Golden Oriole.--Landrail.--House-martins in trouble.--Siskin.--
Peacock and Red Admiral Butterflies.--Winchat's Nest.--
Bitten by a Viper.--Viper and Snake.--Slow-worm.
"Frank," said Mary at breakfast the next morning, "I have seen the most
beautiful bird about the orchard and the wood next to it. It is about as
big as a thrush, and is a bright yellow all over, except the wings,
which are black. What can it be?"
"By Jove," said Frank, "there is only one bird that is like that; but
it is so very rare that very few specimens have been seen in this
country, and that is the golden oriole. Come and show me where it was at
once, before I go to Mr. Meredith's."
[Illustration: ORIOLE.]
Mary was nothing loath, and they hastily finished their breakfast and
went out together. Scarcely had they got to the orchard when the
gardener came towards them with a gun in one hand, and a dead oriole in
the other. "I thought you would like to have him to stuff, Master
Frank," said the man, and Frank took the bird and thanked him, and when
they turned away Frank said,
"I am awfully sorry this has happened, Mary. The idea of shooting a rare
bird like this at the breeding season. It must have been nesting here,
and in a few weeks perhaps, there would have been a brood of young ones
about. Let us go into the wood and look for its nest."
In a short time they saw its mate flying about from tree to tree,
calling piteously; and after a little hunting Frank found a nest, which
was like a missel thrush's, and placed in the fork of an oak branch. It
contained four eggs, white in colour, covered with claret-coloured
spots. Frank did not touch it, hoping that the remaining bird would sit
and hatch the eggs; but she soon deserted it and left the neighbourhood,
most probably to be shot, and the boys then took the eggs to add to
their collection.
[Illustration: NEST OF AMERICAN SPECIES OF ORIOLE.]
With the same vigour which characterised their out-door sports, the boys
betook themselves again to their books. In Mr. Meredith's study at the
Rectory the three boys sat busily engaged in making Latin verse, an
exercise which suited Dick far better than it did the others. Their
brown faces and their hands, hacked and roughened as only boys' hands
can become, were in great contrast to their studious occupations. Mr.
Meredith looked at them with keen interest, and resolved that he would
do all in his power to turn out of his workshop (as he called it) three
good specimens of God's handiwork and his own, and as far as in him lay
he kept his vow.
Saturday was a whole holiday, and as the boys met at the boat-house to
be ready for anything which might turn up, Bell came to them and said,
that while cutting the hay in a small meadow which he rented, he had
come upon a landrail or corncrake, sitting on her eggs, and so close did
she sit that he had cut off her head with his scythe. The boys went to
see the nest and found eleven eggs in it, like those of the water-rail
but larger. They were hard sat, which accounted for the old bird
remaining on her nest until the last; but the boys knew how to blow
hard-sat eggs, and took possession of them.
[Illustration: LANDRAIL OR CORNCRAKE.]
Passing by Mrs. Brett's cottage they saw the old lady beckoning to them.
When they went to her she explained that she wanted them to aid her
swallows. A pair of house-martins were flying about their nest in the
eaves, uttering cries of distress.
"What is the matter? Have the sparrows taken possession of it?" said
Frank.
"No, dear, but it seems breaking away from the wall. There are young
ones in it, and I suppose the old birds did not make it strong enough to
hold their weight. I am afraid it will fall down every minute."
[Illustration: HOUSE-MARTIN.]
The boys undertook to put matters right, and with the aid of a ladder
they climbed up to the nest, and with a hammer and nails they nailed up
the nest in a broad piece of flannel. While they were engaged in doing
this, the martins ceased their cries, as if they knew that a friendly
act was being done for them; and when the boys left the nest the birds
returned to it, and by their busy twitterings and short excited flights
seemed to wish to express their gratitude.
Leaving the cottage, they went for a long aimless ramble through the
fields and woods, trespassing with impunity, for they were well known
everywhere, and visiting every hedgerow and copse on the look-out for
nests.
[Illustration: SISKIN.]
They came to a field round which there were hedges unusually high and
thick for Norfolk, which is a county of trim hedges and clean farming.
Almost the first nest they came to was that of a siskin. The old birds
to which it belonged were hopping about the hedge. They were pretty
lemon-coloured birds with a black patch on their heads and black on
their wings. The boys watched them for some time, in order to make sure
that they were indeed the siskin, for they are so very rare, especially
during the breeding season, that very few nests have been found.
