-IBRARIES^SMITHSONIAN
Ul
2
x
CO
o
z
>
2
CO
G
H
O
INSTITUTION NOlinilJLSNI NVINOSH
JounmsNi nvinoshiiws S3 1 dvda n libraries smithsc
sJOIinillSN!^NVINOSHimSWS3 I dVd 8 I "Til B RAR I ES^SMITHSC
2 ‘ -J 2 j
LIBRARIES SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION NOIlfUllSNI NVINOSH
§ ^ . ' 6 ////7- Z/V:. x
>. ^ >•'' s
--- . Z 00 Z CO.
,UI1SNI_NVIN0SH1!WS^S3 I U\fh 9 I *1 _ L ! B RAR I ES ^SMITHSONIAf
S1ARIES SMITHSONIAN"' INSTITUTION NOIlfUlISNI NVIN0SH1IW
^ I Ji 1 I .#
<rXAkSP&'/ ~ \Q>--ViS-> s>y
\>M^rAy co pi ^ x^Tii.s^^ pn
___ co £ to
inilJLSNt MVINOSH1UMS S3IHVH9I1 LIBRARIES SMITHSONIA z _ ^
r|
p '4W S If :;P) j2
~ x v£Vv vVS/ o
h WAP^y z '"V'Mm - w- -
5 Ns^p£>^/ > 2 X. > N^iiis^
f/j 12 00 A Z
39 ARIES SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION NOlifUllSNI NVIN0SH1IV
00 X _ _ _ CO
O O
TlillSNI ^NViNOSHlJWs"1 $3 ! H V.H 0 11 LIBRARIES SMITHSON!/ n z n z
O
03 30
> IpL .
30 WW*
m W £ N^i#/ rn
CO ' ' x CO —
SR AR I ES SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION NOliniliSNI NVIN0SH1II co 2: » co z
2 X*5™T£x < ,x s <
?a ^ \% n jr
a.nillSNI NV1N0SH1IWS S3 I a vy 9 n 'LIB RAR I ES smithsoni, = \ w _ X W
«► v ^
?*A
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