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diff --git a/40249-0.txt b/40249-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a0061f --- /dev/null +++ b/40249-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3071 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40249 *** + +In a Cheshire Garden + + +[Illustration: The Flower Garden.] + + + + +In a Cheshire Garden + +Natural History Notes + +BY + +GEOFFREY EGERTON-WARBURTON, + +_Rector of Warburton_. + + +LONDON + +SHERRATT AND HUGHES + +Manchester: 34 Cross Street + +1912 + + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +These Notes appeared from April to June this year in _The Warrington +Guardian_ and afterwards came out in a de-localised form in _The +Staffordshire Weekly Sentinel_. + +I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. P. Ramsdale, of Heatley, for the +photographs of The Old Church, The Yew-tree, and The Flower Garden (as +it was some years ago). + +My thanks are due also to Mr. Garrett for kindly allowing me to use his +very interesting photograph of The Two Nests referred to on page 94. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAP. PAGE + + I. Introductory 1 + + II. Weeds and Alien Plants 5 + + III. Birds--Thrushes 11 + + IV. Chats, Robins, and Warblers 26 + + V. Tits and Wrens 37 + + VI. Wagtails, Flycatchers, Swallows, and other Insect-eaters 46 + + VII. Sparrows and other Finches 57 + +VIII. Finches, Starlings, and Crows 67 + + IX. Other Birds 77 + + X. British Mammals 95 + + XI. Dogs and Cats 103 + + Index 113 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + +Flower Garden _Frontispiece_ + + FACE + PAGE +Old Church 6 + +The Old Yew 23 + +The Sundial 38 + +A Corner in the Garden with Allium Dioscorides 55 + +Two Nests 70 + +The Food-stand 87 + + + + +I. + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +Although much of the neighbourhood has become semi-urban and any idea +of rural seclusion is destroyed, at least in summer, by the crowds that +find their way to it from Manchester and other large towns, yet the +Cheshire village of Warburton in which this garden is situated is a +real country place still. How long it will remain so is another thing. +One salt works has been set up at Heatley about a mile away and we are +now (1912) promised another, while there is every prospect of land +being let for works in Warburton itself. Who knows, in a few years +perhaps the whole place may be reduced to the desolation of another +Widnes. Then, when it has become a rare thing to find even a blade of +grass on the dreary black waste or to see any bird but a grimy sparrow, +a record of what was once here may be strange reading. + +The garden itself about which I write is quite on the northern boundary +of Cheshire, in old days divided from Lancashire by the Mersey only. +The soil is light and sandy, not far from the rock in places and in +places with water at a very little depth below the surface. It is well +suited to hollies and rhododendrons, both of which grow abundantly and +luxuriantly, as also do yews. There are a good number of ordinary +deciduous trees, chiefly on the old bank of the river, such as oak, +sycamore, chestnut, birch, beech, and alder, but no conifers of any age +except one or two Scotch firs. There is one flourishing deadara which I +planted myself and a few young Austrian pines that seem to be doing +well. + +A spruce fir that I once planted behaved in an extraordinary way; +instead of growing straight, it shot up in a zigzag fashion, the +leading shoot one year going off at an angle of 60 degrees or so, and +the next year harking back and starting in the opposite direction at +about the same angle. + +Few of the trees can be more than 80 years old. I think most of them +would have been planted by my father, who was rector from 1833 to 1849. +There is however a remarkable old yew in the adjoining churchyard. The +half of it, just below where the branches spring, measures nearly nine +feet round. The other half has entirely gone, so has practically the +whole of the substance, the wood of the trunk, and what is left of the +still standing side is little more than a shell with a coating of bark. +Notwithstanding this there is quite a fair-sized head of leafy young +branches (which by the way has greatly increased since I first remember +the tree 40 years ago) growing up amidst the ruins of the old +far-reaching boughs. These yet remain to tell something of the wide +and grateful shade they once afforded to our "rude forefathers" as on +summer Sundays they waited for service to begin, just as I remember the +last generation gathered and gossipped under younger yews when this was +the Parish Church. This yew is the "thousand-year-old tree" of the +clerk's tale to visitors, and if one thinks how many years of slow +growth it must have taken to form a trunk of that thickness, say 18 +feet in circumference, and how many more for it to have decayed away to +its present condition, it does indeed carry us back to an early date in +English history when the little green shoot that sprang from the +crimson-coated seed first saw the light. + +One great drawback from a gardener's point of view is the prevalence of +strong, cold, N.-W. winds in spring. The winters are not so severe as +they often are further south, but the late spring frosts are sometimes +disastrous. We have had potatoes cut down by frost as late as June +21st, but the worst spring frost I have known was in May, 1894, just +about the time that Queen Victoria came to Manchester to open the Ship +Canal. On three consecutive nights, May 19, 20 and 21, there was frost, +and its intensity seemed to increase each night. Not only were potatoes +cut, but garden peas and many hardy herbaceous plants and even common +weeds. (I noticed that those with a northern aspect suffered least.) +The shoots and buds of roses were scorched, and the young leaves of +most trees and shrubs. Hollies suffered especially, but even yew and +rhododendron, oak, sycamore, and chestnut did not escape. The only tree +that weathered the cold with impunity was the hawthorn, the tenderest +leaves and tips of which were not injured. (This was not the case +though in the severe frost of Easter 1903.) Royal, male, and lady ferns +were shrivelled up to a greater or less degree, but parsley and oak +fern were unharmed. + +We miss one gardener's friend here, but we escape the attentions of one +enemy. Though frogs are common enough, toads are very rare. I remember +to have seen only one during all the many years I have known the +garden. On the other hand, whilst I have a dim recollection of having +once found an old snail-shell, I cannot say for certain that I have +ever seen a snail, though of shell-less slugs in all sizes there is no +scarcity. + + + + +II. + +WEEDS AND ALIEN PLANTS. + + +A slight knowledge of botany adds greatly to the interest of a garden, +and is besides often of practical value. With such knowledge, one forms +a habit of looking even at weeds with some interest, and this has led +to my finding several strange plants among them. I have for example +come across the following in the kitchen garden: + +"Saponaria vaccaria," with its curious angled calyx and pretty pink +flower. + +"Galium tricorne," very much like common goose-grass or cleavers, but +rare in England, and quite unknown in this neighbourhood. + +Annual mercury (closely allied to the common perennial Dog's mercury), +green and dull-looking, only of interest because it is rare. + +"Holosteum umbellatum," which again is rare and not much more +attractive to the casual observer. + +"Draba muralis," allied to "Shepherd's purse," and not unlike it, but +as rare as that is common. + +"Melilotus officinalis," a graceful yellow pea-flower. When this first +appeared it was quite a stranger in these parts, but afterwards for +several years it was continually turning up in different corners of +the garden, indeed even in 1911, twenty-six years since its first +visit, I found a stray specimen. + +"Ranunculus arvensis," a weak-looking buttercup with curious rough seed +vessels. + +"Scandix Pecten-Veneris," an ordinary unattractive umbelliferous plant, +but with extraordinary long beaks to the fruit, which are supposed to +be like the teeth of a comb. Both of these are I believe common in +other parts of the country, but they are unusual here. + +"Poa nemoralis," a stranger grass of elegant growth, came one year in +the rougher part of a rock-border. It was made welcome and kindly +treated, but though allowed to follow its own devices and though +several seedlings sprang up round it, they were all gone in a year or +two. A rarer grass still, "Setaria glauca," once turned up in a +cucumber frame. + +In 1907, a seedling fig came up close to the wall of the house. It has +now (1912) several shoots about eight feet long. The same year another +seedling fig appeared in the kitchen garden, and that too I have +transplanted to a warm corner of the house-wall, where it has made a +nice bush. + +For several years we have found seedling tomatoes growing in the +kitchen garden, and in 1911 we gathered seven pounds of green tomatoes +from two plants to make into jam. + +[Illustration: Old Church.] + +When first I came here, and for a long time afterwards, "Erysimum +cheiranthoides" was always among the kitchen garden weeds, and one year +I found growing in a bed of onions its near relative "Erysimum +orientale," which is quite a rare British plant. + +Greater celandine, a rather handsome perennial with somewhat glaucous +leaves and bright yellow flowers, used to be an abundant weed on the +banks and among the bushes, and is still (1911) to be found in the +garden, though in diminished quantity. + +In 1889, a strange plant appeared which puzzled me a good deal at +first. It was tall and straggling, but had no flowers. Next spring +there were several of the same plants, very much branched with +something of the habit of a mugwort, and long spikes of flowers at the +end of every branch. I discovered it to be a species of "Ambrosia," a +native of North America, but I soon discovered also that it increased +by underground runners in every direction, and was only too thankful to +get rid of it. + +Two years before, I had found another visitor, this time from South +America, with bright yellow flowers, evidently allied to forget-me-not, +which proved to be an "Amsinckia" (intermedia ?). There were about 20 +plants of this annual in one border and several others in other parts +of the garden. With some consideration, but with no particular care on +my part, it has maintained itself in more or less quantity in the same +herbaceous border ever since. + +In 1897, a single plant of an "Allium" appeared and grew to a height of +more than five feet, straight up with very stout stems, one and a half +inches in circumference, and handsome heads of reddish-green +bell-shaped flowers on drooping stalks, which afterwards, in fruit, +became quite straight and upright. I found it to be "Allium +Dioscorides," a native of Sicily and Sardinia. There were many tubers +at the root when I took it up, but none of them ever grew so tall and +fine as the original. + +One or two plants that I have introduced myself have proved very +tiresome weeds. In 1875 or thereabouts, I brought back from the wild +part of a large garden in the neighbourhood a balsam with rather a +conspicuous yellow flower ("Impatiens noli-me-tangere," I think). It +made itself at home at once, but as it would keep within no bounds, I +have done all I could "to get without it," as they would say here, but +it defies me to my face and in spite of relentless persecution, again +and again every spring it comes up smiling in an abundant crop. + +So indeed does a tall polygonum ("P. cuspidatum" I believe it is) that +I brought back from the same garden about the same time. It absolutely +refuses to budge from the place where I first allowed it to grow. It +does not perpetuate itself by seed like the balsam, but from little +odds and ends of rootlets and suckers that hide themselves in the soil. + +What I take to be a variety of "Oxalis corniculata," a very pretty +little thing with dark reddish-brown leaves and deep yellow flowers, is +another uncontrollable subject. It is perennial and yet increases by +seed as fast as a balsam. + +A plant which on the top of a stone wall is very pretty, "Linaria +vulgaris," has proved a veritable plague to me in the garden. I had it +sent to me originally by a nurseryman for the "Peloria" variety, and as +if the disappointment of that were not enough, it added insult to +injury, or rather injury to insult, by running below the surface in a +provoking and persevering manner and showing itself in most unexpected +places. Although the normal "vulgaris" is so irrepressible, I have +found "Peloria" quite the reverse, and have never been able to keep it +above a year or two. + +The double-flowered varieties of most plants are, as a rule, more +difficult than the ordinary single, but a little potentilla ("reptans" +?) with a yellow ball of double flower has proved an exception here. No +single-flowered plant could get over and under the ground faster than +this has done. + +In 1886, in an out-of-the-way path among trees, an orchid, "Epipactis +latifolia," came up in the very middle. I took care that it was not +disturbed, and found it again in exactly the same place four years +later, no sign of it having been seen in the interval. Never before, or +since, have I found a plant of that or any other orchis growing wild in +the garden. + +One year (1887) in a border nearly full of rhododendrons, close to the +front door, a curious looking thing made its way above the ground, +which, at first sight might have been put down as something between a +hyacinth and a lily-of-the-valley, but was said to be "Muscari +comosum." I had never planted it and during the fifteen years that I +had been here had never seen anything like it. I very carefully marked +the spot when it died down, but from that time to this (1911) during +all the 24 years that have passed it has never shown itself again. + + + + +III. + +BIRDS--THRUSHES. + + +You can feel something like affection even for a plant, when you have +watched over it and attended to its likes and dislikes as to aspect, +soil, moisture, shade and so on, and when it has responded to your care +and rewarded you for the pains you have spent upon it, but birds become +personal friends, it is an interest and amusement to study their +characters and habits, and a delight to listen to their voices. And +this friendship is not for any one particular bird (though of course +there may be that sometimes), but for the particular species of bird, +any one of which that you happen to meet with anywhere seems like an +old friend. A lively impudent tom-tit for instance is the same amusing +companion and it is the same pleasure to hear his cheery note, whether +you find him in a suburban garden or in some shady corner of a wood. + +Of course it is a day to be marked with a white stone when you come +across a new or a rare bird, but if you watch the commonest +sympathetically and intelligently you have an endless fund of interest +and amusement. The quarrels, the loves, the boldness and ingenuity even +of a sparrow may divert your mind pleasantly and help you to put away +worries. Then how eagerly in spring does one listen for the first note +of a willow-warbler, what an interest is the first sight of a swallow, +and how gladly one welcomes each of our summer visitors as in turn they +arrive from passing the winter in the Sahara oases or among our friends +in the Transvaal or Cape Colony. + +In a country unexplored or newly settled it may not be the same, but in +England there is no need to spoil the charm of friendship by use of the +collector's gun. All British birds have been so well illustrated and +described that it ought to be possible to tell most of them by careful +observation without actually having them in one's hand. In the +interests of science, to make sure of the discovery of a new species or +the distribution of a known one, birds must sometimes be shot (and +after all to be shot is a less cruel end than to fall a prey to their +natural enemies), but to shoot a well-known bird simply for the sake of +its skin is another matter. A man who shoots every rare bird he sees, +that he may add it to his private collection, is sacrificing bird-life +for his own selfish pleasure and disregarding the sentiments and +interests of the great body of nature-lovers and students. The true +naturalist does not collect specimens as he would postage stamps; to +study the life of a wren in its natural surroundings is more to him +than anything he can do with the dried skin of a golden eagle. + +They say that there is in Switzerland a law which forbids the shooting +of any bird without a licence. If some such law could be enforced here, +rare birds that seek hospitality among us would no longer be at the +mercy of every idle lout who happens to have a gun. And is it +impossible that children might be taught to find pleasure in watching, +and not, as seems generally the case now, in destroying life? + +We often have a pair of missel-thrushes ("shercocks" in Cheshire) +nesting here. Generally they build in a tree at some distance away, +where they make their presence known by noisy attacks on other birds; +but once they had their nest in a Scotch fir close to the house, and +then they were so quiet as almost to escape notice altogether. + +There were two nests in the old churchyard this year (1912). One in a +Spanish Chestnut was about thirty feet from the ground, in the middle +of a clump of little shoots that grew straight up on the top side of a +thick branch. This branch overhangs a patch of grass running close to +the boundary wall and on this green boys were playing football with +much shouting and noise every evening. The nest stood out plainly to be +seen, and for a week before they flew (which they did on April 20th) +you could easily count all four young ones. The other nest was in a +yew, under which there is a seat in summer, and was simply set on the +top of one of the lowest spreading boughs without any attempt at +concealment. It was at the end of the bough and not six feet from the +ground, within easy reach of anyone. It could, however, only be seen +when you were actually under the tree and probably would never have +been noticed at all but for the behaviour of the birds themselves. +After the eggs were hatched they attacked everybody who went under or +even near the tree, swooping down suddenly from you didn't know where +and almost dashing into your face, indeed they would often hit your +hat. I am glad to say this display of courage was not wasted, for the +young birds safely flew on May 17th. + +Missel-thrush is said to be short for mistletoe-thrush, and to mark the +singular taste of the bird for mistletoe berries. Mistletoe is scarce +with us, but they do appear to