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FORTHE PEOPLE

FOR EDVCATION

FOR SCIENCE

LIBRARY

OF

THE AMERICAN MUSEUM

OF

NATURAL HISTORY

BABY BIRDS AT HOME

Natural History Works

By RICHARD KEARTON,

F.Z.S., F.R.P.S.

With Illustrations from PJwtographs taken
direct from Nature by C. and R. Kearton

KEARTONS' NATURE PICTURES

THE FAIRYLAND OF LIVING THINGS

BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS

OUR BIRD FRIENDS

NATURE'S CAROL SINGERS

WHITES NATURAL HISTORY OF
SELBORNE

WILD NATURE'S.WAYS

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA

PICTURES FROM NATURE

WILD LIFE AT HOME

THE ADVENTURES OF COCK ROBIN
AND HIS MATE

THE ADVENTURES OF JACK RABBIT

STRANGE ADVENTURES IN DICKY-
BIRD LAND

BIRDS' NESTS. EGGS. AND EGG-
COLLECTING

CASSELL AND CO., LTD., LONDON, NEW YORK,
TORONTO AND MELBOURNE.

JAYS.

BABY BIRDS AT
HOME

By
RICHARD KEARTON, F.Z.S., Etc.

WITH FOUR COLOUR PLATES AND SIXTY ILLUSTRATIONS FROM
PHOTOGRAPHS BY

Cherry and Grace Kearton

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD
London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne

1912

l£ <?//*^v->fc*^/./

Preface

THIS little book has been prepared in
order to give boys and girls who love
the countryside, and the wild creatures that
dwell therein, two things. First of all, a
little gallery of faithful pictures of baby
birds at home amidst their natural sur-
roundings, and secondly, a short and simple
account of the interesting habits of their
parents.

Baby birds differ very widely in appear-
ance, habits, and behaviour. Those that
have to remain in the nest and be fed by
their parents for days or even weeks, such
as robins, thrushes, hawks, and eagles, are
hatched with their eyes closed and do not
open them for some little time. On the other
hand chicks that run about, or swim, directly
they leave the egg-shell, such as the wild
duck, plover, grouse, partridge and snipe,
have them open. All chicks that leave the
nest as soon as they are hatched have a good

VI

Preface

coat of down to keep their little bodies
warm. Many of those that are reared in
nests, or in hollow trees, are also covered
with down, such as the kestrel, sparrow-
hawk, and different species of owls.

Some, such as the chaffinch, skylark, and
yellow-hammer, are hatched with tufts of
down growing along their upper parts, and a
few emerge from the shell without a par-
ticle of anything growing upon them. The
common sparrow and cormorant are good
examples of this bald entry into the world.

Young birds that run about as soon as
they are hatched learn to catch insects
directly, whilst those that remain in the nest
have to defer this part of their education
until a somewhat later period. It is not
long delayed, however, for young sparrow-
hawks may be observed trying to secure blue-
bottle flies that alight on the edge of their
nest. Baby skylarks, flycatchers, and the
chicks of many other species, endeavour to
catch passing insects whilst sitting in the
nest anxiously awaiting their parents' return
with more food.

One feature of baby bird life is always
very noticeable to the careful observer, it

Preface

Vll

is the perfect obedience of chicks to their
parents, otherwise many of them would never
escape their enemies.

It is hoped that this little book will
arouse an interest in the minds of boys and
girls concerning our wild birds and their
wonderful ways. Once that interest has
been kindled, every walk in the country will
reveal some new fact and create a fresh thrill
of healthy pleasure.

Richard Kearton.

Caterham Valley, Surrey.
October, 1912.

Contents

l'.\r,K

Blackbird 83

Buzzard, Common 117

Chaffinch 41

Coot, Common 95

Cormorant, Common 35

Crow, Carrion 99

„ Hoody 39

Cuckoo 3

Curlew 71

Dipper 127

Dove, Stock 123

Eagle, Golden 93

Fieldfare 21

Garden Warbler 37

Grebe, Great Crested 103

Grey Lag Goose 75

Grouse, Bed 23

„ Willow 55

Gull, Black-Headed 119

„ Common 65

„ Great Black-Backed 89

„ Herring 13

Hedge Sparrow 53

Heron, Common 49

b

x Contents

PAGE

Jackdaw 73

Jay 1

Kestrel 43

Kittiwake 45

Merlin 9

Nightingale 85

Nightjar 97

Owl, Brown or Tawny 77

„ Little 33

„ Long-Eared 47

„ Short-Eared 113

Peewit (or Lapwing) 19

Pipit, Tree 109

Plover, Golden H*

Redwing 31

Reed Bunting 125

Ring Ouzel ^9

Robin 81

Shrike, Red-Backed 101

Skylark 69

Sparrow Hawk 17

Spoonbill 61

Spotted Flycatcher 25

Starling 87

Stonechat

67

Swallow 121

Tern, Arctic 91

Thrush, Missel 29

Contents xi

AGE

Thrush, Song 105

Tit, Cole 51

„ Great 63

Wagtail, Blue-Headed 27

Pied 107

Wheatear 57

Whitethroat, Greater 15

„ Lesser 79

Widgeon 115

Willow Wren 7

Wryneck H

Yellow Hammer 5

List of Plates

Jays (Colour) Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Cuckoo and Foster-parent 2

Yellow Hammers 4

Willow Wrens 6

Merlins 8

Wrynecks 10

Herring Gulls 12

Greater Whitethroats 14

Sparrow Hawks 16

Peewit or Lapwing (Colour) 18

Fieldfare 20

Red Grouse 22

Spotted Flycatchers 24

Blue-headed Wagtails 26

Missel Thrushes 28

Redwings 30

Little Owls 32

Cormorants 34

Garden Warblers 36

Hoody Crows 38

Chaffinches . . .40

Kestrels 42

Kittiwakes 44

xiv List of Plates

FACING PAGE

Long-eared Owls .46

Heron 48

Cole Tit .50

Hedge Sparrows 52

Willow Grouse 54

Wheatears 56

Ring Ouzel 58

Spoonbills 60

Great Tits 62

Common Gulls 64

Stonechats 66

Skylarks 68

Curlew .... 70

Jackdaw 72

Grey Lag Geese 74

Brown Owl 76

Lesser Whitethroat 78

Robin (Colour) 80

Blackbirds 82

Nightingales 84

Starling 86

Great Black-backed Gull 88

Arctic Terns 90

Golden Eagles 92

Coots 94

Nightjar 96

Carrion Crows 98

Red-backed Shrikes 100

List of Plates

XV

PACING PAGE

Great Crested Grebes 102

Song Thrush (Colour) 104

Pied Wagtails 106

Tree Pipit 108

Golden Plovers 110

Short-eared Owl 112

Widgeon 114

Buzzards 116

Black-headed Gulls 118

Swallow 120

Stock Doves 122

Reed Buntings 124

Dippers 126

The Jay

THE Jay is a very beautiful and cunning
bird. It lives in woods and spinneys
and is not often seen in the open country.
Gamekeepers dislike it very much, because
it sometimes sucks the eggs of other birds,
and gardeners shoot it because it occasion-
ally eats peas and cherries.

During the autumn and winter its harsh
loud call notes, that sound something like
"rake, rake" may frequently be heard in
any wood where the bird lives, but in the
spring-time it is singularly silent, unless
there is a cat or a fox prowling about. Of
course, this is very wise and helps to keep
the whereabouts of its nest and eggs or chicks
a secret. You may walk close past a Jay's
nest day after day and never suspect its
presence unless you happen to catch sight of
it in its thick leafy bower. It is made of
sticks and twigs and lined with rootlets.

The Jay lays from five to seven eggs of

2 Baby Birds at Home

a dusky green colour very thickly spotted
with light brown.

The baby birds are fed in the most
curious manner by their parents. Old Jays
do not carry food for their chicks in the
same way that starlings convey it to their
young ones. Instead of being held in the
bill and shown plainly to every observer, it
is cunningly hidden in the mouth and thrust
right down the throat of the hungry baby
bird, so that, look however carefully he may,
the observer cannot see what it is.

In some parts of the country where food
is doubtless very plentiful, young Jays re-
main with their parents all the autumn
and far into the winter, but, of course, in
districts where food is scarce the family
parties have to break up earlier and scatter,
otherwise the supply would soon be ex-
hausted and the weakest would starve.

Young Jays make very interesting pets
and with a little patience can be taught to
talk. Keeping wild birds in cages, however,
is not a practice to be encouraged, unless
it is the only way to save the unfortunate
creatures from the wrath of the gamekeeper
or the gardener.

CUCKOO AND FOSTER-PARENT

The Cuckoo

WE all love the Cuckoo's welcome notes.
They tell us of the arrival of spring
and the coming of glorious summer days.

In character and habits the Cuckoo is
a weird bird. Arriving upon our shores
during the latter half of April, it speedily
begins "to tell its name to all the hills
around." At the height of summer, and
especially in the north of England and Scot-
land, it may frequently be heard, not only
by day, but all the night through.

The female does not build a nest, sit
on her eggs, or rear her own young ones.
Although almost as large as a lapwing, her
eggs are no bigger than those of the sky-
lark. This is, no doubt, a very useful
arrangement so far as the Cuckoo is
concerned, but it often proves a great mis-
fortune to smaller birds.

No sooner has the female Cuckoo laid a
wee, spotted egg than she picks it up in her

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4 Baby Birds at Home

bill and carries it to the nest of a meadow
pipit, hedge sparrow, pied wagtail, tree
pipit, or other small bird. The owner of
the nest either does not notice, or does not
mind, the addition to her clutch, and keeps
it warm and dry along with her own eggs.

In due season the baby Cuckoo is hatched,
and speedily reveals a character as black
as the ugly skin that covers its ungainly
body. Although it cannot see, it can feel,
and does not rest until it has succeeded in
getting the other chicks, or eggs, in the nest
on to its back, and by a mighty effort thrown
them out of their rightful home.

A baby Cuckoo never appears to be
either satisfied or grateful. Its foster
parents may bring caterpillars along as
fast as ever they can find them, but the
chick's great ugly mouth is for ever held
widely open in request of more.

It is a stupid chick, for when it has
fledged and is waiting for food it does not
stoop to meet its wee foster mother, but
rears its head high in the air, quite out of
reach of any pipit or wagtail. The little
bird is therefore obliged to jump on its back,
and drop the food down its throat.

The Yellow Hammer

YOU are not at all likely to mistake this
very familiar British bird for any
other, unless it be, perhaps, its much rarer
and shyer relative, the cirl bunting. All
you have to remember is that the male
has no black on his yellow head, and the
female is not marked with yellowish brown
under her chin.

The Yellow Hammer is common all over
the country. The male loves to sit on the top
of a hedge or bush and sing by the hour
together. His song is not of first-class
order as bird-music goes. It consists of
two oft-repeated notes, and has been aptly
likened to the words, " A little bit of bread
and no cheese/' Many people consider it
a dreary affair, but it has the merit of
being uttered during hot July days when
other feathered vocalists are silent.

The nest is built in a bramble, thorn, or
other bush. Sometimes it is eight or ten

5

6 Baby Birds at Home

feet above the ground, and at others right
down upon it. The one shown in our
illustration was made in the shelter of a
tuft of grass. It is constructed of dry
grass and roots, with an inner lining of
fine grass and horsehair.

The eggs generally number four or five,
although sometimes there are only three in
a clutch, and at others as many as six.
They are of a dingy white colour tinged
with purple and spotted and scrawled with
dark purplish brown.

The Yellow Hammer commences to breed
in April and goes on until very late in the
summer. You may sometimes find its nest
containing eggs, or young, even in the month
of August.

The chicks are fed by both parent birds,
but the male is much shyer than the female
as a rule.

Nestling Yellow Hammers make a very
unruly family. Long before they are ready
to fledge, they become so boisterous that
before their mother has time to reach them
with a collection of insects, they crowd and
push and all but walk out of their little
home to meet her.

WILLOW WRENS.

The Willow Wren

SOME difficulty will no doubt be exper-
ienced by young nature-students in
distinguishing this little warbler from its
relatives the chiffchaff and the wood wren,
as it is somewhat similar in size, appearance,
and habits to both these birds. It is larger
than the chiffchaff, however, and is not so
green on its upper parts or light-coloured
underneath its body as the wood wren.

The song of the Willow Wren differs
widely from that of its relatives, and if you
are gifted with a good ear for music, this
fact will help you. Its notes mount up
round and full, and then run down the scale
and expire, whereas those of the wood wren
consist of sounds something like "sit-sit-sit-sit
see-eeeeeze" each note rising in pitch and
finally ending in a long thin one. The chiff-
chaff's song cannot be confused with that of
any other bird, because it consists of two oft-
repeated notes that sound like " chiff-chaff."

7

8 Baby Birds at Home

The Willow Wren, or Willow Warbler,
as it is frequently called, is a migratory
bird, arriving in April and departing again in
September. It is found all over the British
Islands wherever bushes and trees grow.

It builds its nest on the ground amongst
coarse grass and weeds, on banks near
willow-fringed streams, in woods, on com-
mons, and almost anywhere and everywhere.
The structure is made of dead grass, moss,
leaves, and fern fronds, and is lined with
hair and feathers. It is domed or covered
over and has an entrance hole in front.

The eggs, numbering from four to eight,
are white, spotted with pale rusty-brown.

Baby Willow Wrens are very tiny and
frail when they emerge from the egg-shells,
but grow very rapidly. They have, how-
ever, many enemies. Not long ago the
writer saw a Willow Wren hovering, just
like a humming-bird, over the grass wherein
she had built her nest, and upon going
to the place found a large adder in the
act of swallowing her chicks. The reptile
had devoured four out of a family of six,
but speedily paid the penalty of its mis-
deeds.

MERLINS.

The Merlin

THE Merlin is the smallest member of
the Falcon family found breeding in
the British Islands. The male bird only
measures some ten inches in length and is
therefore an inch shorter than the missel
thrush. The female Merlin is somewhat
larger than the last-named bird.

The "Blue Hawk," or "Stone Falcon/"
as the Merlin is otherwise known, breeds
on the ground in deep heather on moors in
the wildest parts of the country. The nest
consists of a slight hollow lined with a few
sprigs of heather or dead grass. On rare
occasions the bird will use the old nest of a
carrion crow.

Four or five creamy white eggs thickly
covered with dark reddish brown spots, and
blotches are laid.

