III. DIVISION I.--THE CARINATE BIRDS (CARINATÆ)
THE ACCIPITRINE ORDER--BIRDS OF PREY.
VULTURES AND CARACARAS.
The Birds of Prey--Distinctive Characters--The Cere--How the Birds of Prey are Divided--Difference between a Hawk, an Owl, and an Osprey--The three Sub-orders of the Accipitres--Sub-order FALCONES--Difference between the Vultures of the Old World and the Vultures of the New World--THE OLD WORLD VULTURES--Controversy as to how the Vultures reach their Prey--Waterton on the Faculty of Scent--Mr. Andersson’s, Dr. Kirk’s, and Canon Tristram’s Views in Favour of Sight--THE BLACK VULTURE--THE GRIFFON VULTURE--Its Capacity for Feeding while on the Wing--THE EARED VULTURE--One of the Largest of the Birds of Prey--Whence it gets its Name--THE EGYPTIAN VULTURE--A Foul Feeder--THE NEW WORLD VULTURES--THE CONDOR--Its Appearance--Power of Flight--Habits--THE KING VULTURE--THE TURKEY VULTURE--THE CARACARAS--Distinctive Characters--Habits--THE SECRETARY BIRD--How it attacks Snakes--Habits--Appearance--THE ÇARIAMA.
The first order of birds to be considered is the birds of prey (Accipitres). They are all remarkable for strong and sharply-hooked bills, and most of them have sharp and powerful talons. In the Eagles and Falcons these characters are developed in the highest degree, although many modifications of their structure take place in the order--the Vultures, for instance, and other carrion-feeding birds, not having such a hooked bill as the true Falcons and Eagles, while their feet are larger and more adapted for holding their prey than for striking it down in full career, as the Falcons do. In most of the birds of prey the female is larger than the male, and is much the more powerful bird. This fact is always recognised in falconry, especially in the short-winged Hawks, such as Sparrow-Hawks or Goshawks, whose females are always preferred, as possessing the greater power for holding ground game, such as Rabbits, Hares, &c. The difference in size is not very noticeable in the Vultures, but is unmistakable in the long-legged Sparrow-Hawks, Eagles, and Falcons. The form of the breast-bone, which plays such an important part in the classification of other birds, is a character of less value in the birds of prey, as it varies to a great extent even in those species which, by their habits and general structure, are most closely allied. Another character possessed by these birds is the distinct cere, which is present in all, though much hidden by bristles in the Owls: it is a waxy covering to the base of the bill, often hard, but generally fleshy in substance.
Birds of prey are of three kinds: Hawks, Ospreys, and Owls. Under the first name is included every rapacious bird which is not an Osprey or an Owl, and, therefore, the first thing to find out is--how to tell an Owl from a Hawk. At one time it was supposed that all Owls came out by night and all Hawks by day, and so they were separated into two great divisions, which were called diurnal birds of prey[143] and nocturnal birds of prey.[144] Now, however, that the habits of birds are getting better observed, these divisions have to be abandoned as not being entirely true, for there are Owls which are quite at home in the daylight, when they hunt for their food like any other bird of prey, and at least one kind of Hawk is known, whose habit it is to feed on Bats in the evening. This is Andersson’s Pern,[145] a kind of Kite, allied to the Honey-kite of England. It is found only in the Damara Country, in South-western Africa, and in Madagascar. A far better way to distinguish Hawks from Owls is seen in the foot, as the latter have the outer toe reversible--that is to say, they can turn their outer toe backwards or forwards as they please. This is easily observed in the living birds; and any one examining a caged Owl in the Zoological Gardens will see that it sits with its toes in pairs--two in front and two behind. A Hawk cannot do this, all his toes being arranged as in a little perching bird, such as a Sparrow or a Canary, three in front and one behind. Then, again, Owls have no “after-shaft” to the feathers, a structure which most Hawks possess. The “after-shaft” is the small accessory plume, which springs from the under-side of the main feather. In some birds it is very large, in others small. It occurs on the body feathers only, and is never found in the quills or tail feathers (see p. 238). Lastly, in addition to the reversible outer toe, and the absence of an accessory plume or after-shaft, Owls may be distinguished from all other birds of prey, save one, by the proportions of their leg-bones. In the skeleton figured on p. 241 the three principal leg-bones are pointed out; and it is the length which the tarsus bears in proportion to the tibia that is here insisted on. In the Owls the tarsus is only about half the length of the tibia; this is never the case in a Hawk, in which these two bones bear different proportions the one to the other, according to the sub-family. Thus in Sparrow-Hawks and Harriers[146] the tibia and the tarsus are equal in length. In Eagles and Buzzards, Kites and true Falcons, the tibia is always much longer than the tarsus, but is never double its length, as it is in the Owls. The term “Hawk,” which has been employed throughout the foregoing sentences, is intended to apply to every bird of prey excepting the Owls, with the sole exception of the Osprey. The habits of the Osprey are noticed later on, but they may be briefly stated to be similar to those of a Sea-Eagle, its prey consisting entirely of fish, while its plumage and general appearance are also those of an Eagle, so that in many places it is popularly known as the “Fish Hawk,” or “Fishing Eagle;” but here the resemblance of the Osprey to the Eagle ends, and in its other characters it is very like an Owl. The tibia is more than double the length of the tarsus, as in the Owls; the feathers of the body have no after-shaft, as in the Owls, and the outer toe is reversible, as in the Owls. Possessing, therefore, as it does, some of the most prominent features of the Eagles, as well as some of the most striking peculiarities of the Owls, the Osprey holds an intermediate position between these two sub-orders of birds.
The birds of prey, then, may be separated into three sub-orders:--
(a). Outer toe not reversible; tibia varying in length in proportion to the tarsus, sometimes equal to it, but never double the length of the latter; body feathers with an after-shaft or accessory plume. (American Vultures excepted.)
I. Hawks (Falcones).[147]
(b). Outer toe reversible; tibia double the length of tarsus; body feathers without an after-shaft or accessory plume; plumage compact, as in an Eagle; no facial disk.
II. Ospreys (Pandiones).[148]
(c). Outer toe reversible; tibia double the length of tarsus; body feathers without an after-shaft; plumage soft and fluffy; a facial disk.
III. Striges;[149] Owls.
The Falcones, or Hawks, include in their number more kinds of rapacious birds than the other two sub-orders. All the Vultures, the Caracaras, the Harriers, the Sparrow-Hawks, the Buzzards, Eagles, Kites, and Falcons, together numbering some four hundred different species, are classified as Falcones. Only one species of Osprey is known, which is found nearly all over the world; and about two hundred different kinds of Owls remain to represent the STRIGES.
ORDER ACCIPITRES.--SUB-ORDER FALCONES.
The first sub-order is divided into two families, the first to be noticed being the Vultures (Vulturidæ), which is again sub-divided into two sections, the Vultures of the Old World (Vulturinæ) and the Vultures of the New World (Sarcorhamphinæ).
THE FIRST SUB-FAMILY OF THE VULTURIDÆ.--THE OLD WORLD VULTURES (Vulturinæ).
These Vultures are neither to be recommended for their habits nor for their personal appearance. In fact, in both these respects they are rather repulsive birds, but useful withal in hot climates, where they act as scavengers, and clear away much putrid matter and decaying substances, which but for their intervention would prove most offensive. They are all inhabitants of tropical, or at least of warm, countries; and it is only on rare occasions that they wander into the North of Europe or occur in the British Islands. Both the Old and the New Worlds have their Vultures, but the naturalist has no difficulty in telling at a glance to which hemisphere the bird he is looking at belongs, for all the Vultures of the New World have a hole through their nose--or, in other words, want the wall of bone which divides one nostril from the other; in the Vultures of the Old World this bony wall is present so that the nostrils resemble those of other ordinary birds.
Besides their perforated nostril, the American Vultures differ from the Old World species in having no after-shaft to the feathers, therein resembling the Owls. This character has led some naturalists to consider the New World Vultures as constituting a separate family, which bears the name of Cathartidæ; but although the absence of an after-shaft is a striking feature, yet the habits of the birds so closely resemble those of their Old World cousins, that it seems unnatural to separate them widely in any scheme of classification. The head of a Vulture, whatever locality he may be from, proclaims the nature of the bird at once, as it is always bare of feathers, or nearly so: sometimes a few scattered tufts of down are seen on the head and neck, but never any true feathers, as in the case of the other birds of prey. The Vultures feed on the ground, where they walk with comparative ease, their large feet being fitted for progression on the earth, and their toes not being prehensile or capable of bending to the same extent as in the other Hawks. This formation of the foot prevents them from striking down or snatching their prey, as an Eagle or a Hawk would do; and they do not carry food to their young, but devour the carcase or carrion where it falls, and then feed the nestlings by throwing up food from their crop. They are all birds of powerful flight, and are capable of sustaining a prolonged soar in the air without any apparent motion of the wings.
As to the way in which Vultures discover their prey, the opinion of naturalists has for a long time been divided, and controversy has waxed hot upon the subject, the question being whether the Vulture possesses a more than usually keen sense of sight, or whether his sense of smell is so powerful as to enable him to scent a decaying carcase at a greater distance than other birds can do. The experiments of various travellers seem to prove that both the senses of sight and smell are possessed by the Vulture in no ordinary degree; but the balance of evidence seems to prove that it is by their keen sight that they generally find their food. Supposing that an animal is wounded, and escapes from the hunter, his course is marked by a Vulture soaring high in the air; another circling far away on the horizon sees the first bird fly down, and follows in his track; and so on, until a large company is feeding on the carcase. This action of the Vultures is well described by Longfellow:--
“Never stoops the soaring Vulture On his quarry in the desert, On the sick or wounded Bison, But another Vulture, watching From his high aërial look-out, Sees the downward plunge, and follows; And a third pursues the second, Coming from the invisible ether, First a speck, and then a Vulture, Till the air is dark with pinions.”[150]
The power of the Vulture’s sight was long disputed by the former generation of naturalists, and the celebrated Waterton wrote an article on the “Faculty of Scent in the Vulture,”[151] to prove that it was more by this means than by sight that the bird was able to discover a carcase. Waterton was well acquainted with Vultures in Demarara and in Southern Spain, and he sums up his argument as follows:--“After the repeated observations I have made in the country where it abounds, I am quite satisfied that it is directed to its food by means of its olfactory nerves coming in contact with putrid effluvium, which rises from corrupted substances through the heavier air. Those are deceived who imagine that this effluvium would always be driven to one quarter in the tropics, where the trade-winds prevail. Often, at the very time that the clouds are driving from the north-east up above, there is a lower current of air coming from the quarter directly opposite. This takes place most frequently during the night-time, in or near the woods; and it often occurs early in the morning, from sunrise till near ten o’clock, when the regular trade-wind begins to blow. Sometimes it is noticed in the evening, after sunset; and now and then during the best part of the day in the rainy season.... Vultures, as far as I have been able to observe, do not keep together in a large flock when they are soaring up and down in quest of a tainted current. Now, suppose a Mule has just expired behind a high wall, under the dense foliage of evergreen tropical trees; fifty Vultures, we will say, roost in a tree a mile from this dead Mule. When morning comes, off they go in quest of food. Ten fly, by mere chance, to the wood where the Mule lies, and manage to spy it through the trees; the rest go quite in a different direction. How are the last-mentioned birds to find the Mule? Every minute carries them farther from it. Now reverse the statement; and instead of a Mule nearly dead, let us suppose a Mule in an offensive state of decomposition. I would stake my life upon it that not only the fifty Vultures would be at the carcase next morning, but also that every Vulture in the adjacent forest would manage to get there in time to partake of the repast.” It will be seen from the above that Mr. Waterton allowed the keen sight of the Vultures to play, on some occasions, a part in their discovering food. Another observation on this subject is contained in the late Mr. C. J. Andersson’s work on the ornithology of South-western Africa. Writing on the Sociable Vulture (Otogyps auricularis), he says:--“I believe naturalists are not quite agreed as to whether Vultures hunt by sight, by scent, or by both faculties combined. I have myself no doubt that they employ the one sense as well as the other in finding their prey, though I feel inclined to give sight the preference; and I once had a very striking proof of how they employ their vision in guiding them to carrion--in this instance, however, not so much by the actual sight of the carrion (though the first discovery probably originated in that way) as by another singular contrivance. Early one morning, as I was toiling up the ascent of a somewhat elevated ridge of hills, with the view of obtaining bearings for my travelling map, and before arriving at the summit, I observed several Vultures descending near me: but thinking I had merely disturbed them from their lofty perch, I did not take any particular notice of their appearance, as the event was one of usual occurrence; but on gaining my destination, I found that the birds were not coming merely from the hill summit, but from an indefinite distance on the other side. This circumstance, coupled with the fact that I had wounded a Zebra on the preceding day in the direction towards which the Vultures were winging their way, caused me to pay more attention. The flight of the Vultures was low--at least five hundred to a thousand feet below the summit of the mountain; and on arriving near the base, they would abruptly rise without deviating from their direct course; and no sooner was the obstacle in their way thus surmounted than they again depressed their flight. Those Vultures which I saw could not have themselves seen the carrion, but simply hunted in direct sight of one another. There was a numerous arrival; and although I could not always detect the next bird as soon as I had lost sight of the previous one, yet, when at length it did come into view, it never seemed uncertain about its course. Having finished my observations, I descended, and proceeded in the direction which the Vultures had pursued; and after about half an hour’s rapid walking, I found, as I anticipated, the carcase of a Zebra, with a numerous company of Vultures busily discussing it.”[152]
Dr. Kirk, the companion of Livingstone, in his paper on the “Birds of the Zambesi Region of Eastern Tropical Africa,”[153] says that to the inexperienced hunter the Griffon is “a great annoyance. If game be left for an hour in the open plain while the men come to carry it off, the birds will descend, and in a very short time completely devour it. This is not so if it be covered over with a little grass or with branches, clearly proving that sight alone is the sense by which the birds discover their prey. If part of the animal be exposed it matters not--probably owing to its being mistaken for one asleep; nor does the presence of blood seem to guide the birds if the carcase be concealed from view.”
Lastly, to quote from Canon Tristram’s interesting essay on the “Ornithology of the Sahara:”[154] “As, happily for the traveller, Camels do not die every day under the weight of their water-skins, the Griffon does not habitually visit the desert. Still, he occasionally gives it a passing call, though, if his meal be deposited near an oasis, he is usually forestalled by the Hyæna (‘Dubba,’ Arab.), who lurks in the ‘weds.’ On one occasion a Camel in our caravan having become footsore had to be slaughtered on the spot. Our attendants selected the tenderest morsels for ‘kouskous,’ the Arab broth; and it was not until the next morning that a Vulture scented, or rather descried, his prey. That the Vulture uses the organ of sight rather than that of smell, seems to be certain from the immense height at which he soars and gyrates in the air. In this instance one solitary bird descended, and half an hour afterwards was joined by a second. A short time elapsed, and the Nubian Vulture (Otogyps nubicus) appeared, self-invited, at the feast; and before the bones were left to the Hyæna no less than nine Griffons and two Nubians had broken their fast. I should hesitate to assert that they had satisfied their appetites. I have observed the same regular succession of diners out on other occasions. May we not conjecture that the process is as follows? The Griffon who first descries his quarry descends from his elevation at once; another, sweeping the horizon at a still greater distance, observes his neighbour’s movements and follows his course; a third, still farther removed, follows the flight of the second; he is traced by another; and so a perpetual succession is kept up as long as a morsel of flesh remains over which to consort. I can conceive no other way of accounting for the numbers of Vultures which in the course of a few hours will gather over a carcase, when previously the horizon might have been scanned in vain for more than one, or at the most two, in sight. Does not this explain the immense number of Vultures who were congregated in the Crimea during the siege of Sebastopol, where the bird was comparatively scarce before? May not this habit of watching the movements of their neighbours have collected the whole race from the Caucasus and Asia Minor to enjoy so unwonted an abundance? The Arabs believe that the Vultures from all North Africa were gathered to feed on Russian Horses in the Crimea, and declare that during the war very few ‘Nissr’ were to be seen in their accustomed haunts.”
The above extracts from authentic works have been made at some length, as exhibiting the general habits of the Vultures. It remains now to notice some of the most striking forms of these birds.
THE BLACK VULTURE[155]
This is an inhabitant of Southern Europe, whence it extends on both sides of the Mediterranean to North-western India, where it is a cold weather visitant, and even to China. In its habits this bird is rather unsociable, and keeps more to the wooded districts, seldom venturing into the open country, except when attracted by the presence of some carcase, on which it feasts in company with the Griffon Vulture. It breeds on trees, constructing a large bulky nest, and only selects a rock for its breeding home when there are no trees to be found in the neighbourhood. It lays one egg, of a richly mottled red colour, two eggs being an extremely rare occurrence. In appearance they are very like those of the Golden Eagle. A story is told of the rescue by a pair of old birds of their young ones, which were in danger from the felling of the tree on which the nest was situated. It is thus related by Count von Tshusi Schmidthofen:--“The royal forester, A. Fikker, found in 1860, on the top of a giant beech in the valley of Dobrabach, in the Sinnaer district, the nest of this Vulture. When the young birds were large enough to be able to save themselves as the tree fell, orders were given to cut the beech down. The wood-cutters had worked at the tree some time, when the old birds appeared, uttering loud cries, and suddenly pounced on the nest, caught hold of the young ones in their claws and disappeared like lightning, carrying off the young (who loudly complained of the unusual mode of locomotion) before the gaze of the astonished spectators.”
The Black Vulture measures three feet and a half in length, and is entirely black, the bare places on the head and neck being of a livid flesh colour when the bird is alive.
THE GRIFFON VULTURE.[156]
The Griffon, or Fulvous Vulture (so called from its colour), is found all over Southern Europe, and occurs occasionally at different points in Central Europe, having once been taken in the British islands off Cork Harbour; it therefore figures in the list of British birds. It ranges all over North-eastern Africa, and extends eastwards into Turkestan, Central Asia, and North-western India. As it goes eastwards the Griffon becomes a more rufous bird, and is by some naturalists considered to be a different species. In the British Museum is a very interesting specimen of this Vulture, collected by Major Denham in Bornou during his travels across Africa, being one of the comparatively few birds that have been brought from Central Africa, about the ornithology of which we do not even yet know much. Like other Vultures, the Griffon feeds on carrion, but is also stated to frequent the sea-shore in search of Crustacea and dead fish; while the South African Griffon is said to feed on Locusts and small Tortoises, the latter of which it swallows whole.[157]
This bird’s capacity for feeding is illustrated in a most amusing anecdote of Canon Tristram’s:--“For some months we possessed two Griffons taken from the nest, who at length arrived safely in England. They never attempted to leave us, differing in this respect from our Lämmergeiers, but remained contentedly about the tents or perched on the backs of the baggage-camels en route. They took a peculiar interest in taxidermy, scrutinising, head on one side, the whole operation of bird-skinning, and perfectly aware of the moment when a morsel would be ready, exhibiting a more than ordinary excitement when they saw the skin drawn back over the head, and knew that the whole carcase would soon be cut off for them. One of these birds was of a desponding, querulous disposition, the other of a very different natural temperament, always contented and cheerful, a universal favourite in the camp, while his fellow received, I fear, many a sly kick for his complaints. They were able to fast for days; but, whenever such an opportunity as a Camel’s carcase presented itself, would be revenged on their Lent. I have seen our pet, ‘Musha Pasha,’ attack the entrails of a Camel, and, as his crop became distended, sink upon his breast, unable to stand, till at length, even this position being too much for him, he lay on his side, still eating, until, overpowered and helpless, he fell asleep. This enormous capacity for food, combined with the power of long abstinence, is a wonderful provision of creative wisdom for carrion-feeders, whose supply is so uncertain, while the necessity for the immediate removal of offensive matter is so urgent. The strength of the Vulture’s stomach is equal to its capacity, for on one occasion one of our Griffons devoured a half pound pot of arsenical soap, with no further inconvenience than a violent fit of vomiting.”
