Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Birds are fometimes wholly black. I have heard of a male bullfinch which had changed its colours after it had been taken in full feather, and with all its fine teints. The first year it began to affume a dull hue, blackening every year,, till in the fourth it attained the deepest degree of that colour. This was communicated to me by the Reverend Mr. White of Selborne. Mr. Morton, in his Hiftory of Northamptonshire, gives another inftance of fuch a change, with this addition, that the year following, after moulting, the bird recovered its native colours. Bullfinches fed entirely on hemp-feed are apteft to undergo this change.

§ 11. The GOLDFINCH.

This is the most beautiful of our hardbilled fmall birds: whether we confider its colours, the elegance of its form, or the mufic of its note. The bill is white, tipt with black; the base is surrounded with a ring of rich scarlet feathers: from the corners of the mouth to the eyes is a black line: the cheeks are white: the top of the head is black; and the white on the cheeks is bounded almoft to the fore part of the neck with black: the hind part of the head is white: the back, rump, and breaft are of a fine pale tawny brown, lighteft on the two laft: the belly is white: the covert feathers of the wings, in the male, are black: the quill-feathers black, marked in their middle with a beautiful yellow; the tips white. the tail is black, but most of the feathers marked near their ends with a white fpot: the legs are white.

The female is diftinguifhed from the male by these notes; the feathers at the end of the bill in the former are brown; in the male black: the leffer coverts of the

wings are brown and the black and yellow in the wings of the female are lefs brilliant. The young bird, before it moults, is grey on the head; and hence it is termed by the bird-catchers a grey-pate.

There is another variety of goldfinch, which is, perhaps, not taken above once in two or three years, which is called by the London bird catchers a cheverel, from the manner in which it concludes its jerk: when this fort is taken, it fells at a very high price; it is diftinguished from the common fort by a white streak, or by two, and fometimes three white spots under the

throat.

Their note is very fweet, and they are much esteemed on that account, as well as

for their great docility. Toward winter they affemble in flocks, and feed on feeds of different kinds, particularly thofe of the thiftle. It is fond of orchards, and frequently builds in an apple or pear-tree : its neft is very elegantly formed of fine mofs, liver-worts, and bents on the outfide; lined first with wool and hair, and then with the goflin or cotton of the fallow. It lays five white eggs, marked with deep purple fpots on the upper end.

*

Χρυ

This bird feems to have been the cores of Ariftotle: being the only one that we know of, that could be diftinguished by a golden fillet round its head, feeding on the feeds of prickly plants. The very ingenious tranflator (Dr Martyn) of Virgil's Eclogues and Georgics, gives the name of this bird to the acalanthis or acanthis:

Littoraque alcyonen resonant, acanthida dumi.

In our account of the Halcyon of the ancients, we followed his opinion; but having fince met with a paffage in Ariftotle, that clearly proves that acanthis could not be ufed in that fenfe, we beg, that, till we can difcover what it really is, the word may be rendered linnet; fince it is impoffible the philofopher could diftinguifh a bird of fuch ftriking and brilliant colours as the goldfinch, by the epithet naxoxgoos, or bad coloured; and as he celebrates his acanthis for a fine note, Owner Toi Miyopár Exxoi, both characters will fuit the linnet, being a bird as remarkable for the fweetness of its note, as for the plainnefs of its plu

mage.

§ 12. The LINNET.

The bill of this fpecies is dufky, but in the fpring affumes a bluish caft: the feathers on the head are black, edged with af-colour; the fides of the neck deep afh

colour: the throat marked in the middle with a brown line, bounded on each ide with a white one: the back black, bordered with reddish brown: the bottom of the breaft is of a fine blood red, which heightens in colour as the fpring advances: the belly white: the vent-feathers yellowthe fides under the wings fpotted with brown: the quill-feathers are dufky; the lower part of the nine first white: the co

ish:

[blocks in formation]

verts incumbent on them black; the others of a reddish brown; the lowest order tipt with a paler colour: the tail is a little forked, of a brown culour, edged with white; the two middle feathers excepted, which are bordered with dull red. The females and young birds want the red fpot on the breast; in lieu of that, their breasts are marked with fhort ftreaks of brown pointing downwards; the females have also lefs white in their wings.

