single note, a soft, sweet, agitated murmur, continued without pause
for a long time, called a 'moan'[40] both by Latin and English poets,
not from its being suggestive of pain, but because there is no other
word which describes it so nearly. I have already had occasion to
remark how unsatisfactory are most of the attempts which have been
made to represent the songs of birds by combinations of letters, but
the Latin name of the Turtle-dove, _Turtur_, is a notable exception.
Pronounced 'tur-r-r tur-r-r', it will instantly recall the note to any
one who has once heard it. The French name also, _Tourterelle_, can
belong to this bird alone.
The Turtle Dove is found in all the southern countries of Europe, in
Palestine, and many other parts of Asia, including the islands south
of China. In England it is a visitor in the southern and midland
counties only, arriving in spring and remaining with us until the end
of September. Its favourite places of resort are groves, belts of
trees, and tall hedgerows in cultivated districts. Here it builds its
unsubstantial nest of a few sticks, and lays two eggs. Its food
consists of seeds of various kinds, and it has the discredit of
resorting to fields of green wheat for the sake of feeding on the
milky grain. I am doubtful whether this charge can be sustained. Often
enough when walking through a cornfield one may see two or three
Turtle Doves rise suddenly from the thick corn with a rustle and low
cry of alarm, rapidly dart away in the direction of the nearest grove,
disappearing in the shade, all but a white segment of a circle, formed
by the tips of their tail-feathers; but on examining the spot from
which they rose, I have been unable to detect any ears of corn rifled
of their contents, though the ground was thickly matted with weeds,
which might have furnished them food. I am informed by a young friend
that he has often shot them while in the act of rising from such
situations and has invariably found their crops distended with the
green seed-vessels of a weed common in corn-fields, the corn-spurrey
(_Spérgula arvensis_). This being the case, the Turtle Dove is more a
friend than an enemy to the farmer, even if it sometimes regales on
ripe grain or interferes with the occupation of the gleaner. It is
also very partial to vetches. I have met with an instance where a
Turtle Dove paid daily visits to one particular spot, under a hedge in
a field, and though fired at by the owner of the field many times,
under the idea that it was a rare bird, it soon returned; and when at
last shot, its crop was found to be full of vetch seeds which had been
accidentally spilled from a bag.
The Turtle Dove is smaller than any of the other British Doves. When
flying, it seems scarcely larger than a Missel Thrush; but it is more
slender in shape, and its wings are much longer. It beats its wings,
too, more rapidly, and moves through the air with greater velocity.
The tints of its plumage are more varied than in the other British
species, but far inferior in brilliancy to many foreign ones.
The Turtle Dove so frequently kept in a cage is the Collared Turtle
Dove (_Columba risoria_), a native of India and China. This species is
distinguished by a black crescent on the back of the neck, the horns
of which nearly meet in front. Turtle Doves are much kept in Germany,
owing to a strange popular superstition that they are more predisposed
than the human species to nervous disorders and rheumatism, and that
when any of these complaints visit a house, they fall on the birds
rather than on their owners.
[39] Cant. ii. 11, 12.
[40] 'Nec gemere aëria cessabit Turtur ab ulmo.'--VIRGIL.
Nor shall from lofty elm the Turtle cease to moan.
ORDER PTEROCLETES
FAMILY PTEROCLIDÆ
THE THREE-TOED SAND-GROUSE
Legs and toes feathered to the claws; no hind toe. Length
sixteen to twenty inches.
This species was not known with us till 1859. Great flights visited
this country in 1863, in 1888, and in 1889 when a few pair bred
here.
ORDER GALLINÆ
FAMILY TETRAONIDÆ
THE CAPERCAILLIE
TETRAO UROGÁLLUS
Feathers of the throat elongated, black; head and neck dusky;
eyes with a bare red skin above and a white spot below; wings
brown speckled with black; breast lustrous green; abdomen black
with white spots; rump and flanks marked with undulating lines
of black and ash colour; tail black with white spots; beak horn
white; eyebrows naked, red, beneath the eye a white spot.
Length thirty-six inches. _Female_--a third smaller, barred and
spotted with tawny red, black, and white; throat tawny red,
unspotted; breast deep red; tail dark red with black bars,
white at the tip; bill dusky. Eggs dull yellowish white
speckled with yellowish brown.
