Birds of Town and Village

Birds of Town and Village

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Hudson #6 in our series by W. H. Hudson
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Title: Birds of Town and Village
Author: W. H. Hudson
Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7353] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 20,
2003]
Edition: 10

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Produced by Eric Eldred

BIRDS IN TOWN & VILLAGE
BY
W. H. HUDSON,
F.Z.S.
AUTHOR OF "THE PURPLE LAND," "IDLE DAYS IN
PATAGONIA," "FAR AWAY AND LONG AGO," ETC.
1920

PREFACE
This book is more than a mere reprint of Birds in a Village first
published in 1893. That was my first book about bird life, with some
impressions of rural scenes, in England; and, as is often the case with a
first book, its author has continued to cherish a certain affection for it.
On this account it pleased me when its turn came to be reissued, since
this gave me the opportunity of mending some faults in the portions
retained and of throwing out a good deal of matter which appeared to
me not worth keeping.
The first portion, "Birds in a Village," has been mostly rewritten with
some fresh matter added, mainly later observations and incidents
introduced in illustration of the various subjects discussed. For the
concluding portion of the old book, which has been discarded, I have
substituted entirely new matter-the part entitled "Birds in a Cornish
Village."
Between these two long parts there are five shorter essays which I have
retained with little alteration, and these in one or two instances are
consequently out of date, especially in what was said with bitterness in
the essay on "Exotic Birds for Britain" anent the feather-wearing

fashion and of the London trade in dead birds and the refusal of women
at that time to help us in trying to save the beautiful wild bird life of
this country and of the world generally from extermination. Happily,
the last twenty years of the life and work of the Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds have changed all that, and it would not now be too
much to say that all right-thinking persons in this country, men and
women, are anxious to see the end of this iniquitous traffic.
W. H. H.
September, 1919.

CONTENTS
PAGE
BIRDS IN A VILLAGE:
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN
MOOR-HENS IN HYDE PARK
THE EAGLE AND THE CANARY
CHANTICLEER
IN AN OLD GARDEN
BIRDS IN A CORNISH VILLAGE:
I. TAKING STOCK OF THE BIRDS
II. DO STARLINGS PAIR FOR LIFE?
III. VILLAGE BIRDS IN WINTER
IV. INCREASING BIRDS IN BRITAIN
V. THE DAW SENTIMENT
VI. STORY OF A JACKDAW

BIRDS IN TOWN & VILLAGE

BIRDS IN A VILLAGE I
About the middle of last May, after a rough and cold period, there came
a spell of brilliant weather, reviving in me the old spring feeling, the
passion for wild nature, the desire for the companionship of birds; and I
betook myself to St. James's Park for the sake of such satisfaction as
may be had from watching and feeding the fowls, wild and semi-wild,
found gathered at that favored spot.
I was glad to observe a couple of those new colonists of the ornamental
water, the dabchicks, and to renew my acquaintance with the familiar,
long-established moorhens. One of them was engaged in building its
nest in an elm-tree growing at the water's edge. I saw it make two
journeys with large wisps of dry grass in its beak, running up the rough,
slanting trunk to a height of sixteen to seventeen feet, and disappearing
within the "brushwood sheaf" that springs from the bole at that distance
from the roots. The wood-pigeons were