The romance of bird life

Front matter

THE ROMANCE

OF

BIRD LIFE

Chapter I Page

The hatching of a chick — How the egg-shell is cracked — The * egg-tooth ' and its uses — Different ways of escape from the shell — Helplessness and precocity : Parrot and Partridge — Instinct — How to distinguish instinctive actions — Life within the egg — Obedience of the unborn chick — Chicken language — Fearlessness of 5^oung birds — Playing 'possum — Protective colouration — Early feats of skill — Learning to peck — Food and experience — Learning to drink — The flight instinct — Parental discipline — Swimming and diving — Young water-birds which are launched by their parents — Protection of nestlings — Learning to sing — Nest-building — Nests and eggs — Early misdeeds : Cuckoos and their victims — Instinct and education . . ■, . ... 17

Chapter II

Incubation period — Division of labour — Domesticated husbands — Swifts — A rebellious hen — The cloistered Hornbill — Manner of leaving and returning to the nest — Protective colouration — Scene ki a heronry — Pelican Island — Incubation under difficulties — Cold and heat . , . . • • • 35

Chapter III

Extremes of the brooding instinct — Aids to incubation — Sun-warmth : its advantages and dangers — Ostrich, Sand-Grouse, and Black-backed Courser — The Mound-Builders and their incubators — Maleos — Choice of ground — Hot springs — The buried chick — Brush-Turkey — Heat from fermenting vegetable matter — Attending to the incubator — Large feet of Mound-birds — Megapodes — Immense size of mounds — Ocellated Megapode — Precocity of Mound-bird chicks — Volcanic heat . , , . ... 49

Chapter IV Page

Infant-food and why it is necessary — Finches — Change of diet and special preparation of food — 'Pigeon's milk' — Insect-eaters — Swallows and Swifts — A ball of flies — Reed- Warblers — Industry of parents — A working day of sixteen hours — Feeding the young in mid-air — Methods of giving food — An interesting experiment — Birds-of-Prey — Larders — Fish-eaters — Fish soup — Perverted instinct of domesticated birds . . . ... 67

Chapter V

Change of character in breeding season — Courage and endurance — Braving cold, water, fire, famine, etc. — Intimidation — Strategy: the wiles of a Woodchuck — Attitude of an angry bird — Animals attacked by nesting birds : cats, dogs, pigs — Birds-of-Prey — Courage of Owls — The redoubtable King-bird — ' Bonxies ' and bonneting — An unpleasant habit — One of nature's comedians . . .80

Chapter VI

Deceptive behaviour — The 'little brown bird' — Death-feigning — Lapwings and egg-gatherers — Wiles of the male bird and protective colouration of the eggs — Avosets and Stilts — Ducks and Drakes — Ostrich — Unkingly conduct of a King Vulture — Some artful dodgers — A cat's hunting — The paralysing effect of fear, and the advantage which hunters take of it — Difference between death-feigning and the immobility of protectively coloured birds — The real 'possum — The popular idea of a 'shamming' bird — A true fairy-tale — Natural selection . . . ... 94

Chapter VII I

The meaning and importance of play — Fighting games — Playful pecking of tame birds — Nursing and nest-building play — Flying games — Swimming games — ' Follow-my- leader ' — Hide-and-seek of climbing birds — Swinging — Birds and children — Toys and playthings — ]\Iischief and destructiveness — Practical jokes . . iii

CHAPTER VIII PLAYGROUNDS AND PAVILIONS page

The Paradise-bird's playing-tree — Beauty on a pedestal — The Argus Pheasant's drawing-room — A wonderful courtship display — Sexual selection — The Polyplectron's playground and courtship — The club-grounds of Game-birds — Bower-birds and their pleasure-houses — Satin Bower-birds at the 'Zoo' — Decorating the bower — A depot for lost property — Courtship-play — The Spotted Bower-bird's avenue and playthings — The Regent Bower-bird's love of colour—Carpeted playgrounds — The Gardenei'-birds and their beautiful pleasure-grounds — The Golden Bower-bird's toy village and triumphal arch 124