The Griffon nests on rocks, sometimes several building in company in the same neighbourhood. Its flight is majestic, and Mr. Salvin says that it is a fine sight to watch the ease with which the Griffon sails through the air; the apparently effortless extension of the wing seems amply sufficient to sustain its huge body; no flapping motion is necessary to enable it to mount to a great height. It is only on leaving a rock that a few strokes are requisite to attain the necessary impulse, after which, with primaries bent upwards by the force of the air, it performs its stately evolutions by soaring only. In alighting, the bird drops its legs some distance from the rock, and, sailing to within a few yards, it checks its velocity by two or three heavy strokes of the wing.
Among the ancient Egyptians the Griffon appears to have been a sacred bird, and its remains have been found embalmed. It is also figured on their monuments, sometimes in its natural form, sometimes with the head of a Snake. In size the European Griffon stands about three feet and a half high, and is of a general ashy fulvous colour, with black quills and tail; the under surface is creamy-brown, with a darker brown mark on the crop; the head and neck are bare, or with loosely scattered tufts of white down; and round the neck there is a white ruff.
Besides the Griffon Vulture of Europe there are four others, which seem to be distinct species, the Himalayan Griffon, the South African Griffon, Rüppell’s Griffon from Abyssinia, and the Long-billed Griffon from India. In addition to these there are the two White-backed Griffon Vultures, which have only fourteen tail-feathers, and belong to the genus Pseudogyps.
THE EARED VULTURE (Otogyps[158] auricularis[159]).
This is one of the largest species of the birds of prey found in the Old World, being exceeded in size only by the Great Condor of the Andes. It is an inhabitant of Africa, being plentifully spread over the southern portion of the Continent, and also occurring in North-Eastern Africa, whence it ranges in small numbers to Lower Nubia and the Sahara, and has even been said to occur accidentally in Europe. It has received the name of Eared Vulture on account of the folds of skin on the sides of the neck, which are found only in one other species, the Indian Vulture (O. calvus). These two kinds of Eared Vultures appear to play the part of the King Vulture of South America, the smaller Vultures, such as the Neophrons, always giving place to them, and allowing them to finish their feast before venturing to approach.
The Egyptian Vulture (Neophron[160] percnopterus[161]) is also familiarly known as Pharaoh’s Chicken. It is a small bird about two feet and a half in length, white in plumage, with black wings. A great part of the face is bare and of a yellow colour. The young birds are brown. In Europe the Egyptian Vulture is a migratory bird, but it breeds in many localities in the Mediterranean region, and has even occurred once or twice on the shores of the British islands. In winter it takes itself to the Cape of Good Hope. It is much valued in certain places as a scavenger, as it devours excrementary matter, but Mr. Gurney states that its food also consists of carrion of various descriptions, and in default of such food it occasionally preys upon rats, field mice, small lizards, snakes, insects, and even earthworms. Colonel Irby observes that it is probably the foulest-feeding bird that lives, and that it is very omnivorous, devouring any animal substance, even all sorts of excrement; nothing comes amiss to it, and he has sometimes seen them feeding on the sea-shore on dead fish thrown up by the tide. The same gentleman[162] says that on their migrations they pass Gibraltar, which is one of their lines of passage, about the end of February, and they breed in the neighbourhood of that place, beginning to lay about the 1st of April. The nest is composed of a few dead sticks, always lined with wool, rags, or rubbish; and Colonel Irby states that he found about a pound of tow in one nest, and the sleeve of an old coat; while another observer says that on a foundation of branches Pharaoh’s Hen heaps rags, patches, old slippers, and whole basketfuls of camels’ hair and wool for the comfort of its offspring. The Egyptians frequently represented this species on their monuments, but do not appear to have attached any particular significance to it.
In India the place of the present species is taken by the Indian Scavenger Vulture (Neophron ginginianus), and in Africa the Pileated Vulture (N. pileatus), an entirely brown bird, occurs nearly all over the continent.
THE SECOND SUB-FAMILY OF THE VULTURIDÆ.--THE AMERICAN VULTURES (Sarcorhamphinæ).
THE CONDOR (Sarcorhamphus[163] gryphus[164]).
As before mentioned, all the American Vultures can be readily distinguished by the perforation of their nostrils. The Condor is a very unmistakable species, being the largest of all the Vultures, and the male has a large comb on the head which is not developed in the female. The hind toe also is extremely small, scarcely touching the earth, and on this account the foot is less prehensile than in any other Vulture. The home of this magnificent bird is the chain of the Andes in South America, and the neighbouring countries to the west, and it is found inhabiting these mountains from Ecuador and Colombia, down to the Strait of Magellan, and again extending on the east coast as far as the mouth of the Rio Negro in Patagonia. It bears confinement well, examples being generally to be seen living in the Zoological Gardens; and some idea of the extent of wing in the Condor can occasionally be obtained when the birds are sunning themselves on their perch. The expanse in large individuals is said to reach as much as eight or nine feet. All observers agree that when seen in a wild state the flight of the Condor is truly majestic, and it is capable of ascending to an immense height, at which a man could not breathe on account of the rarefaction of the air, a state of things which does not seem to affect the Condor, who is often lost to sight amidst the clouds. The most exaggerated stories of the strength and prowess of this Vulture were circulated by the old authors, and it was even said to attack full-grown oxen. The careful observations, however, of recent travellers, have dispelled many of the fabulous stories respecting it, and it is now a well ascertained fact that the Condor does not attack full-grown animals of any size, but will devour newly-born and helpless offspring, and several of them will unite to kill the mother should she appear in a weak and sickly condition. The supposed habit, attributed to these birds, of carrying off prey in their feet, is disproved by the weakness of the last-named organs, and their utter incapacity for grasping anything: in fact the feet play a very insignificant part in the bird’s economy, the powerful bill being the chief factor in tearing a carcase to pieces. The Condor measures about three feet and a half in length, the closed wing being about twenty-nine inches. The general colour of the bird is black, the secondary quills and most of the wing-coverts being externally grey. Round the neck is a ruff of soft white down. The bare parts of the head and neck are not remarkable for any bright colour, but are blackish with traces of livid flesh colour here and there. That the Condor lays sometimes in confinement is shown by a specimen in the British Museum, which was hatched by a common hen, who sat on the egg for six weeks and two days. The nestlings are usually covered with white down.
THE KING VULTURE (Cathartes[165] papa[166]).
This is by far the handsomest of the whole family, its head and neck being covered with caruncles, which in life are orange, purple, and crimson in colour; the general plumage of the bird, too, is a delicate fawn or cream colour. It is an inhabitant of Central and Southern America, from Mexico southwards to Brazil, where it is found a little below the twentieth degree of south latitude. It appears to be rather a cleaner feeder than the Condor or other American Vultures, and frequents wooded countries instead of those rocky places in which the Condor delights. It is rarer than the last-named bird, and from its forest-loving habits is less easily observed, and it is altogether a more active and lively species. It is shy and suspicious, and is most difficult to obtain, from its habit of sitting on the tops of trees, whence it scans with ease the country around. On this account it is seldom shot, and D’Orbigny, from whose works much of the above information is derived, says that it is only captured by attracting it to a carcase, and then shooting it from an ambush. Another mode of capture, which he says is followed by the natives of Santa Cruz de la Sierra,[167] is by finding out the tree on which the King Vulture roosts, and to which it returns night after night, and then to climb up and capture the bird with gloved hands. The same observer says that it is not from any innate respect, but from fear of its powerful bill, that the Turkey Vultures pay such deference to this present bird, not venturing to commence their repast until he is satisfied, whereby he is popularly known as the “King” of the Vultures.
THE TURKEY VULTURE (Rhinogryphus[168] aura).
This is an inhabitant of North America, whence it ranges throughout Central America and the West Indian Islands down the Andean chain to the Strait of Magellan. Their habits vary somewhat with locality, for whereas in the Southern United States they act as scavengers in the towns, in Guatemala and other places in Central America they are not seen in flocks, but occur in pairs only in the forests. As in the case of the other Vultures, their food consists of carrion, and they are found in large numbers in deserts, where they obtain an ample supply of food in the animals which perish. The Turkey Vulture is about two feet and a half in length. The plumage is black with a purplish gloss, and in life the bare head and neck are of a bright red colour, which soon fades after death.
FAMILY FALCONIDÆ.--THE FALCON-LIKE HAWKS.
THE FIRST SUB-FAMILY.--THE CARACARAS (Polyborinæ).
All the members of this sub-family are more or less Vulturine in their habits and appearance, and many of them are carrion feeders. The name “Caracara” with which these birds are here designated is of Brazilian origin, and all the species included under the present heading are inhabitants of Central and Southern America, with the exception of the Secretary Bird of Africa. They all seem to be at home on the ground, and they differ from all other birds of prey in having a membrane which joins the base of the two outer toes to the middle one, a feature which is doubtless useful to the birds when wallowing in the marshy ground, which many of them frequent in quest of frogs, &c. The Southern Caracaras (Ibycter australis) are said to run with extreme quickness, putting out one leg before the other, and stretching forward their bodies very much like Pheasants. Mr. Darwin, who became acquainted with these birds during his voyage in the Beagle, says that their flesh is good to eat, and he gives a very interesting account of the habits of the Southern Caracara in the Falkland Islands, where they were extraordinarily tame and very mischievous, frequenting the neighbourhood of the houses to pick up all kinds of offal. If a beast were killed they congregated from all quarters like so many Vultures, and they did not hesitate to attack and capture wounded birds, on one occasion pouncing on a Dog which was lying asleep. They would also carry off miscellaneous articles which were lying on the ground. “A large black glazed hat was carried nearly a mile, as were a pair of heavy balls, used in catching wild cattle. Mr. Usborne experienced during the survey a severe loss in a small Kater’s compass, in a red morocco case, which was never recovered.” According also to Mr. Darwin, these birds were quarrelsome and extremely passionate, and it was curious to behold them, when impatient, tearing up the grass with their bills, from rage. It may be owing to their strong feelings, as described by the last-named naturalist, that the colour of the face changes in the Brazilian Caracara, concerning which a somewhat amusing incident may be related. There arrived from Patagonia at the Zoological Gardens two Caracaras, which were white instead of brown, like the Brazilian species (Polyborus tharus), and the question which troubled naturalists was, whether these Patagonian birds were a distinct species, or whether they were simply a white variety of the ordinary Brazilian bird. The latter had the bare skin of the face lemon-yellow, whereas the white birds had this part purple, and this was looked upon as one sign of their belonging to a distinct species. But one memorable day an ornithologist went up to describe the new arrivals, and to bestow on them a name, which should mark the character of the purple face. No doubt existed in his mind, for the white birds had now lived for a whole year in the Gardens, and were still white and had a purple visage, but, happening to turn his head away for one moment, he was not a little surprised, on looking back at his supposed new species, to find that the facial character had disappeared, and that the bird’s visage was now yellow. At the same moment the face of one of the Brazilian birds in the adjoining den had turned red, and hence it became clear that the Caracaras can change the colour of the bare face at will, and that the lighter-coloured specimen was only an albino after all! Besides the Caracaras, at least one other species of bird of prey changes colour in a somewhat similar way--the Bateleur Eagle,[169] which, if irritated, flushes up to the roots of its feathers, and its bare face, which is usually scarlet, becomes a deep blood-red or crimson. In the case of the latter bird the change of colour is visible not only in the visage but in the feet also, which likewise acquire a darker red than before.
THE SECRETARY BIRD (Serpentarius[170] secretarius[171]).
This is the only African representative of the Caracaras, or web-footed birds of prey, and from its general look and from its habits, no less than from some peculiar anatomical characters, it is by many good authorities considered to be a game bird, and not a Hawk at all. No one, however, who has seen a Secretary kill a Rat, and the prodigious force with which, by repeated blows of his powerful legs, sometimes springing into the air and bringing both feet down at the same moment upon his victim, he quickly reduces it to a shapeless pulp, would consider him anything but a bird of prey. Standing before a Cobra which rises to attack him, the Secretary spreads his wings out in front as a shield to guard his body, and then from behind this protection he strikes his enemy down. On account of their prowess in destroying venomous Serpents, they are protected with care by both the European and Native Governments in South Africa, and in the Cape Colony a penalty is inflicted upon any one who ventures to kill one of these useful birds. Sometimes the Secretary does not win in the fight with the Snake, for a good observer has stated that on one occasion he saw a bird suddenly leave off fighting and run to a pool of water, where he fell down dead. If the Snake bites a feather, the bird immediately pulls it out, but in the above instance the reptile had drawn blood from the point of the pinion. It is somewhat remarkable that the Secretary should have such striking power in his legs, as they are long and slender for the size of the bird, and are so brittle that it is said that, if suddenly started into a quick run, their legs will snap. The Secretary Bird is a most voracious feeder, devouring Rats, Lizards, Locusts, Snakes, Tortoises, &c., and Levaillant states that he took from the stomach of one of these birds three Serpents as long as his arm and an inch in thickness, eleven Lizards of seven or eight inches in length, and twenty-one small Tortoises of about two inches in diameter, besides a large quantity of Grasshoppers or Locusts, and other insects.
A spirited and truthful account of the habits of the Secretary was published in 1856 by the late M. Jules Verreaux, who spent upwards of fifteen years in South Africa engaged in a study of the natural history of that part of the world, and a few extracts from this paper cannot be resisted.[172] “As Nature exhibits foresight in all that she does, she has given to each animal its means of preservation. Thus the Secretary Bird has been modelled on a plan appropriate to its mode of life; and it is therefore for this purpose that, owing to the length of its legs and tarsi, its piercing eye is able to discover at a long distance the prey which, in anticipation of its appearance, is stretched on the sand or amongst the thick grass. The elegant and majestic form of the bird becomes now even more graceful; it now brings into action all its cunning in order to surprise the Snake which it is going to attack; therefore it approaches with the greatest caution. The elevation of the feathers of the neck and back of the head shows when the moment for attack has arrived. It throws itself with such force on the reptile that very often the latter does not survive the first blow. But if the bird does not succeed, and the enraged Snake draws itself up and expands, at the same time, the skin of its neck, as is the way with the more dangerous Serpents, the bird is forced to retreat, and takes a spring backwards, waiting to seize a favourable moment for recommencing the attack. Raising itself, the furious reptile moves its tongue with the quickness of lightning, and gives forth the most vehement hisses, which keep back the enemy and seem to force some respect from it: but the bird, whose courage redoubles in the same ratio that the difficulties increase, opens out its wings, and, returning to the charge, assails the reptile afresh with blows from its terrible feet, such as no one would believe, and which are not long in putting the Snake hors de combat. We have, however, sometimes seen the Snakes launch themselves on the Secretary, but, either by opening its wings, whose long primaries serve it as a kind of shield, or by jumping backwards or on one side, the bird is certain to parry the attack of its antagonist, who at last, overcome by fatigue, falls at full length on the ground. The moment is seized by the Secretary to redouble its massive blows, which, by dislocating the vertebral column, soon cause the reptile to give up the ghost. It is then that the victorious Hawk darts like an arrow, and placing its foot on the Serpent’s neck, just at the back of the head, commences to swallow it, which it does by beginning at the tail first. Nor is this a long operation, even with reptiles five or six feet in length and more than four inches in diameter; and as soon as it arrives at the head it completely smashes the skull by several blows of its bill before swallowing it.”
“Both sexes work at the construction of the nest, which is always placed on the summit of a high dense bush, more often a mimosa. It is added to each year, and it is easy to see the age of a nest by the number of fresh layers which have been added year by year. The young birds remain for six months before leaving the nest, their legs not being strong enough to support the weight of the body. During the whole of this time they are fed with great assiduity by both parents.”
The Secretary Bird stands more than four feet high, when fully grown. The general colour of the plumage is grey, with black quills; the lower back and rump are black, the upper tail-coverts white; the tail is grey, tipped with white, and crossed with two black bands; below, the colour is ashy-white, the thighs and abdomen black. From the hinder part of the crown and occiput springs an elegant crest of plumes, which the bird can raise or depress at will; they are either entirely black, or grey with a black tip. It is from these long plumes that the bird has got the name of the Secretary, from some fancied resemblance in the bird’s head to the quills which a secretary places behind his ear.
In America, the Secretary is represented by the Çariama (Çariama cristata), a bird which looks so like a game bird that, as we have said, many ornithologists place both it and the Secretary among the Gallinaceous birds, and not among the Hawks. From a consideration of its anatomy, however, both Professor Parker and Professor Sundevall determined that the Çariama is an accipitrine bird, though of a very aberrant form. Those who differ from them admit that where the Secretary is placed in the natural system the Çariama must also be located, and no one who has studied the habits of the former, either in a wild state or in captivity, can doubt for a moment that it is a veritable bird of prey, and so it follows that the Bustard-like Çariama must also be included in the same order.
IV. THE LONG-LEGGED HAWKS AND BUZZARDS
THE BANDED GYMNOGENE--Habits--Its Movable Tarsi--THE HARRIERS--Distinctive Features--THE MARSH HARRIER--Habits--Its Thievish Propensities--THE HARRIER-HAWKS--Colonel Greyson’s Account of their Habits--THE CHANTING GOSHAWKS--Why so Called--Habits--THE TRUE GOSHAWKS--Distinctive Characters--THE GOSHAWK--Distribution--In Pursuit of its Prey--Appearance--THE SPARROW-HAWKS--Distinctive Characters--THE COMMON SPARROW-HAWK--Habits--Appearance--THE BUZZARDS--Their Tarsus--THE COMMON BUZZARD--Where Found--How it might be turned to Account--Food--Its Migrations--Habits--Appearance--THE HARPY.
THE SECOND SUB-FAMILY OF THE FALCONIDÆ.--THE LONG-LEGGED HAWKS (Accipitrinæ).
All the Hawks included under this heading are remarkable for their long legs, in which the tibial bone and the tarsus are about equal in length. In all the other Hawks, Eagles, Kites, Buzzards, and Falcons, the tibia is always longer than the tarsus.
The Long-legged Hawks are not such powerful birds of prey as the Eagles or Falcons, and do not possess, as a rule, the same dash and courage in pursuing their quarry, many of them feeding on a low kind of diet, and being robbers of eggs and destroyers of young birds. The birds of prey belonging to this sub-family are--1. The Gymnogenes; 2. The Harriers; 3. The Goshawks; 4. The Sparrow-Hawks.
THE BANDED GYMNOGENE[173] (Polyboroides[174] typicus).
From its general appearance, especially in its naked yellow face, this remarkable Hawk is considered to be a close ally of the Secretary Bird; but the proportions of its legs and its habits proclaim it to be nearly related to the Harriers. Two kinds of Gymnogenes are known, one inhabiting Africa, and the other being found in Madagascar. The food of the present species appears to consist of Frogs and Lizards, and at times it walks over the ground which has been recently burnt, in pursuit of insects and small reptiles; at other times it will sit for a long time on stumps by pools of water, watching for Frogs, which in such situations form its favourite food. The Gymnogenes are remarkable in the class of birds for being able to put their leg “out of joint” at will (that is to say, they can bend the tarsus backwards just as they please); and this is a fact which may be accepted as a certainty, since its truth has been tested by many trusty and independent observers. One of these, the late M. Jules Verreaux, states that the tarsi are movable at the “knee”-joint toward the front from behind, a provision which, from the facility it affords the bird for drawing up Frogs out of the marsh-holes by means of its talons, is of no little service to it. The exceedingly compressed toes of this species also enable it to introduce its long tarsi into the narrow crevices of the rocks. He saw it twist and turn its legs in all directions in capturing its prey in marshy places. Mr. Thomas Ayres also says that “the legs of this bird bend backward at the knee in an extraordinary manner, very much as if they were out of joint.”
