Wild Nature Won by Kindness

Part 1

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Wild Nature

Won by Kindness

WILD NATURE WON BY KINDNESS.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

MORE ABOUT WILD NATURE. With Portrait of the Author and many other full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo, imitation leather gilt, gilt edges, in box, 5s.

INMATES OF MY HOUSE AND GARDEN. With 32 Illustrations by Theo Carreras. Uniform with above, 5s.

ALSO GLIMPSES INTO PLANT LIFE. Fully Illustrated. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.

WILD NATURE WON BY KINDNESS

BY MRS. BRIGHTWEN

Vice-President of the Selborne Society AUTHOR OF "INMATES OF MY HOUSE AND GARDEN," ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

EIGHTH EDITION

London T. FISHER UNWIN PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1898

All rights reserved.

SIR JAMES PAGET, BART., F.R.S., D.C.L., ETC., ETC.

MY DEAR SIR JAMES,--

The little papers which are here reprinted would scarcely have been written but for the encouragement of your sympathy and the stimulus of what you have contributed to the loving study of nature. Shall you, then, think me presumptuous if I venture to dedicate to the friend what I could never dream of presenting to the professor, and if I ask you to pardon the poorness of the gift in consideration of the sincerity with which it is given.

Pray believe me to be Yours very sincerely, ELIZA BRIGHTWEN

THE GROVE, GREAT STANMORE. June, 1800.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION. 1. REARING BIRDS FROM THE NEST 2. DICK THE STARLING 3. RICHARD THE SECOND 4. VERDANT 5. THE WILD DUCKS 6. THE JAY 7. A YOUNG CUCKOO 8. TAMING OF OUR PETS 9. BIRDIE 10. ZOeE THE NUTHATCH 11. TITMICE 12. BLANCHE THE PIGEON 13. GERBILLES 14. WATER SHREWS 15. SQUIRRELS 16. A MOLE 17. HARVEST MICE 18. A CALIFORNIAN MOUSE 19. SANCHO THE TOAD 20. ROMAN SNAILS 21. AN EARWIG MOTHER 22. THE SACRED BEETLE 23. SPIDERS 24. TAME BUTTERFLIES 25. ANT-LIONS 26. ROBINS I HAVE KNOWN 27. ROBERT THE SECOND 28. FEEDING BIRDS IN SUMMER AND WINTER 29. RAB, MINOR 30. A VISIT TO JAMRACH 31. HOW TO OBSERVE NATURE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FLYING WILD DUCK SACRED BEETLE SWALLOW REARING BIRDS FROM THE NEST STARLINGS FLYING STARLINGS STARLING IN SEARCH OF FOOD WILD DUCK TINY, SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND LUTHER JAY ANOTHER JAY A YOUNG CUCKOO BUTTERFLY AND CATERPILLAR YOUNG CUCKOO ATTACKED BY BIRDS ARABESQUE ZOeE, THE NUTHATCH NUTHATCH IN A COCOANUT TITMICE IN PURSUIT OF BEES TITMICE BLANCHE THE PIGEON GERBILLES WATER SHREW SQUIRREL MOLE MICE ROMAN SNAILS EARWIG EGYPTIAN BEETLES FLYING BEETLE TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS BUTTERFLY ANT-LION THE ROBIN YOUNG BIRDS CHILD AND PET BIRD RAB MINOR RAB MINOR RUNNING NESTLINGS NEST OF WASPS SNAKE IN CIRCLE

PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION.

Two short chapters, one describing the life of an Ant-lion, and the other the habits of a tame Toad, were added to the second edition, which was in other respects a reproduction of the first.

The present edition has been improved by the adoption of a number of illustrations which were designed for the German translation of this book.

INTRODUCTION.

Part 2

I have often wished I could convey to others a little of the happiness I have enjoyed all through my life in the study of Natural History. During twenty years of variable health, the companionship of the animal world has been my constant solace and delight. To keep my own memory fresh, in the first instance, and afterwards with a distinct intention of repeating my single experiences to others, I have kept notes of whatever has seemed to me worthy of record in the life of my pets. Some of these papers have already appeared in The Animal World; the majority are now printed for the first time.