"Well, there can be no doubt about that," said Frank. "They are siskins
sure enough. What a very lucky find! Now let us have a look at the
nest."
Both nest and eggs were like those of a goldfinch, but the latter were
much smaller than a goldfinch's eggs. The eggs were hard sat, but they
took three of them and blew them safely; and as they were still doubting
the reality of their good luck, when they went home they consulted their
books, and Mr. Meredith, and all came to the conclusion that there could
be no mistake about the birds.
[Illustration: CHRYSALIS. PEACOCK BUTTERFLY. CATERPILLAR.]
They found many more nests in that hedge. Most of them had young ones,
for the season was now very far advanced.
Dick soon found something after his own heart, and this was a large bed
of nettles. Every stem was covered with large, black, hairy
caterpillars. These were the caterpillars of the peacock
butterfly,--that splendid insect, which with its crimson and black, and
the gorgeous peacock eyes which adorn its wings, is so conspicuous an
object in the country in the summer. It is a great pleasure to me to see
it as it sits on its favourite perch, the top of a nettle or a bramble,
and opens and shuts its wings with the fanning motion peculiar to its
tribe. Dick marked this spot, and in a short time he came to gather the
gilded chrysalides which on every plant shone brightly in the sunshine.
These he gathered and put in a safe place, and during the summer it was
a great pleasure to him to watch the outcoming of these resplendent
insects. Just before they were ready to emerge, the colours of their
wings could be seen through the thin case which covered them, and with
this warning he was often able to catch the insect at the instant of
their appearance. Not long afterwards he found a colony of the
caterpillars of the red admiral butterfly, a large black insect with
crimson bands round its wings, and the under surface marbled with the
most delicate tracery of brown and grey. As far as size and beauty go,
these two butterflies may be said to be the gems of the entomologist's
cabinet. They are common enough in the south, and the young entomologist
may look forward to catching or breeding them his first year.
[Illustration: RED ADMIRAL BUTTERFLY.]
The afternoon was exceedingly hot, and the sun blazed from a cloudless
sky, and birds'-nesting and butterfly-hunting was tiring work. The scent
of the hay made the air fragrant, and the sharp whisk of the scythes of
the mowers in those meadows which were not yet cut, was the only sound
which disturbed the evening stillness.
Crossing one of the commons which are to be met with everywhere in the
enclosed districts of Norfolk, they saw a little brown bird fly out of a
hole in a low hedge bank. Very cleverly hidden there, in a hole covered
with a clump of primrose flowers, was a winchat's nest. It contained
five blue eggs spotted with rusty red at the large end. Taking two of
these they went on their way, and presently entered a thick and tangled
wood, where the underwood was so close that they could with difficulty
make their way through it. The brambles and briars were breast high, and
the ground was ankle deep in half rotten leaves of the previous year.
In a bush through which Jimmy was trying to force his way he saw a nest,
which he took to be a thrush's or blackbird's. He put in his hand just
to see if there were any eggs in, and to his surprise he felt something
cold and slimy. Before he could withdraw his hand he felt a sharp blow
and a prick on his finger, and he drew back with a cry of dismay as he
saw a viper uncoiling itself from the nest and wriggle down to the
ground, where it was soon lost in the thick vegetation. Frank and Dick
hurried up to him, and he held out his finger, in which were two small
blue punctures.
[Illustration: WINCHAT AND EGG.]
"An adder has bitten me," he said, with blanched cheeks.
Frank at once whipped out his penknife, and seizing Jimmy's hand, he
made a deep cross cut over the bites, and as the blood began to flow, he
put the finger to his mouth and tried to suck the poison out with all
the force of his strong young lungs, only just waiting to say to Dick--
"Go at once to the village and get a bottle of olive-oil at the
chemist's, and come back to the cottage at the edge of the wood. Be as
quick as you can."
Dick burst out of the wood and set off for the village, which was a mile
away as the crow flies. As straight as an arrow and as fleet as a deer,
Dick sped on his friendly errand, and in six minutes he had reached the
chemist's. The chemist gave him what he asked for, saying, that if
rubbed in before the fire it was the best remedy.