The male catches pipits, larks, and other
small birds for the female, whilst she is
sitting on the eggs. Upon returning home

io Baby Birds at Home

with the prey in his talons, he alights on
a knoll at some distance from the nest, and
calls his mate to the feast. Whilst the hen
is satisfying her hunger he sometimes visits
the nest and takes a peep at the eggs.

Baby Merlins are covered all over with
a beautiful coat of white soft dowm, and if
an attempt is made to stroke them, even
when they are very young, they roll
over on their backs, and strike upwards
with their sharp claws. They do not like
rain, and if a heavy shower happens to fall
during their mother's absence, they call out
for her in the most piteous manner.

When breeding on a grouse moor the
plucky little Stone Falcon finds a deadly
enemy in the gamekeeper, who is ever on
the look out for its nest. He would find
it more frequently, but for one very cunning
habit practised by the species.

Merlins feed their chicks upon small
birds. They take the greatest care, how-
ever, not to pluck any of their victims at
the nest. Tell-tale feathers scattered about
on the heather would soon attract the atten-
tion of the gamekeeper, and he would quickly
discover and slay the whole family.

The Wryneck

r pHE Wryneck is a migratory bird ar-
-*- riving in this country during the
month of April. Although no larger than a
skylark, it soon makes its presence known
by its loud and oft-repeated call notes, which
sound something like "que, que, que" On
account of its arrival a few days before
the cuckoo it is known in many parts of
the country as the " Cuckoos Mate/'

In many respects it is a strange bird.
It breeds in holes in trees, and lays its
seven or eight pure white eggs on the bare
wood. If some young would-be egg-collec-
tor should happen to come along and
thrust his wicked little hand into the hole,
the sitting Wryneck will hiss just like a
snake. This mild piece of deception often
succeeds in frightening the young robber
away.

She also has another queer little trick,
and curiously enough it is one from which

ii

12 Baby Birds at Home

her name has been derived. If you should
be bold enough to thrust your hand down
to the bottom of her breeding hole and
capture her, Mrs. Wryneck will, upon being
withdrawn, most likely give you a surprise.
Stretching out her neck and twisting her
head over her back she will, with closed
eyes and ruffled crown, pretend to be
dead. As soon as you have been taken
off your guard, however, by this clever
piece of shamming, she straightens out her
wry neck and instantly flies away.

This bird, like the woodpeckers, pos-
sesses a very long worm-like tongue. It
is horny at the tip and supplied with a
sticky substance to which ants and other
insects adhere when touched. This clever
contrivance enables the bird to capture prey
quite out of sight in tunnels and galleries.

A young Wryneck may frequently be
seen thrusting its head out of the nesting
hole and anxiously looking for its father,
or mother, with more food. Upon leaving
the old home the chicks can cling to the
rough bark with their claws, and run with
ease up the trunk of the tree, inside of
which they have been reared.

HERRING GULLS.

The Herring Gull

IF you are not very familiar with this bird
you are likely to confuse it with another
feathered friend from the sea — the Common
Gull. Both are white and light grey in colour,
but the two following points of difference
serve to distinguish the one from the other.

The Herring Gull is about twenty-four
inches in length, and has flesh-coloured legs
and feet, whereas its relative is only about
eighteen inches long, and has greenish yellow
legs and feet. Both may be seen together
following steamers in harbours, or picking up
worms and grubs turned up by the plough,
but the Common Gull rarely breeds any-
where round the English coast.

The Herring Gull breeds on ledges of sea
cliffs, on low rocky islands, and on moorland
marshes, inland. Its nest is made of dry
seaweed, sprigs of heather, or whatever else
happens to be lying around, and is lined
with grass, which is often used quite green.

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14 Baby Birds at Home

Sometimes it is a bulky structure, and at
others a very scanty affair.

The eggs number two or three, varying
from olive green to buffish brown in ground
colour, marked with spots and blotches of
dark brown and grey. They are very similar
in size, shape, and colour to those laid by the
Lesser Black-backed Gull, and as the birds
sometimes breed together, you can never
make quite sure to which species a clutch
belongs, unless you see the mother bird
on them.

Young Herring Gulls are covered with
greyish buff down, which is streaked and
spotted with black on the head and upper
parts. When hatched on an island, or in a
marsh, they leave the nest almost directly
and hide amongst the vegetation, or in holes
under overhanging peat banks.

If you catch one it will soon show you
that it has a great idea of defending itself,
by attempting to bite your face or hands,
and its powerful bill can give an ugly nip.

Herring Gulls do not, as their name would
suggest, confine themselves to eating fish,
but will devour the eggs and chicks of other
birds.

COMMON OR GREATER WHITETHROATS.

The Greater Whitethroat

COUNTRY people call this bird the
Nettle Creeper, on account of its
habit of seeking its food and frequently
building its nest amongst nettles. White-
throat is also a very good common name,
because it is a little brown bird with a
white throat and pale grey under-parts.

You are very likely to confuse it with the
Lesser Whitethroat — which is a rarer bird —
if you do not remember that it is nearly half
an inch longer, has a grey head, and that the
brown feathers on its back are edged with
a reddish tint, whereas those on its smaller
relative are bordered with greyish brown.

The Greater Whitethroat is a migrant
arriving in April and taking its departure
again in September and October. It breeds
in nearly every suitable part of the British
Islands.

The nest is a deep but flimsy struc-
ture made of grass stems and horsehair, and

«5

16 Baby Birds at Home

is built amongst nettle stems, in bramble,
brier, and other bushes. From four to six
eggs are laid, of a dirty greenish white colour,
marked with brown, and grey spots.

Whilst the hen is sitting on her eggs, the
cock may be heard excitedly pouring forth
his song, which consists of a few sweet
oft-repeated notes. Sometimes, in his wild
joy, he mounts the air from the top of a
favourite bush, and fairly bubbles over with
song, as he descends again.

The young are fed upon caterpillars,
small beetles, and all kinds of insects, and
it is a very pretty sight to watch the brood-
ing female rise and stand on the edge of the
nest, whilst her mate delivers his catch of
insects to the chicks. They both appear to
be very fond of their offspring, and bestow a
great deal of care and attention upon the
wee, frail creatures.

The Common Whitethroat may often be
seen in the fruit garden during late summer,
and is accused of taking its share of the
good things growing there, but the labourer
is worthy of his hire, and the gardener owes
the bird a debt for good work done earlier
in the season.

SPARROW HAWKS.

The Sparrow Hawk

THE Sparrow Hawk does not fly at any
great height above the ground, or hover
in the air like the kestrel. It prefers to steal
quietly over a hedgerow, or round the corner
of a wood, and surprise some unfortunate little
bird feeding on the ground. Its swift flight,
and the remarkable ease with which it can
twist and turn in the air, give the victim but
a small chance of escape in the open.

Some small birds avoid it, however, by
dashing into thick bushes, and remaining
there until the danger has passed. Terrified
titlarks have been known to take refuge
inside houses, and even in railway carriages
in motion.

Birds as large as the red grouse and lap-
wing are sometimes slain by this fierce robber
of the air, and occasionally such watchful
creatures as the jay are caught napping by it.
The male Sparrow Hawk only measures
about a foot in length, but his mate is some

D 17

18 Baby Birds at Home

three inches longer, and nearly twice his
weight.

This species breeds in woods. Its nest is
built of sticks and twigs, and is large and
shallow. Sometimes it is in the fork of a
tree, and at others on a strong, horizontal
branch.

The eggs, numbering from four to six, are
white, tinged with blue or bluish green,
boldly marked with pale and rich dark brown
spots and blotches.

Baby Sparrow Hawks are covered with
white fluffy down when they are hatched,
and when seen in the nest, they remind one
of a collection of powder-puffs in a basket.
A Sparrow Hawk household is rather like
a human one. The father bird does all the
hunting after food, whilst the mother stays
at home and looks after the chicks. She
takes up her station on some dead tree, or
stump that will afford her a good outlook,
and is not too far from the nest. When
her mate returns home with food, she takes
it from him and divides it amongst the
chicks, and if you are hiding anywhere near
the nest, you can hear the chittering wel-
come they give their mother on her arrival.

The Peewit or Lapwing

THIS interesting bird is well known to
nearly everybody, for it frequently
breeds within a few miles of large towns
and cities. It loves marshlands, fallow
fields, and moors, and is known by three
different names, all of which are suitable :
Peewit after its own call note, Lapwing
on account of the way it folds or laps its
wings when flying, and Green Plover be-
cause of the green colour of its back.

The Lapwing breeds on the ground.
Its nest consists of a slight hollow, lined
with bits of dead grass, rushes or rootlets.
The eggs are four in number, large for the
size of the bird and shaped very much like
pears. They are always found lying with
their sharp ends pointing inwards, and
thick ends outwards. This is a very wise
arrangement, because it prevents any space
being lost in the nest, and enables the
mother bird to cover them properly and

*9

20 Baby Birds at Home

give each an equal share of the warmth
of her body.

If you would like to know what a
Peewit thinks of the shape of her eggs,
just try the following experiment on the
next nest you find. Turn all the eggs
round about, thick ends inwards, and
pointed ends outwards, then leave the
place altogether for half an hour.

When you go back you will find, if
you have given the mother bird an oppor-
tunity of returning to her home in the
meantime, that the very first thing she has
done has been to set her household in
order. She has replaced her eggs, and they
are lying just as you found them.

Baby Lapwings begin to run about
directly they are hatched, and are very
obedient to their parents. When there is
no sign of danger to be seen they wander
round with their mother in the most
joyous manner. If a hawk should appear
in the sky, the old bird sounds her alarm
note and the chicks instantly crouch flat
upon the ground, and do not move again
until their parent tells them by a reassur-
ing cry that the danger has passed.

FIELDFARE.

The Fieldfare

THIS bird belongs to the Thrush family.
In size it is smaller than the missel
thrush, and somewhat larger than the com-
mon throstle.

You will not find its nest in this country
at all, as it is only a winter visitor, arriving
from the Continent in October and departing
again in April or May. During the winter
months large flocks are to be seen roaming
over pastures and meadows, in search of
worms and grubs, in all parts of England,
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. If the
weather should be very severe they eat
such hedge-fruits as hips and haws.

You nearly always know when a flock of
Fieldfares is passing over your head, because
the birds keep on calling to each other in
loud, harsh notes. In Norway, where they
breed, Fieldfares can be heard all night
long, but, of course, it is never quite dark
there in the month of June.

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22 Baby Birds at Home

The male begins to sing as early as
March, if the weather should be mild and
sunny, but his notes are low, soft, and few
in number. He sings to his mate whilst
she is building her nest, but never appears
to think that he ought to attempt to help
her. He frequently sings whilst on the
wing.

Fieldfares breed in colonies just like
rooks or herons, and in some Scandinavian
forests hundreds or even thousands nest to-
gether, and the noise they make when dis-
turbed is wellnigh deafening.

The nest of this species is made of twigs
and straws, mixed with mud, and lined with
fine grass. It is generally placed in a
spruce or birch tree, at varying heights from
the ground. The writer has seen half a
dozen nests containing eggs, or young ones,
in quite a small birch tree.

The eggs of the Fieldfare number four
to six, varying from light to dark bluish
green, mottled all over with light, or dark
reddish brown.

As soon as the baby birds have been
hatched the old male helps to find food for
them.

The Red Grouse

THIS is a most interesting bird. In the
first place, it is not found in a natural
state anywhere in the world excepting in
the British Islands, and in the second, it
is more prized by sportsmen than, perhaps,
any other bird that flies.

The Red Grouse is found on all suitable
moors and heaths from the Orkney Islands
as far south as Staffordshire, in "\Y a l es > an( i
the peat bogs and moorlands of Ireland.

It feeds upon the tender shoots of heather
and ling in the summer, and in the early
autumn is partial to oats, if any should
be grown near its haunts, and the seeds of
the buttercup. During severe weather, in
the winter, the Red Grouse descends from
the high snow-wreathed ground and may
sometimes be seen in hawthorn bushes
feeding upon the buds.

This species is very talkative, especially
between dawn and sunrise on a fine frosty

23

24 Baby Birds at Home

morning. At the first peep of day the female
commences to call "yow, yow, yow," in a pecu-
liar nasal tone, and is promptly answered by
the male with a resounding " cabow, cabow,
cabeck cabecJc, beck, beck." Other notes are
also employed by this gentleman of the
hills : " cockaway, cockaway," when he seems
very happy, and " cock, cock, cock" when he
is alarmed.

The Red Grouse pairs early, and the nest-
ing season is in April, May and June, although
eggs are frequently found earlier and later.

The nest is generally well hidden in
heather, or ling, occasionally amongst rushes,
and the eggs, numbering from five to nine,
are of a dirty white ground colour, thickly
blotched and spotted with reddish brown.

The baby birds are covered with a thick
coat of down, which is of a light buff colour
above, marked with brown and yellowish
brown underneath. They leave the nest
directly they are hatched, and if any danger
should suddenly appear on the scene, they
scatter north, south, east and west, and hide,
whilst their mother, feigning a broken wing,
flaps round and round the intruder until her
chicks are safe ; then she flies off.

SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS.

The Spotted Flycatcher

THE Spotted Flycatcher is a little brown
bird with light under-parts, and dark
brown spots and streaks on the crown of its
head and throat. It is a trifle longer than
a house sparrow, but not quite so stoutly
built. It is known by several common
names, each one of which has some reference
to its character and habits.

You are sure to see this bird in some
well-wooded part of the country, perched on
a gate-post or the dead branch of a tree,
and may notice that at intervals it will
suddenly fly off, flutter in the air for a
moment or two, and then return to its
original resting-place. The fact is, it has
caught sight of a passing fly and darted
forth to secure it.

This bird is only a summer visitor to
our country, arriving in the early part of
May, and returning again to the sunny
South in September and October. A pair

E 25

26 Baby Birds at Home

of Spotted Flycatchers will return season
after season to inhabit some favourite breed-
ing haunt.

The nest of this species is made of straws,
rootlets, moss, hair, feathers and rabbit's
down. It is built on the branches of fruit
trees trained against walls, holes in walls, on
ledges of rock, on the stumps of broken trees,
on the ends of beams projecting from old
houses, and in recesses in the trunks of trees
caused by the wood decaying.

The eggs, as a rule, number five, of a
greyish or light green colour, marked with
faint red or reddish brown.

Nestling Flycatchers keep their parents
busy procuring winged insects for them, and
when you are near one of the old birds in
the act of seizing a fly, you can actually
hear its bill snap as it closes on the luckless
creature. No sooner has a sufficient collec-
tion of flies been made than away hies the
parent bird to the nest with them. Then
there is great excitement. Every neck is
stretched, and every mouth is widely opened
in expectation of a dainty morsel. Some-
times bees and quite large moths are brought
along.

