THIS EDITION IS LIMITED TO 75O COPIES FOR SALE IN ENGLAND, IOO FOR SALE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND 35 PRESENTATION COPIES THE COLLECTED WORKS °f W. H. HUDSON IN TWENTY-FOUR VOLUMES ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS BY W. H. HUDSON MCMXXIII LONDON y TORONTO J. M. DENT & SONS LTD. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. A ll rights reserved PRINTBD IN CRKAT BRITAIN A considerable portion of the matter contained herein has appeared in the English Review, Cornhill Magazine, Saturday Review, Nation, and a part of one chapter in the Morning Post. These articles have been altered and extended, and I am obliged to the Editors and Publishers for permission to use them in this book. Once I was part of the music I heard On the boughs or sweet between earth and sky, For joy of the beating of wings on high My heart shot into the breast of a bird. I hear it now and I see it fly. And a Ufe in wrinkles again is stirred, My heart shoots into the breast of a bird, As it will for sheer lo ve till the last long sigh. Meredith. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE The Book: An Apology ...... i A preliminary warning—Many books about a few birds— People who discover well-known birds—An excuse for the multiplicity of bird-books—Universal delight in wild birds—Interview with a county councillor—A gold-crest’s visit to a hospital—A rascal’s blessing— Incident of the dying Garibaldi and a bird. CHAPTER II Cardinal: The Story of my First Caged Bird. 12 The past recalled by a sound—A caged cardinal—A memory of childhood—The clergyman’s cardinal—My first caged bird—History of its escapades and ultimate fate. CHAPTER III Wells-next-the-Sea, where Wild Geese Congrégate 25 A restful spot—The marsh and the pine wood—Wild geese on the marsh—Their tameness there—Alarums and excursions — Their intelligence — Bird-sanctuary at Holkham. CHAPTER IV Great Bird Gatherings ...... 34 Mr. Richard Lydekker’s search for the crested screamer— —Extirpation of birds in La Plata—Persecution of sea birds in England—The fight to save our birds—Our delight in the spectacle of great bird-gatherings. vii vin CONTENTS CHAPTER V PAGE Birds in Authority ....... 43 A conversation with a sportsman—Wild geese—A masterful gander—Stories of pet trumpeters—Singular behaviour of a male sand-martin—Bird sentinels—Dancing per­ formances of lapwings — Ceremonial drinking and bathing—Bird sports. CHAPTER VI A WOOD BY THE SEA....................................................................................... 57 The pine wood at Wells—An extraordinary echo—Crows disturbed by a barn owl—Pheasant and blackbird feeding together—Friendships between birds of difíerent species—Account of a pet pheasant. CHAPTER VII Friendship in Animals..................................................65 The title justified— Position of friendship in the scale of animal qualities—Friendships between horses—A pet wolf—Peter the fox—Friendships among birds—A jackdaw and a small boy—Stories of teal—Birds caring for injured companions—The helping instinct— Partridge and pony—Strange case of a swan and a trout. CHAPTER VIII The Sacred Bird (Phasianus colchicus) ... 84 The pheasant in Romano-British times—The modera craze for it—Destruction of bird life by keepers—A heronry depopulated—An indiscriminate massacre— “ Keeping an eye ” on the hawks—Beauty of the pheasant in autumn woods—Absence of great soaring birds from English skies. CHAPTER IX A Tired Traveller (Turdus iliacus) .... 94 A November day on the east coast—A solitary redwing— charm of the redwing—Its evening concerts—The redwing soliloquises—Its beauty—A meditation on death. CONTENTS ix CHAPTER X PAGE White Duck ........ 103 Green grass in March—White ducks in a blue pool—Mental associations connected with the duck—A legend of the country of the dead—Beauty and rarity—Sobriquet of an English queen. CHAPTER XI An Impression of Axe Edge . .116 Some lucky ornithologists—Compensations that go with limited opportunities—Axe Edge—Mean farms—The people of the Peak—Spring on Axe Edge. CHAPTER XII Birds of the Peak............................................................. 124 Seeking information at Buxton—Cuckoo and meadow pipit on Axe Edge—A one-sided partnership—Song of the whinchat—Voice of the curlew—The red grouse—• Prologue to Chapter XIII. CHAPTER XIII The Ring-Ouzel as a Songster ..... 132 A species unknown to most—A blackbird that is not a blackbird—First sight of the ring-ouzel—Its song— Blackbird and ring-ouzel compared—Nesting ring- ouzels—Thrush-calls of ring-ouzel—A suggested com- parative study of thrush-languages. CHAPTER XIV Bird Music ........ 139 Modera indiSerence to delicate music—Charm due to past associations—A willow-wren at Harrogate—Intrinsic charm of some bird voices—Effect of special circum- stances—A rain-washed world—Exceptional songs of chaffinch and whinchat—A wonderful blackbird. CONTENTS CHAPTER XV PAGE In a Green Country in Quest of Rare Songsters . 