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THE PAGEANT OF
NATURE
Edited by
P. CHALMERS MITCHELL, C.B.E, D.SC.,
LL.D., F.R.S.
Photo : Stanley Crook
VOLUME I
LONDON
THE WAVERLEY BOOK COMPANY, LTD
96 Farringdon Street, E.C.4
1
:
; .. t .
I c
Printed in Great Britain
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
BIRD LIFE, WONDERS OF
Birds, Study of (Part I.) .
Birds, Study of (Part II.) .
Birds with a Bad Reputation
Breeding Haunts, Sea Bird
Chicks and Nestlings
Cuckoo, Mystery of the
Cuckoo, Wiles of the
Eggs of British Birds, The
Golden Eagle's " Third Eyelid," The .
Gulls, Black-backed ....
Harbingers of Spring, The Real
Heron and His Ways, The
Linnet, The, A confiding Little Neighbour
Manx Shearwater, The
Migration of British Birds, The .
Nest, Curious History of a .
Nesting Habits of British Birds, The .
Nesting-places, Some Queer
Plumage, Courtship and Song
Rooks, Community of the .
Solan Goose, The ....
Songsters of the Night
Storm Petrel, The ....
Swallow as a Migrant, The
Terns or Sea-Swallows, The
Thrushes, Our Resident
Why The Curlew has a long Bill
FISH LIFE, STRANGE FACTS OF
Brown Trout, Life Story of the
Eel, Life Story of the
Expressive Attitudes of Fish
Salmon Family, The ....
Salmon Scale, A. ....
FROG AND A TOAD, WHAT is THE DIFFER-
ENCE BETWEEN
P. CHALMERS MITCHELL, C.B.E.,
D.Sc., F.R.S i
THE RIGHT HON. THE VISCOUNT
GREY OF FALLODON . . -313
THE RIGHT HON. THE VISCOUNT
GREY OF FALLODON . . .382
AUDREY SETON GORDON, B.A.,
M.B.O.U 322
RICHARD KEARTON, F.Z.S. . 27
A. LANDSBOROUGH THOMSON, O.B.E.,
D.Sc 361
EDGAR CHANCE, M.A., M.B.O.U. . 173
GEORGE J. SCHOLEY . . . 482
A. LANDSBOROUGH THOMSON, O.B.E.,
D.Sc 217
SETON GORDON, F.Z.S. ... 23
RICHARD KEARTON, F.Z.S. . . 467
C. S. BAYNE ..... 133
FRANK BONNETT . . . -375
HENRY WILLFORD . . . .168
C. J. KING 539
A. LANDSBOROUGH THOMSON, O.B.E.,
D.Sc 14
W. H. NETTLEFIELD . . .181
A. LAKDSBOROUGH THOMSON, O.B.E.,
D.Sc 158
J. T. NEWMAN .... 484
A. LANDSBOROUGH THOMSON, O.B.E.,
D.Sc 474
CAPT. C. W. R. KNIGHT, M.C. . 125
SETON GORDON, B.A., F.Z.S. . . 225
EDWARD C. ASH, M.R.A.C. . . 533
SETON GORDON, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. . 369
A. LANDSBOROUGH THOMSON, O.B.E.,
D.Sc 119
RICHARD KEARTON, F.Z.S. . . 306
FRANK BONNETT . . . . 543
C. S. BAYNE : 234
DR. FRANCIS WARD, F.Z.S. . . 401
F. MARTIN DUNCAN, F.Z.S. . . 256
DR. FRANCIS WARD, F.Z.S. , . 145
DR. FRANCIS WARD, F.Z.S. . . 559
DR. FRANCIS WARD, F.Z.S. . .. 495
M. H. CRAWFORD
37
681238
CONTENTS
FUNGI, HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE
Mushrooms, A Dish of Spring . . EDWARD STEP, F.L.S.
HAWTHORN TIME .....
INSECT LIFE, CURIOSITIES OF
Butterfly, Transformations of a .
Cabbage White Butterfly, The .
City Builders in the Pine Wood
Cuckoo-spit and the Frog-hopper
Earwig, Wonderland of the
Field Cricket, The, an Insect Musician
Giant-tailed " Wasp," The
Hawk Moths, The ....