The Blue-headed Wagtail

THIS is a rare British bird, found breeding
occasionally in Kent and Sussex. It
is similar in size, shape and general appear-
ance to our familiar friend, the Yellow Wag-
tail, but there is one feature by which the
males of one species can always be dis-
tinguished from those of the other. The
head of the Yellow Wagtail is of a very pale
olive colour, with a streak of bright yellow
over the eye, or the head may be yellow all
over, whereas that of the bird under notice
is bluish grey, and the streak over the eye is
white.

The call notes of this bird are almost
exactly like those of the Yellow Wagtail,
and can be heard at a considerable distance.

If you set out to find a nest you will
discover, as the writer has done on the Con-
tinent, that it is exceedingly well hidden
under an overhanging tuft of grass, in a

hole under a large stone, or amongst the

27

28 Baby Birds at Home

exposed roots of a tree. The old birds guard
their secret well by calling, flying overhead
and generally endeavouring to lead the in-
truder away from it.

The nest is made of dead grass, rootlets
and moss, and is neatly lined with horse-
hair. From four to six eggs are laid. They
are very similar in appearance to those of
the Yellow Wagtail : greyish white in ground
colour, mottled with varying shades of brown.

Baby Blue-headed Wagtails are fed upon
small moths, caterpillars, water insects and
flies. Both parent birds are very industrious
in finding food for the chicks, and once
they know you have found the nest, they
will alight near to you and become much
bolder. If you should sit down so close to
the nest that the old birds dare not venture
up to it to feed the chicks, they will keep on
calling to them until the youngsters will hop
out and begin to run away, even before they
are able to fly.

The young males in their first coat of
feathers resemble the adult female in her
summer dress, except for the fact that the
grey on the head is somewhat mixed with
brown.

The Missel Thrush

IT will not be easy to confuse this bird with
its better known relative, the common
song thrush, if the following simple facts
are remembered. It is nearly three inches
longer, much greyer in colour on the back,
and shows a white mark on either side of its
tail whilst flying.

Its song is not a great vocal accomplish-
ment, but has the merit of being uttered
when the weather is so rough that it has
silenced every other musician of the grove.
In fact the " Storm-cock/' as the bird is fre-
quently called, seems to glory in a gale.
During such weather he will sit on the
topmost branch of some tall tree and pour
forth his defiant notes heedless of the
howling wind and lashing rain.

He commences to sing in December or

January in England, and may be heard as

late as the end of June in Scotland.

The nest is made of slender twigs, grass
29

30 Baby Birds at Home

stems, moss, wool and mud, and is lined with
fine dry grass. It is generally placed in the
fork of a tree, or on some strong branch in
orchards, woods, parks and plantations.

The eggs number four or five, of a
greyish green colour marked with blotches
and spots of a reddish brown tint.

The young ones are gifted with wonderful
appetites, and gulp down every worm and
grub brought by their parents. When the
time comes for them to fledge they grow
very uneasy, shifting about and standing on
the edge of the nest, fluttering their little
wings or cleaning and dressing the quills
with their beaks.

Missel Thrushes are very courageous birds,
and will chase a carrion crow, or rook, away
from the neighbourhood of their chicks. One
has been known to die in defending her young
ones against the attack of a weasel.

The harsh alarm cry of this species sounds
very much like the noise made by a child's
wooden rattle.

Young Missel Thrushes are very fond of
bathing during hot weather, when whole
families may be seen splashing about in some
shallow pond or on the margin of a stream.

The Redwing

THIS bird is very like the common song
thrush in size and general appear-
ance. It is, therefore, difficult to distinguish
it from that bird at any little distance. If
you are close enough, however, or can look
at it through a good field-glass, you will see
that the Redwing has a light line over the
eye, and that its sides are of a reddish
orange colour.

Great numbers of Redwings spend the
winter in our pastures and meadows, feeding
upon worms, snails and grubs. They do
not stay to breed with us, however, but
retire in the spring to northern Europe,
where they rear their young.

When they come back again in the
autumn, they can often be heard calling to
each other at night time, whilst flying over
towns and cities.

Although Redwings may be found in
June breeding close to large snowdrifts on

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32 Baby Birds at Home

the mountains of Norway, they are by no
means hardy birds. In fact, they are rather
delicate, and amongst the first of our
feathered friends to creep into holes and
die during long periods of hard frost.

The song of the Redwing is a very poor
affair when compared with that of the
common thrush. It consists of two or three
oft-repeated notes, and is apt to grow weari-
some when one hears nothing else in a lonely
forest.

The nest is generally placed in a juniper
or other low bush, and both it and the eggs
resemble those of the blackbird, excepting
for the fact that they are smaller.

Baby Redwings behave just like young
song thrushes. If a twig should shake near
the nest, every head is thrust high in the
air and each little mouth is opened wide in
request of a tit-bit.

The parent birds both protest loudly if
you find and examine their little home.
The cock will sometimes fly straight at you
as if he intended to strike you in the face,
but generally rises over your head, upon
getting quite close, and, alighting in a birch
tree, scolds loudly against your intrusion.

The Little Owl

ALTHOUGH common throughout the
centre and south of Europe, the Little
Owl was at one time only an accidental visitor
to England. Since the days of the amusing
old naturalist Waterton, however, many
people have brought specimens over from
Greece, Italy, Holland, Spain and other
countries, and turned them loose, until it is
now quite a numerous species in many parts
of England.

The Little Owl was greatly esteemed by
the ancient Greeks, and is said to have
been the favourite bird of the Goddess of
Wisdom.

You will recognise it quite easily, whether
you see it on the wing or at rest, because it
is much smaller in size than any other owl
in our country, and flies about in search of
its prey just as much by day as it does by
night.

The Little Owl is brown on its upper

F 33

34 Baby Birds at Home

parts, marked with whitish oval spots, and
greyish white underneath, streaked with
brown. The female is only some eight-and-a
half inches in length, and her mate even some-
what smaller.

Mice, small birds, moths, grasshoppers,
beetles, worms, and all kinds of insects are
greedily eaten by this bird.

Holes in old trees, rocks, and the roofs of
houses are used for breeding purposes. The
eggs number from four to six, are oval in
shape, and pure white.

The Little Owl breeds close to London
and is a great hater of cats, crying out in
angry chattering notes whenever it espies one
of these animals.

Although mobbed by blackbirds, chaf-
finches, and other feathered creatures, who
have reason to dislike it, this wee owl feeds its
young ones, all day long, in the most uncon-
cerned manner. It darts like a flash into
the nesting hole with the food, and if there
is anything in the neighbourhood calculated
to arouse its suspicions, peeps out cautiously
to see if the coast is clear before leaving
home again. The young are clothed in soft,
white down, and look very quaint.

CORMORANTS.

The Common Cormorant

THE Common Cormorant is decidedly a
bird of character and intelligence.
Both the Chinese and Japanese have for cen-
turies trained it to catch fish for them, and it
is interesting to note, by the way, that this
peculiar sport was introduced into Europe
some time during the seventeenth century.
James I. of England was very fond of watch-
ing his trained Cormorants catch fish for him,
and his son Charles I. inherited his father's
tastes in this direction.

This bird is easily tamed and soon be-
comes attached to its owner.

A pair of Cormorants has been known to
feed and rear a family of young ravens, whose
parents had met with an untimely end.

The Cormorant secures its prey by diving
and swimming under water after it, and can
swallow fish of large size. After a meal
you may often see a number of these birds
standing in a row on some rock, with heads

35

36 Baby Birds at Home

raised and wings stretched out in full en-
joyment of a rest in the sunshine.

Tall tree tops, ledges on cliffs, or low rocky
islands, will suit the Cormorant equally well
for breeding purposes.

The nest is a bulky structure, made of
sticks and seaweed, and lined with coarse
grass. It does not matter much, however,
whether it is a child's whip, or the skeleton
of a seagull, this bird will utilise it as
building material.

Three eggs are generally laid, but as
many as five or six may be found in a clutch.
They are small for the size of the bird, and
pale blue in colour. The real shell is usually
hidden by a thick coating of chalk, which can
be scraped off quite easily with a pocket-
knife.

Young Cormorants are hatched absolutely
naked, and as their shiny skins are bluish-
black, they look rather ugly. In a few days,
however, they grow a coat of dusky black
down, and when old enough to swim and
dive are said to be carried on the backs of
their parents down to the sea. They are
exceedingly nervous, and appear to be panic-
stricken, if you handle them in the nest.

The Garden Warbler

THE Garden Warbler is a little brown
bird of retiring habits. It is about six
inches in length, but cannot very well be
mistaken for a female blackcap if the fact is
remembered that it has no rusty brown on
the top of its head ; or for the whitethroat,
because the colour under its bill and on
its breast is a dull lightish brown.

It is a migratory bird arriving from the
South towards the end of April or beginning
of May, and returning again to its winter
quarters in September and October.

The song of the male is considered by
many nature-lovers to be almost as good as
that of the blackcap, and several of its notes
may easily be mistaken for those of that
favourite Warbler. They are of the same
bright, pure, musical quality, but not quite
so powerful, and are delivered in a rather
more hurried manner.

Concealed in some thick bush the Garden

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38 Baby Birds at Home

Warbler will, if undisturbed, pour forth its
sweet music by the hour together.

It is fond of quiet gardens and secluded
woods, with plenty of thick undergrowth,
where it can find caterpillars and insects in
peace. Later in the summer it feeds upon
currants, raspberries, elderberries and other
kinds of fruit.

The nest is made of straws, rootlets and
blades of grass, and occasionally wool and
moss are also used, the inside being lined
with horsehair. It is generally built a few
feet from the ground, in thorn, brier, bramble
or gooseberry bushes. Sometimes it may be
found amongst nettles, growing peas, or even
in rough grass in woods, thick hedgerows,
gardens, orchards and shrubberries.

The eggs number four or five, although
six may on some occasions be found. They
vary in colour from white to greenish white,
or yellowish grey, blotched and spotted with
varying shades of brown, olive and ash grey.

When you find the nest with chicks in it
the parent birds appear to be greatly con-
cerned, and scold you in notes that sound like
" tech." You can easily imitate them by tap-
ping two pebbles together.

4

<

HOODY CROWS

The Hoody Crow

THE Hoody, or Grey Crow, as it is fre-
quently called, is a winter visitor to
England, but breeds in both Scotland and
Ireland. Its habits are in nearly every re-
spect exactly like those of the Carrion Crow,
with which it sometimes mates and rears
a family.

You cannot mistake this bird very easily
for any other, whether you see it at rest or
on the wing. It is about twenty inches in
length and its head, wings and tail are shin-
ing black, whilst the back and underparts
are of a smoky grey.

It is detested by gamekeepers because of
its bad character as an egg thief, and is
therefore ruthlessly trapped and shot.

In Scotland it generally nests on ledges
in cliffs, or amongst the long heather on the
ground, but in Scandinavia, where it is very
numerous, it builds in trees just as the Carrion
Crow does in England and Wales. No doubt

40 Baby Birds at Home

in remote ages, when its haunts north of the
Tweed were covered with trees, it bred in
them, but when the forests disappeared, it
adapted itself to conditions as it found them.

The nest is made of sticks, twigs, dry sea-
weed and heather, with an inner lining of
moss, wool, and hair.

The eggs number from three to six, and
are greyish green in colour, spotted with
different shades of greenish brown.

Baby Grey Crows are very ugly little
creatures when they are hatched, but in
course of time grow quite handsome.

When they have left the nest, and before
they can fly far, they sit about on rocks, and
if they should happen to catch sight of one
of their parents, ever so far off, up go their
heads, and with widely opened mouths they
begin to call " Yah! Yah! Yah!" In Norway
they do this whilst sitting about on the
branches of trees, and thus frequently betray
their presence.

During hard weather in the winter Hoody
Crows may often be seen walking along the
seashore looking for food, and it does not
matter whether they come upon a dead fish
or a tired bird they will make a meal off it.

CHAFFINCHES.

The Chaffinch

THE Chaffinch is almost as well known
as the house sparrow. The bluish
ash colour of the male's head and his reddish
brown breast, render him almost as striking
in appearance as the bullfinch.

In the autumn the males and females of
this species separate, and many members of
both sexes leave the country altogether and
go south in search of a more genial climate.
Those that remain with us, however, always
seem to be very cheerful whilst they are
hopping about in farmyards and gardens in
search of seeds.

The male Chaffinch is a great singer, and
if the weather be mild and open he begins
to try over his ringing little ditty quite
early in the spring. His song has been
likened to the words, " Will you, will you
kiss me, dear ? " and at the height of the
season is practised over thousands of times
every day.

G 41

42 Baby Birds at Home

The nest is built in the fork of a small
tree, in orchards, woods, rough old hedge-
rows, on commons, and by streams. It is a
beautifully neat and compact little home.
The outside is made of moss, wool, lichens,
and cobwebs cleverly woven together, and
the inside is lined with feathers, hair, and
down. Occasionally the structure is decorated
on the outside with bits of paper.

From four to six eggs are laid, of a pale
greenish blue colour tinged with faint
reddish brown, and streaked and spotted
with dark reddish brown.

When you find the nest of a Chaffinch
the female hardly ever fails to scold you
severely if you disturb her. Her ringing
notes of protest sound something like
"pink, pink, pink!'

Baby Chaffinches are not fed upon seeds,
but upon caterpillars and insects. They
consume great quantities of food, and in
consequence keep their parents hard at
work all day long long searching for it.

They all resemble their mother in
plumage until they moult their first coat
of feathers in the autumn, when the males
become like their father.

KESTRELS.

The Kestrel

IF a large bird is seen hovering almost
motionless in the air with outspread
wings and tail, it is almost certain to be a
Kestrel looking for its prey. It is one of
the farmer's best friends. Gamekeepers used
to think that it was a great enemy of their
young pheasants, partridges and grouse, and
trapped and shot the bird in the most merci-
less manner. Now they know better and
many of them spare its life.

This species feeds upon mice, voles,
frogs, and beetles, but occasionally an in-
dividual bird will develop the bad habit
of killing and eating chicks.

In many parts of the country the Kestrel
is known as the " Windhover/' This is a
very good common name, because it describes
so well the bird's peculiar habit of hanging
in the air when scanning the ground below
for its prey.

