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A
HISTOE Y
OF
BRITISH BIRDS.
BY t/v} ,
THE REV. F. O. MORRIS, B.A.,
i/
MEMBER OF THE ASHMOLEAN SOCIETY.
YOL. Y.
CONTAINING FORTY-SEVEN COLOURED ENGRAVINGS.
* Gloria in excelsis Deo’
LONDON :
GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS, 5, PATERNOSTER ROW.
/C <uaX \ L-fi&zy
.JUL 11 1946
CONTENTS
or
THE FIFTH VOLUME.
PAGE
Great Bustard . 1
Little Bustard . 6
Macqueen’s Bustard . 9
Pratincole . . . . . . . . .12
Courser . 15
Great Plover . .17
Golden Plover . ,21
Dotterel . 25
Binged Dotterel . 30
Little Binged Dotterel ........ 35
Kentish Dotterel . 37
Grey Plover . .40
Peewit . 44
Turnstone . 50
Sanderling .....' . 57
Oyster-catcher . . . . .61
Crane ........... 65
Heron . 72
Purple Heron . 81
Great White Heron . 86
Little Egret ......... 89
PAGE
Buff-backed Heron . 92
Squacco Heron . 94
Hight Heron . 97
Bittern .......... 101
Little Bittern . . 107
American Bittern . 112
White Stork . 114
Black Stork . . 122
Spoonbill . 125
Ibis . 129
Curlew . 133
Esquimaux Curlew . 137
Whimbrel . 139
Spotted Redshank . 144
Redshank . 147
Yellow- shanks . 151
Green Sandpiper . 153
Wood Sandpiper . 157
Common Sandpiper . 162
Spotted Sandpiper . 167
Greenshank . . . . .169
Avocet . 173
Stilt . 177
Black-tailed Godwit . . . 180
Bar-tailed Godwit . . . . . . . . .184
Ruff ......* . 188
HISTORY OF BRITISH BIRDS.
GREAT BUSTARD.
Otis tarda ,
Pennant. Montagu.
Otis— A Bustard. Tarda — Slow — lazy.
The Bustard is frequent in Asia in Tartary and Syria; and in Europe in Russia, as also in Germany, Italy, Spain, Dalmatia, and France; rare in Holland and Sweden.
This was formerly an actual British bird, though living now only among us in the pages of history. In the catalogue of the collection made by Tradescant, the basis of the present Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, it is spoken of as being taken with greyhounds on Newmarket Heath, but it seems from what is presently to be stated that this could not well have been the case. The Rev. Leonard Jenyns, in his Observations on the Ornithology of Cambridgeshire,’ published in 1821, says that till within a few years single individuals had been seen about there, but that they were then supposed to be almost extinct; one, however, a young male, was shot on Shelford Common in January, 1830, and another at Caxton, in December, 1832. Ray and Wi Hugh by also mention Royston Heath as a place frequented in their time by this species. Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, was another noted locality for it; one was shot there on the 29th. of September, 1800, and there were two others in company with it. In the summer of 1801 two were seen there, and they are reported to have attacked mounted horsemen; one of them was captured; another, a female, occurred there to C-. R. Waterhouse, Esq., on the 9th. of August, 1849.
It was also known in Hampshire, and Gilbert White mentions his having been informed of eighteen once seen together near
VOL. v. B
2
GEEA.T [BTJSTAKD.
Winchester. The ‘South Downs’ of Sussex likewise furnished it. In Suffolk it was known, and in Norfolk, chiefly at Westacre, where nineteen were observed together in 1819; one also was met with near Burnham, and another at Icklingham; several used to he known to breed near Thetford, and it occurred there so late as 1832; one, a female, was shot at Congham in the autumn of 1831, near which place one was formerly obtained also; one near Winterton, and one, a male, near Norwich; as many as eleven have been formerly seen together near Gray ton ; three females had nests and eggs at Gfreat Massingham, in the spring of 1832; a small flock of females was seen for some years in that county, the last of which was shot at Lexham, near Swaffham, towards the end of the year 1838; one had a nest at Eldon, and her two eggs being taken and placed under a hen, produced two male birds; another, also a female, was shot at Dersingham, near Lynn, early in the year 1838. In Berkshire they used to be met with on Lambourne Downs, up to 1802. In Oxfordshire, one, a female, was shot by Mr. Aid worth, a farmer, at Gfarsington, in November, 1835; another was said to have been killed on Denton Common in December, 1830.
In Yorkshire these great birds were formerly met with, and used to breed on the East-Biding Wolds; Henry Woodall, Esq., of North Dalton, has informed me that in the year 1816 or 1817 James Dowker, Esq., of that place, killed two near there with a right and left shot, and saw a third I believe at the same time; a nest that had been forsaken was also found, with one egg in it, which is now in the Scarborough Museum; one of the birds shot was presented to His Majesty King Gfeorge the Third, through the late Dr. Blomberg; eight were seen together in one field about the same date: E. H. Hebden, Esq., of Scarborough, has also informed me of his having seen five Bustards on Flixton Wold about the year 1811, and they remained there at least two years, when two of them were shot; the other three still continued there for another year or more, when two of them disappeared, leaving the solitary bird, which after a length of time was shot near Hunmanbv by the gamekeeper of Sir William Strickland, and found a few days afterwards by the huntsman of the Scar¬ borough Harriers; one was also shot near Malton, the Wolds near which town they used to frequent; one was shot near Bighton.
In an old History of Northamptonshire it is mentioned
GREAT BUSTARD.
3
that the Great Bustard was at one time common in that county ; so it doubtless was on the Lincolnshire Wolds, but it is now extinct as an inhabitant. Dr. Plomley records in the ‘Zoologist,’ page 2700, the occurrence of one, a female, at Lydd, on Bomney Marsh, Kent, January 4th., 1850, and the species would appear, he says, %o have been not uncommon there formerly. In Devonshire one is recorded by John Gatcombe, Esq., in ‘The Naturalist,’ vol. ii, page 33, as having been shot on December 31st., 1851, at Millaton Bridestowe. In Cornwall one was met with the beginning of 1843, on the open moor country between Helston and the Lizard Point; it was a female.
In Scotland it was formerly met with, but Sir Bobert Sibbald mentions it as being rare in his day; one was shot in Morayshire in 1803, by W. Young, Esq., of Boroughead.
In Ireland it was enumerated by Smith in 1749 as one of the birds of the county of Cork, but it has long since become extinct there, as well as now in this part of the kingdom. If some feathered ‘Bip Yan Winkle’ of the ‘good old times’ could revisit the scenes he frequented in the ‘days that are gone,’ he would so little recognise them as the same, that he would not wonder that none of his kind were still to be found in haunts now rendered so unsuitable to them.
The Bustard has been domesticated, but is said to continue tierce towards strangers, and not to breed in confinement. It is naturally a wild bird, and frequents in winter open barren places, from whence it is only compelled by stress of severe weather, wheu the snow is deep, to approach nearer to country villages; in the summer, however, the nest being placed in cultivated places, where the young are brought up, they and the dams find their living among corn. The males are polygamous, and leave the females as soon as the task of incubation commences, both then living separate for a few weeks. The young families unite together in the autumn, and in winter congregate still more, forming flocks of from four or five to about forty or fifty, or even, it is said, a couple of hundreds; in the spring they again separate. These birds are very fine eating, the young especially, at about a year old. In the spring the males, in small parties of three or four, strut about, with drooped wings and spread set-up tails, shewing themselves off to excite admiration.
In flight their wings are moved slowly, but if suddenly disturbed it would appear that they rise suddenly to a height
4
GREAT BUSTARD.
of forty or fifty feet, and then, after a few rapid strokes, sail away. When flushed they perform flights of two miles or more without difficulty, at a height of about a hundred yards, and their migrations testify that they are capable of much more extended peregrinations. The^y do not run to escape danger. The wings are not closed immediately on alighting.
Graminivorous birds, they feed on grasses, clover, turnip tops, and various vegetables, corn, barle\r, both the ears and leaves, and other grain, and beetles; Rennie adds worms, frogs, mice, and young birds to the catalogue: small stones are swallowed to grind up the food. The young are fed with insects.
The bare earth is laid upon. ‘It is said that the Great Bustard will forsake her nest, if only once driven from it by apprehension of danger; but when the eggs are laid, and still more when the young are produced, it is only repeated meddling with them that will induce the parents to forsake them.5
The eggs, two in number, are of an olive brown colour, blotted with pale ferruginous and ash-coloured spots.
Male; weight, as much as twenty-eight or thirty pounds; length, three feet nine inches; bill, brown; iris, reddish brown. Head on the centre of the crown, chesnut, variegated with black, on the sides, white; neck on the back, light greyish, on the sides, white; about the shoulders a soft grey down takes the place of feathers; nape, pale chesnut, barred with black; chin, white; underneath it a plume of narrow feathers about seven inches long falls backward, partly covering a strip of bluish grey skin on the front and sides of the neck; throat above, white, below, pale chesnut orange, as is the upper part of the breast, which then below is white; the feathers have a pink tinge at the base; back, pale chesnut orange, barred and variegated with black; the base of these feathers also is of a delicate rose tint.
The wings have the first quill feather shorter than the second, the second shorter than the third and fourth, which are the longest in the wing; they extend to as much, in the fullest- sized birds, as seven feet three inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, partly white and partly chesnut brown, barred with black; primaries, brownish black, the shafts white; secondaries, greyish white; tertiaries, chesnut brown, barred with black. The tail, rounded at the end, and of twenty feathers, is white at the base, then pale chesnut, tipped with white and barred with black, the two outer feathers greyish white, almost pure white at the base, with two or three small bars of black, near
GEEAT BUSTARD.
which they are tinted with reddish orange; underneath it is barred with dusky grey; upper tail coverts, pale cliesnut, barred with black; under tail coverts, white. The legs, covered with round scales, toes, and claws, blackish, the latter three in number.
Female; length, three feet; the head and neck are of a deeper grey, nape, reddish orange; the chin is without the plume until the bird is of mature age — three or four years old, and then it is said to appear, but less developed than in the male.
The young at first are covered with buff-coloured down, barred on the back, wings, and sides with black.
The plate is from a beautiful drawing obligingly made for this work by John Gatcombe, Esq., of Plymouth.
LITTLE BUSTARD.
LESSEE EUSTAED.
Otis tetrax , Pennant. Montagu.
Otis — A Bustard.
Tetrax — .
The great deserts of Tartary are among the principal strongholds of these birds, and there vast nomade tribes of them are to be seen, wandering thence in various directions to the district of the Caucasus, and especially towards the Caspian Sea, the south and south-west of Russia, and the south of Siberia, Turkey, and Greece, and some are found also in Italy, Sardinia, and Spain. They likewise are natives of the north of Africa, and of Asia.
A good many instances of the occurrence of this bird have been recorded, all of them in the winter half of the year. In Yorkshire one was shot January 14th., 1854, at Goodmanham, near Market Weighton, by the Rev. W. Blow; another, formerly, on the Wolds, and one at Boythorpe, also in the East Riding, early in 1839; one near Beverley; and in the winter of 1814-15 two were seen near Elamborough, one of which was killed. In Northumberland two, one near W ark worth in the autumn of 1821, and the other near Twizell the 1st. of February, 1823. In Hampshire one at Heron Court, near Christchurch, the seat of Lord Malmesbury. In Essex one at Harwich in January, 1823, one at Little Clacton in the winter of 1824, and one several years since at Writtle, near Chelmsford. In Norfolk several have occurred, one, as Mr. Robert Drane informs me, between Yarmouth and Win- terton, about the 30th. of December, 1853; it was imagined to be ‘some sort of Cochin-China Guinea-fowl;’ also others in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. One was shot, as William
LITTLE BUSTARD.
LITTLE BUSTAED.
7
He wet, Esq., of Reading, has obligingly informed me, in 1849 on Mr. Deane’s farm (English) in Oxfordshire; one was also shot on Denton Common in December, 1833; one at Boshan, near Chichester, Sussex, in 1852, of which A. Fuller, Esq. has written me word; and two near Birmingham, War¬ wickshire, in October, 1839. In Cornwall, some half a dozen specimens have occurred — one in December, 1853. In Kent one, at Chatham, in January, 1834. Others in Devonshire.
In Scotland one is related to have been obtained near Montrose in December, 1833, the only ‘Legend of Montrose’ or of Scotland respecting the species in that part of the island.
In Ireland the late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, mentions that two were seen in the county of Wicklow on the 23rd. of August, 1833, and that one of them was shot.
They inhabit champaign countries, both waste and cultivated, and are fine birds to eat. The male is polygamous.
They fly, if suddenly alarmed, with great speed and power for a distance of fifty or a hundred yards, raised but a little above the surface of the ground, and on alighting, are said to run with swiftness. If several are in company they are very wary.
They feed on grain, grasses, and various vegetables, dandelions, clover, turnips, and other sorts, as also on insects.
Meyer likens the note to the syllable ‘proot,’ and says that it is most heard at night, and that the young chirp like chickens.
The nest is on the ground — a mere hollow, under the shelter of any sufficiently high herbage that may be proximate.
The eggs are said to be from three to five in number, olive brown in colour, sometimes varied with patches of a darker shade of brown.
Male; weight, twenty-five ounces; length, about one foot five inches ; bill, brown ; iris, golden yellow ; behind it is a bare space. Head on the crown, pale chesnut, mottled with black ; on the sides, bluish grey, neck in front, and on the sides, bluish grey, bounded below with a border of black passing to the back of the neck ; that is succeeded by a narrow white ring, and this again by a broad band of black ; beneath this is a gorget of white, followed by another of black. In winter the neck is pale chesnut, marked with black. Breast, white, the down at the base of the feathers pale rose-colour. Back, pale chesnut, streaked irregularly with numerous narrow lines of black.
8
LITTLE BUSTARD.
The wings, which do not reach to the end of the tail, have the first quill feather about an inch shorter than the second, which is as long as the third, and both longer than the fourth, and the longest in the wing. Greater and lesser wing coverts, white; primaries, white at the base, the remainder greyish black; secondaries, patched with black and white; tertiaries, pale chesnut brown, streaked irregularly with numerous narrow lines of black. The tail is of eighteen feathers, white at the base, and barred with two narrow black bars, the ends mottled with black and buff white, the tips white; upper tail coverts, pale chesnut, streaked irregularly with numerous narrow lines of black. Legs, toes, and claws, brown.
Female; head, crown, and neck, pale chesnut, mottled and streaked with black; chin, white; breast, marked with short bars of black; greater and lesser wing coverts, partly white.
MACQUEEN’S BUSTARD.
9
MACQUEEN’S BUSTARD.
RUFFED BUSTARD.
Otis macqueenii , Gray.
Otis — A Bustard. Macqueenii — Of Macqueen.
This species has been confounded with the Houbara or Ruffed Bustard, but the length of the wings, which in the present one reach quite to the end of the tail, at once dis¬ tinguishes them.
The only British, or, I believe, European specimen of this Bustard at present on record, was shot at Kirton in Lindsay, Lincolnshire, on the 7th. of October, 1847, by Mr. George Hansley; it is now in the Rudston Read collection of British Birds in the York Museum, where I have seen it. A very excellent likeness, with an account of it, is given in ‘The Naturalist,’ vol. ii., page 89, by my brother, Beverley R. Morris, Esq.
Macqueen’s Bustard is so very closely allied to the Houbara, that I should suppose that both are to be found in the same districts. The latter, as those who have read the second volume of Mr. Layard’s deeply interesting ‘Nineveh and its Remains’ will at once recall to mind, is very plentiful in Arabia and on the wide plains of Messapotamia, where the wandering tribes hunt them with Hawks trained for the purpose. Doubtless they are to be met with likewise in the more northern regions where the renowned Hippomolgians find pasture for the noble animals who are their all. Glorious scenes are those eastern lands, and wonderful as are the monuments of three thousand years antiquity which there bring, as it were, the departed Assyrians again before us to admire their vast and so enduring works, still more striking
10
macqtjeen’s bustakd.
and still more ancient in their origin are the natural beauties which spread before the gazer as far as the eye can reach. Those vast plains, the native place of the Bustard, and the very garden of flowers, vie in gorgeous beauty with the richest products of the looms of Cashmere, and leave their famed rivalry far behind. If the small pattern gives but a faint idea of the Tout ensemble,’ size itself being a feature that attracts and pleases, how is it when both the smallest flower that takes its modest place in the great carpet of nature, and the immense bespangled tapestry itself, each, as a part, and as the whole, challenges all competition, and distances every thought of approach; ‘Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.’
The sun above in unclouded splendour walks through the sky, and flashes below from the cup of every flower and from every blade of grass; the scent of aromatic herbs and sweet¬ smelling blossoms enrich the undisturbed air; sublime stillness reigns around, and a perfect calm pervades the wide solitude. Nature there provides a succession of colours, such as can probably nowhere else be matched. One day admiration ranges over the level land dight with flowers of a golden yellow, which, almost in a night, give place to new ones of the deepest blue; these are followed by others of a variety of hues, with which the face of the country is carpeted anew. Again, a bright scarlet bedecks the meadow, and is followed by the emerald green of the luxuriant pasture, itself in its turn studded afresh with single gems of varied brilliancy. Once more the plain is enriched with the gayest purple, or bright with burnished gold, and then the greensward is flowered with a gorgeous display of embroidery, whose spangles enamel its bosom with a rare mosaic, such as mortal craftsmen cannot fabricate the likeness of.
Or if you change the scene, and follow the bank of the winding Tigris, at one season the odour of orange blossoms fills the air, and at another clusters of golden fruit hang from the branches; vast groves of Feathered Palms bound the distant horizon; here all is clouded with a purple shadow, and there all glitters with reflected tints in the rays of the setting sun. Then the awful stillness that pervades the vast expanse is broken by the wild cry of some bird of night, or the howl of some roaring beast roused from its lair, and then at last all once more is still. But, glory be to GrOD, morning comes again, and again you move on, and by the shore of some
MAC QUEEN S BUSTAED.
11
unexpected inland lake, whose quiet waters throw back the shadows of the neighbouring low hills, and glisten farther off with the beams of the ‘Rising Sun,’ the snowy Egret, with its graceful crest, the stately Crane, and the ‘Pelican of the wilderness,’ stand side by side, White Herons watch motionless at the margin, and variegated wildfowl float lazily upon the crystal surface: you stretch off into the desert, and now the Bustard springs up from your feet. - -
Much does Mr. Layard’s ‘Nineveh and Babylon’ make one long to follow him in his wanderings in those countries of wonder, as it has led me to wander with him in thought, and at the same time from my subject, to which I must return, and give the description of the bird before us.
It occurs from the Himalaya Mountains to Siberia.
The specimen, Mr. Alfred Roberts informs me, was very wild.
He found that it had fed on caterpillars, beetles, and small snails.
Female; weight, two pounds and a quarter; length, one foot eleven inches; bill, dark lead-colour, compressed at the tip, depressed at the base; iris, yellow. Head and crown, pale rufous, mottled with black; neck on the back, white, minutely mottled with brown; on the sides ornamented with a range of feathers two inches long, about two thirds of the upper portion black, the lower part white; chin, white; throat, pale rufous, mottled with zigzag black bars. The wings extend when closed to the end of the tail; they expand to the width of three feet eight inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, pale rufous, mottled with zigzag black bars; primaries, black; the legs, which are bare of feathers a little above the knee, and toes, greenish yellow.
12
PRATINCOLE.
COLLARED PRATINCOLE. AUSTRIAN PRATINCOLE.
Glareola torquata ,
“ austriaca ,
Uirundo marina ,
“ pratincola ,
Meyer.
Latham.
Ray.
Linnaeus. Gmelin.
Glareola-— . ? Torquata — . ?
