Volume 2

The feathered tribes of the British Islands / By Robert Mudie.

  • Robert Mudie
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The feathered tribes of the British Islands / By Robert Mudie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and the vegetable food of birds, and then the strangers from lower latitudes migrate thither, to share in the abundance; and it is not unworthy of remark, that, in the regions to which those insectivorous migrants resort in the summer, there is a supply of succulent berries, increasing with the latitude, which comes in when the insects begin to be fewer, and enables the birds to feed themselves into sufficient strength for their mi¬ gration southward. The graminivorous birds do not interfere much with that pulpy store ; the seeds, the pips, and the hard winter berries, agree better with their organization. Thus they have altogether a more polar locality. In the temperate latitude of Britain, where the winds from the sea keep the surface clear of snow for the greater part of the winter, the greater number of them are resident; and any that do come as visitants, come only in the winter, and from countries farther to the north, or where the snow falls more thickly, or lies longer. They migrate more on the continent, because the seasonal variations, being less tempered by the vicinity of the sea, are greater there; and hence the occasional visitants are more numerous in proportion to those that come regularly, than in the case of the summer birds. So far as has been observed, the resident species of British birds of this order are more numerous, in proportion to the visitants and stragglers, than in the insectivorous birds ; and as the visitants come at a time when birds flock or congre¬ gate, and not when they spread themselves over their pastures as they do in the breeding season, the winter stragglers are better seen than the summer ones. The general characters are : the bill short, strong, and coni¬ cal the upper mandible advancing upon the line of the fore¬ head, and the under one having its lower outline a little con¬ vex, so that the whole bill has great power for its size. They have three toes before, and one behind, the former free for their whole length; and thus the foot is adapted for walking, for perching, or for grasping. The wings are of mean length, and vary in the form of their terminations according to the habits of the birds. The tails are generally strong; the whole
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