Marbled Moths, In Search of the
Moths of Spring, The
Nature as a Camouflage Artist .
Sambucarias, Camp of the .
Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly : A Court-
ship Episode .....
Tiger- beetle's Larva, Wiles of the
Trident-bearer, The ....
Wasps and their Ways
TICKNER EDWARDES
T. M. BLACKMAN .
K. G. BLAIR, B.Sc., F.E.S.
EDWARD STEP, F.L.S.
JOHN J. WARD, F.E.S. .
JOHN J. WARD, F.E.S. .
K. G. BLAIR, B.Sc., F.E.S.
T. M. BLACKMAN .
M. H. CRAWFORD .
C. W. COLTHRUP, Z.P.C.
M. H. CRAWFORD .
A. HAROLD BASTIN
M. H. CRAWFORD .
JOHN J. WARD, F.E.S. .
C. W. COLTHRUP, Z.P.C.
EDWARD STEP, F.L.S. .
RAY PALMER, F.E.S.
CHILDREN'S PAGES : FAIRYLAND OF NATURE. By OLIVE HOCKIN
Children of Summer ..........
Dragon and the Seven Blue Maidens, The ......
Good-bye to Spring . . . . . . . . .
How the Robber was Robbed . . . .
Little Homes in the Orchard . . .
What Happened to the Young Rats .......
What Popsi Found in the Attic .......
NATURE UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
How the Nettle and the Wasp use
their Stings .....
PLANT LIFE, BYWAYS OF
How a Grain of Wheat Grows .
How the Leaves Secure a Place in the
Sun
Sensitive Tendril, The
Unfolding of the Leaves, The .
PLANT PARASITES
Robber Plants, Some Strange
REPTILES
Harmless Snakes in Great Britain
Legless Lizard, A British .
The Only British Poisonous Snake
A. HAROLD BASTIN
A. HAROLD BASTIN
G. CLARKE NUTTALL, B.Sc.
S. LEONARD BASTIN
G. CLARKE NUTTALL, B.Sc.
S. LEONARD BASTIN
PAGE
207
289
433
333
267
408
271
525
520
189
55
104
328
443
277
527
182
573
429
501
357
141
285
213
49 1
563
460
346
44 8
P. CHALMERS MITCHELL, C.B.E., D.Sc.,
F.R.S 261
P. CHALMERS MITCHELL, C.B.E., D.Sc.,
F.R.S. . . . . .569
P t CHALMERS MITCHELL, C.B.E., D.Sc.,
F.R.S . ... .92
VI
CONTENTS
SPIDERS, THE WORLD OF
Bridges and Nets that the Spider Builds
SPRING, THE AWAKENING OF .
SUMMERTIDE ......
TOAD AND A FROG, WHAT is THE DIFFER-
ENCE BETWEEN A ....
TREES AND THEIR LIFE STORY
Landscape, Trees and the .
Leaf Buds, Awakening of the
Palm, What is . . .
Sex and Tree Flowers
" When Rosy Plumelets tuft the Larch "
WILD ANIMALS AT HOME, OUR
Brock, the Badger ....
Hare, The Ways of the ...
Little Red Rover, The
Little Sleeper in the Hedgerow, The .
Rabbit and its Problems, The
The Silent Fisherman of our Rivers .
Velvet-coated Tunnel-maker, A
Vole, The : A Genuine Vulgarian
Why the Long-eared Bat has Huge Ears
WILD FLOWERS AND THEIR WAYS
Biggest Family in the World
Cinderellas among Plants
Christmas Rose, Wild Relations of the .
Iris, Toilet of the ....
Plant Rosettes .....
Spring Flowers of the Downland
Spring Flowers of the Oakwood .
Violet, Secret Flowers of the
Water Buttercup, Story of the
Weather, Plants and the
JOHN J. WARD, F.E.S.
TICKNER EDWARDES
TICKNER EDWARDES
M. H. CRAWFORD .
G. CLARKE NUTTALL, B.Sc.
G. CLARKE NUTTALL, B.Sc.
G. CLARKE NUTTALL, B.Sc.
G. CLARKE NUTTALL, B.Sc.
EDWARD STEP, F.L.S.
