upper part, blackish brown, and on the lower
part patched with greyish white, the feathers margined with
yellowish brown or grey, giving it an elegant mottled
appearance.

68

MOTWFATF FTArCH.

The wings extend to the width of about ten inches; their
feathers are marked as in the male, but the dark parts are
blackish brown. The tail has the two middle feathers grey.
All the colours in the female are less pure than in the male,
and clouded with dull brown.

The young are described as resembling the adult female;
the black of the head, back, and wings being tinged with
brown. Individuals have been met with either wholly white,
or with patches of that colour.

In the carefully compiled and valuable ‘Account of the
Birds found in Norfolk,’ by John Henry Gurney, Esq., and
William Richard Fisher, Esq., there is an account and figure
of a very beautiful variety of the Mountain Finch, described
as follows: — With the exception of a brown patch on one
or two feathers of one side of the tail, this specimen was
entirely white; the greater part of its plumage being also
pervaded with an elegant tint of yellow, which particularly
spread itself on the sides of the head, and on the edges of
the quill feathers of the wings and tail, as well as on the
feathers under the wing. The colour of these latter, which
is usually yellow, was remarkably bright in this specimen,
and extended over a greater space than usual.

TREE SPARROW.

69

TREE SPARROW,

MOUNTAIN SPARROW.

Passer montanus ,

Ray.

Pyrgita montana,

Fleming.

Fringilla montana ,

Pennant. MontagUc

Loxla hambwgia,

Gmelin.

Passer — A Sparrow.

Montana— Appertaining to mountains
Mons— A mountain.

This is an interesting bird, of just sufficient rarity to
make its acquisition generally acceptable ; while not so
uncommon as to fall to the lot of but few to obtain, or to
run the risk of extermination itself, so far as our country at
least is concerned. It is also one of peculiarly neat appearance,
though altogether destitute of any pretensions to outside show
— ‘simplex munditiis’ — elegantly neat. There are who might
borrow a lesson even from the Tree Sparrow, and it is, if
they would learn it — that they are ‘when unadorned, adorned
the most.’

It is indigenous in most countries of Europe, from the
Mediterranean, through Spain, Italy, Prance, and Holland, to
Norway and Sweden, and extends also over a considerable
portion of Asia, being common, it is said, in Siberia and
Lapland, as also in Japan and China, and in some of the
mountainous parts of India.

In Yorkshire, and no doubt in other northern counties, it
breeds. It is not unfrequent near York, and also in several
parts of the West Riding — near Doncaster, Barnsley, Wake¬
field, and Leeds. In Worcestershire, I have known this species
not very unfrequent in the neighbourhood of Bromsgrove;
one I remember to have been shot near Charford brook, and
others, ‘si rite recordor,’ were taken on the winter nights in

70

TREE SPARROW.

the stacks in which they roosted with various other birds
one appears to have been obtained, and only one, in the
county of Cornwall. In Lancashire it has been observed
about Chat Moss, and is not uncommon in Shropshire; in
Northamptonshire, it has been seen near Aldwinkle, by Mr.
Doubleday; in Surrey, by Mr. Meyer; and in Sussex, by A.
E. Knox, Esq., who says that it is a scarce bird there, -
though possibly more frequently overlooked than observed,
and that it probably breeds there in some instances, as he
has obtained specimens in May and June. It is frequently
taken by the bird-catchers on the Downs near Brighton,,
when in company with other birds.

It is likewise met with in the county of Essex, near
South church; in Lincolnshire, near Wainfleet, and no doubt
in other localities; as also in Suffolk, Norfolk, Staffordshire,
Butlandshire, Cambridgeshire, Durham, and Northumberland,
as far north as Newcastle. In the neighbourhood of Yar¬
mouth, it is stated by the Messrs. C. J. and James Paget,
in their Natural History of that place, to be not uncommon
in lanes, and also near the town. John Henry Gurney, and
William Bichard Fisher, Esqrs., in their 'Account of the
Birds found in Norfolk,’ say of them that a few are found
in that county, and breed there, remaining throughout the
year, and that they are very local in their habits, except in
winter, when they sometimes disperse in search of food.

In Ireland it appears to be unknown, and the same remark
applies to the Orkneys. In Scotland it has occurred on
Main Wood, near Elgin, but I am not aware of any other
record of its having been met with in that part of the kingdom.

It is locally migratory, arriving in Sussex in the month of
October, and usually departing again in April.

The Tree Sparrow and the House Sparrow are as different
in their habits as Horace’s country-bred and town-bred mice*
The former shuns the habitations of man, which the latter
makes his own, and only approaches even a village, when
the severity of the weather renders such an approach necessary
through lack of food elsewhere. The hilly and more moun¬
tainous districts are the more sought in preference by them,
as imported by their specific Latin name, while the others
abound in the most level districts. They are sprightly and
active birds.

Both old and young birds of this species collect together
in flocks with other birds during the winter half of the year,,

TREE SPARROW.

71

when they frequent, together with them, the usual places of
resort for the procuring of food, namely, farm-yards, and
other situations where it is to be obtained.

Their flight is rather heavy, slow, and strained, as if the
wings were not sufficiently equal to the carriage of the body
through the air. They often progress along the ground in
the same sort of sidelong manner that the Common Sparrow
does; and they have also a habit of flirting the tail slightly
about, especially when they first alight.

The food of this species consists of insects and the tender
parts of vegetables; these in the spring and summer, their
‘second course’ being grain and seeds: with the former the
young are fed.

The common note of the Tree Sparrow is a monotonous
chirp, not unlike that, so well known, of the House Sparrow,
but more shrill; and of jts higher vocal powers, Mr. Edward
Blyth says that it consists of a number of these chirps,
intermixed with some pleasing notes, delivered in a continuous
strain, sometimes for many minutes together, very loudly,
but having a characteristic Sparrow-like tone throughout.

James Dalton, Esq., of Worcester College, Oxford, informs
me that he has taken the nest of this bird from a Sand
Martin’s hole, near Buckingham. They build in many various
situations, most frequently in a hole of a tree, whence their
English name, either that; formed naturally by decay, or that
in which some other bird, such as the Woodpecker, or one of
the species has previously domiciled; sometimes also, in old
nests that had been inhabited by Magpies and Crows; and
in these cases, the nest, that is that of the Tree Sparrow,
is domed over, as is also that of the House Sparrow, when
it locates its habitation in similar situations. Hot unfrequently
they build in the thatch of barns and outhouses, but only in
thoroughly country places, the entrance being from the outside;
also in the tiling of houses, and in stacks and wood faggots;
likewise in old walls not many feet above the ground. Arthur
Strickland, Esq., of Bridlington Quay, has recorded that a
pair built their nest, a domed one, in a hedge in the grounds
of Walton Hall.

Hidification, it would appear, commences in February, and
incubation in March, two or three broods being reared in
the year.

The nest is formed of hay, and is lined with wool, down,
and feathers. It is loosely put together, and the consequence

72

TREE SPARROW.

of this untidiness, the larger straws being left hanging
carelessly outside, is, that the situation of the nest is betrayed
to the prowling bird-nester. The same situation is often again
occupied from year to year.

The eggs, from four to six in number, are of a dull white,
speckled all over with light greyish brown of different shades.

This bird does not vary much in plumage at different
seasons of the year, an additional brilliancy in spring being
the main feature. Male; weight, about six drachms; length,
about five inches and a half, or from that to three quarters;
bill, bluish black and polished in the spring and summer; in
the winter black at the tip only, and yellowish towards the
base. Iris, dark brown; in front of the eye, between it and
the bill, and running through it is a black mark, and underneath
a narrow black streak; there is also a large black patch on
the side of the head. Head on the crown, chesnut of an
opaque shade. Neck on the sides, white, with a triangular¬
shaped spot of pure black, on the back it is chesnut, spotted
with black on its lower part, the inner webs of the feathers
being of that colour; nape, chesnut, interrupted by an
incomplete band of white; chin and throat, black. Breast,
greyish white, tinged on the sides with yellowish brown.
Back on the upper part, chesnut with b]ack spots or streaks,
the inner webs of the feathers being of that latter colour,
and the outer of the former in nearly equal proportion; on
the lower part it is yellowish brown.

The wings extend to within an inch and a half of the end of
the tail; greater wing coverts, deep blackish brown, edged with
chesnut, white at the end; lesser wing coverts, deep blackish
brown edged with chesnut, and some of them white at the
end, so that there are thus made two bands of white across
the wing; primaries, brownish black, edged on the outside
webs with pale yellowish brown, broadening where the web
widens, and extending to the shaft at the base, and on the
inner ones more broadly with chesnut brown. The first quill
feather is the same length as the fifth, the second, third,
and fourth nearly equal in length, and the longest in the
wing, but the second rather the longest of the three; the
secondaries also brownish black, margined in the same way
but more widely; tertiaries, brownish black, still more widely
edged with chesnut brown. Greater and lesser under wing
coverts, pale lawn-colour. The tail is very little forked, the
feathers being of nearly equal length; they are greyish

TPEE SPA T?POW.

73

brown, edged with yellowish grey; upper tail coverts also
brown. Legs, toes, and claws, pale greyish yellow brown.

The female resembles the male, but is rather less in size,
her length being not quite five inches and a half, and her
tints are paler; the head is yellowish brown on the crown,
and the chesnut parts are changed to the former colour.

In the young the head on the crown is paler than in the
adult, and the white on the neck is not so pure. The throat
does not assume at first the black of the mature bird.

74

SPARROW.

HOUSE SPARROW. COMMON SPARROW.

Passer domesticus,
Fringilla domestica ,
Pyrgita domestica ,

Selby.

Pennant. Montagu.
Fleming.

Passer — A Sparrow. Domesticus— Domestic — of, or pertaining to houses.

The geographical range of this well-known bird is very
extensive. It is common throughout Europe, from Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, and Dalmatia, to Spain, Portugal, Italy, the
Levant, Liguria, and all the islands of the Mediterranean; in
the north of Africa and the range of the Nubian Mountains;
in Asia also, in the Himalayan district, and in various other
parts.

Everywhere he is the same, at least under the same
circumstances, except indeed in appearance; for, ‘unlike, 0
how unlike,’ is the smoke-begrimed Sparrow of the town, to
the handsomely- plumaged bird of the country! Everywhere
he makes himself at home, and ‘aequo pulsat pede pauperumque
tahernas, regumque turres.’ The ‘cloud-capt towers’ and the
‘Poor Law Union,’ the ‘lowly thatched cottage,’ and the
splendid Gothic mansion, nay, the very palace of the Queen
of England herself, one and all hear testimony to the
universality of the dispersion of the Sparrow, and the self-
accommodating nature of his domiciliary visitations.

In this country it is everywhere, or nearly everywhere to
be seen in greater or less abundance. In the neighbourhood
of Doncaster, it comes under the latter category, for some
years ago I recorded in the ‘Naturalist,’ old series, vol. ii,
page 166, my observation, corroborated on his noticing it by
the editor, that there they are, I mean, that they were at
that time, far from common birds.

SPARROW.

SPARROW.

75

Throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Orkney and Shetland
Islands it is to he found as in England. In the outer
Hebrides it is said to have been known only at Kilbar, in the
Island of Barra, where it had made its abode in a ruined
church, thus fulfilling literally the words of the Psalmist,
‘Yea, the Sparrow hath found her a house, and the Swallow
a nest where she may lay her young; even Thy altars O Lord
of Hosts, my King and my Grod.5 It now appears to be
multiplying in that district.

Following the methodical arrangement prescribed to myself
in the introduction to the present ‘History of British Birds,5
at this stage of the narrative of the Sparrow, I have arrived
at that portion of my, alas! too brief, allotted space, which
is assigned to the subject of migration. But on this head
little could be said: where is the Sparrow to migrate to or
from, for where is he not to be found?

Wherever this bird is met with, his character is as I have
said, much the same — bold, pert, and familiar; ‘instead of
the gentle and pleasing confidence displayed towards the
human race by the Redbreast, the Nightingale, the Redstart,
and some other small birds, the Sparrow shews a bold dis¬
regard that is far from engaging affection; as if our kindness
and our enmity were alike despised. Instances are not wanting,
however, of great attachment on the part of caged Sparrows
for persons by whom they have been reared.5

In London, where, as in most large towns, they abound,
one has been known to perch on and under the moveable
‘cafe5 of one of those examples of ‘London labour and the
London poor,5 who deserve far more commiseration than I
fear even Mr. Mayhew’s very able work will earn for them
— from some at least — and there pick up its crumbs; nay,
not only was it wont thus daily and hourly to do, but it
was even accustomed to go the length of a whole street to
meet him and it on the way from his home — from his nightly
home to his daily one — whenever, and as often as he was
detained, perhaps by the severity of a winter’s morning. It
would then ride back in the ‘cafe,5 wheeled along by him, to
receive the reliques of the early meal which some industrious
man would snatch on his way to his work — -to ‘gather up the
crumbs,5 though not from a ‘rich man’s table.5 The Sparrow
used to feed out of the hand of the said honest Patrick
Corbett, to sit on his knee, and drink out of his cup; ‘she
was unto him as a daughter.5 I say she, for it was a hen

76

SPARROW.

bird; and for four successive years, with a brief interval, all
her progeny, which must at the expiration of that period,
have amounted, at the rate of two or three broods a year,
and five or six young to a brood, to some fifty or sixty at
least, were ‘brought out’ under the matronage of their mother,
to the morning and evening entertainments which Patrick
Corbett gave. Doubtless they returned the compliment in
the way of ‘concerts of ancient music,’ for even the chirp of
a Sparrow must be music to the dweller in a London street.

The interval above alluded to was a space of some two or
three months, during which time our female friend shunned
the society of the keeper of the itinerant coffee- shop, who
had, most unintentionally, wounded her maternal feelings. An
individual Sparrow of one of her broods finding it at its first
essay in the air, not so easy a thing to fly up as to fly
down, was removed by Patrick, out of pure kindness, to his
own house for the day, where it was treated with the greatest
care and affection. Nevertheless it died, and the mother
shewed her sense of the wrong of the supposed child-stealing,
by abstaining for the period mentioned from the society of
her patron and friend; but in process of time a new family
arrived, and for their sakes she overgot the injury, made up
the quarrel, which, as it takes two parties to make, and in
this case there was only one, it was no difficult matter to
do, and all went on, and for aught I know, may still go
on, at the corner of Tavistock Square, as harmoniously and
pleasantly as before: ‘adsit omen.’

The following pleasing instance of both instinct and affection
on behalf of another individual of our present species is from
the pen of Mr. William H. Cordeaux, in the ‘Zoologist,’ page
2798: — ‘Living in the city portion of the great metropolis of
London, I observed, one afternoon, in the aperture generally
left for the cellar, or kitchen window, when underground, an
unfledged House Sparrow, incapacitated from flying to any
distance, which had been inadvertently precipitated down this
same dungeon, across which, in an oblique direction, was laid
an iron bar, extending within a foot of the surface; the j
mother was at the top, looking down with pity and alarm
at the awkward position of this, perhaps, her only child;
many and ingenious were the attempts on the part both of
parent and offspring for the regaining of the latter’s lost
position ; each and all proved futile and unavailing. I looked
on with a degree of pleasurable excitement, mixed with fear

SPAKEOW.

77

and anxiety, lest tlie drama should be incomplete, by the
flying away of the mother, and the desertion of the child;
but no, Nature’s inculcated ways on these points are perfect
and all-sufficient, as most beautifully this case proves, for
although each new proposal seemed to be blasted in the
carrying out, at length the intelligent creature, after con¬
sidering for a moment, flies away, returns with a stout straw
in its beak, and rests for a few seconds on the edge; then
conceive my delight, when the little nestling, after a chirp
or two from its mother, learning no doubt the particulars
of the project, climbs to the farthest end of the bar, next
the ground, receives the proffered straw in its beak, and is
raised, to my breathless and unspeakable astonishment, to
the earth, on which its now delighted mother stands. ’

In the ‘Yorkshire Gazette,’ of August the 16th., 1851, there
is the following account of a Sparrow which had been taken
young and kept alive at a house at Kipon: — ‘It grew ex¬
ceedingly familiar, following Mrs. Jones or her daughter about
the house, perching on their shoulders, and at night taking
its rest either on the top of the Canary-bird’s cage, or the
old clock. Since the present warm weather set in, it has
generally taken flight, and remained out all night, but early
in the morning it is to be seen ready to enter the house.
Should the front door not be open, it flies round to the
back one, and if there disappointed, flutters and taps its neb
against the window. We are informed that when the doors
are open this little bird will visit the house about six times
a day for food.’

Again, in the ‘Zoologist,’ pages 1298-1299, occurs the fol¬
lowing, communicated by Mr. George Lawson, of Hawkhill,
near Dundee: — ‘One evening, about eight o’clock, I forget at
what season of the year, but it was quite dark, a loud
tapping was heard upon the panes of one of the windows of
a room in which there was no light. The room was on the
first floor of the building. There were but two persons, and
both of these ladies, in the house at the time, and they
were afraid to enter the room to trace the cause of the
annoyance. The window looked into the garden, which lay
on the south side of the house; and serious apprehensions of
a robbery being entertained, one of the ladies, after locking
the door of the room, ventured to enter the garden from
the ground floor; but on looking to the window nothing
could be discovered; the tapping noise however continued.

78

SPARROW

The gentleman himself having returned home about nine
o’clock, he procured a ladder, wherewith he ascended to the
window, in order to ascertain the cause of the disturbance,
when he found it to be a Common House Sparrow, busily
tapping with its beak at one of the low panes. He took
the little bird in his hand — it offered no resistance — brought
it down with him, and put it in a cage, where it remained
all night. On the following morning he took out the bird
for the purpose of bringing it to me; but supposing it
unable to fly, from the circumstance of its having allowed
itself to be taken, he permitted it to leap out of his hand;
which accomplished, it flew away, and has never since repeated
its visit.’

In the same magazine, pages 2851-2, Mr. William H.
Tugwell appropriately gives the following remarkable instance
of sagacity in the Common House Sparrow: — ‘This morning,’
November 24tli., 1848, ‘it happened that a Sparrow had got
his head fixed between two tiles, which were placed perpen¬
dicularly against a wall in our garden, so as to completely
prevent its extricating itself, when, on being discovered by
its companions, several of them, by their united efforts,
endeavoured to extricate him by laying hold of his head
with their beaks and flying backwards, but without effecting
their purpose. Their earnest solicitude for their brother in
affliction, coupled with the awkwardness of the position, soon
caused the death of the unfortunate bird. After extricating
him by means of a pole, I found the head quite bared of
the feathers, so earnest were his mates in their attempts to
release him.’

So again, ‘An unfortunate Sparrow,’ says Bishop Stanley,
‘who had also been made prisoner in his own nest, met with
a very different fate, being actually killed, instead of preserved,
by the over-zealous kind attentions of his mate. The case
occurred in the spring of 1818, in Surrey. The pair were
in search of a place for building their nest; and the male
bird finding a tempting hole among the tiles of the roof, got i
into it; unfortunately he became entangled in the broken
mortar, and could not force his way back. The female saw ]
his situation, and after flying backwards several times, twit- ;
tering, and apparently in great distress, attempted to pull 1
him out. Several birds were attracted by the accident, and
came fluttering round, but were beaten off by the hen 1
Sparrow. She then redoubled her own efforts to get him

SPARROW.

79

out, and seizing his beak above the nostrils, with her own
beak, pulled it so hard that she killed him. She did not
appear, however, aware of the mischief she had done, but
continued pulling at the dead body of the unfortunate bird,
with as much perseverance as if it had been alive. She
was, at length, driven away by a person who saw the whole
transaction, and with some difficulty extricated the dead bird.
Its head was dreadfully mangled, and the beak of the hen
had evidently penetrated the brain. About an hour afterwards,
a Sparrow, supposed to be this hen, was observed sitting on
the very spot where the accident had happened, crouched
together, with her feathers all standing up, so as to give
her the appearance of a ball, conveying a perfect idea of
disconsolate suffering.’

‘A few years ago,’ says Mr. James Bladon, of Pontypool,
in the Zoologist,’ pages 16-17, ‘I was sitting in a cottage,
when my attention was attracted to an unusual screaming
of a small bird. I immediately went to the back door, and
saw that it proceeded from a House Sparrow that was
fluttering about on the wall, at the base of which was a
duck with something in its bill, which it was endeavouring
to swallow. Upon attentively observing it, I found this to
be a callow nestling, and from the agonies of the poor
Sparrow, there was no mistaking the parent; the feathers of
the latter were all erect, and it continued hopping and flut¬
tering about, and uttering the most distressing cries for the
loss of one of its young, which I suppose had fallen out of
its nest.’

For a considerable portion of the year, Sparrows are occupied
in pairs in the bringing out their several broods of young,
and when the last of these is able to fly, the old and young
ones together repair to the fields, where, during the time
that the corn is ripe, they are to be seen in large flocks,
gathering in their own harvest; but when the crops are
carried, and the gleaning is over, they soon repair to their
former quarters, and renew their familiarity with the habitations
of men. They may indeed at all times be considered as
gregarious birds in some degree; at all events they are
generally brought together in greater or less numbers, so that
I the ‘Sparrow that sitteth alone upon the house-top’ has been
well selected by the Psalmist as an emblem of forlorn melan-
j clioly. They shew considerable affection to each other, and
i anxiety for their young, and are spirited, courageous, energetic,

80

SPARROW.

cautious, cunning, and voracious birds. They are said to
be trained in Persia to hunt butterflies, such being one of
the royal sports there. In the spring of the year contests
among themselves are frequently to be witnessed. Two at
first begin; a third comes up and joins in the fray, when he
is presently attacked by a fourth. Others stand still and
look on and behold the war.

‘Suave mari magno turbantibus sequora ventis;,

the din and clamour increases until some think it time to
retreat, and this possibly has the effect of breaking up the
party, and so the ‘emeute5 is quieted. As in case of the
modern ‘duello/ no danger is done to either life or limb — the
‘honour5 of the parties is easily satisfied without; a hostile
‘meeting5 and a ‘sham fight5 are quite sufficient, without
ulterior result.

Sparrows are very fond of bathing, and also of dusting
themselves in the roads, at all seasons of the year-, as well
as of sunning themselves, lying on one side in some warm
and sheltered place, such as a gravel-walk, the roof of a
house, or even against the wall of one. When not engaged
in feeding, they perch on trees, bushes, and hedges, the tops
of stacks and houses, walls and wood. At night they repose
under the eaves of houses, about chimneys, in holes and crevices
of buildings, in bushes, the sides of straw-stacks, and among
ivy, or other evergreen plants with which walls are covered.
They often live in their nests in the cold weather, repairing
them with straw and feathers, either for their own warmth,
or providing thus early for their future family.

‘It is often remarked,5 says Dr. Stanley, ‘what impudent
birds are London Sparrows! and not without reason. Born
and bred in the bustle of the town, they must either live
and jostle with the crowd, or look down from the house-tops
and die of hunger. Naturally enough, they prefer the former;
and all our London readers will, we are sure, testify to the
cool intrepidity with which this familiar bird will pounce
upon a bit of bread, or some other tempting morsel which
happens to catch its eye upon the pavement, and with what
triumph and exultation it bears it off to its mate, seated on
some window-sill or coping-stone above, or followed, perhaps,
by three or four disappointed companions, who were a moment
too late in seizing the spoil.5

SPATTROW.

81

‘A Sparrow, is not only bold with regard to men, but still
more so on particular occasions towards other birds. On the
edge of a certain lawn grew a close thick bush. On this
lawn, amongst others, the Blackbirds used to come and forage
.for worms. One day a person happened to be looking at a
Blackbird in the act of making off with a prize, when a
Sparrow, darting from the thick bush, instantly assailed the
Blackbird, and compelled him to drop the worm, of which
he took immediate possession. So singular a circumstance
induced the observer to look out now and then, when
Blackbirds came, and he frequently saw the same piratical
practice adopted by the Sparrow, who thus, by keeping
watch in his bush, was enabled to enrich himself on the
labours of the larger bird.’ I have lately observed one
Sparrow chasing another in precisely a similar way, under
similar circumstances. The Bishop continues, ‘But notwith¬
standing this unfavourable feature in his character, he has
been known to act with great consideration and kindness
to birds requiring his good offices.’

In the ‘Naturalist’s Magazine,’ we find the following story
in point: — ‘A lady, living in Chelsea, was extremely fond of
birds, of which she kept a considerable number in cages.
Amongst others she had a Canary, which was a particular
favourite, but the loudness of his note often obliged her to
put him outside of her window, in some trees which were
trained up in front of her house. One morning, during
breakfast, when the cage was there placed, a Sparrow was
observed to fly round about it, then perch upon the top, and
twitter to the bird within, between whom and itself a sort
of conversation seemed to ensue. After a few moments he
flew away, but returned in a short time, bearing a worm
or small grub in his bill, which he dropped into the cage,
and immediately flew away. Similar presents were received
day after day, at the same time, by the Canary, from his
friend the Sparrow, with whom, at length, he became so
intimate, that he very often received the food thus brought
into his own bill from that of the Sparrow. The circum¬
stance attracted the notice of the lady’s neighbours, who
often watched these daily visits; and some of them, to try
the extent of the Sparrow’s kindness, also hung their birds
out at the window, when they found them also fed; but the
first and longest visit was always paid by the Sparrow to
his original friend, the Canary,
von. m.

&

82

SPA.EKOW.

Though thus intimate and social with his own kind, it
was observed that this Sparrow was exceedingly shy and
timid with respect to human beings; for, though many were
witnesses to the above, they were obliged to keep at a dis¬
tance, and use great caution, otherwise he immediately flew
away. The attention was carried on throughout the summer,
and extended to the beginning of autumn, when the visits
entirely ceased, whether intentionally on the part of the
Sparrow, or that he met with some accident, could not be
ascertained.’

‘That they will attend to their young, far beyond the
usual period, in case of necessity, the following anecdotes
will prove, though we believe many, if not most birds, will
do the same under similar circumstances; the experiment
may be easily tried, by slightly tying the wings of young
birds, when nearly fledged, or confining them by a thread
to the bottom of the nest, taking care not to injure them.’
Even, however, with any amount of care, T would not wish
to see this done, even though but for a short time, as
needless anxiety, at all events, would be caused both to the
old and the young bird.

‘A pair of Sparrows,’ says Mr. Graves, ‘had built their nest
in a wall close to my house. X noticed that the old birds
continued to bring food to the nest some time after the
brood had left it. I had the curiosity to place a ladder
against the wall, and looked into the nest, when, to my
surprise, I found a full-grown bird which had got its foot
entangled in some thread, which formed part of the nest, in
such a manner as to prevent its leaving it with the rest.

Wishing to see how much longer the old birds would feed

their imprisoned offspring, I left the young one as X found it,
and observed that the parents supplied it, during the whole
of the autumn and part of the winter months; but the (

weather setting in cold very soon after Christmas, I was j

afraid it would kill the young Sparrow, and therefore dis¬

engaged its leg. In a day or two it went with the old ones
in search of food; but they continued to feed it till March, ,
and during the whole time they all nestled in the same
spot.’

Xn the first volume of the ‘Zoological Journal,’ in a note
to the fourteenth page, it is stated that a pair of Sparrows,
which had built in the thatched roof of a house, were
observed to continue their regular visits to the nest long

SPARROW.

83

after the time when the young birds ought naturally to have
taken flight. This unusual circumstance continued through¬
out the year; and in the winter, a gentleman who all along
observed them, determined on finding out the cause. He
therefore placed a ladder, and, on mounting, found one of
the young ones detained a prisoner by means of a string or
scrap of worsted, which formed part of the nest, having
become accidentally twisted round its leg. Being thus
disabled from procuring its own living, it had been fed by
the continued exertions of the parents.

The flight of the Sparrow is undulated and rather rapid,
but if only made for a short distance, nearly direct with a
continued fluttering motion. On the ground, it advances by
hops and leaps, both long and short.

The food of the well-known bird before us consists of
insects, grain, and seeds, as also indeed of almost anything
eatable that comes in its way; sometimes it pursues a butterfly
or other insect on the wing, but it is not very expert as a
flycatcher. It may be seen in menageries fearlessly feeding
among birds and beasts of all possible descriptions. It feeds
its young for a time with soft fruits, young vegetables, and
insects, particularly caterpillars. It is itself good eating.

Much has been written on the question of the compara¬
tive usefulness, or the contrary, of the Sparrow, as a de-
vourer of the former-named food on the one hand, or of the
latter on the other; and much I suppose one may allow is
to be said on each side of the question, as so much has
been said: but there can I think be no doubt that the harm
they may do, even granting it to be considerable, is com¬
pensated, and more than compensated by that which they
prevent. Mr. John Hawley, of Doncaster, has sensibly
argued the question in the ‘Zoologist,’ and thus states
the case at page 2349: — T have watched pairs of Sparrows
repeatedly feeding their young, and have found that they
bring food to the nest once in ten minutes, during at Last
six hours of the twenty-four, and that each time from two
to six caterpillars are brought — every naturalist will know
this to be under the mark. Now, suppose the ‘three thousand
five hundred Sparrows’ destroyed by the ‘Association for
killing Sparrows,’ were to have been alive the next spring,
each pair to have built a nest, and .reared successive broods
of young, during three months, we have, at the rate of
; two hundred and fifty-two thousand per day, the enormous

84

SPARROW.

multitude of twenty-one millions, one hundred and sixty-
eight thousand larvrn prevented from destroying the products
of the land, and from increasing their numbers from fifty to
five hundred fold!’

Thus again, in the next article in the same magazine, Mr.
Joseph Duff, of Bishop Auckland, writing from that place,
November 15th., 1848, gives a calculation made by himself*
some years previously, as follows, he says, ‘Under the eaves
were two Sparrows’ nests, and, not having any other part of
animated nature in view, I set myself the task of counting
how often the Sparrows visited their nests with food during
half an hour. One male bird, which was darker than the
other, thus enabling me to distinguish him, captured fourteen
flies on the wing, and the four birds went from their nests
to a water-spout and back one hundred and four times.’ He
then goes on to calculate that if the common large flies, of
which he ascertained that these were the larvae, ‘are as prolific
as the common house fly, which is computed to produce in
one season no less than twenty millions nine hundred thousand
— but say in round numbers twenty millions — thus were pre¬
vented, by the capture of fourteen flies, the amazing number
of two hundred and eighty millions.’

But even two Counsel will not suffice our Sparrow — his
cause is a good one, but he has many and powerful enemies
to plead against. Further, then, Mr. Edward Peacock, Jun.,
of Messingham, Kirton-in-Lindsay, Lincolnshire, February,
1849: — T had not waited long before one came, darted under
a tile, and in a few seconds flew away again. ‘Well,’ thought
1, ‘now is my time to catch the young rascals;’ so up I
climbed to the roof of the building, and drew out the nest,
which contained four newly-hatched Sparrows. I took the
young ones in my hands, when, lo! a green caterpillar crept
from the mouth of one. I killed the four young birds, and
each had caterpillars in it: this caused me to relent a little;
but what struck me much more forcibly was, finding several
wire-worms loose in the nest, which had obviously escaped
from the young ones.’ And yet again, the same Mr. Duff,
of Bishop Auckland, at pages 2415-16, ‘About a quarter of 1
a mile east of this place is a round tower, standing on the ?
Bishop of Durham’s domain, and near the park wall: it had
been in a dilapidated state for many years, and in the crevices
were many both Starling and Sparrow nests — of the latter j
some scores. It was an object of interest to his present

SPARROW.

85

Lordship; and about five or six years ago, to prevent its
falling down, he had it repaired — every chink well pointed;
and of course the colony was broken up, and the members
dispersed: the next year but one, the field in which it stands
was sown with turnips, and when the plants came up, and
escaped the ravages of the fly, they looked well, and grew
as well as perhaps any other turnips for five or six weeks,
when, to the astonishment of Mr. Dawson, the bailiff, every
plant was entirely covered with grub: whether the caterpillars
belonged only to one species or not I do not know, for at
that time I did not go to see; but nine women were to be
seen daily for some time, gathering them off” the plants and
destroying them. Before the following spring, several places
in the building were re-opened, and the Sparrows soon took
possession of their old domiciles; and since that time there
I has been no more trouble or loss with caterpillars. I leave the
fact to speak for itself.5 There are many other similar accounts.
Mr. Jesse, too, states in his ‘Gleanings in Natural History/
that it has been calculated that a single pair of Sparrows
during the time they have their young to feed destroy above
three thousand three hundred caterpillars in a week, besides
other insects; countless thousands are thus prevented from
multiplying.

