Sylvia polyglotta, Ranzani; Sylvia Hippolais, Bechstein; Le Bec-fin à poitrine jaune, Temminck; Die Gelbbrust, Bechstein; Die Spotvogel, Wichterich.
This pleasing bird, which is met with wherever there are groves and bushes[102], is five inches and a half in length, of which the tail measures two and a quarter. The beak, seven lines long, is straight, blunt, bluish grey above, and yellow tinged with flesh-colour beneath, with yellowish corners, and the entrance of the throat citron yellow; the iris is dark brown; the shanks, ten lines high, are lead-coloured. The head is pointed in front; the back, rump, and lesser wing-coverts, are olive ash grey; a yellow line extends from the nostrils to the eyes; the whole of the under part of the body is a fine light yellow; the tail and wings are dark brown; the secondary quill-feathers have so wide a white border that it forms a spot on the closed wings.
Habitation.—In its wild state it frequents orchards, groves, and brambles; but with us it seems to prefer small woods that are interspersed with resinous trees. It arrives the end of April, and quits us as early as the end of August, before the moulting season.
In the house it is kept in a nightingale’s cage, in which no change must be made, still less must another be given it, for it would not survive these disturbances. It is so delicate, that if taken when full grown it is almost impossible to tame it.
Food.—When wild its food is all kinds of insects, smooth caterpillars, flies, gnats, &c.; and if these are scarce, berries[103].
In the house it prefers these insects and meal-worms. It is only with great patience and management that it can be given a taste for the nightingale’e food. In general it will eat nothing but insects.
Breeding.—The nest of the arbour bird is one of those that are so well and curiously formed, commonly placed eight feet above the ground, in the fork of a tree. It is built of pieces of the white bark of the birch tree, dried plants, caterpillars’ webs, wool, and the upper layer of down. All these white materials give it the appearance of being made of paper. It is lined with the finest hay. The female lays five eggs, which are at first of a pale rose red, but after having been sat upon some days acquire a dark flesh-coloured tint, speckled with dark red. This species has but one brood in the year, and if the nest is approached two or three times it will desert it, whether the young ones are hatched or not.
If a person wish to have this pleasing bird in the house, as it is often seen in Hesse, he must take the young ones early from the nest, feed them on ants’ eggs and bullock’s heart chopped small, and always keep them in a warm place. As soon as the arbour bird has been placed in the situation destined for it, it must be left there constantly; its cage ought not to be changed, at least there should be no difference in the one given it afterwards, as without this attention it becomes sad, eats no longer, and dies in a short time. I may observe here, that it moults in December or January, whence we may infer that it passes the winter in a southern climate.
Diseases.—These are the same as the nightingale’e.