You can frequently see the Kestrel from

43

44 Baby Birds at Home

the windows of a railway train as you glide
through the country, for although it is a
rather shy bird, it is bold enough to sit quite
still on a telegraph wire, whilst an express
rattles past it at full speed.

The Windhover does not make a nest.
She sometimes uses the old home of a
magpie or carrion crow, and at others lays
her eggs in a hole in a tree, old ruin, or
on a ledge, in an overhanging cliff.

From four to seven eggs are laid. These
are of a creamy- white colour, thickly blotched
and clouded with reddish brown.

Baby Kestrels are covered with a plenti-
ful supply of down, and fed by both parent
birds. The writer watched a family of these
chicks on one occasion for the whole of a
summer's day, and the food brought to the
eyrie consisted entirely of voles and beetles.

Upon fledging, young Windhovers scatter
and sit about amongst the trees in different
parts of a wood. If you remain quite still
for half an hour or so, and are well hidden,
you will hear them calling "kek, kek, kek,"
from different quarters. They are hungry
and are calling out in order that one or
other of their parents may bring them food.

KITTIWAKES.

The Kittiwake

THE Kittiwake is the smallest gull found
breeding in the British Islands, and this
fact, coupled with the dusky colour of its legs
and feet, will readily help to distinguish it
from any other sea-bird found round our coast.

It always breeds on ledges and in crevices
of sea cliffs, and is never found nesting on the
ground like the common gull.

In St. Kilda, the Shetlands, and on many
cliffs round the coast of Ireland, it breeds in
countless thousands, and always tells the
nature lover its name when he or she comes
near its nesting-place, by crying out in a loud
penetrating voice two notes that sound like
"kitti-wake, kitti-wake, kitti-wake" People who
do not know much about birds upon hearing
it for the first time think it is someone telling
them to " get-away, get-away."

Ever such a narrow ledge or small corner
will, as may be seen from our illustration,
serve the little Kittiwake for her nest, but

45

46 Baby Birds at Home

the growing young ones cannot stir about
much until they are able to fly. If they
were to attempt to do so they would in all
probability fall into the sea far below, and
be dashed to death by the rough waves beat-
ing against the rocks.

This gull's nest is made of dry seaweed
and bits of dead grass. The eggs number
from two to four, of a yellow to buffish-brown
colour, thickly spotted and blotched with
varying shades of brown.

Nestling Kittiwakes are covered with
down, which is white on the head and under-
pays, and buffish coloured on the shoulders
and sides. The back is of a greyish tint.

The principal food of this species con-
sists of small fishes that swim near the
surface of the sea.

In olden times people used to eat the flesh
of this gull and some of them considered it as
good as that of the partridge.

Quite recently the wings of young Kitti-
wakes were in great demand by ladies, who
decorated their hats and bonnets with them.
It is to be hoped that such a thoughtless
practice has quite died out, because it was
attended by the most abominable cruelty.

LONG-EARED OWLS.

The Long-Eared Owl

THIS handsome Owl is commoner than
many people imagine. Its habit of
hiding by day, in the darkest recesses of pine
forests and other unfrequented places, makes
it appear rarer than it actually is.

The so-called "long ears" are really not
ears at all, but tufts of feathers about an inch
and a half in length growing on the top of
the head. They can be raised or lowered at
will by the bird.

No nest whatever is made by the Long-
Eared Owl. If it cannot find the old home
of a crow, wood-pigeon, magpie or squirrel, it
simply descends to the ground and lays its
four or five white oval-shaped eggs in a
hollow under a stunted pine or amongst long-
heather.

The young ones are hatched about the
beginning of April in the south of England,
but later in Scotland. They are quaint look-
ing little fellows, covered with fluffy white

47

48 Baby Birds at Home

down. During cold wet weather you will find
their mother covering them with her wings,
spread out very much like a barn-door fowl
brooding a large family of chicks. If she is
not doing this you may rely upon it that she
is sitting in a tree not far off, intently watch-
ing the place where her young ones abide.
Should you ,be lucky enough to find her
family, she will most likely surprise you by
suddenly emerging from her place of hiding
and flying close over your head.

Sometimes in her anger and alarm she
will smack her wings together over her back
and beneath her body, and if this does not
succeed in driving you away she will resort
to a very cunning trick. Disappearing from
view, she will startle you by screaming out
like a rabbit in pain, and upon going in the
direction of the distressing sounds, you will
in all probability find her lying on the ground
with both wings stretched out. This clever
ruse has been put into practice in order to
draw you away from her young ones.

Long-eared Owls feed their chicks upon
voles, rats, mice, and small birds, for which
they may frequently be seen hunting during
broad daylight.

HERON.

The Common Heron

THIS is a very easy feathered friend to
recognise. It is large in size, and
beats its wings at a slower rate than any
other British bird.

Whilst in the air it is obliged to stretch
its long legs out behind and curve its giraffe-
like neck in order to balance itself.

During the breeding season Herons con-
gregate in some wood or plantation, and
build their large nests of sticks, twigs, rootlets
and grass near the tops of the trees.

They do not always breed in colonies,
for occasionally a solitary pair of birds may
be found nesting on a ledge in the face of
a sea cliff, or even upon the ground. Their
eggs number from three to five and are of a
pale greenish-blue colour.

Baby Herons are covered with down.
That growing upon their heads is long and
shaggy, and makes them look like wee Skye
terriers. In cool weather they huddle to-

H 49

50 Baby Birds at Home

gether in the nest for warmth, until, at a little
distance, they look just like one bundle of
fluffy down. They are fed upon eels, frogs,
trout and other kinds of fish, and, when
they sit up to receive their food, look very
ungainly.

Our illustration shows a young Heron
that has just fledged, but is not able to fly
very far.

When the breeding season is over Herons
scatter up and down the countryside, and
may frequently be seen fishing in ponds, by
the sea-shore, and in the shallow parts of
rivers. They do not dive and swim after
their prey in the same way that cormorants
do, but just stand still in the water until a
fish swims close to them. Then the long neck
is darted out, and the Heron's lance-like bill
is driven right through the body of the
unwary victim.

A Heron is gifted with plenty of patience,
and will sometimes stand stock-still in one
place for hours. If a water-rat is rash
enough to swim past, it is all the same to
the bird, he is speared through the head,
shaken free and then swallowed whole with-
out any trouble.

I

The Cole Tit

F care is not exercised one is liable at
first sight to mistake this bird for its
less widely distributed relative, the Marsh
Tit. Both are of about the same size and
general appearance, and their habits do not
differ very widely. There is, however, one
point of difference which secures the identity
of each. The Marsh Tit is all black on the
crown and back of the head, whereas the
Cole Tit has a broad white mark running
down the back of its head.

The call notes, too, differ, but it would
be hard to describe to what extent in
words ; experience in the woods alone can
reveal this.

The Cole Tit is a frequenter of planta-
tions, woods and spinneys, where you may
see it busy the livelong day industriously
examining crevices and crannies in the
trunks and branches of trees for larvae.

It does not matter to this nimble little

52 Baby Birds at Home

gymnast whether it is standing on a branch,
clinging upside down underneath it, or
swinging at the very tip of a long slender
twig, it is equally at home and always
happy and vivacious.

Insects form the chief food of this species
during the spring and summer, but through-
out the autumn and winter, seeds, berries,
and the kernels of nuts become acceptable.
It is readily attracted to the garden by
hanging out a meat bone or the kernels of
Barcelona nuts.

The Cole Tit makes its nest in holes in
trees, stumps, old walls and dry banks. It
is built of dead grass, moss, wool, hair,
feathers and down.

The eggs number from five to as many
even as ten, although seven or eight may
generally be found. They are white with
light red spots and freckles, and bear a re-
markable resemblance to those of the Marsh
Tit. The sitting bird hisses like a snake, if
molested.

Young Cole Tits wear the distinguish-
ing white mark of their species at the
back of the head, as soon as they grow
their feathers.

The Hedge Sparrow

THIS familiar little bird is not a sparrow
at all, as may readily be seen from the
appearance of its slender bill. It really be-
longs to the Warbler family.

It hops about in gardens, orchards, parks,
and woods all the summer long, picking up
caterpillars and insects.

The male never seems to be tired of rattl-
ing off his sweet and merry little song.
Whether it be in error or simply an over-
flowing of the joy within his little heart it is
impossible to say, but he occasionally breaks
into song at night-time.

In the winter Hedge Sparrows leave the
woods and alter their diet. As there are
very few insects to be found they hop round
fowl-runs, farmyards, and dwelling-houses, in
search of seeds, crumbs, and other trifles.

You can always be sure of the call-note
of the Hedge Sparrow. It is a plaintive and
rather shrill "peep-peep."

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54 Baby Birds at Home

People who dislike the name of Sparrow
for this species call it the Hedge Accentor,
and in many parts of the country it is known
as the " Dunnock."

The nest is made of slender twigs, rootlets,
dead grass and moss; the inside being neatly
lined with pieces of wool, hair, feathers, and
down. Slender twigs are only used sparingly
for the foundations, and are sometimes absent
altogether. It is a very pretty sight to
watch a Hedge Sparrow lining her nest.
She places each piece of hair or down where
she intends it to stay, and then twirling
round and round presses her breast against
the inside of the structure, thus giving the
lining a smooth felt-like appearance.

The eggs are of a beautiful turquoise blue
colour and number from four to six.

Baby Hedge Accentors grow very quickly,
and when they leave the nest scatter and tell
their parents where to find them with food
by constantly calling in low sweet notes.
The chicks shown in the accompanying illus-
tration belonged to a second brood reared
in the same nest, and only fledged when the
apples in the writers orchard were quite
large at the end of July.

The Willow Grouse

THE Willow Grouse or Ripa is not found
in the British Islands, although it in-
habits the northern portions of both the Old
and the New World. Many people consider
that our red grouse is only a local represen-
tative of this species and that it does not turn
white in winter because our mild open climate
renders such a change in the colour of its
plumage unnecessary.

Although the summer plumage of the
Ripa is very similar to that of the red grouse,
the flight feathers are always white and make
the bird look very conspicuous when it rises
and flies away from the observer. In winter
the whole of its feathers become pure white
excepting the outer tail quills, which, curi-
ously enough, remain black.

The call notes are exactly like those of
the red grouse, and if you heard them, with
your eyes closed, you might easily imagine
yourself on a Scottish moor.

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56 Baby Birds at Home

The Willow Grouse is found where birch
and willow trees grow amongst heather and
juniper. In Norway it inhabits the moun-
tain sides above where the fir trees grow and
the capercaillie and black grouse live, and
below the bare ridges where the ptarmigan
is found. Unlike the red grouse, this species
generally roosts in trees.

The nest of the Willow Grouse is made
on the ground amongst heather and juniper
bushes. It consists of a slight hollow very
scantily lined with small pieces of dead, dry
vegetation.

The eggs are very similar in all respects
to those of the red grouse, and the chicks do
not differ in appearance.

If you suddenly come upon a mother
Willow Grouse brooding her chicks she com-
mences to run round and round you, flapping
her wings as if injured and unable to fly.
This clever ruse is practised in order to
attract your attention and give her young
ones an opportunity of scattering and hiding
in the undergrowth. No sooner have they
done this than their mother mounts the air
and flies off.

WHEATEARS.

The Wheatear

THE Wheatear is a stout little bird about
six inches in length. The top of its
head, nape, and back are of a bluish grey
colour tinged with light brown. The end of
its body and upper part of the tail are pure
white. That is why the bird looks like a
large snowflake when flying away from you
in a dull light. A streak over the eye, its
wings, and the tip of its tail are nearly black.
Chin and throat are dull white, and the under-
pays creamy white. The female is browner
and duller in colour generally.

This bird loves wild moorland country
where rocks and solitude are to be found ; it
is frequently, however, met with inhabiting
pastures and arable land in the North. It
has a habit of perching on stone walls and
rocks and waiting until you walk quite close
to it, then flying on in front of you and
alighting on some large stone or knoll near
which you are almost sure to pass. Whilst

I 57

58 Baby Birds at Home

it is waiting for you it will often behave in
a manner suggestive of anger. Ducking its
body, drooping its wings, and spreading out
its tail for an instant, it utters a note sound-
ing like " chick, chack."

The Wheatear is not a very accomplished
vocalist, but his song is pretty and generally
delivered on the wing.

A hole amongst rocks, in a stone wall,
bank, or old peat stack is used as a nesting
place. The structure is formed of rootlets,
dry grass, and moss, with an inner lining of
wool, hair, feathers, or rabbit's down.

The eggs number five or six, and are pale
greenish blue in colour.

Young Wheatears are fed by both parent
birds upon caterpillars, moths, beetles, and
all kinds of insects. They do not leave the
nest until they can fly quite strongly, but
very soon learn to find their own food and
take care of themselves.

During July Wheatears gradually work
their way south, and leave us for their
winter quarters in Africa and other warm
countries, to appear again, if the weather
should be mild and open, as early as February
or March.

The Ring Ouzel

THE Ring Ouzel is a bird of lonely crag-
strewn glens and solitary mountain-
sides. In size and shape it is very much
like the common blackbird. Its plumage is
dull black, the intensity of which is modified
by many of the feathers being edged with
dark grey. Across the breast is a broad
crescent of pure white, hence its common
name of Ring Ouzel. The female is similar
in appearance to the male, except for the facts
that she is somewhat lighter coloured, and
the crescent on her chest is narrower and of
a dirty white.

The Rock Thrush, as it is sometimes called,
arrives in England in April. It is occasionally
seen close to London during its spring migra-
tion, and in the neighbourhood of Brighton
and other towns on the South Coast in
September and October, during its autumn
journey to southern Europe, where it spends
the winter. It breeds in nearly all districts

59

60 Baby Birds at Home

suiting its habits, in the west and north
of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.

During the spring and summer its food
consists of worms, snails, grubs, and beetles,
but in the autumn it varies this diet with
all kinds of berries, and is especially fond
of those of the mountain ash, for which
it will enter even the front gardens of
houses in large towns during its autumn
migration.

The nest is built in all kinds of situations.
Sometimes quite on the ground, and at others
in a hole in an old stone wall, on a ledge in
a small cliff, amongst heather growing on
a steep bank, and, upon rare occasions, in
a holly bush. The structure is an exact
imitation of that of the blackbird, but is, of
course, found in more solitary localities.

The eggs number four or five, of a bluish
green colour, freckled and spotted with brown.
The markings are, as a rule, larger and farther
apart than those found on the eggs of the
blackbird.

The young ones in their first plumage do
not resemble either of their parents. There
is no white crescent on the breast, which is
a mixture of black and sandy buff.

