OOF! ace Rel Sane eee es : ¥ aS ~ sy aeRO a eee ete e . ae" ote SS crn! fui WA os one at ts - “ae “i aon : . SRN at : oe ; STE Stn = 3 ek ‘se ; erste re aes ae, ass ss , Pes ‘ ‘ 5 = mechs = " ? Oa th ee : SAE p at Trae ny ¥.- v4 eh et on Steet : Pts. W, See ay aes Bs : a Aah ee) % E a . Cae , ; at Ae eR ae SNE ERK tetat Sos ie Se ROR Ree ee SNORE a eatin iia tanta! titan va 7 mo e pais nig sae as tie reer ee ay oe a PS ee YRS SpE eR went * . < ve _ Se *. <. Pan r\ MN Par . Y NAY | Ny / 1 WAY Pe VE | ui | = \ ye a AR 3 EN gt a\/\ TA: ry f q | > He \t " ay VW ATNA' A. - -~ | me \ es! = \ a\i f “+ - i \ ry Ma \\ P™. a\ VA / “ f ‘oan MAI VN LA\ vay j AY EN: ~ ay Went NAAA Ba es Be . : Rar AY AA NAAAAA A A AARA SAAAAA ud (Gon ee A : @ em in % | Bi Ve WB t ON foe\ Pm) fh ak Ee VN Bxle\ FR 1 . / / AN ANY ENT ENT ERY el ea f= eX: Ve\ a Se VN All. VA Vos f fA APM MY qt eg fay Vues VA MA at A 2 Lm. VOW ) Le bf NE aan A { pf ! wo OW Us Nf \o as Z ' 5 +" ALS ! A 1 7 an | : J \ L é yoN / \a ae fg an! \: se | i ai AD a\o\¢ rt A AR! A l A a A ( a A C & , < “Qa GN « a = IE . S CEU. EK EEC RKCE i vy" aa C€& , ie eas ; i gee Be rs = ee Men OE KR OLE OME EE oS CO MEE CE < en nnn Ci a EK REEL GIEG NE, —_— "GEA ES € ea © Se - > « ~ = Ee CE ELIE CC. COLE a Ce . << ( = x q 4,‘ . : = i sate ar r << RR EO ECE REE ES fo = Pagie oe VOL. QL = 3 “BRITISH BIRDS. BY WILLIAM YARRELL, VPS, EAs. : Gaseve: DEO: N io m= " Se V2 LF SE Wf f oe ad om hi i me iD vA on 3 19 68 D ) kg . on ST SN CONS FOURTH EDITION, IN FOUR VOLUME ILLUSTRATED BY 564 WOOD-ENGRAVINGS. VOL. IIl., REVISED AND ENLARGED BY HOWARD SAUNDERS, F.L.S., F.Z.S., Erc LONDON: JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXXII— MDCCCLXXXIV. LONDON : | PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER, “MILFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C. PREFACE VOLS. I-IV. OF THE FOURTH EDITION. Turs Fourth Edition of Yarrell’s ‘ History of British Birds’ was commenced by Professor Newton in 1871, and continued by him until May 1882, during which time the account of the Accipitres, Passeres, and Picari@é was com- pleted. In June 1882 I undertook to finish the work—not willingly or with a light heart, but after considerable pressure and at much personal sacrifice. There were various diffi- culties which could be foreseen, and not the least among them was the conviction that my portion of the work must necessarily appear at a disadvantage when compared with the high standard of excellence attained by my predecessor. There was, moreover, a stipulation for the completion of the work by June 1885; and, allowing for a pre-arranged and necessary absence of six months from England, this left only two and a half years for writing the history of nearly 200 species. The accomplishment of the task within the allotted term may be allowed to extenuate some slips of the pen which are corrected in the Errata. The Second and Third Editions were little more than reprints with additions, of the First, which appeared just forty-two years ago. During the interval our knowledge of many species has been vastly augmented, and the literature of the main subject has been more than doubled; an in- v1 PREFACE. crease necessitating an amount of research, and the careful sifting of a mass of information, unknown to the original Author. The advantages undoubtedly counterbalance the drawbacks, but it must be confessed that the latter are con- siderable. It is not within my province to consider the advisability of publishing under the honoured name of Yarrell a work which must necessarily be, to a great extent, rewritten ; but my portion of the task, once accepted, has been performed to the best of my ability. Where practicable, the original phraseology has been followed, with due modifications ; the opening words of the sentences have frequently been pre- served, as ‘landmarks’ for possessors of former Editions ; and extracts from the authors and correspondents quoted by Yarrell have been retained, subject to considerations of space, relevancy, and accuracy. This work of selection and adapta- tion has entailed severe labour, and, as a matter of fact, the original articles on the species added to the British list since the publication of the Third Edition, are those which have given the least trouble. The many completed works on ornithology of which I have availed myself are mentioned from time to time in these volumes, and if the enumeration is re-commenced, it will be difficult to say where to stop. I can, however, acknowledge most of them collectively by expressing my obligations to that pre-eminent compilation, Mr. H. E. Dresser’s ‘ Birds of Europe,’ a work which has materially lightened my labours. Again, Mr. J. E. Harting kindly placed at my disposal the annotated copy of his useful ‘Handbook of British Birds,’ with several volumes of notes and extracts; and on all sides assistance has been freely proffered. The completion of the work within the appointed time is largely owing to the co-operation of numerous friends and correspondents who sent notes, rare books, and speci- mens, looked over proofs, and answered questions (some- times by telegraph), with the utmost cheerfulness and promptitude. My thanks are especially due to Major H. W. Feilden, Messrs. E. Bidwell, F. Bond—the Nestor of British PREFACE. vil ornithology,—John Cordeaux, John Gatcombe, J. H. Gurney, jun., J. A. Harvie-Brown, H. Seebohm, and Cecil Smith; also to Lieut.-Col. E. A. Butler, Messrs. T. E. Buckley, A. Chapman, W. Eagle Clarke, T. Duckworth, E. Hargitt, F. S. Mitchell, A. G. More, T. H. Nelson, J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, Henry Stevenson, R. J. Ussher, Robert Warren, John Young, and others too numerous for mention. The changes made in the systematic arrangement are believed to be the fewest consistent with the present state of our knowledge. It was obviously impossible that the Herons &c, should continue to split the Order Limicole by occupying their former place midway between the Plovers and the Curlews. It was equally clear that, according to modern views, the Gavie (Terns and Gulls) must follow the Limicole, to which, indeed, they are so closely related that it is doubtful whether they should not be comprised in the same Order. Opinions not being unanimous upon the relative positions of the Petrels, the Auks, the Divers, and the Grebes, I have subordinated my own views to the previous arrangement. The Herons (Herodiones) and the Cormorants (Steganopodes), had, of course, to be allocated in a proximity the scheme of which had already been dis- arranged by the commencement of the work with the Accipitres. Under these exceptional circumstances the last Order is necessarily that of the Anseres ; nor is it altogether undesirable that it should be so, inasmuch as in the ossifica- tion of the sternum the normal members of that group show some resemblance to the Ratite, a sub-class which is generally, although not universally, allowed to be lower than the Carinate. Assuming that, according to the original scheme of the work, a species is allowed to have a claim to be considered ‘British’ when a single authenticated example is proved to have been obtained in our islands without suspicion of arti- ficial introduction, it would seem that the following species which have not been figured or described in detail, have some right to be enumerated in the British list; but certain Vili PREFACE. New World Passeres which cannot reasonably be supposed to have reached our shores without human agency need not be mentioned. Lantus mason, Pallas. Pallas’s Grey Shrike. To this species or sub-species—for it seems possible that it may in- terbreed with Lanius excubitor—belong the majority of the ‘Great Grey’ Shrikes obtained in winter in the British | Islands, especially in Scotland. It appears to be a northern or north-eastern form, distributed, from Scandinavia east- ward, over a large portion of Northern Europe and Asia, and distinguishable, when thorough-bred, by its white rump and by the absence of the white bases to the secondaries, while the white bases of the primaries are smaller than in I. excubitor. Roughly speaking, L. major has only one alar bar instead of two. Its range on migration is not yet clearly defined. Saxtcona svTapazina (Vieillot), The Black-throated Wheatear. An adult male was shot near Bury in Lan- cashire about the middle of May, 1878, and was exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society in the following November (P. Z. 8S. 1878, pp. 881 and 977). The species is common in Southern Europe and North Africa, and has strageled as far north as Heligoland. SaxIcoLA DESERTI (T'emminck). The Desert Wheatear. A male in autumn plumage was killed near Alloa, Clack- mannanshire, on the 26th of November, 1880, and, having been sent to Mr. J. J. Dalgleish, was forwarded by him for exhibition before the Zoological Society (P. Z. 8. 1881, p. 453). The species inhabits the southern and eastern sides of the Mediterranean basin, and has twice been known to wander to Heligoland. ACROCEPHALUS PALUSTRIS (Bechstein). The Marsh War- bler. It is impossible to doubt the authenticity of the examples obtained during the last ten years. Mr. Cecil Smith has shown (Zool. s.s. p. 4718) that it breeds near Taunton, and it is now known to do so annually (Zool. 1882, pp. 265, 306) ; it has also nested near Bath. I have examined several fresh-killed birds: also their nests and PREFACE. 1K eges; the two latter being very different from those of the Reed Warbler. The range of the two species is similar. Synivra nisortaA (Bechstein). The Barred Warbler. An example shot many years ago in a garden near Queen’s College, Cambridge, was exhibited by Professor Newton before the Zoological Society (P. Z.S. 1879, p. 219). One was killed in Yorkshire on the 28th August, and one in Norfolk on the 4th September, 1884 (P. Z. 5S. 1884, p. 477). The species breeds over the greater part of Europe up to the south of Sweden, and about as far west as 6° E. long. TICHODROMA MURARIA (Linneus). The Wall Creeper. The occurrence of this remarkable species, so conspicuous from the band of crimson on the wing, was made known by Marsham, of Stratton-Strawless Hall, Norfolk, in a letter to Gilbert White, dated October 30th, 1792 (Zool. s.s. p. 4664). Mr. F. 8. Mitchell has recorded another well-authenticated example shot in Lancashire on the 8th May, 1872 (Zool. s.s. p. 4839). Although an inhabitant of the mountainous por- tions of Central and Southern Europe, Asia, and North Africa, it is known to have straggled on several occasions to such apparently unsuitable localities as the centre of the commercial town of Nantes, on the Lower Loire, and I have examined several specimens obtained there. ACANTHYLLIS cAuDACUTA (Latham). The Needle-tailed Swift. The two occurrences of this species in England are noticed in vol. ii. p. 871. CAPRIMULGUS RUFICOLLIS, Temminck. The Red-necked Nightjar. For remarks on the occurrence of this southern species in Northumberland, see vol. ii. p. 386. CaPRIMULGUS mGypTiIuS (Licht). The Isabelline Nightjar. On the 23rd of June, 1883, an undoubted example of this south-eastern species was shot by the gamekeeper of Mr. J. Whitaker, of Rainworth Lodge, near Mansfield, Nottingham- shire, in whose collection it now is (Zool. 1883, p. 374). The species is a native of North-eastern Africa and Western Asia; but this makes its sixth occurrence in Europe ; one of them being in Heligoland. ANGIALITIS VOCIFERA (Linneus). The Killdeer Plover. VoL. Il. b x PREFACK. In noticing an undoubted specimen of this American species said to have been killed in Hampshire (vol. iii. p. 160), I did not then consider the evidence quite sufficient to justify admission to the British list. On the 15th of January, 1885, Mr. Jenkinson shot and sent to Mr. Vingoe for pre- servation (Zool. 1885, p. 113), a specimen which I have since examined. Totanus sourrartus (Wilson). The Solitary Sandpiper. In my note on this species (vol. ili. p. 468), I hesitated to include the species on the reported occurrence on the Scilly Islands of an example which had not been authenticated by some expert. Since then, a bird of this species has been shot near Marazion, Cornwall, and has been identified by competent authorities (Zool. 1885, p. 113). CotymMBus apamst, Gray. The Yellow-billed Northern Diver. Since writing the remarks on this recognizable species (vol. iv. p. 100), Mr. J. H. Gurney has kindly sent me a photograph of the head of the immature bird shot on the Suffolk coast in 1852, and the form of the bill shows clearly that it is an example of Colymbus adamsi. Mr. H. Seebohm has identified a second specimen, in the Newcastle Museum, shot on the coast of Northumberland, and has given his views on the geographical distribution of the species in ‘ The Zoologist,’ 1885, p. 144. Iam only aware of three errors of sufficient importance for notice beyond the inevitable Errata. The first is to be found in vol. iii. p. 678, line 26, in the description of the young of the Arctic Skua, where, by an inadvertence, the words ‘‘the shafts of the two outer feathers white, the others dusky”’’; have slipped in; they really refer to the next species, the Long-tailed Skua. In the article on the Puffin, vol. iv. p. 95, line 2, by a slip of the pen consequent upon the transposition of the words ‘summer’ and ‘ winter’ in the revise, the very opposite of what is meant is stated. It is obvious that the bill of the Puffin is larger in summer than in winter, and that word should be substituted for ‘‘ smaller,” PREFACE. Xi Lastly, in the list of Norfolk heronries (vol. iv. p. 166) there is a double error in the statement that there is a colony of Herons at Spixworth, and that their nests are in Portugal laurels. There is no heronry at Spixworth, and the birds which bred in the laurels were Rooks; but although the information has proved to be incorrect, it came from an informant whose name is so well known in connec- tion with Norfolk that there was no primary reason to doubt it. To those who are only acquainted with the Heron as nesting on tall trees, my credulity may appear absurd, but ornithologists of wider experience who have seen, on the one hand, laurels strong enough to sustain the nest of an- Eagle, and have found, on the other, Herons nesting on mere bushes, will admit that there was no inherent improb- ability in the statement. HowarpD SAUNDERS. 7, Rapnor Prack, Hype Park, W., 30th April, 1885. ERRATA TO VOL. ITI. LINE 28, dele Northern. 6, for Oxfordshire read Cambridgeshire. 19, for porzana read maruetta. 22, for at Hawold. Across the Humber, it would appear, read at Hawold, across the Humber. It would appear, &c. 28, for St. Michael’s-in- Wyse read St. Michael’s-on-Wyre. 5, for Shrenck read Schrenck. , insert LIMIcoL”. 19, for (1688) read (1678). 13, for Pryor read Pryer. 31, for Lancashire read Lancashire. 9, for stragger read straggler. 31, for Lyons read Lyon. 20, for is read are. dele recurved. 0, dele late. 5, dele the. 2, for ICHTYAETUS read ICHTHYAETUS. 9, for pray read prey. 27, for of the others dusky read of the others also mainly white, but somewhat dusky towards the tips. CONTENTS OF VOL. COLUMBA. CoLUMBID&. Columba palumbus. Ring Dove Pa enas. Stock Dove os livia. Rock Dove Turtur communis. Turtle Dove Ectopistes migratorius. Passenger Pigeon PTEROCLETES. PTEROCLID A. Syrrhaptes paradoxus. Sand-Grouse GALLINA. TETRAONIDA. Tetrao urogallus. Capercaillie . , tetrix. Black Grouse Lagopus scoticus. Red Grouse a mutus. Ptarmigan PHASIANID A. Phasianus colchicus. Pheasant . Perdix cinerea. Common Partridge Caccubis rufa. Red-legged Partridge Coturnix communis. Common Quail HEMIPODILI. TURNICID 2. Turnix sylvatica. Andalusian Hemipode . DEY. dl 93 105 115 125 131 XIV CONTENTS. FULICARI A. RALuipaA. Crex pratensis. and Rail Porzana maruetta. Spotted Crake » parva. Little Crake » bailloni. Baillon’s Crake Rallus aquaticus. Water Rail Gallinula chloropus. Moor-Hen Fulica atra. Common Coot ALECTORIDES. GRUID&. Grus communis. Crane OTIDIDE. Otis tarda, Great Bustard » tetrax. Little Bustard ,», macqueent. Macqueen’s Bustard LIMICOLA. CHDICNEMID#. Gdicnemus scolopax. Stone-Curlew . GLAREOLIDA. Glareola pratincola. Collared Pratincole . CHARADRIIDA. Cursorius gallicus. Cream-coloured Courser Eudromias morinellus. Dotterel Aigialitis hiaticula. Ringed Plover . 4) curonica. Little Ringed Plover “4 cantiana. Kentish Plover . Charadrius pluvialis. Golden Plover Squatarola helvetica. Grey Plover Vanellus vulgaris. Lapwing Strepsilas interpres. Turnstone Hematopus ostralegus. Oyster-Catcher PAGE 137 143 148 154 159 164 171 178 1938 216 221 CONTENTS. LIMICOLA— continued. ScoLoPaciD &. Recurvirostra avocetta. Avocet Himantopus candidus. Black-winged Stilt Phalaropus fulicarius. Grey Phalarope a hyperboreus. Red-necked Phalarope Scolopax rusticula. Woodcock . Gallinago major. Great Snipe . ‘5 celestis. Common Snipe . - gallinula. Jack Snipe Macrorhamphus griseus. Red-breasted ane Limicola platyrhyncha. Broad-billed Sandpiper Tringa maculata. Pectoral Sandpiper , fuscicollis. Bonapar te’s Sues » alpina. Dunlin » minuta. Little Stint » minutilla. American Stint » temmincki. Temminck’s Stint » subarquata. Curlew Sandpiper , striata. Purple Sandpiper » eanutus. Knot Calidris arenaria. Sanderling . Machetes pugnaz. Ruff Tryngites rufescens. Bait breasted ce ae Bartramia longicauda. Bar tram’s Sandpiper Totanus hypoleucus. Common Sandpiper . » macularius. Spotted Sandpiper . 5, ochropus. Green Sandpiper glareola. Wood Sandpiper . , ealidris. Oommon Redshank » fuscus. Spotted Redshank . » flavipes. Yellow-shanked Sandpiper » eanescens. Greenshank Limosa egocephala. Black-tailed Godwit , lapponica. Bar-tailed Godwit Numenius arquata. Common Curlew 5 pheopus. Whimbrel a borealis. Eskimo Curlew XV CONTENTS, GAVIA. LARIDz&. Hydrochelidon nigra. Black Tern = leucoptera. White-winged Black Tern 4; hybrida. Whiskered Tern . Sterna anglica. Gull-billed Tern » caspia. Caspian Tern » eantiaca. Sandwich Tern » dougalli. Roseate Tern . » jtuviatilis. Common Tern » macrura. Arctic Tern » minuta. Lesser Tern » fuliginosa. Sooty Tern . Anous stolidus. Noddy Tern Xema sabinit. Sabine’s Gull Rhodostethia rosea. Cuneate-tailed Gull Larus philadelphia. Bonapartian Gull » minutus. Little Gull » ridibundus. Black-headed Gull », tchthyaetus. Great Black-headed Gull » canus. Common Gull ; » argentatus. Herring Gull », juscus. Lesser Black-backed Gull . » marinus. Great Black-backed Gull »» glaucus. Glaucous Gull . » leucopterus. Iceland Gull Rissa tridactyla. Kittiwake Gull Pagophila eburnea. Ivory Gull Stercorarius catarrhactes. Great Skua a pomatorhinus. Pomatorhine Skua . a crepidatus. Arctic or Richardson’s Skua a parasiticus. Long-tailed or Buffon’s Skua PAGE O16 522 527 531 536 540 O44 549 553 558 562 567 573 579 584 589 594 609 613 618 624 631 636 642 650 656 662 668 674 680 BRPEYESH BERDS. COLUMBA. COLUMBID. CoLUMBA PaLUMBUS, Linneus *. THE RING DOVE OR WOOD PIGEON. Columba palumbus. CotumBa, Linnceus+.—Bill moderate, straight at the base, compressed, the point deflected. Base of the upper mandible covered with a soft skin, in which the nostrils are pierced. Tarsi short, anteriorly scutellate, posteriorly scurfy ; feet, three toes in front, entirely divided, one toe behind. Wings, long, broad, rather pointed ; the second quill-feather longest. Tail of twelve feathers nearly even. * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 282 (1766). + Tom. cit. p. 279. VOL. IM. B 2 COLUMBID&. Tue Rina Dove, so called from the white feathers which form a partial ring round its neck, and equally well known in many parts of England as the Wood Pigeon, and in the North as the Queest or the Cushat, is the largest member of the genus found in Europe. Itis an abundant and gene- rally distributed species throughout the British Islands ; its numbers having increased of late years to an extent which has caused grave anxiety to the farmers. This is mainly owing to the altered conditions of cultivation; the large proportion of land now under turnips and other green crops supplying food which was formerly wanting during the inclement months; whilst the numerous small plantations which have lately sprung up afford just the kind of shelter that the Ring Dove requires:—open enough to preclude the approach of an unseen adversary,—close enough for protection from the weather and for breeding purposes. Add to this, that its natural foes have been, as far as possible, destroyed by game-preservers and their keepers, and it can hardly be a matter of surprise that under such favourable circumstances the species is now far more numerically abundant than in former years. In addition to those bred in this country, large flocks make their appearance in winter and autumn, crossing the North Sea from the continent by an K. to W. flight. The note of this Dove—a deep coo roo, cod céo—may be frequently heard in the months of March and April in the neighbourhood of woods and plantations, particularly those of firs, in which it delights to build. The nest usually consists of merely a few sticks laid across, at times so thinly that the eges can be distinguished from below ; but it is often more substantial, and occasionally the old nest of some other bird, or a squirrel’s drey, serves as a foundation. Although generally at some distance from the ground, it is also to be found in hedgerows of old hawthorn ; and Mr. R. Gray states that near Arbroath, in Forfarshire, nests have been observed in tall whin bushes.* Not unfrequently it * Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 218. RING DOVE. 3 chooses a site for its nest in gardens in close proximity to habitations, and sometimes even in the matted ivy covering their walls. The first clutch of eggs is generally laid early in April, and the second early in June; even a third laying is not unfrequent, for birds just hatched have been found at least as late as October 18th, so that even a fourth brood is possible, although the young probably succumb to the approach of winter.* The eggs, whose complement, as with all true Pigeons, is invariably two in number, are oval in form and of a pure glossy white, measuring 1°6 by 1:2; they are deposited at an interval of two or three days, and incubation lasts from sixteen to eighteen. The male takes a share in this task, and, as a rule, sits on the eggs during the greater portion of the day. The young, when hatched, are helpless and blind, continuing so until about the ninth day, and they remain in the nest until they are quite able to fly. They are nourished by food supplied from the crops of the parent birds, who, opening their bills so that the mandibles of the young enter the pharynx, regurgitate the pulpy and half-digested, curd-like contents of the crop, shewing that ‘‘ pigeon’s milk” is not the absolute and unfounded fable it was once supposed to be. Mr. R. Gray (op. cit.) states that he has several times reared young birds from eggs placed under a common Pigeon, and in these cases they maintained a quiet habit, mixing freely and tamely with their domestic neighbours; but in only one instance did he know of a Ring Dove breeding in confine- ment. This was a female, taken young, which received her liberty when fully grown, but, instead of flying back to the woods, she paired with a bachelor domestic Pigeon in a dovecote in the town of Cumnock. The pair had eggs three times, although only one young bird was reared ; it was larger than the domestic Pigeon, and resembled the female parent in its general markings. As mentioned in former Editions of this work, the late Mr. Thomas Allis, of * Mr. Frank Norgate (Zoologist, 1878, p. 106) states that on February Ist he shot four young Ring Doves in Norfolk, one of which retained the long downy filaments on the upper wing-coverts. 4 COLUMBID#. York, and the late Earl of Derby, at Knowsley, were success- ful in inducing this species to breed in confinement. When reared from the nest, the birds frequently become much attached to their owner, and even when given their liberty they have been known to sweep down and recognize him with demonstrations of pleasure after an absence of nearly twelve months, although always shy to strangers. Up to six years ago, a pair used to breed in the Green Park, and a few still do so in Kensington Gardens; but the tame- ness of this species, under certain conditions, can nowhere be witnessed better than in Paris, where, in the gardens of the Luxembourg, the Tuileries, the Pare Monceau, and other public promenades, the Ring Doves may be seen taking food from, and even perching upon the arms and shoulders of those who habitually feed them. The Ring Dove is strictly monogamous, and during the breeding season is generally seen in pairs: or singly, when taking turns at the task of incubation. In the autumn, how- ever, it becomes gregarious, and in winter the flocks sometimes consist of many hundreds, and even thousands. During the summer these birds feed on green corn, young clover (the leaves of which they devour by the bushel), grain of all sorts, peas, &. Mr. R. Gray has shot numbers with their crops perfectly distended with gooseberries; and from the crop of one killed in Forfarshire 1,020 grains of corn were counted. The crops of four of these birds sent by Lord Haddington at different times yielded the following results: the first contained 144 field peas and seven large beans; the second 231 beech nuts; the third 813 grains of barley; and the fourth 874 grains of oats, and fifty-five of barley. Such damage may be better estimated from the fact that the bird is known to feed three times daily; and in a grain-pro- ducing district, like East Lothian, where from 15,000 to 29,000 Pigeons have been destroyed within twelve months, without effecting any apparent decrease in their numbers, the loss to agriculturists must be enormous. It appears doubt- ful whether the bill of the Wood Pigeon is strong enough to break into the bulbs of turnips, but when that work has RING DOVE. 5) been commenced by Rooks, Partridges or hares, the Pigeons continue to hollow them out very successfully ; whilst there can be no doubt that they eat the leaves, and thus check the growth of the turnip in its earlier stages.* They are fond of bathing in and drinking fresh water, and Mr. Cordeaux states that in summer, but at no other time, this species resorts daily to the marsh drains of the Humber district to which the tide has access for the purpose of drinking the brackish water; Mr. H. Blake-Knox has also observed it eating sea-weed on the rocks left bare by the ebb. It is partial to the seeds of the common buttercup (Ranunculus acris), as well as the berries of the holly and the yew; and when it resorts to the stubbles after harvest to consume the scattered grain, it also devours an immense number of the seeds of various weeds, thereby rendering services to the farmer which in some measure counterbalance the depreda- tions of the rest of the year. In England it has long been known as an abundant and generally distributed species, whose numbers have shewn a decided tendency to increase ; but in Scotland the spread of high cultivation has assisted its progress in a remarkable manner. In East Lothian, where less than a century ago the species was quite unknown, the records of the Agricultural Society of that district shew that no less than 130,440 birds were destroyed between 1863-1870 without materially affecting its numbers. The eastern dis- tricts of Scotland frequently suffer from the arrival of im- mense flocks from the continent, a large proportion taking up their abode in the country, but on the western side although on the increase it is less numerous, and although ranging up to Sutherlandshire, it is merely a straggler to the westward of the Inner Hebrides. Even to the Orkneys and the storm-swept, treeless Shetlands, its visits are becoming more frequent, and it has wandered several times as far as the still bleaker Feroes. In Ireland it is generally distri- buted and on the increase. On the continent of Europe it ranges in summer throughout suitable districts up to about * R. Gray, op. cit. 6 COLUMBIDZ. 65° N. lat., and has even straggled up to 66°10’ N.: in the central portion it is generally resident, but in the southern countries bordering the Mediterranean it is more especially abundant on migration, although it breeds in some numbers down to Morocco, and also in Algeria. Its western limit is the group of the Azores, where according to Mr. Godman it appears to be confined to the central and eastern islands. To the eastward its range cannot be traced with certainty much beyond the Ural, in the north, or beyond the Tigris in the south: in Asia Minor, Palestine, and as far as Bagdad this species is certainly abundant, but in Turkestan, and to the east of the line of the Persian Gulf, it appears to be replaced by an allied species, C. casiotis (Bp.), with neck- patches of a buff colour instead of pure white. In the adult male the bill is yellow towards the tip and orange-red at the base; the soft parts about the nostrils almost white; irides straw-yellow; head and upper part of the neck bluish-grey, the feathers on the sides of the neck glossed with violet and purple, the lower ones being tipped with white, forming parts of four or five oblique rings; back, scapulars, both sets of wing-coverts and tertials a shade darker, and browner than the head; the first four or five feathers of both sets of wing-coverts white, or partially white, which, when the wing is closed, produces only a white line down the edge of the wing, but when they are spread open these feathers then form a conspicuous white patch, which is visible at a great distance; the primary quill- feathers are lead-grey with narrow white margins and black shafts; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts bluish- erey; tail-feathers twelve; the pair in the centre of two colours, the basal two-thirds bluish-grey, the ends dark lead- grey; the other ten feathers of three shades of grey, the middle part being the lightest in colour; chin bluish-grey ; neck and breast vinous-purple; belly, vent, and under tail- coverts ash-grey ; under surface of tail-feathers pearl-grey in the middle, lead-grey at both ends; tarsi and feet red, claws brown. The whole length is seventeen inches. From the carpal RING DOVE. re joint to the end of the wing ten inches; the second quill- feather being the longest in the wing, from which the others decrease gradually. The female is a little smaller than the male, and her colours are somewhat duller. Young birds are fully fledged by the end of the third week, and are then of a lead-grey, with a very conspicuous wing-bar, on the upper parts; the breast being vinous- brown, with numerous yellowish filaments still adhering to the tips of the feathers. The bill, which is tumid.and quite out of proportion to the size of the bird, is even more flattened out, and more distinctly notched on the edges of the under mandible, than in most domestic Pigeons. The colour of both bill and feet at this time is a livid grey: the former with a white tip crossed by a narrow black bar. Before their first moult they have no white on the sides of the neck, and the general colour of the plumage is less pure and glossy, but they assume the adult plumage the first year. Varieties more or less spotted over the body with white, and even perfect albinos, are sometimes met with: a remarkable example of the latter is in the collection of Mr. John Marshall, of Belmont, Taunton. 8 COLUMBID#. COLUMB. COLUMBID. * CoLumBA NAS, Linnzus THE STOCK DOVE. Columba @nas. By Montagu, Bewick, Fleming, and some of the earlier authors, the Stock Dove was confounded with the Rock Dove, from which, however, it is now well known to be perfectly distinct. Whilst this confusion lasted, the name was sup- posed to be owing to its being considered to be the origin of our domestic stock; but the appellation is now generally attributed to its habit of nesting in the stocks of trees, par- * Columba cnas, Linneus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12 (1766), i. p. 279, in part, the description being somewhat confused with that of the Domestic Pigeon, although in the Fauna Suecica, p. 75 (1761), the author had accurately described the present species. As the name has been long and almost universally applied to this bird, there seems to be no adequate reason for rejecting it. @nas from oivos, vinum. STOCK DOVE. 9 ticularly such as have been headed down, and have become rugged and bushy at the top. Its German name Hohltaube, or Hole-Dove, is similarly owing to the predilection for hollow trees. In fact, the peculiar nesting habits of this Dove are amongst its principal characteristics. In wooded countries it generally selects elms, oaks, and willows— especially pollards—and the hollows of beeches: frequently making no nest but depositing its eggs upon the rotten wood which has accumulated; it also makes use of old Crows’ and Magpies’ nests and squirrels’ dreys, the matted boughs of the Scotch fir, and ivy-grown trees and ruins. In such situations as the foregoing its eggs may be found even so near to London as Richmond, Windsor, and Cashiobury Parks, and generally throughout the wooded southern counties of England. But in the open districts— Norfolk and Suffolk—it occupies the deserted rabbit-burrows upon warrens; placing its eggs about a yard from the entrance, generally upon the bare sand, sometimes using a small quantity of dried roots, &c., barely sufficient to keep the eggs from the ground. Besides such situations on the heath, it nestles under thick furze bushes which are imper- vious to rain in consequence of the sheep and rabbits eating off the young and tender shoots as they grow; the birds always preferring those bushes that have a small opening made by the rabbits near the ground.* The young, which are ready for the table early in June, are stated by Professor Newton to be a source of considerable profit to the warreners, whose perquisites they are ; and in consequence almost every warrener keeps a ‘‘ dowe-dawg,” i.e., a dog trained to discover the burrows in which the Doves breed.t They also breed in the rabbit-burrows of the Lincolnshire coast and of Walney Island, Lancashire. But the nesting pecu- liarities of the Stock Dove do not end here. Mr. Harting (Zoologist, 1867, p. 758) relates how a pair bred for several seasons on a crossbeam in the old spire of Kingsbury Church, and the young birds, which he took and reared, * J. D. Salmon, Loudon’s Mag. Nat. H. ix. p. 520. + Stevenson, Birds of Norfolk, i. p. 356. VOL. Lil: C 10 COLUMBID&. were seen by many ornithologists. By the same plan Mr. Harting also proved that the Pigeons which frequented the Dorsetshire cliffs about Lulworth Cove were not, as had been generally supposed, Rock Doves, but Stock Doves. There can, indeed, be little doubt that in several locali- ties a similar error has prevailed; and this is certainly the case in the Undercliff district of the Isle of Wight, where the Editor can state from personal knowledge that the Stock Dove is the species which nests in abundance in the holes of the wooded crags near Ventnor. It also nests in the sea cliffs of Flamborough, where, however, the Rock Dove is also found. Under these circumstances it is not so strange that this species should have been confounded with the Rock Dove, for it appears to be about the same size when on the wing, and although it has not a white rump, yet in its light and rapid flight it far more closely resembles the Rock than its larger and heavier congener the Ring Dove. The eggs, two in number, are oval and white, of a some- what more creamy tint than those of C. palwmbus, and measure about 1°5 in length by 1:1 in breadth. They are usually laid about the commencement or middle of April, but Mr. C. Mathew Prior states that fledged young may often be found by the third week of that month, and he also found two fresh eggs in a hollow ash-tree on 2nd October, 1875.* Incubation lasts seventeen or eighteen days. In its habits this species resembles the Ring Dove, but its note is far less distinct and less prolonged, and may not inaptly be described as grunting. Its food is naturally somewhat similar; but the late Mr. Rodd remarked that in the case of a bird of each species shot at the same discharge, whereas the crop of the Ring Dove contained a great pulp of clover leaves, turnip- tops and bulbs, that of the Stock Dove contained not a leaf of clover, but an egg-full of charlock seeds, some barley and several weed seeds. Columba cenas is, in fact, a south-eastern species which is eradually extending its range northwards and westwards. It has occurred in the Scilly Islands, and sometimes visits * Zoologist, 1879, p. 338. STOCK DOVE. ll Cornwall in large flocks in winter, passing upwards into Wales, in some counties of which it certainly breeds—among the rocks of Merthyr Tydfil, for example—although nowhere so numerous as the Ring Dove. In Devonshire it is prob- ably increasing, and Mr. Cecil Smith says that it is twenty- fold more numerous in Somersetshire now than in 1869. Although of somewhat local distribution, it occurs through- out the southern, midland, and eastern counties including Lincolnshire, where, Mr. Cordeaux says, it is distinctly on the increase; and, although scarcer to the north of the Humber, it breeds regularly in the rocks and rabbit- holes of the cliffs in the Hambleton Hills. It has already become common in the neighbourhood of Castle Eden Dene, Durham, and has even pushed its breeding range as far as Northumberland and Berwickshire. Its occurrence in Stirlingshire and southern Perthshire has been recorded by Mr. Dalgleish (Ibis, 1878, p. 382), and Mr. R. Gray says that there is evidence that it has strageled as far as Orkney. The instances already cited in which this species has been mistaken for the Rock Dove on the strength of its selecting holes in cliffs for its nesting-place, lead to the supposition that similar and as yet undiscovered errors may have been made elsewhere. In Ireland its occurrence was first recorded by Lord Clermont, who obtained one in October, 1875,* and subsequently obtained another, and ob- served the birds nesting in a crevice of the rock on the hill- side on the borders of Armagh and Louth—a locality which they had been known to frequent for some years, but until then it had not been decided whether they were this species or the Rock Dove. It has also been obtained, and has bred, in county Down.t On the continent it has once been known to straggle beyond the arctic circle, but its usual northern range nearly coincides with that where the oak grows (about 60° to 61° N. lat.) : it being plentiful in south-eastern Norway, Sweden, Germany, and suitable localities in Russia as far as the Ural, migrating southward in winter. In some of the * Zoologist, 1876, p. 4798. + Op. cit., 1877, p. 383. 125 COLUMBIDZ. large forests of France it is abundant, and resident, but in the countries bordering the Mediterranean it principally occurs on migration. In Morocco, however, Colonel Irby observed it during the breeding-season near Tangier, and also as far south as Larache; and it certainly visits and probably breeds in Algeria; but its occurrence as far as Egypt is at present open to doubt. In Palestine and Asia Minor it is also found, reaching as far as the Tigris, but beyond the Persian plateau, and eastward of that line and of Turkestan, its place is taken by a very interesting and dis- tinct species, C. eversmanni. ‘The latter, whilst resembling C. wnas in the broken and undefined character of the bars on the wing, differs from it in having the basal half of the bill black, the crown of the head vinous, and a pale grey band across the rump, in which latter characteristic it approaches the Rock Dove, C. livia. The beak is horn-white at the tip: the basal portion red ; irides brown; head, neck, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts bluish-grey ; primary quill-feathers brownish-grey, the ex- ternal margin lighter; secondaries pearl-grey at the base of the outer web, lead-grey at the ends; tertials bluish-grey, the last three with a dark lead-grey spot on the outer web, and a similar spot on some of the wing-coverts above, without, however, forming a regular band in any position of the wing ; rump and upper tail-coverts light bluish-grey; tail of twelve feathers: the basal two-thirds bluish-grey, inclining to white on the outer web of the exterior ones, followed by a band of lighter grey : the ends lead-grey ; chin bluish-grey ; sides of the neck glossy green, with purple reflections ; breast vinous ; belly, flanks, vent, under wing, and under tail-coverts pale bluish-grey ; tarsi and feet red. The whole length of the male is about thirteen and a half inches. From the carpal joint to the end of wing nearly nine inches ; the second quill- feather the longest, and the third nearly equal to it. The female is somewhat smaller, and her colours are less brilliant. Young birds before their first moult have no shining metallic feathers in the neck, nor are the spots on the tertials and wing-coverts apparent. ROCK DOVE. 13 COLUMBL. COLUMBIDA, CoLUMBA LIv1A, Gmelin.* THE ROCK DOVE. Columba livia. Tue Rock Dovs, as its name implies, is a species which, in its natural and wild state, inhabits rocks whose cavities afford it shelter during the greater part of the year. Such localities are in these islands principally confined to the sea- coast, and consequently the records of the Rock Dove being found breeding inland are, in many cases, open to the suspicion that either the Stock Dove has been mistaken for it, or that the individuals in question are really domestic birds which have abandoned the dovecote. It has already been pointed out that even on the sea-coast it is frequently * Columba livia, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 769 (1788), ex Brisson. There is some uncertainty about Gmelin’s description, but the name has been universally adopted for this species. 14 COLUMBIDA. the Stock Dove which has been proved to inhabit the cliffs, as in Dorsetshire, the Isle of Wight, and Yorkshire ; and it seems to the Editor that the only localities in which true wild birds can be with certainty indicated as breeding are those in which the rocks offer deep caves, or at least cavities and fissures. Cliffs of this description are compara- tively rare on the coast of England, and it is in the north and west, and along the rugged, sea-scooped shores of Scotland, Ireland, and their islands, that the true home of the really wild Rock Dove must be sought. There can be no doubt that this, with two or three closely-allied sub-species or geographical races, is the stock whence our domestic Pigeons have sprung, and a very large proportion of the latter have varied so little from the parent stem, that it is often extremely difficult to distinguish between true- bred wild birds and those which have been at least partially domesticated. Both the wild stock, and the varieties pro- duced from it, have been exhaustively treated by the late Charles Darwin,* and to his masterly arrangement of facts the present abstract is much indebted. In the eastern and southern districts of England, localities suited to its habits are few and far between, and even in some places which apparently offer the requisite conditions, such as Guernsey, Sark and the smaller Channel Islands, the Rock Dove seems to be little known ; in Devonshire it is also rare and very local, and only a few frequent the cliffs of Cornwall. It can be traced along the coast of Wales to the Isle of Man, to the northwards of which its numbers increase until almost every district up to the confines of the Hebrides, the Orkneys, and the Shetlands, has its ‘‘ Ua’ Caloman,”’ or *“doo-cave.”’ In Ireland also, especially on the rugged, wayve-worn crags of the western side, it is abundant. On the eastern side of England the breeding-places of this Species are necessarily few, and even in Yorkshire and Northumberland the birds found in them are open to the suspicion of not being pure wild birds; but along the coast of Scotland, from the Bass Rock upwards, the wild Rock * Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication, i. pp. 187-235, ed. 1875. ROCK DOVE. 15 Dove is generally distributed. In many localities either wild birds, or, more probably, those which have become feral, are chequered with black on the wing-coverts and back, and to such a variety the late Mr. Blyth once doubtfully gave the name of C. affinis. In the Feroes* it is abundant, but in Scandinavia the wild bird is scarce and very local; whilst in the rest of northern and central Europe it is decidedly uncommon, except in a feral state, until mountainous regions are reached, when, as in the Pyrenees, it is again met with. In the Canaries it is common, and Mr. Godman states that it is abundant in the Azores, most of his specimens being so dark in plumage that the band on the wings is no longer visible; dark forms are also found in Madeira, accompanied by so much variability as to raise a strong suspicion that they are domestic Pigeons which have become feral. The same suspicion attaches to C. gymnocyclus, G. R. Gray, from Senegambia, and also to the birds now found in a wild state in the island of St. Helena. On the coasts of the countries on both sides of the Mediterranean, and on the islands, it is generally distributed ; and in the mountain ranges of Spain, especially in the neighbourhood of the Sierra Nevada, the Editor has seen immense flocks pouring forth from the deep cavernous gorges on the way to their feeding-grounds. He estimated that within a short time fully 7,000 birds passed in his immediate vicinity, each flock being led by a pied and doubtless half- bred bird, of which description there were generally a few individuals in every band. It must be remembered that vast numbers of semi-domestic Pigeons exist in Spain, and that there are well-known laws for their protection, such as the prohibition to shoot at them within a certain distance of the dovecote, or when obviously returning to it. In Italy Bonaparte considered that he had discovered a new species, to which he gave the name of C. turricola ; but this is now considered a mere variety or half-breed. * A bird in which the black bars on the wing were replaced by a few spots, was named by Brehm C. amalic. 16 COLUMBIDA. Many of the birds on both sides of the Mediterranean have a distinctly white rump, although even in the west, as in Spain, there is a tendency in the white to become less pure than in northern examples, and the band is often narrower. Proceeding eastward, there is a gradual increase in the number of birds which have less white in the rump, until in the Jordan valley, according to Canon Tristram, only the grey-rumped form, to which Bonaparte gave the name of C. schimperi, is found; although in the mountains on either side the true C. livia is abundant. In Egypt, Dr. Leith Adams states that it is not easy to define the limits of wild and domestic Pigeons, all the denizens of the dove- cotes preserving the leading characteristics of the two black bars on the wings and the single black bar on the tail, with the white on the edges of the outer tail-feathers: most of the domestic birds, however, had the grey rump of C. schimperi. True C. livia appears, however, to go as far as Mesopotamia, and has also been obtained in Sindh and Cashmere, but in Gilgit, Dr. Scully found both the white-rumped and the grey- rumped forms ; even the latter, however, being always lighter than the extreme form, C. intermedia, Strickland, which in- habits Southern India and Ceylon, and which has the rump as dark as, or darker than, the back. In Turkestan, Central Asia, Tibet and China, is found a more distinct form, C. rupestris, Pallas, which has a white subterminal band on the tail- feathers. ‘‘ There seems,”’ says Darwin, ‘‘ to be some rela- tion between the croup being blue or white, and the temperature of the country inhabited by both wild and dovecot pigeons; for nearly all the dovecot pigeons in the northern parts of Europe have a white croup like that of the wild European rock pigeon; and nearly all: the dovecot pigeons of India have a blue croup like that of the wild C. intermedia of India.” In Britain the Rock Pigeon sometimes begins breeding as early as March: birds recently hatched having been noticed on 2nd April,* and young, and even unhatched eggs, are found in September; so that at least two broods are reared * R. Gray, Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 222. ROCK DOVE. lé4 in the year. Deep caverns, moist with the spray from the thundering surge, are its favourite resorts, and on entering one of these in a boat, numbers will dart forth from its dark recesses, and, as the eye becomes accustomed to the twilight, the grey plumage of those which have remained on the more distant ledges, may be discerned against the dark background of the rocks. The nest is slight, con- structed of bents, heather, dried grasses or sea-weed, and the eggs are, as usual, two in number, pure white, of a short oval shape, rather pointed at one end, measuring 1°5 by 1°15. Like its congeners, this species’ devours considerable quantities of grain; making amends to some extent by eating the roots of the couch-grass (Triticum repens), and the seeds of various troublesome weeds when corn is not procurable. Montagu ascertained that it eats considerable quantities of Helix virgata, and Macgillivray says it picks up several species of shell-snails, especially Helix eraectorum and Bulimus acutus. It drinks frequently, and in Egypt, in places where the banks of the Nile are so steep that the birds cannot alight on the shore to drink, both Mr. R. S. Skirving and Mr. E. C. Taylor have observed whole flocks settle on the water like Gulls, and drink whilst they floated down stream. The same habit has been observed in tame pigeons at Cologne when the shore-ice in the Rhine prevented approach to the water. It is migratory in the north to a limited extent, impelled by the necessity of seeking food, but generally it is a resident species. One marked characteristic is its strong objection to settling upon trees—a peculiarity shared by its domesticated relatives. The adult has the beak reddish-brown ; irides pale orange; head and neck bluish-grey, the sides of the latter shining with green and purple reflections ; shoulders, upper part of the back and both sets of wing-coverts french-grey; all the greater coverts with a black mark forming a conspicuous black band; primary and secondary quill-feathers bluish-grey, darker on the outer webs; tertials pale grey with a broad band of black separated from the above-mentioned band by the light- VoL. III. D 18 COLUMBID&. coloured line of the great wing-coverts; lower back and rump white; upper tail-coverts slate-grey; tail-feathers twelve in number, a shade lighter, with a broad terminal dark leaden band, sometimes paler at the extreme tip; chin bluish-grey ; throat purple and green; breast, and all the under surface of the body grey; under wing-coverts and axillaries white; under tail-coverts slate-grey; tarsi and feet red; claws dark brown. The total length of the male is fourteen inches; from the carpal joint to the end of the _ wing nine inches; the first quill-feather a little shorter than the second which is the longest. The females are smaller than the males, and their colours, especially on the neck and shoulders, are less brilliant. The young, which are at first covered with loose yellow down, are, when fledged, of a duller colour, but other- wise similar to the old birds, with the exception of the metallic tints on the neck: even then their white rump easily distinguishes them from the young of the Stock Dove, and at the first moult they acquire their full plumage. It hardly comes within the scope of this work to enter into details respecting the domesticated varieties sprung from this stock. Many of them, as Darwin has remarked, would, if found wild, have been ranked as distinct species, whilst not a few present even structural peculiarities, which would certainly have led ornithologists to place them in dif- ferent genera. A peculiar interest, however, attaches itself to the Homing Pigeon, one of the least removed from the original stock, and often erroneously called the Carrier. The practice of using Pigeons for the conveyance of messages is of great antiquity, and Dr. Leith Adams (Ibis, 1864, p- 26) states that on one of the walls of the Temple of Medinet Haboo is a sculpture of the time of Rameses III., B.c. 1297, representing that monarch as having just assumed the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, whilst a priest in the regal procession is sending out four Pigeons to convey the news abroad, shewing that even then they were used for this purpose. The following observations respecting the ROCK DOVE. 19 latest performances of the Homing Pigeon will, therefore, be read with interest; especially as they proceed from that great authority, Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, the originator of the recent utilization of this variety by the Trinity House :— ‘“‘ The variation of the Rock Dove in a state of domestica- tion is capable of being carried out to a very remarkable degree by careful selection of brood-stock. Not only can the colours of the original species be varied, or even their arrangement reversed, but strange modifications can be per- petuated ; such as the production of frills or hoods, and an increase in the number of the tail-feathers, varying from the normal twelve up to forty. Structural alterations are also effected, as in the rounded head of the short-faced Tumbler, or the elongated beak of the fancy Carrier. The latter breed is frequently confounded with the Homing or Voya- geur Pigeon, which is only altered from the wild original by a larger cerebral development, greater size and muscular power, and an extraordinary increase in the breadth of the primary flight-feathers of the wing. “‘ Careful training, and breeding from the best specimens, have greatly increased the faculty that these Homing birds have for returning to their lofts from long distances. The system of beginning with a few miles, and increasing until fifty and even a hundred miles are taken at a stage, causes the loss of the weaker and the less intelligent birds, and the perpetuation of the best of the race. The result has been remarkable. Some thirty years since it was rarely the case that in the Belgian pigeon-races of 800 miles, even a few birds returned home on the day of their liberation, but now it is unusual, in good weather, for any of the prizes in a 500 miles race, not to be won on the very same day that the birds are flown. Thus in the great Belgian national race of the present year (1882), which took place from Morcenx, south of Bordeaux, to Brussels, a distance of 510 miles, 1,674 birds were liberated at 4.12 a.m., the wind being S.W., and the weather clear, the first bird reached home at 4.37 p.M.; his speed having been about 1,300 yards per minute. One hundred and fifty-five birds were back the 20 COLUMBID&. same day, and the match was over early next day, when the winner of the two hundred and eighth, or last prize, was sent to the club for identification. The return of these birds is not unfrequently spoken of as a peculiar manifestation of instinct, but it depends upon observation and power of flight ; and the best bred birds will be lost if they are taken untrained 100 miles from home. Im this island, where the cloudier state of the atmosphere interferes greatly with the view of the birds, distances equal to those on the Continent have not been accomplished, but races are regularly organized, and this year several have been successfully flown from Cherbourg, Arras, St. Quentin, &c., to all parts of England. ‘“ The utilization of Homing pigeons in the conveyance of letters microscopically reduced, from Tours to Paris during the siege of 1870-71, is well known; and birds are now reared by both Germans and French in all those fortresses which are liable to be beleaguered in time of war. In England the Trinity House have utilized them in carrying messages from the light-ships, and they are also being employed by the Government on some of the Indian stations.” TURTLE DOVE. 21 COLUMBA. COLUMBID&. TurruR communis, Selby.” THE TURTLE DOVE. Columba turtur. Turtur, Selby+.—Bill rather slender, the tip of the upper mandible gently deflected, that of the lower scarcely exhibiting the appearance of an angle: base of the upper mandible covered with two soft, tumid, bare substances covering the * Naturalist’s Library, Ornithology, vol. v. pp. 153 and 171 (1835). + Tom. cit. p. 169. 22 COLUMBID&. nostrils. Tarsi rather shorter than the middle toe ; inner toe longer than the outer. ‘Tail, of twelve feathers, rather long and considerably rounded or graduated. Wings rather long and pointed, the first quill a little shorter than the second, which is the longest. Tur Turtir Dove is only a summer-visitant to the British Islands, arriving in the southern districts about the end of April or beginning of May, according to the nature of the season. Owing to the great increase of conditions suitable to their habits, these birds are both more numerous and far more widely distributed than in former years. They frequent woods, fir plantations, and high thick hedges dividing arable land, and in such situations they make a flat nest of a few twigs, frequently so slight as to seem incapable of retaining the eggs. Its elevation varies considerably: sometimes it is not more than four feet from the ground; the average distance is about twelve ; and it has been found at least forty feet up, on the top of a pine in a shrubbery. The eggs, deposited from the middle of May onwards, are, as usual, two in number, of a glossy creamy white, rather pointed at one end, and measure about 1:2 by °9 in. The parent birds take turns in the task of incubation, which lasts a fortnight, and, sometimes at least, two broods are reared in the season, Mr. Cecil Smith having shot a bird on the 1st September which could only have just left the nest. They are partial to grain, pulse, and seeds of various sorts, and, like other members of the family, they drink regularly. Their flight is rapid and, amongst trees, remarkably tortuous. The note is a low plaintive coo, uttered more especially by the male, and the pleasure experienced by the lover of nature on hearing this harbinger of returning summer is second only to that caused by the earlier note of the Cuckoo. Being somewhat suscep- tible to cold, the majority of the Turtle Doves take their departure for southern climes in September ; but in sheltered situations, and especially in southern counties, some remain considerably later, and an example has even been obtained as late as 18th November. The Report of the Committee of the British Association on the Migration of Birds in 1880, shews that fifteen struck the Casquets lighthouse between I ee pace Rac eI PE LUE - . SS TURTLE DOVE. Sa 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. on September 7th-8th. In the autumn, young and old birds may be found in small flocks upon the stubbles and among the root-crops, and are at that time decidedly beneficial to the agriculturist by devouring the seeds of numerous weeds. In Cornwall it appears to be a somewhat irregular visitant, nor is it very common in Devon, but in the other southern counties, and up to Lincoln, it may be described as generally distributed, and breeding where the nature of the country is suitable to it. Shropshire, especially between Shrewsbury and Ludlow, seems to be a favourite district ; and Mr. Eyton says that it is known there by the name of the Wrekin Dove. In western Wales it is rare, but it occurs in Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. As a rule, however, to the north of the line of Sheffield it can only be considered as a straggler on migration; but it has recently been known to breed in Durham, although not as yet in Northumberland. The last remark applies to Scotland, although it has occurred in many counties, especially in those on the western side of the kingdom: on migration it also strays to the Hebrides, to the Orkneys, and to the Shetlands. In some of the wooded parts of Ireland it is generally distributed, but in the western districts it was formerly unknown, and notwithstanding the increase of larch and other plantations, Mr. R. Warren has only observed three specimens in Mayo and Sligo within the last twenty years. A strageler to the Feroes, it occurs throughout a great part of Scandinavia, and even at such an elevation as Quickjok, although somewhat rare and local in Denmark. Throughout Central and Southern Europe it is found from spring to autumn, being especially abundant in the south at the epochs of migration ; in South Russia it occurs in large flocks; it abounds in Asia Minor, Palestine and Persia, chiefly on passage, and was obtained by Dr. Henderson in Yarkand. In Turkestan, South-western Siberia, and India it is represented by TJ’. ferrago, Eversmann, in which the tips of the feathers on the side of the neck are slate-grey and not white; and eastwards, again, the latter species is 24 COLUMBIDA. replaced by 7’. orientalis. South of the line of the Medi- terranean, it occurs at Madeira and in the Canaries, and is found throughout Northern Africa to Egypt, where Captain Shelley says that it breeds: its representative, J’. isabel- linus, which is also a migrant, being, however, the more abundant species there. Von Heuglin met with J’. com- munis in the Dahlak archipelago, in the Red Sea, and on the shores of the Tzana Lake in Abyssinia (12° N. lat.), at an elevation of over 6,000 feet, during the month of May. The adult male in summer has the beak brown; the irides reddish-brown ; bare skin about the eye red; crown, nape, and hind neck bluish-ash, inclining to brown; on the lower part of the side of the neck are several rows of black feathers broadly margined with white; scapulars, back and rump ash-brown, with darker centres to each feather; the larger and the external smaller wing-coverts dull grey; the remainder with the tertials cinnamon-brown with dark centres ; quill-feathers clove-brown; upper tail-coverts and the two central tail-feathers clove-brown; the other tail- feathers lead-grey broadly tipped with white, which runs up the whole outer webs of the two exterior feathers; chin nearly white, neck and breast pale vinous; belly, vent, and under tail-coverts white; under surface of the tail-feathers black with broad white tips, as on the upper surface; under wing-coverts and flanks bluish-grey; tarsi and feet red ; claws dark brown. The whole length is about eleven inches and a half: from the carpal joint to the end of the wing seven inches ; the second quill-feather a shade longer than the first, which again is longer than the third. The colours in the female are less bright and pure than those of the male, and she is rather smaller in size. In young birds, prior to the autumnal moult, the general colour of the head and body is hair-brown ; the back rather darker than the side of the neck, on which there are no black and white feathers; the wing-coverts tipped with buffy-white ; the quill-feathers slightly tinged on their outer edges with rufous ; belly and under tail-coverts white ; flanks TURTLE DOVE. a4 bluish-grey ; tail-feathers above hair-brown, on the under surface blackish-brown : the outer feathers on each side with the external web, and the next two with the ends, white; tarsi and feet brown. Early in September the vinous tint is assumed on the neck and breast, and the black and white feathers which form the half collar begin to make their appearance. The upper figure in the engraving at the head of this subject represents an adult bird; the lower figure was taken from a young bird of the year. The vignette represents in outline the form of the breast-bone of this species, of the natural size. EQ ae AQ VOL. III. E 26 COLUMBID®. COLUMB.4 COLUMBIDA. EctToPistEs MIGRATORIUS (Linnzeus”). THE PASSENGER PIGEON. Eictopistes migratorius. Ecroristes, Swainsont. Bill small, slender and notched. Wings rather elongated, pointed ; the second feather longest. Tail very long and extremely cuneate. Tarsi very short, half-covered anteriorly by feathers; anterior scales imbricate ; lateral scales small and reticulate. THe American PassENGER PicEon was included in the first Edition of this work on the strength of the occurrence of a single specimen recorded by Dr. Fleming in his ‘ History of British Animals,’ p. 145, as having been ‘‘ shot while perched on a wall in the neighbourhood of a pigeon-house, * Columba migratoria, Linnens, Syst. Nat, Ed. 12, i. p. 285 (1766). + Zoological Journal, iii. p. 362 (1827). ad —_ PASSENGER PIGEON. 27 at Westhall in the parish of Monymeal, Fifeshire, the 31st of December, 1825. The feathers were quite fresh and entire, like those of a wild bird.’’ To this in the 2nd and 3rd Editions was added the record of another, which was sent to Mr. John Norman, of Royston, for preservation, the follow- ing notice of the occurrence being contributed by Mr. Hale Wortham. This bird (now in the Saffron Walden Museum) was obtained between Royston and Chishill, early in the month of July, 1844, by the sons of the tenant of the farm called Known’s Folly, about two miles east of Royston. When the lads first saw the bird it appeared so much exhausted that they could have knocked it down with a pole, if they had had one; they, however, fetched a gun and shot it. When examined the crop was quite empty, but in the stomach there were some few seeds, resembling cole-seed, and a few small stones, but no barley or any traces of artificial food. The plumage was perfect, and neither the wings, the tail, nor the legs exhibited any sign that the bird had been in confinement. Of the correctness of the identification of these two exam- ples there can be’ no question; but it will be observed that in neither case does the date of the occurrence corre- spond with that of the usual periods of migration. More- over, although there is no proof that Passenger Pigeons were brought over to this country prior to 1825, yet Audubon states that in March, 1830, he bought about 350 of these birds in the market of New York, and carried most of them alive to England, distributing them amongst several noble- men (Orn. Biog. i. p. 8326); thus shewing that there was then no difficulty in bringing them over; and, as a matter of fact, they have subsequently been imported with frequency. The next instance is recorded by Thompson in the ‘ Birds of Ireland,’ iii. p. 448, in which he quotes the following letter from Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald, Junr., writing from Tralee in July 1850 :—“T had in my possession, about two years ago, a Passenger Pigeon which was caught near this town when unable to fly from fatigue. From this circumstance there can, I think, be no doubt that it came direct from America,as a bird of its powers of flight would not have 98 COLUMBIDZA. been exhausted unless it came from some very great distance. It never became tame, though I had it in confinement for about two years, at first alone, and afterwards in company with other pigeons. It would walk backwards and forwards in a very shy manner when any one looked at it, and always avoided the other birds.’”’ Thompson adds: ‘‘ The account of this individual leads one to believe that it may have crossed the Atlantic.” The fourth example is recorded in a note by Lord Binning in Turnbull’s ‘ Birds of East Lothian,’ p. 41 (1867), as being in the collection of Lord Haddington, who shot it at Mellerstain in Berwickshire; adding that a gentleman in that county was known to have turned out several Pas- senger Pigeons shortly before this one was shot, and it was rather remarkable that nothing was heard of the others. A supposed Passenger Pigeon was recorded in ‘ The Field,’ September 11th, 1869, as having been shot near Melbourne, in Derbyshire, but the bird was not preserved. The latest undoubted occurrence is that of an example shot near Mulgrave Castle, Yorkshire, by Lord Harry Phipps, and examined in the flesh on 13th October, 1876, by Mr. John Hancock, who, in the ‘ Natural History Transactions of Northumberland and Durham,’ v. p. 338, described it as follows:—‘‘ The quill- feathers in the wings were much worn and broken, and in the forehead above the bill they are apparently worn off to the skull, as though the bird had been trying to get out of a cage or some other enclosure ; therefore I cannot come to any other conclusion than that this specimen, a female, had made its escape from confinement.” There is no authentic record of the occurrence of the Passenger Pigeon on the Continent of Europe; or even on Heligoland, famed for its attractiveness to American strag- glers. As regards two at least of the above examples obtained in the British Islands, there seems to be a strong probability that they were birds which had acquired their freedom ; but with regard to the others, it may be borne in mind that this species is capable of long-continued flights, and is known to pass over a great extent of country with a PASSENGER PIGEON. 29 rapidity which Audubon estimated as at least a mile a minute. Passenger Pigeons are frequently captured in the State of New York with their crops still filled with the undigested grains of rice that must have been taken in the distant fields of Georgia and South Carolina, apparently proving that they had passed over the intervening space within a few hours. After weighing these facts, it has been deemed advisable on the whole to retain this species in the present Edition. This beautiful Pigeon is found throughout North America from the Atlantic to the great Central Plains, to the west of which its food supply is limited, and its presence correspond- ingly restricted: it has, however, been recently obtained on the Pacific slopes, and in Nevada. Northwards it was observed on the Mackenzie River as high as 65°, whilst on the coast of Hudson’s Bay it only reached 58°, even in warm summers: as a stragegler, however, a young male bird is recorded by Sir James Ross as having flown on board the Victory during a storm, whilst crossing Baffin’s Bay in latitude 733 N., on the 31st July, 1829. In the Southern States it is of comparatively rare occurrence, but it has been found breeding down to 32° N. in Mississippi; as a straggler it has visited Cuba, and, perhaps, the Bermudas. Considera- tions of food, and not of temperature, mainly influence its migrations, for large columns frequently move northwards early in March with 20° of frost. Graphic accounts of its migrations, and its immense breeding communities, will be found in the ornithological works of Audubon, Wilson, and, for more recent information, the ‘ History of North American Birds,’ by Messrs. Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, may be con- sulted. Its food consists largely of the service-berry (Ame- lanchier alnifolia), acorns and beech-mast, and as soon as the supply becomes exhausted, the immense flocks suddenly disappear, and do not return for a long period. The nest is composed of a few dried twigs laid crosswise, and eggs may be found by the middle of March. It has been stated that only one egg is laid, but subsequent expe- rience has shown that, as with other Pigeons, two is the 30 COLUMBID&. usual number: they are white, of an oval shape, and average 1°5 in length by 1:1 in breadth. Incubation lasts sixteen days, the male taking turns with the female. An account of the breeding of the Passenger Pigeon in the Zoological Gardens will be found in the Proceedings of the Society for 1833, p. 10, and other similar instances are on record. In the adult male the beak is black; head, back of the neck, wing-coverts, back, and upper tail-coverts bluish-grey ; sides of the neck reddish-chestnut, richly glossed with metallic gold and violet; scapulars, tertials, and middle of back olive-brown ; primaries lead-grey with lighter coloured outer margins, the shafts black; the tail, of twelve feathers, long, cuneiform ; the four middle tail-feathers the longest, lanceolate and pointed; the outer four on each side gradu- ated; the middle pair dark brown; the rest pearl-grey on the outer web, white internally, each with a patch of reddish-brown at the base of the inner web, followed by another of black; chin bluish-grey; throat and breast pur- plish-chestnut, becoming violet on the belly and flanks; vent and under tail-coverts white; legs and feet red. Total length seventeen inches; wing eight inches and a half. The female is smaller, and much duller in colour ; beneath, pale ash instead of chestnut, except a tinge on the neck. Young birds have most of the feathers of the head and body margined with dirty white. SAND-GROUSE. 31 PTEROCLETES. PTEROCLID. SYRRHAPTES PARADOXUS (Pallas).* PALLAS’S SAND-GROUSE. Syrruapres, //liger.t—Bill small, gradually decurved from the base to the point ; nostrils basal, hidden in the feathers; wings very long, pointed,. the first primary longest ; tail, of sixteen feathers, cuneate ; the two central ones long and tapering ; tarsi very short and strong, covered with downy feathers to the toes, which are three in number, all in front, and united by a membrane as far as the claws ; hallux obsolete; soles rugous ; claws broad and obtuse. In the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,’ 1882, pp. 312-332, Dr. Hans Gadow has recently published the results of a careful examination into the affinities of the Pteroclide, with special reference to the opinion expressed * Tetrao paradoxa, Pallas, Reise Russ. Reichs, ii., App. p. 712, Tab. F. (1773). + Wliger, Prodromus, p. 243 (1811). 32 PTEROCLIDA. by the late Professor Garrod (P. Z. S. 1874, pp. 249-259), that they must certainly be included in the same sub-order with the Pigeons, although forming two quite independent families. In arriving at that conclusion, it would, however, appear that a little too much stress was laid upon the points in which the Sand-grouse resemble the Pigeons and differ from the Fowls, without equal consideration having been given to their affinities with the Tetraonide and with the Plovers. Putting aside minor points, the principal features may be briefly summed up as follows:—The nestling- plumage of the Sand-grouse is a thick downy covering like that of the Plovers and Fowls; and, like them, the young can shift for themselves, whereas the Pigeons when hatched are almost nude, and quite helpless. The suppression of the hind toe, characteristic of Syrrhaptes, does not occur in Pigeons or Fowls, but it is a common feature in Plovers. Unlike the majority of the Columbe, the Pteroclide possess a gall-bladder; and in the great development of the cxca, they differ from the Columbide, and resemble the Galline. Their mode of drinking is entirely different from that of the Pigeons; their flight is rapid and Plover-like, without any of the gliding or soaring motion characteristic of Pigeons; their note is certainly unlike a coo; and, lastly, their eggs, although elliptical in shape, are coloured, and are at least three in number, like those of many Plovers, whereas with Pigeons the eggs are two in number, and white. On the other hand, the Sand-grouse resemble those genera of Pigeons which possess an oil-gland, in having it naked: and not tufted as in the Fowls and Plovers; the skull and wing-bones are Columbine, and in their myology also the Sand-grouse are more nearly allied to the Pigeons than to any other group. After much consideration the Editor thinks it advisable to adopt for the Sand-grouse the separate Order to which Pro- fessor Huxley gave the name of Pteroclomorphe,* subse- quently modified by Mr. P. L. Sclater to Pterocletes.t No event in the annals of ornithology has excited more * P. 7. S. 1868, p. 303. + Ibis, 1880, p. 407. SAND-GROUSE. 33 interest than the irruption of Pallas’s Sand-grouse, which commenced, so far as regards the British Islands, in 1859, and attained its maximum in 1863. The history of the visitation has been admirably narrated by Professor Newton (Ibis, 1864, pp. 185-222): details as regards the eastern counties being subsequently furnished by Mr. H. Stevenson (Birds of Norfolk, i. pp. 876-404); and from their able treatises the present abbreviated account is mainly derived. The earliest date on record of the appearance of the Sand- grouse in Britain was about the beginning of July, 1859, at Walpole St. Peter’s, about two miles from the Wash, Norfolk; the example, a fine male, being secured for the Lynn Museum; and a notice of its capture communicated to the ‘ Zoologist,’ p. 6764, and to the ‘Ibis’ (1859, p. 472), by the Rev. F. L. Currie. On 9th July, another male was shot from a flock of three, near Tremadoc, at the north end of Cardigan Bay, and presented by Mr. Chaffers to the Derby Museum, at Liverpool. A notice of this had already appeared in the ‘ Zoologist’ (p. 6728), from Mr. T. J. Moore, who subsequently gave a full account of it in the ‘Ibis’ (1860, pp. 105-110), illustrated by one of Mr. Joseph Wolf’s admirable plates. In November, 1859, Mr. George Jell, of Lydd, in Kent, preserved a specimen for Mr. Simmons, of East Peckham, near Tunbridge, and these three are all which are known to have been obtained in Great Britain prior to 1863; all statements as to arrivals during the intervening years having apparently originated in error. On the continent, in the same year, a pair appear to have been obtained at Wilna, in Western Russia, in May; a third example was at Hobro, in Jutland; and a fourth, one of a pair which had haunted the sandhills near Zandvoort, in Holland, since July, was shot there in October. In 1860, one was obtained at Sarepta, on the Lower Volga. In 1863 came the great invasion, extending westwards to Naran, on the coast of Donegal. To understand it, allusion must first be made to a portion of its course on the conti- WOli. IIL. F 34 PTEROCIIDA. nent. The most eastern, and also the most northern locality of which there is any record, as regards this migration, is Archangel; a specimen in the Museum of that town being recorded by Messrs. Alston and Harvie- Brown,* another being in a private collection there ; and a specimen was also obtained at Moscow. The earliest date that can be given with precision is the 6th of May, at Skolonitz, in Moravia. By the 21st of May Heligoland was reached, and the same day the first British examples of that year, two males and one female, were shot out of a flock of fourteen, at Thropton, in Northumberland. The next day birds had reached Eccleshall, in Staffordshire, where two were shot out of a flock of about twenty; and from that date onwards the records become numerous. It is unnecessary to recapitulate the exact localities and details of each capture, so carefully worked out by Professor Newton and Mr. Stevenson; and it will be sufficient to say that in Norfolk and Suffolk seventy-five birds were obtained, a number far exceeding that obtained in any equal area. The most interesting of these instances was that of a slightly wounded bird which was taken alive near Elveden, and sent by Professor Newton to the London Zoological Gardens, where it lived for some time. In Lincolnshire several were obtained in May; and early in December about twenty were shot out of a flock numbering between forty and fifty; many more, however, are believed to have been eaten or destroyed in ignorance of their rarity.t In Yorkshire about twenty-four examples were killed; and in Durham and Northumberland about twenty-six. On the eastern side of Scotland, birds were obtained in Hadding- tonshire, where, besides the slain, one was kept alive by Lord Haddington ; in Forfarshire, seven or eight examples ; in Perthshire, Kincardine, Aberdeen, Elgin, Caithness, and Sutherland; even on Unst, the northernmost of the Shet- lands, an example was obtained on 4th November, out of a small flock; and one also on Benbecula, in the Outer * This, 1873, p. 66. + Dresser, Birds of Europe, vii. p. 77. + Cordeaux, Birds of the Humher District, p. 80. SAND-GROUSE. 35 Hebrides,* on October13th. In the south, before the end of June, Sand-grouse had visited the flat shores of Essex, Kent, and Sussex; the sands of Slapton, in South Devon; the Land’s End, and St. Agnes, Scilly Islands. At Heanton, in North Devon, a survivor was obtained in December ; and at Haverfordwest,.in Pembrokeshire, another, which was seen in the flesh by the late Mr. Gould, was obtained 8th Feb- ruary, 1864; the latest date for these islands. ecleshall, in Staffordshire; Oswestry; the sandy coasts of Cheshire and Lancashire; Penrith, in Cumberland, were visited; and then, after a considerable interval, Sand-grouse turned up again in Renfrewshire and Stirling. Inland they occurred in various localities: on the flats of Cambridgeshire, the sandy heaths of Aldershot, and even so near the metropolis as Barnet. In Ireland examples were killed at Ross; and at Drumbeg and Naran, both in co. Donegal; the latter being the most western locality on record. Judging from the materials available, it would appear that a large majority were obtained from May 21st onwards to the end of June, by which time the awakened and widely-spread interest in the new visitants, taking its usual forms of persecution and extermination, had done its worst. Some may have sought refuge on the continent, which they had left; but, at all events, by the middle of November they had disappeared from the favoured counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. In the remote and scantily peopled districts of the wild West a few individuals lingered throughout the autumn and winter ; but even there, by February 1864, the last of the invaders of 1863 had succumbed. The birds which arrived on our shores formed, however, but a portion of a far larger eastern horde, the main body of which, in all probability, never reached the British Islands. The meagre information as to their occurrence in Russia has already been given. From Galicia, on the 6th of May, the Sand-grouse pressed onwards to Pesth, Vienna, and other Austrian localities; the outlying wing of the army sending forth its stragglers as far south as Rimini, on the Adriatic ; * R, Gray, Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 239. 