Thefe birds are much efteemed for their fong: they feed on feeds of different kinds, which they peel before they eat: the feed of the linum or flax is their favourite food; from whence the name of the linnet tribe.

They breed among furze and white thorn: the outfide of their neft is made with mofs and bents; and lined with wool and hair. They lay five whitish eggs, fpotted like thofe of the goldfinch.

$ 13. The CANARY BIRD. This bird is of the finch tribe. It was originally peculiar to thofe ifles, to which it owes its name; the fame that were known to the ancients by the addition of the fortunate. The happy temperament of the air; the fpontaneous productions of the ground in the varieties of fruits; the fprightly and chearful difpofition of the inhabitants; and the harmony arifing from the number of the birds found there, procured them that romantic diftinction. Though the ancients celebrate the isle of Canaria for the multitude of birds, they have not mentioned any in particular. It is probable then, that our fpecies was not introduced into Europe till after the second discovery of these ifles, which was between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. We are uncertain when it first made its appearance in this quarter of the globe. Belon, who wrote in 1555, is filent in refpect to thefe birds: Gefner is the first who mentions them; and Aldrovand speaks of them as rarities; that they were very dear on account of the difficulty attending the bring ing them from fo diftant a country, and that they were purchafed by people of rank alone. Olina fays, that in his time tbere was a degenerate fort found on the ifle of Elba, off the coaft of Italy, which came there originally by means of a fhip bound from the Canaries to Leghorn, and was wrecked on that island. We once faw fome fmall birds brought directly from the Canary Islands, that we fufpect to be

colour; but as they did not fing, we fuppofed them to be hens. Thefe birds will produce with the goldfinch and linnet, and the offspring is called a mule-bird, because, like that animal, it proves barren.

They are ftill found on the fame spot to which we were first indebted for the production of fuch charming fongfters; but they are now become fo numerous in our country, that we are under no neceflity of crofling the ocean for them.

§ 14. The SKY LARK.

The fength of this fpecies is feven inches one-fourth: the breadth twelve and a half: the weight one ounce and a half: the tongue broad and cloven: the bill flender: the under mandible dufky, the lower yellow : above the eyes is a yellow fpot: the crown of the head a reddish brown fpotted with deep black the hind part of the head ashcolour: chin white. It has the faculty of erecting the feathers of the head. The feathers on the back, and coverts of the wings, dusky edged with reddish brown, which is paler on the latter: the quill-feathers dufky: the exterior web edged with white, that of the others with reddith brown: the upper part of the breaft yellow fpotted with black: the lower part of the body of a pale yellow: the exterior web, and half of the interior web next to the shaft of the firft feather of the tail, are white; of the fecond only the exterior web; the reft of thofe feathers dufky; the others are dufky edged with red; thofe in the middle deeply fo, the reft very slightly: the legs dufky: foles of the feet yellow: the hind claw very long and ftrait.

This and the wood-lark are the only birds that fing as they fly; this raifing its note as it fears, and lowering it till it quite dies away as it defcends. It will often foar to fuch a height, that we are charmed with the mufic when we lofe fight of the fongfter; it also begins its fong before the earlieft dawn. Milton, in his Allegro, most beautifully expreffes thefe circumstances: and Bishop Newton obferves, that the beautiful fcene that Milton exhibits of rural chearfulness, at the fame time gives us a fine picture of the regularity of his life, and the innocency of his own mind; thus he defcribes himself as in a fituation

To hear the lark begin his flight,
And finging startle the dull night,
From his watch tower in the skies.
'Till the dappled dawn doth rife.

the genuine fort; they were of a dull green It continues its harmony feveral months,

2

beginning

beginning early in the fpring, on pairing. In the winter they affemble in vaft flocks, grow very fat, and are taken in great numbers for our tables. They build their neft on the ground, beneath fome clod; forming it of hay, dry fibres, &c. and lay four or five eggs.

