In TW&IVG S&ctions,

THE

Section. viu

BRITISH BIRD

BOOK

2OO PLATE S IN COLOUR AND
NUMEROUS PHOTOGRAPHS,

EDITED BY

FB KIRKMAN BAQXON

J. L. BONHOTE
WILLIAM FARREN
W. R. OGILVIE GRANT
F. C. R. JOURDAIN
W. P. PYGRAFT
EDMUND SELOUS
MISS E. L. TURNER
A. L. THOMSON
AND THE EDITOR

MISS W. AUSTEN
G. E. COLLINS
H. GRONVOLD
G. E. LODGE
A. W. SEABY
AND OTHERS

A COMPLETE -WORK ON THE BIRDS, NESTS
AND EGGS OF GREAT BRITAIN

an,

ct

TfG> &'E C' (JACK,

BIOLOGY
LIBRARY

••••••

THE SKUAS

[ORDER : Charadriiformes. FAMILY : Laridce. SUBFAMILY : Stercorariince]
PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES

[F. C. R. JOTJRDAIN. F. B. KIRKMAN. W. P. PYCRAFT. A. L. THOMSON]

GREAT-SKUA \Megalistris skua (Briinnich) ; Megalestris catarrhdctes
(Linnaeus). Old hen, Tom Harry (Devon), bonxie, skooi (Shetlands). French,
labbe cataracte ; German, grosse Raub-Mowe ; Italian, stercorario maggiore].

1. Description. — The great-skua is easily recognised by its large size, almost
uniform umber-brown coloration, the large white patch on the primaries, and the
absence of conspicuous "tail streamers." The sexes are alike, and there is no
seasonal change of coloration. (PI. 109.) Length 21 in. [533'40 mm.]. The head
and nape are umber-brown, the feathers of the neck rather paler, acuminate, and
have pale straw-coloured shafts. The wings are rather darker brown than the rest
of the upper parts, and the outer primaries show a large patch of white extending
outwards from the tips of the primary major coverts ; the shafts of the quills are
white. The tail-coverts are brown with dull rufous streaks, and the rectrices are
umber-brown ; the central feathers not markedly longer than the rest. The
under surface is of a pale chestnut-rufous, white shaft-streaks giving the flanks a
slightly striated appearance. The cere is of a greyish blue, the beak, legs, and toes
black, and the iris is dark brown. The juvenile plumage differs from that of the
adult only in that the neck feathers are less pointed and less conspicuously striated.
The downy young are of a light bistre-brown inclining to reddish, especially in the-
back. The only trace of mottling of any kind is to be found an] til©; ctfj&ri^aiHV
here it is barely discernable. Beak dark lead colour. Legs pale lead-blue, with a
patch of dark leaden-grey on each side of the base of the toes, which, with the
webs, are of a dark leaden-grey, [w. p. p.]

2. Distribution. — In the British Isles this fine species is confined to two
VOL. III. 2C

746314

196 THE SKUAS

localities in the Shetlands, one on the Sneug, on the island of Foula, and the other
on Hernia Ness,1 in the island of Unst, from which at various times attempts have
been made to colonise the opposite headland of Saxavord and other localities in the
island. Rona's Hill on the mainland was also occupied at one time, and the nest
has occasionally been found on Yell and Hascosay. Outside the British Isles it
breeds in the Faeroes, and in much larger numbers also in Iceland. The only other
locality where they are supposed to breed is Lady Franklin Island, Hudson Strait,
where Kumlien reports having seen the birds in September, and adds that they had
then young on the rocks. The date, however, is late and the site unlikely, so that
probably there is some mistake. In winter it has occurred as a straggler as far south
as the Straits of Gibraltar, the Balearic Isles, and occasionally in Italy and the Swiss
lakes. On the American side it ranges to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfound-
land, and the New England coast, [r. c. R. J.]

3. Migration. — Resident within our area as a whole : breeding only in the
Shetland Isles, it is an uncommon winter visitor to all other parts of our coasts,
occurring chiefly on the eastern seaboard of Great Britain. Whether these winter
visitors all come from Shetland, or partly from further north, is not known. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — The great-skua breeds in colonies, but the nests are
not placed close together, and in most cases are found at a considerable height above
the sea. The nests, according to Oswin Lee, are rather untidy structures. First
" a hollow nearly a foot in diameter is trodden in the moss on the slope near the top
of some hill ; this is lined with bits of moss, a few feathers and a good deal of dead
grass." (PI. XLVII.) According to Naumann, the female makes the nest. Two eggs
are deposited. The usual ground-colour varies from light to deep olive-brown,
but a less common type is olive-green in colour, sometimes very pale. The markings
consist of very dark brown spots and blotches and ashy brown shellmarks, which
are rather sparsely distributed, chiefly round the big end, sometimes forming an
irregular zone. A blue type without markings has also occurred (Dr. 0. Ottosson).
(PI. J.) Average size of 27 eggs, 2-73x1-93 in. [69-5x49-1 mm.]. Incubation,

according to .Hantzsch, is carried on by both parents in turn, and the young are
' •*« *.••*••••
: hatched" afterf.a period of 28-30 days, while Faber estimates the fledging period as

;#T3.ftut;.ti0; days,] '"The first eggs are laid in the Shetlands from about 12th to 24th
May according to the season, and only a single brood is reared annually, though,
where much harried, two or three clutches may be laid. [F. c. R. J.]

1 The Duchess of Bedford records forty-two nests at this station in 1907 (Annals Scot. Nat.
Hist., 1908, p. 4).

PLATE XLVII

Photo by Bentley Beetham

Nest of great-skua

Photo by J. Cyril Crowley

Nest of Arctic or Richardson's Skua

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 197

5. Food. — Fish robbed from other species, the young and eggs of other
species, carrion, crustaceans, and molluscs, occasionally also adult birds, such as
kittiwakes (see p. 214). The young are fed, chiefly on fish, by both parents, [p. B. K.]

POMATORHINE-SKUA [Stercorariits pomarinus (Temminck) ;
Stercorarius pomatorhinus (Temminck). Black Allan, molberry, Tom Harry.
French, labbe pomarin; German, mitttere Raub-Mowe; Italian, stercorario
mezzano].

i. Description. — The pomatorhine-skua is to be recognised from its congeners
by the broad rounded ends of the central tail feathers. These feathers are
much longer than the rest and form " streamers," of which the vanes are twisted
vertically. The sexes are alike, and there is no seasonal change of coloration.
(PL 110.) Length (including the "tail streamers") 21 in. [533-40 mm.]. The
crown of the head, region of the lores, and fore-part of the cheeks are black. The
feathers of the neck — which are acuminate — and throat are white suffused with
yellow. The rest of the upper parts are of an umber-brown. The lower neck
feathers are barred with black, forming a more or less conspicuous pectoral bar ; the
breast is dull white, while the uppermost flank feathers and abdomen are umber.
The pectoral band becomes less conspicuous with age, and there is a tendency,
until full maturity is attained, to develop striations on the flanks and upper and
under tail-coverts after the autumn moult. Beak brown, legs and toes reddish black.
There is also a dark form of this species. According to Kolthoff's observations
in N.W. Greenland, this form may be as dark as the Arctic-skua, and between
it and the light form all intermediate variations may be seen (Naumann, Vogel
Mitteleuropas, xi. 313). In the immature plumage there is less yellow on the neck,
and the flanks and under parts are more barred. The juvenile plumage differs
from that of later and adult stages in having the feathers of the upper parts sooty
brown margined with rufous, the major coverts and secondaries tipped with
rufous ; the tail-coverts barred with rufous and black ; the under parts show
some variation in hue, but may be described as of an ashy brown, more or less
conspicuously striated with darker brown. Legs and toes often blue or grey in
patches, and the bases of the toes yellowish. The young in down is of a sooty
brown, with a tinge of rufous in the back. [w. P. P.]

2. Distribution. — In the British Isles this species is only known as a fairly

198 THE SKUAS

regular autumn and winter migrant to Great Britain, especially on the eastern side,
and a scarce visitor to Ireland on autumn passage. It has been observed during
the breeding season on the Murman coast, the Kanin Peninsula, Waigatz, Kolguev,
Dolgoi, and Novaya Zemlya (where nests were found in 1903), while in Asia it occurs
in summer on Yalmal, the Ob north of 67°, the Lower Yenesei (where Popham found
nests in 1895), the Taimyr Peninsula north of 74° (Middendorff), and the Liakoff
Islands. It has occurred on Jan Mayen, but apparently does not breed in Spits-
bergen or Franz- Josef Land, though it has been met with in June north of the
Spitsbergen group between 82° 53' and 82° 57' N. lat. by Sverdrup. On the American
side it is found on the west coast of Greenland, and breeds in Wrangel Land, Grinnell
Bay, Exeter Sound, Disco Island (?), and Herald Island, while it occurs in summer
near Franklin and Liverpool Bays, and Mcllhenny took many nests in the Point
Barrow district, North Alaska. During the winter months it ranges south to the
Mediterranean and Black Sea, and has been recorded from the west coast of Africa
as far south as Walfisch Bay, while in the Pacific it visits Japan, Burma, North
Australia, Peru, and California. [F. c. R. J.]

3. Migration. — A bird of passage and a winter visitor. The species is
most often met with during the autumn : only a smah1 proportion of the birds
remain for the winter near our southern coasts, and the spring passage is not very
noticeable. The east coast of Great Britain is the one most favoured by this
species ; on the Irish coasts it is of irregular occurrence. An exceptional invasion
took place in the autumn of 1879, and a less noticeable one in October 1880. After
gales the species is sometimes met with inland (cf. Saunders, III. Man. B. B., 2nd
ed., 1899, p. 689 ; and Nelson, B. of Yorks., 1907, p. 697). [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — Does not breed in the British Isles, [r. c. R. J.]

5. Food. — To a great extent parasitic on the smaller Gulls and Terns, forcing
them to disgorge fish and then devouring it. At times, however, it wih1 capture fish
for itself, and will devour all kinds of carrion thrown up by the sea. It has been
recorded as feeding on the blubber and offal of whales, seals, walrus, etc., as well as
their excreta, also on lemmings captured by itself (Von Heuglin), and a dead rat
(Thompson). It has been seen devouring a dead herring-gull (R. Service), and has
been killed while clinging to a wounded kittiwake (M. Bailey). One shot by T. H.
Nelson disgorged a fresh grey-plover. Kolthoff records having found small Crustacea
in the stomach, and Naumann states that the berries of Vaccinium uliginosum and
V. oxycoccus are said to be used at times to feed the young. There is little doubt
that this species devours the eggs of other birds, and on the breeding-ground in

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 199

Alaska it also takes insects (L. M. Turner). Nothing certain appears to have been
recorded as to the food of the young. [F. c. B. J.]

ARCTIC OR RICHARDSON'S SKUA \8tercararius parasUicus
(Ldnnasus) ; Stercorarius crepidatus (Gmelin). Irish lord, robber bird (Devon) ;
gull Allan (Northumberland) ; scoutie Allan (Orkneys) ; shooi, boatswain
(Shetlands). French, labbe parasite ; German, Schmarotzer Raub-Mowe ;
Italian, labbo].

1. Description. — The Arctic-skua is distinguished by the long-pointed tail
feathers and the white shafts to the primaries, the latter being characteristic at
all ages. The sexes are alike, and there is no marked seasonal change of coloration.
(PL 100 in vol. ii.) Length, including the "tail-streamers," 20 in. [508*00 mm.].
This species is very variable in coloration, presenting two more or less distinct
phases — a light and a dark phase — but the extremes are linked by gradations due to
interbreeding, which make description difficult. In the dark phase, which is most
frequently met with in the most northerly latitudes, the crown is dull black, and the
rest of the plumage dark sooty brown suffused with slate-grey on the upper parts,
and with a conspicuous bronze-yellow tinge on the ear-coverts and sides of the neck.
In the light phase the under parts are white or creamy white, this extending to
the throat and the sides of the neck, almost to the nape, where it is conspicuously
washed with yellow. In some individuals the side of the neck is of a greyish buff,
and the yellow is formed by shaft-streaks, giving a striated appearance. Iris hazel.
There is considerable individual variation. Legs black. The juvenile plumage is
of a uniform sooty brown, rufous margins to the feathers giving a variegated
appearance (see p. 205). The adult dress is apparently not completed till after
the fifth autumn moult. The young in down are of a uniform sooty brown,
slightly paler on the under parts, [w. P. P.]

2. Distribution. — In Great Britain this skua is only known to breed on the
mainland of Scotland in Caithness, as first recorded by Booth, and in Sutherland,
where in 1884 Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley were only aware of the existence
of one pair of breeding birds, though Mr. A. H. Evans describes the colony as a
fair-sized one of late years. On the islands off the west coast it is, however, more
numerous : there are two good-sized colonies in the Inner Hebrides, one of about
one hundred pairs, according to Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley. On Islay and
Jura it breeds commonly ; a single pair nested on Tiree in 1891. In the Outer

200 THE SKUAS

Hebrides a few pairs breed on the Lews, while other colonies exist on North and
South Uist and on some of the smaller islets. In the Orkneys it is apparently con-
fined to the parish of N. Walls in Hoy, and one pair breeds on Fair Island, but in
the Shetlands it is far more generally distributed, the largest colonies being found
in Noss, Fetlar, and Herma Ness. Outside the British Isles it breeds in the Fseroes
and Iceland, while in Norway it is found along the coast district, but chiefly north
of Trondhjem's Fjord, and in Sweden both on the west and east coasts. There is
no recent record of breeding in Denmark, but it nests in Northern Russia on the
tundra south to lat. 64 J° on the Dwina, and is plentiful in the north-east. It also
breeds on Jan Mayen, Franz-Josef Land, Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, and prob-
ably also Waigatz and Kolguev. In Asia it is found along the north of Siberia
south to about lat. 67°-71°, and also on the Commander Isles. In North America it
breeds in Southern Greenland and the shores of Davis Strait and along the northern
coasts west to Alaska and the Aleutian Isles. In winter its range includes the
Mediterranean and N. Atlantic, while it has been recorded as far south as the Cape
of Good Hope in Africa ; and it has also occurred in the Persian Gulf, the Indian
Ocean, Tasmania, and New Zealand ; and on the coasts of America in Calif ornia and
Peru on the west side, and at Rio de Janeiro on the east. [r. c. R. j.]

3. Migration. — Resident within our area as a whole. In winter a regular
migration takes place from the northern breeding-haunts down the west coast of
Scotland and the east coast of Great Britain. The species' visits to the south of
England are less frequent, and it is of irregular occurrence on the west (cf. Saunders,
III. Man. B. B., 2nd ed., 1899, p. 691). To the Irish coasts it is a not infrequent
winter visitor, but rare in the summer months (cf. Ussher and Warren, B. of
Ireland, 1900, p. 351). It is probable that a proportion of these winter birds
come from beyond our area. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — Although this species breeds in colonies the nests are
generally some distance apart, and in the British Islands its favourite haunts are
wide expanses of hummocky moorland, or in some cases at a considerable height on
mountains near the sea. The nest is generally a mere depression in the moss,
scantily lined with grasses or bits of heather. (PI. XLVH.) The eggs are normally
two in number, though occasionally three eggs have been found in a nest. They
vary in shape even in the same clutch, while the ground-colour ranges from pale
olive-green to deep olive-brown, and exceptionally pale blue or pale buff varieties
have been met with. The markings consist of spots and blotches of deep umber or
blackish and a few ashy brown shellmarks. (PI. J.) Average size of 31 eggs,

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 201

2-18 x 1-61 in. [55-5x41-1 mm.]. Hantzsch states that incubation is chiefly per-
formed by the hen, but that she is relieved for some hours by her mate. He quotes
Faber as giving the period as 24 days, but says that others estimate it as 28 days.
Faber also states that the fledging period of the young is 40 days. The breeding
birds arrive at the nesting-grounds about the end of April, and the first eggs are laid
at the end of May or early in June in Scotland. Only a single brood is reared in the
season. [F. c. B. J.]

5. Food. — Fish robbed from other sea-birds, the eggs and young of various
species, chiefly Ducks, Waders, Terns, and Gulls, occasionally perhaps adult birds,
such as small Waders. To these it adds carrion, crustaceans, molluscs, insects,
worms, and small rodents. The young are fed on fish and sometimes insects, also
berries, by both parents. [F. B. K.]

BUFFON'S OR LONGTAILED-SKUA [Stercordrius longicaudus
Vieillot ; Stercwarius parasiticus (Linnaeus). French, Idbbe d longue queue, ;
German, Heine Eaub-Mowe ; Italian, labbo codalungd}.

1. Description. — This skua may be distinguished, when adult, by the great
length of the central tail feathers or " streamers," and the coloration of the shafts
of the primaries, only the two outermost being white. The sexes are alike, and
there is no seasonal change of plumage. (PL 110.) Length, including the tail
" streamers," 23 in. [584-20 mm.] ; tail streamers, 8 in. [203-20 mm.]. The top of the
head and nape are black, the rest of the upper parts greyish brown, save the lower
cheeks and sides of the neck, which are white more or less tinged with buffish
yellow, and the tail feathers, which are black, contrasting with the " streamers,"
which are brown. The throat, neck, and forepart of the breast are white, the rest
of the under parts greyish brown, darkest on the flanks and abdomen. Legs olive-
grey, toes black. Iris dark brown. The juvenile plumage a sooty browhy ike
flank feathers and upper tail-coverts having buff margins. The characteristic
adult dress is not attained for several years. The young in down are of a sooty
brown, slightly paler on the under parts, [w. P. P.]

2. Distribution. — To the British Isles this species is chiefly an autumn
visitor on migration, although a few have been observed on spring passage, occasion-
ally as late as June. It is most frequent on the east side of Great Britain. Its
breeding range probably includes Spitsbergen, where it has frequently been observed
in summer in pairs, but no nest has actually been found, and Cape Flora in the Franz-

202 THE SKUAS

Josef group. In Scandinavia a few pairs breed on the Dovref jeld and in Finmark,
while on the high fjeld of Jemtland and Swedish Lapland it has been found nesting
in considerable numbers, especially in lemming years. In North Russia it breeds on
all the tundra as far south as Archangel, and has been proved to nest in Novaya
Zemlya ; and in Siberia it also inhabits the tundra region east to the Pacific, and is
plentiful on the Lower Yenesei. In the New World it breeds in Greenland, and is
locally common on the west side, and also nests near Cape Bismarck (Manniche).
It has also been recorded during the summer months from Kotzebue Sound and
Thank-God Haven (Bessels), while Feilden found nests in Grinnell Land, and Hart
recorded it as breeding commonly near Discovery Bay on the Arctic expedition of
1875-76. Its migration range extends south to the Straits of Gibraltar and the
Mediterranean, while along the east side of N. America it has occurred as far south
as Florida and to lat. 20° on the Pacific side. [p. c. R. j.]

3. Migration. — An irregular cold-weather visitor to the British coasts.
The majority of the records are for the east coast of England and for the autumn
months. A very exceptional visitation of these birds occurred in the autumn of
1891. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — Does not breed in the British Isles, [r. c. R. J.]

5. Food. — Except during the breeding season this skua is no doubt mainly
parasitic on the Terns and the kittiwake, devouring the fish which it forces them to
disgorge. Breeding inland at some distance from the sea, its diet varies according
to locality, but lemmings, My odes torquatus (Pallas), are very largely eaten, and a
mouse has been found in the stomach of a breeding bird. Among the insects taken
at this time may be mentioned Lepidoptera of various kinds, Coleoptera, especially
the larger beetles, Orthoptera (earwigs and grasshoppers), and Diptera (Tipula).
Crustacea of various kinds are also eaten, and Collett also mentions earthworms and
Mollusca (Litorina litored) as forming part of its diet. In some districts the young

» . r ' * **".'

. V are:- fed largely or entirely on the berries of Empetrum nigrum, and probably in the
:'.'•! earliest, stages of life insect food is generally given, but they are soon able to eat
lemmings. After the breeding season, besides fish and wounded birds, such as
dunlins and stints (Seebohm), it has also been seen feeding on a dead horse
(Zoologist, 1877, p. 331), and the corpse of an Arctic fox (Von Heuglin). Both
parents feed the young, disgorging the food in front of them (Manniche).
[F. c. R. j.]

THE GREAT AND ARCTIC-SKUAS 203

THE GREAT AND ARCTIC-SKUAS

[F. B. KIRKMAN]

The subfamily of the Skuas, the pirates of the bird world, is
divided into two genera, Megalestris and Stercorarius, with, as far as at
present known, four species in the first and three in the second.

The only representative of Megalestris in the British Isles, and
indeed in the whole of the northern hemisphere, is the great-skua
or bonxie, a bird of the size of the lesser blackbacked-gull. Its
breeding range is exceedingly restricted, being confined to the
Shetlands, Faeroes, and Iceland. It may be found to breed elsewhere,
and there is some evidence, but no certainty, that it does so in Hudson
Strait, Canada. The comparative rarity of the species has of course
made its eggs and skin all the more desirable to collectors, and it has
only escaped being completely exterminated by them in Shetland
owing to the efforts of a few individuals, notably the Edmonstons
and the Scotts of Melby. The former sought to protect the colony at
Unst, with varying success, from as far back as 1831, at which date
there were only two or three pairs left. The numbers rose to 50 or
GO pairs, but fell in 1861 to 10 or 12. In 1895 there were only 7, but
in 1907 the number rose to 42 pairs.1 Owing largely to the efforts
of the Scotts, the colony at Foula has also made good progress.

The remaining three species of Megalestris are found on all the
oceans of the southern hemisphere, and include the Port Egmont
or sea hen, familiar to readers of Captain Cook's voyages.

The three species of Stercorarius breed in the northern parts of
the northern hemisphere. Two of them, the Pomatorhine and
Buffon's skuas, visit us only outside the breeding season. The third,

1 Annals Scot. Nat. Hist., 1908, p. 4 (Duchess of Bedford).
VOL. III. 2 D

204 THE SKUAS

the Arctic or Richardson's skua, is with us the whole year through,
like the great-skua, but is commoner. It breeds in the extreme
north of the Scottish mainland, in the Hebrides, Orkneys, and
Shetlands. As it is frequently compared with the bonxie or great-
skua, it is here treated together with it, the Pomatorhine and Buffon's
skuas being treated separately.

The accompanying plates will give a good idea of both species,
the bonxie being depicted making a savage charge upon a trespasser
in its territory, and the Arctic chasing a tern with intent to rob.
Famous pirates both, but of the two the smaller species, the Arctic, is
the more alert ; it is a buccaneer of the rollicking type ; it seems
to feel a fierce zest in its nefarious business, to love the doing
of it as much as the reward. It will even make of it a pastime,
swooping down upon one of its own kind in sheer exuberance of
spirits, pursuing it with dizzy speed and amazing twists and turns,
to be pursued in turn, flinging forth as it goes its wild mewing call to
mingle with the other wild harmonies of Nature's vast orchestra. The
great-skua is equally bold, and its swiftness is perhaps greater, but its
spirit seems as sombre as its hue. It sweeps sorrowfully over the sea,
and broods upon the waters as if it were the reincarnated spirit of a
shipwrecked Viking. Such at least is the impression given by
externals, and coloured by our human apperception. If we could
only see with the eyes of these Skuas, and feel with their senses, get
inside the creatures, so to speak, we should find no doubt that they
differed little in their outlook on life.

The two species would not be unlike in sombreness of plumage
were it not for the remarkable lighter variations in the coloration of
the Arctic. This species has been termed dimorphic, which is inexact,
if by this it is meant that there are two distinct types without existing
gradations from one to the other. Between the form which is entirely
dusky hued above and below, and that which, while retaining the
dusky hue on the upper parts, is whitish or cream coloured on the
under parts, it should be possible, judging from the evidence, to

'/*. <

THE GREAT AND ARCTIC-SKUAS 205

•

establish a long graded series of intermediate varieties.1 On the other
hand, these varieties can as a rule be classed as light or dark, so that,
subject to the reservation here stated, the term dimorphic is not out
of place. The various forms interbreed freely. The nestling young,
though said to differ slightly in shade, according as they have dark or
light coloured parents,2 are all of a dusky or sooty brown hue, the char-
acteristic colour of the all-dusky adult type. In the fledgling stage the
plumage is also of the dusky type, i.e. sooty brown, but Collett made
the observation that a marked difference becomes apparent if the
feathers are raised and their covered parts exposed, some individuals
showing more white, others more brown ; but whether there are
variations at this stage corresponding to all the variations of the
adult stage has yet to be seen. It may be noted that sooty brown is
the characteristic hue of the down and first feathering of the two
other species of Stercorarius — the Buffon's and Pomatorhine-skuas,
and that in the Pomatorhine species there are also dark and light
adult forms, with all degrees of intermediate variation.3

What makes these unusually wide variations of peculiar interest
is that they occur within one and the same species, and are of fairly
regular though varying occurrence throughout its breeding range.*
They do not correspond therefore to the exceptional and local hybrid
forms occurring between different species, such, for example, as those
between the hooded and carrion-crows in localities where the breed-
ing ranges of these overlap. And, further, they do not correspond
to the variations within the species that rank as subspecific, for the
latter are local in their nature, and by no means so marked. If,
indeed, a local race of a given species, e.g. Corvus corax hispanus,
Parus ater hibernicus, differed from another local race or from the
typical form of the same species, e.g. Corvus corax corax, Parus ater

1 Collett quoted in Naumann's Vogel Mitteleuropas, xi. 319 ; E. Selous, Bird Watcher in the
Shetlands, pp. 15-20.
1 Collett, loc. ait.

3 According to Kolthoff's observations in N.-W. Greenland, quoted in Naumann's Vogel
Mitteleuropas, xi. 313.

4 The light form of the Arctic-skua is much the commoner in northern latitudes.

206 THE SKUAS

britanniciis, to the extent that the light form of Arctic-skua differs
from the dark, they would generally be classed as distinct species.
Whether the variation in the Arctic and Pomatorhine-skuas is to be
regarded as the result of the interbreeding of two allied forms
inhabiting the same geographical area, or whether it results from
some other cause, are questions that it would scarcely be profitable
to discuss till we are in possession of more detailed information.

The great-skua arrives at its breeding-place about the beginning
of April,1 therefore earlier than the Arctic, which does not appear
till towards the end of the same month. The breeding-grounds
of the two species may be near together, as on Herma Ness, in the
island of Unst (Shetlands). Both like open ground, rough waste, or
moorland. The great-skua prefers high ground, and, in the British
Isles, the same may be said of the Arctic, which breeds, however,
further inland than the larger species, hummock-covered open moor-
land being its favourite haunt. In Norway, according to Collett, it
is found usually on hummocky vegetation-covered flats near water,
and only exceptionally far inland.2

Little has been recorded of their displays or gestures, and this
little we owe to Mr. E. Selous. Of the larger species he writes :
" Often when one of the great-skuas is circling round, and the other
standing at its post, this one will stretch itself up and raise its wings
above the back every time its partner passes. This raising of the
wings enters into one of the most salient of the many nuptial antics
of this bird, which I will now describe. In its completest form it
commences aerially. Two birds have been circle-soaring one above
the other, and are now at a considerable height above one of their
chosen standing-places, when the lower one floats with the wings
extended, but raised very considerably — half way, perhaps, towards
meeting over the back — an action which in their flight is uncommon.
As it does this it utters a note like a-er, a-er, a-er (a as in ' as '), upon

1 Definite dates for its arrival at Foula are March 27 to April 3, 1891 ; first week April 1893,
recorded by Mr. Eagle Clarke in the Annals of Scottish Natural History, 1892-4.
1 Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, xi. 327.

THE GREAT AND ARCTIC-SKUAS 207

which, as at a signal, the other one floats in the same manner, and
both now descend thus together to the ground. Standing then, the
one behind the other, at about a yard's distance and faced the same
way, both of them throw up their heads, raise their wings above their
backs, pointing them backwards, and stand thus for some seconds
fixed and motionless, looking just like an heraldic device. At the
same time they utter a cry which sounds like skirrr or skeerrr. The
foremost bird then flies off, and is instantly followed by the other." l

The birds do not necessarily precede this pose with the flight,
or follow the flight with the pose. Nor do they always stand in
line.2

A common form of greeting between individuals of a pair, when
they visit one another after standing a little apart, as they often do, is
for one to " bow down towards the ground in a heavy sort of manner,
whilst the other stands facing it with the head and beak lifted into the
air." After this, one of them turns round, and makes a series of
curious ungainly leaps along the ground, raising the wings at each
leap. This bird may then return, and the whole performance be
repeated.3

One can understand the first scene in this remarkable act, the
greeting, but how explain the second scene ? What is it that moves
one of the parties suddenly to quit the object of its affections with
these strange ungainly hops ? The movement appears to be quite
original, and not a modification of some more familiar act. It seems
to be a creation ad hoc. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about it
is that it has not often been remarked before. The truth is that until
recently facts of this nature have been rarely recorded in the pages
of ornithological literature, either because they were not seen, or
because their importance for comparative psychology was not
appreciated.

The only gesture of the Arctic-skua of which I can find any note
is one which accompanies the feeding of the hen bird by the cock.

1 Bird Watching, p. 101. 2 Ibid., p. 102. » Ibid., p. 99.

208 THE SKUAS

The description of it, which, like the preceding descriptions of the
conjugal amenities of the great-skua, we owe to Mr. E. Selous, is as
follows : — " The one bird stands still and upright, whilst the other,
holding the neck constrainedly down, but with the head raised as far
as is compatible with this, keeps moving round and round it. After
revolving thus several times, keeping always very close to and some-
times actually touching the standing bird, this one also stands still,
always in the same attitude, and opens the beak. The other one,
standing as before, now raises the head and opens the beak also,
upon which the satellite bird, assuming at last his proper height,
delivers into it, from his own, something which he appears to bring
up, and this, as it seems to me, is swallowed by the bird receiving it.
The morsel is small, but the actions of giving and taking, and, after-
wards, the movements of the beak and throat of the bird that has
parted with it, are unmistakable." l

It is, according to Naumann, the hen of both species that makes
the nest, but this requires confirmation. The act of building is
simple. The birds press with their feet and breasts into the bare
ground, or into the grass, moss, or short heather, and by dint of
pushing and turning make saucer-shaped depressions. According to
Naumann and Howard Saunders, they do not go beyond this to the
stage of collecting and adding a lining. In the British breeding-
stations lined nests are, however, commonly found, the material used
being ordinarily dry grass, moss, and bits of heather, also feathers
(see PL XLVIL), carelessly put together.2 Lined nests of the Arctic-
skua have also been found in Iceland.

The nests are usually some distance apart, and seldom nearer
than a few yards. Each pair resents intrusion into its domain either
by individuals of its own or any other species, especially Gulls, Crows,
and other predaceous birds. But Arctic-skuas have been seen to
attack also such birds as Ducks, whose only offence was that they

1 Bird Watching, p.

2 See " Classified Notes "; also Evans and Buckley, Fauna ofSJietlands, p. 191 (great-skua) ;
Saxby, Birds of Shetland, p. 356 (Arctic-skua).

THE GREAT AND ARCTIC-SKUAS 209

were nesting in the neighbourhood. A mallard was struck on the
back when in flight and forced to alight, and a pintail just escaped
an equally violent blow by diving into the loch over which it happened
to be peaceably winging its way. Whether the blow given to the
mallard, " with a thud distinctly audible," was with the wing, feet, or
beak is not stated. Both ducks had no doubt to suffer these assaults
frequently during the breeding season.1

Human beings trespassing on the breeding-grounds of either
species are attacked, sometimes with a vigour that makes the experi-
ence by no means enjoyable. Indeed, the mere sight of a great-skua
charging straight over the heather with evil aspect and fierce speed,
as if to hurl itself, beak and claws, upon one's body, is enough to cause
a shrinking of the nerves. One's apprehension is not allayed when, at
a distance of a few yards, the powerful webbed feet are suddenly let
down and spread so that each separate hooked claw stands menacingly
out. But the menace is not fulfilled. With a sudden swerve up-
wards, and a terrific swish of the wings, the bird passes overhead,
leaving one no doubt somewhat shaken, and not a little relieved, but
also marvelling that so fierce a beginning should have so mild an end.
One does not escape always thus easily, for some individuals are bolder
than others, and more so at one time than at another, but even then
it is not a blow from the wing, or a thrust from the beak, that one
receives, but a smart tap from the feet, which the bird lets down for
that purpose. These taps, delivered seemingly with the front of the
feet,2 are, especially when repeated, quite unpleasant enough. Both
the male and the female attack, one after the other, sometimes swoop-
ing down from a height, at other times charging over the ground.
Together they may make, according to Mr. Selous, as many as 136
attacks in little more than a quarter of an hour, or about 8 to the
minute. Between 3.13 and 3.30 one afternoon, he was struck 67 and
missed 69 times by one and the same pair. He states that some of
the hits were so violent that, without the protection of a plaid, they

1 Ornithologist, 1896-7, 175. * E. Selous, Bird Watching, p. 123.

210 THE SKUAS

would have been unendurable, and, as it was, they made the experi-
ment far from agreeable. The attacks were delivered by birds that
had almost fledged young.1 If the nesting-area is intruded upon after
the young have left it, the parents, if there, will still attack, though
not so viciously, and probably from force of habit.

The attacks of the Arctic-skua are of the same nature, except
that the species prefers to make them from the flank or rear rather
than from the front. Not that the great-skua always makes a frontal
attack ; it appears, however, to do so more frequently than the smaller
species, but why is not clear, unless it be that its greater strength
makes it feel superior to indirect methods. Both as to this and
as to the occasions on which the birds make no attack, it is at
present impossible to generalise with any assurance, owing to the
varying behaviour of individual birds — a factor not infrequently
underestimated.

According to Howard Saunders, Naumann, and others,2 the Arctic-
skua strikes with the wing-tips. If this is correct, it constitutes a note-
worthy difference between the two species. It seems, however, hardly
credible, and is not supported by detail sufficient to show that the
observers saw as well as felt the blow delivered. It is quite possible
that a blow with a bird's foot, if not seen, might be mistaken for a
blow from the wing-tip.

In making their attacks upon intruders, the great and Arctic-skuas
are comparatively silent birds ; they do not end their charges with the
discordant shrieks indulged in by Gulls and Terns. The final assault,
or swish over the head, is indeed usually made without any uttered
sound.3 Before this, or afterwards, the great-skua may be heard utter-
ing its croaking " ag ! ag /" or "ak! akf" and the Arctic the mewing
note already referred to. The latter has also a querulous note syllabled
as " mee, mee" which has been heard from it when its young were being

1 Bird Watching, p. 123.

2 Manual of British Birds, 2nd ed., p. 692 ; Vogel Mitteleuropas, xi. 327 ; Evans and Buckley
Fauna of the Shetlands, p. 196 ; Naumann even makes the species strike with the beak.

' Of. E. Selous, Bird Watching, p. 121.

THE GREAT AND ARCTIC-SKUAS 211

handled, and it had ceased to attack.1 What other notes it or the
larger species may utter have still to be recorded.

Dogs and other quadrupeds trespassing near the nests are, as
might be expected, promptly attacked. According to Saxby, the
Arctic-skua will give a dog smart scratches on the back, and so make
the creature and its fur fly at the same time. The success of this
manoauvre, however, depends upon the character of the dog. Mac-
gillivray relates that while one of his dogs avoided attack by keeping
close to his heels, the other met it by springing into the air and snap-
ping. This is perhaps the method of defence adopted by the Arctic-
fox when, as noted by Kolthoff in Spitsbergen, it deliberately enters
a skua colony for eggs and young, and it may be the raids of this and
other predaceous quadrupeds that have led the Arctic-skua to adopt
a means of defence which is common to a large number of weaker
species, such as Ducks, game-birds, and Passerine birds. It is that of
feigning, or seeming to feign, "broken leg, broken wing, and broken
prospects in general," as Saxby puts it ; the scene taking place, each
time it is enacted, at a greater distance from the young or eggs.2 To
complete the imposture, the Arctic-skua often adds "a low, piteous
moan." 3 When it considers the ruse has succeeded, it suddenly re-
covers its health and its spirits and flies away with a taunting cry,
or what must sound so to the ears of the deceived. Should there be
water near by, one of the pair will sometimes beat along through the
shallows, or sit on the surface and strike the water with its wings.4

I have not found it recorded that any other species of Laridce —
Gull, Tern, or Skua — has been seen to adopt the device of feigning
disablement, with the exception of Button's skua (p. 228). In the
case of Terns this is intelligible, as, owing to their habit of striking
with the beak, they must prove more formidable to quadrupeds than
Skuas. They have, in addition, acquired the habit of combined

1 Zoologist, 1880, 92 (H. Saunders).

1 The species will feign both before and after the eggs are hatched. Cf Evans and Buckley,
fauna of the Shetlands, p. 196.

3 Ornithologist, 1896-7, p. 173 (R. Godfrey). * Ibid., p.

VOL. III. 2E

212 THE SKUAS

action. Arctic-skuas attack in pairs. The common-gull makes com-
bined attacks, but the habit is less confirmed in some of its congeners,
and in them we should expect to find a development of the feigning
action, as also in other species of Skuas, except perhaps the great-
skua, whose larger size and formidable appearance may suffice to
inspire respect even in the breast of a fox.

The fact that there are now no foxes in the Shetlands does not
affect the probability of the supposition that, in the case of the Arctic-
skua, the feigning instinct was developed as a defence against them
and similar enemies, provided we assume it to be an instinct, that is,
inherited from ancestors that were harried by predaceous mammals
either in Shetland or farther north.

The great-skua begins laying usually in the second or third week
in May, the Arctic later, towards the end of the month or early in
June. Incubation is performed by both sexes, and lasts three to four
weeks, longer, of course, in the case of the larger species than the
smaller. Not much is known of the behaviour of the young, except
that they are prompt to quit the nest when alarmed, and after running
a certain distance, remain usually in a crouching position till picked
up ; they then show fight, using each its claws and beak more or less
viciously, according to its disposition. When teased, young Arctic-
skuas have been seen to " run off unsteadily across the heather, using
their wings to aid them." l

The young are fed chiefly on fish, but insects and berries have
been found in the stomachs of the young Arctic-skuas.2 The fish are
disgorged by the parent birds, those by the great-skua being often
left lying about the nest in a headless condition. In the neighbour-
hood of one nest Saxby found 39 full-grown herrings, all headless.3
Near, or not far from, another Mr. E. Selous found 41 herrings or their
remains, and of these only 10 retained the head or any part of it.4 It
may be that these headless fish are subjected to a double regurgitation,

1 Ornithologist, 1896-7, p. 173 (R. Godfrey). » See the " Classified Notes."

1 Birds of Shetland, p. 352. 4 Bird Watching, p. 116.

THE GREAT AND ARCTIC-SKUAS 213

first by the gull that catches and then by the great-skua that robs.
If it be granted that they are swallowed head first, it is quite con-
ceivable that the head is sufficiently loosened by the softening process
of the crop or of the proventriculus to become detached from the body
under the strain of the second regurgitation. What lends support to
this view is that, in the case of gannets, I have noted that the fish
disgorged by the parents, if these happen to be alarmed before they
have had time to feed their young, have the heads partially digested.
Had the fish been subjected to a second process of digestion in the
stomach of a skua, and to a second wrench upward through the gullet,
it seems reasonable to suppose that they would have left then* heads
behind them. I may add that I have seen a young gannet disgorge a
fish head-first, a fact which shows that it took it from the parent's
throat tail-first, and that the parent swallowed it head-first

The fish found lying whole may simply not have been digested
long enough to lose their heads, and may have been taken from Terns,
which carry their capture in the beak.

This does not, however, explain either why so many fish are found
lying about unswallowed, or why the same fact has not been observed
in the case of the Arctic-skua. BufFon's skua heaps up dead lemmings
beside its nest, seemingly as a store to be drawn upon (p. 227). In
circumpolar breeding-grounds, where supplies are less assured than
farther south (pp. 225-6), such a provision may be necessary. The
same necessity may formerly have operated in the case of the great-
skua, its present habit of leaving fish about being of the nature of a
survival.

The chief victims of the piratical exploits of the Arctic-skua are
the smaller Gulls and the Arctic-tern, especially the latter, no doubt
on account of its habit of carrying its catch in the bill, an appetising
morsel for all to see. Guillemots, puffins, and the larger Gulls are
also pursued. Saxby states that fish are taken even from the great
blackbacked-gull, but this must be exceptional When an Arctic-
skua has singled out a victim to be robbed, it chases it with light-

214 THE SKUAS

ning speed, follows closely its every movement, its twists, rises,
descents, and by mere hustle and dash and noise seeks to gain its
object. Both birds fly screaming in a wild erratic course, the skua
sometimes breaking away, but only to resume the chase, which goes
on till either the pursuer has had enough, or the pursued surrenders
the fish. Thereupon the skua drops like an arrow and catches its
plunder before it reaches the water — or does not. In the latter
case, it rarely makes any attempt to follow it further. One, however,
was seen not only to alight on the water, but when the fish sank, to
dive right under, remain under for a moment, and reappear, though
without the fish.1

Skuas succeed best when they hunt in pairs, but success
depends very much upon the strength and temperament of the
pursued. Sometimes Terns, instead of trying to escape by flight, have
been seen to drop their fish before the skua was near enough to
profit, and then, upon the latter turning to fly off, swoop down and
retake possession.2 Sometimes the proposed victim escapes by
settling on the water and showing fight. It is enough, at times, for
it to alight in order to be freed from aggression. This was noted
in the case of a lesser blackbacked-gull chased by a great-skua.3
Of the piracies of the latter species there is, comparatively speak-
ing, a lack of recorded detail, but they are of the same general
character as those of the Arctic.

There is little evidence that Skuas catch fish for themselves.4
They are no doubt quite as capable of doing so as Gulls, but find it
easier to exploit weaker birds. Their diet, however, is by no means
limited to fish. Like the Gulls, they are omnivorous. The great-skua
will not only rob fish from weaker species, but make a meal of the
birds themselves. Its castings, like those of the larger Gulls, are

1 Annals of Scottish Natural History, 1908, 11.

1 E. Selous, Bird Watcher in the Shetlands, p. 11.

5 Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 455.

4 Naumann ( Vogel Mitteleuropas, xi. 307, 325) states that both the Arctic and great-skua
fish for themselves after the manner of Gulls, but it is not clear from the context that he is
writing from personal observation.

THE POMATORHINE-SKUA 215

found to contain bones and feathers, identified in some cases as those
of the kittiwake. According to Saxby, the Arctic species will chase and
kill the smaller Waders, ringed plovers, and the like when it cannot
get fish. It is possible it may sometimes chase land birds, not to kill,
but to make them disgorge. Both the great and Arctic-skuas devour
the eggs and young of other species. In Iceland the latter was seen
to rob systematically the nests of Ducks, Waders, and even of Terns. Its
castings, found on the hillocks where it reposed to digest, consisted
of little but broken egg-shells, bones, and balls of feathers or down.1
In Spitsbergen the nests of the eider-ducks were despoiled in the
same way ; their eggs were taken almost as soon as their owners left
the nest.2 Both species again will feed like Gulls on the flats laid
bare by the receding tide, eating anything they can find, molluscs,
crustaceans, and carrion. The Arctic has been seen inland picking
up worms, insects, or mice in the fields. One was shot in Ireland
when following the plough.3

In winter both species move southward, and are usually to be
found out at sea not far from their favourite source of supplies — a
flock of sea-birds.

THE POMATORHINE-SKUA
[F. C. R. JOURDAIN]

To judge merely from the records of birds actually seen or shot
on our coasts, one would imagine that it is only exceptionally that this
species visits us in any numbers. It is true that almost every winter
a few specimens are obtained in some part or other of the British
Isles, but their numbers are few indeed compared with those which
were recorded in the autumns of 1879 and 1880. But, as in the case
of the little-auk, it seems probable that under normal weather

1 Ornith. Monatsschrift, 1896, p. 339 (Riemschneider), quoted in Naumann, Vogel Alittel-
europas, xi. 325.

2 Vogel Mitteleuropas, loc. cit. (Kolthoff). 3 Ussher and Warren, Birds of Ireland, p. 353.

216 THE SKUAS

conditions these birds do not find it necessary to seek the land, and
that, as a rule, their migration remains unnoticed except by the crews
of the North Sea fishing fleet, while even now the route and time of
the return migration in spring is almost unknown.

The first time this southward migration came prominently under
the notice of naturalists was during the latter part of October 1834,
when enormous numbers of sea-birds, including the present species,
were driven into the Channel and on to the coast of Northern France,
especially near the mouth of the Somme. In October 1879 a most
remarkable influx of this species took place on the east coast of
Yorkshire, of which Mr. T. H. Nelson gives a vivid description in the
Birds of Yorkshire, vol. ii. pp. 697-699. He states that in early October
great numbers were noticed in the Tees Bay, and on the 8th he saw
about fifty birds in small parties of four or five, all flying to the north-
west. Next day about a hundred in small flocks were seen going in
the same direction. On October 14 came the memorable "Skua"
gale. About 11 A.M. " the wind suddenly flew round to the north,
changing to north-east, and blew with great violence, being accom-
panied by torrents of rain. . . . Soon after noon the first flight of
Pomatorhine Skuas appeared, coming from the eastward : more
flights followed, their numbers increasing as the day wore on, and
scarcely had one party gone by before another hove in sight: they
flew in flocks of from seven to ten in number, skirting the shore, and
on arriving at the Tees mouth many of them alighted on the sands,
apparently exhausted by battling against the storm. They allowed a
close approach as they sat on the beach, only taking flight when an
intruder came within a few yards' distance. . . . Thus they continued
to pass for several hours, until by dark some thousands must have
gone by ; then the approach of night prevented further observations."
It was calculated that between five and six thousand birds must have
passed Redcar on this occasion. They continued to pass on the
morning of the following day, but on the 16th the gale slackened and
none appeared, although a renewal of the gale on the 17th brought

THE POMATORHINE-SKUA 217

some fifty more in view. All down the Yorkshire coast a somewhat
similar state of things took place, though perhaps nowhere was it
seen to such advantage as near Redcar. On the East Anglian coast
the first bird was shot on October 15, at Holkham. Many arrived on
the following day on the shores of the Wash, and from that date till
the end of the month they were found in parties all round the
Norfolk coast, and also in many cases inland.

Next year another great immigration took place in Yorkshire
during a terrific storm from the north-east on October 28. " During
the height of the storm," says Mr. Nelson, " several hundreds passed
Redcar, flying close to the esplanade, and struggling to make headway
against the elements ; many were obliged to rest on the sands or
were driven inland." Owing to the driving sleet, rain, and sand, the
gunners were unable to turn out, so on this occasion the birds escaped.
There have also been some seven occasions since this date when
pomatorhine-skuas have occurred more or less frequently on the
Yorkshire coast, but always on the autumn migration.1 In one case
an immense congregation of pomatorhine and Richardson's skuas
was noticed some miles off Bridlington. In this case the birds were
at first mistaken for ducks resting on the water.

Although not infrequently recorded from our southern coasts,
where some appear to winter, and also round the Irish shores,
nothing approaching the remarkable irruptions on the Yorkshire
coast has been recorded, with the exception of a noticeable passage
of pomatorhine and Richardson's skuas which was observed by Mr. R.
Warren in North Ireland on October 22 and 23, 1862. Successive
flocks of the former birds were seen flying up the Moy Valley from
Killala Bay, and evidently making their way to Galway Bay. As
skuas were also observed by Mr. Warren in September 1869 and
October 1874, it is probable that some regularly migrate along the
west coast of Ireland.2 In 1862, two days after the last skuas left

1 Nelson, Birds of Yorkshire, ii. 700.
* R. Warren, Zoologist, 1875, 4699.

218 THE SKUAS

Killala Bay, several poraatorhines took shelter in Tralee harbour, and
remained there as long as the stormy weather lasted. Evidently they
were a part of the same flight already noticed by Mr. Warren.

With regard to the cause of these invasions, the opinion of the
late Mr. E. T. Booth1 has especial weight, as no ornithologist was more
familiar with the North Sea than he was. For three or four autumns
he made his headquarters at Canty Bay in East Lothian, spending
most of his time at sea, and often attaching himself to the North Sea
herring fleet. He states that immense numbers of both old and
young birds pass over the North Sea every year on their way back to
winter quarters from their breeding-grounds, the first arrivals appear-
ing off the south-east coast of Scotland about mid- August. These
birds are for the most part not quite mature, and the long tail feathers
are usually broken or lost ; but a few adult birds accompany them,
though they do not form a tenth 'part of the total number observed.
As a rule, they migrate ten, fifteen, or twenty miles from land, but
occasionally small parties may be seen moving due east or west at a
good height in the Firth of Forth (possibly on their way across Scot-
land to North Ireland). A few weeks later the full-plumaged adults
follow, and they, in turn, are succeeded by the birds of the year.
Birds in the second and third years' plumage are very rarely met with.
During October and early November the flocks of skuas keep
company with the herring-boats as they work up the coast, levying
toll on the gulls which congregate round the nets. In fine autumns
hardly a bird will approach the land, but continued rough weather
will drive hundreds of them in a worn-out and starving condition on
to the coast. Sometimes the main body of migrants will keep from
forty to sixty miles from our east coast. In some cases the fish
captured by the larger vessels are cleaned before stowage, thus pro-
viding an abundant supply of food for the thousands of gulls which
surround the fleet, while they, in turn, are forced to disgorge to feed

1 E. T. Booth, Rough Notes on Birds observed in the British Isles, vol. iii. pp. 1-7 (article on
" Pomatorhine Skua ").

THE POMATORHINE-SKUA 219

the ravenous skuas. Possibly, as suggested by Mr. Stevenson, the
enormous shoals of herrings and sprats which frequented the North
Sea in the autumn of 1879 induced the gulls and skuas to linger on
their way south, on account of the abundant supply of food, until the
gales of October drove them helplessly on to the coasts of Yorkshire
and East Anglia.

To distinguish an adult pomatorhine-skua in perfect plumage on
migration is a comparatively simple task. It is a much smaller and
lighter-looking bird than the great-skua, and at the same time is
larger than either Richardson's or Buffon's skua. Its flight is not
so heavy as that of the great-skua, but is somewhat Tern-like
and angular, and it is less active than the two smaller species. Of
course, the short tail of the great-skua is another useful character in
distinguishing it from adult birds of other species. The adult
pomatorhine, Buffon's, and Richardson's skuas all have the middle
pair of tail feathers elongated, but in the first-named species
they have also the extraordinary peculiarity of being twisted into
a plane almost at right angles to the shorter tail feathers. They
are also bluntly rounded at the ends instead of coming to a point,
as in Buffon's skua. This gives a curiously thick and clumsy
appearance to the tail of the bird when seen on the wing, and
enables one to identify it with certainty in many cases at considerable
distances.