SPOONBILLS.

The Spoonbill

THE Spoonbill measures about two feet
eight inches in length, when full grown.
Its plumage is white all over, except on the
crown of the head and part of the neck,
w^here a buffish tinge is observable. At the
back of the head the feathers are consider-
ably lengthened and form a magnificent
crest. In olden times this beautiful bird used
to breed in Norfolk and Suffolk, and even
as close to London as Fulham. It was
banished, however, by the drainage of many
of its favourite marshes, and, it is to be
feared, the too free use of guns. Small
flocks still visit the Norfolk coast during the
spring and summer, and form an interesting
sight on Breydon Broad, close to Great Yar-
mouth. Here they evidently appreciate the
watchfulness of the seagulls, for they like to
take a nap or feed in the society of these
wary birds.

The Spoonbill is fond of frequenting

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62 Baby Birds at Home

mud flats, where it feeds upon water-snails,
small fishes, frogs, insects, and the buds
and leaves of water-plants. During flight
flocks of these birds travel in single file with
outstretched necks and legs. The species
arrives in Europe as a rule during the
month of April, and after breeding in
Holland, Spain, and other countries, retires
southward again in September and October.

The nest is made of a few dead reeds
formed into a rough kind of platform, a few
inches above the water in some swamp. In
India this bird breeds in trees along with
herons, just as it used to do in England in
olden times. Five or six eggs, of a dull,
chalky white, spotted and streaked with
reddish brown, are laid.

The nestlings are covered with w T hite
down and are fed by their parents in the
same way that young pigeons are fed. Pro-
portionately their bills are not so large as
those of the old birds, and are, as might be
expected, softer in texture.

It is easy to see from our illustration
why this bird has had given to it the com-
mon name of Spoonbill. In Norfolk it is
also known as the " Banjo-bill."

The Great Tit

THIS is the largest and most handsome
member of the Titmouse family inhabit-
ing our country. His black head, white
cheeks, olive green back, and yellow under-
pays divided from the chin downwards by a
black line render him quite unmistakable
even to the most careless observer. The
male is easily distinguished from the female
by the fact that the black line down the
centre of his breast is broader and more
defined.

The Great Tit, or Oxeye, as it is frequently
called, is common in orchards, gardens, woods,
plantations, and wherever trees and shrubs
abound. It feeds upon grubs, caterpillars,
and insects in summer, but in winter will
readily devour the kernels of hazel nuts,
which it splits by repeatedly hammering with
its powerful bill, Indian corn thrown down
in woods for pheasants and almost any other
kind of grain. Along with other tits it can

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64 Baby Birds at Home

be attracted to the garden by hanging out a
meat bone, a coco-nut divided into two, or the
kernels of Barcelona nuts. It is a strong,
active, fearless bird, with a call note some-
thing like that of the chaffinch, " pink, pink."
In the springtime this is varied by another,
highly suggestive of the sounds made by
the process of sharpening a saw with a file.

The nest is built in holes in trees, old
walls, underneath plant pots standing upside
down in gardens, and occasionally in the old
home of a crow, magpie, or even that of a
blackbird. The writer has on two occasions
found a Great Tit sitting on a clutch of eggs
laid in the old home of the last mentioned
bird, which had been lined with rabbits'
down. It is made of dry grass, moss, hair,
wool, and feathers, and two broods are some-
times reared in the same structure in a
season.

The eggs are white spotted and freckled
with pale red marks, and, as a rule, number
seven or eight, although as many as twelve
may upon occasion be found.

The chicks are fed by both parent birds,
and a few days before fledging become very
noisy in their clamourings for food.

The Common Gull

THE Common Gull is very much like the
herring gull in appearance. Its head
and neck are snowy white and the back and
wings pearl grey, the latter tipped with
black and white. The under parts are pure
white. It is, however, only some eighteen
inches in length and has yellowish green
legs, whereas the herring gull is about
twenty-four inches long and has flesh-
coloured legs.

Although plentiful all round our coast dur-
ing the winter, this species, curiously enough,
rarely breeds either in England or Wales,
in spite of the fact that it does so com-
monly in certain parts of Scotland and in
the north and west of Ireland.

The nest is built amongst heather and
coarse grass, on ledges and in crevices of rocks
on the sea-shore, and upon islands in both
salt and fresh water lochs. It is made of
heather, dry seaweed and grass, and is fre-

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66 Baby Birds at Home

quently a rather bulky structure. In Scot-
land, where small islands abound in some of
the great sea lochs, the Common Gull is often
robbed by rats, so large and fierce, that they
occasionally kill and eat the sitting bird on
her nest.

From two to four eggs are laid, although
the number found is generally three. These
are buffish brown or dark olive brown in
colour, marked with dark brown blotches
and spots.

Young Common Gulls soon leave the nest
and squat about in the heather or grass, not
far from where they have been hatched.
They are fed upon scraps of fish, worms and
grubs, and the writer has seen their parents
visit a heronry near the sea, in order to pick
up any unconsidered trifle dropped by their
neighbours. One gull actually had the bold-
ness to alight on the edge of a nest contain-
ing three young herons, and seize a piece
of fish, with which it flew off.

When they are old enough to fly for a
short distance their mother takes great
pains to prevent them from wandering near
any place she considers dangerous.

STONECHATS.

The Stonechat

THE Stonechat inhabits furze-clad com-
mons, and rough, uncultivated tracts
of land where juniper, bracken, and bramble
grow in profusion. Unless care is taken the
female of this species may easily be mistaken
for its relative the whinchat.

The male is about five inches in length ;
its head, nape, throat, back, wings, and tail
are black, with rusty edgings to many of the
feathers. On the sides of the neck, wings,
and at the root of the tail, are patches of
white. The breast and under parts are dark
rust colour. The female is sandy brown on
her head and back, streaked with black ; the
white patches on her neck and wings are not
so large and conspicuous as in her mate, and
the base of her tail is rusty red. You can
distinguish her from the whinchat, if you
take care to remember that the latter bird
has a white spot at the base of its tail and
no black on the throat.

68 Baby Birds at Home

The Stonechat is fond of perching on the
tops of furze and other bushes, but never stays
long in one place, fluttering in the air to catch
some passing insect, or descending to the
ground to pick up a grub. Its call-note
sounds like " u-tack" and its short, soft, low
song is frequently delivered on the wing.

A good many Stonechats stay with us all
the year round.

The nest is very difficult to find, and both
parent birds guard their secret by trying to
decoy intruders away from its presence. It
is situated on or near the ground amongst
heather, rough tangled grass, or at the foot
of a gorse bush, and is built of rootlets, dry
grass and moss, with an inner lining of hair,
wool, or feathers.

From four to six, or even seven, eggs are
laid. These are pale bluish green in colour,
spotted round the larger end with reddish
brown.

The young ones fledge before they are able
to fly very far, and sit about amongst the
furze bushes or heather, calling from differ-
ent quarters to their parents for food, and
the old birds may be seen alighting first in
one place and then another, with insects.

SKYLARKS.

The Skylark

POETS of all ages have loved the Skylark,
and praised its wonderful song in many
a pretty line. Its habits of rising early in the
morning and singing whilst it mounts the air
have given writers of verse a great oppor-
tunity of displaying their descriptive powers.
In Scotland this bird is called the Lave-
rock, and Burns, who had every chance, in
his early days, of making himself acquainted
with its ways, wrote of it —

"The waken'd laverock, warbling, springs,
And climbs the early sky
Winnowing blithe her dewy wings
In morning's rosy eye."

The Skylark is larger than any of the
pipits found breeding in this country, and
not easily mistaken for its much rarer rela-
tive the woodlark. The latter bird is smaller,
has a much shorter tail, and a noticeable
light yellowish streak running over its eye.

This favourite songster is common all over

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70 Baby Birds at Home

the British Islands during the spring and
summer, and in the winter its numbers are
swollen by the arrival of great flocks from
the colder parts of Europe.

The cock commences to sing as early as
the month of February, if the weather should
be mild and open, and towards the end of
the breeding season may sometimes be
heard whilst he is standing on the ground
or perched on a bush. His song is full of
melody and delight, but is occasionally
marred by notes borrowed from other birds.

The nest is made on the ground in the
shelter of a tuft of grass or heath. In fallow
fields it may be found quite in the open. It
is built of dry grass and rootlets. Sometimes
a few horse-hairs are used for lining it.

Four or five eggs of a dirty white colour,
thickly spotted with varying shades of brown,
are laid.

Baby Skylarks have little tufts of down
on their heads and backs when they are
hatched, and do not see for several days.
They are fed by both parent birds, and when
they fledge, scatter in the grass or amongst
the clods, and soon begin to try to find food
for themselves.

COMMON CURLEW.

The Curlew

THE Curlew's favourite resorts in winter-
time are the extensive sand flats
and mud banks found round our coast.
Here it can follow the receding tide and
use its six inches or more of downward
curved bill to its heart's content, probing
for worms and other creatures upon which
it feeds. In passing it may be mentioned
that the bird finds it long bill very useful
during the summer-time, in extracting dung
beetles from their tunnels in the ground.

When the flowing tide has covered the
Curlew's feeding ground, the bird flies off to
some field in the open country not far off,
and waits patiently until the ebb has left
the sand flats and mud banks bare again.

If you are not careful you may mistake
the whimbrel or May fowl for the Curlew.
It is similar in appearance, but smaller,
and has a different note.

About the end of March or beginning
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72 Baby Birds at Home

of April, Curlews leave the seashore, and
resort to the fells, moors, and uplands,
where they pair for the breeding season. It
is then you hear to perfection their wild,
musical notes, the commonest of which
sounds like " corlieu " or " curlew"

The nest is made on the ground, and
consists of a few short bits of dead grass,
or rushes placed in a slight hollow.

Four eggs are nearly always laid,
although on some occasions only three are
found. They are olive green, or brownish
buff, marked with blackish brown, and dark
green spots.

Baby Curlews are covered with down
and leave the nest directly they are hatched,
and, as they are strong and long in the leg,
are well equipped for walking about in the
grass, short heather, or rushes. Curiously
enough, when young, their bills are neither
long nor curved, as you will see from the
accompanying illustration.

If the mother bird should see anything
dangerous approaching whilst her young
ones are running about with her, she sounds
her alarm note and they all instantly crouch
down and hide.

JACKDAW

The Jackdaw

A JACKDAW may be easily distinguished
from a rook, even at a distance, be-
cause he is smaller and beats his wings faster
as he flies. He is very fond of telling his
name to everybody and keeps calling " Jack"
as he flies. Close at hand the leaden grey
feathers on the back of his head and neck
are very noticeable.

Nearly every church tower in small towns
and villages affords breeding accommodation
for the Jackdaw, and in such conditions it
may be seen any day strutting along the
streets in search of food, or diligently sur-
veying rubbish heaps for any kind of edible
scraps they may yield.

On the other hand large colonies may be
found breeding in holes in the face of some
cliff, situated at quite a considerable distance
from the dwellings of man. It has been
written that Jackdaws never breed in the
branches of trees, but this is not quite

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74 Baby Birds at Home

accurate, as they do so in a thick spruce
wood in Cumberland. Holes in cliffs, old
ruins, church steeples, barns and trees are
favourite nesting situations. Sometimes a
chimney is selected.

The nest is made of sticks, twigs, moss,
wool, feathers, or whatever else happens to
come to hand. Sometimes it is a huge
structure, and at others quite a slight affair.
The writer has known a pair of Jackdaws
build a tower of sticks three feet high on the
loft of a barn, so as to have the top near their
entrance hole through the wall. Another
pair had taken possession of a crude nest,
made for them by a small boy, of twigs and
wool in a hole in one of the walls of the
same building.

Three to six eggs are laid of a pale
greenish blue, spotted and speckled with
dark brown and grey.

Young Jackdaws are noisy birds, and
generally betray their presence by constantly
asking for food, and positively clamouring
when one or other of their parents returns
home. When the fledglings lea,ve the nest
they generally sit about in trees for a
few days.

GREY LAG GEESE.

The Grey Lag Goose

THIS is the only member of the Goose
family that breeds in the British
Islands. In olden times it used to live all
the year round in the Fen districts of Lin-
colnshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, and
is supposed to have derived its common name
from the facts that it is grey in colour and
lagged behind other species of wild geese
to breed. Drainage of its old strongholds,
and a greatly increased human population,
have long since banished it as a breeding
bird, and it is now only found nesting spar-
ingly in the North-west Highlands, and more
numerously in the Outer Hebrides. In the
latter part of the country the writer has
found in one day as many as half a dozen
nests containing eggs. When they become
too numerous the Crofters, or small farmers,
complain of the damage done by the geese
treading down their uncut corn.

The Grey Lag Goose feeds upon grain,

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76 Baby Birds at Home

picked up in stubble fields, grass, and different
kinds of water plants. When flying in a flock,
the birds generally travel in the shape of the
letter V with the sharp base point of the
letter going first > .

A curious feature in the life of this bird
is, that it moults so rapidly, that for a time
it has not sufficient feathers in its wings
to lift its heavy body from the ground. At
this season it either goes into hiding, or
takes to large sheets of open water for safety.

The nest is made in deep heather, tall
rough grass, rushes or osiers. It is formed
of dead flags, heather or rushes, and is lined
with plentiful supplies of down and feathers
plucked from the bird's own body. Upon
leaving the nest of her own accord, the old
female covers her eggs carefully with down ;
this keeps them warm whilst she is away.

The eggs number from five to nine, and
are of a yellowish or creamy white colour.

Young Grey Lag Geese are covered with
down, and leave the nest almost directly after
they are hatched. It is a very pretty sight
to watch an old bird of this species proudly
swimming in a Highland loch, with her family
following in single file close behind her.

BROWN OWL.

The Brown or Tawny Owl

THIS is the bird we hear during winter
nights calling in woods like someone
lost. Its loud eerie notes " tu-whit tu-whoo "
may be heard in different parts of England,
Wales, and Scotland, but not in Ireland.
Occasionally it hoots during broad light of
day. The bird has yet another name, Wood
Owl, which is also a very suitable one
because it is a lover of woods, forests, and
parks where hollow old trees abound.

The Brown Owl feeds upon rats, voles,
mice, moles, and young rabbits, which it
seizes in its strong, sharp claws whilst they
are abroad feeding or playing in the twilight.