The Banded Gymnogene is nearly twenty-four inches in length, and is of a light grey colour, with black wings, the secondaries being grey like the back, with a black band before the tip; the lower back is white barred with black; the tail black with a white tip and a white bar across the middle; the throat and chest are grey like the back, and the rest of the under surface is white barred with black. The cere and bare space round the eye are yellow when the bird is alive.
THE HARRIERS (Circus).
All the Harriers have a facial disc as in the Owls, though not so distinct as in the latter group of birds. In both, however, the disc is formed by a ruff of soft, close-set plumes, which encircle the face; and hence in most classifications the Harriers have been considered as being closely allied to the Owls, on account of their having this “facial disc.” Their structure and habits, however, entirely do away with the idea of there being any real affinity between these two groups of accipitrine birds.
Before the draining of the fens in England, Harriers were by no means uncommon in certain localities; but they are becoming rarer year by year, as each favourite haunt passes from them under the dominion of the agriculturist. Three kinds were found in England, of which the Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus) was the rarest; Montagu’s Harrier (C. pygargus) was the most plentiful and the most widely distributed; and the Marsh Harrier, or Moor Buzzard (C. æruginosus), the most powerful. This is the species which has held its own best, as it is still found breeding in some few places in the United Kingdom. The habits of all the Harriers are very similar, and the genus Circus is probably--with the exception of the Peregrine Falcons--the most universally distributed of any Raptorial birds, for there is scarcely any part of the world where a Harrier is not found.
THE MARSH HARRIER (Circus æruginosus).
This is an inhabitant of the Old World, where it enjoys a wide range. It is one of the greatest robbers of eggs and young birds, being, in countries where it is still plentiful, a great nuisance to the sportsman, as, says Colonel Irby, “slowly hunting along in front, it puts up every Snipe and Duck that lies in its course, making them unsettled and wild.”[175] The same authority furnishes the following interesting particulars about the habits of the present species:--“In Andalusia, as well as in Morocco, over all low wet ground, the Marsh Harrier is to be seen in vast numbers, particularly in winter. Great quantities remain to breed, sometimes as many as twenty nests being within three hundred yards of one another. The latter, loosely constructed with dead sedges, vary very much in size and depth, and are usually placed amidst rushes in swamps, but sometimes on the ground among brambles and low brushwood, always near water, though occasionally far from marshes. They begin to lay about the end of March, and at that time fly up a great height, playing about, and continually uttering their wailing cry. The eggs are bluish-white, and usually four or five in number; they certainly vary in size and shape, and are often much stained. Like the eggs of all the Harriers that I am acquainted with, and many others of the Accipitres, when blown and held up to the light they show a bluish tinge. I once found a nest containing only one egg nearly ready to hatch, and saw another with six eggs (three quite fresh, and the other three hard sat on). I believe that if the first set of eggs be taken they lay again in a fresh nest, as I found sets of fresh eggs as late as the 2nd of May.
“Cowardly and ignoble, they are the terror of all the poultry which are in their districts, continually carrying off chickens, and, like other Harriers, are most terribly destructive to the eggs and young of all birds. On account of these propensities, I never let off a Marsh Harrier unless it spoiled sport to fire at one. Sometimes, when at Casa Vieja, and the Snipe were scarce, we used to lie up in the line of the Harriers’ flight to their roosting-places; for they always take the same course, and come evening after evening within five minutes of the same time. Upon one occasion a friend and myself killed eleven, and during the visit accounted for over twenty. I also upon every possible opportunity destroyed the nest and shot the old ones; but it was the labour of Sisyphus, for others immediately appeared. However, there was a visible diminution of their numbers at Casa Vieja. I never saw rats in their nests or crops, and believe they have not the courage to kill them; small snakes, frogs, wounded birds, eggs, and nestlings unable to fly, form the main part of their prey. I have seen the Marsh Harrier hawking over the sea about two hundred yards from the shore, where there was shallow water, but could not see what they were taking.”
THE HARRIER-HAWKS (Micrastur[176]).
These constitute a little genus of Hawks peculiar to the New World, where they form a perfect link between the Harriers and the Goshawks. In form they are stoutly-built birds like the latter, while they retain the facial ruff of the Harriers, and hence the name of Harrier-Hawk adopted for them here. Their habits are well described by a good observer, the late Colonel Greyson, of the U.S. Army, who writes of the largest species of the genus, the Harrier-Hawk (Micrastur semitorquatus):--“Among the great variety of Hawks to be met with in a single day’s excursion in the locality of Mazatlan, none are so easily recognised as this peculiar and interesting species. I have found it only in the heavy forests, or the immediate vicinity of a thickly-wooded country, where its slender form and lengthened tail attract our attention as it swiftly glides through the tangled woods with that remarkable ease which we have often noticed in the Sharp-shinned Hawk (A. fuscus). It appears to be strictly arboreal in its habits, and possessed of wonderful activity, either in springing from branch to branch without opening its wings, or rapidly darting through the intricacies of the bush with apparently but little difficulty. I have seldom seen one of these Hawks in an open country, and have never seen one flying higher than the tree tops, where they are met with. Its wings are rather short, and its flight is performed by rapidly repeated strokes, only for a short distance at a time. It preys upon various species of wood birds, which it captures by darting upon them on the ground or in the bushes; but the Chachalaca is its favourite game. This is a gallinaceous bird, or wild chicken, about the size of, or lighter than, the common hen, and is entirely arboreal, seldom running upon the ground, but is able by its peculiarly-formed feet to cling to, or spring rapidly through, the thickest branches with great agility; but this Hawk follows it with equal facility, until an opportunity offers to strike its prey, then both come to the ground together, the Hawk being the lighter bird. I witnessed a scene of this kind that took place when I was endeavouring to get a shot at a Chachalaca, as it was jumping about the very thick branches of an acacia overgrown with lianas; it appeared to be in great distress, uttering its harsh notes of alarm, and spreading its fan-shaped tail. Suddenly I saw one of these Hawks pounce upon it; when with harsh screams of terror and pain the Chachalaca dragged its captor to the ground, where they struggled for a few moments, but the unfortunate bird was soon overcome. The struggling and screams of the Chachalaca created a great commotion among the denizens of the woods; far and near were heard the harsh cries of other members of its family, and the Urraca Magpie, with streaming tail and ludicrous gesticulations, as well as the Blue-back Jay, and other birds in the neighbourhood, gathered around to witness the scene of rapine. Suddenly appeared in the midst of this clamour a larger Hawk (Buteo Harrisi, Aud.), which rushed at once upon the captor of the Chachalaca. Unable to withstand so heavy a charge, he was compelled to give up his honestly captured prey to a superior force, thus proving the old adage that ‘might is right.’ The slender but compact figure of our present subject was now seen perched upon a neighbouring bough, scrutinising, with a vicious eye, the more powerful but less active bird of prey, as he vainly attempted to bear off the lifeless form of the Chachalaca; but there was one yet mightier than he. I observed it for a few moments, then shot it, as also the Long-tailed Hawk, thus securing all three.
“They build their nest of dry twigs and moss, which is placed in a very tall tree, but below the higher branches. The only nest I have seen was inaccessible, therefore I regret that I am unable to describe the eggs.”
THE CHANTING GOSHAWKS (Melierax[177]).
These birds are met with in Africa only, and they have received the name of “Chanting” Goshawks from their song, which has been stated by the French traveller, Levaillant, to be of considerable power, for he says he has heard the male of the Cape species (Melierax canorus) sing for hours together in the twilight of morning and evening, and sometimes through the night. This, however, has been questioned by Mr. Layard, who is well known as an authority on African birds, and who observed the species in some abundance in certain parts of South Africa. According to this observer, the bird will perch on the top of a high tree, utter its “mellow piping whistle,” and fly off again. He has also heard it call when flying. Now, although the Chanting Goshawks may not have such powers of song as have been credited to them, it is certain that they really have a more varied note than is the case with other Goshawks, and the Red-faced Goshawk (Melierax gobar) is said to whistle very much and better than M. canorus. About five different species of Chanting Goshawks are known, all being from Africa: hence the genus Melierax is one of those forms characteristic of the Ethiopian region, which embraces Africa below the Sahara desert. One species only, the Many-banded Goshawk (Melierax polyzonus), a frequent bird in Abyssinia and Senegambia, is known to wander beyond the limits of the above-named region, as it occurs in Mogador, whence living specimens have been more than once sent to the Zoological Gardens.
The habits of the Chanting Goshawks are very similar to those of the ordinary Goshawks of more northern climates, the larger species feeding on Quails, Francolins, and other small game, reptiles, and locusts, while the less powerful kinds devour small birds and reptiles. The colour of the plumage is a pearly-grey in the South African Chanting Goshawk (M. canorus), the belly being white with greyish cross-lines; the rump is white; the primary quills black; tail dusky, tipped with white and crossed by broad white bars; the cere and legs are red; the iris dark brown. It measures about three feet in length. This style of colouring is found in all the species, excepting one small one, which is entirely black all over, save some white spots on the tail, and is known as the Black Goshawk (Melierax niger).
THE TRUE GOSHAWKS (Astur).
These are represented nearly all over the world, every country having one or more species of the genus Astur, excepting the continent of South America, which possesses only two kinds, both of them rare and of limited range. More than thirty different species of the genus have been described, and they present great differences in size and style of coloration, their habits varying equally, according to the strength and power of the birds; but they are all remarkable for a very sturdy bill, and thick-set legs and sharp talons. A Goshawk may always be told by the latter characters, and by its short toes, which are perhaps smaller in proportion to the size of the bird than in any other group of the birds of prey.
These birds, and the Sparrow-Hawks, have very short wings, and have not the same power of flight as in the true Falcons, which are long-winged birds; and hence, in the old days of falconry, they were never considered of such value as the Peregrine in the chase. They were also called Hawks of the “fist,” as they were flown at game from the hand, instead of soaring down on the quarry from aloft.
THE GOSHAWK (Astur palumbarius).
This is the largest and most powerful of all the genus, as it is also the best known, being found all over the northern parts of Europe and Asia. It used to be of more frequent occurrence in Britain formerly than it is now; and although it can only nest in this country on the rarest occasions in the present day, the author was introduced to an old gamekeeper on the Marquis of Huntly’s estate at Aboyne, who perfectly remembered the Goshawk breeding regularly at Glentanner. A young bird is still captured now and then in autumn, one of the last instances being that of a young male, who was captured in an area at Hampstead, on the 3rd of August, 1872, and is now in the British Museum.
It will feed on nearly every kind of bird and animal that it is able to catch, and in falconry it is principally employed to take Hares and Rabbits; it will also take Pheasants and Partridges, a great number of these latter birds being killed by the Goshawk in its wild state. It is able to pursue its quarry with great dexterity through a wooded country, and it possesses great powers of abstinence, so that, if its prey escapes into cover for the time, the Hawk will often wait for its re-appearance, and will generally exhaust the patience of the quarry, and succeed in capturing it. During the daytime it remains solitary in dark fir-forests, and comes out to feed in the morning and evening. The nest is often a huge structure, being added to year by year; and an immense nest is figured in Professor Newton’s “Ootheca Wolleyana.” Some idea of the size may be gained from the story told by Mr. Wolley, who climbed up to one that was placed a good height up in a large Scottish fir, and when he stood on the same branch with the nest, the latter still reached several inches above his head, so that the building of this nest had probably been the work of several years.
The old birds are alike in plumage; but the female, as is the case with all Goshawks, is larger than the male, measuring about two feet in length, while the male does not exceed twenty inches; the wing also, which is about twelve inches in the male, exceeds fourteen in the female. The colour is grey, the head black, the sides of the face white, streaked with black lines; below, the under surface of the body is white, barred across with black cross-bars of ashy-brown; the under tail-coverts are white; quills and tail ashy-brown, the tail feathers tipped with white; cere yellow; bill bluish; iris orange. The young birds differ considerably from the adults, being rufous below, with longitudinal streaks of dark brown; the upper surface is brown, all the feathers being margined with reddish-white.
In North America, a bird very similar to the Goshawk takes its place; and a third species of the same group is found in Madagascar only. It is, however, principally in the Malayan Archipelago that the greatest number of species occur, nearly every island possessing a Goshawk peculiar to itself.
THE SPARROW-HAWKS (Accipiter).
These may almost be called miniature Goshawks, as they are not only short-winged birds like the latter, but they even have the same style of plumage, consisting generally of a dark-grey back, a barred under surface, and a piercing yellow eye. They may, however, be distinguished from the Goshawks by their small, weak bill, and long, slender, middle toe. With the exception of some of the Oceanic Islands, Sparrow-Hawks are found all over the world, being plentiful even in South America, where the rarity of the Goshawks has already been alluded to.
THE COMMON SPARROW-HAWK (Accipiter nisus).
This is an active and plucky little bird, which still holds its own in England, notwithstanding the raids made upon its nest, and the destruction of old birds by keepers. Nor can it be denied that the Sparrow-Hawk, hatching its young about the time when the young chickens and Pheasants are also being reared, will occasionally make a swoop on the pheasantry, and carry off the chicks to feed its own offspring. The principal food of this Hawk is small birds, in the pursuit of which it is so eager that it has several times been known to dash through a glass window, and be caught in the room; while Messrs. Salvin and Brodrick, in their work on British Falconry, state that they have “known a trained Sparrow-Hawk force itself to such an extent into a blackthorn bush, where it had killed a bird, as to require to be cut out.” Like the Goshawk, it is often trained for hawking, but is a much more delicate bird to rear, and requires careful management when young. Nevertheless, a well-trained Sparrow-Hawk will account for a considerable number of birds; and in the work of the above-mentioned authors is given an instance of one Hawk having killed 327 head in less than two months, consisting of Sparrows, Blackbirds, Thrushes, a few Partridges, and Linnets, more than two-thirds of the number being Sparrows.
In size the female Sparrow-Hawk is considerably larger than the male, measuring nearly sixteen inches in length, and nine inches and a half in the wing. She is generally paler grey, never so blue as in the male, nor is she so red underneath. A sign of age, by which a mature hen Sparrow-Hawk may be known, is the presence of a tuft of rufous plumes on the flanks, which is feebly developed in the young bird, but is a conspicuous feature in the adult.
The male is bluish slate-colour above, the quills browner and barred across with darker brown, these bars being very distinct below; the tail is barred with blackish-brown, and tipped with white; cheeks and ear-coverts are rufous; under surface of body whitish, with narrow bars of bright rufous, the under tail-coverts white, as are also the under wing-coverts and axillaries, these two latter parts being spotted with brown. Young birds are brown with rufous edges to the feathers; underneath they are rufous, barred with brown on the flanks and breast, the throat and fore-neck streaked with the same colour. The bars on the tail are five in number in a young male, but as the bird increases in age the number of bars decreases, and is generally only four in a very old bird: the same takes place in the female. The range of the Common Sparrow-Hawk is very similar to that of the Goshawk, being extended all over Europe and Northern Asia, and into Northern China and North-western India. Neither of the birds go to South Africa, and range into the north-eastern portion of that continent only in winter.
THE THIRD SUB-FAMILY.--THE BUZZARDS (Buteoninæ).
These Hawks constitute a numerous assemblage of the birds of prey, and lead on from the long-legged Hawks of the previous sub-family to the Eagles, ending with the Great Harpy, which is, perhaps, the most powerful bird of prey in the world. All the Buzzards have the tibia much longer than the tarsus, but they may be distinguished from all the Eagles, Kites, and Falcons by having the back of the tarsus “plated,” and not “reticulated.” In the accompanying woodcuts is shown the hinder aspect of a Buzzard’s tarsus (figure on p. 274), by which it will be seen that the scales are arranged in plates, very differently from that which takes place in the tarsus of an Eagle (figure on p. 274), where the scales are reticulated.[178]
The Buzzards are more numerous in the northern parts of the world than in the tropics, and a large decrease in the number of species takes place in Central and Southern America, whilst in Oceania and Australia they are altogether absent. As a rule, they are birds of plain plumage and sluggish habits, possessing neither the courage of the Eagles, nor the dash and adroitness of the Falcons, in capturing their prey. Africa produces some species which, as regards plumage, are an exception to the general rule, the Augur and Jackal Buzzards (Buteo augur and Buteo jackal) being rather handsome birds, their plumage being a mixture of black and chestnut.
THE COMMON BUZZARD (Buteo[179] vulgaris).
This is a strictly European bird, although it has been stated to occur in Central Asia, and to sometimes wander into North-eastern Africa. Like all other birds of prey, it is rather rare in Great Britain, but it still breeds in certain localities, although the great majority of specimens which are killed in Britain are found in the fall of the year. The power of the Common Buzzards to attack large game is very limited, and Mr. Robert Gray[180] observes:--“To many persons it will seem unwise, I dare say, to call this Buzzard a useful bird in game preserves, yet I cannot but think that if the experiment were made of allowing it to fulfil the ends for which Nature designed it, our native game birds would benefit by the trial. So far as my own observations have extended, the Common Buzzard is just the kind of instrument wanted to clear off sickly young birds, which, on arriving at maturity, yield an offspring of a degenerate breed. Of somewhat sluggish habits, it does not care to interfere with strong-winged birds, being content with those that, through wounds or a naturally feeble constitution, are unable to save themselves. In this way only strong birds are left, and a healthy breed ensues. Let any of our proprietors of moors, who are jealous of the daring prowess of Eagles and lordly Peregrines, act upon this hint, and I will venture to say we should have fewer instances of disease amongst game birds to chronicle.”
Although the Buzzard does not quarter the ground like a Harrier, and search for its prey on the wing, it may not unfrequently be seen circling in the air at a considerable height, generally over the place which contains its nest, but as a rule it perches on some stone or similar resting-place, whence it watches for its prey. When flying it utters a clear loud cry, which has been described as “mewing.” Its principal food consists of Field Mice, but it also devours Moles, young birds, the caterpillars of Hawk Moths (Sphingidæ), Grasshoppers, and it will also occasionally feed on carrion, or on dead fish cast up on the sea-shore. When migrating in the autumn, which it does in considerable numbers together, a good many are caught for the purposes of food, and the manner of catching them is thus described by Nilsson in his work on the birds of Sweden:--“In October, when they pass through Skåne on their passage to the south, they remain for some time on the outermost point of land to await a suitable westerly wind to cross. Large numbers collect and roost at night in the trees (especially in the willows) which grow there. When the darkness sets in, two men go in company to catch them, one with a sack, and the other with a stout cudgel. The latter climbs quietly up into the tree, where he can just distinguish the bird, whilst the other remains below; and so soon as the climber has got up to where he can reach a bird, he catches it by the legs with the left hand, and either twists its neck with his right hand, or stuns it with a blow of the cudgel, and throws it down to his companion on the ground, who crams it into the sack. In this manner two men can catch thirty or forty in the evening, or, according to Burgomaster C., as many even as seventy or eighty; and Captain E. relates that twenty were obtained one evening from the same tree. They are easiest to catch when it is dark and blowing hard, so that the bird cannot easily hear the noise. In all, many hundreds are caught annually, some of which are cooked fresh or made into soup, but most are salted down and kept for use during the winter.”