The place thefe birds are taken in the greateft quantity, is the neighbourhood of Danitable: the feafon begins about the fourteenth of September, and ends the twenty-fifth of February; and during that fpace about 4000 dozen are caught, which fupply the markets of the metropolis. Thofe caught in the day are taken in clapnets of fifteen yards length, and two and a half in breadth; and are enticed within their reach by means of bits of looking. glafs, fixed in a piece of wood, and placed in the middle of the nets, which are put in a quick whirling motion, by a ftring the larker commands; he alfo makes ufe of a decoy lark. These nets are used only till the fourteenth of November, for the larks will not dare, or frolick in the air except in fine funny weather; and of courfe cannot be inveigled into the fnare. When the weather grows gloomy, the larker changes his engine, and makes ufe of a trammel-net twenty-feven or twentyeight feet long, and five broad; which is put on two poles eighteen feet long, and carried by men under each arm, who pafs over the fields and quarter the ground as a fetting dog; when they hear or feel a lark hit the net, they drop it down, and fo the birds are taken.

§ 15. The NIGHTINGALE.

The nightingale takes its name from night, and the Saxon word galan, to fing; expreffive of the time of its melody. In fize it is equal to the redftart; but longer bodied, and more elegantly made. The colours are very plain. The head and back are of a pale tawny, dafhed with olive: the tail is of a deep tawny red: the throat, breast, and upper part of the belly, of a light gloffy afh-colour: the lower belly almost white: the exterior webs of the quill-feathers are of a dull reddish brown;

the interior of brownish afh-colour: the irides are hazel, and the eyes remarkably large and piercing: the legs and feet a deep afh-colour.

This bird, the most famed of the feathered tribe, for the variety, length, and sweetness of its notes, vifits England the

beginning of April, and leaves us in Au guft. It is a fpecies that does not spread itfelf over the island. It is not found in North Wales; or in any of the English counties north of it, except Yorkshire, where they are met with in great plenty about Doncafter. They have been alfo heard, but rarely, near Shrewsbury. It is alfo remarkable, that this bird does not migrate fo far weft as Devonshire and Cornwall; counties where the feafons are fo very mild, that myrtles flourish in the open air during the whole year: neither are they found in Ireland. Sibbald places them in his lift of Scotch birds; but they certainly are unknown in that part of Great Britain, probably from the fcarcity and the recent introduction of hedges there. Yet they vifit Sweden, a much more fevere climate, With us they frequent thick hedges, and low coppices; and generally keep in the middle of the bush, fo that they are very rarely feen. They form their neft of oakleaves, a few bents, and reeds. The eggs are of a deep brown. When the young first come abroad, and are helpless, the old birds make a plaintive and jarring noise. with a fort of fnapping as if in menace, pursuing along the hedge the paffengers.

They begin their fong in the evening, and continue it the whole night. Thefe their vigils did not pafs unnoticed by the antients: the flumbers of these birds were proverbial; and not to rest as much as the nightingale, expreffed a very bad fleeper *. This was the favourite bird of the British poet, who omits no opportunity of introducing it, and almost constantly noting its love of folitude and night. How finely does it ferve to compose part of the folemn fcenery of his Penferofo; when he de fcribes it

In her faddeft sweetest plight,

Smoothing the rugged brow of night;
While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke,
Gently o'er th' accuftom'd oak;
Sweet bird, that fhunn'ft the noise of folly,
Moft mufical, most melancholy!
Thee, chauntrefs, oft the woods among,
I woo to hear thy evening fong.

bird; and again fpeaks of it,

In another place he ftyles it the folemn

[blocks in formation]

The reader muft excufe a few more quotations from the fame poet, on the fame fubject: the first defcribes the approach of evening, and the retiring of all animals to their repose:

Silence accompanied; for beaft and bird,

They to their grafly couch, these to their nefts
Were flunk; all but the wakeful nightingale,
She all night long her amorous defcant fung.

