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FEATIEEIP TEEEIE

OF THE

BESTESE ISl

. BY

■ ROBERT MUDIE.

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'OLUME THE SECON

'HIR.I) EDITIL'N.

L O N B O N^

MEN]R¥ C^^BOII^^TOIKK STREET, €0¥EW GAIRIDEN.

M B C C V X L I .

THE

FEATHERED TRIBES

BRITISH ISLANDS.

ORDER XI.

GRAMINIVORA.

SEED-EATING BIRDS.

This is by no means a precise or well-defined order. In-
deed, there is no possibility, in the present state of our
knowledge, of forming any thing like a good natural . ar-
rangement. Birds vary so much in their food, and change
so much in their localities, that it is impossible to classify
them with even tolerable precision. To any one who exa-
mines them, even with slight attention, the reason of that
must appear very obvious. The classification of birds cannot
be formed upon any one character, as that of the mammalia
is upon the teeth. It depends on the bill and alimentary
system, the feet, and the wings jointly, or rather upon the
relations in which these stand to each other ; and, as a relation
cannot be either expressed or understood, except by means of
the things that are related, it cannot be made the foundation
of a clear or simple definition. Hence, Avhen we apply the
term insectivorous, or graminiwrous (or granivorous), as de-
scriptive of an order of birds, all that we can mean by it is,
that their principal dependence is upon that species of food.
This, however, is sufficient to lead to other distinctions,

TOL. II. B

2 GRAMINIVOEA.

such as those of locality and season. Insects in their advanced
state, whether as larvae or as perfect, are children of the sun
and the summer; and it is when they are in those states, that
they are best suited for the food of birds. The supply of them
is consequently an equatorial and a summer supply, fluctuat-
ing northward and southward with the apparent annual mo-
tions of the sun ; and the summer migratory birds flit along
with it, for a greater or less range, according to their structure
and habits.

The supply of vegetable food is, to a considerable extent,
just the reverse. Bhds do not feed upon the perfect or
growing vegetable — the stalk, the leaf, or the flowers; vege-
table matter in an inactive state, accumulated in the lobes of
seeds and kernels, or in the hybernacula of buds, is that upon
which they feed ; and though there be a succession of small
seeds upon some herbaceous plants during the greater part of
the summer, the grand vegetable harvest is a store prepared
in the autumn, to last during winter, and be ready for new
action when spring returns. As the situation is farther dis-
tant from the equator, the vegetable harvest becomes more
decided, and the seeds of plants become more firm in their
integuments, so as better to resist the cold.

The fertility of some of those plants is astonishing; the
dock or thistles of a single acre would sow a county ; and
there are others even more prolific. The hundredth part of
them is not wanted for the supply of vegetation, and there is,
therefore, abundance to spare for the birds. Annual vege-
tation proceeds more from seeds, and less from bulbs and
tubers, in the cold countries than in the warm ones : and
in the latter, where the trees are not only always in leaf, but
always in growth, there are none of those fat or farinaceous
buds, which are found in winter upon even the evergreens of
the colder climates.

It is true, that when summer does come in the high lati-
tudes, the productions of that season, whether animal or
vegetable, have little or no pause, because there is little or no
night. The produce is then very great, both in the insect

GRAMINIVORA. 6

and the vegetable food of birds, and then the strangers from
lower latitudes migrate thither, to share in the abundance;
and it is not unworthy of remark, that, in the regions to which
those insectivorous migrants resort in the summer, there is a
supply of succulent berries, increasing with the latitude, which
comes in when the insects begin to be fewer, and enables the
birds to feed themselves into sufficient strength for their mi-
gration southward. The graminivorous birds do not interfere
much with that pulpy store ; the seeds, the pips, and the hard
winter berries, agree better with their organization.

Thus they have altogether a more polar locality. In the
temperate latitude of Britain, where the winds from the sea
keep the surface clear of snow for the greater part of the
winter, the greater number of them are resident ; and any
that do come as visitants, come only in the winter, and from
countries farther to the north, or where the snow falls more
thickly, or lies longer. They migrate more on the continent,
because the seasonal variations, being less tempered by the
vicinity of the sea, are greater there ; and hence the occasional
visitants are more numerous in proportion to those that come
regularly, than in the case of the summer birds.

So far as has been observed, the resident species of British
birds of this order are more numerous, in proportion to the
visitants and stragglers, than in the insectivorous birds ; and
as the visitants come at a time when birds flock or congre-
gate, and not when they spread themselves over their pastures
as they do in the breeding season, the winter stragglers are
better seen than the summer ones.

The general characters are : the bill short, strong, and coni-
cal, the upper mandible advancing upon the line of the fore-
head, and the under one having its lower outline a little con-
vex, so that the whole bill has great power for its size. They
have three toes before and one behind, the former free for
their whole length ; and thus the foot is adapted for walking,
for perching, or for grasping. The wings are of mean length,
and vary hi the form of theii* terminations according to the
habits of the birds. The tails are generally strong ; the whole

4 GRAMINIVOEA.

plumage is firmer in its texture, and (generally) more decided
in its colours, than that of the insectivorous birds, and the
general expression is more energetic and lively. In same
respects they have a resemblance to the omnivorous birds,
and in others to the gallinaceous. They pair for the whole
year, perhaps for life ; and they flock in the winter, different
species mingling peacefully together on the same pasture.
The males are in general much richer in the tints of thek
plumage than the females ; but those gay tints are chiefly
the livery of the nuptial season, and they are often accom-
panied by peculiar feathers, which, as well as the tints, dis-
appear at other times, and the sexes more resemble each
other.

We shall notice them in those families or groups to which
peculiar names have been given.

LAKKs. {Alauda.)

The sky-lark, which is the type of this tribe, being a very
general favourite, the name "lark" has been applied, both
popularly and by authors, to birds which have none of the
true characters : the pipits, and some of the warblers have, in
this way, been called larks. There are only two British larks,
the sky-lark and the wood-lark, which resemble each other,
and are peculiar and 'different from all other bnds, both in
appearance and in habits.

Their bills are less conical, and consequently weaker ; and
they are much less graminivorous than most of the order,
though more so than those of the pipits, with which they have
been confounded. They are also much better formed for run-
ning ; and the great length of claw upon the hind toe enables
them to run on the surface of thick-matted grass, or rise from
it, or alight on it, with much less inconvenience than almost any
other birds. The form of the lark's foot, as contrasted with
that of the wagtail, which walks on soft weed, may be seen
by looking back to the cut in page 271, vol. i.

They are field birds, and resemble, in their general air, and

■«; ^^. -2- .

-^^?f^^-^/^^

THE SKY-LARK. O

in the tints of their plumage, the gallinaceous birds that in-
habit similar places. They are different in the form of their
bodies, and in the structure of their wings and tails, because
they are birds which are much on the wing, and the gallinidse
are not. They nestle on the ground, and, in the summer,
field-insects and earth-worms, especially the latter, form a
very considerable portion of the food both of themselves and
their broods; but in the winter they live more upon seeds,
chiefly those seeds of annual weeds which are scattered over
the corn-fields, and have been partially soaked and softened by
the autumnal rains.

Larks are fleet runners, and they stand up for observation,
with their heads above the cover, after the manner of grous ;
the head, which is generally crested, and has the crest
erected, not being easily distinguishable from a clod. The
colours are brown and brownish white, in variously mottled
tints, with the feathers on the upper part well relieved by
paler margins. Their colours are sober, but there is a
warmth of tone about them, which, taken in conjunction with
the form and air of the birds, renders their appearance much
more attractive than that of some gayer birds.

And they have other attractions : they inhabit where few
other birds inhabit, sing where few other birds sing, and are
more songsters of the free air than any others. Our other
songsters must, generally speaking, have their coverts, the
grove, the thicket, or the brake; and, in so far as they are
concerned, where there is no bush there is no bird, at least no
bird worth listening to. But the larks nestle on the hedgeless
field, or the bushless upland, and send down their song, while
the figure of the songster, and all its motions, are seen against
the otherwise tenantless sky.

THE SKY -LARK. [Alauda arveusis.)

The sky-lark, or, as is more accurately expressed by the
specific name, the " field-lark," (only that name has been
misapplied to the field-/:'fp2^,) is the most universal of the

b2

6 GEAMIKIVOKA.

British songsters. It inhabits near the dwellings of man,
rather than in the bleak wastes, because neither the seeds nor
the insects which are produced in these, are suited for it; but
it inhabits the peopled districts abundantly, in all their variety
of latitude, soil, and climate ; and, though it might have been
previously unknown there, when man has turned the furrow
on the waste, and replaced the heath, the moss, and the rush,
by a more kindly vegetation, the lark is sure to come with its
song of gratitude, to reveillie him to the field betimes, and
cheer his labours the live-long day.

Larks, from their vast numbers, flock much and fly far in
the winter, and flock more to the uplands in the middle of
England, where much rain usually falls in the summer, than
to the drier and warmer places near the shores; but so true
are they to their time, that, be it in the south, the centre,
or the north, the lark is always ready, on the first gleamy
day of the year, to mount to its watch-tower in the upper
sky, and proclaim the coming of the vernal season. It is, in
fact, more joyant in the sun, more inspirable by the life which
the solar influence diffuses through the atmosphere, than
almost any other creature: not a spring air can sport, not a
breeze of morn can play, not an exhalation of freshness from
opening bud or softening clod can ascend, without note of it
being taken and proclaimed by this all-sentient index to the
progress of nature.

And the form and manner of the indication are as delightful
as the principle is true. The lark rises, not like most birds,
which climb the air upon one slope, by a succession of leaps,
as if a heavy body were raised by a succession of efforts, or
steps, with pauses between: it twines upward like a vapour,
borne lightly on the atmosphere, and yielding to the motions
of that as other vapours do. Its course is a spiral, gradually
enlarging; and, seen on the side, it is as if it were keeping
the boundary of a pillar of ascending smoke, always on the
surface of that logarithmic column, (or funnel, rather,) which
is the only figure that, on a narrow base, and spreading as it
ascends, satisfies the eye with its stability and self-balancing

THE SKY-LARK. 7

in the thin and invisible fluid. Nor can it seem otherwise,
for it is true to nature. In the case of smoke or vapour, it
diffuses itself in the exact proportion as the density, or power
of support in the air, diminishes; and the lark widens the
volutions of its spiral in the very same proportion : of course
it does so only when perfectly free from disturbance or alarm,
because either of these is a new element in the cause, and as
such it must modify the effect. When equally undisturbed,
the descent is by a reversal of the same spiral; and when that
is the case, the song is continued during the whole time that
the bird is in the air.

The accordance of the song with the mode of the ascent
and descent, is also worthy of notice. When the volutions
of the spiral are narrow, and the bird changing its attitude
rapidly in proportion to the whole quantity of flight, the song
is partially suppressed, and it swells as the spiral widens, and
sinks as it contracts; so that though the notes may be the
same, it is only when the lark sings poised at the same
height, that it sings in an uniform key. It gives a swelling
song as it ascends, and a sinking one as it comes down ; and
even if it take but one wheel in the air, as that wheel always
includes either an ascent or a descent, it varies the pitch of the
song.

The song of the lark, besides being a most accessible and
delightful subject for common observation, is a very curious
one for the physiologist. Every one in the least conversant
with the structure of birds must be aware that, with them,
the organs of intonation and modulation are inward, deriving
little assistance from the tongue, and none, or next to none,
from the mandibles of the bill. The windpipe is the musical
organ, and it is often very curiously formed. Birds require
that organ less for breathing, than other animals having a
windpipe and lungs, because of the air-cells and breathing-
tubes with which all parts of their bodies (even the bones)
are furnished. But those diffused breathing organs must act
with least freedom when the bird is making the greatest
efforts in motion ; that is, when ascending or descending ;

» GRAMINIVOKA.

and in proportion as these cease to act, the trachea is the
more required for the purposes of breathing. The sky-lark
thus converts the atmosphere into a musical instrument of
many stops, and so produces an exceedingly wild and varied
song, a song vrhich is, perhaps, not equal either in power or
compass, in the single stave, to that of many of the warblers,
but one which is more varied in the whole succession. All
birds that sing ascending or descending have similar power,
but the sky-lark has it in a degree superior to any other.

Every body knows the sky-lark, so that it hardly needs to
be described. It is about seven inches long, and twelve in
the stretch of the wings, and weighs an ounce and a half.
The upper part of the head reddish brown; the feathers
elongated and erectable, the back passing into darker brown,
the margins of the feathers edged with yellow brown.
Wings and tail more dusk ; the former wholly edged with
yellow brown; the latter having the outer webs of the two
external feathers on each side, and the tip of the outer one
white. A light patch round the eye and the ear-covert
forming nearly a counterpart to the brown feathers on the
head. The under part pale brown on the chin, throat, and
sides of the breast, passing into a reddish tinge on the middle,
and into dull white, ^vith a shade of pale yellowish brown on
the belly. The chin and breast mottled with oval brown
spots, which are continued till they blend with the brown of
the upper parts. Bill dark brown, and dull yellow at the
base of the lower mandible. Feet yellowish brown, darker in
the mature birds than in the young. Claws dark brown ; the
hinder one very long, and nearly straight.

The female differs little in plumage from the male, less
than in most other birds of the order; and the chief distinc-
tion of the young birds, besides the more yellow tinge of the
naked parts, is having the mottling on the upper part more
distinct than in the old birds.

Sky-larks usually have two broods in the year on the
same grounds. The nest is in the open field, or barely shel-
tered by the grass, or among the clods; it is wholly con-

THE SKY-LAEK. tf

structed of vegetable fibres, stronger in the outer part, and
finer in the lining. The eggs are four or five, of a dull
greenish white, mottled with different tints of brown. The
first brood is usually fledged in June, and the second in
August ; but in the more upland parts of the country, where
the snow lies long, it is probable that there is seldom more
than one brood, which is fledged in July.

Notwithstanding the casualties to which the eggs and
young of the sky-lark are, owing to their situation, subjected,
both from enemies and from inclement seasons, the birds are
exceedingly numerous, and in the autumn they collect in more
numerous flocks than almost any other British species of land
birds. The lighter soils, that receive a good deal of moisture
without retaining much of it, and Avhere, consequently, earth-
worms are very numerous, are their favourite places of resort.
In the midland counties of England, where they flock more
than in perhaps any other part of Britain, they do not come
much upon the retentive clays, or upon the hard impenetrable
gravel, but remain more on the open fields near the chalk.
At these times, as well as at others, they both feed and nestle
upon the ground, and they are captured in vast numbers as an
article of food ; but as such they are costly, the price in Lon-
don being about four shillings a pound, which, " sinking the
offal," as the market phrase is, may be about the average
weight of a dozen. The vast multitude of larks must be of
great service to the places which they frequent in the winter,
by clearing them of the germs of weeds, which hardly any art
of man can keep under, and which, but for the labours of
the birds, would increase with cultivation, and greatly dimi-
nish the value of the crops. But though the larks are thus
useful, and though people should, and in general do, love
them for their songs, their liveliness, and their totally harm-
less character during the summer, their power of multiplica-
tion is so great, that there is no need for desisting from the
annual capture, so long as epicures choose to pay three-pence
an ounce for a mess of larks. Indeed, it is doubtful whether
they are thinned enough by artificial means, as when heavy

10 GRAMINIYORA.

falls of snow occur in their favourite resorts, many of them
perish ; and thus, as the question is one between feeding the
epicure and the crow, it is easily settled. As the seasons are
more in extremes on the continent of Europe than with us,
sky-larks flock in even greater numbers, especially on the light
soil that extends from Hamburgh eastward, along the southern
shore of the Baltic, towards the central marshes of Russia.

Though, from the small differences of sexual and seasonal
plumage, and plumage of age, that are found among larks, it
is natural to suppose that their colour will not " run so often
into variety " in the individual bird, as that of those species in
which the usual changes and differences are more conspicu-
ous ; yet still, from the vast number of the individuals, it is
reasonable to suppose that the variedly-coloured ones will
be more numerous, on the whole, than among rarer birds.
Brown, reddish, yellowish white, and dusky, are the tints ;
and though any one of these may give the prevailing colour
to an individual, that is not a sufficient ground for forming it
into a separate variety, far less a separate species. Larks
of a colour dusky almost to blackness, and also of a yellowish
tint, have been reared from the nest ; and, there is no reason
why any other colour that appears in the natural plumage
should not predominate.

THE wooD-LAKK. {Alaudu arhovea.)

A figure of the wood-lark, one-third of the lineal dimensions,
is given on the plate at p. 369, vol. i. With the exception
of the feathers on the head not being so much produced, the
general tint being a lighter and yellower brown, the breast a
little more inclining to red in the middle, and the chin more
clear of spots, the wood-lark bears a considerable resemblance
to the sky-lark. It is, however, an inch shorter ; the wings
are rather shorter in proportion, and the bill, and indeed the
whole air of the bird, have a slight, but very slight, resemblance
to the warblers.

The wood-lark, though pretty generally distributed over

THE WOOD-LARK. 11

the British islands, is by no means so common a bird as the
sky-lark. It is found on the borders of woods in wild places,
and is not so much a bu'd of the cultivated fields as the other.
Indeed, it is altogether of more solitary habits ; for while
sky-larks congregate in flocks of many thousands, it is rare to
see a dozen of wood-larks at the same time : and even in the
small numbers that do appear in the winter, they are not
found far from those wild localities in which they breed.
They are early breeders, the nest being begun in March, and
the brood hatched as early as May. The nest is more con-
cealed than that of the sky-lark, being usually under a bush,
or in a tuft of thick herbage. It is composed of the same
materials, with sometimes the addition of a few hairs in the
lining. The eggs, which are four in number, are smaller than
those of the sky-lark, obscure brown in the ground colour, and
blotched with darker brown and grey.

That wood-larks are not so numerous in proportion to their
eggs as the other species, may be accounted for partly from
the inclement season, and partly from the more barren places
in which they breed. Their breeding- time varies considerably
in different parts of the country ; but in all situations it is as
early as the weather will admit. And thus, in the high
grounds, on the skirts of the Grampians esjDecially, the nests
are liable to be destroyed by those storms of sleet or snow,
which set in sometimes as late as the middle of May, or even
the beginning of June.

On those upland places, this species is the only lark, and
the song with which it hails the first approach of the tardy
and somewhat doubtful spring, is a very delightful one ; the
more so that, in those places, and at that season, it is the
only songster.

The name is not very appropriate, for the bird is one of
the waste rather than of the woodland. And though it
perches, which the skylark does not, it has many of the
habits of that bird. It feeds on the ground, upon insects, and
seeds, and is probably more insectivorous than the other.
It nestles on the ground, though under cover : and though

12 GRAMINITOEA.

it occasionally sings from the top of a tree or bush, its
general practice is to sing in the air, swelling its notes as it
ascends, and sinking them as it descends, in the same man-
ner as the other. Its notes have also some resemblance to
those of the sky-lark, but they are not so numerous, and they
are soft and rather plaintive, while those of the sky-lark are
the merriest of all the feathered race.

When the wood-lark is near trees, it varies its pitch and
cadence probably more than the sky-lark. It comes from the
ground to the tree in a sort of waving course, singing very
low, and giving but a portion of its brief stave. Then it
perches and sings in an uniform key, but not full and round.
After a little time it wheels upward, more wildly and rapidly
than the sky-lark, swelling its song as it ascends, and some-
times rising higher than the ordinary flight of the other, but
not generally so high. When it takes the top of its flight,
it sends down a volume of song which is inexpressibly sweet,
though there is a feeling of desolation in it. The song, indeed,
harmonizes admirably with the situation ; and to hear the
wood-lark on a Avild and lone hill-side, where there is nothing
to give accompaniment, save the bleating of a flock and the
tinkle of a sheep-bell, so distant as hardly to be audible, is
certainly equal to the hearing even of those more mellow
songs, which are poured forth in richer situations.

The admirable manner in which the songs of birds are
tuned to the characters of their general haunts, so that the
song gives life to the scene, and the scene effect to the song,
must equally strike and delight even the most casual ob-
server : —

In the soft and bowery vales of the south, — where the soil
is rich and heavy, and the labour of the field drags rather
slowly along, — where, unless fired by ambition, stimulated by
the love of gain, or enticed by luxury, the spirit of man is
apt to flag, and he to feel, and to a very considerable extent
to be, wretched, from the felt but unspoken contrast of his
own insignificance with the abundance in the midst of which
he is set, and which masrnifies with his advances, so that

THE WOOD-LARK. 13

every day of his life he feels further from the goal of his hap-
piness than he was the day before : — in those places, where it
would seem as if the very wealth of nature involves one part
of mankind in poverty, through the medium of indolence and
improvidence, and the constant succession of leaves, and
flowers, and winged creatures, as gay and as fleeting as the
latter, inspires another portion with anxiety and gloom, — the
warblers come with their soft songs, and the nightingale
chants to soothe the restless mind in the darkling hour.

On the open champaign again, — where nothing breaks the
waving green of the summer and the golden yellow of the
autumn, save here and there a hedge, a farm-house, a burly
hawthorn, or a gnarled oak, which has stood the winds, and
stands the record, of centuries, — where the furrow is free, and
the produce rich but not rank, — where men and teams are out
by the streak of dawn, the plough slicing away gallantly in
one field, the seed-corn rattling against the furrows of an-
other, and the harrow following, half buried in a well-prepared
and crop-ensuring tilth; — there, nothing can be more in cha-
racter with the activity, and high health, and hope, and glee
of the Georgic scene, than the sky -lark soaring topmost, and
pouring his inspiring song over the whole farm. And he
too has his hope. The earth-worms are rich and sweet in
that well-manured and laboured earth ; and the roots which
he loves for the bed of his family, though few in number, are
all on the surface, clear of mould and ready dried. When
the harrow has performed its work, he may nestle in safety,
as his young ones will be on the wing before another foot
shall invade his chosen field.

Nor, though diff*erent, is it in worse keeping, if one takes
to the upland, tracking the line where the grass and heather
meet, in order to catch the first light breeze of March upon
the hill. The moss by the streaking runnel is in the brightest
of its verdure, the daisy on the sward has just shaken off* the
snow, and caught a drop of kindlier dew, through which its
golden eye, surrounded with pearl and tipt with crimson,
smiles on the day. The heath-cock has lain down to bask, the

yoL. II. c

14 GRAMINIVOEA.

plover and ever-stirring lapwing are close, or have not arrived,
and the crow and the raven are prowling in the coppice
below, to clear whatever may have perished there during the
storm. There are only a few tiny day-gnats dancing over the
pools, which are reeking up to form those clouds that will re-
fresh the earth with kindly showers. Thus there is loneliness
— perfect solitude ; but the air is fresh, the horizon is ample ;
the pulse beats firm, the lungs play free, the steps lengthen,
and one feels months adding to the term of life. While one
is in this mood, up springs the dappled brown wood-lark,
warbling his prelude, till he gains the top of that single
" bird-sown " and scraggy tree, which winds from all points
have bent and twisted, only to make its roots strike the
deeper, and its wood become as iron, and then, wheeling
upward, he redoubles his melody, till all the wild rings again,
even when the songster is viewless in the sky, — and one
becomes inspired with the free spirit of the hill.

To decide which of the three should have the preference,
is not easy. They are like the seasons : — each derives much
of its interest and charm from alternating with the others.

BUNTINGS. {Emberiza.)

Buntings are a numerous race ; and as the resident ones
all inhabit near houses, or resort thither in the winter, they
are birds with which every one is familiar. There are at least
seven British species, — the yellow bunting, the common or
grey bunting, the reed bunting, the cirl bunting, the snow
bunting, the lark-heeled bunting, and the ortolan bunting.
The first three, generally distributed; the cirl resident, but
local ; the snow bunting, a winter visitant ; and the other two,
stragglers.

The general characters are, — the bill very strong, short,
conical, compressed laterally, stump edged, but without any
tooth or notch ; the upper mandible narrowish, turned inward
at the edges, and with a bony knob at the palatal end. Thus
it is well fitted for breaking the shells or rinds of seeds, and

THE BUNTING.

16

ejecting them without losing any of the farinaceous kernel,
which, from the way that the mandibles close, drops into
the bill rather than out of it. The wings are of moderate
length, the second and third feathers the longest, the tail
spreading towards the extremity, and forked or lobed. The
feet, with three toes before and one behind, all free. Those
of the resident species have the claws short and hooked, and
adapted for perching on trees, and also on the culms and
stems of those herbaceous plants, from which they pick the
seeds. These live chiefly upon seeds, of which they consume
a vast quantity, seeking them indiscriminately upon the plants
that produce them, or on the ground; but they also eat insects.
The snowy bunting does not perch, but runs on the ground.
It has the claw on the hinder toe produced, as in the larks, or
rather intermediate between the larks and the other buntings.
Bkds of this genus have plenty of voice, but no song ; and
as their vegetable food is best seen in the clear light, they
are always active in the heat of the day, and keep up an
incessant, though harsh and tuneless, clattering. Their air is
rather heavy, and they are careless birds, easily snared by the
fowler. They get very fat in the autumn, and the flesh of
some of them is highly prized. The common bunting has
rather a sober plumage; but the others are equally remarkable
for the richness of their tints and the beauty of their contrasts.
Their want of song, however, prevents them from being
sought after as cage-birds, so that they are neglected, and
persecuted as creatures formed only for destroying or being
destroyed.

That, where small seeds are cultivated, the buntings commit
very considerable ravages, is true ; and they also consume a
portion of the corn, especially of any patch that gets ripe
before the surrounding fields. But during the rest of the
year, though they are not very welcome visitants in gardens,
they are of very great service to the fields in consuming the
seeds of the larger weeds — ragwort, corn marygold, and the
other pests of thin and ill-cultivated soils. Where small seeds
are sown at all seasons, and seed time and harvest are blended

16 GRAMINTVOHA.

together throughout the year, the wild bh-ds which remain
true to the seasons, while man forces his cultivation against
them, are in so far mischievous ; but in places where there are
only seasonal crops, that is not so much the case. The time
at which the early crops are ripe, is, or should be, nearly that
during which the graminivorous birds are undergoing their
moult ; and as the little birds all prefer smaller seeds to grain,
and consequently stubble lands to those on which there are
crops, there should always be stubble for them against the
time that they congregate in flocks.

THE YELLOW BUNTING. {Emberiza citrineUa,)

The yellow bunting, yellow hammer, yowley, yaldrine, or
many other provincial names, (the number of which prove
its abundance,) is one of the handsomest of our resident
birds.

A figure of the male in the breeding plumage, one-third of
the lineal dimensions, is given on the plate at p. 369, vol. i.
The female has the yellow on the head and under part less
bright, partially marked with a greyish tinge on the former,
and with brownish orange on the latter. The bill of the
female is also more dusky, and the feet not so yellow a brown.
The males, in their first plumage, resemble the female. The
female, though not so rich in plumage as the male, is yet a
very beautiful bird. The brown upon the back is pecuHarly
warm, and the pale yellow and darker tints on the other
parts run very softly into each other, while the markings on
the back are clear and distinct, without any approach to
hardness.

The yellow bunting is a bird of the corn-fields, or at least
of the richer parts of the country; and though it is very
common in England and the greater part of Scotland, it is not
found in the Orkney or Shetland isles.

It nestles in low bushes, or in close herbage, and bestows
considerable pains upon its nest, which is constructed exter-
nally of coarse dry grass and fibres, lined with finer ones, and

tHE YELLOW BUIJTING. 17

finished with a coating of hair. The eggs are four or five^
very pale purplish white in the ground, and marked with dots
and lines of chocolate colour, the line often terminating in a
dot, in the same way as tears or falling drops are sometimes
represented. It breeds rather late, the young not being
fledged till June. The love song is a repetition of the same
tuneless note, ending in a sort of screech ; the call-note,
which is generally uttered on the wing, is a simple chirp ;
and when the bird is disturbed, it has a third cry, — a sort of
complaining one; but all its cries are mere noises.

The abundance and beauty of these birds do not, in any
Way, Avin them favour. Boys destroy the nests of yellow bunt-
ings from mere wantonness, and in some parts of the country,
break their eggs with a sort of superstitious abhorrence. The
bird does not haunt cairns which have been collected over
graves in the wilds, and thereby associate itself with the
terrors of these, as is the case with the wheat-ear ; neither
does it abound most about those other places which popular
superstition is prone to invest with supernatural terrors, and
to link with the malignant powers of the spiritual world. It
is a bird of the fields and the day-light, offending in nothing,
except the want of song be an offence ; and certainly not so
disagreeable in that way, or so destructive of small seeds in
gardens, as the house-sparrow, but still it is a marked bird ;
and the very beauty of its eggs are, in some places, made a
ground for their wanton destruction. According to the ab-
surd superstition, the parent birds are fed each with " a drop
of the devil's hlood T' on the morning of May-day; and that
infernal draught taints the eggs with those streaks and " gouts,"
which, in truth, make them so beautiful. What first gave rise
to superstitions so absurd, and so contrary to all that we
are taught to know of the nature of spiritual beings, it is not
easy to say : but to the credit of the times, they are fast
wearing out.

Instead of there being any thing repulsive about the yellow
bunting, it is, song apart, one of the most interesting of our
little birds, and one which we can study summer and winter.

c 2

18

GRAMIKIVORA.

In the spring and summer, it frequents the hedges, bushes,
and copses, but not the thick forests. It is very assiduous
in the duties of its little household. The female sits so
closely, that she will suffer herself to be taken rather than
expose her eggs to the cold ; the male at times feeds her ;
and when she flies out for a little he takes her place during
her absence, so that after the incubation begins, the eggs are
never longer exposed than the time that the birds require to
shift places. The unfledged young are attended to with similar
assiduity ; and both parents toil hard in supplying them with
food and keeping them clean.

When winter comes, the yellow buntings resort to more
open places ; and as they are swift winged, and alight in
finer style than most birds, they are continually dropping
down on the beaten paths, in the farm-yards, and even in the
streets of towns, when the fields are covered with snow.
They do not flock so numerously to particular places as the
sky-larks, because they subsist less upon worms and more
upon seeds ; but they do collect on the open fields near the
copses and other places to which they resort in the summer ;.
and though they cannot positively be said to migrate, they
pass partially from the colder parts of the country to the
warmer. On these excursions they mingle freely and harmo-
niously with the other graminivorous birds, especially with
chafiinches, and they evidently have then an instinct for
society without reference to their own species. When a single
one is seen in the cold weather, it is usually jerking about
swiftly on the wing, and uttering its call-note ; and it will
alight among pigeons or poultry, or even (forgetting the
summer ravages) beside magpies, if there are no little birds
in view.

Many of these little birds, which seek their food together
during the winter days, divide into the different species
before they roost, and meet and associate again in the
morning. In these cases there is often a sort of welcome
at meeting, and farewell at parting. They wheel together,
making the air resound with their little wings ; and then they

THE COMMON BUNTING. 19

alight to feed, or separate to go to their respective perches
or roosts. The yellow buntings, at parting from their com-
panions of the day, generally alight upon some tree or hedge,
in thick array, and chatter there for a little before they
betake themselves to their repose, which, unless the day is
very dark, they never do till after sunset. The perches which
resident birds choose in these intervals between their feeding
and repose, are generally of the same character with those
from which the male delivers his love song in the pairing
season. That is the case with the yellow bunting ; and what
he lacks in quality he labours to make up in quantity, as he
will sometimes sit for hours repeating his chatter, without
once changing his position.

THE COMMON BUNTING. {Emberiza miliaria.)

Though not so elegant in its form or so gay in its plumage,
the common bunting is a larger, and, as it would seem, a
hardier bird than the yellow.

The common bunting is about seven inches and a half in
length, and eleven and a quarter in the stretch of the wings.
It is a thick and rather heavy-looking bird, and weighs about
two ounces. The centres of the feathers on the whole upper
part are blackish brown, margined with olive colour on the
body, and yellowish brown on the coverts and quills. The tail
dusky, less produced, and more forked, than that of the yellow
bunting. Under part straw colour, with numerous triangular
dusky spots, except on the middle of the belly. An obscure
straw-coloured streak from the gape down the side of the
neck, and the space on the eye and ear having a dull patch
of the same, with obscure dusky spots on the ear covert.
Bill bluish black on the exterior or upper ridge, straw co-
loured the rest, very conical and having the palatal knob large.
Irides and feet brown, the latter with a tinge of red. The
colours of the female diifer little from those of the male ; but
the general tint of both is subject to variety, being in some
instances nearly black, and in others inclining to grey.

20 GEAMINIVOEA.

In the spring and summer, the common bunting is very
decidedly a corn-field bird, and does not frequent the wilds,
or even the pasture lands and copses. The cry of the male
(for it is a screech and not a song) is uttered from the top
of a hedge or of some tall herbaceous stem, rarely if ever
from a tree ; and like the former species he is not sparing of
his harsh and jarring voice. The nest is among tall herbage,
or in a very low bush formed externally of straws or coarse
withered grass, lined with finer fibres, and sometimes finished
with long hair or wool. The eggs are from four to six in
number, of a dull yellowish grey, with lines and drops of
darker grey and reddish brown.

These birds are very assiduous in their nesting. The male
continues his song during the incubation, and when the female
leaves the nest, which in most close-setting birds is about
mid-day, the male takes her place, and she is said to screech
a stave to him in return. The one which is perching gene-
rally perches on the top of herbage, or on the outside twig
of a hedge ; and even when it settles on a stalk that has run
to seed, which it does very firmly, how much soever the
stalk may bend, it now and then gives out its cry. It not
unfrequentiy bends down the stalk by its weight, and retains
it on the ground till all the seeds are abstracted.

Though the nest is tolerably well concealed, the birds are
so very anxious about the place where it is, that they are apt
to reveal it. They, or rather the one that is on the watch,
for the sitting one does not rise till the very last extremity,
fly round any person that approaches, and plead with so plain-
tive a cry that one can easily tell that a nest is near. The
young walk much sooner than they fly, and thus quit the
nest to run and squat among the herbage, in part no doubt
finding their own food ; though the old ones continue to
attend and feed them until they take to the wing, and are
able to grapple with those stalks, the seeds on which are
then beginning to be ripe. The common buntings commit
ravages in the corn-fields, especially upon oats ; but like the
others they prefer the smaller and more oily seeds.

THE REED BUNTING. 21

As cold sets in, they collect in flocks, keeping together
during the winter, and often pass into places where they are
never known to breed. They do not nestle except where
there is moderately tall vegetation of some kind or other;
but in winter they resort to the bushless flats and islands,
and are frequently seen in Shetland at that season, though
there are none there in the summer. In the flocking season
they become very fat ; and the young ones are larger in size
than larks, and not inferior in flavour. They are readily
caught, and thus often sold for larks; but they are easily
distinguished, by the short conical bill with the palatal knob,
or simply by the colour, which is much darker on the under
part.

Common buntings are of considerable service on lands that
are not very skilfully cultivated. Their favourite food is the
seeds of the stronger grasses ; and these are the most stub-
born weeds with which a slovenly farmer has to deal. Their
services extend to the hay meadows as well as the corn-
fields ; and though they resort less frequently to the pastures,
they do some service to these when the coarse grasses have
run to seed. In countries where millet and similar small
grains are cultivated they do considerable damage. They
get their specific name from their fondness for millet; and
the people of the south of Europe, where grass is less
abundant than with us, and small birds more in request as
food, fatten them with millet for the table.

THE REED BUNTING. [Emheriza Schoeniclus.)

The reed bunting, sometimes, though improperly, called
the reed " sparrow," is a bird which has been confounded
by authors, if not by observers, with another bird to which it
has little other resemblance than their both inhabiting nearly
the same places.

In structure, in habits, in their nests, their eggs, and even
in the purpose that takes them to the thickly matted aquatic
plants, these birds are quite difierent. The one already de-

22 GHAMINIVORA.

scribed is a genuine warbler, having a melodious and varied
though feeble song; as such, it feeds upon insects, resorts to
the aquatic plants for them, and when the supply fails it quits
the country. The bird under consideration is a genuine
bunting, resident, like the other short-clawed buntings, among
tall herbage, the seeds of which it eats, and hence it is found
only where there are graminivorous plants, while the warbler,
which merely lodges in the herbage, but does not feed on
any part of it, is found among all tall aquatic plants indis-
criminately, though most among ridges and reeds, as these
form the thickest matting in the shallows and margins of the
waters.

The bunting is considerably the larger bird of the two,
nearly the same size as the yellow bunting, and at least
double the weight of the sedge warbler. The bunting's nest is
seldom placed in the reeds; but generally near, though some-
times at a considerable distance, in a tuft or under a low
bush ; and when it is among the reeds, it is placed where
they form a dry tuft or other support, and never suspended to
them by a basket-work of leaves like that of the warbler.
The eggs of the bunting are not quite so numerous ; and ihej
are greyish white, with a tinge of pale pink, lined and dropped
with chocolate red, like the eggs of the other buntings ; and
those of the warbler are pale brown, mottled with darker, and
without any lines. Farther, the bunting is as tuneless as its
congeners ; and its note, such as it is, is given during the
day and from a visible perch, while the warbler sings unseen,
seldom in the heat of the day, but rather, according to the
general habit of insectivorous birds, early in the morning and
late in the evening, and sometimes the whole night long, or
nearly so.

It is probable that the buntings, and, indeed, all birds that
feed upon the farinaceous portions of seeds in the healthy
state, are guided to their food chiefly by sight. There is but
little scent in those seeds, and we do not know much about
the sense of smell in birds; most of them appear to us to have
it very imperfect, and in those which have it very acute, as

THE REED BUNTING. 23

carrion-crows, magpies, and especially vultures, it is so much
more exquisite than any thing of which we have experience
in ourselves, that we can say little or nothing about it. The
vegetable seed gives no sign of its presence by motion, either
in producing sound or in any other way ; and, therefore,
sight is the sense upon which chiefly they must depend.

With insectivorous birds it is different — most insects and
their larvae smell, and some of them smell strongly : and
many of those caterpillars v.iiich are quiescent during the
day — concealed or sticking out from the branches like little
unproductive or abortive twigs — are in active motion during
the night.

Thus the hours of activity in the two orders of birds vary ;
and though, as all of them eat insects, and most of them
vegetable matter occasionally, they meet on the confines in a
sort of average of the two habits, yet, in the more marked
genera of the orders, the times of feeding are almost re-
versed. In the clear light, and during dry weather, when
the seeds are ripening apace, the buntings are all bustle,
activity, and clatter, and the warblers are songless in the
shade. On the other hand, when night sets in, or when the
weather continues wet, and the sky cloudy, the buntings chu-p
dolefully about the hedges ; but the groves and thickets are
full of joy and song. The sky-lark is something interme-
diate, and loves best that weather which first inspires him
with song — showering and shining by turns.

The head of the male reed bunting, and the nape and sides
of the neck, the chin and gorget on the upper part of the
breast, are deep black with a shght bluish tinge, except a
streak from near the gape down each side of the neck. A
collar of white joins the black, and heightens the contrast by
a hard outline. That collar passes almost immediately into
pale yellow on the breast, gradually into brownish orange on
the shoulders, and brown on the back ; and the pale yellow
on the under part passes into brownish orange towards the
vent. The margins of the feathers on the back and wings
are orange brown, and the centres blackish brown. The

24

GKAMINIVOHA.

quills a shade darker. The tail has the two middle feathers
blackish with brown margins, and two at each side with
the one half white, and the other half and all the remaining
feathers of the tail nearly black. The rump and upper tail
coverts are lighter brown than the back, and have a tinge of
grey. The bill is dusky, the irides hazel, and the feet brown
with a reddish tinge.

Such is the male in the breeding plumage. In winter the
black on the head becomes mottled by the margins of the
feathers turning rusty brown. The female and the young
have the head yellowish brown, with black shafts to the
feathers ; the under parts streaked with dull brown, the
breast white, and a streak of pale reddish brown over the
eye.

The reed buntings are rather energetic in the air, and
active in many of their motions, those of the tail especially,
which are more rapid than even in the wagtails. The tail is
considerably produced and spread, and forked at the ex-
tremity. The habit which the bird has of clinging to the
flexible culms of the aquatic plants, with free use of its bill,
so that it may bruise the husks and pick out the seeds, ren-
ders the powerful and ready motion of the tail, as a means of
balancing, absolutely necessary. The security and even the
grace with which it rides, when the stems are laid almost
level with the water, now on one side and then on another, are
well worthy of notice. It not only adheres as if it were part
of the plant, but it contrives to maintain nearly the same
horizontal position, with its head to the wind. In action,
though not in song, it is the most interesting bird that in-
habits the same locality.

When the winds of autumn and winter have shaken the
seeds, and the floods borne down the reeds themselves, the
reed bunting resorts to other pastures, associating with the
yellow bunting and the other grain-eating birds ; and in com-
pany with them approaching houses and farm-yards when the
weather is severe. With few exceptions, indeed, the resident
little birds seek the neighbourhood of man in the winter.

THE CIRL BUNTING. 25

and come as instinctively to pick up the grains and crumbs
which would otherwise be lost near his habitation, as they
resort to other places, and destroy weeds and insects in aid
of his cultivation during the summer.

THE CIRL BUNTING. [Emheriza cirlus.)

The cirl bunting is rather a local bird in Britain, having
hitherto been found only in the warmer counties on the
Channel. Indeed, as it is confined to the southern parts of
the continent, it is not to be expected very far north in this
country ; and it is only in those places where a southern
aspect, the influence of the Atlantic tides, and shelter from
the cold north and the blighting east, prevail, that we
could hope to find a bird whose principal European localities
are Italy and the south of France. It does not appear that
these birds range beyond the first ridge of hills in the south
of England.

In winter, the cirl buntings associate with the yellow bun-
tings ; and they resemble them in their manners, their notes,
and partially also in their appearance, only they are rather
smaller, their air is softer, and their colours are more varied,
and perhaps upon the whole finer. The voice too is not so
loud or harsh, and the chirp of the female is particularly soft.
It appears to be rather more an insectivorous bird than the
more common species.

The cirl bunting is about the same length as the yellow
bunting ; but the tail is rather longer, more slender, and not
so well fortified by coverts. The whole plumage is, indeed,
more soft and loose, and less fitted for contending with the
winds than that of the other buntings, and much more so than
that of the species which breeds in the distant north.

In the male bird, the bill is bluish above, and pale on the
under part. The irides are hazel, inclining to bi own. The
throat and the streak across the eye greenish blacli, with a
streak of bright yellow above and a paler one below it.
Gorget pale yellow. Sides of the neck and lower part of the
breast pale olive green, with a soft tinge of grey, passing into

VOL. II. D

26 GRAMINIVORA.

pale yellow on the belly, and again into mottled tints of
reddish orange on the sides. The centres of the feathers on
the head blackish, those on the scapulars reddish orange,
passing into blackish brown on the back, and again into reddish
brown on the rump. The darker ones margined with grey,
the orange with yellowish white, and the red with greyish
white. Quills greenish grey with pale yellow margins. The
outer feathers of the tail with white webs on the basal half,
other feathers blackish margined with yellowish grey. Feet
brown with a tinge of red. The female has the top of the head
dull olive green ; the chin, where the dusk is in the male, pale
brown with darker streaks. The flanks streaked with brown
where they are mottled with reddish orange in the male ; and
the colours generally less bright and pure. The female rather
less than the male.

The cirl bunting was first ascertained to be a British bird
by the indefatigable and discriminating Montagu, in the
winter of 1800, and its nest was soon afterwards found by
the same ornithologist. It builds rather earlier than the
yellow bunting, at least than that bird does in the middle
latitudes of Britain. The nest is in similar places (generally
bushes), and the eggs are about the same in number, rather
smaller, without the yellowish tinge in the ground, and with
the lines which are mixed with the drops more waved. As
these birds fly much in company with the yellow buntings in
winter, they might be looked for in warmer places a little
farther to the north than they have hitherto been found ;
though, as they are hi a great measure corn-land birds in their
habits, the sheep walks on the southern heights may impede
their progress to the countries farther to the north, and they
cannot be expected on the mountains.

THE sNow-BUNTiNG. {Emberiza nivalis.)

The snow-bunting, " snow-bird," " snow-flake," and many
other names by which it has been called, has been a sad
stumbling-block in the path of those who do not combine a
little knowledge of the principles of ornithology with the

THE SNOW-BUNTING. 27

mere observation of individual birds. It has got various
trivial names expressive of differences of colour, and specifically
it has been called a lark and also a finch.

Now the fact is that it is a polar bird, inhabiting the arctic
zone in both continents, and though not a mountain-top
bird like our ptarmigan, yet subject, from the higher latitudes
of which it is a native, to greater extremes of seasons than
that: it is subject to similar change in its plumage. And
farther, as, though it does not migrate very far to the south-
ward, it is a wandering bird, it does not change its plumage
so regularly, or so completely in the flocks that migrate, as
the ptarmigan do which summer and winter on the same
mountain-top.

The storms in the polar regions set in with very consider-
able differences of time in different seasons ; and when they
do set in, they lay the native pastures of the bird completely
under snow, which lies and renders food inaccessible for many
months. They often come so suddenly, and with so little
prelude of cold, that the bird is sometimes caught by them in
its summer plumage, or with that plumage barely beginning
to change. In that state it is the least able to endure the
cold, and consequently it makes its way farther to the south
than when it is caught later and more prepared for the cold.
Thus, it is tawny-bunting, pied finch, snow-flake, or white
lark, according to the time of the year at which it happens
to be caught in the storm and carried away from the regions
of the north.

In the summer it inhabits the rocky and mossy places of
the north, where there are no trees, and few bushes ; and
picks up its food from the seeds of the carex, and stunted
rushes and hard plants which grow and ripen seed there ; and
its long and produced hinder claws adapt it for walking on
the mossy, boggy, or otherwise loose surfaces upon which
these grow. When it migrates to our shores, whether at
one time and in one tint of plumage, or at another time and
in a different tint, it frequents those places which are most
analogous to its native pastures, shunning alike the wooded

28 GRl-MINIYOKA.

and the cultivated places, and resorting to the open wilds —
the uplands of the south if it comes early, and the level
wastes near the shores in the north, if it comes later.

The young, of early broods, if their wings are matured in
time, are the first to migrate southward; and instances havfe
been already mentioned in which the young have an autumnal
migration to the south while the old ones continue in the
breeding places. There are various reasons why that should
be the case. The old ones have to undergo the renovation
of their plumage, after they have worn it in providing for
the young till these were fledged. The old ones are also
better tempered to the weather than the birds of the first
year, which have experienced no cold. Besides, though the
young are sufficiently fledged for flight in their first or nesting
plumage, they have to get the winter additions, which all
birds partially or generally resident in very high latitudes or
very cold places, acquire at that time ; and the probability is
that they do not get their additions so early in the season as
the old ones, in which the autumnal change is, with the
exception of such feathers as have been injured, more an
addition to their covering than a displacing and renewal of it.
The worn feathers are of course those of the wings and the
tail, which have been entirely employed in the labours of the
summer, and the ones which are thickened by an additional
supply without a general loss of the old ones, are those which
merely clothe the body of the bird; and hence though the
old birds are better clothed for the polar climate than the
young ones, they are much less capable of flight and conse-
quently of migration.

There is another trait in the natural history of birds, which
although it may be observed in them all, resident as well as
migrant, is yet so conspicuous in the snow-bunting, that
this is the proper place for noticing it. The male is the
most sensitive to heat and the female to cold. That difference
appears, whether the result of the action of heat be change
of place or change of plumage. The males of all our summer
visitants arrive earlier than the females ; and in all resident

THE SNOW-33UNlil>"G. ^d

birds the change of plumage and voice of the male are among
the first indications of the spring, taking precedence of most
of the vegetable tribes, for the red-breast and the wren sing
before the snow-drop flowers appear. It seems, too, that the
song and the attentions of the male are necessaries, in aid
of the warmth of the season, to produce the influence of the
season upon the female ; and even as the season advances, the
female remains a skulking and bidding bird throughout the
season, at least until the young have broken the shell, and
require her labour to feed and her courage (which she some-
times acquires to a wonderful degree at that time) to protect
them. Whether it be that instinct leads the female to husband
her heat for the purpose of hatching her eggs, or simply that
the thinning of the under plumage which takes place at that
time, and is the more conspicuous the more closely that the
bird sits, it is certain that the female of most birds avoids the
sun, and that all cover their eggs from the light during the
period of incubation.

One can understand why the eggs should be covered, in-
asmuch as the germs of life, whether animal or vegetable, do
not perform their first action unless in the dark, or at least
in the shade. The sunbeams bring all living things to
what may be considered as their highest state of develop-
ment and perfection ; but it is all too powerful for the first or
rudimental stages ; and if life continues in what we are
accustomed to call a rudimental state, as in an earth-worm,
an oyster, or the moss which grows on the walls of ruins,
the clear and full light of day is too much for it.

In the female bird there is thus an avoiding of the solar
influence as well as a want of excitability by it, and the one
of these may be the cause of the other ; and the two together,
though their effect would at first seem to take the other way,
show why the female should be the first to follow the sun in
his southward destination in the autumn. If a bird is perched
on a bush or stump that rises above the snow, the rays of the
slanting sun beat more ardently upon it than if they came
perpendicularly, while it perched on the succulent leaf of a

d2

30 GEAMINIVOKA.

tropical plant. They are augmented by reflection from the
snow, and they strike the bird lower down, and not so much
on the back, which from its gloss is the best calculated for
deflecting off the heat. The hideling bird, on the other hand,
would necessarily be subject to the excess of cold that prevails
in the shade.

Besides, the plumage of motion is not so much worn i
the female bird as in the male, and the protecting plumag-
on the under part is much more. From the time that thi
male begins his song to that at which he retires to moult, he
is much on the wing, and sometimes his feathers are injured
in combat. But even in those species in which the male takes
turn with the female in the labour of incubation, his turn is
short in proportion, and he never loses feathers to the same
extent, or generally to any extent that can be perceived. Thus
he merely " keeps the nest warm," in a more efficient manner
than the same is sometimes done by dry leaves or feathers ;
but the feathers which are between prevent him from com-
municating much of his own heat.

Thus if we study the general condition and habits of the
two sexes, we should arrive at the very same conclusion
which we find actually taking place. In the early part of the
cold season, the female, like the young birds, is in better
feather for migrating, but worse for staying than the adult
male ; and hence in such migrations as those of the snow-
bunting, the females come earlier than the males, and find
their way farther to the south ; so that they, as well as the
young, are met with in places which the male, and especially
the male in the winter plumage — in which it is the snow-flake,
or snow-bunting — never reaches. The same habit appears,
though less decidedly, in all the autumnal migratory birds,
even in those that merely shift from one part of Britain to
another.

The male in the winter plumage, which is the only perfect
plumage in which it appears in Britain, is pure white with
the exception of the back, the middle coverts, and partially
the quills and central feathers of the tail, which remain black ;

THE SNOW-BUNTING. 31

but the change to white, like that in the ptarmigan, is more
or less complete according to circumstances. They come in
great numbers to the northern isles and north parts of the
highlands of Scotland, always white in proportion as the
winter is more advanced. They come during, and apparently
driven by, the violent north-east winds which precede or
accompany the heavy falls of snow. On their arrival, they are
sadly exhausted and emaciated; and, if caught in the snow-
drift, many of them are whelmed in the wreaths and perish.
But when the storm abates, those that are in the low countries
near the sea — Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, and similar places —
soon get very fat, as they also do upon the coasts of Lapland,
when the storms drive them from the mountains. The latter
people capture them in great numbers for the table, and they
are highly prized.

In summer the plumage alters; the white on the head, the
breast, partially on the rest of the under part, and the margins
of the feathers above, gives place to pale tawny orange, mixed
on some parts with pale grey ; and an additional portion of the
upper feathers brown black.

The young are still darker, except in the black on the upper
part, which is not so pure, and the females do not acquire the
intense snowy whiteness of the other sex.

The young birds and females reach the south of England,
and are probably more numerous in the middle latitudes of
that country than in the north of Scotland; but the males
in winter plumage are most numerous there — very numerous
indeed if the winter is severe. The males that come early
and with the plumage partially changed, and also the females
(for females do come there), are birds of evil omen to the hill
farmers, as they often foretell but too truly, that the snow
will come before the late oats are gathered in, and the potatoe
crop out of the ground; and those who are weather-wise
quicken the hand of their industry', when they see the snow-
flake early, with his pale tawny gorget, especially if on those
halcyon days which are so treacherous in the autumn of high
latitudes.

32 GRAMINIVORA.

They oven remain and breed in the extreme north. But as
they are naturally mountain birds, they are found in the main-
land rather than in the isles. That dreary ridge of mountains
which extends from the end of Caithness to Cape Rath, and
which almost seems too cold and sterile for heath and bog-
myrtle, is the place to look for them; and any one who had
the hardihood to summer and winter upon its bleak north
side, would, duly employed, find something to add to the
Ornithology of our ultima Thule. He might make sure of
the nest of the snow-bunting and the snowy-owl, and he might
search the crags for the jer-falcon's nest ; and the few low
sandy tracts at the heads of the little wild creeks, for that of
the turnstone ; — and if he should (as who does not when safe
upon the trusty rock?) love to look upon the deep in storms,
he would have ample scope for knowing how sublimely the
angry north can thunder ; or again, how soundly the arctic
tide can sleep, and how gaily it can glitter, at that season
when its night is more illuminated than noon in the southern
fogs.

In nesting time, the snow-buntings are very solitary and
retired. Their nests are in the clefts of inland rocks, con-
structed of grass and feathers, and lined with down, or with
the fur of the arctic fox or the northern hare. The eggs do
not exceed five; they are nearly spherical, with reddish white
grounds, and lines and dots of reddish brown. They do not
breed in inhabited, or even in habitable places; and they
breed late. The male, which, though a feeble songster, is a
much more pleasing one than any other of the buntings,
begins his song about the middle or towards the end of May ;
and he continues it till the latter part of July. His note of
invitation is pleasant; but that of alarm is harsh and shrill,
and rings among the crags. In the breeding-time the birds
are very industrious, resting little in the night, and the male
takes his turn in the incubation. They run fleetly, but never
perch, for which indeed their feet are not so well adapted.

In the statements of authors, there is some confusion in the
accounts of the changes of plumage in the snow-bunting,

SPARROWS.

33

which probably arises from the late period of the season to
which it wears the winter plumage, and the moult being per-
haps gradual.

LARK-HEELED BUNTING. {Emberiza calcarata.)

This species, which is spotted with black on a fawn or straw-
coloured ground, and has the throat and upper part of the
breast black in the male, has occurred in Britain as a very rare
straggler. It is, like the one last mentioned, a native of the
far regions of the north; and, in its native locality, it is said to
inhabit the heaths and grounds covered with lichen.

THE ORTOLAN. (Emberiza hautulana.)

This species, so well known, and so highly esteemed by
epicures in the south-east of Europe, has been noticed as a
straggler in the north of England ; but there are some doubts
of its appearance; and, at all events, it has no character as a
British bird, being at best merely a transient stray.

SPARROWS. {Pyrgita.)

The sparrows are sometimes classed with the finches, with
which they certainly agree in many of their characters and
habits, but they differ in some others. Sparrows do not
flock, at least so much as the finches; they have no song,
though abundance of clatter; they have the conical bill of the
graminivorous birds, but they have it more decidedly notched
than almost any of the others, which agrees with their habit of
being more insectivorous birds, especially during the breeding
season.

The sparrows are often classed with the finches, and also
with the grossbeaks; and, indeed, the scientific distinctions
of many of the birds with hard and strong conical bills, which
eat insects when they can procure them, and seeds and other
farinaceous and albuminous parts of vegetables when insects
cannot be had, are by no means clear. In the form of
their beaks, the sparrows hold an intermediate place; their

34 GRAMINIVORA.

bills being thicker in proportion to the length, and more
curved in the culmen above and in the outline of the lower
mandible, than in the finches, but less so in both particulars
than the grossbeaks.

There are two British species, the house-sparrow and the
tree-sparrow; the former found in all parts of the country,
but never far from human habitations, and the other rather
thinly distributed, and avoiding the neighbourhood of villages
and towns, though choosing places in which it can find insects
for the supply of its brood.

THE HOTJSE-spAiiEow. {Pyvgita domestica.)

The sparrow needs no description, being found in all places
and at all seasons, though less commonly in bleak and ex-
posed places than in those that are low and sheltered. They
do some harm to small seeds when newly sown, to these and
to patches of grain when early ripe, in the neighbourhood of
villages and towns, and also, at certain seasons, to the buds
of shrubs and trees; but, upon the whole, they do much more
good, by the numbers of insects and caterpillars which they
destroy. It is the house-fly, as well as the thatch, and the
eaves and hole9% in the roof, that brings them so much about
dwellings ; and in the consumption of these, as well as of
crumbs and other refuse, they are most notable and indefa-
tigable scavengers. But for them, the house-flies would, in
some situations, multiply to such an extent as to be intoler-
able; and were they not so incessant in the destruction of
those prolific pests, the cabbage-butterflies, it is doubtful
whether one plant of the tribe could be reared in the market-
gardens. The hunting of butterflies by sparrows trained for
the purpose, is said to be one of the royal sports in Persia, and
it accords well with what we are otherwise told of the soft
luxury of that land of roses and nightingales.

The house-sparrow is rather more than six inches long,
and weighs about an ounce and a quarter. The male has the
bill, and a streak thence to the eye, dusky; the gorget black,
more perfect and intense in the breeding season; the sides

THE TREE-SPARROW. 35

of the neck and flanks dull grey, and the feathers on the upper
part dusky, and relieved at the margins with reddish brown.
The female has the base of the bill pale, wants the black mark-
ings, is duller brown on the upper part, and whitish brown on
the under. Both sexes have one bar across the middle of the
closed wing ; dingy white in the female, and rather brighter in
the male. Sparrows are voracious, and withal energetic birds.
They may be often seen holding assemblies with a great deal of
noise and clatter. There is usually a dispute or quarrel in
these cases ; and, true to a very common if not an universal
instinct of animals, the crowd always help the strongest. There
are few exceptions to that law among gregarious animals,
whether birds or not, and something very similar to it may be
traced among the human race, when in that low state of society
in which their impulses and actions are chiefly animal, and mind
comes little into play. In matter, the law is, in fact, universal :
the tree throws off" the withered leaf and the faded flower, in
order the better to preserve those parts that are vigorous;
animal bodies, and animals in their instincts, do the same : and
not sympathy for the weak and relief to the distressed only, but
that even-handed Justice which holds the balance fairly, have a
higher origin, and are found only in those cases in which mental
energy must be considered as the spring of action.

The writings of authors contain many not uninteresting
anecdotes of sparrows ; but any one who chooses can collect
similar ones without any difficulty or labour.

THE TREE-SPARROW. {Fyrgita montana {arhorea ?) .)

The tree-sparrow is a smaller and more slender bird than
the house-sparrow. It is more than half an inch shorter, and
weighs half an ounce less.

Besides being smaller, it is easily distinguished by its air,
its attitude, its colours, and its locality. It is more light and
lively than the common sparrow, and perches with the axis of
the body more erect. The top of its head and nape dark
reddish brown, the black on the chin less in proportion ; a

36 GRAMINIVORA.

conspicuous black patch on the ear coverts ; the sides of the
neck and the breast white, the white produced till it forms a
narrow collar round the neck : bar on the closed wing, white
with black spots on the anterior edge ; two white bars on the
expanded wings. The female more similar in colour to the
male than in the house-sparrow.

The nest of the tree-sparrow resembles that of the other,
only it ha^ often withered grass instead of straw. The eggs
are about the same number (five), but they are smaller. The
nest is usually formed in holes of decayed trees. Indeed, the
bird seems as partial to these as the common sparrow is to
houses ; and the attraction is no doubt also the same — the
abundance of insects which such places afibrd for the rearing of
the young.

The tree-sparrow is found chiefly in the midland parts of
England, each of the central heights, which might be expected,
as it is a bird of the central parts of Europe, and not one that
migrates far from its native locality, or flocks much so as to be
caught in crowds and wafted by the winds. It is an active and
industrious little bird in its locality ; but it is one about which
there is nothing very striking, so that its history is but short,
and not very replete with interest.

FINCHES. [FringiUa.)

The finches live more upon vegetable food than the sparrows ;
their bills are straighter in their outlines, more perfectly conical,
and more sharp-pointed. The birds are consequently more of
field-birds than the sparrows ; and, in the course of the year,
range over a greater extent of country. They are also birds of
much finer plumage, both in their tints and their markings ;
and as the plumage of some of them varies considerably in the
sexes or with age, there is a little confusion in at least some of
the descriptions of them. That confusion is also increased by
a multiplicity of local and provincial names. These names
sometimes give rise to a double confusion, as the same bird,
especially in its different plumages, is called by diff*erent names ;

FINCHES. 37

and in different parts of the country the same name is appHed
to different birds.

Several of the finches are called linnets, and in Scotland,
Unties; which words have the same meaning, and simply
mean, that the birds eat the seeds of lint, ox fiax, {linum^ of
which, as well as the seeds of hemp, icannabina,) and all the
smaller mucilaginous and oily seeds, the whole genus are par-
ticularly fond.

As already hinted at, the whole genus change their habits,
and, to a greater or less extent, their localities, with the sea-
sons. They flock in winter, and some of them resort to
Britain only during that season, and rarely, if ever, remain
to breed in the country ; others migrate southward when they
flock, and northward when they separate to breed, within the
island; others again move to the uplands in the breeding
season, and return to the cultivated fields in the winter; and
there are yet others which merely separate and nestle in the
hedges, bushes, and copses, adjacent to the fields on which they
flock during the winter.

These birds are all eminently useful to the farmer and the
grazier, by consuming the seeds of all the taller and more
troublesome weeds, which, but for them, would overrun the
country beyond the preventive power of human art. That
each bird eats a hundred seeds every day, is by no means
an extravagant calculation ; which, however, gives to each
the prevention of 36,500 weeds every year. The birds can-
not be numbered : but when the vast flocks which are seen
every where are considered, one hundred millions must be
greatly below the actual number. That would give the annual
prevention of weeds by the finches alone, at the astonishing
number of 3,650,000,000,000. Say that each weed would,
upon the average, occupy one square inch, (and many of them
occupy a hundred square inches,) and the quantity of land
which the finches annually prevent from being overrun, is
little short of 600,000 acres, or more than one-seventieth part
of the total surface of England and Wales, whether cultivated
or uncultivated. It is true that many of the finches do not

VOL. II. E

38 GRAMINIVORA.

live upon seeds all the year round ; but Avhen they are not
destroying the seeds of injurious vegetables, they are probably
still better employed, in the destruction of insects.

This calculation is much below the truth, and it applies
only to one genus of the birds, which consume the seeds of
noxious weeds. But still, it may serve to show the value of
those interesting little creatures even in an economical point
of view. Countries where the weeds "get the better" of
the little birds, are in sure progress to sterility. The settlers
on the northern shore of Lake Ontario, in Canada, know
what it is to have fields overrun with the Canadian thistle ;
and many parts of the north of Scotland, where there were
no bushes for birds, were sadly infested with the common
field marigold, before belts and copses began to be planted.
In garden-grounds the race may be destructive ; but where
corn grows and herds graze, their usefulness far more than
compensates.

THE GKEEN PINCH. {Fringilla chloris.)

The green finch, or green linnet, as it is sometimes called,
differs from the other finches in the form of its bill, in which it
more resembles the sparrows ; but its habits more resemble
those of the other finches. Its bill is thicker and more convex,
both on the upper and the lower mandible, than that of the
sparrow, and much less perfectly conical than that of the
finches ; but the air, texture of the plumage, mode of perching,
nesting place, structure of the nest, and many other traits
of character, are much more nearly like those of the other
finches. Both the British species of sparrows nestle in holes,
in preference to the shelter of leaves, while the green finch,
though it is a bird of the shade, both with its nest and on its
perch, never builds in a hole of the wall or a hollow tree. It
is not so elegantly elaborate a nest-builder as the chaffinch, but
the nesting places are similar ; and when nesting time is over,
the two species flock together on the fields.

The green finch is about six inches and a half long, ten
and a half in the extent of the wings, and an ounce in weight.
Its appearance is very soft and gentle, and the tints of its

THE GREEN FINCH. 39

plumage subdued and blending. The bill and feet have a
pink tinge in the living bird, which, however, soon fades after
it is killed, as is apt to be the case with the bloom tints upon
those parts of all birds. The upper part is olive green, rather
warm and bright in the tint, passing into yellowish at the
rump, and relieved by grey on the margins of some of the
feathers. The wing coverts and secondaries are grey, with
the centres darker ; the primaries the same as the centres of
these, but with bright yellow on their outer webs : tail-feathers
the same colour, the outer ones margined with bright yellow,
the others with grey; the top of the head rather browner
green than the back ; the breast greyish yellow, and the vent
and under tail-coverts the same. The female has the green
and yellow less bright, and is altogether of a browner tint than
the male.

In summer, the green finches frequent the hedges, bushes,
and copses, in the neighbourhood of cultivated ground, and
are often found nestling in gardens, especially where they
have the shelter of ivy or of close hedges. The note of the
male is mild and subdued, but it can hardly be called a song,
though in confinement he may be taught to a certain extent ;
but in confinement, as in the free state, the birds are more
recommended to notice by the gentleness of their manners than
by their song.

For resident birds, they build rather late in the season,
their eggs being seldom met with till June. The nest is
placed in a thick bush, composed of vegetable fibres, moss,
and wool, with a lining of hair and feathers : the eggs are four
or five in number, of a very pale greenish white, with light
reddish brown spots near the thick ends.

As the green finches have their nesting time in the finest
part of the season, and their nesting places in those localities
where both food and building materials are found in abun-
dance, matters go on more smoothly with them than with
many other birds. They go on much more quietly than their
vocal neighbours, but quite as harmoniously if they are want-
ing in melody. The pair are very attentive to the young and
to each other ; and when the incubation begins, the male takes

40 GRAMINIVORA.

his turn. The principal food of the grown-up birds is small
seeds, especially those which abound in fixed oil, which are
indeed the favourites with all the little birds, as they yield
much more nourishment from the same quantity than those
which are more dry. The seeds of some of the grasses are
also eaten occasionally by these birds ; and it is probable that,
from the situations in which the nests are placed, the young
birds are partially fed upon insects and their larva?.

Severe weather sometimes drives the greater part of the
green finches from the colder districts ; and in all places they
resort to the farm -yards, the highways, and generally to
those places which men and domestic animals frequent, Avhen
the weather becomes inclement; and, in these cases, they
skulk about, and do not brave the storm like many other
species.

THE CHAFFINCH. [Fringilla coelehs.)

The chaffinch gets the name of coelehs (the bachelor) from
the female moving southward for a reason similar to that
which has already been explained in the article on the snow-
bunting.

Chaffinches are very common birds, early in the season,
and lively during the whole course of it, so much so that
their gleesome activity has given rise to the proverb, " as gay
as a chaffinch." They are distributed over the whole country,
at least as far to the north as the Orkney Isles ; but they are
birds of the cultivated land and its margins, rather than of the
thick forests or the upland wastes.

The chaffinch is about the same lineal dimensions as the
house-sparrow, but more lightly and elegantly formed ; the
tail longer and forked, and the feathers on the crown of the
head (in the male) a little produced. It runs with a swift
and even motion without hopping, and skips very gracefully
among the twigs of trees ; but when reposing, it squats on
the ground as often as it perches.

The male in the breeding plumage has the forehead imme-
diately at the base of the bill dusky, the crown and back of

THE CHAFF1^'CH.

41

the hecad greyish blue ; the back chestnut brown with greyish
yellow margins to the feathers, and the tint passing ^nto sul-
phur yellow on the rump, and upper tail-coverts. The cheeks,
neck, and throat, pale reddish brown, passing into dull purplish
red on the breast and flanks, and again into white on the belly
and vent. The wings have the lesser coverts white ; the
greater coverts black, but those of the secondaries tipped with
pale sulphur yellow ; the first three quills black, with white on
the margins ; the rest with their bases and part of their inner
webs white, and with pale yellow margins on half the outer
webs. The tail with two grey feathers margined with yellow
in the middle ; three entirely black ones on each side of them ;
and two without those with their outer margins, and a spot on
the inner web of each, white. The bill is black at the tip,
and bluish grey at the base ; the irides are hazel, and the feet
dull purplish brown. The female has the upper part pale
greenish brown, tinged with grey, and the under part grey
tinged with yellowish brown. The two bars on the closed wings
and the margins of the quills and tail feathers are much more
obscure than in the male bird, the two bright bars on whose
closed wing are very conspicuous.

The winter separation of sexes in the chaffinches lasts only
for a short time. The females separate and the males flock,
from October to November, according to situation, earliest of
course where the winter sets earliest in. The females reach
the south of England in great numbers, m-any more than
remain to breed there ; but there is no decisive evidence that
any of them cross the Channel and return. The males also
flock southward, though later, and in greater numbers, if the
season is severe. They soon, however, return to the breeding
haunts ; for with the exception of those birds that sing a little
on fine days nearly the winter through, the chaffinch is, in all
parts of the country, one of our earliest songsters. The
females, which move off in flocks, return stealthily, and com-
bats of gallantry sometimes take place between the males
in the pairing season, the female, as is usual in such cases,
falling to the lot of the victor.

The building of the nest is rather early begun; but as
e2

42 GRAMINIVOHA.

it is a more elaborate structure than the nests of many birds,
some time is required ere it is finished. The body of it is
usually formed of mosses or lichens, matted together with
fibres of wool or hair, and lined with the latter substances
(hairs especially), the whole being very neatly and compactly
put together, so that it requires some force to pull the nest of
a chaffinch to pieces.

Much has been written on the nest of the chaffinch, with
regard to the materials, the mode of their union, and the
object which the bird has in view in constructing a nest so
superior in workmanship to that made by many other birds.
But the truth is, that birds have in themselves no purpose in
the building of their nests, or in any thing else. They merely
obey the instinct of rearing a brood, in which, as to fore-
knowledge and purpose, they are as void as a tree is in
bearing fruit. The structures of nests have no reference to
concealment from enemies, or to any thing else that involves
a knowledge of what may happen: they are all physiological,
and form part of the nature of the bird, from which it can no
more depart than a thorn can bear grapes or a thistle figs.
The winter migration of the females shows that they are much
affected by cold ; and all birds of which the females are so,
build warm nests, as, for instance, the snow-bunting, while
those which are indifferent to cold, as, for instance, the
ptarmigan, build hardly any nest at all. In birds which
during the breeding time are so very generally distributed,
both the place of the nest and the materials of which it is
composed must vary. In one part of the country they may
be on fruit trees, in another in thorn hedges, in a third in
furze, and in a fourth in the tops of heath, though more rarely
in the latter, as the places where it grows are less abundant ^n
caterpillars.

Chaffinches prefer insects and their larvae, as long as these
are to be found ; and they do great service in the destruction
of them, not only while they have young, but after these are
fledged, and the whole have come about the gardens ; nor is
it till they have cleared the insects from the plants that they
begin to eat seeds ; and soon after they betake themselves to

THE GREATER RED-POLE FINCH. 43

these, they also betake themselves to the fields, and pick up
those seeds that are better taken than left.

THE GREATER RED-POLE FINCH. [Fringilla caimaUna.)

Though a very common and also a well-marked bird, this
is one of those about which there has been some confusion.
It is the linnet, the grey linnet, the white linnet, the brown
linnet, and also the rose linnet, of England ; so also — as Untie
is the lowland Scotch for linnet — it is the Untie, the grey
Untie, the rvliite Untie, the brown Untie, and sometimes, but
not always, the rose Untie, of Scotland. The lesser red-pole,
or stone red-pole, which does not build in England, at least in
the south, is the true rose Untie of those parts of Scotland, in
which the ancient language of the lowlands is most free from
English or Irish admixture. The latter bird is, indeed, the
more rosy of the two, as the female is in some places tinged
with red as well as the male.

The greater red-pole (it is not the poll but the breast that
is red) is about six inches long and ten in the stretch of the
wings, and weighs nearly an ounce. It is subject to consi-
derable changes of plumage, not only in the sexes, but in the
male birds at different seasons, which have, of course, been
productive of the confusion of the popular names, and that
confusion has been increased by the assertions of authors,
and also by the difference between the plumage of the male
birds in free nature, and in a state of confinement.

In the breeding plumage the male bird is bright carmine
red on the breast, and pale brownish red on the flanks (in
which state it is also called the rose linnet); but in the
winter, the red in a great measure disappears, and the breast
is reddish brown, mottled with reddish white, and the flanks
marked with large brown streaks.

In the breeding plumage, the crown of the head, nape, and
sides of the neck, are bluish grey ; and the back, scapulars,
and coverts, chestnut brown, with pale margins. The throat
and under part of the neck yellowish white streaked with
brown ; and the flanks reddish brown, passing into greyish

44

GRAMINIVOKA.

white on the belly and vent. Quills black with white at the
base, forming a distinct bar on the closed wing. Tail much
forked ; the two middle feathers entirely black, and the rest
margined Avith white. The bill bluish grey, and the feet dull
brown.

In the young birds the grey upon the head is mottled, and
the red on the under parts pale and circumscribed. In winter,
too, the red, and the grey upon the head, which are the
livery of the breeding time, are obscure, the former becoming
brown mottled with white, and the latter mottled with black,
in the centres of the feathers. When the bird once moults in
confinement, it seldom, if ever, recovers the pure grey or the
bright red.

The female, which is considerably smaller than the male,
has the upper part brow^n, with the margins of the feathers
yellowish, and the wing-coverts a darker brown. The sides
of the neck and throat are yellowish white, with dull brown
streaks ; the middle of the belly the same tint, purer, and the
breast and flanks pale reddish brown, with darker brown
streaks. The plumage of the female, as is the case with that
sex in most birds, varies little with the seasons.

The linnet (for notwithstanding the many names of this
bird, that is perhaps its most appropriate, because its most
general one) is partially a migrant within the country, though
the sexes do not separate in the same decided manner as the
chaffinches. During the inclement season, the birds resort to
the lower grounds, especially to those near the sea-shore.
They appear in considerable flocks ; the young birds appear
earliest, then the females, and lastly the mature males, which
may be said to be the order of movement with all autumnal
birds, how limited soever may be the distance to which they do
migrate.

In the flocking time, against which the male has lost the
red on the breast, linnets fly very close and crowded, but
with a smooth and straightforward flight. On the ground
they hop, and have not so much command of themselves as
chaffinches, and they accordingly spend more of their time on
the wing. They wheel about in masses and perch on trees,

THE GREATER RED-POLE FINCH. 45

and though they have no song in tlie winter, they all chirp at
the same time. When the weather begins to get warm their
short but pleasant song commences, before they retire to the
breeding grounds, or the plumage of the male changes ; and
though their song is not so full then as after they have
betaken themselves to the wilds, the crowds that are in song
on the same tree make a lively concert.

The singing of the males while yet in the brown plumage,
and the fact that it is difficult to have caged birds in any
other, appear to be the chief causes of the confusion that
there is about the species. If the males are taken young,
they moult into the winter plumage, and do not change it ; if
they are taken in the flocking time, they retain the brown
plumage in their moults; and if they are captured in the
summer, which, from the wildness of their haunts and the
wild habits of the birds, is not a very common case, they lose
the red on the first moult, and never regain it afterwards. In
summer, too, the female is very apt to be mistaken for the
male. When one comes suddenly upon him, attracted by his
song, which in the wilds is particularly cheerful, he instantly
drops into the bush, before his plumage can be very carefully
noticed ; and if one beats the bush, out hops a brown bird, the
female, and gets credit for the song of her mate.

The deception, or the mistake, is farther increased by the
male ceasing his song and raising his alarm-call as soon as
he is seen, and until he disappears in the bush, for he does
not generally fly out ; but the female does, and, as is the habit
of the female in many birds, she offers herself to the enemy,
that is, tempts him by short flights, to wile him away from
the nest ; and when the coast is clear, she again flies into the
bush, chirping softly the note of safety ; and soon after the
male resumes his song. Thus, though it is the male that is
heard, it is the female that is most frequently seen.

Linnets inhabit a little higher, or more inland, more into
the open wild, than chaffinches : and they prefer the closest
low bushes for their nesting places. Their general distribu-
tion, however, renders that species of accommodation not
always accessible ; and hence the nests are sometimes found

46 GEAMINIYORA.

in garden-bushes, in hedges, or in low bushy trees. The nest
is composed externally of dry leaves and fibres, mixed with
wool or hair, and lined with the same, or with feathers. The
eggs are from four to six, of a dingy bluish white, with short
lines and numerous specks of flesh-colour. There are usually
two broods in the season ; the first hatch taking place in May,
and the second in July : but if any casualty occurs, the female
will continue breeding till August.

Linnets are birds of very gentle dispositions, easily tamed,
and capable of veiy considerable attachment to those who feed
and attend them ; if taken young, the males can be taught to
sing ; but the females have no song, and the old males do not
utter their note. The young, however, may be made to
imitate the songs of several other birds : and there have been
instances in which they have been brought to articulate a few
words.

THE LESSER KED-POLE FiKCH. {Fringilla Imaria.)

This species is known in the south of England as a winter
migrant only, though at that season considerable flocks make
their appearance, and are called " stone red-poles," or " storm
red-poles," by the bird-catchers.

They are small birds, not exceeding four inches and a half
in length, and weighing about one-third of an ounce. The
bill is much longer in porportion, and more finely pointed
than that of the last species, with the upper part dusky brown,
and the cutting edges and under mandible yellow. The pro-
minent tints of both sexes are blackish brown, edged with
yellowish brown on the upper part ; the lower part white, less
or more marked with a yellowish or reddish tinge ; the male
with a trace of red on the crown, and a paler one on the
rump, the latter appearing, though still more slightly, in the
female.

In the breeding season, the male becomes more richly
tinted. The forehead, immediately at the base of the bill, a
streak from the bill to the eye, a patch on the ear-covert, and
the chin, are then deep drown. The crown of the head is

THE LESSER RED-POLE FINCH. 47

tinged with pure red, but not very deep in the shade ; and
the same colour, gradually becoming lighter in tint, tinges all
the light parts of the sides of the neck and breast, and passes
into a pale peach-blossom on the flanks, and that again into
white on the belly, crest, and under tail-coverts. The rump
and upper tail-coverts, which are pale yellowish brown in the
winter, also receive a pale tint of red; and the same colour
appears, but very faintly, on the rump, breast, and flanks, of
the female.

The brightness of those nuptial tints, or rather tint, — for
the change of colour is the addition of red to the lighter
parts, — varies a great deal, both in extent and intensity. The
seasonal red, like that on the common linnet, does not appear
till the birds are in song, and have arrived at their breeding
places; and it seems to acquire brightness in proportion as
these are dry, warm, and sheltered. It is probable also that
the tints are brighter in those that breed farther to the north,
and later in the season; that is, supposing the situations
equally sheltered. When the fine weather has once set in on
the southern slopes of the dry secondary ridges of the moun-
tains,— the favourite abodes of the birds, — the heat is not only
much greater, but more continuous, day and night, than in
richer and more southerly places ; and in those places, accord-
ingly, the colour on the male is not only rich, but the breast
and flanks of the female have a rosy tinge, as deep certainly,
and nearly as clear, as the blush rose. It is in such situations
in Scotland, that the '* rose linte" is known to every cowboy
as being a much smaller bird, and having a nest in different
places, and of different materials from the common linnet.
The natural copses of alder, hazel, birch, or other stunted
and bushy trees which grow in the ravines near the edges of the
moors, and also the plantations of timber trees, when these
are young, are the places in which to look for these birds
and their nests. The nest is in a low fork of one or other
of these, and more rarely in furze, or any low or close bush.
The external part of it is formed of slender twigs, then moss
and feathers, with sometimes an admixture of wool, if the
place affords it. The lining is of vegetable down, taken from

48 GRAMINIVORA.

the willow, often the small creeping mountain willow, or the
thistle or any other of the compositee that have downy ends ;
these last aifording the little bird both building materials and
food. On some occasions the lining is wool, fine feathers, or
animal down ; but in Britain, at least, vegetable down appears
to get the preference, probably from the same places that supply
it, supplying food also.

The birds build late in the season, intermediate between the
broods of the common linnets, but rather nearer the time of
their latter one. The eggs are four or five, of a pale greenish
blue, with brownish orange spots, especially towards the larger
ends. In the southern parts of the breeding ground, the young
are fledged about the middle or towards the end of June ; but
in the north of Scotland, they are two or three weeks later ;
and in the arctic countries, where the birds are more numerous,
they are later still.

