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BRITISH o) SyAN BIRDS
BLACK-BACKED GULL AND COMMON TERN. Chapter i.
© BRITISH SEA BIRDS pds
By CHARLES DIXON
““THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS”; ‘THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS”; ‘‘ ANNALS OF BIRD-LIFE”; ““THE MIGRATION OF BRITISH BIRDS”;
ETC. ETC.
WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
CHARLES WHYMPER
LONDON BEISS, SANDS AND FOSTER 1896
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DEDICATION
TO
Sobn William Pease, D.C.D.
[PENDOWER, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE] AS A SMALL BUT CORDIAL TOKEN OF ESTEEM
This Volume is Fnscribed BY
THE AUTHOR.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. GULLS AND TERNS.
The Gull Family—Changes of Plumage—Characteristics—Great Black-backed Gull—Lesser Black-backed Gull—Herring Gull—Common Gull—Kitti- wake—Black-headed Gull—Skuas—Great Skua—Richardson’s Skua— Terns—Sandwich Tern—Common Tern—Arctic Tern—Roseate Tern— Lesser Tern—Black Tern . ; ; ; : : Pages 13-60
CHAPTER II. PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS.
Characteristics and Affinities—Changes of Plumage—Structural Characters— Oyster-catcher—Ringed Plover—Kentish Plover—Golden Plover—Gray Plover — Lapwing — Turnstone — Phalaropes— Gray Phalarope— Red- necked Phalarope—Curlew— Whimbrel—Godwits—Black-tailed Godwit —Bar-tailed Godwit—Redshank—Sanderling—Knot—Curlew Sandpiper —Dunlin—Purple Sandpiper—Other species , - . 61-121
CHAPTER III. GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILL, AND PUFFIN.
Affinities and Characteristics—Changes of Plumage—Guillemot—Brunnich’s Guillemot—Black Guillemot—Razorbill—Little Auk—Puffn 123-150
viii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV. DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS.
Divers—Affinities and Characteristics—Great Northern Diver—Black-throated Diver — Red-throated Diver — Grebes — Characteristics — Changes of Plumage — Great Crested Grebe — Red-necked Grebe — Black-necked Grebe—Sclavonian Grebe—Little Grebe—Cormorants—Characteristics— Changes of Plumage—Cormorant—Shag—Gannet . Pages 151-184
CHAPTER V. DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS.
Ducks—Characteristics—Non-diving Ducks—Characteristics of—Changes of Plumage—Sheldrake—Wigeon—Pintail Duck—vVarious other Species— Diving Ducks—Characteristics—Changes of Plumage—Eider Duck— King Eider—Common Scoter—Velvet Scoter—Scaup Duck—Tufted Duck—Pochard—Golden-eye—Long-tailed Duck—Mergansers—Charac- teristics and changes of Plumage—Red-breasted Merganser—Goosander— Smew—Geese—Characteristics—Gray Lag Goose—White-fronted Goose —Bean Goose—Brent Goose—Bernacle Goose—Swans—Characteristics —Changes of Plumage—Hooper Swan—Bewick’s Swan . 185-240
CHAPTER VI. PETRELS.
Petrels—Characteristics—Changes of Plumage—Fulmar Petrel—Fork-tailed Petrel—Stormy Petrel—Manx Shearwater : : ; 241-258
CHAPTER VII. LITTORAL LAND BIRDS. Littoral Land Birds—White-tailed Eagle—Peregrine Falcon—Raven—Jack-
daw—Hooded Crow—Chough—Rock Pipit—Martins—Rock Dove— Stock Dove—Heron—Various other Species - : : 259-278
CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER VIII. MIGRATION ON THE COAST.
The Best Coasts for Observing Migration—Migration of Species in Present Volume—Order of Appearance of Migratory Birds—In Spring—In Autumn—Spring Migration of Birds on the Coast—The Earliest Species to Migrate—Departure of Winter Visitors—Coasting Migrants—Arrival of Summer Visitors—Duration of Spring Migration—Autumn Migration of Birds on the Coast—The Earliest Arrivals—Departure of our Summer Birds — Arrival of Shore Birds— Direction of Flight — Change in this Direction to East—The Vast Rushes of Birds across the German Ocean— The Perils of Migration— Birds at Lighthouses and Light Vessels — Netting Birds—Rare Birds . ¢ = 4 Pages 2'79-295
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
eee see BLACK-BACKED GULL AND COMMON TERN . Faces page 15 RUFFS—Sparring : : : ‘ : : Ms a) TO GUILLEMOT AND RAZORBILL : : : , is my (7 GREAT NORTHERN DIVER . - : : : a a 153 MEGE DUCK, 6.6 ve! se.) ble oe a ht) THE STORMY PETREL . Se wh 243 THE CHOUGH . é A : : : : 4 sy aon
MIGRATION TIME (02 the Friskney foreshore) . 48 ste 2a
Gulls and Terns
Rar aa Na Ni
CHAPTERVE
GULLS AND TERNS.
The Gull Family— Changes Great Skua—Richardson’s Skua of Plumage—Characteristics— —Terns— Sandwich Tern— Great Black-backed Gull—Lesser Common Tern— Arctic Tern— Black -backed Gull— Herring Roseate Tern—Lesser Tern— Gull—Common Gull—Kittiwake Black Tern.
—Black-headed Gull—Skuas—
MONGST the many natural objects that confront the visitor to the sea, there are none more readily detected than birds. The wide waters of the ocean and its varied coast-line of cliff or sand, shingle or mud-flat, are the haunts of many birds of specialised type. Many of these birds are only found on or near the sea; they are as inseparably associated with it as the beautiful shells and sea- weeds and anemones themselves. Some of these birds are common and widely distributed; others are scarce or local in their habitat; some frequent the shore, others the water; whilst many are equally at home on both. Again, many of them are migratory, or of wandering habits; some but summer visitors, others winter refugees. It matters
16 BRITISH SEABIRDS:
little, however, what the season may be, for many interesting birds are sure to be met with by the sea; the wide waters and wet tide-swept shores are a perennial feeding place, and a safe and congenial refuge.
Of all the birds that haunt the sea and the shore, those of the Gull family are the best known. From whichever direction the sea is reached, almost invariably the first indication of its vicinity is a Gull, sailing along, it may be, in easy, careless flight, or wheeling and gliding high in air above the waste of restless waters. The Gull and its kindred then are inseparably associated in the minds of most people with the sea, and with them, therefore, it certainly seems most appropriate to commence our study of marine bird-life.
The Gull family is divided by many systematists into three fairly well-defined groups or sub-families, viz., the typical Gulls or Larine, the Skuas or Stercorariine, and the Terns or Sternine. The Skuas, however, are included with the typical Gulls by many naturalists, a proceeding for which much may be said, thus reducing the three sub-families to two. In their distribution the Gulls and Terns may almost be regarded as cosmopolitan, but the Skuas are chiefly boreal in their dispersal, four of the half dozen known species breeding in the Arctic Regions, and two others dwelling in the higher latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Some of the species are very widely distributed; the
GULLS AND TERNS. 17
dispersal of others is just as remarkably restricted. For instance, the Glaucous Gull has a circumpolar habitat, and the Black-headed Gull ranges from the Farde Islands to Japan; but, on the other hand, Larus fuliginosus is said to be peculiar to the Galapagos Islands and Larus bulleri to New Zealand. Three out of the four species of Arctic Skuas are circumpolar in their distribution; the fourth may possibly be so.
In adult plumage the Gulls are not remarkable for any great diversity of colour. French gray predominates upon the upper parts; the under parts are white, often suffused with a delicate rosy tint ; the primaries are usually dark gray, brown, or black, in many species spotted and tipped with white. Some species assume (by a change of colour and not by a moult) a sooty-brown or black head or hood during the breeding season; Ross’s Gull dons a black narrow collar at that period. The wings are ample, long, and pointed; the tail is even, except in Ross’s Gull in which it is wedge- shaped, and in Sabine’s Gull in which it is forked. The legs are comparatively short, and the feet are webbed.
Gulls moult twice in the year. When first hatched young Gulls are covered with down. Young, in first plumage of the Black-headed group of Gulls, have the feathers of the mantle, the scapulars, and the innermost secondaries, brown with pale margins ; the crown, nape, and ear-coverts
B
18 BRITISH SEABIRDS.
brown ; and the tail with a broad sub-terminal band of the same colour. The second plumage—assumed as soon as the foregoing is completed—retains brown marks of immaturity on the scapulars and inner- most secondaries; the wing-coverts are streaked with brown, and the tail still retains its brown sub- terminal band. This plumage is carried until the following spring, when the brown hocd—assumed for the first time—is mottled with white; the tail- band is more or less broken; whilst the scapulars and innermost secondaries assume the colour peculiar to the adult. For several years the white markings on the primaries gradually increase in extent until the bird arrives at perfect maturity. The larger Gulls—of which the Herring Gull may be taken as a typical species—mature much more slowly, the perfectly adult plumage not being assumed until the bird is four years old. The plumage succeeding the downy stage is brown on the upper parts, each feather with a pale margin, and white on the under parts streaked with brown. After each succeeding moult in spring and autumn, the traces of immaturity grow less, the wing-coverts and tail retaining them longest. The white spots on the primaries are the latest signs of complete maturity. The colour of the feet, bill, iris, and irides, slowly changes until that character- istic of the adult is assumed.
Gulls, popularly speaking, are inseparably associ- ated with the sea, yet the haunts of many species,
GULLS AND TERNS. 19
especially during the breeding season, are by no means exclusively marine ones. Almost every kind of coast is frequented by these birds—rocky head- lands, precipitous downs, sandy dunes, mud-flats or slob-lands, and marshes; whilst every harbour round the shore of our islands is periodically visited. Gulls are not very pronounced migrants. They wander about a good deal during the non-breeding season, and many Arctic species draw southwards during winter, but all the indigenous British forms are residents on and off the coasts throughout the year. With these few words of introduction we will now proceed to give a more detailed account of the strictly British species.
GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL.
This, the largest of the Gulls, and scientifically known as Larus marinus, is one of the least common British species, most locally distributed during the breeding season. It is not known to breed anywhere on the east coast of England, and but very locally on the south coast, in Dorset. It becomes more numerous in the wilder districts, in Cornwall, the Scilly Islands, and Lundy, and thence locally along the Welsh coast and in the Solway district. In Scotland it becomes more common, especially among the islands of the west coast, including St. Kilda, and on the north coast to the Orkneys and Shetlands. It is also widely dis- tributed in Ireland, but there, as everywhere else,
20 BRITISH SEA Coins:
extremely local, and nowhere, comparatively speak- ing, numerous. During the non-breeding season it wanders more, and is then seen at many places along the coast. I have seen as many as fifty of these fine birds in Tor Bay, after heavy gales from the eastward. Montagu asserts that this Gull is locally known as a “ Cob,” but the term is of pretty general application to the larger Gulls, and, so far as I can learn, has no distinctive significance. In St. Kilda, where I had many opportunities of studying the habits of this Gull, it is regarded with hatred by the natives, owing to its depredations amongst the eggs of the other sea-fowl. In this island it is universally known by the name of “Farspach.” No Gull is more wary, and yet on occasion none are bolder and more daring. I have seen a bird of this species tear to pieces a Puffin I had shot as it floated upon the sea, and that in spite of several shots I had at it with a rifle. It is a sad robber of the other and more weakly Gulls, not only pillaging their nests at every opportunity, but chasing them, and making them relinquish bits of food they may chance to pick up within view. Like the Raven and the Crow, it seems fully conscious of its marauding misdeeds, and corres- pondingly artful, as if always instinctively fearing that treatment it metes out so lavishly to creatures more helpless than itself.
The Great Black-backed Gull is one of the least gregarious of the family, and the large gatherings
GULLS AND TERNS. 21
of this species that are sometimes witnessed are chiefly due to such accidental causes as an unwonted supply of food, or a continued spell of boisterous weather, which often drives Gulls in thousands into sheltered bays and estuaries. This Gull is generally met with beating about in a solitary manner ; less frequently three or four may be seen together; whilst even in the breeding season, when most Gulls congregate into colonies whose size seems only to be regulated by the accommodation presented, it is certainly the least sociable of all the British species. It is a great nomad during the non-breeding season, often wandering far from land, resting and sleeping on the sea. On the other hand, it is one of the least frequent visitors of the Gull-tribe to inland districts, and, as its specific name of martnus indicates, 1s closely attached to the sea. The usual call-note of this fine Gull is a loud, whining, oft-repeated ag- ag-ag. Notwithstanding the purity of its plumage, and the magnificence of its presence, the Great Black-backed Gull is almost as unclean in its habits as the Raven or the Vulture. No kind of carrion is refused, either lying on the shore or floating on the sea—weakly, death-stricken lambs or wounded birds, eggs or chicks left unguarded by their owners, fish basking or sleeping near the surface, offal cast from the fishing boats or quays, animal refuse of all kinds, form the prey of this Gull.
The usual breeding place of this Gull is the top
22 BRITISH SEA) BIRDS:
of an isolated rock stack, a little distance from the mainland; less frequently it selects a range of high cliffs overhanging the sea. A small island in a mountain loch is sometimes selected, and occa- sionally this may be some considerable distance inland. In a few chosen spots the birds nest in such close, if somewhat scattered proximity, that we might call it a colony, but the rule is for odd and more or less isolated pairs to be met with, and often at considerable distances apart. The fact that this Gull may be found nesting in one chosen spot year by year, warrants the supposition that it may pair for life. The usually scanty nest is made in a hollow amongst the short turf, or heath, or on the flat ledge of a precipice. Sometimes the eggs are laid in a bare hollow amongst the rocks. It is formed of grass, dry sea-weed, twigs, and stalks of marine plants, and occasionally a tuft of wool ora few odd feathers are placed in the lining. The eggs are usually three in number, but sometimes only two, or even one. They are grayish-brown, or brown sometimes tinged with olive in ground colour, spotted with dark umber-brown and brownish- gray. This Gull is a very light sitter, but is bold and clamorous when disturbed from the nest.
LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL.
Very similar in appearance, but much smaller in size—it is only about half the weight—this pretty Gull, the Larus fuscus of Linnzus, is one of the
GULLS AND TERNS. 23
most familiar birds of the coast, especially in the more northerly portions of the British Islands. It is a more trustful species than its larger ally, admits man to approach it with less show of fear or wariness, and may often be seen on the meadows and ploughed fields near the sea, seeking for its food as familiarly as a Rook or a Daw. Singularly enough, the east and south coasts of England are not resorted to by this Gull for breeding purposes. It is not known to breed south of the coast of Northumberland, or east of that of Devonshire; and this is all the more remarkable, seeing that one of its most important colonies in our area is situated upon the Farne Islands. It breeds locally from Cornwall to the Solway, but further northwards becomes more generally dis- persed, right up to the Orkneys and the Shetlands. In Ireland, again, this Gull is a very local breeder, and is only known to nest in one or two localities. During the non-breeding season it wanders far from home, and may then be met with on and off most of the British coasts: young and immature birds do not resort much to the nesting colonies, but roam widely at all seasons. It is a very remarkable fact that adult Gulls of this species are so rarely seen near Heligoland, as the species breeds commonly on the Baltic and Scandinavian coasts, and yet its average appearance at the island is about once in ten years! The Heligolandish name for this Gull is very appropriate, signifying
24 BRITISH SEA SIRDS.
‘little mantle wearer,” and refers to the dark slate- gray mantle. Unlike its larger ally the present species is very gregarious, and socially inclined at all seasons, mixing freely not only with its own kind, but with the Herring Gull and the smaller forms, such as the Kittiwake, and the Common Gull. These latter birds, however, must too often prefer its room to its company, for it repeatedly robs them of their prey, and is, Gull- like, ever ready to profit by the labours of its weaker congeners. Like the preceding species it is almost omnivorous in its tastes, and will as readily make a meal from stranded garbage on the shore, as from the living fish it deftly swoops upon as they swim near the surface. On the Lincolnshire coasts it visits the flight nets, in company with the Hooded Crows, and preys upon any birds that may be entangled in them. It is also a persistent follower of ships, attending the trawlers, and feeding upon the refuse fish cast overboard when the trawl net is emptied. It swims lightly enough even on a rough sea, riding like a cork on the wave-crests, and sleeps upon the water, when roaming far from land. Flocks of this Gull may often be seen standing upon the mud-flats or level sandy reaches, preening their plumage, and waiting, it may be, for a turn of the tide that may bring some particular food of which they are in quest. It will be remarked that these larger Gulls, especially, often run for a short distance
GULLS" AN D* FERNS. 25
before taking flight, and that when alighting they frequently keep their long wings unfolded and erect for a moment or two before finally closing them. Great numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gulls and other species collect in Tor Bay during the herring and sprat seasons, and at these times they will wait and watch about the harbours and quays in fluttering hosts for the odd fish, and offal... The ‘note of this Gull very closely resembles that of the Herring Gull, so closely, in fact, that no symbol can denote the difference. It may be syllabled as kli-ou-kli-ou, and during the breeding season is _ very persistently uttered. Owing to its relatively longer wings, this Gull looks more graceful in the air than its larger and heavier congener: its flight is remarkably easy and buoyant, and on occasion rapid.
The usual breeding places of the Lesser Black- backed Gull are low rocky islands—these larger Gulls always prefer an island, covered with coarse marine grass, sea campion, and the like—but in some localities a rock stack, an island in an inland lake, on grassy downs, in mosses, and flows. This Gull usually breeds in colonies, and some of these are very large. One of the most extensive, within the present writer’s experience, is situated on the Farne Islands. The entire group of islands may be re- garded as one vast colony of Lesser Black-backed Gulls, if we except a few of the outlying rocks, where the Cormorants breed. It is more than
26 BRITISH (SEA BIRDS:
likely that this Gull pairs for life, seeing that it resorts to the same nesting places, year by year, for time out of mind. The nest, even in the same colony, varies a good deal in size and general completeness. Some birds are content merely to line a hollow in the rocks with a little dry grass; others are more bulky yet slovenly structures, rude heaps of turf, heather stems, sea campions, or dry grass and sea-weed, the lining being composed of finer grasses, many of them often semi-green. Occasionally a feather or two are seen, but these may be due more to accident than to design. Few sights in the bird-world are prettier than a colony of disturbed Gulls during the breeding season. As their haunts are invaded, the frightened birds rise in fluttering thousands, drifting to and fro like a snow- storm, in which each flake is a startled bird. The noisy din, the rush of wings, the swooping, soaring, fluttering Gulls, the ground strewn with nests—all combine to form a picture in the mind that time can never efface! The. eggs’ of ) this!) Gulleme usually three in number, sometimes as many as four. They vary to an almost incredible degree. The ground colour varies from pale green to dark olive-brown and gray, spotted, blotched, or streaked with dark liver-brown, pale brown and gray. Vast numbers of the eggs of this Gull are collected for food, especially at the Farne Islands. The birds do not appear to suffer in any way by this sys- tematic pillage, for they are always allowed to rear
GULLS AND) TERNS: 27
a brood from a second clutch at the Farnes, and most rigorously protected whilst doing so.
HERRING-GULL.
Of all the gulls that frequent the British coasts, this, the well-known Larus argentatus (z.e. ‘ silver- winged”), is certainly the most common and widely dispersed. It is no exaggeration to say that the Herring-Gull may be met with on every part of the British coasts, from the Orkney and Shetland Islands on the north, to Cornwall and the Scilly Islands in the south; from the Blasquets in the wild west of Ireland, to the mouth of the Thames and the Bass Rock in the east. It is the Gull par excellence associated in the popular mind with the sea shore—the ‘‘Sea Gull” of the visitor to marine resorts, ubiquitous, well-known from the Land’s End to John-o’-Groat’s. For its size, it is certainly the tamest and least suspecting Gull found on British waters. It may be readily recognised, when adult, by the pale grey colour of its mantle, but the young and immature birds are less easily identified. During the non-breeding season it wanders far and wide like the rest of its kind, and is a very frequent visitor to the fields, not only adjoining the sea, but at some distance inland. Whilst tilling operations are in progress, especially in spring, it passes regularly from the coast to the fields, following the plough, or collecting upon the newly-manured pastures, in quest of food.