But it must not be supposed that all birds have this peculiarity
fully developed. E. T. Booth, who kept this species in confinement
for some years, and studied its changes of plumage, was of opinion
that the perfectly adult plumage was not assumed till the fifth year,
and that birds of the second or third year rarely occurred off our
coasts. It is not surprising that many of the birds which visit us are
birds of the year or immature, and in such cases the middle tail
feathers are only slightly elongated. During the invasion of 1879
Alfred Roberts noticed that they chased the smaller Buffon's skuas
and snipped off their long tail feathers in the scramble for food,

VOL. III. 2 F

220 THE SKUAS

besides acting in a similar way to members of their own species.1
Many examples which passed through his hands had these feathers
cut off, though in all other respects in perfect adult plumage. To
complicate matters still further, a melanic form also exists, but
is by no means common. Not only is the plumage of this form
a very dark brown (almost black), but the bill and feet are also
black. An interesting series of figures of the different stages
of plumage and the two forms will be found in Booth's Rough Notes,
vol. iii.

Like the other skuas, the pomatorhine is a pirate, but mainly
confines his attentions to the smaller Gulls, such as the kittiwake,
the common-gull, and the Terns. In the North Sea most of the
food is procured by the gulls at dawn, when the nets are drawn.
After this, both gulls and skuas will remain sitting quietly and
contentedly on the water in fine weather, only rising occasionally on
the wing when any of the smaller Gulls approach the skuas too
closely. On many occasions pomatorhine-skuas have been seen
picking up food for themselves. Von Heuglin states that they prey
freely on lemmings in Novaya Zemlya, hovering over them in the air,
and stooping on them like a hawk, as Buffon's skua also does ; while
carrion of all kinds is also eagerly devoured, dead mammals, birds, or
fish, as well as the excreta and castings of the larger mammals.

Although the range of this species during the breeding season is
so extensive, and the bird itself is not rare, records of actual breeding
are extraordinarily few. The earliest authentic information on the
subject is provided by Yon Middendorff, who found it breeding in
numbers on the tundra of the Taimyr peninsula. He first observed
it on June 19 (N.S.), and on July 20 found the first nest, a mere
depression in the moss, containing two eggs. This was in lat. 74° N.,
and above 744° the species was not met with. Excepting only

1 Nelson, Birds of Yorkshire, ii. p. 701. (It is interesting to compare this with Mr. E. W.
Nelson's observations in Alaska, quoted later.)

1 In Spitsbergen the ivory-gull is treated in the same way. Eaton saw one seized by the
tail (Zoologist, 1874, 3812).

THE POMATORHINE-SKUA 221

Markham's statement that it breeds in Novaya Zemlya,1 and Henke's
assertion that it nests in the Kanin peninsula, no other authentic
accounts of the nesting of this skua were to be found till Messrs. H. L.
Popham and C. Boyce Hill visited the Yenisei valley in 1895. On
their way down the river the steamer ran ashore on a sandbank, thus
enabling them to explore a group of small islands called the Brekotsky.
On one of these, a large flat marsh, Hill observed a skua, which was
presently joined by a second. They were not at all demonstrative,
and did not resent intrusion like Buffon's skua, but after long
searching and watching one bird settled right in the middle of the
marsh. Boyce Hill at once proceeded to the spot, though at times
up to his knees in swamp, but fortunately a substratum of ice at a
depth of from 18 inches to 2 feet below the surface enabled him to
reach the nest, from which the bird rose when he was within a few
yards. On shooting the sitting bird it proved to be a pomatorhine-
skua. In another part of the island a second nest, which, like the
first, contained two eggs, was found under similar conditions. The
only other birds which were breeding in the neighbourhood were
scaups and rednecked-phalaropes. Later on a third nest was found
on the mainland in a much drier site, and this also contained two
slightly incubated eggs.2 There was no real nest, the eggs being laid
in a mere depression in the ground, but unfortunately neither writer
mentions the date when the eggs were taken. In 1898 Mr. E. A.
Mcllhenny's expedition to Alaska obtained a considerable number of
nests from the Point Barrow district. E. W. Nelson had already
recorded it as common about the Yukon mouth and north to Point
Barrow, arriving from May 13 onwards, until by the end of the month
from twelve to twenty might be seen daily. He found it clumsy and
cowardly as compared with Buffon's and Richardson's skuas, and
noticed that it was much bullied by them, the smaller birds beating
off their clumsy antagonist by darting down repeatedly at him from

1 See Markham's A Polar Reconnaissance, p. 334, referred to by Saunders in the first
edition of the Manual.

1 See H. L. Popham, Ibis, 1897, p. 107 ; C. Boyce Hill, Ibis, 1900, p. 526, pi. xi.

222 THE SKUAS

above. The larger bird flinched and dived, often alighting and
watching for an opportunity to escape. On the wing an attack from
the side was warded off by a half-closed wing, and if from above, both
wings were raised above the back. One bird, driven to alight on the
river, thrust its head under water at each swoop of its assailant, and
exhibited every sign of terror.1 Many of Mcllhenny's eggs were
taken between June 18 and 21, in Alaska, but unfortunately he
appears to have published no account of his expedition up to the
present time.

The only other information as to the breeding of this species
is that given by Herren Koren and Schaanning to Professor
Newton.2 They were quartered at Pomorskaja Bay, Mataschkin-schar,
Novaya Zemlya, during the summer of 1903, a great lemming year,
and found this skua, as well as the little-stint, breeding in a large
grassy marsh, beset with dry bare ridges. The skuas were extra-
ordinarily shy and wary, the female leaving the nest at a dis-
tance of 2000 metres when approached. Unlike the other species
of this genus, they never attack intruders, sweeping round in great
circles and alighting here and there in the marsh. The eggs were
thus extraordinarily hard to find, and required very long and patient
watching. They were laid without any lining on hillocks, often moist,
in the wettest part of the marsh, in some cases so that the hillock
was surrounded on all sides by water. The nests were some distance
apart, and the eggs appear to have been laid between June 2G
and July 2, but two nests found on July 12 and 14 with a single egg
in each were probably second layings.

There is little doubt that sooner or later this bird will be found
nesting in many localities where at present it is only known to occur
in summer, such as the Murman coast and some of the North
Russian islands, but its undemonstrative and solitary habits, so
opposed to those of the rest of this family, have so far saved its nests

1 Nelson, Report upon Natural History Collections made in A laska, 1877-81, p. 46.
1 See Ootheca Wolleyana, ii. p. 348.

•

THE POMATORHINE-SKUA 223

from discovery.1 All the seventeen authentic eggs which I have
examined are large compared with those of Richardson's and Buffon's
skuas, but the largest eggs of Richardson's skua just overlap the
minimum measurement of the pomatorhine. The ground-colour
varies from light olive to deep olive-brown, while the markings of
dark sienna, shading to sepia-brown, are rather sparingly distributed,
and tend to be thickest at the big end. A few ashy shellmarks are
also scattered over the surface. Average size of seventeen eggs,
2 "52 x I'll in. [6413 x 45 mm.]. Beyond this we know at present
nothing of the breeding habits of this bird. Naumann, it is true,
states that both sexes have a brooding spot and incubate in turn for
four weeks, while the young only stay a few days in the nest. He
proceeds to give an account of the food of the young, but it is difficult
to see from whence this information was derived, and of course the
Naumanns had no personal acquaintance with this species in its
breeding-haunts.

With regard to its notes, E. W. Nelson states that it has a low,
harsh, chattering cry when feeding with its companions, and Booth
says that the cries and screams uttered by his two immature birds were
most amusing. When excited, one or the other would utter a high-
pitched call closely resembling the cry of "Toby, Toby, Toby" at a
Punch and Judy show, ending with a prolonged scream and whistle.
When feeding, if one of these birds happened to get hold of a piece of
food too large to be swallowed easily, he would call loudly, when his
companion would at once run up to him and clutch hold of the other
end of the fish. Each would then tug lustily away till the fish was
divided, when they consumed their respective shares in the most
friendly way. Sometimes this would happen half a dozen times during
one meal.

1 Nehrkorn (Katalog Eiersamml., p. 225) has obtained eggs from Greenland, which seem
small for this species. Several supposed eggs from Greenland which I have examined were
undoubtedly those of Richardson's skua.

224 THE SKUAS

BUFFON'S OR LONGTAILED-SKUA.
[F. C. R. JOURDAIN]

This species, the most beautiful and graceful of all the Skuas,
although occasionally recorded as occurring in some numbers on the
autumn migration, visits us much less frequently than the pomato-
rhine, although from the fact that its nearest breeding-grounds are on
the fells of Norway one would expect to meet with it on our eastern
coasts with tolerable frequency. During the great skua irruption
of October 1879 (which has already been described in the article on
the " Pomatorhine Skua"), no fewer than fifteen adults were captured
at Redcar, and others seen on October 14th and 15th, while at least
eleven others were taken in other parts of the county. In the autumn
of 1891 there was another invasion by this species, and this time
specimens were obtained not only on the east coast of Scotland, but
also in the Channel. The return migration in spring seems to avoid
our islands almost altogether, though there are a few records from
Ireland, and belated individuals have been obtained in Cumberland
as late as June 3, and in Cornwall on June 4. From the number
of specimens brought in by fishermen from the distant banks in the
North Sea, Mr. E. T. Booth inferred that the usual autumn migration
line of this species lies considerably to the eastward of the British
Isles, but Gatke's researches seem to show that it is only a scarce
visitor in small numbers to Heligoland.

We are, however, better acquainted with the life-history of this
species than with that of the pomatorhine, principally owing to the
comparative ease with which the nest can be discovered. It is of
course piratic in its habits, though quite capable of finding food for
itself at times. During the breeding season there seems little doubt
that many individuals whose nesting-grounds lie at some distance from

BUFFON'S OR LONGTAILED-SKUA 225

the sea procure all the food necessary for their own support and that
of their young entirely by their own exertions. But at other times,
and especially on migration, they seem to subsist almost entirely on
food disgorged by the Terns and the smaller Gulls. Gillett noticed
that every flock of kittiwakes near Novaya Zemlya was attended by
numbers of this species and Richardson's skua, which kept swooping
at them like hawks and forcing them to disgorge their prey.1 Booth
was once engaged in watching a pair of adult birds amongst large
numbers of kittiwakes, which evidently did not appreciate their society,
making rapidly off when approached, though no attack was offered.
When at last a small flock of terns came flapping quietly down the firth,
the skuas were at once off in pursuit, with sharp and piercing cries.
These birds were evidently on their way to their breeding-grounds
at the beginning of June, and Booth was able to see something of their
courting display, and notes that an immense amount of swimming
round, bowing, and chattering was indulged in by them in the
water.

In North-east Greenland, A. L. V. Manniche records the first pair
as arriving on May 28. This is rather before the average date, and
most birds reach their breeding-places in this district about the first
week in June. In Lapland and Northern Scandinavia they must
naturally arrive earlier, as the first eggs may be found at the beginning
of June, and Manniche noticed that an interval of about three weeks
elapsed between the arrival of the first pair and the discovery of the
first egg in Greenland.

As already noted, the skuas arrive in pairs and immediately take
possession of their breeding territory. They breed to some extent in
colonies, but the nests are never placed close together. Each pair
has its own district, and within these bounds the presence of no
stranger is tolerated. One bird is always on the watch to drive away
intruders. As far back as 1862, Wolley's collectors found that this
species bred in extraordinary numbers during lemming years, and in

1 Ibis, 1870, p. 307.

326 THE SKUAS

that season sent nearly two hundred and seventy eggs to England
from the fells of Lapland.1 But Manniche's observations take us a
step further. In the summer of 1907 (the year following a lemming
year, when the birds had bred in considerable numbers), the skuas
arrived at the usual time, each couple taking possession of its district
and guarding it in the usual way. For a few days they waited about,
perching on boulders and watching the lemming holes as in the
previous year. This time, however, the holes were empty and the
lemmings were absent, and before long the skuas gave up the useless
task of watching the empty holes and took to pursuing Lepidoptera
and other insects. By the end of June they had begun to flock
together, and a few days later disappeared altogether from the country.
The stomachs of the birds shot contained chiefly insects, and
occasionally leaves of Salix arctica and remains of other plants, but no
trace of lemmings. At so late a date it would have been scarcely
possible for these birds to have bred in any other locality, so we are
forced to the conclusion that in such seasons they do not breed at all
in the high north at any rate. Probably this is true also of many
other Arctic birds. Another curious fact in connection with the
difference in the seasons is that while in the lemming year many small
parties of immature birds in the second and third years' plumage
were seen hunting lemmings, not a single immature bird was seen
during the following season. In more southerly breeding-places,
probably some pairs breed every season, principally, no doubt, owing
to the fact that there is a sufficiency of food from other sources. In
Greenland the young are fed for the first few days principally with
insects, but while quite young they are able to eat lemmings, which
the parent-birds hunt, eat, and afterwards disgorge before them.2 But,
on the other hand, H. W. Wheelwright only found remains of the
lemming on one occasion in the stomachs of birds shot on the Lapland
fells, and in one other case found remains of a small mouse. The

1 Ootheca Wolleyana, ii. p. 356.

2 A. L. V. Manniche, The Terrestrial Mammals and Birds of North-east Greenland
(Meddelelser om Grfnland), Bd. xlv. p. 177.

BUFFON'S OR LONGTAILED-SKUA 227

principal food in this district was the fruit of the crowberry
(Empdrum nigrum), large beetles, and Crustacea, and the young birds
never contained anything except crowberries.1 Lieutenant S. A.
Davies found that on the moors near the Muonio river, the
young were apparently fed on decaying lemmings : quite a store
of these mammals was heaped up beside each nest in various
stages of decomposition, and the smell of the old birds was very
offensive.

The nest is a shallow depression in the ground, sometimes
natural and sometimes made by the bird, sparingly lined with a few
withered grasses or a leaf or two of Salix. It is placed on the open
tundra, but always close to water, though it may be only a tiny pool or
an accumulation of melted snow. The eggs are normally two in
number, though instances in which only one has been found incubated,
or a single young bird only reared, are not uncommon. On one or two
occasions three eggs have also been found in one nest. They are on
an average more elongated and narrower than those of Richardson's
skua, though at times indistinguishable, while some beautiful varieties
are occasionally met with, in which the ground-colour is pale blue or
greenish blue, and without or almost without markings. Most eggs,
however, vary from umber to olive-brown in ground-colour, with rather
scanty spots, streaks, and blotches of deep umber-brown, and purplish
grey shell-markings. The average size of 56 eggs is 2'21 x 1/52 in.
[56'3 x 38'8 mm.]. From 36 to 48 or even 50 hours elapse between the
laying of the first and second eggs, and there is a corresponding
difference in the period of emergence from the egg, so that it is
evident that incubation begins with the laying of the first egg. During
the period of incubation, which, according to Manniche, lasts for
twenty-three days, both sexes take turns upon the eggs, the non-sitting
bird keeping a vigilant watch over its mate. The attitude of the
sitting bird is upright, the head being held high as though the bird were
on the alert, and the yellowish throat and white breast, contrasting

1 [H. W. Wheelwright], A Spring and Summer in Lapland, 1st ed., p. 357.
VOL. III. 2 G

228 THE SKUAS

with the black crown, being very conspicuous. Concealment, however,
is the last thing this skua seems to wish for. As described by Wheel
wright, directly one approaches the nesting-ground, the skua comes
sailing close overhead, performing the most beautiful airy gyrations, the
long sharp wings and pointed tail giving him a singularly wild and
rakish look. As he hovers for a moment overhead, his tail feathers are
widely expanded like a fan. His loud dismal shriek, " I-i-i-ah, je-ah,
je-oh, je-oh" rings out as he dashes straight for one's head, swooping
upward just as he seems about to touch. Where not much disturbed
by men, his boldness is such that he will actually strike an intruder.
Thus Feilden only kept these birds off at Smith's Sound by holding
his gun-barrels overhead, and Popham and his companion on the
Yenesei were actually struck by the wings of stooping birds. Both
sexes share in these courageous attacks, and the nearer one
approaches to the nest the more vigorous become their onslaughts.
Against such enemies as the Arctic-fox or the gyr-falcons these
tactics are naturally of great value, but the result with man is that it
is easy to discover the position of any nest within reasonable distance,
especially as the sitting bird will return to the eggs without hesitation
if the intruder only retires fifty yards, or in some cases even less.
Manniche observed that after the eggs had been taken the sitting
bird (as in the case of many other species) returned and rested on the
nest for some minutes. In one case the bird sat for more than half
an hour afterwards.

After the young are hatched they do not stay long in the
nest, and then the parents show their anxiety in a different way.
As long as the young are not actually found they are more
wary, but when closely approached they will throw themselves on
the ground and even roll about in order to distract attention from
the young.

The latter grow very rapidly, and even in the downy stage the
birds of the light and dark forms are distinguishable, though both
forms may be met with in one pair of birds or in one nest. By mid-

BUFFON'S OR LONGTAILED-SKUA 229

August, in Greenland, the young were sitting about on boulders and
clods, still carefully guarded by their parents. But at the end of the
month the young were able to take care of themselves, the old birds
ceased to feed them, and almost immediately afterwards they left the
country, apparently young and old leaving together in small flocks of
not more than fifteen or twenty birds.

THE STONE-CURLEW

[ORDER : Charadriiformes. SUBORDER : Limicolce. FAMILY : CEdicnemidce]
PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES

[W. FARREN. F. C. R. JOTJRDAIST. W. P. PYCRAFT. A. L. THOMSON]

STONE -CURLEW \QSdicnemus oedicnemus (Linnaeus); (Edicnemus
scolopax (S. G. Gmelin). Thick-knee, Norfolk-plover, nighthawk, night-
curlew, great-plover. French, oedicneme criard ; German, europdischer
Triel; Italian, occhione].

I. Description. — The Norfolk-plover can always be distinguished by the
great size of the eye, the long yellow legs, and the absence of a hind-toe. The sexes
are alike, and there is no seasonal change of coloration. (PL 111.) Length 16 in.
[406'4 mm.]. The adult is of a sandy buff colour above, heavily striated with dark
brown on the crown, hind-neck, scapulars, wings, and upper tail-coverts, but on the
interscapulars the dark central area expands, leaving only a marginal fringe of pale
brown, which is finally lost by abrasion. Above the eye is a more or less distinct
white band, and there is a white patch below the eye. The minor coverts are
crossed by a broad, sharply defined band of white, and patches of white occur on
the innermost primaries at the base, and on the outermost near their tips. The
central tail-feathers are pale brown, the rest white, tipped black, and with a sub-
marginal, irregular, blackish loop in the middle of the feather. The under parts
are white, but suffused with pale brown, and striated darker brown in the fore-neck
and flanks. Beak greenish at the base, black at the tip ; iris pale yellow, legs
chrome-yellow. The fledgling is much paler than the adult, and very sparsely
and narrowly striated with darker brown. The white bar across the minor coverts
is wanting. The young in down is of a pale sandy buff, with a median line of dark
brown along the crown, and semicircular loops of dark brown on the forehead.
Two narrow lines of dark blackish brown run along the back, one on either side of

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 231

the middle line, and are continued forwards along the neck to the head ; a short
line of the same hue runs along the wing, while a narrow loop of blackish brown
encircles the end of the body. [w. P. P.]

2. Distribution. — In the British Isles this species is chiefly a summer
resident in Southern and Eastern England, though a few pass the winter in our
south-western counties. In Scotland it has only been recorded twice, and about
ten times in Ireland. In England it is very local, though not uncommon in some
parts of East Anglia, and at the present time breeds sparingly in Dorset, Hants,
Wilts, Sussex, Surrey, Kent, and Essex, while inland it is found in small numbers
in Berks, Herts, and Cambridge, and formerly also bred in Bucks, Beds, Oxon,
Worcester, and perhaps some other midland counties. In Norfolk and Suffolk,
though local, it still survives in fair numbers, but it is doubtful whether it now nests
in Lincoln, and it has not bred in Notts since 1891, although a pair or two nest in
Yorkshire. Outside the British Isles it breeds in suitable localities throughout
Central and Southern Europe, but is absent from Denmark, Scandinavia, and North
Russia, ranging south to the Mediterranean and its islands, from the Balearic Isles
to Cyprus. In Asia it is known to breed in Asia Minor, Palestine, and Transcaspia
eastward through Turkestan to Central Asia, but a smaller race is found in Baluchis-
tan, India, and Burma, and the Canaries and North Africa are inhabited by other
allied races. It is only partially migratory, but though South European birds are
resident, those from farther north winter in the Mediterranean region south to
Northern Africa, and it has been recorded from Madeira and the Azores. [F. c. R. J.]

3. Migration. — A summer visitor, arriving in the last week of March or
early in April, and leaving in October. A few regularly pass the winter in the
south-west of England, and at that season it occurs as a rare casual in other
districts, including parts of Ireland, in which country it is unknown in summer.
A gregarious migrant : " flocking " takes place in October before the birds leave
our shores. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — There is little or no lining in the nest-hollow in which
the eggs are laid as a rule, though occasionally a few bits of bent and very often
rabbit droppings may be found. (PL XLVHI.) The favourite breeding-grounds are
commons, down lands, and waste ground, generally in open country where it
cannot well be approached unobserved, though it has been known to return to a
nesting-place even when trees had grown up close to it. It will also breed, or
attempt to do so, in ploughed fields. The eggs are, as a rule, two in number,
though there is no doubt that on rare occasions three are laid, and one of the

232 THE STONE-CURLEW

African forms has been seen with a family of three young. Four eggs are
recorded as having been found on one occasion, probably the produce of two hens.
The eggs vary considerably, but the ground-colour is generally buff or stone colour,
irregularly blotched, streaked, and spotted with blackish brown and with ashy grey
shell-marks. (PI. K.) Some tend to show a zone of bold markings, others are uni-
formly covered with fine spots, or are covered with a thick network of vermicula-
tions. Average size of 51 eggs, 2*1 x 1'52 in. [53'3x38*6 mm.]. They are carelessly
deposited, generally some little distance apart and not touching one another.
Both sexes take part in incubation, relieving one another in turn (A. Trevor-
Battye). The eggs are not laid on consecutive days, but at intervals of a day,
and the incubation period lasts for 26-27 days (E. G. Meade-Waldo and E. W.
Wade). The first eggs may be found in the south of England as early as April
18th (quite exceptionally by April llth), but many birds do not lay till May. If
the first clutch is destroyed they will lay again, but only one brood is normally
reared in the season. [F. c. R. J.]

5. Food. — Chiefly insects of various kinds — especially beetles and their larvae
— slugs, snails, and worms. They also eat small mammals — especially fieldmice
(Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 228), lizards, and frogs (Stevenson, Birds of Norfolk,
ii. p. 63). Professor Patten found in the stomach of a bird from Retford a quantity
of earwig forceps and some vegetable matter (Aquatic Birds, p. 204). The young
are attended by both parents, and assisted by them in their search for food, which
consists chiefly at first of small insects, [w. F.]

The British species of the Family Olareolidce are described in the supplementary
chapter on " Rare Birds " : —

Pratincole, Glareola pratincola (Linnaeus).

Black-winged Pratincole, Glareola nordmanni (Nordmann). [G. melano-

ptera Nordmann.]
Cream-coloured Courser. Cursorius gallicus (Gmelin). [F. c. K. J.]

PLATE XLVIII

Photo by XV. 1 .irrcn

1. Stone-curlew's nest. Typical

Photo by W. Farren

2. Stone-curlew, on day of birth, crouching (p. 244)

Photo by W. Farre

3. Store-curlew, about ten days old, crouching (p. 24 i)

»u " J »T "*! .••••«

'•>' « o.-i •.;. . .-
'«••»*••»« ;

THE STONE-CURLEW

THE STONE-CURLEW
[W. FARREN]

The family (Edicnemidce, of which the stone-curlew is the sole
British representative, the Glareolidce (Coursers, Pratincoles) and
the Charadriidce (Plovers, Snipes, Sandpipers, etc.) constitute, together
with three other families1 not represented on the British List, the
suborder Limicolce. This suborder forms part of the order Charadrii-
/ormes, to which also belong the groups dealt with in the preceding
chapters, the Doves, Sandgrouse, the Gulls with their close allies
the Terns and Skuas, and the Auks.

Although the familiar term Wader implies a habit — that of wading
into shallow water in search of food — which is not shared by all
Limicoline birds, yet it is the term in general use for the whole group
or suborder, in which sense it is used in this work.

The Limicolce are of world-wide distribution, and contain over
250 species. Of these, only a comparatively small number, at present
(1911) 61, are on the British List. Of these 17 — including the ruff,
which, however, is very rare and irregular as a nesting species — breed
with us, and 44 visit us on migration, of which 29 may be classed as
rare stragglers. This comparatively large number of stragglers is
accounted for by the wandering nature of the group, certain species
belonging to both the New and Old Worlds, and travelling farther
on migration than almost any other birds. Some species nest beyond
the Arctic Circle, and winter in South Africa, South America, and
Australia. The majority of the species coming under this category
of rare stragglers are natives of North America, and some are Asiatic.

To the summer migrants belongs the subject of this chapter,
the stone-curlew, also known as the great-plover, Norfolk-plover,
thick-knee. From these names it is not easy to choose one more

1 Chionididce, Thinocorythidoe, Parridce.

234 THE STONE-CURLEW

suitable than another, and it is significant that ornithologists have
shown no decided partiality in the matter. If the species had
any real claim to be considered a Plover, the name great-plover
would be appropriate enough, for it is larger than any British
plover. The fact that the county of Norfolk, together with the
adjoining one of Suffolk, provides nesting-ground for probably
more individuals than all the rest of England, might justify the use
of the name Norfolk-plover. Its more popular name, stone-curlew,
has caused it to be confused with the curlew of the genus Numeniva,
with which it has as little relationship as with any of the Limicolce.
The name probably originated from a fancied resemblance of its
wild night cries to those of the curlew ; and its very decided pre-
dilection for sandy stone-covered ground gained the distinguishing
prefix "stone." As to the name thick-knee, not only does the
oadematous swelling in the leg of the immature bird occur at what
is, properly speaking, the ankle, and not the knee-joint, but the
character is common to the young of all Waders ! It becomes,
therefore, a matter for some consideration which name to use in
this work, and I choose stone-curlew — with this caution to readers,
not to connect it in any way with the curlew of the genus Numenius
— as in East Anglia, where the bird flourishes in greatest numbers,
and where I know it, it is the name used by the local inhabitants.
One seldom, in fact, hears the first part of the name, " curlew," or
rather " cullew," being most often used.

The stone-curlew belongs to a well-defined genus comprising less
than a dozen species. Three or four of these belong to the African
continent, three to tropical America, and one to Australia ; while
two other species are somewhat unnecessarily separated under the
generic name Esacus\ these are oriental, one inhabiting the plains
of India, Burma, and Ceylon, and the other the islands of the
Australasian group.

Although our bird has a wide distribution, it does not travel
nearly so far on migration as do many of the Waders. A local race

THE STONE-CURLEW 235

is resident in North Africa, but the migration limits of our form
hardly at any time extend below Upper Egypt and Nubia.

North of the Mediterranean region it is a summer visitor to
those parts of temperate Europe where barren wastes, suitable to its
special requirements, occur. It does not extend far to the north,
breeding sparingly in North Germany, and occasionally straggling to
Denmark. In our own country it may be found in the chalk-wolds
of the southern counties, and two or three pairs nest as far north
as East Yorkshire. A few pairs nest annually on the inland side
of the vast pebble-beach at Dungeness,1 and occasionally an odd pair
on the sandhills of East Norfolk ; otherwise it is purely an inland
species.

In no part of England, however, is it so plentiful as in the
sparsely populated region of north-west Suffolk and south-west
Norfolk known as the Breck district. The conditions most essential
to the special habits of the stone-curlew are wide stretches of open
country, sandy soil, with cultivated fields and marsh-land not too
far away. Wherever it flourishes in any number, these conditions
are almost certain to be found. The Breck district provides these
conditions in an ideal manner ; almost desolate, undulating plains
of flint-flecked sand, utterly devoid in parts of any sort of vegetation,
in others, covered with mosses and lichens and scattered tufts of
wiry grass. Here and there occur areas where a semi-cultivation —
chiefly to provide food and cover for game — has encouraged the
growth of flowering plants, viper's-bugloss, poppies, campion, and
thistles, which in their season enliven the scene with a blaze of
colour. The ubiquitous bracken flourishes in all directions, either
scattered thinly over the lichen-covered sand, or growing in dense
profusion where it finds suitable soil. The general monotony of

1 Owing to persecution the numbers breeding at Dungeness have been subject to consider-
able fluctuation : Dr. N. F. Ticehurst says that throughout the nineties there were probably
no more than four or five pairs in the whole area. Owing, however, to the efficient protection
now afforded them, the numbers have increased considerably, and there is now a strong
colony. Cf. N. F. Ticehurst, Birds of Kent, pp. 407-411.

VOL. in. 2n

236 THE STONE-CURLEW

view is broken by long narrow belts of Scotch fir, and occasional
plantations of spruce, larch, and birch. Tall white poplars line the
roadsides, which in many parts are devoid of any sort of hedge. Where
hedges occur they are generally of Scotch fir — locally " Scotch fences "
— and where these have been neglected and allowed to grow at
will, they have developed tree-like proportions, with irregular lines
of dark twisted stems, forming fantastic framework for glimpses
of the open country beyond. Here the stone-curlews gather in the
early spring, and their strange gaunt figures and wild cries fit in so
well with the nature of the country that there is ever a feeling of
incompleteness in winter when they are absent.

In certain years a few stone-curlews may arrive at their nesting-
grounds as early as the middle of March, but usually the great
immigration takes place at the end of the month and early in April.
They probably migrate in large flocks, as in most seasons they appeal-
suddenly and in good numbers. In the first week or so of April they
may be seen in groups standing about the fields and fallow land ;
they are, however, never in such large companies as in the autumn.

At this time they are very partial to the cultivated fields, where
they meet with lapwings and ringed-plovers, all attracted from the
warrens by the greater promise of food in the tilled soil. Mistle-
thrushes, partridges, and pheasants are also there on a similar quest,
and all show a far livelier interest than the stone-curlew, who stands
for long intervals contemplative and reserved. A mistle-thrush
passing too near across his front may cause him to thrust out his
head in a menacing manner, or even to make a fierce, silent rush at
the disturber of his reverie. Occasionally, as if suddenly awaking
to the needs of the " inner bird," or because some crawling insect has
caught his eye, he will take two or three quick steps and thrust with
his bill at something on the ground, and then, whether successful or
not, he will retire slowly into himself again.

As the nesting time approaches the stone-curlews keep more to
the sandy heaths and warrens, the groups gradually break up, and in

THE STONE-CURLEW 237

pairs spread over the favourite nesting-area. It is difficult to say
whether they are paired when they arrive, or choose their partners
during the week or two that they remain in companies ; probably the
latter, as careful watching at this time may reveal in a certain degree
the actions and attitudes peculiar to pairing, interspersed — so to
speak — with those of the social period. I have looked over the
ground after watching a group in early spring, and found several
depressions or " scrapes " in the sandy soil, similar in size and shape
to the one that later serves the stone-curlew as a nest. There is very
good reason for assuming that these " scrapes " are formed by the
males under sexual excitement, and the habit will be dealt with more
fully in a later chapter when describing the lapwing.

The subject of "dummy" or additional nests is wrapped in
considerable mystery, and although more labour is entailed in the
building of the elaborate nest of the wren, and even the less ambitious
efforts of such birds as moorhens and grebes, yet the additional
"scrapes" made by ground-nesting birds are, I think, analogous to
the extra nests built by these species, and probably due to similar
influence.

However this may be, additional " scrapes " similar to those used
as nests are made by stone-curlews, although, owing to their irregular
form and the sandy nature of the ground, they are not so obvious as
those of some other species.

Egg-laying commences about the 20th of April, and nests may
occasionally be found near those of ringed-plovers and lapwings, but
as a rule stone-curlews prefer to nest quite apart from other birds,
especially of their own kind, and after the final dispersal in pairs,
it is unusual to see more than two together until the young are
grown.

In striking contrast to most species of Limicolce of whose love-
displays we have any knowledge, the courting of the stone-curlew is
devoid of special aerial or vocal display. True, their wailing cries
may be heard in the spring, but do not differ from the autumn cries.

238 THE STONE-CURLEW

So far as aerial display is concerned, the stone-curlew is not at any
time a bird to take delight in sporting on the wing, especially in the
daytime, when it is unusual to see them flying except when disturbed,
and then quite low over the ground, rising only to cross a belt of
trees and then gliding to earth again, where they quickly disappear
from sight owing to the harmony of their plumage with the sandy soil.

The stone-curlew is silent and dignified in his courting, and the
female receives his attentions with a dignity and formality equal to
his own. In fact, so similarly do both birds behave, that on the few
occasions when I have been able to get more than brief glimpses of
them at pairing time, it has always been a matter of considerable
uncertainty to tell which was the male, no help being afforded by the
plumage, which is practically alike in both sexes. No sooner has one
bird — by a formal bowing, in which the whole body is tilted forward,
the beak touching the ground, and the tail held straight above — been
marked as the male, than the action repeated by the other renews
the uncertainty.

The display seems to be intended not to charm, but to satisfy a
desire to posture. Besides the bowing just mentioned, there is
another and perhaps more characteristic attitude, which I have seen
assumed by both birds at once, never by one only. Standing very
erect, with their legs quite straight and body held vertically, they
gradually curve the upper part of the neck — causing the neck feathers
to stand out loosely — until the beak is pointing towards the ground.
There is nothing suggestive of bowing in this pose, the birds may
face in different, in fact quite opposite directions, and they lose very
little of their height when the curving of the neck takes place. The
posture is assumed very slowly, and when complete is rigidly
maintained for a brief spell, and then as slowly relaxed, whereupon
the birds may walk away together with stiff propriety, and very
conscious of each other's presence.

This posture has been observed and vividly described l by Mr.

1 Bird Watching, p. 19

THE STONE-CURLEW 239

Edmund Selous, whose impressions of this bird are exceedingly true
and lifelike. Mr. Selous describes the stone-curlew as at all times a
fighter, although when a male intrudes on a courting couple, and is
repelled by the male in possession, the fighting is, like all their
actions at this time, beset with much formality, and assumes rather
the aspect of a warlike demonstration than an actual battle. In
such an incident described by Mr. Selous, the male, after going at a
quick pace to the female and making her a formal bow, turned to
attack his rival : " He is now drawn up to his full height, with the
head thrown a little back, the tail is fanned out into the shape of
a scallop-shell, . . . the broad, rounded end of which just touches
the ground at the centre, ... he advances upon the intruding bird
with quick little stilty steps, prepared evidently to do battle. The
would-be rival, however, retreats before this display, and the accepted
suitor, having followed him thus for some little way, . . . turns, and
with his former formal pace goes back to his hen." l

But, as Mr. Selous has pointed out,2 the stone-curlew will often
make rushes free from any formality, " with neck outstretched and
crouching gait," especially when the offending bird is of another
species. This I can corroborate, but I have not witnessed the formal
repulse of a rival at courting time.

If the day is cloudy the birds may occasionally be heard to call to
each other, but this in my experience is only at rare intervals, and
probably when they have become separated in their wanderings.
They soon join company again, not forgetting a formal bow or two as
they do so. Not infrequently one will crouch on the ground, and
rock from side to side as when covering eggs, and I think it is then
that the " scrapes " previously mentioned are formed.

The actual nest is a shallow depression, irregular in shape, and
some eight or nine inches across in its widest part. It is lined with
stones and rabbit droppings, which are added to during incubation.

1 Bird Watching, p. 17.

2 Bird-life Glimpses, p. 122 et seq.

240 THE STONE-CURLEW

Some nests contain more stones than others, depending possibly on
the quantity of stones in the sand when the "scrape" is formed,
although there is no doubt that stones are carried to the nest, and
this after the eggs are laid. Rabbit droppings are certainly intro-
duced by the birds, and of the many nests I have examined, I have
never seen one without this curious lining, sometimes a small
quantity only, but generally sufficient to form quite a conspicuous
feature in the nest.

The majority of nests are in the open, far from bushes or cover of
any kind, but I have seen one among scattered gorse bushes, and one
in a new plantation of small mixed trees. These may possibly have
been the nests of birds that had nested in the same places in former
years before the plantations were formed. An instance of continued
adherence to an ancestral nesting-place is given by Stevenson, on
the authority of the late Professor Newton ; a pair of stone-curlews
continued to nest in the newly formed warren-covert at Elveden for
several years after the young trees were well established.1 As a rule,
the eggs of ground-nesting birds — especially of those species which do
not make a nest — are protectively coloured. They do not necessarily
resemble a detail of the surroundings, but the prevailing scheme of
pattern — irregular blotches of dark colour mingled with or overlap-
ping similar blotches of lighter colour — tend to break up the formal
outline of the egg, and so give a quality of general indistinctness.
When danger threatens, the sitting birds of such species slip quietly
away and leave the eggs to take care of themselves. The advantage
of this is obvious, as the eggs are comparatively safe from discovery,
whereas the bird, even if not conspicuous in itself, would run the risk
of being frightened into flight, and so reveal the whereabouts of the
nest. The stone-curlew's two eggs are good examples of the
protected type — a greyish stone ground, with blotches of dark greys,
browns, and black — and although in themselves not particularly like
stones, they harmonise so well with the general environment of

1 Stevenson, Birds of Norfolk, vol. ii. p. 55.

THE STONE-CURLEW 241

stones and sand that they are safer from discovery if left, than if the
bird remained to form a possible clue to their whereabouts.

Owing to the open nature of the country, a sitting stone-curlew is
able to detect the approach of an intruder at such a distance that it
is very unlikely that it will be seen when it leaves the nest The
stealthy retreat, like every habit of this remarkable bird, is most
interesting to witness, and it is possible with care to approach
sufficiently near to see something of it. But the bird is so readily
lost sight of on the sandy soil, that one must be near to get more than
an imperfect impression.

I have had very good opportunities for watching their methods at
the nest while concealed in a branch-hidden tent, within a few feet,
for the purpose of photographing them. There is then no straining
of eyes as when at a distance ; every detail of plumage is clearly
visible as the bird sits contentedly on its eggs. It may, unless
disturbed by a movement in the tent, remain motionless for a long
time ; but however composed it may appear, it is never off its guard, as
one can tell by its behaviour directly an intruder comes in sight of
the nest. Without warning, a sudden change may be detected in the
bird ; it becomes very much on the alert — but not excitedly so, — nor
does curiosity to inquire into the nature of the disturbing influence
cause it to raise its head to look around before leaving. It steps
quietly from the nest, with no flurry or excitement in its appearance ;
the bird is master of the situation, and the business of the moment is,
without exposing itself, to get clear away from the neighbourhood of
the nest. To say that it runs is to suggest long steps and an excited
gait, and this ill describes the method of progression. The head
is held low, not by extending the neck, but by drawing it and
the head close into the shoulders ; and so, holding the body rigid,
and with little paddling steps that seem ridiculously short for a
bird with such long legs, the stone-curlew passes rapidly over the
ground and is soon out of sight. I have noticed that if there is an
irregularity in the ground, or a patch of bracken or other vegetation

342 THE STONE-CURLEW

near the nest, they will take advantage of the cover afforded by it ;
not by entering it, but by running along its edge.

They are equally cautious when returning to their nests ; they
always approach on foot, very leisurely, and occasionally stopping to
pick up something to eat. When within a few yards of the nest they
will stand and gaze around, or preen their feathers for a while, but
this hesitation near the nest is generally, I think, due to suspicion of
the hiding tent. If there is no disturbing influence they go straight
to the nest, with head tucked back into shoulders, and the little
paddling steps when travelling quickly ; but when quite near the nest
there is a change, the head is held lower on slightly extended neck,
and the steps are slow and deliberate. A nervous bird will some-
times remain for half an hour or more within a few yards of the nest,
afraid to go on to the eggs, and yet not sufficiently alarmed to leave.
Not infrequently I have known them to come round to the back of
my hiding-place and utter an explosive sort of hissing noise, very
difficult to describe, and no doubt expressive of disapproval or anger.
This noise resembles in modified form the whumph, whumph of the
great-bustard. They will also, when kept by fear from the eggs, squat
down and practically brood stones on the ground.

Yery rarely I have seen one joined by its mate, and the two
wander about for a time in the vicinity of the nest ; but when ulti-
mately one of them has gone away, and the other has come on to
the nest, I have never been able to say for certain whether the latter
was the first arrival, nor have I ever seen one take the place of the
other on the eggs ; but see the " Classified Notes."

I have only once heard a bird call when near the nest ; it had
been standing about for some time, distrustful of the heap of
branches that concealed my camera, when a bird, probably its mate,
called from lower down the warren. The bird at the nest became
quietly interested, and stretching out its neck called in reply dhu-le-
eep, dhu-le-eep — the first two syllables short and somewhat indistinct,
the last long drawn and shrill — but to my ears there were distinctly

THE STONE-CURLEW 243

three, as indeed there appear to be in the several variants of the
above that go to make up the stone-curlew's repertoire of wild wailing
cries.

When the young are hatched the parents are even more silent
and stealthy in their behaviour. They display none of the fussy
anxiety so characteristic at this time of most Waders, but seem to
trust implicitly to the practical invisibility of their chicks to protect
them; and as for themselves, they can help best when danger
threatens by being out of the way, and they go swiftly, silently, and
without showing themselves. The chicks meanwhile crouch flat on
the ground and remain immovable until the danger passes and their
parents return.

This habit of crouching is common to most Waders and other
ground-nesting birds, but while others use it in conjunction with
devices, such as repeated warning-notes to the skulking chicks, with
endeavours to drive away an intruder, as in the case of the lapwing, or
with the so-called feigning of an injury, the stone-curlew trusts entirely
to the protective coloration. One can hardly imagine this stately bird
doing anything so undignified as shuffling along over the ground
shamming injury, or anything so futile as flying to and fro over the
spot where its young are concealed, with noisy wing-beats and
anxious cries. So far as I have been able to discover, it does not
even give a warning-note to the young, its swift stealthy disappearance
being apparently the signal for the young birds to freeze to the
ground, and they need no warning not to move. Living as a rule on
ground bare of cover, they cannot run into grass and other herbage
to hide as do many Waders, nor need they do so, for the coloration
and texture of their downy covering harmonises so exactly with the
sandy flint-flecked soil, and they prostrate themselves so completely,
that they appear no more than a slight irregularity of the surface.

The extreme phase of the crouching attitude is not developed
until the young birds are about a week old. They crouch almost as
soon as they leave the egg-shell, but the body then is somewhat

VOL. in. 2 1

244 THE STONE-CURLEW

humped and the neck contracted, which brings the head close to the
shoulders, an attitude very like the ordinary hiding crouch of many
ground-nesting birds. (Plate XLVIII., Fig. 2.) But the later phase of
the attitude is rapidly developed, the neck is extended, and the little
bird, from the tip of its bill to the end of its body, is pressed flat
on the ground. (Plate XLVIII., Fig. 3.)

Not only does the stone-curlew eclipse its congeners in its
development of this device, but also in its faith therein. The young
birds seem to trust implicitly to its value to protect them, and it is
no easy matter to prove to them that they are discovered. I have
lifted one from the ground and laid it across two outstretched fingers,
yet the rigidity of the attitude has not been relaxed nor has the bird
shown a sign of life. By dint of much handling the little bird may at
last be made to realise that it is discovered, that the deception has
failed ; then it takes refuge in the most commonplace of expedients —
and runs away ! The length of leg now revealed is quite surprising,
as is also the pace at which this hitherto inert creature can run. It
will not as a rule run far, probably twenty to fifty yards, then it drops
flat again in the crouching attitude, and with the attitude its faith in
its protective value returns, and, providing one is able to find it, there
will be the same difficulty as before in convincing it that its natural
defence has broken down.

When fully fledged the young show but slightly diminished con-
fidence in the device ; and although I have never witnessed it myself,
I have been told by gamekeepers that when a man approaches on
horseback, the adults are less likely to flee than from one on foot,
but will assume the crouching attitude while the horse passes within
a few feet. This specialisation of the stone-curlew in the crouching
habit has no doubt arisen from long and continued adherence to a
special environment. While the species keeps to districts where the
favourable conditions prevail, the habit is of undoubted value ; but on
ground of a different nature, with which the colour of the down would
not harmonise so well, one can imagine this extreme dependence on

THE STONE-CURLEW 245

the habit becoming a serious menace to the existence of the species,
as it would under such changed conditions become a conspicuous
and easy prey. Dr. Bowdler Sharpe related of two stone-curlews
that he kept, and which were allowed to run loose in the garden by
day, that they much resented being shut up in an aviary at night,
and used every artifice to avoid it ; when all other concealment failed,
they would prostrate themselves flat on the ground and lie perfectly
still, " a manoeuvre which might have been successful on fallow-land,
but which signally failed to hide them when executed in the middle
of a lawn."1

I once, and once only, saw a family party, two adults and two
downy young, all standing up together. It was a strange and most
engaging sight, but it did not last long enough for me to watch them
to any purpose ; the old birds detected me at once and ran off in their
quaint style, and the young ones dropped to the ground, and although
I was near enough to see them clearly without glasses, it was only
after a long search that I was able to find them. This group showed
them thoroughly domesticated, both adults in close attendance on
the chicks.

If their eggs are destroyed or taken they will lay a second or even
a third time, but I do not think a second brood is reared. The
incubation period is long — about twenty-eight days 2 — and this twice
in the season, allowing some time in between, would carry a second
brood very late into the summer.

As the young grow the swelling at the upper part of the tarsus,
and the tibio-tarsal joint, becomes very evident. As before stated,
this swelling is common to all Waders and also to some other groups,
e.g. Herons and Ducks — many Waders having as large a development
of it as the stone-curlew — which makes it a matter for some surprise

1 Wonders of the Bird World, p. 272.

4 Mr. E. G. B. Mead-Waldo ascertained the incubation period to be 26-27 days. In a nest
under observation, the first egg was laid early in the day on May 23rd, and the second late
in the day on May 25th. Hatching took place on June 20 and 21st.— British Birds (magazine),
i. p. 92.

246 THE STONE-CURLEW

that authors have generally directed attention to it as a characteristic
of this species.

Towards the end of summer there is a gradual return to the
social life, and in August the great autumn gatherings commence.
The bird now appears to become more truly nocturnal in its habits.
Little groups of four or five birds may be seen standing or squatting
sleepily about the fallows, and now and again one, apparently more
awake than the rest, will utter a squeaky dhu-le-eep, several times
repeated. Towards the evening the lethargy of the day wears off, the
birds seem imbued with new life, and from all parts of the fallows and
warrens they gather in to certain favourite assembling places. As
they come they raise their voices cour-li-vee, cour-li-vee, and the long
wailing cries echoing from far and near form a fitting accompaniment
to the general desolate wildness of the scene. They have not altogether
lost their stately decorous bearing of the spring, but at these autumnal
gatherings there is an exciting influence at work that causes them to
forget themselves, as it were ; they emerge from their cloak of dignified
reserve, and do mad things in what seems the joy of each other's
company, and — in the opinion of Mr. Selous — in anticipation of the
pleasures of the coming night. For detailed accounts of these social
antics or dances of the stone-curlew the reader is referred to the
works of Mr. Selous, who spent much time in watching them at this
season of the year.1

There is no set dance in which several birds take part, but all
seem to act independently and spasmodically. Birds which have
been standing still will suddenly commence to run — not with the
little paddling steps as in the day when seeking to escape observa-
tion, but — with a fine swinging gait, often raising their wings as they
do so. Then others in different parts of the plateau will follow suit,
and as they raise their wings, revealing the light under-surfaces, they
flicker and flash into and out of sight in the gathering dusk. They
have a quaint way of throwing themselves forward, and holding their

1 Bird Watching, see Index ; Bird-life Glimpses, see Index ; Zoologist, pp. 173, 270, 458 et seq.

THE STONE-CURLEW 247

heads sideways on the ground for a brief spell, sometimes with a wing
raised high in the air ; an attitude which has a curious effect, and is
frequently indulged in. As the light weakens the pace grows faster,
the wing flashes increase, and here and there a bird will rise from the
ground, fly for a short distance, and alight again. At last one or two
fly up in earnest, quickly followed by others, and these again by more,
until all are up and away to their feeding-grounds, wailing as they go.
Their cries gain in effect from the fact that they do not all call at
once in a grand chorus, but take it up from each other, wail following
wail from one part of the flock to the other. At all times they are
more active in dull or rainy weather. In spring and summer, on wet
days I have heard them calling from all quarters. And Mr. Selous
describes their antics on a certain wet evening as being altogether of
a more violent kind than usual. The birds pitched about over the
ground, waving and tossing their wings, " each violent run or plunge
ending with a sudden pitch forward of the body, the wings straggling
about in an uncouth dislocated sort of way ; the effect was as if the
birds were being blown over the ground in a violent wind." And
again, " one of them would often run at or pursue another with these
antics. I saw one that was standing quietly caught and, as it were,
covered up in a little storm of wings before it could run away and
begin waving its own." l

The harmony of these evening gatherings seems seldom disturbed
by quarrels ; the birds are continually running at each other, but it
seems to be in sport, a sort of rough horse-play indicative of high
spirits. There is something exceedingly funny, and in keeping with
the general bearing of the species, in the way one will stop suddenly
after one of these tumultuous displays and assume a most decorous
appearance. It looks almost ashamed of having so far forgotten itself.

They fly back to the assembling places in the early morning,
generally about daybreak, although on one foggy morning in September
I saw a large flock coming in at about ten o'clock. The heavy mist

1 Bird Watching, p. 12.

248 THE STONE-CURLEW

may have been the cause of this late return to the warrens. These
large flights form a most inspiring sight. The flock just mentioned, the
largest I have ever seen, must have consisted of two hundred birds ;
they were flying low down, not more than twenty to thirty feet from
the ground, and while the majority of them were a little beyond me,
many passed directly over my head. They are always much quieter on
their return flight than in the evening, but still not absolutely silent,
and it was their voices, a wail here and there, that warned me they
were coming, some time before I saw the first birds emerge phantom-
like from the fog.

The nightly visits of the stone-curlew to the marshes are, I think,
as much for drink as for food. Food to their taste there is in plenty
on the warrens and fallows, but no water ; for that they must go to
the lower land. They eat quantities of grasshoppers, earwigs, beetles,
caterpillars, and various other insects. Mr. Selous has seen them in
the early evening chasing and catching moths, and probably other
insects that fly near the ground.1 They also eat worms, slugs, and
mice, and when caught in traps set for vermin on the fallows they
have been known to disgorge frogs.2 I have been told by an
observant gamekeeper, who has lived practically all his life in their
haunts, that they eat the larvae of Euchdia jacobcece, the cinnabar
moth, and he added that he did not think any other bird did so.
This caterpillar is generally avoided by birds, and is furnished with
what are known as warning colours. It swarms on the ragwort which
grows abundantly on many of the fallows. The same keeper told
me that he had shot a stone-curlew in the act of killing a young
pheasant. Other keepers whom I have interrogated as to this latter
statement have corroborated it.3

Attempts to syllable the cries and songs of birds are somewhat
futile, and convey but a poor impression of the real thing. Various

1 Bird Watching, p. 6 et seq.

* Stevenson, Birds of Norfolk, vol. ii. p. 63.