When Eve paffed the irksome night preceding her fall, fhe, in a dream, imagines herself thus reproached with lofing the beauties of the night by indulging too long a repofe:

Why fleep't thou, Eve? now is the pleasant time,
The cool, the filent, fave where filence yields
To the night-warbling bird, that now awake
Tunes fweeteft his love-labour'd fong.

The fame birds fing their nuptial fong, and lull them to reft. How rapturous are the following lines! how expreffive of the delicate fenfibility of our Milton's tender ideas!

The earth

Gave fign of gratulation, and each hill;
Joyous the birds: fresh gales and gentle airs
Whifper'd it to the woods, and from their wings
Flung rofe, flung odours from the spicy fhrub,
Difporting, till the amorous bird of night
Sung fpoufal, and bid hafte the evening star
On his hill-top to light the bridal lamp.
Thefe, lull'd by nightingales, embracing flept;
And on their naked limbs the flowery roof
Shower'd rofes, which the morn repair'd.

Thefe quotations from the beft judge of melody, we thought due to the fweeteft of our feathered choristers; and we believe no reader of tafte will think them te dious.

Virgil feems to be the only poet among the ancients, who hath attended to the circumftance of this bird's finging in the night-time.

Qualis populeâ marens Philomela fub umbrâ
Amiffos queritur fætus, quos durus arator
Obfervans nido implumes detraxit: at illa
Flet noctem, ramoque fedens miferabile carmen
Integrat, et mæftis late loca queftibus implet.

GEORG. IV. 1. 511.

[blocks in formation]

of this bird, with an elegance that befpeaks an exquifite fenfibility of tafte: notwithftanding that his words have been cited by most other writers on natural history, yet fuch is the beauty, and in general the truth of his expreffions, that they cannot be too much ftudied by lovers of natural history. We must observe notwithstanding, that a few of his thoughts are more to be admired for their vivacity than for ftrict philofophical reasoning; but these few are cafily diftinguishable.

$ 16. The RED BREAST.

This bird, though fo very petulant as to be at conftant war with its own tribe, yet is remarkably fociable with mankind: in the winter it frequently makes one of the family; and takes refuge from the inclemency of the season even by our fire-fides. Thomfon has prettily defcribed the annual vifits of his gueft.

The RED BREAST, facred to the houshold gods,
Wifely regardful of th' embroiling fky,
In joyless fields, and thorny thickets, leaves
His fhivering mates, and pays to trufted Man
His annual vifit. Half afraid, he first
Against the window beats; then, brisk, alights
On the warm hearth; then, hopping o'er the fl
Eyes all the smiling family afkance,

And pecks and starts, and wonders where he is: 'Till more familiar grown, the table-crumbs Attract his flender feet.

The great beauty of that celebrated poet. confifts in his elegant and just descriptions of the economy of animals; and the happy ufe he hath made of natural knowledge, iu defcriptive poetry, fhines through almost every page of his Seafons. The affection this bird has for mankind, is alfo recorded in that antient ballad, The babes in the wood; a compofition of a most beautiful and pathetic fimplicity. It is the first trial of our humanity: the child that refrains from tears on hearing that read, gives but a bad prefage of the tenderness of his fu ture fenfations.

In the fpring this bird retires to breed in the thickest covers, or the most concealed holes of walls and other buildings. The eggs are of a dull white, fprinkled with reddish fpots. Its fong is remarkably fine and foft; and the more to be valued, as we enjoy it the greateft part of the winter, and early in the fpring, and even through great part of the fummer, but its notes are part • In his Seafons, vide Winter, line 246.

of

of that time drowned in the general warble of the feafon. Many of the autumnal fongfters feem to be the young cock red breasts of that year.

