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.
* * * * *
The yellowhammer, or yellow bunting, is one of the most generally
diffused species in the British Islands, and, on account of its
habit of always perching on the summit of a bush or other elevation,
and of its bright yellow head and neck, which make it conspicuous
at a distance, it is a familiar object to every person in the rural
districts. It differs from the corn-bunting both in a brighter
colouring and in a slimmer and more graceful figure. But it is a heavy
bird nevertheless, of a sedentary disposition, and during the warm
season spends a great portion of its time in sitting upright and
motionless on its perch, uttering its song at regular intervals.
This species affects rough commons and waste lands in preference to
fields, and where he is found you may hear his song at all times of the
day, even during the sultriest hours; for although the yellowhammer
remains with us throughout the year, and is able to resist the colds of
winter, he is a great lover of heat. The song is very different from
that of the species last described: it is composed of half a dozen or
more short, reedy notes, all exactly alike, and shaken out, as it were,
in a hurry, followed by a long, thin note, or by two notes, slightly
melodious in character. It may be described as a trivial and monotonous
song, but it is a summer sound which most people hear with pleasure,
and the yellowhammer, or ‘little-bit-of-bread-and-no-c-h-e-e-s-e,’ as
it is called in imitation of its note, is something of a favourite
with country-people. The rustics have a story about the origin of the
bread-and-no-cheese name, which they think very laughable; and one is
certainly very much amused at the manner in which it is usually told.
This is ponderous and slow, and strikes one as highly incongruous, the
subject being only a childish legend about a little bird.
According to Yarrell, the Scotch peasants have some curious
superstitions about the yellow yoldring, as they call it. To them its
song sounds like the words ‘Deil, deil, deil tak ye,’ and the bird
itself is supposed to be on very familiar terms with the evil being
whose name it invokes so freely, and who supplies it on a May morning
with a drop of his own blood with which to paint its curiously marked
eggs.
About the middle of April the yellowhammer builds its nest, on or above
the ground, among furze and bramble bushes, or at the roots of a hedge,
or in a bank among grass and nettles. The nest is large but neatly
made, outwardly of dry grass, stalks, roots, and moss, the inside being
lined with fibres and horsehair. The eggs are four or five in number,
purplish white in ground-colour, streaked and veined with deep reddish
purple, with violet-grey under-markings.
The young males acquire the bright yellow head of the adult bird at the
autumn moult.
Although this bird remains with us throughout the year, it has a
partial migration. In autumn and winter it is seen in small flocks,
often feeding in company with the common bunting and other finches. In
winter its food consists principally of seeds; in summer it subsists
largely, and feeds its young exclusively, on insects.
Cirl Bunting.
Emberiza cirlus.
[Illustration: FIG. 52.--CIRL BUNTING. ⅓ natural size.]
Crown olive streaked with black; throat, neck, and band across the eye
black; gorget and band above and below the eye bright yellow; breast
olive-grey, bounded at the sides by chestnut; belly dull yellow; back
brownish red with dusky spots. _Female_: the distinct patches of
black and yellow wanting; the dusky spots on the back larger. Length,
six and a half inches.
* * * * *
This bird, in its dress of many colours--chestnut-brown, olive, black
and white, and lemon-yellow--is the handsomest of the British buntings.
It is an uncommon species, being restricted to the southern and western
counties of England, and exceedingly local in its distribution. It is,
moreover, of a shy disposition, and hides from sight in tall trees;
consequently it is seldom seen, and is known to few persons. It is
resident all the year. Its winter movements, if it has any, are not
known. The curious fact about this bunting is that its breeding-places,
which form small isolated areas, chiefly on or near the south-western
coast, remain year after year unchanged. The birds do not nest outside
of the old limits, nor do they form fresh colonies in other suitable
places.
Hedgerow-elms, and other large trees growing near fields, are
favourite resorts of the cirl bunting, and the male takes his stand to
sing on a tree-top, just as the yellowhammer does on a furze-bush or
hedge-top. His song comes nearest in character to that of the species
just named, being composed of several rapidly uttered, short notes,
only brighter and more vigorous; but the song is without the long,
thin note with which the more common species ends his slight strain.
In its nesting habits and in the colour of its eggs it is like the
yellowhammer, but its young are fed almost wholly on young grasshoppers.
In summer the cirl bunting lives chiefly on insects, but in autumn and
winter it is, like other finches, a seed-eater, and at this season
unites in small flocks, and occasionally associates with birds of other
species
Reed-Bunting.
Emberiza schœniclus.
