Part 26
The wood-pigeon’s familiar song may be heard in favourable weather throughout the year, but its voice gains greatly in beauty in the breeding season. In May and June the love-note of this pigeon is one of the woodland sounds that never fail to delight the ear. It commonly happens that birds improve in voice in the season of courtship; and not only do they acquire greater richness and purity in their strains, but there is at this season an increased beauty and grace in their gestures and motions, and in most species the male indulges in pretty or fantastic antics--a kind of love-dance, in which he exhibits his charms to the female he is desirous of winning. All doves have performances of this kind, and that of the wood-pigeon is not the least graceful. On the ground, or on a branch, he makes his curious display before the female, approaching her with lowered head, and with throat and neck puffed out, in a succession of little hops, spreading his tail fanwise, and flirting his wings so as to display their white bars. All at once he quits his stand, and rising in the air to a height of thirty or forty yards, turns, and glides downwards in a smooth and graceful curve. This mounting aloft and circling descent is very beautiful to see, and produces the idea that the bird has been suddenly carried away by an access of glad emotion.
Breeding begins in April, and, in very favourable seasons, even as early as the first week in March. The nest is a slight platform of slender sticks laid across each other on the smaller branches or twigs of a tree, usually at a good height from the ground, and the eggs are two, with pure white, glossy shells. Two, and sometimes three, broods are reared in the season.
The young are fed on a substance called ‘pigeon’s milk,’ a thick white, curd-like fluid, consisting of the partially digested food the parent bird has swallowed, and which is regurgitated from its crop. In feeding, the young bird thrusts its beak deep down into the mouth of its parent and literally drinks. The pigeons alone among birds feed their young in this way; and they also differ from other birds in drinking like mammals, taking a continuous draught instead of a series of sips.
Stock-Dove.
Columba œnas.
Head, throat, wings, and lower parts bluish grey; the lower parts of the neck with metallic reflections; breast wine-red; a black spot on the last two secondaries and some of the wing-coverts; primaries grey at the base, passing into dusky; tail grey, barred with black at the extremity, the outer feather with a white spot on the outer web, near the base; iris reddish brown; bill yellow, red at the base; feet red. Length, thirteen and a half inches.
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The stock-dove is a third smaller than the wood-pigeon, and in size, colouring, and appearance when flying, so closely resembles the common pigeon, or rock-dove, as to be often mistaken for it. But it differs from the better-known bird in the uniform blue colour of the back: the rock-dove has a white patch on the rump. It is not so abundant nor so widely diffused as the species last described, being most common in the southern and eastern counties of England; but it is found in suitable localities throughout England and Wales, and is extending its range in Scotland; also, in a less degree, in Ireland. In some localities in the south it is so abundant that its low, monotonous, crooning or ‘grunting’ voice may be heard all day long in summer like a continuous murmur in the woods. It prefers ancient woods, and breeds in holes in trees and pollard tops, and from this habit it is said to derive its name of stock-dove. It is also an inhabitant of seaside cliffs, like the rock-dove; and at Flamborough Head, on the Yorkshire coast, both species may be found breeding in the same caverns, and sometimes associating in flocks together. In districts with a sandy soil it nests on the ground in a rabbit-burrow, or under a thick furze-bush. A very slight nest is made of twigs and sticks, and in many cases no nest at all. The eggs are two in number, and of a light cream-colour.
Rock-Dove.
Columba livia.
Bluish ash, lighter on the wings; rump white; neck and breast lustrous, with green and purple reflections; two transverse black bands on the wing; primaries and tail tipped with black; outer tail-feathers white on the outer web; iris pale orange; bill black; feet red. Length, twelve and a half inches.
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[Illustration: FIG. 88.--ROCK-DOVE. ⅐ natural size.]
The rock-dove, or blue rock, the wild form of the domestic pigeon, is very rarely found breeding in any inland locality in the British Islands; in Spain and Italy, and other parts of continental Europe, it is an inhabitant of the mountainous districts. With us it inhabits the rock-bound coasts of Scotland and its islands, and of Ireland, and, very sparsely, the south and east coasts of England, and breeds in caverns, making its nests on the ledges of the rock. In its language, flight, and habits it is indistinguishable from the bird familiar to everyone in a domestic state.
Turtle-Dove.
Turtur communis.
Head and nape ash tinged with wine-red; a space on the sides of the neck composed of black feathers tipped with white; neck and breast pale wine-red; back ash-brown; primaries dusky; secondaries bluish ash; scapulars and wing-coverts rust-red, with a black spot in the centre of each feather; belly and under tail-coverts white; tail dusky, all but the two middle feathers tipped with white, the outer feather edged with white externally; iris yellowish red; feet red; bill brown. Length, eleven and a half inches.
