in summer, but observed that it was not nearly so common there at that
season as the Pied Flycatcher. In Central and Southern Europe it is a
summer resident, passing through Spain and Portugal, Italy, Turkey, and
the Ionian Islands twice a year—namely, in spring and autumn. Its course
in autumn appears to be south-east by south. Mr. Wright has noticed it
as very common in spring and autumn in Malta, arriving there somewhat
later than the Pied Flycatcher. It has been noticed by Mr. J. H. Gurney,
jun., as plentiful in Algeria in summer. Captain Shelley met with it
once at Alexandria in May, when it was probably migrating; and Rüppell
includes it without hesitation amongst the birds of North Africa.[51] In
the middle of October, Von Heuglin found that it was not rare near
Tadjura, and somewhat later in the year on the Somali coast. In
Palestine Canon Tristram found it breeding in all parts of the country,
its favourite nesting-places being in the branches of old gnarled trees
overhanging the paths (“Ibis,” 1867, p. 361). How far eastward it
extends I am not sure, as in China and Japan an allied species appears
to take its place. But south of the Mediterranean it penetrates to South
Africa. Mr. Layard says,[52] “the common European flycatcher has been
brought by Mr. Andersson from Damara Land in some abundance. And
Andersson himself states[53] that the bird is common in Damara and Great
Namaqua Land, and is found there throughout the year. Dr. Hartlaub cites
it on M. Verreaux’s authority as from the Cape, and Swainson also
alludes to it as from South Africa. Since the publication of the work
above quoted, Mr. Layard has been enabled to add that his son procured
this bird at Grootevadersbosch, near Swellendam. From Lapland, then, to
the Cape of Good Hope, and from Portugal to Palestine is a pretty
extensive range for so small and weak a bird as our Common Flycatcher. I
should not be surprised to hear that it is found even still further to
the eastward, for so many of our summer migratory birds spend their
winter in India and China, and after all the greater part of their
journey would be by overland route, which admits of their travelling by
stages, to rest and feed by the way.
[Illustration: PIED FLYCATCHER]
THE PIED FLYCATCHER.
(_Muscicapa atricapilla._)
From its conspicuous black and white plumage, the Pied Flycatcher is a
much more attractive species than the commoner bird. Strange to say,
although of similar habits, and living on similar food, it is by no
means so common as a species, nor so generally dispersed. Its presence
in Scotland is always looked upon as an uncommon occurrence, and in
Ireland, until recently, it was quite unknown.
During the month of April, 1875, Mr. Robert Warren, jun., of Moyview,
Ballina, co. Mayo, met with this bird for the first time in his
neighbourhood, and the following communication from him on the subject
was published in the natural history columns of “The Field,” on the 1st
of May, 1875:—“It may interest some of your ornithological readers to
learn that a Pied Flycatcher (_Muscicapa atricapilla_) visited this
extreme western locality on the 18th of April. My attention was first
attracted by seeing it catching insects in the true flycatcher style;
but, thinking it rather strange that our common Spotted Flycatcher
should appear a month or six weeks earlier than usual, I watched it
attentively for some time. It then struck me as having a smaller head
and closer plumage than the spotted one, and occasionally I thought I
observed some white marks on the wings; but, the evening light just
fading, I could not be quite certain of the white marks. Although
knowing it to be a flycatcher, I was not satisfied as to its identity,
so next morning I returned to that part of my lawn where I had seen it
the night before, and again saw it hard at work; but now having better
light, and the aid of a field glass, I was not long in making out quite
distinctly the white wing marks, which showed me that it was not the
common _Muscicapa grisola_. I took my gun and secured what I believe to
be the first specimen of _Muscicapa atricapilla_ ever shot in Ireland.
Neither Thompson in his ‘Birds of Ireland,’ nor Professor Newton in his
new edition of ‘Yarrell’s British Birds,’ mentions it as a visitor to
Ireland, or gives any record of its capture in this island; and Mr.
Harting, in his ‘Handbook of British Birds,’ p. 10, says it is unknown
in Ireland. The specimen, an adult female, is now in the collection of
the Royal Dublin Society.”
To this communication the editor appended the following note:—“Although
we always regret to hear of the wanton destruction of a rare bird, we
must admit that circumstances sometimes occur to justify an individual
capture, and we think the present instance is a case in point. By the
actual possession of the bird seen, Mr. Warren has been enabled to
establish beyond doubt the fact of the occurrence in Ireland of a
species previously unknown there, and has thus a complete answer to any
sceptic who might suggest that he may have been mistaken in his
identification of it.”
