Chapter XXIX: Book II: Inhabitants of the Air (4)

THE tongue of the Parrot is not unlike a black soft bean, and fills so completely the capacity of its beak, that the bird can easily modulate sounds and articulate words; the beak is composed of two pieces, both moveable, which is a peculiarity belonging almost exclusively to this tribe of birds. The bill of the Parrot is strongly hooked, and assists it in climbing, catching hold of the boughs of the trees with it, and then drawing its legs upwards; then again advancing the beak, and afterwards the feet, for its legs are not adapted for hopping from bough to bough, as other birds do. Several stories are told of the sagacity of these birds, and of the aptitude of their interrogatories and answers, but they have been no doubt the effect of chance.

Dr. Goldsmith says that a Parrot, belonging to King Henry the Seventh, having been kept in a room next the Thames, in his palace of Westminster, had learned to repeat many sentences from the boatmen and passengers. One day, sporting on its perch, it unluckily fell into the water. The bird had no sooner discovered its situation, than it called out aloud, “A boat! twenty pounds for a boat!” A waterman, happening to be near the place where the Parrot was floating, immediately took it up, and restored it to the king; demanding, as the bird was a favourite, that he should be paid the reward the bird had called out. This was refused; but it was agreed that, as the Parrot had offered a reward, the man should again refer to its determination for the sum he was to receive. “Give the knave a groat,” screamed the bird the instant the reference was made.

The memory of Parrots is very astonishing, and they can not only imitate discourse, but can sing verses of songs, and mimic gestures and actions. Scaliger saw one that performed the dance of the Savoyards at the same time that it repeated their song. The song was well imitated, but when the bird tried to caper, it was with the worst grace imaginable, as he turned in his toes, and kept tumbling back in a most clumsy manner.

Willoughby tells us of a Parrot, which, when a person said to it, “Laugh, Poll, laugh,” laughed accordingly, and the instant after screamed out, “What a fool to make me laugh!” Another, which had grown old with its master, shared with him the infirmities of age. Being accustomed to hear scarcely anything but the words “I am sick;” when a person asked it, “How do you do, Poll?” “I am sick,” it replied in a doleful tone, stretching itself out, “I am sick.”

Parrots are very numerous in the East and West Indies, where they assemble in companies, like rooks, and build in the hollows of trees. The female lays two or three eggs, marked with little specks, like those of the partridge. They never breed in our climate, though they live here to a great age. They feed entirely upon vegetables, but, when tame, will take from the mouth of their master or mistress any kind of chewed meat, and chiefly eggs, of which they seem particularly fond. They bite or pinch very hard, and some of them possess so much strength in their beak, that they could easily break a man’s finger. The Parrot is sensible of attachment, as well as of revenge; and if in their mimic attitudes they show great pleasure at the sight of their feeders, they also fly up with anger to the face of those who once have affronted or injured them.

WHICH is perhaps more commonly seen in England than the African Grey Parrot, is a native of South America, and receives its name from the great river Amazon, on the banks of which it is common. In its native country it does much damage to the plantations, and indeed many of the Parrots are as injurious in this respect as they are beautiful in their plumage. The Green Parrot resembles the Grey species in its habits, and may likewise be taught to speak with much distinctness.

IS one of the largest of the parrot tribe, and painted with the finest colours Nature can bestow. The beak is uncommonly strong; and the tail proportionally longer than that of any of the parrot tribe. Its voice is fierce and tremulous, sometimes sounding like the laugh of an old man; and it seems to utter the word “Arara,” which occasions its bearing that name in its native country.

When tame, it eats almost every article of human food, and is particularly fond of bread, beef, fried fish, pastry, and sugar. It cracks nuts with its bill, and dexterously picks out the kernels with its claws. It does not chew the soft fruits, but sucks them by pressing its tongue against the upper part of its beak: and the harder sort of food, such as bread and pastry, it bruises, or chews, by pressing the tip of the lower upon the most hollow part of the upper mandible.

_The Scarlet Macaw_ (_M. Macao_) is another large species, of a bright red colour, with some blue and yellow feathers on the wings, and blue ones about the base of the tail. It was formerly common in the West Indian Islands, but has now become rare there. Its voice is very loud and harsh.

THIS beautiful species, no less remarkable for the elegance of its form than for its docility and imitative powers, is supposed to have been the first of the parrot species known to the ancients, from the time of Alexander the Great down to the age of Nero. It is about fifteen inches long; its bill is thick and red; the head and the body a bright green; the neck, breast, and the whole of the under side of a paler tint. It has a red circle, or ring, which encompasses the neck, and is about the breadth of a little finger at the back; but grows narrower by degrees towards the sides, and ends under the lower bill. The lower part of the body is of so faint a green, that it seems almost yellow. The tail also is of a yellowish green, and the legs and feet ash-coloured.

THE WARBLING GRASS PAROQUET.