36 PTEROCLID. Belluno and Novara, in Northern Italy; Perpignan at the eastern, and Bayonne at the western extremities of the Pyrenean chain. In France, according to Degland and Gerbe, they were found all over the basins of the Seine, the Loire, the Gironde, and the Rhone, reaching as far as the shores of the Atlantic, where the date of the last capture, at Sables d’Olonne, in Vendée, in February 1864, coincides with that of the last and one of the most western of the occurrences in England. In the Baltic they occurred both on the southern shores, and as far as Nykoping, in Sweden ; whilst examples were obtained in Norway up to 62° N. lat. ; and a flock even reached the distant Faroes in May. The main body appears to have swept through Germany as far as the North Sea, and finding the sandhills of the coasts of Denmark, Holland, and Belgium suited to their habits, they took up their abode there in considerable numbers. The dunes of Zandvoort, already visited by a pair in 1859, again attracted several bands, and at least one clutch of eggs was taken; but it was in Denmark that the most interest- ing details were obtained, and the following abstract of a paper by Professor Reinhardt, of Copenhagen, is furnished by Professor Newton :— “‘Early in June last, Herr Bulow, an officer in the Custom-house at Ringkjobing, sent the Professor several living birds which had been snared by a gunner on their nests in the above-mentioned district, together with four of their eggs. One of the latter was found by Herr Bulow in the box which conveyed the birds, having been laid on the journey. It was colourless, indicating that it had been prematurely produced. The other three eggs were fully _ coloured. It appears that this gunner found two nests of Syrrhaptes in his own neighbourhood, and a third at a place called Bierregaard. On two of the nests both the birds (in each case the hens first and then the cocks) were caught, on the 6th June. These nests were near one another; and one, containing three eggs, consisted of a slight depression in the sand, lined with a little dry marram. The other had only two eggs, was placed among some ling, and furnished SAND-GROUSE. By 4 in alike manner. The third nest was similar to the first, and was half-way up a sandhill. Of the three eggs sent to Herr Bulow, he found that two were quite fresh, but in the third the fetus had begun to form, shewing that they had been taken from different nests. Some more nests were found by other people, but unfortunately none of them were taken care of. The gunner, at Herr Bulow’s request, made further search, but not until the 27th of July did he suc- ceed in making any new discoveries. On that day he met with a flock of about a dozen birds, of which he shot two. He then went again to Bierregaard, where at last he put a bird off its nest among some stones in the sand, and con- taining three eggs. Next day he returned to it, set a snare, in which, after two or three hours, the hen-bird was caught ; ‘and a few hours later he procured the cock in the same way. In the interval he found, to his surprise, that one of the eges had hatched. He took away with him the pair of old birds, the newly-born chick, and the remaining two eggs, which, on getting home, he put in a box of wool by the fire, where a second egg was hatched. The third proved to be rotten. The chicks only lived one day, and it seems they were not preserved. On that same day (the 28th), while waiting about for these birds to be caught, he stumbled on another nest, from which he shot both the owners.” Returning to the subject of migration: the Sand-grouse visited Heligoland, where about thirty-five were shot in May and June, and a few in autumn, when they also occurred at Norderney ; Borkhum in May and June, and again on their return, in September. The last recorded individual of this invasion was obtained alive, having flown against the telegraph wires in June 1864, near Plauen, in Saxony, and was sent to the Zoological Gardens in Dresden.* Mr. Dresser states that about twenty were said to have been seen in that year, and three of them shot at Brody, Galicia; but this record may possibly refer to the occurrence in previous years already cited. As regards the numbers of this invasion, it is undoubted that a very large proportion passed unrecorded, even in the * E. Opel, Journal fiir Ornithologie, 1864, p. 312. 38 PTEROCLID. British Islands; and, when writing in 1864, Professor Newton considered that the total could be set down as under 700; an estimate which is probably a very moderate one, especially when the number of birds taken and eaten in France is considered. In 1872 a small flock of Sand-grouse were reported to have frequented the coast of Northumberland, opposite the Fern Islands, from the end of May to 6th June; but a bird which was at first stated to have been shot, proved, on enquiry, to have got away.* On 25th and 29th June four birds of this species were described as having been seen near Girvan, Ayrshire; + but there is no confirmatory record of similar occurrences in other parts of the British Islands or on the Continent. On 4th May, 1876, a solitary example, obtained near Modena, in Italy, might have been expected to prove the precursor of another invasion; but no further arrivals either on the Continent or in Britain appear to have been recorded until, on the 4th of October of that same year, a male and female were shot near Kilcock, co. Kildare, Ireland; a notice both of the occurrence and of the places where the specimens might be inspected, being published in ‘ The Field’ of 14th October, by Mr. W. N. Coates. With these stragglers the list of visitants closes for the present. Essentially a native of the Asiatic steppes, this species was first made known to Pallas as an inhabitant of those Kirghiz plains whose western boundary is the Caspian Sea. A straggler across the political frontier between Asia and Europe, reached Sarepta on the Lower Volga in the winter of 1848, and, coming under the notice of the Moravian settlement there, Herr Moschler enrolled this species in his list in 1853 as a very rare European bird. It is probable that our visitors came from this western extremity of their range. Henke (Ibis 1882, p. 220) says that Sand-grouse are occasionally found near Astrakhan in winter; and in 1876 great numbers bred on the Kirghiz steppes, where the * J. Hancock, N. H. Tr. Northum. and Durham, vi. p. 87. + R. Gray, Ibis, 1872, p. 335. SAND-GROUSE. 39 nomads told him that they had not previously observed them. LEastwards, Pallas’s Sand-grouse.is found throughout the sandy wastes of Turkestan to Samarcand; throughout the Kirghiz steppes to Lake Balkash; in the deserts at the foot of the Tian Shan range; and in both the steppes and the deserts of Mongolia, and in the basin of the Tarei-nor. Colonel Prjevalsky * states that in summer it goes north even beyond the shores of Lake Baikal, where it breeds; spending the winter in those parts of the Gobi Desert which are free from snow, and in Ala-shan, where it is met with from October onwards in flocks of several thousands. Some winter in the Hoang-ho Valley in South-east Mongolia, and during severe weather the plains between Tien-sin and Pekin and of the Pechili are covered with them; the natives, who call them ‘‘Sha-chee,” taking numbers of them with nets.t Southwards, this species extends to Koko-nor and Tsaidam, but it does not ascend to Kansu or Northern Thibet, being there replaced by the only other known species of the genus, ~ Syrrhaptes thibetanus, an inhabitant of much greater altitudes. These enormous flocks feed largely on the seeds of Agrio- phyllum gobicum, so that the number of wintering birds depends on the supply of that food, although they occasion- ally feed on other seeds and berries. In the crops of some of those killed in Norfolk only the seeds of plants proper to the sandy coast were found, without any trace of animal or mixed food ; the gizzards containing an enormous quantity of small stones and sand. They drink several times a day, preferring fresh to brackish water. Most observers agree in describing the flight of this Sand- grouse as much resembling in its style and rapidity that of the Golden Plover. Prjevalsky says that when a large flock is on the wing, the noise is like the sighing of the wind and can be heard at a considerable distance. In the air the male birds utter a peculiar note, like “ truck-turuk, truck-turuk,” especially when in small flocks. Prjevalsky states that the complement of eggs is three, which is the usual number with other Sand-grouse. In the * In Rowley’s Miscellany, pt. ix. p. 382. + Swinhoe, Ibis, 1861, p. 341. 40 PTEROCLIDA. beginning of June he found in Ala-shan three nests with three eggs in each, one set being quite fresh, the two other sets very much incubated. It will be remembered that three was the largest number of eggs found in one clutch in Denmark, and three is well known to be the complement of eggs with other members of the Pteroclide. Herr Radde, however, who had excellent opportunities of observing this species in Dauria, and whose detailed account is translated a little further on, says that ‘‘the eggs go up to four,”’ although it will be observed that he never mentions jinding more than three ; and in the frontispiece to the ‘ Reisen im Siiden von Ost-Sibirien,’ Band ii., he figures a pair of birds by the side of a nest containing four eggs. There may be some mistake in this, or it may point to another paradoxical character in this species, indicating a closer affinity to the Plovers than is shewn by the other members of the order ; but, at all events, such a distinct assertion must not be passed over in silence. The eggs are elliptical, stone-buff in colour, with darker blotches of purple-brown, and average 1°5 in length by 1:1 in breadth.* The following is a translation of the full account given by Herr G. Radde in his above-cited work, pp. 292-294 :— ‘«The basin of the Tarei-nor, in Dauria, is situated in about 50°N. lat. and 116° E. long. The nest is very simple, re- sembling those of the other Sand-grouse, and several pairs, but never many, usually breed in company. In the salt- impregnated soil on the Tarei-nor, usually on the ground which has been dry for years, a shallow hollow about five inches in diameter is scratched out, and the edge is lined with a few salsola shoots and grasses; but the latter are fre- quently absent. Eggs go up to four (7.e., do not exceed four). Syrrhaptes does not winter regularly on the north-eastern edge of the elevated Gobi, in the low spurs of the northern portion of the Himalaya range. On the 10th (22nd) March, * An egg laid in the Zoological Gardens on 21st June, 1861, by one of several birds sent from China, was described and figured by Professor Newton, P. Z. 8. 1861, p. 397, pl. 39, fig. 1. SAND-GROUSE. : Al 1856, when at night the thermometer fell to —13° Réaumur, and at midday rose to + 2°, the first flock of the present species arrived at the Tarei-nor. They flew in close skeins like Plovers. In the spring these flocks are composed of four or six pairs, as the birds have then paired, but in the autumn more than a hundred collect together in one flock. When on the wing they utter a very audible cry, from which their Mongol name (Njiipterjiin) is derived; and the pairs fly close together. A male, shot on the 17th (29th) March, had the testes as large as a cedar-nut; and late in March eggs are to be found, for a female shot on the 30th March (11th April) had an egg ready for exclusion in her ovary. This Sand-grouse breeds twice, and sometimes three times, in the season. On the 20th April (2nd May) I found fully- formed young in three eggs in one nest, and the next day I took two fresh eggs. On the 14th (26th) May I again found fresh eggs. The young are certainly able to shift for themselves when hatched, and this fact places them decidedly near the Fowls, in spite of their manifold relationship to the Pigeons. I first saw the young birds running after their mother on the 380th April (12th May). In the morning, especially in the spring, they visit the fresh water to drink regularly at the same hour, and in April this was at nine o’clock. Single pairs arrived from different directions, calling and being answered by those which had already arrived, and which they then joined: they stood on the edge of the water in a line, usually eight to twelve together, not remaining there long, but soon leaving, apparently to feed. They are fond of the young juicy shoots of the Salicornie, and regularly graze on these as the Bustard does on some of the grasses. In the spring I found the crop and stomach full of the seeds of the Salsola. During the summer they are fond of basking in the sun, and I then generally found several pairs together. Like fowls, they scratch a hole in the greyish-white salty hillocks which cover large tracts on the banks of the Tarei-nor, and on which the salt-plants grow. I have often watched them resting in these places ; at first they run about as if search- ing for something, and then about eleven o’clock, when it VOL. III. G 42 PTEROCLIDA. becomes hot, they rest, scratching a hole in the ground, and, like barn-door fowls, working themselves in comfortably, lying on one side, with their usually smooth plumage puffed out. They do not place a sentinel, but sit motionless, their black-sprinkled plumage assimilating so well with the soil that they can scarcely be distinguished. When disturbed they rise, uttering a cry, and fly off with great rapidity, as do all that hear the alarm-cry, although not belonging to the same flock. They first pack together, then divide into small flocks, and by degrees return to their resting-places. So swift are they on the wing, that it is scarcely possible for the fastest Faleon to catch them; and their flight is more rapid and straighter than that of the Pigeon. I doubt, however, if they can run far, as, when I have been watching them, although they ran swiftly, they did not continue for any distance. It is curious how the large flocks migrate away in the summer. I had a peculiar instance of this from personal observation. Late in May I went to visit the Aral Island, in the Tarei-nor, and had to pass the large tract where the lake was dried out; and in the forenoon I saw a number of flocks of Sand-grouse which inhabited this place, and were so shy that I could not possibly approach them, so, after many unsuccessful attempts to shoot them, I gave up the chase till the evening. At sunset they had collected into two large flocks of at least a thousand indi- viduals each, and were making a great noise; and it was now impossible to approach them. After being several times disturbed, they left the shores of the Tarei-nor and went to the neighbouring wintering-place of the flocks (of sheep, &c.), where, from the numerous droppings, there was always a large blackish-brown patch on the sterile steppe. Here they remained undisturbed, as the darkness prevented me from following them; but they continued calling loudly. On the next day none were to be seen; and later on I did not see one. The herdsmen also assured me that there were no Sand-grouse left, but that they would return in autumn ; and such proved to be the case; for in October, when north of the Dalai-nor, a large, noisy flock passed SAND-GROUSE. 43 me, travelling from the south to the north. Here, on the north-east of the Gobi, if they remain in the autumn, the natives calculate on a mild winter...... The flesh of this Sand-grouse is white and very good.” From the above narrative it will be observed that this Sand- erouse is liable to sudden movements in large flocks, but of the cause which produced the invasion of 1863 no more is known now than it was then, although various hypotheses have been started. As regards the merits of its flesh, which Herr Radde naturally found excellent in the deserts of the Tarei-nor, Mr. Stevenson, experimenting upon exam- ples which had first been skinned, found them, at their best, nearly equal to a French Partridge; the only resem- blance to Grouse consisting in the two colours of the flesh, the outer portion of which is dark and that nearest the bone white: a feature which, it may be remarked, is common to the other Sand-grouse. In the adult male the bill is horn-colour, the crown of the head yellowish-grey, with dusky streaks; hind neck crossed by a band of orange, more intense at the sides, rest buff-grey ; back and scapulars ochraceous, barred with dark brown and black, as are the rump and upper tail-coverts, on which the bars gradually change into streaks; primaries lavender, with black shafts and dark tips, the outer quills attenuate, especially the first, which is the longest ; second- aries buff on the inner and black on the outer webs; wing- coverts buff, bordered with chestnut, forming a conspicuous band along the wing ; tail of sixteen feathers, mostly tipped with white, grey centres, and rith buff inner webs barred with dark brown: the central pair buff, barred with black on the upper parts, then passing into grey, and then to dark brown near the filamentous tips, often exceeding the others by fully three inches ; chin buff; throat orange ; lower parts buff, with a narrow band of black-edged feathers on the chest, and a broader dark brown band on the abdomen and flanks ; under wing-coverts pale buff; under tail-coverts white, the lower ones long and pointed, with dark centres; legs and feet, down to the toes, covered with buff-white feathers. 44 PTEROCLIDZ. The young male differs in having the head more streaked with black; the throat and neck are buff instead of orange, with a faint black gular ring; the band across the chest is at first absent ; the primaries are more sandy-coloured ; the upper parts are much spotted instead of being barred, and the central rectrices are hardly prolonged. The adult female has the crown and nape buff streaked with black, without the golden-orange of the male; the throat and sides of the head orange-buff, with a narrow black gular terminal band; upper parts and wing-coverts rather spotted than barred with black; chest-band very indistinct, but feathers on the abdomen dark brown through- out their greater parts; general colours duller, and central rectrices less elongated than in the adult male. Total length of the male about fifteen inches: wing ten inches ; first primary one inch longer than second ; central rectrices extending three and even three and a half inches beyond the others. Female slightly smaller. Weight of well-conditioned birds of both sexes ten and a half ounces. Examples with recently moulted quills were obtained on 26th June, and birds shot in October, after their full change, were remarkable for the beauty and freshness of their plumage. The vignette represents the sternum of this species. CAPERCAILLIE. 45 GALLIN di. 3 TETRAONID. Ne Ww TETRAO UROGALLUS, Linneus”. THE CAPERCAILLIE, WOOD GROUSE, OR COCK OF THE WOOD. Tetrao urogallus. Trerrao.+—Bill short, strong ; upper mandible convex, and arched from the base to the tip. Nostrils basal, lateral, partly closed by an arched scale, and * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 273 (1766). AW Les 46 TETRAONIDE. hidden from view by small closely-set feathers. Space above the eye naked, the skin red with papille, and fringed. Wings short, and rounded in form ; the fifth quill-feather the longest. ‘ail of eighteen feathers. Feet with the toes naked, three in front united as far as the first joint, and one toe behind, short, the edges of all pectinated. ‘Tarsi feathered to the junction of the toes. Tue term Capercaillie, sometimes written Capercally and Capercailzie, is of Gaelic origin, and, as usual, the best authorities differ in their interpretation of it. Both the derivation and the orthography are discussed at some length in Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown’s excellent monograph entitled ‘The Capercaillie in Scotland’ (1879), and, more tersely, by Professor Newton in the ‘ Encyclopedia Britannica.’ The balance of authority appears to be in favour of the com- ponent words Cabhar, an old man (and by metaphor an old bird), and Coille, a wood; i.e. the old bird of the wood. It has also been derived from the Celtic gobur, a horse, or from gabur, a goat; and, bearing in mind the extension of the feathers on the throat of the male bird, like the beard of a goat, and his amorous behaviour in spring, the derivation seems not unlikely. The Scottish poet Dunbar, who died about 1520, uses Capircalyeane as a term of endearment ; and Hector Boetius, in 1526, alludes to the bird as the Auercalze, or horse of the woods; it is cited in the bill of fare of the Earl of Atholl when he entertained James V. in 1528-29, and by Bishop Lesly in 1578, who was the first to indicate a definite locality—Lochaber—as its abode. In the account given by John Taylor, the Water-poet, of his “‘ visit to the Brea of Marr,” in 1618, Caperkellies are specified along with ‘‘ heathcocks and termagants,’’ names which are subse- quently found in some old Acts of the Scottish Parliament, circa 1621, and in some later records, which, however, con- vey little information. In 1651 it was already scarce; for in the ‘Black Book of Taymouth’ a friend of the Laird of Glenorquhy writes to him: ‘‘I went and shew your Caper- cailzie to the king in his bedchamber, who accepted it weel as a raretie, for he had never seen any of them before.” At the time of Pennant’s Tour in Scotland, in 1769, it was nearly extinct, and he appears to have seen only one example, which was killed in the Chisholm’s country to the west of | CAPERCAILLIE. A7 Inverness. It is true that Graves, writing in 1818, mentions two males shot respectively about six years, and two years previously, the latter by Captain Stanton, near Burrowsto- ness; but there is really no satisfactory account of its occur- rence from the time of Pennant until its restoration in the present century. The causes of its extinction had probably been at work for a considerable time; the principal ones being the destruction of large tracts of pine forests by fire to get rid of wolves, and other ‘‘ vermin”; the wasteful destruction of timber, and the altered conditions thereby produced. In Ireland, where it certainly existed, although Giraldus Cambrensis, Willughby and Ray give little but its name, similar causes led to its extermination. Writing in 1772, J. Rutty (Nat. Hist. of the County of Dublin, i. p. 302) says, ‘‘ one was seen in the county of Leitrim about the year 1710 ; but they have entirely disappeared, owing to the destruction of our woods.’’ Pennant also states that about 1760 a few were to be found about Thomastown, in Tipperary ; and Longfield, in his treatise on ‘The Game Laws in Ireland,’ says that the ‘‘ Wild Turkeys” of Act George III. must have been Capercaillies ; adding that they were not extinct so late as 1787.* After careful investiga- tion of the existing evidence, Professor Newton is of opinion that the species was exterminated about the same time in both Scotland and Ireland ; the original British race becom- ing wholly extinct, and no remains of it being known to exist in any museum.t As regards the occurrence of the Capercaillie in England, within the last two years Mr. James Backhouse, of York, has discovered in the caves of the mountain-limestone of Teesdale, at an elevation of about 1,600 feet, numerous bones, which ‘have been pronounced by Professor Newton to be those of this species. In a letter to the Editor, Mr. Backhouse writes as follows : ‘‘ Among these [bones] is one nearly perfect humerus belonging to a male bird of full size; others, less perfect, to the female of ordinary size; whilst others, again, are smaller than those of the type. From the abundance of the remains * J. A. Harvie-Brown, op. cit. p. 154. + Eneye. Brit. Ed. 9, v. p. 54. 48 TETRAONIDA. of this bird, and their association with bone implements, there can be no doubt, I think, that the Capercaillie was, in past ages, a common denizen of the forests of the north of England, and was freely used as an article of food by the cave-dwellers. Remains of the Bear, Wolf, Lynx, Black Grouse, Red Grouse, Woodcock, Curlew, Long-eared Owl, and Grey-lag Goose were found in proximity.” This discovery shews that a large portion of the north of England was formerly covered by coniferous woods. Mr. Harting states that bones of the Capercaillie have been found amongst Roman remains at Settle; and that he has met with old grants (circa 1843-1861) of land in the county of Durham, held by the tenure inter alia of paying ‘‘ one wode-henne yerely” to the Bishop of Durham for the time being.* There seems to be no other evidence of the existence of the Capercaillie in England, or in Wales, within historic times, beyond the statement by several authorities that it was known to the Britons by the name of Ceiliog Coed. In the wooded parts of Scandinavia it is abundant, reaching as far as 70° N. lat., but towards the limits of the pine forests a diminution is observable both in numbers and in size. It is also very numerous in the forests of Russia, as far south as the department of Saratov on the left bank of the Volga, in about 52°N. lat. In Denmark its remains are found in the kitchen-middens of the pre- historic races who inhabited the country when it was covered with the pine forests which have long since given way to the oak and the beech; and under these altered con- ditions the bird became extinct. Throughout the forests of Northern and Central Germany, Switzerland, Tyrol, and on the pine-clad mountain frontier of North Italy it still exists ; a few still linger in the Vosges and the Jura; and its remains have been obtained in several of the bone-caves of France. From Auvergne it has nearly, if not altogether, disappeared ; and on the northern slope of the Pyrenees it has become somewhat rare, but itis not uncommon in the wild forests on the Spanish side, ranging to the extreme west of the Asturias, * Zoologist, 1879, p. 468. CAPERCAILLIE. 49 along the Cantabrian range. Passing eastward again, it is found in the Carpathians, and, probably, in portions of the Balkans ; but Dr. Kriiper has failed to discover any evidence ~ of its reported occurrence in Akarnania; a few stragglers are said to be found in Bessarabia on the northern side of the Black Sea, but it does not reach to the Caucasus. | In Asiatic Siberia, as represented by a very grey form, it is resident in suitable localities as far east as Lake Baikal ; but in Amoorland and Kamtchatka its place is occupied by a distinct species, Tetrao wrogalloides of Middendorf (not to be confounded with the ‘‘Tetrao, hybridus, Urogal- loides’?* or T. wrogallidest+ of Nilsson, which is a hybrid between the Black-cock and the hen Capercaillie). The real Tetrao wrogalloides of Middendorf is a more slender bird: the head and neck are rich purple-blue, in which re- spect alone it resembles the above-mentioned hybrid; the Wing-coverts and tertials are much margined with white, and the upper tail-coverts are broadly tipped with the same, and the tail is much longer in proportion and more graduated than in the Capercaillie—not in the least forked, as it is in the hybrid. Owing to the same name having been applied to a genuine, but little-known species, and also to a far more common and well-known hybrid which will be treated later on, much confusion has arisen, and even some recent autho- rities appear to be unaware that 7. wrogalloides of Eastern Siberia is a perfectly distinct bird from T. wrogallus. About the end of the year 1827, or early in January, 1828, Lord Fyfe imported a cock and hen from Sweden, only the former of which reached Braemar; and in 1829 another cock and hen; but although the latter laid a couple of dozen eggs in the ensuing April, this attempt at restoration was a failure. The probable reasons for this, with a long account of the experiment, are given in Mr. Harvie-Brown’s able monograph above cited, and from which many subsequent particulars are taken. In 1837, however, Lawrance Banville, head keeper to the late Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, of Nor- folk, was sent over to Venersborg, in Sweden, the residence * Skand. Fogl. ii. p. 72 (1835). + Op. cit. ii. p. 73 (1858). VOL. III. H 50 TETRAONIDA. of that veteran sportsman, the late Mr. Lloyd, who had volunteered his services, and by June 24th ‘‘ Larry’’ was back at Taymouth Castle with thirteen cock and sixteen hen Capercaillies, which were handed over to the successful care of Mr. James Guthrie, Lord Breadalbane’s head keeper. More were brought over in 1838, both to Taymouth and also to East Norfolk, but the latter attempt at introduction was not crowned with success. By the end of 1839 there appear to have been fifty-four adult Capercaillies at Tay- mouth ; in 1841 favourable reports were received of the hatching of eggs under grey-hens; and by 1863 Guthrie estimated the birds on the estate at 2,000. From Taymouth, the centre of restoration, and all along the Tay valley, as far as Dunkeld, Capercaillies spread, and although Perthshire still remains the head-quarters, Forfar- shire ranks not far behind. In Fifeshire, where the woods are of smaller extent, the species is more local, and in Kinross-shire, where there are no extensive pine-woods, it is comparatively rare. It is merely a straggler to Clackmannan- shire, but through Stirlingshire it is advancing, and will probably extend in time to the southern counties of Scot- land by that route. It is needless to enumerate many other localities in which Capercaillies occur, either, as in Arran, owing to separate attempts to emulate the success of the first experiment, or as stragglers. They are much given to migration, especially from forests of an older to those of a younger growth, which are more suitable to their require- ments of food and shelter combined. Spruce, Scotch fir and larch forests are their favourite haunts, but beyond these limits they are pressed by the increase of numbers ; and they are now often found in coverts of birch and oak, and in autumn on the heather-covered hillsides. Naturally they have followed the course of the valleys, choosing by preference a southern exposure : the hens preceding the males by one or two years. Mention has already been made of the attempt to intro- duce the Capercaillie into Norfolk; and similar ill-fortune has attended several other essays. The Hon. Gerald Las- celles is endeavouring to introduce the species into the New CAPERCAILLIE. 51 Forest. In Ireland, Lord Bantry failed to stock the woods of the neighbourhood of Glengariff, and Colonel E. H. Cooper, of Markree Castle, co. Sligo, has informed the Editor that his birds have all perished. The following description of the habits of the Capercaillie is taken from Mr. Lloyd’s ‘ Field Sports of the North of Europe,’ written during his long residence in Sweden :— “The Capercali is to be found in most parts of the Scan- dinavian peninsula; indeed as far to the north as the pine- tree flourishes, which is very near to the North Cape itself. These birds are, however, very scarce in the more southern of the Swedish provinces. The favourite haunts of the Capercali are extensive fir woods. In coppices, or small cover, he is seldom or never to be found. Professor Nilsson observes that those which breed in the larger forests remain there all the year round; but those which, on the contrary, breed on the sides of elevated mountains, or in a more open part of the country, in the event of deep snow, usually fall down to the lower ground. ‘The principal food of the Capereali, when in a state of nature, consists of the leaves and tender shoots of the Scotch fir, Pinus sylvestris. He very rarely feeds upon those of the spruce, Pinus abies. He also eats juniper berries, cranberries, blueberries, and other berries common to the northern forests ; and occasionally also, in the winter time, the buds of the birch, &e. The young Capercali feed principally at first on ants, worms, insects, &c. ‘‘Tn the spring of the year, and often when the ground is still deeply covered with snow, the cock stations himself on a pine, and commences his love-song, or play, as it is termed in Sweden, to attract the hens about him. This is usually from the first dawn of day to sunrise, or from a little after sunset until it is quite dark. The time, however, more or less, depends upon the mildness of the weather, and the advanced state of the season. During his play, the neck of the Capercali is stretched out, his tail is raised and spread like a fan, his wings droop, his feathers are ruffled up, and, in short, he much resembles in appearance an angry Turkey- 52 TETRAONIDA. cock. He begins his play with a call something resembling the word peller, peller, peller; these sounds he repeats at first at some little intervals; but as he proceeds they increase in rapidity, until at last, and after perhaps the lapse of a minute or so, he makes a sort of gulp in his throat, and finishes by drawing in his breath. During the continuance of this latter process, which only lasts a few seconds, the head of the Capercali is thrown up, his eyes are partially closed, and his whole appearance would denote that he is worked up into an agony of passion. “On hearing the call of the cock, the hens, whose cry in some degree resembles the croak of the Raven, or rather, perhaps, the sound gock, gock, gock, assemble from all parts of the surrounding forest. The male bird now descends from the eminence on which he was perched to the ground, where he and his female friends join company. ‘‘The Capercali does not play indiscriminately over the forest, but he has his certain stations, which may be called his playing-grounds. These, however, are often of some ' little extent. Here, unless very much persecuted, the call of these birds may be heard in the spring for years together. The Capercali does not during his play confine himself to any particular tree, and is seldom to be met with exactly on the same spot for two days in succession. On these playing- erounds several Capercali may occasionally be heard playing at the same time. Old male birds will not permit the young ones, or those of the preceding season, to play. Should the old birds, however, be killed, the young ones, in the course of a day or two, usually open their pipes. Com- bats, as may be supposed, not unfrequently take place on these occasions; though I do not recollect having heard of more than two of these birds being engaged at the same time. ‘« Excepting there be a deep snow, the Capercali is much upon the ground in the daytime; very commonly, however, he sits on the pines, sometimes on the very uppermost branches. During the night he generally roosts in the trees; but if the weather be very cold, he not unfrequently CAPERCAILLIE. 53 buries himself in the snow. Considering the large size of the bird, his flight is not particularly heavy or noisy.” Mr. Lloyd has not only seen this bird at a very considerable height in the air, but has known him take a flight of several miles at a time. ‘‘ The Capercali lives to a considerable age; at least so I infer,” says Mr. Lloyd, ‘‘ from the cocks not attaining to their full growth until their third year or upward. The old ones may be easily known from their greater bulk, their eagle-like bill, and the more beautiful glossiness of their plumage. The size of these birds appears to depend, in a great degree, on the latitude where they are found. In Lapland, for instance, the cocks seldom exceed nine or ten pounds. In Wermeland, and adjacent parts, again, I have never heard of their being killed of more than thirteen pounds ; whilst in the more southern provinces of Sweden,—and I have three several authorities for my statement,—they have not unfrequently been met with weighing seventeen pounds and upwards. The hen Caper- cali usually weighs from five to six pounds.* ‘‘The Capercali is often domesticated in Sweden; in- deed, both at Uddeholm and Risater, as well as other places, I have known them to be kept'for a long period in aviaries built for the purpose. These birds were so per- fectly tame as to feed out of the hand. Their food prin- cipally consisted of oats, and of the leaves of the Scotch fir, Pinus sylvestris, large branches of which were usually intro- duced into their cages once or more in the course of the week. They were also supplied with abundance of native berries when procurable. They were amply provided at all times with water and sand; the latter was of a coarse quality, and both were changed pretty frequently.” During the breeding-season the Capercaillie cock, like the males of most of the polygamous birds, are very fierce, and severe combats take place between rivals. Instances are also on record in which old males have not hesitated to attack the passers-by who infringed upon their domain, peck- * Mr. Harvie-Brown has informed the Editor that in Scotland the weight of males rarely reaches 10 Ibs., and that of females does not seem to exceed 44 lbs. 54 TETRAONIDA. ing at their legs and feet, and striking with the wings. Mr. Adlerberg mentions such an occurrence. During a number of years, an old Capercali cock had been in the habit of frequenting the estate of Villinge at Wormdo, which, as often as he heard the voice of people in the adjoining wood, had the boldness to station himself on the ground, and, during a continual flapping of his wings, pecked at the legs and feet of those that disturbed his domain. It is also stated that the Capercaillie occasionally has a spel of short duration about Michaelmas. The nest is a mere hole scraped in the ground, under a tree or bush, and the eggs are from six to twelve in number: as many as fifteen being on record; they are of a pale reddish-yellow colour, mottled with brown spots and blotches, and measure about 2°2 in length by 1°5 in breadth. Incubation lasts about a month, and the young are usually hatched early in June: remaining with the mother until the approach of winter. The adult male has the beak of a whitish horn colour ; the irides hazel; over the eye a semilunar patch of naked skin which is bright scarlet; plumage of the head, the neck in front and behind, the back, rump, and upper tail- coverts, minutely freckled with slate-grey on a brownish- black ground; the feathers of the crown of the head and on the throat rather elongated; wing-coverts and wings freckled with light brown on a darker brown ground: the depth of the tint depending on the greater age of the bird ; quill-feathers russet; tail-feathers nearly black, with a few greyish-white spots on the outer webs; some of the longer and lateral upper tail-coverts tipped with white; the chest of a fine shining dark green; breast black, with a few white spots; flanks and under tail-coverts greyish-black, spotted with white; under wing-coverts white, a small patch appearing on the outside near the shoulder; thighs grey ; legs covered with hair-like brown feathers which over- hang the toes in winter, but are shorter in summer; toes and claws naked and black. The dimensions of the males are subject to considerable CAPERCAILLIE. 05 variation, but the extreme length may be set down at three feet four inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, sixteen inches: the first feather two inches shorter than the second, and the second one inch shorter than the third ; the third and fourth equal in length, and longer than the others. The adult female has the beak brown ; the irides hazel ; the feathers of the head, neck, back, wings, upper tail- coverts, and tail, dark brown, barred and freckled with yellow-brown and tipped with white ; those of the neck in front and the breast are of a fine yellowish-chestnut mar- gined with black, and with an extreme edge of greyish- white; the feathers of the flanks, vent, and under tail- coverts with broader edges of white; legs greyish-brown ; toes and claws pale brown. The whole length of the female described was twenty-six inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, thirteen inches. The young birds of both sexes in their first plumage resemble the old female, the young males afterwards ob- taining by slow degrees the colours which distinguish that sex. Full plumage is not attained until the third year. Varieties of both sexes are not unfrequent, and Nilsson mentions several. They are usually of a pale, faded grey, with a few darker markings; and Mr. Lloyd (Game Birds and Wildfowl of Sweden and Norway) figures a nearly-white female, which, when killed, had a brood of young ones with her; one of them being nearly full grown, and of the usual colour of the Capercaillie hen. A male variety in the Thunberg cullection, at Upsala, has received the name of Tetrao eremita. Sterile females, which have assumed to a oreater or less extent the plumage of the male, are often met with: indeed Mr. Collett, of Christiania, says that he finds them every winter, and one, obtained on the 18th October, 1872, exhibited so striking a resemblance to an old and fully-coloured male as to be with difficulty distinguished from one. The distinguishing characteristics were the beard-like feathers on the throat speckled with white, the 56 TETRAONIDZ. dark bill, and the absence of the large white spot of the male bird on the tail, which was finely spotted with greyish-red.* That this sterility is not always a consequence of old age, is proved by the fact that many of these females are young birds ; but in all those dissected by Nilsson the ovarium was more or less diseased ; and the older the female, the closer was the resemblance she bore to the male. A figure of a barren female of this description is given below from Nilsson. Like many gallinaceous birds, the Capercaillie in confine- ment will breed with other species, and the first result of the earliest importation to Braemar was the production of a hybrid between the sole surviving male and a common barn- door Hen. In Mr. Lloyd’s ‘Game Birds,’ already cited, * Ornithology of Northern Norway, p. 48. CAPERCAILLIE. 57 is an amusing account of a male Capercaillie, which, having paired successfully with a Turkey-hen, deserted her for a white Goose, but was so scared by his reception that he never made any further advances to the Turkey or to any other hen bird. Allusion has already been made to the wild hybrid between the Capercaillie and the Black Grouse: a cross which is not uncommon in all countries inhabited by the two species, and is known in Seandinavia as the Rakkelhane or Rakkelfogel. This hybrid is generally, and some say invariably, produced between the female Caper- caillie and the Black-cock, and Mr. Harvie-Brown con- siders that it probably results from the fact that the females of the Capercaillie start on their wanderings before the males, and, in the absence of their natural partners, mate with the handsome and amorous Black-cocks whose ter- ritory they have invaded. The male Capercaillies soon follow the females, so this hybridism rarely attains to serious proportions. As regards the paternity, however, the late M. Falk, whose arguments are given at considerable length in Mr. Lloyd’s ‘Game Birds,’ held that many of these hybrids were the offspring of the females of the Black Grouse, and the younger male Capercaillies which had been debarred by the older and stronger birds from uniting with females of their own species. Under the former assump- tion, which has been maintained by Nilsson, Collett, and others, the name of Tetrao wrogallo-tetrix has been given as expressive of the origin of this hybrid, and as a sub- stitute for the inapplicable name J’. wrogalloides. From the erroneous belief that it was a distinct species, it had already been called T. medius, T. intermedius, &e. The male of this hybrid is a handsome black-billed bird, sometimes nearly as large as a young Capercaillie cock, and from six to seven pounds in weight; the shining feathers on the neck are of a rich Orleans-plum colour, and the outer feathers of the tail are longer than the others, giving it a forked appearance, although never to anything like the same extent as in the Black-cock. The figure of this bird on the next page is taken from a coloured illustration to Nilsson’s VoL. Ill. I 58 TETRAONIDA, ‘Skandinavisk Fauna.’ Females are either rarer, or, from their similarity to the hens of both species, they are over- looked ; they may, however, be recognized by the shape of the tail, which is perfectly square at the end, whereas in the Capercaillie hen it is rounded, and in the Grey-hen it is slightly forked. The Rakkelfogel are not believed to breed amongst themselves, says Mr. Lloyd, but the males resort to the Lek of the Black-game and disperse the cocks ; and at the Lek of the Capercaillie, they flit from tree to tree and disturb the Spel, for which reasons they are always shot as speedily as possible by Scandinavian sportsmen. In Scotland they have already made their appearance, and it is probable that they existed there in former times contempo- raneously with the Capercaillie. Full descriptions and illustrations of every way of shoot- ing and snaring the Capereaillie will be found in Mr. Lloyd’s ‘Game Birds;’ but the following description of a trap CAPERCAILLIE. 59 used by the peasants in Norway is derived from Mr. Grant, who also contributed the drawing from which the vignette at the end is taken :— Where the trees grow thickly on either side of a foot-path, two long pieces of wood are placed across it; one end of these rests on the ground, the other being raised a foot and a half, or somewhat more, from the surface, and supported by a piece communicating with a triangular twig, placed in the centre of the path, and so contrived that on being slightly touched the whole fabric falls: a few stones are usually placed upon the long pieces of wood to increase the rapidity of the drop, by the additional weight. Birds running along the foot-path attempt to pass beneath the barrier, strike the twig, and are killed by the fall of the trap. FO im NM RPPRPMTe NTT ITPTTOTTPE TM =" x d) 60 TETRAONID A. GALLIN 4. TETRAONID &. * TerRaAo TETRIX, Linneus. THE BLACK GROUSE. Tetrao tetria. AuTHouGH at the present day the word Grouse, when used alone, is applied in common parlance to the Red Grouse (Lagopus scoticus), yet it would appear from Professor * Syst. Nat. Ed, 12, i. p. 274 (1766). BLACK GROUSE. 61 Newton’s researches that the earliest record of its employ- ment is with reference to the present species. ‘‘ It first seems to occur (jide O. Salusbury Brereton, Archeologia, iii. p- 157) as ‘grows’ in an ordinance for the regulation of the royal household dated ‘apud Eltham, mens. Jan. 22, Hen. VIII.,’ t.e., 1531, and, considering the locality, must refer to Black game. It is found in an Act of Parliament i. Jac. I., cap. 27, § 2, z.e. 1603, and as reprinted in the Statutes at Large, stands as now commonly spelt, but by many writers or printers the final e is now omitted. In 1611 Cotgrave had ‘ Poule griesche. A Moore-henne ; the henne of the Grice {in ed. 1673 ‘ Griece’] or Mooregame (Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, sub voce Poule). The most likely derivation seems to be from the old French word Griesche, Greoche, or Griais (meaning speckled, and cognate with Griseus, grisly or grey), which was applied to some kind of Partridge.’’** Members of this species are now generally known collectively as Black game, and in Devon and Somerset as Heath-poults; the sexes being dis- tinguished as the Black-cock and the Grey-hen. The increase of population, the enclosure of wastes, and the drainage of boggy lands, have combined to curtail the area over which the Black Grouse formerly roamed in the south of England, and neither Eltham—once a favourite resort of Plantagenet and Tudor sovereigns—nor any other part of Kent can now shew any indigenous birds. In Surrey—-in consequence, it is said, of reintroduction early in the present century—Black Grouse are found about Leith Hill, and in the neighbourhood of Guildford; and also in Wolmer Forest, where the species had become extinct in the time of Gilbert White; but having been reintroduced after the planting of the woods by Sir Charles Taylor, then ranger of the forest, they throve exceedingly well. The parents of the present race came from Cumberland, and in 1872 an old man who brought the birds to Wolmer was still living at Liphook.t Descendants of these birds have * Encycl. Brit, Ed. 9, xi. p. 221, note. + H. W. Feilden, ‘The Field,’ March 30th, 1872 (p. 286). 62 TETRAONIDS. strayed to the heathy portions of the neighbouring counties of Berkshire and Hampshire on the one side, and to the district of the St. Leonard’s and Tilgate Forests in Sussex on the other. In the south-west of Hampshire, however, in the New Forest, they have never become extinct : they are found, although sparingly, in Wiltshire, and in suitable localities in Dorsetshire ; becoming tolerably abundant again on the Quantocks and the Brendons in Somersetshire, and numerous where that county joins Devon on the wilds of Exmoor. They are also met with in some parts of South Devon, and, although by no means common, they breed on the eastern moors of Cornwall. In Glamorganshire they became extinct prior to 1820, but they are found in Brecon, Radnorshire and some other Welsh counties ; in Shropshire ; and in Staffordshire, especially about Cannock Chase, they were recently abundant. Rare,if not extinct, in Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, they still inhabit Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, north of which they are found,— although locally, and in some cases owing to introduction, —in every county in England. An isolated and decreasing colony exists in Norfolk on the wild heathy tracts about Bawsey, Dersingham, Sandringham, and Snettisham ; and as Sir Thomas Browne (temp. Charles II.) says, ‘“‘ I have heard some have been seen about Lynn,’ it appears probable that the species is indigenous there. In Lincolnshire, according to Mr. Cordeaux, they were introduced some years ago on the wild district near Frodlingham on Trentside. In Scotland, although less generally distributed than in former years, Black Grouse are found, more or less abun- dantly, on all the mountainous and hilly districts and on many isolated patches of upland heather and sheep-land. They are plentiful in many of the Inner Hebrides, espe- cially on Mull; whilst in the northern portion of Islay, although it is bare of cover, they are, according to Mr. Elwes, rapidly increasing.* They have not as yet been successfully introduced in the Orkneys or the Shetland Islands. Thompson considers that there is no satisfactory * R. Gray, ‘ Birds of the West of Scotland,’ p. 231. BLACK GROUSE. 63 evidence of the species having ever been indigenous in Ireland, and attempts at introduction made in Antrim, and recently by Colonel Cooper, of Markree Castle, Sligo, have resulted in failure. In Norway and Sweden the Black Grouse is widely dis- tributed wherever there are woods and moorlands up to the limit of the birch forests in about 69° N. lat., and it even ascends the fells beyond the birch belt. Rare on the heaths of Denmark, and scarcely known in Holland and Belgium, except towards their southern and eastern frontiers, it be- comes tolerably numerous in suitable districts of Germany, and is more or less abundant on both sides of the mountain ranges of Central Europe from the Alps to the Carpathians. A resident in the wooded portions of Lombardy and Liguria, it even occurs as a straggler in the Apennines down to the Modenese. In France it appears to be confined to the mountains on the eastern frontier, but Crespon seems inclined to believe in its occurrence in the Cevennes, which would tend to strengthen the hitherto unsupported state- ment made by Dr. Company6é that it is found in the Eastern Pyrenees: a district which differs in many important natural features from the Central and Western portions of that chain, from which it is not recorded. In Finland, the greater part of Russia, and even in Poland, it is generally distributed, extending as far as Sarepta on the Volga; but in the Caucasus it is unknown, its place being taken by a very distinct although closely allied species, named, after its discoverer, T'etrao mlokosiewiczi. The male of the latter is a smaller and more slender bird than the Black-cock, and its entire plumage is of a deep glossy black, as may be seen on reference to Mr. Dresser’s fine plate in the ‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. vii. Beyond the Ural the Black Grouse stretches across Siberia with the limit of the forest growth to Mantchuria and Northern China, but precise details as to its southern distribution are as yet wanting. Siberian examples are more feathered about the legs than European ones. The Black-cock is polygamous, and, like the Capereaillie, has his pairing-grounds, which are visited somewhat earlier 64 TETRAONIDZ. in the season. The males assemble even before the first dawn of day, and utter a succession of notes which in calm weather can be heard at the distance of a mile or more. At this time it is popularly supposed in Scandinavia that they are deaf; but this is a mistake, although when combating, the cocks are more easily approached than at other times. As the old cocks alight, they begin to make love to the hens, which keep somewhat in the background amongst the bushes ; they strut about with outstretched neck, trailing wings, and expanded tail, occasionally vaulting high in the air, and describing an irregular somersault, coming down with the head turned in the opposite direction. Desperate combats frequently ensue, and at times even a general mélée. When the lek is over for the time, the birds separate : each cock accompanied by the hens which he has secured ; and at the conclusion of the pairing-season the latter retire to their breeding-grounds. The females make a slight nest on the ground, frequently under shelter of some low thick bush, and deposit from six to ten eggs of a yellowish- white, spotted and speckled with orange-brown ; measuring about 2 by 1°45 in. There is also a short spel in autumn, when the males again separate from the females and flock together. Although to acertain extent arboreal in their habits, cover is by no means essential to Black Grouse during the whole of the year; but they must have water, and their favourite haunts, especially when young, are moist forest lands and swampy, rushy moors, where they feed freely upon the juicy brown seeds of a coarse thick rush. To the drainage and reclaiming of much of this kind of land, Mr. Harvie-Brown partially attributes the undoubted recent decrease in the number of Black Grouse in Scotland.* Ants’ eggs and other insect food are favourites with very young birds. In spring, says Macgillivray, their food consists principally of twigs and catkins of alder, birch and willow; in summer, of tops of heather, Vaccinium myrtillus, and Empetrum nigrum; in autumn, of heath, crowberries, cranberries, * ‘The Capercaillie in Scotland,’ Chap. xii. BLACK GROUSE. 65 blaeberries, and whortleberries; and in winter, of tops and buds of these plants, and of fir: they also make frequent excursions into the stubble fields in autumn, being espe- cially partial to barley. Birds which had lived in woods during winter have been found to have their stomachs stuffed with the foliage of Polypodiwm vulgare, which was also taken by Macgillivray from the crop of a Pheasant. In severe weather in Scandinavia they are well known to burrow into the snow. Mr. Lloyd says that the Black Grouse is easily domesti- cated, and if reared from a chick or taken young becomes even tamer than the Capercaillie; requiring similar treat- ment. As an illustration of the familiarity of the bird in the wild state, the following is taken from the ‘ Zoologist,’ p- 4440:— As Mr. 8. W. Hurrel was crossing the hill between Carr-bridge and the Spey, on a fishing excursion, with some of his dogs following, one of them pointed, when a Grey- hen offered to do battle in defence of her brood, and flap- ping her wings like fanners, she with heroic bravery actually beat her canine antagonist, and drove him crest-fallen away. Mr. Bass, M.P., and his friends, who have taken the shoot- ings around Carr-bridge, are in the habit of giving presents to the herd-boys in the districts, in order to engage them to preserve the nests, and, if possible, guard them against external violence. One of the keepers lately accosted one of these herd-boys, and, in answer to several queries on the subject of nests, was told by the boy, that, in guarding the game from molestation, he had no difficulty except with one nest, which was situated in a place much frequented by the cattle, and which, he said, must have been destroyed unless by some means protected. ‘ But,’ continued the boy, ‘ I have built a little house of stones and turf about it, and that will prevent the cattle getting at it.’ ‘ But,’ replied the keeper, ‘you will certainly scare away the birds.’ ‘ Ob no,’ rejoined the boy, ‘I have left a little door for the hen to get in and out at, and she sits on the eggs as usual ;’ which the keeper, on visiting the place, found to be true.” In the adult male, at the time of the leh or spel, the VOL. III. K 66 TETRAONIDA. semilunar, scarlet, erectile patches of naked skin over each eye become inflated until they stand up firmly above the crown of the head, but shortly after death they collapse, and in autumn they are far less marked; the beak is black ; the irides dark brown ; the feathers of the head, back, wing- coverts and tail, black ; those of the neck and rump metallic blue-black ; the primary quill-feathers brownish-black, with white shafts ; the secondaries and tertials black at the end, but white at the base, forming a conspicuous white bar below the ends of the great wing-coverts, which, with the lesser coverts, are black ; the feathers of the spurious wing with white spots at the base; tail of eighteen black feathers, of which three, four, and sometimes five of those on each outside are elongated, and curve outwards ; the others nearly equal in length, and square at the end; the chin, breast, belly, and flanks, black ; under wing-coverts, axillary plume, and under tail-coverts, pure white; vent, thighs, and legs, mixed black and white ; toes and claws blackish-brown. The whole length is twenty-two inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, ten inches and a half: the form of the wing rounded ; the first quill-feather about as long as the seventh, the second about as long as the sixth, the fourth rather longer than the third or the fifth, and the longest in the wing. The female of the Black Grouse, usually called the Grey- hen, has the beak dark brown, irides hazel; the general colour of the plumage pale chestnut-brown barred and freckled with black: the dark bars and spots larger, and most conspicuous on the breast, back, wings, and upper tail-coverts ; the feathers of the breast edged with greyish- white, particularly in old birds and in those from northern latitudes ; under tail-coverts nearly white; feathers on the legs pale mottled brown; toes and claws brown. The whole length is seventeen to eighteen inches; from the carpal joint to the end of the wing, nine inches. In the young in down a day or two old, the bill is yellowish-brown ; the general colour is yellowish-buff, paler below : ruddier, with dark mottlings, above; a dark brown BLACK GROUSE. 67 spot on the forehead, and a broad chestnut patch, with darker edges, on the crown. When partially fledged, the bill becomes darker, and the feathers on the back and wing-coyerts have white tips and centres. é The first plumage of the young male is similar to that of the female, but by the beginning of October the female garb has been discarded; the tail is black, although but slightly forked, with a few mottlings on the upper coverts ; dark feathers, only slightly mottled with brown or grey, cover both upper and under parts, and the white bars on the wings are thoroughly defined. The head already is glossy black, but the brown feathers still remaining about the neck give the bird a peculiar appearance, which is, how- ever, soon lost. The mottlings on the wing-coverts and secondaries disappear with increasing age, and by the third year full plumage is assumed. Examples of both sexes are sometimes found with an unusual amount of white about their plumage, and this is especially the case with females from northern and north- eastern localities. Males from Siberia shew more white than Western specimens, but beautiful examples with white- mottled breasts and wing-coverts may also, though rarely, be obtained in Scotland. Isabelle varieties of the female are also met with. Barren Grey-hens sometimes assume the male plumage, and the collection of Mr. F. Bond contains some remark- ably fine examples. One of these is nearly black below, with a few mottlings, and rich bluish-purple above; others shew little more than a tendency to a uniform dull colour, with white bars on the wing and metallic blue on the rump. The weight of an cld Black-cock has been known to reach 41 lbs.: a young one weighs from 23 to 3 lbs., and a Grey- hen from 2 to 23 Ibs. Hybrids between the Black Grouse and the Capercaillie have been noticed when treating of the former species. Inter- breeding has also taken place between the Black and the Red Grouse, and in many parts of this country both birds inhabit the same ground; but such a union happens more rarely 68 TETRAONIDA. with species which, like the Red Grouse, pair in their season, than with those which, like the Pheasant and the Capercaillie, do not pair. Macgillivray (British Birds, i. 162) has, however, mentioned three, describing in detail one bird supposed to have been thus produced, and which was sent by Lord Mostyn from Wales, for preservation, on the 8th of September, 1855, when a note was made of its appearance. The head, neck, breast, and all the under surface of the body, resembled the plumage of the young Red Grouse ; the back, wings, upper tail-coverts, and the tail-feathers, were as black as those parts in the Black Grouse; the tail-feathers were elongated and forked, but being a young bird of the year, and killed thus early in the season, the most lateral of the tail-feathers. had not begun to curve outwards ; the legs were feathered to the junction of the toes, but the toes were naked and pectinated, like those of the Black Grouse. Another was recorded in ‘ The Field’ of March 15th, 1863, and a very handsome example, more like the Black-cock about the upper parts, was obtained by Mr. H. E. Dresser in Leadenhall Market, the 12th October, 1876. In Scandinavia the Black Grouse occasionally mates with the Dal-Ripa or Willow-Grouse (Lagopus albus), the repre- sentative there of our Scotch Grouse; the offspring being known as ‘‘ Rypeorre ”’ or ‘‘ Riporre.”’ A representation of one of these hybrids is given on the opposite page from Nilsson’s ‘Skandinavisk Fauna.’* A far rarer hybrid is the one between the Black and the Hazel Grouse (Bonasa betulina) described and exhibited by Mr. Dresser (P. Z. S., 1876, p. 345). In this country the hybrids best known are those between the Black Grouse and the Pheasant. The * Mr. Collett of Christiania maintains, in opposition to some other naturalists, that this hybrid is the result of a union between the male of Lagopus albus and the female of Tetrao tetrix ; and his arguments are given at great length in his ‘Remarks on the Ornithology of Northern Norway,’ published in the ‘ Forhand- linger Videnskabs-Selskabet i Christiania,’ 1873, pp. 238-251, and partly repro- duced in Mr. Dressers ‘Birds of Europe,’ vii. pp. 218-216. The reader should bear in mind that whenever Mr. Collett uses our word ‘ Ptarmigan’ in the above pages, he refers to the Willow-Grouse, and not to Lagopus mutus. BLACK GROUSE. 69 first on record is the bird noticed by Gilbert White, of Selborne, of which a coloured representation is given in some of the editions of his work. The subject being then new, the real character of that specimen was a matter of doubt, till more recent experience, and other examples, seemed to confirm its origin. In June, 1834, the late Mr. Sabine called the attention of the members present at a meeting of the Zoological Society to a specimen of a hybrid bird, between the common Pheasant and the Grey-hen, which was exhibited. Its legs were partially feathered ; it bore on the shoulder a white spot, and its middle tail- feathers were lengthened. It was bred in Cornwall, and belonged to Sir William Call (P. Z. S., 1834, p. 52). In 1835, the late Mr. T. C. Eyton, residing near Wel- lington, Shropshire, sent up for exhibition to the Zoological Society a hybrid bird between the cock Pheasant and the Grey-hen, with a note, as follows :—‘‘ For some years past, a single Grey-hen has been seen in the neighbourhood of the Merrington covers, belonging to Robert A. Slaney, Esq., 70 TETRAONID®. but she was never observed to be accompanied by a Black- cock, or any other of her species. In November last a bird was shot on the manor adjoining Merrington, belonging to J. A. Lloyd, Esq., resembling the Black-game in some particulars, and the Pheasant in others. In December another bird was shot in the Merrington covers, resembling the former, but smaller; this, which is a female, is now in my collection, beautifully preserved by M. Shaw, of Shrews- bury’? (P. Z. 8., 1835, p. 62). The figure given below represents this bird, Mr. Eyton having allowed the use of his specimen for that purpose. He further remarks, that he had also seen another specimen, killed near Corwen, in Merionethshire, and then in the collection of Sir Rowland Hill, Bart. In December, 18387, Mr. John Leadbeater exhibited at BLACK GROUSE. “EL the Zoological Society a male hybrid between the Pheasant and Black Grouse. It was observed that this was the third specimen which had been sent to the Society for exhibition within a comparatively short space of time. ‘The first bird, from Cornwall, was more of a Grouse in appearance than a Pheasant ; the second, Mr. Eyton’s bird, from Shropshire, was more Pheasant-like ; but the present bird was decidedly intermediate, exhibiting characters belonging to both. The head, neck and breast, were of a rich dark maroon colour, the feathers on the breast shewing the darker crescentic tips ; the upper part of the tarsi were covered with feathers ; the back and wings mottled blackish-grey, like that of a young Black-cock after his first moult, but with some indications of brown; the feathers of the tail rather short, but straight, pointed, graduated, and Pheasant-like. It was remarked that this bird more closely resembled the hybrid figured by White than either of the specimens previously exhibited. This bird was understood to have been killed near Alnwick, and it is now by the liberality of the Duke of Northumberland deposited in the British Museum. Dr. Edward Moore, in his ‘ Notes on the Birds of Devon- shire,’ published in the ‘Magazine of Natural History’ for the year 1837, says, that a hybrid of this kind was shot at Whidey, near Plymouth, by the Rev. Mr. Morshead. A male Pheasant, a female Grouse, and one young, had been observed in company for some time by the keeper. Mr. Morshead shot the Pheasant, and, in a few days, the young hybrid; but the Grouse escaped. The young bird bears the marks of both parents; but the most prominent characters are those of the Grouse. The space above the eye, however, is not bare, as in the Grouse, but entirely feathered, as in the Pheasant; the whole of the neck is covered with black feathers, somewhat mottled; the tail is not forked, but fan-shaped, and half as long as that of the Pheasant ; the tarsi are bare, as in the Pheasant; the colour is generally, except the neck, that of the Pheasant ; but it has the white spot on the shoulders, as in the Grouse. Another example, now figured from a coloured draw- he TETRAONID. ing supplied by the late Mr. Selby, of Twizell House, was shot early in December, 1839, in a large wood a few miles to the east of Fenton. ~- Of late years other instances have been recorded, one of the most recent being described by Mr. J. Gatcombe (Zool. 1879, p. 60). Mr. Lloyd says that it is on record that a Black-cock, confined in a coop with a domestic hen, paired with her, the result being seven hybrids, all females, and these subsequently proved good “laying hens.”’ THE RED GROUSE. 73 GALLINA. TETRAONID&. Lacopus scoticus (Latham*). THE RED GROUSE. Lagopus scoticus. Lacorus, Brisson+.—Bill very short, clothed at the base with feathers ; the upper mandible convex, and bent down at the point. Nostrils basal, lateral, partly closed by an arched membrane, and nearly hidden by the small closely-set feathers at the base of the bill. Eyebrows naked, as in the genus Tetrao. * Tetrao scoticus, Latham, Ind. Orn., ii. p. 641 (1790). + Ornithologie, i. pp. 181, 216 (1760). VOL. ITI. L 74: TETRAONIDS. Wings short, concave, with the third and fourth feathers the longest. Tail of sixteen feathers, generally square at the end. ‘Tarsi and toes completely feathered ; hind toe very short, and barely touching the ground with the tip of the nail. Nails long, and nearly straight. Tuts handsome species is the British representative of the Willow-Grouse (Lagopus albus), which ranges from Norway across the entire continents of Europe, Asia, and North America. There can be little question that both species are sprung from a common stock, and that our bird is an example of an insular form which is found nowhere else in a natural state.* It is the only one of the genus Lagopus which does not turn white in winter, and it differs slightly from its nearest ally in its summer dress, in its call-note, and in some of its habits; but no structural differences between the two species have as yet been discovered. The remains of what may fairly be considered as the ancestor of these two forms have been found in the bone-caves of the south of France and also in Germany; and the Editor possesses an example of the Willow-Grouse assuming the summer garb, which was obtained in May as far south as the neighbourhood of Tiflis, in the Caucasus. The Red Grouse is probably an isolated descendant which has lost the power of turning white with the passing away of the necessity for doing so for the purposes of assimilation. In Scotland, whence its specific name is derived, it is generally distributed over all the moors from the highest point where the ling (Calluna) and the heath (Erica) flourish, down to the coast-line. It is also found on Lewis, Harris, North and South Uist, Barra, and some of the smaller islands of the Outer Hebrides, and is tolerably abundant in Islay, Skye, Rum, and Jura, but is scarce in Mull. Remarkably fine birds are produced in the Orkneys, although not in large numbers; but in the not far distant Shetlands it is not indigenous, and the few introduced birds have failed to maintain themselves there. The low sandy * About fourteen years ago Mr. Oscar Dickson successfully introduced this species into the district of Gottenberg, Southern Sweden, corresponding in latitude with Aberdeen. THE RED GROUSE. ta heaths of the eastern portions of Scotland are less suitable to its tastes than the north and west, but there is not a county (unless Clackmannan prove an exception) which cannot claim the Red Grouse as an inhabitant. Across the border it is found on the moors of all the northern counties, especially on those of Yorkshire and Derbyshire, down the backbone of England as far as the Trent, particularly between 1,000 and 1,500 feet of elevation; westwards it occurs in Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, and on most of the Welsh moors down to Glamorgan. Beyond these lines the Red Grouse, although introduced on the heaths of Surrey and elsewhere, has never succeeded in maintaining itself, and Montagu records with surprise the occurrence of a straggler taken alive near Weohampton, in Wiltshire, in the winter of 1794. On the moorlands and peat-bogs of Ireland it is generally distributed, although, from want of preservation, not in such abundance as in Scotland and the north of England. The Red Grouse pair very early in spring, and the female soon goes to nest: this is formed of the stems of ling and grass, with occasionally a very few feathers: these materials being slightly arranged in a depression on the ground, under shelter of a tuft of heather. Daniel, in his ‘Rural Sports,’ says that ‘“‘on the 5th of March, 1794, the gamekeeper of Mr. Lister (afterwards Lord Ribblesdale), - of Gisburne Park, discovered on the manor of Twitten, near Pendle Hill, a brood of Red Grouse, seemingly about ten days old, and which could fly about as many yards at a time; this was an See never os to have happened before so early in the year.’ | Thompson (Birds of Ireland, ii. p. 49) mentions a nest containing eleven eges on the Belfast Mountains on 17th March. A farmer in burning ling off Shap Fell, burnt over a nest containing fifteen eggs on the 25th of March, 1835. The eggs are from Sant to fourteen or fifteen in number, of a Preddile white ground colour, nearly covered with blotches and spots of umber brown: measuring about 1:75 by 1:2 in. The female sits very close; and Mr. 76 TETRAONIDS. Salmon mentions that one allowed him to take her off her eggs. The cock bird does not share the duties of incuba- tion, but while the hen is sitting he is generally not far off, and at the approach of danger he utters his warning kok, kok, kok. He is also in the habit of sitting on a hillock or ‘‘ knowe,’’ and crowing at dawn, especially on clear frosty mornings: the cry is peculiar, and not easily described, that of the female being a strange nasal croak. The young brood leave the nest soon after they are freed from the shell, and are attended to by both the parent birds, under whose example they learn to feed on the various vegetable sub- stances by which they are surrounded. The extreme ends of the common ling and fine-leaved heather, with the leaves and berries of the black and red wortle, and crowberry, and occasionally oats, when grown at the moor side, are the por- — tions and kinds of food most frequently found in their crops. The variation in the plumage of the Red Grouse is con- siderable, especially in the feathers of the underparts; and those who have had opportunities of examining many ex- amples, can give a good guess at the localities from which they have come. Thus birds from the Hebrides and Wigton- shire are said to be smaller and lighter in colour than those from more eastern moors ; the Perthshire Grouse are smaller and darker than those of Argyllshire, whilst in Lanark, Ren- frew and the Border counties they are as light-coloured as Partridges.* The Welsh birds are said to be large in size and light in colour; those from the north of England are more rufous; those from Ireland are much lighter, with a yellowish-red tinge in the plumage, and browner legs. This variation is principally noticeable in the underparts, and may be partially attributable to age, but it has been gener- ally ascribed to a tendency to assimilate with the ground they frequent. Mr. E. T. Buckley, however (P. Z. S. 1882, pp. 112-116), says that he has killed dark birds on light- coloured ground, and that, considering the partially migratory habits of the Grouse, which must descend from the higher to the lower grounds as winter advances, it is scarcely * Colquhoun, ‘The Moor and the Loch,’ ed. 3, p. 112. THE RED GROUSE. 77 possible to suppose that each bird could select the surround- ings suitable to its own plumage. Nor is the principal variation in the back—although that is the portion which requires protective assimilation—but in the underparts, which are concealed when the birds squat; and these varia- tions are therefore considered to be instances of individual difference or polymorphism. Some birds bred on high ground shew a tendency to white underparts in winter, and, although rare, instances are not unknown of a change similar to that observed in the Willow- Grouse. Mr. John Marshall, of Belmont, Taunton, has two birds said to have been shot in Perthshire, in which the quill-feathers are white with black shafts; the tail black, tipped with white; the tail-coverts pure white; and the body white, sprinkled with dark feathers about the head and neck. A male specimen in the collection formed by Messrs. Salvin and Godman, and now in the British Museum, obtained on the Island of Lewis in October, has a consider- able amount of white on the throat. Varieties of a greyish- buff are sometimes obtained, and on one of these, purchased from a dealer, the late Mr. G. R. Gray conferred the name of Lagopus persicus, under the impression that it came from some place in Persia. This specimen is figured in Gray and Mitchell’s ‘ Genera of Birds,’ vol. iii. p. 517, pl. exxxiii., and in Mr. D. G. Elliott’s Monograph of the Tetraonide, but there can scarcely be a doubt that the locality was assigned in error. A similar variety has been obtained in co. Mayo (A. G. More, Zool. 1882, p. 147); and examples of a cream colour have been recorded by Selby (Ill. Brit. Orn. i. p. 249) from the moors of Blanchland in the county of Durham, but from the anxiety of sportsmen to procure specimens, these birds were not allowed to increase. Red Grouse also vary much in weight in different districts and according to the time of year, being at their best both as regard weight and plumage in November. A cock Grouse generally weighs about 13 and a hen about 14 lbs., but many birds are on record up to 2 lbs. The weight of the heaviest birds shot between 1874-1881 on Rousay in the 78 TETRAONIDA. Orkneys, where disease is unknown, and the winters are open, was nearly 30 ounces. Unlike its Scandinayian con- gener the Willow-Grouse, the Red Grouse seldom perches in trees. Mr. H. Seebohm has only once seen one alight in a wood after a flight, remaining for a short time with its wings half expanded, and apparently not at all at its ease; but Mr. L. Lloyd cites (Game Birds of Sweden, p. 126) an instance of several birds, unmistakably of this species, being observed in an ash-tree on the edge of a moor in Ayrshire; and Sir John Crewe states (Gould’s Birds of Great Britain) that on one occasion not less than five brace were observed in an old thorn-tree ; the autumn being the season when this habit is most noticed, and the larch the tree preferred. They are frequently seen to sit on dykes and stone-walls. The Red Grouse, like the Capercaillie and the Black Grouse, will live and breed in confinement, and some have become remarkably tame. Daniel mentions (Rural Sports) that they ‘‘had been known to breed in the menagerie of the late Duchess Dowager of Portland, and that this was in some measure effected by her Grace’s causing fresh pots of ling or heath to be placed in the menagerie almost every day. At Mr. Grierson’s, Rathfarnham House, county of Dublin, in the season of 1802, a brace of Grouse, which had been kept for three years, hatched a brood of young ones. In 1809, Mr. William Routledge, of Oakshaw, in Bewcastle, Cumberland, had in his possession a pair of Red Grouse completely domesticated, and which had so far forgotten their natural fod as to prefer corn and crumbs of bread to the tops and seeds of heath. The hen laid twelve eggs, but from some cause was not suffered to hatch them; or, in all probability, the young brood would have been equally as tame as their parents.” In 1811, a pair of Red Grouse bred in the aviary at Knowsley; the female laid ten eggs, and hatched out eight young birds; but these, from some unknown cause, did not live many days. In 1866 a brood was hatched in the gaol at Omagh, and other instances are on record. Owing to preservation, and the reduction or extirpation of THE RED GROUSE. 79 their natural enemies, Red Grouse had enormously increased prior to the time when the Grouse-disease shewed itself, and made terrible ravages on some of the moors which had pre- viously been amongst the best stocked. - It has been ascribed to various causes, most of which have in all probability had a share in contributing to its development, and each of which, to the exclusion of all others, has found its violent partisans. The immediate cause in specimens examined by Dr. Spencer Cobbold would seem to have been the presence in extraordinary numbers of two sets of entozoic parasites, both flat and round, the existence of which in small numbers may be compatible with health, whilst emaciation and death result from their supremacy. Bad weather, and the nipping of the young shoots of the heather by a late frost, or its injudicious burning, also tend to weaken the systems of the birds.* It is not desirable to enter into details respecting Grouse- shooting, but as the number of this species bagged in a single day exceeds that of any other game-bird, a few facts may be given. The largest bag on record was made by Lord Walsingham at Blubberhouses in Yorkshire, on the 28th August, 1872, when he killed 842 Grouse in one day to his own gun, and under somewhat unfavourable circum- stances. In the same year, on the Wemmergill Moors, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, Mr. F. A. Milbank, M.P., in six days, and with an average of six companions, killed 3,9834 brace, or nearly 8,000 birds. The largest bag over dogs was made by the Maharajah Duleep Singh at Grand- tully, Perthshire, on the 12th August, 1871, when 220 brace of fairly-grown Grouse and no “ cheepers’”’ were shot ; and on the 14th, 110 brace of Grouse over one brace of dogs in six hours.t A male bird of the year, killed in December, had the beak black; the irides hazel, with a crescentic patch. of vermilion red skin over the eye, fringed at its upper free edge ; head and neck reddish-brown, but more rufous than any other part of the bird; back, wing, and tail-coverts, chestnut-brown, barred transversely and speckled with * Of. Harvie-Brown, Zool. 1882, p. 401. + Rural Almanac, 1881, p. 21. 80 TETRAONIDA. black ; distributed among the plumage were several feathers in which the ground colour was of a bright yellowish-brown ; all the quill-feathers dark umber-brown; the secondaries and the tertials edged on the outside, and freckled with lighter brown; the tail of sixteen feathers: the seven on each outside dark umber-brown; the four middle feathers chestnut-brown, varied with black. On the breast the plumage was darker than on the sides, almost black, and tipped with white ; the chestnut-brown feathers on the sides, flanks, belly, vent, and under tail-coverts, tipped with white ; legs and toes covered with short greyish-white feathers ; claws long, bluish-horn colour at the base, nearly white at the end. In the breeding-season the red skin over the eye is partially erectile, but droops at the edges and does not stand up firmly like the comb of the Black-cock. The whole length is sixteen inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, eight inches and three-eighths : the first quill-feather shorter than the sixth, but longer than the seventh; the second shorter than the fifth, but longer than the sixth ; the third and fourth nearly equal in length, and the longest in the wing. The old male in summer has many of the body feathers tipped with yellow, and the red colour is of a lighter tint. The female is rather smaller than the male; the patch of red skin over the eye is also smaller; the red and brown tints of the feathers are lighter in colour, and give a more variegated appearance to the plumage generally. In her summer plumage all the feathers of the head and upper part of the neck are yellowish-chestnut, with a few black spots: those of the lower neck, breast, back, wing, and tail-coverts, and middle tail-feathers, transversely barred with black, and tipped with yellow; the long feathers on the sides and flanks also barred across with black and yellow, very much resembling the feathers borne on the same parts at the same season by the female Ptarmigan, shewing its affinity to that bird; and some authors have called our Red Grouse, the Red Grouse Ptarmigan, the Red Ptarmigan, and the Brown Ptarmigan. THE RED GROUSE. 81 In the young in down of a day or two old, are yellowish- buff banded with brown above, and yellowish-brown below ; darker on the breast; a dark brown streak runs from the base of the bill to the centre of the crown, where it widens out into a broad ruddy-brown patch with darker margin. With increasing age the down becomes duller ; rufous-brown feathers with darker bars appear on the side of the breast and flanks ; the feathers of the wing-coverts and back are rich rufous with black centres tipped with black and white ; the quill-feathers dull brown, with tawny mottlings. The young of both sexes resemble the adult female, but by the middle of winter, when the first moult is com- pleted, the young males are very similar to the old ones, excepting that the head and neck are barred and spotted. Not being polygamous, it does not often hybridize with other species. The rare instances of its having done so with the Black Grouse have already been noticed. The fol- lowing are the remarks made by Professor Newton (P. Z. S. 1878, p. 793) on exhibiting a supposed hybrid between the Red Grouse and the Ptarmigan (ZL. mutus) :—‘‘ This remarkable specimen was lately given to me for the museum of the University of Cambridge, by Captain Houston of Kin- tradwell, in Sutherland, having been shot there out of a covey of Grouse on the 1st of Sept. 1878. As will be seen, it bears some considerable resemblance, above, to a hen Ptarmigan in summer plumage, but its general appearance is much darker. Beneath, there is a greater resemblance to the young of the Red Grouse; and the primaries are much as in that bird, being, however, partially edged with white to a much greater extent than is commonly found in the latter. I have shewn the skin to several ornithological friends, none of whom have been able to offer any other suggestion concerning it than that originally made by the donor, namely, that it is a hybrid between the two species named ; and in confirmation thereof, Captain Houston told me that the part of his ground on which it was shot is close toa locality frequented by the Ptarmigan. Without having made an exhaustive search, I may say that I am not aware VOL. III, M 82 TETRAONIDE. of any record of such a hybrid as this is supposed to be, though information received from several quarters in- duces me to believe that other examples have before now occurred; and my chief object in exhibiting the present specimen is to call attention to the subject.” PTARMIGAN. 