Motacilla Suecica, LINNÆUS; La Gorge bleue, BUFFON; Das
Blaukehlchen, BECHSTEIN.
This bird may be considered as intermediate between the redstart and the
common wagtail, having very strong points of resemblance with both. Its
length is five inches and a half, of which the tail occupies two and a
quarter. The beak is sharp and blackish, yellow at the angles; the iris
is brown; the shanks are fourteen lines high, of a reddish brown, and
the toes blackish; the head, the back, and the wing-coverts are ashy
brown, mottled with a darker tint; a reddish white line passes above the
eyes; the cheeks are dark brown, spotted with rust red, and edged at the
side with deep ash grey; a brilliant sky blue covers the throat and half
way down the breast; this is set off by a spot of the most dazzling
white, the size of a pea, placed precisely over the gullet, which,
enlarging and diminishing successively, by the movement of this part
when the bird sings, produces the most beautiful effect.
Some males have two little white spots on the throat, some even have
three, while others have none; these latter are probably very old, for I
have observed that as the bird grows older the blue deepens, and the
orange band becomes almost maroon.
It is easy to distinguish the female; when young she has a celestial
blue tint on the sides of the throat; this tint deepens with age, and
forms two longitudinal lines on the sides of the neck; no orange band;
the throat and gullet are yellowish blue, edged longitudinally with a
black line; the feet are flesh-coloured.
HABITATION.--When wild this species exists all over Europe[94]. It is
a bird of passage, and when returning towards the north, in the
beginning of April, it stops in large flights near streams, in
hedges, and damp fields, comes even into courts, and on the dunghills
of farms, if surprised by snow and a severe return of cold. In the
summer it frequents those parts among the mountains abounding with
water; in August it approaches cabbage fields enclosed by hedges or
bushes. It is very seldom that one or two pairs build in our country.
In confinement it may be let run about; it soon grows so tame as to
come when called, and feed from the hand. Its rapid motions and races
are amusing; but it must not be allowed to fly high enough to get on
the tables and furniture, as it would soon dirty them. It sings
better and longer when caged. The cage should be, like the
nightingale's, large enough for the bird not to spoil its beautiful
feathers; the tail-feathers easily drop if they are rubbed.
FOOD.--When wild the blue-breast feeds on all sorts of insects; it
also eats elderberries.
In confinement it must at first be fed with ants' eggs, meal-worms,
and even some earth-worms. If it is kept uncaged these things must be
thrown upon the universal paste, which it will thus learn to relish;
but though it is easily reconciled to it, ants' eggs, earth and
meal-worms, must nevertheless be occasionally supplied, or it will
soon die in decline. When caged it is fed like nightingales, and on
that food it will live seven or eight years. It is a great eater, and
can devour in a day its own weight of the first universal paste, so
that it mutes incessantly. It requires a constant supply of fresh
water for drinking and bathing: it wets itself so much that it is
completely drenched. I have observed for several successive years
that it never bathes till the afternoon[95].
DISEASES.--Diarrhoea and decline are its commonest disorders. The
treatment has been pointed out in the Introduction.
MODE OF TAKING.--I often hear it said that the blue-breast is a rare
bird; that in some parts of Germany it appears only every five, or
even ten, years, but I can declare that this opinion arises from a
want of observation. Since I have taught my neighbours to be more
attentive to the time of their passage, they every year catch as many
as they please. If in the first fortnight of April, up to the 20th,
cold and snow return, plenty may be found by merely following the
streams, rivers, and ponds, especially in the neighbourhood of a
wood. A proper place is chosen, near the water and a bush, meal and
earth worms are thrown there, with limed twigs, and soon these poor
birds, if ever so little pushed towards it fall blindly into the
snare; they also fall into white-throat traps and nightingale nets.
In autumn, when they frequent cabbage grounds to hunt for
caterpillars, plenty may be caught by planting here and there sticks
with limed twigs fastened to them, baited with meal-worms. At this
season they sometimes go to the water trap, but this is not usual. If
it happens that any are caught in nooses or spring traps baited with
elderberries, hunger must have been the cause, and they must have
been entirely destitute of food.
ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--Its beauty, sprightliness, sociability, and
song, unite in rendering the blue-breast delightful. It runs very
swiftly, raises its tail with a jerk, and extends it like a fan,
keeping it and the wings in perpetual motion, uttering the cry of
"_fide, fide_" and "_tac, tac_." It is unfortunate that it gradually
loses the fine blue on the breast in successive moultings, when
confined to the house, and becomes at length of a whitish grey. In a
few days it will become tame enough to eat meal-worms from the hand,
and it will not be long before it comes for them when called by the
voice or whistle. Its song is very agreeable; it sounds like two
voices at once; one deep, resembling the gentle humming of a violin
string, the other the soft sound of a flute.
When at liberty in the room it always seeks the sunshine, and sleeps
on its belly. Its notes very much resemble those of the common
wagtail, but much improved by a violin-like hum.