The Pratincole is abundant on the continent of Europe in Hungary, Dalmatia, Turkey, and Sclavonia; and is met with in Germany, Prance, Switzerland, Sardinia, and Italy. In Asia it is common in Tartary, and in the region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
In this country, in ‘Yorkshire to wit,’ one was obtained in May, 1844, on Staxton Wold, near Scarborough, as recorded by W. M. E. Milner, Esq., M. P., in the ‘Zoologist,’ page 2023. It was at the time in company with a flock of Dotterels. One in Northumberland, at Bedlington, the beginning of February, 1850. In Devonshire two were seen by the Hon. T. L. Powys, and W. W. Butler, Esq., at the mouth of the River Exe, on the 7th. of September, 1851. In Norfolk a pair were shot on the Breydon-wall, in May, 1827. One was killed near Liverpool, on the 18th. of May, 1804.
In Zetland one was shot in Uist, by Mr. M. Bullock, August 16th., 1815.
Sandy places, near water, are its natural haunt, and low meadows, where doubtless its insect food abounds.
They migrate in spring and autumn, moving in large bodies of several companies, and when resting by the way here and there, on a note of alarm from one of the body they all take wing, and after circling about once or twice, go on their way. They are sometimes seen on the sea-shore, when awaiting the
PRATINCOLE.
PRATINCOLE.
13
arrival of part of the flock on their migrations. ‘By the beginning of August, the young fly about with the adult birds; the parents being very much attached to their brood, accompany them until the beginning of September, when they one and all think of returning and going southward for the winter.’
They are capable of being easily tamed. In their wild state they are restless, lively, sociable, that is among themselves, for they rarely associate with other species. ‘Where they meet with suitable ground, they remain for some time in the neighbourhood, flying away in a body and often returning again in a moment, to the great surprise of the beholder who may happen to have startled them up.’ If alarmed when feeding, they strike the tail two or three times against the ground, and soon after take wing.
They fly with extraordinary rapidity, and their evolutions in the air are exceedingly graceful, quick, and beautiful, and they also run very fast. ‘When a flight of them passes through the air within sight, they proceed very swiftly, and, on lowering to alight they shoot like arrows by one another; finally they once more open their wings to their full length and highly raised, and then settle, rather closely spread over the ground.’
They take their food on the wing, hawking about after the manner of the Swallows, and also on the ground, from whence they spring into the air to catch their prey. They live on flies, gnats, cockchaffers, and other beetles, grasshoppers, and other insects and worms. The larger sorts they knock against the ground with their bills, to kill, and to dislodge the harder parts.
Meyer says, ‘the call-note sounds like the word ‘carjah,’ ‘carjah,’ and ‘bedrse,’ ‘bedrse,’ very quickly expressed.’
A slight depression in the soil serves for a nest, or it is placed, Selby says, among rushes or other thick herbage. Many nests are often made not far from each other.
The eggs, four in number, are spotted with brown.
Male; length, from about nine inches to ten and a quarter, or even ten and a half or over, according to the age of the bird, the tail being shorter at first; bill, somewhat hooked, short, and broad at the base, black, the sides and the base of the lower mandible, which is shorter than the upper, and received into it, scarlet orange, brightest in spring. The bill is smaller in young birds. Iris, light reddish brown, the eyelids clothed with small white feathers ; a black line runs to
14
PRATINCOLE.
and behind it, from the base of the bill. The eye is placed rather far back in the head. Forehead, flat; crown, dark yellowish or reddish brown. The neck, short and full, in front pale reddish white or buff, bounded by a narrow distinct stripe of velvet black, which proceeds upwards as a collar, and joins the black streak between the bill and the eyes; nape, dark yellowish brown, with a greenish metallic lustre; chin and throat, pale reddish white or buff, the former the palest; breast above, pale brownish yellow, on the lower part white; back dark, yellowish brown, with a greenish metallic lustre, on the lower part orange brown.
Wings, very long and narrow, the first feather the longest; greater and lesser wing coverts, dark yellowish brown, with a greenish metallic lustre; primaries, brownish black, the shaft of the first broad and yellowish white; secondaries, paler; tertiaries, dark yellowish brown, with a greenish metallic lustre; greater and lesser under wing coverts, partly brown, and partty bright ferruginous.
The tail, long and much forked, the inner half white, the rest blackish brown, the centre feathers almost wholly black; the white increases on every feather towards the outside. The two outer feathers are nearly two inches and a half longer than the rest, the outer one very slender; upper and under tail coverts, white. Legs, long, bare above the knee, and, as the toes, clear brownish purple red; claws, dusky black, and slightly bent, the middle one long, and somewhat pectinated.
The general texture of the feathers is silky, fine, and close.
The female nearly resembles the male.
The young have the head, crown, neck, and nape brown, with reddish brown edges to the feathers; throat, pale brown, the band only indicated by a few dusky brown spots; breast, clouded with brown and dusky, below a mixture of grey and white.
COURSER,.
15
COURSER.
CREAM-COLOURED COURSER. CREAM-COLOURED PLOYER. CREAM-COLOURED SWIFTFOOT.
Cursorius Europcevs , Montagu. Bewick.
“ Isabel/inus, Fleming. Selby.
Cursorius. Curro — To run. Europatus — European.
This elegant bird is a native of Africa, and most plentiful, it is said, in Abyssinia. A few specimens have occurred in France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
One was shot near Wetherby, in the West-Riding of
Yorkshire, in April, 1816; a second by the gamekeeper of Lord Harewood in 1825; and a third by the keeper of the Hon. Charles Stourton, of Holme, near Market Weighton,
in the East-Riding; one in Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire, on the 15th. of October, 1827. It was the last bird figured by Bewick! In 1793 one was shot in North Wales, by George Kingston, Esq., of Queen’s College, Oxford; another was killed near Wingham, Kent, by William Hammond, Esq., of St. Alban’s Court.
It appears to be by no means shy.
This species, as denoted by its name, indeed by each of them, ‘mutato nomine,’ runs with extreme celerity, and also flies with great power.
Male; length, ten inches; bill, pale brown at the base, nearly black at the tip, and arched; iris, pale yellowish grey; over it is a white streak passing to the nape, below it from the eye is a velvet black one, both meeting behind. Forehead and crown, pale buff orange, the hinder part shading into grey, below which is a triangular spot of black, met by the line from each eye; the neck in front, pale reddish buff white;
16
COURSER.
behind, and the nape, pale brown, tinged with reddish buff; chin, white; throat and breast, pale reddish or buff white, the latter paler on the lower part; back, buff cream-colour with a tinge of orange.
The wings have the first almost as long as the second feather, which is the longest in the wing; greater and lesser wing coverts, buff cream-colour; primaries, brownish black, glossed with purple, as are the outer secondaries; inner secondaries and tertiaries, buff colour. The tail feathers, except the two middle ones, have an angular black spot near the end, but occupying the inner web only on the outer feather, the ends of all nearly white; under tail coverts, nearly white. The legs, which are long, and bare of feathers half an inch above the knee, and the toes, which are short, cream-colour; claws, blackish brown; that of the middle toe is pectinated, and the outer one is united to it by a rather broad membrane, the inner one by a smaller one; the soles and joints grey.
The plumage is soft and close.
The female resembles the male.
The young have the lines over the eye not very distinct; back, clouded with two shades of brown; the primaries edged on the inner web with buff.
GREAT PLOVER.
17
GREAT PLOVER.
NORFOLK PLOYER. THICK-KNEED BUSTARD. STONE CURLEW. WHISTLING PLOYER. STONE PLOYER. THICK-KNEE. COMMON* THICK-KNEE.
(Edicnemus crepitans, Belton ii,
Charadrius crepitans ,
“ cedicnenius, Otis cedicnemus ,
Selby. Jenyns. Fleming.
Montagu. Bewick. Linnaeus. Gmelin. Pennant. Latham.
(Edicnemus* Oideo — To swell. Kneme— The leg or thigh.
Crepitans — Crackling.
In Europe this species is plentiful in Turkey, part of Siberia, Germany, France, Spain, Greece, and Italy, uncommon in Switzerland and Holland, and from thence it extends in its range, by Sardinia and other islands of the Mediterranean, to the north of Africa, and thence again to the south of that great continent, even to the Cape; it likewise occurs in Abys¬ sinia, Nubia, and Egypt. In Asia it is found in Asia Minor, and on the plains between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, also in Arabia, Persia, the East Indies, and Syria.
It is most abundant on the eastern side of our island, partic¬ ularly, as imported by one of its names, in the county of Norfolk. In Yorkshire it breeds about Rossington, and other places near Doncaster; also near Scarborough. It used to do so regularly on the wolds, but never abundantly in more recent times. In Cornwall it is rare, but has occurred near Gvvyllyn Vase; one also in the parish of St. Levan, near the Land’s End; others in Devonshire and Lancashire. In Bedfordshire one was met with on March 29th., 1851. In Oxfordshire it has been known near Henley-on-Thames; also in Dorsetshire. yol. v. C
18
GEEAT PLOVEE.
In Ireland one was procured in the county of Waterford, and one in the county of Wexford, which was shot near Growtown, by Travers Hawkshaw, Esq., of Hilburn House.
The Thick-knee haunts wide open spaces, commons, warrens, heaths, sandy flats, such as chiefly border upon the sea coast, uncultivated wastes, and sheep-walks, seeming to prefer districts where the soil is poor, and in default of these, the larger fields, fallows, and turnip grounds.
This fine bird I have repeatedly seen on the top of the barren hill between Lyme Regis and Charmouth, Dorsetshire. Many a ‘stalk,’ when a boy, have I had after him, but he always managed to out-general me by keeping his sentry-box in the middle of the open field, or resorting to that vantage-ground on the least symptom of danger.
The Rev. R. P. Alington tells me that it used to be common near Swinhope, in Lincolnshire, as it was in other parts of that county, but that it has become much more rare from the enclosing of the country. A nest was taken in 1852, in Kingly Yale, near Chichester, Sussex, as I am informed by Mr. George Jackson, of that place. It is not uncommon in that county, as also in Hampshire, about Selborne; Kent, Essex, Suffolk, Worcestershire, and Cambridgeshire, — in the last-named only occasionally. The Rev. Dr. Thackeray obtained a young one bred near Cambridge. In some parts of Surrey they are not uncommon.
One was obtained close to the town of Cambridge, in October, 1853, as Thomas George Bonney, Esq., of St. John’s College, informs me. Several have been obtained in the winter months in the Land’s End district, in Cornwall, one in the beginning of February near Falmouth, and one at the Land’s End, in January, 1848; one near Penzance, about the 24th. of December, 1844. In Leicestershire, James Harley; Esq., of Leicester, writes me word that it is a regular summer visitant, but only very locally distributed, namely, on the north-east side of the county, abutting on Lincolnshire.
Birds of passage, they arrive here in March and April, or the beginning of May; and depart again usually by the end of September or October, in flocks of as many as forty or fifty, but some few continue longer. They repair to the same spot annually: they migrate by night. One was shot the first week in February, 1852, as Mr. F. W. Stears has informed me, at Roos, in Holderness; and in the same month, in 1807, one was killed in Devonshire, as recorded by Montagu; the
GREAT PLOYER.
19
Bev. Gilbert White, too, records that in 1788, he heard one on the 27th. of February. One was shot near Thetford, in Norfolk, the 9th. of December, 1831, by Mr. J. D. Salmon; and another at Ludham, on the 15th. of December, 1846.
In general they are seen singly, or at the most in pairs, in spring. They migrate in the autumn in the small numbers of the respective families. They repair to water every evening to drink and to wash themselves. They are easily tamed, and kept in gardens, and seem to become attached to their keepers, and are said to live to a great age: naturally they are very wild and shy.
William Hewet, Esq., of Beading, has sent me several particulars of these birds. The young, even when fledged, will squat, and allow themselves to be picked up. If disturbed from the nest, the parent runs off very swiftly with the head stooped. The young ones are very good eating, but the old birds are dry and tough.
They fly swiftly on occasion, and with much power, but low, though often at a considerable height during the night; they also run extremely fast. The legs are held out behind in flight. In the day-time they generally lie at rest near some stone, clod, or other sheltering projection, or stand on one leg with the head buried in the feathers.
They feed on beetles and other insects, worms and slugs, and swallow pieces of stone to aid digestion.
Their cry may be heard sometimes through a summer’s night from the fallow fields, and there is something peculiarly striking in their wild wail; so at least I used to deem it: ‘Sweet was the music to my ear’ in the ‘joyous days of old.’ Buffon renders it by the word ‘turrlui,’ and Meyer by ‘dit,’ ‘dillit,’ and ‘krseeet,’ which latter it utters chiefly during the evening and night when on the wing, and but rarely in the day. It is also rendered by the syllables ‘cur-lew,’ whence one of its vernacular names; the other I suppose, being derived from its frequenting stony places.
The bare earth is the nest, among weather-worn stones. The male appears to sit as well as the female, the time of incubation being sixteen or seventeen days. The young are led about by the female almost as soon as hatched, that is to say, on the day following their birth; at first the old birds take great care of them.
The eggs are pale brown, blotted, spotted, and streaked with greyish blue and dark brown, assimilating closely in appearance
20
GREAT PLOYEK.
to the grey flints that surround them, thus being very difficult to detect. They are generally two in number, but sometimes, it is said, three; the third being for the most part not hatched. They vary in size and colour, some being a dull yellow, and the spots much less clearly defined than in others.
Male; weight, about seventeen ounces; length, one foot five or six inches; bill, dusky black at the point, the rest greenish yellow; from the base of the upper mandible a light- coloured streak passes backward under the eye, and from the base of the lower one a brown one underneath. Iris, large and prominent, golden yellow — a dark line encircles it; behind it is a small space bare of feathers of a yellowish green, mostly concealed by the ear coverts. Head, large and thick, on the sides white; on the crown, neck on the back, and nape, pale tawny brown, each feather with a streak of black in the centre; the neck in front, pale brownish white, each feather streaked along the centre with blackish brown. Chin and throat, white; breast, nearly white, but yellowish, the feathers streaked with blackish brown. Back, pale tawny brown, each feather with a blackish brown longitudinal streak.
The wings have the first and second quills nearly equal in length, and the longest in the wing; greater and lesser wing coverts, pale tawny brown, each feather with a brownish black line along the shaft; primaries and secondaries, nearly black, the first and second with a broad white patch towards the end across each web, the former the larger — the seventh and eighth slightly tipped with white; tertiaries, pale brown, each feather with a brownish black line by the shaft. The tail, of twelve feathers and wedge-shaped, is on the inner half mottled with two shades of brown, the third part reddish white, with bent bars, and the end black; the outside feathers shorter than the middle ones, which are not tipped with black. The three outermost feathers the lightest coloured, and the bars darker. Upper tail coverts, pale brown, with a dark mark by the shaft of each feather; under tail coverts, buff white. The legs, which are long, and toes, yellow, with a greyish tinge — - the outer toe is connected with the middle one as far as the first joint by a membrane; claws, nearly black.
The female resembles the male bird. The legs thick below the knee joint.
The young are at first covered with a variegated grey down, which gradually gives way to the proper plumage.
GOLDEN PLOVER.
21
GOLDEtf PLOVER.
WHISTLING PLOVEE. YELLOW PLOYEE. GEEEN PLOYEE.
Charadrius pluvialis , Pennant. Montagu.
“ Africanus, Linn.eus.
Charadrius . ? Pluvialis— Rainy, pertaining to rain.
The name of the Plover is derived from the French ‘Firmer,’ as that again is from the Latin, as assigned as the specific designation of the bird before us.
It occurs in Europe in Russia, Sweden, Lapland, Norway, Holland, France, Germany, and Sardinia; and visits in summer the Ferroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland; and towards winter, France, Italy, and Sardinia, and North Africa. It also frequents the regions between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
In Yorkshire, they are plentiful in the parish of Naffer ton, and all over the wolds; are common also about Sheffield, and the moors about Meltham, where they breed; also on the moors near Barnsley, are occasionally met with on Whin Moor, near Leeds, and in the neighbourhood of Halifax they breed sparingly on the high moors, and are met at Hambleton, and at times in small numbers on the sea-shore in winter. In Cambridgeshire thejr are common in the fens. In Cornwall also, Gwyllyn Yase, Swanpool, and in other parts. They breed on Dartmoor, Devonshire, as James Dalton, Esq., of Worcester College, Oxford, has informed me.
In Scotland, they are exceedingly abundant, especially, as might be supposed, in Sutherlandshire, and there about Lairg, Durness, Tongue, and Scourie; also in Forfarshire, and on the Cheviot Hills, and in other suitable situations. In the Hebrides they are likewise vastly abundant, and are plentiful in Shetland and Orkney, where they appear in flocks of thousands. A great
22
GOLDEN PLOYER.
number leave in spring, yet a good many remain during summer to breed.
In Ireland they are likewise common.
Golden Plovers associate in tlie autumn in flocks of very large extent, and are then found on moors, downs, and heaths, and in any large fields, dispersing again early in spring, generally in February, but some are seen in April, retiring to breed in May. They have been noticed, however, in Norfolk so late as the 25th. of that month. They arrive in large numbers in November, and even in August and September, some beginning to flock together in the former month. Thus, though indigenous here, they are in some degree migratory. Their movements for the most part take place in the night. They breed in bogs and undrained hills, and are then hardly ever seen except in pairs; at other times of the year they chiefly frequent open fields, heaths, moors, and downs, and in severe weather resort to the sea-coast.
The old birds display the customary anxiety in endeavouring to protect their brood; practising every device to allure away the enemy — tumbling over as if unable to fly, or feigning lameness. The female also sits long on the nest, and if sue leaves it, takes the precaution of running off to some distance before taking wing. They are exceedingly good eating, and are sold in numbers for the table, many being often killed at a single shot as they wheel by — two or three, five or six^ or even as many as fourteen, as has been known, W. Hewet, Esq. tells me. They are capable of being kept in confinement. They roost on the ground under the shelter of some tuft during the depth of the night, or in the middle of the day.
In their flight, which is very swift and strong, they often sweep down close to the ground, and then suddenly rise up in the air, turning and twisting continually round and round before settling. During the day-time, as they feed at night, they either sit on the ground, for the most part, or stand in a state of repose, with the head drawn down between the shoulders. They run with great velocity, now and then stepping on to any elevation to look about.
They feed on insects of various kinds, caterpillars, worms, and slugs; wheat in the green state, running up and down the furrows to pick it up, or other vegetables and small berries.
The wild whistle of the Plover, a wailing note, is exceedingly pleasant to those who have a relish for country sounds, and
GOLDEN PLOYER.
23
who find an additional piquancy in those that are more wild. He that can say ‘My mind to me a kingdom is,’ is in no danger of being made melancholy by any sound in nature. In the evening and at night, you may hear it. It has at times a ventriloquistic power, and is very deceptive. A skilful imitation of their cry will decoy them to you. In the spring season a more varied note is used, during which the bird flies at a great elevation, and continues soaring about for a con¬ siderable time. Meyer likens the note to the words ‘tluwee, tluwee,’ uttered at a high pitch, and considerably loud.
Nidification commences about the end of May, or beginning of June. The hen bird alone sits. Incubation lasts seventeen days.
The nest, which I have never seen ‘in situ,’ is a very inartificial structure, being merely a few stems of grass and fibres laid together in some small hollow of the ground, only just large enough to contain them; what there is, is made the end of May or beginning of June.
The eggs, four in number usually, are of a yellowish stone- colour, blotted and spotted with brownish black. They are placed quatrefoil — with the small ends pointed together inwards.
The young ‘quit the nest as soon as hatched, and follow their parents till able to fly and support themselves, which is in the course of a month or five weeks.’