Head, throat, and gorget black (in winter speckled with light brown);
nape, sides of the neck, and a line extending to the base of the beak
white; upper parts variegated with reddish brown and dusky; under parts
white streaked with dusky on the flanks. _Female_: head reddish
brown with dusky spots; the white on the neck less distinct; under
parts reddish white, with dusky spots. Length, six inches.
* * * * *
[Illustration: FIG. 53.--REED-BUNTING. ¼ natural size.]
The reed-bunting, although by no means an uncommon bird, is not nearly
so common as either the corn-bunting or yellowhammer. It is a bird of
the waterside, and its spring and summer life is passed among the
reeds and aquatic herbage and willows and alders growing on the margins
of streams and marshes. It is widely distributed, and, where suitable
localities exist, may be looked for with some confidence. In most
districts it is known as the reed-sparrow, and in its colouring and
general appearance it is undoubtedly more sparrow-like than the other
buntings. From its black head, which is very conspicuous by contrast
with the white collar, it is often called the black-headed bunting,
a name which more properly belongs to a continental species to be
noticed later on as an accidental visitor to this country. The male is
a persistent singer in the spring months, and, perched near the top
of a reed, or on the topmost branch of an alder tree, he will repeat
at intervals his slight reedy song of four or five notes, the last
somewhat prolonged. If disturbed, he will fly a little distance ahead
and perch again; and this action he will repeat two or three times if
followed up; then, doubling back, he will return to the first spot. He
is a sprightlier bird than the other buntings. The slender reed-stems
he perches on, which bend and sway beneath the slightest weight, have
taught him easier and more graceful motions, although in that respect
he cannot compare with the bearded tit.
The nest is made near the water, on or close to the ground, under a
bush or bunch of rushes, and is composed of dry grass and leaves and
stems of aquatic plants, and lined with fibrous roots and horsehair.
The eggs are four or five in number, in ground-colour dull white or
grey, spotted and streaked with purplish brown and dull grey.
The reed-bunting remains in this country all the year, but in severe
weather leaves the wet, low ground, and is then seen among the flocks
of mixed finches in fields and in the neighbourhood of farmhouses.
Snow-Bunting.
Plectrophanes nivalis.
Head, neck, portion of the wings and under parts white; upper parts
black, tinged here and there with red. In winter the white of the head
and the black on the back mixed with reddish brown. _Female_: the
white on the head and upper parts mottled with dusky, and her colours
not so pure. Length, six inches and three-quarters.
The snow-bunting, or snowflake, as it is also called, breeds regularly
in some localities in the Highlands of Scotland, and may therefore
be regarded as an indigenous species; but the birds breeding within
British limits are only a few pairs, and the snow-bunting is best known
as a winter visitor from more northern regions. They appear on our
coasts in the month of October, sometimes in immense flocks, to pass
the winter, for the most part in the neighbourhood of the sea, seeking
their food in fields and on waste lands. Occasionally these flocks
penetrate to the more inland districts. Being very pretty and lively
little birds, they are great favourites in the places they visit; and
their appearance is all the more welcome on account of the desolate
aspect of nature in the districts where they are most abundant. Many
ornithologists have written lovingly about the snow-bunting. Thus,
Saxby says: ‘Seen against a dark hillside or a lowering sky, a flock of
these birds presents an exceedingly beautiful appearance, and it may
then be seen how aptly the term “snowflake” has been applied to the
species. I am acquainted with no more pleasing combination of sight and
sound than that afforded when a cloud of these birds, backed by a dark
grey sky, descends, as it were, in a shower to the ground, to the music
of their own sweet, tinkling notes.’
The fullest, and by far the most interesting, account ever given of
the snow-bunting is by Seebohm. He says that in its habits it is the
most arctic of the small birds, breeding as far north as latitude 82°
33´. Its appearance is thus described: ‘In sledging over the snow
across the steppes of South-western Siberia from Ekaterranburg to
Tomsk, a distance of about a thousand miles, the snow-bunting was the
only bird we saw, except a few sparrows, jackdaws, and hooded crows
near the villages. The snow-buntings were in small flocks, and many of
them had almost lost their winter dress. It was a charming sight to
watch them flitting before the sledge, as we disturbed them at their
meals. Sometimes, in the sunshine, their white bodies were invisible
against the white snow, and we could almost fancy that a flock of black
butterflies was dancing before us. The flight of the snow-bunting is
peculiar, and is somewhat like that of a butterfly, as if the bird
altered its mind every few seconds as to which direction it wished to
take.’