The nest of the Buzzard is generally placed on some non-evergreen tree at various heights from the ground, but in Scotland it builds on rocks. The usual number of eggs is three or four, and these are a bluish-white, with reddish blotches. They vary a good deal in colour, some being rather richly marked, while others are almost colourless. The time of breeding is generally the month of April, or in severe seasons, early in May. A Crow’s nest is occasionally taken possession of. When the bird makes its own nest, this is formed of large branches with a lining of grass, occasionally of a few feathers. No bird varies more than the Buzzard in plumage, and many beautiful variations in its dress take place before the adult plumage is gained. The old bird is almost entirely brown above and below, the breast and abdomen generally having a more or less barred appearance; the quills are brown, banded with darker brown, and shaded with grey on their outer aspect; the tail is ashy-brown, more or less inclining to rufous, and having twelve or thirteen bars of darker brown. Young birds have a great deal of white about their plumage, some of them being nearly cream-coloured. The size of the adults is about twenty-two inches, and the sexes vary a little in dimensions, the wing of the female being perhaps one inch longer than that of the male.
The great utility of the Buzzard in destroying Mice ought to render it an object of protection and encouragement, for the number of small Mammals destroyed by these birds is immense. Brehm calculates that when they have young they will destroy at least one hundred Mice a day, and mentions that thirty Field Mice have been taken from the crop of a single bird.
THE HARPY (Thrasatus[181] harpyia[182]).
Although from its size and courage this bird is generally called the Harpy Eagle, it is evident from its structure that it is a Buzzard, as it possesses the “plated” tarsi of the latter group of birds. It is an inhabitant of the New World, from Mexico through Central America to Brazil and Bolivia. It is a very destructive bird, causing great damage to the flocks, and even destroying calves, whence it is an object of detestation to the stock-keepers in Mexico. It also feeds on deer and on the large Macaws which are found in the forest it frequents. It stands more than three feet and a half high, and has a large crest, which, together with its powerful talons and glittering eye, gives the bird an imposing aspect even in captivity. In the adult bird the coloration is ashy-grey, inclining in very old examples to silvery grey relieved by the dark ash-coloured wings and tail.
V. EAGLES AND FALCONS
THE EAGLES--THE BEARDED EAGLE, OR LÄMMERGEIER--A Visit to their Nest--Habits--A Little Girl carried off alive--Habits in Greece--Appearance--Von Tschudi’s and Captain Hutton’s Descriptions of its Attacks--THE TRUE EAGLES--THE WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE--Eye--Crystalline Lens--How Eagles may be Divided--THE IMPERIAL EAGLE--THE GOLDEN EAGLE--In Great Britain--Macgillivray’s Description of its Habits--Appearance--THE KITE EAGLE--Its Peculiar Feet--Its Bird’s-nesting Habits--THE COMMON HARRIER EAGLE--THE INDIAN SERPENT EAGLE--THE BATELEUR EAGLE--THE WHITE-TAILED EAGLE--A Sea Eagle--Story of Capture of some Young--THE SWALLOW-TAILED KITE--On the Wing--THE COMMON KITE--THE EUROPEAN HONEY KITE--Habits--ANDERSSON’S PERN--THE FALCONS--The Bill--THE CUCKOO FALCONS--THE FALCONETS--THE PEREGRINE FALCON--Its Wonderful Distribution--Falconry--Names for Male, Female, and Young--Hawks and Herons--THE GREENLAND JER-FALCON--THE KESTRELS--THE COMMON KESTREL--Its Habits and Disposition.
THE THIRD SUB-FAMILY OF THE FALCONIDÆ.--THE EAGLES (Aquilinæ).
As already explained, the Eagles may be distinguished from the Buzzards by their reticulated tarsus; otherwise the proportions of the leg-bones are similar, the tibia being considerably longer than the tarsus.
THE BEARDED EAGLE, OR LÄMMERGEIER (Gypaëtus barbatus).
The generic name of this Eagle is derived from two Greek words (γύψ, a Vulture, ἀετός, an Eagle), and no name could have been better chosen, for with the structure of an Eagle it combines many of the habits of a Vulture, and has many ways in common with the Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus). In Europe it is found only in the mountainous parts of those countries bordering the Mediterranean basin, and is now nearly extinct in Switzerland. In the mountains of Spain, however, it is still to be met with in some quantities, and Mr. Howard Saunders states that one or two pairs may be found in every range of mountains. In Sardinia it is said by Mr. Basil Brooke to be decidedly common, and during one of his visits to that island he obtained a very curious nestling bird covered with down. “A pair of these birds,” says Mr. Brooke, “are in possession of every separate range of hills, which they appear to regard as their own territory, and from which they are seldom to be found far distant. They are generally to be seen singly or in pairs; but now and then I have observed three, and on one occasion four together. As a rule they are most decidedly mountain birds, but occasionally a single bird may be seen hunting over the plains and cultivated lands, not flying more than one hundred yards high. The nest of one found on the 18th of April was built on a broad ledge of a precipitous cliff, about three hundred feet high, within twenty feet of the top, and was completely sheltered from the severity of the weather by a large overhanging piece of rock. After some trouble I discovered a way by which, with a little care, I managed to get on the ledge, much to the discomfort of the solitary inmate--a young nestling, covered as yet with a pale yellowish-brown down. The nest itself was an accumulation of dried sticks, with a cup-shaped hollow in the middle, and had evidently been used for years. In it, and on the surrounding ledge, were great quantities of the leg-bones and feet of goats, &c., and a part of a fox’s lower jaw; these being in all stages of putrefaction, the smell was abominable. The old female on my first visit to the nest sat extremely close, and although I was standing over her within seven or eight yards, would not leave her young until I fired a shot, upon which she dashed off, dropping almost perpendicularly, and was out of range before I could fire. She flew over the valley and lit upon a high-projecting, rocky pinnacle, upon which I could see her through the telescope, sitting quietly watching all my proceedings. She returned to the nest shortly afterwards, on my having retired to a little distance.”
In Algeria the Lämmergeier is said to feed largely on Land Tortoises, which it carries to a great height in the air, and drops upon a convenient rock, so as to break the shell. So much has been written upon the habits of this bird that it would be impossible to give here one tithe of the interesting notes which have been published in various works and periodicals; but no history of the species, however brief, would be complete without a passing mention of the little girl who was said to have been carried off in childhood by one of these birds. The history, believed by him to be well authenticated, is related by Naumann as follows.--“Anna Zurbuchen, of Hatchern, in Bern Oberland, born in 1760, was taken out by her parents, when she was nearly three years old, when they went to collect herbs. She fell asleep, and the father put his straw hat over her face and went to his work. Shortly after, when he returned with a bundle of hay, the child was gone; and the parents and peasants sought her in vain. During this time Heinrich Michel, of Unterseen, was going on a wild path to Wäppesbach, and suddenly heard a child cry. He ran towards the sound, and a Bearded Vulture rose, scared by him, from a mound, and soared away over the precipice. On the extreme edge of the latter, below which a stream roared, and over whose edge any moment would have precipitated it, Michel found the child, which was uninjured, except on the left arm and hand, where the bird had probably clutched it; its shoes, stockings, and cap were gone. This occurred on the 12th of July, 1763. The place where the child was found was about 1,400 paces distant from the tarn where it had been left asleep. The child was afterwards called Lämmergeier-Anni, and married Peter Frutiger, a tailor in Gewaldswyl, where she was still living in 1814.”
The circumstantial way in which the above narrative runs appears to leave little doubt of its reality, but it is difficult to give it credence, as the Lämmergeier has but little power in its feet, which resemble those of the Vultures; and most of the stories of its prowess have been discredited by the researches of modern naturalists. Dr. Brehm observes:--“To my intense astonishment, the Spanish hunters did not regard this bird in the slightest degree as a bold, merciless robber: all asserted that it fed on carrion, especially bones, only attacking living animals when driven by necessity. They called it ‘Quebranta-Huesos,’ or the ‘Bone-smasher,’ and assured me that this favourite food was broken in a singular manner. My later observations proved nothing which would justify my treating their statements as otherwise than correct, so I was forced to come to the conclusion that the Lämmergeier had been much maligned. Since my first account of this bird, I have read a number of communications from other observers, and gather from the whole that the Bearded Vulture is nought else than a weak, cowardly bird of prey, gifted neither in mind nor body to any great extent, and one that but rarely carries away small mammals. Its food usually consists of bones and other carrion.”
Mr. Hudleston met with the Lämmergeier in Greece, where, however, it was not common, and he writes of its habits as observed by him:--“He is not a demonstrative bird like the Griffon, who may be seen sailing about at a great height in the air, sometimes alone, but more often in troops of from half a dozen to fifty, revolving in endless circles round each other, that no corner may remain unseen. The Lämmergeier, on the contrary, may be observed floating slowly, at a uniform level, close to the cliffs of some deep ravine, where his shadow is perhaps projected on the wall-like rocks. If the ravine has salient and re-entering angles, he does not cut across from point to point, but preserves the same distance from the cliff; and when he disappears in any natural fissure, you feel sure of the very spot where he will emerge on turning the corner of the precipice. Marrow-bones are the dainties he loves the best; and when the other Vultures have picked the flesh off any animal, he comes in at the end of the feast and swallows the bones, or breaks them and swallows the pieces, if he cannot get the marrow out otherwise. The bones he cracks by taking them to a great height and letting them fall on a stone. This is probably the bird that dropped a Tortoise on the bald head of poor old Æschylus. Not, however, that he restricts himself, or the huge black infant that he and his mate are bringing up, in one of the many holes with which the limestone precipice abounds, to marrow, turtle, bones, and similar delicacies: neither lamb, hare, nor kid comes amiss to him--though, his power of claw and beak being feeble for so large a bird, he cannot tear his meat like other Vultures and Eagles. I once saw a mature bird of this species which had evidently swallowed a bone, or something uncommonly indigestible, close to the abattoir at Athens. He was in a very uncomfortable attitude, and appeared to be leaning on his long tail for support. After riding round in gradually decreasing circles till within ten yards, I dropped off horseback and made a rush at him, but he just managed to escape, and then rising slowly till about the height of the Acropolis, made off towards the gorge of Phylæ, where there is an eyry.
“The Lämmergeier has an extremely ugly countenance; this becomes perfectly diabolical when he is irritated, and shows the bright red round his eyes. Altogether, what with his black beard, rufous breast, and long, dark tail, he is an awful-looking beast, and has the reputation of committing divers evil deeds--such, for instance, as pushing lambs and kids, and even men, off the rocks, when they are in ticklish situations. Nevertheless, he is a somewhat cowardly bird, has a feeble, querulous cry, and will submit to insults from a Falcon not a fourth his size or weight.”
Von Tschudi says that in Switzerland it will capture Hares, Martens, Squirrels, Crows, and Woodcocks, and he states that a stomach was found to contain five pieces of Bullock’s ribs two inches thick and from six to nine inches long, a lump of hair, and the leg of a young Goat from the knee to the foot. The bones were perforated by the gastric juice, and partly reduced to powder. The stomach of another Lämmergeier, examined by Mr. Schinz, contained the large hip-bone of a Cow, the skin and fore-quarters of a Chamois, many smaller bones, some hair, and a Heath-cock’s claws. Should a Lämmergeier see an old Chamois or a Sheep or Goat grazing near a precipice, it will whirl round and round, trying to torment and frighten the creature till it runs to the edge of the cliff; and then, falling down upon it, the bird not unfrequently succeeds in pushing it into the abyss below with one stroke of its wings. Diving down after its mangled victim, it will begin by picking out its eyes, and then proceed to tear open and devour the body. It is only the smaller class of booty, such as Foxes, Lambs, or Marmots, which can be carried off by the Lämmergeier, as its feet and claws, as we have already remarked, are comparatively weak.[183]
In the Himalayas, where the species is also tolerably plentiful, its habits vary somewhat, and it not unfrequently comes close to habitations for offal or bones, and behaves in a very Vulturine manner. Captain Hutton writes:--“Marvellous, indeed, are the stories told, both by natives and Europeans, of the destructive habits of this bird, and both accounts, I fully believe, have scarcely a grain of truth in them: all I can positively say on the point, however, is that I have known the bird well in its native haunts for thirty years and more, and never once, in all that time, have I seen it stoop to anything but a dead carcase. As to carrying off hens, dogs, lambs, or children, I say the feat would be utterly impossible, for the creature does not possess the strongly-curved, sharp-pointed claws of the Eagle, but the far straighter and perfectly blunt talons of the Vulture. Day after day I have seen them sweeping by along the face of the hill, like the wandering Albatross at sea, and, like it, ever in search of offal, which, when found, is not swept off the ground after the manner of the Kite, but the bird alights upon it, as it would upon a Bullock, and then, if the morsel is worth having, devours it on the spot, and again launches itself upon its wide-spread wings and sails away as before. There is no sudden stooping upon a living prey, as with the Falcon tribe, but its habits and manners in this respect are, as far as I have seen, entirely Vulturine.”
The Lämmergeier measures about three feet and a half in length, and its outspread wings often extend to as much as nine feet in expanse. A second species is found in Africa, the Southern Lämmergeier (Gypaëtus ossifragus), which differs from the European one, in having the tarsus bare, instead of being feathered to the toes.
THE TRUE EAGLES (Aquila).
In Australia no true Eagle is found, but a very powerful bird called the WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE (Uroaëtus[184] audax[185]) inhabits that country, differing from all its more northern relations in its very long and wedge-shaped tail, which is like that of the Lämmergeier.
The true Eagles have a very powerful bill, with a festoon distinctly marked in the edge of the upper mandible, which is, however, different from the toothed bill of the Falcons, to be considered presently. They nearly all possess a large bony shelf over the eye, which may serve to protect that organ from the sunlight during some of the aerial excursions the bird makes.
The orb of the eye in the Eagles is supported by a ring of bony plates, numbering fifteen in the Golden Eagle. These bony plates are capable of slight motion upon each other. The figure represents the crystalline lens of the same bird, the lens being subject to great variety of form in different birds. In the Eagle the proportion of the axis to the diameter of the lens is as 3-8/10 to 5-7/10; in the Eagle Owl, which seeks its prey at twilight, the relative proportions of the lens are as 6-7/10, to 7-8/10; and in the Swan, which has to select its food under water, the proportions of the lens are as 3 to 3-8/10. Birds have also the power of altering the degree of the convexity of the cornea. With numerous modifications of form, aided by delicate muscular arrangement, birds appear to have the power of obtaining such variable degrees of extent or intensity of vision as are most in accordance with their peculiar habits and necessities.[186]
In these birds is found a return of that difference in the size of the sexes which was so noticeable in the Sparrow-Hawks, for in the Eagles the female is decidedly larger than the male. There are two convenient groups into which the Eagles may be divided, according as they have feathered or unfeathered legs. All the true Eagles belong to the first section, all the less noble and Serpent-eating kinds to the latter section. Although they are birds of grand physique, it is a question whether Eagles deserve the position they enjoy for nobility of disposition: they are rapacious it is true, but not always brave, for one Golden Eagle will give way to a Peregrine Falcon, while the grand-looking IMPERIAL EAGLE (Aquila heliaca, see figure on p. 235) is said by a good observer in India, Mr. A. O. Hume, C.B., to be no better than a great hulking Kite. He adds:--“Much has been written about the daring and fierceness of this Eagle. I can only say that in India (where possibly the climate is subversive of courage), I have never seen the slightest indications of these qualities. I have driven the female off hard-set eggs, and plundered the nest before the eyes of the pair, without either of them flapping a pinion even to defend what a little Shrike will swoop at once to save; and I have seen a couple of Crows thrash one of them soundly. As a rule, this species with us is an ignoble feeder. I have generally found them gorged with carrion, and after a good meal they will sit stupidly on a tree, or any little mud pillar, and permit you to walk within thirty yards of them; but before feeding they are somewhat wary, and can by no means always be secured, even when seen sitting. On more than one occasion I have seen Desert Rats (Gerbillus erythrurus) in their crops, and I once shot one of a pair which were busy, on the line of rail at Etawah, devouring a Bandicoot Rat (Mus bandicota), which some passing train had cut in two. Occasionally, but rarely, I found that they had eaten Quails and other birds. Once I shot a male which was dancing about on the ground in such an astounding fashion that I killed it to see what the matter was. The bird proved to have been choking. It had swallowed a whole dry shin-bone and foot of an Antelope. The bone apparently could not be got down altogether, and in trying to void it, the sharp points of the hoof had stuck into the back of the roof of the mouth.”[187]
THE GOLDEN EAGLE (Aquila chrysaëtus[188]).
The Golden Eagle is so called from the tawny or golden-brown colour which pervades the feathers of the neck in the old bird. Excepting in certain places in “Caledonia stern and wild,” where it is protected, it is a species which is becoming very rare in Great Britain, and but for the intervention of a few large-minded proprietors in Scotland would doubtless ere this have been extinguished. It is a much rarer bird now than the White-tailed Eagle, and the last-named species is often mistaken for it; but a little attention to one point will obviate all fear of a mistake in this respect, the Golden Eagle having at all ages the tarsus feathered to the toes, whereas the Sea Eagle belongs to the bare-legged section of these birds.
A better description of the habits of the Golden Eagle probably does not exist than that given by the late Professor Macgillivray:--
“See how the sunshine brightens the yellow tint of his head and neck, until it shines almost like gold! There he stands, nearly erect, with his tail depressed, his large wings half raised by his side, his neck stretched out and his eye glistening as he glances around. Like other robbers of the desert, he has a noble aspect, an imperative mien, a look of proud defiance; but his nobility has a dash of clownishness, and his falconship a vulturine tinge. Still, he is a noble bird, powerful, independent, proud, and ferocious, regardless of the weal or woe of others, and intent solely on the gratification of his own appetites; without generosity, without honour, bold against the defenceless, but ever ready to sneak from danger. Such is his nobility, about which men have so raved. Suddenly he raises his wings, for he has heard the whistle of the shepherd in the corry, and bending forward, he springs into the air. Oh, that this pencil of mine were a musket charged with buck-shot! Hardly do those vigorous flaps serve at first to prevent his descent; but now, curving upwards, he glides majestically along. As he passes the corner of that buttressed and battlemented crag, forth rush two ravens from their nest, croaking fiercely. While one flies above him, the other steals beneath, and they essay to strike him, but dare not, for they have an instinctive knowledge of the power of his grasp, and after following him a little way they return to their home, vainly exulting in the thought of having driven him from their neighbourhood. Bent on a far journey, he advances in a direct course, flapping his great wings at regular intervals, then shooting along without seeming to move them. In ten minutes he has progressed three miles, although he is in no haste, and now disappears behind the shoulder of the hill. But we may follow him in imagination, for his habits being well known to us, we may be allowed the ornithological licence of tracing them in continuance. Homeward bound, his own wants satisfied, he knows that his young must be supplied with food.
“Over the moors he sweeps, at the height of two or three hundred feet, bending his course to either side, his wings wide spread, his neck retracted, now beating the air, and again sailing smoothly along. Suddenly he stops, poises himself for a moment, stoops, but recovers himself without touching the ground. The object of his regards, a Golden Plover, which he had spied on her nest, has eluded him; and he cares not to pursue it. Now he ascends a little, wheels in short curves, presently rushes down headlong, assumes the horizontal position when close to the ground, prevents his being dashed against it by expanding his wings and tail, thrusts forth his talons, and grasping a poor terrified Ptarmigan that sat cowering among the grey lichens, squeezes it to death, raises his head exultingly, emits a clear, shrill cry, and springing from the ground pursues his journey.
