Part 19
In appearance the woodlark is a lesser skylark, with a shorter tail in proportion to the body, and no apparent difference in colour, except that the spots on the breast and the pale streak over the eye are more conspicuous. It ranks with the six or eight finest British songsters, but is the least known of all. The tree-pipit, sometimes called woodlark, is a much better known songster. When the woodlark is seen and heard he is taken by most people for the skylark. The mistake is easily made, the song having the same character, and is a continuous stream of jubilant sound, delivered in the same manner; for the woodlark, too, soars, ‘and soaring, sings.’ He differs from the skylark in his manner of rising: that bird goes up and up, not quite vertically, but inclining now to this side, now to that, with intervals of suspension, but still as if drawn heavenwards by an invisible cord or magnet; the woodlark ascends in circles, and finally does not attain to so great a height. He also sings on his perch on a tree, and rises from the tree to sing aloft, and in this habit he is like the tree-pipit. Although the woodlark’s song resembles that of the larger bird in character, there is more sameness in the flow of sounds, and it is not so powerful; on the other hand, the sounds are sweeter in quality. Of the two, he is the more constant singer, and may be heard in mild weather throughout the autumn and winter months. His usual call is a melodious double note.
The woodlark is very local in its distribution; it is nowhere common, and its range in this country is a somewhat limited one. In the north of England it is very rare, and in Scotland it has only once been observed breeding. In Ireland it breeds in some localities. It inhabits wooded parks and the borders of woods and commons, and grass-lands in the vicinity of trees and hedgerows; for although it feeds, roosts, and nests on the ground, it must, like the tree-pipit, have trees to perch on; and, like that bird, it has a favourite perch, where it may be confidently looked for at any hour of the day during the spring and summer months.
The nest is placed in a slight hollow in the ground, under a bush, or sheltered by grass and herbage, and is formed of dry grass and moss, and lined with finer grass and hair. The eggs are four or five in number, buffish or faint greenish white in ground-colour, freckled and spotted with reddish brown, with purple-grey under-markings. Three, and even four, broods are said to be reared in the season.
In autumn and winter the woodlarks unite in families or small flocks, and at this season they have a partial or internal migration, the birds that breed in the northern counties moving south. In the southern and south-western counties they remain stationary, and it is observed that during a spell of mild weather in winter these small flocks break up, but re-form at the return of cold.
Besides the two indigenous larks, we have as rare stragglers the following four species: the crested lark (_Alauda cristata_), an inhabitant of Europe and Asia; the short-toed lark (_Calendrella brachydactyla_), from southern Europe; the white-winged lark (_Melanocorypha sibirica_), a Siberian species, obtained once in England; and the shore-lark (_Otocorys alpestris_), an irregular winter visitor from North Europe, Asia, and America.
Swift.
Cypselus apus.
Sooty brown; chin greyish white; tarsi feathered; bill, feet, and claws shining black. Length, seven and a half inches.
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The swift arrives in this country about the end of April or early in May, and from that time onwards, throughout the spring and summer months, day after day, from morning until evening, he may be seen overhead, in twos, threes, and half-dozens, pursuing his mad, everlasting race through the air. Even as late as ten o’clock in the evening, or later, when his form can no longer be followed by the straining sight, his shrill, exulting cry may be heard at intervals, now far off, and now close at hand, showing that the daylight hours of these northern latitudes are not long enough to exhaust his wonderful energy. It has even been supposed by some naturalists that, when not incubating, he spends the entire night on the wing. This is hard to believe; but if we consider his rate of speed, and the number of hours he visibly spends on the wing, it would be within the mark to say that the swift, in a sense, ‘puts a girdle round the earth’ two or three times a month. Year after year the swifts return to the same localities to breed, and there are few towns, villages, hamlets, or even isolated mansions and farmhouses in the British Islands where this bird is not a summer guest. The bunch of swifts to be seen rushing round the tower of every village church are undoubtedly the same birds, or their descendants, that have occupied the place from time immemorial; and it is probable that the annual increase is just sufficient to make good the losses by death each year. It is hard to believe that a life so strenuous can last very long, and impossible to believe that birds so free of the air are subject to many fatal accidents. A spell of intense frost is very fatal to them in spring, but the cold is their only enemy in this country.
The black swift, or ‘develing,’ or ‘screecher,’ as he is sometimes named, with his exceedingly long, stiff, scythe-shaped wings, still ‘urging his wild career’ through the air, is a figure familiar to everyone. And his voice, too, is a familiar sound to every ear. It is usually described as a harsh scream. Wild and shrill and piercing it certainly is, but it varies greatly with the bird’s emotions, and is at times a beautiful silvery sound, which many would hear with delight if uttered by the song-thrush or nightingale.