Of its song he says: ‘Whilst the female is busy with the duties of
incubation the male sings freely, sometimes as he sits upon the top of
a rock, but often flinging himself into the air like a shuttlecock,
and then descending in a spiral curve, with wings and tail expanded,
singing all the time. The song is a low and melodious warbling, not
unlike that of the shore-lark.’
The nest is placed in crevices of rocks, and is made of dry grass,
roots, and moss, lined with root-fibres, hair, wool, and feathers.
Five or six, sometimes seven, eggs are laid, in ground-colour greyish
white or pale blue, spotted and blotched with reddish brown, with
under-markings of pale brown and pale grey.
The young are fed on the larvæ of gnats. In winter the snow-buntings
feed on seeds of grass and weeds.
Besides the five buntings described, five more species figure in the
list of British birds, and these may now be briefly noticed:--
Black-headed bunting (_Emberiza melanocephala_), inhabiting
South-eastern Europe; a single specimen has been obtained in this
country.
Ortolan bunting (_Emberiza hortulana_).--A summer visitor to Europe.
Several specimens have been obtained in the British Islands, mostly in
the south and east of England.
Rustic bunting (_Emberiza rustica_).--Breeds in North-eastern Europe
and Northern Siberia. A rare straggler to Britain.
Little bunting (_Emberiza pusilla_), from North-eastern Europe and
Siberia. Has been taken once in England.
Lapland bunting (_Calcarius lapponica_).--A circumpolar species
breeding in the arctic regions. Occasionally straggles to this country.
Starling.
Sturnus vulgaris.
Black with purple and green reflections, the upper feathers tipped
with pale buff; under tail-coverts edged with white; beak yellow; feet
flesh-colour tinged with brown. _Female_: spotted below as well as
above. _Young_: uniform ash-brown, unspotted. Length, eight and a
half inches.
* * * * *
A compactly built bird with a short, square tail, strong legs and feet,
and a long, sharp beak, the starling does not excel in beauty of figure
or grace of carriage; his lines are rather indicative of strength; he
looks what he is--a plodding digger in the meadows and pastures, a
hardy bird of rook-like habits, able to stand all weathers. But he has
a beautiful coat. As in the case of the large corvine species he so
frequently associates with when feeding, his richly coloured plumage
has a gloss which causes it to shine at times like polished metal in
the sunlight. The starling has an added distinction in the spangling of
white and buff on the upper parts.
During the greater portion of the year his food consists almost
entirely of insects in their different stages. Like the rook, he
searches at the roots of the grass for worms and grubs; and there is no
doubt that he deserves his reputation of one of the farmer’s feathered
helpers. He attends the sheep and cattle in the meadows, and is often
seen perching on their backs; the animals take it quietly, and perhaps
know that he is on the look-out for ticks, which are a source of
irritation to them.
Although a digger and plodder, the starling is very different from his
companion, the rook, in manner. The rooks are seen soberly marching
about, quartering the ground, each one intent on finding something for
himself. The starlings are not nearly so methodical; they run about a
great deal on the feeding-ground, and watch and interfere with each
other. When one by chance finds a rich treasure, the others are eager
to share it, and there are occasional scolding matches, and sometimes
downright quarrelling, among them.
The starling is also a fruit-eater, particularly of cherries; and in
winter, when insect food is scarce, he will eat berries, seeds, and
grain, and, like the blackbird and blue tit, may be easily attracted to
the house with scraps of animal food.
The nesting habits of the starling contribute to make it one of our
most familiar birds. He breeds in holes, and a hole in a tree or
rock, in a cliff or quarry, suits him very well; but he more often
finds a suitable place under the eaves of a house, or in a barn,
or church-tower, or other building; and, unless disturbed, he will
continue to use the same site year after year. As early as January the
starlings begin to pay occasional visits to the breeding-site, but they
do not build until April. The nest is composed of a large quantity of
dry grass, small twigs, moss, and other materials, and is sometimes
lined with wool or feathers. Four to seven eggs are laid--five being
the usual number--of a delicate pale greenish blue colour, and
unspotted.
The starling sings more or less all the year, but his song is at
its best in the spring months. He has no such melodious notes as
distinguish the warblers; his merit lies less in the quality of the
sounds he utters than in their endless variety. In a leisurely way
he will sometimes ramble on for an hour, whistling and warbling very
agreeably, mingling his finer notes with chatterings and cluckings
and squealings, and sounds as of snapping the fingers and of kissing,
with many others quite indescribable. On account of this variety
of language he has always been reputed a mimic; but he does not
mock as the mocking-bird does: he never reproduces the song of any
other songster. Notes and phrases, and calls and alarm-notes, he has
apparently picked up, and, listening, you recognise this or that
species; but the imitations are seldom perfect, and in the end you are
almost inclined to believe that he is called a mimic only because his
variety is so great.