“In passing a tall cliff that overhangs a small lake, he is assailed by a fierce Peregrine Falcon, which darts and plunges at him as if determined to deprive him of his booty, or drive him headlong to the ground. This proves a more dangerous foe than the Raven, and the Eagle screams, yelps, and throws himself into postures of defence; but at length the Hawk, seeing the tyrant is not bent on plundering his nest, leaves him to pursue his course unmolested. Over woods, and green fields, and scattered hamlets speeds the Eagle, and now he enters the long valley of the Dee, near the upper end of which is dimly seen through the grey mist the rock of his nest. About a mile from it he meets his mate, who has been abroad on a similar errand, and is returning with a white Hare in her talons. They congratulate each other with loud yelping cries, which rouse the drowsy shepherd on the strath below, who, mindful of the lambs carried off in spring-time, sends after them his malediction. Now they reach their nest and are greeted by their young with loud clamour.
“Let us mark the spot. It is a shelf of a rock, concealed by a projecting angle, so that it cannot be injured from above, and is too distant from the base to be reached by a shot. In the crevices are luxuriant tufts of Rhodiola rosea, and scattered around are many alpine plants, which it would delight the botanist to enumerate. The mineralogist would not be less pleased could he with chisel and hammer reach that knob which glitters with crystals of quartz and felspar. The nest is a bulky fabric, five feet at least in diameter, rudely constructed of dead sticks, twigs, and heath; flat, unless in the centre, where it is a little hollowed and covered with wool and feathers. Slovenly creatures you would think these two young birds, clothed with white down, amid which the larger feathers are seen projecting, for their fluid dung is scattered all over the sticks, and you see that, had the nest been formed more compactly of softer materials, it would have been less comfortable. Strewn around, too, are fragments of Lambs, Hares, Grouse and other birds in various stages of decay. Alighting on the edges of the nest, the Eagles deposit their prey, partially pluck off the hair and feathers, and rudely tearing up the flesh, lay it before their ever-hungry young.”
The length of a male Golden Eagle is a little more than two feet and a half, while the female attains at least three feet in dimensions, with a wing three inches longer than that of her mate. The colour of the plumage is dark brown, with a rich tawny hue on the back of the neck and nape, the feathers of these parts being streaked with darker brown; the tail is more or less mottled with grey at the base, and is whiter in younger birds. The latter are often popularly distinguished as the Ring-tailed Eagles. By some authors the Eagle which frequents the mountains is considered to be a different species from that which inhabits the plains, but as far as present experience goes it is the younger birds which are more often met with in the latter localities, being probably driven from their mountain homes by the older birds. The Golden Eagle varies his choice of an eyry in different localities, building in the British Islands generally on a rock, but in many other countries nesting on a tree. It is found all over Europe and Northern Asia, in mountainous districts, extending into China and even into the Himalayas, whence the finest specimens are obtained. In North America also the examples of the Golden Eagle seem to be very large, but are not to be otherwise distinguished from European specimens.
THE KITE EAGLE (Neopus[189] malayensis).
This extraordinary bird bears the above name from its resemblance generally to a Kite, and also from its plumage, which in the young bird is wonderfully Kite-like, so that a dead specimen carelessly examined might be taken easily for one of the latter birds. One moment’s search, however, would dispose of the illusion, for no one who has once heard of the foot of this Eagle could ever forget it or mistake it for that of any other raptorial bird, the talons being longer and more slender in proportion to the size of the foot than in any known Eagle; they are also nearly straight. The inner claws are the longest, and that excellent observer, Captain Vincent Legge, points out that they seem “especially adapted for the work of carrying off loose and fragile masses, such as the nests of small birds, as they would naturally form its chief means of grasp when such an object was being held by both feet during the process of flight.” This last sentence gives an insight into the habits of the bird, which are on a par with its remarkable structure. It might well be called the “Bird’s-nesting Eagle,” for it seems to be the only bird of prey which systematically lives by the robbery of smaller birds’ nests; only on very rare occasions, and when pressed by hunger, has it been known to attack larger game or worry the poultry-yard. It is almost always on the wing, and the Lepcha-hunters near Darjeeling speak of it as the bird “that never sits down.” It is found in the Himalayas and in other wooded districts of India, and occurs but more sparingly in the Malayan peninsula and islands, ranging to some of the Moluccas, but probably visiting the latter only on migration. But it is in Ceylon that it is, perhaps, more plentiful than in any other locality, and the best account of its habits is that given by Captain Legge, whose words are subjoined. “This fine, long-winged Eagle is, on account of the singular structure of its feet and its curious habits, one of the most interesting, but, at the same time, perhaps the most destructive of raptors to bird-life in Ceylon. It subsists, as far as can be observed, entirely by birds’-nesting, and is not content with the eggs and young birds which its keen sight espies among the branches of the forest-trees, but seizes the nest in its talons, decamps with it, and often examines the contents as it sails lazily along. Furthermore, Mr. S. Bligh informs me that he once found the best part of a bird’s nest in the stomach of one of these Eagles which he shot in the Central Province. Its flight is most easy and graceful. In the early morning it passes much of its time soaring round the high peaks or cliffs on which it has passed the night, and about nine or ten o’clock starts off on its daily foraging expedition. It launches itself with motionless wings from some dizzy precipice, and proceeding in a straight line, till over some inviting-looking patna-woods it quickly descends with one or two rather sharp gyrations, through, perhaps, a thousand feet, and is in another moment gliding stealthily along just above the tops of the trees. In and out among these, along the side of the wood, backwards and forwards over the top of the narrow strip, it quarters, its long wings outstretched and the tips of its pinions wide apart, with apparently no exertion; and luckless indeed is the Bulbul, Oriole, or Mountain Finch whose carefully-built nest is discovered by the soaring robber.”[190]
The size of the Kite Eagle is about thirty inches in length, and the colour is entirely black, with some indistinct bars of ashy-grey on the tail. Besides the Eagles that have been alluded to already, there are the Hawk-Eagles (Nisaëtus), remarkable for their long legs, and the Crested Eagles (Spizaëtus), which have a beautiful long crest hanging from the hinder part of the head.
THE COMMON HARRIER EAGLE (Circaëtus[191] gallicus).
This, which is also called the “Jean-le-Blanc,” is one of the best-known of all the bare-legged section of the Eagles. The genus Circaëtus, to which it belongs, contains five species, of which four are peculiar to Africa, the C. gallicus being found all over Southern and Central Europe, and extending into India, where it is not at all unplentiful. In its nature this bird is rather sluggish, though in confinement it is very untamable, and wears a thoroughly fierce aspect, as could be seen by any one who examined the specimen in the Zoological Gardens. Its ferocious appearance was heightened by its peculiar eye, which is very large, of a bright yellow, with a very small black pupil, whereas the pupil in most birds of prey is rather large.[192]
THE INDIAN SERPENT EAGLE (Spilornis cheela).
This is a beautiful bird, having the under surface mottled with white spots or “ocelli.” All the Serpent Eagles, of which there are several species, are characterised by a similar style of plumage, and by a full, thick crest of feathers springing from the occiput and hind part of the head. They are found all over India and Ceylon, Southern China, and the Burmese countries, the Malayan Peninsula, Sunda Islands, Borneo, and Celebes. The Ceylonese species, which is a small race of the Indian bird, is stated by Layard to feed on Snakes, Lizards, and other reptiles and insects, and to be particularly partial to the large trees on the banks of tanks, from them swooping down on the frogs which came up to sun themselves on the floating logs or reeds. The Indian species of Serpent Eagle is a powerful bird, and is said to capture Pheasants during the breeding season and bring them to the nest. Mr. Hume has generally found small Snakes in their stomachs; once as many as fifty together were found, all scarcely bigger than large Worms; and an instance was brought to his knowledge of a Cobra some two feet and a half long having been found dead, but uninjured, in one of these birds’ stomachs. Mr. Thompson, a frequent contributor to Mr. Hume’s “Rough Notes,” tells of one which he had alive, and which was kept along with two little Indian Owls (Carine brama), a Carrion Crow, and three large green Woodpeckers, and who killed and ate up every one of the latter, though well supplied with other fresh meat.
THE BATELEUR EAGLE (Helotarsus[193] ecaudatus[194]).
This is a very remarkable bird, which might also with propriety be called the Short-tailed Eagle, as it is the only species known in which the wings exceed the tail in length. It is found in Africa only, where it is by no means rare in the southern and north-eastern quarters of the continent. In Damara Land, according to Mr. Andersson, it builds its nest on trees, selecting generally one of such a terribly thorny nature that the nest is always difficult of access. Occasionally, however, a rock is selected for the breeding-place. When in captivity, this bird changes the colour of the face, exactly as the Brazilian Caracara already alluded to; the bare skin round the nostrils and eyes, which is generally brilliant coral-red, fading to pale orange-yellow.
The Bateleur Eagle is about two feet in length, and has an enormous crest of plumes. The colour is black, with a large maroon-coloured patch on the shoulders and on the back, the tail being also of this colour. Sometimes individuals with pale, cream-coloured backs are found; but at present it is not known whether these are a different species, or whether they constitute only a pale variety of the ordinary Bateleur.
THE WHITE-TAILED EAGLE (Haliaëtus albicilla[195]).
Sea Eagles are absent from South America, but probably from no other country of the globe. Both Europe and North America are inhabited by large and powerful species; and throughout Africa and Madagascar the handsomely-marked species H. vocifer occurs. One of the most widespread is the White-bellied Sea Eagle; it is found round the coasts of Australia and all the Molucca Islands, ranging as far as India and Ceylon, and as high as Cochin China.
The White-tailed Eagle, which, from its being an inhabitant of the British Islands, is the species most familiarly known of all the Sea Eagles, is still met with in some of the northern parts of Scotland, and in the Hebrides; but as it is a bird which creates a good deal of havoc among lambs at certain periods of the year, the war of extermination which has been waged against it has now contributed considerably to the increasing rarity of the species on these coasts. The breeding of this Sea Eagle has been well described by Mr. Woolley.[196] He says:--“On the coasts, the Sea Eagle chooses a roomy and generally sheltered ledge of rock. The egg which Mr. Hewitson figures (Eggs, Br. B., ed. 3, pl. iv., fig. 2) is one of two which I took on the 23rd April, 1849, on one of the most northern points of our island. The nest was very slightly made of a little grass and fresh heather loosely put together, without any sticks; but two or three ‘kek’ stalks were strewn about outside. There was a good thickness of guano-like soil upon the rock, which made much nest unnecessary. Two or three Guillemot’s beaks, the only unmanageable part of that bird, were not far off. The eggs were laid two days before when I went to reconnoitre; and I never shall forget the forbearance which a friend who was with me showed, at my request, as he lay, gun in hand, with the hen Eagle in full view upon her nest not forty yards below him. Her head was towards the cliff, and concealed from our sight; whilst her broad back and white tail, as she stood bending over her nest on the grassy ledge, with the beautiful sandstone rock and sea beyond, completed a picture rarely to be forgotten. But our ears, and the air we breathe, give a finish to Nature’s pictures which no art can imitate; and here were the effects of the sea, and the heather, and the rocks, the fresh warmth of the northern sun, and the excitement of exercise, while the musical yelping of the male Eagle came from some stand out of sight. Add to all this the innate feeling of delight connected with the pursuit of wild animals, which no philosopher has yet been able to explain further than as a special gift of our Great Maker, and then say whether it is not almost blasphemy to call such a scene a ‘picture!’ Upon this occasion, I made some remark to my friend, when the hen Eagle showed her clear eye and big, yellow beak, her head full of the expression of wild nature and freedom. She gave us a steady glance, then sprang from the rock, and with ‘slow winnowing wing’--the flight-feathers turning upwards at every stroke--was soon out at sea. Joined by her mate, she began to sail with him in circles farther and farther away, till quite out of sight, yelping as long as we could hear them, Gulls mobbing them all the time. To enjoy the beauties of a wild coast to perfection, let me recommend any man to seat himself in an Eagle’s nest. The year before this I took the young ones out of the same eyry late in July. It was my first attempt at an Eagle’s stronghold, and I shall never forget the interest of the whole affair; a thunderstorm coming on just before, making it necessary to cut drains in the peat with our knives, to divert the torrents of water; our councils about the best mode of attaching the ropes; the impertinence of a young lad who, stationed to watch for my signals, was rendered quite useless by his keen sense of the ridiculous on seeing me, in my inexperience, twisting round and round at the end of the rope; the extraordinary grandeur everything assumed, from the nest itself; the luxurious feeling of exultation; the interest of every plant about it--I know them all now; the heaps of young Herring-Gulls’ remains, and the large fish-bone; but, above all, the Eaglets fully able to fly, and yet crouching side by side, with their necks stretched out and chins on the ground, like young Fawns, their frightened eyes showing that they had no intention of showing fight.
“Very gently, as a man ‘tickles’ trout, I passed my hand under them, and tied their legs together, and then tried to confine their wings. They actually allowed me to fasten a handkerchief round them, which, however, was soon shaken off when they began to be pulled up. When the men had raised me, the string attached to my waist lifted one Eaglet, and presently the second came to the length of his tether. Great was the flapping of wings, and clutching at rocks and grass. I had many fears that the string or the birds’ legs must give way; but, after much hard pulling, I got them safely to the top, and they are now (1853) alive at Matlock amongst rocks, where I hope they may breed; but, though five years old this season, they have not yet quite completed the adult plumage. Their dutiful parents never came near them in their difficulties; but I am happy to say that in 1850 (the year after I took their eggs), they carried off their young, through the interest I was able to exert in their favour. They had shifted their position; and they changed again in 1851 to a rock with an aspect quite different, and more than a mile away. In 1847, to please the shepherds, the young were shot in the nest, which was built in the spot where I visited it the two following years. There was no sea-weed about this nest either time that I saw it; but a friend writes me word, that two which he examined last year on the sea-cliffs of this island, and which he carefully described to me, were principally made of that material, as Mr. Hewitson also had found them in the Shetland Islands. On one of these two occasions, the old Eagle made a dash near my informant, with a ‘fearful scream,’ and such was the tremendous character of the rocks, that his ‘hair gets strong’ when he thinks of them. These two nests, both occupied, were not more than a mile and a half apart.”
THE SWALLOW-TAILED KITE (Elanoides furcatus).
The forked tail which is characteristic of the Kites reaches in the present species its greatest development, so that the name of Swallow-tailed Kite is by no means inappropriate. On five occasions the bird has been captured in England, and it is doubtless during its migration that the bird is driven to Britain by some adverse wind. Its range is extensive, as it is numerous during the summer in some of the southern States of North America, and it migrates to South America, whence it frequently appears in collections from Brazil and Columbia. Mr. Audubon gives the following account of the Swallow-tailed Kite:--“The flight of this elegant species of Hawk is singularly beautiful and protracted. It moves through the air with such ease and grace, that it is impossible for any individual, who takes the least pleasure in observing the manners of birds, not to be delighted by the sight of it whilst on the wing. Gliding along in easy flappings, it rises in wide circles to an immense height, inclining in various ways its deeply-forked tail, to assist the direction of its course; dives with the rapidity of lightning, and, suddenly checking itself, re-ascends, soars away, and is soon out of sight. At other times, a flock of these birds, amounting to fifteen or twenty individuals, is seen hovering around the trees. They dive in rapid succession amongst the branches, glancing along the trunks, and seizing in their course the insects and small lizards of which they are in quest. Their motions are astonishingly rapid, and the deep curves which they describe, their sudden doublings and crossings, and the extreme ease with which they seem to cleave the air, excite the admiration of him who views them while thus employed in searching for food.
“In the States of Louisiana and Mississippi, where these birds are abundant, they arrive in large companies in the beginning of April, and are heard uttering a sharp plaintive note. At this period I generally remarked that they came from the westward, and have counted upwards of a hundred in the space of an hour, passing over me in a direct easterly course. At that season, and in the beginning of September when they all retire from the United States, they are easily approached when they have alighted, being then apparently fatigued, and busily engaged in preparing themselves for continuing their journey, by dressing and oiling their feathers. At all other times, however, it is extremely difficult to get near them, as they are generally on wing through the day, and at night rest on the highest pines and cypresses, bordering the river-bluffs, the lakes, or the swamps of that district of country.
“They always feed on the wing. In calm and warm weather they soar to an immense height, pursuing the large insects called Musquito Hawks, and performing the most singular evolutions that can be conceived, using their tail with an elegance of motion peculiar to themselves. Their principal food, however, is large Grasshoppers, Grass Caterpillars, small Snakes, Lizards, and Frogs. They sweep close over the fields, sometimes seeming to alight for a moment to secure a Snake, and holding it fast by the neck, carry it off, and devour it in the air. When searching for Grasshoppers and Caterpillars, it is not difficult to approach them under cover of a fence or tree. When one is then killed, and falls to the ground, the whole flock comes over the dead bird, as if intent upon carrying it off. An excellent opportunity is thus afforded of shooting as many as may be wanted; and I have killed several of these Hawks in this manner, firing as fast as I could load my gun.
“The Fork-tailed Hawks are also very fond of frequenting the creeks, which, in that country, are much encumbered with drifted logs and accumulations of sand, in order to pick up some of the numerous Water-snakes which lie basking in the sun. At other times they dash along the trunks of trees, and snap off the pupæ of the Locust, or that insect itself. Although when on the wing they move with a grace and ease which it is impossible to describe, yet on the ground they are scarcely able to walk.
“I kept for several days one which had been slightly wounded in the wing. It refused to eat, kept the feathers of the head and rump constantly erect, and vomited several times part of the contents of its stomach. It never threw itself on its back, nor attempted to strike with its talons, unless when taken up by the tip of the wing. It died from inanition, as it constantly refused the food placed before it in profusion, and instantly vomited what had been placed down its throat.”
THE COMMON KITE (Milvus ictinus[197]).
Times have changed in England since the number of Kites to be seen flying about London Bridge could form a subject of astonishment to a foreign traveller visiting that country; but less than three hundred years ago this was the case, though now the species has been all but banished from the land. It may still occasionally nest in some parts of Wales and of Scotland; but in the latter country places where formerly the species bred plentifully now know it no more. The Kite builds its nest of sticks on a large tree, but occasionally also on rocks, and it is generally composed of a mixture of materials, such as bones, &c., and the lining usually contains a good many rags; so that Shakspere, with the knowledge of natural history which always distinguished him, was quite right when he said--
“When the Kite builds, look to lesser linen.”
The presence of the Kite in London was useful in the old days, as its food consists by preference of offal, though it also devours Moles, Frogs, and unfledged nestlings, Rabbits, Snakes, and fish. The forked tail of this species--which serves as a rudder to the bird when flying, as it often does, in circles aloft--easily distinguishes it from all other British birds of prey. The length of the bird is about two feet, and the general colour of the upper plumage is rufous, most of the feathers being edged with that colour. Below, it is rufous-brown, with a narrow streak of blackish down the feathers; the quills are black; the tail rufous-brown, deeply forked, and crossed with seven or eight bars of black. The species is found all over Europe, but becomes gradually rarer in the eastern parts.
THE EUROPEAN HONEY-KITE (Pernis apivorus).