Some people think that owls can find
their prey when it is pitch dark, and that
they cannot see at all in broad daylight.
They are wrong in both cases. Owls cannot
see in absolute darkness any more than boys
and girls can, but they are able to do so in
daylight, although they prefer to sit and

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78 Baby Birds at Home

slumber with closed eyes in some shady
place until dusk. Their sight is specially
adapted for seeing things in half darkness,
and they easily capture small birds roosting
in trees and bushes. This is why blackbirds,
chaffinches, and other feathered dwellers in
woods mob the Brown Owl when they come
upon him asleep by day.

An owl's feathers are covered with fine
soft down. For this reason you do not hear
the bird's wings when it flies close over your
head, and it is enabled to steal upon its prey
unnoticed.

The Brown Owl does not make a nest
of any kind. It lays its three or four white
eggs in a hollow tree, cleft of rock in a cliff,
or a hole in the wall of some old building.

Baby owls are clothed in beautiful white
fluffy down, and when you find a brood of
these chicks, you will notice that they all
differ in size, just as the members of a family
of four or five boys and girls do. The fact
is, owls do not lay their eggs as quickly as
other birds. They rest two or three days
between each, and in consequence, the first
chick is hatched quite a long time before
the last one of the brood.

LESSER WHITETHROAT.

The Lesser Whitethroat

THIS little bird is far less numerous than
its better known relative, the Common
or Greater Whitethroat. You are most likely
to meet with it in the south and east of
England, whither it will return to a favourite
haunt in a thick old hedgerow, year after
year, with the utmost regularity.

It is a little over five inches in length,
light slaty grey in colour on its head, and
greyish brown on its upper parts. The wing
and tail feathers are dusky, edged with
greyish brown, whereas in the case of its
larger and better known relative, these
feathers are bordered with chestnut brown.
The throat and under parts are white,
faintly tinged on the breast and sides with
pink.

The Lesser Whitethroat, like many other
members of the Warbler family, spends the
winter in southern Europe and northern
Africa. Upon arriving in England in the

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80 Baby Birds at Home

spring it resorts to the most secluded hedge-
rows, old lanes, and thickets where it may
be seen by the quiet observer hopping about
from twig to twig carefully examining the
under side of leaf after leaf, in quick suc-
cession for insects. If it happens to catch
sight of you it will at once retire, and
most likely scold you for intruding upon its
privacy.

It is not a very accomplished musician,
but during sultry weather practises its notes
so persistently that they become monotonous
to some listeners.

The nest is generally built in a position
higher than that chosen by the Common
Whitethroat, but it is not so deep inside. It
is made of dead grass stems and cobwebs,
lined with horsehair or fine rootlets.

The four or five eggs are white or light
creamy white in colour, slightly tinged with
green, and spotted with ash grey and
greenish brown.

The chicks are very shy, and will hop out
of the nest and make their way through the
bramble or blackthorn bush, in which they
have been reared, even before they are able
to fly.

The Robin

WHO does not know and love Robin
Redbreast ? His gay appearance and
bold confiding manners endear him to young
and old alike. In the winter when Jack Frost
reigns supreme he frequents our window-sills
and doorsteps, with an air and attitude that
tell us quite plainly he not only wishes but
expects to be fed, and in the springtime he
repays our kindness by ridding the garden of
all the injurious grubs and insects he can find.
A cock Robin is not easily distinguished
from a hen of the species. He is just a
trifle larger and his colours are somewhat
brighter, that is all. Many boys and girls
have an idea that a wren is a female
Robin, and an old poet, making the same
great mistake, has written :

" The robin and the wren
Are God Almighty's ' cock and hen.' "

Robins are noted for the very odd
places in which they sometimes build their

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82 Baby Birds at Home

nests. The interiors of tea-pots, coffee-pots,
biscuit boxes, water cans, and even the
husks of coco-nuts are sometimes chosen.
The rusty water-can shown in our colour
photograph was lying on its side some
yards away from a newly-trimmed hedge,
and one day a cow walking along knocked
it over by accident with her foot, and all
the baby birds rolled out on the grass, but
were instantly replaced by the writer.

Many people believe that when young
Robins grow up they kill their parents,
but, of course, this is entirely wrong. The
fact is that when young birds are quite able
to take care of themselves, the old ones drive
them forth to find new homes.

Children who have seen Redbreasts
engaged in fierce encounters will be glad
to learn something of the other side of
their character. In the springtime a cock
Robin has been seen engaged in the
charitable work of feeding baby thrushes.

Young Robins in their first coat of
feathers do not at all resemble their
parents. Instead of having scarlet breasts
their feathers are a mixture of dark and
light brown.

The Blackbird

IN the North of England this very familiar
bird is known as the Black Ouzel, and
in Scotland as the Merle.

The most careless boy or girl must have
noticed how widely the hen differs in ap-
pearance from the cock. Instead of being
deep black all over, she is dark rusty brown,
mottled on the throat and breast with lighter
tints of the same colour. Neither is her bill
yellow all over like that of her mate.

We often see or hear about a pied Black-
bird. In some cases the bird will have white
marks on different parts of its body, and in
others it will be white all over, with black
spots and patches here and there.

Male Blackbirds sing generally during the
morning and evening. A warm spring shower
will, however, induce them to pour forth
sweet music during any hour of the day.

Some people say they cannot distinguish
the notes of this bird from those of the song-

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84 Baby Birds at Home

thrush. Those of the former are rich, flute-
like melodious strains delivered in an easy,
slow manner, whilst those of the latter are
ringing, hurried messages of hope that the
singer is determined you shall hear and not
forget.

The Blackbird builds its nest in ever-
greens, thorn bushes, hedges, small trees,
holes in old stone walls, on beams in sheds,
and almost anywhere and everywhere. It is
made of small twigs, rootlets, straws, moss and
mud, and lined with fine dead grass. From
four to six dull, bluish-green eggs thickly
spotted with reddish brown and grey are laid.

When well-fed the nestlings grow with
surprising quickness, and the parent birds
sometimes rear as many as three broods in
a season.

The male helps the female to find food for
the little ones in the nest, and between de-
livering one catch of worms and going in
search of another, he often mounts some tall
tree and gives vent to his happiness in a few
mellow notes.

If any accident should deprive the baby
Blackbirds of their mother, the father bird
will rear the little family by himself.

NIGHTINGALES.

The Nightingale

THIS wee brown bird, only some six
inches in length, is considered the most
wonderful feathered musician in the world.
Its superb song has been praised by writers
of all ages and all countries. Many people
who ought to know better think that the
exquisite notes of the Nightingale are only
uttered at night. Of course, this is a great
mistake, as the bird frequently sings by day,
but its voice is to some extent drowned in
the full chorus of the woods, and is therefore
not noticed by unpractised ears.

Arriving in the south of England during
April, male Nightingales soon make for their
favourite old haunts in woods, spinneys, gar-
dens, thick old hedgerows and other shady
retreats. They are followed by the females a
few days later.

Curiously enough, this bird, without any
reason known to man, will sometimes
utterly desert a favourite wood for years

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86 Baby Birds at Home

and then suddenly return and inhabit it
again.

The Nightingale is closely related to the
robin, and the two birds are very similar in
pose, and also in disposition and habits. If
their eggs are exchanged they will rear each
other's chicks without any difficulty.

The nest of this species is made of dry
grass stems, dead leaves, moss, and rootlets,
with an inner lining of fine dry grass and
horsehair. It is built on or close to the
ground near a stump, trunk of a tree, or in
a bank. Four, five, or even as many as six
eggs are laid, of a dark olive green or olive
brown colour.

The nestlings are fed by both parent birds
upon small caterpillars, moths, flies, and all
kinds of insects. The male Nightingale
generally ceases to sing as soon as the chicks
are hatched. The writer has, however, on
more than one occasion, heard one sing
immediately after having fed the chicks.

Young birds of this species are, in their
first coats of feathers, somewhat similar in
appearance to fledgling robins. During July
and August young and old wing their way
south for the winter.

%■'•'■ •*

« - -> *'* <#

STARLING

The Starling

NEARLY everybody knows the Starling,
for it is almost as common as the
house sparrow. Although an alert, wary
bird, it is by no means shy, especially during
the breeding season, or severe weather in
the winter, when it will visit gardens and
contend with any other feathered pensioner
for a share of our bounty. At such seasons
the bird is especially fond of fragments of
soaked dog biscuit.

The Starling feeds upon worms, grubs,
beetles and all kinds of injurious insects, but
in the cherry season it varies this diet by
visiting gardens and orchards in search of
dessert, to the anger of their owners, who do
not, alas ! always remember the old adage
that "one good turn deserves another/'

Flocks of Starlings may often be seen
feeding near sheep. Sometimes the birds
alight on the backs of these animals, hence
the name " Sheepster " we often hear this

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88 Baby Birds at Home

species called by farmers in the north of
England.

As a singer the Starling does not rank
very high. It will stand on a chimney-pot
or tree-top excitedly shuffling its wings and
with puffed- out throat feathers imitate other
birds' notes, but has very few of its own.

The nest is made of straw, hay, rootlets,
feathers, wool, pieces of string, or whatever
else may come in handy, and is placed in
holes in trees, roofs of houses, crevices of
rock, and amongst loose stones lying on steep
hillsides.

The eggs are pale blue in colour and
number four, five, or six in a clutch.

Young Starlings do not resemble their
parents in appearance. Instead of being
black, with green, purple, and bronzy sheen
reflections, they are of a uniform dull
greyish brown above and brownish white
underneath.

Nestling Starlings are always very hungry
and very noisy, and when they fledge one
family joins another, until by the height of
summer we see great flocks going to roost
every evening, in some favourite wood or
shrubbery.

GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL.

The Great Black-backed
Gull

THERE are two Black-backed Gulls found
breeding in the British Islands — the
Lesser and the Great. They are very similar
in appearance, but the bird under notice may
be readily distinguished by its greater size
and the fact that its legs and feet are flesh-
coloured, whereas those of the Lesser Black
are yellow.

The Great Black Back is our largest sea-
gull. It measures nearly thirty inches in
length and has a wing expanse of close
upon six feet, but is far less numerous than
its smaller relative. It is a terrible robber,
and will feed upon fish, the eggs and young
of other birds, and almost any kind of carrion.
Its strength is so great that it has been
known to fly off with a dead lamb.

Ledges of sea cliffs, the tops of ocean rock
stacks, the highest points of small islands

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go Baby Birds at Home

in the sea, and large fresh-water lochs, and
marshes on moors are chosen by this species
for breeding places.

The nest is made of seaweed, heather,
wool, and grass. Sometimes the structure
is very bulky and untidy, and at others a
mere hollow in the ground, lined with a few
blades of dead grass.

This species generally lays three eggs,
although upon occasion two only may be
found in a nest. They vary from yellowish
brown to light olive in ground colour, and are
marked with dark brown and slaty grey
blotches.

The nestlings are covered with ashy grey
down, marked especially on the head with
blackish brown. They leave the nest soon
after being hatched, if the situation provides
room for them to do so, and run about with
great freedom and strength. Their parents
are very wary and watchful, and if they
observe a boat approaching they at once
sound a hoarse alarm-note, and the young
birds either hide in the vegetation or squeeze
their bodies into some fissure in the rock
and remain absolutely still.

Jam

ARCTIC TERNS.

The Arctic Tern

THIS is one of the five Terns or Sea
Swallows that resort to the British
Islands in summer to breed. It is perhaps
the most numerous of them all ; next comes
the Common Tern, then the Sandwich,
followed by the Lesser, and the last and
rarest is the Roseate.

These birds are characterised by their
long pointed wings and forked tails, which
give them a rough resemblance to the barn
swallow.

The Arctic Tern is easily distinguished
from all its relatives excepting the Common
Tern, and as they frequently breed together,
and are of about the same size and general
appearance, you will need to exercise care in
properly identifying them. In each case they
are black on the crown of the head and nape
of the neck, and pearly grey on the back ; but
there is this well-marked distinction between
them. The bird under notice has its entire

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92 Baby Birds at Home

bill coloured pinky red, whereas that of the
Common Tern is pinky red tipped with
black.

The Arctic Tern arrives during April or
May, and soon resorts to its favourite haunt
on some low island, or unfrequented part of
the coast to breed. As a rule, it does not
make a nest of any kind, simply scratching
a slight hollow in the sand or shingle, or
selecting some little declivity on a bare piece
of rock.

The eggs number two or three and vary
in colour from bluish green to brownish buff,
spotted and blotched with different shades
of brown, and grey.

The chicks are covered with buffish brown
coloured down of variable tints, marked with
black. They run about soon after they are
hatched, and when alarmed squat amongst
the stones and shingle and hide, as shown in
our illustration.

Where great numbers of Arctic Terns
breed together, the chicks mingle in such
crowds that it is difficult to understand
how the parent birds recognise their own
young ones, when they return home with
food.

The Golden Eagle

IN olden times the Golden Eagle bred as far
south as Derbyshire, but the shepherd
and the gamekeeper have long since banished
it from its haunts in England and Wales, and
it is now only found nesting in the wildest
and most solitary parts of the Highlands
of Scotland, the Hebrides and the west of
Ireland, where it is, however, approaching
extinction.

It is a grand sight to watch this great
bird soaring upon outstretched wings far up
in the blue sky. The tips of its flight feathers
are bent upwards owing to the heavy weight
they have to sustain, and the light can
plainly be seen between them, just as old
Japanese artists have shown us in their
pictures.

The Golden Eagle, although called "the
king of birds/' is not gifted with the death-
dealing fierceness of the peregrine falcon, or
the dashing courage of the merlin. It feeds

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94 Baby Birds at Home

upon hares, rabbits, grouse, ptarmigan, occa-
sionally lambs, and frequently carrion.

In some Scottish deer forests it is now
preserved and encouraged because it keeps
down the number of mountain or blue hares.
When these animals become too numerous
they make deer-stalking very difficult, by
running about upon being disturbed by the
sportsman, and thus giving warning of danger
to the ever alert stags.

The Golden Eagle breeds on ledges in
cliffs and occasionally in trees, and is very
partial to an old haunt. The eyrie, as the
nest is called, is built of sticks, pieces of
heather, moss, fern-fronds, grass and occa-
sionally wool. Old eyries are repaired every
spring until they become very bulky. The
writer has seen one that would have filled the
body of an ordinary cart.

Two, and sometimes three, eggs are laid ;
these are dull white, clouded, blotched, and
spotted nearly all over with rusty brown.

Young Eagles grow slowly, and when they
have fledged and been taught how to catch
their prey, are driven away by their parents,
because too many birds of this species could
not find food in the same neighbourhood.

