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diff --git a/7353.txt b/7353.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..403f1cf --- /dev/null +++ b/7353.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6224 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Birds in Town and Village, by W. H. Hudson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Birds in Town and Village + +Author: W. H. Hudson + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7353] +Last Updated: August 24, 2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred + + + + + + +BIRDS IN TOWN & VILLAGE + +BY + + +W. H. HUDSON, + +F.Z.S. + +AUTHOR OF "THE PURPLE LAND," "IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA," "FAR AWAY AND +LONG AGO," ETC. + + +1920 + + + +PREFACE + +This book is more than a mere reprint of _Birds in a Village_ first +published in 1893. That was my first book about bird life, with some +impressions of rural scenes, in England; and, as is often the case with +a first book, its author has continued to cherish a certain affection +for it. On this account it pleased me when its turn came to be reissued, +since this gave me the opportunity of mending some faults in the +portions retained and of throwing out a good deal of matter which +appeared to me not worth keeping. + +The first portion, "Birds in a Village," has been mostly rewritten with +some fresh matter added, mainly later observations and incidents +introduced in illustration of the various subjects discussed. For the +concluding portion of the old book, which has been discarded, I have +substituted entirely new matter-the part entitled "Birds in a Cornish +Village." + +Between these two long parts there are five shorter essays which I have +retained with little alteration, and these in one or two instances are +consequently out of date, especially in what was said with bitterness in +the essay on "Exotic Birds for Britain" anent the feather-wearing +fashion and of the London trade in dead birds and the refusal of women +at that time to help us in trying to save the beautiful wild bird life +of this country and of the world generally from extermination. Happily, +the last twenty years of the life and work of the Royal Society for the +Protection of Birds have changed all that, and it would not now be too +much to say that all right-thinking persons in this country, men and +women, are anxious to see the end of this iniquitous traffic. + +W. H. H. + +September, 1919. + + + +CONTENTS + +PAGE + +BIRDS IN A VILLAGE: + +I + +II + +III + +IV + +V + +VI + +VII + +VIII + +IX + +X + +XI + +EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN + +MOOR-HENS IN HYDE PARK + +THE EAGLE AND THE CANARY + +CHANTICLEER + +IN AN OLD GARDEN + +BIRDS IN A CORNISH VILLAGE: + +I. TAKING STOCK OF THE BIRDS + +II. DO STARLINGS PAIR FOR LIFE? + +III. VILLAGE BIRDS IN WINTER + +IV. INCREASING BIRDS IN BRITAIN + +V. THE DAW SENTIMENT + +VI. STORY OF A JACKDAW + + + + + BIRDS IN TOWN & VILLAGE + + + +BIRDS IN A VILLAGE I + +About the middle of last May, after a rough and cold period, there came +a spell of brilliant weather, reviving in me the old spring feeling, the +passion for wild nature, the desire for the companionship of birds; and +I betook myself to St. James's Park for the sake of such satisfaction as +may be had from watching and feeding the fowls, wild and semi-wild, +found gathered at that favored spot. + +I was glad to observe a couple of those new colonists of the ornamental +water, the dabchicks, and to renew my acquaintance with the familiar, +long-established moorhens. One of them was engaged in building its nest +in an elm-tree growing at the water's edge. I saw it make two journeys +with large wisps of dry grass in its beak, running up the rough, +slanting trunk to a height of sixteen to seventeen feet, and +disappearing within the "brushwood sheaf" that springs from the bole at +that distance from the roots. The wood-pigeons were much more numerous, +also more eager to be fed. They seemed to understand very quickly that +my bread and grain was for them and not the sparrows; but although they +stationed themselves close to me, the little robbers we were jointly +trying to outwit managed to get some pieces of bread by flying up and +catching them before they touched the sward. This little comedy over, I +visited the water-fowl, ducks of many kinds, sheldrakes, geese from many +lands, swans black, and swans white. To see birds in prison during the +spring mood of which I have spoken is not only no satisfaction but a +positive pain; here--albeit without that large liberty that nature +gives, they are free in a measure; and swimming and diving or dozing in +the sunshine, with the blue sky above them, they are perhaps unconscious +of any restraint. Walking along the margin I noticed three children +some yards ahead of me; two were quite small, but the third, in whose +charge the others were, was a robust-looking girl, aged about ten or +eleven years. From their dress and appearance I took them to be the +children of a respectable artisan or small tradesman; but what chiefly +attracted my attention was the very great pleasure the elder girl +appeared to take in the birds. She had come well provided with stale +bread to feed them, and after giving moderately of her store to the +wood-pigeons and sparrows, she went on to the others, native and exotic, +that were disporting themselves in the water, or sunning themselves on +the green bank. She did not cast her bread on the water in the manner +usual with visitors, but was anxious to feed all the different species, +or as many as she could attract to her, and appeared satisfied when any +one individual of a particular kind got a fragment of her bread. +Meanwhile she talked eagerly to the little ones, calling their attention +to the different birds. Drawing near, I also became an interested +listener; and then, in answer to my questions, she began telling me what +all these strange fowls were. "This," she said, glad to give +information, "is the Canadian goose, and there is the Egyptian goose; +and here is the king-duck coming towards us; and do you see that large, +beautiful bird standing by itself, that will not come to be fed? That is +the golden duck. But that is not its real name; I don't know them all, +and so I name some for myself. I call that one the golden duck because +in the sun its feathers sometimes shine like gold." It was a rare +pleasure to listen to her, and seeing what sort of a girl she was, and +how much in love with her subject, I in my turn told her a great deal +about the birds before us, also of other birds she had never seen nor +heard of, in other and distant lands that have a nobler bird life than +ours; and after she had listened eagerly for some minutes, and had then +been silent a little while, she all at once pressed her two hands +together, and exclaimed rapturously, "Oh, I do so love the birds!" + +I replied that that was not strange, since it is impossible for us not +to love whatever is lovely, and of all living things birds were made +most beautiful. + +Then I walked away, but could not forget the words she had exclaimed, +her whole appearance, the face flushed with color, the eloquent brown +eyes sparkling, the pressed palms, the sudden spontaneous passion of +delight and desire in her tone. The picture was in my mind all that day, +and lived through the next, and so wrought on me that I could not longer +keep away from the birds, which I, too, loved; for now all at once it +seemed to me that life was not life without them; that I was grown sick, +and all my senses dim; that only the wished sight of wild birds could +medicine my vision; that only by drenching it in their wild melody could +my tired brain recover its lost vigour. + + + + +II + + +After wandering somewhat aimlessly about the country for a couple of +days, I stumbled by chance on just such a spot as I had been wishing to +find--a rustic village not too far away. It was not more than +twenty-five minutes' walk from a small station, less than one hour by +rail from London. + +The way to the village was through cornfields, bordered by hedges and +rows of majestic elms. Beyond it, but quite near, there was a wood, +principally of beech, over a mile in length, with a public path running +through it. On the right hand, ten minutes' walk from the village, there +was a long green hill, the ascent to which was gentle; but on the +further side it sloped abruptly down to the Thames. + +On the left hand there was another hill, with cottages and orchards, +with small fields interspersed on the slope and summit, so that the +middle part, where I lodged, was in a pretty deep hollow. There was no +sound of traffic there, and few farmers' carts came that way, as it was +well away from the roads, and the deep, narrow, winding lanes were +exceedingly rough, like the stony beds of dried-up streams. + +In the deepest part of the coombe, in the middle of the village, there +was a well where the cottagers drew their water; and in the summer +evenings the youths and maidens came there, with or without jugs and +buckets, to indulge in conversation, which was mostly of the rustic, +bantering kind, mixed with a good deal of loud laughter. Close by was +the inn, where the men sat on benches in the tap-room in grave discourse +over their pipes and beer. + +Wishing to make their acquaintance, I went in and sat down among them, +and found them a little shy--not to say stand-offish, at first. Rustics +are often suspicious of the stranger within their gates; but after +paying for beer all round, the frost melted and we were soon deep in +talk about the wild life of the place; always a safe and pleasant +subject in a village. One rough-looking, brown-faced man, with iron-grey +hair, became a sort of spokesman for the company, and replied to most of +my questions. + +"And what about badgers?" I asked. "In such a rough-looking spot with +woods and all, it strikes me as just the sort of place where one would +find that animal." + +A long dead silence followed. I caught the eye of the man nearest me and +repeated the question, "Are there no badgers here?" His eyes fell, then +he exchanged glances with some of the others, all very serious; and at +length my man, addressing the person who had acted as spokesman before, +said, "Perhaps you'll tell the gentleman if there are any badgers here." + +At that the rough man looked at me very sharply, and answered stiffly, +"Not as I know of." + +A few weeks later, at a small town in the neighbourhood, I got into +conversation with a hotel keeper, an intelligent man, who gave me a good +deal of information about the country. He asked me where I was staying, +and, on my telling him, said "Ah, I know it well--that village in a +hole; and a very nasty hole to get in, too--at any rate it was so, +formerly. They are getting a bit civilized now, but I remember the time +when a stranger couldn't show himself in the place without being jeered +at and insulted. Yes, they were a rough lot down in that hole--the +Badgers, they were called, and that's what they are called still." + +The pity of it was that I didn't know this before I went among them! But +it was not remembered against me that I had wounded their +susceptibilities; they soon found that I was nothing but a harmless +field naturalist, and I had friendly relations with many of them. + +At the extremity of the straggling village was the beginning of an +extensive common, where it was always possible to spend an hour or two +without seeing a human creature. A few sheep grazed and browsed there, +roaming about in twos and threes and half-dozens, tearing their fleeces +for the benefit of nest-building birds, in the great tangled masses of +mingled furze and bramble and briar. Birds were abundant there--all +those kinds that love the common's openness, and the rough, thorny +vegetation that flourishes on it. But the village--or rather, the large +open space occupied by it, formed the headquarters and centre of a +paradise of birds (as I soon began to think it), for the cottages and +houses were widely separated, the meanest having a garden and some +trees, and in most cases there was an old orchard of apple, cherry, and +walnut trees to each habitation, and out of this mass of greenery, which +hid the houses and made the place look more like a wood than a village, +towered the great elms in rows, and in groups. + +On first approaching the place I heard, mingled with many other voices, +that of the nightingale; and as it was for the medicine of its pure, +fresh melody that I particularly craved, I was glad to find a lodging in +one of the cottages, and to remain there for several weeks. + +The small care which the nightingale took to live up to his reputation +in this place surprised me a little. Here he could always be heard in +the daytime--not one bird, but a dozen--in different parts of the +village; but he sang not at night. This I set down to the fact that the +nights were dark and the weather unsettled. But later, when the weather +grew warmer, and there were brilliant moonlight nights, he was still a +silent bird except by day. + +I was also a little surprised at his tameness. + +On first coming to the village, when I ran after every nightingale I +heard, to get as near him as possible, I was occasionally led by the +sound to a cottage, and in some instances I found the singer perched +within three or four yards of an open window or door. At my own cottage, +when the woman who waited on me shook the breakfast cloth at the front +door, the bird that came to pick up the crumbs was the nightingale--not +the robin. When by chance he met a sparrow there, he attacked and chased +it away. It was a feast of nightingales. An elderly woman of the village +explained to me that the nightingales and other small birds were common +and tame in the village, because no person disturbed them. I smile now +when recording the good old dame's words. + +On my second day at the village it happened to be raining--a warm, +mizzling rain without wind--ind the nightingales were as vocal as in +fine bright weather. I heard one in a narrow lane, and went towards it, +treading softly, in order not to scare it away, until I got within eight +or ten yards of it, as it sat on a dead projecting twig. This was a twig +of a low thorn tree growing up from the hedge, projecting through the +foliage, and the bird, perched near its end, sat only about five feet +above the bare ground of the lane. Now, I owe my best thanks to this +individual nightingale, for sharply calling to my mind a common +pestilent delusion, which I have always hated, but had never yet raised +my voice against--namely, that all wild creatures exist in constant fear +of an attack from the numberless subtle or powerful enemies that are +always waiting and watching for an opportunity to spring upon and +destroy them. The truth is, that although their enemies be legion, and +that every day, and even several times on each day, they may be +threatened with destruction, they are absolutely free from apprehension, +except when in the immediate presence of danger. Suspicious they may be +at times, and the suspicion may cause them to remove themselves to a +greater distance from the object that excites it; but the emotion is so +slight, the action so almost automatic, that the singing bird will fly +to another bush a dozen yards away, and at once resume his interrupted +song. Again, a bird will see the deadliest enemy of its kind, and unless +it be so close as to actually threaten his life, he will regard it with +the greatest indifference or will only be moved to anger at its +presence. Here was this nightingale singing in the rain, seeing but not +heeding me; while beneath the hedge, almost directly under the twig it +sat on, a black cat was watching it with luminous yellow eyes. I did not +see the cat at first, but have no doubt that the nightingale had seen +and knew that it was there. High up on the tops of the thorn, a couple +of sparrows were silently perched. Perhaps, like myself, they had come +there to listen. After I had been standing motionless, drinking in that +dulcet music for at least five minutes, one of the two sparrows dropped +from the perch straight down, and alighting on the bare wet ground +directly under the nightingale, began busily pecking at something +eatable it had discovered. No sooner had he begun pecking than out +leaped the concealed cat on to him. The sparrow fluttered wildly up from +beneath or between the claws, and escaped, as if by a miracle. The cat +raised itself up, glared round, and, catching sight of me close by, +sprang back into the hedge and was gone. But all this time the exposed +nightingale, perched only five feet above the spot where the attack had +been made and the sparrow had so nearly lost his life, had continued +singing; and he sang on for some minutes after. I suppose that he had +seen the cat before, and knew instinctively that he was beyond its +reach; that it was a terrestrial, not an aerial enemy, and so feared it +not at all; and he would, perhaps, have continued singing if the sparrow +had been caught and instantly killed. + +Quite early in June I began to feel just a little cross with the +nightingales, for they almost ceased singing; and considering that the +spring had been a backward one, it seemed to me that their silence was +coming too soon. I was not sufficiently regardful of the fact that their +lays are solitary, as the poet has said; that they ask for no witness of +their song, nor thirst for human praise. They were all nesting now. But +if I heard them less, I saw much more of them, especially of one +individual, the male bird of a couple that had made their nest in a +hedge a stone's throw from the cottage. A favourite morning perch of +this bird was on a small wooden gate four or five yards away from my +window. It was an open, sunny spot, where his restless, bright eyes +could sweep the lane, up and down; and he could there also give vent to +his superfluous energy by lording it over a few sparrows and other small +birds that visited the spot. I greatly admired the fine, alert figure of +the pugnacious little creature, as he perched there so close to me, and +so fearless. His striking resemblance to the robin in form, size, and in +his motions, made his extreme familiarity seem only natural. The robin +is greatly distinguished in a sober-plumaged company by the vivid tint +on his breast. He is like the autumn leaf that catches a ray of sunlight +on its surface, and shines conspicuously among russet leaves. But the +clear brown of the nightingale is beautiful, too. + +This same nightingale was keeping a little surprise in store for me. +Although he took no notice of me sitting at the open window, whenever I +went thirty or forty yards from the gate along the narrow lane that +faced it, my presence troubled him and his mate only too much. They +would flit round my head, emitting the two strongly contrasted sounds +with which they express solicitude--the clear, thin, plaintive, or +wailing note, and the low, jarring sound--an alternate lamenting and +girding. One day when I approached the nest, they displayed more anxiety +than usual, fluttering close to me, wailing and croaking more vehemently +than ever, when all at once the male, at the height of his excitement, +burst into singing. Half a dozen notes were uttered rapidly, with great +strength, then a small complaining cry again, and at intervals, a fresh +burst of melody. I have remarked the same thing in other singing birds, +species in which the harsh grating or piercing sounds that properly +express violent emotions of a painful kind, have been nearly or quite +lost. In the nightingale, this part of the bird's language has lost its +original character, and has dwindled to something very small. +Solicitude, fear, anger, are expressed with sounds that are mere +lispings compared with those emitted by the bird when singing. It is +worthy of remark that some of the most highly developed melodists--and I +am now thinking of the mocking-birds--never, in-moments of extreme +agitation, fall into this confusion and use singing notes that express +agreeable emotions, to express such as are painful. But in the +mocking-bird the primitive harsh and grating cries have not been lost +nor softened to sounds hardly to be distinguished from those that are +emitted by way of song. + + + + +III + + +By this time all the birds were breeding, some already breeding a second +time. And now I began to suspect that they were not quite so undisturbed +as the old dame had led me to believe; that they had not found a +paradise in the village after all. One morning, as I moved softly along +the hedge in my nightingale's lane, all at once I heard, in the old +grassy orchard, to which it formed a boundary, swishing sounds of +scuttling feet and half-suppressed exclamations of alarm; then a +crushing through the hedge, and out, almost at my feet, rushed and +leaped and tumbled half-a-dozen urchins, who had suddenly been +frightened from a bird-nesting raid. Clothes torn, hands and faces +scratched with thorns, hat-less, their tow-coloured hair all disordered +or standing up like a white crest above their brown faces, rounded eyes +staring--what an extraordinarily wild appearance they had! I was back +in very old times, in the Britain of a thousand years before the coming +of the Romans, and these were her young barbarians, learning their +life's business in little things. + +No, the birds of the village were not undisturbed while breeding; but +happily the young savages never found my nightingale's nest. One day the +bird came to the gate as usual, and was more alert and pugnacious than +ever; and no wonder, for his mate came too, and with them four young +birds. For a week they were about the cottage every day, when they +dispersed, and one beautiful bright morning the male bird, in his old +place near my window, attempted to sing, beginning with that rich, +melodious throbbing, which is usually called "_jugging_," and following +with half-a-dozen beautiful notes. That was all. It was July, and I +heard no more music from him or from any other of his kind. + +* * * + +I have perhaps written at too great length of this bird. The nightingale +was after all only one of the fifty-nine species I succeeded in +identifying during my sojourn at the village. There were more. I heard +the calls and cries of others in the wood and various places, but +refused, except in the case of the too elusive crake, to set down any in +my list that I did not see. It was not my ambition to make a long list. +My greatest desire was to see well those that interested me most. But +those who go forth, as I did, to look for birds that are a sight for +sore eyes, must meet with many a disappointment. In all those fruit and +shade trees that covered the village with a cloud of verdure, and in the +neighbouring woods, not once did I catch a glimpse of the green +woodpecker, a beautiful conspicuous bird, supposed to be increasing in +many places in England. Its absence from so promising a locality seemed +strange. Another species, also said to be increasing in the +country--the turtledove, was extremely abundant. In the tall beech woods +its low, monotonous crooning note was heard all day long from all sides. +In shady places, where the loud, shrill bird-voices are few, one prefers +this sound to the set song of the woodpigeon, being more continuous and +soothing, and of the nature of a lullaby. It sometimes reminded me of +the low monotone I have heard from a Patagonian mother when singing her +"swart papoose" to sleep. Still, I would gladly have spared many of +these woodland crooners for the sake of one magpie--that bird of fine +feathers and a bright mind, which I had not looked on for a whole year, +and now hoped to see again. But he was not there; and after I had looked +for myself, some of the natives assured me that no magpie had been seen +for years in that wood. + +For a time I feared that I was to be just as unlucky with regard to the +jay, seeing that the owner of the extensive beech woods adjoining the +village permitted his keeper to kill the most interesting birds in +it--kestrels and sparrowhawks, owls, jays, and magpies. He was a new +man, comparatively, in the place, and wanted to increase his preserves, +but to do this it was necessary first to exclude the villagers--the +Badgers, who were no doubt partial to pheasants' eggs. Now, to close an +ancient right-of-way is a ticklish business, and this was an important +one, seeing that the village women did their Saturday marketing in the +town beyond the wood and river, and with the path closed they would have +two miles further to walk. The new lord wisely took this into +consideration, and set himself to win the goodwill of the people before +attempting any strong measures. He walked in the lanes and was affable +to the cottage women and nice to the children, and by and bye he +exclaimed, "What! No institute! no hall, or any place where you can meet +and spend the long winter evenings? Well, I'll soon see to that." And +soon, to their delight, they had a nice building reared on a piece of +land which he bought for the purpose, furnished with tables, chairs, +bagatelle boards, and all accessories; and he also supplied them with +newspapers and magazines. He was immensely popular, but appeared to +think little of what he had done. When they expressed their gratitude to +him he would move his hand, and answer, "Oh, I'm going to do a great +deal more than that for you!" + +A few months went by, then he caused a notice to be put up about the +neighbourhood that the path through the wood was going to be closed "by +order." No one took any notice, and a few weeks later his workmen +appeared on the scene and erected a huge oakwood barrier across the +path; also a notice on a board that the wood was strictly private and +trespassers would be prosecuted. The villagers met in force at the +institute and the inn that evening, and after discussing the matter over +their ale, they armed themselves with axes and went in a body and +demolished the barrier. + +The owner was disgusted, but took no action. "This," he said, "is their +gratitude"; and from that day he ceased to subscribe to the local +charities or take his walks in the village. He had given the institute, +and so could not pull it down nor prevent them from using it. + +It was refreshing to hear that the Badgers had shown a proper spirit in +the matter, and I was grateful to them for having kept the right-of-way, +as on most days I spent several hours in the beautiful woods. + +To return to the jay. In spite of the keeper's persecution, I knew that +he was there; every morning when I got up to look out of the window +between four and five o'clock, I heard from some quarter of the village +that curious subdued, but far-reaching, scolding note he is accustomed +to utter when his suspicions have been aroused. + +That was the jay's custom--to come from the woods before even the +earliest risers were up, and forage in the village. By and bye I +discovered that, by lying motionless for an hour or so on the dry moss +in the wood, he would at length grow so bold as to allow himself to be +seen, but high up among the topmost branches. Then, by means of my +binocular, I had the wild thing on my thumb, so to speak, exhibiting +himself to me, inquisitive, perplexed, suspicious, enraged by turns, as +he flirted wings and tail, lifted and lowered his crest, glancing down +with bright, wild eyes. What a beautiful hypocrisy and delightful power +this is which enables us, sitting or lying motionless, feigning sleep +perhaps, thus to fool this wild, elusive creature, and bring all its +cunning to naught! He is so much smaller and keener-sighted, able to +fly, to perch far up above me, to shift his position every minute or +two, masking his small figure with this or that tuft of leaves, while +still keeping his eyes on me--in spite of it all to have him so close, +and without moving or taking any trouble, to see him so much better than +he can see me! But this is a legitimate trickery of science, so innocent +that we can laugh at our dupe when we practise it; nor do we afterwards +despise our superior cunning and feel ashamed, as when we slaughter wild +birds with far-reaching shot, which they cannot escape. + +* * * + +All these corvine birds, which the gamekeeper pursues so relentlessly, +albeit they were before him, killing when they killed to better purpose; +and, let us hope, will exist after him--all these must greatly surpass +other kinds in sagacity to have escaped extermination. In the present +condition of things, the jay is perhaps the best off, on account of his +smaller size and less conspicuous colouring; but whether more cunning +than the crow or magpie or not, in perpetual alertness and restless +energy or intensity of life, he is without an equal among British birds. +And this quality forms his chief attraction; it is more to the mind than +his lifted crest and bright eyes, his fine vinaceous brown and the patch +of sky-blue on his wings. One would miss him greatly from the woods; +some of the melody may well be spared for the sake of the sudden, +brain-piercing, rasping, rending scream with which he startles us in our +solitary forest walks. + +It is this extreme liveliness of the jay which makes it more distressing +to the mind to see it pent in a cage than other birds of its family, +such as the magpie; just as it is more distressing to see a skylark than +a finch in prison, because the lark has an irresistible impulse to rise +when his singing fit is on. Sing he must, in or out of prison, yet there +can be little joy in the performance when the bird is incessantly teased +with the unsatisfied desire to mount and pour out his music at heaven's +gate. + +Out of the cages, jays make charming and beautiful pets, and some who +have kept them have assured me that they are not mischievous birds. The +late Mark Melford one time when I visited him, had two jays, handsome +birds, in bright, glossy plumage, always free to roam where they liked, +indoors or out. We were sitting talking in his garden when one of the +jays came flying to us and perched on a wooden ledge a few feet from and +above our heads, and after sitting quietly for a little while he +suddenly made a dash at my head, just brushing it with his wings, then +returned to his perch. At intervals of a few moments he repeated this +action, and when I remarked that he probably resented the presence of a +stranger, Melford exclaimed, "Oh, no, he wants to play with you--that's +all." + +His manner of playing was rather startling. So long as I kept my eyes on +him he remained motionless, but the instant my attention wandered, or +when in speaking I looked at my companion, the sudden violent dash at my +head would be made. + +I was assured by Melford that his birds never carried off and concealed +bright objects, a habit which it has been said the jay, as well as the +magpie, possesses. + +"What would he do with this shilling if I tossed it to him?" I asked. + +"Catch it," he returned. "It would simply be play to him, but he +wouldn't carry it off." + +I tossed up the shilling, and the bird had perhaps expected me to do so, +as he deftly caught it just as a dog catches a biscuit when you toss one +to him. After keeping it a few moments in his beak, he put it down at +his side. I took out four more shilling pieces and tossed them quickly +one by one, and he caught them without a miss and placed them one by one +with the other, not scattered about, but in a neat pile. Then, seeing +that I had no more shillings he flew off. + +After these few playful passages with one of his birds, I could +understand Melford's feeling about his free pet jays, magpies and +jackdaws; they were not merely birds to him, but rather like so many +delightful little children in the beautiful shape of birds. + +* * * + +There was no rookery in or near the village, but a large flock of rooks +were always to be seen feeding and sunning themselves in some level +meadows near the river. It struck me one day as a very fine sight, when +an old bird, who looked larger and blacker and greyer-faced than the +others, and might have been the father and leader of them all, got up on +a low post, and with wide-open beak poured forth a long series of most +impressive caws. One always wonders at the meaning of such displays. Is +the old bird addressing the others in the rook language on some matter +of great moment; or is he only expressing some feeling in the only +language he has--those long, hoarse, uninflected sounds; and if so, what +feeling? Probably a very common one. The rooks appeared happy and +prosperous, feeding in the meadow grass in that June weather, with the +hot sun shining on their glossy coats. Their days of want were long past +and forgotten; the anxious breeding period was over; the tempest in the +tall trees; the annual slaughter of the young birds--all past and +forgotten. The old rook was simply expressing the old truth, that life +was worth living. + +These rooks were usually accompanied by two or three or more crows--a +bird of so ill-repute that the most out-and-out enthusiast for +protection must find it hard to say a word in its favour. At any rate, +the rooks must think, if they think at all, that this frequent visitor +and attendant of theirs is more kin than kind. I have related in a +former work that I once saw a peregrine strike down and kill an owl--a +sight that made me gasp with astonishment. But I am inclined to think of +this act as only a slip, a slight aberration, on the part of the falcon, +so universal is the sense of relationship among the kinds that have the +rapacious habit; or, at the worst, it was merely an isolated act of +deviltry and daring of the sharp-winged pirate of the sky, a sudden +assertion of over-mastering energy and power, and a very slight offence +compared with that of the crow when he carries off and devours his +callow little cousins of the rookery. + +* * * + +One of the first birds I went out to seek--perhaps the most medicinal of +all birds to see--was the kingfisher; but he was not anywhere on the +river margin, although suitable places were plentiful enough, and +myriads of small fishes were visible in the shallow water, seen at rest +like dim-pointed stripes beneath the surface, and darting away and +scattering outwards, like a flight of arrows, at any person's approach. +Walking along the river bank one day, when the place was still new to +me, I discovered a stream, and following it up arrived at a spot where a +clump of trees overhung the water, casting on it a deep shade. On the +other side of the stream buttercups grew so thickly that the glazed +petals of the flowers were touching; the meadow was one broad expanse of +brilliant yellow. I had not been standing half a minute in the shade +before the bird I had been seeking darted out from the margin, almost +beneath my feet, and then, instead of flying up or down stream, sped +like an arrow across the field of buttercups. It was a very bright day, +and the bird going from me with the sunshine full on it, appeared +entirely of a shining, splendid green. Never had I seen the kingfisher +in such favourable circumstances; flying so low above the flowery level +that the swiftly vibrating wings must have touched the yellow petals; he +was like a waif from some far tropical land. The bird was tropical, but +I doubt if there exists within the tropics anything to compare with a +field of buttercups--such large and unbroken surfaces of the most +brilliant colour in nature. The first bird's mate appeared a minute +later, flying in the same direction, and producing the same splendid +effect, and also green. These two alone were seen, and only on this +occasion, although I often revisited the spot, hoping to find them +again. + +Now, the kingfisher is blue, and I am puzzled to know why, on this one +occasion, it appeared green. I have, in a former work, _Argentine +Ornithology_, described a contrary effect in a small and beautiful +tyrant-bird, _Cyanotis azarae_, variously called, in the vernacular, +"All-colored or Many-colored Kinglet." It has a little blue on its head, +but its entire back, from the nape to the tail, is deep green. It lives +in beds of bulrushes, and when seen flying from the spectator in a very +strong light, at a distance of twenty or thirty yards, its colour in +appearance is bright cerulean blue. It is a sunlight effect, but how +produced is a mystery to me. In the case of the two green kingfishers, I +am inclined to think that the yellow of that shining field of buttercups +in some way produced the illusion. + +Why are these exquisite birds so rare, even in situations so favourable +to them as the one I have described? Are they killed by severe frosts? +An ornithological friend from Oxfordshire assures me that it will take +several favourable seasons to make good the losses of the late terrible +winter of 1891-92. But this, as every ornithologist knows, is only a +part of the truth. The large number of stuffed kingfishers under glass +shades that one sees in houses of all descriptions, in town and country, +but most frequently in the parlours of country cottages and inns, tell a +melancholy story. Some time ago a young man showed me three stuffed +kingfishers in a case, and informed me that he had shot them at a place +(which he named) quite close to London. He said that these three birds +were the last of their kind ever seen there; that he had gone, week +after week and watched and waited, until one by one, at long intervals, +he had secured them all; and that two years had passed since the last +one was killed, and no other kingfisher had been seen at the place. He +added that the waterside which these birds had frequented was resorted +to by crowds of London working people on Saturday afternoons, Sundays +and other holidays; the fact that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pairs +of tired eyes would have been freshened and gladdened by the sight of +their rare gem-like beauty only made him prouder of his achievement. +This young man was a cockney of the small shop-keeping class--a +Philistine of the Philistines--hence there was no call to feel surprise +at his self-glorification over such a matter. But what shall we say of +that writer whose masterly works on English rural life are familiar to +everyone, who is regarded as first among "lovers of nature," when he +relates that he invariably carried a gun when out of doors, mainly with +the object of shooting any kingfisher he might chance to see, as the +dead bird always formed an acceptable present to the cottager's wife, +who would get it stuffed and keep it as an ornament on her parlour +mantelshelf! + +Happily for the kingfisher, and for human beings who love nature, the +old idea that beautiful birds were meant to be destroyed for fun by +anyone and everyone, from the small-brained, detestable cockney +sportsman I have mentioned, to the gentlemen who write books about the +beauties of nature, is now gradually giving place to this new one--that +it would be better to preserve the beautiful things we possess. Half a +century before the author of "Wild Life in a Southern Country" amused +himself by carrying a gun to shoot kingfishers, the inhabitants of that +same county of Wiltshire were bathed in tears--so I read in an old +Salisbury newspaper--at the tragic death of a young gentleman of great +distinction, great social charm, great promise. He was out shooting +swallows with a friend who, firing at a passing swallow, had the +misfortune to shoot and kill _him._ + +At the present time when gentlemen practise a little at flying birds, to +get their hand in before the first of September, they shoot sparrows as +a rule, or if they shoot swallows, which afford them better practice, +they do not say anything about it. + + + + +IV + + +Where the stream broadened and mixed with the river, there existed a +dense and extensive rush-bed--an island of rushes separated by a deep +channel, some twelve or fourteen yards in width from the bank. This was +a favourite nesting-place of the sedge-warblers; occasionally as many as +a dozen birds could be heard singing at the same time, although in no +sense together, and the effect was indeed curious. This is not a song +that spurts and gushes up fountain-like in the manner of the robin's, +and of some other kinds, sprinkling the listener, so to speak, with a +sparkling vocal spray; but it keeps low down, a song that flows along +the surface gurgling and prattling like musical running water, in its +shallow pebbly channel. Listening again, the similitude that seemed +appropriate at first was cast aside for another, and then another still. +The hidden singers scattered all about their rushy island were small, +fantastic, human minstrels, performing on a variety of instruments, some +unknown, others recognizable--bones and castanets, tiny hurdy-gurdies, +piccolos, banjos, tabours, and Pandean pipes--a strange medley! + +Interesting as this concert was, it held me less than the solitary +singing of a sedge-warbler that lived by himself, or with only his mate, +higher up where the stream was narrow, so that I could get near him; for +he not only tickled my ears with his rapid, reedy music, but amused my +mind as well with a pretty little problem in bird psychology. I could +sit within a few yards of his tangled haunt without hearing a note; but +if I jumped up and made a noise, or struck the branches with my stick, +he would incontinently burst into song. It is a very well-known habit of +the bird, and on account of it and of the very peculiar character of the +sounds emitted, his song is frequently described by ornithologists as +"mocking, defiant, scolding, angry," etc. It seems clear that at +different times the bird sings from different exciting causes. When, +undisturbed by a strange presence, he bursts spontaneously into singing, +the music, as in other species, is simply an expression of overflowing +gladness; at other times, the bird expressed such feelings as alarm, +suspicion, solicitude, perhaps anger, by singing the same song. How does +this come about? + +I have stated, when speaking of the nightingale, that birds in which the +singing faculty is highly developed, sometimes make the mistake of +bursting into song when anxious or distressed or in pain, but that this +is not the case with the mocking-birds. Some species of these brilliant +songsters of the New World, in their passion for variety (to put it that +way), import every harsh and grating cry and sound they know into their +song; but, on the other hand, when anxious for the safety of their +young, or otherwise distressed, they emit only the harsh and grating +sounds--never a musical note. In the sedge-warbler, the harsh, scolding +sounds that express alarm, solicitude, and other painful emotions, have +also been made a part of the musical performance; but this differs from +the songs of most species, the mocking birds included, in the +extraordinary rapidity with which it is enunciated; once the song begins +it goes on swiftly to the finish, harsh and melodious notes seeming to +overlap and mingle, the sound forming, to speak in metaphor, a close +intricate pattern of strongly-contrasted colours. Now the song +invariably begins with the harsh notes--the sounds which, at other +times, express alarm and other more or less painful emotions--and it +strikes me as a probable explanation that when the bird in the singing +season has been startled into uttering these harsh and grating sounds, +as when a stone is flung into the rushes, he is incapable of uttering +them only, but the singing notes they suggest and which he is in the +habit of uttering, follow automatically. + +The spot where I observed this wee feathered fantasy, the tantalizing +sprite of the rushes, and where I soon ceased to see, hear, or think +about him, calls for a fuller description. On one side the wooded hill +sloped downward to the stream; on the other side spread the meadows +where the rooks came every day to feed, or to sit and stand about +motionless, looking like birds cut out of jet, scattered over about half +an acre of the grassy, level ground. Stout old pollard willows grew here +and there along the banks and were pleasant to see, this being the one +man-mutilated thing in nature which, to my mind, not infrequently gains +in beauty by the mutilation, so admirably does it fit into and harmonize +with the landscape. At one point there was a deep, nearly stagnant pool, +separated from the stream by a strip of wet, rushy ground, its still +dark surface covered with water-lilies, not yet in bloom. They were just +beginning to show their polished buds, shaped like snake's heads, above +the broad, oily leaves floating like islands on the surface. The stream +itself was, on my side, fringed with bulrushes and other aquatic plants; +on the opposite bank there were some large alders lifting their branches +above great masses of bramble and rose-briar, all together forming as +rich and beautiful a tangle as one could find even in the most luxuriant +of the wild, unkept hedges round the village. The briars especially +flourished wonderfully at this spot, climbing high and dropping their +long, slim branches quite down to the surface of the water, and in some +places forming an arch above the stream. A short distance from this +tangle, so abundantly sprinkled with its pale delicate roses, the water +was spanned by a small wooden bridge, which no person appeared to use, +but which had a use. It formed the one dry clear spot in the midst of +all that moist vegetation, and the birds that came from the wood to +drink and search for worms and small caterpillars first alighted on the +bridge. There they would rest a few moments, take a look round, then fly +to some favourite spot where succulent morsels had been picked up on +previous visits. Thrushes, blackbirds, sparrows, reed-buntings, +chaffinches, tits, wrens, with many other species, succeeded each other +all day long; for now they mostly had young to provide for, and it was +their busiest time. + +The unsullied beauty and solitariness of this spot made me wish at first +that I was a boy once more, to climb and to swim, to revel in the +sunshine and flowers, to be nearer in spirit to the birds and dragon +flies and water-rats; then, that I could build a cabin and live there +all the summer long, forgetful of the world and its affairs, with no +human creature to keep me company, and no book to read, or with only one +slim volume, some Spanish poet, let me say Melendez, for +preference--only a small selection from his too voluminous writings; for +he, albeit an eighteenth-century singer, was perhaps the last of that +long, illustrious line of poets who sang as no others have sung of the +pure delight-fulness of a life with nature. Something of this charm is +undoubtedly due to the beauty of the language they wrote in and to the +free, airy grace of assonants. What a hard, artificial sound the rhyme +too often has: the clink that falls at regular intervals as of a +stone-breaker's hammer! In the freer kinds of Spanish poetry there are +numberless verses that make the smoothest lines and lyrics of our +sweetest and most facile singers, from Herrick to Swinburne, seem hard +and mechanical by comparison. But there is something more. I doubt, for +one thing, if we are justified in the boast we sometimes make that the +feeling for Nature is stronger in our poets than in those of other +countries. The most scientific critic may be unable to pick a hole in +Tennyson's botany and zoology; but the passion for, and feeling of +oneness with Nature may exist without this modern minute accuracy. Be +this as it may, it was not Tennyson, nor any other of our poets, that I +would have taken to my dreamed-of solitary cabin for companionship: +Melendez came first to my mind. I think of his lines to a butterfly: + + De donde alegre vienes + Tan suelta y tan festiva, + Las valles alegrando + Veloz mariposilla?