depend more upon berries of every kind +than either throstles or blackbirds, and one year I remember when the +yews bore an extraordinary crop of berries, the trees were quite alive +with the missel-thrushes that came to eat them. I would say, by the +way, that a great part of the holly berries are sometimes left +untouched by birds, and I have seen trees in summer quite red with the +berries of the previous year. + +One or two missel-thrushes generally come to the food-stand in winter +and show themselves expert in getting fat from the supposed +sparrow-proof receptacles. + +Though missel-thrushes are common their song is not familiar. It has +been described as much better than a throstle's; I do not know if that +is the general opinion. It certainly is simpler without the same +repetition, and it has seemed to me more mellow, more like a +blackbird's when I have heard it, but that is not often. Throstles will +sometimes sing continuously all the winter through, and early in the +year I have listened most carefully to catch the notes of their bigger +brothers, but only very seldom with success. They have, however, an +autumn song which I first noticed at the end of September a good many +years ago. I became aware one day of a bird's song that seemed to be +sometimes the note of a blackbird, sometimes of a throstle. After +listening for several days I came to the conclusion that it must have +been one of the many starlings that were singing everywhere, one that +had learnt more or less successfully to imitate a throstle. However, I +never could make sure, for I never could catch sight of the singer, he +would hide himself in a holly or a yew, and would at once stop singing +if I went near. At last, one day I heard him at the top of a sycamore +which was nearly bare of leaves, and managed to bring a glass to bear +on him; even then his body was hidden by a bough and his head was all +that I could see, but the head was plainly that of a thrush. While I +watched I could distinctly see him turn his eye down on me, and he was +off in an instant; but though I only got a glimpse as he flew away, +there was no mistaking the flight of a missel-thrush. It seemed curious +to me at the time that he should be singing at all then, and that he +should be so shy about it. + +Song-thrushes, or throstles as they are called in Cheshire, are always +plentiful, but not always to the same extent. They were, for instance, +very much thinned in numbers by the hard winter of 1895, but in a +couple of years they abounded again, and I heard people complain of +their night's rest being spoilt, there were so many and they sang so +early and so loud. From April to June they sing almost incessantly, +from earliest light until quite dark. They begin at three in the +morning, or even earlier, and sing their loudest for about an hour; +then there seems somewhat of a lull, but they soon start again in full +chorus, and go on singing more or less throughout the day, sometimes +until past nine at night. In 1905, on the longest day of the year, I +woke at 2-30 a.m. to hear a throstle in full song just outside my +window, and at 9-30 p.m. a throstle, almost certainly the same bird, +was singing in the same place. I have often wondered how, with so much +time devoted to musical exercises, they manage to find enough for the +more important business of feeding themselves and their hungry broods. + +A blackbird's song is, I think, always a love song, but mere exuberance +of spirits will make a throstle sing. I have seen one sing snatches of +his song whilst hunting for worms on the grass, as though he were too +full of joyousness to contain himself, and a couple of them will sing +at one another during intervals of quarrelling on the ground. There +seems at all times more rivalry and contention between throstles +throughout the whole season, and less of the spirit of _camaraderie_ +that one so often sees with blackbirds, at least when once they have +settled the momentous question of pairing. + +Within the bounds of general similarity much variety can be heard in +the songs of throstles; no two seem to be exactly alike, and some birds +are far better singers, have a much clearer, more musical note than +others. + +In 1907, and again in 1909, I noticed that throstles were in full song +everywhere on July 15th, just as though it had been the middle of May. + +A particular throstle will choose his favourite spot to sing from, and +will keep to it more or less throughout the season. The point of a +gable of the house is one such place (it is a Cheshire belief that a +throstle brings you good luck when he chooses your house to sing +from), the top of the highest chimney has been another, and the +weathercock on the outbuildings has been chosen year after year by a +throstle as his own peculiar stand. This last is a favourite platform +for the musical performances of other birds as well; a robin constantly +uses it, and a swallow, and more than once I have seen a little wren +there singing away with all his might, a might altogether out of +proportion to his tiny body. + +Whilst most throstles seem to like as high a perch as possible to sing +from, I remember one that habitually poured forth the flood of his +melody raised above the level of the ground by a clod of earth only. + +One morning (in March, 1897) I heard a throstle uttering a peculiar +shrill kind of cry, not a long-drawn-out note such as I have twice +heard from a blackbird, but a succession rather of short notes. At +first I couldn't make out what or where the noise was, but traced it +after a time to the thrush, who continually uttered the cry as he was +hunting for worms on the grass. + +A standing marvel is the way in which a thrush can tell that there is a +worm below the ground at a particular place. As he goes hopping about +in a promiscuous sort of way, he suddenly stops with his head on one +side looking and listening for a second, then he pounces on the exact +spot and forthwith pulls out a worm. Sometimes he makes a mistake, or, +at all events, fails to make a catch, but not often. How does he do it? +Does his quick sight detect some slight movement, or his quick ear some +slight sound? Or has he any other sense of smell or sensation that +helps him? Another marvel about the matter to anyone who has himself +tried to pull a worm out of the ground is the ease with which a thrush +manages so neatly and quickly to extract its victim entire. + +I have found a throstle's nest in the side of a haystack, and was told +of one in a pigstye and of another inside the porch of a house. In 1901 +a throstle built in the roof of the lychgate of the churchyard close to +this garden. Although the first nest was taken she made another in the +same place and had very nearly hatched her eggs when again the +thoughtless cruelty of boys made all her labour vain and abused the +confidence she had so bravely shown in men. She used to sit on quite +calmly, though only just above the heads of people as they went through +the gate. + +Generally speaking, throstles are so tame here that they hardly move +out of your way, at most hopping a foot or two further off; and one +will go on with his song undisturbed as I pass through an archway of +pink thorn on which he is perched not two feet above. They are +naturally, I think, more friendly in their disposition towards human +beings than blackbirds, which go clattering off whenever they see you +near them. + +In May, 1902, there must have been at least 20 throstles' nests in the +garden itself. There were five, all in holly bushes, within 30 yards, +by the side of one path, two in one tree, both of which had young ones +in them at the same time. One bird had a nest just over the entrance to +the house porch, through which we were in and out the whole day long, +and we saw nothing of it until the young were hatched. Another chose an +extraordinarily exposed situation, in a rhododendron just opposite the +front door, from which we could see her quite plainly as she sat. The +nest was actually not more than a foot or so from a little narrow path. +We were constantly up and down this path and could hardly avoid +brushing the leaves at the end of the very bough on which the nest was +built, yet I never once saw her fly off. She used to keep her eye on +us, but did not move even if we stood still only a few feet away and +looked at her. This nest was under continual observation from the +laying of the first egg to the flight of the last nestling, which +remained for the best part of a day after the rest had flown. + +On the other hand, in strange contrast to this confidence, there were +three nests farther away from the house (one indeed absurdly close to a +gate in constant use), from which the birds flew off with a loud, +startled cry if one waited for a moment near them. In one of these +three nests the brood was reared, but of the other two one was deserted +and one taken. + +In 1899 a friend in the village assured me that there had been a +throstle's nest with eight eggs in it close to her house. As only four +of them, she said, hatched, perhaps the first hen was killed after she +had laid her complement of eggs, and the cock brought home another mate +to his ready-made nest. + +I find a note that once I saw throstles join with starlings in their +raid upon elder-berries, but I have seen nothing since to confirm this. + +Until the winter of 1910-11 I very seldom found a throstle attempt to +get the fat put out for tits; they generally content themselves with +the crumbs that have fallen on the ground underneath. If the weather is +at all severe they will come with sparrows to the fowls' food, but in a +sharp, continuous frost they disappear almost entirely. (Blackbirds and +some missel-thrushes remain.) This was very marked in February, 1902. +Before the severe cold began throstles were plentiful; after it had +continued for a few days not a single one was to be seen; but when the +thaw set in, in less than a week they abounded again on every side. + +Some redwings come here every winter, but they are less common than +fieldfares and they are not so noticeable. The points of difference +between a redwing and a throstle, the rather smaller size, the red on +the side, the slight variations in shades of colour and markings, may +easily be passed over. + +I have from my window seen a single redwing quite close to the house, +in company with a single fieldfare, both busy with the holly berries, +and in February, 1909, I saw all five of the commoner British thrushes +collected together and between them quite covering a field which had +lately been broken up by a subsoil cultivator. + +A farmer tells me that the local name for redwing is "Kit," but I see +in "The Birds of Cheshire" that "Kit" is given as one of the names for +fieldfare. + +We see fieldfares chiefly when they first arrive in October, and again +in early spring, before they leave, but, of course, there are some with +us most of the winter. The people here call them "Bluebacks," and it +was remarked as a curious thing in the late cold spring of 1891 that on +April 24th bluebacks were heard on one side of a field and a cuckoo on +the other. + +[Illustration: Old Yew Tree.] + +Blackbirds are, I think, nearly as plentiful as throstles, in spite of +relentless persecution by strawberry-growing market gardeners. +Sometimes, indeed, one is oneself compelled to own that we have a few +more blackbirds than we really want. In hot, dry summers, when the +ground is hard, they do much damage to the apple crop. Not content with +making short work with the "windfalls," they peck holes in some of the +best fruit on the trees. I noticed this especially in 1899, and again +in 1901 and 1911. In 1899 I saw four cock blackbirds amicably devouring +a fallen apple together. + +Though a blackbird's song is beautifully mellow, it is generally +disconnected and fragmentary, but I remember hearing one once that +seemed continuous, or at least much more so than usual. + +One day at the end of March (in 1895) I saw perched on a twig of an oak +tree and sitting quite close up against the trunk, a cock blackbird, +which continually uttered a small, thin sharp note, almost like the +squeaking of a slate pencil. He sat still in the same position for a +considerable time, only opening his mouth at intervals of about a +minute, or half a minute, to make this doleful noise. The same year, on +June 15th, in exactly the same place, a cock blackbird went through +exactly the same performance. + +Every winter blackbirds have been amongst the most regular pensioners +at the food-stand. + +Several times during May in 1898, and again in 1899 and 1900 and since, +I noticed a meeting of three, always, I think, three, cock blackbirds +at one particular spot, always the same, near a holly tree on the +lawn, which happens to be just opposite my window, where I could watch +them easily and unobserved. They seemed to go through a regular set +performance, like a game or a dance. They did not fight, though they +sometimes sparred a little, but ran round and round and in and out, +following and passing one another. It reminded me of a friendly +gathering of husbands for amusement, while their wives were busy with +household cares at home! + +I was much interested one day (March, 1902) in the proceedings of two +pair of blackbirds. One very elegant cock, slender and graceful, with +intensely black coat and very bright orange bill, was seeking to +impress the hen of his choice by a series of little runs on every side +of her, with his tail spread out and sweeping the grass, his body in +the shape of a bow, his beak almost touching the ground; meanwhile, the +object of all this attention seemed to consider it a mere matter of +course and to be calmly indifferent. Presently another cock, not nearly +so spruce, came on the scene accompanied by another mate. The gallant +dandy evidently had no stomach for fighting, and promptly disappeared +behind a holly bush when the newcomer threatened to assault him. His +partner, however, was made of sterner stuff, and without more ado +attacked and drove away both the intruders. + +I have never heard that there is any real difference in size, but hen +blackbirds appear bigger than cocks, just as young gulls in immature +plumage seem larger than old ones. I suppose the different colour has +something to do with it, and perhaps the cock's feathers are more +closely set than the hen's. + +My wife told me that she had seen one evening in September (1907) 16 +blackbirds on the tennis ground together. This seems perhaps rather a +large order, as they say, but in the following September I counted nine +myself, to the best of my belief, all of them cocks. + + + + +IV. + +CHATS, ROBINS AND WARBLERS. + + +In spring, and again in autumn, wheatears pass through, and may be seen +about for several days at a time. In April and May, 1908, a pair stayed +so long in some rough ground near the bank of the Ship Canal that I +thought they might be going to take up their quarters there for the +season, but by May 31st they had disappeared. + +We always have a fair number of whinchats in the meadows, and hardly a +year passes without seeing them on the grass in the garden itself. One +very wet summer, when in the low-lying lands the haycocks were standing +for days surrounded by water, I remember being struck by the number of +whinchats to be seen perching and chatting first on one haycock and +then on another. + +Though whinchats are so comparatively common, and their usual note, +exactly like the knocking of two pebbles together, is constantly heard, +their pretty little song, a cadence of a few notes repeated over and +over again, I do not remember to have noticed here. + +Only once have I seen a stonechat in the neighbourhood of this garden. +This was in October, 1890. On the opposite side of the river the land +had been raised by material excavated in the making of the Ship Canal, +and was at that time wild and covered with a strong growth of all kinds +of weeds. It was on a wire fence that ran along this bank that I saw +the bright little bird. And there, with a curious pendulum-like +movement of its tail, it continued to sit for a considerable time, +giving me ample opportunity to study it leisurely through a +field-glass. + +Though redstarts are not uncommon in Dunham Park a few miles away, only +once have I seen one in the garden, in August, 1894. It stayed for +several days, and was never far away from the place where I first saw +it. I noticed that other birds who are at home here, wagtails +especially, seemed to look upon it as an interloper and resented its +intrusion. + +One of the first things that I remember about the natural history of +Warburton is a brood of four white--or more strictly speaking, +cream-coloured--robins that were hatched in a neighbouring garden in +1872. They were jealously watched over by the owner of the garden, and +I often saw two of them until the autumn. Then they must either have +been taken (and many people were after them) or have moulted to the +ordinary robin colours, for we saw them no more. + +Robins are plentiful in the garden and in the neighbourhood generally. +They show much courage and skill in getting at the fat on the +food-stand, no matter how greatly the difficulties of doing so may have +been multiplied. + +It has been said that robins have more power than most birds to see +through the window into a room, and I certainly have observed that +though as a rule neither robins nor tits take much notice if I am +standing close by the window, yet sometimes a robin appears that will +spy me out as I sit by the fire quite far away and be off in an +instant. I have sometimes wondered if such wild robins might be +immigrants from the Continent, where by all accounts they are less tame +than in England. + +Robins are pugnacious, and their duels are not unfrequently to the +death. I have seen a robin pursue a sparrow and even fly straight at a +great-tit and knock it off the food-stand, but I have noticed that +generally a robin makes way for a sparrow, and seldom stands up to a +tit of any kind, not even a marsh or a coal-tit, birds hardly half its +size. I remember one, however, in the winter of 1900-01 who +indiscriminately attacked all tits on the food-stand. He was very +friendly with me, and used to watch as I filled the receptacles, when +he would come close up and wait for a bit to be thrown to him, and +often as he saw me coming he would sit on a corner of the porch roof +and warble a little song of welcome. Another year (1901-02) two, +sometimes three, and occasionally four, robins would be there together +almost under my feet and ready to pick up anything I threw them. Very +unlike most robins, they seemed on perfectly good terms with one +another. + +In November, 1905, a robin used to come into the house through the open +windows and make himself quite at home; he would sometimes sit and sing +on the bannisters in the hall. + +I saw a very tame