83 GALLINA, TETRAONID&, i \ t ial Ke i Lacopus murus (Montin* ). THE PTARMIGAN. Lagopus mutus. Tur Prarmigan is the smallest in size of the British Grouse; and, so far as regards these islands, it is at the present day confined to Scotland, beyond which it has probably not been found within the historic period. Its * Tetrao mutus, Montin, Physiographiska Silskapets Handl., p. 155 (Stock- holm, 1776). The essential portion of this rare work is in the library of the Linnean Society. 84 TETRAONIDA. name, derived, with a slight and inexplicable modification, from the Gaelic word Tarmachan, occurs as far back as 1617, in a letter, dated at Whitehall, from James I. of England to the Earl of Tullibardine, commanding that a provision of ‘‘ Capercaillies and termigantis” be made for the royal sustenance between Durham and Berwick. As mentioned when treating of the Capereaillie (p. 46), Taylor, the water-poet, speaks of ‘‘ termagants” in 1618, and, to judge by old Acts of Parliament, the latter seems to have been the usual Lowland form of spelling the name. Respecting its distribution, Mr. Harvie-Brown says that in Sutherlandshire it especially frequents the stony moun- tains of Assynt, on the ridge of Ben Chaorin (commonly called Harran) and the heights and corries of Glashven, Ben Mbhor, and Braebag, being less numerous on the curiously-shaped and isolated peaks of Quinaig, Canishp, Soulbhein (the “ Sugar-loaf’’), Coul Mhor, and Coul Beg, lying nearer the sea. In Ross-shire it is abundant on Ben Wyvis in the east, and on the range of Ben Deraig in the west, but again becomes scarcer towards the coast. South- ward, through Ross-shire and Inverness-shire, in all suitable localities, it is met with abundantly, preferring, as a rule, the larger masses of mountain land to the isolated peaks. In Aberdeenshire, on Lochnagar and Ben Muich-dhu, it is tolerably numerous, although comparatively scarce on the western mountains of the same range, owing to the summits being less stony, deeply covered with moss, and not bearing mountain-berries in such quantities. In Skye it is found among the Cuchullin Hills, but not in great numbers ; nor is it abundant in Harris or Lewis. In Inverness-shire the Editor observed a covey of nine birds on Ben Nevis in August, 1879. Southwards, through Perthshire, a fair number of Ptarmigan may be met with in certain localities ; and Mr. James Lumsden, of Arden, states that, although in decreasing numbers, birds are still to be found breeding on Ben Lomond and in its vicinity. In Arran the species became nearly, if not quite, extinct about the year 1856 ; but in 1867 a few young birds were introduced from the north PTARMIGAN. . 85 of Scotland, and their descendants still maintain a footing on Goatfell and Ben Noush. There appears to be no satisfactory evidence that this species ever occurred in the Orkneys, or in the Shetland Islands. It is found in Jura, and even on Islay, within sight of the coast of Ireland ; but although many of the northern summits of the sister island are of considerable elevation, and similar in their character to those frequented by the Ptarmigan elsewhere, the species has never been known in Ireland even as a visitant. The alleged former existence of the Ptarmigan on the mountains of Cumberland and Westmorland, and also in Wales, has been carefully investigated by Mr. A. G. More (Zoologist, 1881, pp. 44-47). It appears that Pennant, in his ‘ British Zoology,’ Ed. 4 (1766), stated that ‘‘a few still inhabit the lofty hills near Keswick,” to which Latham (1783) added the words ‘‘as well as in Wales,”—a locality which Pennant, although a Welshman, had nowhere men- tioned. Dr. Heysham, in Hutchinson’s ‘ History of Cum- berland’ (1794), quoted Pennant, without adding a particle of independent evidence, and later writers have merely amplified or paraphrased these statements. Mr. More has, however, learnt from Capt. W. K. Dover, residing at Keswick, that, although he has not succeeded in finding any tradition of the former existence of the Ptarmigan in the Lake district, yet there is a highly white-mottled variety of the Red Grouse found upon Skiddaw, and also on Shap Fells, in Westmorland ; the latter being so white that two Scotch gamekeepers who saw them called them Ptarmigan. It is easy to understand that more than a century ago, when statements were less critically examined, and the Ptarmigan was only just known to be a British bird, any ‘‘ white- mottled”’ Grouse seen on the mountains would be assumed to be the alpine species. In Scandinavia, the Ptarmigan is resident in the: Lofoden Islands, and on the Fells above the limits of the tree- erowth, as far as the Nore-fjeld, in 58° 40’ N. lat., from whence it descends in small numbers to the western districts. Stretching across the northern portions of Finland, it is 86 TETRAONIDZ. found on the mountains which attain an elevation of about 3,000 feet in the vicinity of the Imandra Lake on the Kola Peninsula. Hoffman* found it breeding on the high ground near the source of the Petchora in lat. 62° N., and obtained five specimens between lat. 61° and 66° N. In Arctic Siberia, Middendorf found a species of Ptarmigan occupying the generally flat northern portion of Siberia from 66° N. in winter, up to 71° N. in summer, as far east as the Taimyr Peninsula, and, whilst calling it L. mutus, he expressed sur- prise at finding it so similar to L. rupestris. It was sub- sequently suggested by Professor Newton that the examples of Ptarmigan obtained by Mr. H. Seebohm in 713° N. lat. on the Yenesei, might actually belong to the latter: a view which comparison appears to have confirmed. Lagopus rupestris, the Rock-Ptarmigan of authors,} is a form which in all plumages except the white garb of winter, is browner than L. mutus, and which also inha- bits lower and more level ground.} Its range was already known to reach right across the northern portions of America from the shores of Behring’s Straits to Newfound- land, Greenland, and also to Iceland; but its presence in Arctic Siberia from Behring’s Straits on the east to the Yenesei in the west, and probably further, coupled with the fact that it does not enter Europe, points to a barrier caused by important physical changes on the eastern side of the Ural. It now appears probable that the Ptarmigan recorded by Messrs. Blakiston and Pryer, as found in Northern Japan (Ibis, 1878, p. 226), and more recently in the Kurile Islands, may also be L. rupestris. On the other hand, the birds found by Radde on the Sochondo, at from 7,500 to 8,000 feet altitude, and those observed by Dybowski on the Sayansk * ©Der Nordliche Ural, Wirbeltbiere,’ p. 68. + H. Seebohm, ‘Ibis,’ 1879, p. 148. t Selby (Rep. Brit. Ass. 1834, p. 611) recorded LZ. rupestris as having been killed on the Benmore ridge in Sutherlandshire ; supposing, no doubt, that the orange-yellow dress, which is now well known to be assumed in summer by the female of Z. mutus, was peculiar to the former species; and not being aware that Ptarmigan from the higher ground are smaller than those from lower elevations. (Cf. J. A. Harvie-Brown, Pr. Nat, Hist. Soc. Glasgow, 1875, p. 107.) PTARMIGAN. 87 mountains to the south-west of Lake Baikal were probably our L. mutus, which Dr. O. Finsch also obtained in the Altai range at an elevation of 6,000 feet. In Central Europe the Ptarmigan is found throughout the higher regions of Switzerland, and on the French-and Italian slopes of the Alps; also in smaller numbers in Tyrol, Styria, and even as far as the edge of the Black Forest. It is tolerably abundant on the upper portions of the Pyrenees; and Lord Lilford has been informed on good authority that it occurs in the mountains of the Asturias and of Leon. Ptarmigan pair early in spring, breeding in Scotland in the month of May; the nest, which is difficult to find, being a mere cup scraped in the turf, and sparingly lined with grasses and feathers. The eggs, of a yellowish-white blotched and spotted with dark brown, are, as a rule, of a somewhat lighter ground-colour than those of the Red Grouse, and of smaller size, measuring about 1:7 by 1-1 in., and are from eight to ten in number. The young run about immediately on leaving the shell, and are expert at concealing themselves even on the barest places ; whilst the hen bird resorts to the usual devices to divert attention. In wet or stormy seasons the various families associate or pack by the beginning of August, but otherwise not till winter, when as many as fifty have been seen together. Ptarmigan are scarcer on the extreme summits of the mountains than at a lower elevation, and those which are shot on the ‘‘ barrens,” or level deserts of stones in the higher situations, are found to be considerably smaller-sized birds. Macgillivray observes, that ‘‘these beautiful birds, while feeding, run and walk among the weather-beaten and lichen-crested fragments of rock, from which it is very difficult to distinguish them when they remain motionless, as they invariably do should a person be in sight. Indeed, unless you are directed to a particular spot by their strange low croaking cry, you may pass through a flock of Ptar- migans without observing a single individual, although 88 TETRAONID®. some of them may not be ten yards distant. When squatted, however, they utter no sound, their object being to conceal themselves ; and if you discover the one from which the cry has proceeded, you generally find him on the top of a stone, ready to spring off the moment you show an indication of hostility. If you throw a stone at him, he rises, utters his call, and is immediately joined by all the individuals around, which, to your surprise, if it be your first rencontre, you see spring up one by one from the bare eround. They generally fiy off in a loose body, with a direct and moderately rapid flight, resembling, but lighter than, that of the Red Grouse, and settle on a distant part of the mountain, or betake themselves to one of the neigh- bouring summits, perhaps more than a mile distant.” Their food consists of fresh green twigs of Calluna vulgaris, Vaccinium myrtillus, and Empetrum nigrum, and other plants with berries in autumn: for the most part the same as that of the Red Grouse. Like that species, they suffer from disease in Scotland. - Ptarmigan are only kept alive in captivity with great difficulty. Dr. A. Girtanner (Zoologische Garten, 1880, pp. 71-82) gives a long account of his repeated failures with both old and young birds ; but at last he succeeded by placing the latter with a captive Rock-Partridge (Caccabis saxatilis), by whose example they learned to feed, and all lived together in apparent contentment. An adult male shot in Ross-shire on 13th May has the bill blackish-horn colour ; over the eye an erectile red skin; the lores black; the head and neck of a mottled brown with some new black-centred feathers appearing on the crown and mantle; back and upper tail-coverts ochreous-grey, the centre ones longer than the tail-feathers; tail-feathers blackish, tipped with white ;* primary quill-feathers white, with dark shafts; secondaries and wing-coverts white, with * Specimens killed in spring frequently have the two long central] tail-coverts of a pure white, the remainder of the winter plumage ; and these might easily be mistaken for the middle feathers of the tail itself. In autumn these feathers are renewed, and in immature birds the central portions are lead-coloured. PTARMIGAN. 89 a few mottled brown feathers appearing; chin white ; throat mottled brown and white ; breast dark mottled brown ; flanks yellowish-brown; abdomen and under tail-coverts white; legs and feet greyish-white. In a Perthshire specimen, killed June 2nd, the short mottled feathers of the head shewed abraded white tips with dark bases; the larger feathers of the neck and breast had dark bases, followed by a bar of white edged with buff, and terminating with black tips undergoing abra- sion; back mottled with black, grey, and buff. In very old males, and especially in examples from Scandinavia, a much larger proportion of the feathers on the upper parts and breast are often of very dark colour. The female, which is slightly smaller than the male, has the head and upper parts of a rufous buff, broadly mottled with black, and slightly tipped with grey ; the quill-feathers _ white, with more dark markings about the shafts than in the male; the tail-feathers blackish, but freckled with grey on the outer web, especially in Pyrenean examples ; breast and flanks buff, mottled with black and grey; lower breast and belly mottled white; under tail-coverts buff, barred with black; under wing-coverts white. The whole length of a male is fifteen inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, eight inches: the first quill-feather an inch and a half shorter than the second ; the second rather longer than the fifth; the third and fourth nearly equal in length, and the longest in the wing. The wings of the old birds killed in autumn are seldom perfect, as this is the season for moulting the flight-feathers. Early in autumn both males and females moult into a freckled grey plumage on the upper parts; the quill- feathers, and some of the wing-coverts, with those on the middle of the belly, being white ; by the end of October this plumage changes to pure white in Continental specimens ; and to white with slight mottlings about the bases of the feathers, in some Scotch examples ; the tail-feathers remain- ing black, but being nearly concealed by the long white coverts. The fur-like feathers on the legs and feet increase in length and thickness. In this winter plumage the vou. II. N 90 TETRAONIDAS. males have the lores black, whereas in the female the lores are usually white; but some old females shew a dark eye- streak, This garb is retained until the following spring. Macgillivray mentions two hen birds from Banffshire examined on the 16th December, which had the white plumage delicately tinted with rose-colour. In the young, with the quill-feathers just appearing, the down is rather more ruddy than in the Red Grouse, and the patch on the crown and nape is of a rather paler chestnut in the centre ; but when half-fledged the young are greyer than those of the Grouse. The first quill-feathers are mottled brown, but in August they are replaced by white ones, and a grey body plumage, similar to that of the adults, is assumed. In winter large numbers of so-called ‘‘ Ptarmigan ”’ are sent over to the English markets; fully seven-eighths of them being, however, Willow-Grouse in winter dress. These may be recognized by their larger size, and, in the case of the males, by the absence of the black lores, which are always present in the male Ptarmigan. In the three representations of the Ptarmigan at the head of this subject, the lower figure is taken from a female killed in the month of May, the upper figure from a male killed in October, and the middle figure from a male bird killed in January. ot: Od PHEASANT. 9] GALLIN A. PHASIANID.. PHasIANuS coLcHicus (Linneus*). THE PHEASANT. Phasianus colchicus. Puasranus, Brissont.—Bill of moderate length, strong ; upper mandible convex, naked at the base, and with the tip bent downwards. Nostrils basal, lateral, covered with a cartilaginous scale ; cheeks, and the skin surrounding the * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 271 (1766). + Ornithologie, i. p. 262 (1760). 92 PHASIANID #®, eyes, destitute of feathers, and with a verrucose red covering. Wings short: the first quill-feather narrow towards the tip; the fourth and fifth feathers the longest in the wing. ‘Tail long, wedge-shaped, graduated, containing eighteen feathers. Feet—three toes in front, one behind; the three anterior toes united by a membrane as far as the first joint ; the hind toe articulated upon the. tarsus, which in the male birds is furnished with a horny, conical, and sharp spur. Bors the generic and specific names of the Pheasant are due to the mythological tradition which attributes to Jason and his Argonauts the introduction of the bird from the banks of the river Phasis, in Colchis. This classic stream is the modern Rion, which finds its way into the Black Sea near the town of Poti, whence the railway now runs to Tiflis, the capital of the Caucasus ; and in its unhealthy swamps the descendants of the original stock are still to be found in all their purity. The head-quarters of this Pheasant appear to be the marshy forests of the shores of the Caspian Sea, as far east as the river Gurgan, near Astrabad ; the river- valleys of the Caucasus, especially the Terek and Goulak up to 3,000 feet elevation; the neighbourhood of Astrakhan ; and the northern portions of Asia Minor which border on the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmora, particularly near Broussa. It occurs as far south as Ephesus, but Mr. Danford did not meet with it in the Cilician Taurus, nor did Canon Tristram find it in Syria. In Greece the remains of a species of Pheasant have been disinterred at Pikermi, in Attica, and its modern representative still frequents the covers at the foot of Mount Olympus, although nearly exterminated in the swamps of Akarnania. Not known in Cyprus or Rhodes, it occurs on the island of Thasos near Salonika, and in suitable localities throughout Roumelia, as well as in Albania; but north of the line of the Balkans it is probably not in- digenous. Assuming it to have been introduced at some unknown period, it is now found in a feral state in nearly every country in Europe. It occurs in South Russia; in Transylvania, although now nearly exterminated, it was formerly abundant; and in Bohemia and some parts of Saxony it wanders uncared for; but north of Central Germany it requires, and receives, a certain amount of protection. Under such conditions it exists in Holland, PHEASANT. 93 Belgium, Denmark, Sweden (where it has been introduced by Mr. Osear Dickson), and even near Christiania, in Norway. In France* and Italy it also maintains itself under similar protection ; but it is said to exist in a perfectly wild state on the hills of Aleria, in Corsicat ; Spain and Portugal being apparently the only European countries where attempts at acclimatization have not proved successful.- Some of these more recent introductions on the Continent may have con- sisted of fertile crosses with the Chinese Ring-necked Pheasant ; but as regards the greater part of Europe, and the British Islands, there can be no doubt that the original species was P. colchicus. Before going further, it may be as well to consider briefly the range of our Pheasant, and the other members of the same group. It has been shewn that P. colchicus, one of the species-without the white collar, inhabits wet marshy forests as far east as Astrabad, beyond which it now meets with the barrier of the desert of Mariana. East of the creat Tian Shan range, on the plains and in the jungles of Eastern Turkestan, especially in the neighbourhood of Kashgar and Yarkand, is found another collarless species, P. shawi, which even when taken young is one of the most untamable of birds in captivity.t Mr. D. G. Elliot (Monogr. Phasianide, ii.) considers that this is the origi- nal stock of the group, and to it may be united a doubt- fully distinct and at all events closely allied species described from two headless specimens, under the name of P. insignis, also found in Yarkand. These forms lead to P. mongolicus, a well-marked species with a broad white collar, an amethystine throat, and a greenish rump, which is found near Bokhara, on the Syr-Daria (the ancient Jaxartes), and thence, past Lake Balkash, through- out that portion of Mongolia which lies to the north of Gobi. On the Amu-Daria (the ancient Oxus) is found a remarkably * The bone-beds of Sanson in Gascony have yielded remains which have been referred to two species of Phasianus. + H. H. Giglioli, ‘Ibis,’ 1881, p. 207. t Scully, ‘Stray Feathers,’ 1876, p. 179. 94 PHASIANID®. handsome species, P. chrysomelas, with a small white collar and rich golden neck and breast-feathers tipped with emerald green; but although nearer in point of distance to P. col- chicus, neither of the above so closely resemble our Pheasant as does P. shawi, which is now found only on the eastern side of a lofty range whose passes attain an altitude of 14,000 feet. This distribution is exceedingly puzzling, and can only be cleared up by more exact information. The other species of the group are the collarless P. decollatus of Moupin, where it is the only species, but which mixes on its eastern frontier with the collared P. torquatus of Southern China ; the two collarless species, P. elegans of the west of Sechuen and Yunnan, and P. versicolor of Japan; and the collared P. formosanus, of the island of Formosa. Excepting for the introduction of P. torquatus and P. versicolor into our covers, these species have no immediate bearing upon the question. Whatever may have been the date of the introduction of the Pheasant into England, it has undoubtedly main- tained itself in this country in a wild state for a period sufficient to entitle it to be considered a British bird. Upon this point Professor Boyd Dawkins has contributed the following :— “‘Tt may interest your readers to know that the most ancient record of the occurrence of the Pheasant in Great Britain is to be found in the tract ‘ De inventione Sancte ‘Crucis nostre in Monte Acuto et de ductione ejusdem apud Waltham,’ edited from manuscripts in the British Museum by Professor Stubbs, and published in 1861. The bill of fare drawn up by Harold for the Canon’s household of from six to seven persons, A.D. 1059, and preserved in a manu- script of the date of circa 1177, was as follows (p. 16) :— ‘“«* Brant autem tales pitantize unicuique canonico : a festo Sancti Michaelis usque ad caput jejunii (Ash Wednesday] aut xii. merule, aut ii. agausew [Agace, a magpie (?): Ducange| aut ii. perdices, aut unus phasianus, reliquis temporibus aut ance [Geese: Ducange) aut galline.’ “Now the point of this passage is that it shews that PHEASANT. 95 Phasianus colchicus had become naturalized in England before the Norman invasion; and as the English and Danes were not the introducers of strange animals in any well- authenticated case, it offers fair presumptive evidence that it was introduced by the Roman conquerors, who naturalized the Fallow Deer in Britain.’’* It appears by Dugdale’s ‘ Monasticon Anglicanum ’ that at the commencement of the reign of Henry I. (4.p. 1100) license was given to the Abbot of Amesbury to kill hares and Pheasants; and, according to Echard’s History of Eng- land, in a.p. 1299, during the reign of Edward I. the price of a Pheasant was fourpence ; the value of a Mallard being three-halfpence, a Plover one penny, and a couple of Wood- cocks three-halfpence. To these early notices may be added one contributed by the Saturday Review critic of the Ist Edition of Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier’s admirable treatise on ‘Pheasants,’ to wit that Thomas a Becket, on the day of his martyrdom (December 29, 1179), dined on a Pheasant and enjoyed it, as it would seem from the remark of one of his monks that ‘‘ he dined more heartily and cheerfully that day than usual.” Mr. Harting, in his ‘ Ornithology of Shakspeare,’ gives numerous interesting details and quotations, shewing the esteem in which this bird was held for the table in somewhat more recent times. It appears, by Leland’s account of the feast at the enthronization of George Nevill, Archbishop of York in the reign of Edward IV., that two hundred ‘‘fessauntes’ were served with other meats; and in the ‘ Household Book’ of the L’Estranges of Hunstanton, from A.D. 1519 to a.p. 1578, there are such entries in the reign of Henry VIII. as ‘‘ yj. fesands and ij. ptrychys kyllyed wt the hauks.’’ ‘Item, to Mr. Ashley’s servant for brynging of a Fesant Cocke and four Woodcocks on the 18th day of October, in reward, four-pence.” ‘Item, a Fesant kylled with the Goshawke.’’ Similar allusions are made in the * Ibis, 1869, p. 358. + See p. 18 of the 2nd Edition (1881), to which the Editor is under great obligations. 96 PHASIANIDA. ‘Household Book’ of the fifth Earl of Northumberland (1512), and from the time of the Tudor monarchs, Pheasants are specified with Partridges in the statutes for the protection of game. é In Scotland, according to Mr. R. Gray,* the first mention of the Pheasant occurs in an Act dated June 8, 1594, in the reign of James VI., a great protector of all kinds of game. In the aforesaid year he ‘‘ ordained that quhatsumever person or persones at ony time hereafter sall happen to slay deir, harts, phesants, foulls, partricks, or uther wyld foule quhat- sumever, ather with gun, crace bow, dogges, halks, or girnes, or be uther ingine quhatsumever, or that beis found schutting with ony gun therein,” &c., &c., shall pay the usual ‘ hun- dreth punds,” &. It is now generally distributed in suit- able localities from Sutherland to Wigtownshire, and in the neighbourhood of Loch Lomond it is occasionally seen on the mountain-sides as far up as 1,200 feet. Introduced into Lewis in the Outer Hebrides about fifteen years ago by Sir James Matheson, it has become fairly established there, as well as in Islay, where it grows to a large size. The east side of Scotland does not, as a rule, appear to be so well suited to it, but it has thriven in the coverts near Banff belonging to the Earl of Fife. As regards Treland, the date of its introduction is unknown. Giraldus Cambrensis, in his ‘ Topographia Hibernica’ (4.p. 1183-1186), expressly states that in his day there were neither Pheasants nor Partridges ; and Ranulphus Higden, who died at an advanced age about 1363, mentions in his ‘ Polychronicon,’ ‘ perdices’ and ‘ phasiani’ as being absent from Ireland.t About two centuries later, in ‘A Brife Description of Ireland made in the yeere 1589 by Robert Payne,’ is the following :—‘‘ There be great store of wild swannes, cranes, phesantes, partriges, heathcocks, plouers greene and gray, curlewes, woodcockes, rayles, quailes, and all other fowles much more plentifull than in England.” Fynes Moryson, who was in Ireland from 1599 till 1603, * Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 226. + Harting, ‘Zool.’ 1881, pp. 437 and 439. PHEASANT. 97 observes that ‘“‘they have such plenty of pheasants, as I have known sixty served up at one feast, and abound much more with rails, but partridges are somewhat scarce.”’ (Descr. of Ireland, ii. p. 368.) Smith seems to have imagined that Pheasants were indigenous to the island, as in his History of Cork it is remarked :—‘ They are now [1749] indeed very rare, most of our woods being cut down.” At the present day it is generally distributed throughout the wooded parts of the island. Up to the end of the last century our Pheasant had deviated but little, if indeed at all, from the typical P. colchicus ; but about that time the introduction of the Chinese Ring-necked bird, P. torquatus, commenced. The males of this hardy species, although smaller in size than the English birds, are exceedingly pugnacious, and per- haps also the beauty of their plumage rendered them pecu- - liarly attractive to the hens. At all events, in a polyga- mous bird like the Pheasant, they rapidly effected a con- siderable alteration in the breed, and at the present day it is difficult to find birds without some trace of hybridism. Some offsprings of the first cross are, indeed, scarcely to be distinguished from the Chinese bird; and although many of the features of that species are gradually bred out, yet the characteristic white ring is long retained. The beautiful Japanese Pheasant, P. versicolor, has also been introduced in small numbers; some magnificent hybrids being the result, although the influences of the cross have not proved lasting. Examples of the splendid long-tailed P. reevesi have also been turned out, and in some districts they have succeeded very well; as many as sixty having been shot in a single season in the covers of Lord Tweedmouth in Inver- ness-shire. Lord Lilford, who presented to the British Museum a fine male hybrid shot in Sussex in December, 1879, says that they have done fairly in Northamptonshire, but considers that in this country a wide range of hill coverts would be most suitable to them; whilst for the table, he thinks they are distinctly superior to our com- mon bird. The so-called Bohemian Pheasant is merely VOL. III. 0 98 PHASIANIDA., a pale buff-coloured variety which crops up in certain localities. Whilst-on the subject of introduction, it may be men- tioned that Pheasants have been imported both from England and China into New Zealand, where they have multiplied with marvellous rapidity. The Chinese Pheasant was acclimatized in the. island of St. Helena in 1513 by some Portuguese exiled from Goa, and their descendants continue to thrive; a slight variation from the original type being noticeable in their plumage, probably owing to the influences of altered climate and diet. Pheasants have also been intro- duced in the neighbouring island of Ascension. Woods that are thick at the bottom, with long grass kept up by brambles and bushes, thick plantations, or marshy islands and moist grounds overgrown with rushes, reeds, or osiers, are the favourite resorts of Pheasants, in default of which they take to thick hedgerows, but can seldom be induced to remain long on any ground bare of shelter, how- ever undisturbed. Wood and water are indispensable. The short crow of the males may be heard in March, when they fight freely for the possession of the hens, and display their plumage to the greatest advantage. The females have been known to commence laying in that month, although, as a rule, not until April, hatching by the end of May or the beginning of June. Sitting birds have also been found as late as the beginning of September. They make a slight nest upon the ground, in which they deposit from ten to fourteen eggs, measuring about 1°85 by 1°45 in., generally of a uniform olive-brown colour; but pale bluish varieties are, however, not uncommon. The well-known suppression of the scent in a sitting hen, so necessary for the safety of a ground- nesting species, is due, in the opinion of Mr. Tegetmeier, to vicarious secretion; that is to say, the odoriferous particles which are usually exhaled by the skin are, during incubation, excreted into the intestinal canal. Incubation lasts about twenty-four days. Two and even three hen Pheasants will sometimes lay in the same nest, and many instances are on record of nests containing both ee | > at ~ PHEASANT. . 99 Partridges’ and Pheasants’ eggs, the hens of both species having been observed sitting side by side in perfect amity. The common fowl has also been taken into partnership ; and three wild hen Pheasants are said to have availed themselves of the nest of a tame Duck. Lofty situations, such as old nests and squirrels’ dreys in trees, are sometimes selected, but the entire brood is rarely brought down in safety. Cock birds, as a rule, take no share whatever in the duties of incubation ; yet there are a few well-authenticated instances of their having been seen sitting on nests in covers, as well as in aviaries, and also of their assuming the protection of the young brood. The food of Pheasants in a wild state consists of grain, seeds, green leaves, and insects, especially ants and their larvee, which form the chief sustenance of the young. They have been observed pulling down ripe blackberries from a hedge-side, and later in the year flying up into high bushes to pick sloes and haws. The root of the buttercup, Ranun- culus bulbosus, and also the pilewort crowfoot, Ranunculus ficaria, forms a great portion of their food during the months of May and June, and at the latter end of autumn their crops are often found to be distended with acorns of so large a size, that they could not have been swallowed without great difficulty. The “‘spangles”’ or galls of the oak are also favourite food. Pheasants destroy enormous numbers of injurious insects ; no less than 1,200 wire-worms having been taken out of the crop of a single bird, and from another Mr. F. Bond extracted 440 grubs of the crane-fly. Several instances are on record of the slow-worm (Anguis fragilis) being devoured, and there is one instance of a Pheasant being found dead, evidently choked by swallowing a short-tailed field-mouse. The leaves of the yew-tree have also been known to prove fatal, and shot, picked up in the covers, has produced lead-poisoning.* Towards and through- out the winter, Pheasants in preserves, to prevent them from straying away in their search for food, require to be supplied constantly with barley in the straw, or beans, or both; and one good mode of inducing them to stop at home is to sow * W. B. Tegetmeier, ‘ Pheasants,’ Ed. 2, p. 88. 100 1 PHASIANIDA, in summer, beans, peas, and buckwheat, mixed together, leaving the whole crop standing on the ground; the strong and tall stalks of the beans carry up, sustain, and support the other two, and all three together afford, for a long time, both food and cover. Maize or Indian corn is, however, preferred to any other food. During summer, till the old birds have completed their seasonal moult, Pheasants do not roost constantly in trees, but afterwards they may be heard, about dusk, to go up to their roost, by the flutter of their wings, and their peculiar notes; the male giving his short chuckling crow, and the female her more shrill piping whistle, as soon as they get upon their feet on the branch : both generally roost upon the smaller trees, and near the stem. Unless disturbed, and obliged to secure their safety by flight, Pheasants seldom use their wings, except, as before noticed, at night and morning ; nor have they much occasion, as a mode of progression, for they get over the ground with remark- able speed by running. But when well on the wing they fly with tremendous force, and plate-glass windows + inch thick have been smashed into fragments by birds deceived by the reflection in a mirror facing the window, or attracted by a light inside; and also when pursued by a hawk. As regards the duration of flight, Mr. Cordeaux states that when shooting in the marshes near Grimsby on the Lincoln- shire side of the Humber, which is there nearly four miles across, a man working on the sea embankment called his attention to two Pheasants which had just flown over from the Yorkshire side, and which, on being shot, proved to be hens in very good condition. Pheasants can also swim with con- siderable facility, both old and young birds having occasion- ally been known to take to the water of their own free will. Although capable of being rendered tame, and even in individual cases disagreeably familiar, the Pheasant never becomes domesticated in the same sense as our common fowls; the young, even when hatched under a domestic hen and accustomed to be fed, always betaking themselves to the covers on the approach of strangers. — PHEASANT. 101 In the last Edition mention is made of a brace of cock Pheasants which turned the scale at 91bs.; but this weight has since been surpassed in several instances ; the heaviest as yet on record being one described in ‘The Field,’ vol. xlvi. p. 179, weighed independently by Mr. Kelly and Admiral Sir Houston Stewart, and which attained to 6lbs. less loz. This was doubtless owing to the fattening influence of feeding on maize; and the average of an old cock bird may be taken at 3lbs. to 3i1bs., and a hen about 23lbs. Like other gallinaceous birds, the Pheasant has a strong inclination to breed with other birds, not of its own species. Edwards long ago figured, plate 337, a bird which was con- sidered to have been produced between a Pheasant and a Turkey. Ihave twice been shewn birds that were said to be the produce of the Pheasant and the Guinea Fowl, and the evidence to be derived from the plumage was in favour of the statement. Of birds produced between the Pheasant and the Black Grouse, several figures and particulars have been given under the head of Black Grouse. Birds pro- duced between the Pheasant and Common Fowl are of frequent occurrence, and such a one is usually called a Pero. The Zoological Society have possessed several, which were for a time kept together, but shewed no signs of breeding ; they are considered, like other hydrids, to be unproductive among themselves, all being half-bred ; but when paired with the true Pheasant or the Fowl, the case is different. In September, 1836, a communication from Mr. Edward Fuller, of Carleton Hall, near Saxmundham, was read, which stated that his gamekeeper had succeeded in rearing two birds from a Barn-door Hen having a cross from a Pheasant, and a Pheasant cock; that the birds partook equally of the two species in their habits, manners and appearance, and con- cluded by presenting them to the Society. The gamekeeper, in a short note which accompanied the birds, stated that he had bred them, and they were three-quarter-bred Phea- sants. (Zool. Proceedings for 1836, p. 84.) Several speci- mens of hybrids, from the preserved collection inthe Museum of the Society, were placed on the table the same evening 102 PHASIANID&. for exhibition and comparison. These had been bred between the Pheasant and Common Fowl, the Common Pheasant and the Silver Pheasant, and the Common Pheasant with the Gold Pheasant. The Rev. Richard Lubbock, in his ‘ Fauna of Norfolk,’ mentions that in the beginning of January, 1845, he was called into a bird-preserver’s shop to look at a curious hybrid obtained near Thetford, believed to be bred between a Pheasant and a Red-legged Partridge; but Mr. J. H. Gurney, who has examined this bird, says it is without ‘doubt a female Golden Pheasant. A history of our Pheasant would be incomplete without a notice of that remarkable assumption of a plumage resem- bling that of the male observed to take place in some of the females, and which is well known to sportsmen and game- keepers, by whom such birds are usually called Mule Phea- sants. The name is correct, since some of our dictionaries shew that the term mule is derived from a word which signifies barren, and these hen Pheasants are incapable of producing egos, from derangement of the generative organs ; sometimes owing to an original internal defect, sometimes from subse- quent disease, and sometimes from old age. The illustration given on the next page represents on a small scale a pre- paration of part of the body of a healthy female Pheasant in winter, in the left-hand figure; and that of a diseased female Pheasant on the right hand. The disorganization is marked by the appearance of the dark lead colour pervading the ovarium, situated on the middle line, and between the two kidneys, which dark colour is seen in patches on various parts of the oviduct below; and I have never examined a hen Pheasant assuming the plumage of the male without finding more or less of the appearance here indicated. In some seasons, for instance those of 1881 and 1882, a preponderance of cock-birds compared with hens has been observed. Mr. Harvie-Brown states that such has been the case with birds hatched in his covers from eggs obtained from Elveden, and also in. many covers in Peebles, Fife, Dumbarton, and Perthshire. Similar accounts have been received from Norfolk, Surrey, and Sussex. PHEASANT. | 103 - In the adult male the beak is of a whitish horn colour, rather darker at the base ; the eyes surrounded with a naked skin of a bright scarlet colour, speckled with a bluish-black ; the irides hazel ; the head, and the neck all round, steel-blue, reflecting brown, green, and purple, in different lights ; ear- coverts dark brown ; feathers of the upper part of the back orange-red, tipped with velvet-black; back and scapulars orange-red, the centre of each feather dark brown, with an outer band of straw-yellow; saddle hackle feathers, rump, and upper tail-coverts, light brownish-red ; wing-coverts of two shades of red; quill-feathers dull greyish-brown, varied with pale wood-brown ; tail-feathers very long, pale yellow- brown, with narrow transverse black bars about one inch apart; breast and belly golden red; each feather margined with velvet-black, and reflecting tints of gold and purple: lower part of the belly, vent, and under tail-coverts, brownish- 104 PHASIANIDA. black; legs, spurs, toes, and claws, brownish-lead colour ; the spurs become pointed and sharp after the first year. - The whole length of a male Pheasant is about three feet, depending upon the age of the bird, and the consequent length of the two middle feathers of the tail, which fre- quently measure two feet. Wing from the carpal joint to the end, nearly ten inches; the wing in form rounded ; the fifth quill-feather the longest. The female measures about two feet. The general colour of the plumage pale yellowish-brown ; varied by different shades of darker brown ; sides of the neck tinged with red and green. Females assuming the plumage of males may be known by the absence of brilliancy of tint, and the golden red feathers on the breast generally want the contrast of the broad dark velvet-like margin. The legs and feet retain their smaller and more slender female character, and are usually without spurs; but Mr. Bond has an example with a spur on one leg. Young birds, of both sexes, in their first plumage, re- semble the females. White and Pied varieties of the Pheasant are not uncom- mon; but for further details, as well as for instructions as to the management of Pheasants both in the covert and the aviary, and the disorders to which they are liable, the reader is referred to Mr. Tegetmeier’s excellent work already mentioned. a COMMON PARTRIDGE. 105 GALLINE. PHASIANID&, es PERDIX CINEREA, Latham.* THE COMMON PARTRIDGE. Perdix cinerea. Prervix, Brisson+.—Bill short, strong, naked at the base ; upper mandible convex, deflected towards the tip. Nostrils basal, lateral, the orifice partly concealed by an arched naked scale. Wings short, concave, rounded in form ; the first three feathers shorter than the fourth or fifth, which are the longest in the wing. Tail, of eighteen feathers, short, rounded. Feet, with three toes in front, and one behind, those in front united by a membrane as far as the first articulation. Tue enlarged demands of an increasing population, tempt- ing prices in seasons of scarcity, or the progress of science * Ind. Orn., ii. p. 645 (1790, ex. Brisson). + Ornithologie, i. p. 219 (1760). VOi. LEY. P 106 PHASIANIDA. unfolding the nature of soils, have each in turn induced the cultivation of various tracts of ground unploughed before ; and as the labours of the agriculturists encroach upon the boundaries of the moor, the Grouse retires, and the Partridge takes its place upon the land: the districts best cultivated, and producing the most corn, frequently also producing the greatest number of Partridges. Of a bird so universally known, little that is new can be said; with its appearance and its habits almost all are familiar. These birds pair in February; but seldom begin to lay eggs till towards the end of April or the beginning of May; a slight depression in the ground, with a few dead leaves or dried grass bents scratched together, serves for a nest; and the place chosen is sometimes only a few yards from a public footpath. Occasionally, also, the nest of a Partridge is found in a situation the least likely to be occu- pied by a bird so decidedly terrestrial in its habits. | In Daniel’s ‘ Rural Sports,’ it is recorded that a Partridge made her nest on the top of an oak pollard; and this tree had one end of the bars of a stile, where there was a footpath, fastened into it, and by the passengers going over the stile before she sat close, she was disturbed, and first discovered. She there hatched sixteen eggs ; and her. brood, scrambling down the short and rough ground which grew out all round from the trunk of the tree, reached the ground in safety. The eggs of the Partridge are, however, mostly deposited among brushwood or long grass, or in fields of clover and standing corn; they are generally of a uniform olive-brown colour, but pale blue or whitish varieties are not very un- common : they measure about 1°45 by1:1in., and from twelve to twenty are produced by one female. Twenty-eight eggs in one instance, and thirty-three eggs in two other instances, are recorded as having been found in one nest; but there is little doubt in these cases that more than one bird had laid eggs in the same nest. In one of the instances recorded, in which the nest with thirty-three eggs was in a fallow field, twenty-three young birds were hatched out and went off with the old ones, and four of the eggs left behind had live birds COMMON PARTRIDGE. 107 in them. The attachment of Partridges to their eggs and young is proverbial. Montagu mentions an instance in which a Partridge, on the point of hatching, was taken, together with her eggs, and carried in a hat to some dis- tance ; she continued to sit, and brought out her young. Mr. Jesse mentions two cases:—‘‘ A farmer discovered a Partridge sitting on its eggs in a grass-field. The bird allowed him to pass his hand frequently down its back with- out moving, or showing any fear; but if he offered to touch the eggs, the poor bird immediately pecked his hand. A gentleman living near Spilsby, in Lincolnshire, was one day riding over his farm and superintending his ploughmen, who were ploughing a piece of fallow land. He saw a Partridge elide off her nest so near the foot of one of his plough- horses, that he thought the eggs must be crushed ; this, however, was not the case; but he found that the old bird was on the point of hatching, as several of the eggs were beginning to chip. He saw the old bird return to her nest the instant he left the spot. It was evident that the next round of the plough must bury the eggs and the nest in the furrow. His surprise was great when, returning with the plough, he came to the spot, and saw the nest indeed, but the eggs and bird were gone. An idea struck him that she had removed her eggs ; and he found her, before he left the field, sitting under the hedge upon twenty-one eggs, and she brought off nineteen birds. The round of ploughing had occupied about twenty minutes, in which time she, probably assisted by the cock bird, had removed the twenty-one eggs to a distance of about forty yards.” Incubation with the Partridge lasts twenty-one days, and the great hatching-time in the southern parts of England is from the 20th of June till the end of that month.* Mr. Selby observes, that ‘“‘as soon as the young are excluded, the male bird joins the covey, and displays equal anxiety with the female for their support and defence. There are few persons conversant with country affairs who have not * Abnormal instances of nests containing eggs in January, and young being hatched in February, are on record. 108 PHASIANIDA. witnessed the confusion produced in a brood of young Par- tridges by any sudden alarm; or who have not admired the stratagems to which the parent birds have recourse, in order to deceive and draw off the intruder. Their parental instinct, indeed, is not always confined to mere devices for engaging attention ; but where there exists a probability of success, they will fight obstinately for the preservation of their young, as appear from many instances already narrated by different writers, and to which the following may be added, for the truth of which I can vouch :—A person engaged in a field, not far from my residence, had his attention arrested by some objects on the ground, which, upon approaching, he found to be two Partridges, a male and female, engaged in battle with a Carrion Crow; so successful and so absorbed were they in the issue of the contest, that they actually held the Crow till it was seized and taken from them by the spectator of the scene. Upon search, young birds, very lately hatched, were found concealed amongst the grass. It would appear, therefore, that the Crow, a mortal enemy to all kinds of young game, in attempting to carry off one of these, had been attacked by the parent birds, and with this singular result. The Editor has seen, near Lynton, in North Devon, the old birds shew a bold front to a Hen- Harrier, to enable their brood to gain the protection of a hedge. Their desire to go to nest, and their partiality to a young brood, is sometimes shewn in another manner. In 1808, at Mark’s Hall, in Essex, Payne, the gamekeeper, noticed a brace of Partridges, whose nest had been destroyed, taking to a nest of Pheasant’s eggs, the hen of which had been killed by accident. The Partridges hatched and brought up ten young Pheasants. The keeper frequently shewed his master, Colonel Burgoyne, and others, the old Partridges with the young Pheasants, at different periods of their growth.* During the day a covey of Partridges, keeping together, are seldom seen on the wing unless disturbed; they fre- quent grass-fields, preferring the hedge-sides, some of them picking up insects, and occasionally the green leaves of * Daniel’s Supplement, p. 397. COMMON PARTRIDGE. 109 plants ; others dusting themgelves in any dry spot where the soil is loose, and this would seem to be a constant practice with them in dry weather, if we may judge by the numerous dusting-places, with the marks and feathers, to be found about their haunts; and sportsmen find, in the early part of the shooting-season, that young and weak birds are frequently infested with numerous parasites. In the after- noon the covey repair to some neighbouring field of standing corn, or, if that be cut, to the stubble, for the second daily meal of grain; and, this completed, the call-note may be heard, according to White, as soon as the beetles begin to buzz, and the whole move away together to some spot where they jug, as it is called—that is, squat and nestle close together for the night; and from the appearance of the mutings, or droppings, which are generally deposited in a circle of only a few inches in diameter, it would appear that the birds arrange themselves also in a circle, of which their tails form the centre, all the heads being outwards,—a dis- position which instinct has suggested as the best for observ- ing the approach of any of their numerous enemies, whatever may be the direction, and thus increase their security by enabling them to avoid a surprise. In the morning early they again visit the stubble for a breakfast, and pass the rest of the day as before. Fields of clover or turnips are very favourite places of resort during the day. Mr. Harvie-Brown informs the Editor that when the snow lay upon the ground he has known a covey to roost regularly on a limb of a large tree; and he has also seen Partridges ‘‘ treed”’ by a dog. Many Partridges are annually reared from eggs that are found, or mowed out in cutting clover or grass, these eggs being hatched under hens. The young birds should be fed with ants’-eggs, curd, grits; small grain and some vege- tables, when the birds are old enough. Partridges thus hatched and reared become so tame as even to be trouble- some, running close about the feet of those who are in the habit of supplying them several times daily with food. Although they live for years in an aviary, records of the Par- tridge breeding in confinement are rare. Sir Thomas Marion 110 PHASIANIDA. Wilson, Bart., had a small covey of seven or eight hatched and reared by the parent birds in his aviary at Charlton in the summer of 1842. Dry summers are particularly favourable to the breeding of Partridges; White, in his ‘History of Selborne,’ notes, that after the dry summers of 1740 and 1741, Partridges swarmed to such a degree, that ‘“‘ unreasonable sportsmen killed twenty and sometimes thirty brace in a day.” The late Earl of Leicester, on the 7th of October, 1797, upon his manor at Warham, and within a mile’s circumference, bagged forty brace of Par- tridges in eight hours, at ninety-three shots : every bird being killed singly ; and the day before, on the same ground, he killed twenty-two brace and a half in three hours. This was wonderfully good shooting in the days of flint-locks, but as a bag it has long since been thrown into the shade. The largest bag of Partridges on record was made by the Maharajah Duleep Singh to his own gun in 1876, the number of 780 hand-reared birds being shot on one day, and 314 wild birds on another; the total of six days’ shooting near Thetford being 2,530 Partridges, without counting ground-game. When ‘‘ driving ’’ is practised, telegraph wires often prove fatal to Partridges, and they frequently fly against these unseen obstacles on foggy mornings. Mr. Selby observes that the Partridge is found to vary considerably in size, according to situation, and the different nutritive qualities of food; thus, the largest are met with in districts where an abundance of grain prevails, whilst upon the precincts of moors, where arable land is scarce, they are much smaller in size, although by no means inferior in point of flavour. It has been observed to me also, that on some heathy districts in Surrey, such as the Hurtwood and Bagshot Heath, Partridges seldom frequent the corn-lands, but subsist on heath and hurtle-berries. These birds are not so white in the flesh when dressed, and have some of the flavour of the Grouse. A Partridge weighing 1b. is above the average, but examples have been known up to 18 ozs. The Partridge is so generally distributed over this country COMMON PARTRIDGE. Til as to make an enumeration of particular localities unneces- sary; but though plentiful in some of the low grounds of Scotland, it does not appear to have extended beyond a few of the islands of the Inner Hebrides. It was introduced in some of the Orkney Islands about 1840. In Ireland, although found in most of the cultivated districts, it does not seem to thrive, and of late years its numbers have on the whole diminished, from various causes. In Norway the Partridge exists under difficulties, and its numbers fluctuate almost down to the point of extermination, owing to the rigour of the winters and the abundance of birds of prey, especially the Goshawk. In Sweden it has been known to occur as far as 66° N. lat., but it can hardly be said to flourish in any part of that country, or in Finland. Throughout the greater part of Denmark it is resident, as well as in Northern Germany down to Poland, and thence through Russia to the Ural. In Holland, Belgium, and Northern and Central France it is found in suitable locali- ties down to Savoy, but in the south it gives place to the Red-legged species; nevertheless it occurs on both sides of the Pyrenees, especially in the moister regions to the west, where it holds its own against the Red-leg as far as Galicia, and down to the valley of the Ebro. In arid Southern Spain and Portugal it is almost unknown, but in Italy it ranges down to Naples. As Malherbe’s statement, that it visits Sicily on its passages to and from Africa,* is often quoted in sup- port of the supposed migratory habits of this bird, it may be mentioned that the recent careful investigations of Professor Doderlein, of Palermo, himself a great sportsman, afford no satisfactory evidence of its existence even in the mountains of that island; and it is quite unknown in Northern Africa. Neither is it indigenous to the island of Sardinia. The gradual destruction of the forests in some parts of Southern Germany and Austria appears to have favoured its increase, and it abounds in the cultivated districts of Albania, Mace- donia, and Roumelia, whilst more to the northwards it is generally distributed throughout the steppes of Southern * Faune Ornithologique de la Sicile, p. 154. 112 PHASIANIDA. Russia. In Asia Minor it appears to be very local, and almost confined to the central portions of the peninsula, Mr. Danford having obtained it near Angora (Ibis, 1880, p. 94); but eastward again, Sir Oliver St. John found it generally distributed in the mountainous districts to the north of Tehran. Throughout ,the southern portion of its range it is, in fact, generally a frequenter of moderately elevated ground not altogether removed from the vicinity of cultivation. From the Altai eastward, in Dauria, Mongolia, and Northern China, it is replaced by a closely allied species, Perdix barbata, the male of which is characterized by its smaller size, golden-buff throat and breast, moustache-like tufts at the base of the lower mandible, and deep black horse-shoe mark on the lower breast. In Thibet and along the Himalayas from the borders of Cashmere to Sikkim is found a third and very handsome species, P. hodgsonie, which, whilst displaying a conspicuous horse-shoe, and having tarsi destitute of spurs, yet approaches the Red- legged group (Caccabis) in some points of coloration. These three are the only well-defined species of true Perdix as yet known, and the genus appears to be confined to the temperate portions of the Palearctic region. The adult male has the beak bluish-white; the irides hazel; behind the eye, and above the ear-coverts, a small triangular patch of naked red skin; the forehead, the space between the beak and the eye, with the feathers extending backwards as far as the ear-coverts, and downwards covering the front of the neck and throat, bright yellowish-chestnut ; top of the head, hind neck, and upper back, freckled greyish- brown; lower back and wing-coverts freckled with two shades of chestnut-brown on a ground of wood-brown, the shaft of each feather forming a conspicuous streak of pale wood-brown ; the quill-feathers brown, with transverse bars of wood-brown; the rump and upper tail-coverts, some of which are long, freckled with two shades of brown, and barred transversely with chestnut; tail-feathers eighteen in number: the two middle ones marked like the coverts, the next pair with chestnut centres and mottled edges, and COMMON PARTRIDGE, 1s the remaining fourteen reddish-chestnut.* The neck and upper part of the breast, the sides, and flanks, light bluish-grey, minutely freckled with dark grey ; lower breast with a rich chestnut-coloured, horse-shoe-shaped patch on a ground of white; sides and flanks barred with chestnut ; thighs greyish-white ; under tail-coverts yellowish-brown ; the legs and toes bluish-white; the claws brown. The whole length of the male bird is twelve inches and a half. The wing is rounded in form. The length from the carpal joint to the end, six inches; the first feather about as long as the sixth; the second equal to the fifth; and all of them shorter than the third and fourth, which are the longest in the wing. The female is generally a little smaller than the male; the light chestnut-coloured patch round the beak is lighter in colour, and smaller in size than in the male, not extend- ing farther back over the sides of the neck than a line falling perpendicularly from the eye ; the grey feathers of the lower part of the sides of the neck are more mixed with brown ; the lower breast is greyish-white, not assuming the dark chestnut patch till the second or third year; the chestnut bars on the flanks are broader. Young birds before their first autumn moult have no red mark behind the eye; the general plumage is of a uniform brownish-yellow, barred and streaked with darker brown ; the legs and toes yellowish clay-brown. During the two first months of our shooting-season, the young Partridges may be found in every stage of moult. Varieties of the Partridge in colour are very common, some exhibiting only patches of white ; others are wholly white; and cream-coloured, or very pale buff-coloured varieties are also * It is not easy to count with accuracy the number of tail-feathers in pre- pared skins of Partridges, and authorities do not agree upon this point, owing’ to a difference of opinion as to whether the two central feathers belong to the true tail or to the upper tail-coverts. After examining a large number of birds in the flesh, the Editor has come to the conclusion that the Common Partridge has eighteen, and the Red-legged Partridge fourteen, true rectrices. The fact that, as a rule, these game-birds are only procurable in autumn, when they are in moult, adds to the difficulty. VOL. III. Q 114 PHASIANIDA. common. Birds from a gravelly soil are frequently very rich in colour, whilst those from the clay are often poor, and some Cambridge and also Devonshire birds are said to be nearly as grey as an autumn Ptarmigan. The neighbourhood of Saffron Walden produces sandy-coloured birds. In Flanders a toler- ably constant pale variety is known by the name of Perdix de marais, and has been accorded specific rank by Demeeze- maker as Starna palustris. Mr. Harvie-Brown has specimens of a local variety which seems to be on the increase, and in which the horse-shoe mark is white; and Mr. J. H. Gurney, Junr., informs the Editor that several similar examples have been shot near Northrepps in Norfolk. Mr. J. Hancock (Nat. Hist. Tr. Northumb. and Durham, pls. xi. and xii.) has figured some remarkable varieties; and from his remarks it would appear that these aberrant states of plumage are mostly found in young birds which were gradually assuming the normal dress of the adult. A very red variety has been figured by the late Sir William Jardine (Nat. Lib. Ornith. iv. pl. ii.) under the name of P. montana. Hybrids between the Partridge and any other. species are uncommon, but Mr. F. Bond has a bird shot on Blubber- house Moor, near Harrogate, in August 1866, by the present Lord Walsingham, which appears to be the result of a cross with the Red Grouse; the bill being strong and Grouse-like, the tarsi and feet partially feathered, the breast and body mottled with pale reddish-brown with a sprinkling of grey, the quill-feathers dirty white, with lavender-grey outer webs. The brown colour of the upper parts is not very significant, but the feathering of the tarsi and feet seems tolerably conclusive. A few instances are also on record of hybrids between this species and the Red-legged Partridge. RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. 115 GALLINZ:. PHASIANID&. CaccaBis RuFA (Linneus*). THE RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. Perdix rufa. CaccaBis, Kaup+.—Bill short, stout, naked at the base; upper mandible decurved to the tip. Nostrils basal, lateral, partly covered and closed by an oblong horny scale. Wings short, rounded ; the first three feathers shorter than the fourth and fifth, which are the longest. Tail, of fourteen feathers, short, rounded. Tarsi anteriorly scutellate, and, in the male, armed with blunt spurs ; feet with one toe behind, and three in front united at their bases by a membrane. Tur Rep-Lecerp Partripes is one of the genus Caccabis, a well-defined group of birds which closely resemble each other in their main pattern of coloration, and also in their habits. They prefer sandy soils, and some of them are partial to mountainous districts; the sexes being alike ; * Tetrao rufus, Linnzus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p, 276 (1766), partim. + Natiirl. Syst. p. 183 (1829). 116 PHASIANIDA. whereas in true Perdia they differ in plumage; and the males have blunt spurs, which is not the case with our bird. Their natural range is principally throughout the warmer portions of the Palearctic, and the northern districts of the Ethiopian and Oriental regions. Originally introduced from abroad, the Red-legged Par- tridge has maintained its position for upwards of a century, not only without assistance, but even in spite of some attempts to exterminate it, and its claim to a place in the British list is now generally admitted. It is stated in Daniel’s ‘ Rural Sports,’ that so long ago as the time of Charles the Second, several pairs of Red-legged Par- tridges were turned out about Windsor to obtain a stock ; but they are supposed to have perished, although some of them, or their descendants, were seen for a few years after- wards; and I find other records of this bird having been killed in Berkshire. Mr. Daniel further states that the late Duke of Northumberland preserved many in hopes of their increasing upon his manors; and he also adds, that he him- self, in 1777, within two miles of Colchester, found a covey of fourteen, which baffled for half an hour the exertions of a brace of good pointers to make them take wing, and the first which did so immediately perched on the hedge, and was shot there, without its being known what bird it was. This covey was probably descended from those introduced into England about the year 1770 by the Marquis of Hertford and Lord Rendlesham, each of whom had eggs procured on the Continent, carefully, brought to England, and placed under domestic fowls; the former at Sudbourn, near Orford, in Suffolk, one of his shooting residences ; the latter on his estates at Rendlesham, a few miles distant from Sudbourn. From these places the birds have been gradually extending themselves over the adjoining counties. Professor Newton states that in the neighbourhood of Thetford, Suffolk, near which he formerly resided, the Red- legged Partridge was not much known till after 1823, when it was introduced by Lords de Ros and Alvanley at Culford, near Bury St. Edmunds, whence the birds spread rapidly on RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. 17 the adjoining estates, and became very plentiful. The eggs were brought from France, as Professor Newton was told by his father, who refused to have any at the time of their introduction. From this time onwards the Red-legs increased with such rapidity that in 1825 Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear (Trans. Lin. Soc. xv. p. 34) wrote, ‘‘ These birds are now very plentiful in some parts of Suffolk. We have seen at least one hundred and fifty brace upon Dunmingworth-heath, and they are found in greater or less numbers from Aldborough to Woodbridge.” Since then the species has spread into Cambridgeshire, Herts, Essex, Buckinghamshire, and even Middlesex, and has been found occasionally in other counties from Kent to Devonshire, and northwards to Westmoreland, but the Midland and North-eastern districts do not appear to suit it, and the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, where it frequents both the light and the heavy lands, still remain its stronghold. In Scotland a solitary example was obtained near Aberdeen in January, 1867 ;* and an attempt to intro- duce the species into the Orkneys has failed. Neither does it appear to have thriven in Ireland, where, according to Thompson, it was introduced a few years prior to 1844. This species was formerly known by the name of the Guernsey Partridge, owing to the belief that it was indigenous to that island; but Mr. Cecil Smith (Zool. 1881, p. 397) considers that, even as an introduced species, it is extinct both there and in the neighbouring islets: Jersey, where Mr. Harvie-Brown saw one a few years ago, being the only island on which any still exist. This disposes of the supposition that an example shot many years ago, near Weymouth, in Dorsetshire, had migrated from the Channel Islands; and, in fact, all the evidence at present available tends to shew that this species is no- where in the habit of taking long migratory flights. Mr. Stevenson, who has gone very carefully into the question,t points out that although small coveys of birds are regularly met with in spring on various points of the east coast, * R. Gray, ‘Birds of the West of Scotland,’ p. 243. + ‘Birds of Norfolk,’ i. pp. 413-416. 118 PHASIANIDA. generally in an exhausted condition, and although they have even been seen by an intelligent witness making for the land, at a distance of from four to five miles out at sea, yet there is in this nothing inconsistent with the probability of their having flown out to sea from our eastern shores, where they are already plentiful, and, having misjudged the distance, returning in an exhausted state. This frequently happens with Common Partridges shot at in the vicinity of the sea. Neither is there any country to the north or east of England whence they could have migrated, the species being unknown in Scandinavia and in Northern Germany. ‘The very fact that, as stated by Sir Thomas Browne more than two cen- turies ago, this Partridge was then unknown in the eastern counties, and continued to be so until its introduction, is one of the strongest arguments aguinst its vernal immi- gration at the present time. In Belgium the Red-legged Partridge is almost unknown, nor is it abundant in the northern districts of France, but in Savoy it is tolerably numerous, and spreads for a short distance into Switzerland, where it meets with a larger and stronger congener, C. saxatilis.* Throughout central and southern France it is generally distributed, and it is the only species of Red-leg indigenous to the Iberian Peninsula. Strong evidence of its non-migratory nature is afforded by the fact that although abundant on the hills of Spain within sight of the opposite coast of North Africa, it has never been known to cross the Straits ; nor does it even visit the neigh- bouring Rock of Gibraltar, which is occupied by an intro- duced species, the Barbary Partridge, C. petrosa. In Italy it is local, for in the Apennines its extension eastwards is again barred by C. saxatilis, and it becomes rare in the southern provinces; and in Sicily, again, C. saxatilis is the only in- digenous Partridge. In the Balearic Islands; in Elba; and in Corsica, the Red-legged Partridge is the only representa- tive of the group; but in Sardinia its place is occupied by C. petrosa, the only Partridge found in Northern Africa, * A hybrid between these two species was described by M. Bouteille (Orn. du Dauphiné, ii. p. 337) under the name of Perdix lubatiei. RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. 119 and which, in its turn, has never been proved to migrate . even to the mainland of Europe. At the present day the Red-legged Partridge occurs in the Azores and in Madeira, but there can hardly be a doubt that it was introduced there by the Portuguese settlers in the same way as C. chukar of India was carried to St. Helena. Red-legged Partridges scrape together a slight nest of dried grass and leaves upon the ground, among growing corn, grass, or clover; and two or three instances are recorded in which nests with eggs were found in the thatch, or upon the top of low stacks. The eggs are from fifteen to eighteen in number, of a reddish-yellow white, spotted and speckled with reddish-brown, measuring 1°6 by 1°25 in. Professor Newton remarks that this species begins to lay its eggs earlier than the Common Partridge, but it has a habit of dropping its first eggs about in a desultory manner, so that it is no great gainer by making an early beginning. The young, like those of our Common Partridge, soon quit the nest after they are released from the egg-shell. They feed also, like other Partridges, on seeds, grain, and in- sects; they frequent turnip-fields, but appear to prefer heaths, commons, and other waste land, interspersed with bushes. As an object of pursuit they are not esteemed by sports- men, for being stronger on the wing than the Common Partridge, they are usually much more wild, and accord- ingly more difficult to get shots at within distance. They foot away before a pointer like an old cock Phea- sant; and unless the sportsman can drive them into furze, or some other such thick bottom, through which they can- not thread their way, but little chance of success attends him. For these reasons they have been in many places destroyed as vermin, but under the modern system of ‘‘ driv- ing” sportsmen are enabled to give a better account of them, and the strong abhorrence entertained for them has somewhat abated. When wounded, they will run to ground in a rabbit-burrow, or any other hole they can find. Occa- sionally they perch in trees, and have been seen on the upper bar of a gate, or the top of a lift of paling. 120 PHASIANIDA. The flesh of the Red-legged Partridge is white, but rather more dry, and in this country it is not so much in request as that of our own bird, although on the Continent it is generally preferred. The Red-legged bird has been known to breed in confinement, and hybrids between it and the Grey Partridge are on record. Mr. Stevenson mentions one killed at Holverstone in 1850, and Temminck cites another. The adult male has the beak red; from the nostrils a black streak passes to the eye, and, recommencing behind the eye passes downwards and then forwards, joining in front, forming a gorget of black, from which, ‘both on the sides of the neck and in the front, numerous black streaks and spots descend towards the breast; the irides reddish- orange, eyelids vermilion red; top of the head with a line of white before and behind the eye; back of the neck, the shoulders, back, wing-coverts, rump, and upper tail-coverts, hair-brown, wing-feathers umber-brown, with a margin of buff on the outer web; tail-feathers, chestnut ; breast, pearl- grey; belly, vent, and under-tail coverts, fawn-colour; fea- thers of the sides, flanks, and thighs, transversely barred with pearl-grey, white, black, and fawn-colour ; legs and toes red, the former with a blunt rounded knob in the situation of a spur; the claws brown. The whole length is thirteen inches and a half. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, six and a quarter inches. The female is rather smaller than the male: her plumage is not quite so bright in colour, and she has no rounded spur-like knob on the legs. White or pied varieties of this species are sometimes met with. M. A. Lacroix, in his ‘ Oiseaux des Pyrénées Frangaises,’ has given an illustration of an example with a white breast-band, obtained in the Haute Garonne in November, 1872; and similar varieties were captured at the same season in the years 1873 and 1874. The Red-legged Partridge has afforded a remarkable illus- tration of the manner in which birds may aid in the disper- RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. 121 sion of seeds. On December 3rd, 1860, an example which had one foot and leg imbedded in a hard lump of earth, outside which two toes only were visible, came under the notice of Mr. H. Stevenson, and was exhibited, described, and figured by Prof. Newton (P. Z. S., 1863, p. 127). The latter forwarded the encrusted limb to the late Mr. Darwin, who had, in his ‘Origin of Species,’ alluded to the possibility of seeds being contained and transported in similar lumps ; and the following are the remarks of that distinguished naturalist: ‘‘I have examined the Partridge’s leg; the toes and tarsus were frightfully diseased, enlarged, and indurated. There were no concentric layers in the ball of earth, but I cannot doubt that it had become slowly aggregated, probably the result of some viscid exudations from the wounded foot. It is remarkable, considering that the ball is three years old, that eighty-two plants have come up from it, twelve being Monocotyledons, and seventy Dicotyledons, consisting of at least five different plants, perhaps many more.” (H. Steven- son, Birds of Norfolk, i. p. 418.) THe Barpary PartrivGe (Caccabis petrosa) was included in former Editions owing to an example having been picked up dead at Edmondthorpe near Melton Mowbray, in April 1842. It passed into the hands of Mr. Thomas Goatley, of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, and from it the present figure was drawn. Subsequently another was shot on the estate of the Marquis of Hertford at Sudbourn in Suffolk; and two more Suffolk examples are recorded by Mr. Harting (Handb. Brit. Birds, p. 129) on the authority of Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun., who considers that these speci- mens must have been turned down, or their eggs introduced, by game-preservers. Another is mentioned by Mr. Cordeaux (B. of the Humber, p. 81) as killed near Beverley about three years prior to 1872; and Dr. Bullmore (Cornish Fauna, p. 25) cites an example obtained at Killiganoon, Cornwall, in 1865. The restricted natural range and non- migratory habits of this species have already been indicated ; and there can be no reasonable doubt that the occurrence of VOL. III. R 122 PHASIANID#. these examples was owing to artificial introduction. Unlike the preceding species, the Barbary Partridge has failed to maintain a footing in this country, and it is therefore omitted from the present Edition, the late Mr. Gould having equally disallowed its claim. The figure of the bird is, how- ever, given below. Even less can be urged in favour of the insertion of the VIRGINIAN CoLIn (Ortyx virginianus), thousands of which have been brought over from North America during the present century, and turned loose, without having succeeded in permanently establishing themselves. This species is therefore omitted from the present Edition. - sede COMMON QUAIL. 123 GALLINA. PHASIAN/IDA. Corurnix communis, Bonnaterre.* THE COMMON QUAIL. Coturma vulgaris. CoTuRNIX, Bonnaterre+. —Beak strong, shorter than the head, upper man- dible curved. Nostrils basal, lateral, half closed by an arched membrane. Wings moderate: the first quill the longest. Tarsi, unarmed. Feet with four toes, those anterior connected by a membrane as far as the first articulation. Tail short, rounded, recumbent, almost hidden by the tail-coverts. THe Quart has generally been considered as a summer- visitor to Great Britain; but so many instances have been recorded of its occurrence in England, and particularly in Ireland, as well as during the winter months, as to make it clear that a portion of them do not return southward in autumn. Early in February, 1844, I saw six Quails at a * Tableau Encyclopéd. et Méthod., i. p. 217 (1790), F loc. cit. 124 PHASIANIDA. poulterer’s shop in London, which had been sent up from Cambridgeshire, and as these birds had no wound about them, I had no doubt they had been caught by fowlers when drawing nets for Larks. Of these six, three were females. Mr. H. T. Frere (Zoologists p. 871) refers to the late appearance of Quails in Oxfordshire in the following terms :—‘‘In consequence of some fields of corn remaining in this part of England, still standing in December, 1844, Quails did not leave us till very late. After several days of severe frost, I heard of a pair having been seen in a field, in the parish of Hornsey, near this town. I cannot re- member the exact date, but it was some time in December ; and in the last week in November, I saw a pair in this market, where they have been more plentiful than usual this autumn, which had been killed down in the fens. The birds seen at Hornsey had not been driven away by intense frost, which, curious to say, prevailed while the barley where they lay was being carried.” In the winter of 1847, and again in December 1865 and January 1866, Quails were obtained in several localities of the east and north-east of England. The majority, however, arrive in this country in May, and seem more partial to open champaign countries than to those which are enclosed. Sparingly distributed throughout the country, there are few districts in which Quails have not at one time or another been recorded as breeding; and few also in which their appearance can be counted upon either with regularity or in anything like average numbers. In some parts of Corn- wall a good many are bred, the year 1870 having proved unusually favourable for hatching; and about Bridgewater in Somersetshire, a fair number nest annually. In other parts of the west they appear to be uncommon, at least beyond Breconshire and Cheshire; but eastward they are to be found scattered about most, if not all, of the southern and midland counties. At one time Quails were far more partial than they are at present to Hertford, Cambridgeshire, and the fen-district ; and in Norfolk, and also in Lincolnshire, they are far less abundant than in former years, when drain- COMMON QUAIL. 125 age and high cultivation had not yet broken up the coarse, tussocky, unimproved land in which they delighted. In the Holderness district of Eastern Yorkshire they breed annually in small numbers, and, although local, their nests have been found in Durham and Northumberland. Northwards, the eastern coast of Scotland is less suitable to their re- quirements; and except in the Lowlands, to the south of the Friths of the Forth and the Clyde, Quails are rare, although nests have been found in the east of Sutherland and in Caithness. The milder west coast offers greater attractions, especially the counties of Kirkcudbright, Wigton, and Ayr ; and Quails have even bred so far west as the islands of Lewis and North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. Mr. J. H. Dunn obtained a nest containing eleven eggs on the 4th October, 1851; near Stromness in the Orkneys; and Dr. Saxby records the finding of one with ten eggs on the 25th September, 1868, at Burrafirth in Unst, the most northern island of the Shetland group,—but the extension of range in this north-eastern direction is not so remarkable, seeing that the summer-visits of this species extend to the Fveroes. In Treland Quails are both more generally distributed than in Great Britain, and a far larger number remain throughout the winter, especially in the south and south-western districts, where frost is seldom felt; the north-eastern portion being, apparently, preferred during the breeding-season. A summer-visitant in no great abundance to Scandinavia and Northern Russia up to about 65° N. lat., this species becomes more common in Denmark and Northern Germany ; and from thence southwards Quails are numerous, especially on migration, throughout the remainder of the Continent. Their extreme western limit is at the Azores,* where, accord- ing to Mr. Godman, they are resident and not migratory, breeding twice and even three times in the year; and Dr. Bolle says substantially the same of those found in the Canaries. These resident birds are small in size, and the males * Large numbers have been turned out in America, especially in the State of Vermont, where, in 1877, a flourishing stock of 6,000 birds had been secured. (J. E. Harting, ‘ Zool.,’ 1878, p. 390.) 126 PHASIANIDA. generally have a red throat, with only a slight trace of the dark central patch ; the flank-feathers are also more distinctly marbled with brown than ordinary and migrating examples. Naturally they occur on the intermediate island of Madeira. It is, however, on the shores of the Mediterranean that their amazing numbers are most noticeable ; the vernal migration being the largest in some localities, whilst in others the Spring arrivals preponderate in numbers. In the south of Spain, especially near Malaga, where the cotton which is cultivated affords excellent cover, Quails remain in some numbers throughout the winter. These resident birds, which are as a rule dark in plumage, are termed ‘‘ codor- nices castellanas’’ by the natives, whilst the spring- arrivals, many of which are somewhat smaller and lighter- coloured, are called ‘‘ moriscas,’’ ‘‘ africanas,’’ and, accord- ing to Colonel Irby, ‘‘criollas.” The latter arrive in March and April; the return migration taking place towards the end of September. Vast numbers cross from Africa to Italy by way of Pantellaria, Malta, and Sicily, arriving in the spring during the night, whereas in autumn they generally pass during the hours of daylight.