In England the Pied Flycatcher is a regular summer migrant, quite as
much as any other of the small birds already noticed. Mr. A. G. More, in
his “Notes on the Distribution of Birds in Great Britain during the
Nesting Season,” regards it as a very local species, and observes that
the nest has occasionally been found in North Devon, Somerset, Dorset,
Isle of Wight, Surrey, Oxford, Norfolk, Gloucester, Shropshire,
Leicester, and Derby. To these counties I may add Middlesex (for I have
known several instances of this bird nesting as near London as at
Hampstead, Highgate, and Harrow) and Essex, where the species has been
met with at Leytonstone. Yarrell adds Sussex, Suffolk, Yorkshire (where
I also have seen it), Worcester, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Cumberland,
Westmoreland, Northumberland, and Durham, and on the southern coast,
Hampshire. He makes no mention of its occurrence in Wales, neither does
Mr. A. G. More in his essay above mentioned. During the summer of 1871,
however, several letters appeared in the natural history columns of “The
Field,” communicating the fact of its nesting in Breconshire,
Denbighshire, and Merionethshire.[54] The sites selected for the nests
are usually holes in walls, ruins, and pollard trees, and the nest
itself is composed of roots, grass, strips of inside bark and horsehair.
The eggs, five or six in number, are of a very pale blue colour, much
paler, smaller, and rounder than those of the hedge sparrow. A
correspondent who has taken several nests of this bird states that he
never found one containing feathers; but I think I have seen one lined
with feathers which had been taken out of an old birch tree in Lapland
by the late Mr. H. Wheelwright. In this lamented naturalist’s
entertaining book, “A Spring and Summer in Lapland,” he states that,
although he never met with the Pied Flycatcher on the fells, it was to
be found as far north as the birch region extends, and he generally
found the nest in small dead birch stubbs by the riverside. Messrs.
Godman met with it some way up the mountains to the north of Bodö in
Norway, where the birch was also the favourite nesting tree. As it is
common in most parts of Central and Southern Europe, and is found as far
westward as Portugal, it is rather curious that Professor Savi should
have so long overlooked its occurrence in Tuscany. Dr. Giglioli noticed
it as abundant at Pisa in April, and, on recording it as new to the
Tuscan avifauna, he added (“Ibis,” 1865, p. 56): “When I showed the
numerous specimens I had procured to Professor Savi, he was much
surprised, and said that, during the forty years he had been studying
the ornis of this part of Italy, he had never come across the Pied
Flycatcher, which, however, abounds during the spring passage at Genoa,
and all along the Riviera.” It is a spring and autumn visitor in Malta;
but, though often seen in the valleys and by roadsides in the
neighbourhood of trees, it is not so numerous in the island as _M.
grisola_. Mr. O. Salvin found the Pied Flycatcher not uncommon about
Souk Harras in the Eastern Atlas, and Mr. Tyrrwhitt Drake saw it during
the spring migration in Tangier and Eastern Morocco. A specimen from the
River Gambia is in the collection of Mr. R. B. Sharpe. Mr. J. H. Gurney,
jun., during a recent tour in Algeria, encountered this amongst other
familiar birds. He says (“Ibis,” 1871, p. 76): “It was not until April
that I saw this species, after which it became common. In the dayats and
in the Gardaia, where they most abounded, the proportion of adult males
in full summer plumage to young birds and females was as one to five.
They looked exceedingly picturesque in the rich foliage of the oases,
clinging perhaps to a rough palm stem, though their more usual perch was
the upper bough of a bush, whence they would dart off after passing
flies.” To this I may add that the note frequently repeated is not
unlike that of the Redstart, although softer and more agreeable, and the
bird when uttering it often shuffles its wings after the manner of a
Hedge Sparrow. Canon Tristram found this bird to be a summer resident in
Palestine, and first noticed it in Galilee on April 23rd; but, though
remaining to breed, he considered it rather a scarce bird there.
An allied species, _Muscicapa albicollis_, is generally distributed over
the South of Europe, Palestine, and North Africa, which differs from the
Pied Flycatcher in having the nape of the neck white instead of black;
in other words, the white of the throat extends entirely round the neck.
