GOLDFINCH (Carduelis elegans).-This exquisite little bird is frequent on the borders of the chalk hills, where there is plenty of thistledown.
HAWFINCH (Coccothraustes vulgaris).-Sometimes seen, but not common.
LINNET (Linota cannabina).-Fairly frequent.
GREEN LINNET (Coccothraustes chloris).-Greenfinch, or Beanbird as they call it in Devonshire, is a pleasant visitor, though it has a great turn for pease.
WREN (Sylvia troglodytes).-This brisk little being Kitty Wren is to be seen everywhere. Whether Kingsley's theory is right that the little birds roll themselves into a ball in a hole in the winter, I know not. Single ones are certainly to be seen on a bank on a frosty, sunshiny day. Have they come out to view the world and report on it? Those very odd, unused nests are often to be found hanging from the thatch within outhouses. May it be recorded here that a wren once came to peck the sprigs on Miss Keble's gown?
GREAT TITMOUSE (Parus major)-or Ox-eye, as he is here called, bold and bright, crying "Peter" in early spring, and beautiful with his white cheek, and the black bar down his yellow waistcoat.
BLUE TIT (Parus cæruleus).-Bolder and prettier is the little blue-cap, a true sprite and acrobat as Wordsworth calls him.
MARSH-TIT (Parus palustris).-Known by less bright colouring and white breast.
COLE-TIT (Parus ater).-More grey, and very graceful. All these four will gladly come to a window in winter for a little fat hung to a string, and will put themselves into wonderful inverse positions.
LONG-TAILED TIT (Parus caudatus).-Long-tailed Caper, as is his local name, is more shy, and will not come to be fed; but the antics of a family after they have left their domed nest are delightful to watch, as they play in the boughs of a fir-tree.
HEDGE-SPARROW (Accentur modularis).-Quiet, mottled bird, to be seen everywhere.
PIED WAGTAIL (Motacilla lutor).-Most of these stay with us all winter, but one March evening at least forty-three descended on the lawn at Elderfield, doubtless halting in their flight from southern lands. Most winning birds they are, with their lively hop and jerking tails. Dish-washer is their Hampshire name.
GREY WAGTAIL (Motacilla boarula).-This pretty bird is really partly yellow. It is not very frequent here, but is sometimes found on the Itchen bank; likewise the nest in a reedy meadow.
RAY'S WAGTAIL (Motacilla Rayi).-Ray's Wagtail was catching flies on a window at Otterbourne House in 1890.
TREE PITT (Anthus arboreus), MEADOW PIPIT (Anthus pratensis ).-Small brown birds, not easy to distinguish; but the eggs differ, and both have been found.
BULLFINCH (Pyrrhula vulgaris).-It is charming to greet the black head and red waistcoat in the tops of the laurels or apple-trees, and surely this destroyer of insect devourers does more good than harm, if he does pick the buds to pieces in the search. He is a delightful pet, of exclusive and jealous attachments, hating every one except his own peculiar favourite; and his sober-coloured lady has quite as much character as he. One which was devoted to her own mistress would assail another of the family with such spite as sometimes to drive her out of the room.
STARLING (Sturnus vulgaris).-Green bedropped with gold when seen closely, but at a distance looking more like a rusty blackbird, though its gait on the lawn always distinguishes it, being a walk instead of a hop. Though not tuneful, no bird has such a variety of notes, and the clatter on the root the call-note, the impatient summons of the brood about to be fed, make it a most amusing neighbour, when it returns to the same tree year after year.
RAVEN (Corvus corax).-He has flown over the village several times. One lived for many years in the yard of the George Inn at Winchester.
CROW (Corvus coronæ).-Game-preserving has nearly put an end to him, but he is seen round the folds on the downs in lambing time.
ROOK (Corvus frugilegus).-Shining and black the great birds come down on the fields. There is a rookery at Cranbury, another at Hams Farm at Allbrook, and a considerable one in the beeches near Merdon, for which the rooks deserted some oak-trees nearer the House. While these trees were still inhabited, Mr. G. W. Heathcote observed a number of walnuts under them, and found that the rooks brought them from the walnut avenues. A parliament of these wise birds is sometimes held on the downs, and there are woods where they assemble in great numbers in the autumn, contingents from all lesser rookeries pouring in to spend the winter, and whirling round and round in clouds before roosting.
JACKDAW (Corvus monedula).-A very amusing, though very wicked pet. There used to be throngs of them in the tower of the old church at Hursley, and their droll voices might be heard conversing in the evening. Mr. Chamberlayne had one which, after being freed, always came down to greet him when he walked in the garden.
MAGPIE (Corvus pica).-Pages might be filled with the merry mischief of this handsome creature. Perhaps the most observable characteristic of the three tame ones closely observed was their exclusive and devoted attachment to one person, whom they singled out for no cause that could be known, and followed about from place to place.
JAY (Garrulus glandarius).-May be heard calling in the pine plantations on Hursley Common. It would be as amusing as the magpie if tamed.
GREEN WOODPECKER (Picus viridis).-The laugh and the tap may be heard all through the Spring days. In 1890 Picus major, a small, black, and spotted French Magpie, as Devonians call it, was found, but we have no other right to claim it.
WRYNECK (Yunx torquilla), or Cuckoo's mate, squeaks all round the woods with his head on one side just as the cuckoo comes.
NUTHATCH (Sitta europæa).-This pretty creature will come and be fed on nuts at windows in the winter. These nuts he thrusts into crevices of bark to hold them fast while he hammers the shell. The remains may often be found. For many years a pair built in a hole half-way down an old apple-tree covered with ivy at Otterbourne House, and the exertions of the magpie with clipped wing to swing himself on a trail of ivy into the hole were comical, as well as his wrath when he fell off, as he uniformly did.
TREE-CREEPER (Certhia familiaris), winds round and round the trees like a little mouse.
HOOPOE (Upupa vulgaris).-Once in a frost caught alive by a shepherd on the downs, but it soon died.
CUCKOO (Cuculus canorus).-They cuckoo till "in June he altereth his tune." Probably the stammer is the effort of the young ones to sing. One grew up in a wagtail's nest in the flints that were built into the wall of Otterbourne Churchyard. Another, carried to the other side of the road and caged, was still fed by its foster-parents till it was ready to fly.
WOOD-PIGEON (Columba palumbus)-
Take two cows, Taffy,
Taffy, take two-o-o.
Plenty of this immoral exhortation may be heard in the trees. One young pigeon taken from the nest proved incorrigibly wild and ready to flutter to death whenever any one came near it.