The Capercaillie, Wood Grouse, or Cock of the Woods, was a rare bird
in Scotland in Pennant's time (1769), and was found only in the
Highlands north of Inverness. It became extinct in the eighteenth
century, but was re-introduced in 1837 in Scotland, and it is now
common in firwoods there, especially in Perthshire. In the pine
forests of Sweden and Norway it is still indigenous, but, being a
large and beautiful bird, is much sought after, and is annually
receding from the haunts of men. It is also found in some of the
central countries of Europe, as Poland and the Jura mountains, where
it is said to be rather common. It is not only an inhabitant of woods,
but passes its time for the most part in trees, and feeds in great
measure on the young shoots of the Scotch fir. In summer it adds to
its dietary berries, seeds, and insects, for which it searches among
bushes or on the ground, returning to the woods to roost. The male
bird has obtained great celebrity for his marvellous performances when
serenading the hens during the morning and evening twilight in spring.
"During his play, the neck of the Capercaillie is stretched out, his
tail is raised and spread like a fan, his wings droop, his feathers
are ruffled up, and, in short, he much resembles in appearance an
angry Turkey Cock. He begins his play with a call something resembling
the words _peller_, _peller_, _peller_; these sounds he repeats at
first at some little intervals, but, as he proceeds, they increase in
rapidity, until, at last, and after perhaps the lapse of a moment or
so, he makes a sort of gulp in his throat, and finishes by drawing in
his breath. During the continuance of this latter process, which only
lasts a few seconds, the head of the Capercaillie is thrown up, his
eyes are partially closed, and his whole appearance would denote that
he is worked up into an agony of passion." This performance, however
attractive it may De to those for whose benefit it is intended,
exercises a fascination over himself which is often dangerous; for the
sportsman, well acquainted with the sound, is thus guided to his
perch, and, shy though the bird is at other times, is able to get near
him unperceived or unheeded, and summarily closes his performances.
The Capercaillie hen makes her nest upon the ground, and lays from six
to twelve eggs. She is said to sit for four weeks. The young keep with
her until towards the approach of winter. The size of the full-grown
bird varies considerably according to the latitude in which it is
found. In Lapland the male weighs about nine or ten pounds, but in the
southern provinces of Sweden as much as seventeen pounds. The hen
usually weighs from five to six pounds.
THE BLACK GROUSE
TETRAO TÉTRIX
Throat-feathers not elongated; plumage black with violet
reflections; a broad white band on the wings; secondaries
tipped with white; lower tail-coverts white; tail much forked,
the outer feathers curved outwards. Eyebrows naked, vermilion;
beneath the eye a white spot. Length twenty-three inches.
_Female_--smaller; head and neck rust-red barred with black;
rump and tail-feathers black barred with red; belly dusky brown
with red and whitish bars; tail slightly forked. Eggs dull
yellow spotted and speckled with reddish brown.
The Black Grouse is a native of the northern countries of Europe and
of the mountainous districts of the central part of the Continent. In
the south it is unknown. Of a hardier nature than the Pheasant, and
less fastidious in its dietary, it braves the most inclement seasons,
and is never stinted in its supply of food. Moreover, as it rarely
wanders far from its heath-clad home, it would probably, if it enjoyed
the privilege of insignificance, be abundant in all the extensive
waste lands of Britain. But its large size, the excellent flavour of
its flesh, and the excitement of the sport which it affords all tend
to keep down its numbers, so that a moor well stocked with Black
Grouse is a possession not to be thought lightly of by the highest and
wealthiest. The male bird is, in sporting phraseology, a Black Cock,
the female a Grey Hen; and it is the etiquette of the field to shoot
Cocks only, the Hens being left for breeding. The Black Cock
resembles, in one of its most striking peculiarities, its near
relative, the Capercaillie. 'During the spring', says Mr. St. John,
'and also in the autumn, about the time the first hoar frosts are
felt, I have often watched the Black Cocks in the early morning when
they collect on some rock or height, and strut and crow with their
curious note, not unlike that of a Wood Pigeon. On these occasions
they often have most desperate battles. I have seen five or six Black
Cocks all fighting at once; and so violent and eager were they, that I
approached within a few yards before they rose. Usually there seems to
be a master-bird in these assemblages, who takes up his position on
the most elevated spot, crowing and strutting round and round with
spread-out tail like a Turkey Cock, and his wings trailing on the
ground. The hens remain quietly near him, whilst the smaller or
younger male birds keep at a respectful distance, neither daring to
crow, except in a subdued kind of voice, nor to approach. If they
attempt the latter, the master-bird dashes at the intruder, and often
a short _melée_ ensues, several others joining in it, but they soon
return to their former respectful distance. I have also seen an old
Black Cock crowing on a birch-tree with a dozen hens below it, and the
younger Cocks looking on with fear and admiration. It is at these
times that numbers fall to the share of the poacher, who knows that
the birds resort to the same spot every morning.'