Chapter IX

Excess of bachelors amongst birds, and its results — Arts of peace — 'K Singing for a mate — The meaning of song — Song and dance — Instrumental music — The drumming of Snipes — Courtship flights — The dalliance of Eagles — Antics of Game-birds — The indifference of hens — Bustards in Spain — Coyness and provocation — Feminine boldness : the Northern Phalarope — Good-humoured rivalry : the Flickers . . . . ... 143

Chapter X

FIGHTING Weapons : beaks, claws, spurs, ' knobs,' wings, and wing-spurs — \ Pugnacity of Game-birds — Protective colouration : a digression — Tournaments — Fighting-cocks — A race of Amazons : the Bustard- Quails — Moral effect of victory — Kickers — The ' Fighting Ruffs * — Wing-spurs as weapons — " The faithful Jacana " — Some familiar examples — Dabchick versus Swan — Family feuds of Moorhens — Battles in the air — Peacemakers . . ... 160

Chapter XI

Importance of the toilet — Perils of neglect — Dry-cleaning — ^^The city Sparrow — Choice of a toilet-powder — The tepid sand-bath — Preparing the bath — Hens and Partridges — Wood ashes — The enterprising Sparrow again — A bath-tub for city birds — Health and cleanliness — A shy bather — Drying — Bath-time— "Owls — A cold tub — Preening — Masculine vanity, and feminine — The Six-plumed Paradise-bird — How the Motmot shapes its tail — Humming-birds — II

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Swallows — Plunge-baths — Bathing in dew — Shower-baths — Parrots and their bathing parties — Water-birds— Salt water v. fresh — ' Brilliantine ' — ^The uses of oil — The importance of neatness — Oiling the feathers — Brush and comb — Powder-downs — Humble servitors . . . . ... 178

CHAPTER Xn

How water-birds are kept warm and dry — The double garment of feathers — An air-cushion — The shape of diving and swimming birds — Methods of propulsion — Feet and wings — Penguins, Darters, and Cormorants — Diving as a means of escape — How do birds remain submerged ? — Pursuit of the Great Northern Diver — Advantage of swimming under water — High diving of Gannets — The instinct of escape — The versatile Dipper . . ... 198

CHAPTER XHI

The Bald Eagle and the Osprey — An unequal contest — Pirate bands of Fish-Crowds — Skuas and their victims — Disgorging the booty — Robbing the sportsman — Molly-mawks — Frigate-birds and Boobies — Methods of compulsion — Pelicans robbed by Gulls — The Woodpecker and the squirrel's storehouse — Appropriating nests and building material — Egg-thieves — How the eggs are carried — Stealing eggs from a sitting hen . . ... 214

CHAPTER XIV

The machinery of flight — The light construction of a bird — The lightest bird many times heavier than air — Power of flight dependent on rapidity of wing-movement — Style of flight dependent on shape of wing — Steering — Formation and order of flocks — Closing up the ranks — Speed of birds in full flight — Gliding, soaring, and hovering — The problem of the soaring bird — The height to which birds soar — Birds and ships in mid-ocean . . . . 232

CHAPTER XV

MIGRATION The old hibernation myth : its absurdities and possible foundation in fact — The gathering of the flocks — Immensity of numbers — Perils of the journey — Extent of the breeding-ground — The Tundra, a 12

PAGE

birds' paradise — A banquet of crystallised fruit and mosquitoes — Possible origfin of the migratory instinct — Punctuality of migrants : "Time gone by, birds gone by'^ — Height at which migrants fly — The beginning and end of the journey — Speed of migrating flocks — Importance of speed — East and west migration — Finding the way — Partial migrants . . . ... 245

CHAPTER XVI

The social instinct — "Birds of a feather" — True societies and unsociable flocks — Why large Birds-of-Prey are unsociable — Rooks at work and play — Sentinels — Why Rooks form rookeries — Rookeries and penguineries — Rook pioneers — Altruism among birds — Rescue parties— Birds-of-Prey mobbed by small birds — An Owl as a decoy — A bird philanthropist — Winter flocks — Nesting colonies of Weaver-birds— The Sociable Grosbeak — Hundreds of nests under a single roof— Nests which are shared by several pairs of birds . 265