The swift breeds in holes in church-towers and in houses, its favourite site being under the eaves of a thatched cottage; it also nests in crevices in the sides of chalk-pits and sea-cliffs, and sometimes in hollow trees. A slight nest of straw and feathers, made to adhere together with the bird’s saliva, is built, and two eggs are laid; they are oval in form, white in colour, and have rough shells. One brood only is reared in the season, and the birds depart at the end of August, but stragglers may be met with as late as October.
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The white-bellied swift (_Cypselus melba_) is known in England as a rare straggler from Central and Southern Europe. A still rarer straggler from Eastern Siberia, where it breeds, is the needle-tailed swift (_Acanthyllis caudacuta_); of this species not more than two or three specimens have been obtained in this country.
Nightjar.
Caprimulgus europæus.
Ash-grey spotted and barred with black, brown, and chestnut; first three primaries with a large white patch on the inner web, the two outer tail-feathers on each side tipped with white. Length, ten and a quarter inches.
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The nightjar, or goatsucker, is the representative of a type widely distributed on the earth; we have only one species, just as we have but one swift, one kingfisher, one wryneck, and one cuckoo. And, having but one, and this being so singular a bird, unlike all other species known to us, in structure, colouring, language, and habits, he excites a great deal of interest, and is very well known, although a night-bird, nowhere abundant, and a sojourner with us for only about four months and a half out of the twelve. He arrives in this country about the middle of May, and inhabits commons, moors, and stony places, and is also to be met with in woods. He is found in all suitable localities throughout Great Britain, but is more local in Ireland. Year after year he returns to the same spot to breed, faithful as the swift to its church-tower and the wryneck to its hollow tree, although the unforgotten spot may be on level waste land with a uniform surface. During the daylight hours he sits on the ground among bracken or heather, or by the side of a furze-bush, or in some open place where there is no shelter; but so long as he remains motionless it is all but impossible to detect him, so closely does he resemble the earth in colour. And here we see the advantage of his peculiar colouring--the various soft shades of buff and brown and grey, which at a short distance harmonise with the surroundings, and render him invisible. When perching on a tree he makes himself invisible in another way: his habit is to perch, not crossways on a branch, but lengthways. He rises from the ground when almost trodden on, and goes away with a silent flight, darting this way and that in an eccentric course, and looking more like a great grey mottled and marbled moth than a bird. After going a short distance he drops to earth just as suddenly as he rose. After sunset he may be seen on the borders of woods, by the side of hedges, and in meadows near the water, pursuing his insect prey, dashing rapidly along, with quick turns and doublings, as of a lapwing at play. At this hour his curious reeling, spinning, or whirring song may be heard, a little like the song of the grasshopper warbler in character; but the warbler’s song is a whisper by comparison. ‘The sound,’ Yarrell truly says, ‘can be easily imitated by vibrating the tongue against the roof of the mouth; but the imitation, excellent as it may be close to the performer, is greatly inferior in power, being almost inaudible to anyone twenty yards off, while the original can be heard in calm weather for half a mile or more.’ Of the other curious vocal performance of the nightjar the same author says: ‘On the wing, while toying with his mate, or executing his rapid evolutions round the trees, ... the cock occasionally produces another sound, which, by some excellent observers, has been called a squeak, but to the writer is exactly like that which can be made by swinging a whipthong in the air.’ Most of the names the bird is called by have reference to its summer song--spinner, wheelbird, night-churn, and churn-owl.
The nightjar deposits its two eggs on the bare ground; their colour is white or cream, blotched, mottled, clouded, and veined with brown, blackish brown, and grey. One brood is reared in the season. The return migration is in September.
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A single specimen of the red-necked nightjar (_Caprimulgus ruficollis_), an inhabitant of South-western Europe, has been obtained in this country; and (in 1883) one specimen of the Egyptian nightjar (_Caprimulgus ægyptius_), was shot in Nottinghamshire.
Spotted Woodpecker.
(Great Spotted Woodpecker.)
Dendrocopus major.
Crown and upper parts black; a crimson patch on the back of the head; a white spot on each side of the neck; scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, and under parts white; belly and under tail-coverts crimson. _Female_: without crimson on the head. Length, nine and a half inches.
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The present species is less common than the green woodpecker; and as it seldom goes to the ground, and usually confines its food-seeking to the higher branches of trees, it is rarely seen. Nor is it nearly so loquacious as the larger bird, nor so richly coloured, although handsome and conspicuous in its black-and-white dress, with a touch of glossy crimson on the nape. It frequents woods, hedgerows, and plantations, also pollard willows growing by the side of streams. It may be met with in most English counties, but in the northern counties and in Scotland it is very scarce. In Ireland it does not breed, although occasionally seen there as a migrant in winter. These migrants come from northern Europe, sometimes in considerable numbers, and are diffused over the British Islands; the birds of British race are believed to remain in this country throughout the year.