It is found in Greece, Turkey, Tuscany, Spain, Portugal, and France,
less commonly in the north of France, and not in Belgium or Holland. It
is singular, considering that the two species occupy the same haunts
during a great portion of the year, that the White-necked Flycatcher
never accompanies its more sable congener to England; yet, so far as I
am aware, there is no instance of its occurrence here on record.
What is the cause which operates to restrain one species from migrating,
when a closely allied bird of similar habits is impelled to take a long
and perilous journey? Truly it is a curious question.
Before taking leave of our British flycatchers, it may be observed that
a third species, the Red-breasted Flycatcher (_Muscicapa parva_), a
native of South-eastern Europe and Western Asia, has been met with and
procured on three separate occasions in Cornwall. One was taken at
Constantine, near Falmouth, on Jan. 24, 1863.[55] A second was captured
at Scilly in October of the same year;[56] and a third was procured also
at Scilly on Nov. 5, 1865.[57] All the specimens procured were immature.
The adult bird has a breast like a robin, which renders it a
particularly attractive species. It is said to be not uncommon in the
Crimea and in Hungary, extending eastward to Western and North-western
India, where it is plentiful,[58] and is found accidentally in Italy,
Switzerland, and France. Mr. Howard Saunders has reason to believe that
it has been met with in Southern Spain in winter, but Col. Irby is
somewhat sceptical on the point.[59]
In Sir Oswald Mosely’s “Natural History of Tutbury” (p. 385), it is
reported that a pair of the North American Red-eyed Flycatcher
(_Muscicapa olivacea_) appeared at Chellaston, near Derby, in May, 1859,
and one of them was shot. If there was no mistake in the identification
of the species, one can only suppose that the birds must have been
brought over to this country in a cage, and contrived to effect their
escape.
[Illustration: SWALLOW]
THE SWALLOW.
(_Hirundo rustica._)
Few birds have attracted more attention in all countries and in all ages
than the Swallows; and the habits of those species which annually visit
the British Islands have been so thoroughly investigated and so
frequently described, that little originality can be claimed for the
remarks which I have now to offer.
There are two points, however, in the natural history of these birds
which do not appear to have received from their biographers so much
attention as they deserve, viz., the nature of their food, and their
geographical distribution. I have repeatedly been asked, “What do
Swallows feed upon?” and “Where do Swallows go in winter?” To these two
questions I will now endeavour to reply, believing that an exposition of
such facts as have been ascertained on these points will be more
acceptable to the reader than a repetition of what has been so
frequently published on the subject of habits, haunts, dates of arrival,
and other minor details.
First, then, as regards food. Dr. Jenner found that Swallows on their
arrival in this country, and for some time afterwards, feed principally
on gnats; but that their favourite food, as well as that of the Swift
and Martin, is a small beetle of the Scarabæus kind, which he found, on
dissection, in far greater abundance in their stomachs than any other
insect. A writer in the “Magazine of Natural History,”[60] Mr. Main,
states that they take two species of gnat, _Culex pipiens_ and _C.
bifurcatus_; and Sir Humphrey Davy saw a single Swallow capture four
Mayflies that were descending to the water, in less than a quarter of a
minute. Mr. Thompson says[61] that a correspondent of his, Mr. Poole,
has found the mouths of young birds filled with _Tipulæ_, and that Mr.
Sinclair, an accurate ornithologist, remarked a number of Swallows
flying for some time about two pollard willows, and on going to the
place ascertained that the object of pursuit was hive bees, which, being
especially abundant beneath the branches, he saw captured by the birds
as they flew within a few yards of his head. The assertion that Swallows
take honey bees was long ago made by Virgil, and, though not often
noticed by writers on British Birds, the fact has several times been
corroborated. A writer in the “Field Naturalist’s Magazine” for 1834 (p.
125), stated that, having observed some Swallows seize bees in passing
his hives, he shot them, and on opening them carefully, found that,
although they were literally crammed with drones, there was not a
vestige of a working bee. We learn from Wilson[62] that in the United
States bees constitute part of the ordinary food of the Purple Martin;
and the Sand Martin has been observed to prey upon the common wasp.
