(Chapter
on “Birds
RARE BRITISH VISITORS
R. Bowdler
SharpeALBERT R. MANN
LIBRARY
AT
CORNELL UNIVERSITYCornell University Library
QL 690.G7S53C 1895
3 1924 001 590 151

31924001590151A CHAPTER ON BIRDS.Riddle & Couchman Litli. London.\
A Chapter on Birds
BY
R. BOWDLER SHARPE, LL.D., F.L.S., etc.
(Zoological Department, British Museum.)
RARE BRITISH VISITORS.
With Eighteen Coloured Plates. v .
Published under the direction of the General Literature Committee.
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
LONDON : NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.;
Brighton: 129, North Street.
New York: E. & J. B. Young & Co.
1895.
?.Ae/pa/H £ .
Printed by Riddle & Couchman,
Southwark Bridge Road, London S.EPREFACE.
HEN first I was appointed to the charge
of the Ornithological collection in the
British Museum, the home of that collection
was in Bloomsbury, where the opportunities of
observing birds in a state of nature are not
many, as every one will admit. Domestic
Pigeons are numerous, an occasional Starling
can be seen, and in the neighbouring garden,
in Russell Square, I have seen Blue Tits in
winter. Sparrows, of course, abound, and doubt-
less other birds could be occasionally observed.
One of the most interesting specimens in the
British collection is—of all birds—a Kingfisher,
which was picked up dead in the courtyard of
the old British Museum, so that the possibilitiesVI
PREFACE.
of making a varied collection of birds, in
Bloomsbury, are manifold. Still it is not the
neighbourhood for many “field” observations;
and some unkind critics have not hesitated to
throw at their brethren, whose lot has been cast
in the shade of Museum work, the taunt of
being “two-pair-back-garret” naturalists. There
may have been such, but I have not met with
them in my experience; on the contrary, every
one of my colleagues in the British Museum,
has been as fond of work in the field as in the
cabinet, and has made as good use of his
opportunities as some of our more fortunate
compatriots, who have been able to travel in
far countries.
At South Kensington, however, to which the
Natural History collections have been removed,
quite a respectable assortment of birds visit the
gardens attached to the Museum in the Crom-
well Road. During the migration-time, Pipits,
Wheatears, Siskins, Goldfinches, and other small
birds stop to rest. Turtle-Doves have been
delayed in their southern journey by the gales
of autumn, and Kestrels have stayed with us,
and, let us hope, have taken toll from the ever-PREFACE.
vii
increasing House-Sparrows. In severe weather,
Redwings, Fieldfares and Mistle-Thrushes have
been plentiful, while Wood Pigeons, Tits and
Blackbirds may be considered permanent resi-
dents, so that, even in the west of London,
many species come under our daily observation.
Such slight knowledge, however, avails us little
in writing about rare visitors, in the shape of
birds, to Britain. Those treated of in the
present volume have occurred but seldom—they
will never be common residents, in our time at
least—and to learn about their habits, we must
go further a-field. It will, I believe, be of some
interest to students of British Ornithology to
read something about the life-history of the
species, which Mr. Keulemans has here depicted,
and I have had great pleasure in putting together
a few notes on some of these most interesting
avian visitors from foreign parts. Naturally,
much of the information on their habits has had
to be extracted from the writings of naturalists
who have had the good fortune to meet with
the species in life. The works of Mr. Seebohm,
especially, have been laid under contribution,
because it is impossible to write about our rarerPREFACE.
viii
British birds without quoting from him. No one
has taken the pains that Mr. Seebohm took,
before writing his “ History of British Birds,”
to travel into all parts of Europe, and even into
Siberia, to learn something about the nesting-
habits of the rarer species of European birds; and,
with the exception of those of Naumann and
Macgillivray, there is no work so full of original
observation as the above-mentioned one of Mr.
Seebohm. In America there are several excellent
books on the habits of birds, and the observations
of Captain Bendire in his “ Life History of North
American Birds,” and those of Mr. W. H. Hudson
on South American Bird-life, are amongst the
most important of modern contributions to our
knowledge of Natural History.
In these little essays, therefore, I have not
hesitated to draw upon the information published
by those who have seen these rare species in
their native haunts, and I have quoted freely from
the writings of Lord Lilford, Canon Tristram,
Colonel Irby, Mr. Howard Saunders, and others,
but it is to Mr. Seebohm that I am especially
indebted. I have also striven to give these
chapters a wider scope, and have said a fewPREFACE.
IX
words on the natural relations of the species, so
as to give a little general information on the
families to which they belong.
The pictures which Mr. Keulemans has drawn,
are, in my opinion, among the best which
the present generation owes to his talented
brush, and the way in which they have been
reproduced in chromo - lithography, by Messrs.
Riddle and Couchman, not only demands my
warmest acknowledgment, but, I believe, that
they will be thoroughly appreciated by all lovers
of birds.
Easter, 1895.
R. B. S.CONTENTS.
Page
The Bee-Eater...................i
The Common Roller	io
The Red-footed Kestrel ...	14
The Rose-coloured Starling .	.	21
The Golden Oriole	35
Holboell’s Redpoll ....	40
The Scarlet Rose-Finch ...	45
The Two-barred Crossbill. .	.	51
The Shore-Lark.................59
The Blue-headed Wagtail. .	.	66
The White-headed Long-Tailed	Tit	74
The Waxwing....................83
The Common Tree-Warbler .	.	89
The Aquatic Warbler. ...	97
The Rock-Thrush ....	103
The Arctic Blue-Throat .	.	.	107
The Black-bellied Dipper .	.	.	116
The Red-breasted Flycatcher .	.	124THE BEE-EATER.
(Merops apiaster.)
IF it were not for its brilliant plumage and
conspicuous appearance, which mark it out
for instant observation, and, consequently, for
destruction, the Bee-eater is a species which
might posssibly nest in England, as it has
been observed in the British Islands on upwards
of thirty occasions. Unfortunately, however, the
species is too much in request for British
collections for the bird to be allowed to live at
large, and its fate on reaching our islands may
be taken as assured.
The Bee-eater comes to us from the south,
after spending its winter in South Africa, and
I2
THE BEE-EATER.
nearly every occurrence in the British Islands has
taken place in spring, as if some members of the
hordes which sweep into Southern Europe at this
time of the year, were carried beyond their usual
range by the impetus of migration, and so
reached England. Its principal home, however,
is Southern Europe, whence it ranges eastward
as far as Central Asia and Cashmere, breeding
everywhere throughout this wide extent of habitat.
For the winter season it migrates south, some
Asiatic individuals wandering but a short distance,
though it is probable that the bulk of them
pass by Arabia to Africa, which continent is,
undoubtedly, the principal winter resort of the
species. Its course along the Nile Valley can
almost be traced with certainty, as it has been
observed in the Lake districts of Equatorial
Africa, and in most of the countries of Eastern
Africa, where collections have been made, while
it is apparently unknown in any portion of West
Africa proper. After passing the Zambesi country,
we find it in almost every part of South Africa,
even in the neighbourhood of Cape Town itself,
while it is by no means a rare winter visitor to
Damara Land and South-western Africa generallyTHE BEE-EATER.
3
The Bee-eater is one of the few species of
European birds which are recorded as nesting a
second time in their winter home. There are
a few others, such as the Quail and the Common
Chimney-Swallow, which have been said to rear
another brood in their winter quarters; but, in
the case of the two last-named species, some
reasonable doubt may be entertained. For in-
stance, the Quail of South Africa, which, until
quite recently, was supposed to be the same as
the Quail of Europe, has lately been demon-
strated by Mr. Ogilive-Grant, who is now our
first authority on Game Birds, to be a distinct
form, Coturnix capensis, which is a resident in
Africa, so that this instance of double brooding
falls to the ground.
The nesting of the Chimney-Swallow (Hirundo
rustica) is equally unconfirmed, for the evidence
of its so doing rests upon the testimony of the
late C. J. Andersson, who says that “ in un-
civilized parts of Africa these Swallows affix their
nests to some projection of a roof or trunk of a
tree, or occupy cavities in rocks or banks.” It
is true that the Chimney-Swallow passes the
winter in South Africa, and Mr. Andersson was
i*4
THE BEE-EATER.
one of the best observers of bird-life of the
present century, but it is, to my mind, certain
that in this instance he made a mistake, and the
Swallow to which his notes refer, was, in all
probability, the Cape Chimney-Swallow (Hirundo
albigularis). This surmise is the more likely to
be correct, from the fact that our Chimney-
Swallow leaves Europe in the same plumage
with which it visited us in the spring in its full
beauty. Most of our migratory birds, both old
and young, moult before they quit th# shores of
Great Britain ; but the Swallows are an exception
to the rule, and fly away in the same clothing
that has borne “ the battle and the breeze ” of
their sojourn and nesting in England. In their
winter quarters in Africa they go through their
moult, and it is against all reason that they
should wish to encounter once more the toil
of rearing a brood, while their energies are en-
feebled by the exhausting process of a renewal
of their feathers.
In the case of the Bee-eater, however, the
evidence is stronger, for the well known pioneer
in our knowledge of South African ornithology,
Mr. Edgar L. Layard, distinctly states that heTHE BEE-EATER.
5
has evidence of the bird breeding in South Africa.
It arrives in August, and remains during our
winter months, when it is absent from Europe.
In September and October, Mr. Layard found the
Bee-eater breeding in great numbers on the Berg
River. “ It does not,” he writes, “ always select
a bank into which to bore the hole destined for
its nest, for we found one flat piece of sandy
ground perforated with numberless holes into
which the birds were diving and scrambling like
so many rats.”
August is the month when the Bee-eater leaves
Europe, and thus the bird is one of the earliest
southern migrants, and has plenty of time to
rear another brood in South Africa. Its migra-
tion into Europe takes place during the last days
of March and the first days of April, and Colonel
Irby, who has studied the arrival of birds at
Gibraltar for many seasons, found that for three
successive years, the largest influx of these birds
took place on the ioth of April, which date, he
says, “ in Spanish fashion, I christened St.
Bee-eater’s Day.”
To an English naturalist, whose acquaintance
with brilliant plumage in our islands begins and6
THE BEE-EATER.
almost ends with our Kingfisher (Alcedo ispida), the
sight of the Bee-eaters in the South of Europe must
be a pleasing and welcome sight, but it is by no
means so welcome to the Andalucian peasants
who keep bees, and who, unmindful of the
further good done by the birds in destroying
wasps and other insects, resent the havoc which
they work on the denizens of their bee-hives.
Here the destruction is so great, that Mr.
Howard Saunders tells us that the bee-keepers
catch sacks-full of Bee-eaters by spreading nets in
front of their nesting holes. The absence of
bees in the early autumn is assigned by Colonel
Irby as one of the chief causes of the early
migration of the Bee-eaters. “ The reason of
their early departure in August is to be accounted
for by the simple fact that bees cease to work
when there are no flowers, as by that time all
vegetation is scorched up.”
The Bee-eaters may be considered to be first
cousins to the highly plumaged Kingfishers, and
they have many characteristics in common. They
belong to the great order of Picarian birds, in
which are contained not only the Kingfishers, but
the Rollers, the Swifts, Nightjars, and many otherTHE BEE-EATER.
7
families of tropical birds, such as the Motmots,
Todies, Frog-mouths, etc. They have a bridged
or “ desmognathous ” palate, and other anatomical
and osteological characters, which show their
affinity to the above-mentioned families. In the
front of the breast-bone, however, there is a
distinct perforation, allowing the feet of the
coracoid bones to meet through it. This is a
character only found in the Hoopoes (Upupide) and
Hornbills (Bucerotidce), and the Game-birds
(Gallince).
Like the bulk of Picarian birds, the Bee-eaters
lay glossy, white eggs, which are concealed from
view. It is the constant habit of birds which lay
white eggs to observe this rule, the most striking
exception to which is afforded by the Pigeons,
which lay white eggs in an open nest. Thus we
find the white eggs of Passerine birds, such as
Martins, Tit-mice and Gold-crests, carefully con-
cealed from observation. The Bottle-Tit {&gi-
thalus vagans) builds a moss-nest, completely
domed in, the Gold-crests (Regulus regulus) sus-
pend their hammock-like nest under the friendly
shelter of a dark fir or yew tree; while the
Martin builds a plaster-nest under an overhanging8
THE BEE-EATER.
eave, and the Sand-Martin burrows out a tunnel
in a friable sand-bank.
Like their relations, the Kingfishers, the Bee-
eaters adopt the latter method, and at the end of
a long self-hewn tunnel they lay their eggs, but
make no nest whatever. In the nest-chamber, at
the end of the long tunnel, the eggs are laid on
the bare soil, while gradually there accumulates
a foetid mass of fish-bones and pellets, in the case
of the Kingfishers, and, in that of the Bee-eaters,
a conglomeration of wing-cases of beetles and
the indigestible portion of the bees and wasps on
which the birds feed.
The curved and slender bills of the Bee-eaters
suffer greatly from the labours of excavating the
tunnels, and become much worn away and
reduced in size. Luckily for the birds, the bill is
an organ which quickly grows again to its former
length, and this must be a great advantage to the
Bee-eater, which has before it the task of a fresh
tunnelling operation when it reaches South Africa.
The holes in river-banks in the South of Spain
are often hollowed out to a depth of eight or nine
feet, and Colonel Irby states that when suitable
banks are not available, the birds excavate holesTHE BEE-EATER.
9
downwards in the earth, just as Mr. Layard
has described in his notes on the species in South
Africa. The eggs, when first laid, are of a
beautiful pure white, but become discoloured in
time from contact with the surroundings of the
nest-chamber. In our illustration the egg is given
of the natural size. Specimens vary a little in
depth and breadth, but the average measurements
of the series in the British Museum varies from
about o‘95 inch to ri inch.THE COMMON ROLLER.
HIS beautiful bird is a somewhat rare and
occasional visitor to the British Islands,
but has been known to occur here upwards of a
hundred times. It comes from the south, from
Africa, which continent the species traverses on
its winter migration, even extending as far south
as the Cape Colony. It never appears, however,
to migrate to its winter quarters in such large
numbers as the Bee-eater, and is by no means so
common as the latter bird in Africa.
The Roller breeds throughout Central and
Southern Europe, as far as South Sweden,
though it is not known to nest in Norway. As
(Coracias garrula).N.S.
ROLLER
3" Size
Riddle It Couch:
Lith. Lot* do iTHE COMMON ROLLER.
XI
with the Bee-eater, its beautiful plumage has
made it a desirable adornment for women’s hats,
and a great destruction of the species has ensued,
though not to the same extent as has taken place
with its Indian relative, Coracias indica, whole cases
full of which arrive in London from time to time
for millinery purposes, along with other equally
useful birds, hundreds of Little Owls, Kestrels and
other insect-eating species being sent from India
to be dyed of brilliant colours, and displayed in
women’s hats or bonnets. In the case of the
unfortunate Rollers, no such improvement of
colour is needed, for the bird is one of the
brightest of any which inhabit the old world, the
contrasting colours of purple and blue on the
wing being of singular beauty.
