261

OBSERVATIONS

ON

VARIOUS PARTS OF NATURE.

BIRDS.

IN severe weather, fieldfares, redwings, skylarks, and titlarks, resort to watered meadows for food; the latter wades up to its belly in pursuit of the pupa of insects, and runs along upon the floating grass and weeds. Many gnats are on the snow near the water, these support the birds in part.

* Mr. White perpetually confounds the common and tree pipits, the species he has above designated "titlark" being a very different bird from that which he several times speaks of under the same name in his letters. Four species of this genus-anthus-are now admitted into the British fauna, three of which are common birds in their respective localities. They form a very natural group, and are intimately allied with the different wagtail genera, which they resemble in every essential particular, though externally approximating towards the larks (alauda), in which genus they were arranged by Linnæus and the other earlier naturalists, and by which general name they are still popularly known, our three common species being vulgarly denominated tit lark, pipitlark, and mudlark. They have little affinity, however, for the lark genus, notwithstanding this apparent resemblance, and, in a system based on the physiological relations of species, should range at a considerable distance from them, being modifications of a distinct type of organization. In general aspect they are less energetic than the larks, stand higher on the legs, and run about much more in the manner of a water wagtail. They sing generally upon the wing, but never soar to any considerable height, nor have they the characteristic breadth of wing of the lark genus; they ascend only a little way, reiterating without intermission a single note, which only varies as they commence descending, at which time, as they slowly, with wings but half expanded, float obliquely downward, many of them utter strains of more interest. They further differ from the larks, and very strikingly, in the changes they undergo in plumage, a character of much importance towards determining the true affinities of birds. Thus, the larks are at first clad in a peculiar mottled garb, which is entirely cast at the first moulting, including the wing and tail primaries; they also change their feathers once only in the year, though shedding the extreme tips of them in the spring; but the pipits (like all the other wagtail genera) are double moulting birds, changing all but the primaries both in spring and autumn, and retaining their nestling primaries till the second autumn, that is, until the third (including the vernal) renovation of their clothing plumage; their nestling garb, also, is simply intermediate between the diverse seasonal dresses of the old birds.

To return, however, to the specific distinctions, which Mr. White altogether overlooked. The most abundant species is the common pipit (A. communis), or meadow pipit, as it is often called. This is by far the most generally diffused, and haunts everywhere, in all parts of the island, wild moors and commons, marshes, and meadow lands wherever situate, being equally common on the bleakest mountain heaths and along the richest water-meadows of the south. It is the smallest species, and one of the most typical, or characteristic of its tribe. The bi is slender and insectivorous-looking, the hind toe furnished with an elongated and straightened claw, as in the larks, which all the genus much resemble in their colours and markings. It sings generally on the wing, in the manner described, but its voice has little music to recommend it,

Birds are much influenced in their choice of food by colour, for though white currants are a much sweeter fruit than red, yet they seldom touch the former till they have devoured every bunch of the latter.

Redstarts, flycatchers, and blackcaps, arrive early in April. If these little delicate beings are birds of passage (as we have reason to suppose they are, because they are never seen in winter) how could they, feeble as they seem, bear up against such storms of snow and rain, and make their way through such meteorous turbulences, as one should suppose would embarrass and retard the most hardy and resolute of the winged nation? Yet they keep their appointed times and seasons; and in spite of frosts and winds return to their stations periodically, as if they had met with nothing to obstruct them. The withdrawing and appearance of the short-winged summer birds is a very puzzling circumstance in natural history!

When the boys bring me wasps' nests, my bantam fowls fare deliciously, and, when the combs are pulled to pieces, devour the young wasps in their maggot state with the highest glee and

being merely the same note, repeated gradually quicker and quicker till it reaches the ground. The summer plumage is considerably more dusky than that of winter.

