THOMPSON ' S IRISH BIRDS. * Tars volume is intended to serve as
a species of supplement to the standard works on British ornithology. Where birds frequenting Great Britain are found in Ireland, the differences are mostly local ; and consist in the greater or less number of the birds, arising from differences of climate, the physical features of the country, and the extent of cultiva- tion. Occasional visitants seem uninfluenced by these circumstances, as their presence is often the result of accident. In such cases there can of course be no difference in structure or plumage ; neither is there generally in the case of the common residents. Hence, Mr. Thompson's object is not description of form or feathers' full accounts of which can be found in the natural histories of British birds; though any special variation is noted. The volume contains original facts relating to the localities and habits of Irish birds, whether resident or migratory, observed by the author and his correspondents. Sometimes these accounts are bare, especially when relating to single or occasional visitants. In other cases they are full, various, and picturesque ; the features of the land- scape and the adventures of the observer being interwoven with the de- scription of the birds. And these descriptions are often of sufficient im- portance to justify full record, from the different effects which climate and other circumstances produce upon the time of song, the season of migra- tion, and other peculiarities relating to the habits of birds. One of these peculiarities arises from the operations of man in draining, cul- tivating, planting, &c., which are perhaps more readily observed in Ire- land than in this country. The effect of improvements in lessening and finally extinguishing species is indeed well known : the manner in which
they attract birds of a different kind has not been so much dwelt upon, though it is well worthy of attention. The following account appears to be an extreme case, arising from local circumstances of a very favourable nature; but something approaching to it no doubt always takes place when the waste comes under the dominion of agriculture, arboriculture, and horticulture.
"It is interesting to observe how birds are affected by the operations of man. I have remarked this particularly at one locality near Belfast, situated five hun- dred feet above the sea, and backed by hills rising to eight hundred feet. Marshy ground, the abode of little else than the snipe, became drained, and that species was consequently expelled. As cultivation advanced, the numerous species of small birds attendant on it became visiters, and plantations soon made them in- habitants of the place. The land-rail soon haunted the meadows; the quail and the partridge the fields of grain. A pond covering less than an acre of ground, tempted annually for the first few years a pair of the graceful and handsome sandpipers, (Tetanus bypolencos,) which, with their brood, appeared at the end of July or beginning of August, on their way to the sea-side from their breeding- haunt. This was in a moor about a mile distant ; where a pair annually bred until driven away by drainage rendering it unsuitable. The pond was supplied by streams descending from the mountains through wild and rocky glens, the favourite haunt of the water.ouzel, which visited its margin daily throughout the year. When the willows planted at the water's edge had attained a goodly size, the splendid kingfisher occasionally visited it during autumn. Rarely do the water-ouzel and kingfisher meet 'to drink at the same pool,' but here they did so. So soon as there was sufficient cover for the water-hen, (Gallinula chloropus,) it, an unbidden but most welcome guest, appeared and took up its permanent abode; a number of them frequently joining the poultry in the farm-yard at their repast. The heron, as if conscious that his deeds rendered him unwelcome, stealthily raised his 'blue bulk' aloft, and tied at our approach. The innocent and attractive wagtails, both pied and gray, were of course always to be seen about the pond. A couple of wild ducks and two or three teal, occasionally at different seasons, became visitants; and once early in October, a tufted duck (Fuligula cristata) arrived, and after remaining a few days took its departure, but returned in company with two or three others of the same species. These went off several times, but returned on each occasion with an increase to their numbers, until above a dozen adorned the water with their presence. During se- vere frost, the woodcock was driven to the unfrozen fill dripping into it beneath a dense mass of foliage; and the snipe together with the jack-snipe, appeared
along the edge of the water. • •
"To name all the birds that cultivation, the erection of houses, the plantation of trees and shrubs, together with the attraction of a garden, brought to the place, would be tedious. It will therefore only be further observed, that the beautiful goldfinch, so long as a neighbouring hill-side was covered with thistles and other plants on the seeds of which it fed, visited the standard cherry-trees to nidify; and the spotted flycatcher, which particularly delights in pleasure-grounds and gardens, annually spent the summer there. Of the six species of British meru- Edo the resident missel and song thrushes, and the blackbird, inhabited the place; the fieldfare and redwing, winter visitants, were to be seen in their season; and the ring-ouzel, annually during summer, frequented an adjacent rocky glen. Curlews, on their way from the sea to the mountain-moor, occasion- ally alighted in the pasture-fields. The entire number of species seen at this place (seventy-five English acres in extent) was seventy; forty-one or forty-two of which bred there. A few others—the kestrel, ring-ouzel, sand-martin, and quail—built in the immediate neighbourhood."