3 This habit must be taken, however, as very exceptional.

THE STONE-CURLEW 249

renderings have been given of the cries of the stone-curlew. Mr.
Selous uses dew-leep for the shrill cry heard so much in the daytime,
and which is uttered on the ground.1 To me it is more like dhu-le-eep,
the first syllables very short and the last long drawn out and ending
in a squeal. The note I have written cour-li-vee Mr. Selous puts tur-
li-vee ; 2 it is very well expressed by a French writer — Valmont Bomare,
quoted by Macgillivray — tarlui or courlis? All these expressions
serve equally well to one familiar with the cries. The question is,
are such formulae worth attempting, as likely to give an adequate
idea or impression of the notes to one who has never heard them ?
The full wailing cry, called locally the clamour, is not perfect when the
birds first arrive in this country, but it gradually gains in strength
and clearness, and from May on to the time they leave us in the
autumn it may be heard at night ringing across the heaths in its full
glory. All these notes are variants of the same, and may be described
as wailing cries rather than whistling. There is a cry, however,
of remarkable carrying power which may be described as a monoto-
nous whistle on one note, repeated at regular intervals throughout
the nesting season ; and a whistling note may occasionally be heard,
more especially in the autumn, and, according to Mr. Selous, " when
the birds are flying in great numbers preparatory to migration."4
It is a quavering note suggestive of certain spring notes of some
other Waders, e.g. curlew, oystercatcher, or redshank.

The autumn migration commences in October, the majority of
the birds apparently leaving together about the middle of the month ;
others follow gradually until by the end of the month nearly all are
gone. Odd birds may occasionally remain throughout the winter, as
I have records of their occurrence for the months of December,
January, and February, and it is said that in Cornwall and S. Devon
a few linger throughout the winter every year.5

1 Bird-life Glimpses, p. 125. * Ibid.

1 Macgillivray, British Birds, vol. iv. p. 81. 4 Bird-life Glimpses, p. 126.

5 Saunders, Manual of British Birds, p. 529.

250 THE STONE-CURLEW

As to how the great exodus, and the preparations leading up to
it, takes place I cannot say. One can imagine its following one of the
great evening displays, and the dancing and wild rushes of the birds
gradually ending in a flight, not to the old feeding-grounds in the
cultivated fields and marshes, but to others far south on the way to
winter quarters.

THE PHALAROPES

[ORDER: Charadriiformes. SUBORDER: Limicolce. FAMILY: Charadriidce.

SUBFAMILY: Phalaropodince]

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES

[W. FARREN. F. C. R. JOURDAIN. W. P. PYCRAFT. A. L. THOMSON]

GREY-PHALAROPE \Phaldropus julicdrius (Linnaeus). French, phalarope
gris ; German, plattschndbliger Wassertreter ; Italian, falaropo rosso].

i. Description. — Of the two species of phalaropes, identified at a glance
by their relatively small size and by the coot-like lobes to the toes, the present
species is distinguished from its congener in being conspicuously larger and by the
shape of the beak, which is slightly flattened and widened at the tip. The female
is larger and more brightly coloured than the male, and there is a distinct seasonal
change of coloration. (PI. 112.) Length 8*25 in. [209*55 mm.]. The adult, in summer,
has the top of the head and nape and hind-neck black, and the lower back dark
slate colour ; the interscapulars, scapulars, innermost major-coverts, and long inner
secondaries black broadly margined with sandy buff, and the outer major coverts
dark grey with a broad terminal bar of white ; the remaining wing-coverts slate-
blue. The primaries dusky, with more or less white at the base of the outer web ;
the outer secondaries white shading into blackish towards the outer webs, the
innermost secondaries dark slate with sandy buff margins. The centre tail feathers
blackish with sandy buff margins, the outer feathers dark grey margined with
white, the outermost tinged with chestnut towards the tip ; tail-coverts black
margined with buff, save the longest, which are chestnut. The forehead, lores,
anterior part of the face, chin, and upper throat dark slate colour ; the sides of the
face, around the eyes and ear-coverts white ; the under parts, including the sides
of the neck, from the throat backwards, rich reddish chestnut. Beak yellow,
black at the tip, legs olive-brown, iris dark brown. The male differs from the female
in having the chestnut of the under parts duller, more or less intermixed with

VOL. III. 2 K

252 THE PHALAROPES

white, and extending to the chin, while on the flanks they are striated with brown,
and the white patch on the side of the head is strongly marked with vinous brown.
After the autumn moult the lores, forehead, and crown, and the whole of the under
parts are white, a patch of grey partly surrounds the eye, and the upper parts
assume a uniform slate-grey colour, the feathers of the mantle having dark shaft-
streaks, and those of the scapulars and innermost secondaries white margins. The
wing-coverts retain the slate-blue of the summer dress. The juvenile plumage
is intermediate in character between the summer and winter dress of the adult,
having the feathers of the upper surface margined with buff, and a vinous tinge
on the throat and fore-neck. The fore-part of the crown is buffish white, and
there is a horse-shoe loop of black on the hinder crown. The young in down have
the head of a light rust colour with a black patch on the crown and behind the
eye, while the back is of a dark brown relieved by more or less distinct longi-
tudinal stripes of bright reddish brown. The under parts are of a dark brownish
grey. [w. p. p.]

2. Distribution. — In the breeding season the grey-phalarope is a circum-
polar bird. Its nearest breeding-places to us are Iceland, where a few pairs nest ;
Spitsbergen, where it breeds in considerable numbers ; and Novaya Zemlya,
where it has recently been proved to nest (W. S. Bruce). Whether it breeds on
Kolguev is not certain, but it is known to nest on the Taimyr Peninsula (Midden-
dorff and Walter), at the mouth of the Yenesei (Popham), on the Great Liakoff
Isles (Bunge), the Lower Lena valley (Hall), the Kolyma and Yana deltas (Buturlin).
On the American side it is not uncommon in Greenland, breeding not only on the
west side but also in the north-east (Manniche), and westward along the Arctic
coasts and islands of North America to Alaska, ranging north to 82° 30' (Feilden),
from Davis Strait, Melville Peninsula, and the North Georgian Islands to Point
Barrow. Mr. Buturlin also states that isolated pairs have been found far inland in
south-west Siberia, in the Uralsk and Turgai governments. During the winter it is
found in small numbers as far as the coasts and lakes of the Continent, south to
the Mediterranean, and it has occurred in the Azores and in Marocco, while in
Asia it ranges to the Pamirs (rare), India (once only), and China (regularly). It
has also been recorded from New Zealand, the Falkland Isles, Juan Fernandez, and
in South America as far as Chile, but its normal winter range in America extends
only to Lower California, and the middle United States on the east side. [F. c. R. J.]

3. Migration. — A bird of passage in small and variable numbers, but
seldom recorded on the spring passage. The south-eastern counties of England —

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 253

and after them, the southern and south-western counties — are those most fre-
quently visited. Exceptionally well-marked movements occurred in the autumns
of 1866, 1869, 1886, and 1891 (cf. Saunders, Itt. Man. Brit. Birds, 2nd ed., 1899,
p. 565). It is rare on the north and west of Great Britain. To Ireland it is an
occasional visitor (cf. Patten, Irish Naturalist, vol. x. p. 59). It sometimes occurs
in small parties. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — Does not breed in the British Isles. [F. c. R. J.]

5. Food. — In the nesting season, chiefly aquatic and other insects and
their larvae. "Twenty analyses of stomachs proved their chief food to consist
of small insects, principally gnats and their larvae. In a few stomachs were fine
indeterminable remnants of plants — algae ? " (Manniche, Terrestrial Mammals and
Birds of N.E. Greenland, p. 157). — At other times, the smaller thin-skinned
crustaceans and other small marine forms ; and the flies and their larvae that breed
in the seaweed and refuse on the shore. They have been seen picking parasites off
the backs of whales and other cetaceans (Howard Saunders, Manual of British
Birds, p. 566). In stomachs of birds examined by Professor Patten were small
crabs and scraps of seaweed. The stomach of one killed in Ireland contained
twelve larvae of a fly (sp. ?) and a quantity of a small gasteropod shell, probably
Hydrobia ulvce, which is found in brackish water (Aquatic Birds, p. 261). The
young are attended by the male only, and assisted by him in their search for
food, which consists of small aquatic insects — mosquitoes probably to a large
extent — and their larvae, [w. r.]

REDNECKED-PHALAROPE [Phalaropus lobdtus (Linnaeus); Phala-
ropus hyperboreus (Linnaeus). Half-web (Orkneys). French, phalarope
cendre ; German, schmalschndbliger Wassertreter ; Italian, falaropo a becco
sottile].

i. Description. — As in the grey-phalarope the feet are lobed, and the hinder
border of the tarsometatarsus is serrated ; but it is to be distinguished from the
grey-phalarope by its smaller size and longer and more slender beak. The female
is somewhat larger and more brightly coloured than the male, and there is a conspicu-
ous seasonal change of coloration. (PL 112.) Length 7'5 in. [179'07 mm.]. In the
nuptial, summer dress, the upper part of the head to the level of the lower border
of the ear-coverts is of a lead-grey, the rest of the upper parts somewhat darker,
enlivened by a line of sandy buff on either side of the interscapulars ; wing-coverts

254 THE PHALAROPES

slaty black, with a bar of white along the tips of the major series. Primaries with
white shafts, and the secondaries edged with white, the innermost having sandy
buff margins. The fore-neck is marked by a broad band of rust-red extending
upwards to the nape ; below the band is a narrow margin of grey. The flanks are
grey, and the rest of the under parts white. Beak, legs, and toes black, iris dark
brown. The male is duller in colour, has the rufous band across the throat smaller
in area, and a white superciliary stripe. After the autumn moult the chestnut and
grey bands on the fore-neck are wanting ; the back and scapulars also lose the
chestnut margins, the upper parts being slate-grey more or less conspicuously laced
with white, the under parts pure white. The juvenile plumage has the feathers
of the upper parts dark brown margined with chestnut, and the under parts washed
with buffish. The young in down are buffish chestnut above, with a black patch
on the crown and behind the ear, a black spot on the elbow, and a longitudinal
line of black, and two narrow white lines along the back. The neck is also buffish
chestnut, the rest of the under parts white, [w. p. p.]

2. Distribution. — In the British Isles at the present time this species is
only known to breed in Scotland in the Outer Hebrides, south of the Sound of
Harris, and in the Orkneys and Shetlands. There was formerly a breeding-place
in the Tay area (Perthshire), but this had long been deserted. In Ireland there is
a single colony in the West, occupied since 1900, though first made known in 1903,
which is now protected. Outside the British Isles it breeds in the Fseroes, and in
great numbers in Iceland, while on the Continent it is found on the high fjeld of
Middle Norway as well as in Northern Scandinavia, locally in North Russia, and on
the islands of Waigatz, Dolgoi, and probably Kolguev. Southward it breeds, accord-
ing to Buturlin, in Moscow, Perm, Orenburg, and Uralsk, and sparingly in the Gulf
of Finland and the Russian Baltic Provinces. In Asia its breeding range extends
across Siberia to the Sea of Okhotsk and Saghalin as well as on the Commander
Isles, and in North America it breeds from the Aleutian Isles, Alaska, the northern
Mackenzie river basin, Central Keewatin, St. James' Bay, and N. Ungava to South
Greenland. It has on the whole a more southerly range than the grey-phalarope.
In winter it migrates southward through Europe to the Mediterranean basin,
avoiding the western part ; and also to Southern Asia (India, China, Japan),
Celebes, the Moluccas and Amboina, while in America it reaches the Bermudas,
Guatemala, and occasionally Hawaii. [F. c. R. J.]

3. Migration. — A summer visitor to the breeding haunts mentioned above,
and otherwise merely a rare bird of passage, chiefly to the east coast of Great

PLATE XLIX

Photo by Hugh S. Glaustone

1. Rednecked-phalarope's nest

Fhoto by Hugh S. Gladstone

H. Rednecked-phaiarope (male) seeking to brood chick held In the hand (see p. 265)

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 255

Britain. Arrival takes place in the second half of May, and both old and young
appear to leave their summer haunts by August. As regards the rest of the country,
it has been said that " occurrences in spring are unusual, and altogether the avoid-
ance by this species of the greater part of the British Islands on its passage to
and from its summer haunts is somewhat remarkable" (Saunders, III. Man. Brit.
Birds, 2nd ed., 1899, p. 567). The number of British-breeding individuals is of
course too small to make the species anything but the rarest of migrants along
our coasts, but a regular passage of birds from countries farther north might
well have been expected. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — The nest is generally neatly concealed in a tussock
of grass or water herbage in a marsh, in some cases as much as a foot above the
ground. It is chiefly composed of the stalks and roots of water-plants, and is
more frequently found near the side of the water than on the tussocks in the middle.
(PL XLIX.) Both sexes take part in building (B. Hantzsch). The eggs are four in
number, and are laid with the points inward. They are very handsome, the ground-
colour ranging from pale yellowish buff to brownish, occasionally showing a decided
green tinge, and very richly blotched and spotted with blackish or deep choco-
late, and occasionally a few shellmarks of greyish. Most of the blotches tend to
congregate at the blunt end. (PL M.) Average size of 43 eggs, l'lSx'83 in.
[29-9 x 21 mm.]. Most, if not all, of the incubation is performed by the male, but
no observations on the length of the period appear to have been made, beyond
Hantzsch' s statement that it lasts about two weeks. He also notes that the male
alone has two brooding spots, but says that the female also takes part. The
average date for eggs in Great Britain is about mid-June, but there is considerable
variation, even in the same district. In Iceland also the eggs are laid generally
in the latter part of June. Probably only a single brood is reared, and late
clutches are second or third layings. Kriiper found an almost fresh clutch on
July 14 in Iceland. [F. c. E. j.]

5. Food. — In nesting season, aquatic and other insects and their larvae,
small worms, and fresh-water crustaceans. — At other times, thin-skinned crus-
taceans and small forms of marine life generally. The stomach of one bird I
examined in October was full of small larvae of a fly, probably one of the species
that breed in decayed seaweed and other refuse at high-water mark. Small
crabs (Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 266). The young are attended and assisted by
both parents in their search for food, but chiefly by the male. Their food consists
of insects, mostly aquatic, and their larvae, [w. r.]

256 THE PHALAROPES

THE PHALAROPES
[W. FARREN]

These pretty little birds are the most aquatic in habit of all the
Waders. Their toes, lobed like those of coots, are admirably adapted
for swimming, and their plumage being exceedingly dense like that
of gulls and other swimming birds, gives them a buoyancy on the
water that adds much to their grace and charm.

Of our two species, the grey-phalarope is but a visitor — and
a very irregular one— chiefly on the autumn migration. Many years
pass with but few records of its appearance, and then comes a year,
as in 1866, when it appears in large numbers, chiefly on the south-
east and south coast, when many fall victims to the deplorable habit
that human beings have of killing anything that appears strange,
more especially if tame and confiding, as phalaropes always are. It
was computed that from August to October in 1866 two hundred
and fifty were killed in Sussex alone, and some five hundred in all.
Other years have seen similar visitations, when the birds were
nearly if not quite as numerous. In 1889, or about then, large
numbers visited the coast at and near Brighton, upwards of fifty
specimens being received at one naturalist's shop, for which the
price of 3d. a dozen was paid ! l

Howard Saunders does not mention an earlier record than 1866
for one of these great autumn visitations of the grey-phalarope.
But in the Zoologist for 1859 there is an interesting account of the
occurrence of large numbers at Plymouth in the autumn of 1858.
The recorder, John Gatcombe, further states : " In 1846 an extra-
ordinary flight visited Plymouth and the neighbouring coasts : they
remained about three weeks, and in such numbers were they that

1 Other dates of visitations of the grey-phalarope on its autumn passage are 1869, 1891,
and 1896.

THE PHALAROPES 257

I saw a sailor with an old rusty musket literally filling his pockets
with them." Gatcombe's notes on their habits are worth quoting
in full : " They are generally considered rare, but a few may be seen
every autumn in Plymouth Sound during the equinoctial gales :
their habits at such times are very elegant ; they alight just outside
the breakers, where the froth and seaweed have accumulated, swim
with extraordinary activity and lightness, constantly whisking their
bodies round, and incessantly nodding their heads and dipping their
bills in the water in search of food. So tame and fearless are they
at these times, that I have actually seen them give a little spring and
flutter only, when fired at and missed, and immediately go on feeding
as if nothing had happened." 1

What the special conditions are that bring about these visitations
it is very difficult to say;2 in fact, the migration of both species is
somewhat mysterious. They very rarely touch our shores on the
spring journey, and in autumn only in the spasmodic way above
narrated, and then their visits are almost confined to the south-east,
south, and south-west. True, the rednecked-phalarope has occurred
in many counties of England and Scotland, but very irregularly,
and always in small numbers. Although this species nests in the
British Isles while the grey-phalarope does not, it has always been
regarded, so far as actual numbers are concerned, as the rarer of the
two species. This is owing to the large number of the grey-phalarope
that have been taken during the occasional great autumn invasions.
It is quite probable that they are overlooked on migration, for
previous to the discovery — about the year 1900 — of the existence of
a nesting colony of the rednecked-phalarope in Ireland, there had
been but a single record of the species for that country. Judging
from the number of pairs found nesting there in 1904,3 the species

1 Zoologist, 1859, vol. 17, p. 6377.

2 " The combination necessary . . . would seem to be continuous southerly or south-westerly
gales blowing at the time the birds are making their southern passage."— Ticehurst, Birds of
Kent, p. 442.

3 British Birds (magazine), vol. i. p. 175.

258 THE PHALAROPES

certainly appears to be quite as numerous there as on the Scottish
mainland.

Both of our species of phalaropes penetrate far into the Arctic
to breed, their nesting range being circumpolar. The grey-phalarope
appears to be the more restricted in its range, for while its southern
limit is in Iceland, where it occurs in very small numbers, the red-
necked-phalarope is abundant there, and the latter also breeds in
the Faeroes, the Shetlands, the Orkneys, on the Scottish mainland,
and in Ireland. These British localities are probably the only places
where phalaropes nest south of the Arctic Circle. In winter they
penetrate as far south as the Bermudas and Guatemala in the west,
and the Indo-Malayan region in the east,1 but their exact migratory
routes, and where the bulk of them pass the winter months, is
uncertain. So far as Europe is concerned, they appear to travel
by way of Scandinavia and Western Europe. Howard Saunders
states that the rednecked-phalarope avails itself of the route by the
valley of the Yolga while the grey-phalarope does not, and that
both species are found on many inland waters and the coasts down
to the Mediterranean.2

Phalaropes, although fond of visiting inland waters on migration,
have also frequently been seen on the open sea many miles from
land : Howard Saunders states that the grey-phalarope may be seen
" sometimes hundreds of miles from land — and also picking the para-
sites off the backs of whales and other cetaceans."3 Of the same
species it is stated that " Sabine shot one out of a flock of four, on the
west coast of Greenland, in latitude 68°, while they were swimming in
the sea amongst icebergs"; and "Richardson in his Natural History
Appendix to Parry's Second Arctic Voyage, says they were observed
upon the sea, out of sight of land, preferring to swim out of danger
rather than take wing." 4 Of the rednecked-phalarope, Audubon
quoted by Macgillivray states that they may be seen swimming on

1 Manual of British Birds, p. 568. * Ibid., pp. 566-567. 3 Ibid., p. 566.

4 Yarrell's British Birds, 4th ed., vol. iii. p. 313, also 1st and other editions.

THE PHALAROPES 259

the open sea far from land, and frequently to alight on floating banks
of seaweed on which they "walk about as unconcernedly as on land." l

Phalaropes nest inland in marshy places, generally where there
are small pools and puddles of water, and in the vicinity of small
lakes. They spend much of their time on the water, sporting
with each other, and hunting for aquatic insects and other small
forms of life which they catch on or near the surface of the water,
and which at this season of the year form almost their sole food-
supply.

Both species undergo a considerable seasonal change of plumage.
This is most marked in the grey-phalarope, which from the delicate
grey of winter changes in spring to a rich admixture of black and
brick-red. The rednecked-phalarope has a darker grey winter
plumage, and in spring less brilliant colouring than the grey-
phalarope, but considerably more colour and contrast than when in
its own winter plumage. There is a very decided sexual difference in
the spring plumage, and, contrary to the general rule, the advantage
in brilliancy is entirely with the female, which is also the larger.
This caused early observers to mistake male for female. Macgillivray
described the females as less pure in colour than the males, although
curiously he gave the relative sizes correctly; and Salmon, who visited
the Orkneys in 1834, described the female rednecked-phalarope as
lacking "that brilliant bay colour upon the sides of the neck and
breast so conspicuous in the male," not knowing that the smaller
duller individuals were the males, and that with this inferiority in
dress, usually — in birds — associated with the gentler sex, the males
also accept the feminine responsibility of hatching the eggs and
rearing the young.2 This was, I believe, first noticed and recorded

1 Macgillivray's British Birds, vol. iv. p. 296.

2 Since this was written I find that there is in the Fauna of the Orkneys, p. 207, a quotation
from a paper read before the Linnean Society in June 1804, by T. W. Simmonds, recording for
the first time the breeding of the rednecked-phalarope in Great Britain. He did not actually
find a nest, but he obtained birds of both sexes on Sanday and North Ronaldsay, and from the
condition of the ovaries of the females concluded that egg-laying had recently taken place.
He also pointed out that the female was larger and more beautiful than the male, and also
that only birds of the latter sex had bare breasts, indicating that they alone incubate. The

VOL. III. 2 L

260 THE PHALAROPES

by Arctic explorers in America,1 who discovered also that the females
of all the phalaropes still further show their emancipation from
the customary restrictions imposed upon their sex by taking the
initiative in courting.

There is in this reversal of sexual adornments and functions
subject for much theoretical consideration, but there is little to
indicate the causes and influencing factors that have contributed to
its evolution. Is the duller plumage of the male the result or the
cause of his doing the incubating ? Is the superior brightness of that
of the female the result of sexual selection — the usual order reversed ?
Or if we do not like the theory of sexual selection as productive of
brilliancy in the plumage of the courting sex, and prefer to regard
gay colouring as a sort of waste product, the result of otherwise
unused physical vitality : then is this leap-year-like behaviour of the
female in courting the male simply high spirits, the result of some
of this superfluous vitality over and above that which was required
in the evolution of her gay colouring ? Will natural selection,
demanding still soberer colours, cause the incubating male to
become in time duller ? And will sexual selection by discriminating
and aesthetically-minded males produce in time a still greater degree
of brilliancy in the plumage of the females, and therefore an increased
disparity between the two sexes ?

With the exception of the ruff and reeve, the phalaropes show
more sexual dimorphism than any of the Limicolce, in fact it is hardly
observable in any others. Both sexes in all Waders have a fairly good
protective coloration. If, owing to any special conditions of habitat,
a duller plumage would be advantageous to the incubating bird, then
one can easily imagine that it would be the male whose colouring
would be so influenced by natural selection, as it is the rule with many

accuracy of this observation, made over a hundred years ago, is as remarkable as the fact that
Simmonds' discovery was unknown to Yarrell and other authors of works on British Birds.
The rednecked -phalarope was first recorded as a British species by Pennant in 1769.

1 " Report upon Natural History Collections made in Alaska in the Years 1877-1881," and
" Report of the International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow " (Washington, 1885).

THE PHALAROPES 261

species of Waders for the male to sit during the day, the only time
when colour is important. This may have been the origin of the
duller plumage of the male phalaropes, and following it the singular
reversal of sexual habits. Bearing in mind this fact, that male Waders
generally do the incubating by day, I do not think sufficient proof has
been offered to show that female phalaropes may not take a share by
sitting during the night, as is presumably the case with other Waders.
True, it has been stated that when the eggs are laid the females of all
phalaropes form flocks and lead a club-life, leaving the males to hatch
out and bring up the young. The rednecked-phalarope does not at
any rate exhibit so complete an emancipation from domestic duties as
this would necessitate, nor does the male relegate entirelv to the female

o %f

his rights in courting and even fighting for a mate. Dr. P. H. Bahr, in
an interesting account of the spring habits of this species observed
by him in Scotland,1 described how he saw two males continuously
circling round the head of a swimming female, and then, on settling
on the water, " would face each other with lowered beaks and ruffled
plumage, just like two fighting-cocks." So clearly did this aerial
display of the male appear to be a courting action, that Dr. Bahr
described it as the marriage flight. " Zig-zagging from side to side
with amazing rapidity, he would hover with dangling legs over the
head of the female, who, circling placidly in the water, appeared to
take no notice of his attentions. Then settling beside her he would
peck and chase her as if endeavouring to make her take to flight.
Failing in this, he would dash off once more across the marsh, uttering
a warbling sort of song much like that of the ringed-plover. Then he
would settle in a reedy spot, such as would be chosen for the nesting-
site, and would call vigorously, looking always in the direction of the
female, as if expecting her to follow."

Several pairs were seen behaving in this manner, and such was
the apparent fervour of the males that they persisted "even in the
midst of one of the worst storms we experienced." Whether it was

1 British Birds (magazine), vol. i. pp. 202-7.

262 THE PHALAROPES

that the females regarded the display as an infringement of their
rights, or as unbecoming forwardness on the part of the males, they
were often driven to resent " these attentions, and a pitched battle
would ensue."

Dr. Bahr concluded that the females arrived first at the nesting
quarters ; the earliest date on which he saw them was May 28. " On
June 2nd one pair had already settled its affairs." On the 3rd, 4th,
and 5th four females and one male were seen. " These amazons
were fighting continuously amongst themselves, and were causing the
solitary male much anxiety." Later on Dr. Bahr describes how " two
energetic and quarrelsome females attached themselves to one
miserable-looking male, and it was ludicrous to behold the awe in
which he held them. Once in particular he nearly swam between my
legs in his efforts to avoid their attentions."

With regard to the actual display of the female in courting,
she has been described by Mr. H. S. Gladstone as swimming coyly
round and round the male, showing off the while her larger stature
and more brilliantly coloured plumage. The male may take flight to
a neighbouring pool, but "is so assiduously persecuted that he at
last falls victim to her wiles." l This description of a circling dance
on the water has been confirmed by Mr. O. Y. Aplin, who found the
rednecked-phalarope breeding in Norway. He says : " This play con-
sisted in the female spinning round rather rapidly on her own axis
on the water, the wish to display and show off before her duller mate
being very evident." 2

Apart from this display in the water, it has been observed that the
female rednecked-phalarope occasionally rises on the wing above the
male, "and, poised a foot or two over his back, makes a half-dozen
quick, sharp wing strokes, producing a series of sharp whistling noises
in rapid succession."3 Procter, in his observations of the same
species in Iceland, stated that the female, when descending from a

1 British Birds (magazine), vol. i. p. 174. t Zoologist, 1896, 458.

3 E. W. Nelson, " Report upon Natural History Collections made in Alaska, 1877-1881," see
Wonders of the Bird World, Bowdler Sharpe, pp. 236-8.

THE PHALAROPES 263

great height, produced a peculiar noise with her wings. This, how-
ever, was not during a courting action, but while endeavouring to
protect her young.

The courtship and nesting habits of the grey-phalarope have been
most admirably described by Heir Manniche in his recently published
work on The Terrestrial Mammals and Birds of North-east Greenland.1

His description of the female's courting display coincides with
that by Mr. Aplin of the rednecked-phalarope, viz. that it con-
sists of a swimming dance in which she whirls around very rapidly
on the surface of the water, "always in the same little circle,
the diameter of which was some 10 cm." Herr Manniche's further
account of the behaviour of a pair he watched is as follows : " As the
male seemed to pay no attention to her alluring movements, she flew
rapidly up to him — producing as she left the water a peculiar whirring
sound with her wings, and uttering short angry cries — pushed him
with her bill, and then she returned to the water and took up her
swimming dance. Now the male came out to her and the two birds
whirled around for some moments, equally eager and with increasing
rapidity. Uttering a short call, the female again flew to a tuft
surrounded by water and waited some seconds in vain for the male ;
again she flew to the water to induce him with eager pushes and
thumps to accompany her. They again whirled violently around,
whereafter she, uttering a strong alluring sound, flew back to the tuft,
this time accompanied by the male — and the pairing immediately
took place."

No doubt remains as to the complete subjection of the male of
this species. The female, according to Herr Manniche, "has the
decisive power in all family affairs. If she wants to shift her place
of residence, she flies up swift as an arrow with a commanding cry —
which may be expressed as 'pittss,' — and if the male does not follow

A. L. V. Manniche, "The Terrestrial Mammals and Birds of North-east Greenland,"
forming part of the fifth volume of the scientific results of Mylius-Erichsen's Danish Expedition
to Nvrth-east Greenland in the Years 1906-1908.

264 THE PHALAROPES

her at once, she will immediately return and give him a severe
punishment, which never fails to have the desired effect."

The male prepares the nest by scraping away the grass with his
feet, and then revolving his body in the cleared space forms a nest-
hollow, and lines it with dead grass stems, which he carefully bends
into the hollow.

The eggs of the grey-phalarope resemble closely in appearance
those of the rednecked species, and like them are normally four in
number, but they are as a rule appreciably larger. The average size
of 22 eggs is T23 x -83 in. [311 x 21 '8 mm.], but measurements of the
two species overlap, and undoubtedly genuine eggs of the grey-
phalarope from Spitsbergen (where the rednecked species does not
breed) are smaller than the average of the latter bird. They are
pyriform in shape, laid with converging points, and are heavily
blotched with chocolate or blackish brown on a greenish grey, olive-
grey, or reddish buff ground. They are laid in the latter part of June
or early in July.1

The females depart from the nesting grounds directly after the
eggs are laid, leaving the males to hatch out and bring up the young.
After the young are hatched, they, and the male tending them, would
appear to be very retiring, for Herr Manniche never succeeded in
meeting with a bird guiding young ones, in spite of a careful search
in the spots where the species had nested. He presumed that the
males leave the nesting region very early — as soon as the young birds
are able to fend for themselves.

When incubating, the male is described as very tame, almost
allowing himself to be caught on the nest. One whose nest was on
a small islet in shallow water had bent down the long withered grass
— with which the nest was surrounded — over himself, and did not
leave the nest until the grass had been parted and the bird almost
touched. " When frightened up from the nest, the bird for a short
while lay screaming and flapping on the water."

1 F. C. B. Jourdain (in litt.).

THE PHALAROPES 265

Herr Manniche records the interesting fact, that while the
females on their arrival at the nesting-places are thin, the males
are extremely fat, and he believes that the latter make use of
this stored up fat to sustain them during incubation, which, owing
to the cold climate of their circumpolar breeding-grounds, and the
consequent necessity of keeping the eggs warm by continual sitting,
they interrupt only for short periods, just enough to enable them to
snatch a hasty meal.

The nest of the rednecked-phalarope is moderately deep, and
is concealed in a tuft of grass, somewhat after the manner of that
of the snipe. It is generally near the water — often on small grassy
islands in the lochs — and the male, when he leaves the nest, runs
through the herbage and joins his mate on the water. The female at
this time shows much anxiety, swimming about in the pools in the
vicinity of the nest, and if alarmed rising without a splash, and by an
alarm-note — which Mr. H. S. Gladstone in an interesting account of the
Irish colony describes as a hoarse "chiss-ick" — gives notice of danger
to the male, who creeps through the grass from the nest to the
nearest water, where he is joined by the female, and the two swim
about together, " trying to hide their anxiety by preening their
feathers or pretending to feed." 1

The female appears to be less concerned when the young are
hatched. Both Mr. H. S. Gladstone and Dr. Bahr give instances :
when newly hatched young birds were handled, the males showed
great anxiety, shuffling through the grass with cries of distress,
and approaching quite close to the endangered family. Dr. Bahr
recounted how a male approached so near, and was so oblivious of
danger, that it came and brooded over its chicks, whilst he, quite
unconcealed, took several photographs of it, and also how this male
"in his fervour nestled a clutch of Tern's eggs close by."2 How
fearless the male can be is shown by Mr. H. S. Gladstone's photograph
on PL XLIX., Fig. 2, where it is seen vainly trying to incubate a chick

1 British Birds (magazine), i. 176. * Ibid., i. 207.

266 THE PHALAROPES

held in the hand. The females, according to both the above
observers, showed no trace of anxiety, swimming and feeding in the
water some distance away. The Rev. H. H. Slater, however, who
had considerable experience of the species in Iceland, states that
he often saw both parents with the young — especially in the case
of isolated nests — showing extreme devotion.1

Comparing these various observations, it would appear that, in
the case of both species, the greater part of the true courtship is
conducted by the female, and this on the water, in the form of a
swimming dance ; but there is also a distinct courting action, on the
wing, by the male of, at any rate, the rednecked-phalarope. The
males incubate by day, if not entirely. The female rednecked-
phalarope remains in the vicinity of the nest and warns the sitting
male of the approach of danger, and, although showing less anxiety
than the male when the chicks are hatched, bears some share in
looking after them. If the recorded observations on the grey-
phalarope may be accepted as reliable and complete, the female of
this species takes no further interest after the eggs are laid, leaving
all further duties to the male.

The chief point on which further information is wanted is,
whether the male of the rednecked-phalarope really does the whole
of the incubating unrelieved by the female. There are comparatively
few species of birds — especially in the Wader family — in which the
whole duties of incubation are borne by one sex. Modern prejudice is
against shooting a bird from the nest to ascertain the sex, although it
is not long since this was considered commendable and scientific.
With species the sexes of which are alike, or even nearly so, we must
either content ourselves with observations on such points, based more
or less on guess-work, or use the only means to certainty, however
unpleasant it may be. This must not be taken as an apology for the
killing of birds at any and every season, merely to make up series in
private collections. Such collections can be little more than a waste

1 British Birds ivith their Nests and Eggs, vol. v. pp. 102-3.

THE PHALAROPES 267

of life, more especially as they seldom illustrate any but such points
as are already well known.

tf

The notes of the phalaropes have been variously given; the
apparent discrepancies are probably due to the difficulty of rendering
even the simplest bird-notes in words. Thus, of the rednecked-
phalarope Mr. Aplin says the ordinary notes on the water are a short
" quut " or " quit" and " chirra-chirra-chirra," and on a pair rising, a rapid
" ket-ket-ket-ket" and when they settle again a short " kyow" or two,
which last he thought might be the spring pairing note.1 The note
most frequently heard by Mr. H. S. Gladstone was expressed by him
as " plip-plip" varied by a coarse " chiss-ick" the latter being the
female's warning cry to the male.2 Howard Saunders gives a low
" pleep-pleep " and " wit-wit-wit" 3 while the Rev. H. H. Slater states
that the only note he heard them utter was "wit-wit-wit"* Audubon,
quoted by Macgillivray, describes their notes as resembling the
syllables " tweet-tweet-tweet " very sharp and clear.5

Of the grey-phalarope it has been stated that " they keep up a
continual twittering, as of conversation, among themselves," and are
at all times, when in flocks, " a noisy bird." 6 Howard Saunders says
their note is a sharp " tweet," and the female sometimes utters a low
" clink-clink." 7 The latter is probably the note referred to by Dresser
as finch-like.

During the nesting season, when the phalaropes spend much time
on inland waters, their food consists largely of aquatic insects and
their larvaB, which are taken on and near the surface of the water,
and from the herbage, as the birds swim about. Herr Manniche
observed a male grey-phalarope fishing on the bottom by standing

1 Zoologist, 1806, p. 458.

! British Birds (magazine), vol. i. p. 176.

3 Manual of British Birds, p. 568.

4 British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, vol. v. p. 103.

5 Macgillivray's British Birds, voL iv. p. 296.

6 Report of the International Polar Expedition to Point Barroic (Washington, 1885).

7 Manual of British Birds, p. 566.

VOL. III. 2 M

268 THE PHALAROPES

on his head in the water like a duck. When they resort to the
sea they live chiefly on the smaller thin-skinned crustaceans and
probably small marine forms generally. Both Howard Saunders
and Dresser state that the rednecked-phalarope eats " marine
insects," whatever this may mean ! One probably copied from
the other.

WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

[ORDER: Charadriiformes. SUBORDER: Limicolce. FAMILY: Charadriidce.

SUBFAMILY: Scolopacince]

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES

[F. C. R. JOURDAIN. W. P. PYCRAFT. A. L. THOMSON]

W O O D C O C K [Scolopax rusticola Linnaeus. Muffcock ; muckle-snippack
(Shetlands). French, becasse ; German, Wcddschnepfe ; Italian, beccaccia].

i. Description. — Apart from its large size, the woodcock may easily be dis-
tinguished by the broad transverse black bands which cross the back of the head
and nape, and the closely barred under parts. The sexes are alike, and there is no
seasonal change of coloration. Length 14'25 in. [361*94 mm.]. (PL 113.) The fore-
head and crown are of a brownish grey, sometimes finely barred with darker grey,
and generally marked with an incipient median stripe running backwards from the
culmen. The hind crown, occiput, and nape are crossed by four bars of dark
chocolate-brown, almost black, divided from one another by narrow bands of buff.
The lores are marked by a narrow band of dark chocolate-brown, and there is a
similar band below the eye running back to join the lowermost nuchal band. The
back of the neck is of a brownish grey blotched with black, while the sides and
front of the neck are greyish buff, marked by fine subcrescentic dusky bars. The
throat is white, bounded below by a more or less distinct subcrescentic band of
dull black and chestnut. The back and wings are of varying shades of chestnut,
barred and blotched with black. The interscapular region is bounded on either
side by a more or less conspicuous longitudinal band of silver-grey, while the central
area of the region is marked by two broad irregular bands of black, and barred
obscurely with dull black. The scapulars are chestnut-red, and marked by narrow
bars of black and irregularly disposed blotches of black and silver-grey, forming in
some individuals a more or less distinct longitudinal band, in others isolated patches.
The marginal wing-coverts are of a chestnut or sometimes brownish red, and marked

270 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

by two or more narrow bands of black. The minor coverts chestnut-red, crossed
by narrow double bars of black enclosing a pale central area. The two lowermost
rows of minor coverts, the median and major coverts, are commonly tipped with
buff, forming four more or less distinct transverse bars. The major coverts and
secondaries are crossed by broad bars of black, and in some individuals these
bars are solid and conspicuous, in others the edges of the bars alone are black,
the centres being dark grey. Thus some individuals appear conspicuously
barred, others not. The primaries are dark grey, the outer webs notched by
triangular patches of chestnut, while the tips are white, and this pattern is no index
of sex or age. The rump and tail-coverts are chestnut, barred black. The tail
feathers are black, tipped above with silver-grey, below with white, and notched
along the exposed portions of the webs with chestnut. The breast and abdomen
are dull white or pale buff, barred with narrow dusky lines, and the under tail-
coverts are buff with black shaft-streaks and irregular loops of black. In the
males the shaft-streaks are more sharply defined than in the female, and the
feathers are more or less conspicuously tipped with white. The fledgling cannot
be distinguished from the adult when once the remiges have completed their
growth. The young in down are buff coloured, with a reddish chocolate median
band extending along the back to the crown, where it branches to run forwards
over the eye to the lores, enclosing a narrow median stripe. Often there is a buff
spot on the nape, which may enlarge to form a transverse bar cutting through
the median band just described. On either side of the dorsal band is a narrow
lateral stripe, [w. p. p.]

2. Distribution. — In the British Isles this species is widely distributed,
but somewhat local in the breeding season. It is naturally most numerous in well-
wooded districts, but is absent for no apparent reason from some localities which
appear to be well suited to it. In the Lake district it is numerous, and also in some
of the well-wooded parts of middle and north Scotland and in Ireland ; but there
are few counties where it has not been occasionally known to breed. Even on the
Orkneys and Shetlands, which can hardly boast of trees at all, it has been known to
nest occasionally, as well as on many of the Inner and Outer Hebrides. Outside the
British Isles it breeds on the Continent up to nearly 70° in Norway, 65° in Finland,
and 66° on the Petchora, and from these limits it is found southward in diminishing
numbers to the Caucasus and Crimea, the Balkans, Tyrol, North Italy and the
southern spurs of the Alps, and Central France. Its main European breeding-
haunts are the forests of Scandinavia and Russia. It breeds on the Atlantic isles

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 271

(Azores, Madeira, and the Canaries), and in Asia ranges from about 62° in West
and 64° in East Siberia, at least as far as the Lena, while southward it is known to
breed in Kashmir and the Himalayas at upwards of ten thousand feet. It also
breeds in Japan. In winter its southern range extends to the Mediterranean region
and North-west Africa as well as Egypt, and in Asia to S. Persia, India, Ceylon
(rare), Burma, and China. As a straggler it has occurred in the Faeroes, Spitsbergen,
and in eastern North America. [F. c. R. j.]

3. Migration. — A large number of woodcock breed in the British Isles,
some of them being resident and others summer visitors : a far greater number visit
our area in winter or on passage, breeding in Northern Europe. Taking first the
movements of the British-breeding woodcock, we find that a certain amount of
definite information exists in the form of records of marked birds recovered. The
following is a summary of the records of young woodcock marked on the Duke
of Northumberland's estate at Alnwick (Northumberland) between 1891 and 1908
(for the unclassified list from which we have made this summary, cf. Lord William
Percy, Country Life, Feb. 27, 1909) :-

Birds recovered in their first winter : —

September, Home ; and Heriot, Midlothian (Scotland) ;

October, Home (2) ;

November, Home (10) ; Forfarshire (Scotland) ; and Somerset ;

December, Home (5) ; Co. Wexford (Ireland) ; and Argyll (Scotland) ;

January, Home (7) ;

March, Co. Cork (Ireland).

Birds recovered in their second winter : —
October, Home ;

November, Co. Limerick (Ireland) ;
December, Home (4) ; and Co. Antrim (Ireland) ;
January, Home (2).

Birds recovered in their third winter : —
November, Home (3) ;
December, Home ; C6tes-du-Nord, Brittany (France) ; and Galloway

(Scotland) ;
January, Home (2) ;
February, Home.

272 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

Birds recovered in their fourth winter : —
November, Home ;
December, Home ;
January, Home ; and Co. Cork (Ireland) (2).

Birds recovered in their fifth winter : —
December, Home.

Birds recovered in their sixth winter : —
December, Home.

To this we may add a summary of a few records of young woodcock marked
at Baron's Court, Co. Tyrone, Ireland (cf. Hamilton, Field, 17th Oct. 1908, p. 717,
and 24th Oct. 1908, p. 745) :—

Birds recovered in their first winter : —

Home (2) ; and Inverness (Scotland).
Birds recovered in their second winter : —

Home (6) ; Harrow, Middlesex ; and Cornwall.

And of woodcock marked near Carlisle in May 1911 (cf. British Birds, vol. v.
p. 186) :—

Birds recovered in their first winter : —
October (31st), Co. Galway (Ireland) ;
November, Cumberland and Dumfriesshire.

Finally, there are records of (1) a young bird marked on Lord Ardilaun's estate
at Cong, Co. Galway, Ireland, in the spring of 1910: this was recovered about forty
miles north of Oporto, Portugal, on December 28, 1910 (cf. British Birds, vol. iv.
p. 280) ; (2) another young bird, marked near Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scot-
land, on 13th June 1911, and reported shot on 4th January 1912 near Gijon, on
the north coast of Spain (Aberdeen University Bird- Migration Inquiry).

It is necessary to give the above somewhat full summary of the records, because
the interpretation of them is uncertain. But the main points seem to be as follows :
a great many of the birds are resident and stationary; others disperse in all directions,
including north, during the winter months ; and some of the latter which take
southerly directions perform journeys of considerable length, which may doubtless
be classed as true migratory movements.

The great autumnal immigration sets in in October, and is at its height
in that and the succeeding month. It is continued from Great Britain into

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 273

Ireland, the birds crossing from Scotland rather than from Wales, and arriving
on the coast of Ulster, and later concentrating, in severe winters, on the southern
and western seaboards (cf. Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 269). Birds
which have probably overshot the mark have been observed returning to Cornwall
and the south-west of Ireland from a south-westerly direction (cf. Yarrell, British
Birds, 4th ed., vol. iii. p. 325). To what extent woodcock pass through to countries
farther south is uncertain. The return emigration from the British Isles begins
early in March, and it is worthy of note that many of the winter visitors are
still in the country after our home-breeding woodcock have started their nesting
operations.

The woodcock is, as a rule, a gregarious and a nocturnal traveller, and it is
very frequently recorded from the light-stations. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — The nest is merely a depression in the ground, usually
in a wood, though it has been found among heather on a moor. The only lining
materials used are dead leaves or a little moss, and Saunders states that the dead
leaves are usually added during incubation, presumably by the hen. (PL L. ) The eggs
are normally 4 in number, sometimes only 3, and in a few cases 5 have been found in
one nest. They are not nearly so pyriform in shape as most eggs of Limicoline birds,
but are frequently a broad oval. The ground-colour is light creamy yellowish, some
eggs showing a beautiful warm brown tinge, which usually fades rapidly, while others
when first laid are greenish yellow. They are rather sparingly marked, as a rule,
with blotches and spots of varying intensity of reddish or yellowish brown, and
underlying ashy shellmarks. Clutches of pure white eggs have also been recorded,
but are rare (Field, June 1, 1907 ; British Birds, i. 124). (PL K.) Average size
of 71 eggs, 1-74x1-33 in. [44-0x33*8 mm.]. Incubation is chiefly performed by
the hen, but according to Forester Schupke she is relieved by the cock for an hour
or an hour and a half at midday (Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, ix. p. 217). The
duration of the period is variously given : Naumann was almost certainly in error in
giving it as 17 days ; but a nest watched in Norfolk by Dr. Fitch was occupied by a
brooding bird for at least 21 days (Birds of Norfolk, ii. p. 289) ; W. Evans estimates
the period as 20 days from the laying of the last egg (Ibis, 1891, p. 80) ; and H. S.
Gladstone at 23 days (Birds of Dumfries, p. 385). In the British Isles it is an early
breeder, and the first eggs may be found towards the end of March or early in
April. Probably many birds are single-brooded, but as occasionally nests with
eggs have been found not only in June, but even late in July, it is evident that a
second brood is sometimes reared. In one case (recorded in the Field, May 6, 1899)

274 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

a nest with 4 eggs was found in Co. Tipperary on July 21, 1892, which was believed
to be the second brood of a bird which had young on April 2. [F. c. R. J.]

5. Food. — Worms, slugs, insects, and small crustaceans and molluscs.
Vegetable matter has been found in stomachs of individuals examined, but this
is apparently taken either accidentally with other food or when the birds are hard
pressed (Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, ix. 214). For the food and feeding of the
young, see p. 296. [w. P. P.]

GREAT-SNIPE \_Gallindgo media (Latham); Gallinago major (Gmelin).
Double-snipe, solitary-snipe. French, grande becassine ; German, grosse
Sumpfschnepfe ; Italian, croccolone].

1. Description. — The great-snipe may readily be distinguished from the
common-snipe by the white outer tail feathers, which are more or less barred with
black. The sexes are alike, and there is no seasonal change of coloration. (No Plate.)
Length 10 '5 [255-27 mm.]. The general coloration of the great-snipe is like that of the
common-snipe, but it differs in that the flanks are more coarsely barred with black,
and the wing-coverts are conspicuously tipped with white. The axillaries are heavily
barred with black. Finally there are sixteen tail feathers, while in the common-
snipe there are but fourteen. Immature birds are somewhat more rufous than
the adults, and the longitudinal yellow stripes less distinct. The young in down
differ from those of the common-snipe in being somewhat less rufous in colour,
especially on the under parts, [w. P. P.]

2. Distribution. — On the Continent this species is found in the breeding
season very locally in Jylland, and sporadically in small numbers in N. Germany
(E. Prussia and Holstein), while it is said also to have bred occasionally in various
parts of Holland. In Scandinavia it nests in Norway, chiefly in the birch region
north to Tromso, and in Sweden from Skane to Lycksele in Lapland. The main
breeding-grounds of this species are, however, in Russia, where it breeds up to
61£° in Finland, and from 65£° on the White Sea to 67£° on the Petchora. South-
ward its southern limit is Bessarabia on the south-west, and about 51° on the Volga
and in the Urals, but a few are said to nest in the Caucasus. In Siberia it breeds in
the Altai, and also east to the Yenesei valley, where Popham met with it up to
lat. 71°. On migration it passes through Europe and South-western Asia across
the Mediterranean, wintering in Africa, and ranging south to Natal and Cape
Colony, but avoiding the western parts of tropical Africa, and apparently

PLATE L

Photo by J. C. Crowley

Four young snipe In nest

Photo by W. Farren

Snipe walking: into its nest

Photo by E. A. Wallis

Woodcock's Nest

* •
' «• * ^'» • * • « _• e -

<«•'.» •

%« * v i ;* ; *t/

' •» •o*r *_••*• • * * \
*•••*•?*? **.**• * ** •

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 275

migrating down the east side. It has occurred as a casual wanderer in Hudson's
Bay. [F. c. B. j.]

3. Migration. — A bird of passage in small numbers, chiefly to the south
and east coastal districts of England. On the autumn passage the birds, generally
young, are usually recorded between the middle of August and the middle of October.
On the return journey it is less frequently met with. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — Does not breed in the British Isles, but see p. 312.
[F. c. B. j.]

5. Food. — Chiefly worms, insects, and small snails, [w. p. p.]

COMMON-SNIPE [Gallindgo gattindgo (Linnaeus); GaUinago codestis
(Frenzel). Full-snipe, single-snipe, heather-bleater, air-goat ; snippack,
gowk, horsegowk (Shetlands). French, chevre volante ; German, gemeine
Sumpfschnepfe ; Italian, beccacino reale].