* + +* May be roughly rendered thus: + + Whence, blithe one, comest thou + With that airy, happy flight-- + To make the valleys glad, + O swift-winged butterfly? + +and can imagine him--the poet himself--coming to see me through the +woods and down the hill with the careless ease and lightness of heart of +his own purple-winged child of earth and air--_tan suelta y tan +festiva_. Here in these four or five words one may read the whole secret +of his charm--the exquisite delicacy and seeming artlessness in the +form, and the spirit that is in him--the old, simple, healthy, natural +gladness in nature, and feeling of kinship with all the children of +life. But I do not wish to disturb anyone in his prepossessions. It +would greatly trouble me to think that my reader should, for the space +of a page, or even of a single line, find himself in opposition to and +not with me; and I am free to admit that with regard to poetry one's +preferences change according to the mood one happens to be in and to the +conditions generally. At home in murky London on most days I should +probably seek pleasure and forgetfulness in Browning; but in such +surroundings as I have been describing the lighter-hearted, elf-like +Melendez accords best with my spirit, one whose finest songs are without +human interest; who is irresponsible as the wind, and as unstained with +earthly care as the limpid running water he delights in: who is brother +to bird and bee and butterfly, and worships only liberty and sunshine, +and is in love with nothing but a flower. + +Nearly midway between the useful little bridge and the rose-blossoming +tangle I have spoken of there were three elm-trees growing in the open +grassy space near the brook; they were not lofty, but had very +wide-spreading horizontal branches, which made them look like oaks. This +was an ideal spot in which to spend the sultry hours, and I had no +sooner cast myself on the short grass in the shade than I noticed that +the end of a projecting branch above my head, and about twenty feet from +the ground, was a favourite perch of a tree-pipit. He sang in the air +and, circling gracefully down, would alight on the branch, where, +sitting near me and plainly visible, he would finish his song and renew +it at intervals; then, leaving the loved perch, he would drop, singing, +to the ground, just a few yards beyond the tree's shadow; thence, +singing again, he would mount up and up above the tree, only to slide +down once more with set, unfluttering wings, with a beautiful swaying +motion to the same old resting-place on the branch, there to sing and +sing and sing. + +If Melendez himself had come to me with flushed face and laughing eyes, +and sat down on the grass at my side to recite one of his most +enchanting poems, I should, with finger on lip, have enjoined silence; +for in the mood I was then in at that sequestered spot, with the +landscape outside my shady green pavilion bathed and quivering in the +brilliant sunshine, this small bird had suddenly become to me more than +any other singer, feathered or human. And yet the tree-pipit is not very +highly regarded among British melodists, on account of the little +variety there is in its song. Nevertheless, it is most sweet--perhaps the +sweetest of all. It is true that there are thousands, nay, millions of +things--sights and sounds and perfumes--which are or may be described as +sweet, so common is the metaphor, and this too common use has perhaps +somewhat degraded it; but in this case there is no other word so well +suited to describe the sensation produced. + +The tree-pipit has a comparatively short song, repeated, with some +variation in the number and length of the notes, at brief intervals. The +opening notes are thick and throaty, and similar in character to the +throat-notes of many other species in this group, a softer sound than +the throat-notes of the skylark and woodlark, which they somewhat +resemble. The canary-like trills and thin piping notes, long drawn out, +which follow vary greatly in different individuals, and in many cases +the trills are omitted. But the concluding notes of the song I am +considering--which is only one note repeated again and again--are clear +and beautifully inflected, and have that quality of sweetness, of +lusciousness, I have mentioned. The note is uttered with a downward +fall, more slowly and expressively at each repetition, as if the singer +felt overcome at the sweetness of life and of his own expression, and +languished somewhat at the close; its effect is like that of the perfume +of the honeysuckle, infecting the mind with a soft, delicious languor, a +wish to lie perfectly still and drink of the same sweetness again and +again in larger measure. + +To some who are familiar with this by no means uncommon little bird, it +may seem that I am overstating the charm of its melody. I can only say +that the mood I was then in made me very keenly appreciative; also that +I have never heard any other individual of this species able to produce +precisely the same effect. We know that there are quite remarkable +differences in the songs of birds of the same species, that among +several that appear to be perfect and to sing alike one will possess a +charm above the other. The truth is they are not alike; they affect us +differently, but the sense is not fine enough or not sufficiently +trained to detect the cause. The poet's words may be used of this +natural melody as well as of the works of art: + + "O the little more and how much it is!" + +There were about the village, within a few minutes' walk of the cottage, +not fewer than half-a-dozen tree-pipits, each inhabiting a favourite +spot where I could always count on finding and hearing him at almost any +hour of the day from sunrise to sunset. Yet I cared not for these. To +the one chosen bird I returned daily to spend the hot hours, lying in +the shade and listening to his strain. Finally, I allowed two or three +days to slip by, and when I revisited the old spot the secret charm had +vanished. The bird was there, and rose and fell as formerly, pouring out +his melody; but it was not the same: something was missing from those +last sweet, languishing notes. Perhaps in the interval there had been +some disturbing accident in his little wild life, though I could hardly +believe it, since his mate was still sitting about thirty yards from the +tree on the five little mottled eggs in her nest. Or perhaps his +midsummer's music had reached its highest point, and was now in its +declension. And perhaps the fault was in me. The virtue that draws and +holds us does not hold us always, nor very long; it departs from all +things, and we wonder why. The loss is in ourselves, although we do not +know it. Nature, the chosen mistress of our heart, does not change +towards us, yet she is now, even to-day-- + + "Less full of purple colour and hid spice," + +and smiles and sparkles in vain to allure us, and when she touches us +with her warm, caressing touch, there is, compared with yesterday, only +a faint response. + + + + +V + + +Coming back from the waterside through the wood, after the hottest hours +of the day were over, the crooning of the turtle-doves would be heard +again on every side--that summer beech-wood lullaby that seemed never to +end. The other bird voices were of the willow-wren, the wood-wren, the +coal-tit, and the now somewhat tiresome chiffchaff; from the distance +would come the prolonged rich strain of the blackbird, and occasionally +the lyric of the chaffinch. The song of this bird gains greatly when +heard from a tall tree in the woodland silence; it has then a resonance +and wildness which it appears to lack in the garden and orchard. In the +village I had been glad to find that the chaffinch was not too common, +that in the tangle of minstrelsy one could enjoy there his vigorous +voice was not predominant. + +Of all these woodland songsters the wood-wren impressed me the most. He +could always be heard, no matter where I entered the wood, since all +this world of tall beeches was a favoured haunt of the wood-wren, each +pair keeping to its own territory of half-an-acre of trees or so, and +somewhere among those trees the male was always singing, far up, +invisible to eyes beneath, in the topmost sunlit foliage of the tall +trees. On entering the wood I would, stand still for a few minutes to +listen to the various sounds until that one fascinating sound would come +to my ears from some distance away, and to that spot I would go to find +a bed of last year's leaves to sit upon and listen. It was an enchanting +experience to be there in that woodland twilight with the green cloud of +leaves so far above me; to listen to the silence, to the faint whisper +of the wind-touched leaves, then to little prelusive drops of musical +sound, growing louder and falling faster until they ran into one +prolonged trill. And there I would sit listening for half-an-hour or a +whole hour; but the end would not come; the bird is indefatigable and +with his mysterious talk in the leaves would tire the sun himself and send +him down the sky: for not until the sun has set and the wood has grown +dark does the singing cease. + +On emerging from the deep shade of the beeches into the wide grassy road +that separated the wood from the orchards and plantations of fruit +trees, and pausing for a minute to look down on the more than +half-hidden village, invariably the first loud sounds that reached my +ear were those of the cuckoo, thrush, and blackbird. At all hours in the +village, from early morning to evening twilight, these three voices +sounded far and near above the others. I considered myself fortunate +that no large tree near the cottage had been made choice of by a +song-thrush as a singing-stand during the early hours. The nearest tree +so favoured was on the further side of a field, so that when I woke at +half-past three or four o'clock, the shrill indefatigable voice came in +at the open window, softened by distance and washed by the dewy +atmosphere to greater purity. Throstle and skylark to be admired must be +heard at a distance. But at that early hour when I sat by the open +window, the cuckoo's call was the commonest sound; the birds were +everywhere, bird answering bird far and near, so persistently repeating +their double note that this sound, which is in character unlike any +other sound in nature, which one so listens and longs to hear in spring, +lost its old mystery and charm, and became of no more account than the +cackle of the poultry-yard. It was the cuckoo's village; sometimes three +or four birds in hot pursuit of each other would dash through the trees +that lined the further side of the lane and alight on that small tree at +the gate which the nightingale was accustomed to visit later in the day. + +Other birds that kept themselves very much out of sight during most of +the time also came to the same small tree at that early hour. It was +regularly visited, and its thin bole industriously examined, by the +nuthatch and the quaint little mouse-like creeper. Doubtless they +imagined that five o'clock was too early for heavy human creatures to be +awake, and were either ignorant of my presence or thought proper to +ignore it. + +But where, during the days when the vociferous cuckoo, with hoarse +chuckle and dissyllabic call and wild bubbling cry was so much with +us--where, in this period of many pleasant noises was the cuckoo's mate, +or maid, or messenger, the quaint and beautiful wryneck? There are few +British birds, perhaps not one--not even the crafty black and white +magpie, or mysterious moth-like goatsucker, or tropical kingfisher--more +interesting to watch. At twilight I had lingered at the woodside, also +in other likely places, and the goatsucker had failed to appear, gliding +and zig-zagging hither and thither on his dusky-mottled noiseless wings, +and now this still heavier disappointment was mine. I could not find the +wryneck. Those quiet grassy orchards, shut in by straggling hedges, +should have had him as a favoured summer guest. Creeper and nuthatch, +and starling and gem-like blue tit, found holes enough in the old trunks +to breed in. And yet I knew that, albeit not common, he was there; I +could not exactly say where, but somewhere on the other side of the next +hedge or field or orchard; for I heard his unmistakable cry, now on this +hand, now on that. Day after day I followed the voice, sometimes in my +eagerness forcing my way through a brambly hedge to emerge with +scratched hands and clothes torn, like one that had been set upon and +mauled by some savage animal of the cat kind; and still the quaint +figure eluded my vision. + +At last I began to have doubts about the creature that emitted that +strange, penetrating call. First heard as a bird-call, and nothing more, +by degrees it grew more and more laugh-like--a long, far-reaching, +ringing laugh; not the laugh I should like to hear from any person I +take an interest in, but a laugh with all the gladness, unction, and +humanity gone out of it--a dry mechanical sound, as if a soulless, +lifeless, wind-instrument had laughed. It was very curious. Listening to +it day by day, something of the strange history of the being once but no +longer human, that uttered it grew up and took shape in my mind; for we +all have in us something of this mysterious faculty. It was no bird, no +wryneck, but a being that once, long, long, long ago, in that same +beautiful place, had been a village boy--a free, careless, glad-hearted +boy, like many another. But to this boy life was more than to others, +since nature appeared immeasurably more vivid on account of his brighter +senses; therefore his love of life and happiness in life greatly +surpassed theirs. Annually the trees shed their leaves, the flowers +perished, the birds flew away to some distant country beyond the +horizon, and the sun grew pale and cold in the sky; but the bright +impression all things made on him gave him a joy that was perennial. The +briony, woodbine, and honeysuckle he had looked on withered in the +hedges, but their presentments flourished untouched by frost, as if his +warmth sustained and gave them perpetual life; in that inner magical +world of memory the birds still twittered and warbled, each after its +kind, and the sun shone everlastingly. But he was living in a fool's +paradise, as he discovered by-and-by, when a boy who had been his +playmate began to grow thin and pale, and at last fell sick and died. He +crept near and watched his dead companion lying motionless, unbreathing, +with a face that was like white clay; and then, more horrible still, he +saw him taken out and put into a grave, and the heavy, cold soil cast +over him. + +What did this strange and terrible thing mean? Now for the first time he +was told that life is ours only for a season; that we also, like the +leaves and flowers, flourish for a while then fade and perish, and +mingle with the dust. The sad knowledge had come too suddenly and in too +vivid and dreadful a manner. He could not endure it. Only for a +season!--only for a season! The earth would be green, and the sky blue, +and the sun shine bright for ever, and he would not see, not know it! +Struck with anguish at the thought, he stole away out of sight of the +others to hide himself in woods and thickets, to brood alone on such a +hateful destiny, and torture himself with vain longings, until he, too, +grew pale and thin and large-eyed, like the boy that had died, and those +who saw him shook their heads and whispered to one another that he was +not long for this world. He knew what they were saying, and it only +served to increase his misery and fear, and made him hate them because +they were insensible to the awful fact that death awaited them, or so +little concerned that they had never taken the trouble to inform him of +it. To eat and drink and sleep was all they cared for, and they regarded +death with indifference, because their dull sight did not recognize the +beauty and glory of the earth, nor their dull hearts respond to Nature's +everlasting gladness. The sight of the villagers, with their solemn +head-shakings and whisperings, even of his nearest kindred, grew +insupportable, and he at length disappeared from among them, and was +seen no more with his white, terror-stricken face. From that time he hid +himself in the close thickets, supporting his miserable existence on +wild fruits and leaves, and spending many hours each day lying in some +sheltered spot, gazing up into that blue sunny sky, which was his to +gaze on only for a season, while the large tears gathered in his eyes +and rolled unheeded down his wasted cheeks. + +At length during this period there occurred an event which is the +obscurest part of his history; for I know not who or what it was--my +mind being in a mist about it--that came to or accidentally found him +lying on a bed of grass and dried leaves in his thorny hiding-place. It +may have been a gipsy or a witch--there were witches in those days--who, +suddenly looking on his upturned face and seeing the hunger in his +unfathomable eyes, loved him, in spite of her malignant nature; or a +spirit out of the earth; or only a very wise man, an ancient, +white-haired solitary, whose life had been spent in finding out the +secrets of nature. This being, becoming acquainted with the cause of the +boy's grief and of his solitary, miserable condition, began to comfort +him by telling him that no grief was incurable, no desire that heart +could conceive unattainable. He discoursed of the hidden potent +properties of nature, unknown only to those who seek not to know them; +of the splendid virtue inherent in all things, like the green and violet +flames in the clear colourless raindrops which are seen only on rare +occasions. Of life and death, he said that life was of the spirit which +never dies, that death meant only a passage, a change of abode of the +spirit, and the left body crumbled to dust when the spirit went out of +it to continue its existence elsewhere, but that those who hated the +thought of such change could, by taking thought, prolong life and live +for a thousand years, like the adder and tortoise or for ever. But no, +he would not leave the poor boy to grope alone and blindly after that +hidden knowledge he was burning to possess. He pitied him too much. The +means were simple and near to hand, the earth teemed with the virtue +that would save him from the dissolution which so appalled him. He would +be startled to hear in how small a thing and in how insignificant a +creature resided the principle that could make his body, like his +spirit, immortal. But exceeding great power often existed in small +compass: witness the adder's tooth, which was to our sight no more than +the point of the smallest thorn. Now, in the small ant there exists a +principle of a greater potency than any other in nature; so strong and +penetrating was it that even the dull and brutish kind of men who +enquire not into hidden things know something of its power. But the +greatest of all the many qualities of this acid was unknown to them. The +ants were a small people, but exceedingly wise and powerful. If a little +human child had the strength of an ant he would surpass in power the +mightiest giant that ever lived. In the same way ants surpassed men in +wisdom; and this strength and wisdom was the result of that acid +principle in them. Now, if any person should be able to overcome his +repugnance to so strange a food as to sustain himself on ants and +nothing else, the effect of the acid on him would be to change and +harden his flesh and make it impervious to decay or change of any kind. +He would, so long as he confined himself to this kind of food, be +immortal. + +Not a moment did the wretched boy hesitate to make use of this new and +wonderful knowledge. When he had found and broken open an ant-hill, so +eager was he that, shutting his eyes, he snatched up the maddened +insects by handfuls and swallowed them, dust and ants together, and was +then tortured for hours, feeling and thinking that they were still alive +within him, running about in search of an outlet and frantically biting. +The strange food sickened him, so that he grew thinner and paler, until +at last he could barely crawl on hands and feet, and was like a skeleton +except for the great sad eyes that could still see the green earth and +blue sky, and still reflected in their depths one fear and one desire. +And slowly, day by day, as his system accustomed itself to the new diet, +his strength returned, and he was able once more to walk erect and run, +and to climb a tree, where he could sit concealed among the thick +foliage and survey the village where he had first seen the light and had +passed the careless, happy years of boyhood. But he cherished no tender +memories and regrets; his sole thought was of the ants, and where to +find a sufficiency of them to stay the cravings of hunger; for, after +the first sensations of disgust had been overcome, he had begun to grow +fond of this kind of food, and now consumed it with avidity. And as his +strength increased so did his dexterity in catching the small, active +insect prey. He no longer gathered the ants up in his palm and swallowed +them along with dust and grit, but picked them up deftly, and conveyed +them one by one to his mouth with lightning rapidity. Meanwhile that +"acid principle," about which he had heard such wonderful things, was +having its effect on his system. His skin changed its colour; he grew +shrunken and small, until at length, after very many years, he dwindled +to the grey little manikin of the present time. His mind, too, changed; +he has no thought nor remembrance of his former life and condition and +of his long-dead relations; but he still haunts the village where he +knows so well where to find the small ants, to pick them from off the +ant-hill and from the trunks of trees with his quick little claw-like +hands. Language and song are likewise forgotten with all human things, +all except his laugh; for when hunger is satisfied, and the sun shines +pleasantly as he reposes on the dry leaves on the ground or sits aloft +on a branch, at times a sudden feeling of gladness possesses him, and he +expresses it in that one way--the long, wild, ringing peal of laughter. +Listening to that strange sound, although I could not see I could yet +picture him, as, aware of my cautious approach, he moved shyly behind +the mossy trunk of some tree and waited silently for me to pass. A lean, +grey little man, clad in a quaintly barred and mottled mantle, woven by +his own hands from some soft silky material, and a close-fitting brown +peaked cap on his head with one barred feather in it for ornament, and a +small wizened grey face with a thin sharp nose, puckered lips, and a +pair of round, brilliant, startled eyes. + +So distinct was this image to my mind's eye that it became unnecessary +for me to see the creature, and I ceased to look for him; then all at +once came disillusion, when one day, hearing the familiar high-pitched +laugh with its penetrating and somewhat nasal tone, I looked and beheld +the thing that had laughed just leaving its perch on a branch near the +ground and winging its way across the field. It was only a bird after +all--only the wryneck; and that mysterious faculty I spoke of, saying +that we all of us possessed something of it (meaning only some of us) +was nothing after all but the old common faculty of imagination. + +Later on I saw it again on half-a-dozen occasions, but never succeeded +in getting what I call a satisfying sight of it, perched woodpecker-wise +on a mossy trunk, busy at its old fascinating occupation of deftly +picking off the running ants. + +It is melancholy to think that this quaint and beautiful bird of a +unique type has been growing less and less common in our country during +the last half a century, or for a longer period. In the last fifteen or +twenty years the falling-off has been very marked. The declension is not +attributable to persecution in this case, since the bird is not on the +gamekeeper's black list, nor has it yet become so rare as to cause the +amateur collectors of dead birds throughout the country systematically +to set about its extermination. Doubtless that will come later on when +it will be in the same category with the golden oriole, hoopoe, +furze-wren, and other species that are regarded as always worth killing; +that is to say, it will come--the scramble for the wryneck's +carcass--if nothing is done in the meantime to restrain the enthusiasm +of those who value a bird only when the spirit of life that gave it +flight and grace and beauty has been crushed out of it--when it is no +longer a bird. The cause of its decline up till now cannot be known to +us; we can only say in our ignorance that this type, like innumerable +others that have ceased to exist, has probably run its course and is +dying out. Or it might be imagined that its system is undergoing some +slow change, which tells on the migratory instinct, that it is becoming +more a resident species in its winter home in Africa. But all +conjectures are idle in such a case. It is melancholy, at all events for +the ornithologist, to think of an England without a wryneck; but before +that still distant day arrives let us hope that the love of birds will +have become a common feeling in the mass of the population, and that the +variety of our bird life will have been increased by the addition of +some chance colonists and of many new species introduced from distant +regions. + +I have lingered long over the wryneck, but have still a story to relate +of this bird--not a fairy tale this time, but true. + +On the border of the village adjoining the wood--the side where birds +were more abundant, and which consequently had the greatest attraction +for me--there stands an old picturesque cottage nearly concealed from +sight by the hedge in front and closely planted trees clustering round +it. On one side was a grass field, on the other an orchard of old +cherry, apple, and plum trees, all the property of the old man living in +the cottage, who was a character in his way; at all events, he had not +been fashioned in quite the same mould as the majority of the cottagers +about him. They mostly, when past middle life, wore a heavy, dull and +somewhat depressed look. This man had a twinkle in his dark-grey eyes, +an expression of intelligent curiosity and fellowship; and his full +face, bronzed with sixty or sixty-five years' exposure to the weather, +was genial, as if the sunshine that had so long beaten on it had not +been all used up in painting his skin that rich old-furniture colour, +but had, some of it, filtered through the epidermis into the heart to +make his existence pleasant and sweet. But it was a very rough-cast +face, with shapeless nose and thick lips. He was short and +broad-shouldered, always in the warm weather in his shirt-sleeves, a +shirt of some very coarse material and of an earthen colour, his brown +thick arms bare to the elbows. Waistcoat and trousers looked as if he +had worn them for half his life, and had a marbled or mottled appearance +as if they had taken the various tints of all the objects and materials +he had handled or rubbed against in his life's work--wood, mossy trees, +grass, clay, bricks, stone, rusty iron, and dozens more. He wore the +field-labourer's thick boots; his ancient rusty felt hat had long lost +its original shape; and finally, to complete the portrait, a short black +clay pipe was never out of his lips--never, at all events, when I saw +him, which was often; for every day as I strolled past his domain he +would be on the outside of his hedge, or just coming out of his gate, +invariably with something in his hand--a spade, a fork, or stick of +wood, or an old empty fruit-basket. Although thus having the appearance +of being very much occupied, he would always stop for a few minutes' +talk with me; and by-and-by I began to suspect that he was a very social +sort of person, and that it pleased him to have a little chat, but that +he liked to have me think that he met me by accident while going about +his work. + +One sunny morning as I came past his field he came out bearing a huge +bundle of green grass on his head. "What!" he exclaimed, coming to a +stand, "you here to-day? I thought you'd be away to the regatta." + +I said that I knew little about regattas and cared less, that a day +spent in watching and listening to the birds gave me more pleasure than +all the regattas in the country. "I suppose you can't understand that?" +I added. + +He took the big green bundle from his head and set it down, pulled off +his old hat to flap the dust out of it, then sucked at his short clay. +"Well," he said at length, "some fancies one thing and some another, but +we most of us like a regatta." + +During the talk that followed I asked him if he knew the wryneck, and if +it ever nested in his orchard. He did not know the bird; had never heard +its name nor the other names of snake-bird and cuckoo's mate; and when I +had minutely described its appearance, he said that no such bird was +known in the village. + +I assured him that he was mistaken, that I had heard the cry of the bird +many times, and had even heard it once at a distance since our +conversation began. Hearing that distant cry had caused me to ask the +question. + +All at once he remembered that he knew, or had known formerly, the +wryneck very well, but he had never learnt its name. About twenty or +five-and-twenty years ago, he said, he saw the bird I had just described +in his orchard, and as it appeared day after day and had a strange +appearance as it moved up the tree trunks, he began to be interested in +it. One day he saw it fly into a hole close to the ground in an old +apple tree. "Now I've got you!" he exclaimed, and running to the spot +thrust his hand in as far as he could, but was unable to reach the bird. +Then he conceived the idea of starving it out, and stopped up the hole +with clay. The following day at the same hour he again put in his hand, +and this time succeeded in taking the bird. So strange was it to him +that after showing it to his own family he took it round to exhibit it +to his neighbours, and although some of them were old men, not one among +them had ever seen its like before. They concluded that it was a kind of +nuthatch, but unlike the common nuthatch which they knew. After they had +all seen and handled it and had finished the discussions about it, he +released it and saw it fly away; but, to his astonishment, it was back +in his orchard a few hours later. In a few weeks it brought out its five +or six young from the hole he had caught it in, and for several years it +returned each season to breed in the same hole until the tree was blown +down, after which the bird was seen no more. + +What an experience the poor bird had suffered! First plastered up and +left to starve or suffocate in its hollow tree; then captured and passed +round from rough, horny hand to hand, while the villagers were +discussing it in their slow, ponderous fashion--how wildly its little +wild heart must have palpitated!--and, finally, after being released, to +go back at once to its eggs in that dangerous tree. I do not know which +surprised me most, the bird's action in returning to its nest after such +inhospitable treatment, or the ignorance of the villagers concerning it. +The incident seemed to show that the wryneck had been scarce at this +place for a very long period. + +The villager, as a rule, is not a good observer, which is not strange, +since no person is, or ever can be, a good observer of the things in +which he is not specially interested; consequently the countryman only +knows the most common and the most conspicuous species. He plods through +life with downcast eyes and a vision somewhat dimmed by indifference; +forgetting, as he progresses, the small scraps of knowledge he acquired +by looking sharply during the period of boyhood, when every living +creature excited his attention. In Italy, notwithstanding the paucity of +bird life, I believe that the peasants know their birds better. The +reason of this is not far to seek; every bird, not excepting even the +"temple-haunting martlet" and nightingale and minute golden-crested +wren, is regarded only as a possible morsel to give a savour to a dish +of polenta, if the shy, little flitting thing can only be enticed within +touching distance of the limed twigs. Thus they take a very strong +interest in, and, in a sense, "love" birds. It is their passion for this +kind of flavouring which has drained rural Italy of its songsters, and +will in time have the same effect on Argentina, the country in which the +withering stream of Italian emigration empties itself. + + + + +VI + + +From the date of my arrival at the village in May, until I left it early +in July, the great annual business of pairing, nest-building, and +rearing the young was going on uninterruptedly. The young of some of the +earliest breeders were already strong on the wing when I took my first +walks along the hedgerows, still in their early, vivid green, frequently +observing my bird through a white and rose-tinted cloud of +apple-blossoms; and when I left some species that breed more than once +in the season were rearing second broods or engaged in making new nests. +On my very first day I discovered a nest full of fully fledged blue tits +in a hole in an apple tree; this struck me as a dangerous place for the +young birds; as the tree leaned over towards the lane, and the hole +could almost be reached by a person standing on the ground. On the next +day I went to look at them, and approaching noiselessly along the lane, +spied two small boys with bright clean faces--it was on a +Sunday--standing within three or four yards of the tree, watching the +tits with intense interest. The parent birds were darting up and down, +careless of their presence, finding food so quickly in the gooseberry +bushes growing near the roots of the tree that they visited the hole +every few moments; while the young birds, ever screaming for more, were +gathered in a dense little cluster at the entrance, their yellow breasts +showing very brightly against the rain-wet wood and the dark interior of +the hole. The instant the two little watchers caught sight of me the +excited look vanished from their faces, and they began to move off, +gazing straight ahead in a somewhat vacant manner. This instantaneous +and instinctive display of hypocrisy was highly entertaining, and would +have made me laugh if it had not been for the serious purpose I had in +my mind. "Now, look here," I said, "I know what you are after, so it's +no use pretending that you are walking about and seeing nothing in +particular. You've been watching the young tits. Well, I've been +watching them, too, and waiting to see them fly. I dare say they will +be out by to-morrow or the next day, and I hope you little fellows won't +try to drag them out before then." + +They at once protested that they had no such intention. They said that +they never robbed birds' nests; that there were several nests at home in +the garden and orchard, one of a nightingale with three eggs in it, but +that they never took an egg. But some of the boys they knew, they said, +took all the eggs they found; and there was one boy who got into every +orchard and garden in the place, who was so sharp that few nests escaped +him, and every nest he found he destroyed, breaking the eggs if there +were any, and if there were young birds killing them. + +Not, perhaps, without first mutilating them, I thought; for I know +something of this kind of young "human devil," to use the phrase which +Canon Wilberforce has made so famous in another connexion. Later on I +heard much more about the exploits of this champion bird-destroyer of +the village from (strange to say) a bird-catcher by trade, a man of a +rather low type of countenance, and who lived, when at home, in a London +slum. On the common where he spread his nets he had found, he told me, +about thirty nests containing eggs or fledglings; but this boy had gone +over the ground after him, and not many of the nests had escaped his +sharp eyes. + +I was satisfied that the young tits were quite safe, so far as these +youngsters were concerned, and only regretted that they were such small +Boys, and that the great nest-destroyer, whose evil deeds they spoke of +with an angry colour in their cheeks, was a very strong boy, otherwise I +should have advised them to "go" for him. + +Oddly enough I heard of another boy who exercised the same kind of +cruelty and destructiveness over another common a few miles distant. +Walking across it I spied two boys among the furze bushes, and at the +same moment they saw me, whereupon one ran away and the other remained +standing. A nice little fellow of about eight, he looked as if he had +been crying. I asked him what it was all about, and he then told me that +the bigger boy who had just run away was always on the common searching +for nests, just to destroy them and kill the young birds; that he, my +informant, had come there where he came every day just to have a peep at +a linnet's nest with four eggs in it on which the bird was sitting; that +the other boy, concealed among the bushes had watched him go to the nest +and had then rushed up and pulled the nest out of the bush. + +"Why didn't you knock him down?" I asked. + +"That's what I tried to do before he pulled the nest out," he said; and +then he added sorrowfully: "He knocked me down." + +I am reminded here of a tale of ancient Greece about a boy of this +description--the boy to be found in pretty well every parish in the +land. This was a shepherd boy who followed or led his sheep to a +distance from the village and amused his idle hours by snaring small +birds to put their eyes out with a sharp thorn, then to toss them up +just to see how, and how far, they would fly in the dark. He was seen +doing it and the matter reported to the heads or fathers of the village, +and he was brought before them and, after due consideration of the case, +condemned to death. Such a decision must seem shocking to us and worthy +of a semi-barbarous people. But if cruelty is the worst of all +offences--and this was cruelty in its most horrid form--the offence +which puts men down on a level with the worst of the mythical demons, it +was surely a righteous deed to blot such an existence out lest other +young minds should be contaminated, or even that it should be known that +such a crime was possible. + +* * * + +All those birds that had finished rearing their young by the sixteenth +of June were fortunate, for on the morning of that day a great and +continuous shouting, with gun-firing, banging on old brass and iron +utensils, with various other loud, unusual noises, were heard at one +extremity of the village, and continued with occasional quiet intervals +until evening. This tempest of rude sounds spread from day to day, until +the entire area of the village and the surrounding orchards was +involved, and the poor birds that were tied to the spots where their +treasures were, must have existed in a state of constant trepidation. +For now the cherries were fast ripening, and the fruit-eating birds, +especially the thrushes and black-birds, were inflamed at the gleam of +crimson colour among the leaves. In the very large orchards men and boys +were stationed all day long yelling and firing off guns to frighten the +marauders. In the smaller orchards the trees were decorated with +whirligigs of coloured paper; ancient hats, among which were some of the +quaintly-shaped chimney-pots of a past generation; old coats and +waistcoats and trousers, and rags of all colours to flutter in the wind; +and these objects were usually considered a sufficient protection. Some +of the birds, wiser than their fellows, were not to be kept back by such +simple means; but so long as they came not in battalions, but singly, +they could have their fill, and no notice was taken of them. + +I was surprised to hear that on the large plantations the men employed +were not allowed to use shot, the aim of the fruit grower being only to +scare the birds away. I had a talk with my old friend of the wryneck on +the subject, and told him that I had seen one of the bird-scarers going +home to his cottage very early in the morning, carrying a bunch of about +a dozen blackbirds and thrushes he had just shot. + +Yes, he replied, some of the men would buy shot and use it early in the +morning before their master was about; but if the man I had seen had +been detected in the act, he would have been discharged on the spot. It +was not only because the trees would be injured by shot, but this +fruitgrower was friendly to birds. + +Most fruit-growers, I said, were dead against the birds, and anxious +only to kill as many of them as possible. + +It might be so in some places, he answered, but not in the village. He +himself and most of the villagers depended, in a great measure, on the +fruit they produced for a living, and their belief was that, taking one +bird with another all the year round, the birds did them more good than +harm. + +I then imparted to him the views on this bird subject of a well-known +fruit-grower in the north of England, Mr. Joseph Witherspoon, of +Chester-le-Street. He began by persecuting the birds, as he had been +taught to do by his father, a market-gardener; but after years of +careful observation he completely changed his views, and is now so +convinced of the advantage that birds are to the fruit-grower, that he +does all in his power to attract them, and to tempt them to breed in his +grounds. His main idea is that birds that are fed on the premises, that +live and feed among the trees, search for and attack the gardeners' +enemies at every stage of their existence. At the same time he believes +that it is very bad to grow fruit near woods, as in such a case the +birds that live in the woods and are of no advantage to the garden, +swarm into it as the fruit ripens, and that it is only by liberal use of +nets that any reasonable portion of the fruit can be