28 BRITISH ‘SEA BIRDS:
Wild, stormy weather, I have repeatedly noticed, will also drive this Gull landwards sooner, perhaps, than any other species. Like its congeners, it is practically omnivorous. Carrion is sought after as readily as living fish and other marine creatures. I have also known this species regularly to visit a slaughter-house near the coast, to feed upon the offal thrown upon the pastures for manure; and | have repeatedly watched the pure-plumaged birds fighting with the Rooks and Crows for a share of the feast. This Gull will also feed on grain, grubs, and worms, is a constant follower of vessels, and congregates in unusual numbers at fishing harbours during the sprat and herring seasons. In its flight it is graceful in the extreme, and it may often be seen soaring at a vast altitude like a Vulture. Writing on the flight of this Gull, Gatke (in his fascinating work, [eligoland, as an Ornithological Observatory) says: “ Not only are these Gulls able to soar in a calm atmosphere in a direction straight forwards, or sideways, on calmly outspread wings, but, as has been more fully discussed in the case of Buzzards, they can also, in a manner similar to theirs, soar upwards to any desirable altitude. The Gulls are able to perform their soaring movements on the same plane in all phases of the weather, during the most violent storm, as well as in a perfect calm, progressing forwards or sideways at the most variable rates of velocity ; now darting along with the swiftness of an arrow, now merely
GULLS AND: TERNS: 29
gliding, as it were, at the slowest pace imaginable. In the latter case, indeed, we are frequently, even against our will, forced to the conclusion that these birds must have at their command some unknown means or mechanism which prevents their sinking ; for neither is the surface-area of their wings large enough, nor are these organs sufficiently concave in form, to allow of their supporting the bird after the manner of a parachute.” I can endorse these remarks fully from my own observations (Conf. Idle Flours with Nature, pp. 261, 262). That these flights are accompanied with any vibratory movements of the feathers is erroneous, as I have had many opportunities of satisfying myself, especially when observing the flight of the Fulmar at St. Kilda, the birds then not being more than six feet away from me, when I am positive every individual feather was in perfect rest.
But to return from this digression to the general habits of the Herring Gull. The breeding season of this Gull is in May and June. Owing to its remarkable aptitude for accommodating itself to the various peculiarities of the coast, it is certainly the ‘most widely dispersed Gull of the British species during the season of reproduction. Perhaps its favourite breeding place is a low rocky island, but failing this it is equally at home upon a range of sea cliffs, a stack of rocks, or less frequently an island in a loch, or, as at Foulshaw Moss in West- moreland, a marsh. The nest is made on a ledge
30 BRITISH: SEA. BIRDS.
or in a hollow or chink of the cliffs; in a sheltered hollow of the grassy downs: or amongst the thick growth of sea campion, thrift, and other marine plants that often grow so luxuriantly in the bird’s haunts. I have remarked that the nest is usually larger when built on a cliff than when on the ground, and in some cases is almost dispensed with. It is composed of turf, dry sea-weed, coarse grass, and stalks of various marine plants, lined with finer grass often gathered green. The eggs are two or three in number, varying in ground colour from pale bluish-green through yellowish-brown to olive- brown, and the spots are small and few and dark brown, pale brown, and gray. This Gull will lay a second lot of eggs if the first clutch be taken, as they often are, for culinary purposes. When the nesting places are intruded upon by human visitors, the Gulls, as usual, become very noisy, the birds whose eggs are most directly threatened being filled with the greatest clamour. I have often remarked that Gulls whose nests were safe in in- accessible parts of the cliffs have remained quietly sitting on them, while their less fortunate neigh- bours have been filled with noisy alarm, as they watched the fate of their eggs from the air above. The note is very similar to that of the preceding species. COMMON GULL.
This pretty Gull, the Larus canus of Linnzus, is,
during the summer months especially, one of the
o)\\GULLS AND TERNS. 31 most locally distributed of the British species. The Common Gull formerly bred in Lancashire, but at the present time is not known to do so anywhere in England. From the Solway northwards, it becomes tolerably common as a breeding species, right up to the Shetlands, in many inland localities, as well as on the coast. It is also a somewhat local bird in Ireland. The Common Gull, or ‘“ Blue Maa,” as it is locally known, is about half the size of the Herring Gull, with a mantle, in the adult, almost as dark as that of the Lesser Black-backed Gull. During the non-breeding season this Gull is fairly well distributed along the coast, and then visits localities where it is never seen in summer. It isa decided shore species, rarely wandering far out to sea, and is one of the first Gulls driven inland by stormy weather. Although popularly believed to be so inseparably associated with the sea, the Gulls, and especially the smaller kinds such as the one now under notice, often resort to fields even at some distance from the water. The Common Gull seems as much at home inland as on the shore. I have seen it on the high moorlands, and in Scotland
flying about many a loch pool, or land-locked sea -arm; it is equally at home on the ploughed lands and the pastures, yet its plumage seems strangely out of place in such localities, and the incongruity is further intensified should the startled birds take refuge in a neighbouring tree, as they sometimes do. There is nothing specially remarkable about the
32 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
flight of this Gull; it is performed in the slow and deliberate manner of all these birds, and is equally wonderful in many of its characteristics. The food of this Gull is composed indiscriminately of marine and terrestrial creatures. The bird will follow the plough, or search the pastures for grubs, insects, and worms; it searches the shore for any stranded creature to its omnivorous taste; it hunts the wide waste of waters in quest of fish, and follows vessels to pick up any refuse that may be thrown from them. This Gull is to a great extent nocturnal in autumn and winter. Its note is a harsh and persistently uttered yak-yak-yak, most fre- quently heard when its breeding places are invaded by man or predaceous animals. The Common Gull is a thoroughly gregarious and social bird, often congregating in large flocks, and mingling with other species.
By the end of April most of the adult Common Gulls have left all our southern coasts and retired northwards to their breeding places. As these are visited yearly in succession, it is not improbable that this Gull pairs for life. Its nest colonies are situated both inland and on the coast. An island in a mountain lake, the marshy shore of a loch, the flat table-like summit of a rock stack, or the rolling grassy downs near the open sea, in little populated districts, may be chosen; but so far as my experience with this Gull extends, I have found the favourite site to be rocky islands in quiet
GULLS AND TERNS. 33
secluded sea-lochs. These colonies of Common Gulls vary a good deal in size ; and in some districts, perhaps where suitable sites are scarce, the bird breeds in scattered pairs only. The eggs are laid during the last half of May and the first half of June; only one brood is reared in the season, but if the first eggs are taken they are generally replaced. The nest of this Gull varies much in size; some structures are mere hollows lined with a tuft or two of grass; others are more elaborate, composed of heather stems, pieces of turf, sea-weed, and stalks of marine plants, lined with finer grass, often gathered green. They are built indiscriminately amongst the long herbage, in hollows and crevices of rocks, or on ledges of the bare cliffs. In Norway the eggs of this Gull have been taken from the deserted nest of a Hooded Crow, in a pine tree, but no instances of a similar character have occurred, so far as is known, in our islands. The Common Gull usually lays three eggs, but instances of four are not rare. They run from olive-brown to buffish- brown in ground colour, spotted and often streaked with darker brown and brewnish-gray. The eggs of this Gull are extremely good eating. One often wonders why they are not gathered for the table, just as much as those of the Lapwing.
KITTIWAKE.
This charming Gull, the Larus tridactylus of scientists, so named from its entirely absent or ¢
34 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
rudimentary hind toe, is one of the best known, as it is one of the most widely distributed, British species. These remarks are however most applicable to the non-breeding season ; for during the nesting time it is rather more local, owing to the conditions under which its young are reared. The Kittiwake very closely resembles the Common Gull in general appearance, but the mantle is paler, the legs and feet are dark brown, and the primaries, or longest feathers of the wings, have broad black tips: it is also a perceptibly smaller bird, the smallest in fact of the typically marine Gulls. Of all the British Gulls the Kittiwake is certainly the most maritime in its habits, and is never known to visit inland districts, unless driven from the coast by storms of exceptional violence. Save in the breeding season it may be met with on all the low-lying coasts, visiting harbours, bays, and fishing villages, and imbuing many a littoral scene with life. The Kittiwake is a much more oceanic bird than the Common Gull, and often wanders immense distances from land in quest of food. It is said that birds of this species have been known to follow vessels across the North Atlantic, but this seems almost incredible—not because the bird is physically unable to perform the feat, but because we can scarcely believe any bird would wander of its own free-will so far from the local centre of its habitat. One of the most striking characteristics of the Kittiwake is its peculiar cry, heard to the best advantage
GULLS AND TERNS. 35
at the nesting places. This note, from which the colloquial name of the species is derived, resembles the syllables £z¢ty-a-ake, requiring but little play upon the imagination to render as geta-way-ah-get- away. It is only during the breeding season that this cry is heard to perfection, and after that is over the bird becomes a singularly silent one. The flight of this Gull is light and buoyant, but powerful and often long sustained. The bird may often be observed fishing at no great distance from shore, flying to and fro every now and then, poising and hovering previous to pouncing down upon a fish or other floating object. It is also an adept swimmer, and'very frequently sleeps whilst sitting on the waves. The Kittiwake is perhaps more exclusively a fish- feeder than any other British Gull. It seldom searches for food on shore, and does not exhibit those omnivorous tastes that characterise so many of its congeners. It is a persistent follower of fish shoals, especially herrings and sprats, and will remain in the company of fishing fleets for weeks together. A scrap of food thrown from a ship will speedily be seized by one of these birds; whilst a few crustaceans and other marine creatures are taken from time to time.
The Kittiwake is a rather late breeder. It most probably pairs for life, as the same nesting places are resorted to each season. Of all the Gulls none breed in more inaccessible situations. The nests are almost always built upon a beetling ocean
36 BRITISH SEA (BIRDS.
cliff, against which the waves are for ever beating in ceaseless strife. Except during the three months or so of the breeding season, this Gull is seldom seen at its nesting sites. In April or May the birds collect at their various stations, never quite to leave them again until the young are able to fly. Itisa very gregarious bird, and some of these “ gulleries ” are very extensive, containing many thousands of pairs. In some localities, however, where the ac- commodation is either limited or unsuitable, but a few birds congregate to form a colony. The nests, often made as close together as they can be wedged, are built upon the ledges, shelves, and prominences of the rocks. Favourite spots are where the cliffs overhang, or at the entrance of a cave or hollow in the precipice. They are made at varying heights on the cliff, tier above tier, the lowest often within a few feet of high-water mark, but the most crowded places are usually about midway up from the sea. The nests are large and well made, many of them apparently the accumulation of years, composed externally of turf and roots, with much of the soil attached, and caked together. Upon this foundation a further nest of sea-weed and the stalks of various plants is formed, finally lined with finer and dry grass, and sometimes a few feathers. The nests and the cliffs in their vicinity are thickly white- washed with the droppings of the birds. The eggs are two or three in number, rarely four, and vary from greenish-blue, through pale buff
GULLS AND TERNS. 37
and buffish- brown to brownish-olive, blotched and spotted with reddish-brown, paler brown, and gray. No words of mine can adequately describe the beauty and animation of a colony of Kittiwakes. Their cries are deafening, and when the frightened birds flutter from the cliffs, and pass to and fro in thousands like a living snowstorm, the effect, whether seen from the water or from the cliffs above is charming in the extreme. It is sad to think that such a spot should too often become a scene of slaughter. But such is the case ; the poor birds breeding too late fully to profit by the pro- tection afforded by law. Vast numbers of this pretty gentle Gull are killed yearly, for the sake of their plumage. Even when the breeding places are left, the poor birds are shot in thousands out at sea. The Kittiwake is the most trustful perhaps of the Gulls, and a flock will remain hovering round a boat until almost decimated by the gunners. The young Kittiwake is widely known along the coast under the name of ‘“ Tarrock.”
BLACK-HEADED GULL.
In most inland districts frequented by this Gull (the Larus ridibundus of Linneus) it is known as the “Peewit,” the ‘‘Peewit Gull,” or the ‘Laughing Gull.” It is not only one of the most widely distributed but one of the best known of our sea birds. And yet to describe the Black-headed Gull as a “‘sea” bird in the sense we have hitherto
38 BRITISH "SEABIRDS.
used the term is, to say the least, somewhat mis- leading. This species belongs to a small group which might more appropriately be termed “marsh” Gulls. It is almost as much seen in certain inland localities as it is in marine ones; whilst in many of its habits it bears a close resemblance to the Rook—feeding on the pastures, following the plough, and perching regularly in trees. During spring and summer many of these Gulls resort to inland haunts to breed—as for instance at Scoulton Mere in Norfolk, Twigmoor in Lincolnshire, and Aqualate Mere in Staffordshire— and from these centres visit the surrounding country for miles, in quest of food. Slob-lands and low muddy coasts are favourite haunts of this Gull, but during the non-breeding season it may be met with on almost all parts of the coast. In winter it often wanders up the larger tidal rivers for miles; and the Gulls that visited the Thames in such abun- dance during recent winters, were principally of this species, doubtless from Norfolk and Essex. Many of these Gulls appear to pass our southern coasts, especially in spring, and I have remarked them again in great plenty during the sprat season in late autumn. I may in addition state that this migration has been observed along the coast of South Devon, the nearest breeding station being near Poole in Dorset. The birds linger about Tor Bay in spring until, in many cases, the full breeding -plumage—the sooty-brown head—is assumed.
GULLS) AND) TRERINS. 39
Owing to the great diversity of its haunts the Black-headed Gull is almost omnivorous in its diet. Inland it feeds on grubs—especially wire-worms— insects, worms, fresh-water fish, and newly sown grain, as I have often ascertained by dissection ; on the sea coast it subsists on fish, crustaceans, and various odds and ends obtained about harbours or vessels. It seeks its food both whilst swimming about the water, fluttering above it, or when walking on the shore. This Gull is much more Tern-like in its habits than the larger species we have already dealt with. Of its services to the agriculturist there can be no question ; it is just as useful on the land as the Rook, without that bird’s few little pilfering ways.
The Black-headed Gull is an inland breeding species, and resorts to marshes, wet moors, and meres, at varying distances from the sea. Some- times these breeding-places are in fairly well- timbered districts, and often surrounded by trees and bushes. This Gull, too, is remarkably gregarious during the breeding season, and some of its colonies are very extensive, consisting of ‘many thousands of pairs. The “gulleries” are visited for nesting purposes in March or April, and as the birds return to the same spots year after year, they probably pair for life. Nesting begins in April. Most of the nests are made upon the ground in rush tufts, in hassocks of coarse grass and sedge, amongst reeds in shallow water, on
40 BRITISH: SEABIRDS.
masses of the previous year’s decayed aquatic vegetation, or on the flat, spongy, moss-covered ground. Odd nests are occasionally made in the trees and bushes, or even on boat-houses. Many of the nests can only be described as mere rounded hollows in the cushions of grass or sedge; the more elaborate structures are usually in the wettest situations, and these latter are often added to as incubation advances, either to replace the wear and tear from the incessant wash of the water, or to provide a sufficiently large platform on which the young may rest. The nests are made of bits of reed and rush, coarse grass, flags, and scraps of moss, lined with finer materials of similar descrip- tion. The eggs of this Gull are usually three in number, sometimes four. They are subject to much variation, ranging from rich brown to pale bluish- green in ground colour, spotted, blotched, blurred, and streaked with several shades of brown and gray. Large numbers of these eggs are gathered for culinary purposes, the crop being systematically taken, and the birds always allowed eventually to sit upon their final clutch. Many of these eggs are passed off for those of the Peewit by unscrupulous dealers, notably in Leadenhall market. Few scenes in the bird world are prettier than a colony of Black-headed Gulls. When disturbed at their nests the birds rise in fluttering crowds, drifting noisily to and fro, anxious for the safety of their eggs or helpless young. As is the invariable rule with
GULLS AND TERNS. 4I
birds that continue to replace their taken eggs, but one brood is reared in the season.
THE SKUAS.
These birds may be readily distinguished, even when on the wing, by the cuneiform or wedge- shaped tail, and by the dark upper plumage. The bill is also much stouter and hooked at the point, whilst the claws are sharp and curved. Skuas are only exceptionally seen by the ordinary visitor to the sea-side. In the first place, they only breed in our islands in the extreme north or west of Scotland, and in the second place they are decidedly oceanic in their habits, after the nesting season is passed. Occasionally Skuas may be seen on migration, especially in autumn, and along our eastern and southern seaboard; occasionally they are driven shorewards by protracted stormy weather, and under these circumstances have frequently been known to visit inland localities. Odd birds are generally seen, perhaps a party of half a dozen, but on very exceptional occasions large flocks make their appearance — witness the thousands of Pomarine Skuas that visited the coast of Yorkshire during the autumns of the years 1879 and 1880.
The Skuas are birds of remarkably powerful flight, displaying marvellous command over them- selves in the air, turning and twisting with great speed. These birds are the Raptors of the sea;
42 BRITISH SEA) BIRDS
a terror to the Gulls and Terns; merciless robbers of the hard-won spoil of more weakly species ; destroyers even of the eggs and helpless young of other sea birds. All the four species of northern Skuas are visitors to the British Seas, but only two of them are indigenous to our islands. The first of these to be noticed here is the Great Skua, Stercorarius catarrhactes, one of the most local of British birds during the breeding season, as its only known nesting places in our area are on Unst and Foula, two small islands of the Shetland Group. Except during the breeding season, the Great Skua is mostly oceanic in. its habitat, wandering long distances from land in quest of prey, attending vessels and fishing fleets, only drawing landwards by stress of weather or un- usual abundance of food. This Skua is practically omnivorous. During its summer sojourn near and on the land it repeatedly raids the colonies of other sea fowl, to prey upon exposed eges or unguarded young; it captures the smaller Gulls, notably the Kittiwake: it also picks up any stranded fish or other carrion; and is constantly on the watch to chase any Gull or Tern that catches a fish, following the poor bird with fatal persistency until, terror stricken, it disgorges its food, which is promptly seized by the voracious Skua. The call note of this Skua is very similar to that of the Lesser Black-backed Gull, but when under the excitement of chasing other birds, or of seeking
“GULLS 'AND TERNS. 43
to guard its own domain, the bird utters a loud cry which is likened by many observers to the word skua or skut.
The Great Skua resorts to its breeding grounds in April, and the eggs are laid in May. As it returns yearly to the same places, it very possibly pairs for life. The nests are made upon the ground of the high moorlands, amongst the heath and grass, and are mere hollows in the moss, sometimes lined with a little dry grass. The eggs of this Skua are two in number, and vary from pale buff to dark olive-brown in ground colour, sparingly spotted and speckled with dark brown and grayish-brown. These eggs are large in size, and very closely resemble those of the Herring Gull. But one brood is reared in the year, and by the end of August the young birds and their parents desert the nesting colony, and adopt their pelagic habits. Few birds are so courageous in defence of their nests as the Skua. Even such predaceous creatures as Eagles, Ravens, and dogs are driven off; whilst human intruders are screamed at and approached within a few feet, the birds wrathfully extending their legs as if they would strike, and skimming to and fro in rage. Many tales of this bird’s daring at its nesting places are current in Shetland, where it is known almost universally as the “ Bonxie.”
Our second species is Richardson’s Skua, the Stercorarius richardsont of some systematists, the S. crepidatus of others. Although not quite so
44 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
local as the preceding species, its breeding area is remarkably restricted, so far as the British Islands are concerned. It breeds on the Hebrides, in Caithness and Sutherlandshire, and on the Orkneys and Shetlands. Richardson’s Skua is a more gregarious species than its larger relative, but its habits generally are much the same. It is, for its size, equally daring and rapacious; is also remarkable for its powers of flight; but differs from the Great Skua in being more gregarious. Richardson’s Skua is for the most part a summer migrant to the British Islands, and numbers of birds pass along our coasts in spring to their northern breeding-grounds. It is only during the seasons of passage that the visitor to our southern coasts may hope to fall in with this bird, and even then it does not approach the land much. Like the other Skuas, the present species is a relentless robber of the Gulls and Terns, chasing them up and down until they disgorge their fish, and repeating the process at every opportunity. Eggs, young birds, and carrion, are also eaten. It is said to capture weakly birds, but I do not think it is so much addicted to this Hawk-like habit as the preceding species. During summer insects and ground fruits are eaten, whilst it has been known to take worms and molluscs. The note of this Skua is described either as a plaintive mee or kyow, and when in chase of a bird it has been likened to the syllable yah, oft repeated.
GULLS AND TERNS. 4s
Richardson’s Skua reaches its breeding-grounds in the British Islands early in May. Its haunts at this season are open moors, at no great distance from the sea. Although social at its breeding- places, it can scarcely be described as gregarious, and the nests are usually scattered up and down the moorland area. This Skua appears to pair annually, and the nest, always made upon the ground, is merely a hollow, carelessly lined with a little dry herbage, and sometimes nothing but a shallow cavity in the moss. The eggs, normally, are two, but sometimes three have been found, and occasionally but one. They range from olive to brown in ground colour, spotted and speckled with darker brown and grayish brown. Incubation is performed by the female, and lasts about a month. At its breeding-places Richardson’s Skua is very demonstrative, and often reveals the situation of the nest by its anxious movements above the intruder’s head. After the young are reared the moors are deserted, and for the remainder of the year this Skua is decidedly pelagic in its habits and haunts.
ave now pass .to the Terns. These) pretty graceful birds—widely known as “Sea Swallows” — differ in many respects from the Gulls and Skuas. They most closely resemble the former in general appearance, but may be easily distinguished by their slender form, small size, and forked tail. Of the dozen species that have been regarded as
40 BRITISH) SEA) BIRDS.
“British,” no less than five breed within the limits of our islands. The Terns are far more locally distributed than the Gulls. Many miles of coast may be traversed without one ever seeing a Tern. They are all migratory birds with us, visiting Britain in summer to breed, and retiring south again in autumn. It is only during the season of passage, therefore, that they are at all widely dispersed, for the remainder of their sojourn on our coasts is spent at or in the near vicinity of their breeding - stations. The five indigenous British species follow.