Male; weight, between seven and eight ounces; length, from ten and a half to eleven inches and a half; bill, black; iris,, dark brown, nearly black — the space between it and the eye, deep black — over it white. On the forehead is a band of nearly pure white in summer, which in winter is yellowish white, streaked and spotted with pale brown and grey. Head on the sides, greyish brown; on the crown, neck on the back, and nape, greyish or brownish black, with purple reflections of a paler shade, and large yellow angular spots on the whole edge and tip of each feather. Chin, neck on the sides, throat, and breast, deep velvet black, in the form of a list, in summer, with a band of white varying to yellow, and marbled with black and pale brown on the sides and below the wing, the feathers at the corner of which are also white below; in winter the chin and throat are whitish; the breast, dusky greyish white, tinged with dull yellow, and spotted and streaked with darker grey. Before and after the breeding-season the black and white plumages intermix. A bird has been seen
24
GOLDEN PLOVER.
in full summer plumage on the 22nd. of February. It is to be noticed that some new black feathers are produced, while others are changed by the black pigment from white to black ; the process being to be observed in all its gradations. Back, deep blackish or greyish brown, darkest in summer, with the yellow marks on the feathers.
The wings have the first feather the longest, the axillary plume white in winter; greater and lesser wing coverts, greyish black, with paler yellow angular spots at the edge of the feathers, and in winter the greater coverts are tipped with white; primaries and secondaries, dusky brown, the shafts of the first five wdiite on the anterior part; tertiaries, long, greyish black, with angular-shaped yellow edges and tips to the feathers. Tail, deep brown, paler towards the outside, barred obliquely with yellow or greyish white and brownish black, nearly meeting at the shaft; upper tail coverts, greyish black, the feathers with angular yellow spots on their edges, sometimes crossing them as bars; under tail coverts, white, the side ones shaded with pale yellow, and obliquely barred wdth brown. Legs and toes, black, deep grey in winter.
In the female the black is not so intense, and is partially mixed with white, but she on the whole resembles the male. Bill, black; throat, greyish white; under tail coverts, greyish white; legs and toes, dark grey.
The young are at first covered with a beautiful party-coloured down, of bright yellow and brown. They quit the nest as soon as hatched.
The young the first year have the breast generally darker than the old birds.
‘The intermediate states of plumage in which they are met with in autumn are often very beautiful, the under parts being marbled with black, white, and pale king’s yellow, which blend softly together.’ — Sir William Jardine.
The full summer plumage is assumed by the end of May.
DOTTEREL.
25
DOTTEREL.
DOTTEELL. DOTTEEEL PLOYEE.
Charadrius morinellus , “ Tataricus ,
“ Sibiricus ,
Pennant. Montagu. Latham.
Gmelin.
Charadrius.
? JfonWZtfs— A diminutive of
Morio—k fool or dotard.
This species belongs to Europe, being found in Turkey, Russia, Siberia, Lapland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; likewise in France, Italy, Spain, Greece, and its islands; Bohemia and Silesia; and in Holland, where it is rare. It also appertains to Northern Asia, Persia, and Tartary, on the vast Steppes of which country it is found in the vicinity of the salt lakes and marshes of the desolate regions that there exist.
The Dotterel has acquired the character of being a foolish bird, and hence its English name from the word to dote, to be fond or foolish, and its Latin one from the word Morio, a foolish fellow. The only folly, however, that, so far as I can see, the bird is guilty of, is that of permitting the near approach of man, and this on the ungracious principle of believing every one to be a rogue until you know him to be honest, is certainly the opposite of worldly wisdom. For myself, nevertheless, much as I have suffered more than once from acting on the contrary supposition, I still prefer a more unsophisticated maxim.
The bird was formerly supposed to imitate the actions of the fowler, and so to fall into the trap, instead of providing for its escape by a timely flight. Thus, Drayton, in his Polyolbion — -
‘The Dotterel, which we think a very dainty dish,
Whose taking makes such sport as no man more can wish,
26
DOTTEREL.
For on you creep, or cower, or lie, or stoop, or go,
So, marking you with care, the apish bird doth do ;
And acting every thing, doth never mark the net.’
Montagu observes, that when disturbed, it frequently raises one wing up, which may perhaps have given rise to the popular notion.
In Yorkshire these neat birds were formerly common on the Wolds, as testified, ‘exempli gratia,’ by the house called the ‘Dotterel Inn,’ erected, as Henry Eustatius Strickland, Esq., of Apperley Court, near Tewkesbury, has informed me, by one of the family, and the sign painted by Mrs. Strickland.
In my parish of Nafferton, a few are annually met with on their passage to and fro; I have one of a pair which were shot within a few hundred yards of the Vicarage, by Mr. J ohn Dickson, of this place, and by him presented to me; and another, one of three killed at a shot, by a farm servant of his, on the wold, above the village, in May, 1852. They remain two or three weeks, resorting to the fallows and open districts; very few, however, now come, compared with those that used to visit these parts. They are occasionally met with on the moors about Halifax, in spring and early summer, and sometimes come to breed on the Marsden and SI aith waite Moors, are also rare near Sheffield, and very rare near Leeds, as is not to be wondered at. One was shot at Staincross, near Barnsley, in 1880. They are also met with in Derbyshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, Suffolk, and on the Mendip Hills, in Somersetshire, where they are said to breed; and the Downs in Wiltshire. About Swinhope, says the Bev. B. P. Alington, Dotterels are local, arriving half-yearly at particular spots, during their migration to breed. One locality is at North Summer Coats, not far from the wintry railway station of ‘Great Coats,’ on the estate of Henry Alington Pye, Esq. In Dorsetshire, on Portland and near Weymouth, John Garland, Esq. has informed me that a few annually occur. In Norfolk it is rather rare. One, a male, was killed near Wisbeach, Cambridgeshire, the 9th. of May, 1850, by flying against the telegraph wires on the Eastern Counties Bail way; a female was shot on the following day on Guyhirn Wash, and a pair on Bottisham Pen in May, 1851; others have been met with near Cambridge and Boyston. In Cornwall it is rare, but has occurred at Bar Point, Gwyllyn Vase, and other places.
DOTTEKEL.
27
They are found in the lake neighbourhood, in Westmoreland and Cumberland, on Robinson Fell, Great Gavel, Whiteside, Helvellyn, Whatson Dod, Great Dod, Saddleback, and Skiddaw; also in Northumberland. In Devonshire they are very rare. A pair were shot on the moor near Seaton Carew, in the county of Durham, May the 10th., 1853; and they have been met with at Scremerston and Unthank, near Berwick.
In Scotland they occur and breed about Braemar, in Aberdeenshire; also on the Grampian Hills, and in the county of Elgin, Dumfriesshire, and other parts.
In Ireland they are rare.
In Orkney they make their appearance in September and October, and again in spring for still more northern regions. A pair bred in Hoy, in 1850. A large flock appeared in South Ronaldshay, in May, 1830.
They frequent open and exposed situations, heaths, barren pastures, sheep walks, new-sown fields, and fallow grounds, on their route to the lonely tops of the mountains on which they breed, and where for the time they dwell among the mists and clouds which so often envelope those lofty districts.
The Dotterel being only a cursory visitant, migrates to its breeding grounds in spring, staying in places on the way, from March until so late sometimes as the 20th. of May, or even it is said the beginning of June, but generally the latter end of April, and returning again the end of August, or beginning of September; some are even later, staying till October or November, but they are probably late hatched broods, or birds that are on their way back from a further distance north. They move forward in promiscuous bodies, without any particular order. They halt at various stations on the way, both going and coming, in Cambridgeshire and other counties, but it may be that they do not stay in each so long as is supposed, fresh arrivals not being distinguished as such, way having been made for them by others, which had preceded , them and have moved on.
Many of these birds are shot for the sake of the wing feathers, which are in considerable request for making artificial flies. The birds themselves also are very fine eating. They associate in small numbers, living very amicably together, usually to the number of ten or twelve, sometimes more, but in general the members of the family — only five or six in all. They are often to be seen sitting on the ground in. their summer haunts, and, though usually so devoid of shyness,
28
DOTTEREL.
display the natural anxiety of other birds for their young. They are said to be fond of bathing, and to resort to water early in the morning, or late in the evening for that purpose, and to drink. They are also reported to be fond of dusting themselves. They soon become tame in confinement, hut do not live long.
They both fly and run fast.
They feed on caterpillars, worms, slugs, grasshoppers, beetles, and other irisects, and also on some leaves of plants.
The note is soft and low, but somewhat shrill. Meyer compares it to the words, ‘durr,’ ‘dutt,’ and ‘drew.’
Any small hollow in the ground serves for a nest, and it is generally near some stone or rock; a few lichens make its ‘mossy bed.’ The male assists the female in the work of incubation, which lasts apparently for eighteen or twenty days. The hen bird sits very close, and if disturbed only runs a few yards off*.
The eggs are three in number, seldom more. They are laid from the end of May and the beginning of June, to the end of June and even the beginning of July,
Male; weight, about four ounces, sometimes five, and Mr. Yarrell mentions one six ounces and a half; length, nine inches and a half; bill, nearly black; iris, brown; from it, and a little in front, the dark brown of the head descends, and runs down the side of the neck, ending in a point and meeting again the dark brown of the head and back of the neck; a band of white proceeds from the eye on each side, the two meeting below the occiput. Forehead, in winter, white streaked with brown; head on the sides, white; crown, neck on the back, and nape, dark brown, each feather finely margined with white in summer, and in winter with pale reddish brown ; chin and throat, white; breast above, grey with yellowish edges to the feathers in winter, succeeded by a band of white, which is edged above and below with a dark line, then lower down, rich orange chesnut brown, still lower black, and finally cream-colour; the black is not so distinct in winter, and the fine orange brown wanting. Back, greyish brown ; the feathers margined with pale buff* orange.
The wings have the first quill feather the longest; greater and lesser wing coverts, greyish brown, edged with buff; primaries, deep brown; the first with a broad white shaft, very thick and strong; secondaries, deep brown with buff edges; tertiaries, greyish brown edged with buff. Greater and lesser
DOTTEREL.
29
under wing coverts, greyish white. The tail, of twelve feathers, and slightly wedge-shaped, is greyish brown; the centre ones scarcely tipped with dull white, the three outside ones with broader ends of white; legs and toes, dull greenish yellow; claws, dusky black.
In the female the streak over the eye and sides of the head are reddish white, with a few specks and lines of brown; forehead white, streaked with brown; crown, brownish black; the feathers edged with pale reddish brown. Neck and nape, greyish ash-colour, tinged with pale orange brown; chin and throat, reddish white, with a few specks and streaks of brown. The band on the breast is not so distinct, and greyish white; the orange brown much paler, and marbled and tinged with greyish ash-colour; and the lower part mixed with white feathers; back, brown tinged with grey; each feather being deeply edged with pale orange brown. Tail, deep brown; the two middle feathers margined near their tips with reddish white, the rest having large white tips, the outermost feather with its outer web white. Under tail coverts, reddish white.
In the young the bill is black; iris, dark brown; over the eye is a broad band of buff orange; forehead, and sides of the head, yellowish cream-colour, with small spots and streaks of greyish brown; crown and back of the head, neck on the back, and nape, dark brown, all more or less broadly edged with buff orange; neck on the sides, buff orange. Breast, grey, slightly tinged with reddish white, and marked on each side with large spots of olive green; below white, spotted here •ind there with greyish brown. Greater and lesser wing coverts, olive green, deeply edged with reddish white. Tail, olive green, the feathers margined with white, the centre ones tipped with reddish white, and the three side ones ending in a large irregular whitish spot. Legs, pale olive green; toes, light yellow on the soles.
The plate is from a drawing by the Rev. R. P. Alington.
30
RINGED DOTTEREL.
BINGED PL0VEE. SAND LABK. SAND LAYEOCK. DELL-WILLY.
|
Charadrius hiaticula , |
Pennant. |
Montagu. |
|
|
Charadrius — . . |
3 |
Hiaticula — .... |
. ? |
This is the first we arrive at of our regular ‘’long shore’ birds, and it is to be found on all or nearly all our coasts, as also by the margins of creeks, estuaries, and rivers, and even at times those of inland lakes and ponds.
It occurs in Europe — its range extending from Denmark, Lapland, Sweden, and Norway, Russia and Siberia to Prussia, Holland, France, Germany, and Italy, and so far as Greenland and Iceland to the north, and Malta to the south. Likewise in Asia, in Asia Minor, and in Japan, according to M. Temminck; and in some parts of Africa — Nubia, and the Cape of Good Hope. In America also, both north and south, about Hudson’s Bay, and in Virginia, Carolina, Jamaica, and the Brazils, and in the Sandwich Islands; so that it belongs to the four quarters of the globe.
Mr. Allis says, in his ‘Catalogue of the Birds of Yorkshire,’ read before the British Association, that specimens have been obtained near Halifax and Sheffield. I have repeatedly observed them on the sands south of Burlington. One of these birds was shot near the city of Worcester on the 8th. of March, 1853. In Dorsetshire I have known them pretty plentiful. In Cornwall they are not uncommon. Two were seen on the banks of the Isis near Oxford, in March, 1852.
In Orkney it is an exceedingly common species, and remains throughout the year. During winter they may he seen in flocks varying from a dozen to some hundreds.
RINGED DOTTEREL.
RINGED DOTTEREL.
31
It is very interesting to watch this pretty little bird chasing nimbly along the sands close to the water’s edge, avoiding the waves that may now and then wash higher up than the others, by deviating just as much as, and no more than is necessary from its course. It needs not the warning of the lesson taught by Canute to his courtiers, but follows the guidance of Nature, obedient to One, and One only, who hath ‘placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it, and though fhe waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it;’ — farther than that it turns not aside, instinctively knowing the truth of the Divine law given to the ocean, and which it must obey, ‘Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.’ Thus you may see it ‘running before the wind,’ as so well depicted by my friend, the Rev. R. P. Alington, in the figure from which the plate is taken, its light feathers blown up by the gust sweeping from behind, and hurrying by its side the bubbling foam left by the recoiling wave of the flowing or ebbing tide.
The numbers of these birds in some parts are added to in the spring and autumn by migratory bodies, respectively proceeding north and south, and these partial migrations take place, it is said by night, and at a very high elevation; I have never had opportunity of seeing it.
The Ringed Dotterel will on occasion make use of the same stratagems and manoeuvres that so many other kinds do to allure away intruders from the nest or young, uttering a twittering note of alarm and anxiety. ‘At first when leaving the nest, they skulk away from it before taking wing, which they are easily enabled to do from their inobtrusive colouring,’ ‘and if pursued will fly to a little distance, distend all its feathers, and seem to tumble over head and heels repeatedly, till it has enticed its enemy to a distance from its young, and then it flies off.’ When disturbed, they course usually in a semicircle over the sea, and, if allowed, return to the same spot or near it. They are good birds to eat, and are caught in nooses accordingly.
They associate at times with other maritime species, though not on terms of very close intimacy. They are very hardy birds, and may easily be kept in confinement. They are fond of bathing, and Meyer says, sometimes saturate themselves so that they cannot easily take wing.
32
KINGED DOTTEREL.
They fly with strength and rapidity, hut generally not far unless much alarmed, coming back to the place they had left, as the most productive probably of a supply of food. The flight is performed with moderate flappings of the wings; they also run fast, frequently stopping and glancing round. They move about in a horizontal position, with the head lowered, and the neck shortened, but when running, stretch themselves out more. Before flying, and again before settling, the wings are spread up over the back.
They feed on worms, marine and other aquatic insects and their larvse, and small Crustacea, shrimps, sandhoppers, and other such, and they continue searching for them on moonlight nights until the morning.
The note is a clear wild whistle, and they utter it when disturbed, taking short flights and then alighting and running again. If much alarmed they fly right off', coursing along over the sea.
They begin to pair early in May, but some earlier and others later in the summer.
The nest, so to call it, for there is none but some slight natural hollow amongst small gravel, or on a little hillock of sand, frequently under the shelter of some tall grass, is generally placed on a bank by the beach, just above high- water mark, but occasionally in sandy places farther inland, as much, Sir William Jardine says, as ten, or from that to fifteen or twenty miles: in some instances on the banks that line the coast, or even over them in an adjoining field. Among others,, on warrens in Norfolk and Suffolk, near Bechamwell, Elston, and Thetford, occasionally also in the Eens: great numbers appeared in those of Bottisham and Swaffham, in Cambridgeshire, the Bev. Leonard Jenyns has’ recorded, in the months of June and July, 1824, which was a remarkably wet season.
The eggs are four in number, and of a greenish grey, pale buff, or cream- colour, spotted and streaked with bluish grey and black, or blackish brown. The male and female both sit on them, and appear much attached to each other, as well as very careful of their eggs and young. In the spring the males often fight.
Male; weight, about two ounces; length, seven inches and a half to seven and three quarters; bill, black at the tip, orange yellow towards the base; iris, brown; below it is a wide black band, reaching in front to and over the bill.
RIMED DOTTEREL.
83
Forehead, white; over it a black band, deepest coloured in summer, crosses to the eyes; crown, neck on the back, and nape, greyish brown; chin and throat, white, extending backwards to the nape; breast, white, with a wide collar of intense black across its upper part, deepest in hue in summer; it is about an inch in breadth, and passing round in a narrowed circle, mingles with the colour of the back; back, greyish brown.
The wings have* the first feather the longest; greater and lesser wing coverts, greyish brown, the former tipped with white, shewing in flight; primaries, deep brownish black, with some white at their base; the outer end of each shaft, for about an inch, white, and the tips of some of the inner ones; secondaries, brown, tipped with white, forming a bar across, and the basal part of the outer ones white; tertiaries, greyish brown. Greater under wing coverts, greyish brown, with white tips to some of them; lesser under wing coverts, greyish brown. Tail, greyish brown at the base, darkening to greyish black towards the end; the two middle feathers are the longest, and only slightly marked with white at the end; the next four on each side tipped with white, the outer but one has the outer web entirely white; the outer one on each side is wholly white, with the exception of a black spot in the centre of the inner web. Upper tail coverts, greyish brown; under tail coverts, white; legs and toes, orange yellow; claws, black.
The female resembles the male, but has the black bands on the forehead and the upper part of the breast narrower, and not so deep in colour, and her whole plumage duller.
The young have the bill almost entirely black, the under one pale orange yellow; from the base to the eye is a dusky streak; the forehead has no black band over the white one, which is dull white; crown, greyish brown, without the black band, and below the back of the head is a shade of dull black; the collar on the upper part of the breast is pale dusky brown. Chin, throat, and breast, white, with a tinge of yellow, the gorget dull brown; back, greyish brown, each feather edged with yellowish brown. Greater and lesser wing coverts, greyish brown, the feathers edged and tipped with pale yellowish or whitish brown; secondaries and tertiaries, greyish brown, each feather edged with yellowish brown. The tail has the two middle pairs of feathers tipped with yellowish brown;
VOL v. D
34
RINGED DOTTEREL.
legs and toes, pale dull yellow. This species is subject to a double moult.
A curious instance of malformation in this species is given in "The Naturalist,’ vol. ii, page 132, by Mr. Clement Jackson, of East Looe, namely, an additional toe springing from the inside of the right leg, attached to the knee as far as the second joint: no other peculiarity existed, and the bird was very fat. An illustration is given with the account.
LITTLE RINGED DOTTEREL.
35
LITTLE RINGED DOTTEREL.
LITTLE BING DOTTEELL. LITTLE BINGED PLQYEE,
Charadrius minor , Jenyns. Gotjld.
Charadrius . . ? Minor — Lesser.
On the continent this bird occurs commonly in various parts - — Germany, France, Italy, and Sweden. It has also been found in Asia, in Persia, in Japan, and the Philippine Islands; as also, Meyer says, in Africa, in Nubia and Abyssinia.