saved. + +He answered that with regard to the last point he did not quite agree +with Mr. Witherspoon. All the gardens and orchards in the village were +raided by the birds from the wood, yet he reckoned they got as much +fruit from their trees as others who had no woods near them. Then there +was the big cherry plantation, one of the biggest in England, so that +people came from all parts in the blossoming time just to look at it, +and a wonderful sight it was. For a quarter of a mile this particular +orchard ran parallel with the wood; with nothing but the green road +between, and when the first fruit was ripening you could see all the big +trees on the edge of the wood swarming with birds--jays, thrushes, +blackbirds, doves, and all sorts of tits and little birds, just waiting +for a chance to pounce down and devour the cherries. The noise kept them +off, but many would dodge in, and even if a gun was fired close to them +the blackbirds would snatch a cherry and carry it off to the wood. That +didn't matter--a few cherries here and there didn't count. The starlings +were the worst robbers: if you didn't scare them they would strip a tree +and even an orchard in a few hours. But they were the easiest birds to +deal with: they went in flocks, and a shout or rattle or report of a gun +sent the lot of them away together. His way of looking at it was this. +In the fruit season, which lasts only a few weeks, you are bound to +suffer from the attacks of birds, whether they are your own birds only +or your own combined with others from outside, unless you keep them off; +that those who do not keep them off are foolish or indolent, and deserve +to suffer. The fruit season was, he said, always an anxious time. + +In conclusion, I remarked that the means used for protecting the fruit, +whether they served their purpose well or not, struck me as being very +unworthy of the times we lived in, and seemed to show that the British +fruit-growers, who were ahead of the world in all other matters +connected with their vocation, had quite neglected this one point. A +thousand years ago cultivators of the soil were scaring the birds from +their crops just as we are doing, with methods no better and no worse, +putting up scarecrows and old ragged garments and fluttering rags, +hanging a dead crow to a stick to warn the others off, shouting and +yelling and throwing stones. There appeared to be an opening here for +experiment and invention. Mere noise was not terrifying to birds, and +they soon discovered that an old hat on a stick had no injurious brains +in or under it. But certain sounds and colours and odours had a strong +effect on some animals. Sounds made to stimulate the screams of some +hawks would perhaps prove very terrifying to thrushes and other small +birds, and the effect of scarlet in large masses or long strips might be +tried. It would also be worth while to try the effect of artificial +sparrow-hawks and other birds of prey, perched conspicuously, moving and +perking their tails at intervals by clockwork. In fact, a hundred things +might be tried until something valuable was found, and when it lost its +value, for the birds would in time discover the deception, some new plan +adopted. + +To this dissertation on what might be done, he answered that if any one +could find out or invent any new effective means to keep the birds from +the fruit, the fruit-growers would be very thankful for it; but that no +such invention could be looked for from those who are engaged on the +soil; that it must come from those who do not dig and sweat, but sit +still and work with their brains at new ideas. + +This ended our conversation, and I left him more than satisfied at the +information he had given me, and with a higher opinion than ever of his +geniality and good practical sense. + +It was a relief when the noisy, bird-scaring business was done with, and +the last market baskets of ripe cherries were carried away to the +station. Very splendid they looked in such large masses of crimson, as +the baskets were brought out and set down in the grassy road; but I +could not help thinking a little sadly that the thrushes and blackbirds +which had been surreptitiously shot, when fallen and fluttering in the +wet grass in the early morning, had shed life-drops of that same +beautiful colour. + + + + +VII + + +After the middle of June the common began to attract me more and more. +It was so extensive that, standing on its border, just beyond the last +straggling cottages and orchards, the further side was seen only as a +line of blue trees, indistinct in the distance. As I grew to know it +better, adding each day to my list from its varied bird life, the woods +and waterside were visited less and less frequently, and after the +bird-scaring noises began in the village, its wildness and quiet became +increasingly grateful. The silence of nature was broken only by bird +sounds, and the most frequent sound was that of the yellow bunting, as, +perched motionless on the summit of a gorse bush, his yellow head +conspicuous at a considerable distance, he emitted his thin monotonous +chant at regular intervals, like a painted toy-bird that sings by +machinery. There, too, sedentary as an owl in the daytime, the corn +bunting was common, discharging his brief song at intervals--a sound as +of shattering glass. The whinchat was rarely seen, but I constantly met +the small, prettily coloured stonechat flitting from bush to bush, +following me, and never ceasing his low, querulous tacking chirp, +anxious for the safety of his nest. Nightingales, blackcaps and +white-throats also nested there, and were louder and more emphatic in +their protests when approached. There were several grasshopper-warblers +on the common, all, very curiously as it seemed to me, clustered at one +spot, so that one could ramble over miles of ground without hearing +their singular note; but on approaching the place they inhabited one +gradually became conscious of a mysterious trilling buzz or whirr, low +at first and growing louder and more stridulous, until the hidden +singers were left behind, when by degrees it sank lower and lower again, +and ceased to be audible at a distance of about one hundred yards from +the points where it had sounded loudest. The birds hid in clumps of +furze and bramble so near together that the area covered by the buzzing +sound measured about two hundred yards across. This most singular sound +(for a warbler to make) is certainly not ventriloquial, although if one +comes to it with the sense of hearing disorganized by town noises or +unpractised, one is at a loss to determine the exact spot it comes from, +or even to know from which side it comes. While emitting its prolonged +sound the bird is so absorbed in its own performance that it is not +easily alarmed, and will sometimes continue singing with a human +listener standing within four or five yards of it. When one is near the +bird, and listens, standing motionless, the effect on the nerves of +hearing is very remarkable, considering the smallness of the sound, +which, without being unpleasant, is somewhat similar to that produced by +the vibration of the brake of a train; it is not powerful enough to jar +the nerves, but appears to pervade the entire system. Lying still, with +eyes closed, and three or four of these birds singing near, so that +their strains overlap and leave no silent intervals, the listener can +imagine that the sound originates within himself; that the numberless +fine cords of his nervous network tremble responsively to it. + +There are a number of natural sounds that resemble more or less closely +the most unbirdlike note of this warbler--cicada, rattlesnake, and some +batrachians. Some grasshoppers perhaps come nearest to it; but the most +sustained current of sound emitted by the insect is short compared to +the warbler's strain, also the vibrations are very much more rapid, and +not heard as vibrations, and the same effect is not produced. + +The grasshopper warblers gave me so much pleasure that I was often at +the spot where they had their little colony of about half-a-dozen pairs, +and where I discovered they bred every year. At first I used to go to +any bush where I had caught sight of a bird and sit down within a few +yards of it and wait until the little hideling's shyness wore off, and +he would come out and start reeling. Afterwards I always went straight +to the same bush, because I thought the bird that used it as his +singing-place appeared less shy than the others. One day I spent a long +time listening to this favourite; delightedly watching him, perched on a +low twig on a level with my sight, and not more than five yards from me; +his body perfectly motionless, but the head and wide-open beak jerked +from side to side in a measured, mechanical way. I had a side view of +the bird, but every three seconds the head would be jerked towards me, +showing the bright yellow colour of the open mouth. The reeling would +last about three minutes, then the bird would unbend or unstiffen and +take a few hops about the bush, then stiffen and begin again. While thus +gazing and listening I, by chance, met with an experience of that rare +kind which invariably strikes the observer of birds as strange and +almost incredible--an example of the most perfect mimicry in a species +which has its own distinctive song and is not a mimic except once in a +while, and as it were by chance. The marsh warbler is our perfect +mocking-bird, our one professional mimic; while the starling in +comparison is but an amateur. We all know the starling's ever varying +performance in which he attempts a hundred things and occasionally +succeeds; but even the starling sometimes affects us with a mild +astonishment, and I will here give one instance. + +I was staying at a village in the Wiltshire downs, and at intervals, +while sitting at work in my room on the ground floor, I heard the +cackling of a fowl at the cottage opposite. I heard, but paid no +attention to that familiar sound; but after three days it all at once +struck me that no fowl could lay an egg about every ten or twelve +minutes, and go on at this rate day after day, and, getting up, I went +out to look for the cackler. A few hens were moving quietly about the +open ground surrounding the cottage where the sound came from, but I +heard nothing. By and by, when I was back in my room, the cackling +sounded again, but when I got out the sound had ceased and the fowls, as +before, appeared quite unexcited. The only way to solve the mystery was +to stand there, out of doors, for ten minutes, and before that time was +over a starling with a white grub in his beak, flew down and perched on +the low garden wall of the cottage, then, with some difficulty, squeezed +himself through a small opening into a cavity under a strip of zinc +which covered the bricks of the wall. It was a queer place for a +starling's nest, on a wall three feet high and within two yards of the +cottage door which stood open all day. Having delivered the grub, the +starling came out again and, hopping on to the zinc, opened his beak and +cackled like a hen, then flew away for more grubs. + +I observed the starling a good deal after this, and found that +invariably on leaving the nest, he uttered his imitation of a fowl +cackling, and no other note or sound of any kind. It was as if he was +not merely imitating a sound, but had seen a fowl leaving the nest and +then cackling, and mimicked the whole proceeding, and had kept up the +habit after the young were hatched. + +To return to my experience on the common. About fifty yards from the +spot where I was there was a dense thicket of furze and thorn, with a +huge mound in the middle composed of a tangle of whitethorn and bramble +bushes mixed with ivy and clematis. From this spot, at intervals of half +a minute or so, there issued the call of a duck--the prolonged, hoarse +call of a drake, two or three times repeated, evidently emitted in +distress. I conjectured that it came from one of a small flock of ducks +belonging to a cottage near the edge of the common on that side. The +flock, as I had seen, was accustomed to go some distance from home, and +I supposed that one of them, a drake, had got into that brambly thicket +and could not make his way out. For half an hour I heard the calls +without paying much attention, absorbed in watching the quaint little +songster close to me and his curious gestures when emitting his +sustained reeling sounds. In the end the persistent distressed calling +of the drake lost in a brambly labyrinth got a little on my nerves, and +I felt it as a relief when it finally ceased. Then, after a short +silence, another sound came from the same spot--a blackbird sound, known +to everyone, but curiously interesting when uttered in the way I now +heard it. It was the familiar loud chuckle, not emitted in alarm and +soon ended, but the chuckle uttered occasionally by the bird when he is +not disturbed, or when, after uttering it once for some real cause, he +continues repeating it for no reason at all, producing the idea that he +has just made the discovery that it is quite a musical sound and that he +is repeating it, as if singing, just for pleasure. At such times the +long series of notes do not come forth with a rush; he begins +deliberately with a series of musical chirps uttered in a measured +manner, like those of a wood wren, the prelude to its song, the notes +coming faster and faster and swelling and running into the loud +chuckling performance. This performance, like the lost drake's call, was +repeated in the same deliberate or leisurely manner at intervals again +and again, until my curiosity was aroused and I went to the spot to get +a look at the bird who had turned his alarm sound into a song and +appeared to be very much taken with it. But there was no blackbird at +the spot, and no lost drake, and no bird, except a throstle sitting +motionless on the bush mound. This was the bird I had been listening to, +uttering not his own thrush melody, which he perhaps did not know at +all, but the sounds he had borrowed from two species so wide apart in +their character and language. + +The astonishing thing in this case was that the bird never uttered a +note of his own original and exceedingly copious song; and I could only +suppose that he had never learned the thrush melody; that he had, +perhaps, been picked up as a fledgling and put in a cage, where he had +imitated the sounds he heard and liked best, and made them his song, and +that he had finally escaped or had been liberated. + +The wild thrush, we know, does introduce certain imitations into his own +song, but the borrowed notes, or even phrases, are, as a rule, few, and +not always to be distinguished from his own. + +Sometimes one can pick them out; thus, on the borders of a marsh where +redshanks bred, I have heard the call of that bird distinctly given by +the thrush. And again, where the ring-ouzel is common, the thrush will +get its brief song exactly. When thrushes taken from the nest are reared +in towns, where they never hear the thrush or any other bird sing, they +are often exceedingly vocal, and utter a medley of sounds which are +sometimes distressing to the ear. I have heard many caged thrushes of +this kind in London, but the most remarkable instance I have met with +was at the little seaside town of Seaford. Here, in the main shopping +street, a caged thrush lived for years in a butcher's shop, and poured +out its song continuously, the most distressing throstle performance I +ever heard, composed of a medley of loud, shrill and harsh +sounds--imitations of screams and shouts, boy whistlers, saw filing, +knives sharpened on steels, and numerous other unclassifiable noises; +but all, more or less, painful. The whole street was filled with the +noise, and the owner used to boast that his caged thrush was the most +persistent as well as the loudest singer that had ever been heard. He +had no nerves, and was proud of it! On a recent visit to Seaford I +failed to hear the bird when walking about the town, and after two or +three days went into the shop to enquire about it. They told me it was +dead--that it had been dead over a year; also that many visitors to +Seaford had missed its song and had called at the shop to ask about the +bird. The strangest thing about its end, they said, was its suddenness. +The bird was singing its loudest one morning, and had been at it for +some time, filling the whole place with its noise, when suddenly, in the +middle of its song, it dropped down dead from its perch. + +To drop dead while singing is not an unheard of, nor a very rare +occurrence in caged birds, and it probably happens, too, in birds living +their natural life. Listening to a nightingale, pouring out its powerful +music continuously, as the lark sings, one sometimes wonders that +something does not give way to end the vocalist's performance and life +at the same instant. Some such incident was probably the origin of the +old legend of the minstrel and the nightingale on which Strada based his +famous poem, known in many languages. In England Crawshaw's version was +by far the best, and is perhaps the finest bird poem in our literature. + +The blackbird, like the thrush, sometimes borrows a note or a phrase, +and, like the thrush again, if reared by hand he may become a nuisance +by mimicking some disagreeable sound, and using it by way of song. I +heard of such a case a short time ago at Sidmouth. The ground floor of +the house where I lodged was occupied by a gentleman who had a fondness +for bird music, and being an invalid confined to his rooms, he kept a +number of birds in cages. He had, besides canaries, the thrush, +chaffinch, linnet, goldfinch and cirl bunting. I remarked that he did +not have the best singer of all--the blackbird. He said that he had +procured one, or that some friend had sent him one, a very beautiful +ouel cock in the blackest plumage and with the orange-tawniest bill, +and he had anticipated great pleasure from hearing its fluting melody. +But alas! no blackbird song did this unnatural blackbird sing. He had +learnt to bark like a dog, and whenever the singing spirit took him he +would bark once or twice or three times, and then, after an interval of +silence of the proper length, about fifteen seconds, he would bark +again, and so on until he had had his fill of music for the time. The +barking got on the invalid's nerves, and he sent the bird away. "It was +either that," he said, "or losing my senses altogether." + +* * * + +As all or most singing birds learn their songs from the adults of the +same species, it is not strange that there should be a good deal of what +we call mimicry in their performances: we may say, in fact, that pretty +well all the true singers are mimics, but that some mimic more than +others. Thus, the starling is more ready to borrow other birds' notes +than the thrush, while the marsh-warbler borrows so much that his +singing is mainly composed of borrowings. The nightingale is, perhaps, +an exception. His voice excels in power and purity of sound, and what we +may call his artistry is exceptionally perfect; this may account for the +fact that he does not borrow from other birds' songs. I should say, from +my own observation, that all songsters are interested in the singing of +other species, or at all events, in certain notes, especially the most +striking in power, beauty, and strangeness. Thus, when the cuckoo starts +calling, you will see other small birds fly straight to the tree and +perch near him, apparently to listen. And among the listeners you will +find the sparrow and tits of various species--birds which are never +victimized by the cuckoo, and do not take him for a hawk since they take +no notice of him until the calling begins. The reason that the double +fluting call of the cuckoo is not mimicked by other birds is that they +can't; because that peculiar sound is not in their register. The +bubbling cry is reproduced by both the marsh warbler and the starling. +Again, it is my experience that when a nightingale starts singing, the +small birds near immediately become attentive, often suspending their +own songs and some flying to perch near him, and listen, just as they +listen to the cuckoo. Birds imitate the note or phrase that strikes them +most, and is easiest to imitate, as when the thrush copies the piping +and trilling of the redshank and the easy song of the ring-ouzel, which, +when incorporated into his own music, harmonizes with it perfectly. But +he cannot flute, and so never mimics the blackbird's song, although he +can and does, as we have seen, imitate its chuckling cry. + +There is another thing to be considered. I believe that the bird, like +creatures in other classes, has his receptive period, his time to learn, +and that, like some mammals, he learns everything he needs to know in +his first year or two; and that, having acquired his proper song, he +adds little or nothing to it thereafter, although the song may increase +in power and brilliance when the bird comes to full maturity. This, I +think, holds true of all birds, like the nightingale, which have a +singing period of two or three months and are songless for the rest of +the year. That long, silent period cannot, so far as sounds go, be a +receptive one; the song early in life has become crystallized in the +form it will keep through life, and is like an intuitive act. This is +not the case with birds like the starling, that sing all the year +round--birds that are naturally loquacious and sing instead of screaming +and chirping like others. They are always borrowing new sounds and +always forgetting. + +The most curious example of mimicry I have yet met with is that of a +true mocking-bird, Mimus patachonicus, a common resident species in +northern Patagonia, on the Atlantic side, very abundant in places. He is +a true mocking-bird because he belongs to the genus Mimus, a branch of +the thrush family, and not because he mocks or mimics the songs of other +species, like others of his kindred. He does not, in fact, mimic the set +songs of others, although he often introduces notes and phrases borrowed +from other species into his own performance. He sings in a sketchy way +all the year round, but in spring has a fuller unbroken song, emitted +with more power and passion. For the rest of the time he sings to amuse +himself, as it seems, in a peculiarly leisurely, and one may say, +indolent manner, perched on a bush, from time to time emitting a note or +two, then a phrase which, if it pleases him, he will repeat two or +three, or half a dozen times. Then, after a pause, other notes and +phrases, and so on, pretty well all day long. This manner of singing is +irritating, like the staccato song of our throstle, to a listener who +wants a continuous stream of song; but it becomes exceedingly +interesting when one discovers that the bird is thinking very much about +his own music, if one can use such an expression about a bird; that he +is all the time experimenting, trying to get a new phrase, a new +combination of the notes he knows and new notes. Also, that when sitting +on his bush and uttering these careless chance sounds, he is, at the +same time, intently listening to the others, all engaged in the same +way, singing and listening. You will see them all about the place, each +bird sitting motionless, like a grey and white image of a bird, on the +summit of his own bush. For, although he is not gregarious as a rule, a +number of pairs live near each other, and form a sort of loose +community. The bond that unites them is their music, for not only do +they sit within hearing distance, but they are perpetually mimicking +each other. One may say that they are accomplished mimics but prefer +mimicking their own to other species. But they only imitate the notes +that take their fancy, so to speak. Thus, occasionally, one strikes out +a phrase, a new expression, which appears to please him, and after a few +moments he repeats it again, then again, and so on and on, and if you +remain an hour within hearing he will perhaps be still repeating it at +short intervals. Now, if by chance there is something in the new phrase +which pleases the listeners too, you will note that they instantly +suspend their own singing, and for some little time they do nothing but +listen. By and by the new note or phrase will be exactly reproduced from +a bird on another bush; and he, too, will begin repeating it at short +intervals. Then a second one will get it, then a third, and eventually +all the birds in that thicket will have it. The constant repeating of +the new note may then go on for hours, and it may last longer. You may +return to the spot on the second day and sit for an hour or longer, +listening, and still hear that same note constantly repeated until you +are sick and tired of it, or it may even get on your nerves. I remember +that on one occasion I avoided a certain thicket, one of my favourite +daily haunts for three whole days, not to hear that one everlasting +sound; then I returned and to my great relief the birds were all at +their old game of composing, and not one uttered--perhaps he didn't +dare--the too hackneyed phrase. I was sharply reminded one day by an +incident in the village of this old Patagonian experience, and of the +strange human-like weakness or passion for something new and arresting +in music or song, something "tuney" or "catchy." + +It chanced that when I left London a new popular song had come out and +was "all the rage," a tune and words invented or first produced in the +music-halls by a woman named Lottie Collins, with a chorus to +it--_Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay_, repeated several times. First caught up in +the music-halls it spread to the streets, and in ever-widening circles +over all London, and over all the land. In London people were getting +tired of hearing it, but when I arrived at my village "in a hole," and +settled down among the Badgers, I heard it on every hand--in cottages, +in the streets, in the fields, men, women and children were singing, +whistling, and humming it, and in the evening at the inn roaring it out +with as much zest as if they had been singing _Rule Britannia._ + +This state of things lasted from May to the middle of June; then, one +very hot, still day, about three o'clock, I was sitting at my cottage +window when I caught the sound of a rumbling cart and a man singing. As +the noise grew louder my interest in the approaching man and cart was +excited to an extraordinary degree; never had I heard such a noise! And +no wonder, since the man was driving a heavy, springless farm cart in +the most reckless manner, urging his two huge horses to a fast trot, +then a gallop, up and down hill along those rough gully-like roads, he +standing up in his cart and roaring out "Auld Lang Syne," at the top of +a voice of tremendous power. He was probably tipsy, but it was not a bad +voice, and the old familiar tune and words had an extraordinary effect +in that still atmosphere. He passed my cottage, standing up, his legs +wide apart, his cap on the back of his head, a big broad-chested young +man, lashing his horses, and then for about two minutes or longer the +thunder of the cart and the roaring song came back fainter, until it +faded away in the distance. At that still hour of the day the children +were all at school on the further side of the village; the men away in +the fields; the women shut up in their cottages, perhaps sleeping. It +seemed to me that I was the only person in the village who had witnessed +and heard the passing of the big-voiced man and cart. But it was not so. +At all events, next day, the whole village, men, women and children, +were singing, humming and whistling "Auld Lang Syne," and "Auld Lang +Syne" lasted for several days, and from that day "Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay" +was heard no more. It had lost its charm. + + + + +VIII + + +Just out of hearing of the grasshopper warblers, there was a good-sized +pool of water on the common, probably an old gravel-pit, its bottom now +overgrown with rushes. A sedge warbler, the only one on the common, +lived in the masses of bramble and gorse on its banks; and birds of so +many kinds came to it to drink and bathe that the pool became a +favourite spot with me. One evening, just before sunset, as I lingered +near it, a pied wagtail darted out of some low scrub at my feet and +fluttered, as if wounded, over the turf for a space of ten or twelve +yards before flying away. Not many minutes after seeing the wagtail, a +reed-bunting--a bird which I had not previously observed on the +common--flew down and alighted on a bush a few yards from me, holding a +white crescent-shaped grub in its beak. I stood still to watch it, +certainly not expecting to see its nest and young; for, as a rule, a +bird with food in its beak will sit quietly until the watcher loses +patience and moves away; but on this occasion I had not been standing +more than ten seconds before the bunting flew down to a small tuft of +furze and was there greeted by the shrill, welcoming cries of its young. +I went up softly to the spot, when out sprang the old bird I had seen, +but only to drop to the ground just as the wagtail had done, to beat the +turf with its wings, then to lie gasping for breath, then to flutter on +a little further, until at last it rose up and flew to a bush. + +After admiring the reed-bunting's action, I turned to the dwarf bush +near my feet, and saw, perched on a twig in its centre, a solitary young +bird, fully fledged but not yet capable of sustained flight. He did not +recognise an enemy in me; on the contrary, when I approached my hand to +him, he opened his yellow mouth wide, in expectation of being fed, +although his throat was crammed with caterpillars, and the white +crescent-shaped larva I had seen in the parent's bill was still lying in +his mouth unswallowed. The wonder is that when a young bird had been +stuffed with food to such an extent just before sleeping time, he can +still find it in him to open his mouth and call for more. + +* * * + +How wonderful it is that this parental instinct, so beautiful in its +perfect simulation of the action of the bird that has lost the power of +flight, should be found in so large a number of species! But when we +find that it is not universal; that in two closely-allied species one +will possess it and the other not; and that it is common in such +widely-separated orders as gallinaceous and passerine birds, in pigeons, +ducks, and waders, it becomes plain that it is not assignable to +community of descent, but has originated independently all over the +globe, in a vast number of species. Something of the beginnings and +progressive development of this instinct may be learnt, I think, by +noticing the behaviour of various passerine birds in the presence of +danger, to their nests and young. Their actions and cries show that they +are greatly agitated, and in a majority of species the parent bird flits +and flutters round the intruder, uttering sounds of distress. Frequently +the bird exhibits its agitation, not only by these cries and restless +motions, but by the drooping of the wings and tail--the action observed +in a bird when hurt or sick, or oppressed with heat. These languishing +signs are common to a great many species after the young have been +hatched; the period when the parental solicitude is most intense. In +several species which I have observed in South America, the languishing +is more marked. There are no sorrowful cries and restless movements; the +bird sits with hanging wings and tail, gasping for breath with open bill +--in appearance a greatly suffering bird. In some cases of this +description, the bird, if it moves at all, hops or flutters from a +higher to a lower branch, and, as if sick or wounded, seems about to +sink to the ground. In still others, the bird actually does drop to the +ground, then, feebly flapping its wings, rises again with great effort. +From this last form it is but a step to the more highly developed +complex instinct of the bird that sinks to the earth and flutters +painfully away, gasping, and seemingly incapable of flight. + +It would be a great mistake to suppose that the bird when fluttering on +the ground to lead an enemy from the neighbourhood of its nest is in +full possession of all its faculties, acting consciously, and itself in +as little danger of capture as when on its perch or flying through the +air. We have seen that the action has its root in the bird's passion for +its young, and intense solicitude in the presence of any danger +threatening them, which is so universal in this class of creatures, and +which expresses itself so variously in different kinds. This must be in +all cases a painful and debilitating emotion, and when the bird drops +down to the earth its pain has caused it to fall as surely as if it had +received a wound or had been suddenly attacked by some grievous malady; +and when it flutters on the ground it is for the moment incapable of +flight, and its efforts to recover flight and safety cause it to beat +its wings, and tremble, and gasp with open mouth. The object of the +action is to deceive an enemy, or, to speak more correctly, the result +is to deceive, and there is nothing that will more inflame and carry +away any rapacious mammal than the sight of a fluttering bird. But in +thus drawing upon itself the attention of an enemy threatening the +safety of its eggs or young, to what a terrible danger does the parent +expose itself, and how often, in those moments of agitation and +debility, must its own life fall a sacrifice! The sudden spring and rush +of a feline enemy must have proved fatal in myriads of instances. From +its inception to its most perfect stage, in the various species that +possess it, this perilous instinct has been washed in blood and made +bright. + +What I have just said, that the peculiar instinct and deceptive action +we have been considering is made and kept bright by being bathed in +blood, applies to all instinctive acts that tend to the preservation of +life, both of the individual and species. Necessarily so, seeing that, +for one thing, instincts can only arise and grow to perfection in order +to meet cases which commonly occur in the life of a species. The +instinct is not prophetic and does not meet rare or extraordinary +situations. Unless intelligence or some higher faculty comes in to +supplement or to take the place of instinctive action then the creature +must perish on account of the limitation of instinct. Again, the higher +and more complete the instinct the more perilous it is, seeing that its +efficiency depends on the absolutely perfect health and balance of all +the faculties and the entire organism. Thus, the higher instinctive +faculty and action of birds for the preservation of the species, that of +migration, is undoubtedly the most dangerous of all. It is so perfect +that by means of this faculty millions and myriads of birds of an +immense variety of species from cranes, swans, and geese down to minute +goldcrests and firecrests and the smallest feeble-winged-leaf warblers, +are able to inhabit and to distribute themselves evenly over all the +temperate and cold regions of the earth, and even nearer the pole: and +in all these regions they rear their young and spend several months each +year, where they would inevitably perish from cold and lack of food if +they stayed on to meet the winter. We can best realize the perfection of +this instinct when we consider that all these migrants, including the +young which have never hitherto strayed beyond the small area of their +home where every tree and bush and spring and rock is familiar to them, +rush suddenly away as if blown by a wind to unknown lands and continents +beyond the seas to a distance of from a thousand to six or seven +thousand miles; that after long months spent in those distant places, +which in turn have grown familiar to them, they return again to their +natal place, not in a direct but ofttimes by a devious route, now north, +now north-east, now east or west, keeping to the least perilous lines +and crossing the seas where they are narrowest. Thus, when the returning +multitude recrosses the Channel into England, coming by way of France +and Spain from north or south or mid-Africa and from Asia, they at once +proceed to disperse over the entire country from Land's End to Thurso +and the northernmost islands of Scotland, until every wood and hill and +moor and thicket and stream and every village and field and hedgerow and +farmhouse has its own feathered people back in their old places. But +they do not return in their old force. They had increased to twice or +three times their original numbers when they left us, and as a result of +that great adventure a half or two-thirds of the vast army has perished. + +The instinct which in character comes nearest to that of the parent +simulating the action of a wounded and terrified bird struggling to +escape in order to safeguard its young, is that one, very strong in all +ground-breeding species, of sitting close on the nest in the presence of +danger. Here, too, the instinct is of prime importance to the species, +since the bird by quitting the nest reveals its existence to the +prowling, nest-seeking enemy--dog, cat, fox, stoat, rat, in England; +and in the country where I first observed animals, the skunk, armadillo, +opossum, snake, wild cat, and animals of the weasel family. By leaving +its nest a minute or half a minute too soon the bird sacrifices the eggs +or young; by staying a moment too long it is in imminent danger of being +destroyed itself. How often the bird stays too long on the nest is seen +in the corn-crake, a species continually decreasing in this country +owing to the destruction caused by the mowing-machine. The parent birds +that escape may breed again in a safer place, but in many cases the bird +clings too long to its nest and is decapitated or fatally injured by the +cutters. Larks, too, often perish in the same way. To go back to the +ailing or wounded bird simulating action: this is perhaps most perfect +in the gallinaceous birds, all ground-breeders whose nests are most +diligently hunted for by all egg-eating creatures, beast or bird, and +whose tender chicks are a favourite food for all rapacious animals. In +the fowl, pheasants, partridges, quail, and grouse, the instinct is +singularly powerful, the bird making such violent efforts to escape, +with such an outcry, such beating of its wings and struggles on the +ground, that no rapacious beast, however often he may have been deceived +before, can fail to be carried away with the prospect of an immediate +capture. The instinct and action has appeared to me more highly +developed in these birds because, in the first place, the demonstrations +are more violent than in other families, consequently more effective; +and secondly, because the danger once over, the bird's recovery to its +normal quiet, watchful state is quicker. By way of experiment, I have at +various times thrown myself on pheasants, partridges and grouse, when I +have found them with a family of recently-hatched chicks; then on giving +up the chase and turning away from the bird its instantaneous recovery +has seemed like a miracle. It was like a miracle because the creature +did actually suffer from all those violent, debilitating emotions +expressed in its disordered cries and action, and it is the miracle of +Nature's marvellous health. If we, for example, were thrown into these +violent extremes of passion, we should not escape the after-effects. Our +whole system would suffer, a doctor would perhaps have to be called in +and would discourse wisely on metabolism and the development of toxins +in the muscles, and give us a bottle of medicine. + +I will conclude this digression and dissertation on a bird's instinct by +relating the action of a hen-pheasant I once witnessed, partly because +it is the most striking one I have met with of that instantaneous +recovery of a bird from an extremity of distress and terror, and partly +for another reason which will appear at the end. + +The hen-pheasant was a solitary bird, having strayed away from the +pheasant copses near the Itchen and found a nesting-place a mile away, +on the other side of the valley, among the tall grasses and sedges on its +border. I was the bird's only human neighbour, as I was staying in a +fishing-cottage near the spot where the bird had its nest. Eventually, +it brought off eight chicks and remained with them at the same spot on the +edge of the valley, living like a rail among the sedges and tall valley +herbage. I never went near the bird, but from the cottage caught sight of +it from time to time, and sometimes watched it with my binocular. There +was, I thought, a good chance of its being able to rear its young, unless +the damp proved injurious, as there was no dog or cat at the cottage, and +there were no carrion crows or sparrow-hawks at that spot. One morning +about five o'clock on going out I spied a fox-terrier, a poaching dog +from the neighbouring village, rushing about in an excited state a +hundred yards or so below the cottage. He had scented the birds, and +presently up rose the hen from the tall grass with a mighty noise, then +flopping down she began beating her wings and struggling over the grass, +uttering the most agonizing screams, the dog after her, frantically +grabbing at her tail. I feared that he would catch her, and seizing a +stick flew down to the rescue, yelling at the dog, but he was too excited +to obey or even hear me. At length, thanks to the devious course taken by +the bird, I got near enough to get in a good blow on the dog's back. He +winced and went on as furiously as ever, and then I got in another blow +so well delivered that the rascal yelled, and turning fled back to the +village. Hot and panting from my exertions, I stood still, but sooner +still the pheasant had pulled herself up and stood there, about three +yards from my feet, as if nothing had happened--as if not a ripple had +troubled the quiet surface of her life! The serenity of the bird, just +out of that storm of violence and danger, and her perfect indifference to +my presence, was astonishing to me. For a minute or two I stood still +watching her; then turned to walk back to the cottage, and no sooner did +I start than after me she came at a gentle trot, following me like a dog. +On my way back I came to the very spot where the fox-terrier had found +and attacked the bird, and at once on reaching it she came to a stop and +uttered a call, and instantly from eight different places among the tall +grasses the eight fluffy little chicks popped up and started running to +her. And there she stood, gathering them about her with gentle +chucklings, taking no notice of me, though I was standing still within +two yards of her! + +Up to the moment when the dog got his smart blow and fled from her she +had been under the domination of a powerful instinct, and could have +acted in no other way; but what guided her so infallibly in her +subsequent actions? Certainly not instinct, and not reason, which +hesitates between different courses and is slow to arrive at a decision. +One can only say that it was, or was like, intuition, which is as much +as to say that we don't know. + + + +IX + + +Among the rarer fringilline birds on the common were the cirl bunting, +bullfinch and goldfinch, the last two rarely seen. Linnets, however, +were abundant, now gathered in small flocks composed mainly of young +birds in plain plumage, with here and there an individual showing the +carmine-tinted breast of the adult male. Unhappily, a dreary fate was in +store for many of these blithe twitterers. + +On June 24, when walking towards the pool, I spied two recumbent human +figures on a stretch of level turf near its banks, and near them a +something dark on the grass--a pair of clap-nets! "Still another serpent +in my birds' paradise!" said I to myself, and, walking on, I skirted the +nets and sat down on the grass beside the men. One was a rough +brown-faced country lad; the other, who held the strings and wore the +usual cap and comforter, was a man of about five-and-twenty, with pale +blue eyes and yellowish hair, close-cropped, and the unmistakable London +mark in his chalky complexion. He regarded me with cold, suspicious +looks, and, when I talked and questioned, answered briefly and somewhat +surlily. I treated him to tobacco, and he smoked; but it wasn't shag, +and didn't soften him. On mentioning casually that I had seen a stoat an +hour before, he exhibited a sudden interest. It was as if one had said +"rats!" to a terrier. I succeeded after a while in getting him to tell +me the name of the man to whom he sent his captives, and when I told him +that I knew the man well--a bird-seller in a low part of London--he +thawed visibly. Finally I asked him to look at a red-backed shrike, +perched on a bush about fifteen yards from his nets, through my +field-glasses, and from that moment he