The food of these birds is abundant in quantity, and though simple,
yet partakes of an extensive assortment of flavours. Twigs of the
fine-leaved heath (_Erica cinerea_), and heather (_Calluna_); buds of
the willow and birch; the tender shoots of cotton-grass, sedge, and
grass; and whortleberries, cranberries, and crowberries, are the
principal items of their bill of fare, varied according to the season.
In the months of February, March and April, they do much mischief to
plantations by destroying the tender shoots of Scotch and Silver Fir.
'In searching for food, the Black Grouse frequents the lower grounds
of the less-cultivated districts, not generally removing far from the
shelter of woods or thickets, to which it betakes itself as occasion
requires. It sometimes makes an excursion into the stubble-fields in
search of the seeds of cereal plants, and in summer and autumn
includes those of the grasses and rushes. While thus employed, it
walks and runs among the herbage with considerable agility, and, when
apprehensive of danger, flies off to a sheltered place, or settles
down and remains motionless until the intruder passes by. It perches
adroitly, and walks securely on the branches; but its ordinary station
is on the ground, where also it reposes at night. It may often,
especially in spring, be seen on the turf-top of the low walls
inclosing plantations. Its flight is heavy, direct, and of moderate
velocity, and is capable of being protracted to a great distance.'[41]
The Grey Hen constructs a rude nest of withered grass and a few twigs
in the shelter of some low bush, and lays from five to ten eggs. The
male bird takes no part in the bringing up of the brood, but leaves
the duties of incubation and attention to the wants of his family to
the hen, who devotes herself wholly to the careful nurture of her
little ones. While the poults are in their nonage, she assiduously
leads them about where food is most abundant; and if surprised by an
intruder, leaves them to hide among the heath and ferns, creeps
rapidly herself to some distance, and then rises in a fluttering
manner, so that a stranger to her habits would suppose her to be
wounded. By August 20, the young are supposed to be fully fledged, and
the sportsman is expected not only to show his skill as a marksman,
but his quickness of eye in discriminating between males and females
as the covey rises. The former are to be distinguished by their richer
colouring, and by the more strongly marked white on the wings. At this
season the old Black Cocks club together.
The Black Cock is found in greater or less quantities in the moorland
districts of many of the English counties, but is most abundant in the
north of England and Wales, and in Scotland.
[41] Macgillivray.
THE RED GROUSE
LAGÓPUS SCÓTICUS
Plumage chestnut brown, marked on the back with black spots and
beneath with black lines; a fringe of small white feathers
round the eyes, and a white spot at the base of the lower
mandible; a crimson fringed band above the eyes; some of the
feathers of the abdomen tipped with white; tail of sixteen
feathers, the four middle ones chestnut with black bars, the
rest dusky; feet and toes covered thickly with grey hair-like
feathers. _Female_--the red eye-lid less conspicuous; colours
not so dark and tinged with reddish yellow, the black spots and
lines more numerous. Length sixteen inches. Eggs reddish ash
colour, nearly covered with blotches and spots of deep
red-brown.
