Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Odd Hours With Natu 00 Ur Quia La
Odd Hours With Natu 00 Ur Quia La
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
ODD HOURS WITH NATURE
ODD HOURS WITH
NATURE
ALEXANDER URQUHART
WITH 32 ILLUSTRATIONS
T. FISHER UNWIN
LONDON ADELPHI TERRACE
:
LEIPSIC: INSELSTRASSE zo
First published in 1913
INTRODUCTORY
THESE papers make no pretence to scientific status ;
870901
CONTENTS
JANUARY
PAGE
INDEPENDENT BIRDS . . ... .
-I?
THE BROWN EARTH . . . .
23
FEBRUARY
FAIR MAIDS OF FEBRUARY .... .
-39
THE ROOKERY .
^ i . . . .
44
RESPECTABLE AND DISREPUTABLE RELATIVES . .
49
TUNING UP . . . . . . .
54
MARCH
.......
. . . . 6l
67
TOWN GULLS
MARCH HARES ...... 72
78
8 CONTENTS
APRIL
PAGE
A SPRING TROUBLE
PLOVERS' EGGS
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
-85
-95
90
122
JUNE
THE FANCIES OF THE TROUT
A TERN COLONY
.....
...... 129
134
PUSSY HUNTING
......
......
. . . . r
144
149
39
JULY
TROUT
.....
IN ISOLATED
.
-157
162
167
IQO
... . .
204
SEPTEMBER
THE BUSY BEE . . . . . . .211
THE SPARROW'S HOLIDAY . , . . 216
OCTOBER
THE BRAMBLE . . . . . . .
245
MASCULINE FEMININES
THE STARLING IN
270
NOVEMBER
A QUESTION OF CHOICE .....
...... 279
BIRDS AND STORM
289
294
io CONTENTS
DECEMBER
A WINTER SLEEPER .....
......
PAGE
30!
.....
......
WINTER PLAY OF BIRDS
THE ARMED PLANT
306
312
316
INDEX 321
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
GARBAGE FEEDERS 30
SNOWDROPS .
39
A WET-FLY STREAM 64
A MORNINGS CATCH
LAPWINGS NEST 90
YOUNG LAPWING 92
12 ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PACK
A TOM-TIT FAMILY . . . . .
.107
THE BRAMBLE . . . . , .
245
a legion.
i8 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE
There are many birds, however, which are little
troubled by the hardest winter, and which never
court the charity of man. For the most part they
are neither large nor strong, and rarely capable
of wrestling with the tiniest of physical difficulties.
On the contrary, they are amongst the smallest of
the whole race. With the first touch of autumn
chill the vast majority of insect -eating birds
depart for milder lands, but some, and these the
puniest of all, remain. Just now every pine wood
or plantation in northern shires is inhabited by
hundreds of golden -crested wrens. From every
tree their tiny cheep may be heard, though little
will be seen except by searching eyes. Watch the
needle -covered branches and the little creature will
be found crawling among them, sometimes back up,
sometimes down, never for a moment still, a marvel
of intent industry. There is no ca' canny policy
here, for, though the gold-crest's whole body
weighs but a fraction of an ounce, a full day's toil
is necessary to sustain it. Its food consists of the
minute insects which find a sufficient shelter at the
base of a pine needle, and it takes a very large
number of them to make even a gold-crest's meal.
Hence the absorbed, mouse -like creep through the
needles of the little green bird. Nothing that man
has to offer would be of the least value to it, so
it never joins the flock of pensioners, though some-
applicable to intelligence.
The " dodge " of biding time makes for effi-
ciency on a large and conquering scale only when
accompanied by the dodge of number, and no
really successful weed neglects to make provision
in this way. The prodigal plan of providing
against the chances of life and death has been
made familiar to most people, chiefly in connection
with fish. The cod produces ten thousand (or is
eye.
In the case of the two sparrows it is perfectly
safe to say that the thing that counts is not the
slight difference in plumage, but a psychological
difference which may or may not be related to
it. And here too readily taken for granted
it is
conspicuousness.
In their nesting habits the house-sparrows ex-
hibit another phase of their tendency to parasitism.
What we may take to be their own natural nest
is a clumsy domed structure placed in trees.
When they nest in buildings they omit the dome,
and are always ready to dispense with nest -build-
ing altogether if they can steal another bird's
nest. In this connection the swallows are their
chosen victims, and there is some reason to believe
that they occasionally steal nests from one another.
But they give no symptom of a desire to pursue
further than this the road of the cuckoo, for the
sparrow has a genuine pleasure in the labours
of family-raising.
TUNING UP
THERE is an early phase of the spring madness
of the birds which so far has little to do with
love. A quickening of the pulses, an accession of
vitality, comes with lengthening days. Spirits are
rising high with the temperature and call for
liberation. They are highest in the case of the
early nesters. Here, for example, are the tits.