But one specimen of this species, taken at Shoreham, in Sussex, had for some time occurred in this country, but as it was a very young bird, it had no doubt been hatched here by a parent bird of the same kind. Its ‘little life’ was at once cut short in the land of its birth — £0 patria dolce; ingrata patria.’ Another was subsequently obtained from Scilly, in September, 1851, by J. B. Ellman, Esq., of Lewes. In Yorkshire one, a male, was shot in a ploughed field near Whixley, an inland place in the West-Riding, by Mr. James Sty an, on the 30th. of July, 1850.
It occasionally frequents the tide-way of the sea beach, but for the most part gives a preference to sand-banks, and islands in rivers, as also at times sandy places at some little distance from them.
These birds migrate in the spring and autumn, about March, or rather April, and August or September. They travel in small parties of from five to ten, and invariably during the night. They are sociable in their habits, several broods being brought out in the same locality, and they also intermingle with flocks of other birds. They are not shy, and may be approached pretty nearly. They are easily kept in confine¬ ment for a certain time, and become very tame and amusing.
36
LITTLE RINGED DOTTEREL.
They feed on small worms, flies, beetles, and small aquatic and other insects in their various stages, and this chiefly in the mornings and evenings, and part of the night, wading in search of them in the shallows. They roost during the day, either standing by the water side or crouching down.
The note is a plaintive whistle, and they frequently utter it in the spring: as they keep flying; about. Meyer expresses it by ‘dut,’ ‘dit,’ or ‘dea.’
The sand is its nest.
The eggs are of a pale yellowish stone-colour, with numerous small spots of bluish ash, reddish brown, and dark brown. The young are hatched in sixteen or seventeen days, and at once begin to run about, hiding themselves instinctively with much cleverness if endangered.
Male; length, not quite seven inches; bill, slender and black; iris, brown; the eyelids, dark yellowish; forehead, white, over it a black patch as far as the eye; crown, back of the head, and neck on the back, greyish brown; nape, white; chin and throat, white, extending from the latter round the nape; breast, white, with a patch of black on its upper part; back, ash-colour or greyish brown.
The wings have the first quill feather the longest, the second nearly as long; greater and lesser wing coverts, greyish brown ; primaries and secondaries, dusky brown, edged with white, and the first quill feather with a broad white shaft; tertiaries, greyish brown. Tail, greyish brown at the base, darker towards the end; the five outer feathers white on the ends, each gradually more so; the outer feather on each side white, with a large blackish spot on the inner web; upper tail coverts, greyish brown; under tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, slender, pale yellowish red; claws, black.
The female has the bands of white and black on the forehead narrower and less distinctly defined than in the male. The feathers of the back and wing coverts have buff-coloured margins ; legs, pale reddish yellow; the joints grey.
The young are without the decided black markings; the white also is less pure.
37
KENTISH DOTTEREL.
KENTISH PLOYEK.
Latham. Jardine. Hasselquist.
Meyer.
Bechstein.
Charadrius . ? Cantianus — Kentish.
Db, Latham was the first to describe this bird as a British one.
In Europe it is plentiful in Germany and Holland, and is found in France, Italy, and along the shores of the Mediterra¬ nean generally, sometimes also as far north as Sweden. It is likewise an African species, occurring in Egypt and Nubia; and also, it is said, an Asiatic, in Tartary, India, the islands of the Indian Ocean — Java, and others.
Some were killed near Sandwich, in Kent, in 1787 and 1791; several have been more recently procured there, at Pegwell Bay, and on the Plats, and others towards Sandhurst Castle and Deal. It is likewise numerous at Lydd, in Romney Marsh, and occurs also in Sussex, at Selsey, Rye, and Hastings. In Norfolk it is met with but rarely — has occurred near Yarmouth; also in Suffolk. In Cornwall one was captured the 17th. of April, 1852, near Penzance; it was in company with Sanderlings.
These birds arrive in April or May, and depart in August, to return again, Tarring accidents,’ the following year.
They frequent the sea-coast, rarely occurring on the banks of rivers. If very high tides compel them, they retire ‘pro tempore’ into the adjoining fields, or sometimes even farther inland. If danger approaches while the bird is on the nest, the owner immediately runs away from it, so as to deceive, as to its situation, if she can. So also when the young are
Charadrius Cantianus ,
“ Alexandrinus ,
“ albifrons ,
“ littoralis,
38 KENTISH DOTTEREL.
hatched, which they are in seventeen days, when they at once begin to run about, the parents become very uneasy, and flutter about an intruder with notes of alarm.
They associate with the Ringed Dotterels, but the flocks keep distinct in flight.
They can run very fast, and do so if approached. They fly also very quickly. ‘Before taking flight it opens its wings wide above its back, and generally skims the surface of the water when it does not intend to leave the neighbourhood; on alighting it skims to a short distance, and on touching the ground with its feet it opens its wings again wide, then runs a short space, and looks round before it begins its vocation of feeding.’
Small marine insects, worms, and Crustacea, form the staple of their food.
Meyer gives the words ‘tirr, tirr,’ ‘pitt, pitt,’ and ‘pwee, pwee/ as resemblances of its note.
The nest is placed on the shingle, or rather is actual shingle itself, or fine sand, any slight depression serving as a receptacle for the eggs; a few blades of grass or withered weeds may perchance afford a scanty lining. The eggs are four in number, Mr. Gould, it is said erroneously, says five; they are of a yellowish colour, finely and much marked all over, but chiefly at and about the centre and base, with dark blackish brown. The bird rarely sits on the eggs during the day.
Male; weight, rather over one ounce and a half; length, not quite seven inches; bill, black; from its base, to and beyond the eye, is a black streak; iris, brown; the eyelids white. Forehead, white, extending broadly over the eye and a little beyond it, over the white is a patch of black; head on the sides, white; crown and back of the head, rich reddish or yellowish brown, with a tinge of grey, the former colour prevailing at the edges; neck on the sides, and nape, white; chin and throat, white. Breast, white, "excepting a patch of black on each side of its upper part ; back, light greyish brown.
The wings have the first feather the longest; the shafts the darkest coloured; greater wing coverts, light greyish brown tipped with white; lesser wing coverts, light greyish brown; primaries, brownish black; the shafts white, and the last with light edges; secondaries, brownish black, tipped with white, and white at the base; tertiaries, light greyish brown; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. The tail, greyish brown, has the two middle feathers the longest, and dusky
KENTISH DOTTEKEL.
39
black at the end, the two outer ones on each side white. Selby says that the four centre feathers are brown, and the three outer ones yellowish white. Probably they vary with age.. Upper tail coverts, light greyish brown; under tail coverts, white; legs, above the knee, black, below it, and the toes, bluish grey; claws, black.
The female has the head and neck with less of the black, and not so clear in colour.
The young have no black marks over the white of the forehead, nor on the sides of the breast, but their place is indicated by pale brown; the space between the bill and the eye, and the band, yellowish brown; eyebrow, white. Forehead, white; crown, neck on the back, and nape, pale ash-colour or yellowish brown. The breast has the patch light dusky brown, itself white; back and greater and lesser wing coverts, pale ash-coloured brown; legs, toes, and claws, bluish black.
40
GREY PLOVER.
GEEY SAHDPXPEK.
Sqnatarola cinerea , VanelLus griseus,
m elan ogaster , Tringa squutarola ,
Fleming. Selby. Gould. Jenyns.
Temminck.
Pennant. Montagu.
Sqnatarola — . ? Cinerea — Ash-coloured.
This Plover is found in the north and north-east of Russia and Siberia; plentiful in Holland, and .also in the Ferroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Sweden, Jutland, Holstein; in Pomerania, while shifting its quarters, and then in France, Italy, Spain, Sardinia, and the Grecian Archipelago. It occurs in the corresponding part of North America — in the Fur countries and to the extreme north, and so far south as Pennsylvania. Likewise in Africa — in Egypt; and in Asia, M. Temminek says, in Japan, Sunda, and New Guinea; and Dr. Horsfield, in Java. It is observed, however, that these birds, as also others obtained from the south of Africa, do not put on the characteristic summer dress, so that I can hardly think that they can be of the same species, though doubtless closely allied.
It occurs in England from the north to the south.
In Yorkshire, it is met with in the winter, on the coast, and also inland, occasionally, near Sheffield, Halifax, Barnsley, and other places. A pair were seen by the Messrs. Tuke, on Hambleton, in the month of June, which no doubt had a nest near, for they would not leave the place, though watched for several hours. They are met with on the Wolds in the autumn. In Norfolk they are not uncommon in the same
GREY PLOVER.
GREY PLOYER.
41
season, and in winter, arriving rather later than the Grolden Plover, some tarrying till the latter end of May. In Cornwall, near Falmouth, they are rare.
In Scotland it is also met with. The neighbourhood of Perth is one locality; and Sir William Jardine shot a pair on the banks of one of the lochs at Lochmaben, and has seen others frequently on the Solway — a very likely place for such, species, as those who remember the achievements of Herries, as chronicled in ‘Red-gauntlet,’ will he aware.
In Orkney a pair were seen at Ellsness, in September, 1822. One was killed by Mr. Strang, in January 1834, and another on the 27th. of February, 1844. A few pairs are observed almost every winter.
It is found likewise in Ireland in the winter months.
, It frequents the low flats of the sea-shore, and is but seldom seen inland, except during migration: the former they leave when the tide comes up, for the adjoining marshy lands.
Some of these birds remain with us throughout the year, but the chief part move southwards for the winter, towards, and at which season, they are seen most usually with us, and northwards for the summer; the former in the months of August, September, October, and November. They migrate during the night, when, Meyer says, they travel ‘at a great height in companies, forming two lines, headed by one bird; the lines extending to the right and left.’
They seem to do well in confinement, soon becoming tame and living a long time. They assemble in some places in flocks of several hundreds, but usually in small parties, and are sociable both among themselves and with other species, unanimously keeping together in flight. They are generally very shy, and except when ‘caught napping,’ or when young, are very difficult to approach; on their first arrival, however, whether it may be that they are fatigued after their long journey, or have not as yet had cause for alarm, they appear not to be so. They are sold in the markets for the table. ‘The general appearance of this species is peculiar to itself; it walks about on the ground slowly and with grace, and stops every now and then to pick up its food; it carries its body in a horizontal position, on straight legs, and its heed very close to its body, consequently increasing the thick appearance of the head.”
They are said to he very good eating, and are sold accordingly in the London and other markets.
42
GREY PLOVER.
They feed morning and evening, and roost during the daytime, either standing or crouching down. Their food consists of marine insects, beetles, caterpillars, and worms, the smaller shell-fish, and the berries of the whortle-berry and the black-berried heath.
The note Meyer likens to the word ‘tlewee,’ or ‘gleewee.’
They fly low, and very quickly, and have a habit of opening the wings before starting, which in summer shews the jet black breast to advantage.
The eggs are dark green, spotted irregularly with different shades of brown; the spots crowded and confluent round the obtuse end.
Male; weight, about seven ounces; length, eleven inches and a half, or over; bill, black; iris, very dark brown; over the eye is a white streak. Forehead, white or grey, in winter „ white spotted with brown and grey; sides of the head, white, with a few dusky lines; crown and neck on the back, grey, the former less, the latter more, spotted with dusky, the shafts black; nape, brown, black, and white; in the winter all dusky with grey edges and tips to the feathers. Chin, throat, neck in front, and breast, black in summer; the latter white on the sides, but all in winter are spotted with brown and grey, or yellowish white, the latter colours forming angular marks on the feathers; the breast below, white, in winter dull white. The back has the feathers black, widely tipped with greyish white or white; in winter dusky, with grey edges and tips to the feathers.
The wings, about two feet in expanse, have the first quill feather not quite half an inch longer than the second, and the longest in the wing; greater andTesser wing coverts, black, all barred on the tips with white or greyish white; primaries, dusky, the shafts white. Montagu adds, The inner webs more or less white, as well as the shafts; from the fifth some white begins to appear on the outer web down the shaft, which increases in the next, and from the seventh to the tenth the whole of the outer web is white except on the point.’ Secondaries, dusky; tertiaries, dusky, barred with white, the latter on the tips of the feathers. Greater and lesser under wing coverts, white; tail, white, barred with numerous greyish black bars; in winter white, barred with brown, and tipped with yellowish brown; upper tail coverts, black and white, the latter on the tips, white in winter; under tail coverts, white; legs, toes, the hinder one of which is very small, only
GREY PLOYER.
43
rudimentary, and lying close to the leg, and claws, greyish black.
‘In spring the black feathers begin to appear on the breast, and the birds may he observed in various degrees of change from white, with only a few black feathers, to entire and perfect black. The breeding plumage is generally complete by the end of May.’
‘Young birds of the year, in autumn are darker than old birds in winter, having a larger proportion of black above and grey below.’ — Yarrell.
The full summer plumage is acquired the latter end of May.
Sir William Jardine says ‘Two specimens shot a few years since, by the side of one of the Lochmaben lochs, in the month of August, had the ground colour of the upper parts very dark, and the edging and angular spotting of the feathers nearly of the tint of sienna yellow, so as to cause them to appear, when first taken up, to be the Golden Plover; the breast also had the dark parts of the feathers much broader, and the whole tinted over with yellowish wood brown. These were considered to be young birds arrived from migration.’
44
PEEWIT.
PE-WIT. TE-WIT. LAPWING. COMMON LAPWING. CRESTED LAPWING. GREEN LAPWING. GREEN PLOYER. LAPWING SANDPIPER. FRENCH PIGEON.
Vanellus crisiatus , Fleming. Selby.
Tringa vanellus , Pennant. Montagu.
Vanellus — Quaere from Vannus — A fan, from the farming ' motion of the wings? Cnstatus— Crested.
This very beautiful bird seems to be spread over the whole of the European continent, from Ireland and the Ferroe Isles, Russia, Siberia, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, to Italy, Prussia, Germany, Spain, Holland, Greece, France, and Sardinia. It is also found in Africa, — in Egypt; and in Asia — in China, Japan, and Persia, and thence to the Black and Caspian Seas, the Lake Baikal and Astrakhan.
It occurs throughout the whole of this country, but least plentifully in the midland and south-western parts.
In Cornwall they are not uncommon near Swanpool and Gwyllyn Vase, but a flock of seventeen seen near Pennance, January 17th., 1850, was considered an unusual number.
They frequent open places, heaths, commons, marshy grounds, the sides of drains, fallow and other fields, especially those which have not been drained. Hitherto the low districts of Essex, Kent, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Lincolnshire, have furnished the largest supplies of their eggs, for the London market; but even the last-named county, once so proverbial for watery wastes, is now fast becoming altogether drained, and its agriculture has long since been second to none, so that in time different tenants will, beyond doubt, occupy the soil to the exclusion of others of a different class.
PEEWIT.
PEEWIT.
45
In Orkney they appear in great abundance in March, and remain until the end of October, at which time the greater number migrate southwards. A few however remain stationary throughout the year. They abound also in the Shetland Isles. In Ireland they are common and indigenous.
They collect into large flocks in the autumn, the component parts thereof resolving themselves into their respective individualities in the spring.
Lapwings can hardly be called migratory birds, as some are to be seen nearly throughout the year, but at the end of February or the beginning of March they arrive, first in small and then in greater numbers, on the downs and other open places, frequenting the same haunts annually. They then pair and separate, and so spread themselves over the face of the country. In November, or later if the weather has been till then open, they retire southwards. They are extremely good birds to eat in the autumn and winter, but indifferent in the summer.
They are often kept in gardens, where they are very serviceable in devouring insects, and at the same time ornamental. One has been known to have lived in this half- domesticated state for fourteen years. Bewick gives an account of one thus kept by the Rev. J. Carlyle, vicar of Newcastle; when ‘winter deprived it of its usual supply, necessity soon compelled it to draw nearer the house, by which it gradually became familiarized to occasional interruptions from the family. At length a servant, when she had occasion to go into the back kitchen with a light, observed that the Lapwing always uttered his cry, ‘pee-wit,’ to obtain admittance. He soon grew more familiar; as the winter advanced he approached as far as the kitchen, but with much caution, as that part of the house was generally inhabited by a dog and a cat, whose friendship the Lapwing at length conciliated so entirely, that it was his regular custom to resort to the fireside as soon as it grew dark, and spend the evening and night with his two associates, sitting close by them, and partaking of the comforts of a warm fireside. As soon as spring appeared he left off coming to the house, and betook himself to the garden; but on the approach of winter, he had recourse to his old shelter and his old friends, who had received him very cordially. Security was productive of insolence; what was obtained with caution was afterwards taken without reserve; he frequently amused himself with washing in the bowl which was set for
46
PEEWIT.
the dog to drink out of, and while he was thus employed he shewed marks of the greatest indignation if either of his companions presumed to interrupt him.’ They are restless, watchful, and shy birds, and rarely approach houses, or even the vicinity of trees, preferring wide and open places. Even when roosting in the middle of the day, some sentinels are on the look out to give timely notice to the flock of any approaching danger.
‘The Lapwing,’ says Mr. Conway, will fly round and round, tumbling and tossing in the air, and at the same time making the country resound with the echoes of its endless ‘pee- wit!’ and thus lead the intruder farther and farther from its nest.’ Its gyrations on these occasions are such as must strike the most inattentive passer-by, and the thoughtful mind will watch them with pleasing admiration. It is the male bird that is most clamorous on these occasions; the female on being disturbed runs first from the eggs or young, and then flies a little way, near the ground and in silence.
The flight of the Lapwing is indicated by this, one of its vernacular names derived from it, a rather slow flapping of the wings. It seems at one and the same time both laboured and light, and is seen to advantage when the bird is chasing some prowling crow who has come too near. In dashing and whirling about in the air, when you by chance approach the spot where its young or eggs are located, it frequently makes a rushing sound with its wings, which really at times bears a striking resemblance to the puffing of the engine of a railway-train, heard at some distance, or against the wind. Before taking wing it stretches the head out, and previous to alighting skims along the ground.
In Scotland it is said to be considered as an unlucky bird, owing to its having formerly been the means, by hovering about the fleeing Covenanters who chanced to disturb it, of guiding their pursuers to them. On the other hand, it is related that the founder of the family of Tyrwhitt of Lin¬ colnshire, was saved by his followers being thus directed to him where he lay wounded after a skirmish. ‘It runs swiftly, in a horizontal position, with the head downwards; during which it has a singular habit of stopping suddenly at intervals, and putting its bill to the ground, but without picking up anything, apparently to bring its body, as it were, to a proper equilibrium.’ On first alighting, the wings are stretched up on each side before being settled in their attitude of rest.
PEEWIT.
47
It is a fine sight to see a large flock of these birds wheeling about, and as they turn their dark or their light sides towards you, now gleaming and glancing in the setting sun, and now shadowing into the blackness of the dense moving mass. In the spring season ‘their flight, particularly that of the male birds, is very peculiar, being subject to a variety of evolutions, in the course of which they frequently dart perpendicularly upwards to a considerable height, then throwing a summerset, as it would seem, in the air, suddenly descend almost to the ground, along which they course with many turnings and great velocity, till the same manoeuvre is repeated.’ I have been looking at them the day of writing this, and though I had so often watched them before, did so again with increased curiosity.
They feed on worms, slugs, caterpillars, and insects, and this chiefly during twilight or clear nights. Bishop Stanley says that one which a friend of his had, used to stand on one leg and beat the ground regularly with the other, in order to frighten the worms out of their holes. I should have thought that it would have had a contrary effect, but his Lordship gives the following as the theory on the subject: — ‘Their great enemy being the mole, no sooner do they perceive a vibration or shaking motion in the earth, than they make the best of their way to the surface, and thus fall into a greater and more certain peril.’ Dr. Latham says the same.