became as friendly as possible, +and conversed freely about his mystery. "How near it brings him!" he +exclaimed, with a grin of delight, after looking at the bird. The +shrike had greatly annoyed him; it had been hanging about for some time, +he told me, dashing at the linnets and driving them off when they flew +down to the nets. Two or three times he might have caught it, but would +not draw the nets and have the trouble of resetting them for so +worthless a bird. "But I'll take him the next time," he said +vindictively. "I didn't know he was such a handsome bird." +Unfortunately, the shrike soon flew away, and passing linnets dropped +down, drawn to the spot by the twitterings of their caged fellows, and +were caught; and so it went on for a couple of hours, we conversing +amicably during the waiting intervals. For now he regarded me as a +friend of the bird-catcher. Linnets only were caught, most of them young +birds, which pleased him; for the young linnet after a month or two of +cage life will sing; but the adult males would be silent until the next +spring, consequently they were not worth so much, although the carmine +stain in their breast made them for the time so much more beautiful. + +I remarked incidentally that there were some who looked with unfriendly +eyes on his occupation, and that, sooner or later, these people would +try to get an Act of Parliament to make bird-catching in lanes, on +commons and waste lands illegal. "They can't do it!" he exclaimed +excitedly. "And if they can do it, and if they do do it, it will be the +ruination of England. For what would there be, then, to stop the birds +increasing? It stands to reason that the whole country would be eaten +up." + +Doubtless the man really believed that but for the laborious days that +bird-catchers spend lying on the grass, the human race would be very +badly off. + +Just after he had finished his protest, three or four linnets flew down +and were caught. Taking them from the nets, he showed them to me, +remarking, with a short laugh, that they were all young males. Then he +thrust them down the stocking-leg which served as an entrance to the +covered box he kept his birds in--the black hole in which their captive +life begins, where they were now all vainly fluttering to get out. Going +back to the previous subject, he said that he knew very well that many +persons disliked a bird-catcher, but there was one thing that nobody +could say against him--he wasn't cruel; he caught, but didn't kill. He +only killed when he caught a great number of female linnets, which were +not worth sending up; he pulled their heads off, and took them home to +make a linnet pie. Then, by way of contrast to his own merciful temper, +he told me of the young nest-destroyer I have writ-ten about. It made +him mad to see such things! Something ought to be done, he said, to stop +a boy like that; for by destroying so many nestlings he was taking the +bread out of the bird-catcher's mouth. Passing to other subjects, he +said that so far he had caught nothing but linnets on the common--you +couldn't expect to catch other kinds in June. Later on, in August and +September, there would be a variety. But he had small hopes of catching +goldfinches, they were too scarce now. Greenfinches, yellow-hammers, +common buntings, reed sparrows--all such birds were worth only tuppence +apiece. Oh, yes, he caught them just the same, and sent them up to +London, but that was all they were worth to him. For young male linnets +he got eightpence, sometimes tenpence; for hen birds fourpence, or less. +I dare say that eightpence was what he hoped to get, seeing that young +male linnets are not unfrequently sold by London dealers for sixpence +and even fourpence. Goldfinches ran to eighteenpence, sometimes as much +as two shillings. Starlings he had made a lot out of, but that was all +past and over. Why? + +Because they were not wanted--because people were such fools that they +now preferred to shoot at pigeons. He hated pigeons! Gentlemen used to +shoot starlings at matches; and if you had the making of a bird to shoot +at, you couldn't get a better than the starling--such a neat bird! He +had caught hundreds--thousands--and had sold them well. But now nothing +but pigeons would they have. Pigeons! Always pigeons! He caught +starlings still, but what was the good of that? The dealers would only +take a few, and they were worth nothing--no more than greenfinches and +yellow-hammers. + +My colloquy with my enemy on the common tempts me to a fresh digression +in this place--to have my say on a question about which much has already +been said during the last three or four decades, especially during the +'sixties, when the first practical efforts to save our wild-bird life +from destruction were made. + +There is a feeling in the great mass of people that the pursuit of any +wild animal, whether fit for food or not, for pleasure or gain, is a +form of sport, and that sport ought not to be interfered with. So strong +and well-nigh universal is this feeling, which is like a superstition, +that the pursuit is not interfered with, however unsportsmanlike it may +be, and when illegal, and when practised by only a very few persons in +any district, where to others it may be secretly distasteful or even +prejudicial. + +Even bird-catching on a common is regarded as a form of sport and the +bird-catcher as a sportsman--and a brother. + +A striking instance of this tameness and stupidly acquiescent spirit in +people generally was witnessed during the intensely severe frosts of the +early part of the late winter (1882-3), when incalculable numbers of +sea-birds were driven by hunger and cold into bays and inland waters. At +this time thousands of gulls made their appearance in the Thames, but no +sooner did they arrive than those who possessed guns and licences to +shoot began to shoot them. The police interfered and some of these +sportsmen were brought before the magistrates and fined for the offence +of discharging guns to the public danger. For upwards of a fortnight +after the shooting had been put a stop to, the gulls continued to +frequent the river in large numbers, and were perhaps most numerous from +London Bridge to Battersea, and during this time they were watched every +day by thousands of Londoners with keen interest and pleasure. The river +here, flowing through the very centre and heart of the greatest city of +the world, forms at all hours and at all seasons of the year a noble and +magnificent sight; to my eyes it never looked more beautiful and +wonderful than during those intensely cold days of January, when there +was nothing that one could call a mist in a chilly, motionless +atmosphere, but only a faint haze, a pallor as of impalpable frost, +which made the heavens seem more white than blue, and gave a hoariness +and cloud-like remoteness to the arches spanning the water, and the vast +buildings on either side, ending with the sublime dome of the city +cathedral; and when out of the pale motionless haze, singly, in twos and +threes, in dozens and scores, floated the mysterious white bird-figures, +first seen like vague shadows in the sky, then quickly taking shape and +whiteness, and floating serenely past, to be succeeded by others and yet +others. + +It was not merely the ornithologist in me that made the sight so +fascinating, since it was found that others--all others, it might almost +be said,--experienced the same kind of delight. Crowds of people came +down to the river to watch the birds; workmen when released from their +work at mid-day hurried down to the embankment so as to enjoy seeing the +gulls while eating their dinners, and, strangest thing of all, to feed +them with the fragments! + +And yet these very men who found so great a pleasure in observing and +feeding their white visitors from the sea, and were exhilarated with the +novel experiences of seeing wild nature face to face at their own +doors--these thousands would have stood by silent and consenting if the +half-a-dozen scoundrels with guns and fish-hooks on lines had been +allowed to have their will and had slaughtered and driven the birds from +the river! And this, in fact, is precisely what happened at a distance +from London, where guns could be discharged without danger to the +public, in numberless bays and rivers in which the birds sought refuge. +They were simply slaughtered wholesale in the most wanton manner; in +Morecambe Bay a hundred and twelve gulls were killed at one discharge, +and no hand and no voice was raised to interfere with the hideous sport. +Not because it was not shocking to the spectators, but because it was +"Sport." + +Doubtless it will be said that this wholesale wanton destruction of bird +life, however painful it may be to lovers of nature, however +reprehensible from a moral point of view, is sanctioned by law, and +cannot therefore be prevented. This is not quite so. We see that the +Wild Birds Protection Act is continually being broken with impunity, and +where public opinion is unfavourable to it the guardians of the law +themselves, the police and the magistrates, are found encouraging the +people to break the law. Again, we find that where commons are enclosed, +and the law says nothing, the people are accustomed to assemble together +unlawfully to tear the fences down, and are not punished. For, after +all, if laws do not express or square with public will or opinion, they +have little force; and if, in any locality, the people thought proper to +do so--if they were not restrained by that dull, tame spirit I have +spoken of--they would, lawfully or unlawfully, protect their sea-fowl +from the cockney sportsmen, and sweep the bird-catchers out of their +lanes and waste lands. + +One day I paid a visit to Maidenhead, a pleasant town on the Thames, +where the Thames is most beautiful, set in the midst of a rich and +diversified country which should be a bird's paradise. In my walks in +the town, I saw a great many stuffed kingfishers, and, in the shops of +the local taxidermists, some rare and beautiful birds, with others that +are fast becoming rare. But outside of the town I saw no kingfishers and +no rare species at all, and comparatively few birds of any kind. It +might have been a town of Philistine cockneys who at no very distant +period had emigrated thither from the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. +I came home with the local guide-book in my pocket. It is now before me, +and this is what its writer says of the Thicket, the extensive and +beautiful common two miles from the town, which belongs to Maidenhead, +or, in other words, to its inhabitants: "The Thicket was formerly much +infested by robbers and highwaymen. The only remains of them to be found +now are the snarers of the little feathered songsters, who imprison them +in tiny cages and carry them off in large numbers to brighten by their +sweet, sad sighs for liberty the dwellers in our smoky cities." + +On this point I consulted a bird-catcher, who had spread his nets on the +common for many years, and he complained bitterly of the increasing +scarcity of its bird life. There was no better place than the Thicket +formerly, he said; but now he could hardly make his bread there. I +presume that a dozen men of his trade would be well able to drain the +country in the neighbourhood of the Thicket of the greater portion of +its bird life each year so as to keep the songsters scarce. Will any +person maintain for a moment that the eight or nine thousand inhabitants +of Maidenhead, and the hundreds or thousands inhabiting the surrounding +country could not protect their songbirds from these few men, most of +them out of London slums, if they wished or had the spirit to do so? + +It is true that the local authorities in some country towns have made +by-laws to protect the birds in their open spaces. Thus, at Tunbridge +Wells, since 1890, bird-trapping and bird's-nesting have been prohibited +on the large and beautiful common there; but, so far as I know, such +measures have only been taken in boroughs after the birds have been +almost exterminated. + +Doubtless the day will come when, law or no law, the bird-catcher will +find it necessary to go warily, lest the people of any place where he +may be tempted to spread his nets should have formed the custom of +treating those of his calling somewhat roughly. That it will come soon +is earnestly to be wished. Nevertheless, it would be irrational to +cherish feelings of animosity and hatred against the bird-catcher +himself, the "man and brother," ready and anxious as we may be to take +the bread out of his mouth. He certainly does not regard himself as an +injurious or disreputable person; on the contrary he looks on himself as +a useful member of the community, and in some cases even more. If anyone +is to be hated or blamed, it is the person who sends the bird-catcher +into the fields; not the dealer, but he who buys trapped birds and keeps +them in cages to be amused by their twitterings. This is not a question +of morality, nor of sentimentality, as some may imagine; but rather of +taste, of the sense of fitness, of that something vaguely described as +the feeling for nature, which is not universal. Thus, one man will dine +with zest on a pheasant, partridge, or quail, but would be choked by a +lark; while another man will eat pheasant and lark with equal pleasure. +Both may be good, honest, moral men; only one has that something which +the other lacks. In one the soul responds to the skylark's music +"singing at heaven's gate," in the other not; to one the roasted lark is +merely a savoury morsel; the other, be he never so hungry, cannot +dissociate the bird on the dish from that heavenly melody which +registered a sensation in his brain, to be thereafter reproduced at +will, together with the revived emotion. It is a curious question, and +is no nearer to a settlement when one of these two I have described +turns round and calls his neighbour a gross feeder, a worshipper of his +belly, a soulless and brutish man; and when the other answers +"pooh-pooh" and goes on complacently devouring larks with great gusto, +until he is himself devoured of death. + +To those with whom I am in sympathy in this matter, who love to listen +to and are yearly invigorated by the skylark's music, and whose souls +are yearly sickened at the slaughter of their loved songsters, I would +humbly suggest that there is a simpler, more practical means of ending +this dispute, which has surely lasted long enough. It goes without +saying that this bird's music is eminently pleasing to most persons, +that even as the sunshine is sweet and pleasant to behold, its silvery +aerial sounds rained down so abundantly from heaven are delightful and +exhilarating to all of us, or at all events, to so large a majority that +the minority are not entitled to consideration. One person in five +thousand, or perhaps in ten thousand, might be found to say that the +lark singing in blue heaven affords him no pleasure. This being so, and +ours being a democratic country in which the will or desire of the many +is or may be made the law of the land, it is surely only right and +reasonable that lovers of lark's flesh should be prevented from +gratifying their taste at the cost of the destruction of so loved a +bird, that they should be made to content themselves with woodcock, and +snipe on toast, and golden plover, and grouse and blackcock, and any +other bird of delicate flavor which does not, living, appeal so strongly +to the aesthetic feelings in us and is not so universal a favourite. + +This, too, will doubtless come in time. Speaking for myself, and going +back to the former subject, little as I like to see men feeding on +larks, rather would I see larks killed and eaten than thrust into cages. +For in captivity they do not "sweeten" my life, as the Maidenhead +guidebook writer would say, with their shrill, piercing cries for +liberty, but they "sing me mad." Just as in some minds this bird's +music--a sound which above all others typifies the exuberant life and +joy of nature to the soul--cannot be separated from the cooked and +dished-up melodist, so that they turn with horror from such meat, so I +cannot separate this bird, nor any bird, from the bird's wild life of +liberty, and the marvellous faculty of flight which is the bird's +attribute. To see so wild and aerial a creature in a cage jars my whole +system, and is a sight hateful and unnatural, an outrage on our +universal mother. + +This feeling about birds in captivity, which I have attempted to +describe, and which, I repeat, is not sentimentality, as that word is +ordinarily understood, has been so vividly rendered in an ode to "The +Skylarks" by Sir Rennell Rodd, that the reader will probably feel +grateful to me for quoting a portion of it in this place, especially as +the volume in which it appears--_Feda, with Other Poems_--is, I imagine, +not very widely known: + + "Oh, the sky, the sky, the open sky, + For the home of a song-bird's heart! + And why, and why, and for ever why, + Do they stifle here in the mart: + Cages of agony, rows on rows, + Torture that only a wild thing knows: + Is it nothing to you to see + That head thrust out through the hopeless wire, + And the tiny life, and the mad desire + To be free, to be free, to be free? + Oh, the sky, the sky, the blue, wide sky, + For the beat of a song-bird's wings! + + * * * + + Straight and close are the cramping bars + From the dawn of mist to the chill of stars, + And yet it must sing or die! + Will its marred harsh voice in the city street + Make any heart of you glad? + It will only beat with its wings and beat, + It will only sing you mad. + + * * * + + If it does not go to your heart to see + The helpless pity of those bruised wings, + The tireless effort to which it clings + To the strain and the will to be free, + I know not how I shall set in words + The meaning of God in this, + For the loveliest thing in this world of His + Are the ways and the songs of birds. + But the sky, the sky, the wide, free sky, + For the home of the song-bird's heart!" + + +How falsely does that man see Nature, how grossly ignorant must he be of +its most elemental truths, who looks upon it as a chamber of torture, a +physiological laboratory on a very vast scale, a scene of endless strife +and trepidation, of hunger and cold, and every form of pain and +misery--and who, holding this doctrine of + + "Oh, the sky, the sky, the open sky is the home of a song-bird's heart," + +Nature's cruelty, keeps a few captive birds in cages, and is accustomed +to say of them, "These, at any rate, are safe, rescued from subjection +to ruthless conditions, sheltered from the inclement weather and from +enemies, and all their small wants abundantly satisfied;" who once or +twice every day looks at his little captives, presents them with a lump +of sugar, whistles and chuckles to provoke them to sing, then goes about +his business, flattering himself that he is a lover of birds, a being of +a sweet and kindly nature. It is all a delusion--a distortion and +inversion of the truth--so absurd that it would be laughable were it +not so sad, and the cause of so much unconscious cruelty. The truth is, +that if birds be capable of misery, it is only in the unnatural +conditions of a caged life that they experience it; and that if they are +capable of happiness in a cage, such happiness or contentment is but a +poor, pale emotion compared with the wild exuberant gladness they have +in freedom, where all their instincts have full play, and where the +perils that surround them do but brighten their many splendid faculties. +The little bird twitters and sings in its cage, and among ourselves the +blind man and the cripple whistle and sing, too, feeling at times a +lower kind of contentment and cheerfulness. The chaffinch in East +London, with its eyeballs seared by red-hot needles, sings, too, in its +prison, when it has grown accustomed to its darkened existence, and is +in health, and the agreeable sensations that accompany health prompt it +at intervals to melody, but no person, not even the dullest ruffian +among the baser sort of bird-fanciers would maintain for a moment that +the happiness of the little sightless captive, whether vocal or silent, +is at all comparable in degree to that of the chaffinch singing in April +"on the orchard bough," vividly seeing the wide sunlit world, blue above +and green below, possessing the will and the power, when its lyric ends, +to transport itself swiftly through the crystal fields of air to other +trees and other woods. + +I take it that in the lower animals misery can result from two causes +only--restraint and disease; consequently, that animals in a state of +nature are not miserable. They are not hindered nor held back. Whether +the animal is migrating, or burying himself in his hibernating nest or +den; or flying from some rapacious enemy, which he may, or may not, be +able to escape; or feeding, or sleeping, or fighting, or courting, or +incubating, however many days or weeks this process may last--in all +things he is obeying the impulse that is strongest in him at the +time--he is doing what he wants to do--the one thing that makes him +happy. + +As to disease, it is so rare in wild animals, or in a large majority of +cases so quickly proves fatal, that, compared with what we call disease +in our own species it is practically non-existent. The "struggle for +existence," in so far as animals in a state of nature are concerned, is +a metaphorical struggle; and the strife, short and sharp, which is so +common in nature, is not misery, although it results in pain, since it +is pain that kills or is soon outlived. Fear there is, just as in fine +weather there are clouds in the sky; and just as the shadow of the cloud +passes, so does fear pass from the wild creature when the object that +excited it has vanished from sight. And when death comes, it comes +unexpectedly, and is not the death that we know, even before we taste of +it, thinking of it with apprehension all our lives long, but a sudden +blow that takes away consciousness--the touch of something that numbs +the nerves--merely the prick of a needle. In whatever way the animal +perishes, whether by violence, or excessive cold, or decay, his death is +a comparatively easy one. So long as he is fighting with or struggling +to escape from an enemy, wounds are not felt as wounds, and scarcely +hurt him--as we know from our own experience; and when overcome, if +death be not practically instantaneous, as in the case of a small bird +seized by a cat, the disabling grip or blow is itself a kind of anodyne, +producing insensibility to pain. This, too, is a matter of human +experience. To say nothing of those who fall in battle, men have often +been struck down and fearfully lacerated by lions, tigers, jaguars, and +other savage beasts; and after having been rescued by their companions, +have recounted this strange thing. Even when there was no loss of +consciousness, when they saw and knew that the animal was rending their +flesh, they seemed not to feel it, and were, at the time, indifferent to +the fate that had overtaken them. + +It is the same in death from cold. The strong, well-nourished man, +overtaken by a snowstorm on some pathless, uninhabited waste, may +experience some exceedingly bitter moments, or even hours, before he +gives up the struggle. The physical pain is simply nothing: the whole +bitterness is in the thought that he must die. The horror at the thought +of annihilation, the remembrance of all the happiness he is now about to +lose, of dear friends, of those whose lives will be dimmed with grief +for his loss, of all his cherished dreams of the future--the sting of +all this is so sharp that, compared with it, the creeping coldness in +his blood is nothing more than a slight discomfort, and is scarcely +felt. By and by he is overcome by drowsiness, and ceases to struggle; +the torturing visions fade from his mind, and his only thought is to lie +down and sleep. And when he sleeps he passes away; very easily, very +painlessly, for the pain was of the mind, and was over long before death +ensued. + +The bird, however hard the frost may be, flies briskly to its customary +roosting-place, and with beak tucked into its wing, falls asleep. It has +no apprehensions; only the hot blood grows colder and colder, the pulse +feebler as it sleeps, and at midnight, or in the early morning, it drops +from its perch--dead. + +Yesterday he lived and moved, responsible to a thousand external +influences, reflecting earth and sky in his small brilliant brain as in +a looking-glass; also he had a various language, the inherited knowledge +of his race, and the faculty of flight, by means of which he could +shoot, meteor-like, across the sky, and pass swiftly from place to +place, and with it such perfect control over all his organs, such +marvellous certitude in all his motions, as to be able to drop himself +plumb down from the tallest tree-top or out of the void air, on to a +slender spray, and scarcely cause its leaves to tremble. Now, on this +morning, he lies stiff and motionless; if you were to take him up and +drop him from your hand, he would fall to the ground like a stone or a +lump of clay--so easy and swift is the passage from life to death in +wild nature! But he was never miserable. + +Those of my readers who have seen much of animals in a state of nature, +will agree that death from decay, or old age, is very rare among them. +In that state the fullest vigour, with brightness of all the faculties, +is so important that probably in ninety-nine cases in a hundred any +falling-off in strength, or decay of any sense, results in some fatal +accident. Death by misadventure, as we call it, is Nature's ordinance, +the end designed for a very large majority of her children. +Nevertheless, animals do sometimes live on without accident to the very +end of their term, to fade peacefully away at the last. I have myself +witnessed such cases in mammals and birds; and one such case, which +profoundly impressed me, and is vividly remembered, I will describe. + +One morning in the late summer, while walking in the fields at my home +in South America, I noticed a few purple martins, large, beautiful +swallows common in that region, engaged, at a considerable height, in +the aerial exercises in which they pass so much of their time each day. +By and by, one of the birds separated itself from the others, and, +circling slowly downward, finally alighted on the ground not far from +me. I walked on: but the action of the bird had struck me as unusual and +strange, and before going far, I turned and walked back to the spot +where it continued sitting on the ground, quite motionless. It made no +movement when I approached to within four yards of it; and after I had +stood still at that distance for a minute or so, attentively regarding +it, I saw it put out one wing and turn over on its side. I at once took +it up in my hand, and found that it was already quite dead. It was a +large example of its species, and its size, together with a something of +dimness in the glossy purple colour of the upper plumage, seemed to show +that it was an old bird. But it was uninjured, and when I dissected it +no trace of disease was discernible. I concluded that it was an old bird +that had died solely from natural failure of the life-energy. + +But how wonderful, how almost incredible, that the healthy vigour and +joy of life should have continued in this individual bird down to within +so short a period of the end; that it should have been not only strong +enough to find its food, but to rush and wheel about for long intervals +in purely sportive exercises, when the brief twilight of decline and +final extinction were so near! It becomes credible--we can even believe +that most of the individuals that cease to exist only when the vital +fire has burnt itself out, fall on death in this swift, easy +manner--when we recall the fact that even in the life-history of men +such a thing is not unknown. Probably there is not one among my readers +who will not be able to recall some such incident in his own circle--the +case of someone who lived, perhaps, long past the term usually allotted +to man, and who finally passed away without a struggle, without a pang, +so that those who were with him found it hard to believe that the spirit +had indeed gone. In such cases, the subject has invariably been healthy, +although it is hard to believe that, in the conditions we exist in, any +man can have the perfect health that all wild creatures enjoy. + + + + +X + + +After my long talk with the bird-catcher on June 24, and two more talks +equally long on the two following days, I found that something of the +charm the common had had for me was gone. It was not quite the same as +formerly; even the sunshine had a something of conscious sadness in it +which was like a shadow. Those merry little brown twitterers that +frequently shot across the sky, looking small as insects in the wide +blue expanse, and ever and anon dropped swiftly down like showers of +aerolites, to lose themselves in the grass and herbage, or perch singing +on the topmost dead twigs of a bush, now existed in constant imminent +danger--not of that quick merciful destruction which Nature has for her +weaklings, and for all that fail to reach her high standard; but of a +worse fate, the prison life which is not Nature's ordinance, but one of +the cunning larger Ape's abhorred inventions. Instead of taking my usual +long strolls about the common I loitered once more in the village lanes +and had my reward. + +On the morning of June 27 I was out sauntering very indolently, thinking +of nothing at all; for it was a surpassingly brilliant day, and the +sunshine produced the effect of a warm, lucent, buoyant fluid, in which +I seemed to float rather than walk--a celestial water, which, like the +more ponderable and common sort, may sometimes be both felt and seen. +The sensation of feeling it is somewhat similar to that experienced by a +bather standing breast-deep in a dear, green, warm tropical sea, so +charged with salt that it lifts him up; but to distinguish it with the +eye, you must look away to a distance of some yards in an open unshaded +place, when it will become visible as fine glinting lines, quivering and +serpentining upwards, fountain-wise, from the surface. All at once I was +startled by hearing the loud importunate hunger-call of a young cuckoo +quite close to me. Moving softly up to the low hedge and peering over, I +saw the bird perched on a long cross-stick, which had been put up in a +cottage garden to hang clothes on; he was not more than three to four +yards from me, a fine young cuckoo in perfect plumage, his barred +under-surface facing me. Although seeing me as plainly as I saw him, he +exhibited no fear, and did not stir. Why should he, since I had not come +there to feed him, and, to his inexperienced avian mind, was only one of +the huge terrestrial creatures of various forms, with horns and manes on +their heads, that move heavily about in roads and pastures, and are +nothing to birds? But his foster parent, a hedge-sparrow, was +suspicious, and kept at some distance with food in her bill; then +excited by his imperative note, she flitted shyly to him, and deposited +a minute caterpillar in his great gaping yellow mouth. It was like +dropping a bun into the monstrous mouth of the hippopotamus of the +Zoological Gardens. But the hedge-sparrow was off and back again with a +second morsel in a very few moments; and again and again she darted away +in quest of food and returned successful, while the lazy, beautiful +giant sat sunning himself on his cross-stick and hungrily cried for +more. + +This is one of those exceptional sights in nature which, however often +seen, never become altogether familiar, never fail to re-excite the old +feelings of wonder and admiration which were experienced on first +witnessing them. I can safely say, I think, that no man has observed so +many parasitical young birds (individuals) being fed by their +foster-parents as myself, yet the interest such a sight inspired in me +is just as fresh now as in boyhood. And probably in no parasitical +species does the strangeness of the spectacle strike the mind so sharply +as in this British bird, since the differences in size and colouring +between the foster-parent and its false offspring are so much greater in +its case. Here nature's unnaturalness in such an instinct--a close union +of the beautiful and the monstrous--is seen in its extreme form. The +hawk-like figure and markings of the cuckoo serve only to accentuate the +disparity, which is perhaps greatest when the parent is the +hedge-sparrow--so plainly-coloured a bird, so shy and secretive in its +habits. One never ceases to be amazed at the blindness of the parental +instinct in so intelligent a creature as a bird in a case of this kind. +Some idea of how blind it is may be formed by imagining a case in widely +separated types of our own species, which would be a parallel to that of +the cuckoo and hedge-sparrow. Let us imagine that some malicious Arabian +Night's genius had snatched up the infant male child of a Scandinavian +couple--the largest of their nation; and flying away to Africa with it, +to the heart of the great Aruwhimi forest had laid it on the breast of a +little coffee-coloured, woolly-headed, spindle-shanked, pot-bellied, +pigmy mother, taking away at the same time her own newly-born babe; that +she had tenderly nursed the substituted child, and reared and protected +it, ministering, according to her lights, to all its huge wants, until +he had come to the fullness of his stature, yet never suspected, that +the magnificent, ivory-limbed giant, with flowing yellow locks and +cerulean eyes, was not the child of her own womb. + + + + +XI + + +Bright and genial were all the last days of June, when I loitered in the +lanes before the unwished day of my return to London. During this quiet, +pleasant time the greenfinch was perhaps more to me than any other +songster. In the village itself, with the adjacent lanes and orchards, +this pretty, seldom-silent bird was the most common species. The village +was his metropolis, just as London is ours--and the sparrow's; its lanes +were his streets, its hedges and elm trees his cottage rows and tall +stately mansions and public buildings. . We frequently find the +predominance of one species somewhat wearisome. Speaking for myself, +there are songsters that are best appreciated when they are limited in +numbers and keep their distance, but of the familiar, unambitious +strains of swallow, robin, and wren I never tire, nor, during these +days, could I have too much of the greenfinch, low as he ranks among +British melodists. Tastes differ; that is a point on which we are all +agreed, and every one of us, even the humblest, is permitted to have his +own preferences. Still, after re-reading Wordsworth's lines to "The +Green Linnet," it is curious, to say the least of it, to turn to some +prosewriter--an authority on birds, perhaps--to find that this species, +whose music so charmed the poet, has for its song a monotonous croak, +which it repeats at short intervals for hours without the slightest +variation--a dismal sound which harmonizes with no other sound in +nature, and suggests nothing but heat and weariness, and is of all +natural sounds the most irritating. To this writer, then--and there are +others to keep him in countenance--the greenfinch as a vocalist ranks +lower than the lowest. One can only wonder (and smile) at such extreme +divergences. To my mind all natural sounds have, in some measure an +exhilarating effect, and I cannot get rid of the notion that so it +should be with every one of us; and when some particular sound, or +series of sounds, that has more than this common character, and is +distinctly pleasing, is spoken of as nothing but disagreeable, +irritating, and the rest of it, I am inclined to think that there is +something wrong with the person who thus describes it; that he is not +exactly as nature would have had him, but that either during his +independent life, or before it at some period of his prenatal existence, +something must have happened to distune him. All this, I freely confess, +may be nothing but fancy. In any case, the subject need not keep us +longer from the greenfinch--that is to say, _my_ greenfinch not another +man's. + +From morning until evening all around and about the cottage, and out of +doors whithersoever I bent my steps, from the masses of deep green +foliage, sounded the perpetual airy prattle of these delightful birds. +One had the idea that the concealed vocalists were continually meeting +each other at little social gatherings, where they exchanged pretty +loving greetings, and indulged in a leafy gossip, interspersed with +occasional fragments of music, vocal and instrumental; now a long +trill--a trilling, a tinkling, a sweeping of one minute finger-tip over +metal strings as fine as gossamer threads--describe it how you will, you +cannot describe it; then the long, low, inflected scream, like a lark's +throat-note drawn out and inflected; little chirps and chirruping +exclamations and remarks, and a soft warbled note three or four or more +times repeated, and sometimes, the singer fluttering up out of the +foliage and hovering in the air, displaying his green and yellow plumage +while emitting these lovely notes; and again the trill, trill answering +trill in different keys; and again the music scream, as if some +unsubstantial being, fairy or woodnymph had screamed somewhere in her +green hiding-place. In London one frequently hears, especially in the +spring, half-a-dozen sparrows just met together in a garden tree, or +among the ivy or creeper on a wall, burst out suddenly into a confused +rapturous chorus of chirruping sounds, mingled with others of a finer +quality, liquid and ringing. At such times one is vexed to think that +there are writers on birds who invariably speak of the sparrow as a +tuneless creature, a harsh chirper, and nothing more. It strikes one +that such writers either wilfully abuse or are ignorant of the right +meaning of words, so wild and glad in character are these concerts of +town sparrows, and so refreshing to the tired and noise-vexed brain! But +now when I listened to the greenfinches in the village elms and +hedgerows, if by chance a few sparrows burst out in loud gratulatory +notes, the sounds they emitted appeared coarse, and I wished the +chirrupers away. But with the true and brilliant songsters it seemed to +me that the rippling greenfinch music was always in harmony, forming as +it were a kind of airy, subdued accompaniment to their loud and ringing +tones. + +I had had my nightingale days, my cuckoo and blackbird and tree-pipit +days, with others too numerous to mention, and now I was having my +greenfinch days; and these were the last. + +One morning in July I was in my sitting-room, when in the hedge on the +other side of the lane, just opposite my window, a small brown bird +warbled a few rich notes, the prelude to his song. I went and stood by +the open window, intently listening, when it sang again, but only a +phrase or two. But I listened still, confidently expecting more; for +although it was now long past its singing season, that splendid sunshine +would compel it to express its gladness. Then, just when a fresh burst +of music came, it was disturbed by another sound close by--a human +voice, also singing. On the other side of the hedge in which the bird +sat concealed was a cottage garden, and there on a swing fastened to a +pair of apple trees, a girl about eleven years old sat lazily swinging +herself. Once or twice after she began singing the nightingale broke out +again, and then at last he became silent altogether, his voice +overpowered by hers. Girl and bird were not five yards apart. It +greatly surprised me to hear her singing, for it was eleven o'clock, +when all the village children were away at the National School, a time +of day when, so far as human sounds were concerned, there reigned an +almost unbroken silence. But very soon I recalled the fact that this was +a very lazy child, and concluded that she had coaxed her mother into +sending an excuse for keeping her at home, and so had kept her liberty +on this beautiful morning. About two minutes' walk from the cottage, at +the side of the crooked road running through the village, there was a +group of ancient pollarded elm trees with huge, hollow trunks, and +behind them an open space, a pleasant green slope, where some of the +village children used to go every day to play on the grass. Here I used +to see this girl lying in the sun, her dark chestnut hair loosed and +scattered on the sward, her arms stretched out, her eyes nearly closed, +basking in the sun, as happy as some heat-loving wild animal. No, it was +not strange that she had not gone to school with the others when her +disposition was remembered, but most strange to hear a voice of such +quality in a spot where nature was rich and lovely, and only man was, if +not vile, at all events singularly wanting in the finer human qualities. + +Looking out from the open window across the low hedge-top, I could see +her as she alternately rose and fell with slow, indolent motion, now +waist-high above the green dividing wall, then only her brown head +visible resting against the rope just where her hand had grasped it. And +as she swayed herself to and fro she sang that simple melody--probably +some child's hymn which she had been taught at the Sunday-school; but it +was a very long hymn, or else she repeated the same few stanzas many +times, and after each there was a brief pause, and then the voice that +seemed to fall and rise with the motion went on as before. I could have +stood there for an hour--nay, for hours--listening to it, so fresh and +so pure was the clear young voice, which had no earthly trouble in it, +and no passion, and was in this like the melody of the birds of which I +had lately heard so much; and with it all that tenderness and depth +which is not theirs, but is human only and of the soul. + +It struck me as a singular coincidence--and to a mind of so primitive a +type as the writer's there is more in the fact that the word +implies--that, just as I had quitted London, to seek for just such a +spot as I so speedily found, with the passionately exclaimed words of a +young London girl ringing in my ears, so now I went back with this +village girl's melody sounding and following me no less clearly and +insistently. For it was not merely remembered, as we remember most +things, but vividly and often reproduced, together with the various +melodies of the birds I had listened to; a greater and principal voice +in that choir, yet in no wise lessening their first value, nor ever out +of harmony with them. + + + + +EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN + + +There are countries with a less fertile soil and a worse climate than +ours, yet richer in bird life. Nevertheless, England is not poor; the +species are not few in number, and some are extremely abundant. +Unfortunately many of the finer kinds have been too much sought after; +persecuted first for their beauty, then for their rarity, until now we +are threatened with their total destruction. As these kinds become +unobtainable, those which stand next in the order of beauty and rarity +are persecuted in their turn; and in a country as densely populated as +ours, where birds cannot hide themselves from human eyes, such +persecution must eventually cause their extinction. Meanwhile the bird +population does not decrease. Every place in nature, like every property in +Chancery, has more than one claimant to it--sometimes the claimants are +many--and so long as the dispute lasts all live out of the estate. For +there are always two or more species subsisting on the same kind of +food, possessing similar habits, and frequenting the same localities. It +is consequently impossible for man to exterminate any one species +without indirectly benefiting some other species, which attracts him in +a less degree, or not at all. This is unfortunate, for as the bright +kinds, or those we esteem most, diminish in numbers the less interesting +kinds multiply, and we lose much of the pleasure which bird life is +fitted to give us. When we visit woods, or other places to which birds +chiefly resort, in districts uninhabited by man, or where he pays little +or no attention to the feathered creatures, the variety of the bird life +encountered affords a new and peculiar delight. There is a constant +succession of new forms and new voices; in a single day as many species +may be met with as one would find in England by searching diligently for +a whole year. + +And yet this may happen in a district possessing no more species than +England boasts; and the actual number of individuals may be even less +than with us. In sparrows, for instance, of the one common species, we +are exceedingly rich; but in bird life generally, in variety of birds, +especially