134 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



the poet expresses it, appears most bless d when 

 most unseen ; but if any appearance of danger 

 offers to intrude, the male, that a moment 

 before was so loud and sportive, stops all of a 

 sudden ; and this is a most certain signal to 

 his mate to provide for her own security. 



The nest of little birds seems to be of a more 

 delicate contrivance than that of the larger 



sentence. The voices of birds seem applicable, in most 

 instances, to the immediate necessities of their con- 

 dition: such as the sexual call, the invitation to unite 

 when dispersed, the moan of danger, the shriek of alarm, 

 the notice of food. But there are other notes, the de- 

 signs and motives of which are not so obvious. One sex 

 only is gifted with the power of singing, for the purpose, 

 as Billion supposed, of cheering his mate during the 

 period of incubation ; but this idea, gallant as it is, has 

 such slight foundation in probability, that it needs no 

 confutation: and after all, perhaps, we must conclude, 

 that listened to, admired, and pleasing, as the voices of 

 many birds are, either for their intrinsic melody, or 

 from association, we are uncertain what they express, or 

 the object of their song. The singing of most birds 

 seems entirely a spontaneous effusion produced by no 

 exertion, or occasioning no lassitude in muscle, or re- 

 laxation of the parts of action. In certain seasons and 

 weather, the nightingale sings all day, and most part of 

 the night; and we never observe that the powers of song 

 are weaker, or that the notes become harsh and untun- 

 able, after all these hours of practice. The song-thrush, 

 in a mild, moist April, will commence his tune early 

 in the morning, pipe unceasingly through the day, yet, 

 at the close of eve, when he retires to rest, there is no 

 obvious decay of his musical powers, or any sensible 

 effort required to continue his harmony to the last. 

 Birds of one species sing in general very like each other, 

 with different degrees of execution. Some countries 

 may produce finer songsters, hut without great varia- 

 tion in the notes. In the thrush, however, it is remark- 

 able, that there seems to be no regular notes, each in- 

 dividual piping a voluntary of his own. Their voices 

 may always be distinguished amid the choristers of the 

 copse, yet some one performer will more particularly 

 engage attention by a peculiar modulation or tune ; and 

 should several stations of these birds be visited in the 

 same morning, few or none probably will be found to 

 preserve the same round of notes ; whatever is uttered 

 seeming the effusion of the moment. At times a strain 

 will break out perfectly unlike any preceding utterance, 

 and we may wait a long time without noticing any re- 

 petition of it. During one spring, an individual song- 

 thrush frequenting a favourite copse, after a certain 

 round of tune, trilled out most regularly some notes that 

 conveyed so clearly the words, lady-bird ! lady-bird ! 

 that every one remarked the resemblance. He survived 

 the winter, and in the ensuing season, the lady-bird ! 

 lady-bird ! was still the burden of our evening song ; it 

 then ceased, and we never heard this pretty modulation 

 more. Though merely an occasional strain, yet I have 

 noticed it elsewhere it thus appearing to be a favourite 

 utterance. Harsh, strained, and tense, as the notes of 

 this bird are, yet they are pleasing from their variety. 

 The voice of the blackbird is infinitely more mellow, 

 hut has much less variety, compass or execution; and 

 he too commences his carols with the morning light, 

 persevering from hour to hour without effort, or any 

 sensible faltering of voice. The cuckoo wearies us 

 throughout some long May morning with the unceasing 

 monotony of its song, and though there are others as 

 vociferous, yet it is the only bird I know that seems to 

 suffer from the use of the organs of voice. Little exer- 

 tion as the few notes it makes use of seem to require.. 



kinds. 1 As the volume of their bodies is 

 smaller, the materials of which their nests are 

 composed are generally warmer. It is easy 

 to conceive that small things keep heat a 

 shorter time than those that are large. The 

 eggs, therefore, of small birds require a place 

 ot more constant warmth than those of great 

 ones, as being liable to cool more quickly ; 

 and accordingly their nests are built warmer 

 and deeper, lined on the inside with softer 

 substances, and guarded above with a better 

 covering. But it sometimes happens that the 

 little architects are disturbed in their opera- 

 tions, and then they are obliged to make a 

 nest, not such as they wish, but such as they 

 can. The bird whose nest has been robbed 

 several times, builds up her last in a very 

 slovenly manner, conscious that, from the near 

 approach of winter, she must not take time to 

 give her habitation every possible advantage 

 it is capable of receiving. When the nest 

 is finished, nothing can exceed the cunning 

 which the male and female employ to conceal 

 it. If it is built in bushes, the pliant branches 

 are so disposed as to hide it entirely from the 

 view ; if it be built among moss, nothing out- 

 wardly appears to show that there is a habi- 

 tation within. It is always built near those 

 places where food is found in greatest abun- 

 dance ; and they take care never to go in or 

 out while there is any one in sight. The 

 greater birds continue from their nest for some 

 time, as their eggs take no damage in their 

 absence; but the little birds are assiduous 

 while they sit, and the nest is always occu- 

 pied by the male when the female is obliged 

 to seek for sustenance. 



The first food of all birds of the sparrow 

 kind is worms and insects. Even the sparrow 

 arid the goldfinch, that when adult feed only 

 upon grain, have both been fed upon insects 

 while in the nest. The young ones, for some 

 time after their exclusion from the shell, re- 

 quire no food; but the parent soon finds, by 

 their chirping and gaping, that they begin to 

 feel the approaches of hunger, and flies to 

 provide them a plentiful supply. In her 

 absence they continue to lie close together, 

 and cherish each other by their mutual warmth. 



, by the middle or end of June, it loses its utterance, 

 secomes hoarse, and ceases from any further essay of it. 

 The croaking of the nightingale in June, or the end of 

 May, is not apparently occasioned by the loss of voice, 

 jut a change of note, a change of object ; 'his song ceases 

 when his mate has hatched her brood ; vigilance, anxiety, 

 caution, now succeed to harmony, and his croak is the 

 hush, the warning of danger or suspicion to the infant 

 charge and the mother bird. 



1 Nests On this subject we may refer here gener- 

 ally to Professor Rennie's work on the Architecture of 

 Birds, published in the Library of Entertaining Know, 

 edge, to which we have been already indebted iu the 

 course of our notes. 