(_Melopsittacus undulatus._)

GREAT numbers of Paroquets of different species are found in Australia, and most of these live and seek their food upon the ground rather than in trees. One of them is called the _Ground Paroquet_, as it is never seen to perch upon trees, but is always running about among the grass and herbage. The Warbling Grass Paroquet is a well known and beautiful little Australian bird, of which considerable numbers have been imported into this country of late years; it is deservedly a favourite, both on account of its elegance, and from its possessing a gentle warbling note very different from the harsh screaming of many species of its tribe. It can, however, scream vigorously for its size. In the interior of Australia these charming little birds occur in countless multitudes. They feed chiefly on the seeds of grasses, which they pick up whilst running upon the ground, but they perch in crowds upon the gum-trees for shelter from the noon-day heat, and also before starting on an expedition in search of water.

THIS bird is distinguished from the parrots, by a beautiful crest, composed of a tuft of elegant feathers, which he can raise or depress at pleasure. We meet with some of a beautiful white plumage, and the inside feathers of the crest of a pleasing yellow, with a spot of the same colour under each eye, and one upon the breast. The Cockatoos are natives of the Indian Islands and Australia, where they are found in great abundance. Their food consists of seeds and soft and stony fruits, which last their powerful bill enables them to break with ease. They are easily tamed when taken at an early age, after which they become familiar and even attached, but their imitative powers seldom go beyond a very few words added to their own cry of Cockatoo.

In a wild state they are shy, and cannot easily be approached. The flesh of the young birds is accounted very good eating. The female is said to make her nest in the rotten limbs of trees, using nothing more than the accumulation of vegetable mould formed by the decayed parts of the bough. The eggs are white, without spots; there are no more than two young at a time. The natives first find the nest by the pieces of bark and twigs which the old birds strip off the trees adjoining that in which the nest is situated. It is a remarkable fact that the bark is never stripped off the tree which contains the nest.

Mr. Bennet, in speaking of the large black Cockatoo of New Holland, says, that if this bird observes on the trunk of a tree indications of a larva being within, it diligently labours to get at it with its powerful beak, and should the object of its pursuit be deep within the wood, as often happens, the trunk becomes so extensively hacked, that a slight gust of wind will lay the tree prostrate.

§ V.--_Gallinaceous Birds._

ASTONISHED at the unparalleled beauty of this bird, the ancients could not help indulging their lively and creative fancy, in accounting for the magnificence of his plumage. They made him the favourite of imperial Juno, sister and wife to Jupiter; and not less than the hundred eyes of Argus were pulled out to ornament his tail; indeed, there is scarcely anything in nature that can vie with the transcendent lustre of the Peacock’s feathers. The changing glory of his neck eclipses the deep azure of ultramarine; and at the least evolution, it assumes the green tint of the emerald, and the purple hue of the amethyst. His head, which is small and finely shaped, has several curious stripes of white and black round the eyes, and is surmounted by an elegant plume, or tuft offeathers, each of which is composed of a slender stem and a small tuft at the top. Displayed with conscious pride, and exposed under a variety of angles to the reflections of light, the broad and variegated disks of his train, of which the neck, head, and breast of the bird become the centre, claim our admiration. By an extraordinary mixture of the brightest colours, it displays at once the richness of gold, and the paler tints of silver, fringed with bronze-coloured edges, and surrounding eye-like spots of dark brown and sapphire. The hen does not share in the beauty of the cock, and her feathers are generally of a light brown. She lays only a few eggs at a time, generally at an interval of three or four days; they are white and spotted, like the eggs of the turkey. She sits from twenty-seven to thirty days.

The loud screamings of the Peacock are worse than the harsh croakings of the raven, and a sure prognostic of bad weather; and his feet, more clumsy than those of the turkey, make a sad contrast with the elegance of his plumage:

“Though richest hues the Peacock’s plumes adorn,
Yet horror screams from his discordant throat.”

The spreading of the train, the swelling of the throat, neck, and breast, and the puffing noise which they emit at certain times, are proofs that the Turkey and the Peacock stand nearly allied in the family chain of animated beings.

The flesh of the Peacock was anciently esteemed a princely dish; and the whole bird used to be served on the table with the feathers of the neck and tail preserved; but few people could now relish such food, as it is much coarser than the flesh of the turkey. The Italians have given this laconic description of the Peacock: “He has the plumage of an angel, the voice of a devil, and the stomach of a thief.”

WAS originally an inhabitant of America, whence he was brought to Europe by some Jesuit missionaries, which accounts for his being called a Jesuit in some parts of the continent. The general colour of the feathers is buff and black; and turkeys have about the head, especially the cock, naked and tuberous lumps of flesh of a bright red colour. A long fleshy appendage hangs from the base of the upper mandible, and seems to be lengthened and shortened at pleasure. The hen lays from fifteen to twenty eggs, which are whitish and freckled. The chicks are very tender, and require great care and attentive nursing, until they are able to seek their food. In the county of Norfolk the breeding ofTurkeys, which is there a considerable branch of trade, is brought to great perfection; and some weighing upwards of twenty pounds each have been raised there. They appear to have a natural antipathy to everything of a red colour.