As the first object of this book is to record facts however minute, there is frequently something of smallness about the narration, to those who are not practical ornithologists ; since they do not always see the con- clusion and consequently the interest that may lurk under a date or similar minuteness a detail. In the description of the birds in their na- tive haunts, and the observations illustrative of their habits, there is greater breadth ; but Mr. Thompson is somewhat deficient in that vi- vacity of mind and artistica' skill which make a picture out of the bird and its landscape accessories, giving interest to the most trifling cir- cumstance by bringing the whole scene before us in vivid reality ; so that the attraction of the book sometimes depends upon the curiosity of the facts themselves. There is however, great interest in what may be called its atmosphere. The reader is carried out into natural scenery, and feels some of the indescribable charm which attaches to it in the mind of "one long in populous city pent." In the company of Mr. Thompson, or his friends, we visit the lofty cliffs of the Western and Northern coasts of Ireland : we see the hardy peasantry descend to rifle the nests of the sea-eagle while the parent birds scream willy round him : we watch the Moon towering in its pride of place, the kestrel sweeping or the sparrow- hawk hovering over its prey : we accompany the naturalist to the sea- l' The Natural History of Ireland. Vol. I. Birds; comprising the Orders Raptoreis sad lusemores. By William Thompson, Esq.. President of the Natural History and Philosophical Society of Belfast, tr.c. Published by Reeve, Benham, and Reeve. shore, beholding its dancing waves and feeling in fancy its fresh breezes, while the observer is watching the maritime birds ; or we wander with him into more inland situations, among mountain, bog' loch, dale, or cultivated scenes ; the suggestions of imagination perhaps furnishing more pleasure than the reality, since there are not the drawbacks of fatigue, or weather, or way. These impressions, however, are to be gained by the perusal of sections; and are rather produced by suggestion to the reader's mind than by the writer's filling up. The more curious and anecdotical. matter of the book can be indicated by a few extracts.
PUGNACITY OF THE ROBIN.
Well known as is the pugnacity of robins, one or two instances may be given. Their being so wholly absorbed during combat as to be regardless of all else was ludicrously evinced at Springvale, by a pair fighting from the air down- wards to the earth, until they disappeared in a man's hat, that happened to be lying on the ground, and in which they were both captured. On one occasion two of these birds caught fighting in a yard in Belfast were kept all night in se- parate cages. One was given its liberty early in the morning, and the other being tamer—possibly from having been the better beaten of the two—was kept with the intention of being permanently retained. So unhappy, however, did the prisoner look, that it too was set at liberty in the yard, which was believed to be its chosen domicile. The other came a second time and attacked it, when my informant who was present hastened to the rescue and the wilder bird flew away. The tamer one was again caught, and brought into the house for safety. The intruder was now driven out of the premises, and, in the evening, when it was ex- pected that he was in a different locality, the other bird was turned out; its wicked and pertinacious antagonist, however, still lay in wait, a third time at- tacked, and then killed it: the tame bird, though the inferior of the other in strength, always "joined issue" with it, and fought to the best of its poor ability. Some years ago, at Merville, (county Antrim,) a robin kept possession of the green- house, and killed every intruder of its own species, amounting to about two dozen, that entered the house. This had been so frequently done, that my informant became curious to know the means resorted to for the purpose; and on examina- tion of two or three of the victims, be found a deep wound in the neck of each, evidently made by the bill of the slayer.
THE ROBIN'S TITBIT.
Butter is so great a dainty to these birds, that in a friend's house, frequented during the winter by one or two of them, the servant was obliged to be very care- ful in keeping what was in her charge covered, to save it from destruction: if un- protected, it was certain to be eaten. I have known them to visit labourers at breakfast hour to eat butter from their hands, and enter a lantern to feast on the candle. One, as I have been assured, was in the constant habit of entering a house in a tan-yard in Belfast by the window, that it might feed upon tallow, when the men were using this substance in the preparation of the hides. But even further than this, I have seen the redbreast exhibit its partiality for scraps of fat, &c. Being present one day in December 1837 when the golden eagle de- scribed at page 3 was fed, a robin, to my surprise, took the eagle's place on the perch the moment that he descended from it to the ground to eat some food given him, and when there, picked off some little fragments of fat, or scraps of flesh; this done, it quite unconcernedly alighted on the chain by which the " rapaciotis" bird was fastened.
THE 'WIDOWED BULLFINCH.
Different species of birds have in the course of these pages been mentioned as occasionally becoming black. The bullfinch, when caged and fed much on hemp- seed, is particularly liable to become so. Many years ago, at Edenderry, near Belfast, where a pair of bullfinches had been for some time kept, the male died, and the female, whose grief for his loss was very evident, soon afterwards moulted and assumed a full garb of black. Such being considered equivalent to the widow's " weeds," was looked upon as almost supernatural ; and more particularly so when, after a year of mourning she, at moulting time, threw them partially off, and exhibited some white feathers in her wings.
SAGACITY OF THE RAVEN.
Mr. It. Ball communicates the following anecdote of this species. "When a boy at school, a tame raven was very attentive in watching our cribs or bird-traps; and when a bird was taken, he endeavoured to catch it by turning up the crib; but in so doing, the bird always escaped, as the raven could not let go the crib in time to seize it. After several vain attempts of this kind, the raven, seeing another bird caught, instead of going at once to the crib, went to another tame raven, and induced it to accompany him; when the one lifted up the crib, and the other bore the poor captive off in triumph."
It was a common practice in a spacious yard in Belfast, to lay trains of corn for sparrows, and to shoot them from a window, which was only so far open as to afford room for the muzzle of the gun; neither the instrument of destruction nor the shooter being visible from the outside. A tame raven, which was a nest- ling when brought to the yard, and probably had never seen a shot fired, afforded evidence that it understood the whole affair. When any one appeared carrying a gun across the yard towards the house from which the sparrows were fired at, the raven exhibited the utmost alarm, by hurrying off with all possible speed, but in a ludicrously awkward gait, to hide itself, screaming loudly all the while. Though alarmed for its own safety, this bird always concealed itself near to and within view of the field of action; the shot was hardly fired, when it dashed out from its retreat, and, seizing one of the dead or wounded sparrows, hurried back to its hiding-place. I have repeatedly witnessed the whole scene.
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