A treasury of natural history; or, a popular dictionary of animated nature ... To which are added, a syllabus of practical taxidermy, etc / [Samuel Maunder].

  • Samuel Maunder
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treasury of natural history; or, a popular dictionary of animated nature ... To which are added, a syllabus of practical taxidermy, etc / [Samuel Maunder]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    liar to instinctive knowledge, to discover the route they are to take, from tlie appear- ance of the atmosphere, the elouds, the direction of the winds, and other causes; so that, without having recourse to impro- hahlc modes, it is easy to conceive, from the velocity of their speed alone, that most birds may transport themselves to countries lying at great distances, and across vast tracts of ocean. At the approach of spring, birds begin to pair, and to provide for the support of their future progeny ; and the loudest notes, on such occasions, generally proceed from the tuneful throats of the males, while the females express their consent in short in- terrupted twitterings. The compacts then entered into between the two sexes are, for the season at least, faitlifully observed : but many birds live together for years with inviolable fidelity ; and when one of them dies, the other does not long survive. We are of course not speaking of the poultry in our yards ; but of those denizens of the air where Nature retains her unadulterated simplicity ; where the number of males is generally equal to that of the females ; and where every little animal seems no less pleased with its t>rogeny than wedded to its mate. The Nests of Birds now claim our notice ; for they are constructed with such exquisite art, 03 to exceed the utmost exertion of hum.au ingenuity to imitate them with perfect success. Their mode of building, the materials they make use of, as well as the situatious they select, are as various as the different kinds of birds, and are aU admirably adapted to their several wants and necessities. Birds of the same species, whatever region of the globe they inhabit, collect the same kind of materials, arrange them in the same manner, and make choice of similar situations for fixing the places of their temporary abodes. Every part of the world furnishes materials for the aerial ar- chitects : leaves and small twigs, roots and dried grass mixed with clay, serve for the external; wlulst moss, wool, fine hair, and the softest animal and vegetable downs, form the warm internal part of these commodious dwellings. On this subject the author of “The Journal of a Naturalist ” thus nwites : ' *^irds that build early in the spring seem to require warmth and shelter for their young ; and the Blackbird and the Tlirush line their nests with a plaster of loam, perfectly excluding', by these cottoge-like walls, the keen icy gales of our opening year : yet, should accident bereave the parents of their first hopes, they will construct another, even when summer is far advanced, upon the model of their first erection, and with the precautions against severe weather, when all necessity for such pro-vision has ceased, and the usual temperature of the season rather requires coolness and a free circulation of air. The Ilouse-sparrow will commonly build four or five times in the year, and in a variety of situations, under the warm caves of our houses and our sheds, the branch of the clustered fir, or the thick tall hedge that bounds our garden, &c. ; in all which places. and -without the least consideration of site or season, it -will collect a great mass of straw and hay, and gather a profusion of feathers from the poultry-yard to line its ■ nest. This cradle for its young, whether : under our tiles in March or in July, when the parent bird is panting in the common heat of the atmosphere, has the same pro- | visions made to afford warmth to the brood; i yet this is a bird that is little affected by any of the extremes of our climate. The 1 Wood-pigeon and the Jay, though they erect their fabrics in the tall underwood in the open air, will construct them so slightly, i and -with such a scanty provision of mate- rials, that they seem scarcely adequate to support their broods, and even their eggs may almost be seen through the loosely- connected materials: but the Goldfinch,that inimitable spinner, the Arachne of the grove, i forms its cradle of fine mosses and lichens, collected from the apple or the pear-tree, compact as a felt, lining it -with the down of thistles besides, till it is os warm as any texture of the kind can be, and it becomes a model for beautiful construction. The golden-crested Wren, a minute creature, per- fectly unmindful of any severity in our winter, and which hatches its young in Jime, the warmer portion of our year, yet builds its most beautiful nest with the utmost attention to warmth j and, inter- weaving small branches of moss -with the web of the spider, forms a closely-compacted i texture nearly an inch in thictoess, lining ! it -with such a profusion of feathers, that , sinking deep into this downy accumulation it seems almost lost itself when sitting, and i the young, when hatched, appear stifled i with the warmth of their bedding and the ji heat of their apartment; while the White- ' throat, the Black-cap, and others, which will hatch their young nearly at the same , period, or in July, -will require nothing of j the kind. A few loose bents and goose-grass, j rudely entwined, -with perhaps the luxury | of some scattered hairs, are perfectly sufll- j cient for all the wants of these; yet they j are birds that live only in genial tempera- ] tures, feel nothing of the icy gales that are , natural to oiu- pretty indigenous artists, but , flit from sun to sun, and we might suppose ■ would require much warmth in our climate ' during the season of incubation ; but it is i not so. The Greenfinch places its nest with ] little regard to concealment; its fabric is j slovenly and rude, and the materials of the . coarsest kinds ; while the Chaffinch, just ' above it in the elm, hides its nest with can- ] tious care, and moulds it with the utmost at- tention to order, neatne-ss, anil form. One ' bird must have n hole in the ground ; to another, a crevice in a wall, or a chink in a tree, is indispensable. The Bullfinch re- j quires fine rbots for its nest; the grey Fly- j catcher will have cobwebs for the outwi)rks . of its shed. All the ;xjri(s tribe, excci)t the | individual above mentioned, select some i hollow in a tree or cranny in a wall ; and, I sheltered as such places must lx;, yet will | they collect abundance of feathers and warm ; materials for their infants’ Iwd. Endless : examples might be found of the dissimilarity '
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