The Natural History of Cage Birds Part 37

THE COMMON REDSTART.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Motacilla Phoenicurus, LINNaeUS; Le Rossignol de muraille, BUFFON; Das Gemeiner oder Garten-Rothschwanzchen, BECHSTEIN.

Its length is five inches and a quarter, of which the tail measures two and a quarter. The beak is five lines, the tip is blunt, black on the outside, yellow within and at the corners; the iris is black; the shanks are of the same colour, and ten lines high; the base of the upper mandible and cheeks are black, as also the throat, but this is speckled with white; the white on the front of the head unites with a streak of the same colour, which extends above the eyes; the back of the head and neck, the back and lesser wing-coverts, are dark ash grey tinged with a reddish colour; the rump, breast, and sides, are red inclining to orange.

The female is very different, very much resembling that of the black redstart, yet its colours are rather lighter. The upper part of its body is reddish ash grey; the whitish throat is not clouded with black till the fifth or sixth year; the breast is dusky rust-red waved with white; the belly is dusky white; the rump is reddish yellow[101].

It is not till after the first moulting that the distinction between the plumage of the males and females is obvious; even then the breast of the male retains the black tinged with white, but loses this tint in the course of the following summer; the males also have for some time a white streak on the forehead, that pa.s.ses above the eyes, and the belly is more white than rust-red.

HABITATION.--In a wild state these birds are found in Europe and Asia, and are very common in Germany and England. They leave us the beginning of October, and return the end of March or beginning of April. At this time and in autumn they haunt hedges and bushes; but in summer they princ.i.p.ally frequent gardens, the banks of streams planted with willows, and even forests. Those that frequent gardens also enter towns, and will perch on the roofs of the houses, enlivening the inmates with their song from morning till night.

In the house, if given a cage, it should be of such light wire work as not to conceal the beauty of the plumage.

FOOD.--When wild they feed on all kinds of insects, earth-worms, currants, and elderberries.

In the house, if taken in autumn, they may sometimes be induced to feed on elderberries, rarely on the poultry paste. To entice them to this meal-worms must be mixed with it at first, and some thrown in when it is eaten; ants' eggs must be added in spring. These birds are delicate, and always require to be supplied with insects; but never give them earth-worms, as they do not digest them easily. If kept in cages they should be given nightingales' food; yet fed in this way it is rare to preserve them above three or four years; they generally die of consumption or atrophy.

BREEDING.--The redstart generally places its nest in a hole of a tree or wall; it is negligently formed of moss, stalks of gra.s.s, feathers, and hair. The female has two broods in the year, and each time she lays from five to seven eggs, of an apple green. Scarcely have the tail-feathers begun to grow ere the young ones hop from the nest and perch on some neighbouring branch, where they receive food from the parent birds till they are able to seek it for themselves. Their plumage before moulting is ash grey spotted with white. The young females resemble the nightingale so much in autumn that they are often mistaken for it. Bird-fanciers should rear these birds on ants'

eggs, with white bread soaked in boiled milk occasionally, and thus accustom them to the common universal paste. They learn to repeat parts of the songs of their companions.

DISEASES.--Diarrhoea and atrophy carry off the greatest number.

MODE OF TAKING.--Sticks covered with bird-lime should be placed across the hedges frequented by these birds; they must then be driven gently towards them. They are also attracted under nets, and amongst limed twigs baited with meal-worms. In autumn they may be taken in nooses, by suspending elderberries near them, either in orchards or thickets.

Those intended for the house should be taken in bird-traps or springes, taking care that the wooden part be covered with felt or cork, to prevent the legs being broken. The young ones of the first year are the easiest to preserve. They also go to the water-trap without difficulty.

ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--Its plumage, and still more its song and sprightliness, render this a delightful bird. It is always in motion, bowing, and moving its tail from side to side at every step; all its actions are lively and graceful. It can improve its song, composed of some very pretty strains, by adding to it parts of the songs of birds that are found near it. For instance, those that build under my roof imitate tolerably the chaffinch that hangs in a cage at my window; and a neighbour of mine has one in his garden that repeats some strains of a blackcap that has its nest near. This facility in appropriating the song of other birds is rare in birds that live in a state of liberty, and seems peculiar to this species. They become so tame that they will take meal-worms from the hand.

MR. SWEET'S ACCOUNT OF THE REDSTART.

