The Natural History of Cage Birds Part 36

The female, rather smaller and lighter, rust-coloured on the wings, has not a fine white throat like the male.

HABITATION.--When wild the white-throat is spread through Europe. They leave us the beginning of October, and are then observed to retire from bush to bush, and from hedge to hedge. They reappear towards the middle of April, fluttering about the bushes in the fields, the brambles, thickets, underwood of the low mountains, and the orchards, running about very swiftly.

In the house they must be treated in the same manner as the fauvette; but they are much more delicate. An amateur had better rear young birds, and treat them like nightingales. It is the only way to keep them many years.

FOOD.--When wild these birds are constantly seeking among the bushes for all kinds of insects, grubs, and especially small caterpillars.

When, from the air becoming cooler, the supply of this sort of food lessens, they immediately subst.i.tute for it currants, cherries, and elderberries.

In the house they must be fed, as we said before, on nightingales'

food. They may, however, be given, occasionally, barley meal and white bread soaked in boiled milk; but this food alone will not agree with them, for they will upon it gradually lose their feathers, till at length they become quite bare. It is a good thing in summer to give them elderberries, though they may be red, and in winter dried ones, after soaking them in water.

BREEDING.--The nest is formed of small gra.s.s stems and moss, and lined with horse-hair. It is placed in a thick bush, near the ground, or among roots at the water side, sometimes even in tufts of gra.s.s. The eggs, from four to six in number, are greenish white, spotted with olive green, and speckled at the large end with dark ash-grey. The young leave the nest so soon that it is difficult to take them from it. Their first plumage resembles full-grown ones, and the females may be known by the fainter tint of fawn brown with which the wing-feathers are edged. I have reared them easily on ants' eggs.

They soon learn to peck alone, and are tolerably satisfied with bread soaked in boiled milk; but to keep them long in health they must be fed in the same manner as the nightingale. They are pretty, engaging birds, thus reared, becoming so tame that they will perch and sing on the finger.

DISEASES.--These are the same as those of the blackcap, which may be referred to.

MODE OF TAKING.--The easiest way is to place limed twigs on the nest, but this is repugnant to persons not cruel. Towards the end of summer, spring-traps may be set, with elderberries and gooseberries hung near them. It is difficult to take these birds at the water-trap.

ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--This bird, gay, lively, and constantly in motion, is a pleasing object in the country. Its song, prolonged far into the night, consists of several strains, which rapidly succeed each other, but must be near for all its beauties to be distinguished, since the soft low tones are only occasionally interrupted by louder notes, which are shrill and follow quickly one after the other. The bird rises in the air as it sings, as if to be better heard, circles round as it ceases, and sinks again into its bush. Its call is a loud _tze_. When the white-throat is alone in a room, its song appears very melodious.

MR. SWEET'S ACCOUNT OF THE WHITE-THROAT.

This is one of the most delightful and pleasing birds that can be imagined. If kept in a large cage with other birds it is so full of antics, in flying and frisking about, and erecting its crest, generally singing all the time, certainly nothing can be more amusing. It is also quite as hardy as the blackcap, and if a good one be procured, it is little inferior in song: but in this they vary considerably, the wild ones as well as those in a cage. I have now one in my possession that I have had about eleven years, in as good health, and singing as well as ever; and certainly no song need be louder, sweeter, or more varied. It is of the same temper as a nightingale, never suffering itself to be outdone. It will indeed sing for hours together against a nightingale, now in the beginning of January, and it will not suffer itself to be outdone; when the nightingale raises its voice, it also does the same, and tries its utmost to get above it; sometimes in the midst of its song it will run up to the nightingale, and stretch out its neck as if in defiance, and whistle as loud as it can, staring it in the face; if the nightingale attempts to peck it, away it is in an instant flying round the aviary, and singing all the time.

In a wild state, the present species is generally to be found in hedges and gardens, and is the most common of our British warblers, visiting us the beginning or middle of April, and leaving us towards the end of September; sometimes a solitary one may be seen in October, but not frequently. It is particularly fond of flies, or a rose-branch covered with aphides will please it very much.

THE BABILLARD.

Sylvia curruca, BECHSTEIN; Motacilla dumetorum, LINNaeUS; La Fauvette babillarde, BUFFON; Das Mullerchen, BECHSTEIN.

This bird somewhat resembles the white-throat, but is smaller, and has less rust colour on the wings. It is five inches long, the tail measuring more than two. The beak is five lines in length, very pointed, black above, and bluish below; the iris has two rings, the outer one pale yellow, the inner a brilliant golden yellow; the shanks, seven lines high, are raven black; the head and rump are dark ash grey; the rest of the upper part of the body is grey, with a reddish tint; the cheeks and the part behind the ears are darker than the head; the throat and under part of the body are white, but the sides of the breast are tinged with reddish grey, and those of the belly with reddish brown.

