Part 15
Head, cheeks, nape, and upper part of back black, the feathers (in winter) tipped with light brown or ash-grey; neck and scapulars pale orange-brown; wings black variegated with orange-brown and white; rump and lower parts white; the flanks reddish, with a few dark spots. _Female_: crown reddish brown, the feathers tipped with grey; a black streak over the eye; cheeks and neck ash-grey; all the rest as in the male, but less bright. Length, six and a quarter inches.
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The brambling, or mountain-finch, comes nearest in relationship to the chaffinch, but differs very much in its glossy black, white, and bright buff colouring, and is a much prettier bird. We do not see it in its bright nuptial plumage in this country; for it is an arctic species, breeding in very high latitudes, in birch woods near the limit of forest growth. Its nest and eggs resemble those of the chaffinch, the nest being a compact and beautifully shaped fabric that assimilates in colour to the white and grey bark of the silver birch. The bramblings arrive in this country during September and October, and are found in winter throughout Great Britain and Ireland. They are, however, very irregular in their movements, and do not, like the redwings, return year after year to the same localities; but, as a rule, where a flock appears in autumn, there it will remain until the end of winter. Beech-woods form a great attraction to them, beech-mast being their favourite food, and where it is abundant they will sometimes congregate in immense numbers. As a songster the brambling ranks low among the finches, but the lively chirping and twittering concert of a large flock on a tree-top, and in the evening, before the birds settle to roost, has a very pleasing effect.
Linnet.
Linota cannabina.
Forehead and centre of the crown crimson; the rest of the head, nape, and sides of the neck, mottled brownish grey; mantle chestnut-brown; wing-feathers blackish, with outer edges white, forming a conspicuous bar; upper tail-coverts dark brown with whitish margins; tail-feathers black, narrowly edged with white on the outer and broadly on the inner webs; chin and throat dull white, striped with greyish brown; breast crimson; belly dull white; flanks fawn-brown. Length, five inches and three-quarters. In winter the crimson feathers are concealed by wide greyish margins. _Female_: duller in colour and without any crimson.
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Next to the goldfinch, the linnet is the most sought after in this country as a cage-bird, and the demand for linnets is no doubt causing a great diminution in their numbers. But they are still fairly abundant, and to be met with in most waste and uncultivated places, especially where furze-bushes abound.
The linnet is one of the most social of the finches, being found gathered in small flocks and parties of three, or four, or half a dozen, even in the middle of the breeding season. When perched or flying they incessantly call to each other in sharp little chirps and twittering notes. They are more aërial in habit than most finches, and take to flight very readily, and fly high, with great velocity; and when at a great elevation they are often seen to check their rapid course very suddenly, and dart away in some other direction, or else to drop plumb down like falling hailstones to the earth. Being so free of the air, they are great rovers, and, except when engaged in breeding, are constantly travelling about in the open country at all times of the year.
In the colour of its plumage the linnet is one of the most variable of birds: it is common to meet with bird-catchers and bird-fanciers who hear with surprise, and even with incredulity, that all these birds of different tints are of one species. The cock linnet never, or very rarely, puts on his most beautiful colours in captivity, and even in a state of nature the individuals composing a flock are seen to differ greatly. Among a dozen birds, perhaps only one will exhibit the perfect male plumage--the blood-red forehead, grey head, rich chestnut-brown upper parts, and lovely carmine breast. There is one variety, known as the lemon linnet, in which the breast is lemon-yellow instead of carmine-red; and there are other varieties. In song, too, the linnet greatly varies. When the singer is a good one, and listened to at a distance not exceeding twenty or thirty yards, the strain is sprightly, varied, and very agreeable; but the sweetest part is a phrase of two or three notes which usually comes as a prelude to the song; the sound has a quality that reminds one of the swallow’s voice, but it is purer, and suggests a very delicate wind instrument. During the love season the male sometimes sings on the wing; rising to a height of several yards, it drops slowly and gracefully down, uttering a series of beautiful notes and trills.
A furze-bush is the site most often selected for the nest; this is formed of fine dry grass and fibres, and lined with wool and vegetable down, sometimes with hair. Four to six eggs are laid, chalky white, and faintly tinged with blue in ground-colour, and spotted with light reddish brown and purplish red.
After the breeding season the linnets unite in large flocks, and at this time there is a southward movement, and large numbers undoubtedly leave this country to winter elsewhere. But even in the cold season they are common enough, and their fitful winter-evening concerts, when they congregate on a tree-top before settling down for the night, are as pleasant to listen to as the love-song of the male heard in spring among the blossoming furze and broom.
Lesser Redpoll.
Linota rufescens.