FRANK BONNETT
W. S. BERRIDGE, F.Z.S. .
" OBSERVER " . .
H. W. SHEPHEARD-WALWYN,
F.Z.S.
W. S. BERRIDGE, F.Z.S. .
DR. FRANCIS WARD, F.Z.S.
W. S. BERRIDGE, F.Z.S. .
H. W. SHEPHEARD-WALWYN,
F.Z.S.
JOHN J. WARD, F.E.S. .
G. CLARKE NUTTALL, B.Sc.
G. CLARKE NUTTALL, B.Sc.
EDWARD STEP, F.L.S.
A. HAROLD BASTIN
EDWARD STEP, F.L.S. .
TICKNER EDWARDES
EDWARD STEP, F.L.S.
G. CLARKE NUTTALL, B.Sc.
S. LEONARD BASTIN
G. CLARKE NUTTALL, B.Sc.
M.A.
M.A.,
I'AGE
349
5
505
37
61
99
70
416
240
453
5'4
73
279
20 1
48
340
424
80
245
303
43
299
391
194
398
253
55 1
VI 1
LIST OF COLOURED PLATES
Wild Crocuses ..... From a Colour Transparency by
REGINALD A. MALBY, F.R.H.S. Frontispiece
Spring's Awakening .... From a Painting by FACING FACE
ARTHUR J. BLACK, R.O.I. . . 85
Pike on the Look-out An Under-water Autochrome by
DR. FRANCIS WARD, F.Z.S. . . 145
Nest and Eggs of Song Thrush . . | ^ Cohur Transparendes by
Nest and Eggs of Willow Warbler . J REGINALD A. MALBY, F.R.H.S. . 223
The Rhododendron's Regal Robe of Purple From a Painting by
ARTHUR J. BLACK, R.O.I. . . 295
Young Song Thrushes .... From a Colour Transparency by
REGINALD A. MALBY, F.R.H.S. . 367
Silver-washed Fritillary Butterflies . From an Autochrome by
A. HAROLD BASTIN . . 437
Buttercup Meadow . . From an Autochrome by
A. HAROLD BASTIN . . . 505
THE PAGEANT OF NATURE
British Wild Life and Its Wonders
INTRODUCTION .A: ::;v v ..V.';
****** ***%**
By P. CHALMERS MITCHELL, D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S., C.B.E.
Life is sweet, brother. There's night and day, brother, both sweet
things ; sun, moon, and stars, brother, all sweet things : there's likewise
a wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother.
GEORGE BORROW.
MODERN civilization is herding man-
kind in cities. It would be futile
to rail against an economic process
that seems inevitable, and unwise to forget
advantages that it brings. Town life gives
us better wages or salaries, and many con-
veniences in the way of society, education,
medical attendance, light and heat, amuse-
ments, wider opportunity and a closer
contact with our fellows. But however a
cage be gilded or snugly furnished, it re-
mains a cage. Men in cities are caged
creatures, every hour of their lives entangled
in artificial conditions. Their senses and
emotions from time to time flutter against
the bars. The soft breath of spring, birds
singing in a park sanctuary, a coloured poster
on a hoarding, awaken old memories or even
inborn longings. We crave the wind on
the heath, the leaves and flowers of the
fields, some sight or hearing of the living
things of the wide world. We are tired
of our sophisticated environment, of the
electric light, the smooth pavement, the
office, the workshop, the club and the cinema.
We long for what Walt Whitman called the
" primal sanities of Nature."
Nature is within the reach of nearly all
of us in this country. In these fortunate
islands, set between the Continent and the
Atlantic Ocean, we escape the harsh
extremes of climate to which our position
on the globe would otherwise submit us.
The heat of summer and the cold of winter
are tempered by soft winds from the sea.
Even in a summer of great heat and drought
like that of 1921, or in a winter of historical
severity, there are always sheltered nooks to
be found where plants are growing, and
some kind of animal life is active. A few
of our smaller and more delicate mammals
may remain dormant in winter, but most
of them are active all the year round, and,
indeed, even more easily seen in the cold
weather, when they come nearer to human
habitations. The red deer deserts his
remote fastnesses to steal hay from the
farmyard or turnips in the fields ; the fox
and the badger quest round the outskirts of
the villages ; otters, when the rivers are
frozen, will hunt for windfalls in the orchards
or even rob the vegetable garden ; hares
and rabbits scrape through the snow or
come into the gardens, and a multitude of
small fry squeak and gibber by night, or
take advantage of any glimpse of the wintry
sun.
