usually find their food at some height in the air, but one day in the
beginning of July (1899) I noticed a number of swifts, with a great
many swallows and sand-martins, skimming the surface of a patch of
clover which had been left standing in a field near the garden. I did
not discover what it was, but the attraction must have been something
unusual, for the number of birds passing and re-passing in the very
small space was so extraordinary that it was really difficult to
understand how they could avoid collision. All were concentrated in the
one spot, and never seemed to go beyond it for more than a couple of
yards.
In 1896 there were swifts about all August, and I saw a pair on October
19th. I was told by a friend who was at Brighton in June, 1899, that
whenever the band played on the sea front four swifts would appear and
fly round and round the bandstand. She never noticed them there, she
said, when the band was not playing, although it was her favourite seat
at all times of the day.
Nightjars are not uncommon on "mosses" in Lancashire, only a mile or so
away, and in Cheshire on the Carrington side of Warburton, but they are
less frequent just about here. One year, however (1902), a pair
evidently had made their nest in the rough tussocky ground which at
that time covered the bed of the old river. From the middle of June to
the beginning of July we were treated every evening to the full
programme of their entertainment, both vocal and acrobatic. Several
times one heard little snatches of the "song," even in the middle of
the day in fine, hot weather, but nine p.m., sometimes a little
earlier, was the usual time for beginning. The whirring would go on for
an hour at a time, with hardly any cessation, but often varying in tone
and volume, now swelling out louder and then sinking again. We often
saw the two birds playing about together in the air, one or other of
them making what is described as a "whipthong" noise and smiting its
wings together like a pigeon. Sometimes when they first settled again
after a flight, instead of the loud whirring there would be every now
and then a soft, liquid, bubbling sound.
A favourite resting-place was the bare bough of a Scotch fir, and here
as it lay lengthways and perfectly still the bird looked so like part
of the branch itself that I couldn't persuade a friend who was with me
that it was a bird until he actually saw it fly away. After July 4th we
heard no more of them, and for a day or two before that the whirring
was much more interrupted, in shorter spells, and varied more in
intensity and clearness than usual.
Before the next spring came round the Ship Canal had covered the
river-bed with another layer of mud dredgings, and we have neither seen
nor heard a nightjar in the garden since, but in June, 1910, I heard
from the keeper that he had watched one flying round an old
black-poplar just opposite the garden gate, flapping the ends of the
boughs with his wings and catching the moths that were driven out.
One of the most delightful of country sounds is, I think, the laugh of
the green woodpecker, and when I heard that a pair of woodpeckers were
constantly to be seen (January and February, 1901) about some old
poplars not far away, and that early one morning one was working at the
rotten posts of a fence in the very next field, my hopes were raised
that even yet that welcome sound might be heard from the garden. But
the birds turned out to be greater-spotted woodpeckers and not green,
and these do not express the joy of living so plainly. I have several
times since seen one of these spotted woodpeckers in the garden. One
day (in April, 1908) I watched the bird for a long time as he visited
in succession each of the posts in a wire fence by the old river-bed.
Green woodpeckers are rare in this part of the country, but
"lesser-spotted" are found in Dunham Park, and the keeper tells me he
has seen them in Warburton Fox-cover.
In the low-lying meadows by the Bollin, half a mile away, kingfishers
have always been found, haunting the little water-courses and ditches,
but at one time we were able to see them even from the garden itself.
In the making of the Ship Canal a part of the old river just beyond us
was left unfilled up, and formed a fair-sized pool. Kingfishers used to
come to this, and as long as there was any water at all in the old
river-bed I often stood outside this house and watched the blue streak
of light as the bird, with his peculiar shrill cry, flew straight as an
arrow past me. Even in August, 1899, when what remained of the river
was nothing but seething mud, in which I am sure there could have been
no living fish, I disturbed a kingfisher from an overhanging branch on
the bank.
