British Birds in their Haunts Part 34

Great Bustard [M]

Pheasant [M]

Nightjar [M]

Capercaille [M]

[_face p. 220._]]

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Pratincole.

Quail.

Ptarmigan.

Three-toed Sand-grouse. [M] [F]]

FAMILY PHASIANIDae

THE PHEASANT PHASIa.n.u.s COLCHICUS

Head and neck glossy, with metallic reflections of green, blue, and purple; sides of the head bare, scarlet, minutely speckled with black; general plumage spotted and banded with orange-red, purple, brown, yellow, green, and black, either positive or reflected; tail very long, of eighteen feathers, the middle ones longest. _Female_--light brown, marked with dusky; sides of the head feathered; tail much shorter. Length three feet.

Eggs olive-brown.

This climate suits the Pheasant pretty well, and at most seasons of the year it finds abundance of food; but in hard winters the supply diminishes, or fails altogether; and were not food specially scattered about for it in its haunts, it would either die off from being unable to withstand cold and hunger together, or become so weak that it would fall a prey to the smaller rapacious animals, who are not a match for it when it is strong and active. A healthy c.o.c.k Pheasant has been known to beat off a cat; a sickly one would be unable to compete with a Magpie or Jay. It is, in fact, an exotic running wild, and enabled to do so only by the care of those who help it to surmount the inconveniences of a life spent in a foreign land.

The Pheasant is said to have been brought originally from Colchis, a country on the sh.o.r.es of the Black Sea, and to have derived its name from the river Phasis, the famous scene of the expedition of the Argonauts, bearing date about 1200 years before Christ. From this epoch it is said to have been known to the Athenians, who endeavoured to acclimatize it for the sake of its beauty as well as the delicacy of its flesh. The Romans received it from the Greeks; but it was little known, except by name, in Germany, France, and England, until the Crusades. The custom was then introduced from Constantinople of sending it to table decorated with its tail feathers and head, as a dish for kings and emperors--a special honour until that time confined to the Peac.o.c.k. Willughby, in the seventeenth century, says of it that, from its rarity, delicacy of flavour, and great tenderness, it seems to have been created for the tables of the wealthy. He tells us, too, that the flesh of Pheasants caught by hawking is of a higher flavour, and yet more delicate than when they are taken by snares or any other method.

The kings of France greatly encouraged the naturalization of the Pheasants in the royal forests, both as an object of sport and as an acquisition to the festive board, and were imitated by the n.o.bles and superior clergy. In the fourteenth century, all the royal forests, the parks of Berry and the Loire, all the woods and vineyards of the rich abbeys, were peopled with Pheasants. The male bird was protected by the t.i.tle of 'Royal game of the first cla.s.s', and the killing of a hen was forbidden under the severest penalties. During the period between the reigns of Henry IV and Louis XVI its estimation increased. During the revolution royal edicts were little heeded. Pheasants, no less than their owners, forfeited their dignity, which, however, rose again somewhat under the empire. Waterloo, and succeeding events, brought desolation to the Pheasantries as well as to the deer-parks of France; and now the royal bird, French authors tell us, is likely to disappear from the country. Already, the s.p.a.ce which it occupies is reduced to a thirtieth part of the national territory. The centre of this privileged province is Paris; its radius is not more than five-and-twenty leagues, and is decreasing every year. Pheasants have disappeared from the districts of the Garonne and Rhone, while in Touraine and Berry a few only are to be found in walled parks.

If the Pheasant should ever, in this country, lose the protection of the Game Laws, it will probably dwindle away in like manner. Under existing circ.u.mstances, it offers an inducement to poaching too tempting to be resisted. Gamekeepers engage in more affrays with poachers of Pheasants than of all the other game birds taken collectively; and if the offence of destroying them were made less penal than it is at present, they would doubtless diminish rapidly.

Next to Wood Pigeons, they are said to be the most destructive of all British birds; so that farmers would gladly do their utmost to exterminate them; their large size and steady onward flight combine to make them an 'easy shot' for the veriest tyro in gunnery, while the estimation in which they are held for the table would always secure for them a value in the market.