The species gets its common name of “ Roller ”
from its curious habit of tumbling and rolling
about in the air. This habit they display particu-
larly in spring at the time of pairing, and Mr.
Seebohm suggests that their aerial evolutions are
for the purpose of exhibiting to the females the
beautiful colours of their wings and tail.
By the earlier students of Ornithology, the
Roller was classed with the Crows, with which12
THE COMMON ROLLER.
its Crow-like bill and harsh note appeared to
identify it. Its Turkish name is “Alla Carga”
or “ Beautiful Crow,” and by all Anglo-Indians
the Indian Roller is always spoken of as a “Jay.”
As a matter of fact, however, the Roller is a
Picarian bird, and finds its true allies in the
Kingfishers and Bee-eaters. Like these, it has a
flattened sole to the foot, so that it was formerly
classed among the Anisodactyli, as these birds
with united toes were called, the toes being
joined together for some distance, and thus
producing a very flattened sole. Birds of this
group generally capture their prey from a fixed
perch, such as a dead branch or a stump, and in
the case of the Bee-eaters and Rollers, telegraph
wires have been appropriated by the birds as a
good point of vantage, from which to sally forth on
any passing insect. The Roller, however, procures
most of its food on the ground, sitting patiently
on a raised clod or slight elevation, and then
pouncing down on any insect that happens to
shew itself. Its short legs and weak feet render
it unable to progress with any rapidity on the
ground, but it is extremely quick of flight in the
air. Its food consists of all kinds of insects,THE COMMON ROLLER.
13
principally beetles, but caterpillars and worms,
and even frogs, are known to form a portion of
its diet, while the late M. Favier states that it
will even eat scorpions.
Like the Bee-eaters and Kingfishers, Rollers
lay pure, glossy, white eggs, four or six in number.
These are placed in a hole in a tree or a rock, or
in a wall or building. Sometimes they excavate
holes in a sand bank, as Canon Tristram tells us
that he once met with a colony in Palestine
which had tunnelled their own nesting-holes.
The egg is figured of the natural size, the average
measurements of the series in the British Museum
being i'5 inch by ri5 inch.THE RED-FOOTED KESTREL.
HE Birds of Prey may be systematically
divided under the following heads:—
American Vultures, True Vultures, Caracaras,
Secretary-Birds, Harriers, Sparrow-Hawks, Buz-
zards, Eagles, Kites, Falcons, Ospreys and Owls.
The subject of the present notice belongs to the
group of the Falcons (Falconidce), which comprises
some of the most striking in appearance, and
also some of the most beautiful of all accipitrine
First of all we have the Cuckoo-Falcons
(Baza), which have a curious and interesting geo-
graphical distribution, as the genus Baza is one
(Cerchneis vespertina.)
birds.RED-FOOTED KESTREL,
t Size.
N.S
Riddle k Couchnjs.n. Lith. Lond<THE RED-FOOTED KESTREL. 15
which is found in tropical Africa, and also in Asia.
Though these continents are now separated by
such a vast extent of ocean, there are certain
forms of animals which are common to both these
distant lands. Thus, in the forest region of West
Africa, which extends from the southern districts
of Senegambia to the Coanza river in Angola,
and thence along the Congo system up to the
western watershed of the Nile and Equatorial
Africa, we find Ant-Thrushes {Pitta), and many
forms of forest-loving genera of birds, such as
Babblers {Turdinus and Trichostoma), none of
which are again encountered till we come to the
Indian and Malayan regions. With the Cuckoo-
Falcons this same remarkable distribution also
obtains. Thus we find one species, Baza
cuculoides, occurring in West Africa, from Sene-
gambia to the Congo, while in Natal a second
species is found, viz., B. verreauxi, and a third,
B. madagascariensis, inhabits Madagascar. Then
we find no species of Baza in any other part of
Africa, but in Ceylon and in Southern India the
genus again occurs, and then successive species,
each confined to a limited area, are dotted all
over the Malayan Archipelago, till the lasti6
THE RED-FOOTED KESTREL.
species are met with in New Guinea, the Bismarck
Archipelago, and the Cape York Peninsula of
North-east Australia. The Cuckoo-Falcons are
somewhat intermediate in character between the
Kites and the Falcons, as are some of the
American genera, such as Harpagus and Ictinia.
In the Malayan Islands, extending northward
through the Malay Peninsula to the Eastern
Himalaya, we find the Falconets (Microhierax),
little birds, some of which scarcely exceed a
sparrow in size, but true Falcons all the same.
Then we come to the true Falcons, of which
there are four recognisable genera, Falco, to
which the Peregrine and all the Hunting Falcons
belong; Hierofalco, which comprises the large and
powerful Jer-Falcons; Hieracidea, the Australian
Jer-Falcons ; and lastly, the Kestrels (Cerchneis).
The latter birds are mostly of small size, and
are principally insectivorous, though they also
devour small mammals and birds. The Kestrels
are distributed nearly all over the globe, and the
common species of the British Islands has rela-
tives in nearly every quarter of the old world.
The American Kestrels are of a somewhat
different type.THE RED-FOOTED KESTREL.

Of the Red-footed Kestrels there are two, an
eastern and a western form; and it is the latter
bird which has been depicted in our illustration.
It is a beautiful little bird, and has been captured
in the British Islands more than twenty times.
It is also of accidental occurrence in Western
Europe and Scandinavia, but from Hungary east-
wards, throughout Southern Russia, it breeds
plentifully, and extends to South-western Siberia,
as far as the district of Krasnoyarsk. In the
region of Lake Baikal, and eastwards to Mongolia
and Northern China, the place of our Red-footed
Kestrel is taken by an allied species, C. amurensis,
which has the under wing-coverts white, instead
of slaty-grey. The winter home of the Eastern
Red-footed Kestrel is also to be found in South
Africa, where the European bird also takes up its
winter abode, but even in their winter quarters,
the two species preserve, to a great extent, their
eastern and western distribution, as C. vespertina
is common in Damara Land and South-west
Africa, where C. amurensis is scarcely ever met
with, while' the latter bird occurs in numbers in
South-eastern Africa, where C. vespertina is not
seen, as far as we know. How do these birds
218 THE RED-FOOTED KESTREL.
reach South Africa, and by what route do they
travel ? C. amurensis has been found in India
on a few occasions only, but the bulk of the
individuals of this species go to South Africa.
Do they cross the sea from India to Africa ? or,
on the other hand, do they migrate from their
breeding-grounds in Eastern Siberia, and join
their western brethren on the Kirghis steppes, and,
with them, accompany the hordes of birds of prey,
which we know sweep into Equatorial and even
into Southern Africa during our wiftter season ?
Some idea of the numbers of insect-eating
Hawks which visit South Africa may be gathered
from a note by the late C. J. Andersson on the
present species. He says that the Red-footed
Kestrel usually arrives in Damara Land and
Great Namaqua Land about the rainy season, and
retires northwards again on the approach of the
dry season. He speaks of the Kestrels, Hobbies
and Kites appearing in “ myriads,” and one can
estimate the good these birds do in a country
where locusts abound. Of the Red-footed Kestrel,
he writes: “ It is exceedingly abundant, and may
be counted by hundreds and thousands; nay,
their numbers at times exceed all belief. On oneTHE RED-FOOTED KESTREL.
19
particular occasion, a friend of mine and myself
attempted to form a rough approximation to the
number of these birds actually within sight, and
of the Black and the Yellow-billed Kites, with
which they appeared to be mixed up in about equal
proportions. Taking a small section of the sky,
we came to the conclusion, by counting and
estimating, that there were at least ten thousand
individuals; and as the heavens above and all
around us appeared to be darkened by a living
mass of Kites and Hawks, we set down the
aggregate number, immediately within our view,
at fifty thousand, feeling at the same time that we
were probably below the mark.”
The gregarious habits of the present species
are not only kept up during its winter residence
in the south, but are characteristic of the bird in
its breeding stations. It occupies the deserted
nests of Rooks, so that many pairs may be found
nesting on the same tree, and at night they roost
together in numbers. Like our Common Kestrel,
they . catch numbers of field-mice as well as
insects, and they hunt moths in the twilight,
while in the daytime they capture dragon-flies
and grasshoppers.20
THE RED-FOOTED KESTREL.
Another common name for the species is the
“ Orange-legged Hobby,” but it is wrong to speak
of this bird as a Hobby, as the latter is really of
the true Falcon type, whereas the subject of our
essay is essentially a Kestrel. The male is
figured in the accompanying picture, and the
female is very different in plumage. The male is
slaty grey, with chestnut thighs, and under tail-
coverts ; while the female is paler in colour, and
has the grey upper parts barred with darker grey.
The head is chestnut, and the entife under surface
is light chestnut, paler on the throat.
The egg, which is figured in our plate of the
natural size, is very much like that of the Kestrel
of the British Islands. Those of the Red-footed
Kestrel are somewhat smaller, and are not so
coarsely grained. They are, moreover, of a
yellowish red colour.rose-coloured starling
Lith. LTHE ROSE-COLOURED
STARLING.
{Pastor roseus).
T N recent classifications of Birds we find the
Starlings placed near to the Weaver-Birds
and Larks, on account of the shape of their wing,
and the number of their primary-quills, the first
primary being very feebly developed, and the
number of these quills being ten.
These differences, however, are not now consid-
ered to have the importance which was at one
time attached to them by Zoologists, and the old
idea is once more reverted to, that the Starlings
are allied to the Crows. Like the latter birds,
they walk on the ground, and do not hop like
Thrushes or Finches ; farther, they nest in holes22 THE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING.
of trees or buildings. The Starlings are rather a
numerous family, and are entirely confined to the
old world. All the birds called “Starlings” in
the American continents are not really Starlings,
but belong to the family Icteridce, which is
peculiar to the New World.
The Starlings of the old world may be divided
into two main groups, the true Starlings (Stumidce)
and the forest Starlings (Eulabetidce). The former
have rather a flattened bill, without rictal bristles,
which are like spiny hairs at th^ edge of the
mouth on each side; they lay, moreover, an
uniformily coloured blue or white egg, without
spots. The forest Starlings, on the other hand,
have no bristles on the gape, and they always
lay spotted eggs. To this second family belong
all the Mynas (Eulabes) and the glossy Starlings
(Calornis, Lamprocolius, etc.)
The typical Starlings (Sturnus), of which our
English Starling (S. vulgaris) is the best known
representative, are found chiefly in the northern
parts of the old world. The two principal forms
are S. vulgaris of Europe, and the Siberian Star-
ling, S. menzbieri. Both are migratory, the
common Starling leaving its nesting home in theTHE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING. 23
autumn and going south or west. Our British
bird stays with us during the winter, and vast
flocks of Starlings come to us at this time of the
year; but in Scandinavia and Central Europe,
they entirely disappear. The same may be said
of the Siberian Starling, which migrates to India,
in great numbers, for the winter. The more
southern forms migrate to a certain extent, as
the Sardinian Starling (S. unicolor), which mi-
grates across the Mediteranean to Morocco, and
the Purple-backed Starling of Asia Minor (S.
purpurascens), which wanders east from the
Dobrudscha and Asia Minor to North-western
India.
The Rose-coloured Starling, or “ Pastor,” as
it is sometimes called, is one of the true Star-
lings, laying a grey egg, of so pale a colour as
to be nearly white. It differs from the ordinary
Starlings in its choice of a nesting place, not
seeking the hole of a tree or building in which
to build its nest, but breeding in holes of rocks,
as a rule, and in large numbers together. At
all times the Rose-coloured Starling appears to
be a gregarious bird, and its migrations take
place in prodigious flocks.24 THE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING.
The winter home of this species appears to
be in the plains of North-western India, and
there the birds remain until very late in the
spring, returning in a very short time with their
young. This brief absence has always been a
source of wonder to Indian field-naturalists. I,
myself, saw a small flock of fully plumaged
birds near Agra on the 3rd of July. Were these
birds which would breed far away to the west,
or were they birds which had nested and returned
to their home ? They were all full-plumaged,
and no young birds were in the flock, so they
may have been individuals which stay in
India all the year, just as some Dunlins and
Gulls, in England, remain on the south coast
for the whole summer, and never go north to
breed, though they put on the full nesting-livery.
As the Rose-coloured Starling passes over Sind
on its westward migration, the following note
by Mr. Scrope Doig is of great interest. He
is one of the most accurate observers in
India, and he set himself to watch the spring
migration of Pastor roseus. On the 10th of May
the male birds he shot shewed signs of breeding,
but the female birds had no indication of nesting.THE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING. 25
He writes:—“ The birds were feeding in the bed
of a dried-up swamp, along with flocks of Sturnus
minor, and were constantly flying in flocks
backwards and forwards in one direction. Un-
fortunately, important work called me to another
part of the district, and when I returned in a
fortnight’s time, I could not find one. Where
can they have gone ? And they remain away
such a short time! I have seen the old birds
return as early as the 7th of July, accompanied
by young birds barely fledged, and I should not
be at all surprised if these birds are found to breed
in some of the native States on the east of Sind.
That they could find time to migrate to the
Caspian Sea and Central Asia to breed, and
return again by the middle of July, I cannot
believe, especially after having found them so
thoroughly in breeding time, while still in the
east of Sind. Another suspicious circumstance
is the absence of females in the flocks I met with.
There can be no doubt that the breeding-time lies
between the 20th of May, and the commencement
of July.”
Since Mr. Doig wrote the above note, no
additional evidence has been obtained as to the26 THE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING.
breeding of the Rose-coloured Starling, in the
countries lying to the east of Sind, as he supposes
the bird may do. All our information at present,
shews that, however extraordinary it may appear,
the species does actually leave India, rear its
young in Asia Minor or South-eastern Europe,
and bring them back to India in an incredibly
short space of time.
Some idea of the numbers in which the present
species migrates westward, may be gathered from
the following note of Canon Tristuam’s in his
“ Fauna and Flora of Palestine ” :—“ The Rose-
coloured Pastor is well known to the natives as
the Locust Bird, from its habits of preying on
that pest, whose flights it generally follows. It is
very uncertain in its visits, being an erratic,
rather than a migratory bird. I found it in 1858,
but not in 1864 or 1872. In 1881 I came across
marvellous flights of this bird in Northern Syria,
which for three days (26-28 May) passed us on
the Orontes, near the ancient Larissa, in count-
less myriads, all travelling to the westward.
There must have been thousands upon thousands.
The locusts were there ; and on one occasion we
rode over some acres alive with young locusts,THE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING. 27
which absolutely carpeted the whole surface.
One of these flocks of birds suddenly alighted,
like a vast fan dropping on the earth and dappling
it with black and pink. Soon they rose again.
We returned, and not a trace of a locust could we
find (See ‘Ibis,’ 1882, pp. 410-414, for a full account
of this marvellous migration). I may add that all
these myriads of birds were in fully adult plumage.”
