The Natural History of Cage Birds Part 34

eggs and meal-worms; but indigestion often proves fatal, especially when it arises from having eaten too many earth-worms. It may, however, be cured by making the bird swallow spiders and meal-worms.

MODE OF TAKING.--In spring, when the red-b.r.e.a.s.t.s frequent the hedges and bushes, sticks are pa.s.sed transversely through them, on which limed twigs are fastened, then two persons gently beat the hedge or bush to drive the birds towards the twigs, where they are soon caught, for red-b.r.e.a.s.t.s have the habit of perching on all the little low projecting branches, in order that they may discover earth-worms.

This sort of red-breast chase is very common in Thuringia, where many persons keep them. Limed twigs may also be put in a bare place with earth or meal-worms, just as for the dunnock. The small nightingale net and the white-throat trap catch many. They are also caught at the water trap; but the greatest number are caught in autumn with the noose, baited with elderberries, which are at that season their favourite food. If they are caught for the room (and it is a pity to hunt so pretty a bird for the table), it is necessary, in order to preserve their feet, to cover the springes with felt or cork.

ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--His pretty plumage, tricks, and great sociability would be enough to make him charming. He is soon tamed, so as to come upon the table and eat from a plate or the hand; his cheerfulness and agility must also give pleasure, always in motion, and bowing after every hop and calling "_sisri_;" but he is particularly valued on account of his song. This song is generally more perfect and altogether superior when he is caged than when hopping about the room. There are however exceptions. The red-breast sings throughout the year, but in spring his voice is most brilliant and his melody most enchanting. In a country residence it is very easy to teach this bird to go and come, whether reared from the nest or caught full grown.

THE BLUE-BREAST.

Motacilla Suecica, LINNaeUS; La Gorge bleue, BUFFON; Das Blaukehlchen, BECHSTEIN.

This bird may be considered as intermediate between the redstart and the common wagtail, having very strong points of resemblance with both. Its length is five inches and a half, of which the tail occupies two and a quarter. The beak is sharp and blackish, yellow at the angles; the iris is brown; the shanks are fourteen lines high, of a reddish brown, and the toes blackish; the head, the back, and the wing-coverts are ashy brown, mottled with a darker tint; a reddish white line pa.s.ses above the eyes; the cheeks are dark brown, spotted with rust red, and edged at the side with deep ash grey; a brilliant sky blue covers the throat and half way down the breast; this is set off by a spot of the most dazzling white, the size of a pea, placed precisely over the gullet, which, enlarging and diminis.h.i.+ng successively, by the movement of this part when the bird sings, produces the most beautiful effect.

Some males have two little white spots on the throat, some even have three, while others have none; these latter are probably very old, for I have observed that as the bird grows older the blue deepens, and the orange band becomes almost maroon.

It is easy to distinguish the female; when young she has a celestial blue tint on the sides of the throat; this tint deepens with age, and forms two longitudinal lines on the sides of the neck; no orange band; the throat and gullet are yellowish blue, edged longitudinally with a black line; the feet are flesh-coloured.

HABITATION.--When wild this species exists all over Europe[94]. It is a bird of pa.s.sage, and when returning towards the north, in the beginning of April, it stops in large flights near streams, in hedges, and damp fields, comes even into courts, and on the dunghills of farms, if surprised by snow and a severe return of cold. In the summer it frequents those parts among the mountains abounding with water; in August it approaches cabbage fields enclosed by hedges or bushes. It is very seldom that one or two pairs build in our country.

In confinement it may be let run about; it soon grows so tame as to come when called, and feed from the hand. Its rapid motions and races are amusing; but it must not be allowed to fly high enough to get on the tables and furniture, as it would soon dirty them. It sings better and longer when caged. The cage should be, like the nightingale's, large enough for the bird not to spoil its beautiful feathers; the tail-feathers easily drop if they are rubbed.

FOOD.--When wild the blue-breast feeds on all sorts of insects; it also eats elderberries.