I. Description. — The common-snipe is to be distinguished from the great-
snipe by the tawny-rufous colour of the outer tail feathers, which are fourteen
in number. The sexes are alike, and there is no seasonal change of coloration.
(PI. 114.) Length 10 in. [254 '00 mm.]. The crown is marked by a median and two
lateral lines of buff; lores dark brown. The back and sides of the fore-neck are buff,
more or less distinctly striated with dark brown, but the striations on the fore-neck
are blurred and may be wanting. The interscapulars and scapulars are black, with
narrow ochreous free edges forming semicircular lines of yellow. Usually these
lines are very imperfect and give rise to small ochreous spots. The feathers along
the outer border of the interscapulars have the outer webs of a rich buff, forming a
conspicuous longitudinal band : the hindmost feathers have the exposed portions
of the web black crossed by two narrow ochreous bars, and tipped buff. Scapulars
black, crossed by narrow ochreous bars to form large black blotches. The outer-
most feathers have the greater part of the outer web rich buff, forming on each
side of the body a longitudinal buff stripe running parallel with those of the inter-
scapulars. Wing-coverts dark brownish grey, tipped white and buff. The long
inner secondaries have the inner web dark grey, the outer barred alternately with
buff and black, and with an indistinct outer edge of white. Major coverts and secon-
daries dark grey, narrowly tipped white ; primaries dark grey. The tail feathers have
the basal portion velvet black, succeeded by a band of yellow, of varying width in
different individuals. The yellow band is bounded by a subterminal bar of black
VOL. III. 2N

276 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

and a terminal band of white. The relative widths of the black and yellow bands
vary considerably. The breast and abdomen are white; the flanks white or
buffish white, and more or less distinctly barred with dark grey. The axillaries
are white, barred black. The under tail-coverts are pale brown, more or less dis-
tinctly barred with dull black. The iris is brown, the beak brown, darker at the
tip, and the legs and toes are greenish olive. The juvenile (fledgling) differs from
the adult in lacking the longitudinal stripes along the back, which is black relieved
by elliptical lines of dull buffish white and dark chestnut. The long inner secon-
daries are barred alternately with black and dark chestnut. The forehead is pale
brown, obscurely barred with black, and the flanks are similarly coloured. The
young in down is of a rich dark chestnut, with two more or less distinct longitudinal
stripes in black and silver. Above and below the eye is a line of white and black.
The forehead is transversely barred with black as in the adult woodcock, the nape
is similarly barred, while the under parts are of a dark chestnut inclining to grey.
[w. P. P.]

2. Distribution. — In England and Wales this species is widely distributed,
but as its breeding-places are confined to marshes and swampy fields, it is necessarily
local. It is, however, more plentiful in Scotland, and breeds in considerable numbers
in the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Shetlands. It is also common and generally dis-
tributed in Ireland. Outside the British Isles it breeds in the Faeroes and Iceland,
while on the Continent its range extends from the extreme north of Norway and
Russia southward to the Alpine chain and some districts of North Italy, but not
to the Iberian Peninsula. Eastward it is recorded as nesting in Montenegro, and
sparingly in Austro-Hungary, while in Russia it is said to breed in the Caucasus.
In Asia its northern limit is about 66£° in West Siberia and 70° in the eastern side,
and its southern range extends to Turkestan and Yarkand. East Siberian birds
have been separated by Buturlin, and North America is inhabited by an allied race.
The winter range of the common-snipe is extensive : it reaches the Atlantic Isles
(Azores, Madeira, and Canaries) and Senegambia on the west coast of Africa. Some
winter in the Mediterranean region and the Red Sea district, and from thence
through Persia, India, Ceylon, Burma, and the Andamans to China, Formosa, the
Philippines, Moluccas, and Japan. It has also occurred casually in Greenland
and the Bermudas. [F. c. R. J.]

3. Migration. — A resident and a winter visitor. The immigration takes
place chiefly in October and November. During the winter the birds frequently
shift ground owing to the weather, but some of them remain in the country till

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 277

March. The immigration extends to Ireland, lasting from September till December,
although at its height in October : the birds come mainly from the north-east to the
coast of Ulster, and in frost they move towards the west side of the island. The
return movement takes place chiefly in March, but does not altogether cease till
May (cf. Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 278). The snipe is frequently
obtained at the light-stations. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — The nest is a rather neat, cup-shaped hollow in a
tussock or clump of rushes, in some marshy place, sometimes among heather
or in wet meadows. It is lined with dead grasses alone, and is not easy to find
except for the fact that the sitting bird when flushed rises straight from the nest.
(PL L.) Whether the cock assists the hen in building is not recorded. The eggs
are normally 4 in number, large for the size of the bird, and placed with their pointed
ends together. Nests have occasionally been met with containing the unusual
number of 5 eggs. They are pyriform in shape, and the ground-colour varies, as
a rule, from pale greenish yellow to olive-brown, sometimes quite deep in shade,
but usually light. Some eggs show a distinct pale greenish ground. The rich
markings consist of vandyke-brown or blackish brown spots and blotches, chiefly
at the large end, and sometimes tending to a zone, with underlying ashy shellmarks.
(PI. K.) Average size of 100 eggs, l'56x 1-12 in. [39'8x 28'7 mm.]. Naumann gives
the incubation period as 15 to 17 days, which is probably too low, as W. Evans notes
that the eggs hatched on the twentieth day from the laying of the last egg, and
Hantzsch gives the period as 18 to 20 days. Most of this duty is certainly performed
by the hen, the male sometimes squatting close at hand or "bleating" overhead.
Hantzsch states that he occasionally takes her place at rare and irregular intervals.
The breeding season usually begins about mid- April, though occasionally eggs may
be found in the last ten days of March, and fresh eggs may often be found up to
the middle of May. In the Shetlands few eggs are laid before the beginning of
May. Although many birds only breed once in the season, there is strong evidence
that a second brood is occasionally reared, and there are several instances on record
of eggs having been found as late as mid- August. [F. c. R. J.]

5. Food. — Worms, insects and their larvae, slugs, and molluscs. Vegetable
matter, chiefly grass, is also found in the stomachs of birds examined (New-
stead, Food of some British Birds, p. 81). The young, at least for some days, are
said to be fed directly by the parents (British Birds, mag., ii. 250). No definite
information as to the nature of their food is available, [w. P. P.]

278 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

JACK-SNIPE [Gallinago gallinula (Linnaeus). Half -snipe. French,
becassine sourde ; German, kleine Sumpfschnepfe ; Italian, frullino].

1. Description. — The jack-snipe may readily be distinguished from the
common-snipe, apart from its much smaller size, by the absence of the median line
of buff in the crown, the metallic purple of the rump, and the vivid metallic green
gloss on the interscapulars. The sexes are alike, and there is no seasonal change
of coloration. (PI. 115.) Length 7'5 in. [179*07 mm.]. The centre of the crown is
black, with an irregular, inconspicuous band of dark chestnut down the centre,
which is soon lost by abrasion. There is a broad superciliary stripe of dark buff
extending forwards to the beak. The lores are black, and there is a dusky malar
stripe. The hind-neck is reddish, mottled with black. The back is marked by
an inner sub-median stripe of ochreous buff, and an outer, less conspicuous stripe
of the same hue, formed by the outermost of the interscapulars and by the outer
scapulars. The interscapular stripe is formed by the outer and inner webs respec-
tively of alternate feathers. The dark portions of the interscapulars have an intense
metallic green gloss, relieved by one or more elongated spots of dark chestnut.
The outer scapulars are of a rich chestnut barred with black, and with the outer
webs rich buff, forming the lower end of the outermost longitudinal stripe. The
minor coverts are tipped with buff and white. The remiges are dark grey; and
the rectrices are dark grey edged with buff, the central feathers long, pointed, and
black, broadly margined with ochreous buff : the outermost upper tail-coverts are
longitudinally striped with yellow, continuing the line of the submedian dorsal
stripes. The fore-neck and fore-breast and flank are dull white, obscurely striated
with dark brown, and the under tail-coverts are white. The female is slightly
larger and duller than the male. The juvenile plumage differs from the adult in
lacking the metallic gloss. The young in down scarcely differ from those of the
common-snipe, [w. P. P.]

2. Distribution. — The jack-snipe is only a winter visitor to the British
Isles, but on the Continent it breeds on the high fjelds of Scandinavian Lapland,
and also in Northern Finland south to lat. 64° according to Buturlin, and on the
tundra of North Russia. In Russia it ranges south, according to the same writer,
to the governments of Perm, Kazan, Vologda, Jaroslav, Vladimir, Orel, Tula, Tver,
and the Baltic provinces, and has bred in N. Poland. It is also stated to have nested
in various localities in N. Germany and in the Alps, but in most cases on very in-
adequate evidence. In Asiatic Russia it ranges across Siberia to the tundras of

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 279

the Boganida and Kolyma, but avoids the extreme north. In winter it passes
through Europe to winter in the Mediterranean basin and Northern Africa, while
in Asia its winter quarters lie in Palestine, Persia, Afghanistan, India, Ceylon, and
it rarely reaches Burma, China, and Japan, [r. c. E. J.]

3. Migration. — A winter visitor. The jack-snipe is rarely reported before
September, and the chief influx takes place in October, after which the species
is widespread till April. It is said to be less frequently obtained at the light-
stations than the common-snipe (cf. Saunders, III. Man. Brit. Birds, 2nd ed., 1899,
p. 575). [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — Does not breed in the British Isles, though assertions
have been made to this effect from time to time ; but see p. 312. [F. c. B. j.]

5. Food. — In the stomachs of four individuals examined, Mr. Newstead
(Food of some British Birds, p. 82) found fragments of beetles, fragments of
shells (Tellina balthica, Helix), vegetable matter, some of which was identified
as grass, [w. p. P.]

280 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

WOODCOCK AND SNIPE
[W. P. PYCRAFT]

The very mention of the words "woodcock" and "snipe"1 is
enough to quicken the pulses of sportsmen, for they stand for
strenuous days with gun and dog, and "delicatessen" by glowing
hearths, when all without is cold and desolate ! But there are other
points of view from which snipe and woodcock may be regarded, and
unfortunately they have been sadly neglected, so that we know far
less of these birds, in so far as how they " live and move and have
their being" is concerned, than should be the case when we recall
the generations of men who, from their love of sport, and wild places,
have lived, almost the year round, in the haunts of their eagerly
sought quarry.

No one better than the sportsman knows how difficult woodcock
and snipe are to find — that is to say, how closely they resemble their
surroundings. Yet it never occurred to him to speculate on the
possible meaning of this harmony between the bird and the brakes
and briars. Others no less keen on wild life, but surveying it with
other eyes, have, however, succeeded in no small measure in establish-
ing a relationship between these. During recent years it has been
made more and more certain that the coloration of birds and beasts
is fraught with a deep meaning ; though this meaning has been
confused by mistaken attempts to make one interpretation fit all
cases. This is folly. What, anyhow, is the significance of the
coloration of the birds now under consideration ? Be it noted this
coloration, as we have just hinted, is of such a character as to render
the wearers almost indistinguishable from the soil and vegetation
around them. It is a protective garment, conferring invisibility as

1 Snipe (with a capital) refers to the genus only, i.e. all its species considered collectively.
—EDIT.

WOODCOCK AND SNIPE 281

complete as that acquired by the possessor of the magic fern seed : it
is what Professor Poulton calls an " aphanistic " or " obliterative "
coloration evolved, as some would say, for protective purposes. But
the use of the word purpose in this connection is misleading. As well
might we say that the smooth edges of a rock have been formed for
the purpose of enabling the water — rain, or waves as the case may
be — to run off easily ! The smooth edges are made by the water, not
for it. Similarly the russet hues of snipe and woodcock have been
determined by the forces of the environment : there has been no goal
to be attained : the birds have acquired their peculiar likeness to
their surroundings, when at rest, as a result of the action of natural
selection, which gave over, for a prey to the hawk, the fox, and the
polecat, all which, by reason of their inherent tendencies, developed
coloured areas tending to make the wearers conspicuous.

The woodcock and our three species of Snipe afford admirable
illustrations of " protective obliterative resemblance," — that is to say, of
a coloration which confers protection on an otherwise defenceless bird.
The hue and the pattern of this coloration differs in each as their
habitat differs, and more especially as their breeding habitat differs,
thus indicating what we may call the " incidence " of selection. The
woodcock, as its name suggests, is generally a dweller in the woods,
and seems especially partial to such as contain a fair number of oaks ;
the Snipe, on the contrary, prefers the more open marshland. Hence
we may explain the peculiarities of coloration and pattern already
referred to. In the woodcock, it will be remembered, the russet
ground-colour of the upper parts is variegated with bars and blotches
of black and silver — broad transverse bars of black across the crown,
blotches of black along the back. But stripes, too, are present, though
these are not by any means a striking feature of the plumage, as in
the snipe. These markings occur as a broad line of dark brown
running from the beak to the eye, and a longitudinal band of lichen-
grey, sometimes rather golden grey, on either side of the back. In
some birds, too, there are three or four more or less conspicuous

282 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

transverse bands of silver-grey or buff and black running across the
closed wings, while the primaries and under parts are conspicuously
barred. But not the least distinctive feature of the woodcock is the
lichen-grey tip to the upper surface of the tail, while the under surface
of the same region varies from silver-grey to white. To properly
appraise the significance of this coloration, one must see the bird in
its natural surroundings, brooding its eggs, or crouching low in dread
of discovery by its arch enemy man, or his boon companion the dog.
Only by accident, as a rule, and commonly by the glitter of the great
anxious eye, can the form of the crouching bird be picked out from
among the fallen leaves and bracken stems surrounding it. Individual
birds, it would seem, at any rate, to make assurance doubly sure, go
so far, when fearful of discovery, as to throw dead leaves over the
back. The late Lord Lilford, I believe, once witnessed a frightened
bird perform this act. A more certain way of studying this wonderful
assimilation is open to those who have the good fortune to discover the
nest, for one has then but to wait and watch for the duties of brooding
to be resumed. The young in down, it is significant to note, is clad in
dull reds and black, but the pattern of the coloration, one is at first
surprised to find, is arranged in longitudinal stripes — black stripes on
a dull red ground. On reflection, however, one recalls the fact that
for some as yet obscure reason, a striped livery is characteristic of
young birds, at any rate of those which enter the world in a precocious
condition ; so that we may regard the general dull red of the ground-
colour as a later character, superimposed on an ancestral striped
livery. The same factors, indeed, which have determined the general
tone of the plumage of the adult have also governed the hue of
the nestling.

Turning now to our Snipe, we find the three species all similarly
coloured, and, it is needless to remark, they are birds of similar
habits, though differing in certain details to be discussed presently.
In all three, the most conspicuous feature of the upper surface is the
presence of longitudinal yellow stripes, a median stripe down the head,

'•:•: **,

••• 1C'1

WOODCOCK AND SNIPE 283

and four stripes along the back. In the common and great-snipe
the back is further variegated with blotches of black, the rump has a
marbled tracery of black, and the tail, when closed, commonly bears a
more or less extensive patch of black near its tip, while the long inner
secondaries are transversely barred with black, but, be it noted,
the amount of black on the tail, and the barring of the inner
secondaries, varies considerably, as also does the general hue, some
being much darker than others. And these differences, at present at
any rate, cannot be attributed either to age or sex. The great
or, as it is also called, the solitary-snipe, differs in no important points
in its coloration from the common-snipe. But it shows a similar
tendency to vary, especially in regard to the barring on the flanks and
the amount of the white in the tail, though these differences are not
apparent till a large series of individuals is compared. The jack-
snipe, in its general coloration, bears a striking likeness to its
congeners, but on analysis many interesting points of difference
become apparent. In the first place, the median yellow stripe along
the crown, and the black area on the tail when closed, are wanting.
These are markings which have probably been recently lost, but to
this point we shall return. More important is the remarkable
metallic lustre which the plumage has acquired. And nowhere is this
more conspicuous than where we should least expect to find it — on the
rump, which glows with a rich purple. The hinder scapulars, which
are peculiarly elongated, have a long band of rich metallic green
running down the free edge of the inner margin, while the black
subterminal bar of the long inner secondaries is similarly ornamented.
In like manner a band of purple runs along the outer margin of the
submedian yellow stripe which courses down the back. The white
under tail-coverts are probably also a later acquisition. In the common
and great-snipe it will be remembered they are yellow and black.

This latter point, however, demands closer attention, and this
because the common-snipe is said, like the woodcock, when resting, to
crouch with its tail, instead of its head, to windward, the tail being

VOL. in. 2o

284 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

turned up and spread fanwise so as to shield the back and head. This
being so, the dark-coloured under tail-coverts would have a decidedly
protective value : white feathers, like those of the jack-snipe, would be
conspicuous when so exposed. Finally, while the flank feathers in the
common and great-snipe, as in the woodcock, are barred, in the jack-
snipe they are longitudinally striped. What interpretation is to be
placed on these differences ? It would seem that the median yellow
stripe along the crown is a feature which has been lost but recently,
since traces are found to-day in some individuals of the species in an
irregular rufous band which is soon lost by abrasion. But what are we
to say of those losses and gains ? Are they merely the expression
points of variation, of no significance one way or another in the
struggle for existence, or are they of selection value, and enabling
their possessors to fare the more successfully in that struggle ? What
part do these stripes play in the life-history of the common-snipe ?
The snipe now under discussion, as we have already remarked, differ
conspicuously from the woodcock, and agree among themselves, in
the darker coloration of the upper parts, and the conspicuous, long,
narrow, yellow stripes along the back; and these differences are
almost certainly due to differences of environment. But be this as it
may, the behaviour of the woodcock, and of the common-snipe at any
rate, when striving to avoid detection is quite different. The wood-
cock crouches, the snipe depresses the head and tilts the body up-
wards till the tail is almost vertical, so that the yellow lines along the
back simulate dead stems of reed and grass. One cannot, of course,
suppose that the snipe is conscious of the pattern on its back and of
the advantage gained by assuming this posture in moments of danger,
but the correlation of the coloration and the bird's behaviour clearly
points to some advantage in this particular pattern of the plumage.
Nevertheless, it does not follow that this pattern is attuned so nicely
to the environment that a little more, or a little less, of one or
other of its components would endanger the bird's well-being.
Indeed, a comparison of a large series, either of woodcock or Snipe,

WOODCOCK AND SNIPE 285

will reveal a considerable range of variation in details of pattern
and hue. Thus, then, the lack of absolute likeness between the jack-
snipe and the common-snipe may be a matter of no great moment,
albeit a further exaggeration of the differences which seem to have
begun to make their appearance in the jack-snipe may eventually,
sooner or later, throw the bird out of harmony with its environment,
and so bring about, either its extermination, or a change of habitat
and habit. But there are many details in the life-history of the jack-
snipe which remain to be filled in before we can profitably carry
speculation further. One point in this connection, which must not be
lost sight of, is that in the common-snipe, in its immature dress, the
longitudinal stripes are somewhat less perfectly developed ; at any
rate in so far as the external lateral, as distinct from the internal
submedian stripes are concerned.

A comparison of the downy young of the snipe and woodcock is
no less instructive, for, curiously enough, it reveals the fact that the
young snipe resembles the adult woodcock in having transverse bars
across the head, while the young woodcock resembles the adult snipe
in having longitudinal stripes ! But the stripes in the woodcock are
black, and in the snipe are white. The young of all three species of
Snipe, it is significant to notice, are practically indistinguishable, but
that of the jack-snipe is perhaps the richest red in colour.

That the woodcock and snipe have attained to a high degree of
specialisation seems to be shown by the fact that these birds display
no seasonal variation of plumage. What answers to the "nuptial"
plumage of so many of the Limicolce has here become the permanent
livery; and this interpretation is strengthened by the fact that not
only are the sexes alike, but the young scarcely differ from the adults.
Nowhere, perhaps, is the evidence of specialisation more strikingly
shown than in the skull, which has undergone profound structural
changes, as if in response to the probing movements of the beak.
Without entering into minute details, it will suffice to say that the
Snipe and woodcock stand alone among birds in respect of the

28G

WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

extreme shortening of the base of the skull, which has tilted the
floor upwards, so that the cerebrum, instead of lying in front of the
cerebellum, lies above it, or, in other words, the long axis of the brain,
instead of running parallel with the long axis of the skull, runs at right
angles to it. This bending downwards, and forwards, of the brain

Fig. 1.— WOODCOCK.

cavity has been attended by a shifting forwards of the aperture of the
ear. In say a gannet, or a gull, this aperture lies far behind the eye
socket. In the snipe and woodcock it lies underneath it ! A reference
to the diagrams will make this clear at a glance. Thus it comes about

Fig. 2.— GANNET.

that if a freshly killed snipe be examined, the aperture of the ear will
be found under the eye, but in the woodcock it has shifted still
farther forwards, so that if a line be drawn at right angles to the long
axis of the beak, and passing just inside the anterior border of the rim
of the eyelid, this line will pass behind the aperture of the ear ! (Fig. 1.)
In this particular the snipe and woodcock are the most highly
specialised of all birds. Finally, in the snipe and woodcock, in
common with some other Limicolce, e.g. dunlin, the tip of the upper
jaw is strangely mobile, so that it can be raised upwards and brought
down again in opposition to the lower jaw, thereby forming a

THE WOODCOCK

287

grasping organ of great sensibility. (Fig. 3.) But the manner of its
use and the nature of the mechanism can best be understood when
studied in relation to the bird's feeding habits, and accordingly
these points will be referred to again in describing the mode of
feeding in the woodcock.

Let us pass now to the consideration of these birds as living
organisms, in relation to that environment which we believe has

Fig. 3.— WOODCOCK.

governed both their coloration and their more deep-seated structural
peculiarities.

THE WOODCOCK
[W. P. PYCRAFT]

As we have just remarked, the differences of coloration which
obtain between the woodcock and the snipe are correlated with
differences of habitat. The woodcock shows a marked preference for
woods and coppices. Here, amid an undergrowth of bracken and
bramble rising above a carpet of dead leaves, oak, beech and birch,
or alder and hazel, or squatting on a bed of pine-needles, it rests by
day, and here it broods its eggs. On bright warm days in winter,
however, it loves to exchange the shade of the covert for the sunny
side of a bank, which forms the boundary of the wood, and especially
if this be planted with holly or laurel. Woods and coppice, however,
are by no means indispensable to the well-being of this bird, for it will

288 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

contrive to find congenial harbourage amid low scrub and tussocks of
grass, or heather and bracken on high ground, especially if there be
springs in the neighbourhood, for these, so long as they remain open,
afford a never-failing food-supply. But wherever it elects to shelter,
there it remains during the day, venturing abroad to feed only as the
light begins to fail.

That this bird is crepuscular in its habits might be at once
inferred from the great size of the eye. Nevertheless feeding during
dark nights is difficult. Under such conditions, indeed, a sufficiency
of food is never obtained, thus necessitating an attempt to stay the
pangs of hunger long before the usual feeding time. Small spiders,
and insects found among the dead leaves, or amid short grass and
heather stems, doubtless make but a poor substitute for a meal, but
they cannot be despised by a hungry bird. On a light night, provided
there be no frost, the bird fares sumptuously, for there is then no
difficulty in procuring an abundance of worms, which seem to be the
favourite and staple element of its diet. One can hardly suppose, by
the way, that this fact is realised by those who profess a liking for
woodcock cooked with the " trail " : they live apparently in a state
of blissful ignorance of the fact that woodcock and snipe do not, as
our forefathers fondly believed, live on " suction " ! But to return to
the diet of worms. To obtain this luscious meat the woodcock
occasionally poaches in the preserves of the snipe ; but, as a rule,
the feeding-grounds do not coincide. The woodcock rather prefers
springs, often on high ground, and damp spots in woods, while ditches
and hedgerows are also explored. Its method of capturing its prey is
exactly the same as that of the snipe, the long, tapering, and highly
sensitive beak being thrust into the soft ground like a probe. Often,
before the thrust is made, the bird stamps with its feet, and turns the
head sideways, after the fashion of a thrush, to catch the low grating
sound caused by the movement of the bristles of the worm against the
sides of its burrow. Having located its prey, the fateful thrust is
made and the victim drawn out. Not always, however, does success

THE WOODCOCK 289

attend the thrust. How thoroughly the ground is searched is attested
by the holes which riddle the ground where woodcock and snipe
have been feeding. These show that the bird commonly walks a few
steps, then thrusts all round him, leaving a semicircle of holes at each
stopping-place.

But besides worms, and the insects, Crustacea and small Mollusca
picked up among dead leaves, it does not seem to be generally
known that woodcock are by no means averse to searching the
patches of cow-dung common in their haunts. On this subject Mr.
G. Brooksbank, a keen and most observant ornithologist, writes me
that the presence of woodcock in the neighbourhood can always be
detected by the marks of their peculiar proddings in such patches.
These proddings "can always be distinguished from those of the
curlew, snipe, rooks, and starlings — or even the little hole made by
some tiny bird, I think a wren. This is one of the lessons that a wood-
cock shooter must learn early, and also to recognise their droppings —
and many keepers miss these signs of woodcocks' presence."

But it is not enough to say that the victim is caught by thrust-
ing down the beak into the soil, for in the first place, as we
have already remarked, the search for food is accompanied by
a stamping of the feet, and this is followed by rapid movements of
the beak backwards and forwards, at the end of the thrust, a
fact which seems first to have been noticed by Macgillivray.1
This is a peculiarly interesting observation, for most of us know that
worms are strangely disturbed by the rotatory movements of a stick
thrust into the ground, which will invariably, sooner or later, bring
worms to the surface all round the seat of disturbance. Nor is this
all, for the actual capture is dependent in part upon the sensitiveness
of the tip of the beak, and in part by a curious mechanism of this tip,
which, it may be remarked, is shared also by the snipe and dunlin
and other Limicolce which obtain their food by probing. Briefly, when
the thrust is made the beak is closed, at the end of the thrust, by the

1 Macgillivray, British Birds, vol. iv. p. 392.

290 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

action of small muscles attached to the quadrate bone, the long slender
rod which forms the lower border of the bony framework of the upper
jaw is driven forward, a movement which has the effect of driving the
last inch upwards, so that the worm is caught, as it were, in a cleft
stick. As soon as the sense of touch shows that the worm is in
position, the raised tip is brought down upon the lower jaw and the
prey is held, as by a pair of forceps, and drawn out. The same is
true of the snipe and some of the Waders. (Fig. 3.) It is clear that
some such mechanism is necessary for this method of feeding, since, if
the beak were thrust open into the soil, it would be filled therewith :
while if it were thrust in closed and lacked the mechanism just
described, the muscles of the jaws would not be strong enough to force
away the soil along the whole length of this slender probe. It is
certainly strange that these curious movements of the beak should
not be more widely known to-day, the more so since they are at any
rate briefly referred to in so well known a work as Yarrell's, wherein
some remarks on the subject by the late Henry Stevenson are quoted.
He remarked that " the flexibility of the upper mandible of the bill is
so great that it more resembles the writhings of a worm than a beak,
and this voluntary upward movement, added to the exquisite sense of
touch possessed by the anterior portion of the beak, assists the bird
in obtaining its food."

The gape of the woodcock and snipe, as everybody knows, is very
small, so much so that the passage of a large worm completely fills it :
thus it happens that soil adhering to the body of the worm is
scraped off by the rim of the mouth and there tends to accumulate.
To prevent such disagreeable consequences, both woodcock and
snipe are said never to feed far from water, in order that they may
frequently wash away the offending matter.

In leaving and returning to its feeding-ground, the woodcock
displays curiously methodical movements. As the twilight settles
down the bird rises silently, as if mindful that most of the
dwellers in its wood are asleep, and flits down some glade or ride in

THE WOODCOCK 291

the covert, keeping near to the ground till it reaches the open, when
it suddenly rises to a considerable height, and at great speed makes
for its favourite marsh or swamp, dropping suddenly like a stone
when this is reached. With the coming of dawn a return is made to
the favourite wood. But first it wheels about for a short space, often
uttering a peculiar cry : and after a few turns it suddenly rises high in
the air and makes a bee-line for the covert, descending with a sudden
swoop, and darting along the glade by which it left, speedily settles
down in its accustomed resting-place.

It is a curious fact, remarks Mr. De Yisme Shaw,1 but " in every
wood or covert favoured by woodcock there is always a certain open-
ing, generally the end of a ride, by which the birds leave and re-enter
their home. ... It seems the more curious when we consider that
cocks do not leave the covert together, but always singly, one after
another. Between the time of the exit of the first bird . . . and that
of the last, there is never an interval of more than a quarter of an
hour or twenty minutes. As our forefathers set their cockshut nets
at these openings, and waited for the flight of the cock, so do certain
moderns who shoot for the pot, or the pocket, take up their stand at
the same dusky hour. After ascertaining which opening in the wood is
used by woodcock, one may, if anything of a flight shot, account for
nearly every bird."

The only things that seem to disturb the even tenor of the wood-
cocks ways are a spell of sharp frost or continued wet. Heavy rain,
or even " Scotch mist," sooner or later causes the trees to drip, which
apparently occasions the bird great discomfort, for it will promptly shift
its quarters to open ground. Frost is still more disconcerting. Bog
and water-meadow now cease to yield their supply of worms, and the
famishing bird is driven for food to the drains in the deepest hollows
of the wood, where diligent search among the dead leaves may pro-
vide small snails and insects. Night hunting is now impossible, and
the day rarely yields a full meal. Should the frost continue, a general

1 Snipe and Woodcock, Fur, Feather, and Fin.Series, p. 136.
VOL. III. 2 P

292 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

exodus takes place to the coast, when a sufficiency may haply be found
among the seaweed in the shape of small mussels and Crustacea.
Even there the icy grip of winter may take hold, when, as a last
resource, a general westerly movement to the southern counties of
England, and across to the south and west of Ireland, is made. Along
the latter, in exceptionally severe winters, woodcock swarm, and even
there may perish miserably. During the frost and snow of 1867 hosts
of woodcock were to be met with in Killala Bay feeding among the
seaweed. The birds lay among the rocks and large stones, and were
killed by the country people with sticks. Again in 1881 Sir Ralph
Payne Gallwey saw 800 woodcock laid out on benches together at
Tralee, where over 2000 woodcocks and 9000 snipe were received by
one firm of game-dealers. In that season 560 fell to one gun in
Co. Kerry, while in Co. Clare one dealer alone, though he had two
rivals in the trade, forwarded to Dublin and London a thousand cock
a week for three weeks.

So much for what we may call the daily routine of the woodcock's
life, and for the causes which occasionally break the orderly sequence
of events. Let us turn now to that period of exaltation and unrest
which annually precedes the sterner discipline of parenthood.

While remarkable for its solitary habits during the greater part of
the year, the woodcock when under the influence of sexual excitement
displays a decided capacity for social intercourse ; a common impulse
breaking down the usual observances. Some interesting facts concern-
ing woodcock at this period we owe to Mr. Pentland's 1 observations
on breeding birds at Glenstal, Co. Limerick. From him we learn that
in favoured spots it is no uncommon thing to see from twenty to
thirty birds flying about the woods and glades, chasing one another
and calling excitedly. The approach of the birds, says Mr. Ussher in
that delightful book The Birds of Ireland, is usually announced by notes
of two sorts, which are uttered on the wing. There is a croak, often
repeated thrice, which has aptly been compared to the words " more

1 Thompson, Birds of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 243.

THE WOODCOCK 293

rain to-morrow " uttered in a croaking voice, or by others compared to
" croho, croho." " I have seen the bird's body," he remarks, " deflected
at the third croak, while outlined against the sky." The other note
which often immediately follows the croak is a chirping screech,
which has been likened to " chizzie" Mr. Pentland is convinced that
both sexes croak and call, since when woodcock are flying about in this
way every one is calling, and females as well as males must be on the
wing. Mr. MofFat, another well-known Irish ornithologist, further-
more states that when they are thus playing about two may frequently
be seen to dart alongside each other for a few hundred yards, chirrup-
ing loudly and excitedly as if in defiance. These flights one is not
surprised to find take place both at dusk and dawn during the spring
and summer. This peculiar aerial performance is known as " roding."
The flight at such times is comparatively slow and straight, and is
accompanied by a puffing out of the plumage, giving the actors an
exaggerated bulk. This "roding," or "reading" as it is sometimes
called, is commonly regarded as representing all that takes place
during the courtship of the woodcock, and answering to the drumming
of the snipe. But those who have read Mr. De Visme Shaw's most
entertaining account of this bird l will have gathered that this is by no
means the case. For he tells us that " During the period of courtship,
and while the female is sitting, the male woodcock displays daytime
activity which is never evinced at any other period of the year.
When courting the lady of his choice, he is fond of strutting about
with drooped wings and spread tail, and with the feathers of head and
neck puffed out to their uttermost. As soon as his mate begins to
sit, he will spend the first hour or so of daylight in flitting up and
down the ride or open space near which the nest is situated, utter-
ing meantime a cry which may be likened to ' whe-e-espj and at
intervals giving voice to a second cry resembling the monosyllable
' Ivee, Ivee ' : while this lasts, he looks, with the puffed out feathers of
neck and head, for all the world like some strange, long-beaked owl.

1 Snipe and Woodcock, Fur, Feather, and Fin Series, p. 132.

294 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

The morning serenade over, he indulges in a lengthy rest, after which,
towards the close of the afternoon, he goes through the same
performance."

That there is a considerable variation in the notes of the woodcock
at this time seems evident on a comparison of Mr. Shaw's notes with
those of the observers already quoted. It may be that the sound
varies with the environment ; that is to say, it may acquire a greater
volume under certain atmospheric conditions, or when uttered in an
open space, or in the vicinity of hills.

To return for a moment to the "roding," or "reading" as it is
sometimes called. Not the least remarkable part of this strange
performance is the routine which is observed. At dawn and dusk
alike the same ground is traversed, almost, we might say, rhythmically.
Commonly the path traversed forms a rough triangle, the sides of
which may be a quarter of a mile or more in length. " In England,"
remarks Professor Newton, " in former times advantage was taken of
this habit to catch the simple performer in nets called 'cockshuts,'
which were hung between trees, across open glades or rides in
a wood." l

From the phases of courtship we pass to that which concerns the
care of the young. This begins with the preparation of the nest and
brooding of the eggs. As to the former, enough has been said already

1 This practice of netting, however, it must be remarked, was not alone employed for the
capture of love-sick birds, but was even more extensively employed during the winter months
in taking birds as they left the shelter of the woods for their feeding-grounds ; for, as will
already have been gathered, these birds are curiously methodical in their habits throughout
the year, leaving and entering the woods by regular routes. A little preliminary observation
on the part of the snare-setter would soon disclose these routes, and the rest was easy. That
this practice is one of hoary antiquity is witnessed by the references thereto in literature. So
common was the custom, that the hour of twilight was known as "cockshut time." "The
falling of the net," remarks Mr. De Visme Shaw, "shut in the cock; hence the net used for
taking the birds became known as a cockshut, and the time of using it as cockshut time.'
English literature is full of references to this word. Shakespeare, for instance, writes :

' ' Thomas, Earl of Surrey, and himself
Much about cockshut time went through the army."

And Ben Jonson has :

" Mistress, this is only spite —
For you would not yesternight
Kiss him in the cockshut light."

THE WOODCOCK 295

(p. 273), but special mention may be paid here to the marvellous way
in which the coloration of the plumage harmonises with the bird's
surroundings. Mr. H. B. Macpherson, in some interesting notes
contributed to the pages of Country Life during 1908, makes some
valuable observations on the brooding habits of the woodcock. " Its
hearing is abnormally acute," he writes, " and the first unusual sound
has the effect of keeping the bird in whatever position it may happen
to be, a repetition of the noise causing it to lower itself gradually to
the ground, the bill pressed into the moss and the body extended flat
on the ground, the tail also being lowered." For some hours every
day during a whole week this bird was kept under observation.
" During the severe frosts towards the close of April she stuck to her
post with marvellous fortitude, though other birds were deserting
their nests all around. When leaving the nest she made no attempt
to conceal the eggs, the dead leaves of the birch and poplar which
surrounded them making this precaution quite unnecessary. . . . Her
absence from the nest during the day became more prolonged as incuba-
tion proceeded. On one occasion she was feeding and preening herself
for three hours and a half close to my shelter; but this seeming
carelessness had no ill-effect whatever upon the eggs, three- oui-af
four being successfully hatched. On one occasion she found a worm
and devoured it leisurely, with beak turned skywards, but for the
most part her diet consisted of such minute creatures that they were
invisible at a distance. Of these she evidently found a plentiful
supply among the dead leaves and bracken, although the weather was
bitterly cold. At intervals she would come and inspect the eggs to
see that all was safe, and, satisfied, would again resume her feast.
On occasion she would disappear entirely, no doubt for water, there
being little in the vicinity. When coming to the nest the woodcock
approaches cautiously, listening for the least sound which may betray
the presence of an intruder. If satisfied, she fluffs up her tail feathers
over her back, and settles on to the eggs. . . . She then gradually
lowers the tail, sinking down contented to the usual position."

296 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

We do not remember to have seen any other account of the way
in which the woodcock turns its eggs than Mr. Macpherson's. In this
operation, he tells us, the beak plays no part, but the egg is invariably
grasped and turned with the foot, aided by a shuffling movement of
the body.

The whole work of incubation seems to fall entirely on the female.
At any rate, during the week's vigil just described, the male was never
once seen, though he may have visited his mate during the night. On
the other hand, Mr. de Yisme Shaw tells us that when resting during
the day he selects a position never more than a few feet away from
the nest. And this would seem to be further evidence that he takes
no active part in the work of incubation. But according to Naumann
(see p. 273) he relieves his mate for a short space during midday.

The halcyon days of brooding over, the anxious work of provid-
ing food for the young begins. But as to the manner in which this
provision is made, the most widely divergent statements have been
made. Knowing this, it is somewhat remarkable that no ornitho-
logist has undertaken the task, albeit a hard one, of setting the

*

matter at rest. It is to be remembered that the woodcock commonly

• •

nests in areas more or less remote from its feeding-ground ; wherein it
differs from nearly all other birds whose young enter the world in a
precocious condition. According to some, one or both parents bring
food — generally worms — to the nest, or at any rate the nesting area ;
and Sir Ralph Payne Gallwey, according to Yarrell,1 " has observed
that woodcocks have a curious habit of placing near the edge of the
nest a little bank of moss, on which they will at times deposit worms
as they bring them, that the young may learn to pick them out as they
quickly glide from their view." This may be so ; and the young may
also obtain a portion of their food, at any rate, under the guidance of
the parents, from among the dead leaves in the vicinity of the nest,
for we know that the adults, when need presses at any rate, contrive
to find food after this fashion. On the other hand, a number of

1 British Birds, vol. iii. p. 329.

THE WOODCOCK 397

responsible observers — and they are too numerous to mention indi-
vidually— affirm that the young are carried by their parents down to
the feeding-grounds at night and are brought back again in the morn-
ing. Dr. F. D. Godman, an ornithologist of no mean repute, avers
that in the Azores this practice is a matter of daily occurrence.1 There
is no need, surely, to-day, to recapitulate the controversy, which has
been waged through long years, as to whether woodcock do or do not
carry their young. There can be no doubt about the fact. One cannot,
however, speak with the same assurance as to how this feat is per-
formed, but it seems certain that the fond parents will perform this
office for their young even after they are big enough to bear the
burden of their own bodies. Scopoli, so long ago as 1769, says, "pullos
rostro portat fugiens ab hoste" whereon Gilbert White remarks that
" the long unweildy bill of the woodcock is perhaps the worst adapted
of any among the winged creation for such a feat of natural affection."
Nor does the bird bear her living load held between the bill and the
breast, nor between the thighs and pressed against the breast by the
beak, but suspended by the feet. This at any rate seems to be the
correct interpretation of what obtains according to the testimony of
Mr. Moffat, an Irish naturalist of considerable experience. On this
subject he wrote, in the Irish Naturalist, 1899, " On the morning of
April 19, the female, as I approached, sat closer than had been her
wont, and on rising I was almost immediately struck with a curious
yellowish object that seemed to hang from between her legs. The
bird's flight was slower than usual, and her long bill was plainly seen
to be directed forwards, in the ordinary attitude, and not in any way
used to steady or support the object carried." The late Duke of
Beaufort, so long ago as 1850, when in the New Forest, came upon a
female woodcock watering her three young ones at a rivulet. She
picked up "one in each claw" and flew off with them. " I hid in a
high gorse brake close by, and saw her return in four or five minutes
and pick up the remaining bird also in her claw." Mr. De Yisme

1 Py craft, A History of Birds, p. 225.

298 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

Shaw, from whose work the above extract is taken, remarks that in his
opinion "the way a woodcock starts is ... to grasp, say, the left
wing of the young bird near the body with, say, the left foot and then
to spring off the ground on the free foot, afterwards using the free
foot to grasp the young bird's other wing."

At times, however, in the face of danger the parents behave quite
differently. Instead of bearing their young off to a place of safety,
they adopt the more usual method prevailing among birds of feigning
injury and so drawing pursuit upon themselves and away from their
young. Perhaps the device is adopted when surprised too suddenly
to enable them to seize the offspring. There are records innumer-
able of the behaviour of the woodcock under these circumstances,
and as an example thereof we cite the account of Mr. Ussher,1 who
remarks, " If an intruder approach the young the parent bird will fly
round instead of away from him; and when its alarm is strongly
excited, as by the presence of a dog, a woodcock will utter outcries
that have been compared to the screaming of a hawk, and tumble on
the ground before the object of its apprehension. I was informed by
my late gamekeeper, Richard Wolfe, that when he was walking with
beagles through a wood where these birds were breeding, one of them
alighted in front of a dog, and running forward, flapped its wing at
the animal with loud cries." Similarly, St. John 2 remarks, " When
disturbed from her nest, she flutters away like a partridge, pretending
to be lame, in order to take the attention of the intruder away from
her young or eggs."

The subject of migration having been dealt with earlier in this
section, little need be said on this theme here. But a few points are
worthy of comment. In the first place, the immigrant woodcock,
which arrive on our shores during October, attract more attention
than the emigrants, which seem to steal away unobserved. The arrival
of the immigrants excites no wonderment, for vast hosts of birds of all

1 Birds of Ireland, p. 274.

2 Wild Sports of the Highlands, p. 248.

THE WOODCOCK 299

species seek our islands at this time, thereby escaping the terrors of
a more northern winter. But why do the emigrants, the birds which
have bred with us, leave ? If the birds bred farther north can find
sustenance here through the winter — though they may be driven
farther and farther southwards and westwards during spells of
exceptionally hard frost — why cannot our own native birds endure
the same climatic conditions ? During recent years, it may be
remarked, they have considerably increased in numbers, owing in part
to the increase in plantations, and in part to the shelter they obtain
within the closely guarded coverts which form their favourite resort.
The reply which naturally suggests itself is, that the more northern
birds are more inured to cold than those bred in our islands,
which at the approach of winter leave to seek more southern latitudes.
But this is not a quite satisfactory explanation ; the answer to the
riddle has yet to be found.

Like most migrants travelling by night, these autumn arrivals land
on our shores unseen. But there is reason to believe that they observe
the usual rule of migrants, of crossing the sea at a great height, and
pitching down suddenly as they reach the shore. Unfavourable
meteorological conditions, however, in the upper air, often drive the
travellers downwards, when many, attracted by the glare of lighthouses,
perish miserably. On moonlight nights, however, this danger is
largely removed. But that the numbers which annually meet a
violent death through this irresistible fascination for light, the reports
of the Migration Committees amply testify. Thus Mr. Barrington, to
quote but a single instance, tells us1 that when overhauling the
Copeland (New) Island Lighthouse, on May 12, 1891, no less than
one hundred and fifty dead woodcock were found in the "eave-
gutter " of the dome and cowl of the lantern : these must have been
killed by striking the lantern during stormy weather in the spring.
During migration, birds have been seen to rest for a while on the sea,
and rise again to resume their journey. During adverse weather,

1 Migrations of Birds at Irish Light-Stations, p. 246.
VOL. III. 2 Q

300 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

however, they would seem to fall into the sea from sheer exhaustion.
Thus Mr. Falconer, of Christchurch, has recorded l the fact that " some
years ago, a few miles from the Land's End, the sea was strewn with
hundreds of dead woodcock."

SNIPE
[W. P. PYCRAFT]

The distinctions and peculiarities of plumage of the three species
of Snipe which are to be met with in the British Islands have already
been discussed at sufficient length : it now remains to epitomise their
life-histories.

Though all, apparently, obtain the bulk of their food by probing,
none have undergone such a high degree of specialisation, to facili-
tate this method of feeding, as is seen in the case of the woodcock.
This is a curious and interesting fact, which demands further study.
It would seem that we must assume, either that the woodcock probes
more, is more dependent upon the capture of food after this fashion
than the snipe, or that the peculiar " telescoping " of the long axis of
the skull, having proved a useful variation, has, in the woodcock,
reached, so to speak, its logical conclusion, while in the snipe it is
only on the way towards this consummation. It is significant to
remark in this connection, that this shortening of the long axis of the
skull is least conspicuous in the jack-snipe, which seems to be less
dependent on its probing powers than its congeners, being able to
subsist to no small extent on a vegetable diet. It was commonly
supposed, indeed, that neither the woodcock nor the common-snipe
showed this ability to turn vegetarian at need. This is not so, as
Newstead has shown (see pp. 277-279) ; and I have just dissected a
common-snipe whose gizzard contained several seeds of the bog-bean

1 Zoologist, 1848, p. 2023.

SNIPE 301

(Menyanthes trifoliata) as well as a quantity of comminuted vegetable
matter, but whether this forms any considerable part of the diet of
these birds remains to be seen; so far as the evidence goes, they
do not seem to take kindly to a vegetable diet Finally, the jack-
snipe has relatively the shortest beak. Thus, though perhaps the
most highly specialised in regard to its coloration, it is apparently
the least specialised in regard to its food ; and the advantages gained
thereby are apparent during hard weather. Then the woodcock,
great, and common-snipe fare badly. Not so the jack ; when his
cousins are reduced to mere skeletons, the jack still remains plump
and in good liking, grass, various kinds of seeds, and moss furnishing
him full meals while his neighbours starve.

Frost drives the "full" or common-snipe, like the woodcock, to the
coast, where it contrives, for a while at any rate, to eke out a living in
company with small Waders, but unless a thaw sets in speedilr tfcey
die in large numbers. The mortality at this time would be far higher
but for the fact that the majority of the birds affected seem to make
a general rush for the south and west of Ireland, where enormous
numbers find food and shelter till the time of stress is past. Ireland,
however, at all times, is the most favoured of our islands by snipe,
which breed there in large numbers. " The winter visitors," remarks
Mr. Ussher,1 "are believed to be distinguishable by colour and mark-
ings from the birds reared in this country, which are greyer." This
may well be ; the point is worth more attention than it has
obtained.

But to return to the subject of feeding. Snipe, like woodcock,
possess a ravenous appetite, and lose flesh rapidly if the supply of
worms, their staple diet, is cut off. With a thaw the worms rapidly
make their way to the surface, and the snipe then feast, and gain fat
again as rapidly as they lost it. This inability to sustain long fasts, where
the diet is largely made up of worms, is exemplified again in the case of
the mole, which is unable to fast longer than a few hours. As to the

1 Birds of Ireland, p. 278.

303 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

way in which the common-snipe disposes of a worm, accounts differ.
On the one hand, Mr. De Visme Shaw tells us it is seized by the middle
and sucked through the " compressed mandibles, the pressure eliminat-
ing the slimy earth, which adheres to the bill and hardens rapidly."
Continuing, he remarks : " The snipe will spend many minutes cleans-
ing his beak after feeding at a distance from water, and he usually has
a thorough wash and brush up before resuming his meal." But Mr.
Hugh Wormald,1 who, having succeeded in rearing a tame common-
snipe, had exceptional opportunities of observation as to the way in
which worms were disposed of, tells us that his bird, having seized a
worm, "sucked it down with no apparent exertion." When swallow-
ing, the head was not thrown back, but the neck was stretched out
and the beak pointed downwards. If the worm was too large to be
swallowed readily, it was hammered and pinched till broken up. The
worms 'known as "brandlings" were always refused, and this because
of their offensive smell, or perhaps taste, for it only distinguished
between raw liver and worms when they were nipped between the
mandibles. Sight seems to play but a secondary part in securing food,
for this bird was unable to see a worm "right under him." If two
or three were placed before him, he would walk up and feel about for
them with his beak. The larvae of daddy-longlegs were also greedily
eaten, and so also were maggots. These last wild snipe have been
known to obtain by probing in the carcasses of dead animals. While
feeding, this bird kept up a continual twitter. Sand and small
pebbles were constantly swallowed, and the grinding of this in the
gizzard could be heard distinctly at a distance of several feet,
especially just after feeding. This action seemed to take place
rhythmically, about twelve times per minute. The hearing of this bird
was very acute. It was often observed to listen like a thrush, when,
after a moment or two, it would suddenly plunge down the beak into
the soil and bring up a worm.

In its feeding-habits the great-snipe does not apparently differ

1 British Birds (magazine), ii. 249.

•

SNIPE 303

from the common-snipe, and, similarly, its haunts are the same.
Having regard to the coloration of the two species, and their simi-
larity in structure, this agreement is what we would expect. On the
other hand, when we come to compare the common, great, and jack-
snipe in regard to their breeding-habits, we find a striking diversity
in place of agreement.

In regard to the courting habits of snipe, we have certainly a
great deal to learn. A hint of this fact may be gleaned from Mr.
Wormald's notes on his tame common-snipe, to which reference has
already been made. He remarked that in the spring his bird made a
kind of " display," by walking round and round his hand and utter-
ing " the spring note," meanwhile spreading the tail fanwise, and
" gently poking my hand with his beak." He would also constantly
play by himself, standing bolt upright, then squatting down flat with
his tail raised and spread fanwise. Then he would suddenly take
two or three jumps to either side with closed wings. After going
through this performance some half-dozen times on end, he would
stop, and stroll leisurely off. The fact, however, that this bird,
during these proceedings, would often squat down flat on the ground,
with the neck stretched out and tail raised, has led Mr. Wormald to
entertain suspicion that his captive may after all be a female. Of this
behaviour, however, few have any knowledge, the " courting " of the
snipe being associated in the minds of most of us with a very remark-
able aerial display, which is always accompanied by very peculiar
sounds, known either as " drumming " or as " bleating," in which,
however, it would seem both sexes participate, though the male
continues to perform till after the young are hatched. This display
maybe described as a "musical ride," wherein the bird ascends to
a height of about 300 feet, then describes a series of wide circles,
dropping, at intervals, some 50 feet or so, with a steady, tremulous,
side-long fall, and at reduced speed. Each descent is accompanied
by the strange high-pitched notes, likened by different observers
to "drumming," "bleating," and "neighing." That they are diffi-

304 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

cult to describe none who have heard them will deny. To me the
noise produced would be more correctly described as " humming."
If one happens to be near, the sound is in a higher key, and a like-
ness can certainly be detected to the bleating of a goat. As a rule
this music begins soon after daylight, and may be continued for a
couple of hours or so. At midday it begins again, and is sustained
for a like period. Just before sunset it is once more resumed, and
lasts till the twilight has given place to darkness. Often, indeed,
when fine, especially on moonlight nights, this concert will be kept
up, intermittently, throughout the night, as many as a dozen birds
contributing at a time.