SANDWICH TERN.
This fine species—the Sterna cantiaca of Gmelin, and the S. savdvicensts of Latham—is not only the largest of the indigenous British Terns, but one of the rarest. It was formerly much more widely | dispersed along our coasts, but persecution has thinned its numbers, and the seaside holiday-maker has banished it from many of its old-time haunts. Special interest attaches to this bird, because it is one of the very few species that have been first made known to science from examples obtained in the British Islands. It was first discovered in 1784, at Sandwich, on the coast of Kent, and described by Latham three years later. Alas! no longer does this beautiful Tern breed in its early haunts on the Kentish coast; it has disappeared from there, as it has from many another locality, without
GULLS AND TERNS. 47
hope of return. The most important breeding- place of this Tern, and certainly the most accessible to the majority of observers, is situated on the famous Farne Islands; even here the bird is much less common than it used to be. There are small colonies on Walney Island, in Cumberland, in the Solway district, on Loch Lomond, in the Pits) of Tay,;'and' on the coast of’ Elgin))))Its only known breeding-station in Ireland is in Co. Mayo.
The Sandwich Tern reaches the British coasts in April or early in May. But little is seen of this species whilst on passage, for it evidently keeps some distance from shore as a rule, or passes quickly and unobserved. The smaller Terns, for instance, are commonly seen on the coast of South Devonshire in Spring and Autumn, but I cannot recall a single strong migration of the present species in that locality. This Tern is seldom or never seen at any distance from the sea. Most of its waking time is spent in the air, flying about with easy, graceful motion, in quest of its finny prey. The Sandwich Tern, however, is nothing near so graceful looking on the wing as its smaller relatives, the heavier body, broader wings, and much less acutely forked tail giving it a heavier, more cumbersome appearance. Most of its food is obtained whilst it hovers above the sea. The way in which all the Terns feed is very pretty. They poise and hover above their finny victims, and
48 BRITISH “SEA BIRDS:
every now and then dart downwards like a stone into the water and capture a fish, fluttering up again, or remaining for a moment to swallow their capture. A flock of Terns (of any species) fishing is one of the prettiest sights imaginable. In addition to small fish the Sandwich Tern devours crustaceans of various kinds, whilst its young are fed largely upon sand-lice and beetles. The Terns are much cleaner feeders than the Gulls, and I have never known them touch carrion or refuse. I have, however, seen them pounce down upon scraps of food thrown from a vessel. The usual call-note of the Sandwich Tern is a somewhat shrill scream.
This Tern probably pairs for life, and returns regularly every season to its old-accustomed haunts to breed. These are by preference low, rocky, or sandy islands, covered with marine herbage, varied with barer patches, and with beaches of rough shingle. Similar conditions are sought on the mainland, in a secluded spot on the coast, but an island is always preferred. The Sandwich Tern is gregarious, but its colonies, with one exception, in our islands are nowhere very extensive. This one exception is at the Farne Islands, where it has been computed the birds number upwards of a thousand pairs. As the nesting-places are visited very regularly year by year this Tern probably pairs for life. I have noticed, however, that the birds shift their actual breeding ground from time to time,
> a
GULLS AND TERNS. 49
using several spots in succession. One year they will nest here, another year there, on the same small island perhaps, but sometimes removing ez masse to another one of the group. The nests are always placed upon the ground, either amongst the sand shingle and drifted dedrvzs, a short distance from high water mark, or amongst the sea campion, thrift, and coarse grass further inland; sometimes a bare mound on the highest part of the island is selected. Many nests are made within a small area, sometimes so close together as to render walking amongst them without treading on their contents a difficult matter. The nests are slight enough, mere hollows lined with a few bits of withered herbage, and in some cases even this simple provision is neglected. The eggs, which are laid from about the middle of May to the middle of June, are generally two in number, but sometimes three. These vary from creamy-white to rich buff in ground colour, handsomely blotched and spotted with various shades of brown and gray. During the hot June days the eggs seem to require little incubation, but there are always plenty of birds about the spot, ready to rise fluttering and scream- ing into the air when their breeding grounds are invaded by man. But one brood is reared in the season, yet if the first clutches of eggs be lost they will be replaced.
50 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
COMMON TERN.
This Tern, known as the Sterna hirundo of Linnzus, by most British ornithologists, although there can be little doubt that the great Swedish naturalist applied the term indiscriminately to this and the Arctic Tern, is one of the best known British species, especially round the English and Welsh coasts. It becomes rarer in Scotland, where it is largely replaced by the Arctic Tern. The Common Tern, distinguished by its white under- parts from the Arctic Tern, is migratory and arrives on the British coasts towards the end of April, retiring south in Autumn. Its favourite haunts during the summer are the various groups of low rocky islands, and the more secluded portions of the coast where sandbanks and shingle occur. Save on passage, this Tern is seldom seen far from the vicinity of its nest colony. The flight of the Common Tern is exceedingly buoyant and graceful, the long slender wings and acutely forked tail assisting greatly in the general effect. Like the Swallows the tarsus of the Terns is remarkably short, so that on the ground the birds seem awkward, and rarely attempt to walk far; on the sea, however, they are quite at home and swim well. ‘There are few prettier sights along the shore than a flock of Terns busy in quest of food. Where the beach is rocky, and the water somewhat deep inshore, the
GULLS AND TERNS. SI
birds may be watched with ease. In a serried throng they flutter to and fro; ever and anon a bird falls down like a fragrant of white glittering marble into the sea with a loud splash, and in a moment rises again with its finny prey. Bird after bird keeps dropping so; now and then a bird remains swimming on the water; now and then two birds chase each other in rapid flight. And so for miles the Terns will continue to follow the shoal until hunger is satisfied, or the fish retire to greater depths. The food of this species is chiefly composed of small fish, but insects and crustaceans are also devoured. The note of the Common Tern is a shrill £r2ck or Aree-zck, most frequently uttered when the bird is flying alarmed over its invaded nesting place.
The Common Tern is rather a late breeder, its eggs not being laid until the end of May or early in June. It breeds in companies of varying size, the suitability of the site being in some measure a determining cause. This Tern is equally capricious in the site selected for the nests; sometimes one spot is chosen, sometimes another; but there can be little doubt that the bird pairs for life, and evinces considerable attachment for its accustomed haunts. I have found almost invariably that the Common Tern habitually lays its eggs farther from the water than the Arctic Tern, and always prefers to conceal them amongst vegetation of some kind. Islands are always preferred to the mainland,
52 BRITISH SEABIRDS.
doubtless because of their greater safety. We cannot class this bird as an elaborate nest builder, a mere hollow, scantily lined with a little withered grass or weeds, being the only provision. The two or three eggs vary from buff to grayish-brown in ground colour, blotched and spotted with several shades of rich brown and gray. But one brood is reared, and as soon as the young are strong upon the wing, the nesting places are deserted, and the movement south begins.
Terns migrate leisurely in autumn, often re- maining a day or so here and there, on and off the coast, and are then seen in localities which they never frequent during summer.
THE ARCTIC TERN.
This Tern, widely known to systematists as the Sterna arctica of Temminck, was unaccountably confused with the preceding species, until the German naturalist, Naumann, appears first to have pointed out their specific distinctness. The Arctic Tern is par excellence the Tern of our northern coasts, say from the Farne Islands and Lancashire onwards to the Orkneys and the Shetlands. I am not aware that it breeds anywhere on the English coast between Spurn and the Scilly Islands, but there are a few scattered colonies on the west coast of England and Wales. This pretty Tern may be distinguished from its near ally, the Common Tern
GULLS AND TERNS. 53
(which it closely resembles in size and general appearance), by its grayer under parts and _ per- ceptibly longer outermost tail feathers. Like all its congeners, the Arctic Tern is a summer migrant to the British seas and coasts, arriving from the south late in April or early in May. It prefers very similar haunts to those of the preceding species—low rocky islands with sandy or shingly beaches, and with a fair amount of grass and other marine vegetation upon them. It is equally gregarious in its habits, breeding in colonies, and returning regularly to certain districts to rear its young. Its slenderer form, and proportionately longer wings and tail, make it even more elegant looking in the air than its congener. It catches its food in the same Hawk-like or Gannet-like manner, pouncing down into the water and seizing the tiny fish as they swim near the surface. No Tern dives, and it is certainly exceptional for the bird completely to immerse itself; usually it flutters on the surface for a moment, then rises again. Small fish and crustaceans form the principal food of this species. Its note is very similar to that of the preceding Tern—a shrill and monotonous krick, often prolonged into two syllables.
The nesting season of this Tern begins in June, and fresh eggs may be found throughout that month. Rocky islands seem everywhere to be preferred for nesting places, and the same habit of changing the exact hatching ground prevails in this
54 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
as in the preceding species. The Farne Islands are, or used to be, a great breeding station of the Arctic Tern, and there I have taken great numbers of its eggs. The bird probably pairs for life. It differs somewhat in its nesting arrangements from the Common Tern, inasmuch that it never makes any nest. No lining of any kind is placed in the hollow which contains the eggs, and this hollow is generally selected ready made. Another peculiarity is that the eggs are far more generally laid nearer to the water; and this applies not only to the Farne Islands, but to every breeding place of this Tern that I have visited. The two or three eggs are laid in any little depression in the coarse sand or shingle on the line of drift, or amongst small pebbles, or even on the bare ground or rock. These eggs vary from buff to olive, and even pale bluish-green in ground colour, heavily blotched and spotted, especially at the larger end, with dark brown, paler brown, and gray. They are decidedly smaller than those of the Common Tern, more elongated in shape, and are much more olive in general colour. When disturbed from their eggs the Arctic Terns become very noisy, and rise in fluttering crowds above the sacred spot, continuing to fly to and fro, screaming anxiously until the intruder retires.
GULLS AND TERNS. 55
ROSEATE TERN.
It is with some hesitation that I include this species, the Stérna dougalli of Montagu, in the present work, because if it really does visit our coasts now to breed, it is so exceedingly rare and local, that any ordinary observer of bird life by the sea could scarcely hope to meet with it. It is interesting to remark that the Roseate Tern was first made known to science from a skin that was sent to Montagu, from the Cumbrae Islands, in the Firth of Clyde. It was subsequently found breeding on the Farne Islands by Selby; it formerly bred on the Scilly Islands, as well as on Foulney and Walney; but so far as I can ascertain there is no direct evidence that it breeds at any of these places now. It may be distinguished from the Common Tern by its rosy under plumage ; but as this is very apt to fade, a still more infallible distinction, accord- ing to Mr. Saunders, is the white inner margin to the primaries.
The Roseate Tern is a very late migrant, not reaching its breeding places until towards the end of May. In its flight and habits generally, it very closely resembles those of the preceding species; but its note is hoarser than that of the Common Tern. The favourite breeding grounds of this Tern appear to be low rocky islets and—so far as our islands are concerned—it is partial to nesting among a larger colony of Arctic
56 BRITISH SEA (BIRDS:
or Common Terns. It does not appear to make any nest, but deposits its two or three eggs on the bare ground, usually in a little hollow amongst the shingle. These eggs very closely resemble those of the Common Tern; so closely in fact that no reliable means of distinguishing them can be given.
LESSER TERN.
This species (Sterna mzinuta) is by far the smallest of the Terns that visit the British coasts in summer to breed. It cannot be said to be any- where common, and its breeding stations are few and far between. Curiously enough, it is not known to breed on that great resort of British sea fowl, the Farne Islands. There can be no doubt that this Tern is slowly becoming rarer, and in view of this fact I do not feel justified in assisting its exter- mination, by naming a single locality known to me where it now breeds. The bird-loving reader will, I am sure, appreciate this reticence. Small colonies of this pretty Tern are situated here and there round the British coasts, and in one or two more inland localities. The partiality of the Lesser Tern for the coast of the mainland, rather than for islands, as a nesting ground, contributes largely to the decrease in its numbers. It arrives on our coasts in May, and is readily distinguished from all its congeners by its small size. In its habits it is certainly gregarious, but nowhere are its gatherings
GULLS AND TERNS. 57
as extensive as in the other common British species, Like its congeners it is eminently a bird of the air, flying up and down in restless uncertain flight, living almost entirely on the wing during the daytime, only seeking the sands or the sea to sleep or to rest. It may be watched flying along the coast, a short distance from land, in a slow irregular way, every now and then poising for a second, and then dropping into the water with a tiny splash to seize a fish or a crustacean. Its note is not quite so harsh as that of the larger species, and may be described as a shrill pzv7, most frequently uttered when its breeding places are invaded. Its food is composed of small fish, insects, sand-lice, and crustaceans, most of which is secured whilst the bird is on the wing.
The Lesser Tern begins breeding in June. Like all the other species it returns unfailingly to certain spots along the coast each summer, and may, there- fore, be presumed to pair for life. Its favourite breeding-grounds are extensive stretches of sand, varied with slips and banks of coarser shingle. It makes no nest, not even so much as scratching a hollow for its eggs, but lays them on the bare ground. It is most interesting to remark that this Tern never lays its eggs on the fine sand, but always on the bits of rough beach—where the ground is strewn with little stones, broken shells, and other débris of the shore—where their colour harmonises so closely with surrounding objects
58 BRITISH’ SEA BIRDS.
that discovery is difficult The eggs are from two to four in number—I have on two separate occasions taken clutches of the latter—but three may be given as the average. They vary from buff to grayish-brown in colour, blotched and spotted with various shades of darker brown and gray. During the hottest hours’ of the day the female sits but little upon them, and it is re- markable how quickly these shore birds will rise from their nests at the first sign of impending danger—the alarm doubtless being given by the male bird from the air above. ‘It is amass exceptional thing to see a conspicuously coloured bird rise from its nest in a bare situation; the eggs are generally coloured protectively, and resemble the objects around them; the presence of the showily attired parent would inevitably lead to their discovery. Early in autumn, when the young are strong upon the wing, the return journey to the winter home on the African coast begins, and it is during these migration journeys that the bird is, perhaps, most commonly observed along the British seaboard.
BLACK TERN.
Allusion may here, perhaps, be permitted to the Sterna nigra or Hydrochelidon nigra of ornithol- ogists. The Black Tern formerly bred commonly in our marshes and fens, but has long ceased to do so. The ‘Car Swallow,” as it used to be widely
GULLS) AND) TERNS, 59
called in the fens, belongs to the group known as Marsh Terns—birds that rarely frequent the sea coast at all, so that its absence from our avi-fauna, although greatly to be deplored, could scarcely be remarked by the observer of marine species alone. The White-winged Black Tern and the Whiskered Tern complete this division, known as “Marsh Terns.” Both these latter are occasional wanderers to the British Islands.
Plovers and Sandpipers
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PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS.
Characteristicsand A ffinities— necked Phalarope — Curlew — Changes of Plumage—Structural Whimbrel — Godwits — Black - Characters — Oyster - catcher — tailed Godwit— Bar-tailed God- Ringed Plover—Kentish Plover wit— Redshank—Sanderling— —Golden Plover—Gray Plover— Knot — Curlew Sandpiper —
Lapwing — Turnstone — Phala- Dunlin— Purple Sandpiper — ropes —Gray Phalarope — keda- Other Species.
N the present chapter we commence the study
of an entirely different class of birds. The Gulls are for the most part seen flying in the air or swimming upon the sea, but the Plovers and the Sandpipers spend the greater part of their time on the ground. Again, Gulls, when adult, are remarkably showy birds, but the Plovers and allied species are just as inconspicuous. Many of the haunts frequented by Gulls are utterly unsuited to the Plovers and Sandpipers. These principally delight in low sandy coasts, mud-flats, slob-lands, and salt marshes. Rocks and ranges of cliff have no attraction for these little feathered runners of the shore; they obtain their food on the shallow margin of the sea, on the sand and shingle, the
64 BRITISH) SHEA TBIRDS:
mud and the ooze, or at low water among the weed-draped stones. They are emphatically beach birds. Such parts of the coast that have little or no beach uncovered at high water, on which they may rest whilst the tide is turning, or at low water on which they can seek for food, are but little frequented by these Limicoline birds. Consequently we find them much more abundant on the flat eastern coasts of England, and some parts of the southern coasts, with their miles of sand and mud and wide estuaries, than on the much more rock- bound north and west.
The Plovers, with their allied forms, the Sand- pipers and Snipes, and between which no very pronounced distinction is known to exist, constitute a well-defined group of birds, perhaps on the one hand most closely allied to the Gulls, and on the other hand to the Bustards. There are more than two hundred species in this group, distributed over most parts of the world. The Limicole (under which term we include the Plovers, Sandpipers, and their allies) present considerable diversity in the colour of their plumage, and in a great many species this colour varies to an astonishing degree with the season. The most brilliant hues are assumed just prior to the breeding season; the winter plumage is much less conspicuous. To a great extent this colour is protective, the brighter plumage of summer in many species harmonising with the inland haunts the birds then frequent: the
ee 7
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 65
duller hues characteristic of winter assimilating with the barer ground—the sands and mud-flats. It is worthy of remark that the species which do not present this great diversity in their seasonable change of plumage—such as the Snipes and Wood- cocks—confine themselves to haunts clothed with vegetation all the year round ; or—as in the case of the Ringed Plovers—to bare sands and shingles. In their moulting the Limicole are most interesting. It is impossible to enter very fully into the details of this function in the present volume, nor is it necessary, for the purpose of this study of marine bird-life, to do so. A few of the most salient facts, however, may be mentioned. The young of all Limicoline birds are hatched covered with down, and are able to run soon after their breaking from the shell. They consequently spend little time in the nest, after they are hatched. This down varies considerably not only in the pattern of the colour, but in the colour itself. Some of these chicks, or young in down, are beautifully striped or spotted ; others are sprinkled or dusted with darker or lighter tints than the general colour. In all, however, the colours are eminently protective ones, and harmonise so closely with the hues of surrounding objects that discovery is difficult; more especially so as the chicks possess the habit of crouching motionless to the ground when menaced by danger. The first plumage of the young bird in the present order, approaches more or less closely in colour that of E
66 BRITISH. ‘SEA BERDS:
the summer plumage of the adult. At the beginning of autumn, however, these bright colours begin to be changed for a dress which resembles the winter plumage of their parents. This is not effected, however, by a moult, but by a change in colour of the feathers, only the very worn and abraded ones being actually replaced. In the spring following, these immature birds moult into summer plumage, similar to that of the adults, although the wing coverts retain their hue, characteristic of summer or the breeding season, until the next autumn, when for the first time these feathers are changed for the gray or brown ones of winter. It should here be remarked that the wing coverts of the adults seem only to be moulted in the autumn, so that this portion of their plumage is always the same colour after the bird reaches the adult ‘stage’ ofits existence. The phenomenon of the alteration of colour in the plumage of birds, and especially in Limicoline species, without moulting or an absolute change of the feathers, is a profoundly interesting one. One of the most remarkable facts in connection with this phenomenon is the restoration of the worn and ragged margins of the feathers in some Limicoline species to a perfect condition without a change or moult of the notched and damaged feather. Schlegel was the first naturalist, apparently, to discover that this wonderful renovation took place, but his statements seem to have been doubted by naturalists. FFortun-
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 67
ately Schlegel’s opinions have been fully confirmed by Herr Gatke; and the reader interested in the subject is referred to that great naturalist’s remarks thereon in his book on the birds of Heligoland.* This seasonal change of colour may be produced both by a moult and by actual transition, without cast of feather, even in the same bird: the restora- tion of ragged feathers and development of colour upon them may also be progressing at the same time. Thus the black markings on the head and neck of the Golden Plover are the result of colour alteration, but the black on the breast is attained by moult. The colour changes in the Sanderling, the Knot, the Dunlin, the Redshank, and numerous other allied birds, are perfectly astonishing: in the Redshank especially so, the profusely barred upper plumage being developed without change of feather, and the feathers reacquiring a pristine freshness and perfectness which seem almost incredible with- out a complete moult!
Comparatively speaking, the haunts frequented by Limicoline birds during summer, or the season of reproduction, are not, in the strict sense of the term, littoral ones. But few species breed on the actual coast—in our islands they are represented by such birds as the Oyster-catcher and the Ringed Plover; the vast majority rear their young in inland localities, on moors and downs, by the side of rivers, streams, and lakes, in swamps, and so on.
* Heligoland as an Ornithological Observatory, p. 151, et seq.
68 _ BRITISH SEABIRDS.
