John Keble's Parishes: A History of Hursley and Otterbourne Part 15

BIRDS

THE KITE (Milvus ictinus).--Sometimes hovering over heathlands or farmyards, but not very common.

SPARROW-HAWK (Accipiter fringillarius).--Taken in a trap set for rats at Otterbourne House.

PEREGRINE FALCON (Falco peregrinus), Hursley, 1857.--As a pair for many years had a nest on Salisbury spire, this one may have flown thus far.

KESTREL (Falco tinnunculus)--Otterbourne, 1856.

SHORT-EARED OWL (Otus brachyotus).--Baddesley Common, 5th March 1861.

WHITE OWL (Strix flammea).--Nested in a barn, another year in a pigeon-loft, and again in an old tub at Otterbourne. To be seen skimming softly along on summer evenings.

BROWN OWL (Ulula stridula).--Glides over the fields like a huge moth, and on moonlight nights in August may be heard the curious hunting note. As the eggs are hatched, not all at once, but in succession, a family taken out of a loft and put into a sea-kale pot were of various ages, the eldest nearly fledged, standing up as if to guard the nest, the second hissing and snapping, as if a naughty boy, and two downy infants who died. One brown owl was kept tame, and lived 14 years. The village people call this bird Screech Owl, and after a sudden death always mention having heard it.

CHIMNEY SWALLOW (Hirundo rustica).--They chase the flies under the bridges on the Itchen, and display their red throats.

HOUSE-MARTIN (Hirundo urbica).--Twittering everywhere 'neath the straw-built shed.

SAND-MARTIN (Hirundo riparia).--Swarms sit in rows along the electric wires, and bore deeply into every sand-pit.

SWIFT (Cypselus murarius).--First to come and first to go. Their peculiar screech and floating flight are one of the charms of the summer evenings.

NIGHTJAR (Caprimulgus europaeus).--All through the twilight of the long days his purr-purr comes down from the heathery summit of Otterbourne Hill, where he earns his other name of Fern Owl, and may be seen flitting on silent wing in search of moths.

KINGFISHER (Alcedo ispida).--This beautiful creature darts out of the reeds bordering the Itchen, and it used to be at Chandler's Ford before the place was so populated. It seems also to haunt ponds or marshy places in woods, for a young full-fledged one was brought into Otterbourne House by a cat, alive and apparently unhurt. Another took a fancy to the gold-fish in a stone basin at Cranbury, and was shot, as the poor fish could not escape.

SPOTTED FLYCATCHER (Muscicapa grisola).--Late in summer these dainty little birds come whisking about the garden, perching on a rail, darting off after a fly, returning to the same post, or else feeding their young in nests on the side of the house. A pair built in 1897 in a flower-pot close to the window of Otterbourne House.

BUTCHER-BIRD (Lanius collurio).--Said to have been seen at Otterbourne. A slug has been found impaled on a thorn, but whether this was the shrike's larder, or as a charm for removing warts, is uncertain.

MISSEL-THRUSH (Merula viscivora).--This handsome bird is frequent, and commonly called House Screech. A story told by Warden Barter may be worth preserving. A pair of Missel Thrush seeing a peac.o.c.k too near their nest, charged full at him, and actually knocked him down.

SONG-THRUSH (Merula musica).--Happily everywhere warbling on warm days in autumn and winter with a sweet, powerful song, some notes more liquid than even the nightingale's. The sh.e.l.ls of the snails he has devoured bestrew the garden-walks.

BLACKBIRD (Merula vulgaris).--Out, with angry scream and chatter at the approach of an enemy, darts the "ousel c.o.c.k so black of hue, with orange-tawny bill." How dull a lawn would be without his pert movements when he comes down alternately with his russet wife. One blackbird with a broad white feather on each side of his tail haunted Elderfield for two years, but, alas! one spring day a spruce sable rival descended and captivated the faithless dame. They united, chased poor Mr. Whitetail over the high garden hedge, and he was seen no more.

REDWING (Merula iliaca).--Not common, but noted by J. B. Y.

RING-OUZEL (Merula torquata).--Rare, but observed by J. B. Yonge in Otterbourne Park, 14th September 1865, and it has been seen several times later.

FIELDFARE (Merula pilaris).--In flocks in winter.

WHEATEAR (Sylvia aenanthe).--Comes to the downs.

STONECHAT (Saxicola rubicola).--Hops about on stones.

WHINCHAT (Saxicola rubetra).--On furze bushes on Otterbourne Hill.