in those of graceful forms and beautiful plumage, we have +been growing poorer for the last fifty years, and have now come to so +low a state that it becomes us to inquire whether it is not in our power +to better ourselves. It is an old familiar truth--a truism--that it is +easier to destroy than to restore or build up; nevertheless, some +comfort is to be got from the reflection that in this matter we have up +till now been working against Nature. She loves not to bring forth food +where there are none to thrive on it; and when our unconsidered action +had made these gaps, when, despising her gifts or abusing them, we had +destroyed or driven out her finer kinds, she fell back on her lowlier +kinds--her reserve of coarser, more generalized species--and gave them +increase, and bestowed the vacant places which we had created on them. +What she has done she will undo, or assist us in undoing; for we should +be going back to her methods, and should have her with and not against +us. Much might yet be done to restore the balance among our native +species. Not by legislation, albeit all laws restraining the wholesale +destruction of bird life are welcome. On this subject the Honourable +Auberon Herbert has said, and his words are golden: "For myself, +legislation or no legislation, I would turn to the friends of animals in +this country, and say, 'If you wish that the friendship between man and +animals should become a better and truer thing than it is at present, +you must make it so by countless individual efforts, by making thousands +of centres of personal influence.'" + +The subject is a large one. In this paper the question of the +introduction of exotic birds will be chiefly considered. Birds have been +blown by the winds of chance over the whole globe, and have found rest +for their feet. That a large number of species, suited to the conditions +of this country, exist scattered about the world is not to be doubted, +and by introducing a few of these we might accelerate the change so +greatly to be desired. At present a very considerable amount of energy +is spent in hunting down the small contingents of rare species that once +inhabited our islands, and still resort annually to its shores, +persistently endeavouring to re-establish their colonies. A less amount +of labour and expense would serve to introduce a few foreign species +each year, and the reward would be greater, and would not make us +ashamed. We have generously given our own wild animals to other +countries; and from time to time we receive cheering reports of an +abundant increase in at least two of our exportations--to wit, the +rabbit and the sparrow. We are surely entitled to some return. Dead +animals, however rich their pelt or bright their plumage may be, are not +a fair equivalent. Dead things are too much with us. London has become a +mart for this kind of merchandise for the whole of Europe, and the +traffic is not without a reflex effect on us; for life in the inferior +animals has come or is coming to be merely a thing to be lightly taken +by human hands, in order that its dropped garment may be sold for filthy +lucre. There are warehouses in this city where it is possible for a +person to walk ankle-deep--literally to wade--in bright-plumaged +bird-skins, and see them piled shoulder-high on either side of him--a +sight to make the angels weep! + +Not the angel called woman. It is not that she is naturally more cruel +than man; bleeding wounds and suffering in all its forms, even the sigh +of a burdened heart, appeal to her quick sympathies, and draw the ready +tears; but her imagination helps her less. The appeal must in most cases +be direct and through the medium of her senses, else it is not seen and +not heard. If she loves the ornament of a gay-winged bird, and is able +to wear it with a light heart, it is because it calls up no mournful +image to her mind; no little tragedy enacted in some far-off wilderness, +of the swift child of the air fallen and bleeding out its bright life, +and its callow nestlings, orphaned of the breast that warmed them, dying +of hunger in the tree. We know, at all events, that out of a female +population of many millions in this country, so far only ten women, +possibly fifteen, have been found to raise their voices--raised so often +and so loudly on other questions--to protest against the barbarous and +abhorrent fashion of wearing slain birds as ornaments. The degrading +business of supplying the demand for this kind of feminine adornment +must doubtless continue to flourish in our midst, commerce not being +compatible with morality, but the material comes from other lands, +unblessed as yet with Wild Bird Protection Acts, and "individual +efforts, and thousands of centres of personal influence"; it comes +mainly from the tropics, where men have brutish minds and birds a +brilliant plumage. This trade, therefore, does not greatly affect the +question of our native bird life, and the consideration of the means, +which may be within our reach, of making it more to us than it now is. +Some species from warm and even hot climates have been found to thrive +well in England, breeding in the open air; as, for instance, the black +and the black-necked swans, the Egyptian goose, the mandarin and summer +ducks, and others too numerous to mention. But these birds are +semi-domestic, and are usually kept in enclosures, and that they can +stand the climate and propagate when thus protected from competition is +not strange; for we know that several of our hardy domestic birds--the +fowl, pea-fowl, Guinea-fowl, and Muscovy duck--are tropical in their +origin. Furthermore, they are all comparatively large, and if they ever +become feral in England, it will not be for many years to come. + +That these large kinds thrive so well with us is an encouraging fact; +but the question that concerns us at present is the feasibility of +importing birds of the grove, chiefly of the passerine order, and +sending them forth to give a greater variety and richness to our bird +life. To go with such an object to tropical countries would only be to +court failure. Nature's highest types, surpassing all others in +exquisite beauty of form, brilliant colouring, and perfect melody, can +never be known to our woods and groves. These rarest avian gems may not +be removed from their setting, and to those who desire to know them in +their unimaginable lustre, it will always be necessary to cross oceans +and penetrate into remote wildernesses. We must go rather to regions +where the conditions of life are hard, where winters are long and often +severe, where Nature is not generous in the matter of food, and the +mouths are many, and the competition great. Nor even from such regions +could we take any strictly migratory species with any prospect of +success. Still, limiting ourselves to the resident, and consequently to +the hardiest kinds, and to those possessing only a partial migration, it +is surprising to find how many there are to choose from, how many are +charming melodists, and how many have the bright tints in which our +native species are so sadly lacking. The field from which the supply can +be drawn is very extensive, and includes the continent of Europe, the +countries of North Asia, a large portion of North America and Antarctic +America, or South Chili and Patagonia. It would not be going too far to +say that for every English species, inhabiting the garden, wood, field, +stream, or waste, at least half a dozen resident species, with similar +habits, might be obtained from the countries mentioned which would be +superior to our own in melody (the nightingale and lark excepted), +bright plumage, grace of form, or some other attractive quality. The +question then arises; What reason is there for believing that these +exotics, imported necessarily in small numbers, would succeed in winning +a footing in our country, and become a permanent addition to its +avifauna? For it has been admitted that our species are not few, in +spite of the losses that have been suffered, and that the bird +population does not diminish, however much its character may have +altered and deteriorated from the aesthetic point of view, and probably +also from the utilitarian. There are no vacant places. Thus, the streams +are fished by herons, grebes, and kingfishers, while the rushy margins +are worked by coots and gallinules, and, above the surface, reed and +sedge-warblers, with other kinds, inhabit the reed-beds. The decaying +forest tree is the province of the woodpecker, of which there are three +kinds; and the trunks and branches of all trees, healthy or decaying, +are quartered by the small creeper, that leaves no crevice unexplored in +its search for minute insects and their eggs. He is assisted by the +nuthatch; and in summer the wryneck comes (if he still lives), and +deftly picks up the little active ants that are always wildly careering +over the boles. The foliage is gleaned by warblers and others; and not +even the highest terminal twigs are left unexamined by tits and their +fellow-seekers after little things. Thrushes seek for worms in moist +grounds about the woods; starlings and rooks go to the pasture lands; +the lark and his relations keep to the cultivated fields; and there also +dwells the larger partridge. Waste and stony grounds are occupied by the +chats, and even on the barren mountain summits the ptarmigan gets his +living. Wagtails run on the clean margins of streams; and littoral birds +of many kinds are in possession of the entire sea-coast. Thus, the whole +ground appears to be already sufficiently occupied, the habitats of +distinct species overlapping each other like the scales on a fish. And +when we have enumerated all these, we find that scores of others have +been left out. The important fly-catcher; the wren, Nature's diligent +little housekeeper, that leaves no dusty corner uncleaned; and the +pigeons, that have a purely vegetable diet. The woods and thickets are +also ranged by jays, cuckoos, owls, hawks, magpies, butcher-birds-- +Nature's gamekeepers, with a licence to kill, which, after the manner of +game-keepers, they exercise somewhat indiscriminately. Above the earth, +the air is peopled by swifts and swallows in the daytime, and by +goatsuckers at night. And, as if all these were not enough, the finches +are found scattered everywhere, from the most secluded spot in nature to +the noisy public thoroughfare, and are eaters of most things, from +flinty seed to softest caterpillar. This being the state of things, one +might imagine that experience and observation are scarcely needed to +prove to us that the exotic, strange to the conditions, and where its +finest instincts would perhaps be at fault, would have no chance of +surviving. Nevertheless, odd as it may seem, the small stock of facts +bearing on the subject which we possess point to a contrary conclusion. +It might have been assumed, for instance, that the red-legged partridge +would never have established itself with us, where the ground was +already fully occupied by a native species, which possessed the +additional advantage of a more perfect protective colouring. Yet, in +spite of being thus handicapped, the stranger has conquered a place, and +has spread throughout the greater part of England. Even more remarkable +is the case of the pheasant, with its rich plumage, a native of a hot +region; yet our cold, wet climate and its unmodified bright colours have +not been fatal to it, and practically it is one of our wild birds. The +large capercailzie has also been successfully introduced from Norway. +Small birds would probably become naturalized much more readily than +large ones; they are volatile, and can more quickly find suitable +feeding-ground, and safe roosting and nesting places; their food is also +more abundant and easily found; their small size, which renders them +inconspicuous, gives them safety; and, finally, they are very much more +adaptive than large birds. + +It is not at all probable that the red-legged partridge will ever drive +out our own bird, a contingency which some have feared. That would be a +misfortune, for we do not wish to change one bird for another, or to +lose any species we now possess, but to have a greater variety. We are +better off with two partridges than we were with one, even if the +invader does not afford such good sport nor such delicate eating. They +exist side by side, and compete with each other; but such competition is +not necessarily destructive to either. On the contrary, it acts and +re-acts healthily and to the improvement of both. It is a fact that in +small islands, very far removed from the mainland, where the animals +have been exempt from all foreign competition--that is, from the +competition of casual colonists--when it does come it proves, in many +cases, fatal to them. Fortunately, this country's large size and +nearness to the mainland has prevented any such fatal crystallization of +its organisms as we see in islands like St. Helena. That any English +species would be exterminated by foreign competition is extremely +unlikely; whether we introduce exotic birds or not, the only losses we +shall have to deplore in the future will, like those of the past, be +directly due to our own insensate action in slaying every rare and +beautiful thing with powder and shot. From the introduction of exotic +species nothing is to be feared, but much to be hoped. + +There is another point which should not be overlooked. It has after all +become a mere fiction to say that _all_ places are occupied. Nature's +nice order has been destroyed, and her kingdom thrown into the utmost +confusion; our action tends to maintain the disorderly condition, while +she is perpetually working against us to re-establish order. When she +multiplies some common, little-regarded species to occupy a space left +vacant by an artificially exterminated kind, the species called in as a +mere stop-gap, as it were, is one not specially adapted in structure and +instincts to a particular mode of life, and consequently cannot fully +and effectually occupy the ground into which it has been permitted to +enter. To speak in metaphor, it enters merely as a caretaker or ignorant +and improvident steward in the absence of the rightful owner. Again, +some of our ornamental species, which are fast diminishing, are fitted +from their peculiar structure and life habits to occupy places in nature +which no other kinds, however plastic they may be, can even partially +fill. The wryneck and the woodpecker may be mentioned; and a still +better instance is afforded by the small, gem-like kingfisher--the +only British bird which can properly be described as gem-like. +When the goldfinch goes--and we know that he is going rapidly--other +coarser fringilline birds, without the melody, brightness, and charm of +the goldfinch--sparrow and bunting--come in, and in some rough fashion +supply its place; but when the kingfisher disappears an important place +is left absolutely vacant, for in this case there is no coarser bird of +homely plumage with the fishing instinct to seize upon it. Here, then, +is an excellent opportunity for an experiment. In the temperate regions +of the earth there are many fine kingfishers to select from; some are +resident in countries colder than England, and are consequently very +hardy; and in some cases the rivers and streams they frequent are +exceedingly poor in fish. Some of them are very beautiful, and they vary +in size from birds no larger than a sparrow to others as large as a +pigeon. + +Anglers might raise the cry that they require all the finny inhabitants +of our waters for their own sport. It is scarcely necessary to go as +deeply into the subject as mathematical-minded Mudie did to show that +Nature's lavishness in the production of life would make such a +contention unreasonable. He demonstrated that if all the fishes hatched +were to live their full term, in twenty-four years their production +power would convert into fish (two hundred to the solid foot) as much +matter as there is contained in the whole solar system--sun, planets, +and satellites! An "abundantly startling" result, as he says. To be well +within the mark, ninety-nine out of every hundred fishes hatched must +somehow perish during that stage when they are nothing but suitable +morsels for the kingfisher, to be swallowed entire; and a portion of all +this wasted food might very well go to sustain a few species, which +would be beautiful ornaments of the waterside, and a perpetual delight +to all lovers of rural nature, including anglers. It may be remarked in +passing, that the waste of food, in the present disorganized state of +nature, is not only in our streams. + +The introduction of one or more of these lovely foreign kingfishers +would not certainly have the effect of hastening the decline of our +native species; but indirectly it might bring about a contrary result--a +subject to be touched on at the end of this paper. Practical naturalists +may say that kingfishers would be far more difficult to procure than +other birds, and that it would be almost impossible to convey them to +England. That is a question it would be premature to discuss now; but if +the attempt should ever be made, the difficulties would not perhaps be +found insuperable. In all countries one hears of certain species of +birds that they invariably die in captivity; but when the matter is +closely looked into, one usually finds that improper treatment and not +loss of liberty is the cause of death. Unquestionably it would be much +more difficult to keep a kingfisher alive and healthy during a long +sea-voyage than a common seed-eating bird; but the same may be said of +woodpeckers, cuckoos, warblers, and, in fact, of any species that +subsists in a state of nature on a particular kind of animal food. +Still, when we find that even the excessively volatile humming-bird, +which subsists on the minutest insects and the nectar of flowers, and +seems to require unlimited space for the exercise of its energies, can +be successfully kept confined for long periods and conveyed to distant +countries, one would imagine that it would be hard to set a limit to +what might be done in this direction. We do not want hard-billed birds +only. We require, in the first place, variety; and, secondly, that every +species introduced, when not of type unlike any native kind, as in the +case of the pheasant, shall be superior in beauty, melody, or some other +quality, to its British representative, or to the species which comes +nearest to it in structure and habits. Thus, suppose that the +introduction of a pigeon should be desired. We know that in all +temperate regions, these birds vary as little in colour and markings as +they do in form; but in the vocal powers of different species there is +great diversity; and the main objects would therefore be to secure a +bird which would be an improvement in this respect on the native kinds. +There are doves belonging to the same genus as stock-dove and +wood-pigeon, that have exceedingly good voices, in which the peculiar +mournful dove-melody has reached its highest perfection--weird and +passionate strains, surging and ebbing, and startling the hearer with +their mysterious resemblance to human tones. Or a Zenaida might be +preferred for its tender lament, so wild and exquisitely modulated, like +sobs etherealized and set to music, and passing away in sigh-like sounds +that seem to mimic the aerial voices of the wind. + +When considering the character of our bird population with a view to its +improvement, one cannot but think much, and with a feeling almost of +dismay, of the excessive abundance of the sparrow. A systematic +persecution of this bird would probably only serve to make matters +worse, since its continued increase is not the cause but an effect of a +corresponding decrease in other more useful and attractive species; and +if Nature is to have her way at all there must be birds; and besides, no +bird-lover has any wish at see such a thing attempted. The sparrow has +his good points, if we are to judge him as we find him, without allowing +what the Australians and Americans say of him to prejudice our minds. +Possibly in those distant countries he may be altogether bad, +resembling, in this respect, some of the emigrants of our species, who, +when they go abroad, leave their whole stock of morality at home. Even +with us Miss Ormerod is exceedingly bitter against him, and desires +nothing less than his complete extirpation; but it is possible that this +lady's zeal may not be according to knowledge, that she may not know a +sparrow quite so well as she knows a fly. At all events, the +ornithologist finds it hard to believe that so bad an insect-catcher is +really causing the extinction of any exclusively insectivorous species. +On her own very high authority we know that the insect supply is not +diminishing, that the injurious kinds alone are able to inflict an +annual loss equal to L10,000,000 on the British farmer. To put aside +this controversial matter, the sparrow with all his faults is a pleasant +merry little fellow; in many towns he is the sole representative of wild +bird life, and is therefore a great deal to us--especially in the +metropolis, in which he most abounds, and where at every quiet interval +his blithe chirruping comes to us like a sound of subdued and happy +laughter. In London itself this merriment of Nature never irritates; it +is so much finer and more aerial in character than the gross jarring +noises of the street, that it is a relief to listen to it, and it is +like melody. In the quiet suburbs it sounds much louder and without +intermission. And going further afield, in woods, gardens, hedges, +hamlets, towns--everywhere there is the same running, rippling sound +of the omnipresent sparrow, and it becomes monotonous at last. We have +too much of the sparrow. But we are to blame for that. He is the +unskilled worker that Nature has called in to do the work of skilled +hands, which we have foolishly turned away. He is willing enough to take +it all on himself; his energy is great; he bungles away without ceasing; +and being one of a joyous temperament, he whistles and sings in his +tuneless fashion at his work, until, like the grasshopper of +Ecclesiastes, he becomes a burden. For how tiring are the sight and +sound of grasshoppers when one journeys many miles and sees them +incessantly rising like a sounding cloud before his horse, and hears +their shrill notes all day from the wayside! Yet how pleasant to listen +to their minstrelsy in the green summer foliage, where they are not too +abundant! We can have too much of anything, however charming it may be +in itself. Those who live where scores of humming-birds are perpetually +dancing about the garden flowers find that the eye grows weary of seeing +the daintiest forms and brightest colours and liveliest motions that +birds exhibit. We are told that Edward the Confessor grew so sick of the +incessant singing of nightingales in the forest of Havering-at-Bower +that he prayed to Heaven to silence their music; whereupon the birds +promptly took their departure, and returned no more to that forest until +after the king's death. The sparrow is not so sensitive as the legendary +nightingales, and is not to be got rid of in this easy manner. He is +amenable only to a rougher kind of persuasion; and it would be +impossible to devise a more effectual method of lessening his +predominance than that which Nature teaches--namely to subject him to +the competition of other and better species. He is well equipped for the +struggle--hardy, pugnacious, numerous, and in possession. He would not +be in possession and so predominant if he had not these qualities, and +great pliability of instinct and readiness to seize on vacant places. +Nevertheless, even with the sturdy sparrow a very small thing might turn +the scale, particularly if we were standing by and putting a little +artificial pressure on one side of the balance; for it must be borne in +mind that the very extent and diversity of the ground he occupies is a +proof that he does not occupy it effectually, and that his position is +not too strong to be shaken. It is not probable that our action in +assisting one side against the other would go far in its results; still, +a little might be done. There are gardens and grounds in the suburbs of +London where sparrows are not abundant, and are shyer than the birds of +other species, and this result has been brought about by means of a +little judicious persecution. Shooting is a bad plan, even with an +air-gun; its effects are seen by all the birds, for they see more from +their green hiding-places than we imagine, and it creates a general +alarm among them. Those who wish to give the other birds a chance will +only defeat their own object by shooting the sparrows. A much better +plan for those who are able to practise it prudently is to take their +nests, which are more exposed to sight than those of other birds; but +they should be taken after the full complement of eggs have been laid, +and only at night, so that other birds shall not witness the robbery and +fear for their own treasures. Mr. Henry George, in that book of his +which has been the delight of so many millions of rational souls, +advocates the destruction of all sharks and other large rapacious +fishes, after which, he says, the ocean can be stocked with salmon, +which would secure an unlimited supply of good wholesome food for the +human race. No such high-handed measures are advocated here with regard +to the sparrow. Knowledge of nature makes us conservative. It is so very +easy to say, "Kill the sparrow, or shark, or magpie, or whatever it is, +and then everything will be right." But there are more things in nature +than are dreamt of in the philosophy of the class of reformers +represented by the gamekeeper, and the gamekeeper's master, and Miss +Ormerod, and Mr. Henry George. Let him by all means kill the sharks, but +he will not conquer Nature in that way: she will make more sharks out of +something else--possibly out of the very salmon on which he proposes to +regale his hungry disciples. To go into details is not the present +writer's purpose; and to finish with this part of the subject, it is +sufficient to add that in the very wide and varied field occupied by the +sparrow, in that rough, ineffectual manner possible to a species having +no special and highly perfected feeding instincts, there is room for the +introduction of scores of competitors, every one of which should be +better adapted than the sparrow to find a subsistence at that point or +that particular part of the field where the two would come into rivalry; +and every species introduced should also possess some quality which +would make it, from the aesthetic point of view, a valuable addition to +our bird life. This would be no war of violence, and no contravention of +Nature's ordinances, but, on the contrary, a return to her safe, +healthy, and far-reaching methods. + +There is one objection some may make to the scheme suggested here which +must be noticed. It may be said that even if exotic species able to +thrive in our country were introduced there would be no result; for +these strangers to our groves would all eventually meet with the same +fate as our rarer species and casual visitors--that is to say, they +would be shot. There is no doubt that the amateur naturalist has been a +curse to this country for the last half century, that it is owing to the +"cupidity of the cabinet" as old Robert Mudie has it--that many of our +finer species are exceedingly rare, while others are disappearing +altogether. But it is surely not too soon to look for a change for the +better in this direction. Half a century ago, when the few remaining +great bustards in this country were being done to death, it was suddenly +remembered by naturalists that in their eagerness to possess examples of +the bird (in the skin) they had neglected to make themselves acquainted +with its customs when alive. Its habits were hardly better known than +those of the dodo and solitaire. The reflection came too late, in so far +as the habits of the bird in this country are concerned; but unhappily +the lesson was not then taken to heart, and other fine species have +since gone the way of the great bustard. But now that we have so clearly +seen the disastrous effects of this method of "studying ornithology," +which is not in harmony with our humane civilization, it is to be hoped +that a better method will be adopted--that "finer way" which Thoreau +found and put aside his fowling-piece to practise. There can be no doubt +that the desire for such an improvement is now becoming very general, +that a kindlier feeling for animal, and especially bird life is growing +up among us, and there are signs that it is even beginning to have some +appreciable effect. The fashion of wearing birds is regarded by most men +with pain and reprobation; and it is possible that before long it will +be thought that there is not much difference between the action of the +woman who buys tanagers and humming-birds to adorn her person, and that +of the man who kills the bittern, hoopoe, waxwing, golden oriole, and +Dartford-warbler to enrich his private collection. + +A few words on the latest attempt which has been made to naturalize an +exotic bird in England will not seem out of place here. About eight +years ago a gentleman in Essex introduced the rufous tinamou--a handsome +game bird, nearly as large as a fowl--into his estate. Up till the +present time, or till quite recently these birds have bred every year, +and at one time they had increased considerably and scattered about the +neighbourhood. When it began to increase, the neighbouring proprietors +and sportsmen generally were asked not to shoot it, but to give it a +chance, and there is reason to believe that they have helped to protect +it, and have taken a great interest in the experiment. Whatever the +ultimate result may be, the partial success attained during these few +years is decidedly encouraging, and that for more reasons than one. In +the first place, the bird was badly chosen for such an experiment. It +belongs to the pampas of La Plata, to which it is restricted, and where +it enjoys a dry, bright climate, and lives concealed in the tall +close-growing indigenous grasses. The conditions of its habitat are +therefore widely different from those of Essex, or of any part of +England; and, besides, it has a peculiar organisation, for it happens to +be one of those animals of ancient types of which a few species still +survive in South America. That so unpromising a subject as this large +archaic tinamou should be able to maintain its existence in this +country, even for a very few years, encourages one to believe that with +better-chosen species, more highly organized, and with more pliant +habits, such as the hazel hen of Europe for a game bird, success would +be almost certain. + +Another circumstance connected with the attempted introduction of this +unsuitable bird, even of more promise than the mere fact of the partial +success achieved, is the greatest interest the experiment has excited, +not only among naturalists throughout the country, but also among +landlords and sportsmen down in Essex, where the bird was not regarded +merely as fair game to be bagged, or as a curiosity to be shot for the +collector's cabinet, but was allowed to fight its own fight without +counting man among its enemies. And it is to be expected that the same +self-restraint and spirit of fairness and intelligent desire to see a +favourable result would be shown everywhere if exotic species were to be +largely introduced, and breeding centres established in suitable places +throughout the country. When it once became known that individuals were +doing this thing, giving their time and best efforts and at considerable +expense not for their own selfish gratification, but for the general +good, and to make the country more delightful to all lovers of rural +sights and sounds, there would be no opposition, but on the contrary +every assistance, since all would wish success to such an enterprise. +Even the most enthusiastic collector would refrain from lifting a weapon +against the new feathered guests from distant lands; and if by any +chance an example of one should get into his hands he would be ashamed +to exhibit it. + +The addition of new beautiful species to our avifauna would probably not +be the only, nor even the principal benefit we should derive from the +carrying out of the scheme here suggested. The indirect effect of the +knowledge all would possess that such an experiment was being conducted, +and that its chief object was to repair the damage that has been done, +would be wholly beneficial since it would enhance the value in our eyes +of our remaining native rare and beautiful species. A large number of +our finer birds are annually shot by those who know that they are doing +a great wrong--that if their transgression is not punishable by law it +is really not less grave than that of the person who maliciously barks a +shade tree in a park or public garden--but who excuse their action by +saying that such birds must eventually get shot, and that those who +first see them might as well have the benefit. The presence of even a +small number of exotic species in our woods and groves would no doubt +give rise to a better condition of things; it would attract public +attention to the subject; for the birds that delight us with their +beauty and melody should be for the public, and not for the few +barbarians engaged in exterminating them; and the "collector" would find +it best to abandon his evil practices when it once began to be generally +asked, if we can spare the rare, lovely birds brought hither at great +expense from China or Patagonia, can we not also spare our own +kingfisher, and the golden oriole, and the hoopoe, that comes to us +annually from Africa to breed, but is not permitted to breed, and many +other equally beautiful and interesting species? + + + + +MOOR-HENS IN HYDE PARK + + +The sparrow, like the poor, we have always with us, and on windy days +even the large-sized rook is blown about the murkiness which does duty +for sky over London; and on such occasions its coarse, corvine dronings +seem not unmusical, nor without something of a tonic effect on our +jarred nerves. And here the ordinary Londoner has got to the end of his +ornithological list--that is to say, his winter list. He knows nothing +about those wind-worn waifs, the "occasional visitors" to the +metropolis--the pilgrims to distant Meccas and Medinas that have fallen, +overcome by weariness, at the wayside; or have encountered storms in the +great aerial sea, and lost compass and reckoning, and have been lured by +false lights to perish miserably at the hands of their cruel enemies. It +may be true that gulls are seen on the Serpentine, that woodcocks are +flushed in Lincoln's Inn Fields, but the citizen who goes to his office +in the morning and returns after the lamps have been lighted, does not +see them, and they are nothing in his life. Those who concern themselves +to chronicle such incidents might just as well, for all that it matters +to him, mistake their species, like that bird-loving but +unornithological correspondent of the Times who wrote that he had seen +a flock of golden orioles in Kensington Gardens. It turned out that what +he had seen were wheatears, or they might draw a little on their +imaginations, and tell of sunward-sailing cranes encamped on the dome of +St. Paul's Cathedral, flamingoes in the Round Pond, great snowy owls in +Westminster Abbey, and an ibis--scarlet, glossy, or sacred, according to +fancy--perched on Peabody's statue, at the Royal Exchange. + +But his winter does not last for ever. When the bitter months are past, +with March that mocks us with its crown of daffodils; when the sun +shines, and the rain is soon over; and elms and limes in park and +avenue, and unsightly smoke-blackened brushwood in the squares, are +dressed once more in tenderest heart-refreshing green, even in London we +know that the birds have returned from beyond the sea. Why should they +come to us here, when it would seem so much more to their advantage, and +more natural for them to keep aloof from our dimmed atmosphere, and the +rude sounds of traffic, and the sight of many people going to and fro? +Are there no silent green retreats left where the conditions are better +suited to their shy and delicate natures? Yet no sooner is the spring +come again than the birds are with us. Not always apparent to the eye, +but everywhere their irrepressible gladness betrays their proximity; and +all London is ringed round with a mist of melody, which presses on us, +ambitious of winning its way even to the central heart of our citadel, +creeping in, mist-like, along gardens and tree-planted roads, clinging +to the greenery of parks and squares, and floating above the dull noises +of the town as clouds fleecy and ethereal float above the earth. + +Among our spring visitors there is one which is neither aerial in +habits, nor a melodist, yet is eminently attractive on account of its +graceful form, pretty plumage, and amusing manners; nor must it be +omitted as a point in its favour that it is not afraid to make itself +very much at home with us in London. [Footnote: Note that when this was +written in 1893, the moor-hen was never known to winter in London; his +habits have changed in this respect during the last two decades: he is +now a permanent resident.] This is the little moor-hen, a bird +possessing some strange customs, for which those who are curious about +such matters may consult its numerous biographies. Every spring a few +individuals of this species make their appearance in Hyde Park, and +settle there for the season, in full sight of the fashionable world; for +their breeding-place happens to be that minute transcript of nature +midway between the Dell and Rotten Row, where a small bed of rushes and +aquatic grasses flourishes in the stagnant pool forming the end of the +Serpentine. Where they pass the winter--in what Mentone or Madeira of +the ralline race--is not known. There is a pretty story, which +circulated throughout Europe a little over fifty years ago, of a Polish +gentleman, capturing a stork that built its nest on his roof every +summer, and putting an iron collar on its neck with the inscription, +"Haec Ciconia ex Polonia." The following summer it reappeared with +something which shone very brightly on its neck, and when the stork was +taken again this was found to be a collar of gold, with which the iron +collar had been replaced, and on it were graven the words, "India cum +donis remittit ciconian Polonis." No person has yet put an iron collar +on the moor-hen to receive gifts in return, or followed its feeble +fluttering flight to discover the limits of its migration which is +probably no further away than the Kentish marshes and other wet +sheltered spots in the south of England; that it leaves the country when +it quits the park is not to be believed. Still, it goes with the wave, +and with the wave returns; and, like the migratory birds that observe +times and seasons, it comes back to its own home--that circumscribed +spot of earth and water which forms its little world, and is more to it +than all other reedy and willow-shaded pools and streams in England. It +is said to be shy in disposition, yet all may see it here, within a few +feet of the Row, with so many people continually passing, and so many +pausing to watch the pretty birds as they trip about their little plot +of green turf, deftly picking minute insects from the grass and not +disdaining crumbs thrown by the children. A dainty thing to look at is +that smooth, olive-brown little moor-hen, going about with such freedom +and ease in its small dominion, lifting its green legs deliberately, +turning its yellow beak and shield this way and that, and displaying the +snow-white undertail at every step, as it moves with that quaint, +graceful, jetting gait peculiar to the gallinules. + +Such a fact as this--and numberless facts just as significant all +pointing to the same conclusion, might be adduced--shows at once how +utterly erroneous is that often-quoted dictum of Darwin's that birds +possess an instinctive or inherited fear of man. These moor-hens fear +him not at all; simply because in Hyde Park they are not shot at, and +robbed of their eggs or young, nor in any way molested by him. They fear +no living thing, except the irrepressible small dog that occasionally +bursts into the enclosure, and hunts them with furious barkings to their +reedy little refuge. And as with these moor-hens, so it is with all wild +birds; they fear and fly from, and suspiciously watch from a safe +distance, whatever molests them, and wherever man suspends his hostility +towards them they quickly outgrow the suspicion which experience has +taught them, or which is traditional among them; for the young and +inexperienced imitate the action of the adults they associate with, and +learn the suspicious habit from them. + +It is also interesting and curious to note that a bird which inhabits +two countries, in summer and winter, regulates his habits in accordance +with the degree of friendliness or hostility exhibited towards him by +the human inhabitants of the respective areas. The bird has in fact two +traditions with regard to man's attitude towards him--one for each +country. Thus, the field-fare is an exceedingly shy bird in England, but +when he returns to the north if his breeding place is in some inhabited +district in northern Sweden or Norway he loses all his wildness and +builds his nest quite close to the houses. My friend Trevor Battye saw a +pair busy making their nest in a small birch within a few yards of the +front door of a house he was staying at. "How strange," said he to the +man of the house, "to see field-fares making a nest in such a place!" + +"Why strange?" said the man in surprise. "Why strange? Because of the +boys, always throwing stones at a bird. The nest is so low down, that +any boy could put his hand in and take the eggs." "Take the eggs!" cried +the man, more astonished than ever. "And throwing stones at a bird! Who +ever heard of a boy doing such things!" + +Closely related to this error is another error, which is that noise in +itself is distressing to birds, and has the effect of driving them away. +To all sounds and noises which are not associated with danger to them, +birds are absolutely indifferent. The rumbling of vehicles, puffing and +shrieking of engines, and braying of brass bands, alarm them less than +the slight popping of an air gun, where that modest weapon of +destruction is frequently used against them. They have no "nerves" for +noise, but the apparition of a small boy silently creeping along the +hedge-side, in search of nests or throwing stones, is very terrifying to +them. They fear not cattle and horses, however loud the bellowing may +be; and if we were to transport and set loose herds of long-necked +camelopards, trumpeting elephants, and rhinoceroses of horrible aspect, +the little birds would soon fear them as little as they do the familiar +cow. But they greatly fear the small-sized, quiet, unobtrusive, and +meek-looking cat. Sparrows and starlings that fly wildly at the shout +of a small boy or the bark of a fox-terrier, build their nests under +every railway arch; and the incubating bird sits unalarmed amid the iron +plates and girders when the express train rushes overhead, so close to +her that one would imagine that the thunderous jarring noise would cause +the poor thing to drop down dead with terror. To this indifference to +the mere harmless racket of civilization we owe it that birds are so +numerous around, and even in, London; and that in Kew Gardens, which, on +account of its position on the water side, and the numerous railroads +surrounding it, is almost as much tortured with noise as Willesden or +Clapham Junction, birds are concentrated in thousands. Food is not more +abundant there than in other places; yet it would be difficult to find a +piece of ground of the same extent in the country proper, where all is +silent and there are no human crowds, with so large a bird population. +They are more numerous in Kew than elsewhere, in spite of the noise and +the people, because they are partially protected there from their human +persecutors. It is a joy to visit the gardens in spring, as much to hear +the melody of the birds as to look at the strange and lovely vegetable +forms. On a June evening with a pure sunny sky, when the air is elastic +after rain, how it rings and palpitates with the fine sounds that people +it, and which seem infinite in variety! Has England, burdened with care +and long estranged from Nature, so many sweet voices left? What aerial +chimes are those wafted from the leafy turret of every tree? What +clear, choral songs--so wild, so glad? What strange instruments, not +made with hands, so deftly touched and soulfully breathed upon? What +faint melodious murmurings that float around us, mysterious and tender +as the lisping of leaves? Who could be so dull and exact as to ask the +names of such choristers at such a time! Earthly names they have, the +names we give them, when they visit us, and when we write about them in +our dreary books; but, doubtless, in their brighter home in cloudland +they are called by other more suitable appellatives. Kew is +exceptionally favoured for the reason mentioned, but birds are also +abundant where there are no hired men with red waistcoats and brass +buttons to watch over their safety. Why do they press so persistently +around us; and not in London only, but in every town and village, every +house and cottage in this country? Why are they always waiting, +congregating as far from us as the depth of garden, lawn, or orchard +will allow, yet always near as they dare to come? It is not sentiment, +and to be translated into such words as these: "Oh man, why are you +unfriendly towards us, or else so indifferent to our existence that you +do not note that your children, dependants, and neighbours cruelly +persecute us? For we are for peace, and knowing you for the lord of +creation, we humbly worship you at a distance, and wish for a share in +your affection." No; the small, bright soul which is in a bird is +incapable of such a motive, and has only the lesser light of instinct +for its guide, and to the birds' instinct we are only one of the +wingless mammalians inhabiting the earth, and with the cat and weasel +are labelled "dangerous," but the ox and horse and sheep have no such +label. Even our larger, dimmer eyes can easily discover the +attraction. Let any one, possessing a garden in the suburbs of London, +minutely examine the foliage at a point furthest removed from the house, +and he will find the plants clean from insects; and as he moves back he +will find them increasingly abundant until he reaches the door. Insect +life is gathered thickly about us, for that birdless space which we have +made is ever its refuge and safe camping ground. And the birds know. One +came before we were up, when cat and dog were also sleeping, and a +report is current among them. Like ants when a forager who has found a +honey pot returns to the nest, they are all eager to go and see and +taste for themselves. Their country is poor, for they have gathered its +spoils, and now this virgin territory sorely tempts them. To those who +know a bird's spirit it is plain that a mere suspension of hostile +action on our part would have the effect of altering their shy habits, +and bringing them in crowds about us. Not only in the orchard and grove +and garden walks would they be with us, but even in our house. The +robin, the little bird "with the red stomacher," would be there for the +customary crumbs at meal-time, and many dainty fringilline pensioners +would keep him company. And the wren would be there, searching +diligently in the dusty angles of cornices for a savoury morsel; for it +knows, this wise little Kitty Wren, that "the spider taketh hold with +her hands, and is in king's palaces"; and wandering from room to room it +would pour forth many a gushing lyric--a sound of wildness and joy in +our still interiors, eternal Nature's message to our hearts. + +Who delights not in a bird? Yet how few among us find any pleasure in +reading of them in natural history books! The living bird, viewed +closely and fearless of our presence, is so much more to the mind than +all that is written--so infinitely more engaging in its spontaneous +gladness, its brilliant vivacity, and its motions so swift and true and +yet so graceful! Even leaving out the melody, what a charm it would add +to our homes if birds were permitted to take the part there for which +Nature designed them--if they were the "winged wardens" of our gardens +and houses as well as of our fields. Bird-biographies are always in our +bookcases; and the bird-form meets our sight everywhere in decorative +art Eastern and Western; for its aerial beauty is without parallel in +nature; but the living birds, with the exception of the unfortunate +captives in cages, are not with us. + + A robin redbreast in a cage + Puts all heaven in a rage, + +sings Blake prophet and poet; and for "robin redbreast" I read every +feathered creature endowed with the marvellous faculty of flight. Wild, +and loving their safety and liberty, they keep at a distance, at the end +of the garden or in the nearest grove, where from their perches they +suspiciously watch our movements, always waiting to be encouraged, +waiting to feed on the crumbs that fall from our table and are wasted, +and on the blighting insects that ring us round with their living +multitudes. + + + + +THE EAGLE AND THE CANARY + + +One week-day morning, following a crowd of well-dressed people, I +presently found myself in a large church or chapel, where I spent an +hour very pleasantly, listening to a great man's pulpit eloquence. He +preached about genius. The subject was not suggested by the text, nor +did it have any close relation with the other parts, of his discourse; +it was simply a digression, and, to my mind, a very delightful one. He +began about the restrictions to which we are all more or less subject, +the aspirations that are never destined to be fulfilled, but are mocked +by life's brevity. And it was at this point that--probably thinking of +his own case--he branched off into the subject of genius; and proceeded +to show that a man possessing that divine quality finds existence a +much sadder affair than the ordinary man; the reason being that his +aspirations are so much loftier than those of other minds, the +difference between his ideal and reality must be correspondingly greater +in his case. This was obvious--almost a truism; but the illustration by +means of which he brought it home to his hearers was certainly born of +poetic imagination. The life of the ordinary person he likened to that +of the canary in its cage. And here, dropping his lofty didactic manner, +and--if I may coin a word--smalling his deep, sonorous voice, to a thin +reedy treble, in imitation of the tenuous fringilline pipe, he went on +with lively language, rapid utterance, and suitable brisk movements and +gestures, to describe the little lemon-coloured housekeeper in her +gilded cage. Oh, he cried, what a bright, busy bustling life is hers, +with so many things to occupy her time! how briskly she hops from perch +to perch, then to the floor, and back from floor to perch again! how +often she drops down to taste the seed in her box, or scatter it about +her in a little shower! how curiously, and turning her bright eyes +critically this way and that, she listens to every new sound and regards +every object of sight! She must chirp and sing, and hop from place to +place, and eat and drink, and preen her wings, and do at least a dozen +different things every minute; and her time is so fully taken up that +the narrow limits confining her are almost forgotten--the wires that +separate her from the great world of wind-tossed woods, and of blue +fields of air, and the free, buoyant life for which her instincts and +faculties fit her, and which, alas! can never more be hers. + +All this sounded very pretty, as well as true, and there was a pleased +smile on every face in the audience. + +Then the rapid movements and gestures ceased, and the speaker was +silent. A cloud came over his rough-hewn majestic visage; he drew +himself up, and swayed his body from side to side, and shook his black +gown, and lifted his arms, as their plumed homologues are lifted by some +great bird, and let them fall again two or three times; and then said, +in deep measured tones, which seemed to express rage and despair, "But +did you ever see the eagle in his cage?" + +The effect of the contrast was grand. He shook himself again, and lifted +and dropped his arms again, assuming, for the nonce, the peculiar +aquiline slouch; and there before us stood the mighty bird of Jove, as +we are accustomed to see it in the Zoological Gardens; its deep-set, +desolate eyes looking through and beyond us; ruffling its dark plumage, +and lifting its heavy wings as if about to scorn the earth, only to drop +them again, and to utter one of those long dreary cries which seem to +protest so eloquently against a barbarous destiny. Then he proceeded to +tell us of the great raptor in its life of hopeless captivity; his +stern, rugged countenance, deep bass voice, and grand mouth-filling +polysllables suiting his subject well, and making his description seem +to our minds a sombre magnificent picture never to be forgotten--at all +events, never by an ornithologist. + +Doubtless this part of his discourse proved eminently pleasing to the +majority of his hearers, who, looking downwards into the depths of their +own natures, would be able to discern there a glimmer, or possibly more +than a glimmer of that divine quality he had spoken of, and which was, +unhappily for them, not recognized by the world at large; so that, for +the moment, he was addressing a congregation of captive eagles, all +mentally ruffling their plumage and flapping their pinions, and uttering +indignant screams of protest against the injustice of their lot. + +The illustration pleased me for a different reason, namely, because, +being a student of bird-life, his contrasted picture of the two widely +different kinds, when deprived of liberty, struck me as being singularly +true to nature, and certainly it could not have been more forcibly and +picturesquely put. For it is unquestionably the fact that the misery we +inflict by tyrannously using the power we possess over God's creatures, +is great in proportion to the violence of the changes of condition to +which we subject our prisoners; and while canary and eagle are both more +or less aerial in their mode of life, and possessed of boundless energy, +the divorce from nature is immeasurably greater in one case than in the +other. The small bird, in relation to its free natural life, is less +confined in its cage than the large one. Its smallness, perching +structure, and restless habits, fit it for continual activity, and its +flitting, active life within the bars bears some resemblance except in +the great matter of flight, to its life in a state of nature. Again, its +lively, curious, and extremely impressible character, is in many ways an +advantage in captivity; every new sound and sight, and every motion, +however slight, in any object or body near it, affording it, so to +speak, something to think about. It has the further advantage of a +varied and highly musical language; the frequent exercise of the faculty +of singing, in birds, with largely developed vocal organs, no doubt +reacts on the system, and contributes not a little to keep the prisoner +healthy and cheerful. + +On the other hand, the eagle, on account of its structure and large +size, is a prisoner indeed, and must languish with all its splendid +faculties and importunate impulses unexercised. You may gorge it with +gobbets of flesh until its stomach cries, "Enough"; but what of all the +other organs fed by the stomach, and their correlated faculties? Every +bone and muscle and fibre, every feather and scale, is instinct with an +energy which you cannot satisfy, and which is like an eternal hunger. +Chain it by the feet, or place it in a cage fifty feet wide--in either +case it is just as miserable. The illimitable fields of thin cold air, +where it outrides the winds and soars exulting beyond the clouds, alone +can give free space for the display of its powers and scope to its +boundless energies. Nor to the power of flight alone, but also to a +vision formed for sweeping wide horizons, and perceiving objects at +distances which to short-sighted man seem almost miraculous. Doubtless, +eagles, like men, possess some adaptiveness, else they would perish in +their enforced inactivity, swallowing without hunger and assimilating +without pleasure the cold coarse flesh we give them. A human being can +exist, and even be tolerably cheerful, with limbs paralyzed and hearing +gone; and that, to my mind, would be a parallel case to that of the +eagle deprived of its liberty and of the power to exercise its flight, +vision, and predatory instincts. + +As I sit writing these thoughts, with a cage containing four canaries on +the table before me, I cannot help congratulating these little prisoners +on their comparatively happy fate in having been born, or hatched, +finches and not eagles. And yet albeit I am not responsible for the +restraint which has been put upon them, and am not their owner, being +only a visitor in the house, I am troubled with some uncomfortable +feelings concerning their condition--feelings which have an admixture of +something like a sense of shame or guilt, as if an injustice had been +done, and I had stood by consenting. I did not do it, but we did it. I +remember Matthew Arnold's feeling lines on his dead canary, "Poor +Matthias," and quote: + + Yet, poor bird, thy tiny corse + Moves me, somehow, to remorse; + Something haunts my conscience, brings + Sad, compunctious visitings. + Other favourites, dwelling here, + Open lived with us, and near; + Well we knew when they were glad + Plain we saw if they were sad; + Sympathy could feel and show + Both in weal of theirs and woe. + + Birds, companions more unknown, + Live beside us, but alone; + Finding not, do all they can, + Passage from their souls to man. + Kindness we bestow and praise, + Laud their plumage, greet their lays; + Still, beneath their feathered breast + Stirs a history unexpressed. + Wishes there, and feeling strong, + Incommunicably throng; + What they want we cannot guess. + + +This, as poetry, is good, but it does not precisely fit my case; my +"compunctious visitings" being distinctly different in origin and +character from the poet's. He--Matthew Arnold--is a poet, and the author +of much good verse, which I appreciate and hold dear. But he was not a +naturalist--all men cannot be everything. And I, a naturalist, hold that +the wishes, thronging the restless little feathered breast are not +altogether so incommunicable as the melodious mourner of "Poor Matthias" +imagines. The days--ay, and years--which I have spent in the society of +my feathered friends have not, I flatter myself, been so wasted that I +cannot small my soul, just as the preacher smalled his voice, to bring +it within reach of them, and establish some sort of passage. + +And so, thinking that a little more knowledge of birds than most people +possess, and consideration for them--for I will not be so harsh to speak +of justice--and time and attention given to their wants, might remove +this reproach, and silence these vague suggestions of a too fastidious +conscience, I have taken the trouble to add something to the seed with +which these little prisoners had been supplied. For we give sweetmeats +to the child that cries for the moon--an alternative which often acts +beneficially--and there is nothing more to be done. Any one of us, even +a philosopher, would think it hard to be restricted to dry bread only, +yet such a punishment would be small compared with that which we, in our +ignorance or want of consideration, inflict on our caged animals--our +pets on compulsion. Small, because an almost infinite variety of +flavours drawn from the whole vegetable kingdom--a hundred flavours for +every one in the dietary which satisfies our heavier mammalian +natures--is a condition of the little wild bird's existence and +essential to its well-being and perfect happiness. And so, to remedy +this defect, I went out into the garden, and with seeding grasses and +pungent buds, and leaves of a dozen different kinds, I decorated the +cage until it looked less like a prison than a bower. And now for an +hour the little creatures have been busy with their varied green +fare, each one tasting half a dozen different leaves every minute, +hopping here and there and changing places with his fellows, glancing +their bright little eyes this way and that, and all the time uttering +gratulatory notes in the canary's conversational tone. And their +language is not altogether untranslatable. I listen to one, a pretty +pure yellow bird, but slightly tyrannical in his treatment of the +others, and he says, or seems to say: "This is good, I like it, only the +old leaf is tough; the buds would be better. . . . These are certainly +not so good. _I tasted them out of compliment to nature, though they +were scarcely palatable. . . ._" No, that was not my own expression; it +was said by Thoreau, perhaps the only human a little bird can quote with +approval. "This is decidedly bitter--and yet--yes, it does leave a +pleasant flavour on the palate. Make room for me there--or I shall make +you and let me taste it again. Yes, I fancy I can remember eating +something like this in a former state of existence, ages and ages ago." +And so on, and so on, until I began to imagine that the whole thing had +been put right, and that the uncomfortable feeling would return to +trouble me no more. But at the rate they are devouring their green stuff +there will not be a leat, scarcely a stem left in another hour; and +then? Why, then they will have the naked wires of their cage all round +them to protect them from the cat and for hunger there will be seed in +the box. + +After all, then, what a little I have been able to do! But I flatter +myself that if they were mine I should do more. I never keep captive +birds, but if they were given to me, and I could not refuse, I should do +a great deal more for them. All my knowledge of their ways and their +requirements would teach me how to make their caged existence less +unlike the old natural life, than it now is. To begin the ameliorating +process, I should place them in a large cage, large enough to allow +space for flight, so that they might fly to and fro, a few feet each +way, and rest their little feet from continual perching. That would +enable them to exercise their most important muscles and experience once +more, although in a very limited degree, the old delicious sensation of +gliding at will through the void air. The wires of their new cage would +be of brass or of some bright metal, and the wooden parts and perches +green enamelled, or green variegated with brown and grey, and the roof +would be hung with glass lustres, to quiver and sparkle into drops of +violet, red, and yellow light, gladdening these little lovers of bright +colours; for so we deem them. I should also add gay flowers and berries, +crocus and buttercup and dandelion, hips and haws and mountain ash and +yellow and scarlet leaves--all seasonable jewellery from woods and +hedges and from the orchard and garden. Then would come the heaviest +part of my task, which would be to satisfy their continual craving for +new tastes in food, their delight in an endless variety. I should go to +the great seed-merchants of London and buy samples of all the cultivated +seeds of the earth, and not feed them in a trough, or manger, like heavy +domestic brutes, but give it to them mixed and scattered in small +quantities, to be searched for and gladly found in the sand and gravel +and turf on the wide floor of the cage. And, higher up, the wires of +their dwelling would be hung with an endless variety of seeded grasses, +and sprays of all trees and plants, good, bad, and indifferent. For if +the volatile bird dines on no more than twenty dishes every day he +loves to taste of a hundred and to have at least a thousand on the table +to choose from. + +Feeding the birds and keeping the cage always sweet and clean would +occupy most, if not the whole of my time. But would that be too much to +give if it made me tranquil in my own mind? For it must be noted that I +have done all this, mentally and on paper, for my own satisfaction +rather than that of the canaries. Birds are not worth much--_to us_. Are +not five sparrows sold for three farthings? I have even shot many birds +and have felt no compunction. True, they perished before their time, but +they did not languish, and being dead there was an end of them; but the +caged canaries continuing with us, cannot be dismissed from the mind +with the same convenient ease. After all, I begin to think that my +imaginary reforms, if carried out, would not quite content me. The +"compunctious visitings" would continue still. I look out of the window +and see a sparrow on a neighbouring tree, loudly chirruping. And as I +listen, trying to find comfort by thinking of the perils which do +environ him, his careless unconventional sparrow-music resolves itself +into articulate speech, interspersed with occasional bursts of derisive +laughter. He knows, this fabulous sparrow, what I have been thinking +about and have written. "How would you like it," I hear him saying, "O +wise man that knows so much about the ways of birds, if you were shut up +in a big cage--in Windsor Castle, let us say--with scores of menials to +wait on you and anticipate your every want? That is, I must explain, +every want compatible with--ahem!--the captive condition. Would you be +happy in your confinement, practising with the dumb-bells, riding up and +down the floors on a bicycle and gazing at pictures and filigree caskets +and big malachite vases and eating dinners of many, many courses? Or +would you begin to wish that you might be allowed to live on sixpence a +day--_and earn it_; and even envy the ragged tramp who dines on a +handful of half-rotten apples and sleeps in a hay-stack, but is free to +come and go, and range the world at will? You have been playing at +nature; but Nature mocks you, for your captives thank you not. They +would rather go to her without an intermediary, and take a scantier +measure of food from her hand, but flavoured as she only can flavour it. +Widen your cage, naturalist; replace the little twinkling lustres with +sun and moon and milky way; plant forests on the floor, and let there be +hills and valleys, rivers and wide spaces; and let the blue pillars of +heaven be the wires of your cage, with free entrance to wind and rain; +then your little captives will be happy, even happy as I am, in spite of +all the perils which do environ me--guns and cats and snares, with wet +and fog and hard frosts to come." + +And, seeing my error, I should open the cage and let them fly away. Even +to death, I should let them fly, for there would be a taste of liberty +first, and life without that sweet savour, whether of aerial bird or +earth-bound man, is not worth living. + + + + +CHANTICLEER + + +During the month of September I spent several days at a house standing +on high ground in one of the pleasantest suburbs of London, commanding a +fine view at the back of the breezy, wooded, and not very far-off Surrey +hills; and all round, from every window, front and back, such a mass of +greenery met the eye, almost concealing the neighbouring houses, that I +could easily imagine myself far out in the country. In the garden the +omnipresent sparrow, and that always pleasant companion the starling, +associated with the thrush, blackbird, green linnet, chaffinch, +redstart, wren, and two species of tits; and, better than all these, not +fewer than half a dozen robins warbled their autumn notes from early +morning until late in the evening. Domestic bird-life was also +represented by fifteen fowls, and the wise laxity existing in the +establishment made these also free of the grounds; for of eyesores and +painful skeletons in London cupboards, one of the worst, to my mind, is +that unwholesome coop at the back where a dozen unhappy birds are +usually to be found immured for life. These, more fortunate, had ample +room to run about in, and countless broad shady leaves from which to +pick the green caterpillar, and red tortoise-shaped lady-bird, and +parti-coloured fly, and soft warm soil in which to bathe in their own +gallinaceous fashion, and to lie with outstretched wings luxuriating by +the hour in the genial sunshine. And having seen their free wholesome +life, I did not regard the new-laid egg on the breakfast-table with a +feeling of repugnance, but ate it with a relish. + +I have said that the fowls numbered fifteen; five were old birds, and +ten were chickens, closely alike in size, colour and general appearance. +They were not the true offspring of the hen that reared them, but +hatched from eggs bought from a local poultry-breeder. As they advanced +in age to their teens, or the period in chicken-life corresponding to +that in which, in the human species, boy and girl begin to diverge, +their tails grew long, and they developed very fine red combs; but the +lady of the house, who had been promised good layers when she bought the +eggs clung tenaciously to the belief that long arching tails and stately +crests were ornaments common to both sexes in this particular breed. By +and by they commenced to crow, first one, then two, then all, and stood +confessed cockerels. Incidents like this, which are of frequent +occurrence, serve to keep alive the exceedingly ancient notion that the +sex of the future chick can be foretold from the shape of the egg. As I +had no personal interest in the question of the future egg-supply of the +establishment, I was not sorry to see the chickens develop into cocks; +what did interest me were their first attempts at crowing--those grating +sounds which the young bird does not seem to emit, but to wrench out +with painful effort, as a plant is wrenched out of the soil, and not +without bringing away portions of the lungs clinging to its roots. The +bird appears to know what is coming, like an amateur dentist about to +extract one of his own double-pronged teeth, and setting his feet +firmly on the ground, and throwing himself well back before an imaginary +looking-glass, and with arched-neck, wide-open beak, and rolling eyes, +courageously performs the horrible operation. One cannot help thinking +that a cockerel brought up without any companions of his own sex and age +would not often crow, but in this instance there were no fewer than ten +of them to encourage each other in the laborious process of tuning their +harsh throats. Heard subsequently in the quiet of the early morning, +these first tuning efforts suggested some reflections to my mind, which +may not prove entirely without interest to fanciers who aim at something +beyond a mere increase in our food-supply in their selecting and +refining processes. + +To continue my narration. I woke in the morning at my usual time, +between three and four o'clock, which is not my getting-up time, for, as +a rule, after half an hour or so I sleep again. The waking is not +voluntary as far as I know; for although it may seem a contradiction in +terms to speak of coming at will out of a state of unconsciousness, we +do, in cases innumerable, wake voluntarily, or at the desired time, not +perhaps being altogether unconscious when sleeping. If, however, this +early waking were voluntary, I should probably say that it was for the +pleasure of listening to the crowing of the cocks at that silent hour +when the night, so near its end, is darkest, and the mysterious tide of +life, prescient of coming dawn, has already turned, and is sending the +red current more and more swiftly through the sleeper's veins. I have +spent many a night in the desert, and when waking on the wide silent +grassy plain, the first whiteness in the eastern sky, and the fluting +call of the tinamou, and the perfume of the wild evening primrose, have +seemed to me like a resurrection in which I had a part; and something of +this feeling is always associated in my mind with the first far-heard +notes of Chanticleer. + +It was very dark and quiet when I woke; my window was open, with only a +lace curtain before it to separate me from the open air. Presently the +profound silence was broken. From a distance of fifty or sixty yards +away on the left hand came the crow of a cock, soon answered by another +further away on the same side, and then, further away still, by a third. +Other voices took up the challenge on the right, some near, some far, +until it seemed that there was scarcely a house in the neighbourhood at +which Chanticleer was not a dweller. There was no other sound. Not for +another hour would the sparrows burst out in a chorus of chirruping +notes, lengthened or shortened at will, variously inflected, and with a +ringing musical sound in some of them, which makes one wonder why this +bird, so high in the scale of nature, has never acquired a set song for +itself. For there is music in him, and when confined with a singing +finch he will sometimes learn its song. Then the robins, then the tits, +then the starlings, gurgling, jarring, clicking, whistling, chattering. +Then the pigeons cooing soothingly on the roof and window-ledges, taking +flight from time to time with sudden, sharp flap, flap, followed by a +long, silken sound made by the wings in gliding. At four the cocks had +it all to themselves; and, without counting the cockerels (not yet out +of school), I could distinctly hear a dozen birds; that is to say, they +were near enough for me to listen to their music critically. The variety +of sounds they emitted was very great, and, if cocks were selected for +their vocal qualities, would have shown an astonishing difference in the +musical tastes of their owners. A dozen dogs of as many different +breeds, ranging from the boar-hound to the toy terrier, would not have +shown greater dissimilarity in their forms than did these cocks in their +voices. For the fowl, like the dog, has become an extremely variable +creature in the domestic state, in voice no less than in size, form, +colour, and other particulars. At one end of the scale there was the +raucous bronchial strain produced by the unwieldy Cochin. What a bird is +that! Nature, in obedience to man's behests, and smiling with secret +satire over her work, has made it ponderous and ungraceful as any clumsy +mammalian, wombat, ardvaark, manatee, or hippopotamus. The burnished red +hackles, worn like a light mantle over the black doublet of the breast, +the metallic dark green sickle-plumes arching over the tail, all the +beautiful lines and rich colouring, have been absorbed into flesh and +fat for gross feeders; and with these have gone its liveliness and +vigour, its clarion voice and hostile spirit and brilliant courage; it +is Gallus bankiva degenerate, with dulled brains and blunted spurs, and +its hoarse crow is a barbarous chant. + +And far away at the other end, startling in its suddenness and +impetuosity, was a trisyllabic crow, so brief, piercing, and emphatic, +that it could only have proceeded from that peppery uppish little bird, +the bantam. And of the three syllables, the last, which should be the +longest, was the shortest, "short and sharp like the shrill swallow's +cry," or perhaps even more like the shrieky bark of an enraged little +cur; not a _reveille_ and silvern morning song in one, as a crow should +be, but a challenge and a defiance, wounding the sense like a spur, and +suggesting the bustle and fury of the cockpit. + +If this style of crowing was known to Milton, it is perhaps accountable +for the one bad couplet in the "Allegro": + + While the cock with lively din + Scatters the rear of darkness thin. + +Someone has said that every line in that incomparable poem brings at +least one distinct picture vividly before the mind's eye. The picture +the first line of the couplet I have quoted suggests to ray mind is not +of crowing Chanticleer at all, but of a stalwart, bare-armed, +blowsy-faced woman, vigorously beating on a tin pan with a stick; but +for what purpose--whether to call down a passing swarm of bees, or to +summon the chickens to be fed--I never know. It is only my mental +picture of a "lively din." As to the second line, all attempts to see +the thing described only bring before me clouds and shadows, confusedly +rushing about in an impossible way; a chaos utterly unlike the serenity +and imperceptible growth of morning, and not a picture at all. + +By and by I found myself paying special attention to one cock, about a +hundred yards away, or a little more perhaps, for by contrast all the +other songs within hearing seemed strangely inferior. Its voice was +singularly clear and pure, the last note greatly prolonged and with a +slightly falling inflection, yet not collapsing at the finish as such +long notes frequently do, ending with a little internal sound or croak, +as if the singer had exhausted his breath; but it was perfect in its +way, a finished performance, artistic, and, by comparison, brilliant. +After once hearing this bird I paid little attention to the others, but +after each resounding call I counted the seconds until its repetition. +It was this bird's note, on this morning, and not the others, which +seemed to bring round me that atmosphere of dreams and fancies I exist +in at early cockcrow--dreams and memories, sweet or sorrowful, of old +scenes and faces, and many eloquent passages in verse and prose, written +by men in other and better days, who lived more with nature than we do +now. Such a note as this was, perhaps, in Thoreau's mind when he +regretted that there were no cocks to cheer him in the solitude of +Walden. "I thought," he says, "that it might be worth while keeping a +cockerel for his music merely, as a singing bird. The note of this once +wild Indian pheasant is certainly the most remarkable of any bird's, and +if they could be naturalized without being domesticated it would soon +become the most famous sound in our woods. . . . To walk in a winter +morning in a wood where these birds abounded, their native woods, and +hear the wild cockerels crow on the trees, clear and shrill for miles +over the surrounding country--think of it! It would put nations on the +alert. Who would not be early to rise, and rise earlier and earlier on +each successive morning of his life, till he became unspeakably healthy, +wealthy, and wise?" + +Soon I fell into thinking of one in some ways greater than Thoreau, so +unlike the skyey-minded New England prophet and solitary, so much more +genial and tolerant, more mundane and lovable; and yet like Thoreau in +his nearness to nature. Not only a lover of generous wines--"That mark +upon his lip is wine"--and books "clothed in black and red," all natural +sights and sounds also "filled his herte with pleasure and solass," and +the early crowing of the cock was a part of the minstrelsy he loved. +Perhaps when lying awake during the dark quiet hours, and listening to +just such a note as this, he conceived and composed that wonderful tale +of the "Nun's Priest," in which the whole character of Chanticleer, his +glory and his foibles, together with the homely virtues of Dame +Partlett, are so admirably set forth. + +And longer ago it was perhaps such a note as this, heard in imagination +by the cock-loving Athenians, which all at once made them feel so +unutterably weary of endless fighting with the Lacedaemonians, and +inspired their hearts with such a passionate desire for the long +untasted sweets of security and repose. Is it one of my morning fancies +merely--for fact and fancy mingle strangely at this still, mysterious +hour, and are scarcely distinguishable--or is it related in history that +this strange thing happened when all the people of the violet-crowned +city were gathered to witness a solemn tragedy, in which certain verses +were spoken that had a strange meaning to their war-weary souls? "Those +who sleep in the morning in the arms of peace do not start from them at +the sound of the trumpet, and nothing interrupts their slumbers but the +peaceful crowing of the cock." And at these words the whole concourse +was electrified, and rose up like one man, and from thousands of lips +went forth a great cry of "Peace! Peace! Let us make peace with Sparta!" + +Hark! once more that long clarion call: it is the last time--the very +last; for all the others have sung a dozen times apiece and have gone to +sleep again. So would this one have done, but cocks, like minstrels +among men, are vain creatures, and some kind officious fairy whispered +in his ear that there was an appreciative listener hard by, and so to +please me he sang, just one stave more. + +Lying and listening in the dark, it seemed to me that there were two +opposite qualities commingled in the sound, with an effect analogous to +that of shadow mingling with and chastening light at eventide. First, it +was strong and clear, full of assurance and freedom, qualities admirably +suited to the song of a bird of Chanticleer's disposition; a lusty, +ringing strain, not sung in the clouds or from a lofty perch midway +between earth and heaven, but with feet firmly planted on the soil, and +earthly; and compared with the notes of the grove like a versified +utterance of Walt Whitman compared with the poems of the true inspired +children of song--Blake, Shelley, Poe. Earthly, but not hostile and +eager; on the contrary, leisurely, _peaceful_ even dreamy, with a touch +of tenderness which brings it into relationship with the more aerial +tones of the true singers; and this is the second quality I spoke of, +which gave a charm to this note and made it seem better than the others. +This is partly the effect of distance, which clarifies and softens +sound, just as distance gives indistinctness of outline and ethereal +blueness to things that meet the sight. To objects beautiful in +themselves, in graceful lines and harmonious proportions and colouring, +the haziness imparts an additional grace; but it does not make beautiful +the objects which are ugly in themselves, as, for instance, an ugly +square house. So in the etherealizing effect of distance on sound, when +so loud a sound as the crowing of a strong-lunged cock becomes dreamy +and tender at a distance of one hundred yards, there must be good +musical elements in it to begin with. I do not remark this dreaminess +in the notes of other birds, some crowing at an equal distance, others +still further away. All natural music is heard best at a distance; like +the chiming of bells, and the music of the flute, and the wild confused +strains of the bagpipes, for among artificial sounds these come the +nearest to those made by nature. The "shrill sharps" of the thrush must +be softened by distance to charm; and the skylark, when close at hand, +has both shrill and harsh sounds scarcely pleasing. He must mount +high before you can appreciate his merit. I do not recommend any one to +keep a caged cock in his study for the sake of its music, crow it never +so well. + +To return to the ten cockerels; they did not crow very much, and at +first I paid little attention to them. After a few days I remarked that +one individual among them was rapidly acquiring the clear vigorous +strain of the adult bird. Compared with that fine note which I have +described, it was still weak and shaky, but in shape it was similar, and +the change had come while its brethren were still uttering brief and +harsh screeches as at the beginning. Probably, where there is a great +mixture of varieties, it is the same with the fowl as with man in the +diversity of the young, different ancestral characters appearing in +different members of the same family. This cockerel was apparently the +musical member, and promised in a short time to rival his neighbour. +Having heard that it was intended to keep one of the cockerels to be the +parent of future broods, I began to wonder whether the prize in the +lottery--to wit, life and a modest harem--would fall to this fine +singer or not. The odds were that his musical career would be cut short +by an early death, since the ten birds were very much alike in other +respects, and I felt perfectly sure that his superior note would weigh +nothing in the balance. For when has the character of the voice +influenced a fancier in selecting? Never I believe, odd as it seems. I +have read a very big book on the various breeds of the fowl, but the +crowing of the cock was not mentioned in it. This would not seem so +strange if fanciers had invariably looked solely to utility, and their +highest ambition had ended at size, weight and quality of flesh, early +maturity, hardihood, and the greatest number of eggs. This has not been +the case. They possess, like others, the love of the beautiful, +artificial as their standards sometimes appear; and there are breeds in +which beauty seems to have been the principal object, as, for instance, +in several of the gold and silver spangled and pencilled varieties. But, +besides beauty of plumage, there are other things in the fowl worthy of +being improved by selection. One of these has been cultivated by man for +thousands of years, namely, the combative spirit and splendid courage of +the male bird. But there is a spirit abroad now which condemns +cock-fighting, and to continue selecting and breeding cocks solely for +their game-points seems a mere futility. The energy and enthusiasm +expended in this direction would be much better employed in improving +the bird's vocal powers. + +The morning song of the cock is a sound unique in nature, and of all +natural sounds it is the most universal. "All climates agree with brave +Chanticleer. He is more indigenous even than the natives. His health is +ever good; his lungs are sound; his spirits never flag." He is a pet +bird among tribes that have never seen the peacock, goose, and turkey. +In tropical countries where the dog becomes dumb, or degenerates into a +mere growler, his trumpet never rusts. It is true that he was cradled in +the torrid zone, yet in all Western lands, where he "shakes off the +powdery snow," with vigorous wings, his voice sounds as loud and +inspiriting as in the hot jungle. Pale-faced Londoners, and blacks, and +bronzed or painted barbarians, all men all the world over, wake at morn +to the "peaceful crowing of the cock," just as the Athenians woke of +old, and the nations older still. It is not, therefore, strange that +this song has more associations for man than any other sound in nature. +But, apart from any adventitious claims to our attention, the sound +possesses intrinsic merits and pleases for its own sake. In our other +domestic birds we have, with regard to this point, been unfortunate. We +have the gobbling of turkeys, and the hoarse, monotonous come back of +the guinea-fowl, screaming of peacocks and geese, and quacking, hissing, +and rasping of mallard and mus-covy. Above all these sounds the ringing, +lusty, triumphant call of Chanticleer, as the far-reaching toll of the +bell-bird sounds above the screaming and chattering of parrots and +toucans in the Brazilian forest. A fine sound, which in spite of many +changes of climate and long centuries of domestication still preserves +that forest-born character of wildness, which gives so great a charm to +the language of many woodland gallinaceous birds. As we have seen, it is +variable, and in some artificial varieties has been suffered to +degenerate into sounds harsh and disagreeable; yet it is plain that an +improved voice in a beautiful breed would double the bird's value from +an aesthetic point of view. As things now are, the fine voices are in a +very small minority. Some bad voices in artificial breeds, i.e., those +which, like the Brahma and Cochin, diverge most widely from the original +type--are perhaps incurable, like the carrion crow's voice; for that +bird will probably always caw harshly in spite of the musical throat +which anatomists find in it. We can only listen to our birds, and begin +experimenting with those already possessed of shapely notes and voices +of good quality. + +I am not going to be so ill-mannered as to conclude without an apology +to those among us who under no circumstances can tolerate the crowing of +the cock. It is true that I have not been altogether unmindful of their +prepossessions, and have freely acknowledged in divers places that +Chanticleer does not always please, and that there is abundant room for +improvement; but if they go further than that, if for them there exists +not on this round globe a cock whose voice would fail to irritate, then +I have not shown consideration enough, and something is still owing to +their feelings, which are very acute. It is possible that one of these +sensitive persons may take up my book, and, attracted by its title, dip +into this paper, hoping to find in it a practical suggestion for the +effectual muzzling of the obnoxious bird. The only improvement which +would fall in with such a one's ideas on the subject of cock-crowing +would be to improve this kind of natural music out of existence. +Naturally the paper would disappoint him; he would be grieved at the +writer's erroneous views. I hope that his feelings would take no acuter +form. I have listened to a person, usually mild-mannered, denouncing a +neighbour in the most unmeasured terms for the crime of keeping a +crowing cock. If the cock had been a non-crower, a silent member, it +would have been different: he would hardly have known that he had a +neighbour. There is a very serious, even a sad, side to this