Gilbert White remarked that both Swifts and Swallows feed much on little
Coleoptera, as well as on gnats and flies, and that the latter birds
often settle on the ground for gravel to grind and digest their food. At
certain times in the summer he had observed that Swifts were hawking
very low for hours together over pools and streams, and, after some
trouble, he ascertained that they were taking _Phryganeæ_, _Ephemeræ_,
and _Libellulæ_ (Cadew-flies, May-flies, and Dragon-flies), that were
just emerged out of their aurelia state. The indigestible portions of
their food are rejected in the shape of small pellets, just as with the
birds of prey. _Apropos_ of these observations, Mr. J. H. Gurney, in
October, 1871, wrote me as follows:—“The perusal of your interesting
remarks relative to the food of the Chimney Swallow, and especially with
reference to its bee-eating propensities, induces me to send you a note
of an analogous habit of which I have heard, in one instance, in the
Common Swift. An intelligent shepherd in Norfolk, with whom I am
acquainted, and who keeps bees, states that a pair of Swifts which
nested in the roof of his cottage were so destructive to his bees, by
catching them on the wing when they happened to fly rather higher than
usual, that he at length destroyed the Swifts in order to free his bees
from their attacks. With reference to the food of the House Martin, I
may mention that some years since, as I was watching some of these birds
skimming over a roadside pond early in the month of May, one of them, as
it flew past me, dropped at my feet a water beetle of the genus
_Dytiscus_, nearly, if not quite, half an inch in length. Possibly it
had captured a prey too large to be conveniently swallowed.” All the
_Hirundinidæ_ drink upon the wing, and are perhaps the only birds that
do not alight for this purpose, unless perhaps the Terns and some of the
Gulls may be also exceptions to the general rule.
With regard to their winter quarters and geographical distribution, it
will be best to trace the movements of each species separately.
The Chimney Swallow (_Hirundo rustica_), whose early appearance in the
spring is only preceded by that of the Sand Martin, spends at least six
months of the year with us, and in some years more than seven months.
The period of its visit, however, may be said briefly to extend from
April to October. Between these two months the bird is found generally
distributed throughout Europe, going as far north as Iceland[63] and
Nova Zembla,[64] and penetrating even into Siberia and Amurland.[65]
The only Swallow hitherto observed in Greenland—and that only on two
occasions—is, according to Professor Reinhardt, the American Swallow,
_Hirundo rufa_ of Bonaparte. Now, Bonaparte identifies this (Geogr. and
Comp. List, p. 9) with _H. rufa_ of Gmelin, and Professor Baird
considers Gmelin’s bird to be the South American species, for which _H.
erythrogaster_ of Boddaert is the oldest name. If this identification be
correct, one would certainly expect the bird found in Greenland to be
the North American species, _H. rufa_ of Vieillot, not Bonaparte, now
generally better known by its older name, _H. horreorum_ of Barton. The
late Mr. Wheelwright observed the Common Swallow in Lapland, where he
saw it hawking about over the high fells at Quickjock, and he fancied it
was even commoner there than at Wermland, in Sweden, where it is also an
annual summer visitant.[66] Throughout Europe generally, as already
remarked, it is everywhere distributed in summer, and in the countries
bordering the Mediterranean it is especially abundant at the periods of
migration in spring and autumn. Mr. Wright has observed it arriving in
Malta in great numbers from the south early in March, and again, on its
return southwards in autumn, it is common over the island until October.
On the island of Filfla, a few miles south of Malta, the same observer
has noticed it in May. At Gibraltar and in Spain Mr. Howard Saunders has
detected it as early as February, making its way north; and, as an
instance of how these delicate birds at times get blown out of their
course by adverse winds, it may be remarked that Prince Charles
Bonaparte saw Swallows and Martins at sea 500 miles from Portugal and
400 miles off the coast of Africa. Sir William Jardine has recorded the
presence of the Swallow at Madeira, and Mr. Osbert Salvin, writing on
May 28 (“Ibis,” 1859, p. 334), says: “Some Swallows came on board when
we were 180 miles north-west of the Azores, so that it is probable that
the bird is found in these islands.”
On the Senegal River and at Sierra Leone it may be seen all the year
round, but is less numerous there from June to September.[67] On the
West Coast of Africa the Swallow appears to travel as far south as the
island of St. Thomas on the equator, where Mr. Yarrell states it has
been met with in January and February.
In Tangier and Eastern Morocco Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake says the Swallow is
found throughout the year, but the Martin and Sand Martin, he believes,
do not winter there. (“Ibis,” 1862, p. 425.)