As to the means whereby this strange piping music is produced,
opinions at one time differed widely. But there is now no need to
traverse all the theories which have been advanced since this matter
first engaged the serious attention of ornithologists. The solution of
the mystery is due, strangely enough, to an accident. The German
naturalist Naumann, some years ago, took up this problem, feeling
convinced that the sounds were not vocal. He surmised that they
might be due to the vibration of the wings, and to test his assumption
he fastened some of the primaries of a snipe to a stick and moved
them rapidly through the air, expecting to reproduce the sounds.
The experiment failed, and there, so far as he was concerned, the
matter ended. But in the published account of the experiment, by
some fortunate mischance tail feathers were stated to have been used
instead of primaries. The Swedish ornithologist Meves, a year or two
later, reading this account, tried the experiment himself, using, of
course, tail feathers, and at once solved the problem !

Later ornithologists, however, refused to accept this interpreta-
tion, and averred that the primary cause of the sounds was the
vibration of the wings, aided, perhaps, by the outspread tail. The
matter, however, was finally set at rest by some experiments of Dr.
Philip Bahr. He pointed out1 that during the descent to which

1 Proc. Zool. Soc., 1907, p. 12.

SNIPE 305

reference has just been made, the tail is widely spread, and that the
outermost pair stand distinctly apart from their fellows. Further, he
showed that this pair of feathers is peculiar in that their shafts are
unusually thick, and strangely bowed, while the vanes of the inner
web are thicker and more powerfully held together than in the case
of those of the other feathers. Mr. Bahr's experiments are carefully
described, and at great length, in the essay just referred to, so that
space can only be found here for a summary thereof. Briefly, those
who will may readily test for themselves the truth of his contention
that these tail feathers alone are concerned in the production of the
" bleating," and this by inserting the feathers into a cork attached
to a stick of some six inches long, to the other end of which is affixed
a long string. The apparatus is then whirled round, when, after a
few turns, the characteristic sounds are produced. Care should be
taken, in reproducing this experiment, to see that the outer web is so
placed as to encounter the resistance to the air, and that the feather
is affixed to the cork by a pin, so as to prevent any displacement of
the requisite angle in regard to the wind. Mr. Bahr satisfied himself
that both sexes " drum," when one day he came across a patch of
ground tenanted only by a pair of snipe, which had newly hatched
young, in hiding. He then observed both parents repeatedly drum-
ming above him.

Having satisfied himself as to the sound-producing apparatus in
the common-snipe, Mr. Bahr proceeded to examine and experiment
\vith the tails of a number of other species of Snipe — a dozen species in
all, — of which the tails of nine produced bleating sounds, in varying
degrees of intensity, when treated after his method. Some of these
were known to "bleat" during life, while of other species no observa-
tions seem to have been made. But it is a curious thing that in
a considerable number of species, more or fewer — from three to nine
pairs — of the outer tail feathers are more or less conspicuously
attenuated, and this attenuation reaches its maximum in Gallinago
stenwa, wherein these feathers are little more than "pin-feathers."

306 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

This species has from twenty-six to twenty-eight tail feathers! and
of these the eight outermost are thus strangely modified.

The duties of incubation seem to be undertaken mainly, if not
entirely, by the female common-snipe ; but the male bears his share
in looking after the young. If suddenly surprised while brooding
her young, she will leap up in the air, and descending will lie for
a moment with extended wings and tail uttering plaintive whining
notes, and then will flutter away, as if feigning injury. Having gone
to what seems to her a safe distance, she will take wing and often alight
on some post, or low bough of a tree, as affording a better lookout from
which to watch the intruder, the while she keeps up an incessant
" chack-hach, chack-wach, chack-a-a-a-h chack, a-a-a-h" the beak moving
during this time like the blades of a pair of scissors. These notes
differ conspicuously from the usual " scape " uttered at the moment of
flight, and when surprised at other times of the year. This bird does
not, like the woodcock, carry its young, nor, indeed, do any of the
snipe appear to adopt this method of conveying their young to
safer retreats when danger threatens. Perchance this habit arose
among the woodcocks as a result of their custom of carrying their
young to and from their feeding-grounds when these are remote from
the area of the nest.

And now as to the so-called "solitary" or great-snipe. Unlike
its near relative the common-snipe, it does not " drum " in the proper
sense of the word. Dresser l tells us that the great-snipe, or " double-
snipe," has a "so-called ' ley ' or ' spil ' like some of the Grouse tribe,
a sort of meeting-place, where they collect to ' drum,' and often to
engage in combat for the possession of the females ... It does not
indulge in aerial evolutions, but remains on the ground . . . The male
bird utters a soft, almost warbling note, which is accompanied by
a peculiar snapping sound caused by striking the mandibles together
several times in quick succession. If a person approaches one of
these drumming-places, he can hear at some distance the low note ;

1 Birds of Europe, vol. vii. p. 635.

SNIPE

' bip, bip, bipbip, bipbiperere, biperere,' and when within one hundred
paces, if the night is still, he begins to hear other peculiar sounds. . . .
Whilst producing these notes the bird is in ecstasy, and raises and
spreads its tail like a fan, the outer tail feathers showing in the half-
darkness like two white patches." Dresser's remarks seem to have
been based on observations of the Norwegian ornithologist Collett, who
remarks1 that in addition to the "bibiperere" notes the bird also
makes sounds like the smacking of the tongue, produced by striking
the mandibles smartly and rapidly together. He then jumps on to
a tussock of grass, puffing out his feathers, spreading his tail, and
drooping his wings before the female, the while uttering a tremulous
" shirrr." Seebohm,2 who studied this bird at first hand in the valley of
the Kureika, N.E. Russia, remarked also that these birds are gregarious
during the breeding season. " Late one evening," he tells us, "...
drifting down the Petchora, we came upon a large party . . . making
curious noises with their bills in the long grass on the banks of the
river." Their manner of producing these noises, he discovered later,
was accompanied by strange movements of the head and neck, the
latter being stretched out, and the head thrown back " almost upside
down " —after the fashion of a white stork when " clattering " — the
beak being the while rapidly opened and shut, and emitting a sound
like that produced by running the finger along the edge of a comb.
This outburst was sometimes preceded by a short flight, or by spreading
the wings and tail. On the subject of this flight, which seems to be
a part of the performance overlooked by Dresser, Seebohm tells us
that he came on as many as half a dozen on the wing at once, but
their flight was very short. He succeeded in shooting ten of those
thus engaged, and all proved to be males.

Had Seebohm been more anxious to observe than to shoot, he
might have anticipated the interesting observations of the Russian
naturalist Alpheraky,3 who seems to have collected more evidence as

1 Yarrell, British Birds, vol. iii. p. 336. * Birds of Siberia, p. 358.

3 Field, 1906, p. 1075.

VOL. III. 2 R

308 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

to the behaviour of the great-snipe at this critical period than any
one else.

This bird is, he asserts, polygamous, and assembles at certain
favourite spots to execute a performance hardly distinguishable from
that of the black-grouse, and known among Russian naturalists as the
" Tok " (fight). This begins at sunset and lasts till sunrise, the males
only participating. They begin with a series of dances which gradu-
ally turn into violent fights, severest, apparently, during the darkest
hours of the night, since after such encounters the ground is often
found strewn with feathers. There is surely, however, some error of
observation here, since "during the darkest hours of the night"
severe combats would be hardly possible. But be this at it may, the
fighting is preceded by display, when the tail is fanned out and turned
over towards the back, while the head is commonly drawn down-
wards and backwards into the shoulders, and the wings half expanded
and drooped. Thus posed the birds prance about, turning half
round to right, then to left, slowly at first, then quicker and quicker,
till, moved to frenzy, they begin to jump wildly and perform other
ridiculous antics. Then comes the fighting. At about midnight the
females, who till now have remained screened by the long grass,
appear. The males stop fighting and again display, then renew the
fighting till dawn, when the females fly off each with a male in
attendance. Remaining paired for the day, they assemble again at
dusk for a similar performance. At sunset the females set up a
croaking noise like frogs round the tourney-ground to attract the
males, who then assemble, and assuming the "toking" attitude,
produce extraordinary sounds like the noise produced by drawing
the nail along the teeth of a comb, which in turn is followed by a
hollow sound made by the wings.

There are points in this account which challenge criticism, but it
is, nevertheless, the most complete that has yet been given.

The jack-snipe, like the double-snipe, does not " drum " after the
fashion of the common-snipe and its congeners, nevertheless it pro-

SNIPE 309

duces sounds which all observers agree are hard to regard as vocal,
though there is no evidence to show that they are otherwise. The
first to bring us news of the breeding-grounds of the jack-snipe, and
of its behaviour at this time, was that enthusiastic egg-collector Wolley,
who had the great good fortune to discover the secret which this bird
had so long kept inviolate. The day, June 17, 1853, is a memorable
one in the annals of ornithology. He was out on the great marsh at
Muoniovara, egg-hunting, when his attention was arrested by a strange
and unknown note. His servant suggested it might proceed from
a capercaillie in the neighbouring forest, but he soon found it came
from a small bird careering at a wild pace high over the marsh. He
describes the note as the love-song of the jack-snipe, clear and
hollow, a quadruple note, not unlike the distant canter of a horse over
a hard hollow road, — a weird note which Naumann likens to the click
of a death-clock. Naumann, it is remarked, never saw the bird in its
breeding-quarters, whence we may infer that these sounds are not
exclusively confined to the breeding season. Of its brooding habits
and the care of the young we know nothing.

Of the courting habits of the great-snipe and jack-snipe our know-
ledge is very scanty ; still less of positive knowledge seems to have
been recorded of what we may call the everyday life of these birds.
Yarrell tells us that the great-snipe " prefers drier ground than its
congeners, and is found in dry grass fields, heather, potatoes, barley
layers, and turnips, and that its flight is steadier and heavier than that
of the common-snipe. Harting l similarly remarks, " It appears to seek
drier situations than does the common-snipe — e.g., one shot by the
Earl of Huntingdon in a dry grass field near Mellerstain, Berwickshire,
. . . two on high ground, Malham, Yorkshire, Sept. 6, ... one on a
stubble at Stewarton, Ayrshire, Sept. 15, ... one in a piece of
potatoes on dry sand, Wilts, Sept. 23, ... one on a dry bean stubble
at Thorpe, Northants, . . . one in a field of clover, Sept. 3." All
these birds, it will be noted, were killed before hard weather had set

1 Handbook of British Birds, p. 197.

310 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

in — they were not driven there by stress of weather. Yet they may
have merely been taking cover, and not feeding there, just as the
woodcock rests remote from its food source. Seebohm, who wrote on
a first-hand acquaintance with this bird in Siberia, describes it as " a
bird of the swamps," and prefers such as have open places of mud
or peat, or even sand.

Apart from the noises already described as a part of the
courtship performance, he never heard this bird utter any other
call or alarm-note. Like the jack-snipe, it sits close when alarmed,
allowing itself to be almost trodden upon before taking flight, when
it rises with a whir of wings, like that of a grouse, but not so loud.
It is a much easier bird to shoot, he tells us, than the common-snipe,
flying much slower and straighter; while on the ground "it is a
very comical-looking object ; plump, short-legged, it shuffles about,
half-walking, half-running : its bill always depressed, and, however
intent it may be on feeding, it is ever on the watch for danger, and
always tries to keep behind a bunch of rushes or a clump of sedge.
It hides in the long coarse grass on the banks of rivers and lakes
during the day, and comes out on the open in the evening — if there be
any evening where it happens to live — to feed on worms and various
small insects.

It is possible that this bird is not seldom passed over in mistake
for large examples of the common-snipe, but it may always be dis-
tinguished therefrom by the white feathers in the tail, the more
heavily barred flanks, and the presence of 16 tail feathers in place
of 14.

The jack-snipe, which comes to us in October with the woodcock,
differs but little in its habits from its larger relative, the " full "-snipe.
It is quite as fond of marshes, and is, perhaps, remarks Seebohm, more
often seen on the coast. It is at all times solitary, never associating
in bands, or " wisps," after the fashion of the full-snipe. It sits quite
as close as its larger relative when striving to avoid detection, but
when finally flushed it rarely utters a note on rising. On the wing its

^*

SNIPE 311

flight is slower and more bat-like, but it zig-zags quite as much as the
" full "-snipe. Yarrell also comments on the reluctance of the jack-
snipe to take wing when in danger. " It has been known," he
remarks, " to allow itself to be picked up by hand before the nose of
a pointer " rather than attempt to escape by flight. It seems to me
that the jack-snipe will pick up a living during hard weather while
its larger cousin starves, and this because of its ability to thrive on
seeds. Be this as it may, the full-snipe, as we have already shown,
does eat seeds, though this may be only a rare occurrence. Observa-
tions are needed on the point.

The question has more than once been raised as to whether the
jack-snipe is entitled to rank as a genus by itself, on account of the
fact that the sternum has two notches, while all the other snipe and
woodcock have but one. It yet remains to be seen whether the jack
is peculiar in this respect. Of many of the less familiar, more aberrant
species, no records are extant as to the condition of the breast-bone.
But, in any case, this is not so important a character as some with a
limited knowledge of this aspect of ornithology suppose. The syrinx, as
I have just ascertained by a series of dissections, differs conspicuously
from that of any other snipe with which I am acquainted, or, for the
matter of that, from that of any other Limicoline bird, and will pos-
sibly prove to be unique. It is formed by a number of fused tracheal
rings of gradually increasing circumference, giving this end of the
trachea trumpet-shape. Interposed between these fused elements and
the first bronchial semi-ring is a free semi-ring, partly cartilaginous.
Attached to its ventral end is a Ungulate plate of cartilage the free
end of which is attached to the ventral end of the first bronchial
semi-ring. No other bird, so far as I know, displays such a peculiarity.
But more on this head will be said in another place.

A word in conclusion as to the eggs of the jack and great-snipes.
They are usually four, sometimes three, in number, pyriform in shape,
and laid with converging points. The eggs of the jack-snipe are
remarkably large for the size of the bird, and in this respect differ

312 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE

little from those of the common-snipe. [Average size of 104 eggs,
1*5 x T08 in. ; 38'2 x 27'4 mm.] On comparing a series of the eggs
of the common and jack-snipes, it will be found that the markings on
the eggs of the latter are, as a rule, smaller and more generally dis-
tributed, while both ground-colour and markings show generally more
brown, the ground-colour being yellowish or brownish olive, and the
irregular spots and streaks dark brown, with ashy underlying shell-
marks. The eggs of the great-snipe vary somewhat in appearance,
the ground-colour being generally stone colour or greyish buff, occa-
sionally with a greenish tinge. The markings consist of bold blotches
and spots of deep Vandyke brown, rather sparsely distributed over
the surface as a rule, but occasionally in profusion ; the underlying
blotches are ashy grey. [Average size of 31 eggs, 179x1 -33 in.;
45-4 x 33-8 mm.].1

1 P. C. R. Jourdain, in litt.

THE PLOVERS

[ORDER : Charadriiformes. STTBORDER : LimicolcB. FAMILY : Charadriidce.

SUBFAMILY: Charadriince]

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES

[W. FARREN. F. C. R. JOTJRDAIN. W. P. PYCRAFT. A. L. THOMSON]

DOTTEREL \Eudr6mias morinellus (Linnaeus). Land-dotterel (Kent) ;
dotterel-plover (S. Scotland). French, pluvier guignard; German, Mornell-
Eegenpfeifer ; Italian, piviere tortolino}.

i. Description. — The dotterel, when adult, is easily distinguished by the
broad white prepectoral band, and the large patches of chestnut and black on the
breast. The sexes are alike, and there is a marked seasonal change of plumage.
(PI. 116.) Length 9 in. [228*60 mm.]. The crown is black indistinctly streaked with
brown ; above each eye is a broad band of white which extends backwards on to
the nape, meeting its fellow of the opposite side ; the hind-neck and mantle are of
a brownish ash-grey, relieved on the interscapulars by more or less conspicuous
marginal loops : the hinder scapulars, wing-coverts, and long inner secondaries
have similar rust-coloured margins. The inner primaries are of a light slate-grey,
the outer dark slate fading into black towards the tip, and the outermost primary
has a conspicuous white shaft. The tail is brownish ash broadly tipped with white,
except the central pair, which have pale, narrow, buff margins. The sides of the
face and throat are white. On the fore-neck the feathers are greyish ash margined
with buff, the prepectoral region is marked by a broad double band of white, bounded
in front by a narrow band of black ; occasionally there is a black band on either side
of the white crescent. The fore-breast and flanks are chestnut ; the mid-breast
is of a rich brownish black, while the abdomen and under tail-coverts are white.
After the autumn moult the black and white crescent, and the black and red patches
on the breast, are wanting, the under parts being white. The juvenile plumage

313

314 THE PLOVERS

differs from that of the adult in having the eye-stripe buff, the crown more dis-
tinctly striated ; the interscapulars and scapulars are black with a buff spot on each
side of the vane, giving this region the appearance of being coarsely necked with
buff, and thereby differing conspicuously from the delicate scale-like pattern, or
absolute uniform coloration of the adult. The long numerals and inner secondaries
are coloured as in the adults, but buff replaces white on the tail. The under parts
are buff narrowly and sharply striated with dark slate-grey. There is no prepectoral
band, and the breast and flanks are of a rich buff, but the abdomen is white. The
young in down has the forehead white, with a median and two lateral bands of black,
the latter converging to meet in the middle line to form a median band which, on
the crown, gives place to a circle of black enclosing an area mottled buff and black,
the black ring being itself surrounded by a broad ring of white, cut off from a white
collar by a narrow black line. Behind the eye is a patch of buff encircled by black.
The rest of the upper parts are mottled black, buff, and white, while the under parts
are white, [w. P. P.]

2. Distribution. — In the British Isles, outside Scotland, the dotterel is only a
summer resident in very small numbers in the Lake district, though formerly it was
much more numerous, breeding on many of the higher summits. In Scotland it is
more widely distributed, and has increased its range. A few pairs are stated to have
bred in S.W. Scotland, on the hills of Galloway and Dumfries ; but the stronghold of
this species is the great mountain system which includes the Grampians, the Monadh-
liath, and the Cairngorm groups, from North Argyll and Perth northward, and prob-
ably in smaller numbers west of the Great Glen. Here it breeds locally at a height of
about 2500 to 3000 feet. On the Continent it breeds on the Scandinavian high f jeld in
both Norway and Sweden, as well as in Finnish Lapland. In Russia it has been
found nesting on Waigatz and Novaya Zemlya, and on the tundra of the north,
as well as on the island of Kotlin (St. Petersburg), in the Northern Urals, and even
in the steppes of the Astrakhan government. Other continental breeding-places
are the Riesengebirge in Bohemia, Transylvania, and Styria. In Asia its range
extends across the tundra region of Siberia, to the new Siberian Isles, and above the
tree limit in the mountain ranges of the Alatau, Tarbagatai, Altai, and Sayans
mountains, as well as in the ranges of E. Siberia. Its winter range extends to
S. Europe, Northern Africa, Palestine, Persia, and Arabia. [F. c. B. J.]

3. Migration. — A summer visitor and a bird of passage. The birds first
arrive late in April or early in May, and for a few weeks they remain comparatively
widespread. But only a small number remain for the summer, and they are con-

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 315

fined to the regions mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The return migration
is over by early September. A gregarious migrant. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — The nest is little more than a depression in the moss,
sometimes lined with the red leaves of the cranberry or a few bents. (PL Li.) The
eggs are typically 3 in number, though occasionally 2 have been found highly incu-
bated, and a nest with 4 eggs has been recorded (Ibis, 1904, p. 229). They bear a
decided likeness to some eggs of the Arctic-tern, and are clay-yellow or yellowish
olive in ground-colour, boldly spotted and blotched with black markings, and occa-
sionally showing a few ashy grey shellmarks. (PI. L.) They are more ovoid than
pyriform in shape, and the average size of 16 eggs is l*62x 1'14 in. [41'2x28'8 mm.].
Incubation is partially (if not entirely) performed by the male bird, as Pearson,
H. H. Slater, and others have shot males from the nest (Ibis, 1896, p. 211 ; British
Birds, their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 6). There is very little direct evidence
as to its duration, but Heysham, who had good opportunities of watching it
on the hills of Lakeland, says that it rarely lasts much longer than 18 to 20 days.
The usual breeding time in the British Isles is from about June 5 to about the end
of the third week in the month. Clutches taken in July are probably second layings,
but there is no evidence that a second brood is reared in the season. [F. c. B. J.]

5. Food. — Mainly insects of various kinds, especially beetles, and their
larvae. Also land-shells and a little vegetable matter. The young feed chiefly
on insects and their larvae, and are assisted in their search for food probably by
both parents, but there is no direct evidence, [w. F.]

RINGED-PLOVER \Mgialitis hiaticula (Linnaeus). Sand-lark, stone-
hatch, stone-runner, dotterel, oxbird, tullet ; catpoll, dunwilly (Devon) ;
sand-tripper, five-toed plover (Dumfries) ; sandy-loo, sandy-laverock (Shet-
lands). French, pluvier d collier ; German, Sand-Regenpfeifer ; Italian,
corriere grosso],

i. Description. — The ringed-plover is readily distinguished from its con-
geners by its yellow legs and toes, and the fact that the middle region of the shafts
of the exposed portion of the primaries is white. The sexes are alike, and there is
no distinct seasonal change of coloration. (PL 117.) Length 7'75 in. [196-85 mm.].
The adult has a broad band of black and white across the forehead ; and a black
bar, extending from the lores backwards below the eye, while the crown and nape
are of a pale grey-brown. Behind the eye is a white patch, and the under surface of

VOL. III. 28

316 THE PLOVERS

the head is white, the white area extending upwards and backwards to encircle
the neck : below the white throat is a broad band of black, which similarly extends
upwards and backwards to encircle the neck behind the white collar just described.
The mantle and wing-coverts are, like the crown, of a pale grey-brown, but the major
coverts are tipped with white. The lower back and upper tail-coverts are coloured
like the mantle ; the median tail feathers are of a similar hue at the base, but
darken into a deep brownish black towards the tip ; the three succeeding feathers
are similarly coloured but have white tips, the next pair have the outer web wholly
white, while the outermost are entirely white. In addition to the white on the
shafts of the primaries already referred to, the innermost primaries have an oblong
patch of white along the middle of the outer web, forming a white bar in the ex-
tended web. The secondaries have white bases, the white gradually extending
downwards from without inwards, so that the innermost feathers are wholly white.
The breast, flanks, abdomen, and under tail-coverts are white. The beak is orange-
yellow at the base, the rest black, and the legs are orange-yellow. The iris is dark
brown. The female has the black collar somewhat smaller. The juvenile plumage
differs from that of the adult in lacking the black band across the forehead ; while
the band below the eye and the collar round the neck are of a dusky brown instead
of black. The young in down have the upper parts white relieved by a narrow
line of buffish grey on the crown, and a semicircular line running round the occiput ;
on either side of the median line are fine mottlings of grey. The back is mottled
grey, and the under parts are pure white, [w. p. p.]

2. Distribution. — In the British Isles this species is resident, or only subject
to local movements, on almost every part of our coasts where there is any sand
or shingle. It also breeds at considerable distances inland at a few places : the
waste lands near Thetford have long been known to be inhabited by this species,
and recently it has been found nesting on a sewage farm near Enfield, Middlesex,
by R. B. Lodge, and also in Worcestershire, as well as locally in Scotland.
Outside the British Isles it nests in Iceland, the Faeroes, sparingly on
Spitsbergen and Bear Island, on Novaya Zemlya, Waigatz, and Kolguev. On
the Continent it is found along the coasts of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans,
as well as in the Baltic, and in some localities breeds inland, as in the fells
of Lapland, by the great rivers of Russia south to about lat. 48£°-50°, in
Hungary, and on the shingle-beds in the Rhone valley. Its southward limits
extend to Portugal, occasionally to S. Spain, and a few pairs are said to remain
to breed in Italy and Sicily. In Asia it ranges east at least to the Kolyma valley

PLATE LI

Photo by A. M. Stewart

v:

A^

Dotterel's nest

Photo by C. W. Colthrup
Ringed-plover's nest on mud flat, composed of dry mud flakes

rhoto by W. Farren

Ringed- plover 's nest witn egg and chick, also chick out of neat

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 317

and Ussuria, and south to about 60° on the Lena, while, according to Severtzow, it
rarely breeds in Turkestan. In the Nearctic region it breeds in Greenland and
Davis Strait, but is replaced by an allied race in North America. The winter
quarters of this species lie in the Mediterranean region and Africa, where it has been
recorded as far south as Cape Colony and Natal, chiefly along the east and west
coasts. It also occurs in the Azores, Canaries, Madeira, India, Australia, Chile
and Barbados accidentally, while the American race winters in S. America.
[F. p. B. J.]

3. Migration. — Found in the British Isles all the year round in varying
numbers, and probably resident to a large degree in England and Wales and in
Ireland : from Scotland a considerable exodus takes place on the approach of
winter. In winter a considerable number of ringed-plovers come to us from Northern
Europe, many of the birds passing the winter in Ireland and the south of England :
there is also some evidence of an immigration to the south-east of England by an
east-to-west route (cf. Clarke, Ibis, 1904, p. 141). A slight southward emigration
takes place in autumn, whether of British-breeding or autumn immigrant birds
it is difficult to say. Birds of the smaller race visit the south-east of England in
spring, and a few may possibly remain to breed (cf. Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909,
p. 417). A gregarious traveller. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — There is considerable variation in the nesting-habits
of this species. Some nests are mere depressions in the gravel or shingle, others are
carefully lined with fragments of water-worn shells and white stones, while some
birds built a regular nest, more or less composed of bits of bent, small sticks, bits
of stalk, driftwood, sea- wrack, and in one case green leaves and stalks of Atriplex
littoralis (H. W. Feilden).1 The sites also vary considerably from shingle-beds
and sand-flats to stony hillsides (Faeroes), thick grass (Middlesex) and cornfields
(0. Grabham, Field, June 7, 1902). (PL LI.) The eggs are normally 4 in number,
sometimes 3 only may be found incubated, and on rare occasions 5 have been
recorded. They are pyriform in shape, the ground-colour being clay-yellow or
ochreous, and spotted with brownish black. A rare variety has handsome blackish
blotches, while others have been recorded with blue ground and devoid of markings,
or white and only faintly marked. Seen from within, the shell is deep blue-green
when fresh. (PL K.) Average size of 64 eggs, I'34x0'95 in. [34'2x24'7 mm.]. Both
sexes have been seen incubating (W. Farren and F. Heatherley). Faber and Graba
(the latter on the evidence of a brooding spot) state that the male takes part in

1 See British Birds, i. p. 373.

318 THE PLOVERS

incubation. With regard to the period, there is some discrepancy in results. In
an incubator one egg hatched on the 22nd, another on the 23rd, while a third
lingered till the 25th (W. Evans), while eggs watched were hatching on the 21st
day (W. Evans) ; on the 25th day from the laying of the last egg (R. Clyne), or
28 days from the laying of the first egg (A. H. Patterson). The eggs are laid at
intervals of a day. The breeding season in the south of England begins about
the beginning of May, but exceptionally eggs have been found by mid- April, or
even earlier in the Breck district (W. Farren). As they may be met with through
June and even in July, it is probable that two broods are often reared in a
season in the British Isles. [F. c. B. J.]

5. Food. — Various small marine animals, such as the smaller thin-skinned
crustaceans, small molluscs, and worms. Insects in various stages. Results of
stomach analyses are as follows : — Adults and young in down, principally
insects, their larvae and pupae. Adults, also remnants of plants (Manniche, N.E.
Greenland, p. 126). Vegetable matter has also been found in stomachs examined
by Prof. Patten, and " one gizzard was filled with remains of lustrous blue-black
beetles" (Aquatic Birds, p. 217). The food of the young consists chiefly of insects
and their larvae and pupae, also sandhoppers and small worms. They are
assisted in the search for food by both parents, [w. F.]

KE NT ISH-PLOVER \Mgialitis alexandrina (Linnaeus) ; Mgialiiis cantidna
(Latham). Stone-runner. French, pluvier d collier interrompu; German,
See-Begenpfeifer ; Italian, fratino],

i. Description. — The Kentish-plover may be distinguished at all ages by
the black beak and legs. The female differs slightly from the male, and there is a
seasonal change of coloration. (PI. 117.) Length 6'5 in. [153'67 mm.]. The male
has a black and white band across the forehead, the white produced backwards over
the eye, the lores are black, and there is a black patch on the hinder ear-coverts ;
the cheeks are white. The crown and nape are of a rufous red. The hind-neck is
marked by a white collar blending in front of the white of the under parts. The
mantle and wing-coverts are of a pale brown, the major coverts being tipped with
white. The median upper tail-coverts are of a darker brown than the back, while
the lateral coverts are white. The four central tail feathers are dark brown, the
next smoke-brown with white shafts, while the outermost are white. The exposed
portions of the primaries are dark brown, the inner webs paler brown, and the shafts

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 319

are white, but the innermost primaries are white towards the base of the outer web ;
the secondaries are dusky brown with white tips, the innermost being also margined
with white. The under parts are white, relieved by a black patch on each side of
the fore-breast, answering to the black gorget of the ringed-plover. The beak and
legs are black. The iris is dark brown. The female differs from the male in having
no black on the forehead, and little or no rufous on the crown, while a patch of
black on the fore-breast is replaced by a smaller patch of dark brown. In winter
the black and red patches on the head, and the black patches on the fore-breast
of the male, are wanting. The juvenile plumage resembles that of the female, but
the feathers of the upper surface have pale buff fringes. The young in down differs
conspicuously from that of the ringed-plover, having the upper parts densely
mottled with grey on a buffish white ground. The forehead is white, and the
cincture round the occiput is only imperfectly developed ; the median stripe down
the crown is conspicuous by its absence, [w. P. P.]

2. Distribution. — As a breeding species the Kentish-plover is practically con-
fined to the two counties of Kent and Sussex in the British Isles, being found there
on the great shingle beach of Dungeness, and sparingly westward towards Rye and
Winchelsea, while a few pairs breed at one other Kentish locality. Of late there has
been a decided increase in their numbers, chiefly owing to the cessation of shooting
in the breeding season. Outside the British Isles, where it is only a summer resident,
it breeds sparingly in S. Sweden and on the south shore of the Baltic, commonly in
Denmark, the Frisian Isles, the Low Countries, France, and the Iberian Peninsula,
the Canaries, Madeira, Azores, Cape Verdes, and on the shores and islands of the
Mediterranean, as well as in the Black and Caspian Seas. It also breeds in small
numbers by the larger rivers of Central Europe, e.g. in Hungary. In Asia its range
appears to extend from Turkestan to E. Siberia and Corea, while local races are
found in China and S.E. Asia, as well as in America. Its winter quarters extend
to the coasts of tropical Africa, and it has once been recorded from Damara
Land, as well as Southern Asia. [F. c. R. J.]

3. Migration. — A summer visitor and a bird of passage. It appears on the
Kentish coast usually about mid-April, but sometimes even before the end of
March. Flocking takes place towards the end of July, and most of the birds have
left by the end of September, October 10 being the latest recorded date for the
county (cf. Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 425). On the east of England the species
occurs in small numbers on migration, chiefly in autumn, presumably on passage
to and from Denmark or Sweden (cf. preceding paragraph) : Teesmouth is the

320 THE PLOVERS

northernmost recorded locality (cf. Nelson, B. of Yorks., 1907, p. 576). The Kentish-
plover is also an uncommon visitor as far west as Cornwall, and an extremely rare
one to the east coast of Ireland. Gregarious : the autumn flocks are composed of
both old and young birds, and Waders of other species are frequently consorted
with. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — In Kent the nest is merely a scrape in fairly fine
shingle, interspersed with a scanty growth of long, thin grass. On the Continent
it is found on shingle-beds, but generally where there are patches of sand, on heaps
of sandy mud or seaweed, on depressions in old cattle-droppings, or even on short
grass at the edge of mud flats. It is quite common to find the eggs buried point
downwards in sand with only the tops showing. There is nearly always a tendency
to make use of a slightly elevated site. Sometimes a few bents or broken twigs
and stalks serve as apology for a lining. (PI. LIT.) The share of the sexes in nest-
making seems not to be recorded. The eggs are typically 3 in number, sometimes
only 2, and 4 have been recorded on rare occasions. Dr. Ticehurst (Birds of
Kent, p. 424) brings forward some evidence that five young have been reared
by one pair. In ground-colour the eggs vary from light stone colour to deep
brownish ochreous, and are covered with characteristic streaks and scrolls as
well as spots. The colour of the shell from within is also a much deeper green
than that of the ringed-plover. A rare erythristic variety has occurred in
Hungary. (PI. K.) Average size of 70 eggs, l-26x-91 in. [32-2x23-5 mm.].
Both male and female share in incubation, but in fine weather the eggs are left for
long periods exposed to the sun. The period seems not to have been exactly
ascertained, but judging from the analogy of the ringed-plover, Naumann's state-
ment that the young are hatched in 15-17 days is probably much below the mark,
and incubation probably lasts at least three weeks. In the Mediterranean region
eggs may be found by mid-April, but in Kent they are very rarely found before
May, and often not till the second or third week in the month. Probably only a
single brood is reared as a rule, but where much harassed, eggs may be found up
to August. [F. c. E. j.]

5. Food. — Various small marine forms, such as the smaller thin-skinned
crustaceans, tiny molluscs, and worms. Insects and their larvae and pupae. The
young feed chiefly on insects and their larvae, and are assisted in the search for food
by both parents, [w. F.]

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 321

GfOLDEN-PLOVER \Charddrius apricdrius Linnaeus; Charadriiis
pluvidlis Linnaeus. Yellow-plover, sheep' s-guide. French, pluvier dore ;
German, Gold-Regenpfeifer ; Italian, piviere dorato].

1. Description. — The golden-plover may be distinguished from its congener
the grey-plover by the absence of a hind-toe and the white axillaries. The sexes
are alike, and there is a striking seasonal change of coloration. (PL 118.) Length
11 in. [279-40 mm.]. The male in nuptial dress has the upper parts black, spangled
with gamboge-yellow, the yellow taking the form of spots running round the margin
of black feathers ; on the hinder scapulars the spots become confluent and form
a yellow marginal band. A band of white crosses the forehead, and is continued
over the eye, down the side of the neck, and along the upper border of the flanks.
The wing-coverts are dark grey tipped with dull yellow, save only the major coverts,
which are tipped with white. The tail is dusky, imperfectly barred across the outer
web with yellowish white. The sides of the face, and the whole of the under parts
below the white line just described, are black, save the under tail-coverts, which
are white. The beak and legs are black, the iris hazel-brown. The female differs
from the male in having more or fewer white feathers intermixed with the black
breast feathers. Towards the end of the summer the yellow coloration of the upper
parts is much reduced by abrasion. After the autumn moult the sides of the face
and breast are white, and the fore-neck is tinged with yellow and marled by dusky
mottlings, while the inner primaries have white, free edges, and the major coverts
of the hand are tipped with white. The juvenile plumage resembles that of the
adults in winter, but differs in being distinctly more golden above. The fore-neck
is mottled with triangular spots of dusky brown, while the flanks are ashy brown
with dusky brown bars. The young in down is of a pale golden yellow mottled with
black. Two lateral white stripes run over the eye, and similar stripes run down
the back. The under parts are white, [w. p. p.]

2. Distribution. — In the British Isles this species breeds sparingly on the
moorlands of Devon and Cornwall, and also in small numbers on the Cambrian
mountains and the Welsh borders, while it nests locally on the Pennine range and
its spurs south to the Peak district in N. Derbyshire. In Scotland it becomes
more numerous, and breeds not only on the moorlands of the mainland, but also
on the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Shetlands commonly. In Ireland it breeds on the
mountains, and in W. Connaught, also in the bogs. Outside the British Isles it nests
in the Faeroes, Iceland, and possibly Greenland, while it has also been seen in Jan

322 THE PLOVERS

Mayen in summer. On the Continent of Europe it is common on the f jeld of Scan-
dinavia, and also breeds on the tundra of N. Russia, south in small numbers to Perm
and the Baltic provinces. A few pairs nest on the heaths of N. Germany, Denmark,
Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg, while it is said also to have bred in Switzerland.
In Siberia its breeding range extends at least as far east as the valley of the Yenisei.
In winter it ranges south over Europe to the Mediterranean region, has occurred
as a casual on the Azores, Madeira, and the Canaries, and on the west coast of Africa
as far as the Gaboon at any rate. Saunders and Seebohm state that it ranges to
Cape Colony, but Sclater does not include it among the birds of S. Africa. In Asia
it has been met with in Palestine, and thence to Baluchistan and Sind. [F. c. R. J.]

3. Migration. — Found in the British Isles all the year round. That part
at least of our breeding birds are resident within our area seems probable, but some
may well be summer visitants.1 The species is also a winter visitor and a bird of
passage from Northern Europe in large numbers. A few unmoulted adults reach
our shores early in August, and late in September the young birds arrive in large
flocks, followed in October and November by the main body of adults, now moulted.
The return movement sets in in March, and continues long after our own birds have
begun their nesting duties. The golden-plover is a notably gregarious migrant, the
birds sometimes associating with lapwings as well as with members of their own
species : migration is at times diurnal, but more often nocturnal. The separate
migration of old and young seems to have been well established by Gatke (cf.
Vogelwarte Helgoland, Eng. trans., 1895, pp. 106, 465) and others, but is not an
altogether undisputed point (cf. Bonhote, Ornis, 1909, p. 168). [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — The nesting-places of this bird are on moors and rough
pastures, overgrown with tussocks. Here it breeds sometimes in heather, at other
times on the bare ground or in coarse grass, generally slightly elevated, making a
depression in the ground, and lining it scantily with bents or bits of heather, or
in some cases not at all. (PL in.) Naumann states that the hen makes the de-
pression with her feet. The eggs are normally 4 in number, but clutches of 5 eggs
have occasionally been found, apparently laid by one hen. They are pyriform in
shape, yellowish stone colour in ground, at times with a rich warm tinge, and rarely
greenish white, boldly spotted and blotched with brownish black. (PL L.) Average
size of 43 eggs, 2'02x 1'35 in. [51'5x34'3 mm.]. The male bird has been shot from
the eggs (Zoologist, 1883, p. 58), but Saxby states that he has never known the male

1 A golden-plover marked as a nestling at Bunacton, Inverness-shire, 21st May 1911, was
shot about 13th Oct. 1911, in Co. Mayo, Ireland (Aberdeen University Bird-Migration Inquiry).

PLATE LI I

Photo by W. Farren

Photo by E. A. Wallis

Kentish-plover's nest and chick

Golden-plover's nest and

Photo by W. Far

Photo by W. Farre

Lapwing- s nest and eggs

Lapwing's scrape (p. 372)

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 323

to take part in incubation, though he constantly supplies his mate with food while
sitting. The same observer found that a clutch was hatched out in 16 days from
when first found warm in the nest, one egg of which appeared to be fresh. Possibly
it was really infertile, as W. Evans found that an egg hatched out in an incubator
on the 27th day. According to Dr. F. Heatherley's observations, eggs take at
least 24 days to hatch under natural conditions (p. 363). Saxby's figures and
Naumann's (16-17 days) are no doubt erroneous. The earliest eggs are laid about
the second week in April in S. Scotland, and towards the end of the month in
the north, and may be found as late as June and early July, but probably only a
single brood is normally reared, as in the case of the lapwing, though three to five
clutches may be laid by birds whose nests have been taken. [F. c. R. J.]

5. Food. — Inland: worms, slugs, snails, insects — especially beetles — and their
larvae. On the shore : various molluscs, crustaceans, and shore worms. Vegetable
matter in small quantities. Stomach analyses prove that the seeds of various
plants are eaten, such as Polygonum and Scleranfhus (Naumann), the seeds of
the saline, Glaux maritima (Yarrell, iii. p. 274), berries and seeds (Dresser, Birds
of Europe, vii. p. 439, quoting von Droste Hiilshoff), old grass seeds (Field, 1891,
vol. 77, p. 449). Swallows particles of grit. The chicks feed chiefly on insects
and their larvae, and are assisted in the search for food by both parents, [w. F.]

GREY-PLOVER [Squatdrola squatdrola (Linnaeus); Squatarola helvetica
(Linnaeus). Silver-plover. French, vanneau-pluvier ; German, Kiebitz-Regen-
pfeifer ; Italian, pivieressa],

i. Description. — The grey-plover may at once be distinguished, at all
seasons, by the black axillaries and the presence of a hind-toe. The sexes are
alike, and there is a striking seasonal change of coloration. (PL 1 1 9. ) Length 1 1 -5 in.
[280*67 mm.]. The feathers of the crown and occiput are greyish black, obscured
by broad white fringes ; the hind-neck is white, flecked with grey. The mantle is
black, broad white tips to the feathers giving a dazzling black and white barred
effect. The wing-coverts have the margins white, the central area of the feathers
black, expanding at intervals to form irregular black transverse bars, but the
major coverts are grey, margined with white. The primaries are brownish black
with white shafts, the innermost quills having a patch of white on the outer web.
The upper tail-coverts are white barred with black ; while the tail is white crossed
by numerous broad bars of black. A broad white band of white runs across the fore-

VOL. III. 2T

324 THE PLOVERS

head above the eye, and down the sides of the neck, at the base of which it consider-
ably expands. This white longitudinal band stands in strong contrast with the
jet-black of the sides of the head, the neck and breast, flanks and upper abdomen.
The lower abdomen and under tail-coverts are white. Towards the autumn the
sparkling brilliance of the contrasted black and white of the mantle is much reduced
by the abrasion of the white. The beak and legs are black, the eye dark hazel.
The whiter dress lacks the black on the face and breast, while the upper surface is
of an almost uniform ashy brown, the feathers having a whitish edging, and a more
or less distinct subterminal blackish marginal band. There is an indistinct supra-
orbital band of white, while the sides of the face have dusky streaks ; the fore-neck
is of a pale ashy brown with dusky mottlings, while the throat and breast are white.
The juvenile plumage resembles that of the golden-plover at the same period, but
the black axillaries, white on the innermost primaries, white upper tail-coverts, and
more coarsely barred tail, render the two species easily distinguishable. Moreover,
the young grey-plover has a hind-toe. The young in down are of a rich golden
yellow above, spotted and blotched with black, and white underneath, [w. P. P.]

2. Distribution. — The grey-plover only visits us during the winter months,
and on the European Continent its only breeding-grounds are the tundra of North
Russia and the island of Kolguev. On the mainland it is known to nest on the Kanin
Peninsula and the Lower Petchora. In Northern Siberia it breeds on the Yalmal
Peninsula, the Taimyr, and the valleys of the Lower Yenisei and Kolyma. The
first discovery of the breeding haunts of this species was made by von Middendorff
in 1843, on the Boganida, and Seebohm and Harvie-Brown were the first to find it
nesting in Europe, on the Petchora, in 1875. It also breeds in Arctic North America.
During the winter months it migrates southward through Europe and Asia by
definite routes to Africa, along both sides of the continent south to Cape Colony
and Natal, as well as to the Canaries, Azores, Cape Verdes, and Madagascar. In
Asia it ranges to the shores of the Indian Ocean, Borneo, the Philippines, New
Guinea, and other islands of the Malayan Archipelago, as well as to the Solomon
Isles and Australia ; while North American birds winter in the West Indies, Brazil,
and Colombia. It will thus be seen that, with the exception of the southern part
of the American continent, there is no part of the temperate or tropical world
which is not visited by this truly cosmopolitan species. [F. c. R. J.]

3. Migration. — A bird of passage and a winter visitor from Northern
Europe. A few unmoulted adults may be recorded at the end of July or the begin-
ning of August. In September the main movement, that of the flocks of young

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 325

birds, reaches our shores, followed in October and November by the adults, now
moulted, in smaller numbers. Most of the birds pass on, but a few remain with
us for the winter. The return passage lasts till late in May, and a few non-
breeding birds may remain till July. A gregarious, and, to a great extent at least,
a nocturnal traveller. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — Does not breed in the British Isles. [F. c. R. j.]

5. Food. — Insects and their larvae ; worms, molluscs, and crustaceans, such
as small shell-fish, shrimps, and sandhoppers. Also eat a good deal of vegetable
matter, such as seaweed. "Small fish" (Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 233), "grass-
hoppers and other insects, as well as berries of various kinds " (Macgillivray, British
Birds, iv. p. 92). The food of the young consists chiefly of insects — especially
mosquitoes — and their larvae. They are assisted in their search for it by both
parents, [w. F.]

LAPWING [Vanett-us vandlus (Linnaeus) ; Vandlus vulgdris Bechstein.
Peewit, peeswipe, green-plover ; happinch, lappinch (Cheshire) ; hornpie
(Suffolk) ; horniewink ; tieves' nicket (Shetlands). French, vanneau huppe,
dix-huit ; German, Kiebitz ; Italian, pavoncella].

i. Description. — The lapwing may be readily distinguished by its recurved
crest of erectile feathers. The sexes are alike, and there is a slight seasonal change
of coloration. (PL 120.) Length 11 in. [27940 mm.]. The adult, in nuptial dress,
has the top of the head, including the recurved feathers of the crest, the lores, fore-
part of the cheeks, a line under the eye, throat, and fore-neck black, glossed with
green ; while the eyebrow, sides of the face and neck, are dull white. The mantle is
of a rich metallic coppery green with purple reflections, while the wing-coverts are
of a deep steel blue-black with a metallic sheen. The primaries are black, the three
outermost with greyish white tips. The upper tail-coverts are of a reddish chest-
nut, while the tail has the basal portion white, the rest black, but the black area
decreases from the middle feathers outwards, so that the outermost feather is
nearly all white. The under surface, from the black gorget backwards, pure white,
save the under tail-coverts, which are of a pale cinnamon. The male differs from
the female in having a conspicuously longer crest, and hi the shape of the wing when
expanded, which is thus much broader and more rounded than in the female. After
the autumn moult the black on the throat disappears. The fledgling resembles the
adult in whiter, lacking the black throat ; but it may always be distinguished by

326 THE PLOYERS

the fulvous margins to the feathers of the upper surface. Young in down are of a
pale reddish brown above, spotted and blotched with black ; there is a dark band
across the breast, and the rest of the under parts are white, [w. p. p.]

2. Distribution. — In the British Isles the lapwing is mainly resident, or
only subject to local movements, and is very generally distributed on the whole,
except in some districts of the south of England. In the north of England, as well
as Scotland, Ireland, and the adjoining islands, it is still very numerous. A few
pairs breed on the Faeroes, but not on Iceland, and on the Continent it ranges in
Norway to about the middle, and in Sweden to Upland, but has bred to beyond
lat. 68° on the Muonio river (S. A. Davies) ; in Finland to over lat. 61°, and in East
Russia to 62°. Southward its breeding range extends on the west to Andalucia
and Marocco, and in Eastern Europe to Macedonia, but not to Greece, though a few
are said to breed in Egypt. In Asia it is found up to 57° on the Ob, and though
absent from the Lena valley is common in Dauria and Ussuria (Buturlin) ; south-
ward it is found on the Tian Shan range to about eleven thousand feet, and in small
numbers in Transcaspia. On migration it passes over Europe to the Atlantic isles
and the Mediterranean basin, wintering on both sides, and in Asia south to Asia
Minor, Persia, N. India, Burma, China, and Japan. It has also occurred casually
on Jan Mayen, Greenland, Iceland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, the Bahamas, and
Barbados, as well as in Alaska, [r. c. R. J.]

3. Migration. — A summer visitor to a great many inland districts, but
found all the year round on most parts of the coast. To our area as a whole some
individuals are summer visitors, some winter visitors, and some birds of passage ;
still others are doubtless resident within its limits. The complicated movements
have been worked out by Mr. Eagle Clarke, upon whose report (British Association
Report, 1902, pp. 277-283) the following summary is based.

(1) British Summer and Autumn Movements. — "Flocking" takes place at the
close of the nesting season, and in July or even late June slight movements of a
more or less erratic nature may be observed. In August the birds begin to leave
the more northerly parts of our islands, and it may be noted that in the northern
isles there is an interval between the departure of the last summer visitors and
the arrival of the first overseas immigrants. In September the southward move-
ment within the British Isles is in full swing ; in October it reaches its height,
but it persists till mid-November. By October the higher inland districts are
practically deserted for the winter. The movements within our area include an
immigration to Ireland from Scotland in October and November : it takes place

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 327

mainly from the coast between the Midi of Cantrye and the Solway Firth to that
of counties Antrim and Down, and also by way of the Outer Hebrides to the coast
of Donegal.

(2) Autumn Immigration from North-Western Europe. — This immigration takes
place from early October to mid-November. It affects the east coast of Scotland
from Shetland southwards, and the northern section of the east coast of England,
but movements affecting a great stretch of coast-line simultaneously do not usually
occur. The total number of immigrants is not very great, for the species is by no
means abundant in North- Western Europe (see preceding paragraph).

(3) Autumn Immigration from the East. — In October and early November an
immigration from the east and south-east takes place on the coast between the
Thames and the Wash and the Humber.

(4) (Passage Movements}. — There is no evidence of immediate southward
emigration of immigrants from either source. The majority certainly remain
within our area for some time, although many must eventuaUy cross the Channel.

(5) Autumn Emigration. — There is no evidence of any cross-Channel emigration
in September or October, although the existence of slight movements of this nature
is not improbable. Considerable emigration takes place in November, the move-
ments being sometimes associated with general movements down the east and west
coasts of England.

(6) British Winter Movements and Winter Emigration. — The lapwing affords
an exceptionally good example of winter movements subsequent to the ordinary
migration season. These movements are indeed of a far more general and striking
character than the autumnal migrations, but their extent and the time of their
occurrence depend entirely on the severity of the season. In seasons where no very
severe weather has occurred till late in the winter, we find cross-Channel emigration
taking place in the middle of February, and southward movement within the
British Isles as late as mid-March.

(7) Winter Immigration from West-Central Europe. — In severe winters the
winter movements in West-Central Europe give rise to an immigration on the
southern section of the east coast of England, the birds afterwards spreading west-
wards across the country.

(8) British Spring Movements. — Some birds return to their inland haunts at
the end of January or in February, but very often have to beat a temporary retreat.
The normal time for returning to summer quarters is between the end of February
and the middle of March, except in very late seasons. These movements include

328 THE PLOVERS

a return journey from the north-east of Ireland to the west of Scotland. There is
also a south-easterly emigration from Wexford at the end of February : the autumn
counterpart of this movement has not been recorded, and it is also uncertain whether
it is English or Continental birds that participate.

(9) Spring Immigration from Southern Europe. — This movement is the counter-
part of the southward movements mentioned under (4), (5), and (6), but it is very
inconspicuous. It occurs in the latter half of March.

(9a) Spring Return to Ireland. — From late February to early April lapwings
are recorded crossing from the south of England in a north-westerly direction to
the south-east of Ireland, although no corresponding south-easterly migrations
have been noted in either autumn or spring. It will be remarked that lapwings
cross the Irish Channel at the end of February in two opposing directions
(cf. (9) ).

(10 and 11) Passage and Emigration to North-Western Europe. — This combined
movement begins at the end of February or the beginning of March, and lasts till
the middle of April, after which only stragglers are noted on migration. The move-
ments affect both coasts of Great Britain and also the Northern Isles ; a certain
amount of overland crossing also takes place.