Though extremely prone to quarrel among themselves, they are, in general, weak and cowardly against other animals, and fly from almost every creature that ventures to oppose them. On the contrary, they pursue everything that appears to dread them, particularly small dogs and children; and after having made these objects of their aversion scamper, they evince their pride and satisfaction by displaying their plumage, strutting about among their female train, and uttering their peculiar note of self-approbation. Some instances, however, have occurred, in which the Turkey-cock has exhibited a considerable share of courage and prowess; as will appear from the following anecdote:--A gentleman of New York received from a distant part a Turkey-cock and hen, and with them a pair of bantams; which were put all together into the yard with his other poultry. Some time afterwards, as he was feeding them from the barn-door, a large hawk suddenly turned the corner of the barn, and made a pounce at the bantam hen: she immediately gave the alarm, by a noise which is natural to her on such occasions; when the Turkey-cock, who was at the distance of about two yards, and without doubt understood the hawk’s intention, flew at the tyrant, with such violence, and gave him so severe a stroke with his spurs, as to knock him from the hen to a considerable distance; by which means the bantam was rescued from destruction.

The wild Turkey-cock is, in the American forests, an object of considerable interest. It perches on the tops of the deciduous cypress and magnolia:

“On the top
Of yon magnolia, the loud Turkey’s voice
Is heralding the dawn: from tree to tree
Extends the wakening watch-note far and wide,
Till the whole woodlands echo with the cry.”
SOUTHEY.

(_Numida Meleagris._)]

THIS bird, which is also called the _Pearled Hen_, was originally brought from Africa, where the breed is common, and seems to have been well known to the Romans, who used to esteem the flesh of this fowl as a delicacy, and admit it at their banquets. It went then by the name of Numidian Hen, or _Meleagris_, because it was fabled that the sisters of Meleager, who unceasingly deplored his death, were metamorphosed into Guinea Hens by Diana. In fact, although they are now domesticated with us, they still retain a great deal of their original freedom, and have a stupid look. Their noise is very disagreeable: it is a creaking note, which, incessantly repeated, grates upon the ear, and becomes very teasing and unpleasant. They belong to the class of birds called _pulveratores_; as they scrape the ground and roll themselves in the dust like common hens, in order to get rid of small insects which lodge in their feathers.

The Pintado is somewhat larger than the common hen; the head is bare of feathers, and covered with a naked skin of a bluish colour; on the top is a callous protuberance of a conical form. At the base of the bill on each side hangs a loose wattle, red in the female and bluish in the male. The general colour of the plumage is a dark bluish grey, sprinkled with round white spots of different sizes, resembling pearls, from which circumstance the epithet of _pearled_ has been applied to this bird; which at first sight appears as if it had been pelted by a strong shower of hail.

If trained when young, these birds may easily be rendered tame. M. Bruë informs us, that when he was on the coast of Senegal he received as a present from an African princess two Guinea fowls. Both these birds were so familiar that they would approach the table and eat out of his plate; and, when they had liberty to fly about upon the beach, they always returned to the ship when the dinner or supper bell rang.

In a wild state, it is asserted that the Pintado associates in large flocks. Dampier speaks of having seen between two and three hundred of them together in the Cape de Verd Islands. They were originally introduced into our country from the coast of Africa somewhat earlier than the year 1260.

In Jamaica, where they have run wild, and become very destructive to the plantations, they are sometimes caught, Mr. Gosse tells us, by the following stratagem:--A small quantity of corn is steeped for a night in proof rum and is then placed in a shallow vessel, with a little fresh rum, and the water expressed from a bitter cassava grated. This is deposited within an enclosed ground to which the depredators resort. A small quantity of the grated cassava is then strewed over it, and it is left. The fowls eat the medicated food greedily, and are soon found reeling about intoxicated, unable to escape, and content with thrusting their heads into a corner. It is almost unnecessary to observe that in this state they become an easy prey. Pigeons are sometimes caught in this manner in Germany by the poachers.

This bird has, of late years, greatly increased in this country, and is often seen hanging at the poultry shops and in the markets; the great abundance of them has considerably reduced their value, and they now sell, proportionally, like other fowls. The eggs are smaller and rounder than those of the common hen, and of a speckled reddish-brown colour. They are esteemed a very delicate food.

(_Megapodius tumulus._)]

IT is remarkable that this bird does not hatch its eggs by incubation. It collects together a great heap of decaying vegetables as the place of deposit of its eggs, thus making a hotbed, arising from the decomposition of the collected matter, by the heat of which the young are hatched. This mound varies in quantity from two to four cart-loads, and is not the work of a single pair of birds, but is the result of the united labour of many.

Mr. Gould, in his _Birds of Australia_, gives the following account of the discovery of one of these nests by Mr. Gilbert:--

“I landed beside a thicket, and had not proceeded far from the shore, ere I came to a mound of sand and shells, with a slight mixture of black soil, the base resting on a sandy beach, only a few feet above high-water mark; it was enveloped in the large yellow-blossomed Hibiscus, and was of a conical form, twenty feet in circumference at the base, and about five feet in height. On pointing it out to the native, and asking him what it was, he replied, ‘Oooregoorga Rambal,’ Jungle-fowls’ house or nest. I then scrambled up the sides of it, and, to my extreme delight, found a young bird in a hole about two feet deep; it was lying on a few dry withered leaves, and appeared only a few days old. So far I was satisfied that these mounds had some connection with the bird’s mode of incubation; but I was still sceptical as to the probability of these young birds ascending from so great a depth as the natives represented, and my suspicions were confirmed by my being unable to induce the native, in this instance, to search for the eggs, his excuse being that he knew it would be no use, as he saw no traces of the old birds having recently been there. I took the utmost care of the young bird, intending to rear it if possible; I therefore obtained a moderate-sized box, and placed in it a large portion of sand. As it fed rather freely on bruised Indian corn, I was in full hopes of succeeding; but it proved of so wild and intractable a disposition, that it would not reconcile itself to such close confinement, and effected its escape on the third day. During the period it remained in captivity, it was incessantly occupied in scratching up the sand into heaps, and the rapidity with which it threw the sand from one end of the box to the other was quite surprising for so young and small a bird, its size not being larger than that of a small quail.