The lesser red-poles live more exclusively upon vegetable
matter, even in the breeding season, than the linnets ; and
that may be one of the reasons why they do not breed till the
seeds of the more early vegetables are ripe. Their assiduity,
and the attitudes which they assume while culling their food,
are equally amusing; and they, like all birds that have very
great command of themselves on their perch, will allow an
observer to watch them closely for a considerable time. They
are admirable perchers, and equally expert in preserving their
balance; so that their action resembles that of the bright-
crested wrens, and the tits. They hang with the head or the
back undermost, as best answers their purpose; and as they
cull the seeds, and sometimes the buds, (buds are more firm
and farinaceous the colder the climate is,) upon the extremities
of the most slender twigs, they have often a very unstable perch,
but they keep it firmly. It is very pretty to watch one picking
the calkins on the long pendulous twigs of a weeping birch
over a mountain stream. Those twigs are often twenty feet
long, and little thicker than packthread. On the points of
these the little birds may sometimes be seen, swinging back-
wards and forwards like the bobs of pendulums, busy feeding,
and never losing their perch.

THE MOUNTAIN LINNET. 49

THE MOUNTAIN LINNET. {Fringilla montium.)

The mountain linnet, or twite, nestles and inhabits still
farther in the wilds than the last-mentioned species. It is,
in fact, a heath-bird, and the only one of our little birds that
can be strictly considered as a tenant of the cold and bushless
moor ; and on that account, one feels an interest in it, which
it would perhaps not have if it dwelt and reared its brood in
richer places.

In winter, these birds migrate to the lower and warmer
parts of the country, as the places which they most frequent
in summer are, in winter, covered with snow. They associate
with the other linnets ; and as they are subject to a change
of plumage somewhat similar, they are apt to be mistaken for,
or confounded with, the female red-poles. The species are,
however, easily distinguished by a little examination. The
twite is rather larger, and more compact and firmly built ; the
bill is a little longer, and the culmen and under side are both
perfectly straight lines. The tail is firmer, and not quite so
much forked; the two bars on the closed wing are smaller
and nearer to each other; and the whole plumage is more
dingy. In colour, the winter plumage of the twite more
nearly resembles that of the female sparrow ; but the two
bars on the wing, the light margins on the quills and tail-fea-
thers, and the greater strength and spread of the latter, easily
distinguish them.

In summer, the tinge of rose-colour on the rump, and the
slight reddish tint on the brown of the chin and sides of the
neck, render them much more easily distinguishable. The
expression of the birds is, however, the best and most cer-
tain means of distinction. The sparrow, accustomed to shel-
ter, has a soft appearance, and perches with the axis of the
body raised in front : the twite, accustomed to the free air in
places where there is little shelter, has its plumage closer,
and perches or stands with the axis of the body more hori-
zontal. The last are very certain distinctive characters of

VOL. II. F

50

GEAMINIVORA.

birds of sheltered and exposed situations ; so that when we
find a bird habitually perching so that the wind does not get
under it, we may be sure that it perches in the blast. That
does not apply to the repose of the birds, for most birds
squat when they repose in the fields ; but to that which
may with propriety be considered as the natural standing
attitude.

The usual note of the twite is not unlike the sound of its
name, and may have been the origin of it. The bird
nestles in the heather, though not so much in the thick dark
extent of it as the grous, but rather in the tufts which are
interspersed with coarse grass, near the marshy and boggy
places. Over these it flies low, and upon gloomy and driz-
zling days rather dismally, uttering its single and complain-
ing note, unanswered by the voice of any other living crea-
ture ; and, with the exception of the owl, — and that is a
matter of fancy more than of fact, — it is perhaps the only
land bird which makes the place of its habitation feel more
desolate and sad. As one goes mountainward, the lark, the
linnet, and other bush-birds, and the lesser red-pole, give
an air of liveliness, either by the blitheness of their songs,
or the activity of their motions ; but when one comes to
the cold unbroken moor, where no vegetable rises higher
than the knee, the mountain linnet inspires a very difierent
feeling.

The nest is usually on the top of the thick heath tufts, and
composed chiefly of vegetable fibres, though sometimes these
are mixed with wool in the lining, if the locality of the bird
affbrd that material. The eggs do not exceed five, of a pale
greenish blue, with markings of reddish brown. From the
nature of the locality, the brood is produced late in the sea-
son ; and there is seldom a second one, at least in the more
northerly habitats.

Though a migratory bird, it is one of short flights, each
leap accompanied by its note, and with frequent alightings ;
hence, though it gets on, stage by stage, from the one end of
Britain probably to the other, it does not appear to cross the

THE GOLD-FINCH. 51

Channel in winter, neither does it reach the Shetland Isles
in the summer. Wherever it goes it utters its cry, as well
when in flocks and mixed with other flocking birds in the
winter, as when each pair is living apart on the wild moor
in summer. The linnet, which agrees most nearly with it
in habit, and is a near neighbour in the summer, is the
bird with which it associates the most during its winter
migrations.

THE GOLD-riNCH. {Frmgilla earduelis.)

The gold-finch is certainly the most beautiful, and it is also
among the most useful, of all our resident birds. A figure of
the male, in summer plumage, will be found on the plate at
page 175, vol. i., of one-third the lineal dimensions. The
colours of the female gold-finch resemble those of the male,
both in their distribution and their markings, only they are not
so brilliant in the tints, and the red on the forehead and chin is
sometimes clouded with a few black spots; the young have
the head brownish. There is not much seasonal change in
the plumage, only it is less bright in winter, and the full
beauty is not acquired till the birds are in song.

The gold-finch is a small bird, but powerfully winged, and
very energetic in all its motions. Its length is about four
inches and a quarter, the extent of its wings between nine and
ten inches, and its weight about half an ounce. Its flight is
straightforward and smooth, without any undulations or
jerks, though, from its habit, it never flies at any great eleva-
tion above the ground. The air of the bird is extremely
sprightly, more so, perhaps, than that of any of our little
birds, except the tits, and they have a sort of irritable ex-
pression in them which the gold-finch has not : still it is
somewhat of a battling bird ; and, from the strength and
sharp-pointedness of its bill, the power of its wing, and the
admirable command that it has of itself on very slender
perches, few birds of its size can combat with it upon equal
terms. In the free aii*, however, the combats of bnds are

52 GKAMINIVOKA.

few, unless among those of which the males fight at pairing
time.

The plumage of the gold-finch is as fine in texture as it is
beautiful in colour : the flying feathers are equally remarkable
for the strength of their shafts, and the firmness of their
webs ; and the body feathers lie so very close, that when the
bird is fluttering about in all positions on a breezy day, hardly
a feather on it turns.

It is a bird very generally distributed over Britain, wher-
ever the nature of the soil is such as to afibrd it a supply
of food, in the early season, when the first broods are
hatched.

The plants upon the seeds of which gold-finches feed, and
feed with more assiduity than almost any other species, are
those which are the most noxious to the cultivator ; docks,
bistorts, sorrels, wild mustards, marigolds, mountain daisies,
chick-weeds, and especially the whole of that branch of the
compositce that have winged seeds, and keep the air pow-
dered all the summer over with the excess of their produc-
tiveness, and taking possession of every nook and corner of
the cultivated land, whenever it is neglected for even a short
time.

Of the seeds of these plants there is a constant succession
all the year through, for the wind has not shaken the autum-
nal thistles bare by the time that the early groundsels are in
flower; and to these the dandelion and many other species
are soon added. The numbers of those seeds are beyond all
counting; and the means with which they are furnished for
floating about with the hghtest wind that stirs, are most
effective : they are, at the same time, fitted for laying hold,
and their oily nature renders them not easily destructible by
the weather. Hence they are every where ; and one who
examines the quantity of do^vn that floats off" from a single
bed in a neglected garden, must see that one acre of culti-
vated land allowed to run to waste, would suffice to infest
a whole parish. It is a maxim in farming, that where the
hedges and lanes are foul, the fields never can be clean ; and

THE GOIB-FIIJCH. 53

countless instances may be seen in England, and in Middlesex
not less than in more remote places, where the farmer gives
half of what his land might produce to the weeds, just be-
cause he will not grub up some green lane or inconvenient
corner, but retains it as an ever-productive nurseiy of the
most destructive species. But though these accumulations of
unseemly plants spoil or diminish the harvest of the farmer,
they yield an ample autumnal and winter supply for the gold-
finches ; and the margin of the wild is often made gay with
the colours and the song of the gold-finch, simply because the
farmer on the richer ground is a sloven.

When they disperse for the summer, the gold-finches do
not retire very far outward on the bleak moor, or far upward
on the hill, or into the forest. If the state of the land is
slovenly, they remain among the lower fields, in numbers pro-
portioned to the food that there is for them; and, as no
human art can fully extirpate, or keep extirpated, plants, the
seeds of which career over the country at nearly the same
rate with the winds, there are always gold-finches nestling in
the gardens and copses, and among the bushes, and even the
thick tufts of nettles on the lower grounds. But the gold-
finches do not inhabit the marshes, the naked leas, or corn-
fields that are free from composite and cruciferous weeds ; nor
do they give the preference to places near the margin of waters,
or otherwise, where insects may be presumed to be most
abundant. Hence, it is reasonable to conclude that the gold-
finch is more exclusively a seed-bird than any other bird of
the order, and perhaps it is entirely so ; but although its food
is vegetable, it does not eat the seeds of the grasses, or of
grain plants, though it does sometimes commit considerable
ravages upon those of the cruciferous plants, and also the
trefoils where these are cultivated. Its chief food, how-
ever, consists of the seeds of plants which are equally in-
jurious to corn-fields and to pastures : and therefore it is one
of those birds which, altogether independently of its own
beauty and its song, claims the protection of the farmer, as

f2

54 geaminivoha.

one of the grand natural conservators of the green carpet of
the earth.

One chosen habitat of the gold-finch is the line where the
cultivated fields meet the upland waste or the game preserve.
[The weeds disseminated from the latter, by the way, do even
more injury to the surrounding farms than the game birds do.]
That boundary is one at which there is a good deal of know-
ledge to be acquired ; and the more so, the greater the con-
trast between the territories which it divides. Some por-
tion of the tilth is blown by the winds of March upon the
margin of the wild, and along with a surface grass a little
more kindly, there comes a host of thistles and other plants
with winged seeds, which stand in battle array upon the fron-
tier, ready to invade the fields with legions of seeds, when-
ever the wind blows from the hill. Among the tops of these,
the mature gold-finches may be seen labouring with the
greatest assiduity the whole day and the whole season ; and
by the time that the summer has advanced a little, the young
may be found on the ground below, as busy among the
groundsels, chick-weeds, and plants of a smaller growth,
which, although not so formidable in appearance, are, from
their numbers, and the rapidity of their growth and succes-
sions, fully as destructive. But though the gold-finches are
very industrious, and though they multiply at the rate of
three broods in the year, the natural tendency of the plants
on which they feed is to multiply many hundreds of times
faster; and man cannot perform a more ornamental or a
more useful labour in such places, than by walling his field
round with a belt of planting, which will be shelter and pro-
tection both to his crop and to the gold-finch.

That is the act to which man is admonished by Nature, if
he would heed her operations ; and it is one to which he is the
more admonished, the more skilfully and successfully that he
cultivates on the edge of the wild. If he merely scratches
with the plough, and manures scantily without drainage, the
wild invades him with its ungenial cohorts of carex and moss,

THE GOLD-FINCH. 55

covering his grass-land in the winter, and blighting his grain-
crop in the autumn ; and it is only when he so drains and
otherwise prepares his land as that there is a blowing tilth in
the spring, that he brings the thistles up in arms on his fron-
tier, and will be invaded by them, if he does not plant the
protecting belt of trees, (larches, pines, or spruces, in cold
situations, alders in boggy ones, and birches on the extreme
of cultivation,) which will defend him far more certainly from
the hordes of the desert, than the empire of the descendant
of the sun was by the Chinese wall. Any one who examines
the lands on the confines of a common, even in the home
counties of England (where there is often an unseemly pro-
portion of waste), may see proof of these observations. Where
the ploughed land margins on the bushless waste, and there is
no bird save the twite, with its dull plumage and dismal note,
the two literally run into each other, the grass-land starves the
cattle, and the corn is not worth reaping ; but where, even on
soil naturally of the same quality, there are bushes and belts,
and linnets and gold-finches carolling away in full activity, the
grasses are kindly and green, and the corn plays in the summer
wind with those beautiful wavings which proclaim there shall
be plenty.

Though gold-finches labour cheerily and with songs, they
labour more diligently than most other birds. They are early
on the breeding grounds, and their nests are constructed with
great care and much neatness ; the materials of course vary
with the locality, as the birds never range very far from the
nesting-place till they have reared the last brood for the
season. The song of the male generally begins in March,
and continues improving till the middle of May, at which
time it is in the greatest perfection. He sings from the
perch, but prefers one which is not very lofty ; begins at day-
break, and continues, with little intermission, till sunset. The
nest is placed in a branch, and the foliage of evergreens is
preferred to that of deciduous trees, which is another proof
that the finding of caterpillars (which are comparatively few on
evergreens) is not one of the inducements in the choice of

56 GEAMINIYOEA.

place. A flexible branch seems to be preferred to a stiff one ;
and thus the nest of the gold-finch is literally a cradle, and
the young are rocked by the winds in their hatching place,
nearly as much as they are afterwards to be on the tall and
flexible stems, from the tops of which they are to find their
food. That situation requires a compact nest, and accord-
ingly the materials are very carefully united, or worked
together, so that the wind has little tendency to tear the
structure. The external parts are vegetable fibres, mosses,
and lichens, mixed with wool or hair, when these can be
obtained ; finished with hau' and feathers, and very generally
with vegetable down, most frequently that of the thistles and
other compositce, but sometimes of the willow or other plants.
In the neighbourhood of cotton or flax manufactories, gold-
finches (and many other birds) find an ample supply of nest-
ing materials in the mill-wastes, whether these consist of
cotton-wool or of the more light and flocculent parts of thq
flax.

The female begins to lay about the middle of May, and th0
number of eggs in each of the three hatches (in very cold ancj
backward places there are only two) varies from three to six ;
they are of a pale bluish white, with little reddish-brown
specks thinly scattered, except at the larger end. The mother
sits very closely and determinedly — no violence of the weather
will drive her from her nest : and considering the way in which
they are sometimes shaken by the winds, it is rather surprising
that so few of the nests are blown down, even in gales and
whirlwinds. The male is also very attentive, and continues
his song later than almost any bird ; indeed he may be heard
in the winter, and sometimes even when there is snow upon
the ground. That might be expected, as the best livery of the
plumage and the energy of the bird are kept up with little
variation throughout the year.

It is worthy of remark, too, that the harvest of the gold-
finch is more continual than that of almost any other bird,
as there are always some of the j)lants upon which it feeds in
seed. But the birds feed mostly on the wing, or perched on

THE SISKIN-FINCH. 57

the plants, (except in the case of the broods when very
young,) and rarely pick up seeds from the ground. The
removal of the crops does not, therefore, make the stubble-
fields such rich pastures to them, as they are to many other
birds ; and hence, in Britain at least, they do not assemble in
such numerous flocks. The packs in which they are found
during the winter, rarely exceed the number which might be
expected fi'om the three broods of the season and the parent
birds ; and it is not improbable that they may be restricted to
these.

The gold-finch is one of the favourite cage-bu*ds, as well as
one of our finest birds in a state of nature. They are easily
tamed, hardy, lively, capable of being taught many little
tricks, and, when properly attended to, almost continually in
song ; and they live longer in confinement than almost any
other of the little birds. They breed in confinement, and
mules may be bred between them and the canary-finch ; the
best of which are those between the male gold-finch and female
canary : they have the bill, head, and wings of the gold-finch,
and the rest of the body more resembling the canary. These
do not, of course, breed with each other, though there is little
doubt that they would breed back to the pure blood of either
parent.

These are all the finches which can be regarded as regu-
larly summering and wintering in Britain ; but there are other
three which visit the country, in the winter chiefly; and as
they have not the same cause for their departure at a par-
ticular season, as those birds have of which the food fails
seasonally, they may remain and breed occasionally. These
three species are, the siskin-finch, the mountain-finch, and the
haw-finch.

THE SISKIN-PINCH. {Frmgilla spinus.)

The siskin, which is called the Aberdevine, though it has
not the bright colours of the gold-finch, is still a very beauti-
ful bird. Its prominent colours are black, bright yellow, sul-

58 GEAMINIVOEA,

phur yellow, and a peculiar shade of green, approaching to
sage green, but yet so unlike any named shade of the colour,
that it has been taken as a named tint, under the appellation
of " siskin-green."

The siskin is larger than the gold-finch, and not so firm and
compact in appearance. It is about five inches in length, eight
and a half in the extent of the wings, and its weight about
three drachms. The bill, though hard and conical, is not by
any means so powerful as that of the gold-finch ; and the bird
is altogether of softer manners, and more resembling the
canary, except in colour, and in being smaller. It also breeds
more readily with the canary than the gold-finch does, and the
hybrids are said to breed again more freely.

These birds are, like gold-finches, subject to some variety
(perhaps climatal variety) in the colours of their plumage ;
but the following are the tints of the male, as usually seen in
this country; and probably, from their relation to birds which
are subject to few seasonal changes of plumage, they do not
vary much all the year round: — bill and claws reddish white,
the former brownish at the tip ; feet reddish, inclining to pale
flesh-colour ; upper parts siskin-green, with the centres of the
feathers deep olive green ; crown of the head and chin black,
with a slight greenish tinge, and mixed with green on the
nape ; a broad streak behind the ear, the neck, breast, and
margins of the quills, greater coverts, and tail-feathers yellow,
in some places pale sulphur yellow, and in others the brightest
gamboge tints ; the bars of the greater coverts, and centres
of the quiUs and tail-feathers black, with a slight tinge of
deep brownish green ; the flanks greyish white, the belly
white, and the under tail-coverts white, with dusky streaks
and markings. The green and greenish black are the most
permanent tints, the yellow varying considerably both in
clearness and intensity. In the female, the markings are not
so decided, and the upper part is rather brown, and the
lower more inclining to greyish white in the general tint.
There is no authenticated instance of the nest being found in
any part of the British islands ; and the ornithologists of the

THE SISKIN-FINCH. 59

continent, where the bird certainly does breed in considerable
numbers, do not seem to be altogether agreed about the pecu-
liar locality of the nest.

The wooded parts of the continent appear to be its principal
haunts ; but it is rather confined to the middle latitudes, than
extended either to the extreme north or the extreme south;
and when it visits this country, its habits agree with such a
locality, as it perches on shrubs and trees, and feeds on the
seeds and buds of these, rather than on the seeds of herbaceous
plants. The nest is said to be, in accordance with the habit in
feeding, placed much higher above the ground than that of the
gold-finch, but in a fork, or against a stiff branch, so as not to
be exposed to the same violent rocking during winds as that of
the other.

The siskin cannot be considered as a very rare bird, because
it is met with in many parts of Britain, though seldom, if
ever, in the extreme north; and when it does appear, it is
not in solitary straggling individuals, but in flocks, or at least
in packs ; but as little can it be considered as a regular winter
visitant, having an equatorial migration, and in consequence
of that, appearing and disappearing at nearly the same times
every year. Its migration is rather a migration in longi-
tude, and an involuntary one, produced by the winds, which
waft the birds to different parts of the country at different
times of the year, according to their direction, their intensity,
then* continuance, and probably whether they be or be not
accompanied by falls of snow on the continent. In no in-
stance have they been observed so early in the season as our
regular autumnal bu'ds, which are known to breed within the
arctic circle in the western part of the continent. They are
said to make their appearance in flocks in the lower parts of
Germany, about the same time of the year at which our
grain-eating birds leave the wilds, and flock on the cultivated
fields; but with us they appear considerably later, and some-
times not till the summer birds have begun to arrive. Analogy-
would lead to the conclusion that they breed with us, but that,
like the haw-fiiiches, they hide themselves in the depths of the

60 GRAMINIVOKA.

southern forests at that time ; but with us, their history in a
state of nature is very imperfect. They are chiefly known as
cage-birds, and as such they are esteemed for their beauty,
their docihty, their healthiness, their song, and the readiness
with which they produce a mixed breed, either way, with the
canary-finches. Their song is not unpleasant; it bears some
resemblance to that of the canary, but it is less powerful.

THE MOUNTAIN-FINCH. {Fringilla Montifringilla.)

Like the siskin, the mountain-finch is irregular both in the
times of its appearance and in its numbers. It is, however,
much more frequently seen than the siskin, and resorts to more
places of the country.

As the snow-bunting has, in some stages of its plumage,
been called the mountain-finch, that has occasioned a little
confusion between it and the species under consideration ; but
the two are so distinct in all their characters, that the one can-
not be mistaken for the other. The proper mountain-finch is
sometimes called " the brambling."

It is not quite so large as the snow-bunting; but it is a
stout-made bird, which would lead one to conclude that,
though it may, as is reported, nestle in the pine trees, it is in
its manner of feeding more a bird of the open air than of the
forest. While in this country its habits correspond, as it does
not resort so much to the trees and copses, and feed on those
buds, as the siskin; but keeps more to the open fields, with the
chaffinches and yellow buntings, though, like the chaffinches,
they frequently alight in trees, and consume the various fruits
and seeds that are found on these, but rarely the buds, and
prefer evergreens for roosting at night.

Mountain-finches are rather arctic birds, and have, perhaps,
few of the order inhabiting north of them except the snow-
buntings; the finches being on the northern verge of the
forests, where these begin to subside in height or to become
straggling, and the buntings where ligneous vegetables are
still more rare and stunted. As is the case with many of the

THE MOUNTAIN-FINCH. 61

arctic birds, it is said to be subject to seasonable variations of
colour, though these are slight compared with what takes place
in those bii'ds which inhabit as far northward or upland as to
be without the shelter of even shrubby vegetation. There is
also more difference between the colour of the sexes than in
the two species last mentioned.

The length is about six inches and a half, the extent of the
wings ten and a half, and the weight rather more than an
ounce.

The male, when it visits Britain, has the bill yellowish, and
black at the tip; the head, cheeks, and nape, with the centres
of the feathers, mottled with diiferent tints of yellowish brown
and grey : the throat, breast, scapulars, and lesser coverts, red-
dish brown; the coverts of the secondary quills black, with
pale orange brownish tips: the greater quills black with a
white spot at the base, and the outer webs margined with pale
whitish yellow; the flanks and sides buff orange with dusky
spots; the rest of the under parts yellowish white; and the tail-
feathers black, edged with yellowish grey, except the exterior
ones, which are edged with white.

The principal change in the breeding season consists in the
disappearance of the brown and grey mottling on the head and
neck, which then become pure black, and in a general deepen-
ing of tint in the whole upper part, as well as of the brown on
the breast; and where the head becomes pure black, the base
of the bill changes to a bluish colour.

The female has all the tints considerably paler, and that
part of the head and neck which is black in the summer plu-
mage of the male is grey in the female. The young in their
first plumage resemble the female on the other part ; but the
breast is much paler, being a sort of brownish white. The
males which arrive early in the season have the head much
blacker than those which arrive after the season is farther
advanced. But in all their varieties of plumage they are
handsome bii'ds, and they are lively and energetic in their
motions.

VOL. II. Gt

62 GEAMINIYOEA.

THE HAW-FINCH. {Fringilla cocothraustes.)

The haw-finch is the largest bu-d of the genus that appears
in the British islands; and it has hitherto been observed only
in the southern parts of the country.

The plumage and air of the haw-finch are indicative of a
bird of soft manners and mild skies, rather than of one which
has to contend with the winds in bleak places. The bill is
very large in proportion to the size of the bird, and resembles
in shape that of the green-finch ; indeed, except in the tints
and markings of the plumage, the green-finch is the other
British bird with which the haw-finch has the most points of
resemblance. But the haw-finch is much more a woodland
bird than the other, feeding chiefly on the seeds of trees and
the kernels of their fruits.

The colours are : round the base of the bill, from that to
the eyes, and also the chin, black; the crown of the head
and cheeks pale chestnut brown, with a slight tinge of grey,
which disappears in the breeding time ; and a broad collar of
delicate bluish grey on the nape and upper part of the neck.
The back veiy deep reddish brown, passing into pale chestnut
on the rump and upper tail-coverts. The lesser coverts deep
reddish brown, with a row of white towards the greater coverts,
forming a long and very distinct oblique bar on the closed
wing. The general colour of the quills glossy black, with a
slight glaze of purple ; the secondaries and part of the prima-
ries with the points truncated as if shortened by art, and an
oblong white spot on the centre of each inner web. The tail,
which is not very much produced, and nearly square at the
end, with the four middle feathers, except their bases, and the
last half of the inner webs of all the rest, except the two outer
ones, white, and all the rest of the tail black. The breast and
belly pale brownish purple; and the vent-feathers and under
tail-coverts white. In winter the bill and feet axe flesh brown,
in summer they are lead grey, with the tips of the mandibles
and claws much paler.

THE GEOSS-EEAKS. 63

Though at variance with the characters of the genus, as
well as with the laws that regulate the general migrations of
the feathered tribes, the haw-finch is, in most of the books,
described as a winter visitant. Now that a bird should come
to the warmer parts of the country in winter, and not be found
then or at any other season in the colder, might have been
regarded as conclusive evidence against its being a migrant
in latitude ; and more recent and careful observation has es-
tablished the fact of its being a resident bird, but one of very
retired habits in the breeding season. The nest has been met
with in Epping Forest, at Windsor, and in some other places,
but always concealed in the depth of close forests, to which
the bird retires about April ; and it is equally hidden on the
continent during the summer.

The nest is among the close foliage, five or six feet from
the ground, and sometimes in the thick top of a pine or other
evergreen. It is a shallow fabric, formed of sticks and lichens,
and lined with fibres of roots. The eggs are from four to six,
of a greenish white, mottled with greenish grey and brown.
The birds are nearly as silent as they are retired; and their
note is soft and inward, something resembling that of the bull-
finch.

GROSS-BEAKS. {Pyrvhula,)

In their general characters, the gross-beaks bear considerable
resemblance both to the sparrows and the finches ; but they
have other characters which, in the British species at least,
make them readily distinguishable.

The gross-beaks have the bill, taken in all its dimensions,
rather less than that of the majority of the finches ; but it is
very thick in proportion to its length, dark in the colour, and
very strong and peculiar in its form. The exterior of the
upper mandible makes a sort of ridge which is continued for
some distance on the forehead, and forms a sort of hook at the
tip ; the line of the under mandible is also very much curved,
and the tip of that mandible is rather shorter, so that the

64 GEAMINIYOKA.

upper one closes over it something in the same manner as the
bill of the parrots. The tarsi are short ; but the toes long,
and the claws well adapted for perching on slender twigs.
The mngs are rather short and rounded ; the tails are rather
produced and strong. The whole organs of motion indeed
indicate a power of rapid short flights in all directions; and
such is the general habits of the birds. They leap about among
the extreme twigs of trees, and extract the kernels of seeds
from their hardest receptacle. Two species are mentioned as
British, the bull-finch gross-beak, a resident, and the pine
gross-beak, which can hardly be regarded as any thing but a
straggler, and even then as a rare one.

THE BULL-FINCH GEoss-BEAK. {PyrrJiuUs vulgaris.)

A figure of the male bull-finch, one third of the lineal di-
mensions, is given on the plate at page 175, vol. i. The
colours of the female are less bright. The under part is pale
reddish brown, and the upper part brownish grey. The re-
maining parts similar in the distribution of the colours, but
paler in the tints. The young, in their first plumage, have
considerable resemblance to the female, only they want the
black upon the head and the red on the under part of the
males ; but they acquire those tints in about two months after
leaving the nest. As is the case with all birds in which there
is a considerable difierence in the plumage of the sexes, the
mature birds are also subject to varieties of colour.

The bull-finch is a bird, with the form and appearance of
which, and also with its softly modulated whistle, every one is
familiar as a cage-bird ; but as a wild tenant of our woods it is
perhaps more rarely seen or heard, at least for the greater part
of the year, than any other bird which is as generally distri-
buted, and as numerous in all its localities.

Though called a finch in common language, it has neither
the appearance nor the habits of the finches. In shape it is
the most compact and neat, and expressive of energy and
strength of all our little birds. The outline of its head and

THE BULL-riNCH GEOSS-BEAK. 65

bill is as fine as that of the most handsome of the hawks ; but
the bright black eye has a good deal of the prying expression
of that of the magpye. The bill is, with the exception of that
of the eagles and hawks, much stronger in proportion than the
bill of any other British bird. The attitudes and motions of
the bird, while busy picking buds or berries, are also very ele-
gant; and it has a great command of itself on its perch.

It inhabits almost all thickly wooded places, and also brakes
and hedges, if they are not in very exposed situations ; but it
every where inhabits hideling, till necessity drives it from its
cover. It is not generally found in the very tallest trees, but
rather in the largest branches of those that are of very close
growth ; and its nest is placed in the thickest shade, and at no
great elevation above the ground. The structure is rude and
artless, as the shelter of the bird while sitting and of the
young, consists rather in the situation in which the nest is
placed than in the nest itself. It is formed of twigs, and
finished with small vegetable fibres, with rarely, if ever, any
admixture of wool, feathers, or any other animal substance.
Indeed, the habits of the bird do not lead it to the places
where such substances are to be found. It lives in the
shade of the tree, and uses such materials as that shade
affords.

Bull-finches breed rather late in the season, as, though the
building of their nest is not a very elaborate matter, it is not
begun till the end of April or the beginning of May, The
male bird sings at that time ; but his song, though mournfully
soft, is so low, that it is not heard but in the close vicinity :
and the bird is so apt to drop into the bush and be silent, on
the least alarm, that to scramble through the trees in order to
hear the native note of the bull-finch, is almost the surest way
of being disappointed.

The birds are very much attached to each other and to their
young, and it is possible that they pair for life ; but their
habits while in the wood are not easily observed or much
known ; and when they first quit the shade, they apparently
come in families^ though even these skulk near each other,.
g2

66 GRAMINIVORA.

rather than associate freely and openly like the flocking
bu'ds.

When the stores of the hedge and the coppice fail, and the
weather is severe, the bull-finches resort to the gardens, and
commit very considerable ravages upon the fruit-trees, espe-
cially the early cherries, plums, and other sorts that have their
buds in an advanced state, and with a considerable quantity of
farinaceous matter accumulated in them. They, are equally
expert at nipping off the buds, and in separating the hard
scales of the hybernaculum, which are scattered round the root
of the tree, and are sometimes the only remains that are left of
what promised in the autumn to be a fair or even an abundant
crop of fruit. They attack the buds of hawthorns and many
other trees, such as the birch, and even the pine tribe, the
cores of the buds of which they separate very dexterously from
the scales and turpentine. As the bull-finches seldom attack
the buds on the tops of even rather low trees, they do not
much disfigure the forests, and probably their pruning of the
hawthorns may assist the hedger in his labours ; but to the
fruit trees, especially one solitary tree of an early sort, they
often do very considerable damage ; and as they slink aAvay as
soon as they are observed, other birds are sometimes apt to get
the blame. But they are birds of which the habits require a
good deal more careful examination than appears to have been
bestowed on them.

THE PINE GKOss-BEAK. {PyvrJiula enucUator.)

The pine gross-beak is a very beautiful bird, but it is of such
rare occurrence, that it can barely be considered as a British
bird. I have been a good deal in the native pine forests, and
also in the extensive pine plantations in the northern parts of
Scotland, where, from the short distance to the Scandinavian
woods, where it is abundant, it would be brought most readily
by the winds, and I never saw the bird, or met with any per-
son that had seen it. These birds are liable to considerable
variations in their plumage, both with the seasons and at

THE CROSS-BILLS. 67

different ages. At present, the detail even of their appear-
ance is not probably a part of British ornithology, though
the numerous plantations of pines that have of late years
been made in the northern parts of Scotland, may possibly
bring them. They feed upon the seeds of pines, and on those
of Alpine and Arctic shrubs, and also upon buds.

CEOss-BiLLS. {Loxia.)

Cross-bills are another species of birds, natives of, and
chiefly inhabiting, the vast pine forests of the high latitudes.
They are singular birds, both in the form of their bills and in
some of their habits.

The bill is of considerable length for the size of the bird,
very strong, and the mandibles are, towards the points, which
are very strong and sharp, curved in opposite directions, so
that when the bill is in a state of repose, they lie across each
other with the points projecting towards the opposite sides.
The cutting edges of the mandibles are bent inward on their
inner or convex sides, so that the one can slide upon the other
with a very firm support, and yet an easy motion.

One accustomed only to see the action of ordinary bills,
whether straight or curved, which have only the common
vertical motion, or that slight lateral or grinding one, which
all birds that have the tomia of the mandibles turned inwards,
and the habit of sheUing seeds with tough husks, possess,
would be very apt to regard the crossed mandibles of these
birds as forming a very ungainly instrument for any useful
purpose. But it very often happens that, in the animated
creation, those organizations which, to our partial and super-
ficial view, seem awkward, are really the very best adapted
for their several purposes. We have many instances of that
in the feet of birds, especially in the anisodactylic feet, such
as those of the creeper, among finches, and in the feet of the
grebes among swimmers ; and the bills of the birds under
consideration are just as admirably adapted for the obtaining
of their peculiar species of food.

68 ' GRAMINIVORA.

The seeds of the pines, which, until the cone has been
exposed to the action of the weather for a considerable time
after the seeds are ripe, are so firmly enclosed between the
ligneous scales, as that the bill of no ordinary bird could reach
them, are the chief food of the cross-bills : and the bill con-
sists of a very powerful pair of levers, by means of which the
scales can be wrenched open, and the seeds arrived at in a
manner the most effective. When the two sharp points are
brought together, they can be entered into a very small
opening, in which, the instant that they begin to operate,
each takes hold like a hook, and tends to draw itself in ; thus
cutting open in the direction of the face or plane of the
scale, while by their action upon each other, they press it
open by the power of a double wedge ; and by the time that
the mandibles have crossed to their full extent, the scale is
so completely raised, that the seed can be taken from under
it with the greatest ease. The position into which the oblique
action of the bill brings the head, enables the bird to see the
seed under the scale, and while the mandibles keep the scale
open, the tongue of the bird scoops out the seed. The tongue
is as curious as the mandibles. It terminates in a horny
gouge, supported by a bone and furnished with muscles, by
which it can be raised or depressed so as to act as an inde-
pendent instrument. The motion of the bill divides a soft
and pulpy substance with remarkable facility ; and when the
birds visit orchards, which they are apt sometimes to do in
the autumn, they cut the apples asunder in order to get at the
pips, with almost as much celerity as one could cut them with
a knife.

The season at which these singular birds breed, is another
curious trait in their character. They do not breed in the
depth of winter when the snow is falling, but they do it so
very early in the spring, that they must in some places have
nests, eggs, and perhaps even hatched young, before the
snow has wholly left the surface of the ground. With the
ground they have indeed little connexion in any of their ope-
rations or excursions. Their food is in the trees more abund-

THE CROSS-BILLS. 69

ant in the winter than in the summer : the second year cones,
which had been matured in the preceding season, are then
completely ripe and full of seed, and want only the action of
the mandibles to open them. The older cones have by that
time either fallen from the trees or had their seeds removed by
the gross-beaks, and other birds which build late in or near the
same places.

The scaly fruits of these trees give way sooner in the cold
northern countries than in places farther to the south, in
consequence of the intense cold of the winter, and the sudden-
ness with which the heat of summer sets in ; so that by the
time the weather becomes hot, the food of the cross-bills, in
the peculiar state in which it is their habit to seize it, becomes
less abundant. Then they move southward, about the same
time that the migrants, which have left the north during the
severe weather, are again arriving there for the purpose of
nidification. Their regular migration on the continent of
Europe, is along those districts where the coniferse are abund-
ant, in. the whole line from the mountains of Scandinavia to
the Pyrenees.

- Whether they come to us in a southward migration from
the northern part of their continental range, by a northern
one from the southern, or are drifted laterally when on a
middle course, has not been very satisfactorily ascertained;
but at all events their migration is irregular : and though there
is not perhaps a season during which a few are not found in
some parts of the country, the large flocks come only occa-
sionally, and at different times of the year in different seasons.
Those which may be considered as the more regular migrants
come in May or June, and when they land on the eastern side
of the island, their progress is northward, so that they may
possibly reach the forests of Norway and Sweden by the time
that the cold weather has set in, or rather after the first and
violent falls of snow, and when the winter has become tran-
quil, and they can set about the constructing of their mossy
nests.

Those which visit the south of England, are either more

70 GRAMINIVOEA.

numerous or have been more carefully observed towards the
eastern part; and so they may possibly be from the Pyrenees
or the pine districts of the south of France. When they
arrive in numbers in these places, they pass the summer
among the pine plantations; but when the seeds or pips of the
apple begin to ripen, they lay the orchards under very severe
contributions.

There are two species which have been noticed as visitants
in Britain, the common cross-bill, which, although very singular
in its appearance, can hardly be considered as a rare bird, and
the parrot cross-bill, which is a mere straggler.

COMMON CEOSs-BiLL. {Loxia curvtrostra.)

A figure of this bird is given on the plate at p. 369, vol. i,
one third of the lineal dimensions. The red on the young
males, especially on the breast and rump, is often darker than
that represented in the figure. The female is deep greenish
grey, with the rump and throat mottled with pale yellow.

The strong muscles necessary for producing the very
curious motions in the beak of the cross-bill, give the head
and neck something of the air of those of the parrots; but
the cross-bill has that side of the head towards which the
lower mandible slides larger than the other side. There are
also some agreements in the habits of the birds. The cross-
bills have not the same sort of foot as the parrots, any more
than they have the same sort of bill: but they are excellent
perchers, and can hold on by the one foot while they employ
the other as a hand. Clinging to the slender twig with one
foot, the cross-bill grasps with the other the fruit, or cone
(especially the cone of the larch, which is on a much more
flexible support than that of the pines and spruces), and thus
produces a reaction to the first motion of the mandibles, for
which the strength of the twig and weight of the cone^would
not be sufficient. When the hooked parts of the mandibles
have once taken hold, their oblique action, as they cross each

THE COMMON CEOSS-BILL. 71

other, tends to draw the cone or other fruit towards the bird ;
and the foot is always ready, if necessary, to hold on. In all
its actions, indeed, the sliding motion of the one mandible
upon the other is far more powerful than could, by equal
muscular energy, be given to any bill or beak, the mandibles
of which simply shut the one against the other. A slight
lateral or grinding motion may be observed in the bills of all
birds that shell hard seeds ; and parrots grind hard substances,
and hawks divide tough ones, by sliding the point of the lower
mandible against the strong hook on the tip of the upper.
But though the tongue, as has been said, is probably used in
scooping the seeds of cones, the tips of the mandibles can be
brought very nicely into contact, so as to seize the smallest
substances.

As the cross-bills feed undisturbed in the depths of their
native forests, they are by no means shy when they visit this
country. They are so intent upon their cone pecking or
apple splitting, that they will not only allow their motions to
be watched more closely and for a longer time than most
other birds, but they may also be taken by a noose at the
end of a rod ; and the capture of one does not alarm the rest,
so that, if they are abundant, one who is expert in managing
that species of snare may take them in considerable num-
bers. In confinement their dispositions are placid, and they
can be rendered very familiar and taught a number of little
tricks.

They are said to nestle high in the coniferous trees, to
construct their nests externally of tree moss, and line them
with fine dry lichen, worked in the tomia of their beaks till it
be soft. It has been said that they line their nest with
feathers, but feathers are not very plentiful in the northern
woods, while the snow is on the ground ; and it has been
said also that they cement their nests with the turpentine
which exudes from the pines, and thus render them water-
proof. That, however, is also very doubtful. Turpentine
does not exude from trees in cold weather ; and as the nest
is merely a hemispherical one and without a dome, the render-

72 GRAMINIVORA.

ing of it water-proof would do it harm rather than good.
Nests do not get wet from below, unless they are flooded;
and that would be a very violent thaw even in Sweden, where
summer sets in so rapidly, which would flood the pine forests
to the height of the cross-bill's nest.

THE PABEOT CEOss-BiLL. [Loxia pytiopsittacus .)

This bird is larger than the former, more like a parrot in
shape, not so generally known on the continent, probably a
more northerly or easterly dweller, and exceedingly rare as
a straggler in Britain. It is not longer than the common
cross -bill, but the tail is shorter, and it is altogether a much
thicker and stronger bird. The bill is much thicker and
more crooked in its outline, but shorter, and the points are
not so sharp and do not cross each other to so great an ex-
tent, the upper one merely appearing to hang over the under
as in parrots, when the head is viewed laterally. The colour
of the young male is not so red as in the former species, and
more mottled, and in the mature bu-d it changes more into

grey.

In winter these bhds are very abundant in the pine forests
on both shores of the Baltic. Like the former they nestle
very early ; and they are said to retire to the swamps in the
spring, and prey first upon the buds, and subsequently upon
the fruits of the deciduous,' trees and shrubs. They come
much more rarely into the cultivated places. In Britain they
have never been seen so far southward as the common cross-
biUs.

It is worthy of notice that the cross-bills, which are to a
considerable extent the reverse of most other birds in their
time of breeding, are also the reverse in the change of the
male plumage. In most birds the mature and the breeding
plumage of the male are deeper, or at all events more entire
in their tints, than the young and the winter plumage; but so
far as has been observed, the cross-bills are duller in their
colours both in the mature and the breeding plumages.

ORDER XIL
GRALLID^.

WADING BIEDS, OR BIEDS WHICH SEEK THEIE POOD
CHIEFLY IN THE SHALLOWS, OR ON THE MARGINS OF
WATERS, OR OTHERWISE IN HUMID PLACES ; AND
WHICH NEVER OR SELDOM FEED IN THE AIR ON THE
WING, OR FISH ON EXTENSIVE SURFACES OF WATER.

The birds which compose this order vary so much in their
forms, their habits, and their haunts, that their general cha-
racters are equally few and vague ; and though they do agree
in some particulars, it is by no means easy to express what
those particulars are. But if it be difficult to find general
characters descriptive of the order as distinguished from other
orders, it is just as difficult to find any one character by the
variations of which they can be satisfactorily divided into
groups.

One means of subdivision has been the general structure of
the bill, as " coulter-shaped," or as " compressed ;" and though
neither of these terms is very descriptive of the form of the
organ, they are expressive of certain general characters of
the birds. Those that have the bill coulter-shaped, find their
food chiefly in the waters, and it consists, for the most part,
of fishes and reptiles. Of these there are only two resident
British species, the common heron and the bittern, though
individuals of about a dozen more species have been met with
in the country, as stragglers, however, rather than as even
occasional visitants, coming in seasons of a peculiar cha-
racter, from the recurrence of which a second visit of the
birds might be expected.

VOL. II. h

74 GRALLIDJE.

The straggling of birds must depend upon natural causes,
as well as their periodical migrations, or their residence in
the same spot ; but the law or succession of those causes, is
a matter of wider and more difficult observation; and the
difficulty is increased when the straggling is much in longi-
tude, as is the case with most of the coulter-billed grallidse.

Of the remaining and far more numerous group of British
birds formed by this division, the bills are so different that
no common name can be accurately or very usefully applied
to them, so that any attempt to subdivide the order from the
form of the bill is of comparatively little use in facilitating the
study of British birds.

The wings and tails do not form good means of sub-
division ; as, though the whole of the order are well-winged
birds, they do not use these organs of flight in the chase of
their prey, but merely in transporting themselves from place
to place ; and their wings are more powerful in proportion as
the places in which they find their food are more widely
scattered, and also as the supply depends more upon the
season.

Many of the order can swim, some are good swimmers,
and some can dive readily; but as these motions are only
occasional, they cannot well be made distinctive characters of
any groups more comprehensive than genera. Indeed, any
characters more extensive than generic ones, are of com-
paratively little value in the order.

The habit in which they all agree the most, is that of find-
ing their food on or below the plane upon which they stand,
and not using their wings like the air birds, or a perch like
the bush and tree birds, in the immediate reach of it. It is
in that habit chiefly that the general character of the order
lies ; and though their feet, and also their necks, heads, and
bills, vary much with the kind of place in which the food is
found, and the way in which it has to be taken from that
place, there is in all cases a corresponding variation of the
two ; so that when the feeding-place and food of the bird are
known, it is always apparent that the feet, as the immediate

WADING BIRDS* 75

means of conveyance to the food and of support while it is
taken, and the neck, head, and bill, as the immediate organs
of capture, are so well adapted for acting in concert, that if
the one were changed without a corresponding change in the
other, the bird would be far less efficient than it is. The
principal food of the whole order consists of animal sub-
stances, so that they have membranous stomachs and not
gizzards, though some have a slight approach to that cha-
racter. These last occasionally eat vegetables when in a
state of nature, might be wholly or chiefly fed on them in
confinement, and would no doubt, in that case, partake more
of the gizzard structure. In all birds, indeed, the texture of
the stomach can accommodate itself less or more to the
nature of their food ; so that when the food requires grinding,
-^an operation which only the grain-eating birds can perform ^
and thatj too, in a very imperfect manner, — the stomach
becomes in time a grinding apparatus. Even in its most
perfect gizzard form, however^ it becomes only half the
mill — the nether millstone as it were ; and hence the necessity
that the gallinidae are under of picking up gravel to assi^-t
the gizzard in the attrition of their food. The necessity and
efficiency of these substances in the process of digestion are
proved by the fact, that the birds, when they can pick up
gi'avel naturally along with their food, can be maintained and
continue equally fat upon half the quantity of grain.

The British birds that come nearest to what may be con-
sidered as the commencement of this order, are the lowland
gallinidae and the runners ; but though these feed much on
the surface, they also feed " higher up" than is the general
habit of the grallidse* Those pick seeds from the tops of high
plants, and eat the leaves and tops of some green vegetables,
which the birds of the present order very rarely do. The
habits of the bustards approach the nearest to those of the
grallidse ; but then the bustards are so exclusively birds of
dry pastures, that it is a contradiction in terms to class them
as grallidse, or birds like waders, — and much more so to class
them as grallce^ or " actual waders/'

76 GRALLlDiE.

The bodies of all the order are poised with the direction of
the centre of gravity so much within the base formed by the
feet, that they have great power over the neck, and can
thus command a large portion of space with the point of the
bill, while the axis of the body remains in nearly the same
position ; and, especially in those species that fish, the extent
and rapidity of motion to the bill by means of the extension
and flexure of the neck are very remarkable. Their legs are
also more developed than those of birds that feed even occa-
sionally on the wing or the perch. The tarsi are long and
in general clean and light in their structure, as is the case
with most animals which use their feet only for swift pro-
gressive motion, and not for clutching or hopping. The
femur or thigh-bone is more free ; the articulation of the
tibia with the tarsus more firm ; and the whole leg comes
more into action than that of other birds, the running birds
only excepted. They are thus enabled to take longer steps
with the same muscular exertion ; and they get over the
ground fast and with little fatigue. When they fly, they
extend the legs backwards, and at the same time stretch the
neck out forwards ; and as the lengths of those bear a propor-
tion to each other, the balance of the bird is preserved, and
the flight rendered more easy.

Nor is that all, for the feet which, from the stiffness of
the tarsal joints, cannot be so conveniently folded as those
of perching birds, answer many of the purposes of a tail.
When the bird descends they come down, so that, in alight-
ing, the weight presses first on the points of the toes, and
the bird is let to its footing on the ground by its own feet
as elastic springs.

When the bird is on the ground, and the axis of the body
nearly horizontal, which is the average position when feeding,
the centre of gravity is so far forward of the articulation of
the toes, that the pressure upon them is nearly in the same
ratio to their power of resistance through their whole length ;
and thus the whole foot is stable. If the centre of gravity
were thrown backward, the stability would be diminished,

IVADIXG BIRDS. / /

just ais that of a man is Avhen he attempts to lean back
with his body straight and stiff; more so, indeed, for as
soon as the points of the toes are relieved of part of the
pressure, the elastic ligament begins to contract^ and its ten-
dency is to throw the bird obliquely upwards and backwards.
But as the chief action of the birds while on their feet is
either walking or running, in which the anterior part of the
body is depressed and the head generally advanced, or seekinL'*
for their food below the axis of the body, their footing bp-
comes the firmer the more that they exert themselves in either
way.

In taking wing, in which case the anterior part of the body
is always elevated, and the centre of gravity consequently
thrown backward, the action of the spring of the foot aids the
bird in getting into the air,- a motion which, as the tail has
little action as an organ of flight, would otherwise be mueli
more difficult.

In alighting, these birds have some difficulties to ovefconio
which are not felt by those orders which are better furnished
with tails, or do not use their feet as a balance and a rudder
in their flight. When the legs are brought downwards, the
anterior part of the bird becomes heaviest, and there is, in so
far as gravitation is concerned, a tendency to come down
head foremost. But the wings are so formed as to counter-
act that tendency. They are hollow on their under sides.
especially towards the anterior parts, where all wings are
stifTest ; and thus they both take a much more buoyant hold
on the ah- as a resisting medium, and produce a re-action to
their stroke obliquely upwards and backwards, in consequence
of which the bird is enabled to alight with the axis of its
body in a more upright position than those birds which have
not their wings so formed. In that way the birds can let
themselves down very gradually, so as to feel no shock when
they alight upon hard surfaces, and not to sink when they
descend, even with their greatest rapidity, upon surfaces that
are moist and soft.

In all cases, a concave wing takes a better hold of the
h2

78 GRALLID-S:.

air, than a flat one ; and some of the grallidse can, by means
of their wings, work the body into a vertical position, in the
same way as some of the swimming birds can do when they
elevate themselves out of the water ; while others can convert
the partially expanded wings into very efficient auxiliaries when
they run rapidly.

These habits vary much in different species, but they
belong in a greater or less degree to all the birds of the
order.

HAUNTS OF THE GRALLID^.

Several foreign species of this order not only inhabit near
the dwellings of man, but are among the most familiar of
the feathered tribes, frequenting the streets of cities, and
reposing and nestling on the house-tops with more apparent
confidence than house-sparrows with us. In those places, they
are esteemed and protected on account of their services as
scavengers, and in the destruction of noxious creatures ; and
though they are not very elegant in their forms, they impart a
peculiar and not an uninteresting character to the place ; but
it is not a British character.

The British grallidae, whether resident or migrant, are all,
with the exception of some of the stragglers, birds of the
wastes and uncultivated places ; and birds which harmonize
less and less with the country in proportion as improvement
extends over it. Hence, the species are less numerous with
us now than they were in former times ; and of many of
those that remain, the numbers are gradually lessening.
There is, however, little chance or danger of the extinction of
any of the present species. The sea- beaches, the fens, the
moors, the upland marshes, and the banks of the rivers, will
continue to afford them retirement and food, though several
of them do get gradually more out of the range of general
observation.

But though the grallidse are, in their general haunts, thus
in so far associated with wildness and infertility, they are not

HAUNTS OF THE GRALLID^. 79

less interesting than those birds which are the concomitants of
improvement and fertiUty, and which multiply as these extend.
In some respects they are even more interesting than these.
They give life to those places which man neglects ; and (as
they are almost all preyers upon plant-destroying animals)
they preserve vegetation upon places where otherwise it would
perish, and the consequences to the general climate of the
country would be much more serious, than those who do not
reflect upon those matters in their connexion, would be apt to
suppose. There are many places of the country which but
for them would become driving dust in summer, and so suscep-
tible to cold in winter, that they would be continually drawing
the moisture from the surrounding fields in the hot and dry
months, and chilling them with nipping winds at the other
times of the year.

Sunbeams never fall idly; and if the nature of any
surface is such that they cannot fall upon it for good, they
are certain to fall for evil. If there is a vegetable covering,
it clothes as a mantle, or cools by its evaporation ; and if
there is vegetable matter in the mould, the decomposition of
that finds the sunbeams in employment, and the gaseous pro-
ducts which they evolve enter into new combinations, and the
waste which takes place there is merely a transfer to otlier
places.

But if there is nothing but the powder of the earths, or of
metallic and other mineral substances, there is nothing but the
idle operations of nature's chemistry — heating and drying,
cooling and wetting, both running to extremes with the sea-
sons, and both tending to spread their efffects.

Any one who has observed, but for one season, the progress
of vegetation upon the margin of a plantless waste, and com-
pared it with that upon ground of the same quality, elevation,
and aspect, which had not the misfortune of so bad a neigh-
bour, must have seen what would have been the advantage of
having that ground covered with vegetation of any kind.
When mattei-s are in that state, there are of course no de-
stroying insects ; for they too must perish in the ruin of which

80 GRALLID^.

they are the authors, and which they would always accomplish
to a certain extent, were it not for the birds that feed upon the
ground.

These birds take up the ground where the field birds end,
and occupy it as far as there is food and as a walking foot can
go, to the uppermost part of the hill that will bear bent and
rushes, to the farthest shallow in the lake and the river, through
the sedges and reeds by the marsh, and on the beach as far as
the ebbing tide retires. Mountainward, they approach the
haunts which are occupied in succession by the black-game,
the grous, and the ptarmigan • fieldward, they border with the
partridge and the rook ; and near the waters, they are the im-
mediate neighbours of the swimming birds.

The pastures which they occupy are more under the influ-
ence of the seasons than either the richer or the more elevated
parts of the country. Both of these afford shelter, and even
food, all the year round. The leaves, it is true, fall, and the
annual stems are gathered in or die down in the rich places ;
but the tree and the shrub remain, and the clearing of the
ground of foliage discloses no small portion of food for the
birds which inhabit there. It is indeed the store to which
they all collect from their breeding grounds, and on which
they become strong and wax fat, preparatory to the labours of
a new season. The mountain vegetation is also perennial, and
it is so in leaf as well as in flower. There are, indeed, few
succulent hybernaculating buds there ; but the tops of the
heaths and mosses are always in a state of growth, so that
they support the birds which nestle among them, even when
the whole are clad with snow.

The plants among which the grallidae reside are, on
the other hand, almost wholly annual both in the leaves
and the stems, so that they supply very little food in
the winter months ; for when the vegetation falls, and the
autumnal winds and frosts sweep and chill the surface, the
molluscous worms and other small animals retire downwards
beyond the reach of the birds. Hence there is a very general
migration, and the tendency of that migration is towards the

HAUNTS OF THE GRALLID^. 81

sea, the shores of which afford a constant supply to those
birds which feed on small animals. The supply along the
shores is indeed most abundant in the winter, as the waters,
being in a state of stronger agitation, detach and cast to the
strand a greater number and variety of esculent matters ; and
though the birds are driven inland for shelter during the
violence of the storm, they speedily throng back to the beach
when that is over, to feast on the supplies which it has col-
lected. That supply consists of various matters : of the
spawn of fishes, Avhich has been ploughed up from the banks,
or wafted ashore in cases where it is committed to the open
sea ; of fry in the very young state ; and of innumerable small
marine animals that come ashore upon uprooted sea-weeds,
loosened stones, and in the general accumulations of sand,
ooze, and other debris, which the troubled waters roll about
while in agitation, and ultimately leave on the beaches depo-
sited in the order of gravitation, and consequently with the
organic portion uppermost, as being lighter than the earthy
matters.

Nor are the land floods unserviceable in adding to these
winter stores ; for they sweep from the beds and out of the
torn banks of the rivers, a vast multitude of little animals
which had got beyond the reach of the birds ; and these are
found in great abundance on the oozy banks, and in the oozy
beds of the shallows of estuaries and creeks. But these latter
accumulations of winter food are in places rather soft for the
feet of the grallidse ; so that they fall more to the lot of the
swimming birds, which crowd to such places during the
winter season.

In Britain, the grallidse which subsist chiefly by fishing, and
which are the true waders, are not so much subjected to
those migrations. Their prey being in the clear water, they
frequent the banks of rivers, and the shallow margins of
lakes, where these are comparatively clear of reeds and other
tall herbage ; and as there is no cover for them there, they
usually nestle in trees ; and unless when the sky is very
lowering, or when a flood has left the meadows partially

82

GRALLIDJE.

covered with pools in the hollows, which act as so many
traps for the smaller fishes, they are not much upon the feed-
ing grounds during the day. Indeed, they are far from nu-
merous in Britain: the common heron may be said to be
the only resident species ; and that, though very generally
dispersed over the country, is not an abundant bird, even in
those districts which are most congenial to its habits. In
countries where the seasons are more marked by alternating
droughts and floods, the species of true waders are more
numerous, and the whole are more migratory. During the
drought there is little food for them, except in the inhabited
places, where they, as already stated, ply as scavengers ; but
when the rain sets in so heavily as to beat numbers of small
animals out of the trees, and foster the production of others
in the humid soil, and much of the surface is covered with
stagnant water, the wading birds come in numbers, disperse
themselves about, and find a plentiful subsistence, thereby
consuming substances which would, in all flooded countries,
taint the air, and in very hot ones render it absolutely pesti-
lent, when the heat and drought return.

It is in such countries only that the full value of the gral-
lidae can be estimated, or the part which they act in the grand
economy of nature can be properly seen. They are birds of
the extremes of seasons ; and as the progress of improvement
in Britain tends to equalize the temperature of the year, their
interest with us partakes a little of the melancholy character
of that which is gradually fading away : and they are fading
faster, the nearer that they approach to the characters of
birds of the thirsty desert, or birds of the pool and the flooded
land.

Their wings being merely organs of motion from place to
place, and the pastures ; in many instances, being far apart
from each other, and requiring length of wings more than
any form that fits them for hunting on the wing, the feet
and bills become the principal means of distinction. The
feet are adapted to surfaces of all kinds, from the arid waste
to the softest mud that will support the weight of a bird.

HAUNTS OF THE GEALLID^. 83

Thus some resemble the feet of the running birds, in wanting
the hinder toe ; others have the hinder toe articulated on the
tarsus higher up than the other toes, as in the gallinidse ; and
others again have the feet approaching to those of the wag-
tails, and other insectivorous birds that run on the margin of
the waters ; but there is not, in the whole order, any thing
that can be considered as a prehensile or a perching foot ; for
though the heron roosts in trees, it stands rather than clings
as on a perch ; and though some of the order use the foot in
pressing their prey to the ground, and others (as is said) in
beating the ground to bring it out, none of them make use of
the foot in clutching. The bill, which is the only instrument
with which the food is taken, is adapted for capturing it in a
great variety of places : as on the bare dry ground, out of holes
in the earth, from under stones, from the leaves, stems, and
roots of plants, from sand, sludge, and shallow water. Thus
there are many forms of the bill ; and as the place on which
the bird stands does not always correspond with that from
which the food is taken, the feet and bill are sometimes of
different characters ; so that the feet are more indicative of the
general haunt, and the bill of the habit in feeding.

The only subdivision of the order to which we shall attend,
is that of wanting or having the hinder toe, as the total want
of that member indicates a bird of dry and bare places ; and
the more that the hind toe is produced, and its articulation
on the same level with the other toes, the better is the bird
adapted for walking on soft surfaces, whether these are formed
of herbage or of mud. Between these extremes there are
many gradations ; and there are differences in the form of the
bill, with the same degree of production in the hinder toe;
so that the distinction applies only to the haunt, and not to
the species of food. The genera, and in some instances the
species, are the only accurate distinctions.

84 GRALLTD^.

GRALLID^ WITH THREE TOES.

The species of these are not so numerous as those with the
hinder toe. Their general characters are : the body compact,
well-shouldered, and tapering backwards; the plumage firm
and close ; the wings strong, reaching to the end of the tail,
(which is distinctly wedge-shaped,) and in some species be-
yond it ; the head round, or with a curved outline on the
upper part, and with the eye farther from the gape than in
the gallinidse or the running birds ; the bill generally longer
than the head ; and the lengths of the bill, neck, and feet,
varying together, but not in exactly the same proportion.
The bill straight and strong, compressed towards the tip ; the
upper mandible with a keel on the ridge, and the lower one
angular at the tip ; the outline of both nearly straight for a
portion at the base, and convex towards the tip ; the nostrils
lengthwise near the middle of the bill, and opening in front
by a cleft ; the legs long and slender ; the toes united by a
membrane at their bases, and partially margined with the
same their whole length ; the claws short, and the feet not at
all adapted for clutching or perching. The birds run and fly
swiftly, and can turn readily on the wing : they run best upon
surfaces bare of vegetation.

THE THICK-KNEE. {CEdicnemus crepitans.)

This bird has been called the Norfolk plover, the stone-
plover, the stone-curlew, and other names, none of which is
very definite. It is the largest three-toed species of the order,
being about a foot and a half in length, two feet two inches
in the extent of the wings, and upwards of a pound in
weight. The bill is about two inches, and the tarsi between
five and six inches in length; the neck is rather long; and
the bird, when standing up in the bare fields which it fre-

THE THICK-KNEE. 85

quents, appears larger than it is in reality. The naked parts
of the legs, which extend to some distance above the articula-
tions of the tarsi, (usually, though improperly, called the knee
joints,) are yellow ; and the orbits and irides of the eyes, and
also the basal part of the bill, are yellow, the last of a paler
shade than the others ; the arched part of the bill towards the
tip, and the claws, are black.

The colours of the plumage, though sober, are pleasingly
marked. The head, neck, and all the upper parts of the body,
are dull orange brown, with a well-defined dusky streak down
the middle of each feather ; the neck and breast are of a paler
shade of the same ground colour, mottled in a similar manner ;
and the belly, thighs, and vent, are pale yellowish white. One
streak of dull white above, and another under the eye, nearly
form an oval boundary about that organ; and the chin and
upper part of the neck in front are dull white, with a line of
the same on each side, extending towards the nape, but not
meeting behind, so as to form a collar. The quills of the
wings, excepting a white bar across the first and second, to
the tips of the tail-feathers, and a bar across the middle of each
tail-feather, are black, and the remainder of the tail-feathers,
which are short, and formed a blunted wedge, are white. The
tarsal joints, or knees, are remarkably thick, as if they were
enlarged by gouty concretions, from which circumstance the
bird gets its name.

The thick-knee is found, as a British bird, only in the dry
and open places of the south and east of England, and not
even in the midland counties. These birds are, upon the
whole, migratory, though in mild winters a few of them
remain all the year. They keep the open fields, avoiding
copses and covers of all kinds, and rarely even feeding in
enclosures, except these are very large. They arrive in Eng-
land in the early part of April, but a little sooner or later
according as the weather is more or less favourable. The cry
of the male is rather loud, but grating, and something resem-
bling that made by an ungreased iron axle. They spend little
time or labour in the construction of their nests ; indeed, the

VOL. II. I

OO GRALLID^.

finding of food in the dry and barren places, which are their
natural pastures, keeps them in abundant occupation. The
sand or earth scraped and levelled a little, is the place where
the eggs are deposited. These are of a pale ashen grey, with
reddish brown blotches ; and the incubation lasts about thirty
days. The male takes no part in the labour of incubation, but
he remains all the time in the close -vicinity of the nest ; and
while the female squats close on his giving the alarm-call, he
uses his art to tempt intruders to a distance.

The young, as is the case with those of all birds that deposit
their eggs on the earth without any nest, are at first covered
with thick down, of a greyish colour ; they can run as soon
as they break the shell, and the mother usually conducts them
to some stony place, and for some time assists them in finding
their food, by turning over the smaller stones, under v>'hich
they find earth-worms, slugs, and other small animals.

The down upon the young of those birds which lay their
eggs on the bare earth, appears to be part of a very general
law in the animal economy. Of all animal coverings, down,
or, which is nearly the same thing, fur, or hair in a state of
very minute division, appears to require the least assistance
from heat in its production, and to be the best preservative
against the efiects of cold after it is formed. Perfect feathers,
on the other hand, appear to require the most heat ; and
hence all birds which have the young without down, construct
warm nests, in which the young remain for some time quite
helpless ; and in cases where the feathers are in a forward state,
the male bu-ds either alternate with the females in the incuba-
tion, or the eggs are carefully covered with feathers, dry leaves,
or some other imperfect conductor of heat, when the sitting
bird leaves the nest.

The feeding time of the thick-knees is in the morning and
the evening, especially in the former, as their prey is longer
out in the damp of the morning than in the evening. During
the heat of the day, they squat so closely, that one may pass
very near to them on the stony wild without observing that
they are there.

THE THICK-KNEE. 87

In autumn they assemble in flocks, and continue feeding for
a greater part of the day, probably because the darkness lasts
longer. At that season, they may, in the mornings, be sur-
prised nearer the margins of the fields than at other times ;
but even then it is difficult to get near them, unless by sur-
prise, and there is commonly one on the watch against that.
Towards mid-day, they are in the more open places, and if the
sun is very hot, they squat. They are noisy for even the
greater part of the night ; and if the weather is clear, they
roam about, and sometimes approach near the houses on the
margin of those large downs and moors where they breed.

If come upon by surprise, the call is given by the sentinel,
upon which they all elevate themselves to reconnoitre the
danger, and then run off, always towards the bleaker and higher
part of the pasture ; but if the distance to the height is con-
siderable, they will squat several times before that is reached,
but always rising and running as they are approached. If hard
pressed, they take to the wing in any situation ; and when fol-
lowed to the top of the height, they take a longer and higher
flight to the next one.

From their shy habits they are not easily shot, although they
present a good mark to the sportsman. The young are relished
as food, and even the old birds, though rather tough and dry,
are eaten. In all countries which they frequent, they are in-
habitants of the arid places ; and those which leave our downs
and wastes, retire to analogous places farther to the south,
while the few that remain do not resort to the marshes, even
when the weather is severe. They are still pretty numerous in
some of the counties along the Channel ; but their numbers are
every where on the decline, and they flit before the progress of
enclosing and planting, their place being occupied by the par-
tridge and the pheasant.

88

GRALLID^.

THE LONG-SHANKS, OR STILT. [Himantopus melanoptevus .)

In appearance, this is one of the most singular of birds,
equally remarkable for the length of its legs and wings, and
having the neck and bill produced, though not in a degree
proportionate to the legs. It appears to be a wandering bird
every where, for which it is admirably fitted by the lightness
and compact form of its body, the great length of its legs, and
the power of its wings. In England, it is only a rare straggler,
and little is known of its habits ; but from the places in which
it has been found, as well as from the structure of its feet, it
appears to be a wading bird, though, from the form of its bill,
not a fisher, or one which seeks its food in the ooze at the
bottom of the water.

Its length, when the legs are stretched out, is about eighteen
inches, of which the bill occupies about two and a half, and
the feet extend fully five beyond the tail. The bill is slender,
subcylindrical, a little flattened at the base, compressed towards^^
the point, and black or dusky. The nasal channels extend
half the length, the nostrils themselves being long latera^.
slits. The legs are very slender for their length, and more
flexible at the joints of the tarsi than those of most of the
order ; the toes are of moderate length, the middle and outer
ones joined by a broader membrane than in the last-mentioned
genus ; and the claws very small, and apparently not at all
adapted for scraping. The legs are bare of feathers for two or
three inches above the tarsal joints, and of a pale blood red, as
are also the irides.

The head and neck, exclusive of the bill, are about four
inches in length, and the tail about two inches, which leaves
only about four inches and a half for the body of the bird,
which is not much above a third of the total length of the legs.
The forehead is high and rounded, and the neck and body
very graceful in their outlines. The wings are long and
pointed, the primary quill being considerably longer than any
of the others.

THE OYSTEE-CATCHEE. 89

The top of the head, the back, and the wings, are black; the
tail blackish grey, with the exterior feathers partly or wholly
white ; all the other parts are pure white, with the exception
of some dusky streaks on the back of the neck, which are sup-
posed to be characteristic of immature birds. The weight of
the bird is about five ounces.

Little is known respecting the nest, the general habits,
or the style of walking, of these very extraordinary birds.
Analogy would lead us to suppose that they feed upon in-
sects and mollusca, which they pick from the tall and thick
aquatic herbage on the margins of permanent lakes, or of
places which are seasonally flooded ; but the structure of the
bird is so very peculiar, that all analogy respecting it must be
vague.

THE OYSTER-CATCHER. {HcBmatopus ostvalegus.)

Though the oyster-catcher differs much from the stilt in the
length of its legs, and in its habits, so far as those of the latter
are known, yet there is, besides the similarity in the structure
of the toes, some correspondence in the general air of the
birds, and also in the tints, though not in the markings of the
plumage.

The oyster-catcher is, however, a much larger bird, weigh-
ing fully a pound, and measuring nearly a foot and a half in
length, and more than two feet and a half in the stretch of the
wings. It is common on all parts of the British shores, from
the Channel to the Shetland Isles.

The bill of the oyster-catcher is about three inches long,
with nasal grooves half the length, and the nostrils longi-
tudinal slits; it is broad at the base, compressed for the rest of
its length, very much so and Avedge-shaped at the tip, and in
the old birds it becomes very thick and obtuse. It is very
strong, nearly straight, and of a bright red colour, inclining to
scarlet.

The legs are rather long, bare for about an inch above the
tarsal joints ; the toes of moderate length, firm, partially
i2

90 " GRALLIDJE.

united with membrane as far as the first joint between the
middle and outer one, and margined with the same for their
whole length : they and the naked parts of the legs are orange
red ; and the claws, which are strong, a little hooked, and hol-
low on their under sides, are black. The under sides of the
toes are remarkably well furnished with small tubercles, so
that the bird can walk without injury upon rough surfaces, or
hold on upon slippery ones. The forehead is high, the head
full and round, and the neck free, but powerful in its motions.
The wings are long and pointed, and the tail is longer and
more square at the extremity than that of any other of the
three-toed grallidse. The outlines are finely curved, and t}>e
whole plumage is close and compact, glossy on the upper part,
not easily wetted or ruffled, and bearing a very great resem-
blance to that of the swimming birds. The birds can, indeed,
swim easily, and without any injury to their plumage, even
when the water is in considerable agitation ; but swimming is
not their general habit.

Their general colours are black and white ; but there are
occasional differences in the markings, and the black is some-
times blended with brown, dusky brown being the general tint
of the dark parts of the young.

The perfect plumage is generally, — the head, neck, upper
part of the back, the scapulars and lesser coverts of the wings,
the quills, except portions of the inner webs, and a portion of
the tips of the tail-feathers, black. The lower part of the
back, the greater coverts of the wings, the tips of the row
immediately over these, the rump, breast, under parts, and
base of the tail, and also a small spot under the eye, white.
There is also sometimes a crescent-shaped gorget, wholly
white, or mottled with white, on the lower part of the neck in
front, but that marking is peculiar to the adult in winter.

The young have the upper plumage dusky, with brown
margins ; the orbits and irides brown, and the feet black-
ish grey; but these change with the mature plumage, the
feet to orange red, the orbits to orange, and the irides to
crimson.

THE OYSTEE-CATCHER. Ql

The shores of the sea are the proper haunts of the oyster-
catchers. They are found only upon these in the winter, and
when the situation is sequestered enough, they remain there
to breed, and they breed especially upon any lonely sandy
islet that is near those shores upon which they find plenty
of food. But some of them retire inland in breeding time,
though they never resort to the dry moors, or to places at a
distance from rivers, as is the case with some of the other
genera which frequent the same shores in the winter. The
inland places where they are the most likely to be found, are
near the confluence of rivers, where these deposit banks and
islands, and bring down animal matters, and leave them
there. Fresh-water muscles are said to attract them ; but in
the inland places, they eat the smaller shelled mollusca, as
well as slugs, earth-worms, and others of the small animals of
humid places.

The inland breeding ones find their way to the nesting
places in pairs, so that they are little observed. It is probable
also that they keep the lines of the rivers, and feed along the
retired banks in the reaches ; and as, when they are on the
breeding ground, they do not range far or appear much on the
wing, the numbers that breed inland may be greater than is
commonly supposed.

Wherever they breed, the oyster-catchers make no formal
nest. They deposit their eggs which are always four in
number, on the bare dry surface, though generally in the
shelter of a tuft. The eggs are pale olive brown with dusky
patches, and when the full number are found, they are always
arranged in cruciform order, with two and two opposite, and
the small ends approaching each other equally in the centre.
The female sits closely during the night, and when it rains ;
and while she sits, the male is always near, ready to scream
and fly off* on the appearance of danger. The female also
makes oflT, by running to some distance, at first crouching,
and then erect ; after which, she also takes to wing, and the
two fly clamouring about till the danger is past. On warm
days the female leaves the nest to feed. The incubation lasts

92 GRALLID^.

about three weeks, and the young are covered with down.
They walk with some difficulty immediately on coming out of
the shell ; but they soon run well, and are not very long before
they are able to fly.

In autumn they flock in considerable numbers, and in the
event of an extraordinary flood washing away their eggs en
masse^ (which happens sometimes, though rarely,) they are
said to flock immediately, though in the summer; but whether
for a new pairing, is not known.

The shelled mollusca are the principal food of the oyster-
catchers when on the shores, and from that it gets its name,
although with us it feeds less upon oysters than on other
species, as the oysters are generally beyond its depth ; and
though it can swim occasionally, it is not a diver. Limpets,
muscles, and cockles, are common prize with it. The former
it can twitch from the rocks with great certainty, by an
oblique tap with its bill. Bivalve shells, when closed, it opens
by striking them at the hinge ; and in the case of the cockle,
holding the shell steady with its foot, and wrenching with
its bill as with a crow-bar. When the shores are flat and of
a retentive nature, so that the surface remains covered with
a small stratum of water while the tide has ebbed, the oyster-
catcher finds its prey readily, as the shells of the bivalves
are then partially opened, and it can insert its wedge-shaped
bill and wrench them asunder; but where the sand soon
dries, and there are 'no rocks on which] limpets can be had,
it follows the line of the water, both in its retreat and its
advance ; and in those cases, it is sometimes caught in the
waves, and floated out a little way, but it has the power of
always gaining the land. From the quantity and close-
ness of its feathers, it wades rather deep in the water ; but
as its toes are not webbed so that it can raise the body by
a downward stroke of the feet, it cannot take wing from deep
wading.

The flesh of the mature oyster-catcher is tough and some-
what harsh ; but the young birds and the eggs are much
sought after as food, in the islands far to the north, the Faroe

THE SWIFT-FOOT. 93

Islands especially, where sea-birds are very numerous, and
form no inconsiderable part of the food of the people.

SWIFT-FOOT. {Cursorius.)

The cream-coloured swift-foot, Cursorius Isabellinus {Af-
ricanus would be a more appropriate trivial name, as indi-
cating its native habitat), is one of the rarest stragglers, not
only in Britain, but throughout Europe. Five specimens only
are recorded as having been seen, three of which were in
England, but wide apart both in space and in time, one in
France, and one in Austria.

The native regions of the bird border upon those of the
ostrich, though it partakes more of the characters of the
plovers than of those of the ostrich or even of the bustards.
The wide and wild plains of north-western Africa, which are
in part flooded by the rains, or the melting of the snow on
the mountains of Atlas, are supposed to be its nesting places
jmd its usual haunts : but very little is known of its habits,
farther than that it runs with great celerity, and picks up its
food on the ground.

Its legs are long, and naked to a considerable height above
the joints of the tarsi; the toes are short, all three turned
forward, and the inner and middle ones united by a mem-
brane at their bases. The structure of the foot indicates a
walker on the bare earth, and not on grass, and the junction
of the middle and inner toe would lead to the conclusion,
that the surface on which it walks is occasionally soft with
humidity or loose sand. These birds are equally swift on
foot and on the wing. The form of the bill, which is short,
or of moderate length, and bent, is fitted for pecking on the
ground, and the tomia are fitted for bruising; but whether
they bruise the elytra of beetles, the shells of mollusca, or
the testa of seeds, has not been ascertained. The middle
claw is that which would lead one to suppose that the
bird holds against the ground some smooth or slippery kind
of prey. The specimens observed in England were found

94 GBALLID^.

running about on the ground ; and, as is by no means un-
common with the birds of desert places, they showed so little
alarm on being seen, or even fired at, that if there had been
less haste in procuring them as cabinet specimens, probably
more of their manners would have been known.

The length of the bird is about ten inches. The general
colour, yellowish cream colour, rather paler below. The
markings are, — a black patch behind each eye, divided by a
pale strediL, that passes over the eye. The greater parts of
the coverts and near outside quills of the wings, and a spot
on each of the tail-feathers, excepting two in the middle,
black. The tips of the tail-feathers white. The naked parts
of the feet yellowish white ; the bill and claws black. The
few that have been met with in Europe do not appear to have
belonged to any migration.

PLOVERS. {Charadrius,)

There are only three resident British species of this genus,
though, as they change their abode seasonally in the country,
and some of them have the plumage difierent at different sea-
sons and different ages, one of them has sometimes been de-
scribed as different species. In addition to which means
of confusion, the thick-knee, the long-shanks, and even the
lapwings, have also been popularly styled plovers.

The general characters are these : the bill is shorter than
the head, straight, slender, and compressed, with the man-
dibles protuberant and arched towards the tips, as if a portion
of each mandible were armed or shod with an additional layer
of horny matter. The nostrils are longitudinal openings in
the membrane which lines the nasal grooves. The legs are
moderately long; the feet have the inner toes free, and a
small membrane uniting the others at the base. The tail
rounded or bluntly wedge-shaped in some, and more square
in others. The wings of a medium length, and armed with
a spine or tubercle.

They prefer bare places, along which they run with much

THE PLOTER. 95

celerity; and they repose upon the ground, and never perch or
roost for the night in trees. They cannot be considered as
waders, though they pick up their food mostly in humid places
and in humid states of the weather, or where the evaporative
power of the atmosphere is weak, and the worms and mol-
luscous animals make their appearance on the surface. They
have received the name of plovers, ''^pluviers^' '■^pluviales,''
from the fact of their being most active when rain is impend-
ing, and the supposition (of old) that they were instrumental
in bringing rain, whereas it is the rain that is the cause of their
activity ; or rather, the cause is that state of the atmosphere
which usually brings rain.

The British species are the golden plover, the dotterel, the
ring -dotterel, and the Kentish plover, — the dotterel a very
peculiar summer visitant, the others resident ; but the Kentish
local and rare.

THE GOLDEN PLOVER. {Charadrius pluviolis.)

In the popular vocabulary, and even in that of authors, the
plover is a bird of many names. It has been called green, and
also yellow, from its colours, and whistling, from its voice ;
all of which names are applicable at some stage or other, and
yet it remains all the while the same bird.

The length of the plover is between ten and eleven inches,
the extent of its wings more than a foot and a half, and its
weight about half a pound.

If the native region of birds be considered, as' it certainly
should be, that in which they are produced, the golden plover
is a bird of the cold and arid heights, and never nestles on
the close margin of a lake or stream, or in any place among
aquatic plants. Absolute elevation is not so much a matter
of importance with them, as that peculiar description of
moorland soil, on which though there are pools and marshes
interspersed, the intermediate places are dry, and clothed with
so scanty an herbage, that the bird can run about with its
feet on the ground. Cold ridges, where there is a settlement

95

GEALLID^.

for pools and a slope both ways, but not an abrupt one in
either, are the favourite haunts of this plover, — neither in the
region of heath nor in that of the mountain grasses, but about
the natural ground, which is equally covered by both, but fully
covered by neither. I am not certain that they extend so far
up the hill in the very wild parts of the country as the lap-
wings ; but when the two are found in the same locality, the
plover is generally farther up the height, or at all events upon
drier ground — ground farther from the pool or the marsh.

They generally arrive on the breeding ground towards the
end of March, or early in April ; and though, as they are
generally in open places of some extent, there are usually a
number of them in the same locality, they do not come in
flocks, or even so many together as the lapwings. Soon after
they arrive, the whistle of the male begins to be heard at
very early dawn : and, unless there are groves in the neigh-
bourhood, it is the matin call on the moor. It is shrill, and
by no means unpleasant ; and as it begins before there is
much vegetable action, it is a sound of promise and of hope.
The female makes no nest, but merely scratches and levels
the surface a little, sometimes on a spot entirel}' bare, and
sometimes in the ragged and open heather, but never in
what can be called either cover or concealment. Indeed, the
eggs (for there is no nesi) are always in that spot where a
person accustomed to look for nests in the lower and richer
grounds, would be least likely to seek for them. They are
four in number, of an olive grey, blotched with dusky, and
arranged with the four small ends in the centre. The female
sits and the male keeps watch during the night ; and when
the sun becomes hot, the female creeps warily from the nest
to some place where she can feed ; but though that is the
tempting time for feeding, she returns to her eggs when-
•ever it gets raw and cloudy, or rain begins to fall. When
upon the nest, she sits so close, crouches so low, and so re-
sembles in colour the mixture of heath and grass with which
the surface is covered, that she is not easily seen^ and when
she takes the wing, it is always at a considerable distance

THE PLOVEK. 97

from the nest, and when she rises, she turns and flies back
again at an angle, so that one would be apt to suppose that the
nest is in a direction quite different from the real one.