The well-known note of the Peewit, from whence it derives its name, composed namely of these two syllables, the latter uttered ‘crescendo,’ ‘pe-wit, pewit, pe-wit,’ ‘pees- wit, pees-wit,’ or ‘pees-weep, pees-weep,’ is one that cannot fail to attract the ear, whether heard for the first or the thousandth time. The French, in like manner, call the bird Dixhuit. It has also a note of alarm or ‘quasi’ alarm, which after listening to to-day, I can best describe as a sort of whining sound.
The young are often hatched as soon as April, and begin to run about almost immediately after being hatched. Mr. D. M. Falconer relates, in ‘The Naturalist,’ vol. ii, p.p. 33-34, a curious instance of the parent bird when disturbed from the nest, running off with an egg under her wing, a distance of two hundred yards.
The nest is that which ‘Mother Earth’ supplies by a small and slight depression in the soil, with the addition sometimes of a few bits of grass, heath, or rushes, and this, perhaps,
48
PEEWIT.
answering to the geographical description of an island, ‘entirely surrounded by water,’ on the marshy ground. To avoid, however, the evils attendant on this contingency, a mole-hill or other slight eminence is often chosen for a cradle. The young are not capable of flying till nearly full-grown.
The eggs, which are, like those of most if not of all small birds, very delicate eating, and sold in immense numbers for the purpose, are four in number; and so disposed in their narrow bed as to take up the smallest amount of room, the narrow ends pointed inwards, like the radii of a circle, to ‘one common centre.’ They vary to an extraordinary degree, though generally very much alike; some are blotted nearly all over with deep shades of brown. A fine series will be found described in my ‘Natural History of the Nests and Eggs of British Birds.’ In general they are of a deep green colour, blotted and irregularly marked with brownish black. They are wide at one end and taper at the other, as is the case with the birds of this class. They are hatched in fifteen or sixteen days.
Male; weight, between seven and eight ounces; length, a little over a foot; bill, black; from it and proceeding under the eye is a streak of black, bent downwards; the region about the eyes is white; iris, dark brown. Forehead, crown, and back of the head, black glossed with green, ending in a crest of six or seven narrow long black feathers, with a slight upward curve, capable of being raised nearly straight up or depressed at pleasure: they are as much as three inches long or even more. Head on the sides, neck on the back and sides, white, sometimes speckled with black and brown; nape, olive brown; chin, throat, neck in front, and breast on its upper part, black glossed with green, on its lower, white; the chin and throat white in winter. Back above, olive green, glossed with copper-colour and purple; in winter it has less of the gloss and purple, and the feathers are margined with reddish white; on its lower part it is ended by a narrow band of chesnut.
The wings, very much rounded, have the first feather shorter than the fourth, but longer than the fifth, the second and third equal in length, and the longest in the wing; greater and lesser wing coverts, olive green, glossed with green, copper- colour, and purple; primaries, black, but the first three or four greyish white at the end; secondaries, black over the ends, at the base white; tertiaries, green, glossed with green, copper-
PEEWIT.
49
colour, and purple. The tail, rather short, is white on the inner part, rich black on the outer, but the white prevailing more over the two or three outside feathers, the extreme one almost entirely white, having only a greyish black spot near the tip of the outer web; the tail has the tip narrowly white. Upper tail coverts, pale reddish chesnut; under tail coverts, paler fawn-colour. Legs and toes, dull orange purple brown; claws, black.
The female generally resembles the male, but the crest is shorter — not much more than half the length, and she is somewhat duller in tint. The mark between the bill and the eve, and the crown, deep brown; chin and throat, white. The back in winter has the feathers narrowly tipped with yellowish white.
The young, when first hatched, are covered with a dark yellowish down with a mixture of brown, and afterwards have the feathers on the upper parts edged with buff; when fledged and in the first year, the crest is very short, the streak below the eye dusky, the whole plumage edged with yellowish brown. Legs and toes, grey with a pink tinge.
Varieties have occurred white, cream-coloured, and dun- eoloured.
VOL. V.
E
50
TURNSTONE.
COMMON TfJENSTONE. HEBE ID AL SANDPIPEE.
|
Strepsilas interpres, |
Fleming. |
Selby. |
|
Tringa interpret, |
Linnaeus. |
|
|
“ morinella , |
Linnaeus. |
|
|
A. renaria cinerea , |
Brisson. |
|
|
Morinellus marinus , |
Eay. |
|
|
Strepsilas. Strepho— |
-To turn. Laas—A stone. |
Interpres — - |
|
An interpreter. |
I conjecture from the bird’s |
habit of |
careful investigation, and turning over, as a translator does in the case of the words of a book.
The geographical range of this species is wide, extending to all the four great divisions of the globe. On the Euro¬ pean continent it is plentiful in Iceland, the Ferroe Islands, Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, Greenland and Nova Zembla; and with us in Shetland, where it breeds, staying throughout the year. It has also been observed at Madeira, and in Africa — in Senegal, it is said, and several other parts; so far south as the Cape of Good Hope. In Asia, it is in¬ cluded among the birds of Japan, and has been procured from Sunda, the Molucca Islands, New Guinea, and in India, near Madras; as also from New Holland. Selby says, that the species from the American continent is in every respect similar to our own, and Sir William Jardine has received the young from the West Indies, from the Island of Tobago.
In North America, it occurs in various parts even of the extreme north, on the shores of the Arctic Sea, and so also in the opposite direction, even to the bleak and barren Straits of Magellan, the passage through which can never, it seems at least to me, be dissociated from the recollection of ‘Lord
/
TUENSTOIS’E.
51
Anson’s voyage round the world,’ a remnant of whose famous ship the ‘Centurion,’ it occurs to me as I write, to mention, I have hung against my wall among other relics, as being also one of the first of H.M.S. that my father went to sea in; — ‘ignoscas recordationis benevolens lector.’
In Yorkshire I have seen them on Filey Brigg, that is, Bridge, the base of an ancient cliff, formerly extant, but long since washed into the sea, and which, at low water, is dry for a considerable distance. The species has also been known at the mouth of the Tees, and on other parts of the coast, preferring rocky places. Littoral birds, they frequent the sea¬ shore, but are at times met with on the banks of the larger rivers and lakes.
The Bev. B. P. Alington has met with it, though but rarely, on the Lincolnshire side of the Humber. In Norfolk it is found, but not in large numbers, arriving in autumn, and retiring again in spring, in the former in August, and in the latter it has been observed so late as the 26th. of May. In Cornwall, near Falmouth, it is rare. It occurs also in Wales.
This is another of our winter visitants, arriving the end of August, and departing in March, April, or May; in the one case in anticipation of the production of a family, and in the other after that event. The young, when full grown, quit, in most localities, the place of their birth, and, in company with their parents, move southwards along the coast. These, for the most part, compose the small flocks of Turnstones that are seen.
They are birds of sociable habits, both among themselves, and towards different kinds, but are shy, otherwise, of approach. They may, however, easily be tamed, and kept in confinement: one has been known to eat out of the hand. They appear to be fond of bathing. The parents exhibit great attachment to their young, but, as is the case with another species, their too great fondness is sometimes the ruin of their offspring, their cries of distress at the approach of an intruder directing- attention to them. The like cause produces great pugnacity in them towards other larger sea-fowl; and especially towards the predatory Gulls, who have a natural inclination for the eggs of other kinds.
A curious circumstance is mentioned in the ‘Zoologist,’ page 2652, by Mr. James C. Garth, of one of these birds having been shot out of a flock of pigeons, and also quite inland, namely, near Knaresborough, in the West-Biding, in
52
TURNSTONE.
October, 1849; it was a young one. The following much more extraordinary occurrence is narrated by Mr. Edward, in the same magazine, pages 3077-8-9: —
‘Passing along the sea-shore on the West of Banff, I observed on the sands, at a considerable distance before me, two birds beside a large-looking object. Knowing by their appearance that they did not belong to the species which are usually met with in this quarter, I left the beach, and proceeded along the adjoining links, an eminence of shingle intervening, until I concluded that I was about opposite to the spot where the objects of my search were employed. Stooping down with my gun upon my back, prepared for action, I managed to crawl through the bents and across the shingle for a considerable way, when I at length came in sight of two little workers, who were busily endeavouring to turn over a dead fish, which was fully six times their size. I immediately recognised them as Turnstones. Not wishing to disturb them, anxious at the same time to witness their operations, and observing that a few paces nearer them there was a deep hollow among the shingle, I contrived to creep into it unobserved.
I was now distant from them but about ten yards; and had a distinct and unobserved view of all their movements. In these there was evinced that extraordinary degree of sagacity and perseverance, which comes under the notice only of those who watch the habits of the lower creation with patience and assiduity; and which, when fully and accurately related, are not unfrequently discredited by individuals, who, although fond of Natural History, seem inclined to believe that anything in regard to animals must necessarily be false, or at least the result of ignorance; unless it has been re¬ corded in books which are considered as of authority on the subject. But to return: having got fairly settled down in my pebbly observatory, I turned my undivided attention to the birds before me. They were boldly pushing at the fish with their bills, and then with their breasts: their endeavours, however, were in vain — the object remained immoveable. On this they both went round to the opposite side, and began to scrape away the sand from close beneath the fish. After removing a considerable quantity, they again came back to the spot which they had left, and went once more to work with their bills and breasts, but with as little apparent success as formerly. Nothing daunted, however, they ran
TUENSTONE.
53
round a second time to the other side, and recommenced their trenching operations, with a seeming determination not to he baffled in their object, which evidently was to undermine the dead animal before them, in order that it might be the more easily overturned.
While they were thus employed, and after they had laboured in this manner, at both sides alternately, for nearly half an hour, they were joined by another of their own species, which came flying with rapidity from the neighbouring rocks. Its timely arrival was hailed with evident signs of joy. I was led to this conclusion from the gestures which they exhibited, and from a low but pleasant murmuring noise to which they gave utterance as soon as the new comer made his appearance; of their feelings he seemed to be per¬ fectly aware, and he made his reply to them in a similar strain. Their mutual congratulations being over, they all three fell to work, and after labouring vigorously for a few minutes in removing the sand, they came round to the other side, and putting their breasts simultaneously to the fish, they succeeded in raising it some inches from the sand, but were unable to turn it over: it went down again to its sandy bed, to the manifest disappointment of the three. Resting, however, for a space, and without moving from their respective positions, which were a little apart the one from the other, they resolved, it appears, to give the matter another trial. Lowering themselves with their breasts close to the sand, they managed to push their bills underneath the fish, which they made to rise to about the same height as before; afterwards, withdrawing their bills, but without losing the advantage they had gained, they applied their breasts to the object. This they did with such force, and to such purpose, that at length it went over, and rolled several yards down a slight declivity. It was followed to some distance by the birds themselves, before they could recover their bearing. They returned eagerly to the spot from whence they had dislodged the obstacle which had so long opposed them; and they gave unmistaken proof, by their rapid and continued movements, that they were enjoying an ample repast as the reward of their industrious and praiseworthy labour.
I was so pleased and even delighted with the sagacity and perseverance which they had shown, that I should have considered myself as guilty of a crime had I endeavoured
54
TURNSTONE.
on the occasion to take away life from these interesting beings at the very moment when they were exercising, in a manner so happy for themselves, the wonderful instincts implanted in them by their great and ever merciful Creator. When they appeared to have done and to be satisfied, I arose from my place of concealment. On examining the fish, I found it to be a specimen of the common cod; it was nearly three feet and a half long, and it had been embedded in the sand to about the depth of two inches.’
Meyer observes, ‘The general appearance of the Turnstone is very handsome, owing as much to its figure as to its gay apparel; its motions on the ground are graceful and dexterous; it runs much like the Lapwing, every now and then stopping short to rest or pick up food, especially when it has reached any elevation, either large or small; it is able to run very fast, and does so when pursued before it takes wing. Its flight is elegant and quick, performed generally with half-extended wings that are considerably curved; its evolutions are very dexterous, skimming either close over the water or ground, and rising high in the air it seems to depart, when, on a sudden, it returns again to the spot.’
Their food consists of marine insects and their larvse, beetles, and small Crustacea, and these are obtained either among the sea-weed or the rocks left dry at low water, by turning over stones on the beach with the beak — whence the name of the bird. During the time of high water, too, they resort to the lands that border on the shore, and there pick about in search of beetles, worms, and other such.
The note, uttered frequently when flying, is a clear twittering or whistling cry.
The time of breeding is about the middle of June.
They lay their eggs on sandy and rocky coasts, both where a stunted vegetation obtains, and where sterility alone is the characteristic of the scene. They appear to have no tie to any previously-tenanted situation, but choose a new summer residence, like other tribes, if so it suit them, year after year. The nest is sometimes placed under the shelter of a stone, rock, plant, or other break in the surface, and at other times on the mere rock, sand, or shingle. It is but some trifling hollow, natural or scraped out for the purpose, lined, perhaps, with a few dry blades of grass, or leaves.
The eggs, four in number, vary much in colour and markings, some being of a green olive ground, and others of a brown
TURNSTONE.
55
olive colour; some much and others only a little spotted, principally about the obtuse end, with dark grey, olive brown, and black, or reddish brown of two shades. They are cleverly concealed.
The bird has an elegant piebald appearance, but in winter \the colours are more dull. They vary very much in plumage according to age and the season of the year, intermediate shades occurring in each gradation of change. In the spring they are very beautiful, but in August begin to lose their brilliancy. Male; weight, rather more than four ounces; length, nine inches and a little over; bill, thick at the base, black, strong, and turned a little upwards. The upper mandible is rather longer that the lower one. Iris, dark brown; below it is a black patch, which curves upwards to the base of the lower bill, encircling a white spot at the base of the upper one; backwards it goes downwards to meet another which originates at the base of the lower bill; behind the eye is a small black streak or mark ; over the eye is white. Forehead, black, reaching to the eye on each side in the line aforesaid; crown, white, with black feather shafts; neck on the back, white, on the sides rich black; nape, white; chin, white. Throat, rich black, from which a black collar extends backwards to the back of the neck, where that from each side meets. Breast above, rich black, partly separated from the black of the throat by a white patch or spot, below white; back above, black, intermixed with red rust-coloured feathering, forming irregular rows; below white, with a bar of black over the tail coverts.
The wings have the first quill feather a little longer than the second, and the longest; underneath they are white; the axillary plume white; greater wing coverts, black, edged with red or dark brown orange, and tipped with white, but the whole plumage varies much with the season of the year. In like manner the lesser wing coverts are dusky and dark red, the edges pale; primaries, greyish black, the shafts white at the base; secondaries with broad white tips, forming a distinct bar across the wings; tertiaries, long, and nearly black, tipped and spotted with red, or dark brownish orange. Tail, at the base, white, the remainder greyish black, tipped with white, with the exception of the two middle feathers; the outer feather is white; upper tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, rich orange red; claws, black, The hind toe articulated on the inner surface of the tarsus, and directed inwards towards
56
TUEjK'STOK'E.
the other leg, not backwards as in most other birds.5 The three front toes are connected at their base by a short membrane.
The female closely resembles the male, but the colours are not so distinct or bright, and the white on the head and neck is less pure.
‘In young birds of the year the whole of the plumage of * the upper surface of the body, and round the throat in front, is dull brownish black; the feathers of the body edged with yellowish white; those of the wing coverts and tertials edged with reddish buff colour; the chin, breast, and under tail coverts, white; the legs and toes, pale orange.5
1 J ! • ■' • (
SANDERLING.
57
SANDERLING.
CTTBWILLET. TOWILLT.
Arenaria calidris,
“ vulgaris ,
Calidris arenaria , Charadrius calidris , “ rubidus.
Gould.
Stephens.
Temminck. Jenyns. Pennant.
Gmelin.
Arenaria. Arena — Sand- — sea -shore. Calidris —
This is a bird of very pleasing appearance, and tolerably well known on most of the sandy shores of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as at times met with by the side of inland waters.
It appears in Iceland, Greenland, Siberia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and other parts of the north of our continent, as well as in. the south, in France, Germany, Italy, and Holland; also in Labrador, and other arctic regions of America, and in the North Georgian Islands. It goes, on the other hand, as far south as Mexico and the Brazils, and is met with likewise in northern Africa, and in Asia on the shores of the Black Sea, and the lakes and rivers of Persia, and in Japan, it is said, and in Sunda and New Guinea.
The Sanderling is not very unfrequent on the English shores, throughout the island; seventeen were shot in one day, October 12th., 1846, in some stormy weather, in the neighbourhood of Brighton, but not one specimen, says Mr. Thomas Thorncroft, writing to me on the 29th. of May, 1850, has occurred there since. In Yorkshire they have been met at the mouth of the Tees; also near Burlington, and along the coast, generally in the autumn. In Cornwall, near Falmouth, they are uncommon. In Norfolk they occur.
58
SANDERLLTO.
but only in limited numbers; most are seen in the spring and autumn. It has been noticed as late as the last week in May.
In Scotland it is also known. Charles St. John, Esq. records it as occurring in Sutherlandshire; Sir William Jardine on the banks of the Solway Firth; and the late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, in Ireland.
This species occasionally visits Orkney during winter, or early in spring. It has been observed at Scapa, at Orphir, and in Hoy.
It breeds in the north, but some have been met with here in the summer season, as, for instance, in the Mull of Cantyre on the 2nd. of June. It migrates in April, and in August or September, and is related to do so in the night, and principally along the sea-shores, or across the sea itself. Possibly those which are met with here in the former of the two latter months, as well as others, may have been with us, in some part of the island, all the year.
They go in small flocks, and also consort, not unusually, with the Dunlin, as also occasionally with the smaller of the Plovers, but this seemingly when their own numbers are few, keeping with them on the ground, and accompanying them in their flights. They sometimes however assemble in flocks of several hundred individuals, and then their own company sufflces them. If forced by any sudden alarm to separate, they re-unite again as speedily as they can. They are very sociable and friendly birds, gentle and pleasing, and are easily kept in confinement; neither in their wild state are they at all shy, but quietly permit a near approach. They are very active and busy in their motions, running about much, with ease and swiftness, over the same ground, in search of food. They roost frequently in a sitting position.
The flight of the Sanderling is both graceful and strong, and when the bird moves from place to place it follows the course of the shore, a little above the surface of the water. ‘When it alights it sails a short distance, and then flutters a little before touching the ground in order to break its descent.’
They move about, when feeding, in a horizontal position, the head and neck lowered, and the former drawn very close in upon the shoulders: they run very swiftly.
They feed on small marine worms, insects, and larvae, to be found on the beach, which they procure by probing with
SANDERLING.
59
their bills in the soft sand; and also, on shrimps, sandhoppers, and other Crustacea and minute shell-fish, and other ‘treasures of the deep;’ with which they swallow a little gravel. They become very fat, and are considered fine eating.
The note is only a ‘pit, pit.’
The nest is said to be placed in marshy places, and formed in a rude manner of grass.
The eggs are described as being four in number, of a dusky colour spotted with black.
Male; weight, about two ounces; length, about eight inches; bill, black — between it and the eye is a dusky space, which in winter becomes a small black spot; the feathers at the base of the beak white. Iris, brown; over it is a buff-coloured streak, white in winter; the head on the sides, white, spotted with dusky and rufous; the crown, neck on the back, and nape, have the feathers black in the centre, edged with pale rufous, in some white; on the sides the neck is covered with small spots of rufous and black on a white ground, the shafts also of these feathers being blackish brown; on the back and the nape, much the same: in winter, all these back parts are grey with dusky shafts to the feathers. Chin, throat, and upper part of the breast, white or greyish white, spotted more or less with rufous and black— in winter all white; breast below, white. The back has the feathers black edged with rufous, on the lower part dusky, barred with cinereous and with rufous edges to the feathers; in winter white on the sides.