The birds must be before you to be able to distinguish the two s.e.xes; you can then only perceive that the head of the female is of a lighter colour, and the feet rather blue than black.

HABITATION.--When wild this species is found throughout Europe, except the north. It is common in the hedges in Germany, disappearing in September, and returning the middle of April. Its taste for currants often draws it to the garden hedge. It is not very often seen in young coppice wood, scarcely ever on trees[97], continually on low bushes.

In the house it must be lodged like the fauvette, and taken the same care of; it is so delicate, that when taken rather old it can rarely be preserved.

FOOD.--When wild it is the same as the preceding species.

In the house these birds cannot be kept long, unless fed on nightingales' food, mingled with ants' eggs and meal-worms.

BREEDING.--The nest is generally found on a thick gooseberry bush, or white-thorn, and on young fir trees in fir woods. It is formed of coa.r.s.e dried gra.s.s, lined with small roots mixed with hogs' bristles.

There are five or six eggs, white, spotted at the large end with grey and yellow brown in a circle. The female's attachment to her brood may be known from her dropping from her nest almost fainting as soon as any one approaches, uttering anxious cries, fluttering on the ground, and slowly retiring from the nest. Scarcely are the young ones fledged, when, if looked at, they will dart like an arrow from the nest, and run and hide themselves among the bushes. If you wish to rear them, they must be taken as I have directed for the fauvette, remembering that the male and female cannot then be distinguished.

DISEASES.--These are the same as in the fauvettes.

MODE OF TAKING.--If snow should fall after their return, a place near a hedge should be cleared, and limed twigs fastened to the lower branches; after having thrown meal-worms there, the birds should be gently driven towards it, and for the sake of the worms they will creep under the limed twigs, and remain caught.

ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--Though the plumage is not very striking, yet this bird is very pretty. Some clacking tones, rather like the noise of a mill, have given it in Germany the name of the _little Miller_; as these notes are heard more distinctly than the others, they are erroneously thought to be its whole song; but the rest, certainly very weak, is so soft, so varied, so melodious, that it surpa.s.ses other warblers. Whilst singing in this under tone it is continually hopping about the bushes, but when going to utter _clap, clap_, it stops and employs the whole strength of the larynx to p.r.o.nounce this syllable. To enjoy the beauty of its song it should be alone in a room, and then no other singing bird is more agreeable, as it rarely utters its call.

MR. SWEET'S ACCOUNT OF THE BABILLARD.

This is a handsome, little, lively species, more elegant and smaller than the white-throat, and of a purer colour; its throat being as white as snow. It generally visits us the beginning or middle of April, and leaves us again the end of August or beginning of September. Its song is not so agreeable as most of the other species of warblers; but it is soft and pretty, and very different from any other. It is also more valuable by being much more rare; some seasons very few visit us, in others they are sufficiently plentiful. Its habits are somewhat similar to those of the white-throat, but it is much more quarrelsome, sometimes so much so, that it must be taken from the other birds or it will worry them to death, even if they are double its size.

In confinement it will soon become tame and familiar, and will readily take to feed on bread and milk, and also on bruised hemp-seed and bread.

One that I bred up from the nest became so attached to its cage, that it could not be prevailed upon to quit it for any length of time. When the door of it was set open, it would generally come out quickly, and first perch on the door, then mount to the top of the cage, thence it would fly to any other cages that were in the room, and catch any flies that came within its reach; sometimes it would descend to the floor, or perch on a table or chair, and would fly up and take a fly out of the hand, or drink milk out of a spoon if invited: of this it was very fond.

As soon as it was the least frightened, it would fly immediately to its cage, first on the top, thence to the door, and would enter in exactly as it came out. I have often hung it out at the window perched on the top of its cage, with the door open, and it would never attempt to fly away. Sometimes if a fly should happen to pa.s.s near it, it would fly off and catch it, and return with it to the top of the cage: after remaining there a considerable time, it would either return into it, or fly in at the window, and perch on the cages of the other birds. It is rather more tender than the white-throat.

MR. BLYTH'S ACCOUNT OF THE BABILLARD.

The warble of the babillard (_Curruca garrula_, Brisson) is pretty and lively, but its song is rendered monotonous in the spring and summer by the constant repet.i.tion of its loud note of defiance, a.n.a.logous to the clear lively note with which the blackcap generally concludes: this may be expressed by the monosyllable _see_, repeated nine or ten times in quick succession, and at times very loudly: it is a note, which, though agreeable enough when only heard occasionally, becomes quite tiresome when continually reiterated. This species, however, can warble very sweetly if it please, and, in confinement, during the first months of the year, its song is heard to great advantage in a room; it then rarely repeats its loud _see see see_, and when, at that time, the above-mentioned note is uttered, it forms, indeed, an agreeable variety.

