Natural History in Anecdote Part 20

ORDER XIII.

Monotremata.

The order Monotremata includes two families, the _Ornithorhynchidae_ and the _Echidnidae_, both of which belong to Australia. The Duck-billed Platypus belongs to the former, the Australian Hedgehog to the latter family.

The Duck-billed Platypus.

The Duck-billed Platypus is one of the most singular of animals. "When it was first introduced into Europe," says Mr. Wood, "it was fully believed to be the manufacture of some impostor, who with much ingenuity had fixed the beak of a duck into the head of some unknown animal. It will, however, be seen by examining the skull of the animal, that this duck-like beak is caused by a prolongation of some of the bones of the head." The Platypus lives on the banks of rivers in burrows which it forms, and feeds on water insects and small sh.e.l.l fish. It is web-footed but its feet are so constructed that it can fold back the web when it wants to burrow, and unfold it when it wants to swim. The hind feet of the male are armed with a sharp spur.

The Australian Hedgehog.

The Australian Hedgehog is about a foot long. It lives in burrows and feeds on insects, has a long tongue but no teeth. It has spines from which circ.u.mstance it is called a hedgehog after its English namesake, though its spines are almost hidden by its hair. It is said to be a dull, unintelligent animal.

CLa.s.s II--AVES.

Cla.s.sification.

The Birds are distinguished from the Mammals by many obvious characteristics, chief among which are their bodily form, their feathery covering and their manner of producing their young by means of eggs. The Birds form the second cla.s.s of the sub-kingdom Vertebrate and according to the cla.s.sification followed in this work are divided into ten orders.

These orders are, I Pa.s.seres: birds characterised by the habit of perching; II Picariae: birds that climb, etc. Ill Psittacini: the Parrots; IV Columbae: the Doves; V Gallinae: the Fowls; VI Opisthocomi: the Hoazin of Brazil and Guinea; VII Accipitres: the Birds of Prey; VIII Grallatores: the birds that wade; IX Anseres: the Birds that swim; X Struthiones: the Ostrich, the Emu, etc., etc.

ORDER I.

Perching Birds.

The species of this order are very numerous, and have been variously divided by different authorities. Mr. Wallace forms them into five groups, which cla.s.sification we shall find it convenient to follow.

These five groups are: I The Thrushes and Thrush-like perching birds; II The Tanagers and similar kinds; III The Starlings and allied species; IV The Ant-eaters, etc., and V The Lyre Birds, and the Scrub Birds of Australia. The first group includes many well known feathered favourites: the Thrush; the Blackbird; the Mocking Bird; the Tailor Bird; the Wren; the Robin; the Nightingale; the t.i.tmouse; the Golden Oriole; the Jay; the Magpie; the Raven; the Rook; the Carrion Crow; the Jackdaw; the Chough; and the Bird of Paradise. The second group includes the Swallow; the Martin; the Goldfinch; the Linnet; the Canary; the Bullfinch; the Bunting and many others. The third group contains the Starlings; the Weaver Bird; the Lark; the Wagtail, and the Pipits; the fourth group, the King Bird of North America; the Manakins of Guinea; the Chatterers of South America; the Bell Bird of Brazil, and the Umbrella Bird of the Amazon. The fifth group contains the Lyre Birds and the Scrub Birds of Australia.

The Thrush.

The order of Thrush-like perching birds is a very large one, including nearly three thousand known varieties. Of these it will be impossible, within present limits, to even mention a very large number, and we shall content ourselves with dealing with a few of the better known species.

The Common Thrush.

The Thrush is one of the most popular of English native birds, as its song is one of the most beautiful of those of the bird kind. It is a herald of the English spring and summer, beginning to sing at the end of January and continuing until July. It builds its nest in a hedge or bush, and, as it breeds early in the year, lines it with a plaster of mud to protect its young from the cold winds. It is a bold bird and will vigorously defend its nest from the attacks of larger birds. It feeds on insects, snails and worms.

"Watch an old thrush," says Dr. Stanley, "pounce down on a lawn, moistened with dew and rain. At first he stands motionless, apparently thinking of nothing at all, his eye vacant, or with an unmeaning gaze.

Suddenly he c.o.c.ks his ear on one side, makes a glancing sort of dart with his head and neck, gives perhaps one or two hops, and then stops, again listening attentively, and his eye glistening with attention and animation; his beak almost touches the ground,--he draws back his head as if to make a determined peck. Again he pauses; listens again; hops, perhaps once or twice, scarcely moving his position, and pecks smartly on the sod; then is once more motionless as a stuffed bird. But he knows well what he is about; for, after another moment's pause, having ascertained that all is right, he pecks away with might and main, and soon draws out a fine worm, which his fine sense of hearing had informed him was not far off, and which his hops and previous peckings had attracted to the surface, to escape the approach of what the poor worm thought might be his underground enemy, the mole."