* The migration is equally general to the eastward, and in Palestine, during the months of March and April, the Quails come up in the night and cover the land. On the African side of the Mediterranean the species necessarily occurs on migration along the whole line ; many examples remaining to breed in the Cisatlantean provinces ; whilst by. the latter part of August a great number have already returned through that great continent and reached the Cape of Good Hope. The course of their migration is more clearly traceable by way of the Cape de Verde, and along the western side, than in any other direction ; but there are probably several main lines, for Quails are widely distributed in the Transvaal, and they occur both in Madagascar and Mauritius. Eastward of Asia Minor this migratory species occurs in Turkestan and Persia, and breeds regularly in Cashmere, descending in the cold weather to the plains of India, where * C. A. Wright, ‘Ibis,’ 1864, p. 138. COMMON QUAIL. 127 it is termed by sportsmen the ‘‘ Grey ’’ Quail, to distinguish it from its smaller congener the Black-breasted or ‘‘ Rain ”’ Quail, C. coromandelica. A few nest in the Northern and North-western Provinces, but the majority leave on the approach of the hot weather. Its occurrence in Ceylon is suspected but not yet proved. On its migrations it was obtained by Severtzoff crossing the Pamir or ‘‘ Dome of the World”’; Dr. Henderson obtained a specimen alive on 24th September at an elevation of 13,500 feet, and several were heard by Dr. Scully calling in the fields about Yarkand. In Siberia its northern range is difficult to trace, but it certainly extends throughout the temperate regions as far as Dauria ; and thence to Japan. In the latter large numbers are resident, but some authorities consider the Japanese form to be distinct: even the note being said to be different. It resembles the resident Azores bird in being small, and in the male having a rufous throat, without, as a rule, any trace of a black central patch; moreover, the marbling on the flank-feathers is so extremely bright and defined as to give an appearance of spots. In China, the ordinary form occurs on migration, and it also visits the island of Formosa, in which, however, there is a resident form similar to the Japanese, and even more like the Azores bird. The development of a red throat, well-defined coloration and small size, seem, in fact, to be characteristic of these island forms. Very dark varieties are also fre- quently met with; a shade of plumage which is probably due to hemp, or some other food similar in its effects.” Enormous numbers of Quail are netted on the Continent, especially on the spring migration, and most people must be * In 1862 MM. J. Verreaux and O. des Murs described and figured (Rev. et Mag. de Zool. xiv. p. 226, pl. 11) a new species of the purely Australian genus Synecus obtained in Lombardy, calling it S. lodoisie ! Degland and Gerbe believed in it, but the Reviewer in ‘The Ibis ’ (1862, p. 380) scouted the idea of the occurrence in Europe of a new species of an Australian genus. In 1868 the Editor bad an opportunity of examining the specimen in the collection of Count Turati, at Milan, and he considered it to be merely a dark variety of the Common Quail, a view which was subsequently endorsed by high authority, and finally admitted to be correct by the late J. Verreaux himself. 128 PHASIANID®. familiar with the long cloth-covered cages, with a feeding- trough in front, exposed in the shops of the principal poul- terers. The greater portion of these are males, which are the first to arrive, and advantage is taken of this circumstance by the bird-catchers, who decoy hundreds into their nets by imitating the call-note of the female. It has been stated that in the small island of Capriin the bayof Naples, 160,000 have been netted in a single season, and even larger numbers are on record. On their first arrival they seem much fatigued, and during their passage they have frequently been known to rest upon sailing-vessels. Canon Tristram, in his ‘ Natural History of the Bible,’ pp. 280-233, says that in Algeria, in the month of April, he found the ground covered with Quails for an extent of many acres at daybreak, where on the preceding afternoon there had not been one, and they scarcely moved until almost trodden on ; and in Palestine he caught several with his hand; one being actually crushed by his horse’s foot. The Hebrew name ‘ selav ’’—in Arabic ‘‘ salwa”’ —from a root signifying ‘‘to be fat,’ is very descriptive of the round plump form and fat flesh of the Quail. Canon Tristram considers that the period at which the Quails were brought to the camp of the Israelites was on their northern migration from Africa in April, when, according to their well- known instinct, they would follow up the coast of the Red Sea till they came to its bifurcation with the Sinaitic Peninsula, and then, with a favouring wind, would cross at the narrow part, resting near the shore before proceeding. It has been stated by many writers that the male Quail is polygamous, and at times perhaps he may be so; but, seeing that Quails in early summer are usually found in pairs, and that two adult birds are generally found in attendance on the young brood, it appears probable that he is monogamous.* He is exceedingly pugnacious with regard to others of his own sex; and also remarkably amorous, whence the French proverbial expression, ‘‘ .Chaud comme caille,’’ which has nothing whatever to do with any supposed stimulating pro- * Such is the distinctly expressed opinion of such practical observers as Thompson, Macgillivray, Gould, and of many: living authorities. COMMON QUAIL. 129 perties possessed by the flesh of the bird. On arrival, the shrill triple note of the male soon makes itself heard in the evenings, and in this country is onomatopetically rendered by the words ‘“‘ wet-my-lips ”; whilst to the German peasant it says ‘‘ Buck’ den Riick”’ (Bend your back). In the south of France it is rendered by ‘“‘ J’ai du blé, j’ai pas de s& (sac),” or in Provence by ‘‘ Tres (trois) per un, tres per un.’’ Every one who has been in Spain, where, in spring, the caged males ‘‘ sing ”’ all day, and nearly all night long, must be familiar—perhaps too much so—with the castanet-like ‘‘click-clic-lic’? which perhaps led to the invention of that instrument of music, and obtained for the bird the scientific name of dactylisonans. Its call is, however, not strictly dactylic, the emphasis being upon the second syllable. In June in this country, but earlier on the Continent, the female scrapes out a small cavity on the ground, into which she collects a few bits of dry grass, straw, or clover stalks; she lays from seven to twelve eggs; nesting among wheat generally, but sometimes in a piece of clover or grass. The eggs are of a yellowish or dull orange-coloured white, blotched or speckled with umber-brown, measuring 1*1 by ‘9 in. Upon these she sits about three weeks ; the young are able to follow her soon after they are excluded from the shell, and learn to feed on seeds, grain, insects, and green leaves. ‘Two broods, or bevies as they are called, are sometimes reared in the season. Many are found and killed in wheat stubbles by Partridge-shooters in the month of September ; they fly quick, but generally straight and low, and are difficult to raise a second time when they have been once flushed and alarmed. The greater portion leave this country in October. The food of the Quail, judging from about thirty examples shot during winter and early spring, consists, according to Thompson, of the seeds of such weeds as plantain, persi- caria, dock, wild vetch, and chickweed ; no less than 3,500 seeds of the latter having been found in the crop of a single bird. Another contained remains of eleven of the nutritious slug Limaxz agrestis; and in May the crop of another was VOL. III. s 130 PHASIANIDA. found to be distended with seeds of grass mixed with a large number of insects. Seeds of the reed (Arundo phragmitis) are also frequently to be met with, and the gizzards of all contain sand and fragments of stone. The adult male has the beak brownish-grey; the irides hazel; top of the head dark brown, with a pale wood-brown streak from the base of the beak on each side over the eye and the ear-coverts, and a narrow streak of the same colour over the crown of the head to the nape of the neck ; the plumage of the back, wings, rump, and tail, brown, with lighter-coloured shafts and longitudinal streaks of wood- brown ; wing-primaries dusky brown, mottled with light brown ; chin and throat white, bounded by two half-circular dark brown bands descending from the ear-coverts, and with a black patch at the bottom in front; breast-feathers pale chestnut-brown, with shafts; lower part of the breast, the belly, vent, and under tail-coverts, yellowish-white ; flank-feathers barred and mottled with brown on the edges, and broadly streaked with pale buff down the centre; legs, toes, and claws, pale brown. The whole length is seven inches. The wing from the carpal joint to the end, four inches anda half: the first feather a very little longer than the second, and a quarter of an inch longer than the third; the form of the wing is therefore pointed. The female has no dark half-circular marks descending down the sides of the neck, nor the black patch in front ; but the feathers on her breast are strongly marked with a small dark spot on each side of the light straw-coloured shaft. The young birds of the year resemble the adult female. The young males do not acquire the black patch on the front of the neck till their second year. In the illustration which precedes this subject, the figure in the foreground represents the male bird; that behind and a little to the left, the female. ANDALUSIAN HEMIPODR, 131 HEMIPODII. TURNICID. TuRNIx syLvATIcA (Desfontaines*), THE ANDALUSIAN HEMIPODE. Hemipodius tachydromus. Turnix, Bonnaterret.— Beak moderate, slender, very compressed ; culmen elevated and curved towards the point. Nostrils lateral, linear, longitudinally cleft, partly closed by a membrane. Tarsus rather long. Toes three before, entirely divided ; no posterior toe. Tail composed of weak yielding feathers clustered together, and concealed by the feathers of the back. Wings moderate, the first and second quill-feathers nearly equal, and the longest. Tue term Hemipodius, signifying Half-foot, was applied generically by M. Temminck, in 1815, to several species of quail-like birds, but with three toes only, which, from their very diminutive size were considered the pigmies among the Gallinaceous birds: an order in which they have generally been placed. After the light thrown upon their anatomy by the * Tetrao sylvaticus, Desfontaines, Mém. de l’Acad. Roy. des Sc., 1787, p. 500, pl. xiii. + Tableau Encycl. et Méthod., i. p. 5 (1790), £32 TURNICIDA. researches of Professor W. K. Parker (Trans. Z. Soce., vol. v.) and Professor Huxley (P. Z. 8., 1868, p. 303), it seems, however, necessary to place them in a distinct order Hemi- podii, which leads off towards the Crypturi, or Tinamous, of South America. One very remarkable feature is that through- out the genus the females are considerably larger than the males. They live mostly in localities covered with scrub, in which they skulk ; hiding themselves at the least appearance of danger; seldom taking wing, but running with great speed; and as a rule they are not migratory. Of the Andalusian Hemipode it may be said that even in the countries it inhabits, it is extremely local, and has never been proved to wander to any extent. In Europe it occurs in the Alemtejo in the south of Portugal, and along the southern coasts of Spain, especially where the ground is covered with palmetto-scrub (Chamerops humilis), as in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar, and of Algesiras in the direction of Vejer, and also about Malaga where the country is of a similar character. It is not again met with in Europe until Sicily is reached, when it is found in con- siderable abundance along the south-western side of that island, very seldom straggling even so far as the vicinity of Palermo: never migrating, nor being known to visit either Malta on the one side, or the mainland of Italy on the other. It does not occur on any other island of the Mediterranean, nor has it been proved to have straggled even to the southern shores of France. In North Africa it is found in suitable localities in Morocco from Mogador to Tangiers, and thence through Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli as far as the confines of Egypt, beyond which it cannot be traced with certainty. It is in fact restricted to cer- tain localities of a peculiar physical character in Southern Europe and Northern Africa; and few birds would be less likely to have voluntarily visited the British Islands. In India and Ceylon this species is represented by Turnia taigoor, the ‘ Bush Quail’ of sportsmen, and other members of the genus are found throughout the Ethiopian and Oriental regions down to Australia, where they are especially numerous. ANDALUSIAN HEMIPODE. 133 The evidence upon which the Andalusian Hemipode has been included amongst British Birds is contained in the following letter, published in the ‘Annals of Natural meee xiv. p. 459, and addressed to the editors :— ‘‘Gentlemen,—I have recently received a bird which appears to me to be new to this country; it is a Quail, having no back toe, and is not mentioned, I believe, in any work on British Ornithology to which I have access; but in Dr. Latham’s ‘General History’ it is described as the Perdix Gibraltarica, with which my specimen appears to agree. The bird was shot by the gamekeeper on the Corn- well estate in this county, about three miles from hence, and has been kindly presented to me. It was found in a field of barley, of which kind of grain, by the bye, hundreds of acres are still standing, with no prospect of being harvested in a proper state. Before I proceeded to preserve the bird, I took the measure of its various parts, the colour of its eyes, bill, and feet, its weight, &c., after which I found its description in the work before alluded to. It was shot on the 29th of October last, since which time another has been killed near the same spot by the same person, but its head was shot off, and otherwise so mutilated as to be unfit for preservation : this might probably complete the pair, mine being a male bird. It had in its gizzard two or three husks of barley, several small seeds similar to charlock, some particles of gravel, and was very fat. It was considerably injured by the shot, but I have set it up in the best manner IT could, and consider it a valuable addition to my small collection of British Birds. Should this prove to be the only known instance of the capture of the bird in Britain, I shall feel glad in having saved it from oblivion. I am, Gentlemen, your obedient servant, ‘* THos. GOATLEY. ‘* Chipping Norton, Oxon, Noy. 11, 1844.” “(The bird in question is the Hemipodius tachidromus of Temminck, which is figured in Mr. Gould’s ‘ Birds of Europe,’ 134 TURNICIDA. vol. iv. plate 264. Mr. Gould, to whom we have shewn Mr. Goatley’s letter, considers this one of the most interest- ing additions to the British Fauna that has occurred for many years.—Ed.]”’ This specimen was drawn from and engraved for the present work. In the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ for 1866, p- 210, it is recorded that the late Mr. Gould exhibited a specimen of the Andalusian Hemipode which had been taken near Huddersfield, and which had been sent to him for inspection by the possessor, Mr. Alfred Beaumont. In ‘ The Birds of Great Britain,’ vol. iv., Mr. Gould adds that the Specimen was accompanied by the following note :—‘‘ The bird was purchased alive by the son of S. D. Mosley, a bird- stuffer of Huddersfield, from two Irishmen, on the 7th of April, 1865, near the Fartown bar on the Bradford Road. He saw it in the hand of one of the men, and thinking it a novelty gave them sixpence for it; the Irishmen regarded it as a young Partridge.” Nothing can be more circumstantial than the above state- ments, and, failing disproof, there seems no alternative but to continue to include this species in the list of British birds. The earliest information respecting the nesting of the Andalusian Hemipode was given in ‘ The Ibis’ for 1859, p- 80, pl. ii., in which the late Mr. W. C. Hewitson figured two of its eggs, with those of other rarities, brought from Algeria by Canon Tristram, who contributed a note stating that they were taken by Captain Loche of the French army in Kobah Forest, on July 11th, 1857. The nest was said to have contained seven eggs, nearly fresh, and was placed on the ground in the midst of a dense thicket of underwood. Colonel Irby* says that owing to the skulking habits of the birds, the nest is exceedingly difficult to obtain, but four eggs slightly incubated were brought to him from the neigh- bourhood of San Roque on the 6th July, 1869; the nest being described by the finder as consisting of a few bits of * Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar, p. 141. fon ANDALUSIAN HEMIPODE. 135 dried grass placed under the shelter of a palmetto bush. Another nest, found.by Capt. Savile G. Reid, R.E., on the 19th May, 1873, was placed in grass near the shore, and also contained four incubated eggs, as did another obtained near Tangier by Olcese ; Favier also says that they lay four eggs, and that number appears to be the usual complement. Col. Irby has also received eggs from Mogador. Loche says that the old females lay in May, and again in August: the younger ones in June and September; young broods being sometimes found in the latter month. The eggs are of a dirty- white colour, thickly blotched with purplish-grey and brown, very similar to those of the Pratincole, but smaller; their average measurement being about 1 by ‘8 in. The structure of the shell is very different from that of the egg of a Quail. The male is monogamous, and takes part in the duties of incubation and of attending to the young, which are able to run as soon as they are hatched. Their natural food consists of insects and seeds of wild leguminous and other plants, especially those of the broom; and the stomachs of those examined by the Editor have also contained a large proportion of minute stones. In captivity they feed on wheat, millet, chopped lettuce, very small snails, and broken sugar; but the greatest attractions, says Loche, were meal- worms and flies, which they soon learned to take from the hand. An adult male became tame almost immediately, but a wounded female sulked for some time, only yielding to the temptation of meal-worms. Subsequently both would allow themselves to be caressed, and made no attempts to escape ; but Loche could never succeed in rearing the young ones captured from time to time. A female, deprived of the male, laid more than fifty eggs between March 3rd and October 16th. These were deposited on two consecutive days ; after an interval of three days a third was laid, and again, after two or three days, a fourth ; then came a pause of seven or eight days, and laying under similar conditions was recommenced. A pair of birds subsequently hatched out and reared a brood of four young ones, which, as soon as they became thoroughly independent, separated from their 136 TURNICIDE. parents and lived together ; whilst the old birds had just begun to breed again, when they fell victims to an accident. The usual note of the old birds when calling to their young is a crrou, crrou, errou, but at daybreak and towards sunset the male, and sometimes the female, utters a mournful sound similar to the ‘“‘booming’’ of the Bittern. This is well known to the Andalusian peasant, and has procured for the bird its name of Torillo, or ‘little bull.” The adult female, which is considerably larger than the male, has the bill horn-coloured, lighter at the angle of the under mandible ; iris pale hazel; top of the head mottled- brown with a central buff streak descending to the nape ; the cheeks pale buff, barred with black; the feathers of the upper parts rufous-brown, thickly covered with blackish bars, and margined with pale buff; wing-coverts spotted with black, chestnut, and buffy-white ; quill-feathers dull brown, with a light-coloured line along the edge of the outer web ; chin white; throat and upper breast pale chestnut, passing into buffy-white on the abdomen ; sides of the breast and flanks spotted with black and brown on a buff ground; under tail-coverts chestnut ; legs light brown. Total length about eight inches ; from the carpal joint to the tips of the first and second primaries, which are the longest in the wing, three inches and a half. An adult male obtained at Malaga on the 23rd of Sep- tember, 1872, had the testes largely developed, although the plumage was in partial moult. The markings resemble those of the female, but the general tone of the upper parts was much greyer, and the chestnut of the under parts less vivid. ‘Total length six inches and three-quarters; wing three inches. 1S LAND RAIL. 137 FULICARI A. RALLIDA. CREX PRATENSIS, Bechstein.* THE LAND RAIL, OR CORN CRAKE. Crex pratensis. Crex, Bechstein +.—Bill shorter than*the head, thick at the base, subcul- trated, compressed ; the culmen gradually deflecting from the forehead to the point of the bill; lateral furrow of the upper mandible broad, and occupying more than half its length ; angle of the under mandible bending upwards; both mandibles of an equal length. Nostrils concave, lateral, linear, ovoid, pierced in a membrane occupying the mandibulat furrow in the middle of the bill. Wings armed with a spine, and having the second and third quill-feather the longest. Legs strong, of moderate length, with the lower part of the tibize naked. Feet four-toed, three before, one behind. Toes long, slender, and cleft to their base, without any lateral membrane ; hind toe resting almost wholly oa the ground. Claws arcuate, compressed, and sharp-pointed. Tor Lanp Rain is a summer visitor to this country, generally making its appearance in the southern counties * Ornithologisches Tascbenbuch, ii. p. 337 (1803), + tom. cit. p. 336. VOL. III. T 138 RALLIDA. during the last ten days of April; but in Yorkshire, and still further north, it is seldom observed or heard till the first or second week in May. In the Shetland Islands it only makes its appearance towards the end of that month, the herbage even then being too scanty to afford the requisite concealment. Generally distributed throughout the mainland of Scotland, it also goes to the most outlying of the Hebrides: even to the remote St. Kilda. In Ireland, where a large portion of the country is under pasture, it is fairly abundant. The rich meadows upon the banks of the Trent below Newark: the Vale of Purbeck: the neighbour- hood of Battle in Sussex: and the Island of Anglesey, have each been noted for the abundance of this species; and in Devonshire, the Rev. Robert Holdsworth has stated that he was present at the killing of as many as thirteen couple in a single day in September, at which season Land Rails con- gregate before leaving the country. In the neighbourhood of Selborne, in Gilbert White’s time, it was so rare that seldom more than one or two were seen in a season, and then only in autumn, but owing probably to the clearing of the forest, and the increase of pasture land, this is no longer the case, for Mr. J. E. Harting states, in an edi- torial note to his edition of ‘ White’s History of Selborne’ (p. 828), that he has killed three brace in a September day. By the beginning of October the majority have taken their departure, but numerous instances are on record of occur- rences both in England and Ireland in November and December, and sometimes even in January and February. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey states (‘The Fowler in Ireland,’ p- 251) that he has twice found Land Rails, to all appear- ance asleep, in the latter month, ensconced in the centre of loose stone walls close to the ground ; and Mr. Reeves, of Capard, Queen’s Co., has stated that he took three in a semi-comatose state out of a rabbit-hole on 7th February, 1882, and others in the same manner in former years. Land Rails have also been shot in mistake for Woodcocks in winter, especially on the promontories of the west coast of Ireland. LAND RAIL. 139 A summer visitor in small numbers to the Feroes, the Land Rail occurs at that season in Norway up to the Arctic circle, and, more locally, in Sweden. Rare in summer at Archangel, it is generally distributed over Russia south of the Baltic, and throughout Central Europe, especially at the seasons of migration: breeding in suitable localities ; but in Southern France, the Spanish Penin- sula, the islands of the Mediterranean, Italy south of Venetia, Greece, and Southern Russia, it is princi- pally, if not entirely, a bird of passage.* Beyond the Mediterranean it is to some extent a resident throughout the winter; but numbers of Land Rails continue their migrations across and along the coasts of Africa down to Natal, where, according to Mr. Ayres, they are at times abundant ; and occasionally to Cape Colony. Mr. Vernon Harcourt enumerates this species among the birds of Madeira, and Mr. F. D. Godman was shown examples obtained in the Azores. East of the Mediterranean, it appears to be resident in Asia Minor, and, according to Canon Tristram, in Palestine: ranging through Persia to Afghanistan and Kashmir. Severtzoff states that it breeds in Turkestan, and it occurs in Siberia as far as the. Lena ; but is not recorded from China or Japan. The Land Rail is a very rare straggler to Iceland, and a single example was obtained near Godthaab, Green- land, in 1851. Professor Baird states that several have occurred on the eastern coasts of the United States, and a solitary individual was shot in the Bermudas in October, 1847. In these distant migrations both this and other species probably avail themselves of the spars and rigging of passing vessels on which they can repose un- observed at night, and not unfrequently even by day. Mr. Gould relates that, on his outward voyage to America, a Land Rail rested on the ship when more than two hundred * In the south of France the peasants call the Land Rail ‘‘roi des cailles,” and in Spain it is known by the name of ‘‘guion de las codornices,’”’ owing to an idea that it places itself at the head of the Quails, and precedes them on their migrations. 140 RALLID. miles from the coast of Ireland; and similar cases are doubtless far from uncommon. The Land Rail frequents the long grass of meadows near rivers, beds of osiers, and fields of green corn and clover, where its presence is indicated by its creaking note; and hence one of its names, that of Corn Crake, or Corn Creak, by which latter term it is also known in Ireland. This call-note may be imitated by passing the edge of the thumb-nail, or a piece of wood, briskly along the line of the points of the teeth of a small comb; and so similar is the sound, that the bird may be decoyed by it within a very short distance. The male bird is said to be the caller, and he continues the note until a mate be found and incubation commenced; after which he is less fre- quently heard, although not uncommonly on summer evenings in June, July, and, accordiag to Thompson, occasionally in August. A Land Rail, kept some time in confinement, uttered besides a low guttural sound when alarmed or disturbed. This bird has been credited with ventriloquial powers, but it may be doubted whether this is not in consequence of the marvellous rapidity with which it sneaks, unperceived, from one spot to another. The Editor has had ocular proof that notes which were supposed to indicate ventriloquism were in reality the responsive utter- ances of two individuals.* The food of the Land Rail consists of worms, slugs, snails, small lizards and insects, with portions of vegetable matter and a few seeds. The nest is formed, on the ground, of dry plants; and a field of thick grass, clover, or green corn, is generally the situation chosen: the eggs, from seven to ten in number, are usually produced in the early part of June; they are of a pale reddish-white, spotted and speckled with ash-grey and pale red-brown, * An old North-country name for the Land Rail is the “Daker-hen.” Mr. Cordeaux suggests that it may have reference to the apparently uncertain advance of the bird as expressed in the ventriloquous call-notes; whilst Mr. Harting inclines to trace its origin to the Scandinavian Ager hiéne—i.e., ‘‘ field-hen,” the initial D being a corrupt abbreviation of “the :” giving ‘‘t’ acre-hen” for “the acre-hen.” (Zool. 1883, p. 229.) LAND RAIL. 14] and measure about 1°5 by 1 in. Daniel says, that in 1808, as some men were mowing grass upon a little island belong- ing to the fishing water of Low Bells on Tweed, they cut the head from a Corn Crake that was sitting upon eleven eggs: about twenty yards from this spot, they had nearly destroyed a Partridge in a similar way, which was sitting upon eighteen eggs; but, observing her, the mowers took the eggs from the nest of the Corn Crake and put them into that of the Partridge. ‘Two days after she brought out the whole brood, which were seen running about the island. The Partridge catered for them all, and was observed to gather her numerous family under her wings without any distinction. During the early part of the Partridge-shooting season in this country, many Land Rails are killed by sportsmen, who, after the barley is cut, find them most frequently in seed clover. This bird does not take wing very readily, and flies but slowly, with its legs hanging down, seldom going farther than the nearest hedge, or other covert, in which it can hide itself; and is rarely flushed a second time. When closely pressed, and especially if wounded, it will even elude a dog by fluttering or climbing into the tangled branches. Land Rails are considered most delicate as articles of food. Dr. Thomas Muffet, who flourished in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, writes of them :—‘“‘ Railes of the land deserve to be placed next the Partridg, for their flesh is as good as their feeding good, and they are not without cause preferred to Noblemens Tables” ; and Drayton speaks of “ BLACK-WINGED STILT. 309 was in the shallow water at least six feet from land, another was among some two or three reeds which grew in the water. The nests were built of small reeds, and were from two to four inches high—about six inches in diameter at the top, increasing to eight at the base—the slight hollow contain- ing the eggs being lined with finer reeds. Six nests had four eggs each, one nest had one egg, and one or two were empty. All the nests were within a space of one hundred yards. A thick belt of reeds bordered the lake (which was separated from the Black Sea by a narrow ridge of sand), leaving a few feet of black stinking mud between them and the water; it was on this bare space that the nests were placed: one clutch of eggs was considerably incubated, the others were nearly fresh.”’ Mr. Hume relates a similar habit as observed at some salt works about five-and-thirty miles south of Delhi, where the Black-winged Stilt breeds in hundreds, and forms its nest of small pieces of the broken lime lining of the salt- pans, collected into a circular platform from five to seven inches in diameter, and from two to three in height, on the top of which a little dry grass is placed (Ibis, 1870, p. 146). The adult male has the beak black; the irides red; the whole of the head, the neck all round, the breast, and under parts white, with an evanescent rosy tint; tail-feathers greyish-white ; a few dusky streaks behind the eyes and on the occiput; the back and wings nearly black, tinged with green ; the legs and toes pink. The length of the body is about thirteen inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, eight inches ; the first quill-feather the longest. In the females the back is brownish, and not tinged with ereen. Young birds have the feathers of the back and wings brown, edged with white, and more dark feathers about the back of the head; the legs orange. In the nestling the down of the upper parts is buffish- grey, mottled with black; the under parts dull white. 310 SCOLOPACID. SCOLOPACIDA. PuHaLAROPuS FULICARIUS (Linnus*), THE GREY PHALAROPE. Phalaropus lobatus. Puauaropus, Brisson+.—Beak rather long, weak, straight, depressed, and blunt ; both mandibles grooved throughout their whole length; the upper man- dible slightly curved at the point. Nostrils basal, lateral, oval, with an elevated margin. Legs rather short, slender, tarsus compressed ; three toes in front, one behind; the anterior toes furnished with an extension of the membrane laterally, forming lobes slightly serrated at the edges, the hind toe small, and articulated on the inner side of the tarsus. Wings long, pointed ; the first quill-feather the longest. Tuis pretty species, remarkable for the great difference of its red appearance when in the plumage of summer, com- * Tringa fulicaria, Linneus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 249 (1766). + Ornithologie, vi. p. 12 (1760), The name originated in the resemblance of the dilated and lobed membranes of the toes to those in the Coot—gdaAzpis a Coot, and mods foot; a structural resemblance which was probably a reason for placing the Phalaropes next to the Rails in former Editions. GREY PHALAROPE. ob pared to its delicate grey colour in winter, and from which latter prevailing tint it derives its name, was formerly con- sidered a rare bird in this country, since Pennant says that he only knew of two instances in which it had occurred in his time. It is now known to be of more common, although of very irregular occurrence, generally appearing in the autumn, when on the way to southern winter quarters ; and the visitors are, for the most part, young birds of the year, in various stages of change towards the pure and delicate grey colour of the plumage of winter. Some years since, A. B. Lambert, Esq., presented to the Zoological Society a beautifully-marked adult bird, which was killed in Wiltshire in the month of August, and retained at that time a great portion of the true red colours of the breeding- season, or summer plumage; but specimens obtained in December, January, and February, then exhibit, of course, the perfect grey plumage of winter. This species has now been obtained in so many different counties in the British Islands, as to render the particular enumeration of them unnecessary, but it may be said that it is not of frequent occurrence in Ireland, nor on the west coast of Scotland. On the eastern side of the latter, its irregu- lar visits take place in larger numbers, and the same remark applies to both the eastern and the western sides of England, but the more favoured counties are those of the south-east, south, and, in a less degree, the south-west. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., has published an interesting pamphlet sum- marizing the occurrences of this species during the great immigration which took place between the 20th August and 8th October, 1866, when, according to his estimate, upwards of five hundred were slaughtered, and of these about two hundred and fifty were obtained in Sussex; very few touch- ing the coast to the north of Ramsgate. Some were killed far inland, although generally by the side of lakes or ponds ; and even on the coast, the favourite localities appear to be pools of fresh or brackish water, sheltered from the turbu- lent sea. Another immigration of some importance which took place in the autumn of 1869, was almost confined to oI2 SCOLOPACID &. the south coast. In most instances these beautiful and harmless birds have shown a confidence and want of fear which might have touched the heart of any one except a collector ; it was sometimes difficult to avoid blowing them to pieces, and one bird was actually struck down by a labour- ing man with a spade. The breeding haunts of the Grey Phalarope appear to be circumpolar. On Parry’s first and second Arctic voyages, it was observed to be abundant during the summer months on the North Georgian and Melville Islands, and found breeding at Ielookik, and Melville Peninsula, on the third voyage ; and on the Arctic Expedition of 1875-76, Major Feilden observed a pair apparently breeding in July in 82° 30’ N. lat. Its breeding range extends across to Alaska, but the majority of the eggs which have been sent to col- lectors of late years come from the district of Upernavik and Egedesminde in Greenland. Its eggs have also been obtained in Iceland and in Spitsbergen ; it probably nests in Novaya Zemlya; Middendorff found both eggs and _half- fledged young in Northern Siberia; and the ‘* Vega’’ expe- dition obtained it close to Behring’s Straits in June. In Scandinavia it only occurs on migration, with the exception of the southern fiords of Norway, where some winter; and in Northern Russia, the Baltic, in Northern Germany and 3eloium, it has seldom been noticed. Its appearances on the French coast are more frequent, and, by the depressions of the Rhine and Rhone valleys, it skirts Switzerland and strageles to Italy and the Mediterranean. Single specimens have been observed or obtained at Santander, Lisbon, and near Cadiz; also at Tangier in Morocco, in January, by the late Tyrwhitt-Drake; M. Alléon records it from the Black Sea; and a few have been obtained inland in Bohemia. It does not seem to migrate by way of the Volga valley, and Severtzoff records it as a rare visitant to the Pamir range. Mr. Hume found it in flocks of about twenty in the Gulf of Oman, and from thence to Bombay, but these individuals, presumably the survivors of the persecution in the north, were by this time extremely wary. A solitary example, still GREY PHALAROPE. 313 in winter plumage, was obtained by the late E. Blyth, on the 11th of May, 1846, in the Calcutta bazaar; but there seems to be no record of its occurrence further east ; nor is it at all easy to say what becomes of the birds annually bred in the north, or what lines they take on their migrations to winter quarters. In America, it has been traced as far as New Jersey on the east side, and to California on the west. The nest is a mere depression in the peat, in which four eggs are usually laid. These are of a stone-colour, tinged with olive, spotted and speckled over with dark brown, especially at the larger end; and measure about 1°15 by °85 in., being very similar to those of the Red-necked Phalarope, next in order; but, as a rule, they are slightly broader and blunter in shape. An egg which was in the Author’s collection, and is figured in Mr. Hewitson’s work, was brought from Melville Island, and also the female bird in summer plumage, from which the figure in the back- ground of the illustration was drawn and engraved. The Danish collectors in Greenland say that the present species generally breeds on small islands, whereas its congener prefers the mainland. Grey Phalaropes feed on the smaller thin-skinned crus- tacea and aquatic insects, which they search for and pick up from the surface of the water while swimming; and their attitude resembles that of the Gull, with the head drawn backwards. Such decided swimmers are the Phalaropes, that Sabine mentions having 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, three or four miles from the shore; and Richardson, in his Natural His- tory 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. The females of this species appear to assume more per- fect colours, in the breeding-season, and to retain them longer than the males. A female in fine summer plumage has the beak yellow, the point dark brown; around the base of the beak, and on the top of the head, dark brownish- VoL. Ill. Ss 3l4 SCOLOPACIDA. black ; irides dark brown; around the eye a patch of white ; a narrow stripe down the back of the neck; all the back and rump nearly black, with pale yellow margins; lesser wing-coverts lead-grey, edged with white; greater wing- coverts and secondaries lead-grey, with broad ends of white ; tertials also lead-grey, margined with orange-yellow; quill and tail-feathers almost black; the front and sides of the neck, the breast, and all the under surface of the body uniform reddish-chestnut, or bay; under surface of tail- feathers ash-grey; legs, toes, and their lobed membranes yellow ; the claws black. When changing in autumn to the plumage of winter, the bay under-colour is lost by degrees ; the first grey feathers that appear are the scapulars, and from thence down the sides of the back; afterwards those of the interscapular space, and the centre of the back below; the orange-coloured margins of the tertials becoming paler. In winter the beak becomes black, more than halfway from the tip; around its base, and on the top of the head, white ; irides dark brown; around the eye dusky black ; a patch of the same colour on the ear-coverts and on the occiput ; back of the neck, scapulars, upper wing-coverts, and all the back, uniform pearl-grey ; greater coverts, secondaries, and tertials, lead-grey, margined with white; primaries as in summer ; tail-feathers ash-grey, margined with white; chin, neck in front, breast, and all the under surface cf the body pure white, except a small patch of pearl-grey before the point of the wings, but not extending round the front ; legs, toes, and membranes yellowish; the claws black. Specimens vary considerably in size; the females are the largest, and measure about eight inches and a quarter in their whole length; the males usually half an inch less ; from the carpal joint to the end of the wing four inches and three-quarters. RED-NECKED PHALAROPE. 315 LIMICOLE. SCOLOPACID, PHALAROPUS HYPERBOREUS (Linneus”*). THE RED-NECKED PHALAROPE. Phalaropus hyperboreus. Tur Rep-NECKED PHaALARoPE is at once distinguished from the Grey Phalarope last described, by its smaller size, with a longer and more slender beak, and it presents much less seasonal variation in its plumage.t It is both more irregular, and less abundant on its visits, which are principally in the autumn, and rarely on the spring migra- tion. It has been observed in Sussex and Surrey ; in Norfolk and Suffolk, according to Mr. Stevenson, only about twenty times in as many years; in the Humber district seldom, the latest record being that of three in the autumn of 1881 (Rep. Migr. Com. 1882, p. 32); and also on the Yorkshire coast ; and very rarely in Northumberland. Sometimes its erratic course takes it inland, and on the 6th July, 1843, an * Tringa hyperborea, Linneus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 249 (1766). + Owing to the shape of its bill, it has been made the type of a genus, Lobipes, in association with the only other member of the group, Z. wilsoni, and the latter again has been given a genus, Steyanopus, to itself. 316 SCOLOPACID®. example in the collection of Mr. J. Whitaker, of Rainworth Lodge, near Mansfield, was killed at Ramsdale, Notts. Its rare visits can be traced along the east coast of Scotland from Berwick to the extreme north, and irregularly along the western side; but in Ireland, strange to say, it has not as yet been recorded. Yet although so scarce on migration, it is said to breed in a few scattered localities in the counties of Perth and Inverness; and also, on what Mr. Harvie-Brown considers very insufficient evidence, in Sutherlandshire. In the Hebrides, especially on the Long Island, as well as in North and South Uist, a variable number of pairs annually rear their broods; as some formerly did in the Orkney group, until nearly, if not quite extirpated by the greed of the collector ; and in Shetland a few still find a refuge which it would be undesirable to betray. The late J. D. Salmon, who visited Orkney in the summer of 1831, says of the Red-necked Phalarope: ‘‘ This beau- tiful little bird appeared to be very tame ; although we shot two pairs, those that were swimming about did not take the least notice of the report of the gun; and they seemed to be much attached to each other, for when one of them flew to a short distance, the other directly followed; and while I held a female that was wounded in my hand, its mate came and fluttered before my face. We were much gratified in watching the motions of these elegant little creatures, as they kept swimming about, and were for ever dipping their bills into the water; and so intent were they upon their occupation, that they did not take the least notice of us, although within a few yards of them. The female has not that brilliant bay colour upon the sides of the neck and breast, so conspicuous in the male.* After some little difficulty, we were fortunate in finding their nests, which were placed in small tufts of grass growing close to the edge of the loch; they were formed of dried grass, and were about the size of that of a Titlark, but much deeper. The * Mr. Salmon probably asswmed that the duller-coloured bird was the female, for it is now well-known that in this, as in the preceding species, the female is both larger and more richly coloured than the male. RED-NECKED PHALAROPE. 317 egos are considerably smaller than those of the Dunlin, and beautifully spotted all over with brown. They had but just commenced laying, June 13, as we found only from one to two eggs in each nest; but we were informed by a boy whom we engaged in our service, that they always lay four, and are called by the name of Half-web.”’ In the Hebrides, according to Mr. Harvie-Brown, they usually arrive in the latter part of May, and by August both old and young have taken their departure. The average measurement of eggs is 1°12 by ‘8 in., the ground-colour olive blotched with umber-brown. The male takes a con- siderable share in the duties of incubation, and, as regards the behaviour of the female, the late W. Procter has con- tributed the following experiences obtained in Iceland :— ‘‘The young birds leave the nest as soon as hatched. On the approach of danger the old bird runs among the aquatic herbage, spreading her wings, and counterfeiting lameness, for the purpose of deluding the intruder; and after leading the enemy from her young, she takes wing and flies to a great height, at the same time displaying a peculiar action of the wings; then descending with great velocity, and making simultaneously a noise with her wings. On her return to her young, she uses a particular cry for the pur- pose of gathering the young together. As soon as she has collected them, she covers them with her wings like the domestic hen.” The food, as may be inferred from what has been already stated, consists of small crustacea, marine insects, aquatic ‘larve, worms, &c. The note is a sharp tirrr. The Red-necked Phalarope breeds in the Fxroes, Iceland, and Northern Scandinavia, and can be traced in summer across Northern Russia to Archangel; thence, by way of Waigats, to 73° N. lat. on the Taimyr Peninsula, in Siberia, where, however, Middendorf found it less plentiful than the preceding species; he also found it nesting in the highest portion of the mountains of Bosuda Alamyta. It occurs along the northern coast line as far as Behring’s Straits where it is very abundant. In the Baltic and along the 318 SCOLOPACIDA. coast of the German Ocean, it is a rare and irregular visi- tant, nor is it much more frequent on the coasts of France. It probably wanders to the Iberian Peninsula, as it has been obtained in North-Western Africa, but in Italy and other countries bordering the Mediterranean, it is of very rare occurrence. Stragglers to the inland waters of Austria and Hungary are on record, and a few individuals find their way to the Black Sea. It seems probable that an important line of migration is by the valley of the Volga, for Henke says (Ibis, 1882, p. 223) that it visits Astrachan, being espe- cially numerous on the spring passage. Mr. Seebohm has a specimen in winter plumage from Samarcand, and Prof. Severtzoff obtained it on the autumn migration in the Pamir range. Mr. Blanford found it plentiful in winter in Persia, and examples have been obtained at Kurachee and at Madras. In occurs in Japan; is a regular double migrant ~ to the coast of China, and has been known to visit Celebes, the Moluccas, the Aru Islands, and New Guinea. In Greenland it breeds abundantly, and ranges across North America, going as far north as Prince Albert’s Land (Zool. 1879, p. 7), to Alaska, where it is very plentiful in summer; and it breeds in some of the mountain lakes, high up in the coast range. Inland it has been obtained in Kansas, at an elevation of 3,300 feet (Bull. Nuttall, 1883, p-. 187), and in winter it has been found as far south as Chili on the Pacific, and the Bermudas in the Atlantic. In summer the beak is black, longer and more slender than that of the Grey Phalarope ; irides dark brown ; around the base of the beak and the eyes, on the top of the head, back of the neck, all the back and the wing-coverts, nearly uniform dark lead-colour ; the scapulars and tertials margined with reddish-yellow; primaries almost black; secondaries rather lighter in colour and tipped with white; upper tail- coverts dusky and white; tail-feathers brownish-grey, the middle pair the darkest in colour; chin pure white; sides and front of the neck rich yellowish-red ; feathers of the lower part of the neck in front dark grey, edged with white ; breast, belly, vent, and under tail-coverts, pure white ; in RED-NECKED PHALAROPE. 319 front of the wing a patch of dark grey, which extends back- wards, mixed with whité over the sides and flanks. Legs, toes, and their membranes green, the claws black. Females measure about seven inches in length, and are larger than males; from the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill-feather four inches and one-quarter. The length of the beak, from the feathers on the forehead, ten lines and a half. Adult birds in winter have the forehead and the greater part of the crown white; the nape and the streak through the eye, sooty-brown ; the dorsal feathers margined with white; sides of face and under parts nearly pure white. Young birds are similar, but the feathers of the upper parts are margined with rufous-buff, the feet are yellowish, and the toes are much less lobed. 320 SCOLOPACID. LIMICOL. SCOLOPACID 2. ScoLopax RUsTIcULA, Linneus*. THE WOODCOCK. Scolopax rusticola. Scotopax, Brisson+.—Beak long, straight, compressed, slender, soft, slightly curved at the point ; both mandibles grooved over the basal half of their length ; point of the upper mandible extending beyond that of the lower mandible, the curved part forming a slight crook ; superior ridge elevated at the base, promi- nent. Nostrils lateral, basal, pierced longitudinally near the edges of the mandible, covered by a membrane. Legs rather short, tibia feathered nearly to joint ; three toes before, one behind, the anterior toes almost entirely divided. Wings moderate, the first quill-feather the longest in the wing. Tail short, rounded. AutHoueH the eggs or the young of the Woodcock have been found, during one summer or another, in almost every * Scolopax Rusticola, Linnzus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 243 (1766) ; for rusti- cula: cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. cap. x. 54 (38). + Ornithologie, v. p. 292 (1760). WOODCOCK. 32] county in England, as well as in many of those of Scotland and Ireland, and also more frequently of late years. than formerly, yet the great bulk of the species must be under- stood as only winter visitors, arriving early in October, or soon afterwards, and again departing northwards in March. The late Mr. Selby, one of our best observers, residing in the eastern part of Northumberland, and only four or five miles from the sea, says, ‘‘I have found that these birds always come over in the greatest bodies in hazy weather, with little wind, and that blowing from the north-east ;* and it is probable that they then find the upper region of the atmosphere, in which they fly, freer from counter currents of air, than in more open weather. After a night of this description I have frequently met with great numbers upon the edges of plantations, in hedges, and even in turnip-fields, and enjoyed excellent sport for the day; but on seeking, on the following morning, for a renewal of similar success, I have not found a single bird, the whole flight having pro- ceeded on their course during the intervening night. It is during this time that Woodcocks, like most migratory birds, perform their journeys: and it seems probable that those which halt upon the eastern coast of Scotland, and the northern counties of England, have completed their task from shore to shore, between sunset and sunrise, as they appear but little fatigued on their arrival, provided the weather has been calm. The distance of the coasts of Norway and Sweden, from whence these visitors are sup- posed to come, offers no objection to this supposition, as a continued flight of eight or ten hours, even at a rate inferior to what I conceive they are capable of accomplishing, would suffice for the transit. Another argument in favour of this supposition is, the high state of condition in which the birds generally arrive on our shores, especially at an ad- * Mr. N. F. Hele (Notes about Aldeburgh, p. 122) says of that part of Suffolk, that Woodcocks always appear with a north-west wind, and under no other cir- cumstances ; also that their flight is directly against the wind. But it by no means follows that the direction of the wind with which the birds drop on the land is the same as that prevailing at a greater elevation, and this should be taken into consideration in estimating all records of the arrival of migrants. VOL. III. 2 322 SCOLOPACIDE. vanced period of the season, by no means indicating the wasting effects of very long-continued exertions. It appears that they fly at a considerable altitude, as indeed most birds do when performing their migratory movements. A respect- able person who lived upon the coast, and who, being a keen pursuer of wild-fowl, was in the habit of frequenting the sea-shore at an early hour in the morning, assured me that he had more than once noticed the arrival of a flight of Woodcocks coming from the north-east just at day-dawn. His notice was first attracted by a peculiar sound in the air over his head, that, upon attending to, he found proceeded from birds descending in a direction almost perpendicular ; and which, upon approaching the shore, separated and flew towards the interior ; these he pursued and shot, and which proved, as he surmised by the view he had of them as they flew past him, to be Woodcocks.” Mr. Selby has also observed that ‘‘ the first flights of these birds, which seldom remain longer than for a few days, and then pass south- ward, consist chiefly of females; whilst, on the contrary, the subsequent and latest flights which continue with us, are principally composed ‘of males. It has been noticed by several authors, that the arrival of the males, in a number of our summer visitants, precedes that of the females by many days; a fact from which we might infer, that in such Species a similar separation exists between the sexes during their equatorial migration.” The circumstance of the sepa- ration for a time of the males and females in the Woodcock or Wood-snipe, as it is sometimes called, accounts for the result which occurs at the early part of the Woodcock season. On making internal examination of twelve Wood- cocks, from one locality, for the purpose of ascertaining the sex, for use in this work, only two of them proved to be males. Mr. John Cordeaux, whose observations on the migration of birds are well known, informs the Editor that in the autumn of 1882 the “ great flight” crossed on the night of October 12th, with strong east wind, fog and drizzling rain. On the morning of the 13th they were found in considerable WOODCOCK. 328 numbers at all the chief stations for observing the migration of birds, from Orfordness in the south, to the Isle of May, at the entrance to the Firth of Forth. This flight covered 350 miles of the coast of Great Britain, and the birds prob- ably travelled in parallel lines across the North Sea from the opposite coast of Europe. Casualties against the lanterns of lighthouses and light-vessels on the English coast gene- rally occur between midnight and daybreak. The Woodcocks therefore probably leave the opposite coast in the dark of evening or early night. Under the influence of a north-east wind, their course is probably between south and west ; this will account for the number of Woodcocks found in Devonshire, Cornwall, in Wales, and in Ireland; the birds in many instances pur- suing their course till they reach the sea, or returning, if possible, when they have overshot the land. Gilbert White of Selborne says, in his Journal, ‘“‘A gentleman writes word from St. Mary’s, Scilly, that in the night between the 10th and 11th of October, the wind being west, there fell such a flight of Woodcocks within the walls of the garrison, that he himself shot, and conveyed home, twenty-six couple, besides three couple which he wounded, but did not give himself the trouble to retrieve. On the following day, the 12th, the wind continuing west, he found but few. This person further observes, that easterly and northerly winds only have usually been remarked as pro- pitious in bringing Woodcocks to the Scilly Islands. So that he is totally at a loss to account for this western flight, unless they came from Ireland. As they took their depar- ture in the night between the 11th and 12th, the wind still continuing west, he suppoges they were gone to make a visit to the counties of Cornwall and Devonshire. From circum- stances in the letter, it appears that the ground within the lines of the garrison abounds with furze. Some Woodcocks settled in the street of St. Mary’s and ran into the houses and out-houses.”’ * Adverse gales may exercise an important influence in * Jesse’s ‘Gleanings in Nat. Hist.’, 2nd Ser. p. 179. 324 SCOLOPACID &. arresting their flight beyond the western shores of our islands, and possibly their instinct tells them that the deep blue waters of the Atlantic are of far wider extent than the paler waves of the North Sea and the Irish Channel. Whatever be the reason, it is undoubtedly a fact that Wood- cocks often make their appearance on the south and west coasts of Ireland before they are noticed in the north and east. The abundance or scarcity of the annual arrivals of Wood- cocks depend very much upon the severity of the weather in the north of Europe. In 1852 an unusual number were shot at Melton Constable, near Holt, in Norfolk, thirty and thirty-three being respectively killed on two successive days in the first week in December, and ninety-three on the follow- ing day by the same shooting party, who might, if other game had been disregarded, have killed at least 110 (A. Newton, Zool. p. 3754). In this case it seems probable that the abundance was local, and due to the inundations of that year, which had expelled the birds from the low grounds. Severe frost in England has the effect of driving the birds from the east to the milder coasts of the west, and to Ireland, which has always been celebrated for its ’cock-shooting. Daniel, in his ‘ Rural Sports,’ has stated that in that island the (late) Earl of Clermont shot fifty couple in one day ; and his suc- cessor informs the Editor that this feat was the result of a wager. It took place at the Earl of Farnham’s seat in Cavan ; the entire bag being made in a large wood called Donaweale, and before two o’clock in the afternoon, with a single-barrelled flint-cun. Of all years within the memory of man in Ireland, none, however, equals the winter of 1881, when, according to Sir R. Payne-Gallwey, the peasants bagged their fifteen and twenty couple a day, and would have killed many more but for running short of ammunition. In Clare one dealer alone, although he had two rivals in the trade, forwarded to Dublin and London a thousand Cock a week for three weeks; and the books of the principal firm of Tralee show that in January and February 1,641 were received from Kerry. One shooter near Kileredan, county WOODCOCK. 325 Clare, killed thirty couple in a day ; and on Lord Ardilaun’s property at Ashford, county Galway, 173 Cock fell to six euns in two days.* A Woodcock when flushed on the coast has been known to settle on the sea, and when again disturbed, rose without difficulty and flew away. But this is not always the case. Mr. Falconer, of Christchurch, has recorded (Zool. 1848, p. 2023), ‘that some years ago, a few miles from the Land’s End, the sea was strewed with hundreds of Woodeocks : it is probable that they were exhausted by their long flight, and hundreds seem to have fallen together into the sea; some of them were taken up, and found to be perfectly fresh.’’ Numerous instances are recorded of Woodcocks alighting on the deck of ships in the English Channel and elsewhere. The rapidity of flight of this bird is at times so great that a pane of plate-glass more than three-eighths of an inch thick has been smashed by the contact, and one was actually impaled on the weathercock of one of the churches in Ipswich (Zool. ss. p. 271). The return migration takes place in March, at which season the birds, although generally paired, were formerly shot in this country, until protected by law after the Ist of that month. Owing to the increase of plantations, especially of fir-covers in the vicinity of cultivated ground, the number of birds which now remain to breed very largely exceeds that of former years, when every nest of a Woodcock was a novelty to be recorded. ‘Those counties which possess large and undisturbed woods are naturally among the most favoured, but even Middlesex must not be omitted from the list, for the nest has been found in Caen Wood ; whilst on the Surrey side of the river it has been noticed so near to the metropolis as Streatham. In the eastern division of Sussex, according to Mr. T. Monk, of Lewes, whose carefully collected statistics were published in ‘ The Field,’ 25th February, 1871, there were annually, on an average, from 150 to 200 nests a year. Its distribution throughout the breeding-season is tolerably general in Scotland, especially in the more wooded districts, * “The Fowler im Ireland,’ pp. 218-230, 326 : SCOLOPACID &. but the absence of cover forms no insuperable bar, for Saxby knew it to breed annually on the hill-side at Hermanness, the most northern point of the most northern of the Shetland Islands. In Ireland a similar increase has taken place since Thompson in 1848 called attention to the nidification of this bird from the year 1835 onwards in the woods of Tullamore Park, county Down. Lord Clermont writes that at Ravens- dale Park, on the borders of Louth and Armagh, and in the neighbouring Narrow-water Woods, county Down, above twenty nests are sometimes found in a season by the keepers when looking for pheasants’ eggs, and the birds are frequently seen flying to and from their feeding-places. Woodcocks are very early breeders, and the date of March 1st, the commencement of close-time, is not at all too early for their protection. St. John, in his ‘ Wild Sports in the Highlands’ (p. 220), states that he had three eggs brought to him on 9th March, 1846, and a nearly full-grown young one in the second week of April, 1844. In 1836, Mr. Blyth saw two young Woodcocks on the 20th of April. On the 22nd of April, 1838, Mr. Gould exhibited at the Zoolo- gical Society two young Woodcocks, apparently three weeks old; and the Author had in his collection a young Woodcock five or six weeks old, which he bought on the 23rd of April, 1822, in the market at Orleans. The average time for the commencement of incubation may, however, be taken ag the end of March and beginning of April. The nest is little more than a hollow in the dry oak or fern leaves, in some warm sheltered situation, but without any attempt at con- cealment in the undergrowth, and the eggs, usually four in number, are but slightly pyriform, of a pale yellowish-white : the larger end blotched and spotted with ash-grey and two shades of reddish-yellow brown; they measure about 1°75 by 1°3 in. Few subjects have been more discussed than that of the manner in which the Woodcock carries its young. Scopoli, writing in 1769, says, ‘‘ pullos rostro portat fugiens ab hoste,’’ upon which Gilbert White remarks that ‘‘ the long unwieldy bill of the Woodcock is perhaps the worst adapted WOODCOCK. ood of any among the winged creation for such a feat of natural affection.’? It is now well known that Scopoli was mistaken as to the young being carried in or by the bill, but it will be seen that there is evidence that the bill is not without em- ployment in the act. A number of observers have stated that the chick is carried in the claws. Descriptions of this mode of conveyance will be found in the late Mr. Lloyd’s ‘Field Sports of the North of Europe’ and other works. The most detailed account is, however, that given by the brothers Stuart in the notes to ‘Lays of the Deer Forest,’ vol. ii. p. 259, trom which the following is extracted :— ‘‘ Various times when the hounds, in beating the ground, have come upon a brood, we have seen the old bird rise with a young one in her claws, and carry it fifty or a hundred yards away; and if followed to the place where she pitched, she has repeated the transportation until too much harassed. One morning, while sitting on a grey stone, I saw a dark eye which was fixed upon mine from the bed of dead leaves before me, when suddenly the little brown head of a young Woodcock peeped out from the feathers of the old one’s breast, uttering that plaintive cry for which language has no sign. There were two more young Wood- cocks, and to relieve the anxiety of the madre, I left her. Near the place where I found her, there was a soft green stripe, such as Woodcocks love. I had no doubt that the family would be there next day; and, as I passed near, I turned aside to see what they were doing. Upon a dry bank, half way down the brae, I almost stumbled over a bird which rose at my feet ; and as it darted through the trees, I saw that it had something in its claws, and, at the same time, I heard the plaintive cry of little Woodcocks just under my feet. I looked down, there were two; and I thought a hawk had carried off the third, and, perhaps, killed the mother. This, however, I found, on following the bird, was the old Woodcock, which being flushed again suddenly, after a low flight of only a few yards, dropped what it was carrying, her own young Woodcock. I gave her a little time to find him, which was not difficult, as he 328 SCOLOPACID. called to her as loud as his tiny bill could pipe. In a few moments I ran forward, and she rose with him in her feet, her long legs dangling and swinging with her little burden like a parachute. I left her to pursue her flight in peace, and went on my way; but I have no doubt she went back for the other two, for several times afterwards I saw them all together in the soft green ‘ glac.’”’ The late Mr. St. John was at one time under the belief that the young bird was carried in the feet, and stated so in his ‘ Field Notes and Tour in Sutherlandshire,’ ii. p. 164, but experiences at Dunrobin, in 1849, in company with Mr. John Hancock,* convinced both these observers that the young bird was clasped between the thighs and pressed close up to the body of the parent ; and this view was subsequently put forth in his ‘Natural History and Sport in Moray,’ p- 210. An article by Mr. J. E. Harting (Zool. 1879, pp. 433-440), with an illustration after Wolf of the young bird dangling in the feet of the parent ‘“‘like a parachute,” revived the interest on the subject; and Mr. R. J. Ussher and Mr. R. E. Reeves contributed statements (Zool. 1882, pp. 3806, 307), showing that, according to the personal experience of the latter, and that of other observers, the Woodcock supported her young not only with her feet, but also with her bill pressed over the chick agaist her breast ; confirming the assertion of a Rostrever correspondent, that a Woodcock ‘‘ had a young one pressed between its breast and feet’ (Zool. 1879, p. 439). Without denying the accuracy of former observations, the latter position appears to be supported by the evidence of the larger number of witnesses. The Woodcock is a nocturnal bird, seeking its repose by day, remaining quietly hid in the dry grassy bottoms of brakes and woods, seldom or never moving unless disturbed. Sir Humphry Davy, in his Salmonia, says, ‘‘ A laurel, or a holly bush is a favourite place for their repose: the thick and varnished leaves of these trees prevent the radiation of heat from the soil, and they are less affected by the refriger- ating influence of a clear sky, so that they afford a warm * Nat. Hist. Trans. Northumb. and Durham, vi. p. 104. WOODCOCK. 829 seat for the Woodcock.”’ Certain localities seem to have a peculiar charm for it, and if the original oceupier be shot, a new tenant is almost certain to be found there. So close do they lie that but for the black glittering eye they might often be passed unobserved ; and Mr. Gould records an instance of a bird being seen to alight and half cover itself with dead leaves before the beaters came up, nor did it attempt to rise until flushed by a dog. Towards night it sallies forth, whirling and twisting in a manner very different from its usual owl-like flight by day, pursuing a well-known track through the cover to its feeding- ground. These tracks or open glades in woods, are sometimes called cockshoots and cock-roads, and it is in these places that nets, called road-nets, were formerly suspended for their capture, but the gun is now the more common means of obtaining them. A few are still caught with nooses of horse- hair, set up about the springs or soft ground where the birds leave the marks of the perforations, or borings made with their beaks. Common earth-worms appear to be the food most eagerly sought after. Montagu and other ornithologists have borne testimony to the almost incredible quantity of earth-worms which a single Woodcock, in confinement, has been known to consume in one night; and Mr. Edmond Crawshay informed Mr. Hancock that a man was kept con- stantly employed during the day in obtaining the supply necessary for a brood of three of these birds. Mr. F. Nor- gate, who took home a slightly winged Woodcock, and observed its habits, assured Mr. Stevenson that the flex- ibility of the upper mandible of the bill was go great that it more resembled 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. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey states that he 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 birds may learn to pick them out as they quickly glide from their view. He also says that VoL. III. uU 330 SCOLOPACID®. they will, like the Curlew, swallow mussels, although not to -the same extent, and on dissecting those shot from among rocks and seaweed, he found that small shell-fish had been bolted whole. They also obtain their food under circum- stances which, if mentioned, would hardly prove satisfactory to lovers of ‘ trail.’ It is a mistake to suppose that Woodcocks on arrival are lean and out of condition, nor does a continuance of frost reduce them as it does Snipe, although it tames them. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey says that out of hundreds which he ex- amined during the exceptionally long and severe winter of 1880-81, only a dozen were small and poor birds, and at the end of the frost he picked out three birds each of which weighed exactly sixteen ounces, a fourth weighing eighteen and a quarter ounces. The latter is very remarkable, for birds of fifteen ounces are far above the average. The Author was indebted to the kindness of Lord Braybrooke for the following particulars of some Woodcocks of very large size, with permission to attach the statements to this history. Copy of a letter from Lady Peyton to Miss Hoste, dated Uggeshall, December 25th, 1801. ‘“* My pear Miss Hoste, “The Woodcock which Mr. Hoste inquires after, was found sitting on a very low branch of a fir-tree in the long plantation at Narborough,* about eleven o’clock in the morning, by James Crow the postilion, who was exercising the coach-horses. He came back with the intelligence to the house, and the keeper immediately went out and shot the Woodcock. I saw it weighed both in scales and steel- yards, as did Sir Henry, and a carpenter at work from Swaffham; and, wonderful as the weight may appear, it was exactly twenty-seven ounces. I believe it was about 1775 or 1776. Some years before that, a Woodcock was killed at Hadleigh, in Suffolk, which weighed twenty-four ounces.”’ T * « ae Tringa minuta. Tue Lirrne Srint, as it is usually called, from its diminutive size, was first mentioned by Pennant as a British bird from a specimen killed in Cambridgeshire. The British Islands evidently lie to the west of the line of migration of the main body, but in varying numbers this species is found on one portion or another of our coasts nearly every autumn, and, occasionally, in spring. Saxby says that Unst, the northernmost of the Shetlands, is visited pretty regularly at the former season, but in the rest of the group, and in the Orkneys, its occurrence is rare; and, according to Mr. R. Gray, it has only been observed in smali numbers down the east coast of Scotland, but not on the west. In England, the eastern side of the island is by far the most favoured; the autumn arrivals taking place from early in August to the middle of October, after which the * Nachtriige zu Bechstein’s Naturg. Deutschl. p. 74 (1812). LITTLE STINT. 387 migrants continue their course to the south and west. They naturally linger a little on our southern coast, extending their visits to Cornwall, but to the coast of Wales and of the north-west, their visits are unfrequent, and are principally to Lancashire, and the Solway Firth in Cumberland. In Iveland, where the Little Stint remains somewhat later than in Great Britain, its autumnal occurrences in limited numbers have been mainly in Antrim, Down, and on the eastern side of the island. On the spring migration examples have been obtained in the south and east coasts of Great Britain, in May, and even as late as the 19th June, as recorded by Mr. Stevenson. It appears probable that a few non- breeding birds remain on our shores during the summer, for he mentions an example killed at Yarmouth on the 16th July, and two others shot a week or two previously, and it is not possible that individuals of a species which breeds so late and so far north, should by that time have returned from their domestic duties. The Little Stint occurs on its autumnal migration in suit- able localities throughout the greater part of Europe, and, with the exception of the western coast of France, it appears to be almost as abundant on the vernal passage. At the latter season individuals are often obtained in the south of Europe in such advanced breeding plumage, and up to so late a date as to give rise to suspicions that it might breed in such localities as the marshes of the Black Sea, but there is no direct evidence of its having done so. It does not appear to winter—at least not in any numbers—on the northern shores of the Mediterranean; but a considerable portion remain in Morocco, Algeria, and Egypt, whilst others con- tinue their southward course up the valley of the Nile, and along both sides of the African Continent down to the Transvaal, Natal, and Cape Colony. It visits the Seychelles, Arabia, the coasts and inland waters of India, the Andaman Islands, and Ceylon, but beyond these limits its range becomes difficult to define, being complicated with that of T. albescens, Temm., a species which is almost undis- tinguishable in winter dress, except perhaps by its con- 388 SCOLOPACID”. stantly stouter tarsus, but which in summer has a much more rufous breast, and which is identified by some orni- thologists with J’. ruficollis, Pallas. Both the species and their synonymy are involved in great confusion, and the identifications of some high authorities have been repudiated by others. It will suffice to say that our J. minuta visits on migration the greater part of Southern Asia, passing over the lofty mountain ranges by the Pamir, and also by Gilgit, and occurring in Siberia in summer at least as far east as Lake Baikal, from which locality undoubted specimens are available for examination. On the Amoor, and on the Stanowoi Mountains, and thence to the Sea of Okhotsk, it appears to be represented by the Long-toed Stint, 7. submi- nuta, Middendorff, a species which also visits India, Ceylon, China, and Japan. Only a monograph by some competent authority can clear up the matter, and in treating of the Little Stint as a British Bird it is unnecessary to contribute in any way to the existing tangle. The breeding-grounds of the Little Stint were correctly, albeit vaguely, supposed to be situated in the northern districts of Europe and Asia; but no authentic informa- tion seems to have been obtained before the celebrated journey of Middendorff to Siberia. That intrepid traveller found the Little Stint on the Taimyr river in 74° N. lat., where he obtained a clutch of four eggs with the parent bird on the Ist July, and young in down on the 10th of that month (Sibirische Reise, ii. p. 221). It was only much farther to the eastward that he obtained the Long-toed Stint, which he distinguished by the name of J. swhminuta. For years the dreary Taimyr Peninsula was the only known breeding-haunt of this species, but in 1872, Messrs. Alston and Harvie-Brown obtained a bird in full nuptial plumage on the 21st June, at the mouth of the Dwina, showing that the summer range of the Little Stint extended farther to the westward than was previously anticipated. In the same year Mr. Collett found the species common on the island of Tamsé, in the Porsanger-fiord, in July; and in 1875, Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown started for the LITTLE STINT. 389 Petchora, determined to do all in their power to obtain authentic information as to its nidification. It was not until the 22nd July that they were successful, the locality being on the tundras at Dvoinick, near the mouth of that great river. The description and coloured illustrations of four of the eggs were published in ‘ The Ibis,’ 1876, pp- 294-308 ; but the following abridged narrative is taken from Mr. Seebohm’s ‘ Siberia in Europe,’ pp. 267-275 :— “‘T had not gone far before I heard our interpreter Piottuch shouting in a state of great excitement. Harvie- Brown was the first to come up; and I joined them shortly afterwards. I found them sitting on the ground with a couple of Little Stints in down. I sat down beside them, and we watched the parent bird as she was fluttering and flying and running all round us, sometimes coming within a foot of one of us. After securing the old bird we went on a short distance, and Piottuch again made loud demonstra- tions of delight. This time it was nest and eggs. The nest was like that of most Sandpipers, a mere depression in the ground, with such dead maroshka (cloudberry) leaves and other dry material as was within easy reach, scraped together to serve as lining. The position was on a com- paratively dry extent of tundra, sloping from the top of the little turf cliffs that rise from the lagoon down to the sand- hills at the twin capes, between which the tide runs in and out of a little inland sea. For perhaps a verst from each twin cape, between the sand and the mouth of the little inland sea, is an extent of dead flat land, covered over with thick short grass, and full of little lakes, mostly very shallow and filled with black or coffee-coloured mud with an inch or two of brackish water upon it. Some of these pools are covered with aquatic plants; and others are open water. These lakes and pools seem to be the real point of attrac- tion; and on their edges the Little Stints feed, in small flocks of from half a dozen birds to a score, as they happen to meet from the tundra. The large flock of perhaps a hundred or more birds, which was occasionally seen, might possibly have been last year’s birds and not breeding; but 390 SCOLOPACIDA. more probably it consisted entirely of males, which, so far as we had an opportunity of observing, do not take any part in incubation. The ground where the nests were placed was full of tussocks or hummocks, close together, the swampy ground between being almost hidden, or traceable only by rows of cotton-grass. The tussocks are covered with green moss, with now and then a little reindeer-moss ; but this undergrowth is almost hidden with cloudberry, a few species of Juncus, and sundry Carices, with occasionally a few dwarf shrubs and flowers of the tundra. The nests were within a hundred yards of the place where I shot the five Little Stints on the 14th July, on a comparatively dry extent of tundra, gently sloping towards the north-east, lying between the lagoon and the inland sea—exactly the place that one would expect them to breed in, not too swampy, but probably the coolest place the birds could have chosen. The Pytkoff Mountains, though at a considerably ereater elevation (513 feet above the level of the sea), are, no doubt, warmer, because more inland. The sandy shore, having little or no cover, would also be hotter from the sun. Facing the north-east, this part of the tundra catches the most of the prevailing winds at this season of the year, and the least sun; and no doubt the large bay or inland sea on one side, and the open water on the other, help to cool the air. ‘Our next nest was taken on the 24th of July. Harvie- Brown and I had been up all night, shooting by the light of the midnight sun, hoping to avoid the mosquitoes, and were returning home to our wrecked ship in a thick white morning mist. I was glad to see Piottuch emerge, with the intelligence that he had found another nest of the Little Stint, containing four eggs, about three versts off, and had shot the bird, leaving the nest and eggs for us to take. We walked on together a short distance, when I heard the now familiar cry of a Little Stint behind me, a sharp wick, almost exactly the same as the cry of the Red-necked Phalarope or that of the Sanderling. Turning quickly round I saw the bird flying past as if coming up from its feeding-grounds. LITTLE STINT. 