Birds through the year (1922) (14568799890)

Identifier: birdsthroughyear00thom (find matches)

Title: Birds through the year

Year: 1922 (1920s)

Authors: Thomas, William Beach, Sir, 1868-1957 Collet, Anthony Keeling, 1877-

Subjects: Birds -- Great Britain Birds -- Pictorial works

Publisher: London, Edinburgh, T.C. and E.C. Jack, ltd

Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library

Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

Text Appearing Before Image:

hey mount to the sameconspicuous perches in the hedges and gorse-brakes wherethey afterwards sing, and utter a laboured chirp with an airof emphasis and challenge. It is an exceedingly rudimentarymethod of expression ; but the birds whole demeanour indi-cates strongly that it is meant as an effort at song, and asa vindication of its right to that particular stretch of thehedgerow or thicket. This stage does not last long; tendays or a fortnight after the yellowhammer has begun toact in this way it usually begins to sing, and in a week ora fortnight more the well-known ditty is complete. There is little or no similarity of tone between the yellow-hammers rudimentary chirp and the notes of its song; norhas the chaffinchs song any noticeable likeness to its commoncries and call-notes. But the development of the greenwoodpeckers full notes as spring approaches is an interestingexample of expansion from the normal winter cry. The loudlaughing note of the yaffle or ecle—as the green wood-

Text Appearing After Image:

PAIRING AND EARLY SONG 361 pecker is often called—is very familiar in the spring woods, and begins to be heard in a complete form in February, if the season is early and open. It is a shout rather than a song; but it seems clearly to be a shout of gladness, and therefore closely akin to song in spirit and origin. Yet if we startle a woodpecker as it feeds on the ground under the winter hedgerows, it often utters a cry which is merely its spring laugh cut down to two or three notes, as it shoots up and undulates across the field. Snipe begin to drum in mild seasons in the south of England in the second or third week in February, when they pair and settle down in the marshy fields where they nest early in April. Their drumming or bleating note sounds extremely like the baa of a young lamb, and is even closer to the bleat of a kid. It is the snipes equivalent for song, though it is not produced vocally, but by the vibration of the web of the two outer feathers of the tail. This is pecu

allen william seaby birds through the year 1922 book book illustrations ornithology birds zoological illustration natural history american museum of natural history high resolution images from internet archive

1922

American Museum of Natural History Library

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