The Natural History of Selborne Volume I Part 12

25. Small willow-wren, _Regulus non Sings in March, and on cristatus_. to September.

26. Largest ditto, _Ditto_. _Cantat voce stridula locustae_; from end of April to August.

27. Gra.s.shopper-lark, _Alauda minima voce Chirps all night, from locustae_. the middle of April to the end of July.

28. Martin, _Hirundo agrestis_. All the breeding time; from May to September.

29. Bullfinch, _Pyrrhula_.

30. Bunting, _Emberiza alba_. From the end of January to July.

All singing birds, and those that have any pretensions to song, not only in Britain, but perhaps the world through, come under the Linnaean _ordo_ of _Pa.s.seres_.

The above-mentioned birds, as they stand numerically, belong to the following Linnaean genera:--

1,7,10,27, _Alauda_ 8,28, _Hirundo_.

2,11,21, _t.u.r.dus_. 13,16,19, _Fringilla_.

3,4,5,9,12, ) 22,24, _Parus_.

15,17,18,20, _Motacilla_ 14,29, _Loxia_.

) 23,25,26, ) 6,20, _Emberiza_.

Birds that sing as they fly are but few:--

RAII NOMINA.

Skylark, _Alauda vulgaris_. Rising, suspended, and falling.

t.i.tlark, _Alauda pratorum_. In its descent; also sitting on trees, and walking on the ground.

Woodlark, _Alauda arborea_. Suspended; in hot summer nights all night long.

Blackbird, _Merula_. Sometimes from bush to bush.

Whitethroat, _Ficedula affinis_. Uses when singing on the wing odd jerks and gesticulations.

Swallow, _Hirundo domestica_. In soft sunny weather.

Wren, _Pa.s.ser troglodytes_. Sometimes from bush to bush.

Birds that breed most early in these parts:--

RAII NOMINA.

Raven, _Corvus_. Hatches in February and March.

Song-thrush, _t.u.r.dus_. In March.

Blackbird, _Merula_. In March.

Rook, _Cornix frugilega_. Builds the beginning of March.

Woodlark, _Alauda arborea_. Hatches in April.

Ring-dove, _Palumbus torquatus_. Lays the beginning of April.

All birds that continue in full song till after Midsummer appear to me to breed more than once.

Most kinds of birds seem to me to be wild and shy somewhat in proportion to their bulk: I mean in this island, where they are much pursued and annoyed; but in Ascension Island, and many other desolate places, mariners have found fowls so unacquainted with a human figure, that they would stand still to be taken, as is the case with b.o.o.bies, etc. As an example of what is advanced, I remark that the golden-crested wren (the smallest British bird) will stand unconcerned till you come within three or four yards of it, while the bustard (_Otis_), the largest British land fowl, does not care to admit a person within so many furlongs.

I am, etc.

LETTER III.

SELBORNE, _Jan. 15th_, 1770.

Dear Sir,--It was no small matter of satisfaction to me to find that you were not displeased with my little _methodus_ of birds. If there was any merit in the sketch, it must be owing to its punctuality. For many months I carried a list in my pocket of the birds that were to be remarked, and, as I rode or walked about my business, I noted each day the continuance or omission of each bird's song, so that I am as sure of the certainty of my facts as a man can be of any transaction whatsoever.

I shall now proceed to answer the several queries which you put in your two obliging letters, in the best manner that I am able. Perhaps Eastwick and its environs, where you heard so very few birds, is not a woodland country, and therefore not stocked with such songsters. If you will cast your eye on my last letter, you will find that many species continued to warble after the beginning of July.

The t.i.tlark and yellow-hammer breed late, the latter very late; and therefore it is no wonder that they protract their song: for I lay it down as a maxim in ornithology, that as long as there is any incubation going on there is music. As to the redbreast and wren, it is well known to the most incurious observer that they whistle the year round, hard frost excepted--especially the latter.

It was not in my power to procure you a black-cap, or a less reed-sparrow, or sedge-bird, alive. As the first is undoubtedly, and the last, as far as I can yet see, a summer bird of pa.s.sage, they would require more nice and curious management in a cage than I should be able to give them: they are both distinguished songsters. The note of the former has such a wild sweetness that it always brings to my mind those lines in a song in "As You Like It":

"And tune his merry note Unto the _wild_ bird's throat."--SHAKESPEARE.

