516 



BIRDS. 



Birds, their food and habits of life, and become, contrary 

 Migr atory. t0 na t urc> tfe affectionate guardians of such unac- 

 countable orphans. Wood pigeons and yellow ham- 

 mers feed upon grains and seeds ; cuckoos upon ca- 

 terpillars, meal worms, maggots, dragon flies, &c. 

 Birds, too, that are not domesticated, would hardly 

 submit to have their own eggs thrown out, and to 

 have such a huge one placed in their stead, without 

 forsaking their nest. Mr John Hunter, whom we 

 have formerly mentioned, dissected many cuckoos, and 

 found them as well fitted and formed for incubation as 

 any of the birds that are said to hatch them. Indeed, 

 we have frequently made inquiries about this popu- 

 lar belief, of the cuckoo not hatching her own eggs, 

 nor of rearing her own young, but we never were 

 able to get any well authenticated accounts of such 

 an unnatural abandonment of parental care. We 

 therefore are rather inclined to be of opinion, that, 

 upon a close investigation, the cuckoo will be found 

 to build its own nest, to lay more eggs than one, and 

 to bring them into life from its own incubation. 

 Many more fabulous stories are told about this silly 

 bird, of its being discovered in stacks of wheat, with 

 its feathers pulled off, and of its lying hid in hollow 

 trees, &c. ; but all such tales are void of truth, for 

 the cuckoo undoubtedly migrates early in the season, 

 in order to pass the winter in some more temperate 

 climate than that of Britain. 

 TJie rail. The rail, corn crake, or daker hen, (rallus crex) 



arrives in Scotland about the middle of May, and his 

 note is heard, whenever the meadow, sown grass, or 

 corn fields, are so long as to cover or conceal him 

 when running. Its call is pleasant, from the cir- 

 cumstance of its ushering in our summer. We name 

 them crakes, from the sound which they emit re- 

 sembling crake, crake, crake. They run along the 

 ground with surprising swiftness, and their cry may 

 be heard in every corner of an inclosure, of 20 or 30 

 acres, in a very few minutes. Although they are 

 unquestionably birds of passage, they are seldom seen 

 either going from, or returning to this country. 

 There are great numbers of them in Scotland, Ire- 

 land, Anglesea, and some other parts of Wales ; but 

 they are rather scarce throughout England, except 

 in the northern counties. They generally lay from 

 eight to twelve eggs, and the young crakes run as 

 soon as they burst the shell ; but the mower's scythe 

 is frequently fatal to them, by sweeping away the 

 Dest before this period arrives. The partridge fowler 

 falls in with them among the turnips and the late stand- 

 ing corns, in which they take shelter when the other 

 fields become bare. They frequently foil the point- 

 ers, by making sudden stops and squats, by which 

 means they often overshoot them ; but a known dog 

 is commonly aware of :his trick ; however, they have 

 always much difficulty in springing them, and are 

 obliged sometimes to run hard to force them on the 

 wing ; they fly slowly, and are easily brought down, 

 even by an inexpert fowler. They leave us whenever 

 the fields are clear of the growing corns. 

 Tb quail. 1' ' las be<- - n said, that wherever rails are plentiful, 

 there also quails abound, [tetrao colturnix). This is 



an assertion which we know to be ill founded, as '.he Birds, 

 quail is a scarce bird with us, although crakes are Migratory. 

 numerous. Indeed, they seem to delight more in ""' 



haunting warm than cold climates, for in Italy, and 

 other parts of the south, a hundred may be found for 

 one that we have in our northern kingdoms. We 

 have seen a few bevies in the county of Haddington, 

 and two or three single birds in Fife, but in no other 

 places of Scotland. Daniel, in his Rural Sports, 

 tells us, " that the quail seems to spread entirely 

 throughout the old vtorld, but does not inhabit the 

 new." From what source he derives this information 

 we cannot say, but he is certainly much mistaken, as 

 we have shot many hundreds in America, and hare 

 seen thousands in a day brought both to the markets 

 of Philadelphia and New York. They are, it is true, 

 on account of their great size in comparison with 

 the European quail,* (weighing about eight ounces,) 

 called by some Dutchmen and old English inhabi- 

 tants partridges, but they have all the distinguishing 

 marks of the real colturnix, and also the peculiar note 

 of whit, whit, whit, which quails often repeat when 

 running, flying, or calling to their young. If press- 

 ed by dogs, they frequently perch upon trees, which 

 partridges seldom or never do. They are the only 

 species of the tetrao getius that migrate, and this 

 characterises them in America, as well as in every 

 other part of the world. As grouse and partridges 

 are the principal birds of sport with our British fow- 

 lers, so are quails with those of America. In the 

 state of New York, one person, with a dog 3nd a 

 gun, will often kill six or seven brace before noon. 

 In America, they frequent the wheat and maize 

 stubbles during the day, and retire generally to the 

 woodlands to pass the night. Instead of the quail 

 pipe and net, the farmers there generally use traps, 

 orjgins; these they place in the tracks which those 

 birds make in their way from the woods to the corn- 

 fields. It is upon the first appearance of dawn that 

 they traverse this ground ; and they are then taken 

 in great numbers, and are brought to market by the 

 country people along with the rest of their poultry. 

 The time of the arrival of the few which we have in 

 Scotland has not been well ascertained, but they de- 

 part early in October. 



The goat-sucker, (caprimulgut Europants,) called The goat- 

 in several places of England the goat-milker, fern sucker, 

 and churn owl, appears in Scotland about the first of 

 June. It derives its name from the once received be- 

 lief of its sucking the teats of the goat. This opi- 

 nion was, so far as we know, first patronised by 

 Aristotle, although perhaps held as a truth long be- 

 fore his time. But the idea is now, by every rational 

 naturalist, completely exploded. When twilight sets 

 in, the goat-sucker is commonly discovered sitting 

 upon the stump or bough of a leafless-tree, or flut- 

 tering amidst the dust of some beaten road. It 

 emits a singular vibrating sound, something (as has 

 been observed) like the noise of a large woollen spin- 

 ning wheel ; and when pursuing or addressing its 

 mate, gives a shrill quick cry, which is supposed to 

 be the language of love. Kalm and Linnaeus seem 



" This is a rare instance, in opposition tlie hypothesis of B'Jffon, 

 world, arc sroaikr in th latter." 



That ^nimals oommon both to the old and new 



