John Henry Gurney Jr.

“ Very vociferous over this food, it was most comical to see them sparring like Ruffs, seizing one another by the beak, and screaming with rage if one was thought to get more than its share, which the females generally did. But the prettiest action (when I longed to photograph them) was when, with spread tail, lowered head, and scapular feathers raised, and the beak used as a weapon, they menaced one another; but no harm ever came of it. One lived eight months, but the cold was too much, and they are evidently not such hardy cage-birds as the Knots, which stand frost well. ”

“ Let no one suppose that, if we spare our Sparrows, Nature will allow us to have an addition of Greenfinches and Chaffinches plus those Sparrows: there is no likelihood that such a thing would happen, for it is contrary to the experience of every practical ornithologist. The land will not support an indefinite number of individuals, and if the Sparrow increases, other birds go to the wall—partly because they drive them away from gardens where they used to nest, but principally because they eat their food. ”

“ It is now four or five days since the crime was committed, and although the new spouse is perfectly at home and settled, peace, even to the extent that a sparrow enjoys it, is still a stranger to the spruce-tree nest. I think it is haunted by the discarded mate. Certainly a sparrow, that I have no doubt is she, comes to the neighbourhood, and scolds the meek-looking bride and her spouse in most savage fashion. No one resents her performance, and after a moment she goes away.
The sparrow is an autocrat, especially addicted to divorcing his partner upon the smallest pretext. ”

“ There is nothing to induce a Cuckoo to enter the nests of these birds, and even if they did their shells would be very tough for its feeble bill; while probably Cuckoos would not peck or impale an egg at any time, but rather try to crush it between the two mandibles. I once saw in an open meadow a Cuckoo rise from near a Skylark's nest, from which it had no doubt retreated a few feet on hearing my approach; I immediately went up, and found a broken Lark's egg in the nest. This was evidently the work of the Cuckoo, which may even have been sucking the egg when I came up. ”

“ Having settled in their own minds that it is a mistake to destroy any small birds, and forgetful of the warnings which come to us from the United States and New Zealand, and every colony where the sparrow has been introduced, they shut their eyes to its misdeeds, and will only look at its merits. ”

“ Sparrows are far more difficult to keep down than people, who have not tried it, suppose. Taking their nests about the time of hay-harvest is the simplest plan, and probably the most efficacious. They are very artful in avoiding traps, and after a few days' shooting at them become so wild as to be unapproachable. Nets are very little use, and poisoned grain should never be employed. ”

“ Davenport has raised the question of Cuckoos sucking eggs, which, with so many good observers, ought to be definitely settled. To describe them as habitually sucking eggs by choice, as is occasionally done in popular books, is a little misleading, for their primary intent, it must certainly be conceded, is to remove, not to eat them. The Cuckoo's throat is very wide; and if in the operation of moving eggs from some Wagtail's nest an egg slips down, we have what in court would be called presumptive evidence that they by no means object to it. ”

“ Loud cries always announce when a rabble is at work. Whether, as is declared by some observers, they drive away our native birds by this means I am not sure. I have seen them annoy the cat-bird, the robin, and the Baltimore oriole, but in each case they were put to flight by the native bird; though no doubt the experience is sufficiently disagreeable to induce either of these birds to select a more retired neighbourhood for nest-building. I once noticed the same tactics successfully applied to a cat which climbed up among the nests.
Next to the sparrow's mobbing propensity is his impudence. ”

“ It will be remembered that last year the autumn migration was very marked indeed, such exceptional visitors as the White-winged Tern, Greater Shearwater, Barred Warbler, Gull-billed Tern, Icterine Warbler, Bluethroat, Aquatic Warbler, Sabine's Gull, Greater Spotted Cuckoo, Pallas's Willow Warbler, Blackbreasted Dipper, and Red-breasted Flycatcher followed each other in Norfolk in bewildering succession, to say nothing of what occurred further along the coast. ”

“ No one has ever answered the late Colonel Russell's query:—"Why is it that in fields far away from farm-premises, where there are no Sparrows, insects do not increase and multiply?" And why have not insects multiplied at Colonel Russell's place in Essex, where, for many years, Sparrows were rigorously kept down, in fact almost exterminated? The reason must be that the caterpillars are eaten by other small birds, such as Chaffinches, Greenfinches, and Yellow-Hammers, and by a host of Warblers and other birds which visit this country for the summer, when insect-life in all its stages is rampant. ”

“ Except in the vicinity of their nests, or when curiosity gets the better of them, they are shy and inclined to hide, but by their nests they give every opportunity for inspection as they flit across one mown space after another, betraying by their very anxiety the eggs which they wish to conceal.
They become still more unsuspecting when they have young, care for which causes many a bird to defy danger; yet they have much of that strange sense which we call instinct, and which tells them to creep to their well-hidden domicile, rather than fly to it in the presence of the enemy. ”