In confinement it must at first be fed with ants' eggs, meal-worms, and even some earth-worms. If it is kept uncaged these things must be thrown upon the universal paste, which it will thus learn to relish; but though it is easily reconciled to it, ants' eggs, earth and meal-worms, must nevertheless be occasionally supplied, or it will soon die in decline. When caged it is fed like nightingales, and on that food it will live seven or eight years. It is a great eater, and can devour in a day its own weight of the first universal paste, so that it mutes incessantly. It requires a constant supply of fresh water for drinking and bathing: it wets itself so much that it is completely drenched. I have observed for several successive years that it never bathes till the afternoon[95].

DISEASES.--Diarrhoea and decline are its commonest disorders. The treatment has been pointed out in the Introduction.

MODE OF TAKING.--I often hear it said that the blue-breast is a rare bird; that in some parts of Germany it appears only every five, or even ten, years, but I can declare that this opinion arises from a want of observation. Since I have taught my neighbours to be more attentive to the time of their pa.s.sage, they every year catch as many as they please. If in the first fortnight of April, up to the 20th, cold and snow return, plenty may be found by merely following the streams, rivers, and ponds, especially in the neighbourhood of a wood. A proper place is chosen, near the water and a bush, meal and earth worms are thrown there, with limed twigs, and soon these poor birds, if ever so little pushed towards it fall blindly into the snare; they also fall into white-throat traps and nightingale nets.

In autumn, when they frequent cabbage grounds to hunt for caterpillars, plenty may be caught by planting here and there sticks with limed twigs fastened to them, baited with meal-worms. At this season they sometimes go to the water trap, but this is not usual. If it happens that any are caught in nooses or spring traps baited with elderberries, hunger must have been the cause, and they must have been entirely dest.i.tute of food.

ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--Its beauty, sprightliness, sociability, and song, unite in rendering the blue-breast delightful. It runs very swiftly, raises its tail with a jerk, and extends it like a fan, keeping it and the wings in perpetual motion, uttering the cry of "_fide, fide_" and "_tac, tac_." It is unfortunate that it gradually loses the fine blue on the breast in successive moultings, when confined to the house, and becomes at length of a whitish grey. In a few days it will become tame enough to eat meal-worms from the hand, and it will not be long before it comes for them when called by the voice or whistle. Its song is very agreeable; it sounds like two voices at once; one deep, resembling the gentle humming of a violin string, the other the soft sound of a flute.

When at liberty in the room it always seeks the suns.h.i.+ne, and sleeps on its belly. Its notes very much resemble those of the common wagtail, but much improved by a violin-like hum.

THE COMMON WAGTAIL.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Motacilla alba, LINNaeUS; La Lavandiere, BUFFON; Die weisse Bachstelze, BECHSTEIN.

This species, well known throughout the old world, is seven inches in length, of which the tail measures three and a half. The beak, five lines long, is black, and very pointed; the iris is dark; the shanks, an inch in height, are slender, and black; the upper part of the head, as far as the nape, is black, but the rest of the upper part of the body, the sides of the breast, and lesser wing-coverts, are bluish ash grey; the forehead, cheeks, and sides of the neck are white as snow; the throat, as far as the middle of the breast, is black.

The female is without the white forehead and cheeks, the black top to the head being somewhat smaller. Some females have been found with very little of the black cap, and even without it, the head then being of the same colour as the back.

The young ones, which are seen in large flocks with the yellow wagtail around herds of cattle, are so different before the first moulting, that they have been considered a distinct species, under the name of the grey wagtail (_Motacilla cinerea_). In fact, the whole of the upper part of the body is grey, more or less pale; the throat and belly dusky white; the breast is generally crossed by a band, sometimes entire, sometimes broken, of a grey or brownish colour, and the quill-feathers are whitish on the outer edge.

It is not surprising to find varieties amongst birds so numerous. Some are quite white, others variegated, or speckled with white.

HABITATION.--When wild it is found equally near houses, in the fields and mountains, and in every place where insects and worms are in plenty. It is in Germany a bird of pa.s.sage, which a.s.sembles in autumn on the tiles, like the swallow, to prepare for its departure in the first fortnight of October[96]. It returns towards the end of February or beginning of March, though the weather be not mild; it may come thus early without danger, as it does not fear to approach houses, on the walls of which it finds flies that the spring sun has drawn from their retreat; and in the streams it also finds abundance of aquatic insects.