They are high-spirited little animals at the worst
of times, but they are pre-eminently summer
nesters, and it is still winter with them. They
have not broken up their companies, and they come
all day long to feed on the lump of suet hung
is almost painful to
it
speculate upon the grossly
prosaic nature of his real thoughts. There seems
to be little doubt that the town-frequenting habits
of the gulls are of recent origin. Certainly the
habit has developed enormously in the last twenty
or thirty years, and unsavoury thought some
authorities have traced it to the development of
modern sanitary systems. The gulls revel in sewer
outfalls, though, perhaps, the attraction in their
case is secondary, for the sewer draws to it many
species of small fish on which gulls feed. But they
are foul feeders themselves, and scorn no garbage.
Whatever be the cause, they delight in the life
of towns. The ridge of a roof is an excellent
place for themto perch upon, and if a human
citizen cares to offer those feathered citizens food
*
Ex^u;
. ** mmw^l^y \.
*A
^^f;>
MARCH HARES 81
7
98 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE
it is quite simple, though it has been worked out
in rather bewildering detail. In the first place,
male birds with one another for possession
fight
of the plumpest, most vigorous, and best -looking
females. The strongest succeed, and, in the case
of polygamousbirds, get the biggest harem, and,
in the case of monogamists, the best mates. In
both cases the triumphant warrior gives rise to
a large progeny of good stock like himself. The
vanquished, on the other hand, has to content
himself in the one case with a small harem, and
in the other with an old, unattractive hen of
diminished fertility, with a result of small and
feeble progeny. Thus the race is improved by
the increase of the good fighting stock and the
reduction of the poor fighting stock. In these
cases the cock selects the hen.
To a much greater extent, however, the theory
of sexual selection concerns itself with those cases
in which the hen is supposed to select the cock.
In a great number of cases, as everybody knows,
the males of birds are much more magnificently
clothed than their mates. The hen peafowl is
quite a plain customer, and the same is true
through the whole family of pheasants to which
it belongs. As a family, this one includes the
most gorgeous birds in the world, but all the
finely coloured individuals are males. Why? By
the theory the males are finely coloured because
the hens, themselves plain, have a most remarkably
well-developed taste, and, other things equal, will
always prefer to ally themselves with the finest
cock bird of their acquaintance. In support of
THE ROBIN'S COURTSHIP 99
wrong? Am
I in my sober senses? The hole was
here minutes since, and it is gone. Did ever
five
"
any tit hear of a hole which shut itself?
Then after rubbing his eyes he had another
inspection. Flying up, he tried the off-side of
the box, but there was no hole there. From the
top of the box, by the sure and certain method of
the alternate eye, he once more inspected the
remains of the hole, and finally popped into the
"
box itself, saying as he vanished Well, I never : 1
"
It's gone," she admitted.
14
Oh, not at all. Those spring caterpillars have
been too much for you."
no ODD HOURS WITH NATURE
" " "
Brute she exclaimed with a sob.
! You
have the heart to jest, and I shut out of house
and home."
That took the laugh out of him, and they kissed
and made it up. But the great fact stood out now
in both brains that a cruel, heartless eviction had
taken place.
The succeeding conference in the rose-tree was
long and solemn. The possible causes of the
catastrophe were debated, and when the torn-tit
attributed everything to the vernal equinox his
partner agreed that he had had an inspiration.
But practical considerations asserted themselves.
"
Another hole must be found," said the torn-tit.
"
Something within tells me that it must be
found at once," replied his wife.
"
Isn't it horrible," went on the gentleman, and
me so partial to this garden? I was hatched in
that hole."
" "
I wonder," queried the lady, if
anything
could be made of this new hole? I hate novelties,
but good holes are scarce."
Thereupon she hopped on to the top of the box,
and applied first her left and then her right eye
to the aperture.
"
Looks rather nice and dry," was her com-
ment.
"
I can't endure
damp," said he.
" "
None
here," the lady proceeded. Situation
nice and airy, in close proximity to all the best
fruit trees. Lighting just right."
" "
What about cats?
"
Might have been made to keep them out,"
THE TOM-TITS AND THEIR BOX in
"
she replied. Really, we might do worse than
think about this hole."
"
And neighbours? "
"
They're all right. I saw the man putting water
on flowers and raking ground. Men of that sort
are quite harmless."
"
One can't be too careful about one's neigh-
bours. Fortunately, there are no children."
But before coming to a final decision the troubled
pair evidently resolved to inspect all the other
holes in the neighbourhood, and they vanished for
a whole day. The search cannot have been pro-
ductive, for when next seen they entered the box,
and made a long stay. Conversation was resumed
on the rose-tree.
'* "
I think,"said the lady, this will make a
most eligible residence dry, secure, self-contained,
cat-proof, and quite beyond the reach of small
boys."
"
I really believe we could not do better," said
"
her mate, and house-hunting is such a bore."
"
Then let us take it," said she decisively ; and
"
the other said, Done."
And " done " it was. They have now got in
all their sticks, and there may be an egg in the
box any morning. It has one great advantage
over the hole that I can open the lid, just to see
that the conditions of a reasonable tenancy are
being observed.
