Linnaeus says that hawks 'paciscuntur inducias cum avibus,
quamdiu cuculus cuculat' but it appears to me that, during that
period, many little birds are taken and destroyed by birds of prey,
as may be seen by their feathers left in lanes and under hedges.
The missel-thrush is, while breeding, fierce and pugnacious,
driving such birds as approach its nest, with great fury, to a
distance. The Welch call it pen y llwyn, the head or master of the
coppice. He suffers no magpie, jay, or blackbird, to enter the
garden where he haunts; and is, for the time, a good guard to the
new-sown legumens. In general he is very successful in the defence
of his family: but once I observed in my garden, that several
magpies came determined to storm the nest of a missel-thrush: the
dams defended their mansion with great vigour, and fought
resolutely pro aris & focis; but numbers at last prevailed, they tore
the nest to pieces, and swallowed the young alive.
In the season of notification the wildest birds are comparatively
tame.
Pages:
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299