The places best adapted for Pheasants are thick woods in the neighbourhood of water, where there is abundance of shelter on the ground, in the shape of furze-bushes, brambles, tall weeds, rushes, or tussock gra.s.s; for they pa.s.s their lives almost exclusively on the ground, even roosting there, except in winter, when they fly up in the evening, and perch on the lower boughs of middling-sized trees. In April or May, the female bird scratches for herself a shallow hole in the ground under the shelter of some bushes or long gra.s.s, and lays from ten to fourteen eggs; but not unfrequently she allows might to prevail over right, and appropriates both the nest and eggs belonging to some evicted Partridge. The situation of the nests is generally known to the keepers, and all that are considered safe are left to be attended to by the owner. Such, however, as are exposed to the depredations of vermin or poachers are more frequently taken, and the eggs are placed under a domestic hen.

Pheasant chicks are able to run about and pick up their own food soon after they have escaped from the egg. This consists of grain, seeds, an enormous quant.i.ty of wireworms, small insects, especially ants and their eggs, and green herbage. When full grown, they add to this diet beans, peas, acorns, beech-mast, and the tuberous roots of several wild plants. A strip of buck-wheat, of which they are very fond, is sometimes sown for their special benefit along the skirt of a plantation. In seasons of scarcity they will enter the farmyard, and either quietly feed with the poultry, or, less frequently, do battle with the c.o.c.ks for the sovereignty. A story is told, in the _Zoologist_, of a male Pheasant, which drove from their perch, and killed in succession, three fine c.o.c.ks. The proprietor, with a view to prevent further loss, furnished a fourth c.o.c.k with a pair of steel spurs. Armed with these, the lawful occupant was more than a match for the aggressor, who, next morning, was found lying dead on the ground beneath the perch. Another has been known to beat off a cat; and a third was in the habit of attacking a labouring man. The female is a timid, unoffending bird, as peaceful in her demeanour as quiet in her garb. The tints of her plumage, far less gaudy than in the male, are a protection to her in the nesting season, as being less likely to attract the notice either of poachers or vermin. Indeed, were she always to lie close, her nest would not be easily discovered, for the colour of her feathers so closely resembles that of withered leaves, that she is, when sitting, less conspicuous than her uncovered eggs would be.

Common Pheasants are occasionally found having a large portion, or even the whole, of their plumage white. These, though highly ornamental when mixed with the common sort, are not prized, owing to their being a more conspicuous mark for poachers. The 'Ringed Pheasant' occasionally shot in English preserves is not, as some maintain, a distinct species; it differs from the typical form of the bird only in that the neck is partially surrounded by a narrow white collar pa.s.sing from the back of the neck to the sides, but not meeting in front.

THE COMMON PARTRIDGE.

PERDIX CINeREA

Face, eyebrows, and throat, bright rust-red; behind the eye a naked red skin; neck, breast, and flanks, ash colour with black zigzag lines, and on the feathers of the flanks a large rust-red spot; low on the breast a chestnut patch shaped like a horseshoe; upper parts ash-brown with black spots and zigzag lines; scapulars and wing-coverts darker; quills brown, barred and spotted with yellowish red; tail of eighteen feathers, the laterals bright rust-red; beak olive-brown; feet grey.

_Female_--less red on the face; head spotted with white; upper plumage darker, spotted with black; the horseshoe mark indistinct or wanting. Length thirteen inches. Eggs uniform olive-brown.

Very few, even of our common birds, are more generally known than the Partridge. From the first of September to the first of February, in large towns, every poulterer's shop is pretty sure to be decorated with a goodly array of these birds; and there are few rural districts in which a walk through the fields will fail to be enlivened by the sudden rising and whirring away of a covey of Partridges, in autumn and winter; of a pair in spring. At midsummer they are of less frequent appearance, the female being too busily occupied, either in incubation or the training of her family, to find time for flight; and at this season, moreover, the uncut fields of hay, clover, and corn afford facilities for the avoiding of danger, by concealment rather than by flight. The habits of the Partridge, as of the Grouse, are especially terrestrial. It never flies, like the Lark, for enjoyment; and as it does not perch in trees it has no occasion for upward flight. Still, there are occasions when Partridges rise to a considerable distance from the ground, and this seems to be when they meditate a longer flight than usual.