The same Mr. Briggs, of Melbourne, whose arguments these
gentlemen had been confuting, mentions afterwards incidentally,
at page 2490, that from January to September, 1848, four
thousand five hundred and seventy-nine Sparrows were sent
to the ‘Melbourne Sparrow Club.5 I may here suggest that
many of these supposed Sparrows may not actually have been
such, for a similar institution existed until the present year in
my own parish, and any small bird being conveniently called
ja Sparrow, and paid for accordingly by the authorities for
the time being, at the rate of a half-penny each, the necessary
funds amounted annually on the average to about five pounds.
Many and many an innocent victim has been sacrificed for
jthis blood-stained ‘Head money,5 a stigma on the annals of
lour village jurisprudence. The farmers are the parties sup^
posed to be benefitted, though how erroneous the supposition
is, I think I have sufficiently shewn. If not a case of ‘Felo
Be se,5 it is one unquestionably of pecuniary suicide. ‘Tem¬
porary insanity5 is the sole verdict that I, ‘ex cathedra,5 can
pronounce against them, coupled with the wish that the re¬
peal of the corn laws may make them more awake to their

86

SPARROW.

own real interests, and that their ‘Insanity’ may only be
‘Temporary.’ In flower gardens Sparrows do some little
mischief, especially among the gay blossoms of early spring,
whether in search of insects or for mere amusement it is
hard to say. Crocuses and other bright-coloured flowers they
seem to prefer, picking off the yellow ones, and leaving the
purple and the white blossoms.

The note of this bird is a monotonous chirp, known to every
one, and in addition to it a curious buzzing noise has been
observed by one or two persons to have been uttered by this
bird, but whether produced by the motion of the tail, which
was kept fluttering all the time, or whether it proceeded from
the throat, they seem to have been unable correctly to ascer¬
tain. The Rev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, at Kingston, and
the Rev. Arthur Hussey, at Rottingdean, Sussex, both noticed
it, and have recorded their observations thereon in the
‘Zoologist,’ at pages 353 and 452-3. These birds may often
be seen and heard holding assemblies together, with a great
deal of noise and clamour; and, as in ‘another place,’ there
is a good deal that is unintelligible, and a large amount of
repetition in what they say. The late William Thompson,
Esq., of Belfast, says that he has heard them begin their
chattering in the ivy that surrounded a town house at ten
minutes past three in the morning, in the month of June,
half an hour before they stirred out.

Mr. W. Kidd asserts in ‘The Naturalist,’ vol. i., page
150, that if a young Sparrow be taken from the nest when
not more than four days old, before, that is to say, it has
had time to learn its vernacular language, and be kept within
hearing of a Canary, for instance, and of a Canary only, in
full song, it will, in less than three weeks, begin to utter the
notes of the Canary, and that in a short time the pupil will
rival the master in song. I wish for the sake of many a
young learner of a different species, that the science of music
could be always as easily acquired.

The nest, which is large in size, and very loosely compacted,
is usually placed under the eaves of the tiles of houses or
other buildings, or in any hole or cavity that will supply it
with a convenient receptacle for its brood. It is compiled of
hay, straw, wool, moss, or twigs, and a profusion of feathers,
which they are sometimes seen conveying to their holes even
in winter. It often measures as much as six inches in
diameter, and sometimes even much more, if the situation

SPARROW.

87

requires it. The materials just mentioned, as also any others
that may meet the requirements of the bird, are variously
disposed and arranged together, according to circumstances.
Dove-cotes and pigeon -houses are frequently built in, and the
same situation is continued to be resorted to, and this even
when the young have been exposed to misfortune from rain.
It would appear that trees are built in more from necessity
than choice, namely, by yearling birds which commence nidi-
hcation late, by which time convenient places in walls have
been pre-occupied; or by individuals which from some cause
or other, had been obliged to give up the latter localities.
Fewer broods in the year are produced therefore in the case
of nests in trees, both from their being commenced later in
the season, and from their requiring naturally more time in
the construction: they are accordingly better made. Mr.
Meyer describes one which was handsomely built of moss,
grass, and lichens, and neatly lined with hair. The entrance
in these cases is by the side, and the interior is profusely
lined with feathers.

The late Dr. Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, in his entertaining
work so often before referred to, writes, “Then for his nest-
while other birds must select their own accustomed spots,
the similar tree or bush, the same materials, etc., the
Sparrow, like a bird who knows the world, is everywhere at
home, and ready to establish himself wherever chance may
happen to place him. If he lives remote from towns and
cities, and the habitations of man, a tree answers his purpose,
and a comfortable nest he will there build, with the rare
addition of an arched top into the bargain, which possibly
he may have learned from that knowing bird, the Magpie.
In default of a tree or a house, a chink in a rock or a
hole in a wall suits him; but after all, the nooks and eaves
of buildings are his favourite resorts; accordingly in London,
where he has his choice, he will often select droll places — -
amidst the carved foliage of some Corinthian column a pro¬
jection of straws, with now and then a feather, announces a
nest in preparation.

But some London Sparrows aspire still higher, one pair
having actually built in the Lion’s mouth, over Northumber¬
land House, at Charing Cross. A still more extraordinary
place was pitched upon by a north -country couple:- — A coal
vessel from Newcastle put into Nairn, in Scotland, and while
there, two Sparrows were frequently observed to alight on

SPAEBOW.

$8

the top of the vessel’s mast, while the vessel remained in
port. This occasioned no great surprise to the crew; but
after putting to sea, the two Sparrows were seen following
the sloop, and having come up with her, resumed their posts
at the top of the mast. Crumbs of bread were scattered
upon the deck, with a view of enticing them down, of which
they soon availed themselves; and after eating heartily, they
again returned to the mast head. By the time the vessel
had been two days at sea, they became much more familiar,
and descended boldly for the purpose of feeding. The
voyage was a long one, lasting for some days, when on
reaching the River Tyne, to which they were bound, the
nest with four young ones, was carefully taken down, and
being put in the crevice of a ruined house, on the banks of
the river, they continued to rear their brood.

When thus upon the subject of young Sparrows, we may
direct attention to the very rapid growth of their feathers
in hot weather. In the month of August a young one was
taken from a nest, with neither down nor feathers upon it,
the rudiments only of plumage being visible under the skin,
on the back of the head and along the back; on the sides
of the wings, the shafts of the quills had just pierced the
skin. Eight days after, another young one was taken from
the same nest, covered with feathers, and able to make some
use of its wings. Another circumstance is worthy of notice.
The old ones had adapted the food to their powers of
digestion. The stomach of the first was weak, and filled
almost entirely with insects, only one grain of wheat and a
few of sand being found. In the second, fche gizzard was
become vastly more muscular, and contained nine grains of
wheat whole, besides some smaller pieces, the remains of
several beetles, and some larger gravel stones.’

Another singular situation selected by these birds for their
nest, was in a thorn bush, stuck, as one sometimes sees
done, at the top of a chimney, either as a preventive of
smoking, or to check the ingress of any creatures; and
although it happened to be a kitchen chimney, and smoke
was issuing from it throughout the whole day, there they
completed their works of nidification, incubation, and probably
of education. Occasionally a hedge is built in. One nest
has been found in a passage, where servants were constantly
passing and repassing.

I am informed by Claude A. Liilingston, Esq., of the

SPARROW.

•• 89

Chauntry, Ipswich, that he has found a nest of the Sparrow
in the outside of that of a Sparrow-Hawk — a singular locality
with reference both to the name and the nature of the bird.
;Whether,’ he observes, ‘the Hawk was keeping them till
they increased in size, or whether he had come to terms of
peace with them, I do not know.’ They also often build
beneath the nests of the Rooks, with whose habits they
have nothing in common, making this use of their structures
as a defence for themselves, and also manifesting their
sagacious anxiety and contrivance for the safety of their
own broods. Frequently too they serve an action of eject¬
ment against the Martins, and take forcible possession of the
nests they have so laboriously constructed for their young,
and thus is ‘Love’s labour lost.’ Some have been known
to build their nests in the holes made by Sand Martins in
the side of a clay-pit, using, contrary to their usual custom,
but a small quantity of materials, adopting probably the
arrangement they found ready for them; possibly too in such
a situation the materials they ordinarily use in such abundance
might not have been readily procurable.

The following appeared in the ‘Glasgow Argus,’ in May,
1846: — ‘Last week on the Aurora leaving the Bromielaw for
Belfast, a Sparrow’s nest was discovered in the rigging;
but the birds did not choose on that occasion to accompany
their nest to the Green Isle. On the return of the vessel,
however, the Sparrows again visited their former abode,
which had not been disturbed by the voyage, and deposited
an egg in it, which attached them so much to it, that they
valorously left their native land and sailed with the Aurora
for Ireland.’ ‘The nest,’ Mr. Thompson adds, ‘rested partly
on the sail, and was destroyed by its being unfurled, when
containing one or two eggs. The vessel was accustomed to
sail every second day from Glasgow to Belfast.’

I must, however, differ from Mr. Thompson’s opinion as
to the honesty of the Sparrow, with regard to his neighbour’s
dwelling. I fear that the ‘Appropriation Clause’ will be
found on record among his ‘Acts,’ and leave a deserved
stigma on his reputation.

The Sparrow pairs early in the season, and two or three
broods are reared each year. A pair built a nest, and laid
several eggs, at Markle, near East Linton, about the 15th.
of December, 1842; a nest was found at Darley Abbey, near
Derby, on the 20th. of December in the same year, contain-

90

r.TMT?T?OW.

in g four eggs; and on the 22nd. of the following February
one was observed building its nest in the spout of the school¬
room at the same place, by Robert John Bell, Esq., of
Mickleover House, near Derby. Sometimes, and not very
rarely, I believe, even four broods have been known to be
produced in the same year. The young birds often come
abroad before they are well able to provide by effective flight
for their security, and thus individuals are frequently either
pushed accidentally from the nests, or lose their footing and
totter over, falling to the ground. Almost as soon as they
are partially able to take care of themselves, they are
attended by the male alone, and the female prepares again
for a new family. As soon as the nest is ready, the first
brood are left to themselves, but they still remain about the
premises, roosting at night with other individuals either
older or younger. The male birds, while the hen is sittings
roost somewhere in the neighbourhood. When the young
are abroad and fed by the old ones, the latter carry them¬
selves in an erect manner, with a sort of pride in their
deportment, and the former testify their wishes with a
quivering of the wings and a constant chirping.

The first set of eggs generally consists of five or six.
They are dull light grey, or greyish white, much spotted
and streaked all over with ash-colour and dusky brown,
varying much in appearance, though preserving for the most
part, a general resemblance. They also differ very frequently
and very much in size and shape.

The Sparrow is a stout thick-set bird. Male; length, a
little over six inches to six and a quarter; bill, bluish lead-
colour. From its base, which is yellowish in winter, a black
streak runs backwards to the eye. Iris, hazel, that is, dark
brown; the space in front of it has the feathers tipped with
grey, as are those which compose a line under the eye, and
one of a deep chesnut brown over it, which latter is
terminated behind by a small white dot. From the eye a
broad band of chesnut brown runs down each side of the
neck, meeting together behind. Head on the crown, fine
bluish grey in the summer, but more dull, by the tips of
the feathers being faded, in the autumn and winter; neck
on the sides, greyish white, fading into yellowish grey, on
the front black, many of the feathers tipped with grey; nape,,
fine dark rufous brown. Chin and throat, deep black, but
many of the feathers are tipped with grey in the autumn

SPABUOW.

91

and winter; breast, on the upper part meeting tbe throat,
black as it also is, below, dull greyish or brownish white.
Back, fine dark rufous brown on its upper part, the centre
of each feather nearly black; on its lower part it is chesnut
brownish grey, with a tinge of yellowish.

The wings, which expand to the width of nearly nine
inches and a half, have the first three quill feathers nearly
equal in length, but the third slightly longer than the first,
and the second rather the longest of the three, the fourth a
little shorter than the third, the fifth more than an eighth
of an inch shorter than the fourth. Greater wing coverts,
brownish black, broadly edged with pale rufous brown, and
slightly tipped with dull white; of the lesser wing coverts,
the first ones are brownish black tipped with white more or
less extensively, and forming an oblique bar across each wing,
sometimes half their length is of this colour; the rest are
brownish red and partly black; primaries, blackish brown,
with narrow outer edges of brownish yellow, and the inner
more broadly margined with brownish red; tertiafies,’ broadly
edged with rufous brown. Tail, dark brownish, the outer
webs of the feathers blackish edged with lighter brown; it is
rather short, and even at the end; it extends about an inch
and a half beyond the closed wings; upper tail coverts, pale
brownish grey with a tinge of dull green; under tail coverts,
dusky grey in the centre. Legs and toes, bluish brown;
claws, darker brown, thick and short.

In the female the plumage also becomes more dull in the
autumn and winter. Length, from five inches and a half to
six inches; bill, brown, but paler than in the male; iris, dark
brown; over it is a streak of dull yellowish, and a dusky line
passes through and behind it. Head on the crown, neck
on the back, and nape, light dull greenish brown; chin,
throat, and breast, pale dull yellowish brown, darker on
the sides, the centres of the feathers darker than the rest.
Back, dull brown, the edges of the feathers dull buff-colour.

The wings have the transverse band formed by the tips of
the first row of the lesser wing coverts pale yellowish, or
dull white; they expand to the width of nine inches and a
third. Tail, brownish black, the edges of the feathers light
yellowish brown; under tail coverts, dull brownish white.
Legs, toes, and claws, lighter brown than in the male.

The young, when fledged, resemble the female, but are
much lighter coloured; at the first moult after the autumn,

92

SPARROW.

the males assume their adult plumage, hut it is not till the
next year that it is perfected. In the second season, the male
has the bill greyish yellow or horn- colour above, and below
with a faint tinge of red, the tip brown; from its base a
broad band of obscure black runs down the front of the
neck; in front of the eye the colour is blackish grey, and
over it is a line of yellowish grey mixed with chesnut brown,
extending down the neck. Head on the crown, brownish
grey; the neck on the sides has some of the feathers with
chesnut tips; in front it is light yellowish grey. Breast,
light yellowish grey above, fading beneath into dull white;
the back is light yellowish brown above, the inner webs of the
feathers being brownish black at the tip, lower down it is
light greenish dull grey. Greater wing coverts dusky, mar¬
gined exteriorly with yellowish brown; lesser wing coverts,
light brown, with a little pale yellowish brown or chesnut
near the tips, and margined more broadly with yellowish
brown; primaries, dusky, margined exteriorly with yellowish
brown. Upper tail coverts, light greenish dull grey; under
tail coverts, light yellowish grey; legs and toes, greyish
yellow or horn- colour.

Variations of plumage in the Sparrow are not unfrequent.
Thus, in one, the primaries and fail were white; another, shot
by myself many years ago, in the parish of Taxal, Cheshire,
near Chapel-on-le-Prith, Derbyshire, had some white feathers
in the wings, and a few elsewhere. Another, a hen bird, was
shot near Ipswich, Suffolk, of a dull white colour below, and
a light cream-colour above; and another in the Butter Market
in the same town, in October, 1850, with a dull white head.
Specimens of an unvaried blackish brown are sometimes met
with; some pure white; some cream-coloured. One white one
had the red eyes which are generally seen in albinos; and
the late Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, has recorded one in which
the upper bill was nearly two inches long, and slightly
twisted to one side, turning down also like that of the
Curlew.

The plate is from a capital drawing by my friend the Bev.
B. P. Alington, Bector of Swinhope, Lincolnshire.

GREENFINCH,

93

GREENFINCH.

GREEN GROSBEAK. GREEN LINNET.

Cocoothraustes chloris ,
Loxia chloris ,

Linar ia chloris,
Fringilla chloris ,

Fleming. Jardjne.
Linnaeus. Latham.
Macgillivray.
Temminck

Coccothraustes. Coccos — A berry. Thrauo — To break. Chloris.

Chloros — Light green; properly, the colour of young grass.

The geographical range of the Greenfinch is extensive
throughout Europe and Asia. It is found from Sweden and
Norway to Belgium and Crete, and the countries bordering
on the Mediterranean; in Asia Minor and other parts.

It is a plentiful species throughout the year in all the
cultivated parts of England. The same remark applies to
Scotland, excepting in the northern and western islands. In
Ireland it is common, and resident in suitable localities. It
is a winter visitant in Shetland and Orkney, frequently ap¬
pearing during that season with flights of Linnets, Larks,
Snow Buntings, and other birds.

About the middle of March, or earlier, they begin to move,
and disperse over the length and breadth of the land, and
by the middle of April they disappear from their winter
haunts.

Towards the end of autumn Greenfinches collect into
flocks, frequently of considerable amount, attendant chiefly
on the farmstead or its vicinity. They by no means isolate
themselves from the company of other birds, especially those
of their own ‘order’ — Chaffinches, Yellow-hammers, and others,
but though not exclusive in their habits, they in general
keep by themselves in straggling parties ; even ifi summer
small docks have been seen: as many as thirty have been

94

GREENFINCH.

noticed together the .last week in June. They are rather
timid, though not particularly shy birds, but are easily
caught, and kept in confinement.

The late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, records in
his ‘Natural History of Ireland,’ that he has known young
Greenfinches, which after being kept for some little time
were given their liberty every morning, and in the evening
they returned as regularly to their cage to roost, as in a
wild state they would have done to their favourite tree or
shrub; so, he says, the Canary will also do, though but
rarely.

In the spring time combats between them are frequently
witnessed; at this season, too, they fly and wheel about,
mostly in the morning, in a curious frolicsome manner, rising
and fluttering, and then returning to the same bough many
times in succession. They then resort still more nearly to
the vicinity of human habitations, principally no doubt on
account of the earlier shelter which plantations of evergreens
afford them for building their nests, to which also in winter
they mostly repair at night for harbour for themselves,
returning to the same spot. They are fond of washing
themselves. The old birds pay great attention to their
young; and Me}rer points out how, on a sudden, as I have
observed myself in the case of the Book, on a signal note
being given by the former that danger is apprehended, the
latter will instantly cease their clamour, though perhaps for
food. He also records the following instance of their parental
affection: — ‘One day several little nestlings were caught in
a field adjoining the garden; they were scarcely fledged, and
could not fly; we put them in a small cage, which we
placed in a low hedge bordering the field where they were
captured. It was not long before they were discovered by
the parents, who immediately visited them, and appeared to
bring them food. These marks of affection interested us,
and fearing that where they were placed the young nestlings
might become a prey to prowling cats, we gave them their
liberty. The parents, however, appeared not yet satisfied
respecting the safety of their young ones, for a short time
after they were observed in the act of carrying one of them
away; they were bearing it between them at about the
elevation of a foot and a half from the ground, and in this
manner were seen to carry it above fifty yards, namely, from
the spot where the young birds were set at liberty, to the

GKREENFINCH.

95

end of a gravel path, where they entered a clump of fir
trees. In what manner the parents supported the nestling
w^s not very apparent, as the observers did not like to
follow too quickly, lest the old birds should relinquish their
burden; but from the close vicinity of the three during their
flight, it appeared as if they must have upheld it by means
of their beaks. The other nestlings had apparently been
conveyed away in the same manner, as none of them were
to be found.’ I remember myself several years ago going a
mile at night to release some young Greenfinches from a
cage in which I had seen the old birds feeding them the day
before.

Their flight is quick, strong, and undulated, performed by
two or three rapid flaps of the wings, which are then closed,
and a sweep follows, down, and then up. They sometimes
wheel about for some little time before alighting, but often
settle down abruptly, and set to work in search of food. If
alarmed, they fly up to the highest parts of any trees that
may be near, from whence they drop again, when the danger
appears to be removed.

Their food consists of wheat, barley, and other grain, and
seeds, those of the hawthorn occasionally, and green weeds,
such as the turnip, charlock, dandelion, groundsel, and chick-
weed; and in the spring the buds of trees are picked off,
and the larvse of different insects also consumed; all these,
as well as insects themselves, form their ‘bill of fare:’ with
the latter the young are fed. Various mineral substances
are swallowed to assist the process of digestion. The husks
of corn are ground off before being swallowed.

Their note, which Meyer likens to the word ‘tway,’ is
tolerably full and mellow, and is uttered in the summer
from the topmost spray of a hedge, or some tree a little
higher than others, as well as on the wing; but there is not
any approach to a song until the spring, generally about the
middle of April, but earlier or later according to the season,
and only to a trifling extent even then; but they are able to
learn the notes of other birds.

Nidification begins generally in April, or even earlier: the
work has been known to have been completed by the 26th.
of March.

The nest is pretty well compacted, and much more so in
some instances than in others. It is composed of small
roots, twigs, moss, and straws, and lined with finer materials

96

GBEE^rT^CH.

of the same kinds, mingled, as the case may be, with
thistle-down, feathers, and hair: one was built last year in
the trellis-work near the drawing-room of Nafferton Vicarage,
a few yards from that of the Spotted Flycatcher; but,
though undisturbed, it was not resorted to again this year,
as was that of its near neighbour. It is placed in various
situations — a low bush, or an evergreen, the ivy against a
wall, or between the branches of a tree. Many nests are
often found in propinquity to each other in the same
shrubbery; more than one sometimes even in the same bush.

The eggs, from four to six, or even seven in number, are
of a bluish or purple reddish white, spotted with darker
purple, grey, and blackish brown, streaked also in general
more or less with black. They differ much in size, shape,
and colour; sometimes the whole surface is mottled over, and
again, there have been known no markings at all: the
smaller end is rather pointed.

Two broods are frequently reared in the season. The
young, if fledged, fly off in a body from the nest, if
aoproached. The young of the Spotted Flycatcher I have
seen do the same, though they had never flown before, on
my going to the nest to place a young orphan Greenfinch
in it, with a view to its being fed with them as a foster-
brother.

Male; weight nearly eight drachms; length six inches and
a quarter, or rather over; bill, pale reddish brown, darker
at the point, the back of the lower bill tinged with red;
iris,, dark hazel: between it and the bill is a dusky mark,
which also extends across the forehead. Head on the sides,
yellowish green, inclining to ash-colour, and on the crown,
neck on the back, which also inclines to ash-colour, and
nape, yellowish green, the edges of the feathers greyish; chin,
throat, and breast, yellowish green, but lighter than the
back, and with more yellow, much the most so on the lower
part; on the sides it is tinged with greenish grey; back,
yellowish green, the edges of the feathers greyish, but lower
down with more yellow.

The wings are broad, and expand to the width of ten
inches and a quarter; the first, second, and third quill
feathers are nearly equal and the longest, the fourth nearly
as long; greater wing coverts, greenish grey; lesser wing
coverts, the same; primaries, brownish black with light grey
tips, and yellowish white inner edges, excepting towards the

GBEEBTINCH.

9 r

end; those next the body are greyish; tertiaries, greenish
grey. Tail, rather short and somewhat forked, yellow for
three-fourths of its length, the remainder brownish black,
edged with yellow or yellowish grey, but the four middle
feathers are nearly all brownish black, being tinged with
green at the base only; under tail coverts, light yellowish
white. Legs and toes, pale reddish brown; claws, rather
dusky.

The female is about six inches in length; bill, less robust
than in the male. Her general plumage is much the same,
but considerably duller, and with none of the bright yellow.
The back has more brown, of an uniform faint reddish tint.
The wings expand to the width of ten inches; the yellow
markings on the quill feathers are less bright than in the
male; lesser wing coverts, grey.

The young at first are greenish grey above, and streaked
with dark brown on the throat and breast. As the bird
advances in age it varies much in brightness or dullness of
colouring, the more advanced being almost pure greenish
yellow above, the others tinged with brown, and the sides of
the head being more or less grey. Bill, pale brown above,
pale reddish beneath, the tip brown; in the female it is still
paler than in the male, and smaller. Neck in front, greyish
brown; breast, greyish brown above, below greyish brown,
as are its sides; back, dull olive colour, the centre of each
feather faintly tinged with brown. Lesser wing coverts,
brown; primaries, dusky brown, their outer margins greenish
yellow, but narrow, forming only lines when closed, instead
of a full mark. Legs and toes, pale brownish red.

vot, nr.

H

98

HAWFINCH.

GEOSBEAK. COMMON GEOSBEAK.
BLACK-THBOATEI) GEOSBEAK. HAW GEOSBEAK.

Coccothraustes vulgaris , Fleming. Gould.

Loxia coccothraustes , Linnaeus. Latham.

Fringilla coccothraustes , Jenyns. Temminck

Coccothraustes— Coccos — A berry. Thrauo — To break.

Vulgaris — Common.

The Hawfinch occurs throughout Europe, in Germany,
France, Belgium, Spain, and Italy, as likewise, though more
rarely, in Sweden, "Denmark, Siberia, and Russia. In Asia
also, according to Temminck, who includes it among the
birds of Japan, and in Africa, in Egypt, where Sonnini
relates that he saw it.

In Yorkshire, specimens have been met with near Sheffield,
Killinbeck, near Leeds; Scriven, near Knaresborough; Halifax,
York, Huddersfield, Barnsley, and Doncaster, in the West-
Riding; and a few are generally killed every winter near
Bridlington, in the East-Riding.

One was shot in the vicarage garden of Coddenham, Suffolk,
about the middle of January, 1850; so John Longe, Esq.
has informed me. In 1849, the Rev. R. P. Alington shot
one in his garden at Swinhope Rectory, Lincolnshire, and
heard of several others in the same neighbourhood. He says
of the one that he procured, ‘It came to feed on the gravel
walk: upon my appearance, it would fly to the topmost
branch of a neighbouring tree, and before I could get within
gun-shot, would fall like a stone among the laurel bushes,
from whence I at last found it so difficult to dislodge it,
+hat I was obliged to get a man on the other side with a

%

HAWFINCH.

4

HAWFINCH.

99

stick to drive it out.’ Two or three have been shot at dotting
Hill, near London; one near Esher, Surrey. N. Bowe, Esq.,
of Worcester College, Oxford, says that he has been informed
that this species is common in Stowe Park, Buckinghamshire,
the seat of His Grace the Duke of Buckingham; and James
Dalton, Esq., of Worcester College, Oxford, has informed me
that it breeds there, as it also does in Epping Forest, in
considerable numbers, and at Walthamstow, in Essex, and
the neighbourhood of Woburn, in Bedfordshire, as Mr. G. B.
Clarke, of that place, writes me word; but he says that they
are there most seen in the winter, when they come to feed
on the seeds of the hawthorn and the holly, their ‘Christmas
Tree.’ On one occasion they have been known to breed near
Oxford.

At Windsor, and at Bradfield, near Beading, Berkshire, it
remains throughout the year, as the Bev. Thomas Stevens,
of that place, told me, and has also been known to breed
regularly in the grounds of Lord Clifden, at Boehampton,
and near Tenterden, Bexley, Dartford, Maidstone, and Pens-
hurst, in Kent. It has also been seen in Badminton Park,
Gloucestershire, the seat of His Grace the Duke of Beaufort;
Tring and Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire; Chipping Norton
and Wytham, in Oxfordshire; Goodwood and Bye, in Sussex,
in plenty near the latter in 1849. Selborne, in Hampshire;
Bepton and Melbourne, in Derbyshire; Taverham, where one
was taken alive in a pigeon-house, and Yarmouth, Norfolk ;
Ormskirk, in Lancashire; and once at Woodside, near Carlisle,
in Cumberland; also occasionally in Gloucestershire, Shrop¬
shire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, Suffolk, and Cam¬
bridgeshire.

In Ireland, a few have been met with in various parts;
at Hillsborough and Tollymore Park, the seat of Lord Boden,
in the county of Down; at Cittadella and Ardrum, in the
county of Cork, the former in the winter of 1844; near Mill-
town, in the county of Kerry, at the end of October, 1880;
and during the winter of 1844, the species was obtained in
different parts of that county; but in the Phoenix Park, near
Dublin, where the hawthorn trees are both among the finest
and in the greatest numbers that I have ever seen, they
appear to be procurable in small numbers every winter.

In Scotland, one or two have been killed in Dumfriesshire.
In Orkney and Shetland it appears to be unknown.

It is with us both a permanent resident and an occasional

100

HAWFINCH.

visitant, the former in some parts of the country, the latter in
others. It arrives in these cases at the beginning of winter,
and is said to depart again in April.

They seem to be extremely shy birds, but are capable of
being kept in the cage. In winter they are found less timid,
either subdued by the effects of hunger and cold, or as arrived
from foreign parts where they have been less exposed to
danger from man. They generally perch upon the highest
branch of a tree, or upon some open bough, from whence they
are able to keep a good look-out.

They feed on the seeds, fruits, and berries of various trees —
the hornbeam, plum, plane, pine, cherry, laurel, holly, and
hawthorn, and do some damage among peas. With their strong
beaks they make their way through the hardest shells.

Their song is described as low, pleasant, and plaintive, and
as being heard even in winter in fine weather. In confinement
they have been known to learn the notes of other birds, and
have been observed to make a grinding noise with their beaks,
as is done by some of the Parrots.

They pair about the middle of April, and in a week or
two begin to build.

I have been favoured by St. Aubin Molesworth St. Aubin,
Esq., with the nest and egg of this bird, which were taken
in the parish of Beenham, in the county of Berks.: it is
entirely composed of lichens and fine roots. It is frequently
placed in a thorn bush, or holly tree, as also in oaks, the
horse chesnut, apple, and fir trees of the different species, at
a height of twenty-five or thirty feet from the ground, often
in a very exposed situation. It is variously made of small
twigs, such as those of the oak and honeysuckle, intermixed
with fragments of lichens, in greater or less abundance. The
lining consists of fine roots, vegetable fibres, and a little hany
with feathers, according to Montagu. It is not firmly com¬
pacted, towards which effect perhaps the principal material
contributes.

The eggs are from four to six in number, of a pale olive
green, spotted with blackish brown, and irregularly streaked
with dusky grey; some are much less marked than others, and
some are of a uniform pale green.

The young are hatched about the third week in May, and
as soon as they are able to provide for themselves, says Mr.
Doubleday, they unite with the old birds in flocks, varying
in numbers from fifteen or twenty to one hundred or even

HAWFINCH.

101

to two hundred individuals. In this manner they remain
through the winter, and only separate at the approach of
spring.

Male; weight, about two ounces; length, a trifle over seven
inches; bill, pale brownish red, bluish in summer, the tip
dusky: between it and the eye is a black streak, meeting the
black of the throat in a point. Iris, greyish white: the
black mark just extends behind it. Head, yellowish brown,
paler on the forehead and the sides than on the crown; the
neck behind is crossed by a broad band of ash-colour, on
the sides it is pale brown; nape, fawn-colour; chin and
throat, velvet black; breast, pale brown; back above, dark
chesnut brown, next brownish grey, changing downwards to
yellowish brown.

The wings, which are of the width of eleven inches and a
half, are broad; the first quill feather is a little shorter than
the second, as is also the third, the fourth a little shorter
still, and the rest gradually diminish in length; greater
wing coverts, greyish white, and those next the body yellowish
brown; lesser wing coverts, black, or blackish brown, some of
them tipped with white; primaries, bluish black, the outer
ones with a white spot on the inner web near the middle,
the others greyish white: the fifth and four succeeding ones
are curiously formed in the shape of a bill-hook or battle-
axe at the end; the other quill feathers nearer the body are
square at the end. The secondaries, which are long, have the
greater part of the inner web greyish white; some of the
tertiaries rich chesnut brown. Tail, short and black; the
outside feather on each side is black at the base, and on
the outer web, and half of the inner web, white; the next
four feathers on each side have a large white spot on the
end of both webs, the base black, the proportion of white
diminishing on each feather; the middle ones are grey towards
the end, and tinged with red on part of the inner web, the
tips white: the two centre feathers are rather shorter than the
rest. Upper tail coverts, yellowish brown; under tail coverts,
white; legs, toes, and claws, pale brownish red.

The female is in length rather under seven inches; she is
like the male in appearance, but paler in colour; the black at
the base of the bill, and between it and the eye, is less
conspicuous; the different colours about the head, crown, and
neck on the back, are less distinct and more blended together;
the black on the chin is also less in size. The wing coverts

102

HAWFINCH.

have the white colour more mixed with brown; the tertiari.es
have their outer webs bluish grey.

The young bird is said to have the bill pale brownish red;
head, neck, and nape, pale yellowish olive brown; throat,
yellowish, bounded by a small line of brown spots, indica¬
tive of the future black patch; the breast, dull white, the
feathers, especially on the sides, tipped with small brown
spots. The bar on the wings is less apparent than in the
old birds.

Varieties occur which are pure white, some yellowish white,
or greyish; others with the wings or tail white, and others
with white feathers here or there.

GOLDFINCH.

103

GOLDFINCH.

GOLDIE. GOLD SPINK. THISTLE-FINCH. KING HARRY.
BED-CAP. PROUD-TAIL.

Carduelis eJegnns ,

Fringilla carduelis ,

I

Carduelis— X bird that feeds on thistles. Carduus— A thistle.

Elegans — Elegant.