Mr. Seebohm, who has had experience of the
Rose-coloured Starling in its native haunts, has
given the following account of it in his “ Birds
of Great Britain ” :—“ The most westerly recorded
instance of its breeding in large numbers is in
Lombardy, at Villafranca, near Verona. The
mystery which for some time shrouded the breed-
ing of this species has been at length completely
dispelled. The old stories of their breeding in
hollow trees, and the modern Greek or Bulgar
fables of their boring holes in banks like Sand-
Martins, are entirely unsupported by evidence.
The Rose-coloured Starling is essentially a Rock-
Starling in its breeding habits. When I was in
the Dobrudscha, in the spring of 1883, I visited a
village about three miles north of Kustendji,
where these birds had bred in great numbers the28 THE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING.
preceding year. They had occupied a pile of
rough building-stone, most of which was, un-
fortunately, removed during the following winter.
A small heap near a cottage still remained, and I
was informed by the peasant who lived there that
it had been full of nests. After removing a few
stones from the top I soon came upon the old
nests. They were more carefully made than those
of the Starling, and might easily have been
mistaken for nests of the Ring-Ouzel; they were
chiefly composed of dry grass, but in several of
them a few feathers were interwoven.”
“ Mr. Barkley, in his ‘ Bulgaria before the
War,’ describes two similar breeding-places
between Rustchuk and Varna, where thousands
took possession of a mound of broken stone and
rock thrown out of a cutting on the railway. In
several parts of the Dobrudscha, I met German
emigrants from Bessarabia who told me that the
Rose-coloured Starling not unfrequently bred in
thousands in the peasants’ gardens, which are
surrounded by rough stone walls, in the holes of
which the nests are made. These birds also
often breed between Tchernavoda and Kustendji;
but I had the misfortune to drop upon a blankTHE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING. 29
year. The railway from Tchernavoda to Medjidi
is across a series of swamps full of reeds, some
twelve feet high. Ducks and Geese come down
here to feed, and the Great Reed-Warbler and the
Bearded Tit make the reeds their home. Now
and then a Purple Heron, a Stork or a Demoiselle
Crane gets up, and Marsh-Harriers range over the
swamp. On the outskirts of the reed-bed,
luxurious grass grows, leading up to perpendicular
cliffs from 50 to 100 feet high. Some of these
are of a white chalk, and some consist of a buff
calcareous conglomeration ; but most of the cliffs
are sandy earth, full of Bee-eaters’ holes.
“ The valley is about a mile wide, and has
evidently, within a comparatively recent date,
geologically speaking, been the main mouth of
the Danube. The lakes north and south of
Kustendji, are as evidently the silted-up mouths
of the various arms of the river which formed the
ancient delta of the Danube, which was probably
destroyed by the drifting sand driven by the east
winds from the shores of the Black Sea. Where
the cliffs are rock, the action of the water, and
possibly of the ice, has hollowed them into
caverns and ledges and holes, usually tenanted by3o THE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING.
Jackdaws, Starlings, Tree-Sparrows and Rollers,
and every two or three years by Rose-coloured
Starlings. In driving across the Steppes between
the Danube and the Black Sea, we now and then
came upon small flocks of these birds. At a
distance they are indistinguishable from Common
Starlings; they run along the ground in the same
way, they have the same rapid straight flight, and
the same habit of clustering together. On the
ground they feed with the same eager anxiety,
but frequently perch on the stunted bushes, when
their pink colour is very conspicuous.
“The notes of this bird are almost exactly the
same as those of the Starling; they chatter
together in the same way; and in confinement
the low warble mixed with the chatter is very
similar in both species. In most places, where
this bird breeds, it is protected on account of the
enormous number of locusts it devours. In
autumn it takes its toll on the fruit (mulberries,
cherries, etc.), but its usefulness in spring is so
apparent, that the Greeks and Turks do not
begrudge it so small a trifle. In Asia Minor, as
in the Dobrudscha, I had the misfortune to arrive
the day after the fair. Dr. Kruper and I wereTHE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING. 31
informed by our friend Guido von Gonzenbach,
that the Rose-coloured Starlings had bred in the
previous spring (1871) in enormous numbers in
the neighbourhood of Smyrna, and had devoured
the grubs and locusts to the admiration of the
peasantry. They fixed upon some village unknown
as a central breeding place, and more than 200
of their eggs were brought in to Mr. Gonzenbach ;
but all his information being Greek, he was
unable to find the locality. After many inquiries,
we succeeded in discovering it amongst the hills.
It appeared to be deserted, not a soul could we
find; everybody was down in the valley harvest-
ing. At last we met an old man travelling with a
mule, buying up fleeces of sheep from the peasants.
He told us that he had travelled all the country
round, and could assure us that there was not a
bird to be found of the kind we sought. He told
us that last year the birds swarmed in thousands
in the valley below, and had built nests like Black-
birds in the clefts of the rocks and on the stony
ground on the steep hill-sides. That year (1872)
he said that they had arrived in great numbers,
but at the expiration of a week, had suddenly
disappeared.”32 THE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING.
A very interesting account of the breeding of
these birds in the same district sixteen years
previously, is to be found in the “Zoologist”
for 1857, p. 5668, translated from an article in
“Naumannia” by the Marquis O. Antinori. He
and Mr. Gonzenbach did not discover the locality
until the young had left the nests. The birds
arrived during the last week of May, and fresh
eggs must have been laid about the 10th of June;
but by the end of that month the young had left
the nest, and by the middle of Jul)*, both old and
young had left the locality. The breeding-place
was a rocky mountain-side, and long before it
was reached, they noticed that every rock and
stone was covered with the white droppings of
the birds. The nests were in thousands, some
quite open and uncovered, others so concealed
amongst the blocks of stone, that it was necessary
to turn the rocks over to find them. Some were
more than a foot below the surface, and others
beyond arm’s length. The nests were often so
close together as to touch one another; they were
carelessly made of dry stalks and leaves, occasion-
ally lined with fine grass. Many eggs were laid
on the bare ground. The great number of birdsTHE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING. 33
naturally attracted many enemies; and the
remains of birds were lying about in all directions,
which had fallen a prey to Jackals, Martens, Wild
Cats, Rats, etc.
In these ravines the oleander is very common;
and a small flock of Rose-coloured Starlings often
suddenly becomes invisible as it drops on one of
these shrubs, the pink backs and breasts of the
Starlings being scarcely distinguishable from the
pink flowers of the oleander.
During the breeding-season, the females of the
Rose-coloured Starling sit very close, and are
assiduously fed by the males; and during the
short time that the young are in the nest, they
are most carefully tended by both parents. The
birds are said to take pleasure in killing locusts,
even when their appetites are satisfied.
In the “ Zoologist ” for 1878, p. 16, is a most
interesting account of the visit of these birds in
1875 to Villafranca, translated from the Italian
of Edoardo de Betta. About four o’clock in the
afternoon of the 3rd of June, about a score of
Rose-coloured Starlings arrived at the Castle, and
were followed in about half an hour by a much
larger flock, of perhaps a hundred birds. Towards
334 THE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING.
evening some thousands arrived, and at dusk dis-
persed in flocks over the country. The next day
the numbers increased to about fourteen thousand ;
and they soon ejected the Common Starlings,
Swallows, Sparrows and Pigeons from the holes
in the battlements in the Castle. The following
day these holes were cleaned out, and nest-build-
ing began on the 5th of June. It was not until the
17th that it was ascertained for certain that eggs
had been laid; but by the 14th of July the young
were seen migrating with their parents, and soon
afterwards the birds had all disappeared. The
nests were described as roughly composed of
small sticks, little branches, straws, hay, grasses,
and other dry herbs disposed in a shapeless mass,
with a limited hollow space in the middle to
contain the eggs, and irregularly lined with
herbaceous fibres, leaves, mosses and feathers.
The males went out to feed in small parties,
returning together.Riddle it Coachman lath. LoudonTHE GOLDEN ORIOLE.
HE Orioles are entirely birds of the Eastern
Hemisphere. In America there are many
black and yellow birds, which are commonly
called “ Orioles,” such as the “ Baltimore Oriole,”
for instance, but these birds are really “ Hang-
nests,” and belong to the Icteridce, a purely
American family.
Orioles are found in Europe, Asia and Africa,
that is to say, the yellow and black forms, of
which our Golden Oriole is the best known repre-
sentative ; for in Australia, all the Orioles have a
greenish type of plumage. The Orioles constitute
a family apart, having somewhat of the habits of
Starlings and Thrushes, but building nests and
(Oriolus galbula.)36
THE GOLDEN ORIOLE.
laying eggs of a totally different pattern from
these birds. Some naturalists have even placed
the Orioles in the family of Crows, but this is
certainly a mistake, for there is scarcely a charac-
ter in common between the Families of the
Corvidce and Oriolidce. The structure of the nest
alone is so totally different, that it shows at once
a want of kinship, for the Orioles build a sus-
pended nest, a kind of hammock, attached to the
fork of a branch. No Crow builds such a nest;
but, on the contrary, the nests of the Corvidce
are rough and substantial structures, whereas that
of an Oriole is a very slenderly built affair. The
Drongos (Dicruridce), which also inhabit the tropics,
and are found, like the Orioles, in Africa, India
and Australia, build similar fork-slung nests, but
are not, in other respects, allied to the Orioles.
The beautiful Golden Oriole has often wan-
dered to Great Britain. It has even bred in our
islands; but this has been owing to the protection
of some proprietor, on whose land the birds
chanced to settle, for, as a general rule, no highly
plumaged species has much chance of establishing
itself in a land like ours, where a pecuniary
reward is ready for every one who owns a gunTHE GOLDEN ORIOLE.
37
and will shoot specimens for the collector of
“ British ” birds. Thus the Oriole, which might
be a regular summer resident, has to be classed
among our rare visitors. The birds, themselves,
appear to know that their golden plumage renders
them specially visible, and in India I noticed that
the Golden Oriole of the country (Oriolus kundoo)
was an uncommonly shy bird, and this seems to
be the manner of the European species.
However much the Oriole may keep itself out
of sight, its note is at once attractive, being very
flute-like. Thus Mr. Seebohm says :—“The call-
note, during the pairing season, sounds like the
words, ‘ Who are you ? ’ in a full rapid whistle ;
and its song is a ‘ Wheet-li-vee-o,’ whence its
vernacular name in Holland of ‘ Kiel-i-vee-o.’
Some slight modifications in its song are ap-
parently produced by prefixing or interluding its
call-note. It is a pity that the song is so short;
for in quality it is scarcely exceeded by any other
bird. Naumann describes its ordinary call-note
a clear gyako, yako, yako, and its alarm note as a
harsh Khrr.”
In its habits the Oriole is very like a Thrush,
and in its flight it also resembles that bird. Its3»
THE GOLDEN ORIOLE.
food consists of insects, but it also feeds on fruit,
especially cherries. “ The nest of the Golden
Oriole,” writes Mr. Seebohm, “ is unlike that of
any other European bird. It is, perhaps, more
curious than beautiful, and is most artistically
made, but the art is of the mechanical kind.
The nest is always suspended from the fork of
a horizontal branch, sometimes of a pine-tree,
but generally of an oak, and is usually placed
from twenty to thirty feet above the ground.
The outside is composed of broad* sedges and
strips of inner bark, which are wrapped round
the two branches forming the fork, from which
the nest is pendant, I have generally found
intertwined with these long narrow strips a few
withered leaves, and almost invariably a scrap
or two of a Dutch newspaper. The lining is
composed of the slender round grass-stalks, very
frequently with the flower of the grass attached.
It is said that the male relieves the female in
the duties of incubation, and it drives off any
intruder with great daring. It has the general
reputation of being a quarrelsome bird, and in
spring the males are often seen fighting, either
for the possession of the female, or for the range
THE GOLDEN ORIOLE.
39
of some favourite plantation. Like the Jay, the
Golden Oriole has some peculiarities, which are
not altogether Corvine. Its flight is undulating,
not straight; and on the ground it hops, but
does not walk.”
The Golden Oriole is rather a late visitor to
Central Europe, and does not arrive before the
end of April or beginning of May, and its eggs
are found towards the end of the latter month.
In Southern Europe and Asia Minor it is not
seen before the middle of April, and the return
migration commences at the end of July or the
beginning of August, and lasts till the early part
of September.
The winter home of the species is South
Africa, and it has been traced through the
eastern side of the Continent, but has not, so
far, been found migrating on the western side.HOLBOELL’S REDPOLL.
(Cannabina holboelli.)
HIS is a large form of the Mealy Redpoll,
and has certainly occurred in this
country, as two specimens are in the British
Museum, procured near Norwich in the month of
January. It probably visits us more often than is
suspected, for our friend Mr. Chernel has lately
procured many specimens in Hungary. The home
of the species is in Scandinavia, whence its range
extends to Eastern Siberia. It is like a Mealy
Redpoll, and has the lower back and rump white,
with brown streaks like the back, but it is larger,
with the bill 0'5 inch in length instead of o-4, and
the latter is altogether stouter. To us it seems a
well-marked race of the Mealy Redpoll, butNS.
tSize.
Riddle le Couchmsn lath 1HOLBOELL’S REDPOLL.
4i
Professor Newton records his opinion that the
lengthened bill is only due to the nature pf the
food on which the bird subsists at certain seasons
of the year.
Redpolls are birds of the north, and inhabit
North America as well as the northern parts of
Europe and Asia. They belong to the same
genus as the Linnets and Twites, of which about ten
species are recognised by naturalists. Of these
the best-known British species are the Common
or Brown Linnet (C. cannabina), the Twite
(C. flavirostris) and the Lesser Redpoll (C.
rufescens). The Redpolls are principally dis-
tinguished from the Linnets and Twites by
always having a red patch on the forhead, the
males of the latter alone possessing this character.
From the male Linnets and Twites, however, the
Redpolls may always be distinguished by having
a black spot on the chin, and by having white, or
huffy white bars on the wings, formed by the pale
tips to the wing-coverts.
All the Redpolls appear to be very similar in
their habits, though these vary slightly according
to the species and the countries which they
inhabit. It is very difficult to write with any42
HOLBOELL’S REDPOLL.
degree of accuracy on this point, however, as
recent observers have persisted in uniting many
of the forms together, though not omitting to
record differences of plumage, as well as variations
in the call-notes and song. A full account of the
several species has yet to be written. Thus, of
Holboell’s Redpoll, be it merely a race or a good
species, nothing is known with certainty, as the
notes written about Scandinavian and Siberian
Redpolls may, after all, apply to Cannabina linaria
or C. exilipes, which likewise occur,in those
countries.
The best-known of the British species is the
Lesser Redpoll (Cannabina rufescens), which breeds
sparingly in the southern counties, but more
commonly in the north of England. It is,
however, much more numerous on migration, and
is caught in large numbers during its autumn
flight to the southward. At this season, it may
be seen feeding on the birch-trees, and oftener
still on the seeds of the alder, in company with
Siskins and Goldfinches. When thus seen, its
actions are very much like those of a Tit, though
the bird is never so active or noisy. It is by no
means impossible to stand under an alder tree for aHOLBOELL’S REDPOLL.
43
considerable time without seeing a bird, till a
call-note suddenly directs one’s attention to the
part of the tree in which the Redpolls are, and we
have often been amused to find that there have
been a dozen or twenty birds within a short
distance of our heads, so quietly engaged in
feeding that we have failed to distinguished them.