REDBREAST (Sylvia rubecula).--A whole brood, two old and four young, used to disport themselves on the quilt of an old bedridden woman on Otterbourne Hill. It is the popular belief that robins kill their fathers in October, and the widow of a woodman declared that her husband had seen deadly battles, also that he had seen a white robin, but she possibly romanced.

REDSTART (Phaenicura ruticilla).--Sometimes seen, but not often.

GRa.s.sHOPPER-WARBLER (Salicaria locustella).--Well named, for it chirps exactly like a gra.s.shopper in the laurels all through a summer evening.

SEDGE-WARBLER (Salicaria fragilis).--Whoever has heard it scolding and chattering in a ridiculous rage at a strange footstep will not wonder at the Scotch name of Blethering Jock. A pair nested in Dell Copse for some years, and the curious nest has been found among the reeds on the banks of the Itchen.

NIGHTINGALE (Sylvia luscinia).--Every year about the 18th of April the notes may be heard by the gate of Cranbury, in a larch wood on Otterbourne Hill, in the copse wood of Otterbourne House, at Oakwood, and elsewhere. For about a week there is constant song, but after nesting begins, it is less frequent. One year there was a nest in the laurels at Otterbourne House (since taken away), and at eight in the morning and seven at night the nightingale came on the lawn to feed, and was every morning chased by a surly John Bull of a robin.

When the young are coming out of the nest the parents chide them, or strangers, in a peculiarly harsh chirp.

BLACKCAP (Sylvia atricapilla).--Fair and sweet, but not very frequent; nested in Dell Copse.

WHITETHROAT (Sylvia cinerea).--Darts about gardens, and is locally called Nettle-creeper.

LESSER WHITETHROAT (S. curruca).--Eggs in Dell Copse.

WOOD-WARBLER (Sylvia sylvicola).--Eggs taken at Cranbury.

WILLOW-WARBLER (Sylvia trochilus).--Eggs taken at Baddesley.

CHIEFCHAFF (Sylvia hippolais).--Common in spring.

GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN (Sylvia auricapilla).--A happy little inhabitant of the fir-trees, where it nests, and it is often to be seen darting in and out of a quickset hedge.

SKYLARK (Alauda arvensis).--The joy of eyes and ears in every open field. True to the kindred points of heaven and home.

WOODLARK (Alauda arborea).--Otterbourne Park and Cranbury.

YELLOW-BUNTING or YELLOW-HAMMER (Emberiza citrinella).--A great ornament, especially in autumn, when it sits on rails, crying, "A little bit of bread and no che-e-ese!"

BLACKHEADED or REED BUNTING (Emberiza schaenidus).--Brambridge, April 1896.

SPARROW (Pa.s.ser domesticus).--One curious fact about this despised animal is that the retired farmer, after whom Elderfield is named, made it his business to exterminate the village sparrows. He often brought them down to one, but always by the next morning that sparrow had provided himself with a mate to share his Castle Dangerous.

Sparrows' (or sprows') heads make a figure in many church ratebooks.

CHAFFINCH (Fringilla caelebs).--c.h.i.n.k is the Hamps.h.i.+re name. The hens do not here migrate in winter, but a whole flight of them has been seen in the autumn on the Winchester road, evidently on their way; and once, after an early severe frost, about a hundred were found dead in a haystack near Basingstoke. Thomas Chamberlayne, Esq., who had a singular attraction for birds, used to have them coming to eat grain from his pocket. It has the perfection of a nest.

GOLDFINCH (Carduelis elegans).--This exquisite little bird is frequent on the borders of the chalk hills, where there is plenty of thistledown.

HAWFINCH (Coccothraustes vulgaris).--Sometimes seen, but not common.

LINNET (Linota cannabina).--Fairly frequent.

GREEN LINNET (Coccothraustes chloris).--Greenfinch, or Beanbird as they call it in Devons.h.i.+re, is a pleasant visitor, though it has a great turn for pease.

WREN (Sylvia troglodytes).--This brisk little being Kitty Wren is to be seen everywhere. Whether Kingsley's theory is right that the little birds roll themselves into a ball in a hole in the winter, I know not. Single ones are certainly to be seen on a bank on a frosty, suns.h.i.+ny day. Have they come out to view the world and report on it? Those very odd, unused nests are often to be found hanging from the thatch within outhouses. May it be recorded here that a wren once came to peck the sprigs on Miss Keble's gown?