This lovely bird is one of the most beautifully-plumaged
of our native species; its form at the same time is neat and
graceful, and its gay exterior is accompanied by gentleness of
nature, docility of habit, and sweetness of song. It need
therefore hardly be added that it is a deserved favourite,
and one only regrets to see it ever otherwise than in the
cheerful enjoyment of its natural liberty. Individuals have
been known to live ten years in captivity, continuing in. song
; the greater part of each year. Willughby mentions one which
lived in confinement for twenty-three years.

In Europe it occurs from Siberia and Sweden to Greece,
France, Spain, Crete, and Italy; in Asia also, in Asia Minor.

In this country it is found in sufficient plenty throughout
England and Wales, as also in the south of Scotland, but is
certainly not so numerous as formerly. Whomever else ‘Free
trade’ may be beneficial to, it is not so to the Goldfinch;
for ‘Agricultural improvement,’ necessitated thereby, cuts off
with the tops of the thistles, so ready otherwise to run to
seed, the harvest which the bird would fain reap in the
autumn and the winter. Those tracts, therefore, which still
remain in their original and uncultivated state, and furnish
accordingly the greater quantity of wild seed-bearing plants*
are their most natural resort — the uncultivated common, the

Macgtllivray.
Linnaeus. Latham.

10 4

GOLDFINCH.

now almost extirpated warren, the chase, the moorland, and
the wild waste of the mountain side.

In Scotland it is not uncommon in Aberdeenshire, and
near Elgin, but is said to be rare in the neighbourhood of
Edinburgh, and to be so now in Linlithgowshire, though
formerly very abundant there. It is an occasional visitant
to Zetland.

In Ireland it occurs throughout the four provinces; but
Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, has remarked how capricious it is
in its comings and goings.

They abide with us throughout the year, but roam about
the country, and appear to be observed in the greatest num¬
bers together in the spring: the flocks generally consist of
not more than twenty or thirty.

In procuring its food, the Goldfinch often permits your
near approach, seeming regardless of it, intent upon its one
main object. It is very pleasant to watch them fluttering
over the stems of the thistle, hanging on in various attitudes
about them, and scattering about the down in picking out
the seeds. On a sudden the little flock, probably the family
of the summer, flit off, twittering their lively notes.

They are easily tamed, and have been taught by those
who might employ their time much more profitably, to per¬
form various tricks. The}r are sometimes seen in large, and
sometimes in very small, but generally in moderate-sized
flocks, and they also associate occasionally with Linnets.
Severe winters prove fatal to many. In their wild state two
instances have been known of the female pairing with the
Greenfinch, and rearing the young, and in confinement with
the Siskin and the Canary. They roost in trees.

The late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, records that
Bandal Burough, Esq., of the county of Clare, had two tame
Goldfinches which were allowed not only to fly about the
room, but also through the open window. The winter was
beginning to be severe, and the food suitable for small birds
consequently scarce, when one day the two birds brought with
them a stranger of their own species, who made bold to go
into the two cages that were always left open, and regale
himself on the hospitality of his new friends, and then took
his departure. He returned again, and brought others with
him, so that in a few days half-a-dozen were enjoying the
food provided for them. The window was now kept up, and
the open cages, with plenty of seed, were placed on a table

GOLDFINCH.

105

close to it, instead of on the sill as before. The birds soon
learned to come into the room without fear, and as their
numbers had continued gradually to increase, there was soon
a flock of not less than twenty visiting the apartment daily,
and perfectly undisturbed by the presence of the members of
the family. As the inclemency of the winter decreased, the
number of the birds gradually diminished, until at length, when
the severe weather had quite passed away, there remained
none except the original pair.

Their food consists of the seeds of the teazel, the plantain,
knapweed, chickweed, groundsel, ragwort, hemp, the thistle,
the hawthorn, corn, fir-cones, grasses, and various herbaceous
plants: occasionally also of beetles and other insects, which
are triturated with small gravel. The young birds are fed
for a time with caterpillars and insects.

The note, as is so well known, is very sweet and varied.
It is commenced about the end of March, and is continued
without much interruption till July.

The nest is placed in orchard and other trees, especially
those which are evergreen, in bushes, and in some instances
in hedges, and at times as much as thirty feet from the
ground: it is composed externally of grass, moss, lichens,
small twigs, and roots, or any other appropriate substances.
Inside it is elaborately interwoven with wool and hair, lined
with the down of willows and various plants, and sometimes
a few or more leaves or feathers. It is very neatly finished,
and Bolton says is completed in three days.

The eggs, four or five in number, are bluish white, or
pale greyish blue, sometimes tinged with brown, and are
slightly spotted with greyish purple and brown, with occa¬
sionally a dark streak or two.

Male; length, five inches; bill, whitish tinged with red,
the point above and below, blackish brown: it is margined
at its base with black to the eye, which is dusky brown.
Forehead, crimson, and over the eyes; head on the crown
and back, black, on the sides white; neck on the back, black,
forming a semicircle towards the front; nape, buff brown;
chin, crimson; throat, white, extending backwards to the
black, and succeeded by brownish white: breast, pale fulvous
brown and whitish; hack, darker buff brown, lighter buff
brown lower down.

The wings, extend to the width of nine inches; greater wing
coverts, yellow; lesser wing coverts, black; primaries, black,

106

©OLDFHSTCH.

the inner half yellow on the outer webs, except that of the
first, the tips white; the second quill feather is the longest,,
fiut only slightly over the first, which is a little longer than
the third; tertiaries, with a spot of white at the tip; greater
an(j lesser under wing coverts, white. The tail, which is
black tipped with white, is slightly forked and rather short;
the two outer feathers have a large oval-shaped white spot on
the inner web; upper tail coverts, greyish white. Legs and
toes, pale dusky brown; claws, dusky brown.

The female is not so brilliant in colour; length, rather
over four inches and three quarters; the head has less crimson
on the crown, and it is frequently mingled with black, and
the black is mixed with grey and brown; the white on the
side of the neck is tinged with brown. The chin has less
crimson; the breast duller white on the lower part. The
wings expand to the width of a little over eight inches and
three quarters; the white tips of the feathers are tinged with
brown, and the black is less deep; lesser wing coverts, brown;
the tail is not so bright a black.

The young present, in some respects, the same general
appearance as" the old birds, but the colours are fainter. The
bill, pale pink; the head, on the crown, has the black much
mixed with grey, and the rest brown; the black comes out
about the end of September, or beginning of October, and the
red at the end of that 'month. Neck on the back, and nape,,
greyish brown; the breast, brownish grey.

& Montagu says that a variety is sometimes taken with white
spots undvr the throat. In confinement varieties occur, black,
black and white, and white.

SISKIN.

1 07

SISKIN

ABERDEVINE

Cnrduelis spinus, M 4CGILLIVRA1 .

Fringilla spinus , Linnaeus. Latham,

Carduelis— A bird that feeds on thistles. Carduus — A thistle

Spinus — . ? Spinus — A thorn.?

Though inferior to the Goldfinch in beauty of plumage,
the Siskin is its equal in pleasing neatness — the one, as it
were, embodying the striking beauty of the orange, and the
other the more chastened and sober hue of the lemon, in the
general tone of its colour.

It inhabits Russia, Norway, and Sweden, Austria, France,
Holland, and Italy, and has been once met with in Corfu;
it is found also in Asia, in Japan, according to M. Temminck.

In this country it is but locally distributed, and therefore
an uncommon bird, though found in tolerable plenty where,
or rather when, it occurs. In Yorkshire it is tolerably com¬
mon in some winters near Sheffield, Halifax, Doncaster,
Barnsley, Hebden-Bridge, and York, as also in the neigh¬
bourhood of Bridlington. When at school, at Bromsgrove,
in Worcestershire, I and my schoolfellows used to shoot several
of these birds out of pretty considerable flocks, which used
occasionally to frequent the gardens near the town, and more
generally the alder trees by the side of Charford brook. I
just missed seeing them in April this year, 1852, in the
same neighbourhood, namely, at Stoke Prior, lower down the
said stream, where my friend the Rev. Harcourt Aldham,
vicar of that parish, had seen a flock several times just
before I visited him. They were, as usual, hanging about
the alder trees which fringe the borders of the brooiv The
Rev. R. P. Alington has only known one near Swinhope,

108

SISKIN.

Lincolnshire, which he saw in the marshes. In Surrey,
Cambridgeshire, Sussex, Salop, Dorset, Devon, Suffolk, Norfolk,
Durham, Northumberland, Lancashire, and Cornwall, they are
more or less frequently met with.

In Scotland they are, on the whole, rare, though they are
believed to breed there, and considerable numbers have occa¬
sionally been observed in Edinburghshire, Perthshire, Selkirk¬
shire, and East Lothian.

In Ireland it is also an occasional visitor, and has been
noticed near Belfast, Ballymena, Lough Mask, Armagh, Bock-
land, Mertoun, Cork, Tanderagee, Antrim, Banelagh, and
Dublin, and in the counties of Wicklow, Cavan, Wexford, and
Londonderry.

The Siskin, with us, migrates from the north to the south
in the autumn, leaving in September, and returning in April.
A few have been known to breed in the latter portion of the
island, and more in the former. Mr. Yarrell mentions two
such instances near London, and Mr. Meyer two others, both
in Coombe wood, in the same neighbourhood. Near Lan¬
caster, several pairs remained and bred in the summer of
1836. In Scotland a few pairs breed in different parts every
season, and have been noticed at New Abbey, in G-alloway,
Killin, Inverary, the Yale of Alford, Aberdeenshire and Argyle-
shire, Camperdown, near Dundee, and on the borders of Lough
Fine.

They are companionable birds with each other, going in
flocks, in association also not unfrequently with others of their
‘country cousins,’ the Linnets of the smaller and the larger
species. In confinement they shew great affection for their
mates, and pair with the Canary. They are almost con¬
stantly in motion, both in their wild and confined state.

Their food consists of the seeds of the alder, the sycamore,
the beech, the broom, the thistle, the dandelion, the ragwort,
and those of other plants and trees.

Their song is sweet, and much esteemed; and a pleasant
thing it is to hear this ‘Bonnie wee thing’ twittering its small
note, as it hangs in every variety of attitude on the alder,
or flits from bough to bough, or tree to tree, in search of its
accustomed food.

The nest is placed in trees, at only a short or moderate
height from the ground, and is composed of stalks of grass,
and small roots and fibres, moss and lichens, lined with hair,
rabbits’ fur, thistle-down, wool, or a few feathers.

SISKIN.

109

The eggs are pale greenish white, spotted around the thicker
end with purple, and a few brown dots.

Incubation lasts fourteen days; the young are fledged in
fifteen more, and are able to leave the nest at the end of the
third week.

Male; length, four inches and three quarters; bill, light
grey above, and dull white below, the tip dusky; in summer
it is orange brown: it is rather long and pointed, and much
attenuated towards the tip, which is slightly curved down¬
wards — a sort of rudiment, as it were, of that of the Creeper;
the upper mandible extends a little beyond the lower one.
Iris, dusky brown: a yellow band extepds over and from it
backwards, and in front of it, to the bill, is black. Head
on the back and sides, yellowish green, streaked with black;
crown, black; neck on the back and nape, yellowish green,
streaked with black; in front, yellow. Chin and throat,
black, when fully adult; breast, yellowish green, whitish at
the lower part, and greyish white on the sides, each feather
with a black central streak. Back above, yellowish green,
tinged with grey, each feather having a dusky streak in its
centre; below, yellow.

; The wings, which extend to within half an inch of the
end of the tail, expand to the width of nine inches; the first
three quills are of nearly equal length and the longest in the
wing, the first being rather the longest of the three ; the
fourth an eighth shorter than the third; greater wing coverts,
yellow at the base, black at the tip; lesser wing coverts,
black, greenish yellow at the end, forming a broad band of
that colour across the wing. Primaries, dusky black, yellow
at the base and on the outer edges; secondaries and ter-
tiaries, dusky black, with olive-coloured edges. The tail,

I which is slightly forked, is yellow at the base, black ao the
end, the edges of the feathers narrowly edged with lighter
colour ; the two middle feathers brownish black ; upper tail
coverts, yellow, or yellowish brown ; under tail coverts, greyish
white, tinged with yellow, the shafts dark. Legs, toes, and
claws, pale brown, with a reddish tinge.

After the autumnal moult the yellow is less brilliant, and
the black of the head is obscured with brown.

Female; length, not quite four inches and a half. The bill
is pale brown above and lighter beneath. The yellow streak
over the eye is very pale. Head on the sides, pale yellowish
brown; crown, neck on the back, and nape, light greyish

110

SISKIN.

green, each feather with a brownish black central mark; chin,
throat, and breast above, greenish white, tinged with yellow,
in the middle bluish white, below greyish white, each feather
with a longitudinal streak of blackish; back, light greyish
green, tinged with blue, each feather with a brownish black
central streak. The yellow on the wing feathers is paler than
in the male. Tail, yellow, but less extensively, and the black
at the end is tinged with brown ; under tail coverts, white,
with dark shaft streaks. Toes, light brown.

The young are at first covered with black down. The
male, after the first moult, has the black on the head mar¬
gined with brown, and the colours are less bright than when
mature.

If kept in confinement the Siskin sometimes varies to white
or dusky, and Bechstein says that in very old males the whole
breast becomes black.

LINNET.

Ill

LINNET.

BEOWN LINNET. COMMON LINNET.

OBEATEB EEDPOLE. EED-BBEASTED LINNET. OBEY LINNET.
BOSE LINNET. WHIN LINNET.

Linaria cannabina ,
Fringilia cannabina ,
“ linota ,

Linota cannabina ,

Linaria— Linum— Flax. Cannabina — Belonging to canes or reeds.

Canna — A cane or reed.

This species is an inhabitant of Europe, being found in
Denmark, Russia, Norway, and Sweden; France, Spain, Italy,
Holland, Germany, Crete, Corfu, and other islands of the
Mediterranean, and the Levant; as also in Asia, throughout
Asia Minor, Persia, and in Japan, according to Temminck.

In this country it is generally distributed throughout the
year in England, Scotland, Ireland, Orkney, and Zetland.

The Linnet is easily reared from the nest.

Towards the end of autumn individuals collect together in
flocks, and those again as winter advances, further unite, often
to their own destruction; a too dense crowding together
proving fatal to them as well as to their superiors in the
scale of creation. I remember picking up nine which I once
shot in Berkshire; and I saw in the newspaper a few years
since, that, ‘si rite recorder,’ upwards of a hundred and forty
were killed at one fell discharge. Sometimes they join with
other birds of the Finch tribe, but generally keep to them¬
selves. In spring, the flocks break up, and leave, for the
most part, the cultivated districts of the country, to which
jfchey* had betaken themselves, for the more hilly and moun¬
tainous regions of the north ; rejoicing in the wild heather,

Macgillivray.

Linn^ius. Latham.

Latham.

Phince of Musignano. Yakrell.

112

LiimsT.

the gorse, the broom, and the sloe. A few build m the south,
but not farther than Thetford, Barham, and Calford, Norfolk,
so far as I am aware, where Alfred Newton, Esq. has found
the nests. In winter they may often be seen on the sea
shore, as well as in the stubble fields.

The Bev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, curate of Fordingbridge,
Hampshire, has sent me the following anecdote of a Linnet.
He says, Tn passing a low furze bush, my attention was
attracted to a bird which fluttered and fell a few feet before
me, as if in a fit. My first impulse was to step quickly
forward and pick it up, the former of which I did, but when
within about two feet of it, it rose and fluttered on a few
yards further. Thinking it was wounded I again attempted
to pick it up, when it again appeared to receive a fresh
amount of strength, and made another intoxicated sort of
progress of a few yards. This it did several times, and I
began to doubt if I should catch it after all; when at last,
to my great surprise, just as I was near enough to ‘put
some salt on its tail,’ it rose up and flew away, twittering,
(laughing at me as I found afterwards,) like the pertest and
strongest Linnet in the world. At first I was puzzled to
account for its very eccentric behaviour, but it struck me that
possibly, like the Partridge, it might have performed the
antics described to decoy me from its nest. I therefore
returned, and searched the furze bush, where, sure enough, I
found it with five eggs, which were still warm from the heat
of that body which the faithful little bird had exposed for
their preservation; for had I been so disposed, I could, with
my stick, without difficulty, have knocked her down. This
trait in the character of the Linnet was new to me, and
delighted me much.’

The flight of this bird is quick and undulated — a series of
curves performed by the alternate flappings and cessation of
the motion of the wings. In flocks they glide and wheel
about in a manner which, to the ornithologist, is pleasing to
behold. On the ground, too, they are quick and sprightly in
their movements, advancing by short leaps.

Its food consists of the seeds of various plants — the dan¬
delion, the sow-thistle, the thistle, rape, flax, and such like.

The note is soft, mellow, varied, and sweet, so that it is
valued, unfortunately for it, as a cage bird, possessing, as it
also does, the power to imitate the notes of others, even of
the Nightingale; nay, to utter distinct sounds and articulate

LINNET.

113

words. A fine voice has proved the ruin of many, and not
only of birds. Meyer suggests that its name of ‘Linnet’ is
[derived from its ordinary call.

The nest is commonly placed in heath, grass, furze, or
gorse, and is neatly constructed, being formed of small twigs
and stalks of grass, intermixed with moss and wool, and lined
with hair and feathers. It is occasionally placed in a bush
or tree, and has been known at a height of ten or twelve
feet from the ground.

The eggs are from four to six in number, of a bluish white
colour, spotted, most so at the larger end, with purple grey
iand reddish brown; some are of a reddish black colour without
spots, and some, exceptional ones, have been known pure
white.

The young are usually able to fly by the end of May, and
there are mostly two broods in the season.

Male; length, five inches and three quarters; bill, dusky
above, pale greyish blue beneath, the tip darker; iris, deep
brown: over it is an indistinct line of greyish yellow, and
j another below it. Forehead, red, the feathers tipped with
; greyish brown ; head, streaked on the crown with grejdsh
j brown and yellowish grey, the central part of each feather
being of the former colour; on the sides, yellowish brown
: grey ; neck in front, yellowish grey, streaked with greyish
brown or light reddish brown; chin and throat, a mixture of
brown and grey; breast, brown or dull red on the upper part
in winter, bright red in spring — sometimes the red colour
, entirely fades out in the winter — the feathers are broadly
; margined with yellowish grey; on the sides it is yellowish
| grey, the feathers streaked with brown, which nearly wears
off in summer; lower down it is light brownish grey, palest
| on the middle. Back, deep reddish brown, the central parts
: of the feathers darker, their edges yellowish grey.

The wings expand to the width of nine inches and three
quarters; greater and lesser wing coverts, reddish brown, the
i central parts of the feathers darker, their edges yellowish
grey; in the summer they are wholly reddish brown; primaries,
brownish black, margined externally, excepting towards the
end, with white, the five first broadly so, forming a conspicuous
mark on the wing: the first and second quills are equal in
length, the first sometimes the longest, the third scarcely
shorter, the fourth a quarter of an inch shorter than the
third. Secondaries and tertiaries, brownish black, margined

114

LINNET.

externally with yellowish brown, internally with greyish
white. Tail, brownish black, the middle feathers, which are
shorter than the others, and make it forked, are margined
with brownish yellow, the five side ones edged externally,
nearly to the tip, with white, and internally more broadly
with the same; upper tail coverts, brownish black, margined
with brownish yellow; underneath, the tail is barred with grey
and white; under tail coverts, whitish, their central part dusky.
Legs and toes, yellowish brown; claws, blackish.

Female; length, five inches and a quarter; neck in front,
yellowish grey, tinged with red; throat, streaked on the sides
with dusky brown ; breast, yellowish grey, slightly tinged with
red; back, streaked with dusky brown and greyish yellow,
lighter lower down; in winter greyish or greyish white. The
wings extend to the width of nine inches and a half; greater
and lesser wing coverts, dull brown, edged with lighter, fading
off downwards into whitish, and streaked on the sides with
dusky brown; primaries, brownish black, narrowly edged on
the outside with white. The tail, brownish black, edged
externally with light yellowish brown; the outer with greyish
white, the inner webs greyish white for half their length;
upper tail coverts, dusky brown, the outer edges of the
feathers yellowish, the inner whitish ; under tail coverts,
yellowish grey, with a blackish mark on the centre of the
feathers.

The young at first resemble the female. The bill is pale
greyish brown above, and pale bluish pink beneath; breast,
greyish yellow, streaked with brown, excepting on the middle;
the back, yellowish grey, streaked with dusky; toes, pale
brownish pink; claws, brown.

Alfred Newton, Esq., of Magdalene College, Cambridge,
thus describes one in the ‘Zoologist,’ pages 1497-1498, which
was only just able to fly: — ‘Bill, pale brown, the upper one
the darkest; head and nape, dull white, each feather having
a dark centre; neck in front and breast above, dull white,
each feather tipped with dark brown; below, silvery white;
back, dark brown, each feather margined with lighter. Greater
and lesser wing coverts, dark brown, with buff tips, forming
two conspicuous bars across the wing; quill feathers, greyish
black, the inner ones with a broad buff outer edge; tail,
greyish black, the feathers broadly edged with buff on their
outer edges; upper tail coverts, dark brown, each feather
margined with lighter; under tail coverts, silvery white, each

LINNET.

115

feather with a dark stripe; legs and toes, pale brown; claws,
black.’

Mr. George B. Clarke, of Woburn, Bedfordshire, has written
me word that in the winter of the year 1845, a person of
that town caught a male bird of this species nearly white.
He kept it in confinement for nearly four years, during which
period it became as white as snow. It was perfectly healthy,
and was a good songster.

i

116

REDPOLE.

LESSEE REDPOLE. LESSER REDPOLE LINNET,

Linaria minor ,
Jtringilla Unarm ,

Macgullivray.
Linnjeus. Latham.

Linaria, Linum — Flax.

Minor — Lesser.

The Lesser Redpole inhabits the north of Europe — Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, and even the gelid Spitzbergen, Kamtschatka,
Iceland, and Siberia — and as far south as Italy. In North
America also it is plentiful, if indeed the species be the
same; and, according to Temminck, is found in Asia, in
Japan.

It is a denizen of the three kingdoms, and is found in
Orkney, where a flock of about fifty were observed at Westness,
in October, 1847.

It is resident throughout the year in the north of England,
Ireland, and Scotland, but in the winter only, except in occa¬
sional instances, is seen in the south.

In winter they form large flocks, sometimes of thousands,
and frequent woods where birch and alder trees are found.
They are gentle and lively birds, and, unless scared, may be
nearly approached: they will even return to the same trees
immediately after having been fired at. They are very easily
kept in confinement, and have been known to breed in the
aviary of W. Roger, Esq., of Uxbridge. The female is very
devoted to her young. One has been taken off the nest with
the hand, and would not forsake it when released; she

‘Could not bid the spot adieu;

It was dear still ’midst her woes.

Their food consists of seeds of the turnip, the thistle, the
poppy, dandelion, mosses, and other plants; the birch, the

REDPOLE.

KEDPOLE.

117

aider, and other trees; and they also destroy many buds,
probably in seeking for insects hid among them. Like the
Titmice, they assume a variety of interesting positions in
hanging on the small and flexible boughs which bend beneath
their light weight when gaining their livelihood. Audubon
says of them, ‘Few birds display a more affectionate dispo¬
sition than the Little Bedpole, and it was pleasing to see
several on a twig feeding each other by passing a seed from
bill to bill, one individual sometimes receiving from his two
neighbours at the same time.’ Occasionally they will descend
to the ground in examination of the cones which have fallen
down.

The flight of this little bird is particularly light, nimble,
and buoyant.

Its voice is very clear and loud, and in the spring sweet
and pleasing. If disturbed, it utters at first on rising a
hurried chatter, and as it flies away a single and more
prolonged note.

It breeds in various northern parts of the hilly districts
of Scotland and the north of England, and many other
places. The nest has in two recorded instances been known
so far south as Halifax, in Yorkshire, namely, in 1835 and
1836; but the fact is that it is to be found plentifully in
that district, and no doubt in many others, every summer.
Once in Oxfordshire, by the Hevs. Andrew and Henry
Matthews; twice at Melbourne, in Derbyshire, by J. J. Briggs,
Esq. ; thrice near Downham, and twice near Thetford, in
Norfolk, in 1846, by C. B. Hunter, Esq.; and at Bramerton,
Costessey, and Mousehold Heath, near Norwich, as Mr. Henry
Bellars has informed me. Once at Shanklin Chine, in the Isle
of Wight, in May, 1843, by the Bev. C. A. Bury, and another
was found there at the same time; also in Surrey, Nottin¬
ghamshire, and Warwickshire.

The young are hatched rather late, and are seldom able to
fly before the end of June or beginning of July.

The nest is built in a low bush or tree, such as an alder,
hawthorn, hazel, or willow, or in heather, and is fabricated
of moss, stems of grass, and willow catkins, the latter being
also used for the lining, as also feathers.

This species lays from four to six eggs: their colour is pale
bluish green, spotted with orange brown, principally towards
the larger end, with sometimes a few thin streaks of a darker
colour — brown or black.

118

REDPOLE.

Male; weight, two drachms and a half; length, rather under
five inches; bill, above, greyish brown, the lower one yellowish,
the point blackish; iris, dusky brown. The forehead,' which is
dull red in winter, crimson in summer, is edged by a blackish
band, the tips of the feathers being yellowish grey, and the
rest black; crown, a mixture of dark and light brown, the
centre of each feather being the darkest; neck in front, pale
brown, with dark streaks; on the sides the same; chin, with
a patch of black; throat in front, blackish, the tips of the
feathers being yellowish grey in winter, and the rest black;
on the sides it is pale brown with dark streaks; breast, pale
brown, with dark streaks; in the summer fine red above and
on the sides, fainter downwards, pale brownish white in winter:
the sides the most streaked. Back, yellowish brown, streaked
With blackish brown, darkest in summer; over the tail dull
red, in summer much brighter.

The wings extend to the width of eight inches and three
quarters; they are crossed by two yellowish brown bands,
formed by the tips of the lesser coverts; greater and lesser
wing coverts, a mixture of dark and light brown, the centre
of each feather being the darkest, which in the former makes
a conspicuous bar; primaries, dusky brown, margined with
pale yellowish brown; the three first quill feathers are nearly
equal in length, the second rather the longest, the fourth a
little shorter than the third; secondaries, dusky brown, edged
with pale yellowish brown; tertiaries, dusky brown, with
broad edges of pale yellowish brown. Tail, dusky brown,
with yellowish brown edges to the feathers; the middle ones
are nearly half an inch shorter than the side ones; upper tail
coverts, a mixture of dark ,and light brown, the centre of
each feather being the darkest; under tail coverts, whitish,
tinged with red in the summer; legs, toes, and claws, blackish
brown.

Female; length, four inches and three quarters; the head
has less red on the crown, and the black of the forehead
is brownish; throat, brownish black. The breast has
generally no red on it; the back has seldom any red on the
lower part.

In the young, after the first moult, which takes place in
November, the upper bill is greyish brown, the lower one
dull yellow, with the tip dusky; the 'eathers about the base
of the bill are dull blackish brown. Head on the sides,
streaked with dusky and light yellowish brown: the red is

HEDPOT/E.

119

partially assumed the following spring, but more so with
age. Crown, dark brown, the feathers edged with yellowish
red ; neck in front and on the sides, streaked with dusky
and light yellowish brown; throat, browm, the base of the
feathers being black, and all the remainder light coloured;
breast on the middle part and downwards, brownish wrhite:
in the following spring it acquires some red, but not so much
as it afterwards attains. Back, streaked with dusky brown
and dull light yellowish red.

The wings are crossed with two broad bands of the latter
colour on the coverts; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries,
dusky, the feathers edged with yellowish brown. Tail, dusky,
the feathers edged with yellowish brown; under tail coverts,
brownish white; claws, dusky.

The plate is from a design by the Rev. R. F. Alington.

MEALY REDPOLE.

STONY BEDPOLE. LESSEE BEDPOLE. LESSEE EEDPOLE LINNET

Linaria canescens,
“ borealis ,

“ minor ,

Fringilla borealis.

Gould.

Selby

Selby.

Temminck.

Linaria. Linum — Flax. Canescens — Inclining to hoary colon!

There nave been doubts entertained as to the specific
distinction of the present bird, but its individuality would
seem to b$ established, and I ‘tell the tale as it was told
to me '

It appears to occur both on the continents of Europe and
America, as also in Asia; in Japan according to M. Temminck.
It is an inhabitant of Greenland.

In England it is in general only rarely met with, but
great numbers are said to have been taken in the neighbour¬
hood of London about the year 1827, and also in 1829. In
Yorkshire one was obtained near Sheffield, in the year 1839:
in 1847 many were procured near Ipswich, Suffolk; most of
them being males. Mr. Henry Doubleday, of Epping, has
met with them at Colchester, and Mr. Pelerin at Oundle.
W. P. Cocks, Esq. mentions one specimen met with in Cornwall,
at Pennance. One was also obtained near Saffron Walden,
in May, 1836; others have also been met with in other parts.

In Scotland two specimens have been procured; one in the
neighbourhood of Bathgate, in the winter, and the other
near Edinburgh,

The occurrence ot this species is most frequent in winter,
and it seems to be a migrant (perhaps only an occasional
one) hither, the arctic and more northern regions being its
native home.

mealy redpole.

'

MEALY BEDPOLE.

121

Its food is said to consist of the seeds of various forest
trees.

The egg is described by Meyer as being pale greenish
blue, sprinkled over with pale but distinct spots of a reddish
brown colour, some of them inclining to lilac, chiefly confined
to a zone around the larger end.

Male; length, five inches and a quarter or a third; bill,
dull yellow, the upper part brown above; between the bill
and the eye is a black space, dull in the winter; iris,
dusky brown; the bristly feathers at the base of the bill
are yellowish grey. Forehead and crown, red, duller in the
autumn, and in winter the forehead is white or reddish,
marked with a black band, and the crown dusky, the
feathers tipped with yellowish grey, and some of them with
red; the back of the head is pale reddish white, streaked
with black in the centre of each feather; the sides, in the
autumn, are slightly tinted with red, and greyish or brownish
white in the winter, streaked with a darker brown. Neck,
in front, red, in winter greyish white; on the back it and
the nape are pale reddish white, tinged with brown and streaked
with black in the centre of each feather; chin, almost black;
throat, black, in the winter brownish black; breast, pale
brownish or greyish white, streaked, excepting on the middle,
with darker brown; it is pale red in spring and summer;
above red, below and on the sides whitish, streaked and
tinged with brown. Back, light yellowish brown, streaked
with blackish, the feathers edged with whitish or dull reddish
in winter; on the lower part it is red, but in the autumn
greyish white, faintly tinged with red and streaked with
brown.

The wings have the three first feathers almost equal, but
the second the longest; greater wing coverts, dark brown,
with broad ends of dull white, forming a conspicuous bar;
lesser wing coverts, tipped with dull white, forming another
short bar; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, brown, broadly
margined with whitish grey, the latter more broadly than
the former. The tail, long, dark greyish brown, the feathers
broadly margined with white, the two centre ones are much
shorter than the rest, making the tail deeply forked ; upper
tail coverts, greyish white with a few dark streaks, after the
autumn slightly tinted with red; under tail coverts, pale
greyish white, with a few dark brown streaks; legs and toes,
dusky; claws, brownish black.

122

MEALY PEEPOLE.

Female; the black before the eye is dull in winter;
forehead, whitish or reddish, in winter marked with a black
hand; crown, red in winter; breast, white, streaked with
brown, most so on the sides; hack on the lower part, white
streaked with brown; the edges of all the feathers dull white
or pale reddish.

TWITE.

123

TWITE

jMlOTJU’TAIN" linnet.

Linaria montana , SeT?*»* .

Frinqilla Jiavirostris, Linnaeus.

Linaria . Linum — Flax. Montana — Of, or belonging t>

mountains.

This bird is found in Europe, in Russia, but least exten¬
sively in an easterly direction, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden,
and as far south as Switzerland, France, Germany, and Italy.
In Asia also, in Japan, according to M. Temminck.

The Twite is plentiful in the northern parts of England,
and in Scotland, Ireland, the Hebrides, and Orkney, through¬
out the year.

In Yorkshire it breeds in abundance on all the high moors
near Halifax, also on Thorne Moor; and near Doncaster,
Leeds, and York is likewise met with. The Rev. R. P. Alington
has procured specimens from the neighbourhood of the sea,
in Lincolnshire.

Indigenous in the north, they are only winter migrants
towards the south.

Towards the commencement of winter they unite into
flocks, sometimes of large extent, and frequently, in illustra¬
tion of the adage that ‘ birds of a feather flock together,’
in company with those of kindred species or habits, with
whom they visit the farm-yards. They are not of a shy
nature, but if disturbed betake themselves to any tall trees
that may be near, or to some distant field. When spring
arrives, they leave their winter haunts, and disperse over the
hilly tracts for their summer sojourn.