“At night it was so restless, that I was constantly kept awake by the noise it made in its endeavours to escape. In scratching up the sand it only used one foot, and having grasped a handful, as it were, the sand was thrown behind it, with but little apparent exertion, and without shifting its standing position on the other leg: this habit seemed to be the result of an innate restless disposition, and a desire to use its powerful feet, and to have but little connection with its feeding; for although Indian corn was mixed with the sand, I never detected the bird in picking any of it up while thus employed.

“I continued to receive the eggs without having any opportunity of seeing them taken from the mound until the 6th of February; when, on again visiting Knocker’s Bay, I had the gratification of seeing two taken from a depth of six feet, in one of the largest mounds I had then seen. In this instance the holes ran down in an oblique direction from the centre towards the outer slope of the hillock, so that, although the eggs were six feet deep from the summit, they were only two or three feet from the side. The birds are said to lay but a single egg in each hole, and after the egg is deposited the earth is immediately thrown down lightly, until the hole is filled up; the upper part of the mound is then smoothed and rounded over. It is easily known when a Jungle-fowl has been recently excavating, from the distinct impression of its feet on the top and sides of the mound, and from the earth being so lightly thrown over, that with a slender stick the direction of the hole may readily be detected; the ease or difficulty of thrusting the stick down indicating the length of time that has elapsed since the birds’ operations. Thus far it is easy enough; but to reach the eggs requires no little exertion and perseverance. The natives dig them up with their hands alone, and only make sufficient room to admit their bodies, and to throw out the earth between their legs: by grubbing with their fingers alone, they are enabled to fellow the direction of the hole with greater certainty, which will sometimes, at a depth of several feet, turn off abruptly at right angles, its direct course being obstructed by a clump of wood, or some other impediment.”

In all probability, as Nature has adopted this mode of reproduction, she has also furnished the tender birds with the power of sustaining themselves from the earliest period; and the great size of the egg would equally lead to this conclusion, since in so large a space it is reasonable to suppose that the bird would be much more developed than is usually found in eggs of smaller dimensions. The eggs are perfectly white, of a long, oval form, three inches and three quarters long by two inches and a half in diameter.

There are several other Australian birds which adopt the same singular mode of hatching their eggs; one of these is called the Native Pheasant (_Leipoa ocellata_), and another the Brush Turkey (_Talegalla Lathami_). The latter has its head and neck covered with a naked skin, like the turkey, but the lower part of this is much thickened, warty, and bright yellow.

THE name of this bird implies that he was originally a native of the banks of the river Phasis, in Armenia; how and when he emigrated, and began to frequent our groves, is unknown. He is of the size of the common cock; the bill is of a pale horn colour; the nostrils arched; the eyes yellow, and surrounded by a naked warty skin, of a beautiful scarlet, finely spotted with black; immediately under each eye there is a small patch of short feathers, of a dark glossy purple; the upper parts of the head and neck are of a deep purple, varying to glossy green and blue; the lower parts of the neck and breast are of a reddish chesnut, with black indented edges; the sides and lower part of the breast are of the same colour, with tips of black to each feather, which, in different lights, vary to glossy purple; indeed, the whole colour of this half-domesticated fowl is very beautiful, uniting the brightness of deep yellow gold to the finest tints of the ruby and turquoise, with reflections of green; the whole being set off by several spots of shining black; but in this, as in every other kind of gorgeously-feathered birds, Nature has for some wise purposes, yet unknown to us, denied the female that admirable beauty of plumage which belongs to the male. The Pheasant lives in the woods, which he leaves at dusk to perambulate corn-fields and other sequestered places, where he feeds with his females, upon acorns, berries, grain, and seeds of plants, but chiefly on ants’ eggs, of which he is particularly fond. His flesh is justly accounted better meat than any of the domestic or wild fowls, as it unites the delicacy of the common chicken to a peculiar taste of its own. The female lays eighteen or twenty eggs once a year, in the wild state; but it is in vain that we have attempted to domesticate this bird entirely, as she never will remain patiently confined, and if she ever breeds in confinement is very careless of her brood.

There are great varieties of Pheasants, of extraordinary beauty and brilliancy of colours: many of these, such as the Gold and Silver Pheasants (_Phasianus pictus_ and _P. Nycthemerus_), brought from the rich provinces of China, are kept in aviaries in this kingdom.

This beautiful bird is elegantly described in the following passage:--

“See! from the brake the whirring Pheasant springs,
And mounts exulting on triumphant wings;
Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound,
Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground:
Ah! what avails his glossy, varying dyes,
His purple crest, his scarlet-circled eyes,
The vivid green his shining plumes unfold,
His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold!”
POPE’S WINDSOR FOREST.