This is one of the handsomest of our British birds, visiting us the latter end of March or beginning of April; the earliest arrival ever noticed was the 25th of March, and they generally leave us the beginning of September. When they first arrive they mostly frequent old buildings or out-houses, for the sake of flies and small insects that often abound there. They build their nest in a hole or crevice of a wall, or in a hollow tree. They frequently ascend to the top of the highest tree within their haunt, and there sit sometimes for a considerable time, pouring out their quick and sort of fretful song. When kept in confinement I consider it the most sensible, and, if brought up from the nest, the most attached of all small birds; but it may be considered the most tender of the whole tribe. It is a real mocker, and if bred up from a young one, will learn the note or call of almost any other bird; it will also learn a tune that is whistled or sung to it, and will sing by night as well as day if a light be kept in the room where it is.

I was in possession of a handsome male bird of this species, which I kept more than six years. It became very tame, though an old wild bird when first caught, and it was so attached to its cage, that one day, having got its liberty, it flew away into the gardens, where it stayed six or seven hours, after which it returned to its cage again. In the year 1825 I saw a female bird of this species so late as the 21st of November, flying about as lively as at midsummer; it had probably escaped or been turned out of a cage. When in confinement it is particularly partial to ants' eggs, and also to the common maggots.

THE ARBOUR BIRD.

Sylvia polyglotta, RANZANI; Sylvia Hippolais, BECHSTEIN; Le Bec-fin a poitrine jaune, TEMMINCK; Die Gelbbrust, BECHSTEIN; Die Spotvogel, WICHTERICH.

This pleasing bird, which is met with wherever there are groves and bushes[102], is five inches and a half in length, of which the tail measures two and a quarter. The beak, seven lines long, is straight, blunt, bluish grey above, and yellow tinged with flesh-colour beneath, with yellowish corners, and the entrance of the throat citron yellow; the iris is dark brown; the shanks, ten lines high, are lead-coloured.

The head is pointed in front; the back, rump, and lesser wing-coverts, are olive ash grey; a yellow line extends from the nostrils to the eyes; the whole of the under part of the body is a fine light yellow; the tail and wings are dark brown; the secondary quill-feathers have so wide a white border that it forms a spot on the closed wings.

HABITATION.--In its wild state it frequents orchards, groves, and brambles; but with us it seems to prefer small woods that are interspersed with resinous trees. It arrives the end of April, and quits us as early as the end of August, before the moulting season.

In the house it is kept in a nightingale's cage, in which no change must be made, still less must another be given it, for it would not survive these disturbances. It is so delicate, that if taken when full grown it is almost impossible to tame it.

FOOD.--When wild its food is all kinds of insects, smooth caterpillars, flies, gnats, &c.; and if these are scarce, berries[103].

In the house it prefers these insects and meal-worms. It is only with great patience and management that it can be given a taste for the nightingale's food. In general it will eat nothing but insects.

BREEDING.--The nest of the arbour bird is one of those that are so well and curiously formed, commonly placed eight feet above the ground, in the fork of a tree. It is built of pieces of the white bark of the birch tree, dried plants, caterpillars' webs, wool, and the upper layer of down. All these white materials give it the appearance of being made of paper. It is lined with the finest hay.

The female lays five eggs, which are at first of a pale rose red, but after having been sat upon some days acquire a dark flesh-coloured tint, speckled with dark red. This species has but one brood in the year, and if the nest is approached two or three times it will desert it, whether the young ones are hatched or not.

If a person wish to have this pleasing bird in the house, as it is often seen in Hesse, he must take the young ones early from the nest, feed them on ants' eggs and bullock's heart chopped small, and always keep them in a warm place. As soon as the arbour bird has been placed in the situation destined for it, it must be left there constantly; its cage ought not to be changed, at least there should be no difference in the one given it afterwards, as without this attention it becomes sad, eats no longer, and dies in a short time. I may observe here, that it moults in December or January, whence we may infer that it pa.s.ses the winter in a southern climate.

DISEASES.--These are the same as the nightingale's.

MODE OF TAKING.--This can rarely be accomplished but by placing limed twigs on the nest, which is a cruel method, and the nest is often deserted as soon as it has been approached. Neither will these birds go to the water-trap: they may be caught occasionally in bird-traps in August, by baiting them with currants[104]. The surest way then is to take them young, especially as the old ones cannot be tamed.

ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--The song of the arbour bird is sweet, varied, full of power and melody, long sustained; yet some harsh strains have been remarked, and some resembling the notes of the chimney swallow.

Whilst singing its throat is much dilated. Its call is _dak, dak!

hyovie, hyovie!_ Its plumage is pretty.