391 It wheeled round us. at some distance and alighted on the ground about eighty yards ahead. We walked slowly up towards it, and stood for some time watching it busily em- ployed in preening its feathers. By-and-by we sat down. It presently began to run towards us, stopping now and then to preen a feather or two. Then it turned back a few paces, and lifting its wings settled down, evidently on its nest. We gave it three minutes’ grace, to be quite sure, and then quietly walked up to the place, and sat down, one on each side of the eggs. The bird as quietly slipped off the nest, and began to walk about all round us, now and then pecking on the ground as if feeding, seldom going more than six feet from us, and often approaching within eighteen inches. It was a most interesting and beautiful sight. The tame- ness of the bird was almost ludicrous. We chatted and talked; but the bird remained perfectly silent, and did not betray the slightest symptom of fear or concern, wntil I touched the eggs. She then gave a flutter towards me, apparently to attract my attention. I turned towards her, and she resumed her former unconcern. I stretched my hand towards her. She quietly retreated, keeping about two feet from my hand. She seemed so extremely tame that I almost thought for the moment that I could catch her, and getting on to all-fours I crept quietly towards her. As soon as I began to move from the nest, her manner entirely changed. She kept about the same distance ahead of me; but instead of retreating with the utmost apparent nonchalance, she did everything in her power to attract me still further. She shuffled along the ground as if lame. She dropped her wings as if unable to fly, and occasionally rested on her breast, quivering her drooping wings and spread tail, as if dying. I threw one of my gauntlets at her, thinking to secure her without damage, but she was too quick for me. Piottuch then fired at her and missed. He followed her for some distance ; but she kept just out of range, and finally flew away. We waited about a quarter of an hour at the nest, talking and making no effort to conceal ourselves, when she flew straight up and alighted 392 SCOLOPACID®. within easy shot, and I secured her. The Little Stint seems to be a very quiet bird at the nest, quite different from Temminck’s Stint. When you invade a colony of the latter birds, especially if they have young, the parents almost chase you from the spot—flying wildly round and round, and crying vociferously, often perching upon a stake or a tree, or hovering in the air and trilling. We observed none of these habits in the Little Stint. So far as we saw, only the femaie takes part in incubation, and only the female is seen near the nest. On our way back to the wreck we met with a party of Sanderlings on the shore, and shot two of them. No doubt these birds were breeding somewhere in the district. After a good dinner of Willow- Grouse and a siesta of three hours, we started to take the nest that Piottuch had marked. Whilst we had slept, the weather had changed. The mosquitoes had all gone. A smart gale was blowing from the north, and a heavy sea was breaking on the shore. It was cloudy, and dark, and cold, with an attempt now and then at rain. The nest was a couple of miles off, very near the shore of the inland sea, but on somewhat similar ground—moss, cloudberry, grass, &e. The eggs were intermediate in colour between those of the other two nests. On our return to our quarters we found that our Samoyede servant had caught a young Little Stint, half-grown, a very interesting bird. Like the young of the Dunlin, the first feathers are those of summer plumage. On comparing the young in down and _half- grown birds of the Dunlin with those of the Little Stint, we noted that the legs of young Dunlin in down were pale brown, whilst those of the half-grown and mature birds were nearly black; the Little Stint, on the other hand, seems to have nearly black legs and feet at all ages. “The Little Stint is evidently much more nearly allied to the Dunlin than to Temminck’s Stint, and ought to be called the Little Dunlin. The birds are very similar in colour. The eges of the Little Stint can hardly be mis- taken for those of Temminck’s Stint, but are in every respect miniature Dunlin’s eggs. The young in down of LITTLE STINT. 393 Temminck’s Stint are quite grey compared with the red- dish-brown of the young of the Dunlin. The young in down of the Little Stint are still redder, especially on the sides and the back of the neck. On the 27th July Harvie- Brown walked over to the other side of the little inland sea, and found two more nests of the Little Stint, each con- taining four eggs. These nests were on different ground. They were not on the tundra properly so called, but on the feeding-ground, flat land covered with sand, upon which short grass and bunches of a thick-leaved yellow-flowered plant were growing, abounding also with little lakes and pools. The real tundra is about 150 yards from the water’s edge in this place; and the feeding-ground lies between, scattered over with drift wood of all sorts. The behaviour of the birds at these two nests was exactly the same as at the previous ones. ‘The average size of the twenty eges we obtained of the Little Stint is about 1,4; x 4% inch, a trifle smaller than the eggs of Temminck’s Stint usually are. The ground- colour varies from pale greenish-grey to pale brown. The spots and blotches are rich brown, generally large, and some- times confluent at the large end. They probably go through every variety to which Dunlins’ eggs are subject. All the Little Stints’ eges which we found, with one exception, which would probably be a barren one, were very much incubated.”’ Since this discovery, the eggs of the Little Stint have been taken by Henke near Archangel (Ibis, 1882, p. 381), and by Mr. E. Rae, in the Kola Peninsula; and Mr. R. Collett has given an account of its breeding in Northern Norway (J. f. Orn. 1881, pp. 823-332). Dr. Finsch obtained a nest with four eggs on the Podorata river, which flows into the Kara Gulf; and some eggs taken by a Samoyede were brought to Mr. Seebohm on his trip to the Yenesei, thus connecting the breeding-range from the west with the first discovery by Middendorff on the Taimyr. Little Stints are most frequently found on the sandy shores of the sea, and generally in company with the Dunlin VoL. III. 3.5 394 SCOLOPACIDA. or the Sanderling, or both, as they fly in small, and some- times in large flocks together. They select for food aquatic insects, small crustacea, worms, and mollusca; and in the stomachs of some shot on their autumn migration towards the end of August, near Christiania, Mr. Collett found the seeds of an aquatic plant. The note, which is constantly uttered, is a whispering, warbling trill, very different from the louder call of the Dunlin, but stronger and deeper than that of Temminck’s Stint ; and the call of a flock is some- thing like the confused chirping of grasshoppers or crickets. In its summer plumage the beak is black ; the irides dark brown; the top of the head and the neck ferruginous, with specks of black; the feathers of the back, scapulars, wing- coverts, tertials, and upper tail-coverts, black in the centre, with broad ferruginous margins; broad white tips, forming a conspicuous bar along the lower wing-coverts; the primaries nearly black at the tips, greyish-black above, with white shafts; the secondaries greyish-black tipped with white; the tail, when perfect, doubly forked, the lateral feathers ash-brown, the two central ones black with rufous margins; the chin, breast, and all the under surface of the body pure white; sides of the neck, down to the front of the wing, and a band round the front of the neck, ferruginous speckled with black ; axillary plume pure white ; legs, toes, and claws dull black. The whole length is six inches; the beak three-quarters of an inch; from the carpal joint of the wing to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the longest, three inches and three-quarters ; the length of the tarsus ten lines and a half. The female is somewhat larger than the male. An adult bird in its autumn plumage, killed in Septem- ber, has the beak black; irides dark brown; from the base of the beak to the eye, and on the ear-coverts, a brown streak; above and below the eye greyish-white; sides and back of the neck ash-grey, streaked with darker grey ; feathers of the back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and tertials nearly black, with broad margins of reddish-brown and buffy- white; quill-feathers dusky, with white shafts ; secondaries LITTLE STINT. 395 edged and tipped with white; rump and upper tail-coverts dark brown, edged with dull reddish-brown ; tail-feathers ash-grey, margined with buffy-white; chin, breast, and all the under surface pure white, with the exception of a dusky band across the bottom of the neck in front ; axillary plume ' white at all seasons ; legs, toes, and claws nearly black. Young birds of the year, in their first autumn, have the feathers of the upper surface of the body ash-brown rather than black, in the middle, with broad margins of buffy- white, which soon become almost pure white. The adult bird in winter plumage is seldom seen in this country, but in examples from North Africa and from Cape Colony have the head and neck ash-grey, the central line of each feather being a little darker than the margin; back, wing-coverts, rump, and upper tail-coverts ash-colour, the shaft of each feather forming a decided dark line ; primary and secondary quill-feathers as in autumn; tertials ash- brown, with lighter-coloured margins; tail-feathers ash- grey, with narrow white edges; all the under surface of the body as in autumn ; beak, irides, legs, toes, and claws, also as in the autumn. The nestling has already been described, and a coloured figure of it is given on the same plate with the young of the Dunlin and Temminck’s Stint, in Mr. Dresser’s great work, ‘ The Birds of Europe,’ vol. viii. pl. 550. 396 SCOLOPACID. LIMICOL. SCOLOPACIDZ.. TRINGA MINUTILLA, Vieillot.* THE AMERICAN STINT. Tur American Stint has been obtained in this country on two occasions. The first example was shot by Mr. Vingoe, in Mount’s Bay, Cornwall, on the 10th October, 1853. It was found alone on a piece of wet grass land adjoining the sea-shore, and rose silently. Mr. Vingoe called the attention of Mr. Rodd to it, and he recorded it (Zool. p. 4297) ; and the occurrence was also noticed under the name of Tringa pusilla in the Preface, p. vi., to the 38rd Edition of this work. In September, 1869, a second example was shot on Northam Burrows, near Bideford, by Mr. Rickards, of Clifton (Zool. s. s. p. 2025), who brought the freshly- skinned specimen to Mr. Harting for his inspection, and its identity was vouched for by that competent authority (Hbk. Brit. Birds, p. 148). The species has therefore as good a claim to be noticed in this work as many other stragglers ; but as an engraving would not adequately show the points of difference between it and the Little Stint, it has not been considered necessary to figure it. The American Stint is smaller in size than our bird, with proportionately longer bill; it is conspicuously darker at all seasons ; in the breed- ing plumage the fore part of the chest is ashy-buff, with distinct spots of dark brown—not rufous with tiny dots as in J’. minuta—and the legs are light yellowish-brown, whereas in J’. minuta they are black. The breeding-range of the American Stint extends right across North America, within the limits of the Hudsonian fauna. Audubon found it plentiful in Labrador, among the mossy rocks near the sea-shore; and he describes the nest as a hollow lined with a few blades of slender dry grass, the locality chosen being under the lee of a small rock, exposed to all the heat the sun can afford in that country. The eggs * Nouy. Dict. d’Hist. Nat. xxxiv. p. 452 (1819). AMERICAN STINT. 397 are of a rich cream-yellow tint, blotched and dotted with very dark umber, especially at the larger end: specimens in Mr. Dresser’s collection measure 1 by °8 in. On its migrations this Stint is found throughout the United States, numbers wintering in the south, whilst others continue their course to the Bermudas, the West Indies, Mexico, Central America, Colombia, and Brazil. The habits of this species appear to be similar to those of its congeners. The adult in breeding plumage is blackish above, a few of the feathers on the head and back slightly edged with rufous ; hinder part of the neck ashy varied with rufous ; wing-coverts ash-grey externally margined with buff, the ereater coverts edged with white, forming an indistinct alar bar; quills ash-brown, blacker towards their tips, the shafts whitish-brown, with the exception of the outermost, which is white, inclining to brownish only towards the tip ; lower part of the back and rump deep black; tail pale ashy-grey, the two middle tail-feathers elongated, blackish like the rump ; lores, eyebrows, and sides of the face whitish ; throat white ; chest ashy, mottled with marks of dark brown in the centre of some of the feathers; rest of the under surface of the body white ; under wing-coverts whitish, some of the lower ones mottled with brown; bill blackish-brown; feet light yellowish-brown ; iris dark brown. Externally there is no material difference between the sexes. Total length about five inches, wing from carpal joint to tip three and two-fifths of an inch; tail one inch and a half. In autumn plumage some of the dorsal feathers and the scapulars are edged with whitish. The winter plumage is ashy-grey above, some of the dorsal feathers dark purplish- brown in the centre and margined with whitish ; lower part of back and rump blackish ; wing-coverts like the back, the greater coverts clearer brown, and indistinctly tipped with white ; rest of the plumage as in summer. 398 SCOLOPACID A. LIMICOL#. SCOLOPACID. TRINGA TEMMINCKI, Leisler.* TEMMINCK’S STINT. Tringa Temmincki. Tuts diminutive Stint, named after M. Temminck, is smaller than the Little Stint previously described, and is the least of the British Sandpipers; it is also rarer than the Little Stint, and somewhat different in its habits, frequent- ing the borders of rivers and fresh-water lakes, although it is sometimes found on the muddy creeks and sandy shores of the sea. Although less rare on migration than was formerly sup- posed, this species is far more irregular in its visits, and less numerous than the Little Stint, notwithstanding that its breeding-range commences at no great distance from our * Tringa Temminckii, Leisler, Nachtriige zu Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl. p. 63 (1812). TEMMINCK’S STINT. 399 northern shores. It is, however, precisely in our northern provinces that its occurrences are the rarest. Mr. R. Gray says (B. West Scot. p. 3821) that he is only able to trace one specimen, shot in Caithness many years ago; and in Treland it has only once been recorded by Thompson (B. Ire- land, ii. p. 802). In England, commencing with Northumber- land, we learn from Mr. Hancock that seven specimens were obtained in the month of September between 1832 and 1844; and along the coast of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire it is a casual visitor of rare occurrence in autumn. In Norfolk, owing perhaps to the numerous keen observers in that county, Temminck’s Stint has been more frequently re- corded, and, in addition to many in autumn, Mr. Stevenson cites about ten examples which were obtained on the return passage in May. This Stint does not stay the winter, but one was obtained as late as the 23rd November. In Suffolk, Mr. Hele has obtained it in both spring and autumn; and the Rev. Leonard Jenyns sent the Author notice of one killed in Cambridgeshire, on Foulmire Moor, by the late Mr. Baker of Melbourne. Mr. Bond informed the Author that he met with a pair of old birds in the spring of 1839, on the margin of Kingsbury Reservoir in Middlesex, and several young ones in the autumn of the same year, obtaining one of the old ones and five young ones. Mr. Harting (B. Middlesex, p- 200) records two more, and on the 4th October, 1871, Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., watched a couple in the same local- ity. Its visits can be traced along the coasts of England, by Essex, Kent, Sussex, Hants, Dorset, Somerset, and Devon, to Cornwall and the Scilly Islands. Inland it has been obtained at Mansfield Reservoir, in Nottinghamshire, Ribble- ton Moor, in Lancashire, and some other localities. On the western side of the island its visits are very rare; Heysham, however, recorded it as occurring in Rockcliffe salt-marsh, by the Solway. The breeding-grounds of Temminck’s Stint commence in the northern districts of Norway, and extend over a great part of Sweden, and across Northern Russia; also through Asiatic Siberia to the north of the forest-growth, and as far 400 SCOLOPACID&. east as Pitlekaj, on the shores of Behring’s Straits, where it was obtained in June by the ‘ Vega’ expedition. On migra- tion it visits the shores and inland waters of the Continent of Europe down to the Mediterranean, beyond which it has been traced as far south as Senegambia in winter. It occurs at that season in Algeria, Egypt, Nubia, Kordofan, and on the coast of the Red Sea down to 10° N. lat., returning north- wards in April and May, though some few remain throughout the summer. On the Caspian and through the Caucasus it is a regular migrant in spring and autumn, and Severtzoff states that it breeds in Turkestan, among the mountains at an elevation of from 10,000 to 14,000 feet. It crosses the Pamir, and, according to the same authority, it breeds on the table-lands of that lofty range, and of the Altai; it passes through Gilgit and arrives in India from August onwards, stretching down the coast as far as Ceylon and Tenasserim, and it has occurred in Borneo. In Siberia, besides the far north, it breeds on the Stanowoi Mountains, and is believed by Prjewalsky to do so in Mongolia, but it does not appear to be so common as the Little Stint. It has been obtained in the Japanese island of Yezo, and to the coasts of China it is a winter visitor. The eggs of Temminck’s Stint, and its habits at the breeding-ground, were made known in the third edition of Hewitson’s work, ‘Eggs British Birds,’ ii. p. 362, by an interesting communication from the late Mr. Wolley, who, writing of this species, says: ‘‘I have found it breeding in several localities north of the Bothnian Gulf, but it is scarce, and, as far as I have seen, confined to a very few spots. Grassy banks and pastures by the waterside are the kinds of places where it takes up its breeding-quarters, and it seems to delight in being near houses. Nothing can be more interesting or pretty than this little bird in the early part of summer; it is so tame that one could often catch it in a net at the end of a stick. At one time it is hovering with its wings raised over its back, or floating about, and it reminds one rather of some insect than any other bird ; at another time, it may be standing on the top of a stone or TEMMINCK’S STINT. 401 stake, or the gable end of a cottage, and whether hovering or standing on its perch, it utters a constant trilling note, of which I can best give an idea by saying that it brought to my recollection the grasshopper warbler, though the re- semblance is perhaps slight. ‘‘ When its eggs are very near, it sometimes runs about one’s feet, and though it cannot but be anxious, it seems as busy as ever, picking gnats and other insects off the grass. One nest which I found was a short stone’s-throw from a cottage where children were playing about in all directions ; another was only a pace or two from a spring from which women drew water every day, and passers-by often stopped to drink. The nest is very simple; a few short bits of hay in a little saucer-shaped hollow, placed amongst thin grass or sedge, generally not far from the water’s edge, but some- times in the middle of a meadow. The eggs in 1854 were laid about Midsummer day.” The eggs are four in number, pyriform, of a pale stone- colour, sometimes with a greenish tint, blotched with brownish-red and dark brown; their average measurements are 1'1 by ‘8 in. Mr. Collett says that he never found the females near the nest or young, and the brooding birds shot were all males with large incubation spots. Although the nests are in somewhat dry places, the young betake themselves to wetter localities as soon as they are out of the egg. From the stomachs of those he shot, Mr. Collett took insects common on the sea-shore, larve of Staphylinide, and frag- ments of quartz. The note is a sharp tir. An adult bird, killed at a pond-side in Essex, in the month of May, and lent to the Author by the late Mr. Henry Double- day, had the beak dull black; the irides dark brown; feathers of the head and neck pale brown, speckled with dark brown ; feathers of the scapulars and back, some ash-brown, others black with rufous margins ; wing-coverts nearly uniform ash- brown ; primaries dusky-brown, the shaft of the first quill- feather whiter than those of the others; secondaries dusky, but tipped with white; tertials uniform dusky-brown ; tail- coverts dusky-brown, those nearest the tail-feathers almost VOL. III. 3 F 402 SCOLOPACID. black ; tail cuneiform, the central pair of feathers the long- est, the darkest in colour, and pointed; the next feather on each outside ash-brown, the next ash-grey, the three outside feathers on each side white, tinged with light ash-grey on the narrow outer webs only, the outside feather on each side being the shortest; the chin white; sides of the neck grey ; the neck in front pale brown, spotted with dusky-brown, and tinged with buff; breast, belly, and under tail-coverts white ; under surface of the wings ash-grey, the shafts of all the primaries white; axillary plume pure white; legs and toes greenish-brown. A specimen killed earlier in the season had not acquired the rufous margins to the dark-coloured feathers of the back and scapulars. An adult bird, killed in October, had the head and neck ash- grey, varied with dark brown; the back and wing-coverts nearly uniform dusky-brown, with narrow lighter-coloured margins. The whole length is five inches and three-quarters ; length of the beak nine-sixteenths of an inch; from the carpal joint to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the longest in the wing, nearly four inches ; length of the tarsus eleven-sixteenths. A young bird of the year, killed in the plumage of its first autumn, has the beak black ; irides dark brown; head, neck, and upper part of the back, ash-grey; wing-coverts, scapulars, and lower part of the back ash-brown, each feather ending with a half circle of black, and a minute terminal line of white; primaries dusky-black; secondaries the same, but tipped with white; tertials ash-brown, with dark shafts, and tipped with white ; central tail-feathers elongated, pointed, ash-brown, outside feathers white; chin, neck in front, breast, and all the under surface, pure white. The representations of Temminck’s Stint here given were taken from an adult bird in spring, and a young bird in autumn. A ready means of distinguishing this species from the Little Stint, as pointed out by Mr. Harting (Bb. Middle- sex, p. 199), is by the white shaft to the first quill-feather only, the white outer tail-feathers, and the light-coloured legs. Temminck’s Stint is a miniature Common Sandpiper, whereas the Little Stint is a miniature Dunlin. CURLEW SANDPIPER. 403 LIMICOL#., SCOLOPACID A. TRINGA SUBARQUATA (Giildenstadt* ). THE CURLEW SANDPIPER. Tringa subarquata. One of the earliest notices of the Curlew Sandpiper, or Pigmy Curlew, as a British bird, occurs in Boy’s ‘ History of Sandwich,’ in reference to a specimen shot in that neigh- bourhood, and Pennant mentions a second example killed in August, at Greenwich. This species was formerly considered to be a rare visitor to this country, but it probably remained in some instances undistinguished, when in its winter plumage, from the Dunlin at the same season; the beak, however, is longer, rather more slender, as well as more curved ; the legs longer and thinner, and the bare part above the joint of greater extent: there is also a constant and marked difference on the rump and in the upper tail-coverts, which in this bird are invariably white, whereas in the Dunlin the feathers along * Scolopax subarquata, A. J. Giildenstiidt, Nov. Comm. Petrop. xix. p. 471, pl. xviii. (1775). 404 SCOLOPACID ®. the central line of the rump and upper tail-coverts are of the same colour as those of the back. In the summer plumage, and in the various vernal and autumnal changes in both, the differences are very obvious, the present bird chang- ing to red underneath, and the Dunlin to black. Owing to the perfect breeding-plumage in which the Curlew Sandpiper is sometimes obtained, it has been erro- neously supposed to have nested in the British Islands. It is, however, absent for only a short time. The Author obtained this bird in June, in the height of its summer plumage, from Norfolk, and had seen the young from the same locality early in July. The late Mr. Heysham, of Carlisle, also recorded the occurrence of a very beautiful male in nearly complete summer plumage, which was met with on Rockcliffe salt-marsh on the 27th of May, 1835. Some passed over Heligoland by the 4th July, 1880, and Mr. Cordeaux obtained two in summer plumage on the Spurn, on the 21st of that month. The principal arrivals, however, take place in August and September, the majority of the visitors being birds of the year, with buff-coloured breasts. Their numbers are extremely variable: in some years, as in 1873 and 1881, the species is very abundant, at other times less so; but it may be considered as a regular visitor to those portions of the coasts of Great Britain, from Shetland to Cornwall, which are suitable to its habits. Such localities are especially presented by the estuaries of the east coast of Scotland, the shores of Northumberland, the mouth of the Humber, the tidal waters of East Anglia, and the creeks of the flat portions of Kent, Sussex, Hants, and Dorset. It is, however, by no means confined to these, but may be noticed along the entire coast, and it is occasionally found inland, even in the central county of Nottingham, where large rivers and broad expanses of water tempt it to alight. It rarely, however, prolongs its stay beyond the latter part of October, but continues its course southwards. In Ireland, to which it is also a regular autumnal visitor, it has been known to remain in the southern counties until November, and even December. CURLEW SANDPIPER. 405 The spring migrants northwards have been known to arrive on our shores by the 19th of March, and they con- tinue to pass until June, but their numbers are far less than in autumn. As already mentioned (antea, p. 353), this species has been stated to have bred in Scotland, but there is no evidence that the species was correctly identified. The breeding-haunts of the Curlew Sandpiper are not as yet defi- nitely known, and its eggs are still undiscovered. The occurrence of the Curlew Sandpiper as a stragger to Iceland rests on the authority of Von Heuglin, and Major Feilden does not include it in his list of birds of the Feroes. In Norway, Sweden, and even in Finland, it is principally known on the autumnal migration, and is very rare in spring. At Dvoinick, at the mouth of the Petchora, Mr. Seebohm shot a female on the 15th July, out of a flock of six or seven, but it showed no signs of having been breeding. On his subsequent visit to the Yenesei, much farther east, he shot a bird in breeding-plumage on the 15th June, close to the Arctic circle, but he failed to acquire any knowledge of the precise locality of its nesting-ground. In a letter written on the Ob, Dr. O. Finsch stated (Ibis, 1877, p. 61) that he had found the downy young on the Yalmal Peninsula, but he subsequently corrected this, and the supposed Curlew Sand- pipers proved to be Dunlins. Middendorff was the nearest, for he observed it on the Taimyr river, in lat 74° N., early in June, dispersed over the tundras for breeding purposes, and he obtained a female with a partially-shelled egg in the oviduct. Its summer range doubtless extends all along that Arctic coast, for the ‘ Vega’ expedition obtained it at Jinretlen, close to Behring’s Straits, on the 6th June, 1879. Returning to Europe, we find the Curlew Sandpiper as a migrant on all the coasts of the Continent, where the localities are of a suitable nature. On the west coasts of France and of the Iberian Peninsula, it is principally an autumnal visi- tant, but from the mouth of the Guadalquivir to the extreme north-east of Spain it is very abundant in spring, frequently in the fullest breeding-plumage. Some cross Europe by the line of the Rhine and Rhone valleys, and others appear to 406 SCOLOPACIDA. do so through Transylvania; the valley of the Volga being another route. It occurs on migration along the entire shores of the Mediterranean, and some remain there during the winter, but the majority continue their course southwards, and, visiting Madeira, descend the African Continent along the line of the west coast; and by Egypt, Nubia, and the Red Sea to the Comoro Islands and Madagascar, to Natal, and to Cape Colony, where it is very abundant. Eastwards its winter range extends along the coasts of India to Ceylon, where Colonel Legge also found many birds of the previous year remaining throughout June and July; and thence down Burmah, Tenasserim, and the Malay Archipelago, to New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania. It occurs on the elevated salt-lakes of Northern India, and evidently crosses the great mountain barrier on its migrations, for it was observed at Yarkand, and Dr. Severtzoff thinks it probable that this species breeds in the Pamir (Ibis, 1883, p. 75). In Southern Siberia it certainly occurs on passage, and also in Mongolia, though rare on the Amoor; and it is abundant on migration along the coast of China. In Spitsbergen and Greenland the Curlew Sandpiper has not yet been found, and a hasty statement by a now deceased American ornithologist, as to the supposed discovery of its eges in the latter country, is undoubtedly an error (Ibis, 1879, p. 486). To the American Continent the species is arare strageler, chiefly to the Eastern United States. On the Pacific coast its occurrence has not yet been recorded, notwithstanding the approximation of its range on the Asiatic side of Behring’s Straits, as already mentioned. This species is generally found in small parties, which keep somewhat apart from the other waders feeding in their vicinity. They feed on insects, small crustacea, and worms, which they obtain by probing in the soft sand at the edge of the water. The Curlew Sandpiper in its summer plumage has the beak nearly black; the irides brown; the head and neck all round reddish-chestnut, slightly varied with small streaks of black and white; the back, scapulars, small wing-coverts, CURLEW SANDPIPER. 407 and tertials, reddish-chestnut barred with black ; the greater wing-coverts ash-brown, edged with greyish-white ; primary and secondary quill-feathers blackish, with white shafts ; rump and upper tail-coverts white, with a few dark spots; tail-feathers ash-colour, with white shafts; breast and belly reddish-chestnut, indistinctly barred with black; axillary plume white; vent, flanks, and under tail-coverts, reddish- white, barred and spotted with black; under surface of tail- feathers greyish-white; legs and toes greenish-black. The whole length is about eight inches and a quarter; the wing from the carpal joint to the end of the first feather, which is the longest, five inches. The females are rather larger than the males, but the colours are less brilliant. In autumn the under surface of the body of an adult bird is a mixture of white and pale red in patches, and the dark feathers on the back and wing-coverts are mixed with some new feathers which are ash-grey; the quill-feathers dusky. Young birds of the year in their first autumn have the neck ash-grey; the feathers of the back, scapulars, wing- coverts, and tertials, dark brown, margined with reddish-buff colour, which, later in the season, as winter approaches, change slowly to ash-colour, with buffy-white, and ultimately with pure white edges; under surface of the body white, tinged with buff, becoming afterwards pure white. Adult birds in winter plumage have the lores and ear- coverts ash-brown, bounded above with a streak of white ; the cheeks white; top of the head and back of the neck ash- brown, streaked and spotted with darker brown ; back, scapu- lars, wing-coverts, and tertials, ash-brown, margined with white; rump and upper tail-coverts white ; tail-feathers ash- grey, edged with white; chin, breast, and all the under surface of the body, pure white; legs and toes greenish- brown. 408 SCOLOPACID. LIMICOLZA., SCOLOPACIDA. TRINGA sTRIATA, Linneus.* THE PURPLE SANDPIPER. Tringa maritima. THe PurpLe Sanppirer, though well known in this country, is not very numerous as a species, but is found on various parts of our coast, apparently preferring those which are rocky rather than extensive flats of sand. It is generally to be found from September throughout the winter till the following April or May, when the greater portion of them quit our shores, and pass in many instances to high northern latitudes for the breeding-season. The old birds, as in the instance of the Turnstone, are observed to be absent but a very short time from their usual haunts on the coast; young birds returning with them, or following soon after; and Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., informs the Editor that on the 27th September, at Blakeney in Norfolk, he shot a young bird with some down still adhering to the neck. On the Farn Islands, on one occasion, Mr. Selby met with a family of this species, the young of which were scarcely able * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 248 (1766). PURPLE SANDPIPER. 4.09 to fly, and it has been suspected of having bred there (antea, p- 290). On the 27th May, Major Feilden shot four specimens in Berneray and Mingalay, in the Hebrides, all females, one of which showed some abrasion of the belly and breast feathers, from which it was inferred that it had been sitting on eggs, and the ovaries of the birds were found to be much distended, although no mature eggs were found in them. Adult birds have been observed in many other localities late in May, and Saxby says that in Shetland he has had eges brought to him exactly resembling authentic ones, but identified eggs taken in the British Islands are as yet unknown to the Editor. The Purple Sandpiper is, however, more commonly observed in winter, when it may be seen busily employed turning over stones and searching among seaweed for the smaller shrimps and sandhoppers which are to be found there, and it also feeds on young crabs, marine insects, and the soft bodies of animals inhabiting small shells. Saxby says that flocks rarely consist of more than a dozen or fifteen individuals, and they frequently escape observation from the land owing to their habit of keeping on the seaward side of the rocks, or even sitting on the half-submerged fronds of the larger seaweeds. It may be seen on the strand during a gale, following up each retiring wave and nimbly avoiding the returning one, or clinging to the rock with its feet whilst half buried in the bursting spray. It is, however, an excellent swimmer, and in calm weather has been seen to voluntarily take to the water; it has even been stated that it dives for pleasure ; but this Saxby doubts, saying that he has only known it do so when wounded and closely pursued. The Purple Sandpiper is so generally distributed along the coasts of Great Britain that it would be needless to specify the counties in which it has been observed; and it has been known to straggle so far inland as to Dereham in Norfolk ; and once, in summer, to Wilford Ferry, on the Trent. On the shores of Ireland, in winter and up to the latter part of May, it is abundant in suitable localities. It breeds in considerable numbers no farther off than VOL. III. 3.6 410 SCOLOPACID. the Feroes, especially on Sandoe; and northwards, in Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, and in fact throughout the greater portion of the Arctic regions it is the most numerous of its genus. It nests in Fin- mark; and along the entire north and west coast of Norway, which is under the influence of the Gulf Stream, it winters, according to Mr. Collett, in countless thou- sands, although it rarely goes up the large fiords. Mr. Dann remarks, that, ‘‘ unlike the others of this tribe, the Purple Sandpiper does not altogether quit the Scandinavian coast in winter: as the ice accumulates and the sea freezes ‘up, it betakes itself to the outermost range of islands and rocks with which that coast is so numerously studded, feed- ing among the seaweed left bare by the slight fall of the tide, or the marine insects which it finds at the edge of the water. I have procured specimens throughout the winter on the Swedish coast, and during very severe frosts. It is perfectly fearless. During windy weather, when not feed-~ ing, it seeks shelter in the crevices of the rocks. Its plumage in winter is very thick, and the bird appears much larger than in summer.’’ In the Baltic, however, it appears to be uncommon at any season, and it is onlyin mild winters that it remains on the coast from Denmark to Belgium. To the shores of France and the Iberian Peninsula it is a well- known visitor, and it may possibly breed high up on the mountains in the Azores, as Mr. Godman shot a male in full summer plumage on the island of Flores in June. On the inland waters of the Continent it is of very rare occurrence, and along the northern shores and on the islands of the Mediterranean, as far east as Greece and the Cyclades, it has been observed, but it is by no means common; nor did M. Alleon obtain it on the Black Sea. To the east of Novaya Zemlya, where it is common, no one has obtained it in Asiatic Siberia, with the exception of Middendorff, who shot three specimens on the 9th August in 75° N. lat., but never saw the species again: until the shores of Behring’s Straits are reached, when it is again met with. In Africa the solitary record of its occurrence rests on the authority of Dr. O. PURPLE SANDPIPER. 411 Finsch, who says he has examined an example from the Cape of Good Hope (Abh. naturw. Ver. Bremen, ili. p. 65), but perhaps there may be some error as to the locality. In North America the Purple Sandpiper is found breeding throughout the greater part of the Arctic regions, with the exception of Smith’s Sound, where Major Feilden did not observe it on the last British Expedition, and it is perhaps by way of the Yukon and Alaska that visitors reach the Asiatic side of Behring’s Straits. It is found on the chain of the Great Lakes, and on the east coast it is common in winter as far as the Middle States ; it also visits Bermuda. The nest of the Purple Sandpiper is tolerably compact and well made, placed deep in the ground, and, in Spits- bergen, lined with the leaves of the dwarf birch, Betula nana. In the cireumpolar regions its nest is frequently placed close to the sea-shore, but in the Feroes the late John Wolley, and afterwards Major Feilden (Zool. 1872, p. 3250), found it on the fells; one being taken by the latter on the 20th May, when deep snow was still lying in the sheltered spots, and the tops of the hills were white. The eggs, four in number, are greenish-grey with purplish under-shell mark- ings and reddish-brown surface-blotches: the average mea- surements are 1°45 by 1 in. It would appear that the female takes a share in the duties of incubation, but Mr. Collett says that in Finmark he never found any but males in attendance on the broods. The stomachs of those which he shot in summer had the remains of insects, principally Otiorhynchus blandus; whilst one obtained in November contained the young of Litorina and Mytilus edulis, together with the seeds of a sea-shore plant. Saxby found it feeding on a minute vegetable substance which grew upon the small stones in trickling water. Its note is a faint weet wit. The prevailing bluish-lead colour of this species in winter at once distinguishes it from every other British Sandpiper. The adult in summer has the beak dark brown at the tip, yellow at the base; the irides hazel ; the head and neck all round dusky-grey, streaked with darker grey ; back, scapulars, and tertials, bluish-black: some of the feathers margined with 412 SCOLOPACIDZ. white, others with reddish-buff; wing-coverts dove-grey, with lighter-coloured margins; primaries dusky-black, the shafts white, the outer narrow web of each feather darker than the broader innner web; secondaries tipped with white; upper tail-coverts almost black; middle tail-feathers brownish- black, long and pointed, the others ash-brown with lighter- coloured edges ; chin white ; breast nearly white, spotted with grey; vent, and under tail-coverts white, with an occasional streak of grey; legs and toes ochreous-yellow, the hind toe directed inwards ; the claws black. The whole length is eight inches and a half. From the carpal joint of the wing to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the longest, five inches. The females are rather larger than the males. A bird killed in November has the head, neck, back, and upper tail-coverts, uniform lead-grey; the wing-coverts and tertials only with greyish-white edges ; the under surface changing from bluish-grey to white. In another specimen killed later in the year, the breast and all the under parts are nearly white, with a few spots of grey. In the downy nestling the upper parts are of a warm rufous- brown, with darker streaks and waved lines of grey on the crown, nape, and cheeks; a well-defined black V has its apex at the base of the bill on each side; under parts dull white tinged with buff. -y * KNOT. A413 LIMICOL. SCOLOPACID&. Nn NA Ww Trinega canutus, Linneus. EHR, KNOT. Tringa canutus. Tue Kyor is by no means an uncommon bird in the British Islands from autumn through the winter to the spring. In the L’Estrange and Northumberland Household Books so frequently quoted ‘ Knotts’ or ‘ Knottes’ are mentioned on several occasions, and as an article of diet the bird was evidently appreciated in the early part of the sixteenth century. Camden, in the edition of his ‘Britannia’ bearing date 1607, but not in previous ones, gives it as his opinion that the name was connected with * Tringa Canutus Linneus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, p. 251 (1766). 414 SCOLOPACID ©. King Canute, and this derivation, which after all is the best which has yet been suggested, appears to have been generally accepted at and subsequently to that period. Thus Drayton in his ‘ Polyolbion’ (1622), 25th song :— The Knot, that called was Canutus Bird of old, Of that great King of Danes, his name that still doth hold, His apetite to please, that farre and neere was sought, For him (as some have sayd) from Denmarke hither brought.” Willughby (1678) substantially gives the same reason for the name, and Pennant and later writers have but para- phrased the foregoing. Down to the latter part of the seventeenth century Knots were regularly fattened for the table, and Sir Thomas Browne describes how they are taken in nets, and ‘‘ grow excessively fat, being mewed and fed with corn. A candle lighted in the room, they feed day and night, and when they are at their height of fatness, they begin to grow lame, and are then killed as at their prime and apt to decline.”’ Willughby says that, ‘‘ being fed with white bread and milk, they grow very fat, and are accounted excellent meat.” A few old birds, probably barren ones, in somewhat faded summer plumage are to be seen, according to Mr. Cordeaux, on the coasts of Lincolnshire in July ; and in the first week in August the young birds make their appearance, their parents arriving, as a rule, somewhat later. A considerable number of the migrants remain until the middle of the following May, by which time they have either partially or entirely assumed the fine red tints of plumage peculiar to their breeding state. From the south still more richly- coloured adults arrive about this time, and the entire body take their departure for the north, only a few odd birds remaining until later, or throughout the summer. A specimen in full breeding-plumage is mentioned by Mr. R. Gray as having been shot on Islay on the 80th July, 1870, probably on its return. In the northern portions of our islands comparatively few remain during the winter if the weather prove at all severe, but when such is the case, large accessions arrive from abroad. Nowhere are they KNOT. 415 more numerous than on the extensive sand banks and mud flats left bare by the receding tide in the Humber district, and Mr. Cordeaux has described (Zool. 1866, p. 75) the assemblage and movements of thousands upon thousands observed towards sunset on the 4th of November. The Knot is generally distributed along our coasts, with the exception of the west of Scotland and the Hebrides, where, according to Mr. R. Gray, it is comparatively uncommon. In Ireland it is common in spring and autumn, many remaining the winter, in the tidal harbours and estuaries ; and Sir R. Payne-Gallwey says that he once killed a hun- dred and sixty Knots ona sand bank at a shot from his big gun, having mistaken them on a dark evening for Plovers. From a resemblance to the latter, this species is, indeed, not unfrequently spoken of by fowlers as the ‘ Plover-Knot.’ On the autumnal migration birds some- times come round and strike against the lanterns of light- houses ; and the telegraph wire has occasionally proved fatal. The Knot visits Iceland in large numbers in May, but there is no authenticated instance of its having bred there. In the small portion of East Greenland which has as yet been visited it was not found, nor does it tarry long in the southern districts of that great Peninsula, but beyond 68° N. lat. it becomes more numerous. In 1820, on Parry’s first voyage, Sabine found it breeding in great abundance on Melville Island in the North Georgian or Parry group (Supp. to Appendix, cci.); and on Parrv’s second voyage (Narrative, p- 461) Knots were observed breeding near Quilliam Creek, Melville Peninsula, between the 6th and 17th July, 1823, by the late Captain Lyons of H.M.S. ‘ Hecla,’ who states that they lay four eggs on a tuft of withered grass, without being at the pains of forming any nest. In the Fauna Boreali Americana (Birds, p. 887), Richardson says the Knot breeds in Hudsgon’s Bay and down to the fifty-fifth parallel; the egos are described on the authority of Mr. Hutchins as “ of a dun colour fully marked with reddish spots’’; but the accuracy of these statements has not yet been corroborated. 416 SCOLOPACIDE. The late Surgeon Anderson of H.M.S. ‘ Enterprise’ shot a female bird in Cambridge Bay, lat. 69° N., on the 9th July, 1853; but none of these earlier explorers appear to have brought back any eggs of the species. On the late Arctic Expedition Major H. W. Feilden, naturalist to H.M.S. ‘Alert,’ when camped on Grinnell Land, in 82° 38’ N. lat., on 5th June, 1876, observed the arrival of a flock of about fourteen, which alighted on bare patches and fed eagerly on the buds of Saxifraga oppositifolia. Subsequently the birds arrived in considerable numbers, beginning to mate immediately, and at times two males might be seen following a single female; at this season they soar high in the air like the Common Snipe, and when descending from a height beat their wings behind the back with a rapid motion which produces a loud whirring noise. On the 30th July, 1876, an old bird accompanied by three nestlings was obtained on the border of a small lake not far from the ‘ Alert.’ The old bird proved to be a male; its stomach, and those of the young ones, were filled with insects (Ibis, 1877, p. 407). Mr. H. Chichester Hart, naturalist to H.M.S. ‘ Discovery,’ obtained in 81° 44’ N. lat. a brood of four, disturbed from the nest, on the 11th July. The nest was placed under a large flat stone, resting on two others, which formed a sort of gangway; it was merely of leaves and dry grass, loosely laid together on the earth by the edge of a stream ; but no trace of the eggshells was found. Upon the following day three more young were caught; these were apparently a couple of days out of the shell, grotesque little things, very lively and active, with large dark eyes, the body very small, and the wing-pinions just showing. ‘Their feet were almost as large as those of the full-grown bird, and they were able to run at a marvellous rate. Both the young broods were found three or more miles inland, and in each case close to a stream (Zool. 1880, p. 205). A pair of adults and three downy nestlings form a beautiful mounted group in the Natural History Department of the British Museum. The distribution of the Knot in the Arctic regions is far KNOT. 417 less general than that of many of its congeners. It has not been found in Spitsbergen, or in Novaya Zemlya, and Henke’s statement (Ibis, 1882, p. 881) that it had been ‘‘seen in summer at the mouth of the Dwina, evidently breeding,” requires confirmation. Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown did not obtain it on the Petchora, nor did the former meet with it on the Yenesei. On the famous Taimyr Peninsula, Middendorff found a solitary example, dead, on the 30th August ; and only two were seen and obtained on the Boganida, on the 27th May; although a large number are said to have been seen in July, near the mouth of the Uda. The latter may have been immature 7’. crassirostris, a bird of about the same size, but which has a black breast in breeding-plumage ; and which asa rule replaces the Knot in Eastern Asia. On the Amoor Dr. Schrenck obtained two specimens of our Knot, and Dr. Dybowski got one in Dauria; identified examples are recorded by Messrs. Blakiston and Pryer from Japan, and from Shanghai in China, by Swinhoe. Returning to Europe : it is common on migration along the western shores, becoming rarer in, and to the east of, the Baltic ; and it evidently crosses the Continent by more than one route, as, although rare from Italy eastwards in the Mediterranean, it occurs on the Black Sea. In Spain thousands of birds in breeding-plumage arrive in May, especially at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. The migrations of the Knot can be traced along the West Coast of Africa as far as Damara Land; but the only authority for its occur- rence on the eastern side is Vierthaler, who states that he observed it on the Blue Nile. It is not included amongst the migrants across the great Asian ranges; it has only thrice been recorded in India, and the bird obtained by Jerdon at Madras is believed by Mr. Hume to have been T. crassirostris, which replaces our bird throughout the Malayan and Papuan sub-region ; but undoubted specimens of our Knot have been obtained in Australia and New Zealand in winter plumage. In America the Arctic range of the Knot has already been traced to the Parry Islands. Continuing westward, it prob- VoL. III. 3H 418 SCOLOPACID®. ably occurs in summer along the entire coast, as it was obtained at Point Barrow in the extreme north of Alaska on the 5th July, 1882, and farther south it has been re- corded from the mouth of the Yukon and from Sitka. On migration it visits British America, and the east coast and inland waters of the United States; and an example has been obtained as far south as Brazil (Ibis, 1874, p. 319). The food of the Knot consists largely of the small in- habitants of bivalve shells of the genera [tissoa and Turbo, and Mr. Adamson says that some which he received from the fens had been feeding on maggots. One obtained at Dis- covery Bay contained two caterpillars of Dasychera groen- landica, one bee, and pieces of an Alga. In its habits, especially on its first arrival on our coasts, it is remarkable for its absence of fear. It has never been known to breed in captivity, although individuals in the Gardens of the Zoo- logical Society have fully assumed their ruddy summer plumage, and have even retained it later in the autumn than is usual with wild birds. An albino specimen of the Knot shot near Maldon, in Essex, on the 13th of February, 1851 (Zool. p. 3116), is in the collection of Mr. F. Bond. A male in perfect summer plumage obtained from Yar- mouth so late in the season as the 25th of May, 1820, and from which the figure in the front of the illustration here given was drawn, has the beak black; the irides hazel; cheeks and round the eye chestnut-red, with a few dark brown spots between the beak and the eye, and on the ear- coverts; the forehead, top of the head, and the back of the neck, reddish-brown, streaked with dark brown; back, scapulars, smaller wing-coverts, and tertials, black, margined with reddish-brown and white; greater wing-coverts ash- grey ; primaries greyish-black, with white shafts ; secondaries edged with white; rump and upper tail-coverts white, tinged with red, with crescentic bars of black and edged with white; tail-feathers ash-colour, darker near the margin, and edged with white; chin, neck, breast, and belly, nearly uniform rich reddish-chestnut; flanks, vent, and under KNOT. 419 tail-coverts, white, tinged with red and spotted with black ; legs, toes, and claws, blackish. The whole length of an adult bird is ten inches; from the carpal joint to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the longest in the wing, six inches and a half. Average weight 44 oz. Young birds of the year in autumn have the upper surface of the body ash-grey, each feather with two narrow half- circular bands near the end, the first of greyish-black, the ultimate band buffy-white, later in the season pure white ; the neck white, streaked with grey ; the breast dull white, tinged with reddish-buff. Adult birds in winter have all the upper surface of the body and the wing-coverts uniform ash-grey ; wing-primaries as in summer; all the front of the neck, the breast, and under surface of the body, white, slightly streaked with grey. The tarsi and feet are then greenish, owing to which the birds are known in Norfolk by the redundant epithet of ‘‘ oreen-legged shanks.”’ The newly-hatched bird is described by Major Feilden as follows :—‘‘Iris black; tip of mandibles dark brown, bill dark olive; toes black, soles of feet greenish-yellow; back of legs the same; under part of throat satin-white ; back beautifully mottled tortoise-shell”’ (Ibis, 1877, p. 408). 420 SCOLOPACID. LIMICOLA. SCOLOPACID. CALIDRIS ARENARIA (Linneus*). THE SANDERLING. Calidris arenaria. Cauipris, Jlliger+.—Beak as long as the head, straight, slender, flexible, compressed at the base, with the point dilated and smooth. Nostrils basal, lateral, narrow, longitudinally cleft in the nasal farrow, which extends to the smooth point of the beak. Wings of moderate length, pointed, the first quill- feather the longest. Tail of twelve feathers, short, doubly emarginate. Legs rather short, naked for some distance above the tarsal joint. Feet with only three toes, all directed forwards, with a very small connecting membrane at their base. THE SANDERLING—represented by the figure in front in its summer dress, and by that behind in the grey plumage peculiar to winter—is pretty well known on most of the sandy shores of the seas of Great Britain and Ireland, where * Tringa Arenaria, Linneus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 251 (1766). + Prodromus, p. 249 (1811). SANDERLING, 421 it is usually found, at the edge of the water, in company with the Dunlin, but is not so plentiful. It is also seen at times associated with the smaller Plovers, which it re- sembles in its habits, frequenting the harder parts of the sandy shore, running or flying with equal ease and rapidity. Athough occasionally found in the vicinity of large pieces of fresh water, it is essentially a frequenter of sandy localities, and is seldom to be seen upon those soft muddy flats to which many other Sandpipers are so partial. Owing to the absence of the hind-toe this species was formerly placed amongst the Charadride, but its right to be classed with the Scolopacide is now generally admitted. It is in fact a Tringa without a hind-toe. The Sanderling, on leaving its northern breeding-grounds, arrives on our coasts during the last days of July, or early in August; and, contrary to the usual rule among the Waders, the early flocks are frequently composed of both old and young birds. Throughout the autumn it is abundant in suitable localities along the greater part of our coasts, but the majority continue their ‘southward course, and comparatively few remain on our northern shores during the winter. By April the return migration commences, and birds in full breeding-plumage may be observed throughout May, and even in June: a female shot by Saxby on the 10th of the latter month containing ova as large as No. 3 shot. There is not, however, the slightest evidence that the bird has ever bred in any part of the British Islands. In the Feroes the Sanderling appears to be a somewhat rare migrant, but in Iceland it no doubt breeds, for an egg purchased there in 1858 by the late Mr. John Wolley and Professor Newton, resembles authentic eggs from other localities. According to Holboll, the bird was observed by Graah on the east coast of Greenland, but it is not mentioned in his list. The German North-Polar Expedition under Capt. Koldewey, however, obtained ten of its eggs on Sabine Island on the east coast, and on the western side young have been taken atGodthaab. Dr. Bessels, of the ‘ Polaris,’ obtained nestlings in 81° 38’ N. lat.; and Major Feilden, naturalist 422 SCOLOPACID®. to H.M.S. ‘ Alert,’ found a nest containing two eggs, on which the male bird was sitting, on the 24th June, 1876, in lat. 82° 83’ N., in Smith’s Sound, where it was not uncommon. On Parry’s first Arctic Expedition it was described by Sabine as breeding in considerable numbers on the North Georgian or Parry Islands. The first authenticated eggs on record appear to have been obtained by Mr. MacFarlane when col- lecting for the Smithsonian Institution on the Barren Grounds near the Anderson River, the parent bird—the female in this case—having been shot from the nest. Westward its range extends to Alaska and the Pribilov Islands. Following up its circumpolar distribution, it occurs in the breeding-season along the Arctic coasts of Asiatic Siberia, the ill-fated ‘Jeannette’ party having found it in considerable numbers on Thaddeus Island, one of the Liakhov group, on the 30th August, 1881; Middendorff found it on the Taimyr up to 74° N. lat.; it was observed by Von Heuglin on Novaya Zemlya and Waigats ; and it probably breeds near the mouth of the Petchora, where Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown shot it, although time did not permit of a successful search for its eggs. On the coasts of Northern Europe (with the exception of the Baltic, where it is scarce), the Sanderling is more or less abundant on passage, and it is tolerably common on the shores and islands of the Mediterranean. Visiting the Canaries and Madeira, its migrations down the west side of Africa extend to Cape Colony; and, on the east, it passes along the Red Sea and continues to Natal and Madagascar. It is common in winter along the Mekran coast, at Kurachee, and in the Gulf of Kutch, but in Southern India it has seldom been observed, and it has only recently been recorded from Ceylon. In the Eastern Archi- pelago it cannot at present be traced farther south than Borneo and Java; it is a regular visitor to the east coast of China, and it has occurred in Japan, and the Kuril Islands. In America, south of its Arctic breeding-grounds, it oceurs on migration along the greater part of the coast, and, includ- ing the West Indian Islands, it is found down to Tombo SANDERLING. 423 Point, Patagonia, on the east side; whilst on the Pacific it ranges as far south as Chili. The nest of the Sanderling from which Major Feilden shot the male bird was placed on a gravel ridge, at an altitude of several hundred feet above the sea, and the two eggs were deposited in a slight depression in the centre of a recumbent plant of willow, the lining of the nest consisting of a few withered leaves and some of the last year’s catkins. The two eggs figured in Major Feilden’s Appendix to Sir G. Nares’ Narrative, 11. p. 210, are of a greenish-buff spotted with brown of various shades, and measure 1:4 by 1 in. Mr. Dresser has compared them to miniature Curlews’ eggs of a pale colour. An egg taken on the Barren Grounds of the Anderson River from a nest composed of hay and decayed leaves, and figured by Prof. Newton (P.Z.S. 1871, pl. iv. fig. 2), is somewhat darker in colour: its measurements are given as 1°43 by °98 in. The Sanderling obtains its food principally by probing the moist sands of the sea-shores, and the contents of the stomach of those shot while thus occupied, were slender sea-worms, minute shell-fish, gravel, and crustacea. Major Feilden observed that, like other waders in the Arctic regions, the Sanderling fed upon the buds of Saxifraga oppositifolia. The fat on the body is sometimes nearly a quarter of an inch in thickness. An adult male in summer plumage, killed on the 12th of June, the bird from which the figure was drawn, had the beak black ; irides brown; the feathers on the top of the head and back of the neck black in the centre, edged with rufous ; interscapulars, scapulars, tertials, back, and rump, black, each feather edged with red; wing-coverts greyish- black ; wing-primaries black on the outer web, greyish-white on the inner web, the shaft white ; middle tail-feathers rather pointed and greyish-black, the others greyish-white; chin, throat, sides of the neck, and upper part of the breast, covered with small spots of rufous and black on a white ground; all the under surface of the body and wings pure white ; axillary plume white; legs, toes, and claws, dark 424 SCOLOPACIDA. olive (drying black) ; under surface of the toes dilated and flat. In this state of plumage it is the Ruddy Plover of some authors. The female is, as a rule, slightly larger than the male, and somewhat less rich in the colour of its summer dress. Sabine goes so far as to say that ‘in several pairs killed at different periods of the breeding-season, the males and females were invariably found to differ in their plumage ; the general colour of the female being lighter, and having more cinereous and less of black and reddish marking than that of the male: this is especially the case on the chin, throat, and fore part of the neck; which may be described in the female as white, with a very slight sprinkling of dark spots, and scarcely any appearance of red; whereas in the males, the dark colours greatly predominate.” No such difference, however, was observed by Major Feilden. The whole length of an adult bird is about eight inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, four inches and seven-eighths; the first quill-feather a little longer than the second, and the longest in the wing. In winter the plumage on the upper surface of the body is of a very light ash-grey, almost white, the shaft of each feather forming a darker streak; carpal portion of the wing and the primary quill-feathers almost black; tail- feathers ash-colour, edged with white; chin, throat, and all the under surface of the body, white; beak, legs, toes, and claws, blackish. The appearance of the Sanderling in spring when changing to the plumage of summer, is prettier than at any other season; each feather on the upper surface of the body exhibits a portion of black in the centre, edged partly with rufous and partly with the remains of the white peculiar to winter ; by degrees the white edging gives place to the red; the neck in front becomes speckled, but the under surface of the body remains white all the year. A female killed at the end of August had the upper surface of the body darker than in the spring, but mixed with dull black, some red, and greyish-white; almost all SANDERLING. 425 the red colour of the breeding-season had disappeared, but the autumn moult having commenced, a few of the greyish- white feathers of the winter plumage appeared intermixed with the faded remains of the tints of summer. A bird killed on the 25th of October had completed its winter dress. A bird of the year in the plumage previous to its first autumn moult, had the crown of the head, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, black, edged with yellowish-white ; a brown streak in front of the eye; nape, sides of the neck, and sides of the breast, pale grey, with wavy streaks ; forehead, throat, fore part of the neck, and all the under parts, pure white : wings and tail as in the adult. A young bird in half-down, obtained at Grinnell Land on the 8th August, 1876, had the upper parts darker, the markings smaller, and of a warm buff-colour, as are also the lower throat and sides of the neck. It is figured in Mr. Dresser’s ‘ Birds of Europe,’ viii. pl. 559. Varieties of this species are rare, but Mr. C. M. Adamson has recorded a white one, apparently a young bird of the year, shot at Holy Island, Northumberland, on the 28th August, 1879. VO: Tl. os 426 SCOLOPACID &. LIMICOL.& SOOLOPACID. MacHetEs puGnax (Linneus*). am THE RUFF. Machetes pugnaa. Macuerss, Cuvier+. —Bill straight, rather slender, as long as the head, with the tip dilated and smooth ; upper mandible laterally suleated for four-fifths of its length; culmen rounded. Nostrils basal, lateral, linear, placed in the commencement of the groove. Wings long and pointed, the first quill-feather the longest. Legs moderate, the tibia naked for a considerable space above the Tringa Puqnax, Linnzeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 247 (1766). + Régne Animal, i. p. 490 (1817). RUFF. 427 tarsal joint. Toes, three before and one behind ; the outer toe united to the middle one by a small web ; hind toe short, barely touching the ground. During the breeding-season the head and neck of the male are adorned with long plumes, which, when raised, form a large ruff around the head, and the face is covered with small fleshy warts or papille. Tue Rurr differs in so many points from the species included in the genera T'otanus, Scolopax, and Tringa, that the generic division and term, Machetes,* in reference to its pugnacious habits, proposed for it by Cuvier, has been admitted by the majority of systematic writers. This species, which up to the present time is the only one of the genus known, is distinguished by the periodical assumption by the males of the ruff about the neck, which has led to the English name. Scarcely any two males have the ruff alike, while the females are uniform in colour, or nearly so; the males are polygamous, and about one-third larger than the females, in both of which points the Ruff differs from the characters of the genera named. The Ruff may now be considered as only a passing visitor to this country, making its appearance in April and departing again in autumn, at which time the young birds of the year, in small flocks, are also seen, and single birds are occasionally killed in winter. Formerly many Ruffs and Reeves, the latter being the name applied to the female, remained with us during the summer, and bred in the fens of Somersetshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdon, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire ; but the two latter are the only counties in which it has been known to nest of late years. Drainage, and the spread of cultivation over its favourite haunts, are perhaps the main reasons, but its wholesale capture in spring for the tables of the rich, when ‘ game’ is out of season, is also responsible for a diminution which cannot be repaired by the mere existence during the past few years of an effete Wild Birds’ Preservation Act. Early in the present century Montagu made a tour through Lincolnshire, that he might become intimately acquainted with all the history of this singular species that could be * Pugnator. 428 SCOLOPACID®. obtained. He found that the birds were much more scarce than they had been before a large tract of the fens was drained and enclosed, and would probably, as agriculture increased, be entirely driven from the island. A few were still found about Crowland, but the north fen near Spalding and the east and west fens between Boston and Spilsby, were the only parts that appear to produce them with cer- tainty, but by no means plentifully. He continues :—‘‘ The trade of catching Ruffs is confined to a very few persons, and scarcely repays their trouble and the expense of nets. These people live in obscure places on the verge of the fens, and are found out with difficulty, for few, if any, birds are ever bought but by those who make a trade of fattening them for the table. Mr. Towns, the noted feeder at Spalding, assures us his family had been a hundred years in the trade; that they had supplied George the Second and many noble families in the kingdom. He undertook, at the desire of the late Marquis of Townshend, when that nobleman was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to take some Ruffs to that country, and actually set off with twenty-seven dozen from Lincolnshire, left seven dozen at the Duke of Devonshire’s at Chatsworth, continued his route across the kingdom to Holyhead, and delivered seventeen dozen alive in Dublin, having lost only three dozen in so long a journey, confined and greatly crowded as they were in baskets, which were carried upon two horses. During our stay at Spalding we were shown into a room where there were about seven dozen males and a dozen females, and of the former there were not two alike. Our intrusion to choose some birds drove them from their stands, and, compelling some to trespass upon the premises of others, produced many battles. It is a remarkable character of these birds that they feed most ereedily the moment they are taken; a basin of bread and milk, or boiled wheat, placed before them is instantly con- tended for, and so pugnacious is their disposition, that they would starve in the midst of plenty, if several dishes of food were not placed amongst them, at a distance from each other. Their actions in fighting are very similar to those RUFF. 499 of a game-cock: the head is lowered and the beak held in a horizontal direction ; the ruff, and indeed every feather, more or less distended, the former sweeping the ground as a shield to defend the more tender parts; the auricles erected, and the tail partly spread, upon the whole assuming a most ferocious aspect. When either could obtain a firm hold with the bill a leap succeeded, accompanied by a stroke of the wing; but they rarely injured each other. *‘ Few Ruffs, comparatively speaking, are taken in the spring, as the old birds frequently pine, and will not readily fatten. The principal time is in September, when the young birds are on the wing; these are infinitely more delicate for the table, more readily submit to confinement, and are less inclined to fight. If this plan was generally enforced by the proprietors of fen-land, or made a bye-law amongst them- selves, the breed would not be so reduced; but there are still fowlers who make two seasons, and by catching the old birds in the spring, especially the females, verify the fable of the goose and the golden eggs: the destruction of every female in the breeding-season is the probable loss of four young. ‘‘The manner of taking these birds is somewhat different in the two seasons: in the spring the Ruffs hill, as it is termed, that is, they assemble upon a rising spot of ground, contiguous to where the Reeves propose to deposit their eges; there they take their stand, at a small distance from each other, and contend for the females—the nature of polygamous birds. This hill, or place of resort for love and battle, is sought for by the fowler, who from habit discovers it by the birds having trodden the turf somewhat bare, though not in a circle as usually described. When a hill has been discovered, the fowler repairs to the spot before the break of day, spreads his net, places his decoy birds, and takes his stand at the distance of about one hundred and forty yards, or more, according to the shyness of the birds. The net is what is termed a single clap-net, about seventeen feet long and six feet wide, with a pole at each end; this, by means of uprights fixed in the ground, and each furnished with a 430 SCOLOPACID®. pulley, is easily pulled over the birds within reach, and rarely fails taking all within its grasp; but in order to give the pull the greatest velocity, the net, if circumstances will permit, is so placed as to fold over with the wind; however, there are some fowlers who prefer pulling it against the wind for Plovers. As the Ruffs feed chiefly by night, they repair to the frequented hill at the dawn of day, nearly all at the same time, and the fowler makes his first pull according to circum- stances, takes out his birds, and prepares for the stragglers who traverse the fens and have no adopted hill; these are caught singly, being enticed by the stuffed birds. These stuffed skins are sometimes so managed as to be movable, by means of a long string, so that a jerk represents a jump, a motion very common among Ruffs, who at the sight of a wanderer flying by, will leap, or flit a yard off the ground, by that means inducing those on wing to come and alight by him. «‘ When the Reeves begin to lay, both those and the Ruffs are least shy, and so easily caught, that a fowler assured us he could with certainty take every bird in the fen in the season. The females continue this boldness, and _ their temerity increases as they become broody; on the contrary, we found the males at that time could not be approached within the distance of gun-shot. The females, the Reeves, begin laying their eggs the first or second week in May; and we have found their nest with young as early as the 3rd of June. By this time the males cease to go to hill.”* Montagu took the trouble of transporting several of these birds, both males and females, with him from Lincolnshire into Devonshire; some of them lived three years in captivity, and one of them four years; the changes they underwent will be noticed under the description of plumage. Montagu says, that ‘“‘in confinement the males paid no attention to the Reeves, except to drive them from their food; they never attempted to dispute with any other species, but would feed out of the same dish with Land Rails, and other birds con- fined with them, in perfect amity.’’ * Abridged from the Supplement to the Ornithological Dictionary (1813). RUFF. 431 The late Rev. R. Lubbock, in his ‘Fauna of Norfolk,’ has also given an interesting account of the behaviour of the Ruffs in spring, when their ‘hill’ being over, they disperse themselves about the marsh in search of females. A Reeve circling round her nest will then put in motion three or four Ruffs. The males seem to be much inconvenienced by the collar of long feathers which obstructs their flight, rendering it slow and laboured, but, relieved of this by the autumn moult, their flight becomes powerful and glancing like that of the female. In Norfolk it is possible that a pair or two may still nest, in spite of the incentives held forth by collectors of British- taken eggs; and in Lincolnshire, as the Editor is informed by Mr. Cordeaux, a nest containing two eggs was taken, and the female shot—in flagrant contravention of the law—in 1882, in a locality where the species had been in the habit of breeding. In Yorkshire it no longer breeds; and since the drainage of Prestwick Car, it has scarcely been known to nest in Northumberland. On the west coast of England it occurs on migration; and Mr. Adamson once obtained a nest at Brough Marsh, in the Solway. It visits the eastern side of Scotland, from Berwick to the Orkneys and Shetlands, but is very rare on the west; and in Iveland its arrivals have principally been noticed on the east coast, seldom in the south : mostly in autumn. The extreme north-western range of the Ruff appears to be Iceland, where it has occurred as a straggler. It breeds— in suitable localities—in Scandinavia, Russia, Northern and Central Poland, and along the coasts of North Germany, Holland, Belgium, and the north of France. To the rest of Europe it is principally known on its double migrations, and its winter-quarters commence on the southern side of the Mediterranean. On the flooded fields of Egypt it is found from August to May; and through Nubia, and Abyssinia, where it occurs at an elevation of 10,000 feet, its course can be traced to Natal. On the west side of Africa, touching at Madeira, it ranges by Senegambia, Angola, and Damara Land, to Cape Colony. Andersson believed that in the Lake 432 SCOLOPACID.E. regions of the interior it was to be found throughout the year. In Asiatic Siberia the Ruff extends across the northern portion during the breeding-season up to 75° N. lat.; but in the south-eastern districts, and on the Amoor, it is rare, or unrecorded ; it has, however, been obtained in the island of Yezo, Japan, but not in China. It visits Asia Minor, and Turkestan ; crosses the Pamir, on the steppes of which Dr. Severtzoff fancies it breeds ; visits the northern provinces of India in vast flocks during the winter ; straggles to Ceylon ; is tolerably abundant on the muddy shores of Northern Burmah ; and has recently (Ibis, 1883, p. 86) been recorded from Labuan, in North-Eastern Borneo. The Ruff has been known to straggle to North America, examples having been obtained in the States of Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio. Herr A. von Pelzen records (Ibis, 1875, p. 832) an abnormally coloured specimen, with plumage in a much worn and abraded condition, obtained in the district between the Upper Rio Negro and the Orinoco : the only recorded occurrence of the Ruff in the Neotropical region. The nest of this species is placed in a tussock, generally in the wettest part of a swamp, and the eggs are three or four in number: of a pale green or olive colour, blotched and spotted with brown; the average measurements are 1°8 by 1-2 in. The young are somewhat less active and able to take care of themselves than the nestlings of most of the waders. The natural food of the Ruff consists largely of insects and their larve, and worms, with an admixture of fine gravel; but Mr. Collett found that the birds which he shot on the autumn passage near Christiania, had their stomachs filled exclusively with the seeds of a sea-shore plant. The note is alow kack, kick, kack. The Ruff, in breeding-plumage, from which the engraved figure was taken, had the beak one inch and a half in length, and brown ; the irides dusky-brown ; the head, the whole of the ruff, or tippet, and the shoulders, of a shining purple black, transversely barred with chestnut ; scapulars, back, lesser wing-coverts, and some of the tertials, pale RUFE. 433 chestnut, speckled and tipped with black; greater wing- coverts nearly uniform ash-brown ; quill-feathers brownish- black, with white shafts ; rump and upper tail-coverts white ; tail-feathers ash-brown, varied with chestnut and black; the feathers of the breast, below the ruff, and on the sides, chest- nut, tipped with black; belly, vent, and under tail-coverts, white, with an occasional spot of dark brown ; legs and toes pale yellow-brown ; claws black. The whole length of the male is about twelve inches and a half. Wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the longest, six inches and a half. The weight of a Ruff is about six ounces, but a Ruff, when fatted, will weigh ten ounces. Montagu says, ‘“‘ The long feathers on the neck and sides of the head, in the male, that constitute the ruff and auricles, are of short duration, for they are scarcely completed in the month of May, and begin to fall the latter end of June. The change of these singular parts is accompanied by a complete change of plumage; the stronger colours, such as purple, chestnut, and some others, vanish at the same time, so that in their winter dress they become more generally alike from being less varied in their plumage; but we observed that those who had the ruff more more or less white, retained that colour about the neck after the autumnal moulting was effected. We noticed that in confinement their annual changes never varied; every spring produced the same coloured ruff and other feathers, but the tubercles on the face never appeared.* A young male that was taken destitute of a ruff in the breeding-season, whose plumage was mostly cinereous, except about the head and neck, put on the ruff in confinement the next spring for the first time, which was large, and the feathers were a mixture of white and chest- nut; the scapulars and breast also marked with chestnut ; and in the succeeding autumnal moulting he re-assumed his former cinereous plumage.” * Tn confirmation of this, Mr. A. D. Bartlett assures the Editor that in birds which had been carefully marked, the original colour of the ruff was always re- produced the following spring, as proved by a series of drawings by Mr. J. Wolf, VOL. III. 3K 434 SCOLOPACID®. * In a specimen, kept over two summers, at the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent’s Park, tne moulting of the ruff commenced on the head and neck, about the 29th of March, 1832; the feathers on the body were not thrown off; the head and neck were left destitute of plam- age, but the feathers of the body remained in a perfect state. The new ruff and head feathers appeared almost immediately, and were perfected by the 4th of May. This bird began to shed his ruff feathers on the 8th of June, and by the 6th of July he had lost them all. A female, killed at the end of April, from which the re- presentation was taken, had the beak one inch and a quarter in length, dark brown at the point, but lighter in colour at the base; irides dusky-brown; head and neck ash-brown, the centre of each of the small feathers darker than the margin, producing a spotted appearance; scapulars, back, wing-coverts, and tertials, nearly black, with broad ash- brown margins; some of the great wing-coverts and tertials barred transversely with pale reddish-brown; pri- maries dull black, with white shafts; secondaries edged with pale brownish-white; rump, and upper tail-coverts, brown ; tail-feathers ash-brown, barred transversely with pale reddish-brown and black; chin greyish-white; feathers of the front of the neck, the breast, and sides, black in the centre, with broad greyish-white margins; belly, vent, and under tail-coverts, white; legs and toes pale yellowish- brown ; claws black. The whole length of a female is ten inches and a half. The wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the first quill- feather, which is the longest, six inches and a quarter. In the nestling the upper parts are rufous-buff; crown black with a light central streak; two dark loral stripes meet at the nape, which is brown with a dark bar; a broad black streak down the middle of the back, and two lateral ones ; under parts warm unspotted buff; bill black ; legs pale brown. BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 435 LIMICOL&. SCOLOPA CID 4. SS Mae Ci TRYNGITES RUFESCENS (Vieillot*). THE BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. Tringa rufescens. Trynaites, Cabanis +.