Part 47

In September the skylarks begin to assemble in flocks and shift their ground. At this season they migrate in large numbers; but many remain throughout the year, except in the more northern districts. Large flocks of migrants from the Continent also appear during the winter months.

In winter the lark feeds chiefly on seeds; in summer he is an insect as well as a seed eater.

Woodlark.

Alauda arborea.

Upper parts reddish brown, the centre of each feather dark brown; a distinct yellowish white streak above the eye, extending to the back part of the head; under parts yellowish white streaked with dark brown. Tail very short. Length, six and a half inches.

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In appearance the woodlark is a lesser skylark, with a shorter tail in proportion to the body, and no apparent difference in colour, except that the spots on the breast and the pale streak over the eye are more conspicuous. It ranks with the six or eight finest British songsters, but is the least known of all. The tree-pipit, sometimes called woodlark, is a much better known songster. When the woodlark is seen and heard he is taken by most people for the skylark. The mistake is easily made, the song having the same character, and is a continuous stream of jubilant sound, delivered in the same manner; for the woodlark, too, soars, ‘and soaring, sings.’ He differs from the skylark in his manner of rising: that bird goes up and up, not quite vertically, but inclining now to this side, now to that, with intervals of suspension, but still as if drawn heavenwards by an invisible cord or magnet; the woodlark ascends in circles, and finally does not attain to so great a height. He also sings on his perch on a tree, and rises from the tree to sing aloft, and in this habit he is like the tree-pipit. Although the woodlark’s song resembles that of the larger bird in character, there is more sameness in the flow of sounds, and it is not so powerful; on the other hand, the sounds are sweeter in quality. Of the two, he is the more constant singer, and may be heard in mild weather throughout the autumn and winter months. His usual call is a melodious double note.

The woodlark is very local in its distribution; it is nowhere common, and its range in this country is a somewhat limited one. In the north of England it is very rare, and in Scotland it has only once been observed breeding. In Ireland it breeds in some localities. It inhabits wooded parks and the borders of woods and commons, and grass-lands in the vicinity of trees and hedgerows; for although it feeds, roosts, and nests on the ground, it must, like the tree-pipit, have trees to perch on; and, like that bird, it has a favourite perch, where it may be confidently looked for at any hour of the day during the spring and summer months.

The nest is placed in a slight hollow in the ground, under a bush, or sheltered by grass and herbage, and is formed of dry grass and moss, and lined with finer grass and hair. The eggs are four or five in number, buffish or faint greenish white in ground-colour, freckled and spotted with reddish brown, with purple-grey under-markings. Three, and even four, broods are said to be reared in the season.

In autumn and winter the woodlarks unite in families or small flocks, and at this season they have a partial or internal migration, the birds that breed in the northern counties moving south. In the southern and south-western counties they remain stationary, and it is observed that during a spell of mild weather in winter these small flocks break up, but re-form at the return of cold.

Besides the two indigenous larks, we have as rare stragglers the following four species: the crested lark (Alauda cristata), an inhabitant of Europe and Asia; the short-toed lark (Calendrella brachydactyla), from southern Europe; the white-winged lark (Melanocorypha sibirica), a Siberian species, obtained once in England; and the shore-lark (Otocorys alpestris), an irregular winter visitor from North Europe, Asia, and America.

Swift.

Cypselus apus.

Sooty brown; chin greyish white; tarsi feathered; bill, feet, and claws shining black. Length, seven and a half inches.

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The swift arrives in this country about the end of April or early in May, and from that time onwards, throughout the spring and summer months, day after day, from morning until evening, he may be seen overhead, in twos, threes, and half-dozens, pursuing his mad, everlasting race through the air. Even as late as ten o’clock in the evening, or later, when his form can no longer be followed by the straining sight, his shrill, exulting cry may be heard at intervals, now far off, and now close at hand, showing that the daylight hours of these northern latitudes are not long enough to exhaust his wonderful energy. It has even been supposed by some naturalists that, when not incubating, he spends the entire night on the wing. This is hard to believe; but if we consider his rate of speed, and the number of hours he visibly spends on the wing, it would be within the mark to say that the swift, in a sense, ‘puts a girdle round the earth’ two or three times a month. Year after year the swifts return to the same localities to breed, and there are few towns, villages, hamlets, or even isolated mansions and farmhouses in the British Islands where this bird is not a summer guest. The bunch of swifts to be seen rushing round the tower of every village church are undoubtedly the same birds, or their descendants, that have occupied the place from time immemorial; and it is probable that the annual increase is just sufficient to make good the losses by death each year. It is hard to believe that a life so strenuous can last very long, and impossible to believe that birds so free of the air are subject to many fatal accidents. A spell of intense frost is very fatal to them in spring, but the cold is their only enemy in this country.

