ART. III. Something about Birds and Birdnesting. By RUSTICUS. Sir, UNSKILLED in the abstruser departments, I have often been delighted with those particular parts of your work which smell so freshly of woods and fields, and seem to me like a mirror in which one may behold a true and faithful reflection of Nature's face. Among your contributors in this way, none speaks to the heart like the "wanderer " Waterton. A good deal has been said in your pages of birds' nests, and different opinions expressed as to the manner in which the process of caretaking is managed by the old birds: in comparing what I read, with my previous knowledge of the subject, I find Mr. Waterton always right, and several of your other correspondents always wrong. The district to which my observations have been pretty much restricted, is that of Godalming, in Surrey; and though they have little that is wonderful to recommend them, let their truth plead their cause, and obtain for them a place among your more scientific and valuable articles. Habits of the Moorhen. The piece of water called Old Pond, about one mile from Godalming, on the London road, is a most attractive spot to waterfowl; and an island in its centre is the resort of some of them in the breeding season, and also of a variety of other birds, which find it a safe and unmolested place for the same purpose. I have often delighted, in years that are gone, to visit this island and its inmates; the owner, Robert Moline, Esq., used to allow us free ingress to all and every part of the estate; a liberty any one with an incipient thirst for a knowledge of natural history would be sure to avail himself of. One day, having pushed off from the shore, and moored the little shallop to some of the osiers which surrounded the island, I began my accustomed examination: the first object that attracted my attention was a lot of dry rushes, flags, reeds, &c., enough to fill a couple of bushel baskets. This mass was lodged about 20 ft. from the ground, in a spruce fir tree, and looked for all the world as if it had been pitched there with a hayfork. I mounted instantly, thinking of herons, eagles, and a variety of other wonders: just as my head reached the nest, flap-flap, out came a moorhen, and, dropping to the water, made off in a direct line along its surface, dip-dip-dip-dipping with its toes (they do this just to cool their toes, I have often conjectured), and was at last lost in the rushes of a distant bank, leaving an evanescent track along the water, like that occasioned by a stone which has been skilfully thrown to make "ducks and drakes." The nest contained seven eggs warm as a toast. The situation was a very odd one for a moorhen's nest; but there was a reason for it: the rising of the water in the pond frequently flooded the banks of the island, and, as I had before witnessed, had destroyed several broods by immersion. [See p. 381.] : Nest of the Large black-headed Titmouse, in a Magpie's Nest of the preceding Year. The next object of attention was a titmouse, of the large black-headed kind, swinging himself about like a ropedancer, and whistling out his sing-song just like a fellow sharpening a saw. To my surprise, the gentleman entered an old magpie's nest, to which I had paid frequent friendly visits during the previous spring; he immediately came out again, and jumped about, sharpening his saw as before. One might almost as well handle a hedgehog as a magpie's nest in this instance some cuttings of gooseberry bushes, skilfully interwoven into an arch above it, rendered it rather more untempting than usual. I was meditating how to commence the attack, when another tomtit flew out in great choler, and rated at me, as though I had already robbed her : after a good deal of trouble, during which the slender fir top was swinging about with me in the breeze, I succeeded in obtaining a peep into the nest: there was nest within nest; the cosiest, softest, warmest, little nest, with eight delicately specked eggs at the bottom of the magpie's more spacious habitation. I declined meddling with them, whether on account of the awkwardness of my situation, or the intervening gooseberry bushes, or the cruelty, I will not say. Nest of the Dabchick. — I have occasionally, though but seldom, found the dabchick's nest in the reeds on the banks of this island. Bewick's account of its size is not correct: it is large for the bird, but of very inconsiderable thickness, and always wet, so that the eggs are for ever in a sort of puddle. The eggs in those I saw were three only, dirty white, and about as big as a blackbird's, but longer. I never found any covering on the eggs, or observed any thing near that would answer the purpose; but this habit may exist in some instances: so many naturalists have spoken of it, that it can hardly be fabulous, like the same peculiarity as applied to rooks and crows. On the subject of these, if it wanted contradicting, I could, from personal inspection, hundreds of times repeated, give it a flat denial. Habits of the Fern Owl. Beyond Godalming, on the Liphook road, is a great tract of barren heathy land: it stretches wide in every direction, and includes immense peatbogs, and several large ponds. One particular district, called the Pudmores, is the favourite resort of the fern owl. In the daytime, while walking across the moor, you will every now and then put up one of these singular birds; their flight is perfectly without noise, and seldom far at a time: but of an evening it is far different; about twenty minutes after sunset, the whole moor is ringing with their cry, and you see them wheeling round you in all directions. They look like spectres; and, often coming close over you, assume an unnatural appearance of size against a clear evening sky. I believe its very peculiar note is uttered sitting, and never on the wing. I have seen it on a stack of turf with its throat nearly touching the turf, and its tail elevated, and have heard it in this situation utter its call, which resembles the birr of the mole-cricket, an insect [figured Vol. II. p. 290.] very abundant in this neighbourhood. I have almost been induced to think this noise serves as a decoy to the male molecricket, this being_occasionally found in the craw of these birds when shot. Those who may not be acquainted with the cry of the bird or the insect, may imagine the noise of an auger boring oak, or any hard wood, continued, and not broken off, as is the noise of the auger, from the constant changing of the hands. The eggs of the fern owl have frequently been brought me by boys: they are only two in number, greyish white, clouded and blotched with deeper shades of the same colour; the hen lays them on the soil, which is either peat, or a fine soft blue sand, in which she merely makes a slight concavity, but no nest whatever.