question. +Mr. Sully maintains that as civilization progresses, and as we grow more +intellectual, all noise, which is pleasing to children and savages, and +only exhilarates their coarse and juvenile brains, becomes increasingly +intolerable to us. What unfortunate creatures we then are! We have got +our pretty rattle and are now afraid that the noise it makes is going to +be the death of us. But what is noise? Will any two highly intellectual +beings agree as to the particular sound which produces the effect of +rusty nails thrust in among the convolutions of the brain? Physicians +are continually discovering new forms of nervous maladies, caused by the +perpetual hurry and worry and excitement of our modern life; and perhaps +there is one form in which natural sounds, which being natural should be +agreeable, or at any rate innocent, become more and more abhorrent. This +is a question which concerns the medical journals; also, to some extent, +those who labour to forecast the future. Happily, all our maladies are +thrown off, sooner or later, if they do not kill us; and we can +cheerfully look forward to a time when the delicate chords in us shall +no longer be made to vibrate "like sweet bells jangled out of tune and +harsh" to any sound in nature, and when the peaceful crowing of the cock +shall cease to madden the early waker. For, whatever may be the fate +awaiting our city civilization, brave Chanticleer, improved as to his +voice or not, will undoubtedly still be with us. + + + + +IN AN OLD GARDEN + + +A sunny morning in June--a golden day among days that have mostly a +neutral tint; a large garden, with no visible houses beyond, but green +fields and unkept hedges and great silent trees, oak and ash and +elm--could I wish, just now, for a more congenial resting-place, or even +imagine one that comes nearer to my conception of an earthly paradise? +It is true that once I could not drink deeply enough from the sweet and +bitter cup of wild nature, and loved nature best, and sought it gladly +where it was most savage and solitary. But that was long ago. Now, after +years of London life, during which I have laboured like many another "to +get a wan pale face," with perhaps a wan pale mind to match, that past +wildness would prove too potent and sharp a tonic; unadulterated nature +would startle and oppress me with its rude desolate aspect, no longer +familiar. This softness of a well-cultivated earth, and unbroken verdure +of foliage in many shades, and harmonious grouping and blending of +floral hues, best suit my present enervated condition. I had, I imagine, +a swarter skin and firmer flesh when I could ride all day over great +summer-parched plains, where there was not a bush that would have +afforded shelter to a mannikin, and think that I was having a pleasant +journey. The cloudless sky and vertical sun--how intolerable they would +now seem, and scorch my brain and fill my shut eyes with dancing flames! +At present even this mild June sun is strong enough to make the old +mulberry tree on the lawn appear grateful. It is an ancient, +rough-barked tree, with wide branches, that droop downwards all round, +and rest their terminal leaves on the sward; underneath it is a natural +tent, or pavilion, with plenty of space to move about and sling a +hammock in. Here, then, I have elected to spend the hottest hours of my +one golden day, reading, dreaming, listening at intervals to the fine +bird-sounds that have a medicinal and restorative effect on the jarred +and wounded sense. + +From the elms hard by comes a subdued, airy prattle of a few sparrows. +It is rather pleasant, something like a low accompaniment to the notes +of the more tuneful birds; the murmurous music of a many-stringed +instrument, forming the indistinct ground over which runs the bright +embroidery of clear melodious singing. + +This morning, while lying awake from four to five o'clock, I almost +hated the sparrows, they were there in such multitudes, and so loud and +persistent sounded their jangling through the open window. It set me +thinking of the England of the future--of a time a hundred years hence, +let us say--when there will remain with us only two representatives of +feral life--the sparrow and the house-fly. Doubtless it will come, +unless something happens; but, doubtless, it will not continue. It will +still be necessary for a man to kill something in order to be happy; and +the sportsmen of that time, like great Gambetta, in the past, will sit +in the balconies, popping with pea-rifles at the sparrows until not one +is left to twitter. Then will come the turn of the untamed and untamable +fly; and he will afford good sport if hunted a la Domitain, with fine, +needle-tipped paper javelins, thrown to impale him on the wall. + +One of our savants has lately prophesied that the time will come when +only the microscopic organisms will exist to satisfy the hunting +instinct in man. How these small creatures will be taken he does not +tell us. Perhaps the hunters will station themselves round a table with +a drop of preserved water on its centre, made large and luminous by +means of a ray of magnifying light. When that time comes the +amoeba--that "wandering Jew," as an irreverent Quarterly Reviewer has +called it--will lose its immortality, and the spry rotifer will fall a +victim to the infinitesimal fine bright arrows of the chase. A strange +quarry for men whose paeliolithic progenitors hunted the woolly mastodon +and many-horned rhinoceros and sabre-toothed tiger! + +That sad day of very small things for the sportsman is, however, not +near, nor within measurable distance; or, so it seemed to me when, an +hour ago, I strolled round the garden, curiously peering into every +shrub, to find the visible and comparatively noble insect-life in great +abundance. Beetles were there--hard, round, polished, and of various +colours, like sea-worn pebbles on the beach; and some, called lady-birds +in the vernacular, were bound like the books that Chaucer loved in black +and red. And the small gilded fly, not less an insect light-headed, a +votary of vain delights, than in the prehistoric days when a +white-headed old king, discrowned and crazed, railed against sweet +Nature's liberty. And ever waiting to welcome this inconstant lover +(with falces) there sits the solitary geometric spider, an image and +embodiment of patience, not on a monument, but a suspended wheel of +which he is himself the hub; and so delicately fashioned are the silver +spokes thereof, radiating from his round and gem-like body, and the +rings, concentric tire within tire, that its exceeding fineness, like +swift revolving motion, renders it almost invisible. Caterpillars, too, +in great plenty--miniature porcupines with fretful quills on end, and +some naked even as they came into the world. This one, called the +earth-measurer, has drunk himself green with chlorophyll so as to escape +detection. Vain precaution! since eccentric motion betrays him to keen +avian eyes, when, like the traveller's snake, he erects himself on the +tip of his tail and sways about in empty space, vaguely feeling for +something, he knows not what. And the mechanical tortrix that rolls up a +leaf for garment and food, and preys on his own case and shelter until +he has literally eaten himself stark naked; after which he rolls up a +second leaf, and so on progressively. Thus in his larval life does he +symbolize some restless nation that makes itself many successive +constitutions and forms of government, in none of which it abides long; +but afterwards some higher thing, when he rests motionless, in form like +a sarcophagus, whence the infolded life emerges to haunt the twilight--a +grey ghost moth. There is no end to rolled-up leaves, and to the variety +of creatures that are housed in them; for, just as the "insect tribes of +human kind" in all places and in all ages, while seeking to improve +their condition, independently hit on the same means and inventions, so +it is with these small six-legged people; and many species in many +places have found out the comfort and security of the green cylinder. + +So many did I open that I at last grew tired of the process, like a man +to whom the post has brought too many letters; but there was one--the +last I opened--the living active contents of which served to remind me +that some insects are unable to make a cylinder for themselves, having +neither gum nor web to fasten it with, and yet they will always find one +made by others to shelter themselves in. Here were no fewer than six +unbeautiful creatures, brothers and sisters, hatched from eggs on which +their parent earwig sat incubating just like an eagle or dove or +swallow, or, better still, like a pelican; for in the end did she not +give of her own life-fluid to nourish her children? Unbeautiful, yet not +without a glory superior to that of the Purple Emperor, and the angelic +blue Morpho, and the broad-winged Ornithoptera, that caused an +illustrious traveller to swoon with joy at the sight of its supreme +loveliness. Du Maurier has a drawing of a little girl in a garden gazing +at two earwigs racing along a stem. "I suppose," she remarks +interrogatively to her mamma, "that these are Mr. and Mrs. Earwig?" and +on being answered affirmatively, exclaims, "What could they have seen in +each other?" What they saw was blue blood, or something in insectology +corresponding to it. The earwig's lustre is that of antiquity. He +existed on earth before colour came in; and colour is old, although not +so old as Nature's unconscious aestheticism which, in the organic world, +is first expressed in beauty of form. It is long since the great May +flies, large as swifts, had their aerial cloudy dances over the vast +everglades and ancient forests of ferns; and when, on some dark night, a +brilliant Will-o'-the-wisp rose and floated above the feathery foliage, +drawn in myriads to its light, they revolved about it in an immense +mystical wheel, misty-white, glistening, and touched with prismatic +colour. Floating fire and wheel were visible only to the stars, and the +wakeful eyes of giant scaly monsters lying quiescent in the black waters +below; but they were very beautiful nevertheless. The modest earwig was +old on the earth even then; he dates back to the time, immeasurably +remote, when scorpions possessed the earth, and taught him to frighten +his enemies with a stingless tail--that curious antique little tail +which has not yet forgot its cunning. + +Greater than all these inhabitants of the garden, ancient or modern by +reason of their numbers, which is the sign of predominance, are the +small wingless people that have colonies on every green stem and under +every green leaf. + +These are the true generators of that heavenly sweat, or saliva of the +stars, concerning which Pliny the Younger wrote so learnedly. And they +are many tribes--green, purple, brown, isabel-line; but all are one +nation, and sacred to that fair god whom the Carian water-nymph loved +not wisely but too well. For, albeit the children of an ancient union, +they marry not, nor are given in marriage, yet withal multiply +exceedingly, so that one (not two) may in a single season produce a +billion. And at last when autumn comes, won back from the cold god to +his hot mother, they know love and wedlock, and die like all married +things. These are the Aphides--sometimes unprettily called plant-lice, +and vaguely spoken of by the uninformed as "blight"--and they nourish +themselves on vegetable juices, that thin green blood which is the +plant's life. + +This, then, is the fruit which the birds have, come to gather. In June +is their richest harvest; it is more bountiful than September, when +apples redden, and grapes in distant southern lands are gathered for the +wine-press. In yon grey wall at the end of the lawn, just above the +climbing rose-bush, there are now seven hungry infants in one small +cradle, each one, some one says, able to consume its own weight of +insect food every day. I am inclined to believe that it must be so, +while trying to count the visits paid to the nest in one hour by the +parent tits--those small tits that do the gardener so much harm! We +know, on good authority, that the spider has a "nutty flavour"; and most +insects in the larval stage afford succulent and toothsome, or at all +events beaksome, morsels. These are, just now, the crimson cherries, +purple and yellow plums, currants, red, white, and black--and +sun-painted peaches, asking in their luscious ripeness for a mouth to +melt in, that fascinate finch and flycatcher alike, and make the +starlings smack their horny lips with a sound like a loving kiss. + +Not that I care, or esteem birds for what they eat or do not eat. With +all these creatures that are at strife among themselves, and that birds +prey upon, I am at peace, even to the smallest that are visible--the red +spider which is no spider; and the minute gossamer spider clinging to +the fine silvery hairs of the flying summer; and the coccus that fall +from the fruit trees to float on their buoyant cottony down--a summer +snow. Fils de la Vierge are these, and sacred. The man who can +needlessly set his foot on a worm is as strange to my soul as De +Quincey's imaginary Malay, or even his "damned crocodile." The worm that +one sees lying bruised and incapable on the gravel walk has fallen among +thieves. These little lives do me good and not harm. I smell the acid +ants to strengthen my memory. I know that if I set an overturned +cockchafer on his legs three sins shall be forgiven me; that if I am +kindly tolerant of the spider that drops accidentally on my hand or +face, my purse shall be mysteriously replenished. At the same time, one +has to remember that such sentiments, as a rule, are not understood by +those who have charge over groves and gardens, whose minds are ignorant +and earthy, or, as they would say, practical. Of the balance of nature +they know and care naught, nor can they regard life as sacred; it is +enough to know that it is or may be injurious to their interests for +them to sweep it away. The small thing that has been flying about and +uttering musical sounds since April may, when July comes, devour a +certain number of cherries. Nor is even this plea needed. If it is +innocent for the lower creatures to prey upon one another, it cannot be +less innocent for man to destroy them indiscriminately, if it gives him +any pleasure to do so. It is idle to go into such subtle questions with +those who have the power to destroy; if their hands are to be restrained +it is not by appealing to feelings which they do not possess, but to +their lower natures--to their greed and their cunning. For the rest of +us, for all who have conquered or outgrown the killing instinct, the +impartiality that pets nothing and persecutes nothing is doubtless man's +proper attitude towards the inferior animals; a godlike benevolent +neutrality; a keen and kindly interest in every form of life, with +indifference as to its ultimate destiny; the softness which does no +wrong with the hardness that sees no wrong done. + +To return to the birds. The starlings have kissed like lovers, and +fluttered up vertically on their short wings, trying to stream like +eagles, only to return to the trees once more and sit there chattering +pleasant nothings; at intervals throwing out those soft, round, +modulated whistled notes, just as an idle cigarette-smoker blows rings +of blue smoke from his lips; and now they have flown away to the fields +so that I can listen to the others. + +A thrush is making music on a tall tree beyond the garden hedge, and I +am more grateful for the distance that divides us than for the song; +for, just now, he does not sing so well as sometimes of an evening, when +he is most fluent, and a listener, deceived by his sweetness and melody, +writes to the papers to say that he has heard the nightingale. Just now +his song is scrappy, composed of phrases that follow no order and do not +fit or harmonize, and is like a poor imitation of an inferior +mocking-bird's song. + +Between the scraps of loud thrush-music I listen to catch the thin, +somewhat reedy sound of a yellow-hammer singing in the middle of the +adjoining grassy field. It comes well from the open expanse of purpling +grass, and reminds me of a favourite grasshopper in a distant sunny +land. O happy grasshopper! singing all day in the trees and tall +herbage, in a country where every village urchin is not sent afield to +"study natural history" with green net and a good store of pins, shall I +ever again hear thy breezy music, and see thee among the green leaves, +beautiful with steel-blue and creamy-white body, and dim purple over and +vivid red underwings? + +The bird of the pasture-land is singing still, perhaps, but all at once +I have ceased to hear him, for something has come to lift me above his +low grassy level, something faint and at first only the suspicion of a +sound; then a silvery lisping, far off and aerial, touching the sense as +lightly as the wind-borne down of dandelion. + +If any place for any soul there be Disrobed and disentrammelled, +doubtless it is from such a place and such a soul that this sublimated +music falls. The singer, one can imagine, has never known or has +forgotten earth; and if it is visible to him, how small it must seem +from that altitude, "spinning like a fretful midge" beneath him in the +vast void! + +It is the lark singing in the blue infinite heaven, at this distance +with something ethereal and heavenly in his voice; but now the wide +circling wings that brought him for a few moments within hearing, have +borne him beyond it again; and missing it, the sunshine looks less +brilliant than before, and all other bird-voices seem by comparison dull +and of the earth. + +Certainly there is nothing spiritual in the song of the chaffinch. There +he sits within sight, motionless, a little bird-shaped automaton, made +to go off at intervals of twelve or thirteen seconds; but unfortunately +one hears with the song the whirr and buzz of the internal machinery. It +is not now as in April, when it is sufficient in a song that it shall be +joyous; in the leafy month, when roses are in bloom, one grows critical, +and asks for sweetness and expression, and a better art than this +vigorous garden singer displays in that little double flourish with +which he concludes his little hurry-scurry lyric. He has practised that +same flourish for five thousand years--to be quite within the mark--and +it is still far from perfect, still little better than a kind of musical +sneeze. So long is art! + +Perhaps in some subtle way, beyond the psychologist's power to trace, he +has become aware of my opinion of his performance--the unspoken +detraction which yet affects its object; and, feeling hurt in his +fringilline _amour propre_, he has all at once taken himself off. Never +mind; a better singer has succeeded him. I have heard and seen the +little wren a dozen times to-day; now he has come to the upper part of +the tree I am lying under, and although so near his voice sounds +scarcely louder than before. This is also a lyric, but of another kind. +It is not plaintive, nor passionate; nor is it so spontaneous as the +warbling of the robin--that most perfect feathered impressionist; nor is +it endeared to me by early associations since I listened in boyhood to +the songs of other wrens. In what, then, does its charm consist? I do +not know. Certainly it is delicate, and may even be described as +brilliant, in its limited way perfect, and to other greater songs like +the small pimpernel to a poppy or a hollyhock. Unambitious, yet +finished, it has the charm of distinction. The wren is the least +self-conscious of our singers. Somewhere among the higher green +translucent leaves the little brown barred thing is quietly sitting, +busy for the nonce about nothing, dreaming his summer dream, and +unknowingly telling it aloud. When shall we have symbols to express as +perfectly our summer-feeling--our dream? + +That small song has served to remind me of two small books I brought +into the garden to read--the works of two modern minor poets whose +"wren-like warblings," I imagined, would suit my mood and the genial +morning better than the stirring or subtle thoughts of greater singers. +Possibly in that I was mistaken; for there until now lie the books +neglected on a lawn chair within reach of my hand. The chair was dragged +hither half-an-hour ago by a maiden all in white, who appeared half +inclined to share the mulberry shade with me. She did not continue long +in that mind. In a lively manner, she began speaking of some trivial +thing; but after a very few moments all interest in the subject +evaporated, and she sat humming some idle air, tapping the turf with her +fantastic shoe. Presently she picked up one of my books, opened it at +random and read a line or two, her vermilion under-lip curling slightly; +then threw it down again, and glanced at me out of the corners of her +eyes; then hummed again, and finally became silent, and sat bending +forward a little, her dark lustrous eyes gazing with strange intentness +through the slight screen of foliage into the vacant space beyond. What +to see? The poet has omitted to tell us to what the maiden's fancy +lightly turns in spring. Doubtless it turns to thoughts of something +real. Life is real; so is passion--the quickening of the blood, the wild +pulsation. But the pleasures and pains of the printed book are not real, +and are to reality like Japanese flowers made of coloured bits of tissue +paper to the living fragrant flowers that bloom to-day and perish +to-morrow; they are a simulacrum, a mockery, and present to us a pale +phantasmagoric world, peopled with bloodless men and women that chatter +meaningless things and laugh without joy. The feeling of unreality +affects us all at times, but in very different degrees. And perhaps I +was too long a doer, herding too much with narrow foreheads, drinking +too deeply of the sweet and bitter cup, to experience that pure +unfailing delight in literature which some have. Its charm, I fancy, is +greatest to those in whom the natural man, deprived in early life of his +proper aliment, grows sickly and pale, and perishes at last of +inanition. There is ample room then for the latter higher growth--the +unnatural cultivated man. Lovers of literature are accustomed to say +that they find certain works "helpful" to them; and doubtless, being all +intellect, they are right. But we, the less highly developed, are +compounded of two natures, and while this spiritual pabulum sustains +one, the other and larger nature is starved; for the larger nature is +earthly, and draws its sustenance from the earth. I must look at a leaf, +or smell the sod, or touch a rough pebble, or hear some natural sound, +if only the chirp of a cricket, or feel the sun or wind or rain on my +face. The book itself may spoil the pleasure it was designed to give me, +and instead of satisfying my hunger, increase it until the craving and +sensation of emptiness becomes intolerable. Not any day spent in a +library would I live again, but rather some lurid day of labour and +anxiety, of strife, or peril, or passion. + +Occupied with this profound question, I scarcely noticed when my +shade-sharer, with whom I sympathised only too keenly in her restless +mood, rose and, lifting the light green curtain, passed out into the +sunshine and was gone. Nor did I notice when the little wren ceased +singing overhead. At length recalled to myself I began to wonder at the +unusual silence in the garden, until, casting my eyes on the lawn, I +discovered the reason; for there, moving about in their various ways, +most of the birds were collected in a loose miscellaneous flock, a kind +of happy family. There were the starlings, returned from the fields, and +looking like little speckled rooks; some sparrows, and a couple of +robins hopping about in their wild startled manner; in strange contrast +to these last appeared that little feathered clodhopper, the chaffinch, +plodding over the turf as if he had hobnailed boots on his feet; last, +but not least, came statuesque blackbirds and thrushes, moving, when +they moved, like automata. They all appear to be finding something to +eat; but I Watch the thrushes principally, for these are more at home on +the moist earth than the others, and have keener senses, and seek for +nobler game. I see one suddenly thrust his beak into the turf and draw +from it a huge earthworm, a wriggling serpent, so long that although he +holds his head high, a third of the pink cylindrical body still rests in +its run. What will he do with it? We know how wandering Waterton treated +the boa which he courageously grasped by the tail as it retreated into +the bushes. Naturally, it turned on him, and, lifting high its head, +came swiftly towards his face with wide-open jaws; and at this supreme +moment, without releasing his hold on its tail, with his free hand he +snatched off his large felt hat and thrust it down the monster's throat, +and so saved himself. + +Just as I am intently watching to see how my hatless little Waterton +will deal with _his_ serpent, a startling bark, following by a canine +shriek, then a yell, resound through the silent garden; and over the +lawn rush those three demoniacal fox-terriers, Snap, Puzzy, and Babs, +all determined to catch something. Away fly the birds, and though now +high overhead, the baffled brutes continue wildly careering about the +grounds, vexing the air with their frantic barkings. No more birds +to-day! But now the peace-breakers have discovered me, and come tearing +across the lawn, and on to the half-way chair, then to the hammock, +scrambling over each other to inflict their unwelcome caresses on my +hands and face. + +Ah well, let them have their way and do their worst, since the birds are +gone, and I shall go soon. It is a consolation to think that they are +not my pets; that I shall not grieve, like their mistress, when their +brief barking period is over; that I care just so much and no more for +them than for any other living creature, not excepting the +_fer-de-lance_, "quoiled in the path like rope in a ship," or the +broad-winged vulture "scaling the heavens by invisible stairs." None are +out of place where Nature placed them, nor unbeautiful; none are +unlovable, since their various qualities--the rage of the one and the +gentleness of the other--are but harmonious lights and shades in the +ever-changing living picture that is so perfect. + + + + +BIRDS IN A CORNISH VILLAGE + +I + +TAKING STOCK OF THE BIRDS + + +Having begun, or first written, this book in one village, which was near +London, I am now finishing, or re-writing, it in another in "the westest +part of all the land," over three hundred miles from the first. Here I +had to go over this ancient work of twenty-three years ago, which was +also my first English bird book, to prepare it for a new edition; and +after all necessary corrections, omissions and additions of fresh matter +made in the foregoing parts, it seemed best to throw out the whole of +the concluding portion, which dealt mainly with the question of +bird-preservation as it presented itself at that time and is now out of +date, thanks to the legislation of recent years and to the growth in +this country of the feeling or desire for birds during the last two or +three decades. In place of this discarded matter I propose to give here +the results of recent observations on the bird life of a Cornish +village. + +My residence in the Cornish Village (or villages) was during May and +June, 1915, and again from October of the same year to June, 1916. These +were months of ill-health, so that I was prevented from pursuing my +customary outdoor rambling life; but, like that poor creature the +barnyard fowl that can't use its wings, instinctively, or from old +habit, I used my eyes in keeping a watch on the feathered (and flying) +people about me. + +The village, Lelant, is on the Hayle estuary, and to see the Atlantic +one has but to walk past the grey old church at the end of the street, +where the ground rises, to find oneself in a wilderness of towans, as +the sand-hills are there called, clothed in their rough, grey-green +marram grass and spreading on either hand round the bay of St. Ives. A +beautiful sight, for the sea on a sunny day is of that marvellous blue +colour seen only in Cornwall; far out on a rock on the right hand stands +the shining white Godrevy lighthouse, and on the left, on the opposite +side of the bay, the little ancient fishing-town of St. Ives. + +The river or estuary, in sight of the doors and windows of the village, +was haunted every day by numbers of gulls and curlews. These last +numbered about one hundred and fifty birds, and were always there except +at full tide, when they would fly away to the fields and moors. Of all +my bird neighbours I think that these gave me most pleasure, especially +at night, when lying awake I would listen by the hour to the perpetual +curlew conversation going on in the dark--an endless series of clear +modulated notes and trills, with a beautiful expression of wildness and +freedom, a reminder of lonely seashores and mountains and moorlands in +the north country. What wonder that Stevenson, sick in his tropical +island--sick for his cold grey home so many thousands of miles away, +wished once more to hear the whaup crying over the graves of his +forefathers, and to hear no more at all! + +Of bird music by day there was little; you would hear more of it in one +morning in that small rustic village in Berkshire where the first part +of this book was written than in a whole summer in one of these West +Cornwall villages, so few comparatively are the songsters. Nor was this +scarcity in the village only; it was everywhere, as I found when able to +get out for a few hours during my two spring seasons in the place. Close +by were the extensive woods of Trevalloe, where I was struck by the +extraordinary silence and where I listened in vain for a single note +from blackcap, garden-warbler, willow-wren, wood-wren, or redstart. The +thrushes, chaffinch, chiff-chaff, and greenfinch were occasionally +heard; outside the wood the buntings, chats, and the skylark were few +and far between. + +This scarcity of small birds is, I think, due in the first place to the +extraordinary abundance of the jackdaw, the diligent seeker after small +birds' nests, and to the autumn and winter pastime of bush-beating to +which men and boys are given in these parts, and which the Cornish +authorities refuse to suppress. + +After a time, when, owing to increasing debility, I was confined more +and more to the village, I began to concentrate my attention on a few +common species that were always present, particularly on the three +commonest--rook, daw, and starling; the first two residents, the +starling, a winter visitor from September to April. + +In October, I started feeding the birds at the house where I was staying +as a guest, throwing the scraps on a lawn at the back which sloped down +towards the estuary. First came all the small birds in the immediate +neighbourhood--robin, dunnock, wagtail, chaffinch, throstle, blackbird, +and blue and ox-eye tits. Then followed troops of starlings, and soon +all the rooks and daws in the village began to see what was going on and +come too, and this attracted the gulls from the estuary--I wished that +it had drawn the curlews; and all these big ones were so greedy and +bold, so noisy and formidable-looking that the small birds were quite +driven out; all except the starlings that came in hungry crowds and were +determined to get their share. + +At the beginning of December I had to move to a nursing-home at the +Convent of the Sisters of the Cross at the adjacent village of Hayle, +just across the estuary. The Convent buildings and grounds and gardens +are fortunately outside the ugly village, and my room had an +exceptionally big window occupying almost the whole wall on one side, +with an outlook to the south over the green fields and moors towards +Helston. An ideal sick-room for a man who can't be happy without the +company of birds, and here, even when lying on my bed before I was able +to sit or stand by the window, a large portion of the sky, rainy or +blue, was visible, and rooks and daws and gulls and troops of starlings, +and the curlews from the river, were seen coming and going all day long. + +But it was much better when I was able to go to the window, since now, +by feeding them, I could draw the birds to me. I fed them on a green +field beneath my window, where the Convent milch-cows were accustomed to +graze for some hours each day. All through the winter there was grass +for them, and I was glad to have them there, as the cow is my favourite +beast, and it was also pleasant to see the wintering starlings +consorting with them, clustering about their noses, just as they do in +the pasture lands in summer time. But I found it best to feed the birds +when the cows were not there, on account of the behaviour of one of +them, a young animal who had not yet been sobered by having a calf of +her own. She was a frivolous young thing and when tired of feeding, she +would start teasing the old cows, pushing them with her horns, then +flinging up her hind legs to challenge them to a romp. The sight of a +crowd of birds under my window would bring her at a gallop to the spot +to find out what all the fuss was about, and the birds would be driven +off. + +One morning I was at my window when the field was empty of bird and +beast life with the exception of a solitary old rook, a big bird who was +a constant attendant and so much bigger than most of the rooks that I +had come to know it well. By and by the young cow walked into the field +by herself and, after gazing all round as if surprised at finding the +place so lifeless, she caught sight of and fixed her eyes on the old +rook working at the turf some fifty or sixty yards away. Presently she +began walking towards it, and when within about twenty yards put her +head down and charged it. The rook paid no attention until she was +almost on it, then rose up, emitting its angriest, most raucous screams +while hovering just over her head, and having thus relieved its +indignant feelings it flew heavily away to the far end of the field, and +settling down began prodding away at the soil. The cow, standing still, +gazed after it, and one could almost imagine her saying: "So you won't +get out of the field! Well! I'll soon make you. I'm going to have it +all to myself this morning." And at once she began rapidly walking +towards the bird. But half-way to it was the post set up in the middle +of the field for the cows to rub their hides, and on coming abreast of +it the sight of it and its proximity suggested the delight of a rub, and +turning off at right angles she walked straight to the post and began +rubbing herself against it. The rook went on with its business, and +after that there was no more quarrelling. + +Another morning this same old rook came with his mate to the field: +separating, they came down a distance of a hundred yards or more apart +and began searching for grubs. By and by the old cock discovered +something particularly good and after vigorously prodding the turf for a +few moments he sprang up and flew excitedly to his mate, who instantly +knew what this action meant and began fluttering her wings and crying +for the dainty morsel which he proceeded to deliver into her wide-open +mouth. Having fed her, he flew back to the same spot and began working +again. + +This is a common action of the rooks, and I saw this same bird feed his +mate on other occasions during the winter months, when I have no doubt +that he, poor wretch, could hardly find food enough to keep himself +alive during the dark season of everlasting wind and rain when the dim +daylight lasted for about six hours. But I never saw a daw or starling +feed his mate, or feed another daw or starling, although I watched +closely every day and often for an hour at a stretch, and though I am +convinced that the starling, like the rook and crow and daw, and in fact +all the Corvidae, pairs for life. To this point I will return presently; +let me first relate another incident about our frivolous and +irresponsible young cow. + +One morning when the cows were in the field, some herring-gulls drifted +by and a few of them remained circling about above the field. I threw +out a piece of bread, and a troop of starlings rushed to it, and one of +the gulls dropped down and took possession of it, but had scarcely began +tearing at it when two more gulls dropped down and the first bird, +lifting his wings began screaming "Hands off!" at the others, and the +others, also raising their wings, screamed their wailing screams in +reply. The young cow, attracted by the noise, gazed at them for a few +moments, then all at once putting her head down furiously charged them. +The three gulls rose up simultaneously and floated over her and then +away, leaving her standing on the spot, shaking her head in anger and +disgust at their escape. A rhinoceros charging a ball of thistledown or +a soap-bubble, and causing it to float away with the wind it created, +would not have been a more ludicrous spectacle. + + + + +II + +DO STARLINGS PAIR FOR LIFE? + + +From my boyhood, when I first began to observe birds, I started with the +imbibed notion that those which paired for life were the rare +exceptions--the dove that rhymed with love, the eagle, and perhaps half +a dozen more. Who, for instance, would imagine that the sexes could be +faithful in parasitical species like the cuckoo of Europe and the +cow-birds of America? Yet even as a boy I made the discovery that an +Argentine cow-bird that lays its eggs in the nests of other species, +does actually pair for life; and so effectually mated is it, that on no +day and no season of the year will you see a male without his female: if +he flies she flies with him and feeds and drinks with him, and when he +perches she perches at his side, and he never utters a sound but a +responsive sound immediately falls from her devoted beak. + +Again, it may seem unlikely that there can be pairing for life in +species, like the chaffinch of northern Europe and, with us, of +Scotland, in which the sexes separate and migrate separately. Also of +non-gregarious species like the nightingale in which the males arrive in +this country several days before the females. Yet I am confident that if +we could catch and mark a considerable number of pairs it would be found +that the same male and female found one another and re-mated every year. + +It comes to this, that birds may pair for life, yet not be all the time +or all the year together, as in the case of hawks, crows, owls, herons, +and many others. In numberless species which undoubtedly pair for life +the sexes keep apart during several hours each day, and there is some +evidence that those that separate for a part of the year remain faithful. + +An incident, related by Miss Ethel Williams, of Winchester, in her +natural history notes contributed to a journal in that city, bears on +this point. She had among the bird pensioners in the garden of her house +adjoining the Cathedral green, a female thrush that grew tame enough to +fly into the house and feed on the dining-room table. Her thrush paired +and bred for several seasons in the garden, and the young, too, were +tame and would follow their mother into the house to be fed. The male +was wild and too shy ever to venture in. She noticed the first year that +it had a wing-feather which stuck out, owing probably to a malformation +of the socket. Each year after the breeding season the male vanished, +the female remaining alone through the winter months, but in spring the +male came back--the same bird with the unmistakable projecting +wing-feather. Yet it was certain that this bird had gone quite away, +otherwise he would have returned to the garden, where there was food in +abundance during the spells of frosty weather. As he did not appear it +is probable that he migrated each autumn to some warmer climate beyond +the sea. + +I have noticed that wagtails, thrushes, blackbirds, and some other +species when the young are out of the nest, divide the brood between +male and female and go different ways and spend the daylight hours at a +distance apart, each attending to the one or two young birds in its charge. + +One winter, a few years ago, I was staying for a few days at a cottage +facing Silchester Common, and on going out after breakfast to feed the +birds I particularly noticed a male grey wagtail among those that came +to me, on account of its beauty and tameness. Every morning I fed it, +and on my speaking to my landlady about it she said, "Oh, we know that +bird well; this is the fourth winter it has spent with us, but it always +came before with its mate. The poor little thing had only one leg, but +managed to hop about and feed very well; this year the poor thing didn't +turn up with its mate, so we suppose it had met its death somewhere +during the summer." + +I have often watched the gatherings of pied wagtails (always with a +certain number of the grey species among them) in places where they +spend the winter in our southern counties, at some spot where they are +accustomed to congregate each evening to hold a sort of frolic before +going to roost, and it has always appeared to me that the birds, both +pied and grey, were in pairs. So too, in watching the starlings day +after day in the field in front of my window. Well able with my +binocular to observe them closely, I saw much to convince me that the +starling, too, lives all the year with his mate. + +Each morning the birds that had made our village their daily +feeding-ground, would, on arrival from the roosting-place in one body, +break up into numerous small parties of half a dozen to twenty or more +birds. All day long these little flocks were hurrying about from field +to field, spending but a short time at one spot, so hungry were they and +anxious to find a more productive one, and in every field they would +meet and mix with other small groups, and presently all would fly, and +breaking up into small parties again go off in different directions. +Thus one had a constant succession of little flocks in the field from +morning till night, and I found from counting the birds in each small +group that in three cases in four they were in even numbers. Again, I +have often seen a group of three, five, seven or nine birds on the +field, and after a while a solitary starling from a neighbouring field +or from some treetop near by has flown down to join the group and make +the numbers even. + +The birds when feeding, I have said, are always in a desperate hurry, +and little wonder, since after a night, usually wet and cold, of from +sixteen to eighteen hours and only about six to feed in, they must be in +a half-starved state and frantic to find something to swallow. No sooner +do they alight than they begin running about, prodding with their beaks, +and all the time advancing, the birds keeping pretty well abreast. Now, +from time to time you will notice that a bird finds something to delay +him and is left behind by the others. On they go--prod, prod, then a +little run, then prod, prod again and run again--while he, excited over +his find, and vigorously digging at the roots of the grass, lets them go +on without him until he is yards behind. Whenever this happens you will +see one of the advancing birds pause in its prodding to look back from +time to time as if anxious about the one left behind; and by and by this +same bird, its anxiety increasing, will suddenly spring into the air and +fly back to place itself at the side of the other, to wait quietly until +it has finished its task; and no sooner does the busy one put up its +head to signal that he is ready than up they spring and fly together on +to the flock. No one witnessing this action can doubt for a moment that +these two are mates, and that wherever they paired and bred +originally--in Lincoln or York or Thurso or perhaps in one of the +western islands--they paired for life and will stick together, summer +and winter and in all their wanderings, as long as they live. + +Until one observes starlings in this close way, even to their minutest +actions--I had indeed little else to do during my three winter months in +this nursing-home--it is only natural to believe that among gregarious +species the starling is one of those least likely to pair for life, +seeing that in it the gregarious instinct is intensified and more highly +developed than in most others. One would suppose that the flock, which +is like an organism--that is to say, the attachment to the flock--would, +out of the breeding season, take the place of the close relation or +companionship between bird and bird seen in species known to pair for +life. Only the pairing passion, one would suppose, could serve to +dissolve the company of birds and this only for a brief season of about +a couple of months' duration. There is