The male very often assists in those practices for the mis-
leading of an enemy, especially of a dog, before which he
will alight, fly a little, ahght again, drop a wing as if it were
broken, run haltingly, but always rise and be off a little when
nearly caught, and so entice the enemy to a considerable dis-
tance ; and having done so, he will peal his whistle of defence
over the moor, take a long and wheeling flight, and return to
his wardership by another route.

The young when they leave the egg are covered with a dusky
coloured down, and they are a considerable time in acquiring
their plumage to such an extent as that they can fly ; but
they soon run swiftly, and skulk and conceal themselves so
that they are but seldom seen. The parents feed them for
some time ; and are assiduous in continuing the arts by
which enemies may be enticed away.

After the young have become able to fly, their plumage
differs so much from that of the old birds, that they have
been described as different species ; and as the plumage
differs both in the males and the females, the finding of both
sexes in each of the two states, gave a semblance of truth to
the mistake. The young have the plumage on the upper part
grey, with yellowish brown spots, and have thence been
called grey plovers ; the winter plumage of the old birds is
often brown and yellow on the upper part, in which state
they are golden plovers ; and when they are in the prime of
their summer plumage, which they do not recover till they
are on the breeding grounds, they are black (or dusky) and
green on the upper part, with black on the breast, in Avhich
state they are green plovers, although that name has been
sometimes given to the lapwing.

Plovers are usually described as among those birds that are
subject to two moults in the course of the year, one in the
spring and one in the autumn, as at those times they change
their colours. But, in the case of resident birds especially, that

vol.. II. K

98 GEALLID^.

is a subject which demands the greatest caution, even though,
as is the case with plovers, the birds should resort to lower
and warmer parts of the country during winter. Birds in
confinement, that have no labour to undergo in search of
their food, do moult extensively at certain periods ; but that
the same always takes place to the same extent in free birds,
is assumed rather than proved.

On the subject of moults, changes in the colours of plu-
mage, and all those differences in the appearances of birds
which we have reason to ascribe to seasonal rather than to
sexual causes, we are always in danger of carrying our gene-
ralizations too far, and applying the known causes to explain
the new cases, without due attention to the differences of
climate, latitude, and other circumstances, which must have
an influence upon the result.

Analogy dra^vn from any other class of organized beings,
cannot be conclusive proof, or even good argument, as applied
to birds ; but, on the other hand, there are general analogies
arising from the climates and seasons of the different latitudes,
which appear to influence all nature ; and we must be careful
that the partial theories which we form of birds or of any
other class of beings, do not run counter to, or violate, those
general analogies.

Now it appears to be a general analogy in all animated
nature, that thicker clothing, and clothing of a paler tint, is
produced, even upon the same animal, when removed from a
warmer climate to a colder.

With quadrupeds that is the case. The change of Captain
Sabine's dog, in the Arctic regions, is equally well known and
remarkable. When that animal was first exposed to the intense
cold of the north, he felt greatly incommoded, and crept
almost into the fire ; but, after a time, the roots of his hair
became so thickly matted with fur, and the hair over that so
long, that he was proof against all temperatures, whether the
extreme of cold or of heat. To the former he was exposed
without any experiment ; but when tried, he bore the latter
equally well, and the men used to amuse themselves by

THE PLOVER. 99

tumbling hot cinders on him, to which he was perfectly in-
different, even though they burned holes to a considerable
depth in his coat. From that, as well as from many other
instances, we must conclude that the local distribution of any
animal depends chiefly upon its food ; and that where the
proper food for it can be found, it would in time accom-
modate itself to the climate. No doubt, there must be

a

limit to that accommodating power, and perhaps that limit
may be sooner arrived at in the case of cold-blooded than
in that of warm-blooded animals, and that birds, as being
warmer than quadrupeds, can more speedily adapt themselves
to climates.

In these northern climates, quadrupeds have two sets of
clothing upon them during the winter months, and most of
the trees have two sets of leaves till the summer be so far
advanced as that the young leaves are secure from the frost,
by the protection of the old ones.

The analogy would lead us to suppose that the northern
birds too should have two sets of feathers upon them during
the inclement season, one of which begins to be produced in
each year after the breeding is over ; and as the new ones
grow, the old ones fade and dry by slow degrees ; and as
they dry their colours fade, fade to white where the cold is
severe and prolonged enough. That has been already hinted
at in the case of the ptarmigan, the snow-bunting, and
several others ; and observation proves that, while the upper
feathers are fading and losing their colour, new ones are
growing, which are more coloured in their rudimental stages,
and which become deeper and deeper in the tint, as they be-
come more produced, and ultimately appear between and mottle
the paler livery which the bird has worn in the winter. And
though the change can be traced, in the very same feather,
from the dark tint to the pale while the winter is becoming
colder, there is no evidence that the same feather which was
once pale becomes darker by more seasonal action, though a
seasonal bloom may come upon some of the feathers, just as

100 GEALLID^.

sexual feathers are produced and decay upon some birds, with
little or no reference to the general change of the plumage.

Upon those resident birds that undergo seasonal changes in
their whole plumage, there is, therefore, an upper plumage
which is fading, and an under plumage which is growing,
during the winter, just as there is upon hill cattle, one coat of
hair which is getting dry, and another under it which is
growing. The hah' which in the quadruped becomes hard
and dry to the feel and dingy in the colour, does so prepara-
tory to a total though gradual falling off during the summer,
sooner or later, in which the whole of the old pile is removed,
and there is only one coat till the new one begins to sprout in
the autumn. The manes and tails of quadrupeds do not
show those changes so obviously ; and they are not clothing,
but ornaments.

The analogy, and some of the facts are directly in support
of it, leads to the conclusion that, at least in the resident birds
which change theu' colour, what we call the autumnal moult,
or the moult that takes place when the breeding is over, is
more the production than the shedding of feathers; and that
the feathers that have been in use in one breeding season,
and bleached by the ensuing winter, gradually fall before and
leave the new plumage exposed the next breeding season.
With these birds it should seem that there is only one growth
of feathers, — namely, an autumn sprouting, growing till the
breeding time, and that the fall begins in the springs

With migrant birds the case may be different ; and no doubt
that it is different mth the flying feathers of all birds, which
fall at intervals and generally in pairs, one from each side.
If we did not suppose a casting of feathers in the spring and
early part of the summer, we would find some difficulty in
determining where the myriads of feathers that are used in
lining nests come from ; and, if we supposed a general de-
plumation of all the birds in the latter part of the season, we
should find some difficulty in explaining what becomes of all
the feathers.

i^/y//mv/c /////^.^/.

r C/.J%^

THE DOTTEREL.

101

As the season advances, the plovers begin to flock and move
southward, usually making the journey by short stages, but
accelerating it if they are followed by severe frosts or falls of
snow. When they stop and lodge for the night, they squat
upon the ground, to which, as well as to their feeding in the
morning, they are said to be called by the whistle of one of
their number; and they are sometimes drawn into nets, or
otherwise within the power of the fowler, by imitating the
call. As they seldom take very long flights, it is probable
that not many of the British ones leave the country; but
they throng in great numbers to those humid places which
are not apt to be frozen, and especially to the flat shores of
the sea. In the higher grounds, they have all the characters
of summer visitants, as none stay there during winter ; and
on the sea-shore, they have much of the character of winter
visitants, as few or none remain there to breed, though they
breed on the elevated wastes in some of the southern parts of
the country.

THE DOTTKEEL. {Charadvius morinellus.)

A figure of the dotterel, in the breeding plumage, is given
at the bottom of the plate opposite, on a scale of one third the
lineal dimensions, or twice as much in line as that of the
lapwing, which stands immediately above ; and from that the
colours and form of the bird can be better understood than
from description.

Dotterels get both theu" common English name and their
specific one of morinellus, from their supposed stupidity.
Dotterel is nearly the same word as " dolt" or " dotard ;"
and there are places in the north where it is used by the
common people as a synonyme for both. Morinellus is from
niorus " a fool." The bird is certainly easily shot or betrayed
into snares; but it appears to have that character only when it
comes to the lower grounds ; for, from the numbers that
appear on the low grounds near the coasts, in the southern and
eastern parts of the country in autumn, and even from those

k2

102 ©RALLID^,

that appear as if on their way to the south-eastern part of the
Grampians in the spring, and thence back again in the autumn,
numbers of them must breed somewhere in the country ; and
yet the old birds are not often seen in the breeding time, and
the eggs are seen very seldom.

Their habits in the breeding places (at least as British birds,
the only character in which they fall within the scope of these
pages) are very little known. They certainly breed much
farther upland and inland than either the plover or the lap-
wing, and circumstances would lead to the supposition that
they remain much closer during the breeding time than any
of our birds which rear their young in the wild moors. Their
eggs have not been seen (at least there is no satisfactory proof
of the fact) in any part of England, or in Scotland southward
of the Tay or northward of the Grampians. If they resorted
to the hills north-east of the great glen that divides Scotland
by the line of the lakes and the Caledonian canal, they would
be seen on their return southward, on the flat grounds from
CuUoden eastward into Moray; but I never heard much of
them there, though they have a name in Gaelic, and are known
and occasionally seen, though not in flocks, in the highlands
farther to the south.

They come rather late to the south of England, and return
early. April, early in the month, is the usual time of their
appearance in the south of England; but they continue to
come as late as the beginning of June : for it is not easy to
believe that the same flocks can halt for two months on their
Das sage northward.

The only place in Scotland in which I have had continued
opportunities of observing them for successive years, is the
cold range of high ground which extends from the Seidlaw
Hills north-eastward in the direction of the precipitous and
cave-woiTi promontory of the Redhead. They used to arrive
there, upon the edges of the moors and the cold upland fields,
"\vithout halting on the lower and richer ones, generally dur-
i\nx the first three weeks of April, unless the season was very
bcvckward. The flocks were not large at that season, but the

THE DOTTEREL. 103

birds kept together and flew about, so that one could not
positively say that they either came from the south or went
to the north. In September they returned again, earlier in
the month if snow appeared on the summits of the Grampians,
which is often the case even early in that month. On the
return, the flocks were much more numerous, and the birds
flew much closer together. They seemed heavy with fat; and
though the country people did not capture them for food, they
had a common saying, " As fat and stupid as a dotterel."
They moved about by short flights; and though one could
raise them by shouting, they merely wheeled about a little,
and alighted on the same spot. When a boy, I have often
given chase to them for some way into the moor, almost within
arm's-length of the closely serried pack, the last ones merely
rising, flying over the rest, and again alighting, as if a broad
wheel of birds had been rolling on before me. But they
always kept at the same distance; and after they had fairly
worn me out in the tempting but fruitless pursuit, they would
all rise in a body, wheel backwards over my head, almost
touching it, and, by a longer flight, return to the very spot
from which we set out.

At nearly the same period of the autumn, they appear in
thick and crowded flocks in the southern and eastern parts of
England, upon the commons, and unenclosed wastes and
sheep-walks. There they are equally indifferent to the near
approach of man; and if the pack have alighted across a
foot-path or road, they will merely open their files till the
traveller passes, and then close them behind him; or if the
pack is of considerable extent, they will close behind him
while they are opening in front; so that when seen at a little
distance, he appears to be merely raising the dust of the road
as he passes.

To dogs they are not a little perplexing, as these do not
raise the whole pack, but have a portion of it on the wing all
round them; and though the dog is always near them, he is so
equally near on all sides, that he gets bewildered and tired with
an equally tempting and fruitless chase.

104 GRALLID^.

But the same habit renders them easy sport with the gun,
more especially if there are two sportsmen in company. It is
easy to get within shot of them, and get a good shot at a por-
tion of them on the one side. The shot rouses them, and they
fly upon the other side, where an equally good shot may be
had, and the report of that will turn them on the first sports-
man. Thus, two barrels right and two left, discharged
alternately, are sure to bring down a considerable number:
and the birds, as if they absolutely liked the sport, alight till
the sportsmen load, and then the same alternation of shots can
be repeated; and even if they do fly off" they come back —
'' when called for." In November, the whole of the birds dis-
appear; but at what time of the day they take their final flight,
has not been ascertained.

This habit of rising \vith more reluctance, and flying to a
shorter distance, than most birds do in the flocking season,
may in part account for the infrequency with which both the
birds and the nests are seen in the breeding places. All the
ground birds are indeed seen only accidentally in breeding
time. A field may abound with partridges, and yet one may
cross it in all directions without seeing either a bird or a
nest; and on many of the heaths, where the voices of the
grous-cocks in the early morning show that there are plenty
of birds, one may wander through the whole day, and not see
a single wing, or even a head, appearing above the heather.
I have more than once crossed Minigag, from Blair to Loch
Inch on the Spey, and gone out of the foot-path (there is no
road either made or makeable across that wild summit) on
purpose, without ever seeing any bird, save wagtails about the
passage of the Bruar, from the lapwings on the skirts of Athol
to those on the skirts of Badenoch ; and yet there is no want
of grous or of plovers there, and I should suppose none of
dotterels.

Dotterels always feed upon the ground, even when they are
in the southern parts of the countiy; and hence one may
easily suppose that they can " keep close" on the hill. The
name of the bird in the original language of the place where it

THE RING-PLOTEK.

105

breeds, generally tells something more appropriate than the
usual scientific names. The Gaelic name for the dotterel is
^n tdmadan mointich ; which litterally means " peat-bog
fool ;" but 7n6intich has a more extended meaning — it signifies
the " water-shed," or " summit-level," between the heads of
rivers which run in opposite directions, and where the water
stagnates, and the ground is in consequence mossy, consisting
of " tumps" or " hassocks" of turf, alternating with pools of
water and naked patches of black peat earth, where sheep
cannot pasture or even mountaineers pass without caution and
difficulty.

That such are the breeding places of the dotterel, the name
would lead us to conclude ; and in those rare instances in
which the eggs have been seen, it has always been upon the
margin of places of that description. There is as little artificial
preparation for them as for those of the plover ; they are the
same in number, arranged quatrefoil, point to point, in the
same way, and very like in their colour and marking, only
smaller in size. The eggs of the two species are very nearly
in proportion to the sizes of the birds. The plover is about
eleven inches long, and nearly two feet in the stretch of the
wings, and the dotterel about nine inches by nineteen. If the
bodies were of the same form, and the weight of the plover
eight ounces, the dotterel should weigh rather less than four
ounces and a half, but it weighs rather more than five, so that
it is relatively a much thicker and heavier bird than the plover.
It is a " dumpy" bird ; and one might almost take a type from
it, and say, " dotterel-shaped."

THE RiNG-PLOVEB. {CharadHus hiaticula.)

This is by no means a rare species, though it keeps all the
year round to the same localities, the beaches and flat shores of
the sea, particularly the banks in extensive creeks and bays ;
and along the estuaries of the larger rivers, — in those places
especially where rivers from mountainous districts have been

106 GKALLID^.

long carrying on the work of attrition, have cut passages
through the strata, emptied mountain lakes, dispersed some
of the elementary parts of the rocks in the air, reduced others
to clay, which, mingled with the remains of vegetation, has
become the rich soil of the lower vales and meadows, and borne
the silicious part to the confluence of the land tide with the
sea, there to remain in part as a bar between the two, but to
be thrown in greater part towards the shores, and form accumu-
lations of sand shingle, too little retentive of moisture for growing
almost any vegetable save bent. It is of such places that the
ring-plover is an appropriate inhabitant, though not the only
one. Of running birds it is, however, the appropriate and
almost the only permanent inhabitant of such places ; for it
remains in them all the year round, unless during those
storms of more than ordinary violence, which literally pelt it
from the shelterless beach and force it inland; and it quits
not its pebbly or sandy ground as long as the gull can keep
wing above the tideway or the petrel ride on the unbroken wave
far at sea.

The ring-plover is thus a bird of peculiar interest to the
British ornithologist, as marking as it were the boundary of the
sea and land, and remaining there in every state of the weather
in which man would be likely to go voluntarily to notice it.

It is a bird, to the form, size, and markings of which con-
siderable attention must be paid, inasmuch as there is not
only some confusion in its multij^licity of local names, — a con-
fusion which is perhaps inseparable from a bird not ranging
over the island, but appearing only on the shores, at places
where the language and habits of the people are alike dif-
ferent ; but there is an especial local confusion because this
species has been, by naturalists of deserved name, confounded
with a smaller, more delicate, and more beautiful species,
which though hitherto observed only on particular places of
the coasts of Kent and Sussex, is distinctly marked as a
species ; and also, because the mistake of these eminent per-
sons is continued to the uninformed part of society by those

THE HING-FLOVEK. 107

" feeble folk," who, liaply because of the perishable nature of
their own conglomerates of dust and slime, go about to "make
themselves holes" in the monuments of the mighty.

The difference in the plumage of those two birds will be
mentioned afterwards; but it may here be proper to state,
that the ring-plover has more the air and character of the
dotterel; and the Kentish plover (in that case there is no
impropriety in the trivial name being a localized one) has
more of those of the golden plover. The basal half of
both mandibles and the feet are, in the ring-plover, yellow
in both sexes, at all ages, and under every change of plumage.
The entire bill and feet of the Kentish plover are under all
circumstances totally black. The Kentish plover is also not
only a cleaner made bird, with its plumage more delicate and
less thickly set, but its feet are adapted to a different descrip-
tion of ground ; and though as well winged for its weight, it
is not so much so in proportion to its length. The closed
wings of the ring-plover reach at least to the tip of the tail
if not rather beyond it ; while those of the Kentish plover
are more than one eighth of an inch shorter than the tip of the
tail.

The tarsi of the Kentish plover are longer and stronger
than those of the ring-plover, so that the bird stands higher
on its legs ; and the toes are, on the other hand, about an
eighth of an inch shorter, but firmer in their structure, and
altogether more resembling the feet of those inland birds which
inhabit dry and stony places. Those of the ring-plover are
more slender and expanded, and indicate more a habit of
walking on soft sand, or the more firm and consistent banks
of ooze and mud.

The haunts of the two species correspond with those differ-
ences of structure, the Kentish plover having been found only
upon the accumulations of shells and shingle, while the ring-
plover is met with upon most of the flat beaches, whatever
may be then- composition. Both birds have, however, the
bills of true plovers; and thus neither of them dabbles in
water or mud for its food, but rather picks up small animals

108 GEALLID^.

in the firm places. The ring may, indeed, be considered as a
sand-bird : the Kentish as a shingle-bnd ; and as such, the
shores of Kent and Sussex, strewed as they are -with flint
pebbles, intermingled with broken shells, are much more in
accordance with the structure of the Kentish than those por-
tions of the shore which, from the nature of the strata through
which the rivers have cut their way, are covered more with
sand in a state of minute division, than with pebbles.

The ring-plover is about seven inches in length, and six-
teen in the extent of the wings ; its weight is about two
ounces.

The male, in the summer or breeding plumage, has the
crown of the head and the back brownish ash ; the cheeks
black, meeting over the base of the upper mandible, and with
a band of white passing over the forehead and eyes, and a
black patch above that of a triangular form, with one angle
forwards, and one towards each eye, so that the line where that
meets the ash colour on the fore part of the crown is straight ;
the chin white, the points extending backwards nearly to the
nape; a gorget of black on the neck, broad in front, and
reaching the upper part of the breast, but narrowing back-
wards on the under sides till it forms a very narrow collar on
the back of the neck; the scapulars and wing coverts brownish
ash ; the greater coverts with white tips ; the quills dusky,
Avith a white spot about the middle of each, forming a white
streak on the closed wing; the tail, of which the points of the
feathers are wedge-shaped ; the outer ones and tips of the
rest white ; the remainder dusky brown. All the under parts,
from the black gorget to the tail feathers white, without any
tinge of other colour.

In the female there is less white in the forehead, the black
gorget is less pure, the upper plumage wants the brownish
tinge, and the colour is more broken by light margins to the
feathers ; the coverts have also more white in them, and the
outer webs of some of the primaries are white.

The eggs, which are four in number, and arranged quatre-
foil, are deposited on the bare sand, or other dry surface.

THE RING-PLOVEE. 109

without any nest, or even without any shelter ; and in walk-
ing along a retired sandy beach, just above high-water mark,
one is apt to trample on and break the eggs without seeing
them, they so nearly resemble the colour of the sand on which
they are deposited. From the powerful action of the sun on
those surfaces where these eggs are laid, it is probable that
on dry sunny days the process of hatching is carried on with-
out the aid of the birds, for on such days one never starts the
female from the nest; she is found running about on the
sand, and alternating her coursing with those short flights
which these birds take when they are not much disturbed ; if
chase be given, they make off in a longer flight. During the
night, in all weathers, and during the day, in dull and rainy
weather, the female sits ; but she runs upon being approached,
and turns and doubles, alternately running and flying, and
uttering a twittering sort of complaint.

The eggs are of a brownish cream colour, spotted with
black. The young birds, upon breaking the shell, are covered
with a thick down, much resembling the eggs in colour ; they
can run almost instantly, but their wings are then little more
than rudimental. It is some time before they acquire their
plumage, and are able to fly ; and till then, they squat and
skulk upon the sand, from which they are not very easily dis-
tinguished. The birds pair e^rly in May, and the brood are
in their unfledged state in the hottest and generally the driest
time of the season — a time, however, at which small in-
sects are particularly abundant on the sands, — so much so,
that they rise in absolute clouds from the surface as one walks
along.

During the breeding season, the pairs and their broods dis-
perse themselves along the line of the beaches ; but when the
seasonal labour is over, they assemble in small flocks, and,
during the winter season, associate freely and peaceably with
many others of our littoral bird.

Instead of there being, as has sometimes been said, several
varieties of this species, it really appears, if we except the
sexual and seasonal changes of its plumage, to be less liable

VOL. II. L

110 GRALLID^.

to varieties of colour than the others. The birds are very
generally distributed over the shores of the northern parts of
the world, and their plumage in Greenland does not differ
from that in the south of England ; indeed they are ad-
mirably fitted in their colours to such changes of temperature
as take place in their haunts. The white plumage of the
under part equally protects them from the great cold that is
sometimes produced by evaporation in the dry-frost winds of
winter, and from the joint action of the reflected and radiant
heat of the dry sand on the hot days of summer.

THE KENTISH PLOYER. (Chavadrius Cantianus.)

The description of this smaller, and more beautiful, and,
because local, more interesting species, has been in part an-
ticipated; and the appearance of the male in his summer
plumage will be better understood from the figure on the
plate opposite, than from any verbal description. That figure
is one third of the lineal dimensions of the bird, and it was
copied with the greatest care from a very fine specimen pro-
cured in the summer of this year, (1833,) in the height of
Ihe breeding time ; so that it may be considered a faithful re-
presentation of the bird in its richest attire.

From the figure it will be seen that this bird differs as
much from the ring-plover in the markings of its plumage,
as in those characters that have been already noticed; and
as is the case with the former species, it is probable that, in
the same sex, at the same age and season, there is little
difference in the plumage.

The bird is without that mark in the plumage, on which
the trivial name of the other is founded, having only a patch
of black on each side of the neck towards the shoulders, not
meeting in front so as to form a gorget, or behind so as to
form a collar. There is no black on the forehead over the base
of the bill, and that on the side of the head is merely a
streak. There is a black spot on the forehead over the
white, and a small detached white spot over each eve back-

G •C^/f'/^-^y^^

THE KENTISH tLOTER. Ill

wards. The black streak from the gape to the eye is narrow
and waving, the crown and nape are rufous; and the upper
parts reddish ash, of a much warmer tint than the upper part
of the ring-plover. The white on the chin, forepart of the
neck, and indeed on all the under part, is more intense, and on
the belly it is glossed with a roseate tint, so delicate as equally
to defy words and colours. The quills are dusky with the
shafts pale, or dull white, and a little white on some of the
outer webs. The tail-feathers reddish ash, darker towards the
tips; but the outer ones, and part of the margins and tips of
the others, white.

The female wants the black on the head and sides of the
neck, has the cheeks and head mottled ash, the upper part
darker ash, without the reddish tint of the male, the wings
with more white, and the white on the under part marking the
roseate tint.

There is no formal nest, the eggs being deposited upon a
smooth place among the shingles, from which it is difficult to
distinguish them. They are four in number, rather smaller in
size than those of the former species, ranged quatrefoil, as are
all those of the genus, of a whitish cream colour, with minute
spots and streaks of black.

The habits of the female in the nest have not been dis-
covered : but it is probable that they are similar to those of the
last-mentioned species, as the other habits of the birds, and
their haunts in those places where the present species is found,
nearly correspond.

The young, which run as soon as they come out of the egg^
are covered with down nearly of the same colour with the eggs,
though perhaps a little yellower in the general tint. The legs
are very long in proportion to the size of their bodies; and
they skulk and hide themselves among the stones. It has not
been ascertained whether the parents feed them; but in the
warm season at which they are produced, small animals are
very numerous in their haunts.

In winter, the plumage of the male changes considerably,
—the rufous tint on the head goes off, the black on the head

112 GKALLID^.

disappears, and that on the shoulders becomes dull and lessened
in extent, the upper part also loses the reddish, and the under
part the pale roseate tinge. The whole bird becomes like the
female, only the upper part is paler in the tint than the female
in the summer plumage; and the black is seldom entirely-
obliterated. The young also resemble the female, when in
their first plumage; and the old males may, in the course of
the season, be found in all the intermediate stages, between
the plumage shown in the figure, and that described as the
nearest approach to the female.

Though the feet of the Kentish plover are better adapted
for running among stones on the shingly beaches than those
of the ring-plover, yet the two are, in the places where the
Kentish have been seen, very generally found mixed with
each other; and that may be one of the reasons why, to
common observation, they have appeared to be the same
birds.

Both species are handsome birds, though the Kentish is by
far the more elegant bird of the two. If it were met with
inland, its slender and graceful form, and the delicacy of its
plumage, would lead one to suppose it a fair-weather bird, a
bird that would seek shade and shelter rather than remain ex-
posed to the wind and rain on the naked beach. It is, of
course, a little more delicate than the ring-plover; because, as
a British bird, it is local on the warmest shores in the island
that have beaches of shingle ; but probably, as is the case with
most birds (and indeed with animals of all kinds), the nature
of its food may determine its locality much more than the
weather.

If the transition be gradual, the power which all animals
have of adapting their covering to the climate and the season
is very great. Many of the birds which are migratory, and
have their colours pale while in the polar locality, acquu'e a
plumage richer in the tints, but less abundant in quantity,
as they proceed southward; but if they are from any cause
compelled to linger in the north, the feathers remain during
the winter, become pale in whole or at the margins, and are

IfiE KENTISH PLOVEK. 113

thickened by the production of young feathers below. As
formerly hinted, that change is so conspicuous in the wheats
ear, that the last males which are found in the extreme north
of England, are so very different in their dress from the same
birds as found in the summer, that, judging from the plumage
alone, any one would take them to be a different species.

The shores upon which, in this country, the Kentish plover
has been found, are peculiar in the set of their tides, and must
be the same in the substances (including among them a portion
at least of the food of the littoral birds) which those tides waft
along and deposit.

The tides of the Channel and the British sea meet on some
part of these shores, and the place, and also the time of their
meeting, varies with the state of the weather, so that the
point of confluence shifts along the coast, and the relative
turns of the two tides shift along with it, thereby produc-
ing several alternations of flood in the time of one regular
tide of the open sea; and, though the Channel tide generally
carries a portion of the swell of the Atlantic along the conti-
nental shore, which occasions the tumbling sea on the coast
of the Netherlands, and the great eddy which formed the cod-
fishery banks, yet the tide has much of an alternating character
upon the shore of England, and must keep the small animals
which are floodable by the water continually in motion there,
thus furnishing an abundant supply to those birds that seek
their food upon the beaches. Some circumstance of these
tides, or of the matters which they deposit, and the small
animals which they foster on the shores, no doubt determine
the locality of the Kentish plover; in the same manner as the
drier atmosphere, the milder climate, and the greater number
of soft caterpillars in the south-east of England, determine
the locality of the nightingale. A very minute and accurate
study of all the branches of natural history is, however,
necessaiy, in order to' arrive at any thing like certain con-
clusions, on the very curious, but, in the present state of our
knowledge, very vague subject of the local distribution of
birds,

l2

114 GEALLID^.

THE sANDEELiNG. {Cdladr'ts arenaria.)

The sanderling is another of our shore or beach birds,
agreeing with those already mentioned in the general form of
the feet and the body, but differing from them in the air and
expression of the head, and the structure of the bill, which
have, at least, some resemblance to those of the snipes, only
the bill is not nearly so long in proportion to the size of the
bird.

The bill is about an inch in length, straight, slender, and
flexible, throughout its whole length, and without any harden-
ing towards the tip, as is the case with those of the other
three land birds of the order. It is compressed laterally at
the base, and depressed or flattened towards the tip, where it
ends abruptly and is rather broad. The nasal channels, bored
with the membrane in which the nostrils form longitudinal
slits, extend to a considerable length in the bill : the whole
organ indicating different food from that of the plovers, while
the feet are adapted to haunts nearly similar to those of these
birds.

This compound character, partaking of that of the plovers,
and also that of the snipes, or rather perhaps the sand-pipers
(only the bills of the sand-pipers are slightly curved), renders
the sanderling a little perplexing to the systematist. Its walk
should be on dry, or, at all events, on fii*m surfaces, though its
feet and toes are more slender than those of the plovers gene-
rally, and its tarsi shorter in proportion than those of the
Kentish plover. The toes are almost entirely divided, and
without membrane.

The margins of the little pools that are left when the water
has ebbed, or the line of the water, as it advances or recedes
on the beach, are the chief places in which the sanderling
seeks its food. In these places, it can stand on the firm sur-
face, and pick up its food in the edge of the waters, espe-
cially when the return of the tide brings the smaller soft or
naked animals out of the sand. The beaches of pure sand

THE SANDEKLING. 115

which dry immediately as the water retires, of course admit of
a free passage of the water; and thus as the tide rises, they
become saturated with water up to the height to which that
ascends. The flowing tide bears upon its forward margin a
number of exceedingly small animals which are detached from
the bottom when the ebb carries the miry conflict between sea
and shore to the greatest distance seaward ; and, as the tide
rises, these are brought towards the shore, and partially left, on
the reflux of each of the successive waves in which the tide, in
most states of the weather, advances. A part of the water in
which they are borne shoreward, oozes into the sand, leaving
those minute creatures entangled between the particles as in a
net. Worms and other larger animals than the prey, though
still but small in their absolute size, come up at the signal, and
feed upon the more minute ones which the sand catches ; and
the birds run along the margin of the water, and in their turn
pick up the preyers.

During the greater part of the year, sanderlings appear in
small flocks. These flocks are most numerous and also largest
in the autumn and winter, though a few linger till the summer
is far advanced, and probably all the season. They are met
with on the beaches upon all parts of the coasts ; but they
either migrate to breed, or they remain in close concealment
during that time.

The latter may be the case, although the eggs have not
been seen, for the birds are not very numerous ; and those that
are seen along the coverts when they flock would probably not
make one nest to the square mile of the flat wastes along the
sea. In these wastes, too, there are often shallow pools of salt
or of fresh water, left by high tides and rain floods in those
hollows that have been rendered water-tight by oozy matters
carried into them and deposited ; and those pools may probably
supply both hiding and food to these (and to some other) birds.

The extreme rarity of the dotterel's eggs compared with the
number of the birds which must breed in our hills, and the com-
parative rarity of the eggs of the ring-plover (to say nothing of

116 GRALLID^.

those of the Kentish plover), should make us pause ere we
describe as a migrant any bird which is simply lost to com-
mon observation for a few months about the time of breeding.
Want of attention to the facts, and the deception of a loose
analogy of the habits and migrations of inland birds, have led
to many mistakes in the history of our shore birds. The ring-
plover is, for instance, described as a bird migrating from the
British shores to breed, in the edition of " Bewick's Birds,"
dated 1832 ; whereas every body, save the common compilers
of books, who most ingeniously contrive to know less, or less
accurately, than any body else, knows that, if the shores are
adapted to its habits, it breeds on all parts of the coast, from
Kent to Shetland.

The sea as a pasture is perennial ; and therefore the birds
have no occasion to quit its shores unless when these are
covered with ice ; and thus, the migrations of sea birds, although
they no doubt depend upon the same general laws as those of
land birds, depend upon those laws as modified by an element,
the temperature, the productiveness, and the accessibility of
which, are all, without the polar zones in which it freezes,
much more uniform than those of the land. The purer white
on the under part of the shore birds also enables them to
bear with more indiflference the changes of temperature ; and
all of them, the sanderling among the rest, in all states of
their plumage, have the part which, in their ordinary attitudes,
is exposed to the action of the ground (or the water) under
them white.

There is another source of error in estimating the numbers
of those birds which inhabit only the shores, and do not
range into the interior of the country even in the breeding
season, against which it is necessary to guard. Those birds
are seen in line, drawn out as it were along the shores, and
therefore they show a front consisting of the whole of their
numbers, whereas the birds which spread inland are seen only
on the side, or rather at a point of the surface which they
occupy ; and if we do not attend to that we are sure to over

THE SANDEKLING. 117

estimate those which appear in line, and under estimate those
which appear en masse or equally distributed in length and
breadth.

The sanderling is a bird of light make, fully eight inches in
length, and about sixteen in the stretch of tlie wings; and it
weighs barely two ounces.

The plumage varies with sex, age, and season. The bill
feet, and irides, are black or dusky in all states of the plumage.
In the winter season, the male has all the under part, the
forehead, and a narrow streak over the eye, white; the top
of the head and nape bluish ash, less or more streaked with
brown ; the back, scapulars, and greater coverts, brownish
ash, with lighter margins, and mottled with spots of dusky
brown. The lesser coverts, bastard wings, and primaries
(except the outer webs of some which are white), of the same
dusky brown as the spots on the back. The white is near the
base of the quills, and forms one elongated triangular spot,
broadest at the tips of the coverts. The secondaries are
brown with white tips. The tail, which is wedge-shaped
when close, is brownish ash, darkest in the centre, inclining
to white at the sides. The whole of the upper plumage is,
indeed, sometimes nearly a dull white on the margins of the
feathers. The prevailing colours of the under part are reddish
brown in summer, mottled in spring and autumn, and almost
white in winter.

The plumage of this bird is thus a sort of index to the
seasons; but it must be borne in mind, that the turns of the
seasons on the sea, or (which to our present purpose is the
same) on the shores, do not occur at the time stated in the
Kalendar. That is for the land ; and the sea, being a worse
conductor of heat than the land, not only resists the same ex-
tent in the change of its temperature, but resists its progress
so as to delay it in time, and hence the waters continue
cool after the return of the season has begun to warm the
land.

The difference between the sea and land seasons in any
place depends upon a variety of circumstances, some of which

118

GRALLID^.

are very diiRcult to be estimated, and others have probably not
been at all mentioned. The maximum variation may be stated
at about two months, and the minimum at probably not less
than one month. So that if the ptarmigan on the Grampians
acquires its perfect winter plumage in November, and its full
nuptial tints in April, the sanderling on the beach should
recover its in January and July respectively.

GKALLID^ HAVING FOUR TOES.

The birds in this division are far more numerous, and also
more varied both in their haunts and their habits, than those
in the former. Generally speaking, they have more the
habit of wading, either in the shallows of the permanent
waters, or in places that are inundated. Their bills and
feet vary much in form, and their wings are not used in the
capture of their food, so that they have no characters more
general than the generic ones, and even these are sufficiently
loose.

THE CRESTED LAPWING. {Vanillas cvestatus.)

The crested lapwing is one of those birds that require little
description, as, wherever it inhabits, especially in the breeding
season, it is sure to make itself known by its incessant wailing
cry Qi pee-weet^ its curious and tumbling flight round the head
of the visitor, and the beauty of its streaming crest, and the
lively contrast of its colours.

A figure of the male in the breeding plumage is given on the
plate at page 101, immediately over that of the dotterel, and
one sixth of the lineal dimension, or one half as much in pro-
portion to the length of the bird.

The bill of the lapwing is rather short, compressed for the
whole length, thickened at the tip, and though slender rather
firm and strong. The feet are slender, and the hinder toes
very small; the middle and outer front toes are united by
a membrane at their base. The wings are powerful, and very

THE CKESTED LAPWING. 119

hollow on their under sides, so that they take hold on the air
in almost any position of the bird, thereby enabling it to
tumble about in many other postures than most birds.

These birds are very common in all parts of the country
that are adapted to their habits ; and their chief migration is
from the shores of the sea to the moors in summer, and from
the moors back again to the shores in the latter part of the
season. They may, however, be said to disperse themselves
rather than to migrate in the summer ; for they breed in all
suitable places from the salt marsh to that part of the moun-
tain between the wet and the dry which is their favourite
ground in the uplands. Their eggs are four, of a pale greenish
olive, with black blotches. They are laid on a place merely
scratched like those of the plover, which is usually the next
neighbour above, and disposed in the same manner. The
young can run as soon as they are out of the shell ; but they
are not fledged for some time, but remain skulking under the
tufts of heath or other herbage.

Mud-worms are understood to be the principal food of the
lapwing in all its localities; and as these hide themselves
during the day, the birds have to be at their pastures early in
the morning, especially during the breeding time. In the
later period of the season, when the earth-worms, which at
other times live in their holes apart, come out of these to form
their double unions, they remain longer on the surface, and
are in better condition than at any other time, so that then
the birds find an abundant supply of food; and as the worms
follow the seasons of the waters more than those of the land,
they pair and are out earlier towards the hill, and gradually
later and later towards the sea, till within flood-mark: they
pair in winter after the habit of many of the fishes — of almost
all the fishes indeed which bury their spawn in the banks.
The birds thus migrate upon their food; and therefore they
are at all times of the year in good condition.

Anecdotes of the lapwing may be met with in great abund-
ance in the writings of authors and the conglomerates of
compilers; and any one who chooses to walk observingly

120 GEALLID^.

across any place where the birds inhabit, may easily add to
the number. Their stratagems, in enticing any animal that
they dread away from theh nests or young, are often amusing.
They will strike with the bend of the wing so near to one's
head, that the stroke may be distinctly heard, and they
actually hit crows and other prowling birds, and even dogs.
I was once crossing a lonely moor, half heath, half quagmire,
upon which lapwings were more than usually abundant :
they were also more than usually clamorous : for a country-
man was crossing it a little before me, accompanied by one
of the yelping curs, of which country people are in some
places too fond. The cur seemed very resolute in lapwing-
hunting, and the bkds as willing to give him sport. They
limped before him, they flew low in twitches, and came close
upon him, by all sorts of motions, both on foot and on the
wing, and the dog was fatiguing himself by alternately making
hopeless leaps at the flyers, and hopeless starts after the runners.
At last, one came twitching down ; and, whether with the bend
of the wing or the bill I cannot say, hit him an audible bang
on the ear, which sent him yelping with his tail between his
legs to his master, and he hunted lapwings no more while in
my sight.

It has been said that the lapwings beat the ground with
theu" feet to bring out the worms, and the process has been
described with most circumstantial minuteness. The bird, it
seems, removes the casting thrown up by the worm, and then
beats the ground with its feet till the worms feel the shock
and come out, escaping from the imagined jaws of the Scylla
mole into the real bill of the Charybdis lapwing. Now no
bird, from any height to which it can leap without the action
of its wings, can, in consequence of the hold which its feathers
take of the air, strike the ground Avith much force even with
both its feet; and the bound of a bird like the lapwing,
which weighs barely half a pound, upon one foot, must be
light indeed, not one tenth of the tap which a man could give
the ground with his little finger, the other three fingers and
the thumb remaining on the ground all the time; and the

THE GREY LAPWING. 121

earthquake that could be made in that way, would not mate-
rially disturb any inhabitant under the surface. The lapwing
catches many worms when they are wholly above ground;
others it seizes by the exposed end, and it pinches that with
its bill, till the -vvrithing occasioned by the pain works the
worm wholly out of its earth ; and instead of alarming the
worms with the force and concussion of its tramp, the lapwing
treads very lightly even for a bird, and does so, perhaps, that
it may not disturb its prey; in the same manner as other ani-
mals, whether quadrupeds or birds, that feed upon prey apt to
hide itself in holes, are formed for coming upon it stealthily,
and without either concussion or noise.

THE GKEY PLOVEE, OR GREY LAPWING. (Squatcirola

cinerea.)
This bird, which is not very common as a British species,
holds a sort of intermediate place between the plovers and the
lapwing, partaking a little of the characters of each, and yet
not strictly admitting of classification with either. It is not
quite so large or so weighty as the lapwing, and not so power-
fully winged in proportion to its length and bulk. The lap-
wing is between thirteen and fourteen inches in length,
measures fully two feet and a half in the extent of the wings,
and weighs eight ounces. The grey plover is about twelve
inches long, two feet in the stretch of the wings, and seven
ounces in weight. It is longer than the plover, but not quite
so heavy in proportion to the length. The bill is longer than
that of either of the species whose names are given to it, and
its feet are also different from both : the hinder toe is merely
rudimental, the claw upon it almost close to the tarsus, so
that it can be of no use in walking. The wings are pointed,
and not so hollow or broad as those of the lapwing, which
are also very round, the fourth and fifth quills being the
largest, while the first is the longest in the present species.
There is some confusion in the accounts of the different
plumages, which appear to vary not a little; and though
small flocks are not unfrequently met with on the coasts of

VOL. II. M

122 GKALLID^.

different parts of the country, very little is known of its habits
as a British bird. In England it appears only in winter,
when the under part is nearly all white, and much of the
upper part ash grey. In summer, the under part is black, on
the chin, fore part of the neck, and down the middle of the
breast ; and the feathers on the upper part dusky, relieved
with more or less of ash grey on the margins.

THE TTTRN-STONE. {StvepsUas collavis.)

The turn-stone is another of our choice birds, about the
breeding place of which there is the same uncertainty as about
that of the sanderling. It is the neighbour of that bird as
well as of the ring-plover, but it does not frequent exactly the
same kind of shore, neither is it, perhaps, so numerous on the
same parts of the coast. The turn-stone is more a bird of the
north and west than of the south and east, which would lead
to the conclusion that, if it does migrate in the breeding sea-
son, it migrates to the northward ; and it is certainly found
in the countries to the north-west : but whether it migrates
between those countries and Britain, has not been determined.

A figure of the male turn-stone in the breeding plumage, on
a scale of one third of the lineal dimensions, is given on the
plate opposite ; but, as is the case with the other birds -svhich
dwell long, if not all the year round, upon our shores, it is
subject to considerable variation in its plumage ; but the shape
of the bird, and its size and habits, render it easily known in
any of the varieties of its plumage, whether depending upon
age or season.

The length of the bird is about nine inches ; the bill about
an inch long, very slightly bent upwards, black, strong, and
very hard at the tip, which is abrupt, and the ridge of the
bill is flattened ; the nostrils are lateral, and half covered
with membrane ; the tarsi are of moderate length ; the tibia
bare for a little way above the joint ; the three front toes are
connected at their bases by a short membrane ; and the hinder
toe, which is short and articulated upon the tarsus, is bent

CC^/r^.^J^hxe/:

THE TURN-STONE. 123

inwards. The feet, as is the case with the lapwing, are dif-
ferently coloured from the bill. The feet of the turn-stone are
orange : the claws, which are not much produced, are black.

Turn-stones appear on some parts of the British shores
during the greater part of the year, remaining till the season
is considerably advanced, and making their appearance again
as early as August. In the north of Scotland, at least on
the islands, (for the northern coast of the mainland is not
very favourable for littoral birds,) they are found all the sum-
mer over, though less frequent in the heat of the season than
in the cold months.

These facts, which are quite well authenticated, render it
very probable that some of the birds breed in those northern
parts in which they are seen during the summer, if not in
more southerly parts of the British islands. If they were
generally migratory breeders within the country, we might
expect to find them, as is the case with those other species
which are known to breed northwards, most abundant in the
north at the time when they disappear in the south. Such,
however, is not the fact; for those that appear in the Shet-
land isles in summer, are then in small flocks, and much
fewer in number than in the winter. The probability is, that
those seen in Shetland retire to the rocky coast of Norway,
where the birds breed in great numbers, depositing their eggs
under the juniper bushes, and on the shelves of the rock,
without even the rudiments of a nest. The eggs are four in
number, placed in the quatrefoil form, and, but for that, not
easily distinguishable from the pebbles among which they are
deposited. Their ground is a sort of pale greenish stone
colour, spotted with rich brown.

They also breed far north in the Arctic regions ; but that they
must quit the extreme north in winter, before the sea and land
are equally covered with snow, and food for them ceases to
be accessible, we may almost take for granted. It does not,
however, thence follow, that the same birds leave our shores
at an advanced period of the spring, retire to the extreme
north, rear their broods, and return again with those broods

124 GRALLID.5:.

plumed by the month of August. That would be at variance
not only with the general practice, and therefore with the
law (for the laws of nature are nothing but general practices)
of migration from the polar regions — at least in birds that do
not swim. Some birds are late before they set out for the
north ; but those that are so, may be in general considered as
European migrants, that have not far to fly ; and they linger
chiefly on the east side of the island ; and not in Cornwall, or
on the British Channel coast of South Wales, where turn-
stones are seen till the season is pretty far advanced.

That, in consequence of the long rest during winter, and
the protection which the snow and ice afford to all that can
subsist under them, and also in consequence of the rapidity
with which the Arctic summer sets in, and the almost con-
tinual action of the sun after the water becomes liquid and
the shores clear, the Arctic regions are remarkably prolific of
small life in the summer, is true. It is also true, that vast
multitudes of birds resort thither, to nestle and rear their
broods for themselves ; and they find a supply of food more
easily, and are less disturbed by enemies there, than in perhaps
any other region of the globe.

But, in order to return to the south of England by August,
or even by September, the turn-stones must be supposed to
leave the north when the season there is at the best, if not
before : for as the young do not, any more than the other
littoral birds, come to maturity in their plumage till a con-
siderable time after they break the shell, the incubation would
require to be begun by the time that the birds disappear from
the British shores, which is, in the same individual birds,
impossible.

As little can we rationally suppose that the birds alternate
between this country and the north ; arriving early with us
one year, departing late the same : breeding late in the north
in the prime of the season ; remaining there, or nearly there,
for the winter; breeding early the next season, and having
their broods so far advanced, as to make their second appear-
ance in this country as early as August or September.

THE HEEON. 125

These observations are not, of course, conclusive of the fact,
that these birds do breed on the mainland of Britain ; but they
are sufficient for exciting to a diligent search for the nests,
and the excitement is heightened by the recent discovery
of the nests of some of our other resident birds, especially
of those species of the present order that have been already
mentioned.

Turn-stones do not in general inhabit the bare and beaten
sands, but rather those places which are covered with small
stones, and partially with marine plants of the shorter growth,
and with the roots of weeds cast up by the sea. They
are strong and energetic birds for their size, and not only
turn over small stones with their bills (as their name implies),
for the sake of the little animals that are under them, but
they scrape with their feet in the shingle and weeds in the
same manner as is done by poultry. The portion of their
bill next the lip, though not quite so sharp at the point, is not
unlike that of the gallinaceous birds, or rather it is inter-
mediate between the bills of those and of the plovers. A
proper history of this bird is much wanted, and would not be
difficult to obtain in those parts of the coast where the birds
are common. Even in winter, they appear only in small
flocks, not more than one might suppose to be two or three
broods; and that again is in favour of their breeding in the
country, as birds which migrate to long distances, neither come
nor go in families.

THE HERON. {Avdea^

There is only one resident species of heron in Britain,
though stragglers of other species are sometimes met with in
the country.

The characters of the herons are different from those of any
of the grallidse hitherto noticed. They are more decidedly
wading birds, fishing in the shallow waters for a considerable
part of their subsistence, but eating indiscriminately many
other animal matters which they find on the banks of the

m2

126 GEALLID^.

lakes and streams, such as naked or even shelled moUusca,
the spawn of fish, worms, insects, water reptiles, and water
mice. Their bills are long, strong, compressed tolerably, very
sharp at the points of the mandibles, capable of being darted
out with great celerity, and closed with very considerable force,
so as to take a sure hold of eels and other slippery prey which
they capture in the waters. The nostrils are placed in grooves
near the base of the bill, lengthwise, and half covered by a
membrane, which prevents the entrance of water when the bill
is forcibly darted in the process of fishing. The legs are long
and slender, naked to some distance above the joints of the
tarsi, and well adapted for wading or standing in the water,
though less so for walking along the ground, on which their
progressive motion is slow, and far from graceful. The neck
is very long, and during flight it is partially folded over their
back, so that they do not appear with its whole length.
When they stand on the ground, or on the tops of trees
where they nestle (for they stand on the trees rather than
perch), the neck is folded partially downward on the breast;
and when they extend it in such situations, they do so gene-
rally upwards, erecting the body at the same time, and ex-
panding the wings, which gives them a very conspicuous, if
not formidable, appearance.

THE COMMON HERON. {Avdea c'merea.)

The common heron, though not nearly so abundant now as
in former times, when the country abounded more with soli-
tudes and stagnant waters, and the bird was protected by par-
liamentary enactments, on account of the sport which it afforded
in hawking, is by no means a rare bird, or confined to any
particular part of the country ; and as it is a bird of peculiar
and conspicuous appearance, and, though not very useful any-
where, rather ornamental in some situations, it is a bird known
to almost every body.

Whether watching its prey by the waters, standing on the
tops of trees, or making its way through the air, which it

THE COMMON HEKON. 127

often does at very considerable elevations, and with a pecu-
liarly hoarse clangulous sound, it has an imposing appear-
ance, and would induce those who have not the opportunity
of seeing it closely, to suppose that it is a very large and
powerful bird; and in its lineal dimensions it is very con-
siderable, being four inches longer than the golden eagle,
and only about a foot less in the stretch of the wings. Its
length is about forty inches, and its breadth about five feet
and a half; and though when it flies the neck is doubled up
in the manner that has been stated, the feet are thrown so
far backward, that the body altogether seems almost as long
as if it were the neck, and not the feet, that gave additional
length. That habit too takes off the goose-like form that it
would have if it flew with the neck extended, and so gives it
a more compact, and, consequently, formidable appearance.

If its flight is seen nearly from below, it appears to be by
no means ungraceful ; but the case is different if it be seen
obliquely, and especially if neai-ly on a level. Estimating
from the cube of the breadth, its weight, to give the same
steady flight as the eagle, without taking the different struc-
ture of their muscles into the account, should be about five
pounds, and it weighs only about three pounds ; being thus
the lightest of all British birds in proportion to its lineal
dimensions : for the barn-owl, which is the lightest of the
owls in proportion to its wings, should, estimated in the pro-
portions of the heron, weigh only half a pound, and it
weighs twelve ounces ; or the heron, estimated according to
the proportions of the owl, should weigh about four pounds
three ounces, while, as already stated, its weight is only
three pounds. Besides, the soft feathers of the owl take hold
of the air, and thus form a sort of fulcrum for the wings, by
means of which it can fly smoothly ; whereas the feathers on
the body of the heron are close, formed for throwing off rain,
something Hke those of a water-bird, and hence its body
takes no hold of the air. The wings of the heron are also
hollow, and take a strong hold, or rather meet with a strong
resistance in their downward stroke, so that, at every down-

128 GRALLID^.

ward stroke, the body of the bird jerks upward, as if there
were two joints, near the scapular articulation of the wings,
on which the lineal breadth of the bird played as on two
hinges. The hollow wing, which is of course as much con-
vex or raised on its upper side, enables the bird to raise it
with less effort than if it were rnore flat ; but still, there is a
jerk of the body downwards every time the wings are raised.
Thus the body of the bird see-saws or bobs through the air,
in a manner which is any thing but graceful.

But these peculiarities, though they give the heron what
may be considered as rather an ungainly style of flight, are
very useful to it in its habits, as a bird which is alternately
on high flight and fishing on the banks of the waters. The
hollow wings, assisted by the bending of the neck backwards,
which throws the centre of gravity rather on the rear of the
femoral articulation of the legs, jerk the body into the air
at the first stroke, so that it could take wing not only from
frail ground, but when it is standing in water up to the articu-
lation of the tarsi.

Its pastures often lie far between ; and even from the places
in which heronries, or assemblages of nests, are sometimes
built, it has to range for miles before it can find food either
for itself or its young : and as, in clear weather especially, it
must be on the fishing ground at an early hour, it must fly
so high as to command a wide horizon. Its size too makes
it an object of attack to the larger hawks, against which its
chief safety consists in the loftiness of its flight ; and so, on
its long flights in clear weather, when it ranges to great dis-
tances, its habit is to keep the sky of all other birds. It
seldom meets with the golden eagle, as its pastures lie lower
down, and as hawking on the wing is not the forte of that
majestic and powerful bird, she would probably not contend
for the sky with the heron : and as the hawks and falcons are
not in the habit of flying very high above the range of their
quarry, they do not give chase to the heron, unless when it
has just taken wing, or is only at a moderate height ; and
though it is not nearly equal to some of them in forward

THE COMMON HEEON. 129

flight, it can climb much more readily. When on the ground,
it has not much to apprehend from them. Hawks, at close
quarters, are not so formidable as they are in their rush ; and
as the eye and the bill of the heron are equally quick and
certain, it is not very safe to go in upon her.

The bill of the heron is nearly six inches in length, of a
dusky colour, except the base of the lower mandible, which is
yellowish ; the irides are yellow, and the orbits, round which
there is a naked space, and also the naked parts of the legs and
feet, are of a greenish colour ; the middle claw is serrated.

The adult male has the forehead and crown of the head
white, with a pendant crest of glossy black feathers towards
the hinder part ; the neck dull white, with two rows of black
or dusky spots down the fore part ; the sides of the body from
the breast to the thighs are black, but the central part from the
middle of the breast is white ; the thighs are white, but tinged
with rust colour. The upper part is black ash, mixed with
white on the scapulars ; the tail, which is short, is of the same
colour ; and the quills of the wings and feathers of the bastard
wings are black. The feathers on the lower part of the neck,
and the scapulars, are much produced, and there is a tuft of
long soft feathers on the breast.

The female has the head ash-grey, is without the crest, and
has the feathers of the lower part of the neck, and the scapu-
lars, less produced. The males, in their first plumage, resemble
the female.

In the breeding time herons are gregarious, building their
heronries in trees, generally near some piece of water, not
regarding much the seclusion of the situation, though not
quite so familiar as rooks. When they once take up their
abode in any place, they do not quit it readily ; and if their
trees are cut down, they take possession of those that are
nearest ; but at other seasons, they often roost in situations
where they do not breed, if they find trees to their purpose
near the margin of waters which abound with fish. They are
seldom, indeed, seen solitary, but in pairs, or larger numbers,
according as the places where they seek their food are nearer

130 GRALHD^.

to the breeding places, or more remote from them. The nest
is large and flat, the platform composed of sticks, and covered
with rushes, dried aquatic grasses, wool, or other soft materials.
The eggs vary from four to six, but are rarely the larger
number ; they are greenish blue, and about the size of those of
the duck.

During clear weather, they are not often seen on the wing,
as they fish in the very dawn of the morning, that being the
hour of the day when, in such weather, the fish come most
readily within their reach ; and during the heat of the day they
may be seen in their heronries in the breeding time, and at
other times, standing on the tops of the trees, and now and
then slowly raising their long necks, and spreading their wings,
with not a little of the air which the indolent have when they
yawn and stretch themselves under the oppressive burden of
unoccupied time.

But when the sky lowers, they are more on the alert ; and
after rain-floods, especially in the spring and autumn, they
range along the meadows by the smaller and more upland
streams, in quest of such fishes as may have been carried out
of the channel by the flood, and left in the hollows of the
meadow. Their toothed, or rather barbed bills, enable them
to hold the most slippery tenants of the flood with great firm-
ness. When they fish at their full depth, which is up to the
produced feathers around the neck, they often keep the head
for a considerable time under water, pressing the fish to the
bottom till they can get so secure a hold as to lift it to the
dry land with certainty ; and as, during fine weather, the
time that they can fish successfully is very short, in com-
parison with that during which they cannot, they swallow the
fish entire, and immediately return to the fishing, and so load
their stomachs with a considerable number. Of the smaller
fish, which come most readily to the banks of ponds, a heron
will catch more in one hour, than a moderate angler would
catch in three ; and besides the number that they catch, they
injure many others by striking with the bill and missing their
hold.

X^ular-.^'j

THE BITTEEN. 131

It is vulgarly said that small eels pass through the heron, so
that it swallows the same individual several times in succes-
sion ; but that is, of course, not true. Eels are, however,
rather more troublesome to them than fishes which are not so
lithe in the body, or so tenacious of life ; and unless they can
seize the eel by the head or gills, in which case the pressure
of the bill soon deprives it of the power of wriggling, they
retire with it from the water, lay it on the ground, hold it
with the serrated claw of the foot, and so, by the action of
the bill, speedily reduce it to a state in which it can be got
into the stomach. The young are, like the full grown ones,
very voracious, though capable of enduring hunger for a con-
siderable time, and the parents are very diligent in carrying
food to them; so also is the male, in carrying food to the
female during the period of incubation.

Though herons roost in trees, they partake more of the
character of water-birds than many others of the order,
which nestle and repose on the ground, and nearer to the
water.

THE BiTTEEN. {Botauvus stclloris.)

Though the bittern takes up its permanent abode much
nearer the water than the heron, it is not so much a water-bird
in its character and habits, does not subsist so exclusively by
fishing, and has even some of the characters of the gallina-
ceous birds, or, at all events, characters bearing some resem-
blance to them.

The bittern is, in many respects, an interesting bird, but it
is a bird of the wilds — almost a bird of desolation, avoiding
alike the neighbourhood of man, and the progress of man's
improvements. It is a bird of rude nature, where the land
knows no character save that which the untrained working of
the elements impresses upon it ; so that, Avhen any locality is
in the course of being won to usefulness, the bittern is the
first to depart, and when any one is abandoned, it is the last
to return. " The bittern shall dwell there," is the final

132 GEALLIDJE.

curse, and implies, that the place is to become uninhabited
and uninhabitable. It hears not the whistle of the ploughman,
or the sound of the mattock ; and the tinkle of the sheep-bell,
or the lowing of the ox (although the latter bears so much
resemblance to its own hollow and dismal voice, that it has
given foundation to the name), is a signal for it to be gone.

Extensive and dingy pools, — if moderately upland, so much
the better, — which lie in the hollows, catching, like so many
traps, the lighter and more fertile mould which the rains
wash and the winds blow, from the naked heights around,
and converting it into harsh and dingy vegetation, and the
pasture of those loathsome things which wriggle in the ooze,
or crawl and swim in the putrid and mantling waters, are the
habitations of the bittern : — places which scatter blight and
mildew over everj' herb which is more delicate than a sedge,
a carex, or a rush, and consume every wooded plant that is
taller than the sapless and tasteless crow-berry, or the creep-
ing upland willow ; which shed murrain over the quadrupeds,
or chills which eat the flesh off their bones : and which, if man
ventures there, consume him by putrid fever in the hot and
dry season, and shake him to pieces with ague when the wea-
ther is cold and humid: — places from which the heath and
the lichen stand aloof, and where even the raven, lover of
disease, and battener upon all that expires miserably and ex-
hausted, comes rarely, and with more than wonted caution,
lest that death which he comes to seal, or riot upon in others,
should unawares come upon himself. The raven loves car-
rion on the dry and unpoisoning moor, scents it from afar,
and hastens to it upon his best and boldest wing; but " the
reek o' the rotten fen" is loathsome to the sense of even the
raven, and it is hunger's last pinch, ere he come nigh to the
chosen habitation — the only loved abode — of the bittern.

The bittern appears as if it hated the beams of that sun
which calls forth the richness and beauty of nature which it
so studiously avoids ; for, though with any thing but music,
it hails the fall of night with as much energy, and, no doubt,
to its own feeling, with as much glee and joy, as the birds of

THE BITTERN. 133

brighter places hail the rising of the morn. Altogether it is
a singular bu'd ; and yet there is a sublimity about it of a
more heart-stirring character than that which is to be found
where the air is balmy, and the vegetation rich, and nature
keeps holiday in holiday attire. It is a bird of the confines,
beyond which we can imagine nothing but utter ruin ; and all
subjects which trench on that terrible bourn, have a deep,
though a dismal interest.

And to those who are nerved and sinewed for the task, the
habitation of the bittern is well worthy of a visit, not merely
as it teaches us how much we owe to the successive parent
generations that subdued those dismal places, and gradually
brought the country to that state of richness and beauty in
which we found it, but also on account of the extreme of con-
trast, and the discovery of that singular charm and enchant-
ment with which nature is, in all cases, so thoroughly imbued
and invested ; so that where man cannot inhabit, he must still
admire ; and even there, he can trace the plan, adore the
power, and bless the goodness, of that Being, in whose sight all
the works of creation are equally good.

On a fine clear day in the early part of the season, when
the winds of March have dried the heath, and the dark sur-
face, obedient to the action of the sun, becomes soon warm
and turns the exhalations which steal from the marsh up-
ward, so that they are dissipated in the higher atmosphere,
and cross not that boundary to injure the more fertila and
cultivated places, — even the sterile heath and the stagnant
pool, though adverse to our cultivation, have their uses in
wild nature ; and but for these, in a climate like ours, and in
the absence of culture, the chain of life would speedily be
broken.

Upon such a day, it is not unpleasant to ramble towards the
abode of the bittern ; and, to those especially who dwell
where all around is art, and where the tremulous motion of
the ever-trundling wheel of society dizzies the understanding,
till one fancies that the stable laws of nature turn round in
concert with the minor revolutions of our pursuits, it is far

YOL. II. N

134 GKALLID^.

from being unprofitable. Man, so circumstanced, is apt to
descend in intellect, as low, or even lower than those unclad
men of the woods whom he despises ; and there is no better
way of enabling him to win back his birthright as a rational
and reflective being, than a taste of the cup of wild nature,
even though its acerbity should make him ^vrithe at the time.
That is the genuine medicine of the mind, far better than all
the opiates of the library ; and the bounding pulse of glowing
and glorious thought, returns all the sooner for its being a little
drastic.

None, perhaps, acts more speedily than a taste of the sea.
Take a man who has never been beyond the " hum" of the
city, or the chime of the village clock, and whose thoughts
float along with the current of public news in the one, or stag-
nate with the lazy pool of village chancings in the other ; put
him on ship-board on a fine evening, when the glassy water
has that blink of greenish purple which landsmen admire, and
seamen understand ; give him offing till the turn of the night ;
then let the wind be loosed at once, and the accumulating
waves heave fathoms up and sink fathoms down ; let there be
sea-room, and trim the bark to drive, now vibrating on the
ridge of the unbroken wave, now plunging into the thick of
that which has been broken by its own violence, and hissing
as if the heat of her career and collision were making the
ocean to boil, as when the nether fire upheaves a volcanic
isle ; temper his spirit in those waters for even one night, and
when you again land him safely, you will find him tenfold more
a man of steel.

A calm day in the wilderness is, of course, mildness itself
compared with such a night ; but still there is an absence
of art, and consequently a touch of the sublime of nature
in it; it suits the feeble-minded, for it invigorates without
fear.

The dry height is silent, save the chirp of the grasshopper,
or the hum of some stray bee which the heat of the day has
tempted out, to see if there are any honeyed blooms among
the heath ; but, by and by, you hear the warning whistle of

THE BITTERX. 135

the plover, sounded perhaps within a few yards of your feet,
but so singularly inward and ventriloque, that you fancy it
comes from miles off; the lapwing soon comes at the call,
playing and wailing around your head, and quits you not till
you are so near the marshy expanse that your footing is
heavy, and the ground quakes and vibrates under your feet.
That is not much to be heeded, if you keep the line of the
rushes, for a thick tuft of these sturdy plants makes a safe
foot-fall in any bog. You may now, perhaps, start the
twite, but it will utter its peevish chirp, and jerk off; and if
there is a stream with banks of some consistency, you may see
the more lively wagtail, which will jerk and run, and flirt
about, as if showing off for your especial amusement. If
there is a wide portion of clear water, you may perhaps see
the wild duck with her young brood sailing out of the reeds,
like a vessel of war leading the fleet which she protects ; or
if the pool is smaller, you may see the brown and yellow of
the snipe gliding through the herbage on the margin, as if it
were a snake in the grass. Not a wing will stir, however, or
a creature take much heed of your presence, after the lapwing
wails her farewell.

In the tuft of tall and close . herbage, not very far from the
firm ground, but yet so placed near or rather in the water
that you cannot very easily reach it, the bittern may be close
all the time, wakeful, noting you well, and holding herself
prepared to "keep her castle;" but you cannot raise her by
fihouting, or even by throwing stones, the last of which is
treason against nature, in a place solely under Nature's do-
minion. Wait till the sun is down, and the last glimmer of
the twilight has got westward of the zenith, and then return
to the place where you expect the bird.

The reeds begin to rustle with the little winds, in which
the day settles accounts with the night ; but there is a shorter
and a sharper rustle, accompanied by the brush of rather a
powerful wing. You look round the dim horizon, but there
is no bird : another rustle of the wing, and another, still

136 GEALLID.E.

weaker and weaker, but not a moving thing between you and
the sky around. You feel rather disappointed — foolish, if you
are daring ; fearful, if you are timid. Anon, a burst of un-
couth and savage laughter breaks over you, piercingly, or
rather gratingly loud, and so unwonted and odd, that it sounds
as if the voices of a bull and a horse were combined, the
former breaking down his bellow to suit the neigh of the latter,
in mocking you from the sky.

That is the love-song of the bittern, with which he sere-
nades his mate ; and uncouth and harsh as it sounds to you,
that mate hears it with far more pleasure than she would tlie
sweetest chorus of the grove; and when the surprise with
which you are at first taken is over, you begin to discover
that there is a sort of modulation in the singular sound. As
the bird utters it he wheels in a spiral, expanding his voice
as the loops widen, and sinking it as they close ; and though
you can just dimly discover him between you and the zenith,
it is worth while to lie down on your back, and watch the
style of his flight, which is as fine as it is peculiar. The sound
comes better out, too, when you are in that position; and
there is an echo, and, as you would readily imagine, a shaking
of the ground; not that, according to the tale of the poets, the
bird thrusts his bill into the marsh, and shakes that with his
booming, though (familiar as I once was for years with the
sound, and all the observable habits of bitterns) some kindly
critic, on a former occasion, laboured to convert me from that
heresy. A quagmire would be but a sorry instrument, even
for a bittern's music ; but when the bittern booms and bleats
over head, one certainly feels as if the earth were shaking;
but it is probably nothing more than the general affection of
the sentient system by the jarring upon the ear — an affection
which we more or less feel in the case of all harsh and grating
sounds, more especially when they are new to us.

A figure of the bittern one inch to the foot, or one twelfth
of the lineal dimensions, is given on the plate opposite, from
which it will be seen that the shape of the body, the structure

THE BITTERN". 137

of the feet, excepting that the hind toe is longer, and even
the form of the bill, bear some resemblance to those of a galli-
naceous bird.

The length of the bird is about twenty-eight inches, and
the extent of the wings about forty-four. It is heavier in
proportion to the extent of its wings, than the heron ; and
though it flies more steadily than that bird, it is not very
powerful in forward flight, or in gaining height without
wheeling ; but when once it is up, it can keep the sky with
considerable ease ; and while it does so, it is safe from the
buzzards and harriers, which are the chief birds of prey in its
locality.

The nest is constructed by both birds, in a close tuft or
bush, near by and sometimes over the water, but always more
elevated than the flood. Indeed, as it builds early, about the
time of the spring rains, which bring it abundance of food, in
frogs, snails, worms, and the fry of fishes, it has the flood
higher at the time of commencing the nest, than it is likely
to be during the incubation. The nest is constructed wholly
of vegetable matters — rushes, the leaves of reeds, and those
of the stronger marsh grasses. The eggs are four or five, of
a greenish brown colour ; the incubation lasts about twenty-
five days, and three weeks more elapse before the young are
fit for leaving the nest. When they break the shell, they are
callow, and have a scraggy appearance ; but they are labo-
riously fed by the parents, and acquire better forms at the
same time that they gain their plumage.

The bittern is both a solitary and a peaceful bird; and
excepting the small fishes, reptiles, and other little animals
on which it feeds, it offers harm to nothing, animal or veget-
able. Unless when the male booms and bleats, or rather
bellows and neighs his rude song, the birds are seldom heard,
and not often seen, unless sometimes in the severe weather,
when they are frozen out, and descend lower down the
country in quest of food. They keep in their rushy tents as
long as the weather is open, and they can by their long
and powerful bills find their food among the roots of these ;

n2

138 GKALLID^.

and they probably also in part subsist upon the seeds, or even
the albuminous roots, of some of the aquatic plants ; but their
feet, which are adapted for rough and spongy surfaces, do
not hold well on the ice ; at all events, in the places where
I used to know them, when the interstices of the plants and
the margins of the pools were so far frozen, that they would
bear, and the wild-goose had been driven from more northern
haunts by the severity of the weather, the bitterns were not
to be found by the most diligent search in the withered tufts,
though if they had the habit of converting the earth into a
musical instrument, these would be the times at which it would
sound the best. On their departure from the upland moors,
they proceed gradually and skulkingly by the margins of the
streams to the lower swamps and marshes, where, from the
warmer climate and the thicker mantle of dry vegetables, the
frost is much longer in taking effect.

Though the bittern is an unoffending and retiring bird,
easily hawked when on a low flight, and not very difficult to
shoot when out of its cover, as it flies short, and soon
alights, it is both a vigilant and a powerful bird on the
ground. It stands high, so that, without being seen, it sees
all around it, and it is not easily surprised. Its bill, too, is
so strong yet so sharp, and the thrust of it is given with so
much rapidity and effect, that other animals are not very fond
of going in upon it ; and even when it is wounded, it will
make a very determined resistance, throwing itself on its back
so that it may use both its bill and its claws.

It would not be very consistent to regret the diminished
and diminishing numbers of the bittern, a bird which, wher-
ever it appears, proclaims that there the resources of the
country are running to waste ; for such is the indication given
by the bird. It is not an indication of hopeless sterility. It
does not inhabit the naked height on which the fertilizing
rain not only falls without producing fertility, but washes
away the small quantity of mould which the few starving
plants produce. The elements of a more profitable crop are
always in existence in the abode of the bittern; and, though

STRAGGLERS, 139

the quantity of skill and labour required from man varies
much, those elements can always to a certain extent be
claimed to man's use. The place where I used to hear the
bittern every evening during the first month after the storm
broke, for it began before the short supplemental winter,
the fleeting storm of flaking snow which used to season the
lapwing, has been in great part under crop for years. Where
that is not the case, it has been planted; and the partridge
and the ring-dove have come close upon the margin of what
remains of the mere. The winding stream — " the burnie
wimplin doon the glen," — with its little daisied meadows, its
primrosed banks, its tangled thickets, its dimpling pools, and
its dark nooks, each having a name, and altogether dear to
trout, to bird, and to boyhood, has become a straight ditch
between bushless banks, and runs so low and shallow in the
dry season, as hardly to have depth for the minnow and the
stickleback, and the very tadpoles lie stranded, dead and diy,
by the little runs of sand. There might be more breadth in
the country; but, to me at least, there seemed to be, in every
sense of the word, less depth. The crops too were thin and
stunted, and the domestic beasts which were nibbling among
the stems of the scattered ray-grass, which looked very like a
thin bristling of copper wire, had certainly as many and as
easily counted bones as the smaller breed which were wont to
roam in freedom over the moor. To me, the plaint of the
dove brought more of melancholy than the booming of fifty
bitterns, even with the gloom of the twilight, and a lingering
dread of beings of the darkness to boot. But change is the
course of nature, and the foundation of art; and in all places,
and under all circumstances, mors janua xitce.

STRAGGLERS.

There are several species of birds belonging to the herons,
the bitterns, and some other analogous genera, of which
specimens are, at wide intervals, found in various parts of
Britain; but all of these are so rare, that they cannot be

140 GEALLID^.

considered as visiting the island at any regular intervals, or
according to any uniform laws; and, as far as discovery has
gone, none of them breed in the country, so that they cannot,
in any strict sense of the term, be considered as British birds.
It is generally understood, though of course there is no precise
evidence upon the subject, that they were once much more
abundant than they are now; and that if they did not actually
breed in the country, they came so regularly every season, and
in numbers so considerable, that they were entitled to a place
among our feathered tribes, as subjects of popular observation.
The evidence which we have of those remote times, is, how-
ever, far from being precise; and as more modern ornitholo-
gists have sometimes confounded species of bu'ds which are
permanently resident, and thus open to every-day observation,
it cannot well be supposed that the elder observers could be
perfectly accurate in their distinctions, or that we can impli-
citly trust to their traditionary statements, without some colla-
teral proofs.

It must, no doubt, be granted that, in earlier times, the
people generally were better acquainted with our native ani-
mals in the wild state, than they have been in times more
recent, or than the majority of them are even now. The
progress of improvement, the consequent diminution of the
numbers of the animals, more especially of those which, like
the birds in question, frequent only (or chiefly) wild and uncul-
tivated places, the more general collecting of the people into
towns, their more constant occupation in labour, especially
in-door labour, and, perhaps also, the separation of natural
history from popular language by the introduction of scientific
names, have tended alike to banish many parts of natural
history equally from the study and the language of the
people.

There is no doubt also that the physical changes in the
country itself, to which frequent allusion has been made in
the course of these volumes, has had more influence upon the
wandering Grallidae, than upon most other of the feathered
tribes. It is their habit to range seasonally over large tracts

STKAGGLEES.

141

of country, in such a way as to be in those places where the
waters are, not so much in permanent lakes and streams, as
in seasonal inundations, or where those inundations have just
subsided and left upon the surface supplies of food for the
birds.

The economy of these birds forms a very interesting part,
or rather is the index to a very interesting part of the general
succession of seasons, and also the state of different portions
of the globe, though the investigation of it forms no part (tf
British natural history, excepting in so far as it shows that
Britain, from its insular situation, the form of its surface, and
the extent to which the improvement of that surface has been
carried, is exempted from those laws which are still in operation
in other places.

In those parts of the world which are within or near the
tropics, more rain probably falls in the course of the year than
in any other latitudes ; but it falls only during certain periods,
which, though they return very regularly, form but a small por-
tion of the year; and during these it falls in much greater
quantities than in the more temperate climates.

Towards the regions of the poles again, the summer, except
on the shores and small islands, is comparatively dry, and great
part of the humidity of the year comes down in the early winter
in heavy falls of snow. These remain on the surface till the
return of spring, or in high latitudes till the summer is far
advanced, and in proportion as it is late in melting it melts
rapidly.

Each of those circumstances of the climate causes a flood-
ing of the rivers, or an overflowing of the flats on the banks
and towards their confluences with the sea. Indeed, it is the
matters brought down by the floods, and deposited whereVer
the current becomes slow, which originally form those flats,
and gradually increase them. In the tropical countries, the
rains and overflowings take place at diflerent times of the
year ; but in the northern hemisphere they are, generally
sj)eaking, autumnal. In the polar countries again, they take
place in the spring and early part of the summer. The two

142 GEALLID^.

are, as it were, the opposites of each other in season, and there
is no doubt that they influence the migrations of all those birds
which shift their residences with the seasons. But the man-
ner in which they do influence the birds depends on the habits
of the birds themselves, the general guides to which are the
food of birds, and the places where that food is found. The
warblers, for instance, migrate from grove to grove, from
brake to brake, or from reedy stream and pool in one latitude
to the same in another. Other races flit from marsh to marsh,
or from moor to moor, when these become periodically dry
in the milder latitudes, or covered by ice or snow in the
colder.

The Grallidse, and more especially those genera to which
the wanderers in question belong, may be said to unite more
completely the characters of land and water birds, than any
of the others : they find their food either directly in the water
itself, or immediately on the banks ; and yet their feet are so
formed that they, most generally speaking, stand on the ground
while they seize it. Some of them have been known to swim
for short distances, and it is probable that all of them can
swim a little upon emergency ; but swimming is not their
habit, and they are not found launched upon broad expanses
of water like the regular swimming birds. They wade as far
as the tarsi, which are generally long, and also the naked
part of the leg (which is called the garter) will allow them ;
but the greater number of them find their food without
wading even to that depth ; and though that food, consisting
of fishes, reptiles, small quadrupeds, worms, and the large
aquatic insects, be all of a kind which is most abundant in
humid places, or moist states of the weather, they as fre-
quently catch it near as actually in the water. They are thus
intimately connected with the periodical inundations to which
allusion has been made ; and they are adapted for migrating
over the whole or the greater part of the quadrant, so as to be
always on the different grounds adapted for them at the seasons
when food on these grounds is most abundant and most easily
obtained.

STKAGGLEKS. 143

The lower valleys of large rivers, especially when these
form extensive accumulations of banks, intermingled with
pools, are the favourite places, and they are rarely found in
the dry countries. The East of Europe from the White Sea,
and the flats to the eastward, through Russia, along the
shores of the Black Sea, and thence to the valley of the Nile,
as far upward as that river overflows its banks during the
rains in Central Africa, forms almost one continuous pasture
for such birds; at least, places where they can feed abun-
dantly, according to the season, are at so little distance apart
from each other along the whole of it, that the birds (which
are, generally speaking, of powerful wing when once they gain
their migratory elevation) have easy flights from pasture to
pasture. The American continent, from the north, down the
valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, and southward to Guiana,
and even farther to the southward (for the summit level be-
tween the southern branches of the Amazon and the northern
ones of the Plata are flooded during the rains), aflfords them
even a more ample range than they have in the place of their
eastern migration. The American continent is also much
more humid and much more in a state of nature, so that it is
still better adapted to their habits.

Britain is thus situated, as it were, between two lines of
the migrations of those birds, divided from the western one
by the wide expanse of the Atlantic, over which we may sup-
pose that the birds have no natural tendency to pass, and
that consequently the American ones do not come, and never
at any period could have come, except as mere stragglers,
which had been drifted by cross winds, or had lost their way
in the fogs about the Newfoundland banks. The eastern
ones are less completely separated from us by any one bar-
rier ; because the sea on the east is nowhere too wide for the
flight of even a moderately winged bird. But the west and
centre of Europe are not so well adapted to the regular
migration of these Grallidse, as the eastern parts of the conti-
nent, because the Carpathian and Bohemian mountains divide
them in the north, and the dry and mountainous parts of

144 GEALLID^.

France, and the Alps in their continuation, divide them in the
south. Thus the directions of their migrations are changed
more into those of the basins of the great rivers ; and, though
in their summer migration they appear to be abundant in Hol-
land, and the other flat countries on the lower part of the
Rhine, there is little difference of climate to induce their
journeying in any great numbers from these places to the
corresponding portion of the British shores; and as they
come more from the south-east in their progress northward,
and return more to it in that southward, than if their polar
and equatorial pastures lay on the same meridian, there are
fewer stragglers that reach us, than we should be apt to sup-
pose, if we did not take these circumstances into considera-
tion.

Before the country was so much improved by drainage
and culture, while the land around the coast was, to a
great extent, fenny waste, while the uplands were full of
brakes and pools, while, from the state of the surface, the
extremes of season were much greater, the snow lay heavier
and longer upon the whole of the uplands, and the fens were
flooded both by the autumnal rains, and the spring rains, and
melting of the snows, those parts of the coast of England
which lie opposite the Netherlands were, of course, so much
more in the state of those countries which the Grallidse under
consideration still frequent, that we may very naturally sup-
pose them to have been much more abundant then than they
are now. But the examination of the laws according to
which their numbers have diminished, till they have all
become rare stragglers, would carry us back to periods at
which the history even of our own species is fabulous and
vague ; and therefore we can hardly hope for any thing
like certainty in the history of animals, or in that of the
physical state of the country, during the fabulous and tradi-
tionary period of the history of man. It is true, that as
nature records the changes of country in those remains
which are accumulated by floods, or otherwise buried in the
earth, she never falsifies the record, to serve any particular

THE CKESTED PUBPLE HERON. 145

purpose, as is sometimes done by human analysis ; but the
difficulty of reading those records of nature is generally much
more than equal to that of misrepresentation in the other
case, that wherever we find the history of man obscure, the
history of nature always involves equal, if not greater ob-
scurity. Thus the progressive history of those birds, which
resort seasonally to districts which are in peculiar states, is a
subject requiring the greatest discrimination and nicety ; and
though it be one which, properly worked out, would throw
much light upon other subjects — it is also one which cannot
be worked otherwise than by throwing the light of many
other subjects upon it. Its importance is great, however, and
we have thrown out these hints, not to inform the ignorant
or to guide the inquirer, but for the humbler, though perhaps
more important and useful object, of drawing attention to the
subject.