As soon, however, as the duties of the year are over great numbers of species resort to the sea coasts, where, in all districts suited to their require- ments, they form one of the most characteristic avine features. It is amongst birds of this order that the habit of migration is exceptionally pro- nounced, some species journeying every year many thousands of miles between their summer haunts, or breeding grounds, and their winter homes, or centres of dispersal. In the present group of birds the wings are generally long and pointed, a form best adapted for prolonged and rapid flight, whilst the legs are usually long—in some species, as, for instance, the Black-winged Stilt, exceptionally so— enabling the birds to wade through shallows and over soft mud and ooze. In some species the feet are semi-webbed, as in the Avocets, in others they are lobed, as in the Phalaropes. ‘The bill varies to an astonishing degree amongst birds of this class, and seems specially modified to meet the varying methods by which food is obtained. Thus we have presented to us the decurved bill of the Curlew type, the recurved bill, characteristic amongst others of the Avocet or the Godwits, the nearly straight bill of such forms as the Oyster-catcher and the Phalarope, hard and chisel-like in the former, and finely pointed in the latter; then, again, the bill in many species is hard and horny, in others it is acutely sensitive, full of delicate nerves, as in the Snipes and many others. The bill of the typical
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 69
Plovers differs strikingly from that of the Sand- pipers and Snipes, inasmuch that it tapers from the base to the end of the nasal groove, then swells towards the tip. It is utterly impossible in a work like the present, which only attempts a slight sketch of marine bird-life on British coasts, to deal adequately with the astonishing amount of varia- tion, even in this single organ of Limicoline birds. We will, therefore, now proceed to notice the most characteristic species found on the tideways of our islands, either as resident species, as passing migrants, or as winter visitors. It will, perhaps, be most convenient, as well as most interesting, to deal first with those species that are resident on our coasts, as being the most characteristic forms of this group of shore birds.
OYSTER-CATCHER.
During summer, this species (the Hematopus ostralegus of Linnzeus and other systematists) south of the Yorkshire and Lancashire coasts, is decidedly local and rare; but north of those localities it becomes one of the most common and characteristic birds of the shore, even extending to the Shetlands, the wildest of the Hebrides and St. Kilda. It is of interest to remark that in some parts of Scotland the Oyster-catcher drops its marine habits, and frequents the banks of rivers and lochs. There is, perhaps, no more conspicuous, no more handsome, no more noisy bird along the coast, than the Oyster-
70 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
catcher. It is worthily named “Sea Pie, Jats strongly contrasted black and white plumage re- calling at once the Magpie of the inland fields and woods. The favourite haunts of this species are long stretches of low, rocky coast, relieved here and there by patches of shingle and long reaches of sand, broken with quiet bays, creeks, and lochs, where a large amount of beach is exposed at low water. One may generally find an Oyster-catcher about rocky islands; it is also very partial to resting on these, between the tides. Few birds look daintier or prettier than the present species, as it stands motionless on some weed-grown rock, its pied plumage, rich orange-coloured bill, and flesh- pink legs, coming out boldly against the olive-green masses of alge. It is not often, however, that we can approach sufficiently close to see such details ; as a rule the bird rises piping shrilly into the air, before it is actually seen, and long before unaided vision can distinguish colours distinctly. During summer the Oyster-catcher can scarcely be regarded as gregarious, but in winter, when its numbers are increased by migrants from the north, flocks of varying size may be met with. When flushed, the flight of this bird is very erratic and very rapid, performed by quick and regular strokes of the long- pointed wings; and perhaps it is now that the colours of the bird are seen to best advantage. The call note is heard most frequently and per- sistently as the bird hurries away in alarm, or
”
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 71
careers about the air overhead, anxious for the safety of its eggs or young. This note cannot readily be confused with that of any other bird upon the coast. It may best be described as a loud shrill heep-heep-heep. The food of the Oyster- catcher is composed of mussels, whelks, limpets, crustaceans, and small fish, together with various tender buds and shoots of marine plants. Its chisel-shaped bill enables it readily to detach limpets from the rocks, or force open the closed valves of the mussel or the cockle. Oyster-catchers often frequent certain spots on the coast to feed, visiting them as soon as the tide admits, with great regu- larity. It may here be remarked that this bird wades often through the shallows, but never swims, as far as I know, unless wounded.
The eggs of the Oyster-catcher are laid in May or June, in the north a little later than in the south. The nesting-place is usually a stretch of rough pebbles or a shingly beach in some quiet bay, a low rocky island, or even a stack of rocks. Although Oyster-catchers cannot be said to breed in colonies, like some of the Gulls and Terns, numbers of nests may be found at no great distance apart. The nest is simple in the extreme—a mere hollow, in and round which are neatly arranged flat pebbles and bits of broken shells. As a rule, several mock nests may be found near to the one containing the eggs. These eggs are usually three in number, but sometimes four, pale buff or
72 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
brownish-buff in ground colour, blotched, spotted, and streaked with blackish-brown and gray. Two distinct types are noticeable: one in which the markings are streaky, and often form a zone; the other in which they are large, irregular, and distributed over most of the surface. As soon as the nest is approached the ever-watchful birds rise screaming into the air, and should many pairs be breeding in company, the din soon becomes general and deafening. It is under these circum- stances alone that the Oyster-catcher permits man to approach it closely; at all other times it is certainly one of the shyest and wariest of birds on the coast. RINGED PLOVER.
With the present species—or resident large race, the £gialitis hiaticula major of Tristram, as we should more correctly describe it—we reach the true Plovers. The ‘Ringed Plover is one jae the most widely distributed of our coast _ birds, frequenting all the flat sandy shores of the British Islands, from the Shetlands, in the north, to the Channel Islands, in the south. And not only does it haunt the coast, but it is found on the banks of rivers and lochs in many inland districts. In many places this species is known as the “ Ring Dotterel”; in others its local name is the “ Sand Lark.” The favourite haunts of the Ringed Plover are the sandy portions of the beach; but in autumn and winter this bird frequently visits
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 73
mud-flats. The Ringed Plover is about the size of a Thrush, and may be easily recognised by its broad white collar, black breast and cheeks, brown upper parts, and snow-white under parts. Its actions on the shore are most engaging, tripping here and there along the margin of the waves, over the wet sand and shingle, darting this way and that as some tempting morsel of food is discovered. If in autumn or winter, this Plover will generally be met with in flocks of varying size; if in summer in scattered pairs or parties composed of the birds breeding in the immediate neighbourhood. Ringed Plovers are most attached to certain haunts, and seem to frequent them year by year, notwithstanding continued persecution and disturbance. It is the same when they are feeding. If alarmed they usually rise in a compact bunch, fly out to sea a little way, then return inshore, perhaps passing two or three times up and down before finally alighting. Again and again may this action be repeated, although the flock has a tendency to break up if flushed many times in quick succession, and odd birds will fall out, or remain skulking amongst the shingle. A dense flock or bunch of Ringed Plovers is a pretty sight. The birds fly quickly, and wheel and turn with astonishing precision, now close to the waves, then up in the air above the horizon, often persistently uttering their shrill call note, which resembles the syllables fo0-2¢ rapidly repeated. Occasionally a
74 BRITISH SEABIRDS.
fair sprinkling of Sanderlings and Dunlins may be observed in the flocks of this species. If seriously alarmed the entire flock will mount up high, and go off to a distant part of the coast, or even divide into several smaller ones, each retiring to a different spot; but almost invariably they return, and reform into a single company on the old familiar sands, within a hour or so of their scattered departure. The food of this pretty little Plover consists of the smaller creatures of the shore, such as minute sand- worms, shrimps, sand-hoppers, tiny molluscs, and insects. That this species occasionally eats vegetable substances I have assured myself by repeated dissection.
Although the Ringed Plover appears only to rear one brood in the year, its laying season is prolonged from the middle of April to the beginning of June. Early in April the winter flocks begin to disband, and the birds to disperse over their breeding places. Many pairs may be found breeding on one large stretch of sand in a suitable district. Some individuals seek an inland site for their eggs, on the bank of a stream or lake, but the majority prefer the sands of the sea-shore. Occasionally the nest has been discovered remote from water. This Plover makes no nest. The eggs sometimes are laid in a hollow of the sand, but just as frequently on the level surface. The fine sand is always preferred to the shingle, as the eggs best harmonize in appearance with it, their fine
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. eS
‘markings becoming more conspicuous on the coarser surface. The bird sits lightly: indeed it is most exceptional to see one rise from its eggs, unless the spot had been previously marked. When disturbed, the birds exhibit but little outward manifestation of alarm. They may be seen running to and fro about the sand, but their behaviour is very different from that of the Lesser Terns, which often nest on the same sands. The eggs of the Ringed Plover are always four in number, very pyriform in shape, and invariably laid with the pointed ends turned inwards. They are large in proportion to the bird, and pale buff or stone colour sparingly spotted and speckled with blackish-brown and ink-gray. During May and June a smaller and darker race of Ringed Plover passes along our coasts, to breed further north; appearing on the return journey during August, September, and October. There is some evidence to suggest that this race breeds sparingly on the coasts of Kent and Sussex. KENTISH PLOVER.
This species, the gzalitis cantzana of ornitho- —logists, is one of the most local of British birds. Stragglers have been obtained here and there along the coast line between Yorkshire and Cornwall, but its only known nesting places are on certain parts of the coasts of Kent and Sussex. It is now nearly a century ago since this Plover was first made known to science by Lewin, who figured
76 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
it in his Birds of Great Britain; and by Latham, who described and named it in the supplement to his great work, the /udex Ornithologicus, from examples which had been obtained on the Kentish shingles by Mr. Boys of Sandwich. The Kentish Plover bears a superficial resemblance to the Ringed Plover, but may readily be distinguished by the broken pectoral band, represented by a dark patch on each side of the breast, and the reddish- brown nape and crown. Unlike the preceding species, this Plover is a summer migrant only to the British coasts, arriving towards the end of April or early in May, and departing again with its young in August or September. Odd birds, however, have been met with during winter. The Kentish Plover does not differ in its habits in any marked degree from the Ringed Plover, and frequents very similar localities, stretches of sand and shingle. Like that bird, it also gathers into small parties during summer; but in our islands, where its numbers are limited, we more usually find it in isolated pairs on various suitable parts of the shore. It possesses the same restless habits; running about the wet shining sands and shingles close to the breaking waves, in quest of the sand- hoppers, crustaceans, worms, and other small marine creatures on which it feeds. It cannot be regarded as a shy bird, permitting a somewhat close approach, and manifesting little fear or alarm even when its breeding grounds are invaded by man. Its
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. Ta
alarm note may be described as a shrill pézrv, but the usual call is a clear loud wz¢, which, during the love season, is frequently uttered so quickly as to form a sort of trill, as the cock bird soars and flies round and round above his mate. The Ringed Plover utters a very similar trill during the pairing season.
The Kentish Plover rears but one brood during the summer, and preparations are made for this towards the end of May. It is not improbable that this Plover pairs for life, seeing that the same localities are visited year by year for nesting purposes. It makes no nest, the eggs being laid in a little hollow amongst the coarser sand or the shingle, or on a drift of dry seaweed and other shore adébris. The eggs are usually three, but occasionally four in number, and are pale or dark buff in ground colour, blotched, scratched, and spotted with blackish-brown and slate-gray. As is the almost invariable custom with birds breed- ing on bare plains and beaches—and whose eggs are protectively coloured—the Kentish Plover sits lightly, rises from her eggs as soon as danger is discovered, and evinces but little outward anxiety for their safety ; although, in some instances, the feigning of lameness has been resorted to, especially when the eggs have been on the point of hatching. The young birds and their parents form a family party during the autumn, and apparently migrate southwards in close company.
78 BRITISH SEA ‘BIRDS.
With the present species we exhaust the number of Limicoline birds that nest upon the shore in the British Islands. All the other species that make our sands and mud-flats their winter home, or their place of call during their spring and autumn migrations, breed away from the actual beach on marshes and moors and uplands, or do not rear their young at all within our area. Closely associated with most of these birds are the fascinating problems of Migration. We miss the feathered hosts from sand and mud-flat as the spring advances; we note the fleeting appear- ance of others along the shore bound to far away northern haunts: and then long before the first faint signs of autumn are apparent these migrant birds begin to return, and imbue the wild lone slob-lands and shingles with life. To and fro with each recurring spring and autumn, the stream of avine life flows and ebbs; by day and by night the feathery tides press on, calling forth wonder from the least observant, filling more thoughtful minds with the complexity and the mystery of it all. We have not space to deal here with this grand avine movement; but, content with this passing allusion to it, pass on to a study of the other feathered dwellers by the sea. (Conf. J. 281).
It is rather remarkable how few species of Limicoline birds breed on the British coast-line. Not a single Sandpiper nor Snipe does so, and but two or three Plovers, as we have already seen. So far as summer is concerned, these wading birds
%
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. RY 6
cannot be regarded as a very remarkable feature of avine life upon the coast; and it is, doubtless, because they are so little known to the majority of seaside visitors, that they appeal so much less to the popular mind than the more ubiquitous Gulls. But from September onwards to the following spring, Plovers and Sandpipers are the most prominent characteristics of all the more low-lying coasts. We will briefly glance at those species that not only frequent such situations regularly every season, but occur in sufficient numbers to place them beyond the category of abnormal visitors, or storm-driven wanderers from their natural haunts.
GOLDEN PLOVER.
This species, the Charadrius pluvialis of ornitho- logists, is, from the regularity of its appearance and its great abundance, known almost everywhere as the Plover of the coast. It derives its trivial name from the profusion of golden yellow drop-like spots which adorn its upper plumage, and may always be distinguished from allied species by its barred tail feathers and white axillaries. Large flights of Golden Plover begin to appear on our low-lying coasts in September, and through October and November the number steadily increases. Many of these birds simply pass along our shore- line to haunts in the Mediterranean basin, but many linger thereon through the winter. One of the great haunts of this Plover is along the shores
80 BRITISH, SEA “BIRDS,
of the Wash—that vast area of mud, and sand, and salt-marsh, which extends for miles in drear monotony, only enlivened and made endurable by the hordes of wild fowl that congregate upon its treacherous surface. Here, at the end of October, or during the first week in November, the migration of the Golden Plover can be observed in all its strength. Day after day, night after night, I have remarked the passage of this bird, in almost one unbroken stream, flock succeeding flock, so quickly as to form a nearly continuous throng. Upon the sands this Plover often associates with Dunlins, Gray Plovers, Lapwings, and other waders. Great numbers are, or used to be, shot or netted in this district, and sent to inland markets, for their flesh is justly esteemed for its delicacy, ranked by some as second only to that of the Woodcock. Golden Plovers feed and move about a good deal at night, especially by moonlight. Their food, during winter at least, consists of sand-worms and hoppers, molluscs, small seeds, and so on. The whistle of this Plover is one of the most attractive sounds of the mud-flats and salt-marshes. It may, under suitable atmospheric conditions, be heard for a long distance across the wastes, and sounds something like 4/ec-qwee, occasionally prolonged into klce-ee-wee. This note is uttered both while the bird is on the ground and in the air.” {]mjyime pairing season it is run out into a trill. The movements of the Golden Plover during winter
&
PLOVEKS: AND SANDPIFERS. 81
are largely regulated by the weather, and I have known it desert a district entirely, or become very restless and unsettled, just previous to a storm.
In spring the sea coasts are deserted, and the Golden Plover retires to its breeding-grounds. These, in our islands, are situated on the upland moors and mountain plateaux. The nest, invariably made upon the ground, is often placed on a hassock of coarse herbage, or on a tuft of cotton grass, and consists merely of a hollow, lined with a few bits of withered grass or dead leaves. The eggs are four in number, buff blotched and spotted with various shades of brown, and more sparingly with gray. They are much richer and yellower in appearance than those of the Lapwing, otherwise closely resemble them.
GRAY PLOVER.
This handsome bird, generically separated by many ornithologists from the preceding, on account of its possessing a minute and entirely functionless hind toe, is the Vanxellus helveticus of Brisson, and the Charadrius helveticus of writers who ignore the genus Sguwatarola, founded by Leach on the above- named trivial and, all things considered, utterly inadequate character. The Gray Plover is the first species we have considered in the present work that does not breed in the British Islands. Many birds of this species only pass our coast on migration in going to, and returning from, their Arctic breeding-
F
82 BRITISH SEA BIRDS:
grounds, but a fair number linger upon them throughout the winter. The Gray Plover may be readily distinguished from the preceding, as well as from all other allied forms, by the presence of a rudimentary hind toe, and by its d/ack axillaries. In its seasonal changes of plumage it closely resembles its ally. In the adult plumage, however, it never exhibits any of the yellow, drop-like, spots on the upper parts, so characteristic of that bird in every feather stage of its existence. Gray Plovers begin to arrive on the British coasts as early as August, and the migration continues with increas- ing strength until October or November. Such individuals as pass our islands for more southern haunts return along the British coasts during May and June. During its sojourn with us, the Gray Plover confines itself almost entirely to the mud- flats and salt marshes. It does not gather into such large companies as the Golden Plover—but this may be due, perhaps, to its smaller numbers— and is often seen in pairs or small parties, whilst odd birds will occasionally attach themselves ‘to flocks of Knots and Dunlins. In its habits generally, in its flight, and in its food, it closely resembles its commoner and better known ally. The note uttered whilst the bird lives upon our coasts resembles that of the Golden Plover.
The breeding-grounds of the Gray Plover are on the tundras and barren grounds in the Arctic regions
of the Old and New Worlds, above the limits of
ae
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS,. 83
forest growth. The nest is always made upon the ground, and is merely a slight hollow, lined with a few scraps of withered herbage. The four eggs very closely resemble those of the Lapwing, but are not quite so olive. When once flushed from the nest the Gray Plover becomes very wary and restless, and does not return for some time; should the young be hatched various alluring antics are indulged in to withdraw attention from them.
LAPWING.
This bird is the typical species of Brisson’s genus Vanxellus, and is known to most naturalists as Vanellus cristatus or vulgaris. It cannot easily | be confused with any other British bird, and is readily identified by its long conspicuous crest, metallic green, suffused with purple upper parts, and bright chestnut upper and under tail coverts. Further, its appearance in the air, so far as British Limicoline birds are concerned, is unique; the curiously rounded wings, and deliberate Heron-like flight, together with the peculiar note, make the matter of its identification easy to the veriest tyro in ornithology. The Lapwing is also not only the commonest of its order found in Britain, but cer- tainly the most widely dispersed. Nevertheless, it is only during the non-breeding season that the Lapwing can fairly be described as a marine bird. From March onwards to the early autumn it retires to inland moors, pastures, and rough undrained
84 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
lands to breed, returning coastwards again when the young are reared, especially from the more exposed and elevated localities. The favourite marine haunts of the “Green Plover,” or Peewit, as this bird is otherwise called, are rough saltings, mud-flats, and slob-lands; sands and shingles it rarely visits unless when driven to do so by heavy snowfalls ; and at all times it prefers ground overgrown with herbage to the bare beaches. As-this species presents little difference between summer and winter plumage, means for concealment may have some influence in its choice of haunt. When standing or running on the ground the Lapwing is a very ordinary looking bird; graceful enough, it is true; but the moment it rises into the air the observer is struck with the singularity of its appearance; the broad and rounded wings are unfolded and moved in a slow flapping Owl-like manner; very often grotesque evolutions are indulged in, the bird rising and swooping down again, turning and twisting in a most erratic way, and all the time persistently uttering the wild, mewing, plaintive cry that is absolutely characteristic of this Plover—an un- mistakable and unique note among birds. It may be expressed on paper as a nasal fee-weet, frequently modulated into weet-a-weet, pee-weet-weet.
As the autumn days draw on the Lapwing becomes more gregarious, often forming into flocks of enormous size, which wander about a good deal as the varying weather affects their supply of food.
;
—
et”
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 85
This, in winter, consists chiefly of worms, grubs, molluscs, crustaceans, and other small marine creatures ; in summer, seeds, shoots of herbage, and various ground fruits and berries are added. The Lapwing in its movements on the ground is light and elegant, running and walking well, standing high upon its legs, but it seldom seems to wade, and never, so far as I know, attempts to swim under any normal circumstances. Great numbers of Lapwings are killed for the table, but the flesh cannot be compared with that of the Golden Plover, being not only dark in appearance, but unpleasant in taste, especially after the birds have resided long in littoral haunts.
The Lapwing at the approach of spring retires inland to breed, visiting for the purpose moors, rough lands, water meadows, pastures, and grain fields. The nesting habits of this species are certainly better known than those of any other member of the Plover tribe, at least, as far as British birds are concerned. Every person at all familiar with the common objects of the country, knows the nest of the Lapwing, and must time and again have been amused with the bird’s erratic behaviour, as its breeding grounds are invaded by human intruders. The nest is always made upon the ground, generally in a hollow of some kind, often in the footprints of cattle and horses. Some- times it is cunningly hidden beneath a tuft of rushes or hassock of sedge and grass; whilst the
86 BRITISH SEA BIRDS:
summit of a mole-hill is not rarely chosen. The hollow is lined with a few bits of the dry and withered surrounding herbage; and in many cases even this slight provision is omitted. The four eggs (five have been recorded!) very like pears in shape, are buffish-brown or pale olive in ground colour, handsomely blotched and spotted, especially on the larger half, with blackish-brown, paler brown, and gray. If the flesh of the Lapwing is not held in very high repute its eggs make ample amends ~ for the deficiency. Vast numbers are systematically gathered for the table ; and as the birds will replace their stolen eggs again and again, the harvest may
be prolonged over several weeks. ‘The first eggs are laid in April; in more northern localities not ; before May. In the early days of the Plover egg | season, these commodities frequently realise as — much as twelve shillings per dozen, and are a source
of profit to many a dweller in country districts. Dogs are sometimes trained to search for them. When the young are hatched the Lapwing displays many curious tricks to lure enemies from them, feigning death or broken wings, or swooping with loud cries to and fro.