but one brood raised in the +season, and the whole business of reproduction is well over before the +end of June. Later breeders are those that have lost their first eggs or +broods. And no sooner are the young brought off and instructed in the +starling's sole vocation (except his fruit-eating) of extracting the +grubs it subsists on from the roots of the grass--a business which +detains them for a week or two--than the married life is apparently over +and the communal life resumed. The whole life of the bird is then +changed; the sole tie appears to be that of the flock; home and young +are forgotten: the birds range hither and thither about the land, and by +and by migrate to distant places, some passing oversea, while others +from the northern counties and from Scotland and the islands come down +to the south of England, where they winter in millions and myriads. +There they form the winter habit of congregating in immense numbers in +the evening at their favourite roosting-places, and hundreds and +thousands of small flocks, which during the daylight hours exist +distributed over an area of hundreds of square miles all make to one +point and combine into one flock. At such times they actually appear to +rejoice in their own incalculable numbers and gather earlier than they +need at the roosting-place, so that the whole vast gathering may spend +an hour or so in their beloved aerial exercises. + +To anyone who witnesses these gatherings and sees the birds rising from +time to time from the wood, and appearing like a big black cloud in the +sky, growing lighter and darker alternately as the birds scatter wide or +mass themselves in a closer formation, until after wheeling about for +some minutes they pour back into the trees; and who listens to the noise +they make, as of a high wind in the wood, composed, as it is, of an +infinity of individual voices, it must seem incredible that all these +birds can keep in pairs. For how could any couple hold together in such +circumstances, or when separated ever meet again in such a multitude, +or, should they ever meet by chance, how recognize one another when all +are exactly alike in size, shape, colour and voice? + +They can, and certainly do, keep together, and when forced apart as, +when pursued by a hawk, they scatter in all directions, they can quickly +find one another again. They can do it because of their perfect +discipline, or instinct, or the perfection of the system they follow +during their autumn and winter wanderings and migrations. + +The breeding season over, the birds in each locality unite in a small +flock composed of twenty or thirty to fifty or more pairs and start +their wandering life. Those in the north migrate or drift south, and +vast numbers, as we see, spend the winter in the southern counties. And +here they have their favourite roosting-places and are accustomed to +assemble in tens and hundreds of thousands. But the original small flock +composed of a few pairs, is never broken up--never absorbed by the +multitude. Each morning when it is light enough, the birds quit the +roosting-wood, but not all together; they quit it in flocks, flock +following flock so closely as to appear like a continuous stream of +birds, and the streams flow out in different directions over the +surrounding country. Each stream of birds is composed of scores and +hundreds of units, and each unit drops out of the stream and slopes away +to this or that side, to drop down on its own chosen feeding-ground, to +which it returns morning after morning through the winter. When all the +units have dropped out and settled on their feeding areas for the day, +it may be seen that the whole country within a circuit of ten or twelve +or more miles from the roosting-place has been occupied, that each flock +has its own territory, where it splits up into some groups and spends +its short hours flying about and exploring every green field, and one +might almost say "every grass." One can only explain this perfect +distribution by assuming that each unit instinctively looks for +unoccupied ground in its winter habitat, and that consequently there is +very little overlapping. It must also be assumed that at the place of +assembly in the evening each flock has its own roosting-place--its own +trees and bushes where the members of the flock can still keep together +and to which after each aerial performance they can return. The flock +comes back to sleep on its own tree, and no doubt every couple roosts +side by side on its own twig. + +On the return of Spring the birds do not migrate in a body, but slip +away, flock by flock, to reappear about the end of April in their old +breeding-place in the North Country, with, perhaps, the loss of a few +members--the one that was old and died in the season of scarcity; and +one that was taken at the roost by a brown owl, and one that had its +feet frozen to the perch; and was killed by a jackdaw when struggling to +free itself; and one that was struck down by a sparrow-hawk on his +homeward journey. + +What I have so far been unable to trace is the career of the young after +August. We see that once they are able to fend for themselves they club +together in small flocks and continue together during their "brown +thrush" stage, but by and by they get the adult plumage and language and +are no longer distinguishable as young. Do they, then, join the old +birds before the wandering and migrating south begins? And do they pair +or not before the winter? + + + + +III + +VILLAGE BIRDS IN WINTER + + +Throughout the winter of 1915-16, and more particularly during my three +months in the hospital at Hayle, from the beginning of December to +March, I was greatly impressed at the perpetual state of hunger in which +the birds exist, especially the three commonest species in our +village--rook, daw, and starling. Little wonder that the sight of a +piece of bread thrown out on the green field below my window would bring +all these three and many others with a rush from all sides, every one +eager to get a morsel! But the birds that live most in a groove, as it +were, like the rook and starling, and have but one kind of food and one +way of finding it, are always the worst off in winter. These subsist on +the grubs and other minute organisms they are able to pick out of the +grass roots, and are life workers paid by the piece who must labour hard +and incessantly to make enough to keep themselves alive; their winter +life is accordingly in startling contrast to that of the daw--one that +lives on his wits and fares better and altogether has an easier and more +amusing time. + +It was the habit of the three species named to quit the wood where they +roosted as soon as it was light enough for them to feed, the time +varying according to the state of the weather from half-past eight to +ten o'clock, the mornings being usually wet and dark. The rooks that had +their rookery in the village numbered forty or fifty birds, and these +would remain at the village, getting their food in the surrounding +fields for the rest of the day. The daws would appear in a body of two +or three hundred birds, but after a little while many of them would go +on to their own villages further away, leaving about sixty to eighty +birds belonging to the village. Last of all the starlings would appear +in flocks and continuous streams of birds often fighting their way +against wind and rain, leaving about a couple of hundred or more behind, +these being the birds that had settled in the village for the season, +and worked in the grass fields in and surrounding it. Rooks and +starlings would immediately fall to work, while the daws, the flock +breaking up into small parties of three or four, would distribute +themselves about the village and perch on the chimney-pots. They would +perch and then fly, and for all the rest of the day would be incessantly +shifting about from place to place, on the look-out for something to +eat, dropping from time to time to snatch up a crust of bread or the +core of an apple thrown away by a child in the road, or into a back +garden or on to a dust-heap where potato-parings and the head of a +mackerel or other refuse had been thrown. They were very bold, but not +as courageous as the old-time British kite that often swooped to snatch +the bread from a child's hand. + +From time to time one, or a pair, of a small party of these daws would +drop down on the field before my window when the rooks and starlings +were there prodding busily at the turf, but though I watched them a +thousand times I never detected them trying to find something for +themselves. They simply stood or walked about among the working birds, +watching them intently. Grub-finding was an art they had not acquired, +or were too indolent or proud to practise; but they were not too proud +to beg or steal; they simply watched the other birds in the hope of +being able to snatch up a big unearthed grub and run away with it. As a +rule after a minute or two they would get tired of waiting and rush off +with a lively shout. Back they would go to the chimney-pots and to their +flying up and down, suspending their flight over this or that yard or +garden, and by and by one would succeed in picking up something big, and +at once all the other daws in sight would give chase to take it from +him; for these village daws are not only parasites and cadgers, but +worse--they are thieves without honour among themselves. + +In spite of all the time and energy wasted in their perpetual races and +chases going on all over the village, every bird exerting himself to the +utmost to rob all he can from his pals, they get enough to eat; for when +the day is over and other daws from other villages drop in to visit +them, all unite in a big crowd and wheel about, making the place ring +with their merry yelping cries, before sailing away to the wood. One +might say after witnessing and listening to this evening performance +that they have great joy in their rascally lives. + +But for the poor starling there is little joy in these brief, dark, wet +winter days, even if there is little frost in this West Cornwall +climate. A frost of a few days' duration would be fatal to incalculable +numbers, especially if, as in the great frosts of the winters of 1894-5 +and 1896-7, severest in the south and west of England, it should come +late in winter, I think it can be taken as a fact that a long or +overseas migration takes place before midwinter or not at all. In +January and February, when birds are driven to the limits of the land by +a great cold they do not cross the sea, either because they are too weak +to attempt such an adventure or for some other reason unknown to us. We +see that on these occasions they come to the seashore and follow it +south and west even to the western extremity of Cornwall, and then +either turn back inland or wait where they are for open weather, many +perishing in the meantime. + +During those three winter months, when I watched the starlings at work +on the field before my hospital window, they appeared to be in a +perpetual state of extreme hunger and were always running over the +ground, rapidly prodding as they moved, and apparently finding their +food almost exclusively on the surface--that is to say, on the surface +of the soil but under the grass, at its surface roots. At other seasons +they go deep when they know from the appearance of every blade of grass +whether or not there is a grub feeding on its roots beneath the surface. +Without shooting and examining the stomachs of a large number of +starlings it was not possible to know just what the food consisted of; +but with my strong binocular on them I could make out that at almost +every dig of the beak something was picked up, and could actually see it +when the beak was held up with the minute morsel at its tip--a small, +thread-like, semi-transparent worm or grub in most instances. Two or +three of these atomies would hardly have made a square meal for a +ladybird, and I should think that a starling after swallowing a thousand +would fed very hungry. And on many days this scanty, watery food had to +be searched for in very painful conditions, as it rained heavily on most +days and often all day long. At such times the birds in their sodden +plumage looked like drowned starlings fished out of a pool and +galvanized into activity. Nor were they even seen to shake the wet +off--a common action in swallows and other birds that feed in the rain; +they were too hungry, too anxious to find something to eat to keep the +starling soul and body together before the long night of eighteen or +twenty hours would overtake them. + +No doubt the winter of 1915-16 was exceptionally wet and cold, although +without any severe frosts; a long frost in February, when the birds were +most reduced, would probably have proved fatal to at least half their +number. But though it continued wet and cold, things began to mend for +the starlings towards the end of February, and in March the improvement +was very marked; they were not in such a perpetual hurry; their time was +longer now, and by the end of the month their working day had increased +from five or six to twelve or fourteen hours, and the light had +increased and grubs were easier to find. By April, the starlings no +longer appeared to be the same species as the poor, rusty, bedraggled +wretches we had been accustomed to see; they are now lively, happy birds +with a splendid gloss on their feathers and beaks as bright a yellow as +the blackbird's. Finally, in April they left us, not going in a body, +but flock by flock, day after day, until by the end of the month all +were gone back to their homes in the north--all but the two or three to +half a dozen pairs in each village. And these few that stay behind are +new colonists in West Cornwall. + + + + +IV + +INCREASING BIRDS IN BRITAIN + + +About the daw, or Jackie, or Dorrie or Jackie-Dorrie, as he is variously +and familiarly called, and his village habits, there will be more to say +presently; just now my concern is with another matter--a veritable daw +problem. + +For the last twenty years or longer it has seemed to me that the daw is +an increasing species in Britain; at all events I am quite sure that it +is so in the southern half of England, particularly along the coast of +Somerset, Devon, Dorset, and in Cornwall, more than in any other county. +And why is it? He is certainly not a respectable bird, like the +starling, for example--if we do not go to the cherry-grower for the +starling's character. He is and always has been on the keeper's and +farmer's black list, and scarcely a week passes but you will find him +described in some gamekeeper's or farmer's journal as "even worse than +the rook." Even the ornithologists who are interested in birds as birds +haven't a good word to say of the daw. According to them he alone is +responsible for the disappearance of his distinguished relation, the +chough. (The vulgar daw is of course devoid of any distinction at all, +unless it be his grey pate and wicked little grey eyes.) + +The ornithologists were wrong about the chough, just as they had been +wrong about the goldfinch, during the late years of the nineteenth +century, and as they were wrong about the swallows and martins in later +years. Of the goldfinch, they said, and solemnly put it down in their +books, that owing to improved methods of agriculture the thistle had +been extirpated and the bird, deprived of his natural food, had forsaken +this country. But no sooner did our County Councils begin to avail +themselves of the powers given them by the Bird Act of twenty years ago +to protect the goldfinch from the bird-catcher, than it began to +increase again and is still increasing, year by year, all over the country. + +Of the decrease of swallows and martins, they said it resulted from the +action of the sparrows in ousting them from their nests and +nesting-sites. But we know the true cause of the decline of these two +species, the best loved and best protected of all birds in Britain, not +even excepting robin redbreast. The French Government, in response to +representations on this matter from our Foreign Office, have caused +enquiries to be made and have found that our swallows are being +destroyed wholesale in France during the autumn migration, and have +promised to put a stop to this deplorable business. They do not appear +to have done so, since the promise was made three years ago, and I can +say from my own observation in the south and west countries that the +decline has continued and that we have never had so few swallows come to +us as in the present summer of 1916. + +The daw--to return to that subject--has always been regarded as an +injurious species, and down to a quarter of a century ago every farm lad +in possession of a gun shot it in the interests of the henwife, even as +he had formerly shot the kite, a common British species and a familiar +feature in the landscape down to the early years of last century. +Doubtless it was a great thing to bring down this great bird "that soars +sublime" and nail it to the barn-door. By the middle of the last century +it had become a rarity, and the ensuing rush for specimens and eggs for +private collectors quickly brought about its virtual extinction. The +kite is but one of several species--six of them hawks--extirpated within +the last forty years. Why, then, does the daw, more injurious to the +game-preserver and henwife than any one of these lost hawks, continue to +flourish and increase in numbers? It is, I imagine, because of the +growth of a sentiment which favours its preservation. But it is not the +same as that which has served to preserve the rook and made it so +common. That is a sentiment confined to the landowning class--to those +who inherit great houses where the ancient rookery with its crowd of +big, black, contentious birds caw-cawing on the windy elms, has come to +be an essential part of the establishment, like the gardens and park and +stables and home-farm and, one might add, the church and village. This +sentiment differs, too, from the heron-sentiment, which serves to keep +that bird with us in spite of the annual wail, rising occasionally in +South Devon to a howl, of human trout-fishers. It is a traditional +feeling coming down from the far past in England--from the time of +William the Conqueror to that of William of Orange and the decay of +falconry. That a species without any sentiment to favour it and without +special protection by law may increase is to be seen in the case of the +starling. This increase has come about automatically after we had +destroyed the starling's natural enemies and then ceased to persecute it +ourselves. Of all birds it was the most preyed on by certain raptorial +species, especially by the sparrowhawk, which is now becoming so rare, +assisted by the hobby (rarer still) and the merlin. It was more exposed +than other birds to these enemies owing to its gregarious and feeding +habits in grasslands and the open country, also to its slower flight. +The greatest drain on the species, came, however, from man. The starling +was a favourite bird for shooting-matches up till about thirty years +ago, and was taken annually in large numbers by the bird-catchers for +the purpose. It is probable that this use of the bird for sport caused +people to eat it, and so common did the habit become that at the end of +summer, or before the end, shooting starlings for the pot was practised +everywhere. Old men in the country have told me that forty or fifty +years ago it was common to hear people on the farms say that of all +birds the starling was the best to eat. + +When starling and sparrow shooting-matches declined, the starling went +out of favour as a table-bird, and from that time the species has been +increasing. At present the rate of increase grows from year to year, and +during the last decade the birds have colonized every portion of the +north of Scotland and the islands, where the starling had previously +been a rare visitor--a bird unknown to the people. Here in West Cornwall +where I am writing this chapter the starling was only a winter visitor +until recently. Eight years ago I could only find two pairs breeding in +the villages--about twenty-five in number--in which I looked for them; +in the summer of 1915 I found them breeding in every town and village I +visited. At present, June, 1916, there are six pairs in the village I am +staying at. It may be the case, and from conversations I have had with +farmers about the bird I am inclined to believe it is so, that a strong +feeling in favour of the starling (in the pastoral districts) is growing +up at the present time, a feeling which in the end is more powerful to +protect than any law; but such a feeling has not become general as yet, +and consequently has had nothing to do with the extraordinary increase +of the bird. + +The wood-pigeon is another species which, like the starling, has +increased greatly in recent years, without special protection and with +no sentiment in its favour. . . . The sentiment is all confined to the +nature-lovers, whose words have no effect on the people generally, least +of all on the farmers. I am reminded here of the experience of a young +man, an ardent bird-lover, on his visit to a Yorkshire farm. His host, +who was also a young man, took him a walk across his fields. It was a +spring day of brilliant sunshine, and the air was full of the music of +scores of soaring skylarks. The visitor long in cities pent, was +exhilarated by the strains and kept on making exclamations of rapturous +delight, "Just listen to the larks! Did you ever hear anything like it!" +and so on. + +His host, his eyes cast down, trudged on in glum silence. Finally the +young man, carried away by his enthusiasm, stopped and turning to his +companion shouted, "Listen! Listen! Do you hear the larks?" + +"Oh, yes," drawled the other, looking more glum than ever, "I hear them +fast enough. And I wish they were all dead!" + +So with the other charming species. The moan of doves in immemorial elms +is a pleasing sound to the poets, but it does not prevent the farmers +throughout the land from wishing them all dead; and every person who +possesses a gun is glad to help in their massacre. For the bird is a +pest and he who shoots it is doing something for England; furthermore, +shooting it is first-rate sport, not like slaughtering wretched little +sparrows or innocent young rooks just out of their windy cradles. And +when shot it is a good table-bird, with as much tasty flesh on it as a +woodcock or partridge. + +How, then can we account for the increase of such a species? One cause +is undoubtedly to be found in the removal by gamekeepers of its three +chief enemies--the carrion crow, magpie, and jay--all these three being +great devourers of pigeon's eggs, which of all eggs are most conspicuous +and open to attack. Then again the winter immigration of wood-pigeons +from northern Europe appears to be on the increase, and it may be +conjectured that a considerable number of these visitors remain annually +to breed with us. There has also been an increase in the stockdove and +turtle-dove in recent years, and the former species is extending its +range in the north. The cause or causes of the increase of the +turtledove are not far to seek. Its chief feathered enemies, the egg and +fledgling robbers, are the same as the wood-pigeon's; moreover, the +turtledove is least persecuted by man of our four pigeons, and being +strictly migratory it quits the country before shooting-time begins; add +to this that the turtle-dove has been specially protected under Sir +Herbert Maxwell's Act of 1894 in a good number of English counties, from +Surrey to Yorkshire. + +Of the stock-dove we can only say that, like the ring-dove, it has +increased in spite of the persecution it is subject to, since no person +out after pigeons would spare it because it is without a white collar. +With the exception of the county of Buckinghamshire it is not on the +schedule anywhere in the country. One can only suppose that this species +has been indirectly benefited by the bird legislation and all that has +been done to promote a feeling favourable to bird-preservation during +the last thirty years. + + + +V + +THE DAW SENTIMENT + + +I have spoken of the wood adjacent to the villages of Hayle and Lelant +where the rooks, daws, and starlings of the neighbourhood have their +winter roosting-place. This is at Trevelloe, the ancient estate of the +Praeds, who now call themselves Tyringham. Here the daws congregate each +evening in such numbers that a stranger to the district and to the local +habits of the bird might imagine that all the cliff-breeding jackdaws in +West Cornwall had come to roost at that spot. Yet the cliff-breeders, +albeit abundant enough, are but a minority of the daw population of this +district. The majority of these birds live and breed in the neighbouring +villages and hamlets--St. Ives, Carbis Bay, Towadneck, Lelant, Phillack, +Hayle, and others further away. It is a jackdaw metropolis and, as we +have seen, every village receives its own quota of birds each morning, and +there they spend the daylight hours and subsist on the waste food and on +what they can steal, just as the semi-domestic raven and the kite did in +former ages, from Roman times down to the seventeenth century. + +Early in May the winter congregation breaks up, the cliff-breeders going +back to the rocks and the village birds to their chimneys, where they +presently set about relining their old nests. There are plenty of places +for all, since there are chimneys in almost every cottage where fires +are never lighted, and as ventilation is not wanted in bedrooms the +birds are allowed to bring in more materials each year, until the whole +flue is filled up. Year by year the materials brought in, sink lower and +lower until they rest on the closed iron register and change in time to +a solid brown mould. Thus, however long-lived a daw may be--and there +are probably more centenarians among the daws than among the human +inhabitants of the villages--it is a rare thing for one to be disturbed +in his tenancy. + +In the cottage opposite the one I was staying in, its owner, an old +woman who had lived in it all her life, had recently died, aged +eighty-seven. + +She was very feeble at the last, and one cold day when she could not +leave her bed, the extraordinary idea occurred to some one of her people +that it might be a good thing to light a fire in her room. The fireplace +was examined and was found to have no flue, or that the flue had been +filled with earth or cement. The village builder was called in, and with +the aid of a man on the roof and poles and various implements he +succeeded in extracting two or three barrow-loads of hard earth which +had no doubt once been sticks, centuries ago, as the building was very +ancient. No one had remembered that the daws had always occupied the +same chimney; the old dame herself had seen them going in and out of it +from her childhood, and her end was probably hastened by the disturbance +made in cleaning it. Now she is gone the daws here are in possession of +it once more. + +All through the month of May daws were to be seen about the village, +dropping from time to time upon the chimney-pots where they had their +nests and occasionally bringing some slight materials to form a new +lining, but it was very rare to see one with a stick in his beak. The +flues were already full of old sticks and no more were wanted. It was +amusing to see a bird flying about, suddenly tumble out of the air on to +a chimneypot, then with tail tipped up and wings closed, dive into the +cavity below. One wondered how the young birds would be got out! + +Talking with the rector of the neighbouring parish of Phillack one day +on this subject, he said, "Don't imagine that the daws restrict +themselves to the chimneys where fires are not lighted. At all events it +isn't so at Phillack. Perhaps we have too many daws in our village, but +every year before lighting fires in the drawing and dining-rooms we have +to call in a man with a pole to clear the flues out." He told me that a +few years ago, one cold June day, a fire was lighted in the +drawing-room, and as the smoke all poured out into the room a man was +sent up to the roof with a pole to clear the obstruction out. Presently +a mess of sticks came down and with them two fully-fledged young +jackdaws, one dead, killed with the pole, the other sound and lively. +This one they kept and it soon became quite tame; when able to fly it +would go off and associate with the wild birds, but refused to leave +the house until the following summer, when it found a mate and went away. + +The head keeper at Trevelloe, a remarkably vigorous and intelligent +octogenarian who has been in his place over half a century, gave me some +interesting information about the daws. He says they have greatly +increased in recent years in this part of Cornwall because they are no +longer molested; no person, he says, not even a game-keeper anxious +about his pheasants, would think of shooting a jackdaw. But this is not +because the bird has changed its habits. He is as great a pest as ever +he was, and as an example of how bad jackdaws can be, he related the +following incident told him by a friend of his, a head keeper on an +estate adjoining a shooting his master took one year on the northwest +coast of England. It happened that a big colony of daws existed within a +mile or two of the preserves, and one day the keeper was called' away in +a hurry and left the coops unattended for the best part of a day; it was +the biggest mistake he had ever made and the chief disaster of his life. +On his return he found that the daws had been before him and that all +his precious chicks had been carried off. For several hours of that day +there was a steady coming and going of birds between the cliffs and the +coops, every daw going back with a chick in his beak for his hungry +young in the nest. + +Yet my informant, this ancient and singularly intelligent old man, a +gamekeeper all his life, who knows his jackdaw, could not tell me why +gamekeepers no longer persecute so injurious a bird I He will not allow +a sparrow-hawk to exist in his woods, yet all he could say when I +repeated my question was, "No keeper ever thinks of hurting a jack now, +but I can't say why." + +The reason of it I fancy is plain enough; it is simply the sentiment I +have spoken of. In a small way it has always existed in certain places, +in towns, where the jackdaw is associated in our minds with cathedrals +and church towers--where he is the "ecclesiastical daw"; but the modern +wider toleration is due to the character, the personality, of the bird +itself, which is more or less like that of all the members of the +corvine family, with the exception of the rook, who always tries his +best to be an honest, useful citizen; but it is not precisely the same. +They may be regarded as bad hats generally In the bird community, and on +this very account--"I'm sorry to say," to quote Mr. Pecksniff--they +touch a chord in us; and the daw being the genial rascal in feathers par +excellence is naturally the best loved. + +It has thus come about that of all the Corvidae the daw is now the +favourite as a pet bird, and in the domestic condition he is accorded +more liberty than is given to other species. We think he makes better +use of his freedom, that he does not lose touch with his human friends +when allowed to fly about, and appears more capable of affection. + +Formerly, the raven and magpie came first as pets. The raven vanished as +a pet, because like the goshawk, kite, and buzzard, he was extirpated in +the interests of the game-preserver and hen-wife. The magpie was then +first, and has only been recently ousted from that ancient, honourable +position. The pie was a superior bird as a feathered pet in a cage; he +is beautiful in shape and colour in his snow-white and metallic +dark-green and purple-glossed plumage, and his long graduated tail. +Moreover, he is a clever bird. To my mind there is no more fascinating +species when I can find it in numbers, in places where it is not +persecuted, and is accustomed to congregate at intervals, not as rooks +and starlings do merely because they are gregarious, but purely for +social purposes--to play and converse with one another. Its language at +such times is so various as to be a surprise and delight to the +listener; while its ways of amusing itself, its clowning and the little +tricks and practical jokes the birds are continually playing on each +other, are a delight to witness. All this is lost in a caged bird. He is +handsome to look at and remarkably intelligent, but he distinguishes +between magpies and men; he doesn't reveal himself; his accomplishments, +vocal and mental, are for his own tribe. In this he differs from the +daw; for the daw is less specialized; he is an undersized common crow, +livelier, more impish than that bird, also more plastic, more adaptive, +and takes more kindly to the domestic or parasitic life. Human beings to +him are simply larger daws, and unlike the pie he can play his tricks +and be himself among them as freely as when with his feathered comrades. +We like him best because he makes himself one of us. + +Undoubtedly the chough comes nearest to the daw mentally, and as it is a +far more beautiful bird--the poor daw having little of that quality--it +would probably have been our prime favourite among the crows but for its +rarity. Formerly it was a common pet bird, caged or free, in all the +coast districts where it inhabited, and it may be that the desire for a +pet chough was the cause of its decline and final disappearance all +round the south and west coasts of England, except at one spot near +Tintagel where half a dozen pairs still exist only because watchers +appointed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds are always on +the spot to warn off the nest-robbers during the breeding season. But of +the chough in captivity or as a domesticated bird we know little now, as +no records have been preserved. I have only known one bird, taken from a +North Devon cliff about forty years ago, at a house near the coast; a +very beautiful pet bird with charming, affectionate ways, always free to +range about the country and the cliffs, where it associated with the +daws. It was the last of its kind at that place, and I do not know if it +still lives. + +Next to the chough the jay comes nearest to the daw mentally of all our +crows, and as he excels most of our wild birds in beauty he would +naturally have been a first favourite as a pet but for the fact that it +is only in a state of nature in which he is like the daw--lively, +clever, impish; in captivity he is more like the magpie and affiliates +even less than that bird with his human associates. In confinement he is +a quiet, almost sedate, certainly a silent bird: He is essentially a +woodland species; all his graces, his various, often musical, language, +with many imitations of bird and animal sounds, and his spectacular +games and pretty wing displays, are for his own people exclusively. He +must have his liberty in the woods and a company of his fellow-jays to +exhibit his full lustre. + +The difference between jay and daw is similar to that between fox and +dog; or rather let us say, between one of the small desert foxes of +Syria and Egypt--the fennec, for instance--and the jackal, the domestic +dog's progenitor; the first gifted with exquisite grace and beauty, was +too highly specialized to suit the domestic condition; hence the +generalized un-beautiful beast was chosen to be man's servant and +companion. In the same way it looks as if we were taking to the daw in +preference to the more beautiful bird because he is more like us, or +understands us better, or adapts himself more readily to our way of +life. + +I believe that about nine out of every ten interesting and amusing +stories about charming pet birds I have heard in England during the last +quarter of a century relate to the daw, and this, I think, goes to show +that he is a prime favourite as a feathered pet, at all events in the +southern and western counties. + + + + +VI + +STORY OF A JACKDAW + + +When I laid my pen down after concluding Part V it pleased me to think +that I had written the last word, that, my task finished, I was free to +go on to something else. But I was not yet wholly free of the jackdaws; +their yelping cries were still ringing in my mental ears, and their +remembered shapes were still all about me in their black dress, or +cassock, grey hood, and malicious little grey eyes. The persistent +images suggested that my task was not properly finished after all, that +it would be better to conclude with one of those anecdotes or stories of +the domesticated bird which I have said are so common; also that this +should be a typical story, which would serve to illustrate the peculiar +daw sentiment--the affectionate interest we take in him, not only in +spite of his impudence and impishness and naughtiness, but also to some +extent because of these same qualities, which find an echo in us. +Accordingly I set myself to recall some of the latest anecdotes of this +kind which I had heard, and selected the one which follows, not because +it was more interesting as a daw story than the others, but mainly on +account of the shrewd and humorous and dramatic way in which it was +related to me by a little boy of the working class. + +I met him on a bright Sunday morning at the end of June in the park-like +grounds of Walmer Castle. I had not long been seated on a garden bench +when a daw came flying to a tree close by and began craning her neck and +eyeing me with one eye, then the other, with an intense, almost painful +curiosity; and these nervous movements and gestures immediately revealed +to me that she had a nestful of young birds somewhere close by. After +changing her position several times to view me from other points and +find out what I was there for, she came to the conclusion that I was not +to be got rid of, and making a sudden dash to a tree standing just +before me, disappeared in a small hole or cleft in the trunk about +forty-five feet above the ground, and in a few seconds came out again +and flew swiftly away. In four or five minutes she returned, and after +eyeing me suspiciously a short time flew again to the tree and, +vanishing from sight in the hole, remained there. I was intently +watching that small black spot in the bark to see her emerge, when a +little boy came slowly sauntering past my bench, and glancing at him I +found that his shrewd brown eyes were watching my face and that he had a +knowing half-smile on his lips. + +"Hullo, my boy!" I said. "I can see plainly enough what is in _your_ +mind. You know I'm watching a hole in the tree where a jackdaw has just +gone in, and your intention is, when no one is about, to swarm up the +tree and get the young birds." + +"Oh, no," he returned. "I'm not going to climb the tree and don't want +any young jackdaws. I always come to look because the birds breed in +that hole every year. Two years ago I had a bird from the nest, but I +don't want another." + +Then at my invitation he sat down to tell me about it. One morning when +he came the young had just come off, and he found one squatting on the +ground under the trees, looking stupefied. No doubt when it flew out it +had struck against a trunk or branch and come down bruised and stunned. + +He wrapped it up in a handkerchief and took it home to Deal and put it +in a box; then mother got some flannel and made a sort of bed for it, +and warmed some milk and they opened its beak and fed it with a +teaspoon. Next day it was all right and opened its beak to be fed +whenever they came near it, and in two or three days it began flying +about the room and perching on their shoulders. Then he brought it back +to Walmer and let it go and saw it fly off into the trees, but when he +got home mother scolded him for having let it go when its parents were +not about; she said it would die of starvation, and was going on at him +when in flew the jackdaw and came flop on her shoulder! After that +mother and father said they'd keep the daw a little longer, and then he +could let it go at a distance where there were other daws about. By and +by they said they'd let it stay where it was. Father liked a bloater for +his tea, and there was nothing the jackdaw was fonder of, so he was +always on the table at tea-time, eating out of father's plate. Then he +got to be troublesome. He was always watching for a door or window of +the parlour to be opened to let the air in, and that was the room mother +was so careful about, and every time he got in he'd fly straight to the +mantelpiece, which was covered with photographs and ornaments. They were +mostly those little things--pigs and dogs and parrots and all sorts of +animals made of glass and china, and the jackdaw would begin to pick +them up and throw them down on to the fender, and of course he broke a +lot of them. That made mother mad, and she scolded him and told him to +get rid of the bird. So he wrapped it up so as it shouldn't know where +it was going and went off two or three miles along the coast, and let it +go where there were other daws. It flew off and joined them, and he +came home. That afternoon Jackie came back, and they wondered how he had +found his way. Father said 'twas plain enough, that the bird had just +followed the coast till he got back to Deal, and there he was at home. +He said the only way to lose it was to take it somewhere away from the +sea; so he wrapped it up again and took it to his Aunt Ellen's at +Northbourne, about five miles from Deal. His aunt told him to carry +it to the park, where he'd find other daws and settle down. And that's +what he did, but Jackie came back to Deal again that same day; the +strangest thing was that mother and father made a great fuss over it and +fed it just as if they were glad to have it back. Next day it got into +the parlour and broke some more things, and mother scolded him for not +getting rid of the bird, and father said he knew how it could be done. +One of his pals was going to Dover, and he would ask him to take the +bird and let it go up by the castle where it would mix with the jackdaws +there, and that would be too far away for it to come back. But it did +come back, and after that he sent it to Ashford, and then to Canterbury, +and I don't know how many other places, but it always came back, and +they always seemed very glad to see it back. All the same, mother was +always scolding him about the bird and complaining to father about the +damage it did in the house. Then one day Aunt Ellen came to see mother, +and told her the best way to get rid of the daw would be to send it +abroad; she said her husband's cousin, Mr. Sturge, was going out to his +relations in Canada to work on their farm, and she would get +her husband to ask him to take the jackdaw. It would never come back +from such a distant place. A week afterwards Mr. Sturge sent word that +he would take the bird, as he thought his relations would like to have a +real old English jackdaw to remind them of home. So one day Aunt Ellen +came and took Jackie away in a small covered basket. The funniest thing +was the way father went on when he came home to tea. "A bloater with a +soft roe," he says; "just what Jackie likes! Where's the bird got to? +Come to your tea, Jackie!" + +"He's gone," says mother, "gone to Canada, and a good riddance, too!" + +"Oh, gone, has he?" says father. "Then we're a happy family and going to +lead a quiet life. No more screams and tears over broken chiny dolls! +And if ever Billy brings another jackdaw into the house we'll dust his +coat for him." + +Here Billy interposed to say that if he ever made such a mistake again +they could thrash him as much as they liked. + +"Oh, yes," said father, "we'll thrash you fast enough; mother'll do it +for the sake of her chiny toys and dolls." + +That put mother up. "You're in a nasty temper," she says, "but you know +I miss the bird as much as you do!" + +"Then," said father, "why the devil didn't you tell that sister of yours +to mind her own business when she came interfering about my jackdaw! And +that Sturge, he'll soon get tired of the bird and give it away for a +pint of beer before he gets to Liverpool." + +"So much the better," says mother. "If Jackie can get free before they +take him aboard you may be sure he'll find his way back to Deal." + +And that's what they went on hoping for days and days; but Jackie never +came back, so I s'pose Mr. Sturge took him out all right and that he's +in Canada now. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Birds in Town and Village, by W. H. Hudson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE *** + +***** This file should be named 7353.txt or 7353.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/3/5/7353/ + +Produced by Eric Eldred + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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