In feeding, they often hang back downwards, and
scarcely ever utter a sound, and the call-note,
which sounds like “ too-whee,” uttered in a nasal
manner, is generally the signal for the little flock
to fly off to another alder or birch-tree. This
call-note, which is very similar to that of the
Siskin, is quite different from that of the Linnet.
A flock of Twites, however, will utter the same
kind of note as Redpolls, and they are very like
the latter birds in their appearance and ways.
Mr. Seebohm says that he has often heard the
song of the Lesser Redpoll near Sheffield, and
he describes it as a short, monotonous trill, clear,
shrill and not altogether unmusical. Prosaically
described, however, it may be said to resemble
the rattling of loose cog-wheels. The nest is a
beautiful little structure, composed “of a few
slender twigs in the foundation, and built up of44
HOLBOELL’S REDPOLL.
dry grass-stalks and a little moss, profusely lined
with the down from the cotton-grass or willow-
catkins, or if these materials are not obtainable,
with white Ptarmigan feathers, hair, or wool.
The lining is generally more or less interwoven
into the sides of the nest, which can scarcely be
matched for delicacy and beauty.”SCARLET ROSE-FI NC H .
5 Size
Riddle Jfc Couchman Lith. London.
N.S.THE SCARLET ROSE-FINCH.
HE Finches are birds of very wide 'distribu-
tion, especially in the Old World. They
may be divided into three sub-families, the
Grosbeaks (Coccothraustince), of which our English
Hawfinch is a type, the true Finches (Fringillinie),
of which our Chaffinch is a type, and the
Buntings (Emberizincz), of which our Yellow
Ammer is a type.
The Scarlet “Bullfinch,” as it is often called,
belongs to the true Finches, and it is not a real
Bullfinch, such as our English bird. In fact, the
members of the genus Carpodacus are usually called
“Rose” Finches—a very appropriate name, but
one which cannot so well be applied to the subject
(Carpodacus erythrinus.)46
THE SCARLET ROSE-FINCH.
of the present article, as its principal colour. is
scarlet and not rosy.
The Rose-Finches are found from North-eastern
Europe throughout Siberia to Kamtschatka, and
are particularly well represented in the Himalayas,
westward to the Caucasus, and one peculiar
species is found as far south as the Peninsula of
Sinai. In South America several species are
found, and the genus extends to Mexico. The
Rose-Finches may be said to be intermediate in
form between the Canaries and the .Bullfinches,
approaching the former in the slightly swollen
bill, and resembling the latter in the absence of
yellow in the plumage. In their habits, however,
they differ considerably from the last-named birds.
The Scarlet Rose-Finch is an inhabitant of
Northern Russia, but breeds as far to the west as
Eastern Prussia, while to the east it extends
throughout Siberia to the Pacific and to
Kamtschatka, as well as to Northern China,
where it also nests. Its winter home is in the
Indian Peninsula, and large numbers pass through
China on passage. It is at the season of
migration that examples have been found in
Western Europe, and the species has beenTHE SCARLET ROSE-FINCH. 47
captured in France Italy and Spain, and has
twice been obtained in England—once near
Brighton in September, and once near Hampstead
in October.
The notes on the habits of the Scarlet Rose-
Finch are very scanty, as it has been given to but
few European ornithologists to observe the bird
in a state of nature. Mr. Seebohm, who has
travelled extensively for the purpose of studying
the habits of birds which do not breed in
England, writes as follows:—“ The Scarlet
Rose-Finch is not particularly interesting at its
breeding-grounds. Such a fine-looking bird,
perching so conspicuously as it does, is sure to
attract attention; but I did not observe anything
in its habits worthy of note to distinguish it
from other Finches. North of Lat. 68°, when the
trees began to diminish in size, it disappeared.
The call-note is very similar to that of the
Canary. In autumn these birds collect into
flocks, and are amongst the first birds to migrate
southward before the approach of winter.
“ The song of the Scarlet Rose-Finch is a very
striking one, and not to be confused with that of
any other bird. It is a loud, clear whistle—48
THE SCARLET ROSE-FINCH.
Tu-whit! tu-til-i! It does not require a great
stretch of imagination to fancy that the bird says,
‘I’m pleased to see you;’ the ‘see’ being
strongly accented and slightly prolonged. This
song is never varied, but is sometimes repeated
twice in rapid succession. When it is heard, the
bird may usually be seen perched conspicuously
on the top of a bush or low tree. The marshy
forest banks of the great Siberian rivers are a
very favourite resort of this bird; and in the
Baltic Provinces, where it is common, and in the
valley of the Upper Volga, it is described as
frequenting willows and other low trees in marshy
districts.
“ The food of this bird consists of seeds of
various kinds, grain, and the buds of trees. In
spring it eats insects, and in autumn berries and
other fruit.
“ The nest of the Scarlet Rose-Finch is built in
the fork of a small bush, or amongst climbing
plants, not far from the ground. It bears little
resemblance to the nest of a Finch, and might
easily be mistaken for that of a Warbler. It is
composed of dry grass-stalks, and lined with
horse-hair. It is rather deep, and very neatlyTHE SCARLET ROSE-FINCH.
49
and carefully made, although it is so slender as to
be semi-transparent when held up to the light.
The inside diameter is two inches and a quarter.
“Five is the usual number of eggs; but some-
times only four are laid, and, occasionally, as
many as six. They vary in length from -g to ‘73,
and in breadth from '63 to '55. The ground-
colour is greenish blue, not so pale as that of the
eggs of the Bullfinch; the spots are also fewer,
smaller, and blacker than in typical eggs of the
latter species. They are smaller than the eggs of
the Bullfinch, and are not likely to be mistaken
for the eggs of any other bird.”
The following is Colonel Biddulph’s account
of the breeding of the species in Gilgit:—
“ Several nests were found, all situated within
a foot of the ground, either in low bushes
or among the stems of coarse grass, about
2 feet high, in scrub-jungle. The nest is a
neat cup-shaped structure of grass, lined with the
finer roots and stems only, except in one instance,
in which a good deal of hair was mixed with the
lining; the interior is from 2 to inches wide,
and deep. The eggs are blue ; of a purer and
slightly deeper shade than those of Trochalopteron
4THE SCARLET ROSEFINCH.
5°
lineatum, with chocolate spots sparingly scattered
over them, chiefly towards the large end. In one
out of a dozen the spots are almost entirely
wanting; in some they are paler, almost of a
sienna tint, in others nearly black, while on a few
there are also one or two pale purplish spots and
fine reddish scrawls at the larger end; and in
these the spots are almost confined to the larger
end in an ill-defined zone or cap.
“ Nests were taken at 10,000 feet elevation on
July 16th, 17th, 20th, 21st, 2gth'and 30th, all
with eggs mostly fresh.”Riddle * Couch man. Lith. LondonTWO-BARRED CROSSBILL.
HE Crossbills are nearly allied to the Bull-
finches, but are remarkable for the curious
way in which their mandibles cross each other.
This conformation of the bill is only seen in
old birds, as in the young ones the bill is like
that of ordinary Finches, and does not show
any sign of the ultimate aberration in the position
of the mandibles.
Many of our readers will be familiar with the
pretty rendering by Longfellow of the ancient
legend regarding the way in which the Crossbill
obtained its abnormal bill:—
(Loxia bifasciata.)
4*52
TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL.
THE LEGEND OF THE CROSSBILL.
(From, the German of Julius Mosen.)
On the cross the dying Saviour
Heavenwards lifts His eyelids calm,
Feels, but scarcely feels, a trembling
In His pierced, and bleeding, palm.
And, by all the world forsaken,
Sees He how with zealous care,
At the ruthless nail of iron,
A little bird is striving there.
Stained with blood, and never tiring,
With its beak it doth not cease;
From the cross 'twould free the Saviour,
Its Creator’s Son release.
And the Saviour speaks in mildness:
“ Blest be thou of all the good !
Bear, as token of this moment,
Marks of blood and Holy Rood ! ”
And that bird is called the Crossbill;
Covered all with blood so clear,
In the groves of pine it singeth
Songs, like legends, strange to hear.
In the same way the red breast of the Robin
is said to have been acquired, and the Red-
breast possesses this advantage over the Crossbill
in legendary history, that it does really occur in
the Holy Land, whereas the latter species is not,
as yet, known to visit that country.
The Crossbills are birds of the pine-woods,TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL.
S3
and are found in the northern portions of the
old and new Worlds, wherever forests of pine,
or larch, or fir-trees flourish. Here it finds the
seeds on which it feeds, and for the extraction
of which its curious bill is adapted. The latter
varies considerably in stoutness and strength,
the larger-billed individuals being often called
“ Parrot ” Crossbills in works on British Orni-
thology. In the Himalayas the Crossbills are
very small, and have been recognised as a distinct
species, but they really only constitute a small
race of the ordinary form, for between the small
size of the Himalayan Crossbill and the species
of Northern Europe, the bird of North America
is intermediate, so that it is impossible to
define any characters by which these races
can be recognised, as the size of one over-
laps that of the race next in order of dimensions.
In the New World we find Crossbills as far
south as Mexico, and the curious discovery
was made by Mr. John Whitehead last year,
of the existence of a species of Crossbill in the
mountains of Northern Luzon, in the Philippines,
where the presence of the genus had never
before been suspected.54
TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL.
Besides the ordinary species, of which the
common Crossbill is the type, there are two
species of White-winged Crossbills, both of which
have occurred in England. They differ from the
ordinary type in having a double bar of white
across the wing; hence the name of “Two-
barred ” or “ White-winged” Crossbills. Both of
these are distinguished from the ordinary forms
by a slightly richer coloring, in addition to the
bars on the wing. The European species
(Loxia bifasciata) occurs accidentally in Eng-
land, but has occasionally visited us in some
numbers. Its true home is in Northern Russia
and Siberia, and in North America it is repre-
sented by a closely allied form, which only differs
from its European relative in having the scapulars
slightly darker, so that it is extremely doubtful if
there is any real distinction to be found between
the European and American birds. The latter
have also been recorded as British.
As might be expected, there is no difference in
the habits of the Two-barred and the Common
Crossbills, but the former seem to have a slightly
more northern breeding-range, both in the Old
and the New Worlds. They are all very earlyTWO-BARRED CROSSBILL.
55
breeders, and lay their eggs in February and
March, the young birds afterwards forming family
parties with their parents, and straying about
in small or large flocks in search of food, when
they wander to a considerable distance from their
home.
Writing of the Two-barred Crossbill in Alaska,
Mr. E. W. Nelson says:—“ It is found in the
greatest abundance wherever trees occur to afford
it shelter. It is even in greater numbers than the
Pine Grosbeak, and shares with the latter its
range. It is more familiar than the Grosbeak,
frequently coming low down among the smaller
growth, and it is a common sight to see parties
of them swinging about in every conceivable
position from the twigs on the tops of the cotton-
woods or birch trees, where the birds are busily
engaged in feeding upon the buds. They pay no
heed to a passing party of sleds, except, perhaps,
that an individual will fly down to some con-
venient bush, whence he curiously examines the
strange procession, and, his curiosity satisfied or
confidence restored, back he goes to his com-
panions, and continues his feeding. When fired
at, they utter chirps of alarm, and call to each56
TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL.
other with a long, sweet note, something similar
to that of our ordinary Goldfinch (Spinus tristis).
They keep up a constant cheeping repetition of
this note, when feeding in parties, and if one of
their number is shot, the others approach closer
and closer to the hunter, and gaze with mingled
curiosity and sympathy upon their fluttering
companion.”
We have already alluded to the way in which
the bill of the Common Crossbill varies in size,
and the birds in stoutness. Mr. Seebohm says
that this has much to do with the food on which
they live. “ The bill of the Crossbill has become
specially adapted for extracting the seeds from the
cones of the larch and various species of pine.
The strongest billed birds, to which the name of
“ Parrot ” Crossbill has been applied, form a local
race, which live in the pine-forests, and feed
principally on the cones of the Scotch fir (Pinus
sylvestns). The more slender-billed birds choose
localities where spruce-fir and larch cones are
obtainable; they range further north during the
breeding season, than their thicker-billed cousins,
not because they are able to withstand a greater
degree of cold, but because the trees whose fruitsTWO-BARRED CROSSBILL.
57
form their favourite food are found further
north.
“ In the Valley of the Yenesei, the larch and
spruce range to lat. 69°, whilst the Scotch fir only
grows as far north as 62^°. The Crossbill breaks
off the cone with its beak and flies with it to a
thick bough. The cone is held firmly against the
bough with one foot, exactly as a Raptorial bird
holds its prey, and the cone is torn to pieces, and
the seed extracted with the bill, the outside
covering or shell being removed, and the kernel
only eaten. The Crossbill also feeds on many
other seeds, and is very fond of apples. Meves
found them feeding, in South Sweden, on the
caterpillar and chrysalis of a small green moth
(Tortrix viridana), which is very destructive to
oak-trees, and it is said that the Crossbill
generally feeds its young upon insects.
“The nest is usually placed in a pine-tree
of some kind, occasionally not more than five
feet from the ground, but more often at a much
greater elevation. The favourite position seems
to be almost at the top of the tree in a cup
formed by the forking of the branches; but it
is not unfrequently built on a horizontal branch58
TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL.
at some distance from the trunk. It is formed
on the same model as the nest of the Bullfinch,
an outside nest of sticks, and an inside nest of
soft material, the latter rising somewhat higher
than the former. The outside nest is made of
twigs of Scotch fir, about of an inch thick,
somewhat loosely interlaced together, and has
-ail ifwide^diameter of four inches, and an outside
diameter of six inches or more. The inside nest
is composed of dry grass and hair-lichen, with
occasionally a little moss or wool, or a few
feathers in the lining; the cup has a diameter
of 2f inches, and is almost i£ inch deep. The
usual number of eggs is four, but five are some-
times found; they vary in length from o-95—o-85
inch, and in breadth from O'O']—0.65.	The
ground - colour of the eggs varies from pale
greenish blue to almost white. The overlying
spots are dark brown, principally at the larger
end, most of them very small, but some as large
as No. 10 shot, and many elongated into streaks;
the underlying spots are pale reddish brown,
but do not differ in size, shape, or distribution,
from the overlying spots.”N S.
SizeTHE SHORE-LARK.
(Otocorys alpestris.)
HIS bird is by no means an uncommon
visitor to our shores in winter, occurring
both in the east of England and in Scotland,
and it probably comes regularly every winter.
It merits its name of “ shore ” Lark from its
habit of frequenting the sea-coasts, but a more
correct name for it would probably be the
“ Horned Lark,” as it belongs to a small group
of the Alaudidce, which have a little black tuft
of feathers on each side of the head; and,
moreover, these members of the genus Otocorys
are anything but “ shore ” Larks in their summer
habitats.