ACCOUNT OF THE ARBOUR BIRD, FROM THE "FIELD NATURALIST'S MAGAZINE."

"British writers, since the time of Pennant and White, have rendered the history of several of our smallest birds a ma.s.s of confusion, which even now it will be difficult to clear up, though I feel confident I possess the means of loosening two at least of the knots of the controverted points, as I shall presently show.

"When I was residing, in the summer of 1832, at Bonn, on the Rhine, my friend M. Wichterich brought me a pair of birds with their young, which at first sight, judging from colour and size, I took to be pale canaries, till I looked at their bills; I perceived then that it was a species with which I was unacquainted, and certainly not known as British. I was accordingly not a little surprised when he told me it was the _Sylvia Hippolais_ of Bechstein, and astonished when he said it was one of the finest song birds in Europe, very superior to the blackcap and fauvette, and in some respects even to the nightingale. I thence concluded that it was the species whose splendid song had charmed and puzzled me in an orchard at Schiedam, in Holland, and again in the gardens of Prince Maximilian, at Neuwied, on the Rhine; the rich intonation and mult.i.tudinous variety of the notes fully bearing out my friend's opinion. This circ.u.mstance alone would go far to prove that the species is not British, for it would be impossible so fine a song bird could be concealed, particularly as it haunts gardens, and is rarely found in woods. The very contrary of the statement of Temminck, whose authority, how high soever it may be in other matters, is, with respect to habits and field observations, of not the slightest weight: he might have seen the bird, if he ever looked beyond his cabinet, in most of the gardens about Leyden, where he resides.

"I kept the old birds with their young, which they fed in a cage for some time, but to my great regret they fell a sacrifice to the common enemy of cage birds. About the same time I was delighted to find a nest of the same species in a lilac-tree in my own garden, about half a dozen yards from my parlour windows. Three of the young after leaving this nest were secured, and their mother was caught to feed them, which she did successfully, and I brought them all, and three others, home with me to England. The nest was about seven feet high from the garden level, and ten from the base of a low wall, over which the branch where it was built leaned. The workmanship of the nest is very superior to that of the blackcap, coming nearer in character to that of the finches. The frame-work is rather thick, made of dried gra.s.s stems, sewing thread, fine wood shavings, birch bark, and small pieces of linen rag. The inside is very neatly lined with roots, hair, and a few feathers and small locks of wool.

"In the full grown male the bill is about half an inch long, straight, somewhat blunt, broad and flat at the base. The upper mandible has an exceedingly indistinct notch, and is greyish blue; the under mandible yellowish, with a tinge of red; the angles yellowish, and the opening of the mouth lemon yellow. The tongue is yellow, abrupt at the point, and furnished with three bristles. The iris is dusky brown. The forehead is low, flat, angular, and pointed. The eyebrows and eyelids are yellow, and a yellow line runs from the nostrils to the eyes. The crown of the head, neck, back, and wing-coverts are olive grey, inclining more to green on the rump. The shoulder of the wing (_campterium_, ILLIGER) is yellow: the primary quill-feathers are dusky brown, with a slight fringe of olive grey; the rest of the quill-feathers have a broader fringe of greyish white, which, when the wing is closed, forms a whitish patch.

The tail is two inches long, the feathers being of equal length, and of very nearly the same colours and tinge as the wing-quills. All the under parts of the body are of a fine clear lemon colour. The legs are five-sixths of an inch high, and of a lead colour; the claws greyish brown. The whole length is five inches and a half; the extent of the wings nine inches.

The female is sometimes, but not always, rather paler than the male. The young have the yellow parts very pale.

A species very similar to this has been discovered in Italy by Prince C.

Buonaparte--the _Sylvia icterina_? of Vieillot, which frequents marshy places.

THE COMMON CHIFF-CHAFF.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Sylva loquax, HERBERT; S. Hippolais, MONTAGU; but not the _S.

Hippolais_ of the Continental authors, which is _S.

polyglotta_.

COLONEL MONTAGU AND MR. SWEET'S ACCOUNT OF THE CHIFF-CHAFF.

This bird weighs about two or nearly three drachms; the length varies from four inches and a half to five inches.

This species is nearly the same size as the hay-bird. In its plumage it so much resembles that bird, that we shall only make mention here of some essential marks of distinction, and refer our readers to the hay-bird.

Its general colour is not so much tinged with yellow, and the legs are dusky, which in the other are brown.

The plumage of the s.e.xes are alike.