“ The harshest cries of our native American birds, if not always musical in themselves, seem at least to accord in some way with sounds of nature. The house-sparrow alone is entirely discordant—the one bird without a pleasing note, whose very love-song is an unmusical squeak. ”

“ These instances alone show how very much there is still to be learnt as to wind influence, and there is no better post of observation than our rounded seaboard for diligently noticing its bearing on migration. Migratory birds which come to Norfolk in autumn, flying against a west wind, as was the case with three of those here named, were not so numerous in 1896 as they have sometimes been. Such birds are undoubtedly always more in evidence than those which come across the North Sea, flying with an east wind. ”

“ Wherever a new house or cottage is built, it is no sooner inhabited than it receives its family of sparrows. In some of our colonies, however, and notably in North America, it increases with astonishing and alarming rapidity. The climate, the abundant supply of food, and other causes favour their increase.
Professor Newton says, very truly, they 'will of course oust some of the indigenous species.' This they have done in America. ”

“ The margins of the extensive pieces of water, called broads, in the south-eastern part of Norfolk, which are skirted with large tracts of reeds, are the favourite abode of this species: its nest is composed, on the outside, with the decayed leaves of the sedge and reed, intermixed with a few pieces of grass, and invariably lined with the top of the reeds in the same manner as the Reed Wren. It is not so compact a nest as the Reed Wren's; the eggs vary in number from four to six, pure white sprinkled all over with small purplish spots, rather confluent at the larger end ”

“ The parent sparrows will begin to feed them on caterpillars when but a day old, but they seem to discontinue the diet a little time before they leave the nest, though, on the other hand, some young sparrows, which were quite ready to leave the nest, examined in Norfolk, did contain a few small caterpillars. But of this I am sure, that while very young their diet is quite as much unripe corn and vegetable matter as caterpillars. [7] Even at the age of one day a sparrow will feed its young one on a grain of ripe corn. ”

“ And now a few words on migration. Without doubt it is the wind and weather in Scandinavia which influence the start of the ordinary autumn immigrants, such as those we have referred to—Woodcocks, Blackbirds, Redwings, and Wood-Pigeons; but in the case of birds which set out from Eastern Russia it is different—e.g. the Greater Spotted Cuckoo, Macqueen's Bustard, and Yellow-browed Warbler. With them it must be the nature of the weather when they arrive in Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire which determines whether they halt or pass on. ”

“ Sparrows should be killed for dissection in the afternoon. In adult sparrows the crop will generally give a far better idea of their day's meal than the gizzard, in which the food is so comminuted as to be with difficulty identified. If the sparrows are caught at night, they have digested their food in a great measure, and yield much less satisfactory results: the crops at that time are always empty. ”

“ Field-Rats have been more abundant during the autumn of 1900 than for many years, and no wonder they increase when the gamekeepers systematically destroy nature's police. Persons may do great harm who spread poison in stacks for Mice, as Barn-Owls have been killed near Lynn with poisoned Mice. I have lately heard of two Barn-Owls caught in Rat-traps whilst in search of the very vermin for which the traps were set. In one case the steel-trap was so far down a Rabbit's hole (more than a foot) that it is a marvel how the Owl stretched its leg far enough in to be caught. ”

“ I agree in thinking that at this period the opinion of Colonel Russell, who continues the discussion after me, that corn forms 90% of their food, is true. At the end of March fields are sown, and sparrows show not infrequently, by their presence, that they wish to levy the usual tribute; but it is certain that where a drill is used the grain is deposited too deeply in the soil for any small birds to reach it, except skylarks, which are said to dig it up sometimes; but sparrows get the drilled barley and oats when they begin to sprout. ”

“ A Crossbill can fly with a fir-cone in its mouth, which is one proof of the strength of those powerful mandibles, if, indeed, proof were wanted. My Crossbills favoured me with no music until Christmas Day, when for the first time one of them was heard to utter a loud chirp. When bought on July 6th they were in red male plumage; by Christmas Day one of them had become quite yellow, but the other two cocks had changed but little, though the brightness of their red had diminished since October. Bechstein says many are bred in aviaries in Thuringia, but never acquire the red colour in confinement. ”

“ We read, 'are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?' and again, 'are not five sparrows sold for two farthings?'—a proportion in favour of the larger purchase. In some countries on the Continent large numbers of small birds, including beautiful singing-birds unfortunately, are offered for sale in the poultry markets. English people, as a rule, look down on this sort of fare. A sparrow is a poor meal for a man to sit down to! ”