After the breeding season the young and old birds feed together in the
pastures, where they unite with other families; and the flocks thus
formed, as they increase in size, extend their wanderings over the
surrounding country. Like rooks, they have favourite roosting-places,
to which they return annually; these are reed and osier beds, thickets
of holly and other evergreens, and fir-plantations. But they are not
so constant in their attachment to one locality as the rook. They are
more vagrant in their habits, and shift their ground, and migrate, and
their numbers may vary greatly from year to year in the same district.
In a district where they are abundant, they are seen at the end of
each day gathering from all directions to the roosting-place; and it
is then that the ‘cloud of starlings’ may be seen at its best, and
it is certainly one of the finest sights that bird life presents in
England. At intervals, after the birds have been steadily pouring in
their flocks for a couple of hours, the whole vast concourse rises,
and, seen from a distance, the flock, composed of tens and hundreds of
thousands, may then be easily mistaken for a long black cloud suspended
above the wood. In a few moments it is seen to grow thin, as the flock
scatters, until it almost fades away. Suddenly it darkens again; and so
on, alternately, the form, too, changing continually, now extending to
an immense length across the sky, like a long bar of vapour, and now
gathered into a huge oval or oblong black mass; and by-and-by the cloud
again empties itself into the trees, and the sky is clear once more.
These evolutions are repeated many times, until, as the evening draws
on, the birds finally settle down in their places, but not to sleep;
for an hour longer the wood is filled with an indescribable noise--a
tangle of ten thousand penetrative voices, all together whistling,
chattering, scolding, and singing.
We have but one starling; an allied species, the beautiful
rose-coloured pastor (_Pastor roseus_), which breeds in Western
Asia, is an irregular visitor to all parts of England.
Chough.
Pyrrhocorax graculus.
[Illustration: FIG. 54.--CHOUGH. ⅛ natural size.]
Black with purple and green reflections; beak and feet coral-red.
Length, sixteen inches.
* * * * *
It is melancholy to think that this interesting and extremely handsome
bird has been diminishing in numbers for a long period, and is now
become so rare that, unless strong measures to secure its protection
be at once taken, its eventual extinction in this country must be
regarded as merely a question of time. Formerly it bred in many inland
localities in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland; but from all its
ancient nesting-cliffs in the interior of these countries it has long
vanished, and, like the raven, which has also fallen on evil days, is
now only found in a few spots on the rock-bound coasts where high,
precipitous cliffs afford it some chance of hatching its eggs and
continuing the species for a few years longer.
A few pairs are still found breeding each year on the coast of
Cornwall, where it was formerly abundant, and on this account was
called the Cornish chough. It also breeds in limited numbers in a few
other situations:--at Lundy Island, the rocks of the Calf of Man, on
the coast of Wales, and at Islay and a few other situations on the
coast of Scotland.
In size, flight, language, habits, and general appearance, the chough
comes nearest to the jackdaw, but is a much handsomer bird, its uniform
intense black plumage and long, curved, coral bill, and red legs and
feet, giving it a distinguished and somewhat singular appearance. Its
cry, uttered both when perched and on the wing, differs only from that
of the daw in its more ringing and melodious sound. The flight is easy
and buoyant, and the birds are fond of aërial pastimes, similar to
those of the jackdaw, during which the members of the company pursue
one another in play, and frequently tumble down from a great height
through the air as if disabled. They feed inland, often going long
distances from the cliffs they inhabit to seek their food, like rooks,
in the meadows and pasture-lands. They also follow the plough to pick
up the worms and grubs, like the rook and black-headed gull, and are
said to eat carrion, berries, and grain. On the sands and rocks they
feed on the animal refuse left by the tides.
The chough, like the daw, lives always in communities; the two species
may often be found breeding near each other and associating in flocks.
The nest is placed in a hole or crevice in the rocks in the least
accessible part of the cliff. It is built of sticks and twigs, and
lined with grass, fur, wool, and other soft substances. Four to six
eggs are laid, in ground-colour white, faintly tinged with blue or
yellowish, and spotted and blotched with various shades of grey and
pale brown.
Jay.
Garrulus glandarius.
Crest greyish white streaked with black; a black moustache from the
corners of the beak; general plumage reddish grey, darker above;
primaries dingy black; secondaries velvet-black and pure white; inner
tertials rich chestnut; winglet and greater coverts barred with black,
white, and bright blue; upper and under-tail-coverts pure white; iris
bright blue; beak black; feet dark brown. Length, thirteen and a half
inches.
* * * * *