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Birds that come in Spring — The Pewit: Pugnacity; Nests of; Cunning —
Ring Dotterel — Redshank — Oyster-Catcher: Food; Swimming of; Nest —
Curlew — Redstart — Swallows, etc.
The pewit is the first bird
that visits us for the purpose of nidification. About the middle of
February a solitary pewit appears or perhaps a pair, and I hear them in
the evening flying from the shore in order to search for worms in the
field. Towards the end of the month great flocks arrive and collect on the
sands, always, however, feeding inland. It is altogether a nocturnal bird
as far as regards feeding: at any hour of the night, and however dark it
is, if I happen to pass through the grass-fields, I hear the pewits rising
near me. Excepting to feed, they do not take much to the land till the end
of March, when, if the weather is mild, I see them all day long flying
about in their eccentric circles—generally in pairs; immediately after
they appear in this manner, they commence laying their eggs, almost always
on the barest fields, where they scratch a small hole just large enough to
contain four eggs — the usual number laid by all waders; it is very
difficult to distinguish these eggs from the ground, their colour being a
brownish-green mottled with dark spots. I often see the hooded crows
hunting the fields frequented by the pewits, as regularly as a pointer,
flying a few yards above the ground, and searching for the eggs. The
cunning crow always selects the time when the old birds are away on the
shore; as soon as he is perceived, however, the pewits all combine in
chasing him away: indeed, they attack fearlessly any bird of prey that
ventures near their breeding-ground ; and I have often detected the locale
of a stoat or weasel by the swoops of these birds : also, when they have
laid their eggs, they fight most fiercely with any other bird of their own
species which happens to alight too near them. I saw a cock pewit one day
attack a wounded male bird which came near his nest; the pugnacious little
fellow ran up to the intruder, and taking advantage of his weakness,
jumped on him, trampling upon him and pecking at his head, and then
dragging him along the ground as fiercely as a game-cock.
The hen pewit has a
peculiar instinct in misleading people as to the whereabouts of her nest:
as soon as any one appears in the field where the nest is, the bird runs
quietly and rapidly in a stooping posture to some distance from it, and
then rises with loud cries and appearance of alarm, as if her nest was
immediately below the spot she rose from. When the young ones are hatched
too, the place to look for them is not where the parent birds are
screaming and fluttering about, but at some little distance from it; as
soon as you actually come to the spot where their young are, the old birds
alight on the ground a hundred yards or so from you, watching your
movements. If, however, you pick up one of the young ones, both male and
female immediately throw off all disguise, and come wheeling and screaming
round your head, as if about to fly in your face. The young birds, when
approached, squat flat and motionless on the ground, often amongst the
weeds and grass in a shallow pool or ditch, where, owing to their colour,
it is very difficult to distinguish them from the surrounding objects.
Towards the end of March,
the ring-dotterel, the redshank, the curlew, the oyster-catcher, and some
other birds of the same kind, begin to frequent their breeding-places. On
those parts of the sandhills which are covered with small pebbles, the
ring-dotterels take up their station, uttering their plaintive and not
unmusical whistle for hours together, sometimes flitting about after each
other with a flight resembling that of a swallow, and sometimes running
rapidly along the ground, every now and then jerking up their wings till
they meet above their back. Both the bird and its eggs are exactly similar
in colour to the ground on which they breed ; this is a provision of
nature, to preserve the eggs of birds that breed on the ground from the
prying eyes of their numerous enemies, and is observable in many different
kinds; the colour of the young birds is equally favourable to their
concealment.
The redshank does not breed
on the stones or bare ground, but in some spot of rough grass; their
motions are very curious at this time of year, as they run along with
great swiftness, clapping their wings together audibly above their heads,
and flying about round and round any intruder with rapid jerks, or
hovering in the air like a hawk, all the time uttering a loud and peculiar
whistle. They lead their young to the banks of any pool or ditch at hand,
and they conceal themselves in the holes and corners close to the water's
edge.
The oyster-catchers sit
quietly in pairs the chief part of the day on the banks or islands of
shingle about the river or on the shore, but resort in the evenings to the
sands in large flocks. I have often been puzzled to understand why, during
the whole of the breeding-season, the oyster-catchers remain in large
flocks along the coast, notwithstanding their duties of hatching and
rearing their young. When all the other birds are paired off, they still
every now and then collect in the same numbers as they do in winter.
