The Natural History of Cage Birds: Their Management, Habits, Food, Diseases, Treatment, Breeding, and the Methods of Catching Them.Bechstein, Johann Matthäus
Science
The Natural History of Cage Birds: Their Management, Habits, Food, Diseases, Treatment, Breeding, and the Methods of Catching Them.
Bechstein, Johann Matthäus
Cage birds
MODE OF TAKING.--The wood-lark may be caught on the nest by means of
limed twigs; but as it is very cruel to separate a pair, and thus to
destroy a whole family, it is better to wait till autumn, and to use
the night-net. They may be caught early in the spring, when there is
snow on the ground, by placing limed twigs or nets in cleared places.
This is the best method of catching them. It is true that this plan
will not succeed in all years; but another may be substituted, if we
have a decoy wood-lark, by placing it under a folding net, in a field
frequented by a flight of this species, which will not fail to join
it. The same means also may be used as with the chaffinch, namely, by
tying the wings of a wood-lark with a limed twig on his back, and
letting him run to the place where there is a male of the same
species. By this means the bird-fancier may obtain whatever kind of
singer he prefers.
ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--Of all the species of larks the wood lark has
the finest song, and to my taste it is, of all our indigenous birds
(always excepting the nightingale), the one whose natural notes are
the most delightful. Its clear flute-like voice executes a sonorous,
tender, and somewhat melancholy air. In the country it rises from the
tops of the trees so high in the air that the eye can scarcely
discern it, and there remaining stationary, the wings and the tail
expanded, it sings uninterruptedly for hours together; it sings in
the same manner when perched on a tree.
In the house, it is from a retired corner, tranquil and motionless,
that it utters the different modulations of its beautiful voice. The
singing time in its wild state is from March to July; in the house,
from February to August. The female, like other larks, sings also,
but her strains are shorter and less sustained. These birds appear to
be subject to whims: I have seen some which would never sing in a
room or in the presence of an auditor. These perverse birds must be
placed in a long cage outside the window. I have remarked that in
general these obstinate birds are the best singers. Their abrupt step
and various frolics, in which they raise the feathers of the head and
neck, are also very amusing.
THE TITLARK.
Anthus arboreus, BECHSTEIN; L'Alouette Pipi, BUFFON; Die
Waldpieper, BECHSTEIN.
This is the smallest of our larks; its length is but five inches and a
half, two and a half of which belong to the tail, which it carries and
moves like a wagtail, and by this characteristic it seems to stand
intermediate between the larks and the wagtails. The sharp beak is dark
brown above and whitish below; the iris is brown. The shanks are three
quarters of an inch high, and light flesh-coloured; the angle of the
hind toe is short and crooked. The head, rather oval than round, is,
with the neck, back, rump, and sides, of an olive brown with black wavy
spots.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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