There is no time round the year when bird
life is not abundant. We have many per-
manent residents, from owls to robins, and
INTRODUCTION
there is none of them not bolder or easier to
see in the months when smug citizens think
the country bleak and dull. Almost before
our summer visitors have begun to leave us,
the winter migrants are seeking our shores.
Probably there is no country in the world
where month by month, all the year round,
the lovers of birds have spread for them
a more plentiful and more varied feast.
Let it be admitted that insects and creeping
things are less abundant in winter. The
more exciting to fia'd them and to ponder over
their ways of life ! I have seen spiders
hunting on Dart-
moor early in
January when a
blink of sun had
melted the snow
from a patch of
heather. There
are late moths and
early moths, and it
is not only for idle
exercise that bats
will come out and
hawk on a bright
day in any of the
winter months.
Then, if you
dredge up some
of the leaves from
the bottom of a
ditch, even in
mid-winter, there are always living creatures
to reward your searching. And there is
the seashore with its abundant life.
Talking of animals. I have insisted most
on the sights of winter, because spring,
summer and autumn require no commenda-
tion. For at least nine months of the British
year the pulses of wild life are quickened.
The grass rustles with life, the water and the
woods, the plains and the hills, and the air
above us can hardly furnish space for the
creatures which inhabit them. Courting,
fighting, seeking food, rearing, guarding and
teaching their young, all the busiest and
most engaging parts of the drama of life
are in full swing. Vegetation, too, with us
is almost perennial, and there is no season
in which some miracle of growth of bud,
shoot or flower may not be seen. The
last leaves have scarcely fallen before the
buds of the earliest trees have begun to
swell. Even when the woods are bare they
O the gleesome saunter 9 over fields and
hillsides !
The leaves and flowers of the commonest
weeds, the moist still freshness of
the woods,
The exquisite smell of the earth at day-
break, and all through the forenoon.
WALT WHITMAN.
The world is so full of a number of
things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as
kings.
R. L. STEVENSON.
are almost more interesting than in the leafy
months. Let us say nothing of the lovely
tracery of the naked branches against the
skies of winter. Let us remember that every
kind of tree has its typical mode of branching,
its characteristic form and massing, best
studied when it is not obscured by a heavy
mantle of leaves.
The Pageant of Nature is open to us all
the year round, without any interval or
ringing down of the curtain. And it can be
enjoyed from many points of view. I have
been with passengers in an aeroplane and
airship who com-
plained of the
monotony of the
landscape un-
rolled below them .
To me it was en-
trancing to try to
identify the trees
in a wood, the
crops in a field,
from their forms
and colours seen
from this new
aspect. There are
people who must
read or talk all
the time in an
express train
although from
the windows
there is a perpetual interest for the
seeing eye. But even a better " seat " in
the free theatre of Nature is the saddle of
a " push " bicycle. Pedalling silently along
English roads or lanes, in the early morning
hours, or " when the downy twilight droops
her wing," I have come suddenly across
more different kinds of our British birds
and beasts than at any other time.
None the less, those who are willing to
walk see most of the fair. The theatre of
Nature is democratic and the cheapest
seats have the best view. Stout but silent
boots, old clothes, field-glasses and a hand
lens, a loving curiosity and a great patience
are the chief equipment required. The
late W. H. Hudson, in my opinion the
most revealing English naturalist who has
ever lived, made his entrancing observa-
tions with no other equipment. He would
go out from his cottage at dawn with
all the day and the evening before him,
Photo: C. W. Colthritp.
THE EDGE OF THE WOOD.
INTRODUCTION
and, as he once told me, never was
dull for a minute at any season in any
weather, when he was alone with Nature.
The songs of birds, flowers blowing or
setting their seeds, the ways of squirrels
and rabbits, earthworms stopping their
burrows, busy ants or burrowing wasps
there was pleasure and profit to mind
and body in all of them.