Their flight is rapid and undulated, and they wheel about

I

TWITE.

124

over the field on which they are going to settle, previously
to doing so, uttering a soft twitter at intervals.

Their food consists of the seeds of various wild plants
and grasses — the turnip, the thistle, chickweed, wild mustard,
groundsel, flax, knapweed, and others.

The note is pleasing, and its usual chirp is considered to
resemble the name which it has thence derived.

The nest is built on the ground, chiefly in heath, or
among gorse, and but seldom, if ever, in hushes. It is formed
of small roots, heather, moss, and dry grass, and is lined
with a small quantity of hair or wool, and a few feathers.

The eggs, four, five, six, or seven in number, are of a pale
greenish or bluish white, spotted with reddish brown or
light brown and purple red towards the larger end, with
sometimes a few blackish dots.

Male; length, five inches and a quarter; bill, yellow, in
summer yellowish white, sometimes greyish yellow ; iris,
hazel; head on the sides, light reddish brown; forehead,
crown, neck on the back, and nape, brown of two shades, the
middle part of the feather being darker than the rest. Chin
and throat, light reddish yellow brown; breast, light reddish
yellow brown, streaked on the sides with dark brown; below
dull brownish white; back, brown, middle part of the feathers
being darker than the rest, which enlarges in summer, making
the back darker; the lower part is crimson or purple red in
summer.

The wings, which expand to the width of rather over
eight inches and three quarters, have the first and third
feathers equal in length, the second the longest in the wing,
the fourth a little shorter than the third; greater wing
coverts, tipped with pale brown, forming a bar across the
wing; lesser coverts, partially tipped with pale brown, forming
a second bar; primaries, brownish black, the four first edged
with white, with narrow edges of pale brown; tertiaries,
brownish black, and broader edges of pale brown. The tail,
which is long and much forked, is brownish black with narrow
yellowish brown external edges, and white at the base, and
broader light brown or greyish white inner margins; upper
tail coverts, brown, the middle of the feathers darker than
the edges; under tail coverts, dull brownish white, some of
them with a dark central mark; legs, toes, and claws, very
dark brown.

The female in winter resembles the male, but is paler in

TWTTE.

125

colour, and without the red on the lower part of the back.
Length, not quite five inches and a quarter. The bill Is
less clear yellow at the base, and dusky brown at the tip.
The wings expand to the width of eight inches and three
quarters.

The young are lighter-coloured at first; bill, pale greyish
brown. The white on the wings is less extended; legs and
toes, light brown; claws, dusky.

i

126

BULLFINCH.

NOPE. POPE. ALP. HOOP. COMMON BULLFINCH.

Loxia pyrrhvla , Pennant. Montagu.

Pyrrhula vulgaris , Fi/eming. Selby.

Loxia. Loxos — Oblique — transverse, (from the shape of the bill in some
species.) Pyrrhula. Pyrrhulas. — Some bird with red plumage.
Pyross — Bed.

This is a strikingly handsome species — an ornament of
the country. In Europe, it inhabits Russia, Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, and Germany; in Asia also it occurs, being
found in Tartary, and in Japan, according to Thunberg and
Temminck.

It is met with throughout England, Ireland, and Scotland;
in Orkney one was shot at Lopness, by Mr. Strang, in 1809.

In the spring time it is to be seen more frequently in
gardens and orchards, and may be nearly approached in its
search there for food. In the winter it meets you in the
lane, or by the hedgerow in the field.

A true ‘Bird of the green wood/ the Bullfinch avoids
the more sterile, or the more highly cultivated districts; for
here, as in so many other instances, ‘extremes meet/ and the
absence of timber in our country at least, alike betokens
the highest and lowest degree of cultivation. It frequents,
therefore, those where trees abound, being to be seen in the
depth of the large wood, along the side of the shady grove,
in the rich orchard, the budding plantation, the trim garden,
the leafy hedge, and the secluded dell through which some
little streamlet winds, the gentle trickling of which you
listen to with complacent pleasure while you saunter along
the bank in the noon of a summer day. Everywhere his
rich red colour forms a conspicuous object, so that, like the

BULLFINCH.

J3TTLT,TTOCH.

127

den of the ‘Dragon of Wantley,’ ‘you could not choose but
spy it/

These birds are easily kept in confinement, and have been
known to pair with the Canary. They are very fond of
washing themselves.

The flight of the Bullfinch is quick and undulated, and
capable of being protracted on occasion. It does not fly far
when disturbed by your approach, but quickly re-enters the
hedge, or the side of wood, along which it flitted before you.

Its food consists of the seeds and leaves of groundsel,
chickweed, and other weeds, hips and haws, berries and fruits,
such as the cherry and plum, the buds, especially the blossom
buds, of various trees, such as the plum, the apple, the medlar,
the cherry, the gooseberry, and others; and if I may venture
upon a conjecture, its name is derived from this circumstance,
Bullfinch, if so, being a corruption of Budfinch, the word
bud being pronounced in the vulgate of the north of Eng¬
land, as if spelled ‘bood.’ Small stones are also swallowed to
aid digestion.

The common note is a short, plaintive, and sweet pipe,
which at once arrests the attention: it is accompanied by
a flirtation of the tail: probably its vernacular names
Nope, Hoop, and Pope, are derived from its resemblance to
those sounds. In spring the song is a low and desultory
warble, and the male bird frequently serenades his mate for
hours together, while she is sitting on the nest, puffing out
his feathers, and moving his head awry. The Bullfinch is
taught to whistle tunes, and, I believe, to articulate words.

Towards the end of April, the birds pair, and nidification
is commenced in the beginning of May, and is finished by
the end of that month, or the beginning of June.

The nest is formed of small twigs, and is lined with small
: roots, the whole being not firmly compacted : in some
instances moss is added. It is generally placed either in a
tree, such as a fir, or in the middle of a bush, frequently a
hawthorn, at a height of four or five feet from the ground.
It is often built in a shrubbery, even near a house, and
occasionally, though but seldom, in a garden.

The eggs, four or five in number, are pale blue, speckled
and streaked with purple grey, and dark purple. They are
hatched towards the end of May, after an incubation of
fifteen days. The male takes his turn in sitting with the
female. The latter sits very closelv thousrb she is iv general

128

BULLFINCH.

easily frightened away. The male is less so, but it is said
that if he be disturbed, the nest is almost always deserted,
which is not the case when the female is alarmed. William
Henry Rudston Read, Esq., of Hayton and York, has recorded
in the ‘Naturalist/ old series, that, when resident at Frickley
Hall, near Doncaster, a hen bird which built in a laurel near
the house suffered herself to be touched .while sitting on her
young ones, and would feed from the hand without the least
fear. The birds are supposed to pair for life: the members
of the family keep together until the spring.

Male; length, from six inches to six and a half — these
birds varying considerably in size; bill, very short, thick,
and shining black; iris, dark brown; a few bristly feathers
surround the base of the bill; head and crown, deep glossy
blue black; neck on the back and nape, elegant bluish grey;
chin, black; throat and breast, a lovely red; back, delicate
bluish grey, on the lower part pure white. The wings
ordinarily expand to the width of five inches and a little
over three quarters, but sometimes more than that: the third
quill is the longest, the second scarcely shorter, the fourth
longer than the first, which is about the same length as the
fifth: underneath, the wings are bluish grey; greater wing
coverts, black, their ends white, forming a conspicuous bar
across the wing; lesser wing coverts, delicate bluish grey;
primaries, brownish black; secondaries, brownish black, the
outer webs glossed with blue; some of them are occasionally
found tinged with red; tertiaries, brownish black, tinged also
with blue. The tail, glossy blue black, is of twelve feathers;
underneath, it is greyish black; upper tail coverts, glossy
blue black; under tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, purple
brown ; claws, brown.

Female; length, five inches and a little over three quarters;
iris, brown; head, not quite so deep a black as in the male;
on the sides it is dull light chocolate brown; chin, throat,
and breast, dull light chocolate brown, with more or less of
a tinge of purple or red; the back has the grey tinged with
brown, and the white on its lower part is less extensive.
Under tail coverts, less clear white than in the male; legs and
toes, dusky brown; claws, black.

The young, when fledged, have the upper parts greyish
brown, without any black on the head, and the lower parts
yellowish brown: after the first moult, namely, in about two
months, their distinctive garb is assumed, but it is not till

BULLFINCH.

129

the second, or even the third year that the fullness of the
bright tints is gained. The red is much deeper in some
individuals than in others.

A specimen has been known entirely white, and others
have been met with pied black and white. Caged birds not
unfrequently turn black, of a duller or deeper tint — the result
of their having been fed on hemp-seed. One is figured by
Professor Nillson, which is pure white on the back, wings,
and tail; but the head and all the lower parts of a delicate
rose-colour.

VOL. III.

K

130

PINE GKOSSBEAK.

PINE BULLFINCH. COMMON HAWFINCH.

Loxia enucleatory
Corythus enucleator,
Pyrrhula enucleator ,

Loxia. Loxos — Curved — oblique.

kernel

Pennant. Montagu.
Fleming.

Selby. Jenyns.

Enucleator— One, that takes out the
a thing.

So long ago, at the least, as the time of Horace, it would
seem to have been considered as a barbarism to compound
words of two different languages; ‘Canusini more bilinguis;’
and whereas the name of Grosbeak, heretofore applied to the
bird before us, has been an instance of the fault in question,
it will be seen that I have changed it for one which has
the merit of being English in both its component parts alike.

The Pine Grossbeak is a native of the northern regions of
Europe and America, but is found in the former, not only in
Siberia, Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Lapland, but also,
though rarely, in France, Germany, and Italy.

In this country a few have occasionally been met with. A
flight were seen on the Denes, near Yarmouth, Norfolk, in
November, 1822; and in recording the circumstance in the
‘Account of the Birds found in Norfolk,’ by John Henry
Gurney, Esq., and William Richard Eisher, Esq., it is added,
that two instances are on record of their having attempted
to breed in that district. In one of these cases, the nest
containing four eggs, was taken near Bungay; and it is said
to have been found on a low branch of a fir, near the stem
of the tree, and about three feet from the ground; in the
other instance, which occurred at Raveningham, the old
birds were shot while in the act of building. It has also

PINE GROSSBEAK.

PINE GEOSSBEAK.

131

occurred at Hulston, in Lancashire, and H arrow- on-the-H ill ,
in Middlesex.

In Scotland they were observed by Pennant in the forests
of Invercauld, in Aberdeenshire, the seat of Farquharson, on
the 5th. of August.

In Ireland one is reported by the late William Thompson,
Esq., of Belfast, to have been shot at Cavehill, near that
town, in December, 1819.

These birds are of a gentle and unsuspecting nature, and
are easily caught, and as easily kept in confinement. They
go in small flocks of seven or eight — the family party. They
are fond of bathing themselves. They move both on the
ground and on the branches of trees by short leaps.

Their flight, says Audubon, is undulating and smooth,
performed in a direct line when they are migrating, at a
considerable height.

Their food consists of seeds, buds, and berries, and occa¬
sionally insects; they also pick up gravel, the prescription of
Nature, their all-wise physician.

The note is spoken of as agreeable, and as being sometimes
heard at night.

The nest is made of small sticks, and is lined with feathers.
It is usually placed on the branch of a tree, only a few feet
above the ground.

The eggs are said to be four or five in number, and white.
The young are described as being batched in June.

Male; length, eight inches and a half; bill, dusky, the lower
one tinged with red, and the base paler; iris, hazel, surrounded
with a narrow band of dusky black, which passes over the
base of the upper bill; strong blackish brown bristly feathers
directed forwards surround the base of the upper bill. Head,
crown, neck on the back, and nape, bright red; chin, throat,
and breast, red, but the feathers are greyish black at their
base, lower down the breast is grey; back, brownish grey,
the feathers edged with red.

The wings have the third quill feather the longest, the
second nearly as long, the first a trifle shorter than the
fourth, and both shorter than the second, the fifth a quarter
of an inch shorter than the fourth, the second, third, fourth,
and fifth have their outer webs slightly cut out; underneath,
they are slate-colored. Greater wing coverts, greyish black
tipped with white; lesser wing coverts, greyish black partially
tipped with white and edged with red, forming two bands

132

PINE GROSSBEAK.

across the wing; primaries, blackish brown, narrowly edged
with white, which is tinged with red on the inner half of
the first six; secondaries more broadly edged with white;
tertiaries, blackish brown edged with white. Tail, greyish
black, and rather forked, the feathers slightly edged with
whitish; underneath it is slate-coloured; upper tail coverts,
red, but the base of each feather is greyish black; under
tail coverts, grey edged with white; legs and toes, blackish
brown; claws, black.

After the second moult the above red plumage is said to
become more or less tinged with yellowish orange.

Female; length, eight inches to eight and a quarter; bill,
orange brown; iris, hazel; head, crown, and neck on the
back, dull yellow at first, afterwards orange yellow, the feathers
streaked with dusky. Chin, throat, and breast, ash-coloured
grey tinged with brown; back, brownish slate-coloured above,
below dull yellow, afterwards orange yellow. Greater and
lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries,
greyish black tipped with greyish white. Tail, greyish black;
upper tail coverts, dull yellow, afterwards orange yellow ;
under tail coverts, ash-coloured grey. Legs and toes, blackish
brown; claws, black.

Young birds of the first year, before their first moult,
resemble the female, but are more or less tinged with brown.

CROSSBILL.

133

CROSSBILL.

COMMON CEOSSBILL. EtTEOPEAN CEOSSBILL. SHEL-APPLE.

Loxia curvirostra , Linnaeus. Latham.

Loxia. Loxos — Curved — oblique. Curvirostra, Cvrvus —

Curved. Rostra— The beaks of birds.

It has been abundantly and conclusively demonstrated that
the curious beak of the Crossbill, so far from being, as
described by Buffon, ‘an error and defect of nature, and a
useless deformity’, is most peculiarly and admirably adapted
to the mode of life for which it was created.

On the European continent these singular birds are met
with in Russia, Siberia, Denmark, Norway, Lapland, Sweden,
Bavaria, Poland, Germany, Silesia, Bohemia, Prussia, Holland,
Prance, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain. In Asia also, even
to remote Japan, and in North America in various parts.

In every or almost every county of England they have at
one time or other been met with. In Cornwall, however,
they are very rare. One was shot in the Orchard, Grove
Hill, Woodlane; and three at Carclew, in April, 1850.

In the latter end of the year 1821 and the beginning of
1822, Crossbills were very numerous in many parts of the
country; so they were also in 1828, 1829, 1833, 1834, 1837,
1838, 1839, as likewise in 1806, 1791, and in 1593, of which
the following account is given in an old manuscript, quoted
by Mr. Yarrell: — ‘That the yeere 1593 was a greate and
exceeding yeere of apples; and there were greate plenty of
strang birds, that shewed themselves at the time the apples
were full rype, who fedde uppon the kernells onely of those
apples, and haveinge a bill with one beake wrythinge over
the other, which would presently bore a greate hole in the

134

CROSSBILL.

apple, and make way to the kernells; they were of the
bignesse of a Bullfinch, the henne right like the henneofthe
Bullfinch in coulour; the cocke a very glorious bird, in a
manner al redde or yellowe on the brest, backe, and head.
The oldest man living never heard or reade of any such like
bird; and the thinge most to bee noted was, that it seemed
they came out of some country not inhabited; for that they
at the first would abide shooting at them, either with pellet,
bowe, or other engine, and not remove till they were stricken
downe; moreover, they would abide the throweing at them,
in so much as diverse were stricken downe and killed with
often throweing at them with apples. They came when
the apples were rype, and went away when the apples were
cleane fallen. They were very good meate.’

So also in Childrey’s ‘Britannia Baconica:’ — In Queen
Elizabeth’s time a flock of birds came into Cornwall, about
harvest, a little bigger than a Sparrow, which had bils
thwarted crosswise at the end, and with these they would
cut an apple in two at one snap, eating onely the kernels;
and they made a great spoil among the apples.’

In Ireland they have been often noticed.

In Scotland, they were abundant in 1821, and since then
have been repeatedly observed: some remain in that part of
the island throughout the year.

In Orkney great numbers of this bird were observed during
winter a few years ago. They were also very abundant in
several of the islands in 1806 and 1807.

In Yorkshire, in the neighbourhood of Doncaster, in the
year 1836, they were very plentiful in the plantations near
Sandal, and no doubt all around. I wrote an account of
them in the ‘Magazine of Natural History,’ volume ix., p.
413; also near Knaresborough in 1846, as likewise in numbers
about the year 1838, so also in 1829. They have been met
with near Hebden -Bridge, Halifax, Barnsley, Sheffield; Killing-
beck, Leeds, and Boynton, near Bridlington.

In Bramham Park, several nests were found in the year
1840, and at Boynton, Arthur Strickland, Esq., found one
himself; also near Swinhope, in Lincolnshire, the Bev. B. P.
Alington has known them in former years tolerably common,
feeding on the cones of the larch firs.

This species also builds in the fir plantations about
Dodington, Kent, of which Mr. Chaffey of that place is my
informant; and it has also been known to do so near Dart-

CROSSBILL.

135

ford, in the same county, and near Saffron Walden, Essex,
in a garden in the town, and in Orwell Park, near Ipswich,
in the year 1822. Instances of its doing so are also recorded
in the Messieurs Sheppard and Whitear’s ‘Catalogue of the
Norfolk and Suffolk Birds;’ likewise in Durham by Mr.
Joseph Duff; and in Devonshire a pair built at Ogwell
House, near Newton, the seat of Thomas William Taylor,
Esq., in April, 1839, as recorded by W. R. Hall Jordan,
Esq., of Teignmouth; and another pair in Holt Forest,
Hampshire; also at Broome, the seat of Sir H. Oxenden,
Bart., in Kent.

They have been observed with us in some parts of the
kingdom in every month of the year, but mostly in those
of the winter and spring. They appear in all places to be
of a roving wandering disposition, uncertain in their move¬
ments, appearing suddenly here and there in large numbers,
and as suddenly disappearing again; but doubtless they are
guided by some instinct, the cause or the object of which is
unknown to us.

These birds are by no means shy, and are very easily
tamed: in one instance, namely in the aviary of Lord Bray-
hrooke, at Audley End, near Saffron Walden, Essex, they
have been known to build and lay. In confinement they
shew their connection with the Parrots by climbing about
their cage in all directions, both wdth beak and claws; even
when dead they still cling on, with the tenacity of life, to
the bough which has afforded them a resting-place — ‘ the
ruling passion strong in death.’ They are reckoned very
good eating on the continent, and are sold for the purpose in
considerable numbers.

Their flight is undulated, and at the same time quick and
rapid.

Their food consists of the seeds of the various species of
fir trees, as also at times those of the apple, the mountain
ash, the alder, the hawthorn, and others, if need be even
those of the thistle: sand and small fragments of stone are
also swallowed. In extracting the seeds from the smaller
cones of the larch, and others of the pines, they frequently,
having first cut one off from the tree with their bill, hold it
firmly against a branch between the claws of one or both
feet, after having flitted with it to some neighbouring
hough, or removed to the nearest convenient part of the
one they are on. The sound of the cracking of the cones

136

CROSSBILL.

arrests attention. On the larger ones they perch, and make
them at once their dining-table and their dinner — ‘mensas
consumimus:’ sometimes the cone falls to the ground — an
unfortunate turning of the tables for the poor bird. They
occasionally descend to drink.

In spring, the note, though low, is pleasing and agreeable;
at other times while feeding, they keep up a constant chatter
— a ‘chip, chip/ and ‘soc, soc,’ accompanied by a movement
of the body, and in flying from one place to another, emit a
sharp tone. On warm sunny days, they sometimes indulge
in a sudden flight, and after disporting themselves about for
a short time in full chorus, alight on the tops of the trees,
continuing for a time a gentle warbling; both the male and
female sing.

Nidification commences very early in foreign countries,
even in January or February, the young having been found
fledged in March.

The nest is placed in the angle of the junction of the
branches to the tree, low down and also high up; and is
loosely compacted of small twigs, grass, small straws, and
moss, lined on the inside with the dry leaves of the fir tree,
and also with feathers.

The eggs are white, sometimes tinged with blue or green,
and spotted, chiefly at the thicker end, with reddish, bluish
red, purple, or brown.

These birds vary very greatly in size, as they also do in
colour, exhibiting a diversity of shades according to age or
season, of yellow, orange, red, scarlet, green, and olive.
Male; length, from six inches and a quarter to seven and a
half; the bill, which varies considerably in length, curvature,
and the degree of elongation of the lower mandible, is above
principally dark greyish brown, as is the tip of the lower bill,
the remainder being dull yellowish; the upper part sometimes
inclines to the right, and sometimes to the left, and the bill
has a lateral expansion as well as the ordinary one. Iris,
hazel; head and crown, pale dull red; neck behind and nape,
pale red mixed with grey; breast above, pale dull red with
a mixture of yellow, below greyish white, darker on the sides.
Back, on the middle part dusky red, the lower part bright
reddish yellow.

The wings expand to the width of a little over eleven
inches and a third to eleven and three quarters; the second
quill is the longest, the first a trifle shorter, as is the third

CROSSBILL.

137

than it; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, deep brown,
the smaller feathers tinged with dull red; greater and lesser
under wing coverts, brownish grey. The tail is rather short,
extending one inch beyond the closed wings; upper tail coverts,
dark brown; under tail coverts, greyish brown, broadly mar¬
gined with dull white. Legs and toes, purple brown ; claws,
brownish black.

The moult takes place in the autumn, and in the height
of summer all the tints are paler, and the plumage worn on
the back only shews darker from this cause.

Female; length, seven inches and a sixth to seven and a
quarter; head, crown, neck on the back, nape, and back, dull
greyish brown, the centre of the feathers only slightly darker;
on the lower part the back is dull yellowish grey. The
wings expand to the width of eleven inches and three quarters,
or thereabouts.

The young are at first dark green, with blackish longitudinal
markings, and the bill is not crossed. The young males
after the first moult are variously dull red, yellowish red,
greenish yellow, or dull yellow, shaded with reddish. The
back on its lower part is yellowish; wings, blackish brown;
tail, blackish brown.

138

PARROT CROSSBILL.

Loxia pityopsittacus , Bewick. Fleming.

“ curvirostra major , fas a variety ,) Gmelin. Latham.

Loxia. Loxos — Curved — oblique. Pityopsittacus. Pittiis — A pine tree.

Psittacus — A Parrot.

This species, as by many -eminent naturalists it is considered,
is an inhabitant of the high northern latitudes of Europe*
It is found in Germany also, and is occasionally met with in
Holland, Switzerland, and France, as well as in Sweden and
Norway.

In this country they are but rare visitants, and only appear
now and then, Tongo post intervallo.’ A pair were received
by Pennant from Shropshire; one was shot in Surrey; and
another was obtained in Epping Forest, Essex, in the autumn
of 1885. One was shot at Saxham, in Suffolk, in November,
1850; and one some years previously at Biddlesworth Hall,
Norfolk, as recorded by Alfred Newton, Esq., of Elveden
Hall, Thetford, in the ‘Zoologist,’ page 3145. Several were
sold in the London market in March, 1838; and one shot at
Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex, on the 21st. of January, 1850.
Mr. Chaffey, of Dodington, Kent, informs me that he saw
a small flock of these birds in a larch plantation there in
September, 1851.

In Scotland two have occurred.

In Ireland, one was shot by Kainey Maxwell, Esq., at
Grenville, near Belfast, in May, 1802.

These birds are denizens of the large pine forests, and are
said to prefer the tops of trees, seldom descending except to
drink, and roosting together at night in large companies.
They are capable of being kept in confinement.

Their food consists of the seeds of fir cones and others.

They breed in April or May, or even earlier, the eggs

«*

PARROT CROSSBILL.

PABROT CROSSBILL.

139

having been found in February and March; and the nests
having been observed to have been begun by the middle oi
December.

The nest is placed chiefly in lofty forest trees, and is
composed of small twigs, lined with dry grass or leaves of
the fir tree.

The eggs are said to be four or five in number, ash-coloured,
or bluish white, and spotted with bluish red and dusky at
the larger end.

The young are hatched after a fortnight’s incubation.

Male ; length, seven inches and a quarter to seven and a
half or rather more; bill, large, dusky grey, yellowish at the
base of the lower mandible; iris, bright hazel; head, crown,
neck on the back, and nape, red; chin, throat, and breast,
red; back, darker red, lighter on the lower part; all the red
feathers are more or less streaked with dusky in younger
birds. The wings extend to the width of one foot; primaries,
secondaries, and tertiaries, dusky black, darker with age; the
first quill feather is the longest, the second nearly as long,
the third a little shorter still, and the fourth a quarter of
an inch shorter than the third. The tail forked, dusky black,
darker with age; it extends one inch beyond the end of
the wings; upper tail coverts, light red; legs, short and
strong, and reddish brown, ‘as are the toes; claws, dark
brown. The moult takes place in September, October, and
November.

Female; head, crown, neck on the back, and nape, greenish
ash-colour, with patches of brown; chin and throat, grey,
clouded with yellowish brown; breast, ash-colour, varied with
yellowish green; back, dull greenish yellow, lighter and more
yellow on its lower part; under tail coverts, greyish white,
the base of each feather greyish brown.

The young bird of the year has the bill blackish horn-
colour; head, crown, neck on the back, and nape, greyish
white, much streaked with greyish brown ; back, greyish
white, much streaked with greyish brown, on the lower part
slightly tinged with yellow; greater and lesser wing coverts,
dark brown tipped with pale brown; primaries, secondaries,
and tertiaries, blackish brown, also tipped with pale brown ;
legs and toes, lead-colour; claws, black.

140

AMERICAN WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL.

Loxia ieucoptera ,
“ falcirostra ,

Gmelin. Buonaparte.
Pennant. Fleming ?

Loxia. Loxos — Curved — oblique. Leucoptera. Leucos — White.

Pteron — A wing.

This and the following species were first distinguished by
M. De Selys Longchamps.

The one before us is a native of the whole of the northern parts
of North America, where it inhabits the extensive pine forests.
It is found also in northern Europe, a few being occasionally
seen in Sweden, and also in Germany; and occurred in Silesia
and Thuringia in considerable numbers in the autumn of 1826.

A White-winged Crossbill, a female bird, was shot near
Northampton in the winter of the year 1848. It was kept
alive for four months. Of this Mr. William Felkin, Jun.,
of Carrington, near Nottingham, has obligingly informed me.
One in Mr. Yarrell’s collection was picked up dead on the
sea-shore at Exmouth, on the 17th. of September, 1845, by
E. B. Fitton, Esq.; and another, in that of Hugh Edwin
Strickland, Esq., was shot near Worcester, in 1836, being in
company at the time with the Common Crossbill; another
was shot by Mr. Seaman, near Ipswich, Suffolk. One a female,
in the garden of Robert J. Bell, Esq., of Mickleover House,
Derby; it was in company with a flock of Fieldfares; one,
out of a flock of four or five, on some fir trees near Thetford,
Norfolk, on the 10th. of May, 1846; several near Walton
House, Carlisle, Cumberland, in the same year; and nine
others, five males and four females, by Mr. Thomas Bond,
of Swinestead House, near Brampton, also in that county.
One was shot out of a small flock which were feeding on
fir cones, at Drinkstone, in Suffolk; and one at Larigan, near
Penzance, Cornwall.

AMERICAN WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL.

AMERICAN WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL.

141

In Scotland one, mentioned by Pennant, and one recorded
by Archibald Jerdon, Esq., which was shot near Bonjedward,
Roxburghshire, in February, 1841.

These birds go in flocks of from twenty to fifty, taking
wing all at once together when alarmed, and after a little
manoeuvring in the air, generally alighting again on the trees
from which they had moved. The young leave the nest in
June, and are soon able to join the parent birds in their
autumnal migration from the ‘North countree’ to some rather
more hospitable clime.

The nest is said to be placed on the branches of pine
trees, and to be composed of grasses, cemented together with
earth, and lined with feathers.

The eggs are described as white, marked with yellowish
spots.

Male; length, about six inches. The bill is much com¬
pressed laterally, and black in colour; a black line passes
through the eye. The head, which is sometimes speckled on
the sides with black, and is crossed on the forehead with a
line of that colour, is fine crimson, as are also the crown
and neck, the base of each feather being dark grey. The
nape is crossed by a blackish band; chin, throat, and breast
above, fine crimson, the latter on the middle part and below
is greyish brown. The back, also crimson, is crossed about
the middle by a blackish band.

The wings have the first three quill feathers nearly equal
in length, the fourth shorter than the third, but much longer
than the fifth ; greater and lesser wing coverts, broadly tipped
with white, forming two bands; primaries, black, some of them
narrowly edged with white; secondaries and tertiaries, black,
some of the latter tipped with white. Tail, almost uniform
black; upper tail coverts, dusky, bordered at the tip of each
feather with a narrow line of white. Legs and toes, brown.

The female, at first like the young male, has the head,
crown, neck on the back, and nape, greenish grey, the feathers
bordered with yellowish green. Chin, throat, and breast above,
greenish grey, streaked with blackish lines, and on the middle
whitish, with some yellow; back, greenish grey, on the lower
part pale yellow. The wings are barred with white as in
the male.

In the young the bill is dark horn-colour towards the
point, the upper mandible very much compressed, the lower
one is rather lighter in colour; iris, dark hazel; head, crown,

142

AMERICAN WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL.

neck on the back, and nape, dull greenish grey, mottled with
a darker tint on the centre of each feather. Chin, throat*
and breast, lighter grey, the feathers streaked with dusky
brown. Back, on the lower part, tinged with greenish yellow.
Greater and lesser wing coverts, dull black, tipped with white,
forming two conspicuous bars across the wings; primaries
and secondaries, dusky black, edged and tipped with white.
The tail forked, the feathers dull black, with narrow light-
coloured edges; under tail coverts, dark at the base of the
feathers with greyish white ends. Legs, toes, and claws,
dark brown.

The Prince of Musignano has described one in which the
crimson colour was changed for light buff orange.

TWO -BARRED CROSSBILL.

143

CROSSBILL.

Gloger.

Nillson.

Brehm.

Jenyns. Gould. Yarrell.

Tcenioptera. Tainia — A band.
Pteron— A wing.

To Mrs. H. E. Strictland, I am indebted for the coloured
drawing from which the plate is taken; a ‘Happy Illustration’
of what might be expected from the daughter of so eminent
a naturalist as Sir William Jardine, and the wife of such
another as my friend Hugh Edwin Strickland ; Esq.

The original plate is in Buonoparte’s monograph of the
Crossbills.

I describe this species as a British bird, as well as the
one preceding it, because so many specimens of White-winged
Crossbills have of late years occurred in the country, that it
seems hardly posible to doubt but that some of them must
belong to the one before us, an European species; two
individuals of the number only, as far as I am aware, having
been positively identified with the other, which is an American
one; Buonaparte and Schlegel also indeed, though I know
not on what authority, give Britain as one of the countries
to which it occasionally migrates.

One was shot at Grenville, near Belfast, in Ireland, January
11th., 1802.

Many examples of this species have occurred on the con¬
tinent of Europe; its proper habitat being the cold districts
of Siberia and Northern Asia, from whence it wanders occa¬
sionally into the more temperate regions of Russia, Sweden,
Germany, Holland, and Belgium. In this our continent,
therefore, it is necessarily only considered as an occasional

TWO-BARRED

Loxia tcenioptera ,

“ hifasciata ,
Crucirostra bifasciata ,
Loxia leucoptera ,

Loxia. Ljoxos— Oblique — curved.

144

TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL.

straggler; and from whence it has come, whether from the
American continent, across the wide and stormy Atlantic by
some instinctively- discovered ‘North-west Passage,’ or from
the equally wild regions of the Caucasian range by some
overland transit, is a question which we cannot answer, and
must accordingly be content to leave in the uncertain state
in which it propounds itself to our inquiry. Certainly, how¬
ever, it would appear the most natural, that that journey,
the land one, which offers a halting-place, when required, to
the weary traveller, should be the one adopted by the fragile
bird. Uncertain too, as are the periods, so are also doubtless
the causes of its migrations, if migrations they may be
called, wanderings rather, instigated by some motive, which,
if we knew, might commend itself at once to our reason as
the natural one, or by some mysterious and hidden impulse,
whose capricious and wayward tendency we could by no
means fathom the secret of, even if we had ascertained that
it was by it that its movements were directed.

Male; length, from six inches and a quarter to a little
over seven; the bill is wider at the base than that of the
American White- winged Crossbill; iris, hazel; head and crown,
pale dull red; neck behind and nape, pale red mixed with
grey; chin, throat, and breast above, pale dull red with a
mixture of yellow; below greyish white, darker on the sides;
the back is dusky red on the middle part, and bright reddish
yellow on the lower; the sides do not assume the black tint
which distinguishes the American White-winged Crossbill.