148 Green England—An imagined journey to the stars—The silent bicycle—Encounters with blind men—Rambles in Dorset—Wareham—Story of a good little boy— A surprising experience at Poole—The threshold of Hampshire. CHAPTER XVI In a Hampshire Village ...... 158 Rare species and prívate collectors—An oíd soldier—Moor- hen—A family of working folk—A talk with my land- lady—Her love of bird music—The story of her lost child. CHAPTER XVII The Furze-Wren or Furze-Fairy .... 167 A new locaüty for the Dartford warbler—A search for it on a heath—A litter of feathers—First sight of the furze- wren—First hearing of its song—Its habits and song described—Its originality as a songster. CHAPTER XVIII Back to the West Country . .175 A procession of white cows—Revisiting oíd friends—Monta- cute House—Ham Hill stone—A nightingale and a commercial traveller—A north-countryman at Salisbury —Poetic feeling of northemers—The commercial traveller’s disappointment — Between Yeovil and Glastonbury—The people of Somerset. CHAPTER XIX Avalon and a Blackbird . .182 Excavations and restorations at Glastonbury—Blackbird music—Its relation to human music: C. A. Witchell’s theory—A blackbird of genius—Intrinsic beauty of the blackbird’s voice—Our favourite singer—The black­ bird in early Irish poetry. CONTENTS xi CHAPTER XX PAGE The Lake Village.............................................................i92 An enthusiastic excavator—Inhabiting two worlds at once —The wind in the bulrushes—Drayton on bird life in the fens—A visionary multitude of wild birds—Cross- bills in the Mendips—Among the bells in St. Cuthbert’s tower. CHAPTER XXI The Marsh Warbler’s Music .... 200 Two remarkable trees at Chepstow—Birds at the abbey— A colony of marsh warblers—Distribution of the marsh warbler—Its high rank as a songster—Its artistic borrowings—Species whose notes are imitated—The delight of bird-watching—Varying behaviour of birds under observation—A lucky accident. CHAPTER XXII Goldfinches at Ryme Intrínseca . .212 Yetminster—Ryme Intrínseca—Mobbed by goldfinches— Recent increase of goldfinches in Dorset—Effect of bird- protection orders—Abundance of the goldfinch in Cobbett’s days—Goldfinches and thistles: a misleading statement—Recollections of the Argentine goldfinch— Caged birds—A Spanish poem about a goldfinch—The translator’s difficulties—A prose rendering of El Colorín de Filis. CHAPTER XXIII The Immortal Nightingale ..... 228 The barren days of early March—On the track of the absent nightingale—The mystery of its return—The immortal bird of the poets-—Its puzzling distribution—The parish nightingale—A rector’s story of a nightingale— Birds striking against window-panes—The nightingale a home-keeping bird—Its human enemies—The fight to save our wild birds—Educating the country children. xii CONTENTS CHAPTER XXIV PAGE The Clerk and the Last Ravens .... 248 The parish clerk at Itchen Abbas—William Neave’s epitaph —The parish clerk’s reminiscences—A ghost story— Fascination of the raven—The last ravens at Avington —Tree-climbing feats—Persecution of tame young ravens by the oíd birds. CHAPTER XXV The Temples of the Hills. ..... 257 History of the chalk hills—Hill-top groves—Their best aspect—Abundance of wild life in them—Carrion- crows — N esting sparrow-hawks — The fascinating spectacle of the Chase—Long-eared owls—The owl as a practical joker—A keeper’s gibbet—The great woods of Wiltshire—What is lacking in them. • CHAPTER XXVI Autumn, 1912......................................................................277 Wells-next-the-Sea—A great man’s reason for residing there—The enviable chameleon—Black redstart— Antics of a squirrel—The dreariness of desk-work— Observations on a pair of late-nesting martins—Con- flicting instincts—Swallows observed in mid-winter— A curious story of nesting martins and sparrows. CHAPTER XXVII Wild Wings: a Farewell ...... 292 An abundance of wild geese—Hooded crows—Their evening amusements—A sociable mixed gathering—Herons at play—A ringed dotterel’s fun—Gull and pewit—Kestrel harried by starlings—Starlings flying in company with wild geese—Behaviour of starling flocks—Wounded goose and redshanks—An inquisitive crow—Evening return of the geese—Migrant crows and fieldfares— Last sight of the wild geese. Index . 3<>9 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS CHAPTER I THE book: an apology A preliminary warning—Many books about a few birds—People who discover well-known birds—An excuse for the multi- plicity of bird-books—Universal delight in wild birds— Interview with a county councillor—A gold-crest’s visit to a hospital—A rascal’s blessing—Incident of the dying Garibaldi and a bird. HE book-buyer in search of something to read before making his purchase as a rule A opens a book and glances at a few lines on the first page, just to get the flavour of it and find out whether or not it suits his palate.