The Project Gutenberg EBook of Birds in Town and Village, by W. H. Hudson doc

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Birds in Town and Village, by W.. GOLDFINCH AND BLUE TIT."The desire for the companionship ofbirds." BIRDS IN TOWN & VILLAGE BY... For theconcluding portio

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Produced by Eric Eldred and David Widger

GOLDFINCH AND BLUE TIT.

"The desire for the companionship ofbirds."

BIRDS IN TOWN

& VILLAGE

BY

W H HUDSON,

F.Z.S.

AUTHOR OF "THE PURPLE LAND," "IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA,"

"FAR AWAY AND LONG AGO," ETC.

WITH PICTURES IN COLOUR

THIS book is more than a mere reprint

o f Birds in a Village first published in

1893 That was my first book about birdlife, with some impressions of ruralscenes, in England; and, as is often the

case with a first book, its author hascontinued to cherish a certain affection for

it On this account it pleased me when itsturn came to be reissued, since this gave

me the opportunity of mending some faults

in the portions retained and of throwingout a good deal of matter which appeared

to me not worth keeping

The first portion, "Birds in a Village,"has been mostly rewritten with some freshmatter added, mainly later observationsand incidents introduced in illustration ofthe various subjects discussed For theconcluding portion of the old book, whichhas been discarded, I have substitutedentirely new matter-the part entitled

"Birds in a Cornish Village."

vi P R E F A C E

Between these two long parts there arefive shorter essays which I have retainedwith little alteration, and these in one ortwo instances are consequently out ofdate, especially in what was said withbitterness in the essay on "Exotic Birdsfor Britain" anent the feather-wearingfashion and of the London trade in deadbirds and the refusal of women at that time

to help us in trying to save the beautifulwild bird life of this country and of theworld generally from extermination.Happily, the last twenty years of the lifeand work of the Royal Society for theProtection of Birds have changed all that,and it would not now be too much to say

that all right-thinking persons in thiscountry, men and women, are anxious tosee the end of this iniquitous traffic.

W H H

September, 1919

CONTENTSBIRDS IN A VILLAGE: PAGE

I 1

II 6

III 18

IV 36

V 50

VI 73

VII 86

VIII 107

IX 121

X 148

XI 153

EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN

161 MOOR-HENS IN HYDE PARK 192

THE EAGLE AND THE CANARY 206

CHANTICLEER 222

IN AN OLD GARDEN 243

BIRDS IN A CORNISH VILLAGE:

I TAKING STOCK OF THE BIRDS 265

II DO STARLINGS PAIR FOR LIFE? 275

III VILLAGE BIRDS IN WINTER 287

IV INCREASING BIRDS IN BRITAIN 295

V THE DAW SENTIMENT 305

VI STORY OF A JACKDAW 316

Moorhen 196

BIRDS IN TOWN &

VILLAGE

BIRDS IN A VILLAGE I

ABOUT the middle of last May, after arough and cold period, there came a spell

of brilliant weather, reviving in me the oldspring feeling, the passion for wild nature,the desire for the companionship of birds;and I betook myself to St James's Park forthe sake of such satisfaction as may be hadfrom watching and feeding the fowls, wildand semi-wild, found gathered at thatfavored spot

I was glad to observe a couple of thosenew colonists of the ornamental water, thedabchicks, and to renew my acquaintancewith the familiar, long-establishedmoorhens One of them was engaged inbuilding its nest in an elm-tree grow-

2 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGEing at the water's edge I saw it maketwo journeys with large wisps of drygrass in its beak, running up the rough,slanting trunk to a height of sixteen toseventeen feet, and disappearing withinthe "brushwood sheaf" that springs fromthe bole at that distance from the roots.The wood-pigeons were much morenumerous, also more eager to be fed Theyseemed to understand very quickly that mybread and grain was for them and not thesparrows; but although they stationedthemselves close to me, the little robbers

we were jointly trying to outwit managed

to get some pieces of bread by flying upand catching them before they touched thesward This little comedy over, I visited

the water-fowl, ducks of many kinds,sheldrakes, geese from many lands, swansblack, and swans white To see birds inprison during the spring mood of which Ihave spoken is not only no satisfaction but

a positive pain; here albeit without thatlarge liberty that nature gives, they arefree in a measure; and swimming anddiving or dozing in the sunshine, with theblue sky above them, they are perhapsunconscious of any restraint Walkingalong the margin I noticed three childrensome yards ahead

BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 3

of me; two were quite small, but the

third, in whose charge the others were,was a robust-looking girl, aged about ten

or eleven years From their dress andappearance I took them to be the children

of a respectable artisan or smalltradesman; but what chiefly attracted myattention was the very great pleasure theelder girl appeared to take in the birds.She had come well provided with stalebread to feed them, and after givingmoderately of her store to the wood-pigeons and sparrows, she went on to theothers, native and exotic, that weredisporting themselves in the water, orsunning themselves on the green bank Shedid not cast her bread on the water in themanner usual with visitors, but wasanxious to feed all the different species, or

as many as she could attract to her, and

appeared satisfied when any oneindividual of a particular kind got afragment of her bread Meanwhile shetalked eagerly to the little ones, callingtheir attention to the different birds.Drawing near, I also became an interestedlistener; and then, in answer to myquestions, she began telling me what allthese strange fowls were "This," she said,glad to give information, "is the Canadiangoose, and

4 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGEthere is the Egyptian goose; and here isthe king-duck coming towards us; and doyou see that large, beautiful bird standing

by itself, that will not come to be fed?That is the golden duck But that is not itsreal name; I don't know them all, and so Iname some for myself I call that one thegolden duck because in the sun its featherssometimes shine like gold." It was a rarepleasure to listen to her, and seeing whatsort of a girl she was, and how much inlove with her subject, I in my turn told her

a great deal about the birds before us, also

of other birds she had never seen norheard of, in other and distant lands thathave a nobler bird life than ours; and aftershe had listened eagerly for some minutes,and had then been silent a little while, sheall at once pressed her two hands together,and exclaimed rapturously, "Oh, I do solove the birds!"

I replied that that was not strange, since

it is impossible for us not to lovewhatever is lovely, and of all living thingsbirds were made most beautiful

Then I walked away, but could notforget the words she had exclaimed, herwhole appearance,

BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 5

the face flushed with color, the eloquentbrown eyes sparkling, the pressed palms,the sudden spontaneous passion of delightand desire in her tone The picture was in

my mind all that day, and lived through thenext, and so wrought on me that I could not

longer keep away from the birds, which I,too, loved; for now all at once it seemed

to me that life was not life without them;that I was grown sick, and all my sensesdim; that only the wished sight of wildbirds could medicine my vision; that only

by drenching it in their wild melody could

my tired brain recover its lost vigour

II

AFTER wandering somewhat aimlesslyabout the country for a couple of days, Istumbled by chance on just such a spot as Ihad been wishing to find a rustic villagenot too far away It was not more thantwenty-five minutes' walk from a smallstation, less than one hour by rail fromLondon.

The way to the village was throughcornfields, bordered by hedges and rows

of majestic elms Beyond it, but quitenear, there was a wood, principally ofbeech, over a mile in length, with a publicpath running through it On the right hand,ten minutes' walk from the village, therewas a long green hill, the ascent to whichwas gentle; but on the further side itsloped abruptly down to the Thames

On the left hand there was another hill,with cottages and orchards, with smallfields interspersed on the slope andsummit, so that the

In the deepest part of the coombe, in the

middle of the village, there was a wellwhere the cottagers drew their water; and

in the summer evenings the youths andmaidens came there, with or without jugsand buckets, to indulge in conversation,which was mostly of the rustic, banteringkind, mixed with a good deal of loudlaughter Close by was the inn, where themen sat on benches in the tap-room ingrave discourse over their pipes and beer

Wishing to make their acquaintance, Iwent in and sat down among them, andfound them a little shy not to say stand-offish, at first Rustics are often suspicious

of the stranger within their gates; but afterpaying for beer all round, the frost meltedand we were soon deep in talk about thewild life of the place; always a safe and

pleasant subject in a village One looking, brown-faced man, with iron-greyhair,

rough-8 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGEbecame a sort of spokesman for thecompany, and replied to most of myquestions

"And what about badgers?" I asked "Insuch a rough-looking spot with woods andall, it strikes me as just the sort of placewhere one would find that animal."

A long dead silence followed I caughtthe eye of the man nearest me and repeatedthe question, "Are there no badgers here?"

His eyes fell, then he exchanged glanceswith some of the others, all very serious;and at length my man, addressing theperson who had acted as spokesmanbefore, said, "Perhaps you'll tell thegentleman if there are any badgers here."

At that the rough man looked at me verysharply, and answered stiffly, "Not as Iknow of."

A few weeks later, at a small town inthe neighbourhood, I got into conversationwith a hotel keeper, an intelligent man,who gave me a good deal of informationabout the country He asked me where Iwas staying, and, on my telling him, said

"Ah, I know it well that village in a hole;and a very nasty hole to get in, too at anyrate it was so, formerly They are getting a

bit civilized now, but I remember the, time

BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 9

when a stranger couldn't show himself

in the place without being jeered at andinsulted Yes, they were a rough lot down

in that hole the Badgers, they werecalled, and that's what they are calledstill."