COOTS.

The Common Coot

THIS bird may not inaptly be described
as an enlarged edition of the moorhen.
Quite apart, however, from this difference in
size it can be readily distinguished by the
fact that the bare patch or shield on its
forehead is pure white, whereas that on
the forehead of its relative is red. We fre-
quently hear this species referred to as the
"Bald-headed Coot" in consequence of the
above-mentioned peculiarity.

The Common Coot frequents lakes, meres,
reservoirs, and sluggish rivers, and does not
take up its abode, as a rule, upon such small
ponds and streams as the moorhen.

It is found breeding in nearly all suit-
able places throughout the British Islands,
migrating during the winter from its frozen
haunts to such places as Poole Harbour
and Hickling Broad.

Its food consists of worms, slugs, water
insects, and different kinds of vegetation.

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96 Baby Birds at Home

The nest is made amongst osiers, rushes,
reeds, and other aquatic herbage found grow-
ing round large bodies of water. It is formed
at its base of all kinds of decaying water-
plants, for which the bird may sometimes be
seen industriously diving, and in its upper
parts of dry sedges, flags, reeds, and rushes.
The structure is generally built up from the
bottom of a shallow part of some lake or
mere, but is occasionally only moored to sur-
rounding reeds, from which it is liable to
become detached during floods or strong
winds and float away. The Coot does not
appear to mind this, however, for the writer
has seen one calmly sitting on her eggs
whilst the nest was drifting hither and
thither on a large reservoir.

The eggs number from seven to ten, of a
dingy stone colour, spotted all over with
brown. They are easily distinguished from
those of the moorhen, because of their larger
size and the fact that the markings on them
are smaller.

The chicks are clothed in black down,
some of the tips of which are hairlike and
white. They leave the nest directly they
are hatched.

NIGHTJARS.

The Nightjar

THE Nightjar, Goatsucker, or Fern Owl,
as this bird is variously known, has its
winter quarters in Africa. It arrives in
this country during the month of May,
and after the breeding season is over, retires
in September on its long southward journey.

It is a lover of heather-clad commons
and woods with open glades in which plenty
of bracken grows, and breeds in suitable
localities all over the British Islands.

One cannot understand why it has had
the common name of " Goatsucker " be-
stowed upon it, because the act implied does
not count amongst its many curious habits.

It perches differently from all other
British birds, for, instead of sitting across a
branch, it lies right along it, and as it is very
much the colour of the bark of a tree and
not quite as long as a missel thrush, it thus
frequently escapes notice. Being a bird of
the twilight it does not stir by day, but is

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98 Baby Birds at Home

very active in the evening in pursuit of
moths, beetles, cockchafers and other winged
creatures upon which it feeds.

It makes a peculiar "chuning" sound
at night time — a sound which the young
naturalist is never likely to forget once he
or she has heard it, and is in consequence
known to many country people as the
"Churn" Owl. It also utters another note
sounding something like " co-ic, co-ic!' When
disturbed whilst covering its young ones,
and especially towards evening, the Fern
Owl will fly round making its wings meet
with a resounding thwack over its back, or
alighting on a stump not far off, will open
its great mouth in a way that is plainly
meant to be threatening.

This bird does not make a nest, but lays its
pair of greyish white eggs, marked with dark
brown and leaden grey, on the bare ground.

The young ones are covered with grey
down, and if disturbed are shifted by their
mother. Whilst crouching on the ground,
even in the open, they are sometimes very
difficult to see, on account of the colour of
the down on their bodies matching that of
their surroundings.

The Carrion Crow

BOYS and girls who do not know much
about the feathered inhabitants of
the country frequently mix this bird up
in the most hopeless manner with the rook.

They call every bird that is black and
larger than a jackdaw, a crow. This is
quite wrong. Rooks breed in colonies and
fly about in flocks, whereas crows nest in
isolated pairs and seldom go about in
flocks.

The character of the Carrion Crow is
almost as black as its plumage. It is a
very accomplished egg thief and is in
consequence cordially hated by all game-
keepers. Farmers also have good reason
to dislike it, for it will attack a sickly
sheep or lamb with the utmost cruelty.

In the winter our native stock of birds
of this species is greatly increased by the
arrival of migrants from the Continent,
many of which do not return, but endea-

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Baby Birds at Home

vour to establish breeding haunts in places
where they are invariably shot by game-
keepers.

The nest is generally built in a tall
tree on the edge of a wood, or in some
isolated situation affording the bird a good
outlook. Sometimes it is placed on a ledge
in the face of a precipice, and when the
sitting bird is frightened off she very seldom
flies straight away, but generally drops
straight down for several yards and then
takes her departure. Sticks, twigs, mud,
and occasionally bits of old rope, form the
outside of the nest, which is lined with
dead grass, wool, horse-hair or cow's-hair.
It is a deep structure, thus preventing the
eggs from rolling out when the branches
upon which it rests are being violently
swayed by the wind.

Four or five greyish green eggs are laid,
spotted with smoky brown marks.

The chicks are fed by both parents, and
when the mother bird has been shot by a
gamekeeper, the writer has known the male
go off and secure a stepmother to help him
to rear his family.

RED-BACKED SHRIKES.

The Red-backed Shrike

THE Red-backed Shrike, or Butcher Bird,
as it is frequently called, on account of
its strange habit of spitting or hanging in
thorn bushes the bodies of beetles, mice, and
small birds upon which it preys. It is a
migrant, arriving in May ; it rears its brood
during June or July, and takes its departure
again in August and September. Some idea
may be gathered of the immense journey made
twice a year by this winged traveller, when it
is mentioned that the bird spends the winter
even as far south as the Cape of Good Hope.
Although nowhere very common, this
species breeds generally throughout England,
with the exception of the north and west, but
is rarely met with in Scotland or Ireland. It
loves old chalk pits with thorn and other
bushes growing in them, and sunny hillsides
where clumps of thorn and bramble grow,
but may frequently be met with nesting in
thick old hedgerows.

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102 Baby Birds at Home

The Butcher Bird appears to be gifted
with wonderful eyesight, for whilst seated
on a telegraph wire, or the branch of a tree
at an equal height, it can detect a beetle
in the grass below and swoops down to
secure it.

The nest is built in a rough hedge or
bush, and is formed of slender twigs, pieces
of dead honeysuckle, dry grass stems and
moss, lined with wool, hair, or rootlets.

Four or five eggs of a pale buffish white,
spotted with reddish brown, are laid. These
are subject to considerable variation in
ground colour, and the tint and distribution
of the markings.

The chicks are hatched in about a fort-
night and are fed upon beetles, bees, and
all kinds of winged insects. Although the
Butcher Bird is only some seven and a half
inches in length, it will defend its young ones
with great courage, and will not hesitate to
attack and drive away larger birds, such as
the song thrush, from the neighbourhood of
its nest.

On one occasion the writer was struck on
the head by a male Red-backed Shrike, in
defence of one of its fledglings.

The Great Crested Grebe

TWO species of Grebes breed in the British
Islands. The Lesser Grebe, or Dab-
chick, and the bird under notice.

The Great Crested Grebe measures about
twenty-two inches in length. The facts that
its body is long and cone-shaped, and that its
legs are placed far back, render it an excel-
lent swimmer, either on the water or under
it, but a very poor walker. As a matter of
fact the bird does not often try the latter
means of locomotion, and when it does so
appears very awkward and ungainly. Al-
though its wings are short and small it can
fly well.

The Great Crested Grebe inhabits lakes,
meres, and large ponds, where reed beds, in
in which it can take shelter and breed, grow.
Its food consists of small fish, frogs, water
beetles and aquatic insects.

The nest is built amongst reeds or bul-
rushes. Sometimes it is a floating structure

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104 Baby Birds at Home

moored to its surroundings, and at others its
foundations rest upon the bottom of the lake
or mere. It is a kind of rough platform made
out of wet flags, reeds, leaves, and different
sorts of plants, slightly hollow at the top,
and never raised very high above the sur-
face of the water in which it is built.

The number of eggs laid varies from three
to five. These are white at first, but soon
become stained and dirty, from contact with
their owner's feet and the decaying vege-
tation upon which they rest. On leaving
her nest the Great Crested Grebe covers her
eggs carefully over with some of the materials
of the structure. This serves a twofold pur-
pose. First of all it hides them from any
winged enemy, such as the carrion crow, flying
overhead, and secondly it keeps them warm.

Baby Grebes begin their education very
early. Tumbling over the edge of the nest
almost directly after they are hatched, they
find their father waiting to teach them how
to dive. Mounting his back and seizing
some of the feathers at the back of the old
bird's neck with their bills, they hold on
whilst he plunges below and carries them
down with him.

The Song Thrush

THE bright, cheery notes of this familiar
bird are better known than, perhaps,
those of any other feathered vocalist.

The Song Thrush is common nearly all
over the country. In fact, wherever two or
three bushes grow together there the bird is
almost sure to be found. It sings early and
late, and loves to pour forth its wonderful
melody from the bare branch of a tall tree.
On islands such as those of the Outer
Hebrides, where only stunted bushes grow,
you may sometimes hear it singing whilst
it is perched on the top of a chimney-pot.

The Song Thrush, or Throstle, as it is
called in the north of England, feeds upon
snails, worms, and grubs. You may have
noticed a collection of broken snail shells
lying round a stone in your garden. That is
surely the work of a Thrush. If you watch
the stone some fine morning you will see the
bird hop up to it with a snail in her bill and

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106 Baby Birds at Home

hammer it on her anvil, until the shell is
broken and she can extract and swallow the
fat creature inside.

The nest of this species differs from that
of any other British bird. It is made of
twigs, dead grass stems, moss and clay and
is lined with mud, rotten wood or other
material that will dry quite hard. The in-
side of a well-furnished nest is almost as
firm and smooth as that of a wooden bowl.

From four to six beautiful greenish blue
eggs are laid. These are generally spotted
with black, but occasionally specimens are
found without markings of any kind on them.
Young Thrushes eat a great quantity of food,
and when the weather is cold, and worms and
grubs do not care to come to the surface of
the ground, the old birds are compelled to
work very hard in order to find them their
meals.

If you watch a nest containing a family
of fledglings from some place of concealment,
you will see the chicks standing one after
another on the edge of the structure, flapping
their little wings, as if to test their strength
before venturing to fly away.

PIED WAGTAILS.

The Pied Wagtail

THIS bird has had a most suitable common
name given to it, because it is black and
white and is always wagging its long tail.
Why it does so nobody can tell. It does not
matter whether the bird is angry or pleased,
happy or unhappy, its tail is always going up
and down, up and down.

The Pied Wagtail usually haunts the
edges of ponds and the banks of streams,
but may frequently be found breeding far
away from water of any kind.

It lives upon flies and all kinds of in-
sects. During almost any fine day it may
be seen tripping daintily along a road, across
a lawn or by the side of a river, picking up
flies at rest, or fluttering a few feet into the
air, in order to catch one on the wing.

This species makes its nest of dead grass

and rootlets, and lines it with horsehair,

feathers, cowhair, or rabbits down. It is

generally w T ell hidden in a hole, in an old

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108 Baby Birds at Home

wall, amongst ivy, in a cleft of rock, or under an
overhanging tuft of grass growing on a ledge.

The eggs number from four to six, and are
greyish white, thickly speckled with brownish
grey markings.

Baby Wagtails, like the chicks of many
other species, learn wisdom very quickly.
You may visit them in the nest every day,
and up to a certain period they will eagerly
lift their heads and open their mouths in re-
quest of food. But one morning when you go
to see them a great change has taken place in
their behaviour, for, instead of lifting their
heads, they all crouch low in the nest and
keep quite still. " Ah," you say, " they have
got their eyes open and can see that I am a
human being and not a bird."

No, that is not it. Young birds frequently
appear to welcome a human visitor to the
nest when their eyes are quite wide open, but
there comes a time when they suddenly realise
danger, and they entirely alter their attitude
towards you.

Young " Dish- Washers/' as these birds
are frequently called, may often be observed
trying to wag their wee short tails, even
before they have left the nest.

The Tree Pipit

UNLIKE the Meadow Pipit or Titlark
this bird is migratory, leaving us in
September or October and returning again
in April. It is about six inches in length,
of a sandy-brown colour above streaked
with dark brown, and light buff on the
breast, which is marked with dark brown
streaks. The young naturalist is not likely
to confuse it with the skylark, because it is
smaller than that bird and does not raise
the feathers on the crown of its head in the
form of a crest.

It is somewhat like its relatives the
Meadow Pipit and the Rock Pipit in ap-
pearance, but does not, as a rule, inhabit
the kind of country frequented by those two
species.

The Tree Pipit's haunts are to be found
in grassy glades where trees grow in clumps,
and on the edges of plantations, woods, and

spinneys. It is fond of rising from the top-

109

no Baby Birds at Home

most branch of some favourite tree or bush
in order to utter its shrill canary-like song,
the greater part of which is delivered whilst
the bird is gliding downwards again with
outspread wings and tail, and legs dangling
below its body. It also frequently sings
whilst seated on its favourite perch. The
call-note sounds something like "trit, trit"
or " (sip, t'sip"

The food of this species consists of in-
sects of all kinds, and the writer has seen a
female leave her nest in order to catch a
small snail, whilst it was climbing a grass
stem a loot or two away.

The nest is made in the shelter of a tuft
of grass, and is composed of rootlets and
moss with an inner lining of fine dead grass
and hair.

From four to six eggs are laid of very
variable coloration. Some are greyish
white tinged with purple and marked with
purple, brown, and red spots, whilst others
are dull white with dark brown markings.

The chicks are fed by both parent birds,
and when they leave the nest soon learn to
secure their own food.

i

GOLDEN PLOVER.

The Golden Plover

THIS is perhaps the most beautiful
member of all the Plover family, and
has no doubt received its common name from
the golden buff or yellowish markings on the
plumage of its upper parts.

The Golden Plover is a frequenter,
during the summer months, of desolate
wastes and solitary moors in the highest
and wildest parts of the west and north of
England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Its
plaintive call-note can be heard at a great
distance and sounds something like " tlui"
When the female is sitting on the eggs the
male is nearly always doing sentry duty
on the top of some knoll commanding a good
view of the surrounding landscape. At the
first sign of approaching danger he gives a
warning cry, and his mate slips oft* the nest,
runs for some distance, and joining him,
both try their best, and frequently with

success, to decoy the intruder away.

in

ii2 Baby Birds at Home

The food of this species consists of worms,
slugs, grubs, beetles, and all kinds of in-
sects.