Like most woodpeckers, this species feeds principally on insects found in crevices of the bark and decayed wood of trees. In the season he becomes a fruit and seed eater, and visits gardens and orchards to steal the cherries; and also feeds on berries, nuts, acorns, and fir-seeds. He is, for a woodpecker, a silent bird; his usual call is a sharp, quick note, repeated two or three times. The most curious sound he makes is instrumental: it is the love-call of the bird, produced by striking the beak on a branch so rapidly as to produce a long jarring or rattling note.
The eggs are laid in a hole in a tree, not always made by the bird; they are six or seven in number, and creamy white in colour.
Barred Woodpecker.
(Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.)
Dendrocopus minor.
Forehead and lower parts dirty white; crown bright red; nape, back, and wings black with white bars; tail black, the outer feathers tipped with white and barred with black; iris red. Length, five and a half inches.
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When Yarrell wrote that the neglect of the name of barred woodpecker, which had been used by some authors for the present species, was to be regretted for brevity’s sake, it was a pity that he did not go so far as to reintroduce it in his great work. For doubtless many a writer on birds has groaned in spirit at the necessity laid upon him to use two such cumbrous names as great, or greater, spotted woodpecker, and lesser spotted woodpecker. Partly on this account I lament Yarrell’s timidity, and partly for a personal reason, since my boldness in using the neglected name will be taken by some readers as an exemplification of the familiar truth that fools rush in where angels fear to tread. But no one will deny that the book-names of these two woodpeckers are bad, and to some extent misleading, since the birds are as unlike in markings as they are in size. The first is as big as a fieldfare, and is spotted; the second is scarcely larger than a linnet, and is distinctly barred.
The barred woodpecker is found in most English counties as far north as York; in Scotland and Ireland it is a rare straggler. It is nowhere common, and appears to be even rarer than it is, owing to its small size and its habit of frequenting tall trees. Its usual note is a sharp chirp, resembling that of the blackbird when going to roost; its love-call, as in the case of the spotted woodpecker, is instrumental, and produced in the same manner. The sound varies in tone and pitch according to the character of the tree performed on, and has been compared to the sound made by an auger when used in boring hard wood; also to the creaking of a branch swayed by the wind.
The barred woodpecker in most cases makes a nesting-hole for itself in the branch or trunk of a soft-wooded tree. Six or seven smooth, creamy white eggs are laid.
Green Woodpecker.
Gecinus viridis.
Upper parts olive-green; rump yellow; under parts greenish grey; crown, back of the head, and moustaches crimson; face black. _Female_: less crimson on the head; moustaches black. Length, thirteen inches.
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The chief characteristic of this beautiful woodland bird is his extraordinary energy. His entire structure, from the straight, sharp, powerful bill, and long, barbed tongue, to the climbing feet and stiff tail-feathers, used as a support to the body when clinging vertically to the trunk of a tree, is admirably adapted to the laborious trade he follows. And this peculiar form has its correlative in a strength, boldness, and determination in attacking a hard piece of work that are nothing less than brilliant. One is astonished at the force of the sounding blows he delivers on the tough bark and wood in his search for hidden insects; yet this is one of the common, small, everyday tasks of his life, and not comparable to the huge labour of digging a breeding-hole deep into the heart of a large branch or trunk of a tree. This energy and intensity of life shows itself also in his motions, gestures, and language. His very qualities of eagerness and determination in splitting up the wood in which his prey lies concealed, and the loud racket he is compelled to make at such times, call upon him the undesirable attentions of the species that are his enemies: he must, when hammering on a tree, be exceedingly vigilant all the while, less some prowling sparrow-hawk or swift-descending falcon shall take him unawares. The wood he exerts his strength on does not absorb his whole attention: his eyes are all the time glancing this way and that, and on the slightest appearance of danger he is nimble as a squirrel to place the trunk or branch between himself and a possible enemy. After a few moments of hiding his red head becomes visible as he peeps cautiously round the trunk, and if the danger be then over he goes back to his task. In the presence of a winged enemy he finds his safety in clinging to the trunk, round which he can move so rapidly, as on the wing he is a heavy bird; but hawks are now rare in England, and his chief persecutors are men with guns.