A friend in the village, a keen observer of birds, has often seen, he
tells me, that when kingfishers fly from the meadows to the "pits" on
higher ground they first rise straight up into the air and then dart
off in a perfect bee-line to their destination. He also said that
kingfishers invariably desert a nest that has been touched. He was
repairing the embankment of the Bollin once when a kingfisher's nest
was accidentally laid open, and although the nest itself was not
injured, and the two young ones in it were nearly fledged and fought at
his hand like little owls, when two days later he was at the place
again he found them both dead, unable to find food for themselves and
forsaken by their parents.
The coming of the cuckoo seems to be of more interest to people here
than any event in natural history, and cuckoos are, I should say, more
plentiful with us than in many places, and are nearly as often seen as
heard.
I must have seen a dozen one day in May from the high road during a
short drive of a few miles, and, generally speaking, in May not a day
(I should not be far out if I said not an hour of the day) goes by
without our knowing by sight as well as sound that there are cuckoos in
the garden.
The widespread belief that cuckoos turn into hawks in winter is still
seriously held in Cheshire to-day, even by farmers.
For three days in the end of July, 1905, I was able from my study
window to watch a young cuckoo being fed by its foster-parent, a
meadow-pipit. The cuckoo was sitting on a wire fence on the opposite
bank. At first it sat in a floppy kind of way, with its wings hanging
down on either side, as if to keep its balance, but the next day it
seemed to have gained strength and sat up better. The little pipit (if
it was always the same, and I never saw more than one at once) was not
away for more than a minute or two, except on the third day, when it
was pouring wet and food seemed harder to find. As soon as the cuckoo
knew that its nurse was coming it began opening its mouth and quivering
its wings, while the poor little dupe that brought the food would
alight a short distance off and run along the wire to its side, then,
looking ridiculously small for the job, it would manage to pop
something into its mouth, not all in one go, but in two or three. It
was curious to notice that every time after being fed the ungrateful
cuckoo gave spiteful pecks at the poor deluded little slave who was
working so hard to supply its wants.
One day in May (1908) a cuckoo alighted on a tree close to the house,
attended by two small birds. He seemed rather uneasy in their company,
and kept looking suspiciously at them; they, I fancy, were trying to
make up their minds to attack him, but they let "I dare not" wait so
long upon "I would" that he went off unmolested.
Barn owls are comparatively common. Farmers are learning to understand
better their great usefulness, and at least to leave them alone. Some,
indeed, do more than this, and I know of two cases where the pigeon
cote in the hay-loft has been given up to them. Through the back door
of one of these cotes I have been able to see at my ease the funny
little round-faced hissing young ones, and I was quite surprised to
find how very long it is before the fully-fledged birds turn out of the
nest. My friend at Heatley was one of those who entertained the owls,
and he told me that if an old bird accidentally dropped a mouse as he
made his way into the loft, he never by any chance attempted to recover
it. He said he used on winter evenings to see the owls fly along the
eaves of the neighbouring houses and inside the roof of a hayshed close
by, beating with their wings to drive out the sparrows that were
roosting there, and he found the remains of a great many sparrows in
their casts.
A barn-owl appeared in the garden one day in May, 1899. It did all it
could to hide itself in the bushes and thick Scotch firs, but in spite
of its efforts the birds in the neighbourhood, led on apparently by the
blackbirds, found it out again and again, and kept up a ceaseless noise
and commotion as long as it was here. (I noticed that the fowls, both
cocks and hens, joined in the general clamour.) In December, however, I
have seen an owl fly into one of the out-houses in the middle of the
day, and even sit calmly in full view on a leafless tree without
attracting the least notice from any bird.
The keeper tells me that brown, long-eared, and short-eared owls are
all to be found in Warburton at times, brown owls nesting here
regularly.
Sparrow hawks come to us occasionally, but not so often as kestrels.
The difference in the behaviour of small birds with regard to these two
hawks is remarkable, and plainly shows that they have, as a rule,
little to fear from kestrels. One November day, for instance, a sparrow
hawk appeared in a tree just opposite my window, causing the greatest
commotion and consternation among sparrows and all other birds. A week
later a kestrel came to the same place at the same time of the day and
stayed about for a considerable time, but none of the small birds took
the least notice of him.