CHAPTER XVH

Friendly relations between animals of diff'erent species — Probable advantages — Rhinoceros and Rhinoceros-bird — Ox-peckers, Cattle- Herons, and their English representatives — The Kea Parrot : a digression — Crocodile and Crocodile-bird — Burrowing Owls and their associates — A ' happy family ? ' — Fox and Duck : a doubtful case — Eagles and Sparrows — Legionary guards of ants and wasps — Honey-guides and their accomplices . ... 285

CHAPTER XVni

Advantages of town life — Kites in Old London — Scavenger birds at work — The last of the London Ravens — Citizens of the Crow family — Adaptability of the Wood-Pigeon — Moorhens and Dabchicks — The ways of the half-tame Wild Duck — Small birds — Occasional visitors — The Woodpecker : a case of circumstantial evidence — Perils of town life — Bird-watching in town — A walk across Kensington Gardens . . . ... 304

CHAPTER XIX

Fishing from a stand — Kingfisher and Heron — How the fish are swallowed — Fishing Crows — A boisterous fishing - party : the

PAGE

American Wood-Ibis — Bills and claws of fishing birds — Birds-of- Prey as fishers — A romantic family history — Fishing in mid-air — The diving birds as fishers — The Darter's spring-harpoon—' Master of the Royal Cormorants' — Fishing with Cormorants — A fishing-fleet of Pelicans — The capacity of a Pelican's pouch — The Skimmer : ploughing the waves — Opening shell-fish — The foUow-my-leader fiishing of Gannets . . . . . . 318

CHAPTER XX

BIRDS OF THE PAST AND VANISHING SPECIES

Persecuted birds — ' Plume-hunters ' — Early voyagers and the Great Auk — The fate of flightless birds — How the Dodo got to Mauritius — The trustfulness of island birds : ' Simpletons ' and ' Boobies ' — A Dodo in London — The doom of the Kiwi — The Roc in legend and fact — Giant birds — A family vault — Archseopteryx, the lizard-tailed, toothed fossil-bird— Didunculus, the toothed bird of modern times — A happy survival — A stupendous massacre : the story of the Passenger-Pigeons . . . ... 337

CHAPTER XXI

Imagination, memory, and intelligence in birds — Mischievousness and practical joking — A Raven's strategy — Comparative intelligence of Crows and Rooks : the plumage test — Dog versus Magpies — Bird-burial — Parrots and Monkeys compared — A Parrot biography — A case of insanity — Longevity of Parrots and Ravens . . . 354

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A White Stork and his Playmates

Ostrich Chick Leaving the Egg .

Brown Pelicans on Pelican Island

Devoted Parents: Reed-Warblers and Nest

The Butcher-Bird's 'Larder'

Defending the Nest : Gander attacking a Sow

Lapwing leaving its Nest

Playhouse of a Gardener Bower-Bird

Peafowls . , . , .

Ptarmigan: a Study in Costume .

Robbing an Ostrich of its Feathers

Rival 'Tomfools' and Ruffs fighting

A Group of Cape Penguins

A Famous Buccaneer . .

Black-headed Gulls robbing a Brown Pelican

Homing Pigeons used by Soldiers .

Flight of Wild Duck on a Moonlight Night

PAGE

Frontispiece 24

44 72 76

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Dwellings of the Sociable Grosbeak

Crocodiles and Crocodile-birds

Kites in Old London

The Osprey's Eyrie on Loch-an-Eilan

Fishing with Cormorants .

Birds in Mauritius Three Hundred Years ago

Magpie Strategy ....

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292 306 326 330

344 360

•'But it's fine to live and die like a Great Black Crow" Tailpiece

THE EOMANCE OF BIED LIFE

Chapter I Nursery Days And Education

The hatching of a chick — How the egg-shell is cracked — The ' egg-tooth ' and its uses — Different ways of escape from the shell — Helplessness and precocity : Parrot and Partridge— Instinct — How to distinguish instinctive actions— Life within the egg— Obedience of the unborn chick — Chicken language — Fearlessness of young birds — Playing 'possum — Protective colouration — Early feats of skill — Learning to peck — Food and experience — Learning to drink — The flight instinct — Parental discipline — Swimming and diving — Young water-birds which are launched by their parents — Protection of nestlings — Learning to sing— Nest-building — Nests and eggs — Early misdeeds : Cuckoos and their victims— Instinct and education.