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[Illustration: FIG. 89.--TURTLE-DOVE. ⅙ natural size.]
The turtle-dove differs from other British doves in its much smaller size and in being a summer visitor to England. It arrives in the southern counties at the end of April, and ranges as far north as Westmorland and Cumberland; in the west of England, and in Wales and Ireland, it is a somewhat scarce bird. Like the wood-pigeon and the stock-dove, it is believed to be increasing its numbers. It inhabits woods and plantations, and being of a shy disposition, is not often noticed. In the autumn it may be seen in small companies, usually composed of a pair of old birds and their young; at other times it goes alone or with its mate. Its spring song is a cooing note, very soft and agreeable, and somewhat plaintive in sound. The nest is made at no great height, a large bush or a hedge being as often selected for a site as a tree. It is a slight structure of slender sticks and twigs laid crosswise, and the two eggs are creamy-white. Two broods are reared in the season.
In September the turtle-doves take their departure to their winter haunts in Africa.
A few specimens of the handsome and elegant passenger-pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_), a North American species, once excessively abundant in that continent, but now nearly extinct, have been obtained in this country.
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Pallas’s sand-grouse (_Syrrhaptes paradoxus_), a curious and handsome bird, related structurally to the pigeons, is also included in works on British birds. Its home is the steppes of Central Asia, but from time to time visitations of this species, sometimes in very large numbers, have occurred in Europe, extending to the British Islands. The last and largest visitation of this kind occurred in 1888.
Pheasant.
Phasianus colchicus.
Head and neck glossed with metallic reflections of green, blue, and yellow; sides of head bare, scarlet, minutely spotted with black; plumage spotted and banded with red, purple, brown, yellow, green, and black. Length, three feet. _Female_: light brown marked with dusky; sides of head feathered.
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The pheasant has had a remarkable and a very long history, extending back into the period of myth and fable to the famous expedition of the Argonauts, who brought back this bird, with some other curious and beautiful objects, including the golden fleece, from the banks of the river Phasis, in Colchis. That, at all events, is the tradition which science has preserved in both names of the species. It is not incredible that the pheasant was introduced into Europe twelve and a half centuries before Christ; for we know that our familiar homing pigeon was employed as a letter-carrier by the Egyptians at an even earlier date. When and by whom it was first introduced into England is not known. There is evidence that the bird existed and was held in great esteem in this country before the Norman Conquest; and the belief is that it was brought hither by the Romans, who were accustomed to introduce ‘strange animals’ into the countries they conquered, and who gave the fallow-deer to Britain. That the first pheasants brought to Europe were obtained on the banks of the Phasis--now the Riou--is highly probable, since the marshy woods in the neighbourhood of that stream are still the headquarters of the aboriginal wild bird. Its habits appear curiously persistent: it must have wood, dense cover, and water in abundance to thrive. In Britain, where it has been permitted to run free in the woods for the last sixteen or seventeen centuries, it is still scarcely able to maintain its existence without the strictest protection and a great deal of attention on the part of man. It is known that when the birds are left to shift for themselves they soon decrease in numbers, and eventually die out, except in a few rare cases where the conditions are extremely favourable. How heavy the cost is of keeping pheasants in numbers sufficient for the purposes of sport is well known to all those who have preserves.
[Illustration: JAY. WOOD-PIGEONS. PHEASANTS.]
An interesting fact about the pheasant is, that the various species forming the group to which our bird belongs freely interbreed when they come together, and produce hybrids which are fertile. A Chinese species, the ring-necked pheasant, which is a little smaller than the British bird, was introduced into this country at the end of the last century, and everywhere the two species have interbred so freely that it is now scarcely possible to find a bird which does not show traces of hybridism.
An account of the habits of the pheasant would be superfluous here, as this bird, in the nearly semi-domestic state in which it exists throughout the country, is as familiar to most persons as the fowl.
Red-legged Partridge.
Caccabis rufa.
Throat and cheeks white, surrounded by a black band, which spreads itself out over the breast and sides of the neck in the form of numerous spots and lines, with which are intermixed a few white spots; upper parts reddish ash; on the flanks a number of crescent-shaped spots; the convexity towards the tail rust-red; the centre black bordered by white; beak, orbits, and feet bright red. Length, thirteen and a half inches.