My friend at Heatley, who used to have the owls as his tenants, once
(in 1897) shot a sparrow hawk near his house that had a screaming
blackbird in his talons, and was tearing off from its back strips of
feathers and flesh together without apparently having tried to kill it
first. He told me that twice he had seen a lark escape from a sparrow
hawk. In both instances the lark's idea seemed to be to rise higher
than the hawk, and the two kept going up together. The hawk made
repeated stoops at his quarry, but each time he missed, the lark
striking now to the right and now to the left. The contest ended in
both cases by the lark dashing down to cover from a great height; one
time it found refuge among the shrubs in a garden, and on the second
occasion it came down faster than he could describe with its wings
closed against its sides, and just slanting over the tops of some fruit
trees opposite, dashed straight into the kitchen. To do this it had to
pass through the sliding door of the back-kitchen, which was not more
than two feet open, and then through the open door of the kitchen.
Strange to say, it was able to check its speed sufficiently to alight
uninjured on the floor, though utterly exhausted and helpless. My
friend picked it up, and having held it for some minutes in his hand,
let it fly away seeming none the worse for its perilous adventure. The
hawk, he said, sailed calmly once or twice round the house before he
took himself off.
The following is part of a letter I received in November, 1894:--"A
sparrow hawk took up his nightly abode on the transome of the top light
of a window in Arley Chapel in the autumn of 1890, and remained
constant to that roosting place until, at all events, May, 1892, when
we left Arley. How long it stayed there after we left I cannot say, but
I was told last winter that it had disappeared. The hawk was always
solitary; I never saw it with a companion. The roost was always exactly
on the same stone."
One has heard stories of other birds living the same kind of lonely
existence, but I never saw a very satisfactory explanation as to how it
is that they come to do so. The pairing instinct is strong in birds,
and it must be a powerful motive that makes them disregard it. We are
told that if a bird of prey loses its mate it does not take it long to
find another. May we suppose that solitary birds like this at Arley are
waiting in readiness for such an emergency? Or is such a bird simply
one that, being old and cantankerous, is bored by female society, or
feels himself unequal to the cares of a family?
All birds seem to give a sparrow hawk a wide berth, but one often sees
a kestrel pursued, most frequently perhaps by a rook, but sometimes by
a peewit or a gull. In October, 1908, I saw from the garden a kestrel
persecuted by two rooks. He kept dodging their attacks, but didn't seem
to mind them much and never turned on them. Again, at the end of
October, 1906, I was watching a kestrel as it hovered over a field
close by, when I saw it suddenly and violently assaulted by a
missel-thrush. It gave way for some space, but when in a minute or two
the thrush flew off, it returned to its first position and continued
hovering just as if never interrupted.
[Illustration: The Food Stand.]
I have heard from a man here, an old gamekeeper, a story like one that
I have read somewhere before. He had seen a kestrel pounce upon what he
supposed to be a mouse and fly off with it. Presently, to his surprise,
it fell like a stone to the ground and he picked it up quite dead;
close by it he found a dead stoat.
Wild duck breed in the Bollin meadows and may sometimes be seen in the
garden as they fly over; we see wild geese, too, sometimes, and
occasionally a heron. I was much struck one day by the flight of a pair
of swans over the garden. They were not flying high, but side by side,
with their long necks stretched out, with strong regular wing-beats;
without haste and without effort, they held on their straight and even
course at a good steady pace. It gave me rather a strange impression of
dignity and power.
One or two pairs of wood-pigeons build in the garden every year, but
they are not as common in Warburton as in more wooded country, though
sometimes large flocks visit us in autumn (_e.g._, in 1910). My friend
at Heatley told me that one year when a great many had come to feed on
acorns in a wood near his house, he had hoped from the shelter of a
wooden hut to make a good bag, but he found that in spite of their
numbers they were extremely wideawake, and though they covered the
ground in every other direction, they carefully eschewed a trail of
Indian corn, with which he had hoped to tempt them within reach of his
gun.