Knowledge the Key to Enjoyment
" The Pageant of Nature " is a book of
the words for those who wish to enjoy the
play of wild life which has no beginning
and no end. I am not going to say that
a programme is necessary, and that unless
you have knowledge you will not enjoy
Nature. But animals and plants are engaged
on their own business, much indeed of
which is furtive and very far from being
thrust on our notice. The more we know
the more we shall see, the more discover
and the more enjoy. The enjoyment of
Nature goes hand in hand with Nature
study.
There are many ways of studying Nature.
First and oldest, there are the lore and lure
of the hunter and sportsman. I am not
going to decry pursuits merely because I
have no mind for them. Hunters and
sportsmen were the first naturalists and have
laid broad and deep foundations of our
knowledge. But their modes and their
objects are falling out of fashion to my
mind fortunately, because I cannot see any
rational distinction between the excitement
of boys chasing a cat in a garden suburb
and sportsmen at an otter hunt. In our
pages you will not hear the hunter's horn,
or get advice on the breeding of pheasants.
Then there are the collectors. Science
owes a greater debt to them. Charles Dar-
win, collecting beetles in the Cambridge-
shire fens, learnt the methods by which
on his voyage in the Beagle he laid the first
foundation of " The Origin of Species."
Animals and plants must be collected before
they can be studied, classified and named,
and many of those who have added most to
our knowledge of the fauna and flora of the
remoter parts of the earth have begun as
boys collecting in the English woods and
fields. But there is now little excuse for
the collector in this country, and many
reasons why he should stay his hand. The
ambition of the naturalist in this country
should be, not to show a friend a collection
of the skins of birds or the local beetles in
a cabinet, but to be able to take him to some
place where the rare plant or the common
plant, the rare animal or the common animal,
is to be seen alive. The naturalist should
be a chief agent of preservation, especially
of the rarer plants and animals, not, as is too
often the case, one of the most deter-
mined because the best-informed agents of
destruction. And so in " The Pageant of
Nature " you will find no lists of rare
species, no directions for skinning or mount-
ing or drying.
Every Student a Discoverer
All the authors who have contributed to
our pages are first and foremost students
of the living thing in its natural surround-
ings. Their skill with the camera or with
the pen has been used to illustrate, describe
and explain the living creature, to tell what
they have seen and know, and to help others
in the first place to see, know, and rejoice in
the same things. The pages are designed
to be read at home, to serve as guides in the
open, and to be re-read on return. And it
is to be remembered that living things have
one great advantage over the physical world
in their endless variation. A chemical ex-
periment, an observation in electricity or
magnetism can be set down exactly and
repeated indefinitely, The writer in London
describes what is to be done and seen. The
reader in Birmingham or Banff, in Conne-
mara or Cumberland, puts the same
chemicals in the test tube, adjusts the wires
and the resistances, and gets precisely the
same result. But no one plant is exactly
like another plant ; no one animal is a faithful
copy of its fellow. Individuals and species
differ in their habits, modes of growth,
adaptations, in exquisite harmony with their
environment. A guide to living Nature is
at best a general direction. Every student
of Nature can be a discoverer. Our object
has been to turn all our readers into watch-
ful lovers of Nature who will soon know
far more than we have been able to tell
them.
COMING out into the village garden
at close of the tempestuous day, it
is hard to believe that the rough
north-east wind has gone at last. Day after
day, for a long week back, an avalanche of
icy air has been driving relentlessly over the
world, blotting out all colour from earth
and sky alike. For this is the direful token
of all easterly winds. Whatever the season,
they come wearing the ragged grey garb of
winter, and if the time be only March,
though the month be well on to its close,
it is real winter that the blustering north-
east wind brings back in its train. All the
bright promise of spring incontinently
vanishes. The woods and hedgerows seem
never so dark and bare, nor the shrouded
sky so bleak, as on these whistling, chill,
unkindly days.