THESE Partridges are natives of Guernsey and Jersey; but are also very frequently found on the adjoining coasts of France. Of late years they have spread very rapidly in England; and as they are stronger and fiercer than the common partridge, the latter becomes scarce wherever the Red-legged Partridges are abundant. In the Western districts of France they are very abundant, and their flesh is plump and juicy. In England it is as white as in France, but more dry. The side-feathers are very handsomely speckled, and there is a rich black mark beginning behind the eye and forming a kind of gorget on the breast. The eyelids are of a bright red, as are the bill and feet, and the claws are brown. They build their nests on the ground; but are sometimes found perched on trees, or on a fence or paling.

IS in weight about fourteen ounces. The plumage, although it cannot boast of gaudiness, is very pleasing to the eye, being a mixture of brown and fawn-colour, interspersed with grey and ash-colour tints. The head is small and pretty; the beak strong, but short, and resembling that of all other granivorous birds. The female lays fifteen or eighteen eggs, and leads her brood in the corn-fields with the utmost care. Young Partridges are among the birds which run fleetly the moment they come out of the shell, and may sometimes be found running with a piece of the shell still remaining on their heads. The affection of Partridges for their offspring is peculiarly interesting. Both the parents lead them out to feed: they point out to them the proper places for their food, and assist them in finding it by scratching the ground with their feet. They frequently sit close together, covering the young ones with their wings; and from this position they are not easily roused. If, however, they are disturbed, most people acquainted with rural affairs know the confusion that ensues. The male gives the first signal of alarm, by a peculiar cry of distress; throwing himself at the same moment more immediately into the way of danger, in order to mislead the enemy. He flutters along the ground, hanging his wings, and exhibiting every symptom of debility. By this stratagem he seldom fails of so far attracting the attention of the intruder as to allow the female to conduct the helpless unfledged brood into some place of security.

The nest is usually on the ground; but on the farm of Lion Hall, in Essex, belonging to Colonel Hawker, a Partridge, in the year 1788, formed her nest, and hatched sixteen eggs, on the top of a pollard oak-tree! What renders this circumstance the more remarkable is, that the tree had fastened to it the bars of a stile, where there was a footpath; and the passengers, in going over, discovered and disturbed her before she sat close. When the brood was hatched, the birds scrambled down the short and rough boughs, which grew out all around the trunk of the tree, and reached the ground in safety. It has long been a received opinion among sportsmen, as well as among naturalists, that the female Partridge has none of the bay feathers of the breast like the male. This, however, is a mistake; for Mr. Montague happening to kill nine birds in one day, with very little variation as to the bay mark on the breast, he was led to open them all, and discovered five of them were females. On carefully examining the plumage, he found that the males could only be known by the superior brightness of colour about the head; which alone, after the first or second year, seems to be the true mark of distinction. They fly in coveys till about the third week in February, when they separate and pair; but if the weather be very severe, it is not unusual to see them collect together again. We are told that a gamekeeper, in Dorsetshire, hearing a Partridge utter a cry of distress, was attracted by the sound into a field of oats, when the bird ran round him very much agitated; upon his looking among the corn, he saw in the midst of her infant brood a large snake, which he killed; and perceiving its body much distended, he opened it, when to his astonishment two young Partridges ran from their prison, and joined their mother; two others were found dead in its stomach. Partridges have ever held a distinguished place at the tables of the luxurious: we have an old distich:

“If the Partridge had the woodcock’s thigh,
’Twould be the best bird that e’er did fly.”

IS a small bird, being in length no more than seven inches. The colour of the breast is a dirty pale yellow, and the throat has a little mixture of red: the head is black, and the body and wings have black stripes upon a hazel-coloured ground. Its habits and manner of living resemble those of the partridge, and it is either caught in nets by decoy birds, or shot by the help of the setting-dog, its call being easily imitated by tapping two pieces of copper one against another. The flesh of the Quail is very luscious, and next in flavour to that of the partridge. Quails are birds of passage, the only peculiarity in which they differ from all other of the poultry kind; and such prodigious numbers have sometimes appeared on the western coast of the kingdom of Naples, that one hundred thousand have been caught in one day, within the space of three or four miles. In some parts of the south of Russia they abound so greatly, that at the time of their migration they are caught by thousands, and sent in casks to Moscow and St. Petersburg. The female seldom lays more than six or seven eggs.

The ancient Athenians kept this bird merely for the sport of fighting with each other, as game-cocks do, and never ate the flesh. The Quail was that wild fowl which God thought proper to send to the chosen people of Israel as a sustenance for them in the desert.

The Chinese Quail is a beautiful little bird, and is often kept in cages in China, for the singular purpose, as it is said, of warming people’s hands in winter; as taking the soft, warm body of the bird in the hand diffuses through it an agreeable warmth. It is also very pugnacious, and is employed in fighting.

IS larger than the Common Quail, and is something between a Quail and a Partridge.

The CALIFORNIAN QUAIL (_O. Californicus_) is distinguished by its possession of a curious crest or tuft of feathers on the crown of the head.

“High on exulting wing the Heath-Cook rose,
And blew his shrill blast o’er perennial snows.”
ROGERS.