Turtledoves are fairly common in Cheshire, but there are many more in
some years than in others. I only remember their nesting in this garden
once (in 1899), when they were to be seen on the lawn every day.
Pheasants are constant visitors; we are very seldom without them at any
time of the year, and since parts of the old river-bed have been left
wild they have taken to breeding here. We have often watched from our
window the cock pheasant strutting about the hen, ruffling up his
feathers and displaying himself to advantage like a turkey-cock. The
tufts of ear-like feathers on each side of the head are a marked
feature in the cock at the courting season and give the bird a curious
Mephistophelian look.
We noticed once when we came upon them unawares as they were feeding on
corn we had put for them, that the hen, instead of scuttling off like
the cock, clapped close to the ground almost within arm's length,
evidently trusting for concealment to her sober colouring.
One cock who made himself very much at home here in the early part of
1901, and stayed with us for more than three months, unlike most that
have been here, was for ever crowing and clapping his wings. He always
roosted on the same tree, and every evening just before it got dark
took care to let us know that he was going to bed.
In October, 1910, there was a cock that used to amuse himself by
sitting for half an hour at a time on the broad top of a clipped yew
hedge. Several hens would sometimes sit there with him: once we saw
seven on the top of the hedge at once.
I have heard that in Japan at the time of an earthquake, extraordinary
commotion is noticed among pheasants. There was a slight shock of
earthquake here on December 17th, 1896, at 5-30 in the morning, and a
working man who happened then to be near the Fox-cover was especially
struck by the noise that pheasants were making in the wood.
Nearly every year we have partridge visitors, a family party; in 1895
there were thirteen young ones with the old pair, and last year, 1911,
again there were twelve. They always seem happy and light-hearted; they
dance and jump, they play games like "hide-and-seek" or
"kiss-in-the-ring," round about and in and out the drooping feathery
branches of a deadara, that just touch the ground, and in the intervals
they sun themselves on the walks.
I heard very few corncrakes in 1911, but they are common enough most
years. In 1908, one took up his abode in the old river-bed just outside
our window, and used to serenade us every night (May 8th to 26th). He
went on incessantly, exactly like a clock, quite regularly and evenly.
He was at it when we went to bed about 12 and never ceased or varied in
the least as long as we were awake to hear him.
What was once the bed of the Mersey has now (1912), thanks to the Ship
Canal engineers, become land comparatively speaking dry. But, of
course, the process of filling up was gradual, and for some years more
or less water was left in the river-bed. During one stage, which lasted
perhaps ten years, waterhens, which here are known as coots (true coots
are called "baldheaded"), became quite common in the garden. We used to
see them rather as waders than swimmers, but we did constantly see them
running about on the soft mud, washing in the little pools, and, as
pairing time came on, fighting desperately together. In the autumn a
dozen or more would be feeding on the lawn at once, and in the winter
some would often come to pick up food with the fowls, I have even seen
one make an attempt to get fat from a net hung out for the tits. We
often saw them perching quite high up in a tree. In 1907, I had a
photograph given me showing a waterhen's nest in a small wood near
Lymm. It was in a tree four feet six inches from the ground, and 200
yards from any water.
Golden plover come to the Bollin meadows every winter, but not so many
I think as when the land was more liable to floods, at least I do not
hear their clear whistle as often as formerly. It is not unusual to see
them flocking with peewits.
Peewits are called simply "plover" here. There are large flocks on
every side though not actually in the garden.
In August 1897, there was an extraordinary concourse of peewits on the
bank of the river just opposite. The noise they made was loud and
continuous, and birds were flying backwards and forwards all the while.
The whole of the bank for a hundred yards or more was covered with
them, others were at the water's edge, washing like ducks or playing
about and chasing one another, others were picking among the stones or
drinking. All the time the noise never ceased, and a friend said it
reminded her of the gulls on the coast of Ireland that she heard on her
way to America. The assembly on that particular day (August 13th) broke
up about one p.m., having lasted for more than an hour. Frequently
during the rest of the month, peewits gathered at the same place, but
not in the same numbers, and one day in December, 1898, I noticed that
there was something of the same kind on a small scale going on.