The wings are shorter than in the Common Crossbill; the
greater and lesser wing coverts have two broad white bands
across them, occupying the tips of those feathers ; primaries,
secondaries, and tertiaries, deep brown, the smaller feathers
tinged with dull red; the tertiaries are also tipped with
white; greater and lesser under wing coverts, brownish grey.
The tail is longer than in the Common Crossbill; legs and
toes, purple brown; the toes are also shorter than in the
Common Crossbill.

145

ROSE-COLOURED PASTOR.

BOSE OUZEL. ROSE-COLOURED OUZEL. ROSE-COLOURED
STARLING.

Pastor roseus ,
Turdus roseus,

Fleming. Selby.
Pennant. Montagu

Pastor— A shepherd.

Roseus — Rose-coloured.

This is a £first cousin, once removed/ of the Starling,
with whom accordingly it keeps up, as will be seen, the
intercommunication of relationship, but its position in the
society of birds is somewhat anomalous.

In Europe, it occurs occasionally in Russia, Siberia, Dal¬
matia, Lapland, Sweden, and Suabia, and regularly visits
Spain, Italy, Hungary, and the south of France. It is a
native of Asia, and in India seems to be very abundant in
the Dukkun, forty or fifty being sometimes killed at a shot
out of the vast flocks which almost darken the air. In Africa
it is also met with, in Egypt.

In Yorkshire, two were shot near Bawtry; one at Skiningrove
near Whitby; one at Thorne, out of a flock of three or four;
one at Ripley; one at Farnley Hall, near Otley; one near
Beverley; one at North Burton; one at Boynton Hall, near
Bridlington, in 1829; and one in Cootham Marsh, near
Redcar, on the 28th. of August, 1851.

The following have also been obtained at various times: —
One at Norwood, Surrey, near London; and one at Ivor
Court, Buckinghamshire. In Caermarthenshire, one was shot
while eating cherries in a nursery garden at Swansea, in
July, 1836. In Cambridgeshire, one at Haydon House, near
Royston. In Suffolk, one at Woodbri dge, in July, 1832, one

VOL. III. L

14b ROSE-COLOTTREI) PASTOR

at Bound, near Lowestoft, in June, 1851, and another on
the 7th. of September, 1850; one in August, 1815, one by
Captain Manby, near the Hospital, in April, 1820, and one
in April, 1833. In Norfolk, one at Brooke Hall, and one
at Thetford, in September, 1843, and some others. In
Northumberland, a small flock was seen near Bamborough
Castle, in July, 1818, in company with Starlings; one about
the same time near Newcastle; and two others were shot

near Alnwick. In Lincolnshire also, and in Durham. In

Glamorganshire, one in a garden near Swansea, in 1836. In

Lancashire, two in the neighbourhood of Ormskirk. In
Anglesea, one at Holyhead. In Hampshire, a pair were seen
near Christchurch, and the male was procured. In Derbyshire,
one about the year 1809, near Weston, and another was

observed near Melbourne, in October, 1842, in company with
Starlings, but, being close to some sheep, it could not be
fired at. In Sussex this bird has also been procured.

One was shot near Lostwithiel, in Cornwall, by Philip
Pomeroy, Esq., about the year 1822, and another by Boughton
Kingdon, Esq., my informant, about the year 1835, in the
autumn : it was in an elder tree, and was attacked by Swallows
and other small birds. Also one at Helston; and one in the
Scilly Islands; and another was shot at St. Budeaux, in the
neighbourhood of Plymouth, on the 17th. of June, 1851.
Eor a beautifully-executed drawing of this specimen, as of
several other rare species, I am exceedingly indebted to a
very obliging correspondent, John Gatcombe, Esq., of Wynd-
ham Place, Plymouth. An adult male was shot at Eastwood,
near Nottingham, in October, 1851, as William Eelkin, Esq.,
Jun., of Carrington, near that place, has written me word;
and one at Topsham, in Devonshire, of which N. Rowe, Esq.,
of Worcester College, Oxford, has informed me. One at
Chudleigh, on the 18th. of June, 1851; one at Berry Head,
on the 12th. of the same month; and one about the same
time of the year in 1845. One was shot in Oxfordshire,
another near Oxford, in the spring of 1837, and another in
February, 1838.

In Scotland, one at Dunkeld, and another shot in a garden
in Forfarshire, on the 29th. of September, 1831.

In Ireland several have been taken.

In the Orkney Islands one was procured, of which my
friend Hugh Edwin Strickland, Esq. has informed me; and
another, a female was taken at Hoy; one also in the garden

BOSE-COLOFBED PASTOR.

147

of the Rev. Mr. Hamilton; one caught at Skaill, and kjpt
for some time in confinement; another shot by Mr. Urquhart,
at Elsness; and others also have been observed at Hoy. One
has occurred in Shetland.

These birds are capable of being tamed. In their wild
state they are said to consort with the Starlings.

Their food consists principally of insects, and in search of
some of these they frequently perch on the backs of sheep,
in the same way that the Starlings do, and hence, it would
appear, their generic name. They are considered in the
countries where they are numerous to be beneficial on this
account, and are therefore protected by the inhabitants, more
wise than some of ours in similar cases. They are also
partial to fruit, and are often accordingly found in gardens;
they likewise eat seeds.

Their common note is a harsh one, but they have con¬
siderable vocal powers.

The nest is located in holes of trees, and in cavities in old
walls.

The eggs are five or six in number, and are said by the
Hon. Thomas Littleton Powys, on the authority of Mr. Linder,
of Geneva, to be white, resembling those of the Starling.

Male; length, eight inches and a half to nearly nine inches;
bill, yellowish rose-colour, except at the tip, which, with part
of the upper one, is almost black; iris, deep reddish brown;
a crest, which comes to its full length in the third year, is
formed of the elongated feathers of the head, which, as well
as the crown, neck on the back, and nape, is black glossed
with purple blue; chin and throat, black; breast and back,
delicate rose-colour.

The wings have the first feather very short, only three
quarters of an inch long, the second the longest, the third
a little shorter than the second, the fourth a quarter of an
inch shorter than the third, and the others graduated; greater
wing coverts, glossy black, with green reflections; lesser wing
coverts, black, margined with grey; primaries, brownish black,
tinged with green; some of the secondaries are glossy black
with green reflections, and some of them only so on the outer
webs. The tail is rather short, and slightly rounded, its
colour glossy greenish black; under tail coverts, black. Legs
and toes, yellowish brown; claws, darker brown.

The female resembles the male, but her colours are much

148

BOSE-COLOURED PA.STOR.

duller. The breast and the back have the rose-colour obscured
with brown.

Young; bill, yellow at the base, gradually encroaching on
the brown at the tip; there is no crest; head, crown, neck
on the back, and nape, dull brown, which gradually becomes
blacker; chin and throat, white; breast, greyish brown; back,
dull brown, gradually darkening. Primaries, secondaries, and
tertiaries, dark brown, edged with white or greyish ash-colour;
tail, dark brown, the feathers edged with greyish ash-colour;
under tail coverts, white. Legs, toes, and claws, brown.

149

STARLING.

STARE. COMMON STARLING. COMMON STARE.
SOLITARY THRUSH, (THE YOUNG.)

Sturnus vulgaris , Pennant, Montagu.

Sturnus — A Sterling, Vulgaris — Common.

This well-known bird is an inhabitant of the north of
Europe, being found in Russia, Siberia, Sweden, Denmark,
and Norway, as well as in Turkey, Italy, and all the countries
bordering on the Mediterranean; in Madeira also, the Canary
Islands, and the Azores. In Asia too it dwells, in Asia
Minor; and in India, in Nepaul and the Himalaya Mountains;
in China also, and Japan. In Africa likewise it is found,
even so far south as the Cape of Cood Hope.

In our own country it is everywhere to be met with, from
the Orkney and Shetland Islands to Cornwall, but in the
latter chiefly as a winter visitor, few remaining to breed.

Starlings are common even in London ; many couples
constantly breed in Cray’s Inn Cardens, where they may be
seen daily. They are quite numerous in Kensington Cardens
and Hyde Park; so my friend W. F. W. Bird, Esq. informs
me.

In some parts of Scotland they are abundant, in others
less common.

In Ireland also they are extremely abundant, but are seen
in the greatest numbers in the winter, numerous flocks, great
and small, migrating from Scotland to the north of the
island, from whence they spread themselves to the south.
They generally proceed onward without halting, but occasionally
thev c!ot In one or two instances they have been observed

150

STABLING.

once on the 23rd. of March, by the late William Thompson,
Esq., of Belfast, returning by the same route. They generally
arrive between eight and ten o’clock in the morning, few
coming after that hour, except when the wind is high, and
then the flight is protracted until noon ; if very stormy they
do not come at all. They probably commence their flight
very early in the morning. If circumstances have delayed
their migration they make up for lost time by an increase
in numbers.

In Orkney they exist in immense numbers, and may be
seen in flocks of thousands.

They are partially migratory, or rather moveable, in some
places at some seasons.

So early as the latter end of the month of June, as soon,
in fact, as their young have been sufficiently educated,
Starlings begin to collect together in flocks of twenty or
thirty, and, as the season advances, each of these is severally
added to by recruits from other families, who join them in
their flights, and so the original party ‘crescit eundo’ until
in the end a vast mass is congregated. In the evening
they collect in troops of thousands in the reed-beds which
adjoin the river or the lake, especially in the fen districts of
Lincolnshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire,
and their harsh cry may be heard at a great distance,
sounding almost like the noise of a steam saw-mill; so they
also do in numbers towards the end of the summer even in
gardens and on houses, and only after a great chattering
retire to rest. Their habits, therefore, are social at these
portions of the year, and even in the breeding-season many
pairs will frequent the same locality, if it presents a sufficiency
of favourable situations. They are very assiduous in their
care of their young. They frequently may be seen in company
with different other species, such as Redwings, Fieldfares,
Wood Pigeons, Jackdaws, Plovers, and especially Rooks, a
common purpose bringing them together on neutral ground.
They are occasionally a little quarrelsome over some mutual
‘bone of contention,’ but in general they live peaceably
together, nor do they molest other birds. In barren districts
they roost at night all the year round in the holes and
crevices where they have built, but in other parts of the
country, where a choice of shelter is afforded, they repair to
different situations for the purpose. They are good enough
to eat, but rather tough, and slightly bitter.

STABLIKG.

151

Starlings are intelligent, quick, and sprightly birds, and
have a retentive memory.

Their flight is straight, strong, vigorous, and rapid, performed
with regularly-timed beatings of the wings: on the ground
they walk with alternate steps. They alight in an abrupt
manner on the open pasture, and immediately disperse,
running nimbly along in earnest search of food, which if
discovered underground is uprooted from thence. ‘During
their search they are seldom altogether silent, some individuals
commonly keeping up a chattering noise, and occasionally
uttering a low scream, when interfered with by others. This
scream prolonged and heightened is the intimation of alarm,
and when heard from one or more of the flock, they imme¬
diately cease their search, look up, and if they should judge
it necessary, fly off with speed to another generally distant
part.’

They sometimes join flights of other birds in the air, such
as Lapwings, and seem to keep in the van, and lead and
guide the others backwards and forwards. It is a beautiful
sight to watch a cloud of these birds, dividing in a moment
into various detachments, and again as suddenly, re-uniting
with as much harmony as the ranks of the best’ disciplined
army. They assume in these flights all manner of shapes,
even that of a balloon, and if threatened by a Hawk present
a dense and compact mass, resistant on every side.

The late Dr. Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, well describes
the flight of a large flock as follows: — ‘At first they might
be seen advancing high in the air like a dark cloud, which,
in an instant, as if by magic, became almost invisible, the
whole body, by some mysterious watchword or signal, changing
their course, and presenting their wings to view edgeways,
instead of exposing, as before, their full expanded spread.
Again, in another moment, the cloud might be seen descending
in a graceful sweep, so as almost to brush the earth as they
glanced along. Then once more they were seen spiring in
wide circles on high, till at length, with one simultaneous
rush, down they glide, with a roaring noise of wing, till the
vast mass buried itself unseen, but not unheard, amidst a
bed of reeds, projecting from the bank adjacent to the wood;
for no sooner were they perched, than every throat seemed to
open itself, forming one incessant confusion of tongues. If
nothing disturbed them, there they would most likely remain,
but if a stone was thrown, a shout raised, or, more especially,

152

STAPLING.

if a gun was tired, up again would rise the mass, with one
unbroken rushing sound, as if the whole body were possessed
but of one wing to bear them on their upward flight.’

^vhen sweeping down to settle to rest for the night, some
would appear to alight at each descent, while the bulk of
the flock fly round and round, until the whole conclude their
manoeuvres, and join the first settlers in their roosting-place.
Where the reeds are made use of, much damage i« caused
by the breaking them down.

Their food consists of insects, caterpillars, grasshoppers,
worms, snails, grain, fruits, and seeds, and in search of each
severally of these they may be seen now sweeping off from
their secure retreats in the grey old church-tower, or the
4 cool grot’ of the lonely cliff that overhangs the pebbled
beach of the glorious ocean, and hurrying to the ploughed
field or the farm-yard, the quiet cow-fold and the pasturing
herd; now perching on an adjoining wall, and now on the
back of a familiar sheep, and now whistling their quaint ditty
from the house-top or the neighbouring tree. In winter, in
very hard weather, they frequent the sea-shore, turning over,
with a sudden opening and twirling of the bill, the stones
which hide the marine insects. They also swallow a little
gravel to aid the digestion of their food.

On sunny days, even in winter, they may be heard gurgling
a low and not unp leasing note, which, when the result of
the ‘concerted music’ of a flock, forms a body of sound to
which you like to listen. Meyer compares their common
call-note to the words starling, star, or stoar. Both male
and female sing, but the latter the least. Starlings are easily
kept in confinement, and may be taught to articulate various
words; but those who can take a ‘Sentimental Journey’ with
the talented Sterne, will lament for the poor bird in the
cage, and will wish that they had not heard its melancholy
*1 can’t get out! I can’t get out!’

Nidification commences about the beginning or middle of
April. Starlings build in church-steeples and in holes of the
walls of houses, towers, or ruins, as also in those of trees, as
well as in cliffs and rocky and precipitous places; at times
in dove-cotes and pigeon-houses, as also in caverns and under
rocks, and even have been known to occupy the holes deserted
by rats, and more or less fashioned for themselves. In
Woburn Park, Bedfordshire, I am informed by Mr. George
B. Clarke, that Starlings have built some dome-shaped nests

STA^LTTO.

153

in Scotch firs, the entrance placed near the branch of the
tree, the nests being made of coarse grass, and lined with
line grass. He also mentions in 4 The Naturalist,’ volume i,
page 214, some built in trees that were quite flat; and again,
page 116, that he has known them feloniously and burglari¬
ously occupy the holes previously excavated by Sand Martins
for themselves, contrary to ‘Martin’s Act;’ and J. Me’Intosh,
Esq. also, at page 204, describing a famous chesnut tree in
the grounds of Canford House, Dorsetshire, one of five planted
by J ohn of Gaunt, mentions that at its base was a colony
of rabbits, in the trunk a nest of cats, and immediately above
the latter, one of Starlings.

The nest is large, and fabricated of straws, roots, portions
of plants, and dry grass, with a rude lining of feathers and
hairs.- The birds will sometimes resort most pertinaciously
to the same building-place, in spite of every opposition, dis¬
couragement, and blockade. In one instance the eggs have
been said to have been found in the nest of a Magpie.

The eggs, four or five to six in number, are of a delicate
pale blue colour: some have a few black dots.

Incubation lasts about sixteen days: both birds feed the
young.

Male; length, nine inches and a quarter to nine and a
half; bill, pale yellow, except close to the base; iris, dark
chesnut brown, sometimes yellowish; the head, which is much
flattened on the crown, trending straight back from the bill,
as also the neck, nape, chin, throat, breast, and back, black,
splendidly glossed in different lights with purple, bronze,
copper-colour, gold, and green, the latter predominating on
the neck and head, and each feather minutely tipped with
pale brownish white, white, or cream-coloured round or
triangular-shaped spots, which wear out in the' spring; in
very old birds the head and neck in front are without any
of the white spots.

The wings, which expand to the width of one foot three
inches and a half to three quarters, and reach to within
three quarters of an inch of the tip of the tail, have the
first feather very short, the third the longest, the second the
next, the fourth the next, the remainder slowly graduated,
shortening by about a quarter of an inch each; greater and
lesser wing coverts, dusky, edged with pale reddish brown;
primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, dusky, their outer webs
more or less glossed with green, and margined with light

154

STARLING.

brownish red. The tail is short, and of twelve feathers, dusky
in colour, their outer webs more or less glossed with green,,
and margined with light brownish red; upper tail coverts,
black, glossed with green, and edged with pale rust-colour;
under tail coverts, black, bordered with white. Legs and
toes, brownish red; claws, dusky.'

The female is rather less brilliant in colour; length, nine
inches and a quarter; bill, blackish brown; iris, dark brown;
the spots on the breast are larger than in the male. The
wings expand to the width of a little over one foot three
inches. Legs and toes, reddish brown; claws, blackish.

The young assume the adult plumage after the first moult,
but are much more spotted, and most extensively and almost
dazzlingly so, and in a strikingly handsome manner; with
age the spots gradually become less. The bill is at • first,
shorter than in the old bird; it is blackish brown with
paler edges, the upper mandible having a slight notch close
to the tip, which becomes obsolete in the adult; iris, brown.
The whole plumage is a dull, uniform, lustreless light greyish
brown, except the chin, which is much paler, approaching to
greyish white. In this stage it has been described as a
separate species, under the name of the Solitary Starling or
Solitary Thrush. Legs and toes, reddish brown; the claws,
dusky, are at first shorter than in the old bird.

An albino variety was shot at Westray, in Orkney, in
the spring of 1846. These not very unfrequently occur,
also buff-coloured ones. Mr. Chaffey, of Dodington, Kent,
has in his possession two of these birds, pure white, shot in
the Isle of Sheppy, and also another cream-coloured one.
Mr. Charles Eaton, of Ipswich, writes me word that he has
another of the last-named variety, shot by him at Branford,
on the 21st. t>f July, 1852.

red-win'gEd starling.

165

RED-WINGED STARLING.

RED- WIN G-ED BLACKBIRD. BED-WINGED MAIZE-BIRD.
MARSH BLACKBIRD. SWAMP BLACKBIRD. CORN-THIEF.
MAIZE-THIEF. STARLING-.

Sturnus prcedatorius,
Icterus phcenicurus,
Agelaius phcenicurus ,

Lubbock. Wilson.
Buonaparte.

SWAINSON AND RlCHARDSON.

Sturnus — A Starling.

Prcedatorius — Predatory.

This handsome bird is an American species, and as abundant
there, throughout the whole of the northern continent, as
here it is rare.

One, a male in nearly adult plumage, was shot near
Rollesby Broad, twelve miles from Norwich, in Norfolk, in
the month of June, 1842; and another was said to have
been seen in company with it at the time. The circumstance
was recorded by the Rev. Richard Lubbock, in the ‘Zoologist,’
volume i, page 317. Another was shot in some reeds at
Shepherds’ Bush, about three miles from London, on the

Uxbridge road, in the autumn of 1844. Edwards had

previously referred to another specimen, likewise shot in the
neighbourhood of London.

This Starling migrates southwards, for the most part, as
winter begins to come on, that is to say, about the 1st. of
November, and again retraces its way in the spring, com¬
mencing its return at the end of March, or even earlier, but
seldom completing it before the beginning of May. Numerous,
but small parties, observable at all hours of the day in
constant succession, travel together.

Similar in its habits to our English species, the bird

before us is social and gregarious, and as the shades o f

156

BED-WINGED STABLING.

evening begin to close in, millions assemble together in the
marshes and beds of reeds, and there, unless disturbed, they
pass the night. If, however, a gun is fired, up ‘en masse*
the whole population arises, and performs every variety of
evolution in the air, now wheeling high overhead, now gliding
close to the surface, silent while on the wing, but commencing
a loud and clamorous chuckling on alighting, after which
they remain quiet during the rest of the night. The vast
and countless multitudes of these birds which thus unite
together, present in their various phases an aspect which
Wilson describes as grand and even sublime. At times they
come on like a huge black cloud, driven before the wind
with impetuous force, or suddenly rise from the ground with
a noise like thunder. Now they alight on a sudden, descending
to some resting-place like a torrent, and, again on the wing,
they present a splendid appearance, the innumerable wings of
the vast body glittering like an army, their vermilion uniform
shining all the brighter in the sun from its contrast with
the rest of their sable plumage : or the latter is turned
towards you — a changeable ‘Rouge et noir,’ your indulgence,
however, in the amusement of which will leave no vexation
or trouble behind, but the peaceful delight which the con¬
templation of nature never fails to yield to the devout.

Towards the beginning or middle of August the young
birds begin to fly in flocks, and chiefly associate by themselves,
there being sometimes not more than two or three old males
observed in a flock of many thousands. These birds are sold
for eating, but they are considered rather dry and tough.
Like their European cousins, they become very docile in
captivity, and may easily be taught to repeat short phrases,
or to whistle tunes with great exactness. While the female
is sitting, and still more so after the young are hatched,
the male exhibits great uneasiness if any intruder approaches
the nest; and if the danger appears to increase, his anxiety
and restlessness increase with it, until the neighbouring birds
are alarmed likewise, and mingle their notes of distress and
agitation with his.

An astonishing quantity of grain is devoured by these
birds, who are therefore under the ban of the farmer, but,
says Audubon, that they have proved highly serviceable
before they have commenced their ravages is equally certain.
As soon as the corn begins to germinate, the Red-winged
Starling, in company with other devastating species, is oecu-

RED-WINGED STARLING.

157

pied throughout the day in pulling up and devouring the
plants, returning to the work of spoliation as often as driven
away. Wheat, maize, and corn of every species is preyed on,
rice also, and all manner of seeds and berries, and likewise
insects and caterpillars, but these latter only, or chiefly, when
in lack of the former, though as they search for them at
such times with unremitting assiduity in every situation and
place, the numbers they destroy must he incalculable. When
the corn is reaped, they assume the right of gleaning in the
fields, and not content with this privilege, they afterwards
follow the crop to the farm-yard, and there too pilfer all
that they can from the harvest-home. Any indirect benefit
therefore that they may have been of is lost sight of in
the presence of the direct injury, and tens of thousands of
the marauding multitudes are slaughtered, though still no
apparent diminution is made. At night the reed-beds are
set fire to, and as the cloud of birds rises from it, a regiment
of shooters discharge volley after volley, and the field is
strewn with the slain. In like manner the Indians, who
usually plant their corn in one common field, employ all the
boys of the village throughout the day in tending their
growing crop, and, each armed with a bow and arrows, these
incipient Lockesleys contrive with great expertness to destroy
large numbers. The Hawks too of various kinds dash into
their close ranks, and though the flock instantly opens on
all sides, on the principle of ‘sauve qui peut,’ some are
almost sure to become victims.

Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucien Buonaparte, in their
‘American Ornithology,’ give the following calculation of the
good effected by these birds in return for whatever grain
they may consume: — ‘Their general food at this season, as
well as during the early part of summer, consists of cater¬
pillars and various other larvae, the silent but deadly enemies
of all vegetation, and whose secret and insidious attacks are
more to be dreaded by the husbandman than the combined
forces of the whole feathered tribe together. For those
vermin the Starlings search with great diligence, in the
ground, at the roots of plants, in orchards and meadows,
as well as among buds, leaves, and blossoms; and from
their known voracity, the multitudes of those insects which
they destroy must be immense. Let me illustrate this by a
short computation: if we suppose each bird, on an average,
to devour fifty of these larvse in a day, (a very moderate
allowance,) a single pair, in four months, the usual time such

158

RED-WINGED STARLING.

food is sought after, will consume upwards of twelve thousand.
It is believed that not less than a million pairs of these
birds are distributed over the whole extent of the United
States in summer; whose food, being nearly the same, would
swell the amount of vermin destroyed to twelve thousand
millions. But the number of young birds may be fairly
estimated at double that of their parents; and as these are
constantly fed on larvse for at least three weeks, making only
the same allowance for them as for the old ones, their share
would amount to four thousand two hundred millions ;
making a grand total of sixteen thousand two hundred
millions of noxious insects destroyed in the space of four
months by this single species! The combined ravages of
such a hideous host of vermin would be sufficient to spread
famine and desolation over a wide extent of the richest
and best cultivated country on earth.

All this, it may be said, is mere supposition. It is,
however, supposition founded on known and acknowledged
facts. I have never dissected any of these birds in spring
without receiving the most striking and satisfactory proof of
these facts; and though, in a matter of this kind, it is
impossible to ascertain precisely the amount of the benefits
derived by agriculture from this, and many other species of
our birds, yet, in the present case, I cannot resist the belief
that the services of this species, in spring, are far more
important and beneficial than the value of all that portion
of corn which a careful and active farmer permits himself
to lose by it.’

The Bed-winged Starlings are very vociferous, even in the
depth of winter, so that the dejected face of nature is
enlivened by their ceaseless notes, and likewise during their
migrations a constant strain of conversation is kept up, which,
as harbinging the return of spring, is a welcome sound even
to those who are doomed to suffer from their ravages. Their
most common note resembles the syllables ‘con-quer-ree,’
others are like the sound produced by the filing of a saw,
some are more guttural, and others remarkably clear; both
male and female have an ordinary ‘chuck.’

About the middle of April the birds pair, and nidification
commences the last week in April, or the beginning of May,
or even later, according to the latitude in which they happen
to be.

The nest is placed variously in a bush or tree, a few feet
from the ground, or in a tussock of rushes or tuft of grass,

TfcED-WTN' GEE STARLING.

159

or even, and not unfrequently, on the ground. It is composed
of rushes and long tough grass, and lined with finer portions
of the latter; the rushes are interlaced among the surround¬
ing twigs if in a tree, or among the rushes if on the ground,
m which latter case the whole structure is less elaborate than
in the former. Several nests are often buUt in immediate
neighbourhood to each other.

Tfhe eggs, about five in number, are of a pale bluish white
colour, encircled at the larger end with spots and streaks of
dark reddish brown, with a few others scattered here and
there, and some faint blots of purple grey and lines and
dashes of black.

Male; length, nine inches; bill, shining black; ins, dark
brown; head, crown, neck on the back, and nape, black; chin,
throat, and breast, black; back black. The wings expand to
the width of one foot two inches; the feathers covering the
bend are red; greater wing coverts, black; lesser wing coverts,
orange yellow; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, black;
greater and lesser under wing coverts, black. Tail, black,
rounded in form, the three outer feathers on each side being
graduated. Legs, toes, and claws, shining black.

The female is considerably smaller than the male; length,
seven inches and a quarter; bill, glossy black; it runs a
considerable distance off the forehead, and is rather prominent
there; the tip is sharp, but rather flattened; over and under
the eye run two streaks of pale reddish cream-colour, and
behind it is a streak of brownish black. Head, crown, neck
on the back, and nape, black, each feather edged with pale
brown or whitish; chin, pale reddish cream-colour; throat and
breast, thickly streaked with black and white, inclining to
cream-colour on the latter; back, black, each feather edged with
pale brown or wdiitish, giving it a mottled appearance. The
wings extend to one foot in width; they are without the red;
lesser wing coverts, black, each feather edged with pale brown
or whitish; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, blackish brown.
Tail, blackish brown. Legs, toes, and claws, glossy black.

The young birds at first resemble the female, but have the
plumage more broadly margined with brown, which gradually,
but only gradually, wears out, it being only very old males
that are without any remains of it. The lesser wing coverts
in the males soon shew the red, but at first pale, inclining
to orange, and only partially diffused; it becomes complete
by the following spring.

160

DIPPER.

COMMON DIPPEB. EUROPEAN DIPPER. WATER OTTZET/.
WATER CROW.

Cinclus aquaticus,
Turdus cinclus ,
Sturnus cinclus.

Fleming. Selby.

Pennant.

Montagu.

Cknclus — A bird that has the habit of moving its tail.
Aquaticus — Pertaining to water.

As you wade down the peerless Wharfe, the Queen of
Yorkshire rivers — Bolton Abbey stands upon its bank, and
the waters that have flowed past Kilnsea* Crag and now lave
the foundations of the beautiful ruin, are shortly pent in by
the memorable ‘Strid’ — as you wade down the ‘Lordly Wharfe*
in the month of October, fly-fishing for grayling, and watch
the Dipper fronting you with his snow-white breast, now
dipping up and down on some little island stone, now walking
into and disappearing under the water, now emerging and
crossing to the land, and now, like a Kingfisher, flying
straight past you up the stream; as you rise a fish, or perhaps
two at once, and again pass on, and look around you on
Netherside, or Barden Tower, or Arthington Hall, or Harewood
Castle, the bright sun shining above you, and the clear
autumnal breeze invigorating your whole frame, you will say,
if you have a mind for true enjoyment,

‘Flumina amem sylvasque inglorius/

Seldom, however, is it that, except as a very rare relaxation,
I can now myself follow this and the like pursuits; I have
not forgotten, and have to remember ‘From henceforth thou
shalt catch men/

DIPPER.

t)tppep.

161

This anomalous bird is lound in Russia, Siberia, and
Scandinavia generally, and also among the Alpine streams,
and in Germany and the northern parts of Spain, namely, in
the Pyrenean range. In Asia it has also been known.

Tt is a native of the mountainous districts of England,
Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, frequenting the streams which
there rise, and following their course into the more lowland
country, especially in severe weather, when it betakes itself
to the rapids and falls; occasionally it is to be seen on the
pebbled and shallow margin of a lake; but it is only a chance
straggler in any other parts. I have seen it in Yorkshire,
and on the Goit, which divides Deroyshire from Cheshire.
In Devonshire it is not uncommon on the rivers that have
their origin in Dartmoor; also in Cornwall, Westmorland,
and Cumberland. It has been seen at Wyrardisbury, on the
Colne, and on the Mole, near Esher, in the neighbourhood
of London; also in Essex. The Rev. R. P. Alington has seen
one in Lincolnshire, in the summer, sitting on a stone in the
middle of a small stream called Hallington Beck, near Louth.
Id LTorfolk one was shot at Burgh, in the month of November,
1806. In the Hebrides it . is well known.

The Dipper’s habits are retired, in unison with the
sequestered and secluded situations which it loves. More
than two are rarely seen in company, excepting indeed in the
summer, while the parents and the young still associate
together: four or five may however sometimes be seen fre¬
quenting the same stream. That this bird has the power of
walking at the bottom of the water, is an established fact.
The argument against its being able to do so, is that to the
reasoning powers of some persons it does not seem possible.
Its feet are admirably adapted for holding on to the stones
over which it makes its way, and for stemming at the same
time the force of the current; for that no effort is required
to keep its place below the surface, is what no one has said.
On dry land it is by no means an expert walker, being there
evidently out of its element; it perches on the isolated stones
or rocks around which the rapid stream eddies, or on some
projecting crag or mound on the bank. In it walks, keeping
on the bottom as long as you can follow it, and doubtless
after you have lost sight of it; or alighting on the surface,
j plunges beneath, and makes its way downwards, exerting its
wings to aid it in its descent. And agile it is, quick and
dexterous in ail these its movements; generally proceeding

YOL. III. M

162

DIPPED.

against the stream: now it emerges, and presently, with erected
tail, crouching body, head drawn back, and wings slightly
drooped, is prepared for another dip. It does not traverse
much space below the surface, but is soon up again, returning
to its former or some other neighbouring place of temporary
rest, which it regains either by swimming or wading; and
after several of these forays, performed with quiet activity,
it wings its way to some neighbouring rapid. The young
are able to dive even before they are fully fledged.

Its flight is rather rapid, strong and even, effected by-
regular pulsations of the wings.

Various water insects, and beetles, and the larvae of these,
are its food.

The song of this interesting bird is melodious and lively,
though short. It is to be heard in sunny weather at all
seasons of the year — a sweet accompaniment to the murmuring
music of the rippling trout-stream, which soothes the ear and
the heart of the solitary fly-fisher, as he quietly wends his
way along, at peace with all the world. Its common note
is a mere ‘chit,’ which it utters both when perched on some
stone and when flying along the stream.

Nidification begins about the middle of April.

The nest, which is cleverly concealed, and large, measuring
ten or twelve inches in diameter, and seven or eight in depth,
being domed, is well compacted of moss and grass, and well
lined with leaves. It is placed in some cavity in a rock, or
under the protection of some overhanging stone in the
immediate neighbourhood of the rippling stream or murmuring
waterfall, its favourite haunt. Different specimens however
vary in size as well as shape, adapted doubtless to the
circumstances of the spot they are placed in, some being a
couple of inches less than the size just spoken of. The
aperture is in front, from three to four inches in width, and
about one and a half in height. Mr. Macgillivray mentions
one, described to him by Thomas Durham Weir, Esq., which
was built in an angle between two fragments of rocks under
a small cascade, and although the water fell upon part of
the dome, the compactness with which it was put together
rendered it impenetrable.