In the following chapters I shall try to have quiet talks with my readers and tell them in a simple way about the many pleasant friendships I have had with animals, birds, and insects. I use the word friendships advisedly, because truly to know and enjoy the society of a pet creature you must make it feel that you are, or wish to be, its friend, one to whom it can always look for food, shelter, and solace; it must be at ease and at home with you before its instincts and curious ways will be shown. Sometimes when friends have wished me to see their so-called "pet," some scared animal or poor fluttering bird has been brought, for whom my deepest sympathy has been excited; and yet there may have been perhaps the kindest desire to make the creature happy, food provided in abundance, and a pleasant home; but these alone will not avail. For lack of the quiet gentle treatment which is so requisite, the poor little captive will possibly be miserable, pining for liberty, hating its prison, dreading the visits of its jailor, and so harassed in its terror that in some cases the poor little heart is broken, and in a few hours death is the result. In the following simple sketches of animal, bird, and insect life, I have tried to show how confidence must be gained, and the little wild heart won by quiet and unvarying kindness, and also by the endeavour to imitate as much as possible the natural surroundings of its own life before its capture. I must confess it requires a large fund of patience to tame any wild creature, and it is rarely possible to succeed unless one's efforts begin in its very early days, before it has known the sweets of liberty.

In many cases I have kept a wild animal or bird for a few days to learn something of its ways, possibly to make a drawing of its attitudes or plumage, and then let it go, else nearly all my pets, except imported creatures, have been reared from infancy, an invalid's life and wakefulness making early-morning feeding of young fledglings less difficult than it would have been in many cases, and often have painful hours been made bearable and pleasant by the interest arising from careful observation of the habits and ways of some new pet animal or bird.

I have always strongly maintained that the love of animated nature should be fostered far more than it usually is, and especially in the minds of the young; and that, in fact, we lose an immense amount of enjoyment by passing through life as so many do without a spark of interest in the marvellous world of nature, that book whose pages are ever lying open before us.

The beauties of the country might as well have been left uncreated for all the interest that thousands take in them. Not only town dwellers, who might be excused for their ignorance, but those who live in the midst of fields and woods, often know so little about the curious creatures in fur and feathers that exist around them that they are surprised when told the simplest facts about these, their near neighbours.

One reason may be, that it is now so much the fashion to spend the year in various places, and those always moving about have neither the time nor opportunity to cultivate the little undergrowths of quiet pleasures which spring out of a settled home in the country, with its well-tended garden and farmyard, greenhouses, stable, and fields--the horses and cattle, petted and kindly cared for from their birth, dogs and poultry, and all kinds of special favourites.

There is a healthy, happy tone about such a life, and where it exists and is rightly maintained, good influence is, or ought to be, felt in and around the home. Almost all children have a natural love of living creatures, and if they are told interesting facts about them they soon become ardent naturalists. I well remember that in my childhood I had a great dread of toads and frogs, and a relative, to whom I owe much for having directed my mind into the love of animated nature, took up a frog in her hand and made me look at the beautiful gold circle round its eyes, its curious webbed feet, its leaping power arising from the long hind legs; she told me also of its wonderful tongue, so long and flexible that it folded back in its mouth, and that the frog would sit at the edge of an ant-hill and throwing out the tongue with its sticky point, would pick off the ants one by one as they came out. When I learnt all this, I began to watch such a curious reptile; my fears vanished, and like Kingsley's little daughter, who had been wisely led to care for all living things and came running to show her father a "dear delightful worm" she had found! so I, too, have been led all through my life to regard every created thing, great or small, attractive or otherwise, as an object well worth the most reverent study.

Perhaps I ought to explain that I have described methods of taming, feeding, and housing one's pets with extreme minuteness in order to help those of my readers who may be very fond of live creatures, and yet from lack of opportunity may have gained no knowledge of their mode of life, and what is required to keep them happily in health and vigour. I have had to learn by experience that attention to very small details is the road to success in keeping pets as well as in other things, and the desire to pass on that experience must be my excuse to more scientific readers for seeming triviality.

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