In confinement it will soon become tame and familiar, and will readily take to feed on bread and milk, and also on bruised hemp-seed and bread. One that I bred up from the nest became so attached to its cage, that it could not be prevailed upon to quit it for any length of time. When the door of it was set open, it would generally come out quickly, and first perch on the door, then mount to the top of the cage, thence it would fly to any other cages that were in the room, and catch any flies that came within its reach; sometimes it would descend to the floor, or perch on a table or chair, and would fly up and take a fly out of the hand, or drink milk out of a spoon if invited: of this it was very fond. As soon as it was the least frightened, it would fly immediately to its cage, first on the top, thence to the door, and would enter in exactly as it came out. I have often hung it out at the window perched on the top of its cage, with the door open, and it would never attempt to fly away. Sometimes if a fly should happen to pass near it, it would fly off and catch it, and return with it to the top of the cage: after remaining there a considerable time, it would either return into it, or fly in at the window, and perch on the cages of the other birds. It is rather more tender than the white-throat.
MR. BLYTH’H ACCOUNT OF THE BABILLARD.
The warble of the babillard (Curruca garrula, Brisson) is pretty and lively, but its song is rendered monotonous in the spring and summer by the constant repetition of its loud note of defiance, analogous to the clear lively note with which the blackcap generally concludes: this may be expressed by the monosyllable see, repeated nine or ten times in quick succession, and at times very loudly: it is a note, which, though agreeable enough when only heard occasionally, becomes quite tiresome when continually reiterated. This species, however, can warble very sweetly if it please, and, in confinement, during the first months of the year, its song is heard to great advantage in a room; it then rarely repeats its loud see see see, and when, at that time, the above-mentioned note is uttered, it forms, indeed, an agreeable variety. The song of the babillard is formed of a number of soft chirping notes, many of which are extremely sweet and musical, and though at times tolerably loud, yet they are generally delivered in a very low tone, scarcely audible at a little distance. The male is almost perpetually singing, erecting his crest and the feathers of his throat in the manner of a white-throat, and, like that species and the furze warbler, he is in constant motion the whole time, throwing himself into a variety of odd gesticulations. The song of this bird is very superior to that of many white-throats, but not to all; he has none of those harsh sounding notes which so often disfigure the white-throat’s song. He seems also to be always in such high spirits as not to know how to contain himself, taking frequently a long circuitous flight from tree to tree, and back again, a dozen times, seemingly for no other purpose than mere exercise; but he never mounts singing into the air, like the white-throat. There are yet many persons, I believe, who consider this species to be “a mere variety” of the white-throat. These two species differ from each other in size, in make, in colour, in their manners, their habits, their song, in the structure of their nest, and in the marking of their eggs; and surely, “if all these circumstances (as Wilson observes, after making similar remarks on two American birds, one of which had been considered a ‘bastard’ production of the other) be not sufficient to designate this (the babillard) as a distinct species, by what criterion, I would ask, are we to discriminate between a variety and an original species, or, to assure ourselves, that the great horned owl is not, in fact, a bastard goose, or the carrion crow a mere variety of the humming bird?”
THE BLACK REDSTART.
Motacilla Tithys, Linnæus: Le Rouge-queue, Buffon; Der Wistling, Bechstein.
Length five inches and one quarter, of which the tail alone measures two and one quarter. The beak is five lines long, very pointed and black, the inside and corners yellow; the iris is dusky; the shanks are nine lines high, and black; the upper part of the body is dark bluish, or blackish gray; the rump is red; the cheeks, throat, and breast, are black; the belly and sides are of the same dark colour as the back, but tinged with white; the vent is reddish yellow.
The upper part of the body in the female is dusky ash grey; the under part ash grey, with a reddish tinge.
The colours of this bird vary during the first eight years; the oldest ones, with the exception of the tail and wings, are in general black, but deeper on the under part than the upper; the very oldest have a greyish breast.
Those a year or two old very much resemble the females, having the upper part of the body ash grey, but the under rather more of a reddish colour; the quill-feathers have a more decided border. After two years the depth of the colour gradually increases. Several bird-catchers, and from them some authors, have considered these birds of different ages as different species.