But it is always in this wise with the
English spring. Every March there comes
this seemingly interminable spell of cold,
rough, dismal weather, with never a gleam of
sunshine, and winter dearth and desolation
suddenly back on all the land. Then, one
memorable evening, a change comes. The
wind falls like a shot bird. The black sky
parts in the west, letting through a flood of
rosy light. The air softens to pure balm,
and the birds begin to sing with a strange
force and sweetness. Soon the last vestige
of grim cloud has disappeared, and one
may stand hushed and wondering beneath
a vault of pure amethyst, watching the
evening star go down in a glory of crimson
and gold.
This is the real awakening of spring. It
is true that ever since the " Turn of the
Days " the moment in mid- winter when
the sun first began to take a wider arc in the
sky all Nature has been alert and busily
doing. But much of this early preparation
has been secret and little evident. It needed
this cold, dark period, when the north-east
wind drew its mantle of concealing grey
over the land, to reveal the true pace of
things by hiding progress for a while ; and
now comes a morning, following the over-
night break in the chill turbulent weather,
when one scarce knows which way to turn
for the loveliness of all things. With the
first dim light of dawn such a gladness of
song uprose from wood and field that to
lie longer abed was impossible even for the
hardiest/ Presently the sun broke over the
The Blackbird is one of the first songsters
to welcome the spring.
hill-top and swept the world with a flood of
amber light. The western zephyr began to
bend the highest branches of the lane-side
elms, and little, joyous, hurrying freshets
of air stirred among the yellow crocuses and
daffodils in the garden. Looking out through
THE PAGEANT OF NATURE
the ivied lattice, the bees could be seen
pouring from their hives into the sunny air,
filling the morning with their rich, deep
labour-song. On the roof-tree above,
starlings crowded, chattering gaily ; and
across the lawn below, white with a veneer
of glistening dew, thrushes and blackbirds
were running to and fro, leaving behind
Photo: y. y. Ward.
a primrose
One cannot look for long in
glade at this time without seeing "a Brim
stone Butterfly settling among them with
closed wings, when it is lost at once in the
general sulphur hue.
them innumerable herring-bone tracks of
green over the frosted silver. Within an
hour we have left the village behind and are
off into the wilds, caring little whither
our steps lead, when all the world is
running high under this new glad promise
of life.
It is indeed a world of wonders now, after
the long spell of hueless cold. Against the
blue of the sky the great elms rear their
turrets and battlements of purple blossom,
every twig loaded with rich colour. By the
green roadside verges, gold-eyed celandine
shines out at every step. In the hedge-
rows the elders are putting out fresh young
leaves, and the honeysuckles are drawing
trails of emerald through the maze of budding
branchlets. The blackthorn is almost in
full flower ; looking up the lane as we go, it
stands out in broad silver washes incredibly
bright under the morning sun. A week or
two ago the blackthorn was the darkest
thing by the way. Then the matted thorny
growth put forth an infinity of tiny buds like
beads of pink coral. Just before the rough
east wind began to blow, every bud had taken
to itself a green crown. Now the whole
bush is covered with minute white flowers,
each enshrining a spark of amber ; look
where one will in the chequer-board of
fields, the hedges are draped with these
housels of shining white.
Over the foot-path through the fallows,
where the clefts between the rough clods
are sown thick with blue veronica and rose-
red dead-nettle, to the hazel-woods that,
from afar, seem already to wear their full
weight of vernal leaves. But these are
not leaves that, in March, make the hazel-
copses so impenetrably green. There are
fat leaf-buds in plenty, but no sign yet of
opening leaf. All the luxuriance of fresh
young growth is made up of the catkins
the male flowers of the hazel hanging in
thick clusters from every branch and twig ;
thousands upon thousands of pendulous
gold-green tassels all slanting one way in
the gentle breeze. As we pass into the wood,
the brilliance of the morning fails, and a dim
Photo : y. T. Ne-wman.
The cheery music of the Song Thrush is
the dominant note of early spring.
indoor light gathers about the path, so closely
are the catkins matted together overhead.
Without keen eyes, one may lose the chief
beauty of these hazel-woods in March under
THE AWAKENING OF SPRING
the shadowy twilight. Nature in springtime
has her elusive, secret phases, as well as her
bold flaunting moods. The female flowers
of the hazel the little tufts of feathery
crimson set amid the lowermost branches
are hard to see at first, though when once
found they glow on all sides like mimic
danger-lamps in the gloom.