(12) (Emigration to the East). — A counterpart of (3) and (7) doubtless exists,
but has not yet been recorded.

Little can be added to this statement from other sources of information. A
point it leaves unsettled is the extent to which British and Continental-bred
birds respectively participate in the southward emigratory movements. Bird-
marking may in time provide an answer to the question : a few interesting records
are already available, and may be briefly cited. The following are the dates and
localities of the subsequent recovery of lapwings marked as young in the north-east
of Scotland (Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire) in the summer of 1910 (cf.
Thomson, British Birds, vol. v. p. 99 ; etc.) :—

Oct. (?) 1910, 20 miles N. of Oporto, Portugal.

About 18 Nov. 1910, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.

About 22 Nov. 1910, Frenchpark, Co. Roscommon, Ireland.

29 Dec. 1910, Elvas, Alemtejo, Southern Portugal.

About 5 Feb. 1911, Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, Ireland.

13 Feb. 1911, Croagh, Co. Limerick, Ireland.

About 1 Jan. 1912, Grangemore, Co. Roscommon, Ireland.

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 329

We may give two further records of lapwings marked as young in Stirlingshire
(cf. Witherby, British Birds, vol. iii. p. 251, and vol. iv. p. 336) : —

(Marked 1909) 17 Nov. 1909, Aranjuzon, Basses Pyrenees, France.
(Marked 1910) 28 Feb. 1911, Gouran, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland.

As regards habits : the lapwing is notably gregarious, and the migratory flocks
are sometimes of immense size. The majority of the movements are executed at
night, although diurnal migration also occurs, but the species is seldom recorded
among the victims of the lighthouse lanterns. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — The nest is placed on open ground, whether pasture,
ploughland, moor, or marsh, and is generally on slightly elevated ground rather than
in the depressions. As a rule it is a saucer-like hollow in the ground, scantily
lined with a few bits of bent, though some nests are much better lined than others.
(PL LH.) Generally other ' false nests ' are to be found close at hand, which are
apparently the work of the cock bird (see Saunders, Manual, p. 556 ; S. E. Brock,
Zoologist, 1911, p. 296). The eggs are normally 4, but there seems to be no doubt
that 5 are occasionally laid by one hen, and they are generally deposited on alternate
days. They do not vary much as a rule in appearance, being pyriform in shape, and
stone colour to olive brownish in ground-colour, more or less thickly spotted and
blotched with black, sometimes showing ashy shellmarks. Occasionally eggs are
found with a band of greenish more or less clearly defined, and some eggs are greenish
blue, very sparingly marked. A rare and very beautiful variety has brownish
red markings on a warm ground. (PL L.) Average size of 66 eggs, 1-83 x T31 in.
[46'7x33'4 mm.]. Incubation is performed by both sexes (Farren and others), but
probably the greater part of the work is undertaken by the hen. J. v. Wangelin
(Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas) asserts that the male takes no part, but this
appears to be incorrect. Naumann gives the period as 16 days, obviously an error,
as H. S. Gladstone estimates it at 26 days, and W. Evans found that the young were
hatched out on the 25th, 26th, and 27th days (Ibis, 1891, p. 80). The first eggs are
laid towards the end of March, but frequently not till the beginning of April, and
one hen will lay as many as twenty eggs in a season if persistently robbed, so
that under these circumstances fresh eggs may be found in June and even in
July, but the lapwing is single-brooded, [r. c. R. J.]

5. Food. — Chiefly worms, slugs, snails, insects of various kinds — especially
beetles — and their larvae and pupae. And on the coast various molluscs and
crustaceans. Fragments of sea-weed (Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 238). Mr. J. E.

330 THE PLOVERS

Harting examined the stomachs of many birds, and found that those from grass-
land on sandy soil had fed chiefly on beetles ; while in the stomachs of those from
downland where the soil was chalky, fragments of small snails, Helix virgata and
H. caperata, were found (Ibid., p. 238). Swallows particles of grit. The young are
attended by both parents, and assisted by them in their search for food, which
consists chiefly of insects and their larvae, small worms, spiders, and tiny
molluscs, [w. F.]

The following species and subspecies are described in the supplementary chapter
on " Rare Birds " : —

Caspian-plover, Aegialitis asiatica (Pallas).

Little ringed-plover, Aegialitis dubia (Scopoli) [Aegialitis curonica

(Gmelin)].

American killdeer-plover, Aegialitis vocifera (Linnaeus).
Eastern golden-plover, Charadrius dominicus fulvus Gmelin ; and
American golden-plover, Charadrius dominicus dominicus P. S. Miiller.
Sociable-plover, Vanellus gregarius (Pallas). [F. c. R. j.]

DOTTEREL &31

DOTTEREL
[W. FARREN]

Although never very numerous as a breeding species in this
country, the dotterel has decreased in numbers so considerably during
the last half-century or so, that it is now one of the very rarest of our
nesting Waders. This appears to be due not so much to persecution
in its nesting-haunts — although, being a rare bird, its eggs have always
been much sought after — as to the fact that great numbers used to be
killed on the spring migration. Apparently the British nesting birds
do not follow a coast-line on migration, but pass along the eastern and
midland counties to their breeding-haunts on the hills of the north of
England and Scotland. They have well-known halting-places where
they stay for a few days, feeding and resting before continuing their
northward journey. These resting-places extend from Sussex and
Berkshire to Wiltshire, but not farther west. One of the most famous
localities in former years was the line of low chalk hills running from
the borders of Hertfordshire and Essex through East Cambridgeshire,
bordering the fen district to the brecklands of Suffolk and Norfolk.
There are others in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and farther
north.

To such localities, regularly in the beginning of May, the dotterel
came in " trips," i.e. small parties of from five to twenty or more
birds, and although the earliest arrivals passed on after a few days,
others took their place, and for about a fortnight they might be found
in considerable numbers scattered over the arable land and chalk-
downs. Being at this time very tame and fearless, they fell easy
victims to the fowlers, who took large numbers in nets, which were
spread much after the manner of the nets used by birdcatchers at
the present day. Dotterel were greatly esteemed for the table,

VOL. in. 2u

332 THE PLOVERS

selling at as much as six and seven shillings a couple ; even a modest
proportion of that amount which would fall to the share of the fowlers
would have been sufficient inducement for them to kill as many as
possible during the short season.

Their feathers were largely in demand for making artificial flies
for fishing, and probably as many were killed for this purpose as for
the market. They were very regular in their arrival at these resting-
places, so much so that in different localities the 9th, 10th, or 12th of
May was known as " dotterel day." And on these dates they were
eagerly awaited. They were called dotterel, and morinellus, because
of their tameness or indifference, which was so marked as to be
regarded as foolishness. It was a poor reward for their lack of fear of
man, to be christened fools first and then killed. They have either
learnt a little wisdom since, and altered their route of migration, or
more probably the race that visited this country paid the penalty of
foolishness by being all but exterminated, as so few come now to the
old localities that they pass almost unnoticed.

Had the " Wild Birds Protection Act " and the " close " season
come a little earlier, it might have made all the difference to the
dotterel as a nesting species in this country. Previous to the Act
there were always dotterel in Cambridge market in May ; even in the
early years of the close season I have seen them exposed for sale,
but as it was gradually made plain to game-dealers that the Act really
made it illegal to handle even " ordinary wild birds " during the close
season, they were no longer exposed, although they were still occasion-
ally brought to market and sent to certain old-fashioned customers,
with whom the fashion of eating dotterel in May died hard, just as
the fashion of eating plovers' eggs is dying hard at the present day.

The history of the dotterel in this country goes back to the
sixteenth century, and Yarrell quotes some quaint old descriptions of
the methods of the fowlers in taking them. There was a curious sup-
position that the birds imitated the actions of the fowlers, and that this
habit assisted in their capture. Dr. Key sent to Gesner a description,

DOTTEREL 333

which is cited in his Historice Animalium, lib. iii. p. 615 (1585), and
is rendered by Willughby as follows : " It is taken in the night-time
by the light of a candle by imitating the gesture of the Fowler : For if
he stretches out an Arm, that also stretches out a Wing ; if he a Foot,
that likewise a Foot : In brief, whatever the Fowler doth, the same doth
the Bird ; and so being intent upon men's gestures it is deceived, and
covered with the Net spread for it." No doubt the dotterel stretch
out their wings and legs — not in imitation of the fowlers, but as birds
generally do when disturbed from a period of rest, as opined by a
gentleman of Norfolk, wrhose account of dotterel netting given to
Willughby's " very good friend Mr. Peter Dent of Cambridge," includes
the following: "The Birds being awakened do often stretch them-
selves, putting out a Wing or a Leg, and in imitation of these, the
men that drive them thrust out an Arm or a Leg for fashion sake,
to comply with an old custom."1

The history of the dotterel is, however, by no means entirely of
the past, and although they come in such small numbers as generally
to escape notice, they are occasionally recorded as being seen about
the old resting-places in early spring. Dr. Ticehurst considers it
doubtful whether the numbers that now use the route through Kent
are " more than can be counted on the fingers of two hands." A few,
however, are regularly observed, and these, he thinks, are probably part
of the actual British breeding stock.2 A trip of eighteen birds was seen
by Mr. Aplin in Oxfordshire on April 27, 1892, and he wrote to the Field
an interesting account of their habits. They never once, while under
observation, moved from a fifteen acre field of young barley. They
were tame, allowing as near an approach as thirty yards. Nearer than
that the birds began to run very fast — Mr. Aplin described them as
quicker runners than any plover he knew, — and if pressed they flew
up with sharp whistles, circled round, and settled farther off. They
fed in "loose order" with the usual plover-like action, running a few
steps and then stopping abruptly to pick up som ething. They stood

1 Willughby, Ornithology, p. 309. - Ticehurst, Birds of Kent, p. 416.

334 THE PLOVERS

high on the leg, but ran in a crouching attitude. They resembled the
golden-plover on the wing in shape and size, flying and wheeling
beautifully together. The call-note Mr. Aplin described as a fairly
soft rather twittering whistle, "wit-e-wee, wit-e-wee, wit-e-wee" not so
mellow as that of the golden-plover, but still very sweet. When tired
of being repeatedly put up, they at last rose high in the air and went
off in a north-easterly direction, " the usual Wader spring route." l

Writing in 1885 on the migration of the dotterel, Mr. John Watson,
of Kendal, states that recently made records add nothing, but confirm
what has previously been known, viz. that they arrive in this country
towards the end of April and early in May. After recruiting for a
time on the east coast marshes, they strike inland for the ranges of
hills forming the backbone of the six northern counties, and passing
along this chain of hills remain to breed on some of them.2 With
regard to the above reference to the dotterel frequenting marshes on
the east coast, there was a long controversy in the Field in 1887 3 as
to whether the dotterel was ever found in marshes. It arose out of
a letter from Mr. F. Boyes, questioning the correctness of Howard
Saunders' statement that on the spring migration, dotterel, after rest-
ing a few days on the chalk-wolds, " descend to the marshes on the
Lincoln and Yorkshire coasts, and remain there till about the end of
the third week in May, when they leave for their breeding-grounds." 4
It was chiefly a difference of opinion — one might almost say a quibble
— as to what is implied by " marsh." Mr. Boyes took it to mean a wet
swamp, which was taking an unnecessarily extreme view, and it was
made quite clear by the various correspondents of the Field that
dotterel certainly do frequent marshes, such as the drier salt-marshes,
Romney marsh in Kent, and the " mosses " in the estuary near the
mouth of the Ribble in Lancashire.

The birds referred to by Howard Saunders as remaining in
Lincoln and Yorkshire till the end of the third week in May are

1 Field, 1892, vol. Ixxix. p. 665. J Ibid., 1885, vol. Ixvi. p. 708.

3 Ibid., 1887, vol. Ixx. pp. 635, 754, 778, 829.

4 Yarrell, British Birds, 4th ed., vol. iii. p. 252.

DOTTEREL 335

probably on their way to breeding-grounds outside the British Isles,
as by that time most of our home birds are settled down ; and although
egg laying does not become general until June, yet eggs have been
found, though exceptionally, from about May 33rd. The number of
birds that now nest on the Cumberland hills and other parts of the
Lake District is undoubtedly very small, but in Scotland there may be
more than is generally supposed. The nesting-places are seldom at a
less altitude than a thousand feet, and generally considerably more,
varying from 2000 to 4000 feet. Heysham, whose account of their
nesting-habits on the Cumberland hills, which first appeared in the
Magazine of Natural History, ii. p. 295, and has been quoted in most of
the histories of British birds published since, stated that " the most
favourite breeding-haunts of these birds are always near to or on the
summit of the highest mountains, particularly those that are densely
covered with the woolly fringe-moss, Trichostomum lanuginosum." The
Rev. H. A. Macpherson, however, says they do not select the summits
of the highest mountains, nor do they lay where the fringe-moss grows,
but upon short dense grass a little below the summit.1 The latter
agrees with the observations of others who have visited the nesting-
places of the dotterel in Scotland. The majority breed on barren
slopes and plateaus just below the summits of the mountains.

Although Heysham's observations were made as long ago as 1833
to 1835, very little in the way of fresh information on the habits
of the species has been added since. Observation is naturally
attended with considerable difficulty, owing to the remoteness of its
nesting-places, and even if these are visited, the scarcity of the
species renders it a matter of uncertainty as to whether the birds
will be met with.

Nothing appears to have been recorded relating to the period of
courtship, or as to whether the birds have paired before their arrival on
the nesting-grounds. The nest is a very slight cavity in the ground,
and is very scantily lined. It has been stated that the nest contains

1 Birds of Cumberland, p. 133.

336 THE PLOVERS

no lining whatever, and that the hollow is simply pressed down, not
scraped out.1 Nests would appear, however, to vary in this respect,
as two found in one day in Scotland were "lined with a plentiful
supply of red cranberry leaves," 2 which must have been brought from
some distance. It is not certain whether the dotterel makes
additional scrapes or "false nests." The finding of one has been
recorded,3 which in itself is hardly sufficient on which to make
a general statement. Mr. G. G. Blackwood, who has spent much
time watching dotterel in the nesting season, informs me (in litt.)
that he has never found a " false nest," but he adds " the actual nest
is so slight that a false one would be very easily overlooked."

The dotterel lays three eggs, and, as is usually the case when a
species of the Wader group lays less than four, these are less acutely
pyriform than the common type of the family. The clutch seldom—
probably never — exceeds three in this country, but four eggs were
found in a nest by Dr. Walter in the Taimyr Peninsula.4 According
to Heysharn, the dotterel is by no means solitary in the nesting season,
a few pairs generally associating together, but the Rev. H. H. Slater,
who visited their haunts in Northern Europe, states that two nests
are rarely within a mile of each other.5 The latter is almost certainly
the case in Great Britain at the present time, whatever it may have
been in Heysham's time. The Rev. H. H. Slater found two males
incubating during the day, and thought it probable that they do so
almost entirely, the females merely relieving the males when the
latter leave to feed.6 Gloger also found the male incubating,7 and Mr.
Blackwood thinks that the female bears no share in the duty. He
adds, however, that it is not at all easy to distinguish one sex from the
other, in spite of the assertion that the female is the brighter of the
two. There is no doubt a good deal of individual variation, and I do
not think that the full breeding plumage is assumed by year-old birds,

1 J. A. Harvie-Brown, Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow, ii. p. 237.

1 Field, 1902, vol. xcix. p. 942. 3 J. A. Harvie-Brown, op. cit.

4 Ibis, 1904, p. 229. 5 British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 66.

6 Ibid. 7 Nauinann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, viii. p. 50.

DOTTEREL 837

therefore an old male mated with a young female might look much
alike. It is also doubtful whether the full breeding plumage is
assumed by all the British-breeding birds. The few birds I have
dissected showed a very decided advantage both in size and colour
in favour of the female. With regard to the incubation period,
Heysham gave it as 18 to 20 days, and a similar time — probably
copied from Heysham — is given by Naumann. Judging by the
average time taken by other species of Waders, it is probably longer
than twenty days. Until the young are hatched, the old birds are
shy and retiring, leaving the nest, as a rule, while an intruder is
still a long way off, but some individuals sit fairly close, and some-
times a bird shows unconcern for its own safety when its nest is
discovered. Heysham stated that they are very silent during incuba-
tion, although when the young are hatched they fly to and fro over
the head of an intruder, uttering an alarm-note. He related of three
or four pairs observed on Robinson on the 3rd of July that they
were very tame, allowing a near approach without showing any
symptoms of alarm. " Some would move slowly about and pick up an
insect, others would remain motionless, now and then stretching out
their wings, and a few would occasionally toy with each other, at the
same time uttering a few low notes, which had some resemblance to
those of the common linnet." One bird, put off its eggs, " immediately
spread out its wings and tail, which it trailed on the ground a short
distance, and then went away without uttering a single note." l This
habit would appear to be quite usual, and has been several times
recorded by more recent observers. Mr. A. Buxton, who found
dotterel nesting on a moss-covered plateau on a hill in Scotland in
1906, thus describes the action of a bird when put off the nest :
" She put her bill on the moss, spread and stiffened her wing and tail
feathers so that their tips touched the ground, and then proceeded to
balance herself on her throat, squeaking all the time and kicking out
her legs in the air behind her." This took place while Mr. Buxton

1 Magazine of Natural History, ii. p. 295.

338 THE PLOVERS

was quite near. She then stood up, and on his walking up to her,
" she fluttered away with wings and tail spread, just out of reach, for
30 yards, and then shut herself up like an umbrella, and walked
to the top of a mound and stood quietly watching." Mr. Buxton and
his companion then lay down quite near, and watched her, as she,
after a few sidelong glances, ran back to the eggs and settled on
them immediately. When on the nest the bird was heard to utter
a low note " like a meadow-pipit squeaking very softly." It allowed
itself to be almost touched before moving from the nest, and then
went through the same performance as before. It was apparently
taken for granted that this bird was a female. Before the nest was
discovered, its mate was seen flying in a large circle, uttering a mono-
tonous metallic whistle, "peek-peek-peek" which was believed to be its
love-song.1

Another observer described a dotterel as approaching its nest
very circuitously, cowering and doubling in and out among stones
and mounds of moss. When put from the nest it ran straight away.
The same observer wrote : " I know of no bird that seems to lose
itself in its environment more completely than the dotterel, unless it
is the Kentish-plover, on the flint and shingle of the beach." He also
noticed that the bird was more indistinct when running away, show-
ing a back view, than when head on.2

With regard to the notes of the dotterel, it is difficult to reconcile
the various renderings. The above "peek-peek-peek" and Mr. Aplin's
" wit-e-wee, wit-e-wee, wit-e-wee " (ante, p. 334), may be the same note. Mr.
Blackwood (in litt.) describes the commonest call by breeding birds,
and also by birds on passage, as resembling the regular creak of an
unoiled wheel-barrow. This would agree with the "peek-peek." Turning
to Kaumann, we get an entirely different impression. He describes
it as somewhat softer than that of the golden-plover, a pleasant "drrr,"
in which can be heard the it, so that it becomes "drrii" or "diirr"
And he states that the birds can be attracted by this note made with

1 Field, 1906, vol. cviii. p. 2. 2 Ibid., 1902, vol. xcix. p. 942.

DOTTEREL 339

a whistle. Another note he renders " diit, diit, diit, diit" from which
note the bird is known as diitchen. A dotterel that was put off its
nest by Gloger uttered a soft pleasant sounding trill, " sisihririri." l

Gloger found the dotterel nesting on barren mountain-tops 4000
feet high, on the borders of South Germany between Bohemia and
Silesia, but there it has now become very rare.2 Its nesting range
extends from North Britain across Northern Europe and Asia to the
Pacific. It has been found as far north as Novaya Zemlya, and at
74° N. lat. in the Taimyr Peninsula. It winters in large numbers in
Palestine and North Africa, but apparently not much farther south.
(For details see " Classified Notes.")

The autumn migration of old and young birds generally takes
place in September, but they have not been so regularly observed at
this time on the chalk-wolds as in the spring. They probably keep
more to the coast-line. The autumn passage is generally well over by
the end of October, but there is a record of one bird shot out of a
flock of one hundred or more on November 29, 1905, on a tidal estuary
in Donegal.3 The birds were at first mistaken for golden-plover. The
fact of one being shot should leave no doubt as to their identity,
otherwise the lateness of the date, and the fact that the species has
seldom been observed in Ireland, might have allowed a reasonable
doubt as to the correctness of the identification. Large numbers
have been recorded as passing over Heligoland in the end of August
and early in September.4

1 Naumann, Vogel Mitteleiiropas, viii. p. 50. - Ibid.

3 Field, 1905, vol. cvi. p. 995.

4 Yarrell, British Birds, vol. iv. p. 253.

VOL. III. 2 X

340 THE PLOVERS

THE RINGED-PLOVERS
[W. FARREN]

Of the two species of this group of plovers which nest in the
British Isles, one, the common ringed-plover, is resident on our coasts
during the whole year, and is one of the commonest and prettiest of
our shore birds ; while the other, the Kentish-plover, is a summer
migrant, rare and extremely local, nesting chiefly on the pebble
beach at Dungeness in Kent, and more rarely in one or two other
localities in Kent and Sussex,

The ringed-plover is common throughout the year on the coasts
all round the British Isles, diminishing in number somewhat in winter
in the most northern parts. It is resident on suitable coasts in most
parts of the Continent, and is a summer visitor to Greenland and
other Arctic localities. On the other hand, the range of the Kentish-
plover is considerably more southern. The British localities men-
tioned above are, however, not its most northern limit, as it breeds
in South Sweden and Denmark. It is, however, more numerous
farther south, and is resident on the shores of the Mediterranean, in
South-western Europe, North Africa, and the adjacent groups
of islands. It is more partial to the shores of inland lakes and
rivers than is the ringed-plover. In winter both species have been
found as far south as Damara Land in Cape Colony. The Kentish-
plover also frequents many parts of Asia down to India and the
Malay Peninsula. A small race of the ringed-plover occurs in Central
Asia and also Northern Africa, moving down to the Cape in winter.
This small race visits the Norfolk and Kent coasts on the spring
migration, but although it was thought by Howard Saunders to breed
occasionally in the latter county,1 Dr. Ticehurst has never been able
to identify it as doing so.

1 Howard Saunders, Manual of British Birds, p. 539.

THE RINGED-PLOVERS 341

Partial as is the ringed-plover to the seashore, in the breeding
season it resorts in small numbers to certain inland localities, such as
the shores of lakes and the shingle islands in rivers. It also breeds
in fair numbers in the Breck district of Suffolk and Norfolk. Here it
nests on the more flint-covered parts of the warrens, and also on the
sandy fields. It arrives in the Breck district in March, and com-
mences to nest almost at once, eggs being frequently found in the
first week in April, and I have seen the young hatched out on the
23rd of that month. The date of the commencement of egg-laying
may vary in different localities. Probably the inland-breeding birds
start earlier than those on the shore. According to the observations
of Mr. J. Hepburn, egg-laying commences on the North Kent coast in
the first week of May.1 But the same observer found nestlings on the
beach at Dungeness on May 10. The eggs from which these were
hatched must have been laid about the middle of April

I do not think that it is by any means the rule that more than
one brood is reared in a season. I have found young ringed-plovers
hardly able to fly, and with the down still on their heads and backs,
on the Norfolk coast in August and September, but such late broods
are probably due to the first nests having been destroyed. Stevenson
thought that some of the ringed-plovers which arrive from the south
with knots and other Waders at Breydon in mid-May, stay and breed
with us, and account for the late broods.2

The Kentish-plover generally arrives on the Kent coast about the
middle of April, although in mild seasons it occasionally appears at
the end of March. The few weeks prior to the nesting season are
spent in flocks on the sandy shore, with occasional visits to the
marshes.3 In May they resort to the shingle beach for nesting
purposes, laying their eggs in a slight depression, either natural or
formed by themselves. Like all Waders, both species seldom depart
from their normal number of eggs in a clutch. I have found five eggs

1 Zoologist, 1904, p. 169. * Birds of Norfolk, vol. ii. p. 91.

3 Ticehurst, Birds of Kent, p. 425.

342 THE PLOVERS

in a nest of the ringed-plover, and in May 1911 I saw a clutch of four
Kentish-plover's eggs in the marismas of Southern Spain. The last-
named species normally lays three eggs, and — following a general rule
when any of the Limicolce depart from the traditional number of four
eggs — these are less pyriform than the usual type of the family,
seldom showing a sign of constriction towards the small end. They
differ also from those of the ringed-plover in having markings
of a peculiar scrawly type. In this country laying usually com-
mences after the first week in May, but it may be earlier in favourable
seasons. A nest of eggs was found on April 25, 1902, and another
on May 5.1

Both species have been described as occasionally arranging the
eggs with the small end down, embedded in the sand.2 Mr. Jourdain
stated that eggs of the Kentish -plover found abroad, and laid on
sand, were thus placed.3

The nests of both species vary according to the nature of the
ground. I have seen the eggs of the Kentish-plover on Dungeness
beach among pebbles as big or bigger than the eggs, and here the
hollow in which they were laid may have been a natural one, or some
of the stones may have been displaced by the bird. Other nests,
among smaller shingle where much fine wiry grass was growing, were
undoubtedly hollows formed by the bird. Some contained a few
pieces of dead grass by way of lining. The latter, according to
Mr. Dombrain, is the most usual situation. He states also that the
first egg is laid on the shingle, and the nest is formed as the clutch
is completed, and when incubation is in progress. He also found eggs
laid on a heap of seaweed.4 Mr. Hepburn found a nest " thickly lined
with short, broken pieces of rotten twigs and sticks." 5 Baron von
Droste Hiilshoff found the Kentish-plover common in the Island of
Borkum. The nests were on thickly overgrown dunes, as well as on
bare ground. They were often placed in the middle of a bunch of

1 Field, 1902, vol. xcix. p. 678; also Howard Saunders, Manual of British Birds, p. 544.

2 Field, 1903, vol. cii. p. 227. 3 Ibid., p. 405.

* Zoologist, 1880, pp. 138, 139. 6 Ibid., 1903, p. 217.

THE RINGED-PLOVERS 343

wild oats or amidst willow shoots, and lined with a few bents or fine
roots. Some of the nests were not more than ten paces apart. The
pairs live in amity, and join in crying when disturbed.1 In the
marismas of Southern Spain, where the Kentish-plover is common,
the eggs are laid in a very slight hollow on the mud, which may be
soft on the edge of the flooded parts, or hard and sunbaked.

The nest of the ringed-plover is a better defined hollow, and
varies considerably in the nature and quantity of the lining. Most
frequently this consists of small stones and broken shells. But almost
any convenient material may be utilised, pieces of driftwood, a little
dry grass or other vegetable matter, and occasionally rabbit droppings. a
Colonel H. W. Feilden found four nests at Wells in Norfolk, each
substantially made of the green leaves and stems of Atriplex litoralis.
These nests were on mud in the salt-marsh ; others, not a quarter of a
mile away, on the sand and shingle, were lined with stones and shells
in the more usual way.3 A very interesting nest was described by
Dr. Kelso in the Zoologist. It was found on May 26, 1900, in a field,
and was like a miniature lapwing's nest, very substantially built with
dry bents. It contained three eggs, which were taken, as the field was
about to be harrowed. On June 14th an exactly similar nest was
found a short distance from the site of the first, on a piece of rough
grass, evidently the work of the same pair of birds. A reproduction
of a photograph of this nest accompanied the description, and shows
the nest to have been a remarkable structure for the species.4 Out
of nineteen nests found by Mr. J. Hepburn in Kent, one was at the
base of a river wall "separated by about one hundred yards of salt-
marsh from the beach, the nest-hollow being quite thickly lined with
the leaves of the sea-heath growing on the saltings." Another was
"by the side of a road made up of cinders and household refuse,
running across one of the saltings." This nest " was paved entirely
with small pieces of earthenware, evidently picked off the track." The

1 Votjelw. Bork,, pp. 154, 157. * Zoologist, 1891, p. 44.

3 Ibid., 1889, p. 263. * Ibid., 1902, p. 28.

344 THE PLOVERS

remaining nests were normal beach nests, except that five of them
were " under the shelter of little bushes of sea-heath — which grows
on the beach in small clumps to the height of about twelve inches —
the nest-hollow being so much under the edge of the bush as to be
partially concealed by its stems." l

A photograph by Dr. Heatherley of a nest similarly placed on the
beach at Wells was reproduced in the Zoologist, 1904, p. 365. Dr.
Kelso has found nests hidden among coarse shore grass, and also in
fields of sprouting wheat, peas, etc. Before the eggs in these nests
have hatched, they have become hidden by the growth of the
crops.2

The nest cavity is frequently formed so that a large stone or shell
comes on the edge. By far the commonest form of nest has a lining
or paving of small stones of uniform size. In the Breck district of
Norfolk and Suffolk I have never seen a nest without this form of
lining. Here the cavity must always be made in sandy soil, for
although in most parts there are many flints both on the surface and
mixed with the soil, there is nothing like the shingle of the seashore.
These nests on the warrens of the Breck are far easier to see if with-
out eggs. The formal saucer-shaped depression, with its neat paving
of small stones, is quite conspicuous, even at a distance ; but the four
eggs, arranged with their small ends towards the centre, just fit the
hollow, and their irregular dark markings on light stone ground-colour,
break up the formality of outline, and cause them to assimilate in a
remarkable degree with their surroundings. The ringed-plover forms
several " false nests " or additional scrapes, and these, although unlined,
are also more conspicuous than nests with eggs. I have found this
habit common in the Breck district, and other observers have
recorded it for the shore.3

It has been suggested by Dr. Kelso 4 that the ringed-plover is in
a transitional stage with regard to nest-building. The transition is

1 Zoologist, 1904, pp. 172-3. - Ibid., 1904, p. 265.

3 Ibid., 1889, p. 263, etc. " Ibid., 1903, p. 193.

THE RINGED-PLOVERS 345

presumably indicated by the fact that a certain proportion of the birds
line their nests with vegetable material. But this habit of using
material other than the small stones and shells usually found in shore
nests is almost entirely dependent on the nature of the ground and
surroundings. It would probably be more correct to say that the
variation indicates the lines along which the evolution of nest-building
has taken place, and also some of the conditions governing the
development. The normal shore nest of the ringed-plover, and other
shore-nesting birds such as Terns, may be presumed to approach most
nearly to the primitive type. In such birds, abandonment of sand or
shingle for ground more liable to dampness and cold, is generally
accompanied by a marked tendency to more elaborate and substantial
nest-building. There is no real evidence to indicate that the ringed-
plover is more prone nowadays than formerly to nesting away from
the shore, and unless such evidence can be produced, or that a
change is taking place in nest-building, irrespective of habitat, it
is premature to speak of the ringed-plover in this respect as in a
transitional state.

These small plovers have at all times a very graceful flight. In
the spring at pairing time it is particularly so. Ringed-plovers may
be seen in pairs skimming low over the ground, circling to a fair
height, and descending again like a flash, almost touching the ground
as they do so. They do not follow each other, but each describes
similar evolutions, overlapping and crossing the others line of flight.
Their long, pointed wings, showing much white, give a fictitious
impression of size ; and as they alight on the ground after skimming
a short distance with curved drooping wings, they seem suddenly to
vanish from sight as they touch ground, for the white in the plumage
is hidden by the closed wings ; in place of the long-winged graceful
flyer, is a little plump-shaped grey bird, very difficult to see as it runs
with short quick steps over the sand.

The ringed-plover1 has a very pretty way of raising its wings

1 This action is, however, not peculiar to the one species.

346 THE PLOVERS

straight up, and holding them so for a second or two ; an action
that may take place while it stands or just as it alights. Each pair of
birds is nearly sure to make its nest on the ground beneath where it
is seen taking the circling flights ; in fact, the birds would appear to
choose the spot first, and then spend the time prior to egg-laying in
their aerial play.

Mr. Selous describes a formal courting action on the ground, in
which the male approached the female with head and neck drawn up
above the usual height. He advanced a few steps at a time, and in
the pauses he moved his legs in a rapid vibratory manner, quivering
with excitement as he did so.1 This movement of the legs — a sort of
rapid " marking time " — characterises the courting actions of other
Waders ; for instance, the redshank.

According to Naumann, where several pairs of ringed-plovers
nest together the males fight " like common fowls." 2 This statement
is supported by notes sent to Dr. Heatherley by Cringle, the bird-
watcher at Wells in Norfolk, who says : " Pairing begins early in April,
when the males can be seen fighting for the possession of the females.
They fight very fiercely, rushing at each other with their beaks down
and feathers bristling up. Sometimes four or five birds will be mixed
up in one fight." 3 The fighting is not limited to the pairing time, for
Dr. Heatherley observed that where the nests were fairly thick on the
beach at Wells, and the simultaneous hatching out of a number of
clutches produced a sudden increase in the number of chicks on the
sand, there was constant fighting on the part of the adults to maintain
" spheres of influence." " In fighting, the old birds lowered their
heads and raised the feathers of their backs." There were occasional
melees in which four birds took part. Two birds had their beaks
interlocked, " and one was banging the other down on the sand." 4

The Kentish-plover, in the nesting season, is described by the
Rev. H. H. Slater as performing aerial evolutions similar to those of

1 Bird Watching, p. 22. * Vogel Mitteleuropns, viii. p. 64.

3 Zoologist, 1908, p. 369. * Ibid., 1908, p. 366.

THE RINGED-PLOVERS 347

a drumming snipe, accompanied by a sound which is undoubtedly
vocal.1 A similar description is given by Baron von Droste Hiilshoff,
who says : "It flies in a peculiar bat-like wavering manner, the
wings fully extended, the body thrown now on the one and now
on the other side, and it almost describes a circle in its flight,
uttering as it flies a peculiar note, which resembles the syllables
' frit, tritritritrirrr.' " 2

Both sexes share in the incubation of the eggs, although it has
been stated that the male alone of the Kentish-plover undertakes the
task of incubation.3 The statement, however, is refuted by pictorial
evidence as well as by observation. I have photographed a female
standing on the edge of her nest, and in Dr. Ticehurst's Birds of Kent
the frontispiece is a very pretty photograph, showing a female on the
nest and a male sitting by her side. Moreover, it is stated by Baron
von Droste Hiilshoff that the male utters an alarm-note — " fluit " —at
which the female creeps from the nest, runs for some distance, and
then flies circling round, calling "pit-pit."

Of the ringed-plover Dr. Heatherley states that " they seem to
relieve one another at sitting every half-hour."4 I have obtained
photographs of male and female sitting. On one occasion the male
was photographed, and left the nest when the exposure was made ;
within a quarter of an hour the female came on to the nest, and I
secured a photograph of her. The difference in plumage, especially
the extent of black on the head and neck, was very pronounced in
these two birds, and shows very clearly in the photographs.

When a ringed-plover is put off' its eggs, it runs for some distance
before taking flight. If the nest is on the seashore it is generally on
a ridge a little above high-water mark, and the bird runs from the
nest, with lowered head, down to the edge of the water, where it is
joined by its mate, and the two run to and fro, frequently giving
utterance to a low plaintive whistle. Mr. Boraston says that when an

1 British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 74. 2 Vogehv. Bork., pp. 184-7.

3 Zoologist, 1896, p. 412. « Zoologist, 1908, p. 365.

VOL. III. 2Y

348 THE PLOVERS

intruder approaches the nest, the female is warned by the double-
noted alarm-call of the male — " tuli-tuli" l The mate of a sitting-bird
is generally near at hand, but I do not think a warning-note is really
necessary, at any rate one is not always given.

From my own observations, I think that it very probably depends
upon which bird is sitting. If the female is sitting, the male gives an
alarm, but if the male is sitting, the female is less likely to stand on
guard and sound a warning cry. It has been stated of the Kentish-
plover that it " seldom makes any demonstration in the way of a call-
note ; it creeps away through the dry beach grass, which it resembles
so closely in colour." The species may certainly be described as
quieter than the ringed-plover, but I have heard them uttering their
alarm-notes very soon after leaving the nest ; and Mr. Dombrain states
that " if put off eggs, the bird retires a short distance, utters a plain-
tive whistle, runs a few yards, then rises on wing for a very short
spell, and drops and runs again." 3

Both species are very cautious when returning to the nest. They
approach in a series of short runs and halts, and at each halt give a
quaint little bob of the head. Often when one appears to be about to
go on to the nest it will run straight past it, and then work back
again. The ringed-plover, if there is any cause for alarm — such as a
hidden camera near the nest — frequently gives sharp utterance to the
alarm-note "tuli" or, as better expressed by Naumann, "tuln or "trtil."
A ringed-plover when put off its nest will often, after running a short
distance, give a sharp call, fly up and circle around its disturber, and
then alight on the ground again. It will now be joined by its mate,
and the two birds, always keeping a direction away from the nest,
will run to and fro, sometimes venturing quite close to the intruder,
and then running off very quickly in an opposite direction — frequently
uttering their short sweet call — apparently endeavouring to deceive
as to the locality of the nest.

1 Birds by Land and Sea, p. 184.

2 Zoologist, 1896, p. 412. 3 Ibid., 1880, p. 138.

THE RINGED-PLOVERS 349

When the young are hatched there is no question about the
attempts of both species to lure away an intruder. Their method of
procedure is similar. The adult gives a warning-note, and the young
birds crouch close on the ground. The behaviour of the old birds
depends now on how near the enemy approaches their crouching
chicks. If not too near they content themselves by running swiftly
about, often uttering a shrill whistle. Occasionally one will fly up
and around, and then alighting a few yards from one's feet, run off in
a direction opposite to where the chicks are crouching. If, however,
one goes near the nest or handles the young birds, the anxiety of the
parents becomes frantic. Flying close up, they will throw themselves
breast forwards on to the ground, and with spread tail, and wings
turned so as to show a great deal of white, they will shuffle along,
uttering the while a pitiful squeaking cry. The female is, as a rule,
more demonstrative than the male. The zeal with which the ruse is
performed varies with the individual and the circumstances. I have
seen a female ringed-plover shuffle along the ground — a confused
bundle of white feathers — in a straight line for about fifty yards. If
one remains with the chicks, the bird may stop and flutter about on
the ground. If one follows her, she is more likely to fly up whistling,
circle round, and alight a little distance away.

Whilst occupied in photographing some ringed-plovers, I once
witnessed a very pretty episode which had the impress of concerted
action. The nest contained one egg and one chick just out of the
shell ; another chick that had been hatched two or three hours was
crouching on the ground about a foot from the nest. (PL LI., Fig. 3.)
The old birds showed much concern while I was making my arrange-
ments, running about, with much whistling, shuffling along the ground,
and evidently doing all they could to lure me away. Directly I was
out of sight in my hiding-tent, they flew up and settled a few yards
from the nest. One gave a call, and immediately the chick that was
out of the nest got up and ran towards them. They led it away
rapidly, and after waiting some time expecting — in vain — that one of

350 THE PLOVERS

them would return to the nest, I crept out to fetch back the truant.
When I showed myself, the old birds flew off with a warning cry,
and search as I would I could not find the chick.

I hid myself again, arranging the tent so that I could see farther
afield. The ringed-plovers soon returned to the spot where their
chick was hiding, and I saw it run towards its parents, who proceeded
to conduct it farther away. Keeping a close eye on it, I suddenly
showed myself, saw the chick drop flat, and having marked the spot,
easily found it. It had moved more than a hundred yards from the
nest. I took it with me into the tent and put it into a safe place. As
the remaining youngster was apparently too weak to leave the nest,
the old birds now approached readily enough. And now occurred
what looked like concerted action, for, while the male ran to the nest
and brooded the egg and chick, the female came behind the tent,
and shuffled about on the ground, squeaking and flapping a wing, as
though intent on attracting attention to herself, while by arrangement
her mate attended to the family.

I had a similar experience with a pair of Kentish-plovers, only in
this case I was fifty feet away, buried in the shingle. The camera was
placed some eight feet from the nest, and I operated the shutter by
means of a long pneumatic release. The nest contained two eggs and
a recently hatched chick. (PL LII., Fig. 1.) The two little plovers
commenced by running round the nest in large circles, passing me
at first within a few feet, then gradually closing in until but a few
yards from the nest. At last the male ran on to the nest and com-
menced to brood, while the female behind the camera shuffled about
on the shingle in an apparently helpless condition.

The Kentish-plover has also been described as flying close
around the head of an intruder, giving at each stroke of the wings a
sharp whistle, and then dropping as if shot, following this with the
inj ury-feigning demonstration. l

It would be rash to describe the ringed-plover as more given to

1 Zoologist, 1908, p. 369.

\

.% ;

-. • •

....-.•

THE RINGED-PLOVERS 351

feigning injury than any other Wader. The frequency with which its
performances have been observed and recorded is doubtless due to
the fact that it is a common and well-known species.1 Its demonstra-
tions are plainly for the purpose of diverting attention from the eggs
or young, and have, at least, the appearance of being the result of
thought and reason. Mr. O. V. Aplin, after describing in vivid terms
such a demonstration by some ringed-plovers, says : " Surely there is
reasoning power and thinking intelligence here." If the birds are
really feigning a broken wing, then I see no other explanation but to
attribute to them reasoning power of a high order. But this would
necessitate experience of broken wings and a histrionic ability on the
part of the birds that it would be nothing short of absurd to attribute
to them. I do not deny a consciousness of the efficacy of the act, but
the "broken wing" exists only in the imagination — quite excusably — of
those who have described it as such. I have witnessed various forms
of the habit displayed by different species of ground-nesting birds,
and a critical examination has always failed to detect anything that
could really be regarded as an actual simulation of a broken wing.
The birds appear very helpless, tails are spread, and wings trailed
along and flapped, but not as when broken. I can admit a conscious-
ness of deceiving, a pretence of helplessness, but not a knowledge of
the movements of a broken wing and the art of imitating it.

I prefer to regard all demonstrations of this kind as instinctive,
and as with such instincts there generally exist some imperfect cases,
provided by certain species, in which the instinct is in process of
development — it is to such species we should turn to learn something
of its origin. What I believe to be the true explanation was first
made by Mr. Edmund Selous, and was suggested to him by the
behaviour of a snipe — a species in which the habit is but very slightly
developed, and therefore a suitable one for investigation. Mr. Selous
put a snipe off its nest suddenly ; it flew up, and then dropped into
the grass near the nest, " spun round over it, now here, now there, its

1 Zoologist, 1908, p. 369; Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 217; Zoologist, 1910, p. 100, etc.

352 THE PLOVERS

long bill lying along the ground, as though it were the pivot on which
it turned, and uttering loud cries all the while. Having done this for
a minute or so, it lay, or rather crouched, quite still on the ground,
its head and beak lying along it, its neck outstretched, its legs bent
under it, with the body rising gradually, till the posterior part, with
the tail, which it kept fanned out, was right in the air." l The bird
remained thus for some minutes, and then collected itself and flew
off. Mr. Selous saw in the nervous inability of this snipe to take
instant flight — and, I think correctly — the origin of the habit under
consideration. On two occasions I have had the opportunity of
observing similar behaviour by snipe, and under conditions provid-
ing evidence — as I hope to prove presently — that in the case of a
species in which the instinct may be said to be in an incipient stage,
those individuals which act in the way described by Mr. Selous are of
an unusually nervous temperament. I may say that I have very
often seen snipe leave their nests, and that the two occasions referred
to did not represent more than one per cent. I have also watched
and photographed several different snipe on their nests, and have
always, with the exception of the two birds mentioned above, found
them come readily to the nest, and easy to photograph. But these
two were so nervous that they ventured to return to their nests only
at very long intervals, and then they jumped so suddenly at the sound
of the shutter, that except when a very short exposure was given, the
photographs were spoiled. I mention this to show that in these birds
an unusually nervous disposition accompanied a tendency to display
when put off their nests. If further observation could be made on
other species which have not developed this habit, it seems very
probable that the evidence would provide grounds for regarding
the device as an evolutionary outcome of physical disability,
arising from protracted periods of incubating. A bird at such a
time, suddenly frightened from the nest, and for a brief period incap-
able of ordinary flight, might by a frenzied fluttering through the

1 Bird Watching, p. 60.

THE RINGED-PLOVERS 353

herbage or over the ground save its eggs by diverting attention
to itself.

The inability of the individual to take instant flight, and its
efforts to overcome the same, have, by diverting the attention of the
enemy from the nest, proved a benefit to the species, and become, by
natural selection, an instinctive act having various forms. When a
pratincole observes an intruder on its nesting-ground, it will prostrate
itself on the ground with both wings extended and its head thrown
back in a supplicating manner — even when not very near its nest.
If we ascribe conscious feigning of a broken wing to the ringed-plover,
we might equally well describe the pratincole as entreating the
intruder to come no further. It is injudicious to judge the actions of
birds by human standards, but, as Mr. Selous argues, " May we not
think that an act which in its origin has been of a nervous and, as it
were, pathological character, has become, in time, blended with
intelligence, and that natural selection has not only picked out those
birds who best performed a mechanical action — which, though it
sprang merely from mental disturbance, was yet of a beneficial
nature — but also those whose intelligence began, after a time, to
enable them to see whereto such action tended, and thus consciously
to guide and improve it ? " l

The young are protected not only by the ruses of their parents,
but by their own protective coloration. The young in down of both
species are most difficult to see, whether on sand or shingle. They
crouch almost as flat on the ground as does the stone-curlew, but
show less dependence on the instinct than that species. They do not
persist in crouching when handled, but will run off, the brood
scattering in different directions. They run very quickly, holding out
their little wings to help to balance themselves, but they often fall
over stones or depressions in the ground, pick themselves up, and
struggle on again in a very comical manner.

Flocking commences directly the young can fly. The inland-

1 Bird Watching, p. 63.

354 THE PLOVERS

breeding ringed-plovers then betake themselves to the coast, seldom
being seen in their nesting-quarters after mid- August. At first they
may be seen in small parties, but as the autumn advances the more
northern breeding birds appear, and they gather together into much
larger flocks. They mingle freely with flocks of other Waders, such as
dunlin, sanderling, and turnstone, more especially when feeding ;
when in flight they usually keep to themselves. The Kentish-plover
is said never to mix with the dunlin flocks except when numbers of
ringed-plovers are also amongst them, arid to exhibit none of the rest-
lessness and timidity so marked in these other two species. " It will
sit dozingly for a long period on a spot where the beach has silted up,
and there wait for the tide to reveal new-born things." : Both ringed
and Kentish-plovers are less active in the middle of the day, especially
when the weather is warm. They become very active in the evening,
and often at night, unless very dark, when they are seldom heard.
The Kentish-plover is exceedingly rapid in its movements. Naumann
describes it as the quickest runner and flier of its congeners.2
It departs in September, by the end of which month, Dr. Ticehurst
states, most have left ; and he adds, " The latest observation that I
have is of three birds seen on the sands at Littlestone on October 10th,
1907." 3

Throughout the winter the ringed-plover may be seen on the
shore feeding with other small Waders at low water. They are very
partial to the mud-banks at the mouths of large rivers, and also find
much food in the form of sand-hoppers and larvae of flies among sea-
weed and other refuse at high-tide mark. They are exceedingly
active and noisy when feeding, running very rapidly, and stopping
abruptly to pick up some small object, repeating these little runs and
halts something after the manner of a thrush.

In flight the flocks are very beautiful to watch, performing evolu-
tions in which all move together in wonderful unity, the alternate

1 Zoologist, 1896, p. 412. 2 Vogel Mitteleuropas, viii. p. 64.

3 Birds of Kent, p. 425.

THE RINGED-PLOVERS 355

flashes of white and grey, as they present first their upper then their
under surfaces to view, being most effective. When a flock is scared
from its feeding-ground at the edge of the tide, the birds generally fly
out to sea in a body, for a short distance, and return often close to the
spot where disturbed.1 In alighting they often swing round in part
of a circle, skim lightly over the sand with outstretched wings, and
the next instant are running rapidly about in search of food. The
flocks are said to frequent one place all the winter if not shot at.2

The notes of these plovers may be described as for the most part
short, melodious, flute-like, whistling cries. They have been variously
expressed by different authors, but the German of Naumann conveys
the best idea of the sound. The English " u " in " tidi " — the usual
rendering of the alarm-note of the ringed-plover, is misleading ;
" tooli " expresses it more nearly, but Naumann's " till " or " trull " is
far better. The same author gives us other variants of the whistle at
ordinary times — " triii " or " trii" The pairing note of the male he
describes as this note repeated quickly, with an " I " occurring occa-
sionally; "trui-trui, truil-trtiil," the time long at first, and then
gradually quickening: he likens it, aptly enough, to the "jodel."
Naumann believes that the female utters this note as well as the
male. It is heard most in morning and evening.3 Besides " tuli,"
other English renderings are " chu-e-chu-e,* and " pen-y-et " as the
alarm-note when the birds have young.5

The notes of the Kentish-plover are less shrill than those of the
ringed-plover, and generally consist of one syllable, a flute-like "piu "
or "pili" which, as Naumann states, is not repeated quickly, but at
fairly long intervals. It also adds a soft "pit-pit" The alarm-note is
" tior-tior" The pairing-song is expressed by Naumann as " putt-putt
pit-pit-pit" followed by a quick trill.6 This is quite distinct from any
note of the ringed-plover. Baron von Droste Hiilshoff expresses the

1 Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 217. * Zoologist, 1908, p. 369.

3 Vb'gel Mitteleuropas, viii. p. 64. 4 Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 217.

6 Stevenson, Birds of Norfolk, vol. ii. p. 92.

8 Vogel Mitteleuropas, viii. p. 56.

VOL. III. 2Z

356 THE PLOYERS

pairing-song " trit tritritritrirrr"1 The beauty of the system of
expressing bird-notes in words is that, if you are familiar with the
note, almost any formula will serve to recall it. If you are not
familiar with the note, no formula will convey an idea of the real
thing.

The Kentish-plover has been described — by one who knew it
well — as a noisy little bird. " They course over the beach all day long
uttering their whistling cries. Even the skylarks have caught their
plaintive notes, and they produce them amongst their own with
startling exactitude," 2

GOLDEN AND GBEY-PLOVERS
[W. FARREN]

These two handsome plovers have much in common. Their
plumage is similarly ornamented with dark mottlings— one on a gold,
the other on a silver ground. In the breeding season both don a
deep black throat and breast ; in general habit they are very similar,
but the apparently insignificant difference of a diminutive hind-toe
which is present in the grey, but not in the golden-plover, is con-
sidered sufficient reason for placing the two in different genera.