TURNSTONE.
It is rather a remarkable fact that this species, the Sétrepsilas interpres of naturalists, does not breed in the British Islands. Some naturalists have suspected that it does so on the Hebrides,
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PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 87
and it has been said to nest on the Channel Islands, but no direct proof has yet been obtained. Under exceptional circumstances the Turnstone may be met with inland, especially during the season of its migrations, but otherwise it is strictly a coast- bird, as much so as the Oyster-catcher, and rears its young upon the shore. This somewhat singular bird is met with on the British coasts, most commonly during its passage north or south, comparatively few individuals remaining upon them for the winter. The Turnstone cannot readily be confused with any other coast bird, its mottled black and chestnut upper parts, black throat and breast, and white belly, being very distinctive. The wings and tail during flight exhibit a good deal of white upon them. Turnstones, chiefly young birds, begin to arrive on the British coasts at the end of July, and the migration of the species continues through August and September; the return passage in spring may be remarked towards the end of April, and lasts for about a month. Mud-flats, slob-lands, and salt-marshes are not frequented much by the Turnstone ; it always prefers the low rocky coasts, and seems specially fond of haunting rocks and islands. Social to a great extent in summer, in winter this bird is more or less gregarious; but many odd individuals attach themselves to parties of other shore-frequenting species. An example now lying before me was shot from the company of Common Sandpipers. The Turnstone is a restless
88 BRITISH ‘SEA \BIRDS.
little creature, ever on the run in quest of food. It may be watched hunting about the beaches, or running amongst pebbles, and over the piles of drifted rubbish that the tide washes up in a long irregular line along the shore. In watching the actions of this bird, the observer cannot fail to remark its singular habit of turning over shells and other objects, in quest of the small marine creatures that lurk under them, with its conical shaped beak, and perhaps occasionally with its breast as well. This peculiarity has gained for the Turnstone its trivial name. Not only does it run about the sand and rocks, but it frequently wades, and has even been seen to swim just outside the line of breakers, rising from time to time, flying a little way and then settling upon the water again, The flight of this bird is not very rapid, and generally taken close to the ground; its note is a shrill whistle, resembling the syllable £ee¢. During the love season this note is run into a rapid trill. The food of the Turnstone is composed of sand- worms, crustaceans, molluscs, and other small marine animals.
The Turnstone changes its haunts but little during the breeding season. It rears its young on the beaches or on rocky islets, placing its nest amongst the scanty marine herbage, beneath the shelter of a tuft of grass or a little bush. This is merely a hollow lined with a few bits of dry grass or other vegetation. The four eggs are olive-green
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 89
or pale buff in ground colour, blotched, spotted, and clouded with olive-brown, dark reddish-brown, and violet-gray. But one brood is reared in the year, and the eggs are laid in June. As soon as the young are able to fly the movement south begins. The Turnstone breeds throughout the northern parts of the Nearctic and Palzarctic regions, as far as land is known to extend. Its nearest breeding stations to the British Islands are in Denmark, on some of the Baltic Islands, and in Iceland. During winter it visits the coasts of almost every part of the world, south of the Arctic circle. PHALAROPES.
But three species of the genus Phalaropus are known, and two of these are British birds, one of them the Red-necked Phalarope, P. hyperboreus, breeding very sparingly and locally within our limits, the other the Gray Phalarope, P. fulicarcus, a more or less regular visitor to our coasts in autumn and winter. From many points of view the Phalaropes are very interesting birds. They _are distinguished from all other Limicoline forms by the structure of the feet, which are lobed like those of the Coot—a peculiarity which induced Edwards, in 1741, to describe a Phalarope as the “Coot-footed Tringa.” They are by far the most aquatic of the Charadriide, swimming as readily as Gulls or Ducks, and often going for hundreds of miles out on to the open sea; indeed they spend
90 BRITISH SEA: BIRDS.
most of their time upon the water, only visiting land for any lengthened period during the breeding season.
There can be, little doubt: that’ the ‘Gray Phalarope is a more abundant visitor to British waters, in autumn and winter, than is generally supposed. It has little reason to visit land at all at such a season, unless driven towards it by exceptionally severe weather. Occasionally, how- ever, this Phalarope has occurred on our coasts in great numbers, something similar to the visitations of Sand Grouse, with which doubtless most readers are familiar. The autumn of 1866 is specially famous for a great “rush” of Gray Phalaropes to the British seas and coasts, and it is estimated that upwards of 500 were caught, of which large number nearly half occurred in Sussex! The most recent irruption of Gray Phalaropes was in 1886. The Gray Phalarope lives almost entirely out at sea, after the breeding season is over, wandering immense distances from land, and even accompanying whales, for the sake of catching the various small marine creatures disturbed by the “blowing” of those mighty animals—hence to the sailor it is often known as the “Whale Bird.” So hardy is this little bird, that it has been watched swimming about amongst icebergs far from land. It swims lightly and buoyantly as a foam fleck, with a peculiar bobbing motion of the head, but it is not known to dive. It apparently flies with
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PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. QI
reluctance, always preferring to swim out of danger. Its food principally consists of insects, but crustaceans, worms, and scraps of vegetable eulsitances, are eaten, “The ‘call (note; of) this Phalarope is described as a shrill wee¢, and the alarm note, heard most frequently during flight, as a rapidly repeated dzck-abick-a.
The Gray Phalarope is not known to breed anywhere on continental Europe, but does so in Spitzbergen, in Iceland, Greenland, and probably throughout all suitable parts of Arctic America and Asia, as far north as land extends. In winter it is very widely dispersed, even wandering as far as New Zealand. The Gray Phalarope is one of those species that change greatly in the colour of their plumage according to season. In winter dress—the plumage perhaps most familiar to British observers—the back is gray, and the under parts pure white; but in summer the whole of the latter are rich bright bay, and the feathers of the upper parts are dark brown with pale reddish - brown margins. In this plumage it is known as the Red Phalarope. Another interesting fact is that the female is much more brightly and_ richly coloured than the male, and the latter not only performs the duty of incubating the eggs, but takes the greater share in tending upon the young! It may thus be inferred that the pairing habits of this Phalarope are most singular, the female conducting the courtship! The Gray Phalarope
92 BRITISH | SEABIRDS:
remains practically gregarious throughout the year, breeding in colonies of varying size. Its favourite nesting-places are beside the marshy pools and lakes on the tundras, at no great distance from the Arctic Ocean. The nest is made upon the ground, and consists of a mere hollow in the moss or lichen, lined with a few dry leaves and grasses. The four pyriform eggs are pale buff, tinged with olive, blotched and spotted with dark brown and paler brown. At the nest the old Phalaropes are remarkably tame and confiding, showing little fear of man, but when the young are hatched often trying to delude him away by various deceptive antics. As soon as the young are sufficiently matured, the nesting-places are deserted, and young and old repair to the sea for the remainder of the year.
The second British species, the Red-necked Phalarope, is scarcely less known to the majority of people than the Gray Phalarope. It seldom visits the land except for breeding purposes, and as its nesting-places in our area are not only few, but in the remotest part of it, opportunities for observ- ing its habits are few and fitful. It is a summer visitor to certain parts of the Outer Hebrides, to the Orkneys, and the Shetlands. Outside our limits its range is very extensive. It breeds in suitable ocalities throughout the Arctic regions of the New and Old Worlds, above the limits of forest growth; in winter it wanders far southwards, and
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PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 93
is then found on the coasts of Europe, Southern Asia, Mexico, and Central America. Like the preceding species it is thoroughly marine in its choice of a haunt, but does not appear to wander for such great distances from land. It is just as tame and confiding, just as social in summer, and as gregarious in winter. It swims equally as well and buoyantly, with the same peculiar bobbing motion; whilst on the land it is able to run and walk with ease. It exhibits the same reluctance to take wing, preferring to retreat from danger by swimming, although it flies on occasion quickly and well. Its food is very similar, and its note is a shrill but rather low wee¢ As Professor Newton has remarked, both this and the préceding species of Phalarope are entrancingly interesting in their habits. ‘Their graceful form, their lively colouration, and the confidence with which both are familiarly displayed in their breeding-quarters can hardly be exaggerated, and it is equally a delightful sight to watch these birds gathering their food in the high-running surf, or, when that is done, peacefully floating outside the breakers.”*
So far as concerns Scotland, the breeding season of the Red-necked Phalarope commences in May, but in more Arctic localities it is deferred until several weeks later. It returns with unerring regularity to the old accustomed spots to rear
* Dictionary of Birds, p. 712.
94 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
its young. These are on the marshy moors, beside the pools, at no great distance from the sea. The nest, usually made on the ground, (in the valley of the Petchora it has been found in a hassock of coarse grass a foot or more above it), is a mere hollow lined with a few scraps of dead grass and rush. The four eggs are buff of various shades, or pale olive, spotted and blotched with amber and blackish-brown, pale brown and gray. As previously remarked the male bird incubates them. When disturbed at its breeding grounds, the Red-necked Phalarope slips off the nest and takes refuge in the water, manifesting little concern for its safety. As soon as the young are sufficiently matured, they and their parents resort to the sea, moving southwards as autumn advances, and for the most part keeping to the water until another nesting season comes round.
CURLEW.
This species, (Vumenzus arquata), is not only the largest Limicoline bird that frequents the coast, but also one of the best known. There are few parts of the shore during autumn and winter where an odd Curlew cannot be found, whilst in some localities it may be classed as absolutely common. The Curlew is another of those species that present little difference between summer and winter plumage, and yet the haunts it selects in summer differ very considerably from those it
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seeks in winter. It is a resident in the British Islands, but its numbers are very considerably increased in autumn, by migrants from more northern latitudes.. It may be found, as previously inferred, on almost all parts of the shore, but such beaches where wide expanses of sand, mud, and broken rocks occur, are specially preferred—as are also salt-marshes and _ wet meadows close to the sea. Of all wild fowl the Curlew is one of the wariest, never allowing a close approach unless stalked with the greatest care, or surprised in some unusual way, which does not often happen. In some districts where little beach is exposed during high-water, the Curlews will retire some distance inland, but return with remarkable punctuality as soon as the tide begins to ebb. Shingle banks and islands are also often visited between tides. Curlews when feeding are very restless birds, running and walking about the beach, seemingly in a very careless and unsuspecting manner, but sentinels are ever on the watch to sound the warning note, which sends the big long-billed speckled birds hurrying away to safer haunts. The Curlew feeds both by day and by night; and its wild somewhat mournful note, shrill and far-sounding, curlee, cur-lee, may repeatedly be heard during darkness. The flight of this bird is both rapid and well sustained. Géitke, on evidence which seems absolutely conclusive,
96 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
estimates its speed on certain occasions to be not less than a mile a minute, and possibly very much more! Although the Curlew repeatedly wades, it is not known to swim under normal circumstances, but has occasionally been seen to perch in a tree. All through the autumn and winter the Curlew continues gregarious. It migrates in vast flocks, and frequently associates with other wild fowl, although it may be that these other and smaller species seek its company to profit by its extraordinary vigilance. Sand- worms, crustaceans, and molluscs form its principal food whilst living on the coast, but in summer, at its breeding-grounds, worms, grubs, insects, ground fruits, and berries are eaten. The European form of the Curlew is pretty generally distributed over the western half of the Palzarctic region, and in winter is found throughout Africa. The Curlew begins to leave the coast for more or less inland haunts in March, scattering over most of our swampy moorlands and rough higher grounds to breed. The eggs are laid during April and May. The nest is invariably made upon the ground, and consists merely of a shallow cavity, lined with a few bits of withered herbage or dead leaves. Numbers of pairs often nest within a comparatively small area of suitable ground, and should one pair be disturbed, the entire community is soon thrown into a state of alarm. The four eggs of the Curlew vary from olive-green to buff,
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blotched and spotted with olive-brown and pale gray. The Curlew begins to wander coastwards as soon as the young are reared. By far the majority seen first are young birds, and these arrive from the middle of July onwards.
WHIMBREL.
This species— which is the Mumenius pheopus of systematists—is best known on the British coasts during its annual migrations, passing our islands so regularly that it has received the name of “May
Bird.” On the Lincolnshire coast, as well as in many other districts, the Whimbrel is almost uni- versally known as the “ Jack-Curlew.” During its
seasonal movements it visits most parts of the British coast-line, but mud- flats, salt - marshes, estuaries, and extensive reaches of sand, are the most favoured localities. Its habits are very similar to those of the Curlew—a bird which it somewhat closely resembles in general appearance, although it is much smaller. It is also a less wary bird, especially upon its arrival; much stalking, however, soon teaches it shyness. Perhaps the Whimbrel is not so often seen on the actual beach as the Curlew ; it seems to prefer to resort to slob-lands, and swampy meadows adjoining the beach. It not only wades, but is said even to swim occasionally, and is fond of bathing, throwing the water over itself as it stands breast-high in the sea. In autumn and winter the Whimbrel is G
98 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
certainly gregarious, but its gatherings are never so large on our coasts as those of the Curlew. This, however, is entirely due to local causes, for Gatke reports that on the bright warm days of April and May they pass over Heligoland in successive flocks, at a vast height, and flying at a tremendous speed. On migration the note of the Whimbrel may be described as a shrill hee-hee-hee. Its food, during its sojourn in small numbers on the British coasts, consists principally of crustaceans, sand-worms, and molluscs.
The Whimbrel is a later breeder than the Curlew. During the nesting season it is one of the most local of our birds, and is only known to nest on North Ronay—one of the Hebrides—the Orkneys, and the Shetlands. Its favourite breeding-grounds are the wild moors, at no great distance from the sea. Although not gregarious during summer, many pairs often nest on the same portion of the moors. The nest is made upon the ground, sometimes amongst heather, or beneath the shelter of a tuft of grass, and consists of a few bits of withered herbage, arranged carelessly in some slight hollow. The four eggs are very like those of the Curlew, but are much smaller. The bird’s actions at the nest are very similar to those of the preceding species. Outside the British limits, the breeding range of the typical Whimbrel reaches from Iceland and the Farées, across Arctic Europe, whilst its winter home is in Africa.
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GODWITS.
These birds rank amongst the rarest and most local of the British species of Limicole, so that little more than a passing allusion to them is necessary in a work of the present character. One of them, the Black-tailed Godwit, Lzmosa melanura, formerly known as the ‘‘ Yarwhelp” or “Barker,” used to breed regularly in some of the eastern counties of England, but for nearly fifty years now it has not been known to do so. The reclamation of its fenland haunts, and the practice of netting it during the breeding season, have probably been the chief causes of its extirpation. A few birds still continue to appear on our coasts, especially on the vast mud-flats and salt-marshes of East Anglia, during their annual migrations, and a few remain to winter. Outside our limits it nests in Iceland and the Farées, and in Scandi- navia; but its chief breeding-area extends across Europe, from Holland to the south of Russia. In winter it draws southwards, visiting the Mediterranean basin and parts of Africa. The Blacktailed Godwit appears on the British coasts on passage, during April and May, the return journey beginning in August, and lasting for about amonth. In its habits it is very like the Curlew, picking up its food on the muds and marshes, walking deliberately to and fro, wading through the shallows, and sometimes standing in the water
100 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
breast-high to sleep. Whilst on actual migration it is a restless bird, continually shifting its ground, but later in the year it becomes more settled, and will visit certain spots to feed with great regularity. Its food, whilst on our coasts, consists of insects (especially beetles), worms, crustaceans, and molluscs. Its call-note is a loud and shrill ¢yd-ct. This Godwit breeds in May, making a slight nest on the ground, concealed amongst herbage, in which it lays four pyriform eggs, olive-brown, spotted with darker brown and gray.
The second and smaller species, the Bar-tailed Godwit, Limora rufa, is certainly the best known, and by far the most abundant. So far as my observations extend, this Godwit occurs in greatest numbers on the mud-flats and salt-marshes of the Wash, where it is known in some places as the “Scamell.” There it is often taken in the flight- nets, and it is a well-known bird to the gunners of the coast. This Godwit passes along the British seaboard towards the end of April, and early in May, returning from the end of August up to the first week in November. According to Professor Newton the 12th of May is known as “‘Godwit day” on the south coast of England, because about that date large flocks of this bird arrive thereon, on their passage north.. Whilst with us its habits are much the same as those of the preceding species. It is gregarious throughout the winter, and _ often associates with other shore-haunting birds. Both
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PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. IOI
these Godwits are readily distinguished from other Limicoline species on the British coasts by their long and recurved bills. They also present much diversity between summer and winter plumage. The most marked difference is seen in the colour of the underparts, which the present species changes from white in winter to rich chestnut in summer, whilst in the Black-tailed Godwit the chestnut characteristic of the breeding season is confined to the neck and breast. It is only in summer plumage that the tail of the Bar-tailed Godwit is barred ; in winter it is uniform ash-brown. Upon its first arrival on our shores the Bar-tailed Godwit is often remarkably tame, admitting a_ close approach. It is very fond of frequenting the creeks and dykes that intersect the salt-marshes and muds, and during high water often goes inland -a little way to wait for the ebb. The food of this Godwit consists of worms, crustaceans, molluscs, and similar marine creatures. The note resembles the syllables 2ya-kyd-kyd, often very persistently repeated as the birds fly up and down the coast. In its quest for food it frequently wades, but never swims nor dives, unless wounded.
But little is known respecting the nidification of the Bar-tailed Godwit, and its eggs, very rare in collections, have hitherto only been obtained in Lapland. These so closely resemble those of the preceding species, that no known point of distinction can be given.
102 BRITISH) SEA) BURDS.
REDSHANK.
During the greater part of the year this species— the Zotanus calidris of modern naturalists—resides upon the coasts, retiring to more or less inland districts to breed. There are few prettier and more graceful birds along the shore than the Redshank, distinguished by its long orange-red legs, and white lower back, rump, and secondaries —the latter marbled with brown at the base. In the breeding season the grayish- brown upper plumage, and the white breast characteristic of winter, are mottled with rich dark brown. In autumn our resident Redshanks are largely in- creased in numbers by migratory individuals from more northerly latitudes; many of these pass on to winter quarters further south, but many others remain with us for the winter. Sociable at all times, and freely consorting with other Limicoline
species on the coast, in winter, especially, the
Redshank becomes very gregarious. Its favourite haunts are mud-flats and salt-marshes, and it is here that the largest flocks congregate, but many odd birds frequent coasts of a more rocky character. Redshanks are sprightly, restless birds, almost constantly in motion when on the feed, and scattering far and wide, running to and fro with dainty action, wading through the little pools, and even occasionally swimming the shallows between one mud-bank and another. They are ever alert,
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 103
and take wing as soon as danger threatens, the scattered flock soon forming into a compact mass again. Between the tides Redshanks often collect on some mud-bank, where in a serried throng they keep up a confused babel of subdued cries, as if all were talking and none listening. Its flight is rapid and most unsteady looking—the black and white wings producing an idea of irregularity which is more imaginary than real. Upon the coast the Red- shank feeds on sand-worms, crustaceans, molluscs, and such like marine creatures, but during summer at its breeding-grounds, worms, insects, ground- fruits and berries are among the substances sought. The call note of this wader is a loud shrill ¢ya-2yu most persistently repeated when the bird is excited or alarmed ; whilst during the pairing season the love song or trill is happily described by Professor Newton—who has had exceptional opportunities for observing this species—as a constantly repeated leero-leero-leero, accompanied with many gesticu- lations, as he hovers in attendance on the flight of his mate; “or with a slight change to a different key, engages with a rival; or again, half angrily and half piteously, complains of a human intruder on his chosen ground.”*
The Redshank breeds somewhat locally in the marshy districts of our islands, perhaps most commonly in the low-lying eastern counties of
* Dictionary of Birds, p. 774.
104 BRITISH WSEAS TRIDS.
England, and in Scotland. It is one of the earliest waders to quit the coast in spring, and to retire to its nesting places, which are fen and marsh lands, swampy moors, and the boggy shores of lochs and tarns. Numbers of nests may be found within a small area of suitable ground, and certain spots appear to be visited annually for breeding purposes, in some cases even after the district, by reclamation, has lost its original marshy character. The nest is slight, but usually well concealed, often beneath the shade of a tuft of grass or other herbage, or in a hassock of sedge or under a little bush or tall weed. It consists of a mere hollow scantily lined with a few bits of withered grass or leaves. The four eggs are very pyriform in shape, and vary from pale buff to dark buff, handsomely and boldly blotched and spotted with rich dark brown, paler brown and gray. When disturbed the old birds become very noisy and excited, careering wildly to and fro, and should the young be hatched they become even more demonstrative, and by various antics seek to decoy an intruder away. A return to the coast is made as soon as the young are sufficiently matured. Many eggs of this bird are gathered and sold as ‘‘ Plover’s eggs.”
SANDERLING.