The language of the green woodpecker, or yaffle, as he is called in the southern counties, adds greatly to his attractiveness; his ringing cry is a sound to rejoice the hearer. Many of the woodpeckers have extremely powerful voices, and the cry of the great black woodpecker of continental Europe has been described by one familiar with it as being like the ‘yell of a demon.’ This ‘demon’ must, I imagine, be a very blithe-hearted one, and its ‘yell’ an expression of wild, joyous, woodland life which we should be glad to listen to in England. Our bird’s voice is not so powerful; but who has not been made happier for a whole day by hearing his ‘loud laugh,’ as one of our old poets has called his cry? It is a clear, piercing sound, so loud and sudden that it startles you, full of wild liberty and gladness; and when I listen for and fail to hear it in park or forest, I feel that I have missed a sound for which no other bird cry or melody can compensate me.
This species is found in woods and parks throughout England as far north as Derbyshire and the south of Yorkshire; farther north he is very rare as a breeder, and in Ireland is only known as a straggler. In seeking his food he climbs obliquely up the trunk, until, having mounted to the higher branches, he passes with a dipping flight to the next tree, invariably alighting near the roots. In summer he feeds a great deal on the ground, especially on ants, of which he is very fond. The breeding-hole is usually made in a soft-wooded tree; it is carried straight to the heart of the wood, and is then extended downwards to the depth of about a foot. In most cases it is found that the heart of the tree selected by the birds is rotten, although outwardly no signs of decay may appear. The hole ends in a chamber in which the eggs are deposited on a slight bed of chips; the eggs are four to seven in number, are oval in form and have pure white polished shells. The young when fledged come out of their cell in the tree’s heart, and creep about the bark for some days before they are able to fly.
The same breeding-hole is used for several years, if not taken possession of by a pair of marauding starlings, which not unfrequently happens.
Wryneck.
Iÿnx torquilla.
Upper parts reddish grey, irregularly spotted and lined with brown and black; a broad black and brown band from the back of the head to the back; under parts dull white, tinged with buff, and barred with dark brown, except on the breast and belly, where the markings become arrow-headed in form; outer web of the quills marked with rectangular, alternate black and yellowish red spots; tail-feathers barred with black zigzag bands; beak and feet olive-brown. Length, seven inches.
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The wryneck is placed by anatomists next to the woodpeckers, and is like them in the form of its feet and the habit of perching vertically on the trunks of trees; but he does not dig into the wood with his beak, nor does he support himself with his tail, the feathers of which are soft, as in most perching birds. He is a singular bird, differing from all others in form, colouring, language, and habits. His variously coloured plumage, so curiously and beautifully barred and mottled, is most like that of the nightjar; but his beauty appears only when he is seen very near. At a distance of twenty-five or thirty yards he is obscure in colouring, and is more remarkable for his attitudes and gestures, when seen on a tree trunk deftly and rapidly picking up the small ants on which he feeds. When thus engaged he twists his neck, turning his head from side to side in a most singular manner; hence the name of wryneck. When taken in the hand he twists his neck about in the same manner, and hisses like a snake, as he also does when disturbed during incubation; and on this account he has been called snake-bird. When held in the hand he sometimes swoons, and appears to be dead until released, whereupon he quickly recovers and makes his escape. Even more characteristic than his contortions, hissings, and ‘death feignings,’ is his voice. It is an unmistakable and familiar sound of early spring, as distinctive as the shrill cry of the swift and the cuckoo’s call--a clear, high-pitched, far-reaching note, reiterated many times--a sound that makes itself heard at a distance of a quarter of a mile. As a rule, this note is heard a few days before the cuckoo’s call, and on this account the wryneck is known in the southern counties, where he is most common, as the cuckoo’s mate, or messenger, or boder, and is also called the cuckoo’s maid.
The wryneck feeds chiefly on ants and their larvæ, and, like the green woodpecker, he goes to the anthills on commons and uncultivated grounds; the insects are taken with the long, retractile tongue, which is covered with an adhesive saliva, and which the bird, when feeding, darts out and withdraws with lightning rapidity.
A hole in the trunk of a tree, often near the roots, is a favourite nesting-place. The eggs are seven to ten in number, and are deposited, without any nest, on the rotten wood. They are pure white, and have glossy shells. The same breeding-hole is used year after year.
The wryneck is most common in the southern and south-eastern counties; in the West of England and in Wales it is rarer. In the northern counties of England it is also rare and local; in Scotland it does not breed, and in Ireland it is not known.
Kingfisher.
Alcedo ispida.
Back azure-blue; head and wing-coverts bluish green spotted with azure-blue; under and behind the eye a reddish band, passing into white, and beneath this a band of azure-green; wings and tail greenish blue; throat white; under parts rusty orange-red. Length, seven and a half inches.
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