Thus we find that there are about twenty
forms of Horned Larks recognised by naturalists6o
THE SHORE-LARK.
at the present day. The species which visits
the British Islands is a bird of the Arctic Circle
in summer, breeding on the “ tundras ” above the
forest growth in both the Eastern and Western
Hemispheres. Hence it is one of those species
known as circum-polar, and like the Snow Bun-
ting, and the Snowy Owl, the Shore-Larks
wander south in winter. They are a regular
visitor in late autumn to the island of Heligo-
land, and have occurred in most of the countries
of Europe at the same season of th# year.
The allied species, however, are mostly sta-
tionary, and migrate in a much less degree than
the common species, 0. alpestris. In North
Africa there is a resident species, 0. bilopha, in
the Sahara, which extends eastwards to Arabia.
In South-eastern Europe we find 0. penicillata,
which visits Bosnia and Southern Russia, and
extends through Persia to Afghanistan and the
country round Gilgit, in the Western Himalaya.
A second race, 0. bicornis, replaces this Horned
Lark in Palestine and Syria; and a third race,
0. pallida, occurs in Yarkand and Turkestan.
In the Himalaya Mountains and in the Tian
Shan and Altai ranges as far as Northern China,THE SHORE-LARK.
61
and throughout the great plateau land of Tibet,
a large and strong-billed form, 0. longirostris, is
dominant; but it is in North America that the
greatest diversity of race is shewn. In the latest
memoirs on these Larks, by Mr. Dwight, no less
than eleven races are recognised, each inhabiting
a separate and distinct area between the Arctic
Regions and Mexico, while one little species of
Horned Larks, 0. peregrina, is stranded in the
United States of Colombia, in South America.
As the Shore-Lark is only seen with us in
winter, very little has, been observed of its habits,
and we must fall back on the writings of those
who have observed it in its breeding-haunts. As
is the case with most of our rare visitors, we find
the best notes in the writings of Mr. Seebohm,
who made it a special feature of his work to visit
many countries, for the express purpose of
studying the habits of species, which are known
in Great Britain only as rare or winter visitants.
In the north of Europe, and in Siberia, he met
with the Shore-Lark, and took the nest and eggs
in Lapland, on the Petchora River, and on the
Yenesei. In the former country the bird lays its
eggs from the middle of May to the middle of6 2
THE SHORE-LARK.
June, and rears two broods. In Siberia the eggs
are laid in the middle of June, and only one
brood is raised, as the summer is too short to
allow of a second one being brought up.
“ The nest,” writes Mr. Seebohm, “ is always
built on the ground, generally in some slight
hollow. I found one in Finmark in the middle of
a mountain-path, in the hollow formed by the
foot of a horse in the soft mud, which the sun
had afterwards hardened. Others were amongst
stones on the bare ground, and one under the
shelter of some rushes in the grass. The nest is
loosely made of dry grass and stalks, and the
inside, which is rather deep, is lined with willow-
down or reindeer-hair.	Four is the usual
number of eggs; but very often only three are
laid, and sometimes as many as five. They may
be said to be characteristic Lark’s eggs, and only
differ from those of the Sky-Lark by their more
olive-shade of colour.”
Mr. Seebohm further gives the following
characteristic account of his experiences of the
species in its northern home :—“ The Shore-Lark
is as much a bird of the tundra as the Snow-
Bunting and the Lapland Bunting, but it breedsTHE SHORE-LARK.
63
at a lower latitude than the former species, and,
although almost as abundant as the latter, it is
more local. It avoids the marshy districts, and
confines itself to dry sandy plains or rocky hills,
though it comes down to the mud-shores of the
rivers to drink. It is one of the earliest of the
small birds to arrive at its breeding-grounds.
The Snow-Bunting and the Mealy Redpoll arrive
first, and may be seen running about on the snow
some weeks before the ice breaks up; but as soon
as the thaw begins in earnest, a batch of small
birds arrive, amongst which is sure to be the
Shore-Lark. In latitude 6o°, in the Valley of the
Petchora, I saw the first on the ioth of May;
but in latitude 66|°, in the Valley of the Yenesei,
I did not see this bird until the 2nd of June.
They afterwards passed through both stations in
great numbers.
“ The Shore-Larks seem to be entirely ground
birds. On the banks of the Petchora I have seen
both the Common Gull and the Common Snipe
perched in trees, and in the Valley of the Yenesei
I have shot a Golden Plover from the summit of
a larch; but I have never seen the Shore-Lark
perch on a tree or even on a bush. It seems to64
THE SHORE-LARK.
be even more exclusively a ground-bird than the
Sky-Lark. It runs along the sand with the greatest
ease; but when watching a flock of Lapland
Buntings and Shore-Larks feeding on an oasis of
grass in the snow, I noted down that both species
occasionally advanced by a series of hops, and
that the Shore-Lark did so more than the Lapland
Bunting. During migration, the Shore-Lark is
a gregarious bird, and though the first flocks
consisted of Shore-Larks only, as soon as the
Lapland Buntings began to arrive, they seemed
to be on the best of terms together, and the later
flocks usually consisted of both species: Flocks
of Pipits were migrating about the same time,
and it was very striking to contrast the wildness
of these birds with the tameness of the Shore-
Larks.
“The Shore-Lark often sings on the ground,
and when apparently too busily engaged in
feeding to mount in the air for the purpose, will
occasionally utter snatches of song. At their
breeding-places, they sing continuously, mounting
up into the air like a Sky-Lark, and singing
their charming song, as they sail about with
wings and tail expanded. The song is veryTHE SHORE-LARK.
65
melodious, though short, and, among its few
variations, a long-drawn note often occurs, which
resembles much the song of the Corn-Bunting.
It often remains for some time in the air, and
sings its little song several times over before it
descends. It will also sing from the roof of the
wooden houses. Its call-note is loud and clear,
but scarcely capable of being expressed by a
word.”
5THE BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL.
(.Motacilla flara.)
IT'IVE species of Wagtails are known in the
British Islands. They are all more or less
migratory; but two of them, the Pied Wagtail
(Motacilla lugubris) and the Grey Wagtail (Mota-
cilla melanope) stay during the winter in some
numbers, though most of them leave our shores
for more southern climes.
The Pied Wagtail, most familiarly known
in England as the “ Dish-washer,” may almost
be said to be a peculiar British bird, for its
nesting-home is almost confined to our islands.
It is known to breed also in the North-west of
France, and the nest has, on one occasion, beenN.S.
BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL
i Size.THE BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL. 67
found in Holland. It also nests in South-western
Norway, but, it is a species quite peculiar to
Western Europe, and even in its migrations it
still adheres to this distribution, going in winter
to Southern France, and, in fewer numbers, to
Spain and Morocco, in company with its con-
gener, the White Wagtail (Motacilla alba). With
this species it returns in spring; but the latter
bird takes the place of the Pied Wagtail through-
out the greater part of Europe, and visits England
more rarely. Sometimes a partnership takes
place between the two species, as was proved a
few years ago by Lord Walsingham, who in-
structed his keepers to procure a pair of Pied
Wagtails for the series of groups of British Birds
in the British Museum. The nest and young
birds were duly obtained with the parent birds,
when the male proved to be a White Wagtail
(Motacilla alba), and the female a Pied Wagtail
(M. lugubris). This curious western distribution
is observed in another species of Wagtail, be-
longing to the yellow section of the genus, or
“ Field ” Wagtails, as they are usually termed.
This is the Yellow Wagtail or Ray’s Wagtail,
Motacilla campestris, which nests plentifully in the
5*68 THE BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL.
British Islands, and also in the North of France,
but is only known as a rare bird-of-passage in
spring in Holland. Of this bird, however, there
seems to be a second “ colony,” if one may use
the term, which inhabits Central Asia and the
countries round the Caspian Sea in summer,
and winters probably in South-eastern Africa,
for specimens have been received in collections
from the Transvaal and the Zambesi. Western
Africa is the winter home of our British-bred
individuals, and here we have a somewhat similar
case of distribution to that already explained in
our account of the Red-footed Kestrel.
The breeding-ranges and migrations of the
Blue-headed Wagtail are not less interesting.
This is a first-cousin of Ray’s Wagtail, and, like
that bird, belongs to the group of “Field”
Wagtails, as opposed to the “ Pied ” or “ Water ”
Wagtails, of which M. lugubris and M. alba are
the typical representatives. They are mostly
found in the fields, rather than at the water-side,
and nest in the meadows, instead of in sheltered
places, like the Pied Wagtails do.
All the Wagtails, like their relations the Pipits,
have very long secondary quills, which are nearlyTHE BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL. 69
the same length as the primary quills. In this
character they resemble the Larks, as they do
also in their mode of running along the ground,
instead of proceeding by means of hops. The
eggs of both are very Lark-like in general appear-
ance, especially in the case of the Pipits, but
none of the Larks have the elegant motions of
the slenderly-built Pipits and Wagtails, all of
which keep up a vibration of the tail, when they
run, which is exceedingly graceful. Their flight
also is more of a “dip” through the air than is
the case with the Larks,' whose flight is more
steady and sustained.
As a rule, the Pipits and Wagtails are birds of
sober plumage, but some of the latter are rather
handsomely coloured, and of these the Blue-
headed Wagtail is certainly one of the most
striking. It has perhaps the largest range of any
of the Family to which it belongs, and is
particularly interesting to the student of the
geographical distribution of animals, as being an
example of “ interrupted ” habitat. Thus the
Blue-headed Wagtails which pass the summer in
Europe, apparently pass the winter in Africa.
Far to the eastward, the Blue-headed Wagtail is7o THE BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL.
met with again, for I have never been able to
separate satisfactorily the Chinese examples from
their European representatives, though many orni-
thologists consider them to be specifically distinct.
This eastern colony of M. flava breeds in Eastern
Siberia, as far as Kamtschatka, and even extends
to Alaska, in North-west America. It passes
through China to its winter home in Burma and
the Indo-Malayan region, visiting even the Molucca
Islands during its winter migration. In Central
Siberia, on the other hand, certainly«in the Valley
of the Yenesei, and probably in that of the
Lena, an intermediate form of Blue-headed
Wagtail obtrudes itself, wedging in, as it were,
its range between the true Motacilla flava of
Europe and Eastern Siberia. This is the Indian
Blue-headed Wagtail, Motacilla beema, which
nests in the Siberian latitudes mentioned above,
and spends its winter in the Indian Peninsula.
It is a very pale-coloured edition of the ordinary
M. flava, and is easily recognisable as a distinct
race.
The Blue-headed Wagtail is a regular visitant
to England in spring, and is probably more
frequent than is generally supposed. It arrivesTHE BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL.
7i
with the flocks of Ray’s Wagtails, and I have
shot it in their company on the marsh-land of the
South coast. I have also seen in the collection
of my friend, Mr. Menteith Ogilvie, several female
specimens procured by him in Suffolk, and it is,
therefore, quite possible that the species either
breeds in our Eastern counties, or that it mates
with Ray’s Wagtail, which is the Common
Yellow Wagtail of those parts.
Large flights of Yellow Wagtails arrive in Eng-
land in the spring, and are to be seen in numbers
in the meadow-lands of the south coast as early
as March. By the end of that month they have
extended further inland, and their bright plumage
rivalling, in the males at least, the brilliancy of a
Canary, makes them a conspicuous object in the
pastures and commons of the southern and mid-
land counties. In April they extend their range
into Scotland, where they breed plentifully. They
are very fond of accompanying cattle, and may
generally be seen running swiftly about in close
proximity to the legs of the cows, and actively
catching the insects disturbed by the latter as
they move along. In the autumn they collect
in vast flocks on our southern coasts, and roost72
THE BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL.
in the reed-beds in swarms, before taking their
long journey to Western Africa.
The Blue-headed Wagtail, although, as we have
already said, it sometimes arrives along with the
Yellow Wagtail in England, is, as a rule, a some-
what late arrival on the continent of Europe, and
its eggs are not found till the end of May or
June, at a time when our Yellow Wagtail has
already reared its first brood. Its habits are very
similar to those of the latter bird, and it is equally
fond of accompanying cattle ; but in Hungary I
found it in the vicinity of the swamps, near the
Neusiedler Lake, in company with the Blue-
throats, and evidently nesting. Mr. Seebohm
also notices that it is partial to swamps, and
frequents wet grass-lands. He says:—“The song
of this bird like that of its congeners, is scarcely
more than a musical twitter. Its common call-
note is a musical “ chit-up,’’ similar to those of
the Yellow Wagtail, but certainly shriller than
that of the Pied Wagtail. It has also a pro-
longed plaintive double note, occasionally heard
when the bird is perched. Every meadow in
Holland abounds with these charming little birds,
running along the banks of the dykes or amongTHE BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL.
73
the grazing cattle, and occasionally perching on
the wooden boundary-posts, whence they will
suddenly take wing to catch a passing fly. But,
perhaps, their beauty is seen to still greater
advantage on the marshy banks of the lower
Danube, when the brilliant sunshine gilds the
deep rich yellow of their breasts, as they sit on
the top of a willow or tall thistle, or other rank
herbage which flourishes in this semi-tropical
climate, displaying the white outside feathers of
their quivering tails, as they balance them-
selves on their uncertain perch.”THE WHITE-HEADED
LONG-TAILED TIT.
(sEgithalus vagans.)
' I ’HE Tits are an interesting family of birds
A to study, for they are numerous in the
British Islands, amusing in their habits, of pretty
coloration, and are capable of being trained into
an exhibition of confidence, that renders them
as entertaining as if they were kept in a cage.
Thus much one may say for the British species,
but when we come to talk of the Tits of the
World, they are among the most difficult of all
families of birds to study. Climate changes them,
altitude affects their coloration, till in some
genera they present form upon form, all closely
allied, but having certain definiteness of colourKiddie t Couch man :h London.
WHITE-HEADED LONG-TAILED TIT.
3* SizeWHITE-HEADED LONG-TAILED TIT.
75
which calls for close and assiduous study, till
they are as bewildering as the American Horned
Larks to characterise.
The Tits are essentially northern birds, that
is to say, the bulk of the species are inhabitants
of the northern parts of the old and new Worlds.
South America is innocent of them, so is
Australia, so is Oceania, Africa has a few, India
a few ; but the bulk are Palaearctic and Neartic.
The Palasarctic Region is the northern region of
the Old World. It embraces the whole of Europe
and North-western Africa; includes Syria and
Palestine, and then stretches eastward, taking in
Asia Minor and Persia, trending thence to
Afghanistan and the confines of the Indian
Region and includes the whole of the countries
to the north of the Himalayas, and all the
countries north of the great river Yangtze in China.
This region is not very rich in families of
birds, like the more tropical ones, such as the
Ethiopian Region, with its Touracoes and Colies;
the Indian Region with its wealth of Hill-Tits
(Liotrichidce), its Broadbills (Eurylcemidce), and
its Babblers (Timeliidce); the Australian Region
with its Lyre Birds, Birds of Paradise, and76 WHITE-HEADED LONG-TAILED TIT.
Mound-building Megapodes; or the Neotropical
Region, the richest of all, with its Curassows,
Boat-bills, Hoatzins, etc.