During the period of its spring and autumn migrations—especially the latter—this pretty little bird, the Zvinga arenaria of ornithologists who
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 105
ignore the genus Caézdr7s, named first by Cuvier in 1800, and formally founded eleven years later by Illiger, established as it is on such a trivial character (all things considered) as the absence of a minute and functionless hind toe—is one of the commonest and most widely distributed of Limicoline birds. Comparatively few individuals remain on our coast to winter, and these collect more especially on the southern beaches. In winter plumage—the dress in which it is most familiar to British observers— the Sanderling is a delicate silvery-gray above and pure white below; but in the breeding season, athough the underparts remain unchanged in colour, the upper parts become mottled with chestnut and black. Comparatively few Sanderlings reach the British coasts before August, and the southward migration continues during September. By the middle of the latter month the bulk of the individ- uals has passed beyond our limits; by the end of October but few remain, although some of these prolong their stay over the winter. The return migration begins in April, and lasts over May into June. There can be little doubt that the Sanderling migrates by night. Few birds are more trustful and engaging than this pretty little Arctic stranger. It not only frequents the long reaches of sand, but mud- flats, estuaries, and the creeks and streams in salt-marshes; its favourite haunts, however, are the sands. During its sojourn on our coast it consorts in flocks of varying size;
106 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
and very frequently a small party attach them- selves to a larger gathering. of Dunlins, or Ringed Plovers. Indeed for the society of the latter birds the Sanderling shows a strongly marked preference. We may safely say that, during the migration period, most large bunches of Ringed Plovers contain a varying number of Sanderlings. Its actions on the sand are very similar to those of the Ringed Plover, but it does not appear ever to run in such fits and ‘starts, searching the ground more systematically, after the manner of a Stint ora Dunlin. During high water the Sanderling very often resorts to the higher shingle, and skulks amongst the pebbles, sometimes remaining unseen until nearly trodden upon, so closely does its white and gray dress resemble the stones among which it nestles. Upon the dark muds and the wet shining brown sands it is much more conspicuous; and there are few prettier sights along the shore than a scattered flock of Sander- lings, standing head towards the observer, looking like so many white balls of animated snow. It searches for its food by running to and fro about the beach, often on the very margin of the spent waves, sometimes wading through the shallows, or quickly dodging the foam-flecked in-driving surf. Its food consists of sand-worms, crustaceans, various insects and great quantities of small molluscs. In summer, however, it is almost exclusively insect- ivorous, but also feeds on the buds of the Arctic
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saxifrages. The note of this bird during its sojourn on our coasts is a shrill wz¢, but this is not very frequently or persistently uttered.
During winter the Sanderling is a great wanderer, visiting parts of Africa, Southern Asia, Australia, and South America, but in the breeding season its range seems confined to the Arctic regions. But very little is known of the nesting habits of the Sanderling, and few of its eggs are in collections. It is said to arrive at its Arctic haunts in May or early June, as soon as the water is free from ice, and the ground bare of snow. Its nesting haunts are the barren grounds and tundras near, and the beaches of, the Arctic Ocean. The nest is a mere hollow, scantily lined with dry grass and leaves, and the four eggs are buffish-olive in ground colour, mottled and spotted with pale olive-brown and gray.
KNOT.
This species, the Z7inga canutus of Linnzus, and most modern ornithologists, is another of the Arctic migrants that pass the British coasts regularly on their journeys, and linger here in much smaller numbers over the winter. Camden, in 1607, appears to have been the first author to connect the name of the Knot with King Canute, but much difference of opinion exists as to the reason thereof. Some authorities assert that it was in connection with the story of that king upon the seashore; others, and perhaps with greater reason, because of
108 BRITISH SEX BIRDS:
the Royal Dane’s great liking for its flesh. The bird continued to be so closely associated with the king by successive writers, that Linnaeus followed them in applying the specific name of caxutus to the Knot, which is still retained by the majority of naturalists.
The migrations of the Knot are very marked and regular. The bird begins to arrive on the British coasts early in August, and from then to the end of October a nearly constant stream pours upon them, reaching its greatest volume in Sep- tember. By far the greater number pass on to still more southern haunts, but a sufficiently large portion remain to winter as to render the species one of the most familiar of Limicoline forms to habitues of the coast. The return migration begins on our coasts in April, and continues throughout May. The principal haunts of the Knot in the British Islands are situated on the eastern and south-eastern coasts. Mud-flats, salt- marshes, wide, expansive sands, and big estuaries, are the spots where Knots most do congregate, for these furnish it with a constant supply of food. Ten years ago, I remember, great numbers of Knots used to be caught in the flight-nets on the Wash, during October and November, but the numbers of late years have considerably decreased. The Knot is not only very gregarious, but social, and often mixes with companies of other waders. When feeding Knots keep close together, generally
e
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 10g
all heading in the same direction, and moving about quickly. If the flock is a very large one some of the individuals are almost constantly in the air, flying over the heads of their companions, and alighting again, as if eager to get the first look over the ground. They are very wary when congregated in such large assemblies, easily flushed, and often performing various evolutions, both over the sands or the water, before alighting again. The Knot more often runs with a series of short, quick steps than walks, and it flies both rapidly and well. After feeding, the entire flock will often stand for a long time on a certain piece of the shore, sleeping and preening plumage, but even on these occasions they are somewhat restless, and it is rare to see all still at once. They feed both by night and by day. The call-note is seldom or never uttered, although when on migration the birds appear to be noisy enough, crying incessantly to each other as they fly along in the gloom.
But little is known of the nesting economy of the Knot. Its great breeding grounds—the nesting places of the vast flocks that pass southwards in autumn——still remain undiscovered. Where they are situated it is useless to speculate. Naturalists are ignorant of its eggs, which still remain unknown in collections, although the young in down have been obtained. The Knot breeds in the high Arctic regions, in the North Polar Basin, mostly, if not entirely above lat. 80°; and here it has been met
110 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
with during summer by various travellers. The Knot is another bird remarkable for the great seasonal changes which its plumage undergoes. In winter, the plumage is ash-gray above, white below ; in summer, the feathers of the upper parts become black margined with reddish-brown and mixed with white, those of the lower parts rich bay or chestnut. It.has been remarked that the birds that winter on our coasts do not assume such rich tints in summer as individuals that pass along our coasts from more southern latitudes. This is probably because the birds wintering with us are younger individuals, only the oldest penetrating to the remoter winter home. The Knot has a wide distribution during winter, including the Southern States, and Mexico, Africa, and it is said Australia, and New Zealand! It is possible that in the latter countries the Eastern Knot—the Tvrznga crasstrostris of science—is con- fused with the present species.
CURLEW SANDPIPER.
This pretty little species, known to many as the “Pygmy Curlew,” and to modern naturalists by the scientific name of Zringa subarquata, is one of the rarest of the British Limicole. It very closely resembles the Knot in the colour of its plumage, and in the seasonal changes that plumage undergoes, but it is not much more than three-fourths the size, and has a curved Curlew-like bill. This little Sand- piper, like most of its order, is a migrant, breeding
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PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. III
in some yet undiscovered part of the Arctic regions, retiring southwards to winter in Africa, various parts of southern Asia and in Australia. It 1s during these journeys between the Arctic regions and the tropics that it occurs on the British coasts, a few individuals even remaining upon them all the winter through. As might naturally be expected it is most frequently observed on the vast stretches of low coast on the eastern side of England ; it is also a tolerably frequent visitor to the south coast, even as far westwards as Devon and Cornwall. A few Curlew Sandpipers arrive on our coasts in April, but the greater number pass along them in May, stragglers lingering until June. The return flight is noticed in August, and consists mostly of young birds, the older ones reaching us during September and October. The habits of this Sandpiper very closely resemble. those of the Dunlin, in whose company the bird is very frequently found, and from which it may readily be distinguished, even at a distance, by its pure white upper tail-coverts. It prefers coasts of a muddy rather than a sandy character, haunting saltings, estuaries, and muds. Here, its actions are much the same as those of all these little sand birds; it feeds both by day and night ; and often retires during high water to some wet land near the sea, to wait the ebb. The food of this species consists of crustaceans, worms, molluscs, and insects. Its note is described as being louder than that of the Dunlin.
112 BRITISH, SEAr BIRDS.
Absolutely nothing is known of the nidification of the Curlew Sandpiper, and its egg has never yet been described. It is, to say the least, remarkable that some of the great breeding-places of these Arctic birds have not yet been discovered—a fact that seems to suggest a vast area of land some- where in the vicinity of the Pole.
DUNLIN.
Owing to the great seasonal changes of plumage which this Sandpiper—the 77znga alpina of most naturalists—undergoes, considerable confusion has prevailed concerning it. Linnzeus described birds of this species in summer plumage as distinct from individuals in winter plumage, naming them alpina and cinclus ; but Temminck (and before him B. Meyer) with greater discernment united both under the name of 7: varzabilis. Birds in the two plumages have also received distinctive colloquial names; in summer dress, the bird is known as “ Dunlin,” in winter dress as the ‘‘Purre.” Other local names of wide application to this species are ‘“-Ox-bird,” “Stint,” and ‘‘ Plover’s Page,” the lattes being derived from the habit of the Dunlin to accompany a Golden Plover, flying to and fro over the moors, where the two species chance to be nesting. Perhaps the Wryneck has in like manner, gained the name of ‘Cuckoo’s Mate” from its habit of flying in attendance with that bird; although some writers attribute the term
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FEOVERS: AND’ SANDPIPERS: ’ Li3
to the fact of the two species appearing in our country about the same time.
The Dunlin is absolutely the commonest Limi- coline bird of the shore, and certainly the most widely dispersed. It possesses the habit, in common with so many other species of this order, of retiring to moors to breed; but as soon as nesting duties are done it returns to the coast, and for the remainder of the year continues to reside upon it. The Dunlins that breed in our islands represent but a very small portion of the vast number that winter on the British coasts. The majority of these are from more northern haunts, winter migrants, that haste away again with the return of spring. During its residence on the coast the Dunlin is remarkably gregarious, assembling often in flocks of thousands, which, by preference seek such portions of the shore as are low-lying and muddy. Salt-marshes, slob-lands, estuaries and creeks, and vast expanses of mud—as the Wash for instance, are the favourite haunts of the Dunlin. These large flocks of Dunlins are much more difficult to approach than smaller gatherings or individual birds. Dunlins are active little birds, almost incessantly in motion, running daintily about the muds, by the margin of the waves, or wading through the shallow tide pools. During the course of feeding a large flock will become widely scattered, and it is remarkable how quickly the broken ranks reform. There are few sights so
H
114 BRITISH SHA V BIRDS:
pretty along the salt-marshes and mud-flats than a large flock of Dunlins, in the act of performing those graceful aerial movements so characteristic of this little bird during its winter sojourn upon the coast. The whole flock, as with a single impulse, will spread out like a net, close up again, apparently vanish, appear black, or like a flash of silver, just as the birds turn and expose their dark or white plumage to the light. Sometimes the flock will head straight away down the coast, passing the observer with a rush and whirr of wings, and a chorus of purring cries; at other times a large flock will rise ex masse from the muds, pass out to sea a little way, turn, and go some distance along the shore, come back again, repeating the movement time after time, ever and anon appearing as though about to alight, dipping and rising with marvellous regularity. No doubt these movements will recall to the observer the gyrations of the autumn flocks of Starlings, for there is much in common between the _ two. During its sojourn upon the coast the Dunlin feeds upon crustaceans, sand-worms, molluscs, and other small marine organisms; but in summer insects, grubs, worms, and ground-fruits are eaten. The usual note of the Dunlin is harsh, and resembles the word purrv—hence one of the bird’s trivial names; during the breeding season it is a long drawn peezh. In the pairing season, when the male indulges in certain aerial gambols, he utters a
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PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. I15
trill, which has been likened by some observers to the continuous ringing of a small bell.
It is a rather remarkable fact that the Dunlin is the only species of Zvzuga that nests in the British Islands. It breeds sparingly and locally in Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset, perhaps in Wales, and thence northwards, more generally, over the remainder of England, and in Scotland up to the Shetlands. Dunlins begin to move from the coasts in March and April, and to resort to their breeding places, which are situated on the marshy moorlands and mountain swamps, often at no great distance from the sea, or at least from tidal waters. The nest is a mere depression, often in a tussock of grass or rushes, or beneath a small bush, or even in a patch of thrift on bare sandy soil, lined with a few scraps of withered vegetation, or enclosed with a few twigs or roots. The four pyriform eggs are pale olive or pale brown, blotched and spotted with reddish- and blackish-brown and gray. We remark the same extraordinary difference between summer and winter plumage, as we have already observed in the Knot and some others. In summer or breeding plumage, the Dunlin is rich reddish-brown above, striped with dark brown; lower breast or gorget, deep black ; remainder of under parts white. In winter the upper parts are chiefly ash-gray, and the under parts white, except the gorget, which is now grayish-brown. Outside the British Islands the Dunlin has a very wide distribution, breeding
116 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
not only in the Arctic regions of both hemispheres, but in many temperate latitudes of the same; in winter it is dispersed over North Africa, Southern Asia, the Southern States of America, and the West Indies. At Heligoland, flocks of Dunlins invariably indicate bad weather.
PURPLE SANDPIPER.
This species, the 77zxga marztima of Brunnich and most modern naturalists, but erroneously identified with the Z. strvzata of Linnzeus, by certain recent writers on ornithology, is a fairly common and widely distributed bird on the British coasts during autumn and winter. The fact that a few odd birds are sometimes met with on our shores during the summer, has led to the supposition—totally unsub- stantiated as yet—that the Purple Sandpiper may breed here. During some years this species is much more abundant than others, a fact perhaps due to exceptionally favourable breeding seasons. The Purple Sandpiper, readily distinguished from all other British Limicole by its nearly black rump and upper tail coverts, the purple gloss of its upper plumage, and its yellow legs—makes its appearance with us early in September, and continues to arrive in increasing numbers during that month and October, and leaves us by the following May. This Sandpiper is most partial to a rocky coast, where the huge boulders shelve down into the water, and large masses of rock and shingle are exposed
PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 117
at low tide. It may, however, be frequently observed in the company of Knots, Dunlins, and Ringed Plovers,on the mud-flats and sandy reaches. It usually seeks for its food close to the water, running over the rocks as each great wave breaks and retires, even darting into the seething drifts of surf, or coursing along the very edge of the rollers, where each one threatens to annihilate it as it breaks upon the shore. Occasionally it may be seen to swim just outside the surf, and when flushed it sometimes even alights upon the sea. Its food consists of crustaceans, sand-worms, molluscs, and insects; and, during summer, of seeds as well. Although most of this food is obtained whilst the tide is driving in, the bird may be seen in quest of it at the ebb. It frequently retires inland a little way, or rests upon a rocky islet or point, between the ebb and the flow of the tide. Its flight is rapid and straightforward, and often ac- companied by its shrill and quickly uttered ¢ee-wizt. The Purple Sandpiper, though social, is never seen on our coasts in very large flocks, and, perhaps, -most frequently in pairs or alone. In Norway, however, Collett states that it assembles in countless flocks during the winter. It is certainly one of the least shy of the Limicolz, and often permits of a close approach, especially when alone.
The best known breeding-place of the Purple Sandpiper, and one of its most southerly summer stations, is on the Fardes. Other breeding places
118 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
are in Iceland, in Norway, Spitzbergen, and Nova Zembla, and on various parts of the north Siberian coasts, and in Arctic America to Greenland.
It arrives at its nesting grounds in May or June. These are rarely situated far from the sea, although in the Faroes it retires to the fells, where it begins to nest even before the snow has all melted. The nest is but a shallow depression, scantily lined with scraps of withered vegetation, and is made either close to the beach on broken ground, covered with a sparse vegetation, or in some marshy spot on a hill in the vicinity of the ocean. The Purple Sand- piper may pair for life, as there is some evidence to show that it returns annually to certain spots, to breed. The four eggs are pale olive- or buffish- brown, beautifully blotched and spotted, mottled and streaked with blackish- and reddish-brown and gray. The sitting bird lingers long upon her nest, sometimes remaining till almost trodden upon before she starts up, and, by feigning lameness, seeks to draw the intruder away. So closely is the Purple Sandpiper attached to the coast, that even during the nesting season, when its duties call it more or less inland, it always visits the shore to feed. In summer plumage, the upper parts are marked with rich chestnut, and in winter dress, the underparts are more spotted.
There are certain other Limicoline birds found upon our coasts, more or less frequently, which at least deserve some passing notice; but as they are
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PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 119
species that are merely fleeting visitors during their annual migrations, and never occur in sufficient number to form a dominant feature in the bird-life of the shore, they do not call for any lengthened description, or minute study, in a work which seeks only to sketch the more enduring avine character- istics of the British seaboard. We will deal with the commonest species first. During the period of its migrations, the Common Sandpiper, or Summer Snipe (Zotanus hypoleucus) is a pretty frequent visitor to the coast, especially in the south-western parts of England; and there is strong reason to believe that a limited number may pass the winter thereon. Its habits on the shore are very similar to those of the other Limicoline species. It breeds commonly by the side of our inland waters, and is certainly, as its name implies, the most abundant and the most widely dispersed of the British waders. Another fairly regular and frequent visitor to the British littoral in spring and autumn is the Greenshank (TZo¢anus glottis). It is most often met with on the low-lying eastern coasts; but it is said a few birds winter in Ireland. The Greenshank breeds very locally in Scotland, and is best known to us at its more or less inland nesting stations. It may be distinguished by its white lower back and central upper tail coverts, and nearly uniform gray secondaries. Of even rarer and more local appearance is the Wood Sandpiper (Totanus glareola), sometimes met with in small
120 BRITISH SEA. BIRDS.
parties on our eastern and southern coasts; whilst the Green Sandpiper (Zo¢anus ochropus) is a less frequent visitor still. This species is remarkable for its peculiar mode of nesting, for instead of laying its eggs upon the ground—as is the almost universal custom of birds of this order—it places them in the deserted nests of other birds in trees. We must also not forget to give a passing reference to the singular-looking Ruff (Machetes pugnazx). Drainage of the fens has long banished the Ruff from its ancestral haunts, where it was once so common that a regular trade was carried on in netting and fattening it for the table. The Ruff takes it name from the singular, yet remarkably beautiful, frill of elongated feathers that, during the love season, adorns the neck of the male bird. The extraordinary variation in the colour of this fleeting sexual ornament can only be described as marvellous, it being almost impossible to find two birds exactly alike. This sexual development of feather ornament seems closely associated with the polygamous habits of the Ruff; the cock bird takes no share in family duties, and during the pairing season wages endless battles with his rivals for the possession of the hens. Odd birds frequent our coasts during the migration periods, and less frequently during the winter. Two species of Stint—the most diminutive of the Sandpipers— also deserve a brief allusion. The first and most frequent visitor is the Little Stint (7vznga minuta),
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PEOVERS’ AND SANDPIPERS: I2ZE
most numerous on its autumn passage south. It is chiefly seen on the eastern coast-line, but is a visitor to the Solway district. The Little Stint breeds in the Arctic regions of Europe and West Siberia, and is a late migrant in spring, seldom seen in any numbers on our coasts before May. It frequents, whilst with us, mud-flats, salt-marshes, and long reaches of sand, and often joins the Dunlins in quest of food. Its stay with us is brief, especially in spring, and even in autumn most have gone away before October. It may be distinguished by its small size (wing under 4 inches in length), tapering bill, and black legs and feet. The second species, Temminck’s Stint (Zvinga temmunckt), is a larger bird than the foregoing, and readily distinguished from all other Tringez by its white outer tail feathers. It is much rarer in its appear- ance, too, and, as usual, most frequent on the low-lying eastern coast-line; even this district is beyond the more general limits of its migrations. It is also not so maritime in its haunts, and seems to migrate along more inland routes.
Guzllemots, Razorbill, and Puffin
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GUILLEMOT AND RAZORBILL. Chapter iii.
SHAPTER III.
GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILL, AND PUFFIN.
Affinities and Characteristics— Guillemot — Razorbill — Little Changes of Plumage—Guillemot Auk—Puffin. —Brunnich’s Guillemot—Black
EW birds are more thoroughly marine in
their haunts and their habits than those which are included in the present chapter. They are inseparably associated with the sea; they form one of the most interesting features of marine life, whether in summer, when they crowd in countless hosts at their breeding stations upon the cliffs and islands, or in winter, when they spread themselves far and wide over the waste of waters. From whatever point of view we study them, they are intensely interesting birds.
