Accentor modularis, BECHSTEIN; La Fauvette d'hiver, ou Traine
Buisson, BUFFON; Die Braunelle, BECHSTEIN.
This species, which in its gait resembles the wren, seems also a link
between its own species and that of the lark, for it does not confine
itself to insects; it eats all sorts of small seeds, such as those of
the poppy and the grasses. Its length is five inches and a quarter, two
and a quarter of which belong to the tail. The beak, five lines in
length, is very sharp, black, whitish at the tip, and the inside
rose-colour; the iris purple; the legs, nine lines in height, are
yellowish flesh-colour; the narrow head is, together with the neck, dark
ash-colour, marked with very dark brown, like that of the sparrow; the
breast a deep slate-colour.
The breast of the female is lighter and bluish grey; she has also more
brown spots on her head.
HABITATION.--When wild it is found all over Europe, making its abode
in thick deep forests. It is with us a bird of passage; but some
individuals, which come from quite the north, remain during the
winter near our dwellings, searching the heaps of wood and stones,
the hedges and fences, and, like the wren, entering barns and
stables. Those which leave us return at the end of March, stop for
some time in the hedges, and then penetrate into the woods.
In confinement this bird is so wakeful and gay that it may be safely
left at liberty in the room, having a roosting-place for the night;
it is also kept in a cage.
[Illustration: THE BEARDED TIT.]
FOOD.--When wild, the great variety of things which serve it for food
prevent its ever being at a loss throughout the year. It is equally
fond of small insects and worms and small seeds. In spring it feeds
on flies, caterpillars, grubs, and maggots, which it seeks for in the
hedges, bushes, and in the earth. In summer it feeds chiefly on
caterpillars; in autumn on seeds of all kinds and elderberries; and
in winter, when the snow has covered all seeds, it has recourse to
insects hid in the cracks and crevices of walls and trees.
In confinement it will eat anything that comes to table. It is fond
of the universal paste, hemp, rape, and poppy-seeds, and refuses none
of these things immediately on being imprisoned, and it soon seems as
completely at ease as if accustomed to confinement[91].
BREEDING.--This species lays generally twice a year; placing its nest
among the thickest bushes, about five or six feet from the ground;
the outside is composed of mosses, and fibres of roots, and wood, and
the inside is lined with the fur of deer, hares, and the like. The
eggs, five or six in number, are bright bluish green. The young are
no sooner fledged than, like the preceding, they quit the nest. Their
plumage is then very different from that of their parents: the breast
is spotted with grey and yellow, the back with brown and black;
lastly, the nostrils and angles of the beak are rose-coloured. They
are easily reared on white bread and poppy-seeds moistened with milk.
As soon as they are tamed these birds have a great inclination to
build in the room. The male and female collect all the little straws,
threads, and similar materials which they can find, to build a nest
among the boughs with which they are supplied for the purpose. The
female lays even when solitary; they may be paired with red-breasts,
and these unions succeed very well.
DISEASES.--If it were generally true, that birds in a wild state are
never ill, this species must be excepted; for, however strange it may
appear, the young are subject to the small pox; they are attacked by
it while in the nest, or even after they can fly. I have a young bird
of this kind, which, at a time when this disease prevailed in my
neighbourhood, took it; he recovered, however, tolerably well, but he
entirely lost the tail-feathers, which were never afterwards renewed.
Old ones are sometimes caught or killed whose feet and eyes are
ulcerated, or have tumours on them; perhaps they may be only
chilblains. Weavers' stoves appear to be particularly injurious to
these birds; in two or three months their eyes swell, and the
feathers fall off all round them; the beak is attacked with scurvy,
which spreads to the feet, then all over the body; but they
nevertheless continue to live from eight to ten years in these rooms.
MODE OF TAKING.--This is very easy at their return in the spring. As
soon as they appear in the hedges, where they soon discover
themselves by the cry "_issri_," a little place near, where the earth
is bare, must be found; after having placed limed twigs, and thrown
among them earth or meal worms for a bait, the dunnock is gently
driven towards them without alarming him; as soon as he perceives the
worms he darts upon them and falls into the snare. In the autumn they
may be caught in the area and with a noose; in winter in the
white-throat's trap; but they resort in the greatest numbers to the
water trap, not so much for the sake of bathing as to seek for dead
insects or decayed roots.
ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--However agreeable this bird may be in the room,
from its good humour, agility, gaiety, and song, it does not deserve
the name of winter nightingale, which it bears in some places; its
song is too simple and short; it is a little couplet, composed of a
strain of the lark and one of the wren. The sounds _tchondi, hondi,
hondi_ are repeated frequently and for a long time, always descending
a sixth, and gradually diminishing in power. This song is accompanied
with an uninterrupted movement of the wings and tail, and lasts
through the year, except at the moulting season. Some young ones,
reared in confinement, will, if placed beside a fine singing bird,
learn enough of its song to embellish their own. But, whatever may be
asserted on the subject, they never succeed in imitating the
nightingale. When the dunnock disputes with its fellow captives for a
place or for food its anger evaporates in a song, like the crested
lark and the wagtail.