The diminution of the number of Pheasants in France, owing to a
relaxation of the efforts formerly made to protect them, and the
abundance of the same birds, in those parts of England where unceasing
care is taken of them in severe or protracted winters, tend to prove
the great difficulty of preserving a foreign bird in a country which
is not in every respect adapted to its habits and constitution. On the
other hand, the undiminished abundance of Red Grouse in Great Britain,
in spite of the absence of all artificial protection, and
notwithstanding the vast quantity which annually fall a prey to
vermin, poachers, and sportsmen, proves as satisfactorily that where a
bird has become abundant, in a country in all respects suited to its
constitution and producing an inexhaustible supply of its natural
food, it is impossible to extirpate it. If we ever had occasion to
adopt a bird as a national emblem, the choice might for one reason
fall on the Red Grouse. It is a native of the British Isles, and is
found in no other country. On the moors of Scotland, the hilly parts
of the north of England, the mountains of Wales, and the wastes of
Ireland, it is as wild and free as the Gull on the sea-cliff. It
frequents extensive heaths where man could not protect it if he would,
and finds no stint of food where few living things can exist but
insects and some of the larger rapacious animals which make it their
special prey. Eagles, Falcons, Buzzards, Crows, Foxes, Martins, and
Polecats, all wage against it incessant war; it is wholly without
armour, offensive or defensive; yet its numbers are undiminished. And
we may confidently say that, as long as there are large tracts of land
in Great Britain unreclaimed, there will be Grouse.
Red Grouse must, occasionally, fall in the way of the wanderer over
the Scottish moors, whatever may be the object of his rambles; but a
sportsman alone is privileged to make the bird his study at all
seasons. My sketch, therefore, of the Grouse is to be considered as
taken, not from the limited observation which I have been enabled to
make, when I have chanced to start a bird on the hills of Westmoreland
or the Highlands, but to be compiled from the notes of others who have
had more ample means of observing its habits.
"The Brown Ptarmigan, generally known by the name of Red Grouse, as
compared with the Black Grouse, is met with in Scotland on all kinds
of surface, provided it be covered with heath, whether _Calluna
vulgaris_ (Ling) or _Erica cinerea_ (Common Purple Heath), from the
level of the sea to the height of about two thousand feet. The low
sandy heaths of the eastern counties of the middle division appear to
be less favourable to it than the more moist peaty tracts of the
western and northern districts, where the shrubs on which it feeds
attain a great size."
Its food appears to be much the same as that of the Black Grouse, to
which it is similar in many of its habits; but it never perches on
trees. It has, moreover, a decided predilection for the national grain
of Scotland. Hence the cultivation of small tracts of land with oats
in the neighbourhood of moors where it abounds is an unprofitable
labour.
Its name, _Lagópus_ (Hare-footed), is equally appropriate as
descriptive of its thickly-clothed foot and its fleetness as a runner;
by some French ornithologists it is enumerated among _Velocipedes_,
for the latter reason. On ordinary occasions it does not fly much, but
keeps concealed among the heath, seldom choosing to rise unless its
enemy comes very near. Red Grouse pair early in the season, and build
their nests generally on the borders between heath and lea ground,
with a view to providing their young with an open nursery-ground, on
which to learn the use of their legs, as well as a safe retreat on the
approach of danger. The nest is loosely constructed of straws and
twigs which may chance to lie about near the selected spot. The number
of eggs is usually eight to ten; the hen sits very closely, allowing
the shepherd almost to trample on her before she springs. The period
of hatching is a perilous one for the chicks, for, as they break the
shell, they utter a small but shrill chirp--a certain signal to some
watchful Hooded Crow that a prey is at hand; he traces up the sound,
drives the mother from her nest, and destroys the whole brood.