NOWHERE in the wild range of animal life is there a greater wealth and variety of romance than amongst birds. In their loves, their battles, their adventures, in all their varied activities and social habits, there is present that curiously pervading charm which constitutes, for those who have not had the misfortune to become deaf to its appeal, the very true spirit of romance. Nor is the element of mystery, which is so often bound up with romance, wholly wanting, for there is still much in the life of a bird that we cannot explain or understand, in spite of the great progress which science has made towards the far-off goal of complete knowledge.

Before we reach the end of our story we shall have occasion to make the acquaintance of birds of many kinds, some of them, it may be, but little known even to naturalists ; but we will bear in mind that interesting birds are not necessarily rare, and that there is abundance of romance in the life of species with which we are all quite familiar — so familiar, perhaps, that many people never take the trouble really to observe them at all. For the moment we need not go far afield — no further than to the fowl-pen.

The interest of a bird's life story begins with the very earliest days while the chick is still in the egg, unborn, and there is no reason why we should not take that as our startingpoint ; indeed, if we do so, we shall meet at once with some of the most remarkable and beautiful instances of the way in which Nature has made provision for carrying on her work of aiding and safeguarding the appearance on the earth of a new living creature.

What could be more commonplace than the hatching of an ordinary domestic chick ? For three weeks or so the Hen broods over her eggs, and then one day she appears with a family of fluffy, cheeping youngsters about her, over which she fusses inordinately until they are able to look after themselves. If all goes well, they are, in due course, ready for the table, or to have nests of their own ; and there very often the interest of their owner ends. Let us, however, watch the hatching of a chick and see if we cannot find out about it something more that is worth knowing. It is not possible, of course, to do this in ordinary circumstances, that is to say, while the egg is covered by a sitting Hen ; we must either wait until several of the brood have escaped from the shell, when it is likely that the others are on the point of emerging, and remove one of the unhatched eggs to a warm place, such as a basket in front of the fire, where we can observe it conveniently ; or, what is far better, watch eggs which are being hatched in an artificial glass-covered incubator. In either case a great deal of patience

i8 may be called for, but we are not likely ever to learn very much about the wavs of birds without that.

I^t us suppose, then, that the eggs are hatching, and that we fix our attention on one which has still an unbroken shell. If we have been fortunate in our choice we shall probably see the egg moving a little from time to time, and if we listen intently we may hear a feeble tapping, caused by the chick hammering upon its prison walls in its efforts to escape. The sounds are not continuous ; there are frequent pauses, some of them quite long, so we may suppose that the little prisoner finds its task a tiring one, and is obliged to rest from time to time. After a while, however, there appears in the shell a crack which grows gradually larger, until at length a piece is pushed right out, or the shell is broken quite in halves, and the chick is visible. It presents a rather pathetic, woebegone appearance, for its downy covering is bedraggled with moisture. Now and then it moves in a jerky way, opens its eyes, and makes heroic efforts to hold up its head, but it is not very successful in its attempts, for the eyes keep closing again, while the head slowly sinks to the floor. The little bird, indeed, seems to be in the last stage of exhaustion.

Gradually, however, the chick gathers strength, its downfeathers become dry, it practises raising itself on its feet, and it is not veiy long before it has learnt to stand up. Looking at it now, it appears much larger than it did just at first, and one is disposed to marvel that it could so recently have been shut up in such a narrow space. Certainly it had not very much room in which to move about, and its hammering on the hard shell must have been performed at a considerable disadvantage. It seems rather wonderful that it should have managed to escape at all : but perhaps the little beak is very hard and sharp ? No, it is still quite soft; but if you look at it closely you will see at the very tip of the upper half of the bill a pale spot, and there is the instrument which Nature has provided to enable the chick to gain its freedom. It is a tiny conical nodule of chalky substance, which is formed as the time for hatching approaches, and is known as the ' bill-scale "* or 'egg-tooth.' As the chick moves its head about this instrument acts as a file, and gradually scrapes and weakens the shell where it rubs against it ; then, when the time for more active measures arrives, it makes the feeble blows which the little bird delivers on the wall of its narrow prison far more effective than they would be if struck by a soft bill without any such armature. The ' egg-tooth ' has no other use : when once the chick has emerged its work is done, and it soon disappears.

