Basil Davies

“ The migratory species in the majority of instances probably confine themselves to one brood, while nearly all the Finches regularly have a second nest. It is not, I think, difficult to see why they respectively lay their five and ten eggs a season, and neither more nor less. These birds, resident and migratory alike, feed their young on various forms of insect-life—flies, grubs, aphides, the smaller kinds of caterpillars, and the ova of these insects. ”

“ Still, taking into consideration the number of Finches' nests that the small boys destroy, I should be inclined to say that the Tits rear more young than the Finches. They are not the prey of the birdcatcher, who annually robs our woods and fields of tens of thousands of Finches. Why then are they so prolific? Simply because they feed mainly on an insect diet all the year round, and in the depth of winter insect-food is scarce and difficult to obtain. ”

“ I see a miniature amphitheatre of oozing clay, its lofty sides dotted with Irishmen wielding spades and encroaching yet farther on the plateau-like meadow-land above; where we expect the arena is a loathsome clay-pool, slimy brown and forbidding, destitute of reed or flag. ”

“ Consequently, in abandoning collection, I sought for a new interest in eggs to take its place; and this chapter is an endeavour to explain the interest of a different sort that I now take in the nests I find.
There are certain general principles which it is well to keep in mind in this particular branch of bird-study. Such is the rule, that birds do not merely breed so many times a year in the course of nature, but that they feel it their duty not only to produce a certain number of offspring each year, but also to bring a certain number to maturity. Take the case of a cat. ”

“ Warde Fowler, in one of his bird stories, describes the uneasiness of a youthful hen Wagtail when she began to ponder on the question, "Why do we wag our tails?"—the moral being, I suppose, that facts come before reasons for facts, and ought to suffice for most of us. ”

“ The ordinary birdsnesting naturalist regards an abnormal clutch, whether large or small, only with a view of its suitability for his collection. He robs a Nightingale of five eggs and a Partridge of fifteen without attempting to explain why the offspring of the one species is numerically so superior. ”

“ It is well known that their single egg is of such a tapering form that a gust of wind, instead of sweeping it from the ledge of rock on which it is laid, merely causes it to twist round in a circle with the thin end as centre. ”

“ The resident small birds, however—Finches, Buntings, &c.—are not hampered by the approach of the period of migration, and they indulge in a second brood. It is necessary for them to produce eight or ten of their kind in a season to aid in killing off from the cultivated lands the vast swarms of insects to which the summer has given birth, and which the efforts of the parents when feeding have proved utterly inadequate to cope with. ”

“ At the same time it is imperative that she should produce a good clutch, for very many nests are destroyed when the grass comes to be mown. The birds are also migratory, and encounter the usual dangers during passage.
9. Game Birds lay a good many eggs, as the situation of their nests lays them open to many enemies—Stoats, Crows, &c. Further, I should not be surprised to learn that they were originally less prolific before they were persecuted under the name of sport. At any rate, the least persecuted species, the Ptarmigan, as a rule lays the fewest eggs. ”

“ Doves and Pigeons.—I have only the old hackneyed explanation for the unvarying pair of eggs laid by these birds, i.e. that they are conspicuous among birds for their tender affection to their mates, and that the eggs always hatch out male and female in the same nest. ”

“ By training a terrier to find the dead bodies, one gets some slight idea what an ordeal a hard winter is to our birds. Another point is that eight young Tits would hardly require more food than five greedy little Robins, and so the labours of the parents in the two species would not differ appreciably. ”

“ Nests were everywhere abundant, everywhere cramful of eggs, and all species seemed to be adequately represented. Nearly every nest we examined contained the maximum clutch permitted by bookwriting authorities, and in some cases the legitimate number was exceeded, the most notable instance, perhaps, being that of a Whinchat incubating seven eggs. ”

“ It possesses a tolerably productive soil, bearing a reasonable proportion of woodland and thick ground herbage.
To speak on broader lines, I everywhere found large clutches in the west and small clutches in the north. I well remember one afternoon with the birds of Somersetshire. The ground we traversed was a large plain, moist, loamy, and dark-soiled, intersected by numerous rhines, fences, and hedgerows. ”