Our notices of the birds which have led to these remarks
may be brief, as more detailed ones can be found in the
general systems of ornithology, and as they for whom these
pages are principally intended, have but small chance of
meeting with the birds. Of these stragglers, some more re-
semble the common heron, others more the bittern, and for
others again there is no exact type among our native birds,
whether resident or regularly migrant, so that it will be as
well to notice the several genera in succession.

THE STRAGGLING HERONS.

Of these there are five, though the appearance of all in
Britain is rare, and that of some doubtful.

THE CRESTED PURPLE HERON. {Ardea purpuvea.)

This is a very beautiful species, and, though rare, specimens
of it have of late years been found in England in the early
part of the summer. It is very common in the marshy parts
of Eastern Europe, and Western Asia, and by no means rare

VOL. II. o

146 GRALLID^.

in Holland. It also extends over the whole length of Africa
to the Cape of Good Hope, and on its passage it is very
common in Malta and some of the other islands of the Medi-
terranean. It nestles in tall reeds and thick underwood, but
not in trees, and it does not perch. The eggs are generally
three, rather smaller than those of the common heron, of a
greenish ash-colour, and lustreless.

The length of the full-grown bird is about three feet, and
the extent of the wings about four feet eleven inches. The
tarsi and toes are slender, the claws long, flattened, and the
whole foot adapted for walking on soft mud. The bill is
brown on the ridge, and bright yellow on the other parts, the
naked spaces round the irides, the garter, the under part of
the tarsus, and under parts of the toes (which are reticulated),
are the same colour ; and the fronts of the tarsi, and upper
parts of the toes (which are covered with scales), are brown.
The crown of the head and crest dependent from the occiput,
the latter formed of beautiful pointed feathers, are deep black,
but with very rich and peculiar reflections of green and purple.
The upj)er part is reddish green, with various shades of brown
and purple, the throat greyish white, the rest of the throat
purplish red, the neck with produced purplish white feathers,
and the scapulars with feathers of the same form, but of a
brilliant purple red. These produced feathers and the crest
are characteristic of mature birds, the young being without
them, though the places in which they grow are gradually
indicated by tints of a similar colour, as the bird arrives at its
third year, the age at which it receives those ornamental
additions.

In former times the feathers of the heron were worn as
characteristic emblems of chieftainship ; and the crest as
being the most beautiful of the whole was considered as the
most ornamental. It was styled, "aigrette" or "egrette,"
and as that word was often used as the name of the bird to
whi(;h the crest belonged, it probably led to some confusion of
the species.

THE LITTLE WHITE HEEON. 147

THE GREAT WHITE HERON. [Ardea alha.)

The sights obtained of this bird in Britain are exceedingly
rare, and even doubtful. The bird is known in eastern
Europe, where its crest feathers, which are very long and ex-
ceedingly beautiful, are highly prized for ornament. They are
strong, capable of being erected, rising from the back rather
than from the head, and when in a state of repose reaching
beyond the tail ; but there is also a short crest pendent from
the hinder part of the head. The rich plumes along the back
belong to the summer plumage of the male only. The plumage
of the bird is altogether pure white, the bill dull brown,
blackish on the ridge, and yellowish at the base. The orbits
of greyish green, the irides yellow, and the legs and toes red-
dish brown. In the young, the legs and bill are blackish
green. The full-grown bird is nearly three feet and a half in
length, with a bill about six inches long. It stands high on the
legs, the tarsi being at least eight inches long, and the naked
parts of the tibia nearly five inches more. This, like the
former, nestles in thick herbage and not on trees ; the eggs are
four or five, and of a bluish green colour. The young and
also the old birds in their winter plumage are without the
produced feathers on the back.

THE LITTLE CRESTED HERON. {Ardea garzetta.)

This is a small but beautiful species belonging to the eastern
line of the migration of these birds, and never has been found
alive in Britain, so that its name should be expunged from the
list even of occasional visitants.

THE LITTLE WHITE HERON. [Avdea vussata.)

This is also an eastern bird, and though one specimen of it
occurred in South Devon in 1805, it is barely admissible into
the list of British birds. That specimen was a female, sup-

148 GRALLID^.

posed to be in the plumage of the fii'st year ; and with the
exception of the upper part of the neck in front, and the
crown of the head, which were buff-coloured, it was entu'ely
pure white. It was found in October; but owing to what
cause it performed so extensive a migration is not known. It
was not found in a marsh or beside water, but in a field, feed-
ing upon insects ; and it was not alarmed at the presence of
cattle which were grazing there.

THE sQUAcco HERON, [^rdea ralloides.)

This species has been more frequently met with in England
than any of the former, but still not in such numbers, or
so regularly, as to entitle it to a place among those birds
which may be periodically expected. It is a bird of the old
continent, and in some of its characters resembles the bitterns,
being shorter in the tarsi and the neck, and having the
latter clothed with longer feathers than the other and more
characteristic herons, but it is said to nestle on trees like the
herons.

It is a bird of very beautiful plumage. The feathers along
the head are dull yellow, margined with black ; the crest,
which is long and pendent, consists of eight or ten awl-
shaped white feathers, margined with black. The feathers on
the back are produced, and have flocculent webs, they are of a
deep bufi" yellow, and tinged on the upper part with gi-eenish
purple, and they extend as far as the tail. The lower part of
the neck and breast are dull yellow, and there are a few
slight mai'kings of the same on the scapulars and wing-
coverts. All the rest of the plumage is white. The mature
plumage is similar in both sexes, only the crest is shorter in
the female. The young are without the crest and long
feathers on the back ; and their colours on the head and
upper part are grey and brown. Specimens of these birds
have been met in the early part of the summer; but they are
not birds for which an ordinary observer can look : indeed,
the whole of the stragglers included in this section belong

THE LITTLE BITTERN. 149

to the curioois department of our ornithology rather than to the
useful.

STRAGGLING BITTERNS.

Of these there are two recorded as having been seen, the
one belonging to the eastern or European migration, and the
other to the western or American. They are both rare, but
the American is by much the rarer of the two.

THE LITTLE BITTERN. {BotaurUS minUtUS.)

This is a small species, resembling the herons in the form
of the bill and the length of the neck, but more like the bit-
terns in the general form of the body and the structure of the
feet. It is a small species, not exceeding fifteen inches in
length. In the male, the head, back, and tail, are black,
with green reflections. The lesser coverts are buff, the larger
whitish, and the quills black. There is a chestnut-coloured
spot on the scapulars; the neck, breast, and thighs, are buff,
and the rest of the under parts white. The female is brown
above with rust-coloured margins to the feathers, and the bull'
on the under part is lighter, and the feathers margined with
pale whitish buff.

Its native haunts are in the marshes of the temperate por-
tions of the eastern continent, upon the hummocks or thick
tufts surrounded by water, in which it builds a large nest of
withered rushes and other aquatic plants, and lays five or six
white eggs. With us it is a rare visitant, but occasional
specimens have been seen throughout the whole length of the
island. That might be expected from its haunts on the con-
tinent. It does not so decidedly belong to the eastern migra-
tion as the herons, but is found abundantly along the basin
of the Rhine, from Holland to the Alps, though always m
watery places, and its habits, like those of the bittern, are
retired.

o2

150 GRALLID^.

AMERICAN BITTERN. {Botauvus leutiffinosus.)

This is an American species, and has some resemblance to
the common, only it is much smaller, more minutely freckled,
and, though a night bird, as all the genus are, it does not
ascend and boom like our native bittern, though it drums
when alarmed. In America, its migration extends from the
Gulf of Mexico, or the swamps on the lower part of the Mis-
sissippi to Hudson's Bay, on the swampy shores of which it
arrives in the beginning of summer. It appears to migrate
more to the north and east than the American herons, which
may in part account for the appearance of those rare speci-
mens that straggle into Britain. Though very generally dis-
tributed over the swamps of North America, and from its
retiring habits and the dijfRculty of exploring its haunts, pro-
bably much more numerous than one would infer from the
numbers seen. Its seasonal movements in America resemble
more the autumnal collection and spring dispersion of those
birds which have their habits in Britain, than the actual migra-
tion of those dry-land bu*ds which range far in latitude. Cold
is the chief cause which drives marsh birds either southward
or downward to the warm places. They can find food in all
latitudes while the water remains open, and they retire only as
these begin to be shut up by the frost. With the forest birds
it is different. As the fruit of the deciduous trees ripens, the
leaves become dry and unfit for supporting those insects upon
which the forest birds live, and thus the birds are driven off
even before the severe cold sets in.

Of those American birds that are confined to the northern
division of that continent, we can hardly expect even strag-
glers during the northern migration, because the American
coast bends so much to the north-east, that a bird from even
the Floridas is not likely to make so much leeway as to get
eastward to sea. Besides, tlie wind, especially in the spring
and autumn, blows north or south along the central valley of
America, and the wind of the eastern shore is influenced

THE NIGHT-HERON. 151

northerly by the current of the gulf stream, tHe tendency of
which is to keep the northward-botind birds on or to the land.
The set of the winds must indeed influence the southward
migration of the birds also; and it is only random stragglers
from very northerly places, which can at all find their way to
Britain.

To what extent the intercourse by shipping between coun-
tries that lie at a considerable distance from each other, may
affect the migration of birds from the one to the other, has not
been ascertained, or indeed even inquked into, although it is
a subject not unworthy the attention of professed or profess-
ing Ornithologists. That Pelagic birds do follow ships, is
well known, and some of them, as the petrels, get small thanks
for their society, as the sailors accuse them of raising those
commotions of the waters which bring up their food, and of
course render them active upon the surface. Land-birds also
often take refuge in ships when beaten and exhausted by the
weather; and that occurs so often as to give at least some
probability for concluding that migrant birds may generally
have at least a tendency to follow ships, and thus be led a
little out of the line of their ordinary passage. But the subject
requires to be studied before any certain conckision can be
drawn from it.

NiGHT-HEKON. {MycUcorax.)

Of this genus we have no British bird, either resident or
regularly visiting the country ; but there is at least one species
of which specimens have been met with as very rare stragglers-.
These birds have the bill long and very strong, a little enlarged
at the base, and slightly curved at the tip; their legs are of
moderate length, naked a little above the tarsal joints, and
with- the outer and middle toe united by a membrane at their
base. Their necks are shorter than those of the herons, or
even of the bitterns; they have a few produced feathers on
the occiput; the lower part of the neck is downy behind , and
covered by long, soft feathers on the sides and front- They

152 GEALLID^.

feed at night, are gregarious, and very noisy, their sounds
being harsh and guttural. Their plumage is not so mottled as
that of the bitterns.

COMMON NiGHT-HEKON. {^Myct'icorax Gardenu)

This species is very common in the extensive wooded
marshes and swamps of all parts of the world, and especially
in North America, where it is called the " qua bird," that
word having some resemblance to the husky and croaking
sound with which it makes the swamps dismal during the
night. They nestle in large assemblages like rooks ; and
though they are easily thrown into momentary alarm, they
do not readily quit their breeding places, unless the trees in
which they nestle are cut down. Their size (and probably
that is the case with many other birds, and may have led to
confusion of species) appears to vary with the abundance and
productiveness of their pastures, as they are larger in the
extensive swamps of America than in Europe, where the soil,
generally speaking, is less humid, and the swamps covered
with less luxuriant vegetation. In the mature bird, the head,
back of the neck, scapulars, and upper part of the back, are
black, with blue and green reflections; the sides of the neck,
the wings, the lower part of the back, and the tail, are fine
whitish grey; and the rest of the under part is pure white.
To the hinder part of the head there is attached a very ele-
gant crest, which the birds can erect when excited. That
crest is pure white, eight or nine inches in length, and con-
sists of three feathers, which sheathe each other like tubes,
so that the whole appears as if it were one conical feather
tapering gradually to a point. The young are without the
crest, and have those parts brown, which in the mature birds
are black with glosses; and indeed, more or less of brown
over the whole of the upper part, and partially also on the
under, where it is mixed with yellowish white. The plumage
varies gradually from the yellowish brown of the young to
the richer tints of the old birds, so that they are apt to be

THE STOEK. 153

mistaken. As British birds, they are exceedingly rare : one
individual has been met with in the upper part of the valley
of the Thames, and another on the banks of the Tweed : but
whether these straggled from the continent or from America,
is not known.

All birds which are subject to great seasonal changes, or
changes with age, in their plumage, and which appear in the
country only as rare, and, as one may say, accidental wan-
derers, require to be examined with much caution, and de-
scribed with the greatest minuteness ; and the time at which
they are observed, should also be carefully noted down. If
these circumstances are not duly attended to, there is much
danger of the same bird being multiplied into as many dif-
ferent species as the varieties of dress in which it appears.
The hasty conclusion of one person may, in such case, mis-
lead a host of those provoking copyists, who, though they
can purloin, are altogether unable to correct, or even dis-
criminate, till the error extend so widely, as to be all but in-
curable, and the ardent but inexperienced inquirer be sent in
pursuit of that which cannot be found, as it does not exist in
nature.

STORK. {Ciconia.)

Birds of this genus, though they form a very interesting
feature in the ornithology of many countries, appear with us
only as stragglers ; but specimens, both of the black and the
white, have been seen in the country : and therefore, though
it belongs not to us to notice their manners as forming a part
of British natural history, we must record their names among
those birds which occasionally appear.

154 GRALLIDJE.

THE WHITE STOEK. {Ciconia ulha.)

This bird has been met with in different parts of the south
of England, but never at any considerable distance from the
sea, chiefly in the autumn or winter ; which would lead to the
supposition, that it has been blown westward on its migra-
tion from Holland, where the birds breed in abundance, to
the south. Storks are birds of familiar and gentle dispo-
sitions, very cleanly in their habits, and great promoters of
cleanliness in those places which they frequent. They are
in consequence very much encouraged in towns and cities,
where they walk about the streets, and roost and breed on
the house-tops. They stand upon one foot, the other being
drawn up so that it does not appear. Though peculiar in
shape, they are handsome birds. The bill and feet are red,
the naked space round the orbits black, and the irides brown
the scapulars, larger coverts, and quills, are black, and all
the rest of the plumage white. The young have the wings,
and part of the back brownish, and the bill and feet reddish
brown. The length of the bird is about three feet and a half,
the spread of the wings is about six feet, and the size of the
body about the same as that of the turkey.

The white stork holds nearly the same place among the
migratory birds of the East that the night-heron does
among those of the West. The birds flock before they
begin their autumnal journey; and as they approach the
southern limit of their range, the flocks become very nume-
rous. The flesh of the stork, when in good condition, is
excellent food ; but the birds do not breed in confinement.
They are the associates of man, but not, like domesticated
animals, his slaves.

THE BLACK STORK. [Ciconia nigra^

The black stork belongs to a more easterly migration than
the white, and is more a bird of the retired and wooded

THE WHITE SPOONBILL. 155

marshes. It ranges as far north as Finland, but not to any
part of the western coast of Europe ; and only one specimen
has been seen in England. It has the whole of the upper part
black, with rich glosses of blue and green.

WHITE SPOONBILL. {Platdlca leucorodia.)

The white spoonbill arrives in the south-east of England
rather more frequently than most of the other stragglers that
have been enumerated in this section, though not so much so
as to render a detailed description of it necessary for the
popular student of our native birds. The birds live in marshy
places, and make their nests in trees, or in the close tufts of
aquatic plants. It is more a marsh bird than any of the
genera just mentioned, and it has the outer and middle toes
webbed to the second joint, and the hinder claw produced
and resting on the ground for a considerable portion of its
length. The foot is thus well adapted for walking on the
surface of soft and sludgy mud. The form of the bill, which
is peculiar, and supplies the popular name, is alone sufficient to
characterize the bird. The bill has the tip yellow, but the
rest of it, and the legs, which are bare for fully four inches
above the articulations of the tarsi, are black. The body is
pure white, with a yellow gorget on the breast, and a crest on
the hinder part of the head, formed of sheathing feathers. The
bird feeds on the spawn and young of fishes and reptiles, and
on water insects and their larvae, as well as on the albuminous
roots of some of the aquatic plants. In quest of these, it dab-
bles in the water and mud; and, as is the case with many
others of the long-necked birds which dabble, it has a double
flexure of the windpipe, probably for holding a supply of
air when the head is submerged. Spoonbills occasionally
straggle to England, both on their northward and their south-
ward journeys.

156 GEALLID^.

CRAKE. {Grus.)

The common crane [grus cinerea), which is the only bird
of the genus that appears in Britain, even as a straggler, is in
many respects the reverse of the preceding species. The bill
is long, strong and pointed, and the feet have the hind toe
articulated on the tarsus, the whole structure of the foot
having a considerable resemblance to those of the birds that
walk upon firm surfaces, and use the foot for scraping.

For popular purposes in British ornithology, it is now of
little consequence to point out the relations of the crane to
other birds, or to localities, for it only appears as a strag-
gler ; though, from the old statutes for the protection of its
eggs, it appears to have been in former times well known as
a native bird breeding in the country. The crane is a bird
of the wastes that lie on the edges of marshes, or are subject
to seasonal overflowing by rivers ; and as in England those
places are now generally enclosed, or otherwise divided, and
under culture, the country affords no fit pasture for the crane.
The crane is not, however, a bird of solitude, for in those
southern and eastern countries which suit its habits, it is said
to build not only in inhabited places, but on the tops of
houses.

IBIS. (Ibis.)

The glossy ibis (ibis falcinellus) is the only species of this
genus of ancient fame of which even a straggler comes occa-
sionally to Britain. It is a bird of long flight, and ranges
seasonally far and wide over the continent even to the remotest
north ; and thus a solitary straggler not unfrequently drops
upon our shores.

The plumage of this bird is exceedingly rich, from the
indescribable brilliance and variety of the metallic glosses,
which more resemble those upon the wing-cases of the flner
beetles, than any thing usual among the feathered tribes. The

THE CURLEW. 157

feathers on the sides and top of the head are rich greenish
black with metallic reflections of purple ; the lower part of the
back, the tail, the scapulars, the coverts and wings, are of the
same tint but greener, and with indescribably brilliant and
varied reflections of purple-green and gold colour ; the neck,
upper part of the back, ridges of the wings, and all the under
parts of the body, are rich purplish brown. The bill is long,
and though slender in the distal half of its length, it is a well-
formed and powerful organ. The feet are adapted for walking
upon soft surfaces. They follow the line of periodical inunda-
tion ; and during the summer range as far to the northward as
those countries where the summer inundations are produced by
the melting of the snow. They are generally social birds, and
migrate in flocks.

CURLEW. (JSTumenius.)

There are two British species of curlew, the common curlew
and the whimbrel, and both of them are permanently resident
in the country, though they shift their ground within it with
the seasons. Both species, when in good condition, are very
palatable and wholesome food.

COMMON CURLEW. {JsTumenius arcuaia.)

A figure of this bird is given on the plate at page 136,
about one twelfth of the lineal dimensions of nature ; but cur-
lews are subject to much variation both in size and in weight.
The greatest length is about eighteen inches exclusive of the
bill, which is between six and seven, and the extent of the
wings about three feet.

Curlews are very common birds, visiting all the flat and
shelving shores in the winter, and the moist and marshy
moors in the breeding season, and often halting a little on the
ploughed fields in the course of their journeys. That any of
them come to Britain from the south, or leave it at least to a
farther distance than the northern and western isles in the

VOL. II. P

158 GKALLID^.

summer, is not very probable, but they have both an inland and
a northward, or rather a north-westward, motion within it at
that season. The moors of the southern parts of England are
too dry for them in the summer, and the same may be said
generally of the lower moors all along the east side of the
island. Their great breeding ground commences about
Westmoreland, and runs along the western side of Scotland
and the isles.

They tend much to enliven the more dreary and desolate of
those marshy moors ; as during the breeding season they whistle
and scream, in wild and varied notes, till all the place rings
again ; accompanying their cries by wheeling flights which are
not ungraceful.

The nest is a very rude couch of withered grass or rushes ;
the eggs are four, of a pale brownish green with spots of
difierent shades of brown. They are placed quatrefoil, like
those of the plovers. The young run as soon as they break
the shell, but they are then covered with yellowish down,
and it is some time before they are fledged. Their principal
food at that season is earth-worms, and the young of fishes
and frogs ; and though, as is the case with all birds that
nestle in the wilds, they nestle apart, they are often very close
to each other. One foggy evening I lost my way, or rather
the bearing, for there was no way to lose, in the dreary
district of Ross Mull ; and as I was trying for " the blink of
the sea" the greater part of the night without success, though
I found plenty of water, I had no lack of the music of
curlews, and certainly it was, under the circumstances, far
from being disagreeable. In those places the birds are by
no means shy, though they do not play the same tricks as the
plovers and lapwings.

If the season is more dry than usual, they suffer consi-
derably from Avant of food ; but as the rains usually set in
early, they have abundance, and get fat as they return to the
south and the shores. There they flock, and are very shy,
and run and fly about with much celerity. They are also
tide birds, following the Une of the water during the ebb,

THE "WIIIMBEEL. 159

but retiring to a distance during the flood. They do not
add so much to the interest of the shores as to that of the
inland moors, as they have more neighbours ; but even on the
best birded shore, the curlew is a bird worth watching.

The common name for the curlew in Scotland is the
" whaup," which is the name also for the pod of a legu-
minous plant before the seeds begin to swell. The allusion
is to the bill, or as it is there called the " neb" of the bird;
and the word " whaup-nebbed " is applied to express along,
thin and arched nose, and also one who is cunning, and it is
one of the attributes of those beings with which superstition
peoples the night: " ghaests an' whaup-nebbed things" are
very generally associated as equally to be dreaded ; and there
is no doubt that the allusion is directly to the curlew, as it
whistles and screams in those places in which the \gnis
fatuus is most likely to appear, and where, from the want of
paths or land-marks, the people are most likely to wander and
lose their way in foggy weather.

THE WHiMBREL. {NuDiemus plioeopus.)

The whimbrel very much resembles the curlew in its colours,
its haunts, and its habits; but it is a smaller bird, being
about seventeen inches long, of which the bill takes up
fully three, and about two feet and a half in breadth. The
colours also run more on black and white, and less on brown,
than those of the curlew. The chin, throat, and belly, are
white, without the brown lines which mark those parts of the
curlew ; and the lower part of the back and the rump are
also white. The mottlings on the other parts are not so
minute, and the bill is more slender as well as only half the
length.

The bird is found on the same shores as the curlew in the
winter, and has nearly the same habits, only it is not quite
so shy, and not nearly so abundant. It migrates farther to
the north in the breeding season, and rears its young in
places which are still wilder and more retired. Like the

160 GRALLIDiE.

other, it spends but little of its time in nest building:. Its
eggs are four, arranged in the same manner, and the young
are covered with down, having a slight greyish tinge.

SAND-PiPEK. {Totanus.)

There is a succession of birds which inhabit and find
their food upon all the varied surfaces near the fen, the river,
and the sea, from the hard bank or beach of sand or gravel,
to the soft sludge in the morass or the water-course, which
are all remarkable for the fleetness of their walk, generally
for the rapidity and the wheeling and doubling of their
flight, and especially for the length and often for the peculiar
structure of their bills. They are, generally speaking, birds
which live rather remote from the dwellings of man ; com-
paratively few of them appear resident in Britain all the year,
many of them make their appearance only occasionally as strag-
glers, some come as spring or summer, and others as autumnal
or winter migrants ; but they all feed upon animal substances,
which they find on the surface or in the earth, none of them
by possibility do any harm to man, and the whole or nearly
the whole are, when in proper season, very highly prized as
food. The loneliness of their haunts, the swiftness of their
motions, the shrilly and wailing sound of their cries, their
appearance and disappearance, and the desire of procuring
them for the table, all conspire to give them an interest.

From the structure of their bills, the nature of their food ,
and the places where that food is found, they may be said to
be, in a peculiar degree, birds of temperate climates ; and
so, when the climate of any one country ceases to be suitable
for them, they shift to other countries. Unless in the case
of those which chiefly inhabit the shores of the sea, which
have in most latitudes a more uniform temperature than the
inland places, and which are in consequence more fertile all
the year round, they are obliged to remove equally by
excessive drought and excessive cold. The impenetrable
earth is equally barren to them whether it arise from being

THE SAND-PIPER. 161

parched or being frozen. The north, with its extensive
marshes (and where it is not rock or cultivated ground it is
very generally marsh, even in the apertures between the
mountains), is their grand summer pasture. And it is a rich
one. Aquatic larvae, and other small aquatic animals, and
animals that love the humid earth more than the vegetation
with which the earth is covered, are especiallj^ abundant in
those parts, so much so that one can hardly walk in the
neighbourhood of a swamp in a northern forest (and there
are few of these without intervening swamps) without being
tormented with buzzing, nibbling, and biting ; and then if one
gets under a tree to escape from those that are reeling about
in the sun, down they come like a shower, as if the whole
country were one insect nest. Any one who has tried a
Canadian swamp, or even a swamp in the northern parts of
Europe, can tell something of the " plague of flies." Lepi-
dopterous insects, butterflies, and moths, with their bright
wings playing in the sun, or their soft ones in the shade,
and showing beauty but not giving annoyance, are few.
They are creatures of the sun, cradled in the luxuriant but
soft vegetation which the solar energy produces ; and, there-
fore, their numbers diminish as one approaches the cold lati-
tudes. In our own country, the total number, and especially
the number of species south of the Thames, is greater than
north of the Tweed. But the Neuroptera increase vastly
towards the north.

Where there are many Avinged flics, there must be more
larvce, and, generally speaking, the larvae are bred and the
winged ones finally deposited in the marshes. The sludgy
shallows, which are congealed to a considerable depth in the
winter, and are not at any time very fit for swimming in,
contain few fish ; and, therefore, the produce of the summer,
and a very abundant produce it is, is left to the marsh birds,
which resort thither in incredible numbers. In the autumn
they find their way southward, and seek their food in various
localities, according as they are adapted for them.

Taken altogether, these birds, both summer and winter,
p2

162 GRALLlBiE.

inhabit a zone of considerable breadth, so that some of them
only reach the one extremity of Britain in the one season,
and some the other extremity in the other, while others,
which migrate in other countries to a greater length than
that of the island, come in laterally as stragglers ; indeed, as
there is no land well adapted for these birds, either directly
north or directly south of Britain, the whole of their migra-
tions may be said to be rather oblique, than directly upon a
meridian.

Their migrations are not regulated by exactly the same law,
or carried on to the same extent, as those of the warblers.
The marsh continues to yield food until it is sealed up by the
frost ; but the leaf falls before the ground is frozen, and the
caterpillars disappear long before the fall of the leaf. Thus
there are species of the marsh birds which do not migrate far
in any country, and which Avith us only change seasonally
between the inland marshes and the marshes by the sea, or
in some particular places remain nearly on the same ground
all the year.

The sand-pipers are perhaps the least aquatic of our marsh
birds, and their structure agrees with their habit.

The bill of the sand-piper is flexible in the basal half, but
it becomes hard and firm towards the point, v/ith bruising
edges to the mandibles, and the upper one slightly hooked
at the tip, and bending a little over the extremity of tlie
under one, so that the action of the two could break a small
shell, or crush the crust of a shrimp, or the wing-cases of a
beetle. To some, it may seem that the flexibility of the bill
is a means of weakness in these birds ; but it is, in truth, a
means of safety : they have to strike rapidly at their prey
upon the hard ground, and also to wrench and twist among
the stones, both of which operations would give consider-
able concussion to the liead, if the bill were inflexible ;
besides, in living animals a flexible substance is always
stronger than a rigid one ; and hence the boring and scoop-
ing bills cf the analogous genera are flexible for their whole
length.

THE RED-SHANK SAND-PIPER. 163

The legs of the sand-pipers are rather long, and bare of
feathers to a considerable height above the tarsal joints, not so
much for the purpose of wading, though it adapts them better
for that operation in case of necessity, as for running more
freely over sand or among stones. Their wings are long and
pointed, the first quill being the longest ; and thus they are as
well furnished for wheeling about in the sky, and seeking
proper feeding places, as they are for running along the sandy
and gravelly banks and beaches. They are now rare birds, as
indeed all the analogous genera are, and their eggs are also
always four, placed in the same manner as those of the plovers.
The eggs (in all the genera) are large in proportion to the size
of the birds ; and, indeed, although there are some exceptions
to it, it seems a pretty general law, that the eggs of those birds
which have only one brood in the season, are larger in propor-
tion to the size of the birds, than in the species which have
more than one.

THE RED-SHANK SAND-PIPER. [Totayius calidris.)

This is an indigenous, and by no means a rare species in
those places of the country which suit its habits. These are
the fenny and boggy grounds, to which the birds resort about
April or May, making rude nests in tufts, and depositing four
eggs, of a pale olive colour, blotched with dusky brown,
especially towards the larger ends. In England, its breeding
places are chiefly confined to the fens and marshes at no great
distance from the sea; but in the north it resorts farther in-
land, to the cold upland bogs which remain buried all the
year round, though even there it does not go so far inland as
the lapwing. It is even more clamorous than that bird, when
any one approaches the place of its nest, and it flies and
wheels about something in the same manner, though without
those curious turns and twitches which characterize the flight
of the lapwing.

Red-shanks do not assemble in flocks in the winter, but

164 GEALLID^.

range themselves along the coasts, and lead a solitary though
by no means a silent life, till a new season calls them again to
the breeding places, in which also each pair reside at some
distance from the next.

The feet of the bird, from which it gets its popular name,
are orange red, and so is the basal half of the bill, the re-
mainder of that organ being dusky. The bill is about two
inches long ; the tarsi are also long, and all the three front
toes partially webbed, the first and second nearly to the first
joint; the second and third merely rudimental. The irides
are hazel, and the naked spaces around the eye greyish
white.

The length, when full grown, is about eleven inches, the
stretch of the wings twenty-one, and the weight five ounces.
In the summer plumage, the head and back of the neck brown
ash, with dusky streaks in the length of the feathers, and a
white streak over the eye. The back and scapulars dusky,
with dull grey spots ; the coverts ash colour, with spots of
brown and white ; the quills dusky, the secondaries with white
tips ; the rump white, more or less marked with small spots,
and bars of dusky; the tail barred with black and white, and
the under part white, with large oblong dusky spots on the
centres of the feathers of the fore part, but passing into pure
white on the belly. In winter, the plumage of the back
changes to ash brown, with dusky streaks, and that of the
breast to pale greenish white, with slender brown streaks. The
young have the upper plumage brownish, the plumage on the
breast ash colour, with brownish streaks, and the tail feathers
with reddish brown tips.

THE GREEN SAXD-PIPER. {TotaUUS OchvOjniS.)

This is an inland species, appearing on the margins of the
fresh water, rather than on the shores of the sea, and being
more retired and quiet in its habits than the red-shanks. It
is not very abundant, or, at all events, it has not been very
much seen in any part of the country, and it has not been met

THE GREEN SAND-PIPKK. 165

with in the north. It has not been seen between the end of
April, and the beginning of August, but it may possibly, in the
intermediate months, retire into the thick herbage by the
brooks to breed ; and that, as it is found only in the warmer
and richer parts of the country, where food is plentiful among
the aquatic herbage, it may be able to feed and rear its young
without exposing itself much to observation. Hitherto its eggs
have not been found in the country.

The length is rather less than ten inches, and the weight
about three ounces and a half The bill is about an inch and
a half in length, very slender, but firm, and sharp-pointed at
the tip, where it is dusky, though the basal part has a dull
greenish tinge, as have also the feet ; they have short mem-
branes uniting the middle and outer toes only. The nest is
in lonely places on the banks of pools and streams, rudely
formed in the grass, or simply in the sand : the eggs are
four, greenish white, with brown spots.

In summer, the head, neck, and breast, are streaked with
ash colour and dusky, the streaks on the breast being most
conspicuous ; the scapulars and back are brown, with green
reflections, and dropped with small spots of white ; the wing
coverts are brown, with green reflections, but without white
spots ; the quills are dusky, and so are the under coverts .
of the wings, but marked with cheveron lines of white; the
chin, lower part of the breast, belly, and vent, are white. The
tail feathers, which are even at the tips, are white, with dusky
bars ; the first over all the feathers, and the one nearest the tip
extending only over two, the second bar crossing eight of
the twelve feathers, and the third six. In winter the plumage
is paler, and the spots on the breast less defined. The young
birds have yellow spots on the back, the back of the neck rust
colour, the breast more spotted, and more black in the tail.

166

GRALLIDiE.

THE WOOD SAND-PIPER. {Totcinus glarcola.)

This bird, which, like the last-mentioned, is by no means
a numerous species, is an inch shorter, and an ounce and a
quarter less in weight, than the green sand-piper. The legs are
longer in proportion, the tail wedge-shaped at the tip, barred
with brown and white, and the under coverts of the wings
are without the white cheveron-shaped bars. The form of the
body is slender, and the legs, when extended backwards, reach
two inches and a half beyond the point of the tail.

The colours are, a dusky streak from the gape to the eye,
and a whitish one over the eye ; the head dusky, streaked
with white ; the back and scapulars dusky, with purple reflec-
tions, and an obscure yellowish spot on each web, near the
tips ; coverts of the wings dusky, with whitish spots, and
without any gloss; greater coverts black, with white tips;
quills black, the first with white shafts, the rest, except three
or four next the first, tipped with white ; the upper part of the
rump black, with streaks of white ; the lower part of the
rump and upper tail coverts white, but with black spots on
those next the tail feathers ; the breast, belly, and under tail
coverts, pure white ; tail feathers with eight brown bars on
the outer webs, and six on the inner, alternating with white
ones ; tip and cutting edges of the bill blackish ; the rest
dusky green, and the feet the same ; they are bare an inch
above the tarsal joints. The whiter plumage is a little paler
in the colours, and that of the young is grey and brown on
the breast, with obscure reddish spots on the under part.
These birds inhabit marshy Avoods, but their manners are
rather obscure. It is usually described as a winter visitant,
coming to this country from the marshy forests of Sweden ;
but as it appears in the south of England early in the month
of August, that cannot well be reconciled with an autumnal
departure from Sweden. The probability is, that, like some
of the others, it is a resident bird, but a very rare one, and
inhabiting places which are not easily examined.

THE GREEN-SHANK SAND-PIPER. 167

THE SPOTTED SAND-PIPER. {Totauus macular'ia.)

This species is also a very rare one in Britain, a single
specimen being all that has hitherto been observed in the
country. It is an American species, very plentiful along the
shores of the rivers in the Central States, not proceeding
very far to the north, but remaining to breed, and retiring to
the southward in the autumn, to return in April. Its proper
migration does not, therefore, extend so far north as the
parallel of the British islands; and therefore the circum-
stances by which even a straggling individual can be wafted
so far out of the line of its regular passage, must be peculiar
indeed.

The feet and base of the bill are reddish; the tip of the
latter dusky; the upper part greenish brown, spotted with
dusky, the spots larger and three-cornered on the back and
scapulars; quills of the wings dusky; the secondaries and
greater coverts tipped with white ; rump and two middle fea-
thers of the tail plain greenish brown; the exterior feathers
white with brownish bars; the front of the neck and upper
part of the breast marked with well-defined round dusky spots
on a pure white ground, in both sexes when mature ; but the
young are without the spots.

THE GREEN-SHANK SAND-PIPER. [TotanUS glottlS.)

The green-shank is the largest British bird of the genus,
measuring about fourteen inches in length, and nearly two
feet in the stretch of the wings. Though not the gayest in
its plumage, it is perhaps the most elegant in its form, which
is peculiarly light and graceful. Comparhig it with the red-
shank, in the ratio of the cubes of the lengths, which is the
method of judging of similar birds, the weight of the green-
shank should be about seven ounces and a half: but it is only
six ounces, or four-fifths the weight of the other, as compared

168 GRALLID^.

with the length. The bill is about two inches and a half
long, very slender, black or dusky, except the base of the
upper mandible, which is reddish; the head, nape, and sides
of the eye, ash colour, streaked with dusky; the sides of
the head relieved by a white streak from the upper mandible
to the eye ; the back ash, glossed with bronze brown on the
centres of the feathers; the scapulars, coverts, and some of
the quills next the body, the same, but glossed with bronze
green; the quills dusky, with white spots on the inner webs;
the chin, a narrow band down the front of the neck, the lower
part of the breast, the belly, the upper and under tail coverts,
and the rump, white ; the tail white, crossed by irregular lines
of dusky ; the legs of a deep green colour, and bare of fea-
thers for between one and two inches above the tarsal
joints. In winter, the mottling on the breast becomes very
faint, and the colour on the upper part more inclining to
brown.

In Britain, these birds are chiefly seen in small flocks along
the shores of the sea, or in marshy places only a little way
inland; and thus those that are usually described may not
be in the full lustre of theu* nuptial plumage. That some of
them remain and breed in the fens, has been long supposed,
and it agrees with the general analogies of the genus.

THE DUSKY SAND-PIPEK. [TotanUS fuSCUS.)

This species is rather larger in its dimensions and weight
than the red-shank, but it bears a considerable resem-
blance to that bird in the form of its body, and also in its
plumage in the winter. Its bill is about the same size, length,
and colour, but its feet are red; the head and back of the
neck are dusky, mottled with ash colour, especially on the
latter ; the back, scapulars, and wing coverts dusky, with
grey spots ; the first six quills dusky black, with a white shaft
to the first one, the others barred or scolloped with white on
both webs; the lower part of the back and the rump white;
the upper tail coverts barred with dusky; the tail wedge-

THE COMMON SAND-PIPER. 169

shai)ed, the feathers barred with black and brown, and the
edges of the webs scolloped with white ; the chin and throat
white, and the rest of the under part mottled brown and
white: that is the plumage in which the bird has been found
in August.

When it resorts to the vicinity of the sea at a later period
of the season, the colour of the head has faded to pale ash,
with small dusky lines; the grey spots on the back and
scapulars have faded to dull white, and the dusky tint on the
latter to ash colour ; the mottling on the under part also
becomes very obscure, or wholly disappears. The young have
the colour on the upper part olive brown, with dark triangular
spots on the coverts and scapulars, and the under part of
them is marked by zigzag lines, and mottlings of brownish
ash.

The natural habitat of this species is said to be on the
banks of rivers, where it lives in concealment during the
breeding season, subsisting more upon the fresh-water shelled
mollusca, than on insects and worms.

Some authors have confounded this species with the god-
wits, from which it is readily distinguished by its bill, and
others have said it " is on the coast during winter," the fair
inference from which is, that it is a winter visitant ; but it is,
in truth, a resident bird, and breeds in the fens of Cambridge
and Norfolk.

THE COMMON SAND-PIPER. {Totanus hypoUucos.)

The common sand-piper is much more abundant in Britain
than any of the others, and therefore a much more interesting
bird, in as far as popular observation is concerned. A figure
•of the bird, on a scale of one third of the lineal dimensions, is
given on the plate at page 101, from which a judgment may
be formed of the shape, and the colours and markings of the
plumage.

The feet of the common sand-piper are well adapted for
running upon soft surfaces, whether of loose sand or sludge„

VOL. II. Q

170 GKALLID^.

The toes are webbed to the first joint, flat on the under sides,
and slig-htly margined with membrane throughout their whole
length. It uses them with great dexterity in running, and
Avhen necessary it can swim a little, its feathers being, to a
certain extent, water-proof; it can also dive upon emergency,
though neither swimming nor diving be a common habit
with it.

Its wings are also powerful, being double the length of the
body, measuring them from tip to tip, Avhich is longer in pro-
portion than the wings of any other of the genus ; the tail, too,
is fan-shaped. As the bird runs about, it is continually flirt-
ing and jerking the tail, as a counterpoise to its motions, as it
picks up its food; and when it is on the wing, similar motions
of the tail assist it in its ascents and descents.

These birds are regulai- migrants, and resort, during the
summer, in great numbers to the banks of rivers and the
borders of lakes, in all places of the mainland of Britain, and
to several of the Hebrides ; but they are not found in the
most northerly islands. They enliven the wilds with their
shrill and plaintive voices, and are birds of no small bustle
and activity, always apparently in a hurry, whether on foot or
on the wing. The nest is usually formed under a dry bank,
of a little moss and some dry leaves and fibres — not a very
elegant or elaborate structure, but still more carefully con-
structed than that of most birds of the same or of the analogous
genera. That is not, however, always the case, for the eggs
are sometimes deposited in a slightly scratched cavity among
the sand or pebbles, which they so much resemble in colour,
that they are not easily discovered.

The eggs are four, of a flesh-coloured white, mottled with
dark-red brown, especially at the thick ends. The young are
some time before they can fly, but they can run almost as soon
as they come out of the shell, though the habit is to squat
and skulk among the sand and stones, till they are able to use
their wings. The young, in their first plumage, have reddish
margins to the feathers on the upper part. The nests are
rarely seen, in proportion to the number of the birds, as,

THE THING AS. 171

when raised, they run and double so quickly, that it is not
easy to find the places from which they start.

TRiNGAs. {Tringa.)

The birds which are, with perfect propriety and justice,
separated from those others which they resemble in some of
their characters, and included in this genus, have no common
English name; they have been popularly called " sand-pipers,"
or " snipes," or alternately the one or the other; sand-pipers,
because they run about " piping," in some key or other, upon
nearly the same ground as these birds ; and snipes, because
they have long bills.

But popular names cannot be rendered accurately expres-
sive of those nicer shades of distinction that are required
when we come to discriminate, in any thing like a scientific
manner, between the haunts and habits of one animal, and
those of another ; those names must always be, to a con-
siderable extent, local, because they are merely conventional,
and there can be no conventional agreement where there is
no intercourse. Besides, the more minute distinctions, — and
they are absolutely necessary in order to obtain any thing like
a knowledge of those animals that resort chiefly to uninhabited
places, — are not taken cognizance of by the common people ;
and thus similarity is confounded with identity in some cases,
and changes of place and of plumage (which very generally
occur together) are in other cases the cause of one species,
nay, probably one individual bird, being named, and popularly
considered, as two.

The tringas have certain peculiar characters, especially of
the bill, and their haunts and food are, of course, in accord-
ance with those characters. Their bill is as long as the head,
or longer, slender, straight, or very slightly curved, a little
soft and flexible for its whole length, enlarged and smooth at
the tip, channelled as far as the tip in both mandibles, and
with the nostrils pierced in the grooves of the upper man-

172 GRALLID^.

dible. It is not so hard as that of the sand-piper, and there-
fore not so well adapted for picking the food of the bird among
gravel ; and it is less sentient than the bills of the snipes, so
that in finding its food the bird must be, in part at least,
guided by the eye.

The legs of the tringas are of moderate length, the three
front toes only slightly bordered with membrane, and the
hind toe very short, and articulated on the tarsus, above the
junction of the others : the foot is thus not a wading foot,
neither is it fitted for walking upon gravelly, or even
hard and firm surfaces. Soft earth, the margin of a morass,
the banks in the eddies of a river, or where a thin deposit
of sludge is left by floods, or by the tide, is the feeding
ground best adapted both to the feet and the bills of the
tringas.

Their structure and powers vary considerably in the dif-
ferent species ; but, generally speaking, their feeding places
are richer than those of the sand-pipers, and less so than
those of the snipes; they are therefore not so much fitted
for running as the one genus, and they are more so than the
other : still their bodies are what may be termed " clean
made," well fitted for getting through the air ; and their
legs also are well set for running, the tibia having much free-
dom, and the step being long, and the motion smooth and
graceful. Their wings also are powerful and pointed, so that
they can dash onward for a considerable distance in rapid
flight, and also wheel and double with much ease.

Tringas are pretty widely distributed over the temperate
and cold latitudes, and though they have not the same extent
of annual migration as those birds which catch insects on the
wing, or even those that eat caterpillars from the foliage,
none of them, so far as has been observed, summer or winter
in exactly the same places. Generally speaking, their mo-
tions are northward and upland in the summer, and south-
ward and seaward in the winter, but they are regulated by
surface as well as by climate ; for though they do not go to
the absolute sludge, or the ground which is inundated, they

THE PUREE OR DUNLIN. 173

love humid surfaces, and therefore they are on the margms of
such localities.

Of the seven species that have been found \n Britain, only
one has been ascertained to breed in considerable numbers,
though there is little doubt that some of the others do remain
and breed in peculiar localities, probably more in number, and
also a g"reater variety in species, than has yet been ascertained
by observation.

Hence there arises a remark which seems not unworthy of
being recorded, and not the less so that its application is far
more extensive than to any one genus of birds, or even to the
whole of the feathered race. The man who knows and writes,
(for the writing ought never, at all events, to precede the
knowledge,) always knows less than there is to be known ;
and the man who writes without observation, always knows
more — takes more credit in short ; but still, as is the case with
all who live on credit, whatever appearance he may make, he,
in reality, lives a beggar. One finds melancholy proofs of this
in the books on natural history. In many instances this is
difficult to be avoided, and none more so than in the genus
tr'inga^ which comprises birds which, as British, are so rarely
seen, even in museums.

THE PUERE OR DUNLIN. {Tr'inga variabilis.)

The remarkable diflference between the summer and winter
plumage of this bird, on account of which it well merits the
name of variabilis, " or changing,"' is such that it has often
beeri described as two distinct species.

In the winter dress, or that in which it is found on our
southern coast nearly all the year round, the plumage is much
paler in the colours than in the summer or breeding season.
The top of the head, back of the neck, scapulars, and back, are
ash grey, tinged with brown, and the shafts of the feathers
dusky, inclining to black. The coverts dull blackish brown,
with greyish margins, and the tips of the greater ones white.

q2

174 GHALLIB.i:.

The rump and upper tail coverts dusky brown, with the mar-
gins paler brown. The middle fail feathers, which are the
longest, brown, the others grey with whitish shafts, and the
lateral ones larger than the others. A brownish line extends
from the gape to the eye, and thence across the eye backward
there is a streak of white, and the rest of the cheeks is
white streaked with brown. The chin and throat are white ;
the front of the neck and upper part of the breast grey,
with brown shafts to the feathers, and all the rest of the under
part pure w^hite. It is in that plumage (but the tints vary a
little with the time of the winter) that the bird is the purre of
authors.

In summer, the crown of the head, back of the neck", scapu-
lars, and upper part of the back, become black, with reddish
brown margins to the feathers ; and the lower part of the back,
the rump, and tail coverts, become brownish black. The chin
remains white, and so do the flanks and under coverts of the
tail towards the sides, but with black streaks. The cheeks,
fore part of the neck and breast, become black, with well-
defined white margins to the feathers, and the rest of the under
part becomes almost entirely black. The wing coverts remain
nearly the same as in the winter, and so do the quills, which
are of a dusky brown colour. In this plumage the bird is the
dunlin of authors.

The young birds have a coat of intermediate plumage, which
gradually fades off into that of the winter, but returns to the
deeper tints of the breeding plumage in the summer.

The purre is between seven and eight inches in length, and
about fifteen in the stretch of the wings. The bill is the same
length as the head, and of a black colour, the legs are dusky
with a greenish tinge.

In winter, these birds are very abundant tipon all the oozy
and more humid sandy shores of the country, w^here they
follow the reflux of the sea and pick up their food. They are
in small flocks, and when raised they utter a sort of wailing
scream, but when they are running and feeding they have a
more murnmring note. Numbers of them breed on the

THE PURPLE TEIXGA. 175

shores and also near some of the inland lakes and marshes in
the north of England, and especially in Scotland. As is the
case with all the analogous genera, their nests are very rude,
merely a shallow cavity scratched in the earth, and lined
with a little lint, withered grass, or any other rude but dry
vegetable matter that may come in their way. When in good
condition, these birds are reckoned palatable and wholesome
food.

THE PURPLE TRiNGA. [Tringa maritima.)

This species, like the former, certainly breeds in some parts
o/l Britain, though the nest and also the birds during the
breeding season have been more rarely seen, and seen on the
rocky islets rather than the low banks.

It is a larger bird than the last species, being between eight
and nine inches long, between fifteen and sixteen in the extent
of the wings, and two ounces in weight. Its bill is an inch
and a quarter long, more tapering to the point, and rather
harder than that of the former, of a dull brownish red, except
the edges and tip, which are dusky. The tarsi are shorter,
the toes longer in proportion, and more free to their arti-
culation ; the foot being better adapted for walking upon rocky
or othfer hard surfaces. The feet are the same dull red as the
basal parts of the bill, and the claws dusky and blunt at the
points.

The plumage, like that of most of the genus, is subject to
considerable seasonal variations, which has led to a multipli-
city of names. In winter, the head and neck are dusky,
inclining to black ; the back and scapulars black, margined
with ash colour, and glossed with purple reflections ; the
rump, tail coverts, and four middle feathers of the tail, are
black, with the same reflections as the back ; the remaining
four feathers of each side of the tail are pale ash colour. The
coverts and quills are black, with white tips to the coverts,
most conspicuous in those over the primaries, narrow white
webs to the quills, except two of the secondaries, which are

176 GKALLID.E.

almost entirely white, and in the expanded wing range Avith
the white tips of the coverts, forming a narrow oblique line.
The ground colour of the chin, throat, and all the under part,
white, but more or less striped and spotted Avith black on the
breast, shoulders, and flanks. In summer, the upper part of
the breast becomes dusky grey, and the sides of the breast
black ; the bill and feet also become reddish orange. There is
little difference in the plumage of the sexes, either in the winter
or the summer dress. The winter plumage has the purple
gloss fainter than the summer, and the grey on the margins of
the feathers duller. The young have the margins reddish, or
rust coloured.

In winter, these birds are not rare on the British shores, and
they are plentiful on those of Holland and the south of the
Baltic ; but their nests are as rare in these localities as they
are in Britain. Their principal food is the smaller Crustacea,
and the young of various shelled mollusca, which they pick up
among the sand and gravel, or from the rocks, and swallow
entire. The number of young of these soft-bodied animals is
very great, the shells especially are found by myriads, adher-
ing to the rocks and stones, between the high and low water
lines ; so that in the breeding season, the birds may conceal
themselves and their young in the inequalities of the rocks,
and find plenty of food without being on the wing or other-
wise exposed.

As they are found not only on the other European shores
that have nearly the same latitude as those of England, but on
those of the Mediterranean, and on the west side of the Atlantic
as far north as Hudson's Bay, and as their nests are rarely seen
any where, it is not inconsistent to suppose, that they may
disperse themselves over the more inaccessible parts of the
shores, in all those places where they are found in small flocks
in the winter.

There is one analogy between the seasonal productiveness
of the sea and that of the land, which should never be lost
sight of, as it forms, as far as analogy (which is our only
guide to the unknown) can form, a sort of guide to the Iiis-

THE PURPLE TKINGA. 177

tory of those birds, which appear on our shores at certain
seasons and take their departure during others, without ouf
being able to bring them within the operation of those laws by
which seasonal migration is in general regulated.

The rocky shores or the stony ones, where the stones are
not moved and rolled by the tide, bear to the flat beaches of
sand or rolled shingle nearly the same relation which woods,
groves, brakes, and other vegetable covers, do to the open
fields, downs, and commons, upon land. On them, summer is
the time of plenty with the birds, as they are then full of
the young of the smaller marine animals, which, in the still
water, or only washed by the summer spray and warmed by
the summer sun, adhere to the stones, so as often to form a
complete incrustation, and present to the shore birds as
copious a supply of food, and one which can be found in as
quiet and hideling a manner, as the warblers find caterpillars
in the groves. That does not hold in the case of the littoral
birds only, which run upon the beaches, and never launch
themselves on the tide, but with the swimming birds, even
with those species of them which at other seasons career over
the wide ocean ; for even the storm petrels, the range of whose
seaward flight exceeds that of any other birds, remain quiet
among the rocks, in the holes of which they nestle in the breed-
ing season.

But as, in order to keep up the succession, the rock, where
it is not progressively built by the creatures themselves (as is
the case with the coral worms which build from the bottom
of the deep, where no line can fathom, the sepulchres of one
generation affording a base for the dwellings of the next, till
they reach the surface), must be annually cleared for a new
crop, just as the fields are cleared of annuals, and the deci-
duous trees of leaves.

Thus there is, on the tideway rocks, and all against which
the roll of the waters bears strong, what may not improperly
be called a "fall of the shell," something analogous to the
" fall of the leaf"' upon land. When the equinoctial gales

178 GRALLID^.

set in in the autumn, and all the shallow portions of the sea
are in turmoil and fury, ploughing up the sand, scattering
the pebbles, tearing up the sea-weed, and assailing the cliffs
with battering fragments and washing surges, the number of
shells and other little animals, that are loosened from their
moorings, dashed to pieces, or accumulated on the beaches,
is beyond calculation, nay, almost beyond fancy. Those
animal matters are specifically lighter than the sand and
gravel, and, consequently, they are thrown high on the
beaches, to the very top of the spring tides, which are then at
their maximum^ and the littoral birds find them spread out
along the shores, just as the field birds find the seeds of
plants, which the autumnal winds scatter ; and the accumu-
lation of birds with the season is not greater in the one case
than in the other, though from the one class being seen in
line, and the other in column, as already mentioned, the accu-
mulation on the shore may appear greater in proportion than
that on land.

These autumnal scatterings of young life and its germs
do not partake of the characters of wasting and destruction,
though in the course of them much is destroyed. The seeds
and germs, both in the sea and on land, are many hundred
fold what is required for the continuation of the races, so
that the proportion that can be spared for the birds is far
greater than the produce over and above the seed of the most
productive vegetable that man cultivates. Autumn is, in
fact, the grand seed-time of nature, both in the sea and on
the land ; and those gales which lash the one into foam and
fury, and sweep the other till it is bleak and leafless, are the
messengers of nature, upon whose wings the germs of life are
borne to all places where they have the chance of coming to
maturity. The littoral birds, even those species of them that
are not seen in the very heat of summer, appear so imme-
diately after these autumnal gales, that it would require more
knowledge than the mere fact of their being seen or even
found breeding in countries farther to the north, to bear out

THE KNOT THING A. 179

the conclusion that they must all come from thence. But the
subject is one which requires the most comprehensive and at
the same time the most careful and minute investigation.

THE KNOT TRiNGA. [Tringa Canutus.)

The common name of this bird is said to be a corruption
of that of Canute, who, as the tradition runs, was partial to it
as food, though whether he feasted on it the same day that
he erected his throne within flood-mark in order to reprove
the adulation of his courtiers by a somewhat ostentatious
and not over-credible display of his own wisdom, has not been
said. There is no doubt that the knot was in the country
before Canute ; that it was as familiar with the tides as it is
now, and that the king might, had he been so minded, have
learned from it the necessity of flitting before the returning
flood.

This species is larger than either of the former. It is more
than ten inches long, nineteen in the stretch of the wings, and
weighs from four to five ounces. The tail is square and very
broad at the end. The bill is straighter and rather shorter in
proportion than that of the purple tringa, the tarsi are longer,
and the hind toe turns inward like that of the turnstone. The
general structure of its feet adapts it to softer surfaces than
those upon which the purple species is chiefly found. In the
winter season, these birds flock in very considerable numbers,
and run very swiftly upon the sands, which, with the fens,
are their principal haunts. Like most others of this and the
analogous genera, they change their plumage with the seasons,
and on that account have got various names. In former times,
they were more plentiful in England than they are now, since
the fens have been reduced by drainage ; but they still
assemble in considerable numbers, in Lincolnshire, Cambridge-
shire, and other fenny parts of the country, the period of their
congregating being as early as August. Flocking at that par-
ticular time of the year, and that too, not on the sands but on
the fens, upon which the birds remain till the frost prevents

180 GRALLID^.

their feeding there, is not very consistent with breeding and
moulting in the Arctic regions (and birds usually moult, more
or less, in the same places where they breed), although, being
widely distributed, these birds are found far to the north. It
seems from the accounts, that they appear simultaneously
on those parts of the east and west coasts that are adapted to
their habits ; and that though their numbers are every where
in the country fewer than the old accounts represent, they
appear in the south of England earlier than in the north
of Scotland. Dr. Fleming mentions having shot one in
Sandse, or " sand island" in Orkney, in the middle of June,
1808. That island, as the name implies, is, with the exception
of the western side, low and sandy, with many flats extending
into the sea, and the soil is light and fertile, and the climate
mild, so that the birds have there a locality not very unlike
that on the Wash, where they used to be so abundant in
former times. They are also to be found on the extensive
sands between Aberdeen and Peterhead ; and there is not the
least doubt that they breed in various parts of the country,
though dispersed and hideling, as is the general habit of the
order.

The summer plumage on the upper part is black, with rusty
red margins to the feathers, and spots on the scapulars ; the
breast rusty, passing into white, mottled with spots of dusky
and rust colour. The wing coverts dusky, tipped with white,
the tips of the greater ones forming a bar on the wing. The
quills dusky, with narrow white margins. The upper tail
coverts white, barred with dusky, and spotted with rusty brown.
The tail feathers dusky ash, with a little white on the mar-
gins. In winter the general tint of the upper plumage is dusky
ash ; and the under white, with streaks of brown on the flanks,
and sides of the breast. The young resemble the winter
plumage more than the summer.

THE CURLEW TKINGA. 181

THE CURLEW TRiNGA. {Tvinga suharquota,)

This is rather a rare species ; and from several of its cha-
racters, it is more of a sea-side bird than some others of the
genus. Though it has often been described as only an occa-
sional visitant, there is no doubt that it sometimes breeds in
England, as the young have been found in the month of
July, which is perfectly incompatible with the notion that
they could have been stragglers, hatched in another part of
the world, and wafted to our shores by the winds. It does
not, from the accounts, appear to be very numerous any
where, though more abundant on the continent of Europe
than with us ; but still we have so unequivocal evidence of
the fact, that we cannot for a moment doubt that it is at least
occasionally hatched in the country.

Its characters, independently of colour and size, which are
not very certain data, are well marked. It size and weight
are about the same as those of the purple species, and in the
winter state of its plumage it resembles the purre ; but its
legs are longer, more slender, bare to a considerable distance
above the tarsal joints ; and its bill is a quarter of an inch
longer, and curved something in the same manner as that of
the curlew, from which it has obtained the trivial name of
that bird. The bill and feet are black. It has altogether
more the character of a wading bird than most others of the
genus.

In winter, the forehead, streak over the eye, and throat,
are white, more or less tinged with rusty brown, according
to the season; the crown, nape, and back, black or dusky,
with more or less of rusty brown on the margins of the
feathers. The breast pale cream colour, and the rest of the
under parts white, with few or no streaks on the flanks.
The tail slightly wedge-shaped, of a brown ash colour, the
shafts streaked, and the webs tipped with white. The quills
dusky, with pale margins to their inner webs, the upper tail

VOL. II. R

182 GEALLID^.

coverts white with pale dusky bars. The feet and bill at that
season have a bluish tinge.

In the summer, the white on the head is replaced by dusky
ash, the cream colour on the breast by reddish brown, with
some dusky spots, and brown and dusky spots on the flanks,
and bars of the same on the under tail coverts. The black on
the upper part becomes more intense, and the margins of the
feathers redder and mixed with black. The changes both
ways are gradual ; they are changes of colour, not changes of
feathers ; and hence, the birds may be met with in every in-
termediate stage. But the feathers which variable birds get
after the moult, are never so finely coloured as the breeding
plumage — they are intermediate between that and the colour of
the young. The birds build near the margins of the water ;
the eggs are four, of a dull straw colour, with brown spots.

temminck's teinga. [Tringa Tem?nincJcii.)

This is a rare as well as a small species ; and the few
specimens which have been found in England, have been
found in the autumn or winter, and not far from the sea ; but
having been found at different periods of the season, they have
been in different plumages ; and thus, from the natural desire
that every observer has to add something new, they have
sometimes been described as different species. The bird has
been called the " least snipe," and the " little sand-piper;"
but if the character of the bill (the best of all characters when
sufficiently marked) is to be depended on, it is neither snipe
nor sand-piper, but has, like all the genuine tringas, a bill
something intermediate between the two.

It is a lightly and elegantly formed little bird about six
inches in length, and weighing about six drachms. Its
bill is rather less than three quarters of an inch long, very
slender, very slightly bent, and a little thickened towards the
point, and of a dusky brown. The irides are nearly the
same colour as the bill ; the feet are browner.

BUFF-BREASTED TRINGA. 183

The colours of the breeding plumage are, — the head black,
with rust-coloured margins, a light streak over the eye, and a
dark spot before it; back and scapulars dusky black, the
feathers margined with greyish white on the exterior, and rust
colour on the interior webs; but in some, all the margins rust
coloured. The quills dusky with white margins; the tail,
which consists of twelve feathers, has the two middle ones
dusky, the next on each side ash coloured, with rufous mar-
gins, and the exterior feathers entirely white. The breast is
yellowish ash with brown streaks; the chin, belly, vent, and
under tail coverts, white. In winter, the plumage above
becomes brownish, and the margin grey; the breast becomes
white, with only a few streaks of brownish. The young have
the upper part more mottled with reddish and grey, and the
white on the under part not so entire.

MINUTE TEiNGA. (TriTiga minuta.)

This species is nearly of the same size with the preceding,
only the tarsi are longer; the bill and feet are black, the tail
is double forked, and the markings of the colours are different.
In the summer plumage, the margins of the feathers, on the
upper part, are redder, and the black upon the head forms
spots. The colour on the sides of the neck and breast is also
more inclined to red, and marked with triangular spots of dusky
brown; but it does not quite meet on the middle of the breast,
which, with all the rest of the under part, is white. The
rump and two middle feathers of the tail are black, the other
brownish with white margins. In winter, the upper plumage
becomes greyish and brown, with a dusky streak on the shaft
of each feather, and the red on the sides of the neck and breast
becomes ash brown.

BUFF-BREASTED TRiNGA. (^Tringa rufesceus.)

The buff-breasted tringa is a very recent addition, not only
to the British Fauna, but to that of Europe. Only three

184 GKALLID^.

specimens of it have been found in Europe. One of these is
in the museum at Paris; another was taken at Melbourne, in
Cambridgeshire, in September, 1826; and a third, which is
now in the Norwich museum, was taken on the coast of
Norfolk, in (if I remember rightly) the autumn of 1831. It
is an American species, and, from the accounts, it appears to
be a rare bird even in that country. The few specimens that
have been seen are not sufficient for enabling any judgment to
be formed respecting its haunts or habits, farther than may be
inferred from its agreement in structure w-ith the rest of the
order.

The form of its bill obliges it to seek its food upon soft sur-
faces, or, at all events, to seek soft food in humid places; but
whether chiefly in the inland marshes or on those nearer the
sea, it is of no avail to speculate.

It is about the same size and shape as the curlew tringa,
and as, when seen at a little distance, all the tringas have
a considerable resemblance, it may have been mistaken for
it, at the time when birds flock. The bird found in Sep-
tember had the following tints in its plumage ; head mottled
w^ith brown and buff, upper part blackish brown, with lighter
margins. Chin, throat, neck, and upper part of the breast,
buff yellow, and all the rest of the under part white, mottled
with buff. The mottling with buff on the under part affords
a strong presumption, though not an absolute proof, that the
specimen in question was a young bird, and its plumage, as
is not unfrequently the case with young birds, something
intermediate between the summer and winter plumages of
the adults. But so little is known respecting them, that it
would be unsafe and unfair to hazard any opinion. America
is the best place in which to study the habits of these birds,
and of all the analogous genera. The marshes to the north-
ward of the St. Lawrence and the lakes, offer a pasture for
the Grallidas, to which there is nothing equal in any other part
of the world ; and as those marshes freeze during winter to a
depth which no bill can pierce, even if it had the sweep and
power of a pick-axe, the birds must move southward. There

THE LONG-BEAK. 185

is ample room and also ample provision for them in the south-
ern marshes, both along the shores of the Atlantic and in the
central valley ; but those swamps are in many instances so
concealed by trees, and so extended and diiRcult of passage,
that the examination of them is no easy matter.

THE LONG-BEAK. {MocrorampJius .)

Only one species of this genus is known as a British bird,
the hrown lonc/-bealc [macroramphus grisea)^ and it has
been popularly described as a snipe, the " brown snipe" of
authors. It is not a snipe, however, neither is it a tringa — it
is something intermediate ; and though as a British bird it is
a mere straggler, of which a specimen cannot be confidently
looked for in a year, yet it is important, as showing the beau-
tiful gradations that may be traced among the feathered
tribes.

The long-beak has in shape the body of a tringa, but partly
the markings of a snipe, and the feet are not of quite so
wading a character as those of the snipes. The bill, like that
of the snipes, is sentient at the tip, where it is enlarged, but
it is more slender and less depressed than that of the wood-
cock, the species of snipe which it most nearly resembles in
character and habits.

The bird is about ten inches long, eighteen in the stretch of
the wings, and weighs between three and four ounces. In
summer, the crown, nape, back, and scapulars, are black,
mottled with rust colour and yellowish white of various
shades. The wings are olive brown, with white centres and
margins to the secondary quill, and a white shaft to the first
primary. The tail, consisting of twelve feathers, white,
thickly spotted with black. Sides of the head yellowish
white, mottled with small black spots; throat and breast
reddish buff ; sides white with black bars ; vent and under
tail coverts the same ; all the rest of the under part white ;
feet dull yellowish green ; bill dusky black at the tip, bluish
at the base ; irides deep dusky. The female is paler in the

ii2

GKALLID^.

upper plumage, and in the red on the breasts The following
extract from Wilson's delightful book will show the habits of
the bird in its native regions : It " arrives on the sea-coast of
New Jersey early in April ; is seldom or never seen inland ;
early in May it proceeds to the north to breed, and returns
in the latter end of July, or the beginning of August. During
its stay here, it flies in flocks, sometimes very high, and has a
loud and shrill whistle, making many evolutions over the marshes;
forming, dividing, and reverting. They sometimes settle in
such numbers, and so close together, that eighty-five have
been shot at one discharge of a musket. They spring from
the marshes with a loud howling whistle, generally rising high,
and making several circuitous manoeuvres in the air before they
descend. They frequent the mud-lines and mud-flats at low
water, in search of food ; and, being less suspicious of a boat
than of a person on shore, are easily approached by this
medium, and shot down in numbers. They usually keep by
themselves, being very numerous ; are in excellent order for
the table in September ; and, on the approach of winter, retire
to the south." Wilson adds, that they are the most numerous
and delicious of all the sea-side snipes in North America;
and infers, from physiological indications, that they cannot
breed very far to the north. It would be very desirable if
similar physiological observations were made upon those birds
which remain even stragglingly upon our shores till the season
is far advanced.

There can be no question that the species under consider-
ation is a mere straggler from those numerous flocks that
migrate.

sxiPES. {Scolopax.)

The snipes are quiet and retiring birds, which inhabit moist
places, where water partially stagnates, or the soil is other-
wise so soft, that they even bore into it with their bills.
They either live in concealment among the rank herbage of
marshy places, or conceal themselves during the day, in the

THE SNIPES. 187

woods, and come abroad to feed in the dusk, or during the
night.

The bills of the snipes are curious organs : they are soft,
long, straight, flattened, and slender ; blunt at the tip, with the
upper mandible larger than the under, and forming a knob on
its under side, against which the tip of the lower mandible
acts. The nasal grooves extend nearly the whole length of the
upper mandible, and the nostrils are narrow longitudinal slits,
covered by membranous valves. The bill is copiously supplied
with nerves, and highly sentient ; and the membrane with
which it is invested, and which becomes shrivelled after death,
in the same manner as the organs of sensation in all animals
are the first to shrink or shrivel, is probably endowed with
more than one sense — smells the food in the soft earth, and
feels it, after boring down, as the burds bore down upon their
prey, whether worm or aquatic insect, and do not dabble along,
as if merely guided to it by touch, as many swimming birds
are. The form of the head is also peculiar. Its profile is
square, and the eyes are placed 'much farther backward than
those of most birds, so that they see better laterally than for-
ward, and probably command nearly the space behind them.
Their eyes not being much wanted in the immediate capture of
then- prey, are placed so as to guard best against enemies,
and to allow the bill to bore in the mud for its whole length.
The feet are adapted for walking rather upon soft mud than
on grassy surfaces, as they have the hinder toe very little
produced or extended. They moult twice in the year, but
with little difference in the markings, only the tints are
richer in the breeding season. From their localities and
habits, they enjoy a more uniform temperature than most other
land birds.

Two species are found in the country, periodically or oc-
casionally, but one only remains to breed, at least in any con-
siderable number. From the manner in which their food is
procured, they are of course driven southward as the ground
begins to freeze, and the time and extent of their migration
depend on the time and intensity of the frost.

188 GEALLID^.

THE COMMON SNIPE. [Scolopax gallinago.)

The common snipe is about twelve inches in length, of
which the bill occupies three ; the extent of its wings is about
fourteen inches, and its weight about four ounces. Bill, brown
at the tip, yellowish in the middle, and reddish towards the
base; smooth in the living bird, but becoming furrowed and
dull in the colour after death. Crown of the head, dark
brown, with a yellowish white or straw-coloured line do-wn the
middle, and an obscure one at each side over the eye. A
brown line from the gape to the eye, continued by a row of
spots down the side of the neck. The back black, with a
gloss of bronze colour, and the scapulars striped on the one web
and barred on the other with yellow. Wings dusky, the quills
tipped with white, and some parts of the wing barred with
brown. Tail coverts reddish brown ; and the tail feathers, so
far as they appear from under the coverts, the same ; irregularly
barred with black. The chin and front of the neck are yel-
lowish white, barred with brown. The belly is white. The
feet, which are naked above the tarsal joints, are greenish ash.
It is not, however, possible to describe the colours of the snipe
in words, or to fail in knowing the bird after it has been once
seen.

In winter, the common snipes are very numerous in those
low marshy places which yield them food and concealment ;
and the native numbers are generally recruited by supplies
from the north of Europe. When snipes have settled in any
place, either in the breeding time or during the winter, they
are raised with difficulty ; but when they are shifting about for
a pasture, they are not so close. When raised on short flights,
they traverse, but do it so quickly, that although they do not
get away fast, it is not very easy to hit them, and they keep
hawks at play for a considerable time. When removing to any
distance, they fly very high, and their calls can be heard when
they are beyond the reach of ordinary vision. Their greatest
natural enemy is the marsh harrier.

THE COMMON SXIPE. 189

In the spring, the birds retire from the low grounds as
those begin to get dry, and seek their way to more northern
or upland places, where the winter lasts longer, and the sur-
face continues more humid ; and probably some of them leave
Britain for more northerly places. A few, however, remain
in most parts of the country, but they are most numerous in
the north and north-west of Britain, and especially in the
bogs of Ireland.

The seasonal cry of the male begins in the end of March,
or sometimes in April, according to the place and the season,
and it continues as long as the female sits. Until he finds a
mate, the male often cries during the day, but after pairing
he is heard chiefly in the evening. The call is a mixture of
piping and bleating, always uttered on the wing, and swelled
and hurried as the bird ascends. While uttering it, the bird,
if visible, is always in a state of great excitement, with the
wings quivering ; but whether the action of these upon the air
occasions any portion of the sound, as some allege, is a point
not easily denied or proved.

The nest is hidden among the thick herbage, and consists
of a small hollow, carelessly lined with withered plants. The
eggs are four, of a pale greenish grey with brown blotches,
some lighter, some darker, and they are arranged quatrefoil.
The young quit the nest immediately, at which time they are
covered with down of a greyish brown colour ; and their
first plumage, which they acquire rather rapidly, is darker
than that of the old birds. Their bills are at first short, and
do not gain their full length till two or three months, or their
full consistency till the following spring. The female is sel-
dom seen during the incubation. Indeed, both the birds are
so close during the heat of the day, that one may walk about
for hours, in places where they are abundant, without seeing
one ; and even if seen, they do not readily rise (or Jiush) , but
skulk among the herbage, rather quickly, but at the same
time so stealthily, and with so many deviations from the
straight line, that they are soon lost sight of. A snipe glid-
ing through the equatic plants, alternately hidden and half

190 GRALLID^.

displayed, is a very pretty sight. Unless during the breeding
season, snipes are constantly changing their ground, and
appear to have considerable labour in the finding of food;
but the probability is, that it is the eflfect of the weather upon
their food, and not upon the birds themselves, which is the
cause of their shifting.

Snipes, though retiring birds, have not the solitary habits
of the bittern ; and though cultivation has made them change
their localities in the breeding season, it is doubtful whether it
has diminished their numbers, especially in the winter, as the
enriching of the soil tends both to augment the quantity of
their food and to render it more accessible, and I have seen
them nestle within a few hundred yards of a farm-house, in a
situation not very elevated, or far from the sea-coast.

THE woodcock:. {Scolopax rusticola.)

The woodcock is perhaps the species most prized for the
table, partly no doubt on account of its superior size and
weight, and partly on account of the sport which the shooting
of it affords. It must be considered chiefly, though not
wholly, as a winter visitor, coming to Britain when it is frozen
out in the countries that lie farther to the north, and have
their winter less open. There are, however, some well-
authenticated instances of its breeding in the country. These
are not numerous, it is true, but they are at least as much so
as the visits of some of the straggling birds that have of late
years been added to the British Fauna; and if two or three
random visits constitute a British bird, two or three breedings
naturally taking place in the country, should, by parity of
reasoning, elevate the bird to the condition of a native.

There is no question that one species of improvement, and
that not an unimportant one, has a tendency to encourage the
breeding of the woodcock. The chief diflTerence in habit
between the woodcock and the common snipe, is in the cover
in which they conceal themselves during the day at all times,
and conceal their nests in the breeding season. The snipe

THE WOODCOCK.

191

prefers a cover of tufted herbage, or hassocks of heath and
grass, alternating with sludgy pools : the woodcock seeks the
cover of trees, and nestles among the tufts at their roots, but
always on or near a soil very similar to that which the snipes
prefer. All that has to be done, therefore, is to plant the nest-
ing place of the snipe, in whole or in part, and it becomes an
adequate nesting place for the woodcock.

It is sometimes said, that one of the causes of the northward
or polar migrations of birds in the spring, is the lengthening
of the days, which affords them longer time for their daily
labours ; and in the case of those birds that feed during the
day, that may be true, but it cannot apply to the woodcock,
which reposes during the day, and feeds at night, or in the
twilight. No doubt the twilight is longer as the latitude
increases ; but in the north of Scotland, it is twilight all night
long in the summer; and therefore there is no want of any
thing but proper cover for the birds.

Plantations of deciduous trees, in the southern and warmer
parts of the country, would not suit them, because the ground
under them is either dry or covered with grass and other
rank vegetation ; but there are very many places along the
bottoms of the hills that have been planted with pines, which
are interspersed with small pools and springs, which remain
humid in the summer, and seem to be fit pastures for the
birds, at the same time that they break the sweep of the hill
storms, and are of great service to the cultivated fields.
Along the secondary hills on the south side of the Gram-
pians, and also on the " Braes of Moray," and many other
places, very extensive plantations of the kind alluded to have
been already formed ; and as in winter, or at least to a very
late period of the autumn, woodcocks are very numerous in
these, there is little doubt of their remaining there to breed
in much greater numbers than has been supposed. One
ground of corroboration is, that the woodcocks show symp-
toms of pairing before they quit the southern parts of the
country, as early indeed as the month of February, by which

192 GRALLID^.

time they lose all their delicate flavour, and are not fit for the
table.

Our information respecting their habits in the breeding
places is neither precise nor complete ; but that as well as
their habits, when they are with us, shows that they are hide-
ling birds ; and that, as in the case with the dottrel, they may
even now nestle in numbers in the remoter wooded parts of
our own mountains without being observed. The old birds
are very voracious feeders ; and where that is the case in other
birds, the young are always more so ; and as they do not
take the wing even in winter unless they are compelled, or
when they are shifting their ground, they may remain for
the whole breeding season without being once in the air or
once seen. The nests are understood to be in the closest
underwood, on or near the ground, so matted up with the
surrounding vegetation as not to be easily seen, though con-
taining but few artificial materials. The eggs are dull yel-
lowish white, blotched with reddish brown, and understood to
be four in number, like the rest of the snipes and the analogous
genera.

But though some woodcocks have been known to breed both
in Scotland and in the north of England, and though many
more, in all probability, do breed in the island, we certainly do
receive large autumnal supplies by migration, and that directly
from the swampy portions of the Scandinavian forests, as the
birds come in the greatest numbers with north-east winds, not
driven by the fury of tempests, as the tree-birds of that part of
the world often appear to be, but when the wind is moderate,
and before the weather begins to be very severe. Starved out
the birds are not, for they usually land in high condition, very
little fatigued, and can hardly be said to improve upon their
southern pastures.

The snipe family in general, and woodcocks in particular,
seem to be among the most meteorological of birds. That
sudden and, to our observation, capricious shifting of their
ground, to which allusion was made in noticing the common

HIE WOODCOCK. 193

snipe, shows a feeling of the changes of the weather which,
to our comprehension, is absolutely prophetic ; and though
that must, no doubt, in part, be attributed to the delicate sen-
sibility of those creatures on which the birds feed, it must also
be in part owing to the sensibility of the birds themselves, in-
asmuch as they are not starved or exhausted even after their
longest migrations.

And when we consider how very sensitive an organ the bill
of these birds is, that it answers many of the purposes of a
nose, an eye, a tongue, and a hand, we may cease to be puzzled
about the exquisite sensibility of the birds to the most minute
atmospheric changes. An organ of sense is not a detached
being, sentient in itself, and confined to that perception of
which it is more immediately the organ ; it is an organ of sen-
sation generally, and of a particular modification of that gene-
ral sensation, according to its structure. We find in ourselves,
— though, as our sensations are in a great measure controllable
by our trains of inward thought, we may suppose them to be
as detached from each other as they can be, consistently with
our animal system, — that our organs of sense are very easily
aifected by causes which do not apply to them as the instru-
ments of particular senses — that they sympathize with each
other, and are pleased or offended in concert, and that they are
also remarkably sensitive to atmospheric changes. We all,
more or less, feel the coming changes of the atmosphere,
though, when we are high in health and activity, we do not
always heed them; but when, from any cause, the sensitive
system is in a state of irritation, and we have leisure, or are
compelled (for it is often too powerful for both reason and
necessity) to listen to it, we are as meteorologic, live as much
at the mercy of even the minor changes of the atmosphere,
and prognosticate them as early, as the woodcock.

The whole economy of that bird, and indeed of all the snipes
and birds which have their bills tipped, margined, or other-
wise covered by nervous and sentient membrane, is highly
useful, as well as curious, in a meteorological point of view :
they all have the bill much in water, or in earth which is

VOL. II. s

194 GEALLID^.

rendered soft by the admixture of water ; and cold, drought,
and light, seem equally painful to them, probably by stiffening
the membrane, and rendering the circulation in its delicate
tissues interrupted and laborious. The noise made by ducks
and geese before rain, and the glee and joy which they express
when the drying power of the atmosphere begins to relent, are
direct proofs of the principle here contended for : and there is
another corroboration ; woodcocks and snipes generally per-
form theu' migrations when the air is humid, often when there
is fog upon the ground. If diy frost suddenly overtakes
them, they perish ; and by analogy, which in this case is not a
vague assumption, they seek humid and shady places for their
nests, impelled thereto by the action of the drought upon their
delicately sensitive bills, which thus serve the double purpose
of finding their food by boring into the soft mud, and guiding
them instinctively/ to the places in which that food is to be
found.

Thus, though to the sportsman and the epicure, woodcocks
are very interesting birds, they have a much higher, and, if
properly followed out, a much more practically extensive im-
portance, as part of the grand system of nature, in which all
the productions of creation, and all their phenomena, work
together, so that no individual exists, and no event happens,
singly and of itself.

This very curious subject would admit of much latitude of
inquiry, and lead to many very striking results ; but we have
no space for entering upon it, as it is one of which a partial
view would mislead ; as little is it necessary to give any par-
ticular description of the woodcock, a bud which, when in
the country, can in general be seen only by the sportsman, to
whom to offer any instruction, would be treason against the
canons of Nimrod.

SABIXE S SNIPE.

195

THE GREAT SNIPE. {Scolopux maJor.)

