The Natural History of Cage Birds. Bechstein Johann Matthäus
If, during a long continuance of rain, these insects disappear, it then feeds on field-mice, lizards, and young birds, which it also fixes on the thorns.
When confined, its food is the same as the preceding species. Some insects, mixed with the nightingales’ paste, make it more palatable for it. A little raw or dressed meat may also be given it from time to time.
Breeding. – When the season is favourable this species breeds twice, and generally chooses a large hawthorn bush in which to build its nest, roots and coarse stubble forming the base of it, then a layer of moss interwoven with wool, and the finest fibres of roots lining the interior. The female lays from five to six greenish white eggs, spotted all over, especially at the large end, and speckled with red and grey; the male takes his turn with the female to sit during fourteen days. Before moulting, the young ones resemble the female in colour. The back and breast are greenish grey, streaked with several waving brown lines; the belly is dirty white. They can be easily reared by feeding them at first with ants’ eggs, then with dressed meat, and afterwards with white bread soaked in milk: this last food it always likes if early accustomed to it.
Mode of Taking. – As soon as this bird arrives in May, the bushes on which it most frequently perches must be observed; these are very few, and on them the lime twigs must be placed; it is often entrapped within a quarter of an hour. Success is more certain if a beetle, maybug, or breeze-fly, be fastened near the lime twigs with horse hair, by two feet, so that it can move its wings. As soon as the bird is stuck in the bird-lime it is necessary when taking it to avoid its beak, as it pecks very hard.
Attractive Qualities. – This bird does not rank low among the singers; its song is not only very pleasing but continual. While singing, it is generally perched on a lonely bush, or on the lower branches of a tree, but always near its nest. Its warbling is composed of the songs of the swallow, goldfinch, fauvette, nightingale, red-breast, and lark, with which, indeed, it mixes here and there some of its own harsh notes. It almost exclusively imitates the birds in its immediate neighbourhood; it very rarely repeats the song or call of those which merely fly past it; when it does, it seems only in mockery. There are, however, some songs which it cannot imitate: for instance, that of the chaffinch and yellowhammer, its throat not seeming to be sufficiently flexible for these. In the house, its song is composed of the warbling of those birds whose cages are hung near it. It is very lively, and its plumage is handsome.
If a room is to be cleared of flies, one of these birds set at liberty in it will soon effect it; it catches them flying with great skill and agility. When a thorny branch is given it, it impales all its flies, making at the same time the drollest and most singular movements. This species easily and quickly learns to whistle airs, but it forgets them with the same facility, in order to learn new ones.
THE RAVEN
This and the three following species ought not to be reckoned among house birds; but as they are easily taught to speak, and are often reared for that purpose, I must not neglect to mention them here.
The raven is well known. Its length is two feet, of which the tail measures eight inches and three quarters. The colour, which is black, in particular lights reflects a violet tint on the upper, and green on the lower part of the body, of the wings and tail. The throat is of a paler black.
Of all the birds of this genus, distinguished by having the beak in the form of a knife, and the base furnished with strong bristles which extend forward, the raven, on account of the size of its tongue, is the best fitted to articulate words; hence, in Thuringia, people are often saluted, on entering an inn, with some abusive language from one of these ravens, confined near the door, in a large cage like a tower. When it has been reared from the nest (which must be done in order to teach it to speak) it may be left at liberty; it will come when called by name to receive its food. Everything which shines must be put out of its way, particularly gold and silver, as it does not fail to carry it off, like the other birds of its kind. One, which was brought before Augustus, had been taught to repeat, Ave Cæsar, victor, imperator, in order to salute him on his return from victory.
Some people are accustomed to cut what is called the nerve of the tongue, supposing that it would make them better able to articulate sounds; but it seems most probable that this cruel practice is of little use, and, like many others, only a vulgar prejudice, for I have heard ravens speak perfectly well without having the tongue touched.
This bird was very much prized at a time when divination made a part of religion. Its most minute actions, all the motions of its flight, and the different sounds of its voice, were carefully studied; in the latter, people pretending to discover even sixty-four different modulations, besides many shades still more delicate and difficult to determine. This must certainly have required an excessively fine ear, as its croaking is particularly simple. Every alteration, let it be ever so slight, had its particular signification. Impostors were not wanting, who pretended to understand, or dupes who easily believed, these idle fancies. Some have carried their folly to such a pitch as to persuade themselves that by eating the heart and entrails of the raven they would acquire its gift of prophecy.
Habitation. – This species only inhabits the wooded parts of a country; it there builds its nest on the highest trees. Its eggs, from three to five in number, are of a dirty green, streaked with olive brown. If the young ones be taken in order to instruct them, they must be removed on the twelfth day after bursting the shell, when they have only half their feathers. They are fed on meat, snails, worms, and bread soaked in milk; after a little time they will eat bread, meat, and any refuse from the table. In its wild state the raven eats leverets, birds’ eggs, mice, young goslings, chickens, and snails, and even pears, cherries, and other fruit; this shows us that it is rather hurtful as well as useful.
THE CARRION CROW
It only differs from the preceding in its size, and in the tail being rounded instead of wedge-shaped. Its whole length is eighteen inches. Its plumage is black, with some tints of violet on the upper part of the body.
Peculiar Qualities. – The carrion crow is one of the commonest birds; in the groves, which it likes best, it congregates in such numbers that twenty nests have been built on the same tree18; the eggs are spotted with grey or olive brown on a green ground. The young may be taken from the nest in the month of March, or even earlier if the winter be mild they are treated and fed like the former species. The carrion crow is even more easily tamed, for I have seen old ones, which have been taught to go and come, and others in their wild state, which have regularly fed in the yard going in the spring to breed in the woods, and returning at the beginning of the winter to pass that season in a domestic state. Insects, worms, mice, fruit, and grain form its principal food in its wild state.
Mode of Taking. – The easiest and most usual method is with paper cones, at the bottom of which is put a bit of meat, and bird-lime on the inner edges. It may also be caught with lime twigs placed in the yard, or before the house, on horse dung and among scattered grain.
THE HOODED CROW
This species, a little larger than the preceding, is grey, with the head, throat, wings, and tail black. In the winter it is found over almost all Europe, but during summer it inhabits more northern parts, where it builds in groves and orchards near open fields: its eggs are bright green streaked and spotted with brown.
If taken young it is tamed and taught to speak more easily than the carrion crow.
THE JACK-DAW
This bird is naturally half tame, and if reared from the nest it will voluntarily remain in the yard with the poultry. It makes its nest in old buildings, houses, castles, towers, and churches: its eggs are green, spotted with dark brown and black. It is not so much to teach it to speak that people like to rear young jack-daws, but to see it go and return at call. Even old ones that are taken in autumn may be accustomed to this, cutting the wings at first,
The rook, (