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Tameness of Birds when Sitting.
CHAPTER XXXV.
Tameness of Birds when Sitting.
July 1st.-In walking over a field, the grass of which had been
cut the day before, but was not yet carried, I disturbed a landrail, who was still sitting on her eggs, notwithstanding the great
change that must have come over her abode, which, from being
covered with a most luxuriant crop of rye-grass and clover, was
now perfectly bare. How the eggs had escaped being broken,
either by the scythe or by the tramping of the mower's feet, it
is difficult to understand ; but there was the poor bird sitting
closely on her eggs, as if nothing had happened, and on my near
approach she moved quietly away, looking more like a weasel
than a bird as she ran crouching with her head nearly touching
the ground.
In another part of the same field I passed a nest of landrails
in which the young ones were on the point of, or rather, in the
very act of being hatched, some of the young having just quitted
the shell, while others were only half out of their fragile prison.
Both old birds were running around the nest while I stooped to
look at their little black progeny, and were uttering a low kind
of hissing noise, quite unlike their usual harsh croak. The
mowers told me that they had seen several nests in the same
field, but had avoided breaking the eggs whenever they perceived
them in time. Though innumerable landrails arrive here during
the first week in May, always coming regularly to their time, the
period and manner of their departure are quite a mystery to me.
Although in general their young are not hatched till the first and
second week in July, they seem to have entirely vanished by
the time that the corn is cut: it is very rare indeed to find one
when you are beating the fields in September.
The partridges here are chiefly hatched about the last week in
June. Like the landrail, the hen bird sits very close, and during
that time will almost allow herself to be taken up in the hand,
especially when near their time of hatching. They seem to be
quite confident in the forbearance of my boys, who have an intimate acquaintance with almost every nest in the neighbourhood
of the house, the old bird allowing them to peer closely into her
nest, and even to move aside the grass and herbage which conceal
it, when they want to see if she is on her eggs. A retriever one
day caught an old hen partridge on her nest, but let her go again
on my rating him, without doing more damage to her than pulling
out some feathers. Notwithstanding this she returned to the
nest, and hatched the whole of the eggs the next day. Had she
not been so near her time of hatching, I do not suppose that she
would have returned again. All birds have the same instinctive
foreknowledge of the time of hatching being near at hand, and
do not, when this is the case, leave their nest so easily as when
disturbed at an earlier period of incubation. Some small birds
are much tamer in this respect than others. A bullfinch will
often allow herself to be taken off her nest, and replaced again,
without showing the least symptom of fear. Indeed, this bird if
put into a cage with her nest of young ones will continue to feed
them as readily as if her habitation was still in its original situation. Blackbirds also are very unwilling to fly off from their
eggs. The common wren, on the contrary, immediately forsakes
her nest if it is at all handled and examined before she has laid
her eggs. She will abandon it if she merely observes people
looking too closely at it; but when she has commenced to sit I
have known her to be caught on her nest, and replaced, and still
not forsake it. A small blue-headed tomtit formed her nest this
year in a chink in my garden wall, and allowed the children to
take out an egg to examine it from underneath her, without
leaving the nest. In fact, instead of being frightened at the
intrusion of their hands into her little warm, well-feathered
domicile, she picked courageously at their fingers, hissing, and
spluttering at them, and never seeming inclined to fly off.
When the young ones were hatched, the activity and perseverance of the old birds in providing them with caterpillars
and bluebottle flies were perfectly wonderful. They appeared
to fly backwards and forwards to their young family every
minute of the day, always bringing some insect in their
bills. The good done by these little birds in destroying grubs
and flies ought to earn them an immunity from all danger from
trap or gun. Gardeners are always too much inclined to wage
war against all small birds, forgetting that they invariably feed
their young, not with seeds, but with different kinds of grubs
and caterpillars, in this way amply repaying any little mischief
they may do to the early-sown seeds. For my own part, I never
trust a gun in my gardener's hands, but let the blackbirds and
thrushes take as many cherries as they like, in return for which
they destroy thousands of grey snails, &c, besides giving me
many a moment of pleasure by their song. I admit that I do
occasionally shoot the crows and jackdawrs when they destroy too
many of the cherries, particularly as these active marauders come
from some distance in large flocks as soon as the fruit becomes
red on the trees. I invariably observe that at this season one or
two jackdaws arrive first, flying round and round at a great
height above the garden. After some chattering between themselves they fly away, returning some hours afterwards with the
rest of their family, four or five in number ; and if not checked
by a few charges of shot, these first intruders soon invite every
jackdaw in the country to the feast, their numbers increasing
every day, till I am obliged to take active steps against them.
About the second week in July the young wild ducks begin to
fly. Those hatched high up in the country usually make their
way down to the seaside in that month. They follow the course
of some stream or river till they arrive at their destination.
Like the fable of the ostrich hiding her head when pursued, the
young wild ducks when chased on the river will frequently dip
their heads under the water, and keeping it there till they are
nearly drowned, fancy themselves secure, although their whole
body is exposed. If taken up, and put into some enclosed yard
or garden, they will soon become tolerably tame, and get very
fat if well fed. The whole of my poultry-yard (as far as ducks
are concerned) is supplied by a breed of half wild and half tame
ducks, originating in some young drakes caught, and turned out
with the tame ducks-the tame drakes being all sent away, in
order to ensure the proper cross in the breed. The birds are
very much improved for the table by this cross, and are quite as
tame as the common domestic duck, only showing their wild
parentage in an inclination to hide their nests, and to build at a
distance from home-always, however, if allowed so to do, bringing home their broods as soon as they are hatched. At other
seasons they never seem inclined to wander, though they are
always to be seen at the very earliest dawn of the morning, before
it is quite light, spread out over the grass-field adjoining the
house, hunting it in a regular line of advance for worms and
snails. As the evening comes on, too, it is amusing to see them
bent on the same pursuit, and displaying the greatest activity
and skill in catching the large evening moths, as these insects
rise from the grass or fly low over it.
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