In a Cheshire Garden: Natural History Notes — John Shaqi
In a Cheshire Garden: Natural History NotesEgerton-Warburton, Geoffrey
History
In a Cheshire Garden: Natural History Notes
Egerton-Warburton, Geoffrey
Natural History -- England -- Cheshire; Natural history -- Outdoor books
A standing marvel is the way in which a thrush can tell that there is a
worm below the ground at a particular place. As he goes hopping about
in a promiscuous sort of way, he suddenly stops with his head on one
side looking and listening for a second, then he pounces on the exact
spot and forthwith pulls out a worm. Sometimes he makes a mistake, or,
at all events, fails to make a catch, but not often. How does he do it?
Does his quick sight detect some slight movement, or his quick ear some
slight sound? Or has he any other sense of smell or sensation that
helps him? Another marvel about the matter to anyone who has himself
tried to pull a worm out of the ground is the ease with which a thrush
manages so neatly and quickly to extract its victim entire.
I have found a throstle's nest in the side of a haystack, and was told
of one in a pigstye and of another inside the porch of a house. In 1901
a throstle built in the roof of the lychgate of the churchyard close to
this garden. Although the first nest was taken she made another in the
same place and had very nearly hatched her eggs when again the
thoughtless cruelty of boys made all her labour vain and abused the
confidence she had so bravely shown in men. She used to sit on quite
calmly, though only just above the heads of people as they went through
the gate.
Generally speaking, throstles are so tame here that they hardly move
out of your way, at most hopping a foot or two further off; and one
will go on with his song undisturbed as I pass through an archway of
pink thorn on which he is perched not two feet above. They are
naturally, I think, more friendly in their disposition towards human
beings than blackbirds, which go clattering off whenever they see you
near them.
In May, 1902, there must have been at least 20 throstles' nests in the
garden itself. There were five, all in holly bushes, within 30 yards,
by the side of one path, two in one tree, both of which had young ones
in them at the same time. One bird had a nest just over the entrance to
the house porch, through which we were in and out the whole day long,
and we saw nothing of it until the young were hatched. Another chose an
extraordinarily exposed situation, in a rhododendron just opposite the
front door, from which we could see her quite plainly as she sat. The
nest was actually not more than a foot or so from a little narrow path.
We were constantly up and down this path and could hardly avoid
brushing the leaves at the end of the very bough on which the nest was
built, yet I never once saw her fly off. She used to keep her eye on
us, but did not move even if we stood still only a few feet away and
looked at her. This nest was under continual observation from the
laying of the first egg to the flight of the last nestling, which
remained for the best part of a day after the rest had flown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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