This bird is generally known as the Honey-Buzzard, though from the reticulations on the hinder aspect of the tarsus it has evidently nothing to do with those birds, even if its soft and kite-like plumage did not show its affinities to the Kites. Its nostril is also peculiar, and is closed in by a membrane, which doubtless forms a protection from the stings of insects when the bird is attacking a Bee’s or Wasp’s nest. Its habits have been well described by Brehm.[198] This bird is, perhaps, the most timid of all European birds of prey, but is remarkable for its good temper. Its movements are in the highest degree clumsy; its flight is bad, heavy, and slow, and is generally a short one, and the bird shows a great disinclination to rise to any considerable height in the air; in short, its whole bearing evinces the most lazy disposition. It will sit for hours on a stone boundary wall, on a solitary tree or sign-post, or on some other elevated spot, quite contented, watching its prey, which consists of the following:--Insects of all descriptions, Beetles, Caterpillars, Dragon-flies, Gadflies, Worms, Frogs, Snakes, Lizards, and destructive Rodents, which form its principal food; besides which it is very fond of hunting for the nests of the Humble-bee and Wasp, and of feeding on their larvæ. This bird also, unfortunately, destroys the young, and especially the eggs, of such of the smaller birds as it comes across while hunting for insects; this causes it to be looked upon as a disagreeable and hateful enemy by all birds. Crows and Rooks mob the Honey-Buzzard with almost the same eagerness as they chase the Eagle-Owl, and all small birds make a great noise at its appearance. In the summer it also feeds on buds, blossoms, bilberries, other wood-berries, and even leaves. This habit distinguishes it from all other German birds of prey.
“The Honey-Buzzard reaches us somewhat late in the year, and commences to build its nest when the other Raptors have hatched their broods. The nest is very flat, and is placed on the highest of our forest trees; it is principally constructed of green twigs, mixed with dead sticks, and is lined with moss, hair, and feathers. It generally contains three eggs, of a rusty yellow ground, very thickly blotched and spotted with dark reddish-brown. They are somewhat small and rather long in shape. Of these rarely more than two are hatched. The young ones are at first fed with Caterpillars, Flies, Beetles, Worms, &c., which the old birds collect in their crops, and then throw up; later they are treated to pieces of Wasps’ nests filled with larvæ, Frogs, Mice, young birds, &c. The parent birds still continue to feed their young long after the latter have left the nest. Both young and old birds remain in company almost till the moulting season comes round, when they migrate more to the southward.”
The Honey-Kite inhabits, during the summer, the greater part of Europe, and flies away to Africa to pass the winter. In India it is represented by a species which goes through similar changes of plumage, but may always be recognised by its long crest. The phases through which the Honey-Kite passes are most remarkable, the bird being sometimes nearly all white, at other times all black; and this plumage seems to occur at any age, sometimes in youth, sometimes in old age; and hence this is called a melanism (μέλας, black). Many birds of prey are subject to this melanism, but none more so than the Honey-Buzzards, and their representatives in America, the Tooth-billed Kites (Leptodon).
ANDERSSON’S PERN (Machærhamphus[199] Anderssoni).
This remarkable bird bears the name of one of the most intrepid, as well as one of the most unassuming, of African travellers, the late Charles John Andersson, who discovered it during his residence in Damara Land in South-western Africa. So rare is it, and so difficult to obtain, that he only managed to procure two specimens in the space of ten years, though constantly on the look-out for the bird. He writes concerning it:--“On the 10th of March, 1865, I obtained one specimen, a female, of this singular bird at Objimbinque, Damara Land. It was shot by my servant, who observed another, probably the male. I imagine that I have myself observed it once or twice in the neighbourhood of Objimbinque just before dusk. When brought to me I instinctively suspected the bird to be a feeder at dusk or at night, and called out, ‘Why, that fellow is likely to feed on Bats!’ And truly enough so it turned out; for on dissection an undigested Bat was found in the stomach; and in another specimen, subsequently killed by Axel, there were several Bats in the stomach.”[200] It is probably owing to this habit of feeding in the evening that the bird is so difficult to procure, as is the case with many of the Goat-suckers, which are also night-feeding birds. Since Mr. Andersson’s death, two or three specimens of his Pern have been sent from Madagascar, but in the intervening portions of the African continent it is as yet unknown.
The colouring of this species is plain, being of a chocolate-brown colour, with a long crest springing from the back of the head; above the eye is a white spot, and another below the eye; the throat and chest are white, with a streak of dark brown down the centre of the throat; the quills and tail are banded the bars showing paler below. The length of the bird is about seventeen inches.
Only one other species of the genus Machærhamphus is known, and this is Westermann’s Pern (M. alcinus), which is an inhabitant of Malacca, where it is almost as rare as Andersson’s Pern is in Africa. It has lately been sent from South-eastern New Guinea, and may ultimately be found to inhabit some of the Moluccas.
THE FIFTH SUB-FAMILY.--THE FALCONS (Falconinæ).
In all the true Falcons and in the allied genera the bill, which was simply festooned in the Eagles, Kites, and Buzzards, becomes very distinctly toothed, and in some genera even two teeth are present. In these birds, too, the cere is strongly shown, and is generally of a bright yellow colour.
THE CUCKOO-FALCONS (Baza).
These birds have the soft plumage of a Honey-Kite, and yet possess the toothed bill of a Falcon, so that they are placed among the Falconinæ; but, because of their Kite-like plumage, they follow close to the Perns and Honey-Kites. They not only possess the usual tooth of the Falcon’s bill, but a second is actually present, so that there is no difficulty in recognising a member of the genus Baza. The American Cuckoo-Falcons (Harpagus) are the only other birds of prey which have a double-toothed bill.
The name of “Cuckoo”-Falcon has been given to these birds on account of their actual resemblance to a Cuckoo, in the grey colour of the back with the reddish bars on the under surface. They have also a very large yellow eye. The distribution of the genus Baza is singular, and it is one of those forms which does not occur in Europe, but exhibits the affinity which is often seen between certain African and Indian birds. About nine different kinds are known, each having its own limited range. Thus Swainson’s Cuckoo-Falcon (B. cuculoides[201]) is found in the forest country from Senegambia to Gaboon in West Africa, and is replaced by Baza Verreauxi in the forests of Natal. In Madagascar a third species (B. madagascariensis) occurs, and on crossing the Indian Ocean a fourth kind (B. ceylonensis) is found inhabiting Ceylon. Malacca and the Sunda Islands have their own Baza sumatrensis, the Philippines B. magnirostris, the island of Celebes B. erythrothorax, the Moluccas and New Guinea B. Reinwardti, and Northern Australia, B. subcristata. None of these birds appear to be migratory, and their geographical distribution is interesting when traced out on a map of the world.
From their shy and retiring habits, but little has been recorded of their life. Verreaux’s Cuckoo-Falcon is said to frequent the dense bush in Natal, and Captain Harford shot one in that country while engaged upon an ant-hill, and their food appears to consist of Grasshoppers and Mantidæ, while another observer took from the stomach of one of these birds remains of a green Mantis, of Locusts, and of a Chameleon. This species is one of the largest of the Cuckoo-Falcons, measuring seventeen inches in length, and the colour is dark ashy-grey; deeper ash-colour on the head and crest; the sides of the face, throat, and chest, are clear ashy; the breast white, banded across with pale rufous brown; the under tail-coverts being pure white; both the wings and tail are barred with dark brown. The sexes of these birds differ very little in size.
THE FALCONETS (Microhierax[202]).
This name is applied to a genus of tiny Falcons, which are peculiar to the Indian region. One of them, the Indian Falconet (Microhierax cærulescens), is found in the Himalayas and the Burmese countries. A second one is peculiar to Assam, a third to the Philippine Islands, and a fourth to the interior of China, while the fifth and remaining species is found in the Malayan Peninsula and the Sunda Islands.
Not one of these little Hawks is seven inches in length, and even to this day there are many authors who think that they are Butcher-birds or Shrikes, and not Hawks at all. They are, however, true Falcons, though of very small size, and are said to be used by native chiefs for hawking insects and Button-quails, being thrown from the hand like a ball; but this story has been discredited of late, the Besra, a small Sparrow-Hawk, being probably the bird alluded to. The Falconets are known to sit solitary on high trees, and according to native accounts they feed on small birds and insects.
THE PEREGRINE FALCON (Falco peregrinus[203]).
This noble bird justifies his name of peregrinus, by his distribution over the earth’s surface. The ordinary Peregrine, which is still found in suitable places breeding on British coasts, is met with all over Europe and Northern Asia, ranging into South Africa and India in winter, extending throughout China to the Sunda Islands, and the Philippine Archipelago. In North America he is also widely distributed, and is as plentiful as in Europe. In the southern hemisphere the Peregrines, though strictly of the same type as the European bird, are always darker in colour, and have blacker faces and heads. The Australian Peregrine is called Falco melanogenys,[204] and extends its range from the Australian continent to New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, and as far north as Java. In South Africa the resident Peregrine is a very small, dark-coloured bird, and is called Falco minor. This species is also met with in North-eastern Africa, and even ranges into the Mediterranean, as it has been shot in Rhodes, Sardinia, and Morocco. Again, in Chili, another dark-faced form occurs, the Falco nigriceps,[205] not unlike its Australian relative.
To write a history of the Peregrine Falcon would be almost to write a history of falconry, and although it would be beyond the limits of the present work to enter deeply into the subject, a few words must be said about it here. The art of falconry probably came from the East, where it is still practised, and an ancient bas-relief was found by Sir Austen Layard, among the ruins of Khorsabad, depicting a falconer with a Hawk on his wrist, thus proving the antiquity of the pursuit. In Great Britain it was formerly much in vogue, and in Salvin and Brodrick’s work on “Falconry in the British Islands” there will be found an interesting résumé of the art, as performed in Great Britain, from ancient times down to the present. It is lamentable to think of the way in which these noble birds, once the pride and favourite of monarchs, are now shot down and classed as vermin. The strict way of preserving game which has been common of late years, and the general use of firearms, have, no doubt, been the chief causes of the destruction of the larger Falcons, and it will take some time to disabuse the vulgar prejudices of gamekeepers, and of some proprietors, as to the mistake that is made in killing off every kind of raptorial bird indiscriminately. A protest which was penned by Mr. G. E. Freeman, in his “Falconry,” is worthy of reproduction here:--“All Hawks, when they have a choice, invariably choose the easiest flight. This fact is of the last importance in the matter before us. I confess that I at once give it the chief place in this argument. Who has not heard of the Grouse disease? It has been attributed, sometimes respectively, and sometimes collectively, to burnt heather; to heather poisoned from the dressings put on Sheep; to the Sheep themselves cropping the tender shoots and leaves of the plant, and thus destroying the Grouse’s food; to the tape-worm; to shot which has wounded but not killed; and perhaps to other things besides. It may be, I doubt not, correctly referred to any or to all of these. Of this, however, there appears no question that from whatever cause it springs it is propagated. A diseased parent produces a diseased child. Now, I say that when every Hawk is killed upon a large manor, the balance of Nature is forgotten, or ignored; and that Nature will not overlook an insult. She would have kept her wilds healthy; destroy her appointed instruments, and beware of her revenge!”
The Peregrine Falcon has always been celebrated with falconers for its superior dash and courage. The female is much the larger and more powerful bird, and is called the “Falcon,” the male being known as the “Tiercel.” The young birds reared from the nest are called “Eyes,” and the immature specimens, from their more rufous colour, are distinguished as the “Red Falcon” and the “Red Tiercel.” When a bird has been caught wild in the full plumage it is called “Haggard.” The principal flight of the “Falcon” was at the Heron, and many anecdotes are told of the encounters between these two antagonists in mid-air. The evidence of Falconers, however, goes to show that the impalement of the Hawk by the Heron’s bill is a rare occurrence, and it is only when the birds come to the ground that the presence of the man is required to rescue the Falcons from their dangerous foe. The Heron, on being pursued, endeavours to avoid his pursuer by mounting high into the air, the Falcon meanwhile doing his best to rise above him and strike the quarry to the ground. Generally, two Falcons were employed in the chase, and while the Heron avoided the stoop of one by changing his position suddenly, the other was ready to stoop from above, until, by a successful swoop, the Heron would be mastered and borne to the ground with the two Falcons in close embrace. Then was the time for the good falconer to be at hand to save his Hawks from the Heron. In a wild state the Peregrine feeds on Grouse of all kinds, Pheasants, Partridges, Ducks, Pigeons, Plovers, &c., but it does not so often visit the poultry-yard as the other Hawks, preferring the open country or the sea-coast. In this latter locality, the Falcon feeds on the various sea-birds, such as the Puffins, Auks, Guillemots, and as it flies back to its nest with food for its young, it will sometimes in very wantonness rip up a Gull or other sea-bird if it happens to get in the way as it rushes by. The nest is generally large, and composed of sticks and herbaceous plants, excepting in localities where none of the latter exist, when it is made of grass. The site chosen is some sea-cliff or high precipice inland, where there is sure to be some difficulty in reaching the nest, which is generally harried by means of a rope. They build in the same localities for years together, and Professor Newton gives an interesting record of such an occurrence,[206] when he mentions a hill in Lapland, where a pair of Falcons had a nest when it was visited by the French astronomical expedition in 1736, a nest being re-discovered in the same place in 1799 by Captain Skjöldebrand, and again by the late Mr. Woolley, in 1853. Near the site of its nest the Peregrine brooks no intruder, and will even attack an Eagle, an instance having been recorded of one of the latter birds being stunned and brought to the ground by a Peregrine, who broke its own wing in the attempt, and was liberated by the shepherds to mend its wing as best it could, in gratitude for having delivered their aquiline enemy into their hands.
In Holland, where until recent years hawking was largely carried on under the auspices of the king, there is a well-known place, called Valkenswaard, where a good many Hawks are trapped every autumn during migration, and it is from the neighbourhood of this village that many of the most celebrated falconers have come. At the same time England has also produced many celebrated adepts at the art, which is generally carried on from father to son; and one of the Barr family, with a high reputation as a falconer, a few years ago exhibited his trained birds in the neighbourhood of London. The writer has also seen some fine sport in Huntingdonshire, with Lord Lilford’s Hawks, in a large extent of open country near Great Gidding.
The male Peregrine is of a bluish-grey colour, narrowly barred with black, the wings darker; the cheeks, ear-coverts, and moustache, black, the entire sides of the head being sometimes of this dark aspect; underneath, the body is white, with more or less of a reddish tinge, and crossed with black bars; tail grey, broadly barred with black and tipped with white. The length is about fifteen inches, that of the female about seventeen; and the wing is fourteen inches and a half in length instead of about twelve, as in the male. In plumage the hen bird is very similar, but is generally of a richer rufous hue below.
Besides the Peregrine Falcons there are a host of smaller species of the genus Falco, varying much from the above birds in size and style of colour, but of exactly the same form, and having much the same habits. The Hobby (Falco subbuteo) and the Merlin (F. æsalon) represent these smaller Falcons in the British Islands.
THE GREENLAND JER-FALCON (Hierofalco candicans).[207]
Besides the Peregrine, there were used in falconry, in England, the Noble, or Jer-Falcons, birds which were much prized, although they did not possess the same fire and dash in pursuit of their quarry exhibited by the former bird. There are five distinct kinds of these northern Jer-Falcons, without mentioning the Saker Falcon of South-eastern Europe, which also belongs to the genus Hierofalco. The best known is the Greenland Jer-Falcon, which, as its name implies, is an inhabitant of Greenland and North America, young birds only occurring in the British Islands during migration. This species is nearly pure white in colour when fully adult, the back and wings retaining small spots of black, the entire head and breast, and especially the tail, becoming pure white as the bird gets older and loses the spots and bars which characterise its immature dress. An unfailing mark by which a Greenland Jer-Falcon can be told at any age is the light yellowish bill and cere, and the absence of arrow-shaped bars on the flanks, which in young birds are longitudinally streaked with brown, but are never barred. All the other Jer-Falcons have distinct bars across the flanks, as well as bluish bills and regularly barred tails. They are four in number, the Norway Jer-Falcon (H. gyrfalco), the Iceland Jer-Falcon (H. islandicus), Holböll’s Jer-Falcon (H. Holbölli), and the Labrador Jer-Falcon (H. labradorus). They are nearly all peculiar to the countries whose names they bear, the Norway bird not occurring anywhere out of Europe and Northern Asia, one specimen having been known to occur in England; it seems also to emigrate to Central Asia, as a single bird was procured during the last Yarkand Mission. All the Jer-Falcons have shorter toes than the Peregrines, in which the outer toe is very long, while in the other birds the outer and inner toes are about equal in length.
When in a wild state the Greenland Falcon feeds upon Ptarmigan, Geese, and on the sea-birds which frequent the cliffs where it takes up its abode. It evinces great courage in defending its nest.
THE KESTRELS (Cerchneis).
These form a group of short-toed Hawks, like the foregoing, but are much more numerous in species, and are found distributed all over the world, with the exception of some of the Oceanic Islands. More than twenty different kinds of Kestrel are recognised by naturalists, and they are more insect-feeding birds than the bolder and nobler Falcons which have just been spoken of. The commonest and best known of all is
THE COMMON KESTREL, OR WIND-HOVER (Cerchneis tinnunculus).[208]
This species gains its name of Wind-hover from a very pretty and graceful action with which it hangs suspended in the air, as if by a thread, keeping itself balanced by a constant winnowing of the air by its wings, and from this position it scans the ground below for a stray Mouse which may venture out of its hole, for mice and small birds constitute its principal food. It is frequently to be seen in the autumn hovering about a field of sheaved corn in the twilight, selecting a position about forty feet in the air, and occasionally stooping down on some prey in the stubble below. Should it not succeed in its pounce, it flies a little way in a few easy circles, and again commences to hover over a new part of the field. Insects also form a staple article of food to the Kestrel, who devours them while in full flight, passing its leg up to its bill, and the author has met with an instance of a Kestrel hawking for insects over a stream in the late evening. This Hawk is, unfortunately, often confounded through the ignorance of gamekeepers with the Sparrow-Hawk, and suffers consequently for the misdeeds of the latter, a fact much to be regretted, for it is a very useful bird, owing to the number of mice it destroys; indeed, a writer in Macgillivray’s “British Birds” computes that a single Kestrel would destroy upwards of ten thousand mice during its stay in Britain. It will also catch birds, but in limited numbers, and then generally only during the breeding season, when its young require constant food. Although of a less ferocious nature and aspect than the Falcons, the Kestrel, nevertheless, often shows forth his accipitrine temperament in a way that would scarcely be expected from his mild-looking dark eye, which has nothing of the ferocity of the yellow iris of the Sparrow-Hawk. Some young birds belonging to the writer, consisting of three females and a male, being left without food for a few hours by the person in whose charge they were placed, forgot their fraternal affection, and the larger hen birds set upon the male, who was not so large or strong as they were, and devoured him completely. When shooting in a sandy island near Heligoland also, the writer wounded a Dunlin, which floated on the water a considerable distance out at sea, and whilst waiting for the waves to bring the bird in to land a Kestrel hove in sight and made a swoop at the Dunlin, which the latter avoided by a rapid dive. Twenty-three times the Hawk repeated the manœuvre without success, until the poor little wader became exhausted, and was borne in the talons of his relentless foe towards the rock of Heligoland, about a mile off. This action had been witnessed also by Messrs Seebohm and Nicholson, from other parts of the same sandy island, and the latter kept pace with the Kestrel as it skirted the beach, in the hopes that it might cross the island when a shot would perhaps have caused the bird to drop his exhausted quarry. The Hawk, however, kept well out at sea, and regained his rocky home, though he was several times seen to pause in his flight and take a tighter grasp of his victim.