robin at Budworth in 1904. I was in the garden with +the lady to whom it belonged when the bird flew on to her hand, and he +used to come into the drawing-room without any hesitation and take his +place at afternoon tea. + +In 1910 a pair of robins built in the pulpit desk of Oughtrington +Church near here, and hatched out four young ones. A friend who went to +service one Sunday evening in June saw a robin flying about and singing +until the sermon began, but then it took up a position on the back of a +seat near the pulpit and looked up at the preacher, quite silent and +apparently listening. + +One of the prettiest little episodes of bird-life is the delicate +attention bestowed by a robin on the chosen partner of his joys and +cares that I have several times witnessed during April and May. Whilst +she remained watching and waiting on the ground below, he would fly up +to the food-stand and secure a morsel which, with a tender grace, he +presented to her. The gallant devotion so plainly expressed by the one +and the caressing, coquetting airs of the other were most amusing. I +have seen, too, about the same time of the year, one robin feeding +another with flies picked from the grass and the lower boughs of a +deadara tree. The robin that was being fed did not attempt to pick up +anything for itself, but sat there on the grass quivering its wings and +opening its mouth like a nestling. + +Robins often catch flies in the air, flying up from the ground after +them, and I have seen one dart off from the branch of a tree, capture a +passing fly and return again to the same perch, for all the world like +a flycatcher. + +One showery day in spring I saw a robin on the food-stand washing +itself in the rain, spreading out its wings, shaking its feathers, +bobbing and ducking about as though it had been in a bath, and I have +noticed one washing in wet leaves and drinking from the tips of leaves. + +Greater whitethroats are as common in this garden and neighbourhood as +in most places. One that had its nest by the old river bank used to +come and scold whenever I went near, and never ceased until I left. +Such a proceeding looks like a case of instinct playing a bird false, +and serving only to draw attention to what it is wished to conceal. + +Lesser whitethroats come to us every year, and may be said to be fairly +common in the village. They are always shy and restless and more +frequently heard than seen. + +There was a lesser whitethroat's nest one year (1898) in a holly bush, +in which all five young ones used to be, whenever I looked at them, +apparently sleepy, with their heads shoved up over the side of the +nest. They never opened their mouths when we went near, and yet often +as I watched I never saw the parents feed them. + +Blackcaps are not uncommon within easy reach of us, but only twice have +I seen one actually in the garden. The first time the unusual sound of +its wonderfully clear note attracted my attention was in July, 1899. +The bird stayed here then for several days, singing occasionally all +the while. The second time a blackcap came was in May, 1903. It was in +the garden for about ten days, and I hoped it might be going to nest +here, especially as one day I thought I saw a pair. + +I noticed a difference in habits between the July bird and the one that +came in May. In July, when the joys and cares of family life were over, +there was more deliberation and less shyness. I was able to watch the +bird easily and for a long time together. In May he was restless and +very wary, and it was with difficulty I could get a glimpse of him. He +was always on the move, hunting about in the tops of the trees, and, I +thought, singing in competition with the willow-wrens. + +The blackcap is often placed next to the nightingale as a songster, but +there is a very wide interval between them. The most inattentive +listener can hardly fail to notice a nightingale's song, but people who +are not accustomed to distinguish the different notes of birds are +often quite unaware of the presence of a singing blackcap, as the tone +of his song mingles with the general chorus. + +Golden-crested wrens are not uncommon in winter, but I have never found +a nest here. I notice them most often in October and November, as they +are hunting in and out the yews and Scotch firs, sometimes a large +party, sometimes only a single pair. + +One June day I was sitting in a cousin's garden in Wales, when out of +an arbor-vitæ close by appeared a dilapidated-looking gold-crest, which +set to work violently and persistently to abuse me. Herein, I think, +like the whitethroat mentioned before, it displayed either a perversion +of instinct or a want of sense. If it had only kept quiet I should not +have thought of a nest, but it told me so plainly that it had one in +that very tree that I looked as a matter of course and found it, +packed with fully-fledged young ones. + +Chiffchaffs never stay with us, though they are to be found only a few +miles away, but I sometimes see them and hear their well-known note in +spring and autumn for a day or two. + +Willow-warblers abound ("Peggy whitethroat" is the Cheshire name), and +it is a delight to catch for the first time each spring their lovely +little song, of which, unlike the wearisome iteration of the +chiffchaff, one never tires. The American naturalist, John Burroughs, +describes the willow-warbler's strain as the most melodious he heard in +England, and the only one exhibiting the best qualities of American +songsters. He adds: "It is too fine for the ordinary English ear!" As +if on a visit of a few weeks to a strange country he could possibly +know what most English people either thought or liked! + +Willow-wrens as a rule keep pretty high up in the trees, but one +sometimes sees them on the grass picking up flies or flying up after +them in the air. Later on in summer they hunt for insects in the +kitchen garden, and are often to be seen running up and down the +pea-sticks. + +Though silent in July, they sing again after the middle of August. I +have known a willow-wren's nest here in the middle of a roughish piece +of ground that was continually walked over, about as unprotected +position as you could wish, and yet the young were successfully reared. +I have seen a willow-wren attack and drive away a perfectly inoffensive +marsh-tit that happened to alight near it on the grass. + +The wood-wren, with its "sibilous shivering note," I have heard at +Budworth, a few miles away, but never in this garden or immediate +neighbourhood. + +The garden-warbler, too, is quite a stranger, and I have never +recognised it in these parts at all. In May, 1900, I saw and heard one +for several days in a garden in North Wales, where it is generally +supposed to be unknown. + +Sedge-warblers sing incessantly when first they come, but after they +have been here for a little while are much less frequently heard. They +usually are hidden in the depths of a bush when singing, but I have +seen one pouring out its impetuous song mounted on a telephone wire in +the open, 20 feet from the ground, and another that sang as it was +flying. For several years a sedge-warbler has begun to sing again here +in July, not having been heard for some weeks previously. In 1907, for +example, from July 24th to August 2nd, he could, without much +exaggeration, be said to have sung all day and all night. I heard him +at seven in the morning when I got up and at twelve at night when I +went to bed, and I have a note of much the same thing in 1910, about +the same date. The bird that year chose as his special platform the +lower branches of a sycamore, and would every now and then fly off into +the air singing all the while at the very top of his voice, and then +return to the tree to sing again. + +Hedgesparrows are common enough all the year round, and are great +favourites of mine. They are elegant birds in their modest way, they +are unobtrusive and useful, and their song, if not brilliant, is +pleasant, and like that of the wren and the robin, it helps to cheer +the dull winter months when the more famous warblers are away enjoying +the warmth of some sunny southern country. + +There is no month in the year in which at one time or another I have +not heard the hedge-sparrow's song, but March is the time of all others +to hear it, then it seems impossible to get away from it at any hour of +the day. + +Hedgesparrows creep about in a mouse-like fashion peculiar to +themselves, with a series of little running jumps, and the continual +shuffling or flipping movement of their wings is very noticeable. + +They will take their share of the fowls' food with other birds, and +will come all round the food-stand and pick up the minutest morsels of +something on the ground, but (except in the case of a bird in the cold +weather of January, 1902), I have never seen one make an attempt to get +at the food on the stand itself. + +Sometimes on first turning out on a dark winter's morning, between +seven and eight, hedgesparrows will be squatting on the path, and will +almost let you walk over them before they get out of your way. + + + + +V. + +TITS AND WRENS. + + +Only once, in August, 1904, have I caught sight of a party of +long-tailed tits in the garden, but a friend who lived hardly a mile +away used to tell me that little parties of eight or nine might be seen +flying through his orchard nearly every winter. I think he said they +called them "churns," or something that sounded like that. + +Great-tits are common the whole year round; and very handsome they look +when their suits of velvet-black and yellow are at their best. They are +constant visitors to the food-stand, and are not baffled by any +contrivance for excluding sparrows, but they are not so plucky or so +clever at it as tom-tits. They are hectoring, full of bustle and +importance, and make themselves generally disagreeable to other birds, +but I have seldom, if ever, seen one great-tit attack another. +Sometimes one sees a pair of the quietest possible character; on the +most affectionate terms with one another they will come to the stand +together and appear perfectly oblivious of the presence there of any +other birds. + +It is not at all uncommon to see a great-tit with a crooked tail, +slightly sickle-shaped. It cannot always be the same bird, for it is 16 +years since I first noticed a bird with such a tail, and nearly every +year still (1912) I see one. + +One may often hear a tapping sound in trees and shrubs that is made by +a great-tit, and I have watched the bird after considerable tapping +draw out a grub of some sort from under the bark. I noticed on another +occasion that a tit in making this tapping noise was beating something +(through the glass it looked like a beetle) which it held in its beak +against a bough of the tree. + +Like tom-tits, great-tits will fly off with grains of Indian corn, and, +like coal-tits, they are fond of sunflower seeds. (In spite of what +Gilbert White says, I have never seen tom-tits here touch sunflower +seeds.) + +A great-tit has a note very much like the "pink, pink" of a chaffinch, +which he occasionally uses. + +Though great-tits are, no doubt, handsome birds, they are not nearly so +interesting in my opinion as either of the other three common kinds of +tit. None of them, indeed, can really compare in interest with that +audacious little villain, the tom-tit, or blue-tit, or, as he is called +here, blue-cap. He is so full of spirits, so resolute and domineering, +I delight to hear his cheery little song, if it is to be called a +song. + +[Illustration: Sundial in Old Church Yard.] + +Tom-tits in abundance come to the food-stand, which in the first +instance was specially intended for their benefit. They will come more +or less the whole year through if the food is left there, but, of +course, many more in winter than in summer, and most of all in February +and the beginning of March, when I have counted twelve on the stand at +once, but the numbers fall off very quickly towards the middle of +March. + +I have noticed every year that at certain times of the day, especially +from about 12.30 to 1.30, there is a marked increase in numbers. In +winter at least no five minutes passes without one or more birds +appearing, but at mid-day, and again to a lesser extent just before it +begins to get dark, they seem literally to swarm. + +I have found that all tits, as well as sparrows and robins, prefer a +mixture of bread and fat to fat alone. During February and March, 1897, +I weighed all the bread and fat consumed on the food-stand and found +that it was as nearly as possible eleven pounds. Lately I have added +cocoanuts to the bill of fare; they are appreciated by the tits, but +blackbirds, robins and thrushes prefer the bread and fat mixture, or +rather they do not seem to care at all for the cocoanuts. + +It is curious to see how quickly birds discover that food has been put +out on the stand. One year, after the receptacles had been empty for +weeks in the summer, I put in some fat, and in less than five minutes +a tom-tit was there. Another time I made a longish block of wood, +bored nearly through with holes, which were filled with fat smoothed +off level with the surface. This block was hung with the holes +downwards, so that from above it could look like a bit of wood only. It +was hung up at 10.30 a.m., and at 11.30 a tom-tit had found it out, and +was eating away at the fat as he clung to the block back downwards. + +Tom-tits, unlike great-tits, bully one another most unmercifully. They +can recognize each other at a great distance. A tom-tit on the +food-stand seems to know at once whether another arriving on the +nearest tree, some ten yards or more away, is his superior or inferior +in prowess. Sometimes he will ruffle up his feathers as if in +resentment at threatened intrusion, at other times he is prepared to +make way at once. As is the case with a herd of cows on a farm, the +relative standing between them seems to be an acknowledged matter and +is seldom contested. To us a couple of tom-tits appear as like as two +peas if we have them actually in the hand, and though it is easy to +understand that they can themselves distinguish differences at close +quarters, and may have some other sense than we have to help them, yet +it is a marvellous thing that they can do so without doubt or +hesitation at a distance of yards. + +The whole question as to how birds recognize one another is very +interesting. We know that a shepherd can tell one sheep of his flock +from another as easily as we can distinguish between two men, but in +the feathered face of a bird there seems to us so little room for +difference of expression, and, generally speaking, if we take feather +by feather the description of one bird will apply equally well to any +other of the same species. + +Tom-tits as a rule make way for a great-tit, but I have seen them fight +occasionally, and the tom-tit does not always come off second-best. +They are complete masters of both marsh and coal-tits, neither of which +dream of resisting them. They pay scarcely any heed one way or another +to sparrows or robins. + +Both tom-tits and great-tits in the flush of their spring-time ardour +pay to their chosen helpmates the same delicate attentions as do +robins. It is always a pretty picture to see them present their +offerings of food, but with tits it seems a rather more business-like +matter and to lack something of the tender sentiment so plainly shown +by the robins. + +Though not nearly so plentiful as tom-tits, both marsh and coal-tits +are with us more or less all the year round. Of the two, perhaps the +marsh-tit is the more regular, sometimes a pair seem to make the garden +their headquarters and to be always about, but several years may pass +without our seeing one coal-tit; then they will become almost as common +as tom-tits for a year or so, when again the number will dwindle down +to, it may be, a single pair. + +Some years ago all four kinds of tit used to come together to the +food-stand, but (with the exception of a pair of coal-tits in the +winter of 1910-11) since 1899 tom-tits and great-tits have had it all +to themselves, neither marsh nor coal-tits have been there, though both +are still frequent visitors to the garden at all times of the year. + +In June broods of young tits appear flying from tree to tree in little +parties. The old birds tirelessly hunt for food, whilst the +greeny-yellowy little ones sit expecting and cheeping among the boughs. + +In comparing the marsh and coal-tits together one might imagine that +they each originally had the same amount of black allowed them for the +head, but while the marsh-tit preferred to have all his in one patch at +the back, the coal-tit would have a bit cut out to make a bib for his +chin! Of the two the marsh-tit is my favourite. I like the delicate +tints of its more sober colouring better than the more contrasted yet +more commonplace colours of the coal-tit. + +There seems something savouring of meanness about coal-tits; they are +cautious and artful and carry away their food presumably to store, +there is not time to have swallowed it before they are back again at +the stand. + +A pair of coal-tits that were here one winter seemed quite demoralised +by the food-stand, and to have altogether given up hunting for their +natural food. + +Both kinds are perfectly amicable together, but a marsh will make way +for a coal-tit. The marsh-tit seems to excite special animosity in +tom-tits, whilst the coal-tit watches his opportunity, and, nipping in +just at the right moment, escapes much persecution. Of the two the +coal-tit has a more musical voice and a greater variety of notes, but +once (in 1899) when watching a party of marsh-tits, I heard, besides +the usual harsh note, a kind of continuous warble every now and then, +which I could attribute to no other bird, though I could not actually +see a marsh-tit uttering it. + +The delightful little wrens are always with us, and the loud, clear +ringing notes of their sweet song may be heard almost throughout the +year. In July, when most birds are silent, the wren does his best to +make up for it, he seems to take a pleasure in having the field to +himself, and his song may be heard, and often his alone every day until +the middle of August. By that time some of the robins, having recovered +from their moult, begin to tune up, and the wren leaves it to them to +keep the ball going whilst he retires from the scene to complete his +own change of feather. Apparently with such a tiny body to cover that +is not a long business, for his bright little voice may be heard again +early in September. I always myself feel inclined to say "thank you" at +the conclusion of a wren's musical effort, and have been surprised to +find that there are people, it may be many people, who do not hear his +song at all of themselves, and when their attention is specially drawn +think it "only a bird squeaking!" + +Wrens never seem