The nest is made amongst coarse grass,
fringe moss, or short heather. It is a neat
cup-shaped hollow, lined with small blades
of dead grass, rushes, or slender stalks of
heather.

Four pear-shaped eggs somewhat larger
than those of the lapwing are laid. They
are yellowish stone, or cream colour, marked
with blackish brown spots.

The baby birds are covered with a
beautiful coat of golden-coloured down,
marked with black and greyish white.
They run about as soon as they are hatched,
and are brooded and looked after by the
male as well as the female.

When the breeding season is over the
birds gather together in large flocks, and
leaving the high moors, migrate to lower
country, where they spend their time in
fallow fields and pastures or on mudflats by
the seashore. They frequently fly by night,
and in consequence are sometimes killed by
coming in contact with telegraph wires.

The Short-eared Owl

THE Short-eared Owl is a very widely
distributed bird, being found all over
Europe, the greater part of Asia, in northern
Africa, and throughout the whole length of
the American continent at one season or
other of the year.

Although a somewhat rare breeding
species in the British Islands, its numbers
are considerably swollen in the winter by
migrants from more northern countries. It
arrives on the east coast about the same time
in October as the woodcock, and whether it
is from this circumstance, or the fact that it
indulges in a similar twisting flight, is not
quite certain, but in many parts it is known
as the " Woodcock Owl."

Its head is somewhat smaller and more
hawk-like than that of any other member of
the owl family inhabiting our country. The
ear tufts consist of three or four feathers
which can be erected or lowered at will.

p 113

ii4 Baby Birds at Home

They are only about half the length of those
of the Long-eared Owl.

It feeds upon voles, mice, small birds and
beetles, for which it frequently hunts in the
broad light of day, and does not appear to
be inconvenienced even by sunlight. During
the last plague of voles in the Lowlands of
Scotland, Short-eared Owls arrived upon
the scene in great numbers and helped the
farmers to reduce the vast army of their
four-footed enemies.

The nest is made on the ground amongst
heather, rushes, gorse or sedge, on moors, and
in fens and marshes. It is a mere hollow,
sometimes lined with a few bits of dead grass
or moss, and at others entirely bare.

The eggs generally number from three to
five, although as many as seven or eight may
be found where the natural food of the species
is very plentiful. They are white and oval
in shape.

As in the case of other owls, the young
ones in a clutch vary considerably in size.
They leave the nest before they are able to
fly, especially if disturbed, and, creeping
through the heather or rushes, hide and
wait until their food is brought to them.

The Widgeon

ALTHOUGH this beautiful duck is very
L abundant on our coast and inland
lakes during the autumn and spring, few
pairs stay to breed with us, and those gener-
ally in the extreme north of Scotland and the
Orkney and Shetland Islands. Its real home
is in the Arctic regions, where it nests com-
monly from Iceland to Eastern Siberia.

Once you have heard the Widgeon's shrill
double call-note, you are never likely to for-
get it. It consists of a long musical un-duck-
like whistle, followed by a short low one, and
sounds like " mee-yu." If you should hear it
for the first time whilst you are alone in the
dark, near some solitary sheet of water, you
will no doubt think it a very wild and weird
cry.

Unlike many other members of the duck
family, this bird feeds by day instead of
by night. Its principal food is grass, and
apparently in recognition of this fact the

"5

n6 Baby Birds at Home

Laplanders call it by a name signifying the
" Grass Duck."

By the end of June or the beginning of
July the male Widgeon has undergone a
great change in his appearance. He has
dropped his wedding garments, so to speak,
and donned a darker and more soberly
coloured dress, which makes him resemble
to a greater extent his mate in her coat of
dark and reddish brown feathers.

The nest of the Widgeon is made on the
ground amongst heather, rushes, coarse tall
grass, flags, reeds, and under small bushes.
It consists of dead rushes, reeds, leaves, and
dry grass, with an inner lining of down
plucked from the breast of the female. This
down is carefully folded over the eggs when-
ever the bird leaves her nest of her own
accord.

The eggs number seven or eight and are
creamy white in colour.

Like other members of the family to
which they belong the ducklings are covered
with down, and leave the nest directly they
are hatched and take to the water in charge
of their mother.

The Common Buzzard

THE Common Buzzard is a large ashy
brown coloured bird of the falcon
family. It inhabits wooded districts in the
west and north of England, Wales, and
Scotland, being most numerous where no
game preserving is carried on amongst the
mountains of the Principality. A few years
ago it bred in the north of Ireland, but
there is every reason to fear that the game-
keeper has banished it, as he has effectually
done from many parts of England and
Scotland. This is a pity, because the bird
is very useful to the farmer, does little
harm to game, and is a great addition to
the wild picturesqueness of a mountain
landscape.

It does not exhibit the fierce dashing
habits of many members of the family to
which it belongs, and instead of pursuing
birds on the wing prefers to prey upon

leverets, rabbits, rats, voles, mice, wounded

117

n8 Baby Birds at Home

birds, frogs, snakes, and slow-worms, which
are more easily overtaken and caught.
After feeding it will sit motionless for hours
on some jutting crag in the face of a cliff,
or on the branch of a tree. When on the
wing it has a habit of sailing round and
round in majestic circles, at a great height,
and uttering its plaintive catlike mewing
cry.

It makes its nest of sticks and twigs,
frequently lining it with green leaves, or bits
of wool The structure is placed in the fork
or on the horizontal branch of a tree and
sometimes on a ledge in the face of a cliff.
Occasionally the old nest of a carrion crow
is utilised.

The eggs number from two to four
and are variable in colour. Some speci-
mens are dingy white and without spots,
whilst others are greenish or bluish white,
spotted, blotched and streaked with reddish
brown.

The chicks are covered with beautiful
white down when hatched. They leave the
nest before they can fly very far, and even
w^hen they are strong on the wing follow their
parents about for some time after fledging.

BLACK-HEADED GULLS.

The Black-headed Gull

THIS is perhaps the best known of all
our sea-gulls. The facts that it nearly
always breeds inland, and visits our harbours
and tidal rivers in great numbers during the
winter months, give nearly everybody an
ample opportunity of studying it during
some periods of the year. In the severe
winter of 1895 numbers of these birds found
their way up the river Thames into the very
heart of London, and were so well treated by
interested spectators, who fed them upon
scraps of fish, shrimps, biscuits, and bits of
bread and cheese, that they have visited
the metropolis regularly ever since.

The black or, to be more accurate, dark
brown hood from which the bird has received
its common name, is only a breeding season
decoration. In the winter the head is white,
except for a tinge of grey at the back and
a darkish grey patch behind the feathers

that cover the ear.

119

120 Baby Birds at Home

Throughout the greater part of the year
the Black-headed Gull feeds upon worms,
slugs, and grubs picked up in ploughed fields
and pastures.

As a rule, it nests in colonies, but
occasionally a solitary pair may be found
breeding on the edge of some moorland tarn.
Swamps and bogs near to inland lakes, also
small islands in bodies of fresh water, are its
favourite breeding haunts : but at Raven-
glass, in Cumberland, a vast number of Black-
headed Gulls rear their young year by year
on sandhills near the sea. A curious fact
in regard to this matter is that the birds at
Ravenglass all appear to fly inland in search
of food for their offspring.

The nest is made of sedges, rushes, reeds,
and dead grass, and the eg^s, generally
numbering two or three, are pale olive brown
to light umber brown in colour, spotted and
streaked with blackish brown and dark grey.

The young ones are clothed in down and
begin to run about and swim soon after they
have been hatched.

The Swallow

THIS familiar bird is frequently referred
to as the Barn or Chimney Swallow,
on account of its habit of building inside
barns and the chimneys of old houses. You
will have no difficulty in distinguishing it
from either the swift, house martin, or sand
martin if you remember that it has a much
longer tail than any of these birds, and that
it is divided in the middle, like the prongs
of a fork.

The Swallow is a migratory bird, arriving
from its winter abode in Africa, towards the
end of March or beginning of April, if the
weather should be mild and sunny, and
departing again in September.

It feeds upon flies which are caught upon
the wing, and if you are near enough you
can sometimes hear the snap of the bird's
bill as it closes upon an insect.

All bird-lovers delight in watching the
Swallow's graceful flight, as it circles high in

Q 121

122 Baby Birds at Home

air, or sweeps in long swift curves over
meadow and stream.

The song is a joyous warble, uttered
whilst the bird is flashing through the air at
lightning speed, or sitting at rest on a
house-top or the branch of a tree.

Its nest is constructed of mud intermixed
with straws, and lined with nice soft feathers,
and is placed on beams and rafters, inside
stables, barns, and sheds, or as already
mentioned, down the inside of a chimney.

The eggs generally number four or five,
although as many as six may sometimes be
found in a clutch. They are white marked
with dark reddish-brown and ashy-grey spots.

Young Swallows are fed by both parent
birds, and when they fledge, it is an interest-
ing sight to watch them sitting on the roof
of a barn waiting for food, or accompanying
the old birds in little excursions over the
fields. During these trial flights they are
frequently fed in mid-air.

A few days before Swallows take their
departure for the winter, you may generally
see them congregated in flocks on the roofs
of houses, or telegraph wires, in the early
morning.

The Stock Dove

THE nature student is not likely to con-
fuse this bird with its relatives the
ring dove, or the rock dove, if the following
simple facts are remembered. The ring dove
has a little patch of glossy white on either
side of its neck, and the rock dove a large
one on the lower part of its back, whereas
the Stock Dove has none.

The Stock Dove is found in most parts
of England from the well- wooded districts of
the south, to the lonely valleys in Westmor-
land and Cumberland, is extending its breed-
ing area in Scotland, and is found in many
parts of Ireland. The writer discovered a
pair nesting in a disused rabbits' burrow
in the Outer Hebrides some years ago.

It was thought at one time that all our
different varieties of domestic pigeons had
been bred from the Stock Dove, but this is
not so, as the rock dove is the real parent
of all tame pigeons.

123

124 Baby Birds at Home

The peculiar nesting habits of the species
under notice have bestowed upon it in
Germany the very suitable common name of
" Hole Dove/' It breeds in hollow trees and
seems partial to oaks, elms, and pollard
willows growing on the banks of small
streams and rivers. Frequently it takes
possession of disused rabbits' burrows situa-
ted far away from trees of any kind, and in
olden times dogs were employed in Norfolk
in order to find young doves in the extensive
warrens which are a feature of some parts
of that county. Crevices and holes in
inland cliffs are favourite nesting-places,
but if neither hollow trees nor precipices
should be available, the Stock Dove readily
turns to account the old home of a carrion
crow or magpie. Occasionally it is found
nesting in a ruin or old stone barn.

Twigs, rootlets, and straws are used in a
careless way as building material, and fre-
quently the bird dispenses with them al-
together and deposits its two white eggs on
decaying wood, when making use of a hollow
tree.

The young ones do not leave the nest
until they are fully feathered.

REED BUNTINGS.

The Reed Bunting

THE Reed Bunting, or Reed Sparrow, is
sometimes called the Black-headed
Bunting. This a mistake, for in spite of the
fact that the male has a velvety black head
the name really belongs to a different species
altogether. You are not at all likely to
confuse the two birds, because the Black-
headed Bunting is a very rare visitor to our
shores, and when you see a feathered friend
a trifle longer than a house sparrow with a
black head and a white collar round its neck,
you are fairly safe in concluding that you
are looking at a male Reed Bunting.

This species frequents marshes, swamps,
the banks of sluggish rivers, and the mar-
gins of lakes and reservoirs all over the
British Islands. The writer has met with it
breeding on small heather-clad islands in the
Outer Hebrides, and at a great elevation on
Norwegian mountains, where there were
plenty of snowdrifts and no reeds.

125

126 Baby Birds at Home

It feeds principally upon insects in the
summer, catching and killing even the
largest species of dragon-flies, and in the
winter roams, over stubble fields and waste
lands, in search of grain and seeds.

The Reed Sparrow is not a very accom-
plished musician, but repeats his few simple
notes with wonderful persistency.

The nest is generally built, on or near
the ground, amongst rushes, coarse grass,
heather, or in a stunted bush. It is made
of dry grass and moss, with an inner lining
of fine dead grass, hair, and the feathery
tops of reed stems.

Five eggs are generally laid, although as
many as seven have been found in a clutch.
They are pale olive or purplish grey in
ground colour, spotted and streaked with
rich, dark, purple brown markings. The
eggs are smaller than those laid by any
bunting breeding in our country, and are
thus easily distinguished from those of the
yellow-hammer and corn-bunting.

The male sits on the eggs whilst the
female is away searching for food, and helps
to feed the chicks after they have been
hatched.

DIPPER.

The Dipper

THE Dipper, or Water Ouzel, as it
is sometimes called, is one of the
most interesting birds to be found in
our country. It is not quite so large as
a song thrush, and is shaped somewhat
like a wren. Its head, and upper parts
generally, are black, breast snowy white, and
underside chestnut.

If you did not know you would never
guess from the bird's appearance how it
obtained its food. Without webbed feet or
any other advantage of structure not pos-
sessed by a blackbird, the Dipper goes under
water in search of the insects that form its
food. In olden days it was thought that
the bird could literally walk along the
bottom of a stream, but this is not so.
Upon going under water it uses its wings,
as it does when in flight, but, of course, its
rate of progression is much slower.

The Water Ouzel is by no means a

127

128 Baby Birds at Home

sociable bird, and you never see more than
two together unless it be in the breeding
season, when you may come upon a family.
A pair of these birds will take possession of
a stretch of river or stream, preferably one
with plenty of cascades and mossy boulders
in it, and allow no other members of their
species to intrude. If you try to drive a
Dipper away from its own part of a stream
you cannot do so, for as soon as the bird
has reached the boundary line of its par-
ticular beat, it will fly round you and return.

The song of this species is exceedingly
sweet, but pitched so low that it cannot be
heard to advantage, unless the listener is
very close to the singer.

The nest is built in crevices of rock, in
holes in stone bridges, on mossy boulders,
and even behind waterfalls. It is a large
structure, made of moss, and lined with fine
dead grass and leaves. In shape it is not
unlike that of the wren. The eggs are
white and number four to six.

Young Dippers have no white on the
breast, and their plumage is a mixture of
black, brown, and grey.

Phikted by Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C.

ms^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^i^^^^^it^wi

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Nature-Study at home or in school.

Wild Beasts and Birds at Home. In
Five Series, containing 1 2 Studies
each. List of subjects sent post free
on application.

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