THIS bird is called by some ornithologists the _Moor Cock_, and by others _Red Game_. The beak is black and short; over the eyes there is a bare skin of a bright red. The general colour of the plumage is red and black, variegated, and intermixed with each other, except the wings, which are brownish, spotted with red, and the tail, which is black; the feet are covered with thick feathers down to the very claws. It is common in the north of England, in Scotland, and in Wales; and not only affords great diversion to the noblemen and gentlemen of those countries who are fond of shooting, but also repays them well for their trouble, as the flesh is very delicate, and holds on our table an equal place with that of the partridge and the pheasant. The season of Grouse shooting commences on the 12th of August. In winter they are found in flocks of sometimes fifty to one hundred in number, which are termed by sportsmen _packs_, and become remarkably shy and wild, seldom allowing the sportsman to approach them within one hundred yards. They keep near the summits of the heathy hills, and seldom descend to the lower grounds. Here they feed on the mountain berries and on the tender tops of the heath. The hen lays seven or eight eggs of a reddish black colour.

(_Lagopus vulgaris_,)]

IS somewhat larger than a pigeon; its bill is black, and its plumage in summer is of a pale brown colour, elegantly mottled with small bars and dusky spots. The head and neck are marked with broad bars of black, rust-colour, and white; the wings and belly are white. The White Grouse is fond of lofty situations, where it braves the severest cold. It is found in most of the northern parts of Europe and America, even as far as Greenland. In this country it is only to be met with on the summits of some of our highest hills, chiefly in Scotland, and in the Hebrides and Orkneys, but sometimes in Cumberland and Wales. Its plumage becomes pure white in winter, with the exception of the tail feathers, which remain black.

IS about four pounds in weight; but the female, which is usually called the Grey Hen, is often not more than two. The plumage of the whole body of the male is black, and glossed over the neck and rump with shining blue; the coverts of the wings are of a dusky brown, with the quill feathers black and white. The tail is much forked in the male. These birds never pair; but in the spring the males assemble at their accustomed haunts on the tops of heathy mountains, where they crow and clap their wings:

“And from the pine’s high top brought down
The giant Grouse, while boastful he display’d
His breast of varying green, and crow’d and clapp’d
His glossy wings.”
GISBORNE.

The females, at this signal, resort to them. The males are very quarrelsome, and fight together like game-cocks. On these occasions they are so inattentive to their own safety, that two or three have sometimes been killed at one shot; and instances have occurred of their having been knocked down with a stick.

Like the Capercalzie, or Cock of the Woods, a larger species of this genus, these birds are common in Russia, Siberia, and other northern countries, chiefly in wooded and mountainous situations; and in the northern parts of our own island on uncultivated moors.

WAS also formerly an inhabitant of the forests of Scotland, but has been extinct in Britain for many years. The male is as large as a good-sized turkey, the female considerably smaller. Several attempts have been made to rear the Capercalzie, and domesticate it in this country, but without effect. They are now most numerous in Sweden, where they are much esteemed as food. Of late years they have been brought to the English market, and are considered very good eating.

“While the Cock, with lively din,
Scatters the rear of darkness thin;
And to the stack, or the barn door,
Stoutly struts his dames before.” MILTON.

THIS bird is so well known that it would be needless to say much of him. His plumage is various and beautiful, his courage very great and proverbial, and his intuitive knowledge of the period of sunrise has baffled the most scrutinising researches of naturalists. When of a good breed, and well taught to fight, he will die rather than yield to his adversary. The hen lays a great number of eggs, and will hatch as many as thirteen at one sitting; but this is considered the extreme number, being as many as she can well cover. When in the secluded state of incubation she eats very little; and yet is so courageous and strong that she will rise and fight any men or animals that dare to approach her nest. It is impossible to conceive how, with such a scanty sustenance as she takes, she can, for twenty-one days, emit constantly from her body as much heat as would raise Fahrenheit’s thermometer to ninety-six degrees. The flesh of this bird is delicate and wholesome, and universally relished as nourishing and agreeable food.

There are several varieties of families of this fowl. The Hamburg Cock has a beautiful tuft of feathers about his ears and on the top of his head; and the Bantam has his legs and toes entirely feathered, which is more an impediment than an ornament to the bird.

The cruel sport of cockfighting may be traced back to the earliest antiquity. The Athenians seem to have received it from India, where it is even now followed with a kind of frenzy; and we are told that the Chinese will sometimes risk not only the whole of their property, but their wives and children, on the issue of a battle. The religion of the Greeks could not see that game with pleasure, and therefore cockfighting was allowed only once a year; but the Romans adopted the practice with rapture, and introduced it into this island. Henry VIII. delighted in this sport, and caused a commodious house to be built for the purpose, which, although now applied to a very different use, still retains the name of the Cockpit. The part of our ships so called, seems also to indicate that in former times the diversion of cockfighting was permitted, in order to beguile the tedious hours of a long voyage. The Cock has been a subject of considerable interest with the poets; and has been very commonly called by them “Chanticleer:”

“Within this homestead lived, without a peer
For crowing loud, the noble Chanticleer.” DRYDEN.