to be tame in the same way that robins are, nor do +they ever attempt to get at the food on the stand, or to share in the +fowls' meals, but they often come close to the windows, creeping up and +down the frames, in quest of spiders and other small game. + +A sight was reported to me the other day that I would have given a good +deal to have seen with my own eyes. When for two days in January (1912) +the ground was thickly covered with snow, I put a plate of scraps for +the birds in the open porch. In the evening of the second day of snow, +when the maid went to light the porch lamp, she saw this plate, as she +described it, full of wrens (little birds with their tails turned up +over their backs, she called them); there must have been, she thought, +certainly not less than fifteen of them. When they saw her they flew +off in a flock to the creeper outside, just where for two or three +years there has been a wren's nest. Perhaps this little company was +made up of the family that owned that nest as their home. In was in +1909 that a wren first built there among the stems of the Virginian +creeper close to the front door. The body of the nest was quite hidden +between the creeper and the wall, the little entrance-hole alone being +visible. We constantly saw the bird going in and out, taking a turn to +stretch his wings or bringing home provisions for his household, and +often he would sit close by and give vent to his feelings in a joyous +burst of song. He appears to have been pleased with the success of his +first venture on this site, for he has used the very same nest for the +last two years. + +A wren has the same directness of flight as a kingfisher or a dipper; +it has none of the up and down course of most small birds, but it +follows a bee-line to its destination, with rapidly-beating wings, but +making comparatively slow progress. I was much struck by this, as one +day I watched a wren fly from a low bush to a height of 40 or 50 feet +up a poplar, it seemed to take quite an age to get there. + + + + +VI. + +WAGTAILS, FLYCATCHERS, SWALLOWS AND OTHER INSECT-EATERS. + + +Pied wagtails never entirely desert us, though, of course, there are +many more, and they are much more in evidence, in summer than in +winter. It is a continual pleasure to watch them, to see the speed with +which they run in pursuit of a fly, the deftness of the capture, and +the satisfaction so plainly displayed at the feat, by the eloquent +balancing of the long tail. One day in August (1899) I watched a +wagtail through a glass, and distinctly saw him capture and devour four +"daddy-long legs" in succession. Besides running after them on the +ground, they will often fly up at insects in the air. + +Pied wagtails are no respecters of persons as far as other birds are +concerned; I have seen a single wagtail at one time pursuing a peewit, +at another a sandpiper, and their encounters with swallows on the grass +are most amusing to watch. When the swallows are flying low the +wagtails will deliberately fly at them and even for a little way after +them. + +A family of pied wagtails usually take possession of the lawn opposite +one of our windows, and we can observe the process of education in the +art of catching flies, from the stage in which the young are content +to be fed entirely by their parents through that in which they +supplement the supply by their own efforts, until finally little +difference in skill is to be noticed between old birds and the young. +This family appear to resent the intrusion of other birds on their +domain (as shown in their behaviour towards swallows), and I have seen +them persistently drive away young yellow wagtails who presumed to +trespass on their hunting ground. + +Yellow wagtails are not so often seen in the garden, though they are +plentiful enough in the neighbourhood. They are lively and attractive +and their bright colour contrasts strongly with the freshly ploughed +earth so that their arrival is always noticed by the farmers and seems +to interest them more than the coming of any other migrant except the +cuckoo. + +Meadow pipits are common in the fields around, but I cannot remember +ever to have seen one actually in the garden. On a rough bit of ground +near the Ship Canal bridge they are always to be found, and I have +watched one there for twenty minutes or more at a time as he soared up +to a considerable height, singing all the time, and then came down +again to the ground with wings and tail spread out, after the manner of +a tree-pipit, with a little musical twitter just as he landed. It kept +repeating this performance over and over again all the time I was +there. + +For some years a tree-pipit used to take up his abode with us every +summer and give us the benefit of his energetic song. I was very much +amused once to watch him on some iron hurdles at the end of the garden. +He was so much in earnest and so full of energy; he would sing a little +bit, then run along the top rail a little way, then sing again, and so +on until he had gone nearly the whole length of the railings. This +entertainment he went through day after day for a fortnight or more at +the end of June and the beginning of July. + +Spotted flycatchers have not been as common with us lately as they were +at one time, when they always made their home here during their summer +visit to this country, and were constantly in evidence. We have not had +a nest for several years, and last year (1911) I did not see a single +flycatcher in the garden, but this year, I am glad to say, they have +come back again and there has been a nest in the ivy on the house wall. +It was placed so low down that we could easily look into it, but never +once did I surprise the old bird; she seemed to hear one's footsteps at +a distance, and long before one reached the nest she was off. The young +were hatched on June 29th, but their eyes did not open until July 6th. +Whilst they were blind and as they grew bigger the nest seemed much +too small for them, and often one fancied two of them must inevitably +have been smothered, as they were quite hidden under the other three. +Even after they could see there was some confusion during the heat of +the day; but it was one of the prettiest sights imaginable when they +were tucked in for the night; all five heads with their sharp little +beaks and bright black eyes were arranged in perfect order, all looking +together in the same direction out of the nest. People in the village +call these birds by the name of "old man," and it seems expressive, +somehow peculiarly appropriate to their greyish colouring and quiet +unobtrusive manners. + +For five years running a pair of flycatchers built in a fork of a thick +ivy-stem on the old church tower. They chose a most exposed place by +the side of a walk trodden by dozens of visitors to the church nearly +every day of the summer. The first time we noticed it (in 1894) the +nest was so low and so exposed that nothing could save it. In 1895, +when it was placed higher up and better concealed, the young were +successfully reared. In 1896 they chose a position actually not more +than three feet from the ground, and yet, marvellous to relate, owing +to watchful care on the part of human friends, and the continual +replacing of a screen of ivy leaves, they scored another success. In +1897, though the site was higher up and apparently much safer, the +young birds were taken, but in 1898 they were again able to escape the +attentions of cats and boys and bring off their brood without mishap; +in 1899 they wisely abandoned the dangerous situation altogether. + +I was once watching a flycatcher perched on the food-stand opposite and +close to my open window, when I noticed that besides a +constantly-repeated weak single note, it had every now and then a +cadence of two and again of three notes, and sometimes a very faint +kind of inward warble. + +The iron boundary hurdles on the south side of the garden are a +favourite stand for flycatchers, and I have seen them busily occupied +there in catching flies, which they carried to their young ones in the +trees near by, whilst every now and then the prettily-marked youngsters +would themselves come down to the top rail and sit there to be fed. +Croquet hoops on the grass near these hurdles seem to have a great +attraction for them. Two, sometimes three, would be there at the same +time. After each pursuit of a passing fly they would return now to the +same hoop, now to another, and sometimes they seemed to go the round of +all the hoops in turn. Every day throughout the summer they would be +there, and in the white line under each hoop was left indisputable +evidence of their regular occupation. + +Towards the end of July, 1902, we were much interested in a pair of +flycatchers with their little family of three. One of the old birds +would spend its time catching flies for the young ones, whilst the +other rested, sitting quite unconcerned by itself on the rails. When +the working parent brought a fly to one of the family the other two +would hurry up, and there was constantly a small crowd of four +gesticulating little birds in one part or other of the lawn. Between +the intervals of being fed the young birds learnt to forage for +themselves, not, I noticed, flying off the ground after insects, but +running after them on the grass. These five birds stayed with us until +September 9th. They often flew down from the trees to catch flies on +the grass, and would hover in front of shrubs and tall plants whilst +they picked off the flies near them. + +When flycatchers have been on the croquet hoops and swallows were +flying low, they had not seldom to get pretty sharply out of the way to +avoid a collision, as the swallows appeared purposely to fly at them. + +In 1908 we were fortunate enough to see a bird here that is very seldom +found in Cheshire, namely, a pied flycatcher. It was in the evening of +August 25th that we saw it. The strange little bird came quite close up +to the French window of the room in which we were sitting, and we +noticed plainly the white patch on his wing. It did not seem at all +shy, and I watched it about the house for an hour or so. + +It is said in "The Fauna of Cheshire" that while birds are sometimes +seen during the spring migration, there is no other record of a pied +flycatcher in Cheshire on the return journey in autumn. + +Of swallows there is no lack. Nearly every year there are one or two +nests in the outbuildings, and in 1900 a pair began to build against +the wall of the house porch just over the front door. The wall was +perfectly flat, and they began to fasten mud against it as a +house-martin would have done. To save possible untoward consequences to +the hats of visitors I rigged up a shelf over the door; this, perhaps, +frightened them, at any rate, they did not go on with their work. + +In 1908 a pair set their minds on building in the old church, and build +they did in spite of all we could do in the way of keeping doors and +windows shut (they must have found their way through some broken quarry +of a window). However, when we saw that we were beaten we made the best +of it, and really there was very little mess, and it was pleasant to +hear them warbling in the roof. When the young birds were hatched in +July the old ones were more wary than ever. If they saw anyone in the +church, instead of going on to the nest, they would turn back and fly +away with their mouthful of dainties. However, by hiding, I managed to +see the nestlings fed, and noticed that though they were very +vociferous when they guessed there was an immediate prospect of their +hunger being satisfied, a warning note from the old bird seemed to +silence them at once. + +For a good many years a pair of swallows have nested in the porch of +the new church, and in 1910 an old trimmed straw hat that hung on a +nail in an outbuilding at the church-house was chosen by another pair +as a suitable foundation for their nest, and in this rather +strangely-placed nursery they brought up a young family. + +There is something very charming in the swallow's warbling song, beyond +its association with warm and beautiful weather; and when in autumn +they are congregating by thousands, to hear them all chanting together +as they fill the air, and, sailing round and round in widening and +interlacing circles, mount higher and higher until the highest are +almost out of sight, is to my mind wonderfully grand and impressive. + +Sometimes the swallows melt away without any noticeable gatherings, +while in other years they assemble in such flocks about the end of +September that in certain favourite hunting grounds the sky is almost +darkened by them, and to watch the intricate maze of perpetual motion +is enough to make one giddy, while as at intervals they sit resting, +they seem to stretch away for miles in long lines on the telegraph +wires. + +Swallows and wagtails apparently grudge one another (and flycatchers) a +share in their insect sporting rights, if their mutual spitefulness has +any meaning. This common taste for the same kind of food often brings +the three into close quarters, and it is curious to notice the +different methods they use to compass the same end; the swallow +ceaselessly rushing at full speed through the air, the wagtail trusting +to his nimbleness of foot, and the flycatcher making a series of little +excursions upwards after his prey. I have seen swallows walking about +on the grass and picking up flies, and when their young ones are +resting on the ground they will often bring them food there, alighting +by the side first of one and then of another. + +Ten years ago it was only on two or three houses in the village that +house-martins built, and they were seldom seen except in the immediate +neighbourhood of these, but now (1911) they have become comparatively +abundant everywhere. The wooden hay-sheds recently put up at many of +the farms seem to have attracted them in the first instance, but when +once they were led to look more closely into the matter they evidently +found that there were many more eligible building sites in Warburton +than they had had any idea of before. They have never yet made their +real home with us, but during the latter part of the summer they come +in crowds to the garden, and there are among them many only just able +to fly, who spend most of their time on the roof of the house, waiting +to be fed. + +[Illustration: A Corner in the Garden with Allium Dioscorides.] + +Two house-martins fell down a bedroom chimney here, and when I opened +the window to let them out, whilst one took advantage of it at once the +other kept flying round and round quite close up to the ceiling and +resting on a bell-wire that ran across. It was a long time, more than +half an hour, before I could persuade him that he was looking in the +wrong place for a way of escape. + +At one time after the Ship Canal had been begun and traffic had ceased +on the river, a large colony of sand-martins established themselves +under the disused towing-path almost opposite, and naturally they were +then plentiful enough. Now, as far as we are concerned, the river with +all its belongings is a thing of the past, and it is only occasionally +that we see the little brown birds hawking for flies in the garden. + +I was surprised not long ago to find in a field-sandpit, a mile away +from any other sand-martins' nests that I knew of, a solitary nest in a +hole within easy reach of my hand. The young must have been hatched, +for I watched the birds go in with food. + +Sand-martins have a peculiar interest as being perhaps the most +universally distributed of all small birds. One likes to think that +nearly everywhere one went, in Asia, Africa or America, the very same +little brown swallows might be seen ceaselessly flitting about, +bringing back to mind the green fields and cloudy skies of home in +England. + +Only once have I seen that other cosmopolitan, the tree-creeper, in the +garden. One morning in May, 1895, I heard a strange, small, rather +shrill song and found that it came from a little brown tree-creeper on +an oak just opposite my window. I watched it for some time through +field glasses as it climbed about, prying into every crack of the bark +and singing as it worked. + + + + +VII. + +SPARROWS AND OTHER FINCHES. + + +Although I have never myself seen a goldfinch in the garden, they have +been seen here, and on the rough ground near the Ship Canal they are +not uncommon, indeed, I have heard of several shillings a week being +made by birds that have been caught there in spite of County Council +orders. They are usually known here as "red linnets," but another +Cheshire name for them is "nickers." + +Greenfinches (green linnets in Cheshire) abound; in early spring they +are more than usually conspicuous, as in their brightest feather they +pursue one another in and out among the hollies and dark yew hedges. +Though then less evident to the eye, throughout the summer they let us +know by their unmistakable and wearisome notes that they are with us +still. + +As early as April 29th, in 1890, I watched a greenfinch on a thorn +opposite my window feeding what appeared to be a fully-fledged young +one. It was pumping up the food from its craw, in the same way that a +pigeon does. The end of April is so unusually early for a greenfinch +family to have flown, that perhaps it was only another instance of +delicate marital attention, such as I have noticed in the case of +robins and tits. + +In February, 1893, a hen hawfinch was shown me. It had just been shot +in the village, and in 1894 I heard of a nest in the gardens at Lymm +Hall, rather more than two miles away. + +My wife told me one morning in October, 1910, that she had seen on a +tree near her window a thick-set bird with a big head and short tail +and neck, whose colour she described as some shades of brown. Two or +three little birds appeared to be mobbing it, and it kept pecking at +them like a parrot. She only saw it for a minute or two, before it flew +away round the corner of the house. It altogether sounds as though it +might have been a hawfinch. + +House-sparrows abound here, and are interesting and amusing to the +unprejudiced looker-on who doesn't suffer from their depredations. +There is no denying that sparrows are vulgar, and bold and pushing, or +that they are tiresomely persevering in the mischief that they do. They +are coarsely built and have no song, while their monotonous chirp is +distracting, but they have that which for the race of life stands them +in more stead than either beauty or musical talent; they have courage +and intelligence, a wonderful power of adapting themselves to +circumstances and a sound healthy constitution, with a digestion that +an ostrich might envy. + +The food-stand has shown me what sparrows are and what they can do. +When I set it up I had no wish to feed sparrows, and could not bear to +see them devouring all before them in the greedy, systematic way that +they have. So I set my wits to work to see if I could not contrive +something by which they might be baffled without depriving the tits of +their food. It proved more than I could do to prevent any of the +sparrows getting any of the food, but I was able to make it more +difficult for them, so difficult that only a few could manage it. They +differ very much individually: some are far bolder and more +enterprising than others, but I have found that some sparrows can do +almost anything that a tit can do in the way of acrobatic performances, +though not, of course, with the same easy grace. I tried many devices. +I had seen somewhere that if food were suspended from a pliable twig +only tits would venture to attack it. It didn't take long to prove the +fallacy of this idea. The swinging of the net made not the slightest +difference to the sparrows; they alighted on it just as readily as if +it had been lying on the ground. Then I tried hanging the net at one +end of a stick and a movable weight at the other. The stick acted as a +balance, and the net went down directly a bird settled on it. This +instability frightened the sparrows for a long time, but in the end +they got quite used to it. It was the same with many other contrivances +that I tried, they answered their purpose for a time, it may be +altogether as far as most went, but in every case sooner or later some +sparrows learnt to overcome every difficulty, and it struck me that +each successive year they seemed to do so more easily, as though they +turned the experience of one year to good account in the next. + +In 1899 I made an apparatus like a windmill, with four arms, and food +in a kind of little box at the end of each. The arms, of course, went +down directly a bird touched them. This for a long time was effectual, +and I had begun to flatter myself that I had solved the problem, but +during a hard frost some one or two sparrows overcame their fears and +managed to get the fat, and when once they saw it might be done with +safety many others learnt the trick. I then complicated the idea into a +wheel, with eight arms, and food only at the extreme point of each. +This answered so far that no sparrow seemed able to get at the fat from +the revolving arm itself as they hung on to it (an easy feat for the +tits), but they used to hover opposite the ends of the arms and pick +out the food. (Robins did this also.) Independently of its effect in +discouraging the sparrows, the wheel afforded much amusement by the +antics it imposed upon the tits as they went round and up and down on +the arms. + +One plan I tried depended for its action on the difference of weight +between a sparrow and a tit. It was the opposite of the arrangement by +which sparrows are prevented from appropriating the food put out for +pheasants, where the pheasant opens the corn-box by his weight on the +perch outside. I tried so to arrange the balance that the heavier +sparrow was cut off from the hole which contained the food, whilst for +the tit it remained open. The practical drawback to this plan was the +nicety of adjustment required, for though a sparrow is more than twice +the weight of a tom-tit, the difference between the two weights is +little more than a quarter of an ounce. + +One of the most successful contrivances, after all, is one of the +simplest. Take a tin canister (one that I used was three inches long by +2-1/2 in diameter), hang it open end downwards by a string brought +through a hole in the other end, to this string fasten inside the tin a +bit of wood about the thickness of a large pencil, and let it hang like +the clapper in a bell, projecting a quarter of an inch below the bottom +rim of the tin. Plaster all round the inside of the tin with fat, +leaving the wooden tongue in the middle free for the birds to cling to. +In this way both great-tits and tom-tits can feed themselves without +difficulty, but only one sparrow in twenty can manage with much ado to +hold on and to eat at the same time. (To see a sparrow with his +less-practised feet clinging to the edge of the tin, back downwards, +just like a tit and helping himself to its contents is a good example +of the energetic enterprise and the adaptability of his nature.) Robins +do sometimes hold on to the tin in the same way, but generally they get +quite as much as they want by flying up and pecking at the fat. They +seem able to aim very accurately, and when the tin is nearly empty can +make sure of the smallest fragments. Sparrows also attack the food in +the same way by flying up at it, but they seem to find it more awkward, +owing, perhaps, to the small space between the sides of the tin and the +wood in the middle, which barely gives room for their larger heads and +clumsier beaks. + +Another successful plan was to suspend the fat within a roll of +inch-mesh wire netting. To begin with I put this on the food-stand, at +some little distance from my window, and though at first only tits and +robins would venture down within the roll of wire, after a time the +sparrows followed suit, and, of course, there was nothing to prevent +them getting as much as they liked but their own caution. I might have +stopped them by covering the top with netting, but then the great-tits +and robins would have been excluded as well as the sparrows, and even +tom-tits could only get through the meshes with difficulty. However, I +moved the roll quite close up to the glass of the window, leaving the +top still uncovered (and the bottom closed) as before. Tom-tits came to +it in its new position almost as readily as when on the food-stand. +Great-tits came but were always rather uneasy about it, but not one +sparrow ventured to clamber down inside the roll, although it was there +for more than a year and we had some very hard frosts. They would +continually try to get at the food from underneath and from the side, +but could not make up their minds to go inside the roll itself, +although it was quite open and they had learnt to go in without scruple +when it was on the food-stand, before it was put close to the window. +The most fearless of any birds with regard to this wire roll were two +robins in the beginning of 1902; they were perpetually scrambling up +and down inside the wire, and continued to do so until April, when the +supply of food came to end. + +The extreme caution of sparrows enables one to scare them away for a +time by a fluttering ribbon or a bit of paper, but it is only for a +time; when they see that tits treat such things with contempt and +venture close to them with impunity they soon summon up courage to lay +aside their suspicions. + +I once put a wire rat-trap under the food-stand, so arranged that it +went off when a string was pulled. At first, it was baited with corn, +but while robins and tits went in and out without the least concern, +not a sparrow would go near, and for a time the presence of the trap +kept them away from the food-stand altogether. However, they could not +resist the temptation of bread, and one or two were caught at last. But +what was the use of catching them? I hadn't the heart to kill them in +cold blood and used to let them go, and indeed I quite enjoyed myself +the sense of joyous relief they must have felt as they flew off +unharmed into the free air. + +However much mischief sparrows may do, some good work must be placed to +their credit. Through a great part of the year, even in February, I +have seen them flying up after gnats, and it is a common thing in +summer to see a sparrow in pursuit of a moth. Its efforts always seem +ridiculously awkward and sometimes I fancy are ineffectual after all, +but they must commonly succeed or they would not try so often and so +persistently. + +In the spring of 1900 the grass was covered for many days together with +some kind of little black fly, and sparrows a dozen or so at a time +with blackbirds, thrushes and chaffinches found a continual feast in +them. I noticed again and again quite a big round ball of them +collected and carried away by a thrush. + +It has often been noticed that sparrows are more eager than most birds +in hunting for aphides, and I have seen a sparrow make short work of a +"daddy-long-legs." In July and August I have watched them catching +flies on the grass, running after them much as a wagtail does, indeed +once I remember seeing a sparrow and a wagtail on the lawn at the same +time, each followed by a young bird whose hunger they were trying to +satisfy with flies caught in similar fashion. + +Impudence is a marked characteristic of a sparrow. I have seen a +starling at work in his busy, methodical way, closely followed all over +the lawn by a sparrow. There he was all the time, close at the +starling's elbow and ready to pounce upon whatever dainty morsel a +skill superior to his own might bring to light. The starling was +plainly bored by his company, but the sparrow would take no hint, and +maintained his position in spite even of pointed rebuffs from the +other's beak. (In the dry summer of 1911 I noticed at different times +both a throstle and a blackbird attended in the same way by a sparrow.) + +At another time when a starling has arrived with food in its mouth, and +not daring on account of my being there to take it into its nest, has +begun, after the usual unwise custom of starlings, loudly to advertise +the situation, I have seen two sparrows, attracted by the noise he +made, take up positions one on either side and try to snatch the food +away from him. I saw this happen twice on two successive days in June, +1901. + +The dusting habit of sparrows must be counted among their many +iniquities when they indulge in it, as they often do, in a bed of +newly-sown seeds, but it was strange to see one dusting during the hard +frost of 1895; one should have thought that they were so out of the way +of dusting in winter that no sparrow would have taken advantage of the +rare opportunity when a long dry frost made it possible. + +One day in April, 1899, a sparrow that was sitting on the food-stand +close by my window made quite a song of his chirping. There was a kind +of modulation of notes, continuously uttered and accompanied by a +regular "beating time" movement of his tail. On another occasion I have +heard a sparrow sitting alone on the ridge of a roof, singing, one +could only call it, quite a little song in subdued tones. + + + + +VIII. + +FINCHES, STARLINGS AND CROWS. + + +The spruce, handsome chaffinch (in Cheshire "pied finch") is with us +all the year round, and his song here, as I suppose everywhere, is one +of the most familiar of the pleasant voices of spring. + +One or more chaffinches generally feed with the fowls (and sometimes +they are quite extraordinarily tame, hens more so, perhaps, than +cocks), but they do not often attempt to get food from the stand. +Though they sometimes do, for instance in the winter of 1910-11, there +was one that came regularly. + +The gait of the chaffinch strikes one as peculiar, it is as a fact a +hopping movement, but it gives the impression of a run. + +I have frequently noticed something like rivalry or competition in +singing between a chaffinch and another bird, such as a tree-pipit or a +lesser whitethroat, or a willow-wren. + +One night as I was going the round of the house the last thing, about +12 o'clock, I heard a great fluttering and found that a light had been +left on a table close to an unshuttered window, and outside beating +against the glass was a handsome cock chaffinch. + +In February, 1911, a brambling was brought to me for identification. It +had been shot at the other side of the village, one of a large flock. +I have never seen one in the garden itself, but not far away I think I +caught sight of a small flock in March, 1899. + +Far more interesting than stuffed specimens in a museum (how seldom, +even at South Kensington, do you see small birds well set up, even +sufficiently well to recognize the bird when met with alive!); far more +interesting is such an outdoor aviary as one finds near the Town Hall +in Warrington, where the birds appear to want nothing to make their +lives ideally happy. In this aviary bramblings seem quite at home, and +may be seen in best condition of health and feather. + +Lesser redpoles, which here they call "jitties," I have seen close to +the garden, and on the other side of the village they are common. I +have heard of one boy catching 50 in a season with birdlime; for these +he got a few pence apiece in Warrington. + +A lesser redpole was given me in 1900, and a very engaging little bird +he was. Though supposed to be freshly caught he was tame when first I +had him, and in a very short time seemed hardly to know fear. + +We used to let him out of his cage every day for an hour or so at a +time. He enjoyed this immensely, and we had great difficulty in +shutting him up again. He seemed fond of his cage, and would be +continually going into it, but directly we went near to shut the door +he was out. I tried a long string, which we pulled from a distance as +soon as he was in the cage. This answered for a time, but he got to be +so knowing that when he saw the string fastened to the door he wouldn't +go into the cage at all. We got the better of him in the end, however, +by hanging a bit of card inside the doorway; when he pushed against +this on the outside he could get by into the cage, but he couldn't open +it from the inside. We only turned the card in when we wanted him to go +back, leaving him free to go in and out as he liked till then. Oddly +enough, he used to go in almost directly the card was in its place, and +never attempted to get out again. He seemed to enjoy the exercise of +flying very much, and used to go round and round the room again and +again and again for the mere pleasure of it. + +Though he would settle on the different things in the room and stay +there for some length of time, there was never any need to clean up +after him, but on the outside of his cage he was not so particular. It +was a great amusement to him to sit and make faces at himself in a +looking-glass. + +He lived very happily with us for more than two years. In the end he +died of some kind of wasting disease, but was bright and apparently +happy to the last. + +For some months before he died, if we let him out at meal-times, as we +often did, he had a curious habit of going to the salt-cellars and +helping himself to grains of salt; once he took as many as thirteen +pinches in succession! We often wondered afterwards whether he took the +salt because he was ill or whether it was the salt that made him ill. + +I would gladly sacrifice many fruit buds for the sake of seeing +bullfinches in the garden, but never yet have I had that pleasure. +Other people in the village do not regard their visits in the same +light, and it is only because I hear of their being shot that I know +they come here. + +A bullfinch that belonged to a cousin must I think have reached the +highest degree of tameness possible in a bird. Tommy, as he was called, +was taken from the nest before he could fly, and he not only lost all +sense of fear but showed an extraordinary personal devotion to his +mistress. He used to wake her in the morning with a kiss, and warble +his little greeting. He would come directly she called him, and would +fly after her from room to room. This devotion was at last the cause of +his death. In May, 1901, he was taken to London to a strange house, and +one day hearing his mistress's voice as she came in, he flew down the +stairs to meet her, and somehow struck against the hall lamp with such +force that he was taken up dead. + +[Illustration: The Two Nests.] + +I find the following entry in my diary for November 9th, 1895:--"A +small flight of birds passed along the trees in front of the window. +Caught a momentary glance of one as it rested on the tree, and noticed +shades of brown and pink and the peculiar bill. Could they have been +crossbills?" + +Yellow-hammers, or "goldfinches" as they are called here, are often to +be seen in the fields near, but in the garden we are more familiar with +the black-headed reed-bunting. We generally have one or two about the +old bed of the river. I have watched the bird through a telescope on a +July day, as he sat on an osier twig that was swaying in the wind, +preening his feathers and uttering his short melody (?) betweenwhiles. +He would begin as though he had really something to sing, then would +come two halting notes, indicating doubt of his power to do much after +all, which would immediately become a certainty, and his brief attempt +would end in a fizzle. He would, however, be perfectly satisfied with +the performance himself, and would go through it again and again almost +as persistently as the yellow-hammer repeats his wearisome monotonous +phrase. In the spring he has a still simpler song, if it can be called +a song, consisting of two or three notes of one tone, something like +the cheep of a chicken, sometimes repeated _ad infinitum_, sometimes +followed by a short run of three or four notes more. + +We have starlings with us all the year round, and I am glad of it. Here +at any rate they do nothing but good, and they are, besides, handsome, +and are interesting to watch, while their song, whether a chorus or a +solo, is always cheerful. Cold and bad weather doesn't seem to affect +their spirits. On Christmas morning, in 1897, although there was a hard +frost, starlings were singing away merrily, one of them imitating a +blackbird's note exactly. + +At one time flocks of starlings used to come on autumn evenings to +roost in the garden. I have watched one detachment after another arrive +until the trees and evergreens were crowded with them. They did not +come so much later on when the leaves had fallen, and now that the +shrubbery has been thinned they do not come at all in any numbers. In +spring I have heard 30 or more all singing together in this same +shrubbery as late as April 2nd. + +Starlings hunt for their food in a methodical, business-like way. They +do not seem to have the peculiar gift by which thrushes hit on the +exact spot where a worm is (I fancy they do not feed much on worms) but +they go diligently over every square inch of ground in their search, +probing the turf with their bills widely open, so widely that one can +hardly see how they can close them on a grub when they find one. + +Starlings afford another example of a strange perversion of instinct or +want of common sense. If you happen to be standing anywhere near the +place that one has chosen for his nest, and he arrives with his food in +his mouth, instead of slipping quietly in whilst your eyes are turned +away, he waits outside making as much racket as he can, and you are +almost forced to notice him and cannot fail to see the whereabouts of +his nest, plainly marked as it is sure to be by plentiful splashes of +white. + +It is quite a common thing in spring and summer to see starlings +catching flies in the air, and I remember