The pity of it was that I didn't know thisbefore I went among them! But it was notremembered against me that I hadwounded their susceptibilities; they soonfound that I was nothing but a harmlessfield naturalist, and I had friendly

relations with many of them.

At the extremity of the straggling villagewas the beginning of an extensivecommon, where it was always possible tospend an hour or two without seeing ahuman creature A few sheep grazed andbrowsed there, roaming about in twos andthrees and half-dozens, tearing theirfleeces for the benefit of nest-buildingbirds, in the great tangled masses ofmingled furze and bramble and briar.Birds were abundant there all those kindsthat love the common's openness, and therough, thorny vegetation that flourishes on

it But the village or rather, the largeopen space occupied by it, formed theheadquarters and centre of a paradise ofbirds (as I soon began to think

10 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGEit), for the cottages and houses werewidely separated, the meanest having agarden and some trees, and in most casesthere was an old orchard of apple, cherry,and walnut trees to each habitation, andout of this mass of greenery, which hid thehouses and made the place look more like

a wood than a village, towered the greatelms in rows, and in groups

On first approaching the place I heard,mingled with many other voices, that ofthe nightingale; and as it was for themedicine of its pure, fresh melody that Iparticularly craved, I was glad to find a

lodging in one of the cottages, and toremain there for several weeks.

The small care which the nightingaletook to live up to his reputation in thisplace surprised me a little Here he couldalways be heard in the daytime not onebird, but a dozen in different parts of thevillage; but he sang not at night This I setdown to the fact that the nights were darkand the weather unsettled But later, whenthe weather grew warmer, and there werebrilliant moonlight nights, he was still asilent bird except by day

I was also a little surprised at histameness

chance he met a sparrow there, heattacked and chased it away It was a feast

of nightingales An elderly woman of thevillage explained to me that thenightingales and other small birds werecommon and tame in the village, because

no person disturbed them I smile nowwhen recording the good old dame'swords

On my second day at the village ithappened to be raining a warm, mizzlingrain without wind ind the nightingaleswere as vocal as in fine bright weather Iheard one in a narrow lane, and wenttowards it, treading softly, in order not toscare it away, until I got within eight orten yards of it, as it sat on a deadprojecting twig This was a twig of a low

12 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGEtree growing up from the hedge,projecting through the foliage, and thebird, perched near its end, sat only aboutfive feet above the bare ground of thelane Now, I owe my best thanks to thisindividual nightingale, for sharply calling

to my mind a common pestilent delusion,which I have always hated, but had neveryet raised my voice against namely, thatall wild creatures exist in constant fear of

an attack from the numberless subtle orpowerful enemies that are always waitingand watching for an opportunity to spring

upon and destroy them The truth is, thatalthough their enemies be legion, and thatevery day, and even several times on eachday, they may be threatened withdestruction, they are absolutely free fromapprehension, except when in theimmediate presence of danger Suspiciousthey may be at times, and the suspicionmay cause them to remove themselves to agreater distance from the object thatexcites it; but the emotion is so slight, theaction so almost automatic, that the singingbird will fly to another bush a dozen yardsaway, and at once resume his interruptedsong Again, a bird will see the deadliestenemy of its kind, and unless it be so

BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 13

close as to actually threaten his life, hewill regard it with the greatestindifference or will only be moved toanger at its presence Here was thisnightingale singing in the rain, seeing butnot heeding me; while beneath the hedge,almost directly under the twig it sat on, ablack cat was watching it with luminousyellow eyes I did not see the cat at first,but have no doubt that the nightingale hadseen and knew that it was there High up

on the tops of the thorn, a couple ofsparrows were silently perched Perhaps,like myself, they had come there to listen.After I had been standing motionless,drinking in that dulcet music for at leastfive minutes, one of the two sparrows

dropped from the perch straight down, andalighting on the bare wet ground directlyunder the nightingale, began busilypecking at something eatable it haddiscovered No sooner had he begunpecking than out leaped the concealed cat

on to him The sparrow fluttered wildly upfrom beneath or between the claws, andescaped, as if by a miracle The cat raiseditself up, glared round, and, catching sight

of me close by, sprang back into the hedgeand was gone But all this time

14 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGEthe exposed nightingale, perched onlyfive feet above the spot where the attack

had been made and the sparrow had sonearly lost his life, had continued singing;and he sang on for some minutes after Isuppose that he had seen the cat before,and knew instinctively that he was beyondits reach; that it was a terrestrial, not anaerial enemy, and so feared it not at all;and he would, perhaps, have continuedsinging if the sparrow had been caught andinstantly killed.

Quite early in June I began to feel just alittle cross with the nightingales, for theyalmost ceased singing; and consideringthat the spring had been a backward one, itseemed to me that their silence wascoming too soon I was not sufficientlyregardful of the fact that their lays aresolitary, as the poet has said; that they ask