In spite of the superior size and the bolder barrings on the back
of the grey-plover, and the silvery whiteness of the lighter parts of its
upper surface, compared with the yellow of the golden-plover, there is
a time when some difficulty may be experienced in distinguishing
between them in the field. This is in the autumn, when the young
birds of the two species have not acquired that amount of colour
contrast that distinguishes them in after life. The yellow on the back
of the golden-plover at this stage is less clear, and the white of the
grey-plover is tinged with yellow. A small hind-toe, sufficient to form

1 Vogelw. Bork., pp. 154-7. » Zoologist, 1896, p. 412.

GOLDEN AND GREY-PLOVERS 357

a generic character, is no help in identification in the field, but the
difference in colour of the axillary plumes, which are black in the
grey and white in the golden-plover, forms a useful guide as to their
identity when flying.

The golden is the more familiar bird. It breeds on many wild
moorlands in the western half and in the north of England, also in
Wales and Ireland, and throughout Scotland and its islands. In
winter it may be seen in large flocks on the seashore, the marshes,
moorlands, and cultivated fields. The grey-plover is but a bird of
passage in spring and autumn, and a fairly numerous winter visitor,
frequenting the sea-coast and adjoining marshes. Its nesting-
quarters lie in the far north. So far as is known, it does not breed
west of the island of Kolguev and the Petchora river. Here it nests
in fair numbers, and also by the Yenisei and on the tundras of
arctic Asia, especially on the Taimyr Peninsula. Its range is
continued across the barren lands north of the Arctic Circle, in
America, to Greenland, where, however, it appears to be rare. In
winter it does not wander so far south in the New World as in the Old ;
it has hardly been recorded below Brazil. In the Old World it ranges
from Africa to Australia. On migration it passes down Scandinavia
and Great Britain, and along various routes in the large river valleys
of Central Europe and Asia.

Like all birds that nest in the far north, it is in no hurry to make
the spring passage, timing itself to arrive at its nesting grounds with
the breaking up of the long Arctic winter. The birds which have
passed the winter with us begin to work north towards the end of
April, but it is doubtful if any leave the country until the great north-
ward-bound flocks from southern wintering-places pass along our
coasts late in May, when the birds have already acquired their black
breasts, and their golden cousins have already hatched out many a
brood of downy chicks. I have seen immense flocks of grey-plover
resting and feeding on the steaming marismas of Southern Spain in
the third week of May. A few days before they were, may be, south

358 THE PLOVERS

of the equator on the African coasts, and a few hence and they will
be north of the Arctic Circle. There the nesting season is short and
sharp, and before August is far advanced their young families will be
taking that first journey southwards, unguided — if the migration
investigations have fully penetrated their mysteries — by any birds that
have made the journey before.

The golden-plover breeds commonly in the Faeroes and also in
Iceland, throughout Scandinavia, North Russia, and North Germany.
It may breed in East Greenland, as a bird in breeding plumage was
shot there in 1871. l In the Arctic, its breeding range appears to lie
to the west of that of the grey-plover. The two species overlap a
little, as Harvie-Brown and Seebohm found the golden-plover nesting
on the tundras by the Petchora,2 and Seebohm found it near the
mouth of the Yenisei, but here the eastern golden-plover (Charadrius
dominicus fulvus) is far more numerous, and takes the place of our
bird in Asia and Alaska. In its turn this is replaced in America
by a closely allied race (C. dominicus dominicus). Odd specimens
of these two races of the smaller species have found their way
to Great Britain. In winter the golden - plover visits Central
and Southern Europe and France, and also the northern part of
Africa.

As early as February golden-plovers begin to take to the moors,
going direct to their old nesting-places — which may be on heather-
covered moorlands, grassy hillsides, or in marshy places but little
above sea-level — and early in March most of our resident birds have
settled down in pairs. As there is a general southward movement in
winter, it follows that the breeding birds almost invariably approach
their nesting-places from the south, some from overseas, but many
from our own southern counties. As late as May there are still flocks
of golden-plovers, especially in the northern half of our islands. These
are birds that nest in the far north, and whose nesting season is there-
fore much later. Many a pair of British birds have eggs, and even

1 Yarrell, British Birds, iii. 276. 2 Ibis, 1876, p. 222.

GOLDEN AND GREY-PLOYERS 359

young, before the last of these lingering flocks are away to their
northern nesting-quarters.

Of the courting habits of these species but little has been re-
corded. As with many other shy birds which nest far from the haunts
of man, such habits are difficult of observation, and, as a rule, visits to
their nesting-places are not made until the season is too far advanced
to learn much of their ways during the interesting period preceding
egg-laying. The males of both species indulge in what appears to be
a nuptial flight and love-song. The golden-plover floats around in
circles high up above the nesting-place, occasionally describing a
graceful vol-plane to the ground, frequently uttering a warbling song.
This song has been described by Mr. Abel Chapman as " a peculiar
rippling song or warble, a joyous note of courtship."1 Naumann
renders it " taludl-taludl-taludl-toLudl" and states that it is sometimes
uttered on the ground, but not often.2 The song of the grey-plover is
less ambitious, and it may be wrong to call it a nuptial song at all. It
is certainly associated with the nesting time, and is peculiar to the
male. It is described by Harvie-Brown and Seebohm as a treble
whistle. The males associate in small parties of three or four whilst
the females are sitting ; they rise to a great height and dash about in
erratic curves, or dive down impetuously, and rapidly rise again;
" they then remain almost stationary like a Temminck's stint, raising
their wings over the back until they nearly meet, and finally flying
with long tern-like sweeps of their wings, utter their musical
treble note." The whole proceeding is probably analogous to the
piping parties of the oystercatcher — to be described in a later
chapter — and somewhat similar displays in other species, in which
several birds associate together, and perform actions similar to those
peculiar to courtship, at a time when courtship should be a thing of
the past.

The golden-plover is shy of its own kind, the nests generally being

1 Bird-life of the Borders, p. 28. * Vogel Mitteleuropas, viii. p. 26.

3 Ibis, 1876, p. 222.

360 THE PLOVERS

a good distance apart, although often not far from those of the curlew
or lapwing. The nest is a scraped hollow, either in a tussock of grass,
among heather, or on a bare place. It is lined with a few pieces of
dead grass, moss, or any convenient material. The amount of lining
depends on the situation ; in some nests there is so much as to consti-
tute a well-constructed nest. Like other Waders that breed also on
the fells and tundras of the north, it makes use in those localities of
the reindeer-lichen.

The nest of the grey-plover is described as a deeper cup than
that of the golden ; the lining sometimes consists of a few broken
twigs and leaves from the surrounding plants, or more usually broken
grass and reindeer-lichen, but in such small quantities that it can
hardly be regarded as extraneous lining, but simply that which was
on the spot when the hollow was formed. Harvie-Brown and See-
bohm found the grey-plover nesting on the higher and drier ridges in
very boggy ground, while the golden-plover preferred the higher
tundras.1 In general nesting-habits the two species are very similar,
the golden being, as a rule, shyer at the nest, but even this depends
on circumstances.

On the average the eggs of the grey-plover are decidedly larger
than those of the lapwing and slightly bigger than those of the golden-
plover, but in shape and character they resemble them, though as a
rule the ground-colour tends to rather a colder shade than is usual
with the golden-plover, the rather small spots and blotches of deep
black being placed upon a stone-coloured or olivaceous buff ground.
Average size of 12 eggs, 2'04 x T45 in. [52 x 37 mm.].2

While it is quite certain that the male assists in incubation, it is
not by any means easy to say to what extent. Dr. Heatherley, who
watched at a golden-plover's nest in Wales, on and off for several
hours a day, from May 12th to June 3rd, never once saw the male ;
he presumed that the bird he did see was the female. She came
readily to the nest whilst he was concealed in a hiding-tent a few

1 Ibis, 1876, p. 222. * F. C. B. Jourdain (in litt.).

GOLDEN AND GREY-PLOVERS 361

yards distant, uttering occasionally the single note " tu " or " tui," both
on her way to the nest and whilst sitting. He heard afterwards from a
keeper that when the young were hatched out, on June 4th, the male
appeared, and assisted the female in looking after the brood. The
male was easy to distinguish, having much more black on the breast
and throat.

On the other hand, four birds shot from the nest by the Rev. H.
H. Slater all proved on dissection to be males.1 Seebohm also
records shooting a male from eggs,2 and in the fourth edition of
Yarrell it is stated that " Mr. R. Collett shot one — a male — from four
eggs on 14th June 1872 in the valley of the Maalselv, in Norway, the
female not being observed." 3 Of the grey-plover one bird shot from
the nest in Kolguev was a male,4 but Mr. Trevor-Battye never found
the male brooding.5 Harvie-Brown and Seebohm shot several females
from the nest, but at the first nest they found the bird — shot as it
was apparently coming to the nest — was a male.6

The relative behaviour of males and females of both species alter
as the season advances. When the eggs are first laid, the male
stands, silent for the most part— on an eminence at some distance
from the nest, while the female is anxious and restless, running
backwards and forwards near the nest uttering an alarm-note. As
incubation progresses the anxiety of the male increases. He warns his
sitting mate of the slightest danger, and flies up noisily calling, whilst
the female profits by the diversion thus caused to slip from the nest
and run stealthily away. She then flies up and joins the male, and the
two fly round the head of the intruder, with constant repetition of
their plaintive notes. Occasionally they will alight on the ground, run
rapidly to and fro, stopping at intervals and standing very upright,
and gaze anxiously at the disturber of their peace. They have a
funny way of running sideways, even backwards, in order to keep an

1 Slater, British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 77.

1 Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 38. 3 Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 273.

4 Slater, op. cit., v. p. 82. 6 Icebound on Kolguev, p. 432.

6 Ibis, 1876, p. 222.

362 THE PLOYERS

eye on the source of danger. Like lapwings, they will follow an
intruder a long way from the nest — seeing him safely off the ground,
as it were — and then wheeling round fly back to their home.

When the young are hatched the parents are even more solicitous
and noisy, occasionally, when pressed, resorting to the so-called injury-
feigning device.

When disturbed whilst sitting, the golden-plover generally runs
from the nest, warned — as just stated — by an alarm-note from
its mate, who stands on guard on a slight eminence some distance
off. But they do not always behave in the same way. One
may rise straight from the eggs while the intruder is two hundred
yards away, another creeps off and runs stealthily through the
heather, while — but more rarely — a bird may remain on the nest,
and allow itself to be all but trodden on before it goes.1
It very likely depends on the sex of the sitting bird. If it is the
female, the male is pretty sure to be on guard and give an alarm, so
that the female has time to leave the nest stealthily. When the male
is sitting the female is less likely to play sentry, and it is fairly well
proved that the sitting males of other species — for instance, the lap-
wing— nearly always fly straight from the nest. It is a point that
would repay careful observation, but it is fraught with much difficulty,
as there is very little sexual difference in plumage throughout the
group.

Mr. Trevor-Batty e states of the grey-plover that the male is
exceedingly wild and wary. He sits on a raised point a little distance
from the nest, and warns the female of danger by an alarm-note,
when she runs from the nest and joins him. Mr. Trevor-Batty e saw
females " feign lameness," but not males.2 He does not mention the
curious flight of the males — recorded on page 359 — as observed by
Harvie-Brown and Seebohm, who also stated that males as well as
females display in the " injury feigning " habit. In one instance a

1 Seton-Gordon, Birds of Loch and Mountain, p 68 ; and Chapman, Bird-life of the
Borders, p. 30. 2 Icebound on Kolguev, p. 432.

GOLDEN AND GREY-PLOVERS 363

male near a nest suddenly ran across a flat grass-covered bog with
head down and bill open; he then lay down on his breast and
stretched out his wings to their full extent along the ground, remain-
ing so for about half a minute.1

Seebohm describes a curious flight of the grey-plover ; when it
leaves the nest it tosses its wings in the air with an action like that
of a tumbler-pigeon.2 A similar action was observed by Lord Lilford,
who further stated that they actually throw somersaults. This was
noticed particularly in March 1857 in the Gulf of Arta. It is there-
fore not confined to the nesting season.3

Mr. Trevor-Battye says that the grey-plovers attack the Arctic-
skuas with much boldness ; they " actually seem to hit the skuas,
wheeling round them, and then making a point high above, they would
drop down like a stone, literally knocking the skuas out of time." 4

The incubation period of the golden-plover, ascertained by W.
Evans, by eggs hatched in an incubator, as 27 days,5 would no doubt
apply also to naturally hatched eggs. The nest watched by Dr.
Heatherley (ante, p. 360) was found on May 10th with four eggs. These
hatched out on June 4th, 24 days after discovery, at which time it
was thought that the bird had been sitting several days.

The young birds are said to leave the nest as soon as they are
hatched, but this statement — made so generally with regard to all
Waders — needs modification. The young of some species — e.g.
ringed-plovers — certainly seem to leave the nest directly their down
is dry, but many species remain in the nest, unless disturbed, for
periods varying from three or four hours to two or three days. Dr.
Heatherley has known golden-plovers to remain as long as sixty
hours.6 During this time they require no food, as when hatched a
considerable quantity of the yolk-sac is unabsorbed. This refers to
all Waders according to my observation.

The young birds grow quickly, and can fly in four or five weeks

1 Ibis, 1876, p. 222. * Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 52.

3 Dresser, Birds of Europe, vii. p. 461. * Icebound on Kolguev, p. 432.

s Ibis, 1891, pp. 52-93. • Country Life, August 26, 1905.

VOL. III. 3 A

364 THE PLOVERS

after they are born. By the end of July the golden-plovers commence
to flock and move southwards from the moors, resorting to the mud-
flats, salt-marshes, and seashores. Their ranks are added to
continuously as the birds come down from the Highland moors. In
September the great flights from abroad take place.

The order of the autumn migration is the same in both species.
The first to arrive are a few old birds still in breeding plumage ; these
may appear in August, or as early as the end of July. The young
birds follow in the end of August and September, and in October the
rest of the adults, clean-moulted and in full winter plumage, appear.
Mr. Abel Chapman states of the grey-plover that in Northumberland
the main immigration occurs in mid-September, and consists entirely
of young birds. He thinks the adults must take a different route, as
" the few which are obtained come in August, a month before the
young.1 The bulk of the grey-plovers which migrate by way of our
Islands appear to continue their southward passage without a very
prolonged stay. There is considerable fluctuation while migration
lasts, but by November their numbers are reduced to the regular
winter population. They are more numerous on the east than the
west, and are rarer in Ireland than in England. In Ireland the grey-
plover is seen more often in the north and north-west.2 It keeps
more to the coasts than the golden, and is never seen in large flocks.
" Stands " of thirty or forty birds may occasionally be seen, but more
often of eight to twelve. Mr. Abel Chapman describes them as
sociable rather than gregarious. They associate with the flocks of
other Waders — two or three may often be seen with the large flocks
of dunlins, and Professor Patten has seen small parties with turn-
stones, looking for food, after dusk, on the sand.3

The autumn migration of the golden-plover is rather erratic :
vast flocks were seen in August 1880 and September 1881 passing
over Spurn in a northerly direction.4 Later in the year, flocks move

1 Bird-life of the Borders, p. 245. 2 Payne-Gallwey, The Fowler in Ireland, p. 175.

3 Aquatic Birds, p. 233. « Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 274.

GOLDEN AND GREY-PLOVERS 366

north or south according to weather conditions, but the above men-
tioned movements had every indication of being migratory, and unless
the birds had for some reason altered their course, their northward
direction is difficult to explain. In the autumn and early winter large
flocks are occasionally heard at night passing over towns. Stevenson
gives the dates of noticeable flights over Norwich as August 14th and
20th, October 13th and 21st, and November 29th.1 I have heard
them, but not so frequently as other Waders, passing over Cambridge,
generally in August, the cries lasting from one to three or four hours.
This however cannot, I think, be regarded as indicative of the size
of the flocks, as the birds no doubt circle about for some time over
the lights. For the same reason it is difficult to discover the direction
of flight. As a rule they appear to be travelling south-west.

They migrate by day as well as by night ; a flock, described as
consisting of thousands, was seen in the evening of September 18th,
1901, at a great height over Dublin Bay ; they circled many times,
and then flew vertically down to the slob-lands, where they all imme-
diately huddled together, sunk their heads on their shoulders, and
assumed a tired attitude. They were watched for an hour, during
which time they did not move or feed. The next day all were
gone.2

In Ireland the golden-plover is most numerous in the first half of
the winter; it is then far more abundant there than in England or
Scotland. Immense flocks arrive in October, and for a week or two
remain on the coast. They then disperse inland, and are especially
numerous on the boggy land and pastures bordering fresh-water lakes,
and only return to the shore in frosty weather. If severe frost sets
in they vanish southwards, but in open weather they remain until
the middle of December, after which time only small scattered flocks
are seen.3

During the winter, if the weather is mild and open, the golden-

1 Birds of Norfolk, ii. p. 75. * Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 226.

3 Aquatic Birds, p. 226 ; and also Payne-Gallwey, The Fowler in Ireland, p. 182.

366 THE PLOVERS

plover is more often found inland than on the coast, but the flocks
are ever ready to shift on the approach of stormy weather, and a frost
—sufficient to bind the ground — will drive them to the shore, where
they feed at low water on the sands. Professor Patten has repeatedly
seen flocks detach themselves into small parties as the tide rises and
covers their feeding-grounds, and again congregate as the sands are
laid bare.1

Inland they frequent cultivated land and pastures, and are often
especially numerous on the rich grass-lands in the " washes " of the
fens. They may be seen feeding in company with lapwings, and, like
this species — take a siesta in the middle of the day. If approached
when feeding or resting in a field, they at once exhibit a wary restless-
ness, stretching their wings above their backs, running towards each
other, stopping to look anxiously around, running again, until all are
gathered into one fairly dense pack. Whether they rise simultan-
eously, or, as is more often the case, in straggling sections, they soon
mass and wheel off with military precision. Their wings seem almost
to touch, but they move with such uniformity that, however abruptly
the direction of flight may be changed in the amazing evolutions they
perform, there is not the slightest break or sign of disorder. Rising
to a great height, the ranks spread out, forming a large oval cloud of
birds, close in again to a dense dark mass, or stream out into undulat-
ing or Y-shaped line, but all in most perfect order. When about to
alight they sweep to and fro in rhythmical curves, gradually nearing
the ground, and often, as if half changing their minds as to where they
wish to alight, swing round the field, and then come to ground with
almost surprising suddenness. If intent on feeding, they commence
running at once, spreading over the ground in open order, busily
working along with alternating runs and halts, in true plover fashion.
But even plovers cannot always be feeding, and sometimes they may
be seen to remain standing where they pitch, all looking in one direc-
tion for such time as to weary the patience of a watcher, who sees

1 Aquatic Birds, p. 226.

GOLDEN AND GREY-PLOVERS 367

nothing more exciting than a bird here and there lower its head and
slowly lift its wings over its back in a luxurious stretch.

Mr. Chapman says that the golden-plover occasionally utters its
spring love-song in autumn. And in describing the remarkable
evolutions of a flock of some two hundred birds which were seen on
October 31, 1882, chasing each other and repeatedly uttering their
spring notes, says : " Now high up in the clouds, then suddenly darting
down in a hundred curving lines, like falling stars, right to the very
heather, whence they rise again, reuniting into close order in the sky,
when the pack would again shiver into atoms, dashing headlong
downwards in every direction."1

Both species pick the bulk of their food from the surface of the
ground, insects in various stages, small land-shells, worms, and slugs
—nothing in the invertebrate line comes amiss. The golden-plover
likes to vary its diet with occasional berries and the seeds of field-
plants, and no doubt the grey does likewise. Both, when in Arctic
breeding-places, probably find a rich food-supply in the vast hordes of
mosquitoes and their aquatic larvae. In winter both species turn
their attention to the various denizens of the seashore — molluscs,
crustaceans, and sand-worms ; while the grey has been seen seeking
food in the foam on the edge of the water,2 and, wading in, swim after
small fish and shrimps.3 The grey-plover, if all else failed, would
hardly wax fat on the " marine insects " that several authors of note—
Audubon, Dresser, Howard Saunders, and Patten — credit it with eat-
ing. Not this species only, but many Waders, are said — in the standard
works — to subsist partly on " marine insects," although entomologists
so far have failed to discover them. It is difficult to guess what is
intended, probably some small indeterminable forms of marine life
found in the birds' stomachs. If so, it is unscientific and misleading
to ascribe them to something definite, especially something that
does not exist. If the insects that breed in decayed seaweed and

1 Bird-life of the Borders, p. 103.

2 Baron Droste Hiilshoff, quoted by Dresser, Birds of Europe, vii. p. 461.
1 Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 233.

308

THE PLOVERS

other refuse accumulated at high-water mark are intended, then it is
wrong to call them marine, — as much so as to call a sparrow marine
that has built its nest on a pier-roof.

The usual call-note of the golden-plover is a musical double
whistle. It is suitably rendered by Naumann " tlui" or sometimes
trisyllabic "tluei." Other renderings are "del-wee, del-wee'"1 and
kl-ee.2 The alarm-note is shorter ; Dr. Heatherley renders it " tu "
(as in French), also "tin" and " tui" 3 Naumann gives "Hi" and
Seebohm a plaintive " M" 4 The same author describes the spring song
of the male as the call-note uttered so quickly as to become a trill.
It is syllabled by Naumann as " taludl-taludl-taludl-taludl" Mr. Abel
Chapman describes another note uttered in early spring as " tirr-pee-
you" and states that it almost ceases when the eggs are laid.5

Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Seebohm, in their original account of
the nesting habits of the grey-plover, could not agree as to how to
render the various notes, and so wisely limited themselves to a
description. The notes were described as three in number. The call-
note a double whistle, the first part short and the second drawn out ;
the alarm-note a single plaintive whistle, about half a note higher than
that of the golden-plover ; and the breeding-note of the male a treble
whistle — a combination of the call and alarm-notes — the second
syllable having a lower intonation than the first and third. This last
is not so commonly used, and appears to be the call-note of the males
to one another when flying apart from the females, and generally when
flying high.6 Free from the restraining influence of Harvie-Brown,
Seebohm afterwards put these notes into words in his History of
British Birds, as follows : "Kl-ee " or " kleep" " kop " (the " o " in German),
and " kl-ee-kop" respectively.7 The call-note has also been rendered
"Uee-k'h" or " chee-ee," 8 and by Baron Droste Hiilshoff as "ti/j-e-ih?
which he says cannot be mistaken for the " tlili " of the golden-plover.

1 Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 227.

3 Country Life, August 26, 1905, p. 284.

6 Bird-life of the Borders, p. 28.

7 Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 52.

2 Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 37.
4 Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 37.
6 Ibis, 1876, p. 222.
8 Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 233.

GOLDEN AND GREY-PLOVERS 369

They repeat this with long pauses, especially at sunset, when they are
very uneasy, and fly about calling continually late into the night.
Occasionally they repeat the call so quickly that it becomes a " Jodel "
call. When a couple quarrelled they called loudly " tlju, tlju" l

In both of these plovers there is a good deal of individual varia-
tion in the intensity and distribution of the black acquired on the
throat and breast in the breeding season. In two birds of equal age
and vigour the males would probably show the richer development of
black, but it cannot be taken as a guide as to sex in all pairs. The
golden-plovers that nest in the British Isles do not assume so perfect
a spring dress as those that nest in more northern climes. In all of
the photographs taken by Dr. Heatherley (ante, p. 360) the bird appears
to be the same individual. The black area is broken and mottled
with light feathers, and is limited to the throat and breast ; there is
none on the sides of the head, and very little on the lower part of the
neck. The mate of this bird, which appeared after the young were
hatched, was said to be richer in black.2 Mr. Abel Chapman says
the Northumbrian birds always have more or less white mixed in
with the black, giving them a marbled appearance.3 There is also
often a distinct break between the black of the throat and breast.
The rule seems to be, the farther north the richer the development of
black. Even in the Shetlands and in Norway there is a decided
difference. Of the grey-plover Harvie-Brown and Seebohm state that
the males appear to have richer contrast — darker breasts and cleaner
white over the eye — than the females ; but some females are much
darker than others, nearly as dark as some males. They also thought
that males retained the black longer than the females.4 Mr. Trevor-
Battye described the breasts of all males as being equally dark, whilst
the females varied.5

1 Dresser, Birds of Europe, vii. p. 461. * Country Life, August 26, 1905.

3 Bird-life of the Borders, p. 17. « Ibis, 1876, p. 222.

5 Icebound on Kolguev, p. 432.

370 THE PLOVERS

THE LAPWING

[W. FARREN]

The lapwing is the most familiar of all the Waders. It loves
desolate places far from human habitation, but meadows just beyond
the house-line of a large town suit it equally well. It nests on
highland moors and lowland fields, boggy marshland, and dry sandy
fallows, plough fields, meadows, and commons. The only invariable
condition is that the situation must be perfectly open, for the lapwing
at all times is a wary bird, and avoids localities whence it cannot sight
danger from afar.

The species is found from February to June in favoured localities
from one end of the British Isles to the other, and, outside our
boundaries, from the Arctic Circle to the south of Spain and Northern
Africa, and eastward to Japan. It is resident throughout temperate
Europe, moving southwards in winter from the more northern nesting-
grounds.

Of late years its numbers in the nesting season have somewhat
increased in the north of Scotland, but fewer breed than formerly in
many southern localities. This is especially true of East Anglia, where
the draining of the fens so altered the character of the country as to
lose entirely for us, as nesting species, many interesting marsh-birds.
But the lapwing, less specialised in habitat, may still be seen, although
in diminished numbers, sporting over the black land of the rich
cultivated fields that were once a dreary waste of marshland.

Large numbers of the birds are shot or netted for the market in
winter, which, however, has but tittle effect on the vast flocks that
visit us at this time. A far more serious levy on the resident breeding
stock is the indiscriminate taking of their eggs, which still goes on
unrestricted in most districts. Large numbers of the " plovers' eggs "

THE LAPWING 371

sold in London are imported from the Continent, but the high prices
obtainable, especially in the early part of the season, makes "egging"
too profitable for the entertainment of any hope that it may be
entirely abandoned for some time to come in this country. In some
counties the bye-law prohibiting the taking of birds' eggs is extended
to the lapwing, but although well intentioned, this bye-law is but
a dead letter in the absence of special and rigorous steps for
carrying it out.

It is in every way deplorable that the lapwing should so suffer
persecution, for, apart from other considerations, it is one of the
most valuable of birds to the agriculturist. Its food consists almost
entirely of insects, slugs, and other creatures injurious to crops,
and, as is certainly not the case with all birds which do good in
this way, there is no debit side to the account.

The plumage of the lapwing does not undergo a great seasonal
change. In February black feathers begin to appear in the white
of chin and throat, and in March those parts become entirely black
in the majority of individuals. A good many however — even of
breeding birds — show a varying amount of white feathers among the
black, and some show but a slight speckling of black. While in some
pairs of birds I have watched there has been a more perfect
development of the black throat in the male than in the female,
yet I do not think it depends so much on sex as on age. Young
lapwings do not attain the full beauty of the adult plumage until their
third year, and I think if birds with imperfect black throats in the
breeding season could be closely examined they would be found to be
young birds. These can be distinguished from fully adult birds by the
narrow buff edges to the feathers of the back, which are not lost until
after the second winter, and also by the shorter crest. The fully adult
lapwing is an exceedingly handsome bird. The solid bronzy green of
its back, which is iridescent, shows blue and purple in certain lights.
The intense black of the broad band on its breast, contrasted with the
pure white coming next to it below, makes the slight embellishment

VOL. in. SB

372 THE PLOVERS

in the spring of a continuance of the black from the breast band up to
the chin seem trivial and somewhat meaningless. From an aesthetic
point of view it is a distinct enough gain, as it effects a massing of the
lights and darks of the plumage. There is, in addition, an apparently
added brilliancy to the whole plumage, especially of the back ; and the
long curved crest attains its full development at this time.

Lapwings return to their breeding-grounds in February or March,
the date being more or less dependent on locality and weather
conditions. The social state is abandoned very gradually at first;
half-hearted quarrels between individuals which may be, probably are,
males occur, but these are neither severe nor lasting enough to disturb
seriously the harmony that generally prevails. In the opinion of
Mr. S. E. Brock, who contributed an interesting and valuable article
to the Zoologist (1911, p. 296) on " Lapwings in the Pairing Season,"
there is naturally a preponderance of males, which is especially
noticeable in the early days of their reaching the nesting-grounds.
The difference between the sexes is so slight, that, in the field, it is
easier to distinguish them by actions that one is able with fair
certainty to ascribe to one or the other sex. Even so I have found it
a difficult matter to decide in certain cases. Mr. Brock appears to
have completely overcome this difficulty, as he never once expresses
a doubt in attributing certain actions to male or female. The males
are said to spread over the nesting area, each taking up its position
on, and jealously maintaining against trespassers, a more or less well-
defined territory. Mr. Brock says, " Here they spend a large part of
the day, occupying themselves in the formation of scrapes, in aerial
combats with other males, or in courting any female bird which may
happen to settle not too far off, while at intervals they indulge
in prolonged song-flights, ranging over a wider area."

The habit of forming additional nests or scrapes, common among
ground-nesting birds, especially Waders, is more prevalent with the
lapwing than any other, or perhaps it would be more correct to say

1 Zoologist, 1911, p. 297.

THE LAPWING 373

it is better known. For a long time it has been known or suspected
that these scrapes are formed by the males — they are commonly
alluded to by gamekeepers and egg-gatherers as " cocks'-nests." The
investigations of Mr. Edmund Selous went far towards confirming
this, and explaining the origin and significance of the habit, but it has
remained for Mr. Brock to discover more definitely the part the
scrapes play during the early spring activities. Extra nests con-
structed by some species, such as the wren and moorhen, have received
a certain amount of attention, and these also have been called
" cocks'-nests," but little is definitely known about them. The extra
scrapes formed by tree-pipits and wood-larks have been passed aside
as dust-baths, but they are as distinct from such, and as obviously
" scrapes," i.e. places prepared for nests, as are the false nests of
the lapwing. In all probability there is some analog}7 between all,
or at any rate all owe their origin to the same cause, which I would
suggest is excessive reproductive energy on the part of the males.
It has been stated that the scrapes of the lapwing are formed
while the male is showing off to the female.1 This is true so far
as it goes, as the male certainly displays in a scrape when a female
is near, and when he is therefore under the influence of extreme
sexual excitement. But it entirely disregards the very important
fact that the male may be seen scraping — and considerably more
often — when there is no female present.2

During the days that elapse between the return to the nesting-
grounds and mating, each male will form a number of scrapes, spread
over his particular territory, and generally in groups of two or three.
In these scrapes he frequently works. Sometimes he abandons
a group formed in the early days, and forms another set at some
distance off, thus effecting a modification in the limits of his territory,
which, as Mr. Brock observes, are always vaguely defined. Although
later, when mated, the female works in some of the scrapes formed

1 Howard Sauuders, Manual of British Birds (1899), p. 556.

2 See also Zoologist, 1911, p. 300; and Bird-life Glimpses, p. 164.

374 THE PLOVERS

by the male, and goes so far as to add a little lining to one or two,
yet she does not appear to start fresh ones. Thus, as Mr. Brock says,
"The exact situation of the nest is primarily dependent on the choice
of the male bird — a condition of affairs somewhat unexpected." a

The action of scraping varies but little except in the energy
displayed. This is of a more vigorous nature when the bird is
excited by the proximity of a female, and more especially so when
he has secured one for a mate. But a male may continue working
energetically for some days before there is any sign that his domain
is visited by a particular female. He may be seen standing alone,
raising and lowering his wings and tail, and occasionally uttering
a long rasping note. This is usually the prelude to scraping, but
either action may take place independent of the other.2 The
swaying of wings and tail may continue, but as a rule it soon ends
by the bird pitching suddenly forward on his breast, with the
posterior part of the body elevated at such an angle that the tail
and the tips of the wings point almost straight upwards. In this
attitude he rotates on his own axis and maintains a rolling or
shuffling motion with his breast, and scrapes energetically with his
feet. At intervals the wings are lowered, and the tail bent down
spasmodically until the ends of the feathers are pressed close on
to the ground. He may continue working in this way for some time,
the raising and lowering of the wings and tail occurring at more or
less frequent intervals. All periods of rolling or scraping are
accompanied by an apparently aimless pecking at the surrounding
herbage ; tufts of grass are plucked up and shaken from side to side,
and even tossed by the bird over its back. This will continue after
the bird has risen from the scrape, and now, as he has probably
advanced a step or two, some of the grass tufts which he throws
over his back may fall into the scrape, but this appears to be the
result of accident rather than design.3

1 Zoologist, 1911, p. 300. 2 See also Zoologist, 1911, p. 299.

3 See also Bird-life Glimpses, p. 163; and Zoologist, 1911, p. 299.

THE LAPWING 375

The number of scrapes to be found in the vicinity of each nest
varies considerably. Sometimes it is difficult to find more than three
or four spread over a fairly large area, and I have counted as many as
thirty, arranged in groups of four or five. These were on a long
narrow ridge of peaty soil, with deep bog on either side, and appeared
to be the work of one bird, as although two or three of the scrapes
were slightly lined, one only contained a single egg. The number
of partly lined scrapes does not, as a rule, exceed two or three in
number ; in these the lining shows sign of having been worked into
place, as distinct from those containing odd tufts of grass which may
have fallen in during the haphazard tossing about of material by the
male. If the ground about a group of scrapes is examined, it may
often be found strewn with tufts of dead grass pulled up as described.
With the exception of the more elaborate lining, the real nest does
not differ from the scrapes near it, nor does it appear to be in a more
eligible site. In form the scrapes do not vary to any great extent,
although they differ somewhat in appearance according to the nature
of the ground. In cultivated fields, where the soil is loose, the
interior of the scrape shows sign of much pressing and patting
down, and on grass-land the growing grass is scratched away leaving
the bare earth. The only locality where I have seen a decided
departure from the clean saucer-shaped hollow is in the Suffolk
Brecklands. Here, in parts where rabbits abound, the ground is
covered with close-cropped grass and lichen, which forms a tough
crust on the sandy soil. This crust often breaks away in lumps under
the working of the lapwing, giving an irregular shape to the scrapes.
Such irregular scrapes are not uncommon, including that in which the
eggs are laid. (PL LII., Figs. 3 and 4.)

The progress of courtship is marked by two distinct actions on
the part of the male. The first of these is adopted whenever a female
comes within reach of an impressionable male. With lowered head
and neck stretched out and held rigidly in a straight line with the
body, and the crest carried flat along the neck, he advances towards

376 THE PLOVERS

the female with formal steps. He may circle partly round her and
then commence working in one of his scrapes, or he may walk straight
past her direct to the nearest scrape.1 Mr. Brock states that the
females show no response to the advances of the males for about a
fortnight after courtship commences, arid at times indicate "annoy-
ance and distaste by a rapid retreat, even passing to a distant part of
the field." 2 The first sign that the female gives of acceptance of the
attentions of a male is by approaching him " by short and indirect
stages " while he is scraping, as though interested in the proceeding.3
The male rises from the scrape and adopts a pose which savours more
of display than the set run with extended neck, which is rather a pre-
lude to scraping. In this pose, as described by Mr. Brock, the male,
"keeping his back turned towards the hen, now very close beside
him, slowly lowers his bill to the ground and raises his tail almost
perpendicularly in the air, his richly coloured under tail-coverts are
thus prominently displayed." 4 The female meantime settles down—
and according to Mr. Brock — in the scrape the male has just left.
Her action when scraping is similar to that of the male, but less
energetic, and she is more prone to settle quietly as though brooding.
The male meanwhile maintains the displaying pose, occasionally pluck-
ing up herbage and tossing it over his shoulder. Frequently while in
this position he rocks his tail up and down and lifts the points of his
wings, as he does when scraping, and also utters a low creaking note.
Mr. Brock describes another pose adopted by a male should he
approach a female on the wing : " In such a case, on settling close
beside her, he momentarily takes up a very erect attitude, towering
over the other bird, his breast feathers puffed out to their fullest
extent, and the long crest inclined forward." 5 This is followed by
periods of scraping and displaying in the more usual pose.

At first the female is apt to lose interest in the proceedings,
although for a while she may take turns with the male at working in a

1 See also Bird-life Glimpses, p. 165 ; and Zoologist, 1911, p. 300.

2 Zoologist, 1911, p. 301. 3 Ibid., 1911, p. 302.
4 Ibid., 1911, p. 302. 5 Ibid., 1911, p. 301.

THE LAPWING 377

scrape. Mr. Brock states that " On the lapse of a day or two thus
spent the scraping antics become less frequent, and the birds are con-
tent to remain quietly in each other's company, usually at no great
distance from the scrapes. . . . On the occurrence of coition, however,
which first takes place a few days before egg-laying, a renewed activity
is shown. Immediately following this rite the female proceeds straight
to the scrape, and works in it with energy and thoroughness hitherto
unequalled, the male frequently taking his place in a neighbouring
scrape. Between her bouts of energetic foot-work the female plays
with stubbles, jerking them over her shoulder." Mr. Brock thinks that
the scrape in which the female works immediately after coition is the
one eventually adopted as a nest, in which the eggs are laid ; I under-
stand him to say that he has known this to be so in some cases.1

Mr. Selous describes their actions at this period in similar terms,
but on two occasions after pairing took place — on one of which the
male flew down and paired with the female without previously alight-
ing, the male ran for a short distance in the attitude in which the
head and neck are held in a line with the body and then pitched for-
ward and commenced to roll. The female followed, and on the male
moving forward and sinking down again apparently in another scrape,
she took his place in the first one, pecking at the ground in front of
her as she worked.2

In the displaying pose, and when scraping near his mate, the male
generally contrives to present his back view to her, so displaying the
brightly coloured under tail-coverts.3 From my observations I should
pronounce this to be almost invariably the case. But whether the
object is to display this part of the plumage it is difficult to say. The
female is equally well endowed, so far as the colour of the under tail-
coverts is concerned. As a rule, when male birds deliberately exhibit
some part of their plumage in courtship, it is a part that conspicuously
distinguishes them from the female. In fact, if sexual selection goes

1 Zoologist, 1911, pp. 302-3. * Bird-life Glimpses, p. 165.

3 See also Zoologist, 1911, p. 302 ; and Bird-life Glimpses, p. 167.

378 THE PLOVERS

for anything, the particular plumes owe their beauty or distinctive
appearance to having been so displayed. The courting actions of
birds often appears like a desire to display some particular part of
their plumage, when no such object may exist.

The scraping and displaying actions of the lapwing certainly
appear to be involuntary, and, as argued by Mr. Selous — the direct
result of sexual activity or excitement, and his expressed belief, that
out of such frenzied impulsive actions the more elaborate cases of
sexual display have arisen, appears reasonable.1 The uptilted attitude
of the male lapwing may be a more elaborate phase of his frenzied
working in the scrapes, during which the tail is often held straight up.
Another apparently involuntary or purposeless action is the plucking
of nest material and throwing it about, often over the shoulder.

Although a lapwing's nest is often but a scantily lined hollow,
good substantial nests may frequently be found. In such nests the
lining is carefully worked in, and may be as much as an inch in thick-
ness. Usually the greater part of the lining is added after the first
eggs are laid, as in the case of other species. I once found two or three
nests in the fens, built on long grass and rushes of the previous year's
growth, and which was matted together and beaten down by the winter
weather, forming a platform over boggy ground ; in one case there were
six or more inches of water underneath. The nests were large and
built of grass straw, with finer bents by way of lining. They were
quite conspicuous even at a distance. As the situation did not lend
itself to scraping, it is unlikely that these nests can have originated in
the usual way.

I have perhaps devoted an undue proportion of this chapter to
the habit of forming additional nest scrapes. But the habit is more
pronounced in the lapwing than in other Waders, and, moreover, the
species is comparatively easier of observation ; the ground actions of
less conspicuous species are considerably more difficult to witness, and
one can only surmise by analogy — not always a safe guide — that the

1 Bird-life Glimpses, p. 168.

THE LAPWING 379

extra scrapes of other species play a similar part in their spring
activities as do those of the lapwing. It is to careful observation of
such habits that we must look for a better understanding of the origin
of nest construction and sexual display.

However important the scrape forming and courting actions
which take place on the ground may be, from a spectacular point of
view they pale before the more obvious and beautiful aerial evolutions
which are so charming a feature of the lapwing's spring activities.
These evolutions may take the form of a spring or nuptial flight of
fairly well denned character, aerial contests between rival males, and
also a flight which may be a phase of the latter, but the behaviour of
the birds gives no indication of rivalry, rather of play and the joy of
flying together. Were it not that it may be witnessed long before
pairing is accomplished, I should be tempted to regard the last-
mentioned flight as a marriage flight, in which male and female take
part. Yery frequently these flights are participated in by three,
sometimes more, birds, but three are commonly seen.1 Skimming over
the ground, the birds rise and fall, tilt from side to side in a manner
somewhat similar to, but not so elaborate as, the wonderful evolutions
performed by the male in its spring flight. But there appears to be
no rivalry or jealousy, for although two may be flying side by side with
a third a little behind, they may close up and change places quite
indiscriminately and without discord. They follow and repeat each
other's actions as in the winter flights, so that the true solution
doubtlessly is that it marks a transitional stage from the social con-
dition of winter, in which the spring fashion of flight is asserting itself.
Yery similar conditions mark the early spring habits of other species,
which partly abandon the gregarious state at pairing time. The red-
shank, snipe, and ringed-plover provide examples.

The spring-flight proper runs a more regular course, especially
when the performer is uninterrupted by other birds. He rises from
the ground with slow heavy flaps of his broad wings, as though he has

1 See also Bird Watching, p. 82.
VOL. III. 3 C

380 THE PLOVERS

difficulty in getting under way ; this is belied by a sudden upward
rush or sweep, an effortless turn in which the wings hardly take part,
and then a downward sweep or fall, with half-closed wings, at the end
of which the bird seems suddenly to awake to the necessity of wing
action, flings his wings round in a wild whirl — in which he sometimes
appears to throw a partial somersault a — and the next instant is away
over the ground with musical wing-beats, tilting and swaying first to
one side, then to the other, with marvellous buoyancy. It is during
this flight that the breeding song may be heard. It has been well
rendered by Mr. Brock as " whey-willuchooee-willuch-willuch-cooee" 2 It
has also been rendered "coo-oo-oo, hook-a-coo-ee, coo-ee"3 and " co-u-whee-
whee-whee, co-u-whee." 4 The " willuch-willuch " is very characteristic, and
makes Mr. Brock's rendering the most faithful, but the "coo-ee" — in
my opinion — requires a w, " coo-whee." The song accompanies the
upward sweep and fall through the air. It suffers a break during the
flutter of wings at the end of the fall, but is picked up at once with
a triumphant "coo-whee coo-ee" as the bird dashes off in the wing-
humming part of its flight.

The aerial combats or games, constantly taking place in a field
inhabited by several pairs of lapwings, are characterised by similar
evolutions in modified form. Two birds so occupied will sometimes
rise to a great height in their efforts to get above each other, and one
succeeding in this may " stoop," when, unless the lower bird dodges,
there may be a wing-clap or two. Except for this they appear to be
sporting with each other, and for the most part only at a moderate
height from the ground. They tilt and twist, first one leading, then
the other; they mount up together and towards each other with
flurrying wing action, and then sweep downwards and away in opposite
directions. The spring notes are constantly uttered " willuch-oowhee,

1 Mr. Brock describes this manoeuvre thus : " the performer throws himself sideways almost
on his back, instantly recovering himself with a flurry of wings " (Zoologist, 1911, p. 298) ; and
Mr. Selous states that the bird "turns right head over heels" (Bird Watching, p. 26).

1 Zoologist, 1911, p. 298.

3 Selous, Bird Watching, p. 25.

4 Boraston, Nature Tones and Undertones, p. 148.

THE LAPWING 381

willuch-willuch" with occasional periods of wing-humming.1 The whole
performance suggests exuberance of spirits rather than real rivalry.
It is continued even after the eggs are laid.

Real hostility is displayed 'if a male encroaches on the domain
of another. The fighting, as a rule, is one-sided, the bird that is
encroached upon attacking the trespasser with great persistency,
swooping from all directions at him as he stands on the ground.
The bird so attacked avoids the rushes aimed at it by well timed
upward springs, allowing the other to pass beneath it, or by swerving
to one side, always endeavouring — or appearing to do so — to keep to
the ground.2 The attacker does not desist until he has forced the
other into flight. The latter seems to act almost entirely on the
defensive, but often with such obstinacy that the struggle may last —
according to Mr. Brock — as long as an hour or an hour and a half on
end.3 The amount of territory each bird reserves to itself varies
considerably ; two nests are found occasionally very near to each
other, but as a rule they are a good distance apart. Encroachment is
the chief cause of squabbles. Mr. Brock has noticed that the males
are very jealous of each other when scraping, and for one to scrape
when another is near is sure to result in hostilities. The same cause
will produce a fracas between two females, and Mr. Brock states that
he has several times observed " encounters between two females ended
by a male bird rushing up and separating the combatants, and, not
content with terminating the strife, he attacks one of the females,
driving it to some distance," and "on one occasion a male, which
was courting a female bird, suddenly desisted to attack and pursue
a second female at a little distance." 4

The male has been seen to approach the nest, after an egg had
been laid, " as though with the intention of scraping, but on reaching it
he contented himself with standing erect over it, moving his tail gently
up and down and plucking at straws." He does not apparently work

1 See also Zoologist, 1911, p. 298.

1 See also Selous, Bird Watching, p. 30 ; and Zoologist, 1911, p. 299.

3 Zoologist, 1911, p. 299. 4 Ibid., 1911, p. 301. & Ibid., 1911, p. 304.

382 THE PLOYERS

in the nest again, or sit on the eggs until all are laid, but afterwards
he bears his full share in the duties of incubation, and also keeps
watch, and warns the sitting female of danger.

When a breeding-ground is invaded, the males fly off somewhat
ostentatiously, while the hens, after leaving their nests, run for some
distance, and then flap quietly away, but a few feet above the ground.
It is not, however, by any means a hard and fast rule that sitting
lapwings always run before taking flight. It depends to a certain
extent on how near one approaches without being discovered. Their
watchfulness, and the open nature of the places where they generally
nest, guards, as a rule, against a near approach, but the conditions
may sometimes assist to a sudden surprise, and then the birds may
be seen to fly straight from the nests. But it depends more, I think,
on which bird is sitting. The female is more secretive in her habits,
and is nearly sure to run, unless suddenly put off", but the male almost
invariably flies straight from the nest.1 The same distinction between
the methods of male and female obtains with other species of Waders.
If th£ eggs are fresh the breeding-ground will be quite deserted by
the birds until the intruder leaves, but if incubation is far advanced
the birds will circle around, or fly to and fro with querulous cries.
They follow the intruder until he is clear of the breeding-ground, then
ceasing their cries they sweep round and fly rapidly back. When the
young are hatched the old birds become very bold and noisy in their
distress. They circle round an intruder and occasionally swoop as if
they are going to strike ; but their usual method is to fly to and fro,
quickening their pace when near, making music with their wings, and
repeating at monotonous intervals their rasping alarm-note "pee-ee-yit"
The young birds meanwhile crouch low, and being endowed with
highly protective pattern and colour are comparatively safe. They
remain quite still unless handled, or the herbage close to them is
disturbed, when they run off generally in different directions. Once
they have been disturbed it is very difficult to make them settle down

1 See also Field, 1892, vol. Ixix. pp. 79, 545, 585, 625, 666.

THE LAPWING 383

quietly again. I have seen one that was partly feathered crouch, but
at this age they have generally outgrown the habit.

It has often been said of the lapwing that it resorts to the " injury
feigning " display to save its eggs or young. Personally I have never
yet seen the slightest display of this kind. I would not, however, on
that account describe the belief as a " popular fallacy," as was done in
the Zoologist for 1897, p. 473. The habit occurs no doubt, but rarely,
and in a later number of the same magazine Mr. Bernard B. Riviere
records seeing two lapwings " feigning injury," running with drooping
wings, and occasionally toppling over on to one shoulder, with wings
flapping feebly. When approached they flew up.1 In this case the
birds had young. A lapwing flushed from the nest has been observed
to display.2

Lapwings are exceedingly bold in attacking and mobbing hawks,
crows, or rooks venturing near their nesting-grounds. One may often
see a solitary crow, apparently doing nothing more offensive than
taking a short cut home across a piece of fen country where lapwings
are nesting. Until clear of the breeding-grounds, his course is marked
by sorties against him by angry lapwings. Flying suddenly up from
the ground, a lapwing chases and buffets at him, the crow dodging to
avoid the blows and endeavouring to maintain his course. No sooner
has one lapwing turned back, than up flies another, and so on, each
one — as it were — conducting the crow to the frontier of its own
domain, and handing him over to its nearest neighbour. But their
resentment is not only against species which may with reason be
suspected of predaceous intent They appear to have quite an
unreasonable objection to partridges. Several instances have been
recorded in which lapwings have attacked and driven partridges from
their nesting-grounds.3 A contributor to the Field related how
a blackheaded-gull was mobbed almost to death by lapwings.4 They
will also attack cattle ; in an encounter with a cow, one is said to have

1 Zoologist, 1902, p. 29. * Ibid., 1897, p. 515.

3 Field, 1903, vol. ci. p. 950; Ibid., 1904, vol. ciii. p. 861.

4 Ibid., 1904, vol. ciii. p. 861.

384 THE PLOVERS

alighted on the ground " and flapped its wings over its back close in
front of the cow's nose." The cow, either annoyed or interested,
followed the bird, and so was lured to a safe distance from the nest.
Another was seen to attack and drive away a flock of geese.1

The Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain states that he has often found re-
mains of dead lapwings on the breeding-grounds, and as he once
found a sternum of one on an old nest — used as a " d ining- table "
of a sparrow-hawk, and has witnessed at nesting time an unsuccessful
attempt by a sparrow-hawk to kill a lapwing, he believes this hawk to
be responsible for the death of the lapwings whose remains he has
found.2

Although I have never tested it myself, I have been told by
farmers that lapwings will continue to sit if their eggs are moved
a yard or so from where they were laid, and placed in a hand-made
depression. This is occasionally done to save them when a field is
being harrowed in the spring. One bird continued to sit although
her eggs were moved more than once. This bird was exceptionally
devoted, for a heavy snow-storm covered the eggs, and she was found
sitting, although there was but a small hole in the snow through
which the eggs could be seen. The bird's wing feathers were bound
with frozen snow so that she could not fly, but when she was released
and the snow cleared from the eggs, she returned to them and
continued to sit.3

Incubation takes about twenty-six days. Eggs hatched in an
incubator on the 25th, 26th, and 27th days, while a clutch hatched
naturally in the nest on the 26th day from the time when the last egg
was laid. The eggs are not always laid on consecutive days, but incu-
bation does not commence until the clutch is completed. In one
instance three days elapsed between the laying of the third and fourth
eggs.4 Although the clutch normally consists of four eggs, five are
occasionally found. I have seen three nests, each containing five

1 Field, 1903, vol. ci. p. 997. * Zoologist, 1904, p. 104.

3 Field, 1892, vol. Ixxix. p. 625. 4 Ibid., 1882, vol. lix. p. 285.

THE LAPWING 385

eggs. The young do not leave the nest for twenty-four to forty-eight
hours after they are born, unless disturbed.