A friend, to whom I am indebted for many valuable notes on various birds, tells me that when a covey of Partridges are disturbed by a pack of hounds, they lie close at first, as if terrified by the noise and bent on concealing themselves; but when the pack actually comes on them they rise to a great height, and fly to a distance which may be measured by miles--at least, so he supposes, as he has watched them diminish and fade from the sight before they showed any sign of preparing to alight.

The Partridge, though decorated with no brilliant colours, which would tend to thwart it in its habit of concealing itself among vegetation of the same general hue as itself, is a beautiful bird. Its gait is graceful, its feet small and light, its head well raised; and its plumage, though devoid of striking contrasts, is exquisitely pencilled, each feather on the back and breast being veined like the gauzy wings of a fly. The most conspicuous part of the plumage of the male bird, the horseshoe on its breast, is invisible as it walks or crouches, and the general tone approaches that of the soil.

Partridges pair early in the year; but the hen does not begin to lay until May, nor to sit until towards the beginning of June. The nest is merely a depression in the ground, into which a few straws or dead leaves have been drawn. It is sometimes placed among brushwood under a hedge, but more frequently in the border of a field of hay, clover, or corn, or in the wide field itself. The mowing season, unfortunately, is not noted in the calendar of Nature; so the mother-bird, who is a close sitter, is not unfrequently destroyed by the scythe, or, at all events, is driven away, and returns to find her eggs carried off to be entrusted to the care of a domestic hen. In unusually wet seasons, nests which have been fixed in low situations are flooded, and the eggs being thus reduced to a low temperature become addle. When this has taken place, the Partridge makes a second laying, and a late brood is reared.

Notwithstanding this, however, Partridges are exceedingly prolific, and are said to be increasing in numbers in proportion as new lands are reclaimed from the waste, although the Red-legged Partridge has lessened its numbers in some districts. It must certainly be admitted that, in bad seasons, they are treated with a consideration that would scarcely be shown towards them if they were simply destroyers of grain and had nothing to recommend them as objects of sport or as delicacies for the table. When abundant, they fall freely before the sportsman's gun; but when the coveys are either small or few, they are treated with forbearance, and enough are left to stock the preserves for the ensuing year.

While the hen is sitting, the male bird remains somewhere in the neighbourhood, and gives timely warning of the approach of danger; when the eggs are hatched, he accompanies his mate, and shares in the work of teaching the young to s.h.i.+ft for themselves--a lesson which they begin to learn at once. The food both of old and young birds is, to a great extent, insects. The young are especially fond of ants and their pupae or larvae. During the year 1860, in which there were no broods of Partridges, I was much struck by the fact that stubble-fields abounded, to an unusual degree, with ant-hills. In ordinary seasons, these are found torn to pieces and levelled. This year, scarcely one was touched; and even at the present time, the end of October, winged ants are far more numerous than they usually are at this time of the year. Besides insects, Partridges feed on the seeds of weeds, green leaves, grain spilt in reaping, and on corn which has been sown. This last charge is a serious one; yet, on the whole, it is most probable that Partridges do far more good than harm on an estate, the insects and weeds which they destroy more than making amends for their consumption of seed-corn.

I might fill many pages with anecdotes of the devotion of Partridges to their maternal duties--their a.s.siduity in hatching their eggs, their disregard of personal danger while thus employed, their loving trickeries to divert the attention of enemies from their broods to themselves, and even the actual removal of their eggs from a suspectedly dangerous position to a place of safety; but with many of these stories the reader must be already familiar if he has read any of the works devoted to such subjects.