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The red-legged partridge, or French partridge, as it is often called, is, like the pheasant, a naturalised species, introduced by man; but its history as a British bird is comparatively a short one and devoid of romance. A first attempt to naturalise it was made in the reign of Charles II., but was not successful; on its reintroduction about a hundred and twenty years ago, it proved well able to maintain existence in its new surroundings. Owing to its swiftness of foot and excessive wildness it was difficult for the sportsman to get within shooting distance of it, when partridges were shot over dogs. On this account it was disliked; so much so in some cases that attempts were made to extirpate it. But in spite of persecution it continued to increase, and is now found distributed over a large part of England, from the southern counties to Westmorland.
[Illustration: FIG. 90.--RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. ⅐ natural size.]
It differs from the common partridge in language and habits, as well as in its more conspicuously marked plumage and bright red legs. It is not a bird of the homestead, being partial to dry, sandy soils, to commons, and uncultivated lands. Its call-note is a musical, piping cry. It breeds early, and makes a slight nest on the ground. The eggs are fifteen to eighteen in number, yellowish white in ground-colour, and blotched with brown.
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An allied species, the Barbary partridge (_Caccabis petrosa_), has been included, as a rare straggler to England, among British birds.
Partridge.
Perdix cinerea.
[Illustration: FIG. 91.--PARTRIDGE. ⅙ natural size.]
Plumage grey and reddish brown, the male with a chestnut horseshoe patch on the lower breast. Length, twelve and a half inches.
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The partridge is a favourite of the ornithologist, and of all lovers of our wild bird life. A handsome and interesting bird, he is the only indigenous gallinaceous species in Britain that is not adversely affected by the reclamation of waste lands and the spread of cultivation. On the contrary, the changes that prove fatal to other game-birds are advantageous to him, since he flourishes most on rich soils, and where agriculture is most advanced. As a bird of the homestead he is made dear by association to those who have passed their early years in rural England; to the sportsman he is more, in the long run, than any other game-bird we possess, on account of his greater abundance and more general distribution.
Except during the breeding season, the partridge is gregarious, keeping in coveys of half a dozen to twenty or more birds. Their feeding-times are early in the morning and in the afternoon. Towards noon they repair to some secluded spot to take their ease and dust themselves; and, if the weather be genial, to lie basking in the sunshine. At dusk they resort to some open place, usually the central part of a field of grass, to roost, or ‘jug,’ as it is called; and it may then be seen that the covey is not a mere chance assemblage, but a community, under the leadership of one individual, presumably the oldest and most sagacious cock bird among them. At the approach of sunset, and until dark, the call of the leader may be heard from the chosen roosting-ground. It is a familiar sound to everyone in the rural districts--a harsh and powerful cry; but, like the clamour of blackbirds and redwings on going to rest, and the cawing of rooks at eventide, it has a great charm for the lover of nature. In character it resembles the call of the guinea-fowl, but is somewhat more metallic, and is more powerful and far-reaching. When the birds are assembled, they settle down for the night a little distance apart from each other, disposed in a circle, all with faces turned outwards. Disposed in this form, it must be difficult for any prowling animal to come upon them without being detected by some one bird in the covey.
In spring, usually in March, pairing takes place, and the coveys break up; but if snow or frost supervenes the birds pack again, and wait in company for the return of milder weather. In the pairing season the males are jealous and pugnacious, and two cocks are often seen engaged in fierce fight, making the fields resound, meanwhile, with their angry cries.
The nest is placed on the ground, among the growing corn, or under the shelter of an untrimmed hedge, and is a mere hollow scratched in the earth, with a slight lining of dead grass and leaves. The eggs vary in number from six or seven to eighteen, and are of a uniform olive-brown colour. When the young have been hatched by the female the male assists in rearing and protecting them, and both birds display intense anxiety and great boldness in the presence of danger, and will drag themselves over the ground, with flapping and trailing wings, within a few yards of a man or dog, to entice him away from their chicks. The young feed principally on insect food, small caterpillars, and larvæ of ants, of which they are extremely fond. The old birds include green leaves, buds, grain, and seeds of weeds, in their dietary.
Quail.
Coturnix communis.
[Illustration: FIG. 92.--QUAIL. ⅕ natural size.]
Head mottled with black and reddish brown, with three parallel, longitudinal, yellowish streaks; upper parts ash-brown variegated with black and straw-colour; neck reddish yellow, with a double crescent of dusky brown; breast pale reddish brown streaked with white; bill and feet yellowish brown. Length, eight inches. _Female_: paler, and wanting the double crescent on the neck.