The great snipe is a migrant bird on the continent, breed-
ing in the marshes of the northern parts, but belonging to the
eastern migration, and therefore visiting the British shores
only occasionally, as a straggler on its return southward in
the autumn. The marsh birds of that migration appear to be
dispersed the most by dry seasons in the marshes of Finland
and Russia, which are their chief breeding places. In these
cases they are scattered at an earlier period than usual, and
some of them are caught by the east winds, and drifted to our
shores. It has been called the " solitary snipe," from the few
specimens that have appeared in the country being found alone;
and as its appearance and manners are nearly the same as those
of the common snipe, it has sometimes been regarded as a
variety of that. Its form and the markings of its colours are
very similar to those of the common snipe, but it is fully one
third larger in the body, and at least double the weight. Its
nidification in the eastern marshes is said not to differ much
from that of the common snipe in this country.

Sabine's snipe. [Scolopax Sabini.)

This is another occasional straggler, of more rare occur-
rence in this country ; neither has it been clearly ascertained
whence it straggles, or of what part of the world it is a
native. The places which snipes inhabit are, however, in all
countries difficult, and in some countries impossible, to explore ;
and the habits of the birds themselves conspire with the diffi-
culties of their haunts, to render them less easily studied than
many other birds. It is only of late years that the bird has
been observed; one specimen in Ireland, one in Kent, and one
in the north of England : but when the discovery of the fiery-
crested wren by the cat, as a native bird, is borne in mind, it
need not be matter of wonder though this snipe should be

196 GRALLID^.

found to be a native, and even a permanent resident in the
more retired and inaccessible morasses of this country. It is
smaller than the common snipe, darker in the colour, and has
the bill at least half an inch longer in proportion. Its general
colour is brownish black, relieved with chestnut and rust
colour on the margins of the feathers. The size most nearly
corresponds with that of the jack-snipe, only it is a little
larger. The number of feathers in the tail is also the same,
being twelve, while the common snipe has fourteen, and the
great snipe sixteen. The narrower the tail, the more wood-
land, generally speaking, is the habit of the bird ; and the
same rule which applies to the perennial vegetation of the
forest, applies to the tall annual vegetation on the marshes and
banks of rivers. From the time at which the Irish specimen
was found (August), we cannot Avell regard it as a stray one
from any migration. If those who record the notices of new
or rare birds, would record also the state of the weather for
some time previous, they would thereby greatly facilitate the
progress of natural science.

THE JACK-sxiPE. (^Scolopax gallinula.)

Of this regular Mdnter visitant a figure, one third of the
lineal dimensions, is given on the plate at page 101. It is a
small species, being only about half the size and weight of the
common snipe ; that is, about two ounces in weight. It is a
very beautiful little bird; the scapulars, rump, and other parts
of the back, glossed with rich metalhc reflections of purple,
bronze colour, and green.

The account usually given of this very interesting little
snipe is, that it arrives in Britain, by foreign migration, about
the month of September, seldom, if ever, later than the middle
of the month ; that it remains with us diu-ing the winter ; and
that, as early as March, or even as February, if the season is
mildj it retires again towards the polar countries, where it
breeds.

Now, that the bird appears and disappears on tlie coasts

THE JACK-SNIPE. 197

and warmer parts of the country at the times stated, is, no
doubt, true; but the times themselves do not answer well
with a migration to the "polar regions" — the general place
of exile for all birds of whose haunts, during the breeding
time, writers on natural history are ignorant. These birds
do not build on the shores ; and it is not summer in the in-
terior of the arctic lands before May, or even June ; so that
the birds would have a very lingering journey northward.
On that journey we might expect to find them resting in
great numbers upon all the marshy parts of the Orkney and
Shetland islands ; but that is not the case. In Orkney, they
are mentioned as having been seen in the island of Wester-se ;
but even there they are not numerous, and the time of their
appearance does not answer to that of a halt upon a migra-
tion. There is also no kno^vn place in the north where such
numbers of inland bu'ds from Europe could breed, as are
reported to resort to the extreme north for that purpose.

On the other hand, when we consider the habits of the
jack-snipe, while with us on the low grounds in the winter,
we may thence see that it could remain and nestle in the
heart of the larger bogs and morasses, without being ob-
served. Even at that season, when almost all birds tiy
readily, and some species, which are dispersed, obscure, and
hideling, in the breeding season, congregate together, and
are much in sight and upon the wing, the jack-snipe lurks
and conceals itself in the herbage, and allows itself to be
almost trampled upon before it can be raised. In winter, it
keeps much more under cover, and further into the marsh
than the common snipe, though even that bird YKx&ly flushes
of its own accord, or indeed is seen, unless when it is forced
up. I have seen a family of snipes squatted and basking in
the sun, with their tails to the light, and their heads in the
herbage. That, I believe, is to be seen only on the small
bog-streams, where there is a square yard or two of sod be-
tween the rill and the tall herbage. It is, I should suppose,
rare even there, as the moment that there is the least rustle,

s2

198 GEALLID^.

the birds vanish like magic, and you may seek long enough
before you can get another sight.

The eggs of the jack-snipe have certainly been found on
the cold bleak moors of Yorkshire ; and we have no other
instance of a bird which resorts generally to the polar regions
to breed, remaining and breeding so far south. The habit of
the genus is also somef^hing : all the snipes resort inland to
breed, and that is not quite consistent with a voyage to the
arctic regions, at nearly the same time when our other birds,
of the most analogous habits, are beginning to move to our
own upland wastes to breed.

The whole question of the breeding places of the genus
wants revision. As the birds move chiefly during the night,
both on their longer and their shorter migrations, or at least
are seldom seen moving by day, which, in so far as knowledge
is concerned, amounts to nearly the same, we know very little
of their motions. It is generally understood, however, that^
among some of them, there are symptoms of pairing before
they retire, and that may supersede the necessity of any nup-
tial song like that uttered by the common snipe. In the
shooting season, jack-snipes prefer what is called " hassocky
bogs," that is, bogs where tufts of herbage are scattered over
a sludgy and Avatery surface ; and by retiring into the fast-
nesses of these, they could, during the breeding season, be
safe from most predatory animals, and also find food both for
themselves and their young, with very little exercise of the
wing.

It must be admitted that, in northern and humid countries,
the progress of waste and ruin is almost as unfavourable for
snipes and the analogous species of Grallidoe, as the progress
of drainage and improvement. As long as the bog, or accu-
mulation of mosses, dying at bottom and growing at top
every year, can retain pools of water, and support rushes and
coarse grass, snipes will resort there ; but, in the course of
time, longer or shorter according to circumstances, the mosses
destroy all else, die themselves, and the surface becomes

THE GUDWITS. 199

sterile, naked, and black, impervious to water, and therefore,
during every shower, sending down the sporce of the moss,
which, though latent, are not destroyed, to invade the lower
grounds ; and as such a surface is wholly " at the mercy" of
the atmosphere, it cools like an iceberg in winter, and heats like
a volcano in summer.

GODWiTS, OK oozE-sucKEKS. {Lhnosa.)

The birds of this genus have some resemblance to the
snipes, and also to the tringas, but they differ from both in so
many particulars, that they cannot probably be classed with
either.

Their legs are longer, and perhaps also stouter in propor-
tion to their size ; their bodies are more lightly made, and
their necks are longer and more lithe. The chief difference,
however, is in the bill, Avhich, in birds that in their haunts are
such close neighbours, is the most important. Their bills
are very long, soft, and flexible for their whole length, rather
compressed and triangular at the base, depressed in the rest
of the length, and dilated and obtuse at the tip, but not
enlarged into a knob like that of the snipes, or having the
upper mandible in the least hooked or projecting over the under.
It is not a snapping bill, nor a boring one, neither is it a
scooping or a dabbling bill. It is not very easy to find a
single epithet descriptive of the function that it performs, or
rather of the manner in which it performs that function ; it is
not shovelling or scooping, for it does not remove from its
place the sludge and sediment of the water among which it
seeks its food ; and it does not dabble or wash the mud as
ducks do, till it finds out the substances of which it is in
quest. " Poking" is the nearest epithet, but does not express
the action exactly, as the bird " tries about," and selects
its food by the sense of touch in the bill, and not by the
sight.

The birds are more of a wading habit than snipes, as the

200 GHALLID^.

other snipes are more of waders than the woodcocks ; but
still the food is not found in the water, but in the ooze ; and
if that ooze is soft enough for being penetrated by the bill, the
fact of its being with or without a small stratum of water over
it is of little consequence. That food is chiefly mud- worms,
mud-insects, and mud-larvae ; and the places which the birds
frequent are those in which these abound the most — the banks
in the eddies of slow-running streams, or the accumulations of
sludge that are left bare in the estuaries and creeks upon the
shores of low and rich land on the ebbing of the tide, and espe-
cially the runs of mud from the richer grounds into the pools
of fens are the favourite places with these birds. They breed
in the fens, at a considerable distance inland, if the ground is
suitable, but they descend nearer to the sea in winter. In their
inland haunts, they hide themselves during the heat of the
day among the long grass, where they have their nests ; and
when they are near the sea, their resting time varies with that
at which the tide leaves their favourite banks in the best condi-
tion for them.

Godwits run very fast, more rapidly than snipes or tringas,
and make their escape to a considerable distance on foot before
they take wing ; when they do, they yelp and clamour in a
very loud and rather a harsh and bleating strain.

There are two species that may be considered as British
birds, the black-tailed godwit, and the bar-tailed godwit ; but
as they are subject to varieties of plumage, and also to differ-
ences of size, they have sometimes been multiplied into three
or four species.

THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. [Lbuosa melujiura.)

There is some " confusion of tongues" in the account of
this species, for which the bird itself appears to be, of late
years, making reprisals, by becoming rather more capricious
in its appearance than it used to be. It still breeds in the
fens, though much more rarely than in former times, and

THE BLACK-TATLED GODWIT. 2G1

recently it appears as if it sometimes alternated with the other
and migrant species.

The most distinctive characters of the black-tailed godwit,
and those which it most decidedly retains in all the changes of
its plumage, are the form of the bill and the colour of the tail.
The bill has so slight a curvature upwards, that it is hardly
perceptible without applying a straight edge to it ; and the
tail is black for two thirds at the distal end, and white the
other third at the bases of the feathers. The other god wit has
the bill more recurved, and the tail with numerous bars of black,
and white, and it is also rather shorter in the tarsi in proportion
to its size.

In its summer or breeding plumage, the black-tailed god-
wit has the head reddish brown, streaked with dusky and
black ; the lower part of the neck behind, the back, and the
scapulars, black, barred or margined more or less with brown.
The coverts of the wings brown, the lesser edged with white ;
the quills dusky, with white at the bases. A dull white streak
passes over the eye, below which the cheeks, neck, and breast,
are pale reddish brown, and all the rest of the under part is
white.

In winter, the brown on the clothing feathers of the upper
part fades to grey, and the black to brown ; the dark colours
in the wings and tail become a little dingy ; the reddish brown
disappears from the cheeks, neck, and breast, leaving all the
under parts white. In spring and autumn, w^hen the colours
are changing, but especially in the former, the breast and upper
part are mottled. The young have the whole plumage more
mottled and dingy than the old birds in either of their plumages,
or even during the changes.

The size and weight are subject to considerable variations,
but the average length is about seventeen inches, of which the
bill occupies about four, and the stretch of the wings is nearly
two feet.

Godwits are shy and retiring birds, generally concealing
themselves during the day among the tall herbage of the fens,
and coming out to feed only in the twilight, or indeed during

202 GRALLID.E.

the night. As they find their food by the touch of the bill,
and not by the eye, light is less necessary to them in their
feeding. They eat indiscriminately the small animals that
have been mentioned, and the spawn of frogs — more rarely
that of fishes; but though it is sometimes said, it does not
appear that they eat the albuminous roots of aquatic plants,
as their bills are not very well fitted for such purposes. They
are sometimes found within floodmark on the oozy shores ; but
the fresh-water fens are their favourite places, in which they
rear their broods. The nest, like that of the whole tribe to
which they are related, is very simple ; the eggs are four, of a
dull brownish olive green, marked with obscure blotches of the
same, a little darker.

These birds, as is the case with all the fresh-water marsh
birds which feed upon soft and gelatinous animal food, are
highly prized as food when in good condition. In former times,
they were captured in considerable numbers and brought to
the London markets ; but they are now comparatively rare.
Their diminished numbers render them less an object to the
fowler, and their retired habits conceal them from common
observation, so that they may appear to be fewer than they are
in reality.

THE BAE-TAILED GODTVIT. {LimOSa Vufa.)

The bar-tailed godwit is not known to breed in England,
though it comes as a winter migrant, and is said to come in
greater numbers in those seasons in which the other species is
rarest. Neither of them is to be considered either in part or in
whole as a regular migrant, shifting its latitude with the seasons.
The red one generally, and probably also a portion of the
winter numbers of the other, are to be considered as lateral
visitors from the opposite part of the continent, which resort
to us when their own pastures at home are flooded, or other-
wise not suited to their numbers, or simply because the wind
catches them on the wing, and Avafts them across the short
passage between Holland and Norfolk. Besides the differences

THE SCOOPING ATOCET. 203

already mentioned, this species has the top of the head in the
summer plumage more entirely reddish brown ; more reddish
brown on the upper part ; the colour on the neck and breast
redder than in the other species, and is without white on the
base of the quills. The brown upon it fades to greyish white
in the winter, and the general plumage inclines to grey; but
the bills, the tails, and the lengths of the tarsi, are distinct
specific differences.

THE SCOOPING AvocET. [Recurvirostra avocetta,)

The avocet is a handsome bird, though the length, upward
curvature, and apparent texture of its bill, give it rather a
singular appearance. The length of the bird to the tail is
about a foot and a half; but when the legs, which are very
long, and bare to a considerable height above the articulations
of the tarsi, are stretched out, they reach at least four inches
further. The wings, which when closed extend rather beyond
the tail, measure two feet and a half in the stretch. The
legs are stout as well as long, the hind toe nearly rudimental,
the three front ones all webbed for more than half their length,
the webs extending in straight lines to the roots of the cla-vvs.
The bill three inches and a half in length, bent upwards
with a curvature gradually increasing to the point, so that,
when it is brought in contact with the ground, a portion
towards the tip is horizontal, and the tip rather inclines
upwards.

With the exception of the irides, which are hazel, and the
feet and naked parts of the legs, which are blue, all the rest
is black or white. The latter is the prevailing colour, and it
is beautifully clear and pure, the plumage being very smooth
and compact, resembling that of swimming birds. The bill
and head as far as under the eyes and the nape are black ;
but relieved with a white line or white spots, more or less
conspicuous, over the eye, and sometimes with a little white
on the forehead. The bastard wing, the turn of the wing,
part of the scapulars, the middle coverts, and the quills, are

204 GEALLIBiE.

generally black, and all the rest of the body white ; but the
quantity and also the distribution of the black varies in different
specimens. The bird cannot, however, be mistaken. The
bill is alone sufficient to distinguish it ; and it is altogether so
different from any other British bird, that if once seen it never
again can be mistaken.

The avocet is one of the most beautiful instances of adap-
tation in the whole range of animated nature ; and it is not
the less so that it is somewhat out of the way of our ordinary
speculations and conclusions upon that subject. According
to ordinary observation, and familiarity with the tools which,
in very humble Pcud distant imitation of the mechanical con-
trivances of nature, human artists use, we at once admit that
the beaks of hawks and parrots, and the bills of ravens and
bitterns, must be efficient instruments ; but the peculiar or-
ganizations with which the cross-bill and the avocet are fur-
nished, are apt to strike us at first sight as awkward and un-
gainly. When, however, we come to study their application,
we find that the real subject of our criticism is our own ig-
norance, and that we pity or despise only because we do
not understand ; and that, in every thing which nature pro-
duces, be it single organ, entire animal, or whatever it may,
we always must admire, and not admire only, but be de-
lighted, to the full extent of our knowledge. The doctrine
of optimism^ or " all is best," the sentence of approbation
which the Creator pronounced upon the new-made world, still
holds true, and will amid all changes hold true to the end,
in all that creation, save the conduct of man. Nor can it
be otherwise ; because all else proceed upon the implanted
instinct — the very law and constitution of their nature, from
which they can no more deviate than lead can swim or air
sink in water. But man, proceeding by reason, or, which is
the same thing, by analogy or comparison, in which his
own knowledge is always the standard, cannot well be right
beyond the bounds of that knowledge, and may be wrong
within them.

What we, for want of a more appropriate name, call the

THE SCOOPING AVOCET. 205

powers or energies of life, are all greatly in excess above the
matter on which any one without the others would have to act ;
and the natural means by which the one consumes the surplus
of the other, is the grand principle by which the whole are
preserved.

When the predatory animal kills prey, be that prey what it
may, the animal has no purpose, it merely obeys an instinct,
and therefore it is neither kind nor cruel ; but the result is
kindness to all. It is well known that if a meadow is neither
grazed nor mown, the kindly sod sooner gives place to inferior
vegetation — to moss, ragweed, dock, sedge, or something else
according to the situation. If a fish-pond or a game-close is
over-preserved, nature avenges the breach of her law, and
sends death in a way which we do not understand. We call it
epizooty^ that is, something which falls " upon the life ;" but
what falls, or how it falls, we know not.

Were it not that the tribes of the living world restrain
each other, the duration of the whole would be brief — far more
so than those who have not reflected on the subject would
readily imagine. It is in the mutual destructions (which are
in truth preservations), that we can best see the wisdom and
goodness of the Creator, as it is in the principles which render
these necessary to the system, that we can be most impressed
with (for nowhere can we understand) the infinitude of his
power.

When the lesson arises naturally, it is always a delightful
as well as a salutary one ; and nowhere is there perhaps a
more striking instance than in one of those powers over
which the avocet is in part set as a check — the power of
multiplication in fishes. If that power could act without
limitation for the space of a very few years, the produce of
the fish in any one of our rivers, nay of any one species of
them, would build the valley of that river mountain height with
fishes.

The average rate of increase in river fishes is more than
fifteen thousand fold to the single fish, at the single spawn-
ing ; but we shall call it ten thousand : then let us propose

VOL. II. T

206 GRALLID^.

the question, " In what time would the productive power of s
single pair of fishes, if it could act unrestrained, convert the
matter of the whole solar system — into fish, on the supposition
that they spawned at the age of three years, and that all but
the last brood died in the course of the time ?"

The sum of the diameters of all the bodies in the solar
system, sun, planets, and satellites, is about one million of
miles ; and as the average of the matter which these bodies
contain is not very much heavier, bulk for bulk, than water,
the cube of a million, instead of the sphere inscribed in that
cube, will be more than enough for expansion, in order that
the matter might be as light as fish. It should be the sum of
the cubes, which is only a small fraction of the cube of the
sum ; but no matter.

From 150 to 200 fishes to the solid foot will be ample
allowance, and that will require for the solid mile

1,000,000,000,000;
or for the whole solar system,

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
that is, a larger number than the whole human race could have
counted ever since the creation. But let us apply the produc-
tive power of our two fishes to it. They multiply by 10,000
every three years ; and therefore, every four Os in the former
number will answer to three years. There are between seven
and eight ; take the larger, or eight ; and in twenty-four
years, the productive power of fish would, not in the whole
number, but the last brood from a single pah*, convert into fish
as much matter as there is in the whole solar system, sun,
planets, satellites, altogether !

The conclusion is abundantly startling, and yet it is far —
to our comprehension infinitely far — below the truth. It is
orie of the lowest rates, in a single one out of countless my-
riads, and that one greatly under estimated. What, then,
shall we think of the whole !

When we apply our mathematics to matter in the dead
and inert state, we may feel a little exultation at our science ;
but " the energies of life" defy the line, set at nought

THE SCOOPING AVOCET.

t^07

the balance, outsum all number, and outsoar and wholly
confound and bewilder imagination itself. When we think
of those energies, we are forcibly reminded of that sublime
challenge — that most forcible of all rebukes to human vanity,
which the inspired writer addresses to the Patriarch as from
the mouth of the Almighty himself : — " Who is this that
darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge ? Gird up
now thy loins like a man ; for I will demand of thee, and
answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the founda-
tions of the earth ? declare if thou hast understanding. Who
hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest ? Or who hath
stretched out the line upon it ? Whereupon are the founda-
tions thereof fastened ? or who laid the corner-stone thereof ?
when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God
shouted for joy."

Such are the conclusions, to which, when followed out aright,
the contemplation of nature leads ; and when, in the proper
frame and temper of mind, we get even such glimpses of " what
there is to be known," as the imperfections of the mortal part
of our frame enable us to take, we feel the ardent desu-e and
the exulting hope, of that time when we shall quaff the stream
of knowledge — the river of the water of life — pure, fresh, and
full, at the eternal fountain, and uncontaminated by pitchers of
clay, — when the train of our contemplation shall not be inter-
rupted by the dimness of eyes, or the deafness of ears ; and,
inspu-ed and inspirited by that glorious hope, we feel all the
paths of life becoming smooth and easy, and all the little rubs
and obstacles of this world as no more hindrance to our course,
than gossamer is to the bound of the lion, or the lightest rack
of the summer sky to the wing of the eagle. But we must,
for a little, leave those heights, and return to the avocet, beside
" the still waters."

It was always an interesting bird from the peculiarities of
its form and manners ; and of late there is added to it the
additional interest of comparative rarity as a British bird.
Ten or twelve years ago it was no uncommon occurrence to

208 GRALLlDiE.

find a dozen of avocets in Leadenhall Market in one week, or
even all at once, in the season of the fen bu*ds ; but now there
are only one or two in the course of the year.

As is the case with the other fen birds, the avocet breeds in
the herbage on the borders of the fen ; but its feeding
grounds, and also its mode of feeding, are peculiar. The
little runs, or water-courses, which cross the loose sand or
sludge, and which always contain a considerable quantity of
spawn, larvae, or other animal matters, according to the time
of the year, are the places which it frequents. In can swim,
as indeed all birds that have close plumage on the under part
can do, less or more ; but it perhaps does not swim
voluntarily in any instance, and it never swims when it is
feeding. It is not adapted for that, as the action of both the
body and the bill require a fulcrum of something more stable
than water. Swimming in still water, the bird could not
scoop, as the stroke of the bill would merely drive the body
backwards ; and as it feeds against the stream, its moving
would be like that of a man attempting to force a boat against
the stream by placing his pole upwards, and by that means
adding his own exertion to the downward force of the cur-
rent.

The avocet wades up the shallow stream ; and, only that its
strokes are equally effective right and left, its action is not
unlike that of a mower. Its legs are long, and placed far
asunder, and it proceeds by long and slow strides. Suppose
the foot on one side advanced and planted, and the one on the
other side in the rear to the full extent of its stride : the
axis of its body will, in that position, be obliquely across the
run, with the head towards the side of the rear foot, and the
tail to that of the advanced one, both feet being nearly in the
line of the centre of the run ; and if we suppose the left foot to
be the one in advance, the bill will be over the right side
of the run. The bird then bends its neck a little to the left
and downwards, and immediately advancing the right foot, it
swings the body upon the left as a pivot, the bill scooping a

THE SCOOPING AVOCET. 209

traverse curve, and impelled by the swing of the body. As
soon as the right foot is planted, or rather contemporaneously
with the planting of it, the bird elevates its bill, in order that
whatever food has been scooped up by the bill may be con-
veyed to the mouth ; and that part of the process is very soon
over, as the curve of the bill is not a portion of a circle, but of
what geometers call the " curve of quickest descent." The
bill is immediately lowered with the point towards the right, and
the advance of the left foot, and the swing of the body upon
the right one, make another sweep in the opposite direction.
In this way the bird advances up the run, scooping alternately
left and right, with ease, with effect, and even with a grace,
almost unparalleled in the action of birds. It is indeed one of
the most beautiful instances of animal mechanics that can pos-
sibly be imagined, and the motions are so performed as that
they can all be seen.

Avocets are restless and lively in their manners, more spor-
tive than most of the other fen birds. They have not the
hideling disposition of the snipes, nor the demureness of the
godwits : in some of their habits they more resemble the lapwings
especially in the finesse shown by the female to entice strangers
away from her eggs or young. She meets the traveller, and
flies round him in rapid circles, screaming " quheet quheet,'''
but aspirated in a manner that cannot be expressed by letters.
She also runs, and limps, and drops one wing occasionally, as
if it were broken ; but in her evolutions upon the wing, she
does not give those twitches in turning which are so striking,
and, as formerly mentioned, sometimes do strike, in the lap-
wing. The eggs are olive brown spotted with black ; and as
is the case with most of the Grallidae, they are large in propor-
tion to the size of the bu'd.

From the sand-piper to the avocet, there is a regular
succession of birds with bills gradually increasing in elasticity
and length, and the habitats of the birds gradually approach
nearer and nearer to the water — the sand-pipers picking up the
small animals that inhabit the gravel ; the tringas those

t2

210 GEALLID^-

which are on the surface of firm sand and mud ; the snipes
boring in the mire ; the godwits poking in the sludgy
deposits ; and the avocets scooping the beds of the shallow
water-courses. So that a regular continuation would now
lead us to the stream or the pool itself : but here the chain
becomes a little entangled ; and it is not our purpose to un-
ravel it, but to get, if we can, at the popular characters of the
species.

That there are in the Grallidse regularly approximating series,
from the dry land, to the water, where the bu'd must wade
deep or swim, or dive before it can feed, is true ; and it is also
true, that all, the links of the succession harmonize very beauti-
fully with the localities in which they are found : but the chain
is one of a more complicated nature than we can understand.
It is two-fold, three-fold, many-fold ; so that, if the continuity
is broken by the extinction of one species, the place of the last
bird is supplied by another, differing from the former in pro-
portion to the change of circumstances that caused the extinc-
tion. There is change, but there is no desertion or abandon-
ment. With every change of the food, there is a change of the
feeder — partially and gradually, even though that feeder is of
the same species ; but while there is food, there always is a
feeder ; and if, by any means, one race becomes extinct, there
is another ready to fill its place. Every link in the chain of
nature is thus " legion," as inexhaustible by human inquiry as
the whole. Some of these successions appear mysterious to
us, because we are unable to fathom the means and modes of
their coming, but the bird comes on wings through the open
sky, and therefore we, at least, fancy that it is more within the
reach of our observation.

Yet, take one of our most able and unsophisticated Orni-
thologists,— one of those men w^ho have measured their own
ken and capacity against the pages of the opened, and the
gigantic volume of the unopened book of nature, — take him
to any one kind of locality, field, forest, or fen, and ask him,
*' What bird should nestle here ?" — take one of the artificers^
and he will muster his hard names, erect his horoscope, and

THE SCOOPING AVOCET. 211

become " a soothsayer without saying sooth ;" whose words
would less inform you than the silence of the other.

One would wish to speak with great hesitation and diffi-*
dence on a subject, the datum for the investigation of which
is the knowledge of all nature; but in the revolution and
change of countries there seems to be two distinct tendencies
in birds — a tendency to wander, and a tendency to be staid.
The former leads through a succession of species to the storm
petrels perhaps, or any race that may be more discursive — the
latter to the Gallinidse, which dwell in the same field, the
same jungle, or on the same mountain, for life. On an island
like Britain, the former tendency is to the seas — the Pelagic
bird, which rides on the far sea-wave, being the last link
that we know ; the latter tends to the hill, and the last bird
is the ptarmigan. The marsh birds are geographically upon
the confines of both ; and they seem to be so physiologically.
The heron and the bittern, though they may seem to be
anomalies, and, where we have placed them, to have broken
the chain, which otherwise is traceable from the stilt to the
avocet, form one of the doubles. The heron leads our thoughts
to the storks and cranes, some of which summer in the one
hemisphere and winter in the other : the bittern leads us
almost immediately to the grous ; for in many places they
answer to each other's cries ; and in the locality to which I
alluded in the notice of the bittern, as being familiar to my
own observation, the grous quitted the dry heather at the
same time that the bittern quitted the mire. If I mistake noty
their cries ceased in the very same season.

This is a mere hint, which I have not sjDace or capacity
to work out ; and the requisite data are not before me. An
arrangement would require all the localities of the world, in
all their varieties, and all their birds ; and Britain is only one
insulated little spot, comparatively uniform in its whole cli-
mate, and artificial from culture in great part of its surface.
Besides, it is "an inn for the wayfaring birds;" and some
of our guests are so familiar, that it is not easy to distinguish
between them and members of the family. To me, these

212 GRALLID^.

difficulties feel insurmountable ; and therefore I must enume-
rate the remaining genera of this very curious but perplexing
order, without the slightest pretension to system.

THE EUFF. {Machetes pugnax.)

The iniff, although a marsh bird, is one in which the galli-
naceous character is very conspicuous. The males are poly-
gamous, or at all events pugnacious, and fight as gallantly
for their dames as ever knight-errant did, in those ages of
chivalry, when the highest ambition of man was to imitate the
conduct and even assume the name of the game-cock.

Theii* gallinaceous characters are indeed so striking, that
they might, with no very great impropriety, be called '' fen
poultry." The males are considerably larger than the fe-
males ; they are furnished, in the breeding season, with a
large accession of produced and glossy feathers, formmg a
ruff or mantle over the breast and neck as far as the scapu-
lars, and with a long erectable tuft of similar feathers behind
each eye ; and though they have not combs and wattles like
the males of the common fowl, the face becomes covered with
naked fleshy tubercles of a reddish yellow colour, at the same
time that the produced feathers of the ruff and ear-tufts
appear. It is true that, in the moult after the breeding time,
the seasonal appendages of the ruffs disappear, while those of
the common poultry remain. But that may be considered as
a climatal difference. Poultry are natives of the emr green
jungles of the south of Asia, and they are with us only in a
domestic state, and sheltered during the winter. Ruffs, again,
belong to the latitudes of deciduous vegetation, and they, like
the trees of their native localities, have a seasonal repose ;
while the great production of seasonal appendages, shows that
they feel more the influence of the season of reanimation. I will
not be positive, but I think I have observed greater differences
in the seasonal plumage of the males of common poultry, in the
bleak and exposed situations of the north of Scotland, than in
the south of England ; and that generally, in proportion as

THE RUFF. 213

animals of one climate are more freely exposed in another, they
assume more the habits and characters of the native animals of
that one. Ruffs are more easily fattened in confinement than
most other wild birds ; and their flesh tastes more like that of
poultry.

They have partly the form of the sand-pipers, and they are
migratory ; but they have less of the running or wading cha-
racter than even those. The bill, although a little flexible
towards the base, is very firm and hard at the tip ; and the feet
are properly walking feet.

Their colours can hardly be described ; at least there would
be but small use in the description, as they vary almost as
much as in domestic fowls. The length of the male is between
eleven and twelve inches, of which the bill occupies one inch ;
the female is one third less. The axis of the body is more-
elevated in front, and the neck more upright in walking, than
in the other marsh birds, and they walk with a strut, the male
especially, when he assumes the Spanish cloak and feather^
and mounts his hill, determined to fight boldly for the sove-
reignty of the dames.

They are rare in England, compared with what they were
formerly, and appear only on particular spots of the fens.
They arrive in spring, the males before the females ; and while
there are none but males, they dwell in peace, feeding in the
night or at early dawn, and reposing during the day. But
(causa teterrima belli ! ) when the females begin to arrive, all
the Dons are in motion and in arms. They "hill," as it is
called ; that is, they assemble on a rising knoll, and battle for
the surrounding spot and the lady, — not in bands tmder
leaders as some have alleged, but each single-handed, or rather
single-billed, for himself. The contest often lasts for several
days, or is renewed on several mornings ; but whether the
victor of each day leads off" a female at the close of the warfare
of the same, or whether the same female occasions a contest
of several days' operation, has not been said. The battles
of the hill continue, however, till all are mated to their

214 GRALLID^.

desert ; by which time the hill itself is often trodden like a
pathway.

The nests are rudely formed of withered grass, in the has-
socks or tufts, which are separated from each other by sludgy
or miry places ; the eggs are four, olive brown spotted with
darker brown ; and the young are hatched about the middle,
or towards the end of June. During the whole of that period,
the males " hill" in the morning ; and they stand accused of
some Don Giovanni-ism; but as the period of the young
breaking the shell approaches, they hill in fewer and fewer
numbers, combat less energetically, and at that time cease
from their combats altogether. It does not appear that the
males take any share in the building of the nest, the incuba-
tion, or the feeding of the female while sitting — nor have
they been seen tending the brood after. They are but little
seen during the moulting month ; and when they again make
their appearance, they are without their insignia of war, and
withal very peaceable birds, and harmonious vnth each other.
Their breeding feathers are indeed as fleeting as the anthers and
corollas of some flowers : they do not acquire their full hloom
till the middle or towards the end of May, and they begin to
fall in June, so that the growth of them is posterior to the
time of the spring moult, and their fall anterior to that of
autumn. The winter plumage of the birds has none of those
bright tints and glosses which appear on the ruffs and even
tufts, but with so much diversity, that the description of any
one would hardly be expressive of even another individual.
Formerly, so many of these birds used to be taken in the fens
towards the middle and end of September, that the capture of
them was a regular trade; but now they are confined in their
localities, diminished in their numbers, and the trade is not so
profitable, though fat birds fetch a much higher price in the
market. Generally speaking, they quit the country in the
latter part of autumn, although stragglers remain all the winter ;
or at least did so when the birds were more abundant tlian
they are now.

THE CRAKE. 215

CRAKE. {Crex.)

The birds of this genus resemble the Gallinidse in some of
their characters, even more than the one last mentioned ; and
they have also much of the appearance of running birds.
The bill is shorter than the head, compressed, conical, the
depth at the base exceeding the breadth, compressed and
pointed at the tip, and both mandibles of equal length. The
upper mandible ridged on the exterior, the nasal grooves
■wide, the nostrils lateral, half way down the bill, half
covered by a membrane, which defends them in part. The
head and neck are small ; the axis of the whole body hori-
zontal in running ; the shafts of the feathers on the fore part
ending in webless and thickened points, which keep the
feathers down like so many little weights ; the whole form of
the body admirably fitted for getting through tall and close
herbage. The legs long and strong in proportion to the size
of the birds, naked to a little distance above the tarsal joints.
The three front toes long and fine, slightly bordered with
membrane, the hind toe short and articulated on the tarsus
above the others. The whole leg and foot formed for rapid
progressive motion, and having much elastic spring in the
toes, which act by the tarsal joints being bent as the foot
begins to be raised, and the tendons being strongly drawn
over the large processes of the tarsal joint as over a pulley.
Tail short, narrow, and rounded, and wings of moderate size.

They inhabit tall herbage, preferring places where the sur-
face is rather humid, and which abound with worms, slugs,
and ground insects, which form the principal part of their
food. They chiefly repose during the day ; and feed and
utter their cries chiefly from sunset to sunrise. Their note is
very nearly the same, constantly repeated, very audible, but
so ventriloque, that one cannot easily tell from what parti-
cular part of the field it issues. There are four species
enumerated as British birds, none of them resident in the
winter.

216 gralliDjE.

CORX-CRA.KE OR LAND-RAIL. {Cvex prateusis,)

A figure of this bird is given on the plate at page 131,
one sixth of the lineal dimensions. That figure will save the
necessity of describing the markings of the plumage, which
are very minute, and cannot be very intelligibly expressed
in words. The male and female are very similar in their
plumage.

The corn-crake is a summer visitant, arriving in Britain
about the latter end of April, the males, as is the case with
most summer migrants, being the fii'st to appear — no, not to
appear, to hide themselves, for these birds never appear if
they can possibly avoid it. They do not alight on the shores,
or flock on the open places, but make their way stealthily,
one cannot tell how. They do, however, diffuse themselves
over the whole country in very considerable numbers, more
of them resorting to the northern than to the southern parts,
and more to the cold and humid upland districts, than to the
more dry and warmer ones near the sea. Dressing fields with
lime has been known to banish the crake, possibly because that
species of dressing destroys the worms and slugs on which
they feed.

Though the males are seldom seen on their progress to the
breeding grounds, they are soon heard after they arrive there.
Their love- song is a peculiar sort of roll of short notes, all in
the same key, and of the same length; and they continue
that in the corn-fields, or sometimes in the tall grass, for a
week or two, probably till the females arrive. These come in
the same quiet and stealthy manner; and nothing more is
known of them, unless their cover is cut down by the mower :
save their regular evening ci'y of crecq, crecq^ which continues
probably till the brood are hatched.

The nest is rude, formed of a little moss and withered
grass, and placed in the thickest of the cover ; but it, like the
birds, is seldom seen, and when seen, it is generally only to its
destruction. If the cover over it is cut down, the birds

THE CORN-CRAKE OR LAND-RAIL. 217

desert the nest though it should remain untouched. Indeed
the female sits so close that, if the cover is mown there is some
danger of her being killed by the scythe, unobserved by the
mower. The eggs are very numerous, resembling more in that
respect the field Gallinidse than any of the marsh birds. As
many as sixteen eggs have been found in one nest ; but
sometimes there are not half that number. They are of a dull
reddish white, blotched with ash colour and rusty brown. The
young run as soon as they break the shell : but it is some time
before they are capable of flight.

Flying is not indeed a practice either with old or young,
while they remain in this country. I have been, for the whole
time that they are with us, in places where they were very
numerous, and yelping incessantly on every side (for even
among them it seems that the males strive with each other in
their cries), but I never saw one on the wing — or (often) any
other way. There is, in fact, no raising of them ; nor is it
much better to invade their cover and storm them. The form
of their bodies is such, that they glide among the roots of the
corn without occasioning the least move or rustle ; and though
one march as if direct upon the sound, that sound ceases for a
little, and then begins again as far in the rear ; and if you turn
to it in its second place, it is not long before it comes
nearly from the direction of the first. The corn-crakes take
their departure generally in the month of September. They
are silent for some time before they depart, and do not then
keep so closely in cover (indeed there is not so much cover
for them), but they feed during the night, or twilight, and
squat and lurk during the day, so that they are not often seen
even then.

Though there is no music in the cry of the crake, which is
far more monotonous than that of the cuckoo, and though
there is great difficulty in getting a sight of the bird itself,
yet there is a liveliness about it, and there are many of the
northern places where the summer evenings would be as dull
without the crake, as those in the south of England would be
without the nightingale. In those open places, half cultivated,

VOL. II. TJ

218 GRALLID^i:.

lialf wild, the aii' of the summer twilight, which lasts all night
long, is peculiarly pleasant and favourable for a journey ; and
after a long stretch over the hill, with nothing to see and little
to hear, save now and then a started grous-cock, or a snipe or
bittern, rising without any starting, it is pleasant to come within
hearing of the crake, as the sound of its voice always tells of
cultivation and cottages.

THE SPOTTED CRAKE. [Cvex povzana.)

The spotted crake is also a summer visitant, resembling
the corn-crake in many of its habits, but said to be more
aquatic, and thus somewhat intermediate between the corn-
crake and the rail. It is much more rare as a British bird
than the other ; and confined chiefly to the south and west of
England. It arrives earlier and remains later than the other,
frequents the tall herbage by the sides of pools and streams,
rather than the corn-fields. It is a bird of retired disposition ;
and therefore its manners as a British bird are not very well
known. It hides itself during the day in the sedges, reeds, and
rushes, among which it is said to build a nest of withered
plants, and to lay six or seven white eggs, spotted wdth
dark red.

It is a smaller and more elegantly shaped bird than the
corn-crake. It is not a great deal shorter, but considerably
more slender, and not exceeding two thirds of the weight.
Its colours are, on the upper part, greenish olive brown, with
spots and lines of black and white very pleasingly distributed ;
on the under part, pale ash colour, marked with white. Feet
and bill greenish yellow, the latter with a tinge of red on the
basal part. In the autumn, before it takes its final departure
for the year, it is in fine condition, and highly prized for the
table.

baillon's ckake. {Crex Bailloiiii,)

This species is so rare, and the discovery of it as a British
bird is comparatively so recent, that in the present state of

THE LITTLE CRAKE. 219

our knowledge of it, it cannot be considered in any other
light than as a straggler. It is said not to be uncommon in
some parts of France and Italy, where it dwells in retirement,
almost indeed in concealment, among tall herbage on the banks
of streams, and does not appear to be much of a migrant,
or even of a ranger in the places which it does inhabit. The
shortness of its wings does not indicate a bird much given
to long flights. In the specimen which was obtained from
Norfolk, in 1812, the stretch of the wings was only eighteen
inches and a half, while the length of the bird was seven
inches and a half. Its colours are much more entire and
free from mottling than those of the last species, top of
the head olive brown, nape lighter and yellowish. The rest of
the upper part and Avings black or dusky, with olive brown
margins to the feathers ; rump and upper tail coverts mottled
olive brown and dusky; tail olive brown, with yellowish
margins to the exterior feathers. The chin, throat, and sides
of the neck, pale ash ; the forehead, cheeks, and all the
rest of the under parts, dugky ash, with some dull white
markings on the under tail coverts, and sides of the thighs, but
all the rest plain. The feet olive brown, the bill greenish with
a tinge of red at the base ; and the orbits and irides orange
red.

The shortness of the wings, which, when closed, do not
reach above half the length of the tail, is perhaps the most
i*emarkable character of this very obscure species, a species
which, from the peculiarity of its habits, and the fact of its being
met with close upon the breeding season, may perhaps be one
of those native birds, few in number and confined to peculiar
localities, which escape general observation, and elude even
moderately careful research.

THE LITTLE CRAKE. [CveX pUSllla.)

Of this small species, of which only a few specimens have
been found, the history is as obscure and puzzling as that of
the preceding. Like that, it has been met with only in the

220 GEALLID^.

south of England, near the banks of streams that were margined
with thick vegetation, and, like that, it has been found at a
particular season (the month of May) when it is not easy to see
that any particular cause should have brought it to the country
as a wanderer.

This species is rather shorter than the former ; but it is
longer in the wings, and the colours are quite different, at least
on the under part, and in the feet, the structure of which
is different — different indeed from all the rest of the genus, the
hind toe being considerably produced. Head brown, dusky on
the top, paler on the sides, with an ash-coloured streak
over the eye; hind part and sides of the neck pale olive
brown ; rest of the upper part black with olive brown
margins. Chin and throat white, passing through cream
colour into fawn colour on the breast, and again into olive
brown, marked with white, and darker brown on the lower
part of the belly, the sides of the thighs, the vent, and
the under tail coverts. The bill and legs bright green,
the latter bare to a considerable height above the tarsal
joints.

The three species last enumerated, have all been named and
described as gallinules, on account perhaps of their being found
in haunts similar to those of that genus ; but the form and all
the essential characters of the birds entitle them to be classed
with the crakes.

This species, like the one immediately preceding, is said to
inhabit the thick herbage by the sides of streams and waters
in the south of Europe, the places to which, in all probability,
the crake retires when it takes its departure from Britain. As
their history stands at present, they appear somewhat
anomalous : and on that account they are at least worth
searching for. The whole genus are so fond of concealment,
that even the corn-crake, if its clatter did not betray it,
might come and go in thousands and one never be a whit
the wiser. There is little probability that either of the
smaller species, which, judging from the entireness of their
plumage, are birds of a more tropical character than

THE RAIL. '221

the corn-crake, spend the winter with us, — inasmuch as that
crake which ventures northward in the summer, to join the
chorus of gulls and other wave-taught vocalists in serenading
the Udallers of Ultima Thule, spurns the roses and myrtles of
Dorset and Devon in the winter, and seeks the land of olives
and oranges ; but really the times, places, and circumstances,
although they cannot be received as evidence of the fact, all
point strongly to the probability, that both birds are summer
visitants, of which a sprinkling at least may be expected in the
south of England every season.

EAIL. {Rallus.)

From the last-mentioned rare, or at all events obscure and
imperfectly known, species of crake, to the rail, the transition
is natural and not very great. In the crakes themselves there
is a gradation, from the corn-crake which hides itself in the
humid field covered with tall herbage, but does not enter the
marsh, or breed in herbage decidedly aquatic, to the little
crake, which, keeping more constantly in warm localities,
dwells so close among the aquatic herbage on the margins of
pools, and the banks of slow-running streams, that it is rarely
seen, and which can take the water upon emergency, which
the corn-crake is not known to do.

A flat surface and a cover of annual or herbaceous vegeta-
tion— vegetation rising upon culms, and not branching stems,
so that they can make their way through it with ease and
rapidity — are thus the place and the furnishing for the crakes ;
and as the birds quit whenever the furnishing fails, in the
course of the season or otherwise, we are warranted in con-
cluding that the kind of place and the kind of plants are
alike necessary for the supply of their food.

In respect of season, therefore, though not of locality, the
crakes are somewhat analogous to the warblers. The warblers
can inhabit only where the groves, the brakes, or the marshy
holts, are in foliage, and they feed among the leaves.

The crakes can inhabit only where the surface is clothed
u 2

222

GRALLID^.

by a thick crop of tall stems, which exclude the action of the
sun, and thus favour the growth of those small but, under
favourable circumstances, very prolific animals upon which the
birds feed.

It is only at very particular spots on the surface of the
globe, that birds of such habits can find perennial haunts. In
the polar climes, there is not sufficient cover for them at any
season, and in the tropical countries, those portions of the
shores and banks of the rivers which are perpetually humid,
produce a vegetation too exuberant for any birds to find
their food among its roots. In those climes of the excess
of solar action, the growth of the single year on the marshy
bank — the bamboo, and even the grass, rivals our groves in
altitude ; and the mangroves by the margin of the sea sur-
pass our forests in loftiness of growth, and entanglement of
branches. Therefore it is only at the middle temperature
between those extremes that such birds as the crakes could
find a permanent dwelling ; and then, as water is an essential
element in the adaptation of the place to them, the line of
those haunts which approach the most nearly to being perma-
nently suitable to them, varies more in curves and zig-zags
northward or southward, than even the isothermal lines, or
lines of equal temperature, irregular and hard to be deter-
mined as these are.

Thus it may with truth be said, that the crakes, like the
warblers, have no permanent abode upon the globe ; but that
they must have their declinations northward and southward
with that sun, the variations of whose influence call forth their
cover and their food at different periods in different latitudes.
But though, in consequence of that very simple, and there-
fore exquisitely beautiful, motion of the earth, which produces
the seasons, the summer may be (and is) as hot in Lapland
as under the equator, the season and the vegetation are not
the same. The equatorial plant feels no winter ; has never
to overcome the inertia of a temporary death; and thus it
grows apace till one leaf would cover a tent, and one tree
overshadow an acre. In the extreme north, again, half

THE RAIL. 223

the action of the summer sun is expended in calling forth the
annual vegetation from the temporary death of the winter.

Thus, the migration of such birds as the crakes is confined
both northerly and southerly ; and as they have different
natures and habits in themselves, some pass over a greater
range and some over a less. The corn-crake reaches to the
northern isles, the spotted crake (with us at least) probably
not farther than England, and the smaller species only perhaps
to the south of that part of the island, and few in number
even there. The more discursive migrant has, as we may
suppose, the greatest aptitude to vary its food, just as the resi-
dent bird, which with us passes one part of the year in the
shade of the forest or on the upland waste, and the other in
the fields by the farm-house or on the shore of the sea, can
have a more extensive range in its food than another bird of
the same genus which resides permanently in one place. In
corroboration of this, it may be mentioned that Dr. Fleming,
who resided in the northern isles, and who must, as a professed
and systematic naturalist, be presumed to have made dissec-
tions there, describes the corn-crake as a gizzard bird, (" its
muscular gizzard intimates its graminivorous habits," British
Animals, p. 99.) while in England it is considered a trail bird,
and as such feeding chiefly upon animal matter. The warblers
also which range farther to the north, feed more upon vegetable
matters than those that confine themselves to the south ; and
there is no doubt that the crakes follow the same gradations.

The argument must not, however, be misunderstood ; for
there is a double in it : the inducement to migrate at all, and
the inducement to migrate far, are so far from being associated,
that they are each strongest in a different character of bird.
The nightingale, for instance, which appears capable of feed-
ing upon insects and caterpillars of the broad-leafed groves
only, must be sooner compelled to migrate from any locality
than the white-throat, which is not only more miscellaneous
in its insect food, but can also subsist upon berries. But the
limitation of its food limits the migratory range of the nightin-

224 GEALLIDJE.

gale within far narrower bounds than those of the white-throat.
The same argument applies to the crakes, and indeed to all
migratory birds that find their food upon the land, or in the
margins or the shallows of the inland waters.

With sea-birds it is different, though even among them, and
more especially among the wading species of them, the law
can still be traced, though far more faintly, That, however, is
easily explained ; the more uniform temperature of the sea,
renders the productions of its shores more uniform ; and those
currents of the sea which are produced by the tides, distribute
the products of the equatorial, and more productive parts, to
the very confines of the polar sea. The current which, put in
motion by the joint action of the trade wind and westward
wave of tide in the equatorial parts of the Atlantic, strews the
whole shores of the north with the produce of that ocean, so
that food which is grown in the West Indian seas may be laid
down upon the shores of Newfoundland, Iceland, or even
Spitzbergen, to feed the littoral birds in the summer season ;
nay, even the food of the whales themselves, in the " green
water," along the margin and in the openings of the polar ice,
is no doubt, in great part, the production of more southern
parts of the Atlantic.

These remarks may, to systematists, appear to be interpo-
lated somewhat out of place ; but the interpolation (which is of
course meant for the student, not for the master) is intentional.
Placing them here, after we have noticed the habits of these
birds, to which they apply, and from the study of which they
naturally and almost necessarily arise, gives them the persua-
sive form of instruction, and not the apparently arrogant one of
assumed hypothesis : and though there may be more glory to
the author in bringing forward general principles in large and
imposing masses, there is more use to the common reader in
breaking them down into manageable pieces, if the points of
connexion are so marked, that the whole, after they are under-
stood singly, may be put together.

The characters of the raiL in which it will be found to

THE AVATEK-RAIL. 225

differ considerably from the crake, though they have been
popularly called by the same name, or sometimes scientifi-
cally— no, simply classed together, — are briefly as follows:
the bill longer than the head, slender, slightly arched, com-
pressed in the basal part only, and cylindrical at the tip, and
the upper mandible channelled, and longer than the under
one ; the nasal groove not much dilated ; the nostrils lateral,
longitudinal, and half covered by membrane, but nearer the
base of the bill than in the crake. The whole bill is, in fact,
fitted for going more immediately and deeply into the water
for food. The legs are long, naked to some distance above
the tarsal joints, and stouter in proportion than those of
the crake. The toes are all free, and without membranes,
and the foot is altogether more gallinaceous, fitted for walk-
ing on a greater variety of surfaces, and even for perching.
The wings are short and rounded ; the body short, com-
pressed, and generally fat ; the tail susceptible of much and
rapid motion; and the plumage smooth and close, and
capable of being immersed without being wetted. There is
but one British species, an inhabitant of rushy, sedgy, and
bushy margins of streams ; shifting its ground with the season,
but not generally, if at all, migratory. It has, indeed, at all
times, a reluctance to flight, for which, from the weight of its
body, the shortness of its wings, and the way in which it car-
ries its feet (hanging down while it flies), it is not very well
fitted. That species is

THE WATEK-RAiL. {Rallus aquatwus.)

This bird is also called the " water ouzel," (blackbird,) the
" velvet runner," and various other names.

The average length is about ten inches ; the breadth about
fifteen, the weight answering to these dimensions between
four and five ounces. The bill rather more than an inch and
a half, dusky at the tip, reddish orange at the base of the
upper mandible, and along the greater part of the under.

226 GRALLID^.

Irides orange red ; feet, which are naked to some distance
above the tarsal joints, and have the toes long and slender,
reddish brown. Upper plumage olive brown, the centres of
the feathers black or dusky ; under plumage ash, with brown
streaks on the hinder part, and bars of black and white on
the sides and thighs. Wings dusky, with some white bars at
the bends; bastard wing armed with a horny spine. Tail
short and black, margined with brown, strongly fortified with
coverts. The under ones white, which it shows as it flirts up
the tail in jerking along. There is very little difference of
sexual or seasonal plumage ; only the reddish tinge in the bill
is paler in the female than in the male, and paler in winter
than in summer.

The nest is formed in thick herbage, or in holts or brakes
by the side of the stream, very near the water. It is formed
of the long and broad leaves of water plants, loosely put to-
gether. The eggs are pretty numerous, but variable. They
are white.

The water-rail is rather generally distributed over the richer
and warmer parts of the country, where the streams are much
bordered by cover ; but it is a bird of hideling habits, and not
often seen, so that it is probably much more numerous in
reality than it appears to be.

It is both a shy and a wary bird, running with much swift-
ness in the open places, threading the herbage like a serpent,
skipping along the thin flooring of aquatic leaves, wading
in the shallows, running across the brook, and plying every
means of escape save that of flying, to which it does not re-
sort unless pressed to the last extremity. From the nature of
its haunts, and the number and nimbleness of its evolutions,
it is difficult to shoot, and it is not easily raised by a dog,
especially if there are shrubby brakes, which he cannot thread,
or water, which he hesitates a moment ere he takes. Its food ^
is more rank than that of the crakes ; and therefore, though
generally fatter, its flesh is muddy in the flavour, and not so
palatable. The flavour, and also the size of the bird, diff*er,
however, a good deal with the nature of the haunt. The more

THE GALLINULE. 227

upland and clear the stream, the smaller and better flavoured
the bird. Similar variations take place in all animals, wild and
tame ; and therefore size, and, in the edible ones, flavour, are
not fixed and definite characters.

THE GALLINULE. {GalUnule.)

There is but one British species of gaUinule, the common
gallinule^ {gallinula chloropus — so called because its feet are
greenish,) which is also called the water-hen, the marsh-hen,
the moor-hen, and many other names : (in Scotland, the
female grous is the moor-hen.) Like the water-rail, it is
permanently resident, and it is much more generally distri-
buted, numerous, and frequently seen, than that bird. It is
also much larger and heavier, and it is more a bird of the
waters, swimming easily and from habit in search of its food,
while the rail appears to swim only when driven to it.

The size of the gallinule is about that of a pigeon, and the
weight about a pound. The upper plumage is dark olive
green, inclining to black ; the under plumage deep bluish grey,
with white on the under tail coverts, the edges of the wings,
and some dull white on the belly and thighs. The colour is
dark round the base of the bill, fading a little towards the
hinder part, and relieved by a white spot under the eye. The
feathers on the flanks, which are loose and pendant, and hang
over the upper parts of the thighs, are black, with streaks of
white. The bill, which is about an inch in length, is thick
and strong, arched in both mandibles towards the tip, and with
the upper projecting a little ; is greenish at the tip and reddish
towards the base. The upper mandible advances in a horny
shield upon the forehead as far as the eyes ; and it is in the
colour of that plate and of the basal part of the bill, that the
breeding time is chiefly indicated. At that time the shield
is bright red, and the base of the bill of a brighter tint than
at other times. When this season is over, the shield fades
to a dull reddish white, and the tint of the bill becomes very
pale. The irides are red, and so is the naked part of the

228 GRALLIDJE.

tibia. The tarsi and toes are various shades of green, from
yellowish to dusky ; the toes very long, (the hind one consi-
derably produced as well as the others,) all the toes free, but
bordered with membranes. The tarsus is shorter in proportion;
and the whole foot more stunted in proportion than that of
the rail.

The general appearance of the bird indicates an increase of
the characters of the gallinaceous and the swimming birds ;
and perhaps no popular name is more expressive of the real
characters of a bird than *' water-hen" is of this one. It
inhabits the fresh waters rather than the marshy places, and
never resorts to the shores of the sea. The slow streams,
pools, and large ditches, among the ruder lands which are
thickly margined with sedges, rushes, and other tall plants,
are its favourite localities ; and as it reposes during the day
in the shade of the herbage, and comes out to feed only in
the night, or the twilight, which it often does by swimming,
and feeding the while, (as the small fishes which are in the
ponds and streams are near the surface feeding at that time,)
it often haunts and breeds in the vicinity of houses. The
nest is rather large, but very rudely formed of reeds and
rushes, close by the margin of the water ; and generally con-
cealed among the herbage. There are often two, sometimes
three broods in the year, the most numerous seldom exceed-
ing seven ; but the birds are not so abundant as might
thence be inferred, as the young are subject to various casual-
ties : the eggs are often washed away by summer floods ; the
young are sometimes taken by the heron, which, contrary to
its usual habit, is said to swim a little way, in order to cap-
ture the young of the gallinule. In places where there is
water for pike, or even for trout of sufficient size, these also
make prey of the young birds. In that, however, there is a
little more poetic justice than in the ravages by the heron, as
both old and young of the birds are in a great measure fed
upon the young of fish. The period of incubation lasts about
tlu'ee weeks ; and the young are very soon able to accompany
their mother to the water. She leads them there in the morn-

THE PRATINCOLE. 229

ing, and towards evening ; but during the night and the heat
of the day she returns with them to the nest, and gathers them
under her wings.

THE PRATINCOLE. {Glaveola.)

Of this singularly swift-winged genus, only one species has
hitherto made its appearance in any part of the British islands
and then only as a very occasional straggler. That species is
the COLLARED PRATINCOLE, {Glareola torquata,) of which a
representation is given on the plate at page 122.

The general characters of the genus, of which there are two
other species, both inhabitants of the southern parts of Asia,
are, — the bill, short, convex, the upper mandible curved for
half its length, compressed, and without a notch. The tibia
feathered to the tarsal joints ; the tarsi long and slender,
the middle and outer toes joined by a short membrane at
their bases, but the inner toe free ; the claws long and awl-
shaped ; the Avings very long and pointed ;/'and the tail
forked.

The native habitat of the collared pratincole is in the east of
Europe, especially in the humid parts of the valley of the
Danube, and the south of Russia. The banks of the large
rivers and lakes, and the margins of the salt lakes and inland
seas, are its favourite places ; but it ranges occasionally into
some parts of Germany, France, and Italy ; and also makes a
dash into Britain, on the west side of which, and in the western
and northern isles, are the chief places where it has been found.
Its flight is exceedingly rapid, more so perhaps than that
of any other bird, so that when it is once on the wing, a
flight of two or three hundred miles is not more to it,
in point of time or of fatigue, than walking the length of
London is to a man. In its native localities, its nest is formed
in the thickest of the aquatic herbage, and the eggs vaiy in
number from three to seven. Aquatic insects, especially
coleopterous ones, form its principal food, and it catches them
with equal ease on land, on the surface of the water, or in the

TOL. II. X

230 GEALLID.iE.

air. The dytiscidce, or plunging beetles, do not remain long
at the surface, or raise much of their bodies above it; the
gijrini whisk about upon the smooth and glassy surface of the
pools, with so much rapidity, that their paths appear to the
human eye as looped curves and circles of fire ; but the pratin-
cole dashes over the water with such swiftness, that it twitches
them up on the most momentary of their ascents and the most
rapid of their wheelings. No speed of foot, length of leap, nor
quickness of wing, can save the insect tribes from the bill of
this most dashing of all winged hunters. We think it no
ordinary instance of expedition for a vessel to sail from London
to Leith, and return, in the course of a week ; but the pratin-
cole, at the full stretch of its speed, would fly round the globe
in the same time ! From the valley of the Danube to Unst,
the most northerly of the Shetland isles, where a specimen was
obtained by Mr. Bullock, is therefore a mere morning flight
for the pratincole ; and when we consider the power and swift-
ness of its wing, we may cease to wonder, that a bird which is
really tropical in its habits, should be found in company with
birds of the north sea, almost within the polar circle. Yet it
is singular, as showing the great changes that have taken place
in the climate of eastern Europe, that the very place in
which, of old, the Romans served out wine to their troops with
the hatchet in the winter months, should now be the habitation
of flocks of tropical birds. The cormorant by the heaps of
Babylon, on the very spot where dwelt a population sufficient
to conquer the whole of the then known world ; or the ostrich,
stalking solitary amid the ruins in the desert, in the very place
whence Sesostris drew the troops wherewith he conquered
India, is hardly more expressive of those changes which nature
effects on the earth, and which are yet so silent and gradual,
that man can take no note of the progress they make in a day,
or in a life-time.

THE COOT. 231

THE COOT. {Fulica.)

There is also only one British bird of this genus, the coui-
9non cooty hold coot^ or black coot {Fulica atra). Like the
gallinule, it is a resident bird, generally distributed and com-
mon, though its haunts differ a little from those of the other.
It is more a water bird in structure, in appearance, and in
habits ; so much so, that the water may be said to be its
proper element. Large ponds, small lakes, the quiet and
sedgy nooks of the larger ones, and the proud and placid pools
of the broad rivers, are the favourite summer habitations of the
coot. In the lower and warmer parts of the country, where the
water is not apt to freeze in the winter, and even in the tarns
further upland, which have sufficient depth to resist the winter,
the coot is resident all the year. But many of them are,
especially during severe and protracted winters, driven from
those more shallow and easily frozen pools where they breed,
and forced to seek their food in the estuaries of rivers, and in
creeks and openings of the coast. They quit these again in the
spring, and pass the summer in those pools of the uplands,
where they find that shelter and seclusion which accord with
their habits.

From the varied climate and supply of food in the places
which they haunt, and especially of those in which they are
bred, they vary considerably in size, so that a coot of one part
of the country might, according to circumstances, appear either
a giant or a pigmy among coots of another. They are all,
however, so much alike in their form and plumage, that they
can hardly be mistaken. There is little difference in the
plumage of the sexes, in that of the old and the young, or in
the breeding time and the rest of the year.

The size is nearly the same as that of a common fowl
(though the standard is in that case as variable as the thing
measured). The average length is about eighteen inches ; the
extent of the wings about twenty-eight; and the weight, from
a pound and a half to two pounds.

232 GIIALLID.5:.

The bill is of moderate length, straight, strong, conical,
compressed, deeper than it is broad at the base ; the exterior
of the upper mandible dilated into a plate, or shield, on the
forehead, which is considerably larger in the male than in the
female, and forms one of the external means of distinguishing
them. Towards the tip, the exterior of the upper mandible is
arched, but it does not project beyond or hang over the under
one- In the breeding season, the bill is pale yellowish red,
increasing to bright red on the frontal plate or shield ; but
when the breeding season is over, the colours of these parts are
reversed ; the plate is then white, and though the red on the
bill has also faded, it looks darker from the contrast with the
colour of the plate. The birds conceal themselves in the
breeding season, and are consequently most frequently seen
when the frontal plate is white ; it is on that account that they
are called hald coots.

The general tint of the upper plumage is black, pure on the
head and nape, but marked with less or more of dusky and
obscure ash on the other parts. The under part is dusky ash,
paler on the belly, and there is a white line on the bend of the
wing, and a small white spot under the eye, which are the
only decided and conspicuous markings in the whole plumage.
The legs are greenish, darker in the toes and lower part of the
tarsus, and often yellowish in the garter or naked portion
of the tibia. The tarsi are of moderate length, but the
toes are very long, with sharp hooked claws, and bor-
dered on each side by lobed membranes of considerable
breadth.

The coot retains so much of the character of the gallinule,
that they may be considered as conterminous genera, for the
pratincole, though we have given a slight notice of it as an
interesting stranger that has been seen, and that may be
seen again, has no appropriate habitat in this country, and
therefore cannot enter into any arrangement by which it
is attempted to place British birds in the order of their
localities.

It has still some of the characters of the pullet ; like that.

THE COOT. 233

it gathers its brood under its wings, puts on gayer colours in
some of the featherless parts of the head, and feeds partly on
the seeds of aquatic plants, and the hybernaculating and fari-
naceous or albuminous roots, when the latter are left ex-
posed by the decay of the annual stems in the autumn. There
is also a trace of resemblance to the pullet in the point
and gape of the bill, and also in the outline of the under
part backwards; but the general outline is more that of a duck.

The legs are placed farther backwards than in any of the
birds that live chiefly on land, but they appear to be farther
back than they are in reality, from the degree to which the
tarsal joint is extended when the bird walks.

It has been said, and the saying has no doubt been founded
on that very bending of the tarsal joint, and the tendency that
the toes have to collapse the instant that the foot is off the
ground, that the coot walks with great labour and difficulty.
But the foot of the coot is another of those instances, of which
there are not a few in the structure of birds, in which the very
master-pieces (so to speak) of nature's mechanics are con-
sidered clumsy, for no other reason than because we will not
examine them, and find out why they are thus constructed.
The coot's foot has a compound function to perform, and there-
fore it must be a compound instrument. We look at it only
in one of its uses, or rather we look merely at its form, (for
when used either way, it is used cleverly,) and hence we draw
the conclusion — from our own ignorance.

In order that the coot may properly fill that place which
appears to be assigned to it in the economy of nature, it must
swim, and also walk, and even climb a tree upon emergency ;
and, though it is not launched upon the broad waters like
those pelagic swimmers that fish, or capable of procuring its
food by the touch of a dabbling bill like the swimmers in the
shallows, it must swim to considerable distances, and with
some rapidity. In order to do that, it must have the centre
of gravity considerably in front of the articulation of the legs,
so that these may act in the wake of the body, and have the

x2

234 GRALLID-i:.

advantage of the eddy. It must also swim clean, and with-
out those projecting feathers which are found on the sides of
the gallinule, and which, though they assist in making it
buoyant when moving slowly, would either impede a quick
motion, or be flattened to the sides, and have their buoyancy
destroyed by it. The form of the body, the position of the
legs, and the extent of the toes, with their lobed margins,
answer these purposes remarkably Avell, and the coot is a very
efficient swimming bird.

But, again, the coot has to w^alk, and as that is a lifting
motion, while swimming is merely pushing along, the weight
being supported by the w^ater, some modification is re-
quired. The swimming foot is converted into a very effi-
cient walking foot, by that very bending of the tarsal
joint which, to us, makes the leg appear so awkward.
The bending of that joint, without any muscular effort,
pulls the tendons that compress the toes, and slackens
those that resist that compression, because the former tendon
passes over the outside of the bend at the tarsal joint, and
the latter along the inside. The toes are very long, and the
tendon pulls them to their extremities, so that the centre of
support in the foot is thrown far before the articulation of the
tarsus, and by the action of the same spring the w^eight of the
body is, at every step, discharged from and received by the
points of the toes, which it could not be, if the tarsal joints
were not bent. The toes being free, too, and not joined by
a continuous web, enables the spring of each to act to the full
range of its articulation, and the foot to adapt itself to any
form of surface upon which the bird may have occasion to
walk. Even the produced hind toe has its use, in throwing
the foot upwards, and also in walking upon grassy or other
elastic surfaces.

Farther, the same bending of the tarsal joint converts the
swimming foot of the coot into a perching one, because the
toes have the same tendency to clutch round a branch that
they have to press with their whole length against the

THE EED-NECKED PHALAKOPE, 235

ground, and the divided web enables them to adapt their clutch
severally to the form of the branch, whatever that form may be.
When all these circumstances, even in the imperfect view of
them which has been given, are taken into account, it will
readily be perceived that the coot's foot is an instrument, of far
more varied application than any of those feet which we, in the
simplicity of our ignorance, are apt to consider much more
handsome and perfect.

THE RED-XECKED PHALAROPE. {Pholaropus liyperboTeus .)

The feet of this bird resemble pretty nearly those of the
coot, but the bird itself is considerably smaller, and longer in
proportion in the wings. The shape of the body is far more
light, elegant, and adapted for rapid flight, than that of any of
the crakes, rails, gallinules, or coots. It has no expression of
the heavy character of the gallinaceous birds, or of any of
those that look at first sight as if they were loath to use their
wings, and which, if we put them to the test, verify the phy-
siognomical expression by running, skulking, hiding them-
selves, or, as is the case with the gallinule and the coot
especially, taking to the water, as if more germain to the
element of fishes than to that of birds, it indicates as much
as that, if we disturb it, it will instantly vault into the air,
and defy us in that element, over which we have the least
power.

Yet the bird is more of a swimming bird tlian even the coot,
but its form and habits link it with swimming birds of very
different character, — to the gulls, and similar birds, which can
turn the wide sea waves into a pasture, and snatch their finny
prey while it is tossed and bewildered in the foam or the
surge, and which can also, when occasion serves, run fleetly
along the beaches, and pick up their food there. So little
resemblance has it, indeed, to the ducks and geese, and other
" punt-bodied" birds, which we are in the habit of seeing
dabbling about in mill-ponds and other small pools, that,
until we look at its lobed feet, we would never imagine that

236 GUALLlD.i:.

it is a swimmer. The land bird, with which one would most
readily associate the phalaropes, is the pigeon. The legs are,
indeed, placed farther backward and wider of each other than
in birds which do not require to swim, and the joints of the
upper part of the leg are more bent ; but the bending is more
at the articulation of the tibia, so that the tarsus is more per-
pendicular and free, and the bird can run, a motion which
birds constructed and using their legs like the coot are not
very well qualified for performing. This bird combines rapid
flight with the operations of running and swimming, and it
accordingly has the body of a bird of flight. The peculiarities
of structure which best adapt a bird for the performance of
all these operations, we shall perhaps find a more appropriate
occasion for noticing afterwards.

The length of the bird is eight inches, the breadth fourteen;
the bill is about one inch long, slender, straight the greater
part of its length, but bent a little at the tip. The crown of
the head, nape, cheeks, and sides of the breast, ash colour ;
the back black, with rusty brown margins to the feathers ; a
white bar across the wing, and white mottlings on the upper
tail coverts; the chin white; the front and sides of the neck
reddish brown ; the rest of the under part white, with dusky
brown spots on the sides and flanks ; feet and bill dusky, with
a greenish tinge. This is the breeding plumage of the males.
The female has the reddish brown less bright, and broken by
patches of ash colour. In winter, the black fades to brown,
the brown to pale bufl", and the spots on the sides become
obscure. The young are mottled brown and reddish above,
and white and pale ash grey on the under part. The bird thus
follows, in the changes of its plumage, the law of those other
birds of the order which it most nearly resembles, while the
rails and coots follow the law of those which they most nearly
resemble, and have the principal change in the colour of the
naked parts.

This beautiful species is a winter migrant, and not a very
connnon one in the south of England ; but it breeds around
vseveral of the fresh-water lakes in Orkney and Shetland. The

THE GKEY PHALAHOPE. 237

nest is formed of grass, in the best concealment that the bird
can find near the margin of the water.

THE GREY PHALAKOPE. [Plialaropus lohatus.)

This is also a very handsome species, but one which is
exceedingly rare in England, even as a winter visitant, and
hardly known to British observation in its breeding plumage.
It is very discursive, and breeds in the extreme north, our
voyagers having met with it on Melville Island ; and they
also say it summers among the ice-bergs in very high lati-
tudes. It is perhaps the most northerly bird, having any
decided characters of a land bird, which visits the British
shores. A figure of it in the breeding plumage, on a scale of
one third the lineal dimensions, is given on the plate facing
page 1 ; but no specimen, in such perfect plumage as the one
of which that figure is a portrait, need be looked for even hi
the most northerly of our islands.

In winter, the rich reddish brown of the plumage entirely
disappears, and is replaced by white, more or less marked
with greyish ash on the sides of the breast near the turn of
the wing ; the buif on the margins of the coverts fades to
grey, as also does the general tint of the back ; the black on
the head changes to white ; the white round the eye to black ;
the bill changes from yellowish to dusky, and the feet become
lead colour. In the extreme north, it is probable that the
whole winter plumage becomes pure white.

In the perfect summer plumage, no specimen has been met
with in this country, though one old bird was found in Wilt-
shire in August, with so much of the summer dress as com-
pletely to establish the identity of the species through all its
changes, much as they differ from each other. In conse-
quence of the extent of change, the perfect plumage of the
bu'd has seldom been accurately described or faithfully repre-
sented.

Young birds, in their first plumage, are most frequently

238 GRALLID.i:.

met with, as being not only the most discursive, but the first
in feather. They have a slight tinge of brown on the throat,
pale mottlings of grey and brownish at the bend of the wings ;
the scapulars grey ; the greater coverts dusky with buff mar-
gins ; the white bar, on the middle coverts of the primaries,
more conspicuous ; and the bill and feet not so deep in tint as
the mature birds.

That the grey phalarope should be at once the most
northerly of birds, and the one in which the seasonal
changes of plumage are the most remarkable, is a very
strong proof of the connection that there is between heat,
or perhaps it is more accurate to say light, and the colours
of birds. As this bird can keep either the land or the sea to
the very last hour that they are open to any living creature,
it acquires, on much of the body plumage, the whiteness of
snow ; but in the summer, when it enjoys the continual sun-
shine within the Arctic circle, its colour resembles that of a
tropical bird.

ORDER XIII.
NATATORES.

SWIMMING BIRDS,

The birds of this order bring to our contemplation the charac-
ters of a new, a wide, and a wonderful field — the world of
waters. Many of the last order, and a few of some of the
former ones, may be considered as in fact water birds, and a
few of the species last mentioned can swim well, and are far
discursive over the ocean, resting, if need be, on the surface
of its waters, and thence again arising refreshed for their
journey. The phalarope, for instance, which comes strag-
gling to our shores in the winter, pauses to breakfast with the
whale in the lee of an ice-berg, as it is on its journey to
those regions where, during half the year, every fluid save
the living blood is congealed, the land is wholly unproductive
and hidden, and water becomes both the home and the har-
vest-field of the few human beings who inhabit wretchedly,
though not dismally, on the extreme confine of existence.
But still, though the phalarope can " take shelter" on the
sea — such shelter as an ice-berg and an angry wave afford —
when caught in those violent gusts and storms in which the
winter and the summer contend upon those seas, and though
it can " keep the life there," by picking up the small Crus-
tacea, mollusca, and radiata, with which the water of the all-
productive deep is so replete ; yet there the phalarope is only
a way-faring bird, pausing till its wings are rested, and its
hunger appeased, and then dashing onward with renovated
speed to explore the Arctic lands with quicker, more certain,
and more extensive range, than human navigators. Its

240 IS'ATATORES.

*' march is" ove7% rather than " 07i the mountain wave," and
" its home" is the land — to our feelings, a dismal and a dreary
land, but still the appropriate and chosen land of the bird, and
not upon " the dfeep."

Some birds of the present order also are land, or rather
fresh-water birds, and when the treasures of the north are
sealed up by the rigour of the winter, some species seek their
way to our fens, marshes, and lakes, and many more to our
estuaries, creeks, and shores ; but still the general character
of the order is " germain" to the sea. Their forms are those
of ships ; their plumage is proof against humidity and cold —
no rain mats, and no wind ruffles it ; their feet are paddles,
or oars ; their whole air is marine, and their very voices are
tuned, if tune it can be called, to the wailing wind, the thun-
dering surge, or the hissing foam.

The number of these birds is vast. There is hardly a lone
rock in the ocean, or a small islet just lifting its head above
the water, but which, in the breeding season, is so thickly
peopled with them, that it alone might seem to be the city of
tlie sea birds. On some of the remotest of our own islets, one
can hardly, at that season, plant a foot without breaking an
^gg, and the clouds of parent birds actually thicken the atmos-
phere, and hide the sun. The cliffs, too, — those gigantic
barriers which nature has set to the driving of the winds and
the dash of the waters, — are tenanted in every cranny and
crevice ; and when one thinks of St. Kilda, and even of many
points of the bold shores that are nearer and more accessible,
one is almost tempted to fancy that nature has thus reared
them, and rifted them Mdth breaches and fishers, because the
level surfaces of the shores are not sufficient nesting room for
the sea birds.

When man rears a tenement of some ten or twelve stories
in height, we are apt to speak of it as something wonderfully
elevated in building, and the Muses are supposed to come
more freely with their songs to those who tenant the thin air
of the upper chambers of such buildings, than to those who
reside more softly and substantially farther down. What in-

SWIMMING BIRDS. 241

spiration, then, must there be in a tall sea-cliff, upon the sum-
mit of which one inhabits the thousandth story from the base,
and all the nine hundred and ninety-nine families below are
dwelling in perfect freedom, enjoyment, and joy ? Altitude is,
by prescription longer than all record, held to be the mother of
inspiration ; and though an inland Parnassus may be sublime,
yet it is a lifeless sublimity ; but on the tall sea-cliff, Dulness
herself may find inspiration.

Let it be some remote isle, rising green and gradual from
a quiet beach on the east — as quiet as you can procure, for
among the wild islets in the deep, where alone the sight can be
enjoyed in full perfection, the ocean — the Atlantic at least —
will not rest, let the air be as tranquil as it may. Well, you
land, and ascend gradually to the height of some fifteen hun-
dred feet (though I believe Conagra in St, Kilda is about fifty
feet less), and during the whole ascent you have no forward
view. The place is without a tree, or even a shrub ; but the
temperature is mild and the sod is green. [It is a curious fact,
by the way, that the Atlantic seems to be the only ocean whose
breezes clothe the fields with perennial greenness without
the assistance of art.] You gain the summit : the western
sea appears at your feet, notwithstanding that you feel
fatigued with the ascent. But that sea is glassy in the offing,
though it ripples on the rocks ; and you must look at the
profiles of the jutting crags right and left, and also at the
expanse before you, in order to be sensible how high you
stand.

It is " the midnight of noon," the dead hour of the sultry day,
the cormorant is nodding on the peak, all the birds have fed
themselves full on the fatness of the sea : not a wing is to be
seen, not a sound to be heard. You came to see the city of the
birds : it is their sepulchre — the city of the plague. Those
lanes in the little village paved with feathers and down, must
have been rendered so soft to the tread by the slaughter
of all the winged wanderers of the deep, and nestlers in the
rocks.

Never despair. That sea which now lies so glassy under

VOL. II. Y

242 NATATOBES.

you, would, at the call of the west wind, bound in voUied spray
up that fearful precipice, and drench and even dash you from
your footing; and the contrast between the repose and the
activity of its inhabitants may, for aught you know, be as
great. Sound the tocsin. Your cry — the shout of a multitude
on the height — would not avail. Tumble down one of those
masses of stone. But, if you are not accustomed to such
places (and if you are, you will feel the poverty of words), step
back instantly, lest you follow it. Crash ! It has hit once ;
but the sound is single. Again ! Thunder ! There is rolling,
booming, and echoing. The stone has taken effect ; the cliffs
are smitten. A shrilly wail rings along the upper ledge, as if
it were the war-cry of some savage tribe ; and the storm petrels
dart outward simultaneously like a flight of arrows. But the
din below is as if you had awakened the elements ; and the
bellowing of the sea, the thunder of the sky, and the hurtling
sound of the tumbling earth, were confounded together. Anon,
forth fare the phalanx, hiding the sea, and agitating the air,
till they produce a wind even where you stand. The fulmars
in myriads, like a grey smoke ; here and there a shag or a cor-
morant, like a dark cinder of the disturbing fire. They widen,
they close, they wheel, they tumble, they scream, they wail, as
if chaos were come ; and as the sound spreads over the sea,
up spring the gannets from another islet, like the white steam
from a volcanic jet in the act of being drowned and quenched
by the tide just as it nears the surface. But the scene will not
describe : those who love nature in her mightier modes, should
see it.

One ocean scene, to give it breadth, one sea bird, to give it
wing, would require a volume. There are about fourscore
species of these swimming birds, we have but a few pages to
spare, and, therefore, we can give little else than a mere
catalogue. Indeed, the manners of sea birds lemain in a great
measure unknown ; though the sea, if deprived of its feathered
tribes, would be to human observation much more desolate
than the land, as the other multitudes of its animals which
inhabit, race under race, to a greater depth, perhaps, than any

SWIMMING BIRDS, 243

line can fathom, are all for the most part concealed under the
surface.

The productive powers of the ocean are, though concealed
from our common observation, utterly astonishing. In the
notice of the avocet, occasion was taken to instance the rate ak
which even the least fertile of our river fishes could multiply ;
and though the result there was reduced to a very small frac-
tion of the reality, it was abundantly great. But it is nothing
to the fertility of the tribes in the sea. One brood of
the cod fish is between four or five millions ; so that ten of
these fishes would in the course of one year furnish a fish
a-piece to every man, woman, and child, in the three kingdoms.
The smaller races are equally prolific ; and thus when we
come to think of the matter, we can easily perceive not only
that there is abundance for the countless multitudes of
sea birds that are scattered over the ocean, but that the millions
which often resort to the same islet or single rock in the
breeding season, can easily find in the near vicinity of that a
plentiful supply for themselves and their broods. Further,
when we bear in mind that the sea birds congregate to breed,
and the greater part of the land birds disperse, we must
be convinced that the land is really the least productive portion
of the globe ; and that the sea, taking its breadth, its depth,
and the energy of the powers that are in it, into consideration,
is more rich in proportion to the dry land, than the valley of
the Nile is in proportion to the adjoining wastes of sand.
The same, though in an inferior degree, may be said of
the permanent accumulations of fresh water — those that
are inhabited generally by a few, and visited occasionally by a
few more, of the swimming birds. They not only nourish a
vast number of small animals in the water itself, but they
fertilize the banks, and render them productive of animals as
well as of plants. Therefore, taking the whole of the swim-
ming birds, we may say that they are more abundantly and
securely provided for than any others of the feathered tribes.
They are also more free from casualties ; for among sea birds
there are fewpreyers — predatory quadrupeds there are, of course,

244 NATATOKES.

none ; and though in the lakes and rivers, some of the more
voracious fishes do capture a bird now and then, the number
so captured is small there, and there is seldom any such cap-
ture on the high seas.