The nest of the Kestrel is often placed in towers and old buildings, and the bird is sometimes to be seen round the Nelson monument in Trafalgar Square, but a tree is more frequently the site selected, when an old Crow’s or Raven’s nest is often chosen. The hen bird, as is the case with most Hawks, sits very close, and will often require a stick or stone to be thrown close to the nest before it will move off, and the sudden drop which it gives is often the means of saving its life, as the chance of a successful shot is difficult. The eggs are from four to six in number, and are rather handsomely coloured, being blotched with rufous on a white ground, and are not unfrequently entirely rufous.
In most of the Kestrels the sexes differ conspicuously in colour, the females being barred. This is the case in the common species, where the male has a blue head and tail. In the size of the sexes there is little or no difference, each measuring about twelve inches and a half. In winter, when there are fewer mice and beetles about, the Kestrel shifts his quarters, and becomes to a certain extent migratory: at this season of the year it visits India and Africa, not extending, however, so far down the latter continent as some of the European birds go. It is abundant at certain seasons in north-eastern Africa and Senegambia, but seldom goes as far as the Cape. The most easterly occurrence that is known of the Common Kestrel is the island of Borneo, though it is a common bird in China. It should be mentioned, however, that the Kestrel is always darker in colour from Japan and China, so much so that many naturalists consider it to be a distinct species from the British bird.
THE SECOND SUB-ORDER.--PANDIONES.
VI. THE OSPREYS AND OWLS
THE OSPREY--Distribution--Food--How it Seizes its Prey--Nesting Communities--STRIGES, or OWLS--Distinctions between Hawks and Owls--Owls in Bird-lore and Superstition--Families of the Sub-order--THE FISH OWL--PEL’S FISH OWL--THE EAGLE OWL--Dr. Brehm’s Description of its Appearance and Habits--THE SNOWY OWL--HAWK OWLS--PIGMY OWLETS--THE SHORT-EARED OWL--THE LONG-EARED OWL--THE BARN OWL--The Farmer’s Friend--Peculiar Characters--Distribution.
THE OSPREY, OR FISHING EAGLE (Pandion haliaëtus).
The Osprey is one of the most cosmopolitan of the birds of prey, being found all over the world, with the exception of the continent of South America and some of the Pacific Islands. Specimens from Australia and the Moluccas are generally smaller than those from Europe or America; but as the size of the species appears to vary in different localities, the Australian form cannot be considered other than a permanently smaller race. Everywhere the habits of the Osprey seem to be very similar, the bird never being found away from the vicinity of water, unless it be sometimes during the breeding season, when it makes its nest at some distance from its feeding haunts. Its food consists entirely of fish, and it is capable of carrying off one of considerable size; in the capture of its prey it is greatly aided by its reversible toes, and by the roughness of the sole of the foot, which is covered with minute spikes, and these are, of course, of great assistance to the bird in holding such a strong and slippery prey as a large fish often proves to be. Professor Newton writes of one living in the Zoological Gardens, that “when a fish was given to it, it was observed to seize it across the body, placing the inner and outer toes at right angles with the middle and hind toes, and, digging in the claws, it held the fish most firmly by four opposite points, not relaxing its hold or altering the position of the toes, but picking out the portions of flesh from between them with great dexterity.” Occasionally, the Osprey attacks a fish beyond its strength, and it is then drawn under the water, and drowned. Mr. Dresser saw this happen in the Bay of Fundy, when a Fish Hawk was unable to release itself from a heavy fish, and, after being dragged under the water time after time, was ultimately carried out to sea, and disappeared. Mr. Collett, of Christiania, tells us that in one of the Norwegian lakes a huge Pike was caught, with the remains of an Osprey’s skeleton still attached to its back. Sometimes, on landing its prey, the bird is unable to extricate its talons, and is captured alive. The nest of the Osprey is a large structure, and is variously situated, according to the nature of the locality. It is generally placed on a tree; but in situations where there are no trees the position chosen is on a large rock or stone, very often on the islands in the middle of the lakes which it frequents. The eggs are generally three in number, sometimes four, and are very beautiful, varying from a rich red to a buffy-white colour, with large reddish and brown markings. In Europe it is found nesting invariably in pairs, but in North America large communities are found; and Dr. Brewer relates that sometimes as many as “three hundred pairs have been observed nesting on one small island; and when a new nest is to be constructed, the whole community has been known to take part in its completion. They are remarkably tolerant towards smaller birds, and permit the Purple Grakle (Quiscalus purpureus) to construct its nests in the interstices of their own.”
THE THIRD SUB-ORDER.--STRIGES, THE OWLS.
The principal distinctions between Hawks and Owls (Striges) have been already pointed out (p. 255); but there are still some other smaller characters to which a passing allusion must be made. It would be difficult, for instance, for the merest novice in the study of ornithology to mistake an Owl, when seen alive in a cage, or even in a case of stuffed birds, its enormous head and short neck being unlike those of any of the other birds of prey. The neck of some Owls is, indeed, so short and contracted, that it is with difficulty that any intervening curve between the nape and the back, which would mark a perceptible neck as in most Hawks, can be detected. Again, the Owls have their eyes directed forwards, so that they confront the spectator; while most of the other birds of prey turn their head more or less on one side when their attention is diverted, and do not look one straight in the face as an Owl does. The cere is almost always hidden by bristles in the Striges, and the latter have a very distinct facial disc, surrounded by a curious ruff, somewhat similar to that of the Harriers (Circus, p. 268), and Harrier-Hawks (Micrastur, p. 270). The external ear-opening is a complicated organ in the Owls, and differs considerably, the orifices often being of different form on either side of the head; and in one species, Tengmalm’s Owl (Nyctala tengmalmi), the ear-openings are of different shape in the skull itself.
To those interested in bird-lore, a most entertaining study might be afforded by tracing the superstitions with which Owls have been regarded in all countries, and in the earliest times. Such a study was begun by the late Mr. Broderip, in his “Zoological Recreations,”[209] where he quotes from the ancient writers many passages, which show that Owls were as much regarded as birds of ill-omen by the inhabitants of Greece and Italy in olden times as they have been in England up to the present day. Nor is the infatuation confined to Europe, as later on are quoted instances of superstitious dread of the Owls in Morocco and West Africa; while they are equally held in fear in many Eastern countries.
The Athenians alone seem to have had a regard for these birds, and an Owl is found on the reverse side of many of their coins, the bird being sacred to their guardian deity, Athené. The species figured is probably the Little Owl (Carine noctua), a bird which is common in Greece. It is difficult to guess why the Owl came to be regarded as the embodiment of wisdom, unless it was from its having been sacred to Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom, who is sometimes represented as the Owl-headed goddess.
“The Owlet’s wing,” writes Mr. Harting,[210] “was an ingredient in the cauldron wherein the witches prepared their ‘charm of powerful trouble’ (Macbeth, Act iv., sc. 1); and with the character assigned to it by the ancients, Shakspere, no doubt, felt that the introduction of an Owl in a dreadful scene of a tragedy would help to make the subject come home more forcibly to the people, who had, from early times, associated its presence with melancholy, misfortune, and death. Accordingly, we find the unfortunate Owl stigmatised as the ‘obscure,’ ‘ominous,’ ‘fearful,’ and ‘fatal’ ‘bird of night.’ Its doleful cry pierces the ear of Lady Macbeth while the murder is being done:--
‘Hark! Peace! It was the Owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern’st good-night.’
Macbeth, Act ii., Sc. 2.
And when the murderer rushes in immediately afterwards, exclaiming--‘I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?’ She replies--‘I heard the Owl scream.’ And later on--‘The obscure bird clamour’d the live-long night.’” (Macbeth, Act. ii., Sc. 3.)
The awe, no doubt, with which this bird is regarded by the superstitious, may be attributed in some measure to the fact of its flying by night.
“Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night,
* * * * *
The time when Screech-Owls cry and Ban-Dogs howl.”
Henry VI., Part ii., Act i., Sc. 4.
And yet, strange to say, the appearance of an Owl by day is by some considered equally ominous:--
“The Owl by day, If he arise, is mocked and wondered at.”
Henry VI., Part iii., Act v., Sc. 4.
“For Night-Owls shriek, where mounting Larks should sing.”
Richard II., Act iii., Sc. 3.
Should an Owl appear at a birth, it is said to forebode ill-luck to the infant. King Henry VI., addressing Gloster, says:--
“The Owl shrieked at thy birth, an evil sign.”
Henry VI., Part iii., Act v., Sc. 6.
While upon any other occasion, its presence was supposed to predict a death, or at least some dire mishap:--
“The Screech Owl, screeching loud, Puts the wretch that lies in woe In remembrance of a shroud.”
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act v., Sc. 2.
When Richard III. is irritated by the ill-news showered thick upon him, he interrupts the third messenger with
“Out on ye, Owls! Nothing but songs of death?”
Richard III., Act iv., Sc. 4.
The same author, from whom the above Shaksperian illustrations are quoted, alludes further to the superstitious dread of the Owl, which exists likewise amongst the Dyaks of Borneo, and in Ceylon a Wood-Owl, belonging to the same genus Syrnium, to which the English Wood-Owl belongs, is known as the “Devil-bird,” and is held in great fear. Colonel Irby, writing of the Barn-Owl,[211] tells the following story from the MS. of the late Mr. Favier, of Tangier:--“The inhabitants of Tangier consider this bird the clairvoyant friend of the Devil. The Jews believe that their cry causes the death of young children; so in order to prevent this, they pour a vessel of water out into the courtyard every time that they hear the cry of one of these Owls passing over their house. The Arabs believe even more than the Jews, for they think that they can cause all kinds of evil to old as well as young; but their mode of action is even more simple than that of their antagonists the Jews, as they rest contented with cursing them whenever they hear their cry. Endeavouring to find out from the Mahometans what foundation there is for the evil reputation of this species, I was told this: ‘When these birds cry they are only cursing in their own language; but their malediction is harmless unless they know the name of the individual to whom they wish evil, or unless they have the malignity to point out that person when passing him; as the Devil sleeps but little, when there is evil work to be done he would infallibly execute the command of his favourite if one did not, by cursing the Owl by name, thus guard against the power of that enemy, who is sworn to do evil to all living beings.’ Having learned the belief of the Mahometans relative to this Owl, it was more difficult to find out exactly that of the Jews, who, when questioned by me, knew not how to answer, except that the act of pouring water in the middle of the courtyard is a custom of long standing, in order to avert the evil which the Owl is capable of doing; that is to say, the water is poured out with the view of attracting the evil spirit’s attention to an object which distracts him, and so hides from him the infant which the Owl in its wickedness wishes to show him.”
The late Mr. Waterton, in an entertaining essay on the habits of the Barn-Owl, says:--“Among the numberless verses which might be quoted against the family of the Owl, I think I only know of one little ode which expresses any pity for it:--
‘Once I was a Monarch’s daughter, And sat on a lady’s knee; But am now a nightly rover, Banish’d to the ivy tree.
Crying, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo. Hoo, hoo, hoo, my feet are cold; Pity me, for here you see me, Persecuted, poor, and old.’”[212]
The Owls are divided into two families, the first of which is called Bubonidæ, and the second Strigidæ. In the latter family are represented only two genera, Strix and Heliodilus, which contain six species, all the remaining Owls, about one hundred and ninety in number, belonging to the Bubonidæ. The breast-bone in the latter family always shows two or more clefts or indentations, and there are no “serrations” on the middle claw, whereas the Barn-Owls always have the inner edge of the middle claw serrated, that is, with a small, toothed margin, like the teeth of a saw (serra, Lat., a saw; serratus, notched like a saw), and the breast-bone has no clefts in its hinder edge. The Bubonidæ embrace two sub-families, the Buboninæ, which have no operculum, or fold of skin, closing in the ear, and the Syrniinæ, which have a very large operculum. It seems natural to commence the classification of the Nocturnal Accipitres with the Bare-legged or Fishing Owls, as the structure of this part very much resembles that of the Osprey, which was the concluding representative of the Diurnal Accipitres. The thigh feathers are thick, and fit close to the leg; the tarsus and toes are bare; the outer toe is reversible; and the soles of the feet are covered with tiny spicules, which serve to hold fast their finny prey in the same manner as do those of the Osprey.
THE FISH OWL.
The following account of the Indian Fish Owl (Ketupa[213] ceylonensis) is taken from the work by Captain Vincent Legge, R.A., on the birds of Ceylon:--“This large Owl loves the vicinity of water, haunting the banks of rivers, tanks, inland salt lagoons, the borders of sea-bogs, and woods surrounding rice-fields. All who have visited the tanks in the north and east of Ceylon must be familiar with the fine bird, which so often is surprised napping in the lofty trees growing on the embankments, or so-called ‘bunds.’ Its powers of vision in the day are not quick, but they are tolerably clear. On hearing the footsteps of man, it raises its large ear-tufts, and bending down its head, stares steadily down from its lofty perch among the green boughs, and as soon as it becomes aware of the nature of the intruder on its retreat, launches itself out of the tree, and is not easily approached a second time. It is much more common in wild forest country, combined with water, than in cultivated districts. It sallies out in the evening with great regularity. As soon as the sun begins to sink behind the surrounding forest, it may be noticed flapping noiselessly round some secluded cheena, or leisurely crossing the lonely tank, resounding at the hour of sunset with the buzzing of innumerable frogs, to the nearest conspicuous tree, and there gives out its sepulchral groan. This gloomy salutation is usually responded to by its mate, who perches close at hand, and answers by a double note, the two lonesome sounds resembling the words gloom--oh, gloom. At night I have often heard these notes repeated by a pair without intermission for many minutes. Layard remarks that, when alarmed during the day, they utter a loud hiss, subsiding into a growl. They appear to have an accustomed place of roosting, for Mr. Houldsworth notices that they ‘perched day after day on the same branch!’ This is very often in an exposed situation, and it frequently falls to their lot to be mobbed by a flock of garrulous Bulbuls, King-Crows, and other Owl-hating small birds. Fish is the favourite food, and, in fact, the usual diet of this species; but when this is not procurable, small mammals, reptiles, and even insects are devoured by them. In the stomach of one, for example, I found a Snake (Haplocercus ceylonensis), and some large Beetles. As a proof of their miscellaneous diet, and also of their voracity, I may mention that a pair of Fish Owls, which were kept by Sir Charles Layard in the same aviary with a Brahmin Kite, fell one night upon their luckless companion, and, after slaughtering him, forthwith proceeded to devour him completely. Further, Mr. Hume records, in ‘Nests and Eggs,’ finding the remains of Quails, Doves, and Mynahs in the nest of a pair on the Jumna. It has also been stated that they feed on the carcases of the Gavial and Crocodile.”
PEL’S FISH-OWL (Scotopelia peli).[214]
The African Fish-Owls are exactly like the Indian as regards their bare legs, but they have no tufts on their heads. Three different kinds are known, and they are all rare birds, frequenting the rivers and inland lakes of the African continent. Pel’s Fish-Owl was discovered on the Gold Coast by Mr. Pel, the Dutch commandant at Elmina, nearly forty years ago. The specimen procured by that gentleman flew across the river Boutry, and settled among some shady boughs on the other bank, when it was knocked down with the blow of a gun. The following account of one of these rare birds, from the Barra country, Senegambia, is given by Mr. John Henry Gurney, who had the specimen alive in his possession for a long time: it was presented to him by Colonel O’Connor, C.B., who is the author of the accompanying “Sketch of Nero, the Owl, a Fetish Bird.” The colonel writes[215]:--“During seven years’ exploration of Western Africa, I only met one of the species of the Owl ‘Nero.’ He was brought ‘a chicken,’ full of pen-feathers, or rather down, of a delicate straw-colour, and very thick, from a lagoon in the Barra country. No native would admit ‘Nero’ as a visitor; and when the bird was installed in Government House, the servants and head people came in a body to remonstrate, asserting ‘he was a Gumbi Owl, a Fetish!! and would destroy and kill whatever object he looked on.’ The chief groom (an old soldier, who had charge of the poultry) insisted that ‘every cock and hen would go dead.’ Strangely enough, an epidemic broke out, and carried off from fifty to sixty head of fowls; and each day the groom placed the defunct birds on the steps of Government House, to meet the eye of Mrs. O’Connor, seeming to exult in the mortality amongst the feathered tribe. ‘You see wid your own eye, Missus, dat debil Jumbi bird, he go kill all de fowls. Governor tink he hab long head, but he no sabey Owl. Suppose you put him in de stable, he see Nelly (Mrs. O’Connor’s favourite mare), de horse he go tumble down dead.’ Death at last ceased to reign amongst the poultry population, and Nero became my principal pet; he ranged over the piazza, perching on the branch of a tree; he was fed regularly by the orderly on roasted fish, but he often came to the dinner-table, and flew down for scraps of meat, bread and butter, which he took gently from myself or from Mrs. O’Connor, permitting us to rub his head, crest, neck, and back, seemingly enjoying the caressing. But he would snatch meat or bones from the Cat or Dog; and when the Eagle was introduced into his company, he beat him in a most unmerciful manner away from his peculiar and original position of the piazza, the Eagle being one of the fiercest and most pugnacious of African birds, brought from the upper part of the Gambia river near ‘Wallie,’ and, when in vigour, able to carry away a kid or small lamb. Nero luxuriated in a tub of water, frequently washing himself, and perching on the rim until dry. He was wont to go out to the garden or fields, where instantly an immense commotion arose among all the birds. The larger ones flew round the Owl, keeping a very civil distance, the smaller birds flew away; but Nero treated both alike with sovereign contempt. He would return of his own accord to the roosting-place in the piazza, and when put out and confined for some days, rejected all food, and pined until restored to his perch. With me he was as tame as any Canary, and, after an absence of two months, recognised my voice when I went to his cage at Oatlands (Devon), appearing much pleased by my taking him out for a walk on the grass. Many natives from the interior told me ‘they had never seen such a bird before; but they considered him unlucky.’ I really think Nero is nearly sans any relations, and certainly devoid of all friends in Western Africa.”
Pel’s Owl measures nearly two feet in length, and has the wing sixteen inches and a half. Its colour is a deep rufous bay, with black transverse bars; below it is light bay, with heart-shaped bars of black; the iris is dark-brown, whereas in the Indian Fishing Owls it is always yellow.
THE EAGLE OWL (Bubo ignavus).[216]
This and its relative, the Virginian Eared Owl of America, are the largest of all the family. It is found all over Europe and Siberia, extending even to China and the Himalayas, but the few instances of its capture in Great Britain have been probably those of birds escaped from confinement, as it is by no means an uncommon species in aviaries in England. As it is not, strictly speaking, a British bird, recourse must be had to the writings of Continental naturalists for an account of its habits, and the following extract is made from Dr. Brehm’s “Bird Life” (p. 567):--“The Eagle Owl is somewhat fantastic in appearance, usually sitting with its feathers so much ruffled as to make it seem much larger than it really is. ‘In that large, shapeless mass of feathers,’ says Naumann, ‘one can scarcely distinguish the limbs; the half-closed eyes hide their glorious rays; suddenly it opens them wide, bends the head and upper part of the body forwards, swaying from side to side, and raising first one foot and then the other, begins to tremble, winks slowly with the eyelids, spits like a cat, and snaps its bill. When angry its eyes flash fire, it bends forward with hanging wings, ruffles its plumage as much as possible, and snapping and hissing, dashes furiously at the enemy.’