The Swallow has been noticed as plentiful at Tripoli in the middle of
March (Chambers, “Ibis,” 1867, p. 99), and Mr. Osbert Salvin observed it
in Algeria, between Constantine and Batna, where he found several nests
among the rafters of an open shed. According to the Rev. Canon
Tristram—than whom there is no better authority on the subject of North
African and Palestine birds—a few pairs of Swallows remain all the
winter in each oasis in North Africa, wherever there is water or marsh;
but none of those which he observed were in mature plumage, and it is
therefore presumed that only the younger and weaker birds stay behind.
The Arabs informed him that for one Swallow they have in winter they
have twenty in summer, and that they usually retire about the end of
November, returning in February. In November, also, they have been
observed to be common at Alexandria and Cairo (E. C. Taylor, “Ibis,”
1859, p. 47); and on the 5th of November, when leaving Aden, Mr. Swinhoe
remarked that a few Swallows followed the ship, apparently bound for the
Indian coast. According to the observations of Mr. E. C. Taylor (“Ibis,”
1867, p. 57), this species reappears in Egypt about March 25, and is
common at Cairo and Damietta in April. Rüppell, in his “Systematische
Uebersicht der Vögel Nordost-Afrika’s,” includes the Swallow (p. 22) as
being found in Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia; and as regards the
last-named country, Mr. Blanford has remarked[68] that it is common
everywhere, and that he found it especially abundant on the shores of
Annesley Bay in June.
Continuing a search for this species southward along the East Coast of
Africa, it will be found that, according to the observations of Mr.
Ayres in Natal, the Swallow arrives in that colony in great numbers in
November, congregating and leaving again in March and April. Mr. Layard
found it to be an annual winter visitant to the Cape Colony, and on one
occasion when sailing from New Zealand to the Cape of Good Hope, on the
28th of November, he saw a Swallow and a Sand Martin fly about the ship
for some time. He was then in lat. 33° 20′, long. 31° 50′, and about 290
miles from the Cape. Several insects (_Libellula_, _Agrostis_, and
_Geometra_) were caught on deck, and we may presume, therefore, that the
birds found sufficient food to support them at that distance from land.
Passing eastward through Sinai and Palestine, where Canon Tristram has
observed the Swallow in December,[69] we learn from Mr. Blyth that it is
common in the north-west provinces of India during the winter months.
Capt. Beavan saw it at Darjeeling in 1862, and Maunbhoom in 1864-65,
where both old and young were very common in January and February,
hawking over rice-kates and near tanks. In Northern Japan it was
observed by Capt. Blakiston, and in North China by Mr. Swinhoe.
Referring to a species of Swallow which he observed in Formosa, Mr.
Swinhoe says (“Ibis,” 1863, p. 255): “In its habits, in nest and colour
of eggs, &c., this bird entirely agrees with the European _H. rustica_;
yet in size it is always smaller, and in minor personal features
different. It ranges in summer from Canton to Pekin, and Mr. Blyth
assures me that it is identical with specimens procured in winter in
Calcutta; hence I infer that the birds which visit China in spring, and
uniformly leave again in autumn, return to hybernate in the warm plains
of India.”
Mr. Blyth has remarked (“Ibis,” 1866, p. 336), “that the average of
adult Swallows from the Indian region and China are smaller than the
average of European examples, to the extent sometimes of an inch in
length of wing; but some Indian are undistinguishable from European
specimens.”
Dr. Jerdon, in his “Birds of India,” says: “On carefully comparing
specimens from England and Algiers in the museum at Calcutta with Indian
specimens from various parts of the country, I can detect no
difference.”
In a notice of the birds of the Andaman Islands which appeared in the
“Ibis” some years since, Capt. Beavan remarked that the European Chimney
Swallow visits these islands at certain seasons, and is not at all
uncommon.
There is no evidence that it ever visits Australia; but Mr. Gould has
described a Swallow from Torres Straits under the name _Hirundo
fretensis_, which is certainly very like our well-known _H. rustica_,
and might be a young bird of that species in autumn plumage. It is
singular that no Swallows visit New Zealand. It cannot be that the
islands are too distant from Australia, where several species of Swallow
abound, because, as Mr. Layard has remarked, two, if not three, species
of Cuckoo (_Eudynamys taitensis_ and _Chrysococcyx lucidus_) perform the
journey in their annual migration twice a year.