108 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



CHAP. V. 



OF THE BIRD OF PARADISE AND ITS 

 VARIETIES. 



THERE are few birds that have more de 

 ceived and puzzled the learned than this 

 Some have described it as an inhabitant of the 

 air, living only upon the dew of heaven, anc 



and straight, about three quarters of an inch long ; the 

 upper mandible is black, and the lower white. All the 



upper parts of the body are of a bluish gray : the cheeks 

 and chin are white: the breast and belly pale orange 

 colour; and the quills dusky: the tail is short, and con- 

 sists of twelve feathers ; the two middle ones of which 

 are gray, the two outer spotted with white, and the rest 

 dusky. The legs are pale yellow ; the claws are large, 

 and the back one very strong. The nut-hatch, the 

 squirrel, and the field-mouse, which all live much 

 on hazel nuts, have each a curious way of getting at the 

 kernel. Of the two latter, the squirrel, after rasping 

 off the small end, splits the shell in two with his long 

 fore-teeth, as a man does with his knife ; the field- 

 mouse nibbles a hole with his teeth, as regular as if 

 drilled with a wimble, and yet so small that one would 

 wonder how the kernel could be extracted through it ; 

 while the nut-hatch picks an irregular ragged hole with 

 his bill. But as this last artist has no paws to hold the 

 nut firm while he pierces it, he, like an adroit work- 

 man, fixes it as it were in a vice, in some cleft of a 

 tree, or in some crevice, when standing over it he per- 

 forates the stubborn shell. On placing nuts in the 

 chink of a gate-post, where nut-hatches have, been 

 known to haunt, it has always been found that these 

 birds have readily penetrated them. While at work 

 they make a rapping noise, which may be heard a con- 

 siderable distance. Dr Plott informs us, that this bird, 

 by putting his bill into a crack in the bough of a tree, 

 sometimes makes a violent sound, as if the branch was 

 rending asunder. Besides nuts it feeds also on cater- 

 pillars, beetles, and various other insects. The female 

 deposits her egg?, six or seven in number, in some hole 

 of a tree, frequently in one that has been deserted by 

 the woodpecker, on rotten wood mixed with moss. If 

 the entrance be too large, she nicely stops up part of it 

 with clay, leaving only a small hole for herself to pass 

 in and out. When the hen is sitting, if a stick be put 

 in the hole, she hisses like a snake ; and she is so much 

 attached to her eggs, that she will sooner suffer any one 

 to pluck off her feathers than fly away. During the 

 time of incubation, she is assiduously attended by the 

 male, who supplies her with food. If the barrier of 

 plaster at the entrance of the hole be destroyed, while 

 these birds have eggs, it is speedily replaced ; a peculiar 

 instinct, to prevent their nest from being destroyed by 

 woodpeckers, and other birds of superior size and strength, 

 which build in similar situations. The nut-hatch is not 

 supposed to sleep perched, like most other birds, on a 



never resting below ', others have acquiesced in 

 the latter part of its history, but have given 

 it flying insects to feed on. Some have as- 

 serted that it was without feet, and others have 

 ranked it among the birds of prey. 



The great beauty of this bird's plumage, 

 and the deformity of its legs, seem to have 

 given rise to most of these erroneous reports. 

 The native savages of the Molucca Islands, of 

 which it is an inhabitant, were very little 



twig ; for it has been observed, that when kept in a cage 1 , 

 notwithstanding it would perch now and then, yet at 

 night it generally crept into some hole or corner to 

 sleep. And it is remarkable, when perched, or other- 

 wise at rest, it had mostly the head downwards, or at 

 least even with the body, and not elevated like other 

 birds. 



Allied to the Nut-hatch are the Creepers and Hoopoes. 

 (For Black and White Creeper, see Plate XV. fig. 18; 

 Azure Creeper, Plate XVI. fig. 16; Wall Creeper, 

 ib. fig. 43. For Hoopoe, see Plate XV. fig. 31.) 

 Creepers scale trees in the same manner as woodpeck- 

 ers, and, like them, are supported behind by their stiff 

 deflected tail. They feed entirely on insects. The 

 hoopoe is widely spread over Europe in the summer 

 months, and is abundant in the South. Sweden is men- 

 tioned by some as its northern limit, where the country 

 people are said to consider its appearance as ominous: 

 and in Great Britain it was formerly looked- upon by the 

 same class as the harbinger of some calamity. Montagu 

 relates that it is plentiful in the Russian and Tartarian 

 deserts ; and Sonnini saw it on the banks of the Nile : 

 Africa indeed and Asia are supposed to be its winter 

 quarters. In a state of nature moist localities are the 

 chosen haunts of the hoopoe. There it may be seen on 

 the ground, busily searching with its long bill for its 

 favourite insects, (chiefly coleopterous) which it often 

 finds in cow-dung, and in the droppings of other animals; 

 and sometimes it may be observed hanging from the 

 branches of trees, examining the under side of the leaves 

 "or those which there lie hid. The hole of a decayed 

 ;ree is the locality generally preferred for the nest, which 

 s made of dried grass lined with feathers, wool or other 

 soft materials, and is generally very fetid from the re- 

 mains of the insects, &c., with which the parent-birds 

 lave supplied their young. This offensive odour most 

 >robably gave rise to the story adopted by Aristotle, that 

 he nest of the hoopoe was formed of the most disgusting 

 materials. When a hollow tree is not to be found, the 

 )laces selected are sometimes the fissures of rocks, and 

 lie crevices of old buildings. The eggs are generally 

 bur or five in number, of a grayish-white spotted with 

 deep gray or hair-brown. 



Few birds are more entertaining in captivity : its 

 >eautiful plumage, droll gesticulations and familiar ha- 

 >its, soon make it a favourite. When it perceives that 

 t is observed it begins to tap with its bill against the 

 ground, (which, as Bechstein observes, gives it the ap 

 >earance of walking with a stick,) at the same time often 

 .halving its wings and tail, and elevating its crest. This 

 atter feat, which is performed very frequently and es- 

 >ecially when the bird is surprised or angry, is effected 

 iy a muscle situated on the upper part of the head for 

 he purpose. Its note of anger or fear is harsh and 

 grating, something like the noise made by a small saw 

 vhen employed in sawing, or the note of a jay, but not 

 o loud. It gives utterance to a soft note of complacency 

 iccasionally, and is not without other intonations. The 

 [rating note is not always indicative of anger or fear, for 

 lie bird generally exerts.it when it flies up, and setiles 

 n its perch. 