Once fairly hatched, the danger decreases; the young birds, while
still quite small, show great readiness in concealing themselves. When
disturbed they separate in all directions, crouch on the ground,
squeeze between objects that seem to defy all passage, work their way
through the cover, or, if they fancy that an eye is fixed on them, lie
as motionless as stones. When so far grown as to be able to fly, they
still prefer the shelter afforded by the cover; but if hard pressed
the old cock usually rises first, with a cry which some compare to the
quack of a Duck. The hen and young birds show no hurry in following
his example, but take wing singly, and at unequal intervals--not like
Partridges, which always rise in a covey. This is the period when they
afford the easiest shot to the sportsman, who often puts them up
almost beneath his feet, or under the very nose of his dogs. Later in
the season a great change takes place, and this, it is said, whether
the birds have been much harassed or not. Become cautious and wild,
they no longer trust to concealment or swiftness of foot, but,
discovering from a great distance the approach of danger, they rise
most frequently out of shot, so that it requires skill and patience to
get near them. A slight and early snow sometimes makes it more easy to
approach them, at least for a few hours; but ordinarily, not even
extreme cold, or a covering of snow a foot thick, appears to tame them
at all. Under such circumstances, they collect in enormous 'packs',
and betake themselves to some particular part of the moor from which
the snow has been more or less drifted. These packs keep together
during winter, and at the beginning of spring separate and pair, not,
however, without some previous altercations; but these are soon over,
and they lose much of their shyness, venturing close to the roads, and
being little disturbed by the passage of the traveller.
THE PTARMIGAN
LAGÓPUS MÚTUS
_Winter plumage_--pure white, a black line from the angle of
the beak through the eye; outer tail-feathers black; above the
eyes a scarlet fringed membrane; bill and claws black; tarsi
and toes thickly clothed with woolly feathers.
_Female_--without the black line through the eyes. _Summer
plumage_--wings, under tail-coverts, two middle tail-feathers,
and legs white; outer tail-feathers black, some of them tipped
with white; rest of plumage ash-brown, marked with black lines
and dusky spots. Length fifteen inches. Eggs reddish yellow,
spotted and speckled with deep reddish brown.
This beautiful bird is the Schneehuhn, 'Snow-chick', of the Germans,
the White Partridge of the Alps and Pyrenees, and the Gaelic
_Tarmachan_. Whilst most birds shrink from cold, the Ptarmigan, on the
contrary, seems to revel in it, and to fear nothing so much as the
beams of the sun. Not even when the valleys rejoice in the livery of
spring does it desert the snowy regions altogether, and, when the
mist-wreaths clear away, it avoids the rays of the sun by seeking the
shady sides of the mountains. Only when the northern regions or lofty
mountains are so thickly covered with snow as to threaten it with
starvation does it repair to districts where the cold is somewhat
mitigated, but never lower into the valleys than where it may quench
its thirst with snow. 'The male bird', says a field naturalist, 'has
been seen, during a snow-storm in Norway, to perch himself on a rock
which overtopped the rest, and to sit there for some time as if
enjoying the cold wind and sleet, which was drifting in his face; just
as one might have done on a sultry summer's day on the top of the
Wiltshire downs, when a cool air was stirring there.'[42] The same
writer observes: 'I have generally found the Ptarmigan concealed among
the grey, lichen-coloured rocks on the summits of the fjelds, and so
closely do they resemble these rocks in colour that I could scarcely
ever see them on the ground; and sometimes when the practised eye of
my guide found them, and he would point out the exact spot, it was not
until after a long scrutiny that I could distinguish the bird within a
dozen yards of me. Frequently we would find them on the snow itself,
and many a time has a large circular depression in the snow been
pointed out to me, where the Ptarmigan has been lying and pluming
himself in his chilly bed. He is a noble bird, free as air, and for
the most part uninterrupted in his wide domain; he can range over the
enormous tracts of fjeld, seldom roused by a human step, and still
more seldom hunted by man. When the winter clothes his dwelling in a
garb of snow, he arrays himself in the purest and most beautiful
white; when the summer sun melts away the snow, and the grey rocks
appear, he, too, puts on his coloured dress, and assimilates himself
once more to his beloved rocks. But the young Ptarmigans are my
especial favourites: I have caught them of all ages; some apparently
just emerged from the egg, others some weeks older; they are
remarkably pretty little birds, with their short black beaks and their
feathered toes; and so quickly do they run, and so nimble and active
are they in escaping from you, that they are soon beneath some
projecting stone, far beyond the reach of your arm, where you hear
them chirping and calling out in defiance and derision. The call of
the old Ptarmigan is singularly loud and hoarse; it is a prolonged
grating, harsh note, and may be heard at a great distance.' This has
been compared to the scream of the Missel Thrush; but Macgillivray
says it seems to him more like the croak of a frog.