The black swift, or ‘develing,’ or ‘screecher,’ as he is sometimes named, with his exceedingly long, stiff, scythe-shaped wings, still ‘urging his wild career’ through the air, is a figure familiar to everyone. And his voice, too, is a familiar sound to every ear. It is usually described as a harsh scream. Wild and shrill and piercing it certainly is, but it varies greatly with the bird’s emotions, and is at times a beautiful silvery sound, which many would hear with delight if uttered by the song-thrush or nightingale.

The swift breeds in holes in church-towers and in houses, its favourite site being under the eaves of a thatched cottage; it also nests in crevices in the sides of chalk-pits and sea-cliffs, and sometimes in hollow trees. A slight nest of straw and feathers, made to adhere together with the bird’s saliva, is built, and two eggs are laid; they are oval in form, white in colour, and have rough shells. One brood only is reared in the season, and the birds depart at the end of August, but stragglers may be met with as late as October.

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The white-bellied swift (Cypselus melba) is known in England as a rare straggler from Central and Southern Europe. A still rarer straggler from Eastern Siberia, where it breeds, is the needle-tailed swift (Acanthyllis caudacuta); of this species not more than two or three specimens have been obtained in this country.

Nightjar.

Caprimulgus europæus.

Ash-grey spotted and barred with black, brown, and chestnut; first three primaries with a large white patch on the inner web, the two outer tail-feathers on each side tipped with white. Length, ten and a quarter inches.

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The nightjar, or goatsucker, is the representative of a type widely distributed on the earth; we have only one species, just as we have but one swift, one kingfisher, one wryneck, and one cuckoo. And, having but one, and this being so singular a bird, unlike all other species known to us, in structure, colouring, language, and habits, he excites a great deal of interest, and is very well known, although a night-bird, nowhere abundant, and a sojourner with us for only about four months and a half out of the twelve. He arrives in this country about the middle of May, and inhabits commons, moors, and stony places, and is also to be met with in woods. He is found in all suitable localities throughout Great Britain, but is more local in Ireland. Year after year he returns to the same spot to breed, faithful as the swift to its church-tower and the wryneck to its hollow tree, although the unforgotten spot may be on level waste land with a uniform surface. During the daylight hours he sits on the ground among bracken or heather, or by the side of a furze-bush, or in some open place where there is no shelter; but so long as he remains motionless it is all but impossible to detect him, so closely does he resemble the earth in colour. And here we see the advantage of his peculiar colouring--the various soft shades of buff and brown and grey, which at a short distance harmonise with the surroundings, and render him invisible. When perching on a tree he makes himself invisible in another way: his habit is to perch, not crossways on a branch, but lengthways. He rises from the ground when almost trodden on, and goes away with a silent flight, darting this way and that in an eccentric course, and looking more like a great grey mottled and marbled moth than a bird. After going a short distance he drops to earth just as suddenly as he rose. After sunset he may be seen on the borders of woods, by the side of hedges, and in meadows near the water, pursuing his insect prey, dashing rapidly along, with quick turns and doublings, as of a lapwing at play. At this hour his curious reeling, spinning, or whirring song may be heard, a little like the song of the grasshopper warbler in character; but the warbler’s song is a whisper by comparison. ‘The sound,’ Yarrell truly says, ‘can be easily imitated by vibrating the tongue against the roof of the mouth; but the imitation, excellent as it may be close to the performer, is greatly inferior in power, being almost inaudible to anyone twenty yards off, while the original can be heard in calm weather for half a mile or more.’ Of the other curious vocal performance of the nightjar the same author says: ‘On the wing, while toying with his mate, or executing his rapid evolutions round the trees, ... the cock occasionally produces another sound, which, by some excellent observers, has been called a squeak, but to the writer is exactly like that which can be made by swinging a whipthong in the air.’ Most of the names the bird is called by have reference to its summer song--spinner, wheelbird, night-churn, and churn-owl.

The nightjar deposits its two eggs on the bare ground; their colour is white or cream, blotched, mottled, clouded, and veined with brown, blackish brown, and grey. One brood is reared in the season. The return migration is in September.

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A single specimen of the red-necked nightjar (Caprimulgus ruficollis), an inhabitant of South-western Europe, has been obtained in this country; and (in 1883) one specimen of the Egyptian nightjar (Caprimulgus ægyptius), was shot in Nottinghamshire.