Forehead, lore, and throat black; crown deep crimson; upper parts reddish brown with dusky streaks; wings and tail dusky, edged with pale reddish brown; breast glossy rose-red, passing into light chestnut-brown on the sides; belly and lower tail-coverts dull white. _Female_: less bright. Length, five and a quarter inches.
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[Illustration: FIG. 48.--LESSER REDPOLL. ⅓ natural size.]
The redpoll, or redpole, as it is often written, is a pretty and interesting little bird of the northern parts of Great Britain. It has been described by Seebohm as an immature linnet in appearance, but resembling a siskin in its habits. It is usually called the lesser redpoll, because it is slightly less in size than the continental redpoll, which sometimes visits this country in winter. This last subspecies is the mealy redpoll (_Linota linaria_). A third form of this wide-ranging little bird, the Greenland redpoll (_Linota hornemanni_), has been included in the list of British birds on account of a single specimen having been obtained in this country.
In its lively disposition, its flight, and to some extent in its language, the redpoll resembles the linnet; but its feeding habits vary according to the season of the year and the conditions it finds itself in. In summer it keeps much to the higher branches of the trees, where it moves deftly about like a siskin or a crested tit in its search after minute insects and their larvæ; but in winter it feeds principally on seeds which it finds on the ground. It is fond of the seeds of the birch-tree. The appearance of a flock of redpolls feeding among the birches is thus described by Warde Fowler: ‘It is one of the prettiest sights that our whole calendar of bird life affords to watch these tiny linnets at work in the delicate birch-boughs. They fear no human being, and can be approached within a very few yards. They almost outdo the titmice in the amazing variety of their postures. They prefer in a general way to be upside down, and decidedly object to the commonplace attitudes of more solidly built birds.’
The song of the redpoll is described by Seebohm as a short, monotonous trill, clear, shrill, and not unmusical; and he adds that ‘it might be said to resemble the rattling of loose cog-wheels.’ It breeds in suitable localities, chiefly in birch-woods in Scotland, and in England north of Norfolk and Leicester. It also breeds occasionally in more southern localities. The nest is made of dry grass and moss on a foundation of slender twigs, and is well lined with vegetable down, or with wool and feathers. It is a very neat, cup-shaped nest, and contains four to six eggs, greenish blue in ground-colour, with spots and specks of purplish brown.
After the breeding season the redpolls begin to scatter about the country in small flocks; as autumn approaches these flocks increase in size, and a southward movement begins, large numbers crossing the Channel. Many, however, remain to winter at home, and these may be met with in woods and plantations, leading a vagrant life in small flocks, and often associating on the trees with titmice, goldcrests, and siskins.
Twite.
Linota flavirostris.
Upper parts dark brown, the feathers edged with light brown; rump (of the male) tinged with red; throat tawny brown; breast and belly dull white, streaked on the flanks with dark brown; beak yellow; feet dark brown. Length, five and a quarter inches.
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The twite, or mountain-linnet, is a bird of the mountain and moorland, and of the north, being most abundant in the Hebrides; but it also breeds in hilly districts throughout Scotland, and in suitable localities in the northern and midland counties. In the south it is a winter visitor, and is then found associating with the linnet, which it very closely resembles in flight, habits, and appearance; when near it may be distinguished by its shriller voice, and by its longer tail, which makes it look slimmer. In its song, too, the twite resembles the linnet, and, like that bird, occasionally sings on the wing; but its music is wanting in the finer sounds--just as its plumage is without the lovely carmine tint--of the other species.
The nest is placed in a bunch of heather, or beneath it, on the ground, and sometimes in a furze-bush. It is made of dry grass, moss, and wool, lined with hair and fur. The eggs are five or six in number, and are like the linnet’s in colour.
In autumn the twites unite in large flocks, and visit the stubbles and ploughed lands.
Bullfinch.
Pyrrhula europæa
[Illustration: FIG. 49.--BULLFINCH. ⅓ natural size.]
Crown, throat, region round the beak, wings, and tail lustrous purple-black; upper part of the back bluish ash; ear-coverts, sides of the neck, breast, and belly red; lower tail-coverts dull white; a broad buff and grey band across the wing. Length, six and a quarter inches.
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The bullfinch stands out among British finches with a strange distinctness. He is gaily coloured, and the arrangement of colours is a striking one--glossy black, blue-grey, and pure white above, and a fine red beneath. This is described in the books as ‘brickred’; and there is no doubt that, among the thousand and more shades of the less vivid red seen in bricks taken fresh from the kiln, the exact tint of the bullfinch might be matched. In the same way you could match the most delicate floral red--that which we see in the spikes of the red horse-chestnut, and the almond blossom, and the briar rose. The earthy, uniform red of weathered bricks is not the colour of our bird. The beauty of such a tint as that of the bullfinch can be best appreciated where, indeed, it is most commonly seen, amidst the verdure of clustering leaves; for greens and reds, pleasing in themselves, ever make the most agreeable contrasts among colours.