In June, 1901, when the river-bed had been further filled up and the
pools transformed into a muddy swamp, we were able from our windows to
watch a brood of peewit chicks from the time when they were first
hatched until they were old enough to go out into the world. They were
most interesting when as quite little things with backs the colour of
the eggs they had left, they busily hunted about for food, or all
crowded together under the wings of their mother for short spells of
rest and warmth.
Snipe breed in the Bollin meadows, and common sandpipers were always by
the river and the river-bed as long as there was any water at all in
it, always at least in August. They still seem to remember their old
haunts, and visit us occasionally. In the latter part of August, 1910,
there was one that had some feathers out of place in one of its wings
and appeared unable to fly. He seemed content enough and I wondered if
he would try to face the winter here, but whether by his own act and
deed, or by someone else's, he had gone when I looked for him in
September. In August, 1911, a sandpiper used to frequent a pit in
fields a good way from the river.
In April and May, 1910, a pair of redshanks were constantly to be seen
in the Bollin meadows towards Dunham, but no nest was found. In 1911
they were there again, and the keeper found a nest not far from the
Fox-cover, but I think he must have told too many of his friends about
it, for within a week of the eggs being hatched it was deserted.
I very well remember a good many years ago, though I can find no note
of the exact year, that I saw a black tern flying backwards and
forwards like a swallow over a wet spot in the corner of the garden,
and the next day I saw what was probably the same bird flying in the
same way over a large farmyard pit close by the road, about a mile from
here.
Since the Ship Canal has been opened gulls have been among the most
frequent and the most noticeable of all birds in these parts. Whenever
a field is ploughed up, however far it may be from the canal, there you
are sure to find gulls, and when the plough is at work in the fields
opposite, which are close to its banks, the gulls come in crowds and
form one long white line as the furrows are turned, the birds
continually rising before the plough and settling down again when it
has passed. I have identified black-headed and lesser black-backed
gulls among them, but have never attempted to decide to what species
the majority belong. Indeed, I do not feel very competent to do so,
having always found it sufficiently difficult to distinguish the
variations of gull plumage at different ages and at different times of
the year.
In 1908 the keeper (Mr. J. Porter) showed me a Bohemian waxwing, a
hooded crow and a hobby, all of which he had shot in Warburton within a
year or two previously.
He has told me since of stockdoves ("blue rocks" he calls them) nesting
here, and a curious story of a wren's nest on an ash-stump in the
Fox-cover in 1910, on the top of which a hedgesparrow built her nest.
Both broods, he said, hatched about the same time.
I have received from a friend in Northamptonshire (Mr. G. S. Garrett,
of Little Houghton) a photograph showing a similar instance of two
nests built one above the other. He says: "A piece of bark about 20
inches by 13, fell off an elm tree into a fence and dried up into a
tube-like shape. A spotted flycatcher built its nest in the top and
laid 5 eggs and a brown wren in the bottom laying 7 eggs.... The nests
are now in the Rochester Museum."
X.
BRITISH MAMMALS.
The whole extent of the garden, with its croft and orchard, is not
three acres, but a fair proportion of the British mammals are from time
to time to be found there.
The old church, largely built of timber, picturesque and quaint, stands
within a few yards of the house and its roof affords shelter to many
bats. We find the wings of moths, the remnants of their feasts,
scattered on the floor (I have noticed the wings of a tortoise-shell
butterfly among them), and I have found there more than one dead body
of a common bat; I cannot say whether that is the only kind we have,
but in 1908 a bat was seen near the house which, from the description
given of its size and manner of flight, may perhaps have been a
noctule.
On May 28th, 1899, there was an eclipse of the sun; it was only
partial, and made very little difference to the light, but just so long
as it lasted, from 3 to 4.30 p.m., I saw a bat flying busily round and
about the church.