Closely allied to it is the shore pipit (A. obscuru‹), called mud-lark by the London bird-catchers, of larger size and much darker colour, with the hind-claw somewhat less elongated, and the bill proportionably longer and larger. This species almost exclusively inhabits the sea-shore, where it abounds on many parts of the coast, subsisting, for the most part (as I have ascertained by dissection), on small-shelled mollusca. The common pipit also frequents the same localities. The shore pipit rises singing into the air in exactly the same manner as the former, with the same monotonous pip, pip, pip; but its notes are pleasingly varied in the descent, a little reminding one of those of the domestic canary. It migrates partially within the limits of the island, being found only in winter in some parts of the southern coast; and, in autumn, occasionally ventures inland, being taken sometimes near London by the bird-catchers. Both this and the former species are very commonly the foster-parent of a young cuckoo.

Next we have the tree pipit (A. arboreus), the titlark of Mr. White's letters and of the birdcatchers, though in books this name has been erroneously applied to the A. communis. It is by far the most beautiful of the genus, and the sweetest songster, and differs in many particulars from the rest. The bill is thicker at the base, more conical, and lark-like; the feet have more of a perching character, the toes being longer, with the hind claw shorter and more curved; and there is less difference between its summer and winter plumage. Its general aspect is also very different, being more equally poised on the centre of gravity, whence its movements are more graceful, and they are also much more deliberate than those of the others. It is a migratory species, chiefly inhabiting enclosed situations, more particularly where a few tall trees grow out of the hedge. There it warbles forth its sweet melody, often perched at a considerable height from the ground, and frequently as it slowly sails downward, having only the characteristic pipit-cry when ascending. After moulting at the close of summer, they assemble in small flocks, apparently the amount of broods, soon after which the majority leave the country. This species is much sought after by bird-catchers, in order to teach its song to young canaries, the best songsters of which are usually reared under the tree pipit and nightingale.

The great pipit (A. maximus; Ricardi, auct.) is a very rare bird all over Europe, at once distinguishable by its much larger size. It is n every respect a true anthus, and a specimen lately caught near London by a bird-catcher, during its autumnal moult, enables me to say that its changes are similar to those of A. communis. It is not improbably a summer visitant.-ED.

delight. Any insect-eating bird would do the same; and therefore I have often wondered that the accurate Mr. Ray should call one species of buzzard buteo apivorus sive vespivorus, or the honey buzzard, because some combs of wasps happened to be found in one of their nests. The combs were conveyed thither doubtless for the sake of the maggots or nymphs, and not for their honey since none is to be found in the combs of wasps. Birds of prey occasionally feed on insects; thus have I seen a tame kite picking up the female ants full of eggs with much satisfaction.*

ROOKS.

Rooks are continually fighting and pulling each other's nests to pieces: these proceedings are inconsistent with living in such close community. And yet if a pair offer to build on a single tree, the nest is plundered and demolished at once. Some rooks roost on their nest trees. The twigs which the rooks drop in building supply the poor with brushwood to light their fires. Some unhappy pairs are not permitted to finish any nest till the rest have completed their building. As soon as they get a few sticks together, a party comes and demolishes the whole. As soon as rooks have finished their nests, and before they lay, the cocks begin to feed the hens, who receive their bounty with a

That redstarts, flycatchers, black caps, and other slender-billed insectivorous small birds, particularly the swallow tribe, make their first appearance very early in the spring, is a wellknown fact; though the flycatcher is the latest of them all in its visit (as this accurate naturalist observes in another place), for it is never seen before the month of May. If these delicate creatures come to us from a distant country, they will probably be exposed in their passage, as Mr. White justly remarks, to much greater difficulties from storms and tempests than their feeble powers appear to be able to surmount: on the other hand, if we suppose them to pass the winter in a dormant state in this country concealed in caverus or other hiding places sufficiently guarded from the extreme cold of our winter to preserve their life, and that at the approach of spring they revive from their torpid state and reassume their usual powers of action, it will entirely remove the first difficulty, arising from the storms and tempests they are liable to meet with in their passage; but how are we to get over the still greater difficulty of their revivification from their torpid state? What degree of warmth in the temperature of the air is necessary to produce that effect, and how it operates on the functions of animal life, are questions not easily answered.