The number of eggs laid before incubation commences varies from ten to fifteen, or more. Yarrell says, 'Twenty-eight eggs in one instance, and thirty-three eggs in two other instances, are recorded as having been found in one nest; but there is little doubt, in these cases, that more than one bird had laid eggs in the same nest.' This may be; but I find in a French author an instance in which no less than forty-two eggs were laid by a Partridge in captivity, all of which, being placed under a hen, would have produced chicks, but for the occurrence of a thunder-storm accompanied by a deluge of rain which flooded the nest, when the eggs, which all contained chicks, were on the point of being hatched. The average number of birds in a covey is, I believe, about twelve; quite enough to supply the sportsmen and to account for the abundance of the bird.

The character of the Partridge's flight is familiar to most people.

Simultaneously with the startled cry of alarm from the c.o.c.k comes a loud whirr-r-r as of a spinning-wheel: away fly the whole party in a body, keeping a horizontal, nearly straight line: in turns each bird ceases to beat its wings and sails on for a few yards with extended pinions; the impetus exhausted which carried it through this movement, it plies its wings again, and if it have so long escaped the fowler, may, by this time, consider itself out of danger, for its flight, though laboured, is tolerably rapid.

The call of the Partridge is mostly uttered in the evening, as soon as the beetles begin to buzz. The birds are now proceeding to roost, which they always do in the open field, the covey forming a circle with their heads outwards, to be on the watch against their enemies, of whom they have many. They feed for the most part in the morning and middle of the day, and vary in size according to the abundance of their favourite food. In some districts of France, it is said, the weight of the Partridges found on an estate is considered as a fair standard test of the productiveness of the soil and of the state of agricultural skill.

Most people are familiar with the distich:

If the Partridge had the Woodc.o.c.k's thigh, It would be the best bird that e'er did flie;

but every one does not know that the saying was in vogue among epicures in the reign of Charles II.

THE RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE CaCCABIS RUFA

Throat and cheeks white, surrounded by a black band, which spreads itself out over the breast and sides of the neck in the form of numerous spots and lines, with which are intermixed a few white spots; upper plumage reddish ash; on the flanks a number of crescent-shaped spots, the convexity towards the tail rust-red, the centre black, bordered by white; beak, orbits, and feet, bright red. Length thirteen and a half inches. Eggs dull yellow, spotted and speckled with reddish brown and ash colour.

The Red-legged Partridge, called also the French and Guernsey Partridge, is a stronger and more robust bird than the common species, which it also greatly surpa.s.ses in brilliancy of colouring. As some of its names indicate, it is not an indigenous bird, but a native of the south of Europe, whence it was first introduced into England in the reign of Charles II. To Willughby, who lived at that period, it was unknown except as a native of the continent of Europe and the islands of Guernsey and Jersey. Towards the close of the last century it was re-introduced into Suffolk, where it has become numerous; so much so, indeed, in some places, as to have gained the better of the common species for a time.

Its flight is rapid, but heavier and more noisy than that of the Common Partridge. It is less patient of cold, and less able to elude the attacks of birds of prey. It is quite a terrestrial bird, very slow in taking flight, and never perching except when hard pressed, when, on rare occasions, it takes refuge among the thick branches of an oak or pinaster; here it considers itself safe, and watches the movements of the dogs with apparent unconcern. Sometimes, too, when closely hunted, it takes shelter in a rabbit's burrow or the hole of a tree; but under ordinary circ.u.mstances it runs rapidly before the dogs, and frequently disappoints the sportsman by rising out of shot.

The Grey or Common Partridge frequents rich cultivated lands; the Red Partridge prefers uncultivated plains, 'which summer converts into burning causeways, winter into pools of water--monotonous _landes_, where skeletons of sheep pasture without variation on heath and the dwarf p.r.i.c.kly genista. It delights, too, in bushy ravines, or the steep sides of rocky hills covered with holly, thorns, and brambles; and when it resorts to vineyards, it selects those situated on the sides of steep slopes, where marigolds and coltsfoot are the princ.i.p.al weeds, rabbits and vipers the most abundant animals.'[43] Red Partridges are consequently most numerous in the least cultivated districts of France, especially those between the Cher and the Loire, and between the Loire and the Seine. Towards the east they do not extend beyond the hills of Epernay, and do not cross the valley of the Meuse. The flesh of the Red Partridge is considered inferior to that of the Grey, and the bird itself is less esteemed by sportsmen as an object of pursuit. In England it seems to retain its natural taste of preferring bushy heaths to inclosed land. In the mode of incubation and rearing the young the two species are much alike.

