Page:010 Once a week Volume X Dec 1863 to Jun 64.pdf/56

 [Jan.

•'

the feather

jorcots 1

ccn aeooaa

!.-!;

well

liest

It

is.

always appears

1

.,

Um

exertions of both the

young

full of life

—

and

fluttering being constantly in motion ranch to branch, creeping on all sides of reefl (sometimes with their backs downin search of small insects. Sometimes

I

.,

1864.

at its braving our severest winter ;

wonder it

generally contain*

2,

but yet Mr. Pennant informs us that iiirds cross annually from the Orkneys to Shetland Isles, where they breed and ale will stop to sing its feeble

oi.

og song.

of heahera, and .He fed in otter darkness.

It

is diii

IM through a the day, carrying one, thus pillara at each visit

in

causing

immense

Colonel Montagu quite an inch in length. has given us the following interesting account of these birds.

is

hen it has done been more than usually cold weather, I have observed a feati in the upper part of the hole oi way both backwards an<i forwards, thus acting as a screen, and keeping out much of the cold wind. It is impossible not b re and ingenuity -

ect.

the

little

oues

i

gapin

parents

size,

i

anil

,



r.

charming

i

they come

there remain, with food their

col

Gould, in his

ids of Great Britain, "

has given a beautiful coloured representation rood at the entrance

account of this very interestnest, by which it will be architecture and its habits are not may be added, that when it

i

aeen that tbe

its

its

able to

y< '

.1

fly,

uttering their

ich collect the stragglers. in a huddled t

heap, on

?^*

they remain

the next pairing-season ; to watch the whole e,

cheerf


 * k ,v

a long flight for

so small a bird, the distance being sixty miles. The body, when stripped of its feathers, is not

This

As

is

aes in

r

—

This

return before winter.

and out,

i

low branch of a tree, thus resemtheir united bodies

He in J

a

says that a pair of them built their nest in his garden ; and as he was

fir-tree

desirous of ascertaining whether the male bird ever sung by way of instructing the young for this ones, as our song-birds invariably do

—

,

'

purpose he took the nest when the young were about six days old, placed it in a small basket, and by degrees enticed the old ones to his study-window. After they had become familiar with that situation, the basket was placed within the window, and then at the opposite side of the room. It was remarkable that although the female seemed regardless of danger, from her affection for her young, the male never once ventured within the room, yet would constantly feed them while they remained on the outside of the window. On the contrary, the female would feed them at the table, and even while I held the nest in my hand, provided I remained motionless. But on moving my head one day while she was on the edge of the nest, which I was holding in my hand, she made a precipitous iv mistook the open part of the window, knocked herself against the glass, and lay breathl the floor for

some time.

She recovered, how-

ever, and made her escape ; but this did not lessen her affection for her young. She soon returned with food for them, and again, when

was held in

my hand, she continued labour of making collect The visits of the female for them. generally repeated in the space of a

at

her maternal

d the rally it

ncpeoded ndermath

tin-

i.r.mrii

found

of a

i

hirtyupon an an hour; and this continued full

and-a-half, or, six times

in

fir-



s

in

a

day,

which^tf

n thu

1

00m

dm

eqi


 * !g^PDS,

that th<

of the prettiest examples to be i

animals of

mob

rapid

growth.