BIRDS IN THE GARDEN
home ;
and many of our robins retain the race
habit in this respect to the full, particularly those
that live in the country. Shallow holes at the
bottom of trees, recesses in banks well shrouded
with herbage, and low set holes in walls are its
typical resorts and the discovery of the nest in
these natural conditions is never an easy matter.
THE NESTING OF THE ROBIN 119
of cramped quarters.
is very generally thought that the robin,
It
so ready to be a dependant during hard weather,
is indifferent to human assistance in the summer.
This by no means the case.
is I have only to
"
She drops her fawn in high heather, where
she leaves concealed the whole day, and returns
it
ewe-bereft lamb.
THE YOUNG DEER 125
epicures.
It isonly necessary to have some acquaintance
with larger gardens and shrubberies about
the
the town to realize the truth of this. In these
places the birds nest in security and in numbers
which it is difficult to realize. Most of the black-
birds and thrushes have now raised their first
brood, and the young birds are to be met with'
everywhere. Awkward in their movements, with
obtrusively yellow edges to their beaks, they have
inexperience written all over them and they;
"
Gentlemen who come to the Highlands for deer-
stalking expect deer-stalking, and a keeper who
knows his business knows very well what they
are looking for. It is possible he might take
them within shooting distance of a stag ,with less
trouble than he puts them to, but they would not
think half so much of themselves. And to tell
chance.
Two days later, when I next inspected the scene
of the wreck, the work of restoration was com-
plete ; the earthen roof of the nest was tolerably
level amidst the grass stubble, and a number of
small round holes were visible leading into an
interior. Ants were moving about in all direc-
tions.
But there was a disappointing want, in the
appearance of things, of that orderly industry and
high intellectuality of which one finds so much
in the books about ants. The vast majority of
the ants were wandering about in a seemingly
aimless fashion, and a map of the course of any,
one of them would resemble a fallen thread.
Altogether, watching ants was such an unevent-
ful work that I resolved to try the experimental
method, so captured a caterpillar and dropped it
where the crowd was thickest. Then the play
brightened up. The first ant that touched the
it, whereupon the reptile
caterpillar tried to taste of
a green with black stripes and slightly hairy
grub from a cabbage turned sharply and tried
to retaliate with its jaws. It got one of the ant's,
" "
Tom to a great authority on sport, who had
asked him for the first he got. What his corre-
" "
spondent wanted was the body of the first Tom
captured for setting-up purposes, and great was
the embarrassment caused at a certain town office
when an animal with the temper of a tiger arrived
in a box which nobody dared to open.
On the adjoining forest, almost identical in
character, some further light was thrown on the
subject, though the story told was different. I
15
226 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE
Andyet with all its innocence the water-vole
leads a persecuted life. It might say, with
"
Stevenson's pirate, I never knew good come out
o' goodness." When it sallies forth for its blame-
less supper worthy of an anchorite, a supper of
herbs and water, it steps into the trap set for its
feet. When it sits up in conscious rectitude on
the bank in broad daylight to do its back hair the
passing ploughman or fisher heaves a rock at it,
and it succumbs to a touch which would hardly
inconvenience the tougher sinner who has cursed
it with its name. The prime mistake of its evolu-
tion was in the adoption of shape. its
Perhaps
itmade an honest effort to achieve distinction
when it adopted a short tail. But, alas it hides
I
16
OCTOBER
THE BRAMBLE
THE LATEST SMALL FRUIT
we tolerate most.
it The places that I associate
with brambles are among the pleasantest places
I know. Here is one a road runs almost due
:
bird.
There is, however, one very wonderful thing
about the starling's song. As you listen to it, many
of the notes and phrases seem familiar in a far-
away fashion. One of the performers has got
the notes of a blackbird, and he goes over them
again and again. If the listener knows bird notes
well he can pick out in the concert those of almost
every songster of the grove, but always uttered as
if the performer, in the language of the nursery,
"
were saying it little to himself." The truth is,
the starling is a conscious mimic. He has notions
about music, listens appreciatively to the song of
THE STARLING IN AUTUMN 269
is not.
"
Of all the miserable animals in the world,"
"
says my friend, a stag which has gathered a
large harem of hinds is the most wretched." Let
us suppose that his collection is complete. His
success means that a great many other stags-
mettlesome creatures, but younger and lighter are
left in desolate bachelor state. But they do not
accept that condition as inevitable. They hover
near the coveted collection and keep its owner in
perpetual hot water. One of those interested on-
lookers appears on a neighbouring eminence and
utters a challenging roar. He comes nearer, and,
A QUESTION OF CHOICE 281
20
THE WILD SWAN
ONCE upon a time there appeared in a country
paper the following advertisement, which, for an
indefinite number of days, was the occasion of
torturing apprehension in the bosom of a certain
small boy :
"
REWARD. 5 will be paid for information
Hares, 78
Nest of Robin, 118
Form L9-50m-7,'54(5990)444
Ur-:uhart -
Odd hours with
U?9o nature
001 182695 5
DOT 3
31
U79o