LETTER XCIII. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. A PAIR of honey-buzzards, buteo apivorus, sive vespivorus, Raii, built them a large shallow nest, composed of twigs, and lined with dead beechen leaves, upon a tall slender beech near the middle of Selborne hanger, in the summer of 1780. In the middle of the month of June, a bold boy climbed this tree, though standing on so steep and dizzy a situation, and brought down an egg, the only one in the nest, which had been sat on for some time, and contained the embryo of a young bird. The egg was smaller, and not so round, as those of the common buzzard; was dotted at each end with small red spots, and surrounded in the middle with a broad bloody zone. The hen bird was shot, and answered exactly to Mr Ray's description of that species: had a black cere, short thick legs, and a long tail. When on the wing, this species may be easily distinguished from the common buzzard, by its hawk-like appearance, small head, wings not so blunt, and longer tail. This specimen contained in its craw some limbs of frogs, and many gray snails without shells. The irides of the eyes of this bird were of a beautiful bright yellow colour. About the tenth of July, in the same summer, a pair of sparrow-hawks bred in an old crow's nest on a low beech in the same hanger ;* and as their brood, which was numerous, began to grow up, became so daring and ravenous, that they were a terror to all the dames in the village that had chickens or ducklings under their care. A boy climbed the tree, and found the young so fledged that they all escaped from him; but discovered that a good house had been kept; the larder was well stored with provisions; for he brought down a young blackbird, jay, and house-marten, all clean picked, and some * Professor Rennie says, "Although I have known this bird frequently take possession of the abandoned nest of a crow or a magpie, without making any additional repairs, I have also known it breed in the holes of precipitons rocks, as at Howford, near Mauchline, in Ayrshire, and Cartlan Crags, near Lanark.” The sparrow-hawk is a bold, audacious bird, and builds frequently in the most frequented situations. Some years ago, when on a visit to Lord Douglas, at Douglas Castle, Lanarkshire, we discovered a nest close to the approach, and not far distant from the east gate. We were desirous to possess the birds, and his lordship gave orders to the gamekeeper to shoot them, but he only killed the female. -ED. half devoured.* The old birds had been observed to make sad havoc for some days among the new-flown swallows and martens, which, being but lately out of their nests, had not acquired those powers and command of wing that enable them, when more mature, to set such enemies at defiance. LETTER XCIV. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, November 30, 1780. DEAR SIR,-Every incident that occasions a renewal of our correspondence will ever be pleasing and agreeable to me. As to the wild wood-pigeon, the oenas, or vinago, of Ray, I am much of your mind; and see no reason for making it the origin of the common house-dove: but suppose those that have advanced that opinion may have been misled by another appellation, often given to the oenas, which is that of stockdove. Unless the stock-dove in the winter varies greatly in manners from itself in summer, no species seems more unlikely to be domesticated, and to make a house-dove. We very rarely see the latter settle on trees at all, nor does it ever haunt the woods; but the former, as long as it stays with us, from November perhaps to February, lives the same wild life with the ring-dove, (palumbus torquatus ;) frequents coppices and groves, supports itself chiefly by mast, and delights to roost in the tallest beeches. Could it be known in what manner stock-doves build, the doubt would be settled with me at once, provided_they_construct their nests on trees, like the ringdove, as I much suspect they do. You received, you say, last spring, a stock-dove from Sussex; and are informed that they sometimes breed in that country. But why did not your correspondent determine the place of its nidification, whether on rocks, cliffs, or trees? If he was not an adroit ornithologist. I should doubt the fact, because people * Speaking of the cruel propensities of this bird, Montagu says, “The more generous hawks, we have frequently observed, kill their prey as soon as caught, by eating the head first; whereas the buzzards, in particular, begin eating their prey indiscriminately. We have several times taken partridges and other birds from them, which had one side of the breast or a thigh devoured, and the bird still alive."-ED. with us perpetually confound the stock-dove with the ringdove. * For my own part, I readily concur with you in supposing that house-doves are derived from the small blue rock-pigeon, for many reasons. In the first place, the wild stock-dove is manifestly larger than the common house-dove, against the usual rule of domestication, which generally enlarges the breed. Again, those two remarkable black spots on the remiges of each wing of the stock-dove, which are so characteristic of the species, would not, one should think, be totally lost by its being reclaimed; but would often break out among its descendants. But what is worth a hundred arguments, is the instance you give in Sir Roger Mostyn's house-doves in Caernarvonshire; which, though tempted by plenty of food and gentle treatment, can never be prevailed on to inhabit their cote for any time; but, as soon as they begin to breed, betake themselves to the fastnesses of Ormshead, and deposit their young in safety amidst the inaccessible caverns and