The birds are strongly attached to their accustomed building-
place, and one pair, or at least a pair, have been known o
occupy the same haunt for thirty-one years, rearing three
broods in the year, and four young ones to each brood.

DIPPER.

K)3

The eggs, from four to six in number, are white, and of
a regular oval form.

Male; length, seven inches and three quarters; bill, bluish
black, tinged with brown at the edges; iris, pale brown, with
a ring of black in the middle; the margin of the eyelids
white; head, crown, neck on the back, and nape, dark brown;
chin, throat, and breast on the upper part, pure white, on
its lower part chesnut, blending towards the tail with deep
grey; on the sides it is deep grey; back, very dark grey, each
feather broadly margined with black.

The wings, which extend one third down the tail, and
consist of nineteen quill feathers, have the first, which is
very short and narrow, less than half the length of the
second, which is of nearly, but not quite, the same length as
the third; the fourth a trifle shorter than the latter: the
wings extend to the width of one foot and a quarter of an
inch. Greater and lesser wing coverts, brownish black, the
tips of the first lighter greyish black; primaries, secondaries,
and tertiaries, dark brown, tinged with grey. Tail, short,
even, and of twelve feathers; upper tail coverts, brownish
black; under tail coverts, deep grey, slightly tipped with pale
brown. Legs and toes, bluish grey, tinged with brown; claws,
dusky.

The female closely resembles the male; length, seven inches
and a quarter. The head, crown, neck, and nape are rather
a lighter brown; the breast is also a duller rust-colour. The
wings extend to one foot in width.

In the young the bill is bluish black, tinged with brown
at the edges; iris, pale brown, with a ring of black in the
middle, as in the adult; head, crown, neck on the back, and
nape, dull greyish brown; chin, white; throat and breast
above, pale buff*, the feathers tipped with blackish brown;
below and on the sides, grey, mixed with cream-colour, with
darker lines; back, dull greyish brown, the feathers margined
with brownish black.

Greater and lesser wing coverts, brownish black, the latter
tipped with greyish white; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries,
brownish black, the latter tipped with greyish white. Tail,
brownish black, tipped with brownish white; under tail coverts,
dull grey, mixed with cream-colour. Legs and toes, bluish
grey, tinged with brown, paler in front; claws, brown, margined
with whitish. After the first moult, which takes place in

164

DTP PEP.

September, they nearly assume the adult plumage, but not
entirely so until the second change.

I refer my readers to a demonstrative and most conclusive
paper by my brother, Beverley R. Morris, Esq., M.D., the
Editor of ‘The Naturalist,’ vol. i, pages 5 to 11 of that
periodical, ‘On the power that certain Water-Birds possess of
remaining partially submerged in deep water.’

MISSEL THRUSH.

MISSEL THRUSH.

MISSELTOE THEUSH. STOHM-COCK.
MISSEL-BIBE. SHEITE. SHEIKE-COCK. HOLM THRU 6 H.

PENN Y LLWIN, OE THE ANCIENT BBITISH.

Turdus viscivoru's, Linnaeus. Latham.

Merula viscivora, Selby.

Turdus — A Thrush. Viscivorus. Viscus — The misseltoe.

Voro — To devour.

I

This bird is a native of Europe, being found in Russia
and Scandinavia generally, as also in Germany, France,
Thuringia, and Italy; in Holland it is rare. It moves to
the centre of the Continent from both extremes in the
winter.

In England it is plentiful in all parts of the country.

In the south of Scotland it is not uncommon, but in the
central parts it is very rare, and in the extreme north entirely
unknown.

In Ireland it is also generally distributed.

In winter these birds, at all times permanently resident as
a species, seem more numerous than at other seasons, so that
it is thought that their numbers are added to by arrivals
from more northern countries, such migration occurring
towards the end of October.

They certainly are of a pugnacious, not to sav of a predatory
disposition, and are accordingly objects of dislike and assault
to many of their feathered neighbours; they are also quarrelsome
one with another. They are frequently seen in flocks of from
a dozen to twenty, and from fifty to sixty or seventy; and
m this case are often mistaken for Eiel chares when ac a

166

MISSEL THJIUSK.

distance- they seem to be more numerous in some places than
they formerly used to be. They are tolerably good to eat.
When feeding on the ground they disperse rather widely from
each other, hopping briskly about, and pecking up any thing
they can find. If danger is descried or suspected, an alarm
is given by some sentinel by a low harsh scream, which is
responded to by a general removal, if necessary. In flying,
too, the individuals do not keep very close together, and
while proceeding, a low scream is now and then uttered, and
when some desirable place for alighting presents itself, they
either suddenly descend to it, still at some little distance
apart from each other, or fly about over the field for some
time before doing so.

In March the flocks break up, and about the end of that
month, or towards the middle of April, the individuals that
have composed them now unite into pairs, and frequent some
wood, or garden, or orchard, the latter being a very frequent
choice, from whence excursions are made into the neighbouring
gardens and fields. The small parties that again are seen
together after the breeding-season, are doubtless in the first
instance the members of the family. Mr. Macgillivray has
seen a flock of seventeen so early as the 25th. of June — the
parent birds would seem to pair for life. The female is often
very fearless when sitting, and has been known to fly at an
intruder, as both birds will at a Magpie or Hawk. They
are easily reared from the nest, and become very tame.

Their flight, which is undulated, is rather heavy, though
quick on occasion, and performed by a series of flappings,
with short intervals of cessation; on first alighting the bird
stands for a short time with the head raised, the back rnd
tail deflected, and the wings slightly drooping.

This species was imagined by the ancients to have a poeuiiar
fondness for the berries of the misseltoe, of which indeed it
was supposed, according to the old proverb, ‘Turdus malum
sibi,’ to be a sort of foster-parent. Authors, says Aristotle,
love their books on the same principle that parents love their
children, as being a sort of reproduction of themselves— mine
for my ‘History of British Birds,’ I may here take the
opportunity of thankfully observing, has been not a little
enhanced by the extensive approbation of the public — a wise
and discerning public — and in the same way, if there were
any truth in the old opinion, the bird might love the berry j
but the supposition is not adequately borne out by the fact.

KISSEL THRUSH.

1G7

The Missel-bird feeds on the berries of the mountain ash,
the service tree, the juniper, the yew, holly, and ivy, hips
and haws, grain and seeds of various kinds, caterpillars,
beetles, and other insects, worms and snails. In hard weather,
when food is scarce, it will drive away other Thrushes and
Blackbirds from the trees where it is feeding. In gardens it
commits some damage among the fruit; nay, it has been
abundantly ascertained that it will, at all events when it has
young, destroy other small birds. One has been seen flying
off with a young Hedge-Sparrow in its bill, closely pursued
by the bereaved parent; and another has been detected in the
very act of killing a young Thrush— in fact, this carnivorous
propensity is quite common to it; the eggs of other birds
therefore also, as may be supposed, it likewise makes a practice
of abstracting.

W. F. W. Bird, Esq. relates in ‘The Naturalist/ volume ii,
page 216, that one was caught in a gamekeeper’s trap, which
had been baited with the egg of a small bird. The late
William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, says that Butcher Bird
is the term applied to it in the county of Donegal, in
Ireland.

As a proof with regard to the present species also of the
good effected by the destruction of insects, the following
communication to Mr. Macgillivray, may be adduced — three
young ones only had to be fed: — ‘At twenty minutes past
four o’clock they commenced the labours of the day. From
that time until five they fed their young only five times;
from five to six three times; from six to seven six times;
from seven to eight twelve times; from eight to nine six
times; from nine to ten four times; from ten to eleven five
times; from eleven to twelve four times; from twelve to one
three times; from one to two three times; from three to four
two times; from four to five two times; from five to six two
times; from six to seven five times; and from seven to eight
only once;’ in all sixty-six times, each time bringing several
large worms and snails, and this for the smallest usual number
of young, and in addition to the food they must have taken
themselves. Before venturing to the nest they generally
alighted two or three times, remaining some seconds upon
each of them, and looking around with the greatest jealousy
and circumspection.

The song of this bird, which is of rather an inferior
quality, is commenced, or rather carried on, in the earliest

168

MISSEL THEITSTL

beginning of the year; even in January, in some seasons, in
the southern counties, and in February and March in the
more northern ones. The male bird ceases his song while
the nest is being made, and during the incubation of the
eggs, nor is it again heard till the following year, unless
indeed the hen or the young be destroyed, in which case it
is resumed or continued. The song is continuous, lasting
from two to five minutes at a time; a pause then intervenes
of longer or shorter duration, generally of two or three
minutes, after which it is again taken up. In one instance
it has been heard for fully ten minutes without cessation.
Perched on the topmost bough of some tall tree that quivers
to the blast, and heralding, or bidding as it were defiance
to the boding gale of wind, the Storm-cock whistles his
wonted lay, and gains from the observant countryman his
well-earned name. Other birds retire ‘with bated breath’ to
the shelter of the lowly grove, or the humble hedge, but he
braves the tempest out, and sings his song with iEolus
himself. This species has sometimes been heard to sing when
on the wing, but this is not its usual practice. Its ordinary
note is a harsh scream, which when flying off after being
disturbed, it is often heard to utter, as well as when attacking
some other bird.

Preparations for the nest begin very early. Building has
been observed to have been commenced on the 3rd. and the
5th. of April, and nests with eggs have been found on the
6th. and 7th. of that month, as also at the same place so
late as the 26th. of May in the same year.

The nest, which is a loose structure, is a compilation of
twigs, small sticks, straws, grasses, leaves, lichens, wool, or
mosses, compacted inwardly with mud, mixed with grasses
and small roots, and lined with finer grasses, roots, and moss,
frequently with grass alone; sometimes the outside is partly
covered with lichens and mosses. The width is about four
inches and a half, the depth two and three fourths, and the
thickness of the sides an inch and three quarters. Mr.
Hewitson mentions one nest of which the foundation was of
mud, strongly cemented to, and nearly encircling the branches
between which it was fixed. It is often placed in very
exposed situations in the hollow caused by the divergence of
the branches from the trunk, at a height of ten or fifteen
feet from the ground, but nevertheless the erection of it has
oft tii not been observed until after it has been fully completed.

MISSTCT TTTRUSH.

109

Shy, too, as the bird is at other times, in its nidification it
is not deterred from any appropriate situation by the near
propinquity of a house, even where persons are constantly
passing and repassing. This has been noticed in repeated
instances, and has occurred close to my own residence of
Nafferton Vicarage, within a dozen yards of the house, and
with hardly any attempt at concealment. The same tree will
be often returned to year after year, if the birds be undisturbed,
and Frederick Bond, Esq., of Kingsbury, has known the same
nest used twice in the same season. They will suffer other
species to build near to them, so close as within a foot
distance, and that without any molestation even during the
time of incubation, when to those who casually approach their
nest they display unqualified hostility.

The eggs are from three or four to five in number, of a
greenish or reddish white colour, spotted irregularly with
reddish brown or purple red: they vary in size as well as in
colour.

Two broods are produced in the year, and the young of
the first sometimes unite with those of the second in one
flock.

Male; weight, nearly five ounces; length, eleven inches and
a half; bill, dark brown, the upper mandible pale yellow at
its base — from its base a cream-coloured streak goes over the
eye; iris, dark brown. Head on the sides, yellowish white,
on the crown, neck on the back, and nape, greyish olive
brown; chin, throat, and breast, pale yellowish white, each
feather tipped with black, the throat only faintly so; on the
upper part the spots are triangular, on the middle and sides
oblong and transverse, and lower down smaller; back, greyish
olive brown, lighter on the lower part.

The wings, of eighteen quills, which extend to half the
length of the tail, and expand to the width of one foot seven
inches and a half, have the first very small, the second about
equal to the fifth, the third and fourth the longest, and
equal to each other in length; underneath, the wings are
grey; greater and lesser wing coverts, deep greyish brown,
edged with a lighter shade ; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries,
deep brown, narrowly margined with greyish yellow on the
outer webs; greater and lesser under wing coverts, greyish
white, much observable when the bird is on the wing. The
tail, which is rather long and slightly rounded, is greyish
brown, the feathers slightly margined on the outer edge with

170

MISSEL THRESH.

yellowish, and the two outer ones more or less tipped wife
greyish white; underneath, it is grey; the under tail coverts
have two longitudinal dusky bands, their middle part and tip
white, and the margins pale yellowish. Legs and toes, pale
reddish or yellowish brown; claws, brownish black. In summer
the plumage becomes considerably worn and faded: the moult
commences towards the end of summer, and is completed by
the end of November.

The female is nearly equal to the male in size, and a little
paler in colour. Length, ten inches and rather over three
quarters to eleven inches;" the breast is paler than in the
male; the wings expand to the width of one foot six or
seven inches.

In the young the bill is light reddish brown, the upper
mandible dusky; head and crown, pale yellowish brown, with
a white spot in the centre of each feather; neck on the
back, and nape, pale yellowish brown, with a yellowish grey
mark in the centre of each feather, and the tip dark brown;
chin, white ; throat and breast, pale yellowish, the latter with
a triangular-shaped brownish black mark on the tip of the
feathers; back, pale yellowish brown, with a yellowish grey
mark in the centre of each feather, and the tip dark brown.
Greater wing coverts, brown, with broad edges of pale
yellowish buff; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, brown,
the latter margined with pale yellowish buff. Legs and toes,
light reddish brown; claws, brownish. At the first moult,
which is completed by the end of November, the adult
plumage is assumed.

White and pied varieties have occasionally occurred. A
young bird of a pure white colour, with light yellow legs and
beak, was shot by Mr. Hames, in his garden at Heavitree,
near Exeter, on the 8th. of July, 1851. Mr. Macgillivray
mentions one preserved in the museum of the University of
Edinburgh, of which the upper parts resembled those of a
young Missel Thrush, while on the lower black was the
predominant colour; and although there were irregular light-
coloured markings on the neck and breast, there were none
of those which are so characteristic of the genus.

The plate is from a design by the Eev. E. P. Alington,

FIELDFARE.

m

FIELDFARE.

FELDFARE. FELT. EELTEARE. BLUE-BACK.
• BLUE-TAIL. BLUE-FELT.

Turdus pilaris , Linx^eus. Latham.

Turdus — -A Thrush. Pilaris — . ?

The Fieldfare, though of unpretending colours, is an
attractive bird in the eye of the ornithologist; it is indigenous
in Europe, in Prussia, Poland, and Austria, where it remains
throughout the year: in Russia, Sweden and Norway, Siberia,
and Kamtschatka it is only found in summer, and in France,
Switzerland, and the other more southerly parts of the continent,
it is, as with us, only a winter visitor; and as such extends
its flight to Majorca and Minorca, and in Asia to different
parts of Asia Minor.

It is found in all parts of England, Scotland, Ireland, and
Wales.

In Orkney also it is a regular winter visitant.

Fieldfares have been seen by W. F. W. .Bird, Esq., in one
of the London Parks.

This species is the latest in its arrival of any of our winter
birds. Their usual time of arrival is towards the end of
October and the middle or latter part of November, and some
are said to have been observed on the 9th. and 11th., and
other days, of September; but they may have been mistaken,
I think, at least in many cases, for the M'isseltoe Thrush:
Mr. Edward Lambert states in the ‘Linnsean Transactions,’
volume iii, page 12, that he saw one on the 29th. of that
month. They seem to wait for a fair wind before leaving
theft.’ own shores, arriving here always with the wind from
the east or the north-east. Having however found their way

172

"FIELDFARE.

hither, they are loath to leave us, and remain till late in
April, while many tarry on the coast in flocks, and a few
here and there inland, so late as the middle or latter part of
May, and some even till the first week in June: the Rev.
Gilbert White, of Selborne, mentions one season in which
they remained till that time, and others have recorded the
like.

The Fieldfare is associated in the mind of every one who
has been accustomed to go out with a gun in severe weather,
with the idea of frost in the air, and snow upon the ground.
Then these birds, usually so shy and wary, are subdued by
hunger to a greater or less degree of tameness, and may be
approached within gunshot, often within pistol-shot. They
are very good eating, though slightly bitter in taste; and are
accordingly much sought after even now, as they were by
the Romans formerly, and are sold in large numbers in every
market. When the storm breaks up, they betake themselves
to a farther distance, and to more wild or retired situations;
to mountainous districts especially, if any such be in the
neighbourhood; there they then find food more congenial to
them, the search for which nothing but the necessity forced
upon them by the rigours of frost and snow had compelled
them to relinquish. Throughout the winter however many
frequent the cultivated districts, the favourite berries of the
hawthorn supplying them in hard weather with food, and if
there be any hedges which have escaped the almost universal
low lopping in which high farming delights, there you can
approach under cover your once in former days so highly-
prized game, and find them in numbers. Everything seen
with the magnifying glasses of school days is unduly raised
in the imagination, and the Fieldfare looms large in the
distance of the landscape, and of the memory retentive of
former scenes of pleasure and temporary excitement — ‘labuntur
anni!’

On trees or in hedges they are scarcely so suspicious as on
the ground, where you can hardly approach them within a
hundred yards, and if the majority fly off first, a few generally
‘wait a little longer.’

These birds, as mentioned above, would seem to migrate in
a north-easterly direction, and accordingly leave Ireland sooner
than Scotland on their return to their native lands, and
appear to choose moonlight nights for their flight. While
with us they leave the more northerly for more southerly

FlELDFAllE.

173

districts, if the winter he a hard one, and at the commencement
of some severe snow-storm, when ‘across the wold the wind
blows cold,’ large flights may be seen overhead wending their
way to some place of refuge, and again, as soon as there are
the earliest symptoms of a change, nay, even before we can
perceive any, they begin to return to their former quarters,
and therewith to their previous shyness, which dire necessity
alone had for the time overcome. If the snow continues long
upon the ground, so that their needful supply is exhausted
before their ordinary food can be again obtained, thousands
are starved to death through the joint wasting of hunger
and cold. Sir William Jardine exactly describes their manner
when suffering from severity; then when alarmed, he says,
instead of the alert rising flight, and the loud chatter of
prosperity, they weakly flutter off to the nearest cover, and
will scarcely again betake themselves to flight. Some are
said to remain in this country to breed. Mr. Allis, in his
‘Catalogue of the Birds of Yorkshire,’ already referred to,
mentions one such instance as having occurred at Lepton,
near Huddersfield, in the West-Biding. Other instances are
also said to have been known in this country. A nest has
been found, it is related, in Kent, and some obtained in
Scotland; two are also recorded by the editor of ‘Pennant’s
British Zoology.’ In the Orkney Islands a few occasionally
stay during the whole year, but have never been known to
breed.

These birds go in large flocks, frequently of several hundreds,
and commonly in parties of not less than thirty or forty
together; occasionally, however, two or three seem to withdraw
from the main body, and frequent some quiet and retired
hedgerow in company with the Blackbird and the Thrush.
Their thought may be to remain to breed, hut for the most
part, from some cause or other, it is doomed to be an abortive
one. They are sometimes rather quarrelsome when engaged
in feeding on a common crop. They roost both in trees and
on the ground, and in bushes near the latter, but for the
most part in the former, in some parts of the country at all
events. They often associate with the Bedwing, as also with
the Missel Thrush and the Throstle. They are said to be
not at all shy in the breeding-season in their native countries,
but in fact all birds’ natures are then temporarily altered
more or less in this respect. They are capable of being kept*
in confinement.

174

FTELDFABE.

The flight of this species is easy and somewhat slow,
performed with slight but rather lengthened undulations, the
effect of a series of about a dozen pulsations of the wings,
with then as it were an intermission of the effort. While
thus proceeding, they utter their wild cry until about to
settle, when after wheeling about for a short time they alight.
‘After settling,’ says Mr. Macgillivray, ‘each is seen to stand
still with its wings close, but a little drooping, its tail
slightly declined, and its head elevated. It then hops rapidly
a few steps forward, stops, picks up a seed, an insect, or
other article of food, and again proceeds. They generally
move in the same direction, always facing the wind if it be
high, and those in the rear, especially if left far behind, fly
up to the front. When alarmed, they all stand still for a
short time, some utter a low scream, and presently all fly off
to a distance, or alight on the tall trees in the neighbourhood.
There they sit gracefully on the twigs, with their tails declined,
and generally with their heads all directed one way, unless
they have settled for the purpose of resting or amusing
themselves after procuring a sufficiency of food. In fine
weather they often enact a concert of long duration, which,
although their song is neither loud nor very melodious, is
very pleasant.’

The Fieldfare feeds on a variety of food — oats and grain
of different kinds, snails, beetles and other insects, caterpillars,
chrysalides, worms, and grass, berries, such as those of the
hawthorn, the barberry, the juniper, the mountain ash, the
blackberry, the wild rose, the ivy, and the holly, and even
turnips in extremity, to which latter they do considerable
damage, by rendering them exposed, through their depredations,
to the action of the weather. Insect food, however, is that
which they prefer, but when the season has been favourable
to the ripening of the hawthorn berries, and they hang in
well-ripened clusters on the sprays, a comely and a beautiful
sight, they tempt the bird to forsake the ground for the
leafless hedge, even when other food may be to be found
elsewhere, and no stress of weather compels to it. When it
does, they will come even into gardens near houses to feed
on berries, though usually so extremely shy: at such times
too the borders of streams are much frequented by them, on
account of the thaw there produced by the higher temperature
of the water. They swallow also a small quantity of fragments
of stone, to aid the triturition of their food.

FIELDFARE.

175

Their song, which is soft and melodious, is sometimes heard
-so early as the end of February and the beginning of March,
if the season has been mild and propitious.

Their alarm note is a ‘yack,’ or ‘chack, chack, chack,’ which
whenever heard arrests your attention. They have also a
harsh chatter.

Fieldfares build in societies, as many as two hundred nests
and upwards having been found within a small circuit of the
forest. The same situations appear to be resorted to from
year to year from some cause of predilection or other, as
with the Rooks.

The nest, which is placed in pine or fir trees, at a height
of from four to forty feet from the ground, is made of small
sticks, grass, and weeds, cemented together with a small
quantity of clay, and lined with fine grass. It is for the
most part placed against the trunk of the tree, but sometimes
at a considerable distance from it, towards the smaller end
of the thicker branches.

The eggs are from three to five or six in number, of a
pale bluish green, spotted with dark reddish brown. The
hurried flight and loud harsh cries of the owners, if alarmed,
readily lead to their discovery.

The young are not able to fly until the first week in
August.

Male; weight, four ounces; length, ten inches and a half,
to ten and three quarters; bill, orange at the base, most so
on the lower mandible, brownish black at the end; the inside
of the mouth is also orange; between the bill and the eye
there is a black mark, which follows also under it, and a
dark line passes backwards in a semicircle. Iris, dark brown,
the eyelids are yellow; over the eye is a streak of pale grey,
or buff', sometimes inclining to pale yellowish white; there
are bristles at the base of the bill. Forehead, slightly tinged
with brown; head on the crown, ash grey, most of the feathers
having a dusky streak on their centre, most conspicuous in
the spring; on the sides it is also ash grey; neck in front
and on the sides, light yellowish red, thinly marked with
rather elongated triangular-shaped brownish black spots; nape,
ash grey; chin and throat, yellowish pale orange streaked
with black; breast above, light yellowish red, spotted with
triangular-shaped brownish black marks; it is paler, almost
white, on the sides, with larger and broader rounded spots,
and below it is white or greyish white tinged with red. Back

176

FIELDFARE.

on the upper part, fine dark chesnut brown, on the lower
part shaded into bluish grey, conspicuous in flight, whence
some of the vernacular names of the species.

The wings, when closed, reach to about the middle of the
tail; they expand to the width of one foot five inches and a
quarter to one foot six; greater wing coverts, brownish red,
edged with a paler shade of grey; lesser wing coverts, brownish
red; primaries, greyish black, margined and tipped with pale
grey; the first quill feather is extremely small and narrow,
the third the longest, the fourth the next, and scarcely longer
than the second, which is a little longer than the fifth; the
shafts are black; underneath, these feathers are dark slate
grey; secondaries, greyish black, the greater part of the outer
webs paler brown; greater and lesser under wing coverts,
white, plainly shewing when the bird is on the wing. The
tail, which is of a deep greyish black, the side feathers
greyish towards the end, is long and nearly even, the feathers
narrow; underneath, it is dark slate grey; upper tail coverts,
ash grey; under tail coverts, white, marked on either side
with dusky blots. Legs and toes, dusky brown; claws, blackish
brown.

The female closely resembles the male, but is scarcely so
large, and rather slighter in shape. Length, ten inches and
a half; the bill is darker; the head is more tinged with
brown; the throat is paler; the back is less clear in colour,
and its lower part is yellowish grey. The wings expand to the
width of one foot four inches and a half. The legs and toes are
paler than in the male bird.

The young, after the autumn, nearly resemble their parents,
but the head is of a less pure blue grey, and the dusky
streaks on the crown are larger; the neck in front, and the
throat and breast on the upper part, are of a brighter
yellowish red, and the sides have the spotted feathers with a
patch of white inside the brown mark between it and the
light-coloured border. The back, on its lower part, is of a
duller blue grey; the greater and lesser under wing coverts
also are frequently marked with dusky.

Slight differences as to size and colouring are sometimes
observable in this species, and white individuals have occasion¬
ally been met with. The Revs. Andrew and Henry Matthews,
in their ‘Catalogue of the Birds of Oxfordshire and its
Neighbourhood,’ published in the ‘Zoologist,’ mention one
they possess in which the head and neck are pure white. Mr.

FIELDFARE.

177

Joseph Duff, of Bishops Auckland, mentions also in the same
magazine, page 2386, one in which the fifth, sixth, and
seventh quill feathers in each wing were white, the greater
coverts white, the scapulars white, the lower part of the back
cloudy white, the six middle tail feathers white, with a dark
brown bar across the end, and the rest of the tail feathers
tipped with white. A variegated one, nearly white, was shot
at Hickling, in Norfolk, in 1848. Bewick mentions another,
of which the head and neck were yellowish white, the rest
of the body nearly of the same colour, mixed with a few brown
feathers; the spots on the breast were faint and indistinct,
the quill feathers perfectly white, except one or two on each
side, which were brown; the tail was marked in a similar
manner. Sir William Jardine too observes that the bird is
sometimes found with the whole colours of a paler tint, but
still keeping their general distribution; and varieties with the
head, or head and neck white, or pale grey, are mentioned
by Dr. Latham.

178

REDWING,

SWINEPIPE. WIND THRUSH.

Turdus Kiacus,
Merula lliaca,

Linnaeus.
Jardine. Selby.

Turdus— A Thrush

lliacus —

?

A native of the far distant regions of the north, and for
successive ages unmolested and even unseen by man, the
Bedwing, till now, has there securely reared her young. The
solitude of the lonely forest is however no longer unbroken,
and modern travellers pry into the gloomiest depths of the
untrodden wilderness, in search, among the various motives
which actuate them in their wanderings, of a more accurate
knowledge of the habits of the birds that have heretofore
passed their summers in the trackless woods. To Mr. Hewitson,
the eminent Oologist, for one, the praise of this scientific
enterprise is due.

In Europe this pleasing bird is found in Russia, Siberia,
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and the Feroe Islands,
and it travels, as winter approaches, into Poland, France,
Spain, and Italy. In Asia Minor it has also been seen by
Mr. Hugh Edwin Strickland.

It is plentiful in England, Ireland, and Scotland, as also
in the Orkney Islands, where it is, as with us, an annual
visitor, arriving in October. Like the Fieldfare, a few may
be occasionally seen at all seasons. The Rev. Mr. Low was
induced to believe that a pair built in Hoy, but he was unable
to detect their nest.

The Redwing is a migratory bird, leaving here at the end
of April or beginning of May, though sometimes remaining
even till the middle of that month on the eastern side of the

REDWING.

\

BWDWTNG.

179

kingdom. White, of Selborne, mentions that in one very cold
and backward season they lingered in Hampshire till June. It
returns at the end of October or the beginning of November.
One instance of its remaining here to build its nest has been
obligingly communicated to me by Captain Turton, of the
Third Dragoon Guards.— In 1836, a nest was found on the
margin of a brook, which afterwards becomes the Leven, on
his father’s property at Kildale, in Cleveland. The late John
Bed, Esq., M.P. for Thirsk, shot the female bird which had
been previously wounded: the nest contained four eggs. The
late Mr. Macgillivray, whom I much regret to have thus to
designate— in the accuracy of his observations as an ornithologist
he stood unrivalled — relates that he has known individuals
remain in the island of Harris so late as the 25th. of May,
and at Bodhill, there Mr. Bullock has recorded that he found
a nest in the year 1828. Other such instances have occurred
at Godaiming, in Surrey, and near Barnet, in Middlesex.
The migration of this species is believed to take place at
night; and the unerring direction of nature prescribes the
exact time for it most properly to take place.

While with us these birds are gregarious, going in flocks,
often of considerable magnitude. They are rather shy, and
will not permit anything like a near approach, unless it be
when the snow has continued for some time upon the ground,
and all-compelling hunger overcomes their fear of ordinary
dangers. At such times they are very abundant on the cliffs,
and near the shores of the sea, where the saline nature of the
atmosphere and of the marine vegetation gives them something
of an exceptional livelihood. Ordinarily, if alarmed in a field,
they betake themselves to the vantage-ground of any neigh¬
bouring trees, or else fly off to a distance on the approach
of a stranger. In the countries where they build, they will
drop down from their perch on the top of a tree, and hide
in the thick brushwood. They are good birds to eat, and are
procured in numbers for the table. They associate in some
degree with Fieldfares, and even with Missel Thrushes, but
only temporarily, as their flight is different. They may readily
be preserved in a large aviary.

Their flight is quick and a little undulated, performed by
a series of flappings of the wings, with short intervals, during
which they descend a little.

Insects afford their ‘Preferential shares/ and in search of
these they are seen in open weather on the ground in the

180

EEDWTTO.

fields, where, standing for a while motionless, with the head
turned towards the wind, if there be any, the wings slightly
drooped, and the tail straight or a little raised, each individual,
on perceivng what it is in search of, a worm, caterpillar,
beetle or other insect, hops briskly to the spot, and makes
its meal. When such food is hidden by snow, they resort to
hawthorn and holly bushes, and partake of this frugal fare;
and if this supply in turn fails, they are compelled to seek
the margins of streams, where some scanty resources may still
be to be found, and, as before observed, turn also to the
neighbourhood of the ocean. In very severe seasons numbers
perish from the effects of cold and hunger. The years 1799,
1814, and 1822 were peculiarly fatal to them.

The song of the Redwing, a veritable ‘Swedish Nightingale/
known indeed in the northern countries by the name of that
bird, is described as being exceedingly beautiful. ‘Its high
and varied notes/ says Linnseus, in his ‘Tour in Lapland/
‘rival those of the Nightingale herself.’ It is loud, sweet,
clear, and musical, with yet a wildness, which gives it an
inexpressible charm in the ear of the lover of such strains
as Jenny Lind has so enchantingly cultivated, and which give
such expression to her Norse songs. It has however an
ordinary note as well, and about the end of March, and the
beginning of April, large numbers of these birds may be seen
collected together at the top of a tree, and uttering together
a not unpleasing kind of murmuring concert, more or less
loud: singly heard, however, their ordinary note is a rather
harsh clear scream.

The nest is placed in the centre of a thorn or other bush,
alder, birch, or other tree, and is made of moss, roots, and
dry grass outwardly, cemented together with clay, and lined
inwardly with finer grass.

The eggs are said to be found in June, and to be towards
six in number, of a pale bluish green, spotted with reddish
brown.

Meyer says that two broods are reported to be reared in.
the year.

Male; length, from about eight inches and a quarter to
eight and three quarters; bill, brownish black above and on
the end of the lower mandible; the inner half is orange
yellow, as are the edges of the upper part: a band of yellowish
white runs from the base of the bill half way down the neck,
and a continuous line of closely-set dark spots. Iris, brown

RE1DWWG.

181

— over it, and extending to the back of the head, is a broad
band of yellowish white; the feathers of the eyelids are whitish;
a black streak passes, as it were, through the eye; there are
a few bristly feathers along the base of the upper mandible.
Head on the crown, dark olive brown, on the sides, dark
dusky brown, streaked with brownish white, the shafts of the
feathers being paler; neck in front and on the sides, white,
tinged with rufous yellow, each feather with an elongated
brownish black spot at the end and on the centre; nape, olive
brown; chin and throat, dull white; breast on the middle and
lower part, greyish white, with brown spots, pale on the
sides, which are partly red; back, olive brown, paler on the
lower part.

