144 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



able when carried from home. It not only 

 whistles in the most delightful manner, but 

 speaks with an articulate distinct voice. It 

 is so docile, and observes all things with such 

 liligence, that though waked at midnight by 

 any of the family, it will speak, and whistle at 

 the word of command. Its colour, about the 

 beginning of winter, from blue becomes black, 

 which changes to its original hue on the first 

 approaches of spring. It makes its nest in 

 deep holes, in very high and inaccessible 

 solitudes, and removes it not only from the 

 accesses of man, but also hides it with sur- 

 prising cunning from the shammoy and other 

 wild beasts that might annoy its young. 



The manner of taking this beautiful bird 

 is said to be this. The fowlers, either by 

 chance or by lying in wait, having found out 

 the place where it builds, take with them a 

 strong stilt or stake, such as the climbers of 

 rocks make use of to assist them in their 

 ascent. With the assistance of this, they 

 mount where an indifferent spectator would 

 think it impossible to ascend, covering their 

 heads at the same time to ward off any 

 danger of the falling of pebbles or stones from 

 above. At length, with extreme toil and 

 danger, having arrived at the nest, they draw 



others penetrating into the tissue of the nest, or passing 

 underneath and rolling over the opposite branch, give 

 solidity to the work. Between the exterior and interior, 

 there are moss, lichens, and other similar matters. The 

 interior is furnished with wool, spiders'- webs, the silky 

 nests of caterpillars, and feathers, the whole united and 

 tissued most intimately and ingeniously together. The 

 eggs are four or five in number, of a dirty white, 

 sprinkled with little spots of a blackish-brown, and more 

 numerous towards the thick end. Incubation lasts about 

 one-and-twenty days. 



The song of the oriole is tolerably well known, and 

 has given rise to the different names imposed upon the 

 bird, according as the hearers have thought proper to 

 express it, or as they believed that they heard it. Some 

 believe that it always cries Yo, ya, yo, syllables which 

 are always preceded or followed by a sort of mewing, 

 like that of a cat. Others that it pronounces Oriot or 

 Loriot. 



The oriole is not easily reared in captivity: this, 

 however, may be achieved, and even the old ones taken 

 with the young may be preserved for some time, if they 

 receive plenty of those fruits of which they are particu- 

 larly fond. As to the young taken from the nest, they 

 are fed at first with the same paste which is given to 

 nightingales, and afterwards with fruits. These birds 

 seldom live more than two years in captivity ; they most 

 generally perish, from a species of gout which attacks 

 them in the feet. The oriole is extremely distrustful, 

 and very difficult of approach. Precaution must be 

 used when it is intended to shoot them, as they fly from 

 tree to tree for a long time, without suffering themselves 

 to remain to be aimed at. They can be attracted by 

 whistling like them, but it must be well done, and ex- 

 actly like their voice, as, otherwise, they will fly off 

 immediately. In the fruit season they may be caught 

 with various kinds of snares. All that we have said of 

 the habits of this oriole is applicable to the other species 

 of the genus as far as they are known. Supplement to 

 the English Edition of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom. 



it up from the hole in which it is usually 

 buried, and cherish the young with an assi- 

 duity equal to the pains they took to obtain 

 them. It produces for the most part five 

 young, and never more ; it seldom descends 

 into the plain country, flies swifter than a 

 blackbird, and uses the same food. 



The fieldfare and the redwing make but a 

 short stay in this country. With us they are 

 insipid tuneless birds, flying in flocks, and 

 excessively watchful to preserve the general 

 safety. All their season of music and plea- 

 sure is employed in the more northern cli- 

 mates, where they sing most delightfully, 

 perched among the forests of 'maples, with 

 which those countries abound. They build 

 their nests in hedges; and lay six bluish-green 

 eggs spotted with black. 



The stare, distinguishable from the rest of 

 this tribe by the glossy green of its feathers in 

 some lights, and the purple in others, breeds in 

 hollow trees, eaves of houses, towers, ruins, 

 cliffs, and often in high rocks over the sea. It 

 la^ys four or five eggs of a pale greenish ash- 

 olour, and makes its nest of straw, small fibres 

 of roots, and such like. Its voice is rougher than-' 

 the rest of this kind : but what it wants in the 

 melody of its note, it compensates by the faci- 

 lity with which it is taught to speak. In 

 winter these birds assemble in vast flocks, and 

 feed upon worms and insects. At the approach 

 of spring they assemble in the fields as if in 

 consultation together, and for three or four 

 days seem to take no nourishment : the greater 

 part leave the country ; the rest breed here, 

 and bring up their young. 1 



1 The Starling is widely dispersed through Great 

 Britain, occurring as numerously in the Orkney and 



Shetland isles as in the southern parts of the kingdom. 

 In the autumnal and hyemal months, these birds gather 

 in immense flocks, and are particularly abundant in the 

 fenny parts of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, where 

 they roost among the reeds. Before they retire to rest, 

 they perform various manoeuvres in the air, the whole 

 frequently describing rapid revolutions round a common 

 centre. This peculiar flight will sometimes continue 

 for nearly half an hour, before they become finally settled 

 for the night. Upon the approach of spring they pair, 

 and spread themselves over the country. They build in 

 the holes of trees, or in ruinous buildings, making an 