Especially when wounded, lapwings will take to water, and swim
well. A large number were observed in December 1894 resting on
the water in Lough Derg, Co. Limerick.1 Young birds in down
have also been seen swimming ; 2 on one occasion a brood was seen
crossing a river while the parents circled above.3

Mr Robert Warren states that he has often seen lapwings take to
water when hard pressed by peregrines, and in one instance one was
taken from the water by the hawk, a most unusual proceeding. He
once watched a splendid flight of a peregrine at a lapwing. The latter
was so exhausted by its efforts in eluding the hawk, that when it at
last dropped into the water and swam ashore it allowed itself to be
caught by the observer. The peregrine "waited on" and swooped
when the lapwing was held up. It followed close until the lapwing
was liberated in some cover, when the hawk went off.4

Young lapwings — and also other Wader species — sometimes come
to grief by sheep's wool becoming entwined round their toes, on
which the damp earth accumulates until a ball is formed that
incapacitates them from walking.5 By no means infrequently, the
wool, closely entwined, causes amputation of the toes.6

Flocking commences as soon as the young can fly, — in fact, it may
be said, in some cases, to commence before. I once saw many broods
of young lapwings of all ages running about on some fallow-land in
Suffolk, while the parents, some on the ground, some flying, were in
such numbers as to constitute a flock. Some of these broods must
have been hatched a good distance away, and were conducted to this
part probably because suitable food was plentiful. The flocks of old
and young birds combined leave the nesting-grounds in July, and in
autumn are joined by the large flocks from Northern Europe. Their

1 Field, Dec. 29, 1894. 2 Ibid., 1906, vol. cvii. pp. 595, 643.

3 Ibid., 1902, vol. xcix. p. 893. « Zoologist, 1904, p. 389.

5 Field, 1884, vol. Ixiii. p. 879 ; and Ibid., 1899, vol. xciii. p. 907.

6 British Birds (magazine), ii. p. 302.

386 THE PLOVERS

migratory movements are fully described in the " Classified Notes " at
the head of this chapter. Like the golden-plover, lapwings are largely
influenced in their winter movements by the weather. During severe
frost they resort to the sea-coast, and feed at low water on the sands
and mud-flats, but while the weather is open they prefer the marshes
and cultivated fields. The large flocks are very difficult of approach,
being, if anything, more shy than the golden-plover. The lapwing is
easy to distinguish on the wing ; it can travel at a great pace, but with
regular beats of its broad ample wings, very different to the rapidly
driven pointed pinions of its congeners. When lapwings and golden-
plovers fly together, the two species keep in separate groups. Flocks
formed of groups of these two species may often be seen, and their
mingled cries may be heard at night, both being regular night feeders.
It has been stated that the lapwing stamps on the ground beside
a worm-cast, in order to make the worm come up to the surface ;
also that it frequents the haunts of moles for the worms driven to
the surface by the burrowing of the moles.1 Latham — quoted by
Yarrell — says, " I have seen this bird approach a worm-cast, turn it
aside, and after walking two or three times about it, by way of giving
motion to the ground, the worm come out, and the watchful bird,
seizing hold of it, draw it forth." 2 It requires but little experiment
to show how slight a disturbance of the ground will suffice to bring
worms to the surface, and it is not surprising that lapwings should
learn to take advantage of it. It is quite probable that probing birds
gain much of their food by reason of this fact — not by " stamping,"
but by driving their bills into the soft earth.

1 Romanes, Animal Intelligence, pp. 285-6. 2 Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 285.

OYSTERCATCHER AND
TURNSTONE

[ORDER: Charadriiformes. SUBORDER: Limicolce. FAMILY: Charadriidce.

SUBFAMILY: Hcematopodince]

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES

[W. FARREN. F. C. R. JOURDAIN. W. P. PYCRAFT. A. L. THOMSON]

OYSTERCATCHER [Hcemdlopus ostralegus Linnaeus. Sea-pie, olive,
mussel-picker ; shelder (Shetlands). French, huitrier pie ; German, Austern-
fischer ; Italian, beccaccia di mare].

I. Description. — The oystercatcher may at once be distinguished by the
long, blunt-pointed, orange- vermilion beak, and the strongly contrasted black and
white plumage. The sexes are alike, and there is a slight seasonal change of colora-
tion. (PI. 121.) Length 16'5 in. [419'1 mm.]. The head, neck, mantle, and wings
are black, contrasting strongly with the lower back, rump, and the basal half of the
tail which are white, like the breast and abdomen. The median and major wing-
coverts are white, and the innermost primaries have a patch of white along the
middle region of the outer web. The beak and the rim of the orbits are orange-
vermilion, the iris carmine, the legs and feet flesh-coloured. After the autumn
moult the white spot under the eye becomes larger, and a band of white extends
backwards from the chin to join a broad white band extending from the ear-coverts
across the throat. In the juvenile plumage the greater wing-coverts, innermost
secondaries, and scapulars have pale buff margins, while the longest upper tail-
coverts are barred across the tips with black and buff. After the autumn moult
the black is suffused with brown, and the white bar appears on the throat. The
young in down are of a pale buff above, mottled with grey, relieved by a more or
less distinct black patch on the crown, two longitudinal stripes along the back, and

VOL. III. 3D

388 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE

a semicircular loop of black encircling the hinder end of the body. The under parts
are white, [w. P. P.]

2. Distribution. — In the British Isles this species is resident, though
subject to local movements, working northward in spring and southward in autumn.
Its distribution in the breeding season is somewhat irregular. It is scarce and local
on the south and east coasts of England up to Northumberland, being entirely
absent from some counties and only represented by a few pairs in the rest. In
Scotland it becomes numerous, breeding not only on the coast and islands, but by
the rivers and lochs, and is also common in Ireland, especially on the islands, and
along the Welsh coast and the Cumbrian shore-line, while it is plentiful in the Isle
of Man. Outside the British Isles it nests in the Faeroes and Iceland, and along
the whole of the European coast-line from Archangel to W. France, including the
Baltic and many of the main river valleys ; also in the basins of the Black and
Caspian Seas, and on the coasts of Macedonia and Asia Minor. Eastward it is found
in the Ob and Irtysh valleys as well as Turkestan, and Popham records a pair on the
Yenisei. It is replaced by other races in N.E. Siberia, China, and Japan, and also
in Australia and America. Its winter range extends south to North-west Africa,
the Red Sea, Somaliland, India, and Burma, and it has been recorded from
Senegambia. [F. c. B. J.]

3. Migration. — A resident and a winter visitor. Our own birds appear to
be resident within the area, but many of those in the more northerly districts move
southwards in winter. At that season there is large influx from the Continent of
birds that pass the winter on the shores of Great Britain. There is probably a
slight autumn immigration to Ireland from the west of Scotland, either of Scottish-
bred or autumn immigrant oystercatchers (cf. Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland,
1900, p. 262). A very gregarious bird at migration as at other times. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — The nesting-sites of this species vary according to the
locality. On rocky islets the eggs may be found in some cranny or nook among the
rocks, with practically no lining except the pebbles, bits of shells, or clump of thrift,
which form the bottom of the nest-hollow. (PL LHI.) The crest of a sand-dune where
the eggs lie half-buried in sand is a favourite site where the wind has built up a
barrier of dunes. On the polders of Holland the nest-site is marked by an untidy
gathering of drift of various kinds and droppings to line a hollow in the short grass,
while shingle-beds and sandbanks may also be tenanted at times, as well as the tops
of lofty stacks (Zoologist, 1891, p. 34, etc.). The share of the parents in providing
nest materials (where they are to be found) appears not to be recorded. The eggs

PLATE LI 1 1

Photo by F, B. Kirkuiau

Oyster- catcher's nest and eggs

Photo by E, A. WaUis

Oyster-catcher's nest and eggs

Photo by W. Farren

Oyster-catcher's neat and egga

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 389

are normally three in number, sometimes only two, and occasionally four, and are
placed irregularly in the nest, often not touching one another, and not neatly
arranged like the eggs of the plovers. In colour they are yellowish stone or ochreous,
boldly marked with blackish brown spots, streaks and scrawls, which at times form
a zone, and underlying ashy shellmarks. Some eggs have a warm rufous tinge,
and a rare type has a greenish blue ground. (PL K.) Average size of 65 eggs,
2-22x1 -54 in. [56'2x39'9 mm.]. The duties of incubation are shared by both
parents, though the hen is more frequently to be found sitting, with the male keeping
watch not far away. Messrs. Meade- Waldo and E. W. Wade estimate the period at
26-27 days, which is probably correct, although Colonel Duthie places it rather
lower (23-24 days). Naumann's estimate (up to three weeks) is, as with the other
Waders, too low. In southern localities eggs may be found towards the end of
April, but the more usual time is in the first half of May in the British Isles, though
in the north of Europe not till June. Only one brood is normally reared in the
season, but a second or third clutch of eggs is laid if the first is destroyed, so that
fresh eggs may be found up to the end of June or even in early July. [F. c. R. J.]

5. Food. — Mussels, limpets, and many other molluscs, both bivalves and
univalves ; shore-worms of various kinds, and earth-worms. Crustaceans such as
crabs, etc., and small fish and seaweed. Dresser, quoting Thompson, describes the
contents of eight stomachs as consisting chiefly of the opercula of whelks and
other univalves. One stomach contained 50 opercula of whelks, about 25 good-sized
limpets — without shells — and a Holothuria. In another was found a quantity of
vegetable matter, tender roots and green leaves, also " small white worm-like larvae "
(Birds of Europe, vii. p. 572). The stomachs of first-year birds containing mussels
without the shells, prove that oystercatchers can open the shells before their bills
have attained their full development (Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 249). The young
feed chiefly on insects and their larvae, and probably small soft-skinned shore and
marine creatures. They are attended by both parents, and assisted by them in
their search for food. [w. F.]

TURNSTONE [Arendria interpres (Linnaeus) ; Strepsilas interpres (Linnaeus).
Little-pyot ; tangle-picker (Norfolk) ; brackett (Northumberland) ; stane-
pecker (Shetlands). French, tourne-pierre ; German, Halsoand-Steinwalzer ;
Italian, voltapietre].

i. Description. — The turnstone may readily be distinguished by the pointed,

390 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE

conical beak, relatively short yellow legs, and the alternate bands of black and white
on the lower back and rump. The sexes are alike, and there is a marked seasonal
change of coloration. (PI. 122.) Length 8 in. [203-20 mm.]. The adult, in nuptial
dress, has the top and sides of the head white, relieved by a narrow line of black
running forward from the eye to the beak, and black striations on the crown. Below
the eye is a V-shaped band of black, the ends of the loop turned forwards to enclose
a white loral patch, while the white of the top of the head is continued backwards
to form a half-collar across the hind-neck. The centre of the interscapular area is
chestnut-red, bounded on either side by a V-shaped band of black; this band is
succeeded by a wide semicircular loop of chestnut-red formed by the anterior
scapular feathers, the hinder scapulars being black and forming a crescentic band of
black behind the red band just referred to. The lower back is white, the rump
black, the upper tail-coverts white, and the middle tail feathers black. The rest
of the tail feathers are dark grey, with white bases and white tips : the white of the
base of the feathers increase in area from within outwards, the outermost being
almost wholly white. The outer marginal wing-coverts are dark brown, the inner-
most white. The minor coverts are chestnut, the lowermost row variegated by
patches of black. The median coverts are chestnut, blotched with black, while
the major series are black, tipped white. The remiges are dark ash-grey, the
primaries have white shafts, and the innermost a patch of white at the base, forming,
with the tips of the major coverts of the secondaries, a white bar across the wing.
The throat is white ; below this is a broad black gorget extending to the fore-breast,
and sending a band upwards on to the side of the neck in front of the white half-
collar. The rest of the under parts are white. The beak is black, the iris dark
brown, the legs and toes orange-red. The female is somewhat duller than the male.
After the autumn moult the head and upper parts are dark brown, striated on the
crown with slate-black. The sides of the face are ash-brown, with an indistinct
patch of white below the eye. The mantle is dark blackish brown, the feathers
thereof having narrow whitish brown margins. The wing-coverts are dark brown
with paler margins, while the gorget on the throat is dark blackish brown. The
juvenile plumage has the crown and mantle pale brown, the crown heavily striated
with dark brown, while the feathers of the mantle and wing-coverts have ochreous
margins. The inner primaries are white-tipped. The lower back is alternately
banded black and white, as is the adult, and the tail is buff-tipped, while the gorget
is of a dull brownish black. The first autumn dress differs from the juvenile plumage
in being somewhat darker, and having rufous margins to the minor coverts. The

PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 391

young in down has the upper parts pale grey, mottled with darker grey, the under
parts white, [w. p. p.]

2. Distribution. — Although the tumstone has not been definitely proved to
breed in the British Isles, there is good reason to believe that it has nested in the
Shetlands on at least one occasion (see Saxby, Birds of Shetland, p. 171). It has also
been seen in pairs during the summer on various parts of the west coast of Great
Britain, but is chiefly known as a passage migrant. Outside the British Isles it
breeds in Iceland, and probably on the Fseroes ; on Lseso in the Cattegat and Salt-
holm ; while it also nests in small numbers off the coast of Schleswig, Pomerania, and
on Riigen ; in the gulfs of Riga, Finland, and Bothnia, and both coasts of Scandinavia,
along the coast of North Russia, on Kolguev and Novaya Zemlya. Buturlin also
states that it breeds in the Crimea and on the Kirghiz Steppes. In Asia it ranges
along the Siberian coast and to the New Siberian Isles, and in the New World is
found in Greenland, but is replaced by a rather dubious allied form in Arctic North
America. On migration its range is practically cosmopolitan, and it occurs in
winter not only in the Mediterranean region and the Atlantic Isles, but south to
Cape Colony in Africa ; in Asia it is recorded from the shores of the Indian Ocean
east to the Malay Peninsula, China, and Japan ; it is also found in most islands of the
Malay Archipelago, and has wandered to Australia and New Zealand, the Fiji and
Sandwich Isles, New Hebrides, etc., while American birds range south to Patagonia.
[F. c. R. J.]

3. Migration. — A bird of passage and a winter visitor, presumably from
Northern Europe. It is chiefly at the migration seasons that the turnstone is
found on the British coasts, but a small number remain during the winter months.
Occasional individuals or pairs are met with in summer, but the species has never
been proved to breed within our area. A gregarious migrant. [A. L. T.]

4. Nest and Eggs. — The nesting-sites used by this species are very variable.
The Godmans found that they were cunningly hidden, but that the birds showed
no preference for any particular locality. One nest was on a ledge of rock, another
in open sand, two were among grass, and a fifth well concealed by weeds and
grass under a ledge of rock. Pearson found several nests a few paces from high-
water mark, and in nearly all cases within 50 yards of it, on islets, under flat
stones, in patches of dwarf sallow, in grass tussocks, on shelves of peat, and in
one case 18 inches down a puffin-burrow. In Greenland, Kolguev, and Iceland,
however, it has been found breeding far inland. The only materials used are a
few bents or sorrel stalks, but the share of the parents in building has apparently

392 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE

not been recorded. The eggs are normally four in number, sometimes only
three. They are fairly characteristic, the ground-colour ranging from greenish to
brownish or olivaceous, but usually with a tinge of greenish, and rather pointed in
shape, freely spotted and blotched with dark brown and underlying shellmarks
of ashy grey. Average size of 75 eggs, 1'58 x 1*15 in. [40'3 x 29*1 mm.]. No reliable
observations seem to have been made on the length of the incubation period,
but Manniche asserts that both sexes take part in the work and show brooding
spots. Pearson states that it is always the male bird which takes the leading part
in protecting both eggs and young, while the female keeps carefully out of danger ;
but this is not the view of Manniche, who states that the cock assists in guarding
the chicks only when they are very young (see p. 408). In the S. Baltic eggs may
be found in the first half of June, but on the shores of the Arctic Ocean not as a rule
before the middle of that month, and occasionally as late as the first week in July.
In Grinnell Land Hart obtained eggs on July 30. One brood is reared in the season.
[F. c. E. J.]

5. Food. — Small crustaceans, such as tiny crabs, shrimps, and sand-hoppers,
molluscs, insects — such as the flies that breed in decaying seaweed — and their larvae.
Also fragments of plants (Manniche, N.E. Greenland, p. 129). The results of various
stomach analyses are as follows : mussels swallowed entire 5x3 mm., crabs 5x5
mm., also other bivalves, univalves, and shrimps (Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 245).
Small beetles, the young of Littorince, small crustaceans (R. Collett, quoted by
Dresser, Birds of Europe, vii. p. 564). Full-grown young feed chiefly on sand-
hoppers, the downy chicks on larvae of Chironomidce and other indeterminable larvse
of insects (Manniche, Terrestrial Mammals and Birds of N.E. Greenland, p. 129).
They are attended and assisted by both parents in their search for food. Although
apparently one parent bears the greater share of this duty, it is not clear which,
as authorities differ, [w. P.]

OYSTERCATCHER OR SEAPIE 393

OYSTERCATCHER OR SEAPIE

[W. FARREN]

This handsome shore-bird is hardly so epicurean in its tastes
as its popular name implies. No doubt it would not refuse oysters
when procurable, but it is well content with the more plebeian mussel,
which, with other molluscs such as limpets and various univalves,
form its chief food. Another name, not so widely used, but per-
haps more appropriate, is seapie ; the beautifully clean black and
white of the bird's plumage gives it, especially when on the wing, a
conspicuous pied appearance.

The oystercatcher occurs either in the nesting season, on migra-
tion, or in winter throughout Europe and the greater part of Asia.
It is seen on our coasts throughout the year, although during the
nesting season parts in the south and east are almost deserted,
save for a few non-breeding birds. It is, in fact, far more in
evidence as a shore-bird during the autumn and winter, for although
many pairs nest on sand and shingle shores, and rocks near the sea,
large numbers resort to inland localities for the breeding season.
The resident flocks are considerably augmented in autumn and
winter by the southward movement of large numbers of birds from
more northern nesting-places.

The stretches of shingle beach by Highland rivers, more
especially when in the form of islands, are favourite nesting-sites
of the oystercatcher. In Scotland, where such river beaches are
very common, many pairs of oystercatchers may be found far
inland, each pair in possession of an island or strip of beach. On
the larger islands several pairs may find accommodation, for although
territorial rights are jealously guarded, there is no very definite rule
as to the extent of the domain reserved by each pair of birds, some
nests being very little distance apart So many pairs may be found

394 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE

nesting together on certain very extensive sea-beaches, that the
species may almost be said to be gregarious. They are said to be
especially numerous on some of the Shetland Islands, and " when the
young are just hatched the chatter of the thirty or forty pairs of birds
forming a colony" is described " as perfectly deafening." l

When the eggs are laid on sand or shingle a slight depression is
made, and sometimes a little coarse grass is introduced by way of
lining, but as a rule the oystercatcher likes best to pave its nest with
shells and stones. On the Fame Islands I have seen nests on sand
containing quite a collection of broken shells, and there were also
shell nests on masses of seaweed among large water-worn boulders
of rock.

In the case of those I saw on rocky islands in the west of
Scotland, the eggs were often on shelves of rock, and also in hollows
scraped in fine turf. Both forms contained shells and stones, those
on the rocks just a few pieces of shell and a stone or two, but those in
turf were quite substantially paved. In some cases nests — especially
if among broken rocks and stones — are neatly paved with a large
quantity of small stones, about the size of peas. There is on the
whole less variation in nest material than in actual habitat. Although
on river beaches the nest is sometimes on bare sand or gravel, those
parts are more often chosen where a scanty vegetation of short grass
and stunted heather is scattered among large stones and rock
boulders. Often a promising-looking shingle-bed is neglected in
favour of short grass turf, ornamented with patches of the bright-
coloured flowers of the sea-pink. Less often nests may be found
on bare mud. Quite unexpected sites are frequently chosen. One
nest was found on top of a ploughed hill,2 another loosely made
of heather twigs was found in a tussock of grass in a field.3 A
cavity on the top of a felled pine tree, and even a previously robbed
nest of a herring-gull, have been used.4

1 Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 296. 2 Field, 1884, vol. 63, p. 702.

3 Ibid., 1901, vol. Ixxvii. p. 751. 4 Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 295.

OYSTERCATCHER OR SEAPIE 395

A decided preference is shown for an open situation, but
occasional departures have been recorded. A correspondent of
the Field stated that in the west of England he often found them
nesting among bracken, while one nest was concealed in a thicket
of grass and brambles.1 Mr. Seton P. Gordon found a nest " in the
middle of a larch wood on a river island, and the oystercatcher looked
strangely out of place as she got off her eggs and ran rapidly through
the wood." 2 As a rule the nesting-grounds are quite near water, salt
or fresh, but occasionally at a considerable distance from it.

The birds repair to the breeding-grounds from March to April,
according to the locality. Mr. Gordon has seen them migrating in
pairs up the rivers in Scotland as early as March 4th, and he states
that however bad the weather may be they do not return to the coast,
but remain on through severe frost and snow, when many of them
may be found dead on the river banks.3 A pair, however, which each
nesting season visited a gravel island in a river in Perthshire, which
was watched for several years, generally arrived about April 8th, the
male preceding the female by a few days. There was of course no
certainty that they were the same individuals year after year ; possibly
not, as the observations extended over many years. The island was
always inhabited by one pair but no more. Other birds came to the
island at uncertain times during the nesting season, but their visits
seldom lasted more than ten to fifteen minutes, during which time
the birds kept up a strange wild musical noise as they chased each
other about. The strangers would then depart, and no more would be
seen for weeks.4

The usual call-note of the oystercatcher is loud and shrill, mono-
syllabic, and often repeated. A dozen or so birds in a small flock,
flying with rapid wing-beats low down along the edge of the surf,
maintain a continuous utterance of this note, which heralds the
approach of the birds, swells in volume as they draw near, and then

1 Field, 1901, vol. xcvii. p. 797. * Birds of Loch and Mountain, p. 102.

3 Ibid., p. 97. « Field, 1890, vol. Ixxvi. p. 214.

VOL. in. SE

396 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE

rapidly dies away as they pass out of sight and hearing. The note has
been rendered by Professor Patten, "quick-quick-quick"1 and " hic-
hic" by Saxby, who also likened the call-note to the words "my feet"2
Of the various renderings given, none, in my opinion, is so suggestive
of the cry as Naumann's "huihp" or "kuihp" When several fly
together near the nesting-places it is "kwick, kwick" (short and
sharp) ; or one may begin " kewick, kewick, kwick, kwick, kwick, kwick,
kwirrrrr" 3 The latter, which is stated to be heard only in spring near
the nesting-places, is no doubt the pairing-song, which is a clamorous
piping, full and shrill. Like the pairing-songs of many birds, it con-
tinues more or less throughout the nesting season ; it is sometimes
uttered on the wing, but more often in actual courtship on the ground.
A courting male approaches the female, and bowing his head until the
tip of the long red bill nearly touches the ground, he utters his long
quavering trill or piping song, swaying his head from side to side in
rhythm with the music. Mr. Selous observed oystercatchers so engaged
as late as July, when, as he says, the true courting season should have
been over. He noticed at this time that more often than not two
males would pipe to one female, and although the pipers showed signs
of rivalry, and on rare occasions active hostility, they seemed to be more
engrossed with their musical display than with sexual matters. The
show of rivalry seemed to be due rather to professional than sexual
jealousy.4 Certainly in the beginning of July, when young oyster-
catchers can fly and are thinking of flocking, such antics of adults, even
if identical in appearance, cannot have the same sexual significance as
in the spring during the period of real courtship. It is suggested that
this belated musical display marks the progress of development from
a purely sexual habit to one of a friendly social character analogous to
the ceremonial displays — in which three birds take part — of the spur-
winged lapwing of South America. One point in his arguments upon
which Mr. Selous lays great stress is the frequency with which one

1 Aquatic Birds, p. 249. s Birds of Shetland, p. 172.

3 Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, viii. p. 96. 4 Bird Watching, pp. 90-93.

OYSTERCATCHER OR SEAPIE 397

may, in the pairing season, see three birds of a species flying together
in apparent friendliness.1 This, too, at a tune when sexual feelings
should run so high as to make impossible any but furiously hostile
relations between males when a female is present, and the sporting
trios generally appear to be made up of two males and a female. I
have frequently noticed these friendly flights of trios in several species
of Waders, the lapwing, most commonly (see ante, page 379), but also
snipe, redshank, ringed-plover, and curlew. All these species live
more or less gregariously immediately prior to the pairing season, and
as the amicable association of three birds is most noticeable in the
beginning of the pairing season, an obvious inference is that sexual
feelings are hardly yet dominant over those that rule during the soci-
able period. In the instance of the oystercatcher, the " association of
three " was observed at the end of the nesting season, the lack of male
combativeness during the performance of a sexual display presumably
indicating the waning of sexual activity. The probability is that the
display outlives the feelings that give rise to it. It is not by any
means rare to see birds performing their courting antics at times when
these can no longer be influenced by the same feelings, or have the
same significance, as in the spring. All of which is strongly in favour
of Mr. Selous' theory that social ceremonial displays have been evolved
from sexual ones.

To return to the oystercatchers and their July piping parties. The
piping of the males depends on the presence of the female. It begins
by a male piping before a female. Another male in the neighbour-
hood hears the note, becomes interested, pipes a little, and then flies
direct to where the performance is taking place. He places himself
by the side of the other male, and the two pipe together to the female.
Generally unresponsive, the female may walk away, when she is
followed by the two males, who continue their serenade. In one
instance observed by Mr. Selous, the female flew down to a lower
shelf of rock, and the two males piped down to her from above, and

1 Bird Watching, p. 85.

398 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE

when at last she flew away they, with a few single querulous notes,
assumed their ordinary attitude and walked disconsolately about.
The flight of the female always ended the performance. Although
the male faces the female when he begins, " having once begun, he
seems more enthralled by his own music than by her, and will turn
from side to side, or even right round and away from her, as though
in the rhythmical sway of his piping." * The piping song is syllabled by
Mr. Selous as "kee kee kee kee kervee kervee kervee kervee kervee," a loud
and ear-piercing clamour. Gradually, however, it sinks, becoming in
its later stages quite faint, and ending commonly in a sort of long
drawn out quavering trill." 2

These piping parties have also been observed by Mr. Seton
Gordon. His description differs somewhat, but not very essentially,
from that of Mr. Selous. He describes it as a " kind of follow-my-leader
game indulged in by three or four birds, and very often in the calm of
a summer evening. The birds run backwards and forwards with their
heads down and bills almost touching the ground." The piping notes
are "uttered slowly at first, but soon follow each other in rapid
succession." A somewhat similar action was observed during an
attempted eviction of a pair of oystercatchers from their home on a
river island by another pair of the same species. First one bird
appeared on the scene, and with repeated swoops drove the sitting
female from the eggs. " Then he (i.e. the intruding male) and the pair
in possession rushed backwards and forwards across the islet, whistling
loudly, and looking very comical with their heads almost touching the
ground." Whenever the female attempted to go back to her nest,
"the intruder went for her immediately and swooped repeatedly at
her, she receiving the onslaught with tail in air, which seems the
recognised mode of defence among ground-nesting birds."3

The oystercatcher makes several additional nest scrapes close to
the one destined to receive the eggs.4 I can find no recorded observa-

1 Bird Watching, p. 93. 2 Ibid., p. 92.

3 Birds of Loch and Mountain, p. 105.

4 Field, 1890, vol. Ixxvi. p. 214 ; Ibid., 1907, vol. cix. pp. 1070, 1071.

OYSTERCATCHER, OR SEAPIE 399

tions as to the conditions governing the formation of these scrapes.
Probably, as in the case of the lapwing, they are made by the males, but
in the absence of direct evidence it is not safe to assume too much.
Saxby says, " The male has a fancy for constructing numerous others
(i.e. scrapes) while his mate is sitting." l The nest scrape — like that of
the stone-curlew — is irregular in form, and measures about six or eight
inches across. The greater part of the lining is added after incubation
commences. This applies also to many other Waders, especially those
that nest on sand and shingle, and ornament their nests with shells
and stones. The normal number of eggs in a clutch is three, and,
following the constant rule in this family, they are not pyriform as are
the eggs of those species which lay four. The eggs of the oystercatcher
tend to an oval shape similar to those of the stone-curlew and the
Terns. Nests with four eggs are occasionally found, somewhat more
frequently in fact than are clutches of five in a nest of any Wader
species that normally lays four. One was found at Blakeney in
1907 containing four eggs. This nest was within 40 yards of the
site occupied by a similar one in the previous year, and was — very
fairly — presumed to belong to the same pair of birds.2 Both sexes
incubate, but the female is said to bear the greater share of the task,3
although Naumann states that she sits only at night or very seldom
during the day.4

The oystercatcher is a very light sitter, especially when the nest
is in a flat open situation. The male stands on guard on a rock or
other slight eminence, whence he can sight danger afar off. At his
warning pipe the female, with lowered head, runs rapidly away from
the nest. During the early days of incubation both birds are very
quiet and loth to take wing. When examining a nest, I have
noticed the birds running to and fro, a good distance away, and
occasionally standing still and peering anxiously in the direction of
their home. Later, and more especially when the young are hatched,

1 Birds of Shetland, p. 175. 8 Zoologist, 1908, p. 128.

3 Field, 1907, vol. cix. p. 1070. 4 Vogel Mitteleuropas, viii. p. 96.

400 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE

the old birds fly close around, piping and mobbing frantically. Other
birds nesting near join in, when the clamour assumes most bewilder-
ing proportions. It has been stated that the birds remove the empty
egg-shells from the vicinity of the nest.1

The downy covering of the chicks is protective in colour and
texture, and differs considerably from that of the generality of Waders.
It is a " tabby " like mixture of black and grey, short and close, and
in texture not unlike the down of the young stone-curlew. They
crouch low in response to the warning cries of their parents, but lack
sufficient patience to profit fully from their protective coloration,
often struggling up on to their thick legs and running — piping thinly
as they go — when they would be safer from detection crouched on the
ground. Mr. Kirkman tells me that he once found a fully fledged
young bird crouching, as if lifeless, in seaweed drift. It permitted
him to pick it up and drop it four or five times, before it chose to
come to life and run away. The young grow very fast, and it is said
that they can fly in about three weeks.2

Flocking commences in July, when the inland nesting birds make
their way to the coasts. Mr. Seton Gordon states that many birds
remain inland throughout August and even during part of September.3
The same observer has noticed that when uttering the double alarm-
note — that syllabled " heep-a heep-a " or " my-feet " -the oystercatcher
modifies its wing-beats to the time of the note, which is " uttered half
during the upward stroke and half during the downward." This
necessitates a slower action of the wings than usual.4 This habit of
flying in time with a note, especially when the young are in danger,
may be observed in other species.

Early in August flocks of oystercatchers, chiefly birds of the
year, appear on the east coast ; these are probably home-bred birds
taking part in the general southward movement. About the same
time, or a little later, there is an influx from the Continent, and from

1 Birds of Loch and Mountain, p. 100. 2 Field, 1890, vol. Ixxvi. p. 214.

3 Birds of Loch and Mountain, p. 102. 4 Ibid., p. 104.

. . • ^

•

OYSTERCATCHER OR SEAPIE 401

now throughout the autumn and winter large flocks may be seen on
the coasts, especially where there are large mussel-beds. In the
west of Scotland the flocks often number one hundred or more birds.
When disturbed whilst resting, these generally break up into two or
three smaller companies, each apparently with a leader who acts as
guide.1

Although, as before stated, the oystercatcher's diet is a varied
one, yet it feeds very largely on shellfish, more especially mussels, as
the fact that its bill is specially modified for opening the shells would
indicate. Moreover, it has been shown by careful observation, as set
forth in a most exhaustive treatise by Mr. J. M. Dewar,2 that, apart
from the specialised form of its bill for gaining entrance through the
shell, the oystercatcher employs deliberate method, varying with the
position of the mussel, to secure the contents, skilfully removing
" certain structures which hinder the achievement of its desires."
The oystercatcher being a most wary bird, and its feeding-grounds,
as a rule, very exposed and open, close observation of its habits while
feeding is attended with unusual difficulties, and requires consider-
able patience. By supplementing his observations of the birds whilst
engaged on the scalps with an examination of the empty shells, Mr.
Dewar was able to give some interesting statistics. Of the shells
opened by the oystercatchers, it was found that approximately 78 per
cent, were opened through the dorsal border, 9 per cent, through the
ventral border, and about 13 per cent, through the posterior end.
The preponderance of the first form is due to the fact that in their
normal position on the banks the mussels present their dorsal borders.
These are practically invulnerable, except when the valves are slightly
separated, and this — the mussel's attitude of rest — is " possible only
when the shells are under water, or in moist situations." If dry the
mussels must close their valves, or the delicate internal structures
wrould shrivel. Fresh water has the same effect as dryness ; heavy

1 Gray, Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 270.

2 Zoologist, 1908, pp. 201-212, from which all the details relating to the feeding habits of the
oystercatcher are culled.

402 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE

rain, by flooding the scalps with fresh water, and causing the mussels
to close their valves, militates against the success of the oyster-
catcher.

Although so small a proportion of shells is found to have been
opened through the ventral borders, owing to the fact that mussels
are normally attached to the beds by the byssus protruding from this
border, yet in a tightly closed shell the narrow round-edged fissure in
the middle of the ventral border is the weak point in the mussel's
armour. Therefore, when this surface is exposed, even if the mussel
is dry, it is always vulnerable to the attack of the oystercatcher. Mr.
Dewar says, " When oystercatchers are seen at work on dry mussel-
scalps, it may be taken for granted that they are searching for these
mussels (i.e. with the ventral surface exposed), and I have found
repeatedly in these cases that only those mussels were opened of
which the ventral borders were uppermost."

Mussels larger than one inch and five-eighths by seven-eighths of
an inch are apparently not attacked. Those most frequently taken
vary between this and one and a quarter inch by half an inch.
Smaller mussels than this are taken only " when larger sizes are not
available." This refers to shells that are opened. Those of smaller
size, up to half an inch long, are swallowed entire.

From the above it will be seen that the oystercatchers' richest
harvest is directly the ebb leaves the scalps exposed, and again
when the rising tide flows over them. At the latter time the birds
continue their search until they are flooded off their feet by the
rising tide, when they betake themselves to favourite resting-places
above high-water mark. They spend the time until the next ebb
in resting from their labours during the process of digestion of
their well-earned meal. They rest head to the wind, and dispose
themselves in long straight lines. They often stand on one leg
whilst at rest, as do all Waders, and Macgillivray states that he has
seen them crouched on the ground.1

1 Macgillivray, British Birds, iv. p. 156.

OYSTERCATCHER OR SEAPIE 403

When the ebb leaves the scalps dry and the majority of the
mussels are invulnerable owing to the closing of the shells, there
are still available those few whose ventral surfaces are exposed. The
oystercatchers appear then to divide the time until the tide turns
between searching for these latter, hunting for suitably placed
mussels under the wet edges of the bank, in pools, and also for
those covered with sand or mud. The oystercatcher finds buried
mussels by a process of tapping the surface of the ground with the
tip of its bill. "At first the ground is tapped here and there in
tentative fashion. Sometimes a single tap leads directly to the
mussel ; more often numerous taps are made in a small area until
one is made in the right place." The oystercatcher then sinks its
bill quickly into the sand, and deals with the mussel in much the
same way as when they are exposed on the banks. Mr. Dewar
states that more mussels are opened by way of the ventral borders
when buried than when exposed. It is difficult to see why this
should be, unless it is that the mussels, when buried, are less likely
to occupy their normal position.

When the tide has receded far enough to enable the oyster-
catchers to work on the banks, they may be seen walking sedately
about searching for slightly gaping shells. They carry their heads
well forward and their bills in a position ready to strike.

Each mussel is approached in the line of its major axis, and is
submitted to a careful inspection, usually from the front. If the
mussel meet with approval, the oystercatcher strikes a sharp blow
with the point of its bill on the summit of the dorsal border,
apparently to find out whether or not the bill will pass between
the edges of the valves. When the result of the tap is favourable, the
bill is pushed down into the mussel before the valves have time to
close, by a number of jerks with great rapidity and force, and the
shells are finally separated by various levering methods described in
detail by Mr. Dewar.

Similar methods obtain in opening mussels through the ventral

VOL. in.

404 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE

borders ; these, unlike those opened from the dorsal side, seldom or
never exhibit damage to the margins, and many are opened without
fracture of the valves. Mussels opened through the posterior ends
are never fractured, although there may be slight comminution
of the thin edges of the valve where the bill enters. The pro-
cess of opening is comparatively simple : after the bill has been
inserted and pushed home, vigorous shaking sideways effects an
opening.

As a rule mussels are detached from their anchorage before
extraction of the contents takes place. If the ventral border is
exposed, opening takes place before detachment, but when entrance
is gained through the dorsal borders, the valves are first separated
slightly, and opened up after the shell is detached. There is good
reason for this distinction, as the mussel rests more securely on the
ground on its rounded ventral surface than on the thin dorsal edge.
The oystercatcher effects detachment of the mussel by gripping one
valve between its mandibles — the upper one inside the shell — and by
giving a few vigorous shakes and an upward pull.

Throughout the entire process of opening the shells and clearing
out the contents, the oystercatcher shows considerable celerity and
skill. The knife of an expert oyster-opener is not used with more
certainty and familiarity with the anatomy of the mollusc operated on
than is the bill of the oystercatcher in dealing with a mussel. The
posterior and anterior adductor muscles are cut through as the bill
is thrust vertically down between the borders of the valves, and in
a way that, as Mr. Dewar says, " goes far to prove that the oyster-
catchers are acquainted with the position and relative importance
of the two muscles, and fully realise the necessity for their early
destruction." After the bulk of the mollusc has been removed and
swallowed, the bill, used like a pair of scissors, starts at one end of
a valve and snips away the portions of the mantle still adhering to
the shell. "After reaching the opposite end of the shell, the bill
is returned to one side of its starting-point, and snips its way along

OYSTERCATCHER OR SEAPIE 405

a line adjacent and parallel to the preceding, and so on until the
adherent flesh has been removed from both valves."

In searching for limpets, an oystercatcher has been observed
to examine shell after shell, presumably looking for one slightly
raised from the rock ; when it found one suitable for its purpose,
it thrust the end of its bill between the limpet and the rock and
neatly turned it over.1 Saxby states that, after being detached,
the limpets are carried to a convenient place to be emptied and
eaten, and that vast accumulations of empty shells may be found
on favourite spots.2

Oystercatchers frequently resort to fields to feed, and have been
seen following the plough — as do rooks and gulls — and profit-
ing by the animal food disturbed.3 Gray relates seeing two or
three pairs near a farmstead, feeding within twenty yards of pigeons
and poultry.4

The oystercatcher is an expert swimmer. Wounded birds take
readily to the water in their endeavour to escape, but unhurt birds
have been observed on many occasions to enter the water voluntarily.
A flock was seen to alight on the sea a long way from land. The sea
was calm, and it was supposed that the birds were attracted by shoals
of herring-fry.5 Saxby relates having seen one of a small party on
a rock jump into the water, and swim about looking for food in parts
of the rocks only to be reached from the water.6 Young in down have
been seen paddling themselves across a river, while their parents
hovered overhead calling piteously.7

1 Gray, Birds of Vie West of Scotland, p. 270.

2 Saxby, Birds of Shetland, p. 172.

3 British Birds (magazine), iv. p. 317.

4 Gray, op. cit., p. 268.

5 Ibid., p. 269.

6 Saxby, op. cit, p. 172.

7 Field, 1890, vol. Ixxvi. p. 214.

406 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE

THE TURNSTONE
[W. FARREN]

Although the turnstone has been frequently met with during the
summer months in various parts of the British Isles, and under
conditions strongly suggesting that it might be nesting, there is no
satisfactorily authenticated instance of its doing so. Saxby was
strongly of opinion that the species nested in the Shetlands, and once
in mid-June he came upon a pair, the female of which was behaving
in a manner that convinced him that she had a nest. After a long
search he found a nest with three eggs, which he believed to belong
to this pair of birds. He did not, however, see either of them go to
the nest.1 Saxby's description of the eggs leaves little doubt that
they were really turnstone's, which can hardly be mistaken for those
of any other British Wader. It is much to be regretted that the
eggs were not handed to some recognised authority for identification.

The species has also been thought to nest in the Azores and the
Canary Islands. The probable explanation of the occurrence of the
birds during the nesting season in localities other than their known
breeding-haunts, is that every year a certain number do not breed,
and therefore abstain from the northward migration. At the
same time, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the turnstone
may sometimes be found nesting with us, very possibly in Ireland,
or on the islands to the west or north of Scotland. In its
distribution the turnstone is one of the most cosmopolitan of birds,
occurring on the shores of almost every part of the globe. With us it
is chiefly a bird of spring and autumn passage on its way to and from
its northern breeding-grounds (see " Classified Notes ").

On the spring migration, turnstones in full breeding plumage

1 Birds of Shetland, p. 171.

THE TURNSTONE 407

pass along our coasts, sometimes in very large numbers, from the end
of April to the first week in June. These dates are given by Dr. N.
F. Ticehurst for Kent,1 and I think may be taken as the limits of the
overseas migration. The few birds that pass the winter with us
probably move north earlier than those that winter farther south, as
migratory movements have been observed in the Isle of Man as
early as March 21st 2 and in Cheshire on April 10th.3

Of the habits of the turnstone in the pairing season but little
appears to have been recorded. Expeditions to their nesting-localities
have generally had as a main object the collecting of eggs ; and the
published accounts have generally been limited to exhaustive
descriptions of how the nests were found. Mr. Trevor-Battye, during
his enforced sojourn on the Island of Kolguev, ascertained that the
turnstone makes several false nests, or scrapes, as does the lapwing
(see p. 372 d seq.), and that — like many other species of Waders —
the male has a note or song peculiar to the nesting season, which
he describes as pretty, and renders as " chtwd h-chiwdh-chiweeki ki lei
ki ki ki" 4 The ordinary note uttered on the wing is a long chuck-
ling twitter, very difficult to describe in words. Professor Patten
renders it "chlc-a, chlc-a chlc-a chee"5

In some localities the turnstone nests near the sea, but it more
often frequents moors and barren fells several miles inland, and at a
fair altitude. Hewitson, who appears to have been the first English
naturalist to describe the nesting-habits of this species, found the
birds nesting on small rocky islands off the coast of Norway. The
first nest found was placed against a ledge of rock, and under a
creeping branch of a juniper bush, a few leaves of which served as
lining.6 The Rev. H. H. Slater found them breeding in Iceland on a
lichen-covered moor seven miles from the sea, and at an altitude of

1 A History of the Birds of Kent, p. 434.

5 British Ornithologists Club, Migration Report, October 1910, vol. xxvi. p. 186.
3 Ibid., November 1909, vol. xxiv. p. 175.

* Icebound on Kolguev, p. 432.

6 Aquatic Birds, p. 245.

• Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 292.

408 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE

five hundred feet. He found them also in Kolguev and Novaya
Zemlya some distance inland and on high ground.1 In North-east
Greenland, Herr Manniche found this species "nesting very
commonly almost everywhere," generally on dry, stony, sparsely
covered table-lands and moors, both far inland and also near the
sea, but never on the smaller islands, although these were visited
occasionally by the birds. A decided preference was shown for
localities " near an inundated tract, a bog, or fresh-water pond," to
which the birds often led their young ones.2

An interesting observation by Herr Manniche is to the effect
that in N.E. Greenland all the Waders were very regular in their
arrival. The turnstones all arrived on the "same day and hour" ; on
May 28th and June 2nd respectively of the two summers he was there.
He states that for a short time after their arrival they feed chiefly
on vegetable food, but he saw them also turning over stones and
searching for larvae and pupse of insects. Incubation is shared fairly
by male and female, the brooding spot being equally developed in
both sexes.3 Buffon's skua, which is very numerous in Greenland,
is, according to Manniche, "a detested enemy of the turnstone."
Other Waders share the turnstone's dislike for this handsome
skua, but none show such pertinacity in attacking and mobbing
it. Whenever a skua appeared near the nesting-grounds it was
immediately pursued by first one and then another of the enraged
little birds. Whilst one of a pair brooded the eggs or tended
the chicks, the other stood on guard on the summit of a large
rock, and as soon as it recognised the skua from afar, rushed
" towards him uttering furious cries." The polar-fox was received
in the same way. Although the male turnstone takes his share in
hatching the eggs, and assists in guarding and tending the chicks
while very young, he leaves them to the female long before
they can fly, and joins the flocks of male sanderlings and knots,

1 British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 89.

2 A. L. V. Manniche, The Terrestrial Mammals and Birds of N.E. Greenland, pp. 127-8.

3 See also British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 88.

THE TURNSTONE 409

and together with them leaves the country about the middle of
July.1

The female adopts to a certain extent the "injury feigning"
device for the protection of her young. Herr Manniche says, " The
young ones would often resort to the upper part of rather high rocks,
while the old female, incessantly crying, and anxiously flapping, tried
to divert my attention from them." Until the young birds can fly,
the females remain with them, but in the beginning of August the
young ones flock and go to the coast and the mouths of rivers, where
they mix with the flocks of other young Waders. The old females
now leave the country, and are followed at the end of August by the
young birds.2

If this order of migration from Greenland recorded by Herr
Manniche is correct — and so good an observer would be pretty sure
of his facts — it should help us to understand the order of the arrival
on our shores in late summer and autumn of this, and possibly other
species of Waders. The date on which the young are independent of
the care of their parents would not vary much in the different
localities in which they breed. The middle of June would — in most
Arctic localities — be the most favourable time for the commencement
of egg-laying. Even in their most southern nesting-places they would
not start much earlier. The eggs found by Herr Manniche during
the last days of June were much incubated. The habits of the
birds would no doubt be the same in all breeding-stations. It
may therefore be presumed that it is the rule for the males to
leave the breeding-grounds about the middle of July. This may
well account for the fact that a few old birds in breeding plumage
generally precede the autumn arrival of young birds. Some of the
birds that migrate by way of our coasts must come from localities
where emigration takes place earlier than in Greenland, for it is not
by any means unusual to meet with small parties of immature
turnstones in the first week of August, In 1910 they were observed

1 A. L. V. Manniche, op. tit, pp. 128-9. * Jbid., p. 129.

410 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE

on the Hampshire coast, arriving in numbers as early as August 1st ;
there was a daily increase up to the llth, when the maximum was
reached. From this date there was a steady decrease, and the last
birds were seen on the 28th, on which date large numbers arrived in
Devonshire.1 I have seen them on the Norfolk coast in the first
week of August, generally in small parties of five or six, and always
immature birds. Like the immature birds of other species of Waders
that come to us direct from remote northern localities, these young
turnstones are tame and confiding, giving excellent opportunities
for watching them as they run busily about in search of food.

The turnstone, unlike most of its congeners, is seldom seen
standing in contemplative mood, waiting for the ebb, for its food
lurks under the dried seaweed and various rubbish thrown up by
the tide, as well as under stones, large and small, which are quite
as productive above as below high-tide mark. Its habit of turning
over stones for whatever living creatures are concealed beneath
explains its familiar name. The birds generally work in small
parties, each runs busily from stone to stone, puts its bill under
the edge, and deftly turns it over or aside. Bits of drift-wood,
oyster-shells, and clods of mud are served in the same way ; seaweed
it tosses from side to side, while it examines with quaint sideways
glances every crack and cranny in the rocks and larger stones.
It lifts small and moderate-sized stones and other objects with
a quick upward motion of its bill. The larger, heavier ones it
raises a little with its bill, then crouching low down, applies its
breast to the raised edge and pushes until the stone rolls over.
Various instances have been recorded of several turnstones uniting
their efforts to dislodge an object too large for one to manage.
Edward, the Scottish naturalist, saw two turnstones trying to turn
over a codfish, three feet long, partly buried in the sand. They tried
hard with their bills, then with their breasts. Failing to move the
fish, both went to the other side and began to scrape away the

1 B. O, C. Migration Report, vol. xxviii., Aug. 1911, p. 251.

THE TURNSTONE 411

sand and so undermine it. For a long time they were observed
to work unsuccessfully. After nearly half an hour they were joined
by another turnstone, which they hailed with evident signs of joy.
This, the newcomer seemed to understand and appreciate, and,
mutual congratulations over, all three fell to work. After vigorously
removing sand for a few minutes, they tried to shift the fish by
putting their breasts simultaneously against it. This they tried
several times, the fish falling back again into place. At last, having
lifted it with their bills until they could get their breasts under,
their united efforts prevailed and the fish went over, rolling several
yards down a slight declivity. The birds, unable to recover their
balance, followed it for some distance.1 A similar observation was
recorded by Mr. Angus, who in 1890, in company with a friend —
Mr. Mitchell — was watching for birds opposite " Black Dog" on the
north side of Don-mouth. As they lay concealed, they saw a flock of
turnstones alight quite near, and set to work on a salmon partly
embedded in the sand. Some dug the sand away, whilst others
pushed, until after working some time they turned it over. It fell on
some of the birds that were digging ; two managed to get free, but
one — before it could extricate itself — was caught by a dog belonging
to the watchers.2

These two records are corroborative in interesting particulars,
and indicate a special procedure when the turning over of an object
too large for the efforts of a single bird promises an adequate reward
to as many as can work together. In both cases the special procedure
was similar, viz. digging the sand away from one side of the fish and
pushing at the other side. Mr. A. H. Patterson notes that the
co-operating turnstones are not always left to the exclusive enjoyment
of their labour, for hungry dunlins and other small Waders may seize
the occasion to run up and join in the meal.3

The turnstone is a very conspicuous bird when flying, owing to

1 Romanes, Animal Intelligence, p. 322 (quoted from Smiles' Life of Thomas Edward, pp. 244-6).

2 Zoologist, 1890, pp. 275-6 (quoted from Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow, 1890, p. 180).

3 Nature in Eastern Norfolk, p. 219.

VOL. in. SG

412 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE

the large patches of pure white on its wings and body, which give it
a markedly pied appearance. It is not unlike a miniature oyster-
catcher, although the two species differ in their method of flight.
The wings of the turnstone generally appear to be arched, owing
probably to their not being fully extended. It is rather wavering,
and frequently describes part of a circle in its flight. The oyster-
catcher, on the other hand, flies very straight, with strong regular beats
of its fully extended wings.

The turnstone, like most Waders, can swim well on occasion.
Some were observed by Mr. Hume to swim with ease, sitting
gracefully on the water outside the foaming breakers, ever and
anon rising and flying a little way, then again settling on the waves.1

1 Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 13.

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WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH
DAY AND -dDSKdH) ON TH|fr Sfi^ENTH DAY
OVERDUE.

MAR 1 4 1939

LD 21-95m-7,'37

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746,114

BIOLOGY
LIBRARY

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY