94 



HERBERT ON BIRDS. 



quite certain that the bird was my own nursling, which had returned after its trip 

 to Africa, to look at the window where it had been reared in its nest. The visit 

 was a very pleasurable little incident. How many things which Europeans in vain 

 desire to see, had my little wanderer witnessed since last he pecked at my window. 

 Perhaps he had sung his plaintive notes near the grave of Clapperton, or peeped into 

 the seraglio of the king of Timbuctoo, since we had parted. These little birds are ex- 

 ceedingly gentle till they feed themselves perfectly ; after which they become exceed- 

 ingly quarrelsome. I had some in the same cage with young wood wrens, brown wrens, 

 and sedge warblers. One of them, more than a week before it could feed itself, took to 

 feeding two wood wrens which were ten days older than it, and able to feed themselves, 

 though still very willing to be fed by another. It showed exactly the same discrimina- 

 tion that an old bird does in leaning over the one it had last fed, notwithstanding its 

 clamorous entreaties in order to give the food to the other. No importunities of the 

 brown wrens could obtain a morsel from it. There was sagacity even in this, for the 

 brown wren is a much less nearly allied species, and is now referred to a separate ge- 

 nus. Its own fellow nestlings did not importune it for food. It was a cock bird, and 

 three weeks after it beat the cock wood wren so, that it was necessary to separate them. 

 The wood wrens and sedge warblers are not quarrelsome, but squall loud when at- 

 tacked or alarmed. The little brown wrens, as far as I have seen are not quarrelsome, 

 but perfectly fearless, and very much on the alert to snatch any thing they like out of 

 the mouth of a larger bird, and run under a pan with it to avoid being pursued. 



It is remarkable that many birds, which are quite kindly disposed to other birds, 

 will not tolerate the presence of another of their own species. The redstart fights with 

 his brother nestling in the same cage, as soon as he is full grown ; he will not tolerate 

 the presence of a stonechat, or whinchat, whose habits are very similar to his own ; 

 but he does not attack a nightingale, and behaves decently in a cage full of seed birds. 

 I have seen two yellow wrens, not two months old, fight like bull-dogs, holding tight 

 and pulling the skin, but they rarely attack any but of their own kind. A nightingale 

 which had lived two years in a cage full of birds, in perfect amity with them, and even 

 suffered the brown wrens to jump and rub themselves on its back, instantly attacked, 

 in the most virulent manner, another nightingale which was put into the cage. Two 

 robins will never frequent a hot-house, or a conservatory, in peace, but fight till the 

 weakest is killed, or yields full possession to his antagonist, and they often break the 

 tender young plants in their conflicts. The little thornback fish endures well the heat 

 of a hot- house, which frequently kills a minnow. I have put them into vessels of 

 water, in which I kept aquatic plants, to eat the small insects which devour the roots 

 of nympheae, in which service they were very useful, but the strongest fish would not 

 endure companions, but persecuted them unto the death. They are very bold and 

 voracious, and when hungry would bite savagely at the point of a pencil, or the tip of 

 the finger, if immersed in the water." — p. 65, note. 



The next has been the subject of discussion and controversy, from 

 the time of Aristotle till the present day. The observations of our 

 author, must, we imagine, set the matter at rest. 



" Drumming of Snipes. — I have observed the drumming of snipes, in bright days, 

 at the beginning of April, and I could very easily discern the manner in which the 

 sound is produced. After rising high and crying feet, peet, peet, which is the snipe's 

 usual note, it lets itself drop obliquely through the air, keeping the wings motionless, 