And what of the Nearctic Region, i.e., the
Northern region of the New World, which
includes North America, down to the Table-land
of Mexico ? Recent scientific criticism would
have us recognise this as an integral part of our
European or Palasarctic Region, the two to be
included in one natural area, the “ Holarctic ”
Region. With this we do not in the least agree.
In its strictly northern elements there is much in
common between the two regions, and Snowy
Owls, Jer-Falcons, Willow-Grouse, Waxwings,
Shore-Larks, and many other birds are common
to both, but in the Nearctic Region Pheasants,
Capercailzies, Bearded Reedlings, Wagtails, and
all true Warblers, are absent; while on our side
of the world we have no Painted Warblers
CMniotiltidce), no Hang-nests (Icteridcz), no Ruffed
Grouse, no Turkeys, and many other forms of
bird-life which North America possesses. Thus
we firmly believe, with Dr. A. R. Wallace, that
the northern regions of the old and new worlds,
possess distinctive features which will lead orni-WHITE-HEADED LONG-TAILED TIT. 77
thologists to regard them as natural regions, and
not as forming part of one and the same
zoo-geographical area.
When we consider the Tits, we find a great
affinity between the forms which inhabit the
two regions. Such birds as our Great Tit (Parus
major) and our Blue Tit (P. cceruleus) find no near
Nearctic allies, nor is our Cole Tit (Pams britanni-
cus) represented in the New World, but our
Marsh Tit (Parus dresseri), and especially its con-
tinental relatives, P. palustris, and P. borealis, have
many representatives in North America, as does
also our Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus), and our
Long-tailed Tits are replaced in America by the
tiny Psaltriparus. On the other hand, most of
the European Tits find their nearest allies in
Eastern species rather than in the Western ones,
particularly with those which inhabit the lofty
Himalayas, part of which mountain chain probably
belongs naturally to the Palsearctic Region.
The subject of our present article, the White-
headed Long-tailed Tit, will always be an object of
interest to myself, for the species was the occasion
of my first serious contribution to ornitho-
logical literature. I was in fact, struck by the78 WHITE-HEADED LONG-TAILED TIT.
difference in the coloration of the Long-tailed
Tit, the Parus caudatus of most works on orni-
thology thirty years ago; in those dealing with
the ornithology of different countries of Europe, the
species was mostly represented with a perfectly
white head. Such a bird I had never seen in
England, and on following up my researches, I
gradually came to the conclusion, after the
examination of many specimens, that our British
bird was a distinct species from that of the
continent of Europe. This seemed*to be to many
a surprising fact, although it ought not to have
been so. In studying the ornithology of any
other part of the world but Europe, naturalists
would have expected to find a modification of the
Avifauna in islands as far separated from a
continent as the British Islands are, but, because
it was a European question, and our Long-tailed
Tit had been always considered to be the
Parus caudatus of Linnaeus, many doubts on
the subject were entertained, and are even enter-
tained to this day, that the British species can
be distinct from the Swedish and Continental
bird, even by men who readily admit that our
Red Grouse (Lagopus scoticus) is not theWHITE-HEADED LONG-TAILED TIT. 79
same as the Willow Grouse (Lagopus lagopus) of
Scandinavia.
Since the year 1867, however, when I pro-
mulgated the idea of there being an indigenous
species of Long-tailed Tit in Great Britain,
several other birds have been found to present
modifications of the continental form. Our moist
and smoke-laden climate renders most of our
resident birds of a duller and more sombre hue
than those of the adjacent continent of Europe.
Our Bullfinches, Yellow-Ammers, Sky-Larks, and
Tits, are all more dingy than the specimens we
see in continental museums, and some naturalists
have not hesitated to give distinctive names to
our Tree-Creeper, our Cole Tit, and our Marsh
Tit. In the case of the two species last named
there can be no question that they present certain
differences from their continental allies; but in
no case are the distinctions so well marked as in
the two Long-tailed Tits of Great Britain and the
continent. In the latter, the head is pure white
all round, while in the insular form there is a
distinct black band along each side of the crown.
The Swedish bird, it is clear, must bear the
name of Purus caudatus of Linnaeus, because the8o WHITE-HEADED LONG-TAILED TIT.
great Swedish naturalist was, of course, describing
the birds of his own country, and hence it is the
white-headed form which must be called by the
Linnean name, as that is the only one which
occurs in Sweden. The earliest name for our
British bird seems to be that of 0. vagans of
Leech, given to it by him in a catalogue of
Mammals and Birds in the British Museum, but
evidently without any idea that the British species
was distinct.
On account of its long and graduated tail the
Long-tailed Tits are separated from the true Tits
(Pams), and bear the name of JZgithalus. They
also differ in their mode of nidification, for,
whereas the Blue Tit and its allies make their
nest in a sheltered situation, such as a hole in
a wall or tree, the Long-tailed Tit builds an
exposed nest, which trusts for its concealment
chiefly by the wonderful way in which lichens
are attached by the birds to the outside of it,
so that it resembles moss-covered bark. As is
the case with nearly all birds which lay white
eggs, the present species carefully conceals them
from view, by building a domed nest of moss,
and lined with feathers; one of the prettiest, andWHITE-HEADED LONG-TAILED TIT. 81
softest, and warmest of all possible homes. The
nest of the Long-tailed Tit is so well known, and
has been so often described, that it is not
necessary to give a long account of it here; but
it is certainly one of the most remarkable of all
nests built by birds, and has been known to have
as many as 2,000 feathers in its construction.
The nests of the true Tits, concealed as they
, are in a hole of a tree or building, are often very
rough structures, though sometimes the larger
nests which the Great Tit builds in a flower-pot,
or a pump, or a post-box, or in some such out
of the way place, are neat enough, but they are
far behind that of the Long-tailed Tit, as regards
beauty and finish. Other little members of the
Family which build a bag-like nest, are the
Penduline Tits (Remiza and Anthoscopus), tiny
species, inhabiting Africa and Southern Europe,
and from these countries extending to Central
Asia, and even as far as Northern China. The
nests made by the Penduline Tits are like bags
of closely woven felt, layer upon layer of cotton
being employed in their construction, so that in
South Africa one of the species goes by the name of
the “ Cotton Bird,” on account of its curious nest.
682 WHlTE-HEAt)Et) LONG-TAILED Tit.
To return to our little friends, the Long-tailed
Tits, we may mention that the white-headed form,
which is figured in the plate, is a very rare and
occasional visitor to England, and has only been
known to occur for certain On a few occasions, all
statements of its more frequent occurrence
notwithstanding. We can state most positively,
from our own experiences in France, where we
have shot both the ordinary JEgithalus vagans and
the White-headed JE. caudatus in the same park,
that it is impossible to distinguish the two birds
when they are at a little distance, and when
hanging to a twig, the white centre to the crown
of our own bird, shows so conspicuously that it is
easy to imagine it to be the white-headed con-
tinental form. A good pair of field-glasses,
therefore, is absolutely necessary for the correct
determination of these small creatures.
The eggs, as might be expected, are among the
least of those found in Europe, and only measure
half an inch. They are of a dull white colour.N.S.
Riddle ft Couch man. Lith. londonTHE WAXWING.
j
(A mpelis garrula.)
THIS is an arctic visitor, of which arrivals
are noticed nearly every winter in the
British Islands, while sometimes there is a
regular invasion of Waxwings, just as there is,
occasionally, a large westward immigration of
Nutcrackers or Pallas’ Sand Grouse. The Wax-
wing is a bird of very delicate coloration, and
gains its English name from the peculiar tips to
the quills and tail-feathers, which have pointed
drops, as it were, of red sealing-wax at the ends.
The older the bird, the more numerous are these
wax-like tips. Young birds do not have any, and
the wax-like ornaments vary in number even in
6*84
THE WAXWING,
adult individuals, and it is probably only very old
birds indeed which have these appendages on the
tail-feathers, as well as on the wings.
The Waxwing is a circum-polar species, and is
found in the pine regions of the Arctic circle,
both in the Old World and in North America,
but it has not been found breeding in the latter
country excepting in Alaska, though it doubt-
less has a more extended breeding-range in North
America than is generally supposed. Its move-
ments, even in the nesting seasoi#, seem to be
somewhat uncertain, as it will make its
appearance in a certain locality in some
numbers, and then is not seen again for some
seasons. In the same way, its winter migrations
are very irregular, and but five instances of its
visiting Great Britain, in large numbers, have
been recorded during the present century. The
Waxwing is to be seen in our markets nearly
every winter, but the birds which are thus exposed
for sale come from Russia, where numbers are
captured for the table every year. In the autumn
and winter the food of the bird consists of
berries, and they then become very fat, and are
esteemed a delicacy. In summer they subsistTHE WAXWING.	85
almost entirely on insects, with occasionally a
few berries.
The discovery of the nest of the Waxwing is
one of the romances of ornithology, and is con-
nected with the name of John Wolley, one of
that earnest school of British naturalists, whose
work in the fifties did so much to raise the standard
of ornithology in Europe, and to prepare the way
for the more complete studies which have been
undertaken during the last forty years. Those
ornithologists were mostly Cambridge men, and,
happily, the majority of that pioneering band
are still with us, though Wolley, Hewitson, John
Hancock, Stevenson, and John Henry Gurney
have passed away; but, we can still muster
among the ranks of working ornithologists, many
of the founders of the “ Ibis ” ; Lord Lilford,
P. L. Sclater, Alfred Newton and his brother,
Sir Edward Newton, Osbert Salvin, F. D. God-
man, and Canon Tristram, all of whom are still
actively working at ornithology. It was in the
“Ibis,” that wonderful journal of ornithology, fast
approaching its fortieth volume, that the account of
the quest of John Wolley after the Waxwing’s nest
was published. He spent five consecutive summers,86
THE WAXWING.
and two out of the five winters in Lapland,
studying the habits of birds, and trying to obtain
the eggs, previously unknown, of this species; but
so erratic is the Waxwing in its choice of a
breeding-home, that it was not until his fourth
summer that he succeeded in obtaining the prize.
In 1856 and 1857 a few nests were got for
him by his collectors, who procured nearly seven
hundred eggs in 1858. Wolley died in 1859, at
the early age of thirty-five, leaving behind him an
immortal record in the annals <jf European
ornithology, for his name is connected not only
with the discovery of the nesting of the Wax-
wing, but with that of several other European
birds, unknown before his day.
His account of the discovery of the Waxwing’s
nest has often been quoted, but it is such a true
picture of ornithological enthusiasm and its
reward, that I make no apology for reproducing
it. Wolley had provided his servant, Ludwig,
with a coloured picture of the Sidensvans, with
instructions to find the nest, if possible, and
when Ludwig saw the bird at last, he gathered
together a number of Russian boys to search
for the nest, which one of them at last discoveredTHE WAXWING.
87
on the branch of a spruce-fir, about nine feet
from the ground. Ludwig then snared the old
male bird and packed it up with the nest and
eggs until Wolley arrived.
Then the latter writes :—“ You can fancy how
eagerly I waited for Ludwig to produce the eggs.
With a trembling hand he brought them out—
but first the nest, beautifully preserved. It is
made principally of black ‘ tree-hair ’ (lichen)
with dried spruce twigs outside, partially lined
with a little sheep’s grass and one or two feathers,
a large deep nest. The eggs, beautiful! magni-
ficent !! just the character of the American birds.
An indescribable glow of colour about them !
“ Almost every day (and it is now the sixth
since my arrival here) Ludwig has told me the
story of the Sidensvans’ nest, and I am never
tired of hearing it: how the season was very
backward; how in their expedition he and Piko
Heiki were getting very much out of spirits at
the little success they met with ; how he saw the
bird in the sunshine; how, when at last the nest
was found, he could scarcely believe his eyes; how
he went to it again and again, each time convinced
when at the spot, but believing it all a dream as88
THE WAXWING.
soon as he was at a distance; the rising and
falling of the crest of the bird; its curious song
or voice. All he is eager to tell ovc- and over
again; and I have the fullest version, with all
the ‘ I said,’ ‘ Heiki said,’ ‘Michel said,’ ‘Ole
said,’ etc.”
The eggs of the Waxwing are no longer the
rarities in collections that they were before
Wolley’s day, but they are still looked upon as
prizes, and many of the best clutches in the
British Museum are from the collection obtained
by Wolley nearly forty years ago.N.S.
COMMON TREE-WARBLER.
i
5 Size.
Riddle 1c Couehman Lith.LontLoiTHE COMMON TREE-WARBLER.
HE epithet “ common ” can only apply to
this Warbler as regards its continental
home, for in Great Britain it is a very rare visitor,
of which only some half-dozen specimens have
been captured, and this is the more curious, as
it is really a common bird in other parts of
Europe, and breeds in North-eastern France, as
well as in Holland and Belgium. It cannot be
the “ silver streak ” of sea which separates Eng-
land from these countries, which prevents the
bird from visiting our islands, for in winter it
migrates into South Africa, and in summer it
goes as far north as 67° N. Lat. in Norway, and
to the vicinity of Archangel. In the West of
(Hypoiais hypolais.)9o THE COMMON TREE-WARBLER.
Europe, over the greater part of France, and in
the Spanish Peninsula, the place of H. hy-
polais is taken by a closely allied species,
H. polyglotta, a bird which may also be con-
fidently expected to visit the British Islands
some day, though it is not of such wide-reaching
migratory habits as the Common-Tree Warbler,
and is not known to go further south than
Senegambia in winter.
These Tree-Warblers, which are also called in
many books on Natural History, Melodious
Willow Warblers,” appertain to the group of small
green species known as Phylloscopi or Leaf-
Warblers. To the genus Phylloscopus belong our
three familiar birds, the Wood-Warbler (P. sibila-
trix), the Willow Warbler (P. trochilus), and the
Chiff-chaff (P. minor), delicately formed little
species, of a sober green and white coloration,
laying white eggs with reddish spots, and building
domed nests on, or near, the ground. The Tree-
Warblers, on the other hand, build a beautiful
cup-shaped nest in the fork of a tree, and lay
unmistakeable eggs of a vinous or pinkish stone-
colour, with a few scratches or lines of black or
purplish-brown.THE COMMON TREE-WARBLER. 91
The Tree-Warblers too have a more flattened
and flycatcher-like bill than the Willow Warblers'
(Phylloscopus), which, however, lay a totally
different type of egg from that which renders the
members of the genus Hypolais so remarkable.
There are several species of birds which have
been variously placed by systematists among the
Thrushes or the Warblers, as, for instance, the
Nightingale and the Redstarts, which were for-
merly considered to be Warblers, but are now
reckoned as members of the Turdidce, or family
of Thrushes. It may, therefore, be useful to
consider what are the characters which dis-
tinguish a Warbler from a Thrush—birds which
at first sight so closely resemble each other that
some of the tropical members of these two
families are difficult to determine by external
characters. The first point to be settled, then,
is the nature of the immature plumage of a
species, and it is a reply to the frequent exclama-
tions of wonder, that the British Museum should
find it necessary to keep such large series of
specimens of every species, that it is only by means
of such series, that the true history of a bird can
be learnt. To tell a Thrush from a Warbler, we92 THE COMMON TREE-WARBLER.
must know the stages of plumage through which
' the species passes from the time it first puts on its
feathers to the time that it has completed its
moult. This is not difficult to discover in the
case of common European species, but it is often
a puzzle with some of the tropical forms, of
which, perhaps, only a specimen or two have
been obtained. If the species be small, and
of plain coloration, it may be taken for a large
Warbler or a small Thrush, and if only skins of
old birds come to hand, a mistake might easily be
made as to the family to which the new species is
referred. Happy then is the ornithologist who
can find a feather of the preceding livery amongst
the plumage of the bird ! If the feather be that
of a young individual, the question is solved in an
instant; for if plain and uniform in colour, then
the species must be a Warbler, but if it carry a
coloured spot, then it must be a Thrush.