We ought, perhaps, to mention that the shell is not broken open in just the same way by all the different kinds of birds, for while many, like the domestic chick, gather sufficient strength after chipping a hole and breathing the air for a little w^hile to burst open their prison walls, others, such as Ducks, chip the shell in a circle near the broad end, or, like the Humming-birds, make a clean, smooth cut round four-fifths of the equator before hooking their claws over the edge and pushing the two halves apart.

The domestic chick, then, is clothed when born in a coat of down ; its eyes are open, and it is very soon able to stand on its feet: what else it can do we shall learn presently. The young of many birds, such as those of Gulls, Ducks, Plovers, Cranes, Ostriches, and so on, are equally advanced, and some of them are even more precocious.

But the young of another great group of birds, among which are Parrots, Hawks, Herons, Doves, Gannets, Crows, and all our song-birds, are more or less helpless when hatched, and many (though not all) of them are blind and naked. Being unable to leave the nest or to look after themselves in any way, they are entirely dependent on their parents for food and even, in the,early days, for warmth.

(when we come to inquire into the matter more closely, we find that the most highly developed and intelligent birds are the most helpless at birth. A baby Parrot, for example, is unable to open its eyes for a week or more after escaping from the egg, and cannot leave the nest for at least thirty days — in the case of some of the larger Parrots it may be seven weeks. Even when it has learnt to fly it is still lovingly tended by its parents, and for some time longer is fed only on seeds which they have softened for it in their crops. What a contrast is this to the precocity of a young Sandpiper, which is able to run about almost as soon as it is born, and after an hour or two can cover the ground at an astonishing pace ; or of a Partridge chick, which can jump over an obstacle four times its own height when only two or three days old !

The first thing which chicks endeavour to do is to discover a snug place where they can nestle close for warmth. In nature the little birds find this under their mother''s wing, and in the incubator they huddle together; but in all circumstances they instinctively seek warmth, and they soon learn by experience where it is to be found, for hand-reared chickens will run to the hand of the person who tends them, and cosily ensconce themselves there, settling down in contentment and poking out their little heads between the fingers.

This brings us to one of the most interesting questions in bird-life : How far is a young bird guided by instinct, and to what extent are its actions due to experience and education ? We cannot discuss it very fully here, for it is a difficult and complicated question, and one concerning which we have still a great deal to learn, although whole volumes have been written about it. I hope that some day you will read some of these books, especially those about Animal Behaviour and Habit and Instinct, by Professor Lloyd Morgan, which are more fascinating than any story-book. For the present we must be content with quite a short account of the matter.

We may say at once that birds are guided in their actions by both instinct and intelligence, but that with them instinct is the more highly developed of the two, while in man the exact opposite is the case. A simple and fairly safe way of deciding whether what an animal does is the result of instinct or of intelligence is to inquire whether, in the same circumstances, it is done in the same or nearly the same way by all the individuals of the same species, age, and sex, without any previous experience to guide them. If so, the action is almost certainly the result of instinct, because there is a want of variety about actions which are truly instinctive which is very different from what we find in the case of rational actions. If you have ever kept silkworms you know that when the caterpillar has eaten a certain quantity of lettuce or mulberry leaves, it crawls into a corner and begins to spin a cocoon. There seems to be no particular reason why it should want to do anything of the kind ; its surroundings are just the same as ever ; it has the run of the same cardboard box, in the same exhilarating air of a school locker, with the same liberal supply of rather limp lettuce leaves ; yet it appears suddenly to have tired of its sybaritic existence, and to be moved by some impulse from within to start spinning. That act is truly instinctive. There are other instinctive acts, however, which are not performed until some change takes place in the conditions to which the animal is exposed. Let us this time take the case of a bird by way of example. If you place a young Duckling, not very long out of the shell, in a pan of water, you can see it begin to paddle with its little legs and swim about on the top : that is an instinctive act brought about by exposing the bird to new conditions, or following, as we say, an external stimulus.