They lay very large eggs,
of a greenish brown colour mottled with black; both these birds and pewits
soon become tame and familiar if kept in a garden or elsewhere, watching
boldly for the worms turned up by the gardener when digging. The
oyster-catcher's natural food appears to be shell-fish only; I see them
digging up the cockles with their powerful bill, or detaching the small
mussels from the scarps, and swallowing them whole, when not too large;
if, however, one of these birds finds a cockle too large to swallow at
once, he digs away at it with the hard point of his bill till he opens it,
and then eats the fish, leaving the shell.
It is a curious fact with
regard to this bird, that if it drops winged on the sea, it not only swims
with great ease, but dives, remaining under water for so long a time, and
rising again at such a distance, that I have known one escape out to sea
in spite of my retriever, and I have watched the bird swim gallantly and
with apparent ease across the bay, or to some bank at a considerable
distance off. The feet of the oyster-catcher seem particularly ill-adapted
for swimming, as the toes are very short and stiff in proportion to the
size of the bird. Most of the waders, when shot above the water and
winged, will swim for a short distance, but generally with difficulty;
none of them, however, excepting this bird, attempt to dive.
When in captivity the
oyster-catcher eats almost anything that is offered to it. From its
brilliant black and white plumage and red bill, as well as from its
utility in destroying slugs and snails in the garden, where it searches
for them with unceasing activity, it is both ornamental and useful, and
worthy of being oftener kept for this purpose where a garden is surrounded
by-walls ; it will, if taken young, remain with great contentment with
poultry without being confined. I have found its nest in different
localities, sometimes on the stones and sometimes on the sand close to
high-water mark — very often on the small islands and points of land about
the river, at a considerable distance from the sea; its favourite place
here is on the carse land between the two branches of the Findhorn near
the sea, where it selects some little elevation of the ground just above
the reach of the tide, but where at spring-tides the nest must be very
often entirely surrounded by the water—I never knew either this or any
bird make the mistake of building within reach of the high tides, though,
from the great difference there is in the height of the spring-tides, one
might suppose that the birds would be often led into such a scrape.
Unlike most birds of
similar kind, the sandpiper builds a substantial comfortable nest in some
tuft of grass near the riverside, well concealed by the surrounding
herbage, instead of leaving its eggs on the bare stones or sand. It is a
lively little bird, and is always associated in my mind with summer and
genial weather as it runs jerking along the water's edge, looking for
insects or flies, and uttering its clear pipe-like whistle. The young of
the sandpiper are neatly and elegantly mottled, and are very difficult to
be perceived. The eggs are brown and yellow, nearly the colour of the
withered grass and leaves with which the bird forms its nest.
Towards the end of March
the curlew begins to leave the shore, taking to the higher hills, where it
breeds, near the edge of some loch or marsh. During the season of
breeding, this-bird (though so shy and suspicious at all other times)
flies boldly round the head of any passer by with a loud screaming
whistle. The eggs are very large. When first hatched, the young have none
of the length of bill which is so distinguishing a feature in the old
bird. On the shore the curlews feed mostly on cockles and other
shell-fish, which they extract from the sand with ease, and swallow whole,
voiding the shells broken into small pieces. During open weather they
frequent the turnip and grass fields, where they appear to be busily
seeking for snails and worms.
There is no bird more
difficult to get within shot of than the curlew. Their sense of smelling
is so acute that it is impossible to get near them excepting by going
against the wind, and they keep too good a look-out to leeward to admit of
this being always done. I have frequently killed them when feeding in
fields surrounded by stone walls, by showing my hand or some small part of
my dress above the wall, when they have come wheeling round to discover
what the object was.
Besides the sea-birds that
come into this country to breed, such as sandpipers, pewits, terns, etc.,
there are some few of our smaller birds that arrive in the spring to pass
the summer here. Amongst these I may name the redstart, the spotted
flycatcher, the whitethroat, the wheatear, etc.
The redstart is not very
common: it breeds in several places, however, up the Findhorn; at Logie,
for instance, where year after year it builds in an old ivy-covered wall.
