754 



SYLVIA. 



the cdg-s of the nest, which I held in my hand, she 

 inude a precipitate retreat, mistook the open part of 

 tlie window, knocked herself against the glass, and 

 lay breathless on the floor for some time. However, 

 recovering 1 a little, she made her escape, and in about 

 an hour after I was agreeably surprised by her return, 

 and she would afterwards frequently feed the young 

 while I held the nest iti my hand." Her assiduity in 

 feeding the young was perfectly astonishing, and 

 gives us a very striking idea of the immense labour 

 that some birds must undergo. " The visits of the 

 female were generally repeated in the course of a 

 minute and a half, or two minutes, or, upon an ave- 

 rage, thirty-six times in an hour ; and this continued 

 full sixteen hours in a day, which, if equally divided 

 among the eight young ones, each would receive 

 seventy-two feeds in a day, the whole amounting to 

 576." Each feed was about a quarter of a grain, so 

 that each of the young had about eighteen grains in 

 the day, or not much less than a fourth of the weight 

 of an old bird to each of the young every day. This 

 female was as attentive to cleanliness as to the supply 

 of food, and bore her severe labour with the utmost 

 cheerfulness. The labour was of course much more 

 severe than if the nest had remained in a state 

 of free nature, for in that state the male would have 

 borne a part, probably nearly the half, though from 

 the fact of his not venturing into the room it is 

 evident that his attachment to the young was 

 weaker. 



When the winter sets in severely in the countries 

 which are covered with woods, both to the north 

 and to the south of the Baltic, these little birds take 

 advantage of the wind, and migrate southward in 

 great numbers. They are, however, much more at 

 the mercy of the wind than birds of larger size, even 

 supposing the specific gravity, or weight, bulk for 

 bulk, to be the same in both. This is a point which is 

 worth knowing, though it is one which is generally 

 overlooked , supposing the forms of two birds to be 

 similar, and their specific gravities the same, then the 

 weights are as the solidities or cubes of the same 

 dimension, while their resistances are as the squares. 

 For instance, suppose two birds the same except in 

 bulk, nnd the one twice as long as the other; then 

 its weight as resisting the action of the wind will be 

 eight times that of the small bird, while the effect of 

 the wind upon it will be only four times that on the 

 small bird. Thus the bird which has double the 

 dimensions has double the advantage ; and generally 

 the power that birds of equal specific gravity have to 

 bear up against the wind is according to their dimen- 

 sions, supposing that they are similar in form, and 

 without any reference to the power and structure of 

 their wings. 



Small birds are generally, however, much more dis- 

 advantageously adapted to the wind than this. Thus 

 1 making allowance for the greater length of tail, the 

 golden crested wren is about one-twelfth the length of 

 the golden eagle, and thus the purchase of the wind 

 on the eagle is 144 times as much ; but the resistance 

 of the eagle is 1 728 times as great as that of the wren ; 

 and therefore the eagle, without regard to the struc- 

 ture of her wings, has twelve times as much power in 

 the pursuit as the wren. This is as against the wind ; 

 for with the wind the advantage is exactly reversed, 

 and will help the wren forward with twelve times the 

 energy that it helps the eagle. Flying on aside wind, 

 the wren will make more Ice wav than the eale at all 



angles to the wind ; and if the wind is nearly dead 

 against them and blows a gale, they are driven before 

 it like chaff. Selby mentions a case of the wreck of 

 an immense number of golden-crested wrens by a 

 strong gale in the autumn of 1822. The wind was 

 first at north-east, which must have caused them to 

 make lee way westward ; and then shifting to south- 

 east, it took them a-head and drove them on the coasts 

 of Northumberland and Durham, along the whole line 

 of which the}' extended. It is by no means unlikely 

 that a fresh colony of the birds may come to Britain 

 from the northern parts of the continent of Europe 

 every severe winter ; but whether they usually return 

 back again to the north, or stay in whole or in part to 

 increase our home stock, has not been, and probably 

 cannot be, ascertained with any certainty. 



Thcfiery-crested Wren(R.ignica}rillus) is by no means 

 so common as the other ; and it is very lately added 

 to the list of British birds, and was so added by the 

 ornithological talons of a cat. The whole tabby race 

 have been long known to possess a great natural 

 genius for ornithophagi, so much so, that if the cat 

 can find birds enough in the shrubbery, the mice may 

 lord it in the larder as they please ; but just as the 

 march of intellect, and the effects of education, con- 

 verted the natural cannibalism of man into the noble 

 science of war, in which the hero dofs not kill his 

 fellow man for his own eating, but for the glory of a 

 royal master, or the exaltation of a grateful country, 

 even so a most famous tabby in the possession of an 

 intelligent and amiable naturalist at Swaffham, was 

 schooled to capture birds, not for her own eating, but 

 that their stuffed skins might become ornamental in 

 the museum of her master. It is true that she was 

 allowed to eat up the common fill as the wages of 

 her labour, just as the warrior eats up, in another 

 sense, the common fill of that country for whose glory 

 he slaughters away at so valiant a rate ; but before 

 this was done it was Lt roi le veut in the one case 

 as in the other; Well, in the course of her scientific 

 labours, this cat brought home a fiery-crested wren 

 just at the season when those birds breed. The trees 

 were sought, the nest was found, other naturalists beat 

 other bushes whether with or without the aid of feline 

 sagacity and claws ; and the result was that the fiery- 

 crested wren is by no means a very rare bird in the 

 southern parts of England. 



In its habits, this bird appears to differ little from 

 the golden-crest ; but it is larger in size, and not so 

 familiar in its manners, neither has it been found in 

 such cold places as the other. On the continent, it 

 is much more numerous than in Britain and also much 

 more migrant, although it does not occur in such 

 numbers on its autumnal flight as the other. Small 

 as the other is, for, as we have said, there are six 

 dozen birds to the pound, it is highly relished by the 

 ornithophagi in some parts of central Germany, and 

 the capturing it by means of call?, which it readily 

 obeys, is a regular trade in the season. 



The top of the crest in this one is bright and glow- 

 ing fire-red, with three black streaks divided by two 

 white ones on the base at each side,whereas the golden 

 crest has only one black streak. This is only a tri- 

 fling character, but it seems to be quite constant in 

 the species. The bill is also thicker at the base, and 

 larger and stouter in its whole length. 



It is very probable that this bird had been often 

 seen before the singular discovery of it by the cat, but 

 that it had been confounded with the other and much 