precipices of that stupendous promontory. Naturam expellas furcâ. . . tamen usque recurret. I have consulted a sportsman, now in his seventy-eighth year, who tells me, that fifty or sixty years back, when the beechen woods were much more extensive than at present, the number of wood-pigeons was astonishing; that he has often killed near twenty in a day; and that, with a long wild-fowl piece, he has shot seven or eight at a time on the wing, as they came wheeling over his head: he moreover adds, which I was not aware of, that often there were among them little parties of small blue doves, which he calls rockiers. The food of these numberless emigrants was beech-mast and some acorns; and particularly barley, which they collected in the stubbles. But of late years, since the vast increase of turnips, that vegetable has furnished a great part of their support in * There are three species of wild pigeon in Britain, besides the turtledove, the ring-dove, columba palumbus, the stock-dove, columba aenas, and the rock-dove, columba livia. The two latter are very nearly allied; but a very strong distinctive mark is, that the stock-dove is larger than the rock-dove, and the latter is white on the lower part of the back, whereas the stock-dove is ash-coloured. It is now generally believed that the rock-dove is the progenitor of all our domestic breeds of pigeons. There is one circumstance which renders this opinion pretty conclusive, and that is, we never find the domestic pigeon taking to trees to build, when they become wild, but always resorting to old ruins, or to rocks. The ring-dove is much larger than the other two species. — ED. hard weather; and the holes they pick in these roots greatly damage the crop. From this food their flesh has contracted a rancidness which occasions them to be rejected by nicer judges of eating, who thought them before a delicate dish. They were shot not only as they were feeding in the fields, and especially in snowy weather, but also at the close of the evening, by men who lay in ambush among the woods and groves to kill them as they came in to roost. These are the principal circumstances relating to this wonderful internal migration, which with us takes place towards the end of November, and ceases early in the spring. Last winter we had, in Selborne High-wood, about an hundred of these doves; but in former times the flocks were so vast, not only with us, but all the district around, that on mornings and evenings they traversed the air, like rooks, in strings, reaching for a mile together. When they thus rendezvoused here by thousands, if they happened to be suddenly roused from their roost-trees on an evening, Their rising all at once was like the sound Of thunder heard remote. It will by no means be foreign to the present purpose to add, that I had a relation in this neighbourhood who made it a practice for a time, whenever he could procure the eggs of a ring-dove, to place them under a pair of doves that were sitting in his own pigeon-house, hoping thereby, if he could bring about a coalition, to enlarge his breed, and teach his own doves to beat out into the woods, and to support themselves by mast. The plan was plausible, but something always interrupted the success; for though the birds were usually hatched, and sometimes grew to half their size, yet none ever arrived at maturity. I myself have seen these foundlings in their nest displaying a strange ferocity of nature, so as scarcely to bear to be looked at, and snapping with their bills by way of menace. In short, they always died, perhaps for want of proper sustenance; but the owner thought that by their fierce and wild demeanour they frighted their foster-mothers, and so were starved. Virgil, as a familiar occurrence, by way of simile, describes a dove haunting the cavern of a rock, in such engaging numbers, that I cannot refrain from quoting the passage; and Some old sportsmen say, that the main part of these flocks used to withdraw as soon as the heavy Christmas frosts were over. John Dryden has rendered it so happily in our language, that without farther excuse, I shall add his translation also: Qualis spelunca subitò commota columba, Cui domus, et dulces latebroso in pumice nidi, As when the dove her rocky hold forsakes, LETTER XCV. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, September 3, 1781. I HAVE now read your Miscellanies through with much care and satisfaction; and am to return you my best thanks for the honourable mention made in them of me as a naturalist, which I wish I may deserve. In some former letters, I expressed my suspicions that many of the house-martens do not depart in the winter far from this village. I therefore determined to make some search about the south-east end of the hill, where I imagined they might slumber out the uncomfortable months of winter. But supposing that the examination would be made to the best advantage in the spring, and observing that no martens had appeared by the 11th of April last, on that day I employed some men to explore the shrubs and cavities of the suspected spot. The persons took pains, but without any success; however, a remarkable incident occurred in the midst of our pursuit,while the labourers were at work, a house-marten, the first that had been seen this year, came down the village in the sight of several people, and went at once into a nest, where it staid a short time, and then flew over the houses; for some days after, no martens were observed, not till the 16th of April, and then only a pair. Martens in general were remarkably late this year. *These early birds may be such as have hastened hither, by coming within the range of a favouring gale of wind. — ED. |