In the house it may be kept in a cage, or allowed to range; but in either case it is necessary to scatter plenty of sand about, as it is a very dirty little bird.

FOOD.--When wild, it feeds on gnats, water-spiders, aquatic insects, flies, and insects that fasten on cattle, round which it often roams.

It also follows the ploughman to feed on the insects turned up by the plough.

In the house nothing tames it so soon as ants' eggs, meal-worms, flies, and other insects. By degrees it acquires a taste for other food. In the cage it must be fed in the same manner as the nightingale.

BREEDING.--This species breeds two or three times in the course of the season. Its nest, placed in a hole, in a crevice between stones, or even under a tile, is carelessly formed of moss, small roots, hay, or something of the kind, and lined with hair and wool. It lays five or six eggs, of a bluish white, spotted with black. The young ones brought up from the nest become so tame, that they will go and return like a pigeon, build in the room, and seek for food for their little ones in the fields.

DISEASES.--Though very subject to diarrhoea, this and the two following species may be preserved in a room five or six years.

MODE OF TAKING.--If there is snow on the ground on their return in March, it is only necessary to clear a place (below the window will do), and scatter meal-worms amongst limed twigs, or place these on stones or wood where the birds a.s.semble, or even fasten a meal-worm to a limed twig, loosely stuck in the earth, and you may soon catch a wagtail.

ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--Its handsome plumage, its sprightliness, its quick and elegant motions, please one as much as its pretty song, which, without being striking, is varied, and continues the whole year, except during moulting. I always keep a wagtail amongst my birds, and when the blackcap, the blue-breast, the lark, and the linnet sing, it seems to form a counter-tenor.

THE GREY WAGTAIL.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREY WAGTAIL.]

Motacilla Boarula, LINNaeUS; La Bergeronette, BUFFON; Die graue Bachstelze, BECHSTEIN.

This beautiful species, like the preceding, is seven inches in length, of which the tail alone measures four. The beak is black; the iris brown; the legs, nine lines high, dark flesh-coloured; the upper part of the body, including the lesser wing-coverts, dark ash-grey; the head slightly tinted with olive, and the rump a fine yellow green; there is a white streak above the eyes, and another, beginning at the inferior base of the beak, descends the sides of the neck, whilst a black streak extends from the superior base as far as the eyes; the chin and throat are black, but the breast and under part of the body are of the finest yellow.

The throat of the female is not black, but pale orange; her colours are generally less bright.

Males a year or two old are without the fine black throat; it is clouded with white.

HABITATION.--In their wild state, these wagtails are found throughout Europe; but in the greatest number in mountainous and wooded parts, where the brooks flow over beds of pebbles. They are birds of pa.s.sage, and return amongst us the end of February or beginning of March. A few have been observed to remain during mild winters, when they take up their abode near dunghills or warm springs.

In the house they should be kept in a nightingale's cage, and treated like one; they are so delicate, that with the greatest care they can rarely be preserved two years.

FOOD.--When wild they prefer aquatic insects, and are continually chasing them among the plants and stones by the water-side.

In the house they should be fed on the same food as the nightingale, to which they may be gradually accustomed, by throwing amongst it meal-worms and ants' eggs.

BREEDING.--Their nests, placed by the water-side, in mill-dikes, or heaps of stones, are formed with rather more art than those of the preceding species. They begin to lay as early as March, five or six white eggs, mottled with flesh-colour. The young ones must be reared on ants' eggs and the crumb of white bread, soaked in boiled milk.

MODE OF TAKING.--This is very simple; it is only to plant sticks with limed twigs and meal-worms attached to them, on the banks, or in the middle of a stream which they frequent; you will not have to wait long before some are caught.

ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--They are as pleasing as the common wagtail; but their plumage is more brilliant, and their voice stronger. Their beautiful clear trilling sound renders their song agreeable, though rather short.

THE YELLOW WAGTAIL.

Motacilla flava, LINNaeUS; La Bergeronette du printemps, BUFFON; Die gelbe Bachstelze, BECHSTEIN.