“This bird seems less courageous than surly and quarrelsome, and yet it is asserted that it will fight to the death with the Golden Eagle, when attacked by the latter. The Eagle Owl is a powerful bird, and as there are no bounds to its fury, it is but rarely that anything escapes from its grasp. Though strictly nocturnal in its habits, it always keeps a good look out for its own safety in the daytime, and is ever shy and cautious. Keen of sight and hearing, it takes wing while the danger is still far off. Like other Owls, this bird is fond of pressing itself against the stem of a tree, with unruffled feathers, so as to closely imitate the stump of a tree, and thus escape detection. Inasmuch as deep clefts in the rocks, or the thickest of trees, are its usual retreats, the Owl is often passed over, which fact is undoubtedly an advantage, for the day birds mob it whenever they see it. They may possibly have made it the savage, spiteful bird it is, inasmuch as their system of constant irritation would be sufficient to try the temper of the mildest individual. Thus nothing remains for the Owl but to evade its disturbers, and hide itself as long as possible; but woe betide it if discovered, for then the friends of daylight treat it to a ‘charivari’ without equal.
“The first to arrive on the scene is the ubiquitous Crow, conducted thither by some inquisitive warbler who has discovered the enemy’s retreat. The Crow thoroughly understands what the little fellow means, and hastens to convince itself of the truth of the information. Having satisfied itself, it retires noiselessly, but only to carry the news to its relatives. Now they flock in from all sides to take part in the fight, with an eagerness worthy of the boldest man; greeting one another with hoarse and scornful croaks, the sooty tribe hasten as fast as they can to the scene of action. The mockers surround the poor old ‘Grand Duke,’ at first at a respectful distance, though they are fully determined effectively to disturb its siesta. There sits the Owl, rolling its eyes, spitting, snapping its beak, and ruffling its feathers, now hopping from one leg to another, now raising and lowering its feathered horns by turns; mad with rage, bemoaning its fate, and at loggerheads with the whole world, it awaits the turn that matters may take; at the same time, be it remembered, every Crow takes good care not to lay hold of the irritated gentleman; nothing less than a Raven dares to rely on its own strength. One of these, however, will run a tilt at the dark knight, using its sharp beak as a lance; but before the latter has time to raise the terrible claw, the Raven makes good its retreat, prepares for another rush, and darts like an arrow, so as to use its weapon effectively. The Owl now loses the last remnant of patience, and seeks safety in flight. Oh, unlucky wight! this is all the black swarm have been waiting for, the Crows being far its superiors on the wing. Giving vent to exulting cries, they dart down from above with such unerring aim and force as to scatter the poor brute’s feathers in clouds to the wind: they rise again with a mighty noise that heeds no secrecy, as though they sought to proclaim to the world at large all the fell deeds committed by this Prince of Darkness, while other knights advance to battle. All Hawks and Falcons, ay, the proud Eagle even, answer to the call, and hasten to take part in the fray. Now the Owl must, perforce, either beat a hasty retreat or remain on the field. In any case, however, the Owl is thoroughly worried, and sometimes really damaged, before it finds refuge in some thick tree or rocky cleft, where it hides itself as closely and as silently as its rage will permit, until quit of the Crows.
“The detestation in which the Eagle Owl is held by all diurnal birds is not ill-founded, for this bird preys on every living creature it can overcome, assassinating them in the most abominable manner while they are asleep. Its quarry is as follows:--Fawns of the Roe Deer, Hares, Rabbits, Hamsters, Rats, Moles, Mice, Capercailzie, Black-game, Hazel-hens, Pheasants, Partridges, Rooks, Jays, Magpies, Snakes, Lizards, and Frogs; Rooks seem to be its favourite morsel. No wonder, then, that they pay their enemy out if they can only see an opportunity. It assassinates them; they attack it in open day. The Eagle Owl generally breaks the spine of the smaller animals close to the head, and, cracking the remaining bones, devours its prey, skin and all; the heads of the larger birds it pulls in large pieces which it swallows. It, however, always devours a portion of the hair, feathers, or scales as well, and wastes away if fed on flesh alone. The indigestible portions of the meal are thrown up in large round pellets or ‘casts.’ With larger animals, it lays open the skin of the belly, and eats out the flesh from inside. If it finds that there is too much for one meal, it carefully replaces the skin, and hides the remainder in some dark cranny or corner until required again. This Owl drinks rarely, slaking its thirst generally with the blood of its victims. If food is plentiful, it gorges itself; but in times of dearth it can go without food for weeks together.
“By the last fortnight in March the Eagle Owls commence preparations for breeding. At this season may be heard their hollow, muffled cry of ‘poohoo, poohoo,’ which is distinguishable at a great distance through the woods, and it is not to be wondered that the timid are frightened at it. In the silent, dark recesses of the mountain forest a variety of noises, well calculated to make one’s flesh creep, fall upon the ear: the shrill, mocking laugh, a sound as of snarling hounds; the whoop of the hunter, the snorting of Horses; these are all calculated to impress the uneducated and superstitious with the truth of the legend of the wild huntsman. Even to the ear of the better-informed, these hideous cries, the loud screech of the female, or the ‘poohoo’ of the male, intermingled with the snapping of the beak and curious miaulings, sound somewhat weird; and the boldest of mortals can scarcely repress a cold shudder when a company of these forest spirits favour him with one of their demoniacal nocturnal concerts. Doubtless these sounds represent the battle-cries of the males when fighting for the females, and take the place of the song of the Nightingale when telling its tale of love.
“After the Owls have paired these cries are heard less frequently, both birds being now fully occupied with their nursery operations. The large nest is composed outwardly of branches and sticks, and is lined with dry leaves and small twigs. It is built, and generally placed in either the cleft of a rock or in a hole in some ruined tower; the nest is never built in a tree but from necessity. The two or three eggs are also often found lying on the bare surface of the rock, without any nest whatever. They are round, cross-grained, and white, and somewhat larger than a hen’s egg. The young are hatched in about three weeks. They are usually two in number, rarely three; they look, on their first appearance, like balls of cotton-wool, and keep up a constant hissing or shrill whistle. They remain a long time in the nest, and are so abundantly provided with food by the parent birds, that one is sure to find a large heap of provisions at the nest. The Owlets often betray their presence to their innumerable enemies by their cries, and suffer much persecution in consequence. When about eight weeks old they are able to fly, though they still remain for some time longer under the care of the old birds. These latter rarely wander far from a particular neighbourhood, and usually build in the very same place the following year.”
Besides the Eagle Owls, the sub-family Buboninæ contains the Snowy Owl (Nyctea[217] scandiaca[218]), all the Hawk Owls (_Surnia[219] Ninox_[220]), and the Pigmy Owlets (Glaucidium[221]). Many of the birds belonging to this latter genus are not much bigger than a Sparrow. They are found nearly all over the world, with the exception of Australia and Oceania, and one species, the European Pigmy Owlet (G. passerinum[222]), is by no means uncommon in many parts of the Continent, though it has not yet been met with for certain in the British Islands.
The sub-family Syrniinæ contains only three genera, the Horned Owls (Asio[223]), the Wood Owls (Syrnium[224]), and the Tengmalm’s Owl (Nyctala[225] tengmalmi), the latter having been already noticed (p. 297) as possessing the curious difference in the ear-opening on each side of the skull. Of the Horned Owls two species are found in the British Islands, viz., the Short-eared Owl (Asio accipitrinus[226]), and the Long-eared Owl (A. otus[227]). The former of these birds is often seen in the daytime, and is said to hunt for its prey on dull days, when it will fly at small birds as well as mice; and Mr. Low, writing on the birds of the Orkneys, where the Short-eared Owl breeds, says that he has found in the nest the remains of a Moor-fowl (Red Grouse), two Plovers, besides the feet of several others; and the same writer states that during the breeding season it becomes very impudent, and will even seize and catch up chickens from the doors, and also chase pigeons in open daylight. Although resident in the British Islands, a large migration of the species takes place in autumn, and it is not unfrequently shot by sportsmen in the turnip-fields; while Bewick mentions the recurrence of twenty-eight individuals being flushed in a turnip-field in November, being probably attracted to the locality by an abundance of food. It may also be occasionally found in marshes near the sea-shore, as occurred once to the writer, who started a Short-eared Owl from the sedgy bank on the west side of Pagham Harbour, in the early part of September. When winged, it boldly faced its pursuer, erecting the little tufts on its head and fiercely snapping its bill, as is the manner with all Owls in defending themselves.
Its relation, the Long-eared Owl, is a bird of different habits, and, instead of breeding on the ground as the foregoing species does, it selects a dark wood or clump of firs, appropriating a deserted Squirrel’s “dray,” or adapting the nest of another bird to its own requirements. Macgillivray gives the following account of a young specimen which he had in confinement:--“An individual of this species, which was sent to me in winter by the Rev. Mr. Adam, having been left at night perched on the back of a chair in my drawing-room, tore to tatters six valuable skins of birds from the Rocky Mountains, and an equal number of nearly equally rare specimens from India. A young bird which I kept for some time, on perching, stood at first with the body inclined, afterwards nearly erect, and slept in the latter posture, with its neck rather extended, its feathers drawn close, and its tufts recumbent. When irritated, it raised its plumage, threw its body forward, and uttered a sharp cry. It seized its food with its bill; if large, transferred it to one of its feet, but if otherwise, retained it in its bill. In flying, it carried a small object in its bill, but a larger in its foot. It could close one eye while the other remained open, and when placed in a strong light, frequently drew the membrane over the lighted eye, while the other remained unsheathed, though for the most part it winked with both simultaneously. The irides contracted unequally, according to the degree of light. When perched at night, it sometimes emitted a clicking noise, like that of a spring, with its bill; but when provoked, it neither hissed nor snapped, but uttered a shrill, tremulous, plaintive cry, or succession of short notes, erecting its tufts at the same time.”
THE BARN OWL (Strix[228] flammea[229]).
This is essentially the friend of man, frequenting villages and homesteads where he is protected, and extending his range where civilisation precedes him, being attracted doubtless by the Mice and Rats, which are also the accompaniments of civilisation. The number of small mammals which one of these birds will devour ought to be his passport to the protecting care of the farmer and agriculturist, but it is seldom that an Owl of any kind meets with approval on taking up his residence on an estate. Facts, however, are stubborn things, and in the hope that a more generous reception may be afforded to these useful birds, the following quotation is made from Professor Newton:--“Owls, like other birds of prey, as already mentioned, return by the mouth the indigestible parts of the food swallowed in the form of elongated pellets. These are found in considerable numbers about the usual haunts of the birds, and examination of them reveals the nature of the food, and shows in nearly every case the great services they render to man by the destruction of Rats and Mice.”[230] The infallibility of the evidence thus afforded as to the food of the Owls is as complete as the way of obtaining it, by those who have the opportunity, is simple. Several German naturalists have made some very precise researches on this subject. The following results, with regard to the three commonest species of Owls, are those afforded by the investigations of Dr. Altam, as communicated by him to the German Ornithologists’ Society during its meeting in 1862:--
+--------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | | REMAINS FOUND. | | +---------+----+----+-----+-----+------+----+----+----+ | | | | | | | | | | B | | | | | | | | S | | | e | | |No. of | | | | V | h | M | B | e | | |Pellets | B | R | M | o | r | o | i | t | | |examined.| a | a | i | l | e | l | r | l | | | | t | t | c | e | w | e | d | e | | | | s. | s. | e. | s. | s. | s. | s. | s. | +--------------+---------+----+----+-----+-----+------+----+----+----+ |Tawny Owl | 210 | -- | 6 | 42 | 296 | 33 | 48 | 18 | 48 | |Long-eared Owl| 25 | -- | -- | 6 | 35 | -- | -- | 2 | -- | |Barn Owl | 706 | 16 | 3 | 237 | 693 |1,590 | -- | 22 | -- | +--------------+---------+----+----+-----+-----+------+----+----+----+
Colonel Irby, in the work which has already been alluded to, says of the Barn Owl:--“Almost exclusively feeding on Rats and Mice, they deserve every encouragement and support that can be afforded them; but from being in all countries regarded with superstitious awe and dislike, they are more or less persecuted on that account; and in England, through the ignorance and stupidity of gamekeepers, who fancy that they kill game (i.e., feathered game), they suffer most severely. This excuse is ridiculous, for old birds they have not the power to kill, and young Pheasants and Partridges, at the time the Owls are on the feed, are safely being brooded by the parent bird.” Those who wish to encourage and increase Owls, and have not hollow trees or buildings where they nest, may always gratify their wishes by fixing an empty barrel (about an 18-gallon size) horizontally in the fork of any large tree, cutting a hole in one end large enough for the birds to enter; but the hoops of the cask should be screwed on, or it will soon fall to pieces. Not only the Barn Owl, but the Tawny Owl (Syrnium aluco) also will use barrels, or “Owl-tubs.” The difficulty, however, is to keep out the Jackdaws, but when once the Owls have established themselves, there is no fear of that intrusion. The late Mr. Waterton was a well-known admirer of the present species, and he devotes one of his “Essays on Natural History” to the Barn Owl, from which a few passages are extracted:--“Up to the year 1813 the Barn Owl had a sad time of it at Walton Hall. Its supposed mournful notes alarmed the aged housekeeper. She knew full well what sorrow it had brought into other houses when she was a young woman, and there was enough of mischief in the midnight wintry blast, without having it increased by the dismal screams of something which people knew very little about, and which everybody said was far too busy in the churchyard at night-time. Nay, it was a well-known fact, that if any person were sick in the neighbourhood it would be for ever looking in at the window, and holding a conversation outside with somebody, they did not know whom. The gamekeeper agreed with her in everything she said on this important subject, and he always stood better in her books when he had managed to shoot a bird of this bad and mischievous family. However, in 1813, on my return from the wilds of Guiana, having suffered myself, and learned mercy, I broke in pieces the code of penal laws which the knavery of the gamekeeper and the lamentable ignorance of the other servants had hitherto put in force, far too successfully, to thin the numbers of this poor, harmless, unsuspecting tribe. On the ruin of the old gateway, against which tradition says the waves of the lake have dashed for the greater part of a thousand years, I made a place with stone and mortar, about four feet square, and fixed a thick oaken stick firmly into it. Huge masses of ivy now quite cover it. In about a month or so after it was finished a pair of Barn Owls came and took up their abode in it. I threatened to strangle the keeper if ever, after this, he molested either the old birds or their young ones; and I assured the housekeeper that I would take upon myself the whole responsibility of all the sickness, woe, and sorrow that the new tenants might bring to the Hall. She made a low courtesy, as much as to say, ‘Sir, I fall into your will and pleasure,’ but I saw in her eye that she had made up her mind to have to do with things of fearful and portentous shape, and to hear many a midnight wailing in the neighbouring woods. I do not think that up to the day of this old lady’s death, which took place in her eighty-fourth year, she ever looked with pleasure or contentment on the Barn Owl, as it flew round the large sycamore trees which grow near the ruined gateway.
“When I found that this first settlement on the gateway had succeeded so well, I set about forming other establishments. This year I have had four broods, and I trust that next season I can calculate on having nine. This will be a pretty increase, and it will help to supply the place of those which in this neighbourhood are still unfortunately doomed to death by the hand of cruelty or superstition. We can now always have a peep at the Owls in their habitation on the old ruined gateway whenever we choose. Confident of protection, these pretty birds betray no fear when the stranger mounts up to their place of abode. I would here venture a surmise that the Barn Owl sleeps standing. Whenever we go to look at it we invariably see it upon the perch, bolt upright, and often with its eyes closed, apparently fast asleep. Buffon and Bewick err, no doubt unintentionally, when they say that the Barn Owl snores during its repose. What they took for snoring was the cry of the young birds for food. I had fully satisfied myself on this score some years ago. However, in December, 1823, I was much astonished to hear this same snoring kind of noise, which had been so common in the month of July. On ascending the ruin, I found a brood of young Owls in the apartment.
“Upon this ruin is placed a perch, about a foot from the hole at which the Owls enter. Sometimes, at mid-day, when the weather is gloomy, you may see an Owl upon it, apparently enjoying the refreshing diurnal breeze. This year (1831) a pair of Barn Owls hatched their young, on the 7th of September, in a sycamore tree, near the old ruined gateway.
“If this useful bird caught its food by day, instead of hunting for it by night, mankind would have ocular demonstration of its utility in thinning the country of Mice; and it would be protected and encouraged everywhere. It would be with us what the Ibis was to the Egyptians. When it has young, it will bring a Mouse to the nest about every twelve or fifteen minutes. But in order to have a proper idea of the enormous quantity of Mice which this bird destroys, we must examine the pellets which it ejects from its stomach in the place of its retreat. Every pellet contains from four to seven skeletons of Mice. In sixteen months from the time that the apartment of the Owl on the old gateway was cleaned out, there has been a deposit of above a bushel of pellets. The Barn Owl sometimes carries off Rats. One evening I was sitting under a shed, and killed a very large Rat as it was coming out of a hole about ten yards from where I was watching it. I did not go to take it up, hoping to get another shot. As it lay there, a Barn Owl pounced upon it, and flew away with it. This bird has been known to catch fish. Some years ago, on a fine evening in the month of July, long before it was dark, as I was standing on the middle of the bridge, and minuting the Owl by my watch as she brought Mice into her nest, all on a sudden she dropped perpendicularly into the water. Thinking she had fallen down in epilepsy, my first thoughts were to go and fetch the boat; but before I had well got to the end of the bridge, I saw the Owl rise out of the water with a fish in her claws, and take it to the nest. When farmers complain that the Barn Owl destroys the eggs of their Pigeons, they lay the saddle on the wrong horse; they ought to put it on the Rat. Formerly, I could get very few young Pigeons, till the Rats were excluded effectually from the dovecot. Since that took place it has produced a great abundance every year, though the Barn Owls frequent it, and are encouraged all around it. The Barn Owl merely resorts to it for the purpose of concealment. If it were really an enemy to the dovecot, we should see the Pigeons in commotion as soon as it begins its evening flight; but the Pigeons heed it not. Whereas, if the Sparrow-Hawk or Hobby should make its appearance, the whole community would be up at once; proof sufficient that the Barn Owl is not looked upon as a bad, or even a suspicious character, by the inhabitants of the dovecot.”
The colour of the Barn Owl, which is a bright orange buff, mottled with ashy-grey on the upper surface, and white below, distinguishes it from any other Owl. The oval form of the disc is also to a great extent peculiar, as is also the serrated edge to the middle claw, which has been referred to before (p. 300). The breast bone is likewise remarkable, as it has no clefts in the hinder margin.
The range of the present species is very considerable, as it is found all over the New World, from the northern and middle United States down to Patagonia and the Falkland Islands. In the Old World it occurs in equal plenty, but does not extend very high north, being a rare visitant to Denmark and Sweden. Although common in Poland, it is only sparingly distributed throughout Russia, and even appears to be entirely absent in many Central and Southern parts. The same may be said of Turkey. It is not known at present from Siberia or China, but is found throughout Africa, India, Australia, and the majority of the Oceanic Islands. Nearly all Owls have two distinct phases of plumage--a grey one, and a red one. This is especially the case in the little Scops Owls, which have tufts of feathers on the head like the Eagle Owls, of which they may be said to be representations in miniature. The Barn Owls are no exception to this general rule of the family; but owing to the light colouring of the bird, it is not so perceptible as in some of the other species of Owls. Even in England, however, a short study of the species will show the student that some individuals are much redder underneath, instead of being white, and are profusely freckled with grey above; and this dark coloration does not depend upon the age of the bird, nor is it a difference of sex. In some islands, such as the Cape Verde group, San Domingo in the West Indies, the Falkland Islands, and the Galapagos, the Barn Owls are almost always dark-coloured, and light ones are very seldom found. On the other hand, in Australia and Oceania the species becomes peculiarly light in plumage, and dark individuals are the exception.
THE SECOND ORDER.--PICARIAN BIRDS (Picariæ).[231]