“The feathered songster, Chanticleer,
Had wound his bugle-horn,
And told the early villager
The coming of the morn.” CHATTERTON.

FROM the Bankiva fowl nearly all the various kinds of fowls found in British poultry-yards are said to have sprung. It is a native of the island of Java, and is characterised by a red indented comb, red wattles, and ash-grey legs and feet. The cock has a thin indented or scalloped comb, and wattles under the mouth. The feathers of the neck are long, falling down, and rounded at the tips, and are of the finest gold colour. The head and neck are fawn-coloured, the wing-coverts dusky brownish and black; the tail and belly black. The hen is of a dusky ash-grey and yellowish colour, and has a much smaller comb and beard than the cock.

THE PADUAN, OR JAGO FOWL.

(_Gallus giganteus._)

THE wild species, termed by Marsden the Jago fowl, is a native of Java and Sumatra, and is supposed by Temminck to be the original of this fine breed, though little is known of the wild sort, further than that it is double the size of the Bankiva, or common fowl. Marsden says he has seen in the East a cock of this species tall enough to pick crumbs from a dining-table. They are said to weigh from eight to ten pounds. The combs of both the cock and hen are large, frequently double, of the form of a crown, with a tufted crest of feathers, which is largest in the hen; the voice is stronger and harsher than that of other fowls; but the most singular peculiarity is, that they do not come into full feather till about half grown. The Cochin-China fowls are said to be a variety of the Jago fowls. There are numerous hybrids and varieties of the Jago fowl found under different names in poultry-yards, but all of them lay fine large eggs, and are highly esteemed for the excellent flavour of their flesh. One of the most interesting of these varieties is called

THE SPANISH FOWL,

the body and tail feathers of which are of a rich black, with occasionally a little white on the breast. The cock of this variety is a most majestic bird; its deportment is grave and stately, and its eyes are encircled with a ring of brown feathers, from which rises a black tuft that covers the ears. There are other similar feathers behind the comb and beneath the wattles. The legs and feet are of lead colour, except the sole of the foot, which is yellowish.

THE BANTAM FOWL

is a small variety, with short legs, most frequently feathered to the toes, so as sometimes to obstruct walking. Many Bantam fanciers prefer those which have clear bright legs, without any vestige of feathers. The full-bred Bantam cock should have a rose comb, a well-feathered tail, full hackles, a proud lively carriage, and ought not to weigh more than a pound. The nankeen coloured and the black are the greatest favourites. If of the latter colour, the bird should have no feathers of any other sort in his plumage. The nankeen bird should have his feathers edged with black, his wings barred with purple, his tail feathers black, his hackles slightly studded with purple, and his breast black, with white edges to the feathers. The hens should be small, clean-legged, and match in plumage with the cock.

SWIFTNESS has generally been considered the attribute of birds, but the Dodo appears never to have had any title to this distinction. Instead of exciting the idea of swiftness by its appearance, in the drawings that have been preserved of it, it strikes the imagination as a thing the most unwieldy and inactive of all nature. Its body is massive, almost round, and covered with grey feathers. It is just barely supported upon two short thick legs, like pillars; while its head and neck rise from it in a manner truly grotesque. The neck, thick and pursy, is joined to the head, which consists of two immense jaws, opening far beyond the eye. The Dodo formerly inhabited the Isle of France; but it has been long extinct--so long, indeed, that the very fact of its ever having existed at all has been a subject of dispute amongst naturalists and scientific men. A great deal of evidence, in the form of old pictures as well as in writings, has been brought forward to prove that the Dodo is not a fabulous bird, and its reality is now generally admitted. In fact, we have very reliable testimony that a single specimen was actually exhibited publicly in London in the year 1638.

The Dodo was supposed by the earliest naturalists who described it, to be a kind of turkey, as in the flavour of its flesh it resembled that bird. Later naturalists supposed it to be a kind of swan, and this opinion was followed by the celebrated Buffon. Others thought it was a kind of vulture; and others, judging from the shortness of its wings, placed it in the ostrich tribe. Modern naturalists, however, having carefully examined the bones of the bird, which have been preserved, are of opinion that it was a gigantic pigeon. An entire specimen existed about a hundred years ago in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, but only part of the bird and one of the feet remain; there is also a foot preserved in the British Museum. There is a reference to this extinct species in Humboldt’s Cosmos. (See Bohn’s edition, vol. i. page 29, and a note on the Dodo, by Dr. Mantell, at the end of the volume.)

The _Solitaire_ is another remarkable bird which was formerly found in the Mauritius and the adjoining islands, but which has now become extinct.

(_Columba palumbus_,)]

IS the largest Pigeon found in our island, by which it may be distinguished from all others; its weight is about twenty ounces, its length eighteen inches, and its circumference about thirty. It is usually known as the Wood Pigeon. This bird is of a bluish grey colour, with the feathers of the sides of the neck tipped with white, forming several imperfect rings; the breed is common in Britain. Its habits are like those of other birds of the tribe, but it is so strongly attached to its native freedom, that all attempts to domesticate it, with a few rare exceptions, have hitherto proved ineffectual.

These birds build their nests chiefly on the pine, or holly, with dried sticks thrown rudely together; and the eggs, which may frequently be seen through the bottom of the nest, are larger than those of the domestic Pigeon.