The Missel Thrush.

The Missel Thrush, so called from its fondness for the mistletoe, is larger than the common or song thrush, less melodious and not so common in England, but well known upon the continent of Europe. Like the song thrush it finds a determined enemy in the magpie, against which it often defends itself with success. It is, however, unable to withstand a combined attack. Gilbert White says: "The Missel-thrush is, while breeding, fierce and pugnacious, driving such birds as approach its nest with great fury to a distance. The Welsh call it "pen y llwyn," the head or master of the coppice. He suffers no magpie, jay, or blackbird, to enter the garden where he haunts; and is, for the time, a good guard to the new-sown legumens. In general, he is very successful in the defence of his family; but once I observed in my garden, that several magpies came determined to storm the nest of a missel-thrush: the dams defended their mansion with great vigour, and fought resolutely _pro aris et focis_; but numbers at last prevailed, they tore the nest to pieces, and swallowed the young alive."

The Blackbird.

The Blackbird is another of the most cherished of English song birds. It is one of the earliest to wake the morning with a song. Its habits are similar to those of the Thrush; it builds its nest in bushes, in shrubberies and gardens, safe from the sight, but close to the haunts of man. It lines its nest with a plaster of mud which it covers over with dry gra.s.s, and is exemplary in the care of its young. It has a black coat as its name implies, and an orange tawny bill. The blackbird has to some extent the power of the mocking bird, of imitating the sounds it hears,--such as the chuckling of a hen, the song of the nightingale, the caw of the crow. In the "Magazine of Natural History" of September 1831, Mr. Bouchier of Wold Rectory, near Northampton, says: "Within half a mile of my residence there is a blackbird which crows constantly, and as accurately as the common c.o.c.k, and nearly as loud; as it may, on a still day, be heard at the distance of several hundred yards. When first told of the circ.u.mstance, I conjectured that it must have been the work of a c.o.c.k pheasant, concealed in a neighbouring brake; but, on the a.s.surance that it was nothing more or less than a common blackbird, I determined to ascertain the fact with my own eyes and ears; and this day I had the gratification of getting close to it, seated on the top bough of an ash tree, and pursuing with unceasing zeal its unusual note. The resemblance to the crow of the domestic c.o.c.k is so perfect, that more than one in the distance were answering it. It occasionally indulged in its usual song; but only for a second or two; resuming its more favourite note; and once or twice it commenced with crowing, and broke off in the middle into its natural whistle. In what way this bird has acquired its present propensity I am unable to say, except that as its usual haunt is near a mill where poultry are kept, it may have learned the note from the common fowl."

The Blackbird of America resembles his English cousin in most particulars. He is often seen following the plough, looking for worms in the fresh furrows, and frequently, like the crow, stealing the planted maize or Indian corn from the hill. In the autumn the American Blackbirds gather in vast flocks, and sometimes produce a roar like the rush of a waterfall by their flight.

The Mocking Bird.

The Mocking Bird is a native of America and many stories are told of its wonderful powers of mimicry. The following description is furnished by Wilson: "The plumage of the Mocking Bird, though none of the homeliest, has nothing gaudy or brilliant in it, and, had he nothing else to recommend him, would scarcely ent.i.tle him to notice; but his figure is well proportioned, and even handsome. The ease, elegance, and rapidity of his movements, the animation of his eye, and the intelligence he displays in listening, and laying up lessons from almost every species of the feathered creation within his hearing, are really surprising, and mark the peculiarity of his genius. In his native groves, mounted upon the top of a tall bush or half grown tree, in the dawn of a dewy morning, while the woods are already vocal with a mult.i.tude of warblers, his admirable song rises pre-eminent over every compet.i.tor. The ear can listen to his music alone, to which that of all the others seems a mere accompaniment. Neither is this strain altogether imitative. His own native notes, which are easily distinguishable by such as are acquainted with those of our various song birds, are bold and full, and varied seemingly beyond all limits. They consist of short expressions of two, three, or at the most five or six syllables, generally interspersed with imitations, and all of them uttered with great emphasis and rapidity, and continued with undiminished ardour for half an hour, or an hour, at a time. His expanded wings and tail, glistening with white, and the buoyant gaiety of his action, arresting the eye, as his song most irresistibly does the ear, he sweeps round with enthusiastic ecstasy and mounts and descends as his song swells or dies away. 'He bounds aloft with the celerity of an arrow, as if to recover or recall his very soul, which expired in the last elevated strain.' He often deceives the sportsman, and sends him in search of birds that are not perhaps within miles of him, but whose notes he exactly imitates: even birds themselves are frequently imposed upon by this admirable mimic, and are decoyed by the fancied calls of their mates, or dive with precipitation into the depth of thickets at the scream of what they suppose to be the sparrow-hawk."