The song of the babillard is formed of a number of soft chirping notes, many of which are extremely sweet and musical, and though at times tolerably loud, yet they are generally delivered in a very low tone, scarcely audible at a little distance. The male is almost perpetually singing, erecting his crest and the feathers of his throat in the manner of a white-throat, and, like that species and the furze warbler, he is in constant motion the whole time, throwing himself into a variety of odd gesticulations. The song of this bird is very superior to that of many white-throats, but not to all; he has none of those harsh sounding notes which so often disfigure the white-throat's song. He seems also to be always in such high spirits as not to know how to contain himself, taking frequently a long circuitous flight from tree to tree, and back again, a dozen times, seemingly for no other purpose than mere exercise; but he never mounts singing into the air, like the white-throat. There are yet many persons, I believe, who consider this species to be "a mere variety" of the white-throat. These two species differ from each other in size, in make, in colour, in their manners, their habits, their song, in the structure of their nest, and in the marking of their eggs; and surely, "if all these circ.u.mstances (as Wilson observes, after making similar remarks on two American birds, one of which had been considered a 'b.a.s.t.a.r.d' production of the other) be not sufficient to designate this (the babillard) as a distinct species, by what criterion, I would ask, are we to discriminate between a _variety_ and an _original species_, or, to a.s.sure ourselves, that the great horned owl is not, in fact, a _b.a.s.t.a.r.d_ goose, or the carrion crow a mere _variety_ of the humming bird?"

THE BLACK REDSTART.

Motacilla t.i.thys, LINNaeUS: Le Rouge-queue, BUFFON; Der Wistling, BECHSTEIN.

Length five inches and one quarter, of which the tail alone measures two and one quarter. The beak is five lines long, very pointed and black, the inside and corners yellow; the iris is dusky; the shanks are nine lines high, and black; the upper part of the body is dark bluish, or blackish gray; the rump is red; the cheeks, throat, and breast, are black; the belly and sides are of the same dark colour as the back, but tinged with white; the vent is reddish yellow.

The upper part of the body in the female is dusky ash grey; the under part ash grey, with a reddish tinge.

The colours of this bird vary during the first eight years; the oldest ones, with the exception of the tail and wings, are in general black, but deeper on the under part than the upper; the very oldest have a greyish breast.

Those a year or two old very much resemble the females, having the upper part of the body ash grey, but the under rather more of a reddish colour; the quill-feathers have a more decided border. After two years the depth of the colour gradually increases. Several bird-catchers, and from them some authors, have considered these birds of different ages as different species.

HABITATION.--In its wild state the black redstart is found in the temperate parts of Europe and in Asia in the same lat.i.tudes[98]. They seem to prefer mountainous districts to wide plains, and they are seen in great numbers on bare chalk-hills; if found in woods, it is only in those that are on rocks. They frequent towns and villages, perching on the highest buildings, towers, steeples, churches, and castles[99]. In spring and autumn it hops about the hedges. It arrives early in the spring, its song is heard in the beginning of March, and it quits us in small flights towards the middle of October. It possesses one quality, not common among singing birds, that of singing all the year, or, at least, whilst in our country, however cold and stormy the weather may be.

In the house it should be kept in a nightingale's cage, or at least not permitted to range the room.

FOOD.--When wild it feeds on flies, drawn by the warmth of spring from their retreat, and settled on walls; afterwards on cabbage caterpillars and other insects, and in autumn on berries.

In the house they may be kept in health a long time, if the above insects are procured for them, or if fed on nightingales' food, adding occasionally ants' eggs and meal-worms.

Old birds taken in autumn may sometimes be tamed and accustomed to eat the common food in the room, by putting amongst elderberries, in autumn, ants' eggs, and meal-worms at other seasons. They have been known to live five or six years in a cage.

BREEDING.--This bird makes its nest in the holes of rocks and walls, particularly in high buildings, on the timbers of barns, and places it at a distance from any other. It is constructed of hay, mixed with the hair of animals. Each laying (for there are two in the year) consists of five or six white eggs. The young have a reddish grey plumage, and should be taken from the nest when the tail is half grown, if it is wished to rear them. They should be fed on ants'

eggs, and white bread soaked in boiled milk.

DISEASES.--These are the same as those of the fauvette.

MODE OF TAKING.--Limed twigs, with meal-worms fastened to them, should be laid wherever these birds are most frequently found. Towards winter they may be caught in spring-traps with elderberries hung opposite.

ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--Its call, "_fitza_," being very similar to the nightingale's, has given rise most probably to its name of Wall Nightingale, which it has in common with the following species. Its song certainly cannot enter into comparison with that of the nightingale, for it is sad, and consists of only three strains, the middle one scarcely more than croaking; the other two may boast of a few high clear tones; it may be heard from early in the morning till night. It is always gay and active, its motions light and nimble; it shakes its tail quickly from side to side at every hop or spring, and utters continually the cry "_fitza[100]!_"