Natural powers are always so much in excess in propor-
tion to the scope that there is for their operation, that they
instantly supply any blank that may be occasioned by what^
because we know not its cause, we call contingency. But still
there is no waste ; and there is an exact proportion between
the energy of the powers and the average necessity that
there is for their operation. Accordingly, as the sea birds are
subject to fewer contingencies, their broods are less numerous
in proportion. Those which dabble on the shores are exposed
to more foes and contingencies. The common teal has as
many as twelve in a brood, and the common wild duck
eighteen. These breed on the margins of fresh-water lakes^
in countries rather temperate, and where there are many
destroyers. The fulmar petrel, which nestles in the clifi", and
skims the wide ocean for its food, only lays a single egg •
and yet, the fulmar is, perhaps, the most numerous of
birds.

All the birds of this order can swim, and with many of them
swimming is the principal motion ; but there are many of them
that fly more than they swim ; and others which walk freely^
rapidly, and gracefully. Their food is on the surface, in the
volume of the clear water, at the bottom in the ooze, and along
the beach, and in whichsoever of those places it is to be
found, or of whatsoever it consists, then* organization adapts
them for procuring it in the easiest and most successful
manner.

The under part of all of them is difierently constructed from
that of land birds. The breast bone and ribs extend along
the whole of that part which is in the water ; and thus,
that part of them does not move in the act of breathing,
but remains perfectly steady, and of the same shape. If the
under part were moveable during that operation, the expan-
sion would be impeded by the weight of the body, which

SWIMMING BIRDS.

245

would have to be raised at every inspiration ; and the feathers
would be opened by the distension of the skin ; therefore, they
would breathe with difficulty, and the water would penetrate
the feathers. They are thus ribbed as the lower part of a
ship is, and any change which the form of their bodies under-
goes while they are swimming, takes place in the portion
which is out of the water.

But though the under parts of all of them may thus be
compared to the hulls of vessels, they are not all of the same
form. They are fashioned to the kind of motion that they
are to have in the water, and also to that in the air, or on the
land. If the principal action be to remain floating and dab-
bling, the lower part of the body is a punt ; if they are to get
rapidly through the air, the body is narrowed backwards, like
that in the swift-winged land birds ; and if they are to shoot
along wholly immersed in the water, the fore part is pointed.
There is much to be learned from the study of their struc-
ture, in the shape of the body itself, in the feet, the wings,
and the bill, but we have space only to recommend to the
subject.

The number even of British birds in the order and the
diversity of their modes of life, render some subdivision neces-
sary, more especially in a short sketch, as the general notices
will save repetition with the individual. Perhaps the sub-
division most accordant with the habits of the birds is that of
Cuvier. But we shall alter the arrangement, so as to con-
clude with the pelagic or wide-sea birds. He makes four
families : divers, long-wings, entire-feet, and flat-hills. We
shall take the last of these second, and the second last, and
then we shall have :

1. Divers. — Birds, with the wings short and rounded, the
head generally small and produced, the legs placed far back
and acting wide from each other; and capable of getting
wholly under water, and making less or more progress in
motion while immersed.

2. Dabblers. — Birds with the bill flat and covered with a
sentient membrane, wings of moderate length, bodies punt-

y2

246 NATATORES.

shaped, finding part of their faod by dabbling in the ooze at
the bottoms of the shallows while the body is afloat.

3. Fishers. — Bu-ds with powerful wings, some of them
descending on their prey from a considerable height in the air,
and all of them having the feet so constructed as to walk up-
ward to the surface of the waters when they plunge below it
for their prey.

4. Skimmers. — Birds which glide along the surface of the
water, sometimes resting on the surface by means of their
feet, but generally using the wings, which are very long and
pointed.

DIYERS.

There are about fourteen British species, resident or visitant,
belonging to this division. The genera differ in their capacity
of flight, and the form of their bills, but they all agree in the
far backward position of the legs, the nearly erect position
which they must assume when they stand or walk upon the
ground, and the capacity of diving. Some of them have 'the
toes lobed like the coot, others have them fully webbed. When
they rest upon land, they generally do so on the whole length
of the tarsi, by which means they obtain an extensive base,
and the tightening of the tendons over the tarsal joints the
one way, and the tibial joints the other, gives great firmness
and stability. That mode of standing is not very common
among birds ; but many quadrupeds do it, and even man in
the rude state with the joints bent as a way of reposing, though
in our common standing or walking position the application of
the foot to the ground is the same. When the toes only
are on the ground, these birds balance themselves with
difficulty.

GREBES. {PodlcepS.)

This is a singular genus, having some resemblance to the
coot, yet differing in many of its characters. The bill is of

GREBES. 247

middle size, conical, pointed ; a little bent down at the tip of
the upper mandible, compressed in the whole of its length,
and hard and firm. The legs are placed far backwards and of
considerable length. The tarsal joints admitting of a slight
degree of oblique or rolling motion, the tarsi compressed, with
a margin on the thin edges, the toes much flattened, connected
at their bases by membrane, and with broad scolloped margins.
Tail altogether wanting. Wings short and rounded. The
foot, of which the following is a sketch, is a very singular in-

strument, and perhaps the best formed of any of the feet even
of swimming birds for getting through the water, and for
acting both as oar and rudder, when the bird is under the sur-
face. The bird does not paddle, but row, striking out both
feet at once, and turning them so that the flat side of the
tarsus and the webs of all the toes strike the water at the same
instant ; and, by means of the rolling motion, the stroke can
be given obliquely in any direction. To construct a paddle
that could act wholly in the water, upon the model of the
grebe's foot, would be a vast acquisition in the art of propelling
vessels.

When on the surface, the grebes swim swiftly and beauti-
fully, and under water they use their wings in swimming ;
and their motions resemble those of frogs. The feet are placed
wide, and they are recovered with the edge turned, as rowers
*' feather" their oars. The birds have the most perfect com-
mand of the water. They can take wing from it, alight in it,
dash along the surface heedless of wave or foam, dive, shoot

248 NATATORES.

along below, come up again, and play about just as tbey list.
They are, perhaps, also, the most completely waterproof of all
the feathered tribes. There is never a humid feather, or the
least trace of wet upon a grebe, unless there be a dead feather
or a wounded place, even though it has been driving about for
an hour under water. In the course of its under water excur-
sions it comes up to breathe, but only for an instant. It need
hardly be added, that all the grebes dive with their eyes open,
because on account of the hardness of their bills they can prey
only by sight ; and their motions under the water, although
playful in appearance, are not play, but the regular business
of finding their food.

That food consists of the spawn and fry of fishes, water
beetles, and other insects, Crustacea and mollusca, and some-
times, it is said, of vegetable substances. They are also said
to pull out and swallow their own feathers, as soon as they
feel them beginning to decay. In this country they inhabit
the fresh waters, at least the resident ones do, and only resort
to the shore when they are frozen out ; but salt and fresh
water are equally indifferent to them ; and they sometimes
are entangled in fishing nets at the depth of two or three
fathoms. Those which are more marine in their habits, build
their nests in holes on the shore ; and the more inland ones
form large but rude nests of aquatic plants close by the water.
The eggs are usually three or four. There is not much differ-
ence in the plumage and appearance of the sexes. Grebes are
generally plump and fat from the abundance of their food, and
their agility in the capture of it ; but their flavour is oily and
rank. There are five British species, one visitant and four
residents.

THE RED-NECK GREBE. [PodicepS TUbricollis.)

This species is rather rare, and has hitherto been met with
only in the winter. It is thicker and less handsome in shape
than any of the others. Its length is about seventeen inches,

THE CRESTED GREBE. 249

and its weight a pound and a half. Feet, except the insides
of the tarsi, which have a yellowish tinge, dusky, bill the same
at the tip, yellowish at the base, irides hazel, naked space
round the eye brownish black. Upper parts brownish black,
with the secondary quills and a part of the base of the pri-
maries white. The feathers on the nape a little produced,
forming the rudiment of a crest. The cheeks and throat
grey ; the breast reddish chestnut ; the rest of the under part
white, with a fine satin gloss, and some obscure dusky mot-
tlings on the sides and flanks. The female has nearly the
same plumage as the male, but the young want the reddish
colour on the breast, and have the colour on the upper
part paler. This species eats the seeds of aquatic plants.
It may be a native, as there is nothing to induce grebes to
migrate northward in summer; and as all the other species
are resident. The shortness of the wings of these birds
would not, however, prevent them from migrating, because
they could both repose and feed upon the water; and their
wings are not shorter than those of some of the regularly

THE CRESTED GREBE. [PodicepS CriStatUS.)

The crested grebe, though not a very common bird, is
found in various parts of the country. It breeds in the fresh-
water pools, but is sometimes found on the shores. Its nest
is formed of a large bunch of reeds and other dry aquatic
plants, placed near and sometimes actually on the water,
though still hidden among the reeds and other tall herbage,
and not detached or floating, unless loosened and set adrift by
the rising of the water or some other accident after it is con-
structed. Indeed, a bird can no more build a nest on the
water than a man could so build a ship. If the grebe could
nestle under water, and build there of materials heavier than
that fluid, the task might be accomplished; but on the sur-
face of the water, it is not possible. The eggs are four in

250 NATATORES.

number, about the same size as those of the common pigeon,
and of a white colour. Some caution is requisite in judging*
of the colour of grebes' eggs. They are all white when laid ;
but they are soon soiled by the feet of the birds, to which a
portion of the softer mud and slime of the water adheres, and
thus they are soon tinted of a greenish or brownish colour,
but that colour is a stain, and not the natural tint of the
eggs. The birds are very seldom seen on the wing ; indeed
they are not much seen in any way, as they breed in the sides
of the beds of reeds next the water, and are generally either
fishing or concealed among these.

The crested grebe is much larger than the red-necked
one. The length is about twenty-two inches, the spread of
the wings more than thirty, and the weight from two to three
pounds. The female is rather less than the male and has a
shorter crest.

The bill is about two and a half inches in length, dull red at
the base, and pale brown along the exterior of the upper
mandible and at the tip. The irides and naked circle round
the eyes are crimson, the legs and feet dusky black, with a
yellowish tinge on the inside of the former. The naked
stroke from the gape to the eye crimson in the breeding
season, and dusky black at other times. Crown of the head
and crest, which is divided into two rounded lobes, dusky
black ; cheeks white, with a dark streak from behind the eye
to the crest ; ear tufts, which form a sort of short ruff, rusty,
deeply bordered with black. General colour of the upper
part dusky brown, with the secondary quills and part of the
bend of the wing white. Chin dusky brown, and all the rest
of the under part silvery white, with an exquisite satin gloss.
The texture of their feathers is as fine as their lustre, and
they have the advantage of not being easily ruflaed, so that
in countries where the birds are more abundant than they
appear to be with us, that part of the skin is used as an
article of ornamental dress. Besides being smaller than the
male, and having the crest shorter, the female has all the

THE HORNED GEEBE. 251

colours paler. The young, in their first plumage, are without
the crest and ear tufts, and have the sides of the head marked
with waving lines of dusky brown.

Crested grebes are very industrious and successful fishers,
and destroy vast quantities of prey in those places which they
frequent. They also feed much, at the times when they are
on the shores, upon the fry of white fish ; and they also eat
great numbers of the smaller Crustacea — shrimps, prawns,
and small crabs. Specimens are not easily procured, as the
rapidity with which they dive renders the shooting of them
difficult.

THE HORNED GREBE. {PodlCepS COVnutUS.)

This species is less common than the former, though,
like that, it is seldom seen in proportion to its numbers. It
is a smaller bird, but better winged in proportion to its
length. The length is about fourteen inches, and the extent
of the wings more than two feet. Bill only about an inch
long, but very stout, reddish at the base, dusky in the other
parts except the tip, which is greenish grey. Irides with a
double circle, the inner crimson, the outer white ; naked part
round the eye white, naked space from the eye to the gape
crimson (in the breeding season). Crown of the head and
crest, which is divided and the lobes pointed and called horns,
black, ruff chestnut, passing into black, and both that and the
crest tinged with deep green. Upper part brownish black,
point of the neck and breast rust colour, sides and flanks the
same paler, belly white; young without the crest and ruff,
colour on the upper part more inclining to brown, streak from
the bill to the eye dull white, bill without the reddish tinge.
The red on the lore or naked space between the gape and
eye, and that on the basal part of the bill, are the peculiar
tints of the breeding season. The double circle of the iris is
the invariable distinctive character of this species. The nest
is in places similar to that of the former, and the habits of the
birds are nearly the same. The eggs are also the same in

252 NATATOEES.

number and colour till they are soiled by the feet of the
bird.

THE EARED GKEBE. {PodlCCpS auritUS.)

This is a smaller species than the former, being about two
inches shorter and three inches less in the expanse of the
wings. The most remarkable distinction between the two
species is in the form of the bill. The bill of this one appears
to turn upwards at the tip, in consequence of the upper man-
dible being very straight there, and the under one turning
much upward ; the culmen and tip are also much paler than
in the last species. The head, nape, and all the upper parts,
sooty black, with some obscure brownish mottlings on the
scapulars and upper part of the back ; the sides are chestnut
brown, and the under part glossy w-hite. The coronal tufts
(ears) which rise from over and behind the eyes, and are
quite separated by the black on the head, are pale chestnut,
inclining to orange. The ruff, which is very short compared
with that on the other crested species, is dull chestnut near
the eye, and black at the extremity. The irides are scarlet,
and the streak from the gape to the eye crimson, at least in
the breeding season. The form of the bill, the colour of the
ear tufts, and the whole form of the head, give to this species
a look of fierceness which it does not show in its habits. As
is the case with most of the others, this species is very gene-
rally distributed, at least over the northern hemisphere ; but
not very abundant in any place, and not much seen unless
looked for intentionally, and sometimes not even then, though
search be made not only in the places where it is likely to be,
but in those where it really is.

THE LITTLE GKEBE. [Podweps nmior.)

A pair of little grebes with their nest and eggs are repre-
sented on the frontispiece to this volume. They are birds
which are, perhaps, more generally distributed than any of

THE LITTLE GREBE.

253

the others, though like them they inhabit seclusions of lakes
and pools, in a quiet and unobtrusive manner.

The number of local names which are given to this species,
such as "dab-chick," '* ducker," and a variety of others, is
sufficient to show how generally it is distributed. It is not so
common in those upland parts of the country where the mar-
gins of the waters are in general destitute of cover ; but it is
to be met with in all the rivers, lakes, streams, and large pools,
in the richer parts. It is not, however, very generally seen,
and when seen it instantly dives and disappears, as it makes
under water for the cover of the reeds and other tall aquatic
plants, where it hides itself, not in the herbage, but immersed
in the water, and with the bill only above the surface for respi-
ration. It is a handsome little bird, and very quick in its
motions under the water, perhaps more so than any other bird.
It is gentle in its disposition, and may be tamed and kept in a
garden pond, in which it dives and plays about, heedless of
the number of spectators that may be around it. It is very
voracious, and consumes a vast number of fry and small fishes,
as well as of aquatic insects ; and failing these, it eats the
seeds of aquatic plants.

The length of the little grebe is about ten inches, the
stretch of the wings about sixteen, and the weight varying
from five to seven ounces. The nest is constructed like
those of the other species, of a great number of aquatic
leaves, forming a bunch or little hillock on or near the sur-
face of the water, but concealed in the cover of the reeds
unless these are removed by accident. Indeed, the nest is as
often placed on a small "hummock" in the herbage, as on
the support of the herbage itself; but it is generally so placed,
as that, in case of the attack of an enemy, the bird can in-
stantly take the water ; though if an enemy does not appear,
the female is a resolute sitter. The eggs are five or six, of a
white colour when laid, but soon becoming darker from being
soiled by the feet of the bird. About the time that the
last one is deposited, there are as many shades of colour as
eggs.

VOL. II. Z

254

NATATOKES.

In describing the colours of the eggs of birds, whatever
may be the species, the circumstance of their being recent or
not should be attended to, especially in the case of those
birds which are the most apt to soil their feet in seeking for
their food; and also in eggs which, in the absence of the
parents, are exposed to the action of the sun, or even of the
light — for light alone is sufficient to alter the tint of some
eggs.

Grebes are among those birds that cover their eggs when
they leave the nest to feed ; and it has been said that they do
so for the purpose of concealment from enemies. Those who
make such assertions forget that the rupestral quadrupeds
which are most likely to destroy the eggs of the grebes, es-
pecially of the little grebe, do not hunt wholly, or even prin-
cipally, by sight, and that therefore the covering would be
no concealment. That the birds sit upon the eggs for the
purpose of concealing them, is the fair and legitimate con-
tinuation of the prudential hypothesis ; but it is rather more
rational, and more in accordance with the fact, to let the
weightier reason lead the way. The bird covers the eggs
from the same instinct by which she sits on them — and then,
not from any foreknowledge that they would be addled if
exposed to the cold air, or from any foreknowledge whatever,
but simply because it is her nature. It is also sometimes said,
that the grebe collects so large a quantity of materials, and
places them in such immediate contact with the water, in order
that the heat, occasioned by their fermentation, may assist that
of her own body in hatching the eggs. Now it is true that
vegetables, which have been cut down with the sap in them, do,
when closely packed together and moistened, produce a consi-
derable degree of heat; but it would puzzle a conjuror to warm
himself by a bundle of dry leaves, put together in the same
manner as the nest of the grebe, even though he were to launch
it on the Atlantic.

Those ^'^ feelings for a purpose,'^ which persons of limited
knowledge and yet more limited understanding, are so prone
to assume upon all points connected with the economy of

THE LITTLE GREBE. 255

animals; and the zeal, often the fierceness, with which the
"follower" labours to destroy the purpose of the "leader,"
and substitute another purpose in its place, are so perfectly
analogous to the gratuitous fierceness with which one igno-
rant nation wars against the idols of another, and in favour of
its own, even though more rude or ridiculous, — so like the
hammer of Thor smashing the thunderbolts of Jupiter, or the
sages of one part of ancient Egypt girding on their armour,
and going forth to overturn the altars of the dog so that they
might set up those of the monkey, or the wars of stone against
block, or block against stone, among the American Indians,
— that it is impossible not to impute them to the same
cause — the fumbling of the imbecile mind in the darkness of
ignorance. If the grebe has a, purpose — a scheme planned by
forethought, with a view to a certain end, in the covering up of
her eggs when she quits the nest — then, by all means, let it be
for coction rather than for concealment. Let her proceed by
chemistry, not by craft, for if she must needs be made " a man
of," (for that is the tendency of the assertion either way,) by
all means make her a philosopher rather than a smuggler, as it
costs no more, and is more creditable both to the bird and the
bestower.

This same " assumption of a purpose," is one of the most
important points in the whole range of natural history, espe-
cially to the uninformed and the young, for whom chiefly these
pages are intended ; and therefore the better-informed reader
will perhaps pardon me if I add one or two sentences more.

If we ascribe purpose to animals, what more can we ascribe
to man ? and how can we refuse it to plants and stones ? It
is unnecessary to draw the conclusion, for it stands broadly
declared in the premises ; if those premises are true, then there
is no immortal spirit in man, and no Creator of the world.
The purposes of matter are in matter itself,- — and all else is a
delusion.

That would be a gloomy and hopeless state of things ; but
as it is the irresistible conclusion from the premises, if these
have been fairly assumed, gloomy though it be, it must never-

256 "" NATATOEES.

theless be true ; and if true, we must accede to it manfully,
notwithstanding its gloom : for he who would not relinquish
even mind and immortality for the truth, is unworthy of the
one or the other. Let us see — coolly and calmly.

How do we know the purposes of our fellow-men ? Is it
before they in some way reveal them to us, by word or by ac-
tion ? No. And do the words always set forth the purpose, or
does the end always answer the forethought ? Assuredly not,
otherwise there could be no deception and no disappointment ;
and yet the most cautious among us meet with enough of
both. We know nothing of the purposes of men farther than
they tell us, and we have no means of finding out whether
they tell us all, or if what they tell us be true. And it is
well for us that such is the case ; for if all the purposes of
mankind were revealed, even for a single day, it would so bring
them into collision, that there would be a general massacre,
from each one striving to defeat the purpose of another. In
tliis case, " ignorance" truly " is bliss," and knowledge would
be misery — destruction. This, by the way, is the very species
of knowledge which is so beautifully clothed in allegorical
language in the scripture account of " the fall ;" a doctrine, of
which there are gleams in the mythologies of all the more
enlightened nations.

"But, we find out the purpose from the event?''' We find
our own opinion respecting it, and nothing more ; and the
soundness of that opinion depends on the extent and careful-
ness of our experience. If the young grebes are hatched, the
eggs have neither been chilled for the want of fermentative
heat, nor taken by enemies, and so both hypotheses are
equally borne out, and neither of them is to the purpose. All
the actions of animals are physiological, taking place under
certain circumstances, but not in consequence of any thing in
the least like forethought purpose on the part of the animals.
Were that the case, we should have the unhatched chicken,
nay, the chicken, before its grandmother were hatched, settling
whether it should be black or white, and whether a March bird
or an autumnal one.

THE LITTLE GREBE. 257

Therefore we cannot know, neither can we rationally believe,
any thing of purpose or forethought in animals ; and when we
incautiously express ourselves to that effect, we, in truth,
do nothing more than put ourselves iixthe stead of the animal,
and reason how we should have planned and conducted matters,
if placed under the same circumstances.

Nay, when we consider the matter, there is no forethought
even in us ; for though we form plans for future execution,
those plans are all made up of that which has been previously
known and experienced ; or if they are not, the chances are
greatly against the probability of their execution. Though
endowed with mind, we have no knowledge of the future,
except from its presumed similarity to the past ; and, unless
we are taught, we display little, if any thing, beyond animal
instincts. But the animal acts without any example or in-
struction ; and though some are solitary and others gregarious,
there is not a single authenticated instance of one of them
schooling another, or of any one standing in need of such
schooling, in order to perform all that it is the habit of the
species, in a state of nature, to perform. When we train
them, the case is different; and in proportion as the animals
are gregarious or social in a state of nature, they may be the
more easily trained : but in training, the art and the purpose
are ours, not theirs.

To suppose otherwise, is to suppose that mere matter knows
its own nature and its own history, a degree of knowledge
which we feel does not belong even to mind itself. We know
not of ourselves whence our minds came, when they were
created, or whether they were in being anterior to the organi-
zation of our bodies. Knowledge of that nature is an attribute
of Godhead — can be obtained only in so far as it is revealed ;
and though we can feel that that which is revealed is accordant
with our wishes, and highly gratifying to our hopes, and
though we can judge of the credibility of the witnesses to the
revelation, we cannot, in the nature of things, demonstrate the
abstract truths that are revealed, by any process of merely
human reason.

z2

258 NATATORES.

But I must leave the subject, earnestly recommending this
short digression to my young readers, whom it may (if they
follow it out in their own thoughts) assist in rendering the study
of nature, in a sound and philosophical manner, wholesome,
instructive, and pleasant.

DiVEKs. iColymbus.)

The general resort of this genus of birds is the sea, though
they, especially in the young state, occasionally resort to the
mouths of rivers and the inland lakes. They bear a consider-
able resemblance to the grebes, both in their structure and
their habits, and therefore are naturally enough placed conse-
cutively to them even in a natural arrangement ; but they
differ in so many particulars, that they cannot with propriety
be included in the same genus.

Their general characters as a genus are — the bill of mode-
rate length, straight, compressed in its whole length, and very
sharp pointed; the nostrils, at the base, oval, and half closed by
a membranous valve ; the legs articulated far backward, with
the tarsi compressed ; the three front toes very long, and con-
nected for their whole length by a membranous web, and the
hind toe very short, with the web loose and merely rudimen-
tal ; the wings are short in proportion to the size of the bird ;
and the tail is very short and rounded. The entire webs
of the feet, and the possession of a tail, are the most
obvious external characters in which they differ from the
grebes.

As is the case with the grebes, the water is the proper and
peculiar province of the divers, on the surface of which, or
immersed in its volume, they have as much command of
themselves as any land birds have in the air. The water is to
them much the same as the air is to the swifts, and even
more so, for the divers repose on the water, which the swifts
cannot do in the air. They do not come to the land, except in
the breeding time, and even then they come as little land-
ward as possible. Small islets, jutting points, and head-

DIYEES.

259

lands, (places which have more sea than land in their hori-
zon,) are those upon which they breed. They are exposed
to few enemies or casualties, and therefore their broods are
not numerous : their eggs are not more than two, rather large
for the size of the birds, as the young are so far grown when
they come out of the shell, that they are almost instantly able
to take the water.

These birds are, indeed, much more independent of con-
tingencies than any of those that make the air their chief
element; and generally, than their brethren of the waters.
The eagle can keep her place on the rock during any storm;
but there are states of the atmosphere in which she is not able
to keep the sky; and if those states were to continue, the
eagle, notwithstanding the extent to which she can endure
want, would at last die of starvation. There have been in-
stances of eagles being reduced to such extremities, that they
have gnawed a portion, not only of the feathers, but of the
flesh and bones of their own wings. The tempest, too, sweeps
the swallows and swifts from the sky, and the far-ranging
petrels from the face of the ocean; and the dabbling sea
fowl at those times huddle together in the sheltered creeks;
and even the gull and the cormorant are fain to take their
passage inland.

But when all else that breathes the free air of heaven are
quailing before the tempest, and in some way or other con-
fessing, by their subdued action, the commotion of that element
upon which they so immediately depend for life, the divers
are in the full tide of enjoyment; and the only effort that
they have to make, is to keep themselves at sea : for if they
drift to land, they are as helpless as a rudderless vessel on a
lee-shore.

In those times of elemental anarchy, the waters of the
ocean, to the mean depth of the swell of the waves, that is,
about as far below the " trough of the sea" as the ridge
rises above it, are in turmoil and agitation, and all the
fishes, and other small marine animals that are caught in that
swelling surface, soon lose command of themselves. The

260 NATATOKES.

fishes have but one grand swimming instrument, the tail;
and though their fins and scales hold on, and assist the
action of that up to a certain point of agitation in the water,
they are at last overcome, and driven at the mercy of the
surge. That is proved by the fact, that after violent gales,
when the fry of any particular species of fish are numerous
in the offing, they are cast ancle and even knee deep, on the
lee-shore: but if the diver is "taken cross" by the surge
upon one foot, he has the other to counteract; and if on
both, he has still the wings. The action of the four extre-
mities, too, enables the bird to " get down" to the smooth
water to rest itself, while it can ascend and breathe in the lee
of the ridge. To see them from a promontory, against which
the air and the sea are setting full wind and tide, and drifting
myriads of the fry of herrings, and every other surface fish, is
(good footing and heart and hand braced to hold on) no inglo-
rious sight. They dash along the surface, they dart under it,
they bounce up again, they bore through the ridge, and when
the w^ave breaks in foam and thunder over them, and one
would naturally conclude that, if they are not dashed to atoms,
they are buried for ever in the deep, — up they spring to the
surface of the unbroken water, farther from the land. The
breaker indeed always finds them facing it; and while it is
falling, they plunge and get to sea, safe from the coil of
water on the surface. Taken with all its circumstances, it is
one of the most spirit-stirring displays in the whole of the
animal economy.

There are three species of divers, resident or visitant, upon
the British shores.

THE NOKTHEEN DivEE. {Colymhus glaciolis.)

This species is often considered to be merely a winter
visitant ; and there is no doubt that it is only such upon the
more southerly shores of our island, though every analogy
leads to the conclusion, that it breeds in the more remote
islands. It breeds rather inland, and in the most sheltered

THE NORTHERN DIVER. 261

and secluded places ; and as none of the birds rise or show
themselves, and many of those northern morasses are not
very easily explored, it may breed in numbers without being
seen.

The northern diver, or ember goose, as it is sometimes
called, is a very large and powerful bird, and withal of very
vigorous wing. The individuals of course vary in size, but
specimens have been found about two feet and a half in
length, more than five feet in the stretch of the wings, and
weighing twelve or fourteen pounds. Thus, though formed
for another kind of diving, it is not much less powerful, if
size and wing be elements of power, than the eagle itself. As
is the case with most large birds, when they are merely pass-
ing from place to place, it flies high ; and that may be one of
the reasons for its not being seen in its passage between the
breeding haunt and the sea.

The bill, in the larger specimens, exceeds four inches in
length, is black in the colour, and very strong. The upper
mandible bends very slightly down on the culmen ; the lower
one, which is channelled and enlarged at the middle, bends
much more upwards, giving the whole bill an appearance of
being turned up. All the divers, and also the grebes, have
the bill of that form, which no doubt assists them in raising
their prey out of the water.

The head and neck are black; the latter with two white
collars, thickly mottled with small black lines. A portion of
the side of the neck, below the entire black, marked in the
same manner as the collars. The whole of the upper part
black, thickly studded with white spots, as if snow-flakes had
fallen upon it. The rump and tail mottled like the collars,
but with a greater proportion of black, and a tinge of dull
yellow. All the under parts, in the mature bird, pure white.
The young have the upper plumage brownish, with grey spots
and margins ; grey on the cheeks, and the neck grey and
dusky, with the collars less or more shown according to their
progress to maturity : but they are not perfect till the third
year. The eggs are two, of a dark brown colour, with

262 NATATORES.

black spots; they are about the size of those of the com-
mon goose. The note of the bird is a loud bawl. From its
size and strength it is perhaps the most powerful in the water
of all birds with which we are acquainted. Besides the al-
most impenetrable covering of feathers, this bird is coated
under the skin with a thick layer of fat ; indeed an accumu-
lation of that substance, which is a very imperfect conductor
of heat, and therefore well calculated for preserving uni-
formity of temperature, and a consequent healthy state, is
common to most warm-blooded animals that live much in the
water.

THE BLACK-THROATED DIVER. {ColymhuS aVCticUS.)

This, like the former, is a rare bird, and rather a straggler
than a regular visitant upon the English shores ; but it breeds
upon the shores of the secluded lakes and pools in some of the
more remote islands.

The length of this species is between two feet and two feet
and a half, and the breadth from three feet to three feet eight,
but it is more slender, and not so heavy in porportion to its
length, as the northern diver. The bill is more than three
inches long, rounded and rather blunt at the tip. In the
mature bird, the forehead has a stripe down the front of the
neck ; the back and rump are black. The sides of the neck,
the scapulars, and coverts, thickly spotted with white. The
crown and back of the neck grey ; the quills dusky ; the tail
black, the feet dusky brown with a pale tinge on the inner
sides ; the under part white. The young, like those of the
last species, do not receive the mature plumage till the third
year. The under part is at first all dusky brown ; the grey on
the head, and the black marks on the sides of the neck, ap-
pear the second year ; and the black on the throat, and the
black and white on the back and scapulars, appear the third
year. Birds in all the three plumages, and in the interme-
diate stages, are seen together, so that the bird has sometimes
been described as three distinct species. Its habits are nearly

GUILLEMOTS. 263

the same as those of the former species, only it perhaps is more
abundant in one or another of its plumages.

THE RED-THEOATED DiVEK. [Colymhus septemptrionalis.)

A figure of this species, in the mature plumage, is given on
the plate opposite. It is the most handsome British bird of
the genus ; only a little less in weight than the black-throated,
but more slender in proportion. The under part is white in
all the changes of its plumage. The upper part is dusky the
first year, becomes mottled in the second, and in the third year,
the red on the front of the neck appears. It is, like the others,
rather rare upon the southern shores, though it sometimes
makes its appearance in the estuary of the Thames ; but
it breeds in Orkney and Shetland, and also in some of the
western isles, much more plentifully than either of the other
species. The lovers of white bait may be thankful that
this bird comes rarely, and in the winter season ; for it is a very
bold, active, and successful fisher, and, heedless of the fulmina-
tions from the Mansion-house, the black looks of the Conserva-
tors of the river, or the lachrymant palates (for spoiled palates
weep like spoiled children, and for similar reasons) of the high-
tasted Ichthyophagi of the metropolis, it would sadly thin the
numbers of those much-extolled fishes.

Around the shores, and in the bays of Orkney and Shetland,
these birds capture an incredible number of small fishes ; and,
true to the instinct of nature, in consequence of which the wild
animals feel changes of the weather before they become ap-
parent to the senses of man, it screams or howls, or whatever
else its note may be termed, in anticipation of that storm which
is to bring the fishes more within its power, even before
the fishermen see any signs of danger, accustomed as they are
to heed all the appearances of the sea and the sky.

GUILLEMOTS. {Uria.)

The guillemots are not quite so handsomely shaped as the
divers. They are thicker in proportion to their length,

264 NATATORES.

not apparently so fit for getting swiftly through the water, not
so long in the wings even in proportion to their diminished
length, and still less fitted for walking. Accordingly, they do
not breed so far inland as the divers, but rear their broods in
the holes of the rocks, or even on the bare tops of the rocks,
immediately by the sea, and are seldom, if ever, found on the
inland lakes. They are much more abundant on all the British
shores, especially the more southern shores, than the divers ;
but, like those, they lay only one egg for each brood.

The characters of the genus are — the bill of moderate size,
stout, straight, compressed, sharp at the tip, the tomia Avith
incurvated margins, and a distinct notch near the tip of
the upper mandible. The nostrils lateral, longitudinally cleft,
and half covered by a membrane of considerable breadth, which
is feathered. The legs short, placed far backward, the tarsi
slender, no hind toe, the three forward toes webbed. They
have some seasonal change of plumage, but the sexes do not
differ much from each other, neither do the young diflTer much
in appearance from the mature birds when in their winter
dress.

THE FOOLISH GUILLEMOT. (UtUI troiU.)

The foolish guillemot is about eighteen inches long, twenty-
eight in the expansion of the wings, and from a pound and a
half to a pound and three quarters in weight. In appearance
it is a heavy lumpy bird, of an oval form in the body, and of
nearly equal thickness at both ends. The neck is short and
thick as compared with the lithe and elegant necks of the
grebes and divers, but part of the thickness arises from the mass
of feathers with which it is clothed. Its head is, however,
much produced, and its bill pointed, so that it rows along the
surface, or glides through below, with very considerable
velocity. The bill is black externally, and orange in the inside,
and it appears twice as long when opened as when closed.
The reason of that is, the feathers upon the membrane which
covers the nostrils. These are continued to the middle of

THE FOOLISH GUILLEMOT. 265

the gape, so that while the bill is only an inch and a half from
the feathers at the apparent base of the upper mandible, it is
three inches from the tip to the gape. The head, neck and
throat, upon which the feathers are remarkably smooth, and
close as well as thick, are of a dull blackish brown. The
remainder of the upper part brownish black, the primary quills
paler at the base, and the secondaries with some white at the
tips. The whole of the under part pure white, extending up-
wards on the fore shoulder round the turn of the closed wing.
The colours now mentioned are those of the summer or
breeding plumage ; the only difference in the external appear-
ance of the sexes being that the female is smaller than the
male. In winter, the blackish brown fades to white on the
front of the neck, the throat, chin and cheeks, but with occa-
sionally a few dark streaks remaining on the latter, and in the
progress of the change the changeable part appears more or
less mottled. The black on the rest of the upper part at the
same time fades to a dull blackish grey; so that, if we were
to judge from colour alone, the summer and winter dresses
would appear to be different birds. There is another circum-
stance that sometimes helps to increase the confusion. The
young have the winter plumage ; and they have it before the
old ones have put off the livery of summer, so that it is possi-
ble to find both males and females in each of the different
plumages at the same time.

There seems a sort of anomaly about the migration of these
birds ; they are said to move north at the season when most
other birds are moving towards the south ; at all events they
quit the southern parts of the British shores in the latter part
of the season, and a few are found about the northern islands
all the winter over. No doubt their winter dress is much
better able to bear the cold, at least the part on the upper sur-
face of their bodies, than the summer dress ; and there is little
difference in the temperature of the sea at the two ends of the
island.

The fertility of the sea in food suited to diving bii'ds, may
be the cause of their partiality for the north; and the want of

VOL. II. 2 A

266 NATATORES.

suitable places for their multitudes to nestle and breed, may
be the cause why they disperse themselves southward in the
summer.

It appears that the northern part of the Atlantic is better
supplied with food for diving birds than those portions of it
that are farther to the south. Much as they differ in form and
size, the food of the common black whale and the guillemot
more nearly resemble each other than one who has not re-
flected upon the subject would be apt to suppose. They both
subsist upon small animals that are found at no great distance
from the surface, and, as we have already said, the accumula-
tion of those animals is near the polar ice. But the guillemots
l)reed on the cliflTs of rocks, and there is small scope for
their nesting in those arctic latitudes, unless they were to
range so far as to be at too great a distance from their food.
There are also small fishes upon our shores in the summer
which take to the deep water in the winter ; so that these birds
find both nesting grounds and food with us at that season.
Further, the current in which the great float of animal matter
is contained, must, in consequence of the freezing of the nor-
thern part of the sea, shift as far to the southward in winter
as the sea freezes, and thus, while the diving birds, who do not
at that time want to come to the shores, move northward
to more abundant food, that food is moved southward to
meet them. These hints may not meet the argument upon
the anomaly, but they may, perhaps, lead to the data by
which the question, which is certainly a curious one, may be
decided.

Guillemots breed upon the cliffy parts of all our shores.
They cannot be said to nestle, for they construct not even
the rudiment of a nest. The female deposits her one egg
upon the ledge or in the hole of a rock, sits very closely upon
it, and is in general fed by the male. The egg is large, and
beautifully marked with a variety of colours ; but these
colours are seldom the same in any two eggs. The birds
rise with reluctance ; and if, when a number of them are
sitting, (for they are social in the breeding time,) they be

THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. '267

forced up by any alarm, many of the eggs tumble down and
are broken.

THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. {Uvia gvylle.)

This is a smaller bird than the former, and it displays, to a
greater extent, the change to a less deeply-tinted plumage,
which the birds that winter in the north undergo in that
rigorous climate. It is proportionably thicker and shorter in
the body ; but the neck and bill are more produced and
slender. The length is about fourteen inches, the breadth
twenty-two, and the weight fourteen ounces. When in the
summer plumage, the whole colour is a brownish black, less
intense upon the wings than the other parts, and having a
large patch of white on the coverts. The bill, which is an incli
and a half long, slender, and without any notch in the upper
mandible, is black; the inside of the gape reddish orange; the
feet vermilion ; the irides hazel.

In winter, the plumage depends something upon the
latitude. Those that remain on the northern shores of
Britain, are white on the under part, and mottled with black
and white on the upper; but in the higher latitudes they
become entirely white. The plumage of the young birds re-
sembles that of the old ones in winter. It is more mottled
with black in the southerly than in the northerly breeding
places ; but whether the young are entirely white in their
first plumage in any latitude, has not been observed. It does
not appear that either of the changes of the plumage is the
effect of a moult ; for if that were the case the birds would,
with the exception of a few months in summer and a few
weeks in winter, have to be continually moulting. As soon
as the cold weather begins to set in, the white begins to ap-
pear, and gradually extends itself over the feathers, which
were previously black : and it is probable, that as these
feathers become white, they become more dry in their sub-
stance, which will render them still better protection against
the cold. The young feathers continue to grow in winter be-
tween the old ones; and about the turn of the year — the end

268 NATATORES.

of January or February — the dark points of them appear from
under the white ones. It is probable that then the white
feathers begin to moult off; for we have no fact from which we
can conclude that pale feathers in the common plumage of birds,
ever turn to dark ones ; and analogy — the analogy of all
nature — points to the opposite conclusion.

We must not confound these seasonal changes in the
general plumage of birds with the sexual, which take place
in particular portions of the plumage only, are most conspicu-
ous in the male birds, and bloom and fade with the breeding
season. These nuptial changes, whether they consist of new
and finer tints, produced feathers, or feathers which belong to
that season only, are no doubt results of that season ; but
they are not occasioned by it directly, but by its influence
upon another part of the organization of the bird ; and their
nuptial ornaments, in some cases, fade not only before the
winter begins to set in, but before the summer bird has
arrived at its maximum. The changes which take place in
the plumage of northern birds, such as the guillemots, may, on
the other hand, be considered as more immediately produced
by the seasons.

THE EOTCHE. {Mevgulus meJayioleucos.)

The common rotche, or " little black and white auk," is
still smaller than the black guillemot ; and though, like the
guillemots, an expert diver, it differs from them in many of
its characters. When it appears with us, it inhabits nearer
the shores than the divers and guillemots ; and as its bill is
less of a fishing spear than theirs, and more resembles the
bills of the Gallinidse, it is probable that its food is more lit-
toral, and, as such, more under the influence of the seasons.
At all events, its migration appears to depend upon or to be
modified by other causes. It visits the British shores in the
winter, and generally retires to more northerly places to breed.
In the summer plumage, the breast, belly, tips of the second-
ary quills, and a spot above the eye, are white : the rest of

THE ROTCHE.

269

the plumage is black. In winter, the throat, sides of the neck
and flanks, become white, though seldom entirely pure upon
our shores ; the black on the upper part also becomes greyish ;
and it mat/ become white in latitudes where the winter is
more severe and prolonged.

The length of the rotche is about nine inches, the extent of
the wings about sixteen, and the weight about five ounces ;
so that it is much better adapted for flight than the guille-
mots, and it accordingly spends much more of its time on the
wing. Its bill is only half the length of the head, very little
arched ; and from their resembling the bills of poultry, the bird
is presumed to feed upon small crabs, and other little animals,
that float near the surface. It breeds in the holes of rocks,
in which it deposits two eggs, which are of a spotless bluish
green colour.

Along the margin, and in the openings between the fields
and floes of the polar ice, the rotche is a very abundant, and
by no means an uninteresting, bird. It combines, with equal
facility, the three motions of flying, swimming, and diving,
though it does not appear to perform the latter to so great a
depth, or in water so troubled, as the guillemots and the
divers properly so called. It is found flying about in large
flocks ; these flocks are often captured in considerable num-
bers by the crews of ships upon distant northward voyages,
and they are much relished in those dreary seas, as not having
the rank and fishy flavour so general among the birds that are
found there. The crews of some of the discovery ships caught
them in vast multitudes, and made them into soup, which they
represented as more resembling hare soup than any thing
else.

These birds indeed form a curious feature in arctic orni-
thology ; for though they are decidedly sea birds, or perhaps,
to speak more strictly, ice birds, in their locality, they form a
sort of connecting link between the other sea birds and those
land birds which inhabit the northern mountains on the con-
fines of the ice and snow. They resemble these in the form
of their bills, and also in the flavour of their flesh ; and al-

2 A 2

270 NATATOKES.

though they seek their food in the same waters with the proper
divers, both the form of the bill and the flavour of the flesh
lead us to conclude that that food is different. That it really
is, has not been accurately ascertained ; but whatever it may
be, it must, from the great multitudes of the birds, and the
circumstance of their not migrating to any very great distance
southward, be very plentiful, and found at all seasons. The
circumstance of their moving southward in the winter, when
the other divers are supposed to move northward, is another
peculiarity in their character. Some of them remain on the
remoter shores of our more northerly islands to breed ; but the
number of these is small compared with those that are seen
during the winter ; the number of which is always greater in
proportion as the weather is more severe.

THE AUKS. {Alca.)

The birds of this genus live almost exclusively in the water,
and are not so much seen upon the wing, their wings being in
general small, and, in some of the species, not fit for the pur-
poses of flight. The characters are — the bill straight, flat-
tened, much curved at the tip ; both mandibles feathered for
the half of their lengths, the upper one hooked, and the under
with a sharp angular point acting against the hook ; the upper
mandible grooved nearly to the tip, and the nostrils lateral,
almost entirely covered with membrane, and hidden under the
feathers near the distal extremity of the feathered half of the
mandible. The legs are very short, placed iar backwards ;
furnished with three toes, all turned forward, and completely
connected by a web. As is the case with most sea birds that
remain in the cold latitudes, they are subject to seasonal
changes of plumage, though these can hardly be considered
as sexual, or depending on sexual causes ; and the plumage
of the two sexes differs little at any season. There are two
species which may be considered British birds, — the razor-bill,
■which is common on many parts of the coast, and the gi-eat

THE KAZOE-BILL. 271

auk, which appears in few localities, and is not so abundant
even in these.

THE RAZOR-BILL. {AIca torda.)

The size of this bird, when full grown, is about sixteen or
seventeen inches in length, twenty-seven in the spread of the
wings, and it weighs from twenty to twenty- two ounces. It
is a bird of the northern seas, but distributes itself along
the shores for the purpose of breeding, which it does in the
most lofty and precipitous rocks ; the single e^^, which is
white spotted with black, being deposited, without any nest,
upon those shelves and ledges of the rock which overhang the
sea. A question has been raised as to whether these and
other bu'ds, which place their eggs upon shelving rocks, do not
cement them by some means or other, so as to prevent them
from falling ; because, when those who visit such places lift the
eggs, they find some difficulty in again balancing them steadily
upon the rock. Now it may be stated as a universal habit
with all birds to turn their eggs during the process of incuba-
tion, and among domestic poultry, the goodness of a brood-
hen is estimated by the frequency with which she rolls about
the eggs under her ; and those hens which do not perform that
operation so diligently, are incapable of hatching a numerous
brood without addling some of the eggs. The sea birds, no
doubt, turn their single eg^ in a similar manner : which
would of course be incompatible with the operation of cement-
ing, even though the impossibility of that operation were not,
as it is, apparent enough upon other grounds. These single-
egg birds sit constantly during their incubation, the males
feeding them the while ; and if they are not forced up by some
alarm, on which occasions they are exceedingly clamorous
and agitated, they probably do not once quit the e^^ from the
time that it is dropped till the young bird breaks the shell.
The general means, therefore, by which the eg^ is made
to remain on the shelving ledge, is the pressure and adhesion
of the parent bird ; and when the birds are suddenly forced up^

2 72 >s'ATATORES.

numbers of the eggs, if they are abundant and the situation
very unstable, always fall down ; and the prevention of
that ftill, either by jostling the egg while leaving it, or by the
action of the wind in her absence, may be one of the reasons
why the female of these birds sits so constantly.

The razor-bills resort to their breeding situations in the
month of May. They nestle, or rather breed, higher on the
precipices than perhaps any other of the shelve birds, though
not on the flat summits of the rocky islets. The eggs are very
large, being about three inches in length ; and the inhabitants
of the cliffy places, where they are to be found, seek for them
in a very daring and even perilous manner. Taken simply,
they are not very palatable ; but the Orcadians, and other
inhabitants of the islands, dress them with salt, pepper,
and vinegar, and esteem them both a wholesome and a nutri-
tious mess. The birds themselves, even when young, are
rank and fishy, and can hardly be rendered tolerable by
the usual method of curing the rankness of sea birds, which is
burying them some time in vegetable mould. The number of
sea birds is so great in those northern places, and they are so
staple an article in the subsistence of the people, that a little
science would be well expended in investigating the best means
by which their rankness might be corrected Were that suc-
cessfully done, (and there is little doubt that it might be done,)
a great addition would be made, not only to the comfort of
tliose remote people, but to the commercial importance of their
wild localities, and to the general wealth of the country. A
hundred thousand tons of sea birds might be easily captured for
exportation every year, if they could be so treated as to be
made palatable ; and that at ten pounds a ton, or little more
than a penny a pound, would produce an annual revenue of a
million sterling : which is at least as well worth trying for
as many of the other projects upon which our Solons now
and then unprofitably squander their own wits and the funds
of others.

Soon after the breeding season, the old birds retire wholly
from our f-outhern shores, and generally from some of the

THE GREAT AUK.

273

northern ones ; or at all events, they spread themselves, and
are not found any where in such numbers as when they are
breeding. The young remain a little longer, and sometimes
winter in places where the old birds are seldom seen, at least
during one part of the season ; and that has occasioned some
confusion in the descriptions ; a confusion which is easily
avoided by a little attention to the different plumages.

In summer, the bill, which is two inches in the gape, has
five furrows in the upper mandible, and two in the lower, is
black, with a white band across the middle. The feet and
claws are black ; the irides chestnut brown ; and the gape
orange. The head, (except a narrow white stripe in front of
the eyes,) the hinder part of the neck, and the scapulars, are
black ; the throat and front of the neck brownish ; and all the
rest of the under parts, and also the tips of the secondary
quills, white. In the winter plumage, the throat, fore part
and sides of the neck, fade to white, and the black on the
upper part becomes dull and brownish. In both these plu-
mages the males and the females very nearly resemble each
other; but the young birds differ from both. In them, the bill
is much shorter and narrower than in the mature birds, and
without the furrows and the white band. The chin and part
of the throat are also mottled with white ; and the white stripe
in front of the eyes is not so well defined. Those characters
gradually alter, however, and the young bird may be traced
through all the gradations, especially those of the bill, which
are the most remarkable, up to the perfect character of
maturity.

THE GREAT AUK. [Alca wipennis.)

This is a much larger species, and inhabits much farther to
the north than the former. It is the Penguin, or wingless
bird of the northern hemisphere, and does not approach any
of the British shores excepting the most northerly and remote
ones, and these only for a month or six weeks in the heat of
summer. It appears early in May, and disappeai's again about

274 NATATORES.

the middle of June, and while it is on the coast of St. Kilda
and other remote and lonely places it is but seldom seen.

It never ventures far from the sea ; and it has not the means
of doing so, as it is altogether incapable of flight, and by no
means good at walking.

Its size is about equal to that of a goose ; but its wings
barely exceed four inches in length, each are without produced
feathers, and are swimming flaps rather than wings. They,
as well as their feet, the tarsi of which are very short, are
placed farther back than those of any other bird which is found
even occasionally in the British seas. It cannot stand or walk
except on the entire lengths of the tarsi, and thus it shuffles
along, rather than walks, in an erect position, and balancing
itself by its flaps.

Its bill is entirely black, of large dimensions, with seven
ridges in the upper mandible, and eleven in the lower. The
culmen of the upper mandible is considerably arched, and so
also is the gape ; the under mandible has its outline formed of
two concave curves with an angle between, rather nearer the
tip than the naked part of the base. The length of the gape
is about four inches and a half, and the depth of the bill more
than an inch and a half. The kides are chestnut ; the feet,
claws, and margins of the eyes, black. In the summer
plumage, the head (except a large oval spot of white in front
of the eye), the nape, the back, and upper parts generally, are
black; the chin, throat, and sides of the neck, blackish brown,
the rest of the under parts white, the quills (such as they are)
are dusky, the tips of the secondaries white, forming an ob-
lique band. In winter, the brownish black on the throat and
neck fades to white ; the young are said to have that part
mottled.

The great auk, like most of the analogous birds, lays but
one egg ; but that is a very large one, being six inches in
length, or twice the length, and consequently eight times the
volume, of that of the razor-bill. It is deposited in holes not
very high above the tide, as, though the bird can climb, the
operation is somewhat laborious. It is sometimes in natural

THE PUFFIN. 275

holes, and at others in holes which the bird is understood to
excavate with its powerful bill. Though the great auk does
not come on land except for the purpose of breeding, it does
not leave the remoter parts of our seas in the winter ; it is,
indeed, so much in the water at all times that it is not often
seen.

The female of this and other sea birds which deposit their
eggs in holes rather than on the exposed ledges, are not
understood to sit so closely during the incubation, as those
which have the eggs exposed, but to resort occasionally to the
water for the purpose of feeding themselves, instead of being
fed by the males. The food of this species is understood to
be the smaller fishes, which the size, form, and power of its
])ill, enable it to capture by wholesale,

THE PUFFIN. {Fratercula.)

There is but one British species of puffin, the coulter-] leb
puffin [Fratercula arctica) , of which the following figure is a
representation in the summer plumage.

The Pvffin.

276 NATATORES.

The length is about twelve, the breadth twenty-one inches,
and the weight twelve ounces ; the colours of the plumage
are nearly the same as in the figure, the black being pecu-
liarly bright and glossy in the summer, and the only tint,
except black and white, being dusky brown on the quills.
The naked parts are, however, more varied in their colours.
The base of the bill and a portion of the cheeks are covered
by a coloured membrane. The bill gradually compressed in
its whole length, but with arched outlines to both mandibles,
the upper one hooked at the tip, and projecting a little beyond
the under. A membranous ring or ridge, yellowish white,
and perforated with small punctures, surrounds the base of
the bill. Beyond that the basal half of the bill is bluish black
and smooth, the half towards the tip yellowish red, with four
oblique furrows in the upper mandible, and three in the under.
The party-coloured and furrowed bill are indications of matu-
rity ; the young of the first year have the whole bill smooth
and bluish black; the second year it grows larger, paler towards
the tip, and has the rudiment of one oblique groove ; in the
third and succeeding years, the bill acquires its full size and
lustre.

The bill of this bird is an instrument of great power, with
which it easily crushes the smaller Crustacea and thinner-shelled
mollusca, which are understood to form its principal food.

These birds are not only very numerous in the northern lati-
tudes; but they range farther southward in their migration
in quest of breeding places, than some others of the arctic
birds. They do not nestle in holes of the rocks so much
as in burrows in the sands and other soft and dry beaches,
though they also can accommodate themselves in rocky situa-
tions. Rabbits and they are sometimes found inhabiting the
same localities ; but whether they live in peace or dispossess
each other, is not clearly ascertained. As is the case with most
other diving birds, they lay but one egg ; and as is the case
with other hole birds, the female does not sit so closely as
in those species which perform their incubations upon the
open shelves. The male alternates with her on the nest

FLAT-BILLED BIKDS, OR DABBLERS. 277

while she is feeding. The egg is white. The birds defend
their nests with great boldness and resolution, and the pinch
that they can give, and the hold that they can keep with their
bills, are both very powerful; and there are few enemies that
can attack them in their strongholds with impunity. The
people of some countries, however, draw them from their bur-
rows in considerable numbers, using the young as food, and
the old as bait for fish. Many anecdotes of them are recorded
in the writings of authors, and many more might be added;
but we have no space further to continue the history of the
very curious family of diving birds, or birds which chiefly seek
their food in the water.

FLAT-BILLED BIRDS, OR DABBLERS.

This is by far the most numerous division of our swimming
birds, and the one which is the most useful to man in an
economical point of view ; but it is also the one with the struc-
ture, characters, and habits, of which we are most famihar in
the domestic races, the geese, swans, and ducks, so that very
minute details are less absolutely necessary.

The most remarkable as well as the most general distin-
guishing character of these birds is the structure of the bill,
which, though it varies considerably in shape in different species,
still preserves the distinguishing character. It is flattened,
thick, and the mandibles are covered with a skin or membrane,
having lamince on the sides, bearing more or less resemblance
to small teeth, and its surface generally, but more especially
towards the edge and the tip, beset with papilla, from which it
is natural to infer that the bill is an organ of sensation, but
whether of a sense resembling that which we call touch in the
human body (without knowing very clearly what we mean by
the term) we are unable to determine.

In proportion as this character is more complete in the bill,
the birds find their food more generally and habitually by
that operation which is commonly called dabbling; and
which consists of a sort of washing or sifting soft and watery

TOL. II. 2 B

278 NATATORES.

sludge with the bill, so as to separate the eatable substances
that are in it. That habit is not universal in perhaps any
species; and, indeed, many of them live much more on vege-
table food than the birds of the preceding division, and not only
upon soft seeds and albuminous roots, but also upon green
leaves, of which we have a familiar instance in the common
goose. The internal structure corresponds with that variation
in the bill and the food, the stomach having more of the gizzard
structure, and the intestine being longer in proportion as the
natural feeding of the bird is more vegetable. Some of them
can live with very little access to water; but water is their
proper element, and when deprived of it they are never healthy.
They often catch substances in the water as well as pick up
others on land, and in both these cases, they are partially at
least guided by sight; but in proportion as they seek their
food more exclusively in the sludge, whether in shallow water
where they can wade, or in deeper water where they must
swim, or in deeper still where they must dive (for some of
them have that habit), they appear to find their food with less
assistance from the sight. But those which swim or dive
appear to do so more for the purpose of reaching the sludge
and ooze, than for preying in the body of the clear water,
though they readily enough approach and seize subjects which
they find floating on the surface.

There is another peculiarity in their structure as connected
with their mode of feeding which is worthy of notice : those
which dive, and which have the wings short and rounded so
that they may act better under the water, have the enlarge-
ment at the pulmonary extremity of the trachea membranous,
supported to small fibres of bone; and those which merely
dabble, but always have some portion of the body above water
when they are feeding, have it bone, or a cartilaginous flexure.
The reason seems partly at least to be, that the bird which is
entirely cut ofi" from contact with the atmosphere may have a
supply of air in a contractile reservoir, to sustain it while
under water, but which is unnecessary in those which have a
portion of the body above water, and can derive, at least,

FLAT-BILLED BIRDS, OR DABBLERS. 279

some supply of air through the breathing pores in that part,
while ordinary respiration through the trachea is suspended.
At all events, that is a more rational supposition, than that
the enlargement of the trachea is connected with voice or
with the regulating of the specific gravity of the bird. Even
the use of the air bladder in fishes as a means of buoyancy is
vague and doubtful, because some species that have it remain
habitually near the surface ; and, altogether, the ascending and
descending of animals in water, appear to depend chiefly upon
muscular effort rather than upon specific gravity.

The habits of these birds in the procuring of their food,
lead by easy and obvious inference to their principal haunts.
They feed only where they can reach the bottom, and conse-
quently they cannot be birds of the high seas, and need not
generally be looked for on the rock shores, or the beaches ot
clean sand gravel. The wide sea is adapted for birds that
skim the surface, or dash horizontally after their prey in the
water in the manner of the divers, and not to those which
seek the bottom. A bird may get down several feet, or even
two or three fathoms; but to descend to the depth of half a
mile, which is shallow compared with the profundity of some
seas, and feed there, is beyond the power of any known inha-
bitant of the air. The rocks, the gravel, and the sand, again,
are fitted only for birds that have hard and pointed bills.
Consequently the inland lakes and pools, the slow-running
rivers, and their estuaries, the accumulations of water in the
fens and marshes, and the level and oozy beaches where the
water is shallow, and yet does not generally clear away so
completely as to afibrd a proper pasture for the Grallidse, are
the principal places where the dabbling birds are to be found.
As that marshy state of the country is seasonal, the birds
under consideration have seasonal migrations. Those migra-
tions, the numbers of the birds, and the times of their ap-
pearance, of course, vary; but they are all subject to a more
extensive winter migration southward than the divers. The
reason is obvious; they do not, generally speaking, get so far
to seaward as that line of green water which is so fertile in

280 NATATOKES.

the arctic sea; and the inland lakes and also the shallows
become frozen much earlier in the season and much farther
to the south, than the open sea, or the deeper water. Even
where they do not freeze, the northern lakes become less
fitted for those birds in the winter. Their banks are at all
seasons less thick with vegetation, than those of the waters in
warmer and more southerly places ; and the vegetation north-
ward is generally more frail, so that it is swept away by the
winds and floods early in the season, and as the water is left
bare to the action of the wind, it lashes the banks like an ocean
in miniature, which, though it has not the lofty swell of the
salt sea, is, from the inferior specific gravity of the water, more
brawling and broken; so that long before its motions are
sealed up by the frost, it ceases to aflbrd either shelter or food
for the dabbling birds.

As is the case with that division of the Grallidse which
follow the progress of seasonal flooding and inundation in
the warmer latitudes, this division of the swimming birds
are adapted for performing their migrations on the wing,
and by long and lofty flights. From their size and weight,
and their wings being more the instruments of migrations
than those of habitual use in the procuring of their food,
none of these birds fly with so much rapidity as the swallows,
or probably some of the other migrants; but still their speed
compared with that of quadrupeds along the ground is
very rapid. The wild swan proceeds at the rate of at least
twenty miles an hour, and perhaps that of the common wild
goose is not much slower. Such are a few of the more
general characters, briefly and imperfectly sketched; but still,
perhaps, sufficient to aflbrd at least some general idea of the
place which the birds fill in the general system and economy of
nature.

We may, however, farther remark in passing, that, in
so far as the nests and breeding places of these birds are
known, they are much more prolific than the divers. The
number of eggs varies considerably in the different species.
In some, as in the wild swan, it is not more than five, while

GEESE.

281

in other species it is as many as fifteen or sixteen ; but taking-
the average of the whole, it may be estimated at about eight
or ten. That might be expected, as both the haunts and
habits of the birds expose them more to casualties and to ene-
mies than those of the divers.

In giving a short notice of the genera, we shall omit the
domesticated ones, as not belonging to the wild nature of the
country.

GEESE. {Anser.)

The geese may be regarded as the least dabbling and the
most vegetable in their feeding of all the division. They
have the bill of moderate length, the height at the base exceed-
ing the width, and the breadth diminishing towards the tip.
The length of the bill is, in all the species, less than that of
the head, the serratures on the margins of the bill are conical,
and the bill itself has a slight resemblance to that form. Their
legs are longer than most of the order, and placed farther
forward, so that they more immediately support the centre of
gravity of the body, and the birds walk better ; but the legs
are wide apart, so that they may act free of the sides in swim-
ming; and the weight in consequence swings from side to side
as the bird walks, producing a zig-zag or waddling motion.
Geese reside in marshes and damp meadows rather than in the
waters ; they do not swim much, and they never dive ; and
they are, in most of the species, without any convolution of
enlargement of the trachea. There is no external distinction
of the sexes, and little or no seasonal change in the plumage.
They migrate in packs which are not generally very numerous ;
and they fly in wedge-shaped or angular lines, with the one
flank of the angle longer than the other, and from time to time
shift the leading bird, and also the relative numbers in the
flanks. There is generally a single bird in advance, and
another in the rear and a little without the largest flank of the
angle.

The geese may, in a state of nature, be all considered as
2b2

282 NATATORES.

only winter visitants in the more thickly inhabited places of
all parts of the world, and in Britain they are all decidedly so;
for, though some of the common grey species continue to breed
in the fens in England, and also some of the smaller wild
ones in the more remote parts of Scotland, they keep very
close in the breeding season, and do not appear much abroad
till the winter. There is some obscurity about their breeding
places. It is usually said, that they breed in the " arctic
regions;" and it may be true that those species which are the
most marine in their habits, do disperse themselves on the
shores of the remote islands far to the north ; but there are
few arctic haunts that would suit the habits of those species
that come periodically to the small lakes and pools in our
inland places, and even those that resort to the estuaries and
shores of the fenny districts. The great swamps that lie to
the eastward of the Baltic are as likely to be their principal
breeding places as others ; and they may follow the line
of that sea westward as the winter sets in. In that part of
the world, a westward migration bears, in the commencement
of winter, some resemblance to a southward migration on
some parts of the globe. The winter in the central parts of
Russia, is as early as severe, and as little adapted to the
habits of geese as the winter in Iceland, or even the Faroe
Islands ; and as the winter is later and milder as the Atlantic
is approached, the probability is that wherever they may
breed, we receive our winter visitation of wild geese, imme-
diately from the east or north-east rather than from the
north.

THE GREY-LEG GOOSE. [Anscv palustris.)

This species is generally described as the parent stock of
all our varieties of domestic geese, of which the varieties in
colours are supposed to arise from differences of breeding and
treatment, as is not unusual among domesticated animals.
The eastern and central parts of Europe are certainly the
principal localities of this species, which has, of late years.

THE GREY-LEG GOOSE. 283

nearly, if not totally, deserted the fens of English as a
breeding ground ; and is not nearly so common, even as a
winter visitant, as it was in former times.

Still flights of them are not uncommon in many parts of
the country during the winter months, although they are
generally better seen in their arrival flights than when they
take their departure. They fly high, always during the day,
arrayed in the order that has been mentioned, and producing
a clangulous sort of gabble which is softened by the height from
which it is sent down, which on a long flight is not less than
1500 or 2000 feet. The birds halt during the night ; and seem
(in winter at least) to be more intent upon resting themselves
than feeding, though when food suits them they eat vora-
ciously. They are generally arranged in line, and with a
scout in their van, and on the appearance of danger they be-
take themselves to the water, where they pass the night.
They use particular spots on the moors as caravansaries, or
inns, on their pilgrimages. On their arrival in this country,
and during their stay in the colder districts, these birds are
lean, and their flesh is rather hard and tough ; but in the
spring, just before they take their departure, they are in good
condition and superior in flavour to tame geese. The size
varies considerably ; the length is more than two feet and a
half, the breadth five feet, and the weight about ten
pounds.

The colours usually are, the bill and legs flesh colour, the
nail and claws whitish, the irides grey, the head, neck, and
upper part, generally grey, but the coverts edged with white,
the quills edged with the same and with black tips, the
secondaries with more or less black, and tail dusky, with the
tip and margins white. The breast and belly white, more
or less clouded with pale grey, and the feathers on the neck
loose. In this species the closed wings do not reach the
extremity of the tail, and the bird is more hea\y and less
given to migrate, and probably also a more southerly breeder
than the smaller species, which are better Mdnged in proportion
to their weight. This species appears, indeed, to be sometimes

284 XATATORES.

confounded, even in actual observation, with the one next to
be mentioned.

THE BEAN GOOSE, OR SMALLER WILD GOOSE. {Auser SegetUTH.)

This species is the wild goose of the more northerly parts
of the country, and it probably breeds in the secluded marshes
of some of the islands, and even on the mainland in the north
of Scotland. It is a more active and discursive species than
the former, ranging more freely and extensively over the
country, though far more abundant in the northern parts than
in the southern.

It is an inch or two shorter in the body, and an inch shorter
in the wings, than the grey goose, but a third less in weight,
seldom exceeding six pounds. Its colours in general appear-
ance are also diiferent. The legs and middle part of the bill
are orange ; but the base of the bill, which is flesh coloured
in the other, and the nail, or bordered tip of the bill, and the
claws, which are whitish in the other, are black in this species.
The irides are brown, while the others are grey ; the grey on
the upper part has a brownish tinge, and the feathers on the
Aving coverts have the margins paler ; the rump is dusky ; the
quills dusky black, margined with grey on the outer webs,
and the secondaries grey, margined with black; the forehead
over the bill is partially marked with white ; the throat and
breast, as far as the legs, pale brownish grey, and the rest of
the under part white.

These birds arrive in the autumn, range very generally over
the country, frequenting the pools in the moors, and occa-
sionally the fields of autumn wheat, on which they commonly
commit considerable ravages. They fly in the same manner
as the grey species ; and numerous flights of them are seen
moving southward over the central parts of Scotland in the
early part of the winter; and many of the latest ones used to
continue there during the whole of the winter, if the small
lakes and pools remained clear of ice. They lodged for the
night in the water, were very watchful, and difficult to be got

THE WHITE-FRONTED WILD GOOSE,

285

near, so that regular turf fences were erected for the purpose
of getting shots at them ; but the sport was generally more
tedious than successful, and the game, when obtained, tough,
and of inferior value.

THE WHITE-EKONTED WILD GOOSE. {Ausev erytJiropus.)

This is another winter visitant, not known to breed in any
part of Britain, though it appears regularly in the season. It
is understood to breed in the eastern parts of Europe, but
farther northward than the grey goose, though little is known
of its breeding ground in Europe. On the American continent
it breeds in the marshy tracts around Hudson's Bay, which
bear at least some resemblance to those of the north-east of
Russia. This species has the bill and feet orange, and the
nail on the bill whitish ; the forehead is white, head and neck
greyish brown; rest of the upper part brown, with the margins
of the feathers paler ; primary quills and tips of the second-
aries black ; tail dusky with white margins, under part white,
with a few dusky feathers intermixed on the breast and belly.
The young have the white on the front partially broken by
dusky feathers.

This species arrives rather later in the season than the
other ; and on the coasts of the fenny districts, and in the
southern and eastern parts of England generally, it is more
abundant than the bean goose, though much less so in Scot-
land or in the interior, being seldom found at any great dis-
tance inland on the rivers, unless when the weather is very
severe on the coast. These birds disappear from our shores
about March, a little sooner or later according to the state of
the weather. One of the local names of this species is the
*' laughing goose;" a character to which it does not appear
to have much stronger claims than the other birds of this
proverbially grave and sage genus.

286 NATATORES.

THE BERNACLE GOOSE. {AnsBV hemicla.)

This species has the bill, the feet, the neck, the breast, and
also the quills and tail feathers, black : the head is white, and
so is the under part from the breast backwards, and the upper
parts mixed with white, grey, and black. The young birds have
the white on the head more or less dusky, and a dusky band
from the gape to the eye. It has sometimes been confounded
with the brent goose, which is also a black-footed goose ; but
the brent goose has the head wholly black, and only a white
patch on each side of the neck ; whereas the forehead, cheeks,
and chin, of the bernacle goose are white.

The bernacle goose is rather less in its dimensions than
the white-fronted goose, but it is about the same weight. It
is one of those birds which sometimes arrive in vast numbers
upon our shores, driven by storms, which, though severe in
other places, are barely if at all felt by us. The birds, conse-
quently, appear to come without any obvious cause, and they
therefore, in the earlier ages, and before the manners and
migrations of birds were so well understood as they are
now, were naturally enough, though not in our estimation
very wisely, attributed to extraordinary, if not supernatural,
causes.

This same bernacle goose was represented as growing out
of the transformed acorn shell, which has thence, as if to
perpetuate the fable, been called anatifera, or " goose-bear-
ing." We are sometimes in the habit of giving ourselves
airs, of more vanity than discretion, in turning the guesses
and conjectures of the men of former times, upon points
which they did not understand, into ridicule : but these
triumphs over the dead are as ill judged as they are unmanly.
According to Lord Bacon, we are the ancients of the world,
and the men of former times were children in experience as
compared with us. Be it so. But the sages among us do
not mock at the ignorance of children — they teach them to
know better ; and as we cannot school our forefathers in that

THE BEENACLE GOOSE. 287

way, the wisest plan that we can follow is, to take heed lest
some of our own theories be not as wide of the truth as those
which we are so prone to censure, and that we do not doubly
merit the ridicule of those who come after, — first, on account
of the absurdity of our opinions, and secondly, and retributively,
because we have ridiculed those who are equally beyond our
instruction and our reproof. If half the time which has
been spent in exposing this absurdity, which, in the nature of
things, really stood in need of no exposure, had been bestowed
upon investigating the habits, and inquiring into the breeding
haunts, of the bird, its history might, by this time, have been
rendered as perfect as it is still obscure.

In former times, when the north of Europe, as well as many
parts of this country, were far more humid than they are now,
and the winters were, in consequence, much more severe, and
the storms much more violent, these birds often came in vast
multitudes, and in a state of such great exhaustion, that they
were floated to the shore perishing or dead. The state of
knowledge then did not enable people to trace them farther
than that sea on which they made their appearance ; and the
metamorphosis of the acorn shells was probably the most likely
explanation that occurred, and many of our conjectures have
.lot a much more rational foundation. The mistakes of former
times should teach us humility, not pride, — distrust in our-
selves, rather than triumph. We ourselves were born as
ignorant as the most abject savages on the face of the earth ;
and had it not been for the labours of those very men whom
we thus criticize, we should have remained in that ignorance.
Some of us take the lesson, and give no thanks ; others purloin
the work, and libel the author ; and thereupon we pride our-
selves, and exult.

From the early period of the season at which the bernacle
goose leaves our shores, it is probable that it breeds at some
distance, though the month of February is not the time at
which birds, that are known to breed in the arctic countries far
to the north, take their departure.

288 NATATORES.

THE BRENT GOOSE. {^Ansev hventa.)

This species is still smaller than the last mentioned, and less
weighty in proportion to its lineal dimensions. It makes
its appearance in the winter, and frequents the humid meadows
on the estuaries of the rivers, especially upon the north-west
coast of England and the east of Ireland. It is, however,
found over the whole range of those coasts and estuaries that
are much frequented by the other migrant geese. The bill is
short, and that and the feet are black; though in the young
birds the latter are said to have a tinge of dull reddish colour,
and also to be without the white patch on the side of the neck.
The head, neck, and upper part of the breast, the quills, the
rump, and tail, are black. The rest of the upper plumage
is reddish ash colour, more or less mottled ; but the upper and
under tail coverts, the vent feathers, and the belly, are white.
The same species is found in the northern parts of the Ameri-
can continent, but it has not been ascertained in what particular
place, either of that or of the eastern continent, the greater
numbers breed. The nest has, however, been found in
that dreary and marshy country (to which I would again call
the attention of Ornithologists) that lies in the shore of
the Northern Ocean, to the eastward of Cape Rath, which
establishes the fact of its being a native bird ; and it is highly
probable that a careful search of the same district would
add several others of the northern swimming birds, and
probably also of the marsh-breeding Grallidse, to our indigenous
Fauna.

The whole history of the geese, in their wild state, is indeed
imperfect and obscure ; we merely know them as winter
migi'ants, and probably in their winter plumage ; and are, in a
great measure, ignorant of their summer haunts, their habits
while breeding, and their moults and the changes of their
plumage.

THE RED-BREASTED GOOSE. 28^

THE RED-BREASTED GOOSE. {Auser ruficolUs.)

The red-breasted goose arrives so rarely in England, that it
can be considered only as a straggler. It is shorter and thicker
than the brent goose, and weighs nearly half a pound more,
if we can fairly estimate the average weight from the few
specimens that have been seen in this country. The bill is
brown, except the nail, which is dusky black, as are also the
feet. The front, immediately over the base of the bill, is
white ; there is a white spot between the bill and eyes, and
a white streak down each side of the neck, but with a tinge
of rust colour in the middle. The top of the head is black,
which is continued in a narrow stripe between the white
markings on the sides of the neck to the back. The back and
wings are black, the coverts tipped with grey ; the tail coverts
white. The chin and throat are black ; the neck bright rust
colour ; a white band and a black one across the breast ; and
the hinder part of the belly, the vent, and the under tail
coverts, white. The brown bill, and the bright rust colour on
the front of the neck and the upper part of the breast, are
the most conspicuous distinguishing characters ; but the bird
is of so rare occurrence in this country, that it is not one for
which ordinary observers need to look. The specimens
hitherto found have been on the east side of the island, and
in the central and southern parts rather than in the north,
which is at least a sort of evidence that the bird does not
breed in the northern parts of western Europe. The east of
European Russia, and Siberia, are said to be their summer
haunts ; and in winter, the birds migrate by the marshes of
central Asia on the Caspian and the lake of Aral, as far as
Persia. But their history, like that of most of the rest of the
genus, is very imperfect and obscure ; and even the de-
scriptions given of the specimens met with in this country,
are a little contradictory in some of the particulars. In Asia,
they are said to migrate as far to the northward in the summer
as they do to the southward in the winter, their nests being

TOL. II. 2 c

290 NATATORES.

in the marshes, along the banks of the great Siberian rivers,
and even near the confluence of these with the Arctic sea.
But, notwithstanding the labours of Pallas and some others,
the natural history of that portion of the globe still wants
elucidation ; but it does not much connect itself with any
portion of British Natural History.

swTANS. iCygnus.)

Though the tame swan, or mute swan [cygnus olor), is
found upon most of the larger rivers, and on many lakes,
ponds, and ornamental pieces of water in Britain ; and though
in some places it may be considered as a native, yet it hardly
comes under the denomination of an indigenous bird. As
domesticated, or rather as in a sort of semi-domesticated state,
it is beautiful, and highly ornamental. No specimens of it
resort periodically to the country at the time when the other
seasonal swimming birds make their appearance. Its native
localities are indeed too distant in longitude, as well as too
far to the south, and its disposition to roam is too limited, for
admitting of its appearance in the country. The other species,
which inhabit more northerly, do come, though only in
small packs, to the southern parts of the country, though
much more abundantly to the islands and the extreme north
of Scotland, where they often appear in vast numbers in the
winter, and a few sometimes remain and breed in the more
remote and lonely places.

The distinguishing characters of the swans are, — the bill
higher than broad at the base, depressed towards the tip,
but continuing nearly the same breadth, and not tapering or
approaching the conical form so much as that of the geese.
The nostrils are pierced about the middle of the length of the
bill. The neck very long, and carried in a graceful curve in
swimming. Swans do not walk very well, but they swim
with much ease and grace, and they occasionally make use
of their broad and hollow wings partially elevated, as a sort
of sails, by means of which they drift before the wind. When

THE SWANS. 291

moving to a distance, they fly high and swiftly ; but the tame
ones seldom make long flights.

They are much more aquatic than geese, being generally
upon the water, in which their long neck enables them to
dabble to a considerable depth. They eat indiscriminately
vegetable food and the small animals that inhabit the waters,
or the ooze at the bottom of the shallows. But in the case of
the tame swan, at least, with the habits of which we are most
familiar, they are not known to dive, and though they drift
about when there is a considerable swell upon the water, they
prefer feeding when it is tranquil. The tame swan requires
no description, farther than a reference to the specific diflfer-
ences between it and the wild ones. The plumage of the tame
swan is white ; the bill red, with the tuberculated membrane
at the base and the margins black. The trachea is not en-
larged or convoluted at the pulmonary extremity. The length
of the full-grown male is from four feet to four feet and a half;
the extent of the wings about seven feet ; and the weight
about twenty-five pounds. In their mature plumage, there is
no external difference of appearance in the sexes. The nest
is built of reeds and sedges, on a dry spot near the water ; the
eggs are from five to eight ; and the incubation lasts about six
weeks. The female sits closely, and the male keeps guard the
while with much vigilance. In defence of their young they
can hit a very severe blow with the bend of the wing, much
more severe than they, who think merely of the mass, and do
not take into account the velocity which muscles of flight are
capable of producing, would be apt to suppose, though per-
haps not so great as has been alleged of a bird with which
authors have very generally been a little poetical.

The young are grey at first, and do not acquire their white
plumage till the second year.

292 yATATOEES.

THE WILD, OR WHISTLING SWAN. {Cygnus fevus.)

This species differs from the tame one both in its external
and its internal characters. Its bill is subcylindrical and
black, with the base and margin yellow, and the head and
nape have a slight yellowish tinge : the rest of the plumage is
white. The dimensions and weight are nearly the same as
those of the former species, only the wings are rather shorter
in proportion, and more rounded. The trachea is very much
enlarged and convoluted.

The wild swan is very abundant upon all the large rivers,
lakes, and extensive pools, in the more northern parts of both
continents, but it never breeds in the south, and rarely migrates
very far in that direction. It is, however, a discursive bird, and
ranges seasonally over a great extent both of sea and of land,
and flocks assemble in Iceland and the Faroe Islands in the
early part of the season, some remaining there to breed, and
others dispersing farther to the north, chiefly perhaps to the north
of America, where they are very abundant in the breeding sea-
son. They also assemble again in the same places in the
autumn, and thence proceed southward, dividing into smaller
parties as they advance. Great numbers of them are often
seen on the lakes in the northern parts of Sutherland ; and
report adds that, in former times, they used to breed there as
well as in Orkney and Shetland, and in some of the more
remote and marshy of the Hebrides. Of late years, however,
it does not appear that many have been found breeding in
those localities, and the passing flocks are not so numerous now
as they are represented to have been in former times.

When on the wing, these birds emit a sort of cry, which
is perhaps a little more sonorous than that of the wild goose,
but it is any thing but musical or even whistling, unless to
the same tune as a fitful and thumping wind whistles through
leafless trees or along broken crags, — " Whoo, whoo :'"

Bewick's swan. 293

hoarse, long drawn out, and somewhat guttural, is the music
of the " tuneful swan."

The nest is constructed in the same manner as that of the
tame swan; the eggs are about the same number, or perhaps
rather fewer; they are of a dull uniform greyish white, and
they require about the same time in hatching.

The flesh of adult swans, whether tame or wild, is hard,
and not very palatable ; and that of the wild ones, from the
greater exercise that they have on the wing, is less palatable
than that of the tame. The eggs are eaten, however, those of
the tame swan being esteemed in all countries where they can
be procured, and those of the wild ones being much sought
after by the northern nations. The skins and down are also
very valuable in those cold and northern climates. From its
cry, the wild swan has been called the " whooper," which has
naturally enough been corrupted to the " hooper."