in 1906, on September 29th, +the air was, one might say, full of starlings, floating about in every +direction with expanded wings, and then shooting up or down or to one +side when they came within reach of a fly. It was a warm, still day, +and I fancy the flies they were catching were winged aphides. + +For many years now as soon as the elder-berries are ripe numbers of +starlings, chiefly young ones, arrive on the scene, and in a few days +clear them off completely. + +Jays are not common here, but we have occasionally watched one in the +garden as he was looking for fallen acorns in the grass close to the +house. + +One may pretty safely count on seeing a magpie near Arley at any time +of the year, and we do at long intervals see them in this garden and +in the fields near, but they are very far from common. + +I have heard of a magpie at a farm in the next village to this, many +years ago indeed, who kept his eye on a turkey that was in the habit of +laying eggs at a little distance from the house, and often managed to +appropriate the newly-laid egg before the farm people could stop him. + +Jackdaws are often about, generally in company with rooks, but I have +never specially noticed them settling in the garden, as the rooks often +do. + +In Wales once I saw a jackdaw busily engaged exploring the back of a +pony with its beak. The pony continued quietly grazing all the while, +but I thought he seemed rather relieved when his visitor left. + +In January, 1898, two crows appeared in the garden; I used to see them +nearly every evening. A month later we saw a single crow, injured in +one wing, go backwards and forwards over the whole length of the +opposite bank. Up and down he went, regularly quartering the ground in +his search for food. He did this for several days, and we felt quite +sorry for him, he was so diligent and persevering, and it must have +been so little that he could find within such comparatively narrow +limits. We put food for him, which he soon found and seemed to +appreciate. He drove away rooks who tried to share it with him, but as +he carried away each bit to eat in private the rooks took advantage of +his absence, and the supply did not last as long as it might have done. + +The poor bird was uncommonly wary: he would spy one out hundreds of +yards away and disappear in a wonderful manner, seeing that he could +not fly. At last some Ship Canal workmen caught him. I got him from +them and kept him for three months, but though he ate pretty well it +did not seem to do him much good, and he never became in the least tame +to the day of his death. + +We have often hoped that rooks would build in the garden; they come +sometimes to the higher trees as though they had thoughts of doing so, +but they have not gone beyond that as yet. In some years when acorns +are ripe many rooks come here to get them (in 1911, although acorns +were extraordinarily abundant, I hardly saw a single rook). I have +never seen them pick up the acorns on the ground, as the jays and +wood-pigeons do, but they gather them fresh for themselves from the +tree. + +More than once I have seen a single rook pursuing a hawk, and, on the +other hand, I have seen a rook put to flight by a missel-thrush. + +Rather a strange story was told me of a farmer's daughter at Heatley, +near here. She lived by herself not far from the railway station, and +every day, summer and winter alike, she fed a number of rooks that +habitually waited on her bounty. One winter's day, it appears, she +threw down food for a few rooks that were in a tree behind her house. +The next day they were there again, and again she fed them, and so it +grew into a regular thing, and they came expecting to be fed like so +many fowls every day of the year. My informant often watched the +proceeding, and said that the birds seemed to know their benefactress +quite well and not to be at all afraid of her, though they were as shy +of strangers as any other rooks. + +Skylarks are abundant in the neighbourhood, and often in the garden we +hear one singing overhead. I have seen a lark singing his regular song +on the ground, and have seen one perched on iron railings by the side +of a road holding a largish brown moth in its bill, and at the same +time uttering repeatedly two or three notes of its song. + +Larks are very fond of dusting in roads. I remember being struck one +hot day in June by the number of dusting larks I met with in a ten-mile +ride. Without any exaggeration there must have been one every twenty +yards on an average for the whole distance. + + + + +IX. + +OTHER BIRDS. + + +The wild shriek of swifts, as they dash and wheel through the air at +their topmost speed, seems to express such intense delight in freedom +and motion and power, that it imparts something of the same sense of +exhilaration to the beholder, at least, I know it is so with me. + +Swifts, or "long-wings," as they are equally well-named in Cheshire, +usually find their food at some height in the air, but one day in the +beginning of July (1899) I noticed a number of swifts, with a great +many swallows and sand-martins, skimming the surface of a patch of +clover which had been left standing in a field near the garden. I did +not discover what it was, but the attraction must have been something +unusual, for the number of birds passing and re-passing in the very +small space was so extraordinary that it was really difficult to +understand how they could avoid collision. All were concentrated in the +one spot, and never seemed to go beyond it for more than a couple of +yards. + +In 1896 there were swifts about all August, and I saw a pair on October +19th. I was told by a friend who was at Brighton in June, 1899, that +whenever the band played on the sea front four swifts would appear and +fly round and round the bandstand. She never noticed them there, she +said, when the band was not playing, although it was her favourite seat +at all times of the day. + +Nightjars are not uncommon on "mosses" in Lancashire, only a mile or so +away, and in Cheshire on the Carrington side of Warburton, but they are +less frequent just about here. One year, however (1902), a pair +evidently had made their nest in the rough tussocky ground which at +that time covered the bed of the old river. From the middle of June to +the beginning of July we were treated every evening to the full +programme of their entertainment, both vocal and acrobatic. Several +times one heard little snatches of the "song," even in the middle of +the day in fine, hot weather, but nine p.m., sometimes a little +earlier, was the usual time for beginning. The whirring would go on for +an hour at a time, with hardly any cessation, but often varying in tone +and volume, now swelling out louder and then sinking again. We often +saw the two birds playing about together in the air, one or other of +them making what is described as a "whipthong" noise and smiting its +wings together like a pigeon. Sometimes when they first settled again +after a flight, instead of the loud whirring there would be every now +and then a soft, liquid, bubbling sound. + +A favourite resting-place was the bare bough of a Scotch fir, and here +as it lay lengthways and perfectly still the bird looked so like part +of the branch itself that I couldn't persuade a friend who was with me +that it was a bird until he actually saw it fly away. After July 4th we +heard no more of them, and for a day or two before that the whirring +was much more interrupted, in shorter spells, and varied more in +intensity and clearness than usual. + +Before the next spring came round the Ship Canal had covered the +river-bed with another layer of mud dredgings, and we have neither seen +nor heard a nightjar in the garden since, but in June, 1910, I heard +from the keeper that he had watched one flying round an old +black-poplar just opposite the garden gate, flapping the ends of the +boughs with his wings and catching the moths that were driven out. + +One of the most delightful of country sounds is, I think, the laugh of +the green woodpecker, and when I heard that a pair of woodpeckers were +constantly to be seen (January and February, 1901) about some old +poplars not far away, and that early one morning one was working at the +rotten posts of a fence in the very next field, my hopes were raised +that even yet that welcome sound might be heard from the garden. But +the birds turned out to be greater-spotted woodpeckers and not green, +and these do not express the joy of living so plainly. I have several +times since seen one of these spotted woodpeckers in the garden. One +day (in April, 1908) I watched the bird for a long time as he visited +in succession each of the posts in a wire fence by the old river-bed. + +Green woodpeckers are rare in this part of the country, but +"lesser-spotted" are found in Dunham Park, and the keeper tells me he +has seen them in Warburton Fox-cover. + +In the low-lying meadows by the Bollin, half a mile away, kingfishers +have always been found, haunting the little water-courses and ditches, +but at one time we were able to see them even from the garden itself. + +In the making of the Ship Canal a part of the old river just beyond us +was left unfilled up, and formed a fair-sized pool. Kingfishers used to +come to this, and as long as there was any water at all in the old +river-bed I often stood outside this house and watched the blue streak +of light as the bird, with his peculiar shrill cry, flew straight as an +arrow past me. Even in August, 1899, when what remained of the river +was nothing but seething mud, in which I am sure there could have been +no living fish, I disturbed a kingfisher from an overhanging branch on +the bank. + +A friend in the village, a keen observer of birds, has often seen, he +tells me, that when kingfishers fly from the meadows to the "pits" on +higher ground they first rise straight up into the air and then dart +off in a perfect bee-line to their destination. He also said that +kingfishers invariably desert a nest that has been touched. He was +repairing the embankment of the Bollin once when a kingfisher's nest +was accidentally laid open, and although the nest itself was not +injured, and the two young ones in it were nearly fledged and fought at +his hand like little owls, when two days later he was at the place +again he found them both dead, unable to find food for themselves and +forsaken by their parents. + +The coming of the cuckoo seems to be of more interest to people here +than any event in natural history, and cuckoos are, I should say, more +plentiful with us than in many places, and are nearly as often seen as +heard. + +I must have seen a dozen one day in May from the high road during a +short drive of a few miles, and, generally speaking, in May not a day +(I should not be far out if I said not an hour of the day) goes by +without our knowing by sight as well as sound that there are cuckoos in +the garden. + +The widespread belief that cuckoos turn into hawks in winter is still +seriously held in Cheshire to-day, even by farmers. + +For three days in the end of July, 1905, I was able from my study +window to watch a young cuckoo being fed by its foster-parent, a +meadow-pipit. The cuckoo was sitting on a wire fence on the opposite +bank. At first it sat in a floppy kind of way, with its wings hanging +down on either side, as if to keep its balance, but the next day it +seemed to have gained strength and sat up better. The little pipit (if +it was always the same, and I never saw more than one at once) was not +away for more than a minute or two, except on the third day, when it +was pouring wet and food seemed harder to find. As soon as the cuckoo +knew that its nurse was coming it began opening its mouth and quivering +its wings, while the poor little dupe that brought the food would +alight a short distance off and run along the wire to its side, then, +looking ridiculously small for the job, it would manage to pop +something into its mouth, not all in one go, but in two or three. It +was curious to notice that every time after being fed the ungrateful +cuckoo gave spiteful pecks at the poor deluded little slave who was +working so hard to supply its wants. + +One day in May (1908) a cuckoo alighted on a tree close to the house, +attended by two small birds. He seemed rather uneasy in their company, +and kept looking suspiciously at them; they, I fancy, were trying to +make up their minds to attack him, but they let "I dare not" wait so +long upon "I would" that he went off unmolested. + +Barn owls are comparatively common. Farmers are learning to understand +better their great usefulness, and at least to leave them alone. Some, +indeed, do more than this, and I know of two cases where the pigeon +cote in the hay-loft has been given up to them. Through the back door +of one of these cotes I have been able to see at my ease the funny +little round-faced hissing young ones, and I was quite surprised to +find how very long it is before the fully-fledged birds turn out of the +nest. My friend at Heatley was one of those who entertained the owls, +and he told me that if an old bird accidentally dropped a mouse as he +made his way into the loft, he never by any chance attempted to recover +it. He said he used on winter evenings to see the owls fly along the +eaves of the neighbouring houses and inside the roof of a hayshed close +by, beating with their wings to drive out the sparrows that were +roosting there, and he found the remains of a great many sparrows in +their casts. + +A barn-owl appeared in the garden one day in May, 1899. It did all it +could to hide itself in the bushes and thick Scotch firs, but in spite +of its efforts the birds in the neighbourhood, led on apparently by the +blackbirds, found it out again and again, and kept up a ceaseless noise +and commotion as long as it was here. (I noticed that the fowls, both +cocks and hens, joined in the general clamour.) In December, however, I +have seen an owl fly into one of the out-houses in the middle of the +day, and even sit calmly in full view on a leafless tree without +attracting the least notice from any bird. + +The keeper tells me that brown, long-eared, and short-eared owls are +all to be found in Warburton at times, brown owls nesting here +regularly. + +Sparrow hawks come to us occasionally, but not so often as kestrels. +The difference in the behaviour of small birds with regard to these two +hawks is remarkable, and plainly shows that they have, as a rule, +little to fear from kestrels. One November day, for instance, a sparrow +hawk appeared in a tree just opposite my window, causing the greatest +commotion and consternation among sparrows and all other birds. A week +later a kestrel came to the same place at the same time of the day and +stayed about for a considerable time, but none of the small birds took +the least notice of him. + +My friend at Heatley, who used to have the owls as his tenants, once +(in 1897) shot a sparrow hawk near his house that had a screaming +blackbird in his talons, and was tearing off from its back strips of +feathers and flesh together without apparently having tried to kill it +first. He told me that twice he had seen a lark escape from a sparrow +hawk. In both instances the lark's idea seemed to be to rise higher +than the hawk, and the two kept going up together. The hawk made +repeated stoops at his quarry, but each time he missed, the lark +striking now to the right and now to the left. The contest ended in +both cases by the lark dashing down to cover from a great height; one +time it found refuge among the shrubs in a garden, and on the second +occasion it came down faster than he could describe with its wings +closed against its sides, and just slanting over the tops of some fruit +trees opposite, dashed straight into the kitchen. To do this it had to +pass through the sliding door of the back-kitchen, which was not more +than two feet open, and then through the open door of the kitchen. +Strange to say, it was able to check its speed sufficiently to alight +uninjured on the floor, though utterly exhausted and helpless. My +friend picked it up, and having held it for some minutes in his hand, +let it fly away seeming none the worse for its perilous adventure. The +hawk, he said, sailed calmly once or twice round the house before he +took himself off. + +The following is part of a letter I received in November, 1894:--"A +sparrow hawk took up his nightly abode on the transome of the top light +of a window in Arley Chapel in the autumn of 1890, and remained +constant to that roosting place until, at all events, May, 1892, when +we left Arley. How long it stayed there after we left I cannot say, but +I was told last winter that it had disappeared. The hawk was always +solitary; I never saw it with a companion. The roost was always exactly +on the same stone." + +One has heard stories of other birds living the same kind of lonely +existence, but I never saw a very satisfactory explanation as to how it +is that they come to do so. The pairing instinct is strong in birds, +and it must be a powerful motive that makes them disregard it. We are +told that if a bird of prey loses its mate it does not take it long to +find another. May we suppose that solitary birds like this at Arley are +waiting in readiness for such an emergency? Or is such a bird simply +one that, being old and cantankerous, is bored by female society, or +feels himself unequal to the cares of a family? + +All birds seem to give a sparrow hawk a wide berth, but one often sees +a kestrel pursued, most frequently perhaps by a rook, but sometimes by +a peewit or a gull. In October, 1908, I saw from the garden a kestrel +persecuted by two rooks. He kept dodging their attacks, but didn't seem +to mind them much and never turned on them. Again, at the end of +October, 1906, I was watching a kestrel as it hovered over a field +close by, when I saw it suddenly and violently assaulted by a +missel-thrush. It gave way for some space, but when in a minute or two +the thrush flew off, it returned to its first position and continued +hovering just as if never interrupted. + +[Illustration: The Food Stand.] + +I have heard from a man here, an old gamekeeper, a story like one that +I have read somewhere before. He had seen a kestrel pounce upon what he +supposed to be a mouse and fly off with it. Presently, to his surprise, +it fell like a stone to the ground and he picked it up quite dead; +close by it he found a dead stoat. + +Wild duck breed in the Bollin meadows and may sometimes be seen in the +garden as they fly over; we see wild geese, too, sometimes, and +occasionally a heron. I was much struck one day by the flight of a pair +of swans over the garden. They were not flying high, but side by side, +with their long necks stretched out, with strong regular wing-beats; +without haste and without effort, they held on their straight and even +course at a good steady pace. It gave me rather a strange