The wings have the first quill feather a little longer than the second, and the longest in the wing — underneath they are white; the axillary plume white. Greater and lesser wing coverts, dusky, with the centres of the feathers darkest: the former, in winter, are broadly tipped with white, forming a bar across the wing. Primaries, brownish black on the outer web, greyish white on the inner, the shafts white; secondaries, blackish brown, with broad white tips, forming a bar across the wings; tertiaries, also blackish brown edged with pale rufous. Tail, cuneated, greyish white, the middle feathers greyish black margined with white, and rather pointed; upper tail coverts, dusky. Legs and toes, bluish black; claws, black. The toes underneath are flattened.
The female is rather larger than the male.
‘In the first or nestling plumage, the forehead, eye streak, cheeks, and throat, are white. At the lower part of the neck
60
SANDEELIlsra.
is a zone of pale cream or yellowish white, which passes into light ash grey upon the upper part of the breast; under parts of the body white. Crown of the head, black, margined and spotted with pale huff; nape and hind part of the neck, pale ash grey, with darker streaks; mantle and scapulars, black, margined and spotted with white. Tertials, hair brown, margined with greyish white. Quills and tail, as in the winter plumage of the adult bird. Legs, deep grey.’ — Selby.
Mr. Yarrell observes ‘The appearance of the Sanderling in spring, when in change to the plumage of summer, is prettier than at any other season; each feather on the upper surface of the body exhibits a portion of black in the centre, edged partly with rufous, and partly with the remains of the white peculiar to winter; by degrees the white edging gives place to the red; the neck in front becomes speckled, but the under surface of the body remains white all the year.’
‘A female killed at the end of August, has the upper surface of the body darker than in the spring, but mixed with dull black, some red, and greyish white; almost all the red colour of the breeding-season has disappeared, but the autumn moult having commenced, a few of the greyish white feathers of the winter plumage appear intermixed with the faded remains of the tints of summer.’
‘In winter the plumage on the upper surface of the body is of a very light ash grey, almost white, the shaft of each feather forming a darker streak; carpal portion of the wing and the primary quill feathers almost black. Tail feathers, ash-colour edged with white; chin, throat, and all the under surface of the body, white; beak, legs, toes, and claws, black.’
The full winter plumage is obtained by the end of October. Previous to that time, the Rev. Leonard Jenyns gives the following as the description of the young bird: — ‘Feathers on the crown of the head, back, scapulars, and wing coverts, black edged and spotted with yellowish; between the bill and the eye a cinereous brown streak; nape, sides of the neck, and sides of the breast, pale grey, with fine undulating streaks; forehead, throat, fore part of the neck, and all the under parts, pure white; wings and tail as in the adult.’
OYSTER- CATC HER,.
61
OYSTER-CATCHER.
PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. SEA PIE. OLIYE.
Hanrnatopus ostralegus , “ belonii ,
Pennant. Montagu. Willughby.
Hcematopus. ( HJaima — Blood. Ostrcea — An oyster.
Lous — A foot.
Ostralegus .
Lego — To collect.
This fine and handsome bird is well known on the coast in many parts of England and Ireland, from the Scilly Islands' to the extreme north. In Europe, its range extends from the southern countries — Holland, France, and Spain, to Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Siberia, Kamtschatka, the Ferroe Isles, and Iceland. In Asia, it is described as occurring in Japan, and in Africa, as far as Senegal, and in America, also from Hudson’s Bay to the Bermudas.
In Yorkshire, Mr. Allis reports, on the authority of Mr. Eddison, that it is, though rarely, met with near Huddersfield, and that two were obtained on Slaithwaite and Marsden Moors, in winter, near the reservoirs. In other parts of the kingdom too it has occurred inland. Four are recorded to have been met with at Godaiming, in Surrey, and one also at Oatlands by the Thames, fifty miles from the sea. James Harley, Esq. gives it as occasionally occurring on the banks of the Trent, and mentions a pair killed at Melbourne Pool, on the borders of Leicestershire, in January, 1838., They seem to be the most numerous on the Lincolnshire coast, near Skegness, and other parts. On the Norfolk coast it is common throughout the year, breeding there, as it also does in the Fern Islands, on the coast of Northumberland, and in Scotland, in Suther- landshire, and elsewhere. It has been known to breed several miles inland, as much as twenty-five, or thirty, or more,
, namely, on the banks of the Don, in Scotland, and up as high
62
OYSTER-CATCHER.
as Kildrummy; likewise at Ballindalloch. Dr. Fleming, too, relates that it breeds, ‘down by the Tummel,’ at Moulin earn, between Dunkeld and Blair Athol; and Sir William Jardine has seen them on the Tweed as high up as Dryburgh.
In Orkney this species continues the whole year; a few additional birds, however, generally arrive in spring. In Shetland it is also numerous, as well as in the Hebrides or Western Islands.
They are seldom seen inland, though that is the case sometimes, but are principally to be noticed on the rocky shores of inlets, and the sand banks of bays and creeks, and mud-covered flats, where scant oases of vegetation and moist patches are interspersed. One was shot on the Biver Wey, near Guildford, Surrey, on the 23rd. of March, 1845.
They are occasionally migratory to some extent, namely, in very inclement weather, but otherwise appear to be stationary. In the former case, flocks of several hundreds move together at a great height, both by night and by day, the body forming two sides of a triangle, the whole led by one bird. Their voices at such times are heard in the distance, and the more so if the regular line happens to be broken.
In winter they unite in small flocks, which again in spring divide into pairs, but several of these resort to the same breeding-places. The male bird keeps watch while the hen is sitting, and gives notice by a loud shrill whistle of the supposed approach of any danger. The hen, if need be, silently quits the nest, and after making a circuit to deceive as to its situation, joins her partner, and both unite together in endeavouring to decoy away the supposed enemy with loud cries, flying round and round him, often very near. Any such, however, that are winged, as, for instance, a Crow, Book, or Skua-Gull, they are quick to give notice of the approach of, and attack and drive away from the neigh¬ bourhood with blows from their powerful bills. They are tameable birds, and will associate with domestic poultry. In their wild state, too, they play about in a lively manner with their own and other species, and at times enter into contests, attacking fearlessly even such as are larger than themselves. They are watchful and shy in their habits, avoiding betimes any suspicious intruders.
They run about in an easy manner, and also, if necessary, with great rapidity, and can both swim and dive, the former not unfrequently, for short distances, when seeking for
OYSTER-CATCHER.
63
food; but the latter, for the most part only if alarmed. The young too evince the same habits, and run about almost immediately after being hatched. They fly strongly, and sail for some short distance before pitching down.
They feed in the mornings and evenings, and at night, on various shell-fish — mussels, limpets, and other Crustacea; worms, and marine insects. For dislodging the former their strong and wedge-shaped bill is admirably adapted. They roost during the day, standing either on one or both legs on a stone, rock, or bank. While the tide covers their feeding-places they repair to the neighbouring corn and other fields, which they again quit for their more natural resorts as soon as permitted.
They are extremely noisy during the time that they have young, screaming loudly, or scolding in their defence. Meyer says, The call-note of the bird in question sounds most like the word ‘quip’ or ‘whip,’ uttered in a very high tone, and repeated several times when on the wing; the concert is generally begun by one bird in a moderate ‘tempo,’ which increases to ‘allegro,’ and finally ‘presto, presto,’ being joined by an increased number of voices until all unite in the chorus.’
The nest is placed among gravel or stones, or among grass near the sea bank, in situations above high-water mark, where these materials of building are at hand, and the bird seems to be especially partial to a mixture of broken shells, which it carefully collects together and places in a slight hollow in the ground, using considerable care in their dis¬ position. Several nests appear to be made, sometimes, before the architect can fashion one to give perfect satisfaction ; many nests are placed in contiguity to each other, intermixed too, it may be, with those of other aquatic birds. Some have been met with on the top of isolated rocks, at a height of from ten to fifteen feet from the ground. In lieu of shells small pieces of stone or gravel are selected, and the whiter they are the better they seem to please. Incu¬ bation lasts about three weeks.
The eggs are four in number, and of a yellowish stone- colour, spotted with grey, brown, and brownish black. They have been found variously in April, May, June, and July, so that it would appear that two broods are reared in the year. The eggs are disposed with their small ends inwards.
The young birds run soon after they are hatched, and are
OYSTER-CATCHER.
64
very active. If pursued they hide their heads in the first hole they come to, as if thinking, like the Ostrich, that if they cannot see you, you cannot see them.
Male; weight, about sixteen or seventeen ounces; length, a little over one foot four inches, or from that to one foot five, or Sir William Jardine says, to one foot seven inches; the bill, which is three inches long, is of a deep orange yellow colour at the base, and paler towards the tip, which is much compressed; iris, crimson red, the eyelids reddish orange, below the eye is a small white spot in the autumn and summer months. Head, crown, neck on the back and sides, in front, and the nape, black, of a glossy velvet ap¬ pearance; chin, throat, and the breast above, glossy velvet black, the latter below, white; in winter there is a white gorget more or less developed on the front of the neck, begun to be assumed in the autumn, and worn till the spring. Back, above, glossy velvet black, with a reflection of green and bluish ash-colour; below, white.
The wings have the first quill feather about half an inch longer than the second, and at the same time the longest in the wing — underneath they are white, the axillary plume also white; they expand to the width of two feet eight inches; greater wing coverts, white on the tips, forming a broad bar over the wing; lesser wing coverts, glossy velvet black; primaries, dusky black, with part of their inner webs white, in the shape of an oblong spot towards the tip; secondaries and tertiaries, black, with a reflection of green and bluish ash-colour; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, white on the inner half, black on the outer; upper tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, pale purple reddish, deeper coloured with the season; claws, dusky black.
In the winter the plumage is not so clear and bright.
The male and female are alike. They are said to moult both in the spring and autumn.
The young are at first beautifully mottled over with greyish brown down. In their first year’s plumage they have the bill yellowish brown, tinged with orange, the back and wing coverts margined with brown, and the white is not so pure; the feet are greyish white tinged with pink. The white gorget is not put on till the second winter.
Sir William Jardine says that he has seen specimens of a dull white or fawn-colour.
The plate is taken from a design by the Bev. B. P. Alington.
CRANE:
65
CRANE.
COMMON CRANE.
Grus cinereciy Ardea grus .
Grus — A Crane.
Fleming. Selby. Pennant. Montagu.
Cinerea — Ash -coloured.
The great numbers of these birds said in old chronicles and records to have been formerly served up at the table, inclines me to think that as the Heron is even now continually called a Crane, so it may have been often in reality the species thus spoken of; any of the Heron tribe being indiscriminately classed as a Crane. No doubt, however, it was formerly much more numerous than of late; and now it is indeed a very rare and casual visitor.
The Crane pertains to Russia and Siberia, Lapland, Sweden, Finland, and Norway; Mecklenberg, Thuringia, Turkey, Greece, Pomerania, Poland, Prussia, and is found in Holland occa¬ sionally in hard winters; and at the ‘certain seasons’ of migration, Mr. Gould says that flocks of these great birds are to be seen in France and Germany, travelling northwards or southwards as the case may be, high in the air, and marshalled for ‘the route’ which has been given them. Their clear sonorous voices aloft resound below, and direct the eye to them. Sometimes they are tempted to descend to feed in newly-sown fields, or marshes, or on the borders of rivers, or the shores of the sea; but generally they are diverted by no attraction from their one main object, but steadily wing their way to the distant country which they have in view, although they cannot see it, and to which they are directed by the Great King.
vol. v. F
66
CRANE.
At these times they are also observed at Corfu, and other islands of the Mediterranean. Cranes also occur in Africa — namely in Egypt, and other parts — even at the Cape of Good Hope; and in Asia — in Asia Minor, in the regions between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, in Arabia, Syria, Persia, China, Hindostan, and in Japan.
In Cambridgeshire one was obtained, according to Pennant, in the year 1773; and Bay mentions that in his time large flocks of these birds visited the fens during the winter months. Aldrovandus speaks of their having formerly bred in that county, and Willughby also corroborates the fact. Now, however, they are no longer seen, and need no longer be looked for there; the Pens are no longer fens, and any unfortunate Crane who should visit the haunts of his ances¬ tors, would find himself sadly ‘out of his element/ and that ‘with a vengeance’ from some ruthless gunner. How the birds must execrate the memory of the man that invented gunpowder, and thus superseded the, to them, comparatively harmless use of the bow and arrow! In Norfolk, one, a female, was shot at Kirkley, near Lowestoft, in the month of April, 1815; they were formerly, says Sir Thomas Browne, often seen in that district in hard winters. One was shot at Pevensey, in Sussex, in May, 1819. In the same year, about the end of December, one, apparently a young bird, in Norfolk, at Martham. In Devonshire, one was obtained in September, 1826, in the parish of Buckland Monachorum, near Plymouth. In Oxfordshire, one in December, 1830, and another, it is said at Chimneyford, on the Isis, in December, 1831.
Sir Bobert Sibbald mentions the occurrence of the Crane in Orkney; and Sir William Jardine, Bart., says that it has occurred there recently. Dr. Fleming states that a small flock was seen in Tingwall in the autumn of 1807. Mr. Dunn also mentions two having been shot in Zetland in 1831 and 1832; and a small flock had previously been seen there, one of which was shot, in the autumn of 1807.
In Ireland it was met with during the great frost in 1739.
They migrate both by day and night, in the spring and autumn, halting to rest, for the most part, in the middle of the day. The autumnal migration takes place between the 12th. and the 20th. of October, and the same line of flight appears to be closely kept each successive year. The spring migration to their building-grounds takes place from the middle of March or the middle of April according to the
CRANE.
67
forwardness or backwardness of the season. In fine weather they proceed leisurely, hut if a change is brooding, accelerate their movements. It is said that they never fly due north and south, but rather east and west. Excepting at the times of migration, Cranes are only seen singly, or in pairs; but at those seasons they collect in large flocks of several thousands, subdividing into groups of from twenty to sixty, one of the largest and strongest birds heading each of these, spread out behind him into two diverging lines, each group keeping near together. They affect lowland and flat countries, resorting in summer to morasses, or any damp and moist places, wading about on the insecure ground in search of food, which they also seek at times in the neighbouring cul¬ tivated lands. It is said, however, that they prognosticate a dry season, and in anticipation of such do not resort to their accustomed haunts, as if aware that these would no longer afford them the necessary protection, owing to their dried state.
In fine weather they may not unfrequently be seen sailing overhead, as if enjoying the pastime; sometimes they ascend to a great height until no longer visible. They are by nature shy birds, and for the most part apparently sedate and pensive, but on some occasions addict themselves to playing and gambolling about in an odd and curious manner. They are very watchful, and sentinels give due notice of the propinquity of any danger. Their manners are intelligent, their gait majestic, their form being robust and at the same time well proportioned: they are striking and noble looking birds. They roost on the ground, flying round and round first to reconnoitre the position before trusting themselves to alight, and this on some open place from whence a good look-out can be kept. They seldom perch on trees or buildings.
If leaving her nest the Crane creeps along for a great distance in a stooping position, before shewing herself in flight, so that, in addition to the difficulty imposed by its position, the nest is not easily found.
Among themselves they are very sociable, and never quarrel one with another, or with other kinds. They are easily tamed, and soon become attached to those who take care of them. They are, however, susceptible of anger, and when provoked become dangerous.
Meyer writes, ‘Brehm relates some interesting particulars
68
CRANE.
of a pair of Cranes which he had procured when the birds were only a few days old. This pair of Cranes, a male and a female, became soon tame, attached themselves to their keeper, and came when called by their respective names. Their lodging was in the farm-yard, where they very soon took the lead, settled the quarrels of their companions, and punished the offenders according to circumstances. They exacted respect and kept up their own dignity, ruling over bulls, cows, foals, etc., but declining at all times to interfere with the pigs. When their master walked out they accom¬ panied him wherever he went; and as they were not sufficiently pinioned to prevent their flying, they sometimes remained out for the whole day, although they invariably returned home at night. When a flight of wild Cranes passed over, the two birds alluded to never shewed so much as a wish to follow them. When the male met with an accident in breaking his wing, the female behaved with the most sensible affection, never leaving her mate for a single instant while he was ill; nor would she allow any stranger to approach him, until he was able again to go about with her. Not long after the female met with an injury which ended fatally. The male shewed his grief in return, by going about and screaming most piteously, and trying to raise up his sister; and after her corpse was removed the survivor went to look for her in every corner of the house, ran up and down stairs, and stopped at closed doors until they were opened to let him in, in order to satisfy his search. Not finding her anywhere, he left the farm-yard for two or three days, then again was found, quite disconsolate and dejected in the grounds, and allowed himself to be driven into his stall, where he stayed for a length of time. When the bird became full-grown he continued to shew a wonderful share of cleverness, far beyond any other feathered species.
For want of a companion this Crane attached himself to the bull of the farm-yard, which he accompanied wherever he went; marching 'beside the bull, or standing by when the animal grazed, and keeping off the flies. He followed him in and out of the stable, and when the bull did not make his appearance soon enough in the morning, the Crane went to fetch his companion out. At times when the bull stood still for some time in the meadow, the Crane would run a little in advance and begin to chase round about him for amuse¬ ment; then again he would turn suddenly back and come to
CRA1STE.
69
meet him, bowing most profoundly: and this became a frequent amusement to the inhabitants of the village, through which the couple passed on their way home in the afternoon of a summer’s day.
Some time after the Crane became as serviceable as a shepherd’s dog to the kine, and would not allow a single animal to stray from the rest. When horses were being harnessed for the plough, or put to any carriage, the Crane placed himself before them, and made them stand quiet until the driver was on the box or had the reins in his hands. It
was of no use for the horses to attempt to move on, for the
bird punished them sorely with blows from his bill, or spreading out his wings stopped the way. The greatest attachment
was shewn by this Crane to the cook of the family, who
was in the habit of feeding the bird; and he made it a rule not to go to bed until she took him up under her arm, and conveyed him to his sleeping apartment.
When any one insulted this Crane the bird was unforgiving and revengeful in the extreme. One day when the bird was in pursuit of some insects in a neighbouring garden, the owner, of the garden gave him a blow with a stick, whereupon the bird defended himself most valiantly until a succession of blows obliged him to retire. Soon after the Crane took his station on a bridge that led to the village, and over which the person in question had to pass. The Crane maintained the. ground, and at last pursued the enemy until he was obliged to take shelter in his house and shut the door. From that time the Crane remained the determined foe of his neighbour. The courage of the Crane in question was wonderful, yet on one subject he was always accessible to fear,, namely, he could not endure the sight of any black moving object, such as a black dog, cat, or crow; and his greatest enemy was the chimney-sweeper.’
They fly with the head and neck extended, and the legs also projecting behind. Their manner of walking whether fast or slow, with long and regular steps, is elegant and pleasing. When at rest or sleeping they generally stand on one. leg, the other being drawrn close up, and the head reclined backwards, the bill being thrust among the feathers.
They feed on food of various kinds, peas, corn, and other grain and plants, worms, reptiles, and shell-fish, snails, slugs, caterpillars, roots, cockchaflers, grasshoppers, flies, and mice.
‘The call-note of the Crane is a very loud, harsh, and
70
CKANE.
peculiar sound, and is best described by comparing it to a trumpet sounding the word ‘curr’ or ‘coor,’ and this accounts for the birds being heard long before they are seen. The young birds of the year utter the word ‘sheeb,’ or Sveeb;’ when very young they chirp. When a great flock is on the wing, the cry of these birds is consequently confused.’
The Crane nidificates both on low trees, stumps, and bushes, and also on the ground; sometimes too on the top of some old building, as well as upon a conglomerate mass of rushes or other water plants, among high grass or reeds, and in osier beds, and other such situations, in morasses, and by the sides of lakes. The nest is a large structure, made of sticks, with grass, rushes, flags, reeds, and other soft materials. The young remain for some days in the nest, and are fed by the parents with food prepared in their own crops.