The wings are rather long, and of eighteen quills; the first
is extremely small, the fourth the longest, the third a little
shorter, the second and fifth about equal. The wings extend
to the width of from about one foot one inch and three
quarters to one foot two and a quarter; primaries, deep brown,
their outer webs yellowish brown, the inner webs towards the
base are tinged with red; underneath, they are grey; secondaries,
deep brown, the three last tipped with greyish white; tertiaries,
deep brown; greater and lesser under wing coverts, red. The
tail feathers are rather narrow, the colour brown, the outer¬
most feather with a white spot on the inner web at the end;
underneath, it is grey; upper tail coverts, olive brown; under
tail coverts, dull white. Legs and toes, pale reddish brown;
claws, dusky, orange-coloured underneath: they are long, slender,
and a good deal curved.

The female very closely resembles the male in general
appearance; length, from seven inches and three quarters to
about eight and a quarter; the bill has the yellow colour
more dull than in the male; the markings on the neck are
not so black, and the red on the sides of the breast is not
so bright. The wings expand to the width of from one foot
one inch and a quarter to one foot one and three quarters;
the under wing coverts are less brightly marked with red.

White, cream-coloured, and variegated individuals are said
to have been observed.

182

THRUSH.

THROSTLE. SOTO THRUSH. COMMON THRUSH. MATIS.

Turdus musicus ,
Merula musica,

Pennant. Montagu.
Selby.

Turdus — A Thrush.

Musicus — Musical.

This favourite bird is a native of Europe generally, being
common, during summer, in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and
Bussia, from whence it extends over Germany, France, Italy,
and Greece. In Asia Minor it is also to be seen.

It is dispersed over the whole of our islands — in England,
Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, and
Shetland, frequenting a variety of situations — the wood and
the garden, the thicket and the meadow, the shrubbery and
the lawn, the plantation and the cliff. The beautiful song
of the Thrush may be continually heard, even in the parks
in London, and in Kensington Gardens.

It remains with us throughout the year, but in the winter
many additions to the numbers of our native birds are made
from the northern parts of Europe, from whence they are
driven by the inclemency of the climate. A north-east wind
is their ‘favouring gale,’ and having recruited their strength
for some days after their arrival, they move still farther
southwards in our island.

The Thrush is lively and sprightly in all its actions, neat
in its shape, harmless in its habits, pretty, though plain, in
its plumage, and familiar in its disposition. It is not, strictly
speaking, gregarious, though not a few are frequently seen
together. The author of the ‘Journal of a Naturalist,’ Mr.
Knapp, gives the following interesting account of a pair of
these birds: — ‘We observed this summer two Common Thrushes

THRUSH.

THLUSF.

183

frequenting the shrubs on the green *n our garden. From
the slenderness of their forms, and the freshness of their
plumage, we pronounced them to be birds of the preceding
summer. There was an association and friendship between
them that called our attention to their actions. One of them
seemed ailing, or feeble from some bodily accident; for though
it hopped about, yet it appeared unable to obtain sufficiency
of food. Its companion, an active sprightly bird, would fre¬
quently bring it worms or snails, when they mutually partook
of the banquet; and the ailing bird would wait patiently,
understand the actions, expect the assistance of the other,
and advance from its asylum upon its approach. This

procedure was witnessed some days; but after a time we
missed the fostered bird, which probably died, or by reason
of its weakness, met with some fatal accident.’

The Thrush is a tameable bird, and, if encouraged, in hard
weather will come close to the window for food. He is,

however, not deficient in cunning, and will often baffle a

pursuer by lying close in the bottom of a hedge, until the
danger has past, when he will fly off in the opposite direction,
with a loud chattering noise. Thrushes are good birds to
eat, and are often sold in the markets with their kindred

species. They have not unfrequently been known to take
refuge in houses when pursued by Hawks.

Their flight, which is capable of being prolonged to a great
distance, is rapid, performed in moderate curves, with quick
flaps, intermitted at intervals, often at considerable elevation,
but generally rather low. On the ground, in quest of food,
they droop the wings a little, and with the tail nearly
horizontal, raise the head askance; if any thing in the shape
of food is descried, they move quickly to it, their general
mode of progression being by a series of leaps. If in a listless
mood, the tail and wings are drooped, the neck drawn in, and
the feathers ruffled out: in this attitude they may often be
seen perched on a stone, or branch of a tree or hedge. They
settle very suddenly.

Their food consists of snails, insects, worms, caterpillars,
and fruits;- and in the winter berries and seeds of different
kinds contribute to their sustenance. The former they break
the hard shells of by hammering them with their bills against
some accustomed stone, as on a Druidical cromlech, deriving,
as they do, their origin from the ancient British times, before

184-

thrush.

the treacherous Saxons or the Norman adventurers had
touched the soil.

As for the note, that man car. have no music in his soul
who does not love the song of the Throstle. Who would
not stand still to listen to it in the tranquil summer evening,
and look for the place of the vocalist? Presently you will
discover the delightful bird pouring forth his lay from the
top of some neighbouring tree; you will see his throat swelling
with his love song, and hear it you may, if you choose to
linger, till sable night casts her dark mantle on all around,
and wraps the face of nature in the shroud. Begun with the
dawn of day, the Mavis has continued his clear and liquid
notes at intervals till now that evening has come, when he
must sing his evening hymn, and remind you of your own
orisions to the Great Creator. The calm eventide is the
hour at which he most delights to sing, and rich and eloquent
then, as alwaj^s, are his strains. Uninterruptedly he warbles
the mellifluous and harmonious sounds, which now rise in
strength, and now fall in measured cadences, filling your ear
with the ravishing melody, and now die away so soft and low,
that they are scarcely audible. If you alarm him, you break
the charm; he will suddenly cease, and silently drop into the
underwood beneath.

Each modulation consists of four or five syllables, each
repeated from three or four to seven times, and then changed
for another movement. They are uttered more slowly or more
rapidly at different times, and the tones are sometimes so
varied, that they might be supposed to proceed from different
birds, at different distances from the listener. Meyer also
mentions that he has heard the chant of the Nightingale
successfully imitated. Two birds at a distance will often
answer to each other in ‘Strophe’ and ‘Antistrophe,’ the one
beginning when the other ceases; and several may often be
heard singing together in concert at one and the same time.

The Thrush begins to sing in the very earliest part of the
year, even in January or February, according to the season,
and has been heard so soon as the third of the former month:
even the heaviest rain does not stop its lay. Those to whose
ears the voice of the Throstle is familiar, and before whose
minds the recollection of their school days brings the name
fLudovique Desprez,’ will be able to appreciate the suggestion
of a similitude of that date between the sweet note of the

TH1UTSH.

185

bird and the liquid name of the editor of the Delphi n edition
of Horace. A somewhat similar classical likeness has been
recorded in the reference to the note of the Blue Titmouse,
and the ‘Pleasures of Memory’ will at all events, I feel
assured, be allowed to plead in excuse of the comparison, even
if the resemblance be not so striking to all minds as it is
to mine, and I doubt not is also to those of some of my
old schoolfellows.

The Thiush begins to sing so early as from one to two
o’clock in the long midsummer mornings. It may be taught
to whistle many tunes and waltzes with great precision. It
sometimes sings while sitting on the nest. When perched
upon a tree, whether it be a high or a low one, it is almoso
always at or near the top that the strain is uttered.

Nidification commences the latter end of March, and the
eggs are deposited earlier or later in April, though sometimes
not until May, according to the season. Nests have been
known to have been begun even so early as the middle of
February, but frost caused them to be deserted. They are

correspondingly able to fly from the latter end of April to

the middle of June, and have been known to have been
hatched even on the last day of March. A second brood is
generally reared in the season, and if one set of eggs is

destroyed, a second is produced in a fortnight, or even a

third if need be. The female is extremely attentive to her
charge, and will sit on the nest until quite closely approached,
and will sometimes suffer herself to be taken sooner than
forsake it. If you disturb and alarm her, she will testify her
anxiety by flying round you with ruffled feathers and outspread
tail, uttering a note of alarm, and violently snapping the
bill. If unmolested, both birds have been known to pick up
crumbs of bread thrown down to them, and to give them to
their young.

Mr. Macgillivray had a male Thrush, which when only six
weeks old, brought up a brood of half-fledged Larks; and also
fed a young Cuckoo with the most tender care and anxiety.
The Thrush was however repaid with the most base ingratitude
by his thankless protege, for after he had taught it to feed
itself, it repeatedly attacked its benefactor, and would scarcely
even allow him to partake of the least atom of food. Another,
also a young bird, kept in a cage with a young Blackbird
by a gentleman in the city of Norwich, having soon learned
to feed itself, undertook the care of its companion, which it

186

THRUSH.

fed perseveringly for ten days, until at the expiration of that
period it too was able to feed itself, which before it was not.
If the eggs of another kindred species should be placed in
the nest of a Thrush, both will be educated together without
distinction — ‘nullo discrimine.’

The nest is composed of moss, small twigs, straws, leaves,
roots, stems of plants, and grass, compacted together with some
tenacious substance with tolerable ingenuity, and is lined with
a congeries of clay and decayed wood. Its diameter is usually
about three inches and a half or four inches inside, and about
seven outside; its depth from two and a half to four. It is
placed in a hedge or thick bush of any kind at a small
height from the ground, and likewise at times on a rough
bank among moss, brambles, or shrubs, as also, where the
country is un wooded, under the shelter of some projecting
stone or crag, in the crevice of a rock, or in a tuft of heath.
One has been known to be placed on a rail, and one on the
shaft of a thrashing machine: they are not unfrequently found
in a shed or open tool-house. These birds are sometimes
very expeditious in erecting their nests. — ‘Thus,’ says Mr.
Macgillivray, ‘on Thursday morning, the 15th. of June, 1837,
a pair began to build in an apple-tree in my garden. On
Friday afternoon the nest was finished, and on Saturday
morning, the 17th., the first egg was laid in it, although the
plaster in the inside was very wet. On Wednesday, the 21st.,
the female began to sit on five egg s, and on Monday, the
17th. of July, the young ones flew out of their nest.’

The late amiable Dr. Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, whom I
have so frequently had the pleasure of quoting from, gives
the following account as an instance of the confidence which
the Thrush, if undisturbed, will exhibit in building its own
habitation close to that of man: — A short time ago, in Scotland,
some carpenters working in a shed adjacent to a house,
observed one of these birds flying in and out, which induced
them to direct their attention to the cause, when, to their
surprise, they found a nest commenced among the teeth of a
harrow, which, with some other farming-tools and implements,
were placed upon the joists of the shed just over their heads.
The carpenters had arrived soon after six o’clock; and at
seven, when they found the nest, it was in a state of great
forwardness, and had evidently been the morning’s work of a
pair of these indefatigable birds. Their activity throughout the
day was incessant, and when the workmen left off in the

THRUSH.

187

evening, and came again in the morning, they found the
female seated on her half-finished mansion; and, when she
flew off for a short time, it was found that she had already
laid an egg, though the bottom of the nest was the only
part plastered and completed. When all was finished the
male bird took his share in the hatching, and though he did
not sit so long, he was very attentive in feeding her when on
the nest: the young were hatched in thirteen days. As they
grew, and required greater supplies, the entrance and retreat
of the old ones through the door was so rapid that it could
scarcely be seen, but was only known by the sound as they
darted over the heads of the men— another proof of the
rapidity of flight of even the slower flying birds, when urged
by necessity.

Very early in the spring odd eggs are sometimes found
here and there; and one has been known placed on a branch
of a tree supported only by a very small portion of moss.
It frequently is the case that the nest is very conspicuous
for a time, from being placed among the branches of some
deciduous shrub, whose anticipated leaves have either been
too soon calculated on by the bird, dr have been kept back
by some fortuitous change of weather. It is very light in
weight, and it is curious how it, and the same applies to the
nests of other birds, retains its «place when even the strongest
trees are overthrown by some tremendous gale.

Mr. John H. Blundell, of Luton, Bedfordshire, informs me
that he has found the nest of a Thrush in the side of a round
wheat stack.

The eggs, usually four or five in number, are of a beautiful
clear greenish blue colour, with more or fewer distinct black
spots and dots, principally over the larger end. The youngest
of my three boys, Marmaduke Charles Frederick Morris, has
one entirely plain, with the exception of a single dot. They
vary considerably in size: some are very small.

Male; length, from about eight inches and a half to nine
inches and a quarter. The bill is rather large in proportion
to the size of the bird — along the base of the upper mandible,
which is of a blackish brown colour, are a few bristly feathers;
the lower mandible is pale dusky yellowish red. Iris, rich
dark chesnut brown; a dark streak runs from the bill to it,
and over it, running from the base of the bill, is a faint
greyish yellow streak; eyelids, grey. Head on the crown,
brownish olive, with a tinge of reddish brown; neck in front,

188

THETJSH.

2nd on the sides, from the head, pale reddish yellow, each
feather terminated hy a triangular- shaped brownish black spot;
neck on the back, and nape, brownish olive; chin, white;
throat, yellowish white. Breast, nearly white, or yellowish
white, above with spots,, below without; on the sides it is
more or less tinged with pale reddish and olive. Back,
brownish olive, with a tinge of yellowish grey.

The wings, when closed, reach to near the middle of the
tail; they extend in width from one foot one inch to one foot
two inches and three quarters; greater wing coverts, brown,
and lighter brown with dull buff tips; primaries, secondaries,
and tertiaries, deep brown, their outer webs reddish brown,
the inner webs tinged with buff or light reddish yellow, and
the latter-named tipped with pale buff. The first quill feather
is very short and slender, the second nearly as long as the
fifth, the third and fourth nearly equal in length, and longer
than the second, the third the longest in the wing; larger
and ]esser under wing coverts, buff or light reddish yellow.
The tail is rather narrow, and rounded at the end. Its colour
is brownish olive, the inner webs of the feathers darker —
underneath, it is reddish brown; under tail coverts, white or
yellowish white, streaked with brown. Legs and toes, pale
yellowish grey, underneath darker and tinged with yellow,
the heel dull yellow; claws, brown.

The female is generally rather smaller than the male.
Length, from eight inches to eight and a half The neck in
front and on the sides is of a paler yellow, and the spots
also are not so dark. The wings extend from one foot to
one foot one inch or over.

In the young, when fledged, the whole plumage is less
compact, and the bill is paler coloured than in the adult bird.
The inside of the mouth is orange, and at the corners of the
bill yellow; iris, brownish black. Head on the sides, and on
the crown, brownish olive, tinged with reddish brown, each
feather with a slight central streak of yellow. Neck, brighter
in front in the yellow, and the spots darker than in the male
■ — the yellow fades with age; chin, darker than in the mature
bird. Back above, brownish olive, the feathers lighter in their
centre; on its lower part olive brown, tinged with grey.
Greater wing coverts, brown, mottled with reddish brown;
lesser wing coverts, brown, much streaked and tipped with
pale brown; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, dusky, the
outer webs of the quills generally tinged with yellowish. Toes,

THRUSH.

189

pale yellowish red, tinged in front with blue, and beneath
yellow; the heel yellow.

After the first autumnal moult the plumage is complete.

Individuals of this species vary, as will appear, very
considerably in size. In the autumn the feathers have become
more or less ragged and worn, and all the colours have faded
considerably, the brown into grey, and the yellow into greyish
white.

Mr. Bix, of Bongate, writes me word of white Thrushes
found twu successive years in that neighbourhood, the one nest
being within forty yards of the preceding one. The former
contained four young, two of them white with red eyes, and
the other two of the common colour. The latter had also
four young, one of them white, and three of the proper colour;
the eyes of the latter, which was kept alive, became afterwards
darker; so also Dr. Henry Moses, of Appleby, Westmoreland,
tells me that last year a Thrush’s nest was found in that
neighbourhood with three cream-coloured and two usual-
coloured young ones, and that this year five were found in
a nest all cream-coloured: in one which was taken and kept
alive the eyes were scarlet.

J. W. Lukis, Esq. has forwarded me a curious variety of
the young of this species, which is all over of a light yellowish
brown colour, the breast shewing incipient marks of the usual
Spots. There was another of the same colour in the nest, one
Of which was left with its parents, which were of' the ordinary
colour, and was brought up by them; the other, the one in
question, was kept alive for a month with care. Another, an
old bird, was observed at the same time, and the same place,
Heacham Hall, near Lynn, Norfolk, with white feathers in its

l&il.

190

WHITE’S THRUSH.

Turdus Whifei, Eyton. Gould. Yarrell.

Turdus—A Thrush. White i—Of White.

A specimen of this bird was shot by Lord Malmesbury
at Herons Court, his seat near Christchurch, Hampshire, on
the 24th. of January, 1828. Another is said to have been
killed in the Hew Forest in the same county, by one of the
Forest keepers, but in the absence of names or dates nothing
conclusive can be said about it. Closely allied species are
natives of remote Japan and Java, and two specimens of the
former are related to have been obtained in Europe, on the
banks of the Elbe, but as Mr. Yarrell says that the wing
of one of them is longer than in the Japanese bird, it may
belong to a distinct species. Mr. Yarrell further remarks that
one of the two European ones, and one from Japan, appear
to be identical with Lord Malmesbury’s specimen, and that
another from Australia seems to agree with that said to have
been procured in the New Forest. If however Tacts are
stubborn things’ so are measurements; for not to lay stress
on the difference between the respective lengths of each
individual bird referred to, only two of which, the Australian
and the Japanese one, are alike in this respect, the others
being more or less widely different from these and from each
other, measuring severally twelve inches and a half, twelve
inches, eleven inches and a half, ^and ten inches and three
quarters in length, the comparative anatomy, so to call it,
of each, is also dissimilar: thus, in Lord Malmesbury’s
specimen, the second and fourth quill feathers are of equal
length, and in the Japanese bird the third and fourth, in the
one from Java the second and sixth are equal, in that from
Australia the third, fourth, and fifth, are nearly equal, and
in the one said to have been met with in the New Forest
the third and fifth are equal. Mr. Gouid also observes that

UMk

WHITE’S THRUSH.

white’s thrush.

191

the bill in the European specimen is not so large as in the
Asiatic ones. I cannot therefore speak with any degree of
certainty as to the specific identity or dissimilarity of these
different individuals, but all that I can suggest is that they
may belong to two or more different, but closely allied
species; the outward appearance of each one is very much, I
believe, that of the others.

The following is the description from Yarrell of the British
specimen, which, as having been procured in Hampshire, was
named after the Rev. Gilbert White, of Selborne, by T. C.
Eyton, Esq., of Eyton, Shropshire: — Length, one foot’ and
half an inch; bill, dark brown, except the base of the under
mandible, which is pale yellow brown: the space between the
bill and the eye is pale brown, and from the lower edge of
the under mandible descends a narrow dark streak. Iris,
hazel; head on the back, yellow brown, the feathers tipped
with black; neck in the front, white, the feathers tipped
with crescent-shaped black spots; nape, yellow brown, the
feathers tipped with black. Chin and throat, white; breast,
white, with a tinge of yellowish brown, all the feathers tipped
with a black crescent; back, yellow brown, darker than on
the head, the feathers tipped in the form of a crescent with
black, the shaft of each feather yellow.

The wings are rather short, and do not reach far over the
tail; greater wring coverts, dark brown with light yellow brown
ends, forming together two oblique cross bars; lesser wing-
coverts, also brown, with broad pale yellow ends, the side
webs black, the shafts yellow brown. Primaries, pale brown
on the outer web, brownish black on the inner web with
dark brown ends, the shafts black; the first quill feather is
very short, the second a little longer than the fifth, the third
and fourth equal and the longest in the wing; secondaries
and tertiaries, pale brown on the outer web, brownish black
on the inner web, with dark brown ends, the shafts black;
lesser under wing coverts, white at the base, and black at
the tip. The tail has the four middle feathers uniform pale
brown, the others darker in the webs, but lighter at the ends,
and of these the outer ones are the lightest; underneath, it
is greyish brown, the shafts of the feathers white; upper tail
coverts, yellow brown, darker than on the head, the feathers
tipped in the form of a crescent with black, the shaft of
each feather yellow; under tail coverts, white. Legs and toes,
pale brown; the claws rather lighter.

1D2

GOLD-VENTED THRUSH.

Turdus aurigaster ,
Turdus chrysorhcEus,
Hccrnatornis chrysorhceus ,
Pycnonotus chrysorhceus ,

Viellot.

Temminck. Lesson.
Swain son.
Thompson.

Turdus— A Thrush.

Aurigaster. Aurum— Goid. Gaster —
The belly.

This is an African species, and as such was described by
the celebrated Le Vaillant, whose entertaining travels are so
well known. As far as appears, it may be rare even in its
native country, for only a pair were seen, one of which, the
male, was shot by Le Yaillant’s companion, Klaas, on the
banks of the Grootvis River, in Kaffirland; but the other, the
female, escaped, his gun being only a single-barrelled one; and
though they searched the district for several days, they saw
no others, nor even the female again. In all probability,
however, the bird may be common in some one or more parts
of that vast continent.

The only other specimen of the Gold-vented Thrush that
seems to be on record was shot at Mount Beresford, in the
county and near the town of Waterford, in Ireland, in the
month of January, 1838, by a boy who was shooting Black¬
birds, and by whom it was supposed to be one of those birds.
Both the season and the locality must alike have been strange
to it, for, as was Rizzio’s, its ‘home is far away,' and on what
errand, and through what combination of circumstances it
came hither, is beyond the hazard even of a conjecture.

Male; length, seven inches and a half; bill, black. A
rudimentary crest is formed by the feathers of the head when
raised, they being slightly elongated. Head on the crown,
and neck on the back, and nape, brown. Throat and neck
in front, brown, becoming lighter on the breast, which fades

GOLD-TENTED THRUSH.

193

below into dull white. Back, brown, not so dark as the head.
The wings have the first quill feather very short, only an
inch in length, the second three quarters of an inch longer
than the first, but shorter than the third, the fourth the
longest in the wing. The tail is slightly forked; under tail
coverts, brilliant yellow. Legs, toes, and claws, black.

This description is taken from Mr. Yarrell’s, who had the
specimen lent to him by Dr. Burkitt, of Waterford, into whose
possession it had come.

194

ROCK

Turdus saxatilis ,
Fetrocmcla saxatilis,

Turdus — A Thrush.

Saxum — A Eock.

This bird is a native of Europe, Asia, and Africa, fre¬
quenting the most desolate parts of mountains and rocky
districts, where culture is next to impossible, and comparative
security is therefore gained. The wild fastnesses of the great
chain of the Uralian Mountains, the precipices of the snow-
clad Alps, the gorges of the Pyrenees, and other kindred
places, give it a home and an abiding place in Germany,
France, and Switzerland, Spain, and the Tyrol, Italy, Turkey,
Sicily, and the Islands of the Grecian seas.

Our only specimen — ‘vix ea nostra voco,’ — was shot on the
19th. of May, 1843, by Mr. Joseph Trigg, at Therfield, near
Royston, in the county of Hertford. Mr. Yarrell was the
first to give a figure of it as a British species. x4nother
individual is also mentioned by him, as having been said to
have been killed by a gamekeeper, but neither date nor
locality is recorded.

It migrates in the colder season of the year from the more
northern to the more southern of the countries mentioned
above.

It is a very shy bird, but nevertheless is capable of being
kept in confinement.

Its food consists of insects and berries of various kinds.

The Rock Thrush is an excellent songster, and has been
known to sing at night if a candle was brought into the
room in which the cage was placed.

The nest is said to be made of moss. It is placed in
crevices of rocks, whether those which have fallen down from

THRUSH.

Temminck.
Vigors. Gould.

Saxatilis — Pertaining to Rocks.

ROCK THRUSH.

BOCK THBUSH.

195

their primeval resting-place, or those that still abide in the
place of their hoar antiquity.

The eggs are described as being four, or thereabouts in
number, and of a greenish blue colour, without spots.

Male; length, seven inches and a half; bill, black; iris,
dark brown. Head, crown, and neck all round, and nape,
bluish grey; chin, throat, and breast, light chesnut brown.
Back, on the upper part, bluish grey, passing into brown on
the shoulders; on the remainder principally white, with a few
bluish feathers. Greater wing coverts, dark brown, almost
blackish, tipped with white; lesser wing coverts, also dark
brown, nearly blackish brown. Tail, chesnut brown, the two
central feathers rather darker than the others; upper tail
coverts, dark brown; under tail coverts, light chesnut brown.
Legs and toes, dark reddish brown.

Female; head and crown, dull brown; neck on the back,
dull brown, on the sides pure white; nape, dull brown; some
of all these brown feathers are occasionally varied with ash-
coloured brown. Chin, throat, and breast, reddish white, with
five transverse lines at the end of each feather; back, brown,
with some large white spots. Tail, light chesnut brown, the
two middle feathers ash-coloured brown.

Young; head, crown, neck on the back, and nape, light
ash-coloured brown, each feather terminated with a spot of
greyish white. Chin, throat, and breast, reddish white, much
varied with the latter colour, which is again intersected with
brown lines. Back, light ash-coloured brown, the feathers
terminated with a spot of greyish white. Greater and lesser
wing coverts, edged with grey and tipped with white; primaries
and secondaries, tipped with white. Tail, red, tipped with
white.

For a description of this bird I am indebted to Mr.
Yarrell’s work.

196

BLACKBIRD

Turdus merula,
Meruiu ouiyaHs ,

Pennant. Montagu.
Selby. Gould.

Turdus — A Thrush.

Merula — A Blackbird.

Though sober and unpretending in plumage, yet, as thor¬
oughly associated with every sylvan scene, the Blackbird
must always be, as doubtless he always has been, one of our
most favourite birds. When the ground is covered with snow,
that of the day as white, as Aristotle says, as that which
has lain congealed for a thousand years, then is our bird seen
to the greatest advantage, a sable beauty indeed, black as
ebony itself, the dazzling white contrasting well with his dark
garb, and each in turn setting off and heightening the
appearance of the other.

From the northern parts of Europe — Sweden and Norway,
its range extends over the whole of the European continent,
through Germany, where it remains throughout the year, and
Greece, Switzerland, and France, to the north of Africa, and
thence to the Azores. In Asia it is also common — in Syria
and other parts.

It is found in greater or less plenty in all parts of England,
Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, and
Shetland. In the Orkneys it breeds, but not in great numbers,
being the most abundant there in winter. In the Hebrides,
and any particularly barren districts of the north, it is said
not to breed.

It frequents gardens, both walled and others, groves and
shrubberies, hedgerows and copses, moist places in woods,
marshy grounds, tangled brakes, the sides of walls, and the
margins of streams, especially if bordered by wood, in more
or less abundance.

It is with us a permanent resident, affecting the more

BLACKBIRD.

BLACKBIBD.

197

cultivated in preference to the more wild parts of the country,
and in winter it draws nearer to the neighbourhood of houses
and towns, according to the state of the weather, hut generally
keeps beneath the sheltering protection of trees, hedges, or
bushes, among which it hops with singular celerity if pursued,
its presence being often only known on hearing its note of
alarm.

About the beginning of November, very large flocks arrive
on the north-eastern coasts from more northern countries, and,
after recruiting their strength for a few days, wing their way
to the south and west.

In its habits it is restless, shy, and vigilant, and if alarmed
or disturbed, either lies close till the danger is past, or sud¬
den1 y takes wing with a vociferous chattering cry; if in the
breeding-season, its partner soon shares its flight. It is most
seen in the morning and evening, following its avocations in
a more retired manner in the middle of the day. It is rather
of a pugnacious disposition, and especially jealous in the spring
of the approach of others to the spot selected for its nest.
It is easily kept in confinement, but is fond of attacking and
teasing its companions, if placed in an aviary in company
with other birds. The male and female are frequently seen
together in winter, it is believed that, at all events in many
instances, they pair for life; the members of the family do
not keep together long after the young are able to fly, and
though three or four Blackbirds may often be seen near
together for a short time in the same locality, it is a mere
community of object, and none of natural feeling, that has
brought them into neighbourhood; neither do they consort
with other species. They are very good birds to eat.

A very young Blackbird, says Mr. Jesse, was put into a
cage which was hung up under the porch of a lodge: after the
bird had become reconciled to its confinement, and had begun
to feed, an older Blackbird was caught and put into the
same cage. This old bird moped, and refused to feed itself,
and would probably have died, had not the younger brought
it food in its bill, and in every respect treated it as if it had
been its mother, nourishing it with the greatest perseverance
for some time. Again, a cat was observed on the top of a
paled fence, endeavouring to get at a Blackbird’s nest which
was near it; the hen left the nest on her approach, flew to
meet her in a state of great alarm, and placed herself almost
within her reach, uttering the most piteous screams of wildness

198

BLACKBIRD.

and despair. The cock bird, on perceiving the danger, shewed
the greatest distress, and uttered loud screams and outcries,
sometimes settling on the fence just before the cat, who was
unable to make a spring, in consequence of the narrowness
of its footing. After a little time, the cock bird flew at the
cat, settled on her back, and pecked her head with such
violence that she fell to the ground, followed by the Blackbird,,
who succeeded in driving her away. A second time the same
scene occurred; the Blackbird was again victorious, and the
cat became so intimidated at the attacks made upon her, that
she gave over her attempts to get at the young ones. After
each battle the Blackbird celebrated his victory with a song,
and for several days afterwards he would hunt the cat about
the garden whenever she left the house. He adds that he
also knew an instance of a pair of Blackbirds following a boy
into a house, and pecking at his head while he was conveying
one of their young into it. He very properly observes that
people little think what misery they occasion to birds when
they deprive them of the brood which they have been cherishing
with so much tenderness and affection. ‘The cruel parent/
says an old author, ‘that would encourage his childe to deprive
a poor birde of her own broode, right well deserveth to have
bis own nest robbed, and to become childless.’

The following instance of the longevity of the Blackbird in
confinement is recorded in the Belfast Commercial Chronicle
of December 25th., 1839: — ‘A Venerable Blackbird. — There
is at present in the possession of Mr. John Spence, of Tul-
laghgarley, near Ballymena, a Blackbird, that has arrived at
the wonderful age of twenty years and nearly eight months.
It was taken by him from the nest when young, and ever
since has enjoyed the very best of health. It still continues
to sing, and that well. He is, however, beginning to shew
symptoms of old age — his head is getting grey, and a
number of white feathers are springing up on his neck and
breast.’

Mr. Couch, in his interesting ‘Illustrations of Instinct/
remarks how when the Blackbird flies off to a closer cover,
it communicates an alarm to all its race, and from frequent
repetition this sound becomes a signal of caution, which the
young cannot fail to associate with the idea of danger, even
when no object of terror is seen. ‘My attention,’ he says,
‘was once attracted to the rapidly-repeated utterance of the
scream of a Blackbird, and the twittering of many other

BLACKBIRD.

199

individuals of the same species, which were directing their
eyes towards a circumscribed spot in a thick hush, and on
approaching to examine what could be the cause of so much
clamour, the presence of a cat was discovered. The sly
creature had evidently been endeavouring to escape observation,
and was therefore not a little annoyed at being thus made
the ‘observed of all observers.’ But the birds were determined
that the whole neighbourhood should know of the presence of
the intruder; instead of flying off they continued their
vociferations, and peace was not restored till she had been
compelled to retreat.’

Its flight is quick and hurried, hasty and precipitate, as
if, for some reason or other, it were conscious that conceal¬
ment suited it best; even if alarmed, it generally only flits
along for a little distance, and then turns in again to its
cover. If its flight be at all extended, it is even and steady,
but its short flittings are, as just mentioned, fitful, undulated,
and capricious, and in the season of incubation a series of

starts, a single flap of the wings, and a consequent bound.

When perched on a branch, it bends forward, raises or lowers
its tail, now and then flaps its wings, then perhaps sings,
and then flies to another tree or a wall, there to perform the
like evolutions. Often, if it thinks that it shall be passed by
without notice, it skulks about under cover, with the stealthy
tread of a Blackfeet or Crow Indian, but the dry and fallen
autumnal leaves betray the presence of the cautious bird, in
the coppice or wood through which you pass, and the
rustling sound of its footfall almost startles you in your
lonely walk, perhaps many a mile yet from home, as you
return from some out-lying village or distant solitary house.
The wind sighs among the trees, a prelude to the storm of

the dark night that is fast closing in around you, and the

daylight is but scant, but if you look closely, you will
catch the glance of a black eye, shy of observation, and
wistfully expressing the desire of its owner to be left to
itself.