—Bill about as long as the head, slender, straight, de- curved and obtuse at the tip; nasal groove long; nostrils basal, linear, rather large. Wings pointed, the first quill-feather the longest. Tail moderate, doubly emarginate. Legs moderate, slender, the tibia bare for a considerable distance ; tarsus compressed, slender, scutellate, anterior toes scutellate, marginate ; hind toe small, elevated ; claws small, arched, slender, slightly acute. Tue Author had the gratification of obtaining the speci- men of the interesting and prettily-marked Sandpiper, from which the figure above was taken, in the autumn of 1826, when at Royston ; and soon afterwards made it known as a new visitor to England and Europe in the Transactions of the Linnean Society, xvi. p. 109, pl. 11. This bird was shot early in the month of September, 1826, in the parish of Melbourne, in Cambridgeshire, in company with some * Tringa rufescens, Vieillot, Nouv. Dict. xxxiv. p. 470 (1819). + Journal fiir Ornithologie, 1856, p. 418 436 SCOLOPACID. Dotterell (Charadrius morinellus) ; and passed immediately afterwards into the possession of Mr. Baker, of Melbourne, by whom the skin was preserved, and of whom it was pur- chased for the Author by Mr. John Sims. A few years afterwards, the latter, who had then removed to Norwich, obtained a second example of this species, killed at Sherring- ham, on the coast of Norfolk, and preserved it for the Museum at Norwich, where it still exists : the entry in the donation- book being that it was killed on the 29th July, 1832, and presented by Mr. Arthur Upcher. Since that time three specimens haye been obtained in Norfolk—one shot at Yarmouth in the autumn of 1839 or 1840, which came into the possession of the late Mr. Heysham, of Carlisle*; one killed in the same locality on the 22nd September, 1841 (Zool. p. 182); and one obtained on the mud flats of Breydon, September 20th, 1843 (Zool. p. 263) ; the two latter being in the collection of Mr. J. H. Gurney (Stevenson, B. Norfolk, ii. p. 359). For the knowledge of another specimen, the Author was indebted to the Rev. T. Staniforth, of Bolton Rectory, Skipton, in whose collection the bird is preserved, and who sent word that his example, which was a male, was killed at Formby, on the banks of the river Alt, about thirteen miles north of Liverpool, in May, 1829, and was sent to Liverpool market for sale along with some Snipes. Mr. F. Bond has recorded (Zool. p. 148) the occurrence of one upon the Sussex coast in 1843; it was much injured, badly preserved, and eventu- ally had to be thrown away, but Mr. Bond kept the charac- teristic wings. In Cornwall three examples have been recorded by the late Mr. Rodd :—-one shot on the sands near Marazion whilst flying in company with Dunlins and Ring Plovers, on the 3rd September, 1846; one obtained at a pool on some high moorland near Chun Castle, Morvah, on the 8th September, 1860; and one at St. Bryher’s, one of the Scilly Islands, in * Mr. F. Bond informs the Editor that he cannot find any mention of that specimen in the Catalogue of the sale of the late Mr. Heysham’s co!lection on the 11th May, 1859. BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 437 September, 1870 (B. Cornwall, p. 100). Mr. D’Urban states (Guide to Exeter, p. 12%) that one was killed on the Exe in August, 1851; and in the autumn of 1858 one was shot by Mr. Spencer Heaven at Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel, and passed into the collection of Dr. Woodforde of Taunton. In Ireland, as recorded by Mr. F. M‘Coy (Ann. Nat. Hist. xy. p. 271), a specimen was obtained near Dublin, and is now in the Natural History Museum of that city; and two were obtained at Belfast in October, 1864 (Zool. 1866, p- 457). As regards Scotland, Mr. R. Gray says (B. of W. Scot. p. 319) that a specimen obtained in Caithness is still in the collection which belonged to the late Mr. Sinclair * of Wick. According to Vieillot, and Degland and Gerbe, a bird of the year killed near Abbeville in Picardy was in the collec- tion of M. J. de Lamotte, but MM. Marmottan and Vian, in their recent catalogue of rare birds (Bull. Soc. Zool. Fr. 1879, p. 245), make no mention of it. In the collection of Mr. Gatke, of Heligoland, there is, however, an example killed on that island on the 9th May, 1847; and this seems to be the only authenticated occurrence in Europe beyond the British Islands. The Buff-breasted Sandpiper’s summer-hauuts are in the Arctic portions of the American Continent. Specimens presented by Dr. Rae are in the British Museum, obtained at Repulse Bay, and at Fort Simpson, on the 14th of June ; and it breeds abundantly in the Anderson River district and along the Arctic coast, where Mr. MacFarlane obtained many eges. It has been obtained in June at Point Barrow, Alaska, but below Nelato, on the Yukon, according to Mr. Dall, it is rare, and it has only once been obtained at Sitka. At St. Michael’s, Alaska, Mr. E. W. Nelson only obtained two in the course of four years, but he found it quite common at Cape Wankarem, on the Siberian side, early in August, 1881 (Cruise of the ‘Corwin’ p. 90).* Nuttall says (Man. * Middendorff (Sib. Reise, ii. p. 221) records one shot on the 30th June on the Sea of Okhotsk, but Mr. Harting thinks that this must have heen Tringa acuminata, which has a buff breast in summer. 438 SCOLOPACID®. Orn. U.S. and Canada, ii. p. 113), ‘‘ This elegant species, some seasons, is not uncommon in the market of Boston, in the months of August and September, being met with near the capes of Massachusetts Bay. My friend Mr. Cooper has also obtained specimens from the vicinity of New York. Its food, while here, consists principally of land and marine insects, particularly grasshoppers, which, abounding in the autumn, become the favourite prey of a variety of birds.” But although generally diffused on migration throughout the United States, it is not as a rule abundant, and its visits are somewhat irregular. Vieillot originally described the species from a specimen obtained in Louisiana. Mr. Dresser found it in small flocks of from six to a dozen individuals in August, 1863, near Matamoras in Mexico, close to the frontier of Texas, and also between the former and San Antonio de Bejar in Texas itself, but Dr. Heerman said he had not observed it there for several seasons. The birds obtained were very fat, and delicious eating; they never seemed to frequent the edge of the small ponds, but preferred the sandy plains, and the dry tracks made by the cotton-teams ; the call-note was low and weak. Canon Tristram obtained a specimen in the Bermudas on the 14th November, 1848 ; it has occurred in Cuba; and in South America it has been recorded from Colombia, the Upper Amazon, Brazil, and the shores of the Rio de la Plata, the latter being apparently the southern limit of its migration. According to Dr. E. Coues, who has examined at least a dozen sets, taken by Mr. MacFarlane, the eggs of the Buff- breasted Sandpiper are usually four in number, of a clay- coloured or greyish ground, with bold blotches and spots of rich umber-brown ; the average measurements appear to be 1:45 by 1 in. The nest is a slight depression in the sround, lined with a little grass or a few leaves. This species is readily distinguished from all the other birds of this genus by the peculiar markings of the under surface of the wings. The beak is slender, and very slightly curved, three- quarters of aninch in length, and greenish-black ; from the BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 439 point to the gape it measures one inch, and from the gape to the occiput is also one inch: the irides hazel; the fea- thers on the top of the head dark brown, approaching to black, each feather edged with very light brown, giving a mottled appearance ; the back of the neck light brown, the dark spots formed by the centre of each feather minute ; the back very dark brown, the extreme edges only of the feathers light brown; the wing-coverts brown; the pri- maries nearly black, tipped with white; the shafts white ; the tertials brown, edged with light brown; upper tail- coverts brown, with lighter-coloured borders ; the tail cuneiform, the centre feathers black, the shafts and edges lighter ; the feathers on each side light brown, enclosed by a zone of black, and edged with white; the chin, sides of the neck, throat, and breast, light brown, tinged with buff ; abdomen, flanks, and under tail-coverts, white, but per- vaded also with the buff-colour of the higher parts; the sides of the neck spotted, from the dark centres of the feathers occupying a larger surface than upon the front ; axillary plume pure white ; under surface of the broad web of the primaries beautifully mottled with dark specks ; under surface of the secondaries ending in sabre-shaped points, presenting a series of lines formed by alternating shades of white, black, and dusky bands, which in the adult bird are well defined, and present a beautifully-variegated appearance, peculiar to this species. The legs are bare for half an inch above the joint ; the tarsus measures one inch and a quarter; legs and toes clay-yellow, the claws black. The whole length of the bird is about eight inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the longest, five inches and a quarter. The female is a trifle smaller than the male. In the young bird of the year the back and rump are somewhat darker than in the adult, and the under parts are whiter. 440 SCOLOPACID#®. LIMICOL 4. : SCOLOPACIDE. BaRTRAMIA LONGICAUDA (Bechstein*). BARTRAM’S SANDPIPER. Totanus Bartramii. BartRAMiA, Lesson+.—Bill scarcely longer than the head, moderately slender, straight, the nasal groove extending nearly to the tip, which is narrowed but obtuse ; nostrils linear, basal. Wings not reaching to the end of the tail, pointed, the first quill-feather the longest, the inner secondaries rather elongated. Tail of twelve feathers, rather long, much rounded. Legs rather long and slender, the tibia bare for a considerable distance ; tarsus scutellate ; toes three in front, long and slender ; a slight web between the outer and the middle ones; hind toe elevated. THE earliest recorded occurrence of this American species in Great Britain was that of a bird shot near Warwick, * Tringa longicauda, Bechstein, Kurze Uebersicht aller bekannten Vogel, p. 453 (1811), + Traité d’Ornithologie, p. 553 (1831). It is clear that the generic name Bartramia has precedence of Actiturus of Bonaparte, as that author quotes it (Sagg. Distrib. met. Animali Verteb. p. 143, 1831). BARTRAM’S SANDPIPER. 441 sitting on a bean-stubble, by Mr. R. Barnard, and sent to the late Hugh Reid of Doncaster for preservation on the 31st October, 1851 (Zool. pp. 33830, 33888, 4254). It afterwards passed into the collection of Lord Willoughby de Broke, at Compton Verney, near Stratford-on-Avon. The next specimen, which is now in the collection of Mr. J. H. Gurney, was shot on the 12th December, 1855, in a ploughed field between Cambridge and Newmarket, and an illustration of the bird, with the following details of its capture from the pen of the Rey. Frederick Tearle, of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, appeared in ‘ The Illustrated News’ of 20th January, 1855 :—‘‘ Some farm labourers, who were engaged in thrashing near the spot, observed a strange bird flying round in large circles over the adjoining field, and uttering a whistling cry at short intervals. It fre- quently alighted, and ran along the ground like a Corncrake. One of the men thought he could catch it with his hat, and gave chase; but the bird, as soon as he came near, rose, and flew around, whistling as before. On seeing that it did not fly away, the son of a gamekeeper, who lived close by, went into his father’s cottage for a gun, and came out and shot it. He sent it to mea few days afterwards, calling it a Whistling Plover.’’ Another correspondent of the same newspaper, under the initials N.S. R., stated that he had shot a bird of this species on the 19th of January, 1855, at Bigswear, in Gloucestershire, but the assertion must be taken for what it is worth. The third authenticated example was shot near Mullion in Cornwall, from a piece of pasture- turnips, and brought into a game-shop on the 18th November, 1865, when Dr. Bullmore obtained and recorded it.* A fourth, and perhaps the earliest British-killed specimen, appears to have been unrecorded until recently (Zool. 1877, p- 389), although shot at least thirty years previously on the banks of the Parret in Somersetshire: it forms part of the collection of Dr. Woodforde of Taunton. A fifth, recorded by Mr. George Bolam, who acquired it, * ‘TZoologist,’ 1866, p. 37, and ‘Cornish Fauna,’ p. 313; see also Rodd’s ‘B. of Cornwall,’ pp. 96-100, for an elaborate description. VOL. III. oO 442 SCOLOPACID. was shot by Mr. James Gray on the sea-banks at Low- houghton Low Stead, in Northumberland, on the 21st November, 1879. Mr. Bolam writes:—‘‘It had been in the neighbourhood for about a week before it was killed, and was in the habit of frequenting the long grass or ‘bents,’ with which the links at Low Stead are covered. Mr. Henry Grey, who had a very good opportunity of ob- serving it while alive, and who spent a considerable time in watching its habits, informs me that it was not at all shy, and when amongst the tall grass lay like a Snipe or Woodcock, allowing him to approach within a few yards of it before rising, and when flushed, after flying for a short distance (seldom more than a hundred yards at a time), it would again drop into the long grass, or alighting on the bare sand would run off to some convenient place of shelter. When surprised in the open, without any covert at hand amongst which to hide, it ran very swiftly, frequently stop- ping behind a stone, or, after it had got some distance away from him, standing on a slight hillock or other eminence and watching his movements, its tail all the while moving up and down with a peculiar swaying sort of motion, not observable in any of the other Sandpipers. Its note, uttered for the most part when flying, was a shrill piping whistle. Very unfortunately, it had not recovered from the autumnal moult, many of the feathers being only partly grown, while others are entirely wanting. On dissection it proved to be a female, and the day after it had been shot, when it came into my possession, weighed 5} oz., but as it was badly wounded and had bled a good deal, it must, when newly dead, have been considerably heavier.’’* Respecting a sixth example, Mr. J. E. Harting writes (Zool. 1880, p. 508), that on the 27th October, the late Mr. Cooper, the taxi- dermist of Radnor Street, St. Luke’s, brought for his inspection a freshly-killed specimen which had been pur- chased in Leadenhall Market, hanging up with a lot of Plovers, said to have come with it from Lincolnshire. The stomach contained numerous fragments of wing-cases of * «The Field,’ 20th Dec. 1879; and Pr. Berwick Nat. Club, 1880, p. 167. BARTRAM’S SANDPIPER. 443 small beetles, which were submitted to Mr. E. C. Rye, who could find nothing to make him believe that the bits were other than the remains of British insects. And lastly, Mr. Harting has shown to the Editor a letter from Mr. T. Cornish, announcing the capture of another at St. Keverne, near the Lizard, Cornwall, last October (1883).* Of other so-called specimens on record several have proved to be examples of the Ruff. There are several records of the visits of Bartram’s Sand- piper to other parts of Europe, but the correctness of some of them is open to question. Amongst these, one in Sweden, of which, according to Professor Meves, there is no evidence ; one in Holland; and one, according to Naumann, in Hesse. The genuine occurrences are, the one obtained by Mr. C. A. Wright at Malta, on the 17th November, 1865 (Ibis, 1869, p- 247); and the one recorded by Dr. Salvadori, killed in Liguria in 1859, now in the collection at the Museo Civico of Genoa. As a straggler it appears to have occurred in Australia, for Gould states that he has examined a specimen shot near Botany Bay. In America, Richardson observed it on the plains of the Saskatchewan in May, 1827, and it is well known in Canada and Nova Scotia. It appears to be generally distributed during the summer over the northern and central portions of the United States to Illinois and Pennsylvania, where it is known as the ‘ Upland Plover’ or ‘ Field Plover.’ It is especially abundant on the great plains on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, where it is called the ‘ Prairie Pigeon’; but as yet it is not known to cross that natural barrier, although it has been found so near as the Big Blue River, Utah; and in the north-west it was obtained by Mr. Dall on the Yukon river, Alaska. On migration it occurs in considerable numbers both in autumn and spring, and at the latter season Dr. Elliott Coues says that vast flocks pass through Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and Dakota, * The contemporaneous capture of a Pectoral Sandpiper (Zringa maculata) in the Scilly Islands was announced in the same letter ; but too late for insertion in the chapter on that species. 444 SCOLOPACID A. where many remain to breed, while others continue their course northwards; the autumn passage southwards com- mencing in August. Mr. Dresser found it abundant in Texas; and its migrations extend to Mexico, the West Indies and Bermuda, Central America, Colombia, Brazil, Eastern Peru, .and Chili. Dr. E. Coues says that the nest is a slight depression in the ground with a leaf or two, or a few blades of grass; and the eggs, which are ordinarily four in number, are laid early in June. Their shape is less pointedly pyriform than that of some species ; the ground is pale clay-colour with under- lying purplish-grey shell-markings, with numerous surface dots of umber-brown; the average measurements are 1°75 by 1:23 in. The young, which are generally hatched before the end of June, are somewhat helpless and clumsy, with a top- heavy appearance and disproportionately long legs, until they gain their feathers. The note is a soft mellow whistle, whence its local name of ‘ Papabote’; but when its nesting- places are invaded, this bird utters a harsh and often-repeated scream. Although eminently terrestrial, it not unfrequently alights on fences, posts, limbs of trees, and in certain districts telegraph poles are favourite stands. Its food in summer seems to consist principally of grasshoppers, and at other times is mainly insects, especially beetles, as well as berries. The stomach of the one shot in Cornwall contained remains of the common black beetle, four or five small earth-worms, and a little slimy green herbage; the bird was loaded with fat, and weighed 6 oz. 2 drs.; in fact, this species is almost always fat, and in autumn it is delicious eating. In the adult in summer the bill is blackish towards the tip, yellowish at the base ; irides dusky; the forehead, over the eye, neck, and breast, pale rufous marked with small streaks of black, which on the lower part of the breast assume the form of arrow-heads; chin, orbit of the eye, belly, and vent, white; hind head and neck rufous, minutely streaked with black; back and scapulars black, the former edged with reddish-brown, the latter with white, the tertials BARTRAM’S SANDPIPER. 445 black, edged with white; primaries blackish-brown, the shaft of the outer quill whitish, the inner vane pectinated with white; secondaries pale brown, spotted on the outer vanes with black and tipped with white; under surface of wings beautifully streaked and barred with silver-grey and white ; greater coverts dusky, edged with warm buff and spotted with black ; lesser coverts pale brown, each feather broadly edged with white, within which is a concentric semi- circle of black ; rump and tail-coverts deep brownish-black, slightly bordered with white ; tail wedge-shaped when closed, tapering, of a pale brown-orange colour, beautifully spotted with black, the middle feathers centred with dusky; legs yellow, tinged with green; under surface of the wings ele- gantly barred with black and white. The figure was taken, by permission, from Gould’s ‘ Birds of Europe.’ The length is twelve inches. Bill one inch and a half. The wing, from its anterior bend to the end of the longest quill-feather, measures six inches seven lines; the tarsus two inches ; naked part above one inch ; middle toe one inch. The female is on the average rather larger than the male. The adult in winter is rather paler; and immature birds have the feathers of the back more margined with rufous buff. The young in down are entirely white below, finely mottled with black, white, and rich brown above ; the feet and under mandible light-coloured; the upper mandible black. Mr. Harting, who carefully dissected the Lincolnshire specimen, remarks that the sternum, in point of size, approximates to that of Totanus fuscus, and has the posterior margin doubly cleft as in that species and its congeners ; the apex of the keel is, however, not pointed as in the above, but rounded as in Numenius (Zool. 1880, p. 509). It will be observed that the tail is barred, as in Totanus, and not plain, as in T’ringa. 446 SCOLOPACID®. LIMICOL A. SCOLOPACID&. ToraNus HypoLEucus (Linneus*). THE COMMON SANDPIPER, OR SUMMER SNIPE. Totanus hypoleucos. Toranus, Bechsteint+.—Beak longer than the head, straight, or very slightly re-curved, soft at the base, hard, solid, and cutting at the point, compressed throughout the whole length, ending in a sharp point; both mandibles grooved at the base ; the extreme end of the upper mandible slightly bent towards the under one. Nostrils lateral, linear, pierced longitudinally in a groove. Legs moderate or long, slender, naked above the tarsal joint; three toes in front, one behind; the middle toe united to the outer toe by a membrane. Wings moderate; the first quill-feather the longest ; inner secondaries elongated. Tail rather short: somewhat rounded, THE Common SANDPIPER is a summer visitor to the British Islands, usually appearing in April, and leaving again by the end of September, although some remain till November. * Tringa Hypoleucos, Linnzeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 250 (1766). + Ornithologisches Taschenbuch, ii. p. 284 (1803). COMMON SANDPIPER. 447 It is very generally known by the name of the Summer Snipe.* As a rule this species will be found during the breeding- season by the gravelly margins of rivers, brooks, lakes, or ponds, and it is partial to islets of shingle with scanty herbage, in the middle of trout-streams. Localities of this description are uncommon in the south and south-east of England, and there the Common Sandpiper is chiefly seen on migration. It breeds sparingly on the moorland streams of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and perhaps in Dorsetshire, occasionally in Sussex, and it is believed to have nested in Kent and in Buckinghamshire. Along the east coast, from Essex to Lincolnshire inclusive, it is only a visitor on migra- tion, and has not been known to breed; but in Yorkshire the country is suitable to its habits, and it nests in many localities. It also rears its brood in various parts of Wales: in fact, west of the Severn and north of the Trent, this Sandpiper is a well-known summer resident. Across the Scottish border it becomes numerous, and it is to be found on almost every loch and burn throughout the mainland, penetrating to the Outer Hebrides, the Orkneys, and to the Shetland Islands, where Saxby found it breeding. Mr. Harvie-Brown has observed a pair on Ben Chaorin, evidently nesting, at the elevation of 2,700 feet; but in these islands the species generally selects lower situations, and Mr. R. Gray states (B. W. Scot. p. 297), that on the banks of the Clyde he has even seen it occasionally making its nest in flower-pots, under bushes, and among growing plants, fre- quently in turnip-fields, when previous experience had taught the birds that the neighbouring banks of shingle were liable to be flooded. In Ireland it is generally distributed in summer, although rather less numerous than in Scotland. * Owing mainly to the shorter bill and feet as compared with those of allied species, this and the Spotted Sandpiper have been taken out of Totanus and placed in the genus Zringoides, Bp. The osteological peculiarities of the Green Sandpiper have led to the erection of the genus Helodromas, Kaup ; whilst the Wood Sandpiper, which so closely resembles it externally, has been placed in the genus Rhyacophilus, Kaup. In the present work it seems expedient to keep them all in the genus Totanus. 448 SCOLOPACID 4. On the Continent of Europe the Common Sandpiper occurs in summer, in suitable situations, from the snow-line of the north down to the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Carpathians, and the mountainous parts of Greece and Turkey. South of this, only a comparatively small number are to be found — breeding, as, for instance, in Madeira, the Canaries, Spain, and the islands of the Mediterranean, but it is known nearly everywhere as a migrant. It ascends the Nile as far as Abyssinia, and is supposed to breed in some of the elevated districts of Africa ; its course being traceable along the entire coast-line of that Continent, as well as to Madagascar, Mauritius, and the Seychelles. In Asia it is found from the Arctic circle southwards, crossing the great divide at an elevation of 17,000 feet, and even breeding in the Himalayas, and perhaps in the highlands of Ceylon. In the rest of India, the Malay Archipelago, and other islands down to Australia and Tasmania, it is a visitor from autumn to spring; it is, in fact, distributed over the whole of the Old World. But although it extends its Asiatic range to the shores of Kamtchatka, it does not cross over to the west coast of America; nor is it found in the eastern portion of that Continent, being replaced there by the Spotted Sand- piper, T. macularius. The habits of this Sandpiper are interesting, its actions are lively, and it is mostly seen while running nimbly along the gravelly margins of streams or fresh-water lakes, but seldom on the sea-shore. When on the ground it is in constant motion, flirting the tail up and down, and almost as frequently stretching out, and again withdrawing, the head and neck. When disturbed and flushed, this bird utters a piping note on taking wing, which has been com- pared by Colonel Sykes to the sounds, wheet, wheet, wheet ; and Mr. Selby says that, from the resemblance to its well- known note, one of the provincial names of this species is Willy Wicket. It frequently alights on fences, and Von Heuglin noticed it in Africa perching on the rigging of ships, and on bushes overhanging streams. Its food is worms and insects. COMMON SANDPIPER. 449 The Common Sandpiper makes a slight nest of moss and dry leaves in a hole on a bank near fresh water, generally under shelter of a bunch of rushes or a tuft of grass, and sometimes in a corn-field, if it happens to extend near enough towards the water. Colonel Legge describes a nest which he found in Wales, constructed of dead pieces of the common rush, the bottom being of the exceptional thick- ness of three inches. The eggs are four, reddish-white in colour, spotted and speckled with umber-brown, measuring 1°45 bylin. ‘If disturbed during the period of incubation,” Mr. Selby observes, ‘‘ the female quits the nest as quietly as possible, and usually flies to a distance, making at this time no outcry ; as soon, however, as the young are hatched, her manners completely alter, and the greatest agitation is ex- pressed on the apprehension of danger, and every stratagem is tried, such as feigning lameness, and inability of flight, to divert the attention of the intruder from the unfledged brood.” asured—bill 4°87, tarsus 3°8, tibia nearly 2°8, wing 9°8 (Ibis, 1873, p. 69). BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 493 from the gape to the eye a dark streak, produced by small black spots on feathers of a reddish-brown ; over this and around the eye a ring of pale brown; top of the head and the ear-coverts reddish-brown streaked with black; the neck before and behind, a reddish fawn-colour ; the feathers on the back dark brown, almost black at the base and on the centre ; primaries and tail rather brighter than in the female ; the breast white, barred across with rufous-brown and dark brown ; the thighs and belly more sparingly barred with dark brown only; vent and under tail-coverts white ; legs, toes, and claws, brownish-black. The whole length of a male is sixteen inches; beak alone three inches and a quarter; weight about 10 oz. The female in summer is duller on the head and neck ; the back, scapulars and secondaries are of a dull earthy grey with comparatively few black and rufous markings; the dark bars on the breast are fainter and less regular; and the under parts are whiter than in the male. Young birds of the year are during their first autumn tinged with red on the neck, and may be distinguished throughout their first winter from old birds, by their smaller size, and by the ash-brown tint which pervades their neck and the upper part of the breast: the white of the lower part of the breast is also clouded with ash-grey. The nestling is yellowish-buff, streaked with black on the crown, neck, and back; a narrow dark loral streak ; under parts yellowish-white. In the illustration at the commencement of the account of the Black-tailed Godwit, the figure in the front sitting down represents the male in summer plumage; the larger figure behind is the female in the more uniform and sombre plumage of winter. 494 SCOLOPACIDA. LIMICOL&. SCOLOPACID. Limosa LAPPONICA (Linneus”). THE BAR-TAILED GODWIT. Limosa rufa. THe Bar-TAILED GopwiT is in its habits in this country somewhat similar to the Black-tailed Godwit last described, but it has never been proved to have bred in any part of the British Islands. The autumnal arrivals, consisting prin- cipally of young buff-breasted birds which are at first very tame, commence in August, and from that month until November varying numbers may be found on the mud-flats and estuaries of our coasts. The duration of their subse- quent stay depends to some extent upon the weather, but, as a rule, occurrences in the middle of winter are not very numerous. In April a few birds make their appearance from the south, but the bulk of the return migration is not * Scolopax lapponica, Linnzeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 246 (1766). BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 495 observed until May, and Mr. Stevenson says that the 12th of that month is known to the Breydon gunners as ‘‘ Godwit day.’ By this time the adult birds have assumed the rich red nuptial garb, and it was from a Yarmouth example that the figure of the male bird in perfect summer plumage as here represented standing up, was taken. The birds of the year are later in assuming this ruddy tint, and some of these non-breeders remain on the coast throughout the summer; a circumstance which, coupled with the late stay of some of the adults, has given rise to unfounded surmises that this species has bred in the British Islands. For in- stance, Dr. Dewar shot five specimens on the 26th June, 1858, on Bernera, in the Sound of Harris, and he informed Mr. Gray that they had apparently paired and seemed by their habits to have their nests at no great distance (B. of W. of Scot. p. 306). In Ireland this species is tolerably common in autumn and winter, and on its spring migration it particularly affects the west coast, assembling on the estuary of the Moy, according to Mr. Warren (Zool. 1877, p- 288), in large flocks early in March, and increasing in numbers up to April, when some leave, although many remain through May and June. On the 11th June, 1872, he saw a flock of over a hundred birds near Bartragh, all in the pale plumage of immaturity, and amongst many similar assemblages he has detected very few red-breasted ones. On migration, examples of the Bar-tailed Godwit are occa- sionally obtained in some of the inland counties; and as regards the direction of the spring flight, it would seem that the main body cross to Scandinavia from Norfolk and Lin- colnshire, comparatively few being seen to the north of the Humber in breeding-plumage. The Bar-tailed Godwit is only a migrant along the greater part of the coast of Norway: its breeding-range commenc- ing in Finmark, where Canon Tristram states that he ob- tained eggs. In Lapland the late Mr. Wolley and others procured authentic eggs ; and it. probably nests throughout Finland and Northern Russia, and Siberia. It is, however, a rare visitant to Archangel, and Messrs. Harvie-Brown and 496 SCOLOPACID &. Seebohm only observed it once on the Petchora. On the coasts of the Baltic, Northern Germany, Denmark, and Hol- land, it is a regular migrant, but in the latter country and in France, it is less abundant than the preceding species. It visits the Spanish Peninsula, Morocco, and the Canaries, and has been traced down the West African coast as far as the Gambia. It is irregularly distributed in winter along the shores and islands of the Mediterranean, and thence to Northern and North-eastern Africa, the Red Sea and the Somali country. It is also a winter visitor to the Mekran coast and Kurrachee ; and Blyth states (Ibis, 1865, p. 36) that there is an Himalayan example in the Derby Museum of Liverpool, and that Mr. Hodgson obtained it in Nepal; but it has not as yet been recorded in Southern India or Ceylon. In Siberia Mr. Seebohm obtained a solitary example in about 70° 35’ N. lat. on the Yenesei; and Middendorff found breeding on the marshes of the Taimyr, in 74° N. lat., a bird with a more barred rump which has been distinguished as var. nove-zealandia, G. R. Gray, and as L. uropygialis by Gould, who, however, in his ‘ Birds of Great Britain,’ stated that he believed it was not separable. This form, of question- able distinctness, extends to Kamtschatka and Bering Island, migrating to Japan, China, the Eastern Archipelago, Australia and New Zealand. Details respecting the breeding habits of the Bar-tailed Godwit are scarce. The late Mr. Wolley obtained its eggs at Salmojervi, in Finland, on 29th May, 1858, but no account of his discovery has been published beyond his statement to Hewitson (Eggs Brit. Birds, ii. p. 348), that ‘‘ this species breeds in marshes, chiefly in the neighbourhood of moun- tains, and gets up so warily from its nest that it is difficult to find it.” Two eggs from Rowa, near Kittila in Finland, are figured in the above work; and others have since been obtained by various collectors. The ground-colour is light olive-green blotched and streaked with brown, and they measure 2°1 by 1:45 in., being similar to but rather smaller than those of the Black-tailed Godwit. The food of the Bar-tailed Godwit consists of aquatic BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 497 insects, worms, small crustaceans, and mollusks. Its note is described by Mr. Harting as sounding like lou-ey, lou-ey, and by this the birds in their winter dress may be dis- tinguished at a distance from the Whimbrel, which they otherwise resemble (B. Middlesex, p. 184). It is fond of the company of other waders, and may easily be attracted by an imitation of their notes. Owing to their long bills, Godwits are not unfrequently called ‘‘ sea-woodcocks,”’ and Mr. Stevenson states, on the authority of Mr. Dowell, that by the local Norfolk gunners the smaller males, more abundant in the spring flocks, are called ‘ picks,” whilst the females, and those found singly in autumn, are called ‘“‘scamells.” It will be remembered that the drunken Caliban offers to Stephano, among other dainties, ‘‘ young scamels from the rocks.” (Tempest, Act ii. Se. 2.)* In the winter plumage the beak is black at the point, the basal portion pale reddish-brown; irides dusky-brown ; top of the head and back of the neck ash-brown, each feather with a central streak of darker brown along the line of the shaft ; back and scapulars dark brown, edged with pale wood-brown ; all the wing-coverts, secondaries, and tertials, dark brown, with greyish-white edges; primary quill-feathers dusky-black, with white shafts, the shorter ones edged with white ; rump and upper tail-coverts white, barred with brown ; tail-feathers barred throughout their whole length with dark brown, and greyish-white in nearly equal breadth ; neck in front ash-brown; breast, belly, and vent, white ; under tail-coverts white, with only one or two transverse bars of brown towards the end ; legs and toes dark blue, the claws black. . A female, which, as in the Black-tailed Godwit, is larger than the male, measured sixteen inches; the length of the beak three inches and three-quarters; from the carpal joint to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the longest, eight inches and a half. The legs of this species are much * Mr. Harting, who is an authority on the Ornithology of Shakespeare, con- siders that the poet wrote ‘‘sea-mells’’ or ‘‘sea-malls,” iye., Sea-gulls, which at that time were esteemed for the table. VOR. —ELE. as 498 SCOLOPACIDA. shorter in proportion to the size of the bird than those of the Black-tailed Godwit, and become another mark of distinction. In the female described, the tarsus measured but two inches in length, and the naked part of the tibia above it only one inch. A male, apparently in the perfect plumage of summer, killed during the second week of May, 1821, has the beak nearly black, reddish-brown at the base; irides dusky- brown ; head and neck rich bay, or chestnut-red, the feathers on the forehead, top of the head, and down the back of the neck, streaked longitudinally with black; the space between the base of the beak and the eye, and the feathers forming the ear-coverts, spotted with black; the upper part of the back, the shoulders, lesser wing-coverts, and tertials, black, the edges of the feathers of a pale reddish-wood brown ; greater wing-coverts, as in winter, dark brown, edged with greyish-white ; primary quill-feathers almost black, those nearest the secondaries tinged with dusky-brown on the inner webs, and edged with white ; lower part of the back white, with a few small feathers of a dark colour intermixed ; upper tail-coverts barred with black, on a ground-colour of pale reddish-brown ; tail-feathers nearly as in winter, but the white is tinged with bay; neck in front, breast, belly, vent, and under tail-coverts, nearly uniform rich bay, with a few dark streaks before the carpal joint of the wing; legs, toes, and claws nearly black. COMMON CURLEW. 499 LIMICOLA. SCOLOPACID &, NuMENIUS aRQquaTa (Linneus*), THE COMMON CURLEW. Numenius arquata. Numenius, Bresson+.—Beak long, slender, and decurved to the point, which is hard ; upper mandible rather longer than the lower, rounded near the end and grooved along three-fourths of its whole length. Nostrils lateral, linear, pierced in the groove. Legs rather long, slender ; tibia partly naked; three toes in front, unitad by a membrane as far as the first articulation; one toe behind articulated upon the tarsus, and touching the ground, Wings moderate, the first quill-feather the longest in the wing. THE CURLEW is so common a bird as to be well known on almost every part of our coast, where it obtains a living * Scolopac Arquata, Linnzus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 242% (1766). + Ornithologie, v. p. 311 (1760): from veos, new, and pry, moon: i.e. crescent-shaped, like the new moon. 500 SCOLOPACID ®. from the middle of autumn, through the winter, till the pairing season of the following spring. It frequents the sea-shore and its extensive sandy flats during the ebb tide, seeking for small crustacea, marine insects, worms, &c., with which to satisfy its hunger, retiring to open fields in the vicinity when the rising tide covers the feeding-ground. Sir William Jardine has described from personal observation the habits of these birds on the Solway :—‘‘ They retired regularly inland after their favourite feeding-places were covered. A long and narrow ledge of rocks runs into the Frith, behind which we used to lie concealed, for the purpose of getting shots at various sea-fowl returning at ebb. None were so regular as the Curlew. The more aquatic were near the sea, and could perceive the gradual reflux ; the Curlews were far inland, but as soon as we could perceive the top of a sharp rock standing above water, we were sure to perceive the first flocks leave the land, thus keeping pace regularly with the change of the tides. They fly in a direct line to their feeding-grounds, and often in a wedge-shape ; on alarm, a simultaneous cry is uttered, and the next coming flock turns from its course, uttering in repetition the same alarm note. Ina few days they become so wary as not to fly over the concealed station. They are one of the most difficult birds to approach, except during spring, but may be enticed by imitating their whistle.” One cry peculiar to the Curlew sounds like corliew or courlie; whence its English and French name. Towards the end of March, or early in April, the flocks of Curlews begin to retire from the coast and seek the breeding-grounds, where they soon break up into pairs. The late Mr. Selby felt assured that this movement was not so confined in extent as had been supposed ; that the winter visitors of the coast of Northumberland did not satisfy the migrative impulse by a flight of a few miles into the interior ; but that these retired to the Highlands, or northern parts of Scotland and its isles, and many visited high northern latitudes to be hereafter mentioned, thus giving place upon the moors and open grounds of the border counties to those COMMON CURLEW. 501 birds which had wintered in the southern parts of the kingdom. Be this as it may, our estuaries, even in summer, are seldom without birds which are not breeding, aad early in autumn the young birds begin to make their appearance from the moors; the old ones arriving in October and November. Mr. Cordeaux says that there is no shore-bird which so frequently strikes against lanterns and light-ships as the present, especially in fogs, or on dark rainy nights. Mr. Stevenson, on the other hand, says that though Curlews fly round and round for hours, they are never known to strike the glasses of the lanterns. In spite of the gradual reclamation of waste land, and the spread of cultivation, the Curlew still breeds in a good many counties of England. Mr. Rodd states that it nests annually in Cornwall on the large moors about Rough-tor and Brown- willy, where the young are eagerly sought as delicacies by the moor-men; and in Devonshire it breeds on Dartmoor and Exmoor. In Somersetshire and Dorsetshire its nests have occasionally been found; and a few pairs may be scattered through Wilts and Hants; but in the south-eastern and eastern counties it has never been known to breed; nor does it even appear to nest at the present day in Lincoln- shire, although, as Mr. Cordeaux informs the Editor, it does so on Thorne Waste, near Doncaster, just beyond the boundary of that county. On the moorlands and hills of Wales it is a tolerably abundant breeder, and it nests near Church Stretton in Shropshire. The high moors of Derby, Yorkshire, and Lancashire offer many congenial resorts, and northwards it is to be found breeding as far as the Scottish border. About the Solway it is abundant, and Mr. Duck- worth informs the Editor that he has found the nest within four miles of the centre of the city of Carlisle. It also breeds in the Isle of Man; and in Ireland it nests in many of the large bogs, both in Queen’s Co. and other central districts, and also in Mayo and Sligo. In Scotland, where it is generally distributed during the breeding-season in suitable localities, frequenting the coasts during the rest of the year, the Curlew is called a Whaap, or Whaup, which in Jamieson’s 502 SCOLOPACID. Scottish Dictionary is said to be a name for a goblin, sup- posed to go about under the eaves of houses after nightfall, having a long beak. Sir Walter Scott refers to this supposed connection of a long beak with a suspicious character in his ‘ Black Dwarf’ (chap. ii.), in a dialogue between Hobbie Elliot and Harnscliff, in the evening on Mucklestane Moor. The former says, ‘‘ What need I care for the Mucklestane Moor ony mair than ye do yoursel, Earnscliff? To be sure, they say there’s a sort o’ worricows and lang-nebbit things about the land, but what need I care for them ?”’ And this enables us to understand the fag-end of a Highlander’s prayer, to be saved harmless ‘‘ from witches, warlocks,* and aw lang-nebbed things.”” Saxby says that the Shetlanders regard with horror the very idea of using so uncanny a bird as food; in fact, a visitor who did so was afterwards alluded to, almost in a whisper, as ‘‘the man that ate the Whaup.”’ Although the Curlew nests in abundance in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, yet in the Fxroes Major Feilden thinks that it is only an autumnal and winter visitant, giving place as a breeding species to the Whimbrel (Zool. 1872, p. 3248). It is common in Scandinavia in summer, and from thence probably come the immense numbers which Mr. Gitke describes as passing over Heligoland. For instance, on the night of the 19th—20th November, 1878, he says, ‘‘ The whole atmosphere one mass of these birds, the noise of their call-notes quite unearthly and bewildering ; countless smaller waders mixed with them.” It breeds in Russia, Poland, and sparingly in Northern Germany ; in Holland, especially on the peaty moors of Brabant, and perhaps in Belgium and Picardy ; also on some of the wastes of Britanny. In Central and Southern Europe, and in North Africa as far as Egypt, it is well known on migration and in winter ; and, stretching westward as far as the Azores, the range of the Curlew can be traced along the western side of Africa to Damara Land. On the east coast as far as Natal, in Madagascar, and across Asia from the Ural to Japan, occur forms which have been * A warlock, or wizzard—a man who is supposed to be in compact with the devil.—Jamieson’s Dictionary. COMMON CURLEW. 503 distinguished by many names, and respecting which few ornithologists are agreed ; but the main points appear to be that in the eastern form the bill is on the average longer and more robust ; the rump is nearly white, and so are the axillaries—characteristics which are seldom found united in western birds. If these differences depend upon age or season, and are not sufficient to warrant specific distinction, then the range of our Curlew extends to South Africa ; across Asia to Japan and China; and, through India, down to the Malay Archipelago, where it is intersected by that of N. cyanopus, Vieillot (N. major, Schlegel, N. australis, Gould), distinguishable by the strong rufous-grey bars on the rump and upper tail-coverts, which goes from Amoor Land to Australia. In America the representative species is N. longirostris, which has rufous axillaries. The nest of the Curlew is slight: a few leaves or other dry materials, carelessly brought together among long grass or heath, or in a tuft of rushes, is all that appears. The egos are three or four in number, pear-shaped, and generally placed with the smaller ends together: the egg measures 2°75 by 1:9 in., and is of an olive-green, blotched and spotted with darker green and dark brown. Incubation sometimes commences in April, but May is the usual month. The young run almost as soon as hatched, but are unable to fly for a considerable time. In confinement these birds be- come tame enough to follow their feeder for the usual meal, and Mr. C. M. Adamson gives an interesting account of two young ones which he caught when unable to fly, and placed in a walled garden. He got them to feed by placing a quantity of worms in holes dug in the ground, and then cautiously driving the birds in the direction of the holes. At first they did not appear to notice the worms ; however, after passing them several times very slowly, one was seen to hesitate in his walk and look sideways into the hole. This was enough: he began to devour the worms at once, and he never afterwards required to be driven to the holes. They lived until the winter, over which it seems almost impossible to keep such birds, they naturally seeking the 504: SCOLOPACID &. shores during winter to procure food. They were expert fly-catchers (‘Some more Scraps about Birds,’ p. 59). Montagu observed that they could swim with ease. This species often has been observed to perch on trees, presenting a very ungainly appearance. The Curlew is an excellent bird for the table when young, and before it has had time to feed on the sea-shore, but it soon becomes unpalatable. It was formerly in high estima- tion, for by the L’Estrange ‘ Household Book’ it would appear that a single Curlew was worth from five to six pence (and even twelve pence in the Lord North Accounts), the price of three Woodcocks. Our ancestors evidently estimated the value of a wild bird, to some extent, by its size; and it must also be remembered that although live Curlews were doubtless more common then than now, dead ones were probably far rarer. Woodecocks could be caught with springes, which were vain engines against the wary Curlew, nor would the cross-bow or the arquebuss be much more effective. At a still later date Willughby says :— ‘This bird, for the goodness and delicate taste of its flesh, may justly challenge the principal place among Water-fowl. Of this our Fowlers are not ignorant, and therefore sell them dear. They have a Proverb among them in Suffolk :— A Curlew, be she white, be she black, She carries twelve pence on her back.” * The wariness of Curlews is well known to shore-shooters, and, owing to their keen sense of smell and powers of sight, they are very difficult of approach ; but their hearing does not appear to be so acute as in many other birds. Their shrill screams soon spread the alarm among other ‘ fowl,’ and the Editor has seen a Curlew, after shrieking wildly over the head of a sleeping seal, swoop down, and apparently flick with its wing the unsuspecting animal upon which the stalker was just raising his rifle. Yet it occasionally falls a victim to its curiosity, and in some places a trained dog of * Tt is possible that the ‘ black’ may refer to the Glossy Ibis, which is said to have been called the Black Curlew by the marshmen, but it is oot unlikely that the word was introduced for the sake of rhyme. COMMON CURLEW. 505 red colour, as much like a fox as possible, is employed to attract the attention of the birds and induce them to pursue him, when he entices them within shot of his master, who lies hidden in a dyke. The plumage of the male and female is very similar. The beak is dark brown, except the basal portion of the under mandible, which is pale brown; the irides dark brown ; head and neck pale brown, the centre of each feather bearing a longitudinal streak of dark brown; the feathers on the upper part of the back brownish-black, with pale brown edges; the lower part of the back and the rump white ; upper tail-coverts white, with a lanceo- late streak of dark brown towards the end; tail-feathers barred with dark brown and dull white; the smaller wing- coverts blackish-brown with almost white edges, making this part of the wings appear lighter in colour than the back ; the greater wing-coverts and the first five primary quill- feathers black, the latter with white shafts; the secondary wing-feathers and the tertials blackish-brown in the centre, and barred transversely on the edges with dark and light brown; axillaries white, more or less barred with brown ; the chin white ; front of the neck and upper part of the breast pale brown, streaked longitudinally with dark brown ; lower part of the breast nearly white, and spotted rather than streaked with dark brown; vent and under tail-coverts white, the latter with an occasional dusky streak; legs and toes pale blue, becoming lead-blue a few days after death. In the young of the year the under parts are washed with pale rufous, and the brown lineations are less defined, and the spots are cream-coloured. During August and Septem- ber, when the old birds are moulting their quill-feathers and unable to fly well, the young birds are strong on the wing: in fact, early-bred birds can fly by the end of June. They begin to get their first feathers replaced by more ash- coloured ones towards the end of September, and this moult extends over the back and breast before the winter. The females are the larger, and, in a pair of Curlews now under consideration, remarkably so: the female measured VOL. III. 3 1 ae SCOLOPACIDA. twenty-six inches; the wing twelve inches and one-quarter : the male in the whole length twenty-one inches, the wing eleven inches and a half. A female weighs about 28 oz. Several albinos of this species are on record ; there is one in the Museum of Science and Art, Dublin; one is in a private collection in Armagh; and Mr. J. Marshall of Taunton has a creamy white example captured on the 2nd of August last (Zool. 1883, p. 377). Melanisms are rarer: Sir R. Payne- Gallwey states that he has one killed in Galway Bay in 1877, and sold as a Glossy Ibis. The vignette represents the young of the Curlew, for the opportunity of figuring which the Author was indebted to the late Mr. T. C. Heysham, of Carlisle. The down is buff- coloured, with dark brown markings. AW al fe, cs) Sf WHIMBREL. 507 LIMICOL. SCOLOPACID. NUMENIUS PHHOPUS (Linneus*). THE WHIMBREL. Numenius pheopus. In its plumage, its haunts, habits, and food, the Whimbrel very closely resembles the Curlew last described, but is by no Means so numerous as a species, and is also very con- siderably smaller in size,—-so much so, that it has in some counties obtained the names of Half-Curlew and Jack- Curlew in reference to its diminished comparative propor- tions. Though to be seen occasionally on many parts of our shores in winter, it is generally most plentiful in May: so much so that both in Norfolk and in Cornwall it is known as the ‘“‘ May-bird”’: and again in autumn, when these birds * Scolopax Pheopus, Linneeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 243 (1766). 508 SCOLOPACID. are on their way to and from the northern localities, to which they resort during the breeding-season. Some non-breeding individuals remain on the mud-flats throughout the summer, but even those which have gone north do not tarry long, and by the latter part of July the return migration has set in. At this season, says Mr. Cordeaux, and also Mr. Hele, the birds pass at an immense height, and are only to be distinguished by their call-note. Unlike the Curlew, they seldom or never strike the lanterns of light-houses. The young birds arrive first; the old ones, as a rule, afterwards, owing to the delay caused by their moult. In Ireland, where the Whimbrel is more abundant in the spring than in the autumn migration, none have ever been known to breed, nor does there appear to be any well- authenticated instance of the nesting of this species on the mainland of Scotland. It is not even known to nest in the Hebrides, although it passes through them in spring; but in the Orkneys it breeds regularly, and also in the Shetlands. The Editor observed a pair on Noss, which evidently had young very near; and Saxby says that on Yell and Has- cosea it still breeds almost as abundantly as at the time of Hewitson’s visit. It leaves as soon as breeding is over. In the Feroes, where, as already observed, it replaces the Curlew as a breeding species, the Whimbrel is very common from the middle of April to the end of September, and from the 25th of May onwards Major Feilden obtained twelve nests, each with four eggs. On the 16th June he found a nest, also with four eggs, close to a rill, between two blocks of stone, which just gave room for the bird to squeeze between. This experience is interesting, as Hewitson was under the impression that the complement of eggs was three. The nest is a mere depression, and the eggs, which average 2°4 by 1°55 in., are pear-shaped, of a peculiarly transparent olive-green blotched and flecked with brown. The Whim- brel is a pugnacious bird, and the Editor has seen it fear- lessly attack Richardson’s Skua in the same way as Major Feilden described it as driving off the Lesser Black- WHIMBREL. 509 backed Gulls, uttering its trilling cry, tetty, tetty, tetty tet, whilst darting to and fro with arrow-like flight. Its food consists of insects, worms, small crustaceans, and small land- shells, such as Helix ericetorum, for it is much more of a land-feeder during its visits to our islands than the Curlew, and it is said to be partial to bilberries. The Whimbrel has occurred as a straggler in various parts of Greenland, and in Iceland it is one of the most characteristic breeding species. In Norway its summer range extends to the north of the fells, and in Sweden to the limits of pine- growth ; it isa common breeding species in Northern Russia, and also on the lofty plains of the Ural much further south. Over the rest of Europe and along the Mediterranean it is only known as a migrant, and, touching at the Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores, it goes down the west coast of Africa to the Cape in winter. It occurs on the east side of that continent, as also in Madagascar, Mauritius, and other islands of the Indian Ocean ; is abundant about Kurachee in winter, and visits other parts of India and Ceylon in moderate numbers. Tothe north its summer range extends across Siberia to Kamtschatka, and if a doubtfully distinct form—N. variegatus, Scopoli (N. wropygialis, Gould), which has the rump barred instead of white—is united with it, then its range extends to Japan, China, Formosa, the Philippines, and the islands of the Eastern Archipelago down to New Guinea. In America our Whimbrel is represented by N. hudsonicus, with rufous axillaries—a species which has been known to straggle to the south-west of Spain (Ibis, 18738, p. 98). In Southern Europe and Northern Africa is found NV. tenuirostris, a species of the size of the Whimbrel, but with the very distinct head-markings of the Curlew, and white under wing-coverts and axillaries. The Whimbrel appears to have been designated by the name of ‘Spowe’ in the L’Estrange Accounts, a term which corresponds with the ‘spdi,’ ‘ spou,’ ‘spof’ and ‘spove,’ of Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark (Steven- son, ‘B. Norfolk,’ ii. p. 202). But by the time of Wil- lughby, it appears to have been generally known under its 510 SCOLOPACID A. present name. In Sussex it goes by the name of ‘ Titterel,’ owing to its note, and for the same reason Whimbrels are often spoken of in the south and west as ‘the Seven Whistlers,’ the rippling whistle being repeated seven times. In the adult in spring the beak is brownish-black, pale brown at the base of the under mandible; the irides dark brown ; the top of the head dark brown, with a buff streak passing backwards over the top to the occiput; from the angle of the gape to the eye a mottled brown streak; over that, and passing in continuation over the eye and the ear- coyerts, is a light-coloured streak; the feathers of the neck, all round, brownish-white with dark central streaks; inter- scapulars, scapulars, and wing-coverts, dusky-brown, with paler margins ; wing-primaries dark brown, the outer ones distinctly marked with white notches on both upper and under side of the inner webs; the secondaries mottled with white; rump white with a few streaks of brown; tail- feathers ash-brown with four or five well-defined darker transverse bars; chin white ; chest pale brown, each feather with a dark brown central streak; breast and belly nearly white; axillary plumes white, with broad and somewhat arrow-headed bars of brown; flanks dull white, barred transversely with brown; under tail-coverts nearly white, with brown longitudinal streaks ; legs and toes bluish-black ; claws black. In a young bird shot in Somersetshire on the 17th Sep- tember, and sent to the Editor by Mr. Cecil Smith, the edges of the feathers of the back are spotted with buffy-white, and on the wing-coverts and secondaries this colour is so pronounced as to take the form of bars, thus producing a remarkably checquered appearance, whence its local name of ‘ checquer-bird.’ The upper primaries are boldly mar- gined and notched with dull white, but the inner webs of the larger quill-feathers are merely freckled with black and white, and not distinctly notched as in the adult. The bars to the axillary plumes are narrower and less extensive; the tail-feathers are more buff-coloured, and the dark bars are more defined and numerous than in the old birds. WHIMBREL. 511 The female from which the representation was taken measured eighteen inches; the beak, from the point to the commencement of the feathers on the top, three inches and a half. The average weight is about twelve ounces. An adult male measured sixteen inches; the beak three inches; the wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the longest primary quill-feather, nine inches and a half; the first quill-feather the longest in the wing. In young birds of the year the beak is shorter, but by the middle of September it has nearly attained its full length ; exceeding two inches in length; the sexes, whether old or young, do not differ much either in tints or markings. The nestling may be distinguished from the young Curlew by the light-coloured centre which afterwards becomes a broad streak dividing the dark patch on the crown. The figure below represents the breast-bone of the Curlew, one-third less than the natural size. OT nnn al 512 SCOLOPACID. LIMICOL &. SCOLOPACIDZ. NUMENIUS BOREALIS (J. R. Forster*). ESKIMO CURLEW. Numenius borealis. A communtcatTion to the Linnean Society of London in November, 1855, announced the first recorded occurrence of this American Curlew in Britain. This bird was killed on the 6th September, 1855, in the parish of Durris, Kincardine- shire, at the top of a hill on the muir, belonging to Durris, called Car-monearn, one of the Grampian range, some twelve hundred feet above sea-level, by Mr. W. R. Cussack Smith. The bird was sent to be preserved by Mr. Mitchell, Aberdeen, and was examined a few days after by Mr. J. Longmuir, jun., who ascertained it to be the Eskimo Cur- lew (Numenius borealis). Unluckily it was not measured when in the flesh, and the sex was not observed ; but it appeared to be a female, in almost complete winter livery. * Scolopax borealis, J. R. Forster, Phil. Trans. lxii. pp. 411, 431 (1772). Wilson’s Scolopax borealis is the American Whimbrel (N. hudsonicus). ESKIMO CURLEW. 518 Mr. N. F. Hele, in his ‘ Notes about Aldeburgh’ (p. 177), published in 1870, states that ‘‘ an example of the species was killed some years since, on the river [Alde, in Suffolk], by Captain Ferrand, but was, unfortunately, not preserved. One in the possession of Mr. Hilling, of Woodbridge, in very similar dress, was obtained in the river in that neighbour- hood.” These two are the only occurrences recorded in England. In Ireland one, shot in Sligo, was purchased in the flesh in Dublin market on the 21st October, 1870 (Zool. ss. p. 2408), and became the property of Sir Victor Brooke, Bart., who exhibited it at a meeting of the Zoological Society (2.282 L871, pe 299). On the 29th of September, 1879, another example of this rare strageler was shot in Aberdeenshire, by Mr. Ramsay, of Staines, and exhibited by Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown, at the meeting of the Natural History Society of Glasgow on the 26th of November. Mr. G. Sim, of Aberdeen, to whom the bird was sent for preservation, stated that the bird was a male, weighing eight ounces, and that its stomach contained crowberries, some flies, and a caterpillar (Zool. 1879, p. 135). On the 21st September, 1880, an adult male shot in the Forest of Birse, Kincardineshire, was sent to the same taxidermist, and its stomach was found to contain crow- berries (Zool. 1880, pp. 485 and 515). From Richardson, Audubon, Dr. Elliott Coues and others, we learn that the Eskimo Curlew is found in summer in the North American regions within the Arctic circle. The former discovered a nest with three eggs near Point Lake on the 13th June, 1822, and the late Mr. MacFarlane, when collecting for the Smithsonian Institution, found the bird breeding in considerable numbers to the east of the Anderson River. Mr. E. W. Nelson states (Cruise of the ‘ Corwin,’ p- 90) that it occurs insummer abundantly at Norton Sound, and sparingly at the mouth of the Yukon, frequenting the whole of the low-lying coast of Alaska on migration, and visiting the Pribilov Islands ; on the North Siberian coast four specimens of this—the only species of Curlew seen— VOL. III. 3 U 514 SCOLOPACIDE. were observed at Cape Wankarem on the 6th of August, 1881 ; but the representative of this species in the rest of Siberia, Japan, China, the Moluccas and Australia, is the smaller and quite distinct Nwmenius minor. Reinhardt says that two specimens of the Eskimo Curlew, believed to be of Greenland origin, have been received at Copenhagen ; and undoubted Greenland examples were ob- tained in August 1881 (Vid. Medd. 1881, p. 185). In Labrador the species is found in vast numbers in August, feeding upon the crowberry (Empetrum nigrum), which goes by the name of the ‘ Curlew-berry’ among the fishermen. Tt also visits Newfoundland, but comparatively few birds appear to remain long in the New England States, or to the north of the Southern States and Texas where some winter, whilst others continue their course to Mexico, the Bermudas, Central America, and South America down to the Rio de la Plata. On the spring passage it migrates through the Missouri region in flocks of from fifty to several hundreds in April, sometimes before the snow has disappeared, but it is not known to visit the western side of the Rocky Mountains. The nest of the Eskimo Curlew is said by Dr. Elliott Coues to be generally in an open plain, and is a mere depression in the ground, lined with a few dried leaves or grasses, in which the complement of four eggs is deposited by the middle of June. These are of an olive-drab colour, boldly blotched with different shades of brown, and under- lying shell-marks of grey: in measurement they average 2 by 1:45 in. An example, obtained by MacFarlane, is figured by Professor Newton (P.Z.S. 1870, p. 56, pl. iv. fig. 1). In autumn this species, as already stated, feeds freely on the crowberry, with the purple juice of which the lower parts are frequently much stained ; it is also very partial to a species of snail that adheres to the rocks, to procure which it frequents the land-washes at low tide. Under this diet the birds become excessively fat, and are delicious eating. The note is an often-repeated soft, mellow whistle, ESKIMO CURLEW. 615 easily imitated by gunners, but owing to the open order of the flocks comparatively few are killed at a shot; the flight is firm, direct, and very swift. The pertinacity with which these birds cling to certain feeding-grounds, even when much molested, is remarkable, and Dr. Elliott Coues has seen flocks hovering distractedly over a party of gunners stationed on a favourite mud-flat where snails abounded, regardless of the numbers that fell at every moment (B. of North-West, p. 511). The bird killed in Kincardineshire is thus described in ‘The Naturalist,’ 1855 (p. 265) :—The bill is brownish- black, the basal portion of the lower mandible flesh-coloured ; irides dark brown; sides of the head yellowish-brown, with brown streaks ; upper part of the head brownish-black, edged with reddish-brown, neck considerably lighter, edged with dull white; upper parts blackish-brown, with light edges; primary quills dusky-brown, the shafts of the first four white, the others becoming darker, passing into pale brown ; secondaries lighter; rump dark brown, with light edges ; upper tail-coverts barred with dark and light shades ; tail, of twelve feathers, ash-grey, with dark brown bars, edged and tipped with brownish-white ; throat, and a streak over the eye, nearly white; foreneck light brown, with small longitudinal liver-brown markings; under wing-coverts chest- nut, with irrecular brown markings; breast and abdomen yellowish-grey, tinged with brown ; tarsi and feet dark green. The adult in breeding-plumage is characterized by a more rufous tint. The whole length is about fourteen inches; the bill two inches three lines; wing, from anterior bend, eight inches nine lines; tarsus one inch ten lines; middle toe almost one inch. The representation here given is taken, on a reduced scale, from Mr. Swainson’s figure in the ‘ Fauna Boreali- Americana.’ 516 LARIDE. GAVI. LARIDA. HypRocHELIDON NiGRA (Linneus”). THE BLACK TERN. Sterna fissipes. HyprooneLipon, Boie+.—Bill about as long as the head, nearly straight, tapering ; nasal groove rather long ; nostrils basal, direct, oblong. Wings long and pointed, the first quill-feather the longest. Tail short, very slightly forked. Legs short: the tibia bare for some distance ; the tarsus compressed, anteriorly scutellate ; three toes in front connected by deeply scalloped webs ; hind toe small and elevated ; claws long, slender, curved. THe relationship of the order Gavim to the Limiconm is now generally, although somewhat tardily, admitted. The Terns and Gulls comprised in the former order, show the eradual modifications consequent upon a more or less aquatic or pelagic existence, whilst, in an opposite direction, the Waders have undergone modifications in accordance with * Sterna nigra, Linneus, Syst. Nat. Ed, 12, i. p. 227 (1766). t Isis, 1822, p. 563. BLACK TERN, 517 terrestrial tendencies. The order Gavim, consists of the family Laride, which may be divided into four sub-families : —~Sternine or Terns ; Rhynchopine or Skimmers (not found in Europe); Larine or Gulls; and Stercorartine or Skuas. As nearest to the Waders in their habits, food, and nidifica- tion, it seems convenient, in treating of the Sternine, to commence with the Marsh Terns, belonging to the well- defined genus Hydrochelidon. The species comprised in it are three in number, all of them entitled to recognition as British birds, and they are distinguished from most of the other Terns by their shorter bills, short and very slightly forked tails and less webbed feet. Tue Buack Trey, of which we have figured an old male in summer dress, and a young bird of the year, is now only a visitor to the British Islands on the spring and autumn migrations; but in former times, before drainage had broken up its favourite haunts, it was an abundant species in many localities during the breeding-season. When Montagu wrote, early in the present century, it used to breed in Romney Marsh in Kent, but it has long ceased to do so, and in the south of England it is only known as a migrant: sometimes, as in Somersetshire, in tolerable abundance. Receding before the gradual drainage of the fens, it had for some years discontinued breeding in the Feltwell and Hockwold districts in the south-west of Norfolk, but Mr. Stevenson says, that after the great flood of 1852-53, which inundated a large extent of country, several pairs remained to nest in 1853, although they did not return the following year. He adds that the last nest he knew of in Norfolk was found at Sutton in 1858, when the two birds were shot by a marsh- man, who brought them with two eggs to a bird-stuffer in Norwich, from whom Mr. Stevenson obtained them.* In 1818 it nested abundantly in the ‘ broad’ district, but the late Rev. R. Lubbock subsequently wrote to the Author as follows :—‘‘ The Black Tern used to breed in Norfolk in abundance, but that the great breeding-place in a wet alder * Note 162 in Lubbock’s ‘ Fauna of Norfolk,’ Hd. 1879, p. 169. 518 LARIDA. carr at Upton, where twenty years back hundreds upon hundreds of nests might be found at the end of May, has been broken up for some years. The Blue Darr, as it is provincially termed here, has in consequence become scarce. Mr. Salmon told me that he got the eggs of this bird from Crowland Wash, in Lincolnshire, within the last two or three years. It can hardly be said at present to breed regularly in Norfolk, a few straggling pairs only still nest here.’’ The breeding-places in Lincolnshire have also disappeared before modern improvements, and of late years only a pair or two have been known to nest sporadically in localities which it is not necessary to expose to the exterminating greed of the collector of purely ‘ British-taken’ birds and eggs. As a migrant it is not uncommon on the Humber and on some parts of the Yorkshire coast, but northwards its visits are comparatively rare. In Scotland it can only be considered a straggler, principally, according to Mr. R. Gray, to the east coast from Berwick to Aberdeen, although he has known it to occur on the lochs and sea-reaches of the west, and on Loch Lomond. A solitary example is recorded by Saxby as having been noticed many years ago in Shetland, but it is not known to have visited Orkney. To the marshes of the Solway it is a visitant, but does not appear to have bred there, and along the western side of the island it is not very frequently observed. Being a fresh-water species, it is from time to time observed on many inland sheets of water, and on rivers; in fact, it may annually be observed on the upper reaches of the Thames, which seem to lie in the direct line of its migrations. An adult bird has sometimes been seen in July, but as a rule the imma- ture migrants begin to pass early in August, leaving by October: occasionally remaining in the south-west until November. In April the return-passage commences, the adult birds being then more or less in the nuptial plumage. In Ireland the Black Tern is of irregular occurrence, chiefly in autumn, and in immature plumage; on the west side it is very rare, and Mr. Warren has only once observed a small party in the estuary of the Moy; nevertheless, many of the BLACK TERN. 519 bogs and loughs would appear eminently suitable as breeding- places. The Black Tern does not appear to go very far north even in summer, but it is of tolerably general diffusion during the breeding-season throughout the southern portions of Sweden, temperate and southern Russia, Denmark, Germany, Holland, and the rest of Europe, where the localities are suitable. It breeds in marshy localities on both sides of the Mediterranean; but its winter range is scarcely known to extend beyond North Africa, Egypt, and Palestine. The exception is a single specimen, in the Editor’s collection, obtained on the 4th January, 1871, at the Cameroons, on the west coast of Africa ; but all the examples from Damara Land on the one side or the Transvaal on the other, recorded as H. nigra, have proved to be the White-winged Black Tern, H. leucop- tera. Eastwards, it is stated, by Dr. Severtzoff, that the Black Tern breeds in Turkestan, and Dr. Finsch obtained it on the Marakul Lake, at an elevation of 5,000 feet, in the Altai; but the former does not record it from the Pamir Steppes, and the only species of the genus observed at Gilgit by Dr. Scully (Ibis, 1881, p. 594) was the Whiskered Tern, H. hybrida. As yet there is no record of the occurrence of the Black Tern in India or in China. In North America, from Canada down to the Middle States, in summer, is found a Tern which is, as a rule, of a deeper and browner black on the under parts than any European examples which the Editor has examined, so that American skins can generally be recognized at a glance; but it must be admitted that some American birds cannot be distinguished by this tint, and such a mere shade of colour appears to be insufficient to warrant specific separation. This form stretches across to the Pacific coast; its migrations extending to the West Indies and Guiana on the east side, and to Peru and Chili on the west. The Black Tern breeds in colonies, the nests being situated in marshes, and formed of decayed pieces of Hquisetum and other plants, or heaps of wrack, which rise and fall with the water; sometimes they are placed on the firmer hummocks 520 LARID&. of bog in the middle of shallow pools. The eggs are three in number, of various shades of ochreous clay, olive-brown, or olive-green, blotched with dark brown, especially at the larger end, and measuring about 1°45 by 1 in.; they are laid about the third week in May. The food of this Tern consists chiefly of beetles and dragon-flies, with some small fish; it is also very partial to leeches; and Mr. Mitchell (Zool. 1879, p. 10) has described its rapid evolution in pursuit of the field cricket (Acheta campestris). The insect portion of its prey is taken on the wing with great ease and certainty, as the flight of the bird is rapid, and it turns, stops, or alters its course, in an instant. The note is a shrill crick, crick ; and Pennant says that in the Lincolnshire colonies the noise of the assembled multitude was deafening. The bird was provincially known as the ‘Car Swallow.’ Adult males and females in summer have the bill black ; the irides dark brown; whole head and neck dark lead- grey, nearly black on the crown and nape; back, wings, and tail nearly uniform slate-grey, inclining to white on the carpals; breast and belly, like the head and neck, dark lead- grey; under wing-coverts pale grey; vent and under tail- coverts white; legs, toes, and their short membranes dark reddish-brown; the tail distinctly, although not deeply, forked, the outer feathers on each side being the longest. The whole length of the bird ten inches; the wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the first quill-feather, eight inches and a half. Adult birds in winter have the forehead, the space between the beak and the eye, the chin, and throat, white; the breast, and to some extent the abdomen, being barred with whitish feathers, although the lower parts do not appear to become quite white as in the young. The other parts as in summer. Young birds of the year have the bill brownish-black ; forehead, chin, throat, and a collar round the neck, white ; crown of the head and the nape greyish-black ; feathers of the back and wing-coverts light slate-grey, margined with brown and white; primaries dark slate-grey ; rump and upper BLACK TERN. 521 tail-coverts pale grey; tail-feathers slate-grey, the outside feathers on each side shorter and more rounded than in the adult; breast, belly, and all the under surface of the body and wines white. An example killed at Malaga on the 2nd of August had the breast and under parts suffused with a rosy tint. Before leaving this country the plumage on the upper surface of the body in the young bird loses the brown colour, becoming of a more uniform slate-grey, but clouded with dark lead-grey. By the following spring few signs of imma- turity remain excepting a darkish line along the carpals ; and at that season some dark feathers are assumed on the under parts, but the full nuptial dress is not acquired until the second spring, when the bird is ready to breed. The degree of darkness on the under parts depends upon the age of the individual. In the nestling the down of the upper parts is of a warm reddish-buff ; forehead ruddy-brown ; crown, back, and shoulders streaked with black; a small white spot on the chin; throat, and lower part of cheeks, sooty-brown ; rest of the lower parts brownish-buff in the newly-hatched bird, afterwards white, inclining to buff on the flanks. VOL. III. ox 522 LARIDA. GAVIA, LARIDA. HypRocHELIDON LEUCOPTERA (Schinz*). THE WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN. Sterna leucoptera. Tue first notice of the occurrence of this handsome strageler to the British Islands was published by Mr. Frederick M‘Coy (Annals Nat. Hist. xv. p. 271), who stated that a specimen was shot by Mr. J. Hill on the Shannon in 1841; but the latter, writing to ‘ Saunders’s Newsletter,’ April 14th, 1847, said that he killed the bird on the river Liffey, near the Pigeon-house Fort, Dublin Bay, in October, 1841. Thompson says (B. of Ireland, iii. p. 307), that he has seen another specimen killed near the same locality, and which came into the possession of Mr. Watters of Dublin. Next in order of date is one shot by the keeper of Mr. R. Rising, in whose collection it now is, at Horsey Mere, Norfolk, on the 17th May, 1853 (Zool. p. 8911) ; and Gould states (B. of Gt. Brit. v.), on the authority of Mr. N. Troughton, that two were obtained near Coventry in June, 1857. Mr. W.E. Clarke states (Hbk. Yorks. Vertebs. p. 80), * Sterna leucoptera, Schinz, in Meisner & Schinz’s Vég. Schweiz, p. 264 (1815). WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN. 523 that one shot at Scarborough in 1860 is in the collection of Mr. E. Tindall; and in the spring of 1867, according to Mr. Cordeaux (B. Humber, p. 197), a single mature bird was observed but not obtained near Flamborough Head. An adult bird is mentioned by Mr. Hancock as acquired by him from the collection of Mr. Oxley, of Redcar, in April 1871, and shot on the 15th May (year unknown), at Port Clarence, Teesmouth (N. H. Tr. Northumb. & Durh. p. 143). On the 27th June, 1867, as recorded by Mr. Stevenson (Zool. s.s. p. 951), one now in his collection was obtained on Hickling Broad, Norfolk; on the 26th May, 1871, two males and two females were shot out of a flock of five on Breydon Water, near Yarmouth (Zool. s.s. p. 2830); on the 30th May, 1873, six were killed out of a number which were frequenting Hickling Broad (Zool. s.s. p. 38712) ; and on the 10th June, 1883, one of a pair was shot in the same locality. A specimen in a very interesting state of change from summer to winter plumage is in the collection of Mr. Westlake of Ilfracombe, North Devon, shot there early in November, 1870. Mr. Hart of Christchurch informs the Editor that many have been seen in May and June on the Hampshire and Dorset coasts, one of them being in the collection of Sir John H. Crewe, Bart., of Calke Abbey, Derby. Mr. A. J. Clark Kennedy records (‘ The Field,’ June 19th, 1875) one killed some few years pre- viously, near Eastbourne; and Mr. Colgate states (‘The Field,’ 13th June, 1875) that oné was obtained near New- haven, about May, 1873. In ‘ The Field,’ 5th June, 1875, Mr. Williams, taxidermist, of Dublin, states that a bird shot near Limerick had recently been sent to him for pre- servation; and a specimen presented by Mr. R. J. Ussher, of Cappagh, co. Waterford, to the Dublin Museum of Science and Art, was killed by his keeper on the 13th May of the same year. At Scilly a specimen was obtained in May or June, 1882, as recorded by Mr. Thomas Cornish (Zool. 1882, p. 235). It will be remarked that, with the exception of the first Irish and the Ilfracombe examples, 524 LARIDE. every specimen of which the date of capture is known, has been obtained on the vernal migration in May and June. The White-winged Black Tern is a very rare bird in Northern Europe, and even in the south of Sweden only one specimen, obtained near Lund on the 1st June, 1835, is recorded by Nilsson.* It is almost equally uncommon in Northern Ger- many and Belgium, and it is an accidental visitor to the northern portions of France, but along the Rhone valley, in Savoy, and in the Camargue, it is of regular occurrence. On migration it is common along the east coast of Spain, but a rare and irregular straggler so far west as the marshes of the Guadalquivir. In Italy it is principally observed on the spring migration, and it probably breeds in Sicily and Sar- dinia, but in the smaller islands of the Mediterranean it is merely a migrant. In some parts of Southern Germany, and on the Neusiedler lake and other localities in Hungary, it is known to breed; it nests in limited numbers on the lakes near Lublin in the south of Poland, and abundantly in the marshes of Polesia ; also throughout Southern Russia to the Volga and the Caspian. Very rare so far west as Tangier in Morocco, it is said to breed in Algeria; also in the Delta of the Nile, and for some distance up that river, visiting Abyssinia and the Red Sea on migration. In winter it occurs in flocks on the marshes and ‘ vleys’ of the Trans- vaal, and Andersson found it common in similar localities in Damara Land; it has also been recorded from the Gambia. In Asia its breeding-range extends from the Caspian, across Southern Siberia, to Mongolia, Northern China, and the Amoor; and Pallas states that this species visits Kamts- chatka. Swinhoe obtained it in Southern China, and on the island of Formosa ; it visits the Philippines, Borneo, Celebes, and the Eastern Archipelago, Burmah and Ceylon, and it has once been obtained (Ibis, 1870, p 486), in full plumage, at Tipperah, in Eastern Bengal. Mr. Buller says, but with- out adducing any evidence, that this Tern has been found * The late Mr. G. R. Gray erroneously identified with this species the Sterna nigra which Linnzus describes as ‘‘found on the small reedy islands about Upsala.” His unfortunate example has been too widely followed, and has occasioned much confusion, WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN. 525 in Australia; and he states (B. New Zealand, p. 287) that two in full summer plumage were shot when associating with a large breeding colony of Sterna frontalis, in the Province of Nelson, New Zealand, on the 12th of December, 1868. In North America an isolated occurrence is on record. An adult female in summer plumage was obtained on Lake Koskonong, Wisconsin, July 5th, 1873, by Mr. T. Kumlien, and presented to the Smithsonian Institution by the late Dr. T. M. Brewer. The White-winged Black Tern nests in marshes ; sometimes in company with the Black Tern, where, as in Central Europe, the latter preponderates, but, in large colonies of its own in South-eastern Russia and Siberia, where it is the dominant species. Its eggs, deposited on the floating vegetation in May and June, are usually three in number, of an olivaceous- buff, boldly blotched and streaked with dark brown, and spotted with grey of different shades; average measurements about 1:35 by 1 in. In its flight it is more rapid than the Black Tern, and it is said to have a louder and harsher voice than that species. Its food consists of dragon-flies, water-insects and their larve. An adult male in summer plumage has the beak livid red ; the irides hair-brown ; the head, neck, and upper part of the back, glossy-greenish-black, the feathers becoming lighter in colour towards the rump; upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers white ; anterior portion of the outside of the wing white, passing into a light grey on the larger wing-coverts ; primary wing-feathers frosted with grey, which wears off, leaving the webs, especially those of the outer ones, sooty-black ; a long triangular streak of white starting from the base of the broad inner web; shafts white; the secondaries grey; tertials and the scapulars slate-grey. The chin, neck in front, breast, belly, sides, and flanks, black ; under wing-coverts black ; under tail- coverts, and under surface of the tail-feathers, white ; legs, toes, and their membranes orange-red ; the claws black; the interdigital membranes very much indented. The whole length nine inches and a half; the wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the first primary, eight inches and a quarter. 