"Are snake-bites fatal?" said Dick.
"No, sir, not in England, unless the person bitten is very delicate; but
they are very painful, and I should advise you to be quick back."
[Illustration: VIPER.]
Dick was off again at the top of his speed, and reached the cottage a
quarter of an hour after he had left Frank and Jimmy.
"Well done, Dick!" said Frank; "but go outside and face the wind a bit.
You are dead beat."
Jimmy was pale, but collected. His arm had swelled up to a great size
already, and was very painful. Frank held his hand as near the fire as
he could bear it, and rubbed the olive-oil in for half an hour; and then
Dick and Frank walked him home between them. Mrs. Brett was naturally
much alarmed, but Frank soothed her fears, and Jimmy was put to bed.
"Thank you, Frank," he said, "I am awfully much obliged to you."
"Then prove it by going quietly to sleep if you can. You will be all
right in a day or two."
"How did you know about the olive-oil being a cure, Frank?"
"I was reading about it not a week ago, and as we were walking along
this afternoon I was, strange to say, thinking about it, and imagining
that I was bitten and curing myself, like one does make up pictures and
rehearse scenes to oneself, when one has nothing better to do. It was a
very strange coincidence."[1]
[1] The best remedy for viper-bite is the injection of ammonia into
the veins.
[Illustration: COMMON RINGED SNAKE.]
Frank went home with Dick, and they took a short cut through the copse.
Dick was looking about him very suspiciously, seeing the coils of an
adder in every twisted root. Suddenly his eye caught sight of a snake
lying across the path.
"There is another viper!" he exclaimed.
"No, it is only a snake," said Frank, coolly stooping down and taking
the snake in his hand, while it coiled about his arm. Dick looked
horrified.
"Won't it bite?" he said.
"No, Dick. Don't you know the difference between a snake and a viper?
Then I'll tell you. The viper is ash-brown in colour. Its neck is
narrower and its head broader in proportion. The viper has a couple of
fangs, or long hollow teeth, which lie flat along the back of its mouth,
but when it is angry it opens its mouth, erects its teeth and strikes
with them. They are hollow, and down through the tubes the poison comes
from a bag at their roots. The snake has no such teeth, and it is
harmless, for it cannot sting, as many country people think it can, with
its long forked tongue which it is now shooting out. Then the snake lays
eggs. I dare say if we were to dig in the manure-heaps in the farm-yard,
we should find a lot of white eggs covered with a tough, soft skin and
joined together with a sort of glue. The viper's eggs are hatched inside
it, and the young ones are born alive."
"I have read that the young ones of the viper will run down their
parent's throat when alarmed for safety. Is that true?"
"It seems so strange that I can scarcely think it to be true, but so
many respectable people say they have seen it that one does not like to
say that it is not so; and it is, of course, difficult to prove a
negative. I suppose the question will be settled some day."
The snake Frank held in his hand was a large and handsome one. It was
olive-grey in colour, with rows of black spots on its back and sides,
and greenish-yellow beneath, tinged with black. The snake changes its
skin just like a caterpillar, but the skin preserves the shape of the
snake, and is a very pretty object. Often have I seen a sunny corner in
a quiet wood covered with many of these cast-off skins all glittering in
the sunlight; and they are so very like real snakes as easily to deceive
the casual observer.
During the winter both vipers and snakes hybernate in holes, or under
tree-roots, and require no food.
The slow-worm or blind-worm is often mistaken for the snake. It is about
twelve inches long, with a smooth skin, and is dull brown in colour. It
possesses a curious faculty of parting with its tail when it chooses.
If it is seized by the hand or otherwise annoyed, the tail separates
from the body and commences a series of war-dances on its own account.
While you are occupied in observing this, the body quietly and
expeditiously moves away out of danger. Snakes and vipers live on frogs,
small birds, &c., when they can catch them. The slow-worm lives almost
entirely upon the white garden-slug.
[Illustration: SLOW-WORM.]
Jimmy's arm and side were very much swollen and inflamed, and it was
quite a week before he was free from pain. The doctor said that if the
olive-oil had not been used he would have suffered very much more from
the bite, and the consequences might have been serious, for Jimmy had
not a strong constitution. He was very careful after that of putting his
hand into a bird's nest without getting a look into it first.