In the spring, summer, and autumn, the Blackbird feeds
on moths, beetles, and other insects and their larvae, worms,
snails, fruits, and seeds, such as cherries, currants, blackberries,
gooseberries, peas, and pears, the place of the latter being
supplied in winter by wheat, oats, and other grain and seeds,
and the berries of the hawthorn, the mountain ash, the holly,
and others. It sometimes does some damage by pulling up

200

BLACKETRD.

plants, in search of insects. The shells of snails it breaks
against any hard spot, in the same way that the Thrush
does. In the autumn it frequents turnip-fields in search of
insect food. Doubtless, as in so many other similar cases of
supposed injury, the evil that it may do is counterbalanced
by a proportionate amount of good. It begins its pilfering
as soon as it is light, and has a habit when searching for
food, of frequently raising and depressing the tail, expanding
at the same time the tail feathers: it hops or leaps very
quickly along. It swallows a little gravel at times to aid
the digestion of its food. It is a hardy species, and is able
to hear the severity of most of our winters, btit hard weather
compels many from their comparative retirement to the farm¬
yard, and sometimes they will approach quite close to the
house, to feed on berries growing against the wall, and to
pick up any crumbs placed there for them; one has been
known to eat out of the hand while sitting on the nest.

The following account is given by Mr. Weir to Mr. Mac-
gillivray, respecting the number of times in the day which
he watched a pair of Blackbirds feed their young, four in
number. At a quarter past three in the morning they
commenced; from that time until four o’clock, the male fed
them only once, and sang almost incessantly, whilst the female
fed them six times; from four to five o’clock, the male fed
them six times, and the female three times; from five to six
o’clock, the male fed them four and the female five times;
from six to seven o’clock, the male fed them three, and the
female five times; and from seven to eight o’clock, the male
fed them three times. For the last four hours he sang most
delightfully, except when he was feeding the young birds, and
as he had induced one of them to fly out after him, Mr.
Weir had to replace it in the nest, which caused some inter¬
ruption to their feeding. From eight to nine o’clock, the
male fed them six, and the female seven times; and from nine
to ten o’clock, the male fed them four, and the female three
times; from ten to eleven o’clock, the male fed them three,
and the female two times; from eleven to twelve o’clock, the
male fed them two, and the female three times; from twelve
to one o’clock, the male fed them two, and the female four
times; and from one to two o’clock, the male fed them twice,
and the female thrice. From two to three o’clock, the female
fed them twice; and from three to four o’clock, the male fed
them three, and the female four times. From four to five

BL.A CKBI11D.

201

o’clock, the male fed them three, and the female four times;
from five to six o’clock, the female fed them only twice; and
from six to seven o’clock, she fed them three times. In the
evening the male was almost entirely engaged in singing, and
from seven to eight o’clock, fed them only once, and the
female six times; and from eight to twenty minutes before
nine o’clock, when they both ceased from their labours, the
male fed them once, and the female seven times: the male
still continued singing. Thus in the course of a single day,
the male fed the young forty-four times, and the female
sixty-nine times.

While engaged in watching, from his place of concealment,
this pair of birds, Mr. Weir observed that before they fed
their young, they always alighted upon a tree, and looked
around them for a few seconds. Sometimes they brought
sufficient food for the whole of their brood one by one, and
at other times only enough for a single nestling. The young
birds often trimmed their feathers, and stretched out their
wings.

On a Wren accidentally coming so near as to detect the
ambush, and giving a consequent note of alarm, all the birds
in the neighbourhood flocked around at once, to endeavour
to discover the cause of it, and the Blackbirds hopped round
and round, and made every effort to penetrate the mystery,
but at length gave up the attempt. One of the young birds
having had the misfortune to be choked, the hen bird, on
discovering the danger, set up a moan of distress. Her
partner on hearing it instantly came to her assistance, and
both made several attempts to dislodge the incubus, but for
a time they were unsuccessful. At last the male bird most
scientifically aided the process of deglutition, though only just
in time, for the young one was so much exhausted, that it
remained nearly three hours without moving, and with its
eyes shut. The cock bird having alighted on a tree a few
yards from the nest, poured forth a volume of song expressive
of joy at the happy result of his endeavours.

With the note of alarm, Mr. Weir adds, which any set up
on the discovery of their enemies, all the different species of
the little birds seem to be most instinctively acquainted, for
no sooner did a beast or a bird of prey make its appearance,
than they seemed to be anxiously concerned about the safety
of their family. From tree to tree they usually hopped,
uttering their doleful lamentations. At one time the Blackbirds

202

BLACKBIBD.

were in an nnusnal state of excitement and terror — a prowling
weasel having made its appearance; and while the danger
threatened, the young birds, on the parents announcing it,
cowered down in the nest, and appeared to be in great
uneasiness.

With regard to the song of the Blackbird, it has long
been my opinion that he is neither more nor less than a
mocking-bird, and that all his best notes are borrowed from
those of the Thrush, to which, as is the case with most
imitations of an original, they are much inferior; they are
more remarkable for power, and in some degree for tone,
than for compass or variety. One curious instance is on
record of its having been heard, even in the wild state,
crowing like a Cock, occasionally indulging for a moment
or two in its natural song; another is related to have
effected a similar imitation: when the Cocks in the neigh¬
bouring farm-yard answered his supposed challenge, he seemed
delighted, and even flapped his wings when he crowed, and
thus went on with the mimic rivalry. Two other similar
instances are related by Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, as having
occurred in Ireland; one in the shrubbery of Mr. Box well, of
Lyngestown, in the county of Wexford, and the other at
Oakland, Broughshane, in the county of Antrim; the latter
was only heard to crow early in the summer.

The following anecdote of this bird was communicated to
Mr. Thompson by Edward Benn, Esq.: — ‘A man wishing to
have some of his breed, robbed the nest, which contained
four young; two he left, and the other two he put into a
large cage, and removed to his house. The old cock came
constantly with food for the young in the cage, going into
it and feeding them; the man, watching for such an oppor¬
tunity, made a run at the cage, and secured him, but when
carrying it into the house, the bird made his escape through
a hole in the wires. It was supposed he would not come
back: he, however, returned to feed the young as usual; but
instead of going into the cage, he went to the outside, and
put the food through the wires. It may have been instinct
that prompted him to find food for his young, though removed
to a distance, and in an unusual place; but when he found
there was danger in feeding them in the old way, it certainly
shewed calculation to find out a way of doing it equally
well without running risk. It was also very curious to see
him going to feed the young when any person was watching:

BLACKBIRD.

203

— the cage was in a potatoe-garden, and he would fly to the
low end of the garden and creep up the furrow, so that it
was impossible to see him until he had finished his duty,
when he flew off with great noise. The hen never appeared,
and it was supposed she had been killed. To all that is
here stated I was a witness.’

A chatter, somewhat resembling that of the Magpie, is
frequently uttered, especially in the spring season, the wings
being fluttered and the body bent forward at the same time,
as if overbalanced; an advance is made, and the posture and
the note repeated, particularly if the bird be alarmed or excited:
he has also a ‘chink, chink.’ One has successfully imitated
the song of the Nightingale: another the cawing of a Crow;
and another attempted the chuckling of a Hen. One, which
was kept tame in a house without being confined in a cage,
has been known, when irritated, not only to peck with its
bill, but to rise and strike with its claws, after the manner
of a Cock. The Blackbird frequently scares away with loud
cries, or at least endeavours to do so, any supposed enemy,
even from the nests of other birds: ‘proximus ardet Ucalagon,*
and he fears that his own turn may be the next.

Edward D. Swarbreck, Esq., of Thirsk, writes me word that
he has heard it sing on the morning of the 21st. of this last
December, though the ‘shortest day,’ 1852. Such is the case
at times in all the winter months, especially in calm and mild
weather, whether clear or cloudy. The spring is his best
‘season’ as a vocalist, and his voice is heard from the middle
of February till the moulting-time in the autumn, though
much less often after the young are hatched. Mr. Macgillivray
heard one sing, though indistinctly, on the 18th. of October.
In general it ceases about the middle or end of July, or tha
beginning of August. It may be taught to whistle a variety
of tunes, and to imitate the human voice. The ordinary note
is a chattering cry, which it almost invariably utters when
alarmed to take wing.

The Blackbird’s warble is one that attracts attention, and
you will see him perched on one of the top twigs of the tree,
from whence he carols his glad notes. He begins his song in
the middle of summer with the earliest dawn, and continues
it at intervals throughout the day, even until the twilight
and his own black plumage begin to fade together into night.
His first morning ditty is but harsh and unmusical, but when
the sun advances up towards the horizon, and the red rays

204

BLACKBIRD.

of ‘Fair Aurora’ gild the sky, he hails the glorious sight with
a louder and more joyous strain. In dull and cloudy and
ungenial weather he is much later in commencing, and is, on
the other hand, heard to the greatest advantage when some
refreshing summer rain falls upon the thirsty earth, even
though the thunder should utterly for the moment drown
his voice, and while the lightning flashes its most vivid
gleams. On the approach of danger the Blackbird utters, as
do several other birds, a peculiar note, which, as indicative
of alarm, is at once noticed by even an ordinary observer.
In connexion with this subject may here he mentioned a
curious occurrence related by Mr. Couch. A weasel, followed
by its young ones in training, was seen in eager pursuit
of a Blackbird on the wing, and though a very slight
elevation in the direction of the flight of the bird would
have carried it over a hedge and out of danger, yet so great
was its terror, that it was unable to mount so high, and
consequently soon became their prey.

This species pairs in February or March, but occasionally
much earlier. Thus in the ‘Yorkshire Gazette’ of the 8th.
of this present January, 1853, it is recorded that a nest with
two eggs was found at Brompton, in this county, on the
3rd. instant, by D. Ferguson, Esq., of Bedcar.

The nest is placed in a variety of situations, and is fre¬
quently found in a heap of sticks, even though placed in an
outhouse, or most commonly in a bush; sometimes in a tree
against a wall, or in a tree or wall covered with ivy; an
instance has been known of its being placed on the stump
of a tree, close to the ground, and Sir William Jardine found
one on the ground, at the foot of a tree; another was also
found in a similar situation, at the foot of a hazel bush, in
a wood, by my friend the Bev. W. Waldo Cooper, of West
Basen, Lincolnshire: in the same wood he found another on
the stump of a hazel which had been cut down, and from
which several stems had grown; it was not raised an inch
from the ground, but was quite surrounded by the new
branches. Another found on the ground has been recorded
in the ‘Zoologist,’ page 1023, by W. W. Spicer, Esq. Mr.
John H. Blundell, of Luton, Bedfordshire, has written me
word of his having found the nest in one instance on the
ground, in the middle of a large plantation of oaks. It is
often placed in a hedge, and is commonly built at a height
of three or four feet, also in a hole in a wall or rock. In

BLACKBIBD.

205

some instances it has been known, when placed in or against
the branch of a tree, to be in some degree fastened to it by
a twining and lacing of the larger of the materials of which
it is composed, and in one case, the space between the branch
of a tree, on which one was placed, and a wall, was filled
up with straw and hay. It is made of roots, small twigs,
and stalks of grass, with perhaps some lichens or fern, and
is covered on the inside with mud, and lined with finer parts
of the other materials and grass; it is sometimes most admirably
hidden in a hollow in a bank, so as almost to baffle detection.
It is at, times placed on the top of. a fence or the summit
of a wall: the same situation is occasionally resorted to from
year to year. N. Rowe, Esq., of Worcester College, Oxford,
writes me word of a pair of Blackbirds which built their nest
in the same spot in a laurel tree that had been previously
tenanted the same year by a pair of Greenfinches, who in
their turn had succeeded a pair of Thrushes. The female sits
for thirteen days.

The eggs are commonly five in number, sometimes four,
and sometimes, though but rarely, six; they are of a dull
light blue or greenish brown colour, mottled and spotted with
pale reddish brown, the markings being closer at the larger
end, where they sometimes form an obscure ring. Mr.
Hewitson, in his £ Coloured Illustrations of the Eggs of
British Birds,5 figures one elegantly covered over at the larger
end with minute reddish brown specks, and likewise, but less
thickly, over the remainder — the green shewing through ; and
a second curiously marbled with irregular dashes and specks
of reddish brown over the green colour. Another variety is
similar to the last, except that the ground colour is lighter,
and the spots smaller. Another, in his possession, clear
spotless light blue, with the whole of the larger end suffused
with reddish brown. J. B. Ellman, Esq., of Battel, relates
in the ‘Zoologist,’ page 2180, that he had an egg in which
the spots were at the smaller end.

The Rev. G. Sowden, of Stainland, near Halifax, writes me
word that he has twice met with the variety of the egg
which resembles that of the Thrush, namely, in being of a
fine blue colour and without spots, and he has obligingly
forwarded two specimens of them to me. One of the nests
which contained them was on a ledge in a very high wall
in a quarry. 1ST. Rowe, Esq. tells me that he has taken
similar ones of an uniform dull blue. Some of the eggs are

206

BLACKBIRD.

much larger than others, and they also vary much in colour
and in markings, as also in shape, some being much, more
round, and others much more oval, than others: in some
instances the smaller end is rounded and obtuse. Archibald
Hepburn, Esq. found some which had two shells, the inner
one of the ordinary colour and markings, and the outer one
also marked as usual, but paler in hue. The first brood, for
there are generally two, is hatched by the end of March, or
the beginning or middle of April, and is abroad towards the
end of May; the second by the middle of July. Sometimes
even three may be reared, and in one instance, namely, in
the year 1837, four successive broods, seventeen young in all,
were reared by a single pair, on the island in the ornamental
sheet of water in St. James’s Park, London.

In Ireland also three broods are related by Mr. Thompson
to have been reared in one year, near Cromac House; the
last of which made their appearance on the 3rd. of July, and
a nest with eggs was seen on the 22nd. of February. But
this fecundity is not peculiar to Ireland, being outdone by
the Scottish Blackbirds, ‘Hibernicis ipsis Hiberniores.’ The
Bev. George Gordon, of Elgin, North-Britain, thus records in
the ‘Zoologist,’ p.p. 2297-2298, the following curious instance
of five successive nests having been made in a single year: —
April 27th., 1848. — The young leave the first nest; built in
a clump of ivy on the top of a wall; four in number, one
egg having been abstracted from the nest before incubation.
April 29th. — Two eggs in the second nest, detected in a yew
tree. May 16th. — The cock bird observed feeding the five
young, newly hatched, on the second nest. May 24th. — The
hen Blackbird seen making her third nest in an apple tree
nailed to a wall. May 29th. — Two eggs in the third nest,
and the brood leave the second nest and perch on the trees.
June 10th. — The third nest forsaken; of the eggs, which were
five in number, two remain in the nest, part of the others
on the ground below the nest, and part of them found on a
wall some twenty yards from it. June 14th. — The Blackbird’s
fourth nest begun in a birch hedge. June 23rd. — Of the
five eggs laid in the fourth nest only two remain; another
found on the ground below it: it seems to have been pillaged
by some bird in the same way as the third nest. June 26th.
— Fifth and last nest of the Blackbird partially formed in a
vine trained at the end of the house.

Thus, he adds, a single pair of birds had twenty-five eggs,

BLACKBIRD.

207

and reared fourteen young in one season; and he adds that
the garden and the shrubbery were so small in extent) that
had there been more than one pair, they would have at once
been detected; and that such were frequently looked for, but
in vain; as also that the dates of the different stages observed,
tend to shew that one pair may have constructed and managed
the whole nests with their contents: eggs being never found
in more than one nest at the same time, unless when one
had been forsaken.

The following, if possible still more singular circumstance,
is related in the same magazine, page 352, by Mr. M. Saul,
of Garstang, Lancashire: — ‘Last year a male Blackbird resided
in my orchard, and, as it appeared, failed in finding a mate.
As early as February he began building a nest under some
long leaves by the side of a fenny place in the orchard,
having first scratched away a little earth, in order to make
a level place for the nest to stand on. When the nest was
finished, it was completely concealed from the sight and
protected from rain, by the long leaves bending over it; so
close was one of the leaves, that the bird had to lift it up
every time he went in or out— a feat I frequently watched
him perform. About two weeks after this nest was completely
finished, the same bird built a second in another part of the
orchard; and in this second nest I often saw him sitting later
in the season; and when the leaves were on the trees he
built a nest in a thorn bush. During the time he was
engaged with these three nests, he would frequently perch on
one of the highest trees in the orchard, and send forth his
rich and melodious song, as if to invite a partner to join in
his family cares, but always without success.’

Mr. Weir, the valuable correspondent of Mr. Macgillivray,
relates a curious instance of a male Blackbird and a female
Thrush, which being fed together about the conclusion of
the winter of the year 1836, within a short distance of the
house of Mr. Russell, of Moss-side, m Scotland, kept company
with each other in the spring, and eventually hatched four
young ones. J. R. Wise, Esq., of Lincoln College, Oxford, has
forwarded to me a specimen of an hybrid egg of a like origin.
Mr. Allis, in his ‘Catalogue of the Birds of Yorkshire,’
mentions a similar instance in the case of a pair in con¬
finement.

The Blackbird is neat in form, and its plumage compact.
Male; weight, about four ounces; length, ten inches and three

208

BLACKBIRD.

quarters; bill, bright orange, as also are the eyelids and the
mouth, the colour paler in the winter; iris, dark brown. The
head, crown, neck, nape, chin, throat, breast, and foack, are
all deep black. The wings, when closed, extend one third
down the tail; they expand to the width of one foot four
inches; the primaries are dark brown until the second moult;
the first quill feather is extremely short and narrow, the
second a little shorter than the third, the third nearly as
long as the fourth, which is the longest in the wing, and
the fifth scarcely shorter. The tail is black, rather long, and
slightly rounded; legs, dusky brown; the toes also dusky
brown; the second and fourth are of nearly equal length, the
first longer, the third a good deal longer, and attached to
the fourth as far as the second joint; legs, dusky brown;
claws, dusky brown: they are long, and slightly grooved on
the sides.

Female; length, ten inches; the bill, generally dark brown,
paler towards the edges, never becomes yellow for more than
two thirds of its length, unless it may be in very aged birds;
in some it is much darker than in others, being almost entirely
black; iris, dark brown; the edges of the eyelids are greenish
orange. The forehead is paler than the other parts; head,
crown, neck on the back, and nape, blackish brown; the neck
is also paler on the sides; chin and throat, brownish white,
and the neck in front dull light reddish or fulvous brown,
with obscure dusky triangular-shaped spots. The breast varies
much in different individuals; in some the colours are much
blended together, and in others it is pale, more or less
distinctly spotted with dark brown; back, blackish brown.

The wings extend to the width of one foot three inches;
primaries, deep blackish brown. Tail, brownish black, the
outer webs of the feathers edged with brown; upper tail
coverts, darker than the rest of the back. Toes, dusky
brown; claws, darker.

In the young the bill is reddish grey; the corners of
the mouth and the eyelids, dull orange; the upper parts
are blackish brown, each feather having a central spot or
streak of pale rufous; the under parts are light rufous
brown, the feathers tipped with dark spots. The full adult
plumage is not acquired until after the second autumnal
moult. The young female is not so dark as the male, and
the dark spots are less distinct.

In the adult male the lower parts are sometimes tinged

BLACKBIRD.

209

with grey or brown, and the margins of the quills brown. In
the adult female the upper parts are sometimes of a lighter
brown, the forehead tinged with rust-colour, and the neck in
front brownish red, spotted as usual, namely, in some faint
degree, as the Thrushes.

Varieties more or less pied with white are not of very
unfrequent occurrence. Mr. Jesse, in his ‘Gleanings in Natural
History,’ mentions a pair of white ones in the grounds of a
nobleman at Blackheath, near London, whose brood were also
white, so that it could not in their case have been an
accidental circumstance. Some are cream-coloured. In one
the top of the head and the breast and wings were black,
the rest white. One in the Zoological Gardens, London,
white, with reddish bill and eyelids. One with a white head.

One white, with black feathers interspersed; the quills and

tail, black, except two feathers of the latter and one of the
former; the bill, pale yellow; the feet, dusky, curiously
variegated with pale yellow. One with the lower parts

variegated with grey and greyish brown feathers. One

patched with white, some of the quills being also of that
colour. One with the head white, and also the neck, the
latter divided by a black band, with a few white feathers
interspersed, and one or two more on the shoulder. Another
with the nape of the neck white, shading off with the same
colour towards the head. One, a female, white, with a few
brown feathers on the shoulders. One silvery white all over.
The late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, describes one
which had a white head, and the whole of the upper plumage
black, like a male, while the under plumage was that of a
female, a specimen, in the language of the Pigeon-fanciers,
of a ‘Hooded Nun.’ One had the quill feathers white and
the wing coverts black.

One of these birds, which had been kept by the Bev. J.
Pemberton Bartlett from the nest, became white on both
wings in its sixth year, the following year’s moult restoring
it to its original plumage; another was noticed by Mr. Bix,
near Norwich, which had at first shewed one ‘white feather’
in its tail, and the next year it had two or three, and the
head, neck, and back much speckled with similar ones.
One, a female, of a complete cream-colour, with yellow bill
and legs, was shot by Mr. George Johnson, of Melton Boss,
near Brigg, Lincolnshire.

VOL. III.

210

V

RING OUZEL.

eock ouzel, eihg theush. mountain blackbibd.

MODE BLACKBIBD.

Pennant. Montagu.
Selby. Gould.

Turdus torquatus,
Merula torquata ,

Turdus — A Thrush.

Torquatus— Binged.

This is a bird of the mountain, found almost exclusively
in the wild and uncultivated districts of the country.

In Europe its range extends northwards as far as Norway
and Sweden; and southwards to Germany, Italy, France,
Switzerland, Spain, and Holland. In the latter it is rare,
which is not to he wondered at, considering how unsuited
that country must be to its predilections. In Africa it is
also found along the northern shores; and in Asia, in Syria.

In Yorkshire it is common enough on high moor lands,
though generally seen only in pairs on the side of some
solitary glen or wild ravine, and is sometimes met with in
the more cultivated parts. Mr. R. Leyland on one occasion
saw a flock of upwards of twenty feeding on the berries of
the mountain ash, in a garden near Halifax, in the month
of September. It is also plentiful on the moors near
Sheffield, and has been known to build on Thorne Moor —
a wild tract, where I formerly took some rare insects, but
cultivation is gradually encroaching upon it, and in time the
record of it will alone remain. My friend Arthur Strickland,
Esq., has once or twice met with considerable flights in
turnip fields, but apparently consisting, for the most part,
of birds of the year, and probably collected together for
emigration. Graves Records it in his ‘Catalogue of the Birds
of Cleveland.’ One or two have been seen in different
years in the neighbourhood of Sowerby and Thirsk, as
Edward D. Swarbreck, Esq., of the latter place, has informed

BING- OUZEL.

211

me. 1 have myself seen one or two in the parish of East
Garston, near Lamborne, Berkshire, one of which was shot
by my fellow pupil, and afterwards fellow collegian, the late
Rev. Henry Boys. The Rev. R. P. Alington has known but
two in his part of Lincolnshire, one shot by his brother,
and the other, a female in full plumage, by himself several
years ago.

W. F. W. Bird, Esq. writes in the ‘Zoologist/ page 2495,
‘A male Ring Ouzel was killed at Kidderminster, on the 9th.
of May last, (1849.) Two others, supposed to be nesting,
were seen a short time previous, at Witley, in the same
county, and one of them (the male,) was shot/ In War¬
wickshire, too, the adjoining county, Mr. A. Evans, of Coventry,
records in the ‘Zoologist/ pages 2142-3, that the nest and
eggs of this bird were obtained at Pinley, close to that city,
on the 25th. of April, 1848, the only instance that was
known to have occurred there. In the neighbouring county
of Leicester the nests have also occurred in different years;
one in the Rookery at Bosworth Park, where five others were
obtained in 1848. In Norfolk it has been known to breed
in one or two instances.

This species is generally considered to be of recluse habits,
but the Rev. R. W. W. Cobbold, of Thelveton Rectory, in
Suffolk, has written me word of a pair which built their nest
in a low Portugal laurel bush, only three feet from the
ground, and close to where people were continually passing,
in the grounds of the Manor House of Wortham, Suffolk.
John Longe, Esq., of Coddenham Vicarage, near Needham, in
the same county, has also informed me of one, the first he
ever heard of in that part, which he shot there the beginning
of September, 1852: it was feeding with some Blackbirds on
a mulberry tree.

It breeds on the moors in the northern parts of ‘Famous
Derbyshire/ as, for instance, in Dovedale and near Buxton,
the land of ‘Peveril of the. Peak/ and on Dartmoor, in
Devonshire, as also in Cumberland, Northumberland, West¬
moreland, and Durham. In other counties it is observed in
spring and autumn, for eight or ten days, while on its
migration, in Dorsetshire, Hampshire, Kent, Surrey, Suffolk,
Norfolk, Cornwall, , and Sussex. One was caught in a trap
in a garden at Lambeth, in London ; another was shot out
of a small flock on Wimbledon Common; and one near
Saffron Walden, in Essex, in the month of August, 1836.

212

KING OUZEL.

In Scotland, the Rev, G. Gordon records that it is a regular
summer visitor in Morayshire, but is only seen sparingly dis¬
persed over the range of hills immediately above the cultivated
districts, where it remains and breeds. So it also does in
Selkirkshire, Sutherlandshire, Argyleshire, and Edinburghshire;
in the latter on the Lammermuir and the Pentland Hills. In
Banffshire, Mr. Thomas Edwards records them as occurring on
the hills of Tillieminet, Kirkney, Noth, and Clashnadarrow.

It is also plentiful on the mountains in Wales, and its
loud song suddenly breaking out here and there on the
untrodden wild, is a gladsome sound to the wanderer, whom
it cheers as he journeys on his lonely way.

In Orkney it is an occasional winter visitant; small flocks
were observed at Elsness in April, 1822, and again on the
12th. of April, 1829. Three were shot in San day, October
14th., 1835: they were numerous in that island during
October, 1836. It has been also seen in Orphir, and on one
occasion has been known to breed in the Hebrides, and also
in the Isle of Skye.

In Ireland, the late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast,
records it as frequenting suitable localities throughout the
island; the mountains of the counties of Dublin and Wicklow,
and the high rocky hills of Clare, the Glens, Glen ar iff, and
about Cush endall, in Antrim; Rosheen Mountain and Lough
Salt, in Donegal; Slieve Donard, the loftiest of the mountains
of Mourne, in Down, and the mountains to its north-west,
and those above Tollymore Park, the seat of Lord Roden;
Achill Head — one of the most westerly points of Mayo; the
heights of the Carlingford Mountain, in Louth; the hills
about Portumna, on the western border of Galway; Slieve-
na-mon, and about Clonmel, in the county of Tipperary;
the Comeragh Mountains in Waterford, the least frequented
parts of the mountains of Connemara, the mountainous
districts of the county of Cork, the Mounterlowney Mountains,
in the county of Tyrone, and the most rocky parts of those
of Kerry.

The Ring Ouzel arrives in this country in the end of
March or beginning of April, and departs in October.

It is capable of being kept in confinement, and will live
from six to ten years: it is found in its wild state perching
on stones, from whence it utters its brief song. Like many
other birds that build on the ground, it is very clamorous
if any one approaches the nest, and endeavours to decoy the

RING OUZEL.

213

intruder away by well-feigned and real symptoms of distress.
It is of a very shy nature, and if disturbed, which it easily
is even from a covert, rises up to a considerable height, and
often flies as much as half a mile before it alights.

The Ring Ouzel is rather rapid in its flight, which is very
little undulated, and if sojourning in districts where there
are hedgerows, seems to have a habit, at least when dis¬
turbed, of flying in and out in half circles in its progress
along a hedge, or the side of a wood.

It feeds on insects, worms, and snails, and likewise on
different fruits and seeds — those of the mountain ash, the
bilberry, the juniper, the rowan, and the holly. When the
young ones are fledged, they frequently descend to the
gardens nearest to their native wilds, where they do considerable
damage among cherries, raspberries, currants, plums, and
gooseberries, and, where there are any, among grapes and
various wall fruits.

Its song is desultory but sweet — a few plaintive notes
uttered in a clear and warbling whistle. Its alarm is sig¬
nified by a strong cry, resembling that of the Blackbird.
Meyer says that its ordinary note resembles the syllable ‘tub.’

The nest is placed among the heather upon a ledge or in
some hollow of the grey and hoary rock, whose weather-beaten
front tells of many a cold and wintry blast, that has swept,
age after age, over the wild and desolate moor or the barren
mountain side. It is hidden more or less by a tuft of
heath, the root of a tree, or a projection of the rock in
which it is placed: those found in the more southerly counties
were placed at a height of about five or six feet from the
ground, in such a situation as a yew tree, or ivy-clad elm.
It measures about seven inches in diameter, about three
inches and a half in depth on the outside, and about two
inches inside. It is composed of dried grasses, heather, stems,
or stalks, thickly matted together, with here and there an
occasional leaf: on the inside it is lined, according to some
with mud, within which again is another lining of similar
materials to those of which the outside is compacted.

The eggs are pale greenish blue, sparingly freckled with
pale purple and reddish brown markings, except at the larger
end, where those obscurations are confluent, and entirely
conceal the ground colour. They vary in the depth of the
markings, some being much lighter, and some much darker
than others. One has been noticed by Mr. A. Evans of a

214

BING OUZEL.

uniform ehesnut colour at the larger end, the remainder being
nearly pure blue. They are four or five in number, sometimes,
it is said, six. Mr. Heysham, of Carlisle, reports the young
birds, as fully fledged by the 15th. of June, and Mr.
Macgillivray has known them on the 7th.

Male; length, about eleven inches and a half to twelve
inches; bill, which is strong and notched near the tip, is
more or less yellow and blackish brown, the former at the
base: its upper surface is a gentle curve. Iris, dark brown,
the eyelids yellow; black bristly feathers surround the base
of the bill, and there is a row along the base of the upper
one. Head, crown, neck on the back, and nape, uniform
brownish black, the feathers edged with blackish grey; chin,
throat, and breast, also uniform brownish black, the feathers
edged with blackish grey, and the latter-named with an elegant
half-moon-shaped bar of white across its upper part, the horns
pointing upwards. Back, the same uniform brownish black,
the feathers similarly edged with grey.

The wings, which are short, expand to the width of one
foot seven inches, and reach to near the middle of the tail,
have the first feather very short and very narrow, the second
equal in length to the fifth, the third and fourth nearly' equal,
but the third the longest; underneath, the wings are paler
than above. Greater wing coverts, blackish brown, the feathers
deeply tipped with grey, and tinged with the same on their
outer webs; primaries and secondaries, brownish black, but not
so dark as the rest of the plumage, and edged with grey on
the outer margins; tertiaries, the same, more broadly edged
with grey on the outer margins — the outer webs tinged with
the same; greater and lesser under wing coverts, pale grey,
mixed with brownish ash-colour. Tail, brownish black, the
outer feather narrowly edged with pale ash-colour; underneath
it is dark grey; upper tail coverts, brownish black; under
tail coverts, the same — the shafts white. Legs and toes,
dark greenish brown; underneath, yellowish: the outer one is
closely united to the middle one. Claws, brownish black :
they are compressed laterally, and are very blunt.

The pale edgings to the feathers wear off in the winter,
so that the bird is more uniformly black in the spring.

The female is rather lighter and duller-coloured than the
male, and the grey margins of the feathers are wider. Length,
ten inches and a half; bill, brownish yellow, the base of the
upper one dusky; iris, brown. Head, crown, neck, and nape,

RING OUZEL.

215

dark chocolate brown. The chin, throat, and breast have the
- feathers edged with white. The band across the breast is
narrower, and its colour less pure, and clouded with reddish
brown and grey; the tips of the feathers are pale brown in
a crescent shape; back, dark chocolate brown. The wings,
which extend to the width of a foot and a half, have the
quill feathers margined with brownish grey. The under tail
coverts have a white line along the middle of the feathers.

The young male resembles the adult female, but in the
young female the band across the breast is scarcely discernible.
The upper parts of the plumage have the edges of the
feathers brownish or olive grey, those on the shoulders with
a clear streak along the shaft of yellowish white, and the
quills more deeply margined with grey. Bill, deep brown,
orange at the corner; head, crown, neck on the back, and
nape, brownish black, the feathers tipped with black and
edged with dark reddish yellow; the neck in front is yellowish
white on the middle; chin, white. The throat is yellowish
white, sparingly marked with brownish black, which latter
colour trenches on the former as the bird advances in age.
The breast has every feather varied with alternate bars of
yellowish white and blackish olive brown, which gives it a
mottled appearance; the crescent is brownish white, each
feather with a crescent-shaped dusky line near the tip. Back,
brownish black, the feathers tipped with black, and edged
with dark reddish yellow. Greater wing coverts, edged with
pale yellowish grey; lesser wing coverts, with a central
streak of yellowish; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries,
dark olive brown, edged with yellowish white or grey. The
tail has the outer feathers edged with pate grey, with which
all the feathers are tipped; under tail coverts, with a longi¬
tudinal white spot along the shaft, and their tips yellowish.
Toes and claws, pale brown.

White varieties are said to have occurred, and specimens
with white feathers about the head have been occasionally
met with.

END ON VOL. III.

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