Turdus roseus, LINNÆUS; Le Merle Couleur de Rose, BUFFON; Die
Rosenfarbigedrossel, BECHSTEIN.
This is a bird which from its beauty certainly merits a place in this
work. Its length is nearly eight inches, of which the tail measures
three, and the beak one. This latter is black, sometimes lead-coloured,
from the base to the middle, and flesh or rose-coloured from the middle
to the point; the iris is whitish; the shanks are fourteen lines high,
lighter or darker flesh-coloured; the claws are blackish. The head,
neck, and throat, are black, with the tips of the feathers white, very
much like the starling, and changeable into green, blue, and purple; the
feathers at the top of the head are long and narrow, and rise elegantly
into a crest; the back, the rump, the shoulders, the breast, the belly,
and the sides, are of a brighter or paler rose-colour, according to the
age and season.
The female differs from the male only in being less highly and
brilliantly coloured.
HABITATION.--When wild these birds are to be met with in many parts of
Europe and Asia. The inhabitants of Aleppo and the neighbourhood see
with pleasure the arrival of large flights of them, in the months of
July and August, to extirpate the clouds of locusts which then ravage
the country. Great numbers are also seen in spring on the banks of
the Don and Irtish, where they build and find abundance of food; also
on the shores of the Caspian and the banks of the Wolga. In Europe
they appear in Sweden as far as Lapland, in England, in Germany, in
Switzerland, and France: rare indeed in all these countries, but
least so in Italy.
In confinement this bird is kept in a cage of the same size as the
blackbird's.
FOOD.--When wild this bird appears to subsist entirely on insects.
In confinement it would doubtless thrive very well on the food which
is given to the blackbird, which will be mentioned hereafter. It is
better, however, to study it a little, and find out what suits it
best.
BREEDING.--It builds among rocks; but its nest has not yet been
discovered in Europe, though some circumstances indicate that it
propagates there. In 1784, in the duchy of Altenburg, three young
ones were killed, but just out of the nest, and which consequently
could not have come from far. This fact should excite the attention
and vigilance of zealous observers.
MODES OF TAKING.--Skilful bird-catchers will soon discover the means
of catching the bird: snares and limed twigs, with grasshoppers and
other living and moving insects for bait, will probably accomplish
this end. It would be hazardous to shoot the birds in the hope of
wounding them but slightly, as is sometimes done with other birds,
which soon recover, and remain tame, if, during their recovery, they
have been well treated.
OBSERVATIONS.--A sportsman discovered, in 1794, in the environs of
Meiningen, in Suabia, a flight of eight or ten rose ouzels, moving
leisurely from south-west to north-east, and passing from one
cherry-tree to another. He fired on these birds, only one fell, which
was fortunately very slightly wounded, so that it soon quite
recovered. Being immediately carried to M. Von Wachter, the rector of
Frickenhausen, this clergyman took the greatest care of it; he gave
it a spacious cage, and found that barley-meal moistened with milk
was as wholesome as agreeable to it. His kindness tamed it in a short
time so far that it would come and take from his hand the insects
which he offered to it. It soon sang also, but its warbling consisted
at first of but a few harsh sounds, pretty well connected however,
and this became at length more clear and smooth. Connoisseurs in the
songs of birds discover in this song a mixture of many others; one of
these connoisseurs, who had not discovered the bird, but heard its
voice, thought he was listening to a concert of two starlings, two
goldfinches, and perhaps a siskin; and when he saw that it was a
single bird, he could not conceive how all this music proceeded from
the same throat. This bird was still alive in 1802, and the delight
of its possessor.