526 LARIDA. In the autumn moult the black portions of the plumage become white on the head, neck and under parts, and slate- grey on the mantle; a specimen in the Editor’s collection, obtained near Valencia, in Spain, on the 25th of July, pre- sents a remarkably piebald appearance. Some black is never absent from the nape and ear-coverts, and in mature and vigorous birds the black of the under parts soon begins to make its reappearance. The immature bird in August has the bill livid brown, lores and forehead white, crown and nape brownish-grey, a dark streak behind the ear-coverts; sides of the neck white, tinted with buff; upper back and scapulars slate-grey, tipped or overlaid with brown, which gradually wears off; back grey, mottled with brown, rump white, pass- ing to grey on the tail-coverts; tail-feathers grey, darker and browner at tips; primaries darker on inner webs than in the adults ; under wing-coverts and under parts white. By the end of the following summer the brown tips have completely passed away, leaving only a mottled bar along the carpals to indicate immaturity ; and in the following spring, when the bird is nearly two years old, it assumes the black nuptial garb. The tail-feathers, however, do not become quite white for some years, and it may be that this takes longer with the females than with the males; otherwise there appear to be no appreciable external differences between the sexes when fully matured. The nestling is of a nearly uniform rufous- buff, slightly darker on the throat; the crown and back streaked and mottled with blackish-brown. The young of this species may be distinguished from that of H. nigra by its longer feet, with mach more deeply incised webs ; paler rump and tail,—the latter being also less pointedly forked—; the distinct white interior of the inner webs of the outerprimaries, and the pure white—not grey— of the under wing-coverts. But the young of the White- winged Black Tern are not always to be so easily distinguished from small Asiatic examples of the Whiskered Tern, H. hybrida, which will next be considered, although in European examples of each species the superior dimensions of the latter are a sufficient indication. WHISKERED TERN, 5 Pf) GAVIA, LARID. HYDROCHELIDON HYBRIDA (Pallas*). THE WHISKERED TERN. Sterna leucopareia. Tue earliest discovery of the occurrence in the British Islands of this straggler from the south, was made by the late Mr. T. C. Heysham, of Carlisle. At the end of August, 1836, a party of two or three persons went out in a boat from Lyme, to amuse themselves in shooting sea-birds, and this Tern, among others, was part of the produce of their guns. Mr. Heysham shortly afterwards having an opportunity of examining the skins of the birds obtained, selected that of the Whiskered Tern here figured, and made the arrangement by which the Author became possessed of it. In September, 1839, a second example was obtained at * Sterna hybrida, Pallas, Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica, ii. p. 338 (1811). The name of H. leucopareia (Natterer), which is often applied to it, was not con- ferred until 1820. 528 LARID. the mouth of the river Liffey, Dublin Bay, by Mr. John Hill, who shot the White-winged Black Tern already noticed, and this specimen having passed into the collection of Mr. T. W. Warren of Dublin, was recorded by Thompson (Ann. Nat. Hist. xx. p. 170) in 1847; it is now in the Museum of Science and Art, Dublin. A third, now in the collection of Mr. J. H. Gurney, was shot on Hickling Broad, Norfolk, on the 17th June, 1847. ‘It proved to be an adult female, and contained ova in an advanced stage ; the largest being apparently almost ready to receive the shell. In the stomach were found about twenty of the larve of the broad-bodied dragon-fly ’’ (Zool. p. 1820). A fourth, and immature example of this Tern, was procured, as recorded by the late Mr. Rodd (Zool. p. 8280), near Tresco Abbey, Scilly, at the end of August, 1851. Lastly, Mr. J. Gatcombe mentions (Zool. p. 9629) that one was picked up on the water by some fishermen, alive but apparently exhausted, near Plymouth, in May, 1865, and this specimen, which is in full breeding- plumage, he has kindly presented to the Editor. The Whiskered Tern is generally distributed throughout Southern Europe. It does not visit the Baltic, and itis a rare straggler to Northern Germany, and to the northern provinces of France, nor dces it appear to migrate along the valley of the Rhone, but it still breeds in the marshes of the Camargue. In suitable situations in the Spanish Peninsula it breeds abundantly ; in Italy it is only a visitor on migration ; but in Greece, Turkey, and Southern Russia several nesting- places are known. It also breeds sparingly in the marshes of Poland and of Southern Germany ; and on the Black Sea it is abundant. In North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, many breeding colonies are to be found; and in the winter it goes as far south as Damara Land and the Transvaal; indeed, it seems probable that it breeds near some of the elevated lakes of that continent, as Andersson obtained it in full nup- tial plumage on Lake Ngami in April. Its breeding-range extends from Asia Minor, through Turkestan, to Mongolia and China, but not to Siberia; and it nests also in Kashmir and Northern India. It occurs in Southern India, Ceylon, WHISKERED TERN. 529 the Philippines, and throughout the entire south-east of Asia, and the islands of the Archipelago. On the lagoons of Australia during the breeding-time, ranging to Celebes in the cold season, a form occurs which in the winter plumage is, like some other southern representatives, of a slightly paler tint on the upper parts; but in the breeding-dress the Editor can find no difference between specimens from Queensland and from Europe. In the British Museum there is a mounted specimen marked as obtained at Barbadoes, and presented by Sir Robert H. Schomburgk, who was for some time Governor of that West-Indian colony; but he does not include it in his list of birds of that island, nor is there any record of the occurrence of this species in America. The Whiskered Tern breeds in colonies, sometimes in com- pany with the Black Tern. Canon Tristram found that on the large lakes in Algeria the eggs were deposited in the nests of the Eared Grebes, without any repairs to the nests which had just been vacated by the young Grebes. More frequently the nests are composed of tangled weed pulled together on the surface of the water; and the late Mr. A. Anderson, in an interesting account of the nidification of this species in Oudh (Ibis, 1872, p. 82), states that some of the nests he measured ranged from 84 to 4 feet in circum- ference, and were about 4 inches thick. They were com- posed entirely of aquatic plants (some of them 2 feet long), and so interwoven with the growing creepers that it was impossible to remove them without cutting at the foundation of the structure. The eggs, three in number, are usually of a pale green ground-colour—sometimes stone-grey—spotted and blotched with brownish-black and bluish-grey ; they measure about 1°55 by 1:15 in. In Europe incubation com- mences in May, but in India it appears to take place in July. The food of the Whiskered Tern consists of aquatic insects, dragon-flies, leeches, caterpillars, grasshoppers, small newts, fishes, and frogs. The flight is graceful and buoyant, though not swift, but when tired it seldom settles on the water, preferring to alight on fences, stakes, or beds of reeds, or VOL. III. oe ¥ 530 LARID&. bushes in the swamps. Its cry is somewhat shrill, and not unlike that of the preceding species. In the adult in summer the bill is blood-red ; the irides dark brown ; forehead, crown, and nape black ; from the base of the upper mandible, in a line below the eye to the ear-coverts a stripe of white, forming the whisker or moustache ; back, wing-coverts, upper tail-coverts and tail- feathers uniform slate-grey ; first quill-feather lead-grey on the outer web, and over a considerable portion of that part of the inner web nearest to the white shaft, the other part of the inner web greyish-white ; the outer webs of the other primary and secondary feathers lighter grey than the inner webs ; chin and throat greyish-white ; neck and breast slate- grey like the back; abdomen, thighs, and flanks dark lead- grey; under wing and tail-coverts white; legs, toes, and membranes red: the membranes deeply indented. Whole length eleven inches and a half; from the carpal joint of the wing to the end of the first quill-feather, nine inches and a quarter; length of the tarsus seven-eighths of an inch; of the middle toe three-quarters of an inch, claw of the middle toe three-eighths of an inch, strong and curved. Indian examples are, on the average, smaller. Adult birds in winter have the forehead, crown, and all the under parts pure white; occiput, neck, streaked with black ; a black spot behind the eyes; mantle, back, wings, tail- coverts and tail-feathers uniform ash-grey; bill, legs, and feet deep lake-red. Young birds of the year have the crown of the head, occiput, and ear-coverts greyish-black; the feathers of the back, scapulars, and secondaries dark brown in the middle, barred and tipped with buff; tail-feathers grey, darker towards the tips, but margined with white; beak brown, red at the base ; legs and feet flesh-colour. The nestling is a clear ruddy-buff above ; a black spot at the base of the upper mandible, followed by a warmer patch of chestnut; head and back streaked with black; throat brownish-black ; chest and under parts white. Of the three Marsh Terns it is the most easily recognized. GULL-BILLED TERN. —~«65831 GAVIA. LARIDE. = N ON: STERNA ANGLICA, Montagu.* THE GULL-BILLED TERN. Sterna anglica. Sterna, Brissont.—Bill longer than the head; nearly straight, compressed, often slender and tapering, with the edges sharp, and the end pointed; the mandibles of equal length, the upper one slightly decurved. Nostrils near the middle of the beak, pierced longitudinally, pervious. Legs slender, naked for a short space above the tarsal joint; tarsi short. Toes four: the three in front united by intervening membranes concave in front, or semi-palmated ; the hind toe free; claws curved. Wings long, pointed, the first quill-feather the longest. Tail distinctly forked in varying degrees, Tuts species was first made known by Colonel Montagu, who gave a figure and description of it in the Supplement to his Ornithological Dictionary; one specimen was shot by himself in Sussex, and he saw two others that had been killed at Rye. The birds obtained were at first confounded with the Sandwich Tern, but the different form and length of the bill soon led Montagu to a just appreciation of the specific distinctions, and he called the present bird S. anglica, because it was not known to him as existing elsewhere. * Supp. Ornith. Dict. (1813). + Ornithologie, vi. p. 202 (1760). 532 LARID. Montagu’s specimen, the type of the species, is now in the British Museum. The next occurrence is one stated by Mr. John Skaife (Charlesworth’s Mag. Nat. Hist. ii. p. 530), to have been shot at Blackpool in Lancashire in the summer of 1832. The Author heard of two examples killed in this country, both in 1839; one in Kent, in the month of June, but he mislaid the letter which contained the particulars of the other. One recorded by Mr. H. Denny (Ann. & Mag. N. H. xii. p. 297), was taken near Leeds in the last week of July, 1843, and was noticed at the York meeting of the British Association. In Norfolk the Gull-billed Tern has been observed more frequently than in any other county. According to Mr. Harting, one shot on Breydon Water, on the 14th April, 1849, is in the Museum of Bury St. Edmunds, and another Norfolk-killed specimen is in the Wisbeach Museum (Hbk. Brit. B. p. 171). Mr. J. H. Gurney mentions an adult male obtained on the 81st July; a male and female on the Ist September, 1849 ; an adult on the 24th May, 1850; anda male in summer plumage in the early part of July, 1851 —all near Yarmouth (Zool. pp. 2569, 2592, 2853, 3235). Returning to the south coast, Mr. A. EK. Knox states that there is a specimen in his collection, shot near Rye, and another in the Chichester Museum, killed at Selsea, on the 31st of March, 1852 (Orn. Rambles, p. 253). The late Mr. Rodd says that in a private collection at Penzance there is a Gull-billed Tern presented by the late Rev. Mr. Rice of South Hill, together with a portion of an egg which dropped when he shot the bird near Brighton. On the 14th May, 1872, Baron A. Von Hiigel obtained one near Christchurch, Hants (Zool. s.s. p. 8149), which he has presented to the British Museum ; and, according to Mr. J. Gatcombe, one was procured near Plymouth in the autumn of 1866 (Zool. s.s. p. 557). About the end of May or beginning of June, 1852, the Rey. John Jenkinson shot’an adult near Trescoe Abbey, Scilly (Zool. p. 8536); and on the 11th July, 1872, Mr. Rodd examined a female bird in summer plumage, which was killed at St. Just, near Penzance (Zool. s.s. p. 3188). The GULL-BILLED TERN. 533 ovary in this specimen contained a large bunch of eggs, varying in size from swanshot downwards. It is not remarkable that this widely-distributed Tern should occasionally visit England, seeing that it still breeds in several localities on the coast and islands belonging to Denmark, although not found to the north of that country. To Germany, the Netherlands, and the north of France it is an accidental visitor, but southwards it breeds in the Camargue, and on the coast of Spain, especially on the sandbanks between Cadiz and the Portuguese frontier. In Central Europe, Italy, and the neighbouring islands of the Mediterranean, it appears to be only a visitor on migration ; but it breeds in Greece, Turkey, Southern Russia, on the Caspian, and on the salt lakes of Turkestan; also in Asia Minor, Lower Egypt, and along the coast and lagoons of Northern Africa. It frequents the Upper Nile and the Red Sea, and breeds on several of the islands in the Persian Gulf; also on the lakes'of Kashmir; it visits India during the cool season in considerable numbers, and it occurs in Ceylon. Its breeding range extends across the temperate portions of Asia, as Prjevalsky found it breeding in the Hoang-ho valley in the south of Mongolia; and Swinhoe obtained it in winter dress at Amoy in China. Southwards it is found throughout the Eastern Archipelago ;* and in Australia, breeding in the inland lagoons, and ranging northwards through the Malay region to Ceylon during the cool season, we meet with a form which, like the southern race of the Whiskered Tern already mentioned, is slightly paler on the upper parts, and which is the Sterna macrotarsa of Gould. In America this species, which was formerly distinguished in the United States as Sterna aranea, Wilson, is found on the temperate portions of the east coast, breeding as far as Galveston in Texas, and ranging southwards to Cuba, Brazil, and northern Patagonia. It probably breeds in Brazil, as numerous examples obtained at Santa Catarina are in full * This species is the Sterna afinis of Horsfield (1820), found in Java, but not of Riippell (1826) ; the latter having applied the name to the Allied Tern, S. media, Horsfield (1820). 534 LARIDE. nuptial plumage. On the Pacific side Mr. Salvin obtained it in Guatemala, The Gull-billed Tern breeds in colonies on islands or sand- banks in lagoons, and the nests are merely slight hollows with at times a few bits of seaweed or dry grass for a lining. Mr. Seebohm, who has visited large colonies at Missolonghi and at Smyrna, says that two is the usual number of eggs ; frequently three, but never four. Their ground-colour is of a greyish-white or yellow-ochre, occasionally of a pale greenish tint which soon fades, blotched and spotted with different shades of brown; average measurements are 2 by 1:4 in. During the breeding-season its note resembles the syllables che-ah, and at other times it utters a laughing af, af, af, like a Gull. The food of this species is somewhat varied ; in Ceylon, Col. W. V. Legge found it to consist of frogs, crabs, and fish; in Egypt, Von Heuglin observed the bird darting into the dense smoke of a prairie fire in pursuit of locusts ; and in Algeria Mr. Salvin noticed it hovering over srass-fields and pouncing upon grasshoppers and beetles ; it also captures many species of insects on the wing. Its flight is graceful but not very rapid, its long wings being plied with measured steady strokes. In its partiality for lagoons, tidal rivers, and inland lakes of fresh or brackish water, and in its comparatively short, although distinctly forked tail, and moderately-webbed feet, this species forms a natural link between the Marsh Terns and those which frequent the sea-coast. It was made the type and sole representative of the genus Gelochelidon, by Brehm, who, very consistently, erected the genus Sylochelidon for the Caspian Tern. In the adult in summer the bill is black, and averages one inch and a quarter in length from the point to the feathers on the forehead; the angle at the symphisis of the lower mandible rather prominent, whence the name Gull-billed ; irides reddish-brown ; forehead, crown, and nape jet black ; neck behind greyish-white; back, scapulars, wings, the coverts, secondaries, and tertials, upper tail-coverts, and central tail-feathers uniform pale ash-grey ; outer tail-feathers GULL-BILLED TERN. 535 lighter ; the outside web of the first primary slate-grey, the other primaries pearl-grey, darker at the tips; chin, throat, breast, belly, and all the under surface white; legs, toes, membranes, and claws reddish-black. The whole length of the bird figured and described, fifteen inches and a half; wing from the carpal joint thirteen inches. In winter the head is white, streaked with grey and black, and a dark stripe runs through the eye and ear- coverts. The male is, as a rule, rather larger than the female, but there is great individual variation in size, especially as regards the bill. In the latter the difference is more strik- ing in two individuals shot from the same flock in South Brazil than in any other specimens in the large series which the Editor has examined from various parts of the world. A young bird of the year has the bill brown ; head on the top dull white, varied with pale brown and dusky streaks ; on the ear-coverts a spot of greyish-black ; neck all round white ; back, scapulars, and tertials orange-brown, spotted with darker brown ; wing-coverts ash-grey, tipped with pale orange-buff; primaries pearl-grey; tail but little forked; chin, neck, and all the under surface of the body white ; legs and feet brown. As in the other Terns, the orange-buff markings are soon lost, and in this species there is no dark bar on the carpal joint to indicate immaturity; the bill and legs are, however, lighter than in the adult in winter dress. Even in birds of the second year which have assumed the black crown, the legs and feet are still livid red in fresh examples, drying a reddish-brown in preserved specimens, The nestling in down is buffy-white, mottled and striped with darker grey on the upper parts; under parts greyish- white. 536 LARIDA. GAVIA. LARIDA. STERNA CASPIA, Pallas.* THE CASPIAN TERN. Sterna caspia. SEVERAL specimens of this fine large Tern, called the Caspian Tern, from the locality in which it was obtained by Pallas, have been killed on the English coast, particu- larly in the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk. Two early examples are those mentioned by the Messrs. Paget, in their Sketch of the Natural History of Yarmouth and its neigh- bourhood, one of which was killed in October, 1825 ; another was presented to the Norwich Museum, by the Rev. G. Steward of Caistor, near which place it was shot. Three or four were seen at Aldborough, in Suffolk, one of which was shot, and preserved in the Museum of the Philosophical Society of Cambridge, as mentioned by the Rev. L. Jenyns (Man. Brit. Verteb. p. 265). The late Mr. Heysham sent the * Nov. Comm, Petrop. xiv. p. 582 (1769-70). = | CASPIAN 'TERN. 537 Author notice of a Caspian Tern, shot in Norfolk in 1839 ; one was killed on the 9th June, 1849; one in the same neighbourhood in June, and another on the 16th July, 1850 ; another in August, 1851; and an adult male in May, 1862 ; —all near Yarmouth. On the 17th May, 1851, an adult was shot, disgorging several fish as it fell, at Caythorpe, on the borders of Lincoln- shire and Nottinghamshire ; and in September, 1874, one is said to have been killed near Filey in Yorkshire, which appears to be the most northern occurrence in this country. On the south coast one was obtained near Christchurch, Hants, some years ago;* and there are probably a few other instances not enumerated. The Caspian Tern is nowhere numerically abundant, although very widely distributed. It breeds in Sweden, from the Gulf of Bothnia downwards, to Denmark, the nearest and best known colony being on the island of Sylt. The Editor is inclined to believe that a few pairs nest on the coast of Holland, as on the 9th July, 1875, he saw at early dawn six adult birds flying in pairs, and evidently going out to procure food, near the mouth of the Maas. A mere straggler to the coasts of France and the lakes of Switzerland, it breeds in several localities on the shores of Spain, and also on some small islands near Sardinia, although rare on the coasts of Italy ; it has however been observed throughout the Medi- terranean, and breeds on the Black Sea. Apparently a resident in Egypt, it frequents the entire coast of Africa, and Sir John Kirk found it breeding on the low islands off the mouth of the Zambesi. A visitor to the islands of the Indian Ocean, it nests in the Persian Gulf, and, crossing the great mountain ranges on its migrations, it occurs in winter in India and Burmah, and breeds in Ceylon. ‘To the north it can be traced from the Caspian, across temperate Asia, to China ; and although there is a break of continuity in the Eastern Archipelago, it is found residing on the coasts of Australia and of New Zealand ; examples from the latter being somewhat larger on the average than European specimens. * Cf. J. E. Harting, ‘ Handbook of British Birds,’ pp. 167, 168. von. III. 3 Z 538 LARIDA. In America this fine Tern is found breeding from Labrador to Virginia, and even to Florida. Mr. Bernard Ross records it from Great Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River, and Mr. KE. W. Nelson observed it on two occasions at the mouth of the Yukon River, in Bering Sea. It probably ranges along the entire west coast of North America, as it has recently been obtained by Mr. Forrer in California and North Mexico. The Caspian Tern deposits its eggs in May or June on the bare sand, in a slight hollow, which is occasionally lined with a few pieces of shell or bents. They are usually two or three in number ; of a stone-grey or stone-buff, spotted and scrolled with ash-grey and dark red-brown; average measurements 2°55 by 1°7 in. Its ordinary food consists of fish. The note is a loud, harsh krake-kra, which is uttered freely when its breeding-haunts are invaded. It is nearly as partial to brackish lakes as to the sea-shore, and when searching for food it has a characteristic habit of keeping its bill pointed downwards. In the adult in summer plumage the bill is vermilion- red, lightest in colour at the point; irides dark brown ; forehead, all the top of the head and the nape of the neck rich black, the feathers of that colour on the occiput elongated ; lower part of the neck, all round, white; the back, and all the upper surface of the body, the wings and tail-feathers, ash-erey; the first six wing-primaries darker at the tips and on the inner webs, with white shafts; the tail moderately forked ; the chin, throat, breast, and all the under surface of the body, pure white; legs, toes, their membranes, and the claws black, the latter strong and curved. In winter the crown is streaked with black, and there is a patch of dark feathers behind the ear-coverts. The whole length of the adults, from the point of the beak to the end of the long feathers of the tail, varies from nine- teen to twenty-one inches: the males being rather larger than the females. From the carpal joint of the wing to the end of the first quill-feather, sixteen inches and a half, the ends of the wings extending considerably beyond the ends of the forked feathers forming the tail. ~ CASPIAN TERN. 539 Young birds of the year, before their first autumn moult, have the beak of a dull red, horn-coloured at the point; the forehead and top of the head white; the upper surface of the body varied with patches. of ash-brown, and darker transverse bands; the feathers of the tail have dark ends ; the primary quill-feathers are also dark ; all the under surface of the body pure white. The downy nestling about a week old, for which the Editor is indebted to Mr. E. Bidwell, is of a duil white mottled with grey, and the newly-sprouting feathers on the wings are buff-tinted ; bill and feet yellow. Tue Swirt Tern, Sterna bergii, Lichtenstein, was recorded by Thompson (Ann. N. H. xx. p. 170), under the name of S. velox, Riipp., as having been shot at the end of December, 1846, between Dublin and Howth. The specimen, which was in fall breeding-plumage, became the property of the late Mr. Watters, and was undoubtedly the species it was said to be. Information obtained by the Editor when in Dublin, from several sources, but especially from the late Mr. R. J. Montgomery, so often mentioned in Thompson’s ‘ Birds of Ireland,’ left no doubt that the introduction of this species began with the temptation to play a practical joke, afforded by an imperfectly-skinned foreign specimen, purchased with others by a young taxidermist. The limits of humour were passed when the perpetrator had not the moral courage to refuse the reward pressed upon him, and details, which will not bear investigation, were invented to substantiate the original statement. The Swift Tern is a large intertropical species which has never been known to straggle to any part of Europe, nor even to the north coast of Africa west of Lower Egypt. Major EK. A. Butler found it breeding on the island of Astolah, off the coast of Baluch- istan (Stray Feathers, 1877, p. 298). This species has the mantle and tail of a slate-grey, and in breeding-plumage the black crown is separated from the bill by a broad white frontlet. 540 LARIDA. GA VI 4, LARIDE. STERNA CANTIACA, Gmelin.* THE SANDWICH TERN. Sterna Boysit. Tur Sanpwicn Tern was first observed and obtained in this country at Sandwich, in 1784, by the late Mr. Boys, who sent specimens to Latham, by whom the particulars respect- ing it were published in the sixth volume of his General Synopsis, p. 356. Attention being thus drawn to this species, it was ascertained to be a regular summer visitor here, appearing ian spring and departing in autumn, after having reared its brood. Owing to persecution by egg- collectors, and to other causes, it has been driven from several localities where it formerly bred ; and in others its numbers * Syst. Nat. i. p. 606 (1788). The name of S. boysit was not conferred by Latham till 1790. In Supp. I. to the General Synopsis, p. 296 (1787), he calls it Sterna sandvicensis, but it seems undesirable to adopt this name. SANDWICH TERN. 541 have undergone considerable diminution. A few pairs nest in the Scilly Islands, but the Editor has no positive know- ledge of the existence of any colony on the south or east coasts of England short of the Farne Islands, although in former years it bred at the mouth of the Blackwater in Essex, and abundantly on Coquet Island off Alnwick. Be- yond the Scottish border there are several breeding-places : one of them on the Firth of Tay; it seems probable there is another in Sutherlandshire ; and it also nests on Loch Lomond, and on some other lochs on the west coast of Scotland. There does not appear to be any authenticated breeding-place on the coast of Wales: but a few pairs nest annually in a carefully preserved locality on Walney Island off the coast of Lancashire, and there is a small colony in Cumberland. In Ireland, the Sandwich Tern is annually observed upon the coast, and has a few breeding-haunts in some of the islets that are rarely visited by the naturalist. The Editor has visited one colony, which was discovered by Mr. R. Warren, who described it in ‘ The Zoologist,’ 1877, p. 101. Up to 1858 the Terns nested on a small lough near Ballina, on a low flat mud-bank close to a colony of Black-headed Gulls ; but this bank being submerged during a wet summer, the Terns moved to a larger moorland lough where there is also a breeding-place of the Black-headed Gulls on an island, among the reeds. The Terns make their nests on a bare part of the island, a little way from those of the Gulls ; and the proprietor, Sir Charles Knox Gore, who strictly preserves both species, has had the encroaching bushes and long grass cut off the island in order to give the Terns more space for their nests. They usually arrive in April, although Mr. Warren has observed them as early as the 20th of March; and they breed earlier than the smaller Terns, the eggs being frequently ready to hatch by the end of May. On the east coast of England they are seldom seen on their migration northward before May, and the return passage commences in August. The range of the Sandwich Tern hardly extends to the north of the Danish Islands, and it is very rare in the Baltic, 542 LARID®. but on the low coasts and islands of the North Sea, from Jutland to the Netherlands, it breeds in great abundance. On migration it visits the coasts of France, and there are probably some breeding-places in the north-west ; it is com- mon in Spain on passage, and some remain to breed, as they also do in Sardinia, and perhaps in Sicily. Further up the Mediterranean it is comparatively rare, but it breeds plenti- fully in the Black Sea, and on the Seal Islands in the Cas- plan. Eastward it is found along the Arabian and Persian coasts as far as Kurachee in Sind. It frequents the north coast of Africa; breeds in the Canaries, and goes down the west coast in winter as far as Cape Colony. In America this Tern, which was formerly distinguished there as Sterna acuflavida, is found in summer along the Atlantic seaboard from New England to Honduras, where Mr. Salvin found it breeding, and he also found it common on both coasts of Guatemala. In winter it migrates southwards to Brazil, the Editor having a specimen obtained at Bahia. The nests are frequently but little more than shallow holes scratched in the sand among the sea-campion or other plants, but on Walney Island and elsewhere, tolerably solid structures of grass bents have been noticed. The eggs are usually two in number, rarely three; but in the large breeding- colonies birds not unfrequently drop their eggs in one another’s nests, and the Editor once found three eggs—two of the Sandwich, and one belonging to the Arctic or the Common Tern—in the same hollow of a mass of sea-tang, on the Wamseys, the principal colony of the Farne Islands. In colour there is considerable variation, many of the eggs being of a rich yellowish-stone ground, thickly scrolled and spotted with ash-grey, orange-brown, and deep red-brown, but in others the ground-colour is creamy-white ; average measurements 2 in. by 1°5 in. By the fishermen this species is called, par excellence, ‘the Tern,’ all the other Species passing under the general name of ‘ Sea Swallows.’ Its habits strongly resemble those of its genus, and it subsists upon similar kinds of fish, the sand-lance and young gar-fish forming the principal supply. Its flight is strong and SANDWICH TERN. 543 rapid, making a great advance at each stroke of the pinions, and, except when engaged in incubation, it is almost con- stantly on the wing, uttering at intervals a hoarse and grating ery, kirhitt, kirhitt, which can be heard at a great distance. The adult bird in summer has the bill black, the tip lemon-yellow ; the irides hazel; all the parts of the head above the eyes black ; the feathers on the occiput elongated, forming a loose plume which ends in a point; cheeks, sides, and lower part of the neck behind, white ; back and wings, pearl-grey, the ends of the secondaries and upper primaries, almost white ; the longest primary slate-grey, with a white shaft, the next three primaries diminishing in colour in succession till they become of the same tint as the wing- coverts ; tips and inner margins of webs, white ; the tail white and forked ; chin, throat, neck in front, breast, and all the under surface of the body white, often suffused with a lovely salmon-pink; legs, toes, and their membranes black, claws curved and black. The whole length of the bird, from the point of the beak to the end of the longest tail-feather, is fifteen inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill-feather twelve inches. In winter the forehead and crown are white, spotted and streaked with black. A young bird of the year killed on the 10th of August is about ten inches in length; the upper mandible dark brown, the under one pale brown at the base; forehead greyish-white, top of the head and the occiput black; back and smaller wing-coverts ash-grey, varied with pale brown; greater coverts ash-grey, quill-feathers bluish-grey, the inner margins white, the outside quill-feather almost black, except the shaft, which is white; tail-feathers varied with ash-grey and brown ; legs, toes, and membranes dark brown. The young bird figured in the illustration has the head mottled with black and white; the back, wing-coverts and tail-feathers varied with angular lines of black. A nestling about three days old, taken on Norderney, has the upper parts finely mottled with buffy-grey ; under parts white; bill yellowish; legs and feet greyish-brown ; webs paler. 544 LARID&. GAVIZE. LARIDZ. A ii \ if STERNA DOUGALLI, Montagu.* THE ROSEATE TERN. Sterna Dougall. Tue Rosrate Tern was first discovered on two small rocky islands, called the Cumbraes, in the Firth of Clyde, in 1812, by Dr. McDougall, of Glasgow, who sent a specimen and particulars to Colonel Montagu, from which a figure and description were inserted in the Supplement to his Ornitho- logical Dictionary. Some years ago Selby found a numerous colony breeding on the Farne Islands, but that locality had been nearly abandoned for a long time, until in 1880 several pairs returned to their old haunts in the month of May, when * Sterna Dougallii, Montagu, Supp. Orn. Dict. (1813). This species has not unfrequently been designated S. paradisea, Briinnich, but any one who will take the trouble of referring to that autbor’s description, will at once see that he was entirely unacquainted with the Roseate, and alluded to the Arctic Tern. ROSEATE TERN. 545 some, if not ali, were shot, in defiance of the law, by one of the Trinity lighthouse keepers, who sent the specimens in the flesh to a collector in Birmingham. On the west coast it formerly bred in the Scilly Islands; Mr. John Hancock found it nesting some years ago on Foulney Island, and Mr. Harting and the Editor observed it in May, 1864 and 1865, on the neighbouring Walney Island on the Lancashire coast. It probably nests in a few localities on the coast of Scotland, but statements regarding its breeding on Loch Lomond or any other lochs appear to be devoid of foundation. So far as is known, the Roseate Tern nests almost exclusively on islands, and generally on those which are remote and storm-beaten. Off the coast of Ireland, where there are many such islets, several breeding-places have been enumerated by Thompson; but most of these have since been abandoned, and although the birds have probably migrated to other and less disturbed localities, it would not be easy, even if it were desirable, to indicate precisely the places where colonies may still be found. There is no doubt that numerically this species has undergone considerable diminution, not so much owing to collectors—for genuine British-killed birds are seldom to be met with—as to indiscriminate egging on the part of fishermen, and the havoc caused by the parties of gunners who used to visit the islands where this and other Terns bred, and kill boat-loads of them, either to furnish plumes for ladies’ hats, or for the mere love of slaughter. This Tern is, Moreover, exceedingly intolerant of interference, and not only does it easily abandon a locality when persecuted by man, but it also gives way before the encroachments of its heavier and stronger-billed congener the Common Tern, S. fluviatilis. Dr. Louis Bureau, who has observed the habits of both species for several years on the coast of Brittany, informed the Editor that he had known three colonies of the Roseate Tern broken up in this manner. As soon as the young are able to fly the breeding-places are abandoned, and on migration a straggler is occasionally obtained on the British coast; an adult shot near Hunstanton in Norfolk by Mr. G. Hunt, on the 12th July, 1880, is recorded by Lord VOL. III. 4a 546 LARIDZ. Lilford (Zool. 1881, p. 26). It is doubtful if any individuals of this species are to be found on our coasts by the end of August. The Roseate Tern is an oceanic and southern species, which is not known to range beyond 57° N. lat., and it is merely a straggler to the islands and coasts of Denmark and the North Sea. On the islets of the north-west of France there are several colonies, and although exceedingly rare in the Mediterranean, a specimen has been obtained off the Balearic Islands in May, and one on the coast of Liguria in June. Mr. Godman observed it in the Azores, but its course cannot be traced down the west coast of Africa, although the Editor has examined several specimens from the Cape of Good Hope and Natal. From the east coast of Africa its range extends to Madagascar and the islands of the Indian Ocean up to Ceylon, where Mr. Parker found it nesting ; the Bay of Bengal, and the Andaman Islands, where Captain Wimberley obtained both birds and eggs in June, some of which he presented to the Editor. Visiting Burmah and Tenasserim, this species ranges through the Malay Archi- pelago to Torres Straits, where it breeds; Gilbert found it rearing its young on Houtman’s Abrolhos, off the west coast of Australia, in November, and Mr. E. L. Layard has re- cently sent home both birds and eggs from New Caledonia and the neighbouring islands. In America, where it is far more abundant than in Europe, it breeds on the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Florida, and in the Bermudas; also in Central America, where Mr. Salvin obtained it ; and it visits Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas. American examples are on the average a trifle larger and stronger-billed than European specimens ; and birds from South Africa, Ceylon, the Andaman Islands, Australia, and New Caledonia sometimes exhibit a larger amount of orange-red at the basal half of the bill than speci- mens from the northern hemisphere. On this preponderance of red Mr. Gould’s Sterna gracilis is mainly founded, but the Editor, who has examined the typical specimen in the British Museum, can see nothing in it to warrant specific ROSHATE TERN. 547 distinction. The amount of red seems to depend upon age and season, and in preserved specimens it is to a great extent evanescent. Colonel W. V. Legge, who had many opportunities for observing this species in Ceylon, says that it is purely a sea-coast species, rarely being seen away from salt water, and seldom even frequenting salt lagoons near the sea. Although not a swift bird in its ordinary flight, it turns with ease and grace, and while proceeding with light though measured strokes of its wings over the breaking surf, it will suddenly wheel round, point its bill downwards, and either fall like an arrow upon its prey, or sweep gracefully down in a curve and delve up the ‘fry’ from the surface. Its long streamers are carried close together, so that the bird appears on the wing to have an attenuated parrakeet-like tail. It constantly utters a monosyllabic and not unmusical piping note, but when a pair are together they give out a harsh crake (B. of Ceylon, p. 1034). By a fine ear this note is quickly recognized. The eggs of the Roseate Tern are usually two or three in number, and are placed in a hollow of the sand, sometimes surrounded by a few dried bents. As a rule they are some- what longer than those of the Arctic Tern, but they are subject to similar variations. The ground-colour is a creamy- white or buff-brown, blotched and clouded with bluish-grey and rich brown: average measurements 1:7 by 1:15. The food of this species is small fish. On the wing the Roseate Tern may be distinguished from its congeners by its elegant and attenuated form, and its proportionally short wings: it is in fact among the circling crowd of Arctic and Common Terns, like the greyhound to other dogs. In the hand an unfailing sign of distinction is presented by the primaries, in which the white inner margins extend quite round the tips and even a little way up the outer webs. No other European species is so characterized, except the Sandwich Tern, whose size alone would prevent confusion ; and, in a less degree, this will apply to Sterna frontalis, a species intermediate in size, and found in New 548 LARIDA. Zealand. The latter has similar white margins, but it is larger than the Roseate Tern, and, in the breeding-plumage, it has a white band at the base of the bill. In the adult bird in summer, the bill from the point to the nostrils, is black, from thence to the base or gape, red ; the irides dark-brown ; all the top of the head black; neck, all round, white; back, wing-coverts, and quill-feathers, ash- grey ; the outer webs of the primaries dark grey, and a streak of the same colour next the shaft on the inner web, followed by a white margin which runs down to and round the tip to join the outer web; tail-feathers very long, extending beyond the ends of the wings, the colour pale ash-grey ; breast and all the under surface of the body white, strongly tinted with a delicate rose-colour, whence the bird derives its name; legs, toes, and their membranes, red. In winter the forehead becomes white, or nearly so, and the orange-red at the base of the mandible diminishes or disappears. The whole length of the bird is fifteen inches and a half. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill-feather nine inches and a quarter. The young bird of the year has the bill black, orange- yellow at the base ; forehead and crown of a very pale wood- brown; region of the eyes, ear-coverts, and nape of the neck, black, the latter barred with pale wood-brown ; back and wing-coverts bluish-grey, barred with black and tipped with yellowish-white ; quills grey, as in the adult ; tail grey, the exterior webs the darkest, the tips of the feathers white ; under parts white; legs pale red. By the end of the year the buff-colour and the barrings have disappeared, but a dark line along the carpsls, some darker spots on the inner secondaries, and the shorter and darker tail, are signs of immaturity which are lost at the next autumn moult. The nestling is white below, and spotted with white, grey and buff on the upper parts; it is much lighter in colour than the young of either the Common or the Arctic, and more like the nestling of the Sandwich Tern. COMMON TERN. 549 GA VI. LARID &. — SSS STERNA FLUVIATILIS, Naumann.* THE COMMON TERN. Sterna hirundo. Tue Common TERN is deservedly so named as regards the sreater part of the British Islands, although in the Shet- lands it is superseded by its congener the Arctic Tern. It breeds, however, in the southern districts of the Orkneys ; also in the Hebrides and in several localities on the west coast and lochs of Scotland, from Sutherlandshire to the Solway; also along the east coast, at Buddon-ness, Tay- mouth, and many other places. Down to the Farne Islands on the one side, and to the coast of Lancashire on the other, * Tsis, 1819, p. 1847. It appears from the description given by Linnzus of his Sterna hirundo and the localities which it frequented, that he did not dis- tinguish the Common from the Arctic Tern. Naumann was the first to do this, and his names are therefore employed for both species. 550 LARIDA. it is, however, less abundant than the Arctic Tern, with which it is frequently found breeding, although the two species generally keep a little apart from each other, oecupy- ing different islets or portions of the same coast. South- wards the Common Tern replaces the Arctic, with a few exceptions, which will be noticed when treating of that bird; and along the coast of England and Wales it is dis- tinctly the predominant species. From Norfolk, along the east and south coasts, it has several breeding stations ; but in the Scilly Islands, it is stated by Mr. Rodd to be far less numerous than the Arctic Tern. In Ireland the Common Tern is distinctly the more abun- dant species, breeding all round the coasts, and on many of the salt and fresh-water loughs. Its arrival in the British Islands takes place in May, and the autumnal migration lasts from August to October. It ascends rivers for a con- siderable distance, and has often been observed on small pieces of water far inland; it is even by no means un- common to see a few birds hovering over the Serpentine and other sheets of water in or near the metropolis. The Common Tern is generally distributed, during the breeding-season, on the coasts and rivers of Europe, from Norway to the extreme east of the Mediterranean, as well as in the islands of the Atlantic. Crossing that ocean, this species is abundant in North America (where it was for- merly distinguished as S. wilsont by Bonaparte), from Labrador to Texas; and the Editor has examined specimens obtained at Cumana in Venezuela, and at Bahia in Brazil, in autumn. It has not, however, been recorded as yet from the Pacific side. Returning to the eastern hemisphere, we find this Tern in Western Asia, and on the shores of the Red Sea, strag- eling to the coasts of India in winter. On the elevated lakes of Kashmir, Tibet, and Southern Siberia as far east as Lake Baikal, it appears to be replaced by a form which the Editor has distinguished (P. Z. S. 1876, p. 649) by the name of Sterna tibetana. The latter, in breeding-dress, has the sides of the neck, shoulders and flanks, of a clear COMMON TERN. 551 grey, which assumes a darker and more vinous tint on the breast and abdomen ; the mantle and wings are also much darker, and the bill and feet smaller than in average examples of the Common Tern. From Lake Baikal to Kamtschatka and Japan, this form is replaced, in its turn, by a very distinct species, S. longipennis, which resembles the Arctic Tern in its slender form and grey-tinted under parts, but differs from both species in having the legs and feet brown, and the bill black in the breeding-season, and probably at all other times. It appears to be the Asian form, S. tibetana, which visits Ceylon, and also the southern coasts of Africa, in winter, but S. fluviatilis can positively be traced along the west coast as faras Accra. In the Red Sea and down to the Laccadives, the representative species is S. albigena, a slender Tern of a general smoky hue, the rump and tail being as dark as the mantle. The Common Tern nests in May and June, depositing its eges, usually three in number, on the sand, shingle, or dried wrack in the vicinity of water ; often in sheltered situa- tions amongst sand-hills. The nest isa mere depression, occasionally with the addition of a few crossed bents. The eges are of a slate-grey or yellowish stone-colour, blotched and spotted with ash-grey, and dark red-brown; average measurements 1:7 by 1:1 in. On fine warm days, the parent birds are seldom to be found sitting on their eggs, but they cover them at night and during inclement weather. On the approach of an intruder, they show many signs of anger and distress, uttering a sharp pirre ; and if the young are hatched, they will often contrive to feed them, unper- ceived, by skimming over the spot, and dropping small fish close to the nestlings, whose mottled colour renders them almost undistinguishable from the surrounding shingle. They never dive, but they may often be seen floating on the surface of the water. The food of the Common Tern, like that of its congeners, consists of young coal-fish, sand-eels and such small fry, shrimps, and crustaceans, and they will frequently catch fish when thrown to them by the fishermen, before they 552 LARID&. reach the water. In pursuit of their prey they frequent the shallow estuaries and inland waters, rather than the open sea; and in Holland, where these Terns may be seen on the canals in the towns, the ornamental fish-ponds have to be covered over with netting to preserve their inmates. The Editor was amused one September day at Utrecht, by watch- ing the ineffectual ‘stoops’ of some young Terns which had not yet had time to gain experience of the nature of the obstacle. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., has given an inter- esting account of two nestlings which were reared by Mr. Green, taxidermist, of Stockton-on-Tees. So attached did they become to him, that they answered to his call or whistle, and after an absence of a fortnight, they renewed an intimacy which lasted till the October migration. In the adult bird in summer the bill is coral red, the point black ; irides dark brown ; forehead, crown, and nape, black ; back and wings ash-grey; outside web of the first primary slate-grey, the shaft white; a broad streak of slate-grey next the shaft on the inner web, followed by light-grey margins; tail-coverts white ; outer webs of tail-feathers ash- grey, inner webs white ; chin, neck, breast, and under sur- face, dull white; legs, toes, and membranes, coral red. The whole length of the bird is fourteen inches and a quarter ; from the wrist to the end of the longest quill-feather ten inches and a half. A young bird killed in August has the point of the beak dark brown, the base reddish-yellow; forehead dull white ; posterior part of the crown, the ear-coverts, and the occiput, black; chin and neck, all round, white; back and wing- coverts ash-grey, each feather margined with ash-brown and white ; outer web of the first quill-feather black; the others ash-grey ; under surface of the body white; legs, toes, and membranes, reddish-brown. In winter the colours of the bill and legs fade in both young and old birds. The downy nestling is of a yellowish-brown, streaked and spotted with black on the upper parts; chin and throat, sooty-brown ; under parts white, tinged with buff on the flanks. ARCTIC TERN. 553 GAVIA. LARID AE. STERNA MAcRURA, Naumann.* THE ARCTIC TERN. Sterna arctica. Tue Arctic TERN entirely replaces the Common Tern in the circumpolar regions, but on the coasts of the British Islands and of North-western Europe both species are found, and were for some time united by the earlier writers on ornithology. Naumann was the first to distinguish them, and he was followed, a year later, by Temminck. It is characterized by its more slender form, longer tail-feathers, a coral-red bill without any appreciable amount of black at the tip, very short tarsi, and the french-grey of the under parts is as dark as that of the back and wings. The young may always be recognized by the shorter tarsus, and by the narrowness of the dark line which runs along the shaft on * Tsis, 1819, p. 1847. WOR “ELL. 4B 554 LARID#. the inner webs of the primaries. This line is both darker and much more extensive in the Common Tern. As regards the British Islands, the Arctic Tern is the only species found breeding in the Shetlands, and it is by far the most abundant in the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and on the entire coast of Scotland. In England it breeds in numbers on the Farne Islands, and sparingly on the coast near the mouth of the Humber, south of which it has not yet been proved to nest on the east side of the island, nor along the shingley coast of Kent and Sussex where the Common Tern occurs. Mr. Cecil Smith, however, states (Zool. 1883, p. 454) that he found it breeding on the Chesil beach in Dorsetshire. On the west side it breeds on the shores of Cumberland, on Walney Island in Lancashire, and probably on the Skerries and some other islands belonging to Wales ; and Mr. Rodd states that it is far more abundant in the Scilly Islands than the Common Tern. In Ireland it has many breeding stations, from the Copelands, off Belfast, to the myriad islets of Galway and Kerry, and there are prob- ably some on the eastern side of the island. It arrives early in May, and the majority pass southwards in September and October, a few remaining till the end of that month. Owing to the numbers which breed in high northern latitudes, this species is by far the most abundant on the autumn migration, and, in a less degree, in spring. A most unusual number of this and the Common Tern made their appearance early in the month of May of the year 1842, in and about the estuary of the Severn, and up the line of its course; also at Swansea, Monmouth, Worcester, and many inland places. According to the ‘ Bristol Mirror,’ the birds were assembled in such vast numbers in the harbour and floating docks of that city, that two or three hundred were killed with stones and other missiles, whilst several were caught alive; and so tame were they, that many were observed to pitch on the backs of passers-by. Flocks of these birds were also observed the same day on the Channel coast; and a little later similar numbers were noticed on the coast of Ireland from Cork to Limerick. The ARCTIC TERN. 555 wind had been blowing hard for many days from the east and N.E., but suddenly changed to the westward, continuing to blow hard. Some of the specimens. had not acquired the perfect black head peculiar to the breeding-season, but all were on their route to their northern summer quarters, their intended course having been interfered with by the prevailing strong winds, ; The Arctic Tern is abundant in the Feroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, also along the entire coast of Norway, Sweden, and Russia. It is said to breed up to the extremities of the deep fjords which indent those countries, and even on the fresh-water lakes, but such is not its custom in our islands, in which its habitat is exclusively marine. Its summer range can be traced along the coast of Siberia to Bering Straits, and across them to the American mainland; thence by the shores and islands of the Arctic Sea, the Great Bear Lake and the Fur countries to Hudson’s Bay. It goes as far north as human foot has trod, for Parry’s expedition met with it breeding in numbers to the north of Spitsbergen in 812° N. lat.; and Major H. W. Feilden, when in H.M.S. ‘ Alert,’ found, on 21st August, 1876, eight or ten pairs breeding on a small islet off the north end of Bellot Island (lat. 81° 44’ N.), the land at this date being covered with snow about three inches deep. In one nest lay a newly-hatched Tern, which seemed quite well and lively in its snow-cradle, and this, the most Arctic of specimens, has been kindly presented to the Editor. The parent birds had evidently thrown the snow out of the nest as it fell, for it was surrounded by a border marked by the feet of the old birds, and raised at least two inches above the general level (Ibis, 1877, p. 408). On the east coast its breeding-range extends at least as far south as Massachusetts; and in winter it can be traced to Bahia in Brazil, and to Tumbes in Peru.* Crossing the Atlantic, the Arctic Tern visits the Canaries * Sterna pikei, Lawrence, appears to be an immature example of this species from California ; and S. portlandica, Ridgway, is a bird of about twelve months old, obtained just before commencing its moult. 556 LARID&. and Azores, and is found during migration along the coast of France and the Iberian Peninsula, occasionally straggling into the Mediterranean as far as the east coast of Italy. It descends the coast of Africa as far as Table Bay, and a specimen has been obtained in 82° S. lat., 57° 18’ E. long., far to the south-east of Madagascar, on the 23rd October, at the commencement of the south-east monsoon (P. Z. S. 1880, p. 163). In the southern hemisphere S. virgata or S. vittata, two distinct, although similar and representative species, inhabit the islands of the Southern Ocean from Tristan d’Acunha to Kerguelen. Like its congeners, the Arctic Tern breeds in colonies, and the eggs are laid in mere depressions of the sand or gravelly beach, among scanty herbage, or even on the bare rock just above the reach of the waves. The eggs are some- times three in number, but it would appear, from the obser- vations of many ornithologists, that, especially in northern localities, the complement is frequently only two. On the average, they are slightly smaller than those of the Common Tern, measuring 1°6 by lin.; and they are subject to rather more variation in colour. A pale bluish-green ground is very frequent, and a rich ochre-red with rufous-brown spots is occasionally found. In defence of its nest it is very bold, attacking the intruder with fury, and does not confine itself to menaces. Mr. Wm. Traill states (Scot. Nat. v. p. 346) that on 10th July, at North Ronaldshay, he was struck so sharply five or six times, apparently with the beak, that if he had not been wearing a cloth cap the blows would have been painful. Saxby says (B. of Shetland) that he has seen this species attack and fairly beat off the Great Black-backed Gull and the Raven. He and his brother once saw a Hooded Crow assailed by a swarm of Arctic Terns, which drove it foot by foot to the level of the water, until the wings dipped and its plumage became saturated, the angry Terns only ceasing their swoops when it was dead. The food and habits of the Arctic hardly vary from those of the Common Tern. When fishing over deep water Terns may often be seen to dash down with such force as to raise a cloud of spray which ARCTIC TERN. 557 momentarily hides them from the view of any one nearly on the same level, but when watched from a commanding posi- tion the Editor has never witnessed complete submergence, and certainly no approach to diving. The adult bird in summer has the bill coral-red ; iris dark brown ; forehead, crown, and nape black; back, wings, and wing-coverts pearl-grey ; outer web of the first primary lead- grey; tail-coverts and tail-feathers white, the two longest tail-feathers on each side grey on the outer webs; chin and cheeks white; upper part of neck in front and on the sides, ash-grey ; breast and all the under surface of the body as dark a grey colour as that of the back ; legs, toes, and their membranes orange-red. The whole length of the bird, from the point of the bill to the end of the middle, or short, tail- feather, is twelve inches and a half, to the end of the longest tail-feather two inches and a half more, or fifteen inches whole length ; from the wrist to the end of the longest quill- feather, eleven inches; length of the tarsus only half an inch. A young bird of the first autumn, nearly full-grown, and measuring thirteen inches, has the bill dull brown at the point, the remainder red ; forehead dull white ; crown of the head mottled black and white ; back of the head and nape uniform dusky-black ; back and wings pearl-grey ; outer web of the first primary lead-grey; inner webs of all the primaries light grey, almost white; secondaries, tertials, scapulars, and small wing-coverts tipped with white ; upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers white, the three long tail-feathers on each side with outer webs of slate-grey; throat, breast, and all the under surface of the body and wings at this age nearly pure white; legs, toes, and membranes orange. Up to October all the upper parts are more or less barred with brownish-grey, which wears off with increasing age, and by the following July, just previous to the moult, the black bill, the white forehead, the dark bar on the carpals, and the shorter tail-streamers are almost the only signs of immaturity. The downy nestling when a few days old is rather less buff and more greyish than the Common Tern, and there is less black on the throat: otherwise there is little difference. 558 LARID. GAVIA. LARID A, STERNA minUTA, Linnzus.* THE LESSER TERN. Sterna minuta. Tus bird, the smallest of the British Terns, is not un- common during summer on such parts of the coast of the British Islands as are suited to its habits. It appears to prefer low flat shores, or islets, of sand, broken shells, or small shingle, coming here in May, and laying two or three eggs before the end of that month in a small depression scraped in the ground above high-water mark. The Author found considerable numbers of this Tern at the mouth of the Thames, on the Kentish side, about Yantlet Island and the creek of the same name close by. When their breeding-haunts are visited, they exhibit but little fear, settling on the ground not far from those who may be look- ing for their eggs or young, and will frequently walk about * Syst. Nat. Hd. 12, i. p. 228 (1766). LESSER TERN. " 5659 with a light step, or with a piping note again take wing. They fly with rapid beats of their long pinions, and from this circumstance look much larger in the air than when in the hand. Their food consists of the fry of surface-swimming fish, and small crustacea, upon which they descend from the air, and they are frequently seen to alight on the water, sometimes evidently seeking food on the surface, and at others only resting from their labours. Their note is a sharp pirre. The eggs are of a stone-colour, spotted and speckled with ash-grey and dark chestnut-brown; average measurements 1:35 by -95in. The young are generally able to fly by the end of the second week in July; and, usually, both old and young leave this country about the end of September, but the Author had a note of one seen on the 10th of October, 1839, and he received a notice from the Rey. William How- man of one that was exposed for sale in Norwich market, in the third week of the month of December. This species visits many different places along the line of the southern coast from Cornwall to Sussex. It breeds on the shores of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk; near Skegness in Lincolnshire ; and on Spurn Point in Yorkshire; but the small colony which bred in Selby’s time on the main land near Holy Island in Northumberland, no longer exists. On the east coast of Scotland colonies are to be found from Haddington to Sutherland; and its summer range is said to extend to the Orkneys. On the west side it nests in several localities, both inland, as on Loch Lomond, and on the coast, down to the Solway; and, continuing the line, we find it breeding in Cumberland, Lancashire, and in suitable places in Wales. In Ireland it is of tolerably general distribution along the coast, and on the fresh-water loughs, although nowhere abundant. Mr. R. Warren informs the Editor that he has an egg of a clutch taken a few years ago at the end of the North Wall, Dublin—a remarkable situation for a nest of this species. The northern range of the Lesser Tern can scarcely be traced beyond the southern portions of Norway, Sweden, 560 LARID#. and Finland; nor does it occur far north in Russia. It is common on the southern shores and islands of the Baltic; and it ascends the larger rivers for so great a distance— breeding on the islands and sandbanks—that its range may be said to extend across Europe. Colonies are to be found along the entire coast from North Germany to Spain; and also throughout the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Caspian. It goes down to the West Coast of Africa to Cape Colony; and in the north-east, it is found breeding in Lower Egypt, and, perhaps, in the Red Sea. Eastward it can be traced along the Asian plateau to Northern and Central India; but beyond this point its range and identification are complicated by closely allied forms. One of these, which is characterized by a grey rump and tail and straight slender bill, is found from the Red Sea to Ceylon; and another, S. sinensis, recognizable by its slightly larger size and white primary shafts, extends from Ceylon, Burmah, and the Eastern Archipelago, to China on the one hand, and North Australia on the other. In North America our Lesser Tern is represented by a very closely allied form, S. antillarum, in which the rump and tail are grey like the mantle, and there is, as a rule, but little black at the tip of the bill; the primary shafts are, however, black, as in our bird. On the eastern side of South America, ascending the great rivers for thousands of miles, S. superciliaris, with stout and entirely yellow bill, is the representative species; and in the Australian and New Zealand Seas is found S. nereis, a light- mantled species destitute of the black loral streak. The Pacific coast of South America is frequented by S. ewilis, a slender grey species with white frontlet; and at the Cape of Good Hope there is a very small species, S. balenarum, in which the black of the forehead extends to the base of the bill. In the adult bird in summer the beak is orange, tipped with black ; irides dusky ; forehead white, crown of the head and the nape jet black; back and wings uniform delicate pearl-grey, except the first and second primaries, which are slate-grey with black shafts and white margins to the LESSER TERN. 561 inner webs; upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers white, tail forked ; chin, throat, sides of neck, breast, and all the under surface of the body pure white; legs, toes, and membranes orange. The whole length of the bird is rather more than eight inches; from the carpal joint to the end of the wing six inches and three-quarters. The adult bird in winter only varies in having the head dull black, instead of deep black. The young bird of the year, as figured, has the point of the bill dark brown, the base pale brown; forehead and crown mottled with dusky-brown and greyish-white, more uniform in colour on the nape, and darker; back, wing- coverts, and tertials ash-grey, margined with dusky-black ; primaries slate-grey, margins of the inner webs white ; secondaries ash-grey ; tail-feathers greyish-white -spotted with dusky-grey towards the ends; chin, sides of neck, breast, and all the under surface white; legs pale brown. The black loral streak, which is at first absent or only in- dicated by a faint grey line, is assumed the second year. The nestling is of a stone-buff on the upper parts, sprinkled with grey, and spotted with black on the head ; under parts dull white. WO. wi. 4g 562 LARID®. GAVIA. LARID. STERNA FULIGINOSA, Gmelin.* THE SOOTY TERN. Sterna fuliginosa. By the kindness of Mr. H. W. Desveux, of Drakelow Hall, the Author was enabled to exhibit at a meeting of the Linnean Society in February, 1853, a well-preserved specimen of the Sooty Tern, Sterna fuliginosa of authors. This bird was stated to have been shot in October, 1852, at Tutbury, near Burton-on-Trent, and having been purchased by Mr. Desveeux for his collection, the figure here given was taken from it. A second occurrence of this rare straggler was recorded by Mr. J. E. Harting, who stated in ‘ The Field,’ 26th June, 1869, that he examined i the flesh a specimen shot on the 21st June, near Wallingford in Berk- shire, and now in the possession of Mr. Franklyn. Other so-called examples have proved upon examination to be specimens of the Black Tern. * Syst. Nat. i. p. 605 (1788). Wagler made this single species the type of no less than three genera, Onychoprion, Planetis, and Haliplana ; there does not, however, appear to be any sufficient structural difference to warraut its separation from Sterna. SOOTY TERN. 563 On the Continent, this inter-tropical species has been noticed on three occasions. Naumann states that one was obtained near Magdeburg; Degland and Gerbe mention an adult male, now in the Lille Museum, taken alive but “exhausted, near Verdun, on the 15th of June, 1854; and one, now in the Museum at Florence, was captured on the 28th October, 1862, in a net set for trout in a torrent in Piedmont (Ibis, 1881, p. 218). The Sooty Tern has been known to occur about a dozen times so far north as the New England States, but it is only on the warmer portions of the American coast that it becomes in any way abundant. It breeds on the Bahamas ; and on many of the Cays off the coast of Florida, especially the Tortugas, and Audubon has given a graphic description of the swarms he found there. Other breeding-places are scattered amongst the West Indian Islands; and in the Pacific the species appears to go as far south as Chili, and to straggle as far north as Japan and the Aleutian Islands. Its range extends throughout Polynesia—where suitable breed- ing localities are numerous—to the coasts of Australia, along which it is of general distribution ; Gilbert found it breeding on Houtman’s Abrolhos in December, Macgillivray obtained eggs in Torres Straits in May and June; and Raine’s Island in the Great Barrier Reef is another well-known station. It occurs throughout the Eastern Archipelago ; visits the coasts of India and Ceylon; and Mr. Hume found it breeding in the Laccadives in the middle of February, by which date most of the eggs were hatched. Itis generally distributed through- out the Indian Ocean, from Madagascar and the neighbouring islands to the east coast of Africa and the Mekran shores, and it has several breeding-places in the Red Sea. On the western side of Africa it breeds in limited numbers at St. Helena, but the best known, and probably the largest assemblage, is the one which takes place at different seasons in the Island of Ascension. Dr. C. Collingwood (Zool. s.s. p- 979), and the late Commander Rowland M. Sperling (Ibis, 1868, p. 268), have given excellent accounts of their visits to the ‘ Wide-awake Fairs,’ as the colonies are called, 564 LARIDA. and their narratives have been supplemented by the ob- servations of Mr. D. Gill, F.R.A.S., and Sergeant-major Unwin, R.M., in a paper by Mr. F. G. Penrose (Ibis, 1879, p- 277). There are three colonies or ‘ fairs’; and it would appear that the birds arrive at very uncertain intervals. In 1875, as Mr. Unwin informed the Editor, the birds remained months longer than usual, owing to an unseasonable down- pour of rain which flooded the breeding-grounds and killed thousands of young; the birds then left about May and were back in August. In 1877 they made their first appearance in October, and fresh arrivals were noticed for the next two months. The name ‘ Wide-awake’ is supposed to express their noisy cawing cry. Audubon, speaking of the Tortugas, says:—‘‘ The Sooty Tern never forms a nest of any sort, but deposits its three eggs in a slight cavity which it scoops in the sand under the trees. Several individuals which had not commenced lay- ing their eggs, I saw scratch the sand with their feet, in the manner of the common fowl, while searching for food. In the course of this operation they frequently seated themselves in the shallow basin to try how it fitted their form, or find out what was still wanted to ensure their comfort.’’ Gil- bert, as quoted in Gould’s ‘ Birds of Australia,’ expressly states that each bird limits itself to the incubation of a single egg, and so say all the authorities on the Ascension breeding-places ; nevertheless, the Editor has a_photo- graph of the principal ‘ fair,’ in which two eggs are shown side by side in the same hollow; and Mr. Hume’s experi- ence at the Laccadives is, that two and three eggs are a usual number. At Ascension the eggs are so constantly taken for eating,—200 dozen being sometimes collected in a morning,—that the natural complement can hardly be ascer- tained with certainty, especially as it is well known that the same bird will, if robbed, lay several times. The eggs mea- sure on the average 2 by 1°5 in.; they are of a pale cream eround-colour; sometimes with a bluish tint, blotched with purplish-brown and chestnut-red; the shell is smooth, in which respect it differs strikingly from the egg of the Noddy, SOOTY TERN. 565 a bird often found breeding in the same localities—in which the shell is of a rough calcareous nature. The yolk of the egg of the Sooty Tern is of a rich saffron-yellow. As soon as the young can fly, both they and their parents go away to sea. Their power of sustained flight is very great, and even when catering for the young the old birds must travel great distances, for Mr. Gill caught a bird with his hand, with a small fish in its beak of a species quite foreign to Ascension waters. In the adult the beak is black; the forehead white, ending in a concave curve with a point over each eye; a black streak from the base of the bill to the eye ; top and sides of the head, occiput and nape, black ; upper surface of the body and wings brownish sooty-black ; tail deeply forked, of the same dark colour as the back, except the outer webs and basal portions of the outside tail-feathers, which are white ; chin, cheeks, sides and front of the neck, breast, belly, under surface of the wings, under parts of the body, under tail-coverts, and base of the tail-feathers, white; under surface of the lengthened portion of the tail-feathers ash-grey; legs, toes, and inter- digital membranes, which extend to the extremities, black. The whole length of the bird is about sixteen inches; wing, from flexure, eleven inches. In birds which are not fully adult the outer webs of the long tail-feathers are more or less umber-brown. In the immature bird the plumage is of a nearly uniform sooty-brown, lighter on the under wing-coverts; and the feathers of the upper parts are tipped with white ; bill and legs dark brown. The young in down, of a few days old, is brownish-grey above and white on the under parts; but brown feathers soon make their appearance on the flanks, and extend over the entire breast and abdomen; the feathers of the back are then blackish-brown, broadly tipped with white. THe SmaLueR Sooty Tern, Sterna anestheta, Scopoli, frequently known as Sterna panayensis, is believed by the Editor to have straggled to one of the lightships at the mouth of the Thames, in September 1875. Both Mr. Bid- 566 LARIDA. well, in whose collection the specimen now is, and the Editor, interviewed the local bird-stuffer, who stated that he mounted it ‘ from the flesh,’ and they were convinced of the truth of his assertion; the evidence is not, however, suffi- ciently perfect to warrant the introduction of this species as a British bird. Details are given in ‘ The Zoologist’ for 1877 (p. 218). In case the Smaller Sooty Tern should again wander to our coasts, it may be distinguished from the Sooty Tern by its somewhat smaller size, more prolonged white eye-streak, paler and ash-brown upper parts, and less perfectly webbed feet. Its geographical range is nearly identical with that of its larger congener, but the two species are rarely, if ever, found breeding in close proximity. There is a third species, Sterna lunata, Peale, characterized by slate-grey upper parts, which appears to be restricted to Polynesia ; and Sterna aleutica of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, which has the head-pattern of the Sooty Terns, with the long white tail of the Arctic and other typical species, forms an interesting link between the two groups. NODDY TERN, 567 GAVIA, LARID. ANovs stoLipus (Linneus*). THE NODDY TERN. Sterna stolida. Anois, Stephens ex Leach M.S.+—Bill longer than the head, rather slender, with the culmen gradually decurved to the tip, which is acute, the lateral mar- gin slightly curved ; the gonys well angulated ; nostrils lateral, basal, placed near the middle of the bill, and longitudinal. Wings long and pointed, the first quill-feather slightly the longest. Tail long and cuneate, and slightly emarginate. Tarsi rather short; the three front toes united by a full web; hind toe small ; claws strong and curved. Two examples of this inter-tropical Tern were recorded by the late William Thompson (Mag. Zool. & Bot. i. p. 459) as having been obtained between the Tusker Lighthouse off the coast of Wexford, and Dublin Bay. They were said to have been taken in the summer about four years previous to 1834, by the captain of a vessel who brought them to Mr. William Massey, of the Pigeon House, a name asso- ciated with the capture of several of the rarest Ivish birds ; and one of these examples is now in the Science and Art * Sterna stolida, Linneus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 227 (1766). + Shaw’s General Zoology, xiii. pt. i. p. 139 (1826). 568 LARIDA. Museum, Dublin. Thereupon Mr. Thos. Austin (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 1842, p. 435) stated that the ‘ Black Noddy’ was a summer visitor to St. George’s Channel, but owing to its extreme shyness and the rapidity of its flight, he had never been able to obtain a specimen; as, however, he speaks of it as robbing the other Terns, it seems not improbable that his ‘ Noddy ’ was an Arctic Skua. With the exception of the first, there is no other record worthy of consideration, of the capture or even the occurrence of the Noddy on the coasts or islands belonging to Europe.* The Noddy is, like the Sooty Tern, of general distribution throughout the tropics. Its best known breeding-grounds are in the Tortugas off the coast of Florida, on the Baha- mas, and on many of the Cays and along the coasts of the West Indies and tropical America on both sides. In the Atlantic it was found residing so far south as the storm- beaten Inaccessible Island, off Tristan d’Acunha, by the ‘ Challenger’ Expedition ; and in the Pacific it is said to visit Chili, and to straggle to New Zealand. On the islands and coasts of Polynesia and Australia, it is found breeding in the same localities as those already mentioned when treating of the Sooty Tern; and, like that species, it occurs throughout the Indian and African seas, breeding on the Laccadives, on the Red Sea islands, St. Helena, Ascension, and other localities. Audubon gives the following account of the habits of this species :—‘‘ About the beginning of May the Noddies collect from all parts of the Gulf of Mexico and the coasts of Florida, for the purpose of returning to their breeding-places on one of the Tortugas called Noddy Key. These birds form regular nests of twigs and dry grass, which they place on the bushes or low trees, but never on the ground. On visiting their island on the 11th of May, 1832, I was surprised to see that many of them were repairing and augmenting nests that had remained through the winter, while others were employed in constructing new ones, and some were already “ Mr. H. Blake-Knox writing of the coast of Dublin, says of this species, “* Has occurred to myself ’’ (Zool. s.s, p. 307) ; whatever that may mean. NODDY TERN. 569 sitting on their eggs. In a great many instances, the re- paired nests formed masses nearly two feet in height, and yet all of them had only a slight hollow for the eggs, broken shells of which were found among the entire ones, as if they had been purposely placed there. The birds did not dis- continue their labours, although there were nine or ten of us walking among the bushes, and when we had gone a few yards into the thicket, thousands of them flew quite low over us, some at times coming so close as to enable us to catch a few of them with the hand. On one side might be seen a Noddy carrying a stick in its bill, or a bird picking up some- thing from the ground to add to its nest; on the other, several were seen sitting on their eggs unconscious of danger, while their mates brought them food. The greater part rose on wing as we advanced, but re-alighted as soon as we had passed. The bushes were rarely taller than ourselves, so that we could easily see the eggsin the nests. This was quite a new sight to me, and not less pleasing than unexpected. At the approach of a boat, the Noddies never flew off their island, in the manner of the Sooty Terns. They appeared to go farther out to sea than those birds in search of their food, which consists of fishes mostly caught amid the floating sea- weeds, these Terns seizing them, not by plunging perpen- dicularly downwards, as other species do, but by skimming close over the surface in the manner of Gulls, and also by alighting and swimming round the edges of the weeds. This I had abundant opportunities of seeing while on the Gulf of Mexico. The flight of this bird greatly resembles that of the Night-hawk when passing over meadows or rivers. When about to alight on the water, the Noddy keeps its wings extended upwards and touches it first with its feet. It swims with considerable buoyancy and grace, and at times immerses its head to seize ona fish. It does not see ‘well by night, and it is for this reason that it frequently alights on the spars of vessels, where it sleeps so soundly that the seamen often catch them. When seized in the hand it utters a rough cry, not unlike that of a young American Crow taken from the nest. On such occasions it VOL. III. 4D 570 LARIDE. bites severely, with quickly-repeated movements of the bill, which, on missing the object aimed at, closes with a snap. Some which I kept several days refused all kinds of food, became dull and languid, and at length died. While hover- ing over us near their nests, these birds emitted a low quer- ulous murmur, and, if unmolested, would attempt to alight on our heads. After a few visits, however, they became rather more careful of themselves, although the sitting birds often suffered us to put a hat over them. This species incu- bates both day and night.” The following extract in reference to the habits of this bird in Australia forms part of a letter from the late Mr. Gilbert, who was collecting for Mr. Gould in Western Australia :— ‘‘The Noddy and its allied species are the most numerous of all the inhabitants of the Houtmann’s Abrolhos, breeding in prodigious numbers; the, bird lays in November and December, forming a nest of sea-weed about six inches in diameter, and varying in height from four to eight inches, but without anything like regularity of form; the top is nearly flat, there being but avery slight hollow to prevent the egg rolling off. The nests are so completely plastered with their excrement, that at first sight it appears to be almost the only material; they are either placed on the ground, in a clear open space, or on the tops of the thick scrub, over the Sterna fuliginosa : these two species incubate together in the utmost harmony, the bushes to an immense extent wearing a mottled appearance, from the great mass of birds of both species perched on the top, the male Sterna fuliginosa sitting quite close to the nest of the Noddy, while its mate is beneath, performing her arduous duties of incu- bation. On walking among these birds’ nests, I was surprised to observe the extreme tenacity with which they kept their post; in fact they would not remove off the egg or young, but suffered themselves to be fairly trod upon, or taken off by the hand; and so thickly were these nests placed, that it was no easy matter to avoid crushing either birds or eggs at every step. In the middle of January I found the eggs very nearly ready to hatch, and but few young birds; in NODDY TERN. 571 numerous instances the bird would suffer me to take it by the wing and throw it off the nest, but would immediately return, although I was still standing close to the spot. There would be an overwhelming increase of this species yearly but for one check which nature has provided against it in the presence of a lizard, which is extremely abundant about their breeding-places, and which finds an easy prey in this and S. fuliginosa. I am satisfied, from constant observation, that, on an average, not more than one out of every twenty birds hatched ever reach maturity, or live long enough to take wing; besides this, great numbers of the old birds are constantly killed: these lizards do not eat the whole bird, but merely extract the brains and vertebral marrow; the remainder, however, is soon cleared off by the Dermestes lardarius, which is here in amazing numbers, and gave me a great deal of uneasiness and constant trouble to preserve my collection from their repeated attacks. I did not observe the Noddy inhabiting any other but South Island; they do not appear to go far out to sea to feed, finding an abundance of food immediately outside the outer reef; nor did I in any one instance observe it feeding in the smooth quiet water between the outer reef and the islands, Their food consists of small fish, small mollusca, meduse, cuttle-fish, &e.’’ Audubon states that this species, like the Sooty Tern, lays three eggs, but other authorities state that each female lays and incubates a single egg. A nest is not invariably constructed, and at times the solitary egg is laid in any convenient depression or crevice of the rock or coral-reef. The ege is of a dull ruddy-white or buff, rather rough in texture, sparingly spotted and scrolled with reddish-brown ; average measurements 2 by 1°4 in. In the adult bird the bill is black ; from the base of the bill to the eye is also black ; irides brown; the forehead and crown grey; occiput smoke-grey ; the throat dark lead-grey ; the body above and below and all the wing-coverts, dark coffee-brown ; primaries and tail-feathers brownish-black ; legs and toes reddish-brown; membranes yellow, varying in yb LARID&. brilliancy according to age and season; claws black. The whole length of the specimen here figured and described fourteen inches and a half to the end of the tail; the wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the first quill-feather eleven inches. Males are rather larger and brighter in colour than the females. In birds which are not fully mature, the black loral streaks are less defined; the grey of the forehead and throat is less pronounced, and the general tint is browner. Birds of the first year have very little white on the forehead ; the mantle and wing-coverts are of a lighter brown, the secondaries and tail-feathers showing slight bars of umber-brown near the tips; under parts pale brown. The Editor considers that there is only one species of large Noddy, to which about a dozen different specific names have been applied; Mr. R. B. Sharpe distinguishes in addition to the above :—Anous superciliosus of the coast of Central America and the Antilles; A. plumbeigularis of the Red Sea; and A. galapagensis of the Galapagos Archipelago (Phil. Trans. elxviii. pp. 463-469). The genus also contains two very distinct and smaller species :—A. melanogenys and A. tenudrostris, the former having a wide intertropical range ; the latter restricted, so far as is known, to the district between the Red Sea and Australia ; and a doubtfully distinct species, A, leucocapillus, occurs in Australian and Polynesian waters. There are also two small and very closely-allied grey-mantled species :—A. ceruleus of the tropical Pacific, and A. cinereus of Eastern Australasia. SABINE’S GULL. 573 GAVIA. LARIDA, XeMA saBrnit (J. Sabine *). SABINE’S GULL. Larus Sabint. Xuma, Leach*+.—Bill rather shorter than the head, moderately stout, the upper mandible decurved from beyond the nostrils to the tip, the gonys angu- lated and advancing upwards ; nostrils basal, Jateral, linear. Legs moderately long; the lower part of the tibixw bare for some distance; tarsi tolerably strong ; three toes in front entirely palmated, bind toe small, elevated. Wings Jong, the first quill-feather the longest. Tatil distinctly forked. THE prominent angle at the svmphisis of the under man- dible; the extent of the palmated membrane between the toes, and the almost square tail observed, more or less, in some of the Terns, indicate a degree of connection with the Gulls ; and the Gull here first inserted, by its forked tail, exhibits one point of resemblance to the greater number * Larus Sabini, Joseph Sabine, Trans. Linn. Soe. xii. p. 520, pl. xxix. (1818). + Xema, Leach ; J. Ross, in Ross’s Voy. App. ii. p. Ivii. (1819). The ‘genus has been improperly made, by others, to include the small hooded species, and also some of those without hoods. 574 LARIDA. of the Terns. Like them, some of the smaller Gulls assume during the breeding-season a dark-coloured head. Most of the species of the sub-family Larine, or Gulls, have a wide geographical range; some of them frequenting the sea-coast, whilst others also visit inland lakes, rivers, and marshes. As a family they are practically omnivorous, living on fish, alive or dead, any animal matter that is cast up by the tide, eggs of other birds, insects, grain, and other vegetable substances. The young differ from the adult birds in plumage, and seldom associate with them at the nesting- place during the breeding-season. The sexes do not differ in plumage; but the males are generally larger than the females ; sometimes considerably so. SaBINE’s GuLL was added to the British Fauna by the late Wm. Thompson, of Belfast, to whom we are indebted for a description of the plumage of the young bird in its first autumn dress. The first specimen was shot in Belfast Bay, in September, 1822, and was presented to the Natural History Society of Belfast for the museum, in 1833; and in the Museum of the Royal Dublin Society, Mr. Thompson subsequently pointed out a second example of this Gull, also in the plumage of the first autumn, which was shot in Dublin Bay by Mr. Wall, the curator. Attention having been drawn to the characteristics of this species, it was found to be a not unfrequent, although somewhat irregular, visitor to the shores of the British Islands. In almost every instance the occur- rences have taken place in the months of August, Septem- ber, and October,—the exception being one near Brighton in December,—and the specimens obtained have been, almost invariably, young birds of the year. Mr. Harting’s valuable ‘Handbook of British Birds’ (p. 171), contains a record of upwards of twenty captures previous to 1872, and during the subsequent twelve years so many more have been recorded that the instances are too numerous for mention in detail. Suffice it to say that examples of this species have been obtained twice or thrice in Cornwall; twice in Devonshire ; twice in Somersetshire ; six times in Sussex; twice on the SABINE’S GULL. 675 Thames, near Barking Creek ; once inland, in Cambridge- shire ; once in Norfolk ; one picked up starved near Shrews- bury; six times in Yorkshire; once near North Berwick ; once in Banffshire; once on the island of Mull; once at Milford Haven, in Wales; and nine or ten times in Ireland. The exceptions to the rule that the visitors are immature birds, are: one adult in full summer plumage, Bridlington, Yorkshire, August 10th, 1872 (Zool. s.s. 8316); and, so recently as the 8th of September, 1883, one with full slate- coloured hood and ring, killed at Loch Spelvie, Mull, by the Rev. F. W. Champneys. This species of Gull was first described (Trans. Linn. Soc. xii. p. 520), by the late Joseph Sabine, from specimens sent by his brother, Captain (afterwards Sir Edward) Sabine, who accompanied the expedition of 1818 in search of a North- West Passage. The account of these birds was that ‘‘ they were met with by Captain Sabine, and killed by him on the 25th of July, 1818, on a group of three rocky islands, each about a mile across, on the west coast of Greenland, twenty miles distant from the mainland in latitude 75° 29’ N., and longitude 60° 9 W. They were associated in considerable numbers with Arctic Terns, breeding on those islands, the nests of both birds being intermingled. This Gull lays two egos on the bare ground ; these are hatched the last week in July; the young are mottled at first with brown and dull yellow. The eggs are an inch and a half in length, and of regular shape, not much pointed; the colour is olive, blotched with brown. The parent birds flew with impetu- osity towards persons approaching their nests and young; and when one bird of a pair was killed, its mate, though frequently fired at, continued on wing close to the spot ~ where it lay. They get their food on the sea-beach, stand- ing near the water’s edge and picking up the marine insects which are cast on shore.” During Parry’s second Arctic voyage a bird of this species was seen in Prince Regent’s Inlet; afterwards many speci- mens were obtained on Melville Peninsula; and it was observed at Boothia Felix. Birds and one egg were obtained 576 LARID&. at Cambridge Bay in June, 1853 (Zool. 1879, p. 8). On the 8th August, 1848, Richardson had found a nesting-place, around which the parent birds and their spotted young were flying, on an island off Cape Dalhousie, in about 130° long. W., near the estuary of the Mackenzie River; subsequently MacFarlane obtained many eggs for the Smithsonian Insti- tution along the Arctic coast about Anderson and Franklin Rivers ; and this Gull is now known to breed plentifully in the marshes of Alaska. It is common on the opposite shores of Eastern Siberia; the ‘ Vega’ obtained it in Bering Straits; and Middendorff found it breeding abun- dantly, in company with the Arctic Tern, on the Taimyr peninsula in 745° N. lat. It has not been obtained on Novaya Zemlya, nor on Franz-Josef Land; but Sabine told Richardson that he shot two on Spitsbergen, and the latter says the bird brought home was in full breeding-plumage. On the autumn migration examples of Sabine’s Gull, mostly young birds, visit the islands and northern shores of the German Ocean, and also those of the north-west of France ; the Editor has examined a fine adult, still in breed- ing-plumage, shot off Brittany on the 25th August, 1872. In America, its recorded range on migration is down to New York on the east ; also to the Bermudas; and to Great Salt Lake, Utah, on the western side of the Rocky Mountains ; an example has been obtained at Tumbes, and two specimens in nearly adult winter plumage, shot near Callao, Peru, in 12° lat. S., have been presented to the Editor by Capt. A. H. Markham, R.N. This extension of its range in the Pacific is of great interest, as it there overlaps the area of the only other representative of the genus, Xema furcatum, a much larger species, of great rarity, the third existing example having recently been obtained on the coast of Peru, by Capt. Markham (P. Z. 8. 1882, p. 523). The downy nestling and the egg of Sabine’s Gull were first described and figured by Middendorff (Sib. Reise, ii. p. 245, pl. xxiv.). Eggs obtained by MacFarlane, one of which has been figured by Prof. Newton (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 57, pl. iv. fig. 5), are of a dull brownish-olive, with faint brown SABINE’S GULL. 577 blotches and scrawls at the larger end; measurements 1°7 by 1°3 in. The adult in summer plumage has the bill one inch long, the base of both mandibles black, as far as the angular pro- jection of the lower mandible, the remainder yellow; the inside of the mouth bright vermilion. The irides dark, sur- rounded by a naked circle of the same colour as the inside of the mouth ; a small white speck beneath the eye scarcely perceptible. The whole of the head and upper part of the neck a dark lead-colour, terminating in a narrow black collar; the remainder of the neck behind and before, as well as the breast and belly, pure white. The back, scapulars, and wing-coverts are ash-coloured, much lighter than the head; the lower ends of the scapulars are tipped with white. The shafts and outer webs of the first five primary quill- feathers are black, the edge of their inner webs white to within an inch and a half of the tips, the white sometimes continued to the tip ; the tips of the first and second of these quill-feathers white in old birds; the tips of the third, fourth, and fifth white, giving the wing when closed a spotted appear- ance; the sixth primary has the web principally white; the upper primaries, secondaries, and the whole under parts of the wings, white. The legs, feet, and claws reddish-black ; the thigh feathered to within three-eighths of an inch of the knee: the tail with its upper and under coverts white; the outer tail-feathers narrower and about one inch longer than those in the middle. Total length thirteen inches; wing, from the wrist ten inches and three-quarters. Two examples in their second year obtained in Callao Bay, Peru, in December 1881, have the forehead and crown white ; an irregular and rather broad dark band or patch on the nape where the collar joins the hood in the adult; the white tips of the primaries are abruptly abraded, as if cut off with scissors, giving the lower part of the wing a uniform black appearance ; legs and feet clay-brown; mantle, tail, under-parts and bill, as in the adult. Thompson’s description of the autumnal plumage of the young bird of the first year is, ‘‘ the forehead, space imme- VOL. Ill. 45 578 LARIDA. diately above the eye, and between it and the bill, (with the exception of the narrow line of greyish-black closely encir- cling the front and lower part of the eye,) upper part of the throat, and sides of the neck, are white; crown, nape, and back of the neck, blackish-grey; back, scapulars, greater and lesser wing-coverts, blackish-grey, tinged with yellowish- brown, the extremity of every feather varying from greyish- white to white, as it approaches the tail; under part of the throat, and upper part of the breast, pale ash-colour ; lower breast and all the under plumage, white; shafts of the first six primaries brownish-black at base, becoming gradually darker towards the extremity, where they are black in the first three, but in the fourth, fifth, and sixth assimilate in colour to the feather at that part, which is white; the entire of the outer webs of the first five black; the inner webs with a broad edging of white, to within from one to two inches of the end, which part is black in the first three, but tipped with white in the fourth and fifth ; in the sixth the inner web is white, the outer black, excepting for three or four lines from the tip, where it is white, and again at about an inch from the end where a white spot of an oval form appears. Feathers of the tail white, with black tips.” The representation below is that of a young bird in the plumage of its first autumn. CUNEATE-TAILED GULL. 579 GAVIA. LARIDZ. RHopOstETHIA RosEA, Macgillivray.* THE CUNEATE-TAILED GULL. Larus Rossii. Rauoposterata, Macgillivrayt.—Bill short, rather slender, the upper mandible decurved towards the tip, the lower mandible with the intercrural space narrow, the knob slight, the dorsal line concave, and the tip narrow. Wings long, pointed, the first quill-feather the longest. Tail cuneate, the central feathers much longer than the lateral ones; legs rather short, the tibia bare for a short distance ; tarsus anteriorly scutellate, rough posteriorly ; hind toe very distinct, with a large curved claw ; the three anterior toes entirely webbed ; claws rather large, and curved. For the statement of the occurrence of this very rare Gull in Yorkshire, and its consequent admission in a History of British Birds, we are indebted to Mr. Charles- worth, who states (Pr. Yorks. Phil. Soc. i. p. 338, 1847) that * Larus roseus, Macgillivray, Mem. Wern. Soe. v. pt. i. p. 249 (1824); de- scription of one of the two specimens obtained on Melville Peninsula. + Manual of British Ornithology, Pt. ii. p. 252 (1842), 580 LARIDA. he was shown the specimen, said by Graham, a bird-stuffer of York, to have been shot near Tadcaster, and with the permission of its then owner, and of Mr. (later Sir Wm. M. E.) Milner, of Nun Appleton, who afterwards purchased it, he sent it for the Author's inspection. Sir W. Milner’s version, presumably derived from Graham, is that the bird was killed on the 22nd December, 1846, by a Mr. Saxton, of Aberford (Zool. p. 1694); but the following details were supplied by Mr. Henry Milner (Zool. p. 1784) :— « Ross’s Gull was killed by Horner, Lord Howden’s head- keeper, in February, 1847, in a ploughed field, near the hamlet of Milford-cum-Kirby, in the parish of Kirby. Its flight resembled, according to Horner’s account, the flight of any other Gull, and it did not seem at all shy.” This specimen, which is in winter plumage, and is now in the Leeds Museum, has, in the opinion of several persons who have examined it, the appearance of having been mounted from a relaxed skin and not from ‘the flesh’; the dates assigned are, however, consistent with the absence of the black collar; and as one straggler of this species has occurred in the Feroes, and another in Heligoland, there is no inherent improbability of its having been obtained in Yorkshire. Macgillivray had already included this bird in his Manual of British Ornithology, vol. ii. p. 254 (1842), with the remark that ‘‘ this species has once occurred in Ireland,” but of this there is no corroborative evidence.* | The two first examples of this rare Arctic Gull were obtained on the 23rd and 27th June, 1823, on Parry’s second voyage, at Alagnak, Melville Peninsula, 69° 30’ N. lat., and the species was named by Richardson after its discoverer, Mr., afterwards Sir James C. Ross; but in the matter of nomenclature he had been anticipated by Macgillivray. One of these specimens is in the Edinburgh Museum ; the other, which was given to the late Mr. J. Sabine, is probably the one which is now in the Derby Museum at Liverpool. * A Mr. J. B. Ellmann has stated that an adult male was shot and presented to him by his friend Mr. Vidler of Pevensey, and this bare assertion, unaccom- panied by any detai!s, was inserted in ‘ The Zoologist,’ p. 3388. CUNEATE-TAILED GULL. 581 The species was also observed at Felix Harbour, Boothia. Ross, in his Zoological Appendix to Sir Edward Parry’s narrative of his adventurous boat-voyage towards the Pole, relates that several were seen during the journey over the ice north of Spitsbergen, and that Lieutenant Forster also found the species in Waygatz (i.e. Hinlopen) Strait—not to be confounded with Waigatz Island to the south of Novaya Zemlya—but specimens were not obtained. Professor Malm- eren, who did not meet with it at Spitsbergen, has expressed his doubts as to the correctness of the identification, but upon this point the testimony of Ross and Parry, who certainly knew this Gull better than any men then living, is clear. In Parry’s Narrative (p. 81) the words are, ‘‘ We saw in the course of this journey [13th July, 1827, lat. 82° 17’ N.] one of the very beautiful gulls first discovered by Lieut. Ross at Arlagnuk [sic] in our voyage of 1823, and named in compliment to him Larus Rossii.”’ On 16th July, lat. 82° 26/ N., ‘‘ We saw during the last journey a second Ross gull” (p. 87); and again, on their return, August 2nd, in 82° 6’ N. lat., 17° 45° E. long.—** We saw five or six birds, amongst others two Ross gulls, during this journey” (p. 110). It is impossible to throw over such evidence merely because later visitors to Spitsbergen haye not observed the species ; and the correctness of these distinguished Arctic explorers is confirmed by the fact that the Austro-Hungarian expedition obtained a specimen off the newly-discovered Franz-Josef Land, although it was lost when the ‘ Tegetthoff’ was abandoned. Nordenskidld’s expedition obtained a bird of the second year on the Ist July, 1879, just before the ‘ Vega’ was freed from her winter quarters off the Chukch Peninsula; and Mr. Newcomb, of the ill-fated ‘ Jeannette,’ shot no less than eight specimens off North-eastern Siberia, after the middle of October, 1879. Three of these, together with a bird in the spotted plumage of the first year, shot in October near St. Michael’s, Alaska, by Mr. E. Nelson, are now in the Smithsonian Institution at Washington (Cruise of the ‘Corwin’ p. 108). In the Copenhagen Museum there are three from Disco Bay, Greenland; a fourth from the 582 LARID&. same locality is now in the Cambridge Museum ; another from Greenland is said to be in possession of the Hdélboll family; and one which has been in the Vienna Museum since 1818, formed part of the collection made by Giesecké during his seven years’ residence in Greenland. In the Briich Collection in the Mainz Museum are two examples in the spotted plumage of the first year, said to have been obtained in Kamtschatka. One from Suderoe, Feroe Islands, is in Herr Benzon’s collection at Copenhagen ; and Mr. Giitke, of Heligoland, has one in winter plumage obtained on that island on the 5th of February, 1858. These, with the Yorkshire specimen, make a total of twenty-three birds obtained up to the present, and it seems probable that in a short time the American explorers at Point Barrow will be in a position to supply information respecting the nidifica- tion of this cireumpolar species. Richardson’s description of the specimen killed at Alagnak, Melville Peninsula, on the 23rd June, 1823, is as follows :— Scapulars, inter-scapulars, and both surfaces of the wings clear pearl-grey ; outer web of the first quill blackish-brown to its tip, which is grey; tips of the scapulars and lesser quills whitish. Some small feathers near the eye, and a collar round the middle of the neck, pitch black; rest of the plumage white; the neck above, and the whole under plumage, deeply tinged with peach-blossom red in recent specimens; bill black, its rictus and the edges of the eyelids reddish-orange ; legs and feet vermilion-red ; nails blackish, The other specimen, killed by Mr. Sherer a few days later, differs only in the first primary coverts having the same dark colour with the outer web of the first primary itself. The Yorkshire specimen, killed in February, had the bill black; eyes with a narrow line of dark feathers around them; head, whole of the neck and breast, delicate rose- colour, mixed or clouded with french-grey ; wings and back french-grey ; outer web of the first primary, only, dark grey ; the shafts bluish-grey; upper tail-coverts, tail-feathers, and all the under surface of the body, delicate rose-colour ; under surface of the wings french-grey; the shafts of the CUNEATE-TAILED GULL. 583 primaries white; central pair of tail-feathers the longest ; the remainder graduated, forming a wedge-shaped tail ; legs, toes, and interdigital membranes vermilion ; the claws black. The whole length of the bird is about fourteen inches ; wing, from the anterior bend to the end of the first primary, which is the longest, ten inches and a half; bill, from the point to the feathers on the top, three-fourths of an inch ; length of the tarsus one inch and a quarter. In the two immature specimens in the Mainz Museum the bill is black, feathered to the base of nostril, thence to tip ‘6 in. ; from gape to tip 1°2 in.; head white; a few dark hairlike feathers round the eye of one specimen, and beneath the eye of the other; black colour slightly developed on the one, distinct in the other, especially on the nape; breast pure white, with a pink tinge on the lower part and on the abdomen; mantle to rump grey, lighter on shoulders ; pri- maries, first, second, and third smoke-brown on outer web and shaft, this colour running round the tip, and some way up the inner web, the remainder of which is white ; on the fourth and fifth the white portion increases, but the shaft continues dark, although successively becoming lighter, till on the tenth it is pure white ; in the sixth the dark marking on the webs becomes a brown bar, which gradually decreases until it is nearly lost in the ninth, and totally so in the tenth primary, which is entirely white; these dark tips give a very pretty barred appearance to the wings; secondaries pearl-grey, passing into white, thus forming a white band; carpals and upper wing-coverts smoke-brown, faintly tipped with white ; lower wing-coverts grey, like the mantle, but tertials smoke- brown; tail pure white in one specimen; in the other the third and fourth feathers on each side are barred with smoke- brown (Ibis, 1875, p. 485). . 584 LARIDA. GAVIA. LARIDE, LARUS PHILADELPHIA (Ord*). BONAPARTIAN GULL. Larus Bonapartii. Larvus.—Bill of moderate length, strong, hard, compressed, cutting, slightly decurved towards the point, lower mandible shorter than the upper, the sym- phisis angular, prominent. Nostrils lateral, near the middle of the beak, pierced longitudinally, pervious. Legs moderately slender, lower part of the tibize ‘naked, the tarsus long, three toes in front entirely palmated, the hind toe free, short, but not rudimentary, articulated high up on the tarsus above the line of the other toes. Wings long, the first and second quill-feathers varying slightly in their relative length, but nearly equal. ‘Tail square at the end. THE late William Thompson was the first to record the occurrence of this small American Gull in the British Islands (Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1848, i. p. 192). A speci- men was killed on the tidal portion of the river Lagan, between Ormeau Bridge and the Botanic Garden, about a * Sterna philadelphia, Ord, in Guthrie’s Geography, 2nd Amer. Ed., ii. p. 319 (1815). The name of Larus bonapartii was not conferred by Swainson until 1831. BONAPARTIAN GULL. 585 mile above the lowest bridge at the town of Belfast, on the 1st of February, 1848. It was flying singly. The person who shot the bird, attracted by its pretty appearance merely, left it to be preserved with a taxidermist, who, on receipt of any species either rare or unknown to him, was in the habit of taking them to Mr. Thompson for his inspection. The bird was therefore examined previous to its being skinned, and exact measurements were made. Two less thoroughly authenticated occurrences in Ireland are also recorded: the former on the coast, about seventeen miles north of Dublin, on the 14th February, 1855 (Zool. p. 4762); the other in Dublin Bay in the month of July (Zool. s.s. p. 806), which, provided the identification was correct, is a remarkable time of year for such a species to present itself. As regards the occurrence of Bonaparte’s Gull in Scotland, there is not the slightest doubt. About the end of April, 1850, Sir George H. Leith-Buchanan, Bart., shot a fine adult specimen, a portrait of which was sent to the Author, and clearly identified (Zool. pp. 3117, 3118); but as some scepticism had recently been expressed in a standard work on ornithology, Sir George sent the bird to the Editor, who exhibited it before a meeting of the Zoological Society on the 4th of March, 1884. Three examples of this rare straggler have also been obtained in England, and have been recorded by the late Mr. E. H. Rodd, whose attention was drawn to the first of them by Mr. Gould (Zool. p. 9501; B. Cornwall, p. 168). It was shot in Falmouth Harbour on the 4th January, 1865, having been observed for some hours by the captain of a vessel, flying in company with a Herring Gull, and both birds fell to the same discharge. The second specimen was shot on the 10th of the same month near Penryn, by a son of Mr. A. G. Copeland. The third, which is in the collec- tion of Mr. F. Pershouse of Torquay, was shot by him early in November, 1870, at St. Leonards, Sussex, and has been fully identified by Mr. Cecil Smith (Zool. 1883, p. 120). There is not as yet any authenticated record of the occur- rence of this species on the coasts of the Continent. VOL. Il. 4 FP 586 LARIDA. Bonaparte’s Gull is widely distributed throughout North America, from the Arctic regions in summer, down to the Southern States and the Bermudas, on migration. Dr. Elliott Coues remarks that this species begins to arrive on the Carolina coast in September, and stays a month or so, but none pass the entire winter there. Audubon says that it is very abundant in winter on the coast of Florida. With the first genial weather in April, and throughout the ereater part of May, there is a succession of birds passing northwards ; the earlier ones being adults, while the later arrivals are young of the previous year. It is not known to breed within the boundaries of the United States, but Dr. Coues saw a great many in Labrador and about the mouth of the St. Lawrence, at a time of year which rendered it probable that they bred at no great distance. As regards British North America, Richardson (‘ Boat Voyage,’ i. p. 200) says: ‘‘ One of the birds we traced up to its breeding- places on Great Bear Lake, but not to the [Arctic] sea-coast, is the pretty little Bonapartean Gull. This species arrives very early in the season, before the ground is denuded of snow, and seeks its food in the first pools of water which form on the borders of Great Bear Lake, and wherein it finds multitudes of minute crustacean animals and larve of insects. It flies in flocks, and builds its nests in a colony resembling a rookery, seven or eight on a tree; the nests being framed of sticks, laid flatly. Its voice and mode of flying are like those of a Tern ; and, like that bird, it rushes fiercely at the head of any one who intrudes on its haunts, screaming loudly. It has, moreover, the strange practice, considering the form of its feet, of perching on posts and trees; and it may be often seen standing gracefully on a summit of a small spruce fir.” Its breeding-grounds extend over the greater part of Arctic America, and eggs obtained by the late Mr. MacFarlane at Anderson-River Fort have been received by the Smithsonian Institution. One, figured by Prof. Newton (P. Z. 8. 1871, p. 57, pl. iv. fig. 6), measures 1:8 by 1:29 in.; its colour is greenish-buff blotched and zoned with dark brown. Mr. E. W. Nelson says that this BONAPARTIAN GULL. 587 Gull is rare along the Alaskan coast, being found there merely as a straggler from its breeding-grounds in the interior, and there is no record of its occurrence on any of the islands of Bering Sea, or on the opposite coast of Siberia. On migration it goes for some distance down the coast of California, and is a visitor to the Great Salt Lake of Utah. Audubon gives the following particulars in his ‘ Birds of America’: ‘‘No sooner do the shad and old-wives enter the bays and rivers of our Middle Districts, than this Gull begins to show itself on the coast, following these fishes as if dependent upon them for support, and after the 1st of April, thousands of Bonapartian Gulls are seen gamboling over the waters of Chesapeake Bay, and proceeding eastward, keeping pace with the shoals of fishes. During my stay at ‘Eastport in Maine, in May, 1833, these Gulls were to be seen in vast numbers in the harbour of Passamaquody at high water, and in equal quantites at low water on all the sand and mud-bars in the neighbourhood. They were ex- tremely gentle, scarcely heeded us, and flew around our boats so close that any number might have been procured. My son John shot seventeen of them at a single discharge of his double-barrelled gun, but all of them proved to be young birds of the preceding year. Their stomachs were filled with coleopterous insects, which they caught on the wing, or picked up from the water. On the 24th of August, 1631, when at Eastport with my family, I shot ten of these Gulls. The adult birds had already lost their dark hood, and the young were in fine plumage. In the stomachs of all were shrimps, very small fishes, and fat substances. The old birds were still in pairs.” An adult male killed at Great Slave Lake at the end of May, 1826, is thus described by Sir John Richardson :— ‘Neck, tail-coverts, tail, whole under plumage and interior of the wings pure white; hood greyish-black, extending half an inch over the nape, and as much lower on the throat ; mantle pearl-grey, this colour extending to the tips of the tertiaries, secondaries, and two posterior primaries; the anterior border of the wing white ; the outer web of the first 588 LARID&. primary, and the ends of the first six are deep black, most of them slightly tipped with white; the inner web of the first primary, with the outer webs of the three following ones, with their shafts, are pure white; bill shining black; inside of the mouth and the legs bright carmine-red; irides dark brown.” In winter the hood is lost, and the occiput and ear-coverts are merely streaked with blackish. The female is a little smaller than the male, but there is no difference in plumage ; and the statements by Audubon and Bonaparte that the female has a brown hood are inex- plicable. The average length is from fourteen inches to fifteen inches and a half; wing, from the bend to the end of the longest quill-feather, ten inches. A young bird in its first plumage, killed at the end of August, has the crown of the head, back of the neck, scapu- lars, and interscapulars mottled with greyish-brown, with paler tips; middle of the wing and tertiaries grey, barred with blackish-brown, the tips lighter; outer webs of first and second primaries black, with a streak of the same on the inside next the shaft ; margins of inner webs white; throat and upper part of the breast white; tail white, with a blackish-brown bar ; bill brownish, pale at the base beneath ; legs clay-coloured. The lower figure here given is intended to represent the anterior half of an adult bird in the breeding-plumage ; the entire figure placed on the rock is a young bird in the dress of its first winter. Bonaparte’s Gull may easily be recognized by its small size —only exceeding that of the Little Gull, L. minutus—its comparatively slender bill, and by the white margins to the inner webs of the outer primaries, at all stages. With - approaching maturity the white extends to both webs, except the outer web of the first primary, which is always black ; and the broad black ends to the first six quill-feathers are also characteristic. LITTLE GULL. 589 GAVIA. LARID&. Ay (=a AR Larus minutus, Pallas*. THE LITTLE GULL. Larus minutus. Tus interesting little Palearctic Gull, the smallest of its genus, was first described and figured as a British bird by Colonel Montagu, in the Appendix to the Supplement of his Ornithological Dictionary, from a young bird in the plumage of the first year that was shot on the Thames near Chelsea, and then in the possession of Mr. Plasted of that place, at the sale of whose collection it passed into the possession of Mr. Leadbeater. Mr. Bullock’s celebrated collection con- * Reise Russische Reichs, iii. p. 702, App. no. 35 (1776). 590 LARID. tained two examples in 1819, which were then considered very rare. Since that time various specimens have occurred in different states of plumage; but it was not until the year 1866 that this species was remarked as occurring in any numbers. In that year it was tolerably numerous on the Yorkshire coast, where, in 1868, Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., knew of some fourteen or more specimens obtained between the 12th of July and the 21st of November, two of those shot in the former month having black heads. In that year only one was obtained in Norfolk; but during the winter of 1869-70, especially after the heavy easterly gales of February, Mr. Bond saw eleven specimens in Leadenhall Market, eight of which were adults; Mr. Stevenson judged that over sixty had been killed on the Norfolk coast (Tr. Norfolk & Norw. Nat. Soc. i. pp. 65-70), the proportion of old birds being about twenty-nine to six immature; and about thirty birds were obtained at Bridlington, nine- teen of these being adults. Passing northwards, the Little Gull is recorded from Durham and Northumberland: and from various localities along the east coast of Scotland up to Sutherland and Caithness, and also in Shetland; but on the western side the records of its visits are rare; it has, however, been obtained on the Firth of Clyde; in the Isle of Skye; and on Loch Lomond. It has also occurred on the Solway and in Lancashire; but it seldom visits Wales, although in Cornwall both adults and immature examples are occasionally met with in winter. In South Devon Mr. Gatcombe knows of upwards of half a dozen immature birds killed near Plymouth ; and it has occurred in Somersetshire and along the south coast of England. Inland it has been obtained at King’s Newton in Derbyshire (Zool. p. 3118). In Ireland an adult in summer plumage is recorded by Thompson as having been shot on the Shannon ; and it has been recorded in Galway; at Belfast; near Dublin; and on other parts of the coast. The Little Gull is only a recent straggler to southern Norway, but according to Nilsson it formerly bred in Gott- land. It is a visitor to the coasts and islands of the Baltic LITTLE. GULL. 591 and the North Sea, ranging along the shores of France and the Iberian Peninsula to the Mediterranean, throughout the whole of which it is generally distributed, on both the Euro- pean and African sides, from autumn to spring. On migra- tion it also visits Switzerland and other inland portions of the Continent. It tarries until somewhat late in spring on the Black Sea and in the marshes of Southern Russia, and, according to Sabanaéff, it is more numerous than any other Gull in the Ural, nesting on the lakes in great colonies ; but its best-known breeding-grounds are in the northern morasses between Lake Ladoga and Archangel, the latter being apparently its most northern limit. Eastward its range extends across Siberia to the Lena, south of Yakutsk, where Middendorff obtained it in May; and he also found it on the Stanovoi Mountains and on the southern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk. As a straggler it has once visited Northern India, but with that exception it is not known to have occurred east of the southern extremity of the Cas- pian, or south of the great Asiatic plateau; nor does it visit the Pamir range. It was formerly included among the birds of the Fur countries of North America by Sabine and Richardson, but no specimens are extant, and not only is there no confirmatory evidence of its occurrence in the Nearctic region, but it is almost certain that the species meant was Bonaparte’s Gull. A full and interesting account of the breeding of the Little Gullis given in Dresser’s ‘ Birds of Europe,’ by Mr. W. Meves of Stockholm. He found a large colony of these ‘ Scheiks,’ as the Russians call them, in the vicinity of Lake Ladoga, the nests being placed on almost floating islands, formed of plants and constructed of leaves and grass. The eggs were usually three or four in number, and only one nest contained five, of which one was considerably less than the others. The Common Tern was nesting among the Gulls ; but Mr. Meves observed, on blowing an egg that he took out of a Gull which he had shot, that the yolk was of a rich orange-red colour, whereas in the eggs of the Common Tern it was ochre-yellow, and this difference he found to be constant. 592 LARIDA. The usual form of the eggs is ovate or pear-shaped; the ground-colour greenish-olive or greenish-brown with dark brown markings, often collected at the larger end, so as to form a zone; average measurements 1°65 by 1 in. Both the old males and females had three incubation-spots—one in the middle of the abdomen, the others on the sides. A few of the last year’s young were about the place, but there was no sign of their breeding. The stomachs of the Little Gulls examined by Mr. Meves chiefly contained small fishes, which they were continually catching in the lake, and very few had insects; but probably, when the Neuwroptera, Phry- ganie, and Ephemera are abundant, they feed on these in preference. The flight of this species is peculiarly graceful, and the slaty-black underside of the wing forms an easily recognizable characteristic. According to Mr. Meves the female differs from the male in having the bill rather lighter- coloured, and the under surface of the wings much lighter, and greyish-black. The rose tinge is quite as deep as in the male—indeed, often deeper. The female is rather less in size than the male. The figure of this bird in its summer plumage at the head of this subject, was taken from a specimen given to the Author by Mr. Gould. In this specimen the bill is reddish-brown; the irides very dark brown; the whole of the head and the upper part of the neck, all round, is black ; the neck below white; the back, wing-coverts, and wings uniform pale ash-grey, the primaries of the same hue on the outer but darker on the inner webs, with white at the end and on lower portion of the margin of the inner web; upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers white, the tail in form square at the end; all the under surface of the body and under tail- coverts white; legs, toes, and membranes vermilion. In winter the bill is almost black; forehead and upper part of neck in front, and on the sides, pure white ; occiput and nape of the neck streaked with greyish-black on a white ground ; a dusky spot under the eye, and an elongated patch of dusky black falling downwards from the ear-coverts ; all the other parts as in summer. LITTLE GULL. 593 A young bird of the year, killed at Scarborough in the middle of November, and figured in this work, had the bill black, irides very dark brown; forehead and lore white ; top of the head, occiput, and ear-coverts, greyish-black ; nape of the neck white, forming a collar by uniting with the white of the front; below the nape a broader black band extending towards, but not reaching, the wings; back, scapulars, and tertials pale pearl-grey, with a few black feathers appearing through; wing primaries and secondaries greyish-black, tipped with white, nearly the whole of the inner webs white; greater wing-coverts pearl-grey; smaller coverts black, edged with grey; upper tail-coverts white; upper surface of tail-feathers white, with a broad terminal band of black which is broadest on the middle feathers, the outer tail-feather on each side wholly white; all the under surface of the body and wings, under tail-coverts, and each out- side tail-feather white, the other tail-feathers white with a narrower margin of greyish-black; legs, toes, and inter- digital membranes in this preserved specimen pale yellow- brown. The whole length was ten inches and one-eighth ; wing from the wrist eight inches and three-quarters. In a younger specimen killed near Aberdeen in August, and presented to the Editor by Mr. E. Hargitt, the top of the head, occiput, ear-coverts, nape, scapulars and tertials are dark brown, and that colour extends over all the tail- feathers. These signs of immaturity disappear after the autumnal moult of the following year. A downy nestling from Archangel, lent to the Editor by Mr. E. Bidwell, is of a warm buff; streaked and spotted with dark brown; legs, feet and interdigital webs clay- yellow. VOU. TED: Aga 594 LARIDE. GAVIA. LARID. LARUs RIDIBUNDUS, Linneus.* THE BLACK-HEADED GULL. Larus ridibundus. THE BLack-HEADED GuLL is abundant on various parts of our shores, particularly those that are flat and marshy. In such situations it is very common, and while wearing its dark brown hood in summer is easily recognized and well known. During winter it frequents the coast, but being decidedly a marsh-breeder, it assembles in great numbers early in spring, year after year, at various localities favour- able for the purpose of incubation. The progress of cultivation, and consequent drainage of * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 225 (1766). BLACK-HEADED GULL. 595 marshes, has led to the inevitable decrease in the number of its breeding-places, some of those which existed when the former editions of this work were written being now covered by corn-fields, whilst one is the centre of a populous town. On the other hand, the birds which have been driven from their former haunts by adverse circumstances, have, in many cases, met with protection and encouragement elsewhere ; and altogether few marsh-frequenting species have suffered less seriously than the present. It would be difficult to give a complete list of the colonies of the Black-headed Gull in England, many of them being of small importance, and of brief existence, owing to the habits of the birds; nor is it necessary to enumerate those which are now things of the past.* Inthe southern counties of England there do not appear to be any to the west of Dorsetshire, in which there is a large colony near Poole. Until recently there was an interesting colony in Romney Marsh in Kent, but the progress of the new railway from Lydd to Dungeness will, in all probability, destroy one of the most picturesque and most easily observed settlements in England, and one which was an especial favourite with the late Mr. Gould. Nor is there any breeding-place of this species known to the Editor at the present day in Essex or Suffolk ; and in Norfolk some of those existent until quite recent times are now pasture-land; but two still remain— Hoveton and Scoulton. The former, belonging to Mr. Blofield, dates from 1854, when about thirty broods were hatched, and the birds being carefully protected have steadily increased in numbers, especially since they were driven from Rollesby Broad, and other places. The other Norfolk ‘gullery’ —that of Scoulton Mere—is probably the largest and best known in the kingdom, having been described by Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, Lubbock, H. Stevenson, J. H. Gurney, jun., G. Dawson Rowley, T. Southwell, and others. The following is taken from the Catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk Birds by the first-named writers. * For some interesting remarks on past and present ‘‘ Gulleries,” see Mr. J. E. Harting in ‘ The Field’ of 2nd and 16th February, 1884. 596 LARID. ‘‘In the middle of this mere there is a boggy island of seventy acres in extent, covered with reeds, and on which there are some birch and willow trees. There is no river communicating between the mere and the sea. This mere has from time immemorial been a favourite breeding-spot of the Brown-headed Gull. These birds begin to make their appearance at Scoulton about the middle of February ; and by the end of the first week in March the great body of them have always arrived. They spread them- selves over the neighbouring country to the distance of several miles in search of food, following the plough as regularly as Rooks; and, from the great quantity of worms and grubs which they devour, they render essential service to the farmer. If the spring is mild, the Gulls begin to lay about the middle of April; but the month of May is the time at which the eggs are found in the greatest abundance. At this season a man and three boys find constant employ- ment in collecting them, and they have sometimes gathered upwards of a thousand in a day. These eggs are sold on the spot at the rate of fourpence a score, and are regularly sent in considerable quantities to the markets at Norwich and Lynn. They are eaten cold like Lapwings’ eggs, and also used for culinary purposes; but they are rather of an inferior quality, and somewhat like Ducks’ eggs in flavour. The person who sells these eggs gives fifteen pounds a year for the privilege of collecting them. This species of Gull never lays more than three eggs the first time; but, if these are taken, it will lay again. We found many of the old birds sitting in the middle of June; most of these had only one egg in the nest, but a few of them had two. Their nests are made of the tops of reeds and sedge, and are very flat at the surface. The eggs vary so much in size, shape, and colour, that a person not well acquainted with them would suppose some of them to belong to a different species of bird. Some are thickly covered with dusky spots, and others are of a light blue colour without any spots at all. The young birds leave the nest as soon as hatched and take to the water. When they can fly well the old ones depart BLACK-HEADED GULL. 597 with them, and disperse themselves on the sea-coast, where they are found during the autumn and winter. By the middle of July they all leave Scoulton, and are not seen there again till the following spring. We were a little surprised at seeing some of these Gulls alight and sit upon some low bushy willows which grow on the island. No other than the Brown-headed Gull breeds at this mere; a few of them also breed in many of the marshes contiguous to the sea-coast of Norfolk.’’ Scoulton Mere is very shallow, the greatest depth being five feet. Mr. Stevenson says :—‘‘ By the 18th of April the first eggs are laid, rarely more than three in each nest, and after the usual gatherings seldom more than two. For the first month two men are employed to collect three days a week, viz., Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, picking up every ege they can find, and generally at the rate of from 1,500 to 2,000 a day; but when in full laying, and left undis- turbed from Friday to Monday, between 3,000 and 4,000 have been taken in one day. . . . In this manner from 10,000 to 20,000 eggs have been obtained in different seasons.” In 1825 they fetched 4d. a score; in 1870, according to Mr. Stevenson, they sold on the spot at 9d. to 1s. a score. The present Sir Charles H. J. Anderson sent the Author notice of another breeding-place in Lincolnshire, frequented annually by many hundreds of this species. This is at Twigmoor, near Brigg—an estate now belonging to Robert Nassau Sutton, Esq., of Scawby. It consists chiefly of warren ground, partly covered with heather, dwarf shrubs, and birch-trees. In the centre of this is a piece of water of about eighteen acres, the sides of which are green swamps, so spongy, that it is impossible to walk upon them. In these swamps the Black-headed Gulls breed in great quanti- ties, assembling in April, laying their eggs among the rushes in May, and hatching in June. The young, till they are able to fly, creep about among the reeds, or launch out into the open water in fleets if a dog is sent into the swamp to disturb them; the old birds screaming, and almost darting 598 LARID&. in the face of any one who approaches and dwells upon the haunts of their young. In reply to inquiries, Sir Charles Anderson informs the Editor that the number of birds has increased, owing to protection from disturbance, and an over- flow colony is now established on Sir R. Sheffield’s property, a few miles off. ; In Yorkshire there is a ‘ gullery’ on Thorne Waste, and a small one on Strensall Common, an ancient haunt to which they returned in 1881; but the large breeding-place at Hornsea Mere, in Holderness, has been broken up by drainage. In Northumberland there are still colonies at Harbottle Tarn; at Hallypike Lough; at Sweethope; and at Pallinsburn, the latter being the ancient seat of the Askew family, where owing to protection the species is as abundant as ever; and detachments have established themselves at Dunse Castle, and at Paston Lake, near Yetholm, across the Border. On the western side Mr. T. Duckworth informs the Editor that there are ‘ gulleries’ on Bowness Moss, Solway- flow, Wedholm-fiow, Bolton Moss, Ravenglass, and several other places. Passing southwards there was until about eight years ago a colony on Pilling Moss, near Morecambe Bay in Lancashire, and half a century ago Gulls were nest- ing on the present site of the town of Fleetwood. Across the Bay is another and well-known ‘gullery’ on Walney Island; and there are colonies at Winmarleigh, and on a small tarn upon the Bleasdale Fells. In Staffordshire there is, or was, a famous colony described by Willughby (Ornithology, 1678, p. 347), who refers to the bird as ‘‘ the Pewit or Black-cap, called in some places the Sea Crow, and Mire Crow,” and thus describes the practice of fattening it for the table:—‘‘ When they have taken them, they feed them on the entrails of beasts; and when they are fat, sell them for fourpence or fivepence apiece.* * Our ancestors appear to have been rather partial to strong-flavoured food. Thus the Dr. Thomas Muffet, in his ‘‘ Health’s Improvement,’ already quoted on several occasions, says :—‘‘ White Gulls, Grey Gulls, and Black Gulls (commonly termed by the name of ‘ Plungers’ and ‘ Water Crows’) are rejected of every man as a fishy meat ; nevertheless, being fed at home with new curds and good corn till they be fat, you shall seldome taste of a lighter or better meate.” BLACK-HEADED GULL. 599 Of this kind (he says) are those birds which yearly build and breed at Norbury, in Staffordshire, in an island in the middle of a great pool in the grounds of Mr. Skrimshaw, distant at least thirty miles from the sea. Here they take yearly about a thousand two hundred young ones: whence it may be computed what profit the lord makes of them.” It was this ‘ gullery’ which John Ray visited during one of his tours, in May, 1662. On his way from Stafford to Nantwich he says (Itin., pp. 216, 217) :—‘‘ We diverted out of our way to see the Puits, which we judged to be a sort of Lari, in a meer at Norbury, belonging to Col. Skrimshaw. They build together in an islet in the middle of a pool. Each hen layeth three or four eggs of a dirty blue or sea green spotted with black: at the driving every year they take commonly above a hundred dozen young, which they sell at five shillings the dozen. The colour of the Puit is near that of a Seamew; 2.e. white and somewhat flecked, only the head is perfectly black ; about the bigness of a Teal or a Widgeon.”’ The annual driving of these Gulls, referred to by Ray, has been particularly described by Plot in his ‘ History of Staf- fordshire,’ 1686, where a very interesting account is given of this ‘gullery.’ It appears that there was more than one pool on the Skrymsher Estate, to which these birds used to resort and breed. They anciently came to the old ‘ Pewit pool,’ known as Shebden Pool, about half a mile south-west of Norbury Church, but removed on the death of the head of the family to Offley Moss, near Woods Eves, where they continued about three years, and then returned to ‘the old Pewit poole’ again. After another attempt to laying at Offley Moss, they did not breed at all one year, and the year following went to Aqualate Mere, then belonging to the Skrymsher family, by whom Aqualate Hall was built in 1633, but now to the Boughey family :— ‘* After three weeks’ setting,’ says Plot, ‘‘ the young ones are hatched, and about a month after are ready to flye, which usually happens on the 3rd of June, when the pro- prietor of the poole orders them to be driven and catch’d, 600 LARIDZ. the gentry coming in from all parts to see the sport, the manner thus: They pitch a rabbit net on the bank side, in the most convenient place over against the hafts, the net in the middle being about ten yards from the side, but close at the ends in the manner of a bow. Then six or seven men wade into the poole beyond the Pewits over against the net with long staves, and drive them from the hafts, whence they all swim to the bankside, and, landing, run like Lapwings into the net, where people standing ready take them up and put them into two penns made within the bow of the net, which are built round, about three yards diameter and a yard length, or somewhat better, with small stakes driven into the ground in a circle, and interwoven with broom and other raddle. In which manner there have been taken of them in one morning fifty dozens at a driving. They commonly appoint three days of driving them within fourteen days, or thereabouts, of the 2nd and 8rd of June.’’ Garner, who, in his ‘Natural History of the County of Stafford,’ refers to these Gulls having bred at Shebden Pool, near High Offley, in Plot’s time (1686), states, on the authority of Shaw (Hist. and Antiq. Stafford, 1798), that there were none there in 1794.* In Scotland the breeding-places are very numerous on the mainland, and there are colonies on the larger islands as far north as the Shetlands. Mr. Robert Gray mentions two within easy reach of Glasgow; one of them containing from 500 to 800 pairs, on a small marshy islet in Hairlaw Loch —a patch of water, partly artificial, situated near Neilston Pad, which is within full view of the city ; the other on the island of Inchmoin in Loch Lomond. From the northern districts it migrates to some extent during severe winters, but on the whole it may be considered a resident species. In Ireland it is, perhaps, the commonest of all the Gulls, and numerous breeding-places are studded throughout the country. Thompson mentions several colonies, but owing to inundations and persecution the birds are in the habit of shifting their quarters, and there is a lack of recent details. * J. E. Harting, J. c. BLACK-HEADED GULL. 601 The Black-Headed Gull nests in one locality in the Feroes, which appear to be the limit of its range to the north-west ; it also breeds sparingly in Southern Norway and Sweden; and in Russia it goes as far north as Archangel, becoming very abundant to the southwards. It is of general distribution on the waters, marshes, and coasts of the rest of Europe down to the Mediterranean, the most southern breeding-place known being in the island of Sardinia; it frequents the coast of North Africa in winter, and it is not improbable that some breed in Lower Egypt. It goes up the Nile to Nubia; occurs in the Red Sea; and, following the line of the Euphrates valley, it ranges from Palestine to the coasts of India. Nowhere is it more abundant than on the lakes and marshes of Central Asia from the Caspian to the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamtschatka; and in the waters of Japan. On migration it visits the lower portions of the Pamir, and passes by Gilgit, probably on its way to and from India ; but on the elevated mountain lakes of the great Asian plateau, from the Kara-kul to Mongolia, it is replaced as a breeding-species by its somewhat larger and more robust congener, Larus brunneicephalus, which has a hood of a lighter brown, and a different wing-pattern, and which also visits the coasts of India in the cold season. Our Black- headed Gull nests, however, in the Ussuri valley and on the Hanka Lake, visiting the coasts of China in winter; and Colonel H. H. Godwin-Austen obtained a specimen about 500 miles up the Brahmapootra; but it has not yet been recorded from Ceylon, or more southern localities. In South America there are two brown-headed species of about the same size, but with a very different wing-pattern: L. maculi- pennis of the Rio de la Plata and Patagonia, and L. glaucodes of Chili. As already stated, the Black-headed Gull nests in marshy places, commencing to lay in the latter half of April if the weather is mild, or early in May; the eggs are normally three in number, and when four or more are found in the same nest they are probably the produce of different females. The ordinary colour is a yellowish or greenish olive-brown, VOL. III. 4H 602 LARIDA. blotched with two shades of dark umber; but a pale blue ground-colour is not uncommon, and salmon-coloured eggs have been taken on a loch about 550 ft. above sea-level in Sutherlandshire. The average measurements are 2 by 1°5 in. When their nests are robbed, the birds are induced to lay two or three times; the eggs produced at these second and third layings being sometimes one-third less than the natural size. Mr. J. Dunbar Brander has given an account of a remarkable caprice on the part of a Black-headed Gull, which withdrew from the neighbouring ‘ gullery,’ and estab- lished its nest on the top of the locker in the bows of a boat moored to a stake about twenty yards from the shore (‘ The Field,’ June 23rd, 1877). Incubation lasts about seventeen days, and as soon as they are hatched the young conceal themselves in the herbage on the approach of danger, so that it is very difficult to avoid treading on some of them in a crowded ‘ gullery’; they also take to the water readily. The note of this Gull is a hoarse cackle, which, from its effect when quickly repeated, has been compared to a laugh, and has given rise to one of its specific appellations. Its flight is easy and buoyant. Its food is crustaceans, mollusks, insects, worms ; occasionally small fishes, and even small mammals, such as mice; and small birds; in fact it is practically omnivorous, and the mouth of a sewer is often frequented for the sake of the floating offal. It feeds largely on wire-worms and grubs picked up in the freshly-turned furrows, and the stomachs of some birds have been found to contain grain and vegetable matter. The Rey. Richard Lubbock mentions that he saw several of these birds in June dashing round some lofty elms catching cockchafers, and Thompson records the partiality of this species to moths. The adult bird in summer has the beak lake-red ; irides hazel ; eyelids crimson; a white crescentic patch across the eye; the head, occiput, and upper part of the neck, all round, dark brown, the colour being most intense when first assumed, and fading with time and wear; sides and back of the neck pure white; back, wing-coverts, secondaries, and tertials, uniform french-grey ; the first quill-primary black BLACK-HEADED GULL. 603 on the greater part of the outer web, white on the inner web, with a blackish margin and tip; the second and third primaries white on both webs, with the exception of a hair- streak of black on the outer, and dark margins to the inner webs; tips black, shafts white; the fourth white on the outer web, grey on the inner web, and edged with black ; the fifth and sixth grey on both webs, the edge of the inner or broader web and the point black; tail-coverts and tail- feathers white; front of the neck, the breast, and all the under surface of the body and tail, pure white with a rosy tint ; legs and feet like the beak, lake-red. The whole length is sixteen inches; from the front of the wing to the end of the first quill-feather, which is slightly the longest, twelve inches. Bewick’s figure of the Black-headed Gull represents a bird in this state of plumage; the lower figure in the illustration here given is from a nearly adult male bird, two years old, killed at the nest in the breeding- season, but still exhibiting some slight traces of immature colours in the few brown feathers on the anterior part of the wing, and in the narrow black tips to the tail-feathers. The assumption of the dark colour on the head in the spring is very rapid. A Gull in the Gardens of the Zoolo- gical Society began, some years since, to change colour on the head, from white to dark brown, on the 11th of March ; it was a change of colour, and not an act of moulting, no feather was shed, and the change was completed in five days. Another bird, some seasons afterwards, had not completed the dark colour till the beginning of May, but the time required for the change was not noted. In vigorous birds, and in mild climates, the hood is assumed at an early date ; in ‘The Field’ of 23rd January, 1875, is a record of an individual with a dark head observed at Exmouth on the 21st of December, and one with an entirely black hood on the 11th of January. In the winter plumage the adult has no hood; but the head is streaked with greyish, and there is a dark patch of the same colour before the eye. and behind the auricles. The upper figure in the illustration here given is from a 604 LARIDA. young bird of the year killed in August; at which period the head is marked with greyish-brown, on a ground of white; the back, scapulars, smaller wing-coverts, and the tertials mottled with brown; greater coverts and secondaries french-grey ; the first three primaries black on the outer webs and on the margins of the inner webs, with white shafts and centres; tail-feathers white, with a broad bar of black at the end; beak, legs, and feet yellowish-brown. In still younger birds there is, for a short time, a dark line on the inner web next the shaft, but the permanent characteristic of this species is that the central portion of the outer primaries is always white. The young in down is buffy-brown, spotted or streaked with black. The Masked Gull, Larus capistratus of Temminck, de- scribed and figured in former Editions of this work, is now generally admitted to have been based upon small examples of this species—generally females—with hoods only partially developed, or contracted by the make-up of the preserved skins. Many such specimens measure only eleven inches in length of wing. THe MepiIrerRANEAN BLack-HEADED GuLL, Larus melan- ocephalus, Natterer, was recorded by the Editor (Ibis, 1872, p- 79) as having been obtained on the Lower Thames. His attention was called to a specimen in the British Museum by the late Mr. G. R. Gray, who stated that it had been pur- chased from Mr. H. Whitely, curator of the Royal Artillery Museum at Woolwich. The latter, in reply to the Editor’s inquiries, wrote to him as follows :— ‘*‘T find, upon looking back at my books, that I sold Mr. G. Gray a Gull on the 28rd of March, 1866, which, at the time, he took to be a hybrid between the Common Gull and the Kittiwake. This bird was shot in the month of January, 1866, near Barking Creek, by a’waterman, and brought to me for sale with other birds: I bought this bird, not know- ing what species it was, and at the date mentioned took it to Mr. Gray.” LARIDA. 605 The specimen in question is a bird of the first year, in precisely the same state of plumage as a Maltese example shot early in February. The Editor has not the slightest doubt that the facts are as stated, but, inasmuch as there is just a chance of an accidental exchange of specimen, or label, between 1866 and 1871, when the Editor examined the bird in question, he does not think that its pedigree is sufficiently perfect to justify the admission of the species as a British bird. In case, however, it should again visit these shores, its distinguishing characteristics and geographical distribution are briefly sketched. In its fully adult plumage, Larus melanocephalus may be easily recognized by its jet-black head, stout coral-red bill with a darkish band in front of the angle, and white primaries (with the exception of a black streak on the outer web of the first); but in less mature specimens which have assumed the black hood for the first time, there are black streaks and cross-bars on both webs of the first five primaries. In the bird of the year, like the one in the British section of our Natural History Museum, the first five primaries have the outer webs, the shafts, and the greater portion of the inner webs, of a dark brown on both upper and under sides, with light margins; whereas in young L. ridibundus the shafts and the contiguous portions of the inner webs are white with dark margins. On the wing, when seen from below, these distinctions are very notice- able; as also the greater robustness of bill in L. melano- cephalus. The geographical distribution of the Mediterranean Black- headed Gull is somewhat circumscribed. It breeds in the marshes of the Black Sea, and on the coasts of Asia Minor ; and perhaps in Lower Egypt; the species being generally distributed throughout the whole of the Mediterranean, in which it has probably many nesting-places, although their exact localities are little known. Outside the Straits of Gibraltar the Editor observed this species, apparently breed- ing, near Huelva; and Mr. A. Chapman shot a specimen from its eggs on some low islands off the ‘ marisma ’ (Ibis, 606 LARIDA. 1884, p. 86). During the first fortnight of March, 1882, about a score frequented the Bay of St. Jean-de-Luz, in the extreme south of the Bay of Biscay; and the Editor con- siders it probable that they were on their way to some breeding-grounds on the low coast between that place and Bordeaux, inasmuch as the species is known to be a regular visitor to the Gironde. Stragglers are said to have occurred in Central Germany; on the Lake of Constance; and on the Rhine near Mainz. THe Laventne Gui, Larus atricilla, Linneus, is an American species, which appears to have been admitted into the British List owing to a misapprehension on the part of Montagu, and of his contemporaries. The American bird is larger and stouter than our L. ridibundus, and has a darker mantle, but the main characteristic by which it may be distinguished from every other Gull of its size (except two tropical species from the Red Sea and vicinity), con- sists in the three outer primaries, which are black with minute white tips. This is the true Laughing Gull, which Linneus described from Catesby’s History of Carolina by the name of L. atricilla. As regards the bird which Montagu called the Laughing Gull in his Ornithological Dictionary, the following description seems to show that he could not have been acquainted with the American bird and its specific distinctions. He says :—‘‘ This species is larger than the Black-headed Gull; length eighteen inches. It differs from that bird only in the legs, which are black; the bill is however stronger, and the head larger.” He continues: ‘‘In the month of August, 1774, we saw five of them together feeding in a pool in the shingley flats near Winchelsea; two only were black on the head, the others were mottled all over with brown. One of them was shot ; but, although the remaining four continued to resort to the same place for some time, the old ones were too shy to be procured. We also saw two others near Hastings in Sussex. They may be easily known from the Black-headed Gull, even when flying; the flight is different ; the bird LARIDA. = 1 607 appears much larger, and the tail shorter in proportion.” From this it is clear that, to whatever species it may have belonged, the bird obtained was a very young one in mottled-brown plumage; but it was subsequently assumed by the late Mr. Gould, and by other writers, that this was the identical specimen now in the British collection at the Natural History Museum. This is certainly an error, for although the specimen in the British section is undoubtedly an American Laughing Gull, it is not a young bird of the year, but a nearly adult specimen, with pure white tail, unmottled slate-grey mantle, and black freshly-moulted primaries; the only remaining sign of immaturity being a few brownish and very old feathers about the head. Nor is there any evidence that the bird shot at Winchelsea ever formed part of the Montagu collection as presented to the British Museum. Leach’s Systematic Catalogue (1816), which contains a record of every species and every specimen presented by Montagu or any other donor, makes no mention of any Laughing Gull from Winchelsea, and the three specimens from the Montagu collection which bear that trivial name are correctly recorded as examples of L. ridibundus, from Lincolnshire and Carmarthenshire. It is impossible to say when or how this specimen of the American bird found its way into the British section, but it certainly shows no signs of having been mounted for upwards of a century, and its fresh appearance is in strong contrast to that of many of the genuine specimens of other birds from the Montagu collection. Mr. Gould appears to have been the first to assume that this was Montagu’s bird (B. of Eur. pl. 426) ; and the late Mr. G. R. Gray (List Brit. Birds, p. 172) went so far as to enter it as «¢ q Winchelsea ’’; but even he did not venture to state that it had ever belonged to Montagu. Judging from Montagu’s own description, it seems almost established that the imma- ture bird shot at Winchelsea was not the American Laughing Gull at all; and itis quite clear that it cannot be identical with the nearly adult specimen now representing it in our Natural History Museum. Other reported occurrences have 608 LARIDA, never been authenticated, and are unworthy of serious con- sideration; one announced in ‘The Times’ a couple of years ago as shot near Newmarket, proved to be merely a handsome specimen of L. ridibundus. The statements by Temminck and others that L. atricilla had been found in the Mediterranean, were due to a misconception ; and Pallas augmented the confusion by applying this name of L. atricilla to our Black-headed Gull, L. ridibundus. There is really no evidence that the American species has ever strayed from the shores and islands of the New World ; and certainly no authenticated example killed on the coasts of Europe is known to exist in any collection on the Con- tinent. The bird is therefore excluded from the present Edition. The vignette below was taken from a pen-and-ink sketch sent to the Author by Sir Charles Anderson, to illustrate the breeding-ground of the Black-headed Gull referred to, at Twigmoor, near Brigg, Lincolnshire. GREAT BLACK-HEADED GULL. 609 GAVIA. LARIDA. Larus IcHTYAETUS, Pallas.* THE GREAT BLACK-HEADED GULL. Tuts south-eastern species, by far the largest of the Black- headed Gulls, has undoubtedly straggled on one occasion to the coast of England. Its occurrence was recorded in 1859 by Mr. F. W. L. Ross of Topsham (Ann. & Mag. N. H. (3), iv. p. 467), who stated that ‘‘one was shot by a boat- man, Mr. W. Pine, when employed by W. Taylor, Esq., of Bridgewater, who was engaged in fishing for bass in the river off Exmouth, about the end of May or beginning of June last : it was in company with a flock of ordinary Gulls. Its remarkable size and appearance attracted the attention of the boatman, who, having his gun with him, singled it out, and fortunately obtained the bird, which has since been kindly presented by the above-named gentleman to the * Reise Russischen Reichs, ii. p. 713 (1778). VOL. III. 41 610 LARIDA. writer.” It is now in the Exeter Museum, where it has been examined by many ornithologists, including the Editor. It is an adult in full summer plumage, and although its appearance on our shores is remarkable, the bird cannot be suspected of having escaped from confinement, for no instance is known of its having been kept in captivity. The Great Black-headed Gull appears to be unknown in the Mediterranean, with the exception of that extreme eastern portion known as the Levant, and it is decidedly rare in the Black Sea. It is common in Egypt, and as far up as Nubia; and it occurs on the Red Sea; Canon Tristram obtained it on the Lake of Galilee, and it probably passes along the Euphrates Valley to the Persian Gulf, and the coasts of Baluchistan. Its best known breeding-quarters are on the islands and low-lying shores of the Caspian Sea, and the lakes of Turkestan; Dr. Finsch noted its arrival on the Ala-Kul, a little to the east of Lake Balkash, on the 9th of May, on the Tentek River on the 18th of May, and on the Saisan-Nor on the 2nd of June. In Mongolia, Prjewalsky observed it on the Koko-Nor in 180° E. long., fishing on Lake Buhaingol, which is its eastern breeding limit, but it does not occur on the Amur or in China. Immature birds assigned by Cassin to this species were obtained by Perry’s Expedition in Yedo Bay, Japan, but no subsequent observers have met with it in Japanese waters. On migration and during the cold season, it passes over the mountains by Gilgit, and visits the coasts of India down to Ceylon and Burmah, specimens in full breeding-plumage having been obtained 600 miles up the Irrawaddy River. Although numbers of the eges of this species have been sent to oologists from the Moravian colony at Sarepta through Herr H. F. Moschler, yet few details are known respecting its breeding-habits. Pallas says that it lays its eggs on the bare sand without any nest; they are three in number, measuring 2°95 by 2 in., and are stone-drab in colour, streaked and blotched with umber and black. The young are said by Eversmann to be hatched in June. Both Pallas and Prjewalsky describe the cry of this bird as being a harsh and GREAT BLACK-HEADED GULL. 611 raven-like croak, and the latter states that the bird is of a very quarrelsome nature. The adult in breeding-plumage has the bill orange-yellow, turning to red at the mandibular angle, in front of which is a transverse black bar; gape and eyelids vermilion ; irides dark brown; entire head and upper part of the neck jet black ; a white crescentic patch behind the eye; lower neck, upper back, tail, and entire under-parts, pure white; wing- coverts and mantle dark grey; first primary quill-feather principally white, with a black streak along the greater por- tion of the outer web, and a patch of the same colour on the inner web next to the shaft about an inch and a half from the tip; on the second, third, and fourth primaries the black forms a bar with broad white tips; upper primaries white, turning to pearl-grey on the inner margins and cen- tres; secondaries broadly tipped with white, forming a very distinct bar by contrast with the grey wing-coverts ; legs and feet greenish-yellow ; webs orange. Total length of a male twenty-seven inches; wing, from the carpal joint to the tip, nineteen inches. There is, how- ever, considerable variation in size, and females are often so much smaller than the males as to have given rise to the belief that they belonged to a distinct species. Schlegel has described one of these from Bengal as L. ichthyaétus minor, and Mr. A. O. Hume has apparently distinguished a similar small example by the name of L. innominatus. Less mature birds are characterized by the larger amount of black in the primaries; and in the immature bird, when assuming the black hood for the first time, the primaries are mostly blackish-brown, with only a sub-apical patch of white on the outer one; the mantle is grey, with brown markings on the carpal joints, and at the tips of the tertials ; tail white with a black bar; rest of the plumage as in the adult ; bill olive. The young bird of the year is mottled with brown on the upper parts, which gradually turn to grey ; and the primaries are dusky-brown ; the secondaries are brown, broadly tipped with white, and they are also margined with white on both 612 LARIDA. webs for a long way up each feather. This is one charac- teristic which serves to distinguish the young of this species from immature examples of the Siberian Herring Gull, Larus affinis, which is found to some extent over the same area; another mark of distinction exists in the tail, which presents a broad uniform dark band (only the outer feathers being edged with white), whereas in L. affinis the tail is mottled with dark markings, and the band is completely broken up. The nestling differs from the young of all other Gulls of the same size, in being of a uniform greyish-white above, and clearer white below ; the bill, black with yellowish-white tip; legs and feet, dark brown. This species concludes the group of the Gulls with hoods which inhabit or visit the British Islands. The hooded species have been separated from the other Gulls under several generic names, but the only one which has been properly restricted to this group is Chrotcocephalus, Eyton (Brit. Birds, p. 58). This genus was based upon “ the coloured hood, small size, and more naked tibia’’; but the latter characteristic only holds good with regard to a limited number of the hooded Gulls, and is by no means confined to them; whilst the question of small size is at once disposed of by the giant just described. Kaup saw this inconsistency, and promptly remedied it by creating a fresh genus, Ichthyaétus, for the above species! The hood is certainly not a structural distinction, nor does it even exist throughout the whole year ; and for these and other reasons which it is unnecessary to mention in detail, it seems advisable to place these Gulls with the rest in the genus Larus. - COMMON GULL. 613 GAVIA. LARIDA, Larus canus, Linneus.* THE COMMON GULL. Larus canus. Tur Common GuLL, as this species has long been termed, is only doubtfully entitled to its trivial name, and few epithets have caused wider error with regard to its distribu- tion during the breeding-season. In England it is certainly ‘common’ on the coasts, from autumn to spring, and it*is frequently to be observed many miles inland, following the plough in search of insects and grubs; but with the approach of April, the productive birds take their departure northwards, and only a few immature or barren birds remain. During the summer the ‘common’ species are either the Herring Gull or the Kittiwake ; and, without making any dogmatic assertions, the Editor can safely say that during the past * Syst. Nat, Ed. 12, i. p. 224 (1766). 614 LARIDA. twenty years in which his attention has been given to the question, he has failed to obtain any proof whatever of the nesting of Larus canus on any part of the English coast. Nor is the evidence satisfactory as to the asserted nesting of this species in the cliffs of St. Abb’s Head, or indeed in any precipitous cliffs whatever, in the ordinary acceptation of the words. The Common Gull selects, as a rule, the compara- tively low shores of small islands, either on the sea-coast, or up the arms of the sea; and it is also partial to grassy islands in lochs; but although its nests may be found on broken ground or even on small crags, yet flat surfaces are far more to its taste. It will even resort to low trees and bushes, and is very different in its habits from the pre- cipice-loving Kittiwake with which it has frequently been confounded. Nowhere in the British Islands is it so abun- dant as on the coasts, islands, and both salt and fresh-water lochs of Scotland, where it is known ag the ‘ Blue Maa’ ; and tarns in the most desolate moors, often at considerable elevations, are frequently enlivened by its colonies. It is in Scotland alone that, throughout the year, it merits its appel- lation. In Ireland its authenticated breeding-places are far less numerous than might be expected, and the ‘ common’ Gull of the peasantry generally proves to be the Black-headed species ; but there is fair evidence that L. canus breeds, or used to breed, on some of the inland lakes in Donegal. Mr. R. Warren found a small colony on Lough Talt in the Ox Mountains, co. Sligo, in the summer of 1855; and he has recently discovered another breeding-haunt in a small lough in co. Mayo (Zool. 1882, p. 241). It seems probable that this species breeds on some low islands in Tralee Bay ; and Mr. Ussher believes that it nests on the Saltees, off co. Wexford. When the sister-island is thoroughly explored by competent naturalists, more breeding-places of the Com- mon Gull will probably be discovered. During the greater part of the year this species is abun- dant on the coasts and estuaries, and owing to its being one of the first to seek the shore on the approach of heavy weather at sea, it has been made the subject of various COMMON GULL. 615 rhymes and poetical allusions. As a rule it does not go far from land, but gets its living by picking up small sand-eels, young herrings, stranded fish, mollusks, crustaceans; and, as before observed, grubs, in pursuit of which flocks of this Gull may often be observed feeding with Rooks on the furrows. Under these circumstances, it will, like other Species, pick up grain to a limited extent; and in a Gull kept by John Hunter, and brought by degrees to feed entirely on corn, the stomach, which is now preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, was found to have the muscular parietes considerably thickened. The Common Gull makes rather a large nest, whether on marsh or rock, of sea-weeds, heather, grass, and sea-pink, somewhat neater, according to Saxby, than the nest of the Lesser Black-backed Gull which frequents similar localities. He adds that a favourite site is a grassy slope facing the sea, not very far above high-water mark. The eges are normally three in number, and their usual colour is a dark olive-brown spotted and streaked with darker brown and black, but varieties with ground-colours of pale blue, pale straw-colour, and light green are not uncommon. The average measurements are 2°25 by 1:5 in. The young are hatched in June, and, like other nestling Gulls, are able to run and conceal themselves as soon as hatched.