In its figure, too, this bird is very singular among the finches: his curiously arched beak gives him the look of a diminutive hawk in a gay plumage.
The bullfinch is greatly persecuted by gardeners on account of the mischief he is supposed to do, for he has the habit of feeding on the flower-buds of fruit-trees in winter and spring. On the other hand, he is greatly esteemed as a cage-bird, and the bird-catchers are ever on the watch for it. But the effect in both cases is pretty much the same, since the hatred that slays and the love that makes captive are equally disastrous to the species. There is no doubt that it is diminishing in this country, and that it is now a rare bird in most districts. Fortunately, it has a wide distribution in Great Britain: in Ireland, where it is said to be rare, I have found it not uncommon, and tamer than in England. It may be increasing there, which would not be strange in a country where even the magpie is permitted to exist, and birds generally are regarded with kindlier feelings than in this country.
The bullfinch does not often go to the ground to feed; he gets most of his food on trees and bushes--insects, buds, fruit, and seeds of various kinds. He inhabits woods, plantations, and thickets, and is often seen in thick hedges and in the tangled vegetation growing by the side of streams. Where he is not persecuted he is a tame and rather sedentary bird, and will allow a person to approach within a dozen yards before leaving his perch. His call and alarm note is a low, piping, musical sound, very pleasant to hear. The male sings in the spring, and so, it is said, does the female; but his strain is short, and so feeble that it can be heard only at a distance of a few yards.
The nest is built during the last half of April in a holly or yew, or other dense, dark bush or tree, or in a thick hedge. It is unlike the nest of any other finch, being outwardly a platform-shaped structure made of interwoven twigs, with a cup-shaped nest in the centre, formed of fine rootlets, the rim of the cup projecting above the platform it is built on. The eggs are four to six, greenish blue in ground-colour, spotted and sometimes streaked with dark purplish brown, and blotched with pinkish brown.
Bullfinches pair for life, and at all seasons of the year male and female are seen together; if any young are reared, they usually remain in company with the parent birds during the autumn and winter months.
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Nearly allied to the common bullfinch are two beautiful birds which have a place in our list of species. One of these is the rosy bullfinch (_Carpodacus erythrinus_), of which two or three stragglers have been found in England; it breeds in Finland, and is found throughout the Russian Empire. The other is the pine grossbeak (_Pinicola_ (_enucleator_), also a rare straggler to Britain from the north of Europe.
Crossbill.
Loxia curvirostra.
[Illustration: FIG. 50.--CROSSBILL. ¼ natural size.]
Wing and tail feathers brown; all other parts green, yellow, orange, and tile-red, according to age and sex. Red is the colour of the adult male in a state of nature, and yellow in captivity. Length, six inches and a half.
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The crossbills differ from all other birds in the extraordinary form of the parrot-like bill. In other birds, whatever the shape of the bill may be, straight or curved, or broad and flat, or conical, or hooked, the two mandibles correspond, and fit when closed like box and lid. In this bird both mandibles have prolonged curved points, and cross each other, much as the two forefingers of our hands cross when the fingers are loosely linked together. A full description of this form of beak and its use as a seed-extractor, together with an admirably written history of the common crossbill, is contained in the second volume of Yarrell’s great work (fourth edition).
The crossbill is also remarkable on account of the changes of colour it undergoes and of the brightness of its colours. These are birds of the sombre pine-woods, inhabiting high latitudes; but in their various greens and reds and yellows they are like tanagers and other tropical families, and form an exception to the rule that birds of brilliant plumage are restricted to regions of brilliant sunlight.
No fewer than four species of this genus (Loxia) figure in the list of British birds; three of these may be dismissed in a few words:--
Parrot crossbill (_Loxia pittyopsittacus_) breeds in the pine-forests of Scandinavia and northern Russia, and is known in England as a rare straggler. It is scarcely distinct, specifically, from the common crossbill.
White-winged crossbill (_Loxia leucoptera_), a North American species, once obtained in England.
Two-barred crossbill (_Loxia bifasciata_) a Siberian species; a rare straggler to England and Ireland.