The latter has a surprising variety of notes resembling the song of several other birds; but then it has also a hurrying manner, not at all to its advantage: it is notwithstanding a delicate polyglot.

It is new to me that t.i.tlarks in cages sing in the night; perhaps only caged birds do so. I once knew a tame redbreast in a cage that always sang as long as candles were in the room; but in their wild state no one supposes they sing in the night.

I should be almost ready to doubt the fact that there are to be seen much fewer birds in July than in any former month, notwithstanding so many young are hatched daily. Sure I am that it is far otherwise with respect to the swallow tribe, which increases prodigiously as the summer advances: and I saw at the time mentioned many hundreds of young wagtails on the banks of the Cherwell, which almost covered the meadows. If the matter appears as you say in the other species, may it not be owing to the dams being engaged in incubation, while the young are concealed by the leaves.

Many times have I had the curiosity to open the stomachs of woodc.o.c.ks and snipes: but nothing ever occurred that helped to explain to me what their subsistence might be: all that I could ever find was a soft mucus, among which lay many pellucid small gravels.

I am, etc.

LETTER IV.

SELBORNE, _Feb. 19th_, 1770.

Dear Sir,--Your observation that "the cuckoo does not deposit its egg indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird that comes in its way, but probably looks out a nurse in some degree congenerous with whom to intrust its young," is perfectly new to me, and struck me so forcibly that I naturally fell into a train of thought that led me to consider whether the fact was so, and what reason there was for it. When I came to recollect and inquire, I could not find that any cuckoo had ever been seen in these parts, except in the nest of the wagtail, the hedge-sparrow, the t.i.tlark, the white-throat, and the redbreast, all soft-billed insectivorous birds. The excellent Mr. Willughby mentions the nest of the _Palumbus_ (ring-dove), and of the _Fringilla_ (chaffinch), birds that subsist on acorns and grains, and such hard food: but then he does not mention them as of his own knowledge, but says afterwards that he saw himself a wagtail feeding a cuckoo. It appears hardly possible that a soft-billed bird should subsist on the same food with the hard-billed: for the former have thin membranaceous stomachs suited to their soft food, while the latter, the granivorous tribe, have strong muscular gizzards, which, like mills, grind, by the help of small gravels and pebbles, what is swallowed. This proceeding of the cuckoo, of dropping its eggs as it were by chance, is such a monstrous outrage on maternal affection, one of the first great dictates of nature, and such a violence on instinct, that, had it only been related of a bird in the Brazils, or Peru, it would never have merited our belief. But yet, should it further appear that this simple bird, when divested of that natural [Greek text] that seems to raise the kind in general above themselves, and inspire them with extraordinary degrees of cunning and address, may be still endued with a more enlarged faculty of discerning what species are suitable and congenerous nursing-mothers for its disregarded eggs and young, and may deposit them only under their care, this would be adding wonder to wonder, and instancing, in a fresh manner, that the methods of Providence are not subjected to any mode or rule, but astonish us in new lights, and in various and changeable appearances.

What was said by a very ancient and sublime writer concerning the defect of natural affection in the ostrich may be well applied to the bird we are talking of:

"She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers:

"Because G.o.d hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath He imparted to her understanding."

_Query_.--Does each female cuckoo lay but one egg in a season, or does she drop several in different nests according as opportunity offers?

I am, etc.

LETTER V.

SELBORNE, _April 12th_, 1770.

Dear Sir,--I heard many birds of several species sing last year after Midsummer, enough to prove that the summer solstice is not the period that puts a stop to the music of the woods. The yellow-hammer no doubt persists with more steadiness than any other: but the woodlark, the wren, the redbreast, the swallow, the whitethroat, the goldfinch, the common linnet, are all undoubted instances of the truth of what I advanced.

If this severe season does not interrupt the regularity of the summer migrations, the black-cap will be here in two or three days. I wish it was in my power to procure you one of those songsters; but I am no bird-catcher, and so little used to birds in a cage, that I fear if I had one it would soon die for want of skill in feeding.