The Tailor Bird.

The Tailor Bird is a small bird of no very remarkable appearance, but it is singular from its habit of sewing leaves together in forming its nest. This it does by using its beak as a needle, and certain vegetable fibres as thread, and sewing the edges of leaves together in the form of a pocket, in which it deposits its eggs and rears its young.

The Golden Crested Wren.

The Golden Crested Wren is the smallest of British Birds, and it is one of the most beautiful, according to Mrs. Bowdich it only weighs eighty grains. It is peculiar among British birds for suspending its nest to the boughs of trees. Its nest is an elegant structure, sometimes open at the top, sometimes covered with a dome, having an entrance at the side.

It is a tame bird, and often visits country gardens where it may be distinguished by its green and yellow coat with white facings, and its golden crest. Captain Brown says: "its song is weak and intermittent, yet sweet as that which fancy attributes to the fairy on the moonlight hill."

The Migration of Birds.

Captain Brown, quoting from "Selby's Ornithology", gives an interesting account of the way in which our native birds are reinforced from other countries.--"On the 24th and 25th of October, 1822," says Mr. Selby, "after a very severe gale, with thick fog, from the North East, (but veering, towards its conclusion, to the east and south of east,) thousands of these birds were seen to arrive upon the sea-sh.o.r.e and sand-banks of the Northumbrian coast; many of them so fatigued by the length of their flight, or perhaps by the unfavourable s.h.i.+ft of wind, as to be unable to rise again from the ground, and great numbers were in consequence caught or destroyed. This flight must have been immensely numerous, as its extent was traced through the whole length of the coasts of Northumberland and Durham. There appears little doubt of this having been a migration from the more northern provinces of Europe (probably furnished by the pine forests of Norway, Sweden, &c.), from the circ.u.mstance of its arrival being simultaneous with that of large flights of the woodc.o.c.k, fieldfare, and redwing. Although I had never before witnessed the actual arrival of the gold-crested regulus, I had long felt convinced, from the great and sudden increase of the species, during the autumnal and hyemal months that our indigenous birds must be augmented by a body of strangers making these sh.o.r.es their winter's resort.--A more extraordinary circ.u.mstance in the economy of this bird took place during the same winter, _viz._, the total disappearance of the whole, _natives_ as well as strangers, throughout Scotland and the north of England. This happened towards the conclusion of the month of January 1823, and a few days previous to the long-continued snow-storm so severely felt throughout the northern counties of England, and along the eastern parts of Scotland. The range and point of this migration are unascertained, but it must probably have been a distant one, from the fact of not a single pair having returned to breed, or pa.s.s the succeeding summer, in the situations they had been known always to frequent. Nor was one of the species to be seen till the following October, or about the usual time, as I have above stated, for our receiving an annual accession of strangers to our own indigenous birds."

The Willow Wren.

The Willow Wren is a summer visitor to the British Isles. He arrives about the end of March and leaves in the month of September. He is an active little bird, an expert fly-catcher and an agreeable singer. His coat is of a greenish yellow-brown, his waistcoat is white tinged with yellow.

The Common Wren.

The Common Wren is indigenous to Great Britain. It builds its nest under the shelter of thatched eaves, in out-of-the-way and unusual places. It is a plain homely looking little bird of a pale chestnut brown colour.

Captain Brown gives the following interesting description of a wren's music lesson.

A Wren's Music Lesson.

"A pair of wrens," says Captain Brown, "built their nest in a box, so situated that the family on the grounds had an opportunity of observing the mother's care in instructing her young ones to sing. She seated herself on one side of the opening of the box, facing her young, and commenced by singing over all her notes very slowly and distinctly. One of the little ones then attempted to imitate her. After chirping rather inharmoniously a few notes, its pipe failed, and it went off the tune.

The mother immediately took up the tune where the young one had failed, and distinctly finished the remaining part. The young one made a second attempt, commencing where it had left off, and continuing for a few notes with tolerable distinctness, when it again lost the notes; the mother began again where it ceased, and went through with the air. The young one again resumed the tune and completed it. When this was done, the mother again sung over the whole of her song with great precision; and then another of the young attempted to follow it, who likewise was incapable of going through with the tune, but the parent treated it as she had done the first bird; and so on with the third and fourth. It sometimes happened that the little one would lose the tune, even three or four times in making the attempt; in which case the mother uniformly commenced where it had ceased, and always sung to the end of the tune; and when each had completed the trial, she always sung over the whole song. Sometimes two of them commenced the strain together, in which case she pursued the same conduct towards them, as she had done when one sung. This was repeated at intervals every day, while they remained in their nest."

The House Wren.