* The first cry of the fern owl is the signal for the night-flying moths to appear on the wing, or rather the signal for the entomologist's expecting them. Habitat of the Blackcock and of the Lapwing.- From the Pudmores, along the brows of the heath hills, towards Tilford, and again from Tilford up to the Devil's Punchbowl on Hindhead, the black cock is found every year more or less abundantly; and the lapwing breeds throughout the district by thousands. I am, Sir, yours, &c. Godalming, July 28. 1832. RUSTICUS. Does this bird remove its eggs to another place when they have been discovered? Audubon, in his Ornithological Biography, states having himself witnessed the Caprimulgus carolinensis to do this, and that the male and female took each an egg in its large mouth, and then they flew off together. Mr. Hewitson, in the 7th Number of his interesting British Oology, figures, t. 30., the egg of the Caprimulgus europæ`us L., and quotes Audubon's account of the C. carolinensis, that observers may ascertain if C. europæ us also ever transports its eggs; and for the same object it is that the question is here noticed. Since the above was printed, a farther contribution towards the history of this bird has been received; see p. 674. —J.D. ART. IV. On the Power of the Common Bee to generate a Queen. By ROBERT HUISH, Esq., Author of "A Treatise on Bees." Sir, IN one of the earliest epochs of apiarian science, a considerable degree of importance was attached to the formation of artificial swarms; and this plan originated in the well known fact of several queens being bred in the same hive during one season; whilst, on the other hand, a hive seldom throws off more than two swarms: consequently, this surplus of queens must by some means be destroyed by the bees. And, in order to obviate this necessary act of precaution on the part of the bees, it was suggested to take the supernumerary queens from a hive, and, by giving to each a proportionate number of subjects, a corresponding number of artificial hives might be formed, which, under auspicious circumstances, would acquire sufficient strength and food to support themselves during the winter. Another method was subsequently adopted, the chief principle of which consisted in extracting from a prolific hive a certain portion of comb filled with eggs and larvæ; and, having fastened it in another hive, then to introduce a number of common bees, who proceeded in the regular way to nourish the brood, and to create for themselves a queen. This plan, however, soon fell into desuetude, from the extreme rarity of its success, and the positively injurious effects which it produced on the parent hive, by the frequent drains upon its population. It is, however, this extraordinary power of creat ing a queen, alleged to be possessed by the common bee, and with which some writers of the present day even hesitate not to invest that insect, which at this time excites the attention of all persons who have made the natural economy of the bee the particular object of their study: and, strongly impressed as I am with the conviction of the utter fallacy of many of the arguments adduced in favour of the above hypothesis, I now submit the following refutatory remarks to the impartial and dispassionate consideration of those, whose minds are not swayed by antiquated prejudices, and who object to receive a position as substantially correct, merely because it has been advanced by an individual of acknowledged and deserved celebrity. Schirach, to whom we are indebted for much valuable information relative to the natural history of the bee, as well as for many absurd and untenable theories, was a strenuous advocate for this presumed power of the common bee; and he says that it is merely necessary that an egg should be in the comb, as the bees themselves possess the astonishing power of converting it, by a process known only to themselves, into a queen bee. Schirach, however, adduces no facts grounded on experience to substantiate this statement; on the contrary, it was, on his part, merely a broad undemonstrated assertion, leaving it open to all the doubts and objections which could be brought against it nevertheless, it was productive of this good effect, that it drew the attention of others to the subject, who, by their skill and perseverance, were most able to confirm its truth or fallacy. Bonner was originally one of the staunchest adherents of Schirach; but the result of his experiments by no means established satisfactorily to himself the validity of the hypothesis: on the contrary, the last time I visited the worthy apiarian, at Roslin Castle, near Edinburgh, he candidly avowed, that, although he did actually succeed in one instance, yet he could by no means lay it down as a general rule that the common bee does actually possess the power, per se [of itself], of generating a queen. It may not be the least interesting and valuable part of this enquiry, to investigate the different systems relative to the propagation of the bee, as laid down both by the English and foreign apiarians, as from an examination of their different hypotheses a guide may be obtained to the actual truth. The system, as advanced by Schirach, was as follows:- He affirms that the hive consists of three kinds of bees: 1. the queen; 2. the drones, being the males; and, 3. a middle sex, the working bees, which possess a greater affinity to the female than the male sex; which, however, are destitute of any procreating power, nor do they possess any influence in the multiplication of their species. It may be observed that Schirach was here standing on the very threshold of truth: he, however, departed widely from it in the hypothesis which he founded on the classification just given, as he affirmed that from every egg that would produce a working bee, if it remained in the small cell till its maturity and was nourished in the usual manner, a queen would always arise, if the bees gave to such egg an enlargement of the cell, in which the worm and the nymph could properly extend themselves, provided that such worm or nymph was provided with richer food, and in greater profusion. It was a part of his system, that, in the liquid nature of an egg, the parts which belonged to the queen bee lay concealed in imperceptible minuteness; but that, as soon as they received the necessary space for their expansion, an increase took place in their size; and the developement of the parts gradually proceeded, until the queen finally attained her full magnitude and beauty. Finally, he |