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The quail is a summer visitor to this country, arriving in May. It is nowhere a common bird, although widely distributed, and it has been found breeding in most parts of the British Islands. Occasionally it is met with in winter, most often in Ireland. Immediately after its arrival the call of the male is heard morning and evening, a shrill, piping note of three syllables, supposed to resemble the words _wet my lips_, or _wet my feet_, according to the hearer’s fancy. This call is repeated again and again, with some slight variation in the sound. The nest is a slight hollow scratched in a cornfield, among grass or clover, and the eggs number seven or eight to twelve, and even a larger number is sometimes found. They are speckled and blotched with umber-brown on a yellowish white ground. Two broods are reared in the season. The quail prefers open, rough grass country to cultivated land. Its food consists of seeds, grain, and insects.
The quail is in appearance a very small partridge, being little more than half the size of that bird. It is singular that in the very limited number of gallinaceous birds that exist wild in this country there should be included the capercaillie, the largest of the order, with, perhaps, the exception of one American species, and the diminutive quail--a giant and a pigmy.
Historically, the small species is the more important of the two. He is a Bible bird, and was as familiar as the eagle and the crane to the civilised nations of antiquity in Asia and Africa, where letters and arts had their origin, when the great wood-grouse was known only to the barbarians of Europe.
When we consider how bound to earth (like our unfortunate selves) the gallinaceous birds are, seldom using their wings, unless to escape from some sudden, pressing danger into the nearest cover, it strikes us as very wonderful that the plump little quail should be as great a migrant as the most aërial kinds--the swallows and the warblers. When with us in the summer he is a dweller on the ground, an earth-lover, like his stay-at-home relation, the partridge; yet in his wide wanderings he crosses seas, vast deserts, and the loftiest mountain chains; and by means of this migratory instinct he has diffused himself over the three great continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Ptarmigan.
Lagopus mutus.
Winter: pure white; a black line from the angle of the beak through the eye; outer tail-feathers black; above the eye a scarlet fringed membrane; beak black; tarsi and toes thickly clothed with woolly feathers. _Female_: without the black line through the eyes. Summer: wings, under tail-coverts, two middle tail-feathers, and legs white; outer tail-feathers black, some of them tipped with white; all the rest of the plumage ash-brown marked with black lines and dusky spots. Length, fifteen inches.
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[Illustration: _PLATE XIII._ PTARMIGAN (WINTER AND AUTUMN PLUMAGE). ²⁄₇ NAT. SIZE.]
In the British Islands the ptarmigan is at present confined to the Highlands of Scotland, the ‘region of stones,’ and to some of its islands, where, however, it is decreasing in numbers.
A peculiar interest attaches to this bird on account of its change of plumage from brown in summer to snow-white in winter, and of the fact that it inhabits only the summits and slopes of high mountains. These two things--the white winter plumage and the mountain habit--have a close connection. The periodical change to white is a common phenomenon in arctic animals, both birds and mammals, and all the species of grouse of the genus to which the ptarmigan belongs assume the white dress in winter, with one exception--the red grouse of the British Islands. Thus, in Britain we have two grouse of this group (Lagopus), one of which turns white like the continental grouse, while the other keeps its brown dress throughout the year. To explain this difference it must be assumed that both species inhabited Britain at a period when its climate was an intensely cold one, and that both species changed their colour to protective white in the season of snow. When the British climate changed, and became so mild that the snow no longer remained unmelted for months at a time on the lower levels, all such creatures as had the arctic habit of becoming white in winter would be in danger of extermination, since their intense whiteness on the brown or green earth would make them fatally conspicuous to their enemies. A white grouse on a brown moor would be visible for miles to high-soaring birds of prey. The red grouse escaped destruction by losing its white winter dress: the change in it from two distinct liveries to one colour for all seasons was doubtless gradual, extending over a period of very many centuries, keeping pace with the slowly improving climate. He ended by becoming a bird that was wholly brown in winter, while the willow-grouse of northern Europe and Asia--the continental form, and, it may be added, the parent, form of our bird of the moors--continued to change to white periodically. Meanwhile no such change took place in the ptarmigan’s plumage: he alone continued to assume the pure white winter dress, as if to keep alive the tradition of an ancient arctic Britain; and yet he survived. He escaped destruction because he was a hardier bird, and preferred the higher grounds, where the snows never melted in winter. At the northern limit of its range, north of the arctic circle, the ptarmigan inhabits the fells and level country; in Europe it is everywhere confined to the higher slopes of lofty mountains; in other words, wherever found--and it ranges as far south as the mountains of Spain--it still has an arctic climate. The bird exists ‘islanded’ on high mountains, separated from the rest of its kind by wide spaces of low-lying country as impassable to it as the sea.