WCP2261

[1]¹

Wellborn — York.

14 Oct. 1870 —

Dear Sir

My neighbour Spruce² thought too favourably of me when he supposed that I might be useful to you in the inquiry you name in your note³ of the 7 Inst. — I have not seen your Book⁴ on birds' nests but I have been all my life a great admirer of the feathered tribe [one illeg. word struck through], first as a school boy & latterly, for better than 20 years, as a resident in the country, still I have not experienced[?] an observation that enables me to be serviceable to a naturalist.

The subject you wish for information upon would require very exact study made under more favourable circumstances.

I have always supposed that Birds generally paired from the same brood, so far as that could be done by their being an equal number of males and females, but your inquiry brings to my recollection that which may be seen every year among Partridges — Such proportions of covies as escape the sportsman will unite to the extent of two or three broods and at the time of early spring, when they pair, the males fight. Two years ago I found, in the midst of some scattered feathers, a Cock partridge that had been killed & I was informed, by a countryman⁵, that such is not an uncommon cause "they fight so". I have seen too, in our gardens, at different times, male Blackbirds fight & at the end of the struggle the victor chase the vanquished with great fury — Sparrows, I believe impelled by the passions of love, as you must know fight furiously [2] Two locked together fell out of a tree[?] of ours and were drowned in a tub of water below.

The conduct of barn-door fowls, ^polygamous does not throws light upon the subject. The strongest Cock usurps[?] a power over both old & young males but it is perceptible enough that an old hen — if the tyrant be young — will have a partiality for her old lord & does not readily submit to the commands[?] of her young & more robust admirer —

Pigeons pair — they love their mates sometimes & then, where females, I think I may safely say they are courted by more than one lover & that the strong or most courageous[?] gains the prize but whether the males are bachelors, widowers or unfaithful lords, I cannot say — "none but the brave deserve the fair."

I have had for five years in succession a pair of spotted fly catchers that built their nests & reared their young near my bedroom windows, then, seemingly by a disaster of a nest washed down in a heavy rain, a two years intermission followed. Then again, for the last two years a pair has built near the same place but I cannot say, & it would be a nice point to determine, whether they are the same birds or descendants of the first pair.

Starlings much return to the place where they were hatched to seek shelter for their nests. One may know or reasonably conclude so, by those that come living[?] about as if they know the place & by their agreeing[?] in number with the broods hatched, is the previous season, under ones eye. But these remarks do not hit the subjects you are investigating & I ought to ask pardon for their length.

[3] Since writing the former part of this epistle I have called upon a person[?]⁶ who had, for a great many years kept cage birds & pigeons and has a general knowledge of Birds & their habits.

He tells me that ^male pigeons will desert their hens, even when they are rearing young, & mate with other females & that a cock will [1 word illeg.] with two or three hens — He also says that the old & young will pair will pair as readily, or more readily than young with young —

In reference to the Redbreasts, he gives me a strange history (tell it not to your children) he says that the young cocks become in autumn more robust than their sires & that they persecute them to death — They fight them, they chase them & buffet them till they become feeble despond & die. He inclines to an opinion that the old hens perish too. This is natural selection with a vengeance.

He says of the Swift, when he was young — that is well on to 70 years since, a Man at Staindrop Co[unty]. Durham took during the night, a pair from under his tiles[?] and stitched round their short legs a p[ie]c[e]. of red cloth & that the same birds returned for 4 or 5 years —

M^r Spruce seemed happy to have your two children to present to me the other day — dear creatures they seem favoured with good health — our Friend is scarcely up to his own [one word illeg.] work, he has complained lately of rheumatisms & got out very little.

I am D[ea]^r Sir — yours truly | M^r Teasdale [signature]