How could Mr. White suppose that Ray named this species the honey buzzard because it fed on honey, when he not only named it in Latin buteo apivorus et vespivorus, but expressly says that "it feeds on insects, and brings up its young with the maggots or nymphs of wasps ?"

That birds of prey, when in want of their proper food, flesh, sometimes feed on insects I have little doubt, and think I have observed the common buzzard (falco buteo) to settle on the ground and pick up insects of some kind or other.-MARKWICK.

The common buzzard and tawney hooter (aluco stridula) are particularly insectivorous; and the kestrel falcon has also been seen to catch chaffers on a summer evening, feeding upon them while on the wing; a better name for the honey buzzard is the common pern (pernis vulgaris), now that several are known possessing the same characters.-ED.

fondling tremulous voice and fluttering wings, and all the little blandishments that are expressed by the young, while in a help

less state.

Rookery.

This gallant deportment of the males is continued through the whole season of incubation. These birds do not copulate on trees, nor in their nests, but on the ground in the open fields.*

THRUSHES.

THRUSHES during long droughts are of great service in hunting out shell snails, which they pull in pieces for their young, and are thereby very serviceable in gardens.† Missel thrushes do not destroy the fruit in gardens like the other species of turdi, but feed on the berries of misseltoe, and in the spring on ivy berries, which then begin to ripen. In the summer, when their young become fledged, they leave neighbourhoods, and retire to sheep walks and wild commons.‡

After the first brood of rooks are sufficiently fledged, they all leave their nest trees in the day-time, and resort to some distant place in search of food, but return regularly every evening, in vast flights, to their nest trees, where, after flying round several times with much noise and clamour, till they are all assembled together, they take up their abode for the night.-MARK

WICK.

†The only instance I ever knew of the rook assuming the character of a predacious bird was towards a brood of young missel thrushes, which were attacked and destroyed by two or three of the sable gentry from a neighbouring rookery. To be sure, it was during a period of drought, when the rooks were a little put to for subsistence. The crow at all times is extremely predatory in its habits.-ED.

The missel thrush is a great devourer of currants and gooseberries, also of green peas, as gardeners well know to their cost.-ED.

MAGPIES.

THE magpies, when they have young, destroy the broods of

missel thrushes, though the dams

are fierce birds, and fight boldly in defence of their nests.* It is probably to avoid such insults, that this species of thrush, though wild at other times, delights to build near houses, and in frequented walks and gardens.

Magpie.

POULTRY.

MANY creatures are endowed with a ready discernment to see what will turn to their own advantage and emolument, and often discover more sagacity than could be expected. Thus my neighbour's poultry watch for waggons loaded with wheat, and running after them pick up a number of grains which are shaken from the sheaves by the agitation of the carriages. Thus, when my brother used to take down his gun to shoot sparrows, his cats would run out before him, to be ready to catch up the birds as they fell.

The earnest and early propensity of the gallinæ to roost on high is very observable; and discovers a strong dread impressed on their spirits respecting vermin that may annoy them on the ground during the hours of darkness. Hence poultry, if left to themselves and not housed, will perch the winter through on yew-trees and fir-trees; and turkeys and guinea fowls, heavy as

Of the truth of this I have been an eye-witness, having seen the common thrush feeding on the shell snail.

In the very early part of this spring (1797) a bird of this species used to sit every morning on the top of some high elms close by my windows, and delight me with its charming song, attracted thither, probably, by some ripe ivy berries that grew near the place.

I have remarked something like the latter fact, for I remember, many years ago, seeing a pair of these birds fly up repeatedly and attack some larger bird, which I suppose disturbed their nest in my orchard, uttering at the same time violent shrieks. Since writing the above, I have seen more than once a pair of these birds attack some magpies that had disturbed their nest, with great violence and loud shrieks.-MARKWICK.t

+ It is indeed quite a common occurrence, but I have reason to believe that the missel thrushes not unfrequently betray the site of their nest, in the first instance, by virulently attacking every large bird that comes near the place.-ED.