The bill is dufky: the forehead, chin, throat, and breaft are of a deep orangecolour: the head, hind part of the neck, the back and tail are of a deep afh-colour, tinged with green: the wings rather darker; the edges inclining to yellow: the legs and feet dusky.

§ 17. The WREN.

The wren may be placed among the finest of our finging birds. It continues its fong throughout the winter, excepting during the frots. It makes its neft in a very curious manner; of an oval shape,

very deep, with a fmall hole in the middle for egrefs and regrefs; the external material is mofs, within it is lined with hair and feathers. It lays from ten to eighteen eggs; and as often brings up as many young; which, as Mr. Ray obferves, may be ranked among thofe daily miracles that we take no notice of; that it should feed fuch a number without paffing over one, and that too in utter darkness.

The head and upper part of the body of the wren are of a deep reddish brown: above each eye is a ftroke of white :. the back, and coverts of the wings, and tail, are marked with flender tranfverfe black lines; the quill-feathers with bars of black and red. The throat is of a yellowish white. The belly and fides croffed with narrow dusky and pale reddish brown lines. The tail is crofled with dusky bars.

§ 18. The SWIFT.

This fpecies is the largest of our fwallows; but the weight is moft difproportionately fmall to its extent of wing of any bird; the former being scarce one ounce, the latter eighteen inches. The length near eight. The feet of this bird are fo small, that the action of walking and of rifing from the ground is extremely difficult; fo that nature hath made it full amends, by furnishing it with ample means for an eafy and continual flight. It is more on the wing than any other fwallows; its flight is more rapid, and that attended with a thrill fcream. It refts by clinging against fome wall or other apt body; from whence Klein ftyles this fpecies Hirundo muraria. It breeds under the eaves of houses, in teeples, and other lofty buildings; makes

its neft of graffes and feathers; and lays only two eggs, of a white colour. It is entirely of a gloffy dark footy colour, only the chin is marked with a white fpot: but by being fo conftantly expofed to all weathers, the glofs of the plumage is loft before it retires. I cannot trage them to their winter quarters, unlefs in one inftance of a pair found adhering by their claws and in a torpid itate, in February 1766, under the roof of Longnor chapel, Shropshire: on being brought to a fire, they revived and moved about the room. The feet are of a particular ftructure, all the toes standbone; the others of an equal number, viz. ing forward; the leaft confifts of only one' two each; in which they differ from those of all other birds.

This appears in our country about fourteen days later than the fand martin; but differs greatly in the time of its departure, guft, being the firit of the genus that leaves retiring invariably about the tenth of Au

us.

The fabulous hiftory of the Manucodiata, or bird of Paradife, is in the hiftory of this fpecies in great measure verified. It was believed to have no feet, to live upon the celestial dew, to float perpetually on the Indian air, and to perform all its functions

in that element.

been in thefe enlightened times difproved The Swift actually performs what has of the former; except the fmall time it takes in fleeping, and what it devotes to incubation, every other action is done on wing. The materials of its neft it collects either as they are carried about by the winds, or picks them up from the surface in its fweeping flight. Its food is undeniably the infects that fill the air. Its drink is taken in tranfient fips from the water's furface. Even its amorous rites are performed on high. Few perfons who have attended to them in a fine fummer's morning, but must have seen them make their aerial courfes at a great height, encircling a certain fpace with an easy steady motion. On a fudden they fall into each other's embraces, then drop precipitate with a loud fhriek for numbers of yards. This is the critical conjuncture, and to be no more wondered at, than that infects (a familiar inftance) fhould discharge the fame duty in the fame element.

These birds and swallows are inveterate enemies to hawks. The moment one appears, they attack him immediately; the fwifts fcon defift: but the swallows purfue 324

and

« ZurückWeiter »