Mr. Montague bred up a curious assemblage of birds, which lived together in perfect amity; it consisted of a common pigeon, a ringdove, a white owl, and a sparrowhawk; the ringdove was master of the whole.

“The Stockdove, recluse, with her mate,
Conceals her fond bliss in the grove,
And murmuring seems to repeat,
That May is the mother of love.” CUNNINGHAM.

THIS bird is called the Stockdove, because it builds in the stocks of trees which have been headed down, and are become thick and bristly; and not, as some have supposed, because it is the stock, or original, from which all the tame pigeons have sprung. Sometimes these birds lay their eggs in deserted rabbit-warrens, on the sod, without making any nest.

The colour of the Stockdove is generally of a deep slate or lead tint, with rings of black about the feathers. While the beech woods were suffered to cover large tracts of ground, these birds used to haunt them in myriads, frequently extending above a mile in length, as they went out in the morning to feed. They are still found in considerable quantities in many parts of England, but never in Scotland, forming their nests in the hollows of trees; not like the ringdove, on boughs. Their murmuring strains, or cooings, in the morning and at dusk, are highly pleasing, and throw an agreeable melancholy on the solitude of the grove. The poet of the Seasons expresses this in the following lines, with a beautiful instance of imitative harmony:

“---- the Stockdove breathes
A melancholy murmur through the whole.”
_Spring._

Wordsworth also gives a pleasing description of the mournful cooing of these birds:

“I heard a Stockdove sing or say
His homely tale this very day;
His voice was buried among trees,
Yet to be come at by the breeze;
He did not cease; but cooed and cooed;
And somewhat pensively he wooed;
He sang of love with quiet blending,
Slow to begin, and never ending;
Of serious faith and inward glee,
That was the song--the song for me.”

THE shape of this bird, which is the original stock of our domestic Pigeons, is well known, and the plumage of the wild birds is exactly similar to that of the commonest kind seen in our dove-cots--bluish-grey, with black bands across the wings. In its wild state it inhabits the cavities of high rocks and cliffs on the sea coast, where it is found abundantly in our own country. The female Pigeon lays two eggs at a time, which produce generally a male and a female. It is pleasing to see how eager the male is to sit upon the eggs, in order that his mate may rest and feed herself. The young ones, when hatched, are fed from the crop of the mother, who has the power of forcing up the half-digested peas which she has swallowed to give them to her young. The young ones, open-mouthed, receive this tribute of affection, and are thus fed three times a day.

There are upwards of twenty varieties of the domestic Pigeon, and of these the carriers are the most celebrated. They obtain their name from being sometimes employed to convey letters or small packets from one place to another. The rapidity of their flight is very wonderful. Lithgow assures us that one of them will carry a letter from Babylon to Aleppo (which, to a man, is usually thirty days’ journey) in forty-eight hours. To measure their speed with some degree of exactness, a gentleman, many years ago, on a trifling wager, sent a Carrier Pigeon from London, by the coach, to a friend at Bury St. Edmunds, and along with it a note, desiring that the Pigeon, two days after its arrival there, might be thrown up precisely when the town clock struck nine in the morning. This was accordingly done, and the Pigeon arrived in London at half-past eleven o’clock on the same morning, having flown seventy-two miles in two hours and a half. An instance of still greater speed is mentioned by Mr. Yarrell, in which a Carrier flew from Rouen to Ghent, a hundred and fifty miles in a straight line, in one hour and a half. From the instant of its liberation, its flight is directed through the clouds, at a great height, to its home. By an instinct altogether inconceivable, it darts onward, in a straight line, to the very spot whence it was taken, but how it can direct its flight so exactly will probably for ever remain unknown to us.

“Led by what chart, transports the timid Dove,
The wreaths of conquest, or the vows of love?
Say through the clouds what compass points her flight?
Monarchs have gazed, and nations blessed the sight.
Pile rocks on rocks, bid woods and mountains rise,
Eclipse her native shades, her native skies:--
’Tis vain! through ether’s pathless wilds she goes,
And lights at last where all her cares repose.
Sweet bird, thy truth shall Harlem’s walls attest,
And unborn ages consecrate thy nest.” ROGERS.

The Carrier Pigeon is easily distinguished from the other varieties by a broad circle of naked white skin round the eyes, by the large fleshy wattle at the base of its bill, and by its dark blue or blackish colour.

It would be as fruitless as unnecessary to attempt to describe all the varieties of the Tame Pigeon; for human art has so much altered the colour and figure of this bird, that pigeon-fanciers, by pairing a male and female of different sorts, can, as they express it, “breed them to a feather.” Hence we have the various names of Carriers, Tumblers, Jacobins, Croppers, Pouters, Bunts, Turbits, Shakers, Fantails, Owls, Nuns, &c., all of which may, at first, have accidentally varied from the Rockdove, and these have been further improved by crossing, food, and climate. An actual post system, in which pigeons were the messengers, was established by the Sultan Noureddin Mahmoud, which lasted about a century, and ceased in 1258, when Bagdad fell into the hands of the Moguls.

“Go, beautiful and gentle Dove,
And greet the morning ray;
For lo! the sun shines bright above,
And the rain is pass’d away.” BOWLES.