impression of +dignity and power. + +One or two pairs of wood-pigeons build in the garden every year, but +they are not as common in Warburton as in more wooded country, though +sometimes large flocks visit us in autumn (_e.g._, in 1910). My friend +at Heatley told me that one year when a great many had come to feed on +acorns in a wood near his house, he had hoped from the shelter of a +wooden hut to make a good bag, but he found that in spite of their +numbers they were extremely wideawake, and though they covered the +ground in every other direction, they carefully eschewed a trail of +Indian corn, with which he had hoped to tempt them within reach of his +gun. + +Turtledoves are fairly common in Cheshire, but there are many more in +some years than in others. I only remember their nesting in this garden +once (in 1899), when they were to be seen on the lawn every day. + +Pheasants are constant visitors; we are very seldom without them at any +time of the year, and since parts of the old river-bed have been left +wild they have taken to breeding here. We have often watched from our +window the cock pheasant strutting about the hen, ruffling up his +feathers and displaying himself to advantage like a turkey-cock. The +tufts of ear-like feathers on each side of the head are a marked +feature in the cock at the courting season and give the bird a curious +Mephistophelian look. + +We noticed once when we came upon them unawares as they were feeding on +corn we had put for them, that the hen, instead of scuttling off like +the cock, clapped close to the ground almost within arm's length, +evidently trusting for concealment to her sober colouring. + +One cock who made himself very much at home here in the early part of +1901, and stayed with us for more than three months, unlike most that +have been here, was for ever crowing and clapping his wings. He always +roosted on the same tree, and every evening just before it got dark +took care to let us know that he was going to bed. + +In October, 1910, there was a cock that used to amuse himself by +sitting for half an hour at a time on the broad top of a clipped yew +hedge. Several hens would sometimes sit there with him: once we saw +seven on the top of the hedge at once. + +I have heard that in Japan at the time of an earthquake, extraordinary +commotion is noticed among pheasants. There was a slight shock of +earthquake here on December 17th, 1896, at 5-30 in the morning, and a +working man who happened then to be near the Fox-cover was especially +struck by the noise that pheasants were making in the wood. + +Nearly every year we have partridge visitors, a family party; in 1895 +there were thirteen young ones with the old pair, and last year, 1911, +again there were twelve. They always seem happy and light-hearted; they +dance and jump, they play games like "hide-and-seek" or +"kiss-in-the-ring," round about and in and out the drooping feathery +branches of a deadara, that just touch the ground, and in the intervals +they sun themselves on the walks. + +I heard very few corncrakes in 1911, but they are common enough most +years. In 1908, one took up his abode in the old river-bed just outside +our window, and used to serenade us every night (May 8th to 26th). He +went on incessantly, exactly like a clock, quite regularly and evenly. +He was at it when we went to bed about 12 and never ceased or varied in +the least as long as we were awake to hear him. + +What was once the bed of the Mersey has now (1912), thanks to the Ship +Canal engineers, become land comparatively speaking dry. But, of +course, the process of filling up was gradual, and for some years more +or less water was left in the river-bed. During one stage, which lasted +perhaps ten years, waterhens, which here are known as coots (true coots +are called "baldheaded"), became quite common in the garden. We used to +see them rather as waders than swimmers, but we did constantly see them +running about on the soft mud, washing in the little pools, and, as +pairing time came on, fighting desperately together. In the autumn a +dozen or more would be feeding on the lawn at once, and in the winter +some would often come to pick up food with the fowls, I have even seen +one make an attempt to get fat from a net hung out for the tits. We +often saw them perching quite high up in a tree. In 1907, I had a +photograph given me showing a waterhen's nest in a small wood near +Lymm. It was in a tree four feet six inches from the ground, and 200 +yards from any water. + +Golden plover come to the Bollin meadows every winter, but not so many +I think as when the land was more liable to floods, at least I do not +hear their clear whistle as often as formerly. It is not unusual to see +them flocking with peewits. + +Peewits are called simply "plover" here. There are large flocks on +every side though not actually in the garden. + +In August 1897, there was an extraordinary concourse of peewits on the +bank of the river just opposite. The noise they made was loud and +continuous, and birds were flying backwards and forwards all the while. +The whole of the bank for a hundred yards or more was covered with +them, others were at the water's edge, washing like ducks or playing +about and chasing one another, others were picking among the stones or +drinking. All the time the noise never ceased, and a friend said it +reminded her of the gulls on the coast of Ireland that she heard on her +way to America. The assembly on that particular day (August 13th) broke +up about one p.m., having lasted for more than an hour. Frequently +during the rest of the month, peewits gathered at the same place, but +not in the same numbers, and one day in December, 1898, I noticed that +there was something of the same kind on a small scale going on. + +In June, 1901, when the river-bed had been further filled up and the +pools transformed into a muddy swamp, we were able from our windows to +watch a brood of peewit chicks from the time when they were first +hatched until they were old enough to go out into the world. They were +most interesting when as quite little things with backs the colour of +the eggs they had left, they busily hunted about for food, or all +crowded together under the wings of their mother for short spells of +rest and warmth. + +Snipe breed in the Bollin meadows, and common sandpipers were always by +the river and the river-bed as long as there was any water at all in +it, always at least in August. They still seem to remember their old +haunts, and visit us occasionally. In the latter part of August, 1910, +there was one that had some feathers out of place in one of its wings +and appeared unable to fly. He seemed content enough and I wondered if +he would try to face the winter here, but whether by his own act and +deed, or by someone else's, he had gone when I looked for him in +September. In August, 1911, a sandpiper used to frequent a pit in +fields a good way from the river. + +In April and May, 1910, a pair of redshanks were constantly to be seen +in the Bollin meadows towards Dunham, but no nest was found. In 1911 +they were there again, and the keeper found a nest not far from the +Fox-cover, but I think he must have told too many of his friends about +it, for within a week of the eggs being hatched it was deserted. + +I very well remember a good many years ago, though I can find no note +of the exact year, that I saw a black tern flying backwards and +forwards like a swallow over a wet spot in the corner of the garden, +and the next day I saw what was probably the same bird flying in the +same way over a large farmyard pit close by the road, about a mile from +here. + +Since the Ship Canal has been opened gulls have been among the most +frequent and the most noticeable of all birds in these parts. Whenever +a field is ploughed up, however far it may be from the canal, there you +are sure to find gulls, and when the plough is at work in the fields +opposite, which are close to its banks, the gulls come in crowds and +form one long white line as the furrows are turned, the birds +continually rising before the plough and settling down again when it +has passed. I have identified black-headed and lesser black-backed +gulls among them, but have never attempted to decide to what species +the majority belong. Indeed, I do not feel very competent to do so, +having always found it sufficiently difficult to distinguish the +variations of gull plumage at different ages and at different times of +the year. + +In 1908 the keeper (Mr. J. Porter) showed me a Bohemian waxwing, a +hooded crow and a hobby, all of which he had shot in Warburton within a +year or two previously. + +He has told me since of stockdoves ("blue rocks" he calls them) nesting +here, and a curious story of a wren's nest on an ash-stump in the +Fox-cover in 1910, on the top of which a hedgesparrow built her nest. +Both broods, he said, hatched about the same time. + +I have received from a friend in Northamptonshire (Mr. G. S. Garrett, +of Little Houghton) a photograph showing a similar instance of two +nests built one above the other. He says: "A piece of bark about 20 +inches by 13, fell off an elm tree into a fence and dried up into a +tube-like shape. A spotted flycatcher built its nest in the top and +laid 5 eggs and a brown wren in the bottom laying 7 eggs.... The nests +are now in the Rochester Museum." + + + + +X. + +BRITISH MAMMALS. + + +The whole extent of the garden, with its croft and orchard, is not +three acres, but a fair proportion of the British mammals are from time +to time to be found there. + +The old church, largely built of timber, picturesque and quaint, stands +within a few yards of the house and its roof affords shelter to many +bats. We find the wings of moths, the remnants of their feasts, +scattered on the floor (I have noticed the wings of a tortoise-shell +butterfly among them), and I have found there more than one dead body +of a common bat; I cannot say whether that is the only kind we have, +but in 1908 a bat was seen near the house which, from the description +given of its size and manner of flight, may perhaps have been a +noctule. + +On May 28th, 1899, there was an eclipse of the sun; it was only +partial, and made very little difference to the light, but just so long +as it lasted, from 3 to 4.30 p.m., I saw a bat flying busily round and +about the church. + +The soil is light and worms seem to be abundant, but one hardly ever +sees a mole-hill in this part of Cheshire. One day, however, in +December, 1899, we noticed that a bed of parsley had withered in a +mysterious way, and when we came to look, the ground was quite +undermined with mole-runs. These were very shallow, and there was no +sign of a hillock above. Many of the roots of the parsley had been +entirely eaten off, and we saw that nearly all that remained in the bed +were full of grubs. These grubs it must have been, I suppose, that +attracted the mole, but it is curious that such an exceptional +condition of the roots should have been discovered, considering how +seldom there is any sign of a mole in the neighbourhood. We noticed +that the root of a strong raspberry cane on one side of the parsley bed +had been eaten off in the same way, but it is not very likely that this +would have had grubs in it. + +Hedgehogs are not uncommon and we sometimes see them in broad daylight. +In July one year (1900) every evening for about a week we used to see a +large hedgehog running along a broad gravel walk close to the windows +of the house. It came always at the same time, "just at the edge of +dark," as they say here, and it always took the same route and +disappeared at the same place. + +Later on in the month we found a young one, a most delightful little +animal, as friendly and tame as possible. We used to feed him with milk +every day as long as he stayed here, which was about a week, and once +when we expected some boys in the garden we brought him into the house +and put him in a box. He strongly objected to the imprisonment, loudly +protesting all the time in a voice like the squeaking of a rat, and it +was surprising to see how nearly he managed to get out, though the +sides of the box were almost two feet high. + +Stoats, commonly called weasels with us, were fairly common when we had +more rats and rabbits, but we do not often see one now (1912). We had a +white terrier that killed several, though I had an idea that dogs +looked on stoats as a kind of ferret and did not hurt them. + +We can count a fox among our occasional visitors. I have watched one +for some time that was smelling about among the shrubs just opposite to +the front door about eight o'clock on a Sunday morning. + +We are out of the regular beat of the Cheshire Hounds here, and I fancy +the secret slaying of a fox is not accounted a very heinous crime, +certainly the foxes that are often reported soon disappear. In 1899 a +fox had its "earth" in the Abbey Croft, a field next to the garden, and +we used to like to hear him barking in the still summer evenings. In +the end, however, the keepers were too many for him, and he had to +shift his quarters or else it may have been his lease of life ran out. + +We suffered very much at one time from the plague of rats. They +infested the out-buildings and the house itself, and for a long while +we were in despair about them. We tried poison, with the result that +dead rats made the kitchen uninhabitable and entailed the expense and +nuisance of taking up the floor, and still they came. We tried every +kind of trap, we had the whole of the outside walls examined, and every +possible entrance hole stopped, so at least we thought, but still they +came. At last we found that the simple expedient of doing away with the +ashpit deprived the premises of their chief attraction in a rat's eyes, +for then we had to burn on the kitchen fire all the vegetable and other +refuse that formerly found its way to the ashpit, and provided such +abundant and appetizing food. Certain it is that since we did this, +more than twelve years ago now (1912), we never have had a rat in the +house. + +I have heard of large young fowls being killed by rats at farms not far +away, but I do not remember that they ever took one of our chickens; +indeed, at a time when we used to see many rats there, a hen sat in the +stable and safely hatched her chicks. I recollect an old rat that used +to come every day to feed with the fowls without any objection to his +presence on their part. + +Rabbits were another great nuisance. They had burrows among the +tree-roots on the river bank and no one seemed able to get them out or +to shoot them, so between what they ate and what they dug up, we +hadn't much pleasure in the garden. At last we cut off so much of the +garden as we could surround with wire netting and left the rest to take +its chance. No sooner had we done this than, for what reason I cannot +tell, the rabbits disappeared completely, and for two or three years we +hardly ever saw one on our own ground, though they seemed to be as +plentiful as usual elsewhere. + +We have sometimes caught long-tailed field-mice that were eating the +peas, and the cats seemed to find voles and shrews pretty often. + +I must confess to rather a weakness for common mice; they are pretty to +look at and amusing in their ways. To give an instance of their +ingenuity and enterprise, I remember some time in the summer of 1899, +when we used to have a basin of sugar left in our room at night, a +certain mouse appeared to think that it was placed there for his own +special benefit, at any rate he was accustomed to help himself very +freely to it. We could hear him working away to get a lump over the +side of the basin, then rolling it along to the edge of the table and +letting it fall to the floor, along which he would again roll it to a +hole under the skirting-board. Sometimes he would take in this way as +many as three or four lumps of sugar in one night. Besides the sugar +there was often bread and butter left in the room between two plates, +and one morning when I took the top one off out jumped the mouse. I +cannot imagine how it got in. It certainly couldn't make its way out +again, which one should have thought a far easier thing to do. The +plates seemed to be exactly as I had left them the night before, and I +could not see that any of the bread and butter had been eaten. + +I remember what seems to me an extraordinary instance of a mouse's +power of smelling out food. In the new parish church here (consecrated +in 1885) the vestry is in the tower, and its ceiling, which is the +floor of the bellringing-room, must be nearly 20 ft. from the ground. +Just under this ceiling were suspended at one time three very long +texts; they were drawn up by pulleys with a rope that was fastened off +about six feet from the floor. One of these texts was used at harvest +festivals, and a fringe of corn had been left round the border, but all +three were elaborately done up together in brown paper, so that none of +the corn could be seen. Happening to be at the church one day I found +the caretaker had brought out these texts into the churchyard, because +he had seen, he said, a mouse running up to them by the suspending +cord. Sure enough, when he undid the wrapping the poor little thing was +there, and I am sorry to say was promptly killed. I thought its +wonderful cleverness deserved a better fate. The church was newly +built with concrete floors, and there was no regular food supply to +attract mice, so this particular mouse must have come in casually on +the mere chance of picking up something, and it must from the floor, +nearly 20 ft. below, have found out that there was corn in one of the +bundles of texts behind the brown paper that covered them, and I think +more wonderful still, it must have discovered the only way of reaching +it, along the suspending cord. + +There used to be an old piano in the Parish Room close to the new +church. This was not often used and one day when we lifted the cover +from the back part of the keyboard we found snugly placed in a corner +of the bass notes an empty mouse's nest, quite round like a bird's, and +beautifully made of dried bits of grass and coloured worsted. It seems +strange that a mouse should have found such a place for its nest, and +stranger still that in a new large bare room, with a solid wood-block +floor, it should have been able unobserved to go in and out continually +to fetch the materials for it. This it must have done, since none came +from the room itself. + +The long broad garden walk by the side of the house seems to be a +favourite thoroughfare for hares; we constantly see them passing at all +times of the year. I wish myself there were not quite so many hares in +Warburton as there are. We could do very well with fewer in the gardens +and orchards, and there would then be less inducement to hold such +frequent public coursing meetings, which, in my opinion, we could do +very well without. Some years