Most instinctive acts are either vitally important for the welfare of the race, like the silkworm's cocoon-spinning, which provides it with a cosy garment to protect it while it is in the helpless chrysalis condition ; or, like the Duckling's swimming, they follow some external stimulus of frequent occurrence.

Chickens may often be heard cheeping while they are still in the shell, in some cases quite a long while before hatching. Ducklings begin their musical career about a day before they make their appearance in the world, and young Moorhens as much as two days. The sound is sometimes quite spontaneous, but a silent eggling can often be induced to chirp in answer to a whistle. Now it has been noticed in more than one instance that if the mother utters a note of warning while the little prisoner is hammering away at the shell and singing (or is it complaining ?) over its work, the sounds stop instantly, and the chick keeps quite still for a long time unless the old bird utters a different call which evidently means that the danger is past. That teaches us that the simple language of call-notes is certainly instinctive, for the chick within the egg cannot possibly have learnt their meaning by experience. Domestic chicks have at least six different call-notes, all expressing different meanings : a gentle piping of contentment, a low double note of enjoyment heard when the little bird is caressed, a cheep of discontent when it wants food or company, a squeak of protest when it is handled against its inclination, a shrill cry of distress when it is taken away from its companions, and, lastly, the peculiar danger cry. The danger cry seems to be a universal language, for it is understood by young birds of other species. It is very important indeed that young birds should understand the parents' danger signals, because they seem to have no instinctive fear of any animal which approaches them quietly. If you are very gentle in your movements, you may feed nestlings without their showing signs of alarm unless their parents are present to utter a note of warning ; and most people who have a cat and a garden are aware how frequently pussy is allowed by young birds to approach dangerously near, in her quiet, stealthy way, with fatal results. As for dogs. Professor Lloyd Morgan gives a most amusing instance of the natural absence of fear of them amongst young birds, in the case of his fox-terrier, which had been trained to be on his best behaviour and always to remain perfectly calm in the presence of chicks. As a result of his self-restraint the dog was treated with the utmost familiarity by all sorts of young birds : a Wild Duck nibbled his lips ; Plovers, Pheasants, and Partridges pecked his nose ; and an ordinary chicken two and a half days old crept in under his body, and finding it nice and warm, cuddled down there! Now, if the parents of any of these little birds had been present they would at once have called their chicks away from such a dangerous acquaintance as a dog, and having been warned the little ones would afterwards have treated those animals with respect. That is an instance of the manner in which education often takes the place of instinct.

(The promptness with which young birds obey their parents' warning cry in the presence of danger is very remarkable. If an old Pheasant be surprised while jauntily leading a string of fluffy chicks from a hedgerow into the open, it will itself, after uttering notes of warning, immediately disappear into the nearest cover. Not so the little ones ; they instantly stand as motionless as if they were turned to stone, each one in the exact position in which it happened to be at the moment when the signal was given, and though you pass within a yard of them they will probably make not the slightest movement nor in any other way betray their presence. As soon as the danger has passed the old bird will rejoin her family and take charge of them again.

The instinct to remain motionless in order to avoid being seen is a very common one amongst chicks which are hatched on the ground and begin to run about almost immediately. Such chicks are clothed in down which usually matches the colour of their surroundings, and so may easily escape notice. This is called 'protective colouration.*" Often there are stripes, patches, bands, or collars of a lighter or darker colour than the rest of the down, which aid the deception by making the owner look like two or more separate objects, such as stones or little lumps of earth, lying on the ground. Unlike the Pheasant chicks mentioned above, most of these birds drop flat on the earth and crouch there with their necks pressed close down. In that position they are practically unrecognisable unless you catch their stereo Copyright. Underu'ood i

London and Xew York

Baby Ostrich leaving the Egg

The baby ostrich is one of the most precocious of chicks, and can run about as soon as it escapes from the egg, sometimes literally carrying a portion of the shell on its back. When it is born its feathers look very much like the spines of a hedgehog.