Part 13

I have frequently heard members of this species singing nearly all night long on the Norfolk Broads, and many times when taking my photographic plates out of wash at two o’clock in the morning I have started a chorus around me by emptying the buckets of water with a splash over the stern of the little houseboat in which I was staying.

The male has another peculiarity which is not often mentioned in books. In the early part of the season he is fond of taking little fluttering excursions in the air a few yards above the reeds whilst he bubbles forth his merry, hurried song. This is, no doubt, to attract the females during the pairing season.

I have heard members of this species imitate the notes of the Landrail, Common Sparrow, Nightingale, Whitethroat, Chaffinch, Robin, Swallow, and Blackbird. In the case of the last three species an individual mimicked all their notes within half a minute, not pausing as the Marsh Warbler does, but running straight on in a breathless hurry, and then turning back to repeat the whole over again.

The alarm cry of the Sedge Warbler when disturbed is a harsh churr. It also has another, sounding something like tut-tut. The bird makes use of a soft call resembling wheet-wheet.

=THE LESSER REDPOLE.=

This is the smallest of our Finches, measuring only about four and a half inches in length. Its crown is crimson-red, hind part of head and rest of upper parts dark brown, the feathers being edged with reddish-brown. Upper tail-coverts tinged with crimson. Wings and tail dusky, edged with pale reddish-brown, the latter forked. Chin black, throat and breast rose-pink to vermilion, rest of under parts light greyish, streaked on the sides with dull brown. The female is rather smaller, and lacks the red on her breast and upper tail-coverts.

The Lesser Redpole has bred, somewhat erratically it is true, in nearly every county in England, but is most numerous in the northern counties and in Scotland. It also nests in Ireland, where it is scarcer in the south than the north. Its nest is a very pretty little structure made of a few slender, dead twigs (used as a foundation), dead grass stalks, moss, and rootlets beautifully lined with willow down and occasionally hair and feathers. It is built in willows, alders, firs, hawthorn, birch, hazel, and other trees and bushes. It has also been found in heather.

The eggs, which number from four to six, are of a very pale bluish-green ground colour, spotted generally about the larger end with orange-red, and sometimes streaked with a darker tint.

The song of this species is not of a high order in regard to quality, and has been variously described by different authorities. Professor Newton says, “Towards the end of winter the cocks break out in song, which, though not powerful, is lively and agreeable, and begin to indulge in the characteristic exultant flight during which it is generally uttered.” Mr. Henry Seebohm describes it as “a short, monotonous trill, clear and not unmusical”; whilst Bechstein’s judgment is that “Its feeble warblings are only a low, continued twittering.”

In spite, however, of its shortcomings as a vocalist, it is a favourite cage pet, especially with children, because of its boldness, docility, and intelligence.

It is called the Lesser Redpole, because it is rather smaller than its near relative, the Mealy Redpole, which breeds on the Continent and sometimes visits this country in winter. The breeding area of the Lesser Redpole seems to be almost restricted to the British Islands. This species flocks during the autumn, and although many remain with us throughout the winter, numbers migrate to the Continent.

The call notes are pe-weet and kreek, kreek, hayid.

=THE REED WARBLER.=

This species arrives upon our shores during the latter part of April, and leaves again for its winter quarters in Africa during September, although a specimen is said to have been shot in Ireland, where the bird does not breed, as late even as December.

The Reed Warbler is about five and a half inches in length, is brown on its upper parts, tinged with chestnut, which becomes more pronounced on the rump and white on the under parts, tinged with reddish buff, especially on the breast and sides. Its legs and toes are slaty-brown.

It breeds in reed and osier beds and other places where there is plenty of cover to suit its skulking habits, on the banks of lakes, ponds, and sluggish streams, and is much commoner on the east and southern sides of England than the west and north. I have met with it commonly in certain parts of Gloucestershire, and it is said to be fairly numerous in Wales. It does not, however, breed in Scotland or Ireland.

The nest is a very beautiful structure, formed of long blades of dead grass, seed, branches of reeds, and bits of wool lined inside with fine dead grass and hair. It is cleverly suspended between two, three, four, or even as many as five reed stems at varying heights above the water. I have, however, on several occasions seen it in willow and alder bushes at some distance from that element, and it has even been found in a lilac bush in such a very unlikely neighbourhood as Hampstead.

The structure is very deep for the size of the builder, but this peculiarity of its architecture serves a very useful purpose, for when the reeds to which it is attached are violently swayed to and fro by strong gusts of wind, it prevents the eggs from rolling out and away to certain destruction.

The eggs, numbering from four to six, are of a dull greenish-white or greyish-green ground colour, spotted and blotched with darker greyish-green and light brown.

The male helps the female not only in the work of feeding the chicks, but in brooding, and it is a very pretty sight to see them exchanging places on the nest.

The song of this species somewhat resembles that of the Sedge Warbler in being full of chatter, but is not so loud or harsh, and is delivered, as a rule, whilst the singer is hiding amongst reeds. It imitates the note of the Starling, Wagtail, Swallow, and other birds, but is vastly inferior to the Marsh Warbler both as a musician and a mimic. I have heard it at its best during a calm summer evening on the Norfolk Broads, where it sings far into the night and early in the morning, excepting during windy weather, which seems to be greatly disliked by all feathered inhabitants of reed beds. The following extracts from one of my old diaries kept during a stay on Hickling Broad illustrate rather graphically the influence of wind upon the vocal activities of birds:

May 27.--“Windy, dark night; not a bird of any kind to be heard.” May 28.--“Fine calm night. Reed, Sedge, and Grasshopper Warblers, Snipe, Water Rail, Coot, Moorhen, Peewit, and other birds all singing and calling until one o’clock in the morning.”

The song of the Reed Warbler has been represented as tiri, tier zach zerr, scherk heid tret by one authority, and as tiri yach yerr sherk heid tret by another. Each note is repeated by the singer a number of times. Its call note is a harsh turr or choh, choh.

=THE ROCK PIPIT.=

The Rock Pipit, although subject to some seasonal movement, is a resident in the British Islands, and I have never yet heard its song or seen its nest away from the sound of the restless sea. In fact, it is the only song bird the ocean can boast, for although such species as Skylarks, Twites, Starlings, and Linnets frequently breed close by the sea, their haunts are by no means confined to its shores as is the case with the bird under notice.

The Rock Pipit is the largest of the three members of its family breeding in this country. It is olive-brown above, marked with dark streaks in the centres of the feathers; has a dull white throat and under parts, the latter streaked and clouded with dark brown. The bird harmonises well with the dull brown rocks upon which it so often sits, and I have often experienced considerable difficulty in detecting it when it kept quite still whilst uttering its call notes.

This species may always be distinguished with absolute certainty from the Tree and Meadow Pipits when it is on the wing by reason of the fact that it shows no white on either side of its tail.

The Rock Pipit breeds nearly all round our coasts excepting between the Humber and the Thames, and loves small islands, such as those behind which the sun is setting in the tailpiece to this article.