before 1900 a large number were imported +and turned down. These were at first a great annoyance to everybody, +and did much damage to fruit trees even in mild open weather; it was +almost unbelievable the height to which they could reach, gnawing off +every bit of bark all the way round. They were, besides, far too thick +upon the ground for their own comfort. I was told by a man who worked +on the estate that he often came across bucks fighting together; they +fought so savagely, he said, that they would hardly get out of his way, +and almost knocked up against him. They begin fighting, it appears from +his account, by giving slaps with their forefeet, but in the end they +go on to worry at one another like dogs. + + + + +XI. + +DOGS AND CATS. + + +It is hard to say which is the most wonderful, to see how a dog's +intelligence can be developed by companionship with man or to look at a +Great Dane and a toy terrier together, and to remember that both breeds +have by man's agency been produced from the same original stock. + +Cats, on the other hand, have never left their wild nature far behind, +and can easily return to it, as indeed they often do. Dogs are almost +entirely dependent on their human friends, but most cats do something +for their living, and some without going wild will find all their own +food. I remember one cat in particular that did this; she was an old +cat when first I came, and lived on with me for more than fourteen +years. As long as she was strong and able to hunt she never came into +the house and never asked for food (she was tame enough when she met us +out of doors) it was only when she got to be old and feeble that she +turned to us and learnt to value the warmth of a fireside. She must +have been 20, and may well have been nearer 25 when she died, and her +great age showed itself plainly by every outward sign. In her prime she +was a large, handsome animal, but she dwindled down to absolute skin +and bone literally; her face lost all its roundness and got to be quite +small and her voice died almost completely away. Towards the last she +spent her days on one particular stool by the fire, eating very little, +but apparently content and even happy, and responding as best as she +could to any attention. I do not remember her ever lying down at that +time, she was always sitting and always on the same spot, which was +worn quite shiny in consequence. At last one day she failed to appear, +and we never found her body. + +The oddest cat we ever had was a black one that came to us of her own +accord in 1881. She had such a vile temper and was altogether so +uncanny that she might well have been possessed by an evil spirit. + +When she had been with us only a few days, I found her hanging on to +the wire-netting of an outhouse door, evidently trying to get some +pigeons that she could see behind it. Very soon afterwards another cat +was drowned for persistently taking pigeons, and it really seemed as if +Blacky understood, for never after that did she look at a pigeon with +evil intent; she would walk through a number of them as they fed on the +ground, and so little did they fear her that they hardly moved out of +her way. + +We had a canary once (and we must have had him for more than 10 years), +whose noisy song was so distracting that we used sometimes to put him +down on a table and cover his cage with a cloth. One day we went out +and left him there, and must have forgotten to shut the room door, for +when we came back we found the cover off the cage and the cat curled up +fast asleep by the side of it. The canary was unharmed and didn't +appear to be even frightened; he was hopping about in his cage quite +content and at ease. That the cat should have pulled off the cover and +then have left the bird alone seemed the more astonishing, because she +was a hardened and incurable thief. + +Blacky knew the time for afternoon tea, and was always there to the +minute. However, when something that came to her brought off all her +hair and made her a pitiable object, she seemed to know of herself that +she was not presentable, and though we did nothing to prevent her she +never came into the drawing-room again until her hair had grown; then +she appeared regularly as before. + +There may be some truth in the old saying, "Dogs care for people and +cats for places," but individuals differ very much; great love of home +is often seen in dogs, and strong personal affection in cats. + +A cat was born here in 1897 and lived with us for two years like any +other cat. She was indeed rather more intelligent than many. She had +evidently observed the manner of opening a door, for when she wanted to +get into a room she used to rattle at the handle. One day she came and +rattled at the door-handle of the study where I was sitting, but +instead of coming in when the door was opened, she led me to the +drawing-room, and standing up put her paw on the handle of the door: as +plainly as possible she had fetched me to let her in. + +Now although this cat was made a great deal of with us and seemed to +have a strong personal affection for me, spending most of her time with +me, one fine day she took herself off and disappeared altogether. + +As weeks went by and we heard nothing of her we concluded she had met +with the fate to which pitiless game preservation has consigned many +another cat. But after about three months I saw her in the garden, when +though she followed me she refused to be touched. For weeks again we +never set eyes on her, and we almost came to believe that it was her +wraith I had seen. At last I happened to notice her sitting outside a +cottage not 200 yards from this house, by which I passed almost every +day of my life, but though she looked up when I called her by name she +would not come to me. After a year or two she very frequently came into +the garden and was willing enough to be stroked, but she never entered +this house again until (in 1909) the old man at the cottage died, and +the home she had chosen for herself was broken up. Then of her own +accord she returned to us as a matter of course, and up to the day of +her death (in November, 1911) was as friendly and affectionate as +possible. + +It is odd that a cat should thus deliberately have chosen to leave a +home that was her birthplace, and where she had been more than kindly +treated. We thought at the time that it might have been through +jealousy of her own kitten, that she often found in the study, but if +of so jealous a disposition, why should she go to be one of a family of +cats in which as the last-comer she could hardly hope to take the first +place? + +The man she went to sometimes worked here, and as he was fond of cats +might have taken a fancy to this one, and possibly did something to +entice her away. If this was so, it is clear that a cat's affection is +not always for places rather than people. + +The strangest part of it all is to me not that she should have left us +for the cottage, but that at the same time her whole behaviour towards +us should have so entirely changed that she wouldn't let us touch her, +and couldn't be induced to set foot in the house. + +The old man to whom this cat betook herself was quite a character in +his way. He could neither read nor write, having been put to work on a +farm when he was eight years old, but he took a very intelligent +interest in things. His house was an asylum for stray cats and you +would find him on a winter's evening sitting in front of a good fire +with a circle of half a dozen cats round him, all staring like himself +at the grate. He used to have a fancy for clocks; there must have been +five or six of all sizes perpetually ticking away in his kitchen, not +to speak of others that were there but refused to tick any longer. He +was not content, like other cottagers, with a candle or cheap light, +but had hanging from the low ceiling a large paraffin lamp, which had +cost him at least fifteen shillings. + +He was never married, and since his mother died, some thirty years ago, +he never had a woman in the house, and yet few women could have kept it +cleaner than he did himself. + +A white terrier that we had for ten years from 1888 used to associate +words with ideas even when spoken in ordinary conversation and not +directly to him. For instance, if he was lying apparently asleep before +the fire, and we happened in talking without reference to him to +mention any words that he knew, such as "dog," or "carriage," or +"walk," he would look up or perhaps just wag his tail. + +The same dog had a wonderful gift of reckoning time. He knew Sunday +perfectly well, and he knew it the first thing in the morning, before +anything had been done to mark it as different from other days. +Generally he would lie on the rug at breakfast time and be quite alert +afterwards and on the watch to go out with us, but on Sundays he went +straight to his basket when we came down and did not move or look up +when breakfast was over. From very early days he used to go with my +wife to afternoon Sunday School. He knew exactly the time when she +ought to get ready to start, and if then she didn't move he would get +up and go to her, and he gave her no peace until she went to dress. +When he arrived at the school he would curl himself up on an old shawl +in a corner of the room, and until the Lord's Prayer before the final +grace of the dismissal prayers he would not stir. Directly he heard the +Lord's Prayer, he would get up in readiness, but he never left his +corner until the prayers were finished. On one Sunday in the month +there was catechising in the Church, instead of Sunday school, and Snap +was wont to be shut up by himself in the schoolroom until the service +was over. This he didn't much care for, and often when he had started +joyously as usual for his walk to the school, three-quarters of a mile +away, as soon as he came near enough to hear the church bell ringing, +he quietly turned round and went home. When he had been with us for +about eight years we took him to London for several weeks. He made the +best of it, and seemed to enjoy himself in a way, but it was almost +pathetic to see the change directly we got out of the train on our way +back. We had to drive three miles in a fly, and though Snap's place was +at the bottom under our feet, as soon as we got within a mile of home, +he seemed to know the smell of the country and was all excitement, and +when he found himself really at home he was quite beside himself with +joy and did not rest until he had visited in turn every familiar nook +and corner in the garden, then he threw himself down on his own rug in +his own house with a sigh of relief and satisfaction. + +I remember the same love of home in the case of another dog, a mongrel +long-haired terrier that I had from a puppy. When he was more than ten +years old he was taken to live in Hertfordshire. His friends there were +devoted to him and did all they could to make him happy, but his nature +quite changed, he lost his former boisterous spirits and seemed rather +to endure than to enjoy life. After he had been away four years I +brought him back; he was then, of course, old as dogs go, nearly 15, +but it seemed as though the intervening years had been a dream, and he +was himself again at once, just as joyous, noisy and +determined-spirited as he had ever been, and fell into all his old ways +of life, as if he had been absent only a day. + +This same dog, Stumpy we called him, had one little practical joke that +showed a sense of humour. At a farm about half-a-mile away there was a +pond, or as we say here a "pit," separated only by a hedge from the +road. On this pit there were nearly always ducks and it was a favourite +amusement of Stumpy's to steal quietly up to the road side of the hedge +just above them, and suddenly give several loud barks. He did this for +the simple pleasure of seeing the startled ducks rush quacking and +flapping to the other side of the pond; for he ran on again afterwards +perfectly unconcerned, content and pleased with himself, and I never +knew him take the slightest notice of ducks or fowls at any other time. + +I remember a rather wonderful instance of intelligence shown by +Stumpy's father when I had him with me at Oxford. He arrived there for +the first time late one evening; the next day I took him for a walk +with friends towards Godstow, and when nearly there we stood to watch +some men shooting. Sandy hated the sound of a gun, and when we +remembered him and looked round, he had gone. As he was quite strange +to the place I scarcely expected to see him again, but I found him +waiting for me outside the door in Holywell Street when I got home. + + * * * * * + +I may say in bringing these notes to a conclusion that they have in +substance been taken from a diary, and that I have not had to depend +upon my memory for what they contain, as I used to put down in this +diary at the moment any happenings connected with Natural History that +I noticed and wished to remember. When after several years I came to +look through the entries, the idea occurred to me that possibly some of +the matter might have an interest for others; I may very likely, of +course, be mistaken in this, all the more so, perhaps, because these +notes do represent what to me has been a source of very great interest. +I have had to live for many years an unexciting life, in an +out-of-the-way country place, with little society, and with few +opportunities of getting away for a holiday; and yet with the garden +itself, and the little world it embraces, in making the acquaintance of +its inhabitants and watching the doings of their daily life, I can +safely say I do not know what it is to be dull. Of course, I do not +pretend that Natural History has supplied all the interests I have had +outside my work, for I am thankful to say there is hardly anything in +the world that doesn't interest me, but it certainly is the case that +the tom-tits and the robins and the other birds have always been to me +as human friends, and have continually provided me with amusement and +pleasure. + + + + +INDEX. + + +Aviary, Outdoor--at Warrington, 68. + + +Barn Owls, 82. + +Bats in Old Church, 95. + +Birds as friends, 11, 112. + Power of recognizing one another, 40, 41. + +Blackbirds, 17, 22-25, 64, 65, 83, 84. + +Blackcaps, 31. + +Black Tern, 93. + +"Blueback" Cheshire for Fieldfare, 22. + +"Blue-cap" Cheshire for Tomtit, 38. + +"Blue rock" local name for Stockdove, 94. + +Bohemian Waxwing, 94. + +Brambling, 67-68. + +Bullfinch, 70. + + +Canary, 104. + +Cat, changing its home, 106. + Extreme old age, 103. + Uncanny spirit, 104. + +Chiffchaffs, 33. + +Chaffinches, 64-67. + +Coal-tits, 38, 41-43. + +Contrivances for baffling sparrows on the Food-stand, 59-64. + +"Coot" Cheshire for Waterhen, 90. + +Corncrakes, 89. + +Creeper, Tree-, 56. + +Crossbills, 71. + +Crows, Carrion-, 74. + Hooded-, 94. + +Cuckoos, 81. + + +Dogs, their intelligence, their love of home, 108-110. + +Dogs and cats compared, 103. + + +Earthquake and Pheasants, 89. + +Eclipse, a bat flying about while it lasted, 95. + + +Fieldfares, 22. + +Figs self-sown, 6. + +Flycatchers, Spotted-, 48-51. + Pied-, 51. + +Food for birds, 39. + +Food receptacles, 40. + +Food-stand, 59-64. + +Fox, 97. + +Frosts in spring, 3. + + +Garden-warbler, 34. + +Golden-crested wrens, 32. + +Golden plover, 91. + +Goldfinches, 57. + +"Goldfinch" Cheshire for Yellow-hammer, 71. + +Greater Spotted woodpecker, 79. + +Great Tits, 37, 38, 41. + +Greenfinches, 57. + +Gulls, 93. + + +Hares, 101. + +Hawfinches, 58. + +Hawks, Hobby, 94. + Kestrel, 84. + Sparrowhawk, 84. + +Hedgehog, 96. + +Hedgesparrows, 35. + +Heron, 87. + +Hobby, 94. + +Holly berries sometimes left untouched, 14. + +Hooded crow, 94. + +House martins, 54. + +House-sparrows, 58-66. + + +Jackdaws, 74. + +Jays, 73. + +"Jitty" Cheshire for Lesser Redpole, 68. + + +Kestrel, 84-87. + +Kingfishers, 80. + +"Kit" Cheshire for Redwing, 22. + + +Larks, 76. + +Larks and Sparrow Hawk, 84. + +Linnet, Green-, see Greenfinch. + Red-, Goldfinch. + +"Longwings" Cheshire for Swift, 77. + + +Magpies, 73. + +Marsh-tits, 41-43. + +Martins, House-, 54. + Sand-, 55. + +Meadow pipits, 47. + +Missel Thrush, 13-16, 21, 86. + +Mole, 95. + +Mouse, Common-, 99-101. + Long-tailed, 99. + + +Nightjars, 78. + +"Nicker" Cheshire for Goldfinch, 57. + + +"Old man" local name for Spotted flycatcher, 49. + +Old man, lover of cats, 108 + +Owls, Barn or White-, 82. + Brown, Longeared, and Shorteared-, 84. + + +Partridges, 89. + +Peewits, 91. + +"Peggy Whitethroat" Cheshire for Willow-warbler, 33. + +Pheasants, 88. + +"Pied finch" Cheshire for Chaffinch, 67. + +Pied flycatcher, 51. + +Pied wagtails, 46, 65. + +Pipits, Meadow-, 47. + Tree-, 48. + +Plants introduced becoming weeds, 8. + +Plover, Golden-, 91. + Peewits, 91. + + +Rabbits, 98. + +Rats, 97. + +"Red Linnet" Cheshire for Goldfinch, 57. + +Redpoles, Lesser-, 68-70. + +Redshanks, 92. + +Redstart, 27. + +Redwing, 21. + +Reed-bunting, 71. + +Robins, 18, 27-30, 60, 62, 63. + +Rooks, 75. + + +Sand-martins, 55. + +Sandpipers, 92. + +Sedge-warblers, 34. + +"Shercock" Cheshire for Missel Thrush, 13. + +Shrews, 99. + +Skylarks, 76. + +Snails not found in the garden, 4. + +Snipe, 92. + +Song Thrush, 16-21, 64, 65. + +Sparrow Hawks, 84-86. + +Sparrow, House-, 58-66. + +Sparrows and Owls, 83. + +Spotted Flycatchers, 48. + +Starlings, 72-73. + +Starlings and sparrows, 65. + +Stoats, 97. + +Stock-doves, 94. + +Stonechat, 26. + +Swallows, 18, 52-54. + +Swallows and Flycatchers, 51, 54. + +Swans, 87. + +Swifts, 77. + + +Tern, Black-, 93. + +"Throstle" Cheshire for Song Thrush, 16. + +Thrush, Missel-, 13-16. + Song-, 16-21. + Five kinds feeding together, 22. + +Tits, Blue- or Tomtit, 38-41. + Coal-, 38, 41-43. + Great-, 37, 38, 41. + Long-tailed-, 37. + Marsh-, 41-43. + +Toads not found in the garden, 4. + +Tomatoes self-sown, 6. + +Tom-tits, 38-41, 62, 63. + +Tree-creeper, 56. + +Trees in the garden, 2. + +Tree-pipit, 48. + +Turtledoves, 88. + +Two nests, one above the other, 94. + + +Voles, 99. + + +Wagtails, Pied-, 46, 47. + Yellow-, 47. + +Wagtails and swallows, 54. + +Warrington Town-hall outdoor aviary, 68. + +Waterhens, 90. + +"Weasel" local name for Stoat, 97. + +Wheatears, 26. + +Whinchats, 26. + +Whitethroats, Greater-, 30. + Lesser-, 31. + +Wild duck, 87. + +Wild geese, 87. + +Willow-warblers, 12, 33. + +Woodpecker, Greater spotted-, 79. + Green-, 79. + Lesser spotted-, 80. + +Wood-pigeons, 87. + +Wood-wren, 34. + +Wren, 18, 43-45. + + +Yellow-hammer, 71. + +Yew-tree, Old-, in churchyard, 2. + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Notes + +Standardized bird name hyphenation, made minor punctuation changes, and +the following correction: + +Page 84: Changed "neast" to "least." + Orig: without attracting the neast notice from any bird. + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In a Cheshire Garden, by Geoffrey Egerton-Warburton + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40249 *** |