The Auks, as they are collectively termed, form the small yet well-defined family Atcipa. Although the Auks are a specialised group, systematists pretty generally agree in associating them more or less closely with the Divers, the Grebes, the Gulls, and the Limicole. Auks are
126 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
web-footed birds, with no hind toe, with the legs placed far back, and the bill subject to great variation in size, and in some _ species presenting considerable change in appearance according to season. All the Auks have com- paratively short and narrow wings; in the recently extinct Great Auk these were incapable of support- ing the bird in the air; and the tail is remarkably short, in some species being scarcely perceptible under ordinary circumstances. The Auks are exclusively confined to the north temperate and polar regions of the Northern Hemisphere: and by far the greater number of species inhabit the Northern Pacific. They number some thirty species. The prevailing colours of the Auks are black and white; none of them are showy birds; but some species are remarkable for their eccentric nuptial plumes, and for the brilliancy of colour of the bill, The Auks are thoroughly aquatic, and not adapted in any way for a terrestrial existence. They swim well, dive with marvellous skill, and save during the incubation period, pass most of their time on the sea. None of the species are remarkable for any great migration flights; as a rule they wander little from their high northern homes. They are all gregarious birds, breeding in companies wherever possible. Some species undergo but little change in their appearance between summer or winter plumage; others are more remarkable in this
GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILL, ETC. 127
respect. During the breeding period some species resort to lofty cliffs washed by the sea; others burrow into the ground. Many species make no nest whatever, but others form slight structures in which to deposit their eggs. The young of the Auks are hatched covered with down, assuming their first plumage in a few weeks. Adult Auks moult in September; the difference in the colour of the plumage peculiar to the pairing season, apparently being entirely due to a change in the hue quite irrespective of a moult. The complete change from white to brownish-black observed prior to the breeding season on the necks and heads of Guillemots and Razorbills is very curious and interesting. According to the observations of Herr Gatke, the shafts of the feathers are the first portions in which the black appears; yet almost at the same time this colour is seen in the form of minute specks on the lower third of the feathers, quickly spreading into crescentic markings, and ultimately covering the entire surface. Half a dozen species are British. Of these, four breed more or less abundantly in our area, and the other two are irregular winter visitors. The now extinct Great Auk—the largest known representative of the family—formerly bred in certain parts of the British Islands, but, alas, is now only known as a fast receding tradition. We will now proceed to a short study of these British Auks.
128 BRITISH SEA (BIRDS.
GUILLEMOT.
Of all the various sea birds that cluster on the cliffs of Albion this species, the Urza ¢rozle of most modern ornithologists, is by far the commonest, and of the present family of birds the most widely distributed. During summer it may be met with in colonies of varying numbers, here and there on most of our rocky coasts, from the Scilly Islands to the Shetlands, from Flamborough Head in the east to the Blaskets in the west. Not, perhaps, so familiar to the sea-side wanderer as the Gull, whose zrial habits bring it more frequently into notice, the Guillemot, nevertheless, is a seldom absent feature of marine bird life. It is gregarious and social at all times, but joins into greatest companies during the season of reproduction. When the nesting season has passed the birds spread themselves more generally along the coast and out at sea, and it is at such times that they are most ubiquitous. Between October and March the Guillemot may often be met with swimming close in shore, in quiet bays, and especially in the neighbourhood of fishing villages. On these occasions it is not particularly shy, and will allow a sufficiently close scrutiny, but it is ever wary, diving at the least alarm, and appearing again well out of danger. The Guillemot swims well and buoyantly; it also dives with remarkable agility, and obtains most of its food whilst doing so. The Guillemots are rarely seen
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GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILL, ETC. 129
upon the land after the young have quitted their birthplaces ; they spend their entire time upon the sea, seeking shelter during rough weather in bays or under the lee of headlands, but not unfrequently great numbers perish in a gale, their dead bodies strewing the coast where the tide has cast them ashore. Except during the breeding season the Guillemot flies very little, but during that period it often feeds far from its rocky haunts, and may then be seen, especially at eventide, flying in little bunches, or in compact flocks, swiftly and silently just above the waves, returning to them. The food of this bird is almost exclusively composed of fish, especially such small species as pilchards and sprats; it is also extremely partial to the fry of the herring and the pollack. Few birds are more expert at catching fish than the Guillemot ; it dives after them, and chases them beneath the surface with marvellous speed and unerring certainty. In this chase of fish it sometimes comes to grief by getting entangled in the drift-nets. The Guillemot is a remarkably silent bird. I have repeatedly been amongst thousands of these birds, both at sea and on the rock stacks where they breed, and the only sound I have ever heard them utter is a low, grunting noise. My experience has been chiefly confined to the earlier part of the breeding season, and the autumn and winter months. It would appear, though, that when the young are partly grown the birds become more noisy, for Gatke I
130 BRITISH) SEA BIRDS.
describes their cries at the breeding-stations as a ‘confused noise of a thousand voices, the calls of the parent birds—arr-r-1-1, orr-r-1-4, err-v-1-1, and mingled with these the countless tiny voices of their young offspring on the face of the cliff— irv-r-v-1ad, trr-v-v-1dd—uttered in timid and anxious accents.” I should here remark that the Guillemot never flies over the land, never flies inland from the rocks, but always when disturbed unerringly makes for the sea, which is almost, if not quite, as much its element as the air.
The actions of the Guillemot are interesting enough upon the sea, few sights being prettier than a number of these birds busily engaged in capturing their finny food; but the most attractive scenes in the life of this bird are to be witnessed at its breeding places. Formerly these were much more numerous than is now the case, especially in England, but there, on the southern coast line notably so, many a large colony has disappeared for ever, and many another has been sadly reduced in numbers. The distribution of the Guillemot becomes much more local during summer, the birds crowding in vast numbers to certain time- - honoured spots. Fortunately some of these still remain fairly accessible to the lover of birds. One of the most famous breeding stations is at the Farne Islands; another on the cliffs at Bempton ; whilst less noted places are in the Isle of Wight, the Scilly Islands, and the coasts of Devon and
GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILL, ETC. 131
Cornwall. The great number of local names by which the Guillemot is known round our coasts speak to its former abundance; Lavy, Marrock, Murre, Diver, and Willock—the latter applicable to the young—may be mentioned as a few of the best known. The birds congregate at their old accustomed haunts in Spring, with remarkable regularity, often punctually arriving on the same day for years in succession. At Heligoland, and certainly other places, Guillemots return to their nesting places from time to time during the winter, appearing in the morning for a little while, just as Rooks are wont to do at the nest trees. The Guillemot rears its young on the face of the lofty ocean cliffs, or on the flat tops of rock stacks. Cliffs with plenty of ledges and hollows are preferred, and in such chosen spots the birds crowd so closely that, at some stations, the wonder is how each individual can possibly find room to incubate its egg, or even secure a standing place in the general throng. There can be little doubt that in such crowded spots as the “Pinnacles,” many of the eggs never reach maturity. The Guillemot makes no nest of any kind, but lays its single large pear-shaped egg on any suitable ledge, or in any available hollow where it can be tolerably safe from toppling over into the sea. There are few more stirring sights in the bird-world than a large colony of Guillemots. I still retain the vivid impressions made upon my mind by the vast
132 BRITISH “SEA® BIRDS.
hordes of these birds at St. Kilda, at the Farne Islands, and elsewhere. Even whilst I write, I can once more see the struggling, quarrelling, rowdy hosts of Guillemots that crowd the famous “Pinnacles” ; still see them pouring off in endless streams, headlong into the water, as I prepared to scale their haunt. Once more memory recalls and paints in vivid scene the beetling St. Kildan cliffs, with their rows and rows of white-breasted Guillemots, sitting tier upon tier, upwards and up- wards towards the dark blue sky; my tiny boat tossing like a cork on the wild Atlantic swell, and the countless swarms of Guillemots swimming in the sea around me, hastening to the cliffs or returning from them, beaten off by more fortunate possessors of a place.
The Guillemot lays a single egg, without making a nest of any kind for its reception. If this egg be taken, however, the bird will lay a second or a third, and advantage is taken of this fact by those persons that gather them for a livelihood. The egg of no other known bird varies to such an extraordinary extent as that of the Guillemot, whilst few, if any, are more beautiful. Greens, browns, yellows, pale blues, and white, form the principal ground colour; the markings, which take the form of spots, blotches, streaks, and zones, are composed of browns, grays, and pinks, of every possible tint. One variety is white, intricately laced, netted, and streaked with pink; another is
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GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILL, ETC. 133
a beautiful green, streaked in the same manner with yellow, light brown, or nearly black; others of various ground colours are zoned with blotches, or marked with fantastic-shaped spots and rings. Some eggs of the Guillemot closely resemble those of the Razorbill, but may be distinguished by the yellowish-white interior of the shell when held up to the light.
There has been much controversy as to the way in which the Guillemot chicks reach the water from their lofty birthplace. Some writers assert that the parent bird carries them down to the sea on its back ; on the other hand, Gatke maintains that the chicks tumble off the ledges into the water, being enticed to do so by the old birds swimming on the sea beneath the cliffs. He writes: “in its distress, the little chick tries to get as near as possible to the mother waiting for it below, and keeps tripping about on the outermost ledge of rock, often of no more than a finger’s breath, until it ends by slipping off, and, turning two or three somersaults, lands with a faint splash on the surface of the water ; both parents at once take charge of it between them, and swim off with it towards the open sea. This is the only way in which I have seen this change of habitat of the young birds accomplished, during some fifty summers.” As soon as the young are sufficiently matured, the sea in the vicinity of the breeding-stations is deserted, and the colonies disperse far and wide. From this
134 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
time forward, to the following breeding-season, the Guillemot’s movements are to a certain extent unknown. As Professor Newton justly asks,* What becomes of the millions of Guillemots and other Auks that breed in northern latitudes? The birds that are met with round the coasts of temperate Europe, and elsewhere, bear no pro- portion whatever to the mighty hosts whose position and movements remain unrevealed. At present the only feasible explanation seems to be that the birds, during the non-breeding-season, are scattered in quest of sustenance over many thousands of square miles of water; in summer only is their vast abundance palpable, when all are gathered into a comparatively small area.
In connection with the Guillemot mention should be made of the Ringed Guillemot, the U7za ringvia of Latham. It only differs from the Common Guillemot in having a narrow white band round the eye, which is prolonged into a streak for some distance behind and below it. It may be seen breeding in company with the commoner form, and is not known to differ in its habits. Whether it be a distinct species—as Géatke states—or merely a variety of the Common Guillemot,
as many naturalists believe, still remains to be decided.
* Dictionary of Birds, p. 399.
GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILL, ETC. 135
BRUNNICH’S GUILLEMOT.
This Guillemot, the Uria bruennicht of Sabine and most modern writers, is a very rare visitor to the British Islands, its home being in the Arctic regions, from Greenland possibly to the Liakoff Islands, off the coasts of northern Siberia. It deserves a passing notice, for it is possible that it occurs in British waters more frequently than is generally supposed. It is a perceptibly stouter bird than the Common Guillemot, and has the base of the upper mandible pale gray. In its habits and economy it is not known to differ in any special manner from the better known species, of which it is the Arctic form.
BLACK GUILLEMOT.
This species, the Dovekey, or Greenland Dove, of northern mariners, the Tysty of the Shetlanders, and the Urza grylle of naturalists, is by far the most local of the Auks that are indigenous to the British Islands. During the breeding season it is only known to frequent one English locality, the Isle of Man; but in Scotland it is pretty generally distributed along the western and northern coasts, including St. Kilda, the Orkneys, and the Shetlands. Its chief resorts in Ireland are on the north and west coasts. The difference between the summer and winter plumage of this little bird is most extraordinary. In spring it assumes a
136 BRITISH: SHA BIRDS.
rich black dress, glossed with green, except a patch of white on the wings; in winter it is uniformly mottled black and white; the legs and feet are bright coral red. With us the Black Guillemot is strictly marine in its haunts, but in Spitzbergen it was found breeding more than a mile inland—a habit very different from any it displays with us. In its actions it very closely resembles its larger allies. Like them it is an expert diver—I have seen it dive repeatedly at the flash of a gun, and thus escape the shot. It is, on the whole, a more trustful bird, often permitting a near approach, and frequently re- maining on the surface until the boat is about to pass over it, when it will dive and reappear quite unconcernedly a short distance away out of danger. This Guillemot often feeds quite close in shore. At St. Kilda I used to see parties of this species every evening, fishing under the cliffs; but, on the other hand, I have often met with them search- ing for food many miles from land. The Black Guillemot is nothing near so gregarious as the Common Guillemot, nor does it appear to wander so far from its breeding places to feed. It is partially nocturnal in its habits in summer, feeding well into the dusk, and during winter seldom comes upon the land, sleeping out at sea. Although capable of flying swiftly, it always prefers to escape danger by diving ; it swims lightly, usually sitting high in the water, but it has the power of sinking itself
GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILL, ETC. 137
more than half below the surface when apparently alarmed. Black Guillemots may often be seen in strings, flying to and from a distant feeding place, hurrying along close to the water, their short wings beating rapidly, and rendered very conspicuous by the broad white bar. The food of this Guillemot is largely composed of the fry of the herring and the coal-fish, but other small fishes are eaten, as are crustaceans, and various marine insects. I have never heard the Black Guillemot utter a sound beyond a low erunting ; but its note has been described as a whining sound, that of the young birds being more shrill. In chasing its finny prey under the water the Black Guillemot displays astonishing powers, darting to and fro, aided by its wings and feet. During winter these birds wander southwards, and then they may sometimes be seen off our more frequented coasts.
The Black Guillemot retires to its breeding- stations in May. These are situated, in our islands, on rocky headlands and islands, and on ocean cliffs. Here its colonies are never very large, and often much scattered. It very probably pairs for life, and resorts often to one particular spot year after year. The bird deposits its eggs in a hole or cranny of the cliffs, occasionally in the clefts amongst fallen rocks at the foot of the precipice, or on rock-strewn downs sloping to the sea. It makes no nest, and the eggs rest upon
138 BRITISH SEA, BIRDS.
the bare ground or rock. The Black Guillemot, and its allies, are remarkable for the fact that their eggs are two or three in number; in all other members of the Alcide the eggs never exceed one. This peculiarity has induced some systematists to restrict the genus Urza to the Black Guillemots alone. The Black Guillemot lays two eggs, much smaller than, and not so pear-shaped as, those of the Common Guillemot, cream, buff, or pale green in ground colour, blotched and spotted with rich dark brown, paler brown, and gray. The young chicks are said not to repair to the sea at so early an age as those of the preceding birds ; and to be soon deserted by their parents after doing so, congregating in flocks by themselves.
RAZORBILL.
This bird, the Aka torda of Linnzeus and ornithologists generally, is widely confused with the Common Guillemot, and many local names refer indiscriminately to each— such as Murre, Marrot, and Diver. It is readily distinguished from the Guillemots by its much deeper bill, crossed by a white line at its centre, and by a narrow yet very conspicuous white stripe, extending from the base of the bill te the eye. Otherwise,’ the Razorbill closely resembles the Guillemot in appear- ance, both in its summer and winter plumage. It is widely distributed round the British coasts, breeding in most situations where the cliffs are
eee
i it la cane
GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILL, ETC. 139
sufficiently suitable, but is much less abundant in the south, and is nowhere, perhaps, so numerous as the Guillemot. During the non-breeding season it becomes more generally scattered, and may then be met with, although ever sparingly, in the seas round most parts of the British coastline. Its actions in the water are almost precisely the same as those of the Guillemot. Like that bird it may be seen swimming to and fro, sitting highly and lightly on the water, often permitting a very close approach, especially in districts where it is not much harassed by the shooter. It dives with the same marvellous celerity as the Guillemot, pursuing its prey through the water, often at a considerable depth, as readily as the swallows chase an insect through the air. It is a very pretty sight to watch the Razorbill in quest of food. This may often be done from the summits of the cliffs, but certainly to better advantage from a boat, in which the birds can be more closely approached, and consequently better observed. A Razorbill in the water is a remarkably striking, if not an actually pretty bird. He sits so lightly, riding buoyantly as a cork on the swell, turning his head from side to side as the boat approaches, swimming rapidly before it, and often nonchalantly dipping his head into the water and throwing a shower over his upper plumage. The boat comes too near at last, and the bird, with a scarcely audible or perceptible splash, disappears into the water. Several moments afterwards he
140 BRIFISH SEA“ BIRDS:
rises again to the right or left, ahead or astern, and the salt spray rolls off his plumage glinting like diamonds in the sun. Should fish be plentiful the birds are diving and rising again incessantly, the time of absence depending upon the depth descended or the length of the chase. The Razorbill ever seems to use its wings with reluctance on these occasions, always keeping out of harm’s way by diving or swimming. It is capable of rapid flight though, and may often be seen in strings or skeins, hastening along just above the waves to or from a favourite fishing place. The Razorbill is gregarious enough during summer, but in winter it is most frequently seen in small parties, or often alone. It also goes some distance from land, where, should a gale overtake it, great numbers often perish, as their dead bodies washed up on the coast sadly testify. The food of the Razorbill is largely composed of fry, especially of the herring, but many other small fishes are captured, together with crustaceans and other small marine creatures. The bird, so far as my experience extends, never seeks its food upon the shore, and obtains most, if not all, of it by diving. The Razorbill is a remarkably silent bird ; the only sound I have ever heard it utter has been alow grunting. This note is uttered both in summer and winter, on the rocks as well as on the sea.
In May the Razorbill gives up its roaming, nomad life upon the sea, and collects in numbers at the old-accustomed breeding-places. These are
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GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILL, ETC. I4I
situated on the ocean cliffs, such as contain plenty of nooks and crannies being preferred to those of a more wall-like character. It is possibly due to this that the Razorbill’s colonies are never so crowded as those of the Guillemot, and that the birds are more scattered along the coastline. There can be little doubt that the Razorbill pairs for life. Asa proof of this I have known a Puffin burrow resorted to yearly, whilst eggs possessing certain peculiarities of form and colour have repeatedly been taken from one nook in the cliffs, years and years in succession. Like the Guillemot the Razorbill makes no nest, but lays its single egg in a crevice or hole in the cliffs, or far under stacks of rock, poised one upon another, where to reach it is an utter impossibility. Like most birds that breed in such situations, the Razorbill is much more loth to quit its egg than the Guillemot, often remaining upon it until captured. When alarmed . by man the birds may be heard scrambling amongst the crevices, and uttering their grunting cries of remonstrance.
_ The single egg of the Razorbill, though not displaying a tithe of the variety observed in that of the Guillemot, is a remarkably handsome object. The ground colour varies through every tint between white and reddish-brown, and the hand- some large blotches and spots are dark liver-brown, reddish-brown, gray, or grayish-brown. No shade of green or blue is ever apparent upon them
42) BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
externally, but the shells, when held up to the light, have the interior of a clear pea-green tint—a character which readily serves to distinguish them from such eggs of the Guillemot that resemble them in external colour. If the first egg be taken the bird will lay another, and this process may be repeated several times, but on no occasion is more than one chick reared in the season. It is said that the young of this species remain upon the cliffs for a much longer period than the chicks of the Guillemot, and that they eventually fly or flutter down to the sea, never revisiting the rocks. The parent will sometimes dive with its offspring, just
as the Little Grebe will do.
LITTLE AUK.
This species, the Rotche of Arctic navigators, and the Mergulus alle of ornithology, is but an irregular visitor to British seas during autumn and winter, and as it seldom comes near the land under ordinary circumstances, is not a very familiar bird to the seaside observer. Exceptionally severe weather not unfrequently drives this little bird far inland. In its general colouration the Little Auk closely resembles the Razorbill, but it is less than half the size, and has a considerable amount of white on the wings. This curious little species congregates in incredible numbers at certain spots in the Arctic regions, to breed. Beechey, at the beginning of the present century, records that he
GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBIEL, ETC. 143
has seen nearly four millions of these birds on the wing at one time. Colonies of the Little Auk are known in Nova Zembla, Franz-Josef Land (?), Spitzbergen, Grimsey Island (to the north of Iceland), and the coasts of Greenland. Like all its larger allies, the Little Auk is thoroughly pelagic in its habits, apparently only visiting the land to breed, living on the sea for the remainder of the year. It is well adapted for its lengthened sojourn upon the waters. It swims well and buoyantly, sitting rather low, flies rapidly when inclined, dives with as much ease as a fish, and sleeps quite safely and comfortably upon the waves. Voyagers in the Arctic regions have met with flocks of Little Auks at most times of the year, often far from land, and occasionally crowding upon the masses of floating ice. All observers agree in describing it as a somewhat noisy bird, and its specific name of a//e is said to resemble its ordinary note. There is scarcely a winter that the Little Auk is not obtained in varying numbers off the British coasts, more frequently, of course, in the northern districts, but under ordinary circumstances it keeps too far off the land to be observed, and occurs most plentifully during periods of continued storm. Where the uncounted millions of Little Auks winter, that are known to breed in the Arctic regions, washed by the Atlantic, is still an unsolved problem. The few that are observed are as nothing in comparison with the numbers that crowd
144 BRITISH. SEA BIRDS.
at certain spots during summer. Perhaps it is because the area of distribution is so wide in winter, and, comparatively speaking, so restricted during summer. The food of the Little Auk consists largely of minute crustaceans, and possibly of small fish. The bird is said to resort to the vicinity of fishing fleets, to pick up the refuse thrown overboard.
In May, the Little Auk resorts to the land to breed. It is eminently gregarious, and some of its colonies consist of an almost incredible number of birds. Curiously enough, its breeding places are not always by the sea, some of them being situated a considerable distance from the coast. Sloping rock-covered banks at the foot of the cliffs, seem to be preferred to the cliff themselves. A favourite situation is on the sloping ground below a range of cliffs, where the surface is covered with stones and rock fragments that have, during succeeding ages, crumbled from the precipices towering above. Here, in cavities, worn by wind and storm, beneath large stones and rock fragments, or in various hollows and holes under the fallen dévis, the Little Auk deposits its single pale greenish-blue egg, out of reach of the Arctic foxes that prowl about the colony in quest of prey. The actions of the Little Auk at its nesting colony, seem to be very similar to those of the Puffin when breeding on slopes, as, for instance, on the island of Doon, one of the St. Kilda group.
GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILL, ETC. 145
PUFFIN.
Of all the Auks the present species, the Alka arctica of Linnzus, and the Fratercula arctica of modern ornithologists, is not only the best known, but the most readily distinguished. The Puffin cannot readily be mistaken for any other bird along the coast, his big brightly coloured beak and comical facial expression, being never failing marks of his identity. In the colour of its plumage the Puffin somewhat closely resembles the Guillemot or the Little Auk, only the throat and the sides of the head are white. The most striking feature in the Puffin is its beak—a deep, laterally flattened, coulter - shaped organ, banded with blue, yellow, and red, singularly grooved and embossed with horny ex- crescences, although these latter are only assumed for the pairing season, and are cast again when the breeding period is over! Unlike most birds, therefore, the Puffin displays his wedding ornaments on his beak! And this singular peculiarity appears to be common to various other species, more distantly allied, yet undoubtedly of close affinity with the English Puffin. Many local names have been applied to the Puffin in consequence of its singular bill. Bottlenose, Coulterneb, and Sea Parrot, may be mentioned as the most commonly used. Like most, if not all, members of the Auk family, the Puffin is not seen much near the land after the breeding season has passed. Indeed, it is very
K
146 BRITISH .SEA. BIRDS.
doubtful whether the bird ever voluntarily seeks the coast after it leaves it in early autumn with its young ; continued gales and storms will occasionally drive a bird even far inland, whilst rough weather often causes it to perish at sea, its remains being sometimes washed up in quantities. Its actions on the water are almost precisely the same as those of the Guillemot and Razorbill. It is an adept swimmer, a marvellous diver; it flies well and strongly, especially during the summer, where I have seen it in swarms, drifting round and round the highest peaks of its island haunt on apparently never-tiring-wing. At the summit of the cliffs its powers of flight may often be witnessed to per- fection. At St. Kilda, I have watched it gracefully poising itself in the air, its narrow wings beating rapidly, and its two orange-coloured legs spread out behind acting as a rudder. Of all the Auk tribe, so far as my experience goes, the Puffin flies the most. The Puffin feeds principally upon small fish, especially sprats and the fry of larger fishes ; it also eats crustaceans, and various marine insects. It dives often to a great depth, and is remarkably active beneath the surface; when on the water it generally tries to escape from danger by diving. Sometimes the Puffin may be seen close ashore during winter, but never in any abundance,
The Puffin becomes by far the most interesting at its breeding places. The regularity of its appear- ance at these has often been remarked. In many
GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILL, ETC. 147
localities it not only arrives punctually on a certain day, but retires from them in autumn with its young almost as regularly! In some places Puffins arrive on the land to breed as early as March; in others, not before April; in others, yet again, not before the beginning of May. With the exception of the south and east coasts of England—where it is only sparingly and locally distributed—the Puffin, from Flamborough northwards, is widely and generally dispersed. In some places its numbers are almost incredible, as for instance, at Lundy Island, the Farne Islands, on some of the Hebrides, and St. Kilda. There is a very interesting colony of Puffins established amongst the walls of the ancient fortress on the Bass Rock, but so far as my experience goes the colony on St. Kilda stands unrivalled, and, at a very moderate computation, must consist of many millions of birds! The Puffin most probably pairs for life, and returns time out of mind to certain familiar spots to rear its offspring. In most places the bird makes its scanty nest in a burrow which it excavates itself, but in some localities rabbit holes are frequently made ‘use of. In some localities, however, the bird makes a nest in a crevice of the cliffs or beneath heaps of rocks. By the end of April both birds are engaged in scraping out this burrow, if cir- cumstances demand it, which often extends for several yards in the loamy soil, sometimes sloping downwards, sometimes tortuous, sometimes nearly
148 BRITISH \SEA“SIRDS,
straight. At the end, or elsewhere in some cases, the slight nest of dry grass and a few feathers is formed. Occasionally several pairs occupy one burrow, each pair enlarging a portion of it for their own requirements into a kind of chamber; whilst many of the burrows have several openings, and are evidently the work of successive years. In this rude nest the hen Puffin lays a single egg, dull white, sometimes tinged with blue or gray, and obscurely spotted with pale brown and gray. Contact with the earth in the burrow and with the wet feet of the sitting bird, soon discolours this egg, and renders it almost like a ball of peat in appearance. When disturbed at their breeding places, such Puffins as may chance to be outside the holes soon fly off to the sea, and join the hosts of birds that swarm in the water near every breeding station. Those in the burrows, however, remain, allowing themselves to be dragged out without making any attempt to escape. Great caution and gloves are recommended, for the Puffin resents intrusion and bites fiercely, being able to inflict a nasty cut with its powerful beak and sharp claws.
I still retain the most vivid impressions on my visit to the grand colony of Puffins on Doon, one of the St. Kilda group. Every available place is honeycombed with their holes; the ground cannot afford accommodation for all, and numbers of birds have to seek nesting places under the
GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILL, ETC. 149
masses of rock lying on the grass-covered hillsides, or in the crannies of the cliffs at the summit of the island. As soon as we had fairly got ashore, and begun to walk up the slopes, the Puffins, in a dense whirling bewildering host, swept downwards to the sea, or rose high in air to circle above our heads, in the direst alarm. It seemed as if the whole face of the island were slipping away from under me, just like flakes of shale down a quarry side! Nota single bird, so far as I could ascertain, uttered a note, but the whirring noise of the millions of rapidly beating wings sounded like the distant rush of wind! But even Doon does not harbour so many Puffins as find a home on the face of the mighty cliff Connacher; and when we fired a gun and disturbed them from this noble precipice, it seemed as though the face of the entire cliff was falling outwards into the Atlantic, the enormous cloud of birds overpowering one with its magnificence! As soon as the young are reared the land is deserted, and the wandering pelagic life resumed.
In connection with this species mention may be made of its former repute as an article of food. Old records inform us that the young Puffins were regularly gathered by the owners of the breeding- places, and were salted down for future food. Gesner and Caius assert that the Puffin was allowed to be eaten during Lent, probably because, in the words of Carew, of its coming nearest to
150 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
fish in taste. More than two hundred years ago Ligon, in his Azstory of Barbadoes, complains of the ill taste of Puffins which he had received from the Scilly Islands (once a great centre of exportation of these birds), and asserts that this kind of food is only for servants. The taste for salted and dried Puffin, however, still lingers in the land; for at St. Kilda vast numbers are caught, and so preserved by the natives for food, Dried Puffin, perhaps a twelvemonth old, is one of the few delicacies of the island; whilst the feathers help materially to pay the rent!
Divers, Grebes, and Cormorants
"Al 493g0Y 9 ‘YSAIG NYSHLYON LV3AYD
5 OAS
CHAPTER IV;
DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS.
Divers—A finities and charac- teristics—Great Northern Diver —Black-throated Diver— Rea- throated Diver—Grebes—Char- acteristics—Changes of Plumage —Great Crested Grebe— Red-
necked Grebe — Black - necked
Grebe — Sclavonian Grebe — Little Grebe — Cormorants — Characteristics — Changes of
Plumage — Cormorant — Shag— Gannet.
HE birds included in the present chapter
belong to three well-defined families. None of them are so completely pelagic as the Auks, and yet, according to season, many of them are interesting features in the bird-life of the coast. Uufortunately for the summer visitor to the sea- side, the Divers will be absent. They are birds that resort chiefly to inland districts to rear their young, or are only known as winter visitors to the British Coasts. The Divers form a small but well-marked family known as CoLYMBIDA&, consisting of a single genus Colymbus, into which are grouped the four species that are now known to science. The Divers are allied to the Auks on the one hand, to the Grebes on the other, although systematists are
154 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
not yet agreed upon the degree of their relation- ship. United, these three families form Dr. Sclater’s order Pycoroprs. In every way the Divers are remarkably well fitted for an aquatic life. Their strong tarsi are laterally compressed, a form best suited for cleaving the water, the hind toe is well developed, and on the same plane as the rest, the feet are webbed, the bill is long, straight, spear-shaped and conical, admirably adapted for seizing the finny prey, the wings are comparatively short, yet capable of bearing the bird at great speed, the tail is short and fairly developed. The Divers in nuptial plumage are remarkably hand- some birds, the neck being striped or richly marked, and the upper plumage beautifully spotted or adorned with white bars. They are all more or less gregarious birds during winter, and well marked social tendencies are displayed in some species during the breeding season. Their mi- grations, if comparatively short, are pronounced and regular. The young are hatched covered with down, able to swim with ease almost imme- diately. Adults moult in autumn, and assume their nuptial plumage in winter—a period doubtless when they pair—the winter plumage thus being carried for a short time. Young Divers carry their first plumage through the winter until the following spring (not moulting in December with their parents), when they assume their summer plumage, but the nuptial ornaments are not so brilliant in
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DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS. 155
colour as in adults. Whether the vernal change in colour is effected without moulting, as in the Auks and some of the Limicolz, appears not to have yet been ascertained. All the species of Divers are visitors to the British Islands, but only two breed in them, and one is an exceptionally irregular strageler. This is the largest of them all, the White-billed Diver, Colymdus adamsz, and a species apparently circumpolar in its distribution. The Divers are all birds of the north-temperate or Arctic regions, during summer; in winter their range is much more extended, almost reaching to the northern tropics. With this brief résumé of their more salient characteristics, we will now proceed to a more detailed examination of their economy. GREAT NORTHERN DIVER.
This species, the Colymdbus glaciats of Linnzeus and of ornithologists generally, is, in its breeding plumage, one of the handsomest of British birds. Its chief characteristics are its large size—about that of a Goose—black head and neck, double _ semi-collars of white and black vertical stripes, and black upper parts, marked with white spots of varying size, and arranged in a series of belts. Whether it actually breeds within our limits has not yet been absolutely determined, although evidence is forthcoming that seems to point to the fact. Unfortunately for the seaside student of bird life, the Great Northern Diver is only known as a
156 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
winter visitor. At that season, however, it may be met with pretty frequently off the British coasts, the young birds especially venturing into our bays and creeks and estuaries, older individuals, as a rule, keeping further out to sea. Adult birds are, however, often observed near the coasts of South Devonshire and Cornwall. I have known them linger in the waters near here until the summer has been well advanced. Young birds of this species, in the brown and white dress characteristic of im- maturity, may often be seen quietly fishing under the cliffs, notably in Tor Bay. One very remark- able thing about this Diver is its singular habit of immersing the body to such a depth that the back is quite under water. It often so sinks itself when menaced by danger, and then, almost out of sight, swims away with great speed. If pursuit is still continued all but the neck is sunk below the surface, and finally, if hotly pressed, the bird will disappear entirely, and swim along under water at a speed absolutely astonishing, Gatke records that this Diver, when chased by a boat under these circumstances, will dive and allow the boat to pass over it, rising again in the rear of it, a habit which my own observations of the bird completely confirm. How this act of immersion, without apparent effort, is accomplished remains a mystery, and offers a problem in animal mechanics by no means easy of solution.
The Great Northern Diver is rarely seen on
DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS. 157
land, perhaps never except during the breeding season. Its movements on shore are ungainly in the extreme, the legs being placed so far back that the bird can only push itself along in a crawling sort of a way; it is equally rarely seen in the air, and apparently only uses its wings to fly when performing its annual migrations. How the species still retains the function of flight at all seems almost a mystery, but perhaps the constant use of the wings in the water keeps them to a standard of efficiency. This Diver is one of the least gregarious, and save on passage is rarely met with in numbers greater than a pair. It seems to be the rule for odd pairs to take up their residence in certain spots during the breeding season ; after that period the bird is usually met with solitary, and the young individuals, unlike so many others that evince strong gregarious propensities, for the most part wander about alone. This Diver, like most big birds, is shy and wary, although I have repeatedly watched it from the cliffs in Tor Bay evincing little concern at my presence. As may be gathered from the foregoing remarks the Great Northern Diver is a proficient in the art of diving, and is said to be able to remain as long as eight minutes beneath the surface—a period of time which seems incredible. The depth to which it sometimes descends is also enormous—it has been captured in a net thirty fathoms from the surface. The food of this Diver is almost, if not absolutely,
158 BRITISH SEA | BIRDS.
composed of fish. During the non-breeding season Divers are not particularly noisy birds, but at their nesting-places the cries they utter are both loud and startling, described by some listeners as similar to the screams of tortured children; as shrieks of maddened laughter, or as weird and melancholy howls by others.
It is a somewhat remarkable fact that the Great Northern Diver breeds nowhere in Europe, except on Iceland. It is an American species, and nests from Greenland westwards to Alaska, south of the Arctic circle to the more northern of the United States. It reaches its breeding-grounds in pairs towards the end of May, as soon as the northern waters are free from ice. Its favourite nesting places are secluded tarns and lakes, and an island is always selected if possible, doubtless from motives of security. The nest—always made upon the ground—varies a good deal in size, according to the local requirements. On wet marshy ground it is large, and composed of a heap of half rotten sedges, rushes, reeds, and such like vegetation, lined with dry bits of broken reed and withered grass. On drier and barer situations it is little more than a hollow in the sand or hard ground, with, perhaps, a few bits of dry grass for lining. The birds are very alert and watchful whilst nesting, as if fully conscious of their comparative difficulty in escaping from danger on the land. One bird is generally on the look out whilst the other sits, and
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DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS. 159
at the least danger the alarm is given, and the in- cubating partner shuffles off in a floundering way to the water. A path is soon thus worn from the nest to the lake. The eggs are almost invariably two, elongated, and varying in ground colour from russet-brown to olive-brown, spotted sparingly with blackish-brown and paler brown. When the young are sufficiently matured, the inland haunts are deserted, and the nomad wandering life upon the sea resumed. BLACK-THROATED DIVER.
The present species of Diver (much smaller than the preceding), the Colymbus arcticus of Linnzeus and most other writers, is the rarest of the three that visit the British Islands regularly, and perhaps we might also say the most beautiful in nuptial dress. All its showy colours and patterns, however, are on the head, neck, and upper parts, the under surface being white. The head is gray, the throat patch black, above which is a semi-collar of white striped vertically with black; the sides of the neck are also striped with black and white; whilst the black upper parts of the body are conspicuously marked with a regular series of nearly square white spots, becoming oval in shape on the wing coverts: the bill is black, the irides crimson. After the autumn moult all this finery is lost, and the upper parts become a nearly uniform blackish - brown. This Diver breeds sparingly in various parts of
the Hebrides and the Highlands, from Argyll to
160 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
Caithness; elsewhere it is only known as a winter
visitor. In many of its habits it closely resembles the preceding species. It is exclusively aquatic, only seeking the land during the breeding season, but is, perhaps, not quite so oceanic as that bird in the winter, when it not unfrequently haunts inland waters. It dives with equal skill, flies with the same powerful rapidity, and utters during the nesting season very similar unearthly cries. Fish form the chief food of this Diver, but it is said also to capture frogs. Most of the examples of this Diver that are seen close in-shore (on our eastern and southern coasts principally) during winter are immature, the older birds as a rule keeping further out to sea. The Black-throated Diver indulges in the same peculiar habit of gradually sinking its body in the sea when alarmed, and will frequently seek to escape pursuit by diving outright, and swimming under water for a considerable distance.
The Black-throated Divers that breed with us, retire to their inland haunts in May. Its favourite nesting places are on islands in moorland lochs, pools, and tarns. It displays few social tendencies at this season, although several pairs not un- frequently nest within a comparatively small area of exceptionally suitable country, each, nevertheless, keeping to its own particular haunt. This Diver may also pair for life, seeing that it evinces con- siderable attachment to certain favourite nesting
1 i t 4 f {
cd
DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS. | 161
places. The nest is always made upon the ground, and seldom very far from the water, to which the frightened bird can retire readily. An island covered with short herbage is always preferred in Scotland, but in some places the bare shingly beach is selected. This nest, often of the slightest con- struction, is made of stalks of plants, roots, and all kinds of drifted vegetable fragments, lined with grass. Sometimes no nest whatever is made. The two eggs are narrow and elongated, olive- or rufous-brown, sparingly spotted and speckled with blackish-brown and paler brown. The sitting bird is ever on the alert to slip off into the water at the first alarm; and sometimes both birds will fly round and round in anxiety for the fate of their treasured eggs. A movement seawards is soon taken when the young are sufficiently matured. This Diver has a wide geographical range outside our limits, extending across Europe and Asia to Japan and North-west America, perhaps as far as Hudson Bay. American authorities, however, insist upon the specific distinctness of most of the Black- throated Divers found in Alaska, and have named
this form C. pacéficus.
RED-THROATED DIVER.
Smallest of the British Divers, the present species, the Colymbus septentrionals of Linnzeus and modern authorities, is also the best known and the most widely distributed. It is also the least showy in
i
162 BRITISH SEA BIRDS.
nuptial dress. In this plumage the throat is marked with an elongated patch of chestnut ; the head, and sides of the neck are ash-brown, the latter striped with black and white, the general colour of the upper plumage blackish-brown, sparingly spotted with white, and the under parts are white. The plumage, as in all the Divers, is remarkably dense and compact, adapted in every way to the aquatic habits of the bird. The Red-throated Diver is a fairly frequent visitor, during autumn and winter, off the English coasts, often entering bays and the mouths of wide rivers. In summer, however, it becomes much more local, retiring then to haunts in Scotland, especially in the Hebrides and along the wild and little populated western districts, from
the Clyde northwards to the Shetlands. Outside
our limits, this Diver has a very wide distribution, occupying in summer the Arctic and north temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and America; in winter migrating southwards for a thousand miles or more. The Red-throated Diver is certainly the most gre- garious species, and in winter may not unfrequently be seen in gatherings of varying size. In connection with this trait, mention may be made of the extra- ordinary numbers of this bird that, on the 2nd and 3rd of December 1879, passed Heligoland. The movement was not strictly a migratory one, but a grand flight of storm-driven, frozen-out birds, seeking more congenial haunts. Géatke tells us that during this visitation, there was about thirteen
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DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS. 163
degrees of frost, an easterly wind, and a snowstorm in the evening. The Divers were by no means alone in their distress, for hundreds of thousands of Ducks, Geese, and Swans, Curlews, Dunlins, and Oyster-catchers, passed from east to west. From early morning until noon, on both days in succession, the Divers were seen in one incessant stream, travelling north-east, in numbers estimated almost by the million! Well may Géatke have wondered whence such vast multitudes came, and whither they were going, and what was the initial cause of such gregarious instincts, never manifested in this Diver under any ordinary circumstances. The Red-throated Diver is a master at the art of diving, and is often seen slowly to sink its body under water when alarmed. It also flies with great strength and speed, and is said to show more preference for flying than either of its congeners. The food of this Diver is chiefly composed of fish. Its ordinary note is a harsh a& or hark; but at the nesting places the same wild unearthly cries are uttered that are equally characteristic of the other species. These cries are said to foretell rain or rough weather, and have caused the bird to be called ‘Rain Goose” in many Highland districts. The Red-throated Diver, however agile and grace- ful it may be in the water or even in the air, is a clumsy object on the land, incapable of walking upright, owing to the backward position of its legs, and compelled to shuffle along with its breast
164 BRITISH (SEABIRDS:
touching the surface. In winter these Divers are by no means shy, and I have many times watched them pursuing their fishing operations, from my station on the cliffs.
In May, the Red-throated Diver retires to its breeding stations—the wild romantic lochs and pools so characteristic a feature of the Highlands and the Hebrides. Solitary pairs generally scatter themselves over a district, resenting intrusion, and keeping to their own particular haunt. This Diver probably pairs for life, returning each successive season to a ceftain spot to nest, “An island usually selected for the nest, which is invariably made upon the ground, and consists generally of little more than a hollow, into which is collected a few bits of withered vegetation. As may be expected, this nest is seldom made far from the water, so that at the least alarm the sitting bird can slip off and shuffle into the water at once. The two narrow elongated eggs are olive- or buffish- brown, spotted and speckled with blackish-brown and paler brown.
GREBES.
In many respects Grebes are remarkable birds. They form so well defined a group that no other known bird can possibly be confused with them, their characteristics being absolutely unique among the class Aves. The most noticeable external features of a Grebe are its relatively short body, laterally compressed tarsi, lobed feet, rudimentary
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* DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS. 165
and functionless tail, and dense compact plumage of a peculiar silky texture. The twenty or so species of Grebes are grouped into a single family, called Podicipedide, of which the genus Podzceps (or more correctly Podzczfes) contains the greater number. The Grebes are almost cosmopolitan. Five well-marked species are found in Europe, all of which, being visitants or regular residents, are included in the British avifauna. In the. colours of their plumage the Grebes are not very remark- able, with the exception of the crests or tippets assumed by some species during the nuptial period : plain browns predominate on the upper surface ; the underparts are almost always glossy white. The Grebes fly well; dive with great dexterity, but their movements on the ground are not graceful. The young are hatched covered with close down, and able to swim at once. The Grebes have a complete moult in autumn, and