The young, when able to fly, appear often in my garden for a few weeks,
actively employed in doing good service, killing numbers of insects; and
every spring a pair or two of flycatchers breed in one of the fruit-trees
on the wall, building, as it were, only half a nest, the wall supplying
the other half. They cover the nest most carefully with cobwebs, to make
it appear like a lump of this kind of substance left on the wall; indeed,
I do not know any nest more difficult to distinguish. It is amusing to see
the birds as they dash off from the top of the wall in pursuit of some fly
or insect, which they catch in the air and carry to their young. The
number of insects which they take to their nest in the course of
half-an-hour is perfectly astonishing.
Another bird that comes
every spring to the same bush to breed is the pretty little whitethroat.
On the lawn close to my house a pair comes to the same evergreen, at the
foot of which on the ground, they build their nest, carrying to it an
immense quantity of feathers, wool, etc. The bird sits fearlessly, and
with full confidence that she will not be disturbed, although the grass is
mown close up to her abode; and she is visited at all hours by the
children, who take a lively interest in her proceedings. She appears quite
acquainted with them all, sitting snugly in her warmly feathered nest,
with nothing visible but her bright black eyes and sharp-pointed bill. As
soon as her eggs are hatched, she and her mate are in a great bustle,
bringing food to their very tiny offspring—flying backwards and forwards
all day with caterpillars and grubs.
Both this and the larger
kind of whitethroat which visits us have a lively and pleasing song. They
frequently make their nest on the ground in the orchard, amongst the long
grass, arching it over in the most cunning manner, and completely
concealing it. When they leave their eggs to feed, a leaf is laid over the
entrance of the nest to hide it; in fact, nothing but the eyes of children
(who in nest-finding would beat Argus himself) could ever discover the
abode of the little whitethroat. Before they leave this country, these
birds collect together, and are seen searching the hedges for insects in
considerable but scattered flocks. They frequently fly in at the open
windows in pursuit of flies, and chase them round the room quite
fearlessly. The gardener accuses them of destroying quantities of
cherries, by piercing them with their bills : they certainly do so, but I
am always inclined to suppose that it is only the diseased fruit that they
attack in this way, or that which has already been taken possession of by
small insects.
The wheatear does not
arrive till the first week of April, when they appear in considerable
numbers on the sand-hills, flying in and out of the rabbit-holes and
broken banks, in concealed corners of which they hatch. Their eggs are
peculiarly beautiful, being of a pale blue delicately shaded with a darker
colour at one end. Though of such repute in the south of England, it is
not ever sought after here. As a boy, on the Wiltshire downs, I used to be
an adept at catching them in horsehair nooses, as we used to consider them
particularly good eating. The shepherds there, as well as on the South
downs, make a considerable addition to their income by catching wheatears
and sending them to the London and Brighton markets.
The swallows and swifts
arrive also about the middle of April. It is a curious thing to observe
how a pair of swallows season after season build their nest in the same
angle of a window, or corner of a wall, coming immediately to the same
spot, after their long absence and weary flight, and either repairing
their old residence or building a new one.
Great numbers of sand
martins build in the banks of the river, returning to the same places
every year, and after clearing out their holes, they carry in a great
quantity of feathers and dried grass, which they lay loosely at the end of
their subterranean habitation.
The swifts appear always to
take up their abode about the highest buildings in the towns and villages,
flying and screaming like restless spirits round and round the church
steeple for hours together, sometimes dashing in at a small hole under the
eaves of the roof, or clinging with their hard and powerful claws to the
perpendicular walls; at other times they seem to be occupied the whole day
in darting like arrows along the course of the burn in pursuit of the
small gnats, of which they catch great numbers in their rapid flight. I
have found in the throat of both swift and martin a number of small flies
sticking together in a lump as large as a marble, and though quite alive
unable to escape. It is probably with these that they feed their young,
for the food of all swallows consisting of the smaller gnats and flies,
they cannot carry them singly to their nests, but must wait till they have
caught a good quantity.
We are visited too by that
very curious little bird the tree-creeper, Certhea familiaris,
whose rapid manner of running round the trunk of a tree in search of
insects is most amusing. Though not exactly a bird of passage, as it is
seen at all seasons, it appears occasionally to vanish from a district for
some months, and then to return, without reference to the time of year. I
found one of their nests built within an outbuilding, which the bird
entered by a small opening at the top of the door.
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