The eggs are two — they are richly coloured, of a pale olive green ground, blotted and spotted with darker shades of green and olive brown. Both birds incubate them.
The unicoloured plumage of this bird is relieved by the fine red.
Male; weight, nearly ten pounds; length, four feet or more, up to five feet; bill, dark greenish yellow at the base, paler towards the tip; iris, red; from the eye and down the side of the neck is dull white; bristles spread over the forehead and the space to the eye, which part is dark bluish or blackish grey; the sides of the head are greyish white; crown, bare of feathers and red in an oval shape; neck on the back and nape, dark bluish grey, with a hue of brown; here also is a bare place ash-coloured. Chin, throat, and neck in the front, also dark bluish grey; breast, fine bluish grey; back, dark bluish grey.
The wings have the first quill feather a little shorter than the fourth, but a little longer than the fifth; the second and third being the longest in the wing, and both of the same length. Greater and lesser wing coverts, dark bluish grey; primaries, black; some of the secondaries are long and arched, as also the tertiaries, which are dark bluish grey, varied and tipped with bluish black, their elongation forming long hair-like plumes, the webs being unconnected, which the bird raises or depresses at pleasure. Thejr used formerly to be in much request as ornaments for head dress. Tail, bluish grey, tipped with bluish black; legs and toes, light bluish black; claws, black.
CRAIS'E.
71
The female is like the male, but not quite so large, and her plumage not so clear; the plume also is less developed.
The young birds, after being at first covered with greyish brown down, are less varied in plumage about the head, and the grey colour is commingled with brown. They do not acquire their perfect dress till after the second moulting, previous to which the crown is covered with downy feathers.
72
HEBON.
HERN. HERONSHAW. HERONSEW G-H. COMMON HERON. CRESTED HERON.
Latham. Shaw.
Linnaeus.
Brissqn.
Ardea cinerea> “ major , u cnstata.
Ardea— A Heron,
Cinerea — Ash -coloured— grey.
Evert one who is acquainted, as who is not? with Miss Edgeworth’s ever entertaining stories — lacking, however, one thing, and that the one thing — a pervading religious principle - — will remember the ineffable contempt and indignation with which Sir Plantagenet Mowbray received the proposition of Marvel, the Lincolnshire farmer, to purchase the Heronry near Spalding.
There, for I shall proceed to give a catalogue of all the Heronries in the kingdom extant and extinct, Toth great and small,’ so far as I can furnish a complete one, compiled for the most part from the pages of ‘The Naturalist,’ was formerly a very great one at Cressy Hall, the seat of the ancient Heron family, appropriately yclept. In that county others were or are at Manbv, near Brigg, the property of the Earl of Yarborough; Bownington, Skillingthorpe Wood, near Lincoln, and Swanpool.
In Yorkshire, likewise, by the piece of water near Hems- worth, Pontefract; at Kirby Hall, near Boroughbridge, the seat of Bichard Thompson, Esq.; at Walton Hall, near Wakefield, the seat of Charles Waterton, Esq.; Watton Abbey, near Beverley, one of the seats of Bichard Bethell, Esq.; and Swanland, near Hull. Also at Scorbro’, near Beverley, one of the seats of Lord Hotham; and Scarthingwell,
HERON
HERON.
73
near Ferry-bridge, a seat of Lord Hawke; also one of the islands in Hornsea Mere.
In Wiltshire, at Bowood, the seat of the Marquis of Lansdowne, near Melksham.
In Suffolk, at Henham Hall, the seat of Lord Stradbroke.
In Devonshire, at Shute Park, near Axminster, the seat of Sir John George Pole, Bart.; Powderham Castle, the beautiful seat of the Courtenays, Earls of Devon; Warleigh, the seat of the Bev. W. Badcliffe, near Tojmes; and Sharpham on the Biver Dart.
In Surrey, at Cobham Park, the seat of Harvey Combe, Esq.; Ashley Park, the seat of Sir Henry Fletcher, Bart.; and by Walton-on-Thames.
In Sussex, at Parham and Hurstmonceaux.
In Durham, at Gainford, on the bank of the Tees; at Sands, near Sedgefield; Bavensworth Castle, the seat of Lord Bavens worth.
In Kent, at Chilham Castle, the seat of J. B. Wildman, Esq.; at Cobham Hall, the seat of the Earl of Darnley; and Penshurst Park, an old seat of the Earls of Sydney.
In Warwickshire, at Warwick Castle, the seat of the Earl of Warwick.
In Norfolk, at Wolverton Wood, near Lynn; Castle Bising, Didlington Hall, the seat of Colonel Wilson.
In Westmoreland, on Berkshire Island, Windermere; on Bydal Lake, the property of Lady Le Fleming; and Bassen- thwaite, on the property of Sir Henry Yane; also at Dalham Tower, the seat of W. Cams Wilson, Esq.
In Dorsetshire, at Upton House, and Brownsea Island, Poole, near Weymouth; Bryan ston Park, near Blandford, the seat of Lord Portman; Admiston Hall; Dewlish, the seat of Colonel Mitchell; Kingston Lacy and Sherborne Park, the seat of Earl Digby.
In Northamptonshire, at Bui wick, the seat of J. Fryer, Esq.; and Althorpe, the seat of Lord Spencer.
In Middlesex, at Oatlands Park, near Shepperton.
In Cheshire, at Dunham Massey, the seat of the Earl of Stamford; Combermere Abbey, the seat of Lord Combermere; Hooton, the seat of Sir T. M. Stanley, Bart.; Ardley Hall, the residence of B. G. Warburton, Esq.; and Oulton Park, the seat of Sir Philip De Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart.
In Berkshire, in Windsor Great Park, the Boyal Besidence^ Coley Park, and near Beading.
74
HERON.
In Cumberland, at Gowbay or Gowbarrow Park, near Ulls water; and Grey stock, both near Penrith.
In Hampshire, at Denny Lodge, in the Hew Forest; and formerly at Heron Court, the seat of the Earl of Malmesbury; as also at Harringworth, on the estate of Thomas Tyon, Esq.
In Essex, in Wan stead Park.
In Nottinghamshire, at Colnwick, near Nottingham, the seat of — Musters, Esq.
In Northumberland, Chillingham Park, the seat of the Earl of Tankerville.
In Cornwall, at Trenant Wood, the seat of W. Peel, Esq.
In Shropshire, at the Mere, near Ellesmere.
In Leicestershire, at Stableford, near Melton Mowbray, on the estate of Lord Harborough; and a pair built about the year 1812 in a wood called Mere Hill, in the Lordship of Prestwold, the seat of Mr. Packe, M.P., but the nest being taken, the birds forsook the place.
In Somersetshire, at Picton, the property of Lord Carnarvon ; and at Brocklev woods, near Bristol.
In Herefordshire, at the Moor, near Hay, the seat of Mrs. Penoyre.
In Wales, in Glamorganshire, at Margam Abbey, and Penrice Castle.
In Anglesea, near Holyhead and the Great Orme’s Head.
In Flintshire, at Bodrydden, near St. Asaph, the seat of William Shipley Conway, Esq.
In Scotland, on the Island of Islajq in Kincardineshire, at Inglesmaldie, Fettercairn, the Sutors of Cromarty, and in Sutherlandshire, between Aikel and Altnagalcanach ; and on an island in a loch near Louberoy.
In Ayrshire, at Monkcastle House, and near Eglinton Castle, and Craigie, near Kilmarnock.
In Edinburghshire, at Dalkeith Palace, the seat of His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch; and in Morayshire by Findhorn.
In Ireland, in the county of Dublin, at Carton, near Maynooth, the seat of the Duke of Leinster; and in the county of Galway, at Newport House.
The almost total discontinuance of hawking, and the con¬ sequent dispersion of the great Heronries of the olden time, carefully then preserved for the purpose, have naturally led to the establishment of smaller settlements in various other places, and even of single pairs from time to time. The
HERON-.
75
changes that the lapse of ages introduces into the human colony, work a corresponding effect, in an infinite variety of ways, among the natural creation.
These birds are generally common in Yorkshire and other counties; in Cornwall, near Falmouth, not common.
In Scotland they are plentiful. In Orkney they remain all the year. There, in winter, they assemble in flocks on the shores, and are generally observed on the lee side of an island.
Heronries are inhabited from spring to the latter end of summer, and are occasionally returned to by individual birds in the winter months from time to time. They are clung to with great tenacity by their occupants.
The Heron visits the northern countries of Europe — Russia, Siberia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Feroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland; and wanders southwards over other parts of the continent, being the most plentiful in Holland. It is found also in northern Africa, and, it is said, at the Cape; likewise in Madeira. In Asia — about the Caucasian range, and in India, Japan, and Java.
Our Herons stay with us throughout the year, and others are indeed compelled hitherward by severe weather: in other continental countries a similar movement southwards is made, such migration being effected as well at a high as at a low elevation. In August, 1849, one was shot at Stoke Newington, near Highbury, Middlesex, close to London, and another was also seen near Highbury, in July, 1851.
They are shy and solitary birds, and make off at once if approached, when standing in ever so apparently listless a manner by the side of the pool, or the margin of the stream. Clear water is preferred, on account of the better view it affords of their prey. I remember well one fine summer evening, when a boy, seeing one ’light at a bend in a small river, where I thought I could manage to get him within range, and after running home for a gun, and stealing close to the ground till near him, when he at last perceived his danger and rose suddenly to escape it, bringing him down by a shot through the neck. It was a young bird, and the only one, I am glad to say, I ever killed, or, I believe, ever fired at — alas! ‘tempus fug it.’
If not cut off, they are said to be long-lived birds. They are formidable if attacked at close quarters, defending them¬ selves, so to speak, both with tooth and nail. They are
76
HERON.
always objects of interest, and comport well with the retired unfrequented scenes to which, and to which only, they seem naturally to belong. There you may see the Heronshaw for hours standing on one leg, on the ground or a branch of a tree, the neck retracted and the bill resting on the breast, ‘chewing the cud of sweet or bitter reflection,’ according as he has been comparatively satisfied, or is waiting for a further supply of food. One might almost fancy that he was musing in pensive melancholy over the altered times which have changed protection and proscription, and fore¬ shadow, to look on the dark side of things, the future extirpation of the English branch of his race. Boyal game in the days of falconry, and prized also for the table, now¬ adays he is the object of all but universal hostility, and his conspicuous appearance marks him out as a victim. But the ‘silent system’ chiefly during the day-time, interrupted only by some occasional flights, the consequence oftentimes of being disturbed, for as soon as the lowering twilight begins to give notice of returning night, then listlessness is exchanged for excitement, and inactivity for movement — the bird walks about in an unsettled manner, and stretches his wings preparatory to making use of them to convey him to his fishing-ground.
Seen for the most part at other times of the year in the singular or the dual number, these birds become gregarious in the huilding-season. An island in a lake is then a favourite resort, but some leave it for the adjoining inland. They are indeed to be observed together in greater or less numbers at other times, perhaps in groups of from a dozen to thirty, but this, I fancy, more from a community of purpose, than from an instinctive desire to congregate. They appear, as before said, to select the lee or sheltered side of any island or cliff when engaged in fishing. Several battles take place sometimes between them and the Books, for the possession of the same trees, but the Herons, as might be supposed, are too powerful for their opponents. At other times, as if in revenge for this injury, Books may frequently be seen chasing and dashing at them in the air, following them for a long way, and buffeting them at every opportunity. Meyer says ‘It is remarkable how alarmed Herons are during storms of thunder and lightning, starting at every flash, and tumbling about as if broken- winged. During rainy weather these birds appear very dejected, and sit in the most drooping
HEEOtf.
77
attitudes imaginable; they appear to suffer also from frost and cold.’ If taken young, Herons may be easily reared, but not otherwise. Two Herons have been known to fight so desperately, that one of them allowed itself to be taken with the hand.
The flight of the Heron, in which the wings are much arched, and the neck doubled back, is slow and heavy, and the long legs are carried straight out, projecting behind as if a tail: the legs are drooped before alighting. They are able to swim, but perform the operation slowly. Though generally speaking of an awkward and ungainly appearance, yet the different curvatures assumed by this bird in its positions give it a line of beauty which the ornithologist at all events can appreciate and admire.
Herons are very voracious birds, and always seem hungry. Their usual food consists of trout, flounders, eels, carp, and other fish, which they swallow head foremost; water-lizards, snakes, toads, frogs, rats (both land and water,) and mice; the young of other birds, beetles, and other insects, shell-fish, shrimps, and the roots and blossoms of plants: a trout has been seen taken about four pounds weight. A curious cir¬ cumstance is recorded in ‘The Naturalist,’ vol. i, page 61, by Mr. Mc’Intosh, as related to him by an eye-witness, who, having shot a Snipe, it was pounced upon by a Heron, not previously observed by him, and shaken by it in his bill till satisfied that it was quite dead. Another has been known to quit the water to kill or disable an eel which it had caught by beating it against the ground; and again
another, a tame one, to swim out ten or a dozen feet to
try to seize the brood of a Moorhen on a fallen tree.
The hair, feathers, and bones of their prey are cast up in
pellets, after the manner of the Owls. ‘It is perhaps worth remarking, that when the Herons drop any of the food which they bring to their young among the trees of the Heronry, they make no attempt to recover it, but, probably from a consciousness of their inability to rise from the ground in a confined space, allow it to remain where it falls.’ The result is often beneficial to the neighbours, and a good pannier of fish may often be collected under a large Heronry. The prey is brought from a distance, it may be, of two miles or more to the young, and much ado with snapping and chuckling the latter make on the bringing home of each fresh supply.
They feed ordinarily in the mornings and evenings, but
78
HERON.
when they have a young family to provide for, are obliged to forage throughout the days. Standing motionless in the shallow edge of the river or lake, the head, as before remarked, drawn hack in the attitude of expectation, you may see them watching, with the patience for which all other anglers ought to he equally proverbial, for a ‘bite.’ True waders, their food is mostly picked up in the water, but none is refused that occurs elsewhere. If dropped from the bill, it will be picked up again more than once at the place of capture. It is very rarely indeed that the Heron misses its mark. It strikes with the most unerring precision, and transfixes the quarry with the strong blow that it gives.
Their note is a harsh, wild cry, uttered on the wing, and frequently repeated, The word ‘craigh’ uttered in a lengthened manner, with cracked and high-pitched voices,’ as the bird heavily wends its way to any accustomed haunt by the bank of some river, reedy lake, or rushy pond, the margin of some muddy estuary, or creek, or the edge of some stagnant swamp or quaggy morass. It is also heard while on migration.
The Heron builds, according to circumstances, either on the ground, in which situation Montagu saw several, or on trees of any sort; also, it is said, on cliffs, preferring situations in the vicinity of water. Many nests are often placed on it together — as many as eighty have been counted in one tree. Preparations for nidifieation are made about the month of April. The nest is placed on the very summit of the tree, or as close to it as the case will admit of, and also near the extremity of the branch, the size of the bird not admitting of a ready passage inwards. The nest, flat in shape, is rather small for the size of the tenants that have to inhabit it, but in some cases is much larger than in others, probably from an old one being built on. It is made of stick and twigs, and has a lining of wool or hair, rushes, dry grasses, water- flags, straws, or any soft materials.
Two broods are reared in the season, and both parents assist in the work of providing the young with food, and the male also feeds the female while sitting. If alarmed for their young, they soar about aloft over the nests.
The eggs are generally three in number, sometimes, it is said, four or five, and of a green colour. They vary in shape, some being pointed at both ends, and others only at the lower end. They are hatched in about three weeks, and it
HEROK.
79
is five or six more before the young birds are able to quit the nest.
The finest specimen of this bird that I think I ever saw, is preserved in the hall of the Rectory at Swinhope, the residence of my friend, the Rev. R. P. Alington. It was shot in the parish of Thoresway, Lincolnshire, February 21st., 1853. The following measurements are taken from it: —
Male; weight, only about three pounds, or from that to three and a half, according to the condition the bird is in from a plentiful or a scanty supply of food; length, three feet two inches and a half; bill, dull yellow, darkest towards the point. The edges of both mandibles are serrated and very sharp, the lower fitting closely into the upper — wee betide the fish that gets between them. From the base of the bill a narrow streak runs over the eye, and a larger one which merges into the occipital feathers. Iris, yellow, a streak of black over it rises from the base of the bill; fore¬ head, head on the sides, and crown, white. The plume is seven inches and a half long, and of a glossy dark slate- colour, in some specimens glossy dusky black; neck behind and nape, grey; in front the neck is white, or greyish white, variegated, in a long list or stripe, with elongated spots of dark bluish grey, forming a double row; chin, throat, and neck in front, pure white. Breast above and below, greyish white, with streaks of black on the latter portion; the elongated feathers on its uppers are pale grey, and many of them pure white. There are two patches of yellow down on the front, concealed by the other feathers. Back, dark grey.
The wings expand to the width of five feet; the first quill feather is of equal length with the fifth; the second, third, and fourth are also nearly of the same length, and the longest. Greater and lesser wing coverts, grey; primaries and secondaries, dusky black. Tail, short, dark slate-colour, in some dusky black. The legs, when stretched out behind, extend five inches and a half beyond the tail; in colour they and the toes are greenish yellow, tinged with brown; the middle one is serried on the inner edge; above the knee the legs are tinged with orange. Claws, brown.
The female resembles the male, but her colours are more dull. The plume is deficient, and the feathers on the breast are less elongated.
The young are at first unsightly in appearance, but soon advance in size; during the first and part of the second year
80
HEROK.
they are destitute of the plume, and of the elongated feathers on the front of the neck. The bill has the upper mandible greenish or blackish brown, the lower one greenish yellow. Head, crown, neck, and nape, ash-colour; throat and neck in front, ash-colour, with dull dusky grey streaks; back, grey, with tinges of brown. The legs above the knee, greenish yellow, below, and the toes, pale brown, tinged with yellow, or else grey.
They do not attain the full plumage till the end of the second year.
The plate is from a design by the Rev. R. P. Alington. I will thank any one to shew me a better.
PURPLE HERON.
81
PURPLE HERON.
CRESTED PURPLE HERON. PURPLE CRESTED HERON. AFRICAN HERON.
Ardea purpurea ,
“ caspica ,
“ variegata ,
“ rufay <! botaurus,
“ stellaris major ,
Linnaeus.
Pennant, Montagu. Latham.
Latham.
Gmelin.
Kay. Willoughby.
Ardea— A. Heron. Purpurea — Purple -coloured,
The European range of the Purple Heron extends from Holland, where Sir William Jardine has observed that it is not uncommon — France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Switzerland, to Russia, Turkey, Siberia, and the distant borders of the Black and the Caspian Seas. In Africa also, from Nubia to the Cape of Good Hope; and in Asia — in Tartaiy, Irfdia, and Java, and the Philippine Islands.
Several specimens of this elegant and beautiful species have been obtained: — In Norfolk three or four, one of them in May, 1830. In Yorkshire one, a male, at Temple Thorpe, near Leeds, the 24th. of May, 1850; and one near Harpham, in the East-Riding, on the Lowthorpe stream, one, if I may be allowed a brief digression, of the best trout waters that I ♦
know; and where, when I have been able to spare time for an occasional holiday, I have, as one of the ‘favoured few,’ thanks to the kindness of the St. Quintin family, had by no means indifferent success in fly-fishing; as also in another preserve on the same river, a little lower down.