Bewick's swan. {Cygnus BewicMi.)

This species, which bears externally a considerable resem-
blance to the former, has no doubt been often confounded with
it, though the specific characters of the two are quite distinct.
Its lineal dimensions are a few inches less each way than those
of the common wild swan ; and its w^eight, in proportion to the
dimensions, is less. Like that species, it has a black bill with
a yellow base, and the general plumage of the body is white ;
but instead of the yellowish tinge on the head and nape, it has
the forehead tinged or mottled with rusty. The principal dis-
tinction is in the trachea, which in this bird forms an elongated
horizontal curve between the bony plates of the sternum itself,
instead of the short vertical curve within the keel of the ster-
num, peculiar to the hooper.

2c 2

294 NATATORES.

DUCKS.

The very numerous family of the ducks have so many
diversities of character, that it is difficult to find any general
description that will apply with equal accuracy to the whole.
There are about twenty-eight species, which generally or
occasionally frequent the shores, estuaries, and fresh waters,
in different parts of the British Islands, generally in tlie winter
season, and on the fiat and fenny shores where there are mud
deposits and oozy shallows, rather than where the shores are
of a bolder character, and the water deeper. Of these, not
more than seven or eight are known to breed regularly in the
countrj^ though a few more have been occasionally found on
the more remote islands. Many of the visitants are evidently
natives of the northern countries, and appear in the greatest
numbers on the northern parts of the British coasts; but
there are others which appear more abundantly, or, at all
events, have been more attended to upon the shores of the
flat parts of England, or in the estuaries and creeks of the
fenny tracts; and of the retreats of these when they quit our
shores, or of their breeding places, we are not so well in-
formed.

The history of most of the race is, indeed, imperfect and
unsatisfactory. Many which have been described as breed-
ing in the arctic regions, have not been seen there by those
who have had the best opportunities of observing. But, as
was formerly said of the pine forests in the case of the crested
tit, the marshes of the arctic regions, and indeed of places
without the arctic circle, are not very easily explored. From
the few of whose habits we do know something, it may be
inferred, that all the inland-breeding species keep themselves
very close in the breeding season. The sjiecies which have
more of the sea character, collect at their favourite places on
the shores to breed, and are found in considerable numbers
in the same locality ; but if we may judge from the example
of the common wild duck, or mallard, those wliich breed in-

DUCKS. 205

land, disperse themselves over the country, find their summer
food among tlie roots of the same aquatic plants in the cover
of which they have their nests, and thus pass the summer
unknown, not only in the fastnesses of the more extensive
and inaccessible marshy pools, but on the banks of rivulets
when these afford cover, without being- much seen. I have
known a mallard to be taken by an angler's hook, on the
sedgy bank of a small stream, in the breeding season ;
though, to ordinary observation, the birds had all quitted
the district for several weeks. But we have to do with them
only in so far as they are British birds, open to common ob-
servation— and that is as winter visitants, appearing and dis-
appearing in their seasons, but of whose retreats, while they
are absent, we know not very much. Thus we are unable to
generalize them in any thing like a satisfactory manner, but
must take those traits of each genus that are best known, and
leave their history to future observation.

The whole race appear to be more exclusively dabblers than
either the geese or the swans ; and though some of them pick
up their food from the humid earth as well as out of the water
and the weed, they live more upon animal and less upon
vegetable matter than the geese, or even than the swans.
Their bills are in general more flattened and broad at the tip,
more pectinated or toothed at the margins, and perhaps more
sensitive in the covering membrane. They are all, in general,
of richer plumage than the geese and swans, and the males
have generally some external distinction from the females,
such as larger size, brighter colours, or some of the feathers
peculiarly shaped. One character in the plumage of the whole,
or nearly the whole, is a patch upon the secondary quills, of
different colours in the different species, but with a sort of
metallic lustre ; and thence called the " speculum,'' and also
the " wing spot," or the " beauty spot."

There are also two distinct formations of the foot, which
are worthy of attention, as they point out some difference of
haunt and habit, and are also accompanied by other differences
of formation. The obvious distinctions of the feet are — those

296 XATATOKES.

that have the hinder toe plain, and those that have it bordered
with a deep membranous web extending partially to the inner
toe.

WITH THE HIND TOE PLAIN.

Those which have that character, have the foot also smaller,
the web of the toes not so much produced, but the tarsus
longer, and the feet placed farther forward, so as better to
support the centre of gravity in walking. They also have
the neck longer : the bill not so much widened towards the tip,
the wings longer, the tail less stiff, and the trachea furnished
with a labyrinth of bone. They are more birds of the
fresh waters, lakes, the rivers, and the estuaries, find the
aquatic part of their food chiefly by dabbling in the shallows
without diving, and feed more upon vegetable matter. Those
with the margined hind toe are more of sea birds, live more
by fishing under the surface ; and the flavour of their flesh is
more rank and fishy. We have space for only a brief cata-
logue.

THE COMMON SHELDRAKE. [Tadovna vulpansev.)

This is a resident species, and in its plumage one of the
most beautiful of the whole. It is about two feet in length
and three and a half in the stretch of the wings ; and it
weighs from two pounds and a half to three pounds. The
feet, and also the principal part of the bill, are reddish ; but
the tubercle at the base of the bill, the openings of the nos-
trils, and the nail of the tip, are black. The bill has a slight
bend upwards, and the forehead is narrow and compressed.
The head and neck are very deep glossy green. The lower
part of the neck, the back, rump, upper tail coverts, and basal
front of the tail feathers, white. A band of reddish bay on the
breast, which forms a narrow collar on the lower part of the
neck, and proceeds along the sides and flanks under the wings ;
and through this band, a list of brownish black extends

THE RUDDY SHELDRAKE. 297

towards the vent. Outer half of the scapulars and quills black,
the secondaries glossed with green and bronze reflections,
forming a wing spot. Tips of the tail feathers, which are foui*-
teen in number, white. Female marked like the male, but
rather less in size, and the colours not so bright.

This species nestles in holes, on the retired beaches, and
near the lower estuaries of the rivers, which it seldom quits.
Eggs ten to fifteen, and of a white colour. The female covers
them with down pulled from her own breast ; though the male
takes her place morning and evening, when she leaves the nest
to feed. The nest is usually very near the water, to which the
young are almost immediately led, and they soon begin
to pick up the smaller marine animals. Marine insects, small
Crustacea, and the spawn and young fry of fishes, appear
to be the principal food of these birds. They have in conse-
quence a rank and fishy taste. They are generally found in
pairs ; and though they are dispersed over a very considerable
range of latitude, they do not appear to flock or migrate,
farther than spreading themselves in the summer, and
leaving those places where the shallows freeze in the
winter.

They are quiet birds, and not difficult to tame ; but they do
not breed readily in confinement.

THE RUDDY SHELDRAKE. [Tadoma rutUa.)

This species is understood to inhabit more northerly places
on the continent than the common sheldrake, and appears in
Britain only as a straggler. It has the same elegant form
of the body as the other, and the Mdngs equally long and
pointed ; but its bill and head are smaller in proportion to its
body. The front and cheeks are white, extending backward
over the eyes ; the rest of the head and the upper part of the
neck rusty brown ; the body pale reddish chestnut ; the
coverts white ; the primaries, lower part of the back, and tail,
black ; and the wing spot green, with bronze-coloured reflec-
tions.

298 yATATOEES.

THE SHOYELLER. [Spathulea clypeata.)

The shoveller, though it sometimes breeds in the country,
and is rather plentiful in Holland and Belgium, is not a very
common bird with us. It inhabits more inland than the shel-
drake, in the marshes and on the muddy banks of rivers,
feeding on worms and other small animals, which it dabbles
for, and for the capture of which its bill is well adapted. It is
black, about three inches long, and increasing in breadth
towards the tip, which is rounded, and has the nail small and
turned inward. The margins are closely pectinated with their
laminae, which fit into each other, so as to retain veiy small
substances, while they allow the water to escape. It is, in-
deed, one of the most perfect dabbling bills in the whole
family.

This bird is smaller than the sheldrake, or even than the
common wild duck. It is about twenty-one inches in length,
and weighs the same number of ounces. The feet are reddish
orange ; the irides bright yellow ; the head and upper part of
the neck green, with blue and purple reflections ; the lower
part of the neck, the breast, and scapulars, white ; the back
brown ; the greater coverts brown, tipped with white ; the
lesser coverts blue ; the primaries brown ; the secondaries
glossy green on their outer webs, forming a wing spot ; the
belly chestnut brown; the vent black, and the tail dusky,
margined and tipped with white. The birds are, however,
subject to considerable variations in their plumage, both in the
individual and with the season; and in the breeding season
they are shy and retired, hiding themselves in the tall herbage,
in which the nest is concealed. The nest is formed of rushes,
or other aquatic plants, and the eggs are from ten to twelve,
of a rusty brown colour. The young have the bill, at first,
very large in proportion to the size of the body. As the
birds live in the fresh water rather than in the sea, and feed
upon substances analogous to those on which the Gral-

THE GADWALL. 299

lidae of the marshes feed, their flesh is free from fishy flavour,
sweet, juicy, and much relished.

THE GADWALL.

{Chauliodus strepera.)

The gadwalls spend the summer and breed in the extensive
marshes of both continents ; but on the approach of winter
they migrate towards the south, and appear as winter visitants
in Britain, though not in great numbers, or in situations where
they have not cover. They are, indeed, not very frequently
seen, as they feed chiefly during the night, at which time
they make a sort of hoarse quacking or jarring noise, which
betrays their presence ; but they generally hide themselves
during the day, and when they are surprised, they conceal
themselves by diving. From their habits, indeed, one might
infer that these birds are inhabitants of the eastern marshes of
Europe rather than of the regions of the north, and that, as is
the case with the other fresh- water swimmers of that part of
the world, though they find their way in considerable numbers
to the western shores of the continent by overland flights, they
more rarely take the sea voyage to our shores, and then only
to those that lie the most contiguous to the Netherlands.

Length about nineteen inches, breadth about thirty-three.
Bill two inches long, flat, and black. Feet reddish orange,
irides brown. The markings of the plumage are exceedingly
minute and not easily described. The head and neck grey,
marked with brown points ; lower part of the neck , back, and
breast, with small black crescents ; and the scapulars and
flanks with zig-zag lines of black and white. Lesser wing
coverts chestnut; greater coverts of the wings, rump, and
upper and under coverts of the tail, black. Primary quills
dusky. Wing spot white, bordered with reddish on the one
side and black on the other. Belly white, tail reddish, and
white at the tip. Bill black, irides reddish brown, tarsi and
toes brownish orange, webs of the feet dusky.

The nest is in humid places near the inland lakes and
marshes, the nest being carefully concealed in the thick

300 NATATOEES.

herbage, sometimes in a tangled shrubby bush, or even in a
hole of a tree. The eggs are about eight or ten in number,
of a greenish ash colour.

THE COMMON WILD DUCK. {Anas hosclias.)

The common wild duck is so abundant in all the fenny
parts of the country, that it hardly needs any description. In
the breeding season they are dispersed over the interior, almost
to the greatest height on the inland pools and streams that can
afford them cover. At that time, though their cries are often
heard, especially in the evenings before rain, they are not much
seen; but when the cold weather sets in they flock towards
the shores and estuaries in vast numbers. One of the most
conspicuous characters of these birds, is the four middle tail
feathers of the male or mallard, curved upward ; and they
retain that character in a domesticated state, however much
difference of food or treatment may alter their size and the
tints of their plumage. They are the parent race of all the
common tame ducks ; and they often claim kindred, visiting,
on their migrations, tame ducks that live remote from houses,
and sometimes enticing these off to the fens, or to a consider-
able distance on the rivers.

The length of the male (the drake or mallard) is about
twenty-five inches, the extent of the wings nearly three feet,
and the weight about two pounds and a half. The bill is green-
ish yellow, the irides hazel, the feet reddish orange. Head and
neck deep glossy green, bordered with a white collar. The
lower part of the neck, the breast, and the shoulders, purplish
brown. Scapulars silver white and rust colour, delicately pen-
cilled with waving lines of brown, coverts of the wings ash,
tipped with white and black, quills dusky black ; wing spot
on the secondaries rich purple, with blue and green reflec-
tions. Lower part of the back, rump, tail coverts, and
curled feathers of the tail, black, with green reflections
on the rump, and purple on the tail ; the other feathers
of the tail dusky brown fading into dull white at the edges.

THE COMMON WILD DUCK. 301

The under part from the breast whitish grey, with slight
mottlings of dusky brown. The female is smaller, wants the
curled feathers in the tail, and the green and white on the head
and neck. The whole of her plumage is rusty brown, spotted
and lined with dusky black, only the wing spot has much
similarity to that in the male. The young in their first plumage
resemble the female.

The nest is usually formed in the situations which possess,
in the highest degree, the joint qualities of concealment and
proximity to the wat^r. Annual herbage, when that affords
cover enough, is preferred; but the nest is sometimes in a
tangled bush at the distance of several feet from the ground.
There have been instances of their breeding in hollows of trees,
situations to which many of the duck tribe are known to be
partial ; so much so, that some of those species which are not
known to breed naturally in this country, could not be made
to breed in the ponds of the Zoological Society's garden
until they were accommodated with boxes on the tops of
poles, and then they bred freely. When the nest is elevated
above the ground, it is in part formed of small sticks, though
openly and rudely. When on the ground it is composed
of a few straws and withered stems, or of rushes ; and in moist
places the bird partially lines it with down from her own
breast. The brood are numerous, often as many as sixteen ;
the eggs are obtuse and blunt, of a whitish colour when
recent, and with the yolk almost red. They breed early ; but
have only one brood in the season, unless where some casualty
happens to the nest. The pair live apart at that time,
and the female is very watchful both of her eggs and her
brood.

It is doubtful whether those improvements that have thinned
the numbers of many of our marsh birds have had the same
effect upon wild ducks. If they find water and cover, it
does not appear to signify much whether it is in the wild,
or in the cultivated district. They breed in the herbage
by the streams among corn-fields, and sometimes resort in
severe weather to the margins of woods and co]3pices ; and,

VOL. IT. 2d

302 NATATOKES.

they eat not only vegetable seeds, but the " briard" of wheat
and other grain. The flesh of the wild duck is superior
in flavour to that of the tame, and those which inhabit the
rich countries and find part of their food upon land, are
superior in juiciness to those which reside more exclusively
in the marshes. In England, the grand resorts for them
in the winter are the shores and estuaries between the Thames
and the Humber ; though they are found plentifully in all
parts of the country, that are adapted to their habits. They
do not keep out from land upon even the inland broad
waters, nor, though excellent and graceful swimmers, do
they swim across these. They transport themselves by flight.
From district to district their flight is high, like that of all
larsj-e birds on their migrations ; but on the same piece of
water, their flights are low, hurried, and fluttering, though
at the same time very rapid ; and in these cases they some-
times fly and run at the same time, so that their foot-prints
may be seen as distinct ripples before they run into each other
and form a continuous wake. When they rise of their own
accord, they come gradually from the floating posture, through
wading and running on the water, till they entkely clear
the surface on the wing, and they generally alight in the
same gradual manner ; but when they are forced up by
any alarm, they can bring their bodies to an erect position,
and take wing at once. Their manners are altogether
interesting, and not the less so on account of their value
in an economical point of view, but they are easily studied.
The vast numbers of wild ducks which are annually taken
in decoys or otherwise, are, on account of the number of
the broods, probably more protective than destructive of the
race, as they prevent epizooty^ which falls upon all races
of animals, but first and most severely upon the most prolific
ones, when their production is encouraged and the thinning of
them suspended beyond a certain limit. It would seem
that the wild duck is nearly the same economic bird in the
humid places of the cultivated country, as the partridge or the
pheasant is on the dry; and in the proportion as the im-

THE PINTAIL. 303

provement of the country increases, the quantity of their food
renders the winter less severe to them, drives off their natural
enemies, and thus tends much to increase their numbers, it
becomes the duty as well as the interest of man to thin them
at that season when they can not only be spared, but are in the
best condition, and flock in countless multitudes to those places
where they are most easily captured. But, on the other hand,
protection in close time is as necessary to preserve the econo-
mical value of the birds as it is in accordance with the economy
of nature. To trample down the green corn may differ in
degree from destroying the eggs of wild ducks in the marshes
and pools; but the two operations are the same in kind, and
arise from the same disposition.

THE PINTAIL. (^Quevquedula acuta.)

This is a very elegant species, more graceful in its form than
perhaps any of the others, and the produced feathers on the
tail, which are of considerable length, pointed, and of a black
colour, glossed with green, give it the appearance of being
better balanced on the legs than any other of the ducks. The
produced tail feathers, as is the case with the curled feathers
in the wild duck, belong to the male bird only.

The bill is moderately long, black in the middle and bluish
on the edges. The head rather elevated and round, but the
neck slender. Head and throat rich dark brown; nape and
hinder part of the neck dusky, with a narrow white line ex-
tending down the front sides, and meeting, broadening, and
forming a white collar on the lower part of the neck and
upper part of the breast. The rest of the breast, the sides
of the neck, and upper part of the back, finely marked by
alternate lines of black and white ; the sides, flanks, and lower
part of the back, are of the same colours, but more clouded
and mottled. Scapular feathers long and pointed, black in the
centres, and distinctly margined with white. Coverts brownish
ash, with pale orange tips. Wing spot purple, with greenish
reflections. Greater quills dusky, as are also the tail feathers,

304 NATATORES.

except the two produced ones. Vent feathers black, belly
white, but the breast and forepart of the belly understood to
acquke a tinge of buff or brownish in the breeding season.
The female is considerably smaller, and has the colours more
incHning to brown.

The pintail is rather more numerous in winter in the
southern parts of the country than in the northern. It is,
indeed, so rare, even in the southern districts of Scotland,
that it can hardly be considered as belonging to any northern
migration; but it is probable that a few breed every year in
the fenny districts of England. They are birds subject to con-
siderable seasonal variations of plumage; and from the different
forms of the tails, they are liable to be mistaken.

THE COMMON TEAL. {Quevquedula crecca.)

A figure of the male of this species is given on the opposite
plate, one sixth of the lineal dimensions. The female has the
head, neck, and upper parts, brown, the wing spot green, though
not so bright as that in the male, and the under part of the
body white.

This species is not uncommon in some of the more retired
morasses, or rather the fresh-water lakes in various parts
of the countiy; but as it is a bird of concealment, and the
cry of the male ceases before the female begins to sit, it is
rarely seen in summer, and on that account it is one of those
birds which have sometimes been rather inconsiderately de-
scribed as leaving the country in the breeding season, whereas
in reality it seems to be less migrant than most of the family,
and only to shift about from place to place as food fails it in
those which it leaves. Indeed, as the small lakes margined
with reeds which are dispersed through the flat and fertile
tracts are its principal haunts, and as it does not quit these
until the cover is completely destroyed or the water jfrozen, it
often remains on the same spot all the year round, and little
is known of its presence, except the clacking whistle of the
male in the breeding season. That cry is heard in March,

o^fa^/

THE GAEGAIS'Y, OR SUMMER TEAL. 305

and the eggs, which vary from seven to ten, are deposited in
April, in a nest of the leaves and stems of water plants, larger
and more carefully made than that of many other of the swim-
ming birds, but so hidden among the herbage as to be but
seldom seen. The eggs are about the size of those of the
pigeon, of a dull yellow. The nest is often in a hole under a
bank or bush. The males assemble in small parties in the
latter part of the season, before the females and the young
make their appearance.

THE GARGANY, OR SUMMER TEAL. (^Quevquedula Circicl.)

The gargany is about the same weight as the common teal,
but it is a little larger both in the body and the extent of the
wings. It resembles the other in many of its habits, and es-
pecially in being a hideling in the breeding season ; but, in
accordance with its more elongated and slender form, it ap-
pears to be rather more discursive. It is chiefly known in
Britain as a winter migrant, and as such it is found on or
near the coasts suitable to its habits, in all parts of the country
from Cornwall to the northern isles. It probably ranges far-
ther to the south than its congeners : though it appears rather
to shift seaward than southward in the winter. It breeds in
France, and repairs, or at all events appears there, on the
inland waters, about March, and immediately commences the
business of nest making. As it has been met with in England
a month later than the time at which it pairs in France, there
seems not the least doubt that it breeds in the country, but it
is one of those birds of which the summer history is imperfect.
Its breeding cry resembles that of the corn-crake, only it is
hoarser and not quite so loud. The nest is in the thick
herbage on the ground, beaten smooth with the feet of the
bird, and strewed with a little withered herbage. The eggs
are of a greenish fawn colour, and rather more numerous than
those of the common teal.

The bill is black, the irides brown, the feet dusky grey, and
the wing spot greyish green, bordered with white. Crown,
2 d2

306

NATATOBES.

nape, and chin, dusky, spotted with white ; a conspicuous
white streak from the eye down the side of the neck ; breast
and back purplish brown, with half-moon dusky spots; belly
pale cream colour, sides and vent covered with dusky, coverts
grey with white margins, quills and tail feathers dusky. The
upper part of the female is brown with dusky streaks, the
white line on the neck obscure, and the green of the wing spot
nearly obliterated.

THE BiMAcuLATED TEAL. {Querquedula glocitans.)

This species has been so rarely seen even in the winter, that
it cannot be considered in any other light than that of an occa-
sional straggler. It is an inland breeding bird, and its princi-
pal haunts are in the marshy parts of Eastern Europe, and
throughout the whole of Northern Asia ; but its habits are
little known. In its form it resembles the pintail more than
the common teal and the gargany, the females of which, with
the exception of the obliterated wing spot in the gargany, may
be very readily mistaken for each other.

Length about twenty inches, extent of the wings about
thirty-two. Bill leaden grey, with the nail and margin
black ; feet dull yellow, dusky on the hind edges of the tarsi
and the webs. Head and the upper part of the neck black,
much glossed with green and purple reflections. A bright
rust-coloured spot before and another under the eye, from
which it gets the name of bimaculated, or "two-spotted."
Lower part of the neck and breast reddish brown, mottled
with dusky. Ground colour above ash, that below the same,
paler, and continuing to the rump, both minutely marked by
cross lines of du«ky, and on the sides with waving lines.
The scapulars dark ash, bordered with blackish purple, and
thin pale reddish brown; the coverts dark ash, with the tips
first black and then pale reddish brown ; the wing spot glossy
green, crossed by a black line, and bordered by white ; quills
dusky ash, lower part of the back drab brown, tail coverts

THE COMMO?^ WIDGEON.

307

black ; two middle feathers, which are a little produced and
pointed, the same colour glossed with green ; and the other
tail feathers dark ash tipped and margined with white.

THE COMMON WIDGEON. {Mareca penelops,)

The widgeon is another bird, respecting which the question
of breeding or not breeding in the country is not settled. It
is, however, known to breed in those parts of the continent
which are immediately adjacent; and, therefore, it may, as
it is a regular winter visitant in England, be presumed to
breed in the country, though the nest and eggs have not
often been found. On the eastern part of the continent they
range far to the southward, and are found on the other side of
the Mediterranean : so that their general habitat must be con-
sidered as a middle latitude rather than a polar one. They
haunt nearly the same places as the wild duck ; but with us
they appear in smaller flocks, and fly during the night, utter-
ing a sort of hoarse and clacking whistle as they fly.

In the outline of its form, the widgeon bears more resem-
blance to the wild duck than to the larger species of teal ;
but it is smaller and difierently marked. The length is about
twenty inches, the breadth about twenty-eight, and the
weight less than a pound and a half. The bill and feet are
bluish, the latter with a rudimental web to the hind toe,
indicating a slight approach to the other division of the
ducks ; the nail of the bill is black or dusky ; the irides
brown; and the wings peat black, with a green bar across
the middle. The ground colour of the head, neck, and
breast, is reddish brown, with a purplish black on the breast.
The forehead, which runs high and narrow is cream colour,
with the feathers slightly produced, and there is a small spot
of the same under the eyes. The chin and throat are mottled
with dusky, and the head less distinctly with the same. The
neck and breast are separated by a collar of very fine bars of
white and black; the colours of which are continued along
the sides to the thighs. The back and scapulars are marked

308 NATATORES.

with nearly the same ; the coverts are brown, with more or
less of white, and black tips, the primaries are brown, with
the secondaries black, with some white, and the spot green.
The tail is ash colour, bordered with yellowish, the two mid-
dle feathers being pointed and larger, and darker than the
others. The upper and under tail coverts are black, the
belly and vent white. The upper part of the female is brown,
with the middle of the feathers dusky, the young are of a
brownish grey colour, and so is the male in the winter
plumage, though he retains as much of the character of his
gayer plumage, as makes him easily distinguished from the
female or the younger birds ; the neck bears a considerable
resemblance to that of the common teal. The eggs are
about the same in number, and of a dull greenish grey. The
widgeon is most plentiful in the southern parts of England, and
migrates more abundantly to the western shore than some
others of the duck tribe, that make their chief appearance with
us in the winter.

WITH THE HIND TOE WEBBED.

The birds which have a membrane margining the hind toe,
are more exclusively aquatic in their habits, and more prone
to sea migration, than the species which have that organ plain.
They have the legs farther asunder and backward, the tarsi
shorter, the web larger in proportion, and the feet altogether
less adapted for walking, but better for swimming.

They have other characters which also indicate more of a
swimming habit. They have the head thicker, the neck
shorter, and both that and the body more fortified with down
among the shafts of the feathers ; the enlargement of the
trachea membranous; the wings smaller, rounder, and hol-
lower, and the tail stiffer and more fitted for acthig as an organ
of ascent and descent when they dive, an operation which they
perform more frequently, and to a much greater depth, tlian
any of the former. They consequently can find their food in
deeper water ; they more frequent the sea ; belong to more

THE BLACK SCOTEK. 309

northerly latitudes, and, generally speaking, appear in the
greatest numbers in the northern parts of the country, and
there chiefly on the shores. Some of them breed in the
northern parts, but the greater number appear only as winter
visitants. There are about eighteen species of them, belong-
ing to different genera, recognised as British birds. Most of
the species, considered as food, are inferior to the birds of the
former subdivision.

SCOTER. {Oidemia.)

The birds of this genus are about the size of the common
wild duck ; they have the bill more or less turgid or enlarged
at the basal part of the upper mandible ; the wings very hol-
low, and both these and the tail stiif, and fit for action under
water. They dive much, seldom resort to fresh waters, and
are supposed to feed chiefly upon shelled mollusca, which they
procure by diving. Their flesh has a rank and fishy flavour ;
and on that account it is allowed to Roman Catholics in Lent
and on meagre days. Their breeding places are little known ;
and it has not been ascertained that any of them breed in the
British Islands.

THE BLACK SCOTER. {Oidemia ni^ra.)

The length of this species is about twenty-two inches, the
breadth about thirty-four, and the weight from two pounds and
a half to three pounds. The plumage is entirely black, with-
out any wing spot. The upper mandible has an indistinct
knob at the base, which is yellow, sometimes with a reddish
tinge, and the yellow is produced on the middle of the bill
beyond the knob, but it does not extend to the tip. The rest
of the bill is black or dusky. The orbits of the eyes are
yellow; the irides brown; the tarsi and toes dusky, and the
webs black. The tail is wedge-shaped at the extremity, very
stiff, and contains sixteen feathers. The mark of a nail on
the tip of the upper mandible is wanting, as well as the wing

310 NATATORES.

spot. The female is rather smaller, has the knob at the base
of the upper mandible still less distinct, and the black of the
plumage with a dusky grey or rusty tinge. This species
ranges pretty generally over the sea coasts in the winter
season; supports itself apparently by diving ; and is sometimes
caught in the fishermen's nets: but its summer retreats and
breeding places are little known, only it is supposed that they
are in more northern latitudes.

THE VELVET scoTEK. {Oidemia fusca.)

This species is a regular winter visitant, though not perhaps
quite so common as the former. The whole plumage of the
male is velvet black, with the exception of the wing spot and
a crescent-shaped spot under the eye, which are white. The
protuberance at the base of the upper mandible, and the mar-
gin of the bill, are black ; the nail at the tip reddish, and the
rest of the bill dull yellow. The irides, tarsi, and toes, are
reddish, the webs of the feet dusky black. The female has
the upper plumage dusky, the under whitish, and the protu-
berance at the base of the bill less conspicuous. It resorts
to our shores regularly, but not very abundantly, in the win-
ter, supporting itself by fishing and diving. Authors mention
that it breeds in the arctic regions and inland ; but they are
not stated to have been found by those who have actually
visited the northern parts either of the eastern or the western
continent.

THE SURF SCOTER. {Oidemia pe7'spiciUa.)

This is an American species, very rare in Britain, and its
history as a British bird is thus even more obscure than that
of the others. It has been seen only in the extreme north of
the British islands, and as a very rare straggler even there.
Its plumage is in general black, and without any wing spot ;
but the nape, and a band across the forehead, are white. The
bill is yellowish red in the middle, blackish at the margins.

THE EED-HEADED POCHAKD. 311

and dusky grey towards the tip, and pectinated in the margins ;
the irides yellowish white ; the tarsi and toes blood red ; the
webs of the feet dusky black. The female is blackish brown.
These birds are abundant on the shores of the United States in
the winter, but retire towards the northern parts in the breeding
season. They are found on both shores of the American con-
tinent.

POCHAKD. {Fuligula.)

The birds of this genus have no very remarkable distinguish-
ing characters. They have the bill broad and flat for its
whole extent, and the body thick in proportion to its length.
They resort more inland, and to the fresh waters, than most of
the others that have the hind toe margined by a web. So far
as is known, none of them breed in any part of the British
islands ; and only three species may be considered as regular
winter visitants. Their flesh is better flavoured than that of
any of the other of the diving ducks.

THE RED-HEADED POCHARD. (FuUguIa feri72a.)

This species is about twenty inches in length, thirty in extent
of the wings, and twenty-nine ounces in weight. It is rather
a heavy-looking bird ; and although the markings upon some
parts of its plumage are very deHcate, its plumage is by no
means brilliant. The bill, which is very flat in its whole
length, is dull grey, with black on the margins and the tip,
and a bluish band across the middle. The feet are dull bluish ;
the irides bright orange; and there is no wing spot. The
head and neck are reddish brown, with a rich gloss ; a collar
round the lower part of the neck, the throat, the upper part of
the back, the rump, and the under tail coverts, are black.
The scapulars, wing coverts, and belly, greyish white, finely
lined and mottled with dusky. The quills and the tail feathers,
which are fourteen in number, are dusky. The female has
the head, neck, and breast, brown, marked with some white

312

NATATORES.

on the throat and near the eyes. The young resemble the
female, and do not receive the black till the third year. The
nests are understood to be in the northern marshes, placed
among reeds ; the eggs to be from ten to thirteen in number,
of a dull greenish white. The birds do not arrive on our
shores very early in the autumn, and seem to belong to an
eastern or north-eastern migration. They appear in the
estuaries of the fen rivers, and a little inland rather than on the
sea coasts. They are very expert divers, and for that reason
supposed to be inhabitants of the northern lakes rather than the
marshes.

THE SCAUP POCHARD. [FuUgula mar'da.)

Like the former, this species is a winter visitant, and comes
indiscriminately to the shores, and the fresh waters near the
sea, though on the estuaries of the larger rivers rather than on
the banks of lakes. Its bill is broad and rounded at the tip,
and well adapted for searching in the ooze and sludge for those
substances on which it feeds ; and, from that form of the bill,
it is sometimes called the spoonbill duck.

Length about eighteen inches, weight rather more than a
pound and a half, bill bluish, feet leaden grey, wing spots
white, and the irides golden yellow. Head and neck black,
with green reflections ; upper part of the back, rump, vent, and
breast, plain black ; lower part of the back, wing coverts, and
sides, variegated with black and white ; quills dusky, secon-
daries white, forming the wing spot, but with black tips ; tail
dusky, consisting of sixteen feathers, wedge-shaped at the point.
The female is more inclining to brown in the plumage than the
male. Though in general found near the sea, and supporting
themselves chiefly by diving, these birds are easily tamed, and
feed readily upon vegetable substances.

THE TUFTED POCHARD. 313

THE WHITE-EYED POCHARD. [Fuligula Nyroca.)

This species of pochard is not quite so common as either of
the former. When found it is usually on the fresh waters,
but at no great distance from the sea. It is about the
same length as the scaup, but not so heavy a bird ; and the
white irides are alone sufficient to distinguish it. Feet and
bill bluish, the latter rather produced, and with a black nail.
Head, neck, sides, and breast, rust colour, with a darker
collar of the same, and a spot of white on the chin. Back
and wing coverts black, with purple reflections, and small
obscure reddish spots ; primary quills dusky, secondaries
white at the bases and black at the tips, forming a wing
spot of white and black. Tail dusky brown, containing four-
teen feathers. The female has the back dusky and the head
brown.

THE TUFTED POCHARD. [FuUgula cvistata.)

This species, which gets its trivial name from a pendent
crest about two inches in length, that hangs over the nape
in the male, is much more common than the last mentioned ;
and may be regarded as a pretty regular winter visitant in
the southern parts of the country. Very little is known of
its haunts in the breeding season ; but as, in some parts both
of Europe and America, it is found upon the fresh waters
inland in the autumn, and near the shores in the spring, it is
probably an inland breeder. With us it remains, on fresh
water chiefly, as late in the season as March ; and as many of
the analogous genera are known to breed about that time, or
not much later, the probability is that its breeding places are
at no very great distance. Length about a foot and a half,
weight twenty-six ounces, legs black, bill the same colour,
broadened towards the tip, and with a black nail ; irides dull
yellow ; head, neck, and crest, black, with purple and green

VOL. II. 2 E

314 NATATOKES.

reflections ; upper part and breast plain black ; scapulars and
sides of the back very minutely freckled with black and grey ;
primary quills black, some of them white at the bases ;
secondaries white at the middle, forming the wing spot, and
black at the tips ; tail dusky, wedge-shaped, consisting of
fourteen feathers ; lower part of the breast and middle of the
belly pure white ; flanks and vent feathers black. Female
and young dusky brown, when the male is white, and without
crest.

THE KED-CEESTED POCHAED. {FuUgula Tufina.)

The red-crested pochard is a very beautiful duck, but in
Britain it can be regarded only as an occasional visitant. It
is a bird of the inland waters, and not of the sea ; and one
which was brought from Boston to London in 1821, was
found on fresh water in that neighbourhood, in company with
widgeons. For nearly two weeks previously there had been
very severe frost, by which, no doubt, the bird had been
driven from the Continent, though flocks of ten or a dozen
have been casually seen on the east of Kent,

This is indeed a very discursive species, by no means un-
common in Italy in the winter, and ranging as far eastward
into Asia, as the Himalaya mountains. It has been known,
by name at least, to British Ornithologists, ever since the
days of Willoughby, but little is even now known of its
breeding places and nidification.

The male has the bill and feet red, the nail of the former
white, and the webs of the latter black. The nail is pointed,
and projects considerably over the tip of the lower mandible.
The head and crest of silky feathers, which are considerably
produced and very handsome, are of a rich chestnut colour,
with purple reflections. The occiput, breast, and middle of
the belly, are brown, and the vent feathers black. The sides
are white, the marginal parts delicately mottled with brown.
The back is brownish ash, with two crescent-shaped white

THE LONG-TAILED HARELD. 315

spots on the scapulars, which nearly meet. The basis of the
quills and the wing spot are also white. The rump and upper
tail coverts are green, with purple reflections.

The female has no crest. The upper part of the head and
back are generally brown, the cheeks ash colour, the scapulars
and wing spot white, the bill, tarsi, and toes, brownish.

THE LONG-TAILED HARELD. [Havelda glacialis.)

This species is not uncommon upon the shores of the
northern parts of both continents, retiring to the most
northerly places that will afford it grass or other cover near
the sea in the breeding season, and migrating into warmer
latitudes in the winter. Considerable flocks appear on the
shores of the northern isles from October to April; but few
appear to the southward, and they disappear from even the
extreme north of Britain in the summer. They live chiefly
upon the smaller Crustacea and shelled moUusca, which they
procure by diving. They have a loud clangulous cry, con-
sisting of three or four harsh notes. Length twenty-two
inches, breadth thirty-six. Bill black, with an orange line in
the middle of the distal part, and a bar of the same across
the tip; irides red, feet slate grey, with a reddish tinge on
the tarsi and toes when recent. Front, cheeks, and sides of
the neck, greyish brown; crown and nape cream colour, the
former tufted; a black patch on each side of the neck; lower
part of the breast, back, and wings, black; scapulars and
lesser coverts bluish white, produced and dependent par-
tially over the wings. Throat and front of the neck white,
extending a short way on the back at each side; sides and
belly white, nearly meeting at the rump; tail of fourteen
feathers, all pointed, the two middle ones three inches longer
than the rest; they and one on each side black, the rest dull
white. The female is smaller, and wants the produced
feathers in the tail and over the wings; has the top of the
head and spot on the neck dusky, the upper part of the
neck white, the lower reddish brown, with white spots; the

316 NATATORES.

general colour of the upper part rusty, with some mottlings ;
the under part pure white. The plumage is very close, and
the down pure and elastic.

THE EIDER DTTCK. [Somateria mollissima.)

One of the most distinguishing characters of the eiders is
the base of the bill prolonged in two flat plates on the sides of
the forehead, and the mandibles diminishing in breadth towards
the point. They are also among the largest of the duck tribe,
soft in their appearance, and gentle in their manners.

A figure of the male of the common eider is given on the
plate opposite, which will render description unnecessary.
The female is much smaller than the male, has the plates of
the bill not so far produced on the forehead, and wants the
pendent feathers that hang over the wings. The colour is a
pale yellowish brown, mottled with lighter and with black;
the wings dusky, with rust-coloured edges, and the greater
coverts and some of the secondary quills with white tips; tail
brownish black, belly dusky, mottled with black.

The eiders are less migratory than most others of the sea
ducks. The ice drives them to the south in the winter, but
they do not move far, and those which inhabit places where
the sea is never frozen remain in the same places all the year
round. They are rarely, if ever, seen on the southern shores
of England, though a few inhabit the Fern Islands, and also
some of the islets in the Firth of Forth. They are much more
numerous in the more northern and remote places, the Orkneys,
the Shetlands, and some of the more distant and lonely of the
Western Isles. Sulas'-skerry (the Gannet's rock), and its
stack, which stand wild and lonely in the North Sea, about
thirty miles to the northward of Hoy-head in Orkney, contain
a number of these birds ; but there, their eggs and young are
liable to be destroyed by the skua gulls, as they are by jack-
daws on the islets farther to the south.

To the people of the remote north, whose only possession,
save a rock upon which to found their hut (which is chiefly

r ^.-Mr^/yr^r^^/^?

'-^m^

rM/ o:^i^a/d^^^m^

THE EIDER DUCK.

317

formed of materials that the sea produces or wafts), the eiders
have much of the character of domestic animals; and they
have this advantage over the domestic animals of more sou-
thern places, that they put the people to no expense for food.
If the eggs are left undisturbed, the brood of the eider duck
does not exceed four ; but if the eggs are removed, she will
continue to lay for several weeks. The nest is on the ground,
upon one of the islets not far from the main island, or other-
wise near the sea. It is formed of marine plants, and lined
with exquisitely fine down, which the bird pulls from her
breast ; and as the eggs are deposited, she covers them with
more of that down. The bird is so tame, that she allows the
people to lift her from the nest, remove the down and eggs in
part, and again replace her, where she lays afresh and pulls
more down. This process is continued, not only till the
female can furnish no more down, but till the male also is in
part denuded, as he comes to assist as soon as the supply of
the female becomes exhausted. Half a pound is the average
quantity obtained from one female in the course of the season ;
and the product is said to be greatest when the season is rainy.
The down of the eider is the lightest and softest of animal
coverings, and perhaps the worst conductor of heat, and there-
fore the warmest clothing that is known. The prepared skins
of the eider also make light and warm clothing ; and their
flesh is wholesome and much more palatable than that of most
of the sea ducks.

They are large birds. The male is about two feet three
inches in length, more than three feet in the spread of the
wings, and weighs six or seven pounds. In the latter part of
the winter and the spring, they swim in flocks, and their
motions on the water are peculiarly graceful. Though they
generally return to their haunts at night, they often make
pretty long excursions during the day; and they are well
adapted for such flights, for, soft and heavy as they are, it has
been ascertained that the rate of their motion on the wing is
not less than eighty or ninety miles an hour. Altogether they
are among the most interesting of our sea birds.

2 e2

318 NATATOKES.

THE KING EIDER. {Somatevia spectabilis,)

This species inhabits farther to the north than the former,
being abundant on the polar shores of both continents. It is
rare as a British bird, and can hardly be said to appear upon
even the northern shores of the main land in any other cha-
racter than that of a straggler ; but in some of the more remote
islands it breeds, at least occasionally, and, therefore, it is
entitled to a place in the list of our native birds.

It is rather less than the other, and easily distinguishable
from it both by the bill and the plumage. The lateral pro-
longations of the bill on the forehead are arched, ridged, and
furrowed ; and the bill and feet are bright reddish orange, but
the terminal parts of the plates towards the forehead are black.
The feathers at the base of the bill, over the eye, and partly
down the sides of the neck, are bright green, meeting in front,
and passing gradually into dull white on the chin, which is
marked with a cheveron bar of black ; the crown and nape are
ash colour ; the middle of the back is black, the coverts dusky,
with a white patch in the centre ; the quills black, and the
tertiaries produced and pendent over them as in the common
eider. The tail is short, wedge-shaped, and black ; the lower
part of the neck and the breast whitish ; the belly and vent
black. The female is brownish on the upper part, with the
centres of the feathers dusky ; the plates of the bill are not
so prominent, or so highly coloured ; the produced feathers in
the wings are also wanting, and the size is smaller. The
males of this and the common eider do not get their distin-
guishing characters till the second or third year.

THE WESTERN EIDER. [SomateHa dispar.)

This bird is so rare with us that it can be considered only
as a very accidental straggler ; but it deserves notice as
being a stranger from a far country, or rather as an aerial

GARROTS. 319

voyager from the most distant sea. It has sometimes been
classed and described as a pochard, but its characters, its
haunts, and its habits, nay, even its very colours, are those
of the eiders. It is a native of the northern part of the
Pacific, towards Behring's Straits, and is found on the north-
west coast of America, on that of Kamtschatka, and on the
intermediate islands ; so that in reaching this country, it must
cross the whole breadth of Asia and Europe on the one side,
or the whole breadth of America and the Atlantic on the
other. A single specimen only has reached the country in a
wild state, apparently across the breadth of the eastern land,
as it was found near Yarmouth. Some insinuations were
made, tending to deprive it of the glory of its long flight,
upon the ground of its being a tame bird which had escaped :
but its whole air and plumage showed it to be a wild bird, and
one not exhausted, but in the very best condition.

The bill is black, with the nail pointed and hooked ; the
irides chestnut ; the head white, with a waving green band
across the forehead, and another across the nape. The neck is
also white, with a black collar, and the chin black. The
general colour of the upper part is black, pied with white. The
tertiaries are much produced, and curve gracefully downwards
over the wings ; they are black at the bases and centres, with
white margins. The turn of the wing is white, and the quills,
which are black in the greater part of their length, have white
bases, and a white bar across. The under part is white for-
wards, and posteriorly brown. The feet are large, strong, and
of a leaden colour. The body and neck are also lengthened,
and the head slender, the whole having, as already mentioned,
the expressions of the other eiders.

GAEROTs. (Clangula.)

Bill short and narrow ; feathers on the scapulars produced,
distinct, and pointed ; tertiaries crossing the primaries in the
closed wing, but not pendent. Two species, both of which

320 NATATORES.

are natives of the north, visit the British shores in the winter,
one not uncommon, the other rare.

THE COMMON GARROT, OR GOLDEN EYE. {Claugula VUlgarh.)

These birds appear on our shores, and occasionally on the
inland waters, in the winter season, though not in any consi-
derable numbers ; and though the majority of them retu'e far to
the north in summer, a few are supposed to remain and breed
in more temperate places. They are handsome birds, very
strikingly contrasted in their plumage, and light and active in
their motions.

Length about eighteen inches, breadth about thirty-one,
weight about a pound and three quarters. Bill bluish ; head
and upper part of the neck (the feathers of the former thick
and produced, forming a sort of crest) deep glossy green, with
purple reflections ; the iris bright yellow, appearing very
conspicuous in the deep green ; a conspicuous white spot
immediately behind the gape ; green on the neck, terminating
in front in a collar of velvet black. The lower part of the
neck and all the under part white, excepting a few black
feathers on the flanks and thighs ; wings brownish black, the
coverts and secondaries white, crossed in the middle with a
black line ; some of the scapulars white and produced, others
and the tertiaries black ; back and rump black, the margins of
some feathers on the latter brownish ; tail brownish. In the
female the head is brown, and the plumage of the upper part
dusky, relieved with ash colour on the margins. The white
spot at the gape does not appear in the males till the second
year. They are graceful swimmers, and expert divers, living
on small aquatic animals, including reptiles and even water
mice. They fly swiftly, but low, and with a whistling noise.

THE HAKLEQUIN DUCK, OE HAKLEQITIN GAEKOT. 321

THE HAELEQUIN DUCK, OE HAELEQUIN GAEEOT,

{Clangula histrionica,)

Inhabits more northerly than the former ; is smaller in size,
more striking in the contrasts of the plumage, appears in the
northern isles only, and there it is by no means common.
Length about seventeen, breadth twenty-six inches, weight
rather .more than one pound. General colour of the upper
part very deep green, almost black, glossed with lighter green
and purple, and peculiarly marked with white and black.
A curved white line passes from the lower part of the cheek,
by the gape and over the eye, nearly to the nape, becoming
narrower along the top of the cheek, and terminating in a
reddish tinge. That white line is bordered all along the inner
edge next the eye, by a narrow black line which has no gloss
or reflection. There is a circular white spot immediately
behind the eye, and a white line from a little behind that,
passing down the side of the neck. Another narrow line of
white, bordered by one of black, nearly surrounds the lower
part of the neck as a collar. A third line of white, made up
of three distinct arches, with their hollow sides upward, passes
from the shoulder to the breast, with a black margin on the
under side of the arch next the shoulder, and on the under
side of the other two. The portion of the breast between
these lines is bluish ash with lighter margins to the feathers.
The rest of the under part is brown, with a reddish tinge
towards the sides and flanks. The scapular feathers, which are
rather produced and well-defined, are white, with black mar-
gins. The wing spot on the secondary quills is blue, with
purple reflections. The tail and its coverts are dusky black,
the bill the same colour, the irides brown, and the feet dusky
blue. The female is brownish above, whitish on the under
part, with a rusty tinge on the head and neck.

Both species are said to breed on the marshy shores in the
arctic countries, to form their nests in the low shrubs on the
margins of the lakes and pools, to lay from eight to twelve

322 NATATOEES.

whitish eggs, and to subsist on insects and their larvae, and on
the spawn of fishes and reptiles.

The last-mentioned species has been seen (in winter) in the
island of Lewis, — the extensive and dreary flats and moors of
which are worth searching, not only for the rarer species in
winter, but for the nests of some of the northern birds in

GOOSANDERS. (Mer^us.)

Birds of this genus have the bill more slender and cylin-
drical than that of the ducks, serrated with sharp reflected
teeth along both mandibles, and with the nail at the tip
hooked ; so that the bill is altogether less of a dabbling, and
more of a prehensile instrument. The internal structure also
indicates that they feed more exclusively upon animal matter ;
and the position of their feet, the form of their wings, and the
great enlargement of the lower part of the trachea, all adapt
them well for diving in quest of fishes, which form the chief
part of their food. The difference in plumage between the
males and females, and the males in the young and the adult
state, has, as in the case of many other birds, led to some
confusion in the descriptions. Four species are enumerated as
British — one resident, the others visitants or doubtful. They
all belong to the northern ornithology.

KED-BKEASTED MERGANSEK. [MevgUS ServatUS.)

These birds are very awkward walkers, in consequence of
the shortness and backward position of their legs ; but they
swim and dive well, and are of powerful flight, ranging over
a great extent in latitude in the course of the year. The
majority of them breed in places farther to the north ; but a
few breed, not only in the more remote Scotch isles, but on
the mainland, in the marshy and humid districts of the north-
west of Sutherland and Ross. The nest is on the margins of
the fresh waters, composed of withered grass and down from

THE GOOSAIfDER. 323

the breasts of the birds; the eggs are from eight to twelve, of
a smooth and shining buff.

The length of the mature male is about twenty inches, the
breadth about thirty, and the weight nearly two pounds.
The bill to the gape three inches, closely toothed, hooked at
the tip, dusky on the ridge, reddish in the other parts ; the
irides, feet, and middle of the breast, red, the latter more or
less mottled with dusky. Head and upper part of the neck
(the former having a loose crest pendent over the nape) deep
green with purple reflections; the upper part of the back
black, the lower and the sides mottled with brown and grey;
a white spot on the fore shoulder; the scapulars next the
wing white ; the wing black at the margin, with a large
white spot in the middle, shaded by two lines of black ; the
tail dusky; the front of the neck white; the breast reddish
chestnut ; the belly white, but with some dusky mottling on
the thighs and flanks. The female has the head and neck
brownish, the back greyish ash; the breast mottled with grey;
the wings dusky brown, and only one black line across the
wing spot. The immature male resembles the female more
than the mature male.

THE GOOSANDER. {Mergus Merganser.)

This species is also only a winter visitant in the southern
parts of Britain ; but it probably breeds in the same places of
the north, where the females and the young appear to have
been sometimes confounded with each other.

This is a much larger bird. The male weighs about four
pounds, and is twenty-eight inches long and thirty-eight in
the stretch of the wings. The feet are red; the bill rather
larger in the gape than that of the former species, but not
quite so long on the ridge, rather more slender, shghtly
recurved, but very much hooked downward at the tip, and
thickly toothed in the margins; the colour dusky at the nos-
trils, down the ridge, and on the nail at the tip; red in the
rest of the external surface; and the insides of the gape.

324 NATATORES.

orange. The head, crest, (which is less produced, but more
elevated, than that of the last species, or of the female in
this,) and upper part of the neck, deep green, passing into
black on the chin and fore-neck; lower neck, shoulders, breast,
and all the under part, white, with a tinge of salmon colour.
Back black, becoming greyish at the rump ; tail grey, consist-
ing of eighteen pointed feathers; scapulars next the back
black, those next the wings white; quills and coverts brownish
black, except the middle secondaries and the terminal parts of
those coverts which form a white wing spot. The female has
the head and neck (the former with a long loose crest) rust
colour; the upper part greyish and the under yellowish white.
She is the "Dun diver" of authors; and the immature male,
which resembles her in colour, is the male of the same. The
nest is placed in situations similar to that of the red-throated
diver; the eggs are from eight to twelve, and white, with a
slight tinge of yellow.

THE HOODED MERGANSER. [McrgUS CUCuUatUS.)

The hooded merganser is an American species, frequenting
the fresh waters of that country much more than the sea;
retiring to the north in summer to breed, but in the winter
ranging as far southward perhaps as the Floridas. In Britain
it appears only as a very rare straggler.

The length is eighteen inches, and the breadth about
twenty-four. The bill is narrow, very much toothed, hooked
at the tip, dusky on the ridge and nail, and dull red on the
other parts. Irides yellow, the eye being very small ; the
feet reddish ; top of the head furnished with a large crest,
which can be erected or spread over the head like a hood.
The crest black in part as far as the eyes, the rest white with
black tips. Neck, and part of the back, black, the black re-
lieved in two points towards the breast ; all the rest of the
under part white, passing into reddish brown, finely marked
with black on the sides. Smaller coverts pale ash, greater
coverts and secondaries forming two black and two white

THE SMEW, OR WHITE NUN. 325

lines on the middle of the wing ; tertiaries long, hanging
partially across the wing, black, with white streaks in the
centres of the feathers ; primaries and tail feathers, which last
are twenty in number, brownish black. The female is smaller,
and has the crest of a pale rust colour ; the upper part of the
neck pale brown, and is altogether smaller.

THE SMEW, OR WHITE NUN, [Mergus alhellus.)

The smew, white nun, or white merganser, is, like the
others, a bird of the northern climates, abundant in both
continents, and perhaps the most discursive of any in its
migrations. It is more abundant on our shores in the winter
than any of the other species, but it has not been known to
breed in the country. On the eastern part of the continent,
and also in America, it ranges much farther southward than
in our longitudes, because there the waters northward are
earlier, and to a greater extent closed up by the frost. The
consequence is, that many of the arctic birds are as common
in the Mediterranean as they are on the southern shores of
England, to which it is in very severe weather only that
any of the mergansers are driven in even moderate numbers.
The markings of the smew are very striking, and distinguish
it readily from every other bird.

The length of the male is eighteen inches, the extent about
twenty-six, and it weighs rather more than a pound and a
half. It is a bird of elegant form, and the pure black and
white of its plumage render it a very conspicuous object, as
it alternately plays on the surface and dives in the water.

The bill, which is about two inches long, rather tapering
to the hooked tip, and serrated, but not quite so deeply as in
the other species, is bluish black ; the feet are the same, and
the irides dark brown. On the eye there is a large oval
black spot glossed with green, and the under side of the crest
backwards is also black, defining the hinder outline of the
head, and giving the white upper part of the crest the appear-
ance of a floating plume of white. The neck, as far as the

VOL. II. 2 F

326 NATATOEES.

shoulders, and all the under part to the vent, are pure white.
The sides under the wings, and partially below the closed
wing backwards, are beautifully mottled with small curved
lines of black. The back is black, and the scapulars white,
with a few thin oblique black lines. From the upper part of
the black on the back, there are a few short curves of black
across the white on the shoulder, the upper one of which
extends in slight arches or scollops nearly to the middle of
the breast. The other two curved black lines proceed from
the back, by the top of the white scapulars, under the bend of
the closed wing, and turn forward on the lower part of the
breast, but do not approach each other so nearly as those on
the upper part. The ridge of the wing and the primary quills
are black ; the middle coverts white ; and the greater coverts
and secondaries black with white tips ; thus forming a broad
patch and two narrow bands of white. The tail is dark ash
colour, and contains sixteen feathers.

The female is considerably smaller than the male, has the
crest similarly formed, but smaller, and reddish brown, the
dark spot dusky, the chin and throat white, a pale brown
collar round the neck, the shoulders and breast pale brown and
white ; those pai-ts which are black in the male dark ash, and
the feet pale blue. The young males are like the female,
which has occasioned the same mistakes as in the rest of the

FISHING BIKDS.

The birds included in this division are not the only ones
that fish — for the heron and many of the divers, some of the
swimming ducks, and also many of the birds that remain to
be noticed in the following division, fish occasionally or
habitually. But the birds of this division fish in a peculiar
manner, have feet of a peculiar structure, and bear nearly
the same relation to the other birds that feed in the waters,
that the eagles do to other birds that feed upon land.

There is no display in the manners of the diving and dab-

FISHING BIRDS. 327

bling birds ; they remain quiet on the surface or hidden under
it, while in search of their food; they retire to marshes and
places which are not easily examined, and have little of interest
in them, and there they disperse themselves to breed ; they are
in the air only while they are journeying ; and they journey
with us only at those seasons when, to common observers, the
places which they frequent are the least inviting ; and hence
their history is comparatively brief and obscure : and though
their manners deserve attention, they do not eminently com-
mand it.

The birds of the present division are tenants of the rock ;
they congregate in vast numbers in nesting time, breed in
the free air of heaven, and make the shores echo far and wide
with the rustling of their wings and the clamour of their
cries. They do not in all cases build so high upon the cliffs
as some other birds, and they do not extend their flights so
far to seaward, but they descend upon larger game, and do it
with more energy. They beat the waters as an eagle beats
the wilds, and descend on their finny prey with great impe-
tuosity and force, — plunging into the water till it closes over
them, though they have few of the attributes of the common
divers, and again walM7ig upward to the surface, taking wing
and returning to the cliff to feast themselves, or to feed their
young. Though they find their food in the waters, and gene-
rally descend for it on the wing, they are shore birds rather
than sea birds, and some of them occasionally visit the inland
waters, levying their contributions pretty heavily upon the
finny inhabitants.

And they are well furnished for their peculiar way of life,
in all the attributes of strength, power of wings, and struc-
ture of bill and feet. None of the British species equal the
golden eagle, either in weight or in extent of wing ; but one
of them is larger than the osprey, and they are all compara-
tively powerful birds. Their wings are hollow, so that they
take a powerful hold of even a thin stratum of air, and thus
they are enabled to mount at once from the water, without
any of that fluttering, and quick, and laborious motion of the

328 NATATORES.

wings, to which most of the dabbling birds must have re-
course before they can gain the sky. Their sight is keen —
keener perhaps than that of eagles, as they can fish, and con-
sequently see their prey from a height, when the curl of the
surface so scatters the light, that human vision, aided by all
the contrivances of science, could not penetrate a single
inch.

Their bills are very long and very powerful ; and though
they have not the deadly character of the bills of some land
birds, as simply lifting out of the water is death to their
prey, they are perfect models of prehensile instruments. In
some, the bill is straight, sharp at the point, and serrated in
the margins; and in others, it is plain in the edges and
strongly hooked at the tip. In both, it thus has one of the
characters of the bill of the diving mergansers ; but the ab-
sence of the other indicates that, when the bill is used, it
must be thrust home with more power than any bird can give
to its bill immersed in water, and having the resistance of
that to overcome. Of the two, the straight bill may be con-
sidered as the more dashing instrument, the one which is sent
down from the greatest height, and for the capture of the
largest prey.

The feet are, however, perhaps, the most characteristic
organs, and they answer many purposes, and, among these, one
which no other of the variedly-formed feet of birds appears
to be expressly formed for answering. They are not placed
quite so far backward as in the swimmers and divers, though,
as the weight of the body lies farther forward than in those,
they answer well for swimming when that is necessary. The
tarsi are stronger and more tendonous than in the swimmers ;
they are straighter set ; the toes collapse more ; and thus
the birds can walk better, and also stand firm on the slippery
points of rocks. The peculiarity in form is the web continued
to the hind toe, and the general position of the web being
inwards rather than forwards, as may be seen in the annexed
figure of the right foot of the cormorant, with the side out-
wards which is turned towards the centre of the bird.

FISHING BIRDS. 329

Cormorant's Foot.

If the prey is on the surface and small, these birds can
capture it by a snap of the bill, and ascend again without
losing the wing, in the same manner that the skimming birds
take the greater part of their food; but, if the prey is under
the surface and larger, the wing must not only cease, but be
so far closed or recovered, and the bird must enter the water,
and use that as a fulcrum in again ascending. In that action,
the head and gullet, the latter often loaded with the prey, are
thrown back by the flexure of the neck, which is long and very
elastic; the feet are at the same time brought forward till
they are under the centre of gravity, and by acting against
the water, like two inverted cups, jerk the body upward till
the points of the wings clear the surface, and the bird is on
the wing in an instant. In the gannet, which comes from
the loftiest heights and with by far the most velocity, the
ascent is facilitated, the fall broken, and indeed the plunge
to so great a depth as the rush of the descent would produce
is prevented, by the peculiarly buoyant structure of the bird.
That buoyancy is produced by a quantity of air distributed
in cells under the skin, not exclusively for the purpose of
respiration certainly, for the gannet never has the head so
long under water as to require that, but obviously for those
which have been stated. The descents of the gannet from
its greatest heights, (and as it descends from these upon

2 f2

330 NATATORES.

its best prey, it has always the greatest initial, and conse-
quently by far the greatest final velocity,) headlong as they
are, and delivered upon the breast, very differently from those
of the osprey, would be sufficient to stun the bird, and even to
immerse it to a depth from which it could not again ascend, if
they were not received upon something more elastic than
feathers. But the resources of nature are always the very best,
and the gannet is let down, and assisted in again ascending,
upon that finest of all springs, the air.

The cellular tissue immediately beneath the skin, on the
under part of the gannet, is formed into air cells: or rather,
the skin is attached to the muscles by a number of mem-
branous points, so that it can be inflated to a very considerable
extent, or reduced by the contraction of the muscles, at the
pleasure of the bird. Those external air cells form a sort of
three divisions, one on each side the breast, and one anteriorly
of the furcal bone (or merrythought), on the neck of the
bird. The two lateral ones have a sort of septum along
the keel of the sternum; and they receive air from the air
cells within, through apertures beneath the great pectoral
muscles; but they communicate with each other, so that one
side of the bird cannot be inflated or reduced without a
similar effect taking place in the other. Such an inflation
would, indeed, be very awkward; as in case of a wound in
one side, the bird could not keep its balance. The anterior
cell is unconnected with the rest, opens into the interior cells
farther forward, is globular, and about four inches in diameter
when expanded, and has a beautiful fan-shaped muscle for its
contraction.

The particular action by means of which the gannet in-
flates those cells, the occasions upon which they are inflated
or contracted, and their uses in the economy of the bird, are
not perfectly known ; but, as has been already said, they
could have the effect of making the bird descend upon the
water like an elastic balloon, or rise in like manner when it
plunges.

^•^^^

THE COMMON CORMORANT. 331

CORMORANTS. (Carho.)

The general character of this genus as British are, the bill
long, straight, compressed, smooth in the margins, much
hooked at the tip of the upper mandible, serrated with a
naked membrane at the base which reaches to the throat. The
nostrils at the base, linear and hidden. The face and throat
naked. The feet short, strong, placed far backwards, all the
four toes united by a web. The position in walking much
more erect than that of the gannet, and the walk more difficult.
The wings of moderate length, and the tail rather produced,
and wedge-shaped or rounded.

They fish from the wing, though not from so great heights
as the gannet ; they fish swimming ; they are expert divers ;
they do not range very far from the shore ; they sometimes
frequent the fresh waters ; and they occasionally perch, or
even build their nests, on trees. They subsist chiefly by fish-
ing, and a principal part of their food is eels, after which they
dive. They are very voracious feeders ; and the smell of the
living birds, and also the flavour of the flesh of the old ones,
is exceedingly rank and oflfensive. The young are less so, and
may be rendered palatable, if drawn, skinned, wrapped in a
cloth, and buried for some time in the earth.

THE COMMON CORMORANT. {Cavho comwranus.)

A figure of this species, one twelfth of the lineal dimensions,
is given on the plate opposite. It is a large bird, larger (on
account of the tail being more produced) than the common
grey goose, but a foot less in the extent of the wings, and
only about two thirds of the weight. It is an energetic and
powerful bird, found in most latitudes, and not quitting the
northern seas till frozen out. Its sight is keen ; and it plunges
upon its prey from a considerable height, dives after it, and is
equally bold and successful. It can gorge an immense quan-
tity ; its own weight of fish, at least, in the course of one day.
Its stomach and gullet are capable of great distension, the

332 KATATOEES.

latter of as much as the naked skin on the front of the neck,
which skin appears merely to accommodate the enlargements
of the internal passage better than they could be accommo-
dated by a skin covered with feathers, and not having, as has
sometimes been said, a pouch or reservoir in which to carry a
store of provisions. No animal, indeed, appears to have in its
body any reservoir for provisions save the digestive organs
themselves. The cheek pouches in man and some of the quad-
rumana are not storehouses, they are merely places which
allow a large and hard nut which cannot be broken by the
front teeth to be broken by the grinders. Indeed, it is scarcely
compatible with the action of a bird, certainly not with that
of a bird proceeding to catch a second fish, to have a first one
in the mouth, or even in that part of the gullet in which a
large substance remaining would interfere with the use of the
neck and head, even if we admit, as we must do in the case of
many birds, and in that of the cormorant among others, that
the supply of air necessary for life can be obtained by other
means than through the nostrils or the trachea.

The cormorant builds on the high ledges of the rocks,
although generally in or near the currents in which an ample
supply of swallowable fish may be obtained ; though as the
bill of the bird is fully five inches long and very wide in the
gape, and the gullet dilatable to any thing that the bill can
capture, it can manage fishes of considerable size. Whether
it descends upon them from the rock, where it often sits on
the watch, or from the wing, or skims after them in the
water by swimming or diving, at both of which it appears to
be equally expert, it seizes them crossways with its bill ; but
it does not, like the heron, bring them to land in order to
turn them into that position in which they can most easily be
swallowed. It can turn them in the water, or if it fail in
that, it can jerk them into the air, catch them as they fall head
foremost, and so swallow them with ease. It will sometimes
fish till it is so loaded that it gets on wing with difficulty,
and the process of so much digestion so fatigues or stupifies it,
that if its seat on the rock can be reached, it is not difficult to

THE SHAG.

333

capture. In winter it sometimes follows the fishes up the
estuaries of rivers, and in flat countries perches on trees, or,
in some parts of the world where it is not disturbed, on the
house-tops. The nests are generally on lofty and insulated
rocks, often a number of them together, and made of a few
sticks and seaweeds. The eggs are three or four in number,
of a whitish colour, rather rough on the surface, and not large
in proportion to the size of the bird.

The cormorant is subject to some changes both with the
season and with age. In winter, the crest feathers, which are
never very much produced, drop off, as do also most of the
white feathers on the neck and the out sides of the thighs ; the
upper plumage also fades to a dull brownish black. The young
are without the crest and the white feathers, and are browner
than the old ones in their winter or faded plumage.

THE SHAG. [Carho graculus.)

A figure of this bird is given on the plate at page 304,
on a scale of one sixth of the lineal dimensions, or twice as
large in line, in proportion to the natural size of the bird, as the
cormorant on the plate at page 330. In form, character,
habits, and general haunts, the birds very much resemble each
other, only the shag is smaller, differently coloured, and
remains more habitually upon the shores, being rarely, if ever,
seen inland.

Though these birds can both swim and dive, the water is
not their element ; their feet are better adapted for raising them
out of the water than for enabling them to make their way
through it ; and as their eye is keen, their dart upon their prey
unerring, and the hold that they ever take with their bill
secure, they do not need to remain long in the water. There
is no waste in nature any more than there is want. Accord-
ingly, the birds of this genus, which require but a short time in
the water to gorge themselves, and which would absolutely get
so overloaded as to be unable to rise from it at all, were they
to continue long, have the feathers less able to stand the water

334 NATATOHES.

than those birds which spend the greater part of their time in
swimming or diving. They are thus compelled, as it were, to
ascend to the rocks, and, while the whole of their animal
energy is engaged in the digestion of their load of food, spread
out their wings to dry.

The birds build high, and lay two rough-shelled eggs. In
winter the colour on the back fades, the white feathers on the
cheeks disappear, and the green crest is nearly obliterated.
The young have the throat ash coloured, and a tinge of brown-
ish ash upon all the upper plumage.

The crested shag of authors, is merely this bird in its breed-
ing plumage.

THE GANNET, OK SOLAN GOOSE. [Sula BaSSaua.)

A figure of the gannet in its mature plumage is given on the
frontispiece to this volume, with one more distant and on
an oblique descent, for the downward rush of the bird no pencil
can delineate. The bird is about three feet long, of which
the bill, including the naked skin at the base, occupies about
half a foot. The nostrils are obscure and nearly closed. The
expanse of the wings is at least six feet, and the weight of the
bird between six and seven pounds. Excepting the tinge of
buif on the crown, and the black primaries and the bastard
wings, the whole plumage of the mature bird is white. The
young are brownish black the first year ; have a w^hite spot at
the end of each feather above, and a dusky spot crossing the
shaft of each, in the second year. In the progress of these
changes of the plumage, the irides change from brown to
yellow.

In summer they betake themselves in immense multitudes
to particular clifi's, and especially to rocky islets at a small
distance from the land. The Geology of rock-building birds,
though a curious subject, has not been much alluded to ; but
the gannets appear to prefer those of the trap formation to
any others, probably because the inequalities of these are
more flat and tubular than the schistose and granitic rocks.

THE GANNET, OR SOLAN GOOSE. 335

It may, in some instances, appear that the birds are capricious
in their choice of particular spots ; but it will in general be
found that they give the preference to places which have
the best command of fishing grounds, and the more they
are surrounded by these the better. Theii* fishing grounds
in the breeding time (and we may conclude, that the grounds
to which all birds resort at that time is about the mart with
their most easily acquired food) are not the beaches and
shallows upon which fishes deposit their spawn, and where
the fry appear when very small ; but they are not at very
great distances from these ; and are, as one would say, near
certain runs of the water, where the young fishes may be sup-
posed to congregate intermediate between the nursery banks
and the deeps. The Fern islands, the Baas, Ailsa, Sulas'-
skerry, and many of the jutting headlands in the Hebrides
may be instanced, all of which are in runs of the tide or cur-
rent, and none of them very far from banks or shores on
which spawn is deposited. We want, however, a correlative
history of congregating birds and shoaling fishes upon the
different parts of our shores ; and as the work would be one
of great economic value, surely some of those gentlemen who
have talents, leisure, and all other requisites, for the task, might
instruct and delight us by performing it in a style worthy of
themselves. Now that we have regular National Congresses
or Conferences oi professed naturalists, we of the " common
file" are entitled to something more at their hands than
newspaper reports of dinners. Not that they should not
dine. By all means let them do it, as sumptuously and
abundantly as they can. The drum must be braced and
tightened, before it can beat the charge which bears victory
on its rush ; and to deny the scrutinizers of all nature
a mouthful of the best, would be " muzzling the ox" with
a vengeance, — and in some cases literally ; but, for our sakes
(and even for their own), they should do a great deal
more. They ought to " quarter" the land and compass the
sea, and leave not a stone unturned, under which there is the
least chance of a worm, or a pool undredged, in which there

336 NATATOKES.

may be even one lurking planaria. Above all, let them play
" Old Adam" — not lapse, no, nothing of that sort; but
'^ NAME the BEASTS," birds, fishes, and all the rest, so as
to enable plain folks to distinguish between classical nomen-
clature and provincial jargon. A striking instance of " that
confusion of tongues" occurred to myself long ago, when on
a " goose chase" after these same gannets on the Bass. A
crustaceous animal was drawn from a hole of the rock ; the
native locality of none of the parties was more than fifty miles
distant; yet one called it a poo, a second ^. pallawa, a third
a parton ,- I called it a crab, and they all agreed that I was
wrong.

The gannet forms a sort of nest, though a rude one, of a
few pieces of withered bent, floating reeds, dry sea weed, or
what it can get. The female has two eggs, or only one,
elongated in the form, rough and glossless in the shell,
whitish in the colour; and, different from the diving birds,
very small in proportion to her size ; being very little longer
than that of the common duck, though the mother bird is
at least three times as heavy. The old story of balancing
the e^^ on end needs no refutation, as Columbus himself
could not make it stand in that way — and get a bird out
of it after. That one so eagle-sighted as the great Harvey
should have fallen into that heresy, is less a matter of won-
der than of caution to smaller men. Both gannets are en-
gaged in the incubation, each sitting alternately as the other
fishes for food. A colony of them is a busy, gay, and inter-
esting, though rather a noisy, scene ; but the rocks where sea
birds crowd are but slippery footing, and not very suitable for
holiday attire.

When the broods are reared, and the young fishes leave
the breeding grounds, the gannets disperse themselves over
the sea, rather than migrate. In the intermediate time, be-
fore the smaller surface fishes come near the shores for the
purpose of spawning, they are put a little to their shifts,
and they may be seen hovering over, and always now and
then driving down at, the shoals of cod, which cause a white

SKIMMING BIRDS. 337

blush on the water where they are numerous; but though
they wound a considerable number, by then- powers, that
species of fishing, at least in the cases in which I have seen
it, does not appear to be very productive. Sprats and her-
rings suit better, especially when " taken in the set of the
current," as they are then captured by the birds while swim-
ming. We are not very well informed respecting the seasonal
economy of the surface of the sea; but it is probable that the
fishes, and the surface fishes especially, have a southward
motion in the winter; and that the gannets move seaward
and southward along with them, — as we can hardly suppose
that birds, in which the colour and texture of the plumage,
as well as the quantity of air in the cellular tissue under the
skin, all conspire to resist changes of temperature, can have
any occasion to shift southward on account of the cold.
Dispersion rather than departure seems to be the chief cause
why they are not seen in the winter. As they float like
balloons, they have less occasion to come on land, except in
the breeding time, than most other birds; and great as the
numbers are which collect at their favourite rocks in the
summer, they would make but a sprinkling over the sea to the
distance of fifty or one hundred miles, and the points of that
wide surface which can be contemporaneously viewed are
exceedingly few.

SKIMMING BIRDS.

The general habit in which the birds of this division agree
the most, may be said to be that of rather low and varying
flight along the surface of the water, during which they appear
to be merely playing over the waters, though they are very
industriously and successfully feeding all the time.

They are the birds which give the greatest interest to the
sea, in as far as birds can increase the interest of that won-
derful element. They are dispersed indiscriminately around
all the shores, whether these be bold or tame in their cha-

VOL. II. 2 G

338 NATATORES.

racters. They range far to seaward, and some of them are
met with almost at mid ocean. Their wings are never wholly
at rest, if there is light by which a wing can be seen; and
their voices are not often silent. When the tempest sweeps
with its utmost fury, and the congregated waves rise mountain
high, now hiding the ships in the compound valleys, now dis-
closing them keel out on the accumulated ridges, when cordage
parts like cobwebs, masts snap like dry twigs, — the chain
cable stiffens like a rod, the shank of the best bower " comes
home from the fluke," and man is as powerless in his best sea-
boat as an infant in a basket, — no wing can keep the sky or
endure the sea. But as long as the waves are single^ the
skimming bird can not only remain but find food, let the wind
blow as it lists.

Its footing, too, is much more steady than those who have
not attended to the motion of waves would be apt to suppose.
Waves, instead of rolling with the velocity of the wind, roll
very little, and they are always highest, of course, when the
motion of the water is contrary to that of the wind. When
one looks on them from shore and with a side wind, they seem
to roll on, and (which of itself might convince us that the
apparent rolling is an optical deception) they always appear to
move the slower the fresher the breeze. They heave and
sink, the times being as the square roots of their lengths, so
that, if a wave four feet broad changes from ridge to trough in
four seconds (which is not very far from the truth), one of six-
teen feet will change in eight seconds. Now, as the apparent
forward motion is half the width, the four feet wave will appear
to move at the rate of rather less than a mile and a half in the
hour, the sixteen feet one at rather less than three quarters
of a mile in the hour, which is a very slow motion ; and if one
could see one of the mountain seas of the southern ocean on
an end view of the waves, they would appear to have hardly
any forward motion at all.

Thus, in the case of single waves, the middle of the slope is
a point of rest, on which the sea bird can sit with little more

SKIMMING BIRDS. 339

difficulty than on the calm surface. That will, perhaps, be
made plainer by the following diagram of

A bird at rest on the wave.

a. h. is the mean level or calm line of the sea, cutting both
the black and the dotted curve on the points o. o. 1 is the
ridge, and 3 the hollow, at the one end of the vibration ; and 4
the ridge, and 2 the hollow, as shown by the dotted line, at
the other. The bird at B on the turning point is not moved
either up or down ; and as that point is alternately on the
windward and leeward of the wave, the wave keeps it from
drifting in the first case, and affords it shelter in the second.
There are some other optical deceptions with regard to the
motion of the bird or of any thing else that floats on that
part of the wave, but they are not easily described, though
they can be readily understood by any one who sees them in
nature.

There are, however, some other inducements for the bird
to take this position on the wave. This is the point to
M^hich the agitation of the water tends to drive the small ani-
mals upon which the bird feeds ; and they lose command of
themselves in the tumbling water and accumulate there, so
that the birds catch them more readily than when the surface
is smooth. " Troubled waters" are thus the best to fish in for
birds as well as for men ; and they are also the best for the
larger fishes to feed_ in. The skimming birds, and also the
fishing birds proper, may be seen on the alert, twitching their
prey from the mid slopes of waves on the wing, especially in
those long seas without broken water, which are, perhaps, the
most beautiful states of the ocean.

340 NATATORES.

The skimming birds are so numerous and so varied, that no
general characters can be very descriptive of them. They
swim, many of them dive, and not a few walk well ; but the
wing is their principal organ of motion, and the bill their
only (or chief) prehensile instrument. The body follows the
principal action : it is a flying body with a fishing bill and
swimming feet ; and that is, perhaps, the only character more
general than the generic ones.

SKUAS. (Lestris.)

The birds of this genus get the name of lestris from the
habit they have of " robbing" the gulls of the prey which they
have swallowed. They have sometimes been called the
" eagles of the sea ;" and their power, their rapacity, and
their daring, entitle them to that name, much more than the
gannets and the cormorants, which, though most voracious
in their fishing, and often dashing in the performance of it, are
tame and peaceable birds in other respects. The worst that
one gets in the haunts of the gannet and the cormorant is a
hearty scolding ; but the cradle castle of the skuas is not to
be stormed with impunity. All who have visited it, confess
there is danger, and some of the accounts add that there has
been death — those who have had the hardihood to attempt
the plundering of the skuas' nests, with the head unprotected,
have had their skulls broken by the reiterated dashes of the
parental beaks. Even the eagles keep aloof from the habi-
tations of the skuas ; and they, singly, so alarm the gulls,
that they disgorge their load of fish, which the skua seizes
on its fall. They are also great robbers of the nests of other
birds.

They have, indeed, many of the characters, and some of
the action, of eagles. The bill has a cere to the upper man-
dible. It is of moderate length, hard, strong, cylindrical,
compressed, very sharp in the cutting edges, and hooked at
the tip of the upper mandible, and having the under one for-
tified by a salient angle at the middle. The legs are stout,

SKUAS.

341

with part of the tibia naked, and the hind toe nearly rudi-
mental ; hut the claws are strong and much hooked. The
head, neck, and body, are strongly and firmly made ; there is
the same power of spreading the tail as in the eagles ; and
the flight is by jerks or rather dashes. They are chiefly
found in the north, collecting at the breeding grounds —
seldom more to the south than Orkney and Shetland ; in
the summer, ranging as far as Spitzbergen, and making prize
of fishes, eggs, young birds, shelled mollusca and Crustacea on
the shores, and the " kreng" or carcase of whales and other
large animals in the sea. It seems to be chiefly for " holding
on" while they tear the floating carcases piecemeal with
the bill, that they have the formidable hooked claws. The
north sea often supplies a rich harvest of dead carcases, as
seals and other animals are subject to epizooty^ and float
dead in thousands ; and in these cases, the skuas lend a hand
in playing the vulture. Most of the species breed both
in the Orkneys and in Shetland, but only on peculiar spots.
The nests are sometimes down near the water, and at others at
the height of several hundred feet ; and it is a curious fact,
that the eggs, even of the same species, are always lighter in
the colour when placed high than when down near the level of
the sea. They disperse in winter, and range more in breadth
over the ocean.

There are four species of skuas known as British birds,
though one of them is of rare occurrence ; and these four have
not only the general appearance, but the gradations in size, in
the colours of the plumage, and in form, of the birds of prey.
Of the diurnal birds of prey, there is a regular gradation from
the golden eagle to the merlin; and in the nocturnal ones,
from the great-eared owl to the little owl. The skuas feed by
day, and thus the tints of their plumage resemble the diurnal
accipitres more than the nocturnal ones. The common skua
has the same deep brown, and the same unbroken colour
as the eagle, and, like that bird, it has the beak black. The
others are light, and more or less marked with spots on the
under part ; and as their size diminishes, their wings and tails

2 g2

342

KATATOEES.

become proportionally more produced, so that they have
more the character of the hawks, and possess the means of
more rapid and varied flight, but without the same strength
and daring.

THE COMMON SKUA. [Lestris cotaractes.)

A figure of the common skua, on a scale of one sixth of the
average dimensions, is given upon the plate at page 331. It
is there represented in the attitude which it assumes on the
water ; but, as is the case with birds of prey, it is seen to
greatest advantage when in pursuit on the wing. A bird
in motion is, however, a very difficult subject for an artist,
much more so than a quadruped; yet, even in these, the
expression of motion is not often well represented, though in
most species the artist has at least some advantage of the
muscles. Indeed, the chief fault in animals, and also in the
human figure, consists in making too much of the muscles —
giving such equal action to the antagonist ones, that the figure
could not possibly move, and thus indicating paralysis rather
than action. In birds, the form of the muscles is not seen, or
indicated in any way but by the general outline ; and thus,
whatever shape may be given to the figure, the idea of motion
must be wholly supplied by the imagination of the spectator ;
and it is only a little farther stretch of that imagination, to sup-
pose the bird which is represented in a state of quietude to
get up and fly.