[43] Toussenel.

THE QUAIL.

COTuRNIX COMMuNIS

'This species', says a French naturalist, 'is probably the most productive of all winged creatures; and it could not well be otherwise, or it would be unable to withstand the war of extermination declared against it by human beings and birds of prey. One may get an idea of the prodigious number of victims which the simple crossing of the Mediterranean costs the species by two well-known and often quoted facts. The Bishop of Capri, a wretched islet scarcely a league in length, which lies at the entrance of the Bay of Naples, used to clear a net revenue of 25,000 francs a year (1,000) by his Quails. This sum represents 160,000 Quails at the lowest computation. In certain islands of the Archipelago, and parts of the coast of the Peloponnese, the inhabitants, men and women, have no other occupation during two months of the year than that of collecting the Quails which are showered on them from heaven, picking and cleaning them, _salting them_ ('they spread them all abroad for themselves') and packing them away in casks for transportation to the princ.i.p.al markets of the Levant; that is to say, the migration of Quails is to this part of Greece what the migration of herrings is to Holland and Scotland. The Quail-catchers arrive at the sh.o.r.e a fortnight in advance, and every man numbers his ground to avoid disputes. The Quail arrives in France from Africa early in May, and takes its departure towards the end of August.'

Another French author says, 'Like Rails, Woodc.o.c.ks, Snipes, and many of the waders, the Quail, when it travels towards the sea-sh.o.r.e, flies only in the night. It leaves the lands, where it has pa.s.sed the day, about the dusk of the evening, and settles again with the dawn of the morning.' Not unfrequently, while performing their transit, they become weary, and alight on vessels, or fall into the sea, and are drowned. 'Being at a small town on the coast, in the month of May', says M. Pellicot, 'I saw some boats come in with ten or a dozen sharks. They were all opened before me, and there was not one which had not from eight to twelve Quails in its body.' 'Enormous flights are annually observed at the spring and fall, after crossing an immense surface of sea, to take a brief repose in the islands of Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Crete, in the kingdom of Naples, and about Constantinople, where, on these occasions, there is a general shooting match, which lasts two or three days. This occurs always in the autumn. The birds, starting from the Crimea about seven at night, and with a northerly wind, before dawn accomplish a pa.s.sage of above sixty leagues in breadth, and alight on the southern sh.o.r.e to feed and repose. In the vernal season the direction of the flight is reversed, and they arrive in similar condition on the Russian coast. The same phenomena occur in Malta, etc.'[44]

On its arrival, the Quail betakes itself to open plains and rich gra.s.sy meadows, especially where the soil is calcareous, and avoids woody countries. During the early part of summer it frequents corn-fields, saintfoin, and lucern. In September it is found in stubble and clover fields, and among the weeds growing in dry ponds, or it finds shelter in any crops which may yet remain standing. In warm countries it resorts to vineyards, attracted, it is said, not so much by the grapes as by the numerous small snails with which the vines are then infested; for the crops of the late birds are generally found filled with these molluscs. In locomotion it makes more use of its feet than its wings, and when put up is never induced to perch on a tree. Its flight resembles in character that of the Partridge, but it rarely flies far, and when it alights makes awkward attempts to conceal itself, but often fails, and may sometimes be captured with the hand. In June or July, the female lays from eight to fourteen eggs in a hole in the ground, and brings up her young without the a.s.sistance of the male. Towards the end of August the old birds migrate southwards, and are followed by the young. Before the end of October all have disappeared, though instances have occurred of their being shot during winter, especially in seasons when the harvest has been a late one.