Anglers, or at all events that branch of the family to which alone I belong, that which disdains every means of capture but the artificial fly, are, it is perhaps too well known, apt,
VOL. V. G
82
PURPLE HEROIST.
though with the most perfect absence of the wish to deceive, to magnify the size of what they have taken, and still more that of what they have just missed taking. A pair of scales, however, with their corresponding weights admit of no such deception; and the following notes out of my fly-fishing book will be allowed to bear out the assertion just made: — ‘1848. Lowthorpe, July 20th., nineteen brace; put in one brace and a half.’ ‘September 9th., seventeen brace and a half; put in five brace; the rest weighed twenty-two pounds.’ ‘1849. June 18th., twenty-one brace; put in twelve brace: of the rest, two weighed two pounds one ounce each; two two pounds all hut one ounce each; and the next two three pounds between them.’ ‘1851. June 16th., seventeen brace; put in nine brace.’ ‘October 1st., eleven brace and a half; put in eight brace.’ ‘1853. August 2nd., thirteen brace and a half; one fish caught with an artificial minnow: put in two brace and a half.’ ‘August 26th., eight brace; put in one brace and a half: the largest weighed three pounds all but two ounces; the next three pounds all but three ounces and a half; the next one pound and three quarters.’ ‘September 30th., thirteen brace and a half; put in seven brace.’
I think that even a Heron himself would have been satisfied with equal success. I have been for the most part in the habit of using a rod and flies of my own making. There is an idea abroad, if I may for one more moment digress, that salmon-fishing is a much more difficult species of the art than trout-fishing; but this is altogether a mistake: a good fly-fisher is, if he likes, a good salmon-fisher. A few years since I stayed a fortnight with some friends at Kelso, on their return from a tour in Scotland, and, for the first time in my life, went out salmon-fishing in the Tweed almost every day; and, with the exception of one day, when I only took a large sea- trout, had not a blank day, nor ever lost a fish that I had once hooked; though on one occasion the reel, or pirn, to speak Scots, was out of order. But this is wandering a long way from the quiet trout stream at Low¬ thorpe, where I hope to have a day or two yet for years to come, if spared. — ‘Flow on thou shining river.’
One near London. In Cornwall one, which alighted on a fishing-boat, two or three leagues from the coast; and another in the parish of St. Burians, near the Land’s End, in April, 1850. In Devonshire one, near Plymouth, in February, 1839.
PURPLE HERON".
88
In Suffolk one, some time in the month of November, 1835, obtained on the borders of a large piece of water, known by the name of King’s Fleet, near the mouth of the Woodbridge river. In Sussex one, an immature bird, at Catsfield, in October, 1851. Two others also in the same county.
In Ireland one was obtained.
These birds breed in society like the last-described species, and are also of a shy, solitary, and retired disposition. When watching for prey they stand similarly — with the neck much retracted, and drawn in between the shoulders. They frequent, as may be imagined, aquatic and marshy districts. They frequent the same spots, and in those remain the greater part of the day, only roaming from them early in the morning or late in the evening. Meyer says, ‘It is remarkable how this bird often precipitates itself out of its hiding-place from behind some stump or water-plant; for, like many other birds that are fond of hiding, it thinks itself secure until a nervous feeling makes it run into imminent danger, by discovering itself when any person comes near.’ ‘It will sit for hours together at rest, with its neck stretched out in a straight line.’ ‘During windy weather it rarely flies about.’ They do very well in confinement, if brought up from the nest, but their formidable bills are sometimes dangerous.
These birds feed on fish, water insects, and small reptiles and animals. As many as fifty small fish are not unfrequently found in one bird.
The note is a harsh croak.
With regard to the nidification and eggs of this bird, the following is the account given by Mr. Hewitson, as com muni- cated to him by Mr. Hoy: — ‘The Purple Heron does not begin to breed so early as the Common Heron, the end of May being the time of incubation. They breed in society like the Common Heron, very frequently in low trees, in plantations of alder and willow, in the vicinity of rivers and large inland waters, the nests being only a few feet above the ground, upon which they are likewise sometimes placed in swamps overgrown with tall rushes, and in extensive tracts of reeds; they are large and flat, and are composed entirely of sticks, the finer towards the inside, or lined with species of dry sedge and rushes.’ They are placed a few yards from the water; in shape they are flat and broad. Two or three nests are occasionally found near each other.
‘The eggs are commonly four, rarely five, in number, and
84
PURPLE HERON.
differ considerably in size and shape, as well as in colour.’ They are generally dull green. Both parents carefully attend to the young until they are able to fish for themselves.
Male; weight, two pounds and three quarters, to nearly three pounds; length, about three feet two inches; bill, fine yellow, the ridge and tip shaded with brown; a narrow stripe of black proceeds from the base of the bill backwards to the nape; iris, pale yellow. Forehead and crown, black tinged with blue, the feathers lengthening into a long narrow crest, the filaments of a chesnut colour, while a line of the same colour is carried down the back; on each side of the neck a narrow stripe descends, mingling with the more irregularly dark edges of the lengthened plume; the upper part of the neck in front is white, shaded off into the brown of the sides where the black stripes do not prevail; on the front of the neck each feather is elongated into the attenuated form, the colours a mixture of pale buff, chesnut, grey, black, white, and purple red. Chin and throat, pale buff or white; breast on the upper part, black, met on each side by deep purple chesnut, or brownish red, the middle rich maroon shaded off below into a mixture of that colour and dark slate grey. The plumes of the back are narrowed and elongated, the narrow tips being paler, and those at the sides the longest, and of a pale reddish brown; the one side of each is yellowish white, the other black, ‘and thus irregular lines of these colours are formed, until the long tips become entirely yellowish white.’
The wings have the first quill feather the shortest, the second, third, fourth, and fifth equal in length, and the longest: the edges of the wings are white. Greater and lesser wing coverts, dark brownish grey with purple and green reflections; primaries, dark brownish grey; greater and lesser under wing coverts, chesnut, the colour extending over the point of the shoulder. Tail, dark brownish or bluish grey, with purple and greenish reflections, the two centre feathers dark slate grey; upper tail coverts, brownish grey, also writh greenish reflections. Legs in front, both above and below the knee, dark reddish brown, tinged with greenish yellow; behind yellow; toes, also brown — reddish brown tinged with greenish yellow; the middle toe is very long; under parts of the toes yellowish. Claws black, lengthened, slender, and not much bent.
The female is like the male.
The young, until three years old, have the upper bill
PUEPLE HEEOtf.
85
blackish brown, the under one pale yellow; iris, pale yellow; the crest does not appear. Forehead, blackish grey; crown, grey, tinged with reddish brown, as is the back of the head; the neck, pale reddish brown in colour, has the stripes of black only slightly indicated, and the elongated feathers are wanting; in front it is yellowish white, with longitudinal black spots. Breast below, reddish white; back, deep grey, the feathers margined with reddish brown. Tail, deep grey, the feathers margined with reddish brown.
Tn the immature bird brown is the prevailing colour, the upper plumes being all broadly edged with it. The crown and occiput, chesnut, without a crest, and the sides and fore part of the neck yellowish white, marked on both with lengthened dashes of brownish black; no elongated feathers either there or upon the back.’ — Sir William Jardine.
86
GREAT WHITE HERON.
GREAT WHITE EGRET. GREAT EGRET.
Ardea alba ,
“ egretta ,
“ Candida ,
“ alba major , “ egrettoides ,
Pennant. Montagu. Fleming. Temmingk. Brisson.
Ray.
Gmklin.
Ardea — A Heron. Alba — White.
The Great White Heron is, or has been, found, in various parts of Europe occasionally, namely, in Germany, France, Turkey, Hungary, Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, Greece, and the Islands of the Grecian Archipelago, and in Sweden. In Asia, likewise, in Asia Minor, India, Great Tartary, and the neighbourhood of the Black and the Caspian Seas, and Persia.
Of this species one was seen on the borders of the River Avon, in Devonshire, in the autumn of the year 1805; three or four of the Common Herons having been previously observed in company with it. Another on the banks of the River Stour, in Essex, on the 3rd. of October, 1834; one having been also noticed in the spring on the Oakley shores, as a third was subsequently, by the Rev. Revett Shepherd, and the Rev. William Whitear, by the River Orwell. One is mentioned by Montagu, on the authority of Dr. Latham, as having been killed in Cumberland, and another as having been seen by the Rev. Mr. Yaughan in Devonshire. In York¬ shire, as communicated to the British Association, at their session at Newcastle, in 1838, by Arthur Strickland, Esq., one was seen about the year 1825, or 1826, at Hornsea Mere, in the East-Riding. One at New Hall, shot by John Townend, Esq.; the fact communicated by Dr. Farrar to Mr.
GREAT WHITE HERON,
(TREAT WHITE HERON.
87
Thomas Allis. Another, in full summer plumage, was shot by an husbandman at Scorborough, near Beverley, a seat of Lord Hotham, about the year 1835. In Nottinghamshire, one near Osberton, the seat of Gr. S. Foljambe, Esq. In Lincolnshire one, and in Oxfordshire, one on the banks of the Isis, in September, 1833. Another was also seen in Cumberland on the shores of the Solway; and one was shot, a few years since, near Thorn ey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, of which J. B. Little, Esq., of St. John’s College, Cambridge, has written me word.
In Scotland, one, in Haddingtonshire, near the village of Tyninghame, on the Frith of Forth.
Their migratory journeys, says Meyer, are performed in the day-time, at a great elevation, by two to four birds in number.
These birds haunt still pools, and other such places, in which they wade in search of prey. They often perch on the highest parts of lofty trees. They are of a somewhat shy nature, but sociable among themselves, yet exclusively so. They are, however, soon domesticated, and live for many years — ornaments to the poultry yard.
They feed on fish, reptiles, molluscous animals, water-insects, their larvae, worms, and any young birds that are so unfor¬ tunate as to come within their reach. These doubtless are most sought towards night-fall, when the ‘pale cold moon’ glimmers on the water in the mournful solitudes which are the general resort of this and its kindred species. If by chance, or, it may be, not by chance, you are alone, in such a place, at such a time, when either a dead silence prevails, or the wind sighs and soughs through the uncultivated wastes, how pleasing is the melancholy which cannot but be felt. You seem spell-bound to the spot, and while the lowering darkness evokes an indescribable emotion — akin to fear, you yet shrink from breaking the charm, and are loth to leave the mysterious scene.
The note, a mere wild cry, is described by Meyer as not very loud, and resembling the syllable crah.’
The nest, a very loose structure, built of sticks, reeds, flags, and rushes, and lined with dry grass or leaves, is placed generally on the ground, but sometimes on low trees, almost always, according to Audubon, overhanging the water, and many being placed in contiguity, as in the case of the common species. The same situation is resorted to, and the old nest
88
GEEAT WHITE HEEOH.
repaired year after year, by the same pair. Low marshy places, covered with trees, by the sides of ponds, lakes, and swamps, are those appropriated to nidification, and sometimes flat islands at a distance from the main land.
The male bird feeds the female while she is engaged in sitting; and when the young are hatched both parents unite in supplying their wants.
The eggs are three in number, and of a pale bluish green colour.
Male; length, three feet and about four or five or six inches; bill, yellow at the base, blackish brown towards the tip; iris, orange yellow, round it the bare space is pale green. The feathers at the occiput are rather elongated and thick. Head, crown, neck, nape, chin, throat, breast, back, wings, greater and lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, tertiaries, greater and lesser under wing coverts, tail, and upper tail coverts, which are long, loose, and pendant, white. These feathers, continued down from the upper part of the back, were formerly in great request as plumes for head-dress, and are still much worn by the Turks, and other eastern nations, for that purpose. Legs, toes, and claws, almost black, the former tinged transparently with pale yellowish.
The female is like the male.
The young do not acquire the elongated feathers on the back of the head, and the lower part of the front of the neck, until the third year. Bill, blackish green, tinged with yellow; legs, greenish black.
LITTLE EGRET.
89
LITTLE EGRET.
EGRET HEROIN".
Ardea garzetta , Pennant. Montagu.
Arden — A Heron. Garzetta — . ?
The elegant and graceful Egret, whose whole plumage is white as the driven snow, resembles the preceding one — ‘sic parvis compenere magna’ — in all but size; and is likewise assignable to the same localities, as being found in Europe occasionally — in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Sicily, France, Spain, the south of Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Sardinia, and the islands of the Grecian Archipelago ; and likewise met with in Asia — in Persia, and the neighbourhood of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. So also in Africa — in Egypt and Nubia in the east, and Senegal in the west.
Specimens have been recorded as having occurred in this country as follows: — In Hampshire, one near Christchurch, in the beginning of July, 1822; in Cornwall, two near Penzance, in April, 1854. In Warwickshire, two or three near Sutton Coldfield; in Devonshire, one at Flatoars, on the River Dart, in the year 1816; one also, mentioned by Montagu, in Anglesea; it was a bird of the second year. A. Cleveland, Esq. mentions in the ‘Zoologist,’ page 3116, that one was shot in the south of Devon, in April, 1851.
In Ireland, Mr. Templeton records one as having been shot in the harbour of Cork.
Meyer says ‘The localities usually chosen by this species, are generally the swampy banks of rivers and lakes, where the flags and reeds are of low growth ; or the vicinity of woods and large trees, in which the birds roost at night.’
90
LITTLE EGBET.
‘On the wing, the Little Egret is rather quicker in flight than the larger species, hut in windy weather it is very helpless, and is obliged to skim low over the bushes and reecjs on its passage from o'ne piece of water to another. But when the weather is fine, this bird may be seen, if startled up by intrusion of any kind, circling up high in the air, as if surveying the neighbourhood before it finally decides upon its course.’
If taken young, they are easily domesticated to a certain extent, and are gentle and harmless in their manners and habits. The long feathers, Bewick says, were formerly used to decorate the helmets of warriors, as now the turbans of the Persians and the Turks, and the head-dresses of European ladies.
They feed on fish, frogs, and other small reptiles, water insects and their larvse, and worms. ‘The manner in which it obtains its food is by walking stealthily along shore in a stooping attitude, with the head drawn back; as soon as it perceives a desirable object, the Egret darts its pointed bill like lightning upon it, and seldom fails to obtain its prey.’
This species, like the others, breeds in marshy places, either on the ground among reeds, or on the top of a willow stump, or on the branches of a low tree, about half a dozen feet from the ground. The nest is made of dry sticks and rushes, flags, reeds, and grass; the latter being placed inside.
The eggs are four or five, or six, in number, and, dhe account says of the same white colour as the bird, or another, of a pale bluish green colour.
Male; weight, about one pound or upwards; length, one foot eight to one foot ten or eleven inches, or even two feet; bill, bluish black, the base of the upper one pale ash-colour; iris, yellow; the eyelids, pale green. A dependent crest, so to call it, springs from the back of the head; it is composed of two narrow feathers, four inches in length. Head, crown, and neck, the lower part of which is also adorned with similar long feathers, nape, chin, throat, breast, and back, white; hair¬ like plumes spring from its centre, their ends curve upwards, and the bird, if suddenly disturbed or alarmed, generally sets them up.
The wings have the first and fourth quill feathers equal in length, the second and third the longest, and also of equal length, ‘inter se.’ Greater and lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, tertiaries, greater and lesser under wing coverts,
LITTLE EGRET.
91
tail, and tail coverts, white. Legs, bright black above the knee on the bare part, and the upper half of the part below it is dark yellowish green; toes, also blackish green with a tinge of yellow; claws, dusky black.
The young are at first, it is said, greyish white; they are without the elongated filaments to the feathers on the back of the head and the lower part of the neck in front and the back. The lower bill is whitish for more than half its length from the base.
92
BUFF-BACKED HERON.
LITTLE WHITE HEEGIST.
BED-BILLED HEEOIV. EUEOUS-BACKED EGrEET.
Ardea (Equinoctial! s , “ russata ,
“ affinis ,
Pennant. Montagu. Selby. Jenyns. Horsfield.
Ardea — A Heron.
JEquinoctialis — Equinoctial.
This species of Heron is a native of the southern parts of Europe — in Turkey, about the mouths of the Danube, on that intermediate sort of ‘neutral’ soil which ‘nec tellus est nec mare,’ as also in the Crimsea — both localities so full of interest at the present moment to others than ornithologists. In Dalmatia, and near the Caucasian range of mountains. In Asia, it likewise occurs in India and Japan, according to M. Temminck; also in the Dukkun, Himalaya, and Nepaul, where it is plentiful in Upper Hindostan, and by the bank of the famous Glunga, as also in Java, Sunda, and the adjacent islands. *
One specimen, a female, was shot by Mr. F. Cornish, at South Allington, in the parish of Chivelstone, near Kings- bridge, in Devonshire, in the end of October, 1805. It was observed for several days in the same field, attending a herd of cows.
It appeared to be by no means shy.
It fed on insects.
Male; length, about one foot eight inches; bill, yellow, darker at the tip; the upper mandible slightly curved; iris, bright yellow. Head on the crown, back, and sides, of an orange colour, but the base of each feather white, the orange- coloured ends formed of the loose unconnected filaments of
%
BUFF-BACKED HERON.
BUFF-BACKED HEKOK.
93
the web. Neck behind and nape, shining white; chin, throat, and breast above, white, tinged with golden yellow, the latter below pure white; back above, white, on the middle part brilliant orange, and the filaments of the feathers sufficiently long to reach beyond the ends of the closed wings; on the lower part again the back is white.
Greater and lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, tertiaries, greater and lesser under wing coverts, tail, and tail coverts, all shining white. Legs, yellow, the joints darker and tinged with lead-colour; toes, also darker yellow, and tinged with lead-colour. The middle claw is pectinated.
The male and female are alike in plumage.
Young; bill, orange yellow; iris, pale yellow; crown of the head, buff; the feathers on the back a little elongated, but scarcely to be called a crest; neck on the upper part in front, buff, on the lower part the feathers are more elongated, and, though not slender, hang detached over the upper part of the breast. Nape, chin, throat, breast, and back, snowy white. The wings, when closed, completely cover the tail. Greater and lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, tertiaries, greater and lesser under wing coverts, and the tail, which is slightly forked, and tail coverts, all snowy white. Legs on the joints, and the bare part above them for about an inch and a half, nearly black, tinged with green; toes and claws also nearly black, with a tinge of green.
94
SQUACCO HERON.
BED-LEGGED HEEON. DWAEP HEEON. SENEGAL BITTEEN. SWABIAN BITTEEN. SQUAIOTTA HEEON. CASTANEOUS HEEON.
Ardea senegalensis,
“ ralloides ,
“ comuta ,
44 squalotta ,
44 castanea ,
44 erythropus, var. “ pumila ,
44 marsigli ,
Cancrofagus rvfus,
44 luteus,
Gmelin.
Scopoli.
Pallas.
Gmelin.
Gmelin.
Latham.
Latham.
Gmelin.
Brisson.
Brisson.
Ardea— A Heron.
Senegalensis— Of Senegal.
This kind appertains to Europe, being found in Turkey, Hungary, Selavonia, Italy, Greece, and its islands; France, and Sicily; also at times in Switzerland, Silesia, Germany, and Holland; likewise to Asia — in Persia, Syria, and Arabia, and along the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, in which region it is abundant; and to Africa — in Nubia and Egypt.
In Yorkshire one of these birds was killed on the low grounds below Askern, in the West-Riding; other specimens have occurred in various other counties — one in Devonshire, near Kingsbridge, in July, 1840, as also in Somersetshire, in 1825, near Bridgewater. In Cornwall, one near Penzance, about the year 1844, and one seen at Hayle a few days after; one at Scilly in the autumn of 1842; also in Devon¬ shire; Hampshire; Wiltshire, where one was shot at Boy ton by Mr. Lambert, in 1795. Suffolk; Norfolk, where one of those procured had entangled itself in a fishing-net, hung up to dry, by Ormesby Broad, in December, 1820. Bewick
SQUACCO HERON.
SQUACCO HEEON.
95
mentions the occurrence of this one, a male, a few