This, then, is the important character by which
Thrushes and Warblers are separated, and the
question of the moulting is equally important, for
Thrushes have but a single moult in the year,
whereas Warblers have two moults, one in
autumn and another in spring. Of course, theTHE COMMON TREE-WARBLER. 93
entire life-history of every tropical species is not
yet known ; but the above differences will be found
to characterize most of the Thrushes and Warblers
throughout the world, and they may be summed
up in the enunciation that the Thrushes have
spotted young and a single autumnal moult, while
the Warblers have unspotted young and a double
moult.
The Nightingale, therefore, is a Thrush, and
not a Warbler; so is the Robin, so are the Red-
starts, the Wheatears, and the Chats. On the
other hand, the Blackcap and the Garden
Warbler, usually considered to be near relatives
of the Nightingale, are really members of a
different family of Passerine birds, viz., that of the
Sylviidce or Warblers, which embraces not only
such birds as the Black-caps, but all the Willow
Warblers and the Reed-Warblers, besides many
other tropical forms.
It is on such small and hidden features in their
economy that the classification of Passerine or
Perching birds has to be based. In the larger
groups, such as Birds of Prey, Herons, Ducks,
etc., characters of importance, both external and
internal, are not wanting for their definition, but94 the common TREE-WARBLER.
those of the Passerine birds are extremely
difficult to discover, and there are not wanting
zoologists who declare that these birds, comprising
the bulk of living species on the globe, are so
closely related, inter se, that they really constitute
but one great Family.
The Common Tree-Warbler, therefore, having
plain-coloured young, scarcely differing from its
parents in tint, is a true Warbler, and we know
that after spending the winter in Africa, the bird
will renew its plumage in its southeA home, and
arrive in Europe resplendent in its freshly-donned
livery. None of our Thrushes undertake such a
journey. No Song-Thrush or Blackbird, Ring-
Ouzel or Fieldfare, crosses the Equator during
its winter wanderings, and the Mediterranean
countries are far enough travel for the above-
named Thrushes, if they would escape from the
snow which envelops their nesting-homes in the
cruel winter of the north, and forces them to fly
south in search of food. It is, perhaps, well for
them that they require no change of dress in
spring, for their bodies must suffer in the severe
struggle for existence during the winter, and
moulting must be an exhausting process, so thatTHE COMMON TREE-WARBLER. 95
it is probable that it is only by a sojourn in a far
country, where there is abundance of food, that a
Warbler is able to endure the strain on its
system of a second moult.
The subject of our notice is often called
the “ Icterine ” Warbler, and is a late arrival
in Europe, not putting in an appearance in
Holland or Germany before the beginning of
May, when the males arrive first, and sing lustily.
Mr. Seebohm, who has made a special study of the
Thrushes and Warblers of the world, and to
whom the discovery of the important characters,
on which we have descanted above, is due, has
written an excellent description of the habits of
the present species in his “Birds of Great Britain.”
He doubts the wonderful mocking powers usually
attributed to the species, and he does not allow
that the song can for one moment be compared to
that of the Nightingale, as some ornithologists
have asserted. “ The song,” he says, “ is some-
what harsh, though very varied, although it
repeats every combination of notes two or three
times over in rapid succession, like a Song-
Thrush. Indeed, one might imagine that it had
been taught to sing by that bird, exactly as one96 THE COMMON TREE-WARBLER.
might imagine a Robin to have lessons from a
Blackbird. In quality of voice, in richness of
tone, and the melody of its notes, it is immeasure-
ably inferior to the Nightingale, and the song
does not fill the ear like that of the last-named
bird.”AQU AT I C WARBLER.
B Size
N.S
Riddlo ft Couchman Litli LondonTHE AQUATIC WARBLER.
(Acrocephalus aquations.)
' | ’HE genus Acrocephalus embraces all the
species which we call “Sedge” Warblers,
and “Reed” Warblers, and which belong to the
little group of old World Sylviidce, to which
allusion has been made in the previous article.
Like all the other members of the genus, the
Aquatic Warbler—a badly chosen name to dis-
tinguish it by, as all Acrocephali are aquatic or
water-haunting birds—is a migrant, and the only
time when I have ever met with it in the wild
state, was in the island of Heligoland, when I
accompanied Mr. Seebohm and Mr. F. Nicholson
on their excursion to this interesting locality
in 1876.
798
THE AQUATIC WARBLER.
The island has been so often described, espe-
cially by Mr. Seebohm, that most of my readers
must have read about it. Since England sur-
rendered it to Germany, a considerable difference
in the appearance of the island has, so I hear,
taken place; but one feature in this island will
never change, and it will always be a haven of
rest to the many birds which are crossing the sea
on their migrations, though whether their occur-
rences will meet again with such a recorder as the
veteran ornithogolist, Heinrich Gatke, is a matter
of grave doubt. For more than forty years this
celebrated naturalist has lived on the rock in the
North Sea, and during that time he has kept a
continuous record of the migrations of the birds,
which in spring and autumn, pass over Heligo-
land. On the cession of the island to Germany,
Mr. Seebohm made a liberal offer for the Gatke
collection, which he wished to present to the
British Museum, as an illustration of the phe-
nomenon of the migration of European birds,
from north to south and from east to west, as
it takes place every year in the North Sea.
Some agitation, however, took place among the
German naturalists—at least, so it is said—overTHE AQUATIC WARBLER.
99
the transportation to the British Museum of a
collection made in an island now ceded to
Germany, and Mr. Seebohm was asked to retract
his offer, which he very generously consented to
do, with a result which could scarcely have been
foreseen.
At the time when I saw the Gatke collection,
the specimens had much deteriorated. Their
owner is an artist, and the birds were all ex-
hibited in his studio, which had top-lights, and
as the sun, for many successive years, had beaten
down through the glass on to the specimens, the
latter had become dreadfully bleached, and had,
in many instances, lost their colour. A great
number of specimens, too, were not in glass
cases, and were covered with dust. All this was
known to several of us, and Mr. Seebohm’s offer
was all the more patriotic, as he was not only
fully aware of the condition of the collection, but
his chief object was to preserve it for posterity.
The artistic taste which Gatke brought into
his sea-scapes, he bestowed upon the mounting
of his collection of birds, and no more beautiful
example of the taxidermists’ art were to be found
than in the Gatke collection of Heligoland birds,100
THE AQUATIC WARBLER.
not even excepting the masterpieces of John
Hancock and Pickhardt in this country. Every
one, therefore, expected that this celebrated
collection would be fittingly housed, perhaps in
the National collection at Berlin, or at least
that some small regard would have been bestowed
on the preservation of a series of ornithological
specimens, which belonged not to Germany alone,
but to the whole scientific world. It may be
hoped, therefore, that the account of the present
neglected condition of the Gatke Collection, pub-
lished last year by Dr. Hartlaub, one of the
leading authorities in Germany, may wake up
the authorities of Heligoland to a sense of the
responsibility under which they lie as custodians
of one of the most interesting and important
series of birds in the world.
To the man who made the formation of
this collection the aim and object of his life, it
must be saddening to see the fruits of his toil so
little cared for; but he has this consolation—that
the specimens have been so carefully examined
and studied by dozens of European ornitholo-
gists, that, even if they perish, the record will
survive; while his life-long observations on theTHE AQUATIC WARBLER.
IOI
migration of birds, having now been published,
will keep his name green wherever ornithology
is studied.
The name of the Aquatic Warbler has tran-
ferred me, in thought, back to the rocky isolation
of Heligoland, with its collection of bird-treasures,
its hermit-ornithologist, its potato-covered height;
for it was in the latter unlikely locality that I shot
my first specimen of the “Aquatic” Warbler. It
was easy to be up with the lark in that breezy
air, and we usually commenced the day with a
walk through the potato-fields on the summit of
the island, when a varied bag was the result.
On the morning in question, I think my captures
were something like the following: a Wood-lark,
a Jack Snipe, a Brambling, a Snow-Bunting, and
lastly, an Aquatic Warbler; the last-named being
the only one seen by me on our expedition, as it
is not a common migrant to Heligoland. It is
not even known to visit Denmark or Southern
Scandinavia, though it is pretty generally dis-
tributed over Central and Southern Europe, and
appears to winter in Northern Africa. It has
been detected three times in Great Britain.
As might be expected, the Aquatic Warbler102
THE AQUATIC WARBLER.
closely resembles in habits its ally, the Sedge-
Warbler (A. phragmitis), from which it is to be
distinguished by the pale stripe down the centre
of the crown, bordered with two dark stripes, one
on each side. It frequents reedy places, especially
the sides of lakes and rivers, ponds and
ditches. Its song differs little from that of the
Sedge-Warbler, and its eggs are scarcely to be
distinguished from those of the latter bird.NS.THE ROCK-THRUSH.
(Montivola saxatilis.)
HE Rock-Thrush is a brightly plumaged
species and belongs to a group of birds prin-
cipally alpine in their distribution, and confined
to the Old World. Like the Redstarts, the Rock-
Thrush has a red tail, and appears to be inter-
mediate in form between the latter birds and the
true Thrushes. Like the Redstarts, it lays blue
eggs, some of which are sometimes faintly marked
with specks of light brown at the larger end.
Though two or three instances of the capture
of this beautiful bird in England have been re-
corded, yet only one is believed to be authentic, so
that the Rock-Thrush may be taken to be one of104
THE ROCK-THRUSH.
our very rarest visitors. It seldom comes further
north than the Vosges mountains, in Eastern
France, and some of the high ranges of Central
Germany, but it is found in the mountains of
Southern Europe, whence it ranges eastward
through Central Asia to Northern China. It
winters in Northern Africa, and even visits the
eastern portion of that continent in winter, as it
has occurred in several recent collections made in
Eastern Africa. Colonel Irby has noticed numbers
of Rock-Thrushes passing Gibraltar-on migration
on the 4th of April, and has seen the bird on the
return journey in September.
In its ways, the Rock-Thrush much resembles
the Redstarts, and Mr. Seebohm says that, “like
those birds, it will ever and anon rise into the
air, and descend, with his wings expanded, upon
its perch again, singing all the time.” This
manoeuvre is often repeated several times. It is
a very shy bird, and will keep flitting before the
observer, like a Wheatear, keeping a good look
out, and never permitting a too near approach.
Its food consists mainly of insects, some of which
it captures in mid air, like a Flycatcher, though it
will, like other insectivorous birds, vary its diet inTHE ROCK-THRUSH.
105
summer with a little fruit, and in autumn feeds
on berries.
The nest is always built in a hole, and, accord-
ing to Mr. Seebohm, is a very difficult one to
discover. It closely resembles the nests of the
Wheatear and Redstart, and is somewhat loosely
put together. “You may search for hours,”writes
the above-mentioned ornithologist,"and turn over
tons of rocks and stones, unsuccessfully, and at
last owe its discovery to mere accident. It is
usually placed in some convenient rock crevice, at
various heights, sometimes under a mass of rock
lying on the ground, sometimes in heaps of stones,
and sometimes in holes of ruined buildings ; and,
more rarely, in holes in houses, and in trees and
stumps. Vineyard-walls, holes in mountain
fortresses, and amongst the debris carried down
the mountain-sides by the melting of the snow,
may be also cited as places selected by the bird
for its nest. Wherever it is found, however, it is
usually well concealed from view, and always in
a hole. The bare ground will not unfrequently
be chosen, under a bush, or even under a dense
overhanging grass-tuft. The materials of different
nests vary to a great extent, according to theio6
THE ROCK-THRUSH.
locality in which they' are found. Those in the
more cultivated districts are made of roots, fine
and coarse grasses, moss and bents, and lined
with hair and feathers. Those taken from more
isolated places, the rocky districts high up
mountain-sides, are similar in outward construction,
rarely lined with hair or feathers, but with
fine rootlets and dry grass. Other nests will be
found constructed entirely of roots and withered
grass. In examining the nest of this bird, its
close resemblance to that of the Redstart or the
Wheatear will be noticed. No mud is found in
them ; they are loosely put together, and this
circumstance, coupled with the covered site and
the colour of the eggs, still further suggests the
bird’s affinity to the Chats rather than to the true
Thrushes.”ARCTIC BLUE-THROAT.
4
t Size.
N.S.
Riddle * Couohman. Lith. Loudon.THE ARCTIC BLUE-THROAT.
(Cyanecula suecica.)
JUST as the name of the Aquatic Warbler
recalls the sea-girt island of Heligoland,
with its life-restoring breezes, and its constant ex-
citement of ever-recurring ornithological visitants,
so does that of the Blue-throat bring to my
mind the hot and sweltering marshes of Hun-
gary, with their equally interesting bird-life.
It was in 1891, that the Second Ornithological
Congress met at Budapest, and it was my
good fortune to be present on that most memor-
able occasion. Congresses may be held in
other countries of Europe, but it is doubtful
Whether such an experience will ever be offered108 THE ARCTIC BLUE-THROAT.
by any other nation, as was afforded in 1891 by
our generous Hungarian hosts. Certainly not in
England, for we can hardly imagine any landed
proprietor, however anxious for the national
honour, or desirous of pleasing an International
Congress of Ornithologists, supplying boats, guns
and cartridges, and skilled boatmen to wander
through his preserves, to shoot Ducks and Geese,
and anything else ornithological that came in
their way.
Certainly one must go to Hungary to find
anyone like Baron Von Berg, who met us with
a large ferry-boat, roofed in and ornamented
with flags of all nations, with a sumptuous repast
on board—very welcome after our hot morning
in the Hans&g Marshes. So big was the ferry-
boat, that our host had removed nearly all the
bridges on the canal for miles, to make room
for our triumphal procession. Every now and
then a halt took place, when some of us were
conveyed in a small boat to some spot, marked
down days before, where there was a nest of a
Goshawk or Spotted Eagle, or of some other bird
non-breeding in our more northern isles. We
wound up with a Stork’s nest, and were thenTHE ARCTIC BLUE-THROAT. 109
conveyed in trucks, converted into comfortable
carriages, along a private tram - line on the
Baron’s estate, till we reached his chateau at
Kapovar, where our party of nineteen were en-
tertained for the night. This happened on the
22nd of May, 1891, and I carried to the castle
two heavy loads of birds, the result of the day’s
collecting—Night Herons, Goshawks, etc. There
ought to have been a Spotted Eagle; but that
is another story.