The fourth species (the common crossbill) has a better title to figure as a British species, and its winter visits to this country are much more frequent, although irregular; and it also breeds with us in some localities in Scotland, probably every year, and has also bred intermittingly in many districts in England, even so far south as Bournemouth. The reason of its irregularity in visiting our shores is that the crossbill is one of those species that do not go farther from home than they are compelled by severe cold and scarcity of food. Driven from home they become ‘gipsy migrants,’ and may be very abundant with us one year, and not one appear the following season, or for several seasons. At all times of the year the crossbill is gregarious in its habits. Throughout the summer it is seen in small parties; when the breeding season is over these begin to move about, accompanied by the young birds, and join with other parties, and as the season progresses the flock grows by process of accretion until it may number many hundreds. At this season they are remarkably tame, and will allow a person to approach within a few yards and admire their colours and various motions as they cling to and climb, parrot-like, about the twigs in search of seed and fruit. When flying they call to each other with a loud shrill note, and in late winter and spring both male and female utter a low warbling song.
The nest is placed in a pine-tree, at a distance from the ground of from five to forty feet; it is formed outwardly of twigs, roots, and dry grass; the inner part, of wool, hair, and feathers. Four or five eggs are laid, white or greenish white in ground-colour, spotted with reddish brown, with under-markings of pale brown.
Corn-Bunting.
Emberiza miliaria.
Upper parts yellowish brown with dusky spots; under parts yellowish white spotted and streaked with dusky. Length, seven and a half inches.
The present species is the largest of our five buntings, and is the most generally diffused throughout the British Islands. It is often called the common bunting, but is scarcely deserving of the name, as in most places it is less common than the yellow bunting. It is certainly more local than that bird, although in some localities, both in the south and north of England, it is more numerous than any other bird of its genus. Nor is its other name of corn-bunting more strictly accurate, for though it is a frequenter of corn-fields in spring and summer, it is equally partial to hay-meadows, commons, and other open places. Like the skylark, it loves an open sky and a wide horizon; but, not being able to soar, it seeks an elevation of some kind to perch on--a hedge-top, or the summit of a bush, or a tall weed in the middle of a field of corn, will serve it; but, best of all, it loves a telegraph-wire, where it sits on high above the world, in sunshine and wind, and without the slightest exertion is able to experience agreeable sensations like those of the kestrel, lark, or tern, when suspended motionless in mid-air. On a telegraph-wire it will sit contentedly by the hour, delivering its song at regular intervals.
The buntings--all those included in the genus Emberiza--differ from other finches in their more sedentary habits and heavier motions. The present species is the heaviest and most sedentary of all, and on this account, and also on account of its dull plumage, and because its voice is not melodious, it has been usually described in somewhat depreciatory terms. Yarrell speaks of its droning, harsh, unmusical song; and Warde Fowler thus describes it in his delightful book, ‘A Year with the Birds’: ‘Look at the common corn-bunting, as he sits on the wires or the hedge-top: he is lumpy, loose-feathered, spiritless, and flies off with his legs hanging down, and without a trace of agility or vivacity; he is a dull bird, and seems to know it. Even his voice is half-hearted, and reminds me often of an old man in our village who used to tell us that he had a wheezing in his pipes.’ This is a pretty description; but it makes the homely bunting a little too homely, and the critical remarks on its singing are not quite satisfactory: the song is not droning, and not half-hearted. Heard at intervals in the open, sunny fields and pasture-lands, it somehow has a pleasant effect. It is a peculiar sound, not easily describable. The song begins with two or three vigorous and musical chirps, then all at once the bird seems to lose himself as a musician, and throws out all that remains of his song in a burst of confused sound. In character it is somewhat like the sharp note of alarm, or excitement of some kind, often uttered in spring by the skylark as he flies low above the field, but is sharper and more prolonged. Robert Gray wrote: ‘It puts you in mind of the jingling of a chain or the sound of breaking glass.’ It is certainly like breaking glass. You can imitate it by tightly pressing a handful of polished pebbles together, which produce, as they slide over each other, a variety of sharp and scraping sounds. It is a peculiarity of the song that it is like several sounds emitted simultaneously, as of a note broken up into splinters, or issuing from a bundle of minute windpipes instead of out of one of larger size.
Of all the birds that remain with us throughout the year, the bunting is the latest to breed, the nest being usually built in May. It is placed among grass and herbage close to the ground, and formed of dry grass and fibrous roots, lined with horsehair and fine fibres. Four to six eggs are laid, dull purplish white or pale yellowish in ground-colour, blotched and streaked with dark brown, with some patches of a dull lavender hue.
The bunting feeds on seeds and grain and insects. In autumn it becomes gregarious, and visits the stubbles and rickyards, where it is seen associating with sparrows, greenfinches, and chaffinches.
Yellowhammer.
Emberiza citrinella.
[Illustration: FIG. 51.--YELLOWHAMMER. ⅓ natural size.]
Head, neck, breast, and under parts bright yellow, more or less streaked with dusky; flanks streaked with brownish red; upper parts reddish brown spotted with dusky. _Female_: the yellow parts less bright, and spotted with dull reddish brown. Length, six and a quarter inches.
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