As is the case with the more powerful of the accipitres, this
most powerful of the skuas inhabits the cold latitudes. It is
found in all parts of the northern seas within and near the
polar circle ; and it is also found in the south. New Holland
and Africa are situated rather near the tropics for its habits ;
but Cook met with it while skirting the polar ice, and. Cap-
tain P. P. King found it abundant while recently exploring
the southern extremity of the American continent. Though
rather discursive in its habits, it is not very often seen on
the southern shores of England ; it is, however, very common

THE COMMON SKUA. 343

in the Northern Isles, in some of which the people call it the
*' herdsman," from a notion that it protects the young of
their flocks from the eagle. This may, in part, be imagina-
tion ; but the birds are very powerful both in the wings and
the beak. They are, in the breeding time, as bold as they are
powerful ; they charge en masse, and they charge in a manner
against which the eagle is not well prepared for defence.
Though their claws are strong and much hooked, more espe-
cially that on the inner toe, yet the webs prevent them from
acting so efficiently as the free toes of the accipitres, and
therefore the beak is their ofiensive weapon ; and when the
male birds are roused in defence of the females and the young,
neither eagle nor eagle-owl can venture upon their ground
with impunity. It is, indeed, rather a hazardous business for
man ; and instances are mentioned of those who M^ent into
the breeding ground of the birds without sufficient protection
to their heads, having their skulls fractured by the repeated
thrusts of the bills. The country people who find it neces-
sary to traverse the breeding haunts of the skuas, use a defence
against them, something similar to that which the heron uses
against hawks, when they gain the sky of him. They carry a
long stick armed with a spike or spear at the top ; and when
they approach very near the nests, the birds sometimes de-
scend with so much fury and force, as to transfix themselves
on the spike. Such birds have, of course, their breeding
grounds as much to themselves as the eagle has her moun-
tain ; and if their habit were to breed as dispersedly as eagles,
they would, considering then* numbers, drive all the other
sea birds from the shores. They do not, however, attack the
other bhds for the sake of killing them, and eating their flesh,
but to make them disgorge the contents of their stomachs, and
eat that. This the common skua accomplishes even with the
largest of the gulls, though these also are powerful birds, and
show fight to the smaller species of skua. Indeed, from the
gradation that has been mentioned, there are skuas adapted for
levying their contributions upon all the other sea birds which
fish on the wing, and rise to a moderate height with loaded

344 KATATORES.

Stomachs. The flight of the skuas is a bounding and jerking
flight, and they appear to know instinctively when the gulls
have been successful, and are loaded. In these cases, they
drive at the gull with the rush of birds of prey ; and the gulls
scream, discharge their load, and make off, the skua descend-
ing like an arrow, and seizing it ere it reaches the water. It
is this habit in the gulls of parting with their property with-
out a struggle, which has given rise to the terms " gull,"
" guller," and " gulling," among men, the active parties in
which, though not popularly termed skuas, are certainly the
most dangerous, and at the same time the most contemptible,
of all the wingless lestri. These lestri have their gradation of
species, as well as the winged ones ; so that while no wingless
gull, however great or otherwise powerful, can escape the
larger ones, if he once ventures within their peculiar breeding
ground, there is no gull so small but that, if he take not heed
where he goes, he will find a lestris to make him disgorge, as
certainly as any of his winged namesakes. There is another
point in the parallel: the food of which the sea-gulls are
robbed, is very frequently that which should go to the main-
taining of their wives and families, — and it is even so with the
wingless gulls.

In the plumage of the common skua, the individual feathers
have the same firmness and decision as in that of the eagles,
and they have also the feathers on the neck produced and
pointed. Their wings are long and pointed, the first quill
being the longest, and the two middle feathers of the tail are
about an inch longer than the others. The only white upon
the mature bird is on the shafts of the primaries, and partially
on the webs.

There is every reason to believe that, like the eagles, they
pair for life, as, when one is seen, another is seldom far off;
and though the male is not so easily distinguished from the
female as in the eagles, the sexes being very similar both in
size and in plumage, yet there is no doubt that these pairs
breed together.

In the breeding season they are social, or select their own

THE POMARINE SKUA.

345

ground, from which, for the reasons already stated, the other
birds keep aloof. As British birds, they are not very nume-
rous, even at that time, though they nestle in the northern
islands, both in rocks and in the upland wastes. The nest is
rudely formed, and the eggs are generally two, of a paler or
darker olive, according to circumstances, and marked with a
few spots. When the breeding season is over, they disperse,
and range the ocean along with the other sea birds, upon
which they continue to levy their contributions all the year
round. But though they depend chiefly on the gulls for food,
they have other resources, which lead one, by very obvious
analogy, again to their wingless brethren. When they can
come unawares upon a defenceless bird, they do not hesitate to
dispatch him both with beak and claws, and (the smaller
species in particular) are great plunderers of the nests of other
birds, more especially of those of the shore and marsh birds
which breed on the islets near the northern coasts.

THE POMARINE SKUA. {Lestris Pomarinus.)

The pomarine skua is the next largest species, and bears
some resemblance, both in its general appearance and its
plumage, as well to the sea eagle as to the larger hawks. As a
British bird it is rare, and can be regarded only as a straggler
from the north-western seas. Specimens do, however, some-
times occur, and one in particular was sent from Devonshire,
alive, to the Zoological Society of London, in the winter of
1831. The bird is about eighteen inches in length, with the
wings long, and the tail not so pointed or wedge-shaped as in
the common skua ; the tarsi also are long, but the toes short,
and the webs small. The bill instead of being black, as in
the former species, is greenish yellow, the irides yellowish
brown, and the feet black. The head is blackish brown ; the
feathers on the sides of the neck slender, produced, silky, and
of a yellowish colour. The general colour of the upper part
is blackish brown, and the under part dull greyish white,
mottled with rather obscure dusky spots, of a triangular or

346

NjLTATORES.

crescent shape, not unlike those on the under parts of some of
the falcons. The young, in their first plumage, are dull
brown on the under part, and much more closely mottled, and
with smaller spots, than the mature birds.

This skua is an American species ; but its appearance in
tliis country shows that it is a bird of powerful wing and dis-
cursive range. Its habits resemble, to a considerable extent,
those of the common skua, only it is not so large and strong,
and consequently does not levy its contributions upon such
large birds as that species does. Its greater comparative power
of wing enables it to range more to seaward than the other,
following the lesser gulls and terns ; and it also passes into
lower latitudes, though its breeding places are, generally speak-
ing, in the north. Altogether, it is a bird of more graceful
form than the common skua, though in that respect inferior
to the remaining and smaller species.

kichardson's skua. {Lestris Richardsonii.)

This species, which is by no means rare as a British bird,
especially on the more northerly shores of the country, has
been, by most writers on British birds, confounded with, or
rather described as, the Arctic skua, a bird with which it has
little in common, save the generic characters of the skuas, and
the same length, measuring from the beak to the extremity of
the produced feathers of the tail.

It is the species which is most familiar to popular observa-
tion, and therefore the one which has been, rather ingloriously,
named as if it fed upon the " mutings" of other birds, and
not, as it really does, upon the undigested or partially di-
gested food, which the fear of it makes them disgorge from
their stomachs. That such a notion should have been enter-
tained generally in the times of ignorance, and that it should
still be entertained by the confessedly ignorant, is not at all
to be wondered at ; but it is a matter of somewhat amusing
marvel, to find those, who appear to exist for no useful pur-
pose but that of cavilling at and mending the expressions of

kichabdson's skua. 347

others, (if indeed that be a useful purpose,) leave upon the
page of their volume that name of the bird, set forth as a
classical English name, which is not only expressive of a false-
hood, and therefore more exceptionable in Natural History than
a simple nonsense name, but such as no polite person can
pronounce in decent society. One would desire to be tender
of the frailties of human nature, inasmuch as man did not
make himself — though he sometimes spoils and botches the
workmanship ; but truly the^ feeble-minded should especially
guard against all approximation to vulgarity, inasmuch as
no elevated part of their character stands up, which can, under
any position of the sun or the reader, veil the offence with its
kindly shadow. If, however, such is to be done, the genus
lestris is unquestionably that wherein to do it, inasmuch as
there may be a strong feeling of consanguinity, and the usual
argument may be raised, that " a man may do with his own
what he likes." — So much for the literary lestri ; and the mis-
fortune is, that even the eagle is not secure from their depre-
dations.

Richardson's skua, though not common in the south of
England, is by no means rare in North Britain, and it is found
as far in the south as Yorkshire. The birds appear on the
nesting ground, which is generally in some sort of cover near
the sea, but as elevated as possible, in the end of April or in
May ; and they disperse seaward in August, or, at all events,
before the autumnal equinox. The reason of their congregating
in the early part of the season, is partly the natural impulse,
and partly the following of those other birds upon which they
so much depend for their food; their dispersion in the latter
part of the season, is more exclusively for the purpose of feed-
ing— for it does not appear that climate has very much effect
upon them. It is probable that these birds pair for life as well
as the common skuas ; but the fact of their pairing has not
been so well ascertained, probably on account of their being
more numerous. They do not keep so exclusively at sea as
the common species, but sometimes range to considerable

348 NATATORES.

distances inland, at which times their chief subsistence is upon
worms and molluscous animals.

These birds have not the decided feathers or the hawk-like
mottlings of the species that have been already noticed. They
have the head blackish brown, with the dark colour covering
the cheek a little below the eyes. The general colour of the
upper part is also brown, but with a slight trace of ash colour.
The sides of the neck are buff; the throat, breast, and belly,
white, passing into greyish ash towards the vent. The cere is
whitish ash ; the bill bluish black ; the feet, of which the tarsi
are an inch and three quarters long, are the same colour;
they have the webs large and the hind toe little produced,
indicating a more swimming habit than that of the former
species. Their instruments of flight are also much produced.
The entu-e length is twenty-one inches, of which, however,
nine inches are taken up by the feathers of the tail, of
which the middle feathers are so much produced, that they
extend fully three inches beyond the others. The young birds
have the tail feathers produced ; and they are of a brownish
colour.

ARCTIC SKUA. [Lestris parasiticus.)

The true Arctic skua sometimes breeds in the remoter parts
of the British islands, but much more rarely than Richard-
son's, or even than the common species. It is by much the
lightest and most handsomely made bird of the genus. Its
length, including the tail, is about the same as that of the last
species, that is, twenty-one inches ; but twelve inches of that
are occupied by the tail, which reduces the head and body to
nine inches, while those of the other species measure twelve.
The cube of three to the cube of four, or twenty-seven to
sixty-four, is, therefore, the proportion in weight of the two
birds : and as the Arctic species is more slender in proportion
to its length than the others, it does not weigh above a
third as much. This circumstance alone might have pre-

THE ARCTIC SKUA. 349

vented the one bird from being mistaken for the other, even
though, in other respects, they were not so different as they
are.

The Arctic skua has the cap of the head dark blackish
brown, but not reaching below the eyes; the general colour
of the upper part is clear brownish grey, the quills and tail
feathers being darker. All the under part is pure Avhite,
except towards the vent and under tail coverts, where it passes
into greyish ash. The sides of the neck are of a delicate
straw yellow. The plumage of the mature males and females
is nearly the same ; but that of the young birds is brown and
mottled.

One of the most remarkable external characters of these
birds, is the length and pointedness of the middle feathers ©f
the tail and the quills of the wings. It has been already
mentioned that the tail is a foot long, or three inches longer
than the body and head ; and the middle feathers, which taper
to a point at the extremity, are six inches and three quarters
longer than the others. This remarkable elongation and
pointedness in the flying apparatus of these birds, gives them
something of a tern-like appearance : and they can turn on the
points of their wings something after the manner of swallows,
though, like the rest of the genus, they live rather by robbing
other birds than by fishing for themselves. It need hardly
be added, that they are the swiftest flyers of the skuas, and
consequently the most discursive over the ocean. They do
not attack the larger gulls, but they occasion no little
annoyance to the smaller ones and the terns, which, especially
the former, they often strike on the back to make them dis-
gorge. They inhabit rather more northerly than the species
with which they have been confounded, and the confusion
has probably arisen from the description of the rare bird
having been copied under the name of the more common one,
and the blunder continued by those who had no farther know-
ledge of either of the birds than that which they copied from
others.

The true Arctic skua is altogether one of the most elegant

VOL. II. 2 H

350 NATATORtS.

of our sea birds, — light and handsome in its form, delicate
in the colours of its plumage, and free and graceful in its
motions. It is one of those birds, the rareness of which is
matter of regret. Indeed, the whole genus are birds of much
interest, and they form a well-defined genus, and yet one
which exhibits a very considerable range in size and in cha-
racters. To man they do no injury ; and when that is the
case, animals are always interesting in proportion to their
powers.

GTJLLS. {Larus.)

The gulls are much more numerous both in species and in
individuals, and also much more common on the British
shores, than the skuas. Their bills resemble those of the
skuas in their general form, but they are more elongated and
slender, have the nostrils pervious, and are without a definite
cere at the base of the upper mandible. Their legs are rather
longer than those of the skuas, and better set for walking;
but they are also bare for a considerable height on the tibia,
and have the hind toe only rudimental. They are rather
looser in the feathers, less weighty in proportion to their
dimensions, have more of the flying form, and are smoother
in their flight, than the skuas. Like those, they congregate in
the breeding season, often in immense and countless multi-
tudes ; some breeding on the rocks by the sea, and others in
the lone and marshy pools and lakes, often at many miles
inland, but seldom, if ever, in elevated or mountainous parts
of the country. Many of them, the inland breeders espe-
cially, are instinctively " weather-wise," and leave the sea
before the storm comes. At these times, as well as on their
marches to and from the breeding grounds, they halt upon
the fields, and may be seen mingled with rooks and other
land birds, following the ploughs and picking up larvae and
worms as the earth is turned up. These marsh ones, indeed,
support both themselves and then- young upon the produce of
the pools, and seldom range to any very great distance till

THE BLACK-BACKED GULL. 351

the young are able to accompany them. At other times, they
are distributed along the shores, industriously picking up not
only small animals, but all sorts of garbage that come in their
way. In those fishing villages which range close by the
beaches in many parts of the country, and are not remarkable
for their cleanliness, the gulls are very familiar, and ply as
scavengers. In the far-famed village of " Buckhaven," on
the southern shore of the kingdom of Fife, they used to be
called by the domestic name of " oor toon 'ens ;" and once,
when the Lord of the Manor took it into his head to exact
pullets as part of his rent, the fishermen brought him sundry
baskets of gulls, replying to the objections that were made,
" We ken na ither 'ens but thae, an' 'ow can we gie vat Pro-
videns' 'as na gien us?" an argument which was unanswerable,
as gardens within flood mark, stocked with muscles and crabs,
would have been but a sorry run for pullets. Abundant
quantity rather than particular quality of food seems to be the
object with the whole genus. If animal food of any kind or in
any state can be had, they prefer it ; if not, they will eat seeds
and other vegetable matters. In all the species of which the
habits are well known, the young are mottled, acquire their
mature plumage gradually, and not perfectly till the third
year, and there is every reason to believe that the same diflfer-
ence of plumage with age runs through the whole of the
genus. So that a mottled gull is always a bird under three
years old.

The diflferent species of gulls are sometimes separated into
the subdivision of larger and lesser ; but, unless in respect of
size, that seems a distinction without any useful difference,
as no difference in the habits of the birds accords with it.

THE BLACK-BACKED GULL. [Larus marmus.)

This is the largest species found on the British shores, and
it is one which is resident all the year, though rather at parti-
cular spots than generally along the shores. It is a marsh
breeder, but breeds in those near the sea, and especially on

352 NATATOKES.

loose marshy islands. It is exceedingly voracious, an expert
fisher, but always on the watch for stranded fish, or any carrion
or garbage that it can find ; and it is also accused of making
prize of the young of some other water birds, of rabbits, and
even, it is said, of lambs. It is a large and powerful bird, mea-
suring two feet and a half in length, nearly six in the stretch
of the wings, and weighing nearly five pounds. The pairs ge-
nerally keep together for the greater part of the year.

The feet are flesh coloured, the irides white, and the bill
yellow, the latter four inches in length, and with a red spot,
dusky in the centre, on the angle of the lower mandible.
Back and wing coverts slate grey ; quills black barred with
white and with white tips ; all the rest of the mature birds
white. The young are mottled with brown and white till the
autumn of the third year.

THE BURGOMASTEK GULL. [LaVUS glaUCUS.)

This species is nearly as long as the former, but six or
seven inches less in the extent of the wings. It inhabits more
northerly, or rather more exclusively northerly, than the
former, visits only the more northerly parts of this country in
the winter, and is rarely seen even there. It is understood
to breed only in the north, the very extreme of which, as far
as the water is at all open, it reaches in the summer. It is
said to breed in rocks.

Bill brownish yellow, with the spot on the under mandible
bright red ; irides yellow, orbits reddish, feet livid ; back,
shoulders, and wing coverts, light bluish ash; rest of the
plumage white. The young mottled with brown and white.

THE ICELAND GULL. {LorUS IslatldlCUS .)

This, like the former, is only a winter visitant in the
northern isles. It is a smaller and less powerful species,
but more handsome in its form than the former, and pro-

THE HERRING-GULL. 353

portionally better winged, the closed wings extending beyond
the tail; and, in accordance with these differences of form,
it is a more active bird. Colours nearly the same as in the
last species, only the ash colour on the upper part a little
paler and clearer in the tint ; the bill half an inch shorter,
and considerably more slender. The brown in the mottled
plumage of the young birds is also paler. It inhabits far to
the northward in the summer, and is presumed to nestle on
the polar rocks, where numbers have been seen congregating,
as gulls usually do, at that season. Its history is, however,
rather imperfect and obscure.

THE LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. [LaVUS fuSCUS.)

This species, which is resident, and not uncommon in some
of the more northerly places, is easily distinguished from the
other large gulls by its yellow feet, those of all the rest being
reddish or livid. It is a rock-breeder ; and, as may indeed be
said of the rock-breeders generally, it subsists more by fishing,
and less by picking up garbage on the shores, or dead animals
floating at sea.

It is about two feet long, and four feet and a half in the
extent of the wings. The irides and bill, like the feet, are
yellow, but the orbits of the eyes are brown when young,
and pale straw colour in the mature birds. The back and
scapulars are bluish black, the quills black ; but the outer
primaries barred near their tips, and the others tipped, and
also some of the scapulars tipped with white. The birds as-
semble very closely on the ledges of their favourite rocks in
the breeding season, but disperse at other times : at all times,
however, they are energetic in their fishing.

THE HERRING-GULL. {Lavus avgentatus.)

This species is about the same length as the last men-
tioned, but rather more delicately made, not quite so heavy,
and a little longer in the wings. It is also a rock-breeder,

2 h2

354 NATATORES.

a resident on the shores, and subsists chiefly by fishing ;
although it is, like the rest, very indiscriminate in its
feeding.

The feet of the herring-gull are pale flesh colour, the orbits
of the eyes straw colour, the irides and bill yellow, the latter
with a bright orange spot on the projecting angle of the lower
mandible. In the mature birds, the back, scapulars, and coverts
of the wings, are ash colour, the quills dusky with black tips,
and a white spot on each of four or five exterior ones near the
ends. All the rest of the plumage is white, and there is no
difference between that of the male and the female. The
young of the first year have the bill dark horn colour ; the irides
and feet dusky ; the general plumage of the body mottled
with dull white and brown. The quills dusky, without any
black or any white spot at the tips ; and the tail dull white,
with a dusky bar at the end, which is rather more rounded
than in the mature birds. This plumage lasts for a year with
little alteration. At the moult in the second autumn, or
when the birds are about fifteen months old, the feet acquire
a reddish blush, the bill and irides become yellowish, the
white on the plumage a little purer, and the dark mottling
more inclining to ash colour ; the bar on the tail feathers
becomes less entire, and partially streaked with white. In
the third autumn, the entire white and ash colour, the black
on the ends of the quills, and the round spots near the tips,
are acquired, and the bill, irides, and feet, become of the
colours already mentioned as those of the mature bird ; after
which, the birds undergo no farther change. There are also
some slight changes in the first and second spring, but they
are trifling, compared with those that take place in the au-
tumn. As the changes in the plumage are the consequences,
not the causes, of maturity in the birds, and the physiological
change must take place in the more sentient part of the sys-
tem, before it affects the feathers, it agrees with all the
analogies of nature as well as with the facts, in so far as they
have been observed, that these birds, and indeed all birds
which are a year or two before they acquire their permanent

THE IVOEY GULL. 355

plumage, breed before that is acquired. The herring-gulls,
both in their first and their second plumages, assemble on the
breeding grounds in the season, indiscriminately with those on
which the plumage is mature; and as the assembling is part of
the same law or instinct with the breeding itself, there is every
reason to conclude, that no birds resort thither except for the
purpose of breeding.

The birds have their favourite spots, indiscriminately in the
northern or the southern parts of the country, and they fish,
pick up small insects along the shores, sometimes hawk for
them on the wing, and, generally speaking, carry on the war
with great assiduity against those creatures which it seems to
be their peculiar province to thin.

THE ivoHY GULL. {Lavus ehumeus.)

The ivory gull is by far the most beautiful of the genus ;
and, indeed, it is one of the most beautiful of birds, though
with us it appears only as an occasional visitant. Its habi-
tation is far in the north, and its nesting place in the close
vicinity of those enduring snows, the purity of which is
rivalled by its mature plumage, which is all over spotless
white, close, beautiful, and almost shining in its gloss. The
feet are dark, the tarsi very short, and the tibiae feathered
down nearly to the joint. The length is about twenty inches,
the wings rather long, and the body of the bird handsomely
formed. The young are said to be darker in their first year's
plumage, and the mottling to remain black in the second,
although the white then predominates. Their colours agree
mth, and at the same time indicate, a very northerly habitat,
as, towards the extreme of latitude, the colours, both of animals
and of vegetables, approximate more and more to the ex-
tremes of white and black ; indicating, that there the light
is either reflected ofi* without decomposition, or absorbed and
quenched. Some of the continental naturalists have de-
scribed these birds as breeding on the inland waters, even in
the middle or southern parts of Europe; but they must be

356 KATATOEES.

mistaken : the ivory gull is formed for the extreme north, and
it quits not that except in the severest weather. All along the
margin of the polar ice, from the American shore to Spitz-
hergen, these birds are found in numbers, along with the fulmer
petrels, reaping the harvest of the cold, but, to them, not un-
productive, sea.

THE COMMON QUEL. {Larus caiiiis.)

The common gull is so well known, that a description of it
is hardly necessary. Any one who chooses to resort to the sea
coast, may see it; and in many places of the country it ranges
inland, and shows itself to those who will not.

It is less a sea bird than many of the other gulls, and fre-
quents the lower estuaries of rivers and their ofRngs, rather
than the open shores, especially where the tide sets along the
shore, turns the current of the " fresh" of the river, and holds
suspended, or deposits upon the beaches (which are always
flat and sandy, or muddy, near such places), the lesser animal
matters that have been put in motion both by the river water
and the tides. There they may be seen, walking along the
margin of the water, and picking up the small animals and
remains of animal substances that are to be found there, and
at other times wheeling about with wailing cry, and capturing
such substances as float; but they are not so often observed
swimming. When the surface is very smooth, they generally
seek their food on the beach; but when it is a little agitated,
especially when the fresh of the river comes down red and
foul, and consequently loaded with food suitable to them,
(for they seem always to prefer land products when such can
be had,) they are busy on the wing, now breasting the wind,
now giving themselves to it, never rising very high, but
twitching here and there, in no ungraceful style, and mingling
their shrill and w^ailing cry with the boom of the wind, the
hiss of the surf, and the hurtle of the agitated pebbles. The
tranquil water of the summer does not appear to be quite so
suitable to their habits. At all events, they then leave the

THE COMMON GTJLL. 357

estuaries for the purpose of breeding ; and where the grounds
are favourable, — which of course means, where they afford
plenty of food, — they assemble in great numbers. Authors
have, doubtless quoting some " authority" seriatim, as use is,
described them as breeding on the " ledges of rocks." Now,
if by " ledges" the elevated banks and shelves of rocks be
meant, I have great doubts if any body ever saw a commorf
gull there, even resting. Kitty-wakes, herring-gulls, the
smaller black-backed gulls, gannets, and other birds which
show a good deal of white, are found in such places, and do
nestle there ; and as the sights of birds obtained in such situa-
tions are any thing but microscopic, one is very likely to
be deceived. But the common gull is not a bold shore bird, it
is a beach bird in its general habits ; and true to these, it
is not a rock-breeder, but a marsh-breeder. It is true that, if
the place abounds in food, and there is no suitable breeding
ground near it inland, it may breed on the lower islets, and
even along the shores of the more elevated ones. But tens of
thousands may be found on the same inland marshy lake,
especially if spotted with islets, at the distance of twenty miles
from the sea, and not returning there till they take their
broods with them. Nay, they inhabit somewhat pertinaciously,
and will haunt the same lake, though cultivation is carried
close to its margin. Animals very often seek shelter in
places analogous to those in which they are bred ; and though
it be not exactly true that the hunted hare doubles in search
of her mother's form, it agrees with the analogy of nature, that
a bird should seek shelter in danger, under the same circum-
stances of place (for these are the keys of instinct) in which
it found safety and support when young and helpless. We
ourselves have a touch of the same in us ; and perhaps
there never was a man sick or wounded in a strange land,
to whom the house of his nativity, even though a hovel,
did not come in bright and refreshing vision, as hope began to
sicken.

The common gull appears to have been confounded with
the herring-gull in more respects than that of the breeding

358 ^'ATATOIlES.

ground ; and in a merely passing observer it is not much to be
wondered at. They often alternate with each other on the
coasts, and mingle on the confines. The birds are not unlike
in their plumages; one does not take a very good estimate
of the size of birds on shore or over the water ; and shades
of difference in the colours of eyes and feet, require near
inspection.

The bills of the common and herring-gulls are about the
same length (which, by the way, as the common gull is only
about half the weight of the other, shows in it an approach to
the long-billed shore birds), but the common is dusky at the
base, the herring wholly yellow. The tarsi of the common
gull are whitish, and rather larger in proportion than those of
the other ; the orbits and irides are both brown, not red the
one and yellow the other.

The common gull is about seventeen inches long and thirty-
six in the wings, and weighs about a pound. In the mature
bird, the back and scapulars are clear bluish grey, the primary
quills black, with white spots at the tips ; and the secondaries
grey with white tips. The young undergo most of the same
changes of plumage as those of the herring-gulls, but at all ages
they are only about half the weight. They attain their adult
plumage sooner.

THE KITTY-WAKE. {LuVUS TlSSa.)

This is a rock-breeder, inhabiting the tallest cliffs in vast
immbers in the breeding season, on various parts of the coast,
but most abundantly towards the north. In winter, as is the
case with the rock-breeders generally, these disperse themselves
over the sea, and do not come inland in storms. They cannot
be said to be resident, as they quit the breeding grounds in
winter ; neither are they strictly migrant ; they are " off and
on" between the sea and land. The young, and also the eggs,
are collected in vast numbers in many places as food. They
are tolerable the first year, sufferable the second, and repulsive
ever after.

.^^?% %dfy.

'Q-m.

THE LAUGHING GULL. 359

A figure, in the mature plumage, is given on the plate
opposite. Length fifteen inches, breadth more than three feet,
weight about half a pound. The young have the bill and
naked skin to the eye black, and some black on the ear coverts
and nape. The upper plumage mottled with black, and a
dusky bar on the tail. Second year, the bill yellowish, the
black in the mottling changed to greyish, and all the black on
the head gone over the ear spot. The hind toe, at all ages,
is a small tubercle without any claw.

THE LAUGHING GULL. (^Lavus ridtbundus .)

This is rather a discursive species, found over a considerable
extent in latitude and also occasionally inland though never at
any very great distance from the sea. It is a light and hand-
some bird, formed for rapid flight, and weighing only between
eight and nine ounces, though it measures fourteen and
fifteen inches in length. Unlike many of our sea birds, it is
more abundant on the English shores than in the north ; and
though it ranges to Orkney and Shetland, and even farther
northward in the breeding season, it finds its way to more
southerly places in the winter. Its seasonal migrations thus
bear some analogy to those of the marsh birds ; and, though
it fishes and has other habits and also characters of the genus
to which it belongs, it breeds generally, if not exclusively, in
marshy places, and sometimes at considerable distances from
the sea. There it mingles freely and in harmony with the
other marsh birds ; and at those seasons finds its food in the
fresh waters, on the little islands among which it nestles.
Those inland habits in the breeding time have procured it a
number of names similar to those of land or marsh birds. It
has been called peewit or lapwing gull ; the inhabitants of
Orkney call it the sea-crow, and in some places it is called the
mire-crow. Some of its habits are indeed similar to those of
the crow tribe, more especially of the rook ; and when ground
is newly turned up in the neighbourhood of their breeding
places, these gulls and the rooks may be found together,

360 ^lATATORES.

picking up apparently the same food in the same manner, and
neither of them offering hostility to the other.

The nests are found on the smaller hummocks, or " tumps"
in the fens or marshes, the tops of which are paddled flat by
the feet of the birds previous to the eggs being deposited.
The eggs are two or three in number, of an olive colour, with
darker blotches ; but they are liable to considerable variations
of colour, both when dropped and after they have been soiled
by the feet of the parent bird.

On the nest, the female sits quite exposed, but in such a
manner as to command readily the whole horizon around her ;
and thus she is as well protected as those birds which nestle
in cover. These gulls make a great deal of noise previous to
changes of the weather ; and when the air softens and pro-
mises rain after long protracted drought, and thereby puts the
lesser mire and sludge animals into motion, the gulls are all
activity and clamour.

They follow the habit of most birds which are social among
each other, and with other species in the breeding season, in
being tamed without much difficulty; but as they are, during
part of the year at least, very discursive, it is not likely that
colonies of them could be made to settle and breed, though in
that case they would be highly ornamental, and also render
considerable service in clearing gardens and ornamental
grounds of worms, slugs, and other earth animals.

Authors have made several species out of this one, from the
seasonal changes of plumage to which it is liable, as has in-
deed been the case with most of the seasonal birds, even
though the seasonal change of place is not greater than that
from the fen or the solitary inland pool, to the nearest part of
the shore. The mature birds of this species are not eatable,
and the young are very inferior to those of the kitty-wake ;
but they used to be served up at feasts, more for ostentation
than for use.

In the breeding season, the mature birds have the feet,
bill, and orbits, red ; the irides hazel ; the head and nape
brownish black, except a few white feathers round the eye ;

THE BLACK-HEADED GULL. 561

rest of the upper part grey; the primary quills white, the
first with one black web, the others with black spots ; the
secondaries ash colour marked with white. In winter, the
black on the head fades to white, excepting a patch in front
of the eye and another on the ear covert. The young are
mottled brown and white ; have the bill dusky, with more or
less of a reddish tinge at the base, and the feet yellowish.
In the second year they more approach the colour of the
mature birds, but they have the head white in winter before
it becomes dark in summer. As they are to be seen in all
these states of plumage, they have been called by different
names, and sometimes described as different birds. Their
inland habits have caused them (the young, especially in their
winter plumage) to be confounded with the common gull.
Though only about two-thirds of the weight of that bird, they
appear nearly as large, as, though a little shorter, they are
longer in the wings.

THE BLACK-HEADED GULL. {LaVUS atricUluS.)

This species is nearly of the same size as the laughing gull,
and the two have been sometimes confounded with each other,
and also with the brown-headed, which is also nearly of the
same size. One of the causes of that confusion is the fading
of the dark colour on the heads of all the three species in the
winter, and the consequent similarity to each other both at
that season, and during the times that the changes both
ways are in progress. The different red tint of the bill and
feet, and the white on the primary quills of the laughing gull,
in all stages of its plumage, whether arising from age or from
season, are at once sufficient to distinguish them. The bill
and feet of the laughing gull are bright vermilion red, while
those of the present species are deep lake red. They are both
birds of rather more southern localities than the brown-headed
gull, with which both have been sometimes confounded, and
the species under consideration seems to be the most southerly
of the two. That species is a more seaward as well as a more

VOL. II. 2 1

362 NATATOBES.

northerly bird than either this or the laughing gull; and it
has the feet and bill more slender, and approaching nearer in
resemblance to those of the terns.

The present bird is handsome in the outline, and well
contrasted in the colours. The crown of the head is very
deep lead colour, which appears nearly black from the con-
trast with the under parts of the bird. This dark cape
extends a little way down the nape, and also the neck in
front. The rest of the upper part is also lead colour, but not
quite so dark. The quills are deep black : the under part is
white, with very delicate rose-coloured reflections, which fade
soon after the bird is killed.

In the winter plumage the forehead becomes white, ex-
cepting a few grey feathers at the base of the bill. The whole
of the upper plumage becomes olive grey, with the exception
of the primary quills, which retain a dark hue. The smaller
coverts become brown ; the larger ones acquire white tips.
The first primaries become of a deep brown, but quite un-
broken by any other colour. The next species are brown
with a white spot on each, and from the sixth to the tenth
are white with brown shafts. The under side of the wing
becomes at the same time silvery white.

The range of these birds southward during the winter
season is very considerable, and extends as far at least as
the Mediterranean. In winter they do not seem to make
their appearance on the northern islands, but the confounding
of the species by common observers renders the accounts that
we have of them open to some suspicion.

THE BROWN-HEADED GULL. [LaVUS CapiStratUS.)

This species is nearly of the same lineal diminensions as the
former, but it is more slender in the form, and has the bill
and feet small, and approaching in character to those of the
terns. The short and slender bill, and the diminished tarsi,
toes, and webs, all point out a bird that catches smaller prey,
and depends more on the wing for the capture of it.

THE LITTLE GULL. 363

The bill, tarsi, and toes, are brownish red, the webs between
the latter chocolate brown. The top of the head broccoli
brown, ending in black, but not reaching so far down the nape
or in front as the cape of the black-headed species. A few of
the feathers at the front margins have white tips ; and the rest
of the neck, the breast, and all the under parts, are pure
white. The upper surface of the wings is pale ash grey, and
the under greyish white. The primary quills are white, tipped
and margined with black, which is broadest on the inner
webs. The winter changes have not been very minutely
examined ; but it is probable that they resemble those of its
congeners.

This gull ranges far over the North Sea, seldom makes its
appearance on our southern shores, though understood to be far
from rare in the northern isles ; though from the causes that
have been already mentioned, it has not been much attended
to. On the North Sea it appears to range as far as that sea is
open, having been met with in Davis' Straits, and even in
Baffin's Bay. Its tern-like character gives it much more com-
mand of the sea than the larger gulls have, as it probably feeds
much more on the small animals that float in the currents than
on fish, for the capture of which, in their young state, the
large gulls keep nearer to the shores.

THE LITTLE GULL. {LaVUS minutUS.)

The little gull is less of a sea bird than even the laughing
gull. It is a native of the lakes, rivers, and marshes, of
the eastern parts of Europe, and appears in Britain only as an
occasional straggler. It is only ten inches in length, but two
feet or more in the stretch of the wings. In the mature bird,
the head and part of the back are black ; the rest of the upper
part greyish ash, and the under part white. Not much is known
of it even in its native haunts ; but judging from the very
few specimens that have straggled to England, one would con-
clude that it is subject to the same changes of plumage in its
progress to maturity, and also to seasonal changes resembling

364

NATATOKES.

those of the kitty-wake ; but it is so little connected with Bri-
tish Ornithology, that it is not much worthy the attention of
the merely popular observer.

There seems a cliniatal arrangement of the gulls, from the
ivory gull in the extreme north, to the black-headed and
the little ones in the middle latitudes ; and there seems also to
be a disposition in them to range over the ocean, from the
kitty- wake perhaps, which is one of the longest winged of birds
in proportion to its size, and appears to winter on the seas, to
the same inland species that have been already named: and
there is also a traceable relation between the heights at which
they breed and the distances to which they range over the

Sabine's gull, (Larus Sahiiii,)

Has been seen as a very rare winter straggler on the coast of
Ireland; but as it has been seen only once, and does not in
any essential particular differ from the others, a detailed ac-
count of it is not necessary.

TERNS. [Sterna.)

The terns have much more the form and character of air
birds, than even the lightest made and best winged of the gulls.
They are so continually on the wing, and so rapid and
varied in the use of it, that they have been called " sea
swallows." They have their wings pointed, and most of
them their tails forked like the swallows ; and though they do
not catch their food open-mouthed in the air as the swallows
do, or have their bills adapted for such a purpose, yet they are
very swallow-like in their motions. Over the surface of the
sea, there are few winged insects to capture, as there is
neither food nor resting-place for them there ; but the
number of minute creatures contained in the water is very
great, and these are always coming to the surface, especially
when the water is a little agitated. When the waves roll

TERNS.

365

considerably, they are worked towards the lines of least agi-
tation on the slope, and the terns hawk about and capture
them, and alight on these lines even when there is a con-
siderable swell. Their prey is smaller than that of the
gulls, and they seldom need to swim, and never dive,
in quest of it : but though they do not swim habitually, they
are so constructed as that they can recover themselves and
escape, if they happen to be caught in the water, or even in the
breakers. The fry of fish when in the younger state form a
very considerable part of their food, and at certain seasons
they follow these to some distance seaward. When on the
shores, they are not only inaccessible upon the wing, but scream-
ing and clamouring about without intermission, and that too in
more loud and ear-piercing strains, than, from their size, one
would be apt to anticipate. It is difficult to ascertain whether
their most shrilly and ear-piercing cry is a song of love or of
sorrow ; for they have it equally in the breeding season, and
during those long tracts of calm and stilly weather, when it
may be presumed that the water furnishes them with only a
diminished supply of food. At those times they alternately
skim close to the surface with level wing, and wheel upward,
and pounce down again, leaving the water merely momen-
tai'ily, and either catching nothing or catching something very
small, for their wailing is not interrupted.

Still, though the terns are thus fleet and flitting over the
waters, and seem to have the air all their own, they are not
the birds that range farthest to seaward. The substances
upon which they feed, all appear to be either inhabitants
within the lines of sounding, or, if they are caught more to
sea by the waves, to be in motion towards the shore. All
that can float, and is capable of being wetted by the sea,
which is the case with all animals in a state of exhaustion
or dead, the sea casts ashore ; and such products of the
farther and greater deep, as become terns' food, appear to be
in that state. But there is an animal substance which is
produced, or, if the term suit better, shed largely at sea,
which tannot be wetted even by the ocean, and which, there-

2i2

366 NATATOHES.

fore, upon a well-known principle in hydrodynamics, has no
tendency to come on shore ; the more so, that it is not acted
on by the wind, which often drifts matters to the land, in
spite of their own repulsions. That substance is oil, which
is produced abundantly by various animals, and shed by
various means in the sea, and it has but little tendency to
come to the land. It does not appear that fishes, from their
structure, can feed upon it ; and therefore, if there were not
birds for that purpose, it would be lost. To collect that is
not the business of the terns, but the business of those which
live farther from the land, and are better adapted for that
species of food and mode of feeding. Of them we shall have
to give a short hint by-and-by.

The generic characters of the terns are — the bill as long as
the head or longer, slender, nearly straight, compressed, sharp
in the cutting edges, pointed at the tip, at which the upper
mandible slopes down a little ; the nostrils longitudinally
cleft about the middle of the bill, and open ; the feet small,
the tarsi short, and the tibia naked for some distance above
the joint ; the wings very long and pointed, and the tail
sometimes much produced and forked, at other times of
moderate length. The form of the body varies a little, but
in general it is that which has been already described as
the best adapted for getting through the air — firm at the
shoulders, and tapering backwards. That form admits the
best of large muscles for giving powerful motion to the
wings ; but it requires that the muscles of the legs should
be correspondingly small, and hence birds which have it
most, use the wing chiefly in their motions, and do not walk or
swim much, which requires the moving apparatus of the legs
and feet to be more powerful.

Though the generic characters of the terns are too obvious
and well-defined for occasioning the least danger of their
being confounded with birds of any other genus, yet the
specific difierence in appearance, and also in haunt, habit, and
geographical distribution, are considerable.

Though we are too little acquainted with the straggling

TERNS. 367

ones for knowing much of their habits, and the nesting places
of some of them are unknown altogether — at least to writers
on Natural History — yet it is tolerably apparent that the
terns may be divided into a sort of three groups, or perhaps
even four, the first finding their food chiefly by fishing on
the inland fresh waters, more especially in the breeding
season, like the marsh gulls ; the second discursive over the
larger inland waters; the third breeding in the marshes, but
catching insects and spiders as well as fish ; and the fourth
more of sea or shore birds, and, like the generality of these,
laying their eggs upon the beaches and flats near the sea,
and especially on the smaller islets. The last are by far the
most numerous, and the ones which belong more particularly
to the ornithology of the British islands, though one of the
native birds, at least, is a marsh-breeder; and two or three
of those which are discursive over the inland waters, occasion-
ally make their appearance in the country. These are all,
or nearly all, birds of the east of Europe and west of Asia;
for, although they have sometimes been confounded together,
it is not clearly ascertained that any of the marsh species of
America make their appearance in this country. The localities
which they inhabit on that continent, and those in the east,
are so different from each other, that one can hardly suppose
them to be inhabited by birds of the same species, any more
than covered by the same species of vegetation. These birds
are, however, good indexes to many other circumstances in
the natural history of the countries in which they breed, and
over which they range ; and, therefore, they deserve to be
more intimately studied, and studied more in connexion with
the rest of nature, than they have hitherto been. Even the
bird which comes only accidentally has a story to tell, if we
could find it out, as they all come in consequence of natural
causes, — causes which are always intimately connected with
the state of the weather.

Terns are abundant upon the shores of most countries, and
the species also are numerous. There are about eight which
appear regularly or occasionally upon the British shores.

368 KATATOEES.

THE GULL-BILLED, OR MAKSH TEEN. {Sterna Anglica.)

This species has, rather inappropriately, got the name of
Anglica, or " English," because it has been met with as
a very rare straggler in that part of Britain. It is a bird
both of the continent of Europe and of Asia, though in the
former, from which the stragglers that have been seen in
this country have in all probability come, its native localities
lie much out of the direction of England. It inhabits the
marshes in Hungary and along the valley of the Danube
towards the Black Sea, nearly the same localities as those
of the little gull. Length about fourteen inches, breadth
thirty-four; bill strong and black, with a projecting angle at
the middle of the lower mandible like the gulls ; head and
nape black ; upper part greyish white, with white shafts to
the quills and tail feathers; line from the gape to the eye,
and all the under part, white ; tail forked, wings extending
more than two inches beyond the tail, feet black ; young with
the head white, more and more dusky as they approach to
maturity; nest in the diy grass, eggs three or four, greenish
olive with brown spots. In winter, the colour of the head
fades nearly to white. It is but justice to add, that though
this is both a continental and an Asiatic species. Colonel
Montagu was the first to make it known to naturalists from
a straggler found in England, and it should retain the name
which he gave it.

This species has sometimes been confounded with a marsh
tern of America, which has much more the habit of a swallow
than this one, and was observed by Wilson in that conti-
nent feeding upon spiders. The present one appears to be
altogether an eastern bird, and to find its food chiefly by
fishing. It is a heavy bird and a dull flyer, as compared with
the rest of the terns; and its bill is formed so like that of the
gulls, and is so strong and firm, that it must live upon prey
which can be captured in larger masses than that of the terns
usually is.

THE GTJLL-BILLED, OR MARSH TERN. 369

That it should range as far as the south-east of England,
is no argument against its being a duller flyer than most of
the genus. It will be borne in mind that the stragglers, which
come to our shores from that eastern and somewhat peculiar
locality of migrant birds, of which the Black Sea or the
Caspian may be considered as the centre, and which extends
northward into European Russia and Siberia, south-eastward
to the Himalaya mountains, southward by the Mediter-
ranean to the valley of the Nile, and westward along the
shores of the Mediterranean, along the great valley of the
Danube, and also through Poland to the Baltic, have no where
to travel for a great extent in longitude out of haunts con-
genial to them, and supplying them with abundance of
food. A journey of two or three hundred miles, more or
less, over places where the bird can rest and feed whenever
it is necessary, is very different from a voyage of even one
thousand miles across the ocean, without a single point of
rock on which a bird can rest; and in the whole extent,
fr9m the shores of Britain to the mouth of the Ganges, or to
those of the Siberian rivers, there is not, perhaps, at any one
point, a space equal to half a day's flight of even a mode-
rately-winged bird, in which an aquatic bird cannot find
food.

When we consider the descent of so many great rivers, in
so many directions, into that great basin, and that the upper
streams of all rivers which are in mountain ridges, overlap
each other in the flexures of these, we can see easily why birds
of an Indian character may be found in that part of the
world, or may even reach the shores of England from thence.
The pratincole is one instance, the bird under notice is an-
other, and the one next to be mentioned is a third. We have
no perfect natural history of that very singular portion of the
earth's surface ; and some parts of it are vague and un-
satisfactory, even in respect of that very slender information
which is afforded by the common topographical map. The
snows of the Alps, of the Ural, and the Hindu Coosh, if not
of the Himalaya, are melted, roll down their several rivers,

370 NATATORES.

and again raised by evaporation, frozen, and cast anew in snow
upon Caucasus : and where there is this singular meeting of
distant waters, we may naturally enough look for some
community among the creatures which these waters support,
especially those families of them which are so discursive as
the terns.

THE CASPIAN TERN. {Sterna Caspia.)

This species also belongs to the eastern migration, as indeed
its name imports ; for it is abundant on the great salt or
inland sea, after which it is called. The probability is, that
the centre of its rang-e in lono-itude lies more to the eastward
than that of the former species, and it extends very near at
least to the Indian mountains. It is a large species, measur-
ing nearly two feet in length, with the wings long in propor-
tion ; so that while it has all the characters of a true tern
in much greater perfection than the gull-billed tern, its size is
nearly the medium of that of the gulls. It does not appear to
be so discursive a bird as several of the staaller terns ; but a
specimen sometimes straggles into the east of England, near
Yarmouth, opposite to which the sea is narrow, and birds' food
plentiful over the fishing banks, which the water both forms
and disturbs by its currents.

In the summer plumage, the head and feathers on the
upper part of the neck, which are produced, and long and
silky, are deep black ; the upper part is ash colour, and the
under part white. But neither its breeding place nor its
breeding plumage is very well understood, nor strictly falls
within the scope of a popular account of British birds. With
us, birds from that quarter of the world in which the Caspian
tern is at home, may be looked for principally in the winter,
even though their situation on the continent should at that
season happen to be several degrees to the southward of ours.
The cold not only sets in earlier in these longitudes, but it sets
in much more severely; and as it is towards the heat that
most birds migrate in autumn, and not upon the direction of

_HE SANDWICH TERN, 371

the equator, which of course influences them only in so far
as it heats them, we may reasonably conclude that there is a
tendency in those eastern birds towards the Atlantic and its
unfrozen divisions during the winter months ; and when the
birds come as far westward as the sources of the Danube, it
is fully more natural that they should descend the valley of
the Rhine, than that they should pass the mountains and
forests of the north-east of France, in order to reach the
western plains and valleys of that country, which, from their
characters, are not the best adapted for birds of this genus.
In its winter plumage, in which we know it a little better,
the forehead and part of the head become white, the rest of
tlie head, the neck, and upper part, bluish ash ; the coverts
brownish ash, barred with black and white ; and the tail pale
ash. The quills, and all the under part, pure white. The bill
is bright vermilion red, and the feet black. The male and
female birds do not differ in their plumage, but the young
birds are mottled with black on those parts which are ash
colour in the mature birds.

THE SANDWICH TERN, [Stema Boysii.)

This species was first discovered in Kent; but it is pro-
bable that it breeds at different points along the south-east
of England. It is smaller than the former, but not so well-
winged in proportion, and apparently not so discursive. It is
said to be more a sea bird. Length eighteen inches, breadth
thirty-three ; bill two inches long, black with a yellow tip
(the tips of terns' bills are subject to variations in colour) ;
feet black, irides dusky, head from the bill over the eyes to
the nape black, back and wing coverts grey, shafts and inner
webs of the primary quills white, part of the outer webs pow-
dered with black; all the under part white, the neck and
breast with a faint rosy tinge. In winter, the rosy tinge
vanishes, and the black upon the head becomes mottled with
white.

The young have the head beautifully mottled with black,

372 NATATOKES.

and the back, partially the coverts of the wings, and the
produced feathers of the tail, marked with the same colours,
and nearly in a similar manner. In that plumage they are,
contrary to the habit of most birds, more handsome than
when mature.

THE LESSEK TEKN. [Stcma minuta.)

The lesser tern is also in some respects an eastern bird, at
least it is found in the east of Europe, and also in Siberia. It
is likewise found in America. Indeed it is pretty generally
distributed over the temperate and colder latitudes ; and,
although not a very common bird upon all parts of the Bri-
tish shores, it is far from rare upon some, especially on those
of the fenny districts, or in the marshes, or even in the ooze,
but rather on the beaches of sand and shingle, where it
breeds on the bare sand, depositing its eggs, which are two
in number, of a pale brownish colour, with dusky and ash-
coloured spots, just above the line of the highest floods.
The long dull stretches of sand and shingle which it fre-
quents, the hissing sound of the surge upon them, (for
there often rolls a surf upon those sandy flats when all is
quiet on the cliffy shores,) and the piercing wail of the bird
itself, have not much of the elements of satisfaction in them ;
and yet the minute tern is a very beautiful bird, and light,
lively, and graceful, in all its motions. It is about twice the
weight of the swift, half an inch longer, and nearly two
inches wider in the stretch of the wings. The bill and feet are
orange, the former with the tip black or dusky. The fore-
head and a streak under the eye are white, the crown and
nape, and cheek from the gape to the eye, black ; the upper
part and wings very soft grey, with the shafts of the quills
brown ; the whole of the under part white, equally remark-
able for the purity of the colour, and the delicate texture of
the plumage. They assemble in little parties in the breeding
time, skim over the sands, and appear to catch the sand flies as
they rise, and also to twitch out the small water-beetles when

THE BLACK TERN. . 373

they come to the surface. The hatch takes place about Mid=
summer, and the young are able to fly about the middle of July.
They are at first brown on the upper part, with a yellowish
tinge on the back and wings, and the white on the head and
tlu'oat is not so pure as on the mature birds.

THE BLACK TERN. {Stema nigra.)

This species also breeds in the marshes, and the seasonal
changes of its plumage are greater than those of any of the
others. It diiFers from the rest too in the structure of its
feet, the webs of which are deeply notched or partially
divided between the toes. It is a little longer than the lesser
tern, considerably larger in proportion in the wings, but has
the tarsi shorter. The bill is black, the irides brown, and
the feet blackish red. In the summer plumage, the head,
nape, chin, throat, and all the under part, is greyish black,
and the upper part deep ash colour, with the external margins
of the tail, but not the webs of any of the other tail feathers,
white. That is the breeding plumage, in which the only dis-
tinction between the sexes is a white spot under the chin in the
male, which is wanting in the female. In summer, the fore-
head, throat, and all the under part, fade to white, and the ash
colour on the back becomes pale. The young are brown above,
with pale margins to the feathers.

The places of England where these birds chiefly nestle are
the rushy pools in the salt marshes. The nests are placed in
the reeds, or other tall herbage, close by the margin of the
water. The nest is formed of coarse withered leaves, and the
eggs are three or four in number, olive brown, spotted with
black. During the breeding time, the birds keep chiefly to the
marsh, beating over the pools and rivers of water; and, though
they seldom retire far inland, they do not resort to the sea
till their broods can accompany them ; after which, they are
seldom seen till April or May, when they are again in the
marshes.

VOL. II. 2 K

374 NATATORES.

THE ROSEATE TERx. {SteT7ia Dougalu.)

The roseate tern belongs to a different character of locality
than most of those that have been noticed. With the exception
of the lesser tern, they are all, to a considerable extent, marsh
bu-ds, and even that resorts to shores not far from the marshes.
The marsh ones can be traced into the eastern marshes by the
lines of the rivers of central Europe ; and they do not spread
themselves round the shores, or seem peculiarly attached to
the sea.

The species under consideration appears to depend more
on the sea, tidal, or river waters, to nestle upon places that
are drier, and to find its food more in the broad waters. It
was first noticed on the islands in the estuary of the Clyde,
which are near a long extent of sandy shores, and where the
number of small animals moved about by the tide, as well as
of the fry of different sorts of fishes, is known to be great.
On the continent, the same species is said to range on the
sandy shores of Norway, and along the southern shores of
the Baltic, and to breed upon the haafs, or long banks of
sand and shingle, which are found near the mouths of all
the larger rivers that discharge their waters into that sea.
These are the situations to which the common tern is most
partial; and as, when the late Dr. Macdougall found this
species, he found it living in peace among vast numbers of the
common tern, there seems every reason to conclude that the
two may be found pretty generally together, though, as has
been often the case with similarly-mannered birds, and one
species more numerous than the other, the rarer one has been
overlooked.

Length about fifteen inches, wings short, reaching to only
within two inches of the end of the tail ; feet orange ; bill yellow
at the base, black at the tip; cap on the head and nape black,
upper part grey; the under part white, and a roseate tint on
the neck, breast, and belly ; some of the quills with the webs
black or hoary, but all with the shafts white.

THE COMMON TERN. 375

THE COMMON TERN. {Stcvjia Mrundo.)

A figure of this species, one sixth of the lineal dimensions,
is given on the plate at page 358. The young birds have the
bill and feet whitish, with merely a slight blush of red; the
chin dusky where it is pure white in the old ones, and the
plumage mottled with brown and ash. The birds generally
do not breed at lofty elevations, but they do it in dry places,
frequently upon uninhabited islands, or remote parts of such
as are inhabited. They make no formal nest, but merely level
the sand a little, or simply deposit their eggs on the bare rock.
These are usually two in number, pale olive brown, with dusky
patches.

The numbers of these birds that are scattered over the
northern parts of the Atlantic are very great; and those dry
and comparatively low islands, and " holms," as they are
styled in the north, that are suitable for their shade of breed-
ing, are in the season so thickly covered with their eggs, that
it is difficult to walk without breaking them; and the wheel-
ing in the air, tumbling along the ground, and wailing and
screaming, which they make when one meets them in breeding
time, are very remarkable. The eggs, placed on the sand
or shingle, are, when the weather is dry and warm, left in
part to be hatched by the action of the sun; at least, in such
weather, the birds do not sit during the day. They are then
abroad feeding; and it is not easy to imagine how so many
as are huddled together upon the same spot, can find food
within the range even of a tern's flight. But they do find it,
and that too at no great distance — for the instant that one
lands, though the eggs are all warmed, the cloud of birds
are instantly wailing in the air. Before the dew begins to
fall, they return and sit, and if it rains, they sit during the day.
It is a great advantage to these birds that they hatch on the
bare earth — that their food comes out much more abundantly
on those days when one of the pair must keep the nest. How
each knows her own eggs, and her young after they are
hatched, in such a multitude, and all so much alike, is a

376 NATATOEES.

matter that human speculation cannot fathom : hut they do
know ; for after the young have grown a few days, the parents
do not aUght and feed them with the bill, but fly over with a
twitch, and drop the food into the bills, with the most unerring
certainty, and yet without ever appearing to pause on their
rapid and circvilar flight.

Two other species of tern have been observed as occasional
stragglers on the coast of Ireland.

THE NODDY. {Stema stolida.)

Which is blackish brown, with the upper part of the head
white, and the tail not forked, and of the same length as the
closed wings. It is naturally a very seaward bird, and often
alights upon ships in so exhausted a state as to be easily
captured.

THE AKCTic TEHN, {Stema Arctica.)

Which has the upper part of the body bluish grey ; the fore-
head, crown, and long feathers on the nape, black ; the neck,
the belly, and the under tail coverts, pure white, and the feet
and bill (which is very slender) red. The tail is very much
forked, and the entire length about thirteen inches. This spe-
cies, as the name implies, inhabits the Northern Polar seas, and
it is found in every longitude where those seas are accessible.

PETRELS.

There are three modern genera of birds, which may be in-
cluded under the common English name of " Petrels," — pro-
cellaria, puffijius^ and thalassidroma. They are all birds of
the high seas, ranging far both in latitude and in longitude;
and the numbers of some of the species, particularly in the
southern hemisphere, are beyond all counting. They are also
birds of powerful flight, and have the feet equally well adapted
for swimming or for bearing them up on the surface of the
water. The toes are very long and the webs extended, so
that the birds move along the surface as if they were literally
walking on the water. It is on this account that they have
been called petrels, or " little Peters."

THE FULMAR PETREL. 377

The petrels are sea birds in the most literal sense of the
words ; they live in the sea for the greater part of the year, antl
only resort to the shores in summer for the purpose of breed-
ing. They may, therefore, be considered as summer visitants
in all countries; and not to claim more from the land than
merely a place on which to deposit their eggs. The same
species, and possibly the same individual birds, range along the
whole latitudinal stretch of the sea, probably from the arctic
circle to the antarctic, although in the extreme north and also
in the extreme south, they trench upon the domains of birds of
more polar character.

Of the genus procellaria, as limited by modern ornitholo-
gists, there is only one British species,

THE FULMAR PETREL. {Procellavia glacialis.)

This bird appears in the north, but only in the remote is-
lands; it appears in greater numbers than perhaps any other
species of bird. The fulmar petrels are the grand scavengers
of the sea ; and consume all the multifarious remains of
animals and animal garbage, generally of a rank and oily
character, which casualties are constantly committing to the
water. They attend the fishing stations and fishing vessels,
and fight for their share of the garbage of the fish and whales,
being most daring thieves of the latter. They resort to the
lofty cliff's of the remote islands, St. Kilda in particular, to
breed ; but they also find their way to Shetland and Orkney in
the winter, when the progress of the ice circumscribes their
possessions towards the north. There is hardly a place or a
season, indeed, within the range of the north seas, in which, if
there be any thing animal, especially if oily or fat, to be eaten,
but a cloud of fulmars will come to it, sufficient to consume
double — nay, a hundred times — the quantity.

Baron Cuvier is not quite correct in saying that the fulmar
petrel is " de la taille d'un gros canard,'" for it is little more
than half the weight of the common wild-duck ; and the labours
which the birds perform are done by numbers more than by the

single effort of individuals. The nasal tube has but "one open-
2 k2

378

XATATOEES.

ing ; the bill is a formidable instrument, straight for part of its
length, and brownish ; but with a strong produced and hooked
nail at the point of the upper mandible, against which a strong
truncated yellow knob on the under one. The hooked nail is
toothed, so that the hold which it can take in tearing is,
perhaps, firmer than that of any other bill, the beaks of the
falcons not excepted. The legs are dusky, the u'ides yellow.
The upper part from the setting of the neck to the lower part
of the back is grey, with a dusky tinge upon the wings, and
all the rest is white. There is no difference in the plumage
of the sexes ; but the young are mottled with grey and brown,
and have a dark spot before the eye. They are at all times so
full of oil, that the people endeavour to catch them by a noose
which draws tight round the neck to prevent that which is in
the stomach from being lost. In some places, the produce of
the fulmar rocks is pressed for oil in the same way as that of
the olive yards in the south — and the oil is used for similar
purposes.

The genus puffinus contains very discursive birds, one of
which only has been ascertained to breed in the British islands ;
and of the other two that have been found alive on the shores,
one is exceedingly rare, and the other by no means common.

The characters which distinguish them from the other
genus, procellarm, to which they are nearly allied, are, the
bill rather produced and slender, both mandibles of equal
length, and both hooked downward at the tip ; the nostrils in
a double tube advanced upon the ridge of the upper mandible.
Their chief difference of habit when on land is, that they build
nearer the level of the water, and not in the upper fissures of
the very lofty rocks. Their coiTCsponding habit at sea is, that
they skim more along the surface of the water, and do not rise
to lofty flights ; and it is on that account that the name of
" shearwater" has been given to the best known species. Their
bodies are compactly formed and very close in the plumage ;
their wings very long, strong, and pointed ; their tails rather
short and conical; their feet rather slender, the tarsi com-
pressed laterally, the three front toes very long and elastic,

THE SOOTY PETHEL. 379

and completely webbed, and only a short spur on the tarsus
in place of a hind toe.

THE SOOTY PETREL. {PuffiuUS fuli^inOSUS .)

Only a single individual of this species has been seen on
the British shores, or indeed on those of any part of Europe,
It is very similar to some of the species which have been ob-
served in such numbers by navigators in the southern seas ;
but whether the individual in question came from those
distant parts of the world, we have no means of ascertaining.
Indeed, there is some confusion about the species of the birds
of the wide and distant seas, the name of " sooty" having
been applied to all those of which it expresses the colour,
whether of the same species, or even genus, or not.

It was found, at the close of a severe gale, in the middle
of August, 1828, reposing on the water like a duck, at the
mouth of the Tees ; so that, wherever it came from, it was
evidently a storm-driven bird, and it does not belong to any
species at present known in the northern hemisphere. Its
length is eighteen inches ; the length of each wing twelve ;
the tarsi two and a quarter; the middle toe two and a half;
the bill two and a half in the gape, and one and seven-eighths
from the tip to the front. The bill is rather slender, and the
nasal tube very little produced. The bill is horn colour. The
tarsi are compressed, dull yellow on the fronts and the webs,
and brown on the other parts. A strong claw supplies the
place of the hind toe. The colour on the upper part is dusky,
or sooty brown, darkest on the middle of the head, neck, and
back, and the quills ; a slight tinge of lead colour on the
scapulars ; the under part paler brown, with a greyish tinge
on the throat.

Nothing is of course known of the habits of so great a
stranger, farther than may be inferred from the general habits
of the genus to which it belongs ; but as they nestle and breed
lower down than the other two genera of petrels, it may be
concluded that this one does the same. In the antarctic seas
they take up their habitations on the low and sandy islands

380 NATATOEES.

where they can excavate holes, rather than on the bold
shores.

THE MANKS PETREL, OK SHEAEWATEE. {PuffinUS

Anglorum.)

This species occurs rather plentifully on many of the islands
on the western and northern shores ; and though few or none
breed on the eastern coast of Britain, and none certainly on
the opposite side of the North Sea, or on the Baltic ; strag-
glers are found on the southern coast occasionally during the
winter, though, at that season, the greater number appear to
have a motion southward.

The length of the manks shearwater is about fifteen inches ;
the extent of the wings about thirty-three, extending when
closed beyond the point of the tail. The colours of the plu-
mage are calm ; black on the upper part, and white on the
under ; the two colours broken into each other on the sides of
the neck, and the margins of some of the upper feathers with
a greyish tinge, which is rather more conspicuous in winter
than in summer. The bill is dark brown, the nasal tube on
the culmen about three quarters of an inch in length, the
bill in point extending an inch more, rather slender, a little
compressed towards the tip; the mandibles both bend down-
wards at the extremities, and their tips meeting so as to be
able to seize a very small object.

In what manner their very singularly constructed bill is used
upon all occasions, is not very well known, because their mo-
tion along the water is so quick and peculiar, that it is difficult
to observe what they are after. It is said, however, that at
certain seasons they feed during the night upon the small
phosphorescent animals with which the sea so much abounds.

Their motion along the water is not swimming, or walking,
or flying, but a sort of union of all the three. It is swifter
than any bird could swim, and only the feet touch the water,
at least the under part of the body does not, and the wings
have always as much air under them as enables the bird to
use them both for buoyancy and for progress. But the points

THE CINEHEOIJS PETREL. 381

of the wings tip the water, and the feet and them appear to
keep stroke m a way which can be understood when seen,
but not very clearly explained, because there is nothing analo-
gous with which to compare it. They have none of the splash
and splutter which ducks and other birds of that character
produce when they rise or take the water obliquely. They*
seem to make the same use of the water that a horse does
of a good and firm highway — a fulcrum to spring from and
nothing more — no lagging or labouring as if it were miry,
or even spongy and elastic. At times, they appear to have
the power of so " taking the wind" with their wings, that
it gets between their oblique position and the water, and keeps
them up like a wedge without any perceptible stroke. When
they have once acquired a considerable degree of velocity, one
can easily understand how their own motion may, while they
hold the wings oblique to the wind, buoy them up as a paper
kite is buoyed, their own weight serving as the string, and
their feet acting upon the water and continuing the rate which
produces the wind ; and as their flights or floatings are taken
against the wind, one can guess at, though not explain, their
most singular progress.

They resort to the breeding grounds about March, and
though the brood is but a single bird, they take plenty of
time in the rearing of it, as they do not depart till about
August. The ^^^ is white, and the young one, when it does
make its appearance, differs not much from the parent birds.
Upon what they feed themselves and it, is not very well
known ; but they do feed plentifully, for they are all very
fat, and the young in particular (the old ones are rather oily
and rancid) are sought after with considerable assiduity ;
and, after being cured with salt, the islesmen reckon them no
bad food.

THE CINEREOTJS PETREL. {PuffiuUS ClJiereUS.)

This species, which is about one-third larger than the former,
appears upon the British shores only as an occasional strag-
gler. It is met with in the warmer seas, — in the Mediter-

282 NATATOHES.

ranean, and the Atlantic, on the shores of tropical Africa,
and as far as the Cape of Good Hope. Its bill is depressed
towards the base, but compressed and margined at the tip, and
channelled on the upper surface. The general colour of the
upper part is blackish brown; that of the under part ash
grey, but with a tinge of purplish brown on the breast. The
toes are of the same length as in the sooty petrel, and the
tarsi also nearly the same ; but the bill is rather shorter and
stouter, approaching more to the character of that of the
fulmar, only without the elevated and distinct nasal tube.

STOKM PETKELs. {Thcilassidroma.)

The name thalassidronia, " coursers over the sea," imi-
tators, as it were, of the far journeys and fleet motion of the
camel over the desert, is very expressive of the habits of these
singular birds, birds which, unless during the breeding time,
appear to make the sea more exclusively their dwelling-place,
than perhaps any other of the feathered tribes. They skim
the surface, and while the wings are expanded and acting in
the air, the feet, which are then bent like little scoops, "tip"
the water like paddles, and add the motion of walking to that
of flying. The feathers of the breast generally also brush the
surface during those excursions, which are " skimming ones"
in more senses than one, as the birds not only skim along the
surface, but skim the floating oil which that surface bears in
very copious quantity, but on the wide sea and away from
the remains of those oily animals from which it in great part
proceeds, so thin and filmy that no bird could feed upon it by
means of the bill. The feathers on the breast of the storm
petrel are, like those of all swimming birds, waterproof;
but substances not susceptible of being wetted with water,
are, for that very reason, the best fitted for collecting oil
from its surface. That function is performed by the feathers
on the breasts of the storm petrels, as they brush over the
surface ; and though that may not be the only way in which
they procure their food, it is certainly that in which they
obtain great part of it. They dash along till they have

STORM PETEELS. 383

loaded their feathers, and then they pause upon the wave and
remove the oil with their bills.

The oil which they thus collect, is not, however, to be
considered as a burden which either impedes their progress,
or makes them sink deeper in the water. The effects of it
are exactly the reverse : it is less specifically hea\y than
water, and thus it renders the bird more buoyant; and it
also greatly diminishes the friction, and thereby renders the
motion of the bird more free than it would be if performed
with the naked feathers. The repulsion which there is be-
tween oil and water also increases the buoyancy of the birds.
It acts as a power lifting them up, so that the immersed
portion descends very little below the film of oil; and the
water glides under them, so they do not produce any ripple or
splash in the water, except when they occasionally " tip" the
surface with their wings. The effect of oil in diminishing the
friction of the air against the surface of the water, is well
known ; and so is the great extent to which a very small
quantity of oil will soon extend, and consequently the very
thin pellicle of it which can calm the turbulence of the
waves.

Whether these birds can discharge the oil from their
stomach on the sea, and thereby procure a calm for them-
selves, in order that they may repose, has not been ascer-
tained; and very little, indeed, is known of their position in
repose, although there is no doubt that they and also the
other petrels, at some seasons, and during some states of
the weather, repose upon the high seas. But there is, at
least, some probability that all the different species do
sometimes discharge oil in this manner, though not, of
course, for this purpose. The least alarm when the birds are
off the water, causes those of all the genera to disgorge from
their stomachs a considerable quantity of oil, to the amount
of from half a pint to a pint, even in the birds of this genus,
which are but of small size. They do so indiscriminately,
whether they are disturbed in their nesting-places, in the air,
or on board ship, where they often take shelter, both from
apparent fatigue and from storms. If this is the case they

384 NATATOEES.

very ill deserve the character given to them by sailors, of
being not merely the harbingers, but actually the bringers, of
foul weather, under the stigma of which they have long lain
as " Mother Carey's chickens;" though, if they discharge
the contents of their stomach as readily when annoyed by
the wind, as when annoyed by other means, they merit the
name of quieters of the ocean rather than that of dis-
turbers.

That they follow ships is true, because there is generally a
quantity of oily matter left in the wake of a ship. They also
come to ships in greater numbers, and rest on them more
readily in stormy weather, or even before the storm actually
sets in, than they do when the air is still and the sea smooth.
But, in these cases, it is the storm that brings the birds, and
not the birds that bring the storm; and, therefore, the birds
are valuable for the warning that they give, rather than, in any
way, objects of dislike or persecution.

One can easily see, from the habit of these birds in feeding,
that they require smoother water, and are therefore less able
to keep the sea when violently agitated, than birds which
skim the surface for the purpose of fishing — than the terns,
for instance. Their superior buoyancy, and their form, both
tend to give the wind more hold upon them; and the troubled
water which brings the food of the others more abundantly
to the surface, disperses that of the storm petrels. Hence,
they are rare upon the narrow seas, and do not come much
within the breakers. When the sea is in a state of agitation,
its surface is proportionally increased; so that, if all the
ridges, and hollows, and flexures, and dimples, are taken into
account, it is no exaggeration to say that, even in a mode-
rately severe gale, it is more than doubled. That farther in-
creases the friction of the air, so that the trouble of the sea,
like most other troubles, contains in itself some of the ele-
ments of its own increase, and the waves rise more rapidly in
proportion than the wind freshens. The oil is thus dispersed
over a large surface, and as, different from those small sub-
stances which are i?i the water, it is thrown to the ridge and
the hollow, and away from the line on which the wave turns

STOEM PETRELS. 385

in its vibrations, it is rendered much less acquirable by the
birds.

We can thus readily see that they must flit before the gale
which agitates the water sooner than other surface birds ; and
as they fly considerably faster than the wind does in ordinary
storms, they keep before it, and court both the shelter of the
ship, and the greater abundance of food which is to be found
in its wake.

Storm petrels are very abundant birds : but though in the
breeding season they throng in vast multitudes to their
favourite nesting places, they inhabit the sea rather dis-
persedly during that larger portion of the year when they are
Pelagic. In consequence of that, and also of the very few
points of the sea which are seen at once, even by all the
vessels which are afloat, they not only appear much less
numerous than they are in reality, but much less so than
many of the shore birds which they outnumber thousands of
times.

In one species or another, (and the species difier little in
habit, and not much in appearance,) they inhabit the whole
range of the ocean ; but, though they breed in various lati-
tudes, they may all be said to have a tendency to move
polarly in the breeding season. At that season there is a
motion of the water, especially of the surface water, towards
the equatorial regions, as is proved by the drifting of ice-
bergs, and may be reasonably explained by the melting of the
snow and ice, which, during the winter, are piled high, both
on the surface of the land and on that of the frozen sea. On
the latter, the hummocks are indeed much more elevated than
those who have not considered the subject would be apt to
suppose; for when the ice has acquired considerable thick-
ness, in the early part of the season, and before the tranquil-
lity of the polar winter sets in, it is often shattered by the
roll of the waters, and the boards, turned on edge, are driven
against each other, where they not only stand high, but re-
tain the snow which drives over the more level parts. The
casualties which happen to life at that season are consider-

VOL. II. 2 L

386 NATATORES.

able, and many of the remains are preserved in the snow and
ice, both at sea and on the land. These are loosened by the
heat in spring ; and the land portion is, in a great measure,
brought down by the " freshes ;" so that the sea becomes the
common receptacle of the whole. The fatty part of these
remains, especially, floats southward with the surface water,
and meets the Pelagic birds as they collect northward to their
breeding places. Nor is the fatty or oily matter the only
food for birds which then floats with the motion of the sea ;
for the fulmars, the gulls, and a variety of other birds — all
the scavengers of the sea, indeed — then find an abundance ;
and as the supply continues all the time that the ice and snow
are melting, which is nearly till they again begin to freeze,
the birds find a continued supply for themselves and their
young during the whole of the breeding season. The spring
thaw is, in fact, the surface harvest of the polar sea, just as
the rains of autumn and early winter are the harvest of our
estuaries, to which the birds resort, while the frost is sealing
up and preserving a store for them against the breeding
time.

The general current produced in the Atlantic by the tides,
has, no doubt, some efffect upon the distribution of the surface
water, and consequently upon that of the skimming birds;
but it will generally be found that they nestle where the land
stands out to meet the current ; — where the cliflEs are bold and
high, and the water deep, circumstances which usually ac-
company each other, and which thus have some relation to
each other : but whether that be a relation of co-existence or
of cause and effect, there are no complete data for determin-
ing, though probability is in favour of that of cause and eff*ect,
inasmuch as the sea assails the bold shores, and casts the
debris upon the low and flat ones, where the water, from the
shelve, has little force, and the sea wind passes inland without
opposition.

The natural history of even the surface of the sea is, how-
ever, but little known. The eflTect of seasons and tides, that
of the variations of atmospheric pressure, of heat and light.

STORM PETRELS. 387

and of countless other causes, in themselves little known, are
so imperfectly understood, either in their single results or in
the modifications which they produce upon each other, that any
conclusion drawn from them would be more bold than wise.
If, however, human observation should ever be able to bring
the subject within the scope of science, the Pelagic birds will
form an important element, and none of them more so than the
storm petrels.

Of the genus, there are two British species, not found upon
the shores, even the rocky shores generally, but rather in those
northerly and westerly places, which are more within the
range of that southward floatage in the early part of the sum-
mer, to which allusion has been made. The shallows, the con-
trary currents, and all the characters of the seas on the south-
eastern parts of the island, where so much food is stranded for
the shore birds, do not aflbrd support or even scope for the
storm petrels.

These two species are the fork-tailed and the common storm
petrel, the former rather a recent addition to our Fauna, pro-
bably, indeed certainly, not a rare bird, though it has, no
doubt, been often confounded with the other, from which, to
common observation, it is not very different, whether seen on
the wave or the wing, only the fork-tail is altogether longer
than the common, the tail is much longer in proportion, and
forked, and the bird appears to keep farther to seaward.

The chief distinctions between these birds and the other
petrels, besides those of size and colour, are — the bill more
slender, the nail of it less produced, the head rounder, the
neck shorter, thicker, more abundantly feathered, and the
expression of the whole body more that of an air bird than a
sea bird, which in any way finds its food by using the head
and neck under water. They have only one opening to the
nasal tube.

388 NATATOKES.

THE FORK-TAILED STOEM PETREL. [Tkalassidroma
Bullockii.)

This species was first found by Mr. Bullock in St. Kilda, in
the summer of 1818, and specimens have since been found in
other parts of the coast, but chiefly in the autumn or winter, so
that its breeding as a British bird is probably confined to the
more remote western isles ; but birds of this genus are seldom
seen at the places where they breed, as they nestle in holes of
the rocks; and, though they make a sort of croaking noise
there, it is made only during the night, as the birds ai-e absent
nearly the whole day in quest of their food when the weather is
warm, unless till towards the close of the incubation, at which
time the females sit closely.

This species is between seven and eight inches long, and
nearly nineteen in the extent of the wings. The tail is forked,
but not very deeply, and the tail feathers are stifi", expansile,
and oblique at the tips, so that the fork forms an obtuse re-
entering angle. The tarsi are moderately long ; and the toes,
which are three, turned to the front and webbed, are so freely
articulated to the tarsi, that the whole foot can turn backwards,
almost till its position is reversed. The bill is longer, stouter,
and more bent in the nail of the upper mandible, than that of
the common storm petrel. The cloud wings reach to the point
of the tail, but not beyond it. The bill is black, and the
general tint of the plumage black, with a brownish or sooty
tinge. The scapular feathers are rather produced, and have
white tips. The upper tail coverts, the bases of the under
ones, and some of the rump feathers, are also white. The
tail feathers and primaiy quills quite black, but some of
the wing coverts brownish, and sometimes, as well as a few of
the secondary quills, inclining to dull white at the tips. It is
probable that the light parts incline to brown in summer, and
to dull white in winter; but the fact is not fully esta-
blished. The habits of the bh-d, either on the water or in its
breeding places, have not been much observed. The form,

THE COMMON STOEM PETREL. 389

size, and termination of the tail, and the greater strength of
the bill, would, however, lead to the conclusion, that the style
of flight and habits in feeding are different from those of its
congener. A figure, on a scale of one third of the lineal
dimensions, is given upon the plate at page 316.

THE COMMON STORM PETREL. {Thalossidroma Pelagica.)

This species is the true " Mother Carey's chicken" of the
sailors, and also the "witch," the "spency," the " stonn
finch," and a variety of other names, the abundance of which
shows, that it is at once a bird of common occurrence and of
some interest.

During its Pelagic period, it is seen on most part of the
seas, especially those on the north, west, and south-west of
Britain, where it is the last bird to leave the outward-bound
ship, and the first to meet ships returning home. It plays
about the vessels, and outstrips their swiftest course, skim-
ming the surface of the water with equal ease and grace, and
tipping so regularly both with wings and feet, that it appears
as if running upon all fours. The wings do not, however,
get wet or splash, and the bird can make wing in any direction
of a moderate wind, apparently with very little fatigue. No
part of the weight appears to be borne on the feet, while the
bird is in progress forward. When the wings are raised, the
weight is borne on the breast, supported by the repulsion of
the water to the oily feathers ; and the feet are drawn forward
while the wings are descending, and give their impulsive
stroke forward while the wings are rising, the two actions com-
bining so well as to produce, not jerks, but a uniform skim-
ming motion. They often alight on ships, and make them
slippery with oil. Though it cannot, for the reasons that have
been stated, feed so well in the troubled sea as when the water
is smooth, it can keep its way, even though the waves run
high, and it appears to skim along close on the surface, adapt-
ing its path to the flexures of the waves. In strong winds,

390 KATATOKES.

however, both the speed and the undulations of the course,
upward and downward, are in so far optical deceptions. In
those cases, the motion of the bird is to windward, and the
waves have an apparent motion to leeward, in proportion to
the rapidity with which they vibrate. In consequence of that
apparent motion, the bird gets credit both for its own real
velocity and the apparent velocity of the waves ; just as
when two ships cross each other in different courses, upon
a side wind, each appears to those on board the other to
move at the joint rates of both.

The storm petrel is not very different from the common
swallow, either in size or in appearance, only the bill and
point of the tail are very different. The length is almost five
inches and a half, and the stretch of the wings fully fifteen.
The bill is about half an inch long, rather slender, and with
the nasal tube short. The nail part at the tip is not so much
bent as in the fork-tailed species. The bill and feet are black,
the tarsi being shorter and more slender in proportion than
those of the other species. The general tint of the upper
plumage is black, very smooth and glossy, and with bluish re-
flections ; the under part is deep blackish brown ; the rump,
some of the feathers at the base of the tail laterally, and the
tips of the greater coverts, and some of the primary quills, are
white. The young have the upper plumage with traces of
brown. The nests are in holes of tall cliffs, the eggs two in
number, and of a white colour.

Though generally at sea except in the breeding season, and
very much during the day even then, these birds are sometimes
driven inland in the winter months, though it does not appear
that they ever find much food there.

They are bold and familiar birds, and may be tamed with-
out much difficulty, their food being oil, in which they first
bathe the feathers of the breast, and then take it off with the
bill. They are exceedingly numerous in some of the northern
islands; but their flesh is rank and unpalatable. They are,
however, turned to some domestic uses by the islanders. In

THE COMMON STOEM PETEEL.

391

taking them, the same precautions are used to prevent the
discharge of the oil as in the fulmars ; and they are sometimes
used as fuel. The Faroese convert them into lamps or can-
dles, by drawing a wick through them, and setting fire to it, as
in the following cut, in which a correct representation of the
bird is given, dead, prepared, and lighted up, a winged flame.

LONDON ;
Cr. NORMAN, PRINTER, MAIDEN LANE.

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