During our progress along the canal before-
mentioned, my own turn came to be conducted
to a marked-down nest, and while the ferry-boat
was hauled up, a small party, consisting of the
President, M. Fatio of Geneva, Mr. Biittikofer of
Leiden, and myself, were conducted to small
punts (crazy little craft enough and leaky too, as
I soon found to my cost), provided with guns,
and “poled” by keepers into the woods, which
seem in this country to flourish in swampy
ground. At last we arrived in the midst of a
grove of trees, where I nearly spoilt the whole
object of the excursion by my desire to shoot a
Little Spotted Woodpecker, which was climbing
up a tree. I wish now that I had done so, as weno
THE ARCTIC BLUE-THROAT.
might not then have returned empty-handed; but
silence was enjoined, and a little further up, the
small punts were brought up under a thin tree,
in the upper branches of which was a huge nest.
I imagined that we had been brought to see the
nest of the Spotted Eagle, as our progress had
not been particularly quiet—certainly there had
been a good deal of shifting on my part to escape
the water in which I was sitting for the best part
of the time—when suddenly there was a scuffling
noise overhead, and away flew an Eagle from the
nest. We had been a minute or two beneath
the tree, and the last thought in my mind was
that there was a bird on the nest, and we were
all, more or less, taken by surprise. . My gun was
lying by my side, and by the time I had cocked
it and fired my two barrels, the Eagle was well
away, unharmed also by the shots of my com-
panions—and so I lost my first chance at a
Spotted Eagle, and narrowly escaped a ducking
in the black water, owing to the sudden losing
of my equilibrium in the act of turning and firing.
Luckily the keepers, in charge of the punts,
spoke nothing but Hungarian, and our excuses
were made in English, German, and French,THE ARCTIC BLUE-THROAT.
in
languages which they did not understand—but
their faces were enough !
This was only the prelude to my introduc-
tion to the Arctic Blue-throat, with which
episode I concluded my visit to the wilds of
Hungary. The festivities at Baron von Berg’s
Chateau were kept up late, owing to the insistance
of our friend Biittikofer to “jodel,” as if he were
on his native Swiss mountains, the playing of
the band, and the dancing of the peasants in the
garden ; but at midnight we retired to bed, only
to be called up at 5 a.m. with breakfast served in
the Chateau at 5.30 (these sort of hours had been
going on for the last ten days, so no wonder that
the Spotted Eagle escaped!). At half-past five, a
string of carriages was at the door, and after our
last adieu to our host, who stood at the door of
his castle to wish us “ Good-bye,” the very picture
of an English country Squire, we were en route
for the Neusiedler Lake. On our way, we rested
for a short time at the Chateau of Prince
Esterhazy, who, throughout our tour, had every-
where extended to us the most lavish hospitality,
and who provided a final entertainment on this
our last excursion in Hungary. After leaving his112	THE ARCTIC BLUE-THROAT.
beautiful country seat, a miniature Versailles, we
reached the shores of the lake, for our last day’s
collecting. It was a short but memorable ex-
perience, as we had to leave early in the afternoon to
drive for two hours to the nearest station to catch
the train for Vienna, homeward bound, via Prag,
Dresden, and Berlin. On the shores of the lake,
a large pavilion had been erected, in which was
prepared the last of the series of entertainments
which had been provided for us throughout the
ten days of the Congress.	*
The ornithologists divided into several parties;
some to go in boats, some to collect on shore.
Choosing the latter course, I wandered about
with Dr. von Madarasz, and obtained many
species of interest to the British Museum and
myself, Crested Larks, Great Sedge-Warblers,
etc., until at last I wandered off into a moist
swamp, and stumbled about amongst the stumps
of a * withy ’ bed. The walking was anything
but comfortable, but far ahead of me, I could see
a little brown bird continually perching on the tops
of the stunted willows, and again disappearing on
to the ground below. Disregarding the summonses
to come back to the pavilion, I at last secured theTHE ARCTIC BLUE-THROAT.
“3
object of my walk, and held in my hand my first
“ Blue-throat.” It was the white-spotted species,
and I afterwards saw another, and got it too, but
no female bird did I see; they were, apparently,
never in evidence. So with joy in my heart that,
within twenty-four hours, my ornithological prizes
would be in the hands of a celebrated taxidermist
in Vienna, whose atelier we were to seek on the
ensuing day, and with the good wishes of our
Hungarian friends ringing in our ears, we started
for the Austrian capital. Alas for human hopes !
My birds, preserved on the journey with so much
care, reached me some months after. I had
counted on skins such as our American brethren
prepare, “things of beauty and a joy for ever,”
but I was destined to have the fact once more
brought home to me, that a good “ mounter ” of
birds does not necessarily make a good “ skin ”
for Museum purposes. Never did such a ragged
regiment of specimens enter the doors of the
British Museum—from Europe at least. My
beautiful Night-Herons were being eaten by
Dermestes, that destructive little beetle which is
the bane of all collections, and the whole of the
skins had to be put into “ quarantine ” before a
8114 THE ARCTIC BLUE-THROAT.
small remnant could be added to our national
collection, as a reminiscence of my visit to
Hungary. The only thing the Dermestes had not
touched was the taxidermist’s account. Would
that they had eaten it! The Dermestes were
small; the bill was not!
So ended my first, and, perhaps, my last
acquaintance with the Arctic Blue-throat, unless
by chance I come across it some autumn on the
east coast of England, to which it is not an
unfrequent visitor at that time of yeas:. It is a bird
of wide range, for it is found throughout Northern
Europe and Northern and Central Asia in sum-
mer, and winters in India, Burma, and in North-
eastern Africa. The birds which visit England
in September ought to be on their way to the latter
country, but, like many other birds, the Blue-
throat occasionally steers a westerly course, and
so a few individuals land in the British Islands.'
In many of its ways the Blue-throat resembles
a Robin, and its spotted young are singularly
like those of the latter bird and those of the Red-
start. If the Robin is a bird of the houses and
gardens, and the Redstart a bird of the woods,
the Blue-throat is a bird of the swamps, and likeTHE ARCTIC BLUE-THROAT.
US
the above-mentioned birds, it manages to conceal
its nest very effectually. It is found breeding
within the Arctic Circle, and Mr. Seebohm
writes:—“ The tundra is seldom smooth like a
common, but is generally a cluster of little hum-
mocks or mounds, covered over with rushes,
carices, cloudberry, and other ground-fruits, with
sometimes a stunted birch or willow, scarcely
higher than the coarse grass. These hummocks
are the favourite breeding-places of the Arctic
Blue-throat. I have generally found the nest
well concealed in a snug hole on the side of one
of these hummocks, just such a place as a Robin
would choose in such a locality. The nest is
not unlike that of a Robin. The hole is well
filled with dry grass and roots, and at the far end
a neat deep cup is formed, lined with fine roots
and hair. It is almost impossible to find the
nest, except by accidently frightening off the bird,
and even then it takes some time, so carefully is
it concealed. The eggs are five or six in number,
and are laid about the middle of June. They
are greenish-blue, more or less distinctly marked
with pale reddish-brown, and are very similar to
the eggs of the Nightingale.”
8*THE BLACK-BELLIED DIPPER.
HE Dippers, or Water Ouzels, may be
described as Thrush-like Wrens, or Wren-
like Thrushes, because they have much in common
with Thrushes, according to the verdict of most
ornithologists, but, for myself, I consider them
much more closely related to the Wrens. Perhaps
the best solution of their avian relationship is to
recognise them as “ Dippers,” a self-contained
family of birds, which are neither true Thrushes
nor true Wrens. That the inclination of these
interesting birds is towards the Wrens is, I should
say, unanswerable, provided that we are permitted
to make plenty of allowance, and call them
(Cinclus cinclus.)N.S.
BLACK-BELLIED DIPPER
Riddle * Ccuchman. Lith London.THE BLACK-BELLIED DIPPER. 117
Water-" Wrens,” rather than Water-" Ouzels.”
Two of the leading features in their economy are
certainly “ Wren ’’-like. They have no bristles
on the gape, and they build a thoroughly Wren-
like nest. These two characteristics alone are
sufficient to show that they are not Thrushes.
The Dippers are exclusively mountain birds,
and are seldom to be seen away from the streams
of the highlands. It is, in fact, necessary to visit
their special habitats in Great Britain, if one
would make acquaintance with these pretty birds,
and, even then, they are not easy of observation.
The Dipper, according to my experience, is a
very shy bird, and by no means easy to observe.
I spent some hours last year in watching them
in Mr. C. G. Oates’ park at Meanwoodside, near
Leeds, but without much result, as whenever
I approached the brook which they frequented,
the slightest noise was sufficient to cause them to
fly off to a more sequestered spot, and on the
only occasion when I managed to get close to one
of the birds, it sat on a rock and preened its
plumage in the sun, till I was tired of waiting to
see it perform in the water. In Scotland, how-
ever, I have been more fortunate, and there I1x8 THE BLACK-BELLIED DIPPER.
have more than once seen my white-breasted
friend come flying along a narrow stream and
perch on a rock below me, and then after a little
interval, walk gradually below the surface of the
water.
This sub-aquatic manner of feeding has aroused
considerable animosity against the Dipper, as he
is roundly accused of devouring the ova of trout—
a sin of such heinous extent, that in the Rhine
provinces, during the last few years, a war has
been waged against the Dippers, arifl hundreds,
not to say thousands, of these little birds have
been killed. And yet, if our best English
naturalists are to be believed, this must be a
foolish policy, for, although it is undoubted that
the Dipper will occasionally seize a small fish, its
chief food consists of caddis-worms and other
water insects, which in their larval state are most
destructive to the ova of fish. The destruction of
the Dippers has been chronicled, and what one
now wants to know is, whether the trout have
increased to any extent in these tributaries of
the Rhine ?
That the Dippers are lovers of the mountain-
streams is shown by their distribution. OurTHE BLACK-BELLIED DIPPER. 119
English bird is represented in the mountain-
ranges of Southern and Central Europe by an
allied form, Cinclus leucogaster, in Scandinavia is
found the Black-bellied Dipper, C. cinclus, and
various other races occur throughout the mountains
of Siberia, Central Asia, and the Himalayas, as
well as in China and Japan. In North America,
too, Dippers occur, and are represented in the
Rocky Mountains by Cinclus mexicanus, and again
by other species in the Highlands of Central
America and the Andes of South America.
1 - .
The British form of Dipper (C. aquaticus) is
found throughout Scotland and Ireland in its
favourite haunts, and it also occurs in England,
as far south as Derbyshire, in Wales, and in
Devonshire and Cornwall.	The Black-bellied
Dipper (C. cinclus), on the contrary, is the
Scandinavian form, and is only a rare visitor
to England, where it has been captured in the
eastern counties. It is in every way similar to
the ordinary Dipper, but has a darker under-
surface, the breast being chocolate-brown or
black, instead of rufons. In habits it is exactly
like an English bird, and builds the same moss-
nest, like that of a large Wren. The nest is builti2o THE BLACK-BELLIED DIPPER.
among rocks, or the roots of trees, over-hanging
the water, and although of considerable size, is
by no means easy of discovery, for it is so care-
fully constructed that it looks like a piece of the
bank, or like a patch of moss on the rocks. The
nest is an oval ball of moss outside, with a
compact nest of grass and leaves inside. Mr.
Seebohm describes how he pulled a nest of
C. aquaticus to pieces, and found “ layer after layer
of birch and beech leaves, and, as a final lining,
a mass of oak leaves, laid one on another like
leaves in a book. The outside dome was so
closely woven together of moss, with here and
there a little dry grass, as not to be torn to
pieces without considerable force; and the inside
nest was so tightly compacted, that, when the
materials were pulled apart, you could hardly
believe that they could have been made to take
up so little room.”
The eggs of the Dipper are pure white, some-
what rough in texture and not glossy. They
measure ro inch and ri inch by 07 inch to 075
inch.RED-BREASTED FLY-CATCHER,
t Size.
Riddle & Couihiiife
Lifh Ion AonTHE RED-BREASTED
FLYCATCHER.
HIS pretty little Robin-like bird has occurred
some half a dozen times in Great Britain.
It is a true Flycatcher, and has generally been
placed in the genus Muscicapa along with the
Common Flycatcher (M. grisola); but in the latter
bird the male and female are alike in colour, of
a sober grey and white, whereas in the Red-
breasted Flycatcher the colour of the sexes - is
different, and there are many other distinctions
between the two birds, in the shape of the wing,
the number of rictal bristles, etc., which cause them
to be recognised as belonging to different genera,
(Siphia parra.)i22 THE RED-BREASTED FLYCATCHER.
and consequently the Red-breasted Flycatcher is
now placed in the genus Siphia, a little group of
parti-coloured Muscicapidce, which are principally
Indian in habitat.
The nesting-home of the Red-breasted Fly-
catcher is in Po'merania, the Baltic Provinces,
and in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, whence
it extends to Central Asia, while it winters in
Western and Central India. In Eastern Siberia
and Northern China it is replaced by a closely
allied species (S. albicilla), which winters in
Eastern India and the Burmese countries. Here
we have another instance of the eastern and
western distribution of two species, such as we
have already seen in the case of the Red-footed
Kestrels, and the Blue-headed Wagtails.
Mr. Seebohm has described the finding of the
nest of this rare Flycatcher in Pomerania:—“ I
soon heard a song which was new to me, but
I followed it a long time before I could see the
bird. It was a very unobstrusive song, inter-
mediate between the notes of the Robin and the
Redstart. For some time the bird kept at
the top of the beeches. It was as restless as
a Redstart, and we followed it in vain, until,THE RED-BREASTED FLYCATCHER. 123
just as the sun was setting, he came down upon
the lower branches and sang his simple song,
within twenty feet of us. We might have mis-
taken him for a Robin with his red breast, but
every now and then he half spread his tail and
showed the white on it. A few days later, on
the nth of June, Dr. Holland and I went to a
forest beyond Schlart to take the nest of a
Honey-Buzzard. In the forest we several times
heard the alarm note of the Red-breasted Fly-
catcher, a pink, pink, pink, something like the
spink of a Chaffinch, but softer, clearer, and
quicker. Our guide showed us presently a nest,
scarcely five feet from the ground, in the hollow
in a trunk of a beech tree, and we caught the
bird on the nest. He also shewed us a second
nest which he had taken a few days before,
likewise composed principally of green moss;
but it had been built close against the stem of
a beech, supported by a bunch of small twigs,
which made a convenient shelf for it. In its
habits this charming little bird reminds one both
of a Flycatcher and a Tit. It catches insects on
the wing with ease, and flutters before the trunk
of a tree to pick an insect off the bark.124 THE RED-BREASTED FLYCATCHER.
“The nest of the Red-breasted Flycatcher is
a very handsome little structure, almost entirely
formed of green moss, with here and there a few
scraps of lichen and a downy feather or two. The
inside is sparingly lined with fine dry grass and
hairs. The nest-cavity measures about two inches
in diameter and one and a half inch in depth.”
The eggs